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| Presented By SiriusXM |
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| Axios Sports |
| By Kendall Baker · Sep 29, 2022 |
| 👋 Happy Thursday! Finally, the Yankees made some baseball history. Good to see such a small, little-known franchise getting time in the spotlight. Today's word count: 1,550 words (6 minutes). Let's sports... |
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| 1 big thing: ⚾️ Judge hits No. 61 |
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| Photo: Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images |
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| 61 years later, another No. 61. Driving the news: In 1961, Roger Maris broke the American League home run record with 61 long balls. 61 seasons later, Aaron Judge has matched him — on his hardest-hit homer of the year. What he's saying: "It's definitely some relief, getting to 61," Judge said with a laugh after the Yankees' 8-3 win over the Blue Jays. "It's a chance to tie Roger Maris. It's the stuff you dream about. It's not even real." - "He should be revered for being the actual single-season home run champ," said Roger Maris Jr., who watched with Judge's mother, Patty, from behind the Yankees' dugout.
- "That is really who he is, if he hits 62, and I think that that needs to happen. I think baseball needs to look at their records and I think baseball should do something."
Aaron Judge and Roger Maris Jr. after the game. Photo: Thomas Skrlj/MLB Photos via Getty Images The big picture: The AL home run record through the years.. - 1901: Nap Lajoie (14)
- 1902: Socks Seybold (16)
- 1919: Babe Ruth (29)
- 1920: Babe Ruth (54)
- 1921: Babe Ruth (59)
- 1927: Babe Ruth (60)
- 1961: Roger Maris (61)
- 2022: Aaron Judge (61, tied)
Between the lines: Twitter was ablaze following Judge's record smash — then the conversation shifted to what happened to the ball. What to watch: Judge has seven games left to surpass Maris and creep closer to Barry Bonds' MLB record of 72. He's also still on pace to become just the second Triple Crown winner in 55 years, leading the AL in HR, RBI and tied for the lead in batting average (.313). Go deeper: |
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| 2. 🏈 Favre scandal grows |
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| Photo illustration: Allie Carl/Axios. Photo: Hannah Foslien/Getty Images |
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| The Brett Favre scandal just keeps getting worse. Driving the news: Before he allegedly siphoned $5 million in state welfare funds to build a volleyball facility at Southern Miss, Favre's charity for needy kids helped bankroll a volleyball facility at his daughter's high school and donated $130,000 to Southern Miss Athletics. - Favre 4 Hope, whose mission statement says it provides support "for disadvantaged and disabled children and breast cancer patients," receives public donations.
- "You can't say you're raising money for one purpose and then spend it on something totally different," Laurie Styron, executive director of CharityWatch, told The Athletic (subscription).
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| 3. ⚾️ The Dodgers' season for the ages |
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| Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios |
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| The Dodgers won their franchise-record 107th game on Wednesday, putting a bow on one of the greatest regular seasons in MLB history, Axios' Jeff Tracy writes. By the numbers: With seven games left, they have a chance to become just the seventh team to win 110 games in a season. - Their +322 run differential is the sixth-best since 1900 and the best since the 1939 Yankees. It's also nearly 100 better than second place (Yankees, +235).
- Their 494 runs allowed put them just about on pace to allow the fewest of any team this century (2015 Cardinals, 525).
- Fans have contributed, too: Their average attendance of 47,687 trails only 2019 (49,065) for the most in franchise history, and is 17% higher than second place this season (Cardinals, 40,775).
Between the lines: The Dodgers' payroll ranks second behind only the Mets, but money alone can't buy this many wins. It's the depth beyond their stars that once again is driving their success. - Unheralded guys like Trayce Thompson (Klay's little brother) and Tyler Anderson have stepped in for the struggling Cody Bellinger and injured Walker Buehler.
- Injuries could have sunk them — they've lost the fourth-most days to the IL among all teams — but instead they've battled to a historic end.
The big picture: The Dodgers' 2022 season is an all-timer in a vacuum, but is even more impressive when you look at the 10-year run it's capping off. - The only time since 2013 they failed to win the division was last year — when they won 106 games.
- They're the only team in MLB history to win 106+ games in three straight full seasons. In the non-full season, all they did was win the World Series.
- Their 927 wins since 2013 are 72 more than second place (Yankees, 855), roughly the same as the difference between the Yankees and the ninth-place Cubs (784).
The bottom line: The Dodgers are very good at baseball — so good that one might be tempted to say there's something in the water in Southern California. Then again, the Angels exist. |
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| A message from SiriusXM |
| Stream SiriusXM today and get 3 months free |
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| With SiriusXM, stream expertly curated ad-free music on your devices with channels dedicated to your favorite decades, hits, styles and genres. The deets: Get access to more than 425 channels on the SXM app, plus podcasts, sports talk, Howard Stern and more. See Offer Details. |
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| 4. ⚡️ Lightning round |
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| Photo: Gerry Melendez/NCAA Photos via Getty Images |
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| 🏀 $25k per player: South Carolina women's basketball players will make at least $25,000 each this upcoming season thanks to an NIL deal with the Gamecocks NIL collective and a sports marketing firm. 🏒 Bodychecks study: A new study recommends youth hockey leagues ban bodychecking until age 18. "The brains of 16- and 17-year-old hockey players are still too vulnerable," said the neuroscientist who led the study. 🏐 New volleyball league: League One Volleyball, a new pro women's league, has raised $16.75 million in Series A funding from a star-studded group of investors that includes Kevin Durant and Billie Jean King. 🏈 Contingency site: If Hurricane Ian forces Sunday's Chiefs-Bucs game to be relocated, it will be played at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. |
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| 5. 🏀 USA's grip on No. 1 is slipping |
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| Photo: Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images |
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| USA men's basketball is in danger of losing its No. 1 world ranking for the first time since the FIBA rankings were created nearly 20 years ago. State of play: The U.S. is just 1.8 points ahead of Spain in the latest rankings thanks to the Americans' third-place finish at the AmeriCup earlier this month and Spain's EuroBasket championship days later. - 🇺🇸 USA (760.7 points)
- 🇪🇸 Spain (758.9 points)
- 🇦🇺 Australia (741.1 points)
- 🇦🇷 Argentina (736.1 points)
- 🇫🇷 France (712.9 points)
Between the lines: Outside of the Olympics and other major events, USA Basketball rosters rarely feature the America's top talent. Their best player at the AmeriCup was Norris Cole, who hasn't played in the NBA since 2017. But losses are losses. Looking ahead: The U.S. could enter the 2023 World Cup next summer as something other than the No. 1 team, notes The Athletic's Joe Vardon (subscription). |
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| 6. 🏈 Ryan Griffin: The backups' backup |
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| Buccaneers QBs Blaine Gabbert (L), Ryan Griffin, Tom Brady and Kyle Trask. Photo: Cliff Welch/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images |
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| He's fourth on the depth chart and most famous for holding up a drunk Tom Brady at the Buccaneers' 2021 Super Bowl parade. But there's much more to QB Ryan Griffin's eight-year run in Tampa Bay. Griffin has taken 10 total snaps over 10 NFL seasons, recording twice as many kneel-downs (four) as completions (two). ... Put another way, the 32-year-old has banked $8 million-plus in salary to play a game that, come Sundays, he almost never gets to play. How can someone possibly stick around for a whole decade ... despite rarely taking the field? ... "It's pretty unprecedented," [Bucs tight end Cameron] Brate says. "But that's just a testament to who he is as a player and a person." — Alex Prewitt, SI Keep reading. |
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| 7. 📆 Sept. 29, 1954: "The Catch" |
| Photo: New York Daily News Archive via Getty Images 68 years ago today, Willie Mays made the most iconic catch in baseball history — an over-the-shoulder grab in Game 1 of the 1954 World Series. - Mays' New York Giants were tied 2-2 with the Indians in the eighth inning, with two on and no outs, when Vic Wertz crushed a fly ball to the Polo Grounds' uniquely deep center field.
- Mays tracked down the 425-foot drive to stop the go-ahead run from scoring, and the Giants hit a walk-off HR two innings later before going on to sweep the series.
Photo: Bettman Archive/Getty Images |
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| 8. 📺 Watchlist: Dolphins at Bengals |
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| Photo: Ian Johnson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images |
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| The Bengals host the Dolphins tonight (8:15pm ET, Prime Video) in a matchup with surprising records on both sides, as the reigning AFC champs are 1-2 and Miami is 3-0 for just the fourth time this century. - What to watch: After being sacked a league-high 51 times last year, Joe Burrow has already been sacked a league-high 15 times this year.
- Lines: Spread: CIN -3.5 | O/U: 47.5 | Money: CIN -190, MIA +158 (via Caesars Sportsbook)
More to watch: |
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| 9. ⚾️ MLB trivia |
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| Photo: Cole Burston/Getty Images |
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| Aaron Judge is set to finish the season with 50+ HR and a batting average above .300. - Question: Who was the last player to do that?
- Hint: Happened this century.
Answer at the bottom. |
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| 10. 🏈 1 bad thing: Colorado football |
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| Photo: Found Image Holdings/Corbis via Getty Images |
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| It's been a rough start to the college football season for Colorado and Colorado State, who headline ESPN's weekly "Bottom 10" rankings. - Colorado: The Buffaloes are the first Power 5 team since 1957 to start a season with four consecutive losses by 25+ points.
- Colorado State: The Rams extended their FBS-worst losing streak to 10 games on Saturday with a 41-10 loss to FCS Sacramento State.
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| A message from SiriusXM |
| Stream SiriusXM today and get 3 months free |
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 |
| |
| With SiriusXM, stream expertly curated ad-free music on your devices with channels dedicated to your favorite decades, hits, styles and genres. The deets: Get access to more than 425 channels on the SXM app, plus podcasts, sports talk, Howard Stern and more. See Offer Details. |
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| Talk tomorrow, Kendall "Frankie Lasagna!" Baker Trivia answer: Alex Rodriguez in 2007 (54 HR and .314 batting average) 🙏 Have a great day! Follow us for more (@kendallbaker and @jeffreytracy). Friends can sign up here. Thanks to Bryan McBournie for copy edits. |
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