Tag: have

McLaren left wondering what might have been at the British Grand Prix mclaren,left,wondering,what,might,have,been,at,the,british,grand,prix,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one

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At first blush, Sunday’s British Grand Prix looks like a massive win for McLaren. Lando Norris captured his seventh Grand Prix podium of the season with a third-place finish. Oscar Piastri finished behind him in fourth place, giving the team a 27-point haul that topped all teams at Silverstone. That chunk of points saw McLaren not only gain on Red Bull in the Constructors’ Championship but pull to within just seven points of Ferrari for P2 in the standings.

And yet, Sunday could have been so much more for McLaren.

A series of strategy decisions in changing conditions saw McLaren turn a potential one-two finish into the eventual P3 and P4 for Norris and Piastri, leaving the team to wonder just what could have been on Sunday at Silverstone.

In the early stages, it seemed as if McLaren had gotten it right. While Max Verstappen powered into P3 behind the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, Norris and Piastri waited to strike sitting in fourth and fifth, respectively. As the first batch of rain came through, that is when the papaya boys pounced, and within a few laps, they were running up in first and second, with Norris ahead of his teammate.

Eventually, the teams faced the critical decision regarding when to switch from slick tires to a set of intermediates, as conditions on the track began to worsen. Finally, McLaren brought Norris in, but given the pit lane layout at Silverstone — with each team having just the one pit stall — they faced a critical decision: Do they bring both drivers in and double-stack the cars, or do they leave one of them out for a lap on the slick tires in worsening conditions?

They brought Norris in and left Piastri out.

While that worked for Norris, and he came back out as the race leader with a three-second advantage over Hamilton, it cost Piastri dearly. He wound his way around Silverstone while struggling to find enough grip, and after he finally completed his pit stop he emerged with a set of intermediates on his MCL38, and back in sixth place behind Carlos Sainz Jr.

Up in the F1TV commentary box, Jolyon Palmer was rather dismayed at the decision to leave Piastri out for one more lap. “His race has been butchered by staying out another lap,” stated the former F1 driver, and there was evidence available to bolster his position. Mercedes faced the same decision as Hamilton and Russell but executed a solid double-stack stop and both drivers came out ahead of Piastri.

However, McLaren then caught a break, as Russell’s W15 suffered a suspected water system failure, and his retirement promoted Piastri up to P5. He then took fourth, overtaking Sainz for the position.

Then came the next critical decision. With the laps ticking down and the track drying out, teams faced the question of when to switch from the green-walled intermediate tires — which were starting to show significant signs of wear — to a set of slicks. With 15 laps to go Hamilton and Verstappen both came in for a fresh set of tires, while McLaren left Norris out for one more lap.

Similar to the decision with Piastri, Norris lost significant time on his next lap on the worn intermediates, and his situation was compounded further by a slower-than-usual pit stop, set in motion when Norris pulled slightly too far forward in his pit box. As he lumbered out of his stall on a set of softs and tried desperately to fire them up, all he could do was watch Hamilton rocket by him to take the race lead.

Shortly thereafter, Norris’ hopes of a victory turned into a fight to hold on for P2. Red Bull decided to bolt on a set of hard tires on Verstappen’s RB20, and that looked like the right decision as Verstappen slowly gained on both Hamilton and Norris, with both British drivers working around Silverstone on soft tires. Eventually, Verstappen caught Norris and took second away from him, shuffling Norris down to third where he eventually finished.

Dreams of a McLaren one-two finish had fallen away, with the Woking-based outfit forced to settle for a P3-P4 afternoon.

“And yeah, as a team, I don’t think we did quite the job we should have done or good enough, but still lovely to be on the podium here in Silverstone,” admitted Norris trackside to Jenson Button following the race.

The McLaren driver then shouldered the bulk of the blame.

“You know, at the same time I blame myself today for not making some of the right decisions. But, I hate it. I hate ending in this position and ever having excuses for not doing a good enough job,” said Norris, before turning a bit more optimistic. “But I’m so happy, I’m still gonna enjoy it. I think we still did so many things right. So many positives.”

Speaking with Sky Sports Italy, McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella conceded that there were things they could have done differently, noting the decision not to double-stack with Piastri earlier in the race, as well as not putting a set of mediums on Norris’ MCL38 during the final pit stop.

Norris completed his trackside interview with Button on an even more optimistic note. I’m going to come back stronger next year,” said Norris, “and try again.”

Once more, as far as points go this was still a strong result for McLaren, as they cut into Red Bull’s lead atop the Constructors’ Championship standings, and pulled within single digits of Ferrari for P2.

But it could have been more for them.

So much more.

And there might be a few restless nights in Woking before the grid roars back to life in Hungary.

Why NFL fans still have to wait regarding the ‘Sunday Ticket’ lawsuit why,nfl,fans,still,have,to,wait,regarding,the,sunday,ticket,lawsuit,sbnation,com,front-page,nfl

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A jury in federal court in California decided on Thursday that the NFL and its member teams violated federal antitrust laws with the “Sunday Ticket” package. Following Thursday’s historic jury verdict against the NFL and its member teams — that could have the league on the hook for over $14 billion in damages to plaintiffs, including individual fans and commercial establishments who bought “Sunday Ticket” — many are wondering when individual team packages could hit the airwaves, as well as when they might see a check.

To quote the great Lee Corso, “not so fast my friend.”

Keeping this in football terms, the verdict is akin to the league getting sacked for a huge loss. You might even say they are facing third and long.

But they might not be punting anytime soon, and we are in the first quarter of a game that likely comes down to the final play.

And maybe even overtime.

So let’s take a moment to talk about what could happen next, and where this might all ultimately end up. But before we dive in it is important to note that while I was not the world’s greatest attorney — the fact that I’m now a sports writer and no longer practicing law speaks to that point — I did spend a decade practicing civil litigation. While I never practiced in the Ninth Circuit, I do have some appellate experience on my resume, which is lying around here somewhere …

What happens next?

NFL fans are about to get a crash course in complex civil litigation, and the associated calendar and scheduling issues associated with such matters.

At the outset, it seems worth mentioning that this case was originally filed in 2015. That’s right, it took almost a decade to get to this point.

And we might still be in the first quarter.

The next step following this verdict comes at the end of July. That is when Judge Philip Gutierrez, who was the trial judge in this matter, will hear post-trial motions. That hearing is set for July 31.

The NFL will likely file motions along various lines, including a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV). Simply put, this is a motion arguing that no reasonable jury could have found what the jury in this case did, given all the facts that were elicited at trial.

In football terms, this is probably on par with a Hail Mary, but it is important to note that at certain points in this trial Judge Gutierrez expressed some skepticism — if not downright frustration — with the case set forth by the plaintiffs. At one point Judge Gutierrez went as far as telling plaintiffs’ counsel “[y]ou really have nothing” regarding their case, and at another point chastised plaintiffs’ counsel for overcomplicating the trial. “The way you have tried this case is far from simple,” Gutierrez told attorneys representing the subscribers. “This case has turned into 25 hours of depositions and gobbledygook. … This case has gone in a direction it shouldn’t have gone.”

Still, that does not mean that Judge Gutierrez will be inclined to completely set aside the verdict, and there are other pathways the league can explore at the post-trial hearing. They can file a motion seeking remittitur, arguing that the damages award in this case rendered by the jury is excessive.

Finally, as set forth by Michael McCann in his analysis of where the case stands, the NFL could seek to have Judge Gutierrez table any potential changes to the “Sunday Ticket” structure until the case reaches its full resolution.

Regardless of what Judge Gutierrez decides to do — whether on July 31 or sometime after if he takes matters under advisement to render decisions on a later date — the league is likely going to appeal this matter to the Ninth Circuit. In a statement following the verdict, the league indicated that they would “ … certainly contest this decision as we believe that the class action claims in this case are baseless and without merit.”

Again, they are not punting anytime soon.

Should they appeal this matter to the Ninth Circuit, we are then talking about months, if not longer, for the Ninth Circuit to weigh in on the case. As noted by McCann in his above analysis, “ … Ninth Circuit appeals often take in the ballpark of a year-and-half to nearly three years.” And the league would simply wait on making any changes to their “Sunday Ticket” structure until, as they would likely argue, the case “reaches a full-and-final resolution.”

But we might not get that from the Ninth Circuit.

Yes, this could go to the Supreme Court.

Could this really go to the Supreme Court?

An often-used joke in everyday life, when someone endures the slightest of grievances, is the line “I’m taking this to the Supreme Court.”

That might actually happen here.

The reason? As my own Constitutional Law professor Michael Gerhardt drilled into my brain the first semester of law school, the Supreme Court is the final arbiter of questions of federal law. And while the case against the league is fascinating concerning what it could mean for the NFL and its fans, there is actually a fairly interesting — if dry — federal question at issue here.

That is the current applicability of the Sports Broadcasting Act, found in 15 US Code Sections 1291-1295.

Passed in 1961 and signed into law by President John F. Kennedy, the SBA adjusted federal antitrust law to allow sports leagues to pool broadcasting rights of all their teams and sign exclusive league-wide deals with networks.

In the case at hand, Plaintiffs argued that the SBA does not apply to the “Sunday Ticket” package because the SBA applies to “over-the-air” broadcasts, and not cable or satellite packages. In contrast, the league asserted that the SBA barred the Plaintiffs’ claims, arguing that the language of the SBA enables the league to set up a service such as “Sunday Ticket.”

Judge Gutierrez previously brushed this claim by the league aside. In his earlier decision denying the NFL’s Motion for Summary Judgement, Judge Gutierrez cited earlier decisions by the Ninth Circuit in doing so:

“And the Ninth Circuit expressly distinguished between “the NFL’s collective sale of telecast rights to free, over-the-air television networks [which] was squarely covered by the SBA” with “league contracts with cable or satellite television services, for which subscribers are charged a fee,” which the SBA does not exempt from antitrust liability.”

This is the kind of federal law question that the Supreme Court might want to weigh in on, given the direction sports broadcasting is moving right now, toward more cable and satellite television services.

Which would mean an even longer delay to a final resolution.

What happens in the interim?

What happens in the interim, you might ask?

We wait.

Because the wheels of civil litigation grind slowly, there is likely a post-trial process that will play out over months if not years.

So if you are a previous subscriber to “Sunday Ticket” on DirecTV, you might not want to be running to the mailbox every day waiting for a check.

F1 Spanish Grand Prix: Lando Norris lamenting what could have been f,spanish,grand,prix,lando,norris,lamenting,what,could,have,been,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one,2024-formula-one

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You could feel the pain and disappointment with every answer, every gesture, and every word.

Lando Norris believes his second Formula 1 victory was there for the taking Sunday in Barcelona, but he let it slip through his grasp.

Norris began Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix in P1, thanks to a masterful final lap during Saturday’s qualifying session that was just fast enough to snatch pole position from his friend and rival Max Verstappen. It was a lap that Norris himself described as both “perfect,” and “balls out.”

But in a flash Sunday, that slim lead over Verstappen evaporated. The Red Bull driver got off to a quicker start off the line and Norris was shuffled back to P2 almost immediately. He lost another spot soon thereafter, as George Russell pulled off a masterful double overtake to pass both Norris and Verstappen, sliding Norris back to third.

The McLaren driver was forced into comeback mode and nearly pulled it off, closing an eight-second gap to Verstappen in P1 down to just under two seconds as the checkered flag flew. But as he told the story Sunday afternoon in Barcelona, it was a tale of a driver who believes he let his team down.

“The race, not good enough, simply because we should have won today,” began Norris in the post-race FIA Press Conference.

“I think we had the quickest car. But I just lost it at the start, you know, and then I couldn’t get past George for the first stint. I think we were quite easily best car out there today,” continued Norris. “I just didn’t do a good enough job off the line. And then that one thing cost me everything. So from Turn 2 onwards, 10 out of 10, I don’t think I could have done much more. And I think as a team, we did the perfect strategy. And I was very happy with what we did. But yeah, the one part at the start, the 1% elsewhere wasn’t good enough.”

Norris faced one of the toughest challenges the F1 calendar offers, as the run from the start/finish line to Turn 1 in Barcelona is the longest the drivers face all year. That meant Verstappen was positioned to get a big run off the line into Turn 1, and Norris was tasked with fending the champion off.

As Norris described the start, his initial launch was good, but the “second phase” of the race was where it went wrong.

“No, I mean, my initial launch, I think, was better than Max. The second phase, the drive out, was not as good. I don’t know. I don’t know anything more than that, apart from Max got alongside me,” described Norris. “And let’s say, if George wasn’t there, I think I still could have kept on to first around Turn 1.

“But George had a run on both of us, so even if my start was one or two [meters] better, which I think was all I probably could have done, just the long run down to Turn 1, the slipstream from the Mercedes, on both Max and myself, was more than anything that I could have done. I almost think George would have led no matter what, even if my start was two [meters] better.

“In some ways, that’s what happens in Barcelona. George got a good start and I couldn’t do anything about that. I settled in. I had to take third in Turn 2 because if I break two metres later, I think I would have taken everyone out with me. I made the correct decision of backing out and letting George have it. I don’t know. I need to sit down with my engineers and talk.”

Norris’ anguish mirrored comments he made in Montreal when he also finished second behind Verstappen. Only this time, according to the driver, he truly had the fastest car.

But not the corresponding win to show for it.

“We were definitely not the quickest car in Montreal. Mercedes was easily the quickest car. But today, we were the quickest. We had the best car. I had the best car out there,” said Norris. “And I didn’t [maximize] it. The start’s down to me. doing what I get told and executing that. And without that, or with a good start, we easily should have won.”

Despite Norris’ anguish at the result and his self-perceived failure at winning Sunday, he began to look ahead to Austria, a track that has been good to him in the past.

“I mean, I’m confident. every weekend we go into now, the car’s performing extremely well. We’re always there or thereabouts within a couple of tenths of pole, and that’s all we can ask for,” concluded Norris. “I think we need to bring something a little bit more just to make our life a bit easier. It’s close, and now we have, what, four teams who I think can easily fight for pole positions and fight for wins, potentially. So it’s a very different layout again. High speed, I think we have a bit to work on, comparing to Red Bull. Red Bull seem definitely a bit higher, better in high speed corners than we are. Potentially we’re lacking a touch in that area but the rest of it is strong.

“It’s been one of my best tracks in terms of my own competitiveness and my most successful tracks so excited to see all the papaya and the grandstands and have a good weekend.”

Norris may be feeling despair at the moment, lamenting a win that got away from him. But his second-place finish saw him move to second in the Drivers’ Championship, passing Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc in the standings.

It might not be enough to ease the pain he felt Sunday, but it is certainly another step forward for Norris.

And the driver’s anguish perhaps illustrates the bigger story of the 2024 Formula 1 season. A year ago finishing within two seconds of Verstappen was cause for celebration. Consider some of what Norris said following the 2023 Japanese Grand Prix when he finished second to Verstappen, almost 20 seconds off the Red Bull driver’s pace.

“No, I was I was expecting him to probably lap us two or three times! And he didn’t, so… I mean, I was expecting probably a bigger gap. I think we all were, as a team. And I think it would have been a lot closer, I lost eight or 10 seconds behind Pérez under the [Virtual Safety Car],” said Norris at the FIA Press Conference in Suzuka a season ago.

“I don’t know how hard Max was really pushing. I’m sure he could have gone a bit quicker if he wanted to,” added Norris last year in Japan. “But to be only 19 seconds behind, he didn’t get a free pit-stop, which was lovely. And, yeah, I think it’s just signs of our progress.”

That big gap from a year ago is now down to seconds. Instead of wanting another car to challenge Verstappen, as Will Buxton eloquently stated a few weeks ago, now drivers just want another lap or two. The field has tightened behind Verstappen.

And Norris, his personal anguish aside, is now at the front of that chasing pack.

The Brewers have refused to leave the top of the NL Central the,brewers,have,refused,to,leave,the,top,of,the,nl,central,sbnation,com,front-page,mlb,dot-com-grid-coverage

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Back in spring training when we were previewing each division, my view of the National League Central Division was that it was anybody’s game where anybody could win. That was also to say that this probably would be the end of the two-season run as NL Central champions for the Milwaukee Brewers. Here’s my reasoning below:

If they’re going to do it again in 2024 then it’ll be a bit of an upset because it appears that they’ve fallen right back into the pack after the offseason that they had. Corbin Burnes is in Baltimore now and Brandon Woodruff is likely to miss the entire season as he recovers from shoulder surgery. They also lost their manager to their rivals on the North Side of Chicago, as the Cubs snatched away Craig Counsell almost immediately after his contract with the Brewers expired. That’s a lot to lose in a division that’s as wide open as the NL Central is.

Well, here we are in mid-June and it’s looking like this division may not be as wide open as I had expected it to be. While there are still plenty of questions as to whether or not any of the other four teams in the NL Central will have what it takes to go on the type of run that could propel them into the Postseason, it’s obvious who currently has the massive upper hand when it comes to winning the division. As it turns out, the more things change, the more they stay the same — manager Pat Murphy’s Milwaukee Brewers once again look like they’re the class of the NL Central.

Heading into this season, the Brewers were only given the third-best odds from FanGraphs to win the division at 18 percent. They were given a 30 percent shot to make the Postseason, which is a perfectly fine chance to have going into any season but it was definitely a bit low for a club that had made it to the Postseason in five of the past six seasons.

Now, Brewers fans can’t complain about the odds being against them since their team has surged their way into the position of being massive favorites. Heading into action on June 20, the Brewers are now being given a whopping 73 percent chance to make it three divisional titles in a row and are also being given an 86 percent shot to make the playoffs either way. Most importantly, the Brewers 44-30 and are 7.5 games ahead of the Cardinals for first place in the Central and also hold the second-largest divisional lead in the National League.

While a lot of this may have to do with the fact that the Cubs and Cardinals both have yet to really put it together like most observers expected them to, it also has to do with the fact that maybe the Brewers themselves didn’t get the memo that they were supposed to fade away into the pack. At the very least, Willy Adames and William Contreras both definitely missed the memo as both of them have been fantastic in Milwaukee’s lineup so far this season.

Willy Adames in particular has been killing it both at the plate but out in the field as well. Adames currently has a wRC+ of 118 to go with a wOBA of .336 and 12 home runs as well. If he can keep on producing at the plate at this rate, then he’ll be celebrating a career year once the season ends. Combine that with the fact that he’s currently in the 98th percentile of all fielders when it comes to Outs Above Average and you’ve got a player who has been the total package for the Brewers here in 2024. Adames has rarely had a season where he’s put it together with both his bat and his glove so it’s definitely encouraging for Milwaukee that this appears to be the year where it’s all connecting in his favor.

Meanwhile, William Contreras has simply just been mashing the ball like crazy this season. If he’s made contact with a ball, there’s a very good chance that it’s going to fly long and far and get to where it’s going in a hurry. Contreras is in the 95th percentile of all hitters when it comes to both Average Exit Velocity (93.1 mph) and Hard-Hit percentage (53 percent). Combined with his 89th percentile average bat speed and suddenly it’s easy to envision how Contreras got to a point where he’s sporting a 134 wRC+, which is second-best among all qualified catchers and only one point behind Salvador Perez for first place. While Wild Bill’s defense has taken a step back compared to where he was at last season, you aren’t going to hear anybody in Milwaukee complain about what he’s been doing with the bat this season.

Adames and Contreras haven’t been the only ones killing it for Milwaukee this season. Joey Ortiz has gone from struggling mightily in his first 34 big league plate appearances back in 2023 as a member of the Orioles to succeeding wildly as a breakout candidate for the Brewers. He might be doing it in a weird way (and for more on that, check out this article from Ben Clemens of FanGraphs) but you aren’t going to hear about anybody trying to “fix” what he’s doing when it’s working to the tune of a .369 wOBA and a 140 wRC+ so far. Brice Turang has also turned things around in a major way, though he didn’t have a change of scenery like Ortiz did. Instead, he appears to have found his footing in the bigs and is now sitting on a .328 wOBA and 112 wRC+ after struggling through 137 games with a 60 wRC+ in 2023. It also helps that Turang has been a terror to deal with on the basepaths as well, as he’s already stolen 26 bases this season.

The Brewers have also been getting positive contributions in the outfield from guys like Blake Perkins (and his 97th percentile-rated OAA) and even Christian Yelich. As it turns out, his resurgent 2023 campaign wasn’t just a flash in the pan and Yelich looks primed to improve upon a season that saw him start to look like the old dynamo that was playing MVP-caliber baseball just a few years ago. Yelich’s wOBA is currently at a lofty .394 and his wRC+ is at 157, which is easily as high as it’s been since the halcyon days of 2018 and 2019 when he was truly among the game’s elite players. While Yelich probably won’t fully return to that level again, the Brewers don’t need him to be a world-beater — they just need him to continue being what he is, which is a reliable hitter to slot into what’s been an impressive lineup for Milwaukee so far this season.

Between the high level of production that Milwaukee is getting from impact guys and the fact that they’ve already built up such a large lead in the division, it’s hard to see the Brewers messing this up as we get into the actual second half of this season. Additionally, the Brewers currently have the joint-fifth-easiest strength-of-schedule going forward at .492 while their divisional rivals in Chicago (.508 remaining strength-of-schedule) and St. Louis (.514) each have tougher roads ahead. The Pirates have a similarly-tough SOS remaining (.507) and while the Reds have a slightly-easier road ahead (.491), they also need to get their act together outside of Elly de la Cruz doing cool stuff on a nightly basis.

All this means is that the Brewers have bucked all the odds and have managed to play themselves into a very good position for another season. It’s all coming up sunshine and roses for the Brewers and the only thing that’s really gone wrong for them here in 2024 has been one of their employees getting caught failing miserably in an attempt to do assassination work as a side job. I didn’t make up a single word of that last sentence, either. I’m not going to hold that insane bit of news against the Brewers though since I believe that this squad is smart enough to not find themselves in such an incredibly hot mess. Either way, y’all should keep an eye on Milwaukee this season as they are once again right in the thick of the Postseason conversation.