With 25 games remaining in the regular-season, St. Louis Cardinals sluggers have blasted an incredible 201 baseballs out of the park. Tuesday, the team tied the National League record for most consecutive games with a home run at 25. Last season, the Redbirds hit 137 home runs in the entire season. Where did the Cardinals find all power? The answer is simple: Brandon Moss, Jedd Gyorko and Stephen Piscotty.
The Cardinals acquired Brandon Moss from the Cleveland Indians at the 2015 trade deadline for minor league pitcher Rob Kaminsky. Moss hit just four home runs for the Redbirds last season, but 19 for the season. With his bat in the lineup for an entire season, Moss has launched 25 long balls out of the park already. That is despite the fact that he missed nearly a month with an ankle sprain.
Gyorko was acquired from the San Diego Padres for Jon Jay during the offseason. Jay’s contribution to the Cardinals power total in 2015 was a single home run. With the Redbirds on his chest, Gyorko has rediscovered the power he flashed during his rookie season when he hit 23 home runs. He has hit 26 so far in 2016.
Piscotty was called up from the minors in mid-season last year and hit seven home runs. This year, with Jason Heyward gone to Chi-town, Piscotty has used his increased playing time to knock 20 balls out of the park in his first full season in the majors.
The trio’s power has proven to be contagious as Matt Adams, Randal Grichuk, Tommy Pham and others have seen an uptick in balls going up and over the fence in 2016. Let’s hope the Cardinals keep the deep balls coming.
Rapinoe kneels as a nod to Kaep
Megan Rapinoe, a soccer player for the United States Women’s National Team and the NWSL’s Seattle Reign, took a knee during the national anthem to show support for San Francisco 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick. With the gesture, Rapinoe became the first player outside the NFL and the first white athlete to protest the “Star Spangled Banner” to support Kaepernick and the fight against injustice towards people of color.
Rapinoe told ESPN, “I am disgusted with the way he has been treated and the fans and hatred he has received in all of this. It is overtly racist.”
Not surprisingly, Rapinoe’s gesture did not attract the same level of hate and spite as Kaepernick’s. A quick browsing through social media revealed mostly positive and supportive reactions to Rapinoe’s silent protest. The threats, name-calling and calls to leave the country were notably absent from Twitter.
CSN’s Sebastian Salazar reported via Twitter that security measures have been ramped up by police at the Reign’s practices in light of Rapinoe’s protest. Meanwhile, San Francisco cops are threatening to stop providing security for the 49ers to protest Kaepernick’s stance. ‘Merica!
Yikes! Vikings put faith in two ex-Rams QBs
After a gruesome, non-contact knee injury to starting quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, the Minnesota Vikings were forced to go to desperate measures in an attempt to salvage its season. The team traded for former Rams quarterback Sam Bradford. Though the Vikings had already exceeded the number of recommended ex-Rams QBs (with the exception of Kurt Warner) on a NFL roster with Shaun Hill serving as Bridgewater’s backup, the team rolled the dice on acquiring Bradford from the Philadelphia Eagles for a first- and fourth-round pick in the 2017 draft.
Eagles GM Howie Roseman would’ve likely traded Bradford for a seventh-round pick and a bulk pack of Pringles after drafting Carson Wentz with the second overall pick in this year’s draft. It was the Eagles’ intention to let Wentz watch and develop from the sidelines during his rookie year. However, it was inevitable that he was going to supplant Bradford as the starter at some point this season, whether by injury or insufficient production. With the move, Roseman absolves the franchise from the highly questionable two-year, $35 million contract that Bradford was gifted during the offseason.
In Bradford’s defense, he’s not a terrible QB. He’s just terribly average. The Vikings simply hope that he can stay upright, feed the ball to Adrian Peterson and hit an open wide receiver off play-action a few times a game. Sounds easy enough, but Hill could have done it, just as average, for a lot less money.
Fury vs Klitschko II signed
After a fairly slow start in 2016, boxing is finally picking up some steam with intriguing matchups. Tyson Fury shocked the world last November when he defeated longtime champion Wladimir Klitschko by unanimous decision to become the WBA, WBO and IBF titles. After much trash-talking, a postponement and a doping scandal, the two fighters will finally get in the ring for a rematch on October 29 in England.
Should Fury win again, it will likely signal the official end to the Klitschko era in boxing. If Klitschko regains the heavyweight crown, it will likely set up something that hasn’t been seen in the heavyweight division in seemingly forever, a meaningful trilogy.
Regardless of the outcome, whomever emerges from the ashes will have worthy competition by the way of WBC titlist Deontay Wilder and IBF titlist Anthony Joshua.
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