By now you've read the quotes, seen the clips and heard the lies and canned apologies from the Houston Astros' press conference on Thursday morning. Pretty safe to say it did NOT go well.
Kicking off the proceedings was team owner Jim Crane, who could not have handled things any worse. The money quote making the rounds was when Crane flat out said that, in his opinion, the Astros' sign-stealing operation “didn't impact the game.” Other than the fact it's a massive advantage for the hitters and it helped the organization win its first World Series, he's spot on!
RELATED: Trevor Bauer waited almost two years to dagger this former Astros pitcher over cheating scandal
Just 55 seconds later, however, Crane changed is mind. Actually, he completely denied saying the thing he had said less than a minute earlier. That has to be a new record, no? Watch the clip:
https://twitter.com/CBSSports/status/1227970396793774082
Ah, yes, the ol' Mike Francesa “I nevah sai..

It's been a tough week for baseball. First, Ty Kelly blew the whistle on minor league spring training “lunches,” calling in to very real question whether or not that proposed 42-team contraction is actually a good idea after all. Then Blue Jays catcher Reese McGuire was arrested for masturbating to porn in his SUV in a public parking lot. Finally, the Astros decided to issue the apology that nobody asked for, making matters much, much worse in the process. Here's 'Stros owner Jim Crane on the one big takeaway from this whole mess.
https://twitter.com/snyyankees/status/1227966706385145857
Good stuff, Jimbo. We feel so much better now.
But like a lighthouse beacon in a sea of roiling darkness, on Wednesday news also broke that MLB The Show 20—the only remaining licensed baseball video game on the market—will feature full minor-league rosters for the first time ever. Prospect nerds and Lehigh Valley IronPig fans, rejoice!
https://twitter.com/MiLB/status/1227687435728977921
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Brooks Koepka, Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas honor Kobe Bryant with custom golf gear as they play the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club.

Tiger Woods has a chance to join an impressive group of golfers with his next high finish in a PGA Tour event.

If you've ever had a good run gambling on sports, you know it can be an exhilarating feeling. Deep down though, part of you also knows it can't last. It's that massive piano hanging over your head ready to come crashing down with great force.
These two backdoor covers from Wednesday night in college basketball perfectly represent that feeling. These are the games that send you into a tailspin. Games you already cashed in your brain only for someone to rip it out of your hands. Games that cause you to triple your bet size on the next game only to get buried deeper into the grave. Games that cause you … yeah, you get the point.
RELATED: This bad beat is why you should never ever bet on college basketball (EVER)
First up we have Xavier at Butler. The No. 19 ranked Bulldogs were a 5.5 point favorite at home, and were firmly in the cover zone with 18.7 seconds to go, having just hit a free throw to go up 66-58. Now, anyone with Butler -5.5 had to know that Xavier was going ..

Jodi Ewart Shadoff shot a 7-under 66 to take a three-stroke lead over defending champion Nelly Korda in the first round of the Women's Australian Open

Tiger Woods and Justin Thomas are separated by 17 years on the calendar and 70 victories on the PGA Tour

McIlroy, who is back as the world's top-ranked player, is in a great place mentally. And it has nothing to do with golf.

It's been over four months since Rickie Fowler and Allison Stokke, golf Instagram's third-most-powerful couple, tied the knot down in Mex-ee-co, and yet the ordinarily share-y duo have kept the details of their oceanside ceremony scant. Who did they wear? What did they eat? Was Rickie dressed like a Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas stand-in? We've been left with nothing more than a handful of photos posted to Instagram, breadcrumbs in the vast forest of possibility.
Until now, that is.
On Wednesday Vogue—yes, that Vogue—published a behind-the-scenes look at the Fowler-Stokke merger, featuring just about every detail you could ever imagine wanting to know, plus a bunch you probably don't (Stokke wore Danielle Frankel earrings, for example). Alas, there are no itemized receipts or drunken tales to run forensics on, but there are still plenty of fun little morsels to go around. Such as . . .
The original venue was supposed to be Baker's Bay in the Bahamas, but after..

Darcy FinleyTrade deadline SZN is also Cliche SZN in every major sport, especially so in hockey, where beautiful cliches instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano. With the deadline just 12 days away in the National Pucks League, you're going to hear a lot of comments like “this is a business,” and “some tough decisions have to be made,” and “wherever I end up, I just gotta get more pucks in deep” from players on the block.
You might not hear some of that stuff from New York Rangers forward Pavel Buchnevich, who, now in his fourth season in the NHL, has shown the potential to be a lethal scorer while also disappearing for long stretches. At 24 years old, that makes him a prime trade candidate, a guy who still has “high upside.” As of February 11th, TSN ranked him 12th out of 40 players on its “Trade Bait List.” No. 1 is teammate and linemate Chris Kreider.
Apparently, Buch is fully aware of his place on the Trade Bait List, even referring to it following the Rangers' ..