Sports
Sports teams: They’re institutions for major cities for decades, as loyal fans wear team colors and team logos with pride. And then the team goes and changes their name. (Usually for a good reason.) (1) Since its inception in 1965, the Major League Baseball team in Houston has endured a number of major changes short […]
It’s time for the NHL postseason, and the lead up to the Stanley Cup finals. And there’s a good chance that whichever team you’re rooting for might have entered into the league with a completely different name. Phoenix Scorpions The Winnipeg Jets left its long-time home in the Canadian province of Manitoba for Phoenix in […]
The NBA Playoffs are about to start. And while most experts and hardcore fans expect the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors to face off in the NBA Finals for the third year in a row, history indicates that anything can happen. Going into the 2016 NBA Playoffs, the Golden State Warriors were heavily favored […]
It’s almost time for the baseball season to start up again, so that means one thing for Uncle John: bizarre, delicious, and bizarrely delicious ballpark concession stand items. Poutine is a distinctively Canadian food, but it’s a wonder it hasn’t widely caught on in America, because it’s stuff we all love down here. Traditional poutine […]
Uncle John knows pretty much everything—and for what he doesn’t know, he has a massive research library. So go ahead: in the comments below, ask Uncle John anything. (And if we answer your question sometime, we’ll send you a free book!) Why do Americans call it soccer and the English call it football? The United […]
In 2016, Fox debuted a show called Pitch, a drama about the first female Major League Baseball player. It’s really not so far-fetched. Toni Stone Toni Stone landed a spot on the St. Paul Giants, a semiprofessional team, in 1936. Not only was she an African-American woman who landed a spot on a men’s team […]
It’s really hard to skate on ice and play a contact sport. It’s even harder to do these things while doing that. A goal in every possible way There are five different permutations or situations in which a player can score a goal in hockey. They are even strength (both teams have six skaters on […]
There’s an old adage in Hollywood: “Never work with kids or animals.” These sports teams didn’t heed this message (well, the animal part), and found out what happens when a beast decides to act on its own. The Atlanta Flacon On September 11, 1966, the Atlanta Falcons took the field for the first time as […]
There are lots of important pro basketball stats to track: points, rebounds, assists, and, of course, stab wounds. Most stab wounds to not affect play About a month before the start of the 2000-2001 season, Boston Celtics star Paul Piece went to the Buzz Club in Boston. A fight broke out, and Pierce tried to […]
Here’s the story of the very first pro football player. College Game Football was invented at Ivy League colleges in the 1870s, combining rugby with some other ball games popular at the time. For more than 50 years the college game was the dominant form of the sport, both in terms of the number of […]
It seems like only yesterday that the Chicago Cubs won the World Series, but it’s already spring training time again. The Major League Baseball season is just around the corner, so it’s time to brush up on these incredibly obscure but very real baseball rules. A team’s manager or coach can call a break in […]
Undeniable: That Michael Jordan is among the best professional basketball players of all time, if not the best. What’s a bit more debatable: the veracity of these crazy urban legends about His Airness. Did Michael Jordan have food poisoning during “The Flu Game”? Perhaps the greatest game in Jordan’s career, which was already full of […]
Root, root, root for the home team—if they stay in town long enough, that is. Kansas City Scouts — 2 years in the NHL In the late ’60s and ’70s, the NHL tripled in size going from six teams in 1967 to 18 by 1974. The last new additions of that expansion period were the Washington […]
The Super Bowl is the most-watched TV event of the year, so the halftime show must be something spectacular that also has wide appeal. In the last decade or so, organizers have had success with getting a major singer or band, and just letting them perform a medley of their songs—the Rolling Stones, Tom Petty, […]
What does an athlete do after the Olympics are over? They become movie stars…or at least try. Kurt Thomas… competed in gymnastics, a sport for which the Olympics are the epitome. After winning multiple medals at the World Championships in 1978 and 1979, Thomas was primed for Olympic gold…but didn’t get the chance. The U.S. […]
Is there anything more “old timey” than old timey baseball from the early days of baseball? Yes—old timey baseball’s players’ colorful (by which we mean weird, crude, and mean) nicknames. Dummy In the early 20th century, “dumb” was a word that meant “physically unable to speak.” Power hitter William Hoy was left with profound hearing […]
The phrase “their season ended early” refers to when a sports team gets knocked out of the playoffs. Lasting to the playoffs is way better than these teams did. American Professional Football Association Before it was called the NFL, the major pro football league was the American Professional Football Association, which began play in 1920. […]
Many NASCAR, Formula One, and IndyCar drivers put themselves through some very peculiar rituals, in the belief that if they don’t, bad luck will curse them to lose their race…or worse. For the first segment in the story, read Race-Day Superstitions. Austrian Formula One driver Alex Wurz always raced in mismatched shoes. Dale Earnhardt left every […]
