BASEBALL

The Major League Baseball trade deadline just passed highlighting which teams believe they can make the World Series and which teams feel they are done for the season. The perennial World Series favorites, the New York Yankees, got rid of a bunch of players sending the signal they may be done for now but will rebuild next year. Meanwhile, the Chicago Cubs and the Cleveland Indians added players who will give them depth come the post-season. The Cubs built up their bullpen with the addition of Aroldis Chapman, Mike Montgomery and Joe Smith while the Indians traded the Yankees for left hander Andrew Miller.

OLYMPICS

The opening ceremonies begin Friday night (on one-hour time delay for east coasters and 4 hour delay for west coasters). NBC defended the time delay by declaring it’s been doing this for 20 years and since most of their viewers for the Olympics are female, they need to add the pageantry and drama to to the storylines. According to John Miller, NBC’s Olympics chief marketing officer, “The people who watch the Olympics are not particularly sports fans. More women watch the Games than men, and for the women, they’re less interested in the result and more interested in the journey.”

It’s no secret, the athletes are less than satisfied with the accommodations at the Olympic Village. Former Golden State Warrior (and now Dallas Maverick)  Andrew Bogut just arrived and is now using the hashtag #IOCLuxuryLodging on social media as an ironic statement to how underwhelmed he is. Bogut posted a picture on twitter of him putting together his shower curtain and another tweet with the statement, “At #IOCLuxuryLodging we believe a bed is not vital for sleep. Fine tuned athletes can sleep standing up.”

In other bad news for Rio, the Associated Press issued a warning to the athletes and the fans, not to put their head under water as the bacteria levels are too high. When Rio bid for the Games, they promised to clean up the sewage regularly dumped in the waters, but that clearly hasn’t happened and now put athletes and visitors will be at risk.

OTHER

Outspoken former basketball player and current on-air analyst, Charles Barkley will host a new show in 2017  on TNT called “The Race Card”. According to reports, the show “will follow Barkley as he goes on a personal journey to explore and understand why our country is so divided right now.”