Screen Shots: September 19th-25th, 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]!

Hello! Still on a mini-Beyond The Arc hiatus, but I’ll be back up and rolling very soon! In the meantime, head over to my YouTube channel to check out all of the other lovely things that I’m doing. Now, to the sports!

Thursday, September 19th, 2024

• MLB: Philadelphia Phillies @ New York Mets at 7:15 pm (ET) on Fox

With baseball’s love of numbers, Shohei Ohtani’s presumptive 50/50 season has led to him rightfully being the favorite to take home the NL MVP award despite playing DH. However, the Mets are on track to make just their 6th postseason appearance since 2000 thanks in large part to an MVP-worthy season by SS Francisco Lindor. If Shohei had really been on that plane to Toronto, Lindor would be well on his way to becoming the 13th player ever to win MVP after not being selected for the MLB All-Star Game. Trea Turner of these very same Phillies was the starting SS for the NL All-Star team. The only SS to win MVP after not being an All-Star was then-Phillies SS Jimmy Rollins in 2007. The starting SS for the NL All-Stars that year? José Reyes of the Mets.

• WNBA: Atlanta Dream @ New York Liberty at 7:00 pm (ET) on NBA TV

Welp, the regular season comes to a close. In a season where record after record has fallen, somehow a relatively huge one has flown under the radar. Dream C Tina Charles is 3 rebounds away from becoming the WNBA’s all-time leader in career rebounds. She’ll surpass the legendary Sylvia Fowles, an 8-time All-Defensive 1st Team member, including her final season in 2022. Earlier this year, Tina moved into 2nd place on the W’s all-time scoring list. A lack of postseason success is why Charles isn’t brought up in GOAT convos, but she’s had one hell of a career. Speaking of the postseason, Atlanta is 1 of 3 teams fighting for the 8th and final playoff spot.

Friday, September 20th, 2024

• NWSL: Washington Spirit @ Kansas City Current at 8:00 pm (ET) on Prime Video

As a Lakers fan, Magic Johnson being part of the ownership group that purchased the Dodgers in 2012 played a big role in me becoming a Dodgers fan too. Well, guess who just became part owner of the Washington Spirit? Being a bandwagon fan immediately paid off once again as the Spirit feature one of the most exciting soccer players in the world in F Trinity Rodman. How many athletes in any sport have a signature move that rhymes with their nickname a la the Trin Spin? It’s inspired me to trademark my own signature move, the Standin’ Brandon. That’s what it’s called on those rare occasions I’m able to stand up without grunting.

The Current have their own exciting forward in Temwa Chawinga. Including both club and national team play, no woman scored more goals in 2023 than she did. In her 1st NWSL season, Chawinga is leading the league in goals scored, including a record-setting 8-match goal-scoring streak. Sadly, her squad’s owner is infinitely less cool than Magic.

Saturday, September 21st, 2024

• College Football: Tennessee Volunteers @ Oklahoma Sooners at 7:30 pm (ET) on ABC

Find someone who loves you the way Tennessee coach Josh Heupel loves running up the score. Up 30-0 on Kent State in the 1st quarter, his Volunteers successfully attempted an onside kick. They were up 65-0 at halftime before finally taking a chill pill en route to a 71-0 win. This came a week after Heupel received some criticism for still airing it out with starting QB Nico Iamaleava in the 4th quarter of a 41-point blowout against NC State. And THAT was a week after demolishing Chattanooga 69-3. So what’s going on? Is Heupel an asshole?

Maybe. Or maybe he’s a product of his college football upbringing. This is actually a homecoming for Heupel, who was the Sooners’ starting QB in 1999 and 2000. He was a pretty damn good one too, leading the Sooners to the 2000 BCS National Championship. Remember the BCS? Starting in the 1998 season, we fed a bunch of information into a computer so the computer could tell us who should be playing for the national title. One of those pieces of information included a team’s margin of victory. As a result, you had teams trying to go upside each other’s heads to prove to a computer that they were national championship contenders. It was hilarious!

Sadly, in 2002, the BCS stopped using margin of victory in an effort to prevent teams from trying to embarrass each other. Unfortunately for Tennessee’s opponents, Heupel was long gone. Margin of victory is all the man knows. Please forgive him. He also HATES Oklahoma now after they fired him as their offensive coordinator a decade ago. Tune in to see him try to hang 80 on his alma mater and set fire to the Sooner Schooner.

Sunday, September 22nd, 2024

• NFL: Baltimore Ravens @ Dallas Cowboys at 4:25 pm (ET) on Fox

Have you ever been enjoying a nice leisurely stroll outside and then all of a sudden you walk into a spiderweb? That’s what I imagine pulling for these teams feels like.

• WNBA Playoffs!

Finally! At the time of this arriving in your inbox, we still don’t know the exact seeds for everybody or the exact schedule, but somebody somewhere starts their road to the title today.

Monday, September 23rd, 2024

• NFL: Washington Commanders @ Cincinnati Bengals at 8:15 pm (ET) on ABC

Commanders rookie QB Jayden Daniels reminds me of Randall Cunningham. He has yet to find the endzone through the air but has completed 75.5% of his passes so far. The record for a rookie QB who has started all of his team’s regular season games is 67.8%, set by Dak Prescott in 2016. Yeah, I was shocked too.

Tuesday, September 24th, 2024

• MLB: San Diego Padres @ Los Angeles Dodgers at 10:10 pm (ET) on TBS

The Dodgers are trying to catch the Phillies for the best record in all of baseball. The Padres are trying to catch the Dodgers for the NL West crown. Considering LA has won the division every year except 1 since 2013, that would be quite the accomplishment. How in the hell did I manage to avoid being a Braves fan just to end up pulling for the West Coast version of them? Oh, right, Magic Johnson. We just talked about it.

Wednesday, September 25th, 2024

Since we don’t know the exact WNBA playoff schedule yet, how about some women’s hoops history instead? This is Ivory Latta’s birthday. The 5’6” Latta was one of the first South Carolinians in my basketball lifetime who made noise on a national level in high school, which means I read about her in Slam Magazine. She is still the all-time leading scorer in South Carolina high school history with 4,319 points. As far as I was concerned, she was the Allen Iverson of the women’s game. There was no higher praise from me at the time.

After a stellar career at the University of North Carolina, she was drafted 11th overall by the Detroit Shock in 2007. If you’re new to the W, they are the Dallas Wings now. She played 11 seasons, making 2 All-Star appearances, before retiring in 2017. She posts a lot of workout videos on her Instagram (@babyivey12), and I’m pretty sure she could still give some team a solid 10 minutes per game off the bench. But Ivory is on to bigger and better things as an analyst for the ACC Network.

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