Stanzel’s Sports Takeout — BREAKING NEWS: 9.30.26
Wild card week in MLB is so great - 12 hours of baseball for at least two days.
Still waiting on Xfinity and/or DirecTV news for Wild broadcasts. Season starts tomorrow.
Wolves back to WCCO Radio for the season.
Twins fire two pitching coaches. Not surprising as they were holdovers from Rocco’s staff.
Lynx Make History as First WNBA No. 1 Seed to Lose in First Round
It wasn’t overly surprising to see the Lynx lose to the Liberty in the first round. But how they lost? Shocking.
The Lynx were non-competitive in the final six quarters of the two-game sweep, falling 87-71 in Newark last night. Minnesota is the first No. 1 seed to lose in the first round since playoffs were revamped in 2022 (prior to that, top seeds had at least one bye into the next round).
The Liberty wasn’t your normal No. 8 seed, not with that championship pedigree. Not to mention their size advantage. But the Lynx won this regular season title wire-to-wire, and was never even in this elimination game. A terrible performance on both ends of the floor. It’s a joke the WNBA has these first-round series best-of-three, but anything more would have prolonged the inevitable.
Liberty Have an Easy Time with Lynx in Game 1
New York’s best players were better - that’s an understatement - in Game 1.
Breanna Stewart outscored Napheesa Collier and Olivia Miles combined as the Liberty earned a 91-75 win at Target Center to open the best-of-three series. The top-seeded Lynx need to win Tuesday in Brooklyn to force a deciding Game 3.
Stewart had 34 points, 12 rebounds and six assists as the Liberty outscored the Lynx 51-31 in the second half.
Collier managed just 12 points, but it was Miles who really struggled in her first taste of pro playoff basketball. The Rookie of the Year frontrunner missed nine of her 12 shots, scored 11 points, had just one assist and four turnovers. She showed visible frustration on the bench when yanked in the fourth quarter after a bad turnover with the game somewhat within reach.
Remember that Collier signed just a one-year contract after the new WNBA CBA, betting on herself. Since she’s come back from injury, she has not been MVPhee. It will be interesting to see what the Lynx do this off-season. She’s going to get a lot of money from someone.
This off-season will be full of questions. Napheesa Collier took that one-year contract to bet on herself and was subpar coming off the leg injury. Has she played her last game in a Lyndx uniform? Will Olivia Miles be better in future post-seasons? Most certainly, but her performance in this series (benched for most of the second half) won’t soon be forgotten. To be fair to Miles, she was injured the last two games of the regular season, and clearly wasn’t 100 percent in the series.
Faber Has Surgery on Fractured Skull; Out Indefinitely
What seemed like a play you see multiple times a year wound up with Brock Faber undergoing surgery on a fractured skull earlier this week. Faber took a puck near the ear hole of the helmet - it leaves your head unprotected - but skated a few more shifts before leaving the game at intermission and later going to a hospital.
Jared Spurgeon announced yesterday that he’d be wearing a guard over the ear and urged others to follow suit.
First off, you obviously hope Faber is okay long term. That type of injury could have long term consequences. It’s clear the Wild aren’t planning on having him available anytime soon.
Thankfully, the Wild is blessed with top four D talent. But Quinn Hughes will miss Faber, for sure.
This certainly puts a damper on Thursday’s season-opener in Nashville, as well as Saturday’s home opener against Boston.
Vikings Trade McCarthy to Giants
Moments after Jaxson Dart went out with a season-ending injury for the Giants, I suggested online that J.J. McCarthy could be New Jersey bound. Everyone scoffed at me, until it happened Monday afternoon, as the Vikings got a fifth-round pick for the former first-round selection.
The Vikings’ decision to move on from McCarthy wasn’t done this week or either last week. The moment they decided to make him the No. 3 quarterback, his tenure was essentially over.
The NFL, of course, is littered with young quarterbacks who were given up on too early. And honestly, with the way the other two guys here have played, I’m not sure he’d be a worse option.
With the Vikings’ luck, Kyler Murray will go down with an injury against winless Miami on Sunday. Max Brosmer has officially been promoted from the practice squad to be the No. 3 signal caller.
Tell a friend to sign up for The Takeout today: https://cutt.ly/5jc87CG
Sponsor The Takeout
Sponsorship packages are available! The Takeout is a great spot to advertise your small business. Get thousands of eyeballs on your product every month. E-mail ryanstanzel@gmail.com
NETWORK PARTNERS
