Morning sports update: J.D. Martinez explained why he won’t participate in the Home Run Derby
"It's not about the money."
The first of a four-game series between the Red Sox and Yankees was rained out on Thursday. The game will be played on Aug. 3 as part of a day-night doubleheader at Yankee Stadium. Tonight’s matchup begins at 7:05 p.m.
In Game 1 of the NBA Finals, the Raptors overcame the favored Warriors in a 118-109 win. It was the first NBA Finals game to take place outside the U.S.
Why J.D. Martinez won’t do the Home Run Derby: Though he’s one of the league’s best hitters, J.D. Martinez will not be partaking in the 2019 Home Run Derby.
Despite the winner receiving $1 million in prize money, Martinez remains unmoved.
“It’s not about the money,” Martinez told WEEI’s Rob Bradford.
So why is the 31-year-old so set against participating in the derby?
“It’s a lot of stress, man,” said Martinez. “You’re hitting for two minutes straight, easy. Trying to hit the ball as far as you can. I remember seeing it the first time they did it when I wanted to do it and I said, ‘Thank God I didn’t do it.’ It was just exhausting. Those guys were out there drenched.”
Martinez said that he would have done it in 2015, “but I wasn’t good enough.”
For Red Sox fans disappointed at the prospect of not seeing one of the team’s stars mash home runs, Martinez’s response is ultimately a reassuring one for Boston’s chances of getting back to the World Series.
“I’m sure if I was making a lot less I would think about it,” Martinez admitted. “To me, it’s about the team and giving my body the rest that it needs.”
Trivia: Brad Marchand tallied seven points in the 2011 Stanley Cup Final, tying a teammate for most points in the series. Which teammate did he tie? (Check the bottom of the article for the answer).
Hint: He won three Stanley Cups in three different decades as a player.
More from Boston.com:
- Oskar Sundqvist suspended one game for hit on Matt Grzelcyk
- A day at the rink with NBC’s Mike Emrick
- Patrice Bergeron and his linemates seek better production in Game 3
- Cubs player Albert Almora Jr. was visibly shaken after hitting a child with a foul ball
- Bill Russell will receive the 2019 Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPYs
- Don Cherry said Matt Grzelcyk was ‘just asking for it’ when Blues’ Sundqvist hit him from behind
- Joakim Nordstrom’s shot-blocking on the penalty kill brings back memories of Gregory Campbell
- Bruins fans gave Donnie Wahlberg flak for his poorly-timed Wahlburgers tweet
Brad Stevens’s difficult season
: Micah Shrewsberry has been one of Brad Stevens’s assistants for the past six seasons. He recently accepted a position to become an assistant coach at Purdue, but offered an honest assessment of Stevens during a trying 2018-2019 Celtics season.
“I think he really beat himself up,” Shrewsberry told Adam Himmelsbach of the Boston Globe. “Even when he was doing a great job, even when he was putting everything toward it, he still looked toward himself during all those moments. Hopefully guys appreciated that.”
Eight spelling bee champions: After Scripps spelling bee organizers ran out of words for the remaining eight contestants, an unprecedented tie was declared.
EIGHT co-champions!
The Scripps #SpellingBee ends in an unprecedented 8-way tie after 20 rounds of words 🏆 pic.twitter.com/7QHj2ixyjh
— ESPN (@espn) May 31, 2019
Something extra: Despite its proud academic history, Massachusetts has only had one champion of the Scripps National Spelling Bee: Elizabeth Ann Rice of Auburn in 1939. In typical Massachusetts form, her win was also almost derailed by public transportation.
A year before becoming just the 15th national spelling bee champion, Rice qualified for the 1938 regional final in Worcester. While riding a bicycle just five days before that event, she was injured in a collision with a trolley car.
https://www.instagram.com/p/9_1qNPEPtT/?utm_source=ig_embed
Decades before Paul Pierce’s wheelchair, there was Rice’s stretcher. With her arm in a cast and her face still bandaged, Rice was carried from the hospital to the competition on a stretcher, but stood for the duration of the competition.
“She stood with the other spellers for three hours, and finished fourth,” recounted The Associated Press afterward. “The cast was hardly off her arm before she was riding bicycles again.”
Sponsored by the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, Rice reached the national contest in 1939. The 12-year-old outlasted 20 other regional champions over more than 70 rounds. She won the top prize of $500 after spelling “canonical” correctly. The runner-up was 13-year-old Humphrey Cook of Virginia, who tripped up on the word “homogeneity.”
According to the Auburn Historical Society, Rice was welcomed home by a parade attended by 5,000 people.
After retiring from the world of spelling bees, Rice led a career in business management in Worcester until her retirement in 1996. She had seven children with her husband of 54 years, James J. Riza. Eventually, the family grew to include 19 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.
Starting in 1979, she took up long distance running. Her hobby was highlighted by a tally of six marathons, including three Boston Marathons.
On this day: In 2016, Mookie Betts crushed three home runs in a 6-2 Red Sox win over the Orioles.
He also made this catch in the same game:
#YaBettsBelieve @mookiebetts was all over the place tonight! #RedSoxhttps://t.co/sv6XglvWiK
— Red Sox (@RedSox) June 1, 2016
Daily highlight: In a microcosm for how the Raptors achieved a surprising Game 1 victory, Fred VanVleet fought for a basket on one end before Serge Ibaka swatted Shaun Livingston on the other:
VanVleet with the TOUGH bucket 💪
Ibaka with the block on the other end 🚫
(📍@ATT ) pic.twitter.com/tFWCB4RXkq
— ESPN (@espn) May 31, 2019
Trivia answer: Mark Recchi
