Mets pitcher Marcus Stroman has every right to be angry after his start Sunday was cut short after just 9 pitches and seven minutes.
It was already raining in Flushing when the game started on time at 1:10 pm (ET). At 1:17, plate umpire D. J. Reyburn called for the tarp to be placed on the field for a rain delay. Two hours later, the game was "suspended", and will be completed as part of a day-night double-header later this season. Stroman, for his part, was upset that the team decided to go ahead and start the game, putting the players on both the Mets and the visiting Miami Marlins at risk of illness.
I feel his pain. Back in the day, baseball teams didn't put profit margins ahead of player & fan safety. There was many a day in my youth, back when WTEN had local broadcast rights to the Mets (and at one time, the Yankees, too), when the station would post a graphic announcing a rainout, and they would sub a movie to fill the time.
Today, because of the ridiculous player salaries, teams will take the risk in order to recoup the money spent on salaries.
New owner, same old dysfunction along the chain of command.
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WWE is shuffling the deck with its announcers.
Recently, backstage reporter Charly Arnolt (nee Caruso) left the company to work full-time for ESPN. Beginning tonight, former ESPN anchor-announcer Adnan Virk joins the Monday Night Raw broadcasting team, replacing Tom Phillips, who slides over to 205 Live, which airs Fridays on Peacock (WWE Network was folded into Peacock in the states a few days ago). Corey Graves moves back to Raw from Smackdown to work with Virk and Byron Saxton, replacing Samoa Joe, who apparently will be activated from the disabled list (concussions) shortly.
Photo courtesy www.WrestlingHeadlines.com.
Virk is also a studio host for MLB Network, which he joined after leaving ESPN in 2019. MLB has another ex-ESPN studio host/wrestling fan in Robert Flores, who mixes in some WWE references when on the air.
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WWE certainly got what it wanted to get on Access Hollywood, Entertainment Tonight, etc. over the last two nights of Wrestlemania.
On Saturday, rapper Bad Bunny made his wrestling debut, paired with Damian Priest to put down John Morrison (Hennigan) & Michael "The Miz" Mizanin, who have mocked Bunny by cutting novelty rap tracks in the run-up to the match. Bunny pinned Miz after a cross-body block off the top rope, with Miz on the shoulders of Priest.
Bunny will return down the line, but the implication last night is that he's preparing for a concert tour that won't start until next February.
Meanwhile, YouTube star Logan Paul was acting as a cornerman for Sami Zayn in the latter's match against Kevin Owens (Steen). Zayn's gimmick of being a conspiracy theorist has been a parody of a certain former president's claims of fraud in the last election. Owens pinned Zayn, who turned on Paul afterwards. Paul tried to befriend Owens, who wasn't having any of that and pulled a page out of Stone Cold Steve Austin's playbook, using Austin's finisher, the stunner, to drop Paul. Owens has used the stunner the last several months to save wear and tear on his body instead of using a sit-out powerbomb.
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Japan's Hideki Matsuyama became the first man from his country to win the Masters on Sunday. His first major tournament victory gives Matsuyama 6 PGA titles total in his career. The LPGA has had champions from Korea and Japan in recent years, but Matsuyama gets the headlines today.
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Reports are that ESPN/Fox analyst Alex Rodriguez is buying the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves. No word on whether his lady, singer-actress Jennifer Lopez, was part of the group with Rodriguez in buying the team.
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WROW morning host Ben Patten goofed in reading off baseball scores this morning, as he had Sunday's Yankees-Rays result backwards. The Bombers salvaged a game in the weekend series with Tampa Bay, 8-4, but Patten repeatedly misread the result, claiming Tampa won, presumably until a listener called to correct him. Happens occasionally.
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