Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I will not be listening to the Masters app’s creepy AI announcer.
In today’s SI:AM:
⛳ The new-look 13th at Augusta
👟 Speed kills in MLB’s new era
🏈 NFL mock draft 6.0
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What to look for at the Masters
The 2023 Masters is underway. This email should hit your inbox right around the time that Tiger Woods tees off for his first round at 10:18 a.m. ET. (Click here for a full list of tee times.
Author: Michael
The pitch clock has led to a bunch of awkward strikeouts just a week into the 2023 Major League Baseball. It has also led to hitters and pitchers changing their routines in order to speed things up.
On Wednesday we saw an odd strikeout that wasn’t exactly from a pitch clock violation but you have to think that it played a part in it because everyone is now super aware of having to be ready before the timer goes off.
White Sox star shortstop Tim Anderson didn’t seem to like what Giants pitcher Logan Webb was doing before a pitch, so he stepped out of the box for a timeout.
Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill is entering his second season with the franchise, and though there appears to be no slowing down the 29-year-old, he made a startling revelation on Wednesday.
Hill, who emerged as one of the league’s most explosive receivers with Kansas City, looks like there’s plenty left in his tank as he enters his eighth NFL season. Despite this, Hill says that he plans to retire at the end of his current contract with Miami.
“I’m going for 10,” Hill told the Totally Offensive podcast this week when asked how long he was going to play.
Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
Keeping tabs on the ridiculous things Shohei Ohtani does this season
There is a joke around social media that “Twitter is not real life.”
However, there are moments that cross the bridge from memes, to reality.
One such moment comes to us courtesy of Shohei Ohtani. The incredible two-way player is doing things in major league baseball that we have not seen in years, if not decades. Or even ever.
LeBron James recently opened up House Three Thirty, a community center in his hometown of Akron, Ohio. Instead of focusing on the good the community center will do for the city, PETA found something wrong with it: the milk being served.
The community center has a Starbucks inside, and just like every other store around the world, it serves milk. Real milk, that is, as in, the milk that comes from cows.
PETA has an issue with that.
PETA wants LeBron James to stop serving milk.
LeBron James appeared to exchange some very heated words with a fan Wednesday night.
The Lakers dropped a rivalry game to the Clippers 125-118, and the four-time NBA champion didn’t seem to be happy with his a fan supporting his team.
In a video from ClutchPoints, a fan wearing a Kobe Bryant appeared to be chirping possibly about championships as LeBron shouted back “I got you one.”
It’s always a great look when you’re arguing with fans of your own team.
Angels star Shohei Ohtani had himself a day against the Mariners on Wednesday.
He made some unique pitch clock violation history by getting called for it on the mound and at the plate and got his first win of the season, giving up just one run (and had eight strikeouts) in six innings of work.
He also had a fun little moment between innings when he was able to show off how thoughtful and nice he can be. Ohtani, his interpreter and his manager were talking to the home plate ump when he suddenly decided to swipe a baseball and toss it away.
Rookies have become a much bigger part of the fantasy football landscape in recent seasons, especially at running back and wide receiver. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for tight ends. They’ve been the “black sheep” of the offensive skill positions, at least as it pertains to first-year players looking to make a fast impact.
Does that mean we’ll see similar outcomes from the 2023 class?
The list of top prospects at the position is deep, with at least one and possibly even two projected to come off the board in the first round of the NFL draft.
The Baltimore Ravens, currently invested in quarterback Lamar Jackson to the tune of a $32.4 million franchise tag for the 2023 season, raised more than a few eyebrows on Wednesday when they admitted they might be drafting a quarterback.
Even in the first round.
“It depends on the [draft] board, it really does,” general manager Eric DeCosta told reporters. “I mean, I’d have to say yes, because we have quarterbacks in our Top 31. So, just based on that alone, simple math, I would have to say, yes.”
It’s more than just about simple math. Anyone with eyes can see that.
The idea that any one moment in a general manager’s tenure can make or break their tour of duty is a bit of a fallacy. The GM’s seat is so different from any other position in the football hierarchy, as much about politics and the ability to explain certain decisions that were made, or not made, during a critical period of time as picking or trading players. There are great GMs who were dismissed unceremoniously because they were bad corporate suits. There are terrible GMs who still walk their halls today, waiting to disappoint their fan base all over again.