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🚨 Headlines
⛳️ The charges were dropped: Louisville authorities have dropped all charges against Scottie Scheffler stemming from a May 17 traffic accident outside Valhalla Golf Club.
🎾 Paris Thriller: Iga Swiantek overcame a match point to beat fellow four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka 7-6, 1-6, 7-5 in the second round of the French Open.
⚾️ The Mets will be the Mets: The Mets DFA’d (i.e. waived) him after relief pitcher Jorge Lopez threw his glove into the stands and called the Mets “probably the worst team in this entire f**king MLB.” Things are going well in Queens.
🏈 Animal cruelty charges: Chiefs defensive tackle Isaiah Buggs has been accused of animal cruelty, the latest bad news for the Super Bowl champions in an offseason filled with animal cruelty news.
🏀 NBA coaching changes: The Clippers signed Tyronn Lue to a five-year, $70 million contract extension, and the Wizards promoted interim head coach Brian Keefe to permanent head coach.
⚾️ “You’re out!” Farewell, Angel Hernandez
Angel Hernandez Perhaps the most reviled umpire in MLB history retired this week after more than 30 years in the big leagues, and fans and players alike breathed a sigh of relief.
detail: The 62-year-old Cuban-American, a full-time major league umpire since 1993, is reportedly coming out of retirement after reaching a financial settlement with MLB. “He was not forced out,” his lawyer told The Athletic ($), but there are plenty of people who would be happy to see him out.
What they’re saying: “I don’t understand why he plays these games,” Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia said after the infamous 2018 American League Series incident in which Hernandez had a first-base call overturned three times by replay. “He’s always been bad.”
Just how bad was he? Last season, he made 161 missed calls in just 10 games. This season, he ranked 66th out of 85 umpires in ball-strike accuracy (93.2%). That’s not good. Couple that with his tendency to turn games into “umpire shows” and it’s a recipe for disaster, writes Jake Mintz of Yahoo Sports.
Being an MLB umpire is a thankless job — summer nights spent sweating in layers of protective gear while fans yell abuse and offer hollow feedback — but Hernández’s public aloofness and penchant for making comically wrong calls hasn’t done him any favours.
It seemed more than coincidence that his name had been thrust into one controversy after another: His missteps and antics had made him a perfect punching bag for the social media age.
Why wasn’t he fired? First of all, the umpires’ union wouldn’t let something like that go without a fight, but Hernandez’s performance, as detailed in an ESPN report on MLB’s official rating system, was better than third-party evaluators thought it would be.
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Instead, MLB kept him out of the spotlight: He hasn’t worked a World Series since 2005 or a League Championship Series since 2016, and was only named interim crew chief.
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As a result of this under-allocation, Hernandez sued MLB in 2017 for racial discrimination, but the league argued that he was actually denied an allocation due to poor performance, and the lawsuit was dismissed in 2021.
The last word: “i don’t think so [players] “I didn’t like who he was as a person,” one player told Yahoo Sports. “He was bad at his job.”
clock: Hernandez highlights
📸 Photo Gallery
LOWELL, Massachusetts — Minnesota defeated Boston 3-0 to win the first PWHL championship and capture the Walter Cup, completing a successful inaugural season for the newly formed league.
Edmonton — The Oilers rallied from a 2-0 deficit to beat the Stars, 5-2, and move into a 2-2 tie in the West Finals.
LANCASTER, Pennsylvania — The 79th U.S. Women’s Open begins today at Lancaster Country Club with in-form Nelly Korda aiming for her seventh victory in eight starts.
Baltimore — Gunnar Henderson’s grand slam helped the Orioles surpass the Red Sox and tie them for the MLB lead with 18 home runs, putting the 22-year-old Henderson on pace to hit 54 this season.
🏈 Source: NCAA considering corporate logos on field
NCAA officials are considering A change in the law would allow schools to display corporate logos on their football fields, and may eventually allow corporate patches on players’ jerseys.
From Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports:
Starting in the fall of 2025, schools in powerhouse conferences will be allowed to share millions of dollars with players, potentially up to $22 million, under a capped revenue-sharing model implemented as part of the consolidation of three antitrust lawsuits.
The concept of paying players directly has schools looking to boost revenue to offset the added cost of compensating players, making them more willing to go commercial than ever before.
The specific policy changes are unclear, but schools are expected to be able to display corporate names or logos in three ways: at midfield, at one 25-yard line and at the other 25. The athletics rules oversight group is also monitoring potential jersey changes, such as schools adding patches to players’ jerseys.
Read the full story.
📆 May 30, 1911: The first Indy 500
113 years ago today, Ray Harroun won the inaugural Indianapolis 500, coming out of retirement during the race and retiring again in the winner’s circle.
Innovative Design: Harroun drove a single-seater Marmon Wasp, which he designed himself, and was the only racer without a mechanic. Since he didn’t have a mechanic, he needed a way to see behind him while racing, so he installed what may have been the first rear-view mirror in history.
Details for this day:
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⚾️ 1927: Walter Johnson pitched his MLB-record 110th and final shutout, 20 more than any other pitcher. Clayton Kershaw leads all active players with 15.
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⚾️ 1986: Barry Bonds made his MLB debut with the Pirates, but in fact, his debut had actually occurred more than a month earlier*.
*Time warp: Later that season, Bonds was one of at least six MLB players to play in a game that was suspended on April 20. Debut before debut.
📺 Watchlist: Game 5 of 2
Get ready for an exciting evening with a dual screen experience. Game 5 of the NHL and NBA will be held at the same time.
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🏒 New York City: Panthers (2-2) vs Rangers (8 p.m. ET, ESPN)
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🏀 Minneapolis: Mavericks (won 3-1) vs. Timberwolves (8:30 p.m., TNT)
See also:
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⛳️ LPGA: U.S. Women’s Open* (8am, USA/Peacock)
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⛳️ PGA: Canadian Open* (6:45 a.m., ESPN+; 3 p.m., Golf)
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🥎 NCAA Softball: Women’s College World Series (ESPN/ESPN2) … Four games in Oklahoma City.
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🎾 tennis: French Open (5am, tennis)
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🏀 WNBA: Fever Storm (7 p.m., Prime)
*Prize Money: The U.S. Women’s Open has a total prize purse of $12 million (a record for women’s golf), and the Canadian Open has a total prize purse of $9.4 million.
⚾️ MLB Trivia
question: Can you name the six current division leaders without looking at the MLB standings?
The answer is at the bottom.
🥇 Lacinda wins the gold medal
From Jeff Eisenberg of Yahoo Sports:
Lacinda Demuth completed the 400m hurdles in just 52.77 seconds at the 2012 London Olympics. The American athlete waited more than 4,300 days to receive the gold medal she rightfully earned.
It took more than a decade for Russian hurdler Natalia Antchuk’s Olympic victory to be disqualified due to evidence of doping, another four months for Demuth to be officially promoted from second to first place, and a year of fighting before she earned the right to wear a gold medal around her neck on the Olympic stage.
Demuth announced Wednesday that the International Olympic Committee will present her and the rightful silver and bronze medalists with their medals in a ceremony on Aug. 9 at the Parc de Champions at the foot of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. It will mark the first time that medals will be reallocated at the Summer Olympics.
Read the full story.
Trivia answer: Yankees (38-19), Guardians (37-19), Mariners (31-26), Phillies (39-18), Brewers (32-23), Dodgers (36-22)
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