One of the most interesting backstories at the 2026 World Cup has been the huge surge in “foreign-born” players who compete for a different nation than their birth country. Per the BBC, foreign-born players now account for 23.2% of all players, up meaningfully from 16.5% in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, and 11.4% in the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Nowhere was this trend more visible than in the France vs Morocco quarterfinal, in which roughly half of the starting Moroccan side was actually born in France, making the match almost an all-French affair!

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One day, perhaps we’ll look back at this moment and laugh. “The moment before it all came together”, we’ll say. “Pitching needed a bit more time than the hitting”, we’ll admit.

Today though? We stew. We stew in incredible frustration, watching our bullpen implode in jaw-dropping fashion, turning yet another Curly W into an L.

This series against the Phillies should have been a statement series for the ballclub. After a strong 4-1 win in Game 1, the Nats proceeded to lose three consecutive games in which they had a lead in the ninth inning - including a breathtaking two in a row which were a single strike away.

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It’s been a bad few years to be a Washington Nationals fan. Ever since the 2019 World Series, each season has been marked by disappointment: COVID derailing the victory lap year, injuries and trades undermining the 2021 and 2022 seasons, and then a failed rebuild from 2023-2025 resulting in the departures of GM Mike Rizzo and manager Davey Martinez.

Coming off that streak, one might reasonably expect a few more years in the doghouse, getting even worse before finally turning the page towards contention… someone forgot to tell the team though!

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On May 2nd, Spirit Airlines permanently ceased operations. The airline, which had been the seventh-largest in the US, leaves behind 172 planes (many of which are currently being ferried back to their lessors) and 73 destinations.

It’s those destinations I’m most curious about - what will happen to them when Spirit exits?

While Spirit may have been a terminally flawed business, boxed out by labor costs and the “k-shaped” economic recovery following the pandemic, it did have a genuine role in the US aviation world as a low-fare spill carrier, keeping more premium competitors honest on cost and capacity. This role benefited American consumers, even if they didn’t fly on Spirit directly.

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Last weekend, I went down to San Diego for my close friends’ annual Kentucky Derby party - reliably one of the most fun weekends of the year. This year was a bit more “mature” than prior years, with the arrival of a few new babies amongst the friend group, but rest assured - there were still plenty of mint juleps consumed and beer die played.

The most interesting part of the day, though, (and the inspiration for this blog post) might have been the half-hour before the race itself: the horse auction.

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It was in mid-March that I started hearing the rumblings, lunchtime comments from ski and snowboard friends at work:

“I wanted to go up to Mammoth this weekend, but decided to skip it since there just isn’t much good snow”

“We went to Tahoe but I kind of wish we hadn’t since it was really slushy”

I have to admit, I initially gaffed these comments off. Surely a little less pow was just a first world problem??

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For the 2026 season, Major League Baseball introduced its challenge system to great fanfare, with the Automated Balls/Strikes (ABS) system serving as a backstop to overturn (or validate) calls made by the umpires.

In doing so, MLB finally formalized the definition of the strike zone - no longer would it be “knees to letters” at the discretion of umpires - now it ranges from 27% to 53.5% of the batter’s measured height.

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Earlier today, the Team Report Cards compiled by the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) leaked and were published by The Athletic, despite the NFL winning a grievance in arbitration that blocked the NFLPA’s release of the data.

This legal aspect added some intrigue to what has otherwise been a customary dump of data - one that clearly bothers the owners of the NFL’s 32 franchises!

As a reminder, these report cards are where players score their own teams on a variety of player experience dimensions from A+ to F-:

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On Wednesday night, as I watched the Hoos smoke Georgia Tech in a 94-68 win, the perfect blog post idea popped into my head.

In December, I wrote a fun post identifying some of the (early) changes in Virginia’s playing style under new head coach Ryan Odom. At the time, the differences in pace of play and shot distribution really stood out, for good reason! But what I hadn’t yet caught onto were the differences in rotation, lineups, and substitution patterns… until the Georgia Tech game made that crystal clear.

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Last week, the Dodgers signed Kyle Tucker to a 4-year, $240M contract - adding him to their already back-to-back winning lineup, and keeping him away from the Mets and Blue Jays, two of their biggest three-peat threats.

Around the same time, I read an article talking about how the WNBA was set to miss a negotiating deadline between the league and the players’ association - with the two parties at a bit of an impasse over how to share revenue over their next collective bargaining agreement (CBA).

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