Keely Dinn is a second-year undergraduate at BGSU from Trenton, Ohio. She is majoring in Sport Management with a Journalism minor. Professional football and college football are her primary interests, but she is willing to look at many more.
The 2024 NFL Draft is approaching and who will be going number one?
Marvin Harrison Jr.
Caption: Marvin Harrison, Jr.
“MHJ” is an American football wide receiver who had an amazing collegiate career in just three seasons with The Ohio State Buckeyes. But the latest season will probably go down in history with the Bucks. He is arguably the greatest receiver in Ohio State history. In the 2023 season, he had 67 receptions, 1,211 total yards and 14 touchdowns. Many people thought of him as unstoppable.
Michael Penix Jr.
Caption: Michael Penix Jr.
Michael Penix Jr. is one of the most mysterious prospects for this draft due to the fact that he was a transfer student to the Washington Huskies. In two seasons with the Huskies, he had a total of 9,544 yards. In the 2023 season, he had 36 touchdowns and led the Huskies to the National Championship against the Michigan Wolverines. After the loss, Penix, Jr declared for the NFL Draft. Recently, there have been speculations that several teams could move up in the draft to try to draft Penix.
J.J. McCarthy
Caption: J.J. McCarthy
J.J. McCarthy played college football at the University of Michigan and led the Wolverines to three consecutive Big Ten Conference titles. In his senior year, he led the Wolverines to the National Championship title. There have been speculations that teams might move up to attain him as their pick. As a quarterback prospect, he has the ability to throw the ball smoothly to potential receivers. In the 2023 season McCarthy, he had 2,991 yards and 22 touchdowns. He might double that when he gets drafted, depending on the team (and coach).
Ryan Harless is a fourth-year undergraduate at BGSU from Hillsboro, Ohio. He is majoring in Sport Management with a Journalism Minor. Baseball and Professional Wrestling are his primary interests but he is also interested in golf, hockey, and football
March 9, 2024
All Elite Wrestling (AEW) has kicked off a new era in the company with the 2024 Revolution Pay Per View. A truly perfect show that was nonstop fast-paced action from the first bell till the end.
TNT Championship – Christian Cage (C) v. Daniel Garcia
The first match on the card was a championship match pitting Cage, a 29-year veteran in the business, against the 25-year-old rising star Garcia.
The fans have been behind Garcia for months now and were eager to see him win his first ever gold in AEW. Unfortunately for Garcia and his fans, Revolution was not their night.
A great back and forth battle ensued between the two with Garcia proving that he is just as capable in the ring as Cage and showing that he can be a top guy. Just as Garcia seemed to be getting momentum on his side, Cage’s stable (known as the Patriarchy) interfered allowing Christian to swing things back his way.
Just before the match looked to be over, Garcia’s friends in 2.0 (“Daddy Magic” Matt Menard, and “Cool Hand Ang” Angelo Parker) came to the ring to take out the Patriarchy and even the odds. However, this wasn’t enough to stop Cage from hitting his signature move ‘Unprettier’ and pinning Garcia to retain.
This was a great opening match and I think this is the point many wrestling fans will look back on as the start of Daniel Garcia’s first big push.
Continental Crown Championship – Eddie Kingston (C) v. Bryan Danielson
These are two of the BEST in-ring storytellers possibly ever, and the chemistry they have with one another is completely unmatched.
This was the third match these two have had over the Continental Crown in AEW. In the first, Danielson got beat because he didn’t respect Kingston and didn’t believe he could be beat. He got into Kingston’s head and Eddie lost the match.
In their second meeting, Danielson had even less respect for Kingston. He didn’t shake his hand before or after the match and spent most of the encounter smiling and laughing. Eddie stood his ground and fought like he knew he could and beat Danielson, winning the Continental Crown in the process.
Now in their third singles contest for these belts, the score was 1-1. In the weeks prior to the match, Eddie said that all he wanted if he won, was respect in the form of a handshake from Danielson. Bryan said that he would never EVER respect Kingston and spent weeks calling him a bum.
This was an insanely hard-hitting match with Danielson being the best technical wrestler on the planet, and Kingston’s never-say-die mentality making him get up over and over again despite the punishment he took.
Danielson worked heavily on Kingston’s right hand throughout the match trying to take away his ability to land his finishing move ‘Backfist to the Future.’ This was shown to be smart as Kingston was unable to get the same power behind the backfist as he traditionally has.
Danielson outclassed Eddie on the mat through most of the match but was never able to pin or tap-out Kingston. Even after landing his ‘Busaiku Knee,’ Kingston managed to kick out and fight back.
The match culminated with Kingston landing his backfist hard to Bryan’s face but this time with his left-hand showing Kingston’s brains before hitting a powerbomb and pinning Danielson to retain his Continental Crown Championship.
All-Star Scramble – Wardlow v. Chris Jericho v. Powerhouse Hobbs v. Lance Archer v. HOOK v. Brian Cage v. Magnus v. Dante Martin
This match was originally promoted as the “Meat Madness Match” and featured Hobbs, Archer, and Wardlow which I was super excited to see. I wasn’t opposed to adding the other five competitors, but I still would have preferred the original three-way.
The four smaller competitors (Jericho, HOOK, Magnus, and Martin) started out by squaring off with each other before exiting the ring one at a time at the hands of the larger wrestlers to give them their time to shine.
The AEW fanbase (me included) love to see big meaty dudes beat the breaks off of each other, so when it became clear we were getting just that in this match, the crowd popped incredibly loud.
Hobbs, Wardlow, Archer, and Cage dazzled with huge clothes lines and punches that echoed throughout the arena for quite some time before the smaller wrestlers made their way back to the ring.
The rest of this match was centered around Wardlow continuing to be a monster as he pinned Brian Cage after a powerbomb, setting himself up for an AEW Heavyweight Championship match in the future.
AEW International Championship – Orange Cassidy (C) v. Roderick Strong
This was a match that a mere 4 years ago would never have been on the table. Strong was still hopelessly floating around the WWE at the time and Cassidy was still majorly a comedy gimmick.
In the years since, Strong has reinvigorated his love for the sport, and Cassidy has proven himself as one of the best in-ring competitors in AEW and one of their best champions.
Cassidy’s story is similar to his first reign as International Champion. He defends the title frequently and has shown that he is starting to break down after weeks of constantly defending his belt.
Strong’s goal going into this match was to help bring as much gold to the Undisputed Kingdom (the stable he is a part of) as possible. This was also his very first match on PPV since joining AEW in late 2023.
This in a way was Strong’s coming out party and yet again showed that he is one of the absolute best wrestlers in the world. He fought off all of Cassidy’s offense in the final stretch and was able to pin Orange and take his International Championship.
I think this will be a great thing as Cassidy can finally take some well-deserved time away from the ring and Strong can continue to build up the Undisputed Kingdome while they wait for Adam Cole to recover from his injury.
Tag Team Match – FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) v. The Blackpool Combat Club (Jon Moxley & Claudio Castagnoli)
These two teams have fought each other countless times in AEW, and they seem to be destined to be forever intertwined. That being said, I feel as if these two have hit a ceiling.
FTR focus on old-school tag team psychology as well as old-school in ring action actually melds well with the Blackpool Combat Club’s (BCC) brawling style. However, this match just didn’t do it for me.
Don’t get me wrong, this was a great match. But it just didn’t bring anything new into the fray between these two teams.
The BCC ended up taking the victory by referees’ decision after both members of FTR were rendered unconscious after receiving vicious elbows from Claudio and Moxley. Hopefully if these teams continue to feud, they can find another element of the story to make it a little more interesting to me.
AEW Women’s Championship – Toni Storn (C) v. Deonna Purrazzo
This was one of the matches I was most excited to see on the card. I have absolutely been loving Toni’s “Timeless” gimmick as of late. When she makes her entrance there is a black and white filter making everything look old, she has mastered her over-the-top facial expressions and has more charisma than most people do in their pinky finger.
Purrazzo was one of Toni’s best friends when they were cutting their teeth in the Japanese promotion ‘Stardom’. Her addition to the AEW roster as well as this storyline is a welcome one.
I hope that this was only the first of a series of matches these two have with one another in the coming months as this match had me hooked. Toni was able to fight off Purrazzo with the help of her butler LUTHER and prodigy Mariah May as she retained her belt yet again.
Like I said, I think this match is only scraping the surface of the masterpiece match these two can have. I cannot wait to see where they take this.
Singles Match – Will Ospreay v. Konosuke Takeshita
Wow. I’m really going to try and do this match justice but no matter how hard I try; you need to seek this match out for yourself and watch utter brilliance.
As someone who has been following wrestling for over a decade and has spent countless hours watching matches from all around the globe. From VFW halls to Wembley Stadium, this is easily one of the top three matches I have seen.
Ospreay has spent the greater part of the last decade carving his path as the best wrestler alive today (possibly of all time but that’s a discussion for another 2,000-word essay). Takeshita has spent the past two years in America proving that he doesn’t care who you are and will hit you so hard in the mouth that you’ll need braces.
Nearly 22 straight minutes of the best professional wrestling the world has to offer. This was Ospreay’s first match as a full-time member of the AEW roster and served as a welcome home show for him.
So as not to run the risk of doing this match an injustice, I’m only going to talk about my favorite stretch of the match.
Ospreay goes for a butterfly suplex on Takeshita, Takeshita rolls out of it, ducks a kick and spikes Ospreay with a ‘Tiger Driver 97’ and parlays that into a HUGE German suplex on Ospreay, who eats the suplex, powers up and hits his signature ‘Hidden Blade’ on Takeshita, and goes for a pin. And then Takeshita KICKED OUT AT ONE!!
Ospreay would go on to defeat Takeshita, but neither man lost this match. AEW continues to be better than any other major wrestling company at building their stars through their losses. I cannot wait to see what the future holds for both of these wrestlers.
Takeshita may be my favorite wrestler going at the moment, but AEW gives such a large crop of amazing wrestlers it’s hard to choose.
AEW World Championship – Samoa Joe (C) v. Swerve Strickland v. “Hangman” Adam Page
One of AEW’s best done stories ever in my opinion has been taking place between these three men.
It started with just Page and Swerve feuding over their spots in the company. Swerve felt that Page had been given too many opportunities and had never capitalized, and had HE been given those chances, Swerve would’ve been champion by now.
Swerve played mind games by breaking into Hangman’s house while he wasn’t there and leaving a shirt in his baby’s crib. Since that moment, Hangman (understandably) has made his sole objective to ruin Swerve’s life and will stop at nothing to make that happen.
Samoa Joe won the belt from MJF in December at AEW World’s End and has proven that he is still at the height of his abilities in the ring and on the mic. Despite that, Joe has almost taken a backseat in his own world title feud as he has constantly had to interrupt Hangman and Swerve to remind them, they have to beat HIM.
The three competitors in this match took turns teaming up and destroying the odd man out at different points. Brilliantly paced hard-hitting sequences helped show that Swerve and Joe were willing to put their bodies on the line to become and stay champion.
Hangman, however, seemed mainly set on inflicting punishment on Swerve throughout the match.
The end of the match saw a super cool twist that I hope AEW builds on. Joe caught Hangman in his ‘Coquina Clutch’ and before Swerve was able to do anything to break it up, Hangman tapped out.
Hangman willingly tapped out in order to ensure there was no way Swerve could win the belt. Hangman has become the ultimate final boss of hating and I love every second of it.
After the match Swerve was nearly in tears as he kept asking Hangman “Why?” over and over again. Yet another great AEW Championship match.
AEW Tag Team Championship / Sting’s Last Match – Sting & Darby Allen v. The Young Bucks (Nicholas & Matthew Jackson)
Sting began his in-ring career on the 25th of November 1985. 13,979 days later he wrestled his last match ever. Before I talk about the match, I want to put that into some more perspective.
Sting wrestled 2,157 matches in his career. He main evented a show in the WWE, AEW, TNA, NJPW, and Pro Wrestling NOAH among others. In 1988 alone, he wrestled 235 matches. In July of that year, he wrestled 30 different matches.
Sting wrestled professionally for 38 years.
Many people expected his career to be over after he was injured by WWE’s Seth Rollins in 2015. This injury took Sting out of action for all of 2016-2020.
When he made his return to action for AEW in 2021, no one knew what to expect. Could Sting still go? Would he even be able to wrestle?
In the three years Sting spent with the company, he proved that not only could he go, but he could also be the highlight of any card he was on. Sting spent the final three years of his career jumping off ladders, scaffolding, and really anything he could find a way to climb. He is truly a legend the likes of which we will likely never see again.
Before Sting made his final entrance, the lights went out and out stepped someone dressed just like Sting did in the late ‘80’s and early ‘90’s when he was “Surfer Sting”. Then from the other side of the ramp, out stepped late ‘90’s “Wolfpac Sting” wearing long black hair and red face paint and gear. And then out stepped the Icon Sting.
The two men who accompanied Sting to the ring were his actual sons who just happen to be carbon copies of their father.
In this contest, Sting’s tag partner throughout all of his AEW tenure took one of the gnarliest bumps I’ve ever seen when he leapt off a 20-foot ladder that was in the ring, through two plates of glass that were propped up on chairs on the OUTSIDE of the ring.
Darby was attempting to land on the Young Bucks, but they moved just after he jumped. Darby’s back and arms instantly were covered in blood, and he actually spent over half of the match recovering from that and being looked at by the medical team on hand.
Sting battled the Bucks by himself for most of the remainder of the match, eating their flurry of superkicks only to beat his chest and land a double clothesline like no other before locking in his ‘Scorpion Death Lock’ and forcing a tap out victory.
Confetti rained down from the rafters and there wasn’t a dry eye in the building. Sting finished his career exactly how he should’ve. On the top of the mountain as the Icon and holding championship gold.
In Conclusion
I’m going to keep this short. This was my favorite PPV of all time. I truly believe if you aren’t a fan of pro wrestling, you need to seek this out and try again. We are entering a new era of AEW, and I can’t wait to see where owner Tony Khan takes us next.
Ryan Harless is a fourth-year undergraduate at BGSU from Hillsboro, Ohio. He is majoring in Sport Management with a Journalism Minor. Baseball and Professional Wrestling are his primary interests but he is also interested in golf, hockey, and football
Reposted: March 10, 2024
The 2024 Major League Baseball season is underway which means it is time for me to run through all of the moves my Cincinnati Reds made and decide whether or not I think they had a productive offseason.
First and foremost, the Reds did indeed make moves this offseason which is more than can be said about a lot of the recent off-season’s. Reds fans like myself had grown accustomed to quiet winter months with the only noise coming when Cincinnati lost a young star in free agency because they were afraid to spend money.
The elephant in the room for me is the fact that my favorite baseball player of all time, Joey Votto, is no longer a Cincinnati Red. That makes me want to puke. I still cannot wrap my head around the fact that Votto gave his entire Hall of Fame caliber career to this team, and they never got him to a single World Series and rarely even looked like they cared to.
I still am holding out hope that Votto will sign back with the Reds in a coaching capacity because I can’t fathom seeing him play baseball in any other jersey.
Now onto the baseball.
Nick Senzel elected for free agency and found a home with the Washington Nationals. I think this was needed for both sides. Senzel never was able to live up to his potential in Cincinnati due in part to his proclivity to injury. I hope he can find his footing with the Nationals and carve out a path for himself.
On the first of December, Cincinnati picked up a pair of good relief arms in Emilio Pagan and Nick Martinez. Pagan has made a name for himself as a reliable bullpen arm who averages more than one punchout per inning pitched. Martinez started his career as a starter but has found more success recently coming out in relief. Although he has stated that he would prefer to start, I don’t see that as a realistic possibility on this Reds team.
I like the thought of bringing in better bullpen guys as in 2023, once the starter was out of the game it felt like a grab bag of what happens next. I do think Cincinnati is overpaying for Martinez who is slated to make $14 million this year. For a guy with a career ERA over 4.00 and a team who has been adamant about not spending money, this is an odd deal.
Just 10 days after the signing of Pagan and Martinez, the Reds were in the news again. This time it was the signing of 30-year-old third baseman Jeimer Candelario. Candelario got a pretty penny inking a three-year contract worth $45 million.
I’m going to be entirely honest. I don’t like this deal whatsoever. The Reds have a PLETHORA of young homegrown infielders. This entire offseason we were wondering if Jonathan India would get traded as they didn’t look to have room for him. The Reds drafted India AS A THIRD BASEMAN!! I don’t know why we needed to drop $15 million a year on someone who has such similar stats and projections to India when we already have him on the team.
The Reds also re-signed free agent pitcher Buck Farmer for $2.25 million. Yet another arm who can reliably come out of the pen in most situations.
Ryan Harless is a fourth-year undergraduate at BGSU from Hillsboro, Ohio. He is majoring in Sport Management with a Journalism Minor. Baseball and Professional Wrestling are his primary interests but he is also interested in golf, hockey, and football
February 2, 2024
It is WrestleMania season yet again, the most exciting time of the year for the majority of wrestling fans. Of course, that means it is also ‘Rumble season!’
They 2024 Royal Rumble took place Saturday, January 27, 2024 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, so I’m here to give you the rundown on what you missed.
The show kicked off with the seventh annual Women’s Royal Rumble match. To the surprise of no one, this match ruled and in my opinion was the best match of the evening.
The #2 entrant into the match was the returning Naomi who had been released by the WWE in 2022 and spent her 2023 making her name in Impact (now Total Nonstop Action) Wrestling. She received an amazing ovation from the crowd and looks to start anew following her rumble performance.
Entrant #5 was the current TNA Knockouts World Champion Jordynne Grace. Grace splits her time between professional wrestling and the world of bodybuilding and showed off her raw power throughout the match.
Fun Jordynne Grace fact: she won the TNA Knockouts World Championship from Naomi on the 13th of January this year!
The next big entrant was Biancia Belair at #10. Belair is always in title contention which made her a very viable pick to win.
Following Belair’s entry into the match, there was a decent section of the match dedicated to filling up the ring. While there were some stars such as Becky Lynch and Shayna Baszler, most of the other entries were mid-carders like Xia Li and Michin.
At #28 was the long-awaited arrival of AEW’s (All Elite Wrestling) homegrown star, Jade Cargill. Months ago, we saw Cargill introduced to a WWE audience but since then hadn’t gotten to see her in a ring outside of the AEW bubble.
Cargill looked much like her AEW self which was a relief to All Elite fans like me. Cargill looks like a star and carries herself like one so I’m looking forward to her WrestleMania debut.
The returning Liv Morgan was the final entrant at #30 and she garnered a huge reaction from the Florida crowd. Morgan’s return was cut short by the eventual winner Bayley.
This rumble victory has been a long time in the making for Bayley as one of the company’s top stars for well over five years. She is finally going to get her WrestleMania main event, but who she will be facing is still up in the air.
Following the Women’s Royal Rumble was the WWE Universal Championship four-way match between the champion Roman Reigns and challengers LA Knight, AJ Styles and Randy Orton.
If you’ve been following WWE for any period of time, you know how this match went. It wasn’t a bad match, but it certainly wasn’t a good match.
It was another standard Reigns’ championship match. Let the challengers fight, Roman comes in to hit some moves and ends up in a bad spot, and then Roman’s cousin Solo Sikoa comes in for the save and Roman keeps his title.
Nothing special but it wasn’t offensively bad either. I cannot wait for Roman to (hopefully) lose the belt at WrestleMania.
After this we got a fun contest over the United States Championship between champion Logan Paul and challenger Kevin Owens.
This was a super good match. It really irritates me that Logan Paul is such a good professional wrestler in his very limited experience with the business.
This was a great back and forth contest and was probably Paul’s most violent matchup to date. Towards the end of the match, Paul went to hit Owens with brass knuckles, but Owens caught the punch and put the knucks’ on and dropped Logan with a punch of his own.
After the punch Kevin Owens went for the pin on Logan but just before the referee counted the three, he saw Owens still had the brass knuckles on and called for a disqualification and allowed Logan to escape with his belt.
This, although it was meant to be a cooldown match before the Men’s Royal Rumble, was my favorite of the night.
Now for the main event, the 2024 Men’s Royal Rumble match. I think this continued their trend over the past few years of having very predictable rumbles.
Sure, the matches are always a fun live watch, but the hour plus long contest is usually only there to fill time before the two wrestlers expected to win are the last two in the ring. They just haven’t done much for me in a while.
The #4 entrant was yet another AEW star making their return to WWE in Andrade, who had a decent showing despite not making a lot of commotion.
The purpose of this match was so that we could get the showdown between CM Punk and Cody Rhodes in the final two. Once it got down to the final two, Punk and Rhodes had a little match to build suspense for the finish.
It is clear that CM Punk can’t go at a high level anymore in the ring. Rhodes had to completely carry Punk through the final stretch in the match before finally dumping him over the top rope.
With Cody Rhodes’ win again this year, he joins eight other wrestlers as the only ones to ever win multiple rumbles. It only makes sense for him to again challenge Roman Reigns in the main event of WrestleMania 40 and FINALLY finish his story of winning the Universal Championship.
All in all, this was an ok event. Two good matches and two matches that made me go ‘meh’. But nonetheless, we are on the road to WrestleMania and have a fun month ahead of us!
Caption: CJ Stroud drops pack to pass in a game against the Saints
By Carsen Hageman
Carsen Hageman is from Liberty Center, Ohio and is a Senior at BGSU majoring in Sports Management. Professional & collegiate football are his main interests. Upon graduation in the spring, he hopes to pursue a career in professional and college football.
November 25, 2023
Surprises
Caption: Jared Goff throws a pass during a recent game against the Ravens
Lions
The Detroit Lions have surprised everyone this season. It all started with upsetting the defending champion KC Chiefs on the opening weekend of the season. Now, they have an 8-3 record and are currently the 2nd seed in the NFC playoffs. Armed with a top 10 statistical defense, a top 5 offensive line, and offensive weapons like Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jahmyr Gibbs, the Lions look poised to make a deep run in the playoffs.
Caption: Christian McCaffrey celebrates after scoring a touchdown.
2. Christian McCaffrey
While his record-setting touchdown streak just ended, McCaffrey’s performance this year garnered early MVP attention. That talk has since subsided, but he is still arguably the top running back in the league and has been the workhorse behind the 49ers’ success this season. With a lack of a true deep threat at wide receiver, McCaffrey is the guy defenses key in on when playing the 49ers. Despite this focus, he leads the NFL in rushing yards.
Caption: Chiefs’ defenders celebrate.
3. Kansas City Chiefs’ Defense
It is no surprise that any team with Patrick Mahomes is doing well. But unlike previous seasons, the Chiefs’ Defense has been a large part of their success this season. Statistically, they are currently the 4th best defense in the league. With a 7-3 record, the reigning champs look primed for another long postseason run.
With outstanding performance after outstanding performance recently, Stroud has officially entered the MVP conversation. It is almost unthinkable that he is a rookie and putting up consecutive great performances. As a rookie, he is 2nd in the NFL in passing yards. For a team that held the second pick in last year’s draft, the Texans look like a sneaky good team as the AFC playoff picture heats up. They look to earn a wild card and make a Super Bowl run with Stroud at the center of their playoff push.
Disappointments
Caption: Head Coach Matt Eberflus and players react to a play.
Chicago Bears
The Bears, a team with all the hype heading into the season, have disappointed in almost every respect this year. Preseason expectations had them challenging for a division title and making a postseason run. Now, their QB Justin Fields has been hurt most of the year, their defense has struggled all year by giving up 20+ points in all but 2 games, and they have not had consistent production from their weapons. With the likelihood that they will be in contention for a top draft pick, some are questioning if they should pick a quarterback.
Caption: Patriots’ QBs Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe talk with Offensive Coordinator Bill O’Brien.
2. New England Patriots
With recent disappointing draft classes and poor coaching, the Patriots have been a mess this season. Perhaps the biggest story has been the lack of development of Mac Jones, their first-round pick from the 2021 draft. He has looked average at best over the past three seasons and has not looked good in general this season. It is because of draft misses like these that rumors of Bill Belichick’s departure have been swirling during their tumultuous season.
Caption: Giants’ QB Tommy DeVito gets sacked.
3. New York Giants
About everything that could have gone wrong for the Giants this season has gone wrong. As a Giants’ fan myself, I personally have watched as this season has unfolded. Starting with a 40-0 Sunday Night Football route by the Cowboys, it has all gone downhill for a team that won a playoff game last season. With injuries to about every key offensive player, their offense has looked inept most of the season. Now with a 3-8 record, they are in contention for a top draft pick. With a top 5 pick all but locked in, it looks likely the Giants will draft a quarterback after not even a full season has passed since they guaranteed Daniel Jones an $82 million contract this spring.
Caption: Raiders’ running back Josh Jacobs stiff-arms a Patriots’ defender.
4. Las Vegas Raiders
This season might not be a total wash since an in season coaching change appears to be the spark this team needed. Interim coach Antonio Pierce has guided the Raiders to a 2-1 record since Josh McDaniels’ departure and has this team playing harder than they ever did with McDaniels as their head coach. It is unfortunate that it took such a drastic move to get this team playing better. In the offseason, they looked like a team that could steal a playoff spot with newly acquired Quarterback Jimmy Garappolo, Davante Adams, and an improving defense.
Caption: Panthers’ QB Bryce Young prepares to pass.
5. Carolina Panthers
While preseason expectations did not have the Panthers making the playoffs, I don’t think anyone had the Panthers looking this bad. The biggest storyline for this team has been Bryce Young. With the Panthers trading for the first pick in the 2023 draft, they could choose from the cream of the crop of available quarterbacks. With the first pick, they choose Bryce Young out of Alabama. Young has looked like one of the worst in this class. The Alabama product has recorded 8 passing touchdowns with 7 interceptions and 29 sacks. By comparison, the No. 2 draft pick CJ Stroud has 15 passing touchdowns with 2 interceptions and 19 sacks. Without a first round selection in this year’s draft things are looking bleak for the Panthers. They could also head into next season with a new coach with rumors of Frank Reich’s job status in question.
Ryan Harless is a fourth-year undergraduate at BGSU from Hillsboro, Ohio. He is majoring in Sport Management with a Journalism Minor. Baseball and golf at all levels are his primary interests but he is also interested in combat sports, hockey, basketball, and football.
November 19, 2023
Baseball season has come to an end yet again and now is time to look forward to what may be at the start of next season with some free agents! This is one of the most star-studded free agent classes of recent memory, so I am expecting some fireworks and some interesting looking teams come next April.
Criteria: I am only selecting the free agents I wanted to talk about so unfortunately, I won’t be doing deep dives on Drew Rucinski.
Catcher:Gary Sanchez – After having a few weird years with the Yankees and Twins, Sanchez made a huge impact this year with the Padres. He helped ace Blake Snell to have one of the best seasons of his career from behind the plate and helped bring a little more fight to the already pretty stacked Padres. He didn’t provide a lot of help in the batter’s box BUT as an elite defensive catcher and with the ace of the staff asking to be caught by him, I imagine Sanchez will stay in San Diego.
First Base: Rhys Hoskins – Following a disappointing NLCS loss to the Diamondbacks, Hoskins is in an odd spot. The rumors around MLB are that Bryce Harper is planning on being full time at first base from 2024 onward which makes it look like Hoskins will be finding a new home this offseason. I think a great spot for him would be San Francisco. He could take over for Wilmer Flores and free him up to become a utility player yet again and help be a piece to the puzzle the Giants are trying to put together.
Honorable Mention: Joey Votto – The Reds announced that they wouldn’t be renewing Votto’s deal (largest in team history) after a cool 19 years in the organization. I’m still very hopeful that the Reds sign him to a one-year deal so that he can retire as a Red. But if he has to leave, I wouldn’t mind him signing with his hometown Toronto Blue Jays or even possibly a playoff contender so that he can finally play meaningful October baseball again.
Second Base: Looking through the list of free agent second basemen was pretty disappointing. The biggest names were Elvis Andrus and Whit Merrifield (both 35). Don’t get me wrong, great players but I don’t see either of them making a huge impact when they find new teams.
Shortstop:Amed Rosario – One of the best and youngest names on the free agent list Rosario is a career .272 batter with a glove that is next to a sure thing. He had spent multiple seasons with both the Mets and Guardians before he was shipped to the Dodgers late last season before the playoffs. I think that he will end up resigning with the Dodgers as they can probably get him for just over $10 million a year.
Third Base: Matt Chapman – Coming off of an offensively disappointing year where he was still able to secure his fourth Rawlings Gold Glove, Chapman will probably be commanding a relatively high yearly salary. While his offense is much more hit or miss than Nolan Arenado, his defense in the hot corner is undeniable. Under the right circumstances, Chapman could easily be an MVP contender. He has turned down a sizable deal from Toronto already so I don’t anticipate him to be back next year, but I think he would be a great fit with the Giants much like Hoskins. With the Giants looking to be big spenders this offseason, I think two new stars to anchor their infield is more than believable.
Outfield:Lourdes Gurriel Jr. – After a World Series run with Arizona, I would be very very shocked to see the youngest Gurriel brother anywhere but with the snakes in 2024. He has been a beacon of consistency and clutch as he proved this postseason. This will more than likely cost Arizona a decent bit of change but I think it would be well worth it for their future.
Cody Bellinger – After winning National League comeback player of the year, Bellinger looks to be back to his 2019 MVP winning ways. One of the least surprising free agents of the entire class, Bellinger excelled in Wrigley and if it weren’t for possibly the biggest free agent of all time (spoiler) also being available, I would say he’s a shoo in to come back. But I still find it hard to believe he will go anywhere else after finding this success. However, for the sake of predicting something other than him resigning, I could see him ending up in pinstripes as a Yankee in 2024.
Teoscar Hernández – Two seasons removed from his last All-Star appearance, Teoscar looks to have regressed a little over the past couple years. This is not to say he is no longer a good player, but he simply isn’t hitting almost .300 and doesn’t seem to have as much pop as he formerly did. Now, I really like Teoscar, he has all the tools and seems to be universally liked by his teammates! He absolutely should get picked up by someone, and I predict that he will go to Colorado. Plenty of room to roam in the outfield, and the elevation ought to help bring some of the ever-valuable pop back to his game.
Pitchers:Aaron Nola – The ace of the almost National League champs surely set himself up well to finally get paid this season. He had his fifth consecutive full (162 game) season of 200+ strikeouts and was able to contain offenses in the postseason that were very dangerous. As much as I wanted to see him stay in Philly, I thought they missed their chance to ink a long-term deal with him last offseason. I thought Nola would be walking and likely to another contender as a great fit in Seattle. He and Luis Castillo would be a terrifying 1-2 punch. It turns out, he just inked a 7-year deal with the Phillies.
Blake Snell – After possibly his best season to date, Snell will likely be commanding a lot of money with his second career Cy Young. This will certainly limit the teams that are available to go after him, I could easily see Snell getting the eye of a New York team like the Mets. My only concern with him is that the majority of his success this season came after the acquisition of Gary Sanchez. I would almost be willing to bet that if the Padres are open to re-signing both of them, they will stay together.
Sonny Gray – Following his first All-Star appearance since 2019, Gray showed some dominance; despite his 8-8 record he allowed a league leading 0.4 home runs per 9 innings. I think his direction will be super dependent on the direction the Twins are wanting to take. If they feel that they can compete for a championship next year and looking forward, I imagine he would come back. But if Minnesota is looking to dismantle and rebuild, I think Gray would make a lot of sense for St. Louis as a veteran pitcher as the Cardinals have lost a lot of veteran presence over the past few seasons.
Who we all came to hear about:Shohei Ohtani – I mean, its Ohtani. Coming off his second unanimous MVP season in the last three years, the only thing we are able to have a conversation about is how long and where he will go. I think he will be first, looking for a long-term deal, but that will cost substantially more money. I anticipate Shohei getting more than $40 million a year as he is both an elite pitcher and hitter AND is coming off arguably the best baseball season ever played. From everything I have seen and heard, I expect him to (unfortunately for the Reds fan in me) land with the Chicago Cubs. They were finalists in the Shohei sweepstakes the first time around, and now that he has some MLB service under his belt and is more comfortable in the states, I think his only limitation is himself.
Caption: Arizona Diamondbacks and Texas Rangers meet in the 2023 World Series.
By Ryan Harless
Ryan Harless is a fourth-year undergraduate at BGSU from Hillsboro, Ohio. He is majoring in Sport Management with a Journalism Minor. Baseball and golf at all levels are his primary interests but he is also interested in combat sports, hockey, basketball, and football.
October 25, 2023
The World Series is finally here. Starting this Friday, the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks will be facing off in a best of seven series to determine the new champions of Major League Baseball. Neither team I predicted to be here made it which is what I love about postseason baseball. The Texas Rangers were a wildcard team and the Diamondbacks won only 84 games this season and here they are, the last 2 teams standing.
This is the first time in postseason history that both world series competitors clinched their berth by winning back-to-back away games (in very hostile environments at that). The Rangers took a 2-0 series lead after winning the first two games in Houston before losing three in a row in Arlington to make the series 3-2 in favor of the Astros. In the last two games, the Rangers outscored the Astros 20-6, dropping the final two games of the series and sending Texas to the World Series.
The Diamondbacks advanced by beating the dominant Phillies in another seven-game series. The D-backs beat the Milwaukee Brewers and L.A. Dodgers en route to the NLCS. In this series, the Phillies took a 2-0 lead after winning the first two games at home. Arizona got back on their feet to tie the series at 2-2 by winning back-to-back games in AZ when everyone counted them out. After dropping the 5th game in the series and making it 3-2 in favor of Philly, the matchup headed back to Pennsylvania. With their backs against the wall, the Diamondbacks outscored the Phillies 9-3 in the last two games to win the NLCS and head to the World Series.
Many people have been complaining about this postseason saying that giving the division leaders extra time off hurt their readiness to play. Personally, I think that’s maybe the worst take of all time. Baseball has the absolute best system set up in order to make sure the best team wins the championship at the end of the season. 162 regular season games and then the possibility of 22 postseason games (including wildcard + max length series). 184 games to determine the best all around team. You must have a coaching staff that manages all the players well, doesn’t overexert anyone, and leverages situations correctly. It is not just the talent on the teams that matter but also the coaching and the fans.
We are going to get to see two teams with a lot to prove battle it out in the Fall Classic this year.
Caption: Playoff Picture as it stands October 7, 2023
By Ryan Harless
Ryan Harless is a fourth-year undergraduate at BGSU from Hillsboro, Ohio. He is majoring in Sport Management with a Journalism Minor. Baseball and golf at all levels are his primary interests but he is also interested in combat sports, hockey, basketball, and football.
October 7, 2023
It’s finally time for playoff baseball, my favorite time of the whole year. The MLB implemented a new playoff format this season that was supposed to give us a good bit more baseball to watch, but all four of the Wild Card series were two game sweeps with very little drama all around. But now we have moved into the Division Series where all matchups are a best of five. Here’s your guide to what I think will happen in this round of the playoffs.
Texas Rangers vs. Baltimore Orioles
The Baltimore Orioles have been a true success story this season, winning the American League East for the first time in almost a decade (2014). And in even rarer fashion, have won their division with the same manager who guided their rebuild. The Texas Rangers got here after a truly dominant season where the only in-division competition was the juggernaut Astros (we’ll get to them later). The Rangers decimated the Tampa Bay Rays in their Wild Card series outscoring Tampa 11-1 over two games.
This Rangers team can absolutely swing the bats and with Corey Seager, the statistically best shortstop in the game, staying hot, they will be a true force to be reckoned with. That being said, Baltimore has been one of the most fun teams to watch all season long with their super young core of rising stars. In this series, I feel that the Rangers veteran pitching will truly separate them from Baltimore and allow them to take the series and head to the American League Championship Series. I predict that Texas will win this series in 5 exciting games.
Minnesota Twins vs. Houston Astros
Minnesota defeated the Toronto Blue Jays in decisive fashion in their series with their pitching being relatively dominant throughout the two games. Houston made it to this point by continuing to have a chokehold on the American League West winning the division six of the last seven seasons.
I really like Minnesota and think that they are in a great spot for the future with their pitching being as dominant as it has been. However, this is the Houston Astros, and it is October. If you’ve followed baseball at all for the last few years, you know that Houston turns into something different once the calendar turns over and Fall takes hold. As much as I would love to say that I see the Twins taking this series and going on to the ALCS, I can’t in good faith bet against the Astros in the playoffs. I think the Astros will take this series in 4 games, I think Minnesota may win the first game and then get swept after kicking Houston into gear.
Philadelphia Phillies vs. Atlanta Braves
The Phillies earned the opportunity to take down the dynasty Braves after knocking off the Miami Marlins in their Wild Card matchup. The Atlanta Braves got here by winning 104 games and scoring almost 1,000 runs this season. What can you say about Atlanta that hasn’t already been said? They tied the record set by the 2019 Minnesota Twins for homers in a season by hitting 307 which is averaging 1.895 homers a game over a 162-game season. They had 7 of the starting 9 hit 20+ homers and 5 of those 7 hit more than 30. They have 4 batters with over 100 RBI; oh, and Ronald Acuna Jr. is slashing .337/.416/.596 with 41 homers, 73 stolen bases, and 80 walks. Also don’t forget about their ace Spencer Strider who set a new franchise record for strikeouts in a season with 281 though 186.2 innings.
This is not to say that the Phillies haven’t had a great season. But I just cannot understate how brilliant it has been to watch this Braves team. I expect Atlanta to take this series in 5 games, but I think the Braves will end up outscoring Philadelphia by quite a few runs in the series.
Arizona Diamondbacks vs. Los Angeles Dodgers
Both National League matchups in the Division Series are also Division rivals which I think is a SUPER cool touch to this postseason. In the case of this series, I think it makes it more unpredictable. Arizona got here after finishing second in the National League West division to LA, and then beat the Brewers 2-0 in the Wild Card round. Going into the Wild Card round, I anticipated the Brewers to make a playoff run so watching Arizona take them out, gives me a lot more hope for them in this series. The Dodgers are here after winning 100 games and handily taking their division.
I am honestly looking for Arizona to shock the West and continue their unbeaten streak in the playoffs and sweep the Dodgers in three close games.
Of course, baseball is baseball, and it is incredibly tough to predict the outcome of games ESPECIALLY when it’s playoff time. Only time will tell who takes these games and moves on to their respective Championship Series. But I do know, when they come around, I’ll be back to predict their outcomes and see how I did with my predictions!
Caption: Luis Castillo pitching for Seattle this season.
By Ryan Harless
Ryan Harless is a fourth-year undergraduate at BGSU from Hillsboro, Ohio. He is majoring in Sport Management with a Journalism Minor. Baseball and golf at all levels are his primary interests but he is also interested in combat sports, hockey, basketball, and football.
September 30, 2023
In my previous articles, I reviewed my picks for who would be the breakout star for each team for the 2023 MLB season. I got through three divisions in that one leaving me the other half of the league to discuss. Let’s see how I did.
American League East
Red Sox: Starting off the second half of my reviews are the Boston Red Sox. Boston had a mixed bag of talent entering this season. Some young stars as well as a few established names like Rafael Devers, even after losing shortstop Xander Bogarts in free agency. I chose Triston Casas to be Boston’s breakout star this season and I think he was a good pick. I predicted he would slash .270/.380/.450 with 18-20 homers as well as 80+ RBI. As of today, Casas is slashing .263/.367/.490 with 24 homers and 65 RBI through 132 games. I think he has been able to make a big impact on Boston this year and should be there for years to come.
Orioles: The Baltimore Orioles had a huge crop of talent to choose from that could have been their breakout star. If you’ve followed the Orioles this season, you know the young stars like Gunnar Henderson, Adley Rutschman, and Kyle Bradish have all had amazing seasons putting up 4+ WAR around the board. Unfortunately for me, I thought that Grayson Rodriguez would put up great numbers. I predicted that he would go 10-6 with a 2.80 ERA and be getting votes for AL Rookie of the Year. So far this year, Grayson is 7-4 with a 4.35 ERA. A far cry from what I had anticipated, but as is the case with a lot of young pitchers, it takes a few season for them to truly hone their craft and begin to dominate.
Rays: The Rays were another team that gave me lots of options. Thank goodness I didn’t choose Wander Franco. I also considered choosing Shane Baz, but instead I went with Pete Fairbanks, expecting him to be the full time closer for Tampa. I expected him to throw at least 60 innings with a 2.50 ERA and 30+ saves. As of today Fairbanks has thrown 45.1 innings through 49 games, an ERA of 2.58 and 25 saves. I think this pick was another success, he has almost hit the saves mark I set in almost 20 fewer innings than I anticipated and has kept his ERA very close to 2.50.
Blue Jays: For Toronto, I selected an unorthodox pick in the catcher/outfielder combo, Daulton Varsho. He was traded to the Jays in the off-season and I expected him to have a breakout year alongside the other second-generation stars the Blue Jays have (Vladdy, Bichette, and Biggio). Daulton’s father Gary was an outfielder in the MLB for eight seasons and was a coach and manager around the league for another eight. I expected Daulton to bat .265 with 30 homers and at least 25 stolen bases. Looking back, expecting him to be in the 30-30 club was a bit wishful. But Varsho had a decent season, batting .220 with 20 homers and 16 stolen bases. While his average fell a bit flat, his homers and stolen bases give me a good outlook for Varsho’s future in the league.
Yankees: I predicted that Oswald Peraza would have a breakout year for New York and make himself a spot in the Yankee middle infield for many years to come. I expected a slash line of .275/.350/.400 with 50 RBI and no fewer than 25 stolen bases. Peraza had quite a disappointing year, only playing in 47 games to date (a long ways from the 80+ I expected) and is slashing .195/.273/.551 with 14 RBI and only 4 stolen bases.
National League East
Nationals: The Nationals have been bad this year. There’s no other way to say it. But, I looked for starting pitcher MacKenzie Gore to be a high spot for the club to look to. I predicted Gore would throw 150 innings with 200 K’s and an ERA around 3.40. Gore has struggled with going deep in games as well as recently being placed on the 15 day injured list. This season he has thrown 136.1 innings striking out 151 batters along the way with a 4.42 ERA. His K/9 rate has me feeling good about my prediction going forward as I believe Gore just needs more experience at the MLB level to figure out how to lower his ERA.
Marlins: For Miami, I predicted their breakout star to be someone who has struck fear into my heart for over a year with his impossible-to-hit-against card in MLB The Show 22, Edward Cabrera. I expected Cabrera to be a part of a nasty Marlins rotation that never completely came to fruition with 150+ innings, a 14-6 record and an ERA of 3.00. Unfortunately, Cabrera has struggled like most young pitchers do and has a 7-7 record with a 4.24 ERA in only 99.2 innings. He has really had troubles going late into games but I expect that to improve with age.
Phillies: The Phillies have had a great season and at the moment are looking forward to making a playoff run as they have already clinched a spot. I looked for outfielder Brandon Marsh to have his breakout season with them. I predicted Marsh to bat .270 with 130+ hits and to keep his fielding percentage elite. As of now Marsh is batting .276 with 110 hits, and while his fielding has suffered a bit to the tune of 5 errors this season. Nonetheless, Marsh is having a heck of a season and I look for him to become an all-star in the very near future.
Mets: The Mets spent a ton of money this off-season just to be fighting to stay out of last place in September. But, I predicted that one of their new imports, Kodai Senga would have a dominant first season in the MLB and he proved me right. I expected Senga to throw 100 innings with 125 strikeouts and a 2.75 ERA and as of today Senga has thrown 166.1 innings, struck out 202 and held an ERA of 2.98. Senga has probably been my best prediction in this whole series putting up absolute ace-level numbers this season. I think signing him was the best move the Mets made all off-season.
Braves: The Braves are annoyingly good and are going to continue being that way for the foreseeable future, which is unfortunate news for any fan of a team in the National League not from Atlanta. I predicted their 2022 Rookie of the Year winner to continue having a great start to his career and be their breakout star in Michael Harris II and again he did not disappoint. I looked for Harris II to slash .300/.400/.500 with 25 homers and at least 20 bags swiped. So far this season he is slashing .292/.330/.806 with 18 homers and 20 stolen bases on the dot. Now while he hasn’t had quite as good a year as I anticipated, he has been an incredibly valuable piece of one of the most dominant teams of all time in the 2023 Braves.
American League West
Athletics: Oakland, where to start. First and foremost, from every baseball fan we are sorry. I predicted starting pitcher Paul Blackburn to be the breakout star for Oakland this season, looking for him to make 25 starts and go 12-8 with a 3.50 ERA. As of today, Blackburn is 4-7 with a 4.43 ERA through 20 starts. In a season marred with letdowns for the A’s, this was no different.
Rangers: The Texas Rangers have had a great year and have been battling the Astros for first place in the AL West all year long. I predicted catcher Jonah Heim to continue making a name for himself as a premier catcher in the American League. My predictions for Heim in my previous article were that he would play 130 games, have a 30% caught stealing percentage and a 3+ WAR. This season Heim has had a 30% caught stealing percentage, played in 125 games and has a 2.8 WAR. Not to pat myself on the back, but *pat pat pat pat* I think I nailed this one.
Angels: The Angels have been an exciting team to watch as they have had arguably two of the greatest players of all time on the same team – Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout. Unfortunately, again, for the team, this was another disappointing season as they look to miss the playoffs. At the beginning of the season, I predicted that Jo Adell would have a breakout season for the Halos. I expected Adell to slash .250/.300/.350 with 18 homers as well as 50 RBI and 20 stolen bases. To date, Adell has a slash line of .208/.263/.581 with 6 RBI and zero stolen bases. Adell has been sidelined for most of the season with an oblique injury which has really dampened his ability to get stats, but as you can see his slash line had him on pace for a really productive season.
Mariners: For Seattle, I predicted that a former Cincinnati Reds player would finally make waves and get his flowers for being as dominant as he has been. Luis Castillo was my selection to breakout for the M’s. I expected Castillo to go 15-3 with a 2.85 ERA in 180 innings, have 200 strikeouts, and win the AL Cy Young award. While his season hasn’t been quite up to those standards, he has had an amazing year nonetheless, going 14-8 with a 3.20 ERA, 194.1 innings and 215 punch-outs. Really the only aspect of my prediction that he didn’t meet was the record and even that is a flawed stat for starting pitchers. He still has a really good chance at winning a Cy Young Award this year.
Astros: The Astros have had another very good season and actually have some competition in their division for the first time in a while as they are currently pushing to keep their wild card spot. The Rangers have a 2.5 game lead over Houston in the division but I still expect the Astros to cause problems in the postseason. I predicted that Chas McCormick would be their breakout player. He is a very good hitter who has proven that he can send the ball to all areas of the field on top of the fact that he has a handy glove in the field. I expected Chas to slash .275/.360/.390 with 8-10 homers and 120 hits and he actually exceeded my expectations. Today he is slashing .278/.359/.499 with 22 homers and 110 hits. He has had a great season and gave me another correct prediction to add to my count.
This has been a hectic baseball season and it’s only going to ramp up for the postseason. I am happy to announce that of the 15 teams here, I believe 8 of my predictions were correct! Adding that to my total from the first half of this retrospective (7), that leaves me with 15/30 correct predictions! And as we all know, if you can bat .300 in the MLB that’s a great career.
Caption: The ‘Battle of the Sexes’ at the Houston Astrodome featured Bobby Riggs (L) and Billie Jean King (R). The author called the center service line and is seated to the right of King.
By Nancy E. Spencer
Nancy E. Spencer is Professor Emerita in Sport Management and taught in the SM program for 25 years. Before joining the faculty of BGSU’s SM program, Dr. Spencer taught and played tennis professionally. She is currently writing a book on Professional Women’s Tennis, with portions of this article appearing in the Introduction.
In 1973, I was an Assistant Teaching Professional at the H.E.B. (Howard E. Butt) Tennis Center in Corpus Christi, Texas. Several weeks before the match, I received a phone call from Tim Heckler, a teaching pro in Houston and President-elect of the Texas Professional Tennis Association (TPTA). As consultant/director for the King vs. Riggs match, Tim was putting together a crew to umpire and call lines for the ‘Battle of the Sexes’ at the Astrodome. He wanted to secure an equal number of male and female line judges and asked if I would call lines for the match. Initially, I was noncommittal, since I was still reeling from the outcome of an earlier male vs. female match played on Mother’s Day, 1973. That match had featured Bobby Riggs vs. the Australian Margaret Court, although she was not Riggs’ original choice to play such a match.
After Billie Jean King earned more than $100,000 in 1971, Riggs had begun to pester her about playing a winner-take-all match (Lichtenstein, 1974). He was convinced that the best senior man could easily defeat the best woman and it irked him that a woman could make so much money. King was the perfect foil – the outspoken women’s libber pitted against the self-proclaimed male chauvinist pig. When King rejected Riggs’ repeated challenges, he turned to Margaret Court (then the No. 1 ranked woman), who believed she could make an easy $35,000 by playing him. Unfortunately, Court did not realize until it was too late that Riggs was hustling her. After Riggs won easily (6-2, 6-1), the match became known as the “Mother’s Day Massacre.”
Court’s lopsided loss was infuriating to Billie Jean King and other women on the nascent Virginia Slims’ tour. But Margaret’s loss to Bobby was also demoralizing to me and countless other women teaching pros since the outcome undermined our legitimacy. Roberto Chavez, a college player at the University of Corpus Christi, boasted that he could beat me playing left-handed. Of course, he was right-handed… and he was right. After losing to Roberto and witnessing Margaret’s loss, I was none too eager to invest my hopes and/or time in another male vs. female spectacle that could further erode my self-confidence as a teaching professional.
I shared my hesitation with Tim, who countered by telling me the benefits of calling lines. Each linesperson would receive two free tickets to the match plus a pass to go anywhere in the Astrodome. Houston was a 4-hour drive, not that far in light of the geographical expanse of Texas. I reasoned that I could visit friends if I made the trip and agreed to the gig. Later, I wrote to my family, reporting that I had purchased an “outfit with brown-checked pants and brown blouse that was comfortable and just right for being a lineswoman.”
On September 20, I left for Houston before noon, a day that was especially hot – even by Texas standards! Halfway to Houston, I stopped at a dusty gas station where the attendant filled the tank of my 1964 red Plymouth Fury. It cost less than $5 to fill the tank, thanks to the ‘gas wars’ of the early seventies that lowered the price at one point to less than 20 cents a gallon. The attendant asked who I thought would win the ‘big match’ that night. Did he know I would be calling lines? Once again, I was noncommittal, but said I hoped Billie Jean would win.
The linespersons needed to be at the Astrodome by 4:30 p.m. When I arrived, Billie Jean was warming up before a smattering of spectators. In my letter home, I wrote, “We had a meeting of linesmen and women to go over details. They told us that Riggs had agreed not to have any linesmen removed, but Billie Jean hadn’t agreed… so they would comply if she requested” to have someone removed.
Around 6:00 p.m., there was a ‘Pro-celebrity’ Mixed Doubles exhibition featuring singer Andy Williams and his former wife Claudine Longet vs. the game show host Merv Griffin and Sandra Giles. An actor in the mold of Marilyn Monroe, Giles was “Bobby’s starlet girlfriend” (Lichtenstein, 1974, p. 232). I noted that the celebrities “were really nervous and not such experienced players but they… lobbed a lot and moved well in covering the court.” The set lasted just 20 minutes, with Williams and Longet winning 6-1. I called the center service line, but there were no calls for me to make in the exhibition, so “I wasn’t exactly ‘warmed up.’”
We had about 40 minutes after the mixed doubles before we needed to return to our assigned seats, so I spoke with the three other lineswomen. I already knew Betsy Blaney, an assistant pro at Brookhaven Tennis Club in Dallas (Betsy’s article is posted at this link on Maxwell Media Watch). I had played her that spring in the Maureen Connolly Brinker tournament on the USLTA Pro Tour in Dallas, where she beat me 6-4 in the third set. Another lineswoman named Dee Dee Dally had long dark hair and glasses; she traveled on the spring circuit as “a volunteer linesperson” whose expenses were sometimes paid. The fourth woman, Jean, was a friend of Riggs from San Diego, and she said he was not as bad as he sounded. We admitted to each other that we were nervous, knowing that some 40 million people were expected to tune in to the live broadcast on TV.
Before King and Riggs entered the court, the University of Houston band played, accompanied by dancing clowns. I described the ambiance as “quite a carnival atmosphere.” The ‘carnival-like atmosphere’ was “accompanied by horns, dancers and outrageous costumes in a spectacle worthy of an end-of-times bonanza.” There were plenty of celebrities and movie stars surrounding the court, including George Foreman, Jim Brown, Glen Campbell, JoAnne Pflug, Stefanie Powers, Robert Stack, and Ron Ely (a.k.a., Tarzan). A woman from Corpus Christi who attended the match later gave me copies of her photos that revealed even more celebrities who attended – the recently-wed Lee Majors, the ‘six-million-dollar-man,’ and Farrah Fawcett, who had played tennis at Corpus Christi Ray High School.
Caption: Billie Jean King escorted onto the court by two of the Rice University athletes.
Coverage of the match described the atmosphere as something “right out of a Cecil B. DeMille movie,” more like a circus than a sporting event. Before the match began, the two protagonists entered the court with a flourish – “Mrs. King came first on a Cleopatra-style gold litter that was held aloft by four muscular track-and-field athletes from nearby Rice University.” Among the toga-clad carriers was “Dave Roberts, one of the world’s finest pole vaulters.”
Caption: Bobby Riggs holding Sugar Daddy before gifting it to Billie Jean King.
Meanwhile, six professional models (dubbed “Bobby’s Bosom Buddies”) wearing tight red and gold outfits transported Bobby Riggs onto the court in a rickshaw with gold wheels (Amdur, 1973). During courtside introductions, Riggs presented King “with a two-foot Sugar Daddy and made a tongue-in-cheek reference to suckers,” while King gifted Riggs with “a squealing baby pig,” a tribute to Riggs’ touting himself as a “Male Chauvinist Pig” (Roberts, 2005, p. 119).
The match between King and Riggs was far different from the one-sided ‘Mother’s Day Affair.’ Billie Jean refused to let Bobby intimidate her. Although I thought Riggs looked helpless from the start, I still was not sure that King would win decisively, especially since Jean had said Riggs might let her win the first set just to make it more interesting. When he double-faulted on set point in the first set, I thought that might be happening.
During the match, I made 5 or 6 line-calls, including 2 serves that hit lines. I can still envision one of Billie Jean’s serves that Bobby questioned after I made my call. King must have served with slice, because for a split-second, I thought it was going to be wide to the left of the deuce court, but the spin made it curve enough to catch the center service line. When the chair umpire looked to me for confirmation, I put my hands out to show that the serve was good. Riggs immediately spun around and looked at me incredulously, questioning my call. Again, I put my hands out parallel to the court to signal that it was good. He shook his head, clearly disagreeing with my call. I was sure that my heart palpitations were loud enough for people seated behind me to hear.
Fast-forward to 1998, when ESPN aired footage of the Battle of the Sexes. It was the 25th anniversary of the famous match and ESPN’s coverage. It was the first time I had seen the match and it coincided with my first year of teaching the History & Philosophy of Sport class at BGSU. Not only did I get to show the students primary evidence of an event most had never heard of, but also I could give them my first-hand account of being there. I still remember a question that a student, Greg Berkmeier, posed: “Was the match rigged?” I was stunned that someone would even ask! I said then, and again in 2013, when Don Van Natta, Jr. asked me the same question in an interview, that I firmly believed it was not rigged. Based upon his research for ESPN, Van Natta argued that Riggs threw the match.
Later, I came across a quote that provided further evidence to support my initial impression. It was made by one of Bobby’s good friends, Jack Kramer, who wrote in his autobiography, “Billie Jean beat him fair and square” (Kramer & Deford, 1979, p. 87). I can see no reason why someone who hyped the match and put his reputation on the line would proceed to throw the match. If anything, I wondered why no one asked if Margaret Court had thrown the Mother’s Day match against Riggs!
If you never saw the match, or you want to see it again, after all these years, you can see the match in its entirety by clicking here. Tomorrow, Wednesday, September 20, 2023, is the 50th anniversary of the celebrated match.
Caption: Billie Jean King lifts trophy for winning the storied Battle of the Sexes over Bobby Riggs, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3.
References
Amdur, N. (1973, September 21). Mrs. King defeats Riggs, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3, amid a circus atmosphere. The New York Times, pp. 1, 31.
Lichtenstein, G. (1974). A long way, baby: Behind the scenes in women’s pro tennis. New York, NY: William Morrow & Company.
Maxwell Media Watch 