Tom Barrabi

General managers are paid huge salaries to crunch numbers, rate prospects, and work out deals that will put their teams in a better position to win. Unfortunately, even a transaction that looks great on paper can have disastrous (and potentially hilarious) consequences.

Innovative touchdown celebrations are something of a dying art, thanks to the No Fun League’s penalties on excessive showboating. $10,000 fines have a way of making a player think twice before pulling out a prop in the end zone.

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.

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.

Over the course of their careers, major league pitchers throw tens of thousands of pitches. Most of them will end up in the general vicinity of the catcher’s glove. Others will miss so badly that baseball fans will have no choice but to laugh at the ugly result.

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.