Screen Shots: April 17th-23rd, 2025

Welcome to Screen Shots! This is where I tell you what sporting events you should watch on TV every week! Make sure you subscribe so it comes straight to your inbox! Have your own suggestions? Shoot me an email at [email protected]!

It’s NBA Playoff time! Spoiler alert: those games will be featured heavily as we progress through the rounds. Also, former NBA player David Harrison returned to talk about the biggest storylines heading into the postseason. Check it out!

Now, to the sports!

Thursday, April 17th, 2025

• On This Day In Sports History: Jackie Robinson got his first major league hit in 1947

Where do I even begin? This should be a paragraph celebrating the legacy of the first Black major league baseball player in the modern era. Instead, I’m writing to protect said legacy. How appropriate that I can’t hear the words “America’s pastime” without thinking of racism, because white people cannot tolerate uncomfortable truths. Specifically, that racism IS America’s true pastime.

To whitewash Robinson’s story about the horrors he endured to play a child’s game after serving this country is an absolute embarrassment. The franchise he played for going to the White House to meet with the administration spearheading this whitewashing, as well as the whitewashing of the entire country, is an embarrassment. MLB issuing a press release about all of the activities it has planned for Jackie Robinson Day that carefully avoided any mention of why Robinson’s MLB career was so notable is an embarrassment. Here’s an article by Lex Pryor of The Ringer that explains why more coherently than I can at the moment.

Friday, April 18th, 2025

• NBA: 8th Seed Play-In Games. Teams and Time TBD. Eastern Conference on TNT/Western Conference on ESPN

Initially, I was skeptical of the play-in tournament, but it adds another layer of drama to the NBA season, so I’ll take it. In its current format, half of the games have been decided by fewer than 10 points. That’s a 50% chance of a close game! Combined with the stakes involved, it’s worth the watch.

Saturday, April 19th, 2025

• College Softball: Coppin State Eagles @ Norfolk State Spartans at 2:00 pm (ET) on ESPNU

A little HBCU softball on ESPNU! As I said last week, I’m just learning this sport, similar to how we learned volleyball together in the fall. When this is the case, I start looking for little threads I can use to heighten my interest so that I can share my enthusiasm with you. Imagine my surprise when I learned that Norfolk State has a player from right here in Charleston who just graduated from James Island. Well, that surprise pales in comparison to the surprise I had when I learned that her name is Reagan Wheatley, and looks very much like a Reagan Wheatley. Don’t get me wrong, I saw Jayson in Drumline. I know this is a thing. I just wasn’t expecting it. Now you know, so you can just focus on the game. You’re welcome!

• NWSL: Washington Spirit @ Orlando Pride at 5:00 pm (ET) on ION

A rematch of last year’s NWSL Championship. The Pride won that one. It’s early in the season, but both teams are once again at the top of the standings. The Spirit’s Ashley Hatch was the leading goal scorer during the 2021 NWSL season. She already has 4 in just 4 matches so far.

• NBA: Minnesota Timberwolves @ Los Angeles Lakers at 8:30 pm (ET) on ABC

Game 1 of the first round series between Minnesota’s current and former teams. Can you believe how much has changed since Luka Doncic hit this game-winner over Rudy Gobert in last year’s Western Conference Finals? Fun fact: Everything Luka yelled at Rudy after hitting that shot is exactly what I yelled at him when his dumbass shut down the entire world.

Sunday, April 20th, 2025

• MLB: San Diego Padres @ Houston Astros at 7:00 pm (ET) on ESPN

Happy Easter if that’s your thing! Tune in to watch Padre Jason Heyward take on first base coach Dave Clark of the Astros!

Monday, April 21st, 2025

• College Softball: Kentucky Wildcats @ #12 South Carolina Gamecocks at 7:00 pm (ET) on SEC Network

Check out this catch by Gamecocks LF Emily Vinson to rob a 3-run HR!

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2025

• MLB: Philadelphia Phillies @ New York Mets at 7:10 pm (ET) on TBS

The Phillies, led by Joe Ross and Taijuan Walker, take on the Mets, whose franchise hall of fame includes such luminaries as Cleon Jones, Tommie Agee, Mookie Wilson, Dwight Gooden, and Darryl Strawberry.

Wednesday, April 23rd, 2025

• Spanish LALIGA Soccer: Real Madrid @ Getafe at 3:30 pm (ET) on ESPN2

Let me explain. Just before Halloween in 2022, my girlfriend and I woke up to a pipe that had burst under our kitchen sink. The ensuing flood left us without a kitchen sink, cabinets, and flooring in approximately 75% of our house. You really don’t know how much you take this stuff for granted until you come inside from washing your dishes in the yard and step foot on your ice-cold concrete foundation. A first-world problem for sure, but it was our first-world problem until the following March. It was miserable.

The only fun moment I remember from that time was watching the 2022 Men’s FIFA World Cup final between France and Argentina. You’d have to perform a bit of a stretch to classify either of us as even casual soccer fans, but there we were in our barren living room cheering so wildly that we scared the dog. One player was the reason for the majority of that cheering: France’s Kylian Mbappé.

France lost to Argentina in a shootout, but Mbappé was absolutely brilliant. He was by far the best player on the pitch that day. You didn’t have to be a soccer expert or have a kitchen sink to see it. All these years later, I try to catch his matches whenever possible. He’s currently on Real Madrid and will be playing after serving a 1-game suspension for trying to do to an opposing player’s leg what that pipe did to my home.

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