Author: Dave Long

The Big Story – Red Sox Struggles: After winning 24 of 27 they came back to Earth last week as they lost five straight games and three straight series to sub-.500 teams Oakland, Toronto and Pittsburgh. They start the week at 66-58, five up on Baltimore in the WC race and 8.5 behind Tampa Bay in the AL East.

Sports 101: Cardinals rookie Joshua Baez astonishingly became the first rookie ever to hit three homers in his first three MLB at-bats Saturday. But it’s still a long way to tie the three who hit three homers in a game a MLB-record six times. Name those three.

News Item – Red Sox Updates:

• Who’s Hot – Wilyer Abreu: He hit .365 with six homers in August’s first 13 games.

• Sonny Gray: Got his career high 15th win in Saturday’s 4-0 win over Pittsburgh and the 2.65 ERA would be a career best too.

• Payton Tolle: The Sox won each of his last seven starts. And in winning four of them he moved to 8-6 overall with a 2.97 ERA.

• Caleb Durbin: After hitting his second to seal Saturday’s 4-0 win he’s the team grand slam leader with two.

News Item – Basketball Hall of Fame: Interesting in a WNBA season providing regular lunacy its players dominated Saturday’s Hall of Fame inductions, as in Chamique Holdsclaw, Candace Parker and Elena Delle Donne there were three WNBA’ers going in to just one NBA’er, Amar’e Stoudemire.

The Numbers

2.5 – billion dollars made by L.A. Dodgers owner Mark Walter in just 14 months after flipping the L.A. Lakers to venture capitalist Josh Kushner and ex-Disney boss Bob Iger for $12.5 million after paying the Buss family $10 million for them last June.

9 & 12 – times ex-Celtic Dennis Schroder has been traded and teams he will have played for when he suits up for Charlotte in 2026-27 after being traded there Friday. Both are second most in league history.

14 – 2026 shutouts for the Red Sox after the Sonny Gray-led 4-0 win over Pittsburgh Saturday.

… Of The Week:

Thumbs Down – Jayden Daniels: Can’t tell who is greedier these days, the schools or the players. But while LSU football epitomizes the cesspool of avarice and greed college football has become, the latest You’ve Got To Be Kidding Me moment came from their 2024 Heisman winner demanding LSU never give the number 5 he wore there to another player because it “profoundly disrespected” him.

Sorry, pal, LSU owned that number you had the privilege to play in long before you were thought of in any way. It’s theirs, not yours!

Where do they find these people?

RIP – Don Nelson: The great long time NBA coach died last week at 86.But his number 19 is in the rafters for being a valuable role player on five Celtics championship-winning teams. RIP.

Alumni News – Eduardo Rodriguez: Anyone else notice the ex-Sox lefty is having a nice year in Arizona, where he’s 12-4 with a 2.71 ERA?

Sports 101 Answer: The players who hit three homers in a game six times are Johnny Mize, Sammy Sosa and Mookie Betts.

Final Thought –WBNA Chaos Happens Daily: It has craved the attention now coming its way for its entire 30-year existence. But after finally getting it, the league now appears to be crumbling under that weight.

From the worst/most clueless commissioner in sports history, Cathy Engelbert, to daily petty jealousy and rough treatment during games with jealousy target Caitlin Clark by established players who feel slighted by the buzz/attention she brought to their league that they couldn’t, to the worst officiating I’ve seen in any sport I’ve ever watched by far — the league is, as Colin Cowherd said last week, more like a reality show than a league.

And now they’ve let the idiot divisive culture warriors from Fox News and elsewhere into the fray. First by letting race drive a lot of the animosity nonsense with things like dimwitted Chicago guard DiJonai Carrington tweeting “white privilege” after justifiably being kicked out of a game for giving CC’s teammate Sophie Cunningham a mid-air cheap shot. Followed by Cunningham giving an answer to a question about trans athletes competing in the WNBA that guaranteed major pushback no matter which side she came down on.

Now they have two ex-NBA nitwits, Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White, threatening to apply for their draft.

Who are they? Well, the former Celtic was under threat of jail in Turkey for speaking out against the Turkish government, and the latter is a wannabe tough guy/fledgling politician looking for headlines who was so tough he quit the NBA because he was afraid to fly.

But all of that aside, with the WNBA having their highest TV ratings and largest league-wide attendance numbers, and just getting its biggest TV contract ever, which has made everyone more money, here’s the question:

Is all this lunacy actually helping the league much more than it’s hurting it?

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

The Big Story – Red Sox Actually Do Have a Plan: After two years of public doubts and much caterwauling by Red Sox Nation (and myself) there really does seem to be a future plan.

Craig Breslow’s actions on trades show a type of player he wants. Complementary, offensive spark plugs and good fielding guys to fill in around the offensive core of Willson Contreras, Wilyer Abreu and, if he comes back this century, Roman Anthony.

Second, with him giving up at least two good young MLB pitchers in recent weeks and three more touted minor leaguers, it appears he believes he/they can identify and develop young pitchers.

Aside from a blip in the ’80s with Clemens, Hurst and company, that’s something that hasn’t happened in the Red Sox organization since that kid from Baltimore named Babe showed up in town.

And finally the brass trading away prospects are a signal Breslow and company aren’t hoarding them and are willing to move them to go for it. That’s good news.

Now, how good are they at judging the talent they brought here and let go to get them?

Only time will tell on that.

Sports 101: Who holds the Red Sox franchise record for most strikeouts by a left-handed pitcher?

News Item – Red Sox Update: They start the week having won 27 of their last 33, in a streak started when their second baseman and shortstops got hurt and were replaced by Anthony Seigler and Andruw Monasterio, who, oh by the way, they got in the Caleb Durbin trade.

Meaning the SS, second baseman and third baseman that sparked the streak no one saw coming, all came in the same trade with Milwaukee this spring.

Bet that’s never happened in baseball history before.

News Item – Red Sox Notes:

• Ceddanne Rafaela’s 28 doubles are most in the AL.

• The 14wins by Sonny Gray already is a career high.

• Brayan Bello’s got his groove back. After being demoted to AAA on June 4 following a horrid first two months, in his first six appearances back in Boston he’s 2-0 and the ERA is 0.76 over 22.2 innings.

• In Friday’s Nolan Ryan-like effort while beating Oakland 13-1, an astonishing 14 of the 18 outs Payton Tolle got came via strikeouts.

• Marcelo Mayer being dumped to SF mercifully brings down the curtain on the disastrous Chaim Bloom tenure as GM.

And I feel pretty certain he’ll be the worst guy named Marcelo to ever play for the Red Sox.

• How does a guy who has hit under .200 all year still be second or third on the team in RBI? Despite all the radio yacking to trade him, Jarren Duran somehow has done that with 60.

Good no trade there.

The Numbers:

7 – consecutive losses for the invincible Dodgers since (according to the pundits) winning the World Series already by agreeing to trade for Detroit’s Tarik Skubal.

8 – consecutive strikeouts to close out his start vs. Pittsburgh by ex-Red Sox hurler Kyle Harrison. Though since he got yanked after just five innings and 69 pitches the wussification of baseball continues unabated.

… Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Up – Adam Vinatieri: On his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The resume shows he started the NE dynasty with the greatest kick in NFL history and later the game winner in the famed Snow Bowl, along with two SB-winning kicks, scoring more points than anyone in history and chasing down sprinter Herschel Walker from behind to save a TD, which was the greatest tackle ever by a kicker. After the game Bill Parcells called him a football player, not just a kicker.

Sports 101 Answer: Jon Lester has the most strikeouts by a Red Sox lefty with 1,386.

A Little History – Lester in Chicago and Boston: Consistency was his forte, illustrated with the astonishing statistical facts that his 63.6 winning percentage and 3.64 ERA in nine years while pitching for Boston was matched identically to the 63.6% and 3.64 ERA during his six years with the Cubs. And his season average of 168 innings and 154 strikeouts in Boston and his 167 and 156 are within the margin of error of being identical in Chicago too!

The only other career statistical consistency to match that that I know was Stan Musial dividing his 3,630 hits evenly by having 1,815 at home and 1,815 Kyle Harrison on the road.

Final Thought – Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve: “We can’t let this happen.”That’s what the Lynx coach, already embroiled in controversy for comments made regarding trans athletes, said about the WNBA possibly hiring men to head coach in the league.

I get the sentiment. But that seems exactly the opposite of feminists correctly bellowing through years about women being discriminated against by gender and not by qualification while head to head with men for a job.

But now since women stand to lose their advantage in this situation, gender suddenly matters more than qualifications do. Got it, Cheryl.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

The Big Story – Surging Red Sox: All through the 2013 season I kept saying, “I don’t know how they are doing this” — right up until they won the World Series.

And after seeing the Red Sox win a franchise best ever 21 of 24 games in July with their “who are those guys?” infield and a left fielder hitting below the Mendoza line but who seems to still get a big hit when needed, like Jarren Duran’s homer that iced the weekend sweep of the Dodgers in Sunday’s 8-4 win, that same feeling is coming back.

But it’s even bigger this time, as since June 25 they’ve won 14 straight over the Yankees, Rays, Dodgers and AL Central-leading White Sox. That’s a streak worthy of the 2018 Sox more than the 2013 club.

It left them four games up in the wild card race and five behind TB in the AL East at 60-51, with a chance to pick up more ground this week as all seven games come against the sub-.500 A’s and Blue Jays after three tough ones vs. the White Sox.

Sports 101: Who has driven in 150+ runs a most ever seven times?

News Item – Patriots Camp Opens: Here are the biggest stories this summer.

• Christian GonzalezContract: Which Bob Kraft is making worse by yacking about them already offering the biggest DB contract in history.

• Wide Receivers: They’re deep with some saying their new additions make Kayshon Boutte expendable. But unless it’s for a second-round pick or better, I say no. Depth matters.

• Shuffling on O-Line: It got run over in the Super Bowl. Was Will Campbell still hampered by his sprained knee? Or is he playing out of position?

• Stefon Diggs: What does his still being unsigned say about the Pats’ cutting him? Hard to deal with? ’Cause he was pretty good last year.

• Pass Rush: It seems like a possible issue since there are no obvious guys to lead the way. Especially with Harold Landry on the P-U-P.

News Item – Dodgers get Tarik Skubal: The call for a salary cap in baseball got louder last weekend when the oligarch Dodgers got (as usual) the biggest guy on the trade market for three top prospects.

The Numbers:

2 – at-bats it took newly acquired Red Sox Curtis Mead to get hit on the wrist with a pitch and possibly be lost for the season.

6 – first-inning walks incredibly recorded by ex-Cy Young winner/ Toronto hurler Shane Bieber before getting yanked after just 2/3 of an inning. Don’t think that’s happened since my friend Bob Procelli’s signature career Little League baseball win, when he somehow gave up 10 runs while pitching a one-hitter in his classic 56-10 win over the Larkfield LL Bees when he was 9.

15 – place Bill Belichick’s UNC Tarheels finished in pre-season polls for the 17-team ACC.

… Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Up – Turn-around of the Week: To gritty Sox shortstop Andruw Monasterio, who demonstrated getting beaned with a 99 mph fastball in the eighth inning didn’t intimidate him by hitting a game-winning two-run homer next time up in Wednesday’s 6-4 win vs. the Athletics.

NBA Rumor of the Week: It comes amid tense extension talks between Steph Curry and Golden State. It had Curry being sent to San Antonio for De’Aaron Fox and draft picks.

Random Thoughts:

Who can’t see the geographic sense to have SMU in the ACC?

Baseball does more dumb things to harm itself than the other three major sports combined. Starting with batting Shohei Ohtani lead-off. The dumbest thing I’ve seen since I started watching baseball in 1408 B.C.

Sports 101 Answer: Lou Gehrig is the all-time 150+ RBI seasons leader.

A Little History – Gehrig’s 150+ Seasons: His first came when he had 173 as teammate Babe Ruth hit 60 homers batting in front of him in 1927. The others included his AL record 183 in 1931 and two 173’s, with 158 his last in 1937.

Final Thought – Red Sox 2026: A few for the final two months.

Yes, Duran has struggled all year, but I bet he breaks out with a streak that carries them for two weeks at some point.

Is the back from AAA Brayan Bello destined for the Bob Stanley role of yesteryear the rest of the way? A reliever who pitches all over the game from a one-inning stint to pitching the final four scoreless innings to close it out like he did in Friday’s 9-4 win in L.A.?

Forget 2013: The way they keep coming back to win is starting to remind me of 1967. My nomination for the torrid Yaz-like last six weeks is Ceddanne Rafaela, who loves the big moment.

Not even L.A. will get as much at the trade deadline as Boston if Garrett Crochet and Roman Anthony can come back healthy this month.

They need to go 31-21 the rest of the way to win 90 games.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

The Big Story – Red Sox Shift Trade Deadline Plans: The idea of their being sellers went out the window thanks to the 15-game winning streak. So they shifted plans to make the Aug. 1 trade deadline come early with (take your pick) the surprising/stunning/shocking news of their sending their second promising young lefty pitcher away since March. This time it’s 25-year-old lefty Connelly Early to the Nationals for third baseman/DH Curtis Mead.

Mead likely will DH, maybe as the platoon right-handed bat. His 17 homers are by far his most homers in any season in minors or majors as the once Top 50 prospect has never lived up to that initial evaluation.

At least, the Breslow AC is hoping, not yet.

Sports 101: Who’s the only player to have 50 doubles and 50 homers in the same season?

News Item – Baseball Enters the Final 2 Months:

• Red Sox: Their chances of making the wild card playoff game are better than you think. At 54-49 they’re 1.5 games up for the fourth wild card spot, and all of the teams not currently holding a wild card berth are under .500.

• Chicago White Sox: Two years ago they set the record for most lost games in a season at 41-121. Fast forward to July 26, where amazingly at 55-49 they have the best record in the AL Central. The previous worst record holder, the 40-120 expansion NY Mets of 1962, went 53-109 in 1964, 50-111 in 1965 and didn’t even finish a season near .500 until they morphed into the Miracle Mets of 1969 and beat Baltimore in the World Series.

• Kyle Schwarber: It should still rankle Red Sox fans that for idiotic stat geek reasons Chaim Bloom let him walk after 2021 over the same $18 million per Bloom gift-wrapped to Masataka Yoshida. With Schwarber on pace to hit 50+ homers (51) for a second straight season, that’ll give him about 240 in five seasons for Philly. Meanwhile Yoshida has hit 33 in his four Boston seasons.

News Item – Trade Grade: ESPN gave the Sox a C for the deal and the Nationals an A-. The grade favors pitching-needy Washington getting a promising young lefty under contractual control for years.

But given their pitching depth, especially if Garrett Crochet comes back from the IL this century, the success for Boston lies in if Mead is a late bloomer finally playing well, or it’s just a hot streak that will make sending Early away for a needed (cheap) right-handed bat a big mistake.

Politics and Sports Intersection of the Week: A first of its kind battle where former NFL kicker Jay Feely and physician Amish Shah will square off for an Arizona congressional seat in November after being part of the Jets organization together in the 2000s when Feely was the kicker and Sha on the medical team.

The Numbers:

5 – homers by Wilyer Abreu during Boston’s 15-game winning streak.

391 – career saves reached by Aroldis Chapman to move past Dennis Eckersley into ninth place all-time.

38.1 – million World Cup Final viewers was the largest TV audience for soccer in U.S. history.

… Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Up – Manager John Schneider: Holy cow! A 21st-century manager actually let an unhittable pitcher complete the game. In this case, when Blue Jays hurler Dylan Cease one-hit the Sox Saturday while striking out 12 in a 6-0 shutout. Most amazing was Schneider’s allowing Cease to throw 120 pitches to do it!

Thumbs Down – Argentina World Cup Team: The crybabies get it for boycotting media responsibilities after losing the World Cup to Spain. Like it was the media’s fault the team didn’t get even one shot on goal in regulation.

You laid the egg, fellas, not them.

What a Stupid I Yam Award – Me: Regular reader/math major Glenn De Noble points out my math in last week’s mention of Roger Bannister breaking the 4-minute mile was like what Rodney Dangerfield heard when asking for directions — “you’re way off.”

I said Bannister would’ve been 46 yards behind Josh Kerr when he set the new 3:42 mile record. In fact it would be an astonishing 123 yards behind Kerr.

Now you know why I had to go to summer school in 10th grade to retake geometry.

Sports 101 Answer: Albert Belle is the only 50 doubles and 50 homers player, which came for Cleveland in 1995.

Final Thought – Who Cares Moment of the Week – LeBron James: Class would have been going back to Cleveland or even Miami, as other greats like Babe Ruth, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron once did to finish off the final seasons of their great careers playing for fans who knew them first. Instead, his moving to Philly last week cements LeBron’s legacy of glomming on to someone else’s title run instead of staying and earning one with the team he started with like Magic, Larry, Michael, Kobe, Jerry West and other true greats did.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

The Big Story – Sox Stay Hot: The scalding hot Red Sox pushed World Cup soccer out of the top story again. The Sox’ winning streak that started the day Jaylen Brown got traded hit a third best in franchise history 13 games after they swept the AL East-leading Rays coming right out of the All-Star break.

They did it with great pitching and clutch late-game rallies and they’ve even started to hit homers. It’s put them in the third wild card spot and at 50-48 moved them to within six games of Tampa Bay. Who’d have thought that on June 15?

Sports 101: Just two players have had three seasons with 50 or more doubles — name them.

News Item – Spain takes World Cup: The FIFA World Cup was mostly great. But the 1-0 Spain win over defending champion Argentina was a bit of a dud. Spain was so dominant Argentina didn’t get its first shot on goal until the waning minutes of regulation. But despite peppering the goal all game long Spain couldn’t get it past Argentina’s superb goalie Emiliano “Dibu” Martinez, until Ferran Torres finally did for the game winner in the first extra time period.

News Item – Patriots Open Camp: What with just free agency, the draft, a big trade for A.J. Brown and a weeks-long gossip-soaked scandal involving the HC it’s been a quick off-season. It ends Saturday when camp opens for all to see at 10:30 a.m. in Foxboro.

News Item – Caitlin Clark: If you missed it — CC went for 45 and 10 in a 119-107 Indiana win over Seattle to become the first in WNBA history to have a 40-point, 10-assist double-double. To her petty, jealous WNBA detractors: Take that.

The Numbers:

0 – hits by the Red Sox while somehow scoring three runs in the third inning of Sunday’s 6-1 win on four walks, a hit batter, a passed ball and a fielder’s choice.

3:42.66 – time it took Josh Kerr in minutes and seconds to set the world record for the mile run last week in London.

270 – Ryan Fox’s 10 under par British Open winning score finished off a dramatic 18th-hole birdie that pushed him one shot past runner-up Cameron Young.

Game of the Week: That would be Washington’s 23-4 pasting of Oakland as Andres Chaparro drove in eight runs in a two-homer, 4-for-5 night.

A Little History – First Sub-4 Minute Mile: The latest evidence today’s athletes are bigger, faster and stronger came from London when Kerr set that world record for the mile.

As if you could somehow put him into the same race with Roger Bannister on the day he broke the once thought to be unbreakable four-minute mile with his 3:59.4 run on May 6, 1954, RB would have finished an astonishing 46 yards behind Kerr.

For a visual, that is 11 yards farther behind Kerr than Twice a Prince was when finishing second as Secretariat blew away the field by 31 lengths to win the first Triple Crown in 25 years at the 1973 Belmont Stakes. Which, oh by the way, I witnessed in person.

Random Thought: How in the name of Joe Castiglione did Greg Weissert somehow “earn” that win vs. Tampa Bay after entering in the third inning Friday with it tied 3-3? He then pitched to four batters over parts of two innings giving up two hits before getting yanked. But after they rallied to lead 4-3 in the bottom of the third he got the win after getting just two measly outs despite being out-pitched by all five pitchers who followed him.

Sports 101 Answer: The two with three seasons of 50+ doubles are Tris Speaker and Stan Musial, who are also Nos. 1 and 2 respectively in doubles all-time.

Final Thought – World Cup Leftovers:

Most Notable Players: Hey, while that Lionel Messi guy didn’t have a great Final, he’s pretty good. Ditto for French star Kylian Mbappé.

TV Ratings: The 33 million watching U.S.-Belgium was the largest audience ever for an English-speaking soccer broadcast according to World Cup broadcaster Fox Sports.

Financial: In taking in $9 billion worldwide the 2026 FIFA World Cup was the largest sporting event in history. The $27 beer prices tell you all you need to know — gouging on everything was the order of the day.

Commercials: Don’t want to sound like one of those goobers who watch the Super Bowl only for the commercials. But the World Cup’s clear winner were those Lysol ads with women’s star Julie Ertz. She wasintense and funny scaring the bee-jeebers out of hubby/Washington TE Zach Ertz.

Long-Term Impact: It remains to be seen if soccer takes a big step forward in popularity because of the World Cup or it finds its place where track and field is, an amazing spectacle seen just every four years in the Olympics.

Miscellaneous: With 36 different countries and many languages involved, how did the refs know when disgruntled players were swearing at them?

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

The Big Story – Red Sox Rolling: Don’t look now, but having suddenly won 16 of their last 21 the Red Sox have old-timers thinking Morgan Magic of 1988!That’s because, after a mostly awful first half, the not too long ago moribund local nine will open the second half on a nine-game winning streak and just a half game out of the final playoff spot. Starting Friday, though, we’ll get to see if it’s for real or not.

Sports 101: In terms of doing it in the fewest games Shohei Ohtani became the seventh fastest to reach 300 homers. How many of the six who did it faster can you name?

News Item – World Cup Notes: How much extra inspiration did Belgium get from President Trump getting pathetic FIFA Chief Gianni Infantino to roll over and rescind Folarin Balogun’s red card suspension without doing it for any other red carders? Given the embarrassing way they showed USA the door in the Round of 8, it seemed like a lot.

News Item – Red Sox at the Break: Given recent trends, here are some things to like.

• Ceddanne Rafaela is hitting in the .280s after learning the strike zone better and is Jackie Bradley Jr. good in CF.

• Pitching With no Garrett Crochet and a bunch of young guys they closed at 16-5 when they astonishingly have given up just 2.47 runs and more than three runs just four times.

• The ‘Who Are They?’ BrigadeWith unfamiliar names like Cheng, Eaton, Seigler and Monasterio in the line-up, it reminds me of Butch Cassidy yelling “WHO ARE THOSE GUYS” at the posse he and Sundance couldn’t shake.

• The Acquisitions Hard to find fault with Sonny Gray (11-1, 2.54) and free agent Ranger Suarez (4-3, 3.15), who (somehow) made the All-Star team. Then there is that Willson Contreras (.285-20-61) has out-hit all the possible past and current first base targets — Raffy Devers (2.49 -19-52), Pete Alonso (.252-21-65) and Japanese import Munetaka Murakami (.232-20-42).

• Caleb Durbin vs. Alex Bregman: He started awful and still is only hitting .230. But that’s up from .150 in mid-June and is beating Bregman in all run-producing stats for less than $1 million to Bregman’s $40 million per salary.

The Numbers:

10 – consecutive years women at Wimbledon will have a new champion after defending champion Aryna Sabalenka went down to former Naomi Osaka.

12 – record-tying consecutive hits made by KC’s Tyler Tolbert in games vs. the Mets and Phillies.

20 – points scored by Ebuka Okorie in Summer League Game 1 for Detroit to give the Nashua native a solid start to his NBA career

… Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Up – Red Sox Turn Around: We’ll see, but it could mean the summer may not be ruined after all.

Thumbs Down – Gianni Infantino: For the slimy WBC chief rescinding that red card simply to appease political interests without doing it for anyone else. BOOOO!

Let Me Get This Straight – Adam Vinatieri: The legendary Patriot got into the Colts Hall of Fame last week before he got into the Patriot Hall of Fame.

Really? All he did here was (1) make the greatest NFL kick ever through a blizzard and later the game winner to kickstart the dynasty, (2) win two SBs with FGs as time expired, and (3) run down Herschel Walker from behind for the greatest special teams tackle by a kicker ever.

This year’s guy, Gronk, was lovable, great and deserving. But he came after V and has no franchise-altering plays to V’s four, so there’s no way he should’ve gone in before him.

Random Thoughts:

Yes the Pats got A.J. Brown, but they should not move on from deep threat Kayshon Boutte, who caught nine TD passes. What’s wrong with giving the most accurate deep thrower I’ve seen since Roman Gabriel in the ’60s two very good deep threats?

Sports 101 Answer: Ohtani reached 300 homers in his 1,121st game. The ones to do it quicker were Ralph Kiner, Ryan Howard, Juan Gonzalez, Alex Rodriguez, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton.

Final Thoughts – Celtics Press Conference: If you read this space regularly you know I said last summer the Celtics needed to do what they did last week: rid themselves of one of their max contracts to avoid the punitive player acquisition troubles they caused.

Only problem with Celtics GM Brad Stevens saying they needed a shake-up after early exits from the playoffs the last two years is it’s not true.

Sorry, Brad, while the players are the ones who missed the shots, roster composition is not why they lost either time. It was because of the incompetent game coaching of the Grady Little of basketball, where Slo Joe Mazzulla sat on the bench like Nero as Rome burned and made no adjustments as they blew five 20-plus-point leads after the 3-balls stopped falling vs. New York and Philly.

And I’m not alone in knowing that.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.