Weekly Update August 18, 2025

Baseball: This week’s games. Jen first female ump. Standings Update.

Football – NFL: Preseason necessities. Michigan penalities.

Golf: FedEx Cup Playoff updated. LIV finale.

Olympic Sports: T&F good and bad news. GYM.

Quick Headlines: Tennis. Soccer. NBA.

Baseball – MLB:

• This week’s games:
  • Kyle Schwarber hit his 42^nd HR of the season and added to a 4-run 8^th inning to beat the Reds. On the same day, Ohtani also hit his 42^nd but the Dodgers would lose 7-4. The Rangers stopped their 4-game losing streak on Monday with a win over the Diamondbacks in a close one 7-6 in the 10^th.
  • Pete Alonso set a Mets record of 253 HRs, getting 2 on Tuesday’s game over the Braves. NY crushed ATL 13-5. The White Sox scored 5 runs in the 5^th to upset the Tigers 9-6. The Mariners beat the Orioles with just 1 run. That would be their 8^th consecutive win (sweeping the white sox and Rays) but Baltimore would win the next two games to win the series.
  • The Braves had a 9-run 4^th inning to beat the mets 11-6.
  • The longest game of the week was the Tigers/Twins game that went to the 11^th on Thursday. The Tigers would manage to break through on a sac fly.

• • The Rangers would lose another 4 games including another embarrassing one 14-2 Blue Jays before finally getting another one 10-4 over the Blue Jays on Sunday. The Brewers won their franchise record 13^th game on Friday. They would rally from an 1-8 deficit to come back to win 10-8. They would set the record the next night with 14 games straight, sweeping the Nationals, Braves, Mets and Pirates before finally losing the final game of the week to the Reds. The Reds were the only ones to score before the 9^th inning but in the final inning, The Brewers put up 2 to go up by 1. The Reds would tie it up at the end and we would head to extra innings. The Brewers intentionally walked 2 Reds batters in the 10^th and Cinci would make them pay for that with a single to score and end the game!

• Jen Powel became the frist female umpire to work a MLB game (Marlins vs Braves two weeks ago).
•  Standings:
  • American: The Blue Jays and the Tigers both sit at the top with 73 wins but Detroit has one more loss. At the bottom, the White Sox are still below 50 wins with a record of 44-80.
  • National: the Brewers are alone at the top with 78 wins but there are 4 other teams at 70 or more so not too far behind (Phillies, Dodgers and Cubs). No surprise, the Rockies are at the bottom with a 35-89 record ugh!

Football:

• Michigan has received a series of fines for the sign stealing scandal. They received a 4 year probation, fines up to $30MM, recruiting restrictions, and Sherrone Moore will miss a 2 games this season (the 3^rd Central Michigan and 4^th against Nebraska) and 1 next season (Western Michigan).
• ESPN is acquiring the NFL network. This means they will take over the fatasy app as well and 3 additional NFL games will be on ESPN per season.

• NFL preseason news:
  • Jaguars K Cam Little kicked a 70 yard FG in the first week of preseason
  • Traevon Henderson returned a punt for a TD on his first touch of the ball in the NFL.

Golf:

• FedEx Cup playoffs started last week with the FedEx St. Jude in Tennessee. ENG Justin Rose beat out JJ Spaun in a playoff just by one shot over Tommy Fleetwood and Scottie Scheffler.
• Robert MacIntyre took a 3-shot lead over the entire field after a rain soaked opening round. He then piled it on on Friday, shooting 62 to go up on Scottie Scheffler by 5 shots. But Saturday, Scottie knocked off a shot from that and they would be paired together in the final group. Scheffler had a streak of 37 holes without a bogey and he’s up to 16 straight rounds under 70. The final day though MacIntyre fell apart. He shot +3 while Scottie flipped it with a -3. Scheffler would win by 2 and crush this 82 foot chip shot on 17! That was his 5th win of the season. The Tour Championship also offers the highest purse ever of $40MM, $10MM to the winner. Now the field is down to 30.

• LIV: the final LIV tournament of the year ended in playoff fashion. Sebastian Munoz has a -12 for his first round in Indy. Jon Rahm started off with just a -4 and ended in the 3^rd round with a -11. Munoz needed just 1 playoff hole to get a birdie and get the W. Not surprisingly Torque won as they had 2 in the top 4.

Olympic Sports:

• T&F: Mondo Duplantis broke his pole vault WR once again. This was his 13^th time to break it and the mark is now 6.29m (20.636 feet).
• T&F: Fred Kerley has been suspended for whereabout failures under anti-doping rules. He has 2 medals in the 100m from the last two Olympics and 6 from worlds.
• Olympics: LA28 will sell the naming rights to a couple of the stadiums for the Olympics for the first time.
• GYM: USAs for gymnastics was last week and Asher Hong won the men’s title for the second year in a row. On the women’s side, Hezly Rivera won with a killer beam routine fending off Leanne Wong.

Quick Headlines:

• Venus Williams is set to come back and play in the US Open! Remember that she does have 2 US Open trophies already but they were from a while ago (2000 and 2001). She will be the oldest player to compete since 1991.
• KOR Sung Ming has signed with LA FC. He is the most famous player in South Korea.
• Carolina Hurricanes owner has agreed to buy the Trail Blazers for $4Bn.
• NBA opening week schedule was announced and it will all start with CLE vs Knicks and Spurs vs Dallas.

What to watch this week

Baseball – MLB:

• Mon 8/18
  • Reds at Angels @ 8:38pm on FS1
    • Singer vs Mederos
• Tues 8/19
  • Astros at Tigers @ 5:40pm on TBS
• Thurs 8/21
  • Red Sox at Yankees – or – Astros at Orioles @ 6:15pm on FOX
• Fri 8/22
  • Red Sox at Yankees @ 6:05pm on Prime
  • Chiefs at Tigers @ 6:10pm on Apple TV+
  • Mets at Braves @ 6:15pm on Apple TV+
• Sat 8/23
  • LLWS: International Championship @ 11:30am on ABC
  • LLWS: US Championship @ 2:30pm on ABC
  • Dodgers at Padres @ 7:40pm on FS1
• Sun 8/24
  • Rockies at Pirates @ 11:05am on Roku
  • LLWS: World Championship game @ 2pm on ABC
  • Red Sox at Yankees @ 6pm on ESPN

Basketball:

• Sat 8/23
  • Liberty at Dream @ 1pm on CBS
  • Suns at Sky @ 3pm on CBSSN
• Sun 8/24
  • Heat at Lynx @ 6pm on CBSSN

Football – NCAAF:

• Sat 8/23
  • Iowa St at 17. Kansas St @ 11am on ESPN
  • Fresno St at Kansas @ 5:30pm on FOX
  • Sam Houston St at Western Kentucky @ 6pm on CBSSN
  • Stanford at Hawaii @ 6:30pm on CBS

Football – NFL:

• Thurs 8/21
  • Steelers at Panthers @ 6pm on NFL
  • Patriots at Giants @ 7pm on Prime
• Fri 8/22
  • Falcons at Cowboys @ 7pm on NFL
  • Vikings at Titans @ 7pm on CBS
• Sat 8/23
  • Rams at Browns @ 12pm on NFL
  • Seahawks at Packers @ 3pm on NFL
  • Jags at Dolphins @ 6pm on NFL
  • Raiders at Cardinals @ 9pm on NFL

Golf:

• Thurs 8/21
  • Tour Championship – Round 1 @ 12pm on Golf Channel
• Fri 8/22
  • Tour Championship – Round 2 @ 12pm on Golf Channel
  • LIV: Quarterfinals @ 1pm on FOX
• Sat 8/23
  • LIV: Semifinals @ 11am on FOX
  • Tour Championship – Round 3
    • @ 12pm on Golf Channel
    • @ 1:30pm on NBC
• Sun 8/24
  • LIV: Finals
    • @ 12pm on FS1
    • @ 3:30pm on FOX
  • Tour Championship – Final Round
    • @ 12pm on Golf Channel
    • @ 1:30pm on NBC
  • LPGA: CPKC Women’s Open – final Round @ 3pm on CBS

Motor Sports:

• none

Olympic Sports:

• Sat 8/23
  • NCAA Volleyball: Kansas vs Vanderbilt @ 2pm on FS1
  • NCAA Volleyball: Creighton vs Penn ST @ 4pm on FS1

Soccer:

• Mon 8/18
  • Premier League: LeedsU vs Everton @ 2pm on USA
• Wed 8/20
  • Leagues – Quarterfinal: Inter Miami vs Tigres @ 7pm on FS1
  • Leagues – Quarterfinal: Seattle Sounders at Club Puebla
• Fri 8/22
  • Premier League: West Ham vs Chelsea @ 2pm on USA
• Sat 8/23
  • Premier League: Manchester City vs Tottenham Hotspur @ 6:30am on USA
  • Premier League: Brentford vs Aston Villa @ 9am on USA
  • NWSL: Bay FC vs Washington Spirit @ 3pm on CBS
• Sun 8/24
  • Premier League: Everton vs Brighton & Hove @ 8am on USA
  • Premier League: Fulham vs ManU @ 10:30am on USA
  • MLS: Seattle Sounders at Sporting KC @ 8pm on FS1

Tennis:

• Mon 8/18
  • US Open Qualifying Round 1
    • @ 10am on ESPN2
    • @ 12pm on ESPNEWS
• Tues 8/19
  • US Open Qualifying Round 1
    • @ 10am on ESPN2
    • @ 12pm on ESPNEWS
• Wed 8/20
  • US Open Qualifying Round 2
    • @ 10am on ESPN2
    • @ 12pm on ESPNEWS
  • US Open: Mixed Doubles Championship @ 6pm on ESPN2
• Thurs 8/21
  • US Open Qualifying Round 3
    • @ 10am on ESPN2
    • @ 12pm on ESPNEWS
• Sun 8/24
  • US Open – Round 1
    • @ 12pm on ABC
    • @ 2pm on ESPN2
    • @ 6pm on ESPN2