Zack Greinke Wins American League Cy Young: overcoming both social anxiety disorder and only 16 wins.

posted by justgary to baseball at 07:44 PM - 24 comments

Redesigning the Worst NFL Helmet Graphics: For the Washington Redskins I tried a design direction that might be considered more politically correct in most circles by removing the Native American portrait, emphasizing the feather motif from the headdress and using it more dynamically on the helmet.

posted by justgary to football at 02:48 PM - 24 comments

Seats of Gold: Yankee Stadium's Legends Suite Was Sparsely Populated At Times This Season - A Sign Of What Greed Does To Loyalty.

posted by justgary to baseball at 04:24 PM - 6 comments

Umpire Billy Evans: In all probability when the 1919 series is over, a diagnosis of it will show that the final result was brought about by some unusual situation or freak happening that was given no consideration when the relative strength of the two clubs was considered.

posted by justgary to baseball at 02:54 PM - 4 comments

Pretty Boys No More: Boxers before and after their fights.

posted by justgary to boxing at 05:41 PM - 7 comments

Federer's Footwork: Artful and Efficient: Study, study, study.

posted by justgary to tennis at 03:30 PM - 4 comments

One pitch: "Have faith in the Yankees, my son," Hemingway's old man says to the boy. "Think of the great DiMaggio." If Ernest Hemingway was alive and writing today, those words would be: "Think of the great Rivera."

posted by justgary to baseball at 01:07 AM - 14 comments

A.B.C. Teams: All But the Championship: NBA teams that watched their window of opportunity open and close without a title.

posted by justgary to basketball at 05:25 PM - 7 comments

Top 10 Worst First Pitches: Including Mariah Carey in heels and Carl Lewis not running.

posted by justgary to baseball at 03:27 PM - 20 comments

Let the Record Be Unbroken: Five opinions on what records will be difficult, or even impossible to break.

posted by justgary to general at 04:37 PM - 22 comments

Baseball Words: The words we use in baseball are so much more well, let's say gentlemanly and childlike and comfortable. Just about every word or phrase can of corn, bang-bang play, dinger, tater, gopher ball, round-tripper, sinker, slider, sounds like something a small child came up with long ago. A fight is a rhubarb. A rundown is a pickle. A knuckleball dances. And when there are men standing on base, you can still say that there a ducks on the pond.

posted by justgary to baseball at 06:31 PM - 8 comments

Writer: Oscar De La Hoya 'Never Truly Great': "Oscar De La Hoya was a very good fighter, but throughout his career he has never lived up to the hype," John Rawling argues in The Guardian. "He was a great interviewee, photogenic and, to his credit, he never ducked anybody."

posted by justgary to boxing at 01:17 AM - 6 comments

A Prayer for the Tampa Bay Rays: While the Cubs fan has the pity of national baseball writers and the consolation of a fraternity of similarly deluded millions, Rays fans are seen as a possibly spectral phenomenon. Dick Vitale is the team's only celebrity fan; a great proportion of the typical Rays crowd shows up wearing a Manny Ramirez or Derek Jeter shirt. In enemy territory, even at home in Floridathat's the life of a Rays fan.

posted by justgary to baseball at 07:49 PM - 18 comments

Sticks and Balls: We were able to enjoy bowling as a thread to a previous existence. An existence that didnt involve struggling with even the simplest of communication attempts. Bowling was a way to feel less lost.

posted by justgary to culture at 04:03 AM - 0 comments

Recalling Al Campanis' 'Nightline' nightmare: I turned to my wife, horror-stricken that the man I had invited to honor his old friend was committing professional suicide on live television, and predicted he might not survive this interview.

posted by justgary to baseball at 03:53 AM - 5 comments

Making Time Stand Still: Today, for a few hours, he's part of the crowd, just another fan watching Tom Glavine paint the black, just another daydreaming kid picturing himself running hard from first to third.

posted by justgary to baseball at 02:35 PM - 7 comments

The Day Innocence Died

posted by justgary to basketball at 03:37 PM - 23 comments

An Ode to Baseball Cards: Like the game itself, they enhanced your bond with your dad. There were few things that brought me more joy as an 8-year-old then when my father would return from a trip to the store with two packs of ’78 Topps, and I still remember him sitting on the floor with me in my bedroom and helping me sort my cards so that traded players were with their new teams. Maybe I’m overly sentimental — okay, I am overly sentimental — but the memory is my version of Ray Kinsella’s catch with his dad.

posted by justgary to baseball at 03:32 PM - 9 comments

Top of the World!: Garnett has since left his losing ways behind and helped engineer the biggest turnaround in NBA history, turning the Celtics from a laughingstock to a champion. Tuesday night, it became clear that—just like losing did—winning has made Kevin Garnett completely insane.

posted by justgary to basketball at 03:19 PM - 8 comments

Junior Mint: The enduring popularity (and ubiquity) of the 1989 upper deck Ken Griffey Jr. Card: When Griffey hits home run No. 600, don't look for the value of Upper Deck No. 1 to skyrocket. After all, there's likely a card in circulation for every person living in the city centers of Cincinnati and Seattle. That sheer quantity, though, does mean that the lasting image of Ken Griffey Jr. won't be anything he does on the baseball field. It will be a picture of an overjoyed teenager in an airbrushed Mariners hat.

posted by justgary to baseball at 02:23 PM - 8 comments

Josh Beckett Won't Return My Phone Calls: Athletes don't trust reporters, reporters resent athletes, and readers don't know their heroes as they used to.

posted by justgary to culture at 12:00 AM - 15 comments

Boston Herald Should Name Its SpyGate Source: The newspaper and reporter John Tomase refuse to identify the unnamed source who burned them. Why the hell not?

A column by sportsfilter member rcade.

posted by justgary to football at 12:17 PM - 38 comments

Blind bowler, The Hammer, rolls 300 game

posted by justgary to other at 02:51 PM - 11 comments

Do not run on Rick Ankiel.

posted by justgary to baseball at 01:48 AM - 32 comments

Tejada Delivers on Promise: When he came to the plate in the sixth inning Friday night, Miguel Tejada wanted more than anything to keep his promise to 8-year-old Jacob Scott, a muscular dystrophy patient the Astros shortstop met at a luncheon hours earlier.

posted by justgary to baseball at 11:04 AM - 15 comments