The reshaping of baseball this century has pushed more than a few charming and once-common archetypes to the periphery: the slap-hitting infielder, the tinkering top-step manager and, most lamented of all, the workhorse ace. Time was, you could watch Bob Gibson, Roger Clemens or Clayton Kershaw go their eight-plus innings every five days, ignoring pitch […]
The apex predator for the U.S. worm population bides his time in the New York Yankees’ bullpen. He begins to stir in the later innings, and he enters in the eighth or ninth. Then his assault on the nation’s underground invertebrates begins. For All-Star relief pitcher Clay Holmes, the weapon of choice is a devastating […]
Sitting on the bench at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center in late June, Atlanta Dream head coach Tanisha Wright did not think much of my question when I asked her who the 2022 WNBA Rookie of the Year should be. “I mean, I don’t think it’s a question,” Wright said, as customarily blunt as she’s been in […]
As of this week, there are now two instances in MLB history of a player making the All-Star Game as both a pitcher and a batter — and both belong to Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Angels. Ohtani became the first-ever double-duty All-Star last season, during a year that was unlike anything we had […]
At various points in 2022, it has seemed like the NBA might once again belong to the 7-footer. Joel Embiid nearly won MVP honors while becoming the first center to win the scoring title since 1999-00 (and the first to average more than 30 points a game since 1981-82). Young, up-and-coming 7-footers like Mitchell Robinson […]