Your “And It Was the Best Day Ever” Tuesday Night/MLB ASG Open Thread

Well at least for me it was. More after the news.

NFL News
Subtract one day from all the things I said yesterday!

Chiefs promote co-director of player personnel Brett Veach to general manager after former GM John Dorsey parted on mutual terms.

Apparently Cardinals coach Bruce Arians had surgery in February to remove a cancerous spot in one of his kidneys, according to his new book The Quarterback Whisperer, released today. In it he says he feels great and promises to coach this year for all those who have cancer.

Dolphins WR Jarvis Landry wants an extension but will not negotiate one once the season starts. He added that he wouldn’t mind playing under the franchise tag in 2018.
• Landry has more receptions in his first three seasons (288) than any other receiver in history and will be making under $900,000 this season.

Calvin Johnson, Jr. on why he retired: “I didn’t see the chance for [the Lions] to win a Super Bowl at the time, and for the work I was putting in, it wasn’t worth my time to keep on beating my head against the wall … and not going anywhere.…It’s the definition of insanity.”
• So rule of threes means that the Lions will squander another once-in-a-generation/candidate for best ever at their position talent by being mediocre through that player’s entire career. Can we take bets on which position the third’ll play? I’m gonna say safety.

Panthers coach Ron Rivera hopes that QB Cam Newton will be able to get the ball out faster this year thanks to the playmakers they’ve added on offense.
• “…instead of running for the touchdown like a me-first gloree boyyyyyy,” added sportswriters.

Speaking of the Panthers, a Panthers fan named his son after chants for MLB Luke Kuechly. That’s right, he named his son Luuuke. Granted, it’s the kid’s middle name (the child’s first name is Cameron, after Cam Newton), but still, really?

Other sports news
An independent review confirms Joe Horn’s victory over Manny Pacquiao, even if it wasn’t the same unanimous decision that the fight judges had.
• I guarantee nobody will care, either because they’ll still say Pacquiao was robbed or they don’t care.

From fights nobody cares about to fights nobody should care about, the media circus for Mayweather–McGregor has started with their first promotional tour.
• Apart from stroking people’s massive egos, why do they need any type of promotional tour—wait, I answered the question from the beginning of the question, never mind!

Derek Jeter adds Michael Jordan to his investors to try and buy the Miami Marlins.

New Jersey governor Chris Christie was on New York sports radio station WFAN and promptly got cursed out by a caller. In fairness he deserved it.

What’s on tonight?
World Series of Poker, 7:30E, ESPN

CONCACAF Gold Cup
Costa Rica vs. Canada (in Houston), 7:30E, FS1
Honduras vs. French Guiana, 10E, FS1

Apart from our respective countries, we’re all rooting for French Guiana, Martinique, and Curaçao, right? Especially because Martinique beat Nicaragua and leads Group B (after one match)! (They play the U.S. tomorrow.)

MLB All-Star Game, 8E, Fox

So… yeah, there’s arguably even less on TV tonight than usual because tonight’s the All-Star Game in Miami. It’s their first All-Star Game (leaving only the Tampa Bay Rays as never hosting one because calling Tropicana Field a shithole is an insult to shitholes) but considering they host the Super Bowl in Miami every four years I imagine everything’s fine. This is the first year of the return of “This Time It Doesn’t Count,” because after 14 years of the winning league getting home-field advantage in the World Series (which the AL enjoyed for the most part) they don’t anymore, and instead of the olden-times version of alternating which league is home it goes to the team with the better record. Which actually makes sense and falls in line with the other sports that have a championship series, so… thanks Rob Manfred? Although this asks one question: what if they’re tied and go to extras? Since it doesn’t count, will they call it a tie a la 2002? Because that was kind of the worst, which is why there were 14 years of It Counting.

The good news is I totally got to benefit from It Counting because the most memorable ballgame I’ve ever been to and bona fide contender for best/most memorable day of my life was the All-Star Game in 2008 at Yankee Stadium. Well, the better one, this one’s a bit too commercial, even though it’s all right. That was my HS graduation present from my parents, one bleacher ticket, Section 41, Seat 1… I’m tempted to say Row M? The e-ticket’s somewhere, I think in my game program (as opposed to the same program that I didn’t buy at the game). I don’t have pictures because it was right before smartphones became a massive thing and my dad lent me the digital camera… which promptly said it was low on batteries when I got off the train—but I have memories and a scorecard that kept going into the margins until I ran out of paper in the 13th. It is very difficult to figure out that many lineup and position and pitching changes, especially because at least you gave one page for each team but for fuck’s sake why would you use glossy rest-of-the-program magazine paper for a scorecard page? I thought about getting another card but I figured it wasn’t worth however much I was going to have to pay for it, and definitely not if I was going to have to buy another full program. That night gave us such things as one final roll call for former Yankee player and announcer Bobby Mercer who had died a few days before, calling Jonathan Papelbon overrated and then determining it would be worth it if he ended up taking the loss as he got lifted for Mariano Rivera to manys of boos that turned to ballistic cheers and I’m pretty sure I sang along to “Enter Sandman,” (and then Billy Wagner of the Mets blew that lead right back which was a bonus), feeling bad for Dan Uggla (0/4 with 3 strikeouts and a double play, and three errors) but still chanting to hit it to him because it was like 1 in the morning and nobody planned on a 50,000 person sleepover, and briefly cheering for Red Sox outfielder J.D. Drew tying the game with a home run and then letting him know that it was a one-time thing with a “You still suck” chant (he won MVP). I got home at 2, went to bed at 4 (after watching them break down the game and because I was still hopped up), and had no voice for a week. So yeah, best day of my life so far.

All right, I’m done reminiscing for the day. Comment away!