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🚨 Headlines
🏒 Quenneville hired: Three-time Stanley Cup champion Joel Quenneville has been hired as head coach of the Ducks. He’s been out of the NHL since 2021 when the league determined he had an “inadequate response” to allegations of sexual assault while with the Blackhawks.
⚾️ Shelton fired: The Pirates fired manager Derek Shelton after a 12-26 start. He compiled a 306-440 record over six seasons with the team, good for a .410 winning percentage.
🥇 Dual-venue format: LA 2028 will make Olympic history by staging the opening ceremony across two venues: the Coliseum and SoFi Stadium.
🥊 Pacquaio’s return: Manny Pacquiao is ending his four-year retirement and will face Mario Barrios for the WBC welterweight championship on July 19 in Las Vegas.
💔 Lacrosse tragedy: A high school lacrosse player from the Cleveland area passed away on Thursday after a ball struck him in the back of the head below his helmet.
⚾️ The birth of a new pitch
The increasingly data-driven art of pitching has given hurlers a wealth of new information to draw from as they seek to fine tune their offerings and maintain an edge over hitters. This year, it’s given them an entirely new pitch.
A new kind of changeup: The “kick change” resembles a changeup, but a modified grip allows it to be thrown harder and with different movement. Specifically, it has vertical drop like a splitter rather than horizontal run like a slider.
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Its name is derived from the way the middle finger — raised for this pitch but flat for a traditional changeup — “kicks” the ball’s axis forward through release, which alters its spin and produces the desired downward movement.
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An easier way to think about it: When optimized, a righty’s kick change will resemble a lefty’s curveball, notes ESPN’s Jorge Castillo.
Where did it come from? The kick change was born in a high-tech pitching lab in North Carolina called Tread Athletics, where former minor league pitcher Leif Strom developed it in 2023.
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Strom’s goal was to design a pitch that supinators (pitchers who rotate their forearm and wrist outward and often struggle with changeups) could use to neutralize left-handed hitters. Here he is providing a detailed breakdown.
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Giants rookie Hayden Birdsong was the first MLB pitcher to use the kick change last year after Strom posted about it on social media. Now, it boasts a roster of believers including All-Stars Andrés Muñoz and Pablo López, plus a trio of Mets fueling the league’s best rotation.
Bottom line:Sweepers took MLB by storm in 2023, Paul Skenes’ splinker helped him dominate as a rookie in 2024, and now 2025 is shaping up to be the year of the kick change.
📸 Through the lens
Las Vegas — The Golden Knights erased a two-goal deficit to force overtime, but the Oilers got the last laugh when Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl teamed up for a beautiful game-winner to give Edmonton a 5-4 victory and a 2-0 series lead.
Minneapolis — The Timberwolves survived an Anthony Edwards injury scare and blew out the Stephen Curry-less Warriors, 117-93, to even the series at one game apiece as it heads to San Francisco for Game 3.
Washington, D.C. — The Capitals protected home ice on Thursday with a 3-1 win over the Hurricanes, tying the series 1-1 behind a little bit of everything from Tom Wilson, who had a goal, an assist and two blocked shots.
📊 By the numbers
⚾️ -109 run differential
The Rockies, who fell to 6-31 after Thursday’s doubleheader sweep, have an abysmal -109 run differential this season. That puts them on pace for a historic -477, which is more than 100 runs worse than the modern MLB record (-345 by the 1932 Red Sox).
⚽️ 21 years
For the first time in 21 years, the Champions League final (PSG vs. Inter Milan) won’t feature a team from Spain, England or Germany. That hasn’t happened since 2004, when Porto defeated Monaco.
⛳️ 3,000 free tickets
The PGA of America is giving away 3,000 tickets to this fall’s Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black with a program they’re calling “The People’s Perk,” surprising unsuspecting golfers all summer at public courses in the New York area.
🏈 4 QB battles
Shedeur Sanders vs. the Browns’ crowded QB room (Joe Flacco, Dillon Gabriel, Kenny Pickett) headlines the four QB battles brewing as rookie minicamps get underway today, writes Yahoo Sports’ Charles Robinson.
📺 Watchlist: Avoiding a 3-0 hole
Four teams facing a 2-0 series deficit play a must-win Game 3 this weekend, lest they fall into a nearly insurmountable 3-0 hole — something just four NHL teams and zero NBA teams have ever successfully come back from.
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🏀 NBA: Cavaliers (0-2) at Pacers (Fri. 7:30pm ET, ESPN); Celtics (0-2) at Knicks (Sat. 3:30pm, ABC)
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🏒 NHL: Maple Leafs (2-0) at Panthers (Fri. 7pm, TNT); Golden Knights (0-2) at Oilers (Sat. 9pm, TNT)
More to watch:
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🏀 NBA: Thunder (1-1) at Nuggets (Fri. 10pm, ESPN); Timberwolves (1-1) at Warriors (Sat. 8:30pm, ABC); Thunder at Nuggets, Game 4 (Sun. 3:30pm, ABC); Cavs at Pacers, Game 4 (Sun. 8pm, TNT)
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🏒 NHL: Stars (1-0) at Jets (Fri. 9:30pm, TNT); Caps (1-1) at Hurricanes (Sat. 6pm, TNT); Jets at Stars, Game 3 (Sun. 4:30pm, TBS); Maple Leafs at Panthers, Game 4 (Sun. 7:30pm, TBS)
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⚽️ La Liga: Barcelona vs. Real Madrid (Sun. 10:15am, ESPN) … First place vs second place.
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⚾️ MLB: Cardinals at Nationals (Fri. 6:45pm, Apple); Giants at Twins (Fri. 8:10pm, Apple); Cubs at Mets (Sun. 12:05pm, Roku); Phillies at Guardians (Sun. 7pm, ESPN)
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⛳️ PGA: Truist Championship (Fri-Sun, ESPN+/Golf/CBS) … Keith Mitchell (-9) has a one-shot lead in Philly.
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🥍 NCAA Lacrosse Championships: Opening rounds (Fri-Sun, ESPN2/ESPNU) … Men’s first round; women’s first and second rounds.
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🏁 Racing: IndyCar at Indianapolis (Sat. 4:30pm, Fox); NASCAR at Kansas (Sun. 3pm, FS1)
Plus: Italian Open (Fri-Sun, Tennis); Giro d’Italia (Fri-Sun, Max); Men’s Hockey Worlds (Fri-Sun, NHL); PWHL Playoffs (Fri-Sun, YouTube); UFL Week 7 (Fri-Sun, Fox/ABC/ESPN).
🥇 Olympics trivia
The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum will feature prominently at the 2028 Games, where it will become the first venue in history to host events for three Olympics.
Question: Can you name the other two Olympics where it hosted events?
Hint: More than 50 years apart.
Answer at the bottom.
🏈 Film study: Arch Manning
Texas QB Arch Manning enters the 2025 season with an incredible amount of hype despite throwing a grand total of 90 passes last season.
Film study: How does Arch stack up as an NFL prospect? What did he do well in 2024? Yahoo Sports’ Nate Tice dives in.
Trivia answer: 1932 and 1984
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