Andrew Kerth 
Every spring, before a single draft pick is made, fourteen teams gather in a sealed room and watch ping pong balls decide their future. The NBA draft lottery is the closest thing the sport has to a game of pure chance, and the stakes could not be higher: the winner walks away with the number … Read more
Every NBA season ends with one team cutting down the nets, but every offseason begins with a different kind of prize: the number one overall pick. It is the most valuable single selection in the sport, the reward for a rough season and a lucky lottery, and a chance to land a franchise-altering talent. Some … Read more
The College World Series has crowned 79 NCAA Division I baseball champions since 1947 (the 2020 tournament was canceled due to COVID-19). The University of Southern California holds the all-time record with 12 titles, including five consecutive championships from 1970 to 1974. Louisiana State remains the modern dynasty with 8 total championships, but the 2026 … Read more
In September 2025, a single trading card changed hands for $1.5 million. It pictured a fresh-faced 17-year-old in a Barcelona kit, a card that in 2004 was cheap enough that kids in Spain tossed it in shoeboxes and bent its corners without a second thought. That card is now the most expensive soccer card ever … Read more
The World Cup is the most pressure-packed stage in football, the place careers are made and legends are born. So there is something almost unbelievable about the players who have walked onto it as teenagers, some of them barely 17, going up against grown men at the peak of their powers. A few crumbled. A … Read more
Most footballers are finished at the top level long before 40. The running never stops, the recovery gets harder, and the World Cup, the most demanding stage in the sport, tends to belong to players in their athletic prime. Which is exactly why the handful of men who have walked onto that stage in their … Read more
Two of the rarest feats in baseball sound almost identical, and fans mix them up constantly. A pitcher throws a no-hitter, the broadcast erupts, and somewhere a viewer asks the obvious question: wait, is that the same thing as a perfect game? The answer is no, and the difference comes down to a single, unforgiving … Read more
Every spring, the fate of NBA franchises comes down to a bunch of ping-pong balls bouncing in a machine. The draft lottery decides which struggling teams get the first crack at the next generation of stars, and it is designed to keep teams from simply losing on purpose to land the top pick. So how … Read more
Newcomers to soccer often hit the same confusing moment: a World Cup game ends 0-0 or 1-1, nobody wins, and the broadcast moves on as if that is perfectly normal. Coming from sports where every game has a winner, it can be baffling. So what actually happens when a World Cup match ends in a … Read more
The World Cup is where football’s giants are supposed to win, which is exactly why the upsets are so unforgettable. Every few years, a team nobody gave a chance topples a powerhouse and rewrites the script, sending shockwaves around the globe. From a part-time American side stunning England to Saudi Arabia toppling Lionel Messi’s Argentina, … Read more