Sports
From pencil bats to Scooby spikes, Players' Weekend showcasing a different side of MLB
Friday marked the start of Players’ Weekend in Major League Baseball, the annual celebration where players use an eclectic mix of custom bats, cleats and other equipment to highlight different parts of their lives.
Established in 2017, this year Players’ Weekend is introducing a specific theme for each of the three days. Friday is about highlighting players’ hobbies and interests. On Saturday, the focus shifts to charities and community efforts that particularly move players. Sunday is built around honoring those who helped players in their journey to the big leagues.
The weekend wraps with Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN, with the New York Yankees and Detroit Tigers playing in the “Little League Classic” in Williamsport, Penn., at 7:10 p.m. E.T.
A lot of what’s to come is going to be revealed on the field or social media, but with an assist from Major League Baseball, here’s a sneak peek of what’s in store:
1. Tarik Skubal of the Tigers goes by the nickname “Skoob,” so really, he had no choice but to wear spikes with Scooby Doo on them, and we’re glad for it. The Tigers are also going to be selling a “Skubal Snack Burger” that he helped design, with bacon, pepper jack cheese, light mayo and a fried egg.
Tarik Skubal points to his Skubal Snack Burger. (Courtesy of MLB)
2. Willy Adames of the Milwaukee Brewers has a bat for each theme day. Check out the blue one, pictured in the middle, with the sea turtle and the recycle logo, representing his love for the ocean and the Players for the Planet charity.
Willy Adames has bats for each day of Players’ Weekend. (Courtesy of MLB)
Look closely, and you can see his Rawlings glove has water droplets painted on too.
Willy Adames also has a custom glove. (Courtesy of MLB)
3. Most of the Cincinnati Reds this weekend are expected to wear cleats designed by patients at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. The shoes will then be auctioned on Reds.com at some point following the weekend, with the proceeds benefitting Cincinnati Children’s.
4. Back in 2022, a group of young Philadelphia Phillies became known as the “Phillies Daycare,” and players like Alec Bohm, Brandon Marsh and Bryson Stott are leaning into the bit.
Bryson Stott and Brandon Marsh show off their daycare bats. (courtesy of MLB)
5. Since The Athletic is built on the written word, how could we possibly ignore what the Toronto Blue Jays’ Ernie Clement is bringing to the plate: a bat that is a pencil, or is it a pencil that is a bat? Write on.
✏️ It might be Summer, but Ernie is ready for school this #PlayersWeekend! pic.twitter.com/2iDYRZJXRI
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) August 16, 2024
(Top photo of Skubal’s cleats: Allison Farrand / Ilitch Sports)
Sports
WWE star Chelsea Green should be WrestleMania ‘headliner,’ Alba Fyre says
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LAS VEGAS – Chelsea Green has been one of the hardest working pro wrestlers in WWE since she returned to the company in 2023 and has put together history-making moments.
Green was the first women’s United States champion in the belt’s history and the first to have multiple reigns. She’s been knocked off ladders and thrown in dumpsters, and yet, strings of bad luck have kept her off the WrestleMania card for the last three years.
Chelsea Green and Alba Fyre enter the ring during SmackDown at Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, on Jan. 23, 2026. (Rich Wade/WWE)
WWE star Alba Fyre, who is a part of Green’s Secret Hervice, told Fox News Digital she would have liked to have seen the Canadian star on the card.
“You know, we’re always rooting for Chelsea,” Fyre said. “Obviously, I’m a big fan of Chelsea, but I think it’s a shame that she’s not on the card this year. She should be the headliner.”
This year, it was a bit out of her hands.
Chelsea Green and Alba Fyre enter the ring during SmackDown at KFC YUM! Center in Louisville, Ky., on Feb. 27, 2026. (Craig Melvin/WWE)
WWE CHAMP JADE CARGILL VERY HOPEFUL TO MEET ‘STONE COLD’ STEVE AUSTIN AT HALL OF FAME CEREMONY
Green suffered an ankle injury in the months leading up to WrestleMania 42. She hasn’t been in the ring in a few weeks, but still remained on screen. She was seen on “Friday Night SmackDown” as of late trying to be in the corner of Tiffany Stratton, who is eyeing the United States Championship herself in a battle with Giulia.
Green was off the card for WrestleMania 40 and 41. She last appeared at the event in a fatal four-way tag team match with Sonya Deville at WrestleMania 39.
Chelsea Green looks on during SmackDown at FLA Live Arena in Sunrise, Fla., on Feb. 20, 2026. (Craig Ambrosio/WWE)
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Pro wrestling fans will be interested to see how the next 12 months go for Green. She may work herself back up the ladder and get into contention for the women’s title once again. If so, she’ll either have to contend with Jade Cargill or Rhea Ripley.
Sports
How Alex Palou became IndyCar’s most successful driver — and why he rejected F1
Alex Palou’s 2025 season was the best for an IndyCar driver in nearly 20 years.
He won a career-high eight races, including the Indianapolis 500. He won his third straight series title and his fourth championship overall. He made the podium 13 times in 17 races.
Yet if you ask Palou, he’ll tell you he’s going into Saturday’s qualifying for Sunday’s Grand Prix of Long Beach needing to prove himself all over again.
“Who cares about what we did last year?” he said. “It’s cool to have four championships, but the only important year is 2026. Everybody started with zero points on the board and we need to do it all over again.”
That’s far easier said than done, although Palou is off to a fast start in his quest for a fifth championship having won two of the first four races on the IndyCar schedule to stand second in the driver standings, two points behind defending Long Beach champion Kyle Kirkwood.
“Last year was magical,” said Palou, who has captured 10 of the last 21 checkered flags, dating to 2024. “As an athlete you always want to keep on improving, but I need to be realistic and understand that to win eight races in IndyCar in the same year, it’s pretty tough to beat.
“So although I want to achieve that, we just need to take 2026 separately and just try our best, try to win as many races as possible and then obviously fight for the [Indy] 500 and the championship.”
Winning Long Beach, one of the few prizes on the IndyCar circuit that has eluded him, would be a big step in that drive for five. But that won’t be easy since passing on the tight 1.968-mile street course, with its 11 turns, is difficult. That makes track position important, putting a premium on Saturday’s qualifying and on pit stops in Sunday’s race.
“It’s always super tough to be competitive there,” Palou said of Long Beach, where he finished second last April, giving him three straight podium finishes. “One of the only bad things about street racing [is] that it’s really tough for us to overtake with how tight the tracks are and all the bumps.
“It just makes it super challenging.”
Alex Palou competes during the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in Florida on March 1.
(David Jensen / Getty Images)
Not as challenging as the race Palou, the most successful Spanish driver in IndyCar history, had to run just to get into a race car.
As a boy growing up in the tiny Catalan village of Sant Antoni de Vilamajor, Palou started kart racing about the same time he started grade school. He was 15 when he finished second in the 2012 European karting championship yet he didn’t see much of a future beyond that.
Lewis Hamilton had finished in the same spot 13 years earlier, then went on to become the most successful Formula One driver in history. But England has a long-established history with open-wheel racing and Spain did not.
“He came from nothing, showing up at a carting track and then having these big dreams and aspirations. And here he is,” said Barry Wanser, the senior manager of IndyCar operations for Chip Ganassi Racing.
“I know he’s very proud he’s the first Spaniard to win the Indianapolis 500. That’s just absolutely incredible.”
But that was never the goal.
“Honestly,” Palou said, “my goal was just to have fun. When we started, I never wanted to be a race car driver for a living. I never thought that it would be possible.”
Before Palou, Fernando Alonso, a two-time F1 champion, was Spain’s most successful open-wheel driver. After Alonso is Carlos Sainz Jr., who has won four F1 races; Pedro de la Rosa, who made more than 100 F1 starts but climbed the podium just once; and Oriol Servià, who ran 79 IndyCar races in nine years but never placed higher than fourth before retiring in 2019, one year before Palou made his debut in the series.
Aside from Alonso, those drivers were good but not great, leaving the road from Spain to success in open-wheel racing a narrow one. That’s a path Palou is now widening.
“I would say that for sure it’s helping future generations that I’m here and that I had success,” he said, “just because they can know that with a normal European background you can come to the U.S. and fight for wins and championships.”
Alex Palou celebrates after winning the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 1.
(David Jensen / Getty Images)
Wanser said what makes Palou so good is his feel for both the car and the track and his ability to communicate with his team.
“He has a very unique ability to understand what he needs the car to do to maximize performance on the tires,” said Wanser, the race strategist for Ganassi’s No. 10 car who has sometimes been called Palou’s indispensable partner. “You’re talking about road courses, street courses, for the primary [tires] — the hards and the softs — and understanding what he needs for qualifying and also what the car needs for reducing tire deg[redation] during the race.”
For now Palou, who turned 29 earlier this month, appears content with mastering those skills in IndyCar rather that following the natural progression into an F1 ride.
He said he went “all in” to win an F1 seat following his first IndyCar title in 2021, but doubts about whether he’d be given a competitive car led him to back out. Rumors linking him to Red Bull’s F1 team surfaced after last year’s Indy 500, but Palou shot those down too, saying he was staying with Ganassi.
Wanser, obviously, is happy with that decision and hopes it will pay off Sunday in Long Beach.
“Alex is very young, right?” he said. “IndyCar is so competitive that we could never, ever think about being complacent. If we start heading down that road, we will get beat and get beat often.
“It’s nonstop trying to constantly improve, knowing every weekend we show up to the racetrack it’s going to be difficult to win.”
Sports
Mike Trout’s torrid Angels series vs Yankees ends in historic fashion after he blasts fifth home run
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Mike Trout couldn’t stop rounding the bases at Yankee Stadium during the Los Angeles Angels’ four-game series, and he made history doing so.
The future Hall of Famer crushed five home runs, including a blast in the Angels’ 11-4 win Thursday afternoon, and tallied nine RBIs in the series, which Los Angeles split with New York.
The 34-year-old Trout entered the series with only two home runs and seven RBIs on the season, but he’s heading back home this weekend looking like his prime self after what transpired in the Bronx.
Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels before a game against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, N.Y., April 13, 2025. (Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire)
He also heads back with some history as the first visiting player to hit a home run four straight days at Yankee Stadium, according to MLB.com’s Sarah Langs.
Trout’s five homers are also tied for the most in a single series against the Yankees. Only three others — George Bell, Darrell Evans and Jimmie Foxx — have done so in past seasons.
AARON JUDGE CALLS OUT YANKEES’ OFFENSIVE STRUGGLES AFTER GETTING SWEPT
The latest home run from Trout was a solo blast that traveled 446 feet off Yankees reliever Angel Chivilli in the top of the seventh inning Thursday to make it a 7-4 game. Jo Adell’s grand slam later in the game blew it open for Los Angeles to even the series in the end.
Before that, Trout kicked off the series with two home runs and five RBIs in a wild Monday night contest that ended with the Yankees walking it off. Aaron Judge also belted two home runs in the game, as did Trent Grisham, whose game-tying two-run blast in the ninth inning kept the Yankees’ hopes alive.
Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels hits a two-run home run during the fifth inning against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium April 15, 2026, in New York City. (Dustin Satloff/Getty Images)
But Trout and the Angels got the job done Tuesday night, and the veteran outfielder’s only hit was a solo homer. Then, in Wednesday night’s loss, Trout went 2-for-4 with a homer and two RBIs.
Yankee Stadium in general has been a pleasant place for Trout, a South New Jersey native, as he’s hitting .346 with 13 homers in his career there. He also homered in five straight games against the Yankees if you include the Angels’ last meeting in 2025. That also took place in Yankee Stadium.
“He’s the greatest, the greatest of all time,” Judge said of Trout after Monday’s game. “I know he’s had some tough injuries over the years, but to see himself back in a better spot this year – every time he comes to the Bronx, man, he puts on a show. I hate to see it, but it’s fun competing against a guy like that.”
As Judge mentioned, the Angels are just happy Trout is playing injury-free to start the season, and perhaps this Yankees series has him hitting his stride.
Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels hits a three-run home run in the sixth inning against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium in New York City on April 13, 2026. (Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
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The three-time league MVP is heading to Cooperstown one day, but there is always the thought among baseball fans about what could’ve been for his career had injuries not gotten in the way. Trout played 130 games last season for the first time since 2019.
Now 10-10, the Angels are hoping they can get that output from Trout once more in 2026. They’re looking to get back to the playoffs for the first time since 2014.
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