We like Fridays, Fridays are good. Fridays also mean we’re one day away from college football slates and two days from NFL slates. Love to see it. Big day yesterday in the Presidents Cup and Scottie Scheffler showed some BIG time emotion. A couple big names in the basketball world are hanging them up, one from the W and one from the NBA. The A’s are shipping out of Oakland, and we even got to see the Cowboys and Giants play some ball last night!

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Today’s Trivia🧠

🏈The first college football game ever played was on November 6th, 1869, when Rutgers hosted which Ivy League school?

• A. Yale

• B. Harvard

• C. Brown

• D. Princeton

• E. Tufts

(answer at the bottom of the Stump!)

On This Day…

⚾️ With the MLB regular season winding down, let’s talk strikeouts. On this day in 1973, Nolan Ryan struck out 16 in 11 innings to bring his season total to 383 K’s on the season!

Since 1900, this is still the most strikeouts in a single season! He beat out Sandy Koufax’s ‘65 season by 1. The only pitcher even remotely close recently was Gerrit Cole in 2019 when he had 326. (Nolan Ryan Highlights)

What’s Worth Your Time

🏈 Field Goal Frenzy Not Enough For Giants!

The Cowboys defeated the Giants last night, 20-15, to kick off Week 4 of the NFL Season! Wouldn’t go as far as calling it a ‘get right game’ but they did a few good things. We don’t like overreacting here at The Stump, but Malik Nabers is good. He is very, very good.

Biggest notes from yesterday’s game…

• Cowboys tightened up their 32nd-ranked run defense and only allowed 26 total yards of rushing offense. Devin Singletary averaged 1.7 Yards per carry off of 14 attempts. They are by no means back to being a stout defense but they showed a little bit of improvement

• Two STAR receivers in this game. One week removed from a Ceedee Lamb tantrum on the sideline, the superstar wideout had a great game (7 receptions, 78, yards, 1 TD). He came out earlier this week and owned up for his actions and then did this. Good week for Ceedee. Malik Nabers is a DUDE (12 receptions, 115 yards). The Giants see, to officially have their newest stud weapon. He went down late in the fourth with what they said could potentially be a concussion. Hopefully doesn’t get to that but something to look out for.

• If Won’Dale Rosindon is available in your fantasy league, pick him up IMMEDIATELY! Ball magnet last night (11 receptions, 78 yards)

• Cowboys still unfortunately own NY. After two absolute blowouts last year, the Giants were able to keep this close and even had two chances in the fourth to take the lead, but it wasn’t enough. Daniel Jones didn’t make any awful turnovers but a couple of underthrows throughout the game kept his team from getting the W.

⛳️ Presidents Cup Day One Recap

Yesterday was a great day of golf in Montreal for the Americans, but it was also a great day of golf in general.

It’s been a few weeks since we’ve seen the best in golf take the tees, but we were treated yesterday. The final score after day one does not tell the story of how good of a day it was and how close these matches were.

The Americans clung to a 1-up lead in all five matches but were not fazed in the slightest. The boys in red, white, and blue managed to keep hitting big shot after big shot, sink big putt after big putt, and take all five matchups. After day one: USA 5, International 0.

The International team struggled with their putting on day one but kept the matches close to the end in pretty much every grouping. It could’ve gone either, especially after the International team had a two-point swing when Finau and Schauffele missed crucial par putts on the back nine.

This was the first time since 2000 that the United States swept the first day. Historically, the US has dominated the Presidents Cup but the boys aren’t taking this lightly. Pretty much all the Americans were fired up in their postgame press conferences, but they all said the same thing: there’s a lot of golf left.

⚾️The Last Ride: Oakland Athletics

The Athletics are a historic baseball club, and yesterday they said goodbye to their longstanding home in Oakland.

There wasn’t a lot of fans in the Oakland Colosseum this year, but there were plenty yesterday. After announcing a move to Las Vegas in April of 2023, the city of Oakland has been very anti-A’s. Not because they don’t love their team, but because they don’t love their owner.

The team’s departure has left many with a sour taste in their mouth, but the stadium yesterday was more of a celebration than a funeral. Fans filled the parking lots early and often, making breakfast, drinking cold beverages, and chanting for their beloved Athletics.

The Colosseum was packed and it was a sellout crowd, 46,889. The Athletics were in Oakland for 57 years. Fifty SEVEN! There were highs and lows, big wins and big losses, great teams and poor teams, but through it all, they were beloved in the city of Oakland.

Impromptu photos, Oakland legends in attendance, A’s great Barry Zito singing the National Anthem, and an electric speech from A’s Manager Mark Kotsay, all things that made yesterday in Oakland a beautiful day for baseball. To cap it all off, the A’s were victorious, one last time in Oakland!

🏀 Derrick Rose Hangs It Up After 16 Seasons

The former NBA MVP announced his retirement yesterday after 16 seasons. He still holds the record for being the youngest MVP ever at 22 years old and will always be one of the biggest ‘what ifs’ in NBA history.

Wouldn’t be a Stump if we didn’t pay some respect to an absolute fighter. D Rose was drafted by his hometown Chicago Bulls in 2008. That year he averaged 17 points and 6 assists to crown him the Rookie of the Year. Two seasons later, he won MVP, averaging 25 points and 8 assists. He won it at the age of 22! That would be like Ja Morant winning it 3 years ago or Ant Edwards winning it this past year! That stuff doesn’t happen anymore. The only person I can think of right now would be Wemby, but even him winning it in two years seems impossible.

After repeated injuries derailed his career with the Bulls, he became a bit of a journeyman but he was loved everywhere he went and a guy people respected. One of the greatest moments in recent NBA memory is when he had his 50-point game with the Minnesota Timberwolves. It’s hard to believe this was 6 years ago but if you need a refresher, this is one of the all-time moments in the last decade (Watch here).

Thanks for everything D Rose!

🏀Is this the end, Diana?

The WNBA has been around since the 90s, and not many players seem like they’ve been a staple in women’s basketball for that long. One woman has been around long enough that the term ‘GOAT’ gets thrown around.

In Minnesota Wednesday night one of the best to ever do it in the women’s game walked off the court for possibly the last game. Diana Taurasi drew her sixth foul with just under 3 minutes left in the fourth quarter last night and was forced to leave the game. The Mercury went on to lose the game, and in turn were eliminated from the WNBA Playoffs. She has made no formal retirement announcement, but many speculate Wednesday was her last hurrah.

Taurasi, the WNBA’s All-Time Leading Scorer, was drafted in 2004 and managed to bring home a lot of different honors in her career. Taurasi is a six-time gold medalist, three-time WNBA champion, as well as three-time NCAA National Champion from her time in college at UConn.

She played 20 total years in the W, and showed that she can still play ball in her 21-point game one effort, the first player in WNBA history to score 20 points or more in a playoff game above the age of 40.

The game of women’s basketball has become much more popular in recent years, thanks to the efforts of people like Diana. Without her, there would be no Caitlin Clark, no Paige Bueckers, no sell-out crowds, no ESPN deal. Taurasi elevated the game as she elevated her play. She was fierce, relentless, and above all, a champion for the game. Thank you, GOAT!

Yesterday, but the Good Stuff❗️❗️ 

🏈CEEDEE TEEDEE, too easy for Dallas

⚾️Judge IMMEDIATELY knew it was long gone

⛳️Back to Scottie Scheffler making ELECTRIC highlights

⚾️The final out at the Oakland Coliseum. Tears. Literal Tears.

⛳️Most CLUTCH shots from day one of the Presidents Cup

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

Today’s Slate

*All times are ET*

🏈 Virginia Tech @ (7) Miami (FL) (7:30 PM ET), Washington @ Rutgers (8:00 PM ET)

⚾️ Pirates @ Yankees (7:05 PM ET), Rays @ Red Sox (7:10 PM ET), Mets @ Brewers (8:10 PM ET), Dodgers @ Rockies (8:10 PM ET), full schedule

⚽️Serie A: AC Milan vs Lecce (2:45 PM ET); Bundesliga: Borussia Dortmund vs Bochum (2:30 PM ET)

🏒 NHL Preseason: Avalanche @ Stars (8:00 PM ET), full schedule

⛳️Day two of the PRESIDENTS CUP! Check it out ALL day long on Golf Channel!

Trivia Answer:

D. Princeton! The rules were quite different, and it was a final score of 6-4, but I’ll tell you what that game had to be FULL of dudes with a lot of grit.

Can’t thank you enough for sticking to the end of this thing we call The Daily Stump. If you know anybody who might want this bit of daily sports news in their life, send them this link! It would go a long way! Appreciate the hell out of you all!

Trees get chopped. Stumps hold strong!