If J.T. Realmuto had to go - and if you're the best player on the Marlins, that seems to be your fate - I'm glad he ended up with the Phillies.
Apparently Derek Jeter is finally going to get rid of his bete noir, the Home Run Sculpture, moving it, according to reports, outside Marlins Park.
I have never understood the antipathy toward this artwork. It is a whimsical, inspired piece by the artist Red Grooms that has given Miami’s baseball stadium more distinction than any of the teams that have played before it. You could say it’s gaudy but that quality makes it all the more appropriate for the Magic City. Its removal will leave a big hole, something that the Marlins and their fans are depressingly familiar with.
The network executives are surely hoping for a latitudinal series (Red Sox-Dodgers) while I would love to see a longitudinal one (Brewers-Astros).
The U.S. Open was bookended by controversies involving chair umpires. The first was criticized for being too compassionate (coming out of his chair to give a player a pep talk) and the second was accused of being too strict. If only each could have worked the other’s match.
Explaining Novak Djokovic’s failure to get the New York crowd behind him at the U.S. Open, Martina Navratilova suggested this morning on Tennis Channel that it could be a “Slavic thing” – noting that neither she nor Lendl won their hearts. Immediately I recalled the match at the 1986 Open in which Boris Becker played the brilliant shotmaker Miroslav Mecir and the entire stadium seemed to be behind the boorish German.
To someone who has written a lot about Poland, Navratilova's theory didn't seem all that implausible.
At the end of a close match, or a long game, the victorious player will sometimes pound his chest (to indicate his “heart”) or stab his temple with his forefinger (mental toughness). I’m waiting for a linesperson, after Hawk-Eye confirmation of his call, to point with self-congratulatory fervor to his eyes.