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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

NYC: Come To Our WNBA Comedy Show On May 16

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Live Event

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

Kazuyoshi Miura of Japan falls after the FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifier final round match between Iraq and Japan at the Al-Ahly Stadium on October 28, 1993 in Doha, Qatar.

Iraq v Japan – FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifier Final Round

Soccer

What’s Changed And What Hasn’t Since I Covered Soccer In Qatar 30 Years Ago

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>.

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Hamilton Nolan

BOX-HEAVYWEIGHT-WILDER-HELENIUS

The Fights

How Many Deontay Wilder Jabs Can A Nordic Monster Eat?

Marc Normandin currently writes on baseball’s labor issues and more at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.marcnormandin.com/">marcnormandin.com</a>, which you can read for free but&nbsp;<a href="https://www.patreon.com/marcnormandin">support through his Patreon</a>. His baseball writing has appeared at SB Nation, Deadspin, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Sports on Earth, The Guardian, The Nation, and TalkPoverty.

Marc Normandin

Amarillo Sod Poodles infielder Jordan Lawlar seen outlined against a bright blue sky in a game against the Frisco RoughRiders in September of 2022.

Arkansas Travelers v Amarillo Sod Poodles

Major League Baseball’s Hubris Helped Lead To Minor League Baseball’s Union

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Soraya Roberts

Still image from the TV show 'Cunk on Earth.'

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Philomena Cunk And The Wisdom Of Learning From The Dumbest Person On Earth

<a href="https://twitter.com/PeteCroatto" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.com/PeteCroatto&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1664986664225000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1IOCSnf8b8k47CXUQY8Wml">Pete Croatto </a>is the author of <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/From-Hang-Time-to-Prime-Time/Pete-Croatto/9781982103958" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/From-Hang-Time-to-Prime-Time/Pete-Croatto/9781982103958&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1664986664225000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0qtPVCYdWjoWnj-HRERk_r">From Hang Time to Prime Time: Business, Entertainment, and the Birth of the Modern-day NBA</a>. His sportswriting has appeared in many outlets, including The New York Times, The Athletic, The Toronto Star, Andscape, Shondaland, and SLAM.

Pete Croatto

<a href="https://twitter.com/DaveCroatto" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dave Croatto</a> has written for The Onion, The New Yorker’s Daily Shouts, MAD Magazine and Random House’s Little Golden Books. Once, in a diner, he saw a woman take a spoonful of complimentary mints from a bowl by the cash register, put the spoon directly into her mouth, and then place the spoon back in the bowl. The experience haunts him to this day.

Dave Croatto

An illustration of a hand holding a straight flush of Donruss Diamond Kings.

diamond-kings-art

The Brief, Memorable Reign Of The Diamond King, Baseball Cards’ Most Iconic Subset

<a href="http://www.ddavisla.com">David Davis </a>is the author of Wheels of Courage: How Paralyzed Veterans From World War II Invented Wheelchair Sports, Fought for Disability Rights, and Inspired a Nation and Waterman: The Life and Times of Duke Kahanamoku. He lives in Los Angeles.
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David Davis

UNITED STATES - NOVEMBER 01: Football: San Francisco 49ers QB Joe Montana (16) gesturing bunny ears with Brent Jones (84) in locker room before game, San Francisco, CA 11/18/1990--11/25/1990 (Photo by Michael Zagaris/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images) (SetNumber: D52377)

San Francisco 49ers QB Joe Montana

Shots

Michael Zagaris Had The Backstage Pass Of A Lifetime

Felix Kent

Carl von Clausewitz (1780 -1831); Prussian general and military theorician. (Photo by: Photo 12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Carl von Clausewitz.

This Is So Stupid

Are You The General Of Carl von Clausewitz’s Dreams? Take This Quiz To Find Out!

Still image from the movie The Fabelmans.

THE FABELMANS

Defector At The Movies

At TIFF, Art Will Tear Us Apart—And Put Us Back Together Again

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

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Corey Atad

saloum photo

‘Saloum’ Is A Genre-Bending Romp That Is As Smart As It Is Thrilling

Nicholas Russell is a writer from Las Vegas.

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Nicholas Russell

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Hey It's That Guy

Who Needs Big-Budget Action When You’ve Got Scott Adkins’s Flying Kicks?

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How We Ended Up In The Summer Of New Enthusiasm

Malcolm Harris is the author of Kids These Days: Human Capital And The Making Of Millennials, Shit Is Fucked Up And Bullshit: History Since The End Of History, and the forthcoming Palo Alto: A History Of California, Capitalism, And The World.

Malcolm Harris

AUSTRIA-AVIATION-SHOW

Capital

Growth For What: The Shaky Promise Of Green Capitalism

Lori Teresa Yearwood is a trauma-aware and trauma-sensitive journalist currently covering the U.S. housing crisis for The Economic Hardship Reporting Project. A former reporter for the Miami Herald, the St. Louis Post Dispatch and the Syracuse Newspapers, she has always written stories about people from populations that have been marginalized.

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Lori Teresa Yearwood

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How Are You Coping With That?

The Trauma Of Homelessness Doesn’t End Under A Roof

<a href="mailto:tara@taraariano.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Tara Ariano</a>&nbsp;co-hosts the podcasts&nbsp;<a href="https://www.extrahotgreat.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Extra Hot Great</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://listentosassy.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Listen To Sassy</a>,&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.againwiththis90210.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Again With This</a>. She is also the co-author, with Sarah D. Bunting, of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Very-Special-90210-Book-Absolutely/dp/1419747460?tag=decider08-20" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">A Very Special 90210 Book: 93 Absolutely Essential Episodes From TV’s Most Notorious Zip Code</a>.&nbsp;Her byline has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Collider, Vanity Fair, New York, Slate, Mel Magazine, Vulture,&nbsp;Salon,&nbsp;and&nbsp;The Awl, among many others. She lives in Austin.

Tara Ariano

The cast of Amazon's "A League Of Their Own" series, seen here looking determined in their Rockford Peaches uniforms.

LeagueOfTheirOwn

The Future Of Television Looks A Lot Like The Past

A founding member of the Billings, Montana-to-Brooklyn sportswriting pipeline, Patrick Sauer has written for many large digital publications you’ve heard of and even more smaller ones that no longer exist. He’s on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/pjsauer" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">@pjsauer</a>.

Patrick Sauer

The Cannon Street All-Star Team of 1955 is honored at an event in 2015.

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History

The Little League Team That Never Got The Chance To Play

Jason Jeong is a writer living in Brooklyn.

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Jason Jeong

A detailed of a Premier League microphone prior to the Premier League match between Aston Villa and Liverpool at Villa Park on May 10, 2022 in Birmingham, England.

Aston Villa v Liverpool – Premier League

Peter Drury Is The Premier League’s Poet Laureate

Anne Heche at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.

The IMDb Studio At The 2017 Sundance Film Festival Featuring The Filmmaker Discovery Lounge, Presented By Amazon Video Direct: Day Four – 2017 Park City

Anne Heche For Me Is Anne Heche In ‘Walking And Talking’

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Marton Csokas Is Too Quiet To Forget

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In ‘Sharp Stick,’ Jon Bernthal Invents Kissing

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JULY 30: Danny Garcia lands a punch on Jose Benavidez Jr. (teal shorts) during their super welterweight boxing match at Barclays Center on July 30, 2022 in in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (Photo by Adam Hunger/Getty Images)

Danny Garcia v Jose Benavidez Jr

Boxing

Everyone Is Their Truest Self At The Fights

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‘Ninjababy’ Is The Movie For You If You Don’t Want To Be Pregnant

<a href="https://twitter.com/petesegall?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Pete Segall</a> lives in Chicago. His fiction has appeared in The Bennington Review, Conjunctions, The Drift, and elsewhere.

Pete Segall

The Assassin in Phil Tippett's animated feature Mad God.

MadGod

Three Decades In The Making, Phil Tippett’s ‘Mad God’ Is A Movie For This Moment

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Ben Tippett

Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021

Chess

Who Wants To Be World Chess Champion?

A tourist practices with a paddleboard during a sunset in Philippine's Boracay island on April 24, 2018, ahead of its closure. - Police with assault rifles patrolled entry points to Boracay island on April 24 just days before a six-month shutdown and clean-up of one of the Philippines' top tourist attractions. (Photo by NOEL CELIS / AFP) (Photo credit should read NOEL CELIS/AFP via Getty Images)

PHILIPPINES-ENVIRONMENT-TOURISM-BORACAY

Elder Wisdom

A Middle-Aged Person Takes Up A Hobby

Still image from the TV show, "The Bear."

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‘The Bear’ Is Why We Must End The Reign Of TV’s Vibes Cartel