From Bill Plaschke: The Candace Curse struck early.
On a day the Sparks retired the jersey of the superstar whose departure has coincided with their five-year funk, Candace Parker nearly missed her pregame news conference.
With a room full of media types eager to write that rare positive Sparks story, Parker got caught in convention traffic and was so late that the game was starting and she took just five minutes’ worth of questions.
The Candace Curse struck late.
In the fourth quarter against the Chicago Sky at Crypto.com Arena, in front of a crowd waving yellow Candace Parker T-shirts, the Sparks did something they’ve been doing in bunches since Parker skipped town after the 2020 season.
They lost.
This was once a special franchise, as the classy halftime jersey retirement ceremony for Parker reminded everyone, with Lisa Leslie introducing and Parker embracing and the standing crowd a little teary.
This is now a blight of a franchise, as the surrounding 40 minutes of basketball reminded everyone, the Sparks playing hard but sorely lacking in talent, direction and any sort of playoff future.
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DODGERS
From Jack Harris: The glasses might’ve come first. But it was a light bulb moment with the swing that made the most profound change.
Just over a month into the season this year, veteran Dodgers slugger Max Muncy was in a desperate search for answers.
Through the team’s first 30 games, his batting average started with a one and his home run total was stuck on zero. His role as the team’s starting third baseman was being called into question, fueling early-season speculation that the team would need to replace him before the trade deadline. He was absorbing daily criticism from fans, while trying not to succumb to internal self-flagellation.
The 10-year veteran had gone through cold starts before. But nothing quite so frustrating as this.
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ANGELS
From Benjamin Royer: Kyle Hendricks knows what it takes to make it in Major League Baseball.
The 162-game trek of the regular season is familiar to the 35-year-old Southern California native across his 12-year career. With Joe Maddon as his manager for the first half of his career, Hendricks was provided room to screw up — messing around with his mechanics and pitch arsenal — to become a top-end starting pitcher who helped the Chicago Cubs claim the 2016 World Series.
“It established a lot of confidence in me,” said Hendricks, who started more than 30 games four times in five seasons from 2015-19. “The organization handing you the ball every fifth day, having that confidence in you to give the team a chance to win. That’s how you learn.”
Learning has arrived in spades for the Angels pitching staff. The starting rotation owns a 4.22 earned-run average, fostering a crop of middle-of-the-pack pitchers that doesn’t feature a traditional ace, nor former Cy Young Award winners. (The Angels’ overall staff ERA of 4.58 ranks 24th in MLB entering Monday.)
But there’s something that makes this group stand out from the rest of the league: pitching every fifth day.
The Angels feature the only pitching staff in baseball to have their season-opening rotation — of Yusei Kikuchi, Jack Kochanowicz, José Soriano, Tyler Anderson and Hendricks — make every start of the season.
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LAKERS
From Broderick Turner: The Lakers lost a key role player when forward Dorian Finney-Smith agreed to a deal with the Houston Rockets, but they quickly moved onward by agreeing to a deal with forward Jake LaRavia when NBA free agency opened Monday afternoon.
According to people not authorized to speak on the matter, Finney-Smith agreed to a four-year, $53-million deal with the Rockets. Finney-Smith had opted out of his $15.3-million deal with the Lakers.
The Lakers kept moving forward by getting wing player LaRavia to agree to a deal for two years and $12 million. The 6-7 LaRavia averaged 6.9 points, 3.9 rebounds, 2.4 assists and shot 47.5% from the field, 42.3% from three-point range with Memphis and Sacramento last season.
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Ex-Lakers player Malik Beasley under investigation for gambling allegations, reports say
CLIPPERS
From Broderick Turner: The Clippers got the backup center they have yearned for when Brook Lopez agreed to a two-year, $18-million deal, according to people not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
Lopez, who spent the last seven seasons with Milwaukee, averaged 13 points, 5.0 rebounds and shot 37.3% from three-point range.
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Nicolas Batum poised to return to Clippers on a two-year deal worth $11.5 million
MOTOCROSS
From Steve Henson: Aidan Zingg, a motocross prodigy who recently signed with Kawasaki’s prestigious Team Green program, died Saturday at age 16 from injuries sustained during the Mammoth Mountain MX event in Mammoth Lakes.
During a 250cc B class race, Zingg “went down in a corner,” according to industry website Dirtbikelover.com and was run over by other bikes.
Zingg, who grew up in Hemet before his family moved to the state of Washington, won the American Motorcyclist Assn. 2024 Amateur National Championship in Supermini 2, held at Loretta Lynn’s Ranch in Hurricane Mills, Tenn. He recently qualified for the championships for a seventh consecutive year.
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THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY
1859 — Amherst defeats Williams 73-32 in the first intercollegiate baseball game. The game is played by Massachusetts Rules, a wide-open form of the sport commonly known as roundball and Amherst wins by reaching the pre-established score of 65 runs. Amherst exceeds 65-run limit during a 10-run 26th inning.
1903 — Maurice Garin wins the first stage of the first Tour de France bicycle race. Garin finishes 55 seconds ahead of Emile Pagie. The first stage, from Paris to Lyon, is 467 kilometers long, and takes 17 hours and 45 minutes, riding both day and night. Only 37 riders of 60 are able to complete the day’s race.
1920 — Suzanne Lenglen of France becomes the first player to win three Wimbledon titles in one year, taking the singles, doubles and mixed doubles.
1932 — Helen Moody wins her fifth women’s singles title in six years at Wimbledon, defeating Helen Jacobs 6-3, 6-1.
1938 — Don Budge defeats Henry Austin 6-1, 6-0, 6-3 to win the men’s singles title and sweep the singles, doubles and mixed doubles titles at Wimbledon for the second straight year.
1947 — Basketball Association of America (BAA), which later became the National Basketball Association (NBA), holds its inaugural college player draft.
1951 — Beverly Hanson wins the Eastern Open by three strokes over Babe Zaharias in her first start on the LPGA Tour. Hanson is the only golfer to win a tournament in her first pro start.
1961 — Mickey Wright beats defending champion Betsy Rawls by six strokes to win the U.S. Women’s Open.
1977 — Britain’s Virginia Wade wins the singles title on the 100th anniversary of Wimbledon, defeating Betty Stove 4-6, 6-3, 6-1.
1990 — Cathy Johnston completes a wire-to-wire performance, beating Patty Sheehan by two strokes to win the LPGA du Maurier Classic.
1995 — The NBA locks out its players at 12:01 a.m., the first work stoppage in league history.
1997 — Nevada Athletic Commission suspends Mike Tyson indefinitely & withholds $20m purse for biting Evander Holyfield’s ear during their heavyweight title fight 28 June.
2007 — Cristie Kerr wins the U.S. Women’s Open by making only two bogeys over her final 45 holes. Kerr finishes at 5-under 279 for her 10th career victory.
2011 — The NBA locks out its players, a long-expected move putting the 2011-12 season in jeopardy.
2012 — Spain wins its third straight major soccer title, beating Italy 4-0 in the European Championship final in Kiev, Ukraine. The Spanish, who won the Euro 2008 title and World Cup title in 2010, posts the largest score in a Euro final.
2012 — Tiger Woods wins the AT&T National at Congressional in Bethesda, Md. for the 74th win of his career. That moves him past Jack Nicklaus into second place on the tour list, eight short of Sam Snead.
2018 — NBA super star LeBron James agrees to a 4-year $154m deal with the Lakers, moving from Cleveland Cavaliers.
2018 — Park Sung-hyun wins the PGA Women’s Championship at Kemper Lakes Golf Course in a playoff with Nasa Hataoka and Ryu So-yeon.
2018 — David Toms wins the Men’ US Senior Open at Broadmoor Golf Course by one stroke ove Miguel Angel Jimenez, Jerry Kelly and Tim Petrovic.
THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY
1910 — Comiskey Park — then known as White Sox Park — held its first major league game, with the St. Louis Browns beating Chicago 2-0.
1917 — Fred Toney of the Cincinnati Reds pitched complete-game victories in a doubleheader against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Toney threw a three-hitter in each game for 4-1 and 5-1 wins, setting a record for the fewest hits allowed in a doubleheader by a pitcher.
1920 — Walter Johnson of the Washington Senators defeated the Boston Red Sox 1-0 at Fenway Park with the season’s only no-hitter.
1925 — Hack Wilson of the New York Giants hit two home runs in the third inning of a 16-7 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies in the second game of a doubleheader. Wilson also doubled twice during the game.
1941 — Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees singled off Boston’s Jack Wilson in the fourth inning, tying Willie Keeler’s hitting streak of 44 games.
1951 — Bob Feller of the Indians pitched his third career no-hitter, beating the Detroit Tigers 2-1 in the first game of a doubleheader at Cleveland.
1990 — Andy Hawkins of the New York Yankees pitched the sixth no-hitter in the majors this season and the third in less than 48 hours, but lost 4-0 to the Chicago White Sox on two outfield errors in the eighth inning.
1997 — Detroit’s Bobby Higginson homered in the first inning against the New York Mets, tying a major league record by homering in four consecutive at-bats over two games. Higginson, who struck out looking in his next at-bat, became the 23rd player since 1900 to accomplish the feat and the fourth Tiger.
2009 — One run was enough for a victory for three National League teams, the first time in 33 years there were three 1-0 games in one league on the same day. The Mets, Dodgers and Reds came away with 1-0 victories. The last time there were three 1-0 games in one league was Sept. 1, 1976, in the NL.
2009 — Hanley Ramirez extended his RBI streak to 10 games in the Florida Marlins’ 5-3 victory over the Washington Nationals. Ramirez hit a two-run double in the third inning to become the first shortstop in NL history with an RBI streak of double-digit games.
2013 — Andy Pettitte passes Whitey Ford for the most strikeouts in New York Yankees history when he records his 1,957th in the Yankees’ 10-4 win over the Twins. The win goes to reliever Joba Chamberlain, his first of the year, as he benefits from a three-run outburst off reliever Jared Burton in the 8th. The Yankees then add four runs in the top of the 9th as they end a five-game losing streak.
2014 — The Cleveland Indians executed an unorthodox triple play in the fourth inning against the Dodgers that required two video replay reviews to sort out. With runners on first and third, Adrian Gonzalez lifted a fly ball to left fielder Michael Brantley, who threw out Dee Gordon at the plate. Catcher Yan Gomes then fired to second baseman Jason Kipnis for the tag on Yasiel Puig as he slid headfirst. Cleveland manager Terry Francona challenged the original safe call at second and got the play overturned after a replay delay that lasted 1 minute, 29 seconds. Dodgers skipper Don Mattingly then challenged the call at the plate, but that call stood after another wait of 1 minute, 34 seconds. Cleveland went on to a 10-3 win.
2015 — Carlos Carrasco came within one strike of throwing the Cleveland Indians’ first no-hitter since 1981, giving up an RBI single to Joey Butler over leaping second baseman Jason Kipnis’ glove in an 8-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.
2019 — Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs is found dead in his hotel room a few hour before the team’s scheduled game with the Texas Rangers. Police confirm that no foul play is suspected.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
