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🎤 QUICK START ✍️

🏀 Tuning in for Flagg. Last Thursday night’s primetime NBA Summer League opener in Las Vegas between Cooper Flagg’s Mavericks and Bronny James’ Lakers averaged more than 950,000 viewers. It was the fourth-largest Summer League audience ever on ESPN networks.

⚾ MLB criticized over Futures Game. The league booked the game for this past Saturday in Atlanta, days before the All-Star game. That meant the young star showcase competed directly with other MLB games, including Fox’s Baseball Night In America national window. A great many voices chimed in to knock MLB’s mistake. One could imagine this game being in the daytime before the Home Run Derby or All-Star Game on a national network and getting far more shine.

🤦 Stephen A. on Epstein. There is no national news story that Stephen A. Smith does not comment on in 2025, meaning we now get his thoughts on Jeffrey Epstein. And as is becoming increasingly common, Smith sided with President Donald Trump, arguing that it’s “unbelievable that this is a big deal.” But a YouGov poll last week showed that 45 percent of respondents are “not at all confident” that all of the convicted sex traffickers’ accomplices will ultimately be investigated.

👨‍⚖️ Sharpe’s accuser no-shows first hearing. In Las Vegas last week, one of Shannon Sharpe’s attorneys appeared for the first scheduled hearing related to the April lawsuit accusing him of sexual assault. But on the other side of the courtroom, there was nobody present on behalf of the plaintiff. The next hearing is scheduled for Sept. 3 as questions loom over whether Sharpe will return to ESPN airwaves for the football season as planned.

️‍🚨LEADING OFF 🚨

Will an Apple deal fare better for F1 than MLS?

By most metrics, the first three years of Apple’s deal with Major League Soccer have been a disappointment.

The streamer pays $250 million annually to be the exclusive global home for MLS rights through its Season Pass product on Apple TV. Aside from trouble over match start times and uptake on the subscription service, viewership has lagged. As few as 65,000 people reportedly watched the MLS Cup Final in 2024 on Apple TV.

That may be where many minds went when news came down late last week that Apple won the bidding for Formula 1 rights in the U.S. Even if you are an F1 fan who would follow the sport no matter where it goes on television, nobody wants their favorite league to sputter toward irrelevance. But Apple’s F1 deal is not guaranteed to suffer the same fate as its MLS deal.

Let’s start with the differences. For one, Apple is merely acquiring domestic rights in the U.S. A truly global sport, F1 is not reliant on U.S. accessibility to grow and succeed. It can afford to take a risk in a way that a growing domestic soccer league like MLS cannot. Given that Apple reportedly offered nearly double what ESPN was paying on the expiring deal, F1 is notching a significant payday.

The other difference is in the logistics. Technically, MLS Season Pass is a separate product from Apple’s streaming service, Apple TV+. That service, though, is what fans must subscribe to to watch Friday Night Baseball. One would assume that Americans would need only to subscribe to Apple TV+ to watch early-morning F1 races. In March, The Information reported Apple TV+ had 45 million subscribers. That should give F1 a significant head start to pull viewers in.

So, where MLS was starting from scratch to build an audience that it depends on to survive, F1 is dipping into an existing crop of Ted Lasso or The Studio fans in one of its many rabid markets. And unlike Fox’s deal with MLS, for example, the previous deal with ESPN wasn’t exactly doing F1 a service with marketing and coverage. From a risk and reward standpoint, F1 has less to risk and the reward should be easier to achieve.

The U.S. is indeed — and increasingly — important to F1 and its American parent Liberty Media. We don’t know yet how long the new deal will last, but it involves a calculated risk with a substantial financial windfall attached to it. As long as F1 does not hitch its wagon to Apple for a decade, like MLS, it should be able to survive the potential viewership hit it will face and pivot if needed.

🎧 THE AWFUL ANNOUNCING PODCAST 📺

Dave Sims on his first season as the voice of the New York Yankees

WFAN New York Yankees announcer Dave Sims joined The Awful Announcing Podcast this week to chat with host Brandon Contes about:

• Sims’ first season as the radio voice of the Yankees

• Being a Black play-by-play announcer in Major League Baseball

• Torpedo bats, the 2025 Yankees, and much more!

Watch the episode on YouTube or listen wherever you get podcasts!

📣 SOCIAL EXPERIMENT📱

We are on the precipice of an incredible new rivalry in tennis, with Jannik Sinner finally taking a major tournament final from his foe, Carlos Alcaraz, at Wimbledon. ESPN’s open for the final was the perfect tone-setter.

CBS Sports analyst J.J. Watt was having none of the NFL players’ association’s statement defending its handling of a ruling on potential collusion among owners and commissioner Roger Goodell dating back to 2022.

It wasn’t the best day for Donald Trump at the Club World Cup, starting with the chorus of boos that welcomed him to MetLife Stadium.

Then, Chelsea stars Reece James and Cole Palmer were visibly puzzled by the U.S. president’s presence on the dais as the Blues lifted their trophy.

🔥THE CLOSER🔥

Is this the year the Derby outdraws the ASG?

Each year, it is fair to ask the question: Can the Home Run Derby bring in more viewers than the MLB All-Star Game?

In our era of spectacle over daily grind, particularly in baseball, there is both a narrative and statistical argument to make that it will happen soon. But this year appears unlikely, for a few reasons.

The biggest names in this year’s Derby are Jazz Chisholm and… that might be it as far as recognizable stars for the average fan? But Chisholm, the sole New York Yankees rep, has hit just 17 home runs on the year. He has the worst odds of winning it.

Aside from Chisholm, there are a bunch of great sluggers from relatively anonymous teams like Cal Raleigh, Oneil Cruz, and Brent Rooker. And there are up-and-comers like James Wood and Junior Caminero. We may know them someday, but fans aren’t tuning in to watch the next Nationals or Rays stars.

The following night, the All-Star Game should not only benefit from the built-in advantage of being the main event, but it could also be more exciting. That is mainly because the two most electric young pitchers in the sport are starting opposite one another in Atlanta for the midseason classic. Paul Skenes vs. Tarik Skubal. Ace vs. ace.

Anyone who wants to see the actual best sluggers in the game (Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani) also has to wait until Tuesday. Those two, plus fun young studs like Jacob Misiorowski, Garrett Crochet, Bobby Witt Jr., and Elly De La Cruz.

Throw in the fact that the All-Star Game is on a free network on Fox while the Derby resides on cable on ESPN, and 2025 probably won’t be the year the flip finally happens.