Welcome to today’s edition of The Box Score. Here you will find brief daily recaps of Financial Markets, Sports, Culture, as well as a few Personal Notes.

Thank you for subscribing and I hope you enjoy!

Market Minute

• The Clippers’ salary cap scandal finally reached its conclusion this week, and it’s worth going back to the beginning. Kawhi Leonard re-signed with the Clippers in 2021, and in 2022 he landed a 4-year, $28 million endorsement deal with a company called Aspiration - a firm bankrolled by Clippers owner Steve Ballmer himself.

• Let’s talk about that money for a second, because the timeline is wild. In September 2021, Ballmer’s LLC invested $50 million into Aspiration, and that same month, the Clippers separately announced a $300 million, 23-year sponsorship deal with the company. Six months later, Kawhi signed his $28 million endorsement deal with them. Ballmer even doubled down, putting in another $10 million in March 2023, even as the company was clearly circling the drain. Aspiration eventually went bankrupt in 2025, and Ballmer says he lost the entire $60 million he put in, calling himself a victim who was “duped” right alongside everyone else.

• Nobody outside thought much of any of this until September 2025, when journalist Pablo Torre broke the story on his podcast, Pablo Torre Finds Out. Torre alleged the Aspiration deal was essentially a no-show job - that Kawhi was getting paid millions to basically do nothing, structured specifically to circumvent the salary cap and pay him under the table. This wasn’t the NBA’s investigators finding it first; Torre had it all, and his reporting is what forced the league’s hand.

  The NBA launched a near-year-long investigation, and this week the verdict came down: the Clippers were found to have facilitated off-court income deals between Kawhi and four different companies doing business with the team - Aspiration, Boingo Wireless, Daktronics, and Lockton Insurance - essentially trading team business for personal endorsement deals for their star player. And despite Ballmer’s “I was duped too” defense, the NBA clearly wasn’t buying it, suspending him a full year for “knowingly seeking to help Mr. Leonard obtain off-court income opportunities.”

• The punishment was brutal across the board. The Clippers forfeit five future first-round picks (2029 through 2033). Ballmer personally got fined $30 million on top of his suspension. Kawhi himself got fined $700,000. Two other top Clippers executives, Gillian Zucker and Lawrence Frank, were also suspended without pay.

• Just because you have money doesn’t mean you can break the rules. These are steep punishments and I’m happy that Adam Silver and the league put their foot down so that this doesn’t happen again. If only the Clippers kept SGA. Ended up giving up 10 first round picks for PG & Kawhi when you factor in the 5 they gave up to get him and now this 5. Talk about a setback.

Yesterday in Sports

• Classic Belichick. A former NFL analytics staffer surfaced a wild find: for over a decade, the Patriots’ video board at Gillette Stadium appeared to display a reversed, offset image of the goalposts directly behind the real ones whenever an opposing kicker lined up for a field goal - essentially creating a visual illusion with a second, fake set of uprights for the kicker to accidentally aim at. On windy days, it got even sneakier: the flags on the real goalposts blew one direction, while the flags on the fake ones in the video image blew the opposite way, potentially messing with a kicker’s read on the wind. The wildest part is that the Patriots reportedly never used this trick when their own kickers were attempting field goals - only when opponents were kicking. Some other teams have since tried copying it, including the Eagles, but their stadium’s video board setup made the trick basically useless. Biggest example of this benefitting the Patriots is when Billy Cundiff missed a game-tying 32 yard FG in the AFC Championship game against the Patriots. He was cut 7 months later and replaced by future Hall of Famer Justin Tucker. I still remember where I was during that. I was at Costco with my dad and watched him miss the kick and I was stunned. By no means is this cheating it’s just a classic Pats psychological move.

Culture

• Update on the Penn State cocaine ring story from a couple weeks back. Agostino Abbatiello, the alleged ringleader, showed up to his hearing at the Centre County Courthouse in a red prison jumpsuit and full shackles - the whole perp-walk treatment. He still managed to fist-bump his defense attorney before sitting down, so at least he kept his composure. Court testimony has since revealed the operation was apparently pretty massive - one witness described deals worth $120,000 and roughly 5.6 pounds of cocaine changing hands. Fittingly, the internet has already nicknamed him “Pablo Pledgescobar.” A judge ultimately granted him $250,000 bail, with conditions that he hand over his passport, stay with his parents, avoid contact with witnesses, and stay off alcohol and drugs entirely. Full shackles is a little insane. I don’t think dealing cocaine warrants that. Murders and other criminals yes, this not as much.

Famous 29s

• Eric Dickerson: Hall of Fame running back who holds the single-season rushing record with 2,105 yards

• Adrian Beltre: MLB Hall of Famer and member of the 3,000 hit club

Personal Note

• My weekend activities start today: UMass Rutgers football at SHI Stadium in Piscataway, NJ. I am super excited to watch my alma mater take on Rutgers. Even though I know they will lose, I am still hype to watch.

Question of the day

• What can you make that no one, not even you, can see?

  • Reply to this email with you answer!

Lastly

• Be a good person and do the right thing, always!

Thanks for reading The Box Score! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Subscribe now

Welcome to today’s edition of The Box Score. Here you will find brief daily recaps of Financial Markets, Sports, Culture, as well as a few Personal Notes.

Thank you for subscribing and I hope you enjoy!

Market Minute

• Anthropic just rolled out upgraded versions of its Claude models - Fable 5.1 and Mythos 5.1 - with the headline being cost. Fable 5.1 costs about 25% less than its predecessor for typical use, and up to 45% less for heavy agentic workloads, thanks to a 75% price cut on cache reads. The models also set new records on coding and reasoning benchmarks, and Anthropic loosened up some of the model’s safety restrictions that were causing unnecessary false positives. This is just a piece of news that I thought was worth talking about but the real thing I want to mention is the names of these models: Fable and Mythos. The names are just really dope and I wonder how they come up with them.

• Yum! Brands officially completed its sale of Pizza Hut, splitting the deal into two transactions worth a combined $2.7 billion. The Mainland China business was sold separately to Yum China back in August, while the rest of the global business just closed with a firm called LongRange Capital for roughly $1.5 billion, with Yum eligible for an extra $75 million earn-out through 2030 depending on performance. Yum’s CEO framed it as the company becoming “more focused,” now left with KFC, Taco Bell, and Habit Burger under its umbrella. I find it fascinating that there is an “!” after the Yum, because I’m no expert, but I don’t think that is grammatically correct.

Yesterday in Sports

• OBJ is officially back in 13. On Monday, I mentioned that 13 was available because Jalin Hyatt was cut, and yesterday the Giants confirmed Odell was going back to his roots and wearing the number he wore when he first started his career. It’s a full-circle moment, and as a sports fan, it’s always cool when players come back for one last hurrah with the team that drafted them. Time to dust off those jerseys

• Stan Kroenke just added another team to his empire. He’s agreed to buy the Los Angeles Angels from longtime owner Arte Moreno for a $4 billion valuation, setting a new MLB record and ending Moreno’s 23-year run with the club. The deal still needs MLB approval and isn’t expected to officially close until early 2027.

  For those unfamiliar, Kroenke already owns basically a sports conglomerate: the LA Rams (NFL), Denver Nuggets (NBA), Colorado Avalanche (NHL), Colorado Rapids (MLS), and Arsenal FC in the Premier League. Adding the Angels makes him one of the only owners on the planet with a real footprint across nearly every major sport. And here’s the wild part - his wife, Ann Walton Kroenke, is a Walmart heiress, the daughter of Walmart co-founder Bud Walton. Her inherited Walmart stock has compounded into a multibillion-dollar fortune on its own. Now regardless of what you think of Mr. Moreno he made an absolute fortune by selling the team and I hope that Mr. Kroenke comes in and fixes up a franchise that is wasting the talents of a top 3 player in his generation: Mike Trout. And if you don’t think he’s top 3 of the 2010s and 2020s please let me know who you think is.

Culture

• Remember back in late 2025 when Disney channels, including ESPN and ABC, went completely dark on YouTube TV for two weeks during a nasty carriage dispute? Over 10 million subscribers lost access, and Disney reportedly lost about $30 million a week during the blackout before the two sides finally struck a deal.

  Well, one of the biggest promises from that deal just came through. As of September 1st, ESPN Unlimited is now fully integrated directly into YouTube TV - meaning subscribers get access to ESPNU, ESPNews, ESPN Deportes, SEC Network, ACC Network, and thousands of additional live sporting events, all without ever having to leave the YouTube TV app. Now my question is this: why can’t I connect my optimum account to ESPN? It had been working for years but all of a sudden I can’t connect. Absolutely brutal given football season is right around the corner.

Personal Note

• Almost halfway through the week. It’s been a tough one so far. Work the past two days has really been a lot, but I’m pushing through because I know what I have coming up in the next few days. Hopefully things will get better.

Question of the day

• What kind of table has no legs?

  • Reply to this email with your answer!

Lastly

• Be a good person and do the right thing, always!

Thanks for reading The Box Score! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Subscribe now

Welcome to today’s edition of The Box Score. Here you will find brief daily recaps of Financial Markets, Sports, Culture, as well as a few Personal Notes.

Thank you for subscribing and I hope you enjoy!

Market Minute

• EY is putting its money where its mouth is on the “AI won’t replace soft skills” argument. The firm committed $100 million this fiscal year in bonuses specifically for employees who show strong human skills - leadership, judgment, adaptability, collaboration, and business acumen - the stuff AI still can’t really replicate. Spot awards go up to $500 for individuals, but bigger contributions can earn teams or individuals anywhere from $10,000 to $25,000, five times higher than their old program, with no cap on total earnings. This is a cool idea but I’m not really sure how you can measure it. Either way props to EY.

Yesterday in Sports

• Lionel Messi is retiring from international soccer. He announced it on Instagram Monday, saying he’d been thinking it over since Argentina’s loss to Spain in the 2026 World Cup final, and finally decided it was time to walk away from the national team. He’s 39 now, and this caps off a 20-year run wearing the Argentina jersey. The numbers are absurd: 98 goals and 38 assists across 142 matches, one World Cup title in 2022, two runner-up finishes (2014 and this year), and two Copa América titles. Arguably the greatest player to ever touch a soccer ball, and now his international career is officially over. However, he’s still under contract with Inter Miami through 2028, so you can still catch him playing at the club level. But the feeling of Messi retiring from international play is going to be similar to when LeBron retires, either this year or next year. You grow up watching these guys, and then one day they aren’t playing anymore. They are humans after all.

Culture

• Today is September 1st also known as American Chess Day. For all you avid chess players, go find a place to play and show off those skills. I know there are tables in Bryant Park where people are playing all day long.

Personal Note

• Grind don’t stop. Every day I wake up and get to work, and whether I get told I did something wrong or right, it doesn’t matter. Gotta keep your head down and make things happen. Hard work gets rewarded, and you never know when your big break will come.

Question of the day

• What has cities, but no houses; forests, but no trees; and rivers, but no water?

  • Reply to this email with your answer!

Lastly

• Be a good person and do the right thing, always!

Thanks for reading The Box Score! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Subscribe now

Welcome to today’s edition of The Box Score. Here you will find brief daily recaps of Financial Markets, Sports, Culture, as well as a few Personal Notes.

Thank you for subscribing and I hope you enjoy!

Weekend Recap

• The biggest news from the weekend doesn’t really have to do with the market but more so with fraud, so I’ll begin with it.

• That is the story of Daejon Love. And if you haven’t heard about it yet, well, buckle up. Last week a report came out about a man posing as a San Francisco 49ers player who was arrested for defrauding 26 women out of more than $1.3 million. That right there is a big enough headline, and questions started pouring in about how this was possible, and yada yada. Over the weekend, videos started rolling in of women who were hit on by this guy, and when you watch them, you really wonder how in the world this was possible. He would tell people he was born in Switzerland and moved to LA when he was 10 then went to a private college in NY then back to Switzerland and then back to LA. He would say his family is of the richest in Switzerland and does all kinds of real estate development. Anyway let’s get into some of the good stuff.

• One video has him holding his helmet for 4 seconds, then putting it down and starting to talk about random stuff. Another video is him running routes on the beach, which a bystander recorded and was like who is this guy. Another one, he’s flexing that he has a penthouse on Billionaires Row in NYC. Like, c’mon man. And the excuse he was using for why there were never any videos of him actually playing is that he broke his pinky and didn’t pass the physical part of the waivers yet. You might ask what a waiver is in the NFL. Well, let me, or should I say Daejon, explain. He says there are 3 parts of a waiver: mental, emotional, and physical. That is not true. All you need to do is pass a physical, which was never possible regardless.

• It just keeps going on and on. He said that he was signed to be number 7, but another player already had it, and because he didn’t pass the waiver and wasn’t on the active roster, he couldn’t get the number. But because it was in his contract, the 49ers had to PAY HIM to change his number. That’s not how it works either. Players negotiate prices for numbers. So then he was going to be number 4 and even had jewelry made with a 4 on it, but they gave that number to Jake Moody instead, because, once again, he passed waivers and Daejon didn’t.

  There’s also a video of him claiming to be friends with Tyreek Hill, John Brown (his personal chef’s brother), and Antonio Brown - calling him a “Hall of Fame WR and Super Bowl MVP,” which is false. There were even videos of him signing his “contract.” He even had videos of himself getting haircuts. Eventually in this story, he was traded to the Rams and made up even more stuff. Every time I open X there are more videos and pictures that come out. He really put on a show.

• Now that we got all that out of the way, it’s time for my thoughts. Where do I even begin? I mean, he was able to pull this off for 4 years, which is pretty impressive, but as history shows, you do get caught eventually. But how is it possible that none of these women did any research to really figure out who this person was? They were always suspicious but didn’t really want to disagree with him. Every NFL player, whether on the active roster or not, is on Google and you can search anything you want about them. This guy was no where to be found, obviously. And why are you just giving him money? I’m not gonna sit here and say I respect it, because at the end of the day he scammed people and committed fraud, but it is absolutely hilarious, and the people who got scammed need to do better.

• Now the 49ers had a really tough offseason already: Brandon Aiyuk saga, Kyle Shanahan getting in a car crash and almost losing his vision, the electric substation causing injuries left and right and now Daejon Love making headlines. Teams across the league had fun with it though and Underdog NFL, one of the biggest sports accounts on X posted a picture of Love with the caption “WR Daejon Love doesn’t make 49ers final roster.” All in all a great weekend and I’m sure there is more to come. He committed to the bit for as long as he could and now faces the consequences. As they always say, actions have consequences.

Yesterday in Sports

• Aaron Donald is back. The Rams star and future Hall of Famer, who was retired for two years, decided to come back yesterday and signed a 1 yr/$20 million deal to play alongside Myles Garrett, who the Rams traded for earlier in the offseason. This is just going to be unfair. Garrett is in his prime, coming off a 23-sack season, and now he gets to pair with Donald, who are the 2 most imposing defenders of the past 15 years besides J.J. Watt. Now it might take some time for Donald to get back into full football shape, but when he does, watch out. Super Bowl is in SoFi, and the Rams are stacked. The cards are aligning, and then Matthew Stafford and Aaron Donald, both future Hall of Famers, can ride into the sunset for good.

• OBJ is also back. The Giants came out with their 53-man roster, and Odell officially made it. It’s a great story, as 12 years ago the Giants drafted him in the first round, and he was an immediate sensation. After 5 years, they shipped him to Cleveland, where his career kinda went into a decline, but he did end up winning a Super Bowl with the Rams. Now, all these years later, Odell is back, and hopefully gives the Giants all he has left. And 13 is now available, so make sure you dust off those jerseys and get ready.

• Yesterday was cut day in the NFL, as all teams were required to cut their roster down to 53. The stories that come from it are always the best part. For example, the Bengals posted videos of 2 guys on the roster bubble who were told they made the team, and you can see the emotion on these guys’ faces when they hear the news. One was a DT from Navy who was a 7th-round pick and said if he didn’t make the roster, he would probably have to go back and serve, and the other was a former CFL player who signed a futures deal a few months ago and earned his way onto the roster.

Culture

• Going to skip this section for today: I think there is plenty to read already

Personal Note

• Yesterday I was able to attend the engagement party of one of my childhood friends. Being able to dance with him and all of my other childhood friends together in one circle was so special and I look forward to being able to dance at his wedding as well.

• I was asked to give a special shoutout to Yechiel Keiser for being a loyal subscriber and daily reader. Now, for those who don’t know, Yechiel was a dominant force on the mound back in high school and led us to two championships my junior year. Yechiel, I hope you’re doing well!

• Huge week ahead of me. I’m busy almost every night, and I am really looking forward to the weekend ahead. Thursday night, UMass vs Rutgers football with some friends, and then a weekend with the UMass boys in upstate New York, where we will be having our fantasy draft in person!

Question of the day

• What is always in front of you but you can never see it?

  • Reply to this email with your answer!

Lastly

• Be a good person and do the right thing, always!

Thanks for reading The Box Score! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Subscribe now

Welcome to today’s edition of The Box Score. Here you will find brief daily recaps of Financial Markets, Sports, Culture, as well as a few Personal Notes.

Thank you for subscribing and I hope you enjoy!

Market Minute

• Back in 2018, Kevin Durant put $100,000 into a tiny startup called Hugging Face - at the time, just a weird “artificial BFF” chatbot app for teenagers. A year later he added another $150,000 to their Series A. Fast forward to today: Nvidia has reportedly agreed to acquire Hugging Face, which pivoted years ago into a massive open-source hub for AI developers, for $12.9 billion. Durant kept investing through basically every round as the company grew, and while VC math with dilution makes it impossible to know the exact number, estimates suggest his original $250,000 could now be worth north of $60 million. This isn’t even Durant’s first big win in this department. He also got in early on Whoop, the fitness tracker company, back when it was valued at $125 million. It’s now worth over $10 billion. We know Durant is a Hall of Fame basketball player but his investing career is something else. They say it’s hard to make a lot of money but once you do, it’s easy to make more.

Yesterday in Sports

• Remember when I talked about Dae’Quan Wright leaving the Browns to go back and play for LSU, and Will Wade trying to sign actual pros like RJ Luis and Yam Madar to play college basketball? Well, that door just slammed shut. All four Power 4 conferences - the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, and now the ACC - have officially banned players who were drafted by or rostered on NFL, NBA, G League, or WNBA teams from coming back to play college sports. The rules vary slightly by conference (the Big Ten’s ban currently only covers football, for example), but the message is the same: leagues are done letting professional athletes use eligibility loopholes to return to college. The conferences are framing it as protecting “competitive equity” and preserving spots for actual student-athletes. You either graduated or voluntarily gave up your eligibility. Either way, you’re done in college. Just because you aren’t good enough to make a professional roster doesn’t give you the right to come back to college. There are plenty of professional basketball leagues in the world, as well as a few more football leagues. It might not be as much money as NIL, but you gotta deal with it. Let’s hope it stays this way.

Culture

• Trump strikes again. He signed an executive order directing the Interior Department to rename Lake Ontario to “Lake America,” effective immediately, as tensions with Canada continue to boil over. This comes right after trade talks between the two countries collapsed last week, when Trump slapped 50% tariffs on roughly $20 billion worth of Canadian goods. If this rings a bell, it’s because he did the exact same thing with the Gulf of Mexico last year, renaming it the “Gulf of America.” Canada is not having it. Prime Minister Mark Carney pushed back hard, pointing out that the name “Ontario” comes from the Indigenous Wendat word Ontari’io and is over 400 years old - older than both Canada and the U.S. as countries. Canadian officials have already said they simply won’t recognize the new name. Mr. President, is this really necessary? I don’t think so. This feels more childish than beneficial.

• Two lions - an adult and a cub - were reportedly spotted on the loose in Madison and Hancock counties in Indiana on Thursday. A resident looked out his window and saw what he described as a 300-pound lioness wearing a blue harness, walking alongside a smaller cub, and a drone operator later confirmed the sighting in a nearby field. Authorities launched a full search using drones across both counties, but after coming up empty, called it off Thursday evening.

  The wildest part: nobody has any idea where these lions even came from. No sanctuary has reported missing animals, and the sheriff’s department says there aren’t even any permits in the county that would allow someone to legally own a lion in the first place. Maybe they came from the zoo or the circus? One way or another, be careful!

Personal Note

• Finally, it’s the weekend! Been a long week of work, things starting to really pick up, which is good, and I’m trying to balance so many different things: hanging out with friends, getting exercise, and networking. There are 24 hours in a day, but realistically you can’t work every minute you are awake. Have to prioritize what’s important and what is time sensitive.

Question of the day

• What kind of tree can you carry in your hand?

  • Reply to this email with your answer!

Lastly

• Be a good person and do the right thing, always!

Thanks for reading The Box Score! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Subscribe now

Welcome to today’s edition of The Box Score. Here you will find brief daily recaps of Financial Markets, Sports, Culture, as well as a few Personal Notes.

Thank you for subscribing and I hope you enjoy!

Market Minute

• Apple just made it official: their September event is set for September 9th, where they’ll unveil the iPhone 18 Pro lineup alongside their first-ever foldable iPhone, rumored to be called the iPhone Ultra. It’s expected to use a book-style design with an outer screen around 5.3-5.5 inches and an inner display closer to 7.6-7.8 inches when unfolded, wrapped in a titanium frame. It won’t come cheap - most estimates point to a starting price around $1,999, making it Apple’s most expensive iPhone ever. Pre-orders could start September 12th, with the phone hitting shelves around September 18th. Also worth noting: this will reportedly be John Ternus’s first keynote as Apple’s CEO. Apple has long been the leader in the clubhouse of smartphones, but I don’t like this. Granted, you need to be adaptable in business, but what purpose does this serve? Saying all this, they will definitely sell, but it’s just not something I would buy.

Yesterday in Sports

• The NFL finally did what they should have done years ago: get rid of the Pro Bowl Games. The events have been a joke for a number of years now, especially when you get guys like Tyler Huntley and Shedeur Sanders as alternates. The voting will still take place, and players will be selected as Pro Bowlers, but they won’t compete in games - and there won’t even be alternates anymore either. Great news.

• NFL owners unanimously approved the sale of the Seattle Seahawks to the Khosla family, led by Vinod and Neeru Khosla, in a deal worth $9.612 billion - the most ever paid for an NFL team. They’re buying the team from Jody Allen, who had been running the Seahawks since her brother, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, passed away back in 2018. Neeru Khosla will serve as the team’s control owner, with their son Neal also taking on a leadership role. It’s a pretty good time in Seahawks land as they are the defending Super Bowl champs and set to open the NFL season at home against the New England Patriots in a Super Bowl rematch.

Culture

• Turning to something much heavier. A series of flash floods struck Nepal and the China-Nepal border region this morning, and the death toll is already devastating and still rising - early reports had it near 100, but more recent reporting puts it above 150, with hundreds more still missing. Nepal’s Tourism Board says over 400 people are unaccounted for, including 341 foreign nationals, since the area is a popular trekking and tourism route. According to Nepal’s foreign minister, the disaster was triggered by a moderate earthquake near the Nepal-Tibet border, which set off an avalanche that then caused catastrophic flash flooding along the Trishuli and Bhotekoshi rivers. Entire settlements in the Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts were wiped out, and the damage to homes, roads, and infrastructure is extensive. Search and rescue efforts are still ongoing. Such a sad story and a realization that anything can happen and sometimes there is no way to prepare for it or do anything to stop it.

Personal Note

• Work has been picking up, and yesterday I was pretty much working the whole day, so after work, I needed to get out and be active. Called up a good friend of mine, and we went to the driving range and hit some golf balls. We played on a Toptracer and did 9 holes. He demolished me, but it’s okay. Had fun, got outside, got fresh air, and just chatted. Always good to get some exercise and hang out with your friends!

Question of the day

• I had a subscriber mention to me that their sibling really likes the riddles and was upset that for the past few days there hasn’t been one. I apologize for that. Here we go!

• I have branches, but no leaves, trunk, or fruit. What am I?

  • Reply to this email with your answer!

Lastly

• Be a good person and do the right thing, always!

Thanks for reading The Box Score! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Subscribe now

Welcome to today’s edition of The Box Score. Here you will find brief daily recaps of Financial Markets, Sports, Culture, as well as a few Personal Notes.

Thank you for subscribing and I hope you enjoy!

Market Minute

• Nvidia reports earnings today after the bell, and it’s shaping up to be one of the biggest market events of the week. Analysts are expecting revenue around $92 billion for the quarter, which would be roughly 96% year-over-year growth - driven almost entirely by continued insane demand for AI chips and the ramp-up of their Blackwell architecture. Nvidia itself guided toward $91 billion, so Wall Street thinks the company is sandbagging a bit, as usual. Earnings per share are expected to land around $2.08. Given how much the market has tied its AI trade to Nvidia specifically, tonight’s numbers (and more importantly, tomorrow’s guidance) could set the tone for the rest of the market this week. Analysts have price targets averaging around $305, implying real upside if the company delivers. Whether they deliver on this or not, I’m not worried about Nvidia and its long term outlook. They are here to stay.

• Dick’s Sporting Goods had a rough day. Shares fell nearly 31% after the company missed on both revenue and earnings for the quarter, coming in at $3.53 per share against expectations of $3.78. Even worse, they slashed their full-year guidance hard - cutting expected earnings for the year down to $11-$12 per share from a prior consensus of $14.20. The company pointed to heavier promotions in the athletic footwear market and fewer new product launches hurting sales. It’s also worth noting Foot Locker, which Dick’s acquired last year, isn’t helping matters - its comparable sales dropped 3.6%, dragged down by that same weak footwear environment. When I walk into the store and look around at all these overpriced items I can see why they would miss on both revenue and earnings. Bring the prices down or maybe things will change. Can Modell’s make a comeback? That place was epic.

Yesterday in Sports

• Yesterday was NFL Rivalry uniform day and here are my thoughts: there are always going to be winners and losers so let’s break it down.

1. Texans - Absolutely love the whole uniform. The name font is epic, and just as a whole, so clean from top to bottom.

2. Jaguars - Triple mismatch alert! Teal helmet with white jersey and black pants is a great combo, and I love the logo on the sleeve as well to bring it all together.

3. Packers - Cool design all around. As another iconic franchise, they couldn’t do too much, but they delivered. Great helmet color, and the number font is dope as well.

4. Bears - Being such an iconic team, you can’t overdo it, and they didn’t. Orange-Blue-Orange looks great, and they made a classic uniform and didn’t change the whole vibe of an iconic franchise.

5. Vikings - Such a great design with gold and purple mixed together. The full purple is a lot, but the gold accents mixed in make this a great uniform. Number and name font is unique as well.

6. Colts - They didn’t do too much. The blue helmet is a great addition to the rotation, and the “Anvil Steel” uniform colors make this a cool look, but nothing that really stands out to me.

7. Titans - A lot of people seem to like these, not me. I just can’t wrap my head around it. Don’t really have much else to say, just not my vibe.

8. Lions - Not a fan. The blue helmet they used is the same one from their all-black uniform combo. Jersey looks like the Carolina Panthers.

Culture

• Dolly Parton passed away yesterday after a brief battle with cancer, according to an announcement from her nephew. She was 80 years old. It’s hard to put into words what she meant to music and to culture more broadly - a genuine icon whose career spanned over six decades, from writing “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You” to building an entire theme park, Dollywood, that turned into one of Tennessee’s biggest tourist attractions. She wrote thousands of songs, sold hundreds of millions of records, and somehow still felt approachable and down-to-earth the entire time, something very few entertainers at her level ever manage to pull off. Even in her final months, she stayed active - launching a coffee brand called Cup of Ambition earlier this year and opening a new travel stop under her name. She was working almost right up until the end. RIP Dolly Parton. I’m not so big into music but losing an icon like her definitely hurts the industry.

Personal Note

• I have a couple of fun upcoming events soon. First, on September 3rd, UMass vs. Rutgers football at SHI Stadium in Piscataway, NJ. I am super excited for it, as I’ll be going with a few friends from college and one of my high school friends who is a big Rutgers fan. I expect nothing but a UMass defeat, but I’m still very excited. Second, Labor Day Weekend, 14 of my UMass friends are going upstate to an Airbnb for the weekend, and I can’t wait. Fantasy football draft will be taking place, as well as many other fun activities.

Question of the day

• When you hear the number 23 do you think of MJ or LeBron?

Lastly

• Be a good person and do the right thing, always!

Thanks for reading The Box Score! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Subscribe now

Welcome to today’s edition of The Box Score. Here you will find brief daily recaps of Financial Markets, Sports, Culture, as well as a few Personal Notes.

Thank you for subscribing and I hope you enjoy!

Today is going to be a little different because I just hit 100 subscribers so I’m going to be ranking some of my favorite top 10s. I hope you enjoy!

Top 10 Most Iconic Throwback Jerseys

1. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Creamsicle

2. Philadelphia Eagles: Kelly Green

3. New York Mets: 1980s Pullover

4. Seattle Seahawks: Current Throwbacks

5. Toronto Raptors: Purple Raptor

6. Mighty Ducks of Anaheim: Purple and Green

7. Hartford Whalers: Home Green

8. Montreal Expos: 1989 Blue Away Jersey

9. New England Patriots: Pat the Patriot

10. Seattle Supersonics: 1978-1995 Sonic Green

Top 10 Best Feelings

1. Having an ice cold glass of water when you really need it

2. Hitting 16 on a 10 and getting a 5

3. When your head hits the pillow after a long day out

4. Winning your fantasy matchup on a Monday night with < 2 minutes to go in the game

5. Waking up and your mom tells you there is a snow day

6. Making every traffic light

7. Having a DMC with your best friend

8. Stepping off the plane and starting vacation

9. Telling stories with the boys

10. Walking into a clean hotel room

Top 10 Candy/Chocolate/Snacks

1. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups at the gas station

2. Biscoff cookies they serve on the plane

3. Lorna Doones from CVS

4. Stella D’oro Vanilla & Chocolate Mix late night snack

5. Cheez-Its original on your way to class

6. Chex Mix in the airport

7. Gushers when you go back to your boys house after playing sports

8. OG Milano Cookies for breakfast

9. Snickers from the freezer

10. Fig Newtons when you haven’t had them in a long time

Personal Note

• This newsletter started 5 weeks ago and I have already hit 100 subscribers! I never thought I would do something like this in my life but here we are. Every night I sit down and research topics that I want to feature in this newsletter and it always brings a smile to my face when I get texts the next morning about what people enjoyed. Whether it’s 7:30 when I sit down or 12:30 after a wedding, I always make sure to get this done because I know people enjoy reading it and I will continue to keep writing for years to come! Thank you to everyone who has subscribed already and I can’t wait to see where things go from here. Big things ahead, stay tuned!

Lastly

• Be a good person and do the right thing, always!

Thanks for reading The Box Score! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Subscribe now

Welcome to today’s edition of The Box Score. Here you will find brief daily recaps of Financial Markets, Sports, Culture, as well as a few Personal Notes.

Thank you for subscribing and I hope you enjoy!

Market Minute

• Oura Ring is getting sued. A class-action lawsuit filed in California alleges Oura’s sleep tracking is essentially guesswork - the ring can’t actually measure brain activity, eye movements, or muscle tone the way real sleep studies do, yet the company still markets it as tracking sleep stages and cycles. The named plaintiff bought a $513 Oura Ring 4 Gold expecting accurate sleep data, and the suit accuses Oura of fraudulent advertising and false advertising, among other claims, seeking over $5 million from more than 100 class members. Oura says it “stands behind its science” and plans to fight the claims. Interesting timing, because just last week, billionaire investor Bill Ackman shared a wild story that cuts the opposite direction. His 26-year-old daughter Lucy suffered a brain hemorrhage and was found unconscious in her apartment, needing emergency surgery nearly 19 hours after the bleed actually started. When they went back and looked at her Oura Ring data afterward, it showed clear signs something was wrong starting around 9 a.m. the day before - the ring just had no way to alert anyone in real time. Ackman said he wished the ring had an alert for something like this, and Oura’s CEO responded publicly saying the company is already studying whether the device could detect events like that. Sounds like Oura ring needs to fix a lot or at least show signs of improvement. How can you market yourself as a ring that tracks sleep but then doesn’t actually track sleep?

Yesterday in Sports

• Going back to the well one more time to discuss my favorite recent topic: NBA owners. On Friday, Marc Stad signed a deal to become the controlling owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Minnesota Lynx, in a deal valued at $4.5 billion. He bought these shares from former owner Marc Lore, who was co-owner with Alex Rodriguez, aka A-Rod. Stad had been a minority investor under the Lore and Rodriguez ownership group and now gets to take over as the majority owner - notably, Lore only owned the team outright for a little over a year before selling his controlling stake, while Rodriguez is actually increasing his own stake in the deal. Congrats to Stad! One day, maybe it’ll be me.

• Big news out of the NFL yesterday. Dae’Quan Wright, who went undrafted in this year’s draft and was in training camp with the Browns this year, is going to be returning to college football to play for Lane Kiffin and LSU. Now let’s get the facts straight here. Wright started his collegiate career in 2022 at Virginia Tech, and after 2 years, transferred to Ole Miss, where he played his final 2 seasons of college football. Add it all up and you get 4 years of college, just like anyone else. However, because of all these new eligibility rules, pretty much anyone can go back to college at this point. Wright has a lucrative NIL deal waiting for him, and leave it to LSU - the school that employs both Will Wade and Lane Kiffin - to make this happen: a player going from the NFL back to college to play for a team that has its first game in 13 days. This is not even to mention Will Wade, who is trying to sign multi-year professionals like Yam Madar and RJ Luis to play for him this season. The NCAA is losing every battle in court, and players are flocking back to college. I don’t blame them. If I had the option to go back to college, I would do it in a heartbeat. And now that I think about it, I still have 4 years left, and UMass Football could desperately use some help.

What’s Poppin

• A truck hauling squid rolled over on a Rhode Island highway on Sunday, spilling what local police are calling the “Squidpocalypse of ‘26.” The fully loaded trailer dislodged from the cab while making a turn near Narragansett, dumping a huge chunk of its cargo - reports vary between 2 and 20+ tons of squid - right onto the road. The intersection stayed closed for nearly 8 hours while crews cleaned it up, and as you’d expect, things got pretty ripe as all that calamari sat baking in the summer sun. The driver wasn’t hurt but did get cited for failing to secure the load. No comments here just a hilarious story and some very unhappy resturant or supermarket that was planning to sell it.

Personal Note

• Another one bites the dust! Last night I celebrated the engagement of one of my childhood friends. As I’ve said before it’s always crazy when my friends get engaged but hometown friends hit different. We’ve spent countless hours together and I’m just super happy for him and can’t wait to celebrate at the wedding!

• Going on week 3 of work starting today. Super excited to continue building on what I’ve already learned and gain more confidence each and every day!

• Tuesday is going to be a big day for me. I’ve always been a huge fan of uniforms, and this Tuesday is the second edition of NFL Rivalry uniforms, featuring the AFC South and NFC North, so I’m super excited for those to drop.

Question of the day

• What has 13 hearts but no other organs?

  • Reply to this email with your answer!

Lastly

• Be a good person and do the right thing, always!

Thanks for reading The Box Score! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Subscribe now

Welcome to today’s edition of The Box Score. Here you will find brief daily recaps of Financial Markets, Sports, Culture, as well as a few Personal Notes.

Thank you for subscribing and I hope you enjoy!

Market Minute

• Another Texas oil billionaire is making moves outside his usual lane. Albert Huddleston, founder of Aethon Energy, recently sold his shale gas assets in a deal with Mitsubishi valued at $7.5 billion (including a $5.2 billion direct investment from Mitsubishi). For anyone unfamiliar, shale gas is natural gas trapped inside shale rock deep underground - it used to be too hard to extract, until fracking and horizontal drilling made it possible, which is a big part of why the U.S. became the world’s largest natural gas producer. Now Huddleston’s been revealed as the mystery “anchor investor” backing a Glencore-led group trying to take control of Sherritt International - a Canadian nickel and cobalt miner that happens to be one of the biggest foreign investors in Cuba. Sherritt has been in serious trouble: its Cuban joint venture got suspended in May because of U.S. sanctions, which also forced the shutdown of its refinery in Alberta - one of only three nickel refineries left in North America. The Glencore-led group, which also includes Kyma Capital and Brevan Howard co-founder Trifon Natsis, is offering a recapitalization deal to rescue the company, competing against a rival bid from Gillon Capital. I don’t really have much to comment on this. I just thought it would be an interesting thing to mention since I usually speak about the market and other major headlines but I think this is something a little more niche!

Yesterday in Sports

• Saints and Cowboys were both fined $500k for multiple fights that occurred in Tuesday’s joint practice. This is getting out of control. Every day there is another fight during these joint practices, and I really don’t see the point at all. Football is already a dangerous sport, so why are players putting themselves at more risk by throwing punches and body-slamming each other to the ground - one Saints player literally suplexed a Cowboys player, son of a WWE Hall of Famer no less. If I were a coach, I’d make it very clear to my players: you throw a punch or start a fight, you miss the rest of practice and the upcoming preseason game. There is nothing to gain from fighting in practice.

• James Harden signed a 3 yr / $97 million dollar deal with the Cavaliers yesterday. Whether you think he’s still good or not, when this deal expires, he will have eclipsed $500 million in career earnings - making him just the 4th player in NBA history to hit that mark, joining LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Stephen Curry. Talk about making a bag. Good for Harden. I’m sure he wants a ring, but I don’t think that’s happening.

Culture

• Penn State is dealing with a wild story right now. Fourteen people, mostly current or former students, are facing charges in an alleged cocaine trafficking ring tied to two off-campus fraternities, Sigma Chi and Delta Upsilon. Two former students allegedly ran the operation, making regular trips to Philadelphia and New York to bring back large quantities of cocaine, which was then cut and packaged right inside the frat houses - reportedly even used as part of pledge indoctrination for some new members. One of the alleged ringleaders, Thomas Robinson, known as “T-Rob,” was allegedly selling large amounts of cocaine out of the Delta Upsilon house, even accepting payments through Venmo. When police showed up and handcuffed him, he reportedly told officers he thought it was his fraternity brothers pulling a prank on him. Definitely not the case. One of the 14 charged isn’t even a student - it’s Robinson’s own father, accused of hiding drugs and cash in a safe. Delta Upsilon has already been placed on interim suspension while the school investigates. Don’t do drugs, kids!

Personal Note

• This is week 4 of my newsletter. Wow, time flies. But seriously, it has been awesome being able to write this for you guys every day, and every time I hear feedback, I know I’m doing something right, and I appreciate every text that I get. Approaching 100 subscribers, so if you know anyone that would be interested, please send it around! My goal is to hit 100 by the end of the month and 300 by the end of the year! With everyone’s help, we can make that happen.

Question of the day

• I have cities, but no houses. I have mountains, but no trees. I have water, but no fish. What am I?

  • Reply to this email with your answer!

Lastly

• Be a good person and do the right thing, always!

Thanks for reading The Box Score! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Subscribe now

Welcome to today’s edition of The Box Score. Here you will find brief daily recaps of Financial Markets, Sports, Culture, as well as a few Personal Notes.

Thank you for subscribing and I hope you enjoy!

Market Minute

• It’s only fitting we spoke about the US National Debt the day after we spoke about Bill Clinton having a surplus while in office. U.S. debt just crossed $40 trillion for the first time, and the pace of the climb is honestly wild. To put it in perspective: it took until 1981 for the debt to hit $1 trillion, and it’s now quadrupled in less than 20 years. It went from $19.95 trillion when Trump first took office in 2017, and has basically doubled since then. Trump’s two terms combined account for $11.6 trillion of new debt, while Biden’s four years added $8.4 trillion. Why does it keep growing? Mostly because spending is outpacing revenue. About 60% of the federal budget goes to “mandatory” programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and veterans’ care, which naturally grow as the population ages and costs rise, while tax cuts have kept revenue from keeping up. On top of that, interest payments on the debt itself have ballooned to $1.1 trillion a year, now the second-biggest line item in the federal budget behind Social Security, and bigger than the entire Pentagon budget. There’s also a market angle: yields on long-term Treasury bonds just hit their highest levels in almost two decades, meaning investors want more compensation to keep lending the U.S. money. That matters for regular people too, since higher long-term rates tend to push up mortgage and car loan rates. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent responded by doubling the size of Treasury bond buybacks to try to push those yields back down. Trump, for his part, isn’t worried, saying rates should be falling instead given how “strong” the country is. Trump never seems to be worried about anything, but this is insane. Long story short, the debt is only getting bigger and the US is never ever getting out of it!

Yesterday in Sports

• You thought we were done talking about NBA teams and their owners? Nope, try again. Mat Ishbia, owner of the Phoenix Suns, might be in serious trouble. When he bought the team for $4 billion back in 2023, he borrowed the money from JPMorgan and put up 805 million shares of his own company, UWM Holdings, as collateral - more than half of all UWM’s outstanding stock, worth about $4.6 billion at the time. Here’s the problem: UWM’s stock has since dropped more than 70%, partly after the company lost $600 million on a bad bet on interest rates and had to take a $2 billion bailout. That collateral Ishbia pledged is now worth roughly $1.15 billion instead of $4.6 billion. When collateral drops that much, lenders can issue a margin call, forcing the borrower to post more collateral to cover the gap - and if Ishbia can’t come up with it, JPMorgan could theoretically force a sale of the Suns to make the loan whole. We saw Leopold Aschenbrenner have to sell off his assets of his Situational Awareness Hedge Fund after he was margin called. Now, we might get a second NBA team sold in a matter of weeks or months. Maybe this time we can get an owner who actually has all of the money and isn’t involved in a federal investigation for fraud. Very interested to see how this one plays out.

What’s Poppin

• August 20th, 1920, the American Professional Football Conference was organized at Ralph Hay’s Hupmobile auto showroom in Canton, Ohio. Now, you might be wondering what that is - but two years later, after the name changed to the American Professional Football Association, it became the National Football League. Now I’m not sure what the founders of this envisioned, but 106 years later we have plays called the “Tush Push,” “Hook and Ladder,” “Philly Special,” “Fumblerooski,” “Flea Flicker,” and “Statue of Liberty” - and the NFL has become a global sensation.

Personal Note

• Pretty chill day in my life yesterday - really getting into the swing of things at work, working on some personal projects, and continuing to network with people in various industries, because you never know when another connection is going to open more doors for you.

Question of the day

• What can you keep after giving it to someone else?

  • Reply to this email with your answer!

Lastly

• Be a good person and do the right thing, always!

Thanks for reading The Box Score! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Subscribe now

Welcome to today’s edition of The Box Score. Here you will find brief daily recaps of Financial Markets, Sports, Culture, as well as a few Personal Notes.

Thank you for subscribing and I hope you enjoy!

Market Minute

• American Airlines is finally bringing back seatback screens, rolling out on new planes starting in 2028 with new tech to follow. About time. Taking a flight without screens is brutal, and the WiFi doesn’t really work either, so you end up with hours of basically no contact with anyone. Yes, that can be a good thing sometimes, but flying during a workday, or when people actually need to reach you, isn’t great. So I’m happy they’re finally putting screens back in - and worth noting, they’re also rolling out Starlink WiFi on their planes starting in 2027, which should help with the connectivity problem too. As long as they still have the biscoff cookies, I’m good to go.

Yesterday in Sports

• Roger Goodell said “I have no doubt this will happen one day,”referring to having NFL teams outside of USA. I have some thoughts. We already know the NFL plays multiple games a year outside the USA which is great, but having a full-time team in Europe is going to be brutal. First, which players and coaches are going to want to leave their family for half a year to live in a different country. Second, all the travel is going to be crazy. Imagine you’re in Europe and play on Sunday and then a week later you’re playing in LA and then you have a short week playing in Miami. It’s going to get really messy. The NFL is a global product but the teams should all be based in the USA.

• Bill Rasmussen, the man who co-founded ESPN, passed away this week at 93. His story is wild: after getting fired as communications director of the New England Whalers, he maxed out his credit card and used a $9,000 advance to buy space on a communications satellite. That gamble, with his son Scott, became the idea for ESPN - the world’s first 24-hour sports network, launched back in 1979.

  It’s hard to picture sports media without it at this point. Every highlight show, every “SportsCenter” moment, every debate segment you’ve ever watched traces back to a guy betting his own credit card on an idea nobody had tried before. As a life lesson: every idea is crazy until someone steps up and makes it happen.

Culture

• Two big birthdays today!

  • President Clinton was born August 19th, 1946, in Hope, Arkansas. Yes, he is known for his personal misconduct allegations during his time in the Oval Office, but he accomplished something as president that has not been done since 1969: he balanced the federal budget. Under Clinton, the U.S. ran budget surpluses from 1998 through 2001, the first stretch of surpluses since the late 1960s. That means the government actually took in more in revenue than it spent - a mix of tax increases in 1993, spending restraint, and the booming late-’90s economy. It didn’t wipe out the national debt, but it did let the government pay some of it down, which is more than most presidents before or since can say. Hard to imagine we ever come close to that again but you never know.

  • Orville Wright, the younger of the two Wright brothers, was born on August 19th, 1871, in Dayton, Ohio. Everyone knows the Wright brothers are famous for inventing the first-ever airplane and taking the first-ever flight, but here are the details. On December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville piloted their gasoline-powered biplane for 12 seconds, covering just 120 feet - and that was enough to make history. They didn’t stop there: the brothers alternated as pilot for three more flights that morning, with Wilbur’s final attempt covering 852 feet in 59 seconds, the best of the day. They pulled it off in brutal conditions too - freezing temperatures, ice-covered puddles, and winds gusting up to 27 mph. And that iconic photo everyone’s seen of the first flight? Orville actually set up the camera himself and instructed a bystander exactly when to snap the shutter, capturing the plane at the precise moment it lifted off. All of it came after four years of research and development the brothers had been quietly grinding away at since 1899. They are forever etched in history for changing the way the world travels.

Personal Note

• Summer is almost over, which is crazy to think about. Usually I’d be getting ready to go back to school, but now it’s time to grind away at work. Every day, trying to learn something new so that I can be as knowledgeable as I can about the industry I work in. Now, with summer ending, we’re only a few months away from winter, believe it or not, and that’s when I really get excited. I was born in the winter, and I can’t wait to get back on the slopes and start skiing again. Some of my best memories in college were skiing with friends on any given day of the week. Waking up early, driving up to the mountain, staying there all day, and then coming home and relaxing. I would absolutely love to do that again.

Question of the day

• What has a ring but no finger?

  • Reply to this email with your answer!

Lastly

• Be a good person and do the right thing, always!

Thanks for reading The Box Score! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Subscribe now

Welcome to today’s edition of The Box Score. Here you will find brief daily recaps of Financial Markets, Sports, Culture, as well as a few Personal Notes.

Thank you for subscribing and I hope you enjoy!

Market Minute

• The Nasdaq announced it’s launching an overnight trading session, expanding market access to nearly 23 hours a day, five days a week - essentially making trading a near 24/7 operation. The new session runs from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m. ET, on top of its existing hours, meaning trading would run from Sunday night at 9 p.m. all the way through Friday at 8 p.m., with just a one-hour daily pause for processing. The regular 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. session stays the same and still sets the official prices for the market. The overnight session is targeted to launch December 6, but it still needs SEC approval, and traders will need new order-entry ports since some order types won’t be available overnight. Nasdaq really emphasizing that New York is the city that never sleeps.

• Mark Walter continues to make headlines. Bonds tied to Sammons Financial Group, an insurer with deep financial ties to Walter’s Guggenheim Partners, just hit their lowest point since being issued back in June. The drop came after a report from Hunterbrook Media dug into the relationship - Sammons was long Guggenheim’s largest shareholder, and in return Guggenheim managed tens of billions of dollars of Sammons’ money. The report points to Guggenheim’s own filings suggesting Sammons is still effectively a “related party,” which creates a built-in conflict of interest. But there is more! Guggenheim’s own debt is getting crushed too - a loan due in 2031 was trading near 100 cents on the dollar back in July and has now dropped below 80, as more details leak out about the federal investigation into loans tied to Walter’s insurance companies. This could get ugly. He already sold his Lakers share to get cash, he is considering selling his shares of Chelsea FC - on top of all this. I know there will be more to this saga and I’m excited to see how it unfolds!

Yesterday in Sports

• The Lakers are back in the news. Yesterday, the Buss family decided to sell its remaining 17.8% ownership in the franchise to majority owners Josh Kushner and Bob Iger, who bought the team from Mark Walter last week. There are six Buss siblings, and there needed to be 4 votes to enact the option to sell - and all but Jeanie voted yes. Now it’s more complicated than that. Jeanie Buss had been Governor of the Lakers and fired her younger brothers, Joey and Jesse, from their roles in the front office last year, and fired her older brother Jim Buss back in 2017. Now, with the siblings’ vote, the chapter of the Buss family owning the Lakers is officially over. Jerry Buss bought the Lakers in 1979, and after 47 years, the family is no longer involved with the team. Something else that is noteworthy: in the Buss family’s statement to ESPN, they ended by saying, “it is time to use this opportunity to move on and exit gracefully while we still can.” What exactly does that last part mean? I am not sure. They weren’t forced to sell, but there definitely seems to be bad blood between the Buss siblings. After all this was reported, Jeanie’s lawyers came out with a statement that she is contesting the sale because of a provision from a 2017 court case that stated she has to sign off on an potential sale and that she did not sign off on this. What a mess this is going to become. This is looking more like a soap opera than a Hollywood ending.

Culture

• President Trump met with 16-year-old Ryder Williams at the White House on Monday, honoring him for a viral ocean rescue. Williams saved 10-year-old Nathaniel Rai from a brutal riptide at Seabright State Beach in Santa Cruz back on July 25, with waves repeatedly crashing over both of them during the rescue. The moment was caught on video and went viral, eventually catching the attention of Eric Trump, which led to the White House invite. In the Oval Office, Trump told Williams, “What you did was incredible and everybody saw it,” praising him as a role model for young Americans. Both the Williams and Rai families were there for the meeting. As a lifeguard, at any moment, something crazy can happen, and it’s your job to act immediately and get to work. These two boys are going to be connected for life, and both will definitely never forget the experience.

Personal Note

• Some exciting news to share! Last week I started a job at a talent agency doing athlete management, working directly with athletes and influencers on their brand deals. Basically, I’m the liaison between the talent and the brand, making sure once a contract gets signed, everything actually gets delivered the way it’s supposed to. It takes building relationships, constant communication, and a lot of attention to detail - one minute I’m sorting out a campaign timeline, the next I’m tracking deliverables. A couple months ago I changed my LinkedIn headline to say “passionate about building strong relationships,” and here we are, funny how that worked out. I’ve only been at it a week and I’m already running a dozen campaigns. Super excited to keep growing in this role.

Question of the day

• What has one head, one foot, and four legs?

  • Reply to this email with your answer!

Lastly

• Be a good person and do the right thing, always!

Thanks for reading The Box Score! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Subscribe now

Welcome to today’s edition of The Box Score. Here you will find brief daily recaps of Financial Markets, Sports, Culture, as well as a few Personal Notes.

Thank you for subscribing and I hope you enjoy!

Market Minute

• New week in the world means a new week for the markets. Nothing crazy happened over the weekend. There have been some big headlines recently, so maybe we’re due for another this week. Check back daily to see what’s going on.

Weekend in Sports

• Joshua Báez, the Cardinals’ #3 prospect, had maybe the best debut of all time. Called up on Saturday, his first three at-bats all resulted in home runs, including one on the first pitch he ever saw in the big leagues - he’s now officially the first player in MLB history to homer in each of his first three career at-bats. I’m sure every baseball player has dreamed about what their debut would look like, and I think most of them would include hitting a home run in their first game. Hitting a home run on your first pitch and then hitting two more is just awesome. What a legendary performance.

• NFL preseason is well underway, and there’s one thing I want to highlight: Giants QB Jaxson Dart. Last year he made headlines as a rookie because almost every game he played, he somehow ended up in the medical tent - he was checked for a concussion five separate times over 14 games. So of course, on Saturday in his first preseason game, he ended up there again, this time after taking a big hit on a blitz. Dart said after the game, “I’m still puzzled by it. Just feeling like every time I get hit, I find my way in there.” Jaxson, you were lying flat on the ground for 15 seconds. Obviously they took you to the medical tent. Oh, and please slide this year, or you might not make it past week 5.

• Tommy John passed away this weekend at 83, and if the name sounds familiar, it’s because he is responsible for the most famous sports surgery ever. John blew out his elbow in 1974. Back then, that was a career-ending injury; pitchers just didn’t come back from a torn ligament. His surgeon, Dr. Frank Jobe, ended up ad-libbing an experimental fix mid-surgery, grafting a tendon from John’s wrist into his elbow. Nobody had ever tried it on a pitcher before, and nobody knew how to rehab from it either. John spent over a year building himself back up from scratch, and not only made it back to the majors but pitched until he was 46. What started as a Hail Mary procedure is now just called “Tommy John surgery,” and it’s saved the careers of over 500 major leaguers since. Tommy John had a nice career, and I’d argue he should be put in the Hall of Fame just for this. RIP Tommy John.

Culture

• Four masterpieces by 15th-century Renaissance master Antonello da Messina were stolen over the weekend from a museum in Messina, Sicily, during the Ferragosto holiday - likely while everyone’s attention was on a huge religious festival happening in the city. Thieves bypassed the alarm system and broke into a display case, making off with three panels from a famous altarpiece and a small double-sided painting of the Virgin and Child. Six paintings were actually taken in total, but two were mysteriously abandoned on a wall outside the museum.

  These aren’t just old paintings - the altarpiece survived a catastrophic 1908 earthquake that killed half the city’s population, and it’s the only work by Antonello that never left his hometown. Investigators are looking into whether it was stolen for the black market or even done on commission for an art dealer. For context on how valuable his work is: Italy spent $14.9 million on a single Antonello painting at auction earlier this year. This is starting to feel like a pattern. Remember the Louvre heist back in October, where thieves broke in during regular museum hours and got away with $100 million worth of Napoleonic jewels in under 8 minutes? Europe’s museums need to figure this out - priceless, irreplaceable pieces of history are walking out the front door.

Personal Note

• It is 11:16 and I am writing this section post wedding of my good friend “Ski.” What a wedding, wow! It was so amazing to celebrate with all my friends and watch him get married. As he was walking down the aisle, I shed some tears. I really did. Something about seeing your friends hit these amazing milestones in life brings out the emotional side of me. And yes, I’m not afraid to include that in here. This is the personal section for a reason. Oh, and I’m still single.

• At the wedding, my friend wanted a sneak peek, but I didn’t think I could show him on my phone. I was wrong, and he was right - so he got to see the draft before the final product and gave me the green light.

• Studs suck, they really do. I mean, they look cool for pictures, but when it comes time to dance, the shirt immediately comes undone and you have to check every 2 minutes to make sure you didn’t lose one. Well guess what, I lost one, and by the time I found it, it was bent in half - so the next time I need to wear a tux, I’ll have to buy another set. But seriously, why are they so bad and always fall out?

Question of the day

• What has a heart but doesn’t beat?

Lastly

• Be a good person and do the right thing, always!

Thanks for reading The Box Score! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Subscribe now

Welcome to today’s edition of The Box Score. Here you will find brief daily recaps of Financial Markets, Sports, Culture, as well as a few Personal Notes.

Thank you for subscribing and I hope you enjoy!

Market Minute

• Silver Lake is reportedly in talks to buy Workday, in a deal that would rank among the biggest software buyouts ever. Just the news of the talks sent Workday shares up nearly 18% on Thursday, pushing its market value from around $43 billion to roughly $51 billion. Nothing is finalized yet - sources say talks are ongoing and there’s no guarantee a deal actually gets done, and Silver Lake may bring in outside investors to help finance it. The timing is notable: private equity has mostly sat out big software buyouts this year, spooked by AI making it harder to judge whether traditional software companies can keep growing. Workday shares were actually down 15% on the year and over 40% off their 2024 peak before this news broke. If this deal happens, it’d be one of the clearest signs yet that PE firms are willing to bet on old-school enterprise software despite the AI overhang - following Thoma Bravo’s $12.3 billion Dayforce deal and Hg Capital’s $6.4 billion OneStream buyout earlier this year. I think regardless of industry, PE is looking to get involved everywhere. Soon enough we’re gonna be buying groceries at Blackstone Supermarket.

Yesterday in Sports

• News from college football yesterday: Jayden Daniels sent a cease and desist letter to LSU over their use of his NIL, after LSU gave his old No. 5 to someone else - while Joe Burrow’s No. 9 hasn’t been worn since he left. My thoughts: pathetic, and let me explain why. College football rosters can have up to 105 players, and since players can only wear 0-99, that wouldn’t be enough numbers to go around. So college football has a rule where one player on offense and one on defense can wear the same number. Now, everyone knows single-digit numbers are the most desirable. Burrow won the Heisman and the National Championship in the same year and led one of the best teams of all time while doing it. Daniels won the Heisman, LSU went 9-3, and he didn’t even play in the bowl game. Now, I’m all for honoring legends of the school. Put their name and number in the rafters, but allow another player to wear the jersey. I know it’s the NFL, but look at the Cowboys and No. 88, for example - Michael Irvin, Dez Bryant, and now CeeDee Lamb. They pass the number down from legend to legend. The same should apply to college football. You start retiring all the numbers like the Yankees do, and now you have no numbers left. There has to be a way to honor players without causing a whole ruckus in the process.

• MLB had its third “Field of Dreams” game at the legendary movie site in Dyersville, Iowa. I absolutely love this tradition. Growing up watching Field of Dreams, and then seeing the players walk through the cornfields and play a real MLB game, is so awesome. The throwback jerseys are a great addition as well. It’s on my bucket list to go there, hopefully one day soon. If I were able to say “Hey, Dad, you wanna have a catch?” at the field, that would just be amazing. And don’t forget - if you build it, they will come.

Culture

• Someone in Illinois just won the $1 billion Powerball jackpot - the eighth-largest in the game’s history. The winning ticket was sold at a Hy-Vee gas station in Quincy, Illinois, ending a three-month drought since the last jackpot winner back in May. No word yet on whether the winner has come forward. The jackpot comes as either a $1 billion annuity paid out over 29 years, or a lump sum of $450.5 million - and historically, almost everyone takes the lump sum, because that’s what you should do. The odds of hitting it? One in 292 million. Meanwhile, five other tickets across four states matched every number except the Powerball, earning $1-2 million payouts of their own. $450.5 million is hard to comprehend, especially when it hits your bank account all at once. I just hope the winner doesn’t blow it all. Call a financial advisor, invest it all, and set your family up for generations.

Personal Note

• I usually like to keep this fun and exciting, but there is something I need to mention. A few days ago, William Shakin Z”L, a 25-year-old lone soldier from New York, tragically took his own life after a battle with PTSD. After October 7th, following his graduation from Binghamton University, Will chose to enlist in the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion and started fighting in Gaza, where he fought for months. Following his completion of his army service, Will returned to America and enrolled in Yeshiva University’s School of Social Work, but suffered from immense PTSD due to his time in Gaza. I want to take a moment here. I know plenty of people who are very close to me who are fighting in the IDF and protecting the Jewish people and the State of Israel. That is hard work. That is putting your life on the line to protect and serve your country. That is going into battle every day with the understanding that your life can change in an instant. Living in America, we think that we struggle. We think things are hard. We complain about little problems. We don’t know what hard work really is. We have roofs over our heads, food on the table, air conditioning, beds, clean clothing - so many more things that we take for granted when there are kids putting their lives on the line every day. I ask that next time you start complaining about your job or anything else, just stop and think for a minute if it’s really so difficult because there are so many bigger things in life that people who grew up just like us are going through. Will didn’t have to fight in the IDF - he chose to. William Shakin, Baruch Dayan Ha’emet.

Lastly

• Be a good person and do the right thing, always!

Thanks for reading The Box Score! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

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Welcome to today’s edition of The Box Score. Here you will find brief daily recaps of Financial Markets, Sports, Culture, as well as a few Personal Notes.

Thank you for subscribing and I hope you enjoy!

Market Minute

• Big news out of the NBA but also Finance related: the Lakers are being sold for the second time in 14 months, this time to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger for $12.5 billion. Mark Walter bought the team last year from the Buss family for $10 billion, so on the surface, flipping it for a $2.5 billion gain in one year is electric. But there’s more to the story. Bloomberg reports Walter’s holding company, TWG Global, had been hunting for cash to pay down loans held by its own insurance companies - loans already drawing federal scrutiny. His insurer, Delaware Life, recently had to restate related-party investments from $1.4B (3% of assets) to $17B (39%), prompting S&P to flag it. Walter hasn’t been charged, and TWG says it’s cooperating. But the timing of this “amazing” sale lines up a little too neatly with a company under federal watch. Kushner, meanwhile, was in the news just last week over talks to invest in FIFA - that fell through. Now he and Iger, Disney’s former CEO, get to own one of sports’ most storied franchises and try to bring the Lakers back to glory behind superstar Luka Doncic. Still can’t quite believe that trade either.

Yesterday in Sports

• So long Russell Westbrook. The future NBA Hall of Famer retired yesterday after 18 years in the league. Russ had a legendary career across 7 different franchises, most notably the Thunder, where he averaged a triple-double three straight seasons and won MVP in the 2016-17 season. As of now he is the all time leader in regular season triple-doubles but Nikola Jokic will certainly break that record next season. He never got his ring though, when he had multiple chances to make it happen. Oh well, can’t have everything.

• Falcons QB Michael Penix tore his ACL for the third time last season - twice in college (once in each knee), now once in the NFL. So a report yesterday quoted his doctor telling him: “This is an amazing ACL. You should never have any more knee problems for the rest of your career.” I read that and assumed it was AI slop until I confirmed it was real. Might be time for that doctor to get some new glasses - YIKES. I’m sure he did great work, but telling a guy who’s torn his ACL three times he’s in the clear for good is like a gambler calling his next parlay a lock after losing the last three. Impossible.

Culture

• There was a solar eclipse yesterday - Europe’s only total one of 2026, and Spain’s first since 1905. Totality lasted about 2 minutes, sweeping from Russia through Greenland, Iceland, the U.K., and Spain in under two hours, with 230M+ people catching 90%+ totality across Madrid, London, and Paris. It was visible in the U.S. too - just as a partial eclipse. Fairbanks, Alaska led the way at 37%, while Boston (16%) and NYC (9%) got a small bite out of the sun. Next U.S. total eclipse: 2044 (Montana/Dakotas), then a 2045 coast-to-coast repeat of 2017. Northeast waits until 2079. Bonus show: the Perseid meteor shower peaks in the next few nights, under dark, moonless skies right after the eclipse’s new moon - one of the best meteor displays of the year. Don’t forget the glasses!!

• White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is leaving the administration at the end of August, Trump announced on Truth Social. The 28-year-old - the youngest press secretary ever - is resigning to spend more time with her family, just weeks after returning from maternity leave following the birth of her daughter on May 1. Trump said Leavitt will become one of his “top outside advisors,” helping the GOP push toward the November midterms. I’m sure she’ll be back on the front lines sooner rather than later, but as a 28-year-old, what an awesome job to have held.

Personal Note

• Does anyone else just constantly think? My brain never really shuts off - I’m always picturing different things: where I want to live, what career I want, what kind of impact I want to make. It’s probably a good thing, but my mind is going a mile a minute pretty much all the time. Anyone else’s brain work like this, or is it just me?

Question of the day

• What can fill a room but takes up no space?

  • Reply to this email with your answer!

Lastly

• Be a good person and do the right thing, always!

Thanks for reading The Box Score! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Subscribe now

Subscribe now

Welcome to today’s edition of The Box Score. Here you will find brief daily recaps of Financial Markets, Sports, Culture, as well as a few Personal Notes.

Thank you for subscribing and I hope you enjoy!

Market Minute

• Live-streaming e-commerce startup Whatnot - which started in a Phoenix garage - just raised $545 million in a Series G round, pushing its valuation to nearly $20 billion. The round was led by ICONIQ, Lightspeed and Avra, with a stacked list of investors joining in, including Kleiner Perkins, Wellington Management, Robinhood Ventures Fund I, Y Combinator and Andreessen Horowitz. The company plans to use the new capital to build out AI-powered tools for sellers and push into international markets. This, that, whatnot - whatever it is, you can turn anything into millions, or even billions.

Yesterday in Sports

• Christmas Day used to be a 5-game NBA slate until a few years ago, when the NFL decided to join the party and added three games. It hasn’t disappointed, and this year’s full slate is shaping up to be electric. I absolutely cannot wait.

  • Noon: Spurs, Knicks at the Garden (NBA Finals rematch)

  • 1 pm: Packers, Bears at Soldier Field (one of the longest rivalries in sports)

  • 2:30 pm: Heat, Celtics at TD Garden (nothing special, still a great game)

  • 4:30 pm: Bills, Broncos in Mile High (another good one)

  • 5:00 pm: 76ers, Lakers in Los Angeles (LeBron back to LA - do I need to say more?)

  • 8:00 pm: Thunder, Timberwolves in Minnesota (great matchup, should be awesome)

  • 8:15 pm: Rams, Seahawks in Seattle (probably the best game of the slate, and a great way to close out the NFL slate)

  • 10:30 pm: Nuggets, Warriors in the Bay Area (Jokic, Steph - still 2 stars going head to head)

• College basketball is right around the corner, and yesterday Field of 68 released the schedule for their Opening Day Marathon - 8 games, 24 hours straight of hoops. Games start at 12 AM and run until 8:00 PM, and yes, there are actual games tipping off at 3 and 6 AM. I like the idea in theory, but in practice it’s insane that any team agreed to play at those times.

Culture

• Democrats are demanding a congressional briefing after it came out that Trump was secretly switched onto a different plane during his NATO return over an alleged Iran threat - while 100+ staff, aides and reporters kept flying on the original Air Force One with no idea there was any danger. Critics want to know why they weren’t told; security experts are questioning whether the threat was even credible enough to justify it. It’s always something new with Trump every day, but I think people should be happy we didn’t have to discuss another assassination attempt this time.

Personal Note

• I went to the library today to check out a few books. I got to the desk and asked if they had them in stock - struck out on 3 of 4. The one book they did have, I spent like 5 minutes trying to find it. I was looking by the author’s last name, because that’s how it’s supposed to be done. After I couldn’t find it, I asked for help, and of course it wasn’t where it was supposed to be. I wish it could just be like the dry cleaner, where they punch in a number and the book comes out on a carousel and you pick it up. Maybe soon.

Question of the day

• I am the son of your father’s mother, but I am not your uncle. Who am I?

  • Reply to this email with your answer!

Lastly

• Be a good person and do the right thing, always!

Thanks for reading The Box Score! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Subscribe now

Welcome to today’s edition of The Box Score. Here you will find brief daily recaps of Financial Markets, Sports, Culture, as well as a few Personal Notes.

Thank you for subscribing and I hope you enjoy!

Market Minute

• Nvidia is trying to turn AI chips into a new asset class. They signed a deal with six major companies - Apollo, Blackstone, BlackRock, Brookfield, Goldman, and KKR to help unlock $500 billion in financing for data centers and Nvidia hardware. The idea: instead of hyperscalers and AI labs draining their own balance sheets to build out compute, they can borrow against it like real estate or infrastructure. Jensen Huang put it simply - “compute is revenue” - and he’s betting Nvidia’s chips are reliable enough for lenders to treat them as long-term, bankable assets instead of hardware that depreciates the second a new generation drops. I believe in Jensen too. He tells this famous story about founding Nvidia at a Denny’s in San Jose with no real plan, just an idea and two co-founders willing to bet on it. He had no idea what he was doing at the time - and now he’s one of the richest people on the planet, running the company at the center of the entire AI boom. It’s a true story of perseverance and self-belief, and it’s hard not to root for a guy who built all of this from a diner booth.

Yesterday in Sports

• Tim Anderson retired yesterday, closing out a solid MLB career — but let’s be honest, most people are going to remember him for one thing: the brawl with José Ramírez. Weird one too. Ramírez slid into second, Anderson held the tag a bit too long, words got exchanged, and suddenly they were throwing hands in the middle of the infield. Ramírez landed a clean shot that’s been immortalized as “Down Goes Anderson” ever since. Career highlights aside, that clip is forever.

• Brand new for 2026: NFL head coaches can now designate a sideline staffer to throw the red challenge flag instead of doing it themselves - teams just have to notify officials beforehand. I actually like the idea, but I can already picture the guy messing it up and the head coach going absolutely berserk on the sideline about it. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see how it plays out.

Culture

• Mark Zuckerberg’s $390 million, 387-foot mega-yacht Launchpad was anchored in the same Alaska waters as a small skiff that ran out of fuel last week. But it wasn’t Launchpad that came to the rescue - it was a 42-year-old tour boat called Wilderness Legacy. Passengers say the Coast Guard radioed Zuckerberg’s yacht first since it was closer, but got no response, so the old tour boat towed the skiff to safety instead. When the captain announced Launchpad never answered, passengers reportedly booed. A Zuckerberg spokesperson said the skiff wasn’t actually in distress and the rescue was already underway before the crew even saw the message. Sure, they didn’t hear the message.

• 34 years ago today, the Mall of America opened in Minnesota. It’s still the biggest mall in North America, and it basically has everything - stores, restaurants, a theme park, and even an aquarium. Maybe I’ll take a trip out there one day.

Personal Note

• My brother’s coming home from summer camp in a few days, so I’m excited to see him and spend some time together again. Being home with just my parents for a few weeks definitely has its ups and downs, but I’m obviously grateful for it.

Question of the day

• What has a face and two hands but no arms or legs?

  • Reply to this email with your answer!

Lastly

• Be a good person and do the right thing, always!

Thanks for reading The Box Score! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Subscribe now

Welcome to today’s edition of The Box Score. Here you will find brief daily recaps of Financial Markets, Sports, Culture, as well as a few Personal Notes.

Thank you for subscribing and I hope you enjoy!

Market Minute

• Greg Abel, the new Berkshire Hathaway CEO, spent $4.5 billion on share buybacks in his first full quarter at the helm - building on Q1, which marked Berkshire’s first buyback since 2024. Abel replaced the legendary Warren Buffett at the beginning of this year and is now putting his own stamp on the company. If I were CEO, I’d also want to make my mark early - it’s a new era, and Abel is showing he’s willing to make things happen already.

• A federal appeals court ruled Friday that Trump can’t build his $400M White House ballroom without congressional approval, upholding a lower court decision that blocked the project. Trump is vowing to appeal to the Supreme Court, calling the ruling a threat to White House staff safety, while the National Trust for Historic Preservation called it “a great day” for Americans’ right to weigh in on historic sites. Construction stays paused above-ground unless SCOTUS intervenes. I personally hate this - the White House is a national landmark and should never be changed. This isn’t Trump’s house (although he probably thinks it is); this is America’s White House, and it will be used long after Trump is gone.

Yesterday in Sports

• Teddy Bridgewater retired for the second time yesterday, and I think this one is for real. The former first-round pick had a nice career, but suffered multiple injuries throughout and was unable to live up to the potential he showed in his first few seasons. I’m sure Teddy will find his way back into coaching, where he was a few years ago after retiring for the first time.

• Jefry Yan. If you haven’t heard of him, he has an amazing story, which I’ll explain. At 16, he signed with the Angels out of the Dominican Republic and made his pro debut in 2014. Then he had Tommy John surgery and didn’t pitch again in a pro league until 2021. He started working in construction and was a delivery man as well. He signed back into pro ball in 2021, then pitched in Japan in 2024. Last year, he was with the Rockies organization. The Mets signed him this offseason, and just a few days ago, he made his MLB debut at the age of 29. Now, why am I telling you this? If you haven’t seen him pitch, go watch - I’ll link a video at the end of the newsletter. After every strikeout, he jumps in the air and lands like he’s Spider-Man - it is absolutely awesome. Opposing hitters have mocked him for doing it, but that’s his thing. If you don’t want him jumping, then don’t strike out. In a Mets season that has had a lot of bad moments, this is the best moment, and I hope he keeps it up because it is a joy to watch. Talk about never giving up!

Culture

• On this day in history, from the FDR Presidential Library: August 10th was the day FDR’s initial symptoms of polio began. This didn’t stop him - even paralyzed from the waist down, he went on to become governor of New York and then President of the United States for 12 years, until he sadly passed away at age 63.

  FDR contracted polio in 1921 at age 39, unusual since the disease primarily struck children at the time and was one of the most feared illnesses in America, capable of causing paralysis or death with no cure in sight. His experience pushed him to found the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis in 1938 - later known as the March of Dimes - which funded the research that eventually led to a breakthrough. In 1955, Dr. Jonas Salk developed the first effective polio vaccine, followed by Albert Sabin’s oral vaccine a few years later. Mass vaccination campaigns that followed all but wiped out polio in the U.S. and dramatically reduced it worldwide - a disease that once paralyzed a sitting president is now on the verge of global eradication.

Personal Note

• One of my really good friends from college got engaged yesterday!!! I was honored that he sent me the picture to forward to the group chat. It’s so amazing when great things happen to great people, and I wish him and his fiancé all the best - I can’t wait to dance at their wedding!

• In addition, another one of my friends from high school got engaged over the weekend, and his engagement party is tonight. Our lockers were next to each other for four years, and we spent plenty of weekends together throughout high school laughing and having fun!

• Speaking of weddings, my good friend from high school is getting married in six days, which doesn’t feel real. I won’t refer to him by name, but instead by his nickname “Ski,” which I coined way back in the day. Regardless, I am super excited about this one, which is only about a 25-minute drive from my house -something that doesn’t usually happen.

• It really is crazy that so many of my friends are getting engaged, married, or even becoming parents. I guess it’s time for me to get this process started. I am single and ready to mingle, as they say, so feel free to hit me up.

Question of the day

• What is the longest river in the world?

  • Reply to this email with your answer!

Lastly

• Be a good person and do the right thing, always!

Thanks for reading The Box Score! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Subscribe now

Welcome to today’s edition of The Box Score. Here you will find brief daily recaps of Financial Markets, Sports, Culture, as well as a few Personal Notes.

Thank you for subscribing and I hope you enjoy!

Market Minute

• Nothing too exciting to cover in the market, so I am going to skip this section for today. We shall see how the weekend is, and I will discuss it on Monday.

Yesterday in Sports

• The Hall of Fame Game was actually very good. The Panthers beat the Cardinals 33-30 on the last play of the game when QB Haynes King ran it in from the 5-yard line. He had a great game, as did Cardinals QB Carson Beck, who was spectacular in the first half. I doubt King will see playing time this year, but Beck has a chance to start some games for the Cardinals later in the year.

• The Red Sox are on fire. Last night they took down the White Sox 12-11 in 13 innings. As a fan, I absolutely love when games go into extra innings and teams are down to their last pitcher. The drama is so much better.

Culture

• Still looking for a better source for this section. I might be considering a change so I actually have something to talk about, since this section hasn’t worked out the way I intended it to. Oh well, you live and you learn.

Personal Note

• What a travel day I had yesterday. I got to the airport and saw a notification that my flight was delayed 30 minutes - okay, not so bad, I thought. About an hour later, I saw the flight was delayed another 1.5 hours, so two hours in total. We finally departed, and after we landed at JFK, we sat on the runway for 30 minutes because there was traffic getting to the gate. Ended up getting home around midnight. To make matters worse, the WiFi at my house wasn’t working, so I woke up early this morning to write the newsletter because I commited to making this a daily publication and it makes me happy when I get daily feedback from people as well. Sometimes you just gotta roll with the punches.

• In two weeks, my newsletter hit 1,000 views! I still can’t believe it - thank you to everyone who starts their morning with The Box Score. This is just the beginning, and I’m excited to keep growing this thing with all of you along for the ride.

Question of the Day

• What has an eye but can’t see?

  • Reply to this email with your answer!

Lastly

• Be a good person and do the right thing, always!

Thanks for reading The Box Score! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Subscribe now