Dodgers will win 2019 World Series
When the champagne pops once again in the Dodger Stadium clubhouse in just over a month, it will be sprayed in the home team’s clubhouse this time.
In an annual event that now seems as guaranteed as death and taxes, the Dodgers clinched their seventh-consecutive National League West division title last week.
Brown signing will make or break Pats
At at glance, the signing of Antonio Brown by the New England Patriots five hours after he was cut by the Oakland/Las Vegas Raiders on Saturday all but guaranteed the team would repeat as Super Bowl champions.
Then the Patriots came out on Sunday Night Football and removed all doubt. They made the Pittsburgh Steelers — nearly a playoff team a year ago — look like they belong in the XFL, bludgeoning them to the tune of a 33-3 score with Brown not yet in uniform.
Colts' Luck went out of NFL on top
Andrew Luck made the right decision to retire at 29 years old.
In fact, for a man with an architecture degree from Stanford, the timing made perfect sense.
Second time not a charm for NFL
Seemingly in a competition with itself for which professional sports league can have both the worst and most wildly inconsistent stance on domestic violence, the NFL decided July 19 not to discipline Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill in regard to allegations of child abuse.
This decision is baffling, and it speaks to a larger indictment on the NFL: The league cannot decide what its policy is on domestic violence, which is worse than not having one at all.
Steroid users do not deserve spot in baseball Hall of Fame
Mariano Rivera, Roy Halladay, Mike Mussina and Edgar Martinez. These are the four players who were voted on by the Baseball Writers Association of America be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame this Sunday in Cooperstown, N.Y.
However, as in previous years, baseball’s all-time “home run king” Barry Bonds and seven-time Cy Young award winner Roger Clemens fell well short of the requisite 75 percent of votes to be inducted.
NBA’s battle for LA begins
For the first time ever, there is a true NBA LA rivalry. The Hallway Series —as the four times the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers play each year has come to be known — will be much more like a hallway crusade this year.
California sports betting is a no-brainer
On June 27, California state lawmakers proposed a November 2020 ballot measure to legalize sports betting in our home state. This measure should absolutely be added to the ballot and be passed by voters.
The measure must gain a two-thirds vote in the state Legislature to be added to the ballot, where it could be approved with a majority vote. State Sen. Bill Dodd of Napa and Assemblyman Adam Gray of Merced proposed the measure.
The NCAA compensation conundrum
College athletes deserve to be paid if their likeness is used in any way, shape or form to promote their respective university’s brand. But in practice, this simple statement becomes the sports equivalent of rocket science.
The long-debated topic of paying student-athletes came up again this week, and paying California college athletes, specifically.
Every NBA draft pick is valuable
Many NBA analysts have called this week’s NBA draft a three-player draft, a statement comparable to claiming there are only three good burrito places in the entire state of California.
While Zion Williamson, Ja Morant and RJ Barrett have long been considered the consensus top-three picks, there will absolutely be All Stars, All-NBA players and, most likely, even Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famers picked later on.
It’s past time to give U.S. women’s soccer equal pay
The United States Soccer Federation must pay the United States Women’s National Team members the same as their male counterparts.
This should have happened a long time ago. Before the team beat Thailand by a record-breaking score of 13-0 in its 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup opener June 11. Before star forward Alex Morgan tied a World Cup record with five goals in that game.
MLB needs foul pole to foul pole netting
After yet another fan has been struck by a speeding foul ball, it’s time for Major League Baseball to install protective netting from one foul pole to the other.
On May 29, Chicago Cubs outfielder Albert Almora Jr. yanked a pitch down the left-field line and just past the protective netting that extends to the end of each dugout at the Houston Astros’ Minute Maid Park. The ball was going more than 90 mph off the bat and squarely struck a young girl.