5-at-10: Weekend winners (Nadal) and losers (Gas prices -- ouch) and another weekend shooting

Weekend winners

Grace, at least in sports. As Weeds noted here, the Russell clan showed amazing patience and forgiveness with a terrible mistake from an ESPN announcer. (Side note: The Big Orange machine that Is VolsTwitter was far less gracious to ESPN announcer Troy Eklund, who inaccurately said Evan Russell missed the Vols' NCAA opener because he failed a PED test.) It was not the only act of forgive over the weekend, though. Twins announcer Jim Kaat, whose MLB career was almost lengthy enough to have relieved both Cy Young and multiple-time Cy Young winner Greg Maddox, called Yankees pitcher Nestor Cortes "Nestor the Molestor" during a broadcast. The aged Kaat missed the term, and Cortes quickly diffused the situation with class, saying this to the AP: "I'm sure, you know, he didn't really mean it, and people make mistakes, but it didn't offend me at all. So, you know, I don't really have anything more to say than just that, honestly." Hard to know which is more telling, the grace showed by Cortes and the Russells, or how impressed we are at people accepting apologies and turning the other cheek these days.

Rafael Nadal. He beat Djokovic on his way to the Finals at Roland Garros and rolled through Sunday in Paris to add to his already record total of men's singles Grand Slams titles. Nadal now has 22 major titles and 14 at the French Open. There is no one who is better at any sport in any particular setting in the history of the world than Nadal on clay. Not Jack at Augusta. Not Dale Sr. on the superspeedways. Not anyone on the grad at Wimbledon. Picture this: Nadal is 112-3 at the French Open over his career.

Braves. Good team handle their business against subpar teams. Well, other than the Dodgers' inexplicable struggles with the Pirates through the years. Still, Atlanta went to Denver and took each of a four-game series over the weekend with some time swings - we had an Adam Duvall sighting people - and clutch pitching. Good times.

Warriors. Golden State needed a big effort, and it got it Sunday night in a Game 2 rout that was so one-sided it also allowed me to head to bed at a decent hour. Thanks all around. When's Game 3, July 1?

Weekend losers

Those still wanting to play the 'gotcha game' that generates the Cancel Culture and social media morality mob. And the ones that find a new name on the sports or entertainment landscape and dig up old social media miscues - especially when committed as teenagers - well God bless the perfect perch on which you sit in your fancy and immaculate glass house. Happened this weekend as Cards young slugger Brendan Donovan, 25, was not asked about his second three-hit game of the season or a career-best four RBIs Saturday night. Nope he was asked about and answered with contrition about tweets he sent in 2011 - when he was 14 - and in 2013 that had derogatory and homophobic language.

Gas prices. Wow. Just wow. And it's not just the fuel, everything is out-of-this-world expense. Did you see prices close to $10 a gallon in one New York town for gas? And a sneaky one that has gone through the roof in inflation jump under Uncle Joe? The dog food we buy for Uga-lookalike Bo Jackson was less than $70 for the monster bag two years ago. Saturday, I paid $112 for it. More than a 50% increase in two-plus years? Really? Thanks Joe.

Saturday night at Dodgers Stadium. Mainly because the Dodgers all blue uniforms are so grotesque even the late 2000s Georgia red and black Power Ranger digs from that game vs. Boise State were horrified. (Side note: The Dodgers have one of the top-five uniforms across all of sports and to replace them with the all-blue jammies is both wrong and disrespectful.) It also overshadowed a rare scenario in which I learned a baseball rule. As did Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who was unaware of a rule change that made him unable to use a position player as a pitcher in the ninth inning of a 9-4 Mets win. With his bullpen strained, Roberts was going to use Zach McKinstry to pitch the top of the ninth, but MLB and the players association agreed after 2020 that position players could only pitch in game that had at least a six-run lead. Who knew? (Side question: Shouldn't a MLB manager know this kind of thing? Like for real?)

The grief in South Pittsburg. Four young people who either played or were playing football at SPHS were killed in a car wreck over the weekend. A fifth remains hospitalized. Here's more from TFP sports editor Stephen Hargis.

Another weekend shooting gallery

The stakes were clearly raised. After six were shot and two left in critical condition nine days ago, there was another downtown shooting this weekend.

In the wee hours of Sunday morning, 17 were injured and three killed when bullets rained across McCallie Avenue. There was a death and injuries in those totals from folks being in car accidents fleeing the scene.

Hard to know the words, you know. Hard to imagine making that phone call to the loved ones of those injured and killed. Harder sell to imagine getting that phone call.

So the words are difficult to grasp, even though the conversation must be clear and focused.

But these words are disconnected to this conversation. Here are the closing comments from Mayor Tim Kelly's news conference, which started with the right tenor and tone about seriously confronting the offenders and the cracking down on the criminality that is gripping our city: "And finally, I am a gun owner. I've been an avid hunter and marksman all my life-and so I want to say this clearly, I fully support responsible gun ownership, but Congress needs to do their jobs and pass common sense regulations that will help stop this nonsense. That doesn't mean taking guns away from responsible gun owners, but it does mean mandatory background checks and prohibiting high-capacity magazines that allow shooters to hurt dozens of people without having to so much as reload. In mass shootings between 2009 and 2020, high-capacity magazines led to 5x as many people shot per mass shooting. This stuff is just common sense. And it's a simple way we can keep people safe."

In no way am I disagreeing with any thought or sentiment of Kelly's speech. I too am a gun owner - as we have discussed around these parts before - and his thoughts and suggestions are worthy of exploring and consideration.

But they are not pertinent in this scenario.Why? Because does anyone really believe the folks doing these shootings are going to be deterred by improvements to common sense gun laws? Of course not. Those guns used were almost assuredly not legally purchased, licensed or registered, right?

(Side note: Yes, Congress doing their job is a pipe dream, but I appreciate the Mayor giving them the benefit of the doubt.)

The answers from City Hall police headquarters - is this gang-related, was this a retaliation, should we expect more violence next Saturday, and if so, the Mayor's Sunday to-do agenda will start slotting media briefing after church and before lunch - are critical in coming days.

But they also should stay on topic and focused.

This and that

- Tennessee baseball was on both sides of the coin this weekend. The Vols are undeniably great, and they are fun as all get out to watch. But a slugger like Jordan Beck - aka Mike Honcho - throwing middle-finger birds up as he rounds the bases is bush league. I love 90-plus percent of this team's antics because I am all for making the game fun and embracing being a sports villain. And I know these are college kids who are in amazingly emotional spots. But that crossed the line for me, to be honest.

- So Wayne Gretzky's final Edmonton sweater sold for a record $1.4 million. Man, that's more dollars than sense right there.

- Local golf updates: Keith Mitchell managed the difficult Sunday conditions at The Memorial with a 1-under 71 and finished tied for 18th. That check was worth $142,800. Fellow Baylor alum Luke List had an expensive final round as a 77 dropped him from inside the top-10 after 54 holes to T26. Still a weekend payday of $89,400 is pretty sweet work - that works out to List making $1,241.67 for each hole and right at $311.50 for each of his 287 swings at Jack's place.

- So, last Friday, I did not do a great job of answering Spy's question about the broadcast details of this week's debut LIV golf event in London. Here are some pertinent things I have since read. Longtime English Premier League soccer announcer Arlo White will be the Jim Nantz of the LIV, which will be shown on the LIV's site, Facebook and YouTube.

- And you thought the Jimbo-Saban feud stirred controversy at College Station. Over the weekend Kyle Rittenhouse said he would be attending Texas A&M on Charlie Kirk's podcast. Sunday, a Texas A&M spokesman said Rittenhouse had not been admitted for the summer of fall semester. Yeah, so there's that.

Today's questions

Weekend winners and losers, go.

As for today, June, 6, we'd be remiss not to at least take a moment in tribute to the fearless Americans who participated in D-Day on this date in 1944. God bless who were involved and those that lost loved ones who were involved. One of America's bravest moments.

What's our Rushmore of days that should be national holidays that aren't because I can make a hard argument for this one.
Discuss.