Baseball: Blue Jays looking for a home. 2 players test positive.
Basketball: LeBron rookie card sets record. Nuggets get 2 players back. Exhibition games 10 min quarters.
Football: NFL camp opens next week but with no H&S plan yet. Raiders may not allow fans.
Golf: Rahm wins Memorial and World #1 ranking. Nicklaus and wife both had and recovered from COVID in March.
Motorsports: MotoGP first race craziness. Marquez out. Quartararo wins first MotoGP race.
Olympic Sports: US Olympic Museum to open next week. Japanese sports abusing problem. IOC Pres Bach up for reelection. 2020 Tokyo venues secured for 2021. Bode Miller opens winter sports school.
Soccer: Ballon d’Or canceled for 2020.
Baseball:
- MLB is back on Thursday 7/23!!
- Canada has banned the Blue Jays from playing at their home field, Rogers Centre, in Toronto because it would require frequent travel between Canada and the US (where the virus is spiking at the moment). So the Blue Jays are looking for a ballpark to call home for the 2020 odd season. Their first home game is scheduled for July 29th against the Nationals but their first game is against Tampa Bat on Friday.
- Pirates 3B Ke’Bryan Hayes out with COVID. So is Angels’ P Julio Teheran.
Basketball:
- The 2003-2004 LeBron James rookie card from Upper Deck sold for $1.845MM at auction to Lob.com CEO Leore Avidar. This is the highest amount ever paid for a basketball card and sets the record for modern day cards (post 1980s). The previous record was held by Mike Trout whose signed rookie card sold for $922k.
- The Nuggets get Torrey Craig and Gary Harris back in the bubble this week, after which they will undergo a quarantine but be able to join their teammates when that is complete.
- The exhibition opening games will be shorter than expected as the teams will only play 10 min quarters (rather than the usual 12 min). There are 2 reasons for this: 1. All the teams don’t have tall their players back yet and 2. The players haven’t played any games in 4 months.
Football:
- NFL will open its training camps on July 28th but many of the top NFL players are concerned that the NFL still has no health and safety plan for COVID, for example no protocol has been issued about how to handle a positive test. That being said, there is an owners meeting today at 3pm to discuss just that.
- Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis is leaning towards allowing no fans in the stadium come the start of football season. That’s a big decision considering he’s in a completely new stadium. Other options that were discussed were having a Plexiglass wall erected in the stadium (kind alike hockey) and covering the first 8 rows up with tarps (and extra ad space). Those were both voted down. The 3 viable options he is looking at now are: 1. Go on as planned and see what happens, 2. Delay the start until November, canceling inter-conference play or 3. Cancel the 2020 season.
Golf:
- Jon Rahm dominated the field at the Memorial Tournament this weekend to win by 3 after shooting a +3 final round on Sunday. It was a tough course with only 9 players under par. With this win, Rahm becomes #1 in the world, making him the first Spaniard since Seve Ballesteros to accomplish the feat.
- Jack Nicklaus announced before his tournament at Memorial that he would still shake the winner’s hand despite COVID and social distancing practices… This might be because Jack and his wife already had COVID at the outset of the outbreak (March 13th ish). They both recovered; in fact his wife, Barbara had no symptoms while the golf legend had a sore throat and slight cough. Jack and his wife both just turned 80 this year.
Motorsports:
- MotoGP started its season this past weekend in Jerez and what a race to start the year. Defending world champion, Marc Marquez, ran off the track into the gravel during lap 3…. To make an extraordinary return from 13th up to the top 5 before taking a nasty crash on the 19th He has a broken humerus and will undergo surgery tomorrow. TBD if he will be back for the next race which is this next weekend due to the shortened season. Meanwhile, Frenchman Fabio Quartararo won his first ever MotoGP race, running out in front where no one could touch him. This could be a crazy season!
Olympic Sports:
- The US Olympic museum is set to open in Colorado Springs on July 30. The museum will honor the 1980 Olympic team, which was never to be after the US banned going to Moscow. This year is the 40th anniversary of that Olympics. The construction took 3 years and cost $91MM. One of the cool new features is each guest will pick a fav sport or athlete and the museum ticket will have a chip in it that will activate different things throughout the exhibit.
- The Tokyo Olympics were supposed to open this week, but Japanese sports are making the news for a whole different reason. A Human Rights Watch report has been released to say that over 800 athletes in 50 different sports in japan have been abused, physically, mentally, or sexually. Physical abuse ran rampant in Japanese sport for decades. A study in 2013 showed that over 10% of athletes had been harassed or severely bullied. We’re not talking light punishment either. Of the original 757 responses, 381 were 24 or younger, 19% said they had been hit, punched, slapped, kicked, knocked to the ground, or beaten with an object while participating in sports.
- IOC president, Thomas Bach, has announced that he plans to run for reelection. Right now he runs unopposed. He warned the Olympic community in the same press conference that some countries are talking about boycotting the Beijing Olympics in 2022, due to China’s record of human rights violations and the recent treatment to its Muslim minority group and pro-democracy activities in Hong Kong. To the current president, this is a very personal issue as he was reigning team fencing champion in 1980 when West Germany boycotted the Moscow Olympics. He was not allowed to defend his title.
- The 42 venues needed to run the Tokyo have been lined up and the schedule remains the same. After the COVID pandemic delayed the Olympics, venues needed to be rescheduled and that process is now complete!
- Former US Olympic skier, Bode Miller, has launched a winter sports academy which is an online learning program for skiers and snowboarders for grades 7-12. Eventually the goal is to open an actual school in Montana. Hes hoping that this school will produce the next wave of winter sport standouts. He already has 100 student express interest but it will cost $13k
Soccer:
- The Ballon d’Or has been cancelled for the first time ever due to coronavirus. Lats year’s winners were Lionel Messi and Megan Rapinoe. The organizers say that too much of the regular soccer season has been taken away to make such a big decision.
What to Watch this Week
Baseball:
- Tues 7/21
- KBO: LG Twins vs KT Wiz @ 4:25am on ESPN2
- Thurs 7/23
- KBO: Teams TBA @ 4:25am on ESPN2
- Yankees at Nationals @ 6pm on ESPN
- Cole vs Cherzer
- Giants at Dodgers @ 9pm on ESPN
- Cueto vs Kershaw
- Fri 7/24
- KBO: LG Twins vs Doosan Bears @ 4:25am on ESPN
- Braves at Mets @ 3pm on ESPN
- Brewers at Cubs @ 6pm on ESPN
- Woodruff vs Hendericks
- Angels at A’s @ 9pm on ESPN
- Heaney vs Montas
- Sat 7/25
- KBO: Samsung Lions vs KIA Tigers @ 3:55am on ESPN
- Brewers at Cubs @ 12:05pm on FOX
- Anderson vs Darvish
- Giants at Dodgers @ 3:10pm on FOX
- Yankees at Nationals @ 6:15pm on FOX
- Diamondbacks at Padres @ 8:10pm on FS1
- Sun 7/26
- KBO: LG Twins vs Doosan Bears @ 2:55am on ESPN
- Yankees at Nationals @ 12:05pm on TBS
- Braves at Mets @ 6pm on ESPN
- Giants at Dodgers @ 9pm on ESPN
Basketball:
- Sat 7/25
- WNBA: Seatlle Storm vs NY Livberty @ 11am on ESPN
- WNBA: LA Sparks vs PHX Mercury @ 2pm on ABC
- WNBA: Indiana Fever vs Washington Mystics @ 4pm on CBSSN
- Sun 7/26
- WNBA: CT Sun vs MN Lynx @ 11am on ESPN
- WNBA: CHI Sky vs LV Aces @ 2pm on ABC
- WNBA: DAL Wings vs ATL Dream @ 4pm on CBSSN
Golf:
- Wed 7/22
- Euro Tour: British Masters – Round 1 @ 7am on Golf Channel
- Thurs 7/23
- Euro Tour: British Masters – Round 2 @ 7am on Golf Channel
- 3M Open – Round 1 @ 1:30pm on Golf Channel
- Fri 7/24
- Euro Tour: British Masters – Round 3 @ 7:30am on Golf Channel
- 3M Open – Round 2 @ 1:30pm on Golf Channel
- Sat 7/25
- Euro Tour: British Masters – Final Round @ 7am on Golf Channel
- 3M Open – Round 3
- 12pm on Golf Channel
- 2pm on CBS
- Sun 7/26 – 3M Open – Round 4
- 12pm on Golf Channel
- 2:30pm on CBS
Motorsports:
- Thurs 7/23 – NASCAR: Super Start 400 @ 6:30pm on NBCSN
- Sat 7/25 – NASCAR: Kansas Lottery 250 @ 4pm on NBCSN
- Sun 7/26
- MotoGP – Moto2 Race @ 6:30am on NBCSN
- MotoGP @ 2:30pm on NBC
Olympic Sports:
- Mon 7/20 – Cycling: Virtual Tour de France @ 5pm on NBCSN
- Fri 7/24
- Track & Field: Return to Rio – Men’s Sprints @ 5pm on NBCSN
- Return to Rio: Best of Team USA @ 6pm on NBCSN
- Lighting the Olympic Torch: Iconic Ceremony Moments @ 9pm on NBCSN
- Gymnastics: Women’s Team Final @ 9:30pm on NBCSN
- Sun 7/26 – Journey to Tokyo @ 7pm – 12am on NBCSN
Soccer:
- Mon 7/20
- Premier League: Sheffield United vs Everton @ 12pm on NBCSN
- Premier League: Wolverhampton Wanderers vs Crystal Palace @ 2:10pm on NBCSN
- USL: Hartford Athletic vs Loudoun United @ 6pm on ESPN2
- MLS: Phili Union cs Orland City @ 7pm on ESPN
- Tues 7/21
- MLS : Toronto vs NE Revolution @ 8am on ESPN
- Premier League: Watford vs Manchester City @ 12pm on NBCSN
- Italian Serie A : Atalanta vs Bologna @ 12:30pm on ESPN
- Premier League: Aston Villa vs Arsenal @ 2:15pm on NBCSN
- MLS : Atlanta United vs Columbus Crew @ 7pm on ESPN2
- MLS: Montreal Impact vs DC United @ 9:30pm on ESPN2
- Wed 7/22
- MLS: Real Salt Lake vs Sporting Kansas City @ 8am on ESPN
- Premier League: ManU vs West Ham @ 12pm on NBCSN
- Premier League: Liverpool vs Chelsea @ 2:10pm on NBCSN
- Italian Serie A: Sampdoria vs Genoa @ 2:45pm on ESPN
- USL: Pittsburgh Riverhounds vs Indy Eleven @ 5pm on ESPN2
- MLS: FC Cincinnati vs NY Red Bulls @ 7pm on ESPN
- MLS: Colorado Rapids vs Minnesota United @ 9:30pm on ESPN
- Thurs 7/23
- MLS: Chicago Fire vs Vancouver Whitecaps @ 8am on ESPN
- Italian Serie A: Lazio vs Cagliari @ 2:45pm on ESPN
- MLS: Houston Dynamo vs LA Galaxy @ 7pm on FS1
- MLS: LAFC vs Portland Timbers @ 9:30pm on ESPN2
- Sat 7/25
- MLS: 1A vs 3rd place Group C/D/E @ 7pm on ESPN2
- Mexcian Primera Division Soccer @ 9pm on NBCSN
- MLS: 2A vs 2C @ 9:30pm on ESPN2
- Sun 7/26
- Premier League: Teams TBA @ 10am on NBCSN
- NWSL: NWSL Challenge Cup: Championship Game @ 11:30am on CBS
Tennis:
- Tues 7/21 – World Team Tennis @ 8am on ESPN2
- Wed 7/22 – World Team Tennis @ 10am on ESPN2
- Thurs 7/23 – World Team Tennis @ 6pm on ESPN2
- Fri 7/24 – World Team Tennis @ 6pm on ESPN2
- Sun 7/26 – World Team Tennis @ 6pm on ESPN2
