Yahoo Sports AM: Sweeps all around
👋 Good morning! ESPN could have had as many as four must-see Game 3s on their airwaves today. Instead, they have zero.
🎶 Song of the day:Chim chiminey, Chim chiminey, Chim chim cher-ee! (Mary Poppins)
Let's sports…
HEADLINES
🏈 Unique NIL deal: Utah's NIL collective gifted Dodge Ram 1500 trucks ($61,000 retail price) to all 85 scholarship football players. Leases end when a player's eligibility expires or they transfer.
🏀 New WNBA team: The WNBA will announce a new Bay Area franchise today, AP reports. The first WNBA expansion team since 2008 will begin play in 2025.
⚽️ Playoff hopes fading: Lionel Messi sat out for the fourth straight game on Wednesday as Miami lost to Chicago, 4-1, to fall five points out of the final playoff spot.
🎓 Shrinking the portal: The NCAA is reducing the amount of time athletes have to put their name into the transfer portal from 60 days down to 45 days in all sports.
SWEEPS ALL AROUND
Get your brooms out! All four Wild Card Series ended in sweeps on Wednesday, with Texas and Minnesota advancing in the AL and Arizona and Philly advancing in the NL.
Fun fact: The last time four MLB teams were eliminated from the postseason on the same day? 27 years ago today (Oct. 5, 1996).
Rangers 7, Rays 1: Texas is the first team to open a postseason with back-to-back road wins by 4+ runs since... the 2010 Rangers, also against the Rays, ESPN notes.
Twins 2, Blue Jays 0: Minnesota's first playoff series win since 2002 also marked the first time they've clinched a series at home since Game 7 of the 1991 World Series.
Diamondbacks 5, Brewers 2: Arizona trailed 3-0 on Tuesday and 2-0 on Wednesday before winning both games on the road. The NL Central falls to 2-20 in postseason play since 2019.
Phillies 7, Marlins 1: Last postseason, the Phillies knocked off the Braves en route to the World Series. One year later, the division rivals will meet again on the same NLDS stage.
The power of the long ball: Teams are 5-0 so far this postseason when out-homering their opponent. Since 2021, they are 87-13.
Looking ahead: All four Division Series will begin on Saturday.
(5) Rangers vs. (1) Orioles: They split the season series, 3-3.
(3) Twins vs. (2) Astros: Minnesota won the season series, 4-2.
(4) Phillies vs. (1) Braves: Atlanta won the season series, 8-5.
(6) Diamondbacks vs. (2) Dodgers: Los Angeles won the season series, 8-5.
More coverage:
👏 Must-see video: Take two minutes to watch this clip of Phillies fans going absolutely nuts. You won't regret it!
WORLD CUP HOSTS CHOSEN FOR 2030 (AND 2034?)
The 2030 men's World Cup will spread across six different countries and three continents, FIFA announced Wednesday.
Co-hosts:
🇪🇸 Spain
🇵🇹 Portugal
🇲🇦 Morocco
Plus: Three opening games will be staged in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay to mark the 100-year anniversary of the World Cup, first held in 1930 in Montevideo, Uruguay.
Looking ahead: Here's Yahoo Sports' Henry Bushnell on how FIFA all but handed the 2034 men's World Cup to Saudi Arabia.
FIFA also decided Wednesday that only countries from the Asia and Oceania confederations will be allowed to bid for the 2034 men's World Cup — because all other confederations (CONCACAF, South America, Europe and Africa) will have technically hosted in 2026 and 2030.
That decision conveniently opened a door to Saudi Arabia, which, in due course, confirmed its intention to bid for 2034. Shortly thereafter, the Asian Football Confederation endorsed the Saudi bid.
FIFA also set Oct. 31, 2023, as a sudden deadline for countries to officially express their interest in bidding — which usually requires months, if not years, of planning. So, in effect, FIFA and the AFC have ruled out all realistic competitors for 2034; and the World Cup, barring something unforeseen, will return to the Persian Gulf 12 years after Qatar.
BEHIND THE LENS
Each week, we'll be going "Behind the Lens" with Getty Images to get the backstory on the most spectacular photographs in sports.
This week's photo: Simone Biles in action on uneven bars at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium. On Wednesday, Biles led the U.S. women to a seventh straight world title, winning her record 33rd major championship medal.
Photographer: Matthias Hangst
Date: October 1
📸 Behind the lens: Here's Matthias on how he captured this stunning shot of the GOAT.
The setup:For this photograph, I decided to capture Simone going from the lower bar to the higher bar during her uneven bars routine.
The Antwerp Sportpaleis is a 90-year-old arena with limited space, so I had to squeeze in a small empty space between the waiting athletes to get this angle.
There was a wonderful dark background and spotlights in the roof, so I used them to give the frame an extra layer.
The technique*: I chose a 200mm prime lens and shot it on open aperture 2.0. Shutter speed was 1/2000 of a second at 2000 ISO. The easy way would have been to shoot it "loose" and crop the image heavier after, but that wasn't the way I wanted it.
This lens and the open aperture create a smooth background and made the spotlights stand out so they become these nice white dots.
One challenge for photographers is the need to focus on the eyes, and this lens has more or less no depth of field. A few centimeters out of focus and the frame is unusable. Thankfully, it all worked that day.
*Photography 101: The three pillars of exposure are aperture (depth of field and brightness), shutter speed (blur or freeze motion) and ISO (add or subtract film grain).
THE CHANCE OF A LIFETIME
57 golfers have a chance to change their lives this weekend at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship, where the top 30 finishers earn their PGA Tour cards for 2024, Jeff writes.
How it works: Victoria National Golf Club outside Evansville, Indiana, hosts the 73-player field for the season-ending tournament, which does not feature a cut.
The top 16 players on the points list have already mathematically secured their PGA Tour cards, leaving 14 spots up for grabs. The remaining 57 players are all still alive depending on where they finish this weekend.
Finishing No. 1 on the points list has an added advantage, as that player will automatically qualify for the 2024 Players Championship and US Open. The top six entering this weekend all still have a shot at that prize.
Road to the PGA Tour: Recent Korn Ferry graduates include world No. 15 Cameron Young, No. 27 Will Zalatoris and No. 29 Sahith Theegala. So there's a decent chance that someone playing this weekend will pop up on a PGA Tour leaderboard next year.
Good luck, fellas!
DAILY RANKING: NWSL VALUATIONS
Angel City FC is by far the most valuable NWSL franchise, per Sportico's inaugural valuations ranking.
The list:
Angel City FC: $180M
San Diego Wave FC: $90M
Kansas City Current: $75M
Portland Thorns FC: $65M
Washington Spirit: $54M
North Carolina Courage: $52M
Houston Dash: $50M
OL Reign: $49M
NJ/NY Gotham FC: $48M
Racing Louisville FC: $47M
Orlando Pride: $45M
Chicago Red Stars: $40M
The growth is real: "A few years after teams were selling for $2 million, the average NWSL team is now worth $65M," writes Sportico's Eben Novy-Williams.
OCT. 5, 2001: BONDS PASSES MCGWIRE
22 years ago today, Barry Bonds crushed his 71st and 72nd home runs of the season, breaking Mark McGwire's MLB single-season record of 70. He'd hit one more on the final day to finish with 73, Jeff writes.
He didn't miss: Bonds led the majors with a whopping 177 walks, so he only got 476 at-bats — good for one HR every 6.5 AB. For reference, if this season's home run leader Matt Olson had hit them at the same clip, he would have blasted 93 (!!!) homers.
🏒 1983: Wayne Gretzky notched a goal and an assist in the Oilers' season-opener, kicking off his record 51-game points streak*.
💉 2007: Five-time Olympic medalist Marion Jones admitted to using steroids after years of denials, tearfully announcing her retirement before ultimately being stripped of her medals.
*Pure dominance: During his 51-game points streak, The Great One averaged three points a night with 61 goals and 92 assists. Those 153 points would be tied for 15th-most ever in a full season.
WATCHLIST: CAN CHICAGO FINALLY WIN?
The Commanders host the Bears tonight (8:15pm ET, Prime) as Chicago (+5.5) seeks its first win in 346 days, Jeff writes.
It's been bad: The Bears have lost 14 straight games*, the longest losing streak in franchise history.
Betting lines: Spread: WAS -5.5 | O/U: 44.5 | Money: WAS -250, CHI +200
More to watch:
🏈 CFB:Sam Houston (+20.5) at Liberty (7pm, CBSSN); Western Kentucky (-6) at Louisiana Tech (8pm, ESPNU)
⛳️ Korn Ferry:Tour Championship (2pm, Golf)
🏀 NBA preseason:Mavericks vs. Timberwolves (12pm, NBA) … In Abu Dhabi.
🏒 NHL preseason:Bruins at Rangers (7:30pm, TNT); Avalanche at Golden Knights (10pm, TNT)
🏉 Rugby World Cup:Uruguay vs. New Zealand (3pm, Peacock)
*Defensive struggles: The Bears have surrendered at least 25 points in all 14 losses. Don't tell Mike Ditka.
MLB TRIVIA
Rank the cities that will host MLB playoff games this weekend by population*.
Atlanta
Baltimore
Houston
Los Angeles
Answer at the bottom.
*Note: We're asking about the population of the city, itself, not the metro area.
BOB AND BILL: BREAKING UP WITH A LEGEND
Robert Kraft and Bill Belichick have made history together and built a dynasty in New England that reshaped the NFL. But now Kraft is inching toward setting a different precedent: How to break up with a legend.
From Yahoo Sports' Charles Robinson:
Across the ownership expanse of today's NFL, very little business comes without some kind of historic template. Head coaches and GMs have been hired and fired. QBs have risen and regressed. Legal cases have been won and lost. … But the planned ouster of one of the league's sport-defining legends? This is the thinnest of chapters in the ownership textbooks available to Patriots owner Robert Kraft when it comes to head coach Bill Belichick.
And even the few available scripts — Jerry Jones' ham-fisted 1989 dismissal of Tom Landry in Dallas; Wayne Huizenga's 1996 force-out of Don Shula in Miami; and Dan Rooney's gentle 1991 retirement dance with Chuck Noll in Pittsburgh — all pale in comparison to the intersection coming between Kraft and Belichick. And make no mistake, what's happening in New England under Belichick is a dilemma.
Yes, he's on the doorstep of a career-defining, regular-season victory flagpole, perched at 299. And yes, he's within a plausible 17-win distance from Shula's all-time victory total of 347 (including playoffs). But he's also steering a franchise that hasn't felt this far from real playoff contention since, well, last season. Indeed, the entire operation hasn't looked or seemed this rudderless or off course since Belichick's first season in 2000, when the Patriots went 5-11.
Where does this leave Kraft if he feels compelled to make a move with Belichick in the coming offseason? Certainly he wouldn't cut down his head coach the way Jerry Jones dumped Landry … But it doesn't mean a parting of company takes place without awkwardness. Perhaps even the kind that became the undercurrent of the departures of Noll and Shula — two iconic coaches who were nudged out in what felt like pushed retirements.
___
Trivia answer: Los Angeles (3.8 million), Houston (2.3 million), Baltimore (563,000), Atlanta (490,000)
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