Barry Petchesky

3 days ago | defector.com | Barry Petchesky

Eagle-eyed trackheads following the Ostrava Golden Spike in Czechia might have noticed American hurdler Chris Robinson, an NCAA champion at Alabama, winning the 400 meters with some unorthodox form. Midway through the event, Robinson began reaching, after every hurdle, to adjust himself in a way familiar to any penis-haver. Surely even a top track athlete would not be able to win a race, let alone in a season-best 48.05 seconds, with his dong flapping around.

1 week ago | defector.com | Barry Petchesky

It seemed like a small thing at the time. Before last Saturday's game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium, the singer Nezza performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" in Spanish, even after being told not to by team representatives, in a symbolic protest against the jackbooted deportation raids being carried out around the country and in Los Angeles by faceless federal goons.

1 week ago | defector.com | Barry Petchesky

The Panthers are the reason your favorite team stinks. Not because they've ruined all those other teams' records, though they have, but because Florida has successfully built what every front office in a copycat league has and will continue to ineffectively flail toward. Everyone holds up "toughness" as the ideal form of playoff hockey. They want to get "tougher." Meaner. More physical.

2 weeks ago | defector.com | Barry Petchesky

The Edmonton Oilers' maddening, decade-long goalie controversy is over ... for the next week, anyway. As that next week contains the entirety of what is now a best-of-three Stanley Cup Final, it feels like a mercy. Calvin Pickard, after two periods and most of an overtime of effective relief in Thursday's absurd 5–4 win, will be the man between the pipes, as there is simply not enough time left to survive any sort of disaster that might tempt head coach Kris Knoblauch to go back to Stuart Skinner.

2 weeks ago | defector.com | Barry Petchesky

Pope Leo XIV celebrated his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square this morning, so you might assume he donned a White Sox ballcap at the request of one of his parishioners. I think it much more likely he just wears this around all the time, even to formal events where it's entirely inappropriate. Have you met people from Chicago? He probably sold his mitre to buy a sandwich.