The Cheat SheetBy Kevin McGuire on

MINI HEADLINE

From an incredible golf shot to continued dominance by a rookie and a handful of ceremonial first pitches made by NBA Draft prospects, our cheat sheet is loaded for you this morning as we get a brand new week underway.

Jordan Spieth forces playoff, then wins it at Travelers Championship

When you force a playoff out of the bunker.

Jordan Spieth outlasted Daniel Berger on a playoff hole to take home the Travelers Championship on Sunday. He did so with a -12 and forced a playoff courtesy of a shot from the bunker. That’s something to celebrate. The win was a reason to celebrate enough, but it also calms the nerves for some who may have been concerned about Spieth’s recent run. This was his second win of 2017.

https://twitter.com/JustinThomas34/status/879101242533965825

Some have already started to draw parallels to Tiger Woods.

Cody Bellinger is the Master of His Domain

What’s the deal with Cody Bellinger?

As the baseball season starts to approach the midway point of the year, it sure looks as though the Los Angels Dodgers have the leading candidate for National League rookie of the year with Cody Bellinger. And in a sign of the times, Bellinger showed and confessed to being ignorant about who exactly Jerry Seinfeld is.

https://twitter.com/SInow/status/878470121844506624

Here’s what the rookie did Sunday that has everyone engaged. As the Dodgers won their 10th straight game with a 12-6 victory over Colorado, Bellinger hit two home runs to bring his season total up to 24. He went 3-for-5 with 4 RBI and two runs scored. He now has six multi-home run games this season, which may or may not be more than the Phillies have as a team. I’m not entirely sure.

Naturally, the world is having a field day with the Seinfeld references in celebrating his hot streak.

I wonder if Kramer promised a kid in the hospital Bellinger would hit two home runs.

You can’t be serious, John McEnroe, about Serena Williams!

McEnroe thinks Williams would not be a top 50 player if ranked against men. Or 100. Or 200. Or…

Serena Williams has been a flat-out dominant tennis player on the women’s circuit for years, but where would she rank if on the men’s circuit? Tennis legend and analyst John McEnroe doesn’t think she’d rank very high among the men. In an interview with NPR, McEnroe suggested Williams would be somewhere around 700 in the rankings.

I don’t know. I might wager a few bucks to suggest she might be a bit higher than 700. Anyway, the opinion sure caused some reaction on Twitter dot com.

https://twitter.com/BERNIEBURNIN/status/878989641420070917

In other tennis news, Patra Kvitova made the final in her second WTA tournament since she was stabbed.

Quick Hits

Josh Jackson was a bi high and wide. Image via CBS Sports

– It looks like the Mavs will bring back Dirk Nowitzki for one more season. Meanwhile, it seems Mark Cuban took a hard stand on employees leaking NBA Draft picks.

– I’m guessing Cuban at least knows the names of his newest players. Charlotte Hornets GM Rich Cho had an unfortunate slip of the tongue when introducing new draft pick Dwayne Bacon.

– Klay Thompson had a horrible dunk attempt in China.

– Bulls fans are taking to an online fundraising effort to buy a billboard calling for the firing of just about everybody in the team’s front office.

– Top draft pick Markelle Fultz is excited to be playing in Philadelphia because Chick-fil-A is in the region. Just wait until he finds out about Wawa. When the Phillies return home, we’ll also probably get to see if the newest Sixer can toss a better first pitch than Josh Jackson…

Lonzo Ball had a unique approach to his first pitch at Dodger Stadium…

– Ichiro is now officially the oldest man to play center field since 1900.

– Here’s a baseball oddity. James Shields served up the first career home run to three Oakland A’s players this weekend.

– Tim Tebow is moving up to triple-A in the Mets’ farm system. He’s hitting .222, but leads the minors in heart.

– Scott Van Pelt broke down when Dodgers rookie Cody Bellinger had no clue who Jerry Seinfeld is.

– LSU running back Derrius Guice is going to be one of the top running backs in the nation this fall, and he’s squatting 650 pounds this summer. Watch out.

– ESPN’s body issue is coming soon, and it will include hockey stars Joe Thornton and Brent Burns.

– Team USA will have some new faces as they begin competing in the CONCACAF Gold Cup. And the Russians are under investigation by FIFA for alleged doping in 2014. That’s so Russia.

– And in MLS, we had a red card taken back after an opponent showed some good sportsmanship and was honest about a situation a ref misread.

– I tend to trust my GPS to get me from Point A to Point B without much of a problem, but this is another example of why sometimes we need to not blindly trust the latest technological advances.

– A dude in California has visited Disneyland 2,000 straight days and is probably already a few days closer to 3,000 by the time you read this.

– A town in Kentucky elected a dog to be mayor. I mean, why not?

One last gratuitous moment of procrastination

As a dog owner, I tend to think cat people can be weird. With that in mind, I’m not even sure where to start with this ridiculous item. And yes, it’s real.

About Kevin McGuire

Contributor to Athlon Sports and The Comeback. Previously contributed to NBCSports.com. Host of the Locked On Nittany Lions Podcast. FWAA member and Philadelphia-area resident.

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