Category: Sports

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.

The Big Story – Red Sox Update: The 2025 ship appeared to be sunk after Friday night’s 9-6 loss to the Yanks, as it was their ninth in 12 games to leave them five under .500 and 10.5 back of the Yanks.But they did show some spunk with 10-7 and 11-7 comeback wins the next two nights, highlighted by Sunday’s five-homer barrage and Trevor Story coming to life with a five-RBI day Saturday and going 5 for 9 with a double, homer and six RBI overall in those wins. A nice glimmer, but with their woeful pitching giving the Yankees 23 runs in a three-game series the ship is hardly out of choppy waters. They left the Bronx 32-35 and 8.5 behind in the AL East.

Sports 101: Rick Carlisle is trying to become the fourth coach to win NBA titles with two different teams. Name the three who have.

News Item – Knicks Fire Thibodeau: Here’s the lone pertinent question on the shocking firing of their coach Tom Thibodeau: How can they have “plateaued” under him, as GM Leon Rose said in the announcement, when the win totals went 41, 37, 43, 50 and 51 in his five years and they went to a conference final for the first time in 25 years?

News Item – One-Word Descriptions for People in the News:

Angel Reese – jealous PUNK

Aaron Judge – GREATNESS

Tyrese Haliburton – CLUTCH

Brad Marchand: Florida BARGAIN

Rafael Devers – selfish. No, immature. No, selfish. No, make it BOTH.

The Numbers:

.133 –batting average since May 4 for struggling Red Sox rookie Kristian Campbell.

6 – pitchers used by Sox manager Alex Cora who pitched less than an inning as he used eight overall in nine innings during Sunday’s 11-7 win over NY.

6 & 17 – Red Sox record in 2025 one-run games.

… Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Up – Thank You, Caitlin Clark Award: The New York Liberty was recently valued at $450 million to make the WNBA team the most valuable women’s sports franchise in America. And while that number is not just because of her, the “thank you Caitlin” part (even though she plays for the Indiana Fever) comes in when you know that after 19 years in business the Liberty were worth “just” $130 million last spring and then, helped along by winning the 2024 WNBA title, they appreciated a quick $320 million in less than a year during the hoo-ha surrounding Clark’s arrival in the WNBA. Not a coincidence.

Give Me a Break Award – Worst Quote of the Week: ESPN’s Mike Breen opened Game 1 coverage by calling the Oak City vs. Indiana series “the most anticipated NBA Finals.” Since when, Mike? More than any Lakers and Celtics match-up — ever? All six of Jordan’s Finals? Dr. J’s entry to the NBA vs. Portland in 1977? Actually it’s two of the smallest TV markets ever to be in the Finals who, not surprisingly, delivered an awful Game 1 rating. A great matchup for real basketball people like me, but “most anticipated”? Come on, man.

Thank You, Paul George Award: Interesting how trading the so-called superstar to get the new team over the top actually was the key move that got both teams trading him to the NBA finals instead. The Clippers gave Oak City Shai Gilgeous Alexander and a zillion first-round picks for George after he first got to Oak City in a trade for Domantas Sabonis, who the Pacers later flipped for current Indy star Tyrese Haliburton. Thanks, PG.

Random Thoughts:

Given all Haliburton’s end-of-game heroics, he’s rapidly becoming to this era what Big Shot Bob (Horry) was to his.

Yes, Deion, I’m sure the Giants and other teams mistreated your son during pre-draft interviews. Of course it was a league-wide conspiracy to have him undrafted until the fifth round, instead of it being an entitled kid whose act turned all those teams off.

Sports 101 Answer: Pat Riley, Phil Jackson and Alex Hannum are the only two to win NBA titles with two different teams.

A Little History – Alex Hannum: He’s also the only coach to stop Bill Russell from winning a title during his 13-year career. He was player-coach when the St. Louis Hawks did it in 1958 and later HC as the Wilt-led 76ers did it in 1967.

Prediction: The OKC-Indiana series tied 2-2 when you see this.

Final Thought – Rafael Devers Saga: Latest developments:(1) David Ortiz says the brass should let Raffy decide if he wants to play first or not, making the mess worse. 2) It’s ridiculous that with Alex Bregman on the DL they still had to move journeyman first baseman Abraham Toro over to third because Devers is refusing to play there too.(3) Team owner John Henry actually flew to KC to beg a guy he’s paying $31 million a year to play a new position. Given No. 3, how could anyone be surprised at the shambles the team is in?

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

The Big Story – Another Top Prospect Makes it to Fenway: Another of the Red Sox jewel prospects made it to the show when shortstop Marcelo Mayer was called up last week. But he went 6 for 30 with two doubles and 10 strikeouts in his first eight games. And if you’re wondering, he’s the first Marcelo to play in the majors.

Sports 101: Ten current teams have never won an NBA championship. Name them.

News Item – Red Sox Pitch Count: Alex Cora actually let someone reach 100-plus on the pitch count Sunday. The 112 Garrett Crochet threw let him go seven full innings with 12 K’s to, for once, keep the game away from the many arsonists in the Boston bullpen in a 3-1 win over Atlanta.

News Item – Duel of the Week. The World Series rematch began on Friday as Aaron Judge led off the game with a homer, which Shohei Ohtani matched in the bottom half of the first. Ohtani hit a second in the sixth as L.A. followed the script from their 2024 WS-clinching Game 5 comeback to go from down 5-1 to win 8-5 to open the series. It was worse on Saturday, because while Judge hit two more homers L.A. won 18-2, before the Yanks won 7-3 Sunday with the two stars not much of a factor.

News Item – Chris Sale: When he punched out Philly’s Edmundo Sosa last week the ex-Red Sox hurler became the fastest in history to reach 2,500 career strikeouts. He did it in inning 2,026 to eclipse Randy Johnson’s record 2,107.2. Pedro Martinez is the third at 2,152.2 and, if you’re wondering, all-time strikeout king Nolan Ryan is fifth at 2,286.1.

The Numbers:

.153 – after a 9-50 startthewinning percentage of the Colorado Rockies, which puts them on a pace to have a worst ever (by far) 25-137 season record.

15 – losses the Red Sox have in their 21 one-run games.

449 – pounds Tampa Bay rookie D-tackle Desmond Watson weighs, which will make him the heaviest player in NFL history if he’s on a Game 1 roster.

… Of the Week Awards

Quote of the Week – Terry Bradshaw: What the Pittsburgh Steeler Famer thinks of his former team’s beg-a-thon to get Aaron Rodgers to be their 2025 QB: “That’s a joke,” and “That guy needs to stay in California, go somewhere and chew on bark and whisper to the gods out there.”

In Case You Missed It – Tyrese Haliburton: The Indiana point guard did something no one else, not even Magic, MJ or LBJ, had ever done in Game 4 vs. New York: record the first triple double (32 points, 12 rebounds and 15 assists) in playoff history without committing a single turnover.

Random Thoughts:

While the talent and skills are obvious, I can’t warm up to the Knicks’ Karl-Anthony Towns because he’s soft and gets more unnecessary fouls than any player I’ve seen in my 159 years of watching the NBA.

With Stefon Diggs missing voluntary camp for the Miami boating excursion the Patriots got their first red flag from the self-centered receiver.

Anyone else know that since Chaim Bloom foolishly cheaped out on Michael Wacha after he was 11-2 for the Red Sox in 2022, he’s gone 31-12 since?

Sports 101 Answer: The 10 teams to never win an NBA title are Brooklyn, Orlando, Charlotte, Utah, Memphis, Minnesota, L.A. Clippers and Phoenix along with Indiana and Oak City, one of whom will leave the club next week.

Prediction – Oak City over Indiana in six.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.