Wednesday, May 27
Welcome to The Pregame Lineup, a weekday newsletter that gets you up to speed on everything you need to know for today’s games, while catching you up on fun and interesting stories you might have missed. Today’s edition is brought to you by David Adler.
Travis Kelce is making the jump from football to baseball — as the newest MLB team owner.
The NFL superstar and three-time Super Bowl champion is joining the Guardians’ ownership group as a minority owner, the team announced today.
Kelce might play for the Chiefs in Kansas City, but he’s a Cleveland Heights native and grew up a Guardians fan. (He’s also a fan of other Cleveland sports teams like the Cavaliers — he and fiancée Taylor Swift recently sat courtside for Game 3 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals between the Cavs and Knicks.)
Now, one of the greatest tight ends of all time is a part-owner of his hometown team.
“Everyone knows how much love I have for this city, so to have the opportunity to come back and join the Guardians’ ownership group is the coolest thing in the world,” Kelce said. “I’ve always looked for ways to support and uplift my hometown, so I can’t wait to keep sharing the love and the passion I have for sports and this community as we look to bring a World Series title back to the Land.”
But wait a minute … that means he’s rivals with his own quarterback!
Patrick Mahomes — Kelce’s QB for all three of his Super Bowls — is a part-owner of the Royals, who are the Guardians’ AL Central rivals.
Unlike Kelce bringing it back to his hometown of Cleveland, the Texas-born Mahomes hopped in with his pro town of Kansas City. He joined the Royals’ ownership group back in July of 2020.
So even though Mahomes-to-Kelce is one of the greatest connections of all time on the gridiron, the two superstar teammates are now foes on the baseball diamond.
Kelce will be in the house at Progressive Field to celebrate his new role before the Guardians’ game against the Tigers on Sunday, June 14.
Kelce’s Cleveland fandom produced a viral moment a few years ago when he threw out the ceremonial first pitch before the Guardians’ 2023 home opener … and spiked it straight into the ground. Not unlike a football, we suppose.
Kelce also talked about joining the Guards on the latest episode of his New Heights podcast with his brother Jason. Listen here >>
HOW BIG OF A SPARK WILL COLE BE FOR YANKS?
After a lights-out 2026 debut, Gerrit Cole makes his second start of the season for the Yankees tonight against the Royals (7:40 p.m. ET, Amazon Prime Video / MLB.TV).
The 2023 American League Cy Young Award winner pitched six scoreless innings against the Rays, who the Bronx Bombers are trying to catch in the AL East race, in his first start in 569 days.
So Yankees reporter Bryan Hoch asks the question: Can a healthy Cole help New York get back on a roll?
The Yankees were looking ahead to Cole’s return to the rotation for a long time. Cole’s debut was almost like a second Opening Day for the Yanks. Now that he’s back, they’re hoping it’s like he never left.
The way Cam Schlittler is pitching right now, if Cole keeps looking like his old self, the Yankees could have one of the best 1-2 punches in baseball at the top of their rotation.
And as Cole said about being back on the mound: “It’s a little bit like riding a bike.”
OHTANI VS. SUGANO IN ALL-JAPAN DUEL
Shohei Ohtani continues his Cy Young quest tonight, as the two-way superstar takes his 0.73 ERA into his ninth pitching start of the season against the Rockies (10:10 p.m. ET, MLB.TV).
This one’s going to be an all-Japanese pitchers’ duel, with Ohtani facing off against Tomoyuki Sugano. It will be the 21st matchup of two Japanese-born starting pitchers in MLB history.
- The last time two Japanese pitchers squared off was Opening Day 2025, when Ohtani’s teammate Yoshinobu Yamamoto faced the Cubs’ Shota Imanaga in the Tokyo Series.
- The only one of the 21 matchups to come in the postseason also involved Yamamoto, who outdueled Yu Darvish and the Padres in the winner-take-all Game 5 of the 2024 NLDS.
- The first matchup of Japanese starters came on May 7, 1999, when the Yankees’ Hideki Irabu defeated the Mariners’ Mac Suzuki.
- And the best duel as far as actual pitching performances? That has to be Darvish vs. Masahiro Tanaka at Yankee Stadium on June 23, 2017, when Darvish threw seven scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts for the Rangers and Tanaka went eight scoreless with nine K’s for the Yankees.
Ohtani himself has never pitched against a fellow Japanese starter in his MLB career.
J-ROLL, WEEKS TO SKIPPER SWINGMAN CLASSIC
Former MLB stars Jimmy Rollins and Rickie Weeks will be the managers for the 2026 HBCU Swingman Classic.
The Swingman Classic, founded by Ken Griffey Jr. in 2023, is a showcase that highlights players from Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
The 2026 Swingman Classic will be played at Citizens Bank Park on July 10, opening MLB All-Star Week in Philadelphia — where Rollins spent the first 15 seasons of his 17-year big league career.
“For [Griffey] to come back and say, ‘You’re not forgotten about,'” Rollins said. “‘And we’re going to put you on the biggest stage there is, and that’s an MLB stadium at the All-Star [Game], which is our primetime event.’ It doesn’t get bigger than that.”
Weeks, who played 14 Major League seasons and was an All-Star for the Brewers in 2011, played college baseball at an HBCU, Southern University.
“Just coming back and getting a chance to manage a team that gave me the chance to play college baseball,” Weeks said. “What more can you ask than that?”
HE’S A MENACE TO THE ENTIRE CITI!
J. Jonah Jameson himself was in the house for the Mets’ game against the Reds yesterday — actor J.K. Simmons, that is. And the Amazin’s had an unpleasant surprise in store for the Daily Bugle editor-in-chief.
When the Mets showed Simmons on the video board, you-know-who was waiting in the row behind him.
Of course it was Spider-Man, who was hiding behind a copy of the Daily Bugle bearing the front-page headline: “Masked Web-Slinger: A Citi Field Menace!” … “menace” being Jameson’s favorite moniker for the friendly neighborhood wall-crawler.
Simmons plays Jameson, Spider-Man’s No. 1 hater, in the early-2000s Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movies and in the current Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Turning around to see Spider-Man in the Citi Field seats, Simmons put on an Oscar-worthy performance in character as Jameson, shaking his fist at his nemesis and turning back to the camera with a scowl.
The Mets are all-in on movie character moments lately — a couple of weeks ago, Tom Hanks reunited with volleyball companion Wilson from “Cast Away” in the form of Mr. Met, complete with bloody handprint.
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RJ Hamster 