Day 97

• A WWE taping scheduled for tonight has been called off due to the Performance Center positive test and all talent currently near it being tested.
• In more bad news for the WWE, a "former wrestler" who performed at the ill-fated 2019 Crown Jewel event in Saudi Arabia has confirmed the worst, according to a filing in a lawsuit filed by a stockholder in WWE against the company, charging inflation of the value of the company. 

According to the Going in RAW podcast through Wrestlenomics, the wrestler was one who was in company from 2012 until released in April's pandemic cuts.

It is largely believed the wrestler is Rusev, one of several vocal wrestlers during the ordeal, however he joined WWE in 2010!   One commenter on Cageside Seats believes it could be Dax Hartwood of AEW's FTR, the former Scott Dawson of The Revival.

The former wrestler notes that a talent relations person held with him knew EVERYTHING of the dispute as it was reported (money dispute before the card going back to a 2018 Saudi card, Saudi feed was cut as a result, MbS got pissed), and armed guards swarmed around the plane in black uniforms.

AND the claim that talent could opt out of the Saudi cards without consequence was also debunked, as the wrestler also said a number of fellow complainers were told their pushes could be aborted as a result.

• The NBA has given a deadline of this weekend for the players to agree to start heading to Florida.  A players' coalition has outlined concerns of a number of players surrounding the Orlando "bubble". 
• The two NHL hub cities for the playoffs have still not been determined.  Prime Minister Trudeau has said Canada IS open for at least one of the sites.
• Dr. Anthony Fauci has actually stated that MLB should NOT play in October.
• Olbermann gave that news item, and his nightly Thurbercast as well:

#Thurbercast No. 65 in which James Thurber meets...The Loch Ness Monster? “There’s Something Out There.”https://t.co/7vprXr7aFE

— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) June 17, 2020

Day 96

• BREAKING NEWS IN THE LAST TWO HOURS:  (Posted 9:15 PM PDT)  A militia member in New Mexico has shot a protester in Albuquerque -- the protest was trying to take down the statue of Conquistador Juan de Onate. 
• Three NYPD officers were poisoned today at a New York City Shake Shack with bleach placed in their drinks by people working there.  CUT THIS FUCKING SHIT OUT NOW OR THIS FUCKING GOES FREEFIRE!!!!
• It's only a matter of when Wile E. Coyote looks down now in MLB:  Manfred is ordering, as a condition of any season at all, the players to waive all legal claims.  Ladies and gentlemen, we have a LOCKOUT!     
• Chuba Hubbard, an Oklahoma State running back, is threatening to boycott after his head coach, Mike Gundy, wore a T-shirt at some recent point advertising hard right Trumpie television network OAN. 
• A letter from MLB has announced that "several" players are staff have tested positive for the coronavirus. 
• As have a number of Houston Texans and Dallas Cowboys, including Ezekiel Elliott.  Elliott DID, however, have some very real questions (and probable legal recourse under HIPAA) as to who gave out the information.  All apparent positives are feeling well at this time, however.
• Sources are saying UEFA has picked Lisbon, Portugal, as the "bubble" site for the UEFA Champions' League completion.
• Olbermann: 

https://t.co/oQow65hFaA

— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) June 16, 2020

• UH OH!!!  WWE Performance Center has a coronavirus positive -- last on-site June 9th.  Everybody's being tested, no further symptoms, but there's at least another week to worry about in most cases. 
• WNBA Players Union approves a 22-game regular season and playoff schedule -- IMG Academy in Bradenton, FL is now, as of tonight, the confirmed site for their "bubble". 
• Highlights of the Sportscenter Return To Sports Special, hosted (very ably and well) by Mike Greenberg: 

1. To no one's surprise, it started with Manfred and a very pessimistic view of the events of the last few days.  Manfred said the players intended to file an immediate grievance at the imposition of a schedule for an extra billion dollars.
2. Manfred still will try to talk to the MLBPA in the next few days.  Last real talks were June 7 in person, in writing since.
3. Manfred puts it all on the Players' Union...  "Not confident" on a continuance of the season.
4. The MLBPA:  "This has always been about extracting additional pay cuts from players and this is just another day and another bad-faith tactic in their ongoing campaign."  They, unlike Manfred, do not believe the creation of protocols are an issue.
5. Jeff Passan believes this is heading 1994 directions.  He believes the interview Mike Greenberg held with Manfred did the sport no favors.
6. Next was the NHL.  Gary Bettman is together with the Players Association to follow health officials and their protocols, through extensive testing in the announced as two hub cities.
7. Concerns are both with respect to COVID-19 and the players being rusty.
8. If a positive test occurs in the NHL, the single person will be isolated.  A major outbreak will change everything, obviously. 
9. Four rounds, best of 7, after the play-in round.  Really wants to try to keep the Stanley Cup of this season on level with the rest of the champions.
10. Patrick Kane was then interviewed for the players' perspective.  Talked the no-fans environment, getting used to skating again, etc.
11. The MLS was next on the list with it's MLS Is Back tournament.
12. MLS Commissioner Don Garber says there will be additional cameras at the Orlando tournament to aid in the fan experience from home on ESPN.
13. Alejandro Bedoya of the Philadelphia Union was brought on to give the players' side of THAT equation.
14. Then the NWSL, who announced their own professional women's tournament in two sites in Utah starting June 27 and going a month, with all nine teams in the league involved in a 25-game tournament.  I would assume double-round robin in three groups of three, with one team being dropped and the other eight going knockout.
15. NBA was next on the docket, with an explanation of their Return To Play, as has previously been announced.  Adam Silver was then interviewed, starting with the March decision to suspend everything.
16. Some discussion on concerns (both health/safety and social justice) was discussed.
17. Also a situation regarding the turnaround to whatever 2020-21 season exists was also talked about.
18. The players' discussion was taken up with Damian Lillard of the Trail Blazers.
19. Lillard's participation in a Portland rally allowed the show to pivot to the George Floyd and Breonna Taylor protests and the rioting, etc. which has followed.
20. The WNBA's Brianna Turner was interviewed about the protests.  Turner had two Black police officers as parents -- who both denounce the brutality some of their cohorts are guilty of.
21. Matt Ryan of the Falcons was then interviewed about the protests in Atlanta.
22. The WNBA plan was then announced, confirming it will be at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, FL.
23. The League Humanitarian Leadership Award, a new Sports Humanitarian Award, was awarded to the NFL...  (awaiting punch line)  For their "Huddle for 100" campaign, getting 1,000,000 NFL fans to give back to their community through community service.  (Oh.  Never mind.  Carry on.)  The goal was a cumulative 100,000,000 minutes of community service.
24. The total:  Over 397,000,000 minutes.  That's over 200,000 days, almost 300,000.
25. Dovetailed into a significant conversation with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on both pandemic and social unrest subjects which went over 10 minutes.
26. The players' perspective (on both fronts) was discussed with Jacksonville's Calais Campbell, including a discussion on Colin Kaepernick (and I can tell you I've seen his jersey at a number of these protests, including locally to myself)
27. The show concluded with a discussion on fan safety.  I really can't see it until at least 2022 now.  You're already seeing spikes in case numbers wherever people are congregating (including Newsweek today reporting on cases from the Houston George Floyd protests.)  Dr. Jennifer Ashton, a senior ABC chief medical correspondent for several ABC programs, took the honors for this interview.
28. Greenberg concluded with the words of Nelson Mandela:  "Sports have the power to change the world."  (Not only is Greenberg right to bring it to the present day, but Mandela would know first-hand from the South Africans winning rugby's World Cup on home soil in 1995.  That was the first allowed major world sport event after the country's blackballing due to apartheid.  He presented the trophy to the South African champions.)

So when does the counting stop? The Current Reality, end of June 14th edition.

• UFC:  Been going about a month now.  Minimal, if any, problems.  UFC 251 in Abu Dhabi at the new "Fight Island", featuring 3 title bouts, July 11.  Weekly Fight Nights to lead up.
• Boxing:  Two major Top Rank ESPN cards last week welcomed that back.  Seven more cards, five fanless in Vegas, lined up to help the restart this month.
• PGA:  First tournament back this weekend.  Secondary Korn Ferry Tour also began this weekend, Seattle's Luke List won by one stroke.
• Aussie Rules:  Restarted this weekend, as did the Aus/NZ Super League of Rugby.  20,000 saw a match in New Zealand, a country with no cases in three weeks. 
• Wrestling:  Still no plans to return to large-scale fan cards yet -- New Japan starts up again tonight and will have a rescheduled (and domestic-talent revamped) New Japan Cup starting this week.  Plan is to start at 1/3 capacity for the finals of that tournament and the Dominion card in Osaka in about four weeks.
• NFL:  Still planning to start on schedule.  There is quite pessimism on that end, though.
• NHL:  Training camps to open July 10, pending an agreement to actually return to play for the playoffs in August.  One Phoenix Coyotes staffer has tested positive for the coronavirus.
• NBA:  Players beginning returns to home markets -- trip to Orlando bubble July 7, first games July 30 of the last eight games of the season for the 22 relevant teams.
• MLS:  Draw for the MLS Is Back Tournament held this weekend.  Teams head to THEIR Orlando bubble June 24, group stage begins July 8 -- group stage counts in the season standings.
• MLB:  Who knows?  If there's a season, it will be Commissioner-imposed.  I found out the players CANNOT strike due to the current CBA.  I do, however, think a lockout is very possible, and is my current prediction.     

Day 95: Speaking of steroid eras...

• Almost ironic, given the "30 For 30" premiere on McGwire and Sosa, but, thanks to my anonymous friend, I am now aware of a probable burgeoning steroid/HGH controversy in the PGA Tour.

Bryson DeChambeau, we need a talk.

Because THIS is what a UK paper was able to pull out between what you looked like before the shutdown and what you look like now!!!



Bryson, we need a drug test.  That looks like about 40-50 pounds of that you put something in you the PGA Tour is not going to like.

And now you're hitting the ball so far that Colim Montgomerie believes that, unless a new distance-restriction ball is made available to pros and they must use it, many pro courses will be obsoleted soon!!!

Daniel Berger won the Charles Schwab Challenge, playoff win over Collim Morikawa.  DeChambeau finished one shot back, four-way tie for third.

• In an apparent retaliatory to Bubba Wallace's Black Lives Matter car, Kyle Weatherman took a "Back The Blue" car to Homestead for at least one of the two Xfinity races this weekend.
• To which it didn't take long for same anonymous friend to find that Weatherman apparently stole the trailer and equipment from Jennifer Jo Cobb, including five Xfinity cars and two NASCAR Truck Series vehicles.  Whassamatter, White Boy??  Didn't like gurlz in your racing?   
• Olbermann: 

#Thurbercast No. 63 - Thurber’s loving story of his clearly crazy grandfather, “Man With A Rose” - begins with a man with a Rose (the dog). https://t.co/thTYvIMSWN

— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) June 15, 2020

Day 94

• Last night's Olbermann:

#Thurbercast No. 61 featured the inconvenient fact that we are pretending there’s no more COVID-19, the owners’ moves towards killing baseball, and his story “Back To Grades” (actually a recurring nightmare if mine) and “How To Write An Autobiography.”https://t.co/UZ67FoOCD2

— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) June 13, 2020

• In preparation for the 30 For 30 on his and Sosa's record chase, Mark McGwire was asked if he could've broken the record clean.  He was sure he could.  Fucking bullshit...  Fucking bullshit... 
• Turner has signed a new billion-dollar deal with MLB to continue to broadcast the playoffs.  If there's an MLB at all by the point this is done.    
• Huge riot in London today.  Atlanta looks as another possible hotspot.
• On Monday, ESPN will hold a two-hour roundtable at 9-11 PM Eastern with the commissioners of the major sports in the country regarding their return.
• A judge in New York City has ruled that the Yankees must release to The Athletic a minimally-redacted letter about a 2017 investigation into sign-stealing by their organization.  The publication believes they've been reporting the Yankees being involved in sign-stealing since 2015, but 2017 is when MLB cracked down on the electronics being used.  Please, just cancel this fucking season and try to save the next one.     
• Aussie Rules returns tonight.
• Well, the NFL can now move to end Antonio Brown's career:  After pleading no-contest to a January battery and burglary incident, he got two years probation, 100 hours community service, a psych evaluation, and 13 weeks of anger management.  If that had been any "normal" person, much less any normal Black person, that's a decade or so in the slammer!     
• NBA players are not only looking into raising money for Black Lives Matter through their restart, but young players are looking to the league to back insurance policies to ensure their livelihoods.
• Napoli drew Inter 1-1 today in the Coppa Italia to face Juventus in the final before Serie A relaunches next week (2-1 aggregate).
• Australian and New Zealand rugby has also relaunched.  The virus is minimal in NZ, and 20,000 were drawn to a match today in NZ. 
• And here we go to the brink in MLB:   Jeff Passan has reported that not only has the MLBPA rejected the owners' latest offer, but that they will not counter it, want to know how long the imposed season will be, and when they are expected to report.  Season cancellation/strike in 3...  2...  1...     
• Olbermann:

Tonight’s #Thurbercast No. 62 consisted of his admission of Writer Self-Loathing: “The Porcupines In The Artichokes” and it’s features my self-fulfilling prophesy that the standing light would blow over in the gusty windhttps://t.co/m8BRfqgob6

— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) June 14, 2020

Day 93

• Ugly scenes in the main event of last night's "Boxing is Back" second Top Rank on ESPN card.  Prospect Jessie Magdalena won a disqualification victory over Yenifel Vicente.

1. Magdalena knocked Vicente down in the first round.
2. Vicente then was knocked two points (and I think should've been straight DQ'ed right here!) in the fourth round when he low blowed Magdalena and then knocked him down.
3. He was docked ANOTHER point in the fourth for another low blow.  Usually, three points deducted is a fairly automatic disqualification.
4. Vicente was knocked down again in the fifth. 
5. Most people thought Vicente might've won one round, the ninth.  So he's starting something like 89-77.
6. According to BoxRec, however, two of the three ringside judges had the fight 6 rounds to 3 for Magdalena, meaning 87-79 with all the fouls and knockdowns.  One judge, incredulously, had it only 85-81, meaning that he actually had, save the fouls and knockdowns, Vicente winning the fight!
7. One low blow gets a FOURTH point taken in the tenth, another FINALLY FINISHES IT -- disqualification.

• Referee Robert Byrd needs to be suspended.  Vicente needs to be banned.  Most of this was blatant and intentional.  If the fight even continues after the initial incident in the fourth, that's a three-point foul right there and the DQ comes in the fourth after he fouls again. 
• This afternoon, the Nevada State Athletic Commission opened an official investigation into Vicente's conduct.
• Latest MLB owners' proposal: 

The #MLBPA receives formal proposal from #MLB on 72-game season starting July 14, with 80% guarantee of their prorated salaries with a postseason, 70% with no postseason. Deadline is Sunday for 72-game schedule. Also, 29-man rosters for the first month. Players also have opt-out.

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) June 12, 2020

• University of Houston has kiboshed voluntary college-sports workouts after six positive tests.  Houston is flaring up in cases so badly, locking down again is being considered.
• ESPN did a confidential survey of 73 college football players to see how comfortable they were about having a season this year, etc.  Almost all were comfortable trying to play this year without a vaccine, and if the school was closed to the general student body.  Playing in empty stadiums has support of over 80% of them.
• One of the things the survey is split on is the concept of playing two distinct seasons in one calendar year (purportedly, 2021).
• Players, on average, think they need about six weeks to get ready.
• The Coppa Italia marks the return of soccer to Italy after three months.  Semifinal second-legs this weekend, finals mid-week next week, Serie A resumes the season in a week.  Juventus advanced to the finals after a scoreless draw today on away goals, after a 1-1 draw with AC Milan before the stoppage.  Napoli is 1-0 and an away goal up on Inter in the other semifinal, second-leg to be played tomorrow.

Day 92

• The Basketball Tournament, the winner-take-all millionaire tournament (this year, the prize goes back to $1,000,000), has announced it's plans to play.  24 teams, Columbus, OH, ESPN will air it live as the first American basketball television event since the coronavirus suspension, begins July 4th.
• One positive test is the end of a team in the tournament.  Hmmmm....
• The Charles Schwab Challenge has begun, the PGA Tour's return to play.
• About 40-50 players are expressing concerns on the Orlando plans to relaunch the NBA -- nobody, YET, is wanting out of the plan.
• NHL has announced it's restart training camps will open July 10th.
• NBA has moved it's restart up one day to July 30th. 
• Spain resumes it's top soccer league today. 
• The MLS will have a World Cup-style tournament in July to laud it's return (starting July 8) and THEN do a regular season and playoffs.  The group stage of the tournament WILL count in the standings.  The tournament winner gets a spot in the 2021 CONCACAF Champions League.
• No Olbermann tonight.  He decided to watch some Korean baseball, and everything went to heck. 
• Sony held their PS5 reveal video today.  No date or price point yet, but games in the first year include an expanded Grand Theft Auto V, sequels to Resident Evil, Horizon, and other properties, as well as numerous new properties. 
• John Harbaugh of the Ravens put a bit of a damper on the NFL hopes -- saying the NFL plans for the coronavirus are "humanly impossible".  (ESPN)