OFF THE WALL

U.S. star Morgan makes debut in English soccer

Supported by her baby daughter in the stands, American superstar Alex Morgan made her debut in English soccer on Saturday.

Morgan came on as a substitute in the 69th minute for Tottenham in a 1-1 draw against Reading in the Women’s Super League. She didn’t manage to score in her first match in around 15 months, having given birth to Charlie in May.

Charlie was at The Hive Stadium to watch her mom — and was wearing a Tottenham jersey for the occasion.

“It’s fun to look up after the match and see her there supporting me,” Morgan said.

The two-time World Cup winner joined Tottenham in September in a bid to get game time ahead of playing for the United States at the delayed Tokyo Olympics next year.

She is among a raft of American players to have moved to English soccer for this season, with Rose Lavelle and Sam Mewis at Manchester City, and Tobin Heath and Christen

Press at Manchester United.

“It just feels good to get back on the field for the first time in more than a year,” Morgan said. “I just had to get those first minutes and go from there.“

“I am hoping,” she added, “to get much more in the next match and the remaining matches of the year, just to keep building, but I think my fitness is getting back there. It’s just going to take a bit of time.”

Morgan acknowledged feeling the pace of what proved to be an end-to-end contest in the final minutes of the game.

“There were definitely a lot more sprints than in training!” she said, laughing. “I will get used to it pretty quickly.

“Once I came on, it was more of a transition game, less position-oriented. So I am looking forward to getting more of the game to settle in a little better, because that end to the match was pretty back and forth.”

Trivia question

On this date in 1950, Walt Dropo of the Boston Red Sox is the Rookie of the Year in the American League. Dropo led the league with 144 RBIS. What was his next highest RBI total?

They said it

• From Mike Hart of the Milwaukee Journal-sentinel, on today’s matchup pitting 40something QBS Tom Brady and Drew Brees: “If it goes to overtime, they’ll play shuffleboard to decide it.”

• From Dan Daly of Profootballdaly.com, after Raiders coach Jon Gruden was fined $150,000 for repeated coronavirus protocol violations: “Maybe it would help if somebody explained to Gruden that COVID gets up even earlier in the morning than he does.”

• From Hall of Famer Joe Namath ,to ESPN, on whether Clemson QB Trevor

Lawrence might force a trade if he’s drafted by winless New York: “Anything could happen in this world, damn near anything — except for the Jets maybe making the playoffs this year.”

• From Dwight Perry of The Seattle Times: “One third of the Pac-12’s season-opening football games — Washington at Cal and Arizona at Utah — have been canceled due to COVID-19. Updated 2020 conference motto: We’ve Gone Viral.”

• From blogger Chad Picasner, on MLB sabermetrics: “You used to judge a pitcher by things like: How good is his curveball? Or how hard does he throw? Now you need to know spin rates, arm angles and BABIP, which is Batting Average of Balls In Play. Hitting coaches have to know bat speed, time in the zone and launch angles. Base-running coaches need to know … a different career, since the new metrics frown on stealing bases.”

Trivia answer

Dropo played 13 major league seasons. He had seasons with 97, 96, 79 and 70 RBIS. The rest of his seasons were 52 or fewer.