=========

Hacksaw/s Thursday Podcast-1pm
You Tube Channel-Lee Hacksaw Hamilton
Look-Listen-Share-Subscribe
=========
“THE OPEN–NOT AN EASY DAY”
=========

They have teed off, in the middle of the night on the West Coast back here.
It was early morning back there, in Troon, on the West Coast of Scotland.

The 152nd British Open Golf tourney, the ‘Open’ as they call it over there.

And over there is absolutely a nightmare, that can ruin a good day’s walk, the title of a book by John Feinstien, about golf.

158-golfers are going after 17M-in purse money, an all time record.  The winner gets an Open record of 3.1M too.

The golfers at this hour are getting a dose of late summer weather in Scotland.  Cloudy, cool, might be rain, will be wind, and definitely there will be high scores.

What a field, a who’s-who of winners from the PGA Tour, from the enemy LIV, and from the European tour.

Scottie Scheffler, carries with him 6-wins this season and a lifetime record of 27M in earnings this year alone.  He has owned the PGA tour this year.

Bryson DeChambeau, coming off an emotional US Open win, represents the best that went abroad, taking all that LIV money from the Saudi Public Investment Fund.  He has reinvented his game, and looks as if he is about to become the ‘Fan’s Man’.

The home country favorite is Rory McIlroy, the Scottish star, but it’s been 10-years since he won a Grand Slam event.  He’s had 2nd place and 3rd place finishes and heart breaking losses.

Tiger Woods is back, but he is a shadow of his legendary career, and so much  is being written and said about what he has become.  5-surgeries on his back and legs have robbed him of his power, and the wear and tear means you never know whether his back or his legs will betray him sometime during the round, any round.  With 15-Grand Slams to his credit, Tiger has not broken par since 2021 in a major.  He will play, whether he can walk 18 without limping is to be seen.  Whether he makes the cut is truly a storyline.

The course at Troon is so different that historic St Andrew’s or any of the other courses that rotate as hosts thru the British Isles.

And then you must consider this course.  There is the 123-yard Postage Hole, good luck getting it onto the green.  There is the Railway hole, with the tracks running alongside the fairway.  There is the monster 623-yard hole, that could be worse if the wind is blowing the wrong way

And then there is the terrain.  The sand dunes and the swales;  the British brush; the gross Gose just off the fairways; thistles, dead grass, flowers and more.  And there is the weather that blows any which way off the Irish Sea.

Sir Tom Moore invented the Open concept back in the late 1800s.

It is almost a religious experience to play in it now.  It is such a rush to watch it back here in the states.  We love Augusta and the Masters, but this is all that, with the elements added in.

The Open, as good as it gets, but not easy to survive, and it’s underway now.

========================

 

============

“BASEBALL FANS-PLAYERS SPEAK..CHANGES COMING”
============

The All Star Game had so many storylines.
The Home Run Derby carried some drama.
Half the teams in baseball are still in the running for playoff spots.
The second half of  the season is just around the corner.

But the big story leading into the Mid-Summer Night’s Classic..changes.

Commissioner Rob Mandred’s ‘State of the Game’ Speech was wrapped around alot of topics and opinions of fans and the players themselves.

Here’s what Manfred had to say about ‘hot topics’
=============

ARLINGTON, Texas — MLB commissioner Rob Manfred (above) gave another endorsement for the pending relocation of the A’s to Las Vegas, despite questions mounting about both the club’s interim and future home.

Speaking Tuesday before the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, Manfred said he remains optimistic about the project, and particularly the ability of A’s owner John Fisher to amass the more than $1.1 billion in private financing for the planned $1.5 billion ballpark along the famed Las Vegas Strip.

Funding beyond a previously approved $380 million in taxpayer money has not yet been finalized, and the A’s have hired veteran sports finance company Galatioto Sports Partners to help raise $500 million for the project.

“I am comfortable … with his ability to put together the financing,” Manfred said of Fisher.

The Las Vegas Stadium Authority will meet Thursday, and a draft development agreement is on the agenda that could offer more clues on both the stadium financing and construction plan—both pertinent details that heretofore have been publicly unknown.

In the meantime, the plan for the A’s to play the 2025–27 seasons in Sacramento is receiving its own fresh criticism in the wake of the California capital reaching triple-digit temperatures. Discussions are ongoing about tweaking start times for some A’s home games there, among other measures, to stay out of the brunt of the heat.

In other key MLB matters addressed by Manfred:

All-Star Game uniforms: MLB’s current practice of having teams wear generic league-based uniforms for the Midsummer Classic instead of their own team jerseys is once again generating widespread rebukes, and even current players such as the Phillies’ Bryce Harper are advocating for wearing their own uniforms at the event. Manfred said he’s “aware of the sentiment” and that there “will be conversations” about returning to the traditional format.
Olympics: There is rising interest among both the league and MLB Players Association about having major league players participate in the 2028 Games in Los Angeles. Negotiations are ongoing between MLB, the union, and the LA28 organizing committee, and participation could involve a pause or other adjustment in that year’s schedule. “When you’re in L.A., it is an opportunity we need to think about,” Manfred said.
Regional sports network viewership: The commissioner said the Padres have nearly 40,000 subscribers for their streaming live broadcasts, tops among the three teams for which the league handles game production and distribution. Ultimately, MLB would like to develop a streaming package involving roughly half the league, but it faces a challenge of getting large-market clubs to agree to give up their current situation.
Robot umpires: After facing prior challenges with scaling automated ball-strike technology, Manfred said MLB could potentially test the use of robot umpires as part of a challenge system during 2025’s spring training, a step toward broader implementation as soon as ’26.
Draft picks: MLB said there is growing receptivity to the notion of teams being able to trade picks, something that hasn’t been allowed since the formation of the draft in 1965. Such a shift, however, would need to be collectively bargained with the union.
“The clubs are really sophisticated now,” Manfred said. “I do think that there’s a really good argument for allowing them to decide how to use their resources.”

======================

A Mid Summer Night’s Dream”

-0-

The stars come out tonite in Texas .  It’s baseball’s iconic All Star Game.

Color, history, electricity.

The best face the best, in what is really more than just an exhibition game.

It’s flair, dynamics, passion.

It started in 1933 as a charity game in Chicago, to raise funds.  It marked a beginning of a tradition that no one could derail…not World War II…..Baseball Labor strife…nor even Commissioner Bud Selig.

They play tonite , the annual meeting between the two leagues.  Only once, in 1945, was the game postponed.

There have been controversies.  Games rained out.  Played in the rain.  Tie games.  Beanballs, ejections, and All Star game shutdown when they ran out of pitchers in the 2002-Selig era.

Even the most absurd, when baseball sponsored two All Star Games from 1959-to-1962.

Then more recently, the Selig driven rule, that the league that won the All Star Game, would have home field advantage for the World Series.  Glad that’s gone now.

We remember individual accomplishments, but also the sense of honoring the past, like Tony Gwynn did, escorting Ted Williams, in a wheelchair, to the mound at Fenway Park.

Big days and big plays are what we remember, whether we were a kid, or a 70-year old fan.

Babe Ruth won the first ever game with a home run in that 1933-debut.  No one really knew what baseball had stumbled upon with this so-called charity game, that became a treat every summer for fans and players alike.

Big bombs have highlited what we have seen in past July’s.

Tony Perez hit a 15th inning homer in 1967.

Stan Musial of the Cardinals won the game with a blast in 1955

Cal Ripken’s farewell season with the Orioles included an All Star home run forever remembered.

Jackie Robinson became the first colored player to be in the game in 1949, joined by his Brooklyn teammates Don Newcombe, Roy Campanella and the Indians’ Larry Doby.

But it’s the drama, and the accomplishment that forever lives on.

The best moments of all time?

Ted Williams 1946 outing when he went (4-4) coming back from war.

Or Teddy Ballgame’s 3-run home run in the 9th inning, just before baseball went off to war in 1941.

Reggie Jackson, Mr. October, put on a show at Tigers’ Stadium with a 525′ foot homer into the light towers, atop the roof in Detroit.

We have video of Pete Rose’s Charley Hustle head first dive, burying Indians catcher Ray Fosse at home plate in 1970.

And you can find the grainy black and white video of King Carl Hubbell of the New York Giants, striking out 5-Hall of Famers in a row, in 1934.  Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmuy Foxx, Al Simmons and Joe Cronin all went down swinging at that impossible to hit screwball in the Polo Grounds..

Baseball has made this a week of Mardi-Gras like festivals during the All Star Break.  Home Run Derby, the Futures Game, the Fan Fest, and then the game itself.

Sit back, relax, remember, and then enjoy all things baseball, what was done in the past, what we have to look forward to, tonite.

A Mid-Summer Night’s Dream….that keeps recurring every July.  A very special time in baseball.

==========

Hacksaw’s Monday Bonus Podcast…1pm
You Tube Channel-Lee Hacksaw Hamilton
Look-Listen-Share-Subscribe
==========
“A LOST SPORTS WEEKEND”
===========

So how do you feel about what we all just experienced this weekend?

TRUMP SHOOTING…An appalling example of the divided country we live in, where political hate supersedes most everything, in most everyday life.  Now everyone in both parties is screaming we have to ‘lower the temperature’ of the rhetoric, most of the hate-speech coming from the GOP and the wounded President.  What was the first thing showed up on my Sunday morning Twitter feed, Marjorie Taytor Green with a gun and Mike Johnson, accusing Joe Biden of inciting the incident with a speech last week using the word ‘bullseye’.  Like Trump gets a free pass for a lifetime of vitriol speech?

SCOTTISH OPEN…What a couple of hours or respite from what happened in Pennsylvania, the phenomenal comeback by hometown hero Rob MacIntyre, winning infront of his home country fans.  He hit a 40′ uphill put on 14.  He canned an eagle on 16.  Birdie on 17.  And a game winning 21′ putt on 18, to beat Adam Scott.  What a gripping win by a journeyman golfer from Scotland.

SECRET SERVICE..Sunday brought brutal questions how a sniper, with a rifle and a scope, could get so close to Trump.  Now we find out a Butler police officer was alerted there was a man with a gun on the roof of that building.  He climbed up onto the roof, and the gunman pointed the rifle at him, and the officer went down the ladder never shooting nor confronting him.  Seconds later the AR-15 firing began, 8-shots in all, one nicking Trump’s ear.  Felt like Uvalde, Texas revisited.  Awful.

DODGERS BLUE…New meaning, another pitching injury.  Dustin May, coming off two elbow surgeries, now has emergency throat surgery, torn esophagus, and is gone for the rest of year.  Torn throat tissue while eating dinner while on rehab assignment.

BY THE GRACE OF GOD…That’s what defiant Trump said overnight.  Had he  turned his head in a different direction, the bullet might have hit him in the temple causing death.  He exited the stage, with a defiant fist in the air, urging followers to ‘fight’.  Wonder if Trump will find God now that his life has been spared?
Don’t think so.

LAKERS SUMMER LEAGUE…Now Bronny James says he’ll go wherever the Lakers send him to play, obviously the NBA-G League.  3-games into his summer League play, Bronny is (6-26) shooting, has some rebounds and assists, but is overwhelmed.  After a slow start 1st round pick Dalton Knecht has reeled off 20-25 points in back to back games.

REAP WHAT YOU SOW…So do you feel compassion for Trump?  A lifetime of hate speech, you remember the insults to the military ‘suckers’.. the treatment of Gold Star families…the treatment of women…his conviction of fraud in New York…his racist statements about Charlottesville…his volatile statements urging the January 6th riot at the Capitol…the voting overthrow in Georgia…the Florida secret documents…the scam that was Trump University…urging hang Mike Pence..jail Hilary Clinton…the insult of Joe Biden’s career…the Stormy Daniels porn case conviction…’Build the wall-Mexico will pay for it’…the rhetoric tainted with Nazism quotes…the Retribution tour….I am the Law & Order President….Deportation of all illegals….the broad sweep of condemnation insinuating they are all Murderers, the Rapists, those who are here that are vermin-who taint our blood….the degradation of NATO and Ukraine support..the erosion-corruption of the once integrity-filled Supreme Court…on and on, .that’s who he is, what he represents.  And his followers never hold him accountable.

SOCCER-SOCCER-SOCCER…Timeout from this awful weekend to enjoy the tremendous European Championship with Spain final victory over upstart England ,then the Copa America finals, the greatness of Lionel Messi-Argentina vs-the enormous team play of Colombia.  It was not the World Cup, but it was damn close.  Better days have to come for Team USA after the firing of Coach Gregg Berhalter.  And Mexico keeps making changes, the latest the firing of Jaime Lozano, as El Tri looks lost.

THE FRIENDS YOU KEEP….How many of Trump’s inner circle have seen their lives and careers impacted by working for the former president.  Advisors, lawyers, fundraisers, consultants, so called friends, a mounting list of people in massive legal trouble.

Virtually everyone of his inner circle, Steve Bannon-Rudy Guliani-Roger Stone-Michael Cohen and so many more have been convicted of crimes, gone to prison, or into bankruptcy for their relationship.  Nice criminal element he hangs with.   Add on his praise of the genius of Putin’s Ukraine invasion and his friendship with the North Korean leadership, there’s alot to dislike about the former President.  And I wonder about the 296-in prison convicted of what they did at the Capitol at Trump’s urging.  Think he cares at all about what happened to their life, now in prison.

PADRES-DODGERS…Somebody will do something between now and July 31st because of pitching problems.  The Dodgers have 16-pitchers on the disabled list, the latest calamity, the season ending emergency throat surgery to Dustin May.  The Padres are wafer thin in pitching, having nothing left in the farm system, and are trying to find a pitching rental without alot of assets to trade.  To  get where they need to go, a veteran pitcher, they may have to part with SS-Ha Seong-Kim or C-Luis Campusano.

END GAME…I hate where this country is, the lack of respect for decency, guns, the border crossing, the drug cartel crisis.  I hate Trump’s desire to be king-dictator and all things about his MAGA partners  I hate the failure of the Democratic party to find the next candidate in what was supposed to be Biden’s bridge presidency.  I hate the sellout of the GOP, continuing the support of the criminal activities of Trump, taking care of their own jobs but not serving the country that needs their leadership.

WIMBLEDON..Looks as if the changing of the guard is complete, with Novak Djokovic getting dominated in losing the finals to fast coming star Carlos Alacarez.  And you will have to tell me who is the heir apparent to the last legend we had, Serena Williams, since the top 3-seeds on the women’s side never got to the finals.

WHAT GOES ROUND-COMES AROUND..Isn’t it weird how all things have come back to haunt Trump.  The Hollywood access tape about how he would treat women, and the end result of the EG Carroll lawsuit.  The ‘We are Marching to the Capitol and I will be there with you’, now seeing how that worked out.  The Stormy Daniels episode, and the statements they were lies, but Trump would not testify in the hush money trial.  The complete support of the NRA and the 2nd amendment so he could retain NRA votes, and the fact he was shot by a Republican registered voter with an AR-15 assault rifle.

THE MEDIA-FAKE NEWS-1ST AMENDMENT…Screaming about immunity and 1st amendment rights, cannot wait to hear what my followers-readers have to say, especially the Pro Trumpers and the far right.  They are allowed to speak, just like I have my 1st Amendment rights.  Don’t like it, move to Russia or North Korea since they are close friends to the man the guy in Butler, Pennsylvania tried to shoot.  They are all close friends.  Next up Trump will be defiant..make himself into a martyr.  We will all be victims.

WHAT IS NEXT…The conventions, more nasty campaigning, the election of November 5th.  You can vote ‘Democracy vs Dictatorship.’  In my world, next will be the opening of NFL training camps, a pennant race, and then the NBA-NHL seasons.  You enjoy your great sports weekend?  I thought differently.  Just an awful lost sports weekend.

==============================

============

Hacksaw’s Great Sports Weekend Podcast
You Tube Channel-Lee Hacksaw Hamilton
Look-Listen-Share-Subscribe

============
“CLIPPERS IN CRISIS”
============

You wish it did not have to end this way, but I fear it is the beginning of the end.

As Team USA gets ready to head to Paris for basketball medal play, they willl board the the plane to Europe without legendary NBA forward Kawhi Leonard.

The LA Clippers star, who helped lead San Antonio and Toronto to NBA heights, has been removed from the Team USA roster and sent home.

The player, a self made superstar, is now having to deal with some very basic physical realities.  His body is betraying him.

Chronic knee problems look as if they are starting to collect its tolls on him.

Leonard played heroically all season long, but the game minutes tore him down to the point he could not finish the regular season.  And despite the extensive rest and rehab, he tried to lineup and play in the post season, and lasted less than two games and was gone.

That was months ago, and now upon reporting to the Olympic workouts, he lasted one healthy practice, but came up limping the next day.  3-practices later they removed him from the roster.

Leonard has had 3-surgeries on his right knee, from quad, to meniscus, to cartilage.  It looks as if this career will be short circuited sooner than later.

The Clippers, who signed him to a (3Y-152M) extension last year, are now facing their own reality.  They may have.a great ‘part-time player’ at best in the Claw.  And they don’t have his running mate, Paul George, who defected as a free agent, signing a 4-year deal in Philadelphia.

And the Clippers are also facing a dose of history.  For the second time in a decade, the team they put together to be an NBA power is falling apart again.  This time is the aftermath of the Kawhi-PG tandem.  Before that it was the demise of the big time caliber team led by Chris Paul-Blake Griffin, done in too by chronic injuries.

If this is the beginning of the end of the great Aztecs player, it is too bad it has happened just beyond the age of 30.

What a great talent, what a complete player, maybe close to being a Hall of Famer.  But it does not look like we will ever see the greatness that Kawhi Leonard became.

The wheels are falling off the machine, and that is tough to see.

Team USA’s roster decision delivered the message no one wanted to hear.
=====================