The mostly American Israeli squad are not quite the underdog they’re made out to be, but for a few days in March they have made baseball a joyA few years ago, at the Beijing Olympics, I covered a women’s beach volleyball match between Georgia and Russia. It was a preliminary-round match that should have drawn little notice, except that just days before Russia had invaded Georgia, and for the handful of Georgians in the stands this volleyball match meant the world to them. Related: A week in Breitbart Sports: anger, annoyance, and an ESPN obsession Related: The Joy of Six: weirdest trades in sports history Continue reading...
As suspected drug cheats like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens gain ground on Hall of Fame enshrinement, it’s become clear they can’t be shut out foreverThanks to years of research into the effects of performance enhancing drugs in baseball we now know everything about the drugs except whether or not they enhance performance.Steroids and other so-called performance drugs were really at the center of this year’s Hall of Fame vote, which was announced on Wednesday night. Three very good players – first baseman Jeff Bagwell, catcher Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez, and outfielder Tim Raines – all surpassed the requisite 75% of votes needed to get a plaque in Cooperstown. Related: Baseball Hall of Fame's 2017 class: Jeff Bagwell, Tim Raines and...
If sport is a microcosm of life the ascent of Donald Trump is no different with LeBron James and Tom Brady among those speaking their minds from both sides of the debateThe noise cascaded down from the west end of Madison Square Garden. It started in low. Then it started to grow. Donald Trump had just emerged from a tunnel on to the arena floor during the undercard of the middleweight title fight between Gennady Golovkin and David Lemieux, prompting a crescendo of boos from the crowd of more than 20,000 spectators that stuffed the midtown Manhattan arena to capacity. It was October 2015, four months after the real-estate mogul and reality TV star had announced his presidential bid with...
Baseball scored a rare ratings victory over the NFL boosted by a thrilling World Series. Could it mean a challenge to football’s TV dominance? Don’t bet on itEarly last Thursday morning, as the champagne flew in the Chicago Cubs clubhouse, Fox put to bed a rollicking World Series that smashed all expectations of what modern baseball can do on television with a 25.2 rating for Game 7. Later that night, on the NFL Network, the Atlanta Falcons clobbered the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and drew a once-unfathomable 3.2 rating, a 35% drop from the same Thursday night game last year. While in other years, the Falcons and Bucs game might have been written off as an anomaly, it was yet another...
The public are still footing the bill for stadiums across the US but many see it as a way of helping out the local economyAt a cost of $1bn to put a chill in the air during Texas Rangers games, it would surely go down as the sports world’s most expensive air-conditioning bill.Voters in the city that is home to the Rangers go to the polls on Tuesday to decide whether to finance a new Major League Baseball stadium that would replace a popular facility that is barely two decades old. Related: Only in Texas: can $70m on a high school football stadium ever be justified? Continue reading...