This is very cool. Rich Dauer has been out of baseball since he collapsed during the Houston Astros championship parade last November and nearly died of an acute subdural hematoma. He had to undergo emergency brain surgery, and endured a lengthy recovery process; the closest he’s come to baseball since then was an emotional first pitch he threw back on April 2, at the Astros’ first home game of the season. Astros manager A.J. Hinch is managing the American League team in tonight’s All-Star Game, and with Dauer up and about, Hinch invited Dauer to return to his staff for the big night. Apart from being a swell gesture, it gave Dauer a chance to do something he’d never done before, which was participate in an All-Star game: This is an excellent development, especially consider…
Deadspin is pleased to announce our 2014 Bear of the Year. After a great deal of consideration and deliberation, we arrived at a clear choice: Genius Bear Who Was Too Smart And Strong For Bullshit-Ass Electric-Deer Gag. Genius Bear Who Was Too Smart And Strong For Bullshit-Ass Electric-Deer Gag is a very good bear. That much is obvious. But Genius Bear Who Was Too Smart And Strong For Bullshit-Ass Electric-Deer Gag is more than just a bear. When he ripped that deer carcass away from the cruel trap that had been set for him, he became a buttress against the creeping inequity of a world that is not his. The year 2014 in the world of humans was a bleak one, full of oppression, war, tragedy, and injustice. The oceans rose. Innocent people died. Citizens were brutalized by state-sanctioned …