Way back in 2010 – before the lockout, Deflategate, Colin Kaepernick, COVID-19 and Patrick Mahomes’ third Super Bowl triumph – Roger Goodell huddled with NFL owners and revealed an ambitious financial target.

The NFL commissioner declared his goal for league revenues to hit $25 billion by 2027. At the time, the NFL generated around $8 billion in annual revenues.

“I thought then, it certainly put the carrot out there,” Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones reflected for USA TODAY Sports last week as NFL owners wrapped up meetings in Nashville. “But he was more right than he was wrong.”

Andrew Brandt remembers. The former Green Bay Packers executive, a foremost authority on NFL financial matters, shrugged at the thought that the league could increase its revenues by roughly $1 billion per year. “Goodell doesn’t say anything without it being backed up somewhere,” Brandt told USA TODAY Sports.

Fast-forward to now. Goodell’s $25 billion goal is undoubtedly in reach. Jones said, “We’re almost there. Could exceed it.”

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Although the NFL won’t publicly divulge the figures, it is believed that annual revenues have surpassed $20 billion, which coincides with a $30 million rise in the salary cap to a record $255.4 million per team in 2024.

How Netflix deal will boost NFL

The next frontier for growth – and seemingly a slam-dunk for striking Goodell’s goal – was undoubtedly reflected with the three-year agreement the NFL recently struck with Netflix to carry games on Christmas. The NFL fetched $150 million from the streaming giant for the two premium Christmas matchups this year, featuring the Kansas City Chiefs at Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens at Houston Texans.

No, the networks that have carried NFL games for decades (CBS, Fox, NBC, ESPN) can’t be thrilled to lose big games to a new player such as Netflix. Yet, as Brandt points out, the league has again capitalized on a non-traditional opportunity while continuing to grow traditional sources such as gate receipts, sponsorships, merchandising and stadium revenues.

Rather than collect rights fees for season-long packages, the NFL (with 93 of the top 100 highest-viewed programs in 2023) has demonstrated muscle in that it can parcel out compelling matchups placed in desirable programming windows. That has been illustrated, too, with Amazon Prime ticketed for a game for the second consecutive year on Black Friday.

“This will not be the last Netflix deal,” Brandt said. “The next one will be bigger.”

Beyond the immediate impact on the bottom line, the Netflix agreement underscores the options looming for the league if it decides to opt out of its existing media deals in 2029, which seems like a no-brainer at the moment. The NFL struck its existing broadcast deals in 2021 for $113 billion over 11 years but can opt out after seven years.

“My reaction at the time was, ‘What a windfall, what a boon for the NFL,’ ‘ said Brandt, executive director of the Moorad Center for the Study of Sports Law at Villanova. “The way we look at it now, it’s the networks that got the bargain.”

While Netflix is not expected to pursue live sports on a grand scale involving a season-long slate, its new presence in the NFL landscape, following Amazon Prime, sets the stage for more streaming platforms to align with the NFL. Sure, if the NFL opts out of its existing media deals, it can renegotiate. Yet the conditions could be significantly different.

Brandt mentions Apple TV as a prospect; Jones envisions the possibility of a platform that is not currently on the radar using the NFL to build its business in the coming years, as Fox did when it won NFL rights in the 1990s.

Growing the game internationally

Goodell, weighing the significance of the Netflix deal, alluded to an apparent balancing act that involves traditional viewing patterns, streaming, mobile devices and audience adaptation. The Netflix distribution is critical, too, to the NFL’s strategies for growing the game internationally.

“It’s a reflection of the changing media landscape,” Goodell said. “The reality is, it’s changing before our eyes.”

Goodell said the league’s philosophy hasn’t changed when it comes to having games available on free TV in the markets of the two teams playing in a given matchup. Yet Netflix, he added, has nearly 300 million global subscribers.

“We are obviously focused on becoming more global,” Goodell said. “So that’s a huge benefit to us.”

The NFL, which has staged games in England, Germany and Mexico for years, will play its first game in Brazil this year, featuring the Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles. In 2025, the NFL will stage a game in Spain. And Australia is among countries being evaluated for future sites.

‘Be everywhere our fans are’

Yet even with the NFL increasing its international footprint, the streaming connections could provide the most robust growth opportunity.

“All of the streaming platforms have allowed us to reach a younger average audience age – another very important factor for us,” Goodell said. “There are several people who are fans of the NFL who aren’t on pay systems anymore because they are changing. People are leaving in some cases, but we’re still committed to those platforms. Our job is to be everywhere our fans are …

‘For us to be the first sport that Netflix is invested in to bring to their subscribers, I think is a statement about our content and the potential opportunity between the two.”

What’s that mean for the NFL fan? Depending on an individual’s appetite, a fan could wind up spending nearly $1,000 per year on various packages and streaming to ensure a heavy dose of NFL games.

Of course, if a fan already subscribes to Netflix ($6.99 per month, with ads), Amazon Prime ($14.99) and YouTube TV ($72.99), the cost is built in. Yet that depends on the individual. A season subscription to NFL Sunday Ticket is $349 for YouTube TV subscribers.

Jones, of course, downplays the costs to fans.

“The availability of our games are the most economical of any programming,” contends Jones, who owns the world’s richest sports franchise, valued by Forbes at $9 billion. “If they don’t want to buy something, they can see more of it for free than with any sport there is.”

Yet some games aren’t free, and it will be interesting to see the patterns in the coming years as the $25 billion goal approaches. Peacock paid the NFL $110 million to carry a first-round AFC playoff game between the Chiefs and Miami Dolphins in January. It drew an average of 23 million viewers and reportedly brought in 2.8 million new subscribers ($5.99) – with 71% remaining subscribed nearly two months later. Amazon will get a playoff game next January at a cost of $120 million.

And just think: The NFL has had multiple rounds of layoffs and buyouts of staff in recent years and undergone significant cost-cutting measures with the NFL Network. All while barreling toward the hardly magical goal of $25 billion in revenues.

Goodell is quite the prophet. As in profit.

PHOENIX — His high school had a graduating class of 65 and no baseball field. They were relegated to playing games in a city park with no locker room, an all-dirt infield and a sandy pitching mound.

Today, the big left-handed kid with the bad foot and the unique name, from the dusty town of Kingman Ariz., just so happens to be one of the finest starting pitchers in the American League.

The name is Tarik Skubal (pronounced TARE-ick SKOO-bull).

Skubal, who pitched for tiny Kingman Academy, was ignored by every four-year university in the country except one. He was overlooked in the Major League Baseball draft for 254 picks. He was selected sight unseen on the recommendation of an agent.

The Detroit Tigers’ homegrown ace is a candidate to be the team’s first Cy Young winner since Justin Verlander.

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Skubal is 6-1 with a 2.25 ERA and a league-best 0.85 WHIP this season, dazzling with his 96.6-mph four-seam fastball and disappearing changeup. Why, until losing his last start Wednesday against Kansas City, he was 10-0 with a 1.48 ERA in his previous 14 starts, striking out 109 batters and walking just 12 in 85 innings dating back to last season.

“It’s insane where this kid has come from,’ says Bill McCord, who coached Skubal from when he was 10 through high school, with his son, Westin, as Skubal’s catcher. “To go where he has come from, a small town where our pitching mound was powder at Southside Park, to where he is today, what a distance he has traveled.

“It’s such an uplifting story.’

Skubal is the most famous athlete to ever come out of Kingman, a town off Route 66 on Arizona’s Western edge, where folks usually only stop for gas on their way to Las Vegas. It’s 73 miles from the Grand Canyon, 107 miles from Las Vegas, 195 miles from Phoenix and 319 miles from Los Angeles.

“I’ve never been there,’ says David Chadd, the former assistant Tigers GM who was responsible for the organization drafting him in the ninth round, “and I don’t think I ever will.’

Says Elliott Cribby, who recruited Skubal to Seattle University: “We always used to meet at the In-N-Out Burger there. I think about Tarik that every time I see an In-N-Out, but no, I’ve never been back.

Scott Boras, Skubal’s agent: “I think I stopped there for gas once on a family trip to Vegas, but that’s about it.’

The townsfolk will tell you their most famous citizen was Andy Devine, the late actor who played the sidekick to Roy Rogers in the old Western films. They renamed the main street in downtown after him. Their claim to fame is being in the heart of Route 66. They have have a Route 66 museum in town.

Now, Kingman is known as the home of Skubal.

The hometown fans – including just about everyone from his graduating class – traveled three hours last weekend to see Skubal pitch against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Skubal, one of the several Tigers who contracted a nasty virus that sent teammate Kenta Maeda to the injured list days earlier, didn’t even know whether he’d be even able to pitch. He warmed up in the bullpen and felt awful. When he took the mound, he told Tigers manager A.J. Hinch that he didn’t know how long he’d last.

Skubal, 27, went out and gave up one hit in six shutout innings without even telling any of his teammates just how lousy he felt. Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said It was the best pitching performance he’d seen all season.

“That’s him,’ says Tigers catcher Jake Rogers. “He’s a bulldog. He’s got that ‘F-you’ mentality. I didn’t even know about the virus because he’s never one to use excuses.’

Says Tigers first baseman Spencer Torkelson: “He’s the ultimate competitor. He’s got that mindset like, ‘My stuff beats your stuff, no matter what.’ I don’t care if it’s doing crossword puzzles or playing ping-pong, the guy wants to beat you.’

So, why would anyone think he’d ever bemoan his fate, overcoming Tommy John surgery that robbed him of two years in college, and flexor tendon surgery that sidelined him for a year in the big leagues?

“The way I look at it,’ Skubal tells USA TODAY Sports, “is that everything happens for a reason. If not for those injuries, I don’t know if I’m pitching like this.

“I’ve had to work for everything I’ve gotten. Nothing was given to me.’’

Skubal, a pudgy 6-foot-3 left-hander who threw in the 80’s in high school, was ignored by every school in the state of Arizona but Yavapai College, a community college in Prescott. He wanted to go to Brigham Young University, but they had no interest in him. No one from Arizona State, Arizona or Grand Canyon University bothered to drive up to see him.

It wasn’t until Cribby, a first-year pitching coach at Seattle University desperate for pitching help, saw him pitch at the Arizona Fall Classic showcase in Peoria, Ariz., dropped him a business card and asked him to call.

Skubal had no interest in going all the way to Washington, but finally was convinced by his dad, Phil, to check it out. They showed up together at the campus where he threw in front of Cribby and head coach Donny Harrel.

The trouble was that when Skubal showed up, he thought the school would have baseball cleats for him. They didn’t. So his dad ran over to the local Target, purchased K-Swiss white tennis shoes, size 14 and 15 with his left foot bigger than the other, and Skubal impressed them enough to receive a quarter-scholarship with financial aid.

“I’ll never, ever forget that,’ says Cribby, now the associate head coach at Central Washington University. “The guy’s work ethic his entire time there was insane. He wasn’t going to let anything stop him.’’

Four years and a Tommy John surgery later, it’s the second day of draft. Skubal still isn’t drafted, and his agent, Scott Boras, telephones Tigers assistant GM David Chadd.

Boras tells Chadd that his agency’s vice president, former big-league pitcher Scott Chiamparino, believes Skubal could be a star in the making. And Skubal would be willing to sign for cheap, a $350,000 bonus.

Chadd had never seen him Skubal pitch. Barely anyone else in the Tigers’ organization had. Skubal won a school-record 21 games and ranked second in school history with 224 career strikeouts, but once he underwent Tommy John surgery his junior year, he was forgotten.

“We saw him maybe five innings,’ said Chadd, now a special assistant with the Philadelphia Phillies. “We knew he was a big, left-hander, threw hard, and came highly regarded from Scott.

“So, we took a chance.’

The Tigers drafted him in the ninth round, the 255th overall pick, and hit the lottery.

Skubal didn’t come with the hype and promise of Casey Mize, the first overall pick in that 2018 draft. He wasn’t the ninth overall pick as a high-school kid in 2016 like Tigers starter Matt Manning. But once they were all together, it was like having three potential aces.

“When you saw Skubal come up with Mize and Manning,’ said Chadd, “you didn’t know who was going to be the most dominant. They all just pushed each other. But right after we got Skubal, seeing the size, the velocity and the competitor all rolled into one, we knew right away we had someone special.’

While Skubal has emerged into one of the finest young left-handers in the game, he’s still the same big ol’ goofy kid from Kingman, the son of a school teacher and a mom who raised five boys. He’s looking for a place to live after just selling his modest home in Chandler, Ariz., remodeling the house himself, ripping up floor tiles and installing the drywall with his own hands.

He’s married to his high school sweetheart, Jessica, with a 7-month-old son (Kasen) and two dogs, but will never, ever, forget his roots. He participates in local fundraisers for Kingman, keeps in touch with the local baseball and softball players and visits his former teachers when he stops into town.

“I’m proud to be from Kingman,’ Skubal says. “It was such a great place to grow up. I’ve got such great friends there, and the support from family and friends motives me to be as good as I can be. You learn the value of hard work and you don’t take anything for granted.

“I don’t necessarily have a chip on my shoulder, but the motivation for me is to work my ass off and then whatever happens, happens. You can live with that at the end of the day, knowing you did everything possible.’

When Skubal pitches, particularly those day games when Detroit is a three-hour time difference ahead of Arizona, everyone in town is watching the Tigers game.

“Anyone and everyone is watching in town,’ McCord says. “He’s a hero here.’

As for Skubal’s fierce competitiveness, when you’re one of five boys in the house and your dad is a basketball coach, you’ve got to prove you can hang with them.

“They didn’t let me win anything,’ says Skubal, who may have played collegiate basketball if not for baseball. “There were no handouts. I joke about this, but we had five boys in the family. They’re all hungry. So at dinner, you better be the first one to eat or there’ll be no seconds.

“Our house was like a locker room. We competed with each other on everything.’

When Skubal showed up on campus at Seattle University, it didn’t take long for Harrel and everyone else to realize they had something.

“You saw there was this desire to be great, and by the time his freshman year ended, the progress he made was really, really impressive,’ Harrel says. “By his sophomore year, everyone knew he was going to be special. You saw that boil, that competitive fire. He loved that competition from the academic side to community service to the ballfield.

“There’s nothing that he doesn’t compete in.

“I don’t think he even lets his wife win a game of checkers.’

These days, he doesn’t let any major-league team beat him either. Why, until last week in Kansas City, the last time he lost a game was Aug. 29, 2023.

“He’s become dominant early-count, mid-count and late-count with so many pitches,’ Hinch says. “The stuff is incredible. He’s high in velocity, he’s got a plus-plus changeup, he can spin the ball. The only thing that was holding him back as a young player was staying in the strike zone. Thing clicked for him with his delivery, and he’s taken off because he dominates the strike zone.’’

Oh, and about that competitiveness?

“His start reminds me a lot of the high-end pitchers that I’ve had,’ says Hinch, who managed Verlander, Gerrit Cole and Dallas Keuchel in Houston. “He’s approachable, but he’s intense. He thrives in the competition because it matters to him. It’s him vs. the hitter, which is a little bit old-school in how much he puts into that.

“He’s got no fear. And he has a great appreciation of the work it took, and the adversity he overcame to get here.’

Skubal, always striving for perfection, says he watches stars like Verlander, Cole and Max Scherzer as much as possible. He loved watching Barry Zito and his masterful curveball growing up.

He pitches with that same confidence as his heroes. He’s earned everything through hard work and he wants to make everyone who helped him along the way proud.

“He has this unselfishness and the drive to not only have success for himself,’ Harrel says, “but that drive to take care of his family with the gift he has. He’s just so genuine.’’

Says Cribby: “He knows where he comes from. He’s proud of where he comes from. You’re never going to see him change.

“He’s Tarik Skubal.’

Remember the name.

Around the basepaths

– Morgan Sword, MLB’s vice president, business operations, is among the leading candidates to become baseball’s next commissioner when Rob Manfred retires in January, 2029, several MLB owners privately say.

Sword, 39, who works primarily in baseball’s on-field matters, is highly respected by owners and executives throughout the game.

The other top candidates expected to be under serious consideration among owners are deputy commissioners Dan Halem and Noah Garden, and Chris Marinek, chief operations and strategy officer.

Theo Epstein, the future Hall of Fame executive who helped end the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs’ World Series droughts, has no interest in the job and still hopes to become an owner.

– Stay tuned for the potential fireworks on Monday when Craig Counsell returns home to Milwaukee for the first time since leaving the Brewers to manage the rival Chicago Cubs.

While the Brewers players have no trouble with Counsell’s departure and record five-year, $40 million contract, ownership remains furious, and so do the fans.

It will hardly be a hero’s welcome when his name is introduced over the loudspeakers before the first game of the series at American Family Field.

– MLB scouts have been impressed by Yankees right fielder Juan Soto’s vast defensive improvement and baserunning this season, saying he looks more like the player who came up in the Washington Nationals’ system and helped lead them to the 2019 World Series title.

Scott Boras, Soto’s agent, said that Soto moved to Florida during the offseason and worked out at a training facility with Gold Glove outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr.

– So just how many serious talks has Soto had about extensions and contracts with Boras in his six-year career?

“Fifty-four,’ Boras said. “That’s not easy listening to me talking for two hours.’

– While MLB is tabling the automated ball-strike system next season, MLB officials privately expect it to be formally introduced in 2026 with a challenge system.

– The Chicago White Sox are resisting all temptation to trade center fielder Luis Robert Jr., who is scheduled to return in June after being sidelined two months.

Robert may be their best trade asset but he’s only 26 and is under team control through the 2027 season.

– With everyone is focused on Soto in free agency this winter and wondering just how much more than $500 million he’ll receive, all eyes will be on Astros All-Star right fielder Kyle Tucker in a year.

He’ll be a free agent after 2025, and he’s having another sensational season with a major-league leading 17 homers, 36 RBI and a 1.043 OPS. He and closer Josh Hader are hugely responsible for the Astros’ turnaround to get back in the AL West race.

Hader’s last 10 appearances: 13.1 innings, 4 hits, 1 earned run, 4 walks, 21 strikeouts, .091 batting average and .349 OPS.

– While Yankees slugger Aaron Judge is on an absolute tear, hitting .388 with 11 doubles, 12 homers and 24 RBI in his last 26 games entering Saturday, scouts and talent evaluators still worry about the toll it may be taking on Judge’s body playing every day in center field.

“You need him for seven months, not six months,’ one executive said, “and at some point fatigue is going to set in.’

– The most puzzling contract of the winter was when the small-market Pittsburgh Pirates gave a one-year, $10.5 million contract to Aroldis Chapman when they already had an All-Star closer in David Bednar.

Now, it looks completely absurd.

Chapman, who tripled his salary of a year ago, is 0-3 with a 4.41 ERA, a hideous 1.837 WHIP and decreased velocity.

– The Boston Red Sox plan to trade All-Star veteran closer Kenley Jansen by the trade deadline. He’s earning $16 million this year and the Red Sox have no interest in bringing him back.

– Billye Aaron, the widow of the late Henry Aaron, was on hand for the unveiling of his statue Thursday at the Baseball Hall of Fame.

“It just makes me proud,’ she told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Not just because I was his wife, but it makes me proud that an African American man has accomplished this and has managed to get in a place where there aren’t many. When you see the statues here and across the country, you aren’t going to find that many of us at the ballparks.’

– Teams are keeping a close eye on Colorado Rockies catcher Elias Diaz, who is having his career-best season, hitting .311 with four homers, 23 RBI and an .804 OPS. He’s a free agent after after the season.

– Remember when MLB moved the 2021 All-Star Game out of Atlanta when Georgia passed restrictive voting laws?

Well, the laws remain in place, but the game still is returning to Atlanta next summer.

Why the change?

“I think that one of the things we’ve learned over time is that the more we stay out of political issues, the better off we are,’ commissioner Rob Manfred said in a press briefing Thursday. “People like their sports separate from their politics. We’ve got a fan base, it’s all over the political spectrum. And the safest thing for us to do is focus on baseball. It is difficult to make those judgments in a way that doesn’t offend part of your fan base.”

– Remember when Blake Snell gave up just 18 earned runs in his last 136 innings last season to win the NL Cy Young award?

This year, he has given up 19 earned runs in 15 innings.

He is 0-3 with an 11.40 ERA.

– Scouts are alarmed by Seattle Mariners center fielder Julio Rodriguez’s dramatic drop-off in power.

He’s hitting .252 this season with just two homers, five doubles, 14 RBI and a .606 OPS.

“He just doesn’t seem like the same guy,’ one veteran scout said. “I can’t see it lasting, but something’s not right.’

– Meanwhile, Arizona Diamondbacks Rookie of the Year winner Corbin Carroll’s slump continues. He’s hitting .188 with two homers, 16 RBI and a .546 OPS, a dramatic drop-off from a year ago when he hit .285 with 25 homers, 76 RBI and an .868 OPS.

“He’s doing this upper-cut swing with this arc of all of a sudden, and striking out,’ said one scout who watched him for the past week. “He needs to go back to that flat swing. It’s hard for him to hit a line drive. That’s what got him to the big leagues in the first place.’

– The 43 home runs hit by Judge, Soto and Giancarlo Stanton are more than the four entire teams.

“We’re just getting started,’ Stanton says.

– Just how good is two-time batting champion Luis Arraez, who’s hitting .397 with a .914 OPS since joining the Padres?

“He’s one of the best hitters I’ve ever seen play in the game of baseball,’ Padres right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. said.

– Diamondbacks first baseman Christian Walker has become Public Enemy No. 1 at Dodger Stadium.

The dude has hit 14 homers in just 39 games in Chavez Ravine, averaging one homer every 8.9 at-bats. He has a .312/.368/.672 (1.040 OPS) slash line at Dodger Stadium.

“I don’t love that he’s doing that against us,’ Dodgers manager Dave Roberts says, “but I love how he plays the game. He plays it the right way.’

Walker, by the way, is a free agent after the season.

– The Padres sure have dampened a whole lot of parties in the Gaslamp Quarter surrounding Petco Park this year.

They are 3-13 in night games at home this season, and 10-16 overall at Petco.

– Just when the San Francisco Giants looked dead, they stormed back to win nine of their last 12 games, including three consecutive games when trailing by at least four runs. They became the fourth team in history to accomplish the feat.

– Hey, don’t blame the Phillies for their soft schedule.

They’re simply playing the teams that MLB scheduled in the first two months, and obliterating everyone in their path.

They are off to their greatest start in franchise history, and became only the eighth team in the division era since 1969 to start a season 37-14. Their 29-6 run until Friday was their best 35-game stretch since 1892.

The Phillies, who haven’t played a team with a winning record since Atlanta on March 31, could play their next team with a winning record on Monday in San Francisco with the Giants sitting at .500 entering Saturday.

– The Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks were the Cinderella stories of last year’s World Series with their fabulous postseasons, with the Rangers winning their first title in franchise history.

This year?

The glass slippers have shattered.

The two injury-riddled teams entered Saturday with a combined 48-55 record.

– It’s crazy that Diamondbacks second baseman Ketel Marte had a 21-game hitting streak and his batting average plummeted from .309 to .270.

He produced just one hit in 18 of the 21 games during the streak.

“I don’t even know how that was possible,” teammate Corbin Carroll said.

– The biggest surprise in baseball these first two months has been the Cleveland Guardians’ offensive resurgence, which has led to a blistering 34-17 start.

They ranked 27th in runs scored and were last in home runs a year ago.

This year, they’ve scored the third-most runs in the American League with 58 homers, sixth in the league.

Jose Ramirez, of course, has been the catalyst with 14 homers, 49 RBI and a plaque awaiting him one day in Cooperstown.

– Former All-Star Lance Berkman resigned as baseball coach at Houston Christian after going just 47-104 in three years.

– Kudos to MLB for having the World Baseball Classic semifinals and finals once again in Miami.

It’s by far the greatest environment in this country for the event, averaging 31,684 fans a game during the 2023 WBC.

Games will also be played in Houston for the first time, along with Tokyo and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

– If the Oakland Athletics plan to open the season in Las Vegas in 2028, they must break ground by next April, MLB says.

– The Toronto Blue Jays are the team buyers are keeping their eye on at the trade deadline knowing they could move first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr., shortstop Bo Bichette, DH Justin Turner, outfielders George Springer and Kevin Kiermaier, closer Jordan Romano and starters Yusei Kikuchi and Chris Bassitt.

– So, just what does Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor miss about no longer being with the Cleveland Guardians?

“Winning,’ he simply told reporters this week.

Lindor went to the postseason just once in his first three years with the Mets.

– The Dodgers offense may be awfully good, but they sure have trouble winning games by outslugging the opposition.

They are 0-13 when opponents have scored five or more runs.

– Just how historic is Phillies pitcher Ranger Suarez’s 9-0, 1.36 ERA start to the season?

He has the lowest ERA by a Phillies pitcher in the first 10 starts of a season since Grover Alexander in 1916.

He also is the first pitcher with a 9-0 record and sub-1.50 ERA in his first 10 starts since Hall of Famer Juan Marichal in 1966.

– Kudos to Atlanta first baseman Matt Olson, who has played more than 500 consecutive games, only the sixth player since 2000 to accomplish the feat.

– So much for the talk that the Mets could reach the postseason.

They have lost 21 of their last 30 games entering Saturday, and are 15 ½ games out of first place.

There are only two words to describe the rest of their season: Trade deadline.

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The stakes weren’t nearly as high as they were during the 2003 National League Championship Series, but a young fan did his best Steve Bartman impression Sunday afternoon in Washington.

With two outs and the Seattle Mariners holding a 4-1 lead in the bottom of the sixth inning, the homestanding Nationals were mounting a rally. With two runners on base, Luis Garcia lifted a fly ball down the left field line.

Mariners outfielder Jonatan Clase sprinted into the corner, where there’s very little foul territory between the field and the elevated bleachers. Clase leaped and hit the padded side wall with his glove outstretched and grabbed … nothing but air.

That’s because a youngster with a glove – and a Mariners shirt – reached out over the railing and caught Garcia’s ball on the fly before it ever got to Clase.

Third base umpire Dan Bellino called fan interference on the visiting fan. The ruling was upheld by replay. And the Mariners were out of the jam.

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MLB Rule 6.0(e) says: ‘If a spectator clearly prevents a fielder from catching a fly ball, the umpire shall declare the batter out.’

What the rule doesn’t say, but is perfectly clear after the Mariners took their 4-1 lead to the top of the next inning, it doesn’t matter what jersey that spectator happens to be wearing.

The score would hold, and they would go on to defeat the Nationals, 9-5.

Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States and the presumptive Republican nominee in November’s general election, arrived Sunday at NASCAR’s Coca Cola 600.

This marks the second time Trump has attended a NASCAR race since February 2020, when he served as grand marshal of the Daytona 500, becoming only the fourth sitting president to do so for a race at Daytona International Speedway.

The Coca Cola 600 is taking place at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina. A member of Trump’s communications staff posted a video clip of Trump, wearing a dark suit and red hat, waving to the crowd at the speedway Sunday afternoon. Video of Trump’s plane flying over the track went viral earlier in the day.

According to Jonathan Coleman, senior director of communications for Charlotte Motor Speedway, this is the first time in the track’s history that a current or former President has attended a race at the venue. In 1994, former President Bill Clinton visited the speedway as part of a Ford Mustang 30th anniversary event, but he did not attend a race.

In 2020, Trump carried North Carolina, which is expected to remain a key battleground state in the upcoming general election. Trump won the state in 2020 with 50.1% of the vote, beating President Joe Biden by nearly 75,000 votes.

The Coca Cola 600, which takes place annually during Memorial Day weekend as a key event in the NASCAR Cup Series, coincided with the 2024 North Carolina Republican Party Convention that concluded hours before the race, in Greensboro. Though not a confirmed guest during the week leading up to the convention, Trump gave a brief speech Friday via a phone call, when his son Eric put him on speaker when Eric was on stage addressing the crowd, according to the Greensboro News and Record.

Trump’s visit to the Coca Cola 600 also coincides with the end of his hush money trial in New York, with closing arguments scheduled to begin Tuesday. He is facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Prosecutors allege Trump disguised reimbursements to former aide Michael Cohen and is accused of violating campaign finance laws when he paid porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 in 2016 to stay quiet about a sexual encounter that allegedly happened a decade earlier.

Back in 2020, when Trump served as grand marshal of the Daytona 500, that role included giving what’s commonly described as the most famous words in motor sports: ‘Gentlemen, start your engines.’

Christopher Bell was dozing off when he finally got the call late Sunday night.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver was awakened to the news that he was declared the winner after an evening of bad weather at Charlotte Motor Speedway, claiming the rain-shortened NASCAR Cup Series’ Coca-Cola 600 in Concord, N.C.

Bell paced the field as rain pelted the 1.5-mile speedway on Lap 249, bringing the drivers to pit road for the final time as Kyle Larson arrived from Indiana after competing in the Indianapolis 500.

Sporting the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Bell was announced as the race’s winner at about 11:30 p.m. ET. It was his second victory of the season and the eighth of his career.

He was watching the race broadcast while nodding off when the news came over that NASCAR had ruled the race official instead of opting to run the final 151 laps well past midnight.

‘I’m literally on the couch half asleep,’ Bell said after his first 600 win. ‘I had mentally prepared to go racing. … Then the phone went off and they said they’d called it. What a twist of emotions. I have never been through that emotion swing in my life.’

His other win was at Phoenix Raceway in early March.

‘It’s been a heck of a trying eight weeks or so (of not winning). To get our second win of the year means a lot,’ Bell added.

Brad Keselowski finished second, while William Byron (third), Tyler Reddick (fourth) and Denny Hamlin (fifth) rounded out the top five. Toyotas occupied four of the top six spots on the leaderboard.

Starting in place of Larson, who finished 18th in his Indianapolis 500 debut, Justin Allgaier came in 13th and was prepared to turn the car over to Larson, but the race never restarted.

After securing the first pole of his three-year career, Ty Gibbs, in his No. 54 Toyota, led the 40-car field around the 1.5-mile track until Byron took the point with 28 laps left in Stage 1’s 100 circuits.

The segment featured just one caution — occurring when BJ McLeod spun — and Gibbs used the opportunity to get service and win the race off pit road over Byron. However, Byron ended up beating Gibbs for his first 2024 stage win.

With Bell leading, defending Coca-Cola 600 winner Ryan Blaney made hard contact with the Turn 4 wall and suffered tire damage with 54 laps left in the second segment to put him out of contention.

Noah Gragson’s wreck on the backstretch with 29 laps to go allowed Byron to grab the point, but Bell zoomed past Byron on Lap 189 and won the second stage under caution when Harrison Burton looped his No. 21 Ford exiting Turn 1.

The seventh caution flew on Lap 246 as rain poured on the speedway.

Bell, who led a race-high 90 laps, and the field hit pit road as Larson’s helicopter landed on the infield helipad after a jet flight from Indianapolis, prompting a driver swap with Allgaier as the red-flag condition began.

SAN DIEGO — The New York Yankees have the best seats in the world to watch the greatest show in baseball.

They get to interact with the star before he sets foot on stage, occasionally chat with him during the performance, gawk at what they’re seeing, and pinch themselves afterwards trying to fathom the greatness they’re witnessing.

Aaron Judge, who brought you the single-season American League home run record two years ago, is now putting on one of the greatest seasons in Yankee history.

He hit another home run in the first inning Saturday night, hit another double three innings later, and then left everyone trying to describe just what they’re seeing after the Yankees’ 4-1 victory over the San Diego Padres.

Judge became the first player in baseball history to hit 11 doubles and 12 homers in a 20-game span.

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Judge is hitting .455 with a .569 OPS and 1.182 slugging percentage in his last 13 games.

Judge has homered in four consecutive games.

Judge is tied for the major-league lead with 17 home runs.

Judge is leading the major leagues with a .637 slugging percentage and 1.050 OPS.

And the Yankees’ 37-17 record is the best in the American League and their third-best start since 1956.

‘I mean, it’s been unbelievable,’ Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. ‘What Aaron’s doing is what the greats do from time to time.

‘I’ve witnessed a lot of amazing baseball from Aaron Judge over the last six or seven years, so anytime he does something that’s a first or unique or whatever adjective you want to put on it, that frankly doesn’t surprise me because I know how good he is.

‘When he gets locked it, it’s just different.’

Judge’s exploits have been so ridiculous this month that Yankees left fielder Alex Verdugo − who bats behind Judge − is worried that he’s going to pull a calf muscle jumping up and high-fiving Judge after his homers.

When asked how to describe Judge’s 20-game tear, Verdugo said, ‘That’s my season.’

Verdugo, teammates for the first time this season with Judge, stood back and laughed.

‘Playing against him throughout the whole course of my career,’ Verdugo said, ‘this is what I was accustomed to seeing. Seeing him do it every day, and obviously the slow start to how hot he’s been now, it’s crazy, it’s just crazy.

‘He’s a different animal, and it’s somebody that he just needs to touch it, and the ball jumps off just way different than other guys.’

Oh, yeah, about that slow start.

Judge was hitting just .179 with three homers, 11 RBI and a .682 OPS the first 21 games of the season. His 27 strikeouts were the second-most in the American League.

And was getting booed at Yankee Stadium.

Yankees starter Nestor Cortes was incensed at the crowd reaction saying after a game, “I feel like he’s done a lot for this team, a lot for this organization. He’s going to come out (of this). It’s just a matter of time. He’s going to be Aaron Judge.’

Well, here we are one month later, and look who’s getting the last laugh?

‘It’s part of it,’ Judge said. ‘You know it’s a long season. There’s going to be bumps and bruises, and good times and bad times.

‘But I can’t get caught up in what people are saying or what they’re not saying. I’ve got a job to do, and especially in New York, you’ve got to show up every single day. I’ve got a job to do, and especially in New York, you’ve got to show up every single day.

‘And I wasn’t showing up so I understand there was a lot of questions, and now it’s past us.’

Judge is making a mockery out of the Yankees’ record book the way he’s performing, joining Hall of Famer Lou Gehrig by hitting at least 18 doubles and 17 homers in the Yankees’ first 54 games.

‘Got a lot of work to do, a lot of games to play, so we got to keep working,’ Judge said. ‘I don’t look at the past. The most important thing is just staying focused and trying to improve a little bit each day.’

That’s Judge.

Let everyone else gush, praise and adore him.

‘We’re watching greatness,’ said Yankees starter Marcus Stroman, who pitched six shutout innings, yielding just three hits. ‘Sometimes you can take it for granted to be honest, but this something I’ll be sitting with my grandkids at some point and saying I got to play with Aaron Judge.’

Judge hears the compliments, shrugs, and refuses to bask in his accomplishments.

He’s tearing it up, the Yankees are rolling, and he refuses to be satisfied until he’s holding that World Series trophy.

‘The biggest thing he’s the same guy no matter what,’ Verdugo said, ‘so it’s awesome to see. He’s special man.

‘He’s a captain for a reason. He got paid ($360 million) for what he did for a reason. He’s just somebody that goes about everything the right way. Guys love him, whether you’re on his team or he’s on the opposing team.

‘He’s the superstar that I feel a lot of kids and a lot of people should try to model their game after. If it’s not their game, at least the personality and person.’

For now, the Yankees will sit back, enjoy the show, and ride the big man’s shoulders, perhaps all of the way through October.