It’s finally time to give up on James Franklin

Posted on October 5, 2025 by Aaron Yorke

Thank goodness for Gavin McKenna. That’s all I have to say after a very sad sports day. The phenom’s game-winning blast from the right circle to complete a second straight third period comeback for Penn State was a nice little pick-me-up, but it didn’t make up for the disaster that was Penn State football on Saturday.

The Nittany Lions lost 42-37 to a UCLA team that had never had the lead during its 0-4 start and had already fired its head coach DeShaun Foster. The Bruins played like they had nothing to lose and ambushed Penn State with an onside kick following their opening touchdown drive. That helped lead to UCLA holding a massive time of possession advantage in this game, but it was no excuse for Penn State acting like it had never seen a scrambling quarterback before. Nico Iamaleava rushed for 128 yards and three touchdowns on 16 carries while the Penn State defense was continually out of position to stop him. The edge rushers led by Dani Dennis-Sutton kept taking wide routes into the backfield, which made it easy for Iamaleava to escape. Once he was out of the pocket, he faced either no resistance from man defense or feeble resistance from zone defense with Penn State missing tackling opportunities.

Penn State had opportunities to get back in this game, most notably when it blocked a punt and scooped up the ball in the end zone for a quick touchdown the score 27-21 midway through the third quarter. Every time Penn State got within a score, though, Iamaleava had the answer. Penn State finally had a chance to tie the score after stopping UCLA on fourth down with two minutes left in the game, but Drew Allar had his option with Trebor Pena running jet sweep action blown up by the UCLA defense on 4th and 2.

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Matt DiMarsico steals the show in Gavin McKenna’s Penn State debut

Posted on October 4, 2025 by Aaron Yorke

It’s easy for college hockey to get lost in the sauce when we’re overloaded by pro football, college football, and baseball at this time of year, but I couldn’t stay away from watching Gavin McKenna make his Penn State debut last night against Arizona State. It helped that MLB was taking the night off after all of the Game 3 drama on Thursday. McKenna handed out beautiful assists on the first two Penn State goals, but the real star of the game was Matt DiMarsico, who scored a natural hat trick in the third period to help bring the Nittany Lions back from a 3-2 deficit. DiMarsico slammed in the equalizer just over a minute into the final period and then gave Penn State the lead seven minutes later when he capitalized on a lovely feed from Charlie Cerrato, who led everyone with five points on the night. DiMarsico finished the hat trick with an empty-net goal after Cerrato gave the Lions a two-goal lead by scoring off his own rebound with two minutes remaining.

McKenna might be the reason why Penn State’s two-game set at Arizona State is being shown on NHL Network, but the depth of scorers on this team will be the reason it contends for a national championship. Penn State goes for the sweep in Tempe tonight at 8:00 PM, but this time in will be in the middle of a loaded sports slate since Dodgers vs. Phillies should be wrapping up Game 1 of their series during that time while Miami and Florida State will just be getting started in their ACC showdown.

Fortunately for someone like me who wants to watch the college hockey, there’s not an extreme amount of action going on in college football’s prime time space. NBC has Minnesota visiting a heavily favored Ohio State and ESPN has Texas Tech visiting a Houston team that barely survived a trip to Corvallis last week.

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Cam Schlittler is a new Yankees hero and the 49ers slay me on Thursday Night Football

Posted on October 3, 2025 by Aaron Yorke

Cam Schlittler is this newest Yankees postseason hero after his incredibly clutch performance to shut down the Red Sox and lead the Yankees to a 4-0 victory in Game 3 of their Wild Card series. It was Schlittler’s first ever postseason start, and he hadn’t gone longer than seven innings in any major league outing before, but that didn’t stop him from pitching eight shutout innings against Boston with 12 strikeouts and no walks.

The Yankees scored four runs in the fourth inning when Cody Bellinger set the table with a double and Amed Rosario, Jazz Chisholm Jr., and Anthony Volpe followed with consecutive singles. The Red Sox had a chance to get a double play and stop the bleeding with two runs in, but Austin Wells’ ground ball was botched by Nathaniel Lowe and two more runs came in. That proved to be more than enough with Schlittler channeling Roger Clemens, and the Bombers cruised to a series-clinching win.

I’m happy for Yankees fans who got a huge win over their archrival, but I’m also happy for Mets fans because we still have that Offseason Champions banner that no one can ever take away. For years, we told ourselves that if we just had Yankees money bankrolling our team’s baseball operation, we too could be world champions. Now that the Mets signed Juan Soto away from the Bronx, it’s time to admit that the Yankees are just a better run organization, no matter who the owner is. Over the past few years, Yankees fans have complained endlessly about how incompetent skipper Aaron Boone and general manager Brian Cashman are, but they still took their team to 94 wins and a Wild Card series victory in the season after losing Soto.

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Aaron’s 2025 Week 5 NFL picks

Posted on October 2, 2025 by Aaron Yorke

I went 8-8 in Week 4 to maintain my .500 record, but would you look at that? I’m not alone in last place anymore! Thanks to my brilliant island picks of the Saints, Giants, and HOW BOUT DEM COWBOYS, I made up ground on everyone except Abe, who I’m pretty sure is telepathically linked to Stu Feiner. Unfortunately, I also went to an island for the Bengals, and they were embarrassed for the second straight week.

It might be impossible to catch up to The Source, but we’ve got Tank in our sights for Week 5!

49ers at Rams -5.5

I thought this would be a bounce-back season for the 49ers, but I’m backing off of them a little after that loss to Jacksonville. It also makes sense to pick against them because Brock Purdy, Ricky Pearsall, and Jauan Jennings are all missing this one due to injury. Who is Mac Jones going to throw the ball to? Probably Los Angeles defensive backs. Ram It!

Vikings at Browns (London) +3.5

I’m just calling all of the international games London games because if you’re not in the stadium, do you really care where this game is being played? Ireland, Munich, and even Brazil are all London to me. The Browns have been blown out in two tough road games (the Ravens are still a tough road game even though they are 1-3) while playing better at home. I’m hoping that London feels more like home than a neutral site even though the Vikings have been hanging out over there since their comeback against Pittsburgh fell short.

Raiders at Colts -6.5

The Colts might not be undefeated anymore after they let last week’s game at Los Angeles get away, but that defeat didn’t shake the feeling that Indianapolis is a playoff contender. Just think of how hyped we’d be for this team if Ha Shem Mitchell didn’t celebrate too early on his way to the end zone. The Raiders, meanwhile, can’t decide if they are incompetent or merely mediocre. Either way I think they could get smashed by the Colts on Sunday.

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Dodgers advance to Philadelphia, but everyone else is heading to Game 3 in the MLB Postseason

Posted on October 2, 2025 by Aaron Yorke

Man, we were sooooo close to getting the Yankees eliminated from the 2025 MLB Postseason in just two games, but we will have to wait at least one more night for Yankees fans to once again realize that we’re not in the 1990s anymore. Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera are not walking through that door, but on Wednesday night Austin Wells did walk through that door. He hooked a Garrett Whitlock changeup down the right field line to score Jazz Chisholm all the way from first base and break a 3-3 tie. David Bednar pitched a one-two-three ninth to earn the save and schedule a sure-to-be dramatic Game 3 for the evening after Yom Kippur.

Up until that RBI by Wells, the Red Sox had an answer to everything the Yankees were doing. New York got on the board first with a Ben Rice two-run dinger in the first that came on the first Postseason pitch that he ever faced. Trevor Story responded to that with a two-RBI single with the bases loaded in the third, and he also canceled out Aaron Judge’s fifth-inning RBI single with a solo shot in the very next frame. Story came up with the bases loaded and two outs again in the seventh, but his 102 mph line drive was tracked down by Trent Grisham in center field to keep the score tied 3-3. Just one batter earlier, Chisholm made a diving stop to keep Masataka Yoshida’s single on the infield and prevent Nate Eaton from scoring from second base.

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Strong starting pitching defines first day of MLB Postseason, except for the Reds

Posted on October 1, 2025 by Aaron Yorke

The first day of the 2025 MLB Postseason is in the books, and that leaves us with four teams facing do-or-die elimination games today. Boy, did that escalate quickly. We’re only on the first day of October and already the Cinderella Guardians and powerhouse Yankees are being pushed to the brink. How did this happen?

Well, Cleveland ran into an ace at the top of his game in Tarik Skubal. The Cy Young favorite struck out 14 Guardians in seven and two thirds innings with three walks and just one run allowed when Angel Martinez raced around from second base to score on an infield single by Gabriel Arias in the fourth inning.

Martinez’s mad dash evened the score after the Tigers used a pair of two-out hits and an error to get a run across in the first. Detroit would score the winning run in the seventh when Riley Greene led off with a double and was driven in by a safety squeeze bunt perfectly executed by Zach McKinstry. That type of play is how you win games when your ace is shoving on the mound and you know just one run can make a big difference.

That run only held up because of Will Vest getting out of trouble in the ninth, though. Jose Ramirez led off with a ground ball up the middle and ended up on third base when Javy Baez made a diving stop and saw his throw to first get by Spencer Torkelson at first base. However, Vest buckled down and struck out George Valera before getting a comebacker from Kyle Manzardo that got Ramirez stuck between third and home. Vest tagged out Ramirez easily, which set up the game-ending pop-up by C.J. Kayfus and a 2-1 victory for the Tigers.

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Juan Soto powers Mets to victory in Detroit even though their pitching still stinks

Posted on September 1, 2025 by Aaron Yorke

Back when the Mets had a competent pitching staff, their series opener against the Detroit Tigers would have been just about over when Juan Soto hit a grand slam off of Charlie Morton in the top of the fourth inning. Not only was the blast cathartic because Soto had yet to hit a home run this season that delivered more than two RBI, but it also turned a 3-2 deficit into a 6-3 Mets lead.

Unfortunately, the Mets no longer have a competent pitching staff, so fans had to watch that three-run lead evaporate over the span of just two innings. Zach McKinstry tripled home Dillon Dingler in the bottom of the fourth before being driven in on Jahmai Jones’ two-out RBI single. Detroit tied the game in the fifth when Ryne Stanek uncorked a wild pitch after coming in to relief Gregory Soto, who allowed two of the inning’s first three batters to hit singles.

It’s not very fun to watch your baseball team when it feels like no lead is safe. Even the most electric rallies can prove meaningless when they’re so easily countered. Fortunately, Juan Soto’s next big hit would put the Mets up for good. It wasn’t hit as hard as the grand slam, but Soto’s ground ball down the right field line in the sixth inning was good enough to score Luis Torrens and Francisco Lindor and put the Mets back up by two. Even better was that Brandon Nimmo followed up with an RBI single and the Mets finally got a shutdown inning when Tyler Rogers held the Tigers off the board in the bottom of the frame.

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Mets and Phillies Combine to Save National League from All-Star Game Disaster

Posted on July 16, 2025 by Aaron Yorke

The National League blew a 6-0 lead in the final three innings of Tuesday night’s MLB All-Star Game from Atlanta, but it hung on to win thanks to a perfect performance by Kyle Schwarber in the exciting new tiebreaker. I don’t remember when MLB announced that an All-Star Game tied after nine innings would be decided by a three-on-three Home Run Derby, but it was fun to finally watch one, even if it came after a Senior Circuit meltdown.

The NL led from the start thanks to three straight hits off of AL starter Tarik Skubal by Shohei Ohtani, Ronald Acuna Jr., and Ketel Marte. Marte drove in the first two batters with his double, and the NL added to its lead in the sixth when Pete Alonso hit a three-run oppo taco off of Kris Bubic and Corbin Carroll followed with a solo shot off of Casey Mize three batters later.

The AL bounced right back off the mat, though. Brent Rooker hit a three-run bomb off of Randy Rodriguez to cut the lead in half before Maikel Garcia walked, stole second base, and scored on a ground ball from Royals teammate Bobby Witt Jr. The NL held their 6-4 advantage until the ninth, when Robert Suarez allowed back-to-back doubles by Byron Buxton and Witt to put the tying run in scoring position. Dave Roberts went to Diaz for the save, but Steven Kwan got Witt home with a two-out infield single.

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Cal Raleigh Took a Break from Home Run History to Make Home Run Derby History

Posted on July 14, 2025 by Aaron Yorke

It’s Cal Raleigh’s world and we’re all just living in it. Not only did he become the first catcher to win the Home Run Derby on Monday night, but he also became the first switch hitter to win the dinger tournament, and he did so while actually switch hitting. In the first round, he slugged 10 home runs as a lefty and seven as a righty to barely edge out Brent Rooker, who also hit 17 home runs but lost the longest home run tie breaker by a fraction of a foot.

Raleigh didn’t need a tiebreaker to get by Oneil Cruz in the semifinals or Junior Caminero in the finals. Hopefully his long ball binge in the Home Run Derby won’t get in the way of him chasing home run history when the regular season continues. Raleigh has 38 home runs, which is just one short of the 39 that Barry Bonds had at the All-Star break during the 2001 season when he set the all-time record with 73 home runs for the season.

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Mets Can’t Handle Success and Fall Back into Second Place with Loss in Kansas City

Posted on July 13, 2025 by Aaron Yorke

I just knew the Mets wouldn’t be able to handle the pressure of needing to win one more game in Kansas City on Sunday to stay in first place of the National League East at the All-Star break. Sure enough, even though Clay Homes and a returning-from-injury Sean Manaea combined to pitch a solid game, the Mets lost 3-2 to the Royals and fell into second place with the Phillies winning their series finale in San Diego.

Royals starter Noah Cameron did a great job getting the Mets to hit balls on the ground. The Mets got seven hits off of him in six and two thirds innings, but the only one that went for extra bases was a triple by Mark Vientos in the first inning. This game might have ended up differently if the Mets had drive Vientos in, but he was stranded at third thanks to Juan Soto’s ground ball to shortstop and Brandon Nimmo’s foul pop-up.

Kansas City scored a pair of runs on John Rave’s two-run double off of Holmes in the second inning, but the Mets didn’t break through until the ninth with Carlos Estevez on the mound. The Mets pounding Estevez is starting to become a theme after Vientos hit his bases-clearing double against him on Friday night and Francisco Lindor took him deep for a grand slam in Game 4 of last year’s NLDS. This time around, Ronny Mauricio led off with a double and Jeff McNeil smoked a triple off the right-center field wall to bring the tying run within 90 feet of the plate. Two batters later, Jared Young did something useful for once and hit a game-tying sac fly to center field.

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