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Today’s Lineup

The latest “buzz” about the 49ers’ injury woes
The NL vengeance campaign against years of AL dominance
Olivia Miles is creating a highlight reel every night

⚡️ 49ers football: It’s electric! ⚡️

We’re about three weeks away from the start of the NFL season, and the 49ers are already injured.

First, you’ve got the players who are still recovering from last year’s injuries, like tight end George Kittle and both starting defensive ends, Nick Bosa and Mykel Williams. Then you’ve got the players who have gotten hurt in training camp, including three wide receivers: Ricky Pearsall is already done for the year with a season-ending knee injury, Mike Evans is out with a quad strain, and Christian Kirk is out with a calf strain. Star running back Christian McCaffrey is out with “tightness.” (Don’t worry about it!) And in the first game of the preseason, the Niners almost had to use an emergency quarterback when both of their available quarterbacks suffered in-game injuries.

It’s hard to remember any team as good as the Niners suffering so many injuries, often freakishly to major players. Remember when star linebacker Dre Greenlaw popped his Achilles running onto the field at the Super Bowl? Remember that season when the Niners’ top two QBs got injured, then they went on a deep playoff run with Brock Purdy? Then Purdy got injured in the NFC Championship game, and his backup, Josh Johnson, also got injured in the NFC Championship game?

The popular theory is that the injuries are being caused by a massive electrical substation next to the 49ers’ practice field. While that theory can partially be attributed to the internet getting off jokes, 49ers players are starting to question whether the substation is altering their careers. Most of them seem to be joking ... but they’re talking about it.

On one hand, the substation theory is easily-debunked pseudoscience with no basis in reality. On the other hand … damn, the Niners really do practice in front of a gigantic field of electrical power equipment. The wires and machinery prominently feature in every clip you see of Niners practices, looming ominously like the Sauron of substations.

However, I’d like to propose a different explanation: What if the reason the Niners keep getting injured isn’t because of some bogus woo-woo theory, but instead because of an obvious thing the team’s head coach talks about, out loud, all the time?

It’s August 20th, about four weeks after the start of Niners training camp and about three weeks before they play their first game. Already, almost 20 players are on the injured list — nearly a fifth of the 90-man training camp roster.
The Niners led the league in Adjusted Games Lost in 2020 and 2024. They were merely top five in 2025, but had nearly $100 million in salary cap on the injured reserve list. By the time they reached the playoffs, all of their starting linebackers were injured, as was their backup middle linebacker. I wrote about how miraculous it was that the Niners won a playoff game.
The substation theory picked up steam last year and is now talked about more frequently than just about anything else Niners-related. As with every other major subject in the world of sports, it was the topic of a recent episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out.
Summarizing that PTFO episode: There is no evidence that electrical currents can weaken the tendons and ligaments that keep failing the Niners. Besides, the electrical substation has been near the Niners’ facility for decades and their notable increase in injuries has occurred relatively recently.

I have a different theory: Maybe the reason the 49ers are always among the most injured teams in the NFL is not because of the electrical substation next to their practice facility … but instead because of the widely known fact that head coach Kyle Shanahan puts the Niners through some of the most physical practices in the NFL.

Let’s go over some evidence! Here are quotes from a 2023 Athletic article titled “The sweaty secret to 49ers’ success: Practices are faster than other teams’.” “I feel like practice is harder than games,” said tackle Matt Pryor. “Camp here was completely different, I’ve never had pads every day.” When asked whether practices with the Niners were more intense than with other teams, Tashaun Gipson said, “It’s not even a question. The intensity is on 10 every day.”
In Shanahan’s first year with the Niners, SFGate had an article titled “49ers’ practices more hard-hitting under Kyle Shanahan.” “It’s different from last year,” tight end Vance McDonald said. “Coach Shanahan — the mind-set he tries to give us every single day before we get out there is: ‘We’re going to be physical.’ We’ve got to practice being physical.” The article noted that 10 of the Niners’ first 11 practices were in full pads.
In 2020, former Steelers wide receiver Chase Claypool made headlines for commenting on the Niners’ unusual practice schedule. “I was talking to my friend on the Niners and they’re still wearing full pads on Thursdays. … We haven’t done that since camp, so having a coach that understands how long the season is, the wear and tear on your body, it’s super helpful for getting you through the season and getting you to be able to play well in the playoffs.”
Last year, the Niners released a video of Shanahan explaining his philosophy on practices to the team. In it, he says that he feels teams need to practice three days in a row — a rarity in the league. “The best way to build your body to make it through the year is through building that callus. I really believe in three practices in a row … the more we can practice three days in a row and fight through soreness and stuff, the more you build that callus, so you can do it the right way during the year.”
In 2026, however, the team has backed away from that training plan. Offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak said that “just talking to people around the league and looking at how people do camp, we just thought it was a smart adjustment for us to not be going three days in a row at practice.”
Meanwhile, in college football, Indiana just won the national championship by “hardly practicing at all,” using just six of their NCAA-allotted 20 practice hours per week. (I really enjoyed this clip of Hoosiers head coach Curt Cignetti outlining his practice philosophy on a podcast with Urban Meyer, who literally shook his head in disbelief.) You’d never know it watching Indiana: The Hoosiers play like the most practiced team in the sport, executing to perfection on nearly every play. “I’ve always been a short practice guy,” Cignetti told The Wall Street Journal. “My practices have probably gotten even shorter through the years, as we do everything we can to prepare the team fully but keep them fresh and healthy. … I just believe in keeping people fresh and healthy.”
(Incidentally, two of the stars of Indiana’s undefeated season have gotten injured in Niners camp: third-round pick Kaelon Black missed a few weeks with a thigh injury, and Mikail Kamara, the defensive MVP of the national championship game, tore his ACL just a few days into the start of camp.)
(Even more incidentally: I feel like pointing out that Indiana’s offensive coordinator, Mike Shanahan, is a totally different guy from Kyle Shanahan’s dad, longtime Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan.)
Compare Cignetti’s quote about keeping players “fresh and healthy” to what receiver Chris Conley said about Niners practice in that 2023 Athletic article: “It’s not about preservation here. It’s about attacking.”
It’s 2026, and teams in every sport are well aware of the value of preserving players through load management and smarter practice strategies. And then you have the Niners’ own players saying “it’s not about preservation here.”
It’s hard to be too critical because Shanahan is clearly a genius. His offensive ideas have reshaped the NFL, with the “Shanahan Tree” growing like kudzu. Eleven of 32 NFL head coaches are Shanahan disciples, and a handful of other teams have Shanahan-bred offensive coordinators. (I heard a podcaster simply refer to it as “the tree” the other day — no need to specify, it’s not like there’s anybody else it could be referring to.)
It’s funny. You’ve got so much baseless speculation about a conspiracy theory that Niners executives have to seriously proclaim that they’re “looking into” … and then you’ve got players and coaches actively hyping up the actual reason their team is so injured, practically bragging about their toughness and resiliency.
But I guess it’s easier to point fingers at a giant piece of electrical infrastructure than to question the man whose brilliance keeps the Niners competitive, even after the roster is reduced to rubble.

🇺🇸 Nationalization 🇺🇸

The best baseball of the week was the Crosstown Classic between the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox. Both teams are actually good now, and that created a playoff atmosphere at Wrigley for a series featuring two walkoff wins for the Cubs:

The White Sox are 66-60, good for first in the AL Central. Their record is seven games worse than the Cubs, who are 74-54 … but the Cubs are in second place in the NL Central, 4.5 games behind the Brewers.

Back in May, Aidan Weiss wrote for us about MLB, including a summary of how much better the NL is this year than the AL. Three months later, the arbitrary divide between the two leagues has been all I’ve been able to think about when watching baseball. Why did the switch flip so hard between these two groups of teams?

The NL is 318-269 against the AL this year, a .542 winning percentage. The NL has nine teams with a record at .500 or better; the AL has five. The NL has four teams with a run differential of 100 or greater; the AL has zero.
Since three Wild Card teams get in from each league, the 63-65 Twins are currently in the final AL spot. We could see a sub-.500 team make the playoffs in a non-shortened season for the first time ever. (Only three teams have ever done it in shortened seasons — the Royals in the strike-shortened 1981 season, and the Brewers and Astros in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.)
For decades, the AL beat up on the NL. From the introduction of interleague play in 1997 until 2021, the American League went .500 or better against the NL in 19 of 25 seasons, racking up a record of 3482-3180 (a .522 win percentage.)
The reason was obvious: American League teams had designated hitters, while National League teams did not. AL teams filled out their rosters knowing they’d need nine hitters, while NL teams didn’t. When AL teams played in NL parks, both teams were on even footing with eight solid hitters and a pitcher batting. When NL teams played in AL parks, though, the AL team usually had a deeper hitting lineup.
The AL also won 25 of 46 World Series (54.3 percent) in between the 1973 introduction of the DH and 2019. The AL also totally dominated the All-Star Game, going 25-6-1 against the NL in between 1988 and 2019, including two distinct win streaks that lasted over a decade each. (As a young fan of an American League team, this All-Star Game dominance actually mattered to me, which seems pretty silly in retrospect.)
In 2020, both AL and NL teams were allowed to use a DH because of the pandemic. (I don’t exactly remember why the pandemic led to a change in the designated hitter rule — I think it had to do with the fluctuating availability of players due to COVID quarantines rather than pitchers being more likely to spread the virus while hitting.) The NL went back to pitchers hitting for one last year in 2021, but when the new CBA was put in place in 2022, both leagues had the DH.
I don’t have a great explanation for why the NL is clearly better in 2026. Is it just a fluke that will fluctuate over time? Did AL teams simply get complacent during their many years of having a clear advantage? Do random patterns sometimes emerge when we arbitrarily split a league into two 15-team groups with no structural differences?
Who knows. But as a Yankees fan (I hear your boos and see your throwing of tomatoes) I’m happy to be over here in the AL. We’re not that good and we still might make the World Series! (And lose to the Dodgers!)

🖇️🖇️🖇️ League-leading Lynx 🖇️🖇️🖇️

My favorite thing to watch in sports right now is the Minnesota Lynx. They’ve won five in a row and nine of ten since Napheesa Collier’s return, including games against the second-, third-, and fourth-best teams in the league. (They’ve beaten the defending champion Aces twice in that stretch.)

Every night is a new Olivia Miles highlight reel. Last night against the second-place Valkyries she had a filthy ankle-breaking crossover, a perfect behind-the-back pass for a three, and a one-footed fadeaway three from several feet behind the line. I can’t get enough of The Spectacle.

2️⃣ Who’s counting? 2️⃣

The Seattle Mariners lost 22-0 to the Milwaukee Brewers the other night, and at a certain point in the game everybody just stopped paying attention. That included the players on the field. Mariners center fielder Julio Rodríguez threw a ball into the stands thinking the inning was over, and allowed all runners to advance two bases

The Mariners tied for the biggest shutout loss in MLB history, although the record for biggest loss belongs to the 2007 Baltimore Orioles in a 30-3 drubbing by the Texas Rangers. Catcher Gary Sanchez made his second scoreless pitching appearance of the year. He’s got a wicked 37 mph curveball.

On Deck is written by Bradley Locker.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿⚽️ Premier League opener ⚽️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

🔫 Arsenal 🔫 vs. 💙 Coventry City 💙

Friday, 3 p.m. ET from London (USA Network)

The new season kicks off (soccer term) with a match between the league champs and a newly promoted team making its first appearance in the Prem in 25 years. I’m all in on Coventry City, who earned promotion thanks to a team-high 17 goals from AMERICA’S OWN HAJI WRIGHT. (Who can forget his weird accidental goal in the 2022 Round of 16 against the Netherlands?) The Sky Blues spent 34 straight seasons in England’s top flight between 1967 and 2001, but have been wandering the lower levels for the last several decades, dropping all the way down to the fourth tier in 2017 before working their way back up. Hopefully new manager Frank Lampard has got them working on their set piece defense against the Gunners. — RS

🪓 Braves 🪓 vs. 🍻 Brewers 🍻

Series begins Friday, 4:10 p.m. ET in Milwaukee (MLB.TV)

There’s a real chance this will be an NLCS preview, with both teams leading their divisions. Atlanta’s vaunted lineup and bullpen have been up to any task, while Milwaukee’s balanced approach (and usual player development) has led to the best mark in baseball. Friday is especially can’t-miss, with Cy Young candidates Jacob Misiorowski and Chris Sale set to toe the slab. They’re only playing two games in Milwaukee before heading to Williamsport, Penn., for the 2026 Little League Classic — maybe the best matchup in the history of that event.

🦬 Bills 🦬 vs. 🔶 Browns 🔶

Saturday, 1 p.m. ET in Cleveland (NFL Network)

One of the biggest spotlights of the 2026 NFL preseason is squarely on Cleveland’s quarterback battle. After Deshaun Watson’s middling-at-best debut against the Bears, former fifth-round pick Shedeur Sanders will get the nod against Buffalo’s defense. Buffalo’s starters should also play, and it’s always worthwhile to tune in for Josh Allen, especially to see his rapport with new weapon D.J. Moore. Maybe we’ll even be treated to a Jared Verse vs. Dion Dawkins matchup.

🤒 Fever 🤒 vs. 🗽 Liberty 🗽

Saturday, 7 p.m. ET in Brooklyn (Prime Video)

The Fever are on another level lately, riding a five-game winning streak and prevailing in 10 of their last 12 contests. They’ve also gone 2-0 against Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu, and the Liberty this season. One nugget to watch: With another 20-point game — her 21st straight — Fever star Kelsey Mitchell would set a WNBA record.

👩‍🦽‍➡️🏐👩‍🦽 Wheelchair Rugby World Championship 👩‍🦽‍➡️🏐👩‍🦽

Gold medal game Sunday, 3:30 p.m. ET from São Paolo, Brazil (Peacock)

Team USA is looking to get over the silver medal hump. They’ve finished second at three straight Paralympics and the 2022 World Championships. They took a loss against Australia in group play in a rematch of the 2022 gold medal game, but they’re still through to the quarterfinals. — RS

⚾🧢 Little League World Series 🧢⚾

Continues Thursday from Williamsport, Penn., at 12 p.m. ET (ESPN)

There’s nothing like the Little League World Series to break up the dog days of summer. Wednesday’s opening action didn’t disappoint, with New Jersey’s Mason Rincon blasting a massive walk-off home run to down Massachusetts.

American teams won six straight LLWS titles from 2018 to 2024 before Chinese Taipei won last year. This year’s Taiwanese team lost to South Korea in the Asia-Pacific Region Championship Game, so this year’s LLWS winner is guaranteed to represent a new country.

🏇 2026 FEI World Championships 🏇

Conclude Sunday in Aachen, Germany (FEI.TV)

Action wraps up this weekend in the international equestrian championships. Home nation Germany has maintained its excellence from the 2024 Olympic Games, currently topping the podium with 13 total medals. A slew of medals are still at stake in jumping, para dressage, and driving. Keep a close eye on the team dressage final. The United States — composed of Katie Dinan, Laura Kraut, Lillie Keenan, McLain Ward, and Natalie Dean — enters with the No. 1 ranking, and they’re looking to improve upon their silver medal at the Paris Olympics two years ago.

🇳🇱🏎️ Dutch Grand Prix 🏎️🇳🇱

Sunday, 3 p.m. ET from Zandvoort, The Netherlands (Apple TV)

The story of the 2026 F1 campaign has been the dominance of Mercedes and Ferrari — particularly, 19-year-old Kimi Antonelli. But McLaren finally got on the board last month in Hungary, with Lando Norris securing his first victory of the season. Norris is aiming for his second win at North Holland after winning in 2024. Dutchman Max Verstappen pulled off a threepeat from 2021-23 in his home country.

🎾 Cincinnati Open 🎾

Quarterfinals begin Thursday, 3 p.m. ET (Tennis Channel)

The final tune-up for the U.S. Open ends this weekend, and the stars will be out. The women’s bracket is loaded with Jessica Pegula, Coco Gauff, Elena Rybakina, and reigning champ Iga Swiatek, while the men’s side features Americans Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe, and Tommy Paul. The early stages of this tournament also featured the Williams sisters competing together for the first time in four years … although they fell in a doubles match in the Round of 32. No American has prevailed in Ohio since Gauff in 2023, but a relatively light men’s field could break that streak.