Here are three weird things that happened around the majors last night:
1. The Cubs and Pirates ended in a tie. A tie, believe it or not, was the least offensive of the three. It is silly, but the subtleties of a baseball game, seemingly more so than in other major sports, change based on the stakes. The Cubs had clinched the best record in the National League; the Pirates had been eliminated from playoff contention.
Known for his flashy style of play and brash personality, Tim Duncan announced his retirement in a 2,000-word blog post under the headline, “I’m Out, Suckaz.”
No, no he didn’t. In fact, Tim Duncan didn’t announce anything. The Spurs released a statement yesterday on his behalf. The first line read, “San Antonio Spurs forward Tim Duncan today announced that he will retire after 19 seasons with the organization,” and while there are 520 more words, none of them are from Duncan. Consider how unusual that is in an era where the standard operating procedure is for athletes to announce their retirement on The Players’ Tribune. That’s what Kobe did, through a poem in which he couldn’t decide between “and” or “&.” It’s what David Ortiz did in a two-minute video that featured multiple close-ups of his hands. Derek Jeter, founder of The Players’ Tribune, wrote 15 paragraphs on Facebook, and while his Yankee teammate Mariano Rivera simply called a press conference, both made the announcement before their final season.
How about that Pirates-Padres game? Exciting from start to finish, it included a robbed home run and an groundskeeper getting swallowed by the tarp. I cover that, as well as preview the All-Star events in my latest recap for CBS Local.
The Sportswriting of Andrew Kahn 