With the Major League Baseball season getting underway, here's the breakdown of how the league's 30 teams got their names.... READ ON
Every year, the NCAA men's basketball tournament field features a few teams that leave casual fans puzzled as they fill out their brackets. The question usually isn't how far one of these teams will advance, but rather, "Where the heck is that?" Just like last year's field, this year's is no exception. Here's a primer on eight of the lesser-known schools in the field. 1. Arkansas Pine-Bluff Golden... READ ON
[Image credit: John Marcus.] On Saturday, I had the pleasure of attending the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference—or the Sports Nerd Conference, as my girlfriend referred to it—at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. In its fourth year, the conference brought some of the sports industry's most innovative thinkers together for a forum on the expanding role of analytics in projecting player performance and informing in-game decision making. The conference wasn't... READ ON
The casual fan generally needs a program to keep track of all the players at a spring training baseball game. After all, it's not every day that Billy Crystal bats leadoff for the Yankees. While the practice of allowing distinguished guests to participate against professionals irks some traditionalists, here are the stories of six celebrities who have suited up at spring training games over the years. 1. Billy... READ ON
Some of them are adorable. Some of them are atrocious. All of them are, on some level, creepy. They are the mascots of the Winter Olympic Games, and these are their stories. 1968: Schuss "“... READ ON
The Vancouver Organizing Committee has managed to keep the identity of the person who will light the Olympic cauldron during today's opening ceremonies under wraps. Many have speculated that Canadian hockey legend Wayne Gretzky will run the final leg of the Olympic Torch Relay, a tradition that dates to the 1936 Summer Games and begins with the lighting of the torch in the months before the Olympics in Olympia, Greece. Others predict that Betty Fox, the mother of the late Terry Fox, the... READ ON
The Winter Olympics are traditionally dominated by athletes from countries where winter brings freezing temperatures and snow, but that hasn't stopped a number of athletes from more tropical climates from infiltrating the ranks of the (c)old guard. From the Jamaican bobsled team to an Indian luger, here are 10 stories of warm-weather Winter Olympians, including a few who will compete in Vancouver next month. 1. The Jamaican Bobsled... READ ON
The NFL playoffs continue this weekend with Kurt Warner leading the high-scoring Arizona Cardinals into New Orleans for a showdown with the Saints. There is speculation that a loss could mark the final game of Warner's career, not for lack of ability (he threw for five touchdowns last week against the Packers), but because of his concern about sustaining another concussion like the one that sidelined him earlier this season. While the NFL introduced new rules this season requiring players who... READ ON
Yesterday, former Expos & Cubs slugger Andre Dawson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Museum officials reserve the right to select which team's hat appears on an inductee's Cooperstown plaque, and unless we missed a late announcement, it's still unclear with which hat Dawson would be enshrined. (Until recently, the Hall of Fame would generally honor a player's wishes, even if the team he chose wasn't the one for which he left the most indelible mark.) We've blurred the hats on the... READ ON
Last month, Scott Allen wrote about the origins of the nicknames of the 10 schools in BCS bowls. In honor of tonight's championship game between Alabama and Texas, here's the scoop on where they got "Crimson Tide" and "Longhorns." Alabama Crimson... READ ON
5 Questions: Now with "Wings"
How Many Vice Presidents Can You Name in 10 Minutes?
The 1900 Olympics featured a live pigeon shooting event. The winner bagged 21 pigeons.
