How the NBA Stole Christmas

For generations, Christmas Day has been the time when families gather to sing carols, exchange gifts, and share meals around the holiday table. Thanks to the National Basketball Association, millions of Americans have embraced another yuletide tradition: watching hoops. For the six straight year, the league has scheduled five games to be broadcast nationally on Dec. 25, which has become professional basketball's antidote for too much family, turkey, or both. Although the NBA regular season begins in late October, Walt Disney's ABC television network - which pays $485 million per year for 90 regular-season NBA games and playoff rights it shares with sister cable network ESPN - saves its first national broadcasts for Christmas Day. And the league makes sure to provide the network with plum matchups. The 2013 slate features last season's champion (the Miami Heat) and runner-up (the San Antonio Spurs), four teams from the top two markets (the New York Knicks, Brooklyn Nets, Los Angeles Lakers, and Los Angeles Clippers), plus some championship contenders (the Chicago Bulls, Houston Rockets, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Golden State Warriors.)  (Bloomberg Businessweek November 11 - November 17, 2013 Page 30)

Perfect game eludes Darvish's grasp

Almost! I think Darvish is great. :
(April 4, 2013. AP.)
Yu Darvish saw the ball skip between his shins, dashing his chance at perfection. Immediately, several Texas Rangers came to the mound to console him. "I think my teammates were more disappointed than I was," he said through a translator. Darvish was one out from a perfect game when Marwin Gonzalez grounded a clean single through the pitcher's legs, and Texas beat the Houston Astros 7-0 on Tuesday night. The celebrated right-hander from Japan struck out a career-high 14 and was in complete control before Gonzalez smacked the first pitch up the middle.