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The Father's Day weekend was a veritable feast for sports junkies with a spring pro football championship, a tremendous finish to the US Open, game four shockers in the NHL and NBA to stave off elimination in the respective championship series, a rousing start to the College World Series. And more.
In the first shutout of the entire UFL season, Birmingham bashed San Antonio 25-0 in St. Louis in front of 27,396 fans. It was quite an impressive turnout for an upstart league's title game in a neutral city. All season-long, St. Louis easily led the attendance figure with 3 times the attendance numbers than any other franchise.
The Stallions wrapped up the season with an 11-1 record and are now 34-4 over 3 seasons of play in the USFL and UFL, and have won all three titles under head coach Skip Holtz. The MVP of the game was QB Adrian Martinez (Nebraska/Kansas State) who was signed by the Detroit Lions as an undrafted free agent on May 12, 2023, but waived 3-1/2 months later on August 29.
Against the Brahmas on Sunday, Martinez accounted for all three touchdowns with one passing and two rushing. He completed 13-of-28 tosses for 98 yards and added 52 on the ground on 11 carries. The TD pass was an 8-yarder to Gary Jennings (West Virginia, 2015-2018) with just 40 seconds left in the first half to break a 0-0 stalemate. A 2-point conversion pass from Martinez to former Clemson star and 2021 third-round draft pick Amari Rodgers gave the Stallions an 8-0 lead.
The Stallions also received the second half kickoff and immediately went 64 yards in 8 plays to stretch the lead to 16-0 on an 11-yard run by Martinez and a pass to former Mississippi State tight end Jordan Thomas for the conversion. There are NO kicks for PAT's in the UFL. Instead, all conversions are for either 1 point from the 2-yard line, 2 points from the 5-yard line or 3 points from the 10-yard line.
Birmingham forced a fumble on San Antonio's next possession and continued their own offensive hot streak by wrapping up the short 24-yard drive on the sixth play with a 1-yard run, but the 2-point pass to Amari Rodgers failed. Nonetheless, in a span of just 8 minutes and 5 seconds, the game went from scoreless to a 22-0 romp.
Defense wins championships? San Antonio entered the game with the No.1 over-all defensive rank and was tops in scoring defense. But the Brahmas were 6th out of 8 teams in over-all offense. Meanwhile, Birmingham led virtually every offensive category and also had solid defensive numbers (No. 2 over-all, No. 1 vs. the run).
Boston won consecutive home series over Philadelphia and the New York Yankees, 2-1, to move above .500 at 37-35 and into 3rd place in the AL East. A key series at Toronto starts today for the BoSox.
Meanwhile, the LA Dodgers lost Mookie Betts for an unknown number of games after he was hit on the hand by a 98-mile pitch in the 7th inning of Sunday's 3-0 home win over Kansas City. More was expected to be known today about the extent of the injury and the recovery time required after a visit to hand specialist Dr. Steven Shin. Miguel Rojas and Kike Hernandez are shortstops on the roster with manager Dave Roberts signaling that Rojas would start but Hernanzdez would also see time. LA won the game on three home runs. Shohei Ohtani hit his in the 3rd (451 feet) and 6th (400 feet) innings. Freddie Freeman followed Ohtani's homer in the 6th with one of his own to 401 feet.
Betts was one of the leading candidates for the National League MVP award. He has been the runner-up three times and won the award in 2018.
Rory McIlroy frittered away a 2-shout lead with 5 to play at the US Open and Bryson DeChambeau made an impossible par save on the final hole. Both were crowd favorites throughout the weekend at the famed Pinehurst No. 2 course in the sandhills of North Carolina.
McIlroy, who had made 496 puts in-a-row this season from 5-feet or less, had a relatively easy 3-footer burn the lip on the 16th hole, then didn't allow enough right-turn break on a tougher 4-foot downhill putt on the 18th.
DeChambeau had to change his driver head before the start of the round and proceeded to hit just 5 fairways on Sunday. Still, he scrambled to a 71 that included a wayward drive on 18 to the native grasses with a second shot that found a front bunker 55 yards from the hole. A spectacular sand save ensued as he blasted out to within 4 feet and made the uphill boat for the win as a dejected McIlroy watched from the clubhouse, then exited the grounds and drove away without a word to the press.
It was a second US Open win for DeChambeau who also captured the Covid season title in front of no spectators other than club members and tourney volunteers.
McIlroy became the bridesmaid in a major for the fourth time since winning his last at the PGA in 2014. He has had 21 top ten finishes in 37 starts, including runner-up finishes at the 2023 and 2024 US Opens and the 2022 Masters.
Down 3-0, the Edmonton Oilers staved off elimination by pounding the Florida Panthers 8-1 at Rogers Place. Connor McDavid had one goal and three assists as he passed Wayne (the Great) Gretzky's Stanley Cup series record 31-assist performance in 1988. McDavid now has 32.
Game five in the series moves back to Sunrise on Tuesday night at 8 p.m. eastern time on ABC in the U.S. and CBC in Canada. If needed, Game 6 would be played in Edmonton and Game 7 in south Florida.
Also down 3-0, the Dallas Mavericks stayed alive in the NBA Championship series and the chase for the Larry O'Brien Trophy. Dallas ripped Boston. The 122-84 romp was the third-largest victory margin (38 points) of any NBA Finals game, falling short by 4 points of Chicago';s 96-54 win 1998 and just 1 point shy of Los Angeles Lakers, coming up Chicago Bulls beating the Utah Jazz 96-54 in 1998 and just 1 point short of the Celtics own 39-point win (131-92) over the Lakers in 2008.
Dallas led by as many 48.
Boston was bidding to become the first team to go 4-0 in both the semifinals and finals series.
Game five moves back to Boston tonight at 8:30 p.m. eastern time on ABC.
Tennessee got a controversial walk-off win, 12-11, over Florida State on opening day of the college world series after the umpire failed to call a check swing as a strike on a 2-2 count with 2 men on and 2 outs. Trackman called it a strike and replay seemed to give plenty of evidence to support that the game should have been over at that point. But the 3rd-base umpire confirmed home plate's call and a 11-9 win became a 12-11 loss when the same batter hit a 2-RBI single to tie the game, and Dylan Dreiling hit a walk-off RBI single.
FSU would battle back in the elimination bracket, downing Virginia 7-3. The Cavs lost game one on a walk-off to North Carolina, 3-2. FSU and North Carolina will face-off Tuesday afternoon at 1 after the Tar Heels moved to the elimination bracket with a 6-1 loss to Tennessee and the winner of that game will have to beat Tennessee twice.
In the other half of the bracket, Kentucky was a 5-4 walk-off, 10th inning winner over NC State. Meanwhile, Texas A&M edged Florida 3-2 on a top of the 9th home run, followed by a home run robbing catch.
NC State and Florida play today at 1 central time, while Texas A&M and Kentucky butt heads tonight at 6 central time.