Chad Pinder seems to be doing OK despite being hit in the head by a pitch on Monday night.
Pinder was batting in the bottom of the seventh inning of his Oakland A’s 8-5 win over the Los Angeles Angels. He was hit in the head by a pitch from Junior Guerra and went down in pain.
Pinder exited the game after being hit in the head. The good news is A’s manager Bob Melvin said Pinder was not in concussion protocol after the game.
In 2017, Pinder suffered a concussion running into a wall. That is the reason there was extra concern given his history.
Prior to exiting, Pinder had a pinch-hit RBI double. He’s batting .244 on the season.
Joel Embiid had a rough game for the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday night. Clint Capela feels his strategy against the big man is paying off.
Embiid went 4-for-20 and missed all 12 of his shots after halftime of Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals series between his Sixers and the Atlanta Hawks. The Sixers star is playing through a knee injury and seemed to be bothered by it. Capela also feels that fatigue is playing a factor in Embiid’s play.
Capela spoke after Atlanta’s 103-100 overtime win and talked about how he has tried to tire out Embiid.
“Making his job tougher, contesting everything, making him work. I saw that whenever you wear him out, everything becomes tougher for him. I knew that it was a long series. When the fatigue comes in, it’s a different ballgame,” Capela said.
Whether it’s fatigue or the torn meniscus in his right knee, Embiid is not at 100 percent. He knows that and admitted after the game that his knee is preventing him from being at his best. The question is how far the Sixers can go with Embiid playing hurt. The series between the teams is tied at two. And maybe some of the trash talk between Embiid and Capella will continue.
Joel Embiid was talking with the media on Monday when Kawhi Leonard threw down his huge slam dunk against the Utah Jazz. Luckily, we were able to see his reaction to the moment in real time.
Leonard went viral for a huge dunk on Derrick Favors late in the second quarter of Game 4 between his Los Angeles Clippers and the Utah Jazz.
Embiid was doing a postgame media session following his Philadelphia 76ers’ overtime loss to the Atlanta Hawks in Game 4 of their series. Check out Embiid’s reaction:
“You see that Kawhi dunk? Man,” Embiid said.
Embiid had a rough night for Philly. He went 0-for-12 in the second half and is trying to play through a knee injury. The Sixers also blew an 18-point lead. But as his reaction to the Leonard dunk showed, his spirit is not completely defeated, which is a good thing.
Kawhi Leonard went viral on Monday night for his incredible poster dunk on Derrick Favors.
Leonard was looking to help his Los Angeles Clippers even their Western Conference semifinals series against the Utah Jazz at 2. Late in the second quarter of Game 4, Leonard drove to the basket, jammed on Favors, and gave him a stare for good measure.
That was powerful.
The Clippers also shared a great photo of the dunk on Twitter:
MLB finally plans to enforce its rules concerning the use by pitchers of foreign substances, and they’ve decided to utilize suspensions. However, there is one catch.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan says MLB is planning to issue a memo Tuesday regarding foreign substances. The memo will outline discipline, which will include 10-day suspensions with pay. There is precedent for this type of discipline as past suspensions for the use of foreign substances were always with pay.
MLB’s lack of offense — pitchers in general are dominating, with league-wide batting averages down — led MLB to finally address the matter. Star pitcher Trevor Bauer has called on MLB to address the situation to create a level playing field. They are finally listening and acting. It’s long overdue. It shouldn’t be too much to ask them to enforce their rulebook.
A Dallas Baptist player got embarrassed on Monday when he tried to pimp what he thought was a home run.
DBU was facing Virginia in Game 3 of their super regional with a trip to the College World Series at stake. DBU was leading 2-1 in the top of the seventh inning when Andres Sosa led off with a fly ball to center.
Sosa thought for sure he had smashed a home run and began to pimp his hit. There was only one problem: Virginia center fielder Chris Newell robbed him.
Sosa had a big home run in Game 1 of the series and has hit nine this season. The guy should know when he hits one. But maybe this is a lesson not to pimp your home runs. Or, better yet, only do so if it looks like this.
DBU ended up allowing four runs in the bottom of the seventh and lost 5-2.
Joel Embiid had a profane message for Hawks fans during Game 4 in Atlanta on Monday night.
Late in the third quarter of the Eastern Conference semifinals series between Embiid’s 76ers and the Hawks, the Philly big man took issue with the officials. Embiid seemed to be upset that he didn’t get a foul call after being pushed under the basket and also after attempting an outside shot.
Embiid complained to the officials and pointed at one of them. When he got done saying his piece, fans booed him.
Embiid responded by telling the fans to “shut the f— up!”
The series was heated and Game 4 is a pivotal one. If the Hawks were to tie it up, then the series would be much closer. But if Philly got the win, they would be very close to having the series in hand. That explains the tense atmosphere.
Or maybe Embiid was just learning from Atlanta’s star, who loves playing to the opposing fans.
Mike Leach has some friends in high places.
The Mississippi State head football coach shared a photo on Twitter Monday that shows him with actor Jim Caviezel. Leach referred to Caviezel as his “friend.”
Caviezel, 52, is an actor best known for playing Jesus Christ in “The Passion of the Christ” in 2004. He is from the state of Washington, which is where Leach previously coached. However, Caviezel went to the University of Washington, while Leach coached rival Washington State. Caviezel also portrayed legendary De La Salle football coach Bob Ladouceur in the movie “When the Game Stands Tall.”
Leach, 60, is entering his second season as head coach at Mississippi State. Maybe Caviezel is working on a movie about pirates and needs Leach’s consultation.
Devin Booker seems to be a fan of one of the team’s most confident fans.
Booker sent a message on Twitter Monday seeking the contact information for the Suns fan who went viral over the weekend.
The fan in question got into a fight with two Denver Nuggets fans during Game 3 of Phoenix’s Western Conference semifinals series win over the Nuggets. One of the two Nuggets fans sucker-punched the Suns fan, who proceeded to beat the tar out of the two men (video available here). The fan punctuated the beat down by saying confidently “Suns in 4” to the two men.
Now that the video has gone viral and the man’s prediction of a sweep came true, he’s become internet famous. Maybe Booker will invite the fan to attend the Western Conference finals.
A potential new streaming service has major potential to change how local sports broadcasts are watched if it comes to fruition.
According to Josh Kosman of the New York Post, Sinclair Broadcast Group, the owner of the Bally Sports regional family of networks, is raising $250 million from investors to launch a streaming service that includes local sports broadcasts from all of its networks. As currently laid out, the plan would charge users $23 a month for the right to stream MLB, NHL, and NBA games from 42 teams in its 21 territories.
The plan is still in its early stages, and Sinclair is raising the funds in part to show that it is serious about the effort. Sinclair would also have to negotiate with the NBA, NHL, and MLB for streaming rights, a process that has yet to even begin. However, the corporation envisions the service becoming available by the start of the 2022 MLB season.
“This is a major, major development,” a director for a non-Sinclair broadcaster told the Post. “And if Sinclair is successful it will change the industry more quickly than I imagined.”
Sinclair acquired the former FOX Sports regional networks in 2019, and they were rebranded to Bally Sports in 2021. A number of prominent teams play on the family of networks, including teams from Atlanta, St. Louis, Detroit, and Dallas. The Los Angeles Clippers and Angels also appear on the network.
As more and more consumers move away from cable television, a number of streaming services are getting involved in sports broadcast rights. This would be the biggest shift yet, however, as theoretically anyone in an existing Bally Sports market would be able to watch any broadcast from another of its markets as part of one streaming package. That’s not going to make cable companies happy, and one wonders what it would mean for league streaming packages such as MLB Extra Innings and NBA League Pass.
