Weekly Update – Week of June 22, 2020 (COVID Week 15)

Baseball: New proposal delayed.

Basketball: #1 draft pick staying put. NBA giving players til Wed. Bertans not play in restart due to ACL. China bball is back!

ESPYs: Quite a different show.

Football: NFL tiers employees at facilities. Prescott likely to sign franchise tag.

Golf: Watney tests positive. Simpson wins Heritage. Wie welcomes baby. PGA Champ no fans in SF.

Horseracing: Tiz the Law wins Belmont Stakes.

Motorsports: Noose found in Wallace’s garage.

Olympic Sports: Coleman suspended. AVP volleyball tour event is now 3 event series. Hungary loses 2 3x gold medalist water polo players. ARG swimmer Bertola blames mom for bad test.

Baseball:

• The new league’s 60 game proposal was supposed to be voted on last night was delayed due to an outbreak in cases and late night tweaks to the proposal. Those last minute tweaks are offering to cancel the expanded playoffs and universal hitter for 2021 if no season is played in 2020. Vote should take place tonight. But things are looking grim.

Basketball:

• After the OSU Cowboys were banned from post season tournaments next year, many thought Cade Cunningham (the likely NBA #1 draft pick) would transfer or declare for the draft. He had already announced that he was forgoing the 2020 draft (where he was rated #2 likely pick) to go back to OSU and play. And now Cowboy fans can breathe a sigh of relief.
• The NBA is giving players til Wednesday to say whether they will play if the league restarts in FL. Concerns are growing as cases in the Orlando area are increasing. Tests will go out Tuesday and play would resume next month.
• Wizards forward Davis Bertans will not be apart of the NBA restart due to ACL injuries. We will see if this will effect this free agency
• 5 months after the shutdown, basketball is up and running again in China! The CBA was stopped on Jan 24^th but has now returned without fans.

ESPYs:

• The show was last night hosted by Russell Wilson, Meghan Rapinoe and Sue Bird virtually. And the show had quite a different theme this year. Do you care about Black Lives Matter if your favorite player isn’t catching TDs or recovering rebounds? All the awards that were given out had a humanitarian flare (this was also because a lot of championships were never played) and Tom Brady gave a shout out to the college seniors who had their seasons cut short/taken away.

Football:

• The NFL must tier its employees for its facilities in an effort to keep down the growing COVID numbers. Tier 1 and 2 must have different entrances or at least different times to enter the facility. People who have access to restricted areas will be tested daily. And obviously cleaning and social distancing practices will also be enforced. Surprise inspections of the facilities are not out of the question either.
  • Tier 1: players, coaches, trainers, physicians, etc
  • Tier 2: GMs, football ops people, security, and video personnel, etc
  • Tier 3: operational personnel for facility, media and people who run essential business for the stadium, etc who have no contact with Tier 1
• Cowboys QB, Dak Prescott, is likely to sign a franchise tag with Dallas for $31.4MM. Dallas has until July 15 to close a long-term deal. Both the Cowboys office and Dak have express their desire to not have this partnership end. But the problem is the money Dak is worth is going to mess with Dallas’ salary cap.

Golf:

• Nick Watney became the first athlete to test positive for the coronavirus on the PGA Tour. However all 11 players who had contact with him, were all tested again and all were negative. According to Sergio Garcia (another player on tour who spoke with Watney), Watney’s Whoop (like a Fit Bit but more recovery focused) showed Watney had an elevated level of respiratory rate which prompted him to get tested. Watney did not take the PGA Tour charter from the previous tournament instead flying privately with Garcia.

• Webb Simpson won the RBC Heritage last night with a score of 22 under par with barely any sunlight left. The tournament was delayed due to weather and was coming down to the wire to see if the players would finish before the light faded but they did it and in killer fashion. A multitude of players had scores 6 under or better. This was the first year that Father’s Day has not been the final round of the US Open since 1976. The US Open has since been moved to September. Mexican golfer, Abraham Ancer hit every green in regulation on Sunday to take second.
• LPGA 2014 US Open champion Michelle Wie had her first baby with GS Warrior husband Jonnie West on Saturday. The baby girl was named MaKenna.
• The PGA Championship will be played in SF (as planned) at Harding Park but without fans. The PGA Tour was considering different venues to be able to allow fans (potentially in KT or NC) but no longer. The PGA Championship will be the first major of the year being played on Aug 6-9.

Horseracing:

• The Belmont Stakes was run this weekend and Tiz the Law won the price in front of 0 fans. Tiz was the heavy favorite and was actually from NY. The Triple Crown which usually starts with the KT Derby and ends with the Belmont is now randomized. The Belmont was first this past weekend followed by the Kentucky Derby on Sept 5^th and the Preakness on Oct 3^rd.

Motorsports:

• A noose found in Bubba Wallace’s garage at the Talladega Speedway in AL in what is believed to be retaliation after getting NASCAR to ban the Confederate flag from stadiums. Wallace, the league’s only black driver, pushed the league to ban the flag 2 weeks ago – which is did. NASCAR has come out to say that whoever did this will be severely punished for this ‘heinous act’. And although the ban on the flag inside the stadium was enforced, there were people outside the stadium flaunting it and a plane that flew it over the stadium with a banner reading ‘defund NASCAR’.
  • The race was delayed due to bad weather and will be run today.

Olympic Sports:

• The odds-on favorite for the 100m World’s Fastest Man, Christian Coleman, has been temporarily suspended after missing another drug test. Coleman was not at his house when the drug tester came calling in December. He claims to have been out buying Christmas presents on Dec 9^th when it happened. He will only be suspended until a decision is made. He has missed test before and if this one is not repealed then he could be banned for 2 years meaning he would be out for the Tokyo 2020 delayed Olympic Games. This would be a huge hit for the US Track team.
  • For those of you who don’t know, athletes are required to state where they will be for 1 hour every day where they can be found for testing. This is standard across all sports and is required for months at a time depending on the competition schedule of the individual. Coleman was not at his home which is where he said he would be for that hour.
• The AVP volleyball tour is substituting its regular season for a 3 event series in Long Beach, CA in light of the coronavirus. The Championship cup Series will be Ju;y 18-Aug 2 with a total prize pool of $700k with no fans. Also a change from the normal season, no hugging or high-fiving your partner.

• 3x Olympic Champion Water polo player, Tibor Benedek from HUN, died at the age of 47. He retired from all sporting activities in May after he was captain and then coach for Hungary’s Olympic water polo team. He won the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Olympic golds.

• Oddly enough another 3x Olympic gold medalist from HUN water polo team died, Mr. Gyorgy Karpati. He was 84 though. He won the 1952, 1956 and 1964 Olympic gold medals. He scored a goal in the ‘Blood in the Water’ match which was HUN vs RUS which was weeks after the anti-Soviet revolution in HUN. Karpati was the last surviving member of that team.
• ARG open water swimmer Guillermo Bertola blamed this mother’s blood for his irregular blood after he received a blood transfusion in Jan 2018 for GI problems. That’s a new one for all of us. He was banned for 4 years and stripped of his PanAm Games silver medal in the 10km swim.
• Tokyo is voting on its governor in the upcoming future and some of the candidates want the Tokyo 2020 delayed Games canceled and that money redirected into funds for people who have been hurt economically from the pandemic… the incumbent is a huge advocate for the games.

What to Watch this Week

Golf:

• Thurs 6/25 – Travelers Championship – Round 1 @ 2pm on Golf Channel
• Fri 6/26 – Travelers Championship – Round 2 @ 2pm on Golf Channel
• Sat 6/27 – Travelers Championship – Round 3
  • 12pm on Golf Channel
  • 2pm on CBS
• Sun 6/28 – Travelers Championship – Round 4
  • 12pm on Golf Channel
  • 2pm on CBS

Hockey:

• Thurs 6/25 – NHL Draft Lottery @ 7pm on NBCSN

Motorsports:

• Mon 6/22 – NASCAR: Geico 500 @ 2pm on Fox
• Sun 6/27 – NASCAR: Pocono Organics 325 @ 2:30pm on Fox

Soccer:

• Mon 6/22
  • Italian Serie A: Lecce vs AC Milan @ 12:30pm on ESPN
  • Premier League: Manchester City vs Burnley @ 1:55pm on NBCSN
• Tues 6/23
  • Premier League: Leicester City vs Brighton & Hove Albion @ 12pm on NBCSN
  • Italian Serie A: SPAL vs Cagliari @ 12:30pm on ESPN
  • Premier League: Tottenham Hotspur vs West Ham @ 2:10pm on NBCSN
  • Italian Serie A: Genoa vs Parma @ 2:45pm on ESPN
• Wed 6/24
  • Premier League: ManU vs Sheffield United @ 12pm on NBCSN
  • Premier League: Liverpool vs Crystal Palace @ 2:10pm on NBCSN
  • Italian Serie A: Atalanta vs Lazio @ 2:45pm on ESPN
• Thurs 6/25
  • Premier League: Burnley vs Watford @ 12pm on NBCSN
  • Premier League: Chelsea vs Manchester City @ 2:15pm on NBCSN
• Sat 6/27
  • Premier League: Aston Villa vs Wolverhampton @ 6:25am on NBCSN
  • English FA Cup: Norwich vs ManU @ 11:30am on ESPN
  • Italian Serie A: Cagliari vs Torino @ 12:30pm on ESPN2
  • NWSL: Challenge Cup: NC Courage vs Portland Thorns @ 12:30pm on CBS
• Sun 6/28
  • English FA Cup: Sheffield vs Arsenal @ 6am on ESPN
  • Premier League: Watford vs Southampton @ 6:25am on NBCSN
  • Italian Serie A: Sassuolo vs Hellas Verona @ 12:30pm on ESPN