Screen Shots: October 3rd-9th, 2024

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]!

As always, make sure to watch my show, “Beyond The Arc with Brandon Silvers.” This week, Danny Foxworth joined me to wrap up the MLB season. We talked about Shohei Ohtani’s place in history, gave some love to players we think are underrated, shamed A’s ownership for moving the team, and much more!

Now, to the sports!

Thursday, October 3rd, 2024

• MLB Playoffs: New York Mets @ Milwaukee Brewers at 8:30 pm (ET) on ESPN2

I stayed up later than usual cheering for a team I don’t really care about so that I’d have something to write about here. That’s how much I care about YOU! It’s a do-or-die Wild Card matchup in the most random postseason format of any professional sport. It could and should be awesome! I’d love to tell you there will be another one before this at 7:00 pm, but I have to get this published and the Braves look terrible late in their game.

Friday, October 4th, 2024

• WNBA Playoffs: Minnesota Lynx @ Connecticut Sun at 7:30 pm (ET) on ESPN2

Best-of-5 series tied at 1 game apiece heading into game 3 and the teams already can’t stand each other. If you need any more reason than that, check your pulse.

• WNBA Playoffs: New York Liberty @ Las Vegas Aces at 9:30 pm (ET) on ESPN2

The Aces needing a win at home to avoid being swept is one of those things that feels more shocking than it really is. If you happened to blink at the wrong time, you missed any flashes of the team that has won the last 2 WNBA titles. Instead, what you saw is a team that’s maddeningly inconsistent outside of the otherworldly play of A’ja Wilson.

To make the challenge of 3-peating even more daunting, there was no margin for error with this season’s Liberty squad. Their record might look the same, an impressive 32-8, but this is a better team. They’ve played like a team desperate to prove that they’re not the same Liberty who lacked the killer instinct to take out an overmatched Aces team in last year’s WNBA Finals. Faced with the same opportunity this season, will they finish the job? They’ll get 3 chances, but if this gets to a game 5, there may not be enough trash cans to go around.

Saturday, October 5th, 2024

• College Football: Pittsburgh Panthers @ North Carolina Tar Heels at 12:00 pm (ET) on ESPN2

I hate to do this to my guy Danny, who is a Tar Heel fan, but UNC has proven itself to be the most entertaining team to watch in college football for all the wrong reasons. Two weeks ago, they gave up 53(!) 1st half points to James Madison (!!) en route to losing 70-50 at home (!!!). That was almost enough to make Mack Brown quit, but he came back for last week’s game against rival Duke. Maybe he shouldn’t have, because they blew a 20-0 2nd half lead and lost 20-21. I’m very excited to see what else they have up their sleeve! My Gamecocks play at 3:30 against Ole Miss, but I’d prefer to ignore that.

• MLB Playoffs: Detroit Tigers @ Cleveland Guardians at 1:08 pm (ET) on TBS/TruTV/Max

It’s a Divisional Series Saturday! The Tigers did everyone a favor by eliminating the Astros in the Wild Card. They must have a great manager. Oh, look, it’s A.J. Hinch! How did they get him? Oh, right, he was free after serving a year-long suspension and being fired as the Astros manager for his role in their sign-stealing scandal that robbed me the Los Angeles Dodgers of the 2017 World Series.

I haven’t heard any banging noises, but Detroit has been red-hot. Since August 2nd, they’ve gone 36-17 including their sweep of Houston. At some point in this series, AL Cy Young favorite Tarik Skubal should take the mound for them. Whenever he does, he’ll have his hands full with Guardians 3B José Ramírez, who fell a homer short of a 40/40 season. He can impact games with all kinds of hits.

• MLB Playoffs: Milwaukee Brewers/New York Mets @ Philadelphia Phillies at 4:08 pm (ET) on Fox

Did you know Roger Clemens’ kid plays for the Phillies? Unlike his dad, Kody’s day job is utility infielder. However, he has been used as the “this game is a blowout so let’s have one of the position players pitch” pitcher on several occasions throughout his career. He recorded his first-ever strikeout during his 6th pitching appearance. The batter? Shohei Ohtani. If he takes the mound at any point, it’s probably safe to change the channel.

• MLB Playoffs: Kansas City Royals @ New York Yankees at 6:38 pm (ET) on TBS/Max

The Royals shocked the Orioles in the Wild Card thanks to clutch hitting from SS Bobby Witt Jr. He led the Majors in batting average (.332) and hits (211) to go along with 32 homers and 109 RBI. He’d probably be the AL MVP if not for the absolutely absurd season by Yankees CF Aaron Judge. He led the Majors in homers (58) and RBI (144) while batting a career-high .322. Not bad. Hits are hard to come by in the playoffs, but you might see some with these two in the same series.

• MLB Playoffs: San Diego Padres @ Los Angeles Dodgers at 8:38 pm (ET) on FS1

It’s Shohei’s first playoff game!

Sunday, October 6th, 2024

• NFL: New York Jets @ Minnesota Vikings in London at 9:30 am (ET) on NFL Network

Breakfast football AND a Sam Darnold revenge game?!? The Jets drafted Darnold 3rd overall in 2018, and his 3 seasons with the team were, uh, not great. However, after bouncing around for a few seasons, he may have found a home in Minnesota. The Vikings are undefeated and our friend Sam leads the NFL in TD passes. Turns out Justin Jefferson is a better target than Robbie Chosen. Meanwhile, Jets QB Aaron Rodgers probably would have been better off as RFK’s running mate (derogatory).

• NWSL: Washington Spirit @ Orlando Pride at 5:00 pm (ET) on ESPN2

When you’re venturing into new sports the way I am with soccer, you put yourself at risk of feeling silly every so often. This happened to me during my research for this match due to the 3 column format the NWSL uses for standings. My only other experience with the format is the NFL, where the set-up from left to right is “Wins Losses Ties.” I assumed it was the same for the NWSL, meaning that the 1st place Orlando Pride owned a record of 16 wins, 6 losses, and 0 ties (or draws as they’re called). One problem: after checking site after site, I couldn’t find evidence of a single loss they suffered this season.

The reason for this turned out to be pretty simple. They haven’t lost a single match all season. They are undefeated through 22 games played. The actual format for the standings is “Wins Draws Losses,” which I discovered when I decided to look a couple of millimeters higher. This unbeaten streak breaks the previous record of 17 set by the Kansas City Current earlier this season. They are led by Barbra Banda, a scoring machine who is the only female soccer player ever to record 3 hat tricks in Olympic play, and Brazilian legend Marta. Let’s tune in to see what else we can learn!

Monday, October 7th, 2024

• NFL: New Orleans Saints @ Kansas City Chiefs at 8:15 pm (ET) on ESPN

If I told you before the season that the Chiefs would be undefeated through 4 games despite an offensive tackle having more receiving touchdowns than Travis Kelce, you would have called me “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived,” but here we are. Even more impressive, that tackle, Wanya Morris, is named after the King of ‘90s R&B ad-libs, Wanya Morris of Boyz II Men. Want more Wanya Morris? Then you’ll love WanMor, the R&B group consisting of Wanya Morris’ four sons WHO ARE ALL NAMED WANYA MORRIS! That’s right, the man went full George Foreman. The Chiefs keep finding new and innovative ways to get their offensive weapons injured, but Patrick Mahomes could win games throwing to any and all Wanya Morrises if he had to (and he might the way things are going).

Here are the top 5 Wanya Morris ad-lib performances of ever that I won’t elaborate on now but almost certainly will at some point:

5) Never

4) A Song for Mama 

3) Trying Times

2) Doin’ Just Fine

1) On Bended Knee

Tuesday, October 8th, 2024

• Halloween Movie of the Week: Scream at Whatever Time You Choose on Multiple Streaming Services

At 7 years old, I thought I was grown enough to watch this. My mom may have disagreed, but she didn’t object so off to Blockbuster we went. I made it through the opening scene before pleading with her to turn it off. When I finally worked up the nerve to finish it, it became a must-watch for me every year, even inspiring one of the greatest parodies in “Brett’s Bets” history! There will be a couple of MLB Divisional Series games today plus the deciding game 5s of the WNBA Semifinals if they make it that far, but we don’t have enough info yet as I am writing this. Luckily, you’re streaming Scream, so you are in full control of your schedule!

Wednesday, October 9th, 2024

• NBA Preseason: Golden State Warriors @ Sacramento Kings at 10:30 pm (ET) on ESPN

The Warriors’ 1st nationally televised game without Klay Thompson on the roster since 2011. We barely had Instagram back then!

Thank you again for reading! Be sure to subscribe if you haven’t already to receive this in your inbox every Thursday morning. You should also share it with everyone you know so you’re never without a conversation starter. See you next week!