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Umpire David Rackley had a dream come true on Tuesday night when he called balls and strikes in a World Series game for the first time in his career, but his memorable night also took a painful turn in the seventh inning. 
In the bottom of the inning, Arizona’s Alek Thomas barely caught a piece of a low changeup from Texas’ Cody Bradford and tipped it foul. The ball eluded catcher Jonah Heim’s glove and bounced up to hit Rackley right in a spot you really don’t want to be hit in.

With the offseason trade to acquire Bradley Beal, the Suns were one of the most talked-about teams in the NBA given the level of star power they tout in the Western Conference. The only problem is Beal has yet to make his regular-season debut for Phoenix and ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith is a bit concerned over the apparent trend with the superstar guard. 
Beal played in one preseason game for the Suns but hasn’t played since due to back spasms after having lower back tightness.

The LSU women’s basketball team is enjoying a significant reward after winning last season’s NCAA championship. 
Following the Tigers’ title win, coach Kim Mulkey made it clear that the school needed to upgrade its basketball facilities, pointing out how old the Pete Maravich Assembly Center is.
“That thing is 48 years old,” she said at a Rotary Club of Baton Rouge luncheon in April. “You can’t grab a rail without holding onto somebody. I can say this now. I just won a national championship.

This summer in the NBA was dominated by two reported instances of players demanding trades to specific teams—Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard to the Heat, and 76ers guard James Harden to the Clippers.
One [Lillard] did not get his wish, although his eventual move to the Bucks seems to be going swimmingly for Milwaukee. The other, Harden, did; Philadelphia sent him to Los Angeles early Tuesday morning.
The pair of ordeals generated widespread discussion on the nature of player empowerment and the ethics of players targeting trade requests toward one specific team.

Why does the Michigan sign-stealing story remind us of Bobby Valentine?
June 9, 1999 was a warm and steamy night in Queens, and New York Mets manager Bobby Valentine was feeling the heat, literally and figuratively.
The Mets were sitting just two games above .500, and were six games back in the National League East. Valentine had just seen three of his coaches — pitching coach Bob Apodaca, hitting coach Tom Robson, and bullpen coach Randy Niemann — fired a few days prior when the Mets blew a three-run lead to their cross-town rivals, the New York Yankees.

The Las Vegas Raiders are a complete dumpster fire. After firing head coach Josh McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler on Tuesday night, they benched veteran starting quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo on Wednesday afternoon.
McDaniels and Ziegler, who both came from the New England Patriots, hand-picked former Patriots backup Garoppolo to lead the Raiders this season.
The problems began before Garoppolo even signed his name on his new contract. In fact, that process was held up by the fact that he wasn’t healthy enough to pass a physical.

The Bears fired running backs coach David Walker, head coach Matt Eberflus announced on Wednesday. 
“As the head coach, we are building a program and have standards to uphold to as a staff and organization, both on and off the field, and those standards were not met,” Eberflus said, via Chris Emma. “I’m not going to get into details other than he’s no longer on the staff.”
The Athletic’s Kevin Fishbain and Adam Jahns first reported on Wednesday that Walker’s firing involved Chicago’s human resources department.

Atlanta Falcons coach Arthur Smith told reporters Wednesday that Taylor Heinicke will start at quarterback this week against the Minnesota Vikings, which means Desmond Ridder is benched.
The fact is Ridder got benched at halftime on Sunday during a 28-23 loss to the Tennessee Titans. Ridder was initially removed to undergo a concussion evaluation and although he passed, he never got back in the game.
Smith said the concussion evaluation played a factor in that. But the truth is Ridder also was unremarkable while Heinicke sparked the offense.

Scaring the daylights out of your teammates while they walk into the practice facility is a Halloween tradition, but did Toronto Maple Leafs forward Ryan Reaves scare his teammates just a little too much?
The team posted a video of Reeves throwing on what appears to be a Michael Myers mask (the slasher film icon; not to be confused with Leafs super fan comedian Mike Myers) and hiding behind some discarded boxes in the team’s practice facility.
The perfect recipe to frighten his fellow Leafs when they arrived at the rink

Happy Hallo-Reaves
Love, The Grim Reaver pic.twitter.

The next era of 76ers basketball is now officially underway, even if it technically began at the start of the 2023–24 NBA season. Following the trade that sent disgruntled guard James Harden to the Clippers, it’ll now be the Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey show. Maxey, who’s in his fourth NBA season, revealed the message he had for Harden following the news of his trade. 
Maxey said he thanked Harden for everything he’s taught him over the time they spent together, according to ESPN’s Tim Bontemps.