{"id":770236,"date":"2026-07-18T12:53:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T12:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/770236\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T12:53:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T12:53:14","slug":"baseballs-beautiful-mess-plus-the-most-expensive-ticket-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/770236\/","title":{"rendered":"Baseball\u2019s beautiful mess, plus the most expensive ticket ever"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pulse Newsletter \ud83d\udce3 | This is The Athletic\u2019s daily sports newsletter. Sign up here<\/a> to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox.<\/p>\n

Good morning! Buy a ticket to a ballgame today. Inside:<\/p>\n

The Boys of Summer: Quirky pennant race hits stretch drive<\/p>\n

Congratulations to Major League Baseball, which finally gets the brightest American sports spotlight for the next few weeks after the World Cup wraps tomorrow. The second half is underway this weekend. I\u2019ve found a contradiction in the first 97-ish games:\u00a0This season has been a story of one expected thing surrounded by lots of the unexpected.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the year has taken on a bit of a last-night-before-the-end-of-the-world hue, with everyone aware that\u00a0team owners will initiate a lockout of the players<\/a>\u00a0soon after the World Series. How long will it last? No clue. Will the sport\u2019s economics have been transformed by then? Great question. All that\u2019s certain is the next few months will be high drama.<\/p>\n

The expected thing, which even casual fans have probably noticed: The Dodgers remain the Dodgers.\u00a0The two-time reigning champs are 62-36. Shohei Ohtani is a Cy Young vote-worthy pitcher who\u2019s having a \u201cdown\u201d year at the plate and might only hit a paltry 40 homers. In recent years, the Padres have kept the NL West race interesting. Not this time, with L.A. 11 1\/2 games clear of the second-place Diamondbacks by the break.<\/p>\n

The unexpected thing: Well, it\u2019s most other things. Here\u2019s the situation, with figures dated to the start of this weekend\u2019s series:<\/p>\n

The White Sox, who had a 101-223 record the prior two years, lead the AL Central in a tie with the Guardians.
\nThe Red Sox were 14 games under .500 on June 24, having already canned manager Alex Cora. But 13 wins in 15 games heading into the break have them just a hair outside the postseason.
\nLast year\u2019s World Series loser, the Blue Jays, are last in the AL East. Vladimir Guerrero\u2019s slugging percentage (.357) is in line with\u00a0David Eckstein\u2019s career mark<\/a>.
\nThe ultimate streaky team is the Cubs, who have two separate 10-game winning streaks\u00a0and\u00a0a 10-game losing streak.
\nThe Pirates (dead last in runs in 2025) are tied for the most runs in baseball (516), but sitting outside a wild-card spot despite a Paul Skenes-led pitching staff that figured to be one of the league\u2019s best.
\nThe Cardinals,\u00a0who were supposed to be quasi-tanking this year<\/a>, occupy an NL playoff spot. So do the Marlins.
\nCal Raleigh, last year\u2019s AL MVP runner-up, has been worth 0.6 WAR, per FanGraphs. The Mariners are constantly on the edge of a wild-card spot and could win the AL West, despite playing the first half in a game under .500.<\/p>\n

And nobody\u00a0really knows what the trade deadline will look like<\/a>, because only seven teams out of 30 appear to be out of the postseason running. That said, only six teams hit the break with\u00a0playoff chances of 75 percent or better<\/a>. What a mess! But a fun one, once you get past the predictability of the Dodgers, and even that is fun in its own way. The villain arc there\u00a0isn\u2019t new<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Has this been a predictable season, then? Only sort of. Let\u2019s see where it leads as we move on.<\/p>\n

News to Know\"\"More DeChambeau drama<\/p>\n

It has decidedly not been Bryson DeChambeau\u2019s year, having missed the cut in the first three majors. But it\u2019s been a different story at The Open Championship \u2014 or it was until after he walked off the course yesterday and learned officials felt he had improved his lie by trampling the tall grass around his ball on the fifth hole. Did he remonstrate animatedly?\u00a0Of course<\/a>. That didn\u2019t stop him getting a two-stroke penalty and entering today\u2019s action \u2014\u00a0which you can follow here<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 three shots behind leader Lucas Herbert, instead of one. Still, striking distance.<\/p>\n

More News
\nMauricio Pochettino\u00a0has an offer to stay on as\u00a0USMNT head coach\u00a0and said he\u2019ll make a decision about his future \u201cnext week<\/a>.\u201d
\nIn other vague news,\u00a0LeBron James\u00a0said he wants to join a team that will \u201ctrust the process<\/a>,\u201d a slogan associated with the\u00a076ers\u00a0rebuild around\u00a0Joel Embiid.
\nThe average resale price to attend Sunday\u2019s\u00a0World Cup Final\u00a0between\u00a0Spain\u00a0and\u00a0Argentina: $12,751.\u00a0Most expensive sporting event\u00a0ever<\/a>.
\nIndiana\u2019s football team\u00a0has a commitment from what would be\u00a0its first-ever five-star prospect<\/a>.
\nJimbo Fisher\u00a0wants to coach again: \u201cIf I can recruit without money, I can recruit with money.\u201d\u00a0His full comments here<\/a>.
\nBill Belichick, a college football coach, says he likes coaching college football. \u201cI mean, really<\/a>.\u201d OK!
\nThe Yankees\u00a0say imaging shows slugger\u00a0Aaron Judge\u2019s rib has healed some, but\u00a0not enough<\/a> to start playing baseball.
\nNFL players\u00a0seeing natural grass used during the World Cup at stadiums where they play on synthetic turf are saying\u00a0they want to play on grass, too<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcf0\u00a0Find more news here 24\/7<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Watch Guide<\/p>\n

\n Trevor Ruszkowski \/ Imagn Images<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcfa\u00a0World Cup: Third-Place Final
England vs. France
5 p.m. ET on Fox
The two sides play for consolation after devastating semifinal losses.\u00a0Michael Cox\u2019s schematic look back at England\u2019s come-from-ahead defeat to Argentina<\/a>\u00a0is worth your time. The headline, which fits the story: \u201cEngland\u2019s problem at major tournaments? They\u2019re still just too English.\u201d Can you name the World Cup\u2019s historical third-place finishers?\u00a0Can you<\/a>?<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcfa\u00a0WNBA: Liberty at Fever
8 p.m. ET on CBS
The second night of a back-to-back for the Fever, who beat the dreadful Storm last night. Caitlin Clark bounced back from an ice-cold shooting stretch by hitting six of 10 threes and 17 of 19 free throws\u00a0en route to a historic performance<\/a>. Go figure.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcfa\u00a0MLB: Dodgers at Yankees
8:08 p.m. ET on Fox
The Yankees won four in a row heading into the break, thanks in large part to the Nationals\u2019 bullpen. They lost the series opener 2-1, and with Aaron Judge still out a while, the club\u2019s contender status is a fair question<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Get tickets to games like this here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pulse Picks<\/p>\n

\n Photo: Hannah Peters \/ Getty Images; design: Will Tullos<\/p>\n

The answer to many questions about this World Cup is \u201cbecause \u2026 money.\u201d The result?\u00a0FIFA has itself the first $10 billion sporting event<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear to me exactly when rhubarb season is; all I know is I made\u00a0this \u201cquick bread\u201d<\/a>\u00a0(read: cake) with it last week, and it was excellent. That\u2019s a gift link, since you all were very into last week\u2019s strawberry-lemon loaf. \u2014 Torrey Hart<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfa5 If you haven\u2019t yet read our investigation into the unraveling of NFL Draft analyst Matt Miller, you can also\u00a0catch up on it with this quick video<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you live in a region where fig trees grow, you can make tea out of the leaves. You just tear off a few leaves, dry them out (I do them in the oven at 150\u00b0) until they\u2019re crunchy, then crumble them up into tiny pieces. Then just sling a scoop into\u00a0one of these bad boys<\/a>, and you have a teabag. The flavor is a sorta coconut-almond-ish flavor, great with honey and a little cream if you\u2019re into that. \u2014 Levi Weaver<\/p>\n

My entire family loves\u00a0this electric fly swatter<\/a>. To activate it, you hold a button on the side of the handle. You can see where this is going: Bug meets strings, bug gets zapped. Abandon all hope, ye flies who enter here. \u2014 Evan Dent<\/p>\n

We have a deep dive into a big debate as of late:\u00a0Is men\u2019s college soccer a viable path to the World Cup?<\/a><\/p>\n

Erewhon smoothies. Overpriced, some would say woke, but very nice. \u2014 Phil Hay<\/p>\n

Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: Our investigative piece about\u00a0fraud allegations against NFL Draft analyst Matt Miller<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udceb That\u2019s all for now! Say hello at thepulse@theathletic.com<\/a>, and check out our other newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pulse Newsletter \ud83d\udce3 | This is The Athletic\u2019s daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":770237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99],"class_list":["post-770236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=770236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/770237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}