Sung-mun Song helps Padres score 10 in rout of Giants
A new face and a new lineup sparks the Padres offense, LeBron can't do enough against the Thunder, the shifting College Football Playoff picture, a controversial NHL Draft lottery, and a lot more!
At some point, a reader of this newsletter (and a friend of mine) and a listener to its affiliated podcast (which probably requires a new episode sometime soon) told me the following:
I get all of the information I need from the newsletter and podcast on the three things that I care about: The Padres, San Diego FC, and whether or not Trump has lit the world on fire yet.
That was a while ago. You could probably argue, since that exchange, that the President of this country has lit the world on fire since.
Still, I used to make it a point to include something at the end of each newsletter when the news was big enough to require it. The problem is, that quickly became every day. Every single day there was some sort of news about some way in which Trump was dooming the present and future of the USA, if not also the rest of the world (or, at least, our allies). It also seems to change by the second.
It became too much. The end of this sports newsletter can no longer fit the bill as “Your source for when the government news gets big enough that you should pay attention” because, these days, that’s probably always. Every minute there is some news that is massive in some way. And the next minute it has changed completely. And it’s all unprecedented.
You have two options at this point, and I won’t begrudge your choice. You can find yourself a reliable news source, someone that you trust that you feel is giving you the proper facts and context, or you can bury your head in the sand because it’s all too much to keep up with while trying to just exist in what is left over. Both are fine, just don’t assume that anything you’d need to know about the world you can get from this sports-focused daily newsletter.
Now, onto the links…
San Diego Padres
Padres mix up lineup, light up scoreboard in victory over Giants - San Diego Union-Tribune
Whether it was the actual impetus for them executing much better at-bats on a consistent basis, it resulted in the Padres scoring more runs and getting more hits than they had in more than a week, beating the Giants 10-5 at Oracle Park.
Manager Craig Stammen moved struggling Fernando Tatis Jr. down in the order — from second to fifth, the erstwhile slugger’s first time lower than fourth since the 18th game of his career in 2019.
That created a cavalcade of switches that had several players batting in spots they had either not been in or had been just once. Stammen said the hope was to “ignite” the offense.
“I don’t know if it was needed or not, but we switched it up and got fresh faces in different spots, and things clicked,” Gavin Sheets said afterward. “I think that you need still a level of consistency, but sometimes you do this and it works. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results. We switched up today and got a good result. I don’t think you do it every game, but you get in a little funk and get some fresh faces and see what happens.”
Padres notes: ‘Hazy’ Jake Cronenworth placed on concussion IL; Sung-Mun Song up - San Diego Union-Tribune
Jake Cronenworth woke up in his hotel room here Monday and knew it was time to figure out what was going on.
“I don’t drink much,” he said, “… and I woke up yesterday like I was hungover for like the fourth straight day.”
On Tuesday, Cronenworth was placed on the seven-day concussion injured list, 2½ weeks after he was hit in the head by a 97 mph fastball.
Sung-Mun Song was called up and started in Cronenworth’s place at second base.
Cronenworth will see a specialist when the team returns to San Diego after their series against the Giants.
“Since I’ve been hit, there have been good days, there have been bad days,” Cronenworth said. “Looking back at some of the days that I had, I probably should have said something a lot earlier. But I had never had a concussion, so I didn’t know what it felt like.”
The aging Padres need a boost of energy. Sung-Mun Song is a convenient candidate - The Athletic
The Padres are likely to be cautious with Cronenworth — the infielder plans to see a concussion specialist later this week in San Diego — giving Song an opportunity to stick for a while. He is most comfortable at third base, the position where he spent most of his KBO career, but he and Tatis figure to form an athletic platoon at second. While Cronenworth is sidelined, Song will also serve as the primary backup at shortstop.
At the same time, he could provide an intangible boost inside the clubhouse.
“He’s smiling at all times,” Stammen said. “Smiles are a good thing. Laughter is a good thing. He brings a little energy. And I think just, you know, someone from a different country is curious. The guys are curious about him. They want to get to know him. And he’s a fun guy to be around.
“I think just even having him in the locker room with the guys lightens the mood. And then when he gets a hit, we’re all excited for him getting his first big-league hit, RBI, and having a great game.”
SF Giants hide ‘F—k the Padres’ in a new social media ad - SFGATE
In the promotional Facebook reel, the top portion of the letter F in the Giants’ “SF” logo had “F—k the Padres” written in a slightly darker orange font, making it just barely visible in the opening frames of the 15-second video. The message disappears within a second as the SF logo moves back in the frame before the rest of the advertisement plays.
NBA Playoffs
Courtside chess: Inside the Lakers’ defensive plans to slow Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — and give themselves a puncher’s chance - Yahoo Sports
“You’re playing the world champs, your margin for error in terms of mistakes is not that high,” Redick said following the Lakers’ 108-90 loss in Game 1 of the second-round series. “You can make mistakes — basketball is a game full of mistakes — but just too many tonight. But there were some good things, we held Shai under 20 and the guys played hard. Just gotta do a better job of execution, which comes down to attention to detail. We’ll clean things up and be better.”
Gilgeous-Alexander’s output is buried within Redick’s eulogy but considering the reigning regular-season and Finals MVP’s impact on Oklahoma City’s halfcourt execution, it’s worth exponentially more than a passing statement. Gilgeous-Alexander is the best scorer in basketball on the most dangerous team in the league. A plethora of defenses have tried to stop or slow him down and many have failed.
The Pistons Are Getting Down To Business - Defector
The Detroit Pistons won Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series Tuesday night against the Cleveland Cavaliers, 111–101. The home team took control in the first quarter, smashing and bashing their way into the paint and forcing the involvement of the game’s referees. The Pistons responded to a lot of fun and zippy off-ball stuff from the Cavaliers by running fast and having large shoulders, and it worked: Detroit took 12 free throws in the first quarter to Cleveland’s two; that plus Cleveland’s cold shooting on a scavenger’s diet of looks put the road team into a 16-point hole, and the rest of the game featured the higher seed big-brothering the lower, most of the way to the finish line.
Odds & Ends
The Leafs Fell Ass-Backward Into Gavin McKenna - Defector
The Leafs bucked the odds, entering the lottery with an 8.5 percent chance of winning the top pick, fifth-longest odds in the field. They leapfrogged some truly terrible teams, but that’s the way the ping-pong ball bounces, and they’ll be rewarded with McKenna, the 18-year-old Penn State forward who’s been tapped as the gem of this draft class for a couple years now, and enters the league with more hype than anyone since Connor Bedard. Only morons believe draft lotteries are rigged, but if this one were, this is how they would’ve rigged it.
Sources: College football coaches throwing support behind 24-team CFP format - Yahoo Sports
Coaches are swinging their support behind a remade and expanded college football postseason.
The American Football Coaches Association voted last week to recommend that college leaders implement a playoff with “the maximum number of participants,” discontinue conference championship games, preserve the Army-Navy game’s exclusive time window but hold other games on that day, and end the playoff by the second week of January.
In their annual meeting, the AFCA’s Board of Trustees discussed and adopted the recommendations, AFCA executive director Craig Bohl told Yahoo Sports. The association is expected to publicly release its decisions soon, most notable of which is the nod of support for a 24-team playoff and the elimination of league title games.
Bryson DeChambeau plans to focus on YouTube if LIV Golf ends - ESPN
If LIV Golf can’t survive beyond this season without Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund’s purse strings, two-time major champion Bryson DeChambeau said Tuesday that he’s prepared to grow his YouTube channel and play in tournaments that want him.
DeChambeau, 32, said he had some conversations with the PGA Tour, but not specifically about what his potential pathway back to his former circuit might look like if LIV folds.
FIFA’s Theatre of Unity - Sports Politika
Infantino’s speech, like those of other FIFA officials, did not address the concerns or provide insight into how they will ensure the safety and protection of participants and attendees at the games. Instead, Infantino called for optimism and a focus on the positive.
“We have to be smiling, we have to be happy. There are enough problems around the world. There are enough people who try to divide all over the world. If nobody tries to unite, what will happen to our world?” said Infantino.
He made his own attempt at peacemaking by trying to stage a handshake between the delegates of the Palestine and Israel football associations after the representatives gave separate speeches addressing FIFA’s decision to take no action against Israeli settlement clubs.
Jibril Rajoub, the 72-year-old president of the Palestine Football Association (PFA), wearing a suit and a keffiyeh draped over his shoulders, called on FIFA to follow its own statutes.
“We do not ask FIFA to solve a political conflict. We ask FIFA to govern football,” said Rajoub.
Was Muhammad Ali’s most famous photo a lie? The many mysteries of Sonny Liston, boxing’s menacing, mob-affiliated sledgehammer - Yahoo Sports
It’s not a stretch to say that Liston boxed his way out of prison. Word spread about the hulking inmate with the prodigious, powerful fists. Soon a loose confederacy of Catholic priests, local sports media types, and at least one boxing manager had all banded together to assure the parole board that they would help Liston find meaningful work and training as a boxer upon his release.
This is how it came to be that, in October of 1952, Liston was released into the care of his first handlers. They would later be muscled out of the Liston operation by more dangerous men, the kind with experience in this arena. Then others would come in for a percentage of Liston’s earnings. Then still others. By the end, as one commission official estimated, Liston owned about only 10% of himself.