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Sports September 12, 2017

Cleveland Indians Reach 19 Wins In Historic Streak

NPR’s Kelly McEvres talks with MLB.com columnist Joe Posnanski about why the Cleveland Indians’ 19-game winning streak is unlike any in baseball history.

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

Let’s talk about the number 19. That is the number of games the Cleveland Indians have won in a row.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Indians breeze to the 5-2 win, their season-high 10th straight.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Fifteen consecutive wins.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #3: Guyer near the line – makes the catch. Nineteen in a row for the Indians.

MCEVERS: The question tonight, as Cleveland plays Detroit, is, can the Indians turn that 19-game streak into a 20-game streak? The last time that happened – 2002. It was the Oakland A’s. Their 20-game streak was celebrated in the book and the movie “Moneyball.”

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UNIDENTIFIED MAN #4: What is happening in Oakland?

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UNIDENTIFIED MAN #5: It defies everything we know about baseball.

MCEVERS: Joe Posnanski says, regardless of whether the Indians take their streak to 20 tonight, there is something remarkable going on. And he is a columnist for mlb.com. And he’s with us now. Welcome.

JOE POSNANSKI: Great to be here.

MCEVERS: So you write that, quote, “no team has ever played baseball like the Cleveland Indians have been playing during this streak.” What makes you say that? What’s so special about this moment?

POSNANSKI: Well, it’s obviously special for a lot of reasons. You start with the streak itself. This is just not something that tends to happen in baseball. But the way Cleveland has been winning these games – I mean, baseball is a game where mediocre teams beat good teams all the time, where, no matter how good you are, you lose 60 games, plus…

MCEVERS: Right.

POSNANSKI: …Every full season. So for a team to be playing at this level, where not only have they won 19 in a row, they really have hardly ever been challenged – they’ve been trailing for only, like, four innings the entire streak. This is a completely different kind of streak from anything we’ve ever seen before. And this has been a pretty special run.

MCEVERS: And they’ve also been doing this with a lot of their star players on the disabled list and players from the minors stepping up. I mean, that’s kind of a big deal, too, right?

POSNANSKI: It is. It is a big deal. I mean, obviously, it’s a long season, and that’s what happens to teams. But two of their better hitters are out. Their best relief pitcher, Andrew Miller, who made a real name for himself last year as a 6-foot-10 reliever in the postseason – he’s been out for this entire streak. So not only is this a team playing at an extremely high level. You get the feeling that when some of these guys come back, they’re going to be even better.

MCEVERS: So let’s talk about this game tonight against the Detroit Tigers. It’s a home game. How do you think it’s going to go? I mean, will the Indians get to 20?

POSNANSKI: Well, I do. I do think they’re going to win 20 for a couple of reasons. One is Detroit is not very good. The other thing is Cleveland has their best pitcher starting tonight, a guy by the name of Corey Kluber, who many people, to his disdain, call him the Klubot because he’s so unemotional in the way he pitches. He is their best pitcher. He’s one of the best pitchers in baseball. So odds are pretty good tonight that Cleveland’s going to get number 20.

MCEVERS: And the playoffs are just around the corner. What does it mean that Cleveland is peaking now?

POSNANSKI: It’s a very interesting question. And the truth is nobody really knows what it means. I mean, for one thing, this is so unique for a team to be playing at this level at any point, much less in September. For another, the Los Angeles Dodgers, who are a team that had been called the best team in baseball history for about four months, suddenly can’t win a game.

MCEVERS: I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t want to talk about it.

POSNANSKI: They’ve lost 15…

MCEVERS: I don’t want to talk about it.

POSNANSKI: Right.

MCEVERS: I do not want to talk about the Dodgers right now…

POSNANSKI: So…

MCEVERS: …As a person based in LA.

(LAUGHTER)

MCEVERS: So what does any of it mean? – is your point. Yeah.

POSNANSKI: Exactly. So once October starts, everybody’s on a clean slate. It’s actually a weird thing because baseball is obviously a game that’s played over a very long season. There’s a strategy to being the best team over 162 games. That strategy is very different when, suddenly, you have to win a bunch of short series like you do in October. So what does it mean? I don’t think we know anything. It might not mean anything, other than it’s incredible to watch right now.

MCEVERS: MLB columnist Joe Posnanski – he also co-hosts the PosCast with Michael Schur. Thank you very much.

POSNANSKI: Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF JOE SATRIANI’S “LORDS OF KARMA”)

Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Sports September 9, 2017

At U.S. Open Semifinals, 3 Players Break Barriers For African-Americans In Tennis

This year’s U.S. Open tennis tournament saw four Americans in the semifinals. What’s more, three of them are African-American. Katrina Adams, president of the U.S. Tennis Association, talks with NPR’s Michel Martin about the progress made in tennis.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

American tennis fans who like to root for the home team have a lot to celebrate today. Twenty-four-year-old Sloane Stephens won the U.S. Open women’s championship this afternoon. She defeated 22-year-old Madison Keys in the final. All four semifinalists on the women’s side were American. That’s the first time that’s happened since 1985. And here’s something else that made news – 3 of the 4 semifinalists were African-Americans. We wanted to talk a bit more about this big week in American tennis, so we called Katrina Adams. She is the president of the U.S. Tennis Association. We caught up with her yesterday ahead of today’s final match.

Now, it has to be said that you are a barrier breaker yourself. You are the Tennis Association’s first African-American president. You’re also the first former professional player to serve as president and the youngest. But just taking one of those attributes aside, it’s been 60 years since Althea Gibson broke the color barrier at the U.S. Open in 1950. And I just wonder, did it have some special meaning to see not only an all-American semifinal but that three of these players are black?

KATRINA ADAMS: Well, it definitely has a special meaning for me, in particular, to see that three of them are – I mean, we’ve been used to seeing Venus and Serena for years in the semifinals and/or finals against one another. But when you add another element and we’re looking at the next generation beyond them really starting to perform and be on the big stages later in the tournament, it’s truly exciting.

MARTIN: So when the Williams sisters first got big back in the mid-’90s, it was an anomaly, or it seemed like an anomaly for a lot of reasons, but also because of what their pathway to the big stage was. And I wondered if the presence of these three players says anything about the pathway to professional tennis now. Has anything changed?

ADAMS: Well, you know what? It was an anomaly only because of the way that they entered the sport and with their parents coaching them. And they never really competed on the junior level. But you have to look at the generation before that, when you had Leslie Allen and Zina Garrison, Lori McNeil, Chanda Rubin, myself. So we’ve been fortunate to have women of color, in particular, in the game for many years, for decades following Althea Gibson.

But when you look at the success of what Venus and Serena did consistently, that took it to the forefront. And really, those are the only two names that people really remember. But they were also – came at a time where as their success prevailed, you know, they had the media and the posters and. You know, you look at Sloane Stephens and Madison Keys, who each had a poster of one or the other up on their wall at some point. And now, here they are on the same stage. And obviously, we saw Venus Williams lose to Sloane Stephens Stephens in the semifinals.

MARTIN: How does the future of American tennis look to you? I mean, the Williams sisters, you know, as exciting as they still are and as inspirational as they still are to many people, continuing to play at a very high level long after other folks have put down their racquets. But an American man hasn’t won the Open since Andy Roddick in 2003. How does the future look to you?

ADAMS: Well, I think you’ve seen it on the courts here at Arthur Ashe Stadium for the last two weeks. We had five women in the quarterfinals. So 5 of 8 were American. Four were in the semifinals. Two were in the finals. So the future of American tennis looks great. It’s here. It’s moving forward.

Our men are coming. You know, we had Sam Querrey that was also in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open. And then you have John Isner and Jack Sock, Steve Johnson, Tommy Paul, Francis Tiafoe and so many other names that are all in the top 100 – and Taylor Fritz. And these guys are under 21, under 25. So the future is very bright, and we’re extremely excited about the potential.

MARTIN: Before we let you go, do you still have time to play yourself?

ADAMS: I don’t play as much as I’d like to. I actually have a bum knee right now. But soon, I’ll be back out there on the court.

MARTIN: All right. That’s Katrina Adams, president of the U.S. Tennis Association. It was nice of you to take time out to talk with us. Thanks so much for speaking with us.

ADAMS: Thank you so much for having me.

MARTIN: That was Katrina Adams. We spoke with her yesterday ahead of today’s match. And we want to let you know that 24-year-old Sloane Stephens won the U.S. Open women’s championship this afternoon, defeating Madison Keys in the final.

Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Sports September 8, 2017

Using A Robotic Hand, She Wants To Throw Out The First Pitch For All 30 MLB Teams

Hailey Dawson throws out the opening pitch with her 3D printed hand before the game between the Washington Nationals and the Texas Rangers at Nationals Park in June.

Greg Fiume/Getty Images

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Greg Fiume/Getty Images

Hailey Dawson’s favorite thing to do is throw out the first pitch at a baseball game, and thanks to a majority of all the MLB teams, she’s going to be doing quite a bit of that in the future.

The first pitch seven-year-old Hailey threw out was at a University of Nevada, Las Vegas Rebels game. The UNLV engineering department had made it possible.

At the request of Hailey’s mother, Yong, a group of researchers and students took on the challenge to create a 3D printed prosthetic hand for Hailey. As a result of being born with Poland syndrome, which leaves a pectoral muscle and other parts of the affected side underdeveloped, Hailey was born with a right palm, but not all of her fingers on that hand. The prosthetic hand the university created allows her to grasp objects, like a baseball.

In 2015, Yong told theMid-Atlantic Sports Network that after throwing out the first pitch for the Rebels team, Hailey said she wanted to throw out the first pitch for the Orioles, the family’s favorite team.

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“She just loves throwing that ball out and when she did it for UNLV it was amazing and she just hammed it up big time,” Yong told MASN.

Yong said she was unsure of how to make her daughter’s wish happen, but then decided to send a letter with a request. It worked and on Aug. 17, 2015, Hailey threw the first pitch for the Orioles game to her favorite player, Manny Machado.

“For her to be able to have a hand to actually hold something, where in the past she’s never been able to, that’s amazing,” Yong said at the time.

Yong told MASN that the entire family enjoyed watching the UNLV team create the hand for Hailey.

“It was inspiring for me to watch the students when she first put that hand on and used it and what it meant to them,” Yong said in the interview with MASN. “Not just what it meant to us, but to them to actually build it for her and for her to actually hold something. And they loved it, and I loved it.”

Hailey’s pitching didn’t stop in Baltimore. She went on to throw out the first pitch for a Washington Nationals game in this June, after meeting Bryce Harper in Las Vegas and asking him if he could arrange for her to visit the park in Washington, D.C.

After she showed her pitching skills at the Nationals game, Bleacher Report produced a video about Hailey’s story that got the attention of even more teams. Hailey’s goal is to throw out the first pitch for all 30 MLB teams and as of Friday afternoon, Yong says 24 more teams have responded on Twitter saying they would love to have Hailey come for a game.

7-year-old Hailey Dawson wants to throw out the first pitch at every MLB ballpark with her 3-D printed hand pic.twitter.com/onStqhEzyB

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) September 7, 2017

In total, Hailey has seven different hands, including the custom ones she wore to the Orioles and Nationals games where she got to hang out with some of her favorite players, who she now refers to as her “buddies.”

“She likes to get her hands signed, so now every time she gets a new hand she likes to get it signed by someone,” Yong says.

While Hailey is having a good time meeting some of her favorite players, Yong says she’s glad this is also raising awareness for Poland syndrome and how accessible and affordable it is to get a 3D printed prosthetic. The robotic hand has also been a confidence boost for Hailey, who was once shy.

“It was initially a functional thing for her … to be able to ride a bike and for safety issues, but it eventually became a social confidence thing,” Yong says. “Because when she puts it on everybody wants to see it, everybody want to touch it and everybody wants to be around her.”

Because school just started and baseball season is closing out, Yong says the family will probably wait until next season to start visiting a lot of teams — but they could make an exception, say, for a World Series game.

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Sports September 7, 2017

New England Patriots And Kansas City Chiefs Kick Off NFL Season

The NFL season kicks off with the New England Patriots against the Kansas City Chiefs. But ongoing civil rights protests and player safety concerns bring questions to this year’s season.

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Tonight is the opening game of the NFL regular season. The defending champs, the New England Patriots, face the Kansas City Chiefs. The Patriots are led by age-defying 40-year-old quarterback Tom Brady. While football fans look forward to the game, they’re also trying to digest a number of off-field issues. NPR’s Tom Goldman has more.

TOM GOLDMAN, BYLINE: During her nearly 30 years in the NFL, former Oakland Raiders CEO Amy Trask loved nothing more than the first kickoff of the first regular season game. Now a football analyst for CBS Sports, she still loves it.

AMY TRASK: All off-season long we talk about football issues, whether it’s free agency or the draft or team composition or off-field issues. When that foot hits that ball and we have kickoff, it’s a very exciting moment.

GOLDMAN: But this year’s excitement is competing with an inordinate amount of off-field controversy about concussions – we’re now in an age when head trauma not only is recognized, it’s posited by some as a threat to the survival of the game – about the national anthem protests begun last season by quarterback Colin Kaepernick. He still doesn’t have a job. There are allegations, all denied, that NFL owners are colluding to keep him out. In his absence, the protests have grown. This week, the most prominent protester, Seattle Seahawks defensive lineman Michael Bennett, alleged police held him at gunpoint last month without cause during a disturbance in Las Vegas. Bennett is African-American. He says he’s considering filing a civil rights lawsuit.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MICHAEL BENNETT: Do I think every police officer is bad? No, I don’t believe that. Do I believe there are some people out there that judge people on the color of their skin? I do believe that.

GOLDMAN: Las Vegas police deny Bennett was racially profiled during the incident. And then there’s the case of last year’s top NFL rusher, Ezekiel Elliott of the Dallas Cowboys. He’s been suspended for six games related to domestic violence allegations, allegations he denies. Elliott, who hasn’t been charged, will play this Sunday. A judge is expected to rule tomorrow on a motion to stay the ban. If the judge says no, Elliot’s suspension will start week two. So what’s a football-hungry fan to do, hang their collective heads in shame or press on and enjoy the game? Amy Trask says in many cases, fans will do both. She remembers last season, when then-New York Giants kicker Josh Brown was embroiled in a domestic violence case.

TRASK: I was having a discussion with a fan who was so angry that this player was on the Giants roster as she stood there – and this is really the honest-to-goodness truth – with a shopping bag in her hand, having just purchased for her son a Giants jersey.

GOLDMAN: This kind of cognitive dissonance, as Trask calls it, appears to be here to stay as a troubled game begins for many an exciting new season. Tom Goldman, NPR News.

Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Sports September 6, 2017

NFL's Michael Bennett Says Las Vegas Cop Threatened To Shoot Him In The Head

Michael Bennett of the Seattle Seahawks has accused the Las Vegas police of using excessive force against him last month.

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Editor’s note: This story contains language that some might find offensive.

Seattle Seahawks star defensive end Michael Bennett says he is considering filing a civil rights lawsuit against Las Vegas police after a harrowing encounter last month.

Bennett was in Las Vegas on Aug. 26 to attend the Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor fight. He says that as he was heading to his hotel afterward, he and hundreds of others heard what sounded like gunshots.

“Like many of the people in the area, I ran away from the sound, looking for safety,” he writes in a letter he posted to Twitter on Wednesday. “Las Vegas police officers singled me out and pointed their guns at me for doing nothing more than simply being a black man in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“A police officer ordered me to get on the ground,” Bennett continues. “As I laid on the ground, complying with his commands not to move, he placed his gun near my head and warned me that if I moved he would ‘blow my [f******] head off.’ Terrified and confused by what was taking place, a second Officer came over and forcefully jammed his knee into my back making it difficult for me to breathe. They then cinched the handcuffs on my wrists so tight that my fingers went numb.”

Equality. pic.twitter.com/NQ4pJt94AZ

— Michael Bennett (@mosesbread72) September 6, 2017

Bennett says he felt helpless, lying handcuffed on the ground “facing the real-life threat of being killed.”

“All I could think of was ‘I’m going to die for no other reason than I am black and my skin color is somehow a threat,’ ” he writes.

He says they loaded him into the back of a police car, where he sat “until they apparently realized I was not a thug, a common criminal or ordinary black man but Michael Bennett a famous professional football player.”

TMZ posted video of part of the encounter, which shows an officer handcuffing Bennett on the ground as he protests, “I wasn’t doing nothing!”

A 31-year-old in his ninth season in the NFL, Bennett told ESPN last month that the violence in Charlottesville, Va., linked to a white nationalist rally persuaded him to sit during the national anthem for the entire 2017 season. He grew up in Houston and recently announced a campaign to raise relief funds for those affected by Hurricane Harvey.

“I have always held a strong conviction that protesting or standing up for justice is just simply, the right thing to do,” he writes. “[E]quality doesn’t live in this country and no matter how much money you make, what job title you have, or how much you give, when you are seen as a ‘[N*****],’ you will be treated that way.”

Las Vegas police told The Associated Press that they were checking casino and police body camera video, as well as written reports.

“Without looking at video footage or reading any reports we can’t say yet what happened,” Officer Jacinto Rivera told the news service.

Bennett has hired prominent civil rights attorney John Burris to explore his legal options, including filing a civil rights lawsuit.

“We think there was an unlawful detention and the use of excessive force, with a gun put to his head,” Burris told the AP. “He was just in the crowd. He doesn’t drink or do drugs. He wasn’t in a fight. He wasn’t resisting. He did nothing more or less than anyone in the crowd.”

Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback who started the national anthem protests last season, tweeted his support of Bennett.

“This violation that happened against my Brother Michael Bennett is disgusting and unjust,” he wrote. “I stand with Michael and I stand with the people.”

Bennett says the system failed him. “I can only imagine what Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, and Charleena Lyles felt,” he writes.

Martin, a black teenager, was fatally shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer. The others, who were also black, were killed by police.

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Sports September 5, 2017

Houston Rockets Set To Get A New Owner: Local Billionaire Tilman Fertitta

Tilman Fertitta, seen here at a television premier last year in Universal City, Calif. A native Texan, Fertitta owns the Houston-based restaurant chain Landry’s, Inc. And now he is set to own the Houston Rockets, too.

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The Houston Rockets announced Tuesday the franchise has been sold to a local and longtime fan, Tilman Fertitta. The billionaire businessman, sole owner of the Landry’s restaurant empire and Golden Nugget Casinos and Hotels, now becomes sole owner of the Rockets as well — pending approval from the NBA’s Board of Governors.

“I am truly honored to have been chosen as the next owner of the Houston Rockets,” Fertitta said in a statement released Tuesday by the team. “This is a life-long dream come true.”

It is an honor to be a part of the @NBA. I look forward to serving the city of #Houston and continuing the success of @HoustonRockets. pic.twitter.com/1RE6vbj8j1

— Tilman Fertitta (@TilmanJFertitta) September 5, 2017

The terms of the sale have not been released officially by the team, but ESPN and USA Today, citing unnamed sources, both report the sale broke an NBA record at $2.2 billion. The agreement tops the 2014 purchase price of the LA Clippers — formerly the league’s most expensive — by roughly $200 million and significantly exceeds the team’s reported value, which according to Forbes rests at $1.65 billion.

CNBC columnist Eric Jackson notes that, all told, Fertitta is “spending 71% of his net worth on the Rockets.”

Steve Ballmer spent 6% of his net worth on the Clippers.

Tilman Fertitta is spending 71% of his net worth on the Rockets

— Eric Jackson (@ericjackson) September 5, 2017

Still, this purchase is also something of an act of devotion for the native of Galveston, Texas. Landry’s is headquartered in Houston, and as ESPN observes, Fertitta has had courtside seats to the Rockets for years. Indeed, he tried and failed to purchase the team the last time they were up for sale, losing out to Leslie Alexander, who bought the Rockets for $85 million in 1993.

Alexander says the two of them have stayed in touch since then.

“I am excited to welcome and pass the torch to Tilman. He is a Houstonian, business leader and committed to the success and excellence of the Rockets both on and off the basketball court,” Alexander said in the team’s statement. “I have personally known Tilman for over 24 years and don’t think I could have found anyone more capable of continuing the winning tradition of our Houston Rockets.”

In its release, the team acknowledged the poor timing of the announcement, coming as it does “amidst the aftermath of one of the biggest tragedies in the history of our great City.” But, the Houston Rockets were careful to note, negotiations for the team’s sale began in July, weeks before the storm’s landfall.

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Sports September 4, 2017

High School Female Quarterback Throws Touchdown Pass In First Game

Holly Neher is a high school quarterback who threw a touchdown pass in her very first varsity game, and possibly the first female to throw a touchdown pass in a high school game in Florida.

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

Good morning. I’m Mary Louise Kelly with news of the high school quarterback who threw a touchdown pass in her very first varsity game. That’s right, her – Holly Neher, the first female quarterback for the Hollywood Hills Spartans in Florida may be the first female in state history to throw a touchdown pass in a game.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

KELLY: I was jumping up and down, said Holly. It felt amazing.

You go, girl.

Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Sports September 3, 2017

Blind USC Football Player Executes Perfect Snap In Game Debut

USC long snapper Jake Olson leads the Trojan Marching Band following a victorious game against Western Michigan on Saturday.

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Jake Olson cannot see but he felt his moment of triumph Saturday with absolute clarity.

The blind 20-year-old executed a perfect snap for an extra point in the last three minutes of the University of Southern California’s game against Western Michigan.

USC won 49-31.

As the ball sailed between the uprights, the stadium erupted in cheers. Olson’s teammates grabbed him in bear hugs.

PAT IS GOOD.

FORGET ROJO, JAKE OLSON IS THE PLAYER OF THE GAME!

— Reign of Troy (@ReignofTroy) September 3, 2017

“I just loved being out there. It was an awesome feeling, something that I will remember forever,” Olson said.

After USC’s Marvin Tell III returned an interception for a touchdown making the score 48-31, USC Coach Clay Helton turned to Olson and asked if he was ready to get in, reports ESPN.

Olson said he was ready.

A teammate helped guide him onto the field. He crouched into position and snapped the ball for the successful kick.

Watch the video of the play:

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“What a pressure player,” Helton toldThe Los Angeles Times. “Is that not a perfect snap at that moment? It’s beyond words.”

The 6-foot-4 Olson said he couldn’t have done it alone.

“It’s an operation, from a holder just making sure I’m lined up straight and it just creates a lot of trust, you know.”

It has been a long journey for the junior from Orange County, Calif.

Olson has dedicated himself to two years of practice, making snaps during drills and in spring games, but Saturday was his first appearance in a live game.

Born with retinoblastoma, a cancer of the retina, Olson’s left eye was removed when he was a baby. By age 12, he knew he would also lose his right eye.

The day before his surgery, Olson spent the final evening he would ever be able to see beholding a USC practice, reports ESPN.

Having learned of his story, the team had adopted the boy as something of an honorary member, allowing him to run with them through the stadium tunnel, walk the sidelines during games and give locker room pep talks, reports USC News.

This is anything but a regular PAT.

Jake Olson, blind since age 12, just snapped for the first time in a live game. https://t.co/amyHcFoVue

— Pac-12 Network (@Pac12Network) September 3, 2017

But Olson didn’t know he that he could get off the sidelines and play until he learned about long snapping.

“It kind of clicked in my mind that it is a consistent position in that you’re snapping the same distance for every snap,” he told CNN. “You definitely have the mechanics of what you’re supposed to do, but a lot of it is just feel.”

He became a starting long snapper on his high school varsity team, reportsThe Los Angeles Times. And while he relied on teammates to guide him onto the field and help line up the ball, he earned respect as a solid player in his own right.

“We didn’t see him as a blind person,” teammate Jerry Fitschen told the newspaper. “We saw him as a football player.”

Hell YEEEEAAAAHHH. If you don’t know #JakeOlson then ya betta ask somebody. Without Sight, NOT without Vision! So proud of you @JakeOlson61https://t.co/mD30V66i0Z

— Nate Boyer (@NateBoyer37) September 3, 2017

It helped earn him a scholarship to USC. In 2015, the year Olson was accepted to the university, coach Steve Sarkisian told the LA Times:

“Someday, he’s going to snap in a game for us,” Sarkisian said. “When? I don’t know. But it will happen.”

“When that day comes, it will be awesome.”

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Sports September 2, 2017

Saturday Sports: The Astros

NPR’s Scott Simon talks with Howard Bryant of ESPN and ESPN The Magazine about a couple of blockbuster trades and the role of sports in healing traumatized communities.

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Time now for sports.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SIMON: Baseball is back in Houston this weekend with a doubleheader today, the Astros versus the Mets. And the Stroh’s may have acquired a game changer, indeed. Howard Bryant of ESPN and ESPN the Magazine joins us. Good morning, Howard.

HOWARD BRYANT: Good morning, Scott. How are you?

SIMON: I’m fine, thanks. As the floodwaters began to recede Thursday, just before midnight, the Astros signed – landed, traded for a six-time All Star Justin Verlander, the great pitcher from the Detroit Tigers. How does this improve their chances in the playoffs and maybe beyond?

BRYANT: Well, it certainly improves them. It’s – when you get a guy like Justin Verlander, I think one of the great things about these deals, especially at this time of the year, is it tells everybody on your team and in your fan base that we’re here to win the World Series. We’re not here to make the playoffs. Obviously, they’ve had a great year. They’ve got the best record in the league for virtually the entire season. The message is that there’s only one outcome for us this year, and that’s to win it all.

And so when you have a guy like Verlander and you’ve got McCullers and you’ve got Keuchel, you’ve got the pitching staff that nobody wants to go through. And it’s a wonderful deal for Houston because, once again, the Astros have been to the World Series once. They lost to the White Sox in 2005. And they were close a couple of years ago – didn’t get there. They lost in the ALCS.

And so right now this is the kind of deal that sports fans love. You want your team to try to win. You care about it. And now the organization is showing that they are doing everything they can to bring you a championship.

SIMON: It’s impossible not to wonder if the Astros are going to play with an extra spark of intensity following Hurricane Harvey. Now is that just romantic nonsense on the part of us fans?

BRYANT: Yeah. You know, Scott it is. And I try at times – I’m conflicted about it quite constantly, to be honest. And I feel like, here we go. The minute the hurricane hit, I thought we were going back to the Katrina narrative or we’re going back to the narrative when the economy crashed in Michigan. You know, Michigan state lets, you know, win it for Michigan or win it for New Orleans. Or – I think that that trivializes what’s really taking place right now.

The Houston Astros in the scope of the devastation there, when you look at those photos, when you see what’s happening and you’re dealing with people whose lives are going to have – it’s going to take months and years to put them back together – it’s insignificant. It means nothing.

On the other hand, there is value in giving people who are dealing with a lot of devastation, a lot of pain, whether it’s in your life personally or whether it’s a national – natural disaster, to give them something that makes them feel good. And baseball does that.

SIMON: We were both in New York in the days after 9/11. I will never forget the tangible electricity of those October games at Yankee Stadium…

BRYANT: Oh, I was there, absolutely.

SIMON: …The cop who sang “God Bless America,” Frank Sinatra’s, you know, recording “New York, New York,” or the team pulling the mayor around the field. I mean, I’m not a Yankees fan, but I sold it each time they won that fall. I like to think that made some small difference.

BRYANT: Well, exactly, you had to feel that. I talked to Joe Torre about this, who was the manager of the Yankees at the time, just a few weeks ago. And he was telling me about after the towers fell, they went to the armory to just be supportive. And they walked in. And I think Joe was there and Willie Randolph. And Dawn Zimmer, Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams were all there.

And Joe walked around. And he thought, this is stupid. I don’t belong here. These people – you know, all the pictures were on the walls trying to find their loved ones. And he said, I don’t belong here. Why are we here?

And then Bernie Williams walked over and said to a woman that, I don’t have anything to say. I don’t know what to say to you. But you look like you need a hug. And he gave her a hug. And everybody then broke – that broke the ice. And everyone came over to the Yankees to see them as their heroes.

And then Joe said, I do realize now that we have a job to do. That this is important to people. And we have to give them something to be happy about within all of this. And it changed his mind about the value of what they could bring to the people of New York.

SIMON: Yeah. And we’ll just note on our way out, a lot of Houston athletes have publicly stepped up in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.

BRYANT: Yeah. J.J. Watt, $15 million he’s raised in a week.

SIMON: Howard Bryant of ESPN, thanks so much for joining us.

BRYANT: Oh, my pleasure.

Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Sports September 1, 2017

Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor Visits 'The Judge's Chamber' At Yankee Stadium

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor sat in Yankee Stadium yesterday in a section called “The Judge’s Chamber.” It is named after Yankee baseball player Aaron Judge. Sotomayor is from the Bronx and has been a fan for a long time.

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

At Yankee Stadium yesterday, a hometown fan made an appearance to cheer against the Red Sox.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER #1: In the Judge’s Chambers a real big-time judge in the glasses. That is Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the Supreme Court of the United States, born in the Bronx and rooting on Aaron Judge. That is pretty awesome.

SHAPIRO: The Judge’s Chambers is a special cheering section the Yankees set up to honor slugger Aaron Judge.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER #1: There it goes, deep to left, really deep. See you.

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER #2: Wow.

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER #1: Oh, my goodness, what a shot by Aaron Judge.

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

That was Judge hitting a home run in June that went 496 feet. This summer, his fans started showing up in judge’s robes and white wigs.

SHAPIRO: Then the Yankees took it up a notch by giving out foam gavels and putting up fake wood paneling to make his cheering section look like a courtroom.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER #1: You don’t really see Supreme Court justices smile like that, so that’s a nice – they’re all so serious. Serious things to do.

MCEVERS: In the mid-’90s, Sotomayor became known as the woman who saved baseball. There was a big baseball strike in 1994, and the dispute eventually reached Sotomayor at the U.S. district court in New York. She sided with the players over the owners and forced both sides back to negotiations.

SHAPIRO: At Yankee Stadium yesterday, Justice Sotomayor wore a black robe with the Yankees logo. She returns to the nine-justice lineup in Washington in October. We’ll see if the Yankees are still playing then.

Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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