August 2, 2013
The MLB Weekend Top 10: Nolan and Billy, to the Death
It’s August, the worst month of the year! Time to shut your blinds, turn the air conditioner down to 56, and hibernate for 30 days with only baseball and unsweetened ice tea for companions. Here are the best ways to make it through the first weekend of Hell Month. 10. A-Rod A-Rod A-Rod A-Rod He’s […]
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The New Pelicans Uniforms and the Yawning Maw of Our Own Demise
Since this is about fashion, let’s charitably call the initial reactions to the unveiling of the New Orleans Pelicans’ new uniforms beige. Or maybe taupe. Possibly even mauve, but I don’t want to overstate my case. The specific whys and wherefores of what makes the design at best plain are lucidly plumbed by UniWatch’s Phil […]
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The Designated Player: Taking Care of Business at the MLS All-Star Game
Moments in Soccer Globalization, Part 1 I’m in a dark wood-clad, faux-Edwardian drawing room off the lobby of a luxury hotel in downtown Kansas City. I’m waiting to interview Italo Zanzi, the American CEO of AS Roma, which is in town to play the MLS All-Stars. Somewhere behind me a TV screen is showing a […]
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This Week in Internet: Dwyane Wade Hates Birds, and Oregon Football Will Make You Feel Poor
It’s Friday. It’s the Internet. And it’s Friday. So let’s pick up where we left off last week and spend some time combing through the more ridiculous things we found on the sports Internet. You know, other than Riley Cooper’s awful and depressing rant at that Kenny Chesney concert, because that sucked. Also, an UPDATE […]
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Grantland Exclusive: Greg Oden on Why He Chose Miami
About a year ago, Greg Oden told me that his plan was to rejoin his high school and college teammate Mike Conley Jr. in Memphis at the start of the 2013-14 season. Three months ago, he told me he wanted to play for Cleveland because he likes living in Ohio. Last month, he said his […]
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Good-bye, Steve Sullivan! Fans of Karmic Payback Will Miss You!
The NHL appears to be on the verge of saying good-bye to one of its all-time great underdog stories. After nearly two decades and more than 1,000 games played, Steve Sullivan announced this week that he was “99.9 percent” sure his career was over. Your memories of the 39-year-old Sullivan’s NHL run will largely depend […]
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We Went There: Vikings Training Camp
The first thing you notice at Vikings training camp is, of course, Adrian Peterson. No man has ever been adored by another group of people the way that Adrian Peterson is by Vikings fans at camp. It’s one thing for Peterson to get some applause during practice when he’s handed the ball and bursts through […]
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The New Michus: Premier League Strikers That Could Make Noise Outside the Top Four
Did you know that the English Premier League actually has 20 teams in it? It’s hard to remember sometimes. Especially this summer, with the never-ending stories of Gareth Bale, Luis Suarez, and Wayne Rooney taking up most of the world’s collective soccer attention span. But, it’s true. There are other teams, and sometimes those other […]
Read moreVideo: Jamal Crawford Pro-Am All-Star Highlights Electrify Basketball-Starved Seattle
Everyone in Sonics-less Seattle wants to watch and play some hoops — including the mayor. Jamal Crawford and a bevy of his baller buddies put on a show, to the delight of the crowd. The game went down to the wire, with host Mr. Crawford giving his guests, including opponents Tyreke Evans and Isaiah Thomas, […]
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The NL Central in the Clutch
Two on, one out, his team needing a big hit in a big game against a hard-charging division rival. The perfect spot for Allen Craig. Announcers use lines like those all the time. They talk about someone being the perfect player for a high-leverage situation, pointing to 30 or 40 at-bats as if they’re a […]
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About Last Night: It’s All About the Yu
In case you were too busy finishing off a box of Pop Tarts to watch a 95-pound 13-year-old medal in the X Games, here’s what you missed in sports on Thursday: Yu Darvish turned in a ferocious performance, striking out 14 Diamondbacks for the second time in three months, as the Rangers handled Arizona easily […]
Read moreAugust 1, 2013
35-Day NFL Warning: Five Observations From Bears Training Camp
What’s that? You were wondering exactly how many days until the start of the NFL season? Well, you’re in luck! We here at the Triangle are set to spend the next month providing a daily reason to get excited about pro football’s return. 1. Jay Cutler has a beard, and Jay Cutler with a beard […]
Read moreKeep Your Air Conditioning In … and Haloti Ngata and Ryan Kerrigan Out
Every once in a while, professional athletes will star in some ridiculously embarrassing YouTube video that is simultaneously awesome and terrible. Sometimes these videos will be basketball players singing “Jingle Bells,” and sometimes they’ll be basketball players doing the Harlem Shake. Other times, these videos will feature NFL players … starring in an advertisement for […]
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Fantasy Football Preview 2013: New Head Coach Rankings
Before we rank the new NFL head coaching hires on the basis of fantasy-friendliness, it’s important to note that each coach’s ranking largely depends on the situation that preceded him. For example, if the Chiefs had hired, say, Charlie Weis to replace Romeo Crennel, Weis would’ve earned high marks here solely because Romeo was so […]
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10 Sensible Rules for Golfing With Others
After reading Jim Cavan’s excellent piece on the 10 worst pickup basketball blunders last week, I couldn’t stop thinking about what an equivalent golfing list would look like. In a sport so polluted by etiquette and decorum, the possibilities seemed endless.
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The All-22 All-Star Team: Eric Weddle, the Secret Superstar
Urban Meyer was not impressed. It was winter 2003, and Meyer, then the head coach at Utah, sat in a living room in Rancho Cucamonga, California, where his defensive coordinator had dragged him, for reasons he couldn’t understand. Looking at the 5-foot-11, 185-pound high school senior seated on the other side of the guacamole, Meyer […]
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Is Luigi Datome Going to Change the Way Role Players Are Paid in the NBA?
Despite all the free-agent hoopla this summer, with trips to mountain retreats and breathless Twitter updates coming at all hours, the Detroit Pistons’ acquisition of Italian League MVP Luigi Datome has gone largely unnoticed. Signing for just $3.5 million over two years, Datome’s arrival certainly didn’t merit attention on the scale of Dwight Howard landing […]
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Text Messages to Dwight Howard From a Houston Resident: Have You Ever Seen The Golden Child?
Dwight Howard has been a Houston Rocket for three weeks. I sent him some text messages. Me: yo, yo Dwight: hey Me: so, man, I mean are you really in the news this much all the time? Dwight: what do you mean? Me: well, right around the time that you signed up with Houston, I […]
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Pitchers’ Duel Diary: Adam Wainwright vs. Jeff Locke
Welcome to the new series for pitching junkies, in which we anticipate one excellent matchup per week and diarize it to learn something about the practitioners of the Mound Arts. In the process, we also discover meaningful things about ourselves and our lives through the lens of baseball. There is always a lesson at the […]
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Brandon for Brandon: What Does the Jennings-Knight Deal Really Mean for Detroit and Milwaukee?
First of all, let’s congratulate the Pistons and Bucks on collaborating for a fitting capper to the NBA’s silly season. It seemed at times like these two were at the center of at least half the free-agency rumors after July 1. The Pistons used their cap space — earned mostly via sacrificing a first-round pick […]
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Trade Deadline Goes Out With a Whimper
Major League Baseball’s non-waiver deadline came and went with no major trades happening after most sellers refused to budge from their price tags, negating what was widely predicted to be the best seller’s market in years. The biggest name changing teams Wednesday was Ian Kennedy. A 21-game winner and Cy Young contender just two years […]
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About Last Night: Royal Flush
In case you were busy playing chess while everyone else was eating checkers, here’s what you missed in sports on Wednesday: Powered by a clutch Alex Gordon triple, the Kansas City Royals bagged their eighth consecutive win as they held off the Twins, 4-3, in Minnesota. “Vindicated!” yelled Royals general manager Dayton Moore from the […]
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