This will be a real treat…
Author: Michael
1. A quick note before we get started: Please send me any questions you have for this week’s SI Media Mailbag. You can email them to jimmy.traina@si.com or send them via Twitter.
In 2012, Lance Armstrong was stripped of his cycling titles after an investigation found he used performance-enhancing drugs during his career.
“Using PEDs” is totally underselling what Armstrong did, The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) said Armstrong was the ringleader of “the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen.”
Cut to 2023.
Outside of some rain, Jordan Westburg’s MLB debut could not have gone much better. Not only did his team come out on top against one of the hottest teams in baseball, his boys were in the stands to cheer him on during what became a successful first outing.
Jordan Westburg, who played at Mississippi State, was selected No. 30 overall by the Orioles in the 2020 MLB Draft. He signed for $2.3 million with Baltimore, but did not play a single game during his first year as a professional due to COVID-19. It was a wash.
Jordan Westburg has been on a tear ever since.
Photo by Michael Potts/BSR Agency/Getty Images
Look at this photo of Toto Wolff. Just look at it. It’s perfect.
Mercedes is enjoying a bit of a resurgence at the moment. Coming off their first double-podium result at the Spanish Grand Prix, and a surprising — to them — podium for Lewis Hamilton at the Canadian Grand Prix, the team heads to Red Bull Ring for the Austrian Grand Prix with some wind at their backs.
“There were plenty of positives to take from the last race in Canada.
UMass football has been one of the worst programs in the country over the last, well, pretty much always. The Minutemen have not eclipsed the five-win mark in their history on the FBS level.
The University of Massachussetts Amherst had a strong run of success on the FCS level in the late 1990s and early 2000s but it came crashing down when the school returned to the FBS in 2012. It has won just 21 games in 11 years, with just three wins since 2018.
Yikes.
Last year, the NFL played its first regular season game in Germany. The Buccaneers‘ 21–16 win over the Seahawks was a resounding success, drawing 69,811 fans to Allianz Arena in Munich on a brisk Central European day in the middle of soccer season.
If possible, Germany may have solidified its American football-loving reputation even further on Tuesday.
The Chiefs and Dolphins‘ November 5 game at Deutsche Bank Park in Frankfurt sold out in 15 minutes Tuesday morning, filling the 48,000-seat stadium.
Fans who attend the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris will not be allowed to drink alcohol at competition venues unless they’re VIPs, a spokesperson confirmed to USA Today Sports.
The ban is a result of Evin’s law, a 1991 statute regarding alcohol. French law prohibits the sale or distribution of alcohol in “stadiums, physical education rooms, gymnasiums” and other sports establishments. However, there are different rules for catered hospitality areas—which would include VIP suites.
Boston Bruins head Jim Montgomery took home the Jack Adams Award — given to the league’s top bench boss —at Monday Night’s NHL Awards In Nashville.
This wasn’t exactly surprising. Not after Montgomery led the Bruins to the best regular season in NHL history in his first year with the team. Even with other worthy nominees in Seattle’s Dave Hakstol and New Jersey’s Lindy Ruff, it was Montgomery’s to lose.
The Washington Nationals-Seattle Mariners game on Monday night had an infuriating finish thanks to a horrible called third strike by an umpire who should be ashamed of himself.
But earlier in the game there was a pretty funny moment that had everyone—except for probably Nationals fans—laughing out loud.
In case you missed it, Nationals first baseman Dominic Smith had the most comical error of the Major League Baseball season when he fielded a ground ball in the bottom of the fifth inning and flipped the ball back to first base without looking.
“If Larry Bird played in this era, I think he’d be in Europe. Today’s world? Oh, hell no. There’s no way.”
Those are the words of Dennis Rodman.
Rodman, a valuable former player, doesn’t think Bird, one of the greatest players of all-time, could make it in today’s NBA.
If true, that would then raise questions as to whether Rodman could make it even in Europe. After all, here’s some one-on-one action between Bird and Rodman:
Dennis Rodman: “if Larry Bird played today he’d be in Europe there’s no way”
2 minutes of Larry Bird Vs Dennis Rodman: pic.twitter.