August 22, 2023 News and Notes

• And the next step toward the end of Wander Franco's career and life on the outside:  Major League Baseball has just placed him on administrative leave.  
• Reports now indicate at least two underage girls are involved -- one publicly, and one going just through Dominican police.
• James Harden has, at the very least, been fined $100,000 for comments indicating he would sabotage the 76ers next season, and demanded to be allowed to play somewhere else.  How about in some lesser pro league, one of the biggest locker-room diseases in the NBA?   
• The National Basketball Players Association, the players' union, has filed a grievance Tuesday afternoon against this fine.
• Jon Rahm is in protest to the PGA Tour - and the PGA Tour denies it.
• It appears, Rahm alleges, that in almost every round, Rahm is noting people attempting to distract or disconcert the golfers in the means to attempt to win live-action bets on the tournaments they are playing in.
• And this can be as little as turning to their friend and saying "I betcha $10 he's going to miss this putt.", Rahm states.
• Now, it's not probably anything new -- except now it appears that at least Rahm has had his antenna activated, due to people trying to win those bets by directly and unduly influencing said putts through loud noises or other distractions.   
• It appears that the Oakland-Las Vegas situation has opened the floodgates.  Now, not only has Milwaukee laid some groundwork to leave, but now, so have the Chicago White Sox -- and they have a stated destination of Nashville!
• This would probably be in 2029 or 2030, though.
• And on the same day that report comes out, GM Rick Hahn and Executive Vice President Ken Williams have both been canned from the fourth-worst team in baseball this season so far.
• After the USWNT's crash-out in the Women's World Cup, Sweden is now the #1-ranked team in the world via FIFA.
• Shouldn't that be #2 to Spain, regardless of numbers?  
• State Farm has cut, after twelve years, their ties with COVIDIOT-12.
• An Atlanta judge has done the unthinkable:  The Georgia election-fraud trial of The Trump Nineteen is allowed to be televised!!!