Jarren Duran Clinches MVP at MLB All-Star Game Victory
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00:00Hey everybody, welcome to Newswire. I'm Mike Blewett, heading up the show today as Craig
00:08Mish is still covering the MLB All-Star game, which resulted in another victory for the
00:13American League last night. They've won 10 of the last 11 games. The game goes over last
00:20night, the total of 7.5, a 5-3 final on the heels of a Jaron Duran home run. The game-winning
00:27homer by Duran earns him the All-Star Game MVP. The pregame odds on Duran, plus 20,200
00:36to 1. He was listed, along with several other players, as the longest odds of all the positional
00:41players to win the award. It is the Ted Williams Award, so apt that a Red Sox player wins it
00:47and he is the fifth to do so. J.D. Drew, the last to do it in 0-8. He joins Pedro Martinez,
00:53Roger Clemens, and Carl Yastrzemski as the other Red Sox winners of the All-Star Game
00:58MVP. So, an unlikely MVP, perhaps, but obviously the big home run nets the American League
01:05the 5-3 win. He broke the tie and has that game-winning homer. Pitching still dominant,
01:10obviously, as usual. Mason Miller gets the win, Hunter Green with the loss, but pitchers
01:15dominant overall, only 15 hits in the game. Eight runs does go over, but not a particularly
01:20high-scoring game in the 5-3 final. But, good game to watch. Kept crisp, kept moving
01:26pretty quickly. The game was not into the night as other All-Star Games of yesteryear
01:31were. So, nice game last night for the American League. Moving on, in other news, Brandon
01:38Ayuk, the 49ers all-pro wide receiver, has officially requested a trade after an off-season
01:45of unsuccessful attempts to reach an extension of that via Mike Garofalo of the NFL Network.
01:53Despite a recent meeting, the Niners haven't been willing to engage in negotiations since
01:56May, so Ayuk has respectfully asked out. We saw this, we have been tracking this on SportsGrid
02:02for months. We saw it start to really pick up steam around the NFL draft time a couple
02:07of months ago, and I think it will remain a story for as long as Ayuk and his representatives
02:14choose to push it. The Niners, at present, and certainly not for the last few months,
02:19have not received an offer requisite of his value. He clearly makes them a championship-contending
02:25team with him out of the mix and other players in, like rookie wide receiver Ricky Pearsall
02:31and others perhaps having to lift up the load at the receiver position or pass-catching
02:36positions. I don't know that they are quite as clear a contender. They still would be
02:44but I don't know, I think Ayuk really pushes them to another level. We saw when he was
02:48neutralized in the Super Bowl and throughout the playoffs, I think that really hurt the
02:53Niners' chances of ultimately winning that championship this year. But maybe that's part
02:57of the reason for the Niners and Ayuk not really being on the same page. He wants to
03:02find greener pastures and more valuable pastures elsewhere and the Niners still feel like they
03:09need him on the team to compete. In WNBA news, we had Maria Moreno on yesterday and
03:16the Chicago Sky end up picking up a big victory over their Las Vegas Aces. They were 13 and
03:22a half point underdogs. Maria and I spoke about it yesterday, expected the Aces to get
03:27the victory but as we are approaching this break, this month-long break of the Olympics,
03:32how motivated would everybody be heading into this month-long hiatus and the Chicago Sky
03:38clearly were. Kennedy Carter, 34 points, four rebounds, two assists. She's been a journeyman
03:45WNBA player, played in Turkey last season, was drafted by the Dream a few years ago but
03:51really a career game for her yesterday in the Chicago Sky picking up the big upset victory.
03:56Here's some audio on Kennedy Carter's performance yesterday. I think it's just a testament to
04:01everything that I've been through and everything that I've done. I've been overshadowed a lot
04:04in my career. People don't understand that I'm a consistent player and I'm going to come
04:08out there and be a dog night in and night out. I think now I'm getting comfortable.
04:12Spoon's allowing me to make mistakes, keeping me in the game. She's letting me be me and
04:17that's allowing me to, it's benefiting myself but it's benefiting my team as well. So I
04:23just think that it's just my comfortability. I don't see any error out there. I just see
04:28red. I want to just go play hard, 100%, whole game.
04:33Alright, big victory there for the Chicago Sky. Moving on to the NFL, a few storylines
04:38here. The Broncos sign Quinn Miners, their offensive lineman, to a four-year, $80 million
04:43extension. He is a Division III player out of Wisconsin-Whitewater. It was a third-round
04:50draft pick, I believe, possibly second-round draft pick, but nonetheless, not a first-day
04:54draft pick but has become an important cog in what they're trying to do offensively.
04:59New coach Sean Payton clearly likes him in the mix there. Miners was hospitalized last
05:05year with an irregular heartbeat, an elevated heart rate, so they obviously feel comfortable
05:11with his medicals at this point and his play certainly to give him this extension as the
05:15Broncos are trying to rebuild with Bo Nix and whomever else they'd like to try at quarterback.
05:23So Devontae Adams agents called trade speculation baseless. I think this is the time of year
05:33where a lot of people out there are trying to speculate and find roles for people that
05:38may be better than where they are now, but it doesn't mean that the teams are having
05:43calls about it. Devontae Adams would obviously be sought after by a wide variety of teams,
05:49not the least of which are fans that work at this network, New York Jets fans would
05:54love to see Devontae Adams and Aaron Rodgers reunited again, but unlikely. I think the
05:59important part of what the Raiders are trying to do with Gardner Minshew and potentially
06:04Aiden O'Connell as they fight in what is obviously a very competitive division. I just mentioned
06:10the Broncos, the Chiefs are reigning world champs and we'll see what the Chargers can
06:16with Jim Harbaugh. So moving on to other football news, the NFC North, we have bears signing
06:22officially Caleb Williams and Rome a dunes aid to their rookie contracts. Williams signs
06:26a four year deal worth nearly $40 million and a $25 million signing bonus at dunes a
06:32with a $13 million signing bonus. They'll each be locked in for four years and obviously
06:37that fifth year option looms for these players down the line. JJ McCarthy remains the only
06:44unsigned first round QB. He's the number 10 overall pick and it'll eventually sign
06:49a four year $21.8 million deal. Those numbers are set and sort of locked in by the CBA.
06:56But this likely has something to do with how he is receiving those installments, how the
07:01what those payments look like. The NFL has done a good job over the years making sure
07:05that all the rookies get to camp on time and that their contract situations are settled
07:10as we move over to the basketball back to the hardwood former college basketball point
07:15shaver Steven Smith out of Arizona State joins epic in an advisory role. His goal in life
07:21now to educate people on the ills of gambling and the dangers of sports betting. I think
07:28it's important to have somebody that is an advocate for those that may run into problems.
07:33But Steven Smith was really one of the more famous point shavers at NCA history when he
07:38was at Arizona State and it famously all got taken down. He spent a year in prison
07:45for being part of a racketeering scheme in order to fix games. So he finds himself on
07:51the other side of the law now and trying to help people in this advisory role. Adam Silver
07:55defending the NBA new tax apron the second apron as it's been colloquially called. There
08:02have been a lot of critics. I can only say that silver has come out and said we intended
08:07to make this league more competitive. I think what you're going to see and and it is clear
08:15that this is already occurring that we have now seen six years in a row a new NBA champion.
08:24Frankly it's it's six teams in seven years. There's been no repeats in that time the Warriors
08:29have won twice in seven years. But I think this is what the league wants. They get a
08:34ton of buzz around player movement and new teams competing. So the days of the dynasties
08:42are likely dwindling or would be far more difficult. The Celtics have a real shot to
08:47run it back next year. But in a few years when Jalen Brown's contract is up is he going
08:52to resign with the Celts. He'll be a 12 year veteran at that point. So teams don't stay
08:57together forever. But it would be nice for certain fan bases to be able to keep guys
09:02like that together. I think it just becomes less and less likely now. Klay Thompson staying
09:06with the Warriors and Contavious Caldwell-Pope having to move on and other Paul George having
09:11to move from L.A. to the Sixers. I think that is more likely to be the future of the NBA.