Baseball-MLB: Rasmussen 2/3 inning away from perfect game. Tatis suspended 80 games. Buehler’s season is done. World Series can be latest ever.
Basketball: Bill Russell’s #6 to be retired by NBA.
Football: Pre-season AP Poll is out for NCAAF. NFL confirmed stricter on illegal contact. Bear field in terrible condition. Big 10 media rights deal. Future CFP National Championship games.
Golf: Willie Z gets the W! LIV golfers miss out on FedEx Cup Playoffs. KF Top 25.
Olympic Sports: Serena Williams set to retire! 100m Free WR. USOPC decertifying USA Skateboarding.
Baseball:
- Rays RP Drew Rasmussen was 2/3 of an inning away from a perfect game before Orioles SS Jorge Mateo got the first hit. Rasmussen struck out 7 hitters and threw 62/87 strikes. The Rays won that game on Sunday 4-1. Mateo went 5 for 5 in Friday’s game but the Rays are still up on the Baltimore team for the AL wild card spot by 1.5 games.
- Padres All-star SS Fernando Tatis Jr tested positive for a performance enhancing anabolic steroid, Clostebol. He will now serve an 80 game ban.
- Dodgers RHP Walker Buehler requires surgery on his elbow which shot the hopes of LA fans that he would return this season. The team currently has the best winning percentage and the lowest ERA of which Buehler was an integral part.
- The prelim post season calendar was released earlier today and baseball could go to the latest date ever, if the World Series goes to Game 7 that would end on Nov 5th. Before this season, Nov 4th has been the latest a baseball game has been played. Not super surprising as this is the first season featuring a 12 team playoff.
Basketball:
- The entire NBA will retire #6 to honor Bill Russell. This is the first time the entire league will retire a player’s number. Remember two weeks ago when Bill Russell passed. He was an 11x NBA Champion, HoFer and social activist. At University of SF, Russell won 2 straight NCAA championships and 55 consecutive wins. He spent 13 years with the Celtics and went to the championship final 12xs, winning 11xs. The last 2 titles were while he was serving as player and coach. He was the first Black coach in the NBA. Before Michael Jordon, Bill Russell was considered the best NBA player of all time. He is tied for the most titles all time (across all sports). He was a team player and social justice leader.
Football:
- Preseason AP poll is out! We’re getting closer people….
- Alabama is #1 for the 5th time in CFP era. Each of the other 4 times, they made the CFP game.
- LSU is not in preseason Top 25 since 2000. This was the 3rd longest active streak in FBS
- ACC has 5 teams ranked which is a conference record. SEC leads with most at 6 teams.
- Do they matter? Ehhh 46 different teams broke into the top 25 at some point during the season and only 11 teams that started the season ranked, ended the season in the Top 25. Michigan was #3 at the end of the year and wasn’t ranked preseason.
- Remember last week when I said the NFL was instructed to be more strict on Illegal Contact penalties? Well the refs took it seriously. After 36 penalties in all of last season, there have already been 15 in week 1 of NFL preseason.
- The Bears had their only preseason home game on Soldier Field this past week. And it was in terrible condition after an Elton John concert which left patches of grass missing and noticeable divots. The Chicago Fire (who also play at the field) have pushed their game on the 21st due to field condition but the NFL did not. This caused quite a stir.
- The Big 10 is close to closing a new media rights deal with CBS and NBC, ending their long time standing relationship with ESPN. The FOX/ESPN deal is set to end in 2023. Fox looks like its going to still be the main media partner but the other games will be spit between NBC and CBS.
- Miami will host the CFP National Championship game in 2026 and Atlanta will likely host in 2025. 2023 will be in SoFi Stadium and 2024 will be in Houston.
Golf:
- Will Zalatoris finally wins in the PGA Tour! In his first FedEx Cup playoff event ever, he wins the FedEx Championship. Sepp Straka kept him honest though and they went to 3 playoff holes and it was a wild ride. After off tee shots on the 2nd and both men almost hit it in the water on the 3rd. But after Sepp hit his into the water and then into the bunker, it was enough for Will to win. Even though it does feel like ‘finally’ this was Will Z’s 2nd year on the PGA Tour but he had so many close calls including the 2021 Masters (his Masters debut), losing in a playoff at this year’s PGA Championship and T2 at the 2022 US Open.
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- 70 players are in the next FedEx Cup playoff, BMW Championship. Thanks to his playoff win, Will Zalatoris overtook Scottie Scheffler as #1.
- LIV golfers were not allowed at the FedEx Cup playoffs as they did not show they were ‘irreparably hurt’ by the PGA Tour.
- This weekend was also the final event of the regular season for the Korn Ferry Tour. That means the top 25 from the season have earned their PGA Tour card (meaning they will get to compete on the PGA Tour next year). Congrats to these lucky 25! We now enter the KF finals stages. The top 25 from finals will also get their cards.
- #GFHint: How Korn Ferry finals work: the #26-75 on the KF Tour, along with the PGA Tour players who are in 125-200 in the FedEx Cup standings earn their spot in the 3 KF final tournaments. There are 3 tournaments and the top 25 after those 3 events, get their PGA Tour card.
- It should also be noted that #126-150 in the FedEx Cup standings get their conditional PGA Tour status but that translates to not the best pick of tournaments and not qualifying for all of the tournaments.
- #GFHint: How Korn Ferry finals work: the #26-75 on the KF Tour, along with the PGA Tour players who are in 125-200 in the FedEx Cup standings earn their spot in the 3 KF final tournaments. There are 3 tournaments and the top 25 after those 3 events, get their PGA Tour card.
Olympic Sports:
- Serena Williams is set to retire after the US Open, which begins next week! She made the announcement in the September issue of Vogue. She said she doesn’t want it to end but something has to give.
- ROM David Popovici has broken the 100m Free WR, the youngest person to break that WR ever. The original mark was 46.91 set by BRA Cesar Cielo in 2009 at the World Championship, the final event where the rubberized suits were allowed. The 13 years that Ceilo’s record stood was the longest stint in the event ever (1905). Popovici’s time was 46.86. This leaves only 8 men’s long course records left that were set with the now outlawed suits, 5 of which were set at the 2009 Worlds.
- The USOPC has moved to decertify USA Skateboarding after 8 non-compliance violations. An audit was initiated back in July and the NGB was found to be deficient on 28 standards like background checks on all their staff. This is not the first time that the USOPC has moved to decertify NGBs like Gymnastics in 2018 and Badminton in 2019 but both are still in existence.
What to watch this week
Baseball-MLB:
- Mon 8/15
- Astros at White Sox @ 7:10pm on FS1
- Urquidy vs Cueto
- Astros at White Sox @ 7:10pm on FS1
- Tues 8/16
- Rays at Yankees @ 6:05pm on TBS
- Springs vs Cortes
- Rays at Yankees @ 6:05pm on TBS
- Wed 8/17
- Dodgers at Brewers @ 7:10pm on FS1
- Gonsolin vs Lauer
- Dodgers at Brewers @ 7:10pm on FS1
- Sat 8/20
- Brewers at Cubs @ 1:20pm on FS1
- Peralta vs Stroman
- 3 games @ 6:15pm on FOX
- Astros at Braves
- Mets at Phillies
- Mariners at A’s
- Brewers at Cubs @ 1:20pm on FS1
- Sun 8/21
- White Sox at Guardians @ 11:05am on Peacock
- Cease vs Civale
- Red Sox at Orioles @ 6pm on ESPN
- Pivetta vs Kremer
- White Sox at Guardians @ 11:05am on Peacock
Football-NFL: (only the games on NFL Network are listed)
- Thurs 8/18
- Bears at Seahawks @ 7pm on ESPN
- Fri 8/19
- Panthers at Patriots @ 6pm on NFL
- Texans at Rams @ 9pm on NFL
- Sat 8/20
- Broncos at Bills @ 12pm on NFL
- Commanders at Chiefs @ 3pm on NFL
- Buccaneers at Titans @ 6pm on NFL
- Cowboys at Chargers @ 9pm on NFL
- Sun 8/21
- Eagles at Browns @ 12pm on NFL
- Bengals at Giants @ 6pm on NFL
- Ravens at Cardinals @ 7pm on FOX
- Mon 8/22
- Falcons at Jets @ 7pm on ESPN
Golf:
- Thurs 8/18
- BMW Championship – Round 1 @ 2pm on Golf Channel
- Fri 8/19
- BMW Championship – Round 2 @ 2pm on Golf Channel
- Sat 8/20
- BMW Championship – Round 3
- @ 11am on Golf Channel
- @ 2pm on NBC
- BMW Championship – Round 3
- Sun 8/21
- BMW Championship – Final Round
- @ 11am on Golf Channel
- @ 1pm on NBC
- BMW Championship – Final Round
Olympic Sports:
- Sun 8/21
- Gymnastics: USA Championships
- @ 11:30am on NBC
- @ 6pm on NBC
- Gymnastics: USA Championships
Soccer:
- Tues 8/16
- FIFA U20 W World Cup: BRA vs CRC @ 8:50pm on FS1
- Wed 8/17
- Women’s International Championships Cup: Lyon vs Chelsea @ 7:30pm on ESPNU
- Women’s International Championships Cup: Portland Thorns FC vs Monterrey @ 10pm on ESPN2
- FIFA U20 W World Cup: USA vs JPN @ 11pm on FS1
- Thurs 8/18
- La Liga: Santos Laguna vs Leon @ 7pm on FS1
- Fri 8/19
- MLS: LA Galaxy vs Seattle Sounders FC @ 9pm on ESPN
- Sat 8/20
- Premier League: Teams TBA @ 1:30pm on NBC
- La Liga: Monterrey vs Tigres UANL @ 7pm on FS1
- Sun 8/21
- MLS: Columbus Crew vs Atlanta United FC @ 4:30pm on FS1
- MLS: Sporting Kansas City vs Portland Timbers @ 6:30pm on FS1
