The Sport Superlatives - Issue No. 26

June 28, 2024

🏆 The Superlatives 🏆

The Most Niche of Niche Sports: Hobby Horse

Niche sports have been growing in popularity over the last few years and gaining a ton of momentum worldwide. A few of those sports often surprise us as we never considered them a sport… like Hobby Horse. Earlier this month, 400 members of the Finnish Hobby Horse Association held their 2024 Championship. The event drew 2,000 people from 21 countries. Guess they’re not horsing around… it is a real sport!

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The Not so Niche, Niche Sport: Pickleball

Can we even call Pickleball a niche sport anymore? The popular sport has quite the following, with people of all ages signing up to join leagues around the country. The sport has also drawn investors like LeBron James, Naomi Osaka, and Patrick Mahomes, to name a few athletes/celebrities who have jumped on the bandwagon. There is even a chain of restaurants, Chicken n’ Pickle (supes clever, btw!), that has created an indoor/outdoor concept that leans into the sport's popularity. It’s definitely become the it-girl of niche/ recreational sports. If you aren’t familiar with the game… You may just find yourself in a pickle.

⚾ Sitting on Top of the World: The University of Tennessee Men’s baseball team has won the College World Series against Texas A&M. Didn’t know that was a thing? Don’t worry; we’ve got you covered on the deets! Unlike the MLB, the College World Series is not the best out of 7 games. Instead, it is the best out of 3. Despite Texas A&M starting the series out strong by winning Game 1 with a score of 9-5, Tennessee went on to win both Games 2 & 3 to clinch the series. This was the Tennessee Vols (Vols is apparently short for Volunteers because it’s the Volunteer state, who knew?) first College World Series win in the school’s history. Kudos to the Vols!

Better luck next year, Texas, although it will have to be with a new coach because coach Jim Schlossnagle has dropped them faster than you dropped your toxic ex. This came right after he had a heated exchange with a reporter when asked about his future with the team during the press conference directly after their loss. Understandably, his emotions were running a bit high, and he may have gotten a bit carried away… all the way to his new team at the University of Texas. 

⚽ Free Fallliiinn’: While leaving the field after Portugal’s disappointing 2-0 loss to Georgia at the European Championship, soccer great Cristiano Ronaldo was almost hit by a fan cos-playing a bird…or a plane…or an idiot. The fan jumped from the stands and nearly landed atop Ronaldo, who made an abrupt stop to avoid calamity. We bet the last thing Ronaldo wanted to encounter after losing was tomfoolery. And what was the guy's plan after falling on top of him? Was he just gonna pop up and ask for an autograph? Not sure that would’ve gone over well. The bigger problem here is the lack of security. During Portugal’s previous match against Turkey, four fans rushed to the field during play to take selfies with Ronaldo! Like, what’s going on in Germany? Protect the talent! 

⚽ Go Ahead and Clock Out: That’s basically what the US women’s national team told soccer vet Alex Morgan when they excluded her from this year’s team roster. Morgan is a 14-year USWNT vet and this will be the first time they play without her since 2008. In all fairness, she is creeping up on 35, so maybe it’s time to let Gen Z take over. Morgan let her feelings be known in a social media post, saying, "Today, I'm disappointed about not having the opportunity to represent our country on the Olympic stage." We don’t doubt it. Overall, it seems that they’re looking to go in a different direction; and by different, we mean younger. Good luck to this year’s US Olympic team!

🏒 Florida Man Meets Lord Stanley: Congratulations to the Florida Panthers, who fought off a reverse sweep in the Stanley Cup Finals, winning in Game 7 against the Edmonton Oilers, 2-1, and claiming their first Stanley Cup in franchise history! The Oilers’ loss extends Canada’s Cup drought to 31 years, despite a valiant effort from Conn Smythe winner Connor McDavid to keep them in the running.

Fun fact, the last Stanley Cup Finals to go to Game 7 was in 2019 when the St. Louis Blues beat the Boston Bruins to claim their first Stanley Cup in franchise history. Panthers’ forward Vladimir Tarasenko now has two franchise-first Stanley Cup wins to his name. An extra congrats to him!

🏈 College Sweet Tarts: LA Rams’ QB Matthew Stafford’s wife, Kelly, recently shared a few details about their college romance at the University of Georgia on the Off the Vine podcast. According to Kelly, the classic star college QB meets cheerleader story has its share of turbulence. Apparently, when the two first met, Matthew was more interested in soaking up all of the glory and perks of being an SEC QB, while Kelly says she was not down for casual. To spur some jealousy from Matthew, Kelly admits on the podcast that she started dating the bad boy backup quarterback, which Matthew apparently hated.

The couple went on to date off & on throughout college until Kelly moved to join Stafford in Michigan in 2019, when he played in Detroit as she pursued her Nursing degree. Now the couple is married with four daughters and a dog… so maybe jealousy makes the heart grow fonder after all. We wouldn’t recommend this tactic, but we’re glad it worked out for them! 

🏈 Love is in the Off-Season: Green Bay Packers QB Jordan Love recently proposed to his girlfriend, professional volleyball player Ronika Stone. The couple recently went on an Italian vacation that started in Florence, went on to Tuscany, then Positano, and concluded in Rome. During their time in Tuscany, Jordan bent the knee, and at a castle, no less! And to think people are still out here arguing about whether Applebees counts as a date. 

Anywho… The couple made it Instagram official, so you know it's real. Congrats to the two LOVE birds! Maybe she’ll be his good luck charm, and he will also get a ring during his second year as a starter with the Packers. 

🏀 Rise of the Nepo Babies: So, the 2024 NBA draft is in the books, and guess who was drafted #55 in the second round? LeBron James…Jr. And guess what team drafted him? The LA Lakers. Talk about pulling strings. No, but really, we can’t be the only ones thinking it might be difficult to make a name for yourself when you’re playing with your dad…and have his name. Talk about living in a shadow. We did hear that Bronny did pretty well during the NBA combine, so there’s def talent there. But for now, LeBron, aka LeGeneral Manager, strikes again!

Your sports term of the week is: designated hitter (DH) ⚾

IRL Example: Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani is a designated hitter this year (as his pitching arm isn’t fully healed). He is also a frontrunner for the MVP, a first for a designated hitter.

Okay, not sports, but did you hear that the final season of Suits is coming to Netflix on July 1st? Yeah, we’re pretty excited that we're getting some new episodes for the first time since 2019! To celebrate, let's get into how some of our favorites are giving this classic look a fresh update, shall we?

Italian tennis player Jannik Sinner looks effortlessly chic in this all-black look paired with a classic Nike sneaker. 

Here are some sneakers we plan to cop to pair with our fav black suit in our closet:

First-rounder (Pick 16) to the Philadelphia 76ers, Jared McCain, put his twist on a black suit by rocking a cropped blazer.

Here is a tan cropped one from ASOS that we think is cute for a summer office look:

Do you love sports? Want to find a way to fit more sports into your week? We’ve got you. From keeping up with your work colleagues to impressing hot dates, our newsletter aims to keep you in the know regardless of your fandom level or the reason. That’s your business, sis!

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