Connect with us

Published

3 years ago

on

Sep 25, 2022

There are Saturdays when the true playoff contenders emerge with such ferocity and dominance they cannot be ignored.

There are Saturdays when the whole system feels rigged, and upsets knock one team after another from the ranks of the elite.

And then there are Saturdays like Week 4, where the goal is simply survival.

In Winston-Salem, upstart Wake Forest decimated Clemson‘s battered secondary to such a degree that, after the game, Dabo Swinney suggested he was one drive away from playing cornerback himself.

On the Palouse, Washington State delivered body blows to Oregon in a quest to upend the Pac-12’s power structure.

In the Big House, Maryland refused to go away, frustrating Michigan again and again.

Out west, Lincoln Riley’s offense finally met its match in Oregon State, which tormented QB Caleb Williams until the Trojans’ final drive.

In each case, however, the favorite survived.

It was the same story up and down the top 25. Georgia struggled to put away Kent State, allowing more than twice as many points Saturday as the Bulldogs had all season. Baylor had two takeaways, held Iowa State to just 66 yards on the ground, and still had to hold its breath on a final onside kick try. Ole Miss barely scraped by Tulsa. Kentucky went to halftime tied with Northern Illinois. Tennessee dominated Florida, then nearly let the Gators come back in a frenetic final few minutes, saved, in part, by Billy Napier’s inexplicable decision to go for two with 4:49 to play, trailing by 11.

Saturday was like one long thriller, the main character narrowly escaping one harrowing scenario after another, emerging battered, bloodied and bruised … but alive.

The same could not be said for everyone.

Texas saw a 14-point second-half lead disappear as Texas Tech roared back to take a 34-31 lead with 21 seconds remaining. Still, the Longhorns fought back, sending the game to overtime, only to witness Bijan Robinson fumble on the first play of extra time. It was the Longhorns’ seventh loss by a touchdown or less in their past 11 games.

Arkansas went to Dallas and appeared poised to trounce Texas A&M, but a KJ Jefferson fumble as he leaped for the end zone turned into a 97-yard touchdown for the Aggies, and the entire script was flipped. Jimbo Fisher dove deep into his Cheesecake Factory menu — wait, no, we’re being told those are his play sheets — and finally found a spark for the Aggies’ offense, knocking off the Razorbacks 23-21. It was a shocking outcome, given that Jerry Jones usually has to wait until the NFL playoffs to witness his team incomprehensibly fall apart.

Oklahoma became the latest victim of the curse of Scott Frost. Northwestern beat Nebraska in Week 0, and it hasn’t won since. Georgia Southern stunned the Cornhuskers in Week 2, then lost the following week to UAB. Oklahoma delivered a rout of Nebraska last week, then could not stop former Huskers QB Adrian Martinez on Saturday, as Kansas State knocked the Sooners from the ranks of the unbeaten, 41-34. Nebraska is like the VHS tape in “The Ring.” All who come into contact with it are doomed to perish within seven days.

It might be easy to find fault with Clemson, which needed overtime to vanquish Sam Hartman and Wake’s downfield passing attack, but the Tigers still won and remain in the playoff hunt. Perhaps that’s all the narrative that matters. Plus, Swinney got to scold reporters for criticizing his QB.

Did Georgia sleepwalk through what it reasonably expected to be an easy win? Probably. But it’s OK for 21 guys to sleepwalk, so long as Brock Bowers is occasionally running.

Did J.J. McCarthy look mortal against Maryland? Perhaps. But after playing three of the worst teams in the country to open the season, Michigan was bound to find tougher sledding in Big Ten play.

Riley could’ve added transfers from 2019 LSU, 2013 Florida State and several members of the 2001 St. Louis Rams, and it might not have been enough to answer the terrific defensive performance from Oregon State. But Williams, who completed fewer than half his passes, completed the necessary throws.

See, winning is hard, and for a few potential contenders the job proved too big Saturday.

For the rest, they’ll survive a bit longer. But as with all horror films, there will be sequels, and what ultimately determines who’s ready for a real playoff push and who’ll simply get a cameo in the next movie might come down to what lessons they learned from a brutal Week 4.

Kansas is actually good

It is written in the Book of Revelations (or maybe it’s in “Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey”) that in the end times all mountains and valleys will be leveled to the plains and, we assume, from those Great Plains a Jayhawk will rise from the ashes.

Well, the apocalypse is upon us. Thanks a lot, Lance Leipold.

Yes, Kansas is 4-0. And it’s not just a schedule-aided, paper-thin 4-0. The Jayhawks upended undefeated Duke on Saturday, throwing for 324 yards, rushing for 204 and looking like one of the most dynamic offenses in the country. This comes on the heels of an overtime win against West Virginia and a surprising upset of Houston.

Kansas, dare we say, is for real.

play

0:47

Daniel Hishaw Jr. breaks tackles left and right as he goes 73 yards for the Kansas touchdown.

To understand just how wild that sounds, remember that the last time Kansas won four games in an entire season, “Avatar” was in theaters. (OK, we’re being told “Avatar” is somehow in theaters again now. Is this Kansas season all just CGI from James Cameron?)

The Jayhawks went to the Orange Bowl in 2007, won eight games in 2008, then stumbled to a 5-7 finish in 2009. What followed was the most prolific comedic run since Bob Hope. Now what will we laugh at? Will it even still be funny the next time Kansas beats Texas?

Kansas spent a decade trying past-their-prime quick fixes such as Charlie Weis and Les Miles and up-and-coming coaches such as Turner Gill and David Beatty. We’re fairly certain at one point the Jayhawks resorted to a shaman and a wax statue of Bear Bryant. None of it helped. Then Leipold arrived and it was as if the program awakened from a long sleep.

Think of the litany of players who’ve come through Lawrence in the past 15 years. Seriously, think of them because, frankly, we can’t remember any. For a generation of college football fans in Kansas, the closest thing they had to a celebrity was Baby Mangino, and he’s now a retired sanitation worker living outside Sarasota, Florida, and collecting social security (again, we assume).

But now, there are stars. Jalon Daniels threw for 324 yards Saturday, ran for 83 more and accounted for five touchdowns. Jayhawks boosters might as well start chipping in for a statue of the guy now. Four different Kansas receivers caught a touchdown against Duke. In 2020, four different Kansas receivers caught a touchdown all season! Kansas has a cornerback named Cobee Bryant. Sure, it’s spelled differently from the better-known Kobe, but “C” is a more versatile letter than “K” and the extra “E” is for “eventually we’re gonna be ranked.”

And no, it probably doesn’t signify the end is near. Had Kent State pulled the upset over Georgia or Central Michigan stayed with Penn State or Wake Forest finished off a win over Clemson, then maybe it’d be time to head for the underground bunker.

But these are strange times. The Jayhawks aren’t just relevant, they’re actually good.

Perhaps there’s a lesson in here for all of us — something about persevering through adversity and knowing that someday hard work will be rewarded. Or, perhaps, it’s that you should never give Charlie Weis a long-term contract. Both options are good advice.

The remaining schedule will be tougher with Iowa State, undefeated TCU and then three straight ranked foes. Perhaps this is the Jayhawks high-water mark for 2022. If so, that’s OK. Because we’ve seen a new horizon for a team that spent the past 15 years steadily walking into a brick wall like a video game character after your cat sits on the controller. But now, Kansas is something more — a program with a pulse, a team moving in the right direction, a fan base that isn’t simply counting down the days until basketball season.

We’re 4-0, too

Kansas may have finally earned some respect with its win Saturday to move to 4-0, but the Jayhawks aren’t the only remaining undefeated teams still hoping to attract a few poll voters.

P.J. Fleck likes to tell his team to “row the boat,” but at this point, the Minnesota Golden Gophers are sailing a yacht confiscated from a Russian oligarch. The Gophers dominated Michigan State on Saturday, and Tanner Morgan & Co. continue to impress. But the really interesting thing about Minnesota is the defense. The Gophers have held 16 straight opponents to fewer than 30 points — the longest active streak in the country.

Florida State demolished Boston College 44-14 on Saturday to get to 4-0. Jordan Travis returned to action and threw for a career-best 321 yards. In Travis’ past 13 starts, Florida State is 10-3.

UCLA narrowly escaped against some lesser opposition earlier this season, but Saturday, Chip Kelly’s crew delivered a dominant win over woeful Colorado 45-17. Dorian Thompson-Robinson threw for 234 yards and two touchdowns, which is impressive for a guy who has to be in his mid-50s by this point.

Syracuse survived Virginia on Friday to move to 4-0, and the Orange appear on a path to emerge as a 12-seed to face Kansas in the Elite Eight.

After Tulane fell to Southern Miss on Saturday, Coastal Carolina is the last remaining team outside the Power 5 with a 4-0 record. Of course, with QB Grayson McCall leaving this week’s win over Georgia State with an injury, the Chanticleers’ hopes could be dashed.

Perhaps it’s still too early to fully endorse any of them, but it seems well past time for each to get some attention from voters and a little love in the top-25 poll.

Punt-a-palooza on the Plains

Saturday might’ve been the day it all ended for Bryan Harsin at Auburn, with Missouri — the SEC’s version of the kid in “Old Yeller” — putting him out of his misery.

The college football gods wouldn’t let him off so easily.

Instead Harsin — and the rest of us — were forced to endure as unfortunate a pillow fight as the season is likely to offer (though Iowa certainly will try to match it).

A quick review of the drive chart from the second half, with the score tied at 14: punt, punt, punt, punt, punt, punt, punt, punt, punt, punt, punt, punt, turnover on downs, missed field goal.

(To answer your question, yes, Kevin Warren has extended an offer for both teams to join the Big Ten.)

That final drive was the most insulting. Auburn had mustered nothing on offense and was down to its fourth-string quarterback. Missouri drove to the 3-yard line to set up a first-and-goal with 45 seconds left. Then, the Tigers — the, um, Missouri ones — took a knee twice to set up a game-winning field goal on third down.

And, of course, the kicker missed.

play

1:19

Missouri RB Nathaniel Peat fumbles at the goal line in overtime for a touchback, giving Auburn the win.

Auburn won it in overtime 17-14 after kicking a field goal following a drive in which it ran three plays and lost 2 yards. But to be fair, Mizzou really lost the game after fumbling the ball in the end zone when it had its chance to win in OT.

So it was with great pain that Harsin had to cancel his tee time next Saturday, so he can coach this team again. Hasn’t the man suffered enough?

Stroud leads Buckeyes in rout

While a number of the country’s top teams stumbled through the Saturday action, Ohio State looked every bit the part of a potential national champion, annihilating Wisconsin 52-21.

C.J. Stroud threw five touchdown passes. The Buckeyes had two 100-yard backs. The defense held Wisconsin to just 296 yards and 11 first downs.

The 52 points was the most scored against a Wisconsin defense since 2014, when the eventual national champion Buckeyes beat the Badgers 59-0 in the Big Ten title game.

And all of Saturday’s dominance came in a game in which Jaxon Smith-Njigba shut things down early, and the Buckeyes played without a couple of starting defensive backs.

If the sluggish start against Notre Dame in Week 1 offered any opening for doubt, Ohio State has clearly delivered an emphatic rebuke. The remaining schedule appears to offer few serious challenges — a road trip to Penn State on Oct. 29 and the season finale against Michigan excepted — and Stroud’s Heisman push is in full stride.

The biggest threat for Ohio State for the next month might simply be boredom. Or Iowa. They’re kind of the same thing.

JMU ends the mountain magic

It had been a magical start to the season for Appalachian State. In the second half Saturday, however, the Mountaineers’ only trick was making their New Year’s Six hopes disappear.

After jumping out to a 28-3 lead, App State’s second half included four punts, two turnovers on downs and a backbreaking interception that set up a go-ahead touchdown for JMU. Not since the Federalist papers has James Madison delivered such an emphatic defeat to the interests of America’s majority.

So perhaps America’s Cinderella story wasn’t meant to be App State after all. How about the Dukes?

JMU is 3-0 in its first season as an FBS team, and quarterback Todd Centeio has thrown 11 touchdowns without an interception. JMU now has as many wins as an FBS program in three games as UMass has over the past four seasons.

The most college football thing to happen Saturday

Middle Tennessee delivered a dagger to Miami to open the fourth quarter, when quarterback Chase Cunningham connected with DJ England-Chisolm, who corralled the pass behind the defense and sprinted into the end zone for a 98-yard touchdown.

Ah, but Miami had an answer. On the ensuing kickoff, Key’Shawn Smith burst up the middle and ran 91 yards to pay dirt, too.

So, to recap: It took 22 seconds and one offensive play for the two teams to rack up 189 all-purpose yards and 14 points.

play

1:14

After a 98-yard Middle Tennessee State touchdown, Miami answers right back with a 91-yard touchdown of its own.

It might’ve been an exciting exchange for the upwards of nine fans in attendance to enjoy, but unfortunately, Miami offered little else to cheer for. MTSU stunned the Hurricanes with a 45-31 win. But take heart, Canes fans. Nick Saban lost to Louisiana-Monroe in his first season at Alabama, so Mario Cristobal is still right on track to win a half-dozen national titles in the coming years.

The most college football thing to happen this week (FCS edition)

Stephen F. Austin had a chance to hang 100 on Warner (which Google tells us is a private Christian school in Florida with an enrollment of 815 students). Rather than hit the century mark, however, the Lumberjacks took a knee on a 2-point try.

Somehow, this feels even more insulting.

Heisman Five

We have officially eliminated Tyler Van Dyke from Heisman consideration. Anthony Richardson narrowly stays in the mix by throwing his first touchdown of the season.

1. Alabama QB Bryce Young

Saturday marked the best day of the season for Alabama’s passing game, with 11 players hauling in a grab and Young throwing for 385 yards and four TDs. More importantly, the game offered a check-in on Clark Lea’s preseason prediction that Vanderbilt would eventually become the best team in the country. Perhaps no opponent offers a better measuring stick than Alabama, but the Tide rolled 55-3. It should be noted that the last time these two teams played was 2017, and Alabama won 59-0. So, Vandy is heading in the right direction, and if this trend continues, Lea could be proven correct by 2043.

play

1:43

Bryce Young throws for 385 yards and four touchdowns as the Crimson Tide roll past the Commodores with a 55-3 victory.

2. Georgia QB Stetson Bennett

In the Bulldogs’ win over Kent State, Bennett threw for a mere 272 yards and no TDs, while also tossing a pick. A blemish on the Heisman resume, you ask? Ha! Bennett is next level, guys. He handed over the offense to Brock Bowers in a brilliant move to boost team chemistry. The rest of the world is playing checkers and Bennett is playing — what’s even better than chess? Backgammon? Hungry Hungry Hippos?

3. Ohio State QB C.J. Stroud

Stroud threw his first interception of the season. What a bum! Oh, the other throws? Let us check on that and … ah, 235 yards and five TDs.

4. Minnesota RB Mohamed Ibrahim

Tanner Morgan tossed three touchdowns and had just three incompletions in a win over Michigan State, which meant a little less work than normal for Ibrahim. Still, he kept his 100-yard game streak intact, racking up 103 yards on 22 carries with a touchdown. He’s now hit the century mark in 13 straight games dating back to 2020, matching Nick Chubb and D’Onta Foreman as the second-longest stretches of the playoff era. The only player with a longer streak is Ezekiel Elliott, who went for 100 in 15 straight games from 2014-2015.

5. Tennessee QB Hendon Hooker

Hooker is the first quarterback with 300 passing yards, 100 rushing yards and a TD both ways in an SEC game since 2018. Since his first start in Week 3 last year, Hooker has played in 15 games, averaging 10 yards per pass, accounting for 45 touchdowns and throwing just two interceptions. He’s been incredible.

Bowers pounds the rock

Brock Bowers is a tight end. He’s an incredibly talented tight end, of course, but a tight end, nevertheless.

And yet, Georgia has seen fit to use Bowers as a runner on three occasions this season. Those three runs resulted in a 5-yard touchdown, a 75-yard touchdown and a 2-yard touchdown.

To recap for those who are not great at math, that’s three rushes and three rushing touchdowns.

play

0:49

Brock Bowers takes the handoff and scores to put the Bulldogs up 7-0.

How impressive is that? Well, Massachusetts is an entire football team. Bowers is one guy. UMass has 201 rushing attempts this year. Bowers has three. UMass has two rushing TDs. Bowers has three.

We can’t help but wonder, if Mike Bobo had Bowers in his backfield instead of just Todd Gurley and Sony Michel and Nick Chubb and Keith Marshall, how much heartache could’ve been saved among Georgia Twitter users?

Under-the-radar game of the week

You’re forgiven if you didn’t have Fordham at Ohio circled on the TV schedule Saturday, but the Rams and Bobcats put on one heck of a show.

Both teams had more than 600 yards of offense. Both had more than 500 passing yards. Both had more than 100 penalty yards.

Final score: Ohio 59, Fordham 52.

But the score was hardly the best part of the action. The highlight was Fordham receiver Fotis Kokosioulis, who finished with an astounding 320 yards receiving on 13 catches, four of which went for TDs. And he did all that despite lugging around all those letters on the back of his jersey. Amazing.

play

1:42

Fordham’s Fotis Kokosioulis has 13 receptions for 320 yards and four touchdowns vs. Ohio.

Under-the-radar play of the week

We’ve seen far too few big-guy touchdowns so far this season, but thankfully Lehigh‘s Dean Colton gave the viewing public what we most crave.

The 285-pound defensive lineman caught a batted ball and returned it 52 yards for the score against Princeton.

Big bets and bad beats

DJ Uiagalelei managed to rescue Clemson from the precipice of defeat against Wake Forest on Saturday, but he didn’t salvage a hefty contingent of bettors. Clemson closed as a 7.5-point favorite at Caesars Sportsbook, with 82% of tickets and 87% of money on the Tigers. When the two teams made it to a second overtime, things set up nicely for Clemson to muster a shocking cover. The Tigers scored first and then, by rule, had to go for 2. Uiagalelei’s pass fell incomplete, however, and Clemson won 51-45.

After trailing for the bulk of the game, Oregon roared back in the second half and looked poised to cover a 6-point spread. But the betting gods intervened. Washington State backers had to watch their team fall apart in the final quarter, but the Cougars got the ball with 1:01 to play, drove 75 yards and scored with one second remaining. Final score, 44-41 Oregon and a very lucky cover for Washington State.

Middle Tennessee was Week 4’s upset special. The Blue Raiders closed at +25.5, and +1550 on the money line, against Miami. They never trailed in the game and won by 14. It was a tough day if you bet the Miami money line, which failed to pay out at -4500.

Related Topics:
Continue Reading

Sports

Remembering Ruffian 50 years after her breakdown at Belmont

Published

12 hours ago

on

July 6, 2025

By

Remembering Ruffian 50 years after her breakdown at Belmont

Thoroughbred racing suffered its most ignominious, industry-deflating moment 50 years ago today with the breakdown of Ruffian, an undefeated filly running against Foolish Pleasure in a highly promoted match race at Belmont Park. Her tragic end on July 6, 1975, was a catastrophe for the sport, and observers say racing has never truly recovered.

Two years earlier, during the rise of second-wave feminism, the nation had been mesmerized by a “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. King’s win became a rallying cry for women everywhere. The New York Racing Association, eager to boost daily racing crowds in the mid-1970s, proposed a competition similar to that of King and Riggs. They created a match race between Kentucky Derby winner Foolish Pleasure and Ruffian, the undefeated filly who had dominated all 10 of her starts, leading gate to wire.

“In any sport, human or equine, it’s really impossible to say who was the greatest,” said outgoing Jockey Club chairman Stuart Janney III, whose parents, Stuart and Barbara, owned Ruffian. “But I’m always comfortable thinking of Ruffian as being among the four to five greatest horses of all time.”

Ruffian, nearly jet black in color and massive, was the equine version of a Greek goddess. At the age of 2, her girth — the measurement of the strap that secures the saddle — was just over 75 inches. Comparatively, racing legend Secretariat, a male, had a 76-inch girth when he was fully developed at the age of 4.

Her name also added to the aura. “‘Ruffian’ was a little bit of a stretch because it tended to be what you’d name a colt, but it turned out to be an appropriate name,” Janney said.

On May 22, 1974, Ruffian equaled a Belmont Park track record, set by a male, in her debut at age 2, winning by 15 lengths. She set a stakes record later that summer at Saratoga in the Spinaway, the most prestigious race of the year for 2-year-old fillies. The next spring, she blew through races at longer distances, including the three races that made up the so-called Filly Triple Crown.

Some in the media speculated that she had run out of female competition.

Foolish Pleasure had meanwhile ripped through an undefeated 2-year-old season with championship year-end honors. However, after starting his sophomore campaign with a win, he finished third in the Florida Derby. He also had recovered from injuries to his front feet to win the Wood Memorial and then the Kentucky Derby.

Second-place finishes in the Preakness and Belmont Stakes left most observers with the idea that Foolish Pleasure was the best 3-year-old male in the business.

Following the Belmont Stakes, New York officials wanted to test the best filly against the best colt.

The original thought was to include the Preakness winner, Master Derby, in the Great Match Race, but the team of Foolish Pleasure’s owner, trainer and rider didn’t want a three-horse race. Since New York racing had guaranteed $50,000 to the last-place horse, they paid Master Derby’s connections $50,000 not to race. Thus, the stage was set for an equine morality play.

“[Ruffian’s] abilities gave her the advantage in the match race,” Janney said. “If she could do what she did in full fields [by getting the early lead], then it was probably going to be even more effective in a match.”

Several ballyhooed match races in sports history had captured the world’s attention without incident — Seabiscuit vs. Triple Crown winner War Admiral in 1938, Alsab vs. Triple Crown winner Whirlaway in 1942, and Nashua vs. Swaps in 1955. None of those races, though, had the gender divide “it” factor.

The Great Match Race attracted 50,000 live attendees and more than 18 million TV viewers on CBS, comparable to the Grammy Awards and a pair of NFL “Sunday Night Football” games in 2024.

Prominent New York sportswriter Dick Young wrote at the time that, for women, “Ruffian was a way of getting even.”

“I can remember driving up the New Jersey Turnpike, and the lady that took the toll in one of those booths was wearing a button that said, ‘I’m for her,’ meaning Ruffian,” Janney said.

As the day approached, Ruffian’s rider, Jacinto Vasquez, who also was the regular rider of Foolish Pleasure including at the Kentucky Derby, had to choose whom to ride for the match race.

“I had ridden Foolish Pleasure, and I knew what he could do,” Vasquez told ESPN. “But I didn’t think he could beat the filly. He didn’t have the speed or stamina.”

Braulio Baeza, who had ridden Foolish Pleasure to victory in the previous year’s premier 2-year-old race, Hopeful Stakes, was chosen to ride Foolish Pleasure.

“I had ridden Foolish Pleasure and ridden against Ruffian,” Baeza said, with language assistance from his wife, Janice Blake. “I thought Foolish Pleasure was better than Ruffian. She just needed [early race] pressure because no one had ever pressured her.”

The 1⅛ mile race began at the start of the Belmont Park backstretch in the chute. In an ESPN documentary from 2000, Jack Whitaker, who hosted the race telecast for CBS, noted that the atmosphere turned eerie with dark thunderclouds approaching before the race.

Ruffian hit the side of the gate when the doors opened but straightened herself out quickly and assumed the lead. “The whole world, including me, thought that Ruffian was going to run off the screen and add to her legacy,” said longtime New York trainer Gary Contessa, who was a teenager when Ruffian ruled the racing world.

However, about ⅛ of a mile into the race, the force of Ruffian’s mighty strides snapped two bones in her front right leg.

“When she broke her leg, it sounded like a broken stick,” Vasquez said. “She broke her leg between her foot and her ankle. When I pulled up, the bone was shattered above the ankle. She couldn’t use that leg at all.”

It took Ruffian a few moments to realize what had happened to her, so she continued to run. Vasquez eventually hopped off and kept his shoulder leaning against her for support.

“You see it, but you don’t want to believe it,” Janney said.

Baeza had no choice but to have Foolish Pleasure finish the race in what became a macabre paid workout. The TV cameras followed him, but the eyes of everyone at the track were on the filly, who looked frightened as she was taken back to the barn area.

“When Ruffian broke down, time stood still that day,” Contessa said. Yet time was of the essence in an attempt to save her life.

Janney said that Dr. Frank Stinchfield — who was the doctor for the New York Yankees then and was “ahead of his time in fixing people’s bones” — called racing officials to see whether there was anything he could do to help with Ruffian.

New York veterinarian Dr. Manny Gilman managed to sedate Ruffian, performed surgery on her leg and, with Stinchfield’s help, secured her leg in an inflatable cast. When Ruffian woke up in the middle of the night, though, she started fighting and shattered her bones irreparably. Her team had no choice but to euthanize her at approximately 2:20 a.m. on July 7.

“She was going full bore trying to get in front of [Foolish Pleasure] out of the gate,” Baeza said. “She gave everything there. She gave her life.”

Contessa described the time after as a “stilled hush over the world.”

“When we got the word that she had rebroken her leg, the whole world was crying,” Contessa said. “I can’t reproduce the feeling that I had the day after.”

The Janneys soon flew to Maine for the summer, and they received a round of applause when the pilot announced their presence. At the cottage, they were met by thousands of well-wishing letters.

“We all sat there, after dinner every night, and we wrote every one of them back,” Janney said. “It was pretty overwhelming, and that didn’t stop for a long time. I still get letters.”

Equine fatalities have been part of the business since its inception, like the Triple Crown races and Breeders’ Cup. Some have generated headlines by coming in clusters, such as Santa Anita in 2019 and Churchill Downs in 2023. However, breakdowns are not the only factor, and likely not the most influential one, in the gradual decline of horse racing’s popularity in this country.

But the impact from the day of Ruffian’s death, and that moment, has been ongoing for horse racing.

“There are people who witnessed the breakdown and never came back,” Contessa said.

Said Janney: “At about that time, racing started to disappear from the national consciousness. The average person knows about the Kentucky Derby, and that’s about it.”

Equine racing today is a safer sport now than it was 50 years ago. The Equine Injury Database, launched by the Jockey Club in 2008, says the fatality rate nationally in 2024 was just over half of what it was at its launch.

“We finally have protocols that probably should have been in effect far sooner than this,” Contessa said. “But the protocols have made this a safer game.”

Said Vasquez: “There are a lot of nice horses today, but to have a horse like Ruffian, it’s unbelievable. Nobody could compare to Ruffian.”

Continue Reading

Sports

Volpe toss hits Judge as sloppy Yanks fall again

Published

21 hours ago

on

July 6, 2025

By

Volpe toss hits Judge as sloppy Yanks fall again

  • Jorge CastilloJul 5, 2025, 09:42 PM ET

    Close

      ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the Washington Wizards from 2014 to 2016 and the Washington Nationals from 2016 to 2018 for The Washington Post before covering the Los Angeles Dodgers and MLB for the Los Angeles Times from 2018 to 2024.

NEW YORK — A blunder that typifies the current state of the New York Yankees, who find themselves in the midst of their second six-game losing streak in three weeks, happened in front of 41,401 fans at Citi Field on Saturday, and almost nobody noticed.

The Yankees were jogging off the field after securing the third out of the fourth inning of their 12-6 loss to the Mets when shortstop Anthony Volpe, as is standard for teams across baseball at the end of innings, threw the ball to right fielder Aaron Judge as he crossed into the infield from right field.

Only Judge wasn’t looking, and the ball nailed him in the head, knocking his sunglasses off and leaving a small cut near his right eye. The wound required a bandage to stop the bleeding, but Judge stayed in the game.

“Confusion,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “I didn’t know what happened initially. [It just] felt like something happened. Of course I was a little concerned.”

Avoiding an injury to the best player in baseball was on the Yankees’ very short list of positives in another sloppy, draining defeat to their crosstown rivals. With the loss, the Yankees, who held a three-game lead over the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League East standings entering June 30, find themselves tied with the Tampa Bay Rays for second place three games behind the Blue Jays heading into Sunday’s Subway Series finale.

The nosedive has been fueled by messy defense and a depleted pitching staff that has encountered a wall.

“It’s been a terrible week,” said Boone, who before the game announced starter Clarke Schmidt will likely undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery.

For the second straight day, the Mets capitalized on mistakes and cracked timely home runs. After slugging three homers in Friday’s series opener, the Mets hit three more Saturday — a grand slam in the first inning from Brandon Nimmo to take a 4-0 lead and two home runs from Pete Alonso to widen the gap.

Nimmo’s blast — his second grand slam in four days — came after Yankees left fielder Jasson Dominguez misplayed a ball hit by the Mets’ leadoff hitter in the first inning. On Friday, he misread Nimmo’s line drive and watched it sail over his head for a double. On Saturday, he was slow to react to Starling Marte’s flyball in the left-center field gap and braked without catching or stopping it, allowing Marte to advance to second for a double. Yankees starter Carlos Rodon then walked two batters to load the bases for Nimmo, who yanked a mistake, a 1-2 slider over the wall.

“That slider probably needs to be down,” said Rodon, who allowed seven runs (six earned) over five innings. “A lot of misses today and they punished them.”

Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s throwing woes at third base — a position the Yankees have asked him to play to accommodate DJ LeMahieu at second base — continued in the second inning when he fielded Tyrone Taylor’s groundball and sailed a toss over first baseman Cody Bellinger’s head. Taylor was given second base and scored moments later on Marte’s RBI single.

The Yankees were charged with their second error in the Mets’ four-run seventh inning when center fielder Trent Grisham charged Francisco Lindor’s single up the middle and had it bounce off the heel of his glove.

The mistake allowed a run to score from second base without a throw, extending the Mets lead back to three runs after the Yankees had chipped their deficit, and allowed a heads-up Lindor to advance to second base. Lindor later scored on Alonso’s second home run, a three-run blast off left-hander Jayvien Sandridge in the pitcher’s major league debut.

“Just got to play better,” Judge said. “That’s what it comes down to. It’s fundamentals. Making a routine play, routine. It’s just the little things. That’s what it kind of comes down to. But every good team goes through a couple bumps in the road.”

This six-game losing skid has looked very different from the Yankees’ first. That rough patch, consisting of losses to the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Angels, was propelled by offensive troubles. The Yankees scored six runs in the six games and gave up just 16. This time, run prevention is the issue; the Yankees have scored 34 runs and surrendered 54 in four games against the Blue Jays in Toronto and two in Queens.

“The offense is starting to swing the bat, put some runs on the board,” Boone said. “The pitching, which has kind of carried us a lot this season, has really, really struggled this week. We haven’t caught the ball as well as I think we should.

“So, look, when you live it and you’re going through it, it sucks, it hurts. But you got to be able to handle it. You got to be able to deal with it. You got to be able to weather it and come out of this and grow.”

Continue Reading

Sports

Former White Sox pitcher, world champ Jenks dies

Published

24 hours ago

on

July 6, 2025

By

Former White Sox pitcher, world champ Jenks dies

  • ESPN News Services

Jul 5, 2025, 05:48 PM ET

Bobby Jenks, a two-time All-Star pitcher for the Chicago White Sox who was on the roster when the franchise won the 2005 World Series, died Friday in Sintra, Portugal, the team announced.

Jenks, 44, who had been diagnosed with adenocarcinoma, a form of stomach cancer, this year, spent six seasons with the White Sox from 2005 to 2010 and also played for the Boston Red Sox in 2011. The reliever finished his major league career with a 16-20 record, 3.53 ERA and 173 saves.

“We have lost an iconic member of the White Sox family today,” White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said in a statement. “None of us will ever forget that ninth inning of Game 4 in Houston, all that Bobby did for the 2005 World Series champions and for the entire Sox organization during his time in Chicago. He and his family knew cancer would be his toughest battle, and he will be missed as a husband, father, friend and teammate. He will forever hold a special place in all our hearts.”

After Jenks moved to Portugal last year, he was diagnosed with a deep vein thrombosis in his right calf. That eventually spread into blood clots in his lungs, prompting further testing. He was later diagnosed with adenocarcinoma and began undergoing radiation.

In February, as Jenks was being treated for the illness, the White Sox posted “We stand with you, Bobby” on Instagram, adding in the post that the club was “thinking of Bobby as he is being treated.”

In 2005, as the White Sox ended an 88-year drought en route to the World Series title, Jenks appeared in six postseason games. Chicago went 11-1 in the playoffs, and he earned saves in series-clinching wins in Game 3 of the ALDS at Boston, and Game 4 of the World Series against the Houston Astros.

In 2006, Jenks saved 41 games, and the following year, he posted 40 saves. He also retired 41 consecutive batters in 2007, matching a record for a reliever.

“You play for the love of the game, the joy of it,” Jenks said in his last interview with SoxTV last year. “It’s what I love to do. I [was] playing to be a world champion, and that’s what I wanted to do from the time I picked up a baseball.”

A native of Mission Hills, California, Jenks appeared in 19 games for the Red Sox and was originally drafted by the then-Anaheim Angels in the fifth round of the 2000 draft.

Jenks is survived by his wife, Eleni Tzitzivacos, their two children, Zeno and Kate, and his four children from a prior marriage, Cuma, Nolan, Rylan and Jackson.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Continue Reading

Trending