A Brief Check-In

JSN: May 2nd - May 15th

Hi, everyone! I wanted to give a brief check-in from the living room play-pin on this warm Sunday morning in OKC (and while we are on the subject, let’s go ahead and blame any typos you notice today on my daughter — she clearly has no respect for my workspace this morning… in the cutest way possible). I mention the play-pin because it has been a busy week keeping an eye on baby girl. Last weekend she had a nasty bug that resulted in a multiple-day fever and more than one day off work. It’s weeks like these where a not-for-profit, extremely amateur sports newsletter becomes roughly the 87th priority on my to-do list.

So, with that being the case, there was not a newsletter this past week, and what you are reading now will have to suffice as the newsletter for next week. This self-appointed-semi-sabbatical comes at a good time, though. The most significant portion of my day-to-day work takes place in the public school setting, and I begin my summer break starting next Thursday. In line with that, I received some intriguing feedback from a good friend after my last newsletter that I hope to incorporate into a few newsletters over the summer. These will be long form pieces that will take more time to write, but I hope the added time that comes with summer will lend itself to being able to make those pieces happen. Be looking out for that later this month.

In the meantime, to tide us over, here are some sports storylines that have caught my eye lately:

• The OU softball team has won 40-straight games after yesterday’s comeback win over Oklahoma State in Stillwater. OSU had a 2-0 lead going into the final inning. It had been 197 games dating back to 2019 since OU had been shut out. The Sooners proceeded to score 4 runs in the top of the 7th and win the game 4-2. This OSU fan will now go crawl into a dark hole for awhile after having to type that out.

• Devin Booker has become the first player since Michael Jordan (ever heard of him?!) in 1992 to average 35+ points per game over the first eight games of the postseason. And he’s doing it efficiently, with a 69.5 true shooting percentage.

• A horse named MAGE won the Kentucky Derby yesterday. 17-1 odds. But the headline that stood out to me is that seven horses died at Churchill Downs in the past ten days, including two after Saturday’s races. That feels a bit icky.

• Luis Arraez of the Miami Marlins is batting .430 through 30 games-played this season. Maybe even more impressive: per Danny Vietti, as of May 5th Arraez had seen 400 pitches and only swung and missed 13 times. Mind-blowing numbers. When do we start having the conversation about the first .400 hitter since Ted Williams in 1941?

• Here are my predictions on how I think this round of the NBA Playoffs will end:

  • Heat (8) over Knicks (5) in 6 (Heat lead 2-1)

  • Celtics (2) over Sixers (3) in 7 (Celtics lead 2-1)

  • Nuggets (1) over Suns (4) in 7 (Nuggets lead 2-1)

  • Lakers (7) over Warriors (6) in 6 (Lakers lead 2-1)

• If you are reading this today, there is some fun golf in store this afternoon at the PGA Wells Fargo Championship. Some of the biggest names on tour are at the top of the leaderboard going into their Sunday rounds. A cool $3.6 million going to the winner. This coming after a fun finish last week when Tony Finau held off Jon Rahm to win the Mexico Championship.

Okay, that’s it. Talk to y’all next week.

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