The Sweep, October 29 — Pat Murphy Brings Up the Yankees in the Middle of a Title Celebration, Taylor Walls Was Right for a Day, Barkley Calls LeBron "Very Disrespectful," and Michelle Beadle Calls McAfee Soft

Wednesday, October 28. The Brewers won the World Series, 4-1 in Game 5 at Tropicana Field, and the first title in the franchise's 57 seasons came with a dig at a team that was not playing. Jake Bauers caught the final out and handed Pat Murphy the ball. On a video posted by Spectrum News 1 Wisconsin, Murphy is heard telling him: "Just remember when you were on that horses--- Yankees team and you guys were all playing for yourself?" Then: "You're going to be a rich f---er." Bauers hit .202 in 84 games for New York in 2023, was traded to Milwaukee that November, and this year set career bests in average, homers, RBIs and OPS and was NLCS MVP. He is about to be a free agent. ESPN reports no response from the Yankees, and neither man was asked about it afterward. Dodgers players said much the same about the Yankees after the 2024 Series, ESPN notes. A manager saying it on the field, ball in hand, with a free agent listening, is a recruiting pitch dressed up as a joke.

Tuesday, October 27, and Wednesday. After Game 4, Ken Rosenthal asked the Rays' Taylor Walls whether it had been "important for you guys to get one just to show that you are on this level?" Walls: "I think that's pretty disrespectful, honestly. We're a team that's capable of winning four… we think we can win the whole thing." Tampa Bay lost the next night. The question was clumsy, and Walls was right to bristle at it. A team that won 98 games did not need to prove it belonged. Losing in five does not make the question fair; it only makes the answer harder to repeat.

Wednesday, October 28. Charles Barkley, on SiriusXM NBA Radio, on LeBron James mimicking a golf swing during the anthem before his first 76ers game last week: "[LeBron] was very disrespectful, but I don't ever pay any attention to what President Trump says." Trump had posted that James "disrespects our Country" and should apologize. "I always stand for the anthem," Barkley said. Awful Announcing notes James was standing with his teammates, not protesting. Barkley's position is the one most people actually hold, and he managed to state it without letting either side claim him.

Wednesday, October 28. Britt McHenry gave her side of the drink she threw at a fan during a Wizards game, a video TMZ published on October 22. She says fans were heckling Kyle Kuzma about his fiancée, Winnie Harlow, and that items were thrown at her before she threw her beer. "I was sticking up for Winnie Harlow," she said, and "In hindsight, I wish we would've left." She resigned as a State Department press adviser, a job she had held for about seven weeks. "I already lost my job for it," she wrote. The heckling explains a lot. It does not change that she threw the drink, and she seems to know that.

Thursday, October 29. The Pat McAfee and Utah story, which we covered on Wednesday, has turned into a referendum on McAfee. Michelle Beadle on The Dan Le Batard Show: "I can't tell you how many death and rape threats I've gotten via social media… I could never be that soft. Never." And: "From afar, I'm enjoying every single second of it." Barstool's Jeff "Vibbs" Vibbert, on the Out and About podcast, said staff were "walking around on eggshells, wondering what he's going to be like emotionally when he shows up," and agreed with the hosts that McAfee has a "victim mentality." Beadle has a point about the double standard. "I'm enjoying every single second of it" is a feeling, though, not an argument, and it undercuts the one she was making.

Thursday, October 29. The Joe Buck and Troy Aikman freeze goes on, Dylan Byers reports in Puck: "It's not a tension-free zone." Buck has a six-year, roughly $108 million extension. Aikman's deal expires in March, and he told Jimmy Traina that ESPN has not opened contract talks: "It just seems to be where they're going." On air, the two still sound like a booth. Off it, the Cowboys job Jerry Jones floated on Tuesday looks better by the day.

Thursday, October 29. The NFL fined Caleb Williams $23,882 for an "unauthorized logo" on his Caddix cleats in Week 7 against New England, double the $11,941 from Week 6, whose appeal has not been decided. "They're smart cleats. They're science cleats, and they've been working for me," he said, and he plans to keep wearing them. At this rate it is a sponsorship he is paying for himself. The Bears, meanwhile, spent two first-round picks on Jeffery Simmons.

Wednesday, October 28, and Thursday. The money: Utah filed felony charges against Kalshi and its two co-founders, and on Thursday DraftKings pulled its sports contracts out of the state. Our betting desk explains why "just like we did in Arizona" is the wrong promise. The same day, Kalshi announced a $40 billion valuation, and its own numbers say how much of it is sports.

What we are not running, and why

Bauers' reply to Murphy, "You ain't getting rid of me that easy." It appears in search summaries of the clip, but not in any article we could read. We printed Murphy's words because ESPN did.

"Pat Murphy's shot at the Yankees." Headlines using that phrasing pulled up search results about a shooting. Nothing of the kind happened, and we have avoided the wording.

Deion Sanders "dismissing a few guys" after a blowout. It was near the top of a sports homepage on Thursday. The article is from September 22, about a game three days earlier.

C.J. Gardner-Johnson's suspension "upheld." Presented as new, but the ruling came out on October 22. The only new detail is that he serves it on November 1.

A fan in a chokehold at Sixers-Pistons. The only source is a 57-second clip posted to X on October 25. Police, the arena and the team have confirmed nothing, including whether anyone was arrested or banned.

SEC field-storming fines. These recirculated on Thursday as if new. They are from mid-October.

Fines "announced October 6" for Naz Reid and others. The page date is not the fine date. We rejected the Reid item on Wednesday for the same reason, and the other names in the results are from 2025.