Welcome Wildcat fans to Play Ball: the Daily Wildcat baseball & softball podcast! This NEW weekly show where we will highlight the Arizona baseball and softball teams, recap the previous series and look ahead to what’s next for each team. This week, assistant sports editor Ari Koslow is joined by sports reporters Sean Fagan and Seth Litwin to discuss the opening series for the Arizona baseball and softball teams from this past weekend, as well as what is to come for each team this week. MORE FROM THE DAILY WILDCAT Hoops: the Daily Wildcat podcast [S1 Ep8] How important was the win against USC? Hoops: the Daily Wildcat podcast [S1 Ep7] Where do the Wildcats go from here? Arizona baseball team enters 2021 season with hope and excitement It is exciting times for both teams as the official NCAA website has the Wildcats softball team ranked No. 3 in the country and the baseball team ranked No. 22 in the country so expectations are high for both teams. This will be your first stop for all things Arizona softball and baseball. Both teams kicked off its seasons Friday, Feb. 19, 2021. This podcast is a Daily Wildcat production. The Daily Wildcat “Online all the time at dailywildcat.com” Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere you stream podcasts. Subscribe, Rate, Comment and Share! Follow Daily Wildcat Sports on Twitter Let us come to you. The Daily Wildcat, straight to your inbox. News. Science/Health. Sports. Arts/Lifestyle. You choose. You cancel at any time. Signup now ...
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Nuggets at disadvantage without fans at Ball Arena, coach Michael Malone says
Last season, the Nuggets were 26-11 at home. The campaign before, they were 34-7. And the prior season? The Nuggets were 31-10 in Denver. This season, under entirely different, COVID-induced circumstances, they entered Tuesday’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers only 8-6 at Ball Arena and 8-8 on the road. Coming off a road trip where the Nuggets played two games in front of fans – Cleveland on Friday, Atlanta on Sunday – coach Michael Malone has a keen sense of the difference when fans are in the stands. And as one of 16 teams yet to allow fans in their arena due to COVID restrictions, Malone sees the Nuggets at a disadvantage. “When you play a team like Cleveland or Atlanta, and they have actual fans in the building, and you see more and more teams are going to start allowing fans, yes, I do think it is a competitive advantage,” Malone said. “We’re so used to, obviously our games, there’s nobody there,” he said. “It is sometimes eerily silent in our building, even when you have all that pumped-in fake noise, you look around and there’s no one there.” Amid Jamal Murray’s career-high 50 point night in Cleveland on Friday, there were numerous times during his fourth-quarter scoring spree where he screamed and motioned to the crowd. After the game, he admitted it played a part in his energy. “I know that teams feed off the energy of their crowd,” Malone said. “We’ve done it for years here in Denver, at the Pepsi Center, now Ball Arena, where our fans have given us a great lift to go out and play. That’s why we’ve been voted one of the tougher places to play in the NBA. That’s not just the altitude, that’s also the fans packing the house and making it loud and creating a tough atmosphere to play in.” Currently, just 14 of the 30 NBA teams are allowing fans inside the arena. The restrictions, based on state-by-state regulations and then NBA guidelines, have yielded roughly 2,000-3,000 fans at certain games. “When you go from no fans to an arena ...
Exclusive: After 2020 Gains, Kevin McCarthy Eyes House GOP Majority, Speaker’s Gavel in Midterms
House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy has a fresh spring in his step after the Republicans defied the odds and professional political prognosticators by picking up 15 seats in the 2020 congressional elections. McCarthy, who has his eyes on the majority in November 2022, approached the 2020 congressional elections differently than Republicans in recent history have traditionally targeted congressional electoral efforts, and his moves paid off—and not only infuriated but befuddled the beltway pundit class. For the first time since 1994, in 2020 no GOP incumbent running for reelection lost. Meanwhile, McCarthy blew away fundraising records previously set by former House Speaker Paul Ryan—astonishing since he did it from the minority. Usually, House political leaders do better raising money from the majority. That’s not to mention the most significant development which is a freshman class entering Congress in 2021 that represents perhaps the most diverse in party history with the most women to boot. “First of all, put it in perspective, this is the first time since 1994 that no Republican incumbent lost,” McCarthy told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview when asked how the GOP did it. “We won in 2010 and that didn’t happen. No Republican incumbent lost. It was about the quality of the candidates and the message. Remember, we ended up picking up four new seats in California. We defeated four Democrats [in California], Trump lost all four districts and three of them he lost by double digits. We won in Miami. We won in New York. The quality of the candidates, the contrast—remember what we did with the Commitment to America? Rebuild, restore, and renew versus their defund, dismantle, and destroy, which they were doing. It was a very clear message. But think of the candidates we had from Young Kim to Carlos Gimenez to Ashley Hinson to Michelle Fishbach to Nicole Malliotakis in New York. We just took it to them.” For the last three months, since the Nov. 3, 2020, ...
Sydney Ring, One-Handed Basketball Player, Inspiring Others On And Off The Court
HARMONY, Pa. (KDKA) — Like many kids, Sydney Ring started playing basketball at a young age. But unlike most, she did so with just one hand. A congenital birth defect left Ring without an appendage below her left wrist. READ MORE: 'Once-In-A-Lifetime Sighting:' Incredibly Rare Half Male, Half Female Cardinal Spotted In Pennsylvania “This has been her life, this is the only way that she knows,” said Ring’s mother, Cheryl. “When something like that happens, sometimes I think it’s real easy to go to all of the things that your child is not able to do, and it’s more difficult to focus on the things that they are able to accomplish.” (Photo Credit: KDKA) The Ring family focused on the latter, and today Sydney is a sharp-shooting junior at Seneca Valley Senior High School outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Sydney credits her “disability” for her fluid shot. “I think a lot of kids push the ball with two hands. But for me, I had to learn to shoot regularly,” Sydney said. “When I was little, that was the only way I knew how to shoot.” That shot is opening eyes in the North Hills, both on the court and in the stands. READ MORE: Coroner Called To The Scene Of A Fire In Center Township “When they are playing against other teams, you can hear their parents. They’ll watch up to halftime and all of a sudden, one of them will say, ‘Oh, my gosh, that girl only has one hand,’” Cheryl said. “It’s just interesting that’s not where the focus is. They’re just watching her play ball.” “She’s absolutely amazing,” said Sydney’s coach Dorothea Epps. “She has never once used her arm as an excuse.” That attitude has made Sydney a starter on the basketball court and will likely suit her very well for years to come. “Sports has made me realize that you have to work really hard at everything you do because when you do, you get what you want,” Sydney said. MORE NEWS: Report: Pittsburgh City Council Discussing Proposal To Help Those Facing Eviction “It makes ...
Celtics Feel Pretty Sunk After Dipping Below .500
By Matthew Geagan, CBS Boston BOSTON (CBS) — February is nearly over, and the Boston Celtics currently sit below .500. Let that sink in, as the Celtics continue to sink in the Eastern Conference standings. READ MORE: Life Threatening Injuries After Several People Hit On High Street In Boston This is the latest that the team has had more losses than wins since the 2014-15 season, when Boston finished 40-42 to secure the eight-seed in the East. Since that season, the Celtics are usually flirting with 40 wins by this point in the campaign. By this time, the team is usually well on its way to locking up one of the top four spots in the Eastern Conference. Alas, this is not a regular season, and the C’s have only played 31 games. Unfortunately, they’ve lost 16 of those, including five of the last seven and 10 of the last 15. They just keep sinking and sinking, and Boston is now barely hanging on to one of the final playoff spots in the conference. Any way you cut it, this is a massive disappointment for a team that wants to be considered a true contender in the East. It’s an unusual season for everyone, with most teams just sort of going through the motions in mostly fan-less arenas as they get locked in their hotels from city to city. But the Celtics have been stuck in their malaise for six weeks now, and have shown very little signs of being able to snap out of it. Tuesday night’s loss in Dallas was just another disheartening chapter in this really demoralizing novel. The Celtics went through the motions early (as did the Mavs), but again fell apart in the second half. It wasn’t as bad as Sunday’s debacle against the Pelicans, but the Celtics let the game escape them after halftime. They did show some guts down the stretch, erasing a 12-point Mavericks lead late in the fourth quarter, but that too went to waste. Boston got big buckets from Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Kemba Walker over the final minutes, with Brown’s pullup from 13 feet putting the ...
