July 12, 2023 News and Notes

• Pat Fitzgerald has been fired for overseeing a hazing program in the football program at Northwestern University.  Worse for him, it appears as if the firing has been declared "for cause" -- not only no money, but the very real specter of criminal charges.
• Slowest four days of the sports year.  All-Star Week in MLB.
• Vlad Guerrero Jr. won the Home Run Derby in Seattle.
• It is official: The process to move the A's out of Oakland has begun, according to Fuck Rob Manfred.
• The National League won the actual All-Star Game 3-2.
• Their first All-Star victory in ten games.
• Elias Diaz of the Rockies hit a two-run homer in the eighth for the winning runs, becoming the first rookie to be named All-Star MVP.
• Diaz is 32.
• The official numbers are in with respect to the pitch clock:  Twenty-six minutes a game off this season so far.  Games, on average, have not been this quick in 40 years (1984).  The average MLB game is two hours and forty minutes.
• Runs are up 18% year over year.
• Attendance is up 9%, even with the disaster in Oakland. (Source:  Sports Illustrated.)
• More good news for game-show fans -- the Tom Bergeron era of Hollywood Squares gets a streaming channel on Pluto starting on the 11th.
• Earlier this week, the NBA announced their in-season tournament.  Six groups, five teams each, winning teams get monetary bonuses.  (There was discussion as to an automatic playoff spot for the "NBA Cup" winner, but that was shelved.)
• The new anti-flopping rule (a team technical, one free throw) and a second coach's challenge if the first one is successful have been approved for next season for the NBA.
• Dunno if I already put this on a Daily, but a second source now says the Aaron Rodgers saga will be front and center on the NFL's Hard Knocks series:  The Jets are the chosen team.
• The last American woman is out at Wimbledon in the quarters -- the last American man is facing the 3-seed, one set all as I type.
• All Americans are out of the Wimbledon singles draws.  The last American man, Chris Edwards, took Medvedev to five sets, up two sets to one, before running out of gas.
• It appears that Medvedev hit a cameraman with a ball in frustration.  That could have gotten him disqualified.
• As expected, Yokozuna Terunofuji has withdrawn from the July tournament -- a lumbar disc situation has become a full hernia!