Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
To celebrate Opening Day, MLB umpires shipped 100 teddy bears to Children’s Hospital at Montefiore in the Bronx.
To celebrate Opening Day, MLB umpires shipped 100 teddy bears to Children’s Hospital at Montefiore in the Bronx.
SportsPulse: We know we’ve just reached Opening Day but we decided to skip ahead to October. Here’s who our experts have winning it all (and no, not everyone picked the Dodgers).
SportsPulse: We know we’ve just reached Opening Day but we decided to skip ahead to October. Here’s who our experts have winning it all (and no, not everyone picked the Dodgers).
MLB Opening Day 2021 is the perfect time to revisit the debate.
Alabama baseball sophomore pitcher Connor Prielipp will be the Crimson Tide’s Opening Day starter. He has been ranked as a top 5 pitcher.
Alabama baseball is set to begin a new season, and after a hot start to the 2020 season that was cut short due to COVID, the team is back and ready to pick up where they left off.
The 2021 Crimson Tide baseball season will begin on Friday, Feb. 19 with a three-game series at home against McNeese State, where sophomore pitcher Connor Prielipp will get the Opening Day start on the mound.
“Connor got off to a great start last year as a freshman and has really separated himself from the rest of the pack,” said head coach Brad Bohannon. “I don’t have any doubt that he’ll give us a great start on Friday and give us a chance to win.”
Prielipp, a 6-foot-3 lefty from Wisconin, was named National Freshman Player of the Year by Collegiate Baseball News after a 2020 freshman season that featured 21 innings, strikeout 35, walk six, only give up 5 hits and four wins.
Baseball America ranks Alabama as the No. 25 team in the nation heading into the season, and they have also announced their top-five pitchers prior to the season beginning – Prielipp comes in at No. 4.
An interesting note: All five of the pitchers are from SEC programs, which should make for a very competitive conference schedule.
The top pitchers in our brand new College Top 150?
1. Kumar Rocker, @VandyBoys
2. Jaden Hill, @LSUbaseball
3. Hunter Barco, @GatorsBB
4. Connor Prielipp, @AlabamaBSB
5. Jack Leiter, @VandyBoysFull list: https://t.co/yHQbi93sGF pic.twitter.com/hYMn1gh9z7
— Baseball America (@BaseballAmerica) February 17, 2021
On Opening Night for their former neighbor, The Golden State Warriors shared a good luck message with the Oakland Athletics.
After wishing the San Francisco Giants good luck on Opening Day, the Golden State Warriors turned their attention to their former neighbor. On Friday, the Oakland Athletics hosted the Los Angeles Angels to start a truncated edition of the 2020 MLB season.
Before the A’s took the field, the Warriors shared a message with the team on social media. Along with a video from the moment Klay Thompson tossed the first pitch in Oakland, the Warriors wished the A’s the “best of luck” for their season.
Via @warriors on Twitter:
🗣️LET'S GOOO
Best of luck to the @Athletics this season!#OpeningDay || #BayAreaUnite pic.twitter.com/B9JFlpy7KF
— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) July 25, 2020
After being claimed by the A’s in 2018, Thompson’s younger brother Trayce played three games with Oakland before being designated for assignment. In February, Thompson signed a minor-league deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks for 2020.
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In their opening night matchup, Frankie Montas got the nod against Andrew Heaney and the Angels. With a pair of late runs from Marcus Semien and Matt Chapman, the A’s held the lead heading into the top of the 9th inning. However, Bay Area native Jason Castro hit a home run off Oakland’s All-Star closer Liam Hendriks to tie the game.
With new rule changes in place, the A’s and Angels went into extra innings to start the season. In the bottom of the 10th, Matt Olson blasted a grand slam walk-off home run to send the Athletics home with an Opening Day victory, 7-3.
The A’s will be back at The Oakland Coliseum on Saturday for game two against Mike Trout and the Angels.
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The Golden State Warriors shared support for the San Francisco Giants before their Opening Day game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Before the NBA makes its much-anticipated return to the court in the Orlando Bubble, another sport hit the field. After postponing the start of the season due to the coronavirus pandemic, Major League Baseball chalked the lines for Opening Day 2020.
On Thursday, baseball began its 60 game season with two games on the docket. The defending World Series champion Washington Nationals started the day against the New York Yankees. For the night slate, the San Francisco Giants cracked off their season with a matchup against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Prior to the Giants’ Southern California tilt with their bitter rival, the Golden State Warriors wished their new San Francisco neighbor good luck on Opening Day. On Twitter, the Warriors shared their message with an image of San Francisco’s Lou Seal with Stephen Curry.
Via @warriors on Twitter:
Best of luck to our friends @SFGiants this season!
#BayAreaUnite || #OpeningDay pic.twitter.com/GQ6GXozmFo
— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) July 24, 2020
In past seasons, both Curry and Klay Thompson have been spotted at Oracle Park donning San Francisco Giants gear.
Steph too. pic.twitter.com/rhzXmBDxWI
— Tom Santos (@britrock1) May 18, 2018
Johnny Cueto took the ball from new manager Gabe Kapler as the starting pitcher on Opening Day against Dustin May and the Dodgers. The Giants got on the board early. However, it didn’t last long.
Kapler’s club couldn’t hang with the Dodgers’ firepower, dropping their first game of the season, 8-1.
Golden State’s former neighbor, the Oakland Athletics will begin their season on Friday against Mike Trout and the Los Angeles Angels.
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What I’m Hearing: Just hours before Opening Day, Nationals superstar Juan Soto tested positive for COVID-19. Any excitement related to baseball’s return was met with the harsh reality of the pandemic, says Gabe Lacques.
What I’m Hearing: Just hours before Opening Day, Nationals superstar Juan Soto tested positive for COVID-19. Any excitement related to baseball’s return was met with the harsh reality of the pandemic, says Gabe Lacques.
Today is the big day for pro sports as MLB kicks off its truncated 60-game schedule tonight after the season was postponed due to COVID-19.
Today is the big day for professional sports as Major League Baseball kicks off its truncated 60-game schedule tonight after the season was postponed due to the novel coronavirus outbreak.
Four teams open the season today — the other 26 will start Friday — but the matchups should both be good ones, with the World Series Champion Washington Nationals hosting the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers welcoming the San Francisco Giants.
Here is a look at a few of Florida’s incoming recruits.
Around the Swamp
It’s great to be a Florida Gator!
Celebrate @GatorsFB legends @TheBlood85 & @EmmittSmith22 with the #GatorsROH collection – available online & in stores 7/24. #GoGators
— Florida Gators (@FloridaGators) July 23, 2020
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Hoy jueves 23 de julio iniciará la temporada 2020 del beisbol de las grandes ligas con tan solo 60 encuentros por la conocida crisis de la pandemia pero con mucha ilusión para todos los aficionados al rey de los deportes que por fin podrán ver a sus …
Hoy jueves 23 de julio iniciará la temporada 2020 del beisbol de las grandes ligas con tan solo 60 encuentros por la conocida crisis de la pandemia pero con mucha ilusión para todos los aficionados al rey de los deportes que por fin podrán ver a sus novenas en acción.
Poco a poco la MLB ha dado a conocer el itinerario de los juegos de la temporada sin embargo ya están confirmados los encuentros de la jornada inaugural que comenzará esta tarde con la visita de los New York Yankees a la casa de los campeones Washington Nationals.
El segundo platillo del Opening Day lo conformará el duro duelo entre Dodgers y Giants en el Dodger Stadium que volverá a abrir sus puertas aunque esta vez sin aficionados. Será el debut de Mookie Betts con la franela de Los Angeles quienes recientemente firmaron un acuerdo por 12 años y 365 millones de dólares, el primer contrato estratosférico de la pandemia.
El resto de equipos debutarán el viernes en una larga jornada beisbolera con 13 partidos donde destacan el Indians vs Royals y el Cubs vs Brewers.
¡Playball!
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A special honor for a USC pitcher.
Tommy Milone, age 33, made his first appearance in a Major League Baseball game in 2011. Nine years later, he is still going in the big leagues, now playing for his seventh different team, the Baltimore Orioles.
A select few players are great enough to be immortalized in Cooperstown, New York, at the Baseball Hall of Fame. A broader but still elite subsection of players is extremely good and memorably productive, enough to help their teams win pennants and World Series titles.
It is easy to focus on the all-time greats and the defining key cogs on baseball teams; they’re the ones whose stories are most prominently written about in the pages of history.
Yet, they are hardly the only players who carve out immensely successful careers.
By many central measurements, Tommy Milone has had an immensely successful career. Now that career will be rewarded with a special honor every pitcher dreams of: Getting the ball on Opening Day as a starter.
Milone will take the hill for the Orioles on Friday against the Boston Red Sox. John Means was the originally announced Opening Day starter, but he then came down with a case of “dead arm,” elevating Milone into the Opening Day spotlight against an A.L. East rival.
It is impressive for any professional athlete to enter a tenth season of competition. That is what Milone is doing, a feat he will share with justified pride when his playing days are over.
This season is short and precious, which makes every start and every pitch that much more urgent. The Orioles’ chances of making any kind of run at a playoff spot are remote, no matter how you slice it, but in an environment when merely one good month of baseball can put a team in playoff contention, the Orioles certainly have much more of a chance than they would have had in a normal 162-game season.
Milone could make Baltimore 1-0 on Friday, and if the Orioles can be 1-0, they can then be 2-0. If they go 16-14 in their first 30 games, they will legitimately be in the playoff hunt with only 30 games left in the regular season.
Stranger things have happened… you know, like a pandemic and a 60-game baseball season.
You know Tommy Milone will appreciate each pitch he throws in this most unusual year and this most unusual circumstance for Major League Baseball and the Orioles.
