Hey all, just another reminder about OUR PUSH TO 1,000 PAID SUBSCRIPTIONS. We’re not there yet, so I’m going to keep annoying you about it.
Quick summary: I’m asking for your money to help produce an additional newsletter per week during the football season.
I’m asking for two reasons. One: I am hiring additional support to help produce those newsletters! More on that soon …
And two: I am going to work extremely hard all weekend every weekend for four months to write that additional newsletter, and I am hoping you will simply agree to pay me more money for doing so.
– Rodger Sherman
Today’s Lineup
Olympic Flag Football is shaping up to be awesome (and not US dominated!)
Joshua Báez had the greatest Major League hitting debut by a looooong shot
It took 14 years, but someone finally beat Katie Ledecky in the 800m(!)
🇺🇸🇨🇦🏈 Flags Flying 🇺🇸🇨🇦🏈
Americans invented American football. It’s in the name. But flag football would be kind of a dud as an Olympic sport if Team USA ran away with both gold medals.
After watching this weekend’s World Championships in Dusseldorf, I’ve gotta say, I’m sold. Canada beat Team USA 27-20 in the gold medal match, the first time in a decade that Team USA did not sweep the men’s and women’s tournaments.
While the men did win gold for a sixth straight time, they actually lost a game in the group stages, Team USA’s first loss since 2012.
The two American teams played six knockout round games. In five of them, Team USA trailed late in the second half, with the game coming down to the final possession.
The women won back-to-back games in the quarters and semis against Germany and Great Britain, respectively, on last-minute touchdown passes from 17-year-old Akemi Higa. She’s got an arm.
But Higa misfired on the final pass of the gold medal match, and Canada stopped Team USA on the goal line for a 27-20 win.
The men also needed late comebacks in the quarterfinals and semis, beating Japan, 45-38, Mexico, 42-40, respectively. Here’s the game-winning TD against Japan — if Team USA is running jet sweep pitches that require the QB to make backhanded flip passes under pressure, the wins aren’t coming easy.
The Americans’ loss in the group stages was a real stunner. They lost 38-35 to American Samoa, a country that has never qualified for the Olympics in any team sport. (Leading the Samoan squad: Former Maryland QB Taulia Tagovailoa, the brother of Atlanta Falcons QB Tua.)
(I am all in on American Samoa figuring out a way to regroup and qualify for the Olympics in 2028. If I can help make this happen in any way, I will do it.)
At the 2024 men’s World Championships, Team USA won each of its four knockout round games by at least 25 points, including wins by 50, 39, and 32. In 2026, Team USA won its three knockout games by a combined 29 points. They’ve got a real problem on defense, with 38 points allowed to American Samoa, Israel, and Japan, and 40 points to Mexico.
And the women’s team keeps finding itself in shootouts. It entered the tournament having won three straight World titles, but lost the gold medal game at last year’s World Games on a last-second TD by Mexico.
Remember: Flag football didn’t just show up in the Olympics by accident. It got added to the LA 2028 schedule after an extensive lobbying campaign by the NFL, which has heavily invested in growing international interest in the American game. I did an episode of Phantom Island explaining the logic behind Olympic flag. (I also did an episode of my 2021 Olympics podcast, The Ringer Guide to the Summer Games, predicting that flag football would get added to the 2028 Olympics. Good call!)
All you can ask from an Olympic sport is for close, entertaining games between athletes who are clearly elite at what they do. I’ve been skeptical at times of flag football as a competitive international sport, but that’s exactly what we’re getting right now. And while I’ll be pulling for Team USA, it’s clear that both teams are beatable right now.
👋 Bye-bye-Báez 👋
In the history of baseball, 22,801 players have made it to the Major League. That’s 22,801 careers with 22,801 debuts.
Nobody had ever made a first impression like the Cardinals’ Joshua Báez, who became the first of those 22,801 players to begin their career by hitting back-to-back-to-back home runs in their first three at-bats. Best of all for Cardinals fans: He did it at Wrigley Field.
Báez is the 145th MLB player to homer in their first at-bat. That might sound like a lot, but that’s just 0.6 percent of Major League players. Báez is the 32nd player to homer on the very first pitch he faced.
Báez is just the third player to homer in his first two MLB at-bats. Believe it or not, all three played for St. Louis … although the first, Bob Nieman, played with the St. Louis Browns. The second, Keith McDonald, hit his homers across two separate games.
Eight players have hit two homers in their first MLB game. Remarkably, three have happened this year: Chase DeLauter for Cleveland and José Fernández for Arizona, both in March.
Báez is the first player to hit three home runs in his debut, though, regardless of whether they were back-to-back-to-back.
Báez is a legit slugger. He was leading the minor leagues with 34 home runs for the Memphis Redbirds before his callup; nobody else had more than 27. In June, he smashed four home runs in a minor league game, a feat as rare as a first at-bat dinger. (Incidentally, one of the other guys with four home runs in a minor league game is Javy Báez, no relation.)
Báez needed to borrow cleats for the game after getting called up, and asked his former minor league teammate and fellow rookie Blaze Jordan. Those cleats are on their way to Cooperstown.
I want to talk about how there’s a dude on the Cardinals named Blaze Jordan. He’s one of two Blazes in MLB. There’s also a dude named Blade. If you really wanna see the cutting edge of Baseball Names, you should watch the Little League World Series. They’re naming kids “Braezyn” out there.
Sometimes, the guys who hit home runs in their first Major League at-bats go on to become superstars, like Aaron Judge. Sometimes, hitting a home run in their first at-bat is the thing they’re primarily remembered for, like Tyler Austin, the guy who made his Major League debut during the at-bat directly before Aaron Judge. Whichever path awaits Báez, he’ll always be remembered for this moment. Either he’s best known as That Guy Who Hit Three Homers In His First Three At-Bats … or his ridiculous debut was proof he was a legend from Day 1.
🏊♀️ Catching the GOAT 🏊♀️
Ten years and five days ago, I took a photo of Katie Ledecky winning the gold medal in the 800m freestyle in Rio that went viral on Twitter. She was so far ahead of the field that you couldn’t see anyone else in the frame.
Watching Ledecky win that race has stuck with me for a decade. At the Olympics, you’re watching the best athletes in the world. It’s breathtaking to watch somebody who is so clearly better than anyone else on Earth that the rest of the world doesn’t even show up in the picture.
A decade later, somebody finally joined Ledecky’s camera shot. At the Pan Pacific Championships in Irvine, Australia’s Lani Pallister beat Ledecky in the 800m, handing Ledecky her first-ever loss at an international meet in arguably her signature event.
It’s not like the GOAT has gotten slower. Ledecky’s time was actually faster than three of her four gold medal swims in the 800m. But after a lifetime of leading the world, Ledecky finally has competitors to swim with.
Pallister’s win snapped a 14-year win streak that lasted nearly half of Ledecky’s life. Ledecky was 15 years old when she won the 800m at the 2012 London Olympics, and now she’s 29.
Ledecky won the Olympic gold medal in the 800m in 2012, 2016, 2020, and 2024. She won the World Championship in the 800m in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2022, 2023, and 2025.
As recently as 2022, Ledecky had the top 25 swims of all time in the 800m freestyle. (Now, Ledecky only has 18 of the top 25 swims.)
Pallister is a Ledecky stan. Watch the video: In her post-race interview, she urges the crowd to cheer for Ledecky because “without her, we wouldn’t have women’s distance swimming in the place we’re at … it’s pretty much all because we get to chase Katie.”
Pallister got an autograph from Ledecky when she was 12 — “To Lani, Dream Big!” She still has it to this day. She told NBC’s Nicole Auerbach that beating Ledecky in this race was “a mythological quest.”
Pallister had been creeping up on Ledecky. Last year, she broke Ledecky’s 800m short course world record — that’s a 25m pool — and took silver behind Ledecky at last year’s World Championships by just 0.36 seconds behind her idol.
The 24-year-old is having a breakout summer. She won the 400m, 800m, and 1500m at last week’s Commonwealth Games, and won the 200m, 400m, and 800m at the Pan Pacs.
You might think this is a Jordan-on-the-Wizards situation with Ledecky, an aging GOAT. Not quite! Her swim in Irvine was the 10th-fastest 800m ever. She broke her own world record in the 800m just last year. (We wrote about it at the time!) And she’s still riding a 16-year win streak in her true best event, the 1,500m, beating Pallister in that event by 2.36 seconds at the Pan Pacs. Heading towards LA 2028, Ledecky is as good as she’s ever been.
(Plus, Ledecky wouldn’t appreciate the Jordan-on-the-Wizards slander, since she was literally friends with Wizards-era Jordan when she was a baby.)
But after a decade of dominance, Ledecky actually has competition. Perhaps the greatest testament to Ledecky’s legend is that she has lasted long enough to get caught by some of the racers she inspired to chase her.
🤸♀️ Feel the rhythm 🤸♀️
Germany’s Darja Varfolomeev won her third-straight all-around rhythmic gymnastics World Championship in front of a home crowd in Frankfurt, while also winning gold medals in the individual ball and ribbon events. Here’s her gold medal performance with the ball:
Varfolomeev, who was born in Russia, now has 14 career gold medals and three all-around titles at the World Championships. She’s close to catching the records set by Russia’s Dina Averina, who had 18 total golds and four all-around titles.
🏊♀️🏊♂️🏊 More Swimming!!!! 🏊♀️🏊♂️🏊
The Pallister-Ledecky duel wasn’t the only incredible thing in the pool this weekend: Kate Douglass broke the 50m freestyle record in a preliminary swim at the Pan-Pacs, then broke it again in her final:
Douglass initially set the record in June, but then her former UVA teammate Gretchen Walsh broke that record nine days later. Douglass has now reclaimed it convincingly. The record has moved from 23.61 to 23.19 in just a few months.
From the shortest race in international swimming to the longest one: At the European Championships, 19-year-old German Johannes Liebmann smashed the 1500m world record by four seconds. The video of that swim is a little bit longer.
🌹 Back in Bloom 🌹
Elite moment from the NWSL: After missing 14 months with an ACL tear, 21-year-old Caiya Hanks returned to action and almost immediately scored a stoppage time game-winner for the Portland Thorns.
I don’t know what’s better: Hanks’ ecstatic disbelief in her own performance, or the shots of her proud mom and grandma in the crowd.
🗣️ WATER POLO BUZZER-BEATER
Wanna see a water polo walk-off? Team USA’s Jenna Flynn scored with zero seconds on the clock in a matchup against Australia:
🤦 Oh No-vo 🤦
Horrific goalie blunders: They’re not just for the USMNT! Brutal error by Inter Miami’s Rocco Ríos Novo in a 4-1 loss to Nashville SC, completely misjudging a ball 50 yards from his own net.
🎥 Going pro in something other than sports 🎥
It’s the time of year when lots of former college football players realize they aren’t going to make pro rosters … but normally not for this reason.
Bengals rookie Ceyair Wright left the team after receiving “the lead role in a big movie.” The cornerback previously balanced a stint at USC with a role on the TV show Grown-ish, but I guess it’s a lot harder to commute to a movie set in LA from Cincinnati. Wright also played one of LeBron James’ sons in Space Jam 2 — the older one, aka Not Bronny James. Wright says he’ll return to football in October when shooting is done.
🧦 White Sox 🧦 vs. 🐻 Cubs 🐻
Series begins Monday at 8:05 p.m. ET (MLB.TV)
The Crosstown Classic is always spirited, but especially this year, when both sides are in strong shape to make the postseason (which hasn’t happened since 2020!). The White Sox remain AL Central favorites after sweeping the Tigers over the weekend, while the Cubs have gone 10-5 in August. This series also pits two of the game’s brightest young stars against one another in Pete Crow-Armstrong vs. Munetaka Murakami. The Cubs are looking for revenge after losing the first edition of this series earlier this season, which featured a walk-off win for the White Sox on the South Side.
🐱 Lynx 🐱 vs. 🟣 Valkyries 🟣
Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET (USA Network)
A matchup of the two best teams in the league. The Lynx have risen to the top, winning 14 of their last 15 games on the heels of Napheesa Collier’s return, including a win over the reigning champion Aces this past weekend. Meanwhile, Gabby Williams and the Valkyries have gone 14-2 in their past 16. A potential Finals preview?
🏸 Badminton World Championships🏸
Begins Monday in New Delhi (BWF YouTube/Olympics.com)
Good news: The Badminton World Championships WILL NOT be interrupted by monkeys, because the event organizers in India have hired this guy:
The backstory: At the India Open in January, monkeys were seen inside the venue and on the practice courts. (Yes, there is video.) At the 2010 Commonwealth Games in India, organizers used captive larger monkeys to scare away smaller monkeys. But this practice has been outlawed, so instead they brought in that guy to imitate the larger monkeys. There was also an issue with birds pooping on the court during matches at the tournament in January; they have now deployed “a non-toxic gel” to surfaces in the venue to prevent pigeons from hanging out.
I have no analysis of the actual badminton. Just monkeys. — RS
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