Howdy! After some red tape issues with this site, it's now time to play some catch-up, some fresh news and opinions, and odd (very odd) video grabs. Let's get to it!
Tennis: I have a separate post on Wimbledon you can read here https://colbymichaels.wixsite.com/getyourgameon/post/wimbledon-wrap-grand-slam-3-major-upsets-agonizing-player-withdrawals-rematches-in-the-last-day Congrats to Barbora and Carlos on their 2024 Championship wins at Wimbledon.
Breaking News: Rafael Nadal has confirmed that he WILL play in the US Open come this September!
Carlos mixing up his tennis and golf game!
Golden State Warriors: It's well known now that one half of the Splash Brothers has moved on and decided to sign with the Dallas Mavericks for 3 years/50 million dollars contract. It will be very hard to see Klay Thompson in a uniform that does not have a Golden State Warriors logo on it. Fans like me wish him the best in this new chapter of his professional life, except when he and the Mavs play the Dubs!
Captain Klay Thompson sails away from the Bay (Goodbye message in the insert).
After Klay signed with the Mavericks, the Warriors went out and spent some money in the free agency market. First signing Kyle Anderson from the Minnesota Timberwolves at three years/27 million dollars. The Dubs then went out and did a sign and trade with the Philadelphia 76er's to acquire Buddy Hield, for 2 years/ 21 million dollars. Hield is one of the NBA's best 3-point shooters, which should compliment Steph Curry nicely on court.
Speaking of Curry, as of this writing, he is very much enjoying his time on the Men's basketball Olympic team, as they go thru seeding rounds of who will play who when the Paris Olympics start on July 26th.
Paris 2024 Olympics: More to come when I start up the Olympics notebook next week, but I definitely will be focussing on two of the Games most popular attractions: Gymnastics and Swimming/Diving! (Besides the talent, plenty of eye candy material!). The two links below are from the US Gymnastics Trials results for both the men and the women, and who will be going to Paris to represent the USA in this sport! Not a spoiler to say that the GOAT herself, Simone Biles, will lead the women's team, while Fred Richard, who became the first male African-American to win the US Men's Trials, will lead the USA squad. Also keep an eye (for several reasons) on Brody Malone, who came back from a devastating knee injury and came in 2nd in the US Finals.
On the swimming side, way too many "heats" to post all the names, but seven-time gold Olympic champion Katie Ledecky will be competing in several heat meets, and depending how she does, could set an Olympics record for most medals won in swimming. The men, led by Bobby Finke, should do well in the pool as well, but the Australian team will once again challenge the US for swimming supremacy. The link below is a round-up of the US Swimming Trials, and who will be going to Paris to compete. (There are a LOT of 'heats"/races) :
Lastly, for now, OutSports has done some great research on how there are 144 Olympic athletes that are LGBTQI in this years Olympic Games! Outsports.com will be a great resource to track these athletes in their various sporting events- will definitely keep me reading and sourcing!
Soccer: What is THIS doing here? I don't really follow this sport, but when there are not one, but TWO major final on the same day, and you get invited to a watch party that was well stocked on Spanish/Mexican food, let's just say I got a case of "soccer fever" this past Sunday! First we had the Euro Cup final being played in Berlin in front of 100K loud fans, as three-time champion Spain faced off against England. Spain scored first in the first half, and then England knocked in a goal early in the 2nd half to tie, but Spain answered right back with a nice kick shot while in the air goal into the net, and Spain won, 2-1 to take their now historic and record breaking fourth Euro Cup.
Later in Miami, the Copa-America Bowl (which the USA team had been bounced out of earlier) featured a super-hot Colombian team up against Soccer GOAT Lionel Messi and the team he captains, Argentina. The match was delayed by 75 minutes as fans WITHOUT tickets surged the gates, causing all kinds of mayhem before things got sorted out- no injuries reported. Btw, 65 thousand fans filled the stadium that had purchased tickets.
The match itself was a solid defensive one by both teams (which is why I'm not a big fan of the sport), and had to go into overtime, and at the 114th minute, Argentina's Lautaro Martinez scored what ended up being the winning goal to give Argentina it's third straight majors title ( Copa 2021, World Cup 2022, Copa 2024). Argentina won this match after losing Messi in the early part of the 2nd half due to an ankle injury, so it was extra special how Messi's teammates rallied to pick him up and bring home the trophy! Could we see a Spain-Argentina final at the Olympics???
Lionel Messi-Team Argentina, with the COPA-America 2024 trophy-happiness does override pain!
San Francisco 49ers: In American football, we have a stand-off between the 49ers front office and wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk, as Aiyuk is not happy with the contract extension the 49ers have offered him, and has now requested a trade. What could happen next? Scenarios: A) Aiyuk sits out the season, which is not wise, as it would hurt his potential 2025 free agency value; B) Niners have him under contract for 2024, he could come back on field and have a great season, increasing his free agency value. Of note: The Niners could, after the 2024 season ends, slap on Aiyuk a "franchise tag", which is a big dollars one-year contract. From what I'm hearing, it's the Niners who are in the better position here.
San Francisco Giants: A LOT has happened since the last Grab Bag with the Giants. A week after the passing of the legendary Willie Mays, another Giants great, Orlando Cepeda also passed away. The Giants have put both players numbers up on the wall at Oracle Park.
Austin "Chipmunk" Slater was traded to the Cincinnati Reds, ending the longest run of seven years as a Giants player. Mike Yastrzemski is now the longest tenured player as of now.
The Giants also designated for assignment one of their big off-season signings, shortstop Nick Ahmed, to the minors, as the team feels younger players like Brett Wisely and Tyler Fitzgerald should have more playing time.
On the good news front, Logan Webb and rookie outfielder Heliot Ramos were added to the NL All-Star game. Ramos is the first "home-grown" non-pitcher Giant (drafted by Giants) to be selected for the All Star game since 1986, when Chili Davis made the All Star team in his rookie year. (Update: Webb, like most Giants pitchers in an All-Star game, had a bad inning, giving up three runs to allow the AL to tie the game).
Editorial time! As of the All-Star break, the Giants were nine games out of first, but only two games out of second place in the National League West. Considering for the last couple of months, this team, due to a rash of injuries, has been held together by duct tape, silly putty, and a large amount of pixie dust of luck to be in such a position that they are, and not worse. On the starting pitching side, it's been Logan Webb, Jordan Hicks and whoever can decently throw a baseball over the plate for strikes. Hitting has been sporadic to say the least, with the only bright spots being Ramos and Wisely. The Giants general manager, Farhan Zaldi said last week that if there is not a significant shift towards winning and making the playoffs, there could be a fire sale at the trade deadline coming up July 31st (my bet: Conforto gets traded). To end on a positive note, just before the All-Star break, the roster was basically back to full health, and we should have two pitchers back in the starting rotation in the next two weeks, Alex Cobb and Robbie Ray. It looks to be a very interesting time for the Giants as we get to the end of July.
Note: I have a piece on a retired F1 driver who just came out recently with his partner, but I'm saving that for next weeks Zoom Zoom Hungarian Grand Prix (hide your trophies from Lando!), if all the paddocks aren't washed away by the storms they are having in Budapest!
I'll end with a couple of bizarre/weird stories: I think some of us can relate to this robot!
And, well, I have no words on this one: Didn't know hamster smuggling was a thing:
Until next time (which is a way of saying with the Olympics coming up, the Grab Bag may be delayed, or at at least shorter (definitely shorter than this edition!). Enjoy your weekend!
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