The Beat of Sports

A second horse in two days and 29th overall has died at Santa Anita, where management has chosen to continue racing despite calls from the California Horse Racing Board recommending that the track suspend races. Are we watching the beginning of the end for horse racing?

On the eve of hitting free agency this summer Kevin Durant went down with a devastating injury in the NBA Finals and the ripple effects will be far reaching. Basketball expert Brendan Suhr joins the show to talk about what this one injury will mean for all the other players and moving parts. Plus he and Marc discuss whether or not Nick Nurse cost his team a victory by calling a timeout late in the 4th quarter.

In the Game 5 of the NBA Finals Kevin Durant, who had been out for weeks made his return but it was a short-lived return. He went down with looked to be a devastating injury and had to be helped off the court for medical evaluation. After listening to comments from Golden State Warriors GM Bob Meyers, Marc has some questions about the initial injury for Durant that kept him sidelined and if the team was completely honest with the media. He also wonders who was the one that made the call to let Durant return for the NBA Finals.

Max Muncy added to the Dodgers-Giants rivalry with a long home run off Madison Bumgarner that landed in McCovey Cove and left the ace fuming. Then, Muncy tossed in a verbal jab as he rounded the bases. Marc talks about the double standard that exists when players show emotion that if you do it then you're the villain but if you complain about it then you are also the villain.

You may know him as one of the hosts of Intentional Talk or part of NFL Network coverage but Chris Rose is known for something else, Battlebots. As the newest season of Battlebots is about to hit he joins the show to talk about his decision to get involved. He and Marc discuss the popularity of the sport and how he came up with a signature catchphrase.

The biggest story throughout the NBA Finals has had nothing to do with the games themselves, its been whether or not Kevin Durant will play for the Warriors. Well now that Golden State has their backs up against the wall it looks like KD might be suiting up for Game 5. Marc pleads that the soap opera of the NBA has overshadowed this NBA Finals and is getting tired of it.

This weekend in Wales, 650 or so humans and five dozen horses racing against each other in the annual Man Versus Horse Marathon. Yes this is a real event that has been going on since 1980.

The crown jewel of women's soccer begins this weekend with the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup! Tiffany Roberts Sahaydak a member of the famed 1999 team and coach of the UCF Women's Soccer Team joins the show to preview the upcoming tournament. She and Marc talk about the number of players from the UCF system are playing in the World Cup and more.

Yes the NBA Finals is going on but the only thing that NBA fans care about is where Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and Kawhi Leonard is going. Not the games themselves. The games have become a thing everyone has to deal with until free agency begins. Marc talks about how this should be a problem is off the court stories are overshadowing the games themselves.

The big story from Game 3 of the NBA Finals wasn't that the Raptors took a 2-1 lead over the Warriors it was about the Kyle Lowry incident with Warriors minority owner Mark Stevens, but is there anything that the NBA can do to prevent further incidents between players and fans? Is removing the first row a seats going to be the cure all?