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This Deep Dive Into Nick Castellanos Homering During Major News Events Is Nothing Short of Astonishing

It shouldn’t have been a surprise that the Phillies' outfielder homered after Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race.

Jimmy Traina

Castellanos seems to have a penchant for scoring home runs on major news days.
Castellanos seems to have a penchant for scoring home runs on major news days. / Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
In this story:

1. If you spent any time on the horrible place formerly known as Twitter on Sunday, you might have seen just as many tweets about Phillies outfielder Nick Castellanos as Joe Biden.

Why would a decent outfielder get as much attention as the President of the United States announcing that he will not run for re-election?

Because people were in awe that on another day with MAJOR news, Castellanos homered yet again.

Is this just a coincidence? Is this just a fluke thing? Yes.

But when you see this tweet of what has happened on days Castellanos has homered throughout his career, it’s at least a FREAKY coincidence.

2. Shohei Ohtani hit a 473-foot home run Sunday night that cleared the stands in right center field at Dodger Stadium.

It was Ohtani’s SEVENTH home run of more than 450 feet this season.

Meanwhile, no other player since 2015 has more than one home run of more than 450 feet at Dodger Stadium. Ohtani has five.

3. Everything regarding Warner Bros. Discovery and the NBA will finally become official by the end of Monday. WBD has until the end of the business day to match Amazon’s proposed deal. If WBD doesn’t match, the 2024–25 season will officially be the last for TNT's Inside the NBA.

If WBD does match, expect the matter to head to court where the NBA will argue about the “matching” parameters of the deal.

One media analyst says WBD won’t even bother matching Amazon’s offer.

4. I’ve seen so many headlines over the past 24 hours about a “testy,” “tense,” “irate” exchange that Cubs manager Craig Counsell had with a reporter on Sunday. I watched the clip and didn’t think it was any of those things [insert shoulder shrug emoji].

5. Yankees slugger Juan Soto had an at-bat interrupted by a bee on Sunday and it was pretty funny.

6. The latest SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast features a conversation with NBC play-by-play voice Noah Eagle.

Eagle talks about calling the U.S. men’s and women’s basketball games at the upcoming Summer Olympics in Paris, his extensive résumé at just 27 years old, getting into the broadcasting business, the sport he hasn’t yet called that he would like to call and what it was like to call an NFL playoff game.

Eagle also explains his desire as a kid to become a TV dentist and shares stories about the legendary Bill Raftery, who he has known his entire life.

Following Eagle, Sal Licata from WFAN and SNY joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week’s topics include the offseason version of Hard Knocks being a must-watch, Major League Baseball embarrassing itself by putting games on Roku and the Home Run Derby. We also pay tribute to Dr. Ruth, Richard Simmons and Shannen Doherty, who all passed away in recent days.

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina below or on Apple and Spotify.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Sports Illustrated‘s YouTube channel.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Happy 59th birthday to the Heartbreak Kid, Shawn Michaels. The GIF of Michaels superkicking Marty Jannety is one of the most-used on Twitter, but the entire segment should be appreciated for its greatness, including vintage Bobby Heenan calling the incident.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter and Instagram.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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