[Posted Sunday PM after the World Cup….]
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Baseball Quiz: Friday night during the Yankees game, Michael Kay noted that Gerrit Cole had passed Juan Marichal for 57th on the all-time strikeouts list with 2,306. Cole will pass a few others like Rube Waddell and Early Wynn shortly. Who are the only 11 pitchers to strike out 3,500 (all of them modern-era, post-1960, except one). Answer below.
World Cup
—Going back to the semifinals, Tues. and Wed., Spain dictated the pace and rhythm of the game against France, who were powerless to do anything about it. Not until the 81st minute did France have its first shot on goal.
Mbappe and his eight goals was totally shut down by Spain’s phenomenal defense…a shifting wall of defenders that had Les Bleus falling into traps and never punching through.
“They closed out all the space. And also we’ve made some technical mistakes,” France coach Didier Deschamps said. “It is difficult to create problems when the technical level is below standard. Especially compared to previous matches.”
In the end, Spain had a commanding 2-0 victory and sat back to await the winner of England vs. Argentina on Wednesday.
And boy, the second semi was a game for the ages.
The first half was an intense 0-0 contest that looked more like a hockey game, full of post-whistle scrums, but the tone shifted after Anthony Gordon broke the deadlock in the 55th minute with a sweet goal, the Three Lions looking terrific.
But then they seemed content to sit back and let Argentina dictate possession. England defended well for a while, but Argentina was finally able to break through with an equalizing goal in the 85th minute, courtesy of Enzo Hernandez on a feed from Lionel Messi from outside the box, and then in the second minute of stoppage time, Messi sent in a gorgeous cross to substitute Lautaro Martinez who headed in the winning goal.
In the 37 minutes between Gordon’s opening goal and Martinez’s winner, Argentina had 88% of the possession.
The loss was a killer for England fans, and it just added to the history between these two teams, all Argentina.
It also had a nation questioning the strategy of manager Thomas Tuchel and his substitutions that seemed to be more intent on holding onto the 1-0 lead, rather than killing the game with another goal.
Tuchel took Gordon out with 72 minutes on the clock, replacing the winger with a defender, Ezri Konza, and England went into a back five, which Argentina immediately pressed.
With his team increasingly under pressure, Tuchel made more defensive changes. Two more defenders, Dan Burn and Nico O’Reilly, came on in the 83rd minute for midfielder Declan Rice and defender Reece James.
Even with six defenders on the field, nobody managed to close down Fernandez as England was too deep its own box.
The onslaught continued and minutes later, Martinez headed home and England’s fate was sealed.
Argentina was in trouble against Cape Verde, they were down 2-0 to Egypt late, and a goal behind England, but they are never totally out of it because No. 10 won’t let them lose.
And now we had a delicious final set up for Sunday at the Meadowlands.
But first we had the third-place game on Saturday in Miami…England vs. France…neither team wanting to be there.
And it was England that took advantage of a lackluster effort by Les Bleus, streaking to a 4-0 halftime lead.
But France roared back in the second half, in what turned into a scintillating contest, Kylian Mbappe with two goals, bringing him to 22 for his World Cup career, one ahead of Messi, and two ahead of him in the race for the Golden Boot with ten goals in the tournament, and suddenly it was 4-3 (Barcola with a goal for France in between Mbappe’s two).
Bukayu Saka completed his hat trick on a penalty at 87’ for England, 5-3, Dembele scored in stoppage time for France, 5-4, and then Jude Bellingham, in as a substitute in this one, completed the scoring for the Three Lions, 6-4, in what ends up becoming an all-time great affair.
With the third place, it’s England’s best finish in a World Cup since 1966.
So today, in the first half of the Final, I kept thinking, ‘Gee, England is better than certainly Argentina,’ as the two sides played to a 0-0 half. To me, as the defenses were a bit loose back in the box, it was the team that would make the first big mistake, turning it over deep, that lost.
Play picked up after the first-ever FIFA halftime show, which only went five minutes beyond a normal halftime (so don’t give me garbage on that aspect), and it was a good show. Madonna, who in August will be my age, looks pretty good. Shakira (cough cough) looks rather good as well. [In all honesty, I can’t imagine the security around her, 24/7…which really sucks. Saturday, Saquon Barkley had one of two intruders enter his home before they were chased away…Saquon and family in the house at 5:00 AM…but I digress…]
I should also mention I love K-Pop (BTS)…I can’t sing one of their songs, but am very jealous of how they dance. K-Pop is taking over North Korea, too, which no doubt has Kim Jong Un rather worried. If he’s not the center of attention, you know what happens….
Play picked up bigly in the second half, Spain with multiple opportunities, especially from about 73’ to 80’. And they kept it up from there.
At the same time, as I write this ‘live,’ you have to keep thinking, ‘When does Messi happen?’
But now it’s 13 shots for Spain, zero for Argentina at the 89’ mark! Holy Toledo (Spain, where I once attended a bull fight).
And then in stoppage time, Argentina’s Enzo Hernandez gets a legitimate red card…wow…they are a man down if this goes to extra time (if they survive the end of stoppage time!)
Yamal with a free kick and Argentina’s Martinez with a terrific stop! On to extra time.
And after a scoreless first half of extra time, 39 seconds into the second half, Ferran Torres, a substitute, scores the first goal for Spain. Is that all that’s needed for Spain’s second World Cup title?
Argentina has a shot, Messi with two corner kicks, both times giving the team a chance to score, and nothing.
And it’s Spain!!!
What a World Cup…terrific entertainment from Day One. Great for the sport in America as well.
—
The Open Championship
As I noted earlier in the week, there was a heatwave at Royal Birkdale and the scoring reflected it early on.
After the first round, Jackson Suber led the way at -5.
Among the notable players, Bryson DeChambeau and Cam Young were at -3.
Scottie Scheffler -2. Jon Rahm -1.
Rory McIlroy +2, along with the pre-tournament favorite of many, Matt Fitzpatrick.
In the second round, we then saw LIV Golf’s Lucas Herbert shoot an 8-under 62, along with Sam Burns, and after 36 holes….
Herbert -8
Suber -6
Young -6
Burns -5
DeChambeau -5
Si Woo Kim -5
Among the group at -4 were Scheffler, Rahm, Tommy Fleetwood and Alex Fitzpatrick.
Rory was -1…very much in it with a big round Saturday.
But among those missing the cut were the aforementioned Matt Fitzpatrick, a bit of a shocker given his super play this season, Justin Rose, Viktor Hovland, Wyndham Clark and Joaquin Niemann.
Well, I was working on finishing up that other column I do, the big one I sign, and I thought Bryson had finished at -7, and then suddenly he was -5 when I checked the leaderboard.
And it turns out, after he had finished his round, that Bryson was assessed a two-shot penalty for improving his lie on the fifth hole.
I didn’t watch much of the second-round action, but I caught his play on No. 5 and he hit his drive on the par-4 way right into the fescue. Us viewers couldn’t see the ball, but he had a shot and he’s stomping around but it wasn’t clear if he was improving his lie. The R&A, however, flagged the incident. I forgot it’s just as important how you improve your backswing and on video, DeChambeau appeared to be doing just that.
It’s a huge moment. Bryson would have been in the last group, one off the lead.
Writing on social media after, he said: “Obviously disappointed with the ruling. I don’t agree with it, but it is what it is.”
At first he had muttered he wasn’t going to play Saturday in protest, but the same post on X continued: “This fires me up. Onto the weekend. Let’s get it.”
And then after three rounds….
Sam Burns -10…first to ever go 62-65 in consecutive rounds of a major.
Ryan Fox -8…after the third 62 of the championship.
Si Woo Kim -8
Ryan Gerard -7
Herbert -7
Ludvig Aberg -6
DeChambeau -6
Jackson Suber -6
Scheffler -4
Cam Young -3 after a disappointing 73.
Rory -2
The fallout continued from DeChambeau’s penalty and his reaction to it, and Rory McIlroy weighed in.
“As soon as he made the step into the ball, we all sort of looked at each other, and we were like, ‘That didn’t seem right,’” Rory said Saturday after his round. “Then when I heard that he was called in by the rules officials, I think it was pretty obvious for why.”
Rory added: “Late night [Friday] for everyone,” as some players waited around until the dispute was settled to see what their tee times were. “Yeah, look, I won’t pretend to be up here and defend Bryson. I’m not particularly fond of him. I think a lot of it’s performative. I think a lot of it’s for attention. To hold the tournament hostage like that, and to have all of us, players, volunteers, everyone waiting on him to depart, I didn’t feel like it was a great look.”
Max Homa defended DeChambeau: “All I know is I’ve known Bryson for a very long time, and he’s an interesting human at times, but I know he would never cheat the game of golf. I don’t really love how it happened. It’s not that the R&A said that he did it intentionally, but that rule as a professional golfer feels like it’s written inherently to protect against people trying to improve their lie.
“I just hope that doesn’t create a narrative because I don’t believe that of him.”
In an interview with BBC Radio on Saturday, R&A CEO Mark Darbon said:
“It was an unfortunate decision but really clear-cut from a rules perspective.”
So, starting out Sunday’s round, the heatwave continuing, fescue burning out further, Cameron Young got off to a scoring start, 4-under after 5 to move up to -7. Scottie Scheffler birdied the first two to get to -6.
Young would then go out in 5-under, 29, for the front nine…-8…about 45 minutes before Burns even teed off.
Scheffler was at -7 thru 7.
Burns birdied No. 2 but bogeyed No. 4 and we had…
Burns -10 thru 4
Young -9…15
Fox -9…4
Si Woo…-9…5
Scheffler -8…12
Burns bogeyed No. 5
Burns -9…5
Young -9…16
Fox -9…5
Kim -9…5
Scheffler -8…12
Fleetwood -8…8
Si Woo Kim then birdies 6…-10!
Scheffler bogeys 13…-7
Meanwhile, DeChambeau was doing nothing…8 straight pars…-6.
Burns needs to stop the bleeding on No. 6, but he puts his drive in a penalty area and ends up with bogey…three straight…-8.
Young birdies 17…-10, tied with Si Woo.
Young needs a good drive on the par-4 18th and he puts it in the fairway bunker, 188 to the hole. And he doesn’t get it out of the bunker (wasn’t even close!) …into the fescue. Now he has 180…and he puts it in the greenside bunker….
Young then just misses his bunker shot for par and bogeys it…a 64 for -9, but he will forever remember that second shot out of the bunker, let alone the drive.
But he can’t go anywhere…the others weren’t even finished through 9.
Scheffler birdies 16 and 17, with a massive break on the par-4 17th they’ll talk about forever if he somehow finishes at -9 to tie Young.
Kim then bogeys 11 and 12…falls back to -8.
Young -9…F
Kim -8…12
Scheffler -8…17
Burns -8…12
Scheffler bogeys 18 to finish -7.
Burns with a massive, long par-putt on 13, while Fox birdies it.
Young -9…F
Kim -8…13
Burns -8…13
Fox -8…13
Fox birdies 14…-9, but bogeys 15.
Kim bogeys 16.
Hometown boy Tommy Fleetwood finishes with birdie on 18 to finish -7.
Young -9…F
Fox -8…15
Burns -8…15
But Fox bounces back with birdie on 16! Back to -9, as he heads to the par-5 17th.
Of course I want Wake Forest’s Cam Young to win it, but count me as a Ryan Fox fan. The highly likeable 39-year-old New Zealander would be a deserving champion.
And Fox leaves himself a makeable birdie putt on 17 after hitting his tee shot in a fairway bunker. But he pushes it a little right.
Fox heads to 18 tied with Young. His approach shot is terrific…and Fox sinks the birdie putt for the win!!! Great, great stuff.
He kept bouncing back all round, including from some almost unfair breaks, never fazed.
72-68-62-68…-10…best final 36 holes in Open Championship history.
Young finishes solo second, Burns solo third.
Cam will forever regret his drive on 18 that put him in that bunker.
Burns, shockingly, remains winless since 2023 despite some great play. It would be cool to see him win the season-ending Tour Championship.
—
MLB
—The Yankees were hosting the Dodgers this weekend, but on Friday before the first game, Aaron Judge commented on his long-awaited reimaging on his right rib stress fracture Wednesday that showed healing, but not enough to clear him for baseball activities just yet.
Judge has not done any upper-body exercises in the six weeks since he was diagnosed with the injury.
“Definitely a positive sign that we’re seeing some healing,” Judge said. “Part of it’s healing, the other part of it’s still trying to bridge together. I think that’s what we’re trying to wait and see if we can get some confirmation of what we can start doing.”
Bottom line, at the very earliest the Yanks will have Judge by late August.
So, Friday night, I watched the game, the Mets not on as part of crazy scheduling, and it was an entertaining pitcher’s duel between L.A.’s Roki Sasaki and the Yanks’ Gerrit Cole.
Cole had a 1-0 lead heading to the top of the seventh when he walked leadoff batter Mookie Betts. Cole was at 96 pitches and manager Aaron Boone came out and most of us thought it was to pull Cole, but Boone let him stay in the game and Boom…Max Muncy hit a 2-run homer, Dodgers up 2-1. [Boone said after he regretted the decision.]
But the Yanks had a chance in the bottom of the eighth to at least tie it when Ben Rice hit a double in the gap with Trent Grisham on first. Grisham should have scored, but for some reason he slowed between second and third and, after a review, was thrown out at home.
Grisham said after he didn’t slow up (he did), but that he was conscious of his hamstring issue (after recently coming off the IL).
Regardless, Yanks would lose 2-1.
Sasaki went 5 2/3, one run, none earned, with a no-decision.
The game Saturday was rained out, necessitating a day/night doubleheader Sunday, and in the day contest, and the Yanks lost, 8-2, as Yoshinobu Yamamoto threw a complete game, now 10-6, 2.78. Cam Schlittler (9-6, 2.20) took the loss after giving up 3 runs in just 4 1/3, though he struck out 8.
–The Mets were in Philadelphia, with the first game of a 3-game series Thursday to accommodate Major League Baseball, which wanted a lone game on national TV that night, even though the All-Star break is four days for everyone else. And the Metsies had a clean 4-1 win.
Then, after a day off Friday (so stupid), New York (41-58) reverted to form, falling to the Phillies (55-44) 6-1 on Saturday, as the Mets had three hits and committed three errors.
But they took the series, 6-1 on Sunday, as Nolan McLean (7-6, 3.34) pitched six innings of 2-hit ball, McLean’s sixth straight start of 6+. That’s what you want from your starters these days, boys and girl.
—The surging Red Sox took a doubleheader from the Rays (56-40) Friday night at Fenway, 10-0 and 5-3, and have won 11 in a row to get to .500, 48-48. No one saw this coming.
Boston then made it 12 straight, third-longest in franchise history, 7-6 on Saturday, scoring 4 in the seventh to overcome a 6-3 Tampa Bay lead.
And Sunday, the BoSox won again, 6-1, Sonny Gray with six strong to move to 12-1, 2.48! Goodness gracious. Boston has the third wild card spot at 50-48! They were 37-48.
–On the other end, the Nationals were in Sacramento to face the struggling A’s Friday night and blasted them 23-4, as Andres Chaparro had two home runs and 8 RBIs for the Nats (49-49).
For the Athletics it was their 10th loss in a row, 18 of 21. They’ve gone from 38-38 to 41-56.
Nick Kurtz is still out with his thumb injury.
But the A’s turned the tables on the Nats, Saturday, 15-1, to end the streak.
—The Pirates (52-46) beat the Guardians (52-48) in Cleveland, Sunday, as Paul Skenes threw seven innings, one run, and is now 9-8, 3.43. Livvy Dunne must be satisfied by her boyfriend’s recent performance.
–The Reds signed All-Star righty Chase Burns to a seven-year, $105 million deal, the largest contract ever given to a pitcher with less than four years of MLB service time.
In his second season in the majors, he’s 11-1, 2.54 ERA in 18 starts.
Burns was the second overall pick in the 2024 MLB draft out of Wake Forest, receiving a $9.25 million signing bonus.
Burns and fellow starter Hunter Greene are under control through at least the 2029 season, Greene signing a big extension back in 2023.
–Over the All-Star break we heard from the head of baseball’s players’ union and Commissioner Rob Manfred on the status of the labor dispute threatening to explode over the winter.
Bruce Meyer, who took over when Tony Clark was forced out in February, said the sport was thriving despite assertions by Major League Baseball that massive change is needed.
“I have watched over the last few years the owners, the commissioner’s office, try to convince fans, the consumers of their product, that the product is broken,” Meyer said prior to Tuesday’s game. “The supposed stewards of the game have spent an inordinate amount of time trying to convince those same fans that they don’t have hope or they shouldn’t have hope or that the product that they’re paying to consume in record numbers is somehow broken. I think it’s perverse.”
Attendance has averaged 29,230 this season, up 1.2% from 28,895 through similar dates last year. MLB is on pace for its highest attendance since 2017.
Management in May proposed a salary cap system, which players say they will never accept. MLB launched a “Level the Field” campaign claiming fans support a cap that contains a floor.
“In order for this game to reach its full potential we need to continue to address concerns that our fans have, particularly concerns that go to the core of what we’re about, that is competitive balance,” Manfred said in a separate Q&A session prior to the All-Star Game.
“We need to make sure that fans in markets at the beginning of the season have a realistic belief that their team has a chance to win,” he added. “I think that we need a system where fans, particularly in smaller markets, can have some hope that the players that are signed and developed by their organizations can actually stay there through free agency and honestly I think we need a system where there is a more robust free agent market, so if you don’t want to go to New York or Los Angeles, you have a realistic opportunity to get a viable free agent contract.”
Fans have responded positively to MLB’s changes in the 2020s, which include expanded playoffs in 2022, a pitch clock in 2023 and an appeals system to robot umpires for strike zone decisions this year.
“We got that momentum by listening to our fans and making changes that, candidly, the MLBPA was not interested in,” Manfred said. “Those changes have paid off in terms of creating that momentum, and the best way to lose momentum is to stand still.”
No small-market team has won the World Series since the 2015 Kansas City Royals. The Dodgers, coming off their second straight title, had a $323.3 million opening-day payroll for their 40-man roster and a $163.7 million tax for a $487.1 million total. Cleveland had the lowest payroll at $75.5 million.
“It defies human experience to ask a fan to think that the bottom end of that gap has the same opportunity to win as the top,” Manfred said.
Meyer said unions for players in the NFL, NBA and NHL agreed to caps under duress.
“In one way or the other they were broken or forced into it,” he said. “I believe that this system is bad for players and would be for generations to come.”
Manfred did not want to comment on whether he thought President Trump, who said he supports a cap, would attempt to intervene in bargaining.
–For the archives, the American League defeated the National League 4-0 on Tuesday, the 11th time in 13 years the AL came out on top.
The NL was held to three hits and was fanned 15 times.
The Yankees’ Cody Bellinger was MVP with a 2-run single.
–We note the passing of former second baseman Ron Hunt, 85.
The St. Louis native played from 1963-74, his first four seasons with the Mets, becoming the first Met to start in an All-Star Game for them in 1964, his second season in the majors.
In 1963, he finished second to Pete Rose in the NL Rookie of the Year race when he hit .272 with 10 home runs and 42 RBIs.
To say Hunt was gritty would be an understatement. He still holds the modern single-season record of getting hit by a pitch 50 times in 1971 with the Expos, and led the NL in HBP seven seasons in a row.
When he retired, he was the major league record holder (post-1900), and is still sixth on the all-time list. [Fourth if you take out players who played at least some of their careers pre-1900.]
Hunt played four seasons for the Mets and was very upset when he was traded to the Dodgers with Jim Hickman for Tommy Davis. He said the Mets “screwed him.”
He was indeed a popular player wherever he went, including the Giants, Montreal and a cup of coffee in St. Louis.
But Hunt’s health suffered because of his hard-nosed play, and he had numerous head injuries going hard on the basepaths and he paid for it later, though he said in his later years he had no regrets.
He finished his career with a .273 batting average, 1,429 hits.
Stuff
–I have to note Caitlin Clark’s game Friday night in Indianapolis, as the Fever defeated the Seattle Storm 110-107, Clark scoring 45 points with 10 assists to become the first player with 40 or more points and 10 or more assists in WNBA history.
Clark was 11 of 18 from the field, including 6 of 10 from 3-point range, and went 17 of 19 from the free throw line.
–And Josh Kerr, the British runner who helped stoke a revival in middle-distance drama on the track, added a new chapter Saturday by running the mile in 3 minutes, 42.66 seconds to break the 27-year-old record for the distance held by Moroccan great Hicham El Guerrouj’s of 3:43.13, set in Rome in 1999.
“It was just me, my shoes [Ed. Brooks…awesome for them] and the track,” Kerr said. “I was absolutely deaf in that last 110 meters.”
Kerr told the BBC that crowd support at the Diamond League meet in London was “just incredible.”
The 28-year-old’s previous best time was 3:45.34 in 2024.
With no worlds or Olympics on the schedule this year, Kerr made the mile his key target. It’s a distance that isn’t run as much in big events (vs. the 1,500), but that still has huge historical significance, most of it surrounding Roger Bannister’s breaking of the once-intimidating four-minute barrier in 1954.
[El Guerrouj holds the record in the 1,500-meters at 3:26.00, 1998, also in Rome.]
—19-year-old Kimi Antonelli (he turns 20 on Aug. 25), won his sixth Formula One race today, the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, increasing his points lead over F1 rival George Russell, after Russell exited on the first lap after being sent into the gravel following a push by Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton.
Top 3 songs for the week 7/18/81: #1 “Bette Davis Eyes” (Kim Carnes) #2 “All Those Years Ago” (George Harrison) #3 “The One That You Love” (Air Supply)…and…#4 “Jessie’s Girl” (Rick Springfield) #5 “You Make My Dreams” (Daryl Hall & John Oates) #6 “Elvira” (The Oak Ridge Boys) #7 “Theme From ‘Greatest American Hero’ (Believe It or Not)” (Joey Scarbury) #8 “I Don’t Need You” (Kenny Rogers) #9 “Slow Hand” (Pointer Sisters) #10 “Boy From New York City” (Manhattan Transfer…C week…)
Baseball Quiz Answer: 3,500 career strikeouts….
1 Nolan Ryan 5,714
2 Randy Johnson 4,875
3 Roger Clemens 4,672
4 Steve Carlton 4,136
5 Bert Blyleven 3,701
6 Tom Seaver 3,640
7 Don Sutton 3,574
8 Justin Verlander 3,554
9 Gaylord Perry 3,534
10 Walter Johnson 3,509
11 Max Scherzer 3,503
12 Greg Maddux 3,371
Brief Add-on up top Tues. AM….
