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🚨 Headlines
🏀 1 vs 2: No. 1 pick Caitlin Clark (career-high 30 points) outscored No. 2 pick Cameron Brink (three points, two blocks), but Brink’s Sparks got the win and the Fever fell to 1-7.
⚾️ Dodgers fight back: The Mets lent a helping hand to the struggling Dodgers, who won a doubleheader against New York to end their longest losing streak in five years.
⛳️ Retired at age 29: Lexi Thompson will retire at the end of this season. The 15-time LPGA winner has been in the limelight since she became the youngest player ever to play in the U.S. Women’s Open at age 12.
🏈 An off-season overhaul? The NFLPA is reportedly finalizing a proposal to eliminate on-field volunteer work during the spring offseason in favor of longer training camps.
🏁 During shutdown: Stewart-Haas Racing, which currently fields four cars in the NASCAR Cup Series, plans to shut down the team at the end of the year.
⚾️ MLB adds Negro League statistics to record books
Negro League Statistics Today, a part of MLB history will be made as more than 2,300 players from the seven Negro League series (1920-1948) are officially added to the record books.
What this means: Legendary Negro League players less familiar to modern fans will be included among the all-time record holders, while statistics for Negro League players who went on to play in the MLB, such as Willie Mays, Minnie Minoso and Larry Doby, will be integrated and updated.
What they’re saying: “This effort is focused on ensuring future generations of fans know the statistics and accomplishments of all those who helped make the Negro Leagues a reality,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said. “Their on-field accomplishments will serve as a gateway to learning more broadly about this triumph in American history.”
The man, the myth, the legend: Negro League icon and Baseball Hall of Famer Josh Gibson currently leads the league in batting average (.372, ahead of Ty Cobb), slugging percentage (.718, ahead of Babe Ruth) and OPS (1.177, ahead of Ruth). Gibson, who played 17 years with the Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh Crawfords, holds the single-season records in all three categories with a .466 batting average, .974 slugging percentage and 1.474 OPS.
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“He’s been called the black Babe Ruth, but some think it might just as accurately be called the Bambino the white Josh Gibson,” wrote Bill Johnson of the Society for American Baseball Research.
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Yes, but while Ruth was world famous and earned more than $80,000 a year (about $1.5 million in today’s dollars), Gibson got little attention and made no more than $1,500 a month. He was just 35 when he died in 1947, the same year Jackie Robinson joined the Dodgers.
That was when… Baseball Hall of Famer Walter Johnson summed up Gibson’s talent and baseball’s racism in this 1939 quote:
“There’s a catcher that every major league team wants to buy for $200,000. His name is Gibson. He can do it all. He can hit the ball a mile. He can catch it as easily as if he was sitting in a rocking chair. He can throw it like a rifle. Too bad this Gibson is black.”
This is now… John Thorn, chairman of the Negro Leagues Statistical Review Committee, led a team of historians, former players and researchers that spent years sifting through data and box scores to arrive at today’s findings.
“I believe the past is living and breathing and influencing every moment of the present. No sport is more in tune with its history and heroes of the past than baseball, and now we have an opportunity to comprehensively tell the story of baseball and of the nation.”
next time: MLB will pay tribute to the Negro Leagues on June 20 with a matchup between the Giants and Cardinals at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama (former home of the Birmingham Black Barons).
📸 Photo Gallery
SUNRISE, Fla. — Sam Reinhart, the NHL’s power play goals leader this season, scored on the power play and the Panthers beat the Rangers 3–2 (in overtime) to tie the series.
Dallas — Led by Karl-Anthony Towns (25 points, 9-13 from the field) and Anthony Edwards (29-10-9), the Timberwolves beat the Mavericks 105-100 to avoid elimination.
Paris — World number one Novak Djokovic began his French Open title defence with a straight straight win over Pierre-Hugues Herbert (6-4, 7-6, 6-4), marking the first time Djokovic has won 69 consecutive first-round matches at major tournaments since 2006.
Athens — The 2024 Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series kicked off in Greece on Sunday. Where’s next? June 8 in Boston Harbor.
🥍 Lacrosse: The Ultimate Crossover Sport
Notre Dame Football Club The 2022 Bowl Game MVP (Tyler Buchner) and 2023 Bowl Game MVP (Jordan Faison) won national championships in lacrosse on Monday.
Multi-Sport Star: Buchner returned to South Bend in January to switch sports after playing quarterback at Notre Dame (2021-22) and Alabama (2023). Faison, a freshman, was a top lacrosse player and eventually joined the football team and earned a scholarship.
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Buchner played in 13 games for the Irish, starting three of them and scoring 13 touchdowns, before transferring to Tuscaloosa, where he started one game for the Tide. A former high school lacrosse star, Buchner went on to play in 11 games as a defensive midfielder for the national champions, recording one goal and one assist.
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Faison caught four touchdowns (tied for second) in seven games as the football team’s slot receiver this spring, then recorded 22 goals (fourth) in 17 games as a starting midfielder. He came up big for both teams when it mattered most, scoring in Monday’s deciding game to earn him Sun Bowl MVP honors (115 yards, touchdown).
Lacrosse/Football Hybrid: Jim Brown was an All-American lacrosse and football player at Syracuse University in the 1950s before becoming an NFL legend. Over the years, there have been many players who have combined lacrosse and football, with some of the best examples emerging more recently.
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Chris Hogan played three seasons of collegiate lacrosse before switching to football and winning two Super Bowls during his 10-year NFL career. In 2021, the wide receiver switched to lacrosse and played one season in the Premier Lacrosse League.
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Jared Barnhart won the 2021 Tewaaraton Award (lacrosse’s Heisman Trophy) at Maryland before transferring to D-II Ferris State where he played quarterback, was named conference player of the year and led the Bulldogs to a 14-0 record and a national title. A few months later, he was with the Atlanta Falcons.
Lacrosse can also be applied to basketball… Pat Spencer was one of the best college lacrosse players in Loyola University history (2019 Tewaaraton champion, 4th all-time in points), played one season of basketball at Northwestern University and a few years in the G League before joining the Golden State Warriors.
What they’re saying: “The way lacrosse applies to football is almost seamless. … A one-on-one receiver route is the same as a one-on-one in lacrosse,” Hogan told ESPN. “There’s a lot of overlap. [between lacrosse and basketball]”The intervals are very similar, the objectives are very similar…both sports have really helped me in the other,” Spencer added.
📆 May 29, 2010: Doc’s Perfect Game
14 years ago today, Roy Halladay pitched his 20th perfect game in MLB history, striking out 11 batters in a 1-0 Marlins victory, becoming the only Phillies player to do so since Jim Bunning (1964). Jeff writes:
The Abundance of Perfection: Halladay’s achievement came just 20 days after Dallas Braden pitched a perfect game for the Athletics, marking the first time in modern history (since 1901) that multiple perfect games were played in the same season. The record was broken two years later when Philip Humber, Matt Cain and Félix Hernández all pitched perfect games.
Details for this day:
*It was a great season for Doc. A few months later, Halladay followed up his perfect game with No hits They faced the Reds in Game 1 of the NLDS. 3 postseason no-hitters A first in MLB history.
📺 Watchlist: Game 4 in Edmonton
Oilers host Stars tonight (8:30 p.m. ET, TNT) Edmonton is trying to tie the Western Finals at two games apiece. Jeff writes:
Road Warrior: Dallas will have a commanding 3-1 lead if they continue to do what they’ve done all year: win on the road. The league’s best regular-season away team is currently 6-1 on the road in the playoffs (4-5 at home).
See also:
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🏒 Walter Cup Final: Minnesota (2-2) vs. Boston (7 p.m., YouTube) … Winner-take-all Game 5 for the first-ever PWHL title.
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🏀 WNBA: statue of liberty (7 p.m., CBSSN); Ace of the Links (8 p.m., NBA)
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⚽️ MLS: 12 Games (apple) … Austin-Portland (8:30pm) LAFC-Minnesota (10:45pm) You can watch it for free.
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⚾️ MLB: Pirates vs Tigers (1:10 p.m., MLB.TV free game) … Rookie Paul Skenes will pitch for Pittsburgh.
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🎾 tennis: French Open* (5am, tennis)
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⛳️ NCAA Golf: Men’s Final (5:30 p.m., Golf/Peacock)
*Today’s matches: World No. 1 Iga Swiantek and former world No. 1 Naomi Osaka will meet for the third time (9:15 a.m.) after splitting the first two matches.
🏈 NFL Trivia
Yesterday 100 days until the NFL season beginsHere’s a little trivia to celebrate.
question: The Chiefs and Patriots have won six of the last 10 Super Bowls. Can you name the other four winners?
The answer is at the bottom.
👶 Back in action
From Jeff:
I’m back from parental leave! It was an amazing gift to be able to spend two uninterrupted months with Rocky and his mom, and I want to give a huge thank you to Kendall for singlehandedly steering the ship while I was away.
Becoming a father has been everything I’d described it to be so far: life-changing, challenging, exhausting, and the best part is…I still don’t know anything. About him, about fatherhood, about everything that’s to come. That’s what I’m most looking forward to.
But for now he’s just a really cute baby who can’t do much except eat, sleep, cry and poop. So in the meantime, I’m looking forward to getting back to sports. Have a great summer.
Trivia answer: Rams (2022), Buccaneers (2021), Eagles (2018), Broncos (2016)
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