Articles

Summer League and the Zone of No-Context

Scott Henkle

The NBA Summer League was, as usual, giddy, goofy, mostly useless for its stated player-evaluation purposes and not necessarily even all that much like basketball in a lot of ways. It is also, in its way, totally perfect, and exactly what basketball fans need at this time of year.

Spirits of the Age

Fredorrarci

How did an act of love and dedication become a symbol of displaced cynicism and the futility of modern fandom? 

Happy Valley's New Realities

Eric Freeman

In serving Penn State with major punishments for its child abuse scandal, the NCAA did little to change its standard operating procedure. Yet, as the university moves into the future, it now has a chance to shift its priorities for the better. For that progress to happen, we must treat the situation with the seriousness and perspective it deserves.

Kickstarter Korner: About That Crowdfunded Baseball Noir Starring David Yow

Mario Monrroy

"High and Outside" is a self-described baseball noir that's just entering the home stretch of its Kickstarter campaign. It is also directed by the son of former Toronto Blue Jays manager Tim Johnson, and counts among its cast former Jesus Lizard maniac David Yow, porn starlet Scarlett Fay, and veteran character actors Geoffrey Lewis and Eddie Jemison. So, yeah, it seemed worth looking into.

An Art and a Pastime

Pete Beatty

Designer and Cubs fan Brian Lindstrom discusses the art, history, and iconography at play in his "Bases Loaded" series, currently on display at Big Ten conference headquarters in Chicago.

The Night Bobby Valentine Lurked

Matthew Callan

The night that Bobby Valentine donned the worst disguise in baseball history wasn't exactly the most important moment in the New York Mets' odd and almost-wonderful 1999 season. But, as this excerpt from Matthew Callan's e-book Yells For Ourselves proves, Valentine's eye-black-aided transformation into "The Lurker" had a goofy significance of its own.

Homeward Bound

Patrick Corcoran

Getting old and moving out of the top flight of club play isn't an exclusively Mexican phenomenon, but coming back home has a uniquely bittersweet taste for Mexican players.

Luis Tiant, Perpetual Motion

Josh Wilker

Luis Tiant was a great pitcher, if perhaps one too interesting, flawed, and non-linear for the Hall of Fame. But he was also more than that, and a pitcher whose uniquely contorted and violent motion carved out a new and strange type of baseball grace. From the new e-book "The Hall of Nearly Great."

Here's To Shutting Up

David Roth

Since the first emergence of the awful story surrounding Jerry Sandusky's sex abuse at Penn State, we've been pretty quiet on the story. That's not because it isn't outrageous, or because we're not outraged. It's because there is, by definition, not much to say about the unspeakable. And because it's noisy enough as it is without us.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Clint Dempsey

Noah Davis

 et al.

Clint Dempsey just finished the best season any American soccer player has ever had in Europe. He is about to get very, very rich because of it. But the enigmatic dude from Nacogdoches, Texas remains stubbornly, and more than a little admirably, hard to know.