Buxton hits for the cycle on his bobblehead day as Twins beat Pirates, 12-4
Buxton hit a single in the first inning, a triple in the second and a double in the third. He singled again in the fifth before stepping to the plate in the seventh for one more chance at the first cycle ever at Target Field, which opened in 2010.
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Forbes
28 minutes ago
- Forbes
The Most Important Packers: No. 10 — Tucker Kraft
Green Bay Packers tight end Tucker Kraft (85) was a Pro Bowl alternate last season. The Green Bay Packers went 11-6 last season, sweeping the NFC West and the AFC South along the way. Overall, though, no one in the building was happy. The Packers failed to build on their terrific finish to the 2023 campaign, settled for the No. 7 seed in the NFC playoffs, and lost a Wild Card game to eventual Super Bowl champion Philadelphia. Afterwards, general manager Brian Gutekunst turned up the heat on everybody in the building. 'We need to continue to ramp up our sense of urgency,' Gutekunst said. 'I think it's time we started competing for championships.' Those are fair expectations. The Packers return 20 of 22 starters, and appear to have upgraded the roster via free agency and the draft. With several third and fourth year players trending upward, Green Bay should be poised to make a move. 'I think they're ready,' Gutekunst said. Now, it's time for the Packers to prove their G.M. right. Green Bay's first training camp practice is July 23. Between now and then I will count down the '30 Most Important Packers' heading into the 2025 campaign. At No. 10 is tight end Tucker 10 Tucker Kraft, TE Last season Kraft was a Pro Bowl alternate after starting all 17 games and finishing second on the team in receptions (50) and yards (707). Kraft also led the Packers with seven receiving touchdowns. Kraft became just the fourth tight end since 2000 to have 80-plus catches, 1,000-plus receiving yards and average at least 13.0 yards per reception in his first two seasons. The others were New England Rob Gronkowski, San Diego's Hunter Henry and Baltimore's Mark Andrews. Kraft's 707 receiving yards last year were also the most by a Packer tight end since Jermichael Finley (767) in 2011. Kraft's average of 9.1 yards after the catch was also tops among all NFL tight ends and the second-best mark since 2000, trailing only San Francisco's George Kittle (9.9) in to date Kraft, a third round draft pick from South Dakota State in 2023, looked lost much of his rookie season. Kraft took off, though, after a kidney injury to Luke Musgrave in Week 11 of 2023 and finished the year with 355 receiving yards. That was the second-most in franchise history by a rookie tight end, trailing only Bubba Franks (363 in 2000). Kraft also finished with 31 catches in 2023, which was third in team history among rookie tight ends behind only Franks and Musgrave (both 34). Kraft didn't have his first reception of his rookie season until Week 4. In his last eight games of that year, though, Kraft had 29 catches for 321 yards and two touchdowns. 'A lot of it for him at the beginning was just assignment stuff, lining up in the right spot, getting off on the right snap count, blocking the right guy and then after that, like using good technique and all that stuff,' Packers offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich said of Kraft. 'So he was a little behind from that aspect, as far as the fundamental core issues that you have. Kraft ran the 40-yard dash in a respectable 4.73 coming out of SDSU. He also tied for the most bench press reps of 225 pounds (23) among the tight end group at the 2023 NFL Many expected Kraft and 2023 second round draft pick Luke Musgrave to split time last season. Instead, Kraft left Musgrave in the dust during training camp and established himself as Green Bay's No. 1 tight end. Kraft played 85.33% of the Packers' snaps, while the oft-injured Musgrave played just 13.38% of the snaps. Now, the question is how does Kraft move from good to great? Kraft is a tireless worker who wants to win as badly as anyone in the building. He's also developed into a leader rather quickly. Jermichael Finley holds the Packers' record for most receptions by a tight end in a single season (61) and Paul Coffman holds the mark for receiving yards in a season (814). Don't be surprised if Kraft surpasses both of those numbers this Said It … 'The great thing about Tuck is he'll do whatever you ask him and he's working his tail off to be a complete player, so you can get him the ball in different ways, whether that's route running, different types of routes, where you put him. Obviously that's our job to put him in those spots and he works his tail off to when he does get in those spots to do something with the ball.' — Packers tight ends coach John Dunn on Kraft'One thing we spent some time on this offseason is just kind of where we can get him to take the next step and I think just his route-running ability, getting him on more individual things like that, and just kind of growing him there. I think he did a really good job in the run game. That's one thing that hopefully he can keep improving there to be a dominant player up front. Just trying to find different ways to give him the ball, that's gonna be the big thing for us.' — Packers offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich on Kraft'One thing I feel like I could've done better is separate in man-to-man. Most of my game was check downs underneath and my yards after catch ability, so I'm looking to put it all together. I'm looking to have every resource I need based off the repetitions I've gotten over and over and over this offseason. Last offseason, I had a torn pec. I didn't get a chance to have an opportunity to do any of this, so really being able to apply my technique and stack reps, coverages and schemes and fronts, I just got a much better feel of the game this offseason.' — Kraft on improving this seasonTHE TOP 30 • No. 30 — RB MarShawn Lloyd • No. 29 — WR Dontayvion Wicks • No. 28 — S Javon Bullard • No. 27 — WR Savion Williams • No. 26 — LB Isaiah McDuffie • No. 25 — OL Jordan Morgan • No. 24 — WR Matthew Golden • No. 23 — CB Carrington Valentine • No. 22 — WR Romeo Doubs • No. 21 — QB Malik Willis • N0. 20 — DE Lukas Van Ness • No. 19 — RG Sean Rhyan • No. 18 — LT Rasheed Walker • No. 17 — DT Devonte Wyatt • No. 16 — S Evan Williams • No. 15 — CB Nate Hobbs • No. 14 — LB Quay Walker • No. 13 — OL Aaron Banks • No. 12 — CB Keisean Nixon • No. 11 — K Brandon McManus
New York Times
36 minutes ago
- New York Times
Baseball's most disappointing team is forced to host
The Pulse Newsletter 📣 | This is The Athletic's daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox. Good morning! Win at least one game today. Most of Major League Baseball is scrunched together for the break, as the Home Run Derby arrives tomorrow. Only five teams are double-digit games out of a playoff spot. Not everyone's doing well, but most teams can feel decent, and a few have separated from the field. The outlook: In the National League The sixth playoff team in the Senior Circuit could be anyone outside the Rockies, Pirates and the three other East clubs. (More on one of the latter in a moment.) In the American League Barring someone collapsing, who rounds out the AL postseason? The Rays and Mariners? Could the Twins wake up? Maybe the Red Sox, despite trading Rafael Devers and implicitly giving up just a little on 2025? Missing from that big list of teams involved in a pennant race? The Braves, who host the All-Star Game on Tuesday. Atlanta is 42-52 and all but officially out of the postseason hunt before the trade deadline. An 0-7 start meant a big hole to dig out of right away for a team many saw as a World Series contender. Their FanGraphs playoff chances have fallen from 92 percent on Opening Day to 4.6 percent this weekend. Even as Ronald Acuña Jr. has crushed the ball in his return from a second ACL tear and Spencer Schwellenbach has become a front-of-the-rotation starter, so much has gone wrong: The big question, beyond whether the Braves will sell at the trade deadline, is this: Will Atlanta try to deconstruct the team in the coming months, get by with tweaks or do something in between? I asked The Athletic's David O'Brien, a longtime Braves beat man: 💬 Because they have so few players on expiring contracts and so many in-their-prime players signed beyond 2025, the Braves aren't going to do anything severe at the deadline. What we could see them do is trade one or more from the group of DH Marcell Ozuna (though his struggles this season have likely reduced his value) and relievers Pierce Johnson and Raisel Iglesias, each in the final year of his contract. If they could get a controllable reliever, an innings-eating starter to help get through this season or a middle infield prospect back in a deal, they'd likely do it. Brutal year, and there's not that much to do but run it back. Flagg drops 31 in Summer League I'm starting to think this Cooper Flagg kid might be legit. After a somewhat underwhelming showing in his first Summer League game, Flagg dropped 31 points on 10-of-21 shooting last night. Perhaps most impressively, the 18-year-old handled the poise of being the constant center of attention masterfully. The only blemish on his performance? He failed another attempt at a poster slam: Phillies slam MLB over All-Star snubs Brewers rookie pitcher Jacob Misiorowski was named an All-Star replacement Friday after a record-low five MLB games. Phillies players and coaches had already been disappointed that Cristopher Sánchez, Ranger Suárez and Trea Turner were not named All-Stars. That disappointment turned into something much more after Misiorowski's selection. Some scorching comments here (free to read), including Nick Castellanos comparing the selection process to the Savannah Bananas. Advertisement More news: Two less controversial decisions: Paul Skenes and Tarik Skubalwere named the All-Star Game starting pitchers last night. Twins outfielder Byron Buxton hit for the cycle on his bobblehead day, punctuated by a tank to dead center. What a week for Buxton. Browns rookie Quinshon Judkins was arrested yesterday on a domestic violence and battery charge. More here. Make it five straight multi-goal games for Inter Miami's Lionel Messi. The 38-year-old continues to reset the MLS record books. Ndamukong Suh — former standout NFL defensive tackle and current host of The Athletic's 'No Free Lunch' podcast— formally announced his retirement from the NFL yesterday with a heartfelt note to his late father. Amanda Anisimova announced her arrival with a stunning Wimbledon upset over world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka on Thursday. It was the biggest win of the 23-year-old's career. But the American's dream quickly became a nightmare yesterday. Iga Świątek utterly outclassed Anisimova in the Wimbledon final in a 6-0, 6-0 match that lasted less than an hour. It was just the second time that scoreline has happened in a Grand Slam final in the Open Era, and the first since 1988. It was hard to watch. There's really not much else to say about this match. We can only hope today's men's final provides a little more competitive tennis. Lucky for us, this one should not disappoint: 📺 Wimbledon: Men's Singles Final 11 a.m. ET on ESPN Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, again. How lucky are we? Their last Grand Slam final was one of the greatest matches the sport has ever seen. 📺 Scottish Open: Final Round 12 p.m. ET on CBS With earlier coverage on CNBC and Golf Channel. This is a terrific tournament just about every year, a part of the run-up to the Open Championship that very much stands on its own. Moreover, Rory McIlroy ended Saturday tied for the lead at 11-under. 📺 CWC: PSG vs. Chelsea 3 p.m. ET on TNT, truTV or DAZN To anyone out there who turned on the TV looking for this after seeing it listed in yesterday's Pulse, apologies for the production error. Anyway, to repeat: The final of the first edition of this international club football extravaganza features two of Europe's biggest brands. The Club World Cup is not the Champions League, but winning both in one spring and summer would be sweet for PSG. They're the best in the world right now. Get tickets to games like these here. The MLB All-Star break is almost here, and Jayson Stark has midseason awards across the board. Lots of fun debate surrounding the MVP race in both leagues. I was dragging while working late Thursday night and the new Clipse album, 'Let God Sort Em Out,' was the perfect antidote. As a 35-year-old massive hip-hop fan, this is pretty much perfect music. Also, a 13-song album in 2025? Thank you. — Chris Branch Advertisement Been listening to Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy audiobooks lately. The writing is good, but the guy who does the audiobook (Steven Pacey) is phenomenal, with one exception: he pronounces 'grimacing' as gri-MAYCE-ing'. If you can get past that, two thumbs up. — Levi Weaver Carlos Alcaraz, Steph Curry and numerous other elite athletes use juggling as a warmup to enhance cognitive function … and, well, have fun. Rustin Dodd tried it himself. Google 'Directive draw' or use Art Hub for your kid as summer drags. Good screen time ✅ — Chris Sprow Lena Dunham's new show on Netflix, 'Too Much.' If you were a fan of 'Girls' or Megan Stalter in 'Hacks,' or you just generally love a smart, hilarious, moving rom-com, get thee to this show! — Hannah Vanbiber Shout out once again to the cover-songs marching band in College Football 26's menus. 'Blinding Lights' might be the winner. — Jason Kirk Ahead of today's MLB Draft (bookmark this page for updates throughout), Cody Stavenhagen penned an awesome story on potential No. 1 pick Ethan Holliday and a baseball family generations in the making. Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: How sports bettors are feeling threatened by Donald Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill.' Most-read on the website yesterday: Stark's midseason MLB awards. Ticketing links in this article are provided by partners of The Athletic. Restrictions may apply. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication.
Forbes
an hour ago
- Forbes
Infantino's Roofed Stadium Plan Faces Heat Ahead Of 2026 World Cup
FIFA President Gianni Infantino (L) speaks in front of former Brazilian player Ronaldo (C) and ... More former Bulgarian player Hristo Stoichkov during a press conference at the Trump Tower in New York on July 12, 2025, on the eve of the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 final football match between England's Chelsea and France's Paris Saint-Germain. (Photo by JUAN MABROMATA / AFP) (Photo by JUAN MABROMATA/AFP via Getty Images) Ahead of FIFA 2025 Club World Cup final, FIFA president Gianni Infantino has responded to questions about extreme heat and match delays that impacted the tournament. With 2026 FIFA 2026 Men's World Cup front of mind, he said, "we have stadiums with roofs and we will definitely use these stadiums during the day next year." What difference will that actually make to resilience, sustainability and climate-preparedness? Extreme heat and lightning storms have overshadowed this year's soccer tournament, which comes to a close today. For 2026 Men's World Cup, 14 of 16 host cities will likely breach safe Wet-Bulb Globe Temperature thresholds, unless broader adaptation is implemented, experts at Brunel University have cautioned. Only two host cities, Vancouver and Seattle, are projected to avoid dangerous heat stress. Using roofed stadiums for matches during the hottest part of the day makes sense, helping protect players and fans from extreme heat and sudden storms. However, it isn't the straightforward solution that is grabbing headlines. Men's World Cup 2026 stadiums with retractable roofs and air conditioning are Mercedes‑Benz Stadium in Atlanta, AT&T Stadium in Dallas and NRG Stadium in Houston. BC Place in Vancouver has a retractable roof but says it 'should be considered an 'open-air' stadium whether the roof is open or closed, and guests are encouraged to dress accordingly, based on the temperature outdoors." Los Angeles' SoFi stadium has a canopy roof, but has open sides for natural ventilation. Are Roofed Stadia The Climate Saviour of MWC 2026? Despite Infantino's assurances, only around 30% of the 104 scheduled matches for the Men's World Cup, 31 games, are set to take place in stadiums with roofs. The selection of host cities and venues was finalized in 2022, and with the tournament now just a year away, organizers, venues, cities and local authorities will be deep into planning, implementation and operational rollout. Whilst not stated as an option by Infantino or FIFA, it is important to say that at this advanced stage, making changes to host venues is unlikely. Additional roofed stadiums exist in the U.S., but most are not built to accommodate FIFA-regulated soccer pitches, which are longer and wider than NFL football fields. EAST RUTHERFORD, NEW JERSEY - JUNE 19: A general view of the LED screen which is displaying a severe ... More weather warning during the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 group A match between SE Palmeiras and Al Ahly SC at MetLife Stadium on June 19, 2025 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Photo by) Increasing the number of matches played in roofed stadiums during the tournament may be theoretically possible, but isn't probable. It would involve considerable logistical complexity and could carry both financial and operational consequences for host cities, stadiums and FIFA. FIFA mandates that all matches be played on natural grass and existing pitches with artificial turf surfaces are overlaid for soccer tournaments. Retractable roofs, while helpful for climate control, restrict natural light and airflow, making it more difficult to maintain healthy grass over extended periods. Grass requires sunlight, ventilation, and irrigation, all of which are more difficult to manage under enclosed conditions. Additional matches taking place on these grass surfaces would mean more wear and tear, harder recovery and lower quality surfaces. Enclosed venues rely on air conditioning and lighting, increasing the energy use of the venue, so renewable energy sourcing would also be essential to avoid unnecessary spikes in carbon emissions. Other Adjustments For Climate-Preparedness Slotting daytime games, when temperatures are at their peak, into stadiums with roofs is a practical solution. However, depending on the scale of games, concentrating these matches into a limited number of venues may add complexity around coordinating TV broadcast timings, match sequencing, fan transportation logistics, and stadium turnaround times. Focus should instead be on adapting climate-resilient plans for open-air venues, which are most vulnerable to extreme weather events, to better protect players and fans from dangerous heat and storms. A climate-smart Men's World Cup should include free water refill points, venues powered by renewable energy, shaded seating areas, real-time WBGT monitoring to trigger more frequent cooling breaks and extended half-time intervals during heat spikes. Additional measures like misting stations and climate-controlled concourses and transit hubs could support player and fan comfort and safety, but can come at an environmental cost. PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - JUNE 24: Enzo Maresca manager / head coach of Chelsea walks towards an ... More air conditioning / water vapour cooling unit by the dugout during the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 group D match between Esperance de Tunis and Chelsea FC at Lincoln Financial Field on June 24, 2025 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images) Temporary air conditioning units can provide relief from extreme heat, however these systems consume tremendous amounts of energy. The use of Qatar World Cup in 2022 sparked concerns among climate advocates that this infrastructure could become a dangerous new norm. Infantino was not clear on a path forward on these areas at the press conference. He acknowledged the importance of cooling breaks but his response lacked detail, saying 'we will see what we can do.' Even with a few covered venues in play, no single solution will be enough to fully protect the 2026 tournament from the growing risks of climate change. Using roofed stadiums during the day, and seeing what they can do about cooling breaks for Men's World Cup 2026 doesn't yet speak to any solid adjustments for climate-preparedness by FIFA. With the majority of host cities having open-air venues and likely to exceed safe heat thresholds, FIFA must go further. Real climate-readiness for the 2026 Men's World Cup and future major sports tournaments demands not just shade and shelter, renewable energy use and adaptation through cooling breaks, but a fundamental rethink by major sports tournaments organizers on how to genuinely and holistically mitigate environmental impacts. Only then can future World Cup's begin to credibly deliver the basics of sustainability and safety, without the drama of sweat, storms, or scandal overshadowing the spectacle.
