Ball Girl #047: what do the NY Rangers and I have in common?

My Brain: Don't stick your hand in the fan, you moronic idiot. My god, you have a college-degree.

My Heart: But I want to feel something......I'mma touch it

But hey if you still want to root on our Rangers IN PERSON NO LESS and see the ultimate redemption arc, don't forget about our ticket raffle. Refer friends to enter! More referrals = more raffle tickets entered. Winner announced tomorrow at noon! 🙊

Can I have your number?

• 5’3”: Shortest player to ever play in the NBA - Muggsy Bogues…short king spring though, am I right?

NBA

Game 3 of the NBA Championships Tips off tonight; this bears more weight than what my zodiac chart says about my compatibility with my latest hinge match

• Boston Celtics (1) vs. Golden State Warriors (1): let me give you a fortune, free of charge: when the NBA Finals are tied 1-1, the team that wins Game 3 goes on to win the title 82.1 percent of the time 🎤⬇️. Currently, most betting books favor the Celtics (but only by 3.5 points) because this is a home game and their stars are looking "so hot right now" in the words of Mugatu (Zoolander fans?). You don't want to this miss this.

NHL

One down, one to go…

Western conference — Colorado Avalanche (4) vs. Edmonton Oilers (0)

• The Avs defeated the Oilers in game 4 on Tuesday to sweep the series and win the conference. The Oilers managed to tie things up in the third period but it only took a minute for Artturi Lehkonen to put in the game winner in OT. This is the second time in his career that he’s scored an overtime goal to send his team to the Cup final. Now the Avs are living out their own Cinderella story — after slowly climbing through the ranks, they’re headed to their first Stanley Cup final since 2001.

Eastern Conference — Tampa Bay Lightning (2) vs. NY Rangers (2)

• The Lightning delivered a good ole fashioned a$$ kicking last night, beating the Rangers 4-1 in game 4. The Rangers were down a couple key players due to injuries, but that shouldn’t take away from the fact that the Lightning dominated the game, not to mention Vasilevskiy was back to his usual wall-like function in the net. This series is now tied up at 2-2 and headed to MSG for game 5… and we all know New York brings the energy!

MLB

Escobar with a CYCLE ♻️

• Eduardo Escobar made history on Monday, becoming the 11th player in New York Mets’ history to “hit for the cycle” (the first Met to do so in 10 years).

• Have absolutely zero idea what hit for the cycle means? Well hunny, that’s literally why we’re here. When a player hits for the cycle, it means they hit a single, a double, a triple and a home run… all in one game.

• The odds of this happening are slim to none. To make Escobar’s feat even cooler.. he hit for the cycle from both sides of the plate (meaning he switched between batting lefty and righty throughout the game).

Locked out of Heaven 😇

• On the heels of a 12 game losing streak the Los Angeles Angels fired manager Joe Maddon

• The news hit not too long after LA was shut out by Michael Wacha and the Boston Red Sox on Monday night.

• Phil Nevin, a member of the Angels’ coaching staff, will step in as interim manager until the end of the season.

Golf

All in the blink of an eye - Phil Mickelson is back from his three-month siesta and Dustin Johnson resigns from the Tour

• Sorry, what???? That’s right - all since we last gossiped together on Monday, Phil Mickelson announced his return to the golf world, and DJ - a two-time major winner and former World #1 dropped from the PGA Tour. A couple others including Sergio Garcia have also resigned. Disclaimer, though - Phil intends to keep his PGA Tour membership, but will be playing in the LIV Golf Tournament this week in London… which is sort of a no-no in the Tour’s eyes right now. What’s good with this LIV Golf stuff? Short answer - 1st place prize at the tournament this week is $4 million, which beats any 1st place prize on the Tour by a landslide.

Upcoming this weekend: Survival of the fittest - PGA vs. LIV

1. June 9-12: RBC Canadian Open - St. George's G&CC,  Toronto, Ontario The Open returns after two years of COVID cancellations (Rory McIlroy is the reigning champ). Other big names showing up this year (including McIlroy) include Scottie Scheffler, Sam Burns, Justin Thomas, Cameron Smith, Shane Lowry, and Tony Finau. 

2. June 9-11: LIV Golf Invitational London - Centurion Club, Hemel Hempstead, UK Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson are the biggest names on the lineup for LIV, on a list of 42 players in the field. 16 of 42 sit top 100 in the world, including Louis Oosthuiszen, Kevin Na, Talor Gooch and Sergio Garcia. 

Tennis

Next up: Wimbledon

• Now that the French Open is over, sights are set on Wimbledon, set to play June 27-July 10 in London.

Must Watch This Week

Thursday, June 9th

• 8:00pm ET, Tampa Bay Lightning vs. NY Rangers, NHL: This series is tied, 2-2, and the winner will most likely advance to the Stanley Cup final. Do I need to say more?!

• 9:00pm ET, Boston Celtics vs. Golden State Warriors, NBA: did my ramblings above not already convince you to watch this?!? This is officially assigned reading.

Time Out for the Tea

Tom Brady now does…underwear?

Giselle Bundchen (supermodel / wife of Tom Brady) is now marketing for her husband’s new line of underwear! Just kidding, but she did film Tom in the bathroom the other day and it got the world talking. Turns out, Brady was actually trying to model his underwear that is set to drop tomorrow.

Brooks Koepka got married! But the highlight (other than the stunning photos)? Ludacris performed at the wedding.

Just a PSA for anyone with a thing for hockey players (thnx Deux Moi):