Weekly Update – June 27, 2022

Baseball-MLB: Yankees/Astros series craziness. Mariners/Angels brawl. Orioles 4 game win streak. Harper out with broken thumb.

Baseball-NCAA: Omaha is over! Ole Miss gets first baseball national championship.

Basketball: NBA Draft results.

Football: Supreme Court rules in favor of WA praying coach. Gronk retires…again.

Golf: Schauffle wins Travelers. PGA Tour answers with changes. LIV tour takes more players.

Hockey: Avalanche win Stanley Cup.

Olympic Sports: FINA World record medals for USA. US Nationals for T&F set World team. Tour de France starts this week.

Tennis: Wimbledon begins!

Baseball:

• The Yankees/Astros series this weekend was one for the books! The teams even split the series 2-2 with the Yankees bookending the series with Ws. After winning 7-6 on Friday, Yankees only had 1 run against Verlander, who is looking strong after his return from Tommy John. Judge went 0-3 against the pitcher. This loss ended the Yankees home game streak at 15. And if Yankees fans thought that was bad, it got worse. The NY team had their 8^th no hit all time; the first in 19 years. Aaron Judge hit his 2^nd walk-off in the 10^th inning of Sunday’s game. Good timing too as his salary is being discussed. Judge gave his bat to longtime Yankees fan, Spike Lee.

• 8 people have been ejected after this Angels/Mariners brawl in the 2^nd inning during Sunday’s game. Mariners manager, Angels interim-manager and 6 players were ejected including 3 of the top 4 hitters in the Mariners line up. Tempers flared after Angels P Wantz hit Mariners Winker with the first pitch of the inning. This was after he threw a pitch behind the head of Rodriguez in the first inning. Rodiguez’ wild pitch seemed to be in retaliation to Erik Swanson who pitched a 95 mph fastball by Mike Trout’s head on late in Saturday’s game. So basically emotions were running high to start! The fight started ~2xs.

• Phillies OF Bryce Harper is out indefinitely after he suffered a broken thumb from being hit by a 97 mph fastball from Padres P Snell.
• Shortly after solidifying the #1 draft pick this year, the Orioles won their 4^th game in a row, which is their longest streak this season. It did end at 4 however as they lost the next game to the White Sox. Their record is 34-39.

Baseball – NCAA:

• Going back to the beginning of the week, Ole Miss put a beat down on the Razorbacks winning 13-5 on Monday. Auburn beat #2 Stanford in an elimination game to send the Cardinals home. The Razorbacks bounced back though to send the Tigers home the next day. #5 Texas A&M beat the Fighting Irish 5-1 on Tuesday to face Oklahoma in the Semis. But the tables flipped on the Aggies and they lost 5-1 to the Sooners, who continued to roll not needing an elimination game. Arkansas got revenge for that nasty score on Monday, barely beating the Rebels to force an elimination game on Thursday. The Rebels got the last laugh though, winning 2-0 on Thursday to get to the final to face the Sooners.

• Final: OU was going for something that had never been done, the Diamond Double, aka winning both the softball and baseball national championship. However the Ole Miss Rebels stood in the way… and they struck first going up 4-0 by the end of the 3^rd The Sooners, known for their batting, didn’t have a hit until 6th inning in Game 1. Ole Miss won 10-3 and that seemed to take the wind out of Oklahoma. Sunday was Game 2 and OU needed to win to take it to a winner-take-all Game 3. It was a pitching battle until the 5^th and again the Rebels struck first, scoring a run. However the Sooners answered in the next inning with 2 runs but left the bases loaded. And they needed more in that inning as Ole Miss put up 3 in the next inning to go up 4-2 and that was the final score. This was the first national championship for the school in baseball. The Rebels went from last 4 to national champs.

Basketball:

• The NBA Draft was this week and #1 was a surprise! While we expected Pablo Banchero to be top 3, Pablo was a shock as #1. Other things to note from the draft: Duke had 4 players go in the first round and the OKC Thunder drafted 2 different Jalen Williams (different spellings).

Football:

• The Supreme Court has ruled that a Washington football coach can pray on the field with his team. He was let go after his contract was up because he refused to stop praying with his team. Now it is constitutional to pray before games.
• Gronk has announced his retirement…again. I almost didn’t even put this as a news story because he’ll be back. Even Michael Strahan on GMA said we will see him on the field again.

Golf:

• June 26 is a good day for the Schauffle’s. Last year he got married and this year he wins the Travelers Championship. Schauffle won on the 18^th after a 3 shot swing when Sahith Theegala had a bunker shot that looked like most of us playing on the weekend, taking 2 shots to get out. Theegala ended with a double-bogey, his only bogey of the day but it is only a matter of time for the rookie. Schauffle won by 2 strokes over Theegala and JT Posten. This is Xander’s 6^th PGA Tour title and 2^nd this year after winning with teammate Patrick Cantlay in NOLA. Amateur Thorbjorsen got 4^th, the best finish by an amateur ever at this tournament.

• Major changes are coming to the PGA Tour and I don’t just mean another league. Commish Jay Manahan has announced that there will be 8 marquee events with much higher purses and 3 events in the fall will have no cut with 50 players. Also the FedEx Cup season will run from Jan – Aug instead of the wrap around format currently. This obviously is the reaction to the LIV tour. No word on where that extra money to the events will come from and that price tag looks to be ~$53.8MM.

• Brooks Koepka has announced he will join the LIV tour along with Abraham Ancer this past week.

• Also add Matt Wolff to the list as of today! Wolff comes at no surprise IF you listened to the LIV episode. I mentioned him and Bubba Watson are in the hype video. No word from Watson yet. Brooks Koepka was a surprise after his eye rolls at the US Open press conference. Spaniard and #2 amateur who just turned pro, Eugenio Chucarra, is also rumored to be joining the LIV. Brooks will be captain of the Smash team; Bryson DeChambeau will be captain of the Crushers. Most of the other captains are the same as London.

Hockey:

• The Lightning won Game 3 on Monday is convincing fashion 6-2 and I cant be the only one who was like ‘ok here we go.’ I mean this is the 2x defending Stanley Cup champs. The Tampa Bay team was still down 2-1 games. Game 4 was crazy and went into OT when the Avalanche came back to tie in the 3^rd It lasted 12 minutes before Kadri won it for the Avalanche. Game 5 was do or die for the TB team and they won it by scoring a goal in each period. That took the series back to Tampa. The Lightning may have struck first in Game 6 but the Avalanche answered with 2 goals in the 2^nd period and didn’t look back. The beat the 2x defending champs to win Stanley Cup last night. The parade will be Thursday. Lord Stanley (the trophy) got a little dinged up in the celebration afterwards..

• The Blackhawks have hired their 40^th HC Luke Richardson.

Olympic Sports:

• FINA Worlds for swimming are over. Diving and water polo continue this week but let’s get down to the swimming titles. The W 4×100 Medley was the final medal of the competition and it was a 45^th medal for the USA, that is a record! ITA upset the American men in the same event. Canada also finished with their record of 11 medals at Worlds with some help from the 15 year old Summer McIntosh.
  • Katie Ledecky continued her dominance taking home 5 golds from this worlds including the individual titles of the 400m, 800m and 1500m free.
  • Justin Ress won the 50m back for the USA and fellow American Hunter Armstrong took 2^nd. However then Ress was DQ’d for not having a body part out of the water at the touch. That was later overturned (after the medal ceremony) so he is the world champ.
  • We also had the return of some older champions, SWE Sarah Sjostrom and LIT Meilutyte won the 50meter events. Meilutyte won the breast over WR holder from ITA. And Sjostrom did the free/fly double.

• US Outdoor Championships was this weekend and there was a heat advisory so events were oved up an hour for the most part. Worlds will be competed in Oregon on legendary Hayward field (the same track as USAs) in 3 weeks.
  • ShaCarri Richardson didn’t make it out of the heats in the 100m. Melissa Jefferson from Coastal Carolina got 8^th at NCAAs a couple of weeks ago but is now the US champion! Richardson was also in the 200m but did not make the final. Kentucky Abby Steiner sets another WL mark.
  • Sydney McLaughlin had a dream start to her outdoor championships, re-setting her own WR in the 400h. She ran a flawless race – it looked easy and no Dalilah Muhammad (she is an auto qualifier), almost 2.5 seconds in front of the next finisher. Sydney broke the WR 3xs in a year.
  • Allyson Felix ran her final US Championships, 22 years after her first appearance at the event. She made the final in the 400m and got 6^th so she will be on the World team as part of the 4x400m relay or the mixed team relay.
  • The 400m men’s race looks to be in good hands with Michael Norman who ran the world leading time in USA’s. He looks to better his Tokyo 5^th place performance. Fred Kerley won the 100m for the men. He is usually a 400m runner but he did get silver in Tokyo. Quite a transformation as he had one of the best starts of his career this weekend to run 9.77. WR holder Keni Harrison won the 100h with the same a world leading time. Rai Benjamin ran a WL time in the 400h as well. His main competition will come from NOR. Eagles WR Devon Allen barely squeaked onto the World team placing 3^rd in the 110h.
  • The M 200m saw a battle between Noah Lyles and the teenager Erriyon Knighton who is being called the next Usain Bolt. I do not say that lightly. Knighton’s PR at age 18 is .5 faster than Usain’s was! Knighton looked to have the race won by Lyles came back on him and even had time to point at the camera. This might be the start of a great rivalry.

• The Tour de France starts this week! And there will be 2 major names missing from the starting line. Julian Alaphilippe, 2x champ, and Mark Cavendish, who tied the record of number of stage wins will both be absent. Julian is recovering from a crash 2 months ago and Mark did not make the cut. The TdF will run from July 1 – 24^th.

Tennis:

• Wimbledon has begun! Remember RUS and BLR athletes have been banned from playing in the tournament and in retaliation the ATP took away world ranking points from the GS event. This caused a lot of stars to not show up to the tournament. That being said you will see some familiar faces. Djokovic is trying to defend his title and King of the Clay, Nadal is also there. However, reigning US Open Champ, Medvedev is not as he is RUS. Serena Williams is making an appearance after it was rumored she would not. So are fellow Americans, Coco Gauff and Sloane Stephens. #1 Iga Swiatek is also here.
  • Men’s Bracket 
  • Women’s Bracket

What to watch this week

Baseball-MLB:

• Tues 6/28
  • Astros at Mets @ 6:10pm on TBS
• Thurs 6/30
  • Padres at Dodgers @ 9:10pm on FS1
    • Musgrove vs White
• Sat 7/2
  • A’s at Mariners @ 3:10pm on FS1
    • Blackburn vs Kirby
  • Red Sox at Cubs – or – Padres at Dodgers @ 6:15pm on FOX
• Sun 7/3
  • Royals at Tigers @ 11:05am on Peacock
  • Cardinals at Phillies @ 6pm on ESPN
    • Wainwright vs Wheeler

Football:

• Sun 7/3
  • Championship: Birmingham Stallions vs Phili Stars @ 6:30pm on FOX

Golf:

• Thurs 6/30
  • LIV Tour: Portland – Round 1 @ 1:15pm on YouTube or Liv.com
  • John Deere Classic – Round 1 @ 2pm on Golf Channel
• Fri 7/1
  • LIV Tour: Portland – Round 2 @ 1:15pm on YouTube or Liv.com
  • John Deere Classic – Round 2 @ 2pm on Golf Channel
• Sat 7/2
  • LIV Tour: Portland – Final Round @ 1:15pm on YouTube or Liv.com
  • John Deere Classic – Round 3
    • @ 12pm on Golf Channel
    • @ 2pm on CBS
• Sun 7/3
  • John Deere Classic – Final Round
    • @ 12pm on Golf Channel
    • @ 2pm on CBS

Olympic Sports:

• Sat 7/2
  • Tour de France: Stage 2
    • @ 7am on USA
    • @ 12pm on NBC
• Sun 7/3
  • Tour de France: Stage 3 @ 7am on USA

Soccer:

• Tues 6/28
  • USL: San Antonio vs FC Tulsa @ 8pm on ESPN2
  • Women’s International Friendly: USA vs COL @ 9pm on ESPN
• Wed 6/29
  • MLS: LA FC vs FC Dallas @ 9:30pm on FS1
• Mon 7/4
  • COCACAF W: USA vs HAI @ 6pm on CBSSN
  • USL: Colorado Springs Switchbacks vs San Deigo Loyal @ 8pm on ESPN2

Tennis:

• Tues 6/28
  • Wimbledon – Round 1 @ 5am on ESPN
• Wed 6/29
  • Wimbledon – Round 2 @ 5am on ESPN
• Thurs 6/30
  • Wimbledon – Round 2 @ 5am on ESPN
• Fri 7/1
  • Wimbledon – Round 3 @ 5am on ESPN
• Sat 7/2
  • Breakfast at Wimbledon @ 6am on ESPN
  • Wimbledon – Round 3 @ 7am on ESPN
• Sun 7/3
  • Breakfast at Wimbledon @ 6am on ESPN
  • Wimbledon – Round of 16 @ 7am on ESPN
• Mon 7/4
  • Wimbledon – Round of 16 @ 5am on ESPN2
  • Wimbledon – Round of 16 @ 7am on ESPN