* This just in. The International Olympic Committee just gave provisional approval of breakdancing to debut at the 2024 Summer Games in Paris. Have to wonder if juggling, unicycling and, maybe, corn hole could also get Olympic traction.
* Amid all the cynical, leverage speculation, it’s at least fun to focus on potential names for a MLB team splitting its home stands between Tampa Bay and Montreal. Combining today’s Rays and the erstwhile Expos: From ExRays to Team Timeshareto the North American Rayons de Soleil.
But the stark reality remains this: The Rays deserve credit for being creative with defensive shifts, use of an “opener” and a cashless stadium. But a split season with a Canadian co-franchise? This gives creativity a bad name.
* Megan Rapinoe is an incredibly talented U.S. soccer player. She also has a social conscience and the guts–and forum–to speak out on issues that still haunt U.S. society. You go, Megan, but keep America’s issues on American forums. National Anthem demonstrations that protest gender bias and racism and underscore LGBTQ rights are appropriate where the relevant issues are–in America. On an international stage, it’s awkward, unnecessarily distracting and embarrassing.
And, yes, that principle still applies retroactively to the Black Power salutes in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick exercised a constitutional right and made his point about American racism to fellow Americans. That’s not the same as an American’s World Cup gesture of protest in France. It just isn’t.
Here’s hoping Megan Rapinoe is next known–and lionized–for her outspoken, White House no-show with the racist misogynist-in-chief.