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15 former 1st-round picks at All-Star Futures game
New York Mets prospect Peter Alonso and Cleveland’s Francisco Mejia are among the top minor leaguers selected for the 20th annual Futures Game.
The teams announced Friday include 15 former first-round draft picks for the game July 15 at Nationals Park.
The Dominican Republic leads the world roster with nine players. Missing is Toronto’s top prospect, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who’s out with a strained left knee.
Alonso began the season with Binghamton of the AA Eastern League before a promotion in June to Triple-A Las Vegas. The first baseman has 19 homers and 69 RBIs.
Mejia, a catcher/outfielder from the Dominican Republic, is batting .279 with seven homers and 42 RBIs for Triple-A Columbus. He had a 50-game hitting streak two years ago, the longest since the minors reorganized in 1963.
NFL includes seven rookie officials for upcoming season
The NFL roster of game officials for the upcoming season includes seven rookies among the 121.
The newcomers announced Friday are: field judges Land Clark of the Pac-12, Matt Edwards and Don Willard of the Big Ten, and Anthony Jeffries of the SEC; side judge Chad Hill of the SEC; back judge Tony Josselyn of the SEC; and line judge Mark Stewart of the Big 12.
The league also promoted Shawn Hochuli, Alex Kemp, Clay Martin and Shawn Smith to referee. Each was a referee at college football’s top division before entering the NFL at different positions. Hochuli and Kemp are the sons of former NFL referees Ed Hochuli and Stan Kemp.
Officials Mike Spanier and Mike Weatherford will not be assigned to crews. They’ll work with different crews throughout the season.
Mickelson says $10M match with Woods in the works
Golf.com is reporting that Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods are contemplating a $10 million winner-take-all exhibition match.
The report says Mickelson was hopeful the match would have taken place on July 3 in Las Vegas, except that negotiations with a television network and corporate support could not be worked out in time.
Mickelson says they are working on a different date.
Woods’ agent, Mark Steinberg, declined to comment on the report.
Woods was involved in madefor-TV exhibitions some 15 years ago. They evolved from singles matches with David Duval and Sergio Garcia to team matches, one of them a mixed team exhibition. Mickelson was part of just one of those matches.
Mickelson playfully hinted at such a match when he and Woods were in the same group at The Players Championship.