🔥 Lollipopgate

⛳️ Wyndham Clark won the U.S. Open, even though everyone wanted him to lose. Clark has become somewhat of a villain on tour since trashing the Oakman locker room at last year's U.S. Open, but the way he was treated by fans in New York this past week was shocking. Tiger Woods, who has more DUI’s than cuts made in the last five years, still gets a hero’s welcome everywhere he goes. Meanwhile, Wyndham smashes one locker, and he’s treated like he shot a dog on the 18th green. 

• The good news for Wyndham: winning heals everything. He led the tournament from Thursday on, hitting one of the most absurd golf shots you’ll ever see to take a -7 lead on Saturday.
  

• Everyone wonders where Wyndham’s temper comes from. For starters, the name Wyndham is a tough break. Secondly, his girlfriend cheated on him with Baker Mayfield in college. That would turn any of us into a villain. 

🍭 Jazz Chisholm got rung out by his manager for playing with a lollipop in his mouth. Yankees skipper Aaron Boone was not happy with his second baseman for taking the field with a lollipop (pretty fair) and said he would not let it happen again. 

• It’s not a hot take to say that any player would get ripped on for playing with a lollipop, but when you’re hitting .227 and act like you’re prime Barry Bonds, it’s even worse. I’m pretty sure at least a few uncles in New Jersey had an aneurysm when they saw this.

❌ The Pirates have managed to lose seven straight Paul Skenes starts. Pittsburgh's reigning Cy Young winner, who has a 2.86 ERA and 108 strikeouts this year, has not registered a win since May 12th. With the Pirates this bad, an arm like this, and a wildly famous girlfriend, it feels like a foregone conclusion that Skenes will be an LA Dodger in the next two years. 

🏒 Brady Tkachuk is joining his brother in Florida. The Senators’ captain requested a trade and ended up in South Florida playing with his brother Matthew. The Tkachuks have combined for nearly 700 goals, over 1,100 points, almost 2,800 hits, and more than 70 NHL fights before either brother has turned 30. 

• They may bring the locker room IQ down a few pegs, but these two are going to be a problem for the league. 

🎾 Serena Williams is coming out of retirement for Wimbledon. The tennis GOAT is back, announcing that she’ll play in the singles draw at Wimbledon next week. There’s a chance greater than zero that this is all a marketing ploy to push her new GLP-1 weight loss drug, but that’s cool. 

🏀 Giannis Antetokounmpo is heading to Miami. The former MVP and NBA champion was traded to the Heat this week, for three first-round picks and half of Miami’s roster (including Tyler Herro, Kel'el Ware, and Jaime Jaquez Jr).

• This would’ve been a genuinely exciting move if the Heat hadn’t given up the entire supporting cast that could help Giannis win.
  

• The Celtics reportedly offered up a big package to land Giannis (which included Jaylen Brown and two first-round picks), but Milwaukee opted against it. Now that he knows he was put on the table, it feels like it's only a matter of time until Jaylen Brown gets shipped out of Boston. 

⚾️ Kyle Schwarber hit 900 feet of home runs in a single inning. I’m running out of ways to describe Kyle Schwarber. In a nightmare inning for the Mets, Schwarbs hit two homers over 450 feet off of Freddy Peralta. He, of course, followed that up with a third homer in the 7th inning — his fifth three-homer game in his career. One of the sweetest swings in baseball. Not up for debate.

❄️ Kawhi Leonard is apparently open to a reunion in Toronto. The Clippers star (who is currently under investigation for circumventing the NBA salary cap) reportedly has interest in a trade back to the Raptors and would even be willing to sign an extension if the deal goes through. 

• This feels like the same leverage game he played during free agency in 2019. If this does happen (which it almost certainly won’t), he should have to issue an apology to the city for leaving and buy a round of beers for the entire arena is his first game back. It’s the least he can do.

🏳️‍🌈 The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating MLB for its Pride Night. The DOJ is looking into how the San Francisco Giants handled their Pride Night, and whether the team discriminated against their players by forcing them to wear hats with rainbow logos on them (they actually gave them the option not to wear them). 

• I could be wrong, but don’t these guys have actual crimes to investigate? Professional baseball players wearing hats they don’t like seems like it would be pretty low on the totem pole.

Alright, that’s enough for one Friday.

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