Newsletter Archive

📰🏟️ Here’s your wings

Plus: An MLB record year?

Peter Nowak, Kyle Nowak

10 Jul 2025 — 7 min read

Good morning. Today we’re covering the MLB’s potentially record-breaking year, growing pushback to a new law that could kill sports betting, and much more.

—Peter & Kyle

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⚾ BOMBS AWAY

The AL home run record is quaking in its boots

All rise for the Honorable Judge with the Big Dumper: Aaron Judge's New York Yankees and Cal Raleigh's Seattle Mariners face off tonight in the final matchup of a three-game series, with both players in the hunt to break the AL single-season home run record.

Judge, with 34 taters through 92 games, is pacing ahead of his 2022 record-breaking campaign, where he deposited 62 balls into seats. He’s also chasing his fourth 50-homer season, which would tie Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, and Babe Ruth for the most.
Raleigh, while known for his rear, is actually ahead of Judge, with 36 bombs. That puts him on pace for 63 in the season—if he can continue overcoming his not-so-homer-friendly home ballpark and the wear-and-tear of catching.

It’s shaping up to be a record year: Royals SS Bobby Witt Jr. is chasing his third-straight 30-30 season (30 HRs, 30 SBs), something only Barry Bonds has done. Mets OF Juan Soto is flirting with his eighth-consecutive season with a .400 OBP or above to start his career, something only Frank Thomas, Ted Williams, and Wade Boggs have done. And Tigers SP Tarik Skubal is turning in even better numbers this year than in his Cy Young-winning 2024 campaign, when he captured the pitching Triple Crown (leading the league in ERA, strikeouts, and wins).

Not to be overlooked: Dodgers SP Clayton Kershaw last week recorded his 3,000 career strikeout (which we probably won't see done again for a while)—while Padres 3B Manny Machado ~~signed up for Orangetheory~~ joined an exclusive hit club on Monday, when he became the fifth active MLB player to reach 2,000 career knocks.

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⏱️ CATCH UP QUICK

Headlines de la semaine

🏎️ Red Bull asks longtime F1 leader to turn in his wings. Red Bull fired its Formula One team principal and CEO Christian Horner yesterday, ending his two-decade run with the team that included eight drivers' world championships and six constructors' titles. Horner had led Red Bull’s squad since it joined the F1 grid in 2005, overseeing its dominant runs at the start of the 2010s (with Sebastian Vettel) and the beginning of the current decade (with Max Verstappen). Red Bull didn’t specify a reason for firing Horner, with sources citing a “culmination of factors” including the team’s struggles in this year’s standings.

🎾 Wimbledon’s electronic line-calling issues continue. The tennis tournament was forced to explain yet another issue with its brand-new automated line-calling system on Tuesday—one day after officials expressed confidence that the problems which led to a controversial error on Sunday had been fixed. The latest incident came in a quarterfinal match between Taylor Fritz and Karen Khachanov, when a valid shot from Fritz was mistakenly called “fault” because a ball kid’s motion interfered with the system. And in separate, on-court news: Wimbledon semifinal action kicks off today on the women’s side (with finals on Saturday), and tomorrow for the men (finals Sunday).

College football is in its ✨parity era✨. College athletic programs became eligible to directly share revenue with their athletes just over a week ago under the House v. NCAA settlement, and the recruiting upsets are already rolling in. Felix Ojo, a 5-star OT from Mansfield, Texas, committed to Texas Tech last week over a list of powerhouse programs longer than the Great Wall of China, with the Red Raiders promising him a three-year revenue-share agreement with $5.1M guaranteed (or $2.3M, depending on the source). And TTU isn’t the only underdog securing top-tier, homegrown talent in the Class of 2026: DE Zion Elee, the #2 overall recruit, is staying home at Maryland, while #3 overall recruit QB Keisean Henderson is also staying put at Houston.

🏛️ GAMBLING + POLITICS

There’s growing pushback to a new law that could kill sports betting

Lawmakers and gamblers push back against new US tax law threatening sports betting — *Image: Susan Haigh/AP*

A bipartisan push led by House reps from Texas and Nevada is emerging to reverse a provision in the megabill recently signed into law by President Trump that could kill sports gambling in America. Bets on it changing, anyone?

What’s at issue: A provision in the bill that limits the amount of deductible losses a person can have from gambling.

Before the bill was passed, a person could deduct 100% of their gambling losses up to the amount of their winnings.
Now, a person can only deduct 90% of their losses.

A real-life example: A casual bettor who tosses money on Knicks games breaks even over the course of the year, winning $1,000 and losing $1,000.

This bettor would now only be able to deduct $900 of their losses, instead of the full amount, resulting in a tax on $100 currently sitting in a sportsbook’s hands. Or in other words: the White House always wins.

Gamblers are sounding the alarm. “Certain kinds of gambling are going to probably be untenable under this law because they’re high-volume, low margin,” Russell Fox, a tax professional who specializes in gambling taxes, told CNN. “Sports betting is going to be hit. The professionals making a living in that are going to have issues.”

And if the high rollers pull back and more bets move offshore…It could become a huge problem for a sports betting industry that raked in $13.7 billion in revenue last year.

💬 WORD ON THE STREET

Overheard

“At the time, it felt like I’d been a little bit misled—or certainly if I had the information around free agency, it certainly would have affected my decision.”

For the first time publicly, Kirk Cousins revealed how he felt when the Atlanta Falcons selected their QB of the future, Michael Penix Jr., #8 overall in the 2024 draft—less than two months after signing Cousins to a four-year contract with at least $100M guaranteed.

The 36-year-old’s comments came on a new episode of the Netflix series Quarterback, whose second season premiered on Tuesday.
Cousins says he was aware that the Falcons might draft a quarterback when he signed there, but might have gone to a different team had he known it would be that high.

His concerns turned out to be accurate. After struggling last year with an NFL-leading 16 INTs in 11 games, Cousins was benched in favor of Penix, who remains in the starting role entering this season.

But…One thing he can’t complain about is money. Cousins has amassed career NFL earnings of $294.2 million, more than all but five other players in league history.

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📰 NEWS

What else is happening

Chelsea’s run to the Club World Cup championship match has notched the team $100M+. They’ll be facing off against PSG on Sunday for the title.
Apple is “challenging” ESPN for the F1 US broadcast rights, according to the Financial Times.
The demand for torpedo bats hasn’t torpedo’d; manufacturers say the hunks of wood resembling a tall bowling pin on Ozempic are still in high demand.
Eli Manning is reportedly no longer interested in purchasing a piece of the New York Giants due to its high cost.
The 2025 MLB Draft takes place on Sunday.

🤔 TRIVIA

Just fishing

You already know that Aaron Judge set the AL single-season home run record in 2022, when he smashed 62 big flies. But can you name the American League player who came second in home runs that year?

Hint: Generational player often hurt

🌐 WEB GEMS