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...
From Jeff Tarango’s unforgettable outburst at SW19 to Andy Roddick’s laser-guided vitriol at the 2008 Australian Open, half a dozen meltdownsThe eight-times grand slam winner had already got people talking at Flushing Meadows before his fourth-round match with the top-10 ranked Aaron Krickstein. That an ageing Connors had gone so far as a wildcard was a truly remarkable feat in itself. He was the world No174 going into the tournament; a brief cameo was about as much as anyone expected. Related: Pablo Cuevas in wee bit of bother during Wimbledon doubles defeat Related: Wimbledon 2007: The day Tarango walked Related: Serena Williams tarnishes her legacy with abuse of US Open umpire | Kevin Mitchell Related: Australian Open 2013: Jerzy Janowicz...
The star’s return to MLS is a great story but what does it say about the strength of the league that he has been able to slot back in so easily?As far as first touches following a near two-year hiatus from soccer go, Landon Donovan’s was pretty good. He’d made a three-minute substitute cameo coming off the bench for the LA Galaxy away to Sporting KC, but this was his first meaningful involvement since unexpectedly coming out of retirement 10 days previously. It took him just 60 seconds, and one touch, to strike home a crucial equaliser. That’s how to make a comeback.Nobody knew quite what to expect from Donovan in the final throes of the 2016 season. Once the...
On Wednesday night, for the Cubs at least, the World Series ended in that rarest of things: an authentic, earned happy endingThere was a baseball game last night.There are three stories to tell about it, and they’re stacked on top of each other, tottering, each bigger than the last and relying on the one below it to make sense. The first story: the Cubs took a 6-3 lead into the eighth inning of Game 7 of the World Series, and Aroldis Chapman blew it. Then he won the game. Related: Chicago Cubs end most storied title drought in American sporting folklore | Bryan Armen Graham Related: Bill Murray basks in 'beautiful' victory as Obama invites Cubs to White House Continue...
No team has failed better over the last century but this extraordinary victory suggests the next World Series will not be far away for history’s glorious losers Baseball is a game of failures. A hitter with a .300 batting average, the traditional benchmark of a star player, fails seven times out of 10. Errors are given equal billing alongside runs and hits, a naked public accounting of imperfection consistent on scoreboards from Little League diamonds to major league stadiums. The game is a turn-based series of individual conflicts where mistakes are amplified. The difference between good and great, between winning and losing, exists in the management of the inevitable, incremental defeats that unlike other sports are not mere hazards of...