Baseball-MLB: Grossman ends errorless streak. Orioles get 8 Ws and 1st draft pick this week. Blue Jays bad luck.
Football: Raiders new female Black pres. Steelers new stadium name. Condy one of the Bronco owners.
Golf: Schauffle wins 2nd tourney in a row. Mullinax wins first. Nicklaus honorary member of St. Andrews. Open Champ this weekend. DOJ looking into PGA tour.
Olympic Sports: Tour de France – rest day! World T&F Championships this weekend.
Tennis: New Wimbledon champs. First timer on the women’s side and a vet on the men’s.
Baseball:
- Tigers LF Robbie Grossman dropped a short fly hit by White Sox Luis Robert to end his record errorless streak at 440 games. To put that in perspective, Grossman had not made an error since June 13, 2018 and touched the ball 821xs. This was not only costly to end that record but also set up 2 unearned runs that broke the tied game. CHI won 4-2 on Sunday.
- The Orioles had a great week – all Ws 8 straight of them to be exact. Their last game on Sunday looked precarious as they were down 0-2 but then had 2 innings back-to-back of 4 runs. This win completes the 4-game sweep of the Angels, the first time since 2003. Also this is the first time the team had won 8 consecutive games in a season since 2005.
- They also have the 1st round draft pick in the MLB draft this weekend as well – good week in Baltimore.
- The ASG is coming up on the 19th and Angels Shohei Ohtani was named as a pitcher and hitter to the team .He did this last season for the first time. There is also a pair of brothers in this year’s ASG, William and Wilson Contreras who play for the Braves and Cubs respectively. At least they will both play for the same team, the National League. This is the first brother pair since 1992. The Yankees lead the way with the 6 All-Star selections. Pitcher’s Verlander and Kershaw have both made their 9th So who is set up to win? Well the National League only has 12 first timers while the American League has 18. But tune in on the 19th to see.
- The Blue Jays cannot catch a break…literally. They were up 4-1 in the 5th against the Mariners when this play happened. This isn’t even the first time this has happened to Vladdy either; his glove also busted against the Orioles on June 13th. So instead of the inning ending in a double play, the Mariners added 2 runs in that inning. The Mariners ended up winning 6-5 and completed the 4-game streak. This continued a 1-6 dismal streak for the Toronto team.
Football:
- The Raiders have hired a new President and for the first time in NFL history, it’s a black female! Congrats to Sandra Douglass Morgan! The Raiders seem to be always on the firsts. Their former HC Tom Flores was the first Hispanic coach to win a SB ring and HC Art Shell was the first Black HC to win a SB ring as well. Morgan is the 3rd female president and 3rd black president but 1st black woman president. She comes from the NV Gaming Control Board and spent time at AT&T as well.
- Pitt Steelers stadium has been Heinz Field since it opened in 2001 but it is no more. From now on the field will be called Acrisure Stadium. Acrisure is an insurance broker and has the naming rights for an indoor arena near Palm Springs as well.
- Condoleezza Rice joins the Denver Broncos ownership group. What’s her tie to the area you ask? She lived in Denver as a kid and got her undergraduate and doctorate degrees from University of Denver. She is added to the well known ownership group including the Walmart heir and family. The deal to buy the team for a record $4.65Bn is under review by the NFL.
Golf:
- Believe it or not, the PGA Tour was not the main attraction in the golf world this weekend. The Genesis Scottish Open on the DP World Tour brought in some of the biggest names in golf as it is close to St. Andrews the week before the Open. To be fair the PGA Tour sanctioned the event but still. Among those playing, Xander Schauffle who has won the last 2 tournaments he has started. Despite his 72 start, Schauffle was in the running and was 4 shots ahead after just five holes on tehf final day. However he was one shot behind the leader on the back 9. Kurt Kitayama was ahead by 1 until the 17th when he missed a 6-foot par putt. Before this season, Schauffle had gone 3 years without a win until the Tokyo Olympics. I think he has fixed that problem.
- On the PGA Tour, we had the Barbasol Championship and Trey Mullinax won his first PGA Tour title. The 30 year old holed a 15-foot putt to secure the win with a birdie on the 18th. Weather delayed Saturday’s round so he played 33 holes on the final day and finished with a total score of -25.
- Fittingly, 3x Open Champion, Jack Nicklaus becomes the 3rd American to be named an honorary citizen of St. Andrews. The only other Americans were Benjamin Franklin (yes like the Founding Father) and Bobby Jones. Nicklaus is an 18x major champion (for those of you know don’t know golf, Tiger only has 15) and 2 of his 3 Open Championships were on the Old Course; he also made his final major appearance at St. Andrews in 2005.
- This is the 150th Open coming up this weekend. If a playoff is needed then the golfers will play a 3 hole playoff followed by sudden death.
- The DOJ is investigating weather the PGA Tour engaged in anticompetitive behavior with it’s players in regards to the LIV tour. One of the major issues being looked at is the governing bodies are conspiring to not award OWGR points to LIV tour golfers. Similarly in 1994, the Federal Trade Commission investigated the PGA Tour if it violated laws to require members to obtain permissions to play in other tournaments or appear in other golf TV programs. No action was taken at that time. We will see if this time is the same result.
Olympic Sports:
- The Tour de France: Wout van Aert has given up the yellow jersey after 3 days. Reigning champ Pogacar has taken it after winning 2 stages and continues to stretch his lead. As of yesterday (completion of Stage 9), his time is 39 seconds ahead of the next competitor. LUX rider Bob Jungels won his first ever stage yesterday which was a mountain stage. Today is a rest day. Racing continues tomorrow with stage 10 which has 4 climbs.
- World Track Championships will be this week in Oregon at iconic Hayward field for the first time ever! Here is the full schedule of events.
- Caster Semenya has been added to the entry list for the 5000m at Worlds next week. She is the 2x Olympic champ at the 800m until she was no longer allowed in that distance due to too high testosterone levels (any event 400m-mile). She has been training for the 5000m and set a new PB but was still 21 seconds off the qualifying time for Worlds. However after a number of runners in front of her withdrew, she is in!
- Who won’t be there? RUS athletes. All have been barred due to the conflict with UKR. None will be allowed to compete as neutrals which has been allowed for certain RUS athletes who have been cleared from the doping scandal in the country. This includes reigning Olympic and World champ HJ Maria Lasitskene. This opens up the HJ field for a UKR actually as Lasitskene has never lost in international competition.
Tennis:
- We have our Wimbledon champs!
- Djokovic was too much for the trick-shot-king Kyrgios who had his own off the court problems. This is Djokovic’s 7th Wimbledon title, just 1 behind Federer and 1 behind Nadal’s 22 GS titles. Despite winning the latest tournament, Djokovic will fall from World #3 to #7 as Wimbledon was stripped of its world ranking points. It’s the end of an era, for the first time in 25 years, Roger Federer dropped out of the ATP rankings. Also adding to the bad news, Djokovic maybe done for GS for the year as currently the US Open requires athletes to be vaccinated for covid which he is not.
- ICYMI Kyrgios was accused of assaulting his ex-gf last year in AUS. He is set to appear in court in August.
- On the women’s side, KAZ Rybakina won her first GS title. #23 in the world beat TUN #5 Jabeur with 100-1 betting odds. She even lost the first set 3-6 before winning the next two 6-2. Rybakina was originally born in RUS but has repped KAZ since 2018 when the country offered to fund her tennis career. This caused some controversy as all RUS and BLR were banned from Wimbledon. Rybakina was the 2nd lowest ranked player to win the major since rankings were instated, the only other – Venus Williams #31 in 2007. Both women competing for the trophy were first time GS finalists.
- Djokovic was too much for the trick-shot-king Kyrgios who had his own off the court problems. This is Djokovic’s 7th Wimbledon title, just 1 behind Federer and 1 behind Nadal’s 22 GS titles. Despite winning the latest tournament, Djokovic will fall from World #3 to #7 as Wimbledon was stripped of its world ranking points. It’s the end of an era, for the first time in 25 years, Roger Federer dropped out of the ATP rankings. Also adding to the bad news, Djokovic maybe done for GS for the year as currently the US Open requires athletes to be vaccinated for covid which he is not.
What to watch this week
Baseball-MLB:
- Mon 7/11
- Mets at Braves @ 6:20pm on FS1
- Scherzer vs Fried
- Mets at Braves @ 6:20pm on FS1
- Tues 7/12
- Dodgers at Cardinals @ 6:45pm on TBS
- White vs Liberatore
- Dodgers at Cardinals @ 6:45pm on TBS
- Thurs 7/14
- Home Run Derby Bracket Show @ 6pm on ESPN
- Sat 7/16
- Tiger at Guardians @ 3:10pm on FS1
- Pineda vs Quantrill
- Red Sox at Yankees – or – Brewers at Giants @ 6:15pmon FOX
- Tiger at Guardians @ 3:10pm on FS1
- Sun 7/17
- Royals at Blue Jays @ 11:05am on Peacock
- MLB Draft @ 6pm on ESPN
Golf:
- Thurs 7/14
- The Open – Round 1
- @ 12:30am on Peacock
- @ 2am on theOpen.com
- @ 3am on USA
- @ 2pm on Peacock
- Barracuda Championship – Round 1 @ 5pm on Golf Channel
- The Open – Round 1
- Fri 7/15
- The Open – Round 2
- @ 12:30am on Peacock
- @ 2am on theOpen.com
- @ 3am on USA
- @ 2pm on Peacock
- Barracuda Championship – Round 2 @ 5pm on Golf Channel
- The Open – Round 2
- Sat 7/16
- The Open – Round 3
- @ 4am on USA
- @ 5am on theOpen.com
- @ 6am on NBC
- Barracuda Championship – Round 3 @ 5pm on Golf Channel
- The Open – Round 3
- Sun 7/10
- The Open – Final Round
- @ 3am on USA
- @ 4am on theOpen.com
- @ 6am on NBC
- Barracuda Championship – Final Round @ 5pm on Golf Channel
- The Open – Final Round
Olympic Sports:
- Tues 7/12
- Tour de France: Stage 10 @ 7am on USA
- Wed 7/13
- Tour de France: Stage 11 @ 7am on USA
- Thurs 7/14
- Tour de France: Stage 12 @ 3pm on USA
- Fri 7/15
- Tour de France: Stage 13 @ 3pm on USA
- Athletics: World Championships @ 7pm on USA
- Final Events: Mixed 4x400m Relay
- Sat 7/16
- Tour de France: Stage 14 @ 7am on USA
- Athletics: World Championships
- @ 3pm on NBC
- @ 9pm on NBC
- Final Events: W Hammer, W 10km, M 100m, W Shot Put, M LJ,
- Sun 7/17
- Tour de France: Stage 15 @ 7am on USA
- Athletics: World Championships
- @ 2pm on NBC
- @ 10pm on NBC
- Final Events: Heptathlon, W M Marathon, M 10km, M 110h, W 100m, M Shot Put, W Hammer, W Pole Vault,
Soccer:
- Tues 7/12
- UEFA W Euro Championship: DEN vs FIN @ 11am on ESPN2
- UEFA W Euro Championship: GER vs ESP @ 2pm on ESPN2
- Copa America W: URU vs BRA @ 3:55pm on FS1
- Copa America W: ARG vs PER @ 6:50pm on FS1
- Wed 7/13
- UEFA W Euro Championship: SWE vs SUI @ 11am n ESPN2
- UEFA W Euro Championship: NED vs POR @ 2pm on ESPN2
- MLS: Minnesota United vs Sporting Kansas City @ 7pm on ESPN
- MLS: LA Galaxy vs San Jose Earthquakes @ 9pm on FS1
- Thurs 7/14
- UEFA W Euro Championship: ITA vs ICE @ 11am on ESPN2
- Copa America W: CHI vs ECU @ 6:50pm on FS1
- Fri 7/15
- UEFA W Euro Championship: NIL vs ENG @ 2pm on ESPN2
- Copa America W: PER vs VEN @ 9pm on FS1
- Sat 7/16
- UEFA W Euro Championship: FIN vs GER @ 2pm on ESPN2
- International Champions Cup @ 9pm on ESPN
- Sun 7/17
- UEFA W Euro Championship: SUI vs NED @ 11am on ESPN
- MLS: Atlanta United vs Orlando City @ 2pm on ABC
- MLS: NY Red Bulls vs NYC FC @ 4pm on ESPN
- Copa America W: CHI vs BOL @3:55pm on FS1
- MLS: Columbus Crew vs FC Cincinnati @ 6:30pm on FS1
