Why LeBron James is savoring his return to the NBA Finals

LeBron James, as he often is, was in control of the music in the Cleveland Cavaliers' locker room. This was after Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals here last week, after Kevin Love returned to form, after a complete annihilation of Toronto made the NBA Finals feel like the inevitability it was. The Cavs open at Golden State on Thursday.

The symphonic tastes of professional athletes rarely extend past a month ago, but LeBron isn't your normal young, rich and famous star. For one, he's old school. Second, he's got a hokey, suburban dad angle to him – he's a self-professed fan of HGTV, the Food Network and the "Pitch Perfect" movies. He's also cool enough to cop to it without concern.

Winning a big game called for more than just the latest hits, and besides, what's current that's better than the O'Jays? So the 1972 classic "Back Stabbers" rang through the place, LeBron loudly singing along.

"They smile in your face," James crooned. "All the time they want to take your place. The back stabbers … back stabbers."

LeBron said it was just a great song and wasn't meant to symbolize anything. Moments later the O'Jay's "For the Love of Money" – which Donald Trump used as the opening of his reality show – came on.

LeBron sat there and sang that one too. He was entertaining himself, if no one else.

"I didn't appreciate last year personally on getting to The Finals," James said.

That's not an issue this year. The playoffs have been a blast for LeBron James, a 12-2 record, relatively little drama with a team that is well rested and fully operational – most notably with a healthy Love and Kyrie Irving.

The journey thus far has been enjoyable, but now comes the hard part, the pressurized part, the legacy stuff he signed up for when he returned to Cleveland.

These NBA Finals remain about whether James can deliver a desperate, title-starved city to the ultimate destination. Nothing else will suffice. It's all-or-nothing again, no matter how good the music sounds along the way.

James knows this, he's just trying to take the challenge with less internal pressure, in part because he isn't required to do as much. He's averaging just 36.4 minutes a game, down nearly five minutes from a year ago.

"Just so much was going on in my mind [last year], knowing that Kev was out for the rest of the season and knowing that Ky was dealing with injuries all the way from the first round," LeBron said. " … Having these guys right here at full strength, having our team at full strength, and the way I feel personally, I appreciate this moment, to be able to be a part of it and to be there once again."

This is LeBron's sixth consecutive NBA Finals appearance, 2011-14 in Miami, 2015-16 in Cleveland. The only other players to do that came from the Boston Celtics' dynasty of the late 1960s and 1970s.

He's a June regular. So saying this might be his last chance, or that a frantic feeling should settle in, is ridiculous. That said, this is his 13th season and while he's only 31, there are miles on the tread. You can tack 192 playoff games and counting to his 987 regular-season ones. He already ranks 42nd all-time in regular-season minutes played and sixth in playoff minutes. Plus, there has been plenty of work for USA Basketball, including three Olympics.

While it's certainly not now-or-never for LeBron to win one for Cleveland, now sure would be a good time to get it done. You get only so many cracks at this, and championship windows – for players and teams – tend to shut faster than anticipated. You never want chances to slip by.

As good as Golden State is, the opportunity is right there.

For LeBron, the sense of drama is amplified by his return to Cleveland, just 35 miles north of his hometown of Akron and where he played the first seven seasons of his career, reaching the 2007 Finals but then bailing to Miami in heartbreaking fashion in the summer of 2010.

His time with the Heat proved fruitful with two championships, but in addition to satisfaction and excitement, one of the emotions James said he felt when he finally won his first title in 2012 was relief. This isn't uncommon for the truly great athlete, for whom a championship isn't just a dream, but an expectation that can become a burden when a career drags along without one.

Getting that off your back can be exhilarating, freeing, even life changing.

Only James decided to put the burden back on his back; at least sort of. In returning to Cleveland, which hasn't won a championship in any major professional sport since the 1964 (pre-Super Bowl) Browns, he reset the clock in a way that wouldn't have existed had he stayed in Miami. It also felt like he was coming back to make things right in the town he left behind. Anything less will be unsatisfying.

"I don't really get caught up in all of that," James said of Cleveland's doldrums, which is the smart answer. "We're going to prepare ourselves. Our coaching staff will prepare us, and we're going to go out and give it our all, and we're going to live with the results."

"I know our city deserves it," he continued. "Our fans deserve it. But that gives us no sense of entitlement. We've still got to go out and do it."

A year ago he nearly solo-teamed it to the championship, pushing Golden State to six games while averaging, out of necessity, 35.8 points, 13.3 rebounds, and 8.8 assists in the Finals. During this year's playoffs he's gladly avoided taking over games, using the team's diversity of attack. He's down in nearly every stat, most telling: 9.3 fewer shots per game.

Love and Irving have "been the reason why we've played at such a high level," James said. "They've accepted the challenge. They wanted to get back to this moment."

The moment is here. It's an old, familiar Finals opponent, an old, familiar stage and old, familiar challenge for LeBron James, who's sitting at his locker, singing along to old, familiar songs.

Walter Thurmond becomes the latest NFL player to retire early

Safety Walter Thurmond had a big 2015 season and could have cashed in with a huge payday in free agency. Instead, he's walking away.

According to multiple reports on Tuesday, including ESPN's Adam Schefter, Thurmond is retiring. He's 28 years old, with six seasons of NFL experience with the Seattle Seahawks, New York Giants and one last season with the Philadelphia Eagles.

It's easy to guess that concerns about concussions played a role. On Thurmond's Twitter account at the time of his retirement, three of his last four posts were about concussions — a comment on a story that BMX rider Dave Mirra had the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a retweet of a story that former NFL legend Bubba Smith had CTE, and a GIF showing how the brain reacts when the human skull is hit.

Thurmond had reinvented himself as an NFL player last season. He moved from cornerback to safety, where he thrived with the Eagles. He reportedly had offers of more than $4 million a year, which is no surprise. He had a career-high 73 tackles and also three interceptions, after having just one interception his first five seasons. He also set career highs in sacks (two) and forced fumbles (two). He took to safety very well and could have had a lucrative and successful second half of his career at that position.

It's not fair to say early retirements are an epidemic for the NFL because among hundreds of NFL players only a handful have walked away due to health concerns, but it is a new and worrisome issue for the league. Last year there were a few retirements by players in their prime, most notably San Francisco 49ers linebacker Chris Borland after just one season. Borland said a big part of his decision was the concern over concussions.

It's hard for many of us to imagine walking away from the NFL when teams are preparing to offer more than $4 million a year to play. But Thurmond has other interests. The Eagles' site said he's an "avid film and art enthusiast." He tweets often about films. He has also tweeted about NFL player safety a lot this offseason.

Thurmond decided, for whatever reason, that the NFL life was no longer for him, no matter how much money he was leaving on the table.

Will Smith's blood alcohol level was three times the legal limit

A report said that on the night former New Orleans Saints defensive end Will Smith was shot, his blood alcohol level was three times Louisiana's legal limit.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune, citing two unnamed sources, said Smith's blood alcohol content was 0.24 on April 9, the night Smith was shot. Louisiana's legal limit is 0.08. Smith's lawyer had previously said Smith "was not 'inebriated to the point' of being unable to drive," the Times-Picayune said. Smith was driving right before he was shot and killed, and just before Smith was shot a car belonging to him appeared to hit a car that belongs to Cardell Hayes. Hayes has been indicted on a second-degree murder charge.

The Times-Picayune said it's unclear if the toxicology results will be presented in Hayes' court hearing on Wednesday. It could be a part of the defense strategy by Hayes' lawyers. Hayes' lawyers have said he was not the aggressor in the incident that led to Smith's death and injuries to Smith's wife Racquel. Will Smith was shot eight times, seven times in the back and once in the side. Smith's lawyer has said Hayes was "rageful." Smith had a gun in his SUV that night, but his lawyer said it was never taken out of the car, according to the Times-Picayune.

Smith and his wife went to dinner that night with five other friends including former Saints teammate Pierre Thomas, according to the Times-Picayune.

Orioles catcher Caleb Joseph suffers most horrific injury ever

Being a major-league catcher is an incredibly dangerous job. While collisions have been outlawed, catchers generally take a beating behind the plate. As such, it's not all that surprising to see catchers placed on the disabled list fairly often.

Baltimore Orioles catcher Caleb Joseph is the latest catcher to suffer this fate. And while a backup catcher hitting the disabled list wouldn't normally be news, well, the Orioles were really specific with his injury.

	Roch Kubatko @masnRoch
#orioles confirm Caleb Joseph to DL with testicular injury 11:21 AM - 31 May 2016

So, that sounds horrible.

During Monday's game against the Boston Red Sox, Joseph unfortunately took a foul ball to a very sensitive region.

	Jim Morrison's Liver @MorrisonsLiver
@Britt_Ghiroli pic.twitter.com/2R63KE2DQz 11:39 AM - 31 May 2016 Twitter

Amazingly, Joseph was actually able to remain in the game and keep playing.

If you haven't cringed enough at the above video or the phrase "testicular injury," this ought to do it for you. According to Roch Kubatko of MASN, Joseph underwent a surgical procedure Monday night due to the issue.

	Roch Kubatko @masnRoch
Caleb Joseph underwent surgical procedure last night. Buck wouldn't give details. Will need at least 15 days before ready to play #orioles 1:22 PM - 31 May 2016

Thank goodness manager Buck Showalter did not supply any details of that surgery.

Everything about this injury screams nooooooooooooooooooope to us. Some people dream of playing in the majors, but this story makes us happy we sit at a desk on a computer all day. That may sound boring, but there's far less risk of suffering a horrific injury of that nature in this line of work.

How Stephen Curry and the Warriors pulled off one of the NBA's great comebacks

In the end, there was Stephen Curry standing in the middle of it all: beating his chest, belting out a blood-curdling scream born of one of the great escapes in conference finals history. The Golden State Warriors and the NBA's Most Valuable Player should've been buried in America's Dust Bowl days ago, demoralized, demolished, left to rot with 73 victories and a fistful of what-ifs.

Suddenly, the surround sound of Oracle Arena hysteria tumbled down upon Curry on Monday night, the Game 7 victory validating the genius of his talent and the prodigious pureness of his heart.

Still standing, still the champs.

For Curry to flourish in the middle of it all Monday night at Oracle Arena – to close out a 96-88 victory with 15 of his 36 points in the fourth quarter – had been because Curry never let Klay Thompson believe the Splash Brothers no longer existed. Curry could've transformed one of the great individual seasons ever – a unanimous MVP performance – and separated himself into a singular entity.

"Steph does not care about getting all the attention," Draymond Green told The Vertical late Monday night. "Without Klay, there's not that much success here. He's always made sure that people understood: It's about us, it's not about me. That's why this team is successful, because that's our guy, that's how he sees things."

Curry needed middle relief in this series, and Thompson delivered it for him. Golden State never would've gotten out of Oklahoma City, out of Game 6, without Thompson's 41 points. He was the hero. "What Klay did was [put] us on his shoulders and allow us to have this opportunity at home," Golden State coach Steve Kerr said.

Once Thompson became dominant, it made it easier for Curry to regain form too. Curry was hurting, struggling and everyone within the Warriors knew it. Thompson bought Curry time to become Curry again, and the MVP unleashed himself on Monday night in Game 7.

When the Warriors' backcourt started together five years ago, Curry and Thompson were a true partnership. On the night Golden State traded Monta Ellis to Milwaukee, Thompson remembers Curry telling him: It's you and me now. The Splash Brothers were born.

And as these past two years unfolded, it appeared to matter far less that Thompson had become a two-time All-Star guard – only because Curry had become a two-time MVP. This year, the term Splash Brothers had never been heard so less. And yet if that was the narrative outside the Warriors, it never became the reality within them.

Three weeks ago, Curry made his comeback from an MCL knee sprain. He had missed games in the series against the Houston Rockets and Portland, and struggled for most of Game 4 against the Trail Blazers. As it turned out, his closing performance transcended the moment: 17 points in overtime, an NBA record. Everyone swooned over Curry, only to find him swooning over someone else.

Before Curry left the podium that night, he leaned into the microphone and answered a question that no one had posed to him: Hey, what a series Klay Thompson has had for us, he told everyone. Big shots, big makes and chasing Damian Lillard everywhere on defense.

"I called him later, and told him, 'That's great leadership,' " Warriors GM Bob Myers told The Vertical on Monday night.

When the Warriors were down 3-1, Myers delivered Curry a gentle reminder. "Your body language matters," the GM told him. "People are watching you."

For as long as Myers has studied Curry – as an underclassman at Davidson, as a fragile, young NBA player and ultimately as a global icon – he has always marveled over the man's belief. Curry's confidence is unwavering and peerless because the investment of work into his craft allows for it.

"He does it quietly – unlike Draymond, his alter ego," Myers said with a laugh.

This was some scene in Oracle on Monday night, a culmination of a conference finals comeback the NBA hadn't seen since the Boston Celtics survived the Philadelphia 76ers in 1981. The Cleveland Cavaliers are on the way for an NBA Finals rematch on Thursday night, only this time LeBron James is bringing a healthy Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. Curry will need everyone on these Warriors, need them all, and that includes the full force of the Splash Brothers.

"When you're down, like we were, the fabric of the team is easier to see," Myers told The Vertical. "You see it when you hit some adversity. When you could splinter, and you don't, well, that's where you see the connectedness of the team."

For these Golden State Warriors, it still begins and ends with Steph Curry. The Warriors had his back in these Western finals because he's always had theirs. In the end, the MVP stood in the middle of Oracle Arena and let the love wash over him, pounding his chest, screaming into the Bay Area night. Together, they had done it. Together, the Warriors had survived. Still standing, still champs.

Kevin Durant: 'I thought it was our year'

Kevin Durant has learned, painfully and repeatedly, that championships wait for no one. The game moves on, it evolves. What once seems promised quickly can vanish. As his latest best chance to lead the Oklahoma City Thunder to that elusive title evaporated late Monday under a confetti shower at Oracle Arena, Durant hugged the triumphant Stephen Curry while seething and mourning inside.

"I hate to [expletive] lose. It sucks. I thought it was our year," Durant told The Vertical while shaking his head after his Thunder lost to the defending champion Golden State Warriors 96-88 in Game 7 of an incredible Western Conference finals series that won't soon be forgotten, "but sometimes it doesn't pan out that way."

Durant tried to the keep the most high-stakes season of his career going a little longer, staging a one-man rally that simply wasn't enough to dethrone a team that's on a quest for immortality more than anything else. The Thunder seemed destined for a similar chase when Durant and his dynamic running mate Russell Westbrook made their first NBA Finals in 2012.

LeBron James stood in the way that year, then injuries mostly caused the delay in subsequent years. Then, while Durant was away recovering from three foot surgeries last season, Curry and the Warriors jumped him in line while also spoiling James' grand homecoming plans in the process. Golden State wasn't going to move aside so a former MVP and four-time scoring champion could claim a spot he has long coveted. And, after becoming just the 10th team in NBA history – and the first in a conference finals since the 1980-81 Boston Celtics – to overcome a 3-1 series deficit, the Warriors don't appear interested in getting out of the way anytime soon, leaving Durant to ponder if his moment will ever come.

"I'm certain. I'm certain," Durant told The Vertical about his belief that he eventually will win the championship that cements a Hall of Fame legacy. "They don't love the game like I love it. Nobody knows how much I put in the work, how much I care about my teammates, about everything. I've given my heart and soul into this since I was 8 years old. Whatever happens, I'm certain. I feel confident that that moment will happen. I'm 27 years old. Hopefully, I can play a long time in this league but nothing is guaranteed. I know one thing for sure, I'm going to put the work in."

But as he walked out of the arena, flanked by his father, Wayne Pratt; agent Rich Kleiman of Roc Nation Sports; and manager Charlie Bell, Durant dived into another level of uncertainty that superseded when and if he will stop being the game's most accomplished active player without a ring. Durant will become the most coveted free agent this summer and very well could've donned a Thunder uniform for the final time.

Durant played his final game in a Seattle SuperSonics uniform in the same building eight years ago, before the franchise moved on to the plains of the mid-South. The wounds of Monday's loss to the Warriors were still fresh and Durant wasn't ready to immediately speculate on his future. Soon, he won't be able to avoid the question he has effectively dodged for nearly two years.

"What I got, a month? I don't know," Durant told The Vertical. "I've got to decompress, just reflect. And I really can't tell you. I'll know in the next couple of weeks – if I even think about it. But as of today, I have no thoughts, I have nothing to really think about. Just enjoy, reflect on this season and all we did as a team."

Despite the endless rounds of rumors and guessing games surrounding Durant, some in the Thunder organization have felt confident about retaining him beyond this season. General manager Sam Presti has assembled one of the deepest and most dangerous rosters in the league – one that was a few fourth-quarter meltdowns from upsetting a team that set an NBA regular-season record with 73 wins.

Durant has never been closer to a Finals return, never been paired with a better version of Westbrook and never had so many weapons with whom to share the ball. The Thunder made significant strides in the postseason under first-year coach Billy Donovan and knocked off a 67-win San Antonio Spurs team in the second round ("We weren't supposed to be in this position," Durant said). Donovan was a successful recruiter during his time in college at Florida and already seemed to be at work after the game as he shared a hug and chatted with Kleiman outside the tunnel leading to the court.

The past year has presented its share of challenges for Durant – from the grueling road back from the most serious injury of his career, to the death of Thunder assistant coach Monty Williams's wife, Ingrid. Durant used those situations as motivation and never lost focus of where he was, and what he wanted to accomplish in Oklahoma City. Opposing players sent text messages, asking him to consider coming. Opposing fans showered him with affection when he went on the road. He couldn't avoid that he was in demand, but did a superb job of not letting a distraction become a disruption.

"I just think it's being able to play the game of basketball again, it was taken away from me. So I just wanted to enjoy every moment," Durant told The Vertical. "Of course, [thoughts on free agency] creep in. That's natural. That's part of this whole situation. That's natural for those thoughts to creep in, because you hear a lot of stuff. But I thought I did a good job of not letting it creep in to me being a basketball player and a teammate. And I was emotionally, physically invested, 100 percent, every single day. From practice to shootarounds, to games, to playoff preparation, everything, I was totally invested in it all."

Getting back this far required far more patience than Durant ever imagined. After losing three straight games to the Warriors, Durant was in no mood for "moral victories." Durant wanted the Finals – and another shot at James – so badly that the challenge this series was to stay out of his own way. The self-proclaimed “professional scorer” compensated for some rare offensive inefficiency by playing smothering defense as a rim-protecting, small-ball power forward. Before admittedly pressing in a Game 6 loss that could haunt him for a while, Durant quickly dismissed a question about James reaching his sixth straight NBA Finals, signaling a desire to no longer defer. The resentment in coming up short once again isn't necessarily related to losing to Curry and the Warriors, but from knowing that the winner of this series had every reason to believe it could defeat Cleveland in the next round.

Durant packed on Sunday for three games, confident the Thunder would advance for a long-awaited rematch with a player who once stood as his closest rival before Curry's arrival. But Durant was somber in the locker room after the game, taking a momentary break from his silence to huddle with Dion Waiters. Waiters will also be a free agent this summer, and Durant adopted him as almost a little brother by offering encouragement, sometimes in the form of four-letter words. Once a youngster who leaned on other veterans like Kendrick Perkins, Derek Fisher, Nick Collison and Nazr Mohammed for advice, Durant joined Westbrook in providing leadership for several teammates playing prominent postseason roles for the first time. “Proud of all the guys, win or lose, proud of everybody for the effort they put in,” Durant said.

Durant's season is over earlier than he would like and ambiguity about his future looms on the other side, like never before.

"I have no regrets with anything," Durant told The Vertical. "You learn to appreciate every single moment as you get older. I know this moment doesn't come around often. I can't say I'm guaranteed to be back here again, but you can appreciate the journey and the growth. You see it a little different now that I'm older and I've seen it, I've seen it with everybody in this organization. [Expletive] hurts. I wish we could go to Cleveland. It sucks. But that's part of it. I wouldn't be who I am if I just give up. Long as I'm healthy and ready to go, every single day is going to be devoted to being a better basketball player."

It looks like another one of ESPN's most recognizable names is being shown the door

Chris Berman has been the face of ESPN for much of the network's four decades on the air. But it is starting to sound as if Berman will be ESPN's latest big-name personality to be pushed aside.

Eyebrows were raised when a report on Thursday from The Big Lead said the 61-year-old Berman was expected to retire when his contract expires sometime after the 2016 NFL season. Berman's agent spoke with Richard Sandomir of The New York Times and quickly shot that report down.

"Chris is NOT retiring," Berman's agent told Sandomir. "[He] loves what he's doing too much and is too young to hang 'em up."

Berman's agent then added that "perhaps people with an agenda put it out there."

On Tuesday, Jim Miller, author of "Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN," was a guest on "The Dan Patrick Show" and discussed Berman's future, saying that Berman would most likely stay with the network but that his role would be severely reduced.

"It's clear that he will be changing roles," Miller told Dan Patrick. "There is no doubt about it. He is going to ride out this football season. But I think that given his contract is up I believe sometime later this year, it's time. It seems like we've been talking about Berman's future since the dawn of man, and I think we're finally at the point where it's going to be reconfigured."

But while ESPN has jettisoned other big names in the past year, including Bill Simmons, Colin Cowherd, Keith Olbermann, and Jason Whitlock, Berman's over-the-top personality is too big for the self-proclaimed Worldwide Leader in Sports to just cut the cord completely.

"I think he is too big a personality in ESPN history for them to just vote him off the island, hit the delete key," Miller said. "And I don't think that's his wishes anyway. So I think they're going to probably try to carve out some emeritus role with a variety of functions around that."

Miller noted that this seemed to be a good compromise between the "people inside Bristol who think that it is time for him to go and [the] people who want him to stay."

Miller went on to speculate that ESPN could potentially appease Berman and his supporters by giving him roles such as letting him continue to call Major League Baseball's Home Run Derby, a support role at the NFL Draft, and possibly short segments for the network's "Sunday NFL Countdown" show, where Berman serves as the show's host.

Of course, all of that is moot if Berman decides he is not ready to put one foot into a retirement home and gets an offer from another network with a more prominent role. But Berman's history as a highlights personality would not seem to fit with the direction of most sports networks as they move more toward debate and commentary.

Either way, it seems clear that one of the most colorful personalities in sports television history will soon be on-screen at ESPN a lot less.

ESPN declined to comment for this story.

UFC fighter unharmed after getting caught up in robbery shootout in Peru

UFC women’s bantamweight Valentina Shevchenko and her trainer, Pavel Fedotov, were caught in middle of a shootout during a robbery at a restaurant in Peru that resulted in Fedotov being hit by gunfire and taken to the emergency room.

The shootout took place during a robbery attempt at the restaurant in the Chorrilos distract of Lima, Peru, and was captured by security cameras. According to Peru’s El Comercio, three armed individuals entered the restaurant on Sunday evening and demanded employees and patrons to hand over their belongings, which included cash, cell phones, purses and wallets.

Valentina Shevchenko walks to her corner

during her UFC 196 fight against Amanda

Nunes.

There were conflicting reports as to how the shootout started. El Comercio initially reported that Fedotov started firing at the assailants when they were trying to escape. However, FPP reported that Fedotov pulled out his gun and fired after the robbers started firing their weapons, injuring a female customer in the process. Another restaurant patron also reportedly engaged in the shootout that led to more than 15 shots fired.

One of the robbers ended up dead just outside the restaurant while the other two managed to flee from the scene. Both the female customer and Fedotov are expected to recover. Fedotov remains at the Casimiro Ulloa hospital.

The restaurant owner stated that it was the sixth time this particular location had been robbed and the security cameras were installed due to situations such as this.

Shevchenko, who is slated to face former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm in the main event of a UFC Fight Night card on July 23, can be seen in the security footage rushing to the aid of her trainer after the gunfire ceased. Although she is originally from Kyrgyzstan, Shevchenko and Fedotov relocated to Peru back in 2008.

Déjà vu: Royals fans dominating All-Star voting once again

The other team in Missouri is known for hacking scandals, but Major League Baseball may want to look into how Kansas City Royals' fans have been dominating the All-Star voting lately. For the second straight year, Royals fans have come out in droves to stuff the ballot box.

The league released its first update for American League All-Star game balloting and many of the Royals are at, or near, the top of the voting at each position.

	MLB Communications @MLB_PR
Royals catcher Salvador Perez leads the AL in fan balloting for the 2016 MLB All-Star Game presented by MasterCard. pic.twitter.com/lpjHfWsvfH 12:23 PM - 31 May 2016 Twitter

Catcher Salvador Perez is the top vote-getter among all AL players thus far, with 1,094,942 votes. He leads New York Yankees catcher Brian McCann by an astounding 775,263 votes. Perez is hitting .277/.313/.494, with seven home runs, this year. He leads all AL catchers with a 1.5 fWAR.

Perez is not the only Royal currently leading his position. If the All-Star game took place today, both Eric Hosmer and Lorenzo Cain would be AL starters. Hosmer currently leads Detroit Tigers first baseman Miguel Cabrera, while Cain is second in outfielder voting, behind Mike Trout.

At every other position, a Royals player ranks second in the voting. Omar Infante, Mike Moustakas, Alcides Escobar and Kendrys Morales are all the second-highest vote-getters at their respective positions.

On the one hand, it makes sense that the Royals would dominate the AL voting. The club has represented the AL in the World Series the past two seasons, taking home the title last year. They have been the best team in the league for two straight seasons, so they should have exceptional players.

With that said, the All-Star game should reward the best players in each league, and that's not the case with many of these votes. Perez, Cain and Hosmer are fine choices, but it's tough to make an argument for Infante over Seattle Mariners star Robinson Cano.

Moustakas over Toronto Blue Jays slugger Josh Donaldson also seems silly, but an injury will keep Moustakas from playing in the contest.

Morales ranking second at DH is particularly egregious. It won't matter, as David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox will easily get the nod, but it's worth noting that Morales is hitting .187/.258/.310 this year. Yikes!

Last season, the Royals were set to have eight starters in the All-Star game after the first AL update was released. As the voting moved forward, Royals players saw their numbers drop. Only three players from Kansas City, Perez, Escobar and Cain, wound up starting the actual All-Star game.

History may repeat itself again this season. It's certainly possible Perez, Hosmer and Cain retain their starting spots, but all the other Royals should drop as the voting rolls on.

Then again, after what we saw last season, it's probably foolish to count Royals fans out in any and all matters related to All-Star voting. They, like the team they support, have proven to be relentless.

Alabama's Nick Saban rants about satellite camps

Nick Saban said he didn’t want to talk about satellite camps at the SEC meetings on Tuesday, but he did anyway. He got a bit worked up, too.

Saban has made no bones about it – he’s not a fan of the camps, which allow coaching staffs to travel to other regions of the country (to camps hosted by other schools, including high schools) to scout talent.

But Saban’s main point of contention is a bit different from the usual recruiting-based arguments. Yes, the camps give kids opportunities they may not have otherwise gotten, but Saban is worried about third-party involvement. He compared the camps to the AAU circuit in basketball and pointed to the lack of guidelines for certain things that come with the camps.

"Anybody can have a camp now and if they have a prospect, they can have a camp," Saban said. "Then you're expected to go to that camp and they can use you to promote their camp because Ohio State's coming, Alabama's coming, whoever else is coming. Somebody sponsors the camp. They pay them the money. What do they do with the money? And who makes sure the kid paid to go to the camp? I mean, this is the wild, wild West at its best because there's no specific guidelines relative to how we're managing or controlling this stuff.”

Satellite camps had been previously banned by the SEC and the NCAA Division I Council followed suit with a nation-wide ban in April. However, a few weeks later, the Division I Board of Directors rescinded that ruling and instructed the Council to make recommendations on the college football landscape as a whole – satellite camps included.

Once the ban was rescinded, the SEC expressed disappointment in the ruling but decided to allow its members to participate in camps throughout the summer.

On Tuesday, Saban said the camps contradict the NCAA’s previous stances on third-party involvement in the recruiting process.

“Why would we be promoting somebody else's camp anywhere? Because it's the same thing I said before. This is the only sport where the high school coach still mattered. What they did at the high school mattered. All you're doing is allowing all these other people that we spend all of our time at the NCAA saying, ‘You can't recruit through a third party. You can't be involved with third-party people,’ and that's exactly what you're doing: creating all these third parties that are going to get involved with the prospects and all that,” Saban said.

“And who gets exposed on that? I go to a camp and I'm talking to some guy I don't know from Adam's house cat and he's representing some kid because he put the camp on, and then I'm in trouble for talking to this guy? And who even knows if the guy paid to go to the camp? Is the NCAA going to do that?

“We do that at our camp. We have people responsible for that. They’re called compliance folks. What kind of compliance people do we have at these camps?”

The satellite camp issue came to the forefront of college football discussions when Michigan's Jim Harbaugh put together a lengthy camp tour across the south. Saban made it clear he was speaking about the issue as a whole, not Harbaugh’s practices. And that line of thought brought Saban down another path: whether college football needs a commissioner.

"I'm not blaming Jim Harbaugh, I'm not saying anything about him," Saban said. "I'm just saying it's bad for college football. Jim Harbaugh can do whatever he wants to do. I'm not saying anything bad about him if he thinks that's what's best. There needs to be somebody that looks out for what's best for the game, not what's best for the Big Ten or what's best for the SEC, or what's best for Jim Harbaugh, but what's best for the game of college football — the integrity of the game, the coaches, the players and the people that play it. That's bigger than all of this.

"That's what somebody should do. Now who's doing that? I don't know. Because right now since we have the Power Five everybody's politicking for what they want for their conference. There needs to be a college football commissioner."

Saban had no suggestions for the proposed position.

“I’m not into politics,” he said.

TODAY IN HISTORY - MAY 31ST

1837 – Joseph Grimaldi, English comedian and actor, created the clown (b. 1779) dies.

1852 – Julius Richard Petri, German microbiologist, invented the Petri dish (d. 1921) is born.

1879 – Gilmores Garden in New York City, is renamed Madison Square Garden by William Henry Vanderbilt and is opened to the public at 26th Street and Madison Avenue.

1889 – Johnstown Flood: Over 2,200 people die after a dam fails and sends a 60-foot (18-meter) wall of water over the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

1909 – The National Negro Committee, forerunner to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, convenes for the first time.

1927 – The last Ford Model T rolls off the assembly line after a production run of 15,007,003 vehicles.

1929 – The first talking Mickey Mouse cartoon, "The Karnival Kid", is released.

1971 – In accordance with the Uniform Monday Holiday Act passed by the U.S. Congress in 1968, observation of Memorial Day occurs on the last Monday in May for the first time, rather than on the traditional Memorial Day of May 30.

1973 – The United States Senate votes to cut off funding for the bombing of Khmer Rouge targets within Cambodia, hastening the end of the Cambodian Civil War.

1985 – United States–Canada tornado outbreak: Forty-one tornadoes hit Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Ontario, leaving 76 dead.

2005 – Vanity Fair reveals that Mark Felt was Deep Throat.

2013 – Jean Stapleton, American actress, Edith Bunker from All in the Family, and singer (b. 1923) dies

Mets' Matt Harvey has his best start of the season

The Mets found the cure for what was ailing Matt Harvey: facing the slumping White Sox. Harvey went out Monday afternoon and pitched seven shutout innings in New York's 1-0 win over Chicago, allowing two singles and striking out six. It's the first time this season he reached the seventh inning of a game and he needed just 87 pitches to get there.

Less than two weeks after being booed off the mound by fans at Citi Field folllowing the worst start of his career, Harvey was cheered and his name chanted by the crowd much like the days when he was at his apex.

The biggest reason for optimism from Monday's start? Harvey's fastball velocity was up, hitting 98 mph on multiple occasions.

	Mike Petriello @mike_petriello
Through 5 innings, Matt Harvey's three hardest pitches of the season (98.5, 98.0, 97.9) have all come today. 11:30 AM - 30 May 2016   Mike Petriello @mike_petriello Update: FOUR hardest. He added a 98.2 in the sixth inning. twitter.com/mike_petriello… 11:37 AM - 30 May 2016

It's going to take more than one strong outing to quell all the concerns (the seven shutout innings only brought his ERA down to 5.37 in 11 starts), but it appears like this is a step in the right direction. A couple more like this, though, and those struggles will be forgotten.

For all the questions about Harvey, maybe it's the White Sox we should be worried about. Chicago has lost 15 of 19 after opening the season 23-10 and fallen out of first place in the American League Central. Here's your recurring reminder that the baseball season is a long one and a lot can change over the course of six months.

Baylor hires Jim Grobe as acting head coach

Baylor moved quickly to bring in a coach for the 2016 season

Four days after Art Briles was fired amid an investigation into the school’s handling of multiple sexual assault accusations, Baylor has hired Jim Grobe to run the show – for the time being – as "acting" head coach.

“Jim Grobe is the right leader at this time to move Baylor University and the football program forward,” Baylor Vice President and Director of Athletics Ian McCaw said in a release. “He has successfully led two FBS programs during his career,” McCaw added. “Coach Grobe enjoys an impeccable reputation within the intercollegiate athletics community and is a man of great integrity and faith.”

Grobe last coached at Wake Forest. He resigned after the 2013 campaign – his 13th with the Demon Deacons. Grobe amassed a 77-82 record during his time at Wake Forest. He led Wake to five winning seasons, including an 11-3 record and Orange Bowl appearance in 2006. The Demon Deacons won the ACC title that year and Grobe was the league’s coach of the year. That season was followed up by 9-4 and 8-5 seasons, both of which ended in bowl wins.

Wake never had a winning record again under Grobe in his final five seasons.

Before he was hired at Wake Forest in 2001, Grobe compiled a 33-33-1 record in six seasons at Ohio. He also served as an assistant at Air Force and Marshall.

“It is an honor for me to have the opportunity to join the Baylor football program during this important time,” Grobe said. “I am looking forward to getting to know and working with the coaches and players in the coming days, and I have great respect for Baylor as an institution and its long-standing heritage.

“As a coach, winning is important. At the same time, I want to assure the Baylor family that every decision we will make in this football program will be made with Baylor University, her students and our student-athletes in mind.”

In the days following Briles’ removal, multiple reports indicated the school was leaning toward naming defensive coordinator Phil Bennett as interim coach. However, many felt – from an optics perspective – it would be a mistake to let a coach from Briles' staff lead the program this season.

	Travis Haney @TravHaneyESPN
Talked to a Power 5 coach last night who, like me, didn't understand how in-house promotion at Baylor was right move. Grobe adds up. 12:13 PM - 30 May 2016

Former San Francisco 49ers coach Mike Singletary, a former All-American linebacker at Baylor, was also considered, ESPN reports. Ex-Texas head coach Mack Brown's name was also reportedly discussed for the interim role.

	Bruce Feldman @BruceFeldmanCFB
Thought Baylor might turn to a Mack Brown or Mike Singletary to try and stabilize program. Jim Grobe's a man of integrity & should help. 12:35 PM - 30 May 2016

According to 247Sports.com, which first reported the Grobe hiring, the rest of Baylor’s staff is “expected to stay intact for the 2016 season” with Kendal Briles, Art Briles’ son, leading the offense.

The university will "conduct a full search" for a full-time head coach after the season, USA Today reports.

Augie Garrido, star college baseball coach, out at Texas

Augie Garrido, the winningest coach in college baseball history, is out after 20 seasons at Texas.

The decision Monday comes after the Longhorns' first losing season since 1998. Texas will miss the NCAA postseason for the third time in five years.

The university said in a statement Monday the 77-year-old Garrido was "relinquishing his duties" as coach and will become special assistant to athletic director Mike Perrin. Garrido, who had one year left on a contract that paid him nearly $1.1 million, had said he wouldn't resign and wanted to stay.

"Augie has long been among the best coaches in college athletics, an exceptional developer of young men, great leader and tremendous representative of our university," Perrin said. "I have deep appreciation, admiration and gratitude for all that he has accomplished in his 20 years leading our baseball program."

Garrido had 1,975 victories dating back to 1969 to go along with five College World Series titles. Three came with Cal-State Fullerton, 1979, 1984 and 1995, and the last two with Texas, in 2002 and 2005.

Texas this season finished 25-32. The Longhorns advanced deep into the weekend's Big 12 Tournament but ended the season with an 8-2 loss to TCU.

Florida State coach Mike Martin called Garrido an "icon."

"I am surprised he has stepped down, but he's a guy a lot of young coaches got information from," Martin said in a statement. "He's a good man."

Texas hired Garrido in 1997. His best years with the Longhorns were from 2002 to 2010 when he won two national titles and had six 50-win seasons.

He will be inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame in July. He was the first coach to reach 1,900 wins and needed just 25 to reach 2,000. He also was honored six times as national coach of the year.

Garrido's coaching career included jobs at San Francisco State (1969), Cal Poly (1970-72), Fullerton (1973-87 and 1991-96) and Illinois (1988-91).

Texas hired Garrido from Fullerton in 1997 to replace Cliff Gustafson, who won two national championships with the Longhorns and had the program on a regular rotation at the College World Series.

Garrido's personality of California cool and his aura as a Zen-master coach who talked as much about thinking about winning as swinging a bat, took some time to take root at Texas. But once he did, Garrido had the Longhorns back among the nation's top programs.

His first team failed to qualify for the Big 12 Tournament. In 1998, Garrido's second team had the first losing season since the 1950s. Texas showed signs of life when the Longhorns went 36-26 in 1999 and made it the postseason but finished sixth in the Big 12.

Fans who were calling for his job were soon cheering his success.

Texas went back to the College World Series in 2000. Garrido guided the Longhorns to the two national titles and three more CWS bids in a seven-year span. Garrido said he knew the high expectations at Texas: "Omaha is mandatory."

Texas made the CWS in 2011 and 2014, but the lean years between and since had Garrido entering this season facing questions about his future.

"If they give me a chance, I'll fix it," Garrido said before the Big 12 Tournament. "I'd like to go out on my own terms, and I'd like to go out a winner."

Johnny Manziel reportedly goes missing in New York

Johnny Manziel was a no-show for a party he was supposed to host in the Hamptons and has not been seen since Friday night.

Johnny Manziel missed a helicopter flight Saturday to the Hamptons, where he was expected to host a small Memorial Day weekend party for friends and family, the New York Post's Page Six is reporting.

Some of Manziel's family members decided to leave without him after trying unsuccessfully for 15 minutes to reach him.

The last time Manziel has been seen was Friday night, according to the report, when he was involved in a confrontation outside the Trump Soho in lower Manhattan. TMZ has video of Wayne Schneider — the owner of Precision Concierge, the company from which Manziel and his friends rented a Mercedes they ended up crashing in Los Angeles last month — blocking the vehicle Manziel was riding in and demanding money.

People have been lining up to take shots at Manziel recently, and his behavior has invited this type of treatment. But with friends saying his drinking and drug use have him in a “horrible downward spiral," and his own father expressing concern about his son’s life, perhaps Manziel’s current state of being calls for a certain level of sympathy.

French Open washed out for 1st time in 16 years

Not so much the French Open as the French closed.

For the first time in 16 years, unrelenting rain Monday washed out a full day of play at the only Grand Slam tennis venue without a retractable roof over its show court, clogging the schedule with unfinished and postponed matches and prompting the frustrated tournament director to plead - again - for a roof as soon as possible.

''Our roof is a necessity,'' Guy Forget said, as players were sent back to their hotels and thousands of would-be spectators told to apply for refunds for their unused tickets.

''I'm a bit annoyed today, to say the least.''

Chopped and changed plans to modernize Roland Garros now call for a retractable roof by 2020 over Court Philippe Chatrier, as part of a modernization of the cramped clay-court venue in the west of Paris. But opposition and legal action from local residents and environmental activists has slowed the ambitious project, which would expand Roland Garros into botanical gardens next door. Tournament organizers hope a ruling expected in September from the Council of State, France's highest administrative authority, will allow work to proceed.

With damp spectators sheltering where they could from the downpours and no letup forecast, tournament organizers announced in the early afternoon that there would be no play at all for the first time since May 30, 2000.

''We knew today was going to be horrible and it went beyond what we had imagined. That's why we sent back the players so early,'' Forget said.

If the weather breaks Tuesday, matches will start three hours earlier than initially planned and be spread over more courts. Despite forecasts of more rain, Forget said he is ''pretty positive'' there will be play. The schedule for Tuesday now has top-ranked Novak Djokovic against 14th-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut in the first match on Chatrier, playing for a place in the quarterfinals.

They will be followed by defending champion Serena Williams in her delayed fourth-round match against 18th-seeded Elina Svitolina. Venus Williams' match against 2015 semifinalist Timea Bacsinszky was supposed to have been played on Chatrier on Monday but was rescheduled as the third match Tuesday on Court Suzanne Lenglen.

The first men's quarterfinals are also scheduled: Second-seeded Andy Murray against Richard Gasquet is the third match on Chatrier, and defending champion Stan Wawrinka against Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain is scheduled last on Lenglen.

For the tournament to have the singles finals over the weekend as planned, players could be asked to play on consecutive days, as opposed to every two days, which is usual when conditions are ideal. That should not be a huge problem in women's singles, which play best-of-three sets, but could be tougher on men if their singles matches go to five sets. Forget didn't rule out that the finals could also be postponed.

''We are not that far back on schedule,'' Forget said. ''If they do have, eventually at one point, to play two matches, then I guess the fittest guy will be rewarded for it.''

The backlog also includes two fourth-round women's singles matches - Simona Halep vs. Samantha Stosur, and Tsvetana Pironkova vs. Agnieszka Radwanksa - that were pulled off court unfinished on Sunday evening because of rain and darkness.

Eight other fourth-round singles matches - four men's and four women's - also didn't get started Monday. Also postponed were more than 50 matches in the doubles and junior tournaments. There was no guarantee that Tuesday would be better: Weather forecasts for coming days were grim, with more downpours expected Tuesday before a hoped-for break in the clouds Wednesday.

With a new retractable roof scheduled to be available at this year's U.S. Open, the French Open is the only Grand Slam tournament without a structure for play to continue under rain.

''We have talked about that roof in Paris 15 years ago already. It is a long process,'' Forget said at a news conference as rain beat down outside. ''For those in our country who are still doubting the necessity to expand, to modernize our stadium, I think we have right now the fact, the proof, that it is a necessity and we have to do it.''

TODAY IN HISTORY - MAY 30TH

1431 – Joan of Arc, French martyr and saint (b. 1412) dies.

1854 – The Kansas–Nebraska Act becomes law establishing the US territories of Kansas and Nebraska.

1883 – In New York City, a rumor that the Brooklyn Bridge is going to collapse causes a stampede that crushes twelve people.

1911 – Milton Bradley, American businessman, founded the Milton Bradley Company (b. 1836) dies.

1911 – At the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the first Indianapolis 500 ends with Ray Harroun in his Marmon Wasp becoming the first winner of the 500-mile auto race.

1912 – Wilbur Wright, American pilot and businessman, co-founded the Wright Company (b. 1867) dies.

1914 – The new, and then the largest, Cunard ocean liner RMS Aquitania, 45,647 tons, sets sails on her maiden voyage from Liverpool, England, to New York City.

1918 – Bob Evans, American businessman, founded Bob Evans Restaurants (d. 2007) is born.

1922 – The Lincoln Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C..

1937 – Memorial Day massacre: Chicago police shoot and kill ten labor demonstrators.

1943 – Gale Sayers, American football player, Chicago Bears, and philanthropist is born.

1958 – Memorial Day: The remains of two unidentified American servicemen, killed in action during World War II and the Korean War respectively, are buried at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery.

1962 – Kevin Eastman, American author and illustrator, co-created the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is born.

1966 – Launch of Surveyor 1, the first US spacecraft to land on an extraterrestrial body.

1986 – Perry Ellis, American fashion designer, founded Perry Ellis (b. 1940) dies.

2015 – Beau Biden, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 44th Attorney General of Delaware (b. 1969) dies.

Martin Truex Jr. leads all but 12 miles, wins Coca-Cola 600

Hey, Martin Truex Jr. won a race.

He more than won Sunday's Coca-Cola 600. He absolutely kicked everyone's butt. Truex set a NASCAR record for the most miles led in a Sprint Cup race as he led all but 12 of the 600 miles in Sunday's Coca-Cola 600.

Despite Truex's dominance, you can't fault yourself from wondering if Truex would fail to reach victory lane. After all, he hadn't won through the first 12 races of the year despite missing out on possible wins at Texas and Kansas, getting caught in a crash at the front of the field at Dover and losing the Daytona 500 in historic fashion.

Hell, Truex was whooping the field so much during the race that we came up with this bingo card of possible ways he could lose. He didn't.

	Nick Bromberg @NickBromberg
Now accepting wagers on how Martin Truex Jr. will lose this race. Pick your square. pic.twitter.com/9Q7eVfY3fU 6:04 PM - 29 May 2016

"I had confidence, I had faith," Truex said. "I had confidence in my team. [Girlfriend Sherry Pollex] she gives me a lot of inspiration. We just keep fighting. We never give up. We never quit. We always keep digging."

It's the fourth win of Truex's career and his second in the last two seasons. He won at Pocono last July on his way to making the final round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup. He also becomes the fifth Joe Gibbs Racing driver to win this season alongside Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth.

OK, so Truex drives for Furniture Row Racing. But the team formed a technical alliance with JGR before the 2016 season and works so closely with the four-car team that it's essentially a satellite operation.

Jimmie Johnson finished second and Kevin Harvick was third as they battled for the win in the "Non-Truex Jr." class. Johnson said he was incredibly impressed with Truex and his car after the two drivers battled for the lead on the race's final restart. Johnson tried to keep Truex pinched to the bottom but couldn't clear him.

Johnson almost got completely in front of Truex at one point down the backstretch but Truex simply motored on by.

"I kind of felt like he was playing with us," Johnson said. "He was so fast. I would flat-foot [turns] 1 and 2 and have a nose on him and we would drive right back by me into turn 3."

The win means Truex is virtually guaranteed a spot in the 16-driver Chase, though it would have been a major upset if he didn't make it anyway. Despite coming so agonizingly close to winning through the first third of the season, Truex still entered Sunday night's race ninth in the points standings.