Reliever Jordan Hicks, who plays for some crummy team, threw record-setting gas Tuesday night against White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson. Five of the six pitches in that plate appearance were above 101 mph, and the pitch at the top of this post came in at 102.0 mph, the fastest this season. Anderson couldn’t handle it, and neither could catcher Yadier Molina. Hicks unwittingly brushed back Anderson with another pitch, at 101.9 mph the second-fastest pitch of the season: Although Anderson looked hilariously overmatched in these highlights from the Cardinals’ 3-2 win, he won the battle by drawing a walk. Hicks had the speed, but his control was a little iffy in the matchup: Hicks’s radar-gun readings supplanted Marlins righty Tayron Guerrero, who threw a 101.8-mph four-seamer jus…

Some people are fans of the Los Angeles Rams. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the Los Angeles Rams. This 2019 Deadspin NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read all the previews so far here. Your team: GUHHHHHHHHHHH Your 2018 record: 13-3. NFC Champions. Huh. That 13-3 reminds me of ANOTHER 13-3 somewhere out there. What 13-3 could that be? Oh yes, right… Three points. Three fucking points. The 12th-highest scoring team in NFL HISTORY, and they end up playing offense like the fucking Jaguars with a title on the line. You complete pieces of shit. The Philadelphia Eagles had the common courtesy to swat down the Pats dynasty the season before, and you chumps had to go letting it right back in through the front door. As my colleague Luis Paez-Pumar noted, the R…

Hey, this is cool as hell: I haven’t seen a kicker pull this off since the Colts did it three years ago during a Thursday night game. Cody Parkey, everybody! (Or: Oakland’s kick return team, everybody!) [NBC] …

Like we do every year, we called a lot of people a lot of really mean names in 2013. Here's a collection of many of the mean things we called people this year. BuzzFeeᴅ: "Former collegiate a cappella group members" Ashley Fox: "Reads like a First Take producer's brainstorming session" Damon Bruce: "Fucking nutjob" Dan Snyder: "Synonymous with evil, waste, dishonesty, petulance, litigiousness, churlishness, entitlement, vulgarianism, moral rot, snuff porn, rapacious capitalism, illegal deforestation, American Indian minstrelsy, general shitbaggery, the Lollipop Guild, Tom Cruise, heedless body modification, a lordly disdain for the underclass, the systematic commodification of human experience, and horsefucking." James Dolan: &…

This is a regular feature breaking down, minute-by-minute, the content that appears on ESPN's 11 p.m. edition of SportsCenter throughout the week. Total time: 480.5 minutes
Time (minus commercials): 364.25 TIME DEVOTED TO INDIVIDUAL SPORTS
NFL: 200.25 minutes (55%) (last week: 40.8%)
MLB: 58 (15.9%) (last week: 25.1%)
College football: 46 (12.6%) (last week: 10.5%)
SportsCenter staples*: 43.5 (11.9%) (last week: 11.5%)
Golf: 10 (2.8%) (last week: 2.4%)
NASCAR: 5.5 (1.5%) (last week: 4.8%)
Other sports: 1 (0.3%) (last week: 2.3%)
NBA: 0 (0%) (last week: 1.5%)
NHL: 0 (0%) (last week: 0.6%)
College basketball: 0 (0%) (last week: 0.4%) *-Includes things like the "Top 10," "Encore," "What 2 Watch 4," etc. MOST-COVERED TEAMS BY SPORT
Green Bay Packers (NFL…

Pictured is UNC freshmore John Henson with two girls who are likely in his statistics study group. At least they appear to be having as much — if not more — fun as stuntman-to-be Tyler Hansbrough. [ COED Magazine, via] …

data-mm-id=”_olvhintu9″>This year's first College Football Playoff rankings will be revealed Tuesday, and there will be no shortage of headaches for the committee, as the 2019 season has produced perhaps the closest CFP race since the inception of the four-team format. While LSU, Ohio State, Alabama, Clemson and Penn State all have legit claims to a top-4 spot, the teams behind them are all jostling for position. Here are the teams with one loss in position to make the CFP. 1. GeorgiaThe Bulldogs have recovered well from their unexpected loss to South Carolina, beating up on Kentucky and holding off Florida in their most important test of the season thus far. While they hold the advantage in the SEC East, the road ahead will not be any easier for Kirby Smart's team, as they s…

data-mm-id=”_o2iajywfw”>Super Bowl LIV on Sunday will mark the first time in 50 years — 18,284 days, to be exact — since the Kansas City Chiefs last participated in pro football's ultimate game. Their last appearance (and win) came in Super Bowl IV on January 11, 1970. Since then, the league has undergone a drastic transformation, with new rules, new teams, and old teams popping up in new places.1. The AFL-NFL Merger Hadn't Quite Happened YetThe first four Super Bowls were a World Series-type clash between the champions of the National Football League and the American Football League, dueling for pro football supremacy. The Green Bay Packers had claimed the first two Super Bowls for the NFL, before the New York Jets famously backed up Joe Namath's "guarantee"…

data-mm-id=”_bhjn4bb7c”>2020 has been a challenge for most Americans and it seemingly isn't getting better any time soon. With a tumultuous election a few months away and our country embroiled in debates over police treatment of Black people and whether or not you should wear a mask in public amidst a global pandemic that has killed over 180,000 Americans, the final third of the year isn't going to be easy. Now imagine dealing with all that and being Aaron Rodgers. Feel better already, don't you? Outside of being rich and famous, which I'm not so sure the latter is necessarily seen as a good thing by him, Rodgers has had a crummy year. It started with a terrible performance in the NFC Championship game on January 19 and continued today when the Vikings traded for on…

data-mm-id=”_b0suv2vx2″>The time has come to defund the Houston Astros. Or dissolve them. Or just suspend the entire organization for the entire season. Take your pick because whatever Major League Baseball has done so far is not enough. That has become apparent through a quarter of the season.Dodgers reliever Joe Kelly got an 8-game suspension for his role in a benches-clearing incident two weeks ago which would not have happened if the Astros did not exist. Quite simply, the Astros are a distraction. Opponents feel disproportionately encouraged to throw at them, which makes sense because baseball sticks to the antiquated idea that players "police" the game, which they can only do by throwing fastballs at each other's heads. They have to do this because MLB is toothless…