Sports
This year’s NBA Playoffs are a little bit different than usual. Not only did they start a lot later than in years past, owing to delays caused by coronavirus shutdowns, but they’re also full of quirks and monumental firsts. The fifth-seeded Atlanta Hawks upset the Eastern Conference’s #1 team, the Philadelphia 76ers, in the conference […]
After a coronavirus-shortened, largely live spectator-free season in 2020, Major League Baseball is back in 2021, and so are the fans. And so is the ballpark food available in the concession stands at the big ballpark and stadiums. But it’s not exactly hot dogs and soda anymore. Lumberjack Slammie (Toronto) This baseball glove-size monster is […]
Today we’re going “indy” with these interesting facts about auto-racing’s annual Memorial Day weekend event, the Indianapolis 500. Perhaps the Indy 500 is so big because it’s contested in a place that is literally huge. You could fit the entirety of Vatican City inside of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway… and Yankee Stadium… and the Rose […]
A few Major League Baseball season is underway, and all the excitement of the national pastime has returned to stadiums around the country. Something that probably won’t happen between now and the World Series: these records getting broken. Most home runs by a pitcher Since baseball players are highly specialized these days, pitchers aren’t expected […]
The NCAA basketball tournaments are all about the numbers — Sweet 16s, Elite 8s, Final Fours, “One Shining Moment” and more. Here are some facts and figures regarding March Madness, past and present. UNLIKELY FINAL FOUR TEAMS Lowest seed to make the women’s final four: 9-seeded Arkansas in 1998. Lowest seed to make the men’s […]
Sure, Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders both played pro baseball and pro football, and simultaneously at that. But several other professional jocks who had what it took to make it one big league couldn’t quite cut it in another. Michael Jordan, baseball player In October 1993, shortly after winning his third straight NBA title with […]
As the NFL playoffs end and the Super Bowl is just around the corner, a few teams and players are bound to make sports history and achieve gridiron glory. That’s the opposite of what happened with these teams, who lost the magic at the worst possible time. Houston Oilers vs. Buffalo Bills, 1993 Playoffs There’s […]
You know him for his boxing prowess and remarkable way with words, but how much do you really know about Muhammad Ali? Read on to find out more about “The Greatest.” By age 18, Clay had won two Amateur Athletic Union national titles, two Golden Gloves national titles, and had amassed a record of 100 […]
Babe Ruth was one of the greatest baseball players of all time, and in his heyday, he was one of the highest paid athletes and most famous people in the world. Nowadays, he’s the subject of Portable Press’s Show Me History: Babe Ruth, the story of the slugger’s life in graphic novel form. Here are […]
Hitting a dinger against the closer to get your team out of the cellar? Those baseball terms would sound like nonsense to an early baseball player in the 1860s and 1870s. And the terms they’d use to describe their fledgling sport may sound equally bizarre to you. • People who sit in the grandstands to […]
Sponsors drop in and drop out of college football bowls, leaving some very odd official names in the sports history books. Progressive Gator Bowl (2011) The Gator Bowl has been played for decades, but in 2011 insurance company Progressive bought the “sponsor rights.” The resulting name makes it sound like the game was paid for […]
If you hit up a Major League Baseball game this year, be thankful if you get a free hat or bobblehead…and that it doesn’t descend into abject chaos. Ten Cent Beer Night It’s remarkable that anyone in the Cleveland Indians organization thought that it would be a good idea to let fans buy as much […]
In the olden days of pro sports, most players used to stick with just one team for their whole careers. Today, though, players are more likely to be “journeymen,” or bounce around their league, playing for multiple teams. Here are the biggest journeymen of all time, or rather the players whose journeys took them to […]
As one of the world’s most popular musicians right now, everything Drake touches turns to gold. Musically, that is. In the world of sports, an endorsement from the “Started From the Bottom” rapper-singer can seemingly doom an athlete. Anthony Joshua Cursed! On June 1, 2019, boxer Anthony Joshua fought Andy Ruiz, Jr. in a defense […]
2019 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Jackie Robinson, the baseball legend who, in 1947, broke the sport’s color barrier by becoming the first African-American in the major leagues. He’s a brave pioneer for sure, just like these other men and women who integrated their lines of work. NBA The NBA was only […]
Baseball is back, and it’s the national pastime. But it’s a 150-year-old game at this point. How about we try one of these “national sports” from around the world a try? Buzkashi It’s the national sport of Afghanistan. Like polo or pato, it’s played on horseback. And like old-school pato, it involves a dead animal. […]
As basketball’s postseason heats up, here’s a look into the teams that have historically fared quite poorly. Longest current playoff drought The Sacramento Kings finished in ninth place in the Western Conference for the 2018-19 season, just barely missing out on one of eight playoff spots. That marked the 13th straight year that the team […]
The first Saturday in May means it’s time for “the greatest two minutes in sports” — the running of the Kentucky Derby. Horses and jockey have competed annually since 1875 at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, and promoters, fans, and partiers have helped make the brief race into an all-day event with a number of […]
