June 9, 2025 • 39 mins
A Big Citrus meeting is called to order to talk about the Texas Longhorns' first softball national championship, the Boston Legacy’s newly unveiled logo, and Coco Gauff’s French Open win. Plus, saloon doors and invisible guns--Sarah shares her favorite moments from AUSL’s big opening day.
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The PWHL expansion draft is tonight at 8:30pm ET! You can watch it here and keep tabs on the round-by-round progress here
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Check out the slow-mo video of Coco Gauff winning the French Open here
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And watch Coco’s celebration with the ball kids here
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Read a fascinating story about Cyril, the mascot of Swansea FC, here
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Check out Angel Reese’s new PE shoes here
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And take a look at Satou Sabally’s shoes here
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Leave us a voicemail at 872-204-5070 or send us a note at goodgame@wondermedianetwork.com
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Follow Sarah on social! Bluesky: @sarahspain.com Instagram: @Spain2323
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're basking
in the glory of correctly predicting the Women's College World
Series winner.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I'm not the kind of person to say I told
you so, so.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Who am I kidding? I'm absolutely that person I told
you so. It's Monday, June ninth, and on today's show,
Big Citrus will reconvene to talk Texas's first Softball National
Championship Athletes, Unlimited Softball Leagues opening day, Coco Goff's French
Open win, and we'll check in on happenings in the WNBA.
Plus the House versus NCAA settlement is done, NWSL expansion side,
(00:34):
Boston Legacy FC has its logo, and one team's new
tradition is so good it should be illegal. It's all
coming up right after this. Welcome back Slices, Happy Monday.
(00:57):
Here's what you need to know today. In tennis, Coco
Goff took home her first French Open title and second
major title on Saturday, defeating world number one Arena Sablenka
in three sets. Goff's victory marks the first time the
French Open trophy has been hoisted by an American since
Serena Williams did.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
It back in twenty fifteen.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Goff actually dropped the first set of the final, but
she bounced back to win the latter two handily. It
made the twenty one year old the first woman in
tennis history to rally from a set down to win
their first two major titles. The other was at the
twenty twenty three US Open, also a win over Sabolenka.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
If you didn't catch the match, you missed a.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Lot, including the elation that Coco Goff displayed after the
final point.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
It was so pure.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
We'll link to a slow mo video of that moment
in our show notes. You also have to check out
her adorable celebration with the French Open ball kids. We'll
link to that one too. After the contest was all
said and done, runner up Seblanka gave Golf her props
in the on court interview, saying, quote to Coco, you
deserve it. You're a hard worker, a fighter.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
End quote.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
But then in the press conference, Sablenka made some interesting comments.
She told reporters in part, quote, I think she won
the match, not because she played incredible, just because.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
I made all of those mistakes. End quote.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Sablenka also alluded to the idea that fellow WTA superstar
Egas Fontech might have defeated Goff had she been the
one to make it to the final. This, of course,
set off alarms across the tennis space, but Sablenka took
to her Instagram story on Sunday to try to make
things clear. She wrote, in part quote, she was the
better player yesterday, and I want to give her the
credit she earned.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
You all know me.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
I'm always going to be honest and human, and how
I process these moments. I made over seventy unforced errors,
so I can't pretend it was a great day for me.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
But both things can be true.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
I didn't play my best, and Coco stepped up and
played with poise and purpose.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
She earned that title respect end quote.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
And you know what, I like that because Golf did
step up and play her ass off, and I liked that.
Sablenka decided to make things right by saying, so what's
off to you, Coco, and thanks for breaking the curse
for American women at Roland Garros. Some college sports news,
the House versus NCAA anti trust settlement has officially come
to a conclusion. On Friday, Judge Claudia Wilkin formally approved.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
The deal that will allow schools to.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Pay their athletes directly ending three federal antitrust lawsuits that
claimed the NCAA was illegally limiting college athletes earning power. Now,
you might remember we did a very in depth episode
about this not too long ago, So if you want
the real nitty gritty, go back and listen to that.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
For now.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
The gist of it is, athletic departments will be able
to dule out roughly twenty and a half million dollars
in name, image, and likeness revenue to athletes over the
twenty twenty five to twenty sixth season. The NCAA and
the Power conferences also agree to pay out nearly two
point eight billion dollars in damages over the next ten
years to D one athletes that weren't allowed to sign
(03:52):
NIL deals dating back to twenty sixteen. The Women's Sports
Foundation released a statement about the House Versus NCAA ruling
being done, writing in part, quote, while it fails to
remedy the concerns raised by WSF and others that class
members are prohibited from bringing Title nine claims regarding the
allocation of damages. The settlement does specifically state that Title
(04:12):
nine claims can be brought regarding any new benefits and
compensation made under the settlement if schools violate the law.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
End quote.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Will be of course, keeping an eye on how Title
nine intersects with this ruling and the future of college
sports to softball. Congratulations to the Texas Longhorns, who won
the school's first ever softball national championship. They beat lone
star state foe Texas Tech ten to four in Game
three of the Women's College World Series Championship series on
Friday night. The Longhorns bats were hot from the start.
(04:43):
They scored five runs on five hits in the bottom
of the first inning against Texas Tech. Star pitcher Nijerie Kennedy,
who had thrown six hundred and eighty six consecutive pitches
for the Red Raiders over forty eight innings dating to
the start of Superregionals on May twenty second, Superwoman finally
met her match and it was too many pitches. Kennedy
(05:04):
was subbed out once the inning ended. In the bottom
of the fourth, the long Horns had their second best
inning of the game when Mia Scott hit a home
run to center field, good for a Grand Slam. This
win has got a taste extra suite for the Longhorns,
as they were championship runner ups in two of the
last three seasons. It's also the first ever title win
for Texas head coach Mike White, who'd previously been to
(05:24):
the Championship Series on eight occasions as a coach at
both Texas and Oregon. Less than a week after losing
her grandmother, sophomore pitcher Teagan Cavan won Most Outstanding Player honors,
allowing no earned runs in all thirty one and two
thirds innings that she pitched. While we feel for Nijorie
Kennedy taking the l she's still rake it in the dollars.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeall.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
She was the first softball player to sign a million
dollar nil contract, and now she's the first to sign
two million dollar nil contracts. She inked another seven figure
deal with the Mattador Club the Red Raiders Collective. With
this smooth the two time National Fast Pitch Coaches Association
Pitcher of the Year put any and all transfer rumors
to rest.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
She'll be returning to play for Texas Tech.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Add this new bag of bucks to the fire in
her gut from the championship loss, and she's going to
be more motivated than ever next season. I can't wait
to see what that brings for Kennedy More Softball. Saturday
saw the first games of the brand spankin new AUSL
Pro Softball League, with each of the four teams in action.
On opening day, the Bandits defeated the Talents three to
(06:29):
one in Rosemont, Illinois, jumping into the lead on a
two run triple from Aaron Koffel and hanging on for
the first win in league history. The first home run
in league history went to the Talents, though courtesy of
outfielder Sierrasaco, who hit a solo shot in the top
of the third in her very first professional at bat.
On Sunday, the Talents got their revenge in front of
another sellout crowd in Rosemont, earning their first win of
(06:51):
the season six to three in a balanced effort that
saw every Talents player record at least one hit in
the win over the Bandits. Saturday night, in Whichita Can,
the Volts and Blaze played in the second game of
the two game opening night, and the Volts beat the
Blaze five to one in extras a three run homer
from Mackenzie Clark was part of a four run eighth
inning for the Volts, and on Sunday, the Volts made
(07:13):
it two in a row with a second straight win
over the Blaze in Wichita. Lots to share later in
the show about my day at the ballpark in Rosemont
checking out all the AUSL opening Day festivities to soccer.
After a five month design process, NWSL expansion franchise, Boston
Legacy FC, unveiled its official logo at a fan event
on Boston Commons Saturday afternoon. The crest includes a swan
(07:35):
with eight feathers inside a black and green shield with
the Boston name across the top. The club told The
Boston Globe that the swan's feathers represent the eight teams
that competed in the NWSL's debut season back in twenty thirteen,
including the now defunct Boston Breakers. Its feathers are angled
to reflect the lines of the Zakim Bridge. But why
the swan well, Per the team's social posts, quote from
(07:58):
the swan boats in the public garden, to the and
the Charles and the Mystic, to Romeo and Juliet, who
spend their winters at the Franklin Park Zoo. Swans have
been a fixture in Boston for over one hundred and
fifty years end quote. Legacy controlling owner Jennifer Epstein also
told the Boston Globe, quote, Swans encompass are core club
values of integrity, grit, and style. They are famously loyal,
(08:19):
relentless in defending their territory and iconic residence of our
waterways and green spaces end quote. I think I got
to give these Swans a minute to grow on me.
I love the colors, and I think the logo is
actually super elegant and clean. I just kind of have
to get used to the idea of a Swan as
a sports mascot. I'm not used to it, but I
(08:40):
feel like, like Angel City and Racing and the Valkyries
used colors that we didn't often see in sport, the dusty, rose,
lavender and violet that I really love. Now I got
to be open to the idea of previously ignored animals
and birds getting their moment in the sun, or I
guess I should say moment in the shield. I also
googled swan mascot just to see if I had forgotten
(09:01):
any notable examples of the bird making it big in sports.
And apparently there's a mascot named Cyril the Swan who
is iconic in the United Kingdom. He's the mascot of
SWANSEAFC in Wales, and I highly recommend that you look
up this wonky ass, nine foot tall, freak show waking
(09:22):
nightmare of a mascot. Per his Wikipedia quote, Cyril was
voted best mascot by readers of the BBC's Match of
the Day magazine. His antics have got him into trouble
with the police on several occasions, mainly for fighting with
other mascots and stewarts, and he has been accused of
bringing the game into disrepute. Highlights of his trouble sem
antics include removing the head of Millwall mascot Zampa the
(09:45):
Lion and drop kicking it along the ground on a
Dutch TV documentary. When asked what he said to Zampa,
he replied, don't with the Swans. The Swan was fined
one thousand pounds for the incident.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
End quote.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
We could only hope that ba Swan brings that same
energy with considerably less drop kicking of heads. We'll put
a link in the show notes to a frankly fascinating
medium dot com story about the man inside Cyril. Worth
noting the story says that Cyril the Swan is allegedly
now reformed and married to.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
His wife Sybil. Apparently she's calmed him down.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
More footy May's NWSL awards are out, and first up
it was Kansas City current forward ten whewinga earning Player
of the Month honors. The striker scored in three straight
games to finish the month of May. She also passed
Sophia Wilson formerly Sophia Smith to become the fastest player
in league history to notch twenty five goals with her
game winner against the Orlando Pride on May sixteenth. Took
(10:42):
her just thirty four games to reach that milestone. Rookie
of the Month award went to Angel City forward Riley Tiernan,
who leads all rookies in scoring and this is the
second straight Rookie of the Month honor for Tiernan. She's
currently fifth in the Golden Boot race with six goals
in total on the season.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Last, but not least, Coach of.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
The Month went to first Your San Diego WAVEFC head
coach Jonas Idavol. His Wave went undefeated in the month
of May and at one point sort as high as
second in the league standings to the WNBA, where the
Chicago Sky got the news many expected but hoped wouldn't come,
and MRI on Sunday revealed an ACL tear for point
guard Courtney van der Slut, who went down in the
(11:19):
sky seventy nine to fifty two loss to the Indiana
Fever Saturday night at the United Center. Vander Slute is
out for the remainder of the season. The injury occurred
in front of a Sky single game record crowd of
nineteen thousand, four hundred ninety six, surpassing Chicago's previous high
of sixteen thy, four hundred and forty four back in
twenty sixteen. It was the first WNBA game ever held
(11:41):
at the United Center, home of the Chicago Bulls and
Chicago Blackhawks. More, WNBA got to give a couple shoutouts
to WNBA players Satu Sabili and Angel Reese, who both
debuted player editioned.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Shoes over the last week.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Sabily, a Jordan brand athlete until she signed with Adidas
in January, showed off her Don Issue six un Corn
kicks for the first time ahead of her Phoenix Mercury's
game against Seattle on Saturday. Those shoes aren't available for
retail sale, which is a bummer because they're and.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Fly Chicago sky Ford.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Reese's PE is rebox engine a pretty gritty colorway, and
it dropped for one hundred and twenty dollars retail sale
in the company's website on Wednesday. The shoe is complete
with their new signature logo as well, which was unveiled
late last month. If you haven't seen that, it's pretty slick,
go check out that logo. Reese also has a signature
shoe in the works, which is currently slated for release
in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
We'll link to.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Both pes and our show notes so you can check
them out for yourself. And I think we might have
mentioned this before, but I sometimes even forget, so just
in case you don't remember. A signature shoe is a
shoe that is designed in collaboration with and named after
a specific athlete, while a pe A player exclusive shoe
is a custom version of an existing shoe, often with
some sort of unique design or graphic or colorwave, that's
(12:53):
created for a specific player but not generally released to
the public as you see it with Angeoresa's sometimes it
is and you can buy it more. WNBA money moves
as the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, the LVCVA
is once again sponsoring Las Vegas Aces players, giving everyone
on the roster a one hundred thousand dollars sponsorship deal. Now,
(13:13):
you may remember, after last year's deals from the LVCVA,
the WNBA announced an investigation into the team, the results
of which have still not yet been revealed. Per friend
of the show, Callie Finn of the Las Vegas Review Journal, quote,
the league's investigation, the cause of which has not been
publicly addressed, most likely intends to determine whether the Aces
conspired with the LVCVA to go over the WNBA's salary
(13:37):
cap and pay players under the table end quote. LVCVA
president Steve Hill told the Review Journal that his organization
has not heard from the WNBA regarding the status of
the investigation into last year's payments to hockey slices. The
PWHL expansion draft is finally here. PWHL Seattle and PWHL
Vancouver add pieces to their inaugural rosters tonight, beginning at
(13:59):
a eastern Both squads signed the max of five players
that were permitted during the league's exclusive signing window, with
Vancouver adding Claire Thompson, Sophie Jake's Emirates mash Meyer, Sarah Nurse,
and Jen Gardner, while Seattle signed Hillary Knight, Danielle Sir Dakney,
Kayla Barnes, Alex Carpenter, and Corin Schroeder. Tonight, each of
(14:21):
those teams will make seven more picks to reach a
twelve player roster. Coverage of the draft will be hosted
by Friends of the Show and Jackson Jill's hosts, Julia
Toscherry and Tessa Bonham, and you can watch it all
happen live at the PWHL dot com and on the
PWHL YouTube channel. We'll also link to where you could
track the picks in our show notes slices, we got
(14:43):
to take a quick break.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
When we come back, Big.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Citrus is serving up a glass a juicy conversation pulp optional.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Welcome back, slices.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
I hope you had a gate gay weekend.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Happy pray.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
I did have a gay weekend. That's all right, We're
it's great, We're keeping it in. Welcome back. I hope
your weekend was gay or great or both.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
I'm gonna welcome in my producers, Alex, Hi, Alex.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Hello, and me. She's crying. Hi, Mesh, Liza.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
We're gonna have a little big Centrius conversation about a
weekend chock full of sports news and games and gays
if you were Mesh, I want to.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Talk about the Boston Swans first.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
First of all, I really enjoyed doing a deep dive
into Cyril the swan, and I really recommend everyone else too,
So kind of a sad story actually about the man
inside the swan, but just the pictures alone are worth
it because.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
It looks like his wings are on backwards.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
But anyway, back to the Boston Swans, what do y'all
think about it? Because I'm trying not to be critical
for no good reason. It just is weird for it
to be a swan, But I also think it's pretty
so I'm reserving judgment.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
So it's so funny to hear your reaction to it,
because swans actually are kind of a symbol of Boston,
and I realized that that information was just ingrained in
my brain in a way that I thought was common
knowledge for the rest of the world. But apparently it's not.
So I think it's fine, but I cannot stop thinking
(16:17):
about fans just honking like a real Swan, and I
cannot stop laughing. I just want like a whoa.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
First of all, that's a really good Swan. It's a
great wait, do it, do it again? Do it again?
Speaker 3 (16:36):
Hold on, hold on stage right? Seriously.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
Ha ha, You're just full of surprises, Alex.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
You just really good. It's a really good Swan.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
I do worry now that you said that, that they
might have like a Vouzela situation where they think that
that's close enough to a bunch of swan talking, because
the Vouzelas are no good in my book.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
No, I agree, I mean, I listen. I just think
you gotta embrace the weirdness of your mascot, regardless of
what the mascot is. So I guess we'll see.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Me swan thoughts.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
So I have an unfair bias against swans because I
had a teacher named miss Swan who was not very
nice to me.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Oh well, don't hold that against the birds.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Yeah, so's it's tough. It's tough.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
It's just when I hear the name Swan. There's one
thing but two and I kind of fell on the
same side of the line as you.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
It's like, I don't I don't immediately think of a swan.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
What I think of sports or mascots. I think of
just literally anything else, just beauty and grace, beauty, maybe.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Beauty and grace. I don't know.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
I think when I saw the controlling owner's comments saying
that they're gritty, immediately I thought, no, but you told us,
what did you tell us about you as well?
Speaker 2 (17:52):
In the campus?
Speaker 1 (17:53):
So these are not swans, these are geese. But I'm
just thinking to myself, I've never approached a swan in
the manner that some have a roach to geese, and
they've learned real quick that you don't with geese. Like
ESPN had to put up signs all over the Connecticut
campus that were like, we're not kidding, stay away from
the geese because when they're mating or when they have babies.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
They will few up.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
And I feel like maybe swans are the same, and
we just don't approach them in the same manner because
they stay in the water more and the geese are
always kind of like in our business. So I'm willing
to afford them the benefit of the doubt that swans
can be as gritty and territorial as geese, and we
just don't know it because we're usually looking at them
from afar, floating along on the surface, looking beautiful.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
And I will say, you know what, Boston has an
opportunity to prove us all wrong. They have an opportunity
to in so many legacy, in.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
So many ways of the swan.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Okay, one final note on this, because I just googled
swan reputation birds. Fun fact about swans, y'all. A study
into the reputation for aggressiveness of swans found that they're
more likely to be hostile to their own kind to
other birds. Boy, I sense a team full of drama.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Oh, we're gonna have a lot of juicy tea coming
out of that locker room in fighting.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
I also whenever I don't even really watch a lot
of Adam Sandler, but they're all ingrained in my head
as a result of it just being part of the
societal lexicon.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
So I always think of Billy Madison and he says.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Stop looking at me, swan, And so that's the first
thing I thought of when I saw the shield, and
I was like, I'm going to use that in every
social post about this team every time, and it's just
gonna it's just gonna be a regular thing. Okay, So
we're we're excited, enthusiastic, patient about how the whole Swan
thing will work out for them. I want to talk
(19:40):
AUSL Opening Day because it was the bulk of my
weekend and it was a frickin' blast. I didn't end
up getting to watch a ton of the final Women's
College World Series game. They were playing it live at
the party that I co hosted alongside a handful of
legendary players on Friday night here in Chicago for the AUSL.
And the fun part about that is that Kat ostrav
And was there watching the TV and just erupted into
(20:05):
joy and then tears and was like so emotional about
her Texas team winning it all for the first time.
And I know she would have loved to be there
in person, but it was pretty cool to be at
the opening night party for a professional league that she
really helped build with her legacy, and to get this
moment to celebrate with all of us just literally like
staring at her. We were all watching, like, what's Kat doing?
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Oh, she's so happy.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Yeah, it's so funny because I think back to your
interview with Kat and it's like she literally still owns
all the records that you forget that she didn't actually
win a national title when she was in college.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Yeah, it's kind of amazing that they didn't considering her greatness.
But she was super pumped. The party was really fun.
It was actually cool. A couple athletes unlimited basketball players
were in town with the Fever or the Sky, which
had a game the next day, so Kia Nurse and
Sidney Colson and a couple others ended up coming for
the AUSL party as well. So that's always anytime I
(20:58):
get to talk shit with sid is a good time.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
So the party was really fun.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
And then the next day, opening Day, there was a
brunch in the morning and a big fan fest before
the game started, which was really cool. There were interviews
with me and a handful of players on a stage.
There was a live band, a lot of games and activities.
Each of the teams had their own little tent with
something different, which was fun. The talents had these like
bird wings and mask and like talents that you could
(21:26):
wear for photo ops. The Volt had it felt very
like kid like, but a lot of the kids were
enjoying it. This like demonstration of electricity using like these
like volts and hair and the Blaze had face painting,
and the Bandits had this cool like sort of like
horseshoe toss thing, and they were all kind of interacting
with all the different kids that came. They also had
(21:47):
a hair braiding station, lots of merch that people.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Were really gobbling up.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
My friend makes these bracelets called Changed by the Game
and you could keep track of the outs on your
wrist while you're playing the different logos and stuff. And
then there's like these little strips that you move to
remind yourself how many outs, which is pretty cool. So
they were selling those. And then there was just I mean,
it was like legends everywhere you look. Joe Torre was there,
legendary MLB manager. So he let me wear his World
(22:14):
Series ring and his Hall of Fame ring, which was
no offense to my husband, but way more diamonds than
I've ever had.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Oh, very great.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
I have a great wedding ring, but this middle diamond
in this Yankees World Series ring was wow. Kenny Williams,
former White Sox GM was there. They were there to
support Kim Eng the commissioner, Sue Anquist, legendary UCLA coach
and my personal life coach was there, Lisa Fernandez. All
just I mean everywhere you looked were legends and what
(22:45):
was really cool. You guys heard it on this show,
both from Jenny Finch and Jessica Mendoza, how excited they
are about this league, Like it almost brings them to
tears to think about everyone pulling in the same direction
for the sport and the amount of attention, money, resources,
time coming in from both MLB's agreement with them and
everything that Athletes Unlimited has built to this point.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
So it was just awesome.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
It was just a really great day and it was
a total sellout, and I'm just really excited for them.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
So, Sarah, I'm curious for your thoughts on this because
I think, as we've discussed on this show before, Athletes
Unlimited has done some really cool stuff before, from basketball
to lacrosse, to volleyball to softball. Also with their a
youth style format before where an individual player is winning
to now this more traditional league format, and it feels
to me like this is a real pivot point for AU.
(23:37):
I don't want to say the start of the foundation,
because they clearly already have the foundation, but it feels
like a turning point, and I'm curious if you got
that sense from the folks that you spoke to over
the weekend.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Certainly for this sport, and I think it's necessary for
this sport where they're not a secondary league in any
sense of the word. They are the main professional league,
and even in the last couple of years they were
the main professional league even using their au individual player model.
I don't know if this signals a change that they'll
look to make in their other sports.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
I don't know if they think it's.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Necessary in basketball to pivot to a traditional team model.
I don't know if they feel that way in volleyball either,
As they try to separate themselves potentially from the pack
with the PVF and love volleyball, maybe they think it's
better to have a model that is a little bit different.
I think just in terms of awareness, size.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Resources, investment.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
The MLB part of this, which is rumored to be
like a seven or eight figure investment, and the fact
that every single game will be on MLBtv, the app
and streaming is huge.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
I did not. I talked to both Jonathan's who run it.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
I didn't talk to them about whether they'll plan to
do this with their other leagues. But I think the
thing that I've talked to Jonathan patrick Off about the
most is how does AU step into being a little
bit cooler and a little bit edgy, because it does
tend to read, in my opinion, and has read the
last couple of years as a little bit more of
a traditional old school model where it's about kids watching,
(25:11):
and the graphics and the vibes and the social all
sort of sent that message. And I think they know,
and you could see it in this iteration of basketball
that they had this year that it started to change.
They started to understand the power of having more interesting
and funny and clever and smart socials and getting the
player personalities out more and having it be a little
less infantalizing. So I hope that that's their plan with
(25:33):
this league too. One of the things I loved was
that the teams are already starting to establish little traditions
the talents. Player who hit a home run had the
like two fingers out and made it look like sort
of eagle talents that were like coming out as she
was running around the bases. The Bandits had the most
insane player intros, coming through some swinging saloon doors and
(25:55):
then doing a variety of different like spinning fake guns
or like shooting things. I just I love that they
are starting to find those moments early in this league
because that's part of the joy of softball and something
that Jessica Mendoza told this member. She said, basically, like
trying to have individual winners in a sport that people love,
the team interaction so much of maybe.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Wasn't the way to go.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
So I like that they're already establishing some of those,
like routines and habits and traditions so fun.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
I'm jealous that you got to be there for it.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
It's fun how many firsts we were having of late
and getting to like experience.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
It's such a great sign for women's sports.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Alex, I think that you had texted me something about
the Women's College World Series. Was there something that you
wanted to say about that other than just enthusiasm for
Texas winning it all?
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
I think it's interesting because even earlier in the show
you mentioned it in talking about Nigerie Kennedy and her
one million dollar an IL collective. And after that series
ended with Texas Tech losing. Of course, their coach, Jerry
Glasgow spoke about how he thought it was quote almost
insulting to Canady how often that one million dollar ANIL
(27:09):
deal was brought up. I'm going to continue the quote here.
I think it's interesting. You watch Ohio State in the
men's football game National Championship game. You don't hear any
announcers talking about nil. They just don't talk about it.
And yet you know, Ohio State had won the highest
two or three nil payouts last year in college football.
I wonder why we talk about it for a female athlete.
(27:30):
And I thought it was interesting. You know, he equated
it to being a double standard, just how often it's
talked about. I do think that because it was in
softball for the star pitcher to transfer, it's a different
type of situation here. But I thought it was interesting,
and I was just curious if you guys had any
thoughts on that.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
I see both sides of it.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
I think, on the one hand, it's great to talk
about women making money, getting paid, bringing victories to schools,
bringing revenue to schools. Because of the conversations were likely
to be in the future about NCAA versus House and
all of the money being dumped into men's sports because
they believe that's the only space that will bring something back.
On the other hand, I see his point too, that
being if it's being talked about as sort of Texas
(28:14):
Tech wouldn't be here if they hadn't just thrown a
bunch of money at the best player kind of bs.
We don't see that as often on the men's side.
We see it as congratulating a school when they can
wrangle a big star, and it feels like, potentially, he
thinks in this case, it's being held up as an
abuse of the system, So I can see where he's
coming from there. Okay, let's move on to tennis, because
(28:35):
I want to talk Coco. Golfs win so much fun,
all the moments coming out of that win.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
There's just so much joy and mesh.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
I know we talked earlier in the show about breaking
this sort of curse or this long drought since the
last American twin it was Serena ten years ago. But
I don't think we need to compare Serena and Coco here.
I think it's okay to mention that and then just
be like, let's talk coc and not bring it all
the way back to ten years ago.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
Exactly my thoughts exactly to a Tea Sera, because first
of all, I'm thinking about Coco being twenty one, being
so early on in her career, having so much talent,
and being her own person, right, I feel like it's
worth appreciating what she's done, aside from everybody else and
all the accomplishments that we want her to reach because
(29:22):
Serena did it, because so and so did it. And
at the same time, I want people to remember what
Serena did was a decade's long process of excellence, like
we haven't seen to me, she's top two athletes period
of all time. We simply haven't seen anybody with that
kind of longevity in women's tennis, and frankly to me,
(29:43):
to me, okay, in tennis in general. I know we've
got Novak, I know we've got Rafa, I know we've
got all them.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
I'm not worried about them.
Speaker 4 (29:50):
So I think Serena's legacy we have to put it
in context and remember how freaking outstanding that was, and
also know that Coco just got here for real, she
just got here stopp putting that pressure on her. You
can compare in that, Yes, she won a French Open,
and she's the first one since Serena to do it. Yes,
in full stop, keep it it ends there right now.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
And that's not a knock on Coco.
Speaker 4 (30:11):
It's just we're talking about two completely different, completely different
plan It's completely different atmospheres right now. But I want
to give Coco her props because I love what she's
been doing. I love watching her play, and I really
love the joy that she plays. With that slow mode
video that we told you guys to go listen or
go watch, we linked to it in our show notes,
I'm telling y'all it's as a basketball player, I don't
(30:35):
really have a desire to play tennis, but watching that
moment it makes me say, you know what, I should
be watching a little bit more. I should be paying
more attention. I should be locked in a little bit more.
And it's little stuff like that that we've seen kind
of turn women's sports into what we've just talked about
having all the first having so many people excited about it,
and in that moment there was just so much joy,
so much black joy, which means so much to me personally.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
So yeah, and that's what I want to say, is
what you had to say about her. And Serena reminded
me a little of Mariah Stakos coming on and saying,
it's great that people were excited about me as a
young black golfer, but immediately it was like and Tiger Woods.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Yeah, and she's like, no, don't do that. Tiger Woods
is this whole thing different.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Great that I'm a young prodigy black golfer, but like
that is too much pressure.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
And I feel like that's the same for Coco.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
It's great, we love to see it the black joy,
especially in a sport that you want to bring more
eyeballs too that you want to bring more young black
players to. But not if we're going to force the
pressure on her of being the next Soreena.
Speaker 4 (31:37):
Yes, because then what inevitably happens is if she doesn't
live up to Serena, then she's a bust, which is
completely untrue in and of itself as well. So yeah,
I gotta give left to Coco and to Serena because
that WNBA collab with the Toronto Tempo, her being an owner.
I love that. I love her having her hands all
over that. But yeah, she's She's one of a kind.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
I think what stood out to me the most about
Coco's win is something that I feel like I saw
a lot covering the Olympics, which is that when you
win the first time, I often see a lot of joy.
Sometimes there's some relief in there depending on what the
stakes were, but I think sometimes winning the second time
is so much harder. Obviously this is a different tournament
(32:20):
than the one that she won before, but right there's
always a question of like was it a fluke? Can
I get back to that same stage, can I meet
the expectations? And so I think seeing her breakthrough for
a second time to win a Grand Slam, it just
makes me really excited for what's to come for her,
while simultaneously not trying to put more pressure on her.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
I agree there is a little bit of that like
relief plus joy of like I did it again.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
I wasn't a one hit wonder. I want to quickly
talk about the WNBA from this.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
Weekend too, because Mesh, I was thinking about you as
I was texting Front of the Show Jess Smith about
the big win that the Valks got over the Aces
three players in double digits, and some like serious statlines
Kayla Thornton twenty two points, eleven boards, Veronica Burton fourteen points,
career high, twelve assists and seven rebounds, and Monique Billings
(33:10):
fourteen points eleven boards, like a real team effort.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
But the aces, Sarah, you've been officially it's officially.
Speaker 4 (33:20):
Time to worry. I was, I was holding off on
the worry. It's officially time to worry.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Okay. They got worked. They got worked.
Speaker 4 (33:28):
They've got so much connectivity work to do on the
defensive end, which surprises the hell out of me, and.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
Rebounding the ball.
Speaker 4 (33:36):
Let me not forget to mention that they were negative
twelve minus twelve on the boards against the Valkyries.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
You mentioned it.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
Three players in double double territory. That's you cannot be
given that up under Becky Haam and she's obviously upset
about that, she had some comments about it in the
postgame press conference.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
But offensively too. They're missing that fourth dog.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
Remember Monica McNutt coined Jack the Jack Crew for them
when it was you know, when they had Kelsey Plumb
on this roster. They need Jewel Lloyd to be that
fourth player. And frankly, Asia Wilson's doing what she does.
She's second best in scoring average right now in the WNBA.
Jewels got to step up. Chelsea Gray doesn't have the
assist numbers that she's had and granted, team, you know,
(34:17):
players got to hit shots for you to get the assists.
But it's just a lot of things that still need
a lot of work, and I feel like I was
expecting them to be a little bit further along. We're
still very early in the season, haven't even hit the
All Star break yet, but they got to get They
gotta get Jewel.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
I think she's she's the answer.
Speaker 4 (34:32):
She's shooting twenty nine point four percent right now, which
is worse than any season average field goal percent and.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
Get some time hopefully. Yeah, and that's part of it.
It's just getting used to a new system. I do
have to say, and Asia is not at fault for this,
but if the Aces don't do that well, and Asia
has already won a couple MVPs, it does support my
preseason prediction that voters might think it's time for a
new MVP or should I say fee P because I
(35:03):
just want to point out then if it's a Collier
heading into the Links game against the Dallas Wings, was
putting up over twenty one points per game on fifty
two point five percent field goal percentage, forty point nine
percent three point percentage, and ninety point seven percent free
throw percentage, making her the first scoring leader in WNBA
history to average fifty forty ninety efficiency eight games into
(35:23):
the season.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
Again, it's early.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
I'm just pointing out that my chip on her shoulder
feeling a little ragie after losing in the finals and
getting second in the MVP voting might end up all
being what we see this year.
Speaker 4 (35:37):
Yeah, I think there's some merits to that, but man
Ace has got to figure it out.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
They gotta figure it out.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
Okay, last WNBA, we have to talk about the Studs
Buds because it is Pride.
Speaker 4 (35:47):
This is my new favorite thing in the world. If
y'all are paying attention to this, I need you to
go follow them immediately. It's at stud Dot Buds with
a Z on Instagram and the stud Buds are Courty
Williams and Natisha Heideman. It's it's my favorite thing to
come out of Pride month. So far, We're not even
halfway through and I'm obsessed I'm obsessed.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
They just get on there, shoot the shit.
Speaker 4 (36:08):
I love having two masculine presenting players have a friendship
that's visible to people, especially at a time like this.
So if you're not following them, go follow them and
get yourselves a laugh.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
So far, there's been some good moments, for instance, asking
Elana Smith when she knew she was straight, or maybe
they were telling her when they knew she when they
knew she was straight. Either way, the stud buds are
are a good watch and absolutely just in time for Pride.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
I just need to say that I googled stud buds
and the first thing I found was a stud Finder,
which also in time for Pride.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
Thank god, that's what you said, because I was gonna say.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
I don't know where you were going.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
Sometimes I google stuff out of the context and my
brain just isn't hasn't gotten there yet, and then whatever
comes up, I'm like, oh, yeah, I deserve that. I
deserve the results I just found. And I was worried
about you with stud buds with a Z, but thankfully
just a good old Studfinder.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
We got to take another break, y'all.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
When we come back, a brand new tradition has already
lassoed our attention and shot right through our hearts.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Stick around welcome back slices.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
We love that you're listening, but we want you to
get in the game every day too, so here's our
good gameplay of the day once again. Tune into the
PWHL expansion draft tonight. It's been so much fun watching
the league and the teams navigate expansion, so make sure
you follow along for the culmination of all that shuffling
and signing as PWHL Seattle and PWHL Vancouver round out
their rosters at eight thirty pm Eastern. We'll link to
(37:43):
the PWHL dot com and the PWHL.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
YouTube channel in our show notes.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
And we always love to hear from you, so hit
us up on email good game at wondermedianetwork dot com
or leave us a voicemail at eight seven two two
o four fifty seventy. Don't forget to subscribe, rate and review, y'all.
We ask you every show because it's so easy. The
bandits player intros at the first ever AUSL game, rating
ten out of ten best player intros in Sports Review.
(38:09):
You heard me mention it earlier, but I can't say
it enough. The bandits player intros are the best.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
New thing in sports.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
We'll link to them in the show notes so you
can watch them and keep an eye out, in particular
for the spinning fake guns into the Holster move and
my personal favorite the Rhdam Cowboy slash Pony by Genuine
Dance just insane. Also, there's smoke blasting out of the
saloon doors when they run through them, which really took
things up a notch. Just ten out of ten. I
(38:36):
love it so much. Now it's your turn, y'all rate
and review. Thanks for listening, See you tomorrow. Good Game
Texas Softball, Good game Coco Golf. A few injuries and
illnesses we can't watch Kaitlin Clark or Pagebackers or Courtney Vanders.
Good Game with Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports
(38:57):
production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You
could find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts. Production by Wonder Media Network,
our producers are Alex Azzie and Misha Jones. Our executive
producers are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan, and Emily Rutterer.
Our editors are Emily Rutterer, Brittany Martinez, Grace Lynch, and
(39:17):
Gianna Palmer. Our associate producers Lucy Jones and I'm Your
Host Sarah Spain
Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're basking
in the glory of correctly predicting the Women's College World
Series winner.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I'm not the kind of person to say I told
you so, so.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Who am I kidding? I'm absolutely that person I told
you so. It's Monday, June ninth, and on today's show,
Big Citrus will reconvene to talk Texas's first Softball National
Championship Athletes, Unlimited Softball Leagues opening day, Coco Goff's French
Open win, and we'll check in on happenings in the WNBA.
Plus the House versus NCAA settlement is done, NWSL expansion side,
(00:34):
Boston Legacy FC has its logo, and one team's new
tradition is so good it should be illegal. It's all
coming up right after this. Welcome back Slices, Happy Monday.
(00:57):
Here's what you need to know today. In tennis, Coco
Goff took home her first French Open title and second
major title on Saturday, defeating world number one Arena Sablenka
in three sets. Goff's victory marks the first time the
French Open trophy has been hoisted by an American since
Serena Williams did.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
It back in twenty fifteen.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Goff actually dropped the first set of the final, but
she bounced back to win the latter two handily. It
made the twenty one year old the first woman in
tennis history to rally from a set down to win
their first two major titles. The other was at the
twenty twenty three US Open, also a win over Sabolenka.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
If you didn't catch the match, you missed a.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Lot, including the elation that Coco Goff displayed after the
final point.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
It was so pure.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
We'll link to a slow mo video of that moment
in our show notes. You also have to check out
her adorable celebration with the French Open ball kids. We'll
link to that one too. After the contest was all
said and done, runner up Seblanka gave Golf her props
in the on court interview, saying, quote to Coco, you
deserve it. You're a hard worker, a fighter.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
End quote.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
But then in the press conference, Sablenka made some interesting comments.
She told reporters in part, quote, I think she won
the match, not because she played incredible, just because.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
I made all of those mistakes. End quote.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Sablenka also alluded to the idea that fellow WTA superstar
Egas Fontech might have defeated Goff had she been the
one to make it to the final. This, of course,
set off alarms across the tennis space, but Sablenka took
to her Instagram story on Sunday to try to make
things clear. She wrote, in part quote, she was the
better player yesterday, and I want to give her the
credit she earned.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
You all know me.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
I'm always going to be honest and human, and how
I process these moments. I made over seventy unforced errors,
so I can't pretend it was a great day for me.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
But both things can be true.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
I didn't play my best, and Coco stepped up and
played with poise and purpose.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
She earned that title respect end quote.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
And you know what, I like that because Golf did
step up and play her ass off, and I liked that.
Sablenka decided to make things right by saying, so what's
off to you, Coco, and thanks for breaking the curse
for American women at Roland Garros. Some college sports news,
the House versus NCAA anti trust settlement has officially come
to a conclusion. On Friday, Judge Claudia Wilkin formally approved.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
The deal that will allow schools to.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Pay their athletes directly ending three federal antitrust lawsuits that
claimed the NCAA was illegally limiting college athletes earning power. Now,
you might remember we did a very in depth episode
about this not too long ago, So if you want
the real nitty gritty, go back and listen to that.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
For now.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
The gist of it is, athletic departments will be able
to dule out roughly twenty and a half million dollars
in name, image, and likeness revenue to athletes over the
twenty twenty five to twenty sixth season. The NCAA and
the Power conferences also agree to pay out nearly two
point eight billion dollars in damages over the next ten
years to D one athletes that weren't allowed to sign
(03:52):
NIL deals dating back to twenty sixteen. The Women's Sports
Foundation released a statement about the House Versus NCAA ruling
being done, writing in part, quote, while it fails to
remedy the concerns raised by WSF and others that class
members are prohibited from bringing Title nine claims regarding the
allocation of damages. The settlement does specifically state that Title
(04:12):
nine claims can be brought regarding any new benefits and
compensation made under the settlement if schools violate the law.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
End quote.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Will be of course, keeping an eye on how Title
nine intersects with this ruling and the future of college
sports to softball. Congratulations to the Texas Longhorns, who won
the school's first ever softball national championship. They beat lone
star state foe Texas Tech ten to four in Game
three of the Women's College World Series Championship series on
Friday night. The Longhorns bats were hot from the start.
(04:43):
They scored five runs on five hits in the bottom
of the first inning against Texas Tech. Star pitcher Nijerie Kennedy,
who had thrown six hundred and eighty six consecutive pitches
for the Red Raiders over forty eight innings dating to
the start of Superregionals on May twenty second, Superwoman finally
met her match and it was too many pitches. Kennedy
(05:04):
was subbed out once the inning ended. In the bottom
of the fourth, the long Horns had their second best
inning of the game when Mia Scott hit a home
run to center field, good for a Grand Slam. This
win has got a taste extra suite for the Longhorns,
as they were championship runner ups in two of the
last three seasons. It's also the first ever title win
for Texas head coach Mike White, who'd previously been to
(05:24):
the Championship Series on eight occasions as a coach at
both Texas and Oregon. Less than a week after losing
her grandmother, sophomore pitcher Teagan Cavan won Most Outstanding Player honors,
allowing no earned runs in all thirty one and two
thirds innings that she pitched. While we feel for Nijorie
Kennedy taking the l she's still rake it in the dollars.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeall.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
She was the first softball player to sign a million
dollar nil contract, and now she's the first to sign
two million dollar nil contracts. She inked another seven figure
deal with the Mattador Club the Red Raiders Collective. With
this smooth the two time National Fast Pitch Coaches Association
Pitcher of the Year put any and all transfer rumors
to rest.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
She'll be returning to play for Texas Tech.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Add this new bag of bucks to the fire in
her gut from the championship loss, and she's going to
be more motivated than ever next season. I can't wait
to see what that brings for Kennedy More Softball. Saturday
saw the first games of the brand spankin new AUSL
Pro Softball League, with each of the four teams in action.
On opening day, the Bandits defeated the Talents three to
(06:29):
one in Rosemont, Illinois, jumping into the lead on a
two run triple from Aaron Koffel and hanging on for
the first win in league history. The first home run
in league history went to the Talents, though courtesy of
outfielder Sierrasaco, who hit a solo shot in the top
of the third in her very first professional at bat.
On Sunday, the Talents got their revenge in front of
another sellout crowd in Rosemont, earning their first win of
(06:51):
the season six to three in a balanced effort that
saw every Talents player record at least one hit in
the win over the Bandits. Saturday night, in Whichita Can,
the Volts and Blaze played in the second game of
the two game opening night, and the Volts beat the
Blaze five to one in extras a three run homer
from Mackenzie Clark was part of a four run eighth
inning for the Volts, and on Sunday, the Volts made
(07:13):
it two in a row with a second straight win
over the Blaze in Wichita. Lots to share later in
the show about my day at the ballpark in Rosemont
checking out all the AUSL opening Day festivities to soccer.
After a five month design process, NWSL expansion franchise, Boston
Legacy FC, unveiled its official logo at a fan event
on Boston Commons Saturday afternoon. The crest includes a swan
(07:35):
with eight feathers inside a black and green shield with
the Boston name across the top. The club told The
Boston Globe that the swan's feathers represent the eight teams
that competed in the NWSL's debut season back in twenty thirteen,
including the now defunct Boston Breakers. Its feathers are angled
to reflect the lines of the Zakim Bridge. But why
the swan well, Per the team's social posts, quote from
(07:58):
the swan boats in the public garden, to the and
the Charles and the Mystic, to Romeo and Juliet, who
spend their winters at the Franklin Park Zoo. Swans have
been a fixture in Boston for over one hundred and
fifty years end quote. Legacy controlling owner Jennifer Epstein also
told the Boston Globe, quote, Swans encompass are core club
values of integrity, grit, and style. They are famously loyal,
(08:19):
relentless in defending their territory and iconic residence of our
waterways and green spaces end quote. I think I got
to give these Swans a minute to grow on me.
I love the colors, and I think the logo is
actually super elegant and clean. I just kind of have
to get used to the idea of a Swan as
a sports mascot. I'm not used to it, but I
(08:40):
feel like, like Angel City and Racing and the Valkyries
used colors that we didn't often see in sport, the dusty, rose,
lavender and violet that I really love. Now I got
to be open to the idea of previously ignored animals
and birds getting their moment in the sun, or I
guess I should say moment in the shield. I also
googled swan mascot just to see if I had forgotten
(09:01):
any notable examples of the bird making it big in sports.
And apparently there's a mascot named Cyril the Swan who
is iconic in the United Kingdom. He's the mascot of
SWANSEAFC in Wales, and I highly recommend that you look
up this wonky ass, nine foot tall, freak show waking
(09:22):
nightmare of a mascot. Per his Wikipedia quote, Cyril was
voted best mascot by readers of the BBC's Match of
the Day magazine. His antics have got him into trouble
with the police on several occasions, mainly for fighting with
other mascots and stewarts, and he has been accused of
bringing the game into disrepute. Highlights of his trouble sem
antics include removing the head of Millwall mascot Zampa the
(09:45):
Lion and drop kicking it along the ground on a
Dutch TV documentary. When asked what he said to Zampa,
he replied, don't with the Swans. The Swan was fined
one thousand pounds for the incident.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
End quote.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
We could only hope that ba Swan brings that same
energy with considerably less drop kicking of heads. We'll put
a link in the show notes to a frankly fascinating
medium dot com story about the man inside Cyril. Worth
noting the story says that Cyril the Swan is allegedly
now reformed and married to.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
His wife Sybil. Apparently she's calmed him down.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
More footy May's NWSL awards are out, and first up
it was Kansas City current forward ten whewinga earning Player
of the Month honors. The striker scored in three straight
games to finish the month of May. She also passed
Sophia Wilson formerly Sophia Smith to become the fastest player
in league history to notch twenty five goals with her
game winner against the Orlando Pride on May sixteenth. Took
(10:42):
her just thirty four games to reach that milestone. Rookie
of the Month award went to Angel City forward Riley Tiernan,
who leads all rookies in scoring and this is the
second straight Rookie of the Month honor for Tiernan. She's
currently fifth in the Golden Boot race with six goals
in total on the season.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Last, but not least, Coach of.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
The Month went to first Your San Diego WAVEFC head
coach Jonas Idavol. His Wave went undefeated in the month
of May and at one point sort as high as
second in the league standings to the WNBA, where the
Chicago Sky got the news many expected but hoped wouldn't come,
and MRI on Sunday revealed an ACL tear for point
guard Courtney van der Slut, who went down in the
(11:19):
sky seventy nine to fifty two loss to the Indiana
Fever Saturday night at the United Center. Vander Slute is
out for the remainder of the season. The injury occurred
in front of a Sky single game record crowd of
nineteen thousand, four hundred ninety six, surpassing Chicago's previous high
of sixteen thy, four hundred and forty four back in
twenty sixteen. It was the first WNBA game ever held
(11:41):
at the United Center, home of the Chicago Bulls and
Chicago Blackhawks. More, WNBA got to give a couple shoutouts
to WNBA players Satu Sabili and Angel Reese, who both
debuted player editioned.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Shoes over the last week.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Sabily, a Jordan brand athlete until she signed with Adidas
in January, showed off her Don Issue six un Corn
kicks for the first time ahead of her Phoenix Mercury's
game against Seattle on Saturday. Those shoes aren't available for
retail sale, which is a bummer because they're and.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Fly Chicago sky Ford.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Reese's PE is rebox engine a pretty gritty colorway, and
it dropped for one hundred and twenty dollars retail sale
in the company's website on Wednesday. The shoe is complete
with their new signature logo as well, which was unveiled
late last month. If you haven't seen that, it's pretty slick,
go check out that logo. Reese also has a signature
shoe in the works, which is currently slated for release
in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
We'll link to.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Both pes and our show notes so you can check
them out for yourself. And I think we might have
mentioned this before, but I sometimes even forget, so just
in case you don't remember. A signature shoe is a
shoe that is designed in collaboration with and named after
a specific athlete, while a pe A player exclusive shoe
is a custom version of an existing shoe, often with
some sort of unique design or graphic or colorwave, that's
(12:53):
created for a specific player but not generally released to
the public as you see it with Angeoresa's sometimes it
is and you can buy it more. WNBA money moves
as the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, the LVCVA
is once again sponsoring Las Vegas Aces players, giving everyone
on the roster a one hundred thousand dollars sponsorship deal. Now,
(13:13):
you may remember, after last year's deals from the LVCVA,
the WNBA announced an investigation into the team, the results
of which have still not yet been revealed. Per friend
of the show, Callie Finn of the Las Vegas Review Journal, quote,
the league's investigation, the cause of which has not been
publicly addressed, most likely intends to determine whether the Aces
conspired with the LVCVA to go over the WNBA's salary
(13:37):
cap and pay players under the table end quote. LVCVA
president Steve Hill told the Review Journal that his organization
has not heard from the WNBA regarding the status of
the investigation into last year's payments to hockey slices. The
PWHL expansion draft is finally here. PWHL Seattle and PWHL
Vancouver add pieces to their inaugural rosters tonight, beginning at
(13:59):
a eastern Both squads signed the max of five players
that were permitted during the league's exclusive signing window, with
Vancouver adding Claire Thompson, Sophie Jake's Emirates mash Meyer, Sarah Nurse,
and Jen Gardner, while Seattle signed Hillary Knight, Danielle Sir Dakney,
Kayla Barnes, Alex Carpenter, and Corin Schroeder. Tonight, each of
(14:21):
those teams will make seven more picks to reach a
twelve player roster. Coverage of the draft will be hosted
by Friends of the Show and Jackson Jill's hosts, Julia
Toscherry and Tessa Bonham, and you can watch it all
happen live at the PWHL dot com and on the
PWHL YouTube channel. We'll also link to where you could
track the picks in our show notes slices, we got
(14:43):
to take a quick break.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
When we come back, Big.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Citrus is serving up a glass a juicy conversation pulp optional.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Welcome back, slices.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
I hope you had a gate gay weekend.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Happy pray.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
I did have a gay weekend. That's all right, We're
it's great, We're keeping it in. Welcome back. I hope
your weekend was gay or great or both.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
I'm gonna welcome in my producers, Alex, Hi, Alex.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Hello, and me. She's crying. Hi, Mesh, Liza.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
We're gonna have a little big Centrius conversation about a
weekend chock full of sports news and games and gays
if you were Mesh, I want to.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Talk about the Boston Swans first.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
First of all, I really enjoyed doing a deep dive
into Cyril the swan, and I really recommend everyone else too,
So kind of a sad story actually about the man
inside the swan, but just the pictures alone are worth
it because.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
It looks like his wings are on backwards.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
But anyway, back to the Boston Swans, what do y'all
think about it? Because I'm trying not to be critical
for no good reason. It just is weird for it
to be a swan, But I also think it's pretty
so I'm reserving judgment.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
So it's so funny to hear your reaction to it,
because swans actually are kind of a symbol of Boston,
and I realized that that information was just ingrained in
my brain in a way that I thought was common
knowledge for the rest of the world. But apparently it's not.
So I think it's fine, but I cannot stop thinking
(16:17):
about fans just honking like a real Swan, and I
cannot stop laughing. I just want like a whoa.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
First of all, that's a really good Swan. It's a
great wait, do it, do it again? Do it again?
Speaker 3 (16:36):
Hold on, hold on stage right? Seriously.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
Ha ha, You're just full of surprises, Alex.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
You just really good. It's a really good Swan.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
I do worry now that you said that, that they
might have like a Vouzela situation where they think that
that's close enough to a bunch of swan talking, because
the Vouzelas are no good in my book.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
No, I agree, I mean, I listen. I just think
you gotta embrace the weirdness of your mascot, regardless of
what the mascot is. So I guess we'll see.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Me swan thoughts.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
So I have an unfair bias against swans because I
had a teacher named miss Swan who was not very
nice to me.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Oh well, don't hold that against the birds.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Yeah, so's it's tough. It's tough.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
It's just when I hear the name Swan. There's one
thing but two and I kind of fell on the
same side of the line as you.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
It's like, I don't I don't immediately think of a swan.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
What I think of sports or mascots. I think of
just literally anything else, just beauty and grace, beauty, maybe.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Beauty and grace. I don't know.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
I think when I saw the controlling owner's comments saying
that they're gritty, immediately I thought, no, but you told us,
what did you tell us about you as well?
Speaker 2 (17:52):
In the campus?
Speaker 1 (17:53):
So these are not swans, these are geese. But I'm
just thinking to myself, I've never approached a swan in
the manner that some have a roach to geese, and
they've learned real quick that you don't with geese. Like
ESPN had to put up signs all over the Connecticut
campus that were like, we're not kidding, stay away from
the geese because when they're mating or when they have babies.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
They will few up.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
And I feel like maybe swans are the same, and
we just don't approach them in the same manner because
they stay in the water more and the geese are
always kind of like in our business. So I'm willing
to afford them the benefit of the doubt that swans
can be as gritty and territorial as geese, and we
just don't know it because we're usually looking at them
from afar, floating along on the surface, looking beautiful.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
And I will say, you know what, Boston has an
opportunity to prove us all wrong. They have an opportunity
to in so many legacy, in.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
So many ways of the swan.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Okay, one final note on this, because I just googled
swan reputation birds. Fun fact about swans, y'all. A study
into the reputation for aggressiveness of swans found that they're
more likely to be hostile to their own kind to
other birds. Boy, I sense a team full of drama.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Oh, we're gonna have a lot of juicy tea coming
out of that locker room in fighting.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
I also whenever I don't even really watch a lot
of Adam Sandler, but they're all ingrained in my head
as a result of it just being part of the
societal lexicon.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
So I always think of Billy Madison and he says.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Stop looking at me, swan, And so that's the first
thing I thought of when I saw the shield, and
I was like, I'm going to use that in every
social post about this team every time, and it's just
gonna it's just gonna be a regular thing. Okay, So
we're we're excited, enthusiastic, patient about how the whole Swan
thing will work out for them. I want to talk
(19:40):
AUSL Opening Day because it was the bulk of my
weekend and it was a frickin' blast. I didn't end
up getting to watch a ton of the final Women's
College World Series game. They were playing it live at
the party that I co hosted alongside a handful of
legendary players on Friday night here in Chicago for the AUSL.
And the fun part about that is that Kat ostrav
And was there watching the TV and just erupted into
(20:05):
joy and then tears and was like so emotional about
her Texas team winning it all for the first time.
And I know she would have loved to be there
in person, but it was pretty cool to be at
the opening night party for a professional league that she
really helped build with her legacy, and to get this
moment to celebrate with all of us just literally like
staring at her. We were all watching, like, what's Kat doing?
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Oh, she's so happy.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Yeah, it's so funny because I think back to your
interview with Kat and it's like she literally still owns
all the records that you forget that she didn't actually
win a national title when she was in college.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Yeah, it's kind of amazing that they didn't considering her greatness.
But she was super pumped. The party was really fun.
It was actually cool. A couple athletes unlimited basketball players
were in town with the Fever or the Sky, which
had a game the next day, so Kia Nurse and
Sidney Colson and a couple others ended up coming for
the AUSL party as well. So that's always anytime I
(20:58):
get to talk shit with sid is a good time.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
So the party was really fun.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
And then the next day, opening Day, there was a
brunch in the morning and a big fan fest before
the game started, which was really cool. There were interviews
with me and a handful of players on a stage.
There was a live band, a lot of games and activities.
Each of the teams had their own little tent with
something different, which was fun. The talents had these like
bird wings and mask and like talents that you could
(21:26):
wear for photo ops. The Volt had it felt very
like kid like, but a lot of the kids were
enjoying it. This like demonstration of electricity using like these
like volts and hair and the Blaze had face painting,
and the Bandits had this cool like sort of like
horseshoe toss thing, and they were all kind of interacting
with all the different kids that came. They also had
(21:47):
a hair braiding station, lots of merch that people.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Were really gobbling up.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
My friend makes these bracelets called Changed by the Game
and you could keep track of the outs on your
wrist while you're playing the different logos and stuff. And
then there's like these little strips that you move to
remind yourself how many outs, which is pretty cool. So
they were selling those. And then there was just I mean,
it was like legends everywhere you look. Joe Torre was there,
legendary MLB manager. So he let me wear his World
(22:14):
Series ring and his Hall of Fame ring, which was
no offense to my husband, but way more diamonds than
I've ever had.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Oh, very great.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
I have a great wedding ring, but this middle diamond
in this Yankees World Series ring was wow. Kenny Williams,
former White Sox GM was there. They were there to
support Kim Eng the commissioner, Sue Anquist, legendary UCLA coach
and my personal life coach was there, Lisa Fernandez. All
just I mean everywhere you looked were legends and what
(22:45):
was really cool. You guys heard it on this show,
both from Jenny Finch and Jessica Mendoza, how excited they
are about this league, Like it almost brings them to
tears to think about everyone pulling in the same direction
for the sport and the amount of attention, money, resources,
time coming in from both MLB's agreement with them and
everything that Athletes Unlimited has built to this point.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
So it was just awesome.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
It was just a really great day and it was
a total sellout, and I'm just really excited for them.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
So, Sarah, I'm curious for your thoughts on this because
I think, as we've discussed on this show before, Athletes
Unlimited has done some really cool stuff before, from basketball
to lacrosse, to volleyball to softball. Also with their a
youth style format before where an individual player is winning
to now this more traditional league format, and it feels
to me like this is a real pivot point for AU.
(23:37):
I don't want to say the start of the foundation,
because they clearly already have the foundation, but it feels
like a turning point, and I'm curious if you got
that sense from the folks that you spoke to over
the weekend.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Certainly for this sport, and I think it's necessary for
this sport where they're not a secondary league in any
sense of the word. They are the main professional league,
and even in the last couple of years they were
the main professional league even using their au individual player model.
I don't know if this signals a change that they'll
look to make in their other sports.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
I don't know if they think it's.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Necessary in basketball to pivot to a traditional team model.
I don't know if they feel that way in volleyball either,
As they try to separate themselves potentially from the pack
with the PVF and love volleyball, maybe they think it's
better to have a model that is a little bit different.
I think just in terms of awareness, size.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Resources, investment.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
The MLB part of this, which is rumored to be
like a seven or eight figure investment, and the fact
that every single game will be on MLBtv, the app
and streaming is huge.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
I did not. I talked to both Jonathan's who run it.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
I didn't talk to them about whether they'll plan to
do this with their other leagues. But I think the
thing that I've talked to Jonathan patrick Off about the
most is how does AU step into being a little
bit cooler and a little bit edgy, because it does
tend to read, in my opinion, and has read the
last couple of years as a little bit more of
a traditional old school model where it's about kids watching,
(25:11):
and the graphics and the vibes and the social all
sort of sent that message. And I think they know,
and you could see it in this iteration of basketball
that they had this year that it started to change.
They started to understand the power of having more interesting
and funny and clever and smart socials and getting the
player personalities out more and having it be a little
less infantalizing. So I hope that that's their plan with
(25:33):
this league too. One of the things I loved was
that the teams are already starting to establish little traditions
the talents. Player who hit a home run had the
like two fingers out and made it look like sort
of eagle talents that were like coming out as she
was running around the bases. The Bandits had the most
insane player intros, coming through some swinging saloon doors and
(25:55):
then doing a variety of different like spinning fake guns
or like shooting things. I just I love that they
are starting to find those moments early in this league
because that's part of the joy of softball and something
that Jessica Mendoza told this member. She said, basically, like
trying to have individual winners in a sport that people love,
the team interaction so much of maybe.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Wasn't the way to go.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
So I like that they're already establishing some of those,
like routines and habits and traditions so fun.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
I'm jealous that you got to be there for it.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
It's fun how many firsts we were having of late
and getting to like experience.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
It's such a great sign for women's sports.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Alex, I think that you had texted me something about
the Women's College World Series. Was there something that you
wanted to say about that other than just enthusiasm for
Texas winning it all?
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
I think it's interesting because even earlier in the show
you mentioned it in talking about Nigerie Kennedy and her
one million dollar an IL collective. And after that series
ended with Texas Tech losing. Of course, their coach, Jerry
Glasgow spoke about how he thought it was quote almost
insulting to Canady how often that one million dollar ANIL
(27:09):
deal was brought up. I'm going to continue the quote here.
I think it's interesting. You watch Ohio State in the
men's football game National Championship game. You don't hear any
announcers talking about nil. They just don't talk about it.
And yet you know, Ohio State had won the highest
two or three nil payouts last year in college football.
I wonder why we talk about it for a female athlete.
(27:30):
And I thought it was interesting. You know, he equated
it to being a double standard, just how often it's
talked about. I do think that because it was in
softball for the star pitcher to transfer, it's a different
type of situation here. But I thought it was interesting,
and I was just curious if you guys had any
thoughts on that.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
I see both sides of it.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
I think, on the one hand, it's great to talk
about women making money, getting paid, bringing victories to schools,
bringing revenue to schools. Because of the conversations were likely
to be in the future about NCAA versus House and
all of the money being dumped into men's sports because
they believe that's the only space that will bring something back.
On the other hand, I see his point too, that
being if it's being talked about as sort of Texas
(28:14):
Tech wouldn't be here if they hadn't just thrown a
bunch of money at the best player kind of bs.
We don't see that as often on the men's side.
We see it as congratulating a school when they can
wrangle a big star, and it feels like, potentially, he
thinks in this case, it's being held up as an
abuse of the system, So I can see where he's
coming from there. Okay, let's move on to tennis, because
(28:35):
I want to talk Coco. Golfs win so much fun,
all the moments coming out of that win.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
There's just so much joy and mesh.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
I know we talked earlier in the show about breaking
this sort of curse or this long drought since the
last American twin it was Serena ten years ago. But
I don't think we need to compare Serena and Coco here.
I think it's okay to mention that and then just
be like, let's talk coc and not bring it all
the way back to ten years ago.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
Exactly my thoughts exactly to a Tea Sera, because first
of all, I'm thinking about Coco being twenty one, being
so early on in her career, having so much talent,
and being her own person, right, I feel like it's
worth appreciating what she's done, aside from everybody else and
all the accomplishments that we want her to reach because
(29:22):
Serena did it, because so and so did it. And
at the same time, I want people to remember what
Serena did was a decade's long process of excellence, like
we haven't seen to me, she's top two athletes period
of all time. We simply haven't seen anybody with that
kind of longevity in women's tennis, and frankly to me,
(29:43):
to me, okay, in tennis in general. I know we've
got Novak, I know we've got Rafa, I know we've
got all them.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
I'm not worried about them.
Speaker 4 (29:50):
So I think Serena's legacy we have to put it
in context and remember how freaking outstanding that was, and
also know that Coco just got here for real, she
just got here stopp putting that pressure on her. You
can compare in that, Yes, she won a French Open,
and she's the first one since Serena to do it. Yes,
in full stop, keep it it ends there right now.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
And that's not a knock on Coco.
Speaker 4 (30:11):
It's just we're talking about two completely different, completely different
plan It's completely different atmospheres right now. But I want
to give Coco her props because I love what she's
been doing. I love watching her play, and I really
love the joy that she plays. With that slow mode
video that we told you guys to go listen or
go watch, we linked to it in our show notes,
I'm telling y'all it's as a basketball player, I don't
(30:35):
really have a desire to play tennis, but watching that
moment it makes me say, you know what, I should
be watching a little bit more. I should be paying
more attention. I should be locked in a little bit more.
And it's little stuff like that that we've seen kind
of turn women's sports into what we've just talked about
having all the first having so many people excited about it,
and in that moment there was just so much joy,
so much black joy, which means so much to me personally.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
So yeah, and that's what I want to say, is
what you had to say about her. And Serena reminded
me a little of Mariah Stakos coming on and saying,
it's great that people were excited about me as a
young black golfer, but immediately it was like and Tiger Woods.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Yeah, and she's like, no, don't do that. Tiger Woods
is this whole thing different.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Great that I'm a young prodigy black golfer, but like
that is too much pressure.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
And I feel like that's the same for Coco.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
It's great, we love to see it the black joy,
especially in a sport that you want to bring more
eyeballs too that you want to bring more young black
players to. But not if we're going to force the
pressure on her of being the next Soreena.
Speaker 4 (31:37):
Yes, because then what inevitably happens is if she doesn't
live up to Serena, then she's a bust, which is
completely untrue in and of itself as well. So yeah,
I gotta give left to Coco and to Serena because
that WNBA collab with the Toronto Tempo, her being an owner.
I love that. I love her having her hands all
over that. But yeah, she's She's one of a kind.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
I think what stood out to me the most about
Coco's win is something that I feel like I saw
a lot covering the Olympics, which is that when you
win the first time, I often see a lot of joy.
Sometimes there's some relief in there depending on what the
stakes were, but I think sometimes winning the second time
is so much harder. Obviously this is a different tournament
(32:20):
than the one that she won before, but right there's
always a question of like was it a fluke? Can
I get back to that same stage, can I meet
the expectations? And so I think seeing her breakthrough for
a second time to win a Grand Slam, it just
makes me really excited for what's to come for her,
while simultaneously not trying to put more pressure on her.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
I agree there is a little bit of that like
relief plus joy of like I did it again.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
I wasn't a one hit wonder. I want to quickly
talk about the WNBA from this.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
Weekend too, because Mesh, I was thinking about you as
I was texting Front of the Show Jess Smith about
the big win that the Valks got over the Aces
three players in double digits, and some like serious statlines
Kayla Thornton twenty two points, eleven boards, Veronica Burton fourteen points,
career high, twelve assists and seven rebounds, and Monique Billings
(33:10):
fourteen points eleven boards, like a real team effort.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
But the aces, Sarah, you've been officially it's officially.
Speaker 4 (33:20):
Time to worry. I was, I was holding off on
the worry. It's officially time to worry.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Okay. They got worked. They got worked.
Speaker 4 (33:28):
They've got so much connectivity work to do on the
defensive end, which surprises the hell out of me, and.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
Rebounding the ball.
Speaker 4 (33:36):
Let me not forget to mention that they were negative
twelve minus twelve on the boards against the Valkyries.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
You mentioned it.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
Three players in double double territory. That's you cannot be
given that up under Becky Haam and she's obviously upset
about that, she had some comments about it in the
postgame press conference.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
But offensively too. They're missing that fourth dog.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
Remember Monica McNutt coined Jack the Jack Crew for them
when it was you know, when they had Kelsey Plumb
on this roster. They need Jewel Lloyd to be that
fourth player. And frankly, Asia Wilson's doing what she does.
She's second best in scoring average right now in the WNBA.
Jewels got to step up. Chelsea Gray doesn't have the
assist numbers that she's had and granted, team, you know,
(34:17):
players got to hit shots for you to get the assists.
But it's just a lot of things that still need
a lot of work, and I feel like I was
expecting them to be a little bit further along. We're
still very early in the season, haven't even hit the
All Star break yet, but they got to get They
gotta get Jewel.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
I think she's she's the answer.
Speaker 4 (34:32):
She's shooting twenty nine point four percent right now, which
is worse than any season average field goal percent and.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
Get some time hopefully. Yeah, and that's part of it.
It's just getting used to a new system. I do
have to say, and Asia is not at fault for this,
but if the Aces don't do that well, and Asia
has already won a couple MVPs, it does support my
preseason prediction that voters might think it's time for a
new MVP or should I say fee P because I
(35:03):
just want to point out then if it's a Collier
heading into the Links game against the Dallas Wings, was
putting up over twenty one points per game on fifty
two point five percent field goal percentage, forty point nine
percent three point percentage, and ninety point seven percent free
throw percentage, making her the first scoring leader in WNBA
history to average fifty forty ninety efficiency eight games into
(35:23):
the season.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
Again, it's early.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
I'm just pointing out that my chip on her shoulder
feeling a little ragie after losing in the finals and
getting second in the MVP voting might end up all
being what we see this year.
Speaker 4 (35:37):
Yeah, I think there's some merits to that, but man
Ace has got to figure it out.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
They gotta figure it out.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
Okay, last WNBA, we have to talk about the Studs
Buds because it is Pride.
Speaker 4 (35:47):
This is my new favorite thing in the world. If
y'all are paying attention to this, I need you to
go follow them immediately. It's at stud Dot Buds with
a Z on Instagram and the stud Buds are Courty
Williams and Natisha Heideman. It's it's my favorite thing to
come out of Pride month. So far, We're not even
halfway through and I'm obsessed I'm obsessed.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
They just get on there, shoot the shit.
Speaker 4 (36:08):
I love having two masculine presenting players have a friendship
that's visible to people, especially at a time like this.
So if you're not following them, go follow them and
get yourselves a laugh.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
So far, there's been some good moments, for instance, asking
Elana Smith when she knew she was straight, or maybe
they were telling her when they knew she when they
knew she was straight. Either way, the stud buds are
are a good watch and absolutely just in time for Pride.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
I just need to say that I googled stud buds
and the first thing I found was a stud Finder,
which also in time for Pride.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
Thank god, that's what you said, because I was gonna say.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
I don't know where you were going.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
Sometimes I google stuff out of the context and my
brain just isn't hasn't gotten there yet, and then whatever
comes up, I'm like, oh, yeah, I deserve that. I
deserve the results I just found. And I was worried
about you with stud buds with a Z, but thankfully
just a good old Studfinder.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
We got to take another break, y'all.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
When we come back, a brand new tradition has already
lassoed our attention and shot right through our hearts.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Stick around welcome back slices.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
We love that you're listening, but we want you to
get in the game every day too, so here's our
good gameplay of the day once again. Tune into the
PWHL expansion draft tonight. It's been so much fun watching
the league and the teams navigate expansion, so make sure
you follow along for the culmination of all that shuffling
and signing as PWHL Seattle and PWHL Vancouver round out
their rosters at eight thirty pm Eastern. We'll link to
(37:43):
the PWHL dot com and the PWHL.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
YouTube channel in our show notes.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
And we always love to hear from you, so hit
us up on email good game at wondermedianetwork dot com
or leave us a voicemail at eight seven two two
o four fifty seventy. Don't forget to subscribe, rate and review, y'all.
We ask you every show because it's so easy. The
bandits player intros at the first ever AUSL game, rating
ten out of ten best player intros in Sports Review.
(38:09):
You heard me mention it earlier, but I can't say
it enough. The bandits player intros are the best.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
New thing in sports.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
We'll link to them in the show notes so you
can watch them and keep an eye out, in particular
for the spinning fake guns into the Holster move and
my personal favorite the Rhdam Cowboy slash Pony by Genuine
Dance just insane. Also, there's smoke blasting out of the
saloon doors when they run through them, which really took
things up a notch. Just ten out of ten. I
(38:36):
love it so much. Now it's your turn, y'all rate
and review. Thanks for listening, See you tomorrow. Good Game
Texas Softball, Good game Coco Golf. A few injuries and
illnesses we can't watch Kaitlin Clark or Pagebackers or Courtney Vanders.
Good Game with Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports
(38:57):
production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You
could find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts. Production by Wonder Media Network,
our producers are Alex Azzie and Misha Jones. Our executive
producers are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan, and Emily Rutterer.
Our editors are Emily Rutterer, Brittany Martinez, Grace Lynch, and
(39:17):
Gianna Palmer. Our associate producers Lucy Jones and I'm Your
Host Sarah Spain
Host
Sarah Spain
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