A Link of Her Own: October 7, 2016

Breaking race and gender barriers, MLB & NFL recaps + more

Hanna Fogel

Published in

The Relish

3 min readOct 7, 2016

HE’S BACK…

After acting as vice captain during the Ryder Cup, Tiger Woods officially announced that his return as a player, after 14 months off due to injury, will take place during next week’s Safeway Open in Napa, California. We’ve still got a bad taste on our mouths from his serial infidelity scandal, no matter how many years ago it was, but we’re sure his presence will still help boost TV ratings.

MLB Updates

If playoff baseball is your jam, then days like yesterday and today are the bread and butter. The Blue Jays take a 2–0 series lead back to Toronto after beating the Rangers 5–3 in Game 2 of their ALDS matchup earlier this afternoon (which was made a bit more somber after pitcher Francisco Liriano was hit in the neck by a ball traveling more than 100 miles an hour), while the Indians stormed past the Red Sox yesterday with a three-home-run third inning to win 5–4. Those two teams are playing again as you’re reading this, as are the Dodgers and Nationals for the first time this postseason. In what just might be the game of the night, the Cubs and Giants meet in Chicago for Game 1 of their NLDS series at 9ET/6PT; yeah, your eyes might be glazing over from watching so much TV at this point, but you’re not going to want to miss this.

Awesome Factoid: Dusty Baker of the Nationals and Dave Roberts of the Dodgers are the first African-American managers to face off against each other in the MLB playoffs.

NFL Updates

The Cardinals may have had to use backup QB Drew Stanton, but his two touchdown passes to Larry Fitzgerald helped them beat the 49ers 33–21 on Thursday Night Football, bringing the BirdGang’s record to 2–3 (also thanks to RB David Johnson’s two touchdowns and 157 running yards, the latter of which leads the NFL this season) and the 49ers to 1–4 — could Colin Kaepernick’s turn at QB be on the horizon? The Cardinals may not have come out completely unscathed, though; guards Mike Iupati and Evan Mathis both hurt their ankles during Thursday’s game.

Sports & Tech

Former New Orleans Saints player Steve Gleason has lost all of his motor skills to ALS, which means he’s been taking full advantage of technology that can read his eye movements, like the tracker that allows him to talk and move his wheelchair. Next up? A robotic arm that’s guided by his eyes to allow him to write.

Longread of the Day

On Shirin Gerami, Iran’s first female triathlete, making her Ironman World Championship debut.

Sports & Social Justice

DeSean Jackson and Carmelo Anthony explain where their activism comes from, and the first out transgender professional athlete in U.S. leagues identifies as a man while playing women’s hockey. As Hurricane Matthew moves north, the Atlanta Motor Speedway has opened its campgrounds to those looking for shelter.

And the Derrick Rose rape case? Still ugly. The woman who accused him was, understandably, crying as she gave her testimony, and Rose’s lawyer had the audacity to ask the judge for a “no-crying order” because they couldn’t have her “crying all day.” Thankfully, the judge saw sense and said, “I’m not going to order the witness not to cry any more than I’m going to order her not to breathe.”