Month: April 2021

Shohei Ohtani hasn’t yet been able to put together a full season in Major League Baseball, but the flashes of brilliance from the two-way pitching and hitting star make him as unique a player as there is in the sport.

The Angels star is healthy to start the 2021 season and made his first start of the season on Sunday night against the White Sox, and came out dealing, throwing a 101 mph fastball in the first inning and showed off a filthy splitter later for a strikeout of the red hot Yermin Mercedes.

Ohtani isn’t the only pitcher in the bigs that can touch triple digits on the gun and mix in some filthy movement in the low 90s, but he is the only one who can do that and do this. Shohei batted second in the Angels lineup in his first start of the season, and rewarded that decision by hitting a mammoth home run in the first inning to give himself a 1-0 lead before returning to the bump (I highly recommend having the sound on because it sounds like it was shot out of a cannon).

As for how rare that combo is, he’s the first pitcher to hit a first inning home run since Carlos Zambrano did it (twice) in 2006, largely because pitchers never bat at the top of the order. On top of that, Ohtani now sits atop the Statcast leaderboard in both starting pitcher fastball velocity and exit velocity for a home run this first weekend of the season.

In a word, the man is preposterous and hopefully we can get a full season of him showing off his talents because it really is something baseball hasn’t seen, at best, in a very long time and possibly ever.

The 2021 NCAA Women’s Basketball National Championship Game saw two Pac-12 rivals go head-to-head in San Antonio, as the top-seeded Stanford Cardinal faced the 3-seeded Arizona Wildcats. Early, it looked like it would be all Stanford, as they jumped out to a 14-3 lead in the opening minutes, but Arizona had an answer for every run they made to stay within reach. The Cardinal led by seven at the half and then just three going into the fourth quarter, as the Wildcats followed the lead of the sensational Aari McDonald to reel them in.

The fourth quarter was a nailbiter, with both teams going back and forth, but as close as the Wildcats got, they could never quite take control of the game. McDonald was sensational, scoring 22 points for Arizona, carrying the load offensively as she’s done all tournament, and hitting some clutch buckets late.

However, Stanford followed the lead of Haley Jones, who finished the night with 17 points and eight rebounds to lead the way for the Cardinal, showing a tremendous gift for finding space and scoring at the rim, even through contact.

The Cardinal’s size frustrated the Arizona offense for much of the night, forcing McDonald and the Wildcats to find offense from the outside and they simply couldn’t consistently hit jump shots to reel Stanford all the way in. Cameron Brink’s presence inside was massive for Stanford, as the freshman had 10 points, six rebounds, and three big blocks. Late in the game, the Cardinal left the door open with some rough offensive possessions, but their defense was able to hold on and force McDonald into a very difficult, fading shot at the buzzer that went begging, as Stanford collected its third national championship in program history — and first since 1992 — in a 54-53 win.

Stanford’s defense held Arizona to just 28.8 percent shooting from the field and 27.3 percent from three-point range on the night, as the Wildcats struggled to find a rhythm against the Cardinal length. They kept themselves in it at the free throw line, going 13-of-18, as Stanford wasn’t exactly lighting it up from the field themselves, shooting 42.1 percent overall and just 4-of-14 from three-point range. However, in a battle of strong defenses, it was Stanford that got the last stop when they needed it, once again keeping McDonald from getting to her spot inside.

For Arizona, it’s a disappointing end to what was a magical run, but McDonald cemented her status as a star on both ends of the floor and the resiliency they showed battling from down double digits on multiple occasions to have a shot to win it at the buzzer was impressive on a night where they didn’t necessarily have their best on offense.

Daniel Kaluuya knows most Americans have only heard him speak with an American (or Wakandan) accent. He’s British, of course, as those who’ve seen him in one of Black Mirror‘s freakiest episodes well know. So when he delivered the monologue during his first-ever SNL hosting gig (alongside musical guest St. Vincent), he had some fun with the potential misconception — and with the alleged racism of the British royal family.

“I know you’re hearing my accent and thinking, ‘Oh no. He’s not Black. He’s British.’ I’m here to reassure you that I’m Black, and I’m British,” Kaluuya said. He then slipped in a reference to Meghan Markle’s barnburning interview with Oprah a few weeks back: “I’m what the royal family was worried the baby would look like.”

In the interview, the Duchess of Essex alleged that there were “concerns” among some in the royal family over their first son’s skin color, she being biracial. Her comments set off a firestorm, particularly in the United Kingdom, with some — most notably Piers Morgan — getting so huffed up he left his morning show hosting gig. (And led to a similar thing happening to friend Sharon Osbourne.)

Kaluuya’s monologue also saw him discussing Judas and the Black Messiah, the docudrama in which he plays murdered Black Panther Fred Hampton. He said he’s been inundated with questions about which place is more racist: American or Great Britain?

“Let me put it this way. British racism is so bad, white people left,” Kaluuya cracked. “They wanted to be free — free to create their own kinds of racisms. That’s why they invented Australia, South Africa and Boston.”

He also addressed his Zoom appearance at the Golden Globes, where he won for Best Actor in a Drama but whose speech was initially and mysteriously silent. But there was a simple explanation for it. “I was muted. Can you believe that?” he explained. “I told the best joke of my life and I was muted. I felt like I was in a sunken place.”

You can watch Kaluuya’s full monologue in the video above.

The Weeknd is known to be philanthropic. Last summer he donated $1 million to pandemic relief, half of which went to his hometown of Scarborough and the other to MusiCares. Nearly a year later, the After Hours singer has lent another million, this time towards relief efforts in Ethiopia, the birth country of his parents.

In a statement to his social media pages, wrote, “My heart breaks for my people of Ethiopia as innocent civilians ranging from small children to the elderly are being senselessly murdered and entire villages are being displaced out of fear and destruction.” The singer added that the donation would provide “2 million meals through the United Nations World Food Programme and encourage those who can to please give as well.” The conflict in the East African country stems from tensions between the government in Addis Abada and the Tigray region.

The donation comes after The Weeknd hosted an NFT auction to sell an unreleased song. Prior to that he dropped a video for his 2018 track “Try Me” to celebrate the three-year anniversary of his My Dear Melancholy. Earlier this year, he also announced a boycott of the Grammys, citing their use of what he called “secret committees.” His decision prompted the awards body to announce they were trying to “improve our awards process, including the nomination review committees.”

Easter weekend was a big one for those stoked for Space Jam: A New Legacy. There was the arrival of its first full-length trailer, which showed new star LeBron James hobnobbing with not only Looney Tunes icons but also an army of other characters currently owned by its owner, Warner Bros. But there’s one other piece of Space Jam sequel news: This new version will feature a new voice for Lola Bunny, the character who debuted in the 1996 original.

As per Entertainment Weekly, no less than Emmy-winning actress and singer Zendaya will voice the role of a female rabbit who’s a whiz on the basketball court. It’s not clear when she nabbed the role — if this is an old development or a new one. (Animated films are famous for changing major details, sometimes at the last minute.) But though she’s seen in the trailer she’s not heard. But then it was already a pretty packed house anyway.

Lola Bunny is one of the issues that turned the Space Jam sequel into an improbably controversial piece of cinema. When she bowed a quarter century ago, some took umbrage with her sexualized design, especially as she resembled a teenage girl in bunny form. One of those people was Malcolm D. Lee, director of A New Legacy, who told EW as much back when they profiled the movie mid-production.

“Lola was not politically correct,” Lee said of the original version. “This is a kids’ movie, why is she in a crop top? It just felt unnecessary, but at the same time there’s a long history of that in cartoons.” The new film’s iteration will instead “reflect the authenticity of strong, capable female characters.” She’ll even be introduced hanging with the Amazons from Wonder Woman, another WB property. “We reworked a lot of things, not only her look, like making sure she had an appropriate length on her shorts and was feminine without being objectified, but gave her a real voice.” And that voice is now literally one of the most successful women in the industry.

Space Jam: A New Legacy will hit arrive in theaters and on HBO Max on July 16.

(Via EW)

Rod Wave’s rise to stardom began less than two years ago thanks to his single “Heart On Ice,” a track that was boosted by a remix from Lil Durk. That song would later be housed on his debut album, Ghetto Gospel, and soon enough the Florida rapper’s upward climb was underway. That project landed a Gold certification while his 2020 sophomore album, Pray 4 Love, went Platinum. But there was one feat that Rod Wave had not accomplished yet: He hadn’t nabbed a No. 1 album. All of that changed with the rapper’s third full-length effort, Soulfly.

The Florida rapper landed his first No. 1 album thanks to 130,000 units sold for the chart dated April 10. Of that number, 126,000 comprised streaming equivalent album units, which tallies to 189.2 million on-demand streams, the largest streaming week for a hip-hop or R&B album in 2021. Soulfly is also the second hip-hop/R&B album to reach No. 1 in the past five months. The last release to do so was Playboi Carti’s Whole Lotta Red, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart dated January 9. Lastly, Soulfly earned the best-selling single week for a hip-hop/R&B album since 21 Savage and Metro Boomin’s Savage Mode II put up 171,000 units back in October.

Elsewhere on this week’s chart, Justin Bieber’s Justice fell to No. 2, Morgan Wallen’s record-breaking sophomore effort, Dangerous: The Double Album, dropped to No. 5, and Young Dolph and Key Glock’s Dum And Dummer 2 debuted at No. 8

A man who paid a small fortune to visit Disney World wouldn’t let his decreased bank account get in the way of ruining his vacation over COVID safety measures. According to The Washington Post, in a story first reported by The Orlando Sentinel, Kelly Sills, a Baton Rouge resident, who had reportedly skipped through a mandatory temperature checkpoint raised such a stink when confronted that he was hauled off to jail.

It was supposed to be a lavish, five-day family vacation, including two hotel rooms, air travel, and admission to both Disney World and Universal Studio for seven to eight people. But for Sills at least, it all ended on the first night, when he gave security officers hell when they approached him, yelling and refusing to leave. They then threatened to arrest him for trespassing.

“I paid $15,000,” Sills reportedly told them once handcuffed. “You can’t trespass me if I paid $15,000.”

But they did arrest him, and after being contacted by the Post, he told a slightly different story than the one provided by police and Disney World security officials:

Sills said he would have “happily” consented to a temperature screening but he had inadvertently walked in through an exit and not realized his error. He partly blamed the security manager for escalating the conflict — and compared Disney security to Nazis and the mafia — but also admitted he was in “a bit of a mood” after a day of travel.

He also maintained that he isn’t one who takes the pandemic lightly. “Covid is a very serious thing,” Sills told the Post, “but so is my vacation with my family.”

This is far from the first such incident since Disney parks reopened with pandemic safety measures. The Orlando Sentinel has reported numerous cases of visitors pushing back against security, some of whom have spat on, yelled at, even pushed employees tasked with maintaining restrictions in the middle of a once-in-a-century pandemic. Florida Governor Rick DeSantis is notorious for loosening safety restrictions even as cases in the state ballooned, and local leaders have accused him of creating the kind of chaos that leads to a man ruining his vacation after being asked for a simple temperature check.

(Via The Washington Post)

The National Hockey League is struggling through the COVID-19 pandemic like the rest of us, but its latest outbreak is reportedly its most serious. The Vancouver Canucks are playing in a modified all-Canadian division this season, as travel between the United States and Canada has been heavily restricted during the pandemic.

But while cases in Canada have been dwarfed by its neighbors to the south, according to reports in recent days the Canucks have been stricken with a massive outbreak of cases with some serious symptoms for players and staff. On Sunday, TSN’s Darren Dreger reported some serious symptoms from Canucks players and staff.

An ESPN story from Emily Kaplan added new details to the outbreak, starting with the fact that half of the team’s players had already tested positive for COVID-19 and 14 were already on the league’s COVID-19 protocol list. The outbreak, which is of the more-infectious P.1 variant of COVID-19 that originated in Brazil, has spread rapidly in the Vancouver area and also impacted players’ family members as well.

Some players are symptomatic, and according to several sources there are a few who are in “rough shape.” One Canucks player told ESPN he hadn’t heard from a team representative about any players going to the hospital, but he had heard of teammates receiving IV treatments for severe dehydration, presumably at their homes. A source told ESPN that at least three Canucks coaches have tested positive for the virus as well. In addition, many family members of players have tested positive and are experiencing symptoms, according to sources.

“Fatigue, dehydration, the symptoms are intense,” one agent of a Canucks player told ESPN. “It’s knocked a lot of guys out. Some can’t even get out of bed.”

The Canucks outbreak was first reported on Tuesday, and while some teams have had individual players and coaches contract bad cases and experience lingering symptoms, several otherwise healthy players unable to get out of bed is a terrifying prospect for a professional hockey team. As reports on Sunday continued to highlight just how significant the outbreak is and the symptoms players and coaches have experienced, there’s even been some speculation about whether the Canucks will be willing to resume play at all.

The situation in Canada has grown worse in recent weeks as many areas of the country expect a third wave of cases despite vaccinations and much fewer cases than in the United States. As the Toronto Star outlined, variants of COVID-19 have made the situation there worse than it was over the last year, even while parts United States saw peaks at various points of the spring, summer and holiday season.

While the NBA and MLB have essentially circumvented Canadian restrictions by having their Toronto teams play in the United States, the NHL doesn’t have that luxury with seven Canadian teams in the league. That certainly complicates things with the Canucks outbreak and puts the league schedule at much greater risk as the team deals with the fallout of what’s been a very serious COVID-19 outbreak. The league has already delayed the start of its postseason a day after significant rescheduling needs due to outbreaks on teams like the Buffalo Sabres, Boston Bruins and New Jersey Devils. But if the Canucks aren’t healthy enough to play, or simply don’t want to, things could get really complicated here in a hurry.

While St. Patrick’s Day is normally associated with the color green, it turns out that Billie Eilish would use the day to ditch her trademark hair style of the same color. On the March holiday she shared an image to Instagram of a new blonde look that tallied 10 million likes in just three hours, an Instagram record.

While her followers fawned over the new look, some put out theories that the singer was wearing a green wig to hide her blonde hair. Her fans said Eilish had been wearing a lot of headbands, hats, and other hairline-obscuring items for weeks before the St. Patrick’s Day reveal. Well, it turns out fans’ speculation was correct as the singer confirmed on her Instagram Story that she wore a wig to the Grammys.

During a Q&A session one of the singer’s followers asked her, “Is it true that at the Grammy you wore a wig?” Eilish replied with “yes” and even showed her green wig to fans. At the time of her blonde-hair reveal, Eilish’s hairstylist Lissa Renn shared in a now-deleted post that the transformation took weeks to complete. “The process is real when you’re doing it right. 6 weeks to get all the black out of her ends without damaging it, along with her following my strict haircare regime,” she said. “We actually loved all the stages of lifting the color too but the end result is [fire emojis].”

You can check out a screenshot from her Instagram Story above.

Video games are getting more expensive in a variety of ways, as some companies are toying with a $70 price point on next-gen console games and the dreaded microtransactions are ever-creeping into a variety of titles and genres. But if you want a piece of video game history, well, it’s going to cost you a lot more than a few bucks on virtual currency here and there.

The record for most expensive video game ever sold was shattered last week, as a rare copy of Super Mario Bros. in near-mint condition went for $660,000 in an auction. As CNN reported, Heritage Auctions explained the game was a gift that basically went missing for decades, but was uncovered in 2021 and was sold for big bucks.

The Dallas-based auction company said the NES cartridge was purchased as a Christmas gift in 1986, and was untouched until the seller found it earlier this year.

“It stayed in the bottom of my office desk this whole time since the day I bought it,” said the unidentified seller in the release. “I never thought anything about it.”

The unopened game was professionally graded by WataGames and had a score of 9.6/A+, according to the news release, which called it “the finest copy known to have been professionally graded for auction.”

The copy is just the latest Super Mario Bros. cartridge to break gaming records, as another copy of the same game had held the record after it was sold at auction last summer. So if you have a copy somewhere in your house and need to make a quick buck, you better hope you have taken great care of it over the last few decades.