Sports
How Brock Purdy's Super Bowl journey was forged by his dad's minor-league baseball career
Allegiant Stadium can host up to 72,000 fans for special events like Super Bowl LVIII. If every player in the history of Major League Baseball got a ticket, there would still be almost 50,000 available for Sunday’s game in Las Vegas.
Pat Mahomes, whose son Patrick is the quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs, would have a seat. Shawn Purdy, whose son Brock is the quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, would not. Pat Mahomes pitched 11 seasons in the majors. Shawn Purdy pitched eight in the minors.
One game at the highest level, just one, and you’ve got a halo for the rest of your life. Otherwise you’re just like the rest of us, at least when it comes to service time at the summit of baseball. What’s the word? Irrelevant. The sliver of difference seems cruel.
“I played with guys that got called up, and they didn’t have the baseball IQ, they didn’t have the discipline, they didn’t have the winning attitude, all that stuff,” said Russ Ortiz, who pitched in the majors for 12 seasons. “And I was always like, ‘Man, I played with guys in Double A and Triple A that had all those intangibles but never got the chance.’ I would put Shawn down as one of those guys.”
Ortiz was roommates with Purdy in 1997. They were Phoenix Firebirds, one rung below the majors for the San Francisco Giants. He remembers a contraption Purdy lugged around the Pacific Coast League to strengthen his arm away from the park. The squeaking of the ropes lingers for Ortiz, part of the soundtrack of the minors.
“Yeah, that came from our physiotherapy people with the Angels,” said Eduardo Perez, who roomed with Purdy at an earlier stop. “We all had one; it was a weighted thing with a pulley system on the door. We marked every door in every hotel and every apartment we rented.”
Perez was the Angels’ first-round draft choice in 1991, 17th overall, a Florida State infielder with a star pedigree and a slugger’s build. Purdy was the Angels’ 16th rounder, 428th overall, a starter from the University of Miami with ordinary stuff, a smallish frame — and, as the old scouts would say, a belly full of guts.
The Angels had a habit of finding bright, tough-minded players from Florida; Howie Kendrick, Jeff Mathis, Mike Napoli, Darren O’Day, Orlando Palmeiro, Scot Shields and Perez would all play at least a decade in the majors. Tom Kotchman, the scout who signed Purdy, saw a durable, competitive righty with a sinker, slider and changeup whose confidence belied a low-90s fastball.
“You would have thought he threw 105,” Kotchman said. “And he wasn’t afraid to get on the bus and say something to me. He’d talk some trash, but it was respectful trash.”
That first season, between Miami and the rookie-league Boise Hawks, Purdy threw 218 2/3 innings with 10 complete games. The innings total — unfathomable now — spiked a bit from all the times Purdy fought Kotchman, who also managed Boise, to stay in the game.
The Hawks went 50-26, and Purdy was their ace. Kotchman gave him the ball against Yakima for the Northwest League championship game, even though Yakima had shelled Purdy the start before. He knew he’d made the right call when Purdy said nothing to his manager in the clubhouse. A self-assured nod was all he needed to see.
Purdy went six strong innings for the win. Teammates mobbed the Hawks’ closer, Troy Percival, after the final out. When Kotchman found game footage recently, he eagerly sent it around to his former players. Purdy got the last word on the local news that night.
“I didn’t get to go the whole distance like I dreamed to, but I held ’em down, the guys got some runs, and I got – we all got – our revenge,” Purdy shouted, above the din in the locker room. “And we’re the champs, baby. We’re number 1.”
The 49ers will seek their own revenge on Sunday against the Chiefs, who beat them in the Super Bowl four years ago. Brock Purdy was at Iowa State then, on his way to the NFL as the final pick of the 2022 draft — the infamous Mr. Irrelevant.
The 16th round, where Shawn Purdy was chosen, would now be close to the end of the MLB draft, which lasts only 20 rounds. Teams could keep drafting as long as they wanted in 1991 — that draft lasted for 1,600 selections — but by round 16, most of the top prospects were long gone. Nobody from Purdy’s round reached the majors.
“Shawn could have been the last guy drafted, too,” said Joe Maddon, then a roving instructor in the Angels’ farm system. “When they describe Brock, they could be describing Shawn: great makeup, very highly competitive, never quit, tools are a little bit short, but he makes it work.”
Maddon, who managed parts of 19 seasons in the majors, hosts a podcast now with Tom Verducci. They tried to book Shawn Purdy as a guest last winter, when Brock was leading the 49ers to the NFC championship game, but Shawn declined until the season was over.
Likewise, Shawn Purdy did not return messages from The Athletic last week, though he was in contact with old teammates.
“Oh look, Purdy just texted me,” Perez said, chuckling in mid-interview. “I go, ‘Dude, I’m diverting so many calls from media, they want to talk to you and I’m your buffer now. LOL.’ And he goes, ‘Now that’s funny.’”
In 1992, Perez and Shawn Purdy were roommates in Palm Springs, where the Angels had a team in the Single-A California League. A college friend of Perez’s was visiting and mentioned that his father, a sportswear executive, knew some models who would be in town.
Implausible as it seems, Perez said that his roommate was so focused on baseball that he was reluctant to meet the women. But Purdy’s enthusiasm changed in an instant.
“When he saw Carrie, he looked at me and goes, ‘I’m gonna marry this girl,’” Perez said. “I’m like, ‘Right, brother, whatever you say.’ And he married that girl.”
The next summer, Perez was in the majors and Purdy was back in Palm Springs after straining his ulnar collateral ligament in spring training. He split that season and the next between Single A and Double A, where his progress stalled.
Purdy’s sinker was still keeping the ball in the park, but plenty of hits were dropping in: 86 in 68 Double-A innings across the 1993 and 1994 seasons. His earned run average at that level for the Angels was 7.01, but he fearlessly pounded the zone.
“He had a short, fast arm which gave him good deception, and a very good changeup,” said Todd Greene, who caught Purdy at Single-A Lake Elsinore (Calif.) in 1994 and would play 11 seasons in the majors. “Not overpowering, but he knew how to pitch, he knew who he was and he threw a lot of strikes.”
Purdy moved on to the Giants organization in 1995, again in Double A but now in a short-relief role, perhaps better suited for a pitcher rarely beaten by homers or walks. Ron Wotus, Purdy’s manager that season in Shreveport, La., said Purdy had an ideal closer’s makeup: steely, persistent, resilient.
“Felipe Alou used to always say something: ‘Trust the man before the player,’” Wotus said, referring to a Giants manager he served as a bench coach. “It’s not the skill or the talent that they have, it’s who they are as a person: their will and desire, those types of things. Brock obviously has that, and so did Shawn.”
Wotus said he considered Purdy a prospect, but the term covers a lot of distinctions. Purdy was not a phenom but a so-called 4A guy, capable of complementing a major-league roster but unlikely to be a star.
That became clear the next season, his fourth at Double A. Purdy was thriving as a closer but lost his job to Ortiz, a younger pitcher and future 20-game winner who was tearing his way through the farm system. The Giants had high hopes for Ortiz and wanted him to close in Shreveport, so that’s what he did.
“I felt bad because I was like, ‘Shawn’s earned it, he’s done well,’” Ortiz said. “I was still learning, and I watched him pitch and the way he handled himself. He was someone I looked up to because of his mental strength and the way he went about his business.”
For Purdy, that business extended beyond the field. At spring training in 1997, as Ortiz recalls, the Giants let Purdy’s fledgling company — then known as Purdy E-Z Pools & Spas — set up a booth at the ballpark.
Promoted that season to Triple-A Phoenix, Purdy heard rumblings of a call-up in July, but the contending Giants added three veterans in a trade instead. Back in Triple A the next season with the Braves’ affiliate in Richmond, Purdy had a 1.83 ERA through 16 games. Certain he was about to join the Braves — he’d overheard a coach mention the possibility — Purdy felt pain in his elbow while playing catch before a game.
“They flew me to Atlanta, got a needle in the elbow, tried rehabbing for a bit, and it didn’t take,” Purdy said last spring on Maddon’s podcast. “Went in and had surgery, had some bone spurs removed and that was it. My elbow was fine. My business started taking off. I just chose to be a big-league dad.”
Shawn and Carrie have three children; he coached their oldest, Whittney, in softball, and has told Perez that she is the best athlete of them all, with Chubba — the youngest Purdy and the quarterback at Nebraska before recently transferring to Nevada — the second best.
That would put Brock Purdy third, which matches the broad strokes of his story. He is listed at 6-foot-1, an inch taller than Shawn, an inch shorter than Chubba, but his supposed lack of athleticism is probably overplayed.
“He might not be Deion Sanders, I get that, but the guy has touch, he’s got enough speed to keep defenses honest, and he can drop balls on a dime,” said Bill Bavasi, the Angels’ farm director when Shawn Purdy pitched in their system. “The guy gets written up for great makeup and personality traits, but he’s got athleticism, man.”
Whittney, Chubba, Shawn and Brock Purdy (l-r) with Eduardo Perez in 2012. (Photo courtesy of Eduardo Perez)
Yet there has always been something extra with Brock, an aptitude his father recognized early. When the Purdys would host Super Bowl parties, Shawn told Maddon, most kids would be playing outside. But Brock, at five or six years old, would stand on the coffee table and study the action, trying to think along with the quarterbacks.
“It must have been like his second year of Pop Warner, and I remember talking with Shawn about how smart he was.” Ortiz said. “It was like, yeah, of course he can throw a football, but a lot of kids can throw a football. Being accurate and then actually knowing how to play the position is a different story.
“It’s like with our daughter, we put her in piano at six years old and then really quick her piano teacher was like: ‘She gets it. She can just hear all the notes.’ You hear the same thing from Kyle Shanahan with Brock. You know he’s just got it.”
Shawn Purdy’s experience with a UCL injury helped Brock focus on small, daily milestones in his own recovery from a tear in the playoffs last winter. Brock, a former middle infielder, has also said that playing baseball as a boy — he stopped after his sophomore year in high school — has helped him master different angles as a quarterback.
What Brock inherited most clearly from his father is harder to define, but those who know Shawn can see it, unmistakably. Shawn’s career statistics were mediocre: a 3.91 ERA, more than a hit per inning, 5.6 strikeouts per nine. Yet somehow he was 21 games over .500, at 58-37. He was a winner.
Brock Purdy has started 26 NFL games, and his team has won 21. The next game will mean more to a lot more fans than Boise versus Yakima in 1991. But expect the son to handle his title shot the same way his father did.
“Look at Brock and look at Shawn, it’s the same guy,” Maddon said. “Nothing overwhelms you, but he beats you.”
(Top photo: Lachlan Cunningham / Getty Images and iStock: bmcent1)
Thousand-dollar tickets and hundreds of dollars in fees shocked some hopeful Olympic fans this month, but they did not keep LA28 from boasting strong sales in the committee’s first ticket drop.
LA28 announced Thursday that it sold more than 4 million Olympic tickets during the first ticket drop. The private organizing committee will have a second ticket drop in August with “refreshed inventory across all Olympic sports at a range of price points.”
But after the popularity of the first purchasing period, many of the lower-priced tickets have already been scooped up.
LA28 said roughly half of the total 1 million $28 tickets were sold during the locals presale, which was limited to people living near venue cities in Southern California and Oklahoma City.
The average price per Olympic ticket is less than $200, which includes a mandatory 24% service fee, and LA28 said about 75% of all tickets, including final events, will be under $400. The premier seats at high-demand events command more than $1,000 per ticket, but the highest priced categories make up about 5% of the total ticket inventory.
Artistic gymnastics sold out the quickest in Drop 1. Four new Olympic sports — flag football, lacrosse, softball and squash — sold all their available inventory for the first drop. After five days of local presale, global ticket sales opened and drew fans from 85 countries and all 50 states and U.S. territories. The largest international sales came from the United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico and Japan.
For the first female-majority Olympic Games, LA28 reported that women’s Olympic sessions outsold men’s 93% to 88% during the first drop.
“The response to our initial on-sale was nothing short of historic. Fans from near and far have spoken: the world wants to be part of the LA28 Games,” LA28 chief executive officer Reynold Hoover said in a statement. “The success of Drop 1 is about more than momentum — it reflects LA28’s commitment to delivering a fiscally responsible Games that create a lasting legacy for Los Angeles and its communities.”
Drop 2, which will begin in August, will have additional tickets across all Olympic sports, including those that may have sold out during the first purchasing windows. The registration period for Drop 2 opened Thursday and will continue until July 22. Fans who registered for the first drop of tickets but did not receive a time slot and fans who did not buy their maximum 12 general ticket allotment will automatically be entered into the random lottery Drop 2. The new registration period is only required for anybody who did not sign up for the initial drop.
Fans are still limited to 12 Olympic tickets and up to 12 soccer tickets that don’t count toward the general maximum. There is a four ticket per ceremony limit for the opening and closing ceremony that count toward the 12-ticket maximum, which is cumulative across all LA28 presales and ticket drops.
LA28 will have multiple ticket drops with assigned purchasing time slots before ticket sales move to a first-come, first-served format closer to the Games, which open on July 14, 2028. LA28 began its ticketing process earlier than most other Olympic Games with tickets going on sale more than two years in advance of the opening ceremony. The early timeline has created excitement for the first Summer Olympics in the United States since Atlanta 1996, but also prompted concerns about scheduling. Fans clamored for tickets with little information about which teams or athletes would be competing in most sessions.
Tickets are not refundable, but fans can opt for verified resale when LA28 launches its official resale system in 2027. AXS and Eventim is the official secondary ticket marketplace of the LA28 Games and Ticketmaster and Sports Illustrated Tickets have also signed on as additional verified resale platforms.
LA28 will have 14 million tickets available for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which would eclipse the record of 12 million tickets sold for the Paris Games. Paris 2024 sold an about 9.5 million tickets for the Olympics, but used a different ticket system than LA28. For Paris, 3.5 million tickets were sold during the first phase, during which fans were required to buy tickets to at least three different sports instead of the option for single-event tickets available during LA28’s Drop 1 process.
Tickets for the 2028 Paralympics, which will be the first in L.A.’s history, will go on sale in 2027. Ticket sales and hospitality are expected to cover about $2.5 billion of LA28’s expected $7.1 billion budget for the first Games in L.A. in more than 40 years.
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An envoy for President Donald Trump has reportedly asked FIFA to replace Iran with Italy in the 2026 World Cup this summer.
The Financial Times reported the plan is an effort to repair the relationship between Trump and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, which soured after the former’s comments against Pope Leo XIV regarding the war with Iran.
United States special envoy Paolo Zampolli suggested the idea to FIFA President Gianni Infantino.
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President Donald Trump receives the FIFA Peace Prize from FIFA President Gianni Infantino during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Official Draw at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 5, 2025. (Emilee Chinn/FIFA)
“I confirm I have suggested to Trump and Infantino that Italy replace Iran at the World Cup. I’m an Italian native, and it would be a dream to see the Azzurri at a U.S.-hosted tournament,” Zampolli told the outlet. “With four titles, they have the pedigree to justify inclusion.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Fox News Digital.
Italy had a chance to be in the World Cup already, but it lost in a penalty shootout to Bosnia and Herzegovina in a qualifying playoff final.
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Italy became the first World Cup-winning team to miss three consecutive tournaments after the 4-1 penalty shootout loss earlier this month.
“We still don’t believe it that we’re out and that it happened in this manner,” Italy’s Leonardo Spinazzola told reporters at the time, according to the New York Post.
“It’s upsetting for everyone. For us, for our families and for all the kids who have never seen Italy at a World Cup.”
While Zampolli told Infantino about his proposed plan, FIFA’s president said Iran “for sure” will play in the World Cup despite the conflict involving the U.S.
Mehdi Taremi of Iran celebrates after scoring a goal during a 2026 FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifiers Group A game against Uzbekistan at Azadi Stadium in Tehran March 25, 2025. (Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu)
“The Iranian team is coming, for sure,” Infantino said during the CNBC Invest in America Forum earlier this month in Washington, D.C.
“We hope that, by then, of course, the situation will be a peaceful situation. That would definitely help. But Iran has to come, of course. They represent their people. They have qualified. The players want to play.”
Infantino visited the Iranian national team in Turkey, which is where it has its training camp.
All three of Iran’s group stage games are scheduled to be played in the U.S. That remains the case after Iranian government officials suggested to FIFA that their games be moved to Mexico because they could not travel to the U.S.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum revealed FIFA’s rejection of Iran’s request, and it is insisting Iran play where it’s scheduled — SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, and Lumen Field in Seattle. Iran said earlier this month it would only decide on its team’s participation once it heard from FIFA regarding its relocation request.
Iran is scheduled to play at SoFi Stadium against New Zealand June 16 to begin its tournament. It will also play Belgium at the stadium before finishing group play against Mo Salah and Egypt in Seattle June 26.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino attends an international friendly between Mexico and Portugal at Banorte Stadium in Mexico City March 28, 2026. (Antonio Torres/FIFA/Getty Images)
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Trump wrote in a Truth Social post last month that Iran would be welcome to compete in the World Cup as scheduled, though it might not be “appropriate” considering the conflict.
“The Iran National Soccer Team is welcome to The World Cup, but I really don’t believe it is appropriate that they be there, for their own life and safety,” he wrote.
Trump also told Politico, “I really don’t care,” when asked about Iran’s participation in the tournament. Infantino, who has a strong relationship with Trump, said Trump has “reiterated” to him that the U.S. welcomes Iran’s team to compete.
Fox News’ Paulina Dedaj and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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DENVER — Before Anze Kopitar left the ice after the final regular-season home game of his NHL career, he told the fans he was saying good-bye, not farewell.
He would return, he promised, in the playoffs.
He’ll make good on that pledge Thursday when his Kings and the Colorado Avalanche face off in Game 3 of their first-round series at Crypto.com Arena. But it could prove to be a short encore because after losing the first two games of the best-of-seven Stanley Cup playoff in Denver, the Kings need a win Thursday or in Game 4 on Sunday to extend both their season and Kopitar’s Hall of Fame career.
The Kings’ — and Kopitar’s — last six playoff appearances have all ended after just one round. And they’re halfway to another first-round loss this year, though they probably deserve better after giving the league’s best team everything it could handle, only to lose twice by a goal, including a 2-1 overtime loss in Game 2 on Tuesday.
“To a man we’re playing hard,” interim Kings coach D.J. Smith said. “We hoped to split here, but regardless we’re gonna have to win at home. We’ve got to find a way to win a game.
“Clearly good isn’t enough.”
Kopitar announced his retirement before the start of this season, the 20th in his Hall of Fame career. And while many of his teammates talked of their desire to see their captain hoist the Stanley Cup one more time, just making the playoffs appeared beyond the Kings’ reach until the final two weeks of the regular season.
Colorado, meanwhile, led the league in everything, winning the most games, collecting the most points, scoring the most goals and allowing the fewest. The Kings? Not so much. They gave up 22 more goals than they scored, worst among playoff teams, and needed points in 11 of their last 13 games just to squeak into the postseason as the final wild-card team.
Colorado left wing Joel Kiviranta skates under pressure from Kings center Scott Laughton and goaltender Anton Forsberg during Game 2 of their first-round NHL playoff series Tuesday in Denver.
(Jack Dempsey / Associated Press)
Yet two games into this series, it’s been hard to tell the teams apart on the ice. The Kings have outhustled, outhit and outskated the Avalanche for long stretches. But those moral victories have been their only wins.
Asked if he can take solace for the way the team has played, goalie Anton Forsberg, who was outstanding in his first two career playoff games, stared straight ahead.
“No,” he said. “We wanted to go to home [with] a win.”
Forward Trevor Moore was a little more forgiving.
“We would have liked to steal one,” he said. “But you can’t look back. You have to look forward. Confidence-wise, we hung in there with them for two games and we’ve been competitive. I think we could have won either night.”
They won neither night, however, which leaves little margin for error in the next two games.
If the Kings lacked wins in Denver, they didn’t lack chances. On Tuesday they had a man advantage for nearly a quarter of the first 25 minutes and had five power plays and a penalty shot on the night.
When Quinton Byfield’s second-period penalty shot was stuffed by Colorado goalie Scott Wedgewood, a group of Avalanche fans celebrated by pounding on the protective plexiglass behind the Kings’ bench with such force it shattered, raining shards down on the team’s coaches
“Whoever the guy [was] just kept pushing and pushing and pushing,” Smith said. “I looked back because it hit me a bunch of times, then it broke.”
The Kings couldn’t score on the power play either until Artemi Panarin finally found the back of the net with less than seven minutes left in regulation, giving the team its first lead of the series.
“We had every opportunity,” Smith said. “You’ve got to be able to close it out.”
They couldn’t. So when Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog evened the score 3 ½ minutes later, the teams headed to a fourth period.
The overtime was the 34th in 84 games for the Kings this season, an NHL record by some distance. But it ended in the team’s 21st overtime loss when Nicolas Roy banged home a rebound 7:44 into the extra period.
“We had some good looks. I thought we really had the momentum in overtime,” Smith said. “Maybe a bad bounce or a turnover, whatever, it ends up in your net. But to a man this team is playing hard and we’ve got to find a way to win.
“I expect that we’ll be better at home.”
If they aren’t, the Kings face another long summer and Kopitar’s retirement will start earlier than he had hoped.
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