Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

The Nats—who’ve been playing like the friggin’ Nots to start this season—came into Saturday at risk of getting swept at home by the Colorado Rockies after getting dropped Thursday and Friday in crappy, dispiriting performances. Desperate times, my friends:Read more...

The first big set of moves of the Mitch Kupchak era in Charlotte saw the team cast off its analytics department, its training staff, and its coaching staff, including head coach Steve Clifford:Read more...

In a move that is equal parts activism, investigative journalism, and performance art, and is rooted in one strange man’s performative loyalty to the least lovable franchise in baseball, Marlins Man apparently flew to the British Virgin Islands and sought the location of the corporate home of the Miami Marlins, to…Read more...

I truly wish video existed of this event: Kelly Kraft narrowly missed the cut at the RBC Heritage in South Carolina Friday after his tee shot at the par-3 14th hit a bird mid-flight and dropped directly into a water hazard. Per the PGA’s website:Read more...

The 2018 NBA Draft Lottery, held just over a month from today, will be the last before the NBA institutes the new odds formula cooked up last September, designed to reduce or eliminate tanking. Spoiler alert! The new formula will not solve tanking, an inevitability that Adam Silver recently acknowledged. Per ESPN:Read more...

Ah, casual sports fan: We meet again. The 2018 NBA playoffs begin this afternoon! How the hell will you know what is going on in the games, other than like a bunch of sweaty dudes bouncing a ball and throwing it through a pair of rings, if you don’t have some 10,000 words of preview and analysis to scan past in…Read more...

Though there were almost no fans in attendance to see it, something extremely dumb and good happened in last night’s silly Pirates-Marlins game: with one out in the bottom of the 5th inning, with the bases loaded, Marlins second baseman Starlin Castro skied a fly ball to right field for what would normally produce…Read more...

The Marlins beat the Pirates last night, at home, in front of fewer than 7,000 fans. Before the game new Marlins owner Derek Jeter spoke to assembled media about evaluating his team’s start, what it will take to develop a winning culture, and those dismal home crowds:Read more...

Former (and I suppose sort of current) NFL quarterback Mark Sanchez will be suspended for the first four games of the 2018-19 NFL season after testing positive for a banned performance-enhancing substance. Sanchez announced the news himself on Instagram, claiming that he was “blind-sided by the news.” Fans probably…Read more...

Fifteen years on, you could hardly be blamed for being desensitized to LeBron James. You and me and everyone else that plays with real and fake MVP votes at the end of every NBA season know how boring monotony can get, and so we stitch together some selective, season-specific argument sort-of-proving that LeBron was…Read more...

All hail the mighty Elvis, a 52-year-old crocodile in the Australian Reptile Park of Somersby, Australia, and my new God.Read more...

We see a lot of deals around the web over on Kinja Deals, but these were our ten favorites today.

Cristiano Ronaldo vs. Lionel Messi. It’s an argument as old as time itself, with diehard fans of these two all-time greats throwing out stats and facts in support of their preferred candidate to make their case for superiority—Messianiacs pointing to his better scoring record, his better passing, his better dribbling…Read more...

Oklahoma City TV announcer Brian Davis has been suspended by the team for Game 1 of the Thunder’s first-round series against the Jazz after he used the phrase, “out of his cotton-pickin’ mind” to describe Russell Westbrook in the team’s final regular-season game.Read more...

When political commentator Sally Kohn sent Aminatou Sow, host of the podcast Call Your Girlfriend, a passage from her forthcoming book The Opposite of Hate: A Field Guide to Repairing Our Humanity in which she is quoted, Sow was confused.

It’s pretty hard for a team to be a bigger disappointment than the Edmonton Oilers were this year. Coming off a tough Game 7 loss in the second round of last year’s playoffs, this year’s squad—led by the attractive young duo of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, plus a potentially great defenseman in 23-year-old…Read more...

There is a Hollywood action movie adaptation of the video game Rampage, and it is one of the dumbest, most fun movies in theaters right now.

While speaking at a tense Michigan State University board meeting today, Kaylee Lorincz, who said she was sexually abused by former MSU doctor Larry Nassar, detailed a troubling interaction with interim president John Engler. According to Lorincz, Engler attempted to “coerce” her into settling a civil lawsuit against…Read more...

You probably won’t use a pressure washer every week or even every month, but pressure washing your driveway, sidewalks, patio, and more will make them look brand new. I bought a similar one a few months ago and washed years worth of grime from my patio furniture in 10 minutes.Read more...

After eight seasons with the Dallas Cowboys, Dez Bryant has been released, as first reported by ESPN’s Todd Archer. Bryant met with owner Jerry Jones at the team facility this morning, who said in a statement that Bryant was one of the few Cowboys he ever liked, which, sure, okay.Read more...

It may be Spring already (Hey, 70 degree NYC weather, nice to see you), but that doesn’t mean you should pass up a good outerwear deal. Backcountry is marking down a bunch of The North Face styles including outerwear, accessories, and shoes. Pick up a great coat or pair of boots and save them for next winter.Read more...

In mid-2016, a few months before the release of their first game, Mafia III, the developers at Hangar 13 in Novato, California gathered for an all-hands meeting. There, according to two people in attendance, Christoph Hartmann, president of the game’s publisher, 2K, told employees that their bonuses would be tied to…Read more...

American boxer Rod Salka lost a six-round bout to Mexican fighter Francisco Vargas last night. Salka, who is known for having been brutally knocked out by Danny Garcia in 2014, entered the ring wearing trunks with an anti-immigrant message. The top of Salka’s trunks had “AMERICA 1ST” written on them, and they were…Read more...

How fucked up is the American housing market, one of the biggest drivers of inequality? In many cities, the financial reward for owning a home is even bigger than the reward for having a job.Read more...

Stuck down at the bottom of Andy Benoit’s latest column for The MMQB is this short blurb reflecting on the retirement of offensive lineman Richie Incognito:

Steve Alten grew up in Philadelphia. He went to schools—Penn State, Delaware, Temple—that Philly kids go to. And, though he lives in South Florida now, he’s still a huge Philadelphia sports fan.Read more...

UCF beat Miami 4-0 on Wednesday, thanks in large part to closer Bryce Tucker’s performance in the final frame. Miami managed to load the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the ninth, at which point Tucker nailed shit down by striking out the side.

Suck up discounts on a Dyson vacuum, a Samsung 4K monitor, a Dolby Atmos-compatible receiver, and much, much more.Read more...

Jalopnik This Mystery Supercar Thing Has Stumped The Internet’s Greatest Car Minds | Kotaku Game Collector Finds Drugs Hidden Inside NES Cartridges | io9 This Incredibles 2 Trailer Reveals the Parr Family’s Creepy New Foe | Lifehacker The Gmail Redesign’s Coolest New Features |Read more...

In his ninth season, in his fourth city, Evander Kane had played 574 games without ever making the playoffs. (That was just five games shy of Carolina’s Jeff Skinner, who now has no real challengers.) So when Kane earlier this week called himself a “playoff player,” he was talking style, not experience.

You don’t necessarily need to buy a new mattress to get a better night’s sleep: Sometimes, a mattress pad will do, and you can save $20 on a popular one today on Amazon.

After a thrilling Champions League quarterfinal round that saw the threat of multiple enormous comebacks and one completed one, we now know who will play whom in the semifinal round for the right to compete for the European Cup in Kiev. The draw looks incredibly enticing.Read more...

Dyson vacuums dominated the nominations in our Kinja Co-Op for best vacuum, but they can be prohibitively expensive. Today though, refurbs of the popular Dyson Ball Animal are down to $200 on Amazon, one of the best prices we’ve seen.

Filip Forsberg scored twice in the third period of the Predators’ 5-2 win over the Avalanche in Game 1 of their first-round series tonight, but forget about that first goal for now, because his second one was truly gorgeous. It’s unclear how exactly he managed to keep track of the puck here in order to pull this off,…Read more...

Maybe it’s just me, but it felt easier to talk myself into the Capitals this playoffs. They’re still a very good team, the thinking went, but without the pressure of the Presidents’ Trophy—which they won the past two years—maybe they could learn from experience and surprise people by avoiding the inevitable postseason…Read more...

It’s remarkable that Cincinnati’s bullpen didn’t finish last in any meaningful statistical category last year. They were terrible, of course, and they ended up in the bottom five for just about everything—ERA, FIP, strikeout-to-walk ratio, total saves, home runs allowed—but there was no one spot where they landed dead…Read more...

Despite one truly beautiful goal from Toronto’s Zach Hyman, the Bruins easily dispatched the Maple Leafs at home in the first game of their opening-round series tonight, winning 5-1. Boston looked good doing it, too—they closed the night with four straight goals, including this third-period highlight tap-in from Sean…Read more...

Here’s a tweet from yesterday that I have been thinking about:

While you might think that the ugliest part of last night’s Yankees-Red Sox donnybrook was guys like Joe Kelly and Tyler Austin trying to bloody each other in the infield, Yankees third-base coach Phil Nevin has other concerns—namely, hand waving from Red Sox manager Alex Cora.Read more...

During the second quarter of last night’s game against the Grizzlies, Thunder play-by-play man Brian Davis capped off a big Thunder play by declaring that Russell Westbrook “out of his cotton-pickin’ mind.”

The U.S. Open is getting strict about the time allowed between points, saying that there will be a “serve clock” of 25 seconds during the matches at this year’s event, according to the New York Times.Read more...

At a recent Philadelphia Fusion watch party, a man proposed to his girlfriend by asking her to “be the Mercy to my Genji.” I am very happy for this couple, but I must have a word with them about their taste in Overwatch ships.

I live for drama and I live for FIGHTS.

San Francisco 49ers linebacker Reuben Foster was arrested on charges of domestic violence last month. Today, the Santa Clara district attorney’s office announced that Foster is being officially charged with felony domestic violence and misdemeanor possession of a large capacity weapon magazine.

Shohei Ohtani is the best thing to happen in this MLB season so far. Not only is the dual pitching/hitting threat trying out a regular routine that’s essentially never been seen by any living baseball fan, he’s also succeeding at it. In an obviously small sample size, Ohtani is hitting .364 and throwing a 2.08 ERA…Read more...

In a Serie A match on Sunday, Inter winger Antonio Candreva tried to send the ball screaming into the upper corner of Torino’s goal. Instead, he sent a stadium steward screaming into the hospital when his errant shot flew over the crossbar, smashed into the unsuspecting steward’s back, and ruptured his spleen.

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia’s port city on the Red Sea, serves as a commercial hub full of beach resorts and sights, as well as a gateway into the Islamic cities of Mecca and Medina. Several kilometres inland from the Red Sea, with its breathtaking coral reefs, is the Al Rawdah district, where a private, all-women gym tries…Read more...

Rufus Davis, the second black mayor of Camilla, Georgia, lives with his mother in a white ranch-style home nestled a few blocks east of the heart of the city. On a brisk, damp day he greeted me outside, sporting a black V-neck t-shirt, black slacks, and black socks.Read more...

Let’s Remember Some Guys is back, and today we’re opening up some 1988 Fleer cards. It’s an especially nice pack, too, because it includes the always-important day/night splits, which any scout will tell you is key to predicting future success. (As evidenced by former Brewer Steve Kiefer’s weak day-game batting…Read more...

According to ESPN insider Adam Schefter, the Seattle Seahawks were all ready to give free-agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick a chance to audition for a job, but pulled the plug at the last minute because Kaepernick wouldn’t promise to stop protesting police brutality and racial discrimination.