D2 EZ M2 THE WASHINGTON POST.TUESDAY, AUGUST 6 , 2019
BY SCOTT ALLENMajor League Baseball has already
announced the St. Louis Cardinals and
Chicago Cubs as the participants in
next year’s London Series. But if
Commissioner Rob Manfred wants to
grow the game in the United Kingdom,
he ought to consider sending the
Orioles — or at least Baltimore
outfielder Anthony Santander — across
the pond sooner rather than later.
More than 4,000 UK Scouts watched
the Orioles’ 6-5 win over the Toronto
Blue Jays on Sunday from the left field
stands at Camden Yards, and as the
game wore on, they became more and
more enamored with Santander, the
24-year-old Venezuelan patrolling the
outfield grass in front of them.
Santander — hitting .296 with eight
home runs in 50 games this season
entering Monday — is a virtual
unknown to the average baseball fan,
but he’s now officially big in Britain.The UK Scouts, who sported red,
white and blue scarves, attended the
24th World Scout Jamboree in West
Virginia last week and accounted for
more than one-fifth of the announced
crowd at Sunday’s game. They stood
and cheered wildly when Santander
made routine catches, causing the
outfielder to shake his head and smile,
and they roared in approval when he
tossed the ball into the stands as a
souvenir after making one such play to
end the top of the fifth inning.
The 38-73 Orioles haven’t given fans
much reason to cheer this season, but
for the Scouts, Santander was reason
enough. They cheered every time hestrode to the plate and booed Blue Jays
center fielder Teoscar Hernández for
catching their unlikely hero’s lazy
flyball in the bottom of the fifth.
When Orioles public address
announcer Ryan Wagner welcomed the
Scouts on the scoreboard later in the
game, he introduced them as the
“Official Anthony Santander
International Fan Club,” which didn’t
exist a few hours earlier.
One of the Scouts — Sarah from West
Sussex — even purchased Santander’s
No. 25 jersey from the Orioles team
store during the game and declared
herself the No. 1 member of his fan
club.
“Very happy, thanks to them for
coming in here, thanks to them for
their support,” Santander, who went
1 for 3 with a walk and a run, said of his
personal cheering section through a
Spanish interpreter. “We won, and we
won because of their cheers.”
[email protected]QUOTABLE“Okay, it’s not
big-man approved.”
J.J. WATT, Texans defensive end,
after breaking a child’s bike at
Lambeau Field (via the Houston
Chronicle). Every year at training
camp, Packers players ride young
fans’ bikes from the locker room to
the practice field, and with Houston
working out in Green Bay, the
Wisconsin native jumped at the
chance. Officials from the Texans
promised to replace the bike.MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALLInstant fan club for O’s outfielder
D.C. SPORTS BOGBY SCOTT ALLENAlex Smith won’t play anytime
soon, but the 35-year-old is opti-
mistic he will eventually over-
come his gruesome leg injury and
return to the field. In the mean-
time, the Washington Redskins
quarterback is sitting in on every
meeting at training camp in Rich-
mond. He’s balancing his compet-
itive desire to shed his crutches
and move on to the next step in a
long recovery process with his
leadership role of serving as a
mentor to the players competing
for his former job.
“It’s definitely a different kind
of role for me, a different capacity.
But I’m loving being down here,
and I’m glad I came down,” Smith,
who broke the tibia and fibula in
his right leg in November, told
Redskins radio voice Larry
Michael on Monday. “This whole
experience for me has kind of
been flexible with my rehab and
coming back.... It’s been nice to
be around the guys.”
Smith, who had the bulky ex-
ternal fixator removed from his
leg last month, said he has been
“kind of like a coach” at training
camp, especially to rookie
Dwayne Haskins and veterans
Case Keenum and Colt McCoy,
but he has been careful about how
and when he chooses to offer
advice to his fellow quarterbacks.
“It’s a fine line,” Smith said. “We
have a lot of coaches in the quar-
terbacks room. Obviously we
have [quarterbacks coach Tim
Rattay and offensive coordinator
Kevin O’Connell], and throw
[Coach Jay Gruden] in there. He’s
in there for most meetings as well.
There’s a lot of voices, so for me, I
try to select my words carefully. I
just think it’s easy to get too many
voices in there sometimes.”
Smith, who spent five seasons
with the Kansas City Chiefs be-
fore being traded to the Redskins
in January 2018, has experience
mentoring rookies. He enjoyed a
career year in 2017, his final sea-
son with the Chiefs, which came
after the team drafted Texas Tech
quarterback Patrick Mahomes in
the first round. Mahomes credit-
ed Smith’s tutelage during their
one season together for helping
him become a breakout star last
year.
“I’ve been in a lot of quarter-
back situations,” Smith told Mi-
chael. “... I’ve been in a lot of
battles. I feel like I’ve been around
a lot of different guys and seen
how it gets handled. I think you’re
able to compete out here on the
field in between the lines, and
then I think when you step away
from it, I think you can be good
teammates. I think those two can
kind of coexist. I think being there
for [the other quarterbacks], be-
ing a support system for all three
of them — they’re all different
guys and in different points in
their careers and going through
things — helping out in any way I
can, it’s not always an X’s and O’s
thing.”
[email protected]Injured
QB Smith
mentoring
his rivals
BY DES BIELERAn early top-five ranking of
fantasy quarterbacks:
- Patrick Mahomes, Chiefs
What really needs to be said
here? Last year, the gap in per-
game scoring (minimum 10 games
played) between Mahomes and
the second-best quarterback was
greater than the gap between that
No. 2 guy and No. 12. Mahomes
probably will fall back to earth a
bit this season, but he still has
room to orbit above everyone else. - Deshaun Watson, Texans
He followed an electrifying but
injury-shortened 2017 with a
fourth-place finish among quar-
terbacks last year. Now Watson
can hope for healthier seasons
from wide receivers Will Fuller
and Keke Coutee as well as better
play from an improved offensive
line. (Let’s face it: It could hardly
get worse.) And, of course, he still
has DeAndre Hopkins. - Aaron Rodgers, Packers
Free from the shackles of Mike
McCarthy’s unimaginative
schemes, Rodgers can hope to do
much more of what he likes under
new coach Matt LaFleur. He
should at least have a better re-
ceiving corps beyond Davante Ad-
ams, given another year of season-
ing for youngsters such as Geroni-
mo Allison, Marquez Valdes-
Scantling and Jake Kumerow. - Baker Mayfield, Browns
It was tempting to place last
year’s No. 1 draft pick even higher
on this list, given how promising
he looked in a rookie season that
began with Tyrod Taylor under
center and Hue Jackson prowling
the sideline. Mayfield proved to be
as confident on the field as he was
off it, and he backed it up with
impressive accuracy on
secondary-challenging throws.
Add Odell Beckham Jr., arguably
the NFL’s most talented wideout,
and this has the makings of an
offense ready to break out. - Andrew Luck, Colts
Luck’s calf injury needs to be
monitored. But he looked to be
completely over his shoulder woes
last season, throwing for the
second-most touchdown passes,
and his excellent offensive line
should help keep the rest of his
body parts intact.
[email protected]
ANALYSIS
In fantasy
draft, don’t
pass on
Mahomes
GREG FIUME/GETTY IMAGES
Scouts from the United Kingdom sitting in the left field stands at Camden Yards cheered wildly for Anthony Santander.More than 4,000 UK Scouts
quickly become enamored
with little-known Santanderwashingtonpost.com/sports
PRO BASKETBALL
Mystics finish off Aces
in quake-halted game
It took two arenas, four weeks
and one earthquake before the
Washington Mystics finally
could take down the Las Vegas
Aces.
Elena Delle Donne and the
Mystics made their short trip to
Las Vegas pay off Monday night,
completing the second half of a
game suspended by an
earthquake with a 99-70 win.
The game had been stopped
with Washington leading 51-36
after a 7.1-magnitude
earthquake hit Southern
California just before halftime,
with the effects felt as far away
as Las Vegas and Mexico.
After talking it over, WNBA
officials suspended the game out
of an abundance of caution.
NBA Summer League games in
Las Vegas also were postponed
that night.
“This was really hard to
prepare for; it was definitely
odd,” said Mystics guard
Natasha Cloud, who had nine
points and nine assists.
The Mystics played in
Phoenix on Sunday and were
blown out, 103-82. Washington
flew to Las Vegas on Sunday
night and treated Monday
night’s game like any other on
their schedule.
The game was played at
T-Mobile Arena, not the Aces’
usual home of Mandalay Bay
Events Center, which was
unavailable for the resumption
Monday.
Delle Donne scored 21 points
for the Mystics (15-7), who
maintained a double-digit lead
throughout the second half.
Kelsey Plum had 17 for the Aces
(15-8)....
A person familiar with the
situation confirmed to the
Associated Press that Vince
Carter is returning to the
Atlanta Hawks for a record 22nd
season in the NBA.
Carter will continue to serve
as a mentor to some of the NBA’s
most promising young talent,
including first-round draft picks
De’Andre Hunter (Virginia) and
Cam Reddish. He’ll also eclipse
the record he shares with
Robert Parish, Kevin Garnett,
Kevin Willis and recently
retired Dirk Nowitzki for most
seasons in the NBA.
Carter played 76 games in his
first year with the Hawks,
including nine starts, while
averaging 17.5 minutes and7.4 points....
The Memphis Grizzlies hired
former Notre Dame women’s
associate head coach Niele Ivey
among the new assistants on
Taylor Jenkins’s staff. There are
now nine female coaches in the
NBA.SOCCER
Manchester United made
Harry Maguire the world’s most
expensive defender, signing him
from Leicester for around
$100 million.
Manchester United said the
26-year-old center back signed a
six-year contract with an option
for another season.
A person with knowledge of
the deal said Manchester United
had struck a deal with Leicester
to pay 80 million pounds (about
$97 million) for Maguire. The
person spoke on the condition
of anonymity because the
financial details were not being
disclosed....
Lionel Messi will miss
Barcelona’s exhibition games in
the United States against Napoli
after leaving his first preseason
training session with the club
because of a strained right calf.
The Spanish champion said
Messi withdrew from Monday’s
training session because of“discomfort in his right leg.” The
club did not say when it expects
him to be fit again.
Barcelona plays Thursday in
Miami Gardens, Fla., and on
Saturday in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Messi had been on vacation
since Argentina finished third in
the Copa América last month.HOCKEY
Defenseman Kevin
Shattenkirk signed a one-year,
$1.75 million deal with the
Tampa Bay Lightning after his
contract was bought out by the
New York Rangers.
Shattenkirk said he chose the
Lightning from among six or
seven teams interested in him
and compared his situation after
the buyout to Tampa Bay’s after
it was upset in the first round of
the playoffs.
Shattenkirk played 73 games
for the Rangers last season and
scored two goals.
The 30-year-old has spent
nine seasons in the NHL, also
playing for Washington,
St. Louis and Colorado.MISC.
London Olympics hurdles
gold medalist Sally Pearson
announced her retirement from
elite track and field competitionafter failing to recover from a
series of recent leg injuries.
Pearson, who won the
100-meter hurdles in 2012, four
years after taking silver at the
Beijing Games, also won world
championship titles in 2011 and
2017.
The 32-year-old Australian
had hoped to qualify for the
Tokyo Olympics next year. She
had been preparing to defend
her world title in Qatar nextmonth when she had another
injury setback....
Belgian cyclist Bjorg
Lambrecht died after crashing
in the Tour of Poland. He was 22.
His team, Lotto Soudal, said
Lambrecht had fallen during the
third stage of the event and that
he was taken to a nearby
hospital, where he died.
Lotto Soudal did not provide
details.
— From news servicesDIGEST
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