Kinney | Stats & Stories

William Contreras is a World Series MVP now. Watching this moment from 2 years ago makes it even sweeter to see him win. ❤️ A street vendor sold him $16 worth of sandwiches. Contreras handed him $100 and told him to keep it. As the man teared up, Contreras reached over and put a hand on his shoulder. The generosity is beautiful. So is the care he shows the man in that moment. You’ve got a good heart, William

Walker Kessler is the first Laker in 54 years with 15+ points, 15+ boards and no misses from the floor or the line in a regular-season game. Wilt Chamberlain (1972) · 15 & 19, 3/3 FT Kessler (2026) · 16 & 15, 4/4 FT Both went 6-for-6 from the floor. Beautiful work, big man. 👏

Connor McDavid at full tilt with the puck on a string is straight-up unfair. No dangles, no tricks. He nudges it past two reaching sticks, skates right between them, and all those guys see now is 97 getting smaller. McDavid’s a one-man power play, unreal.

“He won’t have much time to celebrate,” Eintracht Frankfurt coach Adi Hütter said on Friday. Niko Iličević was turning 16 on Saturday, and Hütter reckoned he’d need him in the squad on Sunday. At 14, Niko had already scored for Frankfurt’s first team in a friendly. To play even a minute in the Bundesliga, though, he had to be 16. On Sunday against Hamburg, Hütter sent him on for Can Uzun in stoppage time. At 16 years and one day old, Niko tied Youssoufa Moukoko’s record as the youngest player in Bundesliga history. And the kid still found time to get two shots off. As for that celebration? After Frankfurt’s 3-1 win, his teammates clapped as Niko jogged out to face the home fans. He raised both arms in front of a stand full of waving flags. When he came back, he had his head down and a grin on his face. A second later you could barely see No. 23 in the huddle.

Carlos Alcaraz was a little kid standing by a tennis-court fence, telling a group of grandparents where to serve. Today, that kid won the title in Vienna. Here's how his dad's longtime friend Alfredo Sarria remembered it. He'd gone to the club for a meeting with Carlos's father and found young Carlitos watching the older players on Court 3. The kid knew the score. He spotted their mistakes. Sarria recalled him telling them, "You have to serve here." Imagine going out for a game of tennis and finding out the little guy at the fence has notes. By the time Carlos was 17 years old, that love of the game was shaping his whole day. He was living mostly at Juan Carlos Ferrero's academy. In a December 2020 interview, he described mornings on court followed by fitness work, then another session of tennis and physical training later in the day. Going home wasn't always easy. His friends got to go out more than he could. In his words, "it is my choice to play tennis and I love it." He finished that year ranked No. 141. Becoming world No. 1 and winning a Grand Slam were still dreams he was telling an interviewer about. Today in Vienna, he beat Alex de Minaur 6-1, 6-4 to win the title without dropping a set all week. Their championship-point rally had a drop shot, a lob and, finally, Carlos sending a forehand cross-court into the open court to finish it. Man, I'd have loved to hear the little guy at Court 3 talk us through that point.

Carlos Alcaraz has overtaken fellow Spaniard David Ferrer on the ATP singles title list. At 23, he’s already No. 3 among Spanish men. 🤯 His 6-1, 6-4 win over Alex de Minaur in Vienna brought career title No. 28. His first Vienna crown, his fourth of 2026, and not a single set dropped all week. David Ferrer finished his career with 27 ATP singles titles. Only Rafael Nadal (92) and Manuel Orantes (34) are still ahead of Carlos. He’s now reached 37 finals in 95 tour-level singles tournaments. That’s 38.9%, almost 2 finals for every 5 events. Career finals rate at the same age, 23 years and 180 days: 🇪🇸 Alcaraz: 38.9% (37/95) 🇪🇸 Nadal: 38.2% (47/123) 🇷🇸 Djokovic: 27.7% (31/112) 🇨🇭 Roger Federer: 23.3% (31/133) Even young Rafa was slightly behind that pace. 6 more titles to catch Orantes. At 23, that’s a pretty wild next target. 🔥 Finals comparison includes Olympic singles and excludes team events.

At 20, Harriet Dart sometimes played a whole tennis match overseas and then had to tell her coach what happened. He hadn’t seen a single point. On Sunday in Guangzhou, at 30, she won her first WTA singles title, 11 years after her tour debut. Go back to 2017. At home in England, Dart trained from eight in the morning until five thirty in the afternoon, six days a week. Taking her coach, Alan Jones, abroad meant paying for his flight, his room and his time. Most weeks she went on her own. If Jones could catch a livestream, great. Otherwise, he got Dart’s version afterward. “A coach spots things that you might not spot for a week,” she said. In 2016, she lost the deciding set of her last Wimbledon qualifier 13 games to 11. A year later, she told The Independent what a place in the main draw would mean to her. With that prize money she could take a coach on the road for a few more weeks. I love that answer. A few more weeks when somebody else could tell her what they’d seen. She lost in qualifying again that summer. Looking back on her career in 2020, Dart wrote about a limit she’d once set herself. She’d give her tennis a year. If she didn’t see progress, she’d think about putting her rackets away. Her dad had encouraged her to keep another option open, so she studied forensic psychology. Some nights she was still studying at two in the morning with a match to play later that day. Funny thing was, she said she played better. The studying took her mind off the pressure. In 2018, a wild card gave Dart her first place in the Wimbledon singles main draw. The next summer she played world No. 1 Ash Barty on Centre Court. Seven years later, in her opening qualifier in Guangzhou, she lost the first set and went down 4-2 in the second. By Sunday she’d won six matches to reach her first WTA singles final. Across the net was 18-year-old Lilli Tagger, who’d beaten her in a final in Fujairah earlier this year. Dart lost the first set to her again. She won the second. One more deciding set, her sixth in seven matches that week. At 5-3 on Tagger’s serve, Dart had two championship points. Tagger saved the first with a big serve. On the second, Dart had a forehand from the middle of the court and hit it into the net. “I’ve wanted it so much so badly, sometimes too much,” Dart had said after Saturday’s semifinal. Now she had to serve for it herself. She lost one point in that game. When her last serve went unreturned, Dart fell onto her back. “I’ll try not to get too emotional,” she said. Then she thanked her team. She’d thanked them on Saturday, too, before she knew how the final would go. “Thank you to my team for sticking by me.” teapawt.org/WTA/status/21168475626…

Here’s what Kayla Burton saw when she pulled out her phone that day. It was May 15, 2024. Dallas had just cut her little sister, Veronica. At their hometown YMCA, Veronica stood with a basketball against her hip, waiting for the pickleball players to finish so she could get a few shots up. Kayla wanted her sister to have those 11 seconds to look back on someday. Two years later, Veronica gets to watch them as a WNBA champion. ❤️ teapawt.org/Kay_Breezy22/status/21…

Veronica Burton had to wait for the pickleball players at her hometown YMCA to finish before she could get some shots up. Last night, with 5.1 seconds left in Game 7 of the WNBA Finals, everybody was waiting on her. The Dallas Wings had drafted Burton seventh overall, then cut her days before the 2024 opener. At the Y in Newton, Massachusetts, her sister Kayla saw her holding a basketball, staring down the court. Kayla quietly took out her phone. “I recorded it because I wanted her to see it down the road,” she said. A month went by before the Connecticut Sun gave Burton a spot for the rest of the season. That December, when the Golden State Valkyries got to build a team from scratch, they picked her in the expansion draft. Burton wanted to make a good first impression. In her Golden State debut, her only points came on two free throws. Then her new coach, Natalie Nakase, wanted to sit down with her and watch every turnover. “Great, just what I want to do,” Burton remembered thinking. But Nakase could see why she’d made those passes. As Burton remembered it, her coach told her, “These three aren’t even your fault. You’re gonna be fine.” By August, Burton had a game against Phoenix with 14 assists and zero turnovers. A month later, she was the WNBA’s Most Improved Player. Back to Game 7. With Golden State up three, Atlanta forced a jump ball. Burton came up with it, and the Dream fouled her with 5.1 seconds left. Two free throws again. This time she sank them both to seal the Valkyries’ first championship. Man, I’m glad Kayla pulled out her phone that day.

Gasperini’s Roma needed 4 goals at Udinese to break a club record. They helped themselves to 5. The 5–2 win takes them to 28 goals in their opening 10 Serie A games, the most in Roma’s history. The previous best was 26, set in 1960/61 and matched in 2016/17.

Bruno Fernandes was in tears after United’s 9th straight game without a win Why was he crying? Was it because he missed so many chances?

Morgan Rogers scored first. Cole Palmer got the second. Chelsea beat Manchester United 2-0 today, and nearly six years ago those two friends scored in the same order in a cup final. Go back to when Morgan was about fourteen. He and Cole met playing for England’s youth teams. Before every camp, they’d text the staff with the same request: could they share a room? By 2020 they were teammates at Manchester City. In the FA Youth Cup final, Morgan put City 2-1 up. Their opponents equalized. Then, with seven minutes left, a blocked shot fell to Cole a few yards from goal. He smashed in the winner. The team they beat that night was Chelsea. Within a year, Cole had scored his first Champions League goal for City. Morgan was out on loan. He’d leave City without playing a competitive game for the first team. Here’s the part I love. Morgan remembers Cole “always asking me how I played, even in the games nobody knew about in the Championship or League One.” They’d talk those games through together. Last year, England asked Morgan who he usually sat next to on the senior team’s plane or bus. It was still Cole. When Morgan had news about his move from Aston Villa to Chelsea, he rang Cole. No answer. So Morgan sent a text: Cole had five minutes to call him back. “I went downstairs and I rang him,” Cole said. “He told me he was coming, but I didn’t believe him at first.” Morgan got his call back, all right. By the time Chelsea interviewed him, he was saying, “He’s non-stop ringing my phone, texting me, and I can’t wait.” Cole posted some old photos of the two of them on Instagram. His caption: “Playing for Chelsea with one of your best friends in life.” Cole didn’t have to ask how Morgan played today. He was right there when his old roommate slipped past two United defenders and chipped the keeper. Fourteen minutes later, Cole buried his penalty. Chelsea fans got to cheer both of them this time

Diego Simeone just tied the LaLiga record for wins by a manager. All 344 came with Atlético Madrid. Luis Aragonés finished with 344 wins in 756 league games. Simeone drew level in game 565 with a 2–0 win at Levante. One more league win and the record is his alone.

Today, Jasmine Paolini and Sara Errani booked their third straight trip to the WTA Finals together, claiming the last doubles spot in Indian Wells. Go back to the 2009 Fed Cup final in Italy. Jasmine was a nervous thirteen-year-old ball girl watching Sara play up close for the first time. She can still tell you which player asked her to give the ball to the other ball kid. Flavia Pennetta. That one stuck. Years later in Miami, Jasmine told that story with Sara. And what did Sara remember about Jasmine? “No, I don’t remember her,” Sara said with a laugh. “Of course I don’t remember her!” Here’s the part I love. When Sara wanted one more shot at an Olympic medal, she was the one who went to Jasmine. Sara had already won all four Grand Slam doubles titles. She’d played in four Olympics and never won a medal. She asked Jasmine to play doubles with her for Paris. Jasmine, who later admitted she didn’t even like playing doubles, said yes. When they won their semifinal in Paris, Sara dropped to the red clay and started to cry. Jasmine pulled her to her feet, and the two of them stood there holding on to each other for a long time. They’d play for gold on Sunday. But whatever happened on Sunday, Sara was going home with her first Olympic medal. Here’s what she said afterward about the girl who’d once watched her play in Reggio Calabria. “I will have to thank Jasmine for the rest of my life for the effort she has put in helping me get this medal.” Two days later, Jasmine was the one who needed a hand. Her forehands kept missing, and they lost the first set 6-2. At the changeover, before they’d even sat down, Sara looked at her and smiled. She did it on purpose. She could see how tight Jasmine was and wanted her friend to enjoy the final they’d come all this way to play. They won the next set 6-1, then the tiebreak 10-7. Gold for Italy. Jasmine threw her racket in the air and said afterward that Sara was afraid it might land on her head.

Manchester United lost at Chelsea. That’s 9 games without a win across all competitions for the first time since 1988. Back then, United drew 7 and lost 2. This time they’ve drawn 3 and lost 6. They’ve managed to make 7 draws in 9 games sound like the good old days.

A sixth New York City Marathon at NINETY? Holy hell, Marty Granoff. My hat’s off to you. He covered 23 miles on his longest training day. Here’s what his coach, Sean Fortune, told NY1 about getting him ready for Sunday. “The hardest part has been getting him to like, rest.” Eighty was supposed to be Marty’s comeback. He’d started running after his own dad died of heart disease and finished New York five times. He wanted one more crack at it. At 80, his health wouldn’t let him. Then one day in Florida he went for a long walk. What Marty remembers is how good he felt when he got back. “And I said, well, let me see how far I can go.” The walks got longer, and that sixth marathon started to sound good again. “Wouldn’t it be cool doing it at 90?” I love that his word was *cool*. By the time he met Sean, he’d already spent six months building up his walks and runs. Then he went out and practiced the climb up Fifth Avenue, the one you hit with 23 miles already in your legs. By his count, that walk in Florida turned into more than 2,500 miles of training. He got somebody walking over in Israel, too. When Marty told his son Michael about the race, Michael said, “I’m in.” He’d run New York 18 times himself, but this one called for a different kind of training. Once a week he’d leave work in Tel Aviv and ride the light rail farther south, just to give himself a longer walk home to Ra’anana. He wanted to be able to go the whole way at his dad’s pace. Michael’s son Avi still remembers being little and watching his dad run New York. I hope somebody gets a picture of the three of them tomorrow. Forty-three years after his last New York City Marathon, Marty plans to cross the starting line with Michael and Avi right there beside him. Such a wholesome moment for three generations to share

“The brightest day of my life.” That was how American distance runner Weini Kelati described seeing her mother again in 2022. They had gone eight years without seeing each other. Here is the whole thing. In 2014, Kelati went to Oregon to race for Eritrea. After the meet, she deliberately missed her flight home. She was seventeen. She didn't speak English. Her family had no idea she planned to stay. She wanted a chance to build a life and look after the people back home. Leaving them was part of what it cost. She later described leaving as the darkest day of her life. In Virginia, she wanted to work full time to help her family. Her cousin insisted she finish high school. So she tried to make room for all of it. Most days, she got up at five and ran more than eight miles before school. After class, she worked the grocery store register until midnight. The run came before a full school day. The shift came after it. Somewhere in between, she was learning how to live in a country where she'd arrived without speaking the language. She kept that routine until graduation. In her words. “I wanted to take the responsibility.” College brought some breathing room. She later called it “the easiest part of my life.” At New Mexico, she won two NCAA titles. Then she turned pro. She became a U.S. citizen in 2021. Three years later, she won the U.S. Olympic Trials in the women's 10,000 meters. Then came Paris. She finished eighth in the Olympic final, the highest-placed American in the race. The teenager who ran before school and worked until midnight had become her country's top finisher in an Olympic final. Man, she earned that. And here is what she had told CITIUS MAG back in January 2021, early in her pro career: “The first thing I would wish for is to see my mom.” In 2024, she told Sarah Gearhart about the only family photo she had, kept beside her bed. It was taken before her father died. Sometimes it made her smile. Sometimes it made her cry. She called home for half an hour each week, paying by the minute. Man, that photo stays with me. The same faces beside your bed, while you keep growing up a long way from them. This Sunday, November 1, she's scheduled to run her first marathon in New York. Last year, she watched from the lead vehicle. I'll be rooting for her. But go back to that airport in 2022. Her mom spotted her first and ran over to hug her. Both of them cried. They had three weeks together in Uganda. Eight years is a lot to catch up on. Kelati remembered it like this: “We talked until 5 a.m. some nights.”… x.com/GirmaTelk/stat

“I still believe one day that’s going to be us out there.” Christian Yelich said that after his Milwaukee Brewers were eliminated from the 2025 National League Championship Series. Four games. Four losses. Even inside Milwaukee’s clubhouse, he could hear the music from the Dodgers’ celebration. Man, I respect that. The other team’s party is still going, and you’re already willing to say you’ll get there. Here is the whole thing. Yelich arrived in Milwaukee in 2018, won the National League MVP and helped take the Brewers to Game 7 of the NLCS. A fractured kneecap ended his next season. More injuries and playoff exits followed. He kept coming back. Before this year’s playoffs, he was asked about that belief again. He still thought Milwaukee had enough talent to win it all. They needed to be playing well when it mattered. And he kept telling the team they were going to win the World Series. Manager Pat Murphy described the reactions as if people were asking: “You believe that? Did you see us play last week?” Yelich kept saying it anyway. On Wednesday, Milwaukee beat Tampa Bay 4–1 in Game 5 to win the first World Series title in franchise history. Afterward, Yelich said the low moments had helped prepare him for this. The disappointment hadn’t felt useful while he was going through it. Now he could see what it had taught him. “Man, is it worth it.” Belief, patience, and persistence make the journey worthwhile. Christian Yelich dreamed it. Now he gets to live it.

A point so good, even the guy who lost it had to smile. 😂