Category: Worldwide

You’ve heard of the University of Miami turnover chain and Chris Paul’s secret stuff, and the New York Mets debuted their own version on Friday night — a stuffed horse that back-to-back Home Run Derby winner Pete Alonso termed the Home Run Horse.

During Alonso’s two-dinger night, the Mets celebrated with a cotton-filled mare that could easily be found in a children’s playroom. It first came out in the bottom of the first inning.

The Home Run Horse came back in the bottom of the eighth as Alonso hit another bomb to give New York a 3-0 lead.

After the game, Alonso said on the local broadcast that the idea for the Home Run Horse came from hitting coach Hugh Quattlebaum. As you can tell from Alonso’s explanation, there’s really not much to the gimmick.

The Mets could use the kick in the butt when it comes to power. They are 25th in the majors in total home runs, and even the powerful Alonso is 24th in MLB with just 19 home runs on the season.

Still, a win on Friday night led by the Home Run Horse pushed the Mets to 51-43, extending their lead in the National League East to an impressive 4.5 games.

Aaron Rodgers is expected to announce his retirement from the NFL some time before the Packers’ first training camp practice, if Las Vegas sports books are to be believed. The Westgate SuperBook has closed its NFC North odds, and according to Bill Huber of SI Fan Nation’s Packer Central, other books have followed suit.

Writes Huber: “Two other sportsbooks contacted after that initial message said the expectation is Rodgers is going to announce his retirement sometime before the first practice on Wednesday.”

As Huber charts, Packers season win total bets are not available at PointsBet, DraftKings or Bet Online, while at Bovada, there are no odds listed for Rodgers’ touchdown or passing yardage totals.

The latest Rodgers reporting from Adam Schefter of ESPN indicates Rodgers turned down a two-year extension that would have made him the highest-paid player in the NFL. The 2020 MVP made it clear in doing so that money in this case is not what will talk.

As contract negotiations between Green Bay and wide receiver Davante Adams come to an impasse, the Packers seem to have extensive issues on their hands that go beyond Rodgers. But Rodgers is not helping matters by remaining opaque about his intentions, still having not publicly demanded a trade or announced his intentions when it comes to 2021.

But if the sports books have it right, news about Rodgers’ retirement could come in the very near future.

In the immediate aftermath of the Milwaukee Bucks beating the Phoenix Suns for an NBA championship, Suns coach Monty Williams walked over to Milwaukee’s locker room and, while placing an arm around NBA Finals MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, congratulated the team for what they accomplished, saying, “You guys made me a better coach, made us a better team.”

It was a really cool moment, with the Bucks stopping their celebrating to welcome Williams in and giving him a round of applause for the show of sportsmanship. And in an interview with Malika Andrews of ESPN, Antetokounmpo took some time to praise Williams, both for the gesture and for the series.

“It was an amazing moment,” Antetokounmpo said. “He came up to me and told me congrats. He’s a great coach, he got the best out of his team, and you could see — he said it — that they’ve never been there before, and that we were there. But we wasn’t, we’ve never been here before in the NBA Finals. But we’ve played in the playoffs, we had a little bit of experience.

“But I felt like the right thing to do was to take him in the locker room and allow him to talk to the team, because I think he wanted to talk to the team, but he didn’t want to stop the celebration,” Antetokounmpo continued.

Antetokounmpo went on to say that he had things stop in the locker room so Williams could speak, then wished him luck and predicted that this may not be the last time they battle one another.

“I told him, ‘I feel like there’s a good chance we might run it back next year,’” Antetokounmpo said. “He has a great team and we have a great team, but that’s too far away, I can’t be thinking about that.”

The series was nothing short of fantastic, with the Suns winning the first two games and the Bucks ripping four wins in a row to win the whole thing in six games. It would be terrific if they do, indeed, meet up again with the title on the line next year, but like Giannis said, that’s way too far away for anyone to think about right now.

With the onset of the pandemic and an extended period of isolation last year, many people turned to online communities and digital platforms in a new ay for a sense of community and connection. So it’s not surprising that one such digital community center, Discord, has been going mainstream in recent months. Even if you’ve never heard of Discord, plenty of your favs are already using it to connect with fans or fellow artists. Grimes recently launched her own server on the site and used it to tease new music, and multi-hyphenate rapper, actress and comedian Awkwafina is a big proponent of the platform, too.

So much so, that Nora from Queens is starring in a new ad that attempts to explain the extremely online concept of digital networking to the rest of the world — as summed up by the one and only Danny DeVito. In the clip, which was dubbed with the tongue-in-cheek name Discord: The Movie, Nora takes Danny with her on a wild ride through the servers, while users pop in here and there to tell their stories. With a cameo from J Balvin — and obviously, Grimes — among many others, the clip is a feel-good look at what the best of the internet can be. And Awkwafina is always a to watch no matter what she’s doing. Check it out above.

Need a mood boost to help you sail through the weekend? Here are 10 moments that brought joy to our hearts and a smile to our faces this week. Enjoy!

1. How much does this sweet little boy adore his baby sister? So darn much.

Oh, to be loved with this much enthusiasm! The sheer adoration on his face. What a lucky little sister.

2. Teens raise thousands for their senior trip, then donate it to their community instead.

When it came time for Islesboro Central School’s Class of 2021 to pick the destination for their senior class trip, the students began eyeing a trip to Greece or maybe even South Korea. But in the end, they decided to donate $5,000 they’d raised for the trip to help out their community members struggling in the wake of the pandemic instead.

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Read the story here.

3. Radio DJ rallies community to help a man he saw walking 6 hours a day to and from work.

After veteran Chicago radio personality “Ramblin’ Ray” Stevens noticed Braxton Mayes, 20, walking during his commute from work several times, he offered him a ride. Then, when he found out Mayes walked 3 hours each way to and from work because his car broke down, he called on the community to help him get his car fixed. Read the full story here.

Fox 32 Chicago/YouTube

4. Just for the sheer adorableness of it, this red panda noshing on snacks while getting weighed.

Stop it. How cute can a video get? It doesn’t even look real. Gah. Now desperately feeling the need to find a red panda.

How to weigh a red panda.. 😊 https://t.co/xKmIoXcLWN

— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden_)
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5. Speaking of adorable animals, this wild Canada goose couple is winning hearts all over the place.

Arnold is a Canada goose that lives near the Cape Wildlife Center with his life partner, and after he was taken to the center to be treated for injuries, she showed up at the door looking for him. The staff let her see him while he was getting oxygen after his surgery, and they both calmed down as she started grooming him. Goose love is real, folks. Read the full story here.

6. This dedicated dad wanted to surprise his Moana-loving kids, and The Rock made it happen.

We love The Rock. It’s hard not to when you see videos like this one. (And kudos to the dad for keeping up with his rap. Not easy, even when you’re a parent who’s heard the soundtrack a million times.)

7. Mama cat introducing her kitten to her best doggo friend.

This is what we call “Pupworthy” content. You can almost hear the dialogue happening. So dang sweet.

Mommy cat introducing her kitten to her best friend.. 😊 https://t.co/DzSf9ad9x6

— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden_)
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8. A little perspective—our beautiful home planet viewed from space.

There are more than 7 billion of us here on this little rock hurtling through space, and while we definitely have our issues to work out, this short video is a stunning reminder that we’re all one people, part of one earthly home.

Earth at night viewed from space. https://t.co/EMdoaDJVkU

— Crazy Science (@crazysciencee)
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9. This joy-filled commentary of Friday feeding time at Caen Hill farm is a perfect timeline cleanser.

Caen Hill Countryside Centre is a charity in Devizes, United Kingdom that helps young people and rescues animals, and we would like this gentleman to narrate all of the happenings in our daily lives, please.

Greetings and good morning it’s the Friday rush #rushhour #farmrushhour #FridayThoughts @caro_painter https://t.co/vmpHtMPqZ6

— caenhillcc (@caenhillcc)
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10. If you still feel like you’re stumbling instead of sailing into the weekend, don’t fret. You’re not alone.

We hope perusing these stories lifted your spirit, but if it didn’t, that’s okay. Sometimes we just need to just flop down and rest on our faces for a while. Thanks, doggo, for the solidarity.

Some doggos aren’t built for the obstacle course. Wait for it… https://t.co/M50Y3jOBFc

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman)
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Have a lovely weekend, everyone.

The COVID-19 vaccine has been readily available for all U.S. citizens for months now, and on Thursday, the NFL made clear that they very much want every player to get it. In a memo sent out to all 32 teams, the league said that a COVID-19 outbreak among unvaccinated members of a team would not lead to games getting moved around, as they were last season.

Instead, teams that suffer said outbreak would forfeit the game, accept a loss in the standings, and prevent players on both teams from getting their game checks. It’s very much a “the carrot didn’t work, so here’s the stick” approach from the league, but in response, some players have taken some strange approaches.

Some, like DeAndre Hopkins of the Arizona Cardinals, floated the possibility of just not playing football if need be (Hopkins since deleted his tweet and walked it back). And then, there have been guys like Dak Prescott of the Dallas Cowboys, who are asked about whether they got vaccinated and cite HIPAA.

This is not HIPAA. Known in full as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, HIPAA basically means — at least in this context, and to be clear, this is an overly-simplified definition — that healthcare professionals can’t reveal your medical information. It does not mean that a reporter is not allowed to ask you if you got the COVID-19 vaccine. You can just respond by saying, “I do not want to answer this question,” which you can do on any other number of subjects! This same conversation is happening in the world of politics right now, because one particular politician is doing this exact same thing. Regardless of the job, this is not a HIPAA violation.

Anyway, Prescott got some egg on his face for this, because in the aftermath, a bunch of folks took to Twitter and made HIPAA jokes.

If you’d like to learn more about what HIPAA is an isn’t, click here.

One of the names that plenty of draftniks expect to hear called early in the 2021 NBA Draft is Josh Giddey, the 18-year-old Australian point guard who spent the last year tearing up the National Basketball League. One of the things for which he’s received plenty of praise during the Draft process is his composure, and on Friday, he got the chance to show that off in a rather unconventional way.

Giddey hopped on a media call with members of the Oklahoma City Thunder beat. While there, this happened:

These sorts of hot mic moments happen pretty frequently, but very rarely are they as silly as “reporter asks their son if they pooped, only the athlete heard it and have a brief moment of wondering if it happened to them.” The credit of the reporter — Brandon Rahbar of Daily Thunder — he owned it on Twitter and was able to make a joke about the whole thing.

Giddey gets high marks here for not getting derailed, instead hearing this very silly question but continuing his train of thought that was briefly interrupted. He could have made a big deal out of this, perhaps even teasing Rahbar, but he decided to keep his eyes on the prize. If we hear rumors of Giddey making a late surge up Draft boards, we can only assume this (along with the fact that, you know, he’s really good at basketball) will be why.

Former President Donald Trump is back with another hot take that no one asked for, and what’s worse? It’s a completely predictable gripe coming from a guy with nothing but time on his hands and limited ways to share his racist leanings with the public.

That’s right, we’re talking about the recent name change of one of the MLB’s most famous (or infamous) teams, the Cleveland Indians. Early Friday, the team shared the announcement that they were dropping the offensive mascot that’s come to define ballclub over the decades and renaming themselves the Cleveland Guardians to honor the city’s values and pay tribute to its iconic bridge. The team surveyed fans before announcing the name change, and a majority of people seem to be on board with the switch — it helps when you get national treasure Tom Hanks to narrate your PR announcement. But guess who wasn’t happy? That’s right, Donald Trump.

“Can anybody believe that the Cleveland Indians, a storied and cherished baseball franchise since taking the name in 1915, are changing their name to the Guardians? Such a disgrace,” Trump said in an emailed statement via Mediaite. “I guarantee that the people who are most angry about it are the many Indians of our Country. Wouldn’t it be an honor to have a team named the Cleveland Indians, and wouldn’t it be disrespectful to rip that name and logo off of those jerseys?”

Actually, no Don. Plenty of Indigenous Rights groups and activists have expressed dismay over the racist caricature of their culture and the fact that the MLB has made money over it all these years. Try again.

“The people of Cleveland cannot be thrilled and I, as a FORMER baseball fan, cannot believe things such as this are happening,” Trump continued. “A small group of people, with absolutely crazy ideas and policies, is forcing these changes to destroy our culture and heritage. At some point, the people will not take it anymore!”

First, we’re shocked that Trump has labeled himself a baseball fan because we’ve only ever seen him play golf and get booed at stadiums, but ok. The problem with this attack that’s even more egregious is the fact that Trump seems to think Indigenous culture is his culture. Your ancestors are German and Scottish, bud. Sit down.

(Via Mediaite)

July 22, when Kanye West was in Atlanta preparing for his massive listening event at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the rapper was also honored by the city with a Kanye West Day. While he has long claimed Chicago and moved there at three years old, his mother, Donda West, taught at Morris Brown College for almost 20 years and was Chair of the English Department. The city declared Kanye West Day as a partial tribute to Donda, for whom Kanye titled the upcoming album he previewed at the listening.

Additionally, Morris Brown College President Kevin James likewise presented an honor in Donda’s memory: A Resolution of Meritous Service on behalf of the historically Black university. Kanye was given certificates commemorating both honors backstage at his event, which may have explained the two-hour delay that preceded him playing the apparently unfinished album. While some aspects were well-received, like Kanye’s reunion with Jay-Z on a song that closed the event, it appears that Ye wasn’t completely satisfied. The album didn’t release as scheduled, although fans seemed more surprised by the suite meal prices at the event than the album delay (he’s already delayed the album for over a year after initially announcing it in 2020).

You can see Kanye presented with the certificates honoring Kanye West Day below.

Jack Harlow has already been having a breakout year on his own since the release of his late 2020 project That’s What They All Say, but things got even more heated starting today. Now that he’s collaborated with Lil Nas X on their chaotic “Industry Baby” video, all bets are off. There’s one rather, ahem, steamy scene in the video where Nas and his backup dancers are twerking naked in the prison shower, and fans and foes have been wondering why Harlow wasn’t involved in that section of the clip.

Plenty of the memes about the moment have centered on the tendency for straight men to fearfully distance themselves from homosexual behavior, and the stereotype that all heteronormative men are nervous around queer male sexuality. In Harlow’s case though, that’s not what was going on at all. Seeing the conversation unfold, the young rapper took to Twitter to let everyone know exactly where he stands. “Nas wrote the whole treatment for this video and I followed his lead every step of the way,” he said. “If he had asked me to be in that shower scene I woulda been in that shower scene. I just let the mastermind cook. Honored to be apart of it.”

Classy, and hey, room for a recast in the remix right? We all know how Lil Nas X loves remixes… and the thirst for Jack Harlow in the shower is getting stronger by the second. And the follow up here from Nas X indicates that might be coming quicker than anyone thought: