Sports Category

I could open up with, “Baseball is America’s pastime yadda yadda yadda,” but I’ll avoid the clichés for the sake of our collective sanity. Most cultures internationally do not understand baseball for the same reasons we Americans typically do not understand soccer, but I’m not here to wage a fight along those lines. We know all about the All-Star athletes that were voted in, but let us take a moment to identify some All-Star fans. And by “All-Star,” I mean “stereotypical.” A lot of these types can be found acrossRead More

For anyone who knows baseball, imagine someone telling you in April that you would be looking at this scenario come July. The Oakland Athletics will have the best record in baseball. The Los Angeles Angels will have the second best record in the American League, good enough for a wild card spot in their division. The Seattle Mariners will hold the number two wild card spot. And the Texas Rangers? They are playing for next season….. Back in April, you would have scoffed at this. But now that we’ve surpassedRead More

It’s here, it’s finally arrived! One of the most coveted free agencies is finally official as of Tuesday. Essentially, the big prizes of this free agency come from the great 2003 Draft which includes LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, and Dwyane Wade. Some players have already agreed to deals although they can’t be made official until July 10th. Marcin Gortat agreed to a 5 year $60 million deal with Washington and Kyle Lowry agreed to a 4 year $48 million deal with Toronto. Assuming these deals stay in place, that’sRead More

The World Cup is here, and Americans just don’t seem to get it. In real futbol cities, work is cancelled, stores are closed, and games are observed like national holidays. Most Americans go about their day per usual, maybe checking in on Bleacher Report or the handy-dandy twitter sidebar that’s been incorporated for the greatest tournament ever. Sports Center is still acknowledging the MLB games that will never end, the NBA draft, and Lebron’s lack of commitment. The only sports news worthy of interrupting World Cup footage thus far wouldRead More

The World Cup is like the Olympics. It happens once every four years, and before you can blink, it’s gone. While fans in other countries get amped for any soccer event on the calendar, the sport is only acknowledged in America during this time. In the past couple of weeks I’ve noticed fans cheering for many different reasons, but I’ll narrow them into the following three groups.   Type 1 – The Pretentious Multiculturalist This fan is the most obnoxious of any sports fan. Sorry Yankees fans, they have youRead More

“The transaction seems to have usurped the action in sports because the promise of tomorrow can feel so much better than your team’s today” – Dan LeBatard I’d say that the value of transactions has another basis. I’m 6’1 and about 155 lbs.  I won’t be a center in the NBA. When I criticize an NBA center about the basketball skills that they don’t have, I do so knowing that the things that they can’t do are also things that I can’t do, and never will.  However, fans can be amateur GMsRead More

Yes “soccer,” not “football.” I’m not usually a cranky American, but football = pigskin, just so we’re all clear. It’s funny how so much animosity can be harbored towards a singular sport, but soccer has come a long way. Compared to the US soccer scene ten, even five years ago, tremendous progress has been made in harnessing support and fandom for our men’s and women’s national teams. (I actually have a meager collection of jerseys now.) But compared to something like the NFL, MLB, or NBA, MLS does not standRead More

The 2014 NBA Draft is only two days away and there is already a shake up at the top. Kansas center Joel Embiid was pretty much the unanimous pick to get drafted first overall to the Cleveland Cavaliers, but a recent foot injury during workouts, tacked on to the season ending back injury he suffered this past season supposedly has scared many teams away. It’s rare to find a center with Embiid’s talent both offensively and defensively, and some team will be ecstatic with the risk they take of drafting him,Read More

It’s Time. Wimbledon. The French Open held relatively true to form on the men’s side, but will Wimbledon cooperate? To answer this, we must analyze the draw (and make some lucky but ‘educated’ guesses).   1st QUARTER It’s easy to say who will likely emerge from this grouping, and his name rhymes with Movak Smoshevidge. But his opponent in the quarterfinal is not so simple to predict. Tomas Berdych usually plays well at Wimbledon (made the Final in 2010), but his path to the quarters is not edged with roses.Read More

Art Briles is running something pretty special in Waco, Texas. Baylor football has been the laughing stock of the Big 12 pretty much since it’s inclusion in 1996. From 1996 to 2009, Baylor did not record a single winning record. In these 13 years, the Bears total record was 43-101 including an abysmal 14-85 in Big 12 play. Something changed after that. Since 2010, the Bears have been on a magical run with their four best seasons in school history. They have gone 36-16 over these four years including 22-13Read More

NOTE: This post was co-written by Writtalin contributors Cat Hausler and Sophie Tahran. The two are besties and life-long festival buddies. It’s been four weeks to the day since we started on our journey to Sasquatch. No, we’re not talking about going on a quest to find the giant, furry monster that supposedly haunts the Pacific Northwest, but the epic three-day music festival that stole our hearts. This year’s Sasquatch was our first, and after the amazing time we had, it most likely won’t be our last. Here’s a breakdownRead More

I could call it “situation”, but really it’s a debacle.  A horrible and confusing predicament that we have been put in as a nation.  The World Cup has begun, and there has already been a lot of drama around upsets, bad calls, dramatic finishes, and the like.  The United States Men’s National Team (USMNT) has almost completely been thrown to the side and discredited as one that has zero chance of making it past their group play into the elimination stages.  As we officially begin to wade into the CupRead More

As a fan of the Oklahoma City Thunder, and a fan of sports in general, I would like to begin this letter with a heartfelt and resounding thank you to one of the most influential players to have been a part of the still-young Thunder franchise.  Derek Fisher, even though you were only a part of the program for a few years, your leadership and poise have helped to bring the program through some tough situations and have worked wonders for a club that needed those elements to bring itRead More

The San Antonio Spurs are giving Miami a reality check this year. They ran away with game 3 of the NBA Finals and did it again in game 4 to go up 3-1 heading back to San Antonio. After back-to-back NBA championships, it appears the Big 3 are human after all. Miami, with the combination of LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh, won 2 straight titles. A win this year would make it a 3-peat, but it seems out of reach. The Spurs “big 3” …or 4 or 5Read More

Defending US Open champion Justin Rose tees off alongside Phil Mickelson Thursday at Pinehurst. The Open is the one major championship that has always eluded Mickelson. If he can pull of a win this weekend, he would be the sixth player ever to complete a career Grand Slam. Gary Player is the only golfer in history to complete his career Grand Slam at the US Open. Mickelson is looking to join him. Phil Mickelson has a record 6-time runner-ups at the US Open, including finishing second to Payne Stewart in the historicRead More