Four-star daughter of Joe Girardi lists UNC in her final five

Joe Girardi’s daughter includes UNC women’s basketball in her final five schools!

After ending the 2024 season as the No. 5 team in the ACC, the North Carolina Tar Heels women’s basketball team quickly lost in the conference tournament by one point to Miami (FL).

They drew a No. 8 seed in the 2024 NCAA Tournament set to play Michigan State in the first round. After a three-point win over the Spartans, they fell by 47 points in the second round to the NCAA Champion South Carolina Gamecocks.

The future may be getting a little brighter for women’s basketball fans as Class of 2025, four-star guard Lena Girardi keeps UNC in the running as she cuts her list down to the final five teams.

The other four schools include Virginia Tech, Northwestern, Oklahoma State, and Arizona. The Hokies are the only other school that would be an inner conference battle.

The 6-foot-0 guard from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has been playing at IMG Academy. According to 247sports, “[she] is regarded as one of the premier off-the-ball guards in her class nationwide.”

North Carolina doesn’t currently have any commits for the Class of 2025 in the ESPNW Top 100. If Girardi were to decide on UNC, it could be a huge bolster for Courtney Banghart going forward.

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Former Yankees manager Joe Girardi reveals his favorite NASCAR driver

Former New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi reveals his favorite former and active NASCAR drivers on Kevin Harvick’s podcast.

[autotag]Joe Girardi[/autotag] managed in MLB for 15 seasons with the New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, and Miami Marlins; however, another sport has piqued his interest. Girardi joined Kevin Harvick’s podcast, Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, and talked about his NASCAR fandom and who he roots for in the Cup Series.

The 2009 World Series champion revealed his favorite driver, even though they are retired, and name-dropped another active driver he likes. Based on Girardi joining Harvick’s podcast, it’s probably easy to guess who he mentioned.

“My favorite driver’s retired,” Girardi said. “I’m learning to like the new drivers because so many of the guys I cheered for are retired, and that happens. I like Denny Hamlin. He’s always in the mix, no matter what.”

“That’s exciting to me because that’s a champion, a guy that’s always in the mix, but there’s so many good young drivers now that I just need to get to know. I didn’t really have to root for anyone else because I used to root for Kevin Harvick all the time, but now I got to find a new love.”

Girardi is one of many Harvick fans who need to “find a new love” after he retired after the 2023 NASCAR season. According to the former Yankees manager, Denny Hamlin could be his new driver, but several others are rising through the sport. It’s always neat to see a crossover between sports, and Girardi is the latest to express interest in NASCAR.

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Mind-readers think Bryce Harper took shot at Joe Girardi after Phillies’ stunning walk-off win

All of a sudden, the Phillies are firing on all cylinders. But why?

After middling about for most of the first two months of the season, the Phillies came back roaring this weekend. They were so bad, so inept, and had so few answers that management decided to move on from former skipper Joe Girardi.

It seems to have paid off with immediate, tremendous dividends.

In a three-game sweep of the Angels (+105), Philadelphia scored 26 runs and mashed seven total homers. Their lineup led by Bryce Harper simply looked unstoppable — perhaps the way it always should have.

To punctuate the sweep of L.A., Bryson Stott hit a towering three-run walk-off blast for the 9-7 win on Sunday:

What a clutch play from one of the Phillies’ former top prospects, who is starting to come into his own.

After the game was over, Harper made some interesting comments about Stott’s impact over the last few days. Why it’s almost as if he may have taken a not-so-subtle shot at Girardi:

I don’t know about you, but “being able to put trust in our young guys the last couple of days, and really just let them play” isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement of a manager’s work.

To be fair, Harper might purely be singing the praises of Stott and Co. But given how the Phillies meandered for the first third of the season, a shot at Girardi wouldn’t be out of the question. At least Harper and friends don’t have to worry about him slowing any apparent progress in the future.

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3 MLB managers who could be the next to lose their jobs after the Phillies fired Joe Girardi

Who needs to step it up before they join Joe Girardi on the curb?

The 2022 MLB coaching carousel is officially off and spinning.

Joe Girardi became the first manager to his lose his job this season as the Philadelphia Phillies decided enough was enough on Friday. It’s as close to a full reset as the Phillies could’ve made at the moment. Along with Girardi, the team axed coaching assistant Bobby Meacham and promoted bench coach Rob Thomson to interim manager. Mike Calitri will take over Thomson’s former role.

It very likely won’t be the last time we see a coaching change this season. In recent years it’s typical to see two or three teams relieve their managers.

So who could be next to go in 2022? We’ve got three names already on the hot seat.

All odds via Tipico 

Joe Girardi got super frustrated with reporters over questions about a dugout confrontation

We all saw it, Joe.

The Philadelphia Phillies dropped their second straight game on Sunday to the Toronto Blue Jays, and it was an especially rough defensive effort for second baseman Jean Segura.

Segura committed a pair of errors in the game with the second error (a would-be, inning-ending double play) leading to an unearned run.

Following the defensive blunder, cameras caught the end of a heated conversation between Segura and manager Joe Girardi. At one point, third base coach Dusty Wathan had to step in and try to talk down a heated Segura.

Given that this was a visible argument between a player and manager, it was more than fair for the Phillies media to ask Girardi about what happened. The problem? Girardi refused to discuss the incident and grew more frustrated as reporters continued to ask him about it.

And sure, Girardi was upset with the loss, but by refusing to answer the reasonable questions from reporters, he also didn’t do Segura any favors in the process. That was an opportunity to defend his player and dismiss the conversation as emotions running high. Instead, he let the video of the argument stand without any context or explanation.

Even if Girardi wants to keep those conversations in house, it kind of defeats the purpose when it happens out in the open.

Just a rough look all the way around for the Phillies manager.

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MLB fans loved seeing Phillies manager Joe Girardi eject an umpire during argument

This was great.

MLB umpires have had a tough start to the season. From Angel Hernandez screwing up more calls to Marty Fisher making one of the most mind-boggling calls you’ll ever see, the umpiring hasn’t been great, to say the least.

Things got so bad in Philadelphia on Wednesday night that Phillies manager Joe Girardi ejected one of the umpires from the game. It didn’t stick, of course, and Girardi was actually the one who got ejected but it was still great.

This all went down after Cardinals pitcher Génesis Cabrera hit Bryce Harper in the face with a pitch and then hit Didi Gregorius in the ribs with his next pitch.

Check this out:

Phillies third baseman Brad Miller loved it:

And so did a lot of fans:

Phillies Alec Bohm was called safe at home on controversial game-winning play, and Braves fans were not happy

Safe by a toe… or not.

It’s been some time since baseball had a major blown call controversy, but Sunday night’s game between the Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves delivered. This time, it’s Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm at the center of controversy on a sacrifice fly ball that gave Philadelphia the 7-6 lead and the win.

With one out remaining in the top of the ninth, and Bohm on third, Didi Gregorius hit a short ball out to Marcell Ozuna in left field. As the ball was caught, Bohm tagged from third as Ozuna threw back home to catcher Travis d’Arnaud, causing a bang-bang play to happen at home plate, wherein Bohm was called safe.

After a lengthy review, and various angles shown, the umpires ruled Bohm safe at home, causing uproar from the fans at Truist Park and across social media.

While Bohm clearly beats out d’Arnaud’s tag, it is pretty plain to see that he doesn’t touch home plate on any of the various angles shown.

And yet! The call was made and the Phillies took the 7-6 lead, and the win. Braves manager Brian Snitker was clearly not pleased at the events that unfolded in the game-deciding play.

Social media was just as brutal, and even the Braves own Twitter account got in on the heat.

Phillies manager Joe Girardi, of course, took the viewpoint that Bohm’s toe was able to tap home plate, while Braves pitcher Drew Smyly was adamant that the third baseman was out at home.

In all likelihood, had Bohm been originally called out on the play and it had gone to review, he would have been out and the inning would have been over. In the end, however, the umpires made their decision and the baseball world was not happy about it.

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