Ball Girl #102: You think your sunday scaries were bad?

The Lakers may have some of the coolest fans in all of basketball (ayo Kardashians) but tbd how loyal they’ll stay after the team starts off 0-3 and shooting 3-pointers with a 21% success rate. FYI? 40% is the benchmark. To summarize the situation, LeBron James eloquently proclaimed in the Lakers’ latest press conference, “We can’t shoot a penny in the ocean.” No idea if that’s actually a saying (who is throwing pennies in the ocean? Do people still carry change?), but you get the idea.

Can I have your number?

1: Rory McIlroy’s world ranking after his win this past weekend at the CJ Cup. This marks his ninth time reaching #1, behind only Tiger Woods and Greg Norman, who have both reached 1st 11 times.

TLDRs

⛳Rory McIlroy won the CJ cup yesterday, finishing 17-under for the tournament with a 4-under final day. Just one stroke ahead of Kurt Kitayama, who also banged out a 4-under R4, finishing 16-under for the tournament. McIlroy brings home $1.89mm in addition to his regained (for the 9th time) world #1 standing.

🏁 Would it really be a Monday if I didn’t say, “Max Verstappen won this weekend’s Grand Prix?” Well, unsurprisingly… he took home his 13th dub of the season, in Austin, Texas, officially clinching the constructor's cup for Red Bull (Team with the most points) and tying the record for most races won in a single season… ever. Oh, and btw? He’s only 25.

🎓🏈 Week 8 of college football did not disappoint; we had some near upsets with #5 Clemson barely holding off #16 Syracuse in a battle of the orange uniforms (honestly, kinda here for it from a fashion standpoint) and some broken undefeated streaks with UCLA and Ole Miss taking their first Ls of the season, to Oregon and LSU, respectively. We are already halfway through the season (say WHAT?!), but that means there are 8 weeks left for 💩 to hit the fan.

🏈 Over in the NFL, dynasty teams (& their QBs) continue to fall while the underdogs rise. Aaron Rodgers’ & Tom Brady’s mid-life crises continue to wreak havoc on their professional lives; the Packers and the Bucs both fell again this weekend to teams they should have beat. Meanwhile, the Jets and Giants both won and cruise to 6-1 and 5-2 records, respectively.

⚾ The Astros and the Phillies are headed to the World Series!! Read on for more.

🏒 For years, people have been waiting for the downfall of two of the oldest hockey franchises, the Chicago Blackhawks and the Pittsburgh Penguins… and after the first week of the season, it looks like the haters are gonna have to wait a lil longer. Both teams pulled off the ultimate comeback, with the Penns rallying FIVE GOALS to climb out of a 3-1 hold against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday and the Blackhawks winning three games in a row from behind (we love a good win from 🍑).

MLB

The Fall Classic is upon us

And no, we’re not talking about Hocus Pocus. The World Series is just 5 days away, with the first game going down on Friday. The Houston Astros and the Philadelphia Phillies will be this year’s contenders… and they could not be more different. Let’s get into it.

Houston Astros

• The ‘Stros defeated the Yankees this weekend to get here. The Yankees put up a fight, coming back each inning to take a new lead, but the Astros responded at every turn, winning 6-5 in the end. This solidifies a serious dry spell for the Yanks, btw, as they’ve lost the last 5 ALCS they’ve appeared in, and over the last 19 years, they’ve only played in one World Series.

• Back to the Astros — this is their 4th World Series appearance in the last 6 years. And they swept their way through this postseason — they’re going on 7 wins in a row now. So yeah they’re pretty sick.

• We mentioned Jeremy Peña last week, who came up big on Sunday with a 3 run homer, but the real hero of Sunday’s win was Ryan Pressly, epic closer (read: pitcher who comes in at the end of the game to shut it down). He pitched a flawless 9th inning, allowing zero hits, walks, and runs. Not to mention, one of those three outs included shutting down Aaron Judge himself.

Philadelphia Phillies

• The Fightin’ Phils came out on top against the San Diego Padres on Sunday to clinch their first World Series appearance since 2009. The Phils were down in the 8th, until superstar Bryce Harper lived up to his $330mil contract and hit a two run bomb to take the lead and ultimately get the win. And Harper is a great guy… Here’s what he said about the game afterwards: "This city, this team … it's all for them… But the job's not done.”

• This is a huge pivot for Philadelphia. They were 22-29 in June when they fired their manager and hired a new guy, 59-year-old Rob Thomson. Oh, and this is Thomson’s first time coaching an MLB team.

• They call em the “Fightin’ Phils” for a reason… This team is gritty, resilient, and will get the job done however they can. And the fans are infamously some of the rowdiest the sports world has ever seen. As a side note, I’m not sure the infrastructure of the city of Philadelphia is equipped to handle a Phillies World Series run and this Eagles’ run so far.

Time Out for the Tea

PGA Tour sues Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund

• The PGA Tour has reportedly filed a lawsuit against the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, which is LIV Golf’s backer. According to CNBC, “The lawsuit, filed [this past] Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, is a continuation of a series of antitrust claims between the rival organizations.” For the PGA Tour, the goal here is to force evidence discovery in the ongoing legal battles between PGA and LIV.

More sad news from Brittney Griner

• Brittney Griner, WBNA star who has been detained in a Russian prison since February, was supposedly offered a basketball (since the prison has a hoop but no ball), yet declined the offer saying “it was too painful to think about.”

Must Watch This Week

Monday, October 24th

• 🏈 8:15pm ET, New England Patriots vs. Chicago Bears

• 🏒 8:00pm ET, Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Edmonton Oilers

• 🏒 10:00pm ET, Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Vegas Golden Knights

Tuesday, October 25th

• 🏒 8:00pm ET, Colorado Avalanche vs. NY Rangers

• 🏒 8:30pm ET, Chicago Blackhawks vs. Florida Panthers