— You get the idea that baseball night look a lot different, starting next year.
This week, Major League Baseball proposed making high school players ineligible for the amateur draft, while creating an international draft.
Making players ineligible for the draft until they’re 20 would be a big help to college baseball, but it would probably also signal that some lower-level minor leagues would be eliminated.
Not surprisingly, the players’ union reacted negatively to the plan; you get the idea these two sides couldn’t agree on what day it is.
Could be a long winter for baseball fans.
— Angels’ star Mike Trout went on the IL with a hamstring injury; he was 6-for-16 in his last four games, before getting hurt.
— SS Zack Short has had an interesting last three years:
2024- 10 games with the Mets
2 games with the Red Sox
30 games with the Braves.
2025- 22 games with the Astros
2026- 23 games with the Tigers
2 games with the Mets.
— 50 years ago this week, the ABA/NBA merged; actually, the NBA absorbed four ABA teams and the ABA went away. Nuggets, Pacers, Nets, Spurs survived the purge; the Kentucky Colonels went away, because the NBA promised their owner he could eventually buy the Boston Celtics if he folded the Colonels, who had a really good team.
— Phoenix Suns’ star Devin Booker is switching his uniform number from #1 to #15 next year, honoring his USA Basketball uniform and the college number of his father, Melvin, who wore #15 in his college days at Missouri;.
— Former NFL quarterback and Fox’s No. 2 analyst Brock Huard announced he was leaving the network to coach his son’s high school football team. He’ll continue to co-host his weekday morning radio show.
Brock Huard played high school ball for his father, and wound up playing for the Seahawks and Colts in the NFL, after playing in college at Washington.
— Jacksonville Jaguars signed long snapper Ross Matiscik to a 2-year contract extension worth $3.8M, making him the NFL’s highest paid long snapper. He’s made the Pro Bowl the last three seasons.
— RIP to Tom Dreesen, a well-known comedian who spent years as Frank Sinatra’s opening act- he passed away this week, at age 86.
Dreesen made over 500 appearances on network talk shows, including 60 on The Tonight Show.
He was a funny man. RIP, sir.
— Famous birthdays, June 19th:
Jerry Reuss, 77
Duane Kuiper, 76
Kathleen Turner, 72
Mike Renfro, 71
Mia Sara, 59
Patrick Surtain, 50
Zoe Saldana, 48
Jacob deGrom, 38
Joe Noteboom, 31
— Apparently, in soccer, you can bet that the game will end in a tie; there were four games Monday, and all four ended in ties, which is very unusual.
If you had placed a $10 bet on a parlay with all four games ending in ties, you would’ve collected the tidy sum of $6,563. No one would’ve won, but you.
— Mariners 3, Orioles 0
Seattle scored all three of its runs in the first inning.
Brian Woo tossed seven shutout innings.
Baltimore lost four of its last five games.
— Blue Jays 4, Red Sox 3
Brandon Valenzuela had the game-winning hit in the 9th inning.
Red Sox tied the game on back/back homers in 8th inning.
Boston slipped to 12-25 at home.
— Guardians 4, Brewers 2
Travis Bazzana hit the go-ahead homer in 7th inning.
Kyle Manzardo, David Fry also homered for Cleveland.
Milwaukee still leads the NL Central by five games.
— Twins 9, Rangers 3
Twins scored nine first inning runs in the three-game series.
Joe Ryan needed 97 pitches fo finish five scoreless IP.
Texas has lost five of its last six games.
— White Sox 5, Bronx 1
Andrew Benintendi hit a pinch-hit grand slam in the 8th inning.
White Sox had lost their previous nine games in the Bronx.
Chicago won for only fifth time in their last 17 road games.
— Mets 6, Phillies 4
Juan Soto hit home runs his first two times up.
It was the 30th multi-home run game for Soto.
Marcus Semien was 2-for-4, with two RBI.
— If the baseball playoffs started today (they don’t):
NL: Braves, Brewers, Dodgers. Wild Cards: Cardinals-Phillies-Padres
AL: Bronx, White Sox, Mariners. Wild Cards: Rays-Guardians-A’s/Tor
