The Big Story – Wait Until Next Week: With the Red Sox scuffling along 10+ games out of first in the AL East and local teams long gone from the spring playoffs, there is no local big story. We’ll have to wait until next week when the World Cup and its incredible price-gouging/fan rip-offs begin.
Sports 101: Michael Jordan won the NBA Finals MVP a record six times. Who is second with four Finals MVPs and who are the three others who’ve been Finals MVP three times?
News Item – Red Sox Update
Who’s Hot: Connelly Early is 5-2 with a 2.97 ERA after last week’s seven shutout innings vs. Atlanta. Jarren Duran – The guy nitwits on talk radio say should be traded is back to leading off, where in the last 10 games in May he went 15-44 (.341) with 8 runs scored, 5 homers and 11 RBI, raising the average from the. 150’s to .219.
The GM: The answer is 19 and four wins and losses immediately after alleged pitching guru Craig Breslow gift-wrapped Quinn Priester (13-3) last year and Kyle Harrison (6-1) this year to Milwaukee in consecutive deals for two minor-leaguers we’ll probably never see and a third baseman now hitting .185.
On the plus side, the Giants are 60-78 since Raffy Devers arrived to play first base in SF.
In Case You Missed It – Mickey Gasper: The Merrimack product is getting regular at-bats for Boston after hitting .333 with three doubles and three RBI in 17 games.
News Item – Yankee Firsts: Given their history it’s hard to do anything for a first time in Yankee history. But they did it in last week’s 15-1 24-hit assault of KC, where for the first time every Yankee in the starting line-up got at least two hits in a game. Then on Sunday they had another first ever by batting around three times in a 13-run second inning of a 13-8 win over Oakland. Then ironically didn’t get another after that.
News Item – NBA Finals Update
After the upstart Spurs knocked off defending champion OKC, it started in San Antonio yesterday (Wednesday). It’s been 27 years since the Knicks were last in the Finals and 53 since they last won it all in 1973. NYK’s opponent in 1999 ironically was SA when Tim Duncan won the first of his four titles.
Victor Wembanyama’s shoe size is 20.5. That’s the largest since Shaq, and before him big Bob Lanier, of whom people said his toes entered a room at 12:00 and the rest of him got there at 12:05.
Spurs star Stephon Castle’s father Stacey was a teammate of the greatest Spur of them all, Duncan at Wake Forest.
Love that Jalen Brunson led NY to the Finals after Dallas let him walk for less money to sign Kyrie Irving. After KI got hurt again, they’re back to a well-deserved place in the lottery.
Why do so many yack about SGA’s “flopping” to get foul calls and no one says anything about Steph Curry flopping on almost every shot he takes?
The Numbers:
2 – number of teams currently in the three-spots-available AL Wild Card race that were over .500 on June 1.
4 – games the alarmingly disappointing Red Sox are somehow only out of a wild card playoff spot.
14.3 – strikeouts per nine innings by flame-throwing 22-year-old Milwaukee phenom Jacob Misiorowski in 2026 after striking out 49 over just 31 innings while giving up one run and 11 hits in his five May starts.
… Of the Week Awards
Alumni News – Dustin May: The disaster in Boston stayed that way in St. Louis, where he took a no-hitter into the eighth vs. Milwaukee before losing it and the game 2-1. It left him 3-6 with a 4.97 ERA.
Chris Sale: The big lefty can still pitch when not injured. He has a second best in baseball eight wins after beating the Sox last week.
Astonishing Basketball Fact of the Week – MVP Voting: Saw on my friend Tommy Ameen’s Facebook feed that an American hasn’t won the NBA Most Valuable Player Award since James Harden in 2018. Wow!
Sports 101 Answer: Most NBA Finals MVP’s are six for Jordan, four for LeBron James, three for Magic Johnson, Shaq and Tim Duncan.
Final Thought – Stephen A Blowhard Under Fire: Must say I love it when a guy who kills people on TV regularly can’t take it when people fire back. That’s the case for Steven A these days where Jaylen Brown yacked back at him on Twitter to retire, then challenged him to a debate at Harvard or MIT. Then “his friend” Kevin Hart put Stephen A on his Mt. Rushmore of Sports Racism during his recent roast.
Steve, if you’re gonna yack at people you can’t have the whiney, thin-skinned response you’ve been giving. Take things aimed at you in the same way you expect them to be taken on things said by you about them.
Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.