Author: Dave Long

The Big Story – Pats Open Training Camp: With the opening of camp on Tuesday football is back. And after the 2024 catastrophe, there is optimism the Pats’ sinking fortunes since you-know-who left the building may be about to end. It even has some talking playoffs, which seems a bit far-fetched. But with Drake Maye entering Year 2 and a host of new free agent signings led by new/old coach Mike Vrabel being brought home to right the ship, most are expecting a big jump from the 4-15 disaster of 2024. Time will tell.

Sports 101: Name the three pitchers to win a Cy Young, MVP and World Series all in the same year.

News Item – Things to Look For in Pats Camp:

Will Campbell – The top draft pick needs to make the most under-rated job in football the position of stability it hasn’t been since the end of the Brady era.

Receivers – Unless they can make a big jump in production, good-bye 2025 playoffs. And how long before Stefon Diggs goes off the reservation?

Play Calling – How do OC Josh McDaniels and Maye mesh? Will McDaniels force his system on Maye, or adapt it to what Maye does best?

Corners – How good can Christian Gonzalez and Carlton Davis be together? It’s the key to the D because the better they are the longer it takes receivers to get open, which gives the pass rush more time to harass the QB.

Mike Vrabel – After being killed by the passive coaching ofJerod Mayo last year it needs to be my-way-or-the-highway tough from Day 1.

News Item – Alumni News: Anyone else see that ex-Red Sox hurler Drew Pomeranz is still in the majors? I thought he retired years ago. But there he was on Sunday pitching in the eighth for the Cubs as he gave up a pinch-hit three-run homer from Alex Bregman to cement Boston’s 6-1 win. How he’s remained in the majors is another story as he’s 5-21 since leaving Boston in 2018 after going 17-9 for them in 2017.

The Numbers:

0 – wins against eight losses for the once great but now fading Justin Verlander in his first season in SF, when the ERA is 4.99.

3 – legs of winning a career major down for Scottie Scheffler as he breezed home by four shots Sunday to win the Open Championship (British Open) at 17 under par.

… Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Up – Alex Cora’s Analytics Adjustment: If you don’t think the lunacy of analytics has radically altered thinking in baseball, consider that the only .300 hitter in the Sox line-up during Sunday’s 6-1 win in Chicago was .311-hitting Romy Gonzalez, who hit ninth in the order. And it actually made sense. Because if you’re going to move your top hitters to first and second in the order, you should have people hitting in front of them who can get on base instead of a team’s worst hitters who usually hit eighth and ninth. First time I’ve seen someone using common sense to counteract analytics dictates.

Har-Dee-Har-Har Quote of the Week – Tyler Smith: Goes to the Cowboys Pro Bowl guard for saying upon arrival at camp, “Super Bowl champion. That’s always the expectation.”

Well, for those of us who’ve been watching since Barry Switzer won the 1995 SB with Jimmy Johnson’s players, we know Dallas hasn’t been a real contender since the owner drove Johnson out of town because he wanted more credit for the three title teams JJ built from scratch.

Random Thoughts

When did stealing signs become a major baseball crime? Because it once was an art that was looked up to.

After the Pats gave him away for nothing, keep an eye on what Joe Milton does when Dak Prescott goes down with the annual injury.

Sports 101 Answer: The pitchers who won the Cy Young, MVP and World Series in the same year are Sandy Koufax (1963), Denny McLain (1968) and Willie Hernandez (1984).

Final Thought – Thumbs Down – Name Hijacking: I hate the name Commanders. But I hate far more a wannabe king threatening to withhold U.S. taxpayer dollars to blackmail the Washington Football Club into bringing back a name he prefers as Donald Trump did last week. Hopefully the NFL has more guts to stand up to U.S. employee number 47 than baseball Coward-In-Chief Rob Manfred had when he caved to similar demands from the convicted felon to remove baseball’s objection to having Pete Rose on the Hall of Fame ballot even though he bet on baseball and lied about it for 15 years until he needed the truth to sell a book.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

The Big Story – Sox Roll Into All-Star Break: Where are those people now who said they wouldn’t survive trading Rafael Devers? After a period of adjustment they kicked it into high gear without him. After sweeping the Nationals, Rockies and D-Rays, the 53-45 Sox went into the All-Star break on a 10-game winning streak. It left them a leader in the wild card race and just 3.5 out of first place in the AL East. Time will tell if it’s just a delightful hot streak to enjoy or something bigger. But if it’s the latter, with dumping Devers the starting point, what will it be most historically like? (a) John McNamara being fired to ignite 1988’s Morgan Magic?(b) Jason Varitek shoving his mitt in A-Rod’s face to light the fire that turned 2004 into Boston baseball’s greatest season ever? or (c) with Ceddanne Rafaela coming through with heroics almost every night has he morphed into 1967 Yaz right before our eyes? Buckle up and find out.

Sports 101: Who holds the record for most seasons of pitching at least 200 innings?

News Item – Red Sox’ Second Half: They start the second half with nine straight against the three NL division leaders, with games vs. Chicago and Philadelphia on the road, then the Dodgers coming to Fenway.

News Item – Coming and Going: Last Tuesday was an interesting day as the A’s Lawrence Butler led off their 10-1 win over Atlanta in Sacramento with an inside-the-park home run. Then up the road apiece a little later in San Francisco, Patrick Bailey turned a giant 3-1 deficit into a 4-3 SF win over Philly with a three-run inside-the-park walk-off home run. Butler’s was the first time in 82 years (that’s 1943 for the mathematically challenged) an A’s player had led off a game with an inside-the-park homer, while, along with the Cubs’ Pat Moran (1907) and Senators’ Bennie Tate (1926), Bailey became just third catcher to win a game with an inside-the-park homer.

News Item – Rafael Devers SF Update: In his first 18 games with SF Devers is hitting .214 with 5 doubles, 2 homers and 10 RBIs and has struck out 32 times in 84 at-bats.

The Numbers:

.206 – AAA batting average for Kristian Campbell (1 homer, 8 RBI, 80 at-bats) after being sent down to work out issues from a rough six-week stretch with the Red Sox.

350 – career homers reached by Aaron Judge after a two-run shot Saturday. It came in his 1,088th game to surpass Mark McGwire as the fastest to that mark in history.

38 – homers for red hot Seattle catcher Cal Raleigh after two more in a 12-3 win over Detroit to move within one of Barry Bonds’ pre-ASG homer record.

2,000 – career wins for Terry Francona after the Reds beat Cleveland on Sunday.

… Of the Week Awards

Who’s Hot – Aroldis Chapman: The Sox closer has gone 18 games without allowing an earned run while giving up just five hits and striking out 30! That includes Sunday’s overpowering three-up, three-down, three-strikeout effort.

Injured List – Hunter Dobbins: The young Sox hurler is out for the year after tearing his ACL covering first base last week.

Quote – “What a Joke”: So said Phillies shortstop Trea Turner after hearing Milwaukee rookie Jacob Misiorowski was ridiculously named to the NL All-Star team after pitching in only five 2025 games when he’s 4-1 with a 3.83 ERA.

Random Thoughts:

Interesting story to follow in the second half is Clayton Kershaw trying to stay ahead of Whitey Ford’s best ever .690 career winning percentage. CK is back in the lead at .697 after a 4-0 start.

Sports 101 Answer: In doing it 20 times the incredibly durable Don Sutton is the 200+-innings-a-season record holder.

A Little History – Sandy Koufax: Speaking of great Dodgers pitchers, if you’re tired of how dugout micromanagers have taken the game out of pitchers’ hands by yanking them unnecessarily after five innings you might like this. In the last game L.A. played in the Coliseum before moving into Dodger Stadium in 1962, Koufax won a 13-inning complete game on September 20 as he struck out 15 and threw TWO HUNDRED FIVE (205) pitches. For context, Alex Cora used eight Red Sox pitchers multiple times in nine-inning games this year.

Final Thought –Thumbs Up – Alex Cora: Don’t know what’s happened to awaken him from the push-button stat geek manager he’s evolved into in recent years. But twice last week he’s managed with his eyes and instinct instead of automatic pitch count behavior to let Garrett Crochet and Brayan Bello actually pitch cg’s. For Crochet it was a three-hit 9-k, 100-pitch 1-0 win over Tampa Bay, and for Bello it was a 10-2, 107-pitch win over Colorado. Bravo for acting like a real manager to let players win or lose games.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

The Big Story – Gambling Becoming an Issue: Are the chickens coming home to roost for pro sports after buddying up to the legal betting industry? It may be just a blip, but in the last week Cleveland Guardians hurler Luis Ortiz and NBA free agent Malik Beasley came under gambling investigations. They joined umpire Pat Hoberg, fired earlier this year for sharing info with a friend who was betting on baseball, and Jontay Porter, banned for life by the NBA for betting on basketball. All happening in the same time period baseball commissioner Rob Manfred caved to the convicted felon in the White House to remove restrictions preventing the Hall of Fame from voting on Pete Rose for his gambling on baseball. And ditto for the banned since 1920 Shoeless Joe Jackson for his role in 1919’s Black Sox scandal. No charges yet for anyone, but all these cases in a year seems an awful lot.

Sports 101: Name the youngest pitcher to start an All-Star game.

News Item – MLB Update at All-Star Break:

The Blue Jays got hot at just the right time to win six straight during consecutive series sweeps of the Red Sox and Yankees to move into first place in the AL East.

Even though I still can’t get used to their being good, it’s Detroit with the best record in the AL at 55-34, just behind L.A.’s best in the majors 56-33.

Forget the record for just catchers. In hitting homers 34 and 35, Cal Raleigh not only set his own personal best but also tied Ken Griffey Jr.’s Mariners record for most homers by the All-Star break.

With each on pace to hit 50 homers again without the help of PEDs, you can make a case that Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani are the best playing-at-the-same-time duo since Willie Mays and Hank Aaron in the 1960s.

Yankees free agent Max Fried led the majors in wins with 11 against two losses. Detroit’s Tarik Skubal was just behind at 10-2 with a 2.04 ERA to Fried’s 2.27.

News Item – Jurrangelo Cijntje: You think the Ohtani hitter-pitcher story is interesting — how about this Seattle Mariners prospect? And not just for being the rare baseball player who’s from the Netherlands. The 22-year-old is a switch pitcher who held hitters to a .165 average while pitching right-handed and .360 while pitching left-handed. He’ll be strutting his stuff at the All-Star Futures game on Saturday in Atlanta.

The Numbers:

12 – players already have struck out at least 100 times with three more at 99.

… Of the Week Awards

Who’s Hot – Michael Busch: He exploded for three homers on July 4, and the fireworks extended through the whole Cubs line-up as it went for a franchise record eight homers during an 11-3 rout of St. Louis.

Who’s Not – Devers Update: It hasn’t been all roses for Rafael Devers since being traded. He hit .239 (17-85) in his first 19 games out west, which included a streak when he was 1-16 with 13 K’s last week. The power numbers were five doubles, two homers and nine RBI as the Giants went 8-11 during his 19 games with SF.

Random Thoughts:

With Pete Alonso closing in on most homers in New York Mets history it amazes me with 252 that Darryl Strawberry is still their all-time leader 35 years after leaving the team.

Sports 101 Answer: The youngest guy to be the ASG starter wasVida Blue.

A Little History – 1971 All-Star Game: The Oakland lefty was just 21 when he started the 1971 All-Star game, a four-homer game, which included a titanic blast over the roof in Tiger Stadium by A’s teammate Reggie Jackson. Despite giving up three runs in his three innings, Blue got the win when the AL rallied for four in the third, leading to a 6-4 win. It was the AL’s first ASG win in nine years and last until 1983.

Final Thought – Good, Bad and Ugly for the Red Sox at July 4:

At 9-4 with a 2.39 ERA and major league leading 151 strikeouts in 120.1 Garrett Crochet has lived up to the billing, though it would have been nicer if he could have made it to seven innings more than five times in his 19 starts.

Easily the biggest surprise was rookie catcher Carlos Narvaez, who hit .272 with seven homers and 28 RBI in 68 games.

Jarren Duran led baseball with nine triples.

Crochet, Alex Bregman and Aroldis Chapman will represent the Sox in the All-Star game.

The bullpen had a major league leading 11 blown saves to go along with its second-worst 74 errors.

Despite all the nonsense of the first half, the Red Sox were just 2.5 back from a wild card slot on the 4th.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

The Big Story – Sayonara, Celtics Dynasty: It took several years to become an annual championship-contending team and only two days to dismantle it. It happened when Brad Stevens traded Jrue Holiday to Portland for a better scorer who is weaker in every other way except being 10 years younger. Followed up a day later by incredibly only getting back bull-in-a-china shop clunker George Niang for Kristaps Porzingis in a deal between the C’s, Nets and Hawks. Just George Niang for KP? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

Sports 101: Name the only pitcher to win 200 games, an MVP, a Cy Young and 3 World Series titles.

News Item – Red Sox Update: (1) The hitting went south in a six-game losing streak since the Raffy Devers trade. (2) They ended that streak by scoring one less run in a 15-1 win over Toronto than they scored during the entire losing streak. (3) Roman Anthony had his first big game then when he was 3-6 with two doubles and two runs scored. (4) At 41-44 the guessing game has begun as to whether they’ll be sellers or buyers at the trade deadline. (5)And the rumors say Jarren Duran is the most likely to go first.

News Item – NBA Year Begins: (1) The biggest trades to kick it off were Kevin Durant to upstart Houston, and the aforementioned Celtic moves. (2) No surprise to start the draft, as the pride of Newport, Maine, Cooper Flagg went first overall to Dallas. (3) Rumors have Lob it to Rob Williams headed to L.A. to fix their hole at center and be the perfect lob threat for Luka Doncic. (4) The genius move to fire their coach by the Knicks drones on with them being down to their ninth or 10th choice.

News Item – Shake Up in ESPN Booth: After its “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” move of firing Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy two years ago, rumor is a change is coming to its NBA booth again. It has Mike Breen again being the only survivor.

The Numbers:

2.5 –millions spent to buy a signed 1986-87 Michael Jordan “rookie” card in California.

101.7 – miles per hour hit on the radar by Shohei Ohtani in his third start after missing last year entirely due to arm surgery.

… Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Down – Dave Parker: Hearing that 1970s/80s Pirates star Dave Parker had passed at 74 was sad enough. But after waiting years he was less than a month from being enshrined into Cooperstown later this month to make it worse. RIP big fella.

Stat of the Week – 11 Walks: The hard to believe free passes the Red Sox issued in a nine-inning 9-5 loss to the Angels when Walker Buehler gave up five runs on just three hits and Garrett Whitlock four more on just two hits because they walked seven and three guys respectively.

Media Fools of the Week – Kendrick Perkins and Steven A. Blowhard: It was pretty rich to hear a five-point-a-game scorer, who could barely make a lay-up and got outplayed by Andrew Bynum in the 2010 Finals, say that a guy who’d already won three playoff games and sent another into OT buzzer-beating shots like Tyrese Haliburton had this spring alone was playing “scared to death.” Ditto for the Division II back-up from Queens turned bloviator, who had 15 measly points on 5 of 23 shooting in his college career at Winston-Salem (according to enemy/provocateur Jason Whitlock), saying “he was glad TH was injured because it at least gave an explanation for his poor performance” as he struggled to play with a bad calf that got worse because he played.

Clueless big-mouths who prove the way to get ahead on ESPN is to say it loudly regardless of whether it makes sense or not.

Random Thoughts:

ESPN’s Jay Bilas loves college basketball and good for him, but his work on their draft show making everyone out to be the next Michael Jordan is a journalistic embarrassment and insulting to those who know that no more than five in a regular year and 10 in a great year will ever leave their mark on the NBA.

Sports 101 Answer: The ’70s and ’80s A’s/Giants lefty Vida Blue is the only one to check 200 wins, MVP & Cy and three World Series won boxes.

Final Thought – Now What, Brad? While the Niang return for KP is insulting to Celtic Nation, Stevens did it for greater flexibility in building his roster, something severely restricted by being above the luxury tax line from a basic agreement that’s anti-dynasty in the name of league-wide parity.However, I am interested in seeing how Stevens goes about reshaping a team to still be an annual contender going forward without Jayson Tatum next year and having the pile of first-round picks Oak City has stockpiled. A tall task.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

The Big Story – Celtics Restructuring Begins: By now we know how the money-induced restructuring of the Celtics began. It may have been by using the 28th overall pick in Round 1 of Wednesday’s NBA draft to get younger. Or they could have traded up for a better pick by adding the 32nd overall pick they have tonight to 28. Or maybe the rumored trades of either Jrue Holiday or Kristaps Porzingis happened. Whatever it was, it promises to be the start of an interesting off season for Celtic Nation.

Sports 101: What did the Celtics do the two times they owned the first overall pick in the NBA draft?

News Item – Who’s Hot:

Ceddanne Rafaela: The 24-year-old CF who is often described as light hitting is batting .340 since May 27 with four doubles, six homers and 10 RBI. It’s brought the overall average up from .220 to .255 with 13 doubles, two triples, eight homers and 29 RBI.

Aroldis Chapman: The Sox got him to be the eighth-inning guy. But the 37-year-old lefty with 347 career saves picked up his 14th on Friday with a scoreless, two-strikeout ninth in the 7-5 win over the Giants to lower the ERA and BA against to 1.46 and .144 respectively.

Who’s Not – Red Sox Future Struggling: It hasn’t exactly been the dynamic start of Fred Lynn and Jim Rice from the Red Sox’ vaunted prospect class of 2025. The prized 1975 rookie duo both hit over .300 with 20-plus homers and 100-plus RBI, leading Lynn to be named MVP and the Sox going to the World Series. For Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer and Kristian Campbell it’s been different. They’ve come out of the box with Anthony hitting .111 in his first 12 games, Mayer at .197 after 24 and Campbell being shipped back to the minors after hitting below .150 from May 1 on after being named AL Rookie of the Month for April.

The Numbers:

10 – billion with a B the L.A. Lakers are about to be sold for in the largest purchase in U.S. sports history.

28 & 29 – homers hit by Seattle’s Cal Raleigh after going deep twice in a 9-4 win over the Cubs Friday to break Johnny Bench’s 1970 record for most homers by a catcher before the All Star Game. He then hit two more over the weekend to make it 31.

29 & 12 – points and assists by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in leading OKC to the NBA title with a 103-91 Game 7 win over Indiana.

Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Down – Rafael Devers: For saying he’ll play wherever the Giants want him to in his introductory press conference to show what an absolute petulant dog he was with the Red Sox. Good riddance.

Thumbs Up – Quote of the Week. It’s fromthe young hurler Kyle Harrison acquired for Devers upon being sent to the minors as told to the Boston Globe: “I’ve been in Triple A a decent amount of times in my life now. It’s not about where I want to be today. It’s about where I want to be five, 10 years from now, and where I see myself getting better. I think this is going to be a place where I get better and develop. I’m just excited for the opportunity.” That’s what you want to hear from a guy who gets it.

Random Thoughts: With his trade to Houston on Sunday, Kevin Durant continues his title-hunting travels.

Sports 101 Answer: They traded down both times (1980 and 2017) and still wound up with the best player in each draft.

A Little History – The Trade Down Results: In 1980 they sent it and the 10th pick to Golden State for Robert Parish and the third overall pick, Kevin McHale, while GS took center Joe Barry Carroll. In 2017 they traded it (and their 2018 pick) to Philly, who took star crossed Markelle Fultz, then the Lakers took Lonzo Ball before they grabbed Jayson Tatum with the third pick.

Final Thought – Celtics Questions Going Forward Reshaping: One thing for sure is my hoped-for trade of Jaylen Brown to shake loose up and comers Amen Thompson and Jabari Smith from Houston ain’t gonna happen, because after the blockbuster deal they pulled off to get Durant earlier in the week they got the big dog they were after.

While I’m not opposed to trading anyone for the right price, Brown makes the most sense to me because he’ll bring back the most and getting his $70 million per salary off the books will solve the financial crunch and then some. That would let Porzingis play out the last year of his contract before trying to re-sign the less than durable KP to slide into Al Horford’s big off the bench role. But so much for my thoughts.

The good news is all the decisions going forward are in the capable hands of Brad Stevens — whose track record is better than mine.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

The Big Story – Red Sox Sweep the Yanks: Just when Red Sox Nation was about to throw 2025 overboard the local team came alive to win five straight, with the last three coming against the Yankees. And you can thank the pitching, which held the Yanks to just four runs in their weekend of 2-1, 4-3 and 2-0 wins.

Even more unbelievable was Alex Cora letting both Garrett Crochet (107) and Brayan Bello (114) exceed 100 pitches in their starts, while Roy Hobbs, er, Hunter Dobbins has come out of nowhere to tell tall tales about his dad once playing for the Yankees and win games as he is now 4-1 after six scoreless innings on Saturday.

Sports 101: Ty Cobb won the AL batting title every year between 1907 and 1919 except 1916. Who won it that year?

News Item – Roman Anthony Arrives While Raffy Devers Goes: It took the brass long enough, but they finally grew a pair to send the me-first Devers out of town to SF for four players. It’s more a deal for the future, as they got three players under 22 in return for their best hitter, including two big-armed but unproven pitchers, along with journeyman hurler Jordan Hicks. But there’s also the addition-by-subtraction benefit of removing his selfishness from a clubhouse stocked with young players. Plus it clears more than $200 million off the books to hopefully be invested in pitching at the trade deadline or next winter.It also clears a permanent spot for baseball’s top prospect, Roman Anthony, who arrived earlier in the week. He won’t replace Devers’ production immediately of course. But they feel he’s ready, and given the crowd at OF/DH he wasn’t gonna stay unless somebody was moved and Devers made the most long-term sense.As for Raffy’s past contributions: Thanks for the memories but don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

News Item – NBA Finals Update: Two thoughts on Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle: (1)he’s a great bench coach and (2) with that shaved head he looks like Uncle Fester from the Addams Family.

News Item – New York State of Mind: Knicks owner Jimmy Dolan’s (non-)plan to replace Tom Thibodeau despite his taking them to their first conference final since 1999 ain’t working too well. It offers typically arrogant New York thinking that everyone wants to coach the Knicks because they’re NEW YORK. Even though they’ve only been relevant this year during Dolan’s 25-year ownership reign.

The plan was to steal a coach like Ime Udoka, Jason Kidd or Chris Finch even though they were all under contract and had compelling reasons to stay with their promising teams. Predictably, when asked for permission to pursue them their teams told the Knicks to go fly a kite. So now they’re scavenging the bottom of the failed-coaches barrel for guys out of work for a reason.

The Numbers:

1.8 – chance out of 100 Dallas had to get the first overall pick in the recent NBA lottery.

17 – margin between the AL team with the second most errors and the Red Sox’s league-leading 64.

64 – foot putt J.J. Spaun buried on the final hole at Oakmont CC to give him a gritty two-shot win in the 125^th U.S. Open after bogeying five of the first six holes on Sunday.

… Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Up – Carlos Alcaraz: For the class and sportsmanship the French Open winner demonstrated in (1) conceding a point to opponent Jannik Sinner originally given to him by telling officials Sinner’s shot was actually in bounds and (2) gathering all the ball boys together to celebrate the win in a giant group photo and joyous shoutout. Well done, young fella.

Random Thoughts:

How could the Red Sox possibly wear their Oakland A’s look-alike uniforms in any game vs. the Yankees, let alone at Fenway as they did Friday!

With Pete Alonso closing in on most homers in New York Mets history it amazes me with 252 Darryl Strawberry is still their all-time leader 35 years after leaving the team.

Sports 101 Answer: Ex-Red Sox star Tris Speaker hit .386 for the Cleveland Indians to stop Cobb’s streak. But he wasn’t far off as he finished second to Speaker with a .370 average.

Prediction: Devers eventually becomes SF’s first baseman.

Final Thought: NCAA Court Settlement: It was the right ruling on antitrust grounds that allows schools to now pay players directly in college sports. Especially in light of how much money coaches and the NCAA have raked in while the players got zilch until recently. But can we please finally stop calling it “amateur athletics” and ban the phrase “student a-tha-letes” forever. Call them what they are: mercenaries who’ll move from school to school annually for better paychecks without a care for the new school or the classroom.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.