Yahoo Sports AM: Yer out!
In today's edition: Ángel Hernández calls it quits, Minnesota wins PWHL title, college football mulls new revenue stream, a 12-year wait for gold, and more.
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🚨 Headlines
⛳️ Charges dropped: Louisville officials have dropped all charges against Scottie Scheffler stemming from a traffic incident outside Valhalla Golf Club on May 17.
🎾 Thriller in Paris: Iga Świątek battled back from match point to beat fellow four-time major winner Naomi Osaka, 7-6, 1-6, 7-5, in the second round of the French Open.
⚾️ Mets gonna Mets: The Mets DFA'd (i.e. cut) reliever Jorge López after he tossed his glove into the stands and called them the "worst team in probably the whole f***ing MLB." Things are going great in Queens.
🏈 Animal cruelty charge: Chiefs DT Isaiah Buggs has been accused of animal cruelty, the latest bad headline in an offseason full of them for the reigning Super Bowl champs.
🏀 NBA coaching moves: The Clippers gave Tyronn Lue a five-year, $70 million extension; the Wizards promoted interim head coach Brian Keefe to the permanent job.
⚾️ "Yer out!" Goodbye, Ángel Hernández
Ángel Hernández, perhaps the most maligned umpire in MLB history, retired this week after more than three decades in the big leagues. Cue the collective sigh of relief among fans and players alike.
Details: The 62-year-old Cuban-American, a full-time major league umpire since 1993, reportedly reached a financial settlement with MLB to call it a career. And though "he was NOT forced out," his lawyer told The Athletic ($), there's a long line of people who would have gladly shown him the door.
What they're saying: "I don't understand why he's doing these games," Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia said after Hernández infamously had three calls at first base overturned by replay in a 2018 ALDS game. "He's always bad."
Just how bad was he? Last season, he missed 161 calls in just 10 games. This season, he ranked 66th out of 85 umpires in ball-strike accuracy (93.2%). So not great! Add in his penchant for turning games into "ump shows," and it became a recipe for disaster, writes Yahoo Sports' Jake Mintz.
Being an MLB umpire is a thankless job. Summer nights are spent sweating underneath layers of protective gear while fans hurl obscenities and empty feedback. But Hernández's outwardly standoffish attitude and penchant for comically bad calls did him no favors.
That his name kept popping up in controversy after controversy felt like more than random chance. The mistakes and the demeanor made him a household name, the perfect type of punching bag in the social media age.
Why wasn't he fired? For starters, the umpires union would never let that happen without a fight. But Hernández's performance was also better than third-party evaluators made it seem, as detailed in an ESPN report on MLB's official evaluation system ($).
Instead, MLB kept him out of the spotlight: He hasn't worked a World Series since 2005 or a League Championship Series since 2016, and was only ever made an interim crew chief.
That lack of assignments prompted Hernández to sue MLB in 2017 for racial discrimination, but MLB said it was in fact poor performance that kept him from getting those assignments, and the suit was dismissed in 2021.
The last word: "I don’t think many [players] disliked him as a person," one player told Yahoo Sports. "He was just so bad at his job."
Watch: Hernández highlight reel
📸 Photo gallery
Lowell, Massachusetts — Minnesota beat Boston, 3-0, to win the inaugural PWHL championship and hoist the Walter Cup, concluding a successful first season for the startup league.
Edmonton — The Oilers came back from 2-0 down to beat the Stars, 5-2, and even the West Finals at two games apiece.
Lancaster, Pennsylvania — The 79th U.S. Women's Open tees off today at Lancaster Country Club, where red-hot Nelly Korda will be going for her seventh win in eight starts.
Baltimore — Gunnar Henderson's grand slam lifted the Orioles past the Red Sox, tied him for the MLB lead with 18 homers, and put the 22-year-old on pace to hit 54 bombs this season.
🏈 Sources: NCAA mulling on-field corporate logos
NCAA officials are mulling legislative changes to permit schools to display corporate logos on their football fields — and, perhaps eventually, corporate patches on player jerseys.
From Yahoo Sports' Ross Dellenger:
Starting in fall of 2025, power conference schools are permitted to share millions with their athletes, potentially as much as $22 million, in a capped revenue-sharing model that is part of the consolidation of three antitrust cases.
The concept — paying players directly — has schools willing to dip into commercialization more than ever as they seek to increase revenues to offset the additional athlete compensation costs.
While the exact policy change isn't clear, the expectation is that schools will be permitted to display corporate names and logos in three ways: at midfield; at one 25-yard line; and at the other 25-yard line. The playing rules oversight group also oversees potential changes to jerseys, such as schools adding patches to a player's jersey.
📆 May 30, 1911: The first Indy 500
113 years ago today, Ray Harroun won the inaugural Indianapolis 500, coming out of retirement for the race before re-retiring in the winner's circle.
An innovative design: Harroun drove his self-designed, one-seat Marmon Wasp and was the only racer not accompanied by a riding mechanic. Without the mechanic, he needed a way to see behind him during the race, so he mounted what's believed to be the first-ever rearview mirror.
⚾️ 1927: Walter Johnson threw his MLB record 110th and final shutout, 20 more than anyone else. Clayton Kershaw is the active leader, with 15.
⚾️ 1986: Barry Bonds made his MLB debut with the Pirates, though you could argue he actually debuted more than a month earlier*.
*Time warp: Later that season, Bonds appeared in a game that had been suspended on April 20, making him one of at least six MLB players to debut before they debuted.
📺 Watchlist: A pair of Game Fives
Prepare your dual-screen experience for an exciting night, with simultaneous Game 5s in the NHL and NBA.
🏒 New York City: Panthers (2-2) at Rangers (8pm ET, ESPN)
🏀 Minneapolis: Mavericks (up 3-1) at Timberwolves (8:30pm, TNT)
More to watch:
⛳️ LPGA: U.S. Women's Open* (8am, USA/Peacock)
⛳️ PGA: Canadian Open* (6:45am, ESPN+; 3pm, Golf)
🥎 NCAA Softball: Women's College World Series (ESPN/ESPN2) … Four games in Oklahoma City.
🎾 Tennis: French Open (5am, Tennis)
🏀 WNBA: Storm at Fever (7pm, Prime)
*Prize money: The U.S. Women's Open has a $12 million purse (women's golf record), while the Canadian Open purse is $9.4 million.
⚾️ MLB trivia
Question: Without looking at the MLB standings, can you name the six current division leaders?
Answer at the bottom.
🥇 Lashinda gets her gold
From Yahoo Sports' Jeff Eisenberg:
Lashinda Demus needed only 52.77 seconds to complete the 400-meter hurdles at the 2012 London Olympics. The American's wait to receive the gold medal she rightfully earned has lasted more than 4,300 days.
It took over a decade for Russian hurdler Natalya Antyukh's Olympic victory to be disqualified due to evidence of doping. It took another four months for Demus to formally be upgraded to first place from second. And it has taken a year-long fight for Demus to secure the right to have her gold medal placed around her neck on the Olympic stage.
Demus announced Wednesday that the International Olympic Committee plans to award medals to her and the rightful silver and bronze medalists during an Aug. 9 ceremony in Paris' Champions Park at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. It will be the first medal reallocation ceremony ever held at a Summer Olympic Games.
Trivia answer: Yankees (38-19), Guardians (37-19), Mariners (31-26), Phillies (39-18), Brewers (32-23), Dodgers (36-22)
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