Sports Illustrated Kids November/December 2021

THE DRAFTS ARE bad. I’m not just talking about the MLB one, after which teams back out of contracts due to minor medical concerns, or the NBA version, which encourages franchises to tank for years on end. A draft of cool air coming through my office, the Selective Service System, the first draft of Buzz Beamer’s romance novel: It’s all bad. Every sports league should ban them. In theory, the draft is about fairness. Weak teams who might struggle to attract free-agent talent have an opportunity to improve. And good teams don’t even get punished—they just get less better. Drafts even have an appealing symmetry: Franchises pick in roughly the opposite order of how they placed. That symmetry, however, creates the first problem with drafts: tanking. Teams like the Philadelphia 76ers, who…

Whitney: In some countries, the government has designated a national sport. Canada even has two: lacrosse for the summer and hockey for the winter. Other countries have de facto national sports, as their favorite games are obvious. The United States has neither. Though it has never been legally acknowledged as such, baseball has long been called “America’s Pastime.” The country’s most popular sport, however, is football, by far. Buzz, would you like to make your opening statement? Buzz: I disagree. Whitney: With what? Buzz: Your honor, I object. Whitney: BUZZ! You weren’t paying attention. It’s time for your argument. Buzz: My bad. O.K. Here’s the deal: Football is the best, and everyone knows it. Polling shows that 37% of Americans consider it their favorite, compared with just 9% for baseball (which ranks third behind basketball).…

Tate writes: Hi, Kip. I am a big baseball fan, but I am not a fan of the wild-card game. You take two teams, ranked fourth and fifth in their leagues, and have them play one winner-takes-all game. I think this is ineffective, because you could have a team that is much better than the other lose because they had one bad day. Why don’t they expand the playoffs and make it like basketball, letting the top eight teams per league be in the playoffs? Hi, Tate. I agree with your qualms about the wild-card games, though I have a different solution. Winner-takes-all does seem too extreme in baseball, in which single games are too often decided by bad luck, weather, or available pitching. But expanding the MLB playoff format would…

November 13 British tennis player Emily Raducanu turns 19. 19 New York Yankees slugger Joey Gallo is 28 years old. 25 Seattle Kraken goalie Philipp Grubauer celebrates his 30th birthday. 29 Buffalo Bills wide receiver Stefon Diggs turns 28. December 2 Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers celebrates his 38th birthday. 11 Pacers point guard Malcolm Brogdon is 29 years old. 24 American gold medalist in cycling Jennifer Marie Valente turns 27. 30 LeBron James is 37 years old. CARLOS M. SAAVEDRA (ANDRESCU); ISAIAH J. DOWNING/USA TODAY SPORTS (GRUBAUER); JEFF HAYNES (RODGERS); ERICK W. RASCO (JAMES)…

1. Jaromír Jágr 2. Cristiano Ronaldo 3. Drew Brees 4. Serena Williams 5. David Beckham a. Peanut butter b. Oreos c. Fish sticks d. NyQuil e. KFC ANSWER KEY: 1. A; 2. E; 3. D; 4. B; 5. C GARY A. VASQUEZ/USA TODAY SPORTS (JAGR); CHLOE KNOTT/DANEHOUSE/GETTY IMAGES (RONALDO); GARY BOGDON (BREES); CARLOS M. SAAVEDRA (WILLIAMS); XAVIER LAINE/GETTY IMAGES (BECKHAM); GETTY IMAGES (PEANUT BUTTER, FISH STICKS); USA TODAY NETWORK (OREO); JEFF GREENBERG/UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP/GETTY IMAGES (NYQUIL); STEVE RUSSELL/TORONTO STAR/GETTY IMAGES (KFC)…

Le Troll Épique NHL teams generally avoid signing other teams’ restricted free agents to offer sheets because of the bad blood it creates. For example, in 2019, the Canadiens offered the Hurricanes’ Sebastian Aho $42 million. Two years later, Carolina offer-sheeted Montreal’s Jesperi Kotkaniemi—and announced it on Twitter in French. Ultimately, Montreal couldn’t match and Carolina ended up with both players. Magnifique! Telling Smirk Nobody knows the rules better than Bill Belichick, who found a loophole in 2019 that allowed him to run off a lot of game clock by taking two consecutive penalties. Up 33–0 against the Jets, he deployed this technique and then flashed the ever-rare smile. He wasn’t so happy, however, when the Titans used the same loophole against him later that season. Piece of Cake When Kevin Durant left the Thunder,…