The Milwaukee Brewers season began on Thursday for the first time since former MLB catcher and longtime Brewers announcer Bob Uecker died in January, but his memory certainly wasn't forgotten on Opening Day.
There were numerous tributes for Uecker on Opening Day as the Brewers faced the New York Yankees to start their 2025 campaign. As Brewers infielder Vinny Capra hit the first home run of the season for Milwaukee, broadcaster Lane Grindle paid tribute to Uecker with his call of the play.
"Get up, get up, get outta here, gone for Vinny Capra," Grindle called, referring to one of Uecker's longtime sayings.
Before the game, the broadcast team aired special video in honor of Uecker. "No one loved the game, nobody loved the Brewers, nobody loved Milwaukee more than Bob Uecker," Bill Schroeder said during tribute. "He cherished every day at the ballpark. Had integrity, loyalty, class. Had time for everybody and anybody."
Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich continued to honor Uecker by arriving at Opening Day wearing a plaid suit, a homage to Uecker's love of plaid sports coats. Yelich also used a special bat during spring training with Uecker's classic saying. The Brewers will also honor Uecker's love of plaid throughout the 2025 season by wearing a plaid patch on their uniforms.
Hitting two triples in one MLB game is rare. It's not four home runs in a single game rare, but it's not something you see everyday. Unless it's yesterday when Arizona Diamondbacks shortstop Corbin Carroll hit triples in a 6-4 win over the Atlanta Braves.
Carroll led off the game for the Diamondbacks with a triple in the bottom of the first. He ran so fast that the official MLB X account posted a video clocking him at 11.02 seconds and noted it was the "fastest home-to-third time in the Majors this season."
This distinction lasted a little more than an hour before Carroll hit his second triple of the game in the 7th inning and was clocked at 10.87 seconds. This inspired a second and third post from the MLB account. First one asking, "What's faster than fast?" and then another with both triples featured.
So what's faster than Corbin Carroll? Not much except for probably Elly De La Cruz. The Cinninati Reds shortstop was clocked at a slightly faster 10.84 seconds from home to third back in 2023.
Think about how fast Elly De La Cruz is. Then think about how fast Corbin Carroll is. Now think about how fast both guys have to be to be considered as fast as each other. That's really, really fast.
The Washington Nationals announced they were calling up Bruce the bat dog for his MLB debut against the Miami Marlins on Saturday afternoon at Nationals Park.
Bruce, a 21-month-old golden retriever, gets his first career assignment in the big leagues after making an unforgettable impression with the Rochester Red Wings, the Nationals' Triple-A affiliate. Bruce made his professional debut for the Red Wings last September, recording countless stolen hearts and leading the league in total bats retrieved (a lot of them). He's also been a huge factor in improving dugout morale due to his natural good looks and irresistible charm.
Check out Bruce's priceless reaction to finding out he was getting promoted:
While some fans may refer to Bruce as an ace or a phenom, the tail-wagging rookie prefers the term, "good boy."
Nationals Park will host an honorary bat retrieval ceremony as well as a press conference for Bruce's major league debut this Saturday.
"Our fans and front office are always excited to see our players get promoted to the Nationals, but Bruce's promotion is a historic call-up to the big leagues that he richly deserves," said Red Wings GM Dan Mason. "He'll put on a doggone great show for Nats fans on June 14."
Kyle Schwarber had a monster night at the plate on Monday as he crushed his 39th and 40th home runs of the season, with the latter being a grand slam hit at Citizens Bank Park.
Schwarber's first homer of the night made him the HR leader in the National League, so Phillies fans were prepared when he came up to the plate in the bottom of the sixth inning when the bases were loaded. The baseball park erupted in "MVP" chants for Schwarber, and he answered their cheers by providing an electric grand slam.
A video was posted by MLB on Monday night highlighting the sounds at Citizens Bank as Schwarber was up at the plate, and then it showed how loud the stadium became once the 390-foot homer soared in the air.
Chills.
Schwarber currently has the third-best odds in the NL for winning the MVP award this season. Shohei Ohtani is leading the race to win his third-straight MVP title (-700) with Cubs star Pete Crow-Armstrong in second with +900 odds, via ESPN. Schwarber follows them with 10-1 odds.
Monday night's game definitely helped Schwarber's MVP case, that's for sure.
The New York Mets bolstered their bullpen on Wednesday, just one day before the MLB trade deadline, by acquiring relief pitcher Tyler Rogers in a deal with the Giants.
It cost the Mets a pretty penny to bring the submarine-throwing right-hander to Queens, as New York parted ways with a pair of prospects, pitcher Blade Tidwell and outfielder Drew Gilbert, as well as veteran reliever Jose Butto. Tidwell was rated as the No. 10 prospect in the Mets' farm system, while Gilbert was just behind at No. 12.
Rogers is a great addition, but the package the Mets sent to San Francisco certainly seemed like an overpay. That type of haul would typically be sufficient to net a team a low-end starting pitcher, an area the organization is also hoping to address at the deadline. New York may have just inadvertently driven up the price of a starter on the market by surrendering such a significant haul in exchange for a reliever who is set to hit free agency after the season.
MLB fans were all stunned by the trade package the Mets sent to the Giants in exchange for Rogers, and they took to social media to share their bewilderment.
Manchester City midfielder Rodri has revealed he needs some time to rest after an uncharacteristically shoddy display against Real Madrid.
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Rodri says he needs a restMidfielder looked rusty vs Real MadridHas missed only four games this seasonWHAT HAPPENED?
Rodri was one of City's weakest performers in the heart-stopping 3-3 draw at the Santiago Bernabeu in the Champions League quarter-final first leg. The Spaniard was unable to bring his usual sense of control in midfield amid a chaotic and enthralling match and was showing signs of tiredness amid a relentless schedule of matches. And he admitted that he might benefit from sitting the odd game out.
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"I do need a rest, let's see how we deal with the situation," Rodri told reporters after the epic quarter-final first leg. "Sometimes I need to adjust but it is what it is."
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Rodri has missed just four matches for City this season and they have lost all of them. His red card against Nottingham Forest in September saw him banned for the Carabao Cup tie at Newcastle and the league games at Wolves and Arsenal. He earned another suspension in December for the visit to Aston Villa, which was City's last defeat. Rodri won City the Champions League final last season against Inter Milan and has been just as impressive this season, dominating games while scoring eight goals and providing 10 assists in all competitions.
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The draw with Madrid saw Rodri maintain his astonishing unbeaten record for club and country, which has stretched to more than a year. He has not been beaten with either City or Spain for 65 matches, with his last defeat coming against Tottenham on February 5, 2023.
Misner, a 27-year-old outfielder with one career hit to his name entering the Tampa Bay Rays' first game of the season against the Colorado Rockies at a new home in George M. Steinbrenner Field on Friday, ended up delivering in the game's biggest moment.
With the game tied at 2 in the bottom of the ninth inning, Misner stepped up to the plate as the leadoff batter, and wasted no time in leaving his mark on the game. The Poplar Bluff, Mo., native swung at the first pitch he saw and sent it over the right field wall for his second career hit, first career home run, and a walk-off for Tampa Bay.
Making the moment even more impressive is the fact that Misner didn't start the game; he entered as a defensive replacement in the eighth inning. Misner is a former first-round pick in the 2019 MLB draft who first made his big-league debut in an eight-game stint with the Rays in '24. Friday's game represented his first taste of Opening Day, as he made the Rays' roster after he was optioned to Triple-A during the spring.
"I mean, it's everything," Misner said of making the Rays' roster in a postgame interview with MLB Network. "It's everything you work for since you were a kid. It's what you look forward to. I mean, today is a dream come true so I'm fortunate enough to help the team win."
After a strong spring, Misner is likely to get more opportunities to help the Rays win moving forward.
It’s Thanksgiving 2019 in America, but eight Division I women’s basketball teams are north of the border in Victoria, British Columbia, for the Greater Victoria Invitational. The nighttime matchup pits No. 3 Stanford against California Baptist University, seemingly a battle of sharks and minnows in the grand scheme of the sport.
Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer has over 1,000 career Division I wins to her name. California Baptist, a Division I newbie, has 25. To make things more intimidating for the Lancers, one of Stanford’s players is dunking in warmups.
“Going in it was like, ‘This is going to be a mess, we don’t have a post [player], they’re gigantic, we’re little,’ ” CBU point guard Ane Olaeta recalls.
The opposite happened. California Baptist, in its second year in Division I, played the Cardinal tight from wire to wire. The Lancers rallied from 13 down at the half to get within a point late in the fourth quarter before losing by five.
“The look on Stanford people’s faces, they were just like, ‘What is happening? Who are they?’ ” guard Sydney Palma says. “That’s the best basketball memory I have.”
More people know who the Lancers are now. CBU is 20–0 this season, one of only two women’s teams in the nation still undefeated. The other, Bucknell, has dealt with several pandemic-related disruptions and has played just eight games. California Baptist is the only team outside of a major conference in the last five years to start 20–0, joining UConn, Louisville, Mississippi State and NC State in that exclusive club. It’s won conference games by an average margin of 20.1 points, and has clinched the WAC regular-season title. The Lancers are No. 87 in the NCAA’s NET rankings and No. 8 in the most recent CollegeInsider.com Mid Major Top 25.
Courtesy of California Baptist University
Yet no matter what happens in the CBU’s final two regular-season games and the WAC tournament in Las Vegas, you won’t see the Lancers in this month’s NCAA tournament field. But it’s through no fault of their own. They didn’t break any rules to earn themselves a postseason ban. They’re simply too new to the Division I party to get invited to the Big Dance. CBU is in the third year of a four-year transition period from Division II to Division I, and teams are not eligible to compete in the NCAA tournament during that time.
“I think it's something the NCAA needs to look at,” CBU head coach Jarrod Olson says. “I think four years a long time; it really penalizes the kids more than anything.”
Olson proposes that teams be allowed to make the NCAA tournament during the transition period but wouldn’t receive the payout from the NCAA. Instead, that money could be distributed to the rest of the conference. But those changes take time, and for now CBU is staring down a unique place in the NCAA record books.
If it completes an undefeated season, it will be the first team in men’s or women’s college basketball to go undefeated and not reach the NCAA tournament since 1983, when the Oral Roberts women’s team didn’t qualify. Back then, the women’s tournament featured only 36 teams, the Golden Eagles weren’t in a conference and played almost half of their games against non-D-I teams.
Even though they won’t be able to complete their dream season in style, CBU’s meteoric rise from NAIA power to a pair of D-II Final Fours in five years to now being on the brink of an undefeated D-I season is nothing short of remarkable. And all postseason hope isn’t lost: The WNIT has been in contact with California Baptist about playing in that tournament, a solid consolation prize.
“That's a really good goal for us because I think that's a tournament we think we can get into and actually win a couple games,” Olson says. “The NCAA obviously would be amazing, right? But the reality is, it's kind of fun for about the first five minutes against UConn, right? Maybe magic would happen at some point, but in that situation, you're just trying to get there.”
Still, not getting a chance to create that magic like the Lancers nearly did against Stanford last season stings. And CBU is an easy team to fall in love with: It plays fast, takes tons of threes and really shares the ball. Senior guard Olaeta leads the nation in assists per game, and the Lancers are second in the country in percentage of made shots that are assisted on, per Her Hoop Stats. Olson empowers his team to fire away with confidence and be aggressive, a style of play his players have embraced.
“Jarrod [Olson]’s like, ‘if you’re slightly open, you’re launching that thing,’” Palma says. “You can’t be scared you’re going to miss it because you have to shoot it or you’re going to get in trouble because you shoot it, not because you shoot too much.”
Florida scored a tough win over UConn in the second round of the 2025 NCAA tournament on Sunday, and the Gators' head coach was fired up after the victory.
As he left the floor following the 77-75 win, Florida's Todd Golden was visibly and audibly animated. At one point he screamed, "Let's go man!" before entering the locker room.
He was also fired up in the locker room too.
Golden has every right to be pumped. The Gators beat a tough UConn team in a really good game. Flordia is the top seed in the West region after an outstanding regular season. The Gators finished second in the loaded SEC, but wound up winning the conference tournament. They're currently 32-4 on the year.
The 39-year-old Golden is a rising star in the basketball coaching world. Florida hired him in 2022 after three seasons at San Francisco in which he went 57-36 (.613) and took the Dons to the NCAA tournament. After a rough first season at Florida in which he went 16-17, Golden has turned the Gators around. They went 24-12 and earned a tournament berth last season and now they're in the Sweet 16 in his third year.
Florida will face the winner of Colorado State and Maryland in the Sweet 16.
Iowa may have gained one of the transfer portal's best players—but it has lost one as well.
Hawkeyes guard Josh Dix will transfer to Creighton, his agent told Jonathan Givony of ESPN Friday morning. As noted by Givony, Dix averaged 14.3 points per game in 2025. He further served as one of the lone bright spots on the worst Iowa team by winning percentage since 2018.
Dix is a native of Council Bluffs, Iowa, which is substantially closer to Omaha than Iowa City.
In the wake of their poor showing this season, the Hawkeyes dismissed coach Fran McCaffery and replaced him with Drake coach Ben McCollum. McCollum quickly lured guard Bennett Stirtz, the reigning Missouri Valley Player of the Year to join him.
The Bluejays enjoyed another strong season in 2025, peaking at No. 14 in the AP poll and knocking off Louisville in the first round of the NCAA men's tournament.