This Week in Sports Talk: August 25, 2019

This Week in Sports Talk (TWIST) is our weekly roundup of top headlines and sports news, plus a preview of what’s up next. Heading into the week of August 25, 2019, here’s the top sports news, with a twist. Skim it, and you’ll be good to go all week.

This Week in Sports Talk: August 25, 2019

We begin with some short takes in sports news heading into the week of August 25, 2019.

college football

College football kicked off yesterday. There were a handful of games; the noteworthy one is that top-10 Florida defeated Miami.

In the preseason Associated Press Top 25, Clemson and Alabama were rated No. 1 and No. 2, respectively. Ditto the Coaches Poll. The world is waiting for (well, perhaps not the entire world, but we eagerly await) the return to the field of Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence.

the tigers roar, and bettors moan

In Major League Baseball, the Houston Astros were heavily favored by the Vegas odds to win in a game against the Detroit Tigers this week. But they lost. It is believed that the Tigers pulled off the biggest upset, gambling-wise, in the history of the sport. To make it even sweeter for the Motor City fans, former Tigers ace Justin Verlander took the loss.

orioles go from bad to worse

You’d have to have a heart of stone not to feel some sympathy for the Baltimore Orioles. The team just “won” a new record. On Thursday, they gave up their 260th home run of the season, surpassing the 2016 Cincinnati Reds. And they still have a lot of games to play before the end of the season.

the return of the xfl

Vince McMahon is relaunching the defunct XFL in February 2020, when the NFL season ends. The league will have 8 teams – whose names and logos were announced this week. 

Of the eight team Presidents, two are women: Heather Brooks Karatz in LA and Janet Duch in New York. You may remember the nasty, brutish and short life of another post-NFL season league, the AAF. It met with a rapid demise, not even finishing its inaugural season in 2019. Spring professional football leagues never seem to gain traction. Will this be different? Watch this space for updates.

nfl updates

Patrick Chung, the star safety for the New England Patriots, was indicted for cocaine possession this week. The Pats issued a statement saying “no comment” due to the ongoing legal proceedings. 

Carli Lloyd of the US Women’s Soccer team visited the Philadelphia Eagles- Baltimore Ravens joint practice this week. While there, she kicked a 55-yard field goal. Now, Lloyd reports that she has received inquiries from a few NFL teams about potentially joining them as a kicker. Sounds like an excellent idea! The woman clearly has skills.

Jay Z and his firm Roc Nation have signed a $25 million deal with the NFL. It gives Roc Nation rights to program NFL entertainment like the Super Bowl halftime show. The agreement is clearly meant to assuage the feelings of fans still sore from the Colin Kaepernick issue and the subsequent divisive racial politics. But many are accusing Jay Z of selling out on Kaepernick (who remains unsigned) and other players who took a knee or otherwise took action to highlight social justice issues. NPR captures the nature of the controversy perfectly: “it’s black capitalist against black activist, and it’s not clear which role Jay Z thinks he’s playing.”

open up the fridge

On a much lighter note, how’s this for a way to get the butts in the seats at a minor league baseball game? The Gwinnett Stripers, the Triple-A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves, is staging foot races between fans and a dude called The Fridge. According to Sports Illustrated, “The Fridge” — real name Nabih “Nino” Dandan, 24, — tips the scales at nearly 300 pounds. But he can run like the wind. His competition is generally a great deal more lithe than he is, and he still blows them away.  Watch him in action here.

The Braves have a dude called “The Freeze” who does the same thing, but that guy is whippet-thin and looks likes Frozone from The Incredibles franchise. We love an underdog, especially a zaftig one, and we’re all in with Team Fridge.

Top Sports Headlines heading into the week of August 25, 2019

Now that we’re warmed up, here’s everything else you need to know about sports heading into the week of August 25, 2019:

1. MLB

Must Know:

Heading into the week of August 25, 2019, the sports news in Major League Baseball is all about LA. The LA Dodgers are the best team in baseball as of this posting, with an 86-45 record so far this season. The red-hot team had their second straight walk-off win Friday night, which makes 12 so far this season. The New York Yankees are close on their heels, with 84-47. The two teams are playing a three-game series in LA this weekend, and so far they’re even-Steven – the Yanks won Friday and the Dodgers won yesterday. The Yanks’ starting pitching rotation looks like their potential Achilles heel as they prepare for post season. Both teams are on pace for 100 wins this season.

Meanwhile, the New York Mets have continued their remarkable resurgence. As of Thursday, they were 27-10 since the All-Star break, with the best winning percentage in baseball. But as of this posting, they are still 2 games back in the NL wild card race, behind the Washington Nationals and the Chicago Cubs. Our Sports Desk opines that if they can secure a wild card spot, the Mets have a better chance of going deeper into the playoffs than the Yankees – because pitching is key.

Nice to Know:

Individual players from both New York teams continued to shine this week. The NL has a new rookie home run record. Mets’ slugger Pete Alonso hit his 40th home run of the season last Sunday, besting the previous high mark for a rookie that Cody Bellinger set two years ago. Yesterday, Alonso tied the Mets’ franchise record with homer number 41. Now he’s setting his sights on New York Yankee Aaron Judge’s rookie mark of 52.

Across town, the Yankees’ Gleyber Torres became the first person younger than 23 years old to hit 30 home runs in a season for the Yankees since Joe DiMaggio. 

Extra Credit:

The AL division leaders are the New York Yankees, the Houston Astros and the Minnesota Twins. In the wild card race, Tampa Bay, Oakland and Cleveland are in tight contention for the two slots. Last year’s World Series winners, the Boston Red Sox, are currently 6 back in the wild card standings. Yankees fans are not even trying to conceal their glee.

Boston’s season technically isn’t over yet, but Chris Sale’s is. The pitcher was added to the Injured List this week with elbow inflammation. He’ll be out for the rest of the season. But it appears that he is not going to need Tommy John surgery.

In the NL, it’s the LA Dodgers, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Atlanta Braves leading each division. The Nationals, Cubs, Mets, Brewers and Phillies are battling for the two wild card slots. As a reminder, the top two Wild Card teams from each league make the postseason, and play each other in a one-game playoff.

bonus round:

From the This Really Happened File, New York Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner has made it a habit to bang his bat against the roof of the team’s dugout. He had been ejected from games twice as a result. Gardner says he didn’t know there was a rule against making noise in the dugout. Experts agree, there is no MLB rule against it. Social media photos show the extensive damage “Gardy” has done to the roof. But the Yanks fans say, hey, #LetBrettBang. We say give the dude a fidget spinner. Or a meditation app.

2. NFL

Must Know:

Andrew Luck Retires

In news breaking last night, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck, 29, abruptly announced his retirement from the NFL. Regular readers of Dandelion Chandelier will remember that we reported a couple of weeks ago that the team had issued a somewhat puzzling series of statements about the player’s injury at the start of the preseason. Luck was the first overall draft pick in 2012. He was player of the year and scored 38 touchdowns last year. He’s citing repeated injuries as the reason for his decision. The team owner estimates that Luck is foregoing as much as $500 million in earnings with his departure.

Cam Newton Injured

Of the four preseason NFL games, the starters usually only play in the first quarter or two of the third game. Which is this week. The biggest news is that Cam Newton of the Carolina Panthers Newton was sacked in Thursday’s game against the New England Patriots. He limped off the field and was later seen leaving Gillette Stadium in a walking boot.

Our Sports Desk points out that an injury to a key player is literally the only thing that should not have been allowed to happen, but it did. On Friday, Panthers general manager Marty Hurney told reporters that Newton suffered a mid-foot sprain on his left foot. The team is cautiously optimistic that he will be ready for the season opener on September 8. 

The Pats won the game, and quarterback Tom Brady played just fine. 

Not so Terrific 

Speaking of Tom Brady, you should be advised that he’s not to be referred to as “Tom Terrific.” He says he doesn’t like that moniker, which is why he tried to trademark it. But the Mets’ Tom Seaver was always known by that name, and this week the federal Patent and Trademark Office rejected Brady’s bid. New York fans found this a delightful reason to send lots of shade up to Boston (not that they really needed an excuse to do that).  Case closed.

And not to kick a man when he’s down, but dude – that hat is not working. We love you, man. But we’re sure Giselle would agree. Lose the hat.

Nice to Know: 

New York Giants’ secondary quarterback Daniel Jones is silencing the skeptics by having a great preseason. He went 11 of 14 for 161 yards and a score in New York’s 32-12 rout of the Chicago Bears in Week 2. The Giants played Jones against a first-team defense in Week 3 and he completed 9 of 11 passes for 141 yards. As of this posting, the Giants say that Eli Manning will be the starting quarterback for the first game of the season. What happens after that, though? Stay tuned.

San Francisco 49’ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo hadn’t been on the field since Week 3 of last season, and the preseason got off to a bumpy start. In his first appearance back from tearing his ACL, things went rather badly. “Jimmy G” finished the night in the Week 2 preseason game against the Denver Broncos with a 0.0 QB rating. But last night, he turned in a better performance. Garoppolo played the first half against the Kansas City Chiefs, and completed 14 of 20 for 188 yards, including a touchdown pass. And no interceptions.

Extra credit:

Drama in Dallas

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is using Tony Pollard as a bargaining chip in his ongoing negotiations with Ezekiel “Zeke” Elliott. Pollard rushed for 42 yards on 8.4 yards per-carry and a touchdown in last week’s preseason game. ‘Who? Now Zeke who?’ Jones joked when asked if Pollard is his best negotiator when it comes to agreeing to a new deal with Elliott. 

One month into the contract impasse with Elliott, that quip didn’t go over well. Jones responded “I have earned the right to joke with Zeke,” presumably referring to the fact that he and the Cowboys stood by Zeke during his 6 game suspension for domestic abuse and battled the league to get it shortened.

Then, on Tuesday the Cowboys signed a 6-year, $68.4 million deal, $35 million of it guaranteed, with linebacker Jaylon Smith. His $11 million average per year is nearly twice the average on the existing contract that Elliott is trying to replace.

Other contract hold-outs

In other stalled contract negotiation news, star running back Melvin Gordon cannot seem to come to a deal with the Chargers. Reportedly, the team is now expecting the impasse to continue into the regular season. That means Gordon is almost certainly going to miss some games this fall.

Bonus round:

This week in a preseason game, the Green Bay Packers and Oakland Raiders had to play on a shorter-than-regulation field (80 yards) at their game in Winnipeg.  The game had no kickoffs, and each side started on the 25-yard line. All this because there was a hole in the end zone that couldn’t be fixed before game time.

3. And in other sports . . . 

Must Know:

The US Open commences tomorrow in Flushing Meadows, Queens. Earlier this week, the draw was announced. And much to the delight of fans, Serena Williams will play Maria Sharapova in the first round on Monday night. Both are past US Open champions, and yet they have never played each other at the US Open. Most believe Serena will crush her, as she is 19 – 1 against her in the last 20 matches. Serena begins a bid for a record-tying 24th Grand Slam singles title with this tournament.

On the men’s side, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic could meet in the semifinals if they make it that far. Federer could meet Rafael Nadal for the first time at the US Open, but only if both make it to the Final.

Nice to know:

The annual NBA rookie survey came out this week. Zion Williamson, as predicted, won the vote for Rookie of the Year. But the arguably better honor went to his old Duke teammate, Cam Reddish. Reddish, who was picked by the Atlanta Hawks at No. 10, is expected to have the best career of his first-year peers, with 19% of the vote. The Memphis Grizzlies No. 2 overall pick Ja Morant wasn’t far behind, with 16%.

Extra Credit:

In the aftermath of the NBA’s LA Lakers’ DeMarcus Cousins’ torn ACL, the team has reported reached an agreement with a new player. ESPN reports that after completing a contract buyout with the Memphis Grizzlies, Dwight Howard will sign a non-guaranteed contract with the Lakers.

This Week in Sports News – August 25, 2019

That’s it. You’re good to go with the top headlines and coming attractions heading into the week of August 25, 2019. Have a good one, and see you next week.

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