12/21/24
General
September 18, 2024
Rogers to become majority owner of MLSE after buying Bell's stake for $4.7B: Rogers Communications has bought Bell out of its stake in Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, the company that owns the Toronto Maple Leafs, Argonauts, TFC, Raptors, and Marlies, for $4.7 billion. Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE Inc.), which owns 37.5 per cent of MLSE, said in a media release Wednesday that the deal is expected to close in mid-2025.
posted by tommybiden to general at 09:29 PM - 0 comments
December 31, 2023
Alternative Sports Awards 2023: Happy New Year SpoFites! A look back at the weird and wonderful moments across sports in 2023.
posted by owlhouse to general at 05:16 PM - 4 comments
June 21, 2023
Bill Simmons Hates the Yankees AND the Royals: Sports podcaster-turned-Spotify muckety muck Bill Simmons is not happy that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle only delivered 12 podcast episodes during their $20 million deal with the streaming giant. Simmons called them "fucking grifters" on his own podcast and said he should talk about a Zoom call with Harry brainstorming ideas that did not go well. "I gotta get drunk one night and tell the story," he said.
posted by rcade to general at 05:42 PM - 3 comments
May 20, 2023
FBI: Teen Stole $600,000 from DraftKings Users: An 18-year-old hacker who allegedly stole $600,000 from the accounts of 1,600 users on DraftKings last year said in a message that "fraud is fun." The FBI claims Joseph Garrison of Wisconsin broke into accounts using credential stuffing -- trying thousands of username/password combinations obtained from other sites. Never use the same password on multiple sites, kids.
posted by rcade to general at 03:13 PM - 0 comments
May 15, 2023
5 Years of Legal Sports Betting Outside of Vegas: On May 14, 2018, the Supreme Court struck down a 1992 law that prohibited almost all sports betting outside of Nevada. Today you can bet in 38 states and D.C., sports gambling promotions are all over broadcasts and venues, and Las Vegas has two teams with a third on the way. "I'm kind of surprised at how big it is," said Johnny Avello, a longtime bookmaker and Sports Betting Hall of Famer who left the Wynn Las Vegas for DraftKings. "Who ever thought that there would be markets on pickleball, cornhole, the Academy Awards and the hot dog-eating contest?"
April 07, 2023
The SportsFilter Banhammer Has a New Wielder: To help vanquish the most persistent spammers on Earth and Asgard, I've asked a longtime SportsFilter member to also take on the powers of the banhammer -- the pickem prognostication powerhouse NoMich. Read further to learn more.
posted by rcade to general at 10:49 AM - 6 comments
May 22, 2022
Oh My! Mick Hubert Retires as Voice of the Gators: Mick Hubert is stepping away from the mic as Florida Gators broadcaster after calling 419 football games, 1,061 men's basketball games and 1,027 baseball games. He's the only school's broadcaster to ever call national championships in all three of those sports.
posted by rcade to general at 03:55 PM - 2 comments
February 24, 2022
How Sports Are Dealing with Russia's Invasion of Ukraine: The first suspensions of sports following Russia's invasion of Ukraine are the move of the Champions League final away from St. Petersburg, Russia, and the halt for at least one month of play for Dynamo Kyiv, Shakhtar Donetsk and the rest of Ukraine's domestic football league.
posted by rcade to general at 11:53 AM - 6 comments
June 26, 2021
Camera-Seeking Fan with Sign Causes Enormous Pileup at Tour de France: A fan holding a sign and mugging for TV cameras caused a massive collision of riders at the first stage of the Tour de France. The tour is going to sue the fan, who fled and has not been identified.
posted by rcade to general at 09:27 PM - 5 comments
April 13, 2021
Peyton Manning Will Host Revival of 1950s Game Show: When he isn't working on elaborate back stories for the residents of Peytonville, Peyton Manning will host the game show College Bowl, which will award $1 million in scholarships to teams of students from 12 schools. The quiz show originally aired from 1959 to 1970. Manning succeeds Allen Ludden.
posted by rcade to general at 10:48 AM - 12 comments
March 31, 2021
SportsFilter Account Customization: If you'd like to change your password on SportsFilter, that can now be done on the Customize page.
posted by rcade to general at 03:54 PM - 8 comments
January 22, 2021
NBCSN is Shutting Down by End of 2021: NBCUniversal is winding down the NBC Sports Network (NBCSN) by the end of the year, moving its sports such as the Premier League and NASCAR to USA Network and Peacock. The network also has NHL but that deal expires in 2021. For seven years NBCSN has been the home of the Premier League, offering incredible coverage never before seen in the U.S., but in recent years it seemed to be on the decline.
posted by rcade to general at 05:08 PM - 5 comments
June 23, 2020
When the Media Owns the Teams It Covers: The way TSN buried the news of Auston Matthews testing positive for coronavirus has Ed Willes worried about media ownership of teams they cover, since the network and the Toronto Maple Leafs share common owners. "The lines between teams and the people who report on them have been blurred beyond recognition," he writes.
May 01, 2020
When Will Sports Return? Not Anytime Soon: Seven weeks after the pandemic brought the sports world to a historic halt, the Washington Post has checked in with the major U.S. sports leagues and found none close to a return. Among other sports, three have spectator-free returns planned: UFC on May 9, NASCAR May 17 and PGA Tour in June. Epidemiologist Jeffrey Shaman offers this spoilsport take on fanless proposals: "The problem, of course, is let’s say a hotel worker has it and has no idea. Will that potentially get one of the players sick? And then he gives it to the rest of the team?"
posted by rcade to general at 08:30 PM - 10 comments
April 13, 2020
Recent Sports Necrology: Over the past day or two the sports world has lost some notable people. Stirling Moss, passed away at the age of 90. He was one of the legendary racing drivers in what some might call the golden age of racing. Moss competed against the likes of Juan Manuel Fangio (a teammate) when Ferrari, Maserati, and Mercedes ruled.
posted by Howard_T to general at 10:28 PM - 2 comments
April 11, 2020
61% of Sports Fans Won't Attend Games Without a Vaccine: Seventy two percent of Americans would not attend a sporting event if a vaccine for coronavirus is not yet available, according to a poll conducted by Seton Hall University. When the question was narrowed to sports fans, 61 percent would not go. Only 12 percent of Americans said they'd go to a game with social distancing measures in place. There's no timetable on a vaccine but it might not arrive until 2021.
posted by rcade to general at 12:40 PM - 2 comments
March 10, 2020
American Sports World Dragging Its Feet on Coronavirus: In New York magazine, Will Leitch runs down how American sports leagues are addressing the spread of coronavirus and concludes, "it’s undeniable how little fear, or even preparation, there has really been."
posted by rcade to general at 11:26 AM - 16 comments
November 08, 2019
I Was the Fastest Girl in America, Until I Joined Nike: Elite runner Mary Cain's harrowing tale of breakdown in the grips of the Nike training program.
posted by beaverboard to general at 07:34 PM - 3 comments
October 30, 2019
Deadspin is Revolting: After getting a heavy-handed "stick to sports" edict from new owner G/O Media, Deadspin has been in open revolt. Longtime contributor Barry Petchetsky was fired as deputy editor and seven staffers have quit. It's looking like the biggest sports media brand to come from the blogging era is going to be driven into the ground by the private equity firm that bought it along with other former Gawker sites The Root, Gizmodo and Jezebel.
posted by rcade to general at 09:03 PM - 9 comments
June 30, 2019
BIRGing and CORFing: The Unique Neurology of the Sports Fan’s Brain or, why we get off on the game—and are better off for it.
posted by rumple to general at 03:06 PM - 5 comments
April 22, 2019
Trump's Fed Pick Would've Been Banned from SportsFilter: Stephen Moore, picked by Donald Trump to be on the Federal Reserve Board, wrote some incredibly sexist and juvenile commentaries on sports for National Review which have been unearthed by CNN KFile. Moore wrote in 2002, "Here's the rule change I propose: No more women refs, no women announcers, no women beer vendors, no women anything. There is, of course, an exception to this rule. Women are permitted to participate, if and only if, they look like Bonnie Bernstein. The fact that Bonnie knows nothing about basketball is entirely irrelevant." He also said Bernstein should wear halter tops.
posted by rcade to general at 03:30 PM - 8 comments
April 08, 2019
Deadspin Has Been Traded: The former Gawker media properties have been sold by Univision to a private equity group, putting the sports site Deadspin in new hands along with Gizmodo, Jezebel, The Onion and other properties. The sites will be known as G/O Media and run by former Forbes.com CEO James Spanfeller, who calls the new venture "the leader among digital media companies speaking to the 10-to-34-year-old market." Univision bought the sites for $135 million in a bankruptcy auction after the wrestler Hulk Hogan successfully sued Gawker for $140 million in a lawsuit secretly funded by billionaire Peter Thiel.
posted by rcade to general at 03:15 PM - 5 comments
February 02, 2019
Marathoner Carries Lost Puppy for 30 Kilometers: At the 12-kilometer mark of a marathon in Thailand, runner Khemjira Klongsanun noticed a puppy who appeared to be abandoned with no houses around. She carried the dog for the remaining 30 kilometers, searched unsuccessfully for owners afterwards and has now adopted him.
posted by rcade to general at 09:08 AM - 4 comments
January 25, 2019
The World According to Ray Ratto: "Something awful happened to Ray Ratto. It isn't that he lost his job. It's worse than that: A lot of people have been telling Ratto how much they like him. Ratto's sportswriting stock-in-trade is the insult. Praise makes him suspicious. 'I think when you want to say something nice about somebody, it should be private,' Ratto told me. 'When you want to say something shitty, everybody should see it.'"
posted by rcade to general at 03:05 PM - 2 comments
November 23, 2018
SportsFilter Has Moved to a New Server: If you are reading this, you're on the new Amazon EC2 server running SportsFilter. I moved it Friday morning to a server with more memory, hoping to eliminate the recent problem causing database crashes.
posted by rcade to general at 01:08 PM - 6 comments
May 27, 2018
SportsFilter Has Switched to HTTPS: SportsFilter has moved to a new server and upgraded to HTTPS using a free certificate from Lets Encrypt. As part of the move we've also switched to current versions of Apache, MySQL, PHP. This required quite a bit of work to bring the code from PHP 5 to PHP 7, so if you encounter any bugs please post about them in this discussion.
posted by rcade to general at 09:21 AM - 6 comments
May 14, 2018
Supreme Court: States Can Legalize Sports Gambling: The Supreme Court has ended the ban that kept states other than Nevada from legalized sports gambling, overturning a 1992 law. Congress could enact a new ban, but if it doesn't New Jersey and as many as 21 other states could begin allowing facilities to take sports bets. (Eighteen states and 3 more governors sided with New Jersey on this.)
October 25, 2017
FoxSports "pivot to video" decision has cost them almost 90% of their audience.:
SI’s Richard Deitsch reports that traffic dropped an astounding 88% since the “pivot to video.” Their traffic has gone from over 143 million in a monthly period to just under 17 million.
posted by grum@work to general at 08:30 AM - 8 comments
October 03, 2017
Steve Jobs' Widow Buys Big Stake in Wizards, Capitals: Laurene Jobs Powell, a philanthropist and widow of Apple founder Steve Jobs, has acquired a 20 percent stake in the company that owns the Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals. Ted Leonsis continues as chief executive and largest stakeholder, but Jobs owns the second-largest share and becomes one of four women in NBA ownership groups alongside Jeanie Buss (Lakers), Ann Walton Kroenke (Nuggets) and Gail Miller (Jazz). The deal requires NBA and NHL approval.
October 02, 2017
SportsFilter Server Move: SportsFilter has moved to a new server on Amazon Web Services. If you experience problems report them in this discussion.
posted by rcade to general at 12:42 AM - 5 comments
May 29, 2017
Legendary Sportswriter Frank Deford Dies: Frank Deford died Sunday in his Key West, Florida, home at age 78. He wrote for Sports Illustrated from 1962 to 2017 and in the first two decades at that job defined the word "sportswriter" for many of our younger selves. Some of us also recall him for The National, a glorious, short-lived attempt at a national newspaper of sport. He also contributed to Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel on HBO and NPR. In recent years he became known for his hatred of soccer, a lamentable old-man crankypants posture unworthy of his reputation.
posted by rcade to general at 07:07 PM - 7 comments
April 18, 2017
NBA Pick 'Em Champion: Ufez Jones: The lead has changed hands in the final week of SportsFilter's Pace Mannion NBA Pick 'Em, vaulting Ufez Jones to the championship over Goyoucolts. Congratulations! (Historians will long tell the tale of how I took the dubious Costanza in a massive final two-week flop.)
posted by huddle to general at 06:00 AM - 0 comments
March 31, 2017
Penn State Trustee 'Running Out of Sympathy' for Victims: Penn State is competing with Baylor for most despicable institution embroiled in a controversy over sexual misconduct. Trustee Albert Lord just wrote in a letter, "Running out of sympathy for 35-year-old, so-called victims with seven-digit net worth. Do not understand why they were so prominent in trial." Former school president Spanier was convicted last week of child endangerment over the school covering up decades of abuse of children by former coach Jerry Sandusky. The school has paid $93 million to more than 30 of his victims.
posted by rcade to general at 02:07 PM - 5 comments
January 24, 2017
SportsFilter's 15th Anniversary: Fifteen years ago today, SportsFilter began with this Oliver Willis post on The Rookie.
posted by Ufez Jones to general at 05:47 PM - 31 comments
January 18, 2017
SI: ESPN Talkers Mike & Mike Are Breaking Up: The 19-year partnership of sports talk hosts Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic will be ending this year as Greenberg gets his own morning show on ESPN, sources told Sports Illustrated. The Mike & Mike show began in 1998 and has become the cornerstone of ESPN Radio at stations across the country. The leading candidate to either join Golic or succeed them with his own show is ESPN NFL anchor Trey Wingo. Greenberg has become one of ESPN's highest-paid personalities at $6.5 million a year.
posted by rcade to general at 07:58 PM - 4 comments
November 06, 2016
Ireland Defeat All Blacks in Rugby for First Time Ever: Ireland made history as Joe Schmidt's rugby side dispatched New Zealand 40-29 in Chicago for their first win over the All Blacks in 111 years of trying. Three days after the Chicago Cubs ended a 108-year drought in the World Series, Ireland lit up Soldier Field with their maiden win over the All Blacks at the 29th attempt. A crowd of 62,000 witnessed the feat.
posted by deflated to general at 04:21 PM - 0 comments
August 10, 2016
Longtime ESPN Broadcaster John Saunders Dies: John Saunders, a familiar face on ESPN for three decades who hosted SportsCenter, The Sports Reporters and coverage of college football and basketball, has died at age 61. No cause of death is given. Saunders had a book coming out with John Bacon next spring, Playing Hurt, whose blurb states that he "confesses his constant battle with depression and how it nearly cost him his life."
posted by rcade to general at 12:36 PM - 9 comments
July 19, 2016
Sport and the Olympics: A Lament: Gideon Haigh, a terrific writer on sport and culture, examines why the Rio Olympics might be the most unappealing in a generation.
November 28, 2015
Episodes in the Life of Bounce: "All ball sports are aleatoric structures organized, to greater or lesser degrees, around bounce. Aleatoric structuresstructures of planned chanceproduce a reliable kind of uncertainty. We dont know who will win and who will lose, but we know that at the end of the day, there will be a winner and a loser. A ball introduces a second, more uncertain, kind of uncertainty into the fray. Its bounce dances along the edge of our predictive capacity, always almost but never fully under control. At least in the Anglophone world, this second kind of chancethe chance of the ballseems to be especially important to our contemporary understanding of play. While other kinds of contests are raced, run, rowed, and swum; wrestled, fenced, fought, and boxed; timed, weighed, measured, and judged; ball games are played. And only an athlete who contends with balls (or pucks, or shuttlecocks, or other third objects) earns the title player. We become players in and through bounce."
November 22, 2015
Meet Leroy Stolzfus, the Amish Marathoner: Leroy Stolzfus finished the Harrisburg Marathon in 3 hours, 5 minutes and 45 seconds, less than a minute away from the qualifying time for the Boston Marathon. What makes the 22-year-old's run unusual is that he's Amish and did it in slacks, a long-sleeve button down shirt and suspenders. "I'll get there," he said of Boston. "I just got to train a little harder, learn how to not go out too quickly and negative split more."
posted by rcade to general at 03:16 PM - 2 comments