The Yankees beat the baseball gods, plus the Colts' rash decision

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Good morning! Is this good art?

While You Were Sleeping: At least it’s not a sweep

I understand the logic and the history of it. But something about the Dodgers employing a bullpen game in the World Series rankled the dormant old-man genes inside me. When your pitching staff is huffing during a midweek series in July, I get it. But in the World Series?

It must’ve irked the Yankees too, because for a night, this series finally felt competitive. An 11-4 Yankees rout pushed the blowout series to a fifth game, something no team down 3-0 in the title series has done since 1970. Kudos to them.

Two things to linger on:

  • Anthony Volpe, the hometown kid, must be beaming. To grow up a Yankees fan and then hit a go-ahead grand slam in a critical World Series game at Yankee Stadium is something you whisper to yourself in the backyard, a daydream that never comes true. Yet it was Volpe’s grand salami that broke open the game, and the Yanks will live another day. Very cool.
  • Freddie Freeman hit a home run, of course, becoming the first player to ever homer in six straight World Series games. He is still the favorite to be World Series MVP. The legends we will write about him in this series — if the Dodgers win, as expected — will be tremendous lore. That has to wait at least one more day, though.

The most impressive part of the win? Somehow defeating the baseball gods, who would normally smite any team whose fan tried to pull this stunt on a fly ball:

I want to get a beer with that guy, only to hear every single thing that was going through his mind as he attempted to pry a live ball from the glove of Mookie Betts. Look at his face. The determination. If it wasn’t dangerous, it would be hilarious. I might never get over this. (He was ejected for this, of course.)

Gerrit Cole starts tonight for the Yankees. Imagine if this series goes to Game 6. 👀

To The Bench: A cursed QB class?

The 2023 NFL Draft occurred just 18 months ago. Two of the top three quarterbacks selected — and two of the top five overall picks — have already been cast aside, at least for now. How is that even possible?

Let’s try to digest:

  • A little over a month after Carolina benched No. 1 pick Bryce Young, Indianapolis sent No. 4 pick Anthony Richardson to the pine yesterday. It came two days after Richardson finished 10-of-32 in the Colts’ 23-20 loss to the Texans, a game where Richardson asked out of the game in the red zone because he was tired.
  • Let’s be clear: Both Young and Richardson were bad this year in limited action. No one doubts that respective backups Andy Dalton and Joe Flacco are better options for winning in the short term, though that hasn’t exactly worked out often for the 1-7 Panthers. The Colts still have life this year at 4-4.
  • And yet both moves feel desperate, as much an indictment of the franchise as of the QB. Young was never given much of a chance to succeed. Richardson has played in just 10 NFL games. Bailing now is a knee-jerk mistake, as James Boyd wrote. These moves will severely impact both quarterbacks’ development.

The only good news? Both are under 24 years old, and in a league where guys like Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, Geno Smith and others are thriving after initial failures, there will be chances for redemption. Richardson’s next chance still might be in Indy

But for now, pain and shame.

News to Know

White Sox hire Venable
Late-breaking news last night: The Chicago White Sox are making Will Venable their new manager after the team posted the worst season in MLB history. Venable played eight seasons in the majors and was most recently associate manager for the Rangers. Venable will have a tough job ahead of him, but at least the bar is on the floor. Read our full report here.

Ravens land WR
Baltimore traded for Panthers wideout Diontae Johnson yesterday, sending a fifth-round pick back to Carolina in exchange for Johnson and a sixth-rounder. Johnson is a talented boost to the Ravens’ WR depth, which is nice for one of the NFL’s best offenses, but it doesn’t address the team’s main weakness: defense. Another trade yesterday: Minnesota acquired offensive lineman Cam Robinson from the Jaguars to replace the injured Christian Darrisaw.

More news

  • Texans wide receiver Stefon Diggs will miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL. Tough.
  • Rudy Gay, 38, announced his retirement from the NBA after 17 seasons. That dude could probably get buckets in the league until he’s 50 if he wanted to.
  • 49ers cornerback Charvarius Ward’s 1-year-old daughter died yesterday, Ward announced. Read his full comments here.
  • The Athletic debuted its preseason women’s college basketball All-American team, led by JuJu Watkins and Paige Bueckers, of course. See the full team here.
  • Columbus, the defending MLS Cup champion, suffered a shocking 1-0 loss to the New York Red Bulls in the first round of this year’s playoffs. More here.
  • A new U.S.-based professional women’s baseball league will debut in 2026. Full details inside.

Feedback Loop x2: The Pulse’s art criticism turn

One more note about the Dwyane Wade statue. In yesterday’s newsletter, I wondered if ancient statues, the ones we hold up as classic works, might actually have been poor depictions of their subjects all along. What I did not expect was an expert art take from reader Henry Melville (edited for length):

“This is a perennial topic in the art world, most prominently in architecture. Have buildings gotten uglier? Has art gotten worse? 

“A question that seems straightforward on the surface hides some subtleties, such as that only the best of art remains visible for a long time — no one is lining up at the Louvre for something mediocre, and works of art that are flat-out ugly are more likely to wind up on a literal scrap heap. Over time, this creates the illusion that all older works of art are masterpieces. Another aspect is that the types of art that are most culturally important change over time. 
 There are still extremely talented artists in 3D, but they might be more likely to work for Activision than in bronze.”

Thank you, Henry. We are now accepting all art criticisms, I guess. Moving on:

Watch and Listen

đŸ“ș MLB: Dodgers at Yankees
8 p.m. ET on Fox
Hey, New York won a game. Can we actually get some juice behind this comeback? 

đŸ“ș NBA: Spurs at Thunder
9:30 p.m. ET on ESPN
Victor Wembanyama and Chris Paul play against arguably the league’s best team. This will be on in the Branch house. 

đŸ“ș NHL: Golden Knights at Kings
10 p.m. ET on TNT/truTV/Max
These teams sit at the top of the Pacific through about 10 games played. A fun early season test here. 

Get tickets to games like these here.

🎧 J.T. O’Sullivan joined “The Athletic Football Show” to talk about rookie QBs, particularly in light of Sunday’s matchup between Jayden Daniels and Caleb Williams. Fun conversation here.

Pulse Picks

Maybe it’s the dad in me, but I loved every word of this story from Joe Vardon about Bronny James’ childhood in Ohio, where he and his father, LeBron James, return to play the Cavaliers tonight. Make time for this today.  

I loved this from Marcus Thompson II on the NBA’s “Uncle Brigade”: superstars like LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Steph Curry, who are still among the league’s elite despite their age. We should treasure them. 

We missed this over the weekend, but I thought Ben Pickman’s column about the Indiana Fever’s suddenly accelerated championship timeline was prescient. 

Jim Trotter has a smart column after Nick Bosa flaunted a Donald Trump-themed hat over the weekend: Does the NFL have double standards when it comes to political expression? Read it here. 

Wait, why is the PGA planning to reduce tour cards and field sizes? Gabby Herzig explains. 

Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: Our story on why the Jets are favored over the Texans this weekend. 

Most-read on the website yesterday: The latest NFL Power Rankings.

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(Top photo: Alex Slitz / Getty Images)





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