June 16, 2014
Tony Gwynn: 1960-2014
Tony Gwynn, one of the greatest hitters in baseball history, a first-ballot Hall of Famer, the greatest player in Padres history, and a San Diego icon, died Monday after a four-year bout with cancer. He was 54.
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The 2014 NBA Finals, Illustrated
The 2014 NBA Finals featured the two best shooting offenses in the NBA. Miami and San Antonio ranked no. 1 and 2 in effective field goal percentage during the regular season. But during the Finals, the Spurs hit another gear, while the Heat exhibited a bit of a decline in scoring efficiency.
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The Complicated Legacy of Jimmy Rollins
Since the Phillies are going to be really bad for the next few years no matter what happens, I’d rather see them be really bad with Rollins in the lineup and have him retire as a one-club man.
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Men in Blazers: Mourning England and Celebrating the USA From Rio
Rog and Davo report from the Crap Part of Rio to mourn England, celebrate the United States, and wonder about small bananas.
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Chuck Noll, 1932-2014
Noll was one of a handful of coaches to become synonymous with his franchise, one of those coaches who was a symbol for the values and style of a decade’s worth of teams.
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A World Cup Fan’s Guide to Accepting Refereeing Decisions in Your Favor
You can’t apologize for the refs blessing you with good fortune. You’ve got to own it. Here’s a step-by-step guide for how to behave when this fan is you.
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World Cup Pass & Move: Pirlo, Van Persie, and Four Jaw-Dropping Days in Brazil
It’s hard to imagine the first 11 games being any better than they were. Goals galore, comebacks aplenty, and enough upsets to keep things interesting. And that’s before the U.S. even takes the pitch. Let’s all enjoy it while it lasts.
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The Kings Are the Not-Supposed-To Stanley Cup Champs
The Kings weren’t exactly a long-shot pick heading into this year’s postseason, and by the time they reached the final they’d established themselves as the favorite. But while the end result was predictable, the path the Kings followed to get there was not.
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Restorations: Martin Kaymer’s U.S. Open Win at Pinehurst No. 2
With a calm, thoughtful delivery off the course and relaxed body language on it, the German seemed collapse-proof. Through the heat and the clouds of dust and pollen, he sauntered down the fairways, immune to the conditions and the pressure that struck down his opponents one by one.
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San Antonio’s Revenge: Scenes From a Championship Run for the Ages
The Spurs’ fifth championship symbolizes everything we’ve been bringing up all year: the triumph of the NBA’s beautiful game; the crowning achievement for three stars who took less money to stay together; a cathartic response from perhaps the most crushing defeat in NBA history; and the end point of the franchise’s evolution from pound-the-post bully ball to a fast-paced, triple-happy style of play that put them ahead of almost every other team in adapting to the NBA’s newer rules.
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NBA Finals Shootaround: The Spurs of the Moment
Game 5 was like seeing the various strands of recent NBA evolution come together with the dusty tenets of play-the-right-way basketball. Simultaneously old school and cutting edge, the 2013-14 Spurs are the closest thing we’ve had to a postmodern NBA champion.
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About Last Weekend: Cup Happens
In case you were busy celebrating the 17th anniversary of the Billy Crystal and Robin Williams vehicle ‘Fathers’ Day,’ here are the top five stories you missed in sports last weekend.
Read moreJune 13, 2014
Introducing Baseball’s Wrong-Way All-Stars
In light of Manny Machado’s suspension, it’s time we put a team together of baseball code breakers. Ladies and gentlemen, here are your Wrong-Way All-Stars.
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Optical Illusions: A Look at the Recent Past and Near Future of the Raptors’ Brand Identity
Sometimes innovation for the sake of innovation works. In the late ‘70s, Steve Marcus, the chairman of the Milwaukee Exposition Convention Center and Arena (MECCA) board, noticed that the paint on the basketball floor of the MECCA Arena was wearing off.
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Half Baked: Our Kings Fan Is Primed for Victory. Our Rangers Fan … Not So Much
With Game 5 of the Stanley Cup final being played tonight at Staples Center, we asked two fans to channel their nerves into something constructive: a conversation about their hopes, fears, dreams, and feelings about the phrase “puck luck.”
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The BestCoolest MLB Teams (I’ve Ever Seen)
Are you ready for a Friday argument? Because we’re about to have a big one. Last year, I unveiled my rankings of the BestCoolest Player I’ve Ever Seen, pitchers and hitters editions. As with most other Grantland baseball fare, there was some level of objectivity to the rankings, since we can do a pretty good of […]
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Scenes From Rio: Champagne Showers and Dan Gadzuric Graffiti at the World Cup
It appears to be true, what everyone keeps saying. Last year’s massive civic unrest protesting the Brazilian government’s prodigious World Cup spending — which erupted during the Confederations Cup, and saw a million people throughout the country take to the streets — has left Rio de Janeiro working through a bit of a hangover. The […]
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NHL Grab Bag: The Cup Runneth Over
Welcome to a weekly grab bag of thoughts and observations from the past few days and/or decades of NHL hockey.
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Titus’s NBA Draft International All-Stars
Scouting the overseas prospects with an assist from YouTube.
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PitchCraft: Stephen Strasburg, the Flawed Prodigy
He’s got so much talent that he can be a really, really good pitcher despite his lack of variety and blending, but as he understands, he’s limiting himself.
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We Went There: Scene of the Game 4 Crime
The Spurs are winning this series mostly on offense. They have scored nearly 120 points per 100 possessions so far, a mark that would be the greatest in league history if a team of X-Men somehow joined the NBA and actually played this well over 82 games.
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NBA Finals Shootaround: The Gains of Being Pure at Heart
It’s looking like the beginning of the end for the Heat, whereas the Spurs have only gotten quicker with age.
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About Last Night: Let the Olé Olé Olé Olé Begin
In case you were busy thinking way harder than anyone should about Mariners catcher Jesus Montero’s return to the major leagues, here are the top four stories you missed in sports on Thursday.
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Is Mexico Going Up or Going Down? We’re About to Find Out
Let’s assume you know that Mexico had a dire qualifying campaign punctuated by an underwhelming Gold Cup performance, managerial upheaval, and suffered a near fatal dent to their presumptive advantage at Azteca Stadium. Yet Mexico got to Brazil. What are they going to do there?
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