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Celtics, Down a Point, Turn It On

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BOSTON – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Celtics guard Derrick White made seven 3-point attempts and scored a team-high 30 points Sunday to lead the Boston to a 103-86 victory over the visiting Orlando Magic in Game 1 of their NBA Eastern Conference first-round playoff series.

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Jayson Tatum added 17 points and 14 rebounds for second-seeded Boston, which received 19 points off the bench from Payton Pritchard. Jaylen Brown, who missed the final three regular-season games with posterior impingement in his right knee, finished with 16 points in 30 minutes.

Boston trailed by one at halftime, but took control by outscoring seventh-seeded Orlando 30-18 in the third.

Orlando’s Paulo Banchero led all scorers with 36 points. He also had 11 rebounds.

Franz Wagner contributed 23 points and five assists, but no other Magic player scored more than Jonathan Isaac’s seven points. Orlando’s Wendell Carter Jr. grabbed 13 rebounds.

Boston led 26-18 after one quarter and extended its lead to 12 points — its largest lead of the first half — when Pritchard connected on a 3-pointer with 10:50 left in the second quarter.

A 9-0 Orlando run sliced Boston’s lead to two points, then Kentavious Caldwell-Pope’s 3-pointer with 1:57 remaining gave the Magic a 45-44 edge. The Magic led 49-48 at halftime as Banchero scored 19 points.

The Celtics scored 28 of the first 38 points in the third quarter and held a 76-59 advantage following Brown’s dunk with 1:56 left in the quarter. Boston had a 78-67 lead entering the final 12 minutes.

The Celtics led 89-71 early in the fourth and extended the lead to 19 points as the Magic never threatened.

Boston was 16-of-37 from 3-point range. Orlando was 10-of-27 from behind the 3-point arc, but was held to three 3-pointers in the second half.

Game 2 of the best-of-seven series will be played Wednesday in Boston.

–Field Level Media

White Sox Roll Over Red Sox, 8-4

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BOSTON – The Chicago White Sox have now won a road game in 2025. In their ninth road game of the season, the White Sox managed an 8-4 win over the Red Sox in the third of a four game series. Boston won the first two games of the set and the teams will meet once again on Monday with the traditional 11:10am start on Patriots’ Day, as the Boston Marathon winds its way past Fenway Park.

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During Saturday’s game, it took 4 1/2 innings for a runner to advance to third base. Today, it was quite the opposite.

Chicago jumped out to a 2-0 lead when catcher Matt Thaiss hit his first home run of 2025, knocking in Luis Robert Jr. who had been given a free pass by Red Sox starter Tanner Houck in the at-bat immediately before Thaiss’ blast.

In the bottom of the first, Boston struck right back, largely at the hands of Chicago’s poor fielding. Both DH Rafael Devers and third baseman Alex Bregman reached base on errors before right fielder Wilyer Abreu belted a ball 387 feet to right field to make the score 3-2, Boston.

The White Sox struck back in the seventh inning, scoring three runs after Red Sox reliever Zack Kelly allowed a lead-off single to Chicago second baseman Lenyn Sosa, then hit two batters (Joshua Palacios and Miguel Vargas). Sosa scored on a sacrifice by pinch hitter Brooks Baldwin and the two hit batsman scored when pinch hitter Edgar Quero singled and the score turned to 5-4, Chicago.

The White Sox added two more runs in the eighth inning when Luis Robert Jr. singled and first baseman Andrew Vaughn homered off Boston’s recently reactivated reliever Liam Hendriks. That made the score 7-4, Chicago, and a crowd of 32,632 fans at Fenway Park turned quiet on a gorgeous 60-degree Easter Sunday afternoon.

Chicago added an insurance run in the top half of the ninth as a combination of singles, an error on Sox third baseman Alex Bregman, a stolen base, an intentional walk, and a hit batter forced in Baldwin to make the final score 8-4, Chicago.

Bregman’s error marked the 24th error committed by the Red Sox which are the most in baseball. The Red Sox have booted at least one play in 11 of 23 games, and are 4-7 in those games..

TL’s Sunday Notebook | April 20

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CLEVELAND, OH – APRIL 16: Members of the Boston Red Sox observe a moment of silence prior to the start against the Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field on April 16, 2013 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images) *** Local Caption ***

By TERRY LYONS, Editor-in-Chief of Digital Sports Desk

BOSTON – It started back in 1969. The Viet Nam war was boiling over, escalating in controversy after the tumultuous year of 1968. I was yet to turn ten years old, but was being schooled by the Huntley-Brinkley Report and the front pages of Newsday. It wasn’t pretty and even the youngsters of the ‘60s could sense it.

Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 393 U.S. 503 (1969) was the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) case that determined the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, as applied through the Fourteenth, did not permit a public school to punish a student for wearing a black armband as an anti-war protest, absent any evidence that the rule was necessary to avoid substantial interference with school discipline or the rights of others.

The case stemmed from a seemingly peaceful and non-controversial event of December 16, 1965 when five students in Des Moines, Iowa, decided to wear black armbands to school in protest of the USA’s involvement in the Vietnam War as they were supporting the Christmas truce that was called for by New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

By the time the case made its way all the way to the SCOTUS, Kennedy was dead, felled by an assassin’s bullet on June 6, 1968. The case was argued that Fall, on November 12, 1968. The student, John F. Tinker, was 15 years old. The case was decided February 24, 1969, and the court’s 7–2 decision in favor of the students held that the First Amendment applied to public schools, and that administrators would have to demonstrate constitutionally valid reasons for any specific regulation of speech in the classroom.

That became precedent in Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District No. 26 v. Pico, 457 U.S. 853 (1982). Island Trees happened to be my home school district although I only attended “IT” in Kindergarten. The rest of my schooling was at St. Ignatius Loyola grammar school and Holy Trinity for high school. In the Island Trees case, which dated back to September of 1975, the Island Trees Board of Education received a list of books deemed inappropriate by Parents of New York United. Island Trees is one of four major school districts in Levittown, New York. The board temporarily removed the books from school libraries and formed a committee to review the list. The committee found that five of the nine books should be returned, but the board overruled the decision and returned only two of the books.

A group of five Island Trees high school students (including one junior high school student) who, according to oral argument, were 17, 16, 15, 14, and 13 years old at the time of the removal of the books, led by Steven Pico, filed a lawsuit against the school board by claiming a violation of First Amendment rights.

The list of nine books eventually grew to eleven books that were the subject of the case. The books were:

  • Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
  • The Naked Ape, by Desmond Morris
  • Down These Mean Streets, by Piri Thomas
  • Best Short Stories of Negro Writers, edited by Langston Hughes
  • Go Ask Alice, of anonymous authorship
  • Laughing Boy, by Oliver LaFarge
  • Black Boy, by Richard Wright
  • A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ but a Sandwich, by Alice Childress
  • Soul on Ice, by Eldridge Cleaver
  • A Reader for Writers, edited by Jerome Archer*
  • The Fixer, by Bernard Malamud*
  • – added to list

The case moved from Long Island to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, where the court granted summary judgment in favor of the school board, citing the discretion given to a school board’s authority in terms of its political philosophy.

From there, it moved along to the Court of Appeals for Federal District Courts where the Court of Appeals reversed and remanded the case for a trial on the merits of respondents’ allegations. It was on to the Supreme Court.

The United States Supreme Court split on the First Amendment issue of local school boards removing library books from junior high schools and high schools. Four justices ruled that it was unconstitutional, four concluded the contrary. One Justice concluded that the Court need not decide the question.

This all brings us to Jackie Robinson, as this week we celebrated the life of the great Dodgers player who broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball on April 15, 1947. His No. 42 was worn by every MLB player this past Tuesday.

And thinking of the great No. 42, a uniform number retired by every club in Major League Baseball, and this being 42 years since the Island Trees District No. 26 v. Pico case, we find ourselves right back where we started from as the Naval Academy – via its Nimitz Library – was instructed to strip 381 books off the shelves.

Yes, this happened in 2025 and one of the books was a Jackie Robinson biography, as first reported by The New York Times and ESPN, while sports site, Awful Announcing, stayed on the story, too.

“As Secretary Hegseth has said, DEI is dead at the Defense Department. Discriminatory Equity Ideology is a form of Woke cultural Marxism that has no place in our military. It Divides the force, Erodes unit cohesion and Interferes with the services’ core warfighting mission. We are pleased by the rapid compliance across the Department with the directive removing DEI content from all platforms. In the rare cases that content is removed – – either deliberately or by mistake – – that is out of the clearly outlined scope of the directive, we instruct the components and they correct the content accordingly,” was the Department of Defense statement provided to ESPN’s Jeff Passen, a very solid reporter.

Let’s get this straight. The story of the great Jackie Robinson has “no place” in “our” military? A decorated World War II veteran and model for every baseball player everywhere, every sportsman everywhere – no matter of race, creed or color – “divides the force?”

In Los Angeles this week, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the legendary NBA star was speaking at Dodgers Stadium in celebration of the day: “Jackie Robinson’s legacy is as important now as it has ever been,” he said as he made the reason for the swipe at Robinson he believes is so abundantly clear.

“(President) Trump wants to get rid of DEI, and I think it’s just a ruse to discriminate,” Abdul-Jabbar said to a scrum of reporters, while sitting at the base of Robinson’s statue in the center field plaza of Chavez Ravine..

“You have to take that into consideration,” he added, “when we think about what’s going on today.”

The Navy doubled-down:

“The U.S. Naval Academy is fully committed to executing and implementing all directives outlined in executive orders issued by the president and is currently reviewing the Nimitz Library collection to ensure compliance,” said Commander Tim Hawkins, a Navy spokesman. “The Navy is carrying out these actions with utmost professionalism, efficiency, and in alignment with national security objectives.”

It might be time for the Supreme Court to reconvene, as they did in 1982, but in this day and age, we all know where that would go.

Banning a Jackie Robinson biography in the Year 2025?

Shame on all of us for allowing this to happen, once again.

HERE NOW, THE NOTES: The annual Portsmouth Invitational Tournament, known to NBAers as PIT, has been on-going this week in beautiful Portsmouth, Virginia. The tournament is run in “old-skool” fashion with no frills, no TV, some online streaming and 100% solid basketball under NBA rules.

The PIT allows the “bubble” level players the ability to play in front of NBA team scouts in a live setting to separate the top two round players from the possible free agent invite players to the two-way signees to the “c’ya” in Europe prospects.

TIDBITS: The 2025 NBA Draft pool is coming together, and deepening. Three more Lottery-worthy players entered the NBA Draft this past Wednesday. Duke’s Kon Knueppel, Florida’s Alex Condon and Michigan’s Danny Wolf all officially declared.

Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson received the Michael H. Goldberg NBCA Coach of the Year Award, the National Basketball Coaches Association announced. The award recognizes the dedication, commitment, and hard work of NBA head coaches and is presented annually to a head coach who helped guide his players to a higher level of performance on-the-court and showed outstanding service and dedication to the community off-the-court. It honors the spirit of Mr. Goldberg, the esteemed long-time Executive Director of the NBCA, who set the standard for loyalty, integrity, love of the game, passionate representation, and tireless promotion of NBA coaching. The award is unique in that it is voted upon by the winners’ peers, the head coaches of all 30 NBA teams.

In total, five coaches received votes, reflecting the depth of coaching excellence in the NBA. In addition to Atkinson, the following head coaches also received votes [listed alphabetically]: J.B. Bickerstaff, Detroit Pistons; Mark Daigneault, Oklahoma City Thunder; Michael Malone, Denver Nuggets; and Ime Udoka, Houston Rockets.

“Kenny Atkinson has long been respected by his peers as an innovative and humble servant to the game,” said Indiana Pacers Coach and NBCA President Rick Carlisle. “Congratulations to Kenny on a historic season along with this prestigious recognition by his peers.”

The great Lee Corso, legend of College Game Day for ESPN and a respected football man for four decades, will retire this August, just as the college season is about to start. Corso’s final broadcast will be Aug. 30, ESPN announced, saying additional programming to celebrate Corso’s great career is planned in the days leading up to that weekend. “He was really a trailblazer for the way the sport was covered. It was OK to laugh, it was OK to poke a little fun, it was OK to show your personality. What Lee did really set the trend for the generations that have followed and continue to follow in covering college football,” said College Game Day hist Rece Davis of ESPN.

The Boston Ruins, errr, Bruins started the season with the usual playoff contender hope but finished with players such as Brad Marchand, Charlie Coyle, Brandon Carlo, and Trent Frederic nowhere in sight. Dumping Marchand, the team captain and backbone of the team, was a sure indication that it’s time to strip down and rebuild. While it’s much easier to revamp a team roster in the NHL than NBA or NFL, the Bruins braintrust will have their work cut out over the Summer of ‘25.

Fire Sale on those No. 13 Phoenix Suns jerseys, eh?

MARATHON MAN: Seventy-eight year old Amby Burfoot, the winner of the 1968 Boston Marathon when he was a student at Wesleyan (same school as Bill Belichick), will run in Monday’s 129th running of the Boston Marathon. Of course on Monday, the 250th celebration of Patriots’ Day in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the Marathon will begin in the morning and the Boston Red Sox toss the first pitch against the Chicago White Sox at 11:10am.

Slow, but Home Cooking for Red Sox

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By TERRY LYONS, Editor of Digital Sports Desk

BOSTON – Saturday’s Boston Red Sox vs Chicago White Sox was the kind of baseball game when absolutely nothing happened for the first four and a half innings. Nothin’ but a few scattered hits, three hit Red Sox batters, and six strike-outs by a sharp and effective Boston starter Garrett Crochet.

Although they left four batters on base in the first two innings, the Red Sox didn’t muster a base hit until rookie 2B Christian Campbell rocketed a single to left field in the bottom of the fourth.

Still nothing, until the home half of the fifth when No. 9 hitter Cedanne Rafaela doubled and left fielder Jarren Duran followed with a base hit to left which advanced Rafaela to third base with none out.

Red Sox slugger and designated hitter Rafael Devers cracked a 389-foot drive over the Green Monster to score Rafaela and Duran to give Boston a 3-0 lead. The home run perked-up the Fenway Park sellout crowd of 36,559 on an 83-degree Easter weekend day.

Devers chased White Sox starter Shane Smith who pitched 4.2 innings, and allowed three runs on four hits and the three hit batters. He threw 73 pitches (45 strikes) during his afternoon outing.

Crochet had a strong quality start but no decision. He threw six innings of scoreless baseball, allowing four hits on two walks and seven punch-outs. But the 3-0 lead he left the game with, vanished in the top of the seventh inning.

Boston reliever Greg Weissert walked pinch hitter Joshua Palacios who advanced to third a batter later when Boston’s Trevor Story mishandled a tag at second base. Chicago’s lead-off hitter Chase Meidroth singled, then Luis Robert Jr. parked a home run, some 375-feet to left. The homer tied the game, 3-3, and wiped a possible win off of Crochet’s pitching record.

After enduring such a costly error and allowing the game to go into extra innings, Boston first baseman Triston Casas hit a bases-loaded single off the Green Monster to drive in the winning run with one out in the 10th inning on Saturday, lifting the Boston Red Sox to a 4-3 victory over the Chicago White Sox.

 

A Whiter Shade of Pale Sox

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By TERRY LYONS, Editor of Digital Sports Desk

BOSTON – The Boston Red Sox welcomed the Chicago White Sox to Fenway Park just as Boston’s newly acquired third baseman Alex Bregman and his wife Reagan were welcoming their second son into this world, their first child born as a member of Red Sox nation.

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From April 11 to 13 this year, the Red Sox dropped two of three games to the lowly pale sox when Boston opened the season with an 8-9 record, hardly impressive. Starting this four-game, Easter weekend and Patriots’ Day set, the home team is an even 10-10, stuck in third place in the American League East.

Chicago is already dead last in the American League Central and their 4-14 record has those two home victories, showing for half of their win total for the young season. The White Sox have yet to win a road game in 2025.

Friday night at Fenway Park continued that trend in front of 35,620 fans.

Boston wasted no time in setting a 3-0 lead as DH Rafael Devers doubled on a ground rule bounce in center field, Bregman walked and Sox shortstop Trevor Story rapped a first pitch change-up from Chicago SP Martin Perez and sent it 427 feet to deep center field to clear the bases.

Boston added a run in the third inning when Story singled up the middle and right fielder Rob Refsnyder banked one off the left-center friend Green Monster for a double, scoring Story. Refsnyder’s blast fell about five feet short on the 37-foot, two inch wall.

Former Red Sox outfielder, Andrew Benintendi, now playing left field for the White Sox, put his club on the scoreboard with a towering home run over the famed Pesky Pole in right field to make it 4-1 in the fourth inning.

Chicago’s Penn Murfee relieved Perez in the bottom of the fourth, sending the starter to the showers after 3 IP, five hits, four earned runs, with two base on balls and no strike-outs. Perez threw 52 pitches over the short stint with 34 as strikes. He allowed the Story HR. The club later announced Perez left the game early because of left forearm soreness.

Boston went to quick work on Murfee as catcher Carlos Narvaez doubled to lead off the home fourth and Sox centerfielder Ceddanne Rafaela took a 78 mph sweeper 406 feet and over the Green Monster in left field. The home run made it 6-1 Red Sox.

Benintendi singled in the sixth inning and scored on a ground out to cut the lead to four runs, 6-2, and reliever Tyler Gilbert entered the game to face Boston in the bottom of the inning.

For Boston, starter Hunter Dobbins pitched 6 innings, allowing four hits and two earned runs.  He walked none and struck out six Chicago batters as he tossed 79 pitches (55 strikes). Dobbins earned the victory and is (2-0) on the season.

In Boston’s half of the seventh inning, Story hit another home run on a 0-1 count, clocking a 365 foot bullet to the left field Green Monster seats to mark his 20th career multi-homer game. Story last had multi-HRs when he hit three off the Seattle Mariners on May 19, 2022.

Boston brought in reliever Josh Winckowski in the eighth inning, leading 9-2, and he held Chicago scoreless.

In the Red Sox end of the eighth, Narvaez hit his first career home run, a healthy 353 foot solo blast into the left field Monster seats. It made the score 10-2, Boston.

Winckowski gave up a run in the ninth inning to close out the score at 10-3, and Boston took the first game of the four game series.

Perez took the loss and is now (1-1) for the White Sox.

The two teams will meet again for a 4:10pm Saturday afternoon start.

 

 

 

Bregman Back with a Baby Boy

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BOSTON – (Staff and Wire Service Report from Official News Release) – The Boston Red Sox activated third baseman Alex Bregman off the paternity list Friday, while right-hander Michael Fulmer was designated for assignment.

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In other moves, the Red Sox recalled right-hander Hunter Dobbins, while infielder/outfielder Nick Sogard was optioned. Dobbins starts Friday night vs the Chicago White Sox.

Bregman, 31, last played Tuesday when he went 5-for-5 with a pair of home runs and four RBIs in Boston’s 7-4 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays. In his first 19 games with the club since signing as a free agent in the offseason, he was batting .321 with four home runs and 16 RBIs.

He and his wife, Reagan, welcomed their second son this week.

Fulmer, 32, made his Red Sox debut Monday and gave up three runs in 2 2/3 innings. A former starter for the Detroit Tigers, he is 37-50 with a 3.96 ERA in 263 appearances (90 starts) over eight career seasons.

He won the 2016 American League Rookie of the Year with the Tigers.

PGA Tour: RBC Heritage Preview

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HILTON HEAD – The RBC Heritage from Harbor Town is the fifth of eight Signature Events of the PGA Tour season. The tournament includes 43 of the top 50 players in the Official World Golf Ranking, headlined by World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, No. 3 Xander Schauffele, No. 4 Collin Morikawa and No. 5 Ludvig Åberg.

The field features:

  • 56 players in the field competed at last week’s Masters Tournament, including seven who finished inside the top 10: Justin Rose (2nd), Scottie Scheffler (4th), Sungjae Im (T5), Ludvig Åberg (7th), Xander Schauffele (T8), Jason Day (T8), Corey Conners (T8).
  • Four past champions: Matt Kuchar (2014), Jordan Spieth (2022), Matt Fitzpatrick (2023), Scottie Scheffler (2024).
  • Seven past FedEx Cup champions: Billy Horschel (2014), Jordan Spieth (2015), Justin Thomas (2017), Justin Rose (2018), Patrick Cantlay (2021), Viktor Hovland (2023), Scottie Scheffler (2024).
  • Sponsor exemptions: Rickie Fowler, Matt Kuchar, Mackenzie Hughes, and Jordan Spieth.

Patriots Draft Needs, Wants

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FOXBOROUGH – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – New England is back in the Top Five for the second consecutive draft after a stretch of 15 years between Top-10 selections ended with third overall pick Drake Maye in 2024.

With the quarterback position apparently locked down, all the Patriots have to do is … figure out nearly everything else.

Mike Vrabel was hired and changes are afoot for the Patriots with a third head coach in three seasons following a 3-14 finish in Jerod Mayo’s only season at the helm.

The Masters: It’s Rory’s Time

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AUGUSTA – (Staff Report) – Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy bested England’s Justin Rose in a one hole playoff after they ended up tied after 72 holes at The Masters, the most prestigous golf tournament in the world.

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After Rose missed a challenging birdie putt on the 18th green and putted out for par, McIlroy drained his three foot birdie putt to win the hole and a career Grand Slam of wins at the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship The Open and, now, The Masters.

McIlroy was overcome with emotion and fell to his knees, flipping his putter, after making the putt to win his Green Jacket.

“This is my 17th time here, and I started to wonder if it would ever be my time,” the Northern Irishman said. “I think the last 10 years coming here with the burden of the Grand Slam on my shoulders and trying to achieve that — yeah, I’m sort of wondering what we’re all going to talk about going into next year’s Masters.”

McIlroy’s 1-over-par 73 left him tied with England’s Justin Rose, who posted 66 and waited for McIlroy to finish. They both shot 11-under 277 for the week.

Re-playing the 18th hole at Augusta National Golf Club, McIlroy’s approach shot rolled back toward the hole and inside Rose’s ball. After Rose missed a birdie attempt and notched a par, McIlroy didn’t flub another chance for a victory.

“There was a lot of pent-up emotion that just came out on that 18th green,” McIlroy said. “A moment like that makes all the years and all the close calls worth it.”

It marked the fifth major championship for McIlroy, and his first since capturing the PGA Championship for the second time in 2014.

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McIlroy needed par at No. 18 to win in regulation, but after blasting from a greenside bunker on the 18th hole he rolled a 5-foot par putt too far to the left.

It was a starkly different reaction from when he departed the 18th green following Thursday’s first round, which included a pair of backside double bogeys and dodging the media on the way to the practice area.

Rose spoke briefly to McIlroy after the playoff and later added perspective to what just happened.

“This is a historic moment in golf, isn’t it — someone who achieves the career Grand Slam,” Rose said. “I just said it was pretty cool to be able to share that moment with him. Obviously, I wanted to be the bad guy today, but still, it’s a momentous occasion for the game of golf.”

The new champion — who gave away his two-shot lead through 54 holes with a double bogey at No. 1 — also recovered from a disastrous stretch on the back nine to birdie the 17th hole for a brief one-stroke lead. McIlroy’s bogey on No. 11, double bogey on No. 13 and bogey on No. 14 appeared to send him on track for another final-round collapse at a major.

McIlroy said sending his ball into the creek on a wedge shot on the par-5 13th could have doomed his chances.

“I did a really good job of bouncing back from that,” he said.

McIlroy recovered for a birdie on the par-5 15th hole by drawing a tremendous second shot around a tree, over a water hazard and to 6 feet of the pin, where he two-putted for birdie.

Then he stuck his approach on No. 17 and sank the putt to take the lead.

Rose, seeking his first Masters title, had six birdies and two bogeys across the last eight holes, finishing with a 20-foot birdie putt.

“To make the putt on 18, the one you dream about as a kid, to obviously give myself an opportunity and a chance was an unbelievable feeling,” Rose said.

Rose was the leader after the first and second rounds, and after a tough 75 on Saturday he made a major final-round push. He had only four pars on his card — countering four bogeys with 10 birdies.

Patrick Reed (69 on Sunday) was third at 9 under. Defending champion Scottie Scheffler (69) placed fourth at 8 under, giving him four consecutive top-10 finishes at the Masters.

“I was just proud of the way we hung in there and put up a good fight,” Scheffler said.

Bryson DeChambeau, who figured to be McIlroy’s biggest threat and in the final pairing, took the lead after the second hole before stalling with back-to-back bogeys and a string of pars to skid off the path. By the time he double-bogeyed No. 11, he was tied for ninth and seventh strokes back.

DeChambeau’s 75 left him at 7 under, tied for fifth place with South Korea’s Sungjae Im (69).

DeChambeau said his troubles began with a putt on the third hole that scooted well beyond the cup.

“There’s no way that putt goes that far by,” he said. “I just didn’t realize how firm and fast it could get out here. It’s great experience. Won’t let that happen again.”

–Field Level Media

TL’s Sports Notebook | April 13

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By TERRY LYONS, Editor-in-Chief, Digital Sports Desk

BOSTON – The radio and its sister, the transistor radio, gave way to the television which soon became a color TV. A few years later, we watched sports from around the globe by way of satellite TV. Years later, the technology improved from over-the-air to cable TV. A little while after that we could buy our own pizza-sized DIRECT-TV satellite dish which gave way to the smart TV and streaming devices.

Basketball’s set shot became a jump shot which morphed into running one-handers and finger rolls. Sooner or later, we had the dunk shot, then the slam dunk. Years later, the gimmick three-point shot was brought into the gamed years after that, pro teams were shooting 50 three-point attempts per game.

In baseball, the fastball was soon joined by the curve ball which gave way to a slider, then a cutter which is now a sweeper.

All-in-all, things ch, ch, ch, change.

Things change in life and in sports. It’s inevitable. When you take a giant step back to examine the progress, progress is good. Standing still is bad.

Take a look at the coverage of the 2025 Masters Tournament. CBS Sports via Paramount+ (and similar coverage by ESPN and its ESPN+ Streaming service) will provide over 100 hours of coverage this week. ESPN+ served up four hours of coverage of the Par 3 tournament on Wednesday. Not too long ago, over-the-air TV coverage of the Masters was limited to four or five hours from Augusta on the weekend.

For all four days of Masters Tournament play, viewers can watch four Featured Groups per day and Featured Holes coverage of Holes 4, 5 and 6, the famed Amen Corner and Holes No. 15 and No. 16. – all streamed on ESPN+ or Masters.com sites.

That a ton of TV coverage and a ton of change for the members of Augusta National who used to pride themselves as the ultimate “less is more” believers.

The “less is more” theory was perfected by the late NBA Commissioner David Sternwhen the league had to consolidate regular season coverage on CBS Sports in order to land a (then) lucrative tv deal that really focused on the NBA Playoffs and Finals. At the time, the NBA national tv deal was only eight regular season exposures plus the NBA All-Star Game. The power of the league’s cable tv package via Turner Sports had yet to reach its eventual impact.

Let’s talk about another ch, ch, ch, change.

The NBA will begin postseason play this week with a relatively new Play-In Tournament that will be as competitive as any first round match-up. Upon conclusion, the two teams to survive the Play-In will be in position to upset the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds. That’s especially so in the West where about four games separates seed No. 2 from Seed No. 8.

In other words, the No. 2 Houston Rockets will have their hands full with their opponent, no matter who it is. That’s good for competition and good for the NBA which sparks interest in an extra four franchise markets and a massive marketing deal with So-Fi as the NBA Playoffs begin.

HERE NOW, THE NOTES: Back in the good old days of the Masters, these nine players were atop the leaderboard. In 2025, they all missed the cut. In fact, of the 18 former champions in the 2025 field, nine made the cut and these nine did not”:

  • Dustin Johnson, 3 over (74-73)
  • Bernhard Langer, 3 over (74-73)
  • Sergio Garcia, 4 over (72-76)
  • Mike Weir, 4 over (75-73)
  • Fred Couples, 4 over (71-77)
  • Phil Mickelson, 5 over (75-74)
  • Adam Scott, 5 over (77-72)
  • Jose Maria Olazabal, 7 over (77-74)
  • Angel Cabrera, 11 over (75-80)
  • Vijay Singh withdrew on Monday

This year’s tournament marked the end of his Masters playing career for Germany’s Bernard Langer, one of the true, gentlemen of the game of golf. He missed a 10-foot par putt on 18 and missed the cut by one after rounds of 74 and 73. Not only would making the putt have extended the two-time champion’s Masters career by two rounds, but it also would have made Langer the oldest player to ever make the cut at Augusta National. “It was a very special last two days for me,” said Langer, the 1985 and 1993 Masters champion, after 41 years playing Augusta.

All five amateurs in the 2025 Masters field missed the cut. Justin Hastings, the Latin American Amateur champion, shot 76-72 to lead the amateur contingent, but a player must complete 72 holes to earn low amateur honors. Hastings, No. 12 in PGA TOUR University, finished T13 at this year’s Mexico Open at VidantaWorld.

MASTERS: After an opening round 72 (even par), Rory McIlroy put two great rounds of (66) together and leads the 2025 Masters by two strokes over an equally impressive Bryson DeChambeau (69-68-69). The tournament’s 18 and 36-hole leader, Justin Rose, shot (75) on Saturday and fell seven strokes off the lead and is tied for sixth place. Defending champion Scottie Scheffler is also seven back heading into Sunday’s final round.