Sports

God bless the ESPN video librarian who dug up all this footage. The sprinkler is cool, but the immediate throw-back is even better…

We asked Seattle-based sports blogger and A.L. West obsessive Brian Elsner to review Yu Darvish’s Major League debut from a division foe’s perspective. These are his thoughts. 1. Darvish Needs to Rely on All Those Other Pitches Everyone raves about the number of pitches Darvish can throw; I’ve heard that…

Presumably, anyway, after news broke this morning that her business partner, former basketball star Lamar Odom, has “parted ways” with the Mavericks, which is an elaborate way of saying he got his ass fired for being inexplicably sad all the time. Funny: They came because of Odom, but you could…

Oh, it’s a Good Friday alright. Maybe the best Friday, if you happen to have a job that allows you escape the cubical farm and head to the nearest TV-and-frosty-beer-equipped bar with your fellow farmers. (For bar suggestions, mosey here.) Going to the game? Well, then, it’s an Even Better…

There aren’t many special teams coaches whose names or faces we recognize. But Joe Avezzano, who choreographed the Cowboys’ kicking and return games from 1990 to 2002, was a memorable face and name. And now he’s gone: Dead at 68, several outlets are reporting, after suffering a heart attack on…

Nike took over the NFL’s league-wide uniform contract from Reebok this season, and today the company unveiled its new uniform designs. You know what that means. New unis for the Cowboys. Awesome, right? It’s going to go down exactly like Mighty Ducks 2, and the new uniforms are going to…

Back in December, we spent some time exalting the weirdness of Mavericks guard Delonte West, who had just signed with the team. West is known for his ongoing mental health struggles, and his non-dalliance with LeBron James’ mom. But he is also a noted weirdo whose quotes can reach Ichiro-esque…

The NBA’s regular season is so often discarded as an insignificant enterprise, though for reasons that are largely flimsy at best; there’s real value to be gleaned in that initial 82, whether about a team’s overall offensive or defensive aptitude, a coach’s substitution patterns, the compatibility of certain player combos,…

It’s a common NBA refrain: Following an inactive trade deadline, a team will claim that getting a relevant player back from injury is akin to making a deadline deal. It happened with the Mavericks and Rodrigue Beaubois, and this year’s spin involves the eventual integration of Delonte West. There is…

The Mavericks currently live in the murky cloud that makes up the bulk of the Western Conference: Their credentials are decidedly less than those of the conference-leading Oklahoma City Thunder, but beyond that their prospects remain a mystery. We know now that Dallas is a good team – as evidenced…

It was about four seconds after I arrived at the American Airlines Center last night that I saw my first Jeremy Lin jersey, on an Asian reporter in the media parking lot. A journalistic sin, sure, but one you’ve gotta let slide on Jeremy Lin Appreciation Night. Mavericks games on…

All week it’s been leading up to this: Yu Darvish’s first spring training press conference, held today, wherein we discover what the newest Texas Ranger loves about the U.S. and Nolan Ryan and Greg Maddux. Straight outta Surprise, the Rangers have actually been sending video dispatches all week for those…

Whilst awaiting some return calls on this slow Presidents Day I was flipping through Mike Brooks’s two TicketStock slideshows, taken over the weekend at the Irving Convention Center. Toward the end of the first was this one, featuring Rangers lefty Derek Holland and … I have no idea, really. Had…

Back in November the Texas Rangers invited media folk out to the Ballpark in Arlington for a sneak peek at $11.5 million worth of renovations being made out in Vandergriff Plaza, where, among other things, the team’s adding a private-party zone, retooling the kids’ area and building a new bar…

A Friend of Unfair Park who knows of my affection for local relics, myself included, sends word: The Texas Rangers are selling off the outfield bleachers pulled out of the Ballpark in Arlington to make way for those $11.5-million renovations set to debut in a matter of weeks. And, turns…

An hour and a half after Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton met the media to address the fact that, yes, he did have a few drinks earlier this week, team general manager Jon Daniels hopped on the phone with local media. Hamilton took no questions; Daniels had no choice. And…

Several Friends of Unfair Park have asked: Why nothing about Josh Hamilton’s alleged “relapse”? Well, because for now, we don’t know much, just that the recovering (and re-recovering) addict may have had something alcoholic (not sure what or how much) at Sherlock’s (no shit) on Monday and that Ian Kinsler…

The Mavericks — like virtually every other team during this bizarre, lockout-shortened NBA season — are nearly impossible to pin down. A combination of odd scheduling, injury adjustments and minimal practice time seemingly puts a different Maverick team on the floor every night out; in one game they’ll settle in…

Sometimes all you can do is take the win and move on. The Mavs were at home Monday night against the Suns, winning 93-87 in an ugly game in front of a seemingly disinterested crowd. It was the Mavs’ second straight game without Dirk Nowitzki, who is sitting out at…

Late into the evening yesterday, the sun was sinking over Arlington, but it was still warm out — 77 degrees, far more spring than winter, perfect first-pitch weather. And the Ballpark in Arlington was open too, of course, to introduce the score of the off-season: Yu Darvish, the 6-foot-5 would-be…

With a 4 p.m. deadline on the horizon, T.R. Sullivan wasn’t hopeful at daybreak: “The word Wednesday morning was that the Rangers’ optimism has waned a bit.” Sources have been saying in recent days that Japanese pitching sensation and magazine cover boy Yu Darvish wanted a five-year deal, the Texas…

As Wednesday’s 4 p.m. deadline nears in the negotiations between the Texas Rangers and Yu Darvish, the most significant hang-up is reportedly the 25-year-old’s request for a five-year contract and the team’s preference for a six-year deal, according to Yahoo! Sports’ Jeff Passan. Understandably, Darvish aims to become a free…