everybody say hi to uncle ruth

Previously, I’ve trollishly leaned into the ‘Babe Ruth is Black’ discussion that circulates social media from time to time. Usually because it’s just funny, and uptight people baseball people (read: typically old white guys) would get furious about it. Ruth is still remembered as the best player ever, even though smart baseball people would say this is no longer true.

Anyway, as y’all know, I don’t tend to discuss baseball much, so I’d forgotten about this fun bit of the internet. That is, until I recently came across this video on Bluesky.

My world view is not so narrow that I can’t fathom a white person laughing like this, but I have a lot of experience being Black and being around Black people and all I’m saying is—that laugh is so familiar. It’s not just the cackle, which is comedic and super unexpected. It’s the raising of the shoulders up to his earlobes. I have uncles who laughed exactly like this.

One such uncle, Uncle Aaron, could be heard at any function from blocks away. Also, crucially, there was no buildup to his laugh. If something made him laugh, this was the laugh you got. There were no levels or tiers, even if what you’d said was lightly amusing, if he agreed, you were met with the full burst of laughter. I loved it.

Science has come a long way, and Maury Povich taught a generation to respect DNA testing. However, I’m here to tell you that some things are more certain than science, and Babe Ruth’s cackle is one of them. That is a Black man. Pleased to have you, Unc.

Anyway, let us woso.

upcoming matches for your eyeballs

today

No disrespect to Dash/Rahsing, but the other two matches are the shiny bits. The Spirit and Angel City both need to bounce back after poor results last weekend. Kansas City is coming off a rare loss, and last season it took them a handful of games to get back to themselves. Seattle, meanwhile, is finally vrooming.

Watch.

saturday, may 3

The Pride has a scare against Angel City, which should give Portland and their newfangled double pivot some hope. The Courage also have a new formation, and they’ll get to test it against the Royals, who play very sleepy soccer.

sunday, may 4

Thanks to Chelsea’s 1-0 win over Manchester United on Wednesday, the league title is decided so these two will be scrapping for final league position. United have a four point lead, but they still have to play Arsenal. Manchester City getting a win would put them in a good position to jump them on the final league table.

Last week the most surprising result would have been the Courage beating the Current, and then that’s exactly what happened. A similar sort of surprise would be Chicago beating Gotham, so I guess, given this league, maybe expect that to happen? Bay can’t quite get all their pieces right and the Wavé’s high press might stress them out even further.

Playoff Liga MX Femenil goes hard. Also, I certainly did not expect Chivas to still be here while a team like Tigres is not. Finally, we’ve suffered long enough.

monday, may 5

Arsenal are having a weird one. After beating Lyon to advance to the UWCL Final, they lost a wild 5-2 game to Aston Villa. Brighton are the best team outside the top-4, but have a long way to go to crack it. A good result could be an early warning sign of their intent for 25/26.

stuff to read…

GUEST POST: Firing Lorne Donaldson Won’t Fix the Chicago Stars
by Lesley Ryder, Gal Pal Sports

This has already been a season of struggle for the club. While the rest of the league is cooking, once or twice a game we are Stars supporters treated to the tiniest travel-sized container of sauce. The team isn’t so much cooking as they’re dumping a giant can of chili in an aluminum pan and calling it dinner.

Now, after their worst start in franchise history, Lorne Donaldson has been let go. After, GM Richard Feuz held a press conference, and it seems that Donaldson was the fall guy for a directionless club.

nwsl quarter season surprises: the hell yeahs to the what’s going on heres

I’m not good at math but the calculator on my phone tells me that we’re somewhere in the neighborhood of a quarter of the way through the 2025 NWSL season. I know, I couldn’t believe it either. Thankfully calculators don’t (yet) really rely on AI, so it’s unlikely this answer was completely made up. Word to Google.

Anyway, it’s early enough for us to have gathered a fairly clear idea of what’s going on with most teams and players. It’s also early enough for things to change. So before we settle in the for the next bit of the season, let’s take a minute to identify early season trends, good and bad.

more #content you might be into

Hey Spirits: We must accept [Spirit v. Gotham Review]
🍎 Apple | 🟢 Spotify

Annie, Ella & I react to, um, that. We review the game, try to identify what went wrong, and detail postgame reflections from the team. We also look on the bright side: CROIX IS BACK!

Diaspora United: Parity vs. Competition (w/ Meghann Burke)
🍎 Apple | 🟢 Spotify

Recently the full text of yet another historic CBA was released, so I chatted with Meghann Burke, executive director, NWSLPA. We discussed details of the new CBA, including the process, key highlights, parity vs. competition, and a lot more.

DRSFC: 2025 MIAMI GP PREVIEW: Ain’t no Tootsie’s in Leesburg
🍎 Apple | 🟢 Spotify

After reviewing Miami track history and characteristics (and why we don't like it), we dive into our things to watch. We also talk about Tootsie's and Segra Field. We don't know why either.

gif time

BFFR.