Good Morning! Today is Monday, June 16th, and this week we’re celebrating the one-year anniversary of The Remix! To think, an idea I had when I was out of work and had nothing going on has blossomed into this incredible publication. Should we have a party? Should we make t-shirts? Well to start the celebrations, I’m encouraging each of you to recommend the Remix to one friend. Let’s keep growing!

To honor the beginnings of this humble newsletter, this week we’ll be highlighting some of the best Remix moments. Up first is the inaugural issue– not the first Remix that was emailed to the public, I’m talking about the very first Remix ever written! Enjoy some headlines from a year ago…

But enough with the celebrations, I know what you want to read. Here’s what happened over the weekend in the world of sports on day.

THE US OPEN

The course was brutal. The rainy conditions on Sunday made things worse. It felt like there were more club tosses than birdies. Even when you hit a perfect shot right at the flagstick, things were not going to go your way at this year’s US Open–

But as every single golfer fell apart at Oakmont Country Club, dropping strokes and bunching up the leaderboard at just over even par, one competitor kept his cool. 34-year-old J.J. Spaun, winner of just one PGA event prior to this weekend, was the last man standing. It was an incredible performance by Spaun– as you can see in the link above, he started the final round with some of the worst luck of anyone on the course. That made this final moment on the 18th green just a bit sweeter…

I don’t remember what I yelled out when I saw that putt drop in, but it was a feeling of pure elation that only the greatest sports moments can elicit– even on a couch on the opposite side of the country. And so an impossible shot capped off an incredible performance. Congratulations to the 2025 US Open champion, J.J. Spaun.

STANLEY CUP FINALS

If the Florida Panthers win the Stanley Cup, their deadline trade with the Boston Bruins for Brad Marchand may go down as one of the greatest deals in hockey history. The veteran forward is playing better hockey than anyone on the planet right now. Don’t believe me? His second goal on Saturday night was so impressive it made one fan switch teams!

Marchand and the Panthers won a pivotal game five 5-2 in Edmonton. They’ll have a chance to win their second consecutive Stanley Cup at home on Tuesday.

NBA FINALS

All the way back on Friday night, the Oklahoma City Thunder were being outplayed in Indiana during game four of the NBA Finals. Down 10 late in the second half, the Pacers simply looked like the better basketball team. And then all of a sudden… the Thunder won 111-104. I’m honestly not sure how they did it. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 15 points in the final 4:38, so that was a big part of the victory. But for the first time all postseason, the Pacers just didn’t play well down the stretch. They stopped passing, shots didn’t fall, and their lead melted away. Regardless of how it happened, this series is now tied 2-2. Can the Pacers keep the magic alive, or did they miss their best chance?

WNBA

Caitlin Clark returned to the court this weekend for the first time since missing five games with a calf injury– she promptly handed the New York Liberty their first loss of the season. Indiana beat New York 102-88 in front of a packed home crowd. Clark was at her best, too, scoring 32 points with eight rebounds and nine assists. She also made seven three-pointers, highlighted by a pretty awesome stretch in the first quarter.

MLB

Last but not least, we had plenty of baseball this Father’s Day weekend. Hope all the Dads out there enjoyed themselves– in case you missed the games, here’s some of the highlights:

• Braves starter Grant Holmes struck out 15 batters yesterday, the most of any pitcher in baseball during a single game this season. Naturally, Atlanta lost to Colorado 10-1. That’s #notgood if you’re a Braves fan.

• Shohei Ohtani hit his 250th career home run over the weekend and the Dodgers took two out of three from the San Francisco Giants. More on both Shohei and the Giants later on…

• A lot of teams got swept this weekend, including both the New York Mets and Yankees. It was a rough few days for Yankees fans, who lost all three games to the Boston Red Sox. Surely after a performance like that, Red Sox fans everywhere are celebrating this morning. Right?

NOTEWORTHY NEWS

Wrong. After their win on Sunday, news broke that Boston was trading disgruntled slugger Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants for an underwhelming return, including injured starter/reliever Jordan Hicks and top prospects Kyle Harrison and James Tibbs. Just two years into a massive 10-year contract, this is the unlikely end to a memorable career in Boston for Devers, the last remaining member of the 2018 World Series team. After a drawn out, slightly public dispute about what position he would play, it appeared the homegrown superstar had pushed forward, as the Sox were playing good baseball and Devers was mashing. Apparently that was not the case. Boston’s front office is moving on from the left-handed batter, with the focus on shedding his large salary as opposed to fully maximizing the talent Boston received in return. We’ll have to wait and see how they spend that money before fully judging this deal for the Red Sox. Funny enough, Devers will now join his former Red Sox teammates Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts in the NL West, where the Giants have to be thrilled by the idea of Devers launching homers into McCovey Cove. New general manager Buster Posey has shown he’s not afraid to make a big move, and as long as Devers isn’t asked to play out of position, I think this one will work out– at least in the short term– for San Francisco.

Speaking of trades, we’ve got a big one in the NBA. The Memphis Grizzlies are sending Desmond Bane to the Orlando Magic for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Cole Anthony, and four first round picks. It’s a huge price to pay for the underrated shooting guard, but Bane’s shooting and defense fits really nicely into the Magic’s young core. As for Memphis, this is just the beginning as they retool their roster around Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson.

Liverpool have agreed to potentially the largest transfer deal in British football history, signing German attacking midfielder Florian Wirtz from Bayern Leverkusen for £116 million. I don’t know what the conversion is on that but I do know it’s a very big number. No pressure Florian, but Liverpool fans will be expecting a lot of goals!

I hope you’re sitting down for this one… veteran starter Charlie Morton made his MLB debut in 2002. Over the weekend, he faced Angels second baseman Christian Moore in Moore’s first-ever big league appearance. Not that notable, except Moore was born in 2002! 

TODAY’S BIG GAMES (all times Eastern)

NBA FINALS GAME FIVE: Pacers @ Thunder, 8:30 PM on ABC

MLB: It may only be for one or two innings, but you might want to tune in to this game at 10:10 on MLB Network…

“I felt like I had a chance, a really good chance to win the U.S. Open at the start of the day. It just unravelled very fast. But that break was actually the key for me to winning this tournament,” –US Open Champion J.J. Spaun, speaking on his recovery after a rain delay in the middle of yesterday’s round