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by Julian Spivey  At the time of this writing, we’re about 14 hours away from the 2024 Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony, and I’m sure the International Olympic Committee (IOC) can’t wait for the festivities and events to begin. There has been nothing but negative coverage for these games in the days leading up to the world’s biggest sporting event. There has been everything from cheating scandals and racist policies to animal abuse and sex criminals in the headlines over the last few days. Let’s run down some of these controversies and scandals. Perhaps the worst controversy facing the Olympics before the start of the games has been the revelation that the Netherlands included convicted child rapist Steven van de Velde on its beach volleyball roster. van de Velde was convicted in 2016 of raping a 12-year-old British girl whom he knew was underage. The Dutch volleyballer served four years in prison, which seems like an absurdly short amount of time for the rape of a child, and now represents his country, which apparently doesn’t care about the black eye it’s receiving over the public backlash in front of the world. The Netherlands allowing van de Velde to compete in the Olympics and the I.O.C.’s lack of action to prevent such a thing sends a horrible message to humankind that disgusting, disturbing, and illegal behavior matters little as long as your athletic talent might win a medal for your home country. van de Velde isn’t being allowed to stay in the Olympic athlete’s village during the games, probably because he’s a pedophilic sex offender and there are likely underage athletes at the games and has been advised not to speak with the media during the games. Hopefully, the fans in attendance will boo the ever-loving hell out of him during every beach volleyball event he’s in, and his Olympics will be short and torturous. Thanks to the Canadian women's soccer team, the Games hadn’t even begun before they had been embroiled in a cheating scandal. News came out a few days ago that the Canadian team had used drones to spy on the New Zealand squad’s closed practice sessions, as the two were to meet in the opening match of the Games. Initially, assistant coach Jasmine Mander and Canada soccer analyst Joseph Lombardi were sent home from the Games for their role in the cheating scandal. But on Thursday (July 25), the Canadian Olympic Committee removed the team’s head coach, Bev Priestman, from the Games and suspended her. Canada’s TSN reported on Thursday that the Canadian men’s and women’s teams have relied on drones to spy on competing teams' practices for years, including during the 2020 Tokyo Games, in which the women’s team won the gold medal. Integrity and fair competition are supposed to be among the most significant beliefs of the Olympic games. For that reason, the fact that the Canadian women’s team (the men’s team didn’t qualify for the event) hasn’t been disqualified from the Games is disappointing. Cheating of any kind has no place in the Olympics. Suspending the head coach isn’t enough for the Canadian women’s soccer team. Great Britain equestrian star Charlotte Dujardin, who has been described as the dominant dressage rider of her era by the U.K.’s Telegraph, pulled out of the Games less than a week before they began after video footage of her abusing a horse four years ago surfaced on the internet. According to USA Today, the video showed Dujardin aggressively whipping a horse’s hind legs 24 times during a coach session with another rider atop the horse. Dujardin, a three-time Olympic gold medalist in dressage, apologized for her actions and said she was “ashamed” and “what happened was completely out of character and does not reflect how I train my horses or coach my pupils,” which is always something that you have to wonder about as it’s only admitted after one is caught. I’m sure most equestrian athletes are training their horses appropriately. Still, it makes one wonder if the only Olympic sport featuring animals should be watched more closely by animal rights leaders. Paris and France must be excited about the world’s eyes being upon it for the next two weeks, but the situation has opened the eyes of the world to one of France’s most restrictive and, frankly, racist laws. France enforces a strict principle of laïcité, loosely translated as secularism, which relies on the division between private and public life regarding religion. Under this law, French state employees (of which athletes participating for their country fall) and school pupils are banned from wearing religious symbols and clothing in public. Laïcité might have some good in its intentions, essentially treating all folks as equals, but some religions, including Islam, require followers to wear garments such as hijabs or head scarves. France, home to Europe’s most significant Muslim minority according to Yahoo, includes French Muslim sprinter Sounkamba Sylla, who traditionally wears a hijab, among its Olympic athletes. Sylla would not have been able to walk in her home country’s Olympic Opening Ceremony on Friday due to her hijab. On Thursday, an agreement was made between Sylla and the French Olympic Committee that would allow her to wear a cap covering her hair during the ceremony. However, the fact remains the country has a law that effectively discriminates against particular religions. I can’t wait for the Olympic Games to start on Friday because these Games need some good and positive moments because the week leading up to the world’s biggest sporting event has been one giant nightmare of, frankly, the worst humanity has to offer.
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by Eric Fulton & Julian Spivey
6. Editor's note: This article originally erroneously had Kylian Mbappe competing in the Olympic soccer tournament for his home country of France. He is not on the France Men's Soccer Olympic roster.
by Julian Spivey
I know that seeing something positive about a politician in an election year, particularly one as fraught as this one, might be eye-roll-inducing, but Iowa State Representative J.D. Scholten is our sports hero of the week for coming in in a pinch to pitch for his local independent league professional ballclub, the Sioux City Explorers, who were in desperate need of a pitcher. On Saturday (July 6), the 44-year-old Scholten, who represents District 1 in the Iowa House of Representatives, received a call from Explorers manager Steve Montgomery just 90 minutes before the first pitch of that evening’s game with the plea to help, as the team’s bullpen had been forced to cover 13 innings the two nights before. Its scheduled pitcher for Saturday had become ill. Scholten had been a star pitcher in Sioux City as a high schooler before going to college at the University of Nebraska, where he led the Cornhuskers in earned run average his senior year. Following college, Scholten bounced around in independent pro baseball leagues in seven countries, including some time on the mound for the Explorers. In 2022, Scholten became the District 1 representative for Iowa. He’s running for re-election this year. Helping out the local ball club in a pinch should be a good way to help win that re-election. Not only did Scholten pitch on Saturday, but he was terrific, pitching 6.2 innings on less than two hours notice and leading his team to an 11-2 victory against the Milwaukee Milkmen. It’s the kind of thing Hollywood movies are made of … maybe we’ll see it on the big screen someday?
In the half year we’ve been doing this sports hero and zero piece for The Word on Pop Culture we have featured some really bad folks as the sports zero of the week – racists, misogynists, dimwits, etc. I’ve said some harsh things about these sports zeroes, all justified in my mind. But sometimes you have to point the finger at yourself. Sure, what I did isn’t as bad as the Kansas City Chiefs kicker acting like all women belong at home in the kitchen, or Aaron Rodgers babbling on about whatever dumbass conspiracy theory of the week he has, or boxer Ryan Garcia last week offending virtually anybody and everybody … but I think it still puts me firmly in a sports zero of the week category of the fantasy sports competitor who isn’t paying enough attention to his fictional squad and it costs him dearly. So, what did I, Julian Spivey, do to deserve being this week’s sports zero? I failed to realize the Pittsburgh Pirates had a noon game on Thursday (July 11) and that the team’s phenom ace, Paul Skenes, sat on my fantasy team’s bench while having one of his and baseball’s most fantastic pitching performances this season. Skenes went seven innings without allowing a hit in Thursday’s game against the Milwaukee Brewers while striking out 11 Brewers. It was one of the most incredible pitching performances in Major League Baseball history by a rookie, and it was wasted on my fantasy squad, Hammerin’ Hank. If I lose this week’s matchup because of my fantasy faux-pas, I’ll have no one to blame but myself. Oh, by the way, as long as we’re giving out sports zeroes, can we also talk about removing a pitcher with a no-hitter after seven innings and 99 pitches because they’re on a pitch count? Baseball has gotten weak when it comes to babying its pitchers, leading to one of the game’s most exciting and rarest moments, the no-hitter, being impacted. It should be illegal to remove a pitcher with a no-hitter. by Eric Fulton & Julian Spivey The 32nd annual ESPY Awards will be held on Thursday, July 11, 2014 from the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles. The telecast can be seen on ABC at 7 p.m. (CST) with re-runs on the ESPN networks. The ESPYs are a fan-voted award for the best in sports. Here are the winners we would like to see honored this year ...  Best Team: Nominees: Boston Celtics, Oklahoma Sooners Softball, UCONN Huskies Men’s Basketball, Las Vegas Aces, Michigan Wolverines Football, Kansas City Chiefs, South Carolina Gamecocks Women’s Basketball, Florida Panthers, Texas Rangers Our Winner: Boston Celtics You can pick the best team in sports a few different ways, and each way is a valid option. There is the most surprising team to win a title, which I believe would be the Texas Rangers in baseball. There’s the team amid a dynasty, which would be the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs. And then there’s the best overall and most dominant team of their given sport, and, in my opinion, this year, that was the NBA champion Boston Celtics. The Celtics title felt like it was a few years in the making, and they thoroughly dominated the NBA this season, finishing 14 games better than the next-best team in the Eastern Conference and seven games better than the next-best team in the league. Their path through the NBA postseason seemed like a cakewalk as dominant as the team was. JS Best Athlete: Men’s Sports Nominees: Patrick Mahomes, Shohei Ohtani, Scottie Scheffler, Connor McDavid Our Winner: Shohei Ohtani Patrick Mahomes won his third Super Bowl in the last half-decade, Scottie Scheffler is on the biggest golf heater since the heyday of Tiger Woods and Connor McDavid does hockey well, I suppose, but there’s only one guy on this list who does everything in his sport and does it well, and that’s Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Sure, he’s not pitching this season due to surgery, but he was one of the best last season for the Los Angeles Angels, made the biggest free agent splashes in the history of pro sports signing with the Dodgers, and continues to be one of the most feared hitters in the game. JS Best Athlete: Women’s Sports Nominees: Caitlin Clark, Coco Gauff, Nelly Korda, A’ja Wilson Our Winner: Caitlin Clark All of these women have had fantastic years. Still, there’s only one who has transformed an entire sport from more of a niche thing to one of the most talked about sports in the country, and that was what Caitlin Clark did for not only women’s college basketball but also the WNBA now that she’s playing professional. The all-time leading scorer in college basketball history was drafted by the Indiana Fever and is now in the midst of one of the greatest rookie seasons in the history of that league. This is a no-brainer. JS Best Recording-Breaking Performance: Nominees: Christian McCaffrey scores a touchdown in 17-straight games, Caitlin Clark crowned NCAA All-Time Scoring Leader, Tara Vanderveer is winningest coach in NCAA basketball history, Max Verstappen wins a record 10th consecutive race Our Winner: Caitlin Clark All of these were wonderful record-breaking achievements but for Caitlin Clark to not only become the all-time leading scorer in women’s college basketball history but also the all-time leading scorer in NCAA history, whether women or men, all the while transforming women’s basketball into one of the most watched and talked about sports in the country makes her record-breaking performance an easy selection. JS Best Championship Performance Nominees: Blake Corum & Will Johnson, Kayla Martello, Midge Purce, Jaylen Brown Our Winner: Jaylen Brown Brown won the Larry Bird (Eastern Conference Finals) MVP and the Bill Russell (NBA Finals) MVP to help lead the Boston Celtics to their first NBA title since 2008. The Celtics had an incredible run to the championship, led by Brown, going 16-3 in the NBA postseason. EF Best Breakthrough Athlete Nominees: Haleigh Bryant, C.J. Stroud, Juju Watkins, Victor Wembanyama Our Winner: Victor Wembanyana Victor Wembanyana was drafted first overall by the San Antonio Spurs in the 2023 NBA Draft and immediately impacted the court. “Wemby” averaged 21 points and 11 rebounds per game in his first NBA season. He led the NBA in blocks per game with 3.6 and was named to the All-Rookie Team, All-Defensive Team and won Rookie of the Year in 2024. EF Best Comeback Athlete Nominees: Simone Biles, Paige Bueckers, Joe Flacco, Zion Williamson Our Winner: Simone Biles This one feels like it’s still in the making because I’m expecting Simone Biles to have a huge 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris after mostly pulling out of the 2020 Tokyo Games (in 2021) to focus on mental health issues. Biles is back on top of the game, racking up championships at the U.S. and World Gymnastics Championships. I’m frankly shocked she wasn’t nominated for Best Female Athlete by the ESPYs, but hopefully, this honor will do. JS Best NFL Player: Nominees: Myles Garrett, Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes, Christian McCaffrey Our Winner: Patrick Mahomes This might be our most controversial choice because it’s Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, who was named NFL MVP for the second time in his career and can do it all on the field, throwing and running the ball. Still, ultimately, we have to go with the face of the game, the guy consistently winning championships, and that’s Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Mahomes would surely trade the MVP for winning another Super Bowl ring. JS Best MLB Player: Nominees: Ronald Acuna Jr., Gerrit Cole, Shohei Ohtani, Corey Seager Our Winner: Shohei Ohtani I want to go with Atlanta Braves superstar outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr. here because his 2023 season saw him as the first player in Major League Baseball history to hit 40 homers and steal 75 bases. Still, his torn ACL has him out for most of the 2024 season, which hurts his case. Also, hurting his case is there’s nobody in baseball right now bigger than L.A. Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani, who gives baseball probably its first household name since Derek Jeter retired. JS Best NBA Player: Nominees: Luka Doncic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokic, Jayson Tatum Our Winner: Nikola Jokic Jayson Tatum led the Boston Celtics to their first NBA title in over a decade but he’s also basically part of a two-headed monster leading that team. I have to go with Nikola Jokic, who won his third career NBA MVP this season after leading the Denver Nuggets to the first title in franchise history the year prior. Jokic is a unicorn of a player who can do it all on the court despite seemingly having less athleticism than most players in the league and is a walking triple-double. JS Best College Athlete: Men’s Sports Nominees: Jayden Daniels, Zach Edey, Ousmane Sylla, Pat Kavanagh Our Winner: Jayden Daniels LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels won the 2023 Heisman Trophy, leading the Tigers to nine wins. Daniels totaled 4,946 yards in both running and passing in 2023, with 50 touchdowns (40 passing and 10 rushing). The Washington Commanders drafted him second in the 2024 NFL Draft. EF Best College Athlete: Women's Sports Nominees: Haleigh Bryant, Caitlin Clark, Sarah Franklin, Izzy Scane Our Winner: Catlin Clark Caitlin Clark has been the face and the name of women's basketball in the last couple of years. She broke the NCAA Women's Basketball's all-time scoring record and is now making a huge impact in the WNBA. EF Best WNBA Player Nominees: Napheesa Collier, Breanna Stewart, Alyssa Thomas, A’ja Wilson Our Winner: A'ja Wilson A’ja Wilson has led the Las Vegas Aces to back-to-back WNBA championships. The 2022 WNBA MVP won the WNBA Finals MVP in 2023 and will represent the USA in the upcoming Summer Olympic Games in Paris. EF Best NHL Player Nominees: Nikita Kucherov, Nathan MacKinnon, Auston Matthews, Connor McDavid Our Winner: Connor McDavid Connor McDavid had another great season, leading the Edmonton Oilers to the Stanley Cup Final. McDavid had 132 points in the regular season, 100 were assists. During the Oilers' Playoff Run, McDavid scored 42 points, 34 of which were assists. McDavid was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy despite the Oilers losing the Stanley Cup Final. (Only the sixth player in history on the losing end of the Stanley Cup Final to win the Conn Smythe Trophy). EF Best Tennis Player Nominees: Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, Coco Gauff, Iga Swiatek Our Winner: Iga Swiatek Iga Swiatek has been the world's No. 1 women's tennis player since 2022 and has held that position for 110 weeks. Swiatek made it to at least the fourth round in all four major tournaments in 2023. She just won her fourth French Open title in the last five years. EF Best Golfer Nominees: Nelly Korda, Xander Schauffele, Scottie Scheffler, Lilia Vu Our Winner: Scottie Scheffler Nelly Korda had quite the run earlier this year in the LPGA with a record-tying five consecutive tournament wins. Still, nobody has been hotter in the golfing world than PGA Tour star Scottie Scheffler, who has won six tournaments just halfway through the year, including his second Masters title in the last three years. No one has had a run like the one Scheffler has been on this year since the heyday of Tiger Woods. JS Best Soccer Player Nominees: Aitana Bonmati, Naomi Girma, Vinicius Junior, Kylian Mbappe Our Winner: Kylian Mbappe Kylian Mbappe became captain of the French National Soccer Team in March 2023. He spent the last seven years playing for Paris Saint-German, scoring 175 goals in 205 appearances. He will play for Real Madrid later in 2024. EF Best UFC Fighter Nominees: Islam Makhachev, Sean O’Malley, Alex Pereira, Zhang Weili Our Winner: Islam Makhachev Islam Makhachev is the current UFC lightweight champion and is 26-1 in his UFC career. His last and only loss came in 2015. Since that loss, Makhachev has won 14 straight UFC fights, including the lightweight championship he has held since 2022. EF Best Driver Nominees: Ryan Blaney, Matt Hagan, Alex Palou, Max Verstappen Our Winner: Max Verstappen Formula 1 is the least competitive of all the motorsports series in this category (NASCAR, NHRA and IndyCar being the other three). However, Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing has been on such a heater over the last few years (likely the best in F1 history) that picking another driver would be fool-hearted. Verstappen is expected to win every F1 race these days and often does. JS by Julian Spivey
American middle-distance runner Nikki Hiltz qualified for the Paris Olympics on Sunday, June 30, after winning the women’s 1,500-meter at the U.S. Track & Field Olympic team trials in Eugene, Ore. Qualifying for the Olympics must’ve been a kickass way to wrap up Pride Month. Hiltz, who came out as transgender and nonbinary in 2021, will become one of the first American gender nonconforming athletes in Olympic history. At the Tokyo Summer Games in 2021, Skateboarder Alana Smith, who identifies as nonbinary, held up their skateboard at one moment with their preferred pronouns “they/them” scribbled on it. Smith didn’t medal, but they said they accomplished their goal of being “happy and a visual representation for humans like me.” Hiltz will attempt to become the first trans medalist at the Olympics, which will begin later this month.
Boxer Ryan Garcia, who was recently suspended for a year by the New York Athletic Commission for testing positive for a banned substance, proved himself to be a real P.O.S. human when he went on social media using racist slurs and mocked the 2020 death of George Floyd, a black man, at the hands of a police officer in Minnesota. Garcia also disparaged Mexicans, Muslims, Christians and others on X (formerly Twitter). On Thursday, Garcia was expelled by the World Boxing Council for his derogatory language and actions. WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman announced the penalty on X. We reject any form of discrimination," Sulaiman wrote. "I fear for Ryan (sic) well being as he has declined multiple attempts for our help with mental health and substance abuse." The 25-year old boxer from California said he was “trolling” in a non-apology apology following his expulsion from WBC. Garcia was also arrested and charged with a felony last month after a Beverly Hills hotel accused him of an estimated $15,000 worth of damage to the hotel. by Julian Spivey Last month I made my selections for the MLB All Star starters before the ballots were released on MLB.com. Then I used an array of statistical categories to make my choices. Now that the All Star ballot is available for voting on MLB.com I’ve made my second selections, this time using merely the four statistical categories offered on the online ballot (average, home runs, RBI and OPS). MLB All Star balloting is done in two sections. All eligible candidates are on the ballot from June 5-27. The top two players from that first round then square off for the All Star starting job from June 30-July 3. Here are my current selections for National League starters: *any stats used in this article are as of June 21. Catcher There are a few catchers in the National League worthy of making the All Star Game this summer: Patrick Bailey (San Francisco Giants) and Will Smith (Los Angeles Dodgers). How is Smith not currently in the top 2 in voting, by the way? But the guy who has been the runaway best catcher all season has been William Contreras of the Milwaukee Brewers. Contreras is hitting .298 with nine home runs, 49 RBI and a .809 OPS. First Base The Philadelphia Phillies have been the best team in the National League virtually all season and a big reason for that is their star first baseman Bryce Harper. Harper’s transition from the outfield to first base in hopes of cutting down injuries has been a smooth one. He’s hitting .285 this season with 17 homers, 48 RBI and a .928 OPS. He should be the easy choice to start at first for the N.L. All Star team. Second Base There haven’t been as many changes to my National League All Star starters in the month since I did this last as there were with my previously published American League lineup. My second baseman is still Arizona Diamondbacks two-bagger Ketel Marte, who surprisingly has only been an All Star once before. Marte is hitting .280 with 15 homers, 42 RBI and a .848 OPS. Martel is currently second in the voting to Luis Arraez of the San Diego Padres despite having much better numbers in three of the four categories on the online ballot. Third Base The 27-year-old Philadelphia Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm is looking to make his first All Star Game and should be the starter for the N.L. Bohm is hitting .301 this season with seven homers, 60 RBI and a .829 OPS. He’s the current vote-getter over some guys with bigger name recognition like Manny Machado. Shortstop Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts was my choice last month and would’ve still been my choice this month had he not fractured his hand due to a hit by pitch this past week. He’s going to miss the All Star Game due to the injury so I figured I’d give my vote to a guy with a chance to play. That pick goes to Trea Turner of the Philadelphia Phillies. Turner is hitting .344 with three home runs, 12 RBI and a .859 OPS. This may be controversial because he’s only played in about half of the games thus far this season due to injury but there just wasn’t a clear favorite after Betts. Some of the other contenders (Elly De La Cruz, Oneil Cruz, Willy Adames) are hitting too low to get my vote at the moment. Outfield The National League outfield doesn’t look nearly as scary as the American League one led by New York Yankees duo Aaron Judge and Juan Soto. A couple of my choices from last month have been retained in San Diego Padres outfielder Jurickson Profar, who’s potentially been the biggest surprise in baseball this season hitting .320, currently second in the N.L., with 10 home runs, 48 RBI and an .898 OPS. Teoscar Hernandez of the Los Angeles Dodgers is back on my ballot with a .258 average, 18 homers, 58 RBI and an .823 OPS. Chicago Cubs outfielder Cody Bellinger who made my cut in May has been replaced by former N.L. M.V.P. and inner-division rival Christian Yelich of the Milwaukee Brewers. Yelich is hitting .324 with seven home runs, 34 RBI and a .902 OPS. Designated Hitter The best fight for All Star Game starting positions in the National League all season has been at designated hitter between Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani and Atlanta Braves DH Marcell Ozuna. If the season ended right now they’d potentially be 1-2 in the M.V.P. voting. Their offensive numbers are nearly identical this season. Ohtani is hitting .322 with a league-leading 22 home runs, 55 RBI and a 1.026 OPS. Ozuna is hitting .311 with 20 homers, 63 RBI and a .977 OPS. If I had written this article last week when Ozuna was briefly leading the N.L. in all three Triple Crown categories he would’ve been my choice. Currently, Ohtani is leading in three of the four online ballot categories and thus has my vote. Let’s face it, Ohtani will win the popular vote no matter what. Ozuna will have to settle for making the midsummer classic as a reserve.  by Julian Spivey Last month I made my selections for the MLB All Star starters before the ballots were released on MLB.com. Then I used an array of statistical categories to make my choices. Now that the All Star ballot is available for voting on MLB.com I’ve made my second selections, this time using merely the four statistical categories offered on the online ballot (average, home runs, RBI and OPS). MLB All Star balloting is done in two sections. All eligible candidates are on the ballot from June 5-27. The top two players from that first round then square off for the All Star starting job from June 30-July 3. Here are my current selections for American League starters: *any stats used in this article are as of June 21. Catcher When I made my selections last month it was Kansas City Royals veteran backstop Salvador Perez that made my cut at catcher. Perez’s numbers are still All Star Game worthy but he’s since been surpassed by the young Baltimore Orioles star Adley Rutschman, who’s hitting .305, with 14 home runs, 53 RBI and a .837 OPS. Rutschman will likely be for Baltimore over the next decade what Perez has been the Kansas City over the past. First Baseman Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is the current vote leader for the position in the A.L. and I understand it. I almost picked him myself and he has higher name recognition than my selection. But for the second time I’m going with Josh Naylor of the Cleveland Guardians. I don’t like that Naylor’s batting average is 40 points lower than Guerrero’s, but Naylor has Vlad Jr. beat by a good margin in the other three categories listed on the online ballot. The only problem for Naylor is that he’s not currently in the top 2 in the voting and likely won’t have a shot at being the starter. Second Baseman My selection at second base last month was Marcus Semien of the reigning champion Texas Rangers. He’s struggled since then and has been surpassed on my ballot by his instate rival Jose Altuve of the Houston Astros, no stranger to All Star games. Altuve is hitting .301 with 11 homers, 32 RBI and a .811 OPS. Third Baseman You would think that Rafael Devers by putting up consistently good numbers and playing for such a big fan base as the Boston Red Sox would have more support in the All Star ballot but he’s not one of the top-2 vote getters right now at the position, despite most of his numbers being similar to the No. 1 vote-getter Jose Ramirez of the Cleveland Guardians. Still, the one statistical category where Ramirez has nearly doubled Devers is RBI where Ramirez has 65 to Dever’s 38, which makes his selection easier. My pick last month was Isaac Paredes of the Rays, who’s still putting up big numbers and also not in the top 2. Shortstop The Baltimore Orioles seem primed to have at least two All Star Game starters with Gunnar Henderson looking like the obvious choice to start at shortstop and join teammate Adley Rutschman in the midsummer classic lineup. Henderson is second in the American League with 24 home runs, tied with Rutschman for fifth with RBI and third in the league with a .991 OPS. Outfield Aaron Judge is the likeliest contender for American League Most Valuable Player nearing the midway point of the 2024 MLB season. His closest competition may be his own outfield teammate Juan Soto. Both those guys should be locks to start in the A.L. outfield at the midsummer classic. Judge leads baseball with a 1.113 OPS, leads baseball with 27 homers and leads baseball with 67 RBI. He’s also hitting .301 and on pace for one of the greatest offensive seasons in baseball history something he’s done before. Soto is keeping pace with Judge in most offensive categories. He’s hitting .304 with 18 homers, 56 RBI and an OPS of .995. No 1-2 duo in baseball should put fear into opposing pitchers as Soto and Judge, so good luck to whoever the National League starting pitcher at the All Star Game will be. My third A.L. outfield selection could go to several folks and my selection might be slightly controversial because he doesn’t have enough at-bats to yet qualify for the batting title but I’m going to go with Cleveland Guardians outfielder Steven Kwan, who is hitting .387 in 47 games. He’s added five home runs, 21 RBI and .993 OPS to go with that stellar average. Designated Hitter My choice for designated hitter in the American League this month is Houston Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez. Alvarez is hitting .293 with 15 homers, 39 RBI and a .882 OPS. He’s currently the leading vote-getter on the ballot. My pick last month was Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton, who’s No. 2 on the ballot.  by Julian Spivey
Congratulations to the Boston Celtics on winning the 2023-2024 NBA championship. The team dominated its way through the entire 2024 NBA playoffs after a season in which it was obviously the most dominant team in the league – winning the Eastern Conference by a ridiculous 14 games over the second-place New York Knicks. The Celtics weren’t just the most dominant team of the NBA season but one of the most dominant in the history of the game when it comes to outscoring opponents. Only the 1971 Milwaukee Bucks and 2017 Golden State Warriors had a higher point differential during their championship seasons than the 2024 Celtics, who averaged 10.7 points per game more than their opponents during the season. The championship was something the Celtics had been building upon for a few seasons now with their dynamic All-Star duo of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, whose 107 playoff games together were the most of any duo before winning a title. It wasn’t that long ago that people speculated the Celtics would need to break up the Tatum/Brown duo for the franchise to succeed but the chemistry between the two stars continued to build, the team made some huge front-office moves to acquire important pieces like Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday and now the team is the best in the league. The Celtics were an easy choice for this week’s sports hero of the week.
It happens a few times every year. An athlete will start celebrating too soon and then boom they’ve turned themselves into a laughingstock, in addition to being a loser. The most recent example of celebrating too soon biting an athlete in the ass is Laura Garcia-Caro, a Spanish racewalker who lost out on the bronze medal at the European Athletics Championships in Rome on Friday, June 8. Coming to the end of her 20-kilometer event, the 29-year-old grabbed her home country’s flag, draped it across her should, pumped her fists in the air and, not paying any attention to the event whatsoever, was promptly passed by Ukrainian competitor Lyudmila Olyanovsk in the final two meters of the race. It’s bad enough seeing a football player miss out on a touchdown because they showboated a few yards too soon but I can’t imagine anything more embarrassing than losing a racewalking event as the result of doing so. Luckily for Garcia-Caro she still qualified for the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics. She might want to focus on actually crossing the finish line before any celebrating when she competes on the world’s biggest stage.
by Eric Fulton  The 2023-2024 National Hockey League season is coming toward an end. Two teams have emerged from their respective conferences and will now compete for hockey's ultimate prize, the Stanley Cup. For the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers, the road to this year's Stanley Cup Final has been extremely different. The Oilers had to climb from the bottom of the rankings and fight as the underdog for most of their playoff run. The Panthers have been one of the NHL's top teams for much of the season and had to beat three rivals in the Eastern Conference to reach the Stanley Cup Final for the second consecutive year. The Oilers are making their ninth appearance in the Stanley Cup Final and their first since 2006. They are looking to become the first Canadian NHL team to win the Stanley Cup since the Montreal Canadiens in 1993. Much like their championship teams in the 1980s, the Oilers have a dynamic one-two punch that gives goaltenders nightmares along with a strong supporting cast. To the casual fan, comparing current Oilers stars Connor McDavid (32 goals and 100 assists = 132 points in the regular season, 5 goals and 26 assists = 31 points in the playoffs) and Leon Draisaitl (41 goals and 65 assists = 106 points in the regular season, 10 goals and 18 assists = 28 points in the playoffs) to the likes of Hall of Famers Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier wouldn't be fair. However, McDavid and Draisaitl have been the premiere scoring duo in the league. They have also been two of Edmonton's successful draft picks over the last 10-plus years. The Oilers have also done well when it comes to acquiring talent in recent years such as Evander Kane and Zach Hyman. Hyman scored a career-high 54 goals in the regular season. Edmonton also has two defensemen that have played extremely well this season. Mattias Ekholm (11 goals and 34 assists = 45 points in the regular season 4 goals and 3 assists = 7 points in the playoffs), who came from the Nashville Predators via a trade last season has provided veteran leadership in the backline. Young Evan Bouchard, who averaged just over a point per game in the regular season (18 goals and 64 assists for 82 points in 81 games), has provided high-scoring offense from the defensive position. That trend has continued in the playoffs. Goaltender Stuart Skinner, who won 36 games in the regular season, has had an up-and-down playoffs but came up big in the closing games of all three rounds to help the Oilers reach the Stanley Cup Final. Edmonton's season got off to a rocky start and they were in the bottom of the standings in November with a 2-9-1 record. They fired head coach Jay Woodcroft and plucked a coach from the American Hockey League in Kris Knoblauch. From there, the Oilers were one of the best teams in the NHL propelled by a team-record 16-game winning streak, the longest winning streak by a Canadian team in NHL history. In the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, they beat the Los Angeles Kings for the third year in a row in five games. In the second round, they beat an improved Vancouver Canucks team who finished first in the Pacific Division and were second overall in the West in seven hard-fought games. In the Western Conference Final, Edmonton defeated the Dallas Stars, who finished first overall in the West, in six games. The Florida Panthers were the opposite of the Oilers in the regular season. Fresh off making the Stanley Cup Final last year, Florida is looking to redeem themselves in pursuit of winning their first Stanley Cup. In doing so, they would be just the third team ever to win the Stanley Cup after losing the final the previous year (1984 Edmonton Oilers and 2009 Pittsburgh Penguins). After being the surprise team to make the final last year, Florida will come into this year's final as the slight favorite. The Panthers won 52 games in the regular season under head coach Paul Maurice, who is coaching in his third Stanley Cup Final (2023 and 2002 with the Carolina Hurricanes). Offensively, Florida is led by Sam Reinhart, who had career highs in goals and points (57 goals and 37 assists = 94 points in 82 regular season games). They are also led by Matthew Tkachuk (26 goals and 62 assists = 88 points in 80 regular season games), Carter Verhaeghe (34 goals and 38 assists = 72 points in 76 regular season games) and team captain Aleksander Barkov (23 goals and 57 assists = 80 points in 73 regular season games). It is not a surprise that Reinhart (12 points), Tkachuk (19 points), Verhaeghe (17 points) and Barkov (17 points) are the leading scorers for the Panthers in the playoffs. Defensively for Florida, veteran Gustav Forsling is having a career year. He had the best plus-minus in all of the NHL (+56) and is also leading the Panthers in the playoffs in plus-minus rating (+11). Veteran goaltender and two-time Vezina winner Sergei Bobrovsky is looking to add Stanley Cup champion to his resume. Bobrovsky also won 36 games in the regular season and has been the backbone of Florida's consecutive Stanley Cup Playoff runs. After winning a franchise-record 52 games in the regular season, Florida had to go through three of its toughest rivals to reach the final. First, they beat their in-state rival Tampa Bay Lightning in five games (Note: This will be the fifth straight year the Lightning or the Panthers have participated in the Stanley Cup Final). In the second round, Florida defeated the Boston Bruins for the second straight season in six games. (Florida defeated Boston in the first round in 2023.) In the Eastern Conference Final, the Panthers would square off against the New York Rangers. Florida went down two games to one after a game-three loss but would bounce back to win the next three games to advance to the Stanley Cup Final. This is not an easy series to pick a winner. I love the offense of the Oilers led by McDavid and Draisaitl. However, the Panthers can provide a tough defense in which they can win a 2-1 or 3-2 game. Can Stuart Skinner outperform Sergei Bobrovsky in the goaltending department? Will the Stanley Cup stay on American soil or will it make its long-awaited return to Canada after three decades? In a bit of a surprise, I have the underdogs, the Edmonton Oilers winning in six games because I would love for the Stanley Cup to return to Canada and have the people (well all of the Oilers fans) celebrate something they love all over again. Stanley Cup Final Schedule by Eric Fulton & Julian Spivey  JS: The 2024 NBA Finals begin on ABC on Thursday, June 6 between the Eastern Conference champion Boston Celtics and the Western Conference champion Dallas Mavericks. The Celtics dominated the East all season long finishing 14 games ahead of the second-place New York Knicks in the conference with a 64-18 season record. The Celtics trip throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs has been something of a cakewalk for the team, as well, having no real issues with any of its competition and taking advantage of some key injuries to its competition in what many have called the easiest route to the NBA Finals in league history. The Mavericks entered the postseason 50-32 as the fifth seed in the Western Conference with a slightly less easy route to the NBA Finals having to beat three teams better seeded than them along the way: Los Angeles Clippers, Oklahoma City Thunder and Minnesota Timberwolves. Eric, do you think it's true that the Celtics have had an easy trip to the NBA Finals? EF: I think that the Celtics have had an easy trip to this year's NBA Finals, but let's keep in mind that Miami, Cleveland, Indiana, and to a certain extent, the Knicks and the Bucks all had injuries to key players and had any of the teams not have had these injuries, Boston's road to the Finals would have been a lot tougher. It doesn't mean the games leading up to the Finals were not easy for the Celtics, but if everyone was healthy, I am not sure if Boston represents the East. JS: The Celtics are the odds-on favorites to win the NBA Finals. They'd have to be with what we've seen this season and being the one-seed in the East against the West's five-seed. But there's a bit of a theory going around that since the Celtics haven't really had a hard-fought series and the Mavericks have had nothing but hard-fought series that Boston could be in for a rude awakening. Do you think there's something to that line of thinking? EF: A little bit, but this is the Celtics' second time in the Finals in the last three years and I believe this year's team is better than two years ago. Dallas will not be an easy challenge for the Celtics but having that recent experience will help Boston. JS: So, a lot of times when you see predictions and comparisons for championship series you’ll see them broken down position by position. But Boston/Dallas is unique in that each team clearly has a “Big 2” playing for them - Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown for Boston and Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving for Dallas. Let’s start with each team’s best player - Tatum and Doncic. Which of these guys do you see having the best series and why? EF: I have seen both Tatum and Doncic play great games and series and then I have seen both have not so many great games. It is about who will rise to the occasion. Both are great players, but the run Doncic is on lately has me thinking he will be and is the better of the two right now. So, I have Luka having the best series of the two. JS: I’ve given Tatum a hard time over the last few years for being a guy who chokes in the playoffs. When the moments are at their biggest he seems to shrink. So, this series is a moment for him to prove himself. To throw that reputation out the window. It’ll be interesting to see if he can do that. But, yes, if I had to choose one player between Tatum and Doncic to take in this series it would be Doncic. He’s averaging nearly three points per game more this postseason and he leads the postseason in assists per game at 8.8/game. JS: When it comes to each team’s No. 2 who do you see having the better series? Jaylen Brown or Kyrie Irving. EF: I feel like Kyrie is having a great resurgence this year in Dallas. Knowing this might be his last real shot at getting a second ring, he has stepped up his play. However, I think at times, Jaylen Brown might be the best number two guy in the NBA. The thing is he might be the Celtics' MVP. If you take Brown out of Boston, does Tatum even become an MVP candidate or put up the numbers he does in some of the big games? I think a lot of Tatum's success is because of Brown. I will have to give the advantage to Brown. JS: There’s nobody in the series with as much playoff and Finals experience as Kyrie Irving. That’s just a fact. And he’s done a lot to rehabilitate his image this postseason with Dallas. He’s averaged 22.8 points per game this postseason with 5.2 assists per game to go along with it. But again, I can’t disagree with anything you said about Jaylen Brown. I think at this point he has to be considered the best No. 2 player in the league and he’s honestly more 1B than no. 2. He’s averaged 25 points per game this postseason, which is only one point per game less than Tatum. Tatum is 15th this postseason in PPG and Brown is literally right behind him in 16th. Plus, I just love the energy and tenacity that Brown brings to the Celtics. JS: So, let’s group the other three starters in the series together. Boston center Kristaps Porzingis, who hasn’t played for Boston since game four of the first round, is expected to return for game one of the series. And at the guard positions you have tenacious defender Jrue Holiday and sharpshooter Derek White. For the Mavericks you might not have as household names in the rest of the main rotation with Daniel Gafford at center and Derrick Jones Jr. and P.J. Washington at the forward spots. Is Boston clearly favored at 3-5 in the lineup or does Dallas have something for them? EF: If Porzingis is healthy enough to play, I would give the Celtics the advantage. He has not played since round one, but the Celtics have played well without him. I do like the Mavericks front court. They have a well-rounded front court and have done well in the playoffs. I feel as though they will play well in the Finals. Having said that, I do love the veterans of Boston, especially Holiday. He brings that defensive mentality to the team and White has come on his own this season. I will have to go with the Celtics in this matchup. JS: I think this is where Boston widens the gap between themselves and Dallas. I also like the Dallas front court but it’s hard to argue against the experience and veteran leadership of the other three Boston starters, especially Holiday. JS: Which team has the advantage when it comes to the bench? EF: The benches will be an interesting matchup because it feels as though both teams may only play seven or eight deep. I have to pick the Celtics because of Al Horford and Payton Pritchard and the impact they bring to Boston. JS: Do you think one team has a coaching advantage against the other? EF: Jason Kidd has been on the biggest stage as a player. Now he is the coach. Joe Mazzula is coaching his first NBA Finals. And some say he is still not the right coach in Boston. If the Celtics do win the Finals, then the questions should be laid to rest. But I will take Kidd in the coaching advantage because of the experience he had in the Finals as a player. JS: Kidd certainly has the most experience - not only as a coach but having won a title as a player with the Mavericks in 2011. But there’s just something about Mazzula. Maybe it’s just that he inherited a good roster but he just seems to have what it takes. I don’t understand those questioning him as a coach, especially with the team being so much better than those behind them this season. JS: So, what’s your prediction for the series? EF: It’s a tough series to pick. I can't see Boston cruising in this series. Dallas has a huge chip on their shoulders. This will be a lot better than last year's NBA Finals [which the Denver Nuggets won easily over the Miami Heat]. I fully expect this to be high drama. I will go with the Celtics in a full seven-game series. JS: Everything I’ve said thus far might lead one to believe that I think this will be an easy, quick series for the Celtics. But I’m going to give Dallas a couple of Ws. I think it’ll be tougher than it looks on paper - and who knows if some breaks go their way and the big game Jayson Tatum we’ve seen in the past shows up Dallas may pull the upset. But the Celtics in six games is my prediction. |
