<p style="font-weight: 400;">Hall of Fame second baseman Ryne Sandberg, whose combination of power and scintillating defense led the Chicago Cubs to their first-post-season appearance in 38 years in 1984, died Monday at the age of 65.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">With great sadness, we share that Ryne Sandberg has passed away today. <a href="https://t.co/LJJ0jGqSy5">pic.twitter.com/LJJ0jGqSy5</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) <a href="https://twitter.com/Cubs/status/1950004404104425975?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 29, 2025</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Ryne Sandberg. Second to None. <a href="https://t.co/jR0FCCiXwD">pic.twitter.com/jR0FCCiXwD</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) <a href="https://twitter.com/Cubs/status/1950187053146341691?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 29, 2025</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">&quot;The last couple of days, he wanted to speak to me, Andre [Dawson] and Mark Grace. He told us that he loved us and he loved all you <a href="https://twitter.com/Cubs?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Cubs</a> fans too. Go Cubs.&quot;</p>
<p>An emotional Shawon Dunston speaks on the impact his legendary double play partner, Ryne Sandberg, made on him. <a href="https://t.co/OiHCJpAEcD">pic.twitter.com/OiHCJpAEcD</a></p>
<p>&mdash; MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) <a href="https://twitter.com/MLBNetwork/status/1950245687561769133?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 29, 2025</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Sandberg, the father of five children and eleven grandchildren, had been fighting metastatic prostate cancer, which he announced in January 2024 before he went into remission in August, then revealed the cancer had spread and returned last December.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">“The support has been tremendously overwhelming right from the first week, and it’s continued throughout,” he told the Chicago Tribune last year. “It’s just been incredible and I think that’s been as much medicine to me as anything really.”</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">“While I am continuing to fight, I’m looking forward to making the most of every day with my loving family and friends,” he wrote on July 16. “I haven’t been to Wrigley Field as much as I hoped in the first half but I’m watching every game and am excited to see Wrigley rocking like 1984!”</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Sandberg, who won nine Gold Gloves, and made the All-Star team in ten consecutive seasons, won the national League’s MVP award in 1984, when he batted .314 with 19 home runs, 36 doubles, 19 triples, 84 RBIs, 114 runs and 32 stolen bases. On June 23, 2024, the Cubs unveiled a statue of Sandberg to mark the 40th anniversary of “The Sandberg Game,” when he slugged game-tying home runs in the ninth and 10th innings off St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame reliever Bruce Sutter in an 11-inning Cubs win at Wrigley Field.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">“Some of the things I wanted on the statue was being on the balls of the feet, being ready for every single pitch,” Sandberg told reporters when the statue was unveiled. “My defense was very important for me. For me, it was ‘Bring your glove every single day.’ You might go into some hitting slumps, but as far as defense goes, as long as I did my pregame work, I wanted to play defense every day for the pitcher, for everybody on the field.”</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">“In 16 seasons, Sandberg hit .285 with 282 home runs and 1,061 RBIs in 2,164 games. His 68.1 wins above replacement rank third in Cubs history behind Cap Anson (84.8) and Ron Santo (72.2),” the <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/07/28/ryne-sandberg-chicago-cubs-dies/?lctg=B4845491D5F64499A4E4B513EB&amp;utm_email=B4845491D5F64499A4E4B513EB&amp;utm_source=listrak&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=https%3a%2f%2fwww.chicagotribune.com%2f2025%2f07%2f28%2fryne-sandberg-chicago-cubs-dies%2f&amp;utm_campaign=trib-chicago_tribune-breaking_news_sports-nl&amp;utm_content=alert">Chicago Tribune</a> noted. “Sandberg hit 25 home runs or more six times, including a career-high 40 in 1990, and had back-to-back 100-RBI seasons in ’90 and ’91. His 344 steals rank fourth on the Cubs’ all-time list.”</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Growing up in Spokane, Washington, Sandberg was All-State in basketball and named to Parade Magazine’s Prep All-America Football Team, receiving scholarship offers from Nebraska and Oklahoma.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">“I never thought it was a mistake to decide on baseball instead of football and college,” he recalled. “But I thought it was going to be a long, hard road. They say the odds are that only one or two guys in A-ball will ever make it to the big leagues.”</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">In mid-season 1994, hitting only .238 and in the middle of a terrible slump, he temporarily retired. “I am not the type of person who leaves my game at the ballpark feeling comfortable that my future is set regardless of my performance,” he admitted. “And I’m certainly not the type of person who can ask the Cubs organization and Chicago Cubs fans to pay my salary when I am not happy with my mental approach and performance.” He returned for the 1996 and 1997 seasons.</p>


Ryne Sandberg Chicago Cubs

Cubs Hall Of Fame Second Baseman Ryne Sandberg Dies At 65

Chicago Cubs

General

Hall of Fame

Ryne Sandberg

Sports

U.S.

<p class="speakable">New York Yankees all-star Aaron Judge this week discussed his faith in God, when asked about money and fame.</p>
<p class="speakable">Judge was <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DMG2BgGg2QU/">asked</a> on Monday by a CBN Sports reporter, &#8220;What would you say to someone who thinks fame and fortune is the answer to all their problems?&#8221;</p>
<p>Judge responded by pointing his fans to Jesus. &#8220;Our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. He’s given me this platform, this ability,&#8221; Judge said. &#8220;The fame, getting the chance to do this is great and all, but it’s not fulfilling as much as the relationship I have with Him.&#8221;</p>
<div class="ad-container desktop ad-h-50 ad-w-300">
<div id="desktop-desk-ad-lb2" class="ad gam" data-iu="lb2" data-ad-lz="1" data-ad-init="1" data-google-query-id="CMb04qO-xI4DFXYETwgdpAw1Og" data-ad-slot-rendered="1" data-rendered-size="1x1">&#8220;That&#8217;s what I would tell anybody: just build a relationship with Him, and that’ll solve all your problems,&#8221; the 33-year-old added.</div>
<div data-iu="lb2" data-ad-lz="1" data-ad-init="1" data-google-query-id="CMb04qO-xI4DFXYETwgdpAw1Og" data-ad-slot-rendered="1" data-rendered-size="1x1"></div>
<blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DMG2BgGg2QU/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14">
<div style="padding: 16px;">
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div style="flex-direction: row; align-items: center;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div>
<div style="flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div>
<div style="height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div>
<div style="padding-top: 8px;">
<div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div>
</div>
<div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"></div>
<div style="flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;">
<div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px;"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px;"></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 8px;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"></div>
<div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent;"></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: auto;">
<div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent;"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px;"></div>
<div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent;"></div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"></div>
</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DMG2BgGg2QU/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by CBN Sports (@cbnsports_)</a></p>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p>During the MLB All-Star Game on Monday, Judge showcased a bat that featured his daughter’s name, Nora, and a Bible verse reference.</p>
<p>&#8220;For we live by faith, not by sight,&#8221; the verse, 2 Corinthians 5:7, reads. Judge&#8217;s bat says, &#8220;Faith, not sight.&#8221;</p>
<div id="attachment_948589" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-948589" class="wp-image-948589 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2224529063-864x576.jpg" alt="The bat of Aaron Judge #99 of the New York Yankees before the Workout during MLB All-Star Week at Truist Park on July 14, 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia." width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2224529063-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2224529063-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2224529063-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2224529063.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /><p id="caption-attachment-948589" class="wp-caption-text"><em>New York Yankees/Getty Images</em></p></div>
<p>Judge has been open about his Christian faith his whole career. The ball player&#8217;s social media <a href="https://x.com/thejudge44?lang=en">bio</a> reads in part, &#8220;Christian. Faith, Family, then Baseball.&#8221;</p>
<p>The athlete has spoken specifically about his adoptive parents and how their love informs his faith, as well.</p>
<p>&#8220;The position I was in, being adopted by my parents &#8212; for them to pick me, choose me, to put me in their lives, it&#8217;s incredible,&#8221; Judge, who was adopted when he was a one-year-old, <a href="https://sportsspectrum.com/sport/baseball/2025/05/01/yankees-aaron-judge-blistering-start-faith-foundation/">said</a> last year. &#8220;Having His blessings, keeping the faith through good times and bad times, knowing He&#8217;s always with me, that&#8217;s definitely helped me get to this position.&#8221;</p>
<p><iframe loading="lazy" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?height=476&amp;href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Freel%2F561052863241503%2F&amp;show_text=true&amp;width=267&amp;t=0" width="267" height="591" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p>Judge learned he was adopted at age ten. “I knew I didn’t look like them,” he <a href="https://www.northjersey.com/story/sports/columnists/bob-klapisch/2017/06/23/klapisch-aaron-judge-never-forgot-his-roots/420872001/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> NorthJersey.com in 2024. “I finally said, ‘Okay, what’s going on?’ And that’s when they told me.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;I was fine with that, they were the only parents I ever knew,&#8221; he added. &#8220;It actually wasn’t a big deal.”</p>
<p><strong>Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dodgers-ace-clayton-kershaw-adds-bible-reference-to-rainbow-hat-for-pride-night">Dodgers Ace Clayton Kershaw Adds Bible Reference To Rainbow Hat For Pride Night</a></strong></p>
</div>


Aaron Judge

Yankees All-Star Aaron Judge Asked About Fortune And Fame, Directs Fans To Jesus

Bible

Christianity

Major League Baseball

New York Yankees

Religion

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Both the Kansas City Chiefs and Kansas City Royals made their homes in Missouri in the 1960s. The teams won a combined six titles in the decades that followed, making Kansas City one of the most successful “</span><a href="https://sports.betmgm.com/en/blog/mlb/smallest-cities-with-mlb-team-bm23/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">small</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">” sports cities in the United States.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But there’s an economic fight brewing over the teams, a fight between two cities of the same name: Kansas City, Missouri, and Kansas City, Kansas. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The historic Kansas City sports franchises currently play in two of the oldest stadiums still used by professional sports teams. The Chiefs’ famed Arrowhead Stadium </span><a href="https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nfl/oldest-nfl-stadiums"><span style="font-weight: 400;">opened</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in 1972, and the Royals’ Kauffman Stadium </span><a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2025/05/31/oldest-stadiums-mlb-active-baseball/83964425007/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">opened</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> a year later. But decades of the Chiefs and Royals playing at Arrowhead and Kauffman and calling Missouri home are at risk of coming to an end as plans have been drawn up for the teams to move just across the Missouri River to Kansas City, Kansas — and Kansas lawmakers are actively seeking to bring the teams across state lines. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On Monday, what promises to be a heated special session began in the Missouri State Legislature. The special session will, in part, address ways to keep the teams in the state, such as funding for improvements to the Chiefs’ stadium and a potential new ballpark on the Missouri side of the border for the Royals. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Missouri&#8217;s Republican Governor, Mike Kehoe, is fighting to keep both teams in Missouri, as their neighbors in Kansas have offered big stadium incentives for the Chiefs and Royals to move across the Missouri River.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But the Chiefs and Royals — and the stadiums that they call home — come with an eye-popping cost, a cost that requires help from government handouts. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">According to the </span><a href="https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article307476771.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Kansas City Star</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, a new stadium for the Royals could cost over $1 billion, while renovations for Arrowhead could come with a pricetag of $800 million. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The cost is worth it to the governor. According to Kehoe’s office, the Chiefs “contribute $575 million annually in economic value and over 4,500 jobs in Jackson County alone, bringing the State of Missouri nearly $30 million in annual tax revenue,” while a “new Royals ballpark district is expected to support 8,400 jobs and generate $1.2 billion in economic output annually.”  </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In a statement to The Daily Wire, a Kehoe spokeswoman said that the governor “has been working for months to develop a competitive package to keep both the Kansas City Royals and Chiefs in Missouri where they belong.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Conservative Republicans in the Missouri Freedom Caucus, however, don’t buy the governor’s economic estimations and don’t want to use taxpayer dollars for the benefit of billionaire owners. Instead, the Freedom Caucus Republicans argue that the state should focus on helping average Missourians with tax cuts. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I hate the thought of billions of taxpayer dollars going to fund bread and circuses, to be honest with you,” Republican State Senator Rick Brattin told The Daily Wire. “And that’s exactly what this is, especially when you see the Royals posting the ‘Pride’ stuff and totally disconnected from reality.” </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Brattin added that the Royals can “move to Kansas for all I care,” saying that the team’s games are “sparsely attended.”  </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The state senator said his colleagues are prepared to negotiate with the governor to come to an agreement on tax cuts for all Missourians in exchange for stadium funding. He argued that incentives offered to the billionaire sports owners should be matched with tax cuts for average citizens. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Some Democrats are also questioning the stadium funding, arguing that more money should be allotted for disaster relief after a major </span><a href="https://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/wx/afos/p.php?pil=PNSLSX&amp;e=202505190006"><span style="font-weight: 400;">tornado</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> struck St. Louis in May, killing five people and injuring dozens more. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Paying for major stadium upgrades — or a new stadium — is a major cost for even the billionaire owners of sports franchises. In most cases, cities and states will chip in by offering government subsidies and tax incentives. The return on such a massive investment, however, is minimal for state and city governments, according to John C. Mozena, the president of the Center for Economic Accountability. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mozena told The Daily Wire in a phone interview that the economic projections on the stadiums touted by Kehoe’s office are “incredibly flawed.” </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“There is virtually nothing that economists agree on more than the idea that stadiums are terrible investments for governments and terrible economic development tools,” Mozena said. “The reason for that is really simple, it’s that stadiums spend almost their entire lives dark, empty, and silent. Most of the time, there’s nothing going on there.” </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mozena added that a baseball stadium might draw up to three million people in a good season, which is “about what a single good-sized Walmart Supercenter might do.” </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“These are big facilities with a lot of infrastructure around them that barely ever get used and end up being economic black holes,” said Mozena.  </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The stadium funding battle reignites a familiar fight, one that Missouri and Kansas once fought over Applebee&#8217;s. From the 1980s through the early 2000s, Applebee&#8217;s moved its headquarters from Missouri to Kansas and back to Missouri, lured by competing tax incentives. The economic “</span><a href="https://www.npr.org/transcripts/668790306"><span style="font-weight: 400;">border war</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">” over Applebee&#8217;s ended when the restaurant chain moved to Southern California in 2023. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The governor is positioning the war over the Chiefs and the Royals as another battle to keep jobs in the state. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Governor Kehoe views these efforts as important economic development retention projects, and believes Missouri’s proposal must be competitive to keep these major economic engines in the state, while also being a good deal for taxpayers,” his spokeswoman told The Daily Wire. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Andy Roth, the president of the State Freedom Caucus Network, said the economic argument doesn’t add up.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“What’s particularly nuts about this whole thing is, by the governor’s own admission, they’re worried the Chiefs and the Royals are going to move 10 miles to the west,” Roth told The Daily Wire. “It’s not like they’re going to Seattle or Florida or New York. They’re literally just going across the road.”  </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The economic border war over the two franchises likely won&#8217;t come to an end until at least the end of June as Missouri lawmakers seek to work out a deal with the governor. Kansas’ offer for the Chiefs and Royals is also coming off the table at the end of June, according to Kansas House Speaker Dan Hawkins, the Kansas City Star </span><a href="https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article307452161.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">reported</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“If one of them wants to — or both — wants to come to Kansas, we’d love to have them,” Hawkins said. “We have the tools.”</span></p>


KC-Stadiums

A Tale Of Two Kansas Cities: Chiefs And Royals Spark Political Battle With Potential Stadium Moves

Kansas

Kansas City

Kansas City Chiefs

Missouri

Republicans

<p>In what some expected to be a <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2025/05/06/pride-month-defections-dei-backlash/83376447007/">tamed-down</a> &#8220;Pride Month&#8221; this year due to companies and organizations ditching diversity, equity, and inclusion goals, the MLB is going all in on LGBT festivities.</p>
<p>While the list of MLB teams promoting &#8220;Pride Month&#8221; on social media has grown smaller from 2024 to 2025, 29 of the 30 teams in the league will still celebrate the LGBT lifestyle with a &#8220;Pride Night&#8221; this month. From Atlanta and Kansas City to Cleveland and Phoenix, &#8220;Pride Nights&#8221; are coming to nearly every major league ballpark as every team in the MLB, except the Texas Rangers, has scheduled an LGBT celebration during the month of June.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.mlb.com/mariners/tickets/specials/pride">Seattle Mariners</a> will host two &#8220;Pride Night&#8221; events, the first on June 4 vs. the Baltimore Orioles and the second on June 13 vs. the Cleveland Guardians. The team writes on its website, &#8220;We have two amazing Pride Themed Ticket Specials on deck this season – don’t miss your chance to score a Belt Bag on June 4 and Stanley-style Tumbler on June 13. Plus, each night, $5 of every ticket sold will benefit the GSBA [an LGBTQ+ chamber of commerce] Scholarship Fund and Seattle Pride, respectively.&#8221;</p>
<p>The Atlanta Braves, meanwhile, are <a href="https://www.mlb.com/braves/tickets/specials/pride">hosting</a> a &#8220;Pride Night&#8221; on June 3 vs. the Arizona Diamondbacks, which includes &#8220;a pregame party&#8221; and &#8220;a Braves Pride t-shirt.&#8221;</p>
<p>At the historic Fenway Park in Boston, the Red Sox will celebrate &#8220;Pride Month&#8221; against the Tampa Bay Rays on June 9. At the game, fans will have the option to purchase a Red Sox &#8220;Pride&#8221; <a href="https://www.mlb.com/redsox/tickets/promotions/cultural-and-identity-celebrations/pride">hat</a>. The Colorado Rockies, who currently hold the worst record in the MLB, will host a &#8220;<a href="https://www.mlb.com/rockies/tickets/specials/themes/pride">Pride Night</a>&#8221; on June 6 vs. the New York Mets, where &#8220;a portion of each ticket package sold will benefit The Center on Colfax, Colorado’s largest LGBTQIA+ resource and community center, and One Colorado, the state&#8217;s leading advocacy organization for LGBTQIA+ rights.&#8221;</p>
<p><a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=editorial&amp;utm_campaign=memorial&amp;utm_content=editorialmemorialday&amp;_gl=1*1qdq03s*_gcl_au*MTYyNDg0MTE0OS4xNzQxODk4NTMz*_ga*MTEzOTk1NjkxNi4xNzI2MzI1MDQz*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*czE3NDgzNzg2NDgkbzEwMDMkZzEkdDE3NDgzODEwMTckajU4JGwwJGgw" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><b data-stringify-type="bold">Get 40% Off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships</b></a></p>
<p>The Rangers are the only MLB team that has <a href="https://apnews.com/article/rangers-pride-mlb-lgbtq-56ce863b94a0d3fde951f9dec14b84b4">never</a> waded into the LGBT messaging during &#8220;Pride Month.&#8221; In response to questions about skipping &#8220;Pride Month&#8221; events, the team stated last year, “Our longstanding commitment remains the same: To make everyone feel welcome and included in Rangers baseball — in our ballpark, at every game, and in all we do — for both our fans and our employees. We deliver on that promise across our many programs to have a positive impact across our entire community.”</p>
<p>While nearly every team is once again throwing a &#8220;Pride Night,&#8221; fewer clubs celebrated &#8220;Pride Month&#8221; on social media on June 1 this year compared to 2024. Only six teams changed their official logos on social media to include some version of the &#8220;Pride&#8221; flag, while another 11 teams wrote a post acknowledging &#8220;Pride Month.&#8221;</p>
<div id="attachment_928219" style="width: 586px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-928219" class="wp-image-928219 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/MixCollage-02-Jun-2025-02-01-PM-9610-576x576.jpg" alt="" width="576" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/MixCollage-02-Jun-2025-02-01-PM-9610-576x576.jpg 576w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/MixCollage-02-Jun-2025-02-01-PM-9610-300x300.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/MixCollage-02-Jun-2025-02-01-PM-9610-150x150.jpg 150w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/MixCollage-02-Jun-2025-02-01-PM-9610-768x768.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/MixCollage-02-Jun-2025-02-01-PM-9610-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/MixCollage-02-Jun-2025-02-01-PM-9610-2048x2048.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 576px) 100vw, 576px" /><p id="caption-attachment-928219" class="wp-caption-text">X Screengrabs: Mets, Orioles, Nationals, Phillies, Giants, Rays</p></div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Happy Pride Month! <a href="https://t.co/8cxQkV5wbm">pic.twitter.com/8cxQkV5wbm</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) <a href="https://twitter.com/Dodgers/status/1929222466997743758?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 1, 2025</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Happy Pride Month! <a href="https://t.co/TjG4fzAEjx">pic.twitter.com/TjG4fzAEjx</a></p>
<p>&mdash; New York Yankees (@Yankees) <a href="https://twitter.com/Yankees/status/1929277462443139181?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 1, 2025</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">June is Pride Month. We are proud to celebrate and support our LGBTQ+ community through advocacy and partnerships with organizations, like Center on Halsted and Howard Brown Health! 🏳️‍🌈</p>
<p>&mdash; Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) <a href="https://twitter.com/whitesox/status/1929182056602378425?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 1, 2025</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Baseball is for everyone 🏳️‍🌈</p>
<p>Celebrate Pride at Comerica Park on June 25th with a special ticket package that includes a Pride bucket hat!</p>
<p>&mdash; Detroit Tigers (@tigers) <a href="https://twitter.com/tigers/status/1929196807168421968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 1, 2025</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Baseball is for everyone. 🏳️‍🌈<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PrideMonth?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PrideMonth</a> <a href="https://t.co/89axq3y1Xl">pic.twitter.com/89axq3y1Xl</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Kansas City Royals (@Royals) <a href="https://twitter.com/Royals/status/1929161008989565403?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 1, 2025</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Happy Pride Month, Twins Territory! All are welcome here 🩷🩵🤎🖤❤️🧡💛💚💙💜 <a href="https://t.co/er0IcdPGR7">pic.twitter.com/er0IcdPGR7</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Minnesota Twins (@Twins) <a href="https://twitter.com/Twins/status/1929174897378353323?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 1, 2025</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Happy Pride Month ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜 <a href="https://t.co/ZOluis37Rc">pic.twitter.com/ZOluis37Rc</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) <a href="https://twitter.com/Mariners/status/1929177363537105149?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 1, 2025</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<h3></h3>
<div id="attachment_928147" style="width: 437px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-928147" class="wp-image-928147 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screenshot-2025-06-02-at-1.17.29%E2%80%AFPM-427x576.png" alt="" width="427" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screenshot-2025-06-02-at-1.17.29%E2%80%AFPM-427x576.png 427w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screenshot-2025-06-02-at-1.17.29%E2%80%AFPM-222x300.png 222w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screenshot-2025-06-02-at-1.17.29%E2%80%AFPM-768x1036.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screenshot-2025-06-02-at-1.17.29%E2%80%AFPM.png 1082w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 427px) 100vw, 427px" /><p id="caption-attachment-928147" class="wp-caption-text">Screenshot: Blue Jays &#8211; X</p></div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Baseball is for everyone 🫶 <a href="https://t.co/WwBCtThPKD">pic.twitter.com/WwBCtThPKD</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) <a href="https://twitter.com/Dbacks/status/1929208206468993178?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 1, 2025</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Happy Pride!  </p>
<p>Celebrate at Coors Field with us on 6/6 ➡️ <a href="https://t.co/YQ3yJZOdtN">https://t.co/YQ3yJZOdtN</a> <a href="https://t.co/h465BoNGlT">pic.twitter.com/h465BoNGlT</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) <a href="https://twitter.com/Rockies/status/1929197321675239796?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 1, 2025</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">We are <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BurghProud?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BurghProud</a> 🏳️‍🌈</p>
<p>To kick off Pride Month, we joined the <a href="https://twitter.com/penguins?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@penguins</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/steelers?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@steelers</a>, and the city of Pittsburgh to spread acceptance, inclusivity, and love at the Pittsburgh Pride Parade this morning. <a href="https://t.co/76bLH1KHjr">pic.twitter.com/76bLH1KHjr</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) <a href="https://twitter.com/Pirates/status/1929251294943863262?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 1, 2025</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>


Fenway Park Pride Night

Doubling Down: 29 Of MLB’s 30 Teams Celebrate ‘Pride Month’

Baseball

LGBTQ

Pride Month

Social Issues

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Former New York Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner recently announced the tragic death of his 14-year-old son, Miller. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Gardner shared a statement along with his wife, Jessica, which said the cause of death was unknown at this time and that the teen “passed away peacefully in his sleep” on Friday.</span></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Statement from Brett and Jessica Gardner: </p>
<p>With heavy hearts we are saddened to announce the passing of our youngest son, Miller. He was 14 years old and has left us far too soon after falling ill along with several other family members while on vacation. We have so many… <a href="https://t.co/lBCBVmKGUe">pic.twitter.com/lBCBVmKGUe</a></p>
<p>&mdash; New York Yankees (@Yankees) <a href="https://twitter.com/Yankees/status/1903854341737386272?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 23, 2025</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“With heavy hearts we are saddened to announce the passing of our youngest son, Miller,” the statement said. “He was 14 years old and has left us far too soon after falling ill along with several other family members while on vacation. We have so many questions and so few answers at this point, but we do know that he passed away peacefully in his sleep on the morning of Friday, March 21st.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Miller was a beloved son and brother and we cannot yet comprehend our life without his infectious smile,” it continued. “He loved football, baseball, golf, hunting, fishing, his family and his friends. He lived life to the fullest every single day.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We are so thankful to all who have reached out to offer support and encouragement during this difficult time and we are confident our faith, family, and friends will help us navigate this unimaginable loss. Our prayers go out to Miller&#8217;s teammates and friends, as well as to all other families who have lost a child far too soon as we share their grief.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Please respect our wishes for privacy as we mourn and search for healing,” the statement concluded.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Gardner spent his entire 14-year MLB career with the Yankees. He played his last game in 2021 and has been spending his retirement with his family in South Carolina.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Yankees issued a statement, saying, “Our hearts are heavy, and the Yankees family is filled with grief after learning of the passing of Miller Gardner. Words feel insignificant and insufficient in trying to describe such an unimaginable loss. It wasn’t just Brett who literally grew up in this organization for more than 17 years — so did his wife, Jessica, and their two boys, Hunter and Miller.”</span></p>
<p>Yankees manager Aaron Boone called the news “unimaginable.”</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We’re heartbroken,” Boone said Sunday, per <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/03/23/sports/yankees-great-brett-gardner-announces-death-of-14-year-old-son-miller/">The New York Post</a>. “We talk about being family all the time and even though Brett’s been gone for a few years, that doesn’t stop. A lot of people in there [in the clubhouse] that know that family intimately. It’s a very tough day and very tough news.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“As best we can, we’ll be praying for the Gardner family and, where we can, offering support,” he added. </span></p>


Brett Gardner

Former NY Yankees Star Announces Shocking Death Of 14-Year-Old Son

Former Yankees Star Announces Shocking Death Of 14-Year-Old Son

Celebrities

Death

<p>Major League Baseball umpire Pat Hoberg was fired on Monday after the league said he shared sports betting accounts with a friend who placed money on professional baseball games.</p>
<p>Hoberg — who was widely viewed as one of the best umpires in baseball — was also accused of intentionally deleting messages to his friend with whom he shared the legal gambling accounts. The umpire &#8220;adamantly denied betting on baseball directly or indirectly,&#8221; according to the MLB, but Hoberg&#8217;s friend — a professional poker player — placed numerous bets on MLB games, including five games in which Hoberg was umpiring or had responsibility for replay reviews.</p>
<p>&#8220;An extensive investigation revealed no evidence that Mr. Hoberg placed bets on baseball directly or that he or anyone else manipulated games in any way,&#8221; said MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred. &#8220;However, his extremely poor judgment in sharing betting accounts with a professional poker player he had reason to believe bet on baseball and who did, in fact, bet on baseball from the shared accounts, combined with his deletion of messages, creates at minimum the appearance of impropriety that warrants imposing the most severe discipline.&#8221;</p>
<p>According to the MLB, Hoberg&#8217;s friend placed 141 baseball bets between April 2, 2021, and November 1, 2023, for a total of $214,000. The umpire&#8217;s friend won nearly $35,000 in those bets, the Associated Press <a href="https://apnews.com/article/umpire-pat-hoberg-fired-gambling-6ab65f3751addfb85a01434b18a81369" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. In a statement, Hoberg said he takes &#8220;full responsibility for the errors in judgment that are outlined in today&#8217;s statement [from the MLB].&#8221;</p>
<p>An analysis of Hoberg&#8217;s umpiring showed no evidence that his calls were influenced by his friend&#8217;s bets, nor did they reveal any connection to a specific team, player, or umpire, <a href="https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/43680990/mlb-upholds-firing-ump-pat-hoberg-gambling-violations">according</a> to ESPN. The pair met at a poker tournament in 2014, and they would regularly travel together and watch sports on TV. Hoberg and his friend, who was not named, would use Telegram to keep track of each of their bets on the gambling accounts, and they would settle any debts when they saw each other. Hoberg&#8217;s friend deleted the Telegram account after Hoberg was contacted by MLB investigators, a move Hoberg claimed was due to his embarrassment over the amount of legal bets he had placed on non-baseball events.</p>
<p>&#8220;Those errors will always be a source of shame and embarrassment to me,&#8221; Hoberg added. The umpire said that he &#8220;never and would never bet on baseball in any way, shape, or form&#8221; and that he has &#8220;never provided, and would never provide, information to anyone for the purpose of betting on baseball. Upholding the integrity of the game has always been of the utmost importance to me.&#8221;</p>
<p>Hoberg was praised for correctly calling all 129 balls and strikes during Game 2 of the 2022 World Series. The 38-year-old was first relieved of his duties by the MLB last May, a few months after MLB began its investigation. A lengthy appeals process followed, leading to the league&#8217;s decision on Monday.</p>


Pat Hoberg

MLB Umpire Fired For Sharing Sports Betting Accounts With Friend Who Put Money On Baseball

gambling

<p style="font-weight: 400;">Bob Uecker, who played <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/mlb" target="_blank" rel="noopener">major-league baseball</a> for six years for the Milwaukee Braves, Philadelphia Phillies, St. Louis Cardinals, and Atlanta Braves before starting a legendary career as the Milwaukee Brewers’ broadcaster for a whopping 54 years, died on Thursday at the age of 90.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Uecker’s career was anything but legendary; he finished his career with a lowly .200 batting average and only 14 home runs with 731 at-bats. “To make people laugh is a good thing. I used to get questions from my kids about, ‘Why do you do that? Why do you talk about yourself the way you do?’ I said, ‘Because it’s funny and it makes people laugh,” Uecker said.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">“Could he hit?” the legendary slugger Hank Aaron <a href="https://www.mlb.com/video/remembering-the-life-and-career-of-bob-uecker" target="_blank" rel="noopener">quipped</a>. “I’m just glad I didn’t take his advice. (Hall of Fame pitcher Warren) Spahn, (Hall of Fame third-baseman Eddie) Mathews, myself, we would talk about hitting and everybody would tell, ‘Bob, this conversation you’re out of.”</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">“I roomed with him in St. Louis,” former Cardinals star catcher and later famed broadcaster Tim McCarver recalled. “And from day one he was screamingly funny.”</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">“If the ball club was going bad he could say something that could make everybody laugh, relax,” Aaron remembered.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Uecker would <a href="https://www.mlb.com/brewers/news/bob-uecker-favorite-stories-memories?t=brewers-history-trivia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">joke</a> about signing with his hometown Milwaukee Braves for $3,000 in 1956, “That bothered my dad at the time because he didn’t have that kind of dough. But he eventually scraped it up.”</p>
<p><a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?_gl=1*1lail3r*_gcl_aw*R0NMLjE3MzIyMDEyNDkuQ2owS0NRaUEwZnU1QmhEUUFSSXNBTVhVQk9JSkM0VnNsMFVreURxYXUxVWVEVWdOdjZkNzR2Y1pEeEZQeHVBcGl2R3BLaTdBMjVzT1p5TWFBdG1nRUFMd193Y0I.*_gcl_au*NDUxNDQ0NzYwLjE3MzY3ODI2NDY.*_ga*MTc2NzM0NDQ2NS4xNzI4OTA5Nzkx*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTczNjk1NzYwMy4zNDAuMS4xNzM2OTU3NzE2LjYwLjAuMA.." target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?_gl%3D1*1lail3r*_gcl_aw*R0NMLjE3MzIyMDEyNDkuQ2owS0NRaUEwZnU1QmhEUUFSSXNBTVhVQk9JSkM0VnNsMFVreURxYXUxVWVEVWdOdjZkNzR2Y1pEeEZQeHVBcGl2R3BLaTdBMjVzT1p5TWFBdG1nRUFMd193Y0I.*_gcl_au*NDUxNDQ0NzYwLjE3MzY3ODI2NDY.*_ga*MTc2NzM0NDQ2NS4xNzI4OTA5Nzkx*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTczNjk1NzYwMy4zNDAuMS4xNzM2OTU3NzE2LjYwLjAuMA..&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1737044212122000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3mp2MZNwEXBk00lKmCtOss"><b>CELEBRATE #47 WITH 47% OFF DAILYWIRE+ MEMBERSHIPS + A FREE $20 GIFT</b></a></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">“He’s very funny on the air. But he’s an exceptionally good broadcaster,” Bob Costas declared. “You really feel the game through him.”</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">“I think where he really shines is when the game is 11 to 2, and it’s the sixth inning, because then you have to go to plan B, and he starts telling stories,” Pat Hughes, his broadcast partner from 1984-1995, said. “That aspect differentiates him maybe, from any other play-by-play man that’s ever lived.”</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">“Bob is a comedic genius. And no one would have seen it had he not gone on Johnny Carson and done what he did,” McCarver asserted. Carson laughed so often at Uecker’s jokes that he had Uecker on frequently, more than 100 times, and called him “Mr. Baseball.” Uecker’s frequent appearances on &#8220;The Tonight Show&#8221; led to TV and movie roles. But in the end, it was baseball for which he was famous.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Milwaukee adored Uecker. McCarver noted, “When a man has two statues of himself, one outside the stadium and one inside the stadium, that gives you an idea of just how much Bob Uecker has meant to the city of Milwaukee.”</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Our statement on the passing of Bob Uecker: <a href="https://t.co/OGbzM8QL11">pic.twitter.com/OGbzM8QL11</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) <a href="https://twitter.com/Brewers/status/1879921141932044644?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 16, 2025</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>


New York Mets v. Milwaukee Brewers

‘Comedic Genius’: MLB Hall Of Fame Broadcaster Bob Uecker Dies At 90

Bob Uecker

Media

Milwaukee Brewers

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/mlb" target="_blank" rel="noopener">World Series</a> scored its highest ratings a Game 5 has seen in years when the Los Angeles Dodgers won the championship 7-6 against the New York Yankees.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On Wednesday night, the Dodgers-Yankees final game averaged 18.6 million viewers across all Fox Sports platforms, including the broadcast network, Fox Deportes, and streaming services, with the main broadcast network having an audience of <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/world-series-2024-tv-ratings-best-7-years-1236050038/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">18.15 million</a> people, according to The </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Hollywood Reporter</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Dodgers&#8217; victory also ended up being a seven-year high for the game since 2017, when the Houston Astros had a seven game victory over the Dodgers with an average audience of 18.93 million.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As a whole, the entire series gave Major League Baseball its fourth largest audience baseball has seen since 2010, trailing only behind the 2016 series with nearly 23 million viewers, 2017&#8217;s 18.93 million viewers, and 2011’s 16.5 million viewers. All three of those series went a full seven games.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This year&#8217;s series averaged 15.81 million viewers over the entire five nights of nail-bitting action on the field, with the first three games in Los Angeles and later to New York as the Dodgers led the series 3-0. However, it was the Yankees who scored a massive win in the fourth game, 11-4, to take it to a fifth game where the Dodgers scored a victory on Wednesday night.</span></p>
<p><a href="https://www.amiracist.com/?_gl=1*jtghwp*_gcl_au*ODQ1NjYzNTg2LjE3Mjg5MDk3OTE.*_ga*MTc2NzM0NDQ2NS4xNzI4OTA5Nzkx*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTczMDEyMDgwOS40OS4xLjE3MzAxMjA4MzkuMzAuMC4w" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>MATT WALSH’S ‘AM I RACIST?’ NOW STREAMING ON DAILYWIRE+</strong></a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The year&#8217;s series ended up being a huge draw for viewers in Japan, and it was the first time ever that viewership was larger there than in the United States, driven largely by Japanese-born Dodgers pitcher/designated star hitter </span><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/greatest-day-in-baseball-history-dodgers-star-sets-new-mlb-milestone"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Shohei Ohtani</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, as </span><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/world-series-ratings-soar-in-japan-thanks-to-ohtani"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Daily Wire</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> previously reported.</span></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">The 2024 World Series goes in the books as the most watched Fall Classic since 2017 <a href="https://t.co/Xfxqyygn6M">https://t.co/Xfxqyygn6M</a></p>
<p>— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) <a href="https://twitter.com/THR/status/1852472020841193851?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 1, 2024</a></p></blockquote>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The ratings for the second game of the series between LA and NY scored 15.9 million viewers in Japan, while the viewership in the U.S. fell to 13.8 million, making it the second biggest TV market for the series, according to </span><a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/shohei-ohtani-lifts-world-series-tv-ratings-japan-record-1236047222/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">data</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> from the Major League Baseball and Fox Corp’s sports division, THR noted.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Due to the 16-hour time difference, the first two games of the World Series, which were held in Los Angeles, aired in Japan on Saturday morning and Sunday morning. After game one, the Dodgers came away with a 6-3 victory over the NY team and LA also scored a 4-2 victory in game two.</span></p>
<p><strong>Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/world-series-ratings-soar-in-japan-thanks-to-ohtani" target="_blank" rel="noopener">World Series Ratings Soar In Japan Thanks To Ohtani</a></strong></p>


Los Angeles Dodgers World Series

World Series Scores Highest Ratings In Years For Dodgers’ Game 5 Championship Win

World Series Scores Highest Ratings In Years For Dodgers' Game 5 Championship Win

Entertainment

Los Angeles Dodgers

Ratings

World Series

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Two </span><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/new-york-yankees"><span style="font-weight: 400;">New York Yankees</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> fans were ejected from Game 4 of the World Series on Tuesday night after interfering with a catch made by </span><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/los-angeles-dodgers"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Los Angeles Dodgers</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> star Mookie Betts. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The incident occurred during the first inning when Betts ran toward the right-field wall to catch a foul hit by Yankees second baseman Gleyber Torres</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">. Betts caught the ball in foul territory, but then video footage showed a fan reaching over the wall and grabbing Betts&#8217; glove. Another spectator pulled on Betts&#8217; arm at the same time, causing the ball to pop loose. An umpire ruled that Torres was out due to fan interference.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Video footage of the incident immediately began circulating on social media, prompting outraged reactions. </span></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">&quot;Well, A for effort.&quot;</p>
<p>Fan interference was called on this play where a Yankee fan tried to take the ball out of Mookie Betts&#39; glove after an out. <a href="https://t.co/iZ6taImncd">pic.twitter.com/iZ6taImncd</a></p>
<p>&mdash; FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) <a href="https://twitter.com/MLBONFOX/status/1851420322295128310?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 30, 2024</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Former Atlanta Braves pitcher John Smoltz, now a FOX Sports broadcaster, said the fan “won’t be watching the game much longer.”</span></p>
<p><a href="https://www.amiracist.com/?_gl=1*jtghwp*_gcl_au*ODQ1NjYzNTg2LjE3Mjg5MDk3OTE.*_ga*MTc2NzM0NDQ2NS4xNzI4OTA5Nzkx*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTczMDEyMDgwOS40OS4xLjE3MzAxMjA4MzkuMzAuMC4w" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>MATT WALSH’S ‘AM I RACIST?’ NOW STREAMING ON DAILYWIRE+</strong></a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Video footage showed both fans being escorted out of the stadium. On their way out, the men exchanged high-fives with other Yankees fans, and one of them told The Athletic reporter Rustin Dodd that the fan was a “hero … it’s a championship game.” </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The ejected fan was identified by ESPN as a Yankees season-ticket holder who said he had prepared for that situation in advance. “We always joke about the ball in our area,” the fan said after the game, per the outlet. “We’re not going to go out of our way to attack. If it’s in our area, we’re going to ‘D’ up. Someone defends, someone knocks the ball. We talk about it. We’re willing to do this.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Security reportedly told the two men they were not permitted to come back for Game 5 on Wednesday.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Betts did not have much to say about what happened, responding to teammate Tommy Edman calling the behavior “unacceptable” by saying, “We lost, that’s what I’m focused on.” </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Yankees won Game 4 on Tuesday with a final score of 11-4. They trail the Dodgers three games to one in the best-of-seven series. The Yankees are seeking their 28th World Series title, which would be their first since 2009. The Dodgers are hoping for their first World Series ring since winning the series in 2020. The team has won seven World Series titles in franchise history.</span></p>


Mookie Betts

WATCH: Yankees Fans Pry Ball From Mookie Betts’ Glove During Game 4 Of World Series

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">For the first time ever, the audience for the World Series in Japan was larger than in the United States, driven largely by Japanese-born Dodgers&#8217; pitcher/designated star hitter <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/greatest-day-in-baseball-history-dodgers-star-sets-new-mlb-milestone" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Shohei Ohtani</a>.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The ratings for the second game of the series between Los Angeles and the New York Yankees scored 15.9 million viewers in Japan, while the viewership in the U.S. fell to 13.8 million, making it the second biggest TV market for the series, according </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">to <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/shohei-ohtani-lifts-world-series-tv-ratings-japan-record-1236047222/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> from the Major League Baseball and Fox Corp’s sports division, T</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">he </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Hollywood Reporter noted</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Due to the 16-hour time difference, the first two games of the World Series, which were held in Los Angeles, aired in Japan on </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Saturday morning and Sunday morning. After game one, the Dodgers came away with a 6-3 victory over the NY team and LA also scored a 4-2 victory in game two.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Despite the lower ratings than Japan, the World Series has scored Fox Sports the biggest ratings the World Series has had since 2017, THR noted.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The ratings for the first two games in the coveted age demographic of ages 18-34 were also up 93 percent, according to Nielsen.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And according to the league, World Series engagement has never been higher, with 345 million views on social media and 25 million engagements.</span></p>
<p><a href="https://www.amiracist.com/?_gl=1*jtghwp*_gcl_au*ODQ1NjYzNTg2LjE3Mjg5MDk3OTE.*_ga*MTc2NzM0NDQ2NS4xNzI4OTA5Nzkx*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTczMDEyMDgwOS40OS4xLjE3MzAxMjA4MzkuMzAuMC4w" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>MATT WALSH’S ‘AM I RACIST?’ NOW STREAMING ON DAILYWIRE+</strong></a></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Saturday&#8217;s Game Two of the World Series drew 15.9 million average viewers in Japan, the most ever for a postseason Major League Baseball game in the country, the league said on Monday. <a href="https://t.co/abbtBYyNM4">https://t.co/abbtBYyNM4</a></p>
<p>— The Japan Times (@japantimes) <a href="https://twitter.com/japantimes/status/1851097267932979580?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 29, 2024</a></p></blockquote>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The ratings for game three in Los Angeles of the series drew another 13.6 million views across all its platforms on Fox, Fox Deportes, and Fox Sports, making it the most watched World Series game three since 2018, when 13.3 million viewers watched the Dodgers beat the Red Sox 3-2, the outlet noted.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On the Fox network alone, the Dodgers&#8217; 4-2 victory over the Yankees drew 13.2 million viewers, the Wrap noted.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The audience was also 63% bigger than the game two series last year between the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks, which had an audience of 8.13 million, the Wrap noted.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Coming out of game three, the Dodgers are leading the series 3-0. The series will now shift to New York for games 3-5 where the Yankees must come away with the victory if they want a shot at winning the championship, or the Dodgers will go home the victors.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Game four of the series takes place Tuesday night in New York.</span></p>
<p><strong>Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/greatest-day-in-baseball-history-dodgers-star-sets-new-mlb-milestone" target="_blank" rel="noopener">‘Greatest Day In Baseball History’: Dodgers Star Sets New MLB Milestone</a></strong></p>


Shohei Ohtani

World Series Ratings Soar In Japan Thanks To Ohtani

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Two </span><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/las-vegas"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Las Vegas-</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">based </span><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/music"><span style="font-weight: 400;">radio stations</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> are refusing to play any Green Day songs after the band’s lead singer, Billie Joe Armstrong, made negative comments about the city.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It all started when the 52-year-old musician criticized Oakland A’s owner John Fisher for deciding to move the </span><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/mlb"><span style="font-weight: 400;">MLB</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> team to Sin City. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We don’t take s*** from people like f***ing John Fisher,” Armstrong, an Oakland native, said at a show in San Francisco&#8217;s Oracle Park in late September. “I hate Las Vegas. It’s the worst s&#8212;hole in America.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The station KOMP 92.3 shared a photo of the band with a giant red “no” symbol superimposed on top of its Instagram. The </span><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DAXFjg1SCcW/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">caption</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> said, “KOMP 92.3 has pulled any and all Green Day from our playlist. It’s not us, Billie…it’s you. #vegas4ever.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A second Vegas-based station, X107.5, shared on its website that it would be making the same move. “In response to Armstrong’s inflammatory comments, the station is banning all Green Day music, effective immediately,” the station said, per </span><a href="https://people.com/green-day-banned-from-two-las-vegas-rock-stations-after-billie-joe-armstrong-insults-city-8720886"><span style="font-weight: 400;">People</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. </span></p>
<p><b><a href="https://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amiracist.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1726313279401000&amp;usg=AOvVaw115_qPFFEePDP86-Fvo-Vd">Am I Racist? Is In Theaters NOW — Get Your Tickets Here!</a></b></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Fisher is a former part-owner of the San Francisco Giants along with his father and is a current owner of the A&#8217;s since 2005. It was announced in April that the team would relocate to the New Las Vegas Stadium. At the team&#8217;s last Oakland game, the crowd started a &#8220;F*** John Fisher&#8221; chant, the outlet noted.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In August, Armstrong posted a </span><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C-JvddatdD3/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">video</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> of himself vandalizing the Athletics logo in the Toronto Blue Jays clubhouse at the Rogers Center. The Green Day singer can be seen spray painting a “B” over the letter “A” on the team’s logo and crossing out the word “Athletics.”</span></p>
<blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/C-JvddatdD3/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14">
<div style="padding: 16px;">
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div>
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div>
<div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div>
<div style="padding-top: 8px;">
<div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div>
</div>
<div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"></div>
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;">
<div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 8px;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"></div>
<div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: auto;">
<div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"></div>
<div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"></div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"></div>
</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C-JvddatdD3/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Billie Joe (@billiejoearmstrong)</a></p>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p><script async src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Armstrong is known for making strong political statements. The singer and his band were mocked earlier this year for changing the lyrics to one of their songs.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">While performing the band’s 2004 hit single “American Idiot” at ABC’s “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” presentation, Armstrong sang, “I’m not a part of the MAGA agenda” instead of the original lyrics, “I’m not a part of the redneck agenda,” as The Daily Wire previously </span><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/rocker-changes-lyrics-to-take-shot-at-trump-supporters-during-new-years-eve-performance-on-abc"><span style="font-weight: 400;">reported</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">X owner Elon Musk made fun of the band for the move. “Green Day goes from raging against the machine to milquetoastedly raging for it,” the billionaire entrepreneur <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1741866490817642875">shared</a> in an X post at the time, adding two laughing-crying emojis.</span></p>


Green Day

Las Vegas Radio Stations Ban Green Day Songs After Lead Singer Calls It ‘Worst S***hole In America’

Two Vegas Radio Stations Ban Green Day Songs After Lead Singer Calls It ‘Worst Sh**hole In America’

Las Vegas

Music

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Major League Baseball hitting legend Pete Rose, who loved playing baseball as much as any man who ever lived, passed away on Monday at his home in Las Vegas, his agent has confirmed. He was 83 years old.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Rose’s agent </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Ryan Fiterman</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> confirmed to </span><a href="https://www.tmz.com/2024/09/30/pete-rose-dead/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">TMZ</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> that Rose had died and &#8220;the family is asking for privacy at this time.&#8221;  A</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> cause of death has yet to be reported.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Rose, who once said, &#8220;I&#8217;d walk through hell in a gasoline suit to play baseball,&#8221;  started his pro career with the Cincinnati Reds, in 1963, when he won Rookie of the Year. His all-out, hell-bent-for leather style reminded old-time baseball fans of the legendary Ty Cobb, whose career hits record Rose would ultimately break. He was a 17-time All-Star and the National League MVP in 1973. He was the fiercest member of the legendary Big Red Machine in Cincinnati whose 1975 and 1976 World Series-winning teams are considered one of the best teams to have ever played in the major leagues.</span></p>
<p>In November 1978, Rose became a free agent, then signed with the Philadelphia Phillies, where he played for five years, becoming an integral reason why they won their first-ever  World Series in 1980 after eight decades of waiting. At the age of 41, he played each and every game of the 162-game season in 1982. After a brief sojourn with the Montreal Expos in 1984, he finished the season and played two more back with the Reds, finishing with the most hits, most games played, and most at-bats of any player in the history of major league baseball.</p>
<p>The switch-hitting Rose started his career playing second base, but when asked to move to third base immediately played there, all part of his ferocious desire to win. He was famous for calculating his batting average on his way to first base after a base hit, and could quote at length his statistics against all of the great pitchers he faced. He said the Los Angeles Dodgers&#8217; Sandy Koufax was the toughest pitcher he ever faced, and would take a coin and push it off a table to fall straight down, saying that was how impossible Koufax&#8217;s curveball was to hit. &#8220;I got 10 for 57 off of him. Get your calculator; that&#8217;s .175. When you don&#8217;t hit your weight off of a pitcher you&#8217;re doing pretty bad,&#8221; he <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppMRNWFfb4k">joked</a>.</p>
<p>His career was central to Rose&#8217;s life; he once said, &#8220;I&#8217;m just like everybody else. I have two arms, two legs and four-thousand hits.&#8221; He also said, &#8220;Willie Mays could throw better, and Hank Aaron could hit more home runs. But I&#8217;ve got enthusiasm. I&#8217;ve got desire. I&#8217;ve got hustle. Those are God-given talents, too.&#8221;</p>
<p>The Cincinnati-native and all-time MLB hits leader was banned from the sport in 1989 for gambling while he was a manager of the Reds.</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The lifetime baseball ban also kept Rose — who won three World Series titles during his career — from being inducted into baseball&#8217;s Hall of Fame, something that has been the subject of contention for years among baseball fans</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Later in life, Rose said his one regret in life was betting on the games.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“There’s only one thing I would change if I had to live it all over again … I would obviously turn my life around and not bet on baseball,” Rose </span><a href="https://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/2024/09/30/pete-rose-mlb-hits-leader-obituary/2808469001/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">told the Cincinnati Enquirer</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. “Having said that, I feel like I’ve been a pretty good citizen.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“You never read about me being in a bar after hours, beating up my wife, or getting into a fight with a fan and I was as gracious to everyone as I could be,&#8221; he added.</span></p>


Menu

MLB