Tom Barrabi

For baseball fans, witnessing a home run at a critical moment is only part of the fun. It’s up to each team’s announcers to lend a sense of scope and excitement to the moment.

In Broward County, Florida, telling an athlete that they “throw like a girl” is about to become a compliment.

The 2012 NFL season will feature the pro debuts of quarterbacks Robert Griffin III and Andrew Luck, a pair of top three draft picks that enter the league with sky-high expectations. Griffin and Luck will be hard-pressed to match the yearlong production of these legendary rookies.

Every major sport has its share of hard luck losers — the players and coaches who routinely outperform their competition, only to fall just short when it matters most.

Between endorsements and increasingly larger contracts, athletes are earning more money than they ever have before.

The Washington Nationals are catching a lot of flak for their decision to shut down ace Stephen Strasburg at the 180-inning mark. Strasburg is hardly the first starting pitcher to encounter injury problems stemming from early overuse, though.

Commissioner Roger Goodell has made player discipline his top priority since the day he took office, and he’s certainly gotten a chance to practice his strict methods in recent months.

There’s no denying that the typical professional baseball game has many dull moments. Even the most diehard fan can have a hard time focusing on those midseason snoozefests during the dog days of August. Still, every once in a while, fans are treated to a phenomenon as rare as it is riveting—the bench-clearing brawl.