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🚨 Headlines
🏴 Southgate resigns: Gareth Southgate resigned as England manager after two consecutive Euro final defeats, having led the team to 61 wins, 17 losses and 24 draws in eight years under his management.
⛳️ Record Wallet: The British Open, being held at Royal Troon this week, is on track to offer a tournament record total prize money of $17 million, with $3.1 million for the winner – still less than the other three majors.
🏀 Plot twist: Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank said Kawhi Leonard’s exclusion from the U.S. team was not actually the result of an agreement between the National Basketball Association and the Clippers, and that the team was “extremely disappointed” that the player was sent home.
🏀 Speaking of Team USA: The U.S. held off a late Australian charge to win 98-92 in the second of five pre-Olympic exhibition matches.
⚽️ Top scorer suspended: Real Salt Lake forward Chicho Arango, MLS’ leading scorer this season, has been suspended for four games for violating the league’s anti-harassment policy.
⚾️ Skenes v Barnes: The drought is over
Paul Skenes and Corbin Burns He will take the mound for the first time as a National League or American League starter in tonight’s Midsummer Classic, ending two of the three longest streaks without a starting pitcher in an MLB All-Star Game.
A while has passed. Skenes’ Pirates haven’t had a pitcher start in the All-Star Game since Jerry Reus in 1975, and Barnes’ Orioles haven’t had a pitcher start in the All-Star Game since Steve Stone in 1980. Only the Cubs have a longer drought (Claude Passeau in 1946).
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Skenes also becomes the first rookie starter in the All-Star game since Hideo Nomo in 1995, and just the fifth rookie to do so.
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And in an interesting coincidence, Nomo’s starting pitcher was in Arlington, where tonight’s game will also be held.
The pitch that made Skenes the ace: When Skenes takes the mound tonight, he’ll be throwing five different pitches in rapid succession, but the most lethal of them all is the “Splinker,” a pitch he developed last offseason. “It’s a cheat code for eliciting strikeouts and inducing grounders that’s helped catapult Skenes to superstardom,” write Jake Mintz and Jordan Shusterman of Yahoo Sports. They continue:
That he developed such an effective pitch in such a short time speaks volumes about how unique Skenes was: only someone with a rare combination of athletic ability, competitive drive, hard work and intellectual humility could have mastered and deployed such a pitch.
Skenes made Sprinker, and Sprinker made Skenes.
The resulting pitch is unlike anything else he’s seen before — it has so much vertical movement that Statcast classifies it as a splitter — but it’s averaging 94.1 mph and has topped out at 97 mph on multiple occasions. And based on velocity, what Skenes calls a sinker is already the most efficient pitch in MLB this season, according to Statcast’s Run Value metric.
That’s all there is to it: The All-Star Game may not “matters” as long as it’s purely an exhibition game, but when Skenes unleashes his sprinklers against the likes of Gunnar Henderson, Juan Soto and Aaron Judge, and Barnes responds with his own devastating weapon against Shohei Ohtani, Trea Turner and Bryce Harper, we’re reminded why we love this game so much.
The first pitch will air tonight at 8pm ET on Fox.
🌎 The world in pictures
ARLINGTON, Texas — Teoscar Hernandez beat Bobby Witt Jr. in a disappointing Home Run Derby to become the Dodgers’ first Derby winner.
Madrid — The Spanish national team paraded through the city on Monday as more than half a million fans celebrated their record-breaking fourth European Championship victory.
Troon, Scotland — Tiger Woods played a practice round with Justin Thomas and Max Homa on Monday ahead of the 152nd British Open, which begins Thursday at Royal Troon.
Paris — The Olympic beach volleyball courts provide a splendid backdrop, and there are only 10 days until the opening ceremony.
🎮 EA Sports College Football 25 is now available
Finally the wait is over. EA Sports College Football 25 is finally out.
Eleven years later: The highly anticipated game, EA Sports’ first for its college football series since 2013, was released on Monday afternoon for people who purchased the deluxe edition. The standard edition will be available on Friday.
NIL Payday: The NIL era in college sports means that current players can be paid to have their portraits featured at such games. More than 11,000 players applied to participate, each receiving $600 and a deluxe copy.
Top 10 Players: Based on EA Sports player ratings.
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Will Johnson (CB, Michigan)
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Will Campbell (LT, Louisiana State University)
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Ollie Gordon II (RB, Oklahoma State University)
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James Pierce Jr. (DE, Tennessee)
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Caleb Downs (S, Ohio State University)
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Travis Hunter (CB/WR, Colorado)
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Malachi Starks (S, Georgia)
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Mason Graham (DT, Michigan)
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Quintion Judkins (RB, Ohio State University)
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Tate Rutledge (OG, Georgia)
By school: Ohio State leads all schools with eight players in the top 100, followed by Alabama and Georgia with six each, and Michigan and Oregon with five each.
📆 July 16, 2014: Stuart Scott’s speech
Ten years ago today, Legendary ESPN anchor Stuart Scott delivered an unforgettable speech at the ESPYS where he received the Jimmy V Award for his perseverance in the midst of his battle with cancer.
What he said: “Dying does not mean you have lost to cancer. You beat cancer by how you live, why you live, and the way you live. So live. Fight like hell. And when you get tired of fighting, lie down and let someone else fight for you.” Six months later, Scott died at the age of 49.
Details for this day:
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⚽️ 1950: Uruguay won the World Cup by beating Brazil 2-1 in front of a crowd of 173,850 at Rio’s famous Maracana Stadium, the largest attendance in the history of a football match.
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⛳️ 1995: Annika Sorenstam* won the U.S. Women’s Open, marking her first major and first LPGA Tour victory and kicking off a Hall of Fame career that includes 10 major wins (fourth-most all-time) and 72 tournament wins (third-most all-time).
*A lasting legacy: In 2014, the LPGA established an annual award for the best player of the year at a major tournament and named the award after Sorenstam.
📺 Watchlist: Midsummer Classics
The 94th MLB All-Star Game tonight (8 p.m. ET, Fox) At the Midsummer Classic, which will be held at Globe Life Field* in Arlington, the National League, which ended the American League’s nine-game winning streak last year, will be aiming for a second consecutive championship.
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AL starting lineup: 1. Steven Kwan (left field, Guardians), 2. Gunnar Henderson (shortstop, Orioles), 3. Juan Soto (right field, Yankees), 4. Aaron Judge (center field, Yankees), 5. Yordan Alvarez (designated hitter, Astros), 6. Jose Ramirez (3B, Guardians), 7. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (1B, Blue Jays), 8. Adley Rutschman (C, Orioles), 9. Marcus Semien (2B, Rangers), SP. Corbin Burnes (Orioles)
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NL starting lineup: 1. Ketel Marte (2B, Diamondbacks), 2. Shohei Ohtani (DH, Dodgers), 3. Trea Turner (SS, Phillies), 4. Bryce Harper (1B, Phillies), 5. William Contreras (C, Brewers), 6. Christian Yelich (RF, Brewers), 7. Alec Bohm (3B, Phillies), 8. Teoscar Hernandez (CF, Dodgers), 9. Jurickson Profar (LF, Padres), Starting pitcher: Paul Skenes (Pirates)
See also:
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⚽️ Friendly: USA Women’s National Team vs. Costa Rica (7:30 p.m., TNT/truTV/Max/Peacock) … Team USA’s final game before heading to Paris for the Olympics.
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🏀 WNBA: Sun of Freedom (7 p.m., Prime); Sky at Ace (10 p.m., Prime)
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🏀 NBA Summer League: 8 games (4 p.m.-10:30 p.m., ESPN2/ESPNU/NBA)
*Champions host: The Rangers are the defending World Series champions and the first team since the 1939 Yankees to host the All-Star Game, and just the third team ever (the 1934 Giants).
⚾️ All-Star Game Trivia
Salvador Perez and Jose Altuve Each was selected to this year’s All-Star game nine times, the third-most among active players.
question: Who are the four current players who have not played in this year’s game but have been selected to the All-Star Game at least nine times?
Tips: Two starters, one closer, one center fielder.
The answer is at the bottom.
🇪🇸 A Dominant Sunday in Spain, Part 2
Yesterday I wrote about Spain’s historic athletic meet. But the country’s sporting achievements on Sunday were actually much more than just winning the Euros and watching Carlos Alcaraz defend his Wimbledon title.
Long live Spain!
Trivia answer: Mike Trout (11), Clayton Kershaw (10), Justin Verlander (9), Craig Kimbrel (9)
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