Good Morning, Stumpers!

If a cowboy rode into town on Friday, stayed two days, and then left on Friday, how did he do it? You may be thinking it’s because the horses name was Friday. I’m here to tell you no. The horse’s name was Stump.

Loaded Stump for you today. We’ve got Nick Kurtz, England Soccer, Kurt Kitayama, Nikola Jokic, and Herb Brooks! We’ve got everything! LET’S GOOOOOO!

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The Rundown

⚾️ Nick Kurtz Performance For The Books!

🏇 Nikola Jokic Finally Shows Emotion

⛳️ Kurt Kitayama Wins 2nd PGA Tour Event

🏒 Herb Brooks Quote so you can Run Through Your Wall!

On This Day

⚾️ Let’s Talk Some Dale Murphy DINGERS

On Friday we had one of the great Home Run displays we’ve ever seen, which we’re going to get into in a bit, but let’s flashback a few decades when Dale Murphy did something special on the diamond.

On this day in 1989, Braves’ Outfielder Dale Murphy hit 2 three-run HRs in the same game! Wait, that’t not the craziest thing in the world…why is that a Stump “On This Day”. Fair point friend. The crazy thing about Mr. Murphy is that he hit both of those three-run bombs IN THE SAME INNING! Have a day Dale Murphy!

Today’s Trivia

Glue Guy of the Day

💥 Nick Kurtz. What Did We Just See?

On Friday Night phones across the sports world were blowing up courtesy of the bat of one Mr. Kurtz!

You don’t hear a whole lot out of the Oakland A’s camp, so their shining star of a ROOKIE putting one of the greatest hitting displays ever in his 66th professional game broke the internet.

Before we talk about how historic it was, let’s just go hit-by-hit:

• 1st Inning: Single (1-1)

• 2nd Inning: 2-run HR (2-2, 2 RBIs)

• 4th Inning: Double, RBI (3-3, 3 RBIs)

• 6th Inning: Solo HR (4-4, 4 RBIs)

• 8th Inning: Solo HR (5-5, 5 RBIs)

• 9th Inning: 3-run HR (6-6, 8 RBIs)

Yeah. Go ahead and give that a little looky-look one more time. No typos, just madness. The 22-year old from Lancaster, PA went 6 for 6 with FOUR HOME-RUNS! In our On This Day we talked about when Dale Murphy hit 2 bombs, and that was wild. We’re talking about 2 more than 2, or in accountant terms, 4.

This was the 20th 4-HR game in MLB history, and the first ever by a rookie. It was a 15-3 bludgeoning of the Houston Astros, but the highlight was not the score, it was the first-of-its-kind performance by a rookie. After the game, Kurtz had this to say:

“It still really hasn’t set in that it actually just happened. A game like that is stuff that you don’t even dream about, because it doesn’t really happen. It’s just an unbelievable feeling. Glad we got the win, obviously. That performance was awesome.”

19 total bases in the game tied the MLB record from 2002 held by Shawn Green. Kurtz joined Green as the only player in MLB history to record 6 hits and 4 HRs.

The former 4th overall pick has already been having a great year, but this single-game performance will live on forever! Way to go Nick!

Nick Kurtz. 22 years young. GLUE.

The BIG Moments

⚽️ England Wins Women’s Euros on PKs!

The Stump Short Story: We had Champions League and then we had the Club World Cup. But right after that we had the Women’s EURO’s, and the grand finale did not disappoint! Just two years ago in the sports World Cup, we had England pitted against rival Spain. That matchup ended in a 1-0 Spain victory. Two years later, the next biggest tournament in the world, and we had the same two teams left standing. It was England and Spain for all the marbles. Spain dominated the possession and tactical battle all night, but the result after 90 minutes was a 1-1 tie. Extra time was not enough either, we needed PENALTIES! In the end it was England’s Chloe Kelly who netted the championship clinching PK for the Lionesses.

Why it Matters: With so much talk revolved around one side of the soccer world, this was a fascinating ending that had the two Europpean heavyweights of the women’s soccer world. England defended their Euros crown and avenged their loss in the World Cup just two years ago. Cinema

Read More: Chloe Kelly the Hero as England def. Spain for 2025 Euros (The Guardian)

🏇 Nikola Jokic’s Horse Wins Race

The Stump Short Story: Man is this a story I wish we had more info on. Yesterday, a video surfaced of Nikola Jokic in tears after his horse crossed the finish line first in a race. Here’s the vid for reference. The jokes afterward were talking about how this was 100x more emotion than what he showed after winning an NBA Championship a little more than two years ago.

Why it Matters: Jokic is a unicorn in this league, and not just because of his talent. He is the epitome os basketball just being a day job. Yes, he loves the game, but he has first-hand shown (and said) that there are more important things than basketball. And yes the first answer here is always family, but I don’t think he was just talking about family. I think he meant horse racing too! Sometimes people are ridiculously good at something even when they are more passionate with other things, and that’s what it seems like we have with the Joker. I really want to know more about this horse, and how long Jokic had been part of the process in getting it race-ready, so we’ll find that out ASAP!

Read More: Nikola Jokic Tears Up After His Horse Wins Race (ESPN)

⛳️ Kurt Kitayama wins 3M Open

The Stump Short Story: A final round score of 65 was enough to give Kurt Kitayama a one stroke win over Sam Stevens and win his 2nd PGA Tour title. A 65 is a helluva round, but it was tying of the course record 60 on Saturday that set the tournament in a frenzy. The 32-year-old from California woke up feeling dangerous Saturday morning and he chose violence against the greens. Sam Stevens with 5 back nine birdies really put some pressure on Kurt down the stretch, but the veteran did just enough to get his second win on tour. One last thing for GLUE purposes…Kurt had his brother on the bag! Doesn’t get much better than that!

Why it Matters: The tournaments the week before and after Majors can sometimes be full of surprises. We often see a lot of the big names out of the field those weeks, and that no doubt is why we see this surge in different names in the winners circles. It’s a really cool thing for the sport to see guys who don’t typically finish in Top 5’s get a chance to close it out on Sunday. It was close all the way the way through!

Read More: Kurt Kitayama Wins 3M Open for Second Win on TOUR (PGA Tour)

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🔗 Quick Links

⚾️ One of the most iconic batting stances that ever stepped foot on a diamond

⛳️ Cool little blip from Kurt Kitayama! Now 3M champ!

🏀 The Jokic memes after his horse won are comedy😆 

⚾️ A little “uh-oh” from the broadcasting booth (he apologized)

What To Watch

⚾️ 15 games! WOW! Buckle the hell up, here are some ones to watch…

• Blue Jays @ Orioles (6:35 PM ET), Rays @ Yankees (7:05 PM ET), Dodgers @ Reds (7:10 PM ET), Red Sox @ Twins (7:40 PM ET), Mets @ Padres (9:45 PM ET)

🏀 Some WNBA Action…the Liberty are the best, the Wings…not so much. That being said, maybe Paige shocks the world tonight! Today’s slate…

• Storm @ Sun (7:00 PM ET), Liberty @ Wings (8:00 PM ET on ESPN)

Of! The! Day’s!

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