Category: Sports

The Big Story – Happy Birthday, Yaz: We’ll start today with birthday greetings to Red Sox legend Carl Yastrzemski as he turns 84. His 1967 season is arguably the greatest season for carrying his team on his back since Joe DiMaggio in 1941.

My favorite Yaz stat has nothing to do with baseball, though. It’s that as a high school basketball player he set Long Island’s single-game scoring record by going for 60 one day. Not bad for a place that includes Julius Erving among its basketball alumni. So happy b-day, Captain Carl.

Sports 101: When Yaz went for those 60 points, whose LI scoring record did he break?

News Item – Mickey Gasper: The big day came for the catcher out of Merrimack when the Red Sox called him to the show last week. He immediately played in two games, walking twice in two AB’s to give him an impossible-to-top 1.000 on-base percentage.

News Item – Drake Maye: The Pats may have lost 14-13 to Philly, but there were encouraging signs of life from their rookie QB as he calmly led two scoring drives while going 6-11 for 47 yards and 15 more and a TD on four carries.

The Numbers:

3 –games out of the final wild card spot for the Sox as the week started.

300 – homer mark reached by Yankees slugger Aaron Judge last week.

… Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Up – Bayless Dumped By FS1: With his ratings tanking, repugnant talking head Skip Bayless is gone from his show on FS1.

Sports/Politics Note of the Week – Royce White: The former Iowa State hoopster won the GOP primary in Minnesota last week to let him face Dem Amy Klobuchar for her Senate seat.

Random Thoughts: How ridiculous was it to hear Kenley (Blood and Guts) Jansen telling Alex Cora he was “ready to get 4” during a win over Texas last week? Wow, like facing four guys instead of three is a herculean task.

A Little History – Closers in 1949: The Yankees went into their season-closing two-game series with the Red Sox trailing Boston by one game for the pennant. Starter Allie Reynolds got tagged with four runs in the third inning to send New York down 0-4. So with the season on the line Casey Stengel quick-triggered him for an unorthodox move that would give managers, media pundits and people like Jansen a stroke today.

He brought closer Joe Page to stem the potential season-ending rally. Which he did. And Casey not only did that, but he had Page keep going until the Sox got to him. Which they never did.

Leading old Joe to “close” out a crucial 5-4 Yankees win with an astonishing scoreless 6.2-inning, 1-hit, 5-strikeout effort to save the season. Especially since the Yanks won 5-3 the next day to steal the pennant from Boston

Again.

Sports 101 Answer: Before Yaz, the LI single game record was held by the greatest football player who ever lived, Jimmy Brown, who had 53 for Manhasset in the early 1950s.

Final Thought – The White Sox Race to be the Worst Ever: Longtime New York Met Ed Kranepool went on record last week saying he hopes the Chicago White Sox surpass the 40-120 record of his 1962 Mets for the worst single season ever in MLB history.

If you don’t who Kranepool is, he is sort of a New York legend in a weird way. He was a NYC high school phenom who made it to the Mets in their first year when he was 17. And then despite being nothing more than a journeyman first baseman his entire career, he somehow managed to last with the Mets for the next 18 years despite never driving in even 60 runs in a year. I would venture no one’s ever pulled off a feat like that without being traded at least once.

But sorry, Ed, I don’t want them to break your Mets’ record of futility. I’m a New Yorker at heart and that team, as bad as it was, was a historic, beloved team of distinction.

First, because their arrival as an expansion team brought baseball back to National League fans in NYC after they were abandoned by the Giants and Dodgers after 1957. Second, they lost in both lovable and comical how-did-they-do-that ways. And finally, they had the perfect ringleader at the center of all the chaos in legendary Yankees manager Casey Stengel to explain all the lunacy as it unfolded in the entertaining fashion only he could.

In other words, they were perfect in their futility, while Chicago is just terrible and B-O-R-I-N-G. So it’ll be a loss for baseball history if the record falls from the Amazing Mets, at whom Stengel used to shout in anguish from the dugout, “Can’t anyone here play this game?!!!”

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

The Big Story – Paris Olympics Come to an End: It was a memorable Olympics for good and bad reasons. The biggest story was the leading 40 gold (tied with China) and 126 overall medals won by the Americans in Paris. It continued their streak of winning the most medals every games since 1996.

Sports 101: Name the two athletes who were immediately sent home for making the Black power salute at their medal ceremony during the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.

News Item – Olympic Wrap-up – MemorableStories

Historic – Katie Ledecky: Cementing her place as the greatest female Olympic swimmer in winning her record ninth gold medal and 13 overall.

Biggest Upset – Cole Hocker: The Indiana miler left the starting gate a 21-to-1 long shot but somehow found a crack in the pack to slither through down the stretch to win gold in the 1500 meters with an American and Olympic record time of 3:27:53 — the equivalent of a 3:44.3 American mile.

My Favorite Story – USA Basketball: Both finals vs. France were closer than they should have been. But that only made their quest for dual gold more dramatic. Especially the women winning their ninth straight gold medal and the clutch shooting of MVP Steph Curry, who saved his team twice in their last two games.

News Item – The Rest Of The Week: (1) The Pats won their first preseason game 17-12 over Carolina. (2) The Sox’ playoff chances took a hit after they were swept over the weekend by Houston to fall three back in the wild card race.

The Numbers:

4 – year show-cause penalty for ex-Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh, which is the NCAA’s fancy new title for being banned that many years for a variety of recruiting violations to keep him out of the college game till 2028. Said another way: Since he has a new five-year contract with the L.A. Chargers, who cares. That’s like when the NFL suspended Michael Vick when he was in jail for dog killing and couldn’t play anyway.

9.20 – shockingly horrid combined ERA from the Red Sox starting rotation when they lasted just 29.1 innings of the six-game road trip to Texas and KC and still somehow managed to go 4-2.

21 – where the White Sox losing streak ended with a 5-1 over the moribund A’s to tie Baltimore’s 1988 AL record and fall two short of the MLB record 23 the Phillies lost in 1961. Though it didn’t do Pedro Grifol much good as he was fired as Chicago’s manager the next day.

… Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Down – Jerod Mayo: Hate to pick on the new coach after his first exhibition game. But you have to wonder why in the name of Babe Parilli a team with a highly drafted rookie quarterback desperately in need of reps would play just one series as Drake Maye did in preseason Game 1. What did that do? Especially since the horrid Panthers gave said rookie the perfect team to play against.

Nickname of the Week – Triple Espresso: The name Olympic Soccer stars Trinity Rodman, Mallory Swanson and Sophia Smith gave themselves amid lesser names the media has tried to come up with for the threesome that scored 10 of the 11 U.S. goals including Swanson’s game winner in the gold medal game vs. Brazil.

Party Pooper of the Week – Corey Seager: For the Texas shortstop wrecking Framber Valdez’s bid for the second no-hitter of his career by launching an opposite field two-run homer with two-out in the bottom of the ninth.

Random Thoughts:

If you think the embarrassing double DNP is going to drive Jayson Tatum next year, forget about it. Nope. Since nothing ticks him off he’s going to just take it in stride.

Sports 101 Answer: Gold medal winner in the 200 meters Tommie Smith and teammate bronze medal winner John Carlos were the ones sent home for giving the Black power salute.

Final Thoughts – A Little History: To the sad person lost in the culture wars who wrote on my Facebook feed that the bogus controversy over Algerian boxer Imane Khelif was “the darkest day in Olympic history” — get a life and a history book.

That actually happened at the 1972 games in Munich when the Black September terrorist group kidnapped and murdered eight athletes and one coach from the Israeli team, leading broadcaster Jim McKay to famously say “they’re all gone” after the rescue attempt failed.

Hard to imagine anything eclipsing that.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

The Big Story – The Summer Olympics: We’re just a few days from the close of the Paris Olympics, which have been a mixed bag for the American team.

On the bright side they had far and away won the most overall medals — 71 to 46 by next best China — as Week 2 started. But while tied with China for most gold medals at 19 each, that was less than expected, in large part due to their swim teams winning just eight golds, their fewest since 1988.

Sports 101: Name the four pitchers named AL Cy Young award winner as a Red Sox

News Item – Ledecky Surpasses Thompson: Down goesJenny Thompson. Not quite, but the all-time record set by the great freestyle swimmer from Dover of 12 medals and eight golds was passed by Katie Ledecky when she won her 13th overall and ninth gold on Saturday. Even more astonishing is that all of the Top 20 times in 1500-meter freestyle ever swum have been done by her.

News Item – Blake the Flake: Three days after I chastised Blake Snell in this space for willingly coming out of several games with no-hitters in progress, he finally did it. Hell froze over against the Reds on Friday when Snell struck out 11 and threw 114 pitches in the 3-0 win as he pitched his first complete game in 202 career starts.

News Item – Chaos at Pats Training Camp: With team leader Matthew Judon sulking and showing up the brass over his contract status, Drake Maye off to a mostly rough beginning, the Globe’s Prince of Darkness Dan Shaughnessy likening Jerod Mayo to “Daddy Butch Hobson” and talk radio and the rest of the media horde as usual making a bigger deal out of it than it was, Week 1 of the Mayo era got off to a rough start.

The Numbers:

20 – consecutive losses for the Chicago White Sox as the week started, leaving them one behind the record 21 straight lost by the 1988 Baltimore Orioles.

57 – consecutive game winning streak for the U.S. Women’s Basketball team in Olympic competition dating back to 1992 after beating Germany 87-63 over the weekend to move into medal round play.

64 – years America went since winning gold in Men’s 4 Rowing competition in 1960 before doing it again last week.

… Of the Week Awards

Olympic Relative of the Week – Trinity Rodman: The worm Dennis Rodman’s daughter delivered a laser shot clutch goal in the 106th minute to give the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team a 1-0 win in a tense battle with Japan to send the U.S. on to face Germany in the semi-final round.

Quote of the Week – Steve Kerr: What he should have said to stem the nonsense after Jayson Tatum’s much discussed DNP. “We have an embarrassment of riches on this roster, that’s the best way to put it. I mean these guys are all champions, All-Stars, Hall of Famers, however you want to put it. So the whole thing is are we committed to the goal? That’s it.”

Random Thoughts:

Since the Dodgers went all in to get the best pitcher at the trade deadline in the Tigers’ Jack Flaherty, guess their explanation for DFA’ing now Red Sox hurler James Paxton a week earlier because they had a logjam in the rotation thanks to three of starters returning from injuries wasn’t really true, was it?

Sports 101 Answer: The Red Sox Cy Young winners were Jim Lonborg, Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez and Rick Porcello.

Final Thought – Tatum’s Olympic DNP: First it’s been mis-characterized as a “benching.” It wasn’t, as rarely do guys get benched before they play the first game. Second, there are only so many minutes in a game and it’s not an “everybody gets a trophy” event. So comments by loudmouth nitwits like Kendrick Perkins (“he was disrespected”) and Charles Barkley (everyone should play 10 minutes) are wrong.

Instead it’s for an Olympic gold medal so the best guys should play, period. It’s a team of all-stars, so it will happen to guys not used to ever getting a DNP. If you can’t deal with it don’t come on the team in the first place.

Now having said all that, I said what I said last week about Steve Kerr’s original reason for not playing Tatum in Game 1 was because it being a match-up thing was ridiculous.

But it’s possible a DNP was a good thing for JT anyway. Because for once maybe he’ll get mad about something, anything, to let it drive his play. With the best outcome being his learning about playing with emotion for a change.

Lastly, about the noise from the cheap seats. If they don’t win gold, guess who’ll be flapping their gums the loudest about America’s Olympic failure? Yup: the two dimwits who say everyone should play to assuage their ego — Charles and the open mouth, insert foot ex-Celtic Perk.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

The Big Story – Olympics Underway: It started with a weird opening ceremony and the sabotaging of the transportation system around Paris, but the Summer Olympics did begin over the weekend. Americans like Simone Biles, the U.S. Women’s Soccer team and the Men’s Basketball team all jumped out of the gate with impressive opening wins that suggest promise for the overall medal count.Time will tell on that as it all will continue unabated over the next two weeks — enjoy.

Sports 101: Name the gold medal winner in the 1964 Olympics who went on to become an NFL Hall of Famer.

News Item – Alex Cora Signed for Three Years: There actually was some sign of life in the Red Sox owners booth this week. John Henry, against all odds, spent serious money to retain his manager in the midst of the spectacular job Cora has been doing this year. Henry gave Cora a $21.7 million deal over the next three years.

News Item – Sox Stars on the Way: FiveRed Sox minor-leaguers were included in Athletic magazine’s recent listing of the Top 60 prospects in baseball. Included were shortstop Marcelo Mayer as the second best overall prospect in the entire minor leagues. He was followed by catcher Kyle Teel (19) and slugger Roman Anthony (21) at AA Portland. Next came just-selected 2024 first-round pick Brandon Montgomery (38), and second baseman/outfielder Kristian Campbell (47) rounds out the list.

News Item – Pathetic New Baseball Standards: Giants hurler Blake Snell collected an astonishing 15 strikeouts while getting just 18 outs on Saturday vs. Colorado. However, I don’t know whether to congratulate him for the dominating effort, or vomit over his lack of competitive fire and his willingness to retire with the game and all-time records on the line. It’s the latest surrender from the ultimate gamer warrior of his time, who in recent years has been fine with his manager while being yanked with two perfect games in progress and in a World Series-deciding game after seven innings. Oh, and he got no decision in SF’s 4-1 win over the Rockies on Saturday.

The Numbers:

0 – shocking number of minutes Jayson Tatum played while getting a DNP-CD in the U.S. Olympic Basketball team’s 100-84 opening game win over Serbia.

7 – losses in their last 10 games for the Sox after losing two of three to the Yanks over the weekend.

55 – million dollars per year over the next four years the Packers will pay QB Jordan Love with the largest contract in NFL history after he delivered just one promising season in his four-year career.

… Of the Week Awards

Bad Injury of the Week – Christian Barmore: It was news the big fella coming off his best season will be out indefinitely after blood clots were detected in his leg.

Thumbs Up – James Paxton: Good pick-up by the Red Sox after he was designated for assignment by the Dodgers only because three of their starters returned from the injured list and someone had to go.

A Little History – Trade Deadline Bonanza: The shocking trade deadline deal that was originally met with “what the heck is Theo doing?” but instead turned the season around happened 20 years ago this week. It was when GM Theo Epstein traded beloved star Nomar Garciaparra to improve the defense by getting back Orlando Cabrera and Doug Meintkiewicz along with Dave Roberts in a separate deal. It eventually led to the Red Sox beating the Yankees with the greatest playoff comeback in history and sweeping the Cardinals in the World Series to win it all for the first time since 1918.

Random Thoughts:

How ironic will it be if Paxton pitches great to where the Sox miss the playoffs by one game and that one loss can be traced to Paxton beating them in his last game with L.A.?

Steve Kerr’s DNP of Tatum vs. Serbia was stupid. There’s no match-up on Earth that Tatum can’t face. Dumb.

Sports 101 Answer: Bullet Bob Hayes won gold with a world-record time in the 100-meter dash in Tokyo, then joined the Cowboys in 1965 as they were emerging as a perennial NFL power, which Hayes, as the fastest man in pro football, was a key part of by averaging 20.0 yards per catch, including 26.1 in 1970, and scoring 71 TDs in his Hall of Fame career.

Final Thought – Thumbs Down – City Edition Uniforms: If I don’t vomit over Snell, it’s because I waited to do it over seeing the Red Sox wearing their yellow and blue softball uniforms while playing the YANKEES on Saturday. If that’s not disrespectful of the tradition of the great rivalry nothing is.

So here’s my sports hate list for letting it happen: (1) Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, (2) Red Sox ownership, (3)Fox for putting them on TV wearing that crap, and most of all (4) Nike, who came up with the stupid idea and sold it to MLB.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

The Big Story – Patriots Open Pre-season Camp: As camp opened this week, the optimistic among us are excited over having a new coach for the first time since 2000 in Jerod Mayo and getting to watch another new QB in third overall pick Drake Maye develop.However, sober minds know this will be another long year in Foxboro as the first-time coach and the rookie QB have steep learning curves in front of them. But ready or not, it got started when veterans reported on Tuesday and the first practice was held Wednesday.

Sports 101: Name the seven people to be Manager of the Year in both the AL and NL.

News Item – Schauffele Wins British Open: The lucky number in 2024 for Xander Schauffele is 65. That’s what he shot to rip the Claret Jug away from a crowded Sunday leaderboard to win the British Open at Royal Troon by two strokes. It made him a double majors winner, as he won the PGA Championship in May after carding a final round 65 as well.

News Item – Jarren Duran: Amid his record-breaking season, the speedy Red Sox outfielder added another notch to the belt last week when he earned the Ted Williams Trophy as All-Star Game MVP after his two-run homer in the fifth inning was the decisive blow in the AL’s 5-3 win.

News Item – It Ain’t Just Sale: You can’t blame the Red Sox for moving on from Chris Sale last winter after getting almost no production for the $120 million they spent on him the last four years. Still, with him leading baseball in wins with 13, there’s a little “what might have been” feeling for this surprising team. And that was made worse by seeing James Paxton move to 8-2 after completing L.A.’s three-game sweep of the Sox with Sunday’s 9-6. All of which means a team using openers for the fifth spot in the rotation let two guys leave who already have a combined 21 wins in 2024.

The Numbers:

0 – shots made in 15 attempts for the Wizards’ Alex Sarr while putting up a donut in a Vegas summer league vs. Portland. Not the kind of game you want to see from a guy who was just picked second overall in the NBA draft.

17 – games in 2024 Vegas odds-makers have the Patriots listed as underdogs on their early tote boards. Which, for the mathematically challenged, means they’ll be that for every game they play this year.

19 – WNBA record-breaking assists handed out by Indiana Fever pg Caitlin Clark in a 101-93 loss to the Dallas Wings.

… Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Down – All-Star Uniforms: Can we for once forgo trying to bleed every last nickel out of merchandising in lieu of rewarding the loyalty of fans who’ve been watching for 50 years and love seeing guys in their everyday uniforms at the ASG, ’cause that is classic.

Ridiculous Headline of the Week – Boston Globe: It read “Celtics Hold Bronny James To 2 Points” in their summer league game vs. L.A. Ridiculous because it makes it sound like it was a great feat, which it was not. It was actually more than his summer league average. Second, why is a second-round draft pick who averaged four points per game anywhere near the lead of any story?

A Little History – The Ted Williams Trophy: If you’re wondering: The MVP Award for the AL in the ASG is named for Ted Williams because with four homers, 12 RBI and a .304 average he was a prolific ASG hitter, including winning the 1941 game 7-5 with a three-run bottom-of-the-ninth walk-off homer off Claude Passeau.

Random Thoughts:

I didn’t think it was possible, but I hate the Dodgers’ city edition uniforms more than the Sox’ blue and yellow numbers.

Anyone know why Tiger Woods is still a big headline going to a major championship? Especially after 2024 where he finished dead last at the Masters and missed the cut in the PGA, U.S. Open and British Open.

Sports 101 Answer: The seven named Manager of the Year in both leagues are Bobby Cox (Braves and Blue Jays), Tony LaRussa (Cards and A’s), Jim Leland (Pirates and Tigers), Lou Piniella (Cubs and Mariners), Joe Maddon (Cubs and D-Rays), Buck Showalter (Mets, Rangers and Orioles) and Davey Johnson (Nationals and Orioles)

Final Thought – A Little More History – The All-Star Game: The ASG has had three distinct eras since it started in 1933.

The AL dominated early, winning 12 of the first 16. Then thanks to embracing integration far more fully than the AL, starting in 1950 the NL won 30 of 39 behind great Black stars like Mays, Aaron, Clemente, Banks and the Robinsons (Jackie and Frank). That included winning 19 in 20 years from 1963 to 1982.

Now after winning 10times in 11 years, and 27 of the last 39, the AL is back on top. Overall the AL leads 47-44 with two ties.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

The Big Story – Sox at the All-Star Break:

The second half of the season gets under way tomorrow. And if you’re a Red Sox fan you like where they are. After being a best-in-baseball 9-3 in July and going 20-8 since June 12 they’re 11 games over .500 at 53-42, 4.5 games behind Baltimore in the AL East and two games up on KC for the last wild card spot. Plus with Triston Casas about to return from a rib cage injury that has kept him sidelined since late April there’s more good news on the way. But close followers know even with the return of Casas, they still need to add a starting pitcher and a right-handed bat by the July 31 trade deadline to fortify their chances to get into the postseason tournament.

There are doubters who believe Sox owner John Henry doesn’t care about the postseason and is more likely to sell off free-agents-to-be Kenley Jansen and Tyler O’Neill. However, with public pressure building for adding, that seems unlikely. So we’ll see.

Sports 101: Name the only college to have players taken first overall in the NBA and NFL drafts in the same year. Also name those players.

News Item – Jaylen Brown Passed Over for Olympic Team: He surprisingly didn’t get the final spot on the Olympic basketball team after Kawhi Leonard dropped out last week. Instead it went to his versatile teammate Derrick White.

Goofballs on Felger & Mazz immediately tried to make it into a brewing feud between Brown and Jayson Tatum because the latter didn’t lobby for JB, which is ridiculous.

But, while Brown is the better player and coming off a stellar performance in the NBA playoffs, you can make a case for White for two reasons. On a team of stars, he’s a better fit as the 12th man because in playing with Tatum and Brown he’s already used to sacrificing for the team. A more likely reason probably lies in Nike’s influence over the selection and their preference to keep politics off this stage. That hurts the outspoken Brown, who’s demonstrated a willingness to take Nike to task for its practice of exploiting overseas workers to benefit its bottom line.

News Item – Trade Deadline Approaching: Of all the mock Red Sox trades I’ve seen, the one involving White Sox lefty Garrett Crochet is the best approach. The proposed cost is high — three of their Top 10 prospects (but not their three best) for a 25-year-old with two more years of contractual control after 2024. Much smarter than a rental for a building team not likely to go deep in the playoffs. And if both sides are happy it gives them a chance to extend Crochet to buy out a few more years of free agency as well.

The Numbers

6 – years in the big house for former Dodgers outfielder Raul Mondesi after being convicted of embezzling $5 million while mayor of the Dominican Republic city of San Cristóbal.

10 – team-leading wins for Sox hurler Brayan Bello, as well as how many strikeouts he had while getting the first 10 outs as he earned No. 9 in a 12-9 win over the A’s last week.

… Of the Week

Thumbs Up – Jalen Brunson: For the diminutive Knicks point guard for passing on roughly $113 million in guaranteed money to give the Knicks salary cap flexibility (for now) to add more players to his up and coming team. And while the $37 million he’ll make annually is nothing to sneeze at, his Tom Brady-like financial sacrifice in the name of helping the team is rare in the me, me, me world of professional sports economics. Bravo, Jalen.

Quote of the Week – Ceddanne Rafaela: When the versatile rookie was asked what his job with the team was he said, “Just help us win.”

Random Thoughts:

Contrary to last Sunday’s ESPN broadcast suggesting that Chaim Bloom had a lot to do with the rampaging Red Sox success, let the record show he has not. All of the young core fueling their surge — Devers, Rafaela, Duran, Casas, Bello, Houck and Winkowski — were drafted by Dave Dombrowski before he was fired in 2019.

Sports 101 Answer: In 2005 the Utah duo of Andrew Bogut and Alex Smith became the first and only guys taken first overall in both the NFL and NBA drafts in the same year.

Final Thought – Jayson Tatum: While I enjoyed the Celtics championship run, sorry to the folks who are saying it sets Tatum’s legacy. What? Earth to those folks. He plays for the Boston Celtics, where luminaries like Russell (11), Sam Jones (10), Havlicek (9), Cousy (6) and Bird (3) won multiple titles. He won one, as short-time contributors like Emmette Bryant and Rick Carlisle and many others have.

If he wants to move up to be an all-time Celtic, he’s got to win at least two more.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].