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This is Defector, a new sports blog and media company. We made this place together, we own it together, we run it together. Without access, without favor, without discretion, and without interference.

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Defector

Enter Our Raffle To Win A Visit And Home-Cooked Meal From Drew Magary

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tip jar sweepstakes

<p>A Rockies fan by birth and a White Sox fan by geographic proximity, Annie Howard spends her non-suffering sports moments ardently rooting for the Nuggets and the Orioles.</p>


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Annie Howard

an aerial view of an empty Guaranteed Rate Field

Ballparks Remain Empty On What Would Have Been Baseball’s Opening Day

How To Fix Chicago’s White Sox–Shaped Black Hole

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<div class="p-rich_text_section">Tom Scocca is the editor of <a href="http://indignity.net">Indignity</a>, a subscription-supported newsletter of news, essays, and commentary.</div>
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Tom Scocca

A Palestinian checks a damaged vehicle after Israeli strikes in central Gaza Strip city of Deir el-Balah, on April 2, 2024.

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Margin Of Error

Voting For Gaza

<p>Kevin Koczwara is a writer, reporter and dad in beautiful Worcester, Mass.</p>


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Kevin Koczwara

Pianist Vikingur Olafsson performs at a concert in 2018.

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Arts And Culture

Víkingur Ólafsson Plays The Familiar And Makes It His Own

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<div>Zach Buchanan has covered Major League Baseball for more than a decade, for the <em>Arizona Republic</em>, <em>Cincinnati Enquirer,</em> and most recently The Athletic. He also has been published in <em>The New York Times</em>, <em>Washington Post</em>, FanGraphs and <em>Baseball America</em>. He lives in Phoenix, where he prepares for the inevitable water crisis by living off Dr Pepper instead.</div>
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Zach Buchanan

WEST PALM BEACH, FLORIDA - FEBRUARY 15: Houston Astros hitting coach Troy Snitker watches infielder Grae Kessinger hit in the cages during workouts for Houston Astros pitchers and catchers at CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Florida. (Karen Warren/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)

Astros Spring Training Day 2

How Do Coaches Coach When Players Have Their Own Guys?

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<p>Charles P. Pierce is a writer at <em>Esquire</em> and the author of four books, most recently <em>Idiot America</em>, and has been a working journalist since 1976. He lives near Boston with his wife but no longer his three children.</p>
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Charles P. Pierce

UConn center Donovan Clingan celebrates during the team's Elite Eight win in Boston during the 2024 NCAA Tournament.

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College Basketball

UConn Is Exhaustingly, Relentlessly Great

<div>Paola Rosa-Aquino is a freelance journalist covering science, space and the environment. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, she now lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her canine co-worker Cece.</div>
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Paola Rosa-Aquino

&lt;&gt; on August 21, 2017 in Casper, Wyoming.

Solar Eclipse Visible Across Swath Of U.S.

Science

Solar Eclipses: No Longer Scary, Still Astonishingly Cool

<p>Libby Watson is a journalist who covers healthcare.</p>


Libby Watson

Picture shows an adult Halloween dinner party.

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Perfectly Fine Dinner Party Club

Let’s Make Dinner For Friends, Like For A Dinner Party, But Normal

Attorney Peter Angelos talks about his law practice and his hopes about buying the Orioles.

Peter-Angelos

Peter Angelos Was The Ultimate Team Owner

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Soraya Roberts

Still image of actress Katy O'Brian using gym equipment, taken from the movie Love Lies Bleeding.

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Defector At The Movies

In ‘Love Lies Bleeding,’ The Body Scores

<p>Dan Gentile is a writer, editor, and DJ based in San Francisco by way of Austin, TX. He works as the culture editor at SFGATE and has freelanced for publications like The Ringer, Rolling Stone, Texas Monthly, Wax Poetics, and more. Find more of his work at <a href="http://dangentile.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://dangentile.net&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1711040620694000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3XTZa73tUKo0JIWhdqylUa">dangentile.net</a> and on that <a href="https://twitter.com/Dannosphere" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.com/Dannosphere&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1711040620694000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3jvqFxajyG27FDs81Ssg-S">terrible social media site</a>.</p>


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Dan Gentile

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Partying With The U.S. Army At South By Southwest

Felix Kent

watching football

Life Lessons

Why Can’t I Turn Off The Game?

<p>Sam Eagan is a freelance reporter and documentary producer based out of Brooklyn, by way of the high plains of Wyoming. He was a Division I wrestler for the University of Wyoming.</p>


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Sam Eagan

Wrestlers warm up on the mat during the 2017 NCAA Wrestling Championships in St. Louis.

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College Wrestling

The Blood Round Is Where College Wrestlers With Nothing To Lose Have Something To Win

Agents of the Texas National Guard struggle with a migrant man after he crossed across the Rio Grande river to reach the US side, as seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico on March 20, 2024.

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Amy Coney Barrett’s Charm Offensive

<p>Nicholas Russell is a writer from Las Vegas.</p>


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Nicholas Russell

Wooden and iron spoons lie on the table at the folk museum, Kovpakivka village, Mahdalynivka district, Dnipropetrovsk Region, central Ukraine.

Museum in Kovpakivka village

The Fork And Spoon Method To A Better Life

<p>I am a freelance writer who has covered a wide variety of topics over the years. I’ve written about sports, crime, technology, fitness, and entertainment for a variety of outlets.</p>


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Trent Reinsmith

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The Fights

How Bloody Elbow Lost Its Soul

<p>Hamilton Nolan is a journalist based in New York City. Subscribe to his work at <a href="https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1687350200913000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0naFbUVOe-5ZgtPDtIM3gz">HamiltonNolan.com</a>.</p>


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Hamilton Nolan

Callum Walsh punches Dauren Yeleussinov during their junior middleweight fight at The Theater at Madison Square Garden on March 15, 2024 in New York City.

Callum Walsh v Dauren Yeleussinov

Small Nations In Big Wars

TV Personality Jonathan Van Ness attends the Build Series to discuss his new book "Over the Top: A Raw Journey to Self-Love" at Build Studio on September 25, 2019 in New York City.

Celebrities Visit Build – September 25, 2019

Of Course My Favorite TV Host Is An Asshole

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Terry Francona’s Next Act: Arizona Hoops Superfan

<p>I am an independent writer/journalist based in New Delhi, India. I mainly work on long-form reportage on conflict, gender, climate, culture, intersection of technology and human agency. Published with the Al Jazeera Journalism Review, Aljazeera Digital, Defector, C S Monitor.</p>


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Meher Qadri

Two divers jump into the foamy Yamuna River

Divers

Climate

The Yamuna River’s Treasure Divers Fight More Than Poverty To Survive

<p>Stefan Fatsis is the author of <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/word-freak-heartbreak-triumph-genius-and-obsession-in-the-world-of-competitive-scrabblep-layers-stefan-fatsis/11648962"><em>Word Freak</em></a>, <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/a-few-seconds-of-panic-a-sportswriter-plays-in-the-nfl-stefan-fatsis/7891278"><em>A Few Seconds of Panic</em></a>, and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Wild-Outside-Renegade-Baseball-Heartland/dp/0802712975"><em>Wild and Outside</em></a>, and is a co-host of Slate’s weekly sports podcast, “<a href="https://slate.com/podcasts/hang-up-and-listen">Hang Up and Listen</a>.” He used to write about sports for the <em>Wall Street Journal </em>and talk about them on NPR. His daughter has a much higher Scrabble rating than he does.</p>


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Stefan Fatsis

Scrabble World Champion Nigel Richards holds up a trophy and shows the final winning board in London in 2018

World Scrabble Championship

Games

From TED To PERNOCTATED, Scrabble’s Best Player Knows No Limits


<p>Corey Atad is a freelancer writer based in Toronto with an unhealthy Air Bud obsession.</p>


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Corey Atad

Actress, Vita Vargas, Carla Hernández, Sayaka Yokoyama, Myriam Behar in Claquetazo Braulio Lopez Producer of a Scene from the filming of the film (Nudus) by director Gibran Bazan on October 26, 2020 in Mexico City, Mexico.

The Blackboard And Press Conference Of The film (NUDUS)

Good, Bad, Or Invisible, CGI Makes Movies Unreal

The rostrum of the U.S. House of Representatives, with the entire chamber empty.

House Of Representatives Allows Media Rare View Of House Chamber

My Fellow Americans

<p><span style="font-weight: 400">Danny Sullivan writes </span><a href="https://theunderline.substack.com/"><span style="font-weight: 400">The Underline</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400">, a newsletter covering books, movies, and ideas. He lives in Santa Fe. </span></p>


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Danny Sullivan

dunebooks

‘Dune’ Novels, Ranked By Unfilmability

Englishmen in Paris gathered in Galignani’s library, 1820. English gentlemen read books, newspapers and periodicals. Doctor Syntax discovered by his wife in a bookshop. Handcoloured copperplate drawn and engraved by Charles Williams from Doctor Syntax in Paris; or a Tour in Search of the Grotesque, W. Wright, London, 1820.

Englishmen in Paris gathered in Galignani‚Äôs library, 1820

Interviews

“It Really Matters If Somebody Has Bad Taste”: An Interview With Book Critic Becca Rothfeld


<p>Jay Willis is a writer who covers law and democracy. His work has appeared in GQ, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Slate, and more. He is the editor-in-chief at Balls &amp; Strikes, an outlet for progressive commentary on the legal system.</p>


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Jay Willis

Giant portraits of the news anchors at Fox News headquarters building in New York City. Very cursed image.

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