The 2024 WNBA All-Star Game takes the stage Saturday night in Phoenix, when a group of players headlined by rookie phenoms Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese take on the U.S. national team in a tune-up exhibition before the Americans head to the Summer Olympics seeking an eighth consecutive gold medal. In the 25-year history of the WNBA All-Star Game, this is the fourth time using this format, or something similar. Members of Team USA took on a group of non-Olympic WNBA players in 2004, 2010 and in 2021. The Olympic team won the first two matchups, but the WNBA players took a victory in 2021, 93-85, behind 26 points from Arike Ogunbowale, and 18 points and 14 rebounds from Jonquel Jones. Both players are back on the WNBA team Saturday joining rookies Clark and Reese, and other standout playe…

We all know it’s hard to leave when you can’t find the door. But sometimes you pay even more when you ignore the door that was right there. It was obvious in the last World Cup that Germany had reached the end of their cycle. They were made to look pretty damn plodding and basic, as both South Korea and Mexico ran around, over, and through a lineup that had aged more than the four years between their triumph in Brazil and their pratfall in Russia would suggest. Even their one win over Sweden was last-gasp, needing a Toni Kroos freekick to save them. Joachim Löw had already been the coach for 11 years by that point, which for a national team manager is equivalent to 300. Perhaps in a bid to save his own ass, he booted Thomas Müller, Mats Hummels, and Jerome Boateng from the team a…

Notes from a day in baseball: • 1. I'm Pretty Sure I Didn't Want That Undercoating. Our headline for this item comes from a commenter (Parker91), referring to the film Fargo, we'd guess. But it may also apply to our home team in the Motor City, which should have gone for that unpopular new-car option. Detroit's once-proud 10-game lead in the AL Central was reduced to a half-game over the Twins after a 7-0 drubbing at the hands of the White Sox on Tuesday. This time it was Freddy Garcia doing the damage, throwing a one-hitter over eight innings (hey, all you A.J. Pierzynski fans out there, your man hit a grand slam as well). The Twins, meanwhile, beat Boston 7-3 (are the Red Sox even trying?). Garcia (15-9) came within four outs of a perfect game. • 2. The Padres …

In the grand tradition of the egg fertilizers of Mary Pierce and Todd Marinovich, we present Frank Colavecchia, the father of Rocco Colavecchia, a quarterback for Shenango High School in New Castle, Penn. Last week, Frank posed as a scout from Ohio University — to get into character, we suspect he GHB'd himself — to sneak into the practice of Mars High School, the team Rocco and Shenango were playing the next week. He videotaped the team's defensive alignment, but claims he didn't go over it with his son. The result: a school-record 457 yards in a 41-35 win. And an apology, sort of, from Big Frank. "I screwed up. It was stupid," he said. "I was an overzealous parent. But on the other hand, Rocco probably wouldn't be where he is today if I wasn&#…

Without knowing it, Chicago Cubs rookie slugger Javier Baez pays homage to Isaac Newton's Third Law of Motion with each swing. He takes big giant cuts and hits big giant homers. The problem is, the equal and opposite reactions to the mechanics that generate all that power render the other parts of his swing wildly unstable.
In Baez's case, it's his massive "hammer." A player's hammer position is how he loads his hands at the start of his swing, and as with any athletic movement—punching, kicking, throwing—you must go backward to create energy going forward. (For this case study, we are going to ignore Baez's lower half.) The hand load is intended to create bat whip, like a twisted towel used to crack unsuspecting freshmen in high school locker …