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Commentary: Angry about Dodgers signing Freddie Freeman? Take it up with your owner, not ours

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The Dodgers signal Freddie Freeman, and impulsively disgruntled followers of different groups are channeling their interior Russ Hodges: The Dodgers purchase the pennant! The Dodgers purchase the pennant!

Please think about this a reminder to direct your objections to the correct supply.

In Oakland, the place beleaguered however spirited followers organized their very own fan pageant final Saturday, a pair of cleats signed by star pitcher Chris Bassitt was raffled off. Inside minutes, the Athletics had raffled off Bassitt himself. Inside days, they’d raffled off Matt Chapman and Matt Olson too. Sean Manaea and Frankie Montas might need been traded between the time I wrote these phrases and the time you learn them.

In Chicago, the place Cubs proprietor Tom Ricketts has entered the bidding for the storied Chelsea membership within the English Premier League, a spokesman whispered candy nothings to the British media about how Ricketts understands “the significance of investing for achievement.” Decide your emoji, Cubs followers, on your crew — Ricketts’ crew — is projected to have a below-average main league payroll this season and end beneath the self-destructing Cincinnati Reds within the Nationwide League Central.

The Dodgers wish to win. You bought an issue with that? Take it up together with your proprietor, not ours.

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What makes the Freeman deal fascinating is that, for the third consecutive yr, the Dodgers have veered from their commonplace course, the one outlined by the analytical buzzword of “sustainability.”

For the primary seven years below Mark Walter’s possession, the Dodgers declined to go “all-in” to win in a given yr, preserving capital in {dollars} and prospects for the prospect to win yearly. They gained the NL West yearly. They by no means gained the World Sequence.

In 2020, they went all-in. They traded for Mookie Betts, surrendering two high prospects and awarding Betts with a contract extension value $365 million. Within the six years he had run the Dodgers’ baseball operations, Andrew Friedman by no means had signed anybody for even $100 million.

The Dodgers gained the World Sequence.

In 2021, they went all-in once more, this time with Trevor Bauer, for $102 million over three years. Bauer didn’t pitch within the second half of the season amid investigations into allegations of sexual assault, and his time with the Dodgers may already be completed.

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The Dodgers didn’t win the World Sequence.

In 2022, they’ve gone all-in once more, this time with Freeman, for $162 million. The final time a Southland crew imported a marquee first baseman on a free-agent contract beginning together with his age-32 season, the crew was the Angels, and the participant was Albert Pujols. There are not any ensures.

The Dodgers used to shudder on the considered signing a participant to a long-term contract that prolonged into his late 30s. That was partially how Friedman used to win with the Tampa Bay Rays: bloated contracts for getting old gamers hampered the Boston Crimson Sox and New York Yankees and opened a door to competition for him. The door was labeled “monetary flexibility.”

Betts shall be 39 when his contract expires. Freeman shall be 38.

“We’re lucky to have quite a few guys on the upper finish of the wage scale,” Friedman as soon as instructed me. “It’s necessary for large-revenue groups to area these out as a lot as you possibly can. We’re afforded the luxurious of getting quite a few them. It’s an important profit. However, in case you are too flippant about it, it will possibly grow to be an actual legal responsibility.”

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Past Betts and Freeman, the one participant below contract after subsequent season is Chris Taylor.

After signing a $365-million contract extension with the Dodgers, Mookie Betts helped them win the 2020 World Sequence.

(Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Instances)

Walker Buehler, Dustin Could and Will Smith are below crew management by way of no less than 2024. The Dodgers’ minor league system is ranked as the most effective in baseball by Keith Regulation of the Athletic. Maybe sustainability and monetary flexibility nonetheless stay.

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And credit score the place credit score is due: Walter might have stated, “Hey, let’s look ahead to the league to resolve the Bauer scenario, after which let’s see the place we’re financially.”

That will not have been honest to the Dodgers gamers, who would have been hampered on the sphere by a scenario out of their management, or to the Dodgers followers. The Dodgers are higher right this moment, earlier than the brand new season begins, and earlier than the Bauer investigation ends.

To all these disgruntled followers across the nation: Over the past 20 years, the crew with the best payroll missed the playoffs in additional years (three) than gained the World Sequence (two).

In six of these 20 years, the World Sequence champion was a wild-card crew. Beginning this yr, two wild-card groups have been added to the playoff subject, that means the champion must navigate a 12-team event, not a 10-team event.

That would make it extra seemingly that groups observe the outdated Billy Beane motto: the playoffs are a crapshoot. Simply get in, and hope the random nature of luck and a brief collection favors your crew.

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The Dodgers might have completed that. They don’t want Freeman to get into the playoffs. Even earlier than they signed him, the Baseball Prospectus and Fangraphs projection programs pegged the Dodgers as the most effective crew within the main leagues.

No, that is an all-in transfer, once more. The Dodgers have a greater likelihood to win the World Sequence right this moment than they did yesterday. From a metropolis nonetheless awaiting its first World Sequence championship parade since 1988, to an proprietor taking part in to win, thanks.

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Top boxing organization expels Ryan Garcia after hateful comments

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Top boxing organization expels Ryan Garcia after hateful comments

Boxer Ryan Garcia was expelled from one of the top organizations on Thursday after he made racist remarks about Black people and George Floyd as well as anti-Muslim comments.

Garcia made the remarks in an X Space and it quickly went viral.

Boxer Ryan Garcia is shown in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on May 17, 2024. (Richard Pelham/Getty Images)

World Boxing Council President Mauricio Sulaiman announced on X that Garcia had been expelled from the organization. 

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“Exercising my authority as president of the WBC, I am hereby expelling Ryan Garcia from any activity with our organization,” Sulaiman wrote on X. “We reject any form of discrimination. I fear for Ryan well being as he has declined multiple attempts for our help with mental health and substance abuse.”

He went on another rant on X before the expulsion was handed down, trying to defend some of his remarks.

Fox News Digital reached out to Garcia’s representatives for comment.

Ryan Garcia at his presser

Ryan Garcia speaks onstage at Palladium Times Square in New York City on Feb. 27, 2024. (Cris Esqueda/Golden Boy/Getty Images)

Garcia was suspended by the New York State Athletic Commission for one year last month after a positive test for a banned substance after his fight against Devin Haney in April.

He later wrote on X that he was “officially retired” and claimed to be headed to the UFC. He’s pushed back on any notion he had a banned substance in his system against Haney.

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He tested positive for Ostarine, which is not a steroid but can stimulate muscle growth and thus is on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s list of banned substances.

Ryan Garcia at Davis vs. Martin

Ryan Garcia arrives at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on June 15, 2024. (Cassy Athena/Getty Images)

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Garcia and his team said at the time he was a “victim of substance contamination, with levels measured in the billions and trillions of a gram, which provided no advantage whatsoever in the ring.”

Fox News’ Ryan Morik contributed to this report.

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LAFC prevails over El Tráfico rival Galaxy in front of 70,000 fans at Rose Bowl

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LAFC prevails over El Tráfico rival Galaxy in front of 70,000 fans at Rose Bowl

For seven seasons, the Galaxy and LAFC have shared Southern California. But until Thursday they had never played each other while sharing the top spot in the Western Conference standings.

They didn’t finish the night that way, with first-half goals from Kei Kamara and Denis Bouanga lifting LAFC to a 2-1 victory before a crowd of 70,076 at the Rose Bowl. Gabriel Pec scored for the Galaxy early in the second half.

For much of the bitter crosstown rivalry, the Galaxy have been closer to the bottom of the table than the top. LAFC, meanwhile, has the best record in the league since entering MLS.

That has often left one team playing for a title and the other one playing spoiler. That wasn’t the case this time.

“It looked to me as if the Galaxy players had something today to lose,” LAFC coach Steve Cherundolo said. “They were not the underdogs today. And that’s a different burden.”

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LAFC defender Aaron Long wasn’t so sure since nobody takes a copy of the standings into a game.

“It’s always going to feel the same, to be honest,” he said. “If you lose to them when you’re in first and they’re in last, it hurts the same as if you lose to them if you’re both tied for first.”

But when you win and break that tie? Well, it means a little more.

“That perhaps made it a little different,” defender Sergi Palencia said in Spanish. “Tied on points for first place, it was a very important game for us. We approached this match as a final.”

A final maybe, but it won’t be their last meeting. The teams will square off in September and, given the way both are playing, a playoff rematch in the fall looks likely.

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Consider that LAFC (13-4-4), with its third win in as many games, extended the team’s franchise-record unbeaten streak to 10 matches and pushed it closer to Inter Miami in the Supporters’ Shield race. It has also won its last three games against the Galaxy. It is the hottest team in the league.

For the Galaxy (11-4-7), the loss, their second in 12 games, ended a four-match winning streak, the team’s longest since 2020, and dropped them into a tie with Real Salt Lake for second in the table on points.

The Galaxy are the third-best team in the Western Conference since April.

The two teams, who normally play in stadiums only 11 miles apart, moved their Fourth of July game to the Rose Bowl for the second straight year and were rewarded with the second-largest crowd in MLS this season and the 14th-largest in league history. And the 70,000-plus who showed up were rewarded with an entertaining game.

LAFC was better through much of the first half, outshooting the Galaxy 13-6, but they couldn’t beat goalkeeper John McCarthy until just before the break. After making two tough saves seconds part, first pushing away Mateusz Bogusz’s right-footed shot from the top of the box then lifting Ilie Sánchez’s header over the bar, McCarthy got beat on a Kamara header, ending the keeper’s scoreless streak at 319 minutes.

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It was the 147th goal of Kamara’s MLS career, extending his lead over Landon Donovan for second on the all-time scoring list.

“When the service is right, it’s kind of unstoppable,” Long said. “When he gets that running head start and he gets the jump, no one’s going be able to jump with him. Everyone knows how good he’s in the air. But when the ball is right and he times it well, it’s almost impossible to stop.”

A minute later, Galaxy defender Julián Aude tripped midfielder Eduard Atuesta at the top of the box, drawing a penalty that Bouanga converted for his 14th goal of the season. The Galaxy hadn’t allowed two goals in the first half since an April loss in Austin.

But if LAFC dominated the first half, the Galaxy were more dangerous for much of the next 45 minutes.

Pec halved the deficit in the 56th minute, bulling his way through a pair of defenders before pushing in a left-footed shot from close range for this seventh goal of the season. The score also gave him a goal or assist in five straight games.

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Joseph Paintsil nearly tied the game a minute later, spinning and launching a right-footed shot from the center of the box, but the ball sailed harmlessly over the crossbar. LAFC responded by packing the penalty area with as many as seven bodies in the final 10 minutes, finally breathing a sigh of relief at the final whistle.

“These derby matches, there’s so much you have to get up for, mentally and emotionally,” Long said. “So it feels the same, even though in the standings, it doesn’t look the same.”

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LIV Golf star posts bizarre motivational message as next event looms

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LIV Golf star posts bizarre motivational message as next event looms

LIV Golf’s Anthony Kim posted a bizarre motivational message on social media on Wednesday as he prepared for the series’ next event at Andalucía in Spain next week.

Kim made a reference to working harder than a crackhead as he posted early on X.

Anthony Kim is shown during the first day of LIV Golf Miami at Trump National Doral Miami on April 5, 2024, in Florida. (Megan Briggs/Getty Images)

“Good morning. Does a crakhead (sic) ever let a day go by w/out finding a way to get high? NO. I would know,” he wrote. “Not gonna let a crakhead (sic) outwork me today. 1% better today lessssgoo!!!”

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Kim is tied for last in the LIV Golf standings. In Nashville last month, he finished 46th in the standings, posting an even score in 54 holes. He was 48th in Houston and 53rd in Singapore, dating back to early May.

He disappeared from the PGA Tour years ago and his return to the professional ranks was highly publicized back in January.

HAYDEN SPRINGER ETCHES HIS NAME INTO PGA TOUR HISTORY WITH EPIC JOHN DEERE CLASSIC 1ST ROUND

Anthony Kim at hole 8 in Singapore

Anthony Kim acknowledges the crowd after holing out on hole 8 during the first day of LIV Golf Singapore at Sentosa Golf Club on May 3, 2024. (Getty Images)

The last time Kim competed before joining LIV Golf was at the 2012 Wells Fargo Championship when he was 26 years old. He withdrew from the tournament due to injury, which was his third straight withdrawal.

One month later, Kim had surgery to repair his left Achilles tendon, and then he wasn’t heard from in the golf world as many wondered whether he would be back at all.

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Kim also dealt with tendinitis in his left arm and a left thumb injury during his 122 starts on the PGA Tour.

He was open about his battle with addiction in an interview on LIV Golf Plus in April.

Anthony Kim in Tennessee

Anthony Kim is shown during the opening round of LIV Golf Nashville on June 21, 2024, at the Grove Golf Course in College Grove, Tennessee. (Michael Wade/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

“Golf is important to me and not important to me at the same time,” Kim said, per ESPN. “I’ve had some very dark moments. I’ve had some very low moments. I’ve felt very alone, even when there’s a million people around. I needed to get my mind straight and figure out what my purpose was on this planet.”

Fox News’ Scott Thompson contributed to this report.

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