| | | | | | | Presented By IBM | | | | Axios Sports | | By Kendall Baker ·Apr 06, 2022 | | 👋 Good morning! It's really happening. Roughly 400 days after a life-threatening car crash, Tiger Woods intends to play the Masters. ⛳️ Pick your squad: We're hosting a free-to-play Masters Fantasy League. Pick your four golfers to enter. There will be prizes. Today's word count: 1,490 (5.5 minutes). Let's sports... | | | | | | 1 big thing: ⚾️ How America feels about baseball |  Data: Axios/Ipsos poll; Chart: Kavya Beheraj/Axios Coming out of the MLB lockout, Republicans are more likely to side with the owners, while Democrats are more likely to support rule changes, according to a new Axios-Ipsos survey, Axios' Jeff Tracy writes. By the numbers: A majority of Americans surveyed (56%) describe themselves as MLB fans, but their opinions about the state of the league entering the 2022 season differ by political party. - The lockout: Democrats are more likely to blame the owners (21%) than Republicans (14%), and nearly twice as many Democrats (16%) as Republicans (9%) think the owners got a better deal.
- Rule changes: More Democrats (57%) than Republicans (45%) support expanding the playoffs, and more Democrats (54%) than Republicans (41%) support the universal DH.
- Minimum salary: Democrats are far more likely (49%) than Republicans (29%) to support the minimum salary increase from $570,500 to $700,000.
State of play: The pandemic is waning, but not over, and a majority of Americans (55%) support proof of vaccination or a negative test to attend games. However, as with the numbers above, there's a partisan divide. - 77% of Democrats, but just 27% of Republicans, support the fan requirements outlined above.
- 80% of Democrats, but just 33% of Republicans, support a player vaccine mandate.
The big picture: Politics aside, the lockout's will-they, won't-they drama had at least one positive effect: Fans are pumped for baseball — 67% of "big fans" said they're more excited for this season compared to last season. |     | | | | | | 2. ⛳️ The case of the missing ice cream sandwich |  | | | Photo: Marianna Massey/Augusta National via Getty Images | | | | Even the idyllic confines of Augusta National can't escape the pressures of the real world, Jeff writes. Driving the news: The iconic Georgia Peach ice cream sandwich is absent from the Masters this year due to supply-chain issues, per the club. Some other items increased in price due to record inflation. State of play: It's unclear what specific issues caused this, but our rigorous investigation into the matter produced three possible culprits: peaches (rising costs), freezers (only item that needs them) and cookies. - Christie Cookies in Nashville has long supplied the sandwich's cookies, plus individually-wrapped ones. We were unable to confirm if this year's $1.50 cookies are from Christie.
- Prices remain comically low for a 21st-century sporting event, but some items saw rare price hikes due to inflation, including the sausage biscuit ($1.50 to $2), coffee ($1.50 to $2) and domestic beer ($4 to $5).
This year's concession menu. Photo: Andrew Redington/Getty Images Of note: Not all food-related Masters news is bad. Hideki Matsuyama selected an all-time great menu for Tuesday's Champions Dinner, and there's a new concession item: "Breakfast Sandwich." The bottom line: This week at Augusta, fans will watch the world's best tee it up in golf heaven. But their experience will be missing one key (and delicious) ingredient. 🎶 (Can't) get my peaches out in Georgia... | | | | | | | | 3. 🏀 It's official: Lakers eliminated |  | | | Photo: Christian Petersen/Getty Images | | | | The Lakers were officially eliminated from playoff contention after suffering their seventh straight defeat on Tuesday. "Losing Time," indeed. Wild stat: The Lakers had the same preseason odds to miss the playoffs (16-1 at Caesars) as the dreadful Orioles — who are literally bad on purpose — have to make the playoffs this season. | | | | | | | | A message from IBM | | Can artificial intelligence predict the Masters? | | |  | | | | The Masters used IBM Watson to analyze five years of historical data on hundreds of players and more than 100,000 shots, enabling them to predict the scores of every player, in every round of the Tournament. You can check out how they did it here, and see the predictions in the Masters app. | | | | | | 4. ⚡️ Lightning round |  | | | Photo: Andy Lyons/Getty Images | | | | 🏀 Hoops ratings: 4.9 million people watched South Carolina beat UConn on Sunday, making it the most-watched women's title game since 2004 ... Kansas-UNC averaged 18.1 million viewers on TBS, TNT and truTV, making it the third most-watched college hoops game ever on cable. 🏒 King Kreider: Rangers stud Chris Kreider scored his 25th power-play goal of the season, joining Alex Ovechkin, Teemu Selanne, Todd Bertuzzi and Ilya Kovalchuk as the only players to do that this century. 🦚 Peacock exodus: Doug Edert, Daryl Banks and Matthew Lee, three stars of Saint Peter's improbable run, are transferring. Might one, or all, join their recently departed coach at nearby Seton Hall? 🏈 Draft madness: The 2022 NFL draft is still more than three weeks away, but we've already seen a flurry of trades. Eight teams currently have two first-round picks, and eight teams have none. 🛹 Must-see doc: "Tony Hawk: Until The Wheels Fall Off" is out now on HBO Max, and it's truly amazing — and about so much more than just skateboarding. Highly, highly recommend. | | | | | | | | 5. 🎓 Big 12's Bowlsby to step down this year |  | | | Photo: Jamie Squire/Getty Images | | | | Bob Bowlsby will step away from his role as Big 12 commissioner later this year, the league announced Tuesday. Why it matters: Bowlsby, 70, is the longest-serving commissioner in the Power 5, and the elder statesman among a group of men who will see their influence grow in the coming years as the NCAA cedes power. - Big 12: Bowlsby (since 2012)
- SEC: Greg Sankey (since 2015)
- Big Ten: Kevin Warren (since 2019)
- ACC: Jim Phillips (since 2021)
- Pac-12: George Kliavkoff (since 2021)
The backdrop: After Texas and Oklahoma announced they were bolting for the SEC last year, Bowlsby helped engineer the additions of BYU, UCF, Cincinnati and Houston, who will join no later than 2024. - Whoever replaces him will be leading a new-look league, much like Bowlsby did in 2012, following defections from Nebraska, Missouri, Colorado and Texas A&M.
- The Big 12 has won 25 NCAA team national championships during Bowlsby's tenure, including the past two men's basketball titles (Kansas and Baylor).
Looking ahead: Among the top candidates to replace Bowlsby, per The Athletic (subscription): West Virginia AD Shane Lyons, Washington State president Kirk Schultz and former XFL commissioner Oliver Luck. | | | | | | | | 6. 🌎 The world in photos | | Photo: Eliot J. Schechter/NHLI via Getty Images SUNRISE, Fla. — The Panthers beat the Maple Leafs, 7-6, on Tuesday after trailing 5-1. They're the third team in NHL history with multiple four-goal comebacks in a season, and both came in the past week. - The other side: Since Game 7 of their 2013 playoff series against Boston, Toronto has now blown seven games in which it had a 4-1 lead. No other team has four such losses.
Photo: Jan Kruger/UEFA via Getty Images MANCHESTER — Kevin De Bruyne scored a late goal to lift Manchester City past Atlético Madrid, 1-0, in the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal match. - Elsewhere: Liverpool beat Benfica, 3-1, in Lisbon.
Shohei Ohtani throws in the bullpen on Tuesday. Photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images LOS ANGELES — It's almost Sho-Time. | | | | | | | | 7. 📺 Watchlist: NBA time machine |  | | | Images courtesy of ESPN | | | | The Knicks host the Nets tonight in an inter-borough clash on ESPN (7:30pm ET), though if you feel like hopping in a time machine you might want to check out ESPN2's alternate broadcast. - Each quarter's broadcast will pay homage to a different decade of NBA history as the league continues its 75th anniversary celebration.
- Visual elements will be decade-specific, from the score bug and color scheme to the camera angles and aspect ratio. The first quarter will bring you back to the 1960s, followed by the 70s, 80s and 90s.
More to watch: | | | | | | | | 8. ⚽️ The Ocho: OmegaBall has arrived |  | | | Courtesy: OmegaBall | | | | OmegaBall is a new action-packed soccer alternative that officially debuted last month and has already made its way to TV, Jeff writes. How it works: Three teams of five play each other on a 175-foot circular field with three goals. There are three periods, each lasting 12 minutes. - There's no offsides or throw-ins (only "corner" kicks), and kickoffs after goals have been replaced by "quick restarts," with the conceding team beginning play immediately.
- The inaugural championships, which took place last month in Irvine, Calif., re-aired on FS2 on Tuesday (you can watch on YouTube).
What they're saying: OmegaBall CEO and founder Anthony Dittmann came up with the idea in 2019 when discussions about an alternative football league turned to soccer. - "Offsides is a really frustrating rule, so I wanted to rethink the linear nature of soccer," Dittmann tells Axios. "And if we did that, there may be an opportunity to dispose of offsides."
- "So we put soccer in a circle instead of a rectangle. And from there, it just seemed natural to add a third team to pump up the action."
Looking ahead: Dittmann already has plans for a similar championship this fall, a regional event next spring, and a "mini-season" in November 2023 with stops in Miami, Austin and Southern California. 🎥 Watch: Highlights (Twitter) | | | | | | | | 9. 💵 Billionaire trivia | | Giphy Clippers owner Steve Ballmer ($91.4b) is the richest American sports team owner, per Forbes' new 2022 Billionaires list. - Question: Who's the second-richest?
- Hint: Won a championship this century.
Answer at the bottom. | | | | | | | | 10. ⛳️ Pick your squad: Masters fantasy |  | | | The clubhouse at Augusta National. Photo: Jamie Squire/Getty Images | | | | We created a Masters Fantasy League, and you're invited to play for free. How it works: Pick four players, one from each of these categories: (1) First-time Masters participants, (2) Former Masters champions, (3) U.S. players, (4) International players. Scoring: - Double Eagle: 8 points
- Eagle: 5 points
- Birdie: 2 points
- Par: 0 points
- Bogey: -1 point
- Double Bogey or worse: -3 points
- Bonuses: Picked champion (5 points); Picked low amateur (5 points)
Of note: If one (or more) players are eliminated, you can replace them with a golfer in the same category as long as the next round hasn't started. You receive a one-point bonus at the end of each round for every player that was picked pre-tournament. Make your picks. | | | | | | | | A message from IBM | | The Masters app is serving up AI insights on every player in the field | | |  | | | | IBM Watson natural language processing capabilities analyzed more than three million articles about every golfer at the Masters. The resulting player insights are then made available on the player profile pages in the Masters app. See how they did it. | | | | Talk tomorrow, Kendall "Skip Bayless is gonna have a field day" Baker Trivia answer: Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert ($27.4B) 🙏 Thanks for reading. Follow us at @kendallbaker and @jeffreytracy, and tell friends to sign up for Axios Sports. |  | It's called Smart Brevity®. Over 200 orgs use it — in a tool called Axios HQ — to drive productivity with clearer workplace communications. | | | | | | Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters. If you're interested in advertising, learn more here.
Sponsorship has no influence on editorial content. Axios, 3100 Clarendon Blvd, Suite 1300, Arlington VA 22201 | | | You received this email because you signed up for newsletters from Axios.
Change your preferences or unsubscribe here. | | | Was this email forwarded to you?
Sign up now to get Axios in your inbox. | | | | Follow Axios on social media:    | | | | | |
No comments:
Post a Comment