The Rundown: 5 Things To Know About The Tour De France

You may think that the Tour de France is about the lycra and scenic countrysides and you know what? You're right. Although that's not all it has to offer. 

Kicking it into high gear,

The Last Night's Game Team 

FIVE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE TOUR DE FRANCE

  1. By the numbers - The Tour is just under 2,200 miles long and features 198 teams made up of nine riders each. There are 21 stages (i.e. mountain or flat) that make up the race. Out of the 23 days of the Tour, the riders only have two days of rest.

  2. While it’s the Tour de France, the route actually goes through four different countries – Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and France.

  3. Defending champion Chris Froome from Team Sky is hoping to win his fourth Tour de France in five years. We haven’t seen domination like this since Lance Armstrong.

  4. Until the 1960s it was common for participants to drink alcohol to numb the pain. Despite its 'healing power,' alcohol was later banned because it's a stimulant. 

  5. Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen have been race announcers for 45 and 39 years respectively. They are on air for hours a day for three weeks straight. They have a talent of making the mundane fun with their cheeky and poetic cycling commentary.

  • The Tour runs until July 23rd and here’s how you can catch the action.


OVERTIME

  • The Tour de France is off to a controversial start. World Champion Peter Sagan was disqualified yesterday for throwing an elbow toward the end of stage four, causing other riders to crash.


SIDELINE STAT

  • In yesterday’s Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating contest the defending champion Joey “Jaws” Chestnut ate 72 hot dogs (buns and all) in 10 minutes for a grand total of 20,160 calories. Feel the burn. 


COACHES’ CORNER

  • If you think you’ve never had a say in who plays for your team, you have until tomorrow to vote for the final two players on the MLB (Major League Baseball) All-Star Game rosters. Cast your vote.

The Rundown: 5 Bizarre Superstitions in Sports

You can’t talk sports without talking about superstitions. Athletes are some of the most superstitious people around…changing their driving route to the stadium if they had a bad game or growing out facial hair for the playoffs. Therefore, we bring you five of the more unique superstitions we’ve heard of, purely for your enjoyment.


Things are going to get weird,

The Last Night’s Game Team  

FIVE BIZARRE SUPERSTITIONS IN SPORTS

  1. Head coach of the University of Alabama Crimson Tide football team, Nick Saban, fuels his fire with a Little Debbie Oatmeal Crème Pie before each game. 

  2. Basketball great Michael Jordan wore the North Carolina Tar Heels shorts that he had on when he won the college basketball national championship underneath his Chicago Bulls (NBA - National Basketball Association) uniform.  

  3. Hockey’s Sidney Crosby has so many ‘traditions’ that we can’t list them all. Some include wearing the same jock strap for years and not calling/seeing his mom or his sister on game day. He swears every time he does, he gets injured. 

  4. The golden thong was worn by former MLB (Major League Baseball) player Jason Giambi to help him break out of hitting slumps. Rumor has it that said tiny undergarment was left in the lockers of his teammates and they all began to hit well. (We warned you it would get weird).

  5. The curse of the cover of the Madden video game is a well-known folk tale. Many of the NFL (National Football League) players featured were ‘cursed’ with a horrible season or a season ending injury after appearing on the front of the video game. Quarterback Tom Brady is on the cover of this year’s game. Hopefully his irrational fear won’t get the best of him otherwise they’ll be holding a séance at Gillette Stadium.   

OVERTIME

  • Oklahoma City Thunder’s Russell Westbrook (NBA) won the regular season MVP on Monday night. In his acceptance speech we saw an emotional side of Westbrook. To top off the night, he also won the inaugural Best Style Award. Here’s how you can dress like Westbrook.

SIDELINE STAT

COACHES’ CORNER

  • Since it’s baseball season, here are two universal superstitions you should know about in the game.

  1. Ball players do not step on the foul lines (the white lines that run down the first and third baseline) when entering/exiting the field for fear of bad luck.

  2. Never discuss a no-hitter or perfect game while it’s in progress. (A no-hitter means no offensive player gets a hit and a perfect game means no offensive player gets on base). Don’t be like Martha Stewart whose tweet allegedly jinxed a New York Yankees perfect game earlier in the season.

The Rundown: 5 Things To Know About The NBA Draft

Happy Hump Day! Today we bring you what everyone is talking about. Not the latest Kardashian baby news, but the NBA Draft.

 

#baller,

The Last Night’s Game

Five Things To Know About The NBA Draft

  1. In order to be eligible for the draft, which is tomorrow, players must be out of high school for one year. International players can also declare themselves eligible for the draft. Collegiate athletes who go undrafted cannot go back to school to play. They will be forced to play in the G League (formerly known as the D-League) or for a foreign team overseas. 
  2. The 14 teams that did not make the playoffs are entered into a lottery to determine the order for the first 14 picks in the draft. The remaining picks fall in order of how the team finished in the playoffs.
  3. Teams put in a lot of advanced scouting and work leading up to the draft – all for two players. Unlike the NFL (National Football League) that has seven rounds or MLB (Major League Baseball) that has 40 rounds, the NBA draft is only two rounds with 60 players drafted.
  4. Unlike NFL (National Football League) commissioner Roger Goodell, NBA commissioner Adam Silver seems to be a fan favorite. How do we know this? Silver isn’t booed by the fans every time he takes the draft podium like Goodell or the previous NBA commissioner, David Stern. All in due time.
  5. One proud mama and former WNBA (Women’s National Basketball Association) player, Pamela McGee was the first person to have a son and a daughter drafted into the NBA and WNBA, respectively. JaVale McGee was drafted into the NBA in 2008 (he won a title this year with the Warriors) and his sister Imani Boyette was drafted into the WNBA in 2016.
  • The rumor mill has been going crazy in advance of the draft. So crazy that we can’t begin to cover all of the mock drafts and trade rumors for you, but ESPN can. Here’s what’s happening on a court near you.

Overtime

  • This year’s NHL Draft features a new expansion team, the Las Vegas Golden Knights, which will start playing this upcoming hockey season. The Golden Knights will pick 30 of their players from other teams today - one from each of the existing teams’ rosters. Current teams can protect some of their players from being picked off. Here’s the list of available players for the Golden Knights to choose from.

Sideline stat

Coaches’ Corner

  • The only sure things in life? Death and taxes. Maybe not if you’re soccer team Real Madrid. Former manager Jose Mourinho and star Cristiano Ronaldo are both under investigation for tax evasion. Only the tax man knows who on the team is next.
 

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