Conor Benn’s scheduled fight with Chris Eubank Jr at The O2 on Saturday has been called off due to a failed drug test.
It was revealed on Wednesday that an “adverse analytical finding for trace amounts of a fertility drug” had shown up in one of Benn’s recent tests by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA).
The British Boxing Board of Control announced the clash was “prohibited as it is not in the interests of boxing” after promoters Matchroom Boxing and Wasserman Boxing had released a joint statement earlier in the day saying the fight would go ahead as scheduled.
The two fighters already knew about the drug test results and were keen to proceed with the bout, which follows the two clashes between their dads in the 1990s, although it has been confirmed that their fight will no longer take place.
Matchroom Boxing and Wasserman Boxing said in a joint statement: “After discussions with various parties, we have taken the decision to formally postpone the bout between Chris Eubank Jr and Conor Benn.
“It is undeniable that the British Boxing Board of Control’s decision to withdraw their sanctioning was procedurally flawed and without due process. That remains a legal issue between the promoters and the Board which we intend to pursue.
“However, whilst there are legal routes to facilitate the fight taking place as planned, we do not believe that it is in the fighters’ interests for those to be pursued at such a late stage, or in the wider interests of the sport.
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Chief sports writer for the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror Andy Dunn reflects on why it would have been ‘preposterous’ to think the fight would go ahead
“As promoters, we take our obligations and duties very seriously, and a full investigation will now need to take place. We will be making no further comment at this time and news for ticket holder refunds will follow.”
Earlier in the day, Eddie Hearn used social media to rule out appointing an overseas governing body to sanction the fight but he retained hope that it could still be saved.
That prospect looked bleak, however, when the head-to-head press conference scheduled for lunchtime was pushed back twice and Benn left the hotel where he had been based with his bags packed. The undercard fighters followed soon after.
A catchweight of 157lbs was agreed for the sons to continue the family feud into a trilogy fight, meaning Benn would have to move up two weight divisions and Eubank lose three pounds.
UKAD: Failed test ‘a concern’
UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) chief executive, Jane Rumble, said: “UKAD notes the reporting of a failed VADA test by the boxer Conor Benn with concern. UKAD acts on all reports of doping and always encourages anyone with information on suspected doping activity to come forward and share that with us.”
Benn insisted he is a ‘clean athlete’ in the build-up to the scheduled clash and had remained hopeful that the catchweight meeting would still go ahead when speaking at Wednesday’s live open workout.
“I’ve not committed any violations, I’ve not been suspended,” Benn said at the workout. “I’ve signed up to every voluntary anti-doping test under the sun, throughout my whole career I’m tested, I’ve always come back negative, I’ve never had any issues before.
“My team will find out why there has been an initial adverse finding in my test. I’m a clean athlete and we’ll get to the bottom of this.”
By ripping off three straight wins without Dak Prescott, the Cowboys have surprised many folks, if not themselves.
Cooper Rush is getting his deserved share of the credit for how he has performed in replacing Prescott as the starting quarterback. Dan Quinn’s defense has put up numbers not seen around the Cowboys since the first edition of Doomsday in the early 1970s. Micah Parsons is considered one of the best defensive players in the NFL.
Well down the credit list is the coach, Mike McCarthy.
“I don’t know how you could say enough about how he’s handled this team initially starting out,” owner and general manager Jerry Jones said. “It’s like [a] picture to me. A boxer, a fighter, walking out and just getting hit with the best shot you absolutely could right on the chin. First step out. How do you get that all back together? Give him his due. He has managed to right the ship, steady it, and then progressively get this team in shape to play without Dak.
“That’s a teamwide thing. I think it would be an injustice not to give him the kind of credit as head coach for getting this thing right and getting it to this point. What’s happened over the last three weeks with the makeup of our team, and I think our personnel and potential with the makeup of this team, these three games got us back in the hunt.”
In one of their last practices of training camp, the Cowboys lost their Pro Bowl left tackle Tyron Smith until December with a torn left hamstring. In the season opener, they lost their quarterback, Prescott, to a fractured right thumb, and that wasn’t all. Jayron Kearse, their leading tackler a season ago, sprained a ligament in his left knee, and left guard Connor McGovern suffered an ankle injury.
Yet the Cowboys are 3-1 in consecutive years for the first time since 2007-08.
Now imagine if the Cowboys were 1-3 after four games. Or worse.
McCarthy’s job security would be under even more scrutiny. There might be calls for Quinn to move from defensive coordinator to head coach. Former New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton’s shadow would grow heavier over the organization.
Instead McCarthy has provided a steady hand to a team that is playing its backup quarterback, a rookie left tackle, three different left guards, untested wide receivers behind CeeDee Lamb, rookie tight ends, a kicker who was signed late in training camp and, against the Washington Commanders on Sunday, had to use a fifth-round pick, DaRon Bland, at nickel cornerback when Jourdan Lewis came up injured in warmups. And Bland had an interception.
“He’s just so steady,” Quinn said. “He doesn’t ride the roller coaster, the up and downs. You know what you’re going to get every day. That’s a good quality to have from your leader to make sure in the tough games he’s there. In the ones you’re doing well, he’s there. But he’s just so consistent a person for all of us. Not everybody has that. Through the storms he can kind of see right through it and keep everybody on a level field. I think that’s probably one of his superpowers that probably doesn’t get spoken about enough.”
Given the structure favored by Jones, where McCarthy is more CEO than in the muck, credit is not something that goes his way often. He doesn’t call the plays, like he did with the Green Bay Packers. Quinn has autonomy over the defense. Special teams coordinator John Fassel has his say and is involved in game management.
The same thing happened to McCarthy’s predecessor, Jason Garrett, after he was forced to give up the playcalling after the 2012 season.
When the Cowboys made the playoffs in 2014, ’16 and ’18, credit was attributed to: QB Tony Romo, RB DeMarco Murray, TE Jason Witten, WR Dez Bryant, the offensive line, OC Scott Linehan’s playcalling, an opportunistic defense, Prescott’s mistake-free play, RB Ezekiel Elliott, the trade for WR Amari Cooper, VP of player personnel Will McClay’s ability to find talent and Jones’ general managing.
Garrett was just the guy clapping.
And now McCarthy is being treated the same way. He just holds the playcall sheet and wears the headphones.
The credit is going to coordinators Quinn and Kellen Moore, Rush’s mistake-free play, Elliott’s running with Tony Pollard, solid offensive line play (even without Tyron Smith), Parsons’ wizardry, DE DeMarcus Lawrence’s overall play, effective special teams, McClay’s ability to find talent and Jones’ general managing.
Last week, McCarthy was asked if Rush’s success is due to his ability to avoid sacks and not commit a lot of turnovers, which turned to a light moment from the coach.
“Well, I know you’re struggling not to just say it was coaching,” McCarthy feigned. “I don’t want any credit, God forbid. Let’s not change that now.”
Maybe it will change if the Cowboys continue to win, but McCarthy is secure in who he is.
“It’s always nice when people say nice things about you, but I think this — particularly my relationship with Jerry, you know, I’ve always enjoyed our conversations privately, and I’ll always have walked away from those conversations with a lot of confidence,” he said. “And I think it’s good to have that type of relationship. So, my point is, he says nice things to me privately too.”
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Manager Mike Matheny and pitching coach Cal Eldred were fired by the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday night, shortly after the struggling franchise finished the season 65-97 with a listless 9-2 loss to the Cleveland Guardians.
The Royals had exercised their option on Matheny’s contract for 2023 during spring training, when the club hoped it was turning the corner from also-ran to contender. But plagued by poor pitching, struggles from young position players and a lackluster group of veterans, the Royals were largely out of playoff contention by the middle of summer.
The disappointing on-field product led owner John Sherman last month to fire longtime front-office executive Dayton Moore, the architect of back-to-back American League champions and the 2015 World Series title team. He was replaced by one of his longtime understudies, J.J. Picollo, who made the decision to fire Matheny hours after the season ended.
“Managing the Royals has been a true privilege,” Matheny said in a statement. “I’m thankful to so many, primarily Dayton Moore, and the coaches and players I’ve worked with. I would like to thank Mr. John Sherman and the ownership group for the opportunity to manage their team, and everyone involved in this great organization.
“I came to the Royals knowing it was an organization of excellence and care, and was shown that care every single day. Royals fans should be excited about this group of players, and I look forward to watching them continue to grow.”
Matheny spent parts of seven seasons managing the St. Louis Cardinals, finishing each with a winning record and winning the National League pennant in 2013. But after his firing midway through 2018, he was hired by the Royals in an advisory role, and then tapped to succeed longtime manager Ned Yost when he retired before the 2020 season.
Put in charge of a rebuild in the works, Matheny went 26-34 during a COVID-19-shortened first season, then appeared to show progress last season, when the Royals ushered forward a slew of young prospects and finished 74-88.
The expectation was another step forward this season, but the Royals instead spent September fighting off 100 losses.
Matheny finished 165-219 during his time with the Royals, though the number that perhaps is more important to the future of the club is 29 — the number of players who made their major league debut during his tenure.
“We are grateful to Mike for leading us through some unusual times these last three seasons,” Picollo said in a statement. “He met those challenges head on and helped us move forward in a positive manner. We thank him for his leadership and know his influence will have a positive impact moving forward.”
Matheny became the fifth big league manager to be fired this year.
Philadelphia’s Joe Girardi was replaced on June 3 by Rob Thomson, who engineered a miraculous turnaround to get the Phillies into the playoffs. The Angels replaced Joe Maddon with Phil Nevin four days later, Toronto’s Charlie Montoyo was succeeded by John Schneider on July 13 and the Rangers’ Chris Woodward by Tony Beasley on Aug. 15.
Chicago White Sox manager Tony La Russa left the team on Aug. 30 for medical tests and said Monday he will not return for 2023.
In addition, Miami’s Don Mattingly said late last month that he will not return next season.
While he was well-liked in the Kansas City clubhouse, it seemed unlikely Matheny would be granted another season when Moore was fired last month. Sherman indicated at the time the change in the leadership of the baseball operations department was only the start of what was expected to be widespread shifts throughout the organization.
The Royals have struggled for years to develop pitching — they had the fourth-worst ERA and the worst WHIP by far of any staff in the majors this season. And the continued struggles by their latest wave of young arms was a big reason for letting go of Eldred, the pitching coach since 2018.
“The bottom line here is it’s time for change,” Sherman said last month. “There is a gap right now between where we are and where we expected to be. … I felt like in 2021 we did make progress, and in 2022, that’s not how I feel. There have been some bright spots — I love seeing the young players — but in 2022, we are not where we expected to be.”
NEW YORK — The last time Buck Showalter managed a playoff game, he ended up on the hot seat after an agonizing loss for Baltimore.
Six years later, a shot at redemption begins Friday with the New York Mets.
The popular Showalter takes his fourth franchise to the postseason this weekend when the Mets host San Diego in their best-of-three wild card series. The veteran skipper has spent more than two decades pacing major league dugouts and is still seeking his first World Series appearance.
“He’s got that chance — and that’s really what you come back for,” said former teammate Don Mattingly, who just stepped down as manager of the Miami Marlins.
Showalter had baseball’s best closer with the Orioles in 2016, but didn’t bring Zack Britton into their wild card loss at Toronto. Waiting for a save opportunity that never developed, Britton was left in the bullpen watching helplessly as Ubaldo Jiménez gave up a three-run homer to Edwin Encarnación in the 11th inning that eliminated Baltimore.
A well-respected Showalter was roundly skewered by fans, writers and commentators. He guided the Orioles through two miserable seasons that followed, then spent three on the sidelines doing television work.
Now, he’s back on the bench in October after winning a career-high 101 games in his first year leading the Mets. He joins Yogi Berra as the only managers to take the Yankees and Mets to the playoffs.
“I’d like to say that I’ve evolved with what the players need,” Showalter said. “You roll up your sleeves and see what they need you to bring, and you try to bring it.”
The only other managers to reach the playoffs with four organizations are Billy Martin, Davey Johnson and Dusty Baker (five teams). The 66-year-old Showalter, however, is the lone member of that quartet without a pennant.
And his postseason history is a painful pattern of what might have been.
A whiz kid across town, Showalter was just 38 in 1994 when players went on strike that August. At the time, his New York Yankees held the best record in the American League — but they were denied a chance to chase a ring when Major League Baseball later canceled the postseason.
The next year, he piloted the Yankees to their first playoff berth in 14 years. But they blew a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five Division Series with three straight losses in Seattle, dropping the decisive Game 5 in 11 innings on a two-run double by Hall of Famer Edgar Martinez.
Late owner George Steinbrenner wanted to fire several coaches, and when Showalter wouldn’t swallow that, he was gone, too.
Joe Torre replaced him and managed the Yankees to their most recent dynasty on his way to the Hall of Fame, winning the 1996 World Series and three straight from 1998-2000 with several core players Showalter helped to groom.
“I think he’s pretty perceptive,” Mets reliever Trevor May said. “He knows a lot about guys before he even manages them.”
After leaving the Yankees, Showalter hooked on with expansion Arizona and called plenty of shots as the entire organization started from scratch.
In their second season, he managed the Diamondbacks to 100 wins and the 1999 NL West title before losing to the Mets in the playoffs on a series-ending homer in the 10th inning by backup catcher Todd Pratt, subbing for injured Hall of Famer Mike Piazza.
Two years later, Arizona won the World Series under Bob Brenly, beating the Yankees in a seven-game classic.
Showalter and the Orioles pushed the Yankees to Game 5 in a 2012 Division Series, then won the AL East in 2014 at 96-66 to earn him the third of his three AL Manager of the Year awards in a 20-year span.
But the Orioles ran into a red-hot Kansas City Royals squad that swept Baltimore in his only League Championship Series appearance.
Then came the Britton episode in 2016 — also the last year the Mets made the playoffs before Showalter arrived.
“Guys love playing for him,” big league batting champion Jeff McNeil said. “Definitely want to win one for him.”
In an interesting bit of symmetry, Showalter again has arguably the most dominant closer in baseball this season in right-hander Edwin Díaz.
But those 101 wins — second-most in franchise history — only earned the Mets (101-61) the top National League wild card. A division crown slipped away when they were swept last weekend at Atlanta, which came from 10 1/2 games back on June 1 and seven behind on Aug. 10 to win its fifth straight NL East championship.
So now, Showalter must quickly get his team refocused for a playoff run after the disappointment of leading the division for all but six days this season and still coming up short of a first-round bye.
Meticulous by nature with a never-ending thirst for information, Showalter ranks 19th in career wins with 1,652 over 21 seasons on the bench with five teams, including Texas. He became the first Mets manager to win 100 games in his debut with the club.
“He had a long layoff, so he probably thought a lot about if he came back, what he was going to change,” reliever Adam Ottavino said. “Seems to me like he’s keeping it pretty simple, and that works well when you have an older group or a good group.”
Perched on the dugout railing, jotting down thoughts in his little black notebook while players reach for tablets nearby to scroll through game video, Showalter has brought a steady hand and wealth of experience to the Mets, helping to instill maturity and professionalism on a team that never lost more than three in a row this year.
“It’s still about relationships,” he said. “It’s about the players. It’s always about the players, and trying to bring what they need. And every situation’s different. You don’t ask them to adjust to you, you adjust to what their needs are. That’s always been the same.”
Off the field, Showalter likes to crack jokes with reporters and enjoys examining the nuances of baseball, whether it be an obscure rule or the proper way for a right-handed first baseman to guard the line late in a game.
Ask him a question, he might expound on something completely off topic that was weighing on his mind.
What makes him uncomfortable, though? Talking about his own success and quest for a championship.
“I think he’s content, whether we win it, lose it (or if) he ever gets it,” Ottavino said. “But I think at the same time, if he does get it, I think you’ll find out then what it meant to him.”
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AP freelance writer Jerry Beach contributed to this story.
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP—Sports
The regular season is officially in the books (OK, maybe there is still a game or two trickling slowly to its finish as you read this) and the 2022 MLB playoffs are set to start Friday — and this year’s postseason could be epic.
In addition to a new format that features 12 teams and a three-game wild-card round that is guaranteed to bring drama to October from the very start, there are so many storylines to follow throughout that it has a chance to be an all-time great month of baseball.
Below, we highlight the 12 themes that will dominate the entire sport as the new 12-team format begins.
I think baseball finally nailed it. Yes, there are those who will always favor the old setups of two pennants or four division winners, but the 12-team arrangement is an improvement over 10 teams (which had been the norm for the past decade). The do-or-die wild-card game, which had been around since 2012, never felt right and, frankly, never really turned into the must-see drama that the sports world stopped everything to watch anyway.
As we saw with the temporary 16-team bracket in 2020, these quick, three-game series are fun. They’re still plenty pressure-packed, but they feel more like baseball than a winner-take-all matchup.
Crucially, this format still rewards the best teams with a first-round bye and the opportunity to rest a pitching staff and line up a rotation. My only nit with where baseball landed this year is that a seven-game division series would be better than five — maybe next year, when the start of the season won’t be delayed by a lockout.
2. There’s a 111-win superteam and nobody is sure what to make of its World Series chances
The Los Angeles Dodgers won 111 games — the most ever for a National League team in a 162-game season and a total topped only by the 2001 Seattle Mariners and 1998 New York Yankees. If they win it all, they go down alongside that Yankees team as one of the greatest of all time; if they don’t win it all, they’re relegated to the back pages of history alongside those Mariners.
Since 2017, the Dodgers have had four 104-win seasons, a remarkably long period of domination … but just one World Series title. Their sole championship came in the shortened 2020 season, with playoff games played in front of empty stadiums or at neutral sites. It counts — or as a friend of mine who is a longtime die-hard Dodgers fan told me, it counts as one-third of a title. And don’t forget that teams were allowed to play with 28-man rosters that postseason, which allowed the Dodgers to use starters as relievers and relievers as starters and do things they might not have been able to do with a 26-man roster.
Alden Gonzalez had a good breakdown of the pressure the Dodgers face this October. In a sense, they’re playing for two championships: 2022 and a validation of 2020. While manager Dave Roberts told ESPN he “absolutely” considers the Dodgers a dynasty — and four 104-win seasons certainly back that claim up — two titles would definitely secure their place in history as one of the greatest teams of all time.
3. We’ve got a real chance of a repeat
After winning the World Series in 2021, the Atlanta Braves lost Freddie Freeman to the Dodgers — and got younger and better, winning 101 games and their fifth straight division title. No team has repeated as World Series champs since the Yankees won three in a row from 1998 to 2000; the Braves have the power, the pitching and the momentum — after stealing the NL East in the final week with a three-game sweep of the New York Mets — to do it.
And it’s not just a repeat, the Braves might be on their way to a dynasty here. Their turnaround from a 10½-game deficit to the division title began when they called up Michael Harris II to play center field in late May and moved Spencer Strider to the rotation. From June 1 — the first win in a 14-game winning streak — to the end of the regular season, they went 78-34. Strider’s injured oblique might keep him out of the playoffs, but they still have Max Fried, 20-game winner Kyle Wright and October hero of the past Charlie Morton, plus a lineup that led the NL in home runs.
4. Speaking of dynasties … what do we make of the Houston Astros?
You might have noticed by now, but there are a lot of good teams at the top of this year’s playoff bracket. We have four 100-win clubs in the Dodgers, Astros, Braves and Mets, with the Yankees finishing at 99 wins. The you-can’t-predict-baseball nature of the postseason doesn’t guarantee we’ll see two of these teams in the World Series, but if we do, there’s a good chance we’ll see a classic series. The last matchup of 100-win teams in the World Series was 2017, when the Astros beat the Dodgers in seven thrilling games. Before that, you have to go all the way back to 1970 to have two 100-win teams in the World Series.
The Astros also have four 100-win seasons since 2017, including 107 in 2019 and 106 this season. Sign-stealing scandal or not, if they win the World Series, perhaps they go down as the dominant franchise of this era. And an added bonus? After 25 years of managing in the big leagues and making his 12th trip to the postseason, manager Dusty Baker is hoping to finally win that final game of the season.
To make matters more interesting, the Astros appear on a collision course to meet the Yankees in the American League Championship Series for the third time since 2017. Remember the war of words in the spring between Astros owner Jim Crane and Yankees general manager Brian Cashman after Cashman cried that the only thing that had stopped the Yankees in previous seasons from reaching the World Series was “something that was so illegal and horrific.” A Yankees-Astros ALCS would be an epic battle — even if it is one Evil Empire versus another.
5. New York baseball is B-A-C-K
This is now the Yankees’ 13th season since last appearing in a World Series in 2009 — an unacceptable length of time for baseball’s richest and most historically successful franchise with 27 titles in a sport where the wealthiest teams have a decided advantage. Longtime fans will note the Yankees are closing in on the infamous World Series drought from 1982 to 1995, the reign of terror era under George Steinbrenner when he cycled through 13 managers and seven general managers.
On the other side of town: The Mets won 100 games for just the fourth time in franchise history and first time since 1988, but they enter the postseason with the bitter taste of defeat after losing that final series to the Braves. Everyone knows that Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer can carry a team through a postseason — but deGrom allowed 14 runs and six home runs in 21 innings over his final four starts, so the Mets will need him to find that groove where he posted a 1.66 ERA over his first seven starts after returning in August. Still, this is hardly a two-man team: Pete Alonso led the NL in RBIs, Francisco Lindor might finish in the top 10 of the MVP voting, Chris Bassitt and Taijuan Walker are solid 3-4 starters and Edwin Diaz has been a lockdown closer. The Mets have had their moments since that run of success in the 1980s, including two World Series appearances, but it’s been 36 years since their iconic 1986 team won it all.
6. Did you really think we forgot about Aaron Judge?
Yes, both teams have made New York baseball interesting all season, but nobody has been more at the center of that than the man who just finished up a 62-home run campaign — and has fans of both New York teams envisioning his free agency will end with him signing with their club.
Now, we have Judge trying to cap off what might be arguably the greatest season of any player in history — by that, I mean a historic regular season, a great postseason and a World Series title. Ted Williams in 1941? Didn’t even win the pennant. Carl Yastrzemski in 1967? The highest single-season WAR for a position player other than Babe Ruth, but the Red Sox lost the World Series. Bob Gibson in 1968? A 1.12 ERA and a record 17 strikeouts in one World Series game, but he lost Game 7. Dwight Gooden in 1985? The Mets missed the playoffs. Pedro Martinez in 1999? The Red Sox lost in the ALCS. Barry Bonds in 2001? The Giants didn’t make the playoffs. Bonds in 2002? He had a great postseason, but the Giants lost Game 7 of the Fall Classic. Mookie Betts in 2018? A 10.7-WAR season that matches Judge and the Red Sox won the World Series, but Betts had a lackluster postseason (.210/.300/.323).
7. Can the GOAT go out on top?
Let’s not forget the other slugger who made home run history this season — Albert Pujols. Every player would love to go out on top, either still playing well or with a dogpile on the field. Almost none of them do. Pujols and Yadier Molina have a chance to do that — and maybe Adam Wainwright joins them in retirement as well (he’s yet to officially announce his status for 2023).
The three St. Louis Cardinals legends reunited this season when Pujols returned after a 10-year exile, and all three will play a key role in what happens to the club in October. As will Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado, two of the greatest players of their generation who will likely finish 1-2 in the MVP voting in the NL — and who both seek their first trip to the World Series.
8. The playoff drought-busters
While the Cardinals come into this postseason with loads of October experience, there are two franchises about to get their first taste of the playoffs in a long, long time. The Seattle Mariners and Philadelphia Phillies ended the sport’s two longest playoff droughts in securing wild-card spots, although both teams will be on the road for the first round — Seattle at Toronto, Philadelphia at St. Louis.
When Cal Raleigh hit his pinch-hit walk-off home run to clinch a wild-card spot, the Mariners celebrated like they had won the World Series. Can you blame them? Twenty-one years is a long time between playoff appearances. Sure, they had plenty of terrible teams along the way, but also several near misses: 93 wins in 2002 and 2003, 88 wins in 2007, one win short in 2014, three short in 2016, alive until the final day last season. They aren’t even guaranteed a home playoff game if they don’t beat the Blue Jays, although you can bet the watch party at T-Mobile Park will have a playoff-like atmosphere.
The good news is Julio Rodriguez returned from his back problem to play a couple of games at the end of the regular season (and homered in the season finale). The bad news is second-half spark plug Sam Haggerty and outfielder/DH Jesse Winker both just landed on the injured list. The rotation and bullpen are healthy, however — Luis Castillo looks like a legitimate ace when he’s on, while Logan Gilbert had a 2.00 ERA in September, allowing one run or less in five of his six starts. If you like a good underdog story, believe in the Mariners.
Meanwhile, the Phillies had the majors’ second-longest playoff drought, making it for the first time since 2011. They have Bryce Harper, back in the postseason for the first time since 2017, and power-hitting Kyle Schwarber, who led the NL in home runs. Aaron Nola, Zack Wheeler and Ranger Suarez (2.95 ERA since July 16) are a strong rotation trio. I wouldn’t bet on them in the tough NL, but there are similarities here in roster construction to the 2019 Nationals, who went from the wild card to World Series champs.
9. The World Series curses we don’t talk about enough
The Cleveland Guardians are trying to win their first World Series since 1948. The San Diego Padres and Tampa Bay Rays are trying to win their first one, while the aforementioned Mariners remain the only franchise never to play in a World Series.
The Guardians’ World Series drought has never received as much attention as the ones for the Red Sox and Cubs did, but it’s now been 74 years since the Cleveland franchise won it all — longer than the 1986 Red Sox had gone (68 years) when they lost to the Mets. How about winning it all in the first season with the new nickname? They might make a movie out of that given this list of Cleveland’s postseason heartbreaks:
1995: The best team in baseball that year, but they lost the World Series to the Braves.
1997: Blew a ninth-inning lead in Game 7 of the World Series to the Marlins and lost in extra innings.
2007: Lost the ALCS to the Red Sox after being up 3-1.
2016: Were up 3-1 on the Cubs in the World Series and lost Game 7, again, in extra innings.
2017: Lost the division series to the Yankees after being up 2-0.
And then there’s the team that’s been around since 1969 — and never won it all. The Padres made World Series appearances in 1984 and 1998, but this is just the seventh postseason trip in franchise history.
But these aren’t your older brother’s Padres. This is a team that has spent the past three seasons acquiring an All-Star squad of talent while playing with a brash style that could make it very popular this postseason — if the Padres can stick around long enough for national fans to get familiar with their stars. They’ve gone all-in to dethrone the Dodgers in recent seasons — only to fall well short. But they squeaked in, and anything can happen in the playoffs, right? Especially with Manny Machado and Juan Soto and Joe Musgrove and Yu Darvish and a suddenly rejuvenated Blake Snell (1.76 ERA over his final seven starts). The Mets-Padres wild-card series is the one to watch — with the winner facing the Dodgers in a colossal division series showdown.
10. The redemption stories
Let’s see here. We’ve got Justin Verlander, who after missing 2021 with Tommy John surgery, came back and went 18-4 with a 1.75 ERA while leading the American League in wins, ERA, WHIP and lowest batting average allowed. His status as future Hall of Famer is secure, but with a big October and another World Series championship for the Astros, his legacy becomes that of an inner-circle Hall of Famer. DeGrom and Scherzer missed some time, and deGrom sputtered at the end of the season, but that dynamic pair could carry the Mets to their first title since 1986. And then of course, there is Clayton Kershaw. Yes, he got his ring a couple of years ago, but he was injured last October, and he hasn’t won a ring in a full season with a normal postseason. How will he perform?
11. The October introduction of some legit young stars
As my colleague Kiley McDaniel pointed out recently, this is the best rookie class since Pujols and Ichiro Suzuki debuted in 2001 — and most of the biggest names will be playing in the postseason (sorry, Adley Rutschman). We’ve got Rodriguez leading the Mariners and Harris and Strider on the Braves.
But it’s not just the rookies who will remind us how bright the future of baseball is this postseason …
While we often think of the Rays as a parade of bullpen arms, they also have two budding young superstars in Wander Franco and Shane McClanahan who could power another small-market success story this postseason. And across the AL East, Alek Manoah, Alejandro Kirk, Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. form a young core that makes the Blue Jays a team nobody wants to face this postseason. Of course, the question we’ll all be waiting to see answered is how these young stars will handle the bright lights of October … or should we say November.
12. It’s an October so great — it could take part of November to finish it
That’s right, thanks to the combination of the new format and the MLB lockout pushing back the start of the season, Game 7 of the 2022 World Series would take place on Nov. 5, the latest date of a playoff game in MLB history.
If every series goes the distance, we’ll get 53 postseason games with all of these incredible storylines fueling the possibility that any given night can become a must-see moment for baseball fans. Of course, in the end we need great games to have a great postseason.
That’s what still makes 1986 the gold standard for all postseasons. There were just 20 playoff games that October — the seven-game ALCS between the Red Sox and Angels, the six-game NLCS between the Mets and Astros, then the seven-game World Series when the Mets beat the Red Sox. Five of the 20 games went extra innings. Eight were decided by one run. Several are all-time classics, including Game 5 of the ALCS; Games 3, 5 and 6 of the NLCS; and Games 6 and 7 of the World Series.
The stage is set. I’m going with the Dodgers over the Astros. I’ll take Kershaw versus Verlander in Game 7 of the World Series, thank you very much.
The owner of a sports memorabilia auction house says he has offered $2 million to the fan who caught Aaron Judge’s American League-record 62nd home run.
JP Cohen, president of Memory Lane Inc. in Tustin, California, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he has texted and emailed Cory Youmans, the man who caught Judge’s milestone shot Tuesday night at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. Cohen says Youmans has not yet replied.
“I feel the offer is way above fair, if he is inclined to sell it,” Cohen said in a telephone interview with the AP on Wednesday.
Youmans grabbed the historic souvenir on the fly as it sailed into the front row of section 31 in left field. The homer pushed Judge past Roger Maris for the AL season record — a mark many consider baseball’s “clean” standard because the only National League players who hit more have been tarnished by ties to steroids.
Youmans, who is from Dallas, works in the financial world. He was asked Tuesday what he planned to do with the prize while security personnel whisked him away to have it authenticated.
“Good question. I haven’t thought about it,” he said.
The record price for a home run ball is $3 million, paid for Mark McGwire’s record 70th from the 1998 season.
Cohen had previously pledged to offer $2 million for Judge’s 62nd homer. He said his company has a good relationship with the Yankees and it would be willing to loan the ball to the team for an exhibit. He added the team has frequently exhibited items owned by Memory Lane at Yankee Stadium.
“We did make an offer of $2 million and that offer is still valid,” Cohen said.
After the Yankees lost 3-2, Judge said he didn’t have possession of the home run ball.
“I don’t know where it’s at,” he said. “We’ll see what happens with that. It would be great to get it back, but that’s a souvenir for a fan. He made a great catch out there, and they’ve got every right to it.”
Youmans was among the crowd of 38,832, the largest to watch a baseball game at the 3-year-old ballpark.
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP—Sports
Mikaela Mayer has never shied away from her war of words with Alycia Baumgardner.
The two Americans fight to unify the WBO, IBF and WBC super-featherweight world titles on the undercard of Claressa Shields vs Savannah Marshall on October 15, live onSky Sports.
They have forged a ferocious rivalry themselves. “It comes with the territory. It’s a lot of drama. It’s a lot of stuff that normally I would excuse myself from in my everyday life,” Mayer told Sky Sports.
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Mayer says Baumgardner is taking her too lightly ahead of their super-featherweight unification
“But I understand that this is part of the job and it comes with the territory because this is entertainment. So I embrace it in that sense but I do it for a reason.”
She explained the roots of the hostility between the two champions. “She got the [WBC] belt so I started calling her out. That’s it,” Mayer said.
“She didn’t like it. Some people, I guess, that’s how they build themselves up, that’s how they hype themselves up. That’s what they need to do to believe in themselves.
“That’s not me. I’m mostly smiling most of the time. My confidence comes from the work I put in in the gym and in my training camp and my team. The confidence that my team instils in me through hard work and constant correction and adjustments and criticism from my team. That’s where my confidence comes from. She just pulls it out of, I don’t know.
“She called me a hater but she’s the hater. She’s just so mad. I don’t know what’s wrong with her.”
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The bad blood between Mayer and Baumgardner resurfaced when they had a fiery exchange at the Shields vs Marshall media day
Mayer bitterly objected to Baumgardner dismissing her as “pampered” by her platform with promoter Top Rank and US broadcaster ESPN. But Mayer points out that she earned that position, not least by becoming an Olympian and with her performances in the ring.
“Nowhere in my story was anything handed to me,” Mayer said. “I started late. I just worked my ass off. Literally in the gym and in the restaurant as a waitress trying to stack my money to make sure I got to these tournaments.
“Going to school, going to the gym, then bar tending and waitressing till late, early in the morning, I did that for years, stacking up money to get to these tournaments, make sure I didn’t miss them. Didn’t matter what it took,” she continued.
“There were four of us crammed into a hotel room, splitting the costs of everything. Going to Walmart and stuffing our refrigerator with all the food for the week so we didn’t have to go out and eat. We did this for years. There was no privilege there. [For] us women of that era there was no privilege there. We just had to hustle and show up and win.”
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Mayer was surprised with a message from childhood hero Mel C ahead of her super-featherweight unification fight against Baumgardner
Mayer is convinced, though, that those hard experiences have made her a more formidable fighter.
“I never heard of her as an amateur,” she said. “I’m just saying facts. She thinks she’s being disrespected but it’s just true.
“She was never on the national team with me or a training camp when they brought in the number three and four, I’d never heard of her. That’s not me hating that’s me telling you guys the facts. I’m very surprised that she’d had 165 amateur fights because I’d never heard of her.
“I’m not hating. I say you haven’t fought anyone in the pros – look at her [on] Boxrec. The girls that she’s knocked out, [most of them] have a losing record. Most of the people on her resume have a losing record. I don’t think she’s been tested. If that’s all the fights she could get, fine, but the point is you haven’t been tested the way that I’ve been tested.
“Again facts, if you don’t like the way it sounds I’m sorry, it’s just true. You don’t have the experience of the opponents that I’ve had. So it’s no disrespect. It’s just facts.”
Kamara was listed as limited in practice on Wednesday. Saints quarterback Jameis Winston and wide receiver Michael Thomas did not practice Wednesday after missing the Vikings game.
“The main thing for me is just being able to help the team any way I can,” Kamara said. “Physically, if there’s a time where I feel like I can’t do that, then I can’t be out there. The last thing I want to do is negatively impact the game. Just being all the way healthy and available on Sunday, that’s my biggest thing. So that’s why, obviously last week was kind of up in the air, didn’t go. This week I’m feeling great, healthy, ready to roll. So I’m going to be out there.”
Kamara has a rib injury that he suffered in the Saints season opener against the Atlanta Falcons, and it has caused him to miss games in Week 2 and Week 4.
“It’s a weird injury,” Kamara said. “There’s nothing really you can do for it. It’s one of those things you’ve got to kind of be easy with and one morning you wake up and it’s feeling terrible, the next morning you wake up and it’s feeling better. I kind of try to stay on the rehab and try to do everything I can. Obviously there’s not too much I can do, but obviously I try to do everything I can to make it feel good and just promote and stimulate the healing.”
Kamara said he’ll wear extra padding to be on the safe side with his rib injury. Winston, who injured his back in Week 1, has also been wearing extra padding when he plays.
“Just protect it, be on the safe side rather than not and end up with another injury,” Kamara said. “We’re going to protect it and we’ll be good.”
Saints coach Dennis Allen said he did not have an update on Winston, who missed all three practices last week leading up to the Saints’ game in London. While the starting quarterback typically speaks to reporters on Wednesdays, neither Winston nor Andy Dalton, who started against the Vikings, did any interviews.
“The only update is that he’s still rehabbing. Right now the plan is, I want to get him healthy and we’ll see where he’s at. He’s getting better, so we’re just trying to get him healthy,” Allen said.
Allen also said he did not have a timetable for Thomas’ return.
“He’s out right now, and hopefully he’s going to get well and we’ll be able to get him back,” Allen said.
Monday saw the release of the independent investigation commissioned by the U.S. Soccer Federation and conducted by former U.S. deputy attorney general Sally Yates, which chronicled the extent to which abuse and sexual misconduct in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) was overlooked and ignored “systemically” by executives, coaches and club owners.
The report’s findings focus heavily on three coaches in the National Women’s Soccer League who have been accused of serious sexual misconduct and abuse: former Racing Louisville coach Christy Holly, former Portland Thorns coach Paul Riley and former Chicago Red Stars coach Rory Dames. It sheds new light on the alleged misconduct by these three coaches, as well as the repeated failures by team owners, U.S. Soccer officials and others to heed warnings and complaints from players about them.
With the release of the E60 documentary, “Truth Be Told,” the powerful story of the reckoning in women’s professional soccer from the point of view of those who experienced it first hand, we are publishing the full interview from USWNT international Alex Morgan, who spoke at length about the situation in Portland as well as her role in trying to escalate and elevate the allegations around Riley during his time at the club. Morgan was also a teammate of Mana Shim (2013-17) and Sinead Farrelly (2014-15) during her time with the Thorns from 2013 to 2015.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This has been lightly edited for clarity.
ESPN: What do you remember of your teammate Mana Shim in Portland?
Alex Morgan: I remember Mana as a rookie in 2013, as someone who was just so happy and also so good at soccer. The ball just stuck to her foot. She was someone that just made me smile and made me immediately comfortable being around her — I could just be myself. And she just was a people person — like, people gravitated towards her.
ESPN: What do you remember of the coaching change that would come after Cindy Parlow Cone?
Morgan: I remember Cindy deciding not to continue, and us kind of feeling like we are on top of the world winning in 2013 after our first season of the NWSL. And hearing about a coaching change with Paul Riley stepping into place. And it was a big hire by the club. He had been successful. He had a lot of players that spoke highly of him, a lot of players that didn’t speak highly of him. And so there was a lot of question marks, but he was definitely highly regarded in the soccer community.
ESPN: What do you remember of what it was like when Riley did come in and start coaching the Thorns?
Morgan: When Paul came in and started to implement his style of coaching, there was not the mutual respect, I would say, from players and himself that I think he was used to, maybe. Because he was used to coming in and immediately controlling everything and everyone within the team.
He didn’t like big personalities. He liked people that were going to say yes and players that were going to do anything he said, anything he wanted us to do. And I think that there were some players, including myself, that asked questions, maybe too many questions. And he didn’t like that. And I think that with that, it was a struggle, the first season under Paul — and it only got worse.
ESPN: When you would ask questions… I mean, you were a highly regarded national team player. What kind of response would you get?
Morgan: It was interesting, being coached by Paul and knowing that he didn’t like people asking questions, and he didn’t want myself or fellow national team players questioning him as a coach. I think he had his style of wanting to win over players and make sure players knew that he was the reason for their success, but he struggled with players that were already successful.
And so coming in, Paul, he just struggled to capture the heart of the team because he wanted to implement his direction of the team. When he was questioned, he then used manipulation tactics to try to break down the team and show that he was the one and only person that could create success on the team.
It wasn’t the players going to each other or us going to other coaches: It was him. Everything went through Paul. And so it was a really different way of coaching that we were not used to, with Portland or for me at all in my history of playing soccer.
play
2:37
Alex Morgan shares her frustration at the NWSL’s failure to support Meleana Shim after speaking out against Paul Riley in this behind-the-scenes clip from E60: Truth Be Told, available now on ESPN+.
ESPN: Was there anything that you remember that sticks out to you of how he used his power to, like you said, manipulate these players who were the fringe players?
Morgan: Paul would have this coaching tactic of — at the end of the day, it’s verbal abuse — but he would break down players… Mana, a couple of other players that were just fighting to get some playing time. He would break them down in a way that if they weren’t playing up to a standard in a training or in a game, he would rip into them at halftime.
One time with a player who was with us in 2015, [Riley] just tore into her and about how bad of a mother she was and how all of these personal attacks that had absolutely nothing to do with the game and it made all of us uncomfortable. But he would do that and then two days later, we would be back at training after an off day and he would just be smiling as if nothing happened.
He didn’t just verbally attack somebody. Like, he didn’t just attack our personalities, us as people, rather than soccer players. And it was weird because you were like, “I’m sorry, I was there when you did this, but were you there? Do you remember this?” And he would go through this pattern of breaking someone down and then lifting them up and being like, “I could help you get to where you want to be.”
And so it was a manipulation tactic that I think wore on a lot of players, but especially players who were struggling to get playing time or get [on the roster]. All they wanted was validation that they deserved to be there, and he would do it in a way that really made them feel like they could only have confidence when he gave them confidence.
ESPN: When was the first time that you remember that Mana confided in you about what was happening with her with Paul Riley?
Morgan: Early 2015 is when Mana confided in me that Paul was really crossing the line. He did a couple of things in particular, like asking her to go over to his hotel room to watch film, and then opening the door in his boxers and closing the door behind her and asking her to sit in his bed. Or asking if she wanted to come to the World Cup final in Vancouver, with him sending along the reservation of the hotel that had a king-size bed and not two rooms or two beds.
So, a couple of things that he did and said via text message that she relayed to me and this only progressed, and Mana really struggled with it in 2015. I tried to help her as much as possible, but I was gone a lot with the national team so I really didn’t get a sense of how bad it was until I came back from Vancouver and she showed me text messages and shared with me the things that he did that crossed the line and were just straight-up sexual harassment. And we kind of started from square one on: Well, how do we approach this? How do we report this? How do we hold someone like this accountable?
ESPN: And what did you do?
Morgan: When Mana told me that she was ready to report him, although she was scared to lose her job as a soccer player, she didn’t know the right way to do that. She wanted to anonymously report him because then she wouldn’t be at risk of retribution, and I told her that I would do everything I could to find a contact for HR within the league or within the Portland Thorns and Timbers organization.
At the league, I couldn’t find anything. I couldn’t find [an] HR contact, I couldn’t find an anonymous hotline. I couldn’t even find an anti-harassment policy that might layout exactly what he was doing that was reportable. So I eventually had to go to the Portland Thorns organization and call and just ask around if there was anyone at HR that they can share a contact with me for, and that I didn’t really want to share what it was about, but I really would like the contact information of that person.
I finally got that information and shared that with Mana, and at that point she reported him. And that was late 2015.
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2:54
Jeff Carlisle breaks down the details of U.S. Soccer’s independent investigation into player abuse in the National Women’s Soccer League.
ESPN: What was it like hearing Mana tell you these things that had been happening to her?
Morgan: It was really hard to see a teammate going through what Mana was going through in 2015 because first of all, I had never personally experienced that before, but I also never had a teammate experience that and confide in me in the way that she did, and all I wanted to do was support Mana. I deeply cared for Mana. She still is one of my best friends today, but I didn’t know what to do other than support her by me being there.
I knew I wanted to get Paul out of coaching. I wanted to hold him accountable. I wanted to hold the Portland Thorns organization accountable, but I didn’t know how. I just wanted to take Mana’s direction and support her in any way possible, but it was hard navigating that and showing up to training and games every day, knowing that Paul was trying to use his position of power to harass and assault Mana.
She was in an impossible position.
ESPN: When she does eventually report him and the Thorns say that they’re going to take care of it, what do you remember of the sequence of events after that?
Morgan: I remember Mana reporting Paul to the league in late 2015, and the only reason she waited that long is because she didn’t want to be cut from the team before the end of the season. She didn’t want Paul to find out and for him to either bench her, or waive her or cut her. So she waited, and she shared with me the email that she was drafting to the league — to Jeff Plush, the commissioner at the time. And she also, I believe, CC’d either Merritt [Paulson, Portland Thorns owner] or Gavin [Wilkinson, Thorns GM] as well. And we went over that email together before she sent it, and she laid it all out there. And at that point then I believe Jeff Plush responded.
I believe Portland had an investigation with a very narrow scope. I was interviewed, I believe, for 15 or 20 minutes — such a short interview that I actually can’t even recall the questions from the interview, and that was it. There was no conclusion from the investigation, nothing reported back to us based on the findings or recommendation. Paul Riley and Portland Thorns went their separate ways, and Gavin and Merritt wished Paul well.
ESPN: What was going through your head as they released that statement?
Morgan: It was really difficult to see that the Thorns “parted ways” with Paul Riley rather than firing him — I don’t even know if it was released that they were letting him go, I think it was that they parted ways. And at that time it was really devastating because I had helped Mana do the right thing, which was reporting Paul to the league and hoping that they would take action and hold him accountable, and she went through all the right steps to report someone who was sexually harassing her, to stop what was being done that was incredibly wrong, and she was failed.
She was failed by the system, and I think that was the hardest thing at the time was: What do we do now? Does Mana just move on? How do you move on from this? And Paul just soon after got picked up by North Carolina and — was it North Carolina?
ESPN: Western New York.
Morgan: It was Western New York, and they moved. He got picked up by Western New York as the head coach and at that point, like, is Mana supposed to continue to play against this coach in the league, and see this coach possibly do the same thing to players on a new team? It was devastating. We didn’t know what to do.
ESPN: Mana told me that it meant a lot to her that you had told her, “I’m never going to shake his hand again.”
Morgan: Yeah, I never shook his hand. And he started to — people caught on that I did not respect Paul in the slightest, that I would not shake his hand. I would not look at him at the end of the game when we were playing against Western New York and what came to be North Carolina, because I was disgusted and I was saddened by Mana’s situation.
I just knew that he needed to be held accountable one day and that it would happen one day, but it took years for that to happen. And I told Mana that I had her back no matter what. I just wanted to support her and help her in holding people accountable that needed to be held accountable. It’s just sad that it took years and years of us forcing people’s hand to remove him from his position of power.
play
2:08
Alex Morgan calls out former NWSL commissioner Lisa Baird for her failure to address allegations against Paul Riley in this bonus footage from E60: Truth Be Told, available now on ESPN+.
ESPN: Mana told us that she felt like she’d done everything, you both had done everything that you felt like you could at the time. And it wasn’t until 2020 when Sinead [Farrelly] actually opened up to her about her own experiences that Mana felt the empowerment again to try to go at this again. Did she ever talk with you about her reattempt to make sure that Riley was held accountable for his actions?
Morgan: In July of 2020, Mana called me, and she said that she had had a few conversations with Sinead, and she said that she couldn’t believe Paul was still in power, but if people needed to hear her story to remove him from his position of power, then that’s what needed to happen.
She asked if I could help her find a legal team to take him down, to do the right steps, to finally force him to be held accountable. And that’s what we did from July 2020 on, until the article was released by The Athletic. We worked on it meticulously and spent so many hours with our legal and strategy team, with her legal and strategy team, to find a way to put the NWSL in a corner where they had to move forward by protecting players, restructure a league that so desperately needed to protect us and grow and evolve because it was stuck. This league was stuck in a place that didn’t protect players, that didn’t serve its players first and foremost.
And that’s what we set our mission on in July 2020, and that evolved eventually into the article that was released and the firing of Paul in the fall of 2021.
ESPN: What were you feeling when that article was released?
Morgan: On Sept. 30th when the article was finally released, I remember where I was. I was in Seattle, and I was talking to Mana on the phone every day for a week leading up to that. And it was just so many emotions but mostly a sigh of relief because our goal was for Paul to not even step on the field as a head coach in 2021, but it took so many more months to put together, to investigate, for The Athletic to investigate everything, for us to really work with our legal team in finding the best way for Mana to share her story and for Sinead, too.
And so it took months longer than we expected for the article to finally be released, but once we knew it was, and I believe within hours of that happening, Paul was fired. It was just a huge sigh of relief.
ESPN: You put in a lot of work to help Mana, to make sure that this happened. Why?
Morgan: With me being someone that Mana confided in initially, back in 2015, I told her that I wanted to support her and help her in any way possible, whether that was to forget it, whether that was to take down Paul and all that needed to be held accountable — I told her, whatever she needed. She’s one of my best friends, and in 2020 when I got the call that she had spoken with Sinead and that she was ready to share her story and take down Paul, I was ready to do anything and everything possible knowing that I deeply care for Mana, and I deeply care for the state of soccer in the U.S., for the NWSL and the future of the NWSL. I knew there needed to be change.
I felt like at the time in 2020 when we started on this mission, to get Paul fired and to implement policies within the NWSL that still had not been implemented after nine years — basic workplace policies, anti-harassment policies that were non-existent in the NWSL — we realized that there was so much more work to do than trying to get Paul fired. We realized that the NWSL was in a state that was not only fragile and short-staffed and in dire need of changing and looking at itself in the mirror; we realized that it just didn’t protect players.
At the end of the day, players were not protected. I felt like in my position, I’m in a position where if I stood up and said that things weren’t good enough, I think people would listen, and I knew that Mana needed me to help her share her story and do what we needed to do. So that’s what I did. I just told her that I was all-in — I’m not really a half-in type person — and if she needed me and this league needed me, then I was here to force their hand in changing the league.
ESPN: Lisa Baird put out a statement right after this news broke saying that she was “shocked and disgusted.” What did you think reading that?
Morgan: We talked with our legal team weekly. I keep saying “our” because I actually feel like for two years, we talked weekly, so I was part of it. We talked with our legal team weekly and we thought of every angle. We thought of what if they say this? What if they do that? What if they say, “Oh, there is basic workplace policies?” Okay, well, show us.
So we did things where I would send off emails to Lisa Baird. I would ask for a call with Lisa Baird. I was on a call with her and [President of the National Women’s Soccer League Players Association] Tori Huster and [NWSL General Counsel] Lisa Levine, and asked for these basic workplace policies. Lisa Levine said, “They’re somewhere. I’m sure I’ll be able to find them.” And I was like, “Okay, great. We’ll be waiting.” Weeks went by, nothing happened.
We drafted policies for the NWSL with our legal team and handed them to the NWSL, and then still had to ask our PA [Players Association] to put a timeline on when they needed to be implemented and given out to all players and staff. Before the season of 2021, we asked them before the first game of season starts, “We need these policies to be in place.” They pushed back, the league pushed back, the Lisas pushed back. Sinead and Mana both sent emails that we all looked at, multiple drafts of these emails asking them to look into the sexual harassment and assault from Paul Riley from years back.
Lisa Baird’s email back: “We’re doing what we can. We’ll look into it. We’ll get back to you.” Nothing.
So when this article was finally released and there’s a sigh of relief on our side and just utter shock from the rest of the soccer community — we had already known everything. We tried to give the league a chance and time again to do the right thing. I wanted so deeply for Lisa Baird to just stand up and say, “I’m sorry. I didn’t do enough. I didn’t look into enough. I trusted our general counsel, Lisa Levine, too much. We were too understaffed. We didn’t have enough people in the room to really make calculated decisions,” but she didn’t. She said she was shocked and disgusted, and that was surprising because that was a lie.
ESPN: And what did you do?
Morgan: I got on a group text, one that was very active between Mana, Sinead and our legal and strategy team, and we talked about what needed to happen, and a tweet was the best course of action for that.
ESPN: And what do you remember of the response?
Morgan: I remember Lisa putting in her letter of resignation.
ESPN: How did that make you feel?
Morgan: I wish I could say that it made me feel good, but it didn’t because I care for this league so much. And I just wanted the people in charge to not only be held accountable, but also to just lead this league out of a dark time, just to raise their hand and say that they hadn’t done things right before but, ‘Moving forward, we’re going to do everything we can.’ And it was hard to know the people in charge at the time just wouldn’t do that. They still wouldn’t accept the failures that they saw and did and own up to it.
So it was really hard seeing Lisa Baird resign because I didn’t want her in charge anymore, but who was going to step in now? It was a really difficult time in the NWSL because not only were they understaffed, but now, the head of the league, the commissioner is now stepping down too because of failures on her part, so where do we go from here? Who’s going to lead now? It was really hard.
MIAMI — Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel isn’t ignorant of the criticism surrounding how quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was handled following an apparent head injury against the Bills on Sept. 25; he’s aware of what people’s opinions are.
But he says he isn’t wasting thought on them.
Speaking to local media Wednesday, McDaniel said any skepticism about whether he or the Dolphins were negligent in allowing Tagovailoa to play against the Cincinnati Bengals, four days after suffering the apparent head injury against the Bills, would be “crumbling” if it were coming from the people he’s in service to. Anything outside the Dolphins’ building, he said, is also outside of his control.
“Everything’s reactionary anyway,” he said. “So if people want to [give their opinion], whatever. … If I’m spending time thinking about that, let’s say Monday night for five seconds — that’s five seconds that I’m not thinking about all the other things that relate to the team and the upcoming game.
“I fully have way too much respect for the game, for everyone involved, for everybody that’s counting on me that, I mean, I’m actually the anti-T.O. [Terrell Owens]. You know, ‘talk good about me, talk bad about me, just talk about me’ — I’d be cool if no one talked about anything. That’s how I’ve been operating in my whole career. But [I’m] fully expecting that they’re going to have all sorts of opinions because that’s the nature of the beast, that’s what happens when you watch it and are fan of it for your entire life. You see it happen over and over, and nothing I guess in that avenue would really surprise me.”
Tagovailoa was evaluated for a head injury during halftime of Miami’s win over the Bills in Week 5, after hitting his head on the ground and stumbling on his way back to the huddle. He cleared concussion protocol and returned to the game, with both he and the team stating that it was a back injury he has suffered earlier in the game which caused him to stumble.
He continued to pass concussion evaluation throughout the week leading up to Thursday’s game and was cleared to play in it, but he suffered a concussion shortly before halftime that required a brief hospitalization. Tagovailoa was discharged and allowed to return to Miami with the team early Friday morning.
The NFLPA exercised its right to initiate a review of the NFL’s concussion protocol following Tagovailoa’s quick return to the field and terminated the unaffiliated neurotrauma consultant who performed his initial evaluation after determining he made “several mistakes” in his evaluation, sources told ESPN.
Multiple sources told ESPN that the review of Tagovailoa’s handling could be completed as soon as Thursday.
The reaction to Tagovailoa’s injury and handling drew myriad responses on social media and even from fellow NFL coaches. Speaking the day after Tagovailoa suffered a concussion against the Bengals, Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh said he was “astonished” by what he had seen the night before.
“I’ve been coaching for 40 years in college and the NFL. I’ve never seen anything like it before,” Harbaugh said. “I really appreciate our doctors, appreciate our owner, appreciate our general manager from the standpoint that there’s two things you have to keep in mind: One of them is, a lot of time players want to play. Sometimes, you just have to tell them no. No has got to be the answer.
“Sometimes, guys might be there physically where they’re sound, but they’re not confident yet, they’re not quite there yet — and we’ve had that this year. We’ve had both those situations this year. You don’t put them out there until they’re ready.”
New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick told radio station WEEI he had “definitely” ruled out players who appeared incapable of playing, despite them being cleared by medical personnel.
The Dolphins beat the Patriots and Ravens in their first two games of the 2022 season.
McDaniel has insisted that Tagovailoa was cleared by an independent neurologist and that he personally interacted with him throughout the week — and saw no signs of a head injury.
“I’m in steady communication with this guy day in and day out,” McDaniel said. “We’re talking about high-level football conversations about progressions and defenses and recalling stuff from two weeks previous and then him having to reiterate a 15-word play call. All things, absolutely no signs. There was no medical indication, from all resources, that there was anything regarding the head.
“Beyond an eyeball test, which I know for a fact you guys would not be very comfortable if I was just relying on that — I mean, it’s the reason why we have tests,” McDaniel added. “He did not have a head injury. So guys hit their heads all the time, and that’s why I was adamant [that] he was evaluated for having a head injury, and he did not have one. And when I tell you he was in complete mental concert, talking to us through it, and then he played the whole game and then he did a press conference and then he did media all week.”
The Dolphins ruled Tagovailoa out for their Week 5 game against the New York Jets, naming Teddy Bridgewater the starter until Tagovailoa is able to return. McDaniel said repeatedly that there is no timetable for Tagovailoa as he remains in concussion protocol.
ARLINGTON, Texas — The New York Yankees settled for 99 wins in the regular season, and the American League record 62 home runs for slugger Aaron Judge.
Their focus has already shifted to trying to win their 28th World Series title, and first since 2009.
“This is the fun part of the year,” Judge said.
Judge was out of the lineup a day after hitting his American League record 62nd homer, and the Yankees lost their regular-season finale 4-2 against the Texas Rangers on Wednesday to finish with 99 wins. At the beginning of July, New York was on pace for 118 wins, four more than the franchise record set in 1998.
“AL East champs. I mean, that’s what we hope for in the regular season. You know, we put ourselves in a good spot now. So I guess first mission accomplished in that regard,” manager Aaron Boone said. “There’s some satisfaction in that. But, you know, our group … we want to win it all. And that’s what we’re focused on now.”
Jose Trevino homered for the AL East champion Yankees (99-63), who missed a chance to reach 100 wins for the 22nd time and give the major leagues five 100-win teams for the first time. They get an extended break before opening the AL Division Series at home on Tuesday.
While Judge made his case to play in the regular-season finale, Boone insisted on a break for after the slugger played 55 consecutive games, and 157 overall, in the pursuit of Roger Maris’ single-season home run mark that had stood since 1961.
Fans in the crowd of 28,056 chanted “We Want Judge! We Want Judge!” in the ninth inning, hoping to get to see him get a shot at one more homer.
“Not today. He got plenty of them all year,” Boone said. “Hopefully, we’ve got a lot left now in the postseason.”
Judge finished with a .311 batting average, second in the AL behind the .316 of Minnesota’s Luis Arraez. Judge led the other Triple Crown categories with 62 homers and 131 RBIs.
Charlie Culberson and Jonah Heim homered for the Rangers (68-94), who wrapped up their sixth consecutive losing season. Texas was 17-31 after interim manager Tony Beasley took over Aug. 15, when fourth-year manager Chris Woodward was fired and two days before president of baseball operations and longtime general manager Jon Daniels was also let go.
Texas had lost seven games in a row before its 3-2 win in the second game of a doubleheader Tuesday night.
“It is good to be able to end on a winning note. Really we played a good series,” Beasley said. “ That was good for the guys to come out, compete until the end and not quit and not give up. … That’s a testament to the guys in that clubhouse and the character in the clubhouse and what they’re made out of. So those are positive signs of moving forward.”
Rangers rookie Glenn Otto (7-10) struck out five and walked two while allowing two runs and four hits over six innings. Matt Moore, the third Texas reliever, worked the ninth for his fifth save in six chances.
New York starter Domingo Germán (2-5) gave up four runs over 4 1/3 innings, ending his career-best streak of 12 consecutive starts allowing three earned runs or fewer.
Trevino’s solo homer in the fourth inning, his 11th overall but first in 40 games, put the Yankees up 2-1. Texas got even on Heim’s 16th homer in the bottom half, then went ahead in the fifth when Bubba Thompson had an RBI double and scored on Marcus Semien’s single.
Veteran utility player Culberson, who played for only the third time in the past 32 games, hit his second homer in the third.
SEATS
A crowd of 28,056, a day after only the third home sellout, left attendance at 2,011,361 their 13th straight full season of 2 million or more. They drew 2,132,994 in 2019, the final season of their old ballpark.
SHORT HOPS
Rangers 1B Nathaniel Lowe singled and walked to finish the season batting .302, the team’s first qualifier to hit .300 since Elvis Andrus and Adrian Beltre both did in 2016. Lowe had 93 hits after the All-Star break. … The game broadcast Tuesday night on the Yankees’ YES Network averaged 636,000 viewers and peaked at 933,000 for the 8:15-8:30 p.m. EDT quarter hour, just after Judge’s 62nd homer. The Yankees are averaging 371,000 viewers on YES, their highest since 2011. … The Yankees had a plus-240 run differential, only the second time since 1955 it was that high. The other was plus-309 in 1998.
POSTGAME CELEBRATION
Boone said the entire team got together after Tuesday night’s game to celebrate Judge’s 61st homer and Gerrit Cole’s 257 strikeouts that broke Ron Guidry’s franchise single-season record set in 1978, when he was 25-3 and won the AL Cy Young Award.
“Those two records to fall in probably 5, 7 minutes was crazy. It’s unbelievable,” said Boone, adding that the celebration included Guidry calling in to congratulate Cole, with the entire team able to hear and share in that.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Yankees: 2B Gleyber Torres missed the entire four-game series after being a late scratch from the starting lineup Monday for flu-like symptoms. Boone said Torres was feeling better and had no fever, but still was dealing with a sore throat and body aches. A COVID test came back negative.
UP NEXT
The Yankees host play Cleveland or Tampa Bay in the ALDS. The Rangers will have a managerial search, and their next game is the 2023 season opener March 30 at home against Philadelphia.
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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Quarterback Daniel Jones‘ sprained left ankle has improved and he practiced a little as the New York Giants started preparations for Sunday’s game in London against the Green Bay Packers.
Coach Brian Daboll did not say how much work Jones would get Wednesday, but he seemed encouraged his quarterback is responding to treatment.
“He’s pretty tough individual,” Daboll said. “I think he’s made a lot of progress since after the game and been in the treatment room pretty consistently throughout these last couple of days. So, you know, we’ll put him out there, give him some reps and see where he’s at.”
Daboll said the Giants also would want to evaluate his ankle on a daily basis before making a decision on whether he would play. He probably would be a game-time decision.
Backup quarterback Tyrod Taylor remained in the concussion protocol, Daboll said. Like Jones, Taylor was hurt in the second half of the Giants’ 20-12 win over the Chicago Bears on Sunday.
Practice squad quarterback Davis Webb, who has never started an NFL game, would be the Giants’ third option.
The Giants did little with the quarterbacks in the portion of the practice that was open to reporters. Jones did take one snap and roll to his right. He moved very well, wearing a pair of high top red shoes inside the bubble.
Rain forced the team to practice inside.
New York also placed cornerback Aaron Robinson on injured reserve with a knee issue. He started the first game, missed the next two because of appendicitis and then was hurt against the Bears in his return.
Center Nick Gates, who broke his left leg early last season, was taken off the physically unable to perform list and returned to practice for the first time in more than a year.
Gates was hurt against Washington and had multiple surgeries. He was injured in his first start at left guard, a move made to help the team with Shane Lemieux out for the season.
There are only four clubs from Europe’s Big Five Leagues who play in the Champions League and are undefeated both domestically and in Europe this season. Three of them are legitimate super clubs: Manchester City, winners of four of the past five Premier Leagues, Paris Saint-Germain, also winners of four of the last five domestic titles and Real Madrid, the reigning European and LaLiga champions.
The fourth is Napoli, who have only three Italian Cup trophies to show for the past 30 years … yet here they are. They’re top of Serie A and perfect in their Champions League group (three wins from three games, the latest being a 6-1 away hammering of Ajax), with 31 goals scored in 11 games across the two competitions.
Here’s the incredible part: They are doing this after a summer in which they cut their wage bill by 30% and made a €13 million ($12.8m) profit in the transfer window. A summer that saw them say goodbye to exactly the sort of players that, according to conventional wisdom, are the key to success in sports. You know, the type that ex-pros turned pundits love to talk about: talented, experienced leaders who have a real connection to the club and the fan base.
Lorenzo Insigne, the Napoli-born, bred and buttered forward that came through the youth ranks and had been a fixture for the past 10 years, was allowed to leave via free agency. Kalidou Koulibaly, the club’s spiritual leader, defensive mainstay and one of the best in the world at his position, joined Chelsea after eight seasons. The hugely popular Dries Mertens — the club’s all-time leading scorer in Serie A — was also allowed to move on, joining Galatasaray, while Fabian Ruiz, the elegant midfield playmaker, went to PSG.
In all of the above cases, money was a factor. The first three were the wrong side of 30 years old while Ruiz was 26, but had just one year left on his contract (like Koulibaly) and the club felt they couldn’t afford to lock him in to a longer contract. And so, they took it on the chin.
When clubs do this, you think “reset button” and “rebuilding season.” They finished third last year, after all, and it was hard to see them making the Champions League again — especially with a sector of the often-agitated fan base angry with president Aurelio De Laurentiis for effectively gutting their team in an effort to save money. And even more so when, in early September, their most gifted remaining player, Victor Osimhen, went down injured (he hasn’t returned to action yet).
Instead, their results thus far have shown they are masters of the “reload.”
For clubs outside the top dozen or so — basically, the deep-pocketed one-percenters like Real Madrid, PSG or Manchester City — reloading is pretty much the Holy Grail. It’s different from rebuilding because when you rebuild, you accept you won’t be as competitive in the short-term because you are going in a new direction, usually with a new manager and/or younger players.
Reloading, however, is predicated on the fact that you need to replace the guys you lost without suffering in terms of results. Why? Because if your results deteriorate, so does — in many cases — your revenue. And then you get stuck in a vicious cycle.
Reloading was what Napoli’s opponent Tuesday night were hoping to do, too. In the summer, Ajax lost Antony and Lisandro Martinez to Manchester United, Sebastian Haller to Borussia Dortmund, Ryan Gravenberch and Noussair Mazraoui to Bayern Munich, Perr Schuurs to Torino and Nicolas Tagliafico to Lyon (among players who made at least 22 league appearances). They spent more than €100m on replacements to stay competitive, win the Dutch league and try to make some inroads in Europe. (They’re second in the Eredivisie, but after Tuesday’s result they face an uphill task in reaching the Champions League knockout stage, which in turn would mean less revenue next season and less of a chance to hang on to their remaining prized players like Jurrien Timber and Mohamed Kudus.)
This is the reality facing Europe’s upper middle class and, to some degree, teams just outside the Big Six in England. In Napoli’s case, however, their approach has been hugely effective and they’ve hit on just about every summer signing thus far.
Part of the strategy was to move quickly and decisively for targets who were not quite off the radar, but were on its margins, at other clubs and who appeared to have limited downside. At the back, they acquired Min-Jae Kim from Fenerbahce, a 26-year-old South Korea international who spent three seasons in China before his campaign in Turkey last season. Mathias Olivera, a Uruguay international, arrived battle-hardened from LaLiga strugglers Getafe. Norwegian defender Leo Ostigard arrived from Brighton after doing very well during a six-month loan at Genoa and proving himself in Serie A.
In midfield, they took a calculated gamble taking Tanguy Ndombele on loan from Tottenham. A one-time phenom, Ndombele has basically been sub-par the last two seasons (including during a loan spell back home at Lyon), but the logic is simple: If he gets his act together, you have a standout player. If he doesn’t, he’s not a projected starter anyway and you send him back to his parent club.
Striker Giovanni Simeone, best known to some for being Diego’s son and having a tattoo of the Champions League, was another low-risk loan. He scored a career high 17 goals last season for Verona, but the knock against him is that he’s streaky and, at 27, isn’t going to improve. Again, for one season, he’s a useful alternative to have. (Oh, and he’s already scored against both Ajax and Liverpool in the Champions League.)
Then there’s Giacomo Raspadori, signed from Sassuolo on loan with an obligation to buy. (It’s basically an accounting trick: He’ll cost Napoli between €30m and €35m in transfer fees depending on performance.) Raspadori is a 22-year-old forward who is a part of the Italy squad but, possibly because he was at unglamorous Sassuolo, few big clubs were beating a path to his door. His age made him a risk worth taking.
Finally, they acquired the player who possibly has had the greatest impact on Serie A this season: Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.
The 21-year-old Georgian wunderkind is a human highlight reel who has been on scouting radars for the past three years. A combination of factors (including the war in Ukraine) made it possible for Napoli to sign him at a bargain fee of €10m. He already has six goals, three assists and more #Kvaradona mentions that you can shake a stick at (which matters in this town).
Last season’s holdovers are also performing at a high level. Whatever leadership void was left by the departures of Insigne, Koulibaly and Mertens is being filled by guys like Osimhen (before his injury), Piotr Zielinski and Giovanni Di Lorenzo. Goalkeeper Alex Meret, heavily criticised by some local media and supporters for lacking personality, has shown he belongs.
And let’s not forget coach Luciano Spalletti. He may be an eccentric, but he has gotten the mood of the fans, the city and the squad just right, and he’s getting his young, high-energy team to play like one, whereas last year he catered a little more to the veterans with a more patient approach.
There’s not necessarily a broader blueprint to follow here. What is working for them may not work for other clubs; maybe they have better decision-making personnel, or maybe they just got lucky. But it is remarkable that they’re in this position given how difficult it is to reload wholesale on the fly. And maybe their experience can encourage other clubs to be bold and make tough decisions of their own, too.
ARLINGTON, Texas — Yankees slugger Aaron Judge isn’t in the starting lineup for New York’s regular-season finale Wednesday, a day after his 62nd home run that broke Roger Maris’ 61-year-old American League single-season record.
When Judge homered in the first inning Tuesday night, in the second game of a doubleheader against the Texas Rangers, it was his 55th consecutive game. He has played in 157 games overall for the AL East champions.
With the first-round bye in the playoffs, the Yankees won’t opening postseason play until the AL Division Series starts next Tuesday.
Even though Judge had indicated that he hoped to play Wednesday, manager Aaron Boone said after Tuesday night’s game that they would have a conversation “and see what makes the most sense.”
Judge went into the final day of the regular season batting .311, trailing AL batting average leader Minnesota’s Luis Arraez, who was hitting .315. Judge was a wide leader in the other Triple Crown categories, with his 62 homers and 131 RBIs.
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High school seasons are about halfway done – or more – so this is a good time to take a look at some things happening across the country. Today, Rivals national recruiting director Adam Gorney gives five thoughts on the 2023 wide receivers.
Brandon Inniss was the No. 1 receiver in the country until Carnell Tate had such an impressive offseason especially at the Pylon Los Angeles that we swapped the two. There was a feeling we could do no wrong there since both are such phenomenal receivers.
But I’m not sure anymore.
Inniss is such a catch machine who doesn’t look like he’s super fast but creates incredible separation from defensive backs and he just produces and produces and produces. So far this season, the Ohio State commit has nearly 500 receiving yards and seven touchdowns.
Tate doesn’t have bad stats, either, and he’s committed to the Buckeyes, too, so they’ll be putting up big numbers in Columbus together but right now if I had to choose the No. 1 receiver in the country, Inniss might go back to the top.
As we go down the list of high four-star receivers, I’m not sure there are any that are a red-alert five-star that must be moved up in the rankings immediately. There are already four five-stars and I never want to say never but I’d need to see some really compelling performances at the all-star events to get another five-star in this class.
Oregon commit Jurrion Dickey looked awesome this offseason and moved way up so if he continues those performances then maybe that could happen. Texas commit Johntay Cook is another one that intrigues me along with California receivers Deandre Moore and Makai Lemon but there isn’t a clear winner here.
Unless we want to seriously discuss Ayden Williams. More on him below.
*****
WILLIAMS COULD PUSH HIGHER
We were generally conservative on ranking Ayden Williams early in the 2023 class because we didn’t get to see him in person but when the Ridgeland, Miss., four-star showed up at Future 50 and looked great at the event, I was not hesitant to move him up quickly. It might not have been enough.
The Ole Miss commit who has flown a little under-the-radar through the evaluation process not only dominated at that big summer event but now he’s caught 45 passes for 890 yards and 11 scores in only six games this season. With his team at 5-1, there’s a good chance a deep playoff run could happen which means Williams could push toward 2,000 receiving yards and 20-plus touchdowns this season.
Either way, he is playing like someone who should be considered for a major bump in the rankings.
All the way down at No. 74 in the position rankings is Tennessee commit Nathan Leacock, who definitely looked the part at the Rivals Camp Series in Charlotte and has moved to a high three-star prospect.
It might not be nearly enough for the Raleigh (N.C.) Millbrook standout.
So far this season, Leacock has caught 37 passes for 906 yards and 14 touchdowns averaging nearly 25 yards per catch. Plus, the three-star is going into Josh Heupel’s offense where we all know he’s going to have ample opportunities to make big plays on the outside.
Is a four-star ranking in the cards? Sure looks like it.
Here are a few more names that have been outperforming so far that will need to be revisited when rankings come up again after the season and before the all-star events:
UCLA commit Grant Gray already has 48 catches for 527 yards and seven touchdowns as the Norco, Calif., continues to prove he’s one of the best receivers in the West and is a complete production machine. He should be used all over the place in coach Chip Kelly’s offense.
Ole Miss could be the program to beat for Cayden Lee and the Atlanta (Ga.) Kennesaw Mountain standout would be a huge prize for coach Lane Kiffin as the four-star already has 40 catches for 590 yards and nine scores.
Florida State pledge Vandrevius Jacobs could be pushing up the rankings since he has 38 catches for 711 yards and 14 touchdowns this season and North Carolina commit Chris Culliver has 34 grabs for 831 yards and 12 TDs in just six games.
One more to watch: After a great offseason, Stanford commit Tiger Bachmeier’s stat line is unreal with 50 catches for 851 yards and nine scores in his Murrieta (Calif.) Murrieta Valley’s first six games.
