MLB's 'Frye Game' and my 2025 WNBA Power Rankings debut
The Monday morning edition of "Nine things to know before 9 a.m." is live!
Major League Baseball took a giant leap forward with this weekend’s massively attended game between the Cincinnati Reds and Atlanta Braves. I will be discussing the reason how MLB created a record that will be hard to topple (given the venue), and why one fan referred to being there on Saturday akin to 2017’s Frye Festival.
Also, I will be revealing my 20215 WNBA Power Rankings for the eight teams currently in positon for a playoff berth, with only 12 to 15 games left of the 40-game regular season.
Without waiting any longer, let us get started with the main course:
1. MLB makes history (and creates issues) on the racetrack
Almost one year since MLB’s announcement of this unique game, the MLB Speedway Classic, on August 9, 2024, an actual baseball game between two pro teams - the Cincinnati Reds and the Atlanta Braves - was played on the center of the Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, TN on Saturday and Sunday. Yes. A baseball game in the middle of a race track that took two days to complete.
People were speculating about the dimensions of the baseball field, and if center field could be ridiculously stretched out to 500-700 feet from home plate, a la the Polo Grounds in New York from back in the day (the centerfield wall from home plate was actually 483 feet in this stadium that lasted from 1890 - 1963).
However, this baseball diamond had the typical dimensions: 330 feel down the two foul lines and 400 feet to center field.
The bigger news was the capacity. Normal MLB stadiums hold roughly around 45,000 people, give or take. Bristol Motor Speedway’s capacity has a whopping 146,000 seats. That’s almost 40k seats more than the biggest stadiums in the United States, in University of Michigan’s football stadium (107,601) and Penn State’s Beaver Stadium (106,572).
The final number of people who went through the Bristol turnstiles was 91,032. Not to capacity, by any means, but more than the expected total of 85,000. That set an MLB record for highest regular season attendance. Only a preseason game at Los Angeles’s Memorial Coliseum between the Boston Red Sox and Los Angles Dodgers in March 2008 had more people in attendance (115,300).
Back to the actual game, though. Saturday’s night’s National League game was expected to start at around 7 p.m. E.T. Unfortunately, torrential rains caused a two-hour delay for the 90k awaiting the first pitch. Ultimately, the teams took the field two hours and 17 minutes later at 9:41 p.m., but the game only lasted an inning before the game was called for the night (and was to be resumed at 1 p.m. Sunday) at 10:25 p.m.
That was only the tip of the proverbial iceberg of issues regarding this first time game. What should have been a classic game under the lights, turned into logistical issues for the fans, both watching the game at home and for those at the venue.
For one, the MLB on FOX crew did not know the game was suspended until the jumbotron behind them stated that the game was resuming on Sunday afternoon.
Secondly, fans at the venue dubbed this game the “MLB version of Frye Fest.”
For those unaware, Frye Fest was a disaster of a music festival that was expected to take place late April and early May 2017 in the Bahamas, with hundreds of social media influencers promoting the event. The expected visitors were going to have gourmet meals and stay in very expensive villas, which altogether cost thousands of dollars to attend (VIP accomodation was around $12,000). But the thousands that flocked to the Bahamas were treated with pre-packaged sandwiches in styrofoam boxes and were living in tents.
Now, going back to the problems at Bristol on Saturday night, one fan complained that he received bunless hot dogs and cheese-less nachos:
Another fan noted that all concessions ran out of food before the rain delayed first pitch and that only beer and peanus were left.
There were also fans who complained about bad sightlines (expected, when trying to squeeze an MLB field onto a race track):
This MLB Speedway Classic game did start on time Sunday, and the Braves won, 4-2, with what looked like to be only a third of the 90,000 fans in attendance for the suspended game.
2. WNBA Power Rankings
I have not talked in detail about the 2025 WNBA season, but I thought I would hopefully start the first of a few WNBA Power Rankings, with about a dozen games left in the regular season.
Quite a bit has changed in the ‘W’ since I was regularly talking about the league two-plus years ago. The Connecticut Sun, who advanced to the second round of the playoffs, at worst, in each of the past eight seasons (and reaching the conference semifinals, at worst, for six straight years), took an atomic bomb to their roster this past off-season, not bringing back a single starter from their playoff runs. The Sun are now a pitiful 5-22 on the season, last in the WNBA, but have the fifth-worst WNBA Lottery odds (odds are determined by the cumulative record of the last two seasons, compared to one season for the NBA’s Draft Lottery).
The Indiana Fever, who selected Caitlin Clark no. 1 overall in the 2024 draft and have not advanced past the first round since 2015, when they reached the WNBA Finals, revamped their roster in the offseason by adding veteran forward Natasha Howard (3-time champion and 2019 Defensive Player of the Year) and sharpshooter and enforcer Sophie Cunningham of the-then Phoenix Mercury. The Fever sit at 17-11 and fourth in the WNBA, all this while Clark has missed 15 of the 28 games played due to various leg injuries.
With all of that being said, let’s go through this week’s WNBA Power Rankings (only looking at the top-8 teams), with a little blurb about why each team is placed at each spot.
1. Minnesota Lynx | 24-5 | Last 10: 7-3 | Current Streak: W2
The Lynx, the runners-up to the New York Liberty in last year’s WNBA Finals, are playing at a better pace than last season (30-10), with the MVP frontrunner in Naphesa Collier (23.5 ppg, 7.5 rpg, 3.5 apg). They are coming off a monster 111-58 win over the Las Vegas Aces. Unfortunately, Collier left the game in the third quarter with an ankle injury. In the victory, longtime veteran guard Kayla McBride was a perfect 8-for-8 from deep in the first half and finished with a game-high 24 points in the 53-point road win. Oh yeah - the Lynx are also 15-1 at home this season.
Minnesota also acquired guard DiJonai Carrington (10.4 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 1.6 apg, 1.1 spg) from the Dallas Wings for two bench guards (Diamond Miller and Karlie Samuelson) and a 2027 second round pick. That addition should definitely help the Lynx in backcourt scoring and add a defensive pest as well to a championship-caliber roster.
Upcoming matchups: at Seattle Storm (16-13) on Tuesday; vs. Washington Mystics (13-15) on Friday; at New York Liberty (18-10) on Sunday
2. Atlanta Dream | 19-11 | Last 10: 6-4 | Current Streak: W3
There has been an injury bug across the league, with the Dream playing without 2022 Rookie of the Year and 3-time All-Star Rhyne Howard (16.5 ppg, 5 rpg, 4.5 apg), who has missed the last nine straight games with a left knee injury. Despite that, the Dream, behind guard Allisha Gray (18.6 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 3.9 apg, 1.1 spg) has led Atlanta with a 6-3 record and has averaged 20.78 ppg during that nine-game stretch.
Upcoming matchups: at Chicago Sky (7-21) on Thursday; at Phoenix Mercury (17-11) on Sunday
3. Indiana Fever | 17-12 | Last 10: 8-2 | Current Streak: W5
The Fever are surprisingly playing well without their franchise superstar in Caitlin Clark during Indiana’s current five-game winning streak. Their only two losses are back-to-back defeats to the Liberty in mid-July. Like Gray stepping up for the Dream, guard Aari McDonald has done wonders since signing with the Fever back on June 25. McDonald has averaged 12.1 ppg, 5.4 apg and has had a steal in all but one game over the past seven games starting in place of Clark. She has been a true X-Factor for the Fever, fitting seamlessly into the Fever rotation.
In addition, Indiana made another savvy transaction in grabbing forward Chloe Bibby, a 6-foot, 2-inch space four who has made multiple three-pointers in three of the four games played off the bench with the Fever.
Upcoming matchups: at Los Angles Sparks (12-15) on Tuesday; at Phoenix Mercury (17-11) on Thursday; vs. Chicago Sky (7-21) on Saturday
4. New York Liberty | 18-10 | Last 10: 6-4 | Current Streak: W1
The defending WNBA champions are without their face of the franchise in Breanna Stewart (18.3 ppg, 6.5 rpg, 3.9 apg). “Stewie” suffered a bone bruise in her right knee, three minutes into the 101-99 loss to the Sparks on July 26. She will miss the entirety of August recovering from the injury.
The Liberty have struggled without their lanky forward, dropping four straight games before ultimately winning 87-78 against the last place Sun on Sunday. However, the Liberty got a fortunate bounce last week, as 2019 WNBA Finals MVP Emma Meesseman decided to sign with the organization on Friday, Aug. 1. The Belgian superstar has been out of the league since 2022, playing for her host country during this period, but brings her great passing ability (she averaged a career-best 4.5 assists per game for the Washington Mystics in 2020) and a career 37 percent three-point shooting to the Liberty.
Upcoming matchups: vs. Dallas Wings (8-21) on Tuesday; at Wings on Friday; vs. Wild (24-5) on Sunday
5. Phoenix Mercury | 17-11 | Last 10: 5-5 | Current Streak: W1
The Mercury had a hot start to the 2025 season, starting July with a 13-5 record with a new roster. Gone were decade-long mainstays in future Hall of Famer Diana Taurasi (retired) and center Brittney Griner (signed with the Dream in the offseason). In comes MVP candidate Alyssa Thomas (16.2 ppg, 9.4 rpg, 9 apg), who left the Sun after 11 years as the face of the franchise alongside forward Satou Sabally (17.2 ppg, 6.7 rpg, 2.4 apg), who also signed with the Mercury in the offseason after five years with the Wings.
However, Phoenix has hit a cold spell during one of the hottest months of the year, dropping five of its last seven games, with all but one of those defeats by double digits. The two Mercury wins were to sub-0.500 teams in the Washington Mystics (13-15) and the Sky (7-21), while the five losses were to teams with winning records. The Mercury dropped two games to the Dream during this skid. It also doesn’t help the team that Sabally was ruled out for Sunday’s 83-67 win over the Sky due to personal reasons, and that head coach Nate Tibbetts said that he is not sure when she will be back with the organization in the pre-game media conference Sunday.
Upcoming matchups: vs. Sun (5-22) on Tuesday; vs. Fever (17-12) on Thursday; vs. Dream (19-11) on Sunday
6. Seattle Storm | 16-13 | Last 10: 4-6 | Current Streak: L2
Like their Western Conference counterpart in the Mercury, the Storm also started the 2025 season strong before going on a post-All Star Break skid. Seattle began the year 10-7 by July 1, but are a 0.500 team since (6-6). The Storm battled the Sparks in a 2OT classic on Friday until ultimately losing, 108-106, after a Skylar Diggins layup came up empty on the final possession of the game. Then, on Sunday, Aug. 3, the Storm missed five straight potential game-tying three pointers in the final couple of minutes of regulation, losing 78-74 at home to the Indiana Fever.
Two bright spots for this most-likely playoff team has been the outstanding play of their two forwards in Nneka Ogwumike (18.1 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 2.3 apg, 1.1 spg) and Gabby Williams (12.9 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 4.5 apg and a WNBA-high 2.6 spg). Not only does Seattle have the WNBA leader in pilfers, but also blocks, as center Ezi Magbegor once again leads the league with 2.3 blocks per game.
Upcoming matchups: vs. Wild (24-5) on Tuesday; at Las Vegas Aces (15-14) on Friday; at Los Angeles Sparks (12-15) on Sunday
7. Golden State Valkyries | 14-14 | Last 10: 5-5 | Current Streak: L1
The first of many expansion teams between now and 2030, the Golden State Valkyries have surpassed preseason expectations in the first year of the ‘W.’ Behind a bevy of castoff role players selected in the offseason expansion draft, the Bay Area team has won four of its last six games, including three straight road victories, with one narrow 77-75 win over the 19-11 Atlanta Dream this past Tuesday.
Most of the Valkyries’ success has come from four players: backcourt guards Veronica Burton (10.9 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 5.3 apg) and Tiffany Hayes (12 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 2.9 apg) and frontcourt forwards Kayla Thornton (14 ppg, 7 rpg, 1.5 apg, 1.3 spg) and Temi Fagbenle (8 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 1.9 apg). However, the Bay Area team lost Thornton for the season, after doctors discovered that she suffered a right knee injury in practice in late July.
Upcoming matchups: vs. Las Vegas Aces (15-14) on Wednesday; vs. Los Angeles Sparks (12-15) on Saturday
8. Las Vegas Aces | 15-14 | Last 10: 6-4 | Current Streak: W1
The Aces have been the de facto most disappointing WNBA team this season - and that is not even close. Las Vegas has been the elite team over the past six straight years, reaching the WNBA semifinals or better and winning two WNBA titles (2022 and 2023) during this stretch.
Despite the Aces being this dynasty during this half-decade, Las Vegas underwent roster turnover (for the worse) this past offseason, which has hurt this roster in 2025. Kelsey Plum, their No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 Draft, when they were called the San Antonio Stars, darted for the West Coast to sign with the Los Angeles Sparks in the 2025 offseason. Before, she was playing in the shadow of two-time league MVP A’Ja Wilson; now, in the City of Angeles, Plum has been the de facto no. 1 option, a positon she has not held since taking command of the University of Washington Huskies (2013-2017).
Losing Plum while also integrating 2-time Seattle Storm champion and 2015 Rookie of the Year Jewell Lloyd to the Aces backcourt in the offseason has not had the success Las Vegas was yearning for. Lloyd is averagng a career-worst 10.8 ppg and has only dished the ball 1.9 times per game, another career-worst, which matches her 2015 rookie season. Even though the Aces have won six of its last nine games, they have to do some more winning, and winning quickly, if they are chasing after home court advantage in the playoffs. But before jumping that far, the Las Vegas Aces need to push for the playoffs, as they currently have the eighth and last playoff spot.
Until next time, signing off.