The Last-Swing Stunner, the Final Four, and the $324 Hiding on Your Card

Disclosure: Some links on this site may earn me a commission at no extra cost to you. I only link things I actually use. There are no affiliate links in today's post. ## ⚾ SPORTS PULSE ### 🙋 First — I Was Wrong Yesterday I told you Schwarber wins the Derby, and I said it wasn't close. It was close. And he lost. Jordan Walker — St. Louis Cardinals, 24 years old, first Derby of his life — walked into Citizens Bank Park in front of a Philly crowd booing every non-Phillie who stepped up, and took it from the hometown guy. And how he did it is the best thing that happened in baseball this year. In the final, Schwarber went first and put up 11 homers — the crowd was buzzing. Then Walker got to eight with his final ball coming up. Under the Derby's new swing format, a homer on your last ball buys you another swing. So Walker was down to a single do-or-die swing, needing three straight just to tie. He hit four. Six homers on his final six swings, capped by a 407-foot shot to left to win it. Final: Walker 12, Schwarber 11. He's the first Cardinal ever to win the Home Run Derby. He banked $1 million — on a salary of $799,400. That's a raise most people never see. And when the Netflix cameras got to him after a full round of merciless boos, he said this: > "I was once told you don't boo nobodies." Cold. Absolutely cold. I told you Schwarber was a lock. He wasn't. He takes home $500,000 as runner-up, and he stays denied — he'd have been just the fourth man ever to win the Derby in his home park. The only three who've done it: Harper (2018), Frazier (2015), Sandberg (1990). I said I'd tell you when I got it wrong. That's day two, and here we are. ### The rest of a wild night Bryce Harper went out in Round 1 — eliminated by his own teammate. Schwarber hit 10, Harper hit 8, and only one Phillie was getting through. Willson Contreras played the villain of his life. Thirteen homers in the first round, including a 490-foot shot — then a Philly crowd that booed him before every pitch and cheered every time he missed. He lost to Schwarber in the semis by exactly one, 9 to 8. Junior Caminero hit the longest ball of the night — 491 feet — and still got knocked out in the semis by Walker. Philly gonna Philly. ### 🌟 TONIGHT — The All-Star Game Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia. AL vs. NL. Same building. Same crowd. Twenty-four hours after they watched a Cardinal walk in and take their trophy. That building is going to be loud. ## ⚽ WORLD CUP — Down to Four, and the Final Is Sunday 48 teams. 104 matches. Four left. **France · Argentina · Spain · England** And here's a first: this is the first World Cup ever where the top four teams in the FIFA rankings all made the semifinals. France is No. 1, Argentina No. 2, Spain No. 3, England No. 4. No Cinderella. No chaos. The four best teams on earth, and that's it. ### 🇫🇷 TODAY — France vs. Spain 3:00 PM ET · AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas The best attack in the tournament against the best defense. France: unbeaten, 6 games, 6 wins. 16 goals scored. Mbappé has eight, tied for the tournament lead, with Dembélé (5 goals) and Olise (a tournament-best 5 assists) beside him. Spain: steady, not flashy — and they've conceded just one goal all tournament heading in. Their secret weapon is a substitute: Mikel Merino has come off the bench in the 85th minute or later and scored the winner in each of Spain's last two games. Unstoppable force. Immovable object. 3pm. ### 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 TOMORROW — England vs. Argentina Wednesday, 3:00 PM ET · Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta Messi has eight goals in what's almost certainly his last World Cup, and Argentina are the defending champions — they've won three straight knockout games the hard way, the latest a 3–1 extra-time survival over 10-man Switzerland. England haven't reached a World Cup final in 60 years. Bellingham and Kane have six goals each — tied for the most by an English player in a single tournament. They needed extra time to get past Norway on a Bellingham brace. They're here anyway. ### 📅 The road to Sunday | When | Match | Location | |------|-------|----------| | TODAY | France vs. Spain — 3pm ET | Arlington | | Wednesday | England vs. Argentina — 3pm ET | Atlanta | | Saturday | Third-place match | Miami | | 🏆 SUNDAY, JULY 19 | THE FINAL | MetLife Stadium, New Jersey | A World Cup final on American soil. Whatever else is going on in the world — that's happening here, Sunday. ## 🚨 HEALTH — Two Summer Bugs, and Chlorine Doesn't Stop Either One There are two different parasites going around this summer, and people keep smashing them into one story. They're not the same — different source, different fix. Here's the clean version, because getting it wrong is how you eat the wrong thing or swim in the wrong pool. ### On your plate: Cyclospora This is the big one. The cyclospora outbreak has now passed 4,000 cases across 31 states, with Michigan as the epicenter. It spreads through fresh produce — cilantro, basil, mixed greens, raspberries, snow peas, green onions. Here's the part nobody tells you: rinsing does not kill it. Not tap water, not a "triple-washed" bag. The parasite's shell shrugs off the chlorine used in produce washing, and freezing doesn't kill it either. The only thing that reliably kills it is heat — cooking to around 158°F. During an outbreak, cook the stuff you'd normally eat raw. ### In the pool: Cryptosporidium Different bug, same summer. "Crypto" is the pool parasite, and it's the reason chlorine can't save you in the water. It survives up to 10 days in a properly chlorinated pool, and swallowing one mouthful of contaminated water can put a healthy adult down for weeks. Bexar County, Texas has 10 confirmed crypto cases — officials say that's actually normal for the season, not a surge. But the prevention rules apply everywhere, all summer. ### The rules for both Don't swallow pool water. If you've had diarrhea, the CDC says stay out of the pool for two weeks — not two days. And cook your produce during the outbreak; don't count on a rinse. And if it's serious, see an actual doctor. Not a blog. Not me. ## 💰 MONEY — The $324 Hiding on Your Card Forget the headlines for a second. The fastest money most people can grab this week has nothing to do with gas or groceries — it's sitting on their own credit card statement. Run a subscription sweep. Pull up your statement and read every recurring charge out loud. The streaming service you watched twice. The trial that quietly turned into a subscription. The "premium" thing you signed up for and forgot existed. The math is brutal once you actually look. One forgotten $12 subscription and one forgotten $15 one is $324 a year — gone, for stuff you don't use. That's not a coupon. That's a raise you hand yourself in ten minutes, and it repeats every single month. Two more that are just arithmetic, not hot takes: Check your APR while you're in there. That number on your statement is the real cost of carrying a balance, and most people have never looked at it once. Look. If it's ugly, that's your signal to attack the balance instead of feeding it. Fill up on the low days. Gas prices climb faster than they fall. See a dip, take it — and stack a gas app so you're not leaving cash-back on the pump. No hack. No app required to start. Just look, and cancel what's dead. ## 🏃 LIFESTYLE — Beat the Heat, Not Yourself It's July. It's hot. And here's the move nobody wants to hear: stop scheduling your workout for the worst hour of the day. Twenty minutes in the AC at 7am that you actually do beats forty-five minutes at 5pm that you skip because it's 98 degrees and your car feels like an oven. No miracles. No supplements. No "melt fat while you sleep." That's a lie, you've heard it before, and you already know it's a lie. What works is showing up when it's inconvenient. That's why nobody's selling it. ## 👟 LUXURY & STYLE — The Cost-Per-Wear Rule Luxury isn't the logo. It's the cost per wear. $200 shoes worn 200 times = a dollar a wear. $40 shoes worn four times before they fall apart = ten dollars a wear — and they're in the trash. The expensive one was cheaper. That's not a flex, that's arithmetic. And in this heat: breathable beats trendy. Linen. Real cotton. Anything that moves air. Style that makes you miserable isn't style — it's a costume you paid to be uncomfortable in. ## 🎯 THE PLAY **Today:** Run the subscription sweep. Ten minutes, and it pays you back every month. **This week:** Go look at your credit card APR. Actually look. Most people never have. **And right now:** France–Spain at 3pm, All-Star Game tonight in Philly. That crowd is going to be feral. --- Four days a week. Every week. No hype. No lies. No screenshots. And when I'm wrong — I'll tell you. Like today. Just the game. — Smokyy gftheblog.com --- *Sources: MLB.com; ESPN; CBS Sports; Bleacher Report; Yahoo Sports; NPR; ABC News; FOX Sports; CDC; CNN Health; state and county health departments. Health information is general and is not medical advice. Nothing here is financial advice — talk to a qualified professional about your own situation.*