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Happy Tuesday! And welcome to a day when Chicago is the center of the baseball universe, as the Cubs and White Sox are both good at the same time — a surprisingly rare historical phenomenon. We’ll dig into how their current series at Wrigley is driving dreams of an all-Chicago World Series below. Plus, we examine the gallons of online Haterade being poured on Pat McAfee’s new country album, which (for some reason) exists. Meanwhile, the Yankees visit Baltimore — yours truly will be in attendance — the Fever face the Tempo, Champions League qualifying rolls on, and we continue to wait patiently for football season proper. Here’s what else we’ve got on the docket today:
The Main Events
All listed times are Eastern. 🚨= Elimination game
MLB:
⚾ Yankees (52%) at Orioles (48%) - 6:35 p.m. (YES / MASN / MLB.tv)
⚾ Braves (55%) at Twins (45%) - 7:40 p.m. (MLB.tv)
⚾ White Sox (39%) at Cubs (61%) - 8:05 p.m. (TBS)
⚾ Championship check-in: Dodgers 34% to win World Series
WNBA:
🏀 Fever (83%) at Tempo (17%) - 7 p.m. (ESPN)
🏀 Dream (39%) at Aces (61%) - 9 p.m. (ESPN)
🏀 Liberty (63%) at Sky (37%) - 9 p.m. (WNBA League Pass)
🏀 Championship check-in: Lynx 50% to win WNBA title
Soccer:
⚽ Champions League Playoff: Fenerbahçe SK (49%) vs. Olympique Lyonnais (27%) - 3 p.m. (Paramount+ / CBS Sports)
⚽ Champions League Playoff: GNK Dinamo Zagreb vs. Viking FK - 3 p.m. (Paramount+)
⚽ Champions League Playoff: PFC Levski Sofia (28%) vs. AEK Athens F.C. (43%) - 3 p.m. (Paramount+)
⚽ EPL Championship check-in: Arsenal 44% to win Premier League (New season starts 8/21)
⚽ MLS Championship check-in: Inter Miami 21% to win MLS Cup
⚽ NWSL Championship check-in: Washington Spirit 29% to win
Football:
🏈 Super Bowl check-in: Rams 16% to win NFL championship
🏈 College Football Playoff check-in: Notre Dame 14% to win national title
Tennis:
🎾 Cincinnati Open - Men’s: Alexander Zverev 27% to win / Women’s: Aryna Sabalenka 26% to win
Golf:
⛳ FedEx Cup Playoffs: Scottie Scheffler 24% to win championship
The Win-dy City
It’s always special when the White Sox and Cubs meet up for Chicago’s crosstown — or really, Northside vs Southside — rivalry, as is happening this week at Wrigley Field.
The two teams first played in the 1906 World Series, when the first-ever major pro sports championship for a Chicago-based team was guaranteed — with Nick Altrock (who we can only assume was a big Nirvana, R.E.M. and Red Hot Chili Peppers fan), George Davis, Jiggs Donahue and the White Sox outdueling Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown and the Cubs, 4 games to 2. Then nearly 91 years passed until the next meeting in June 1997, courtesy of the brand-new concept of Interleague Play.
Ever since, the Cubbies and the Pale Hose have faced 156 times, with the former winning 79 and the latter winning 77. But seldom have both teams been as simultaneously good as the two Chicago squads are right now.
Excluding the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, there have only been 21 years where the Cubs’ and White Sox’s combined winning percentage on August 18 was higher than their current .552 mark, and only 12 seasons where both teams had a mark of .524 or higher, as they both have now.
The last season that beat 2026 across those dimensions was 2008, when the Cubs and Sox combined for a .589 winning percentage on August 18 and both cleared a .565 rate. That season saw both clubs make the playoffs, but each lost in the Division Series: the Cubs were swept by the Dodgers and the White Sox fell to the Rays. Before that, the best combined season for the Chicago teams in mid-August was 1945, when the Cubs won the pennant (losing the World Series in 7 to Detroit) but the White Sox collapsed down the stretch to finish 15 games out of first place.
All of which is to say, almost never in the Interleague era have we seen the Cubs and White Sox play a late-summer series that might also serve as a World Series preview, on the 120th anniversary of their first (and only) Fall Classic meeting. That notion has the media abuzz about the possibility — particularly considering what a classic the series opener was on Monday — but before we get too excited, let’s consult the prediction markets.
Between the Cubs’ 14% odds to win the NL and the White Sox’s 11% odds in the AL, we’re saying there’s a chance… but only a 1.5% chance if we assume independence between the two leagues. It could happen, but don’t let your Chicago hope run too high right now.
Haterade
We missed this when it dropped last Friday, but ESPN’s Pat McAfee apparently made a country album (called “The Diary Of A Polarizing Figure”) amidst his various broadcasting duties and getting taken out of Wrestlemania on a stretcher. Is the album good? Does it matter? The point was simply to make it — and, as Ethan Strauss points out, to make his critics unwitting participants in the bit, too. Pans from bloggers and review-bombing from online music-raters (as illustrated by the user-review distributions at Album of the Year shown below) only serve to fuel McAfee’s very lucrative persona as a swaggering underdog, a theme that permeates the album as well.
What else we’re reading 🏒
Smart, short reads we liked while building today’s odds.
⚽ “American Owners Spent Years Buying Football. Now They’re Starting to Sell.” by David Skilling
⚽ “The Cost of Europe: Why Manchester United may pay a price for finishing third” by Michael Caley
🤠 “What the Mavericks/Stars Legal Resolution Might and Might Not Mean” by Robert Tiffin
🏁 “Hendrick Motorsports Secures Its Future” by Aaron Bearden
Next on deck…
Wednesday (8/19)
⚾ MLB: Yankees at Orioles
🏀 WNBA: Lynx at Valkyries
⚽ UEFA Champions League Playoff: Celtic F.C. vs. LASK
⚽ MLS: Inter Miami CF at Philadelphia Union
Thursday (8/20)
⚾ MLB: Yankees at Orioles
🏀 WNBA: Fever at Wings
⚽ Copa Libertadores: Flamengo vs. Cruzeiro
⛳ Golf: FedEx Cup Playoffs: BMW Championship - Round 1
🏈 NFL preseason: 49ers at Chargers
Friday (8/21)
⚾ MLB: Braves at Brewers
🏀 WNBA: Lynx at Mystics
⚽ Premier League: Coventry City at Arsenal (Start of 2026-27 EPL season!!!)
⛳ Golf: FedEx Cup Playoffs: BMW Championship - Round 2
🏈 NFL preseason: Jets at Steelers
🧠 Looking ahead
Stay tuned for more updates and in-depth analysis of these events and more as they unfold. We’ll be bringing you all the scores, highlights, and expert commentary.
Got a favorite team or sport you want us to cover more? Let us know!
All data current as of time of send.
— by Neil Paine
*Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.
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