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Weekend winners
American gymnasts Simone Biles and Brody Malone. These two have to be on the shortlist for gold in Paris this summer. Biles is simply the GOAT at arguably the highest-profile women’s Olympic sport of them all. And winning the U.S. trials at 27 is every bit the Alexian feat of Brady playing QB1 at an elite level at 44 and LeBron playing at an MVP level at 39 considering. As for Malone, the 2018 Trion High School grad, won the men’s All-Around and heads to Paris with the same golden dreams.
Connor McDavid. A brilliant nine-year career has mostly been concluded annually with postseason disappointment for arguably the best hockey player since Super Mario’s heyday. Yes, McDavid is that good. Well, now he gets to show his gifts on hockey’s biggest stage — the Stanley Cup Finals — for the first time in his career.
The MacIntyres. Yes, the RBC Canadian Open was about as exciting as the 401K presentation that HR makes you sit through even though you’re not changing your paltry retirement. (Side note: I am becoming more and more aware that retirement is not a 65-year-old finish line. Heck, for a lot of us struggling with soaring prices and expenses with income staying relatively flat, may I tweak the old NRA standard go-to on my retirement: “They can have my keyboard when they pry it out of my cold, dead fingers.”) Anywell, Robert MacIntyre, the Scottish golfer who plays slower than Mr. and Mrs. Havencamp put together, won the RBC and did so with his father on his bag, which made for quite the emotional scene Sunday evening. I’m not crying; you’re crying.
Nomination from racing enthusiast J-Mac: “I don’t know if it will hit your yahoo (Monday) morning, but John Force (age 75) won the New England Nationals funny car for his record 157th NHRA victory Sunday.” If that’s good enough for J-Mac, it’s good enough for me. And how boss is the name John Force for a drag racer?
The Yankees. A weekend sweep over the Giants extended the Yanks’ win streak to five (they are 8-2 in their last 10, as are the second-place Orioles, who can’t make up any ground because the Yankees seldom lose). New York has the best record in MLB at 42-19, and they have only played 26 of their 61 games at home so far.
Weekend losers
The NHL. Yikes, an Edmonton-Florida Stanley Cup — nothing screams traditional rivalry and biggest hockey love like the Oilers-Panthers, right? — will be with the sounds of crickets on the TV dial.
American politics. As the ripples continue to reach from Trump’s guilty verdicts from late Thursday night, the realization that we are Sleepy Joe and Dirty Donald has not changed. And stories like this one on the changed perceptions among polled Americans do not help my confidence for this national election season. And yes, most of those polls are roughly 2,000 (or a few hundred) more voters, which is a minute sample size for a presidential election.
The angst Charley Hull is getting. Yes, Hull was burning lung darts during the U.S. Women’s Open over the weekend. She’s 28 flippin’ years old, people. And if she was to burn a heater outside, so be it. (Side note: The folks saying it’s a bad example for the kids, well, you be better examples for kids. Hull may be a great human or an ax murderer, I don’t know a lot about her. But I am 100% sure her most defining characteristic is not the Marlboro from her lips.) Yes, it is less than healthy, but so is eating cheeseburgers and kicking back CoColas (real and alcoholic). And I say this as someone who dipped Copenhagen for 20-plus years and quit cold turkey over the weekend because I didn’t want my then-3-year-old son asking about the doo-doo juice I was spitting into cups. Both my parents were longtime smokers who died of cancer, but if Hull wants to tempt that fate as long as she’s following the rules, that’s her right, friends.
Scary scene at a monster truck show in Maine when a truck flew into the stands and left two hospitalized.
Birmingham Southern baseball. BSC was on a magic carpet ride in the DIII World Series that caught the attention of the national media because the team was still playing even though the college had announced earlier this year it would close last month for financial reasons. BSC lost in heartbreaking walk-off fashion over the weekend to end the season and the school.
Clark rules
Caitlin Clark is a lot of things to a lot of folks.
Yes, Clark is bigger than sports right now. Heck, her debut was the most-watched WNBA game in two decades. Double heck, five of the WNBA broadcast partners have set all-time viewership numbers so far this year for their respective networks, and the common thread — you guessed it — was Clark was playing in all five of those games.
Well the weekend was a rough one for Clark and the WNBA.
Saturday, Clark’s team found a rare win — they are 2-9 after Sunday’s beatdown from New York in Clark’s worst game — but that was far from the headline.
Saturday’s game was lowlighted by a dirty, non-basketball play by Sky reserve Chennedy Carter, who body-slammed Clark away from the ball then cowardly refused to answer media questions about the incident.
(Also Sky teammate and Clark college rival Angel Reese was fined by the WNBA for skipping the postgame news conference, which is a terrible look for a league still craving more media coverage from one of its most recognized young stars. We talked that Reese and Clark could be the Magic-Bird of this next generation of the WNBA, but not like that.)
Clark’s foul has been upgraded to a Flagrant 1. She should be suspended. Clark handled it with the utmost class.
“I wasn’t expecting that,” Clark said after the game. “But it’s just like, ‘Respond, calm down and let your play do the talking.’ It is what it is … Go make the free throw and then execute on offense.” During an ESPN in-game interview, Clark said, “That’s just not a basketball play.”
Carter, not so much by saying this in the postgame, “I ain’t answering no Caitlin Clark questions” before then addressing the situation on Twitter with “And that’s that on that cause beside three point shooting what does she bring to the table man.”
You stay classy, San Diego.
Uh, Ms. Carter, Caitlin Clark brings more to the table than your grandmother at Thanksgiving. She brings more to the table than Doyle Brunson at a poker tournament. She brings more to the table than Lard (Bleep) Logan in the Blueberry Pie eat-off in “Stand By Me.”
Clark is the life raft sent to try to save your league, which has teetered on the axis between financial success and failure since its inception.
And while no one should be above the game — especially in terms of competitive balance — the leadership of the WNBA should call the folks that ran the WNBA in the late 1980s and into the 1990s.
The NBA had a transcendental star that was more popular than any before him — and any since — but he was annually denied chances at titles by bully ball and needless fouls and overly physical play.
The Bulls addressed it early on by adding enforcer Charles Oakley to the roster.
The NBA addressed it formally and behind the scenes with the rule changes and what came to be known as the Jordan rules over the 1990s when MJ’s Bulls started to dominate and he became the most popular non-soccer team sport athlete the world has seen since arguably Babe Ruth.
Because no matter what dirty-playing Carter thinks, Clark’s bringing more to the table than any player in WNBA history, and no one is watching to see her get picked on — for whatever reason.
This and that
— We mentioned the RBC, but visor tip to Baylor School grad Keith Mitchell for a T10 finish, which earned him more than $227K.
— Braves took 2-of-3 from Oakland, which should be expected, but was still a bit of a surprise since rotation stalwart Chris Sale got rocked in Saturday’s loss.
— Here is this week’s “Bets and Ballgame” podcast with Brian Edwards on the Southeaster14 platforms. We cover a slew of things and breakdown an experienced Missouri team which could have the easiest SEC schedule. The Tigers’ toughest game is at Alabama after a Mizzou bye week with the Tide coming off a trip to Knoxville the Saturday before. Yes, we both are already on Missouri over 9.5 wins in 2024.
— SEC baseball advanced four — Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia and Texas A&M — to the Super Regionals with Florida and LSU playing elimination finals today.
— If you do not love the hidden ball trick in baseball, well, you likely hate puppies, cool mountain mornings and the appreciation of a thankful child. Here’s Clemson making the hidden magic happen.
Today’s questions
Weekend winners and losers, go.
As for multiple choice Monday, let’s go this way:
Greatest American summer Olympian of the last 40 years:
— Carl Lewis
— Simone Biles
— Michael Phelps
— Katie Ledecky
(Good luck with that one, and like middle school math, please show your work.)
As for today, June 3, let’s review.
“Big” debuted on this day in 1988. Man, Tom Hanks has had a career if that classic may not make his first or second Rushmore.
Rafael Nadal is 38 today.
The first baseball uniforms were worn on this day with the New York Knickerbockers wearing blue slacks, white shirts and straw hats.
Rushmore of the best MLB caps. Go, and enjoy the day.