Alright alright alright.. (McConaughey Voice). Geno finally broke the record yesterday, how can we NOT talk about that?? Not just that, we’ll break down the Juan Soto sweepstakes, which team has the best odds, and who may be out of the picture. The baseball fun doesn’t end there, the Cy Young winners were announced yesterday! And of course, we’d be remiss NOT to talk about the Jets and their dumpster fire.

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Today’s Trivia🧠

(answer at the bottom of the Stump!)

On This Day…

⚾️ On this day in 1949, Cleveland Indians owner Bill Veeck was forced to sell the franchise due to divorce. Yep, you read that right.

Almost all of Veeck’s money was tied up in the franchise, so he was forced to sell the team in an effort to fund his divorce settlement. Veeck was the owner and conductor of the 1948 Cleveland team that won the World Series, the franchise’s last.

Today’s Stump Story…

⚾️ The Juan Soto Bidding War

The other day, Juan Soto officially declined his qualifying offer from the Yankees, making him an unrestricted free agent, so who is best positioned to sign the 26-year-old phenom?

We’ll work through each team that’s been rumored and where they stand…

New York Mets: All early signs have indicated that the OTHER New York franchise has been the leader in the Soto sweepstakes. The Mets came one series away from making the World Series last year after getting sizzling hot in the summer and just never really cooling off. The Mets owner Steve Cohen has not been shy about his willingness to spend big bucks to bring stars to his organization. The Mets would have an outstanding one-two punch with Soto and SS Francisco Lindor if they are able to sign him.

Toronto Blue Jays: The baseball world was shocked when senior MLB insider, John Heymen, came out and said that the Blue Jays had really impressed Soto in their meeting and currently stand as the team with the second-best odds of signing Soto. Blue Jays first baseman and star Vlad Guerrero Jr. have a really good relationship. More importantly, the Blue Jays have the ability to pay him the most money, which could potentially exceed $700m in total contract value. Will Soto stay in the AL East and haunt the rest of the division?

New York Yankees: The Yankees rented Soto for last year’s season in an offseason trade with the Padres. Soto, Judge, and Stanton combined to make one of the most formidable lineups in recent baseball history. Soto lived up to the billing and became a star in New York. Soto and the Yankees reportedly met yesterday, and the meeting went “good”, according to Yankees ownership. That isn’t necessarily a resounding vote of confidence that Soto will be back with the Yankees. Heymen reports the Yanks may be the third most likely team.

Boston Red Sox: Soto and Boston met early last week, reports coming out of it said the meeting went very well. I’m not buying it. The Sox have proved time and time again the last few years that they are not willing to spend money like that, so this one may be out of their price zone.

LA Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies: These two have kind of been on the outside looking in on this one. I wouldn't necessarily count them out, but there hasn’t been much traction on this one. The Dodgers apparently have a meeting set up in the coming days, and the Phillies have just recently came into the fold, so it may be too late.

Quick Hitters

🏀 With UConn Women’s Basketball’s win over Fairleigh Dickinson, Geno Auriemma became the winningest coach in college basketball history. He has a total of 1,217 career victories and passes Tara VanDerveer on the list. Geno has 11 career National Championships and is widely respected as one of the greatest coaches of all time. Geno was hired in August of 1985 and has been the head coach for 40 years, completely changing the face of the University of Connecticut for generations to come.

🏌️‍♀️ The LPGA will be offering a record $131M in total purse money in 2025, the circuits 75th anniversary season. The 33-event schedule will begin the final weekend of January and conclude in November of 2025. The record prize money represents a 90% increase of more than $62M since 2021. There will be 16 tournaments that feature a purse of at least $3M, as well as $47M at stake between the five major championships. 24 events will offer golfers travel stipends, free accommodations and/or guaranteed minimum payouts. This is a MASSIVE step for the LPGA and their players as the tour continues to grow in popularity.

🏈 If you thought the New York Jets situation couldn’t get any worse, you were wrong. After falling to 2-2 earlier in the season, Jets owner Woody Johnson called an internal meeting with his top football brass and broached the idea of benching their big name QB Aaron Rodgers. This isn’t the first time in Rodgers career that the ownership has questioned whether or not he was the right man for the job. 2 of the 4 people who were in that meeting, Joe Douglas and Robert Saleh, are no longer with the organization. The meeting apparently caused some tension within the organization (wow, shocker). Looks like New York is going to have to start from scratch.

⚾️ Chris Sale and Tarik Skubal are at the complete opposite points of their career, Sale the revered veteran and Skubal the young buck. But yesterday, they were both named Cy Young Winners for each of their respective leagues. Sale had an absolutely massive comeback season with the Atlanta Braves, ending the season 18-3 with a 2.38 ERA and led the NL in wins, ERA, and strikeouts, which is called the triple crown. Skubal celebrated his 28th birthday this past Thursday, he finished the season 18-4 with a 2.39 ERA, and 228 strikeouts, good enough to win his league’s triple crown. The two had almost identical numbers this year, and were rewarded as such.

💯Top Performers:

• 🏀 Ty Jerome (CLE): Career-high 29 points!

• 🏈 Parker Navarro (Ohio QB): 129 pass yards, 104 rush yards, 2 rush TDs!

• 🏀 Sarah Strong (UConn): 20 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks

• 🏀 Grant Nelson (Alabama): 23 points, 8 rebounds, 4 blocks

Stump Top Plays❗️❗️ 

⚾️ SKUBAL! Worthy of it! The guy was electric all year long!

🏀 Joe Mazzulla is a walking quote book!

🏀 AWESOME video of Geno and his story of coming to UConn

🏈 MAC football: a thing of pure beauty…

💯 Full Scoreboards: MLB, Soccer, PGA, NFL, WNBA, NCAAF, NHL

Today’s Slate

*All times are ET*

🏈 NFL: Steelers @ Browns (8:15 PM on PRIME) ; NCAAF: NC State @ GA Tech (7:30 PM on ESPN)

🏀 NBA: Pistons @ Hornets (7:00 PM), T’Wolves @ Raptors (7:30 PM), Jazz @ Spurs (8:00 PM), Magic @ Lakers (10:30 PM), full schedule

🏀 CBB (M): UNC Greensboro @ (16) Indiana (6:30 PM on FS1), Baha Mar Hoops: (13) Baylor vs (22) St. Johns (7:00 PM on CBSSN), Virginia vs (11) Tennessee (9:30 on CBSSN), full schedule

🏀 CBB (W): Incarnate Word @ (19) TCU (1:00 PM), Coastal Carolina @ (20) NC State (5:00 PM), Belmont @ (14) Duke (7:00 PM), Morehead State @ (25) Louisville (7:00 PM), full schedule

🏒  NHL: Utah @ Boston (7:00 PM), Hurricanes @ Devils (7:00 PM), Avs @ Capitals (7:00 PM), Rangers @ Flames (9:00 PM), Wild @ Oilers (9:00 PM), full schedule

Trivia Answer:

E. San Francisco 49ers! Candlestick Park, which was the home to both the 49ers and San Fran’s MLB team, the Giants, hosted it’s last sporting event in 2013. The stadium opened in 1960, and was officially torn down in 2015. The last event hosted there was a Paul McCartney concert in the summer of 2014. The 49ers now play in Levi Stadium.

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