Hey, quick, schedule update: No newsletters next week because I’m heading to The Beach.
It’s gonna be really nice to log off. I’m not even bringing my computer! (Partially because I’m scared of bringing my computer near the beach. In 2015 I used my backpack as my bag for a day trip to the beach and then put my laptop in the backpack when I went back to work a few days later, clogging the charging port with sand. The computer spent the next few months slowly dying because it got harder and harder to charge. Very traumatic.)
Sports! will be back on Monday, Aug. 10th. To make up for the gap, this week’s On Deck section is gonna cover everything in the sports world over the next week-and-a-half.
– Rodger Sherman
Today’s Lineup
Olivia Miles made the hardest part of transitioning to pro basketball look easy
Team USA’s women’s baseball beatdown of Hong Kong was not as expected as you might think
Someone may have actually convinced FIFA to back down from a bad idea
🏀👓🏀 The Spectacle 🏀👓🏀
It took like a month for Olivia Miles to become the most must-watch player in the WNBA.
Every night, the Minnesota Lynx rookie is gonna pull off something spectacular nobody else in the WNBA would even try. On Tuesday, she went for a between-the-legs bounce pass in transition to set up an open three for a teammate:
In the same game, she also dribbled around the entire Toronto defense for a layup like Tecmo Bowl Bo Jackson, and made two passes that would probably be anybody else’s Coolest Play of the Month but just kinda feel like toss-ins for her.
Watch this highlight reel. And then remember that these are just highlights from the first half of her rookie season.
I think “goggles-wearing rookie going Rucker on the WNBA every night” would instantly be one of my favorite things in sports regardless of context. (And I like a lot of sports things, in case you haven’t noticed.) But Miles isn’t just pumping out empty highlights. She’s running the offense for the best team in the league.
Miles is averaging 19.5 points per game. Only three rookies in WNBA history have ever averaged more: Cynthia Cooper, Seimone Augustus, and A’ja Wilson. That’s two Hall of Famers and a future Hall of Famer. (And Cooper was only a rookie on a technicality; she’d been playing professionally in Europe for a decade when the WNBA was founded and she began her “rookie” season.)
Miles is averaging six assists per game, tied for fifth all-time among rookies with Sue Bird, another Hall of Famer. So, among all rookies in WNBA history, she’s #4 in points per game and #5 in assists per game.
But she’s not just putting up empty stats. Minnesota is 23-6, which is not only the best record in the league, but three full games clear of the second-best team.
And Minnesota has done it without their franchise player! Napheesa Collier, consistently one of the best players in the W and the runner-up for MVP the last two seasons, had surgery on both of her ankles in the offseason, and only returned to Minnesota’s lineup last week. The Lynx went 21-6 without her.
Olivia Miles exists in her own world where the coolest play available is also somehow the most successful basketball play she can make at any given time. Her showboat is a battleship. Style and substance had a baby, and it’s nearsighted.
Miles already has an elite nickname: “The Spectacle,” because of the goggles and because she’s spectacular. But I’m trying to make “OMG” catch on because her name is Olivia Miles and I’m always saying “OMG” when I watch her play. I guess it stands for “Olivia Miles, GAWD.”
This is the third-straight year that an elite rookie point guard has showed up in the WNBA. In 2024 it was Caitlin Clark, who led the league in assists and made the all-WNBA first team. Last year it was Paige Bueckers, who like Miles was Top 10 in scoring and assists, and made all-WNBA second team.
And it kinda already feels like Miles is the b—Apologies: The previous paragraph has been partially redacted to avoid expressing opinions about Caitlin Clark online.
You know who must feel really stupid about Miles’ superstar turn? The Chicago Sky, who gave up the pick Minnesota used on Miles to draft Angel Reese at #7 in 2024. They had the second-worst record in the league in 2025, which boosted Minnesota up to #2 overall in the WNBA draft, allowing the team with the best record in 2025 to acquire yet another elite player. “I’m sorry about that … it’s not my fault,” Miles told Chicago reporters when the teams played earlier in the year.
Not necessarily stupid, but perhaps worthy of a retroactive 🤔 or two: The Dallas Wings, who drafted Azzi Fudd #1 overall in April. Fudd has been fine, and it would’ve been weird for the Wings to draft Miles while trying to build around Bueckers. Heck, I thought the Wings made the right call at the time. But right now, it feels impossible to imagine a world where Miles isn’t the best player from this draft class.
What makes me most excited about Miles is she seems to have figured out the hardest thing first. She showed up in the WNBA on Day 1 with elite court vision and playmaking feel. That’s the part that’s supposed to be hard! That’s the stuff you can’t teach!
(Do you think she sees the court so well because she wears glasses? Is the secret to great point guard play that most players aren’t self-confident enough to wear goggles on the court?)
Miles was a 24.6 percent three-point shooter through her first three years at Notre Dame. She’s currently shooting 38 percent in the WNBA. She can keep working on aspects of her game we know players can improve over the course of their careers — shooting, strength, etc. — because the hard part has been easy for her.
The Lynx are heavy favorites to win the WNBA Finals this year. If Olivia Miles is the key player on the best team in the sport as a rookie, what’s next?
⚾️ It’s WOMEN’S BASEBALL TIME ⚾️
(Photo credit: WBSC on Flickr)
When I started this newsletter, I promised that I would inform you about the biggest blowouts and ass-kickings in the world of international sports. In keeping with this promise, I bring you Team USA’s 34-0 win over Hong Kong from the Women’s Baseball World Cup in Rockford, Illinois:
Thirty-four to nothing. Team USA’s pitchers combined for a no-hitter; their hitters batted around the lineup in three of four innings before the mercy rule kicked in.
You might see the United States completely obliterating the outclassed Hongkongers and think: Well, yeah, of course the United States dominates at women’s baseball! We invented baseball, and our women’s sports teams are always winning World Cups and gold medals. It just makes sense!
But it’s actually been 20 years since the United States has won the Women’s Baseball World Cup. In the past, this team has missed the medal podium entirely. America’s dedication to the men-play-baseball, women-play-softball binary has held American teams back in women’s baseball (and men’s softball, which I wrote about last year!)
But since, oh, World War II, there’s never been more hype around American women’s baseball than right now — like, literally, right now, this week!
Let’s start with the Women’s Baseball World Cup. Team USA women went 5-0 and outscored their opponents 102-12. That’s a little more than 20 runs per game, and an average margin of victory of 18 runs per game.
The Americans also won games 12-0 (against Canada), 22-2 (against South Korea), and 24-5 (against Mexico). Their only game not decided by mercy rule was a 10-5 win over Australia.
They’re giving the greatest offensive performance in the history of the event. In 2024, Team USA outscored their opponents 71-2 in the group stages.
But this isn’t the norm for Team USA. The American program has actually improved a lot to get to where it is now. Team USA finished off the podium in 2018 (losing the bronze-medal game against Canada) and finished seventh in 2016. But in 2024, they beat Japan in a preliminary round before losing to them in the gold medal game.
So set a reminder to come back in July 2027, when the World Cup finals will be held in Rockford, Illinois. That’s when the United States will have a chance to face off against Japan, assuming they win their group.
Why Rockford, Illinois? The city has historical significance in women’s baseball. A League of Their Own was based on a fictional version of the Rockford Peaches, who were four-time champions of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in the 1940s and 1950s.
But you don’t have to wait until 2027 to watch more women’s baseball — or even leave Illinois. A few hours south, the Women’s Pro Baseball League will launch its first season at Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield, Illinois. Games will be streamed by ESPN.
(Robin Roberts Stadium, btw, is named after the MLB Hall of Famer, not the longtime ESPN sportscaster. But it’s women’s sports so I’m pretending it’s both.)
The league features a bunch of players from Team USA … as well as the teams that have beaten Team USA in international competition, such as three-time Women’s Baseball World Cup MVP Ayami Sato.
Where do the players come from? Most played college softball, like Kelsie Whitmore (the former Big West Player of the Year at Cal State-Fullerton), #3 pick Kylee Lahners (a second-team All-American at Washington), and Ashton Lansdell (who played in the 2025 Women’s College World Series for Ole Miss). Five WPBL players play Banana Ball for the Savannah Bananas or elsewhere in the Bananas extended universe.
So why do women play softball and men play baseball? There’s no good reason. Men are perfectly capable of throwing underhand, and women softball players demonstrate they can throw overhand every time they need to make a defensive play.
Basically: We made up one sport, then we made up another sport, then we made up the idea that only one type of person could play the first sport, and that another type of person had to play the second sport.
Every dinger crushed by the USA women’s baseball team or the stars of the new WPBL is a reminder that so many things we accept as normal are totally made up and don’t need to be that way. (Plus, it’s just fun to watch people hit dingers.)
🌎🇪🇺⚽️ SOCCER SCHISM ⚽️🌎🇪🇺
Huge international soccer news on Thursday morning: UEFA announced that European teams will no longer participate in FIFA events like the World Cup if FIFA goes forward with Gianni Infantino’s ridiculous plan to sell off the World Cup to private equity interests led by Donald Trump’s in-laws.
I think this essentially kills off Infantino’s dumb idea. UEFA, believe it or not, makes more money than FIFA and likely has leverage here. It’s unclear how FIFA would host its next men’s World Cup — scheduled to be played in Spain, Portugal, and Morocco — without UEFA participation, or why anybody would watch a tournament without the best teams in Europe. It’s also unclear what will happen with the Women’s U-20 World Cup, scheduled to be held in Poland in about a month.
🇲🇼🇲🇼🇲🇼 Malawi Madness 🇲🇼🇲🇼🇲🇼
Massive, massive upset at the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations: Malawi, a team that had never qualified for the tournament, took down Nigeria, the 10-time winners and defending champions, in their very first game:
Malawi’s fortunes have changed thanks to two superstar sisters, Temwa and Tabitha Chawinga. Temwa has won back-to-back NWSL MVPs for the KC Current, while Tabitha plays for Lyon, this year’s Champions League runners-up. The sisters combined for all three goals, all after the 70th minute. To make matters worse for Nigeria, the team says it had cash stolen from its hotel rooms.
Nigeria could be in trouble. In the other Group C game, 2024 NWSL champion Barbra Banda scored four goals (FOUR!) in Zambia’s 6-0 win over Egypt. This tournament serves as a qualifier for next year’s World Cup and Nigeria needs to get out of the group to survive. It would be the first time Nigeria has ever missed the women’s World Cup.
🇺🇸⚽️🇺🇸 More-icio 🇺🇸⚽️🇺🇸
U.S. Soccer is reportedly finalizing a four-year contract with coach Mauricio Pochettino, setting him up to be the team’s coach for the next World Cup cycle. I think I’m OK with it — the team was better than ever at the start of this World Cup — but I really can’t shake the bad taste of that brutal loss to Belgium. A lack of focus and effort like that feels like a coaching issue!
On Deck is written by Bradley Locker.
🌍🥍 World Lacrosse Women’s Championship 🥍🌍
Semifinals Friday, championship Sunday (Streaming here, I think)
With lacrosse set to return to the Olympics in two years, these world championships will give us a good idea of who should take medals in L.A. Team USA has beaten Canada in three straight World Championships, and that could happen again: Both teams are undefeated thus far, with Team USA led by players like Charlotte North, Izzy Scane (go Cats!), and Madison Taylor (go Cats!)
Team USA will face Israel in the semis after downing Puerto Rico 23-4 in the quarterfinals. The Canadians will play the Haudenosaunee Nationals, a team of players from the Iroquois Confederacy. The Haudenosaunee team is hoping to win its first World Championships medal, which would be especially meaningful because it won’t be allowed to play in the 2028 Olympics due to lack of IOC recognition.
🚵♀️🇫🇷🥖 Tour de France Femmes 🚵♀️🇫🇷🥖
August 1 through August 9 (Peacock)
That’s “the women’s Tour de France” for those of you who don’t speak French.
Everything could be up for grabs until Stage 7, when the TdFF climbs Mont Ventoux for the first time. Olympic mountain bike gold medalist and French national hero Pauline Ferrand-Prévot is hoping to repeat — I am still pretty proud of having called this last year — but she hasn’t won any races or stages in any event this year, and finished 35th overall at the Vuelta Feminina. This time around I’m picking 2023 champion Demi Vollering, who won the Giro d’Italia and two of the four one-day Monument races this season. — RS
🧥🏈 NFL Hall of Fame Game 🏈🧥
🐈⬛ Panthers 🐈⬛ vs. 🐦🔥 Cardinals 🐦🔥
Thursday, 8/6 at 8 p.m. ET in Canton, Ohio (NBC)
This game may not feature Bryce Young, Tetairoa McMillan, or Jeremiyah Love much (if at all). But it’s still …
Organized!
NFL!
Football!
… with a Cris Collinsworth chuckle mixed in, and that’s something worth celebrating. This 2015 NFC Championship rematch should give us a good look at Cardinals third-round rookie quarterback Carson Beck, who is battling Jacoby Brissett for QB1 duties. Meanwhile, the Panthers could break in first-round tackle Monroe Freeling, who’s now expected to start with veteran Taylor Moton (blood clots) out to begin the season.
(RS: I can’t believe that it’s almost football season. Or that the Cardinals played the Panthers in the NFC Championship Game in 2015.)
MLB
🧦 White Sox 🧦 vs. ☀️ Rays ☀️
Series begins Friday at 7:10 p.m. ET (MLB.TV)
If you had the White Sox and Rays winning their divisions at this point in the second half, I hope you cashed a lottery ticket somewhere. Fresh off a frenzied four-game set with the Yankees, the White Sox will stay in the AL East to play Tampa Bay, which enters Thursday with the best record in the American League (63-44). This series will also treat us to a battle of young All-Stars in Junior Caminero and Munetaka Murakami … and might just be the first taste of a matchup we’ll see in October.
🎞️ Dodgers 🎞️ vs. 🐻 Cubs 🐻
Series begins Monday at 8:10 p.m. ET (MLB.TV)
Both sides are near-guarantees to reach October, boasting at least a 91.3% chance of making the playoffs per FanGraphs projections. Each side has leaned on existing talent thus far, but could also look drastically different after the trade deadline, with both teams in pursuit of starting pitching. We’ll also be seated for Shohei Ohtani vs. Pete Crow-Armstrong in a series that could influence a closer-than-you-might-realize NL MVP race. PCA leads all players in fWAR (6.8).
🎲🔀 MLB Trade Deadline 🔀🎲
Monday at 6 p.m. ET
With 21 of 30 clubs sitting no worse than three games under .500, this figures to be a chaotic deadline. The big question remains whether the disappointing Tigers will trade two-time Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal. I’d lean yes given the team’s 51-58 record after a bullpen meltdown ruined what may have been Skubal’s final start at Comerica Park. Other teams to watch include the Padres (boasting Mason Miller, Michael King, and Adrian Morejon) and the Angels (who could deal Reid Detmers, Zach Neto, and/or Jose Soriano.) Usually at least one unexpected move happens every year, and in a season when teams may feel the pressure of a looming lockout, that trend should continue.
🍑 Braves 🍑 vs. 💣 Yankees 💣
Series begins Friday, 8/7 at 7:05 p.m. ET (MLB.TV)
Although the Yankees are down Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, and Cody Bellinger, the team has found ways to stay afloat. That’s mostly due to elite pitching, with Cam Schlittler, Gerrit Cole, Max Fried, and David Bednar leading New York to a league-best 3.40 ERA. New York’s high-octane staff will face a test in the NL East-leading Braves, whose offense is fourth in the league in home runs behind Drake Baldwin, Matt Olson, Ronald Acuña Jr., and Ozzie Albies.
⛹️♀️🏀 WNBA ⛹️♀️🏀
🗽 Liberty 🗽 vs. 🃏 Aces 🃏
Thursday at 10 p.m. ET (Prime Video) and Sunday, 8/9 at 12:30 p.m. ET (ABC)
A home-and-home between the last two WNBA champions and two of the best players of a generation is Christopher Nolan-level cinema. A’ja Wilson and the reigning champion Aces are rolling to the league’s second-best record, while Breanna Stewart and the Liberty are hoping to beat Vegas again after winning the Commissioner’s Cup against the Aces on June 30.
🟣 Valkyries 🟣 vs. 🪽 Wings 🪽
Friday, 8/7 at 9:30 p.m. ET (ION)
Two of the better stories (and teams) in the WNBA tip off in Arlington. The Valkyries and Wings currently sit third and fourth, respectively, in seeding. Paige Bueckers and Gabby Williams will go head-to-head after joining forces in the All-Star Game last weekend. The Valkyries have the league’s best defense, allowing a league low 76.4 points per game. Can they stop Bueckers and three-point champ Azzi Fudd?
The other day when writing about Mayo’s win in the All-Ireland Football Championship, I noted that Irish people are better at words than I am … but then I forgot to link to writing by Irish sportswriters about the game.
Mayo 1-20, Kerry 1-17. Chisel it on the gravestones, scribble it in the sky. Never write a sentence you’ve read before, Oscar Wilde is supposed to have said. Well Oscar, Mayo are the All-Ireland champions. How’s that for a plot twist? How’s that for a fresh, new idea?
Sunday washed away the cynicism and the scepticism and the pernicious self-doubt. It purged the soul of the slander we have allowed to slide for decades. The perennial losers. The eternal bottlers. The high-stool talk of needy nearly-men. The manner of victory not only ensured no asterisk, but embodied the audacity of a team and a people suddenly realising their freedom was finally within their grasp. The navvies that went before them—generations of players, amongst them their fathers and grandfathers—had merely been digging the tunnel, not knowing when the light would come. On Sunday, it burst into being. And it was glorious.
I swear. The whole island is like this.
Thank you for reading and for your support!
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