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🎤 QUICK START ✍️

💪 Joey strikes back. Our short, national nightmare is over. Three days after announcing he was leaving social media over controversy surrounding his Hulk Hogan tribute (and some sketchy comments), fitness influencer Joey Swoll returned. “Love me or hate me, I am not going anywhere, and you are not going to cancel me.”

🎙️Tkachuk’d out. Days after admitting that Barstool network initially tested a podcast with Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham but ultimately passed, Dave Portnoy revealed they almost started a show with Brady and Matthew Tkachuk but backed off, citing high costs and concerns that it would cannibalize Spittin’ Chiclets, Barstool’s flagship hockey brand.

🏃 Smack & field. NBC reporter Lewis Johnson ended up with an awkward post-race interview at the 2025 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships involving Noah Lyles and Kenneth Bednarek, the first and second-place finishers, who were engaged in some post-race bickering.

🚨LEADING OFF 🚨

MLB Speedway Classic or clunker?

Atlanta outfielder Eli White knocked two homers while minor-league call-up Hurston Waldrep put in a solid effort to help the Braves top the Cincinnati Reds 4-2 on Sunday, completing MLB’s first-ever Speedway Classic at Bristol Motor Speedway.

That result came a day later than expected. The game, which was initially scheduled for Saturday, couldn’t make it out of the first inning before being postponed.

Perhaps all’s well that ends well, and there was a lot to like about the presentation and local festivities around the game, but the road to Sunday’s final out was paved with plenty of frustrations, from players and fans alike.

On paper, the first MLB game to be played on an auto racetrack sounded like a no-brainer. However, another no-brainer might have been for MLB to consider that it rains a lot in Bristol. Like, A LOT. According to the State Climate Office website at East Tennessee State University, while the state receives much of its rain in the spring and winter, “a secondary maximum of precipitation occurs in summer in response to thunderstorm activity.” And the National Weather Service warned of rainfall in the days and hours leading up to the game.

So, in what should have been a surprise to no one, Saturday’s game was met with a downpour. While they tried to power through and made it to the bottom of the first inning, the game was delayed and eventually postponed. Off the field came reports of empty concession stands, endless lines, terrible seats, and many more complaints, with one person referring to it as “the MLB version of Fyre Fest.”

When play resumed Sunday, it was in front of a spartan crowd (many of the 91,032 ticket purchasers didn’t come back for Day 2).

Beyond fan frustrations, however, came those of the players. The Reds lost a rest day at a pivotal moment in the season, lost a start from pitcher Chase Burns, and had to burn through five relievers to finish the game. Some felt that the entire situation could have been avoided.

"Not the most ideal situation last night," Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson said. "Feel like it could have been handled a lot differently.”

"Honestly, I think, looking at the radar, all we had to do was wait another hour,” added Gavin Lux. “Honestly, I think it was poorly handled by the MLB. Not to call anybody out, but it was just poorly handled all the way around, and it kind of dimmed a light on a really cool event last night.”

Not everyone was unhappy with the event. Some saw it as a perfectly messy love letter to Southern baseball, kickstarting discussions around bringing the MLB to Nashville once more. Fox had a lot of fun with the checkered flags, unique camera angles, and the home-run car that rounded the track after every dinger.

There was certainly fun to be had at the event, and you can see why Fox and MLB executives lit up at the chance to play a game here. Again, on paper, it’s a bit of a no-brainer.

But, to paraphrase Kenny Mayne, they don’t play MLB Speedway Classic games on paper. They play them in stadiums not made for baseball and in parts of the country accustomed to rain in the summer. When you put those things together, you’re rolling the dice, and unfortunately, audiences and fans are more likely to remember Saturday’s mess than Sunday’s success.

🗣️ NOTABLE QUOTABLES 🗣️

• “He always had the weight issues. He just fell off a cliff, but he had some big years for the Giants. Didn’t he go to the Red Sox? Just kind of bombed out there. He came back [to the Giants] and didn’t do the push-ups from the dinner table.” - Mets’ announcer Keith Hernandez on Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval.

• “They make way too many mistakes. Way too many mistakes. You can’t get away making that number of mistakes against great teams… There’s no excuses. You have to play better. If you don’t play better, you’re not going to go very far.” - Derek Jeter on the blundering Yankees.

• “Imagine the Astros being mad about stealing signs. But guess what, that’s part of the game, when you can see the grip in a glove.” - Red Sox announcer Will Middlebrooks on the irony of the Astros accusing the Red Sox of cheating.

📺 INDUSTRY INSIGHTS 🎬

• When it comes to its next television deal, the USGA is finding itself in the rough as deep as the US Open at Oakmont. NBC and the USGA are already out of their exclusive negotiating window with no deal in sight. And now the USGA is projecting a loss in revenue when it comes to their next deal in 2027, with whomever they end up partnering with.

• Sunday’s final round of the Wyndham Championship served as Ian Baker-Finch’s final golf broadcast before riding off into the sunset. The former Open Championship winner didn’t leave without receiving a tribute from CBS, a special moment with Jim Nantz, and tons of praise from the golf media community.

• The NFLPA finds itself scrambling to find a new executive director after Lloyd Howell abruptly resigned last month amid a series of scandals that have shaken the union’s leadership. ESPN’s Peter Schraeger threw his support behind Prime Video’s Andrew Whitworth, who served as an NFLPA representative for the Cincinnati Bengals and was among those wary of playoff expansion.

🔥 THE CLOSER 🔥 

25 years ago,

Leadership often means taking risks because it’s easy to do the popular thing. Executives are paid to be visionaries. Sometimes it’s a touchdown. Sometimes it’s a pick-6. In the history of America’s most popular sport, there wasn’t a bigger broadcasting Hail Mary than Dennis Miller entering the Monday Night Football booth.

On a scale of 1 to 10—with 10 being maximum shocking—this registered at a 15. The fall of 2000 marked the beginning of Miller’s calamitous run on ABC’s prestigious property. In hindsight, it was a miracle that Miller lasted two years. He had a longer stint on MNF than Joe Namath, who was ousted after one season in 1985.

There’s no Monday morning quarterbacking regarding Miller. Everyone immediately reacted the same way. What? Huh? Why? Miller, a comedian best known for his snarky work as an anchor for Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update segment, had zero qualifications for the job.

That, of course, didn’t matter. It wasn’t the point of bringing Miller into a booth alongside Al Michaels and Dan Fouts. And while hopes were high to start the season, the experiment ended after Year 2, deemed an epic failure.

Awful Announcing’s Michael Grant took a look back at one of the boldest sports broadcasting experiments of all time as we look back 25 years later.