Sports Briefs
Caitlin Clark’s WNBA career is off to a rough start. Last night she scored only three points on 1 of 10 shooting as the Indiana Fever lost 104-68 to the New York Liberty, giving them a 2-9 record. The same night, the almost 42-year-old Diana Taurasi, arguably the GOAT of women’s basketball, scored 31 points on 9 of 14 shooting to lead the Phoenix Mercury to an 87-68 win over the Los Angeles Sparks. So far this season, Clark, the college phenom, is averaging 15.6 ppg while Taurasi, the WNBA’s all-time leading scorer, is averaging 17.8 ppg. Clark is likely to have a stellar WNBA career, but she will have to play at a very high level for twenty years to match Taurasi’s accomplishments in the league. Clark will also have to excel representing the United States in international competition and in European leagues to equal Taurasi’s remarkable achievements.
Simone Biles added her name to the record book yet another time by winning her ninth national all-around title, the most in history, at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships. She captured the individual title in all four events—the balance beam, the uneven bars, the vault, and the floor exercises. After her dominating performance, Biles moves on to the Olympic trials on June 27-30 in her effort to represent the United States in Paris in July. As discussed in an earlier post, Biles has a long way to go to match the accomplishments of Michael Phelps, the GOAT of the Olympics.
The Edmonton Oilers defeated the Dallas Stars, 2-1, to advance to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 2006. No Canadian team has won the Stanley Cup since 1993. In the 1980s, the Oilers, led by the GOAT of men’s hockey, Wayne Gretzky, captured the Stanley Cup five times.
Beginning last week, the statistics players compiled in the National Negro League between 1920 and 1948 now count as part of the record of Major League Baseball. As a result, catcher Josh Gibson has surpassed Ty Cobb with the highest average in history (.372 to .367) and the highest slugging percentage (.718 to Babe Ruth’s .690). Gibson’s Hall of Fame plaque declares that he “hit almost 800 home runs in league and independent baseball during his 17-year career.” That includes the 166 home runs he hit while playing in Negro National League regular season games for the Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh Crawfords from 1930 to 1946. The remainder of Gibson’s home runs were hit in other leagues (most notably the Mexican League and the Dominican League) and in barnstorming games often played against MLB players. Sadly, Gibson’s career was cut short by his death by a stroke at age 35. Gibson should certainly be considered one of the greatest baseball players in history, but his accomplishments fall short of baseball’s GOAT—Babe Ruth.