The Mets have ripped off 11 wins in 15 games after a trade deadline sell-off. They have won four of their last five series and have injected a bit of life into what had been a miserable season.

It will take an enormous run to even be in contention in mid-September. The Mets still trail the Padres by 10 games for the third and final NL wild-card spot, and six other teams are ahead of them. 

To reach 83 wins, the number of victories the final wild-card team secured a year ago, the Mets would need to go 25-9. That’s a .735 winning percentage, an extraordinarily tall order.

The Mets have the seventh-most difficult remaining strength of schedule, their opponents owning a combined .520 winning percentage. 

It includes 12 games against division leaders (White Sox and Rays on the road, Brewers and Astros at home).

Texas and Florida have once again topped the U-Haul “Growth Index” as the most popular destinations for people moving within the United States. According to U-Haul’s analysis of over 2.5 million one-way transactions across the U.S. and Canada, Texas ranks first in in-migration, followed by Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, and South Carolina.

The report highlights a continued trend of migration from “blue” states to “red” states, a pattern that has gained attention since the 2020 pandemic. Seven of the top 10 growth states have Republican governors, and nine went red in the last presidential election. Conversely, nine of the bottom 10 states have Democrat governors, with seven going blue in the last election.

U-Haul’s data also suggests that sunshine and warm weather are key factors for movers, as eight of the top 10 states are located in the southern U.S. Texas, in particular, has reclaimed the title of the No. 1 U-Haul growth state for the seventh time in 10 years, climbing one spot from its previous ranking.

On the other hand, the states experiencing the highest out-migration include California, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts.  

Wendy’s plans to close hundreds of its restaurants over the next few months in an effort to boost its profit and make its remaining stores more appealing.

The Dublin, Ohio-based chain said during a conference call with investors that it planned to begin closing restaurants soon. The company said it expected a “mid-single-digit percentage” of its U.S. stores to be affected, but it didn’t give any more details.

Wendy’s currently has 6,011 U.S. restaurants. If 5% of those locations were impacted, it would mean 300 store closures.

The new round of closures comes on top of the closure of 240 U.S. Wendy’s locations in 2024. At the time, Wendy’s said that many of the 55-year-old chain’s restaurants are simply out of date.

The New York Yankees made a flurry of moves following their loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday night, one of which was optioning outfielder Jasson Dominguez to Triple-A.

The Yankees made the decision to clear room for newly-acquired outfielder Heliot Ramos, who will be joining the ballclub on Tuesday after coming over at the MLB trade deadline.

While the biggest story of Monday evening was New York also promoting top shortstop prospect George Lombard Jr., the demotion of Dominguez should not go unnoticed.

The former top prospect has fallen on hard times with the Yankees, as he has slashed just .230/.270/.380 over 212 big-league plate appearances this season. We all know about his defensive struggles, but recently, he has even made some base-running errors.

New York chose Spencer Jones over Dominguez this time, largely because Jones can play center field. Dominguez is strictly a corner outfielder, and with the arrival of Ramos, his role has been essentially removed.

If you didn’t believe Aaron Rodgers when he first said this would be his final season, maybe now it will sink in.

Rodgers, who re-signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers this offseason and said that his 22nd NFL season will be his last, reiterated his desire to retire at training camp. “This it it,” he said. 

The thought of retirement has hovered around Rodgers for quite some time now, including this offseason, when the Steelers, and the rest of the NFL, for that matter, waited patiently to see if this was indeed the end of his career.

In his first season with the Steelers in 2025, Rodgers went 10-6, throwing for 3,322 yards with a 65.7% completion rate and 24 touchdowns with seven interceptions.

The Steelers have bolstered its offense this season, adding veteran wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. in a trade with the Indianapolis Colts. 

In a move sure to ignite taste buds across the continent, Quiznos is rolling out a sizzling new addition to its menu: the Queso Philly Sub. Building on the success of their Philly sandwich lineup, the popular sandwich chain is introducing this new twist alongside a Mushroom Philly Sub, promising a culinary adventure for fans in the US and Canada.

The new Queso Philly Sub boasts extra black Angus steak smothered in creamy queso blanco, paired with sautéed peppers, onions, and zesty banana peppers, all nestled between artisan bread of your choice. For those seeking a meat-free alternative, the Mushroom Philly Sub offers the same toppings with savory sautéed mushrooms taking center stage.

Available for a limited time, the Queso Philly subs can be found at participating Quiznos locations across the US and Canada, starting around $14 in the U.S. and $15 in Canada. However, prices may vary slightly by location.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum officially welcomed three new members on Sunday. This year’s induction ceremony in Cooperstown, New York, honored the 2026 Hall of Fame class, led by 10-time Gold Glover Andruw Jones. The three-person Hall of Fame class is the smallest since just two players, Fred McGriff and Scott Rolen, were inducted in 2022.

To summarize this year’s Hall of Fame class:

• Outfielders Carlos Beltrán and Andruw Jones were voted into the Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers Association of America.
• Second baseman Jeff Kent was voted into Cooperstown by the Hall of Fame’s Contemporary Baseball Era Committee.
• The three new members bring the Hall’s count to 354, of which 281 are players.

As always, the Hall of Fame induction ceremony took place on the lawn outside the Clark Sports Center in Cooperstown. Thousands of baseball fans were in attendance. 

NEW YORK CITY—Vivid Cabaret New York, the high-energy adult club known for its sexy dancers, party atmosphere, and the city’s tallest stripper pole, held another of its famous pole dance contests with several of the sexy Vivid girls performing on the 28 foot tall main stage pole.  

Vivid Cabaret girls showed off their aerial skills in front of a packed house at the multi-level club known for its exclusive VIP Ultra Lounge; celebrity clientele, luxury private suites, the latest in high-tech lighting and sound, and Roof Top Cigar Bar. 

The celebrity judges were comedian Matt Richards and a panel of TV and comedy writers. Defending champion Daisy once again was the winner, with Vivid girl Teddy the runner-up.  

“We love to party and play,” purred Vivid girl Mandi. “Come visit us and make it rain on all the hot girls. It’s always so exciting at Vivid. Don’t miss it!” 

Vivid Cabaret New York

61 West 37th Street

Oreo’s latest new flavor announcement might sound an awful lot like cultural appropriation to Big Apple ears, but NYC’s treasured, classic bakeries will be competing with — wait for it — Oreo Black & White Cookies.

A staple in local German and then Jewish neighborhoods for well over a century and famously interpreted as a call to racial harmony on the hit sitcom “Seinfeld,” the actual black and white is a half-moon of angel food cake topped with white fondant and chocolate icing, still consumed as frequently in some quarters as when it made its debut in Yorkville, back in 1902 at the long-gone Glaser’s Bake Shop. 

And the packaged Oreo version, soon to be stacked high at local supermarkets? Look for a split of chocolate and classic, vanilla-flavored creme, sandwiched between two Golden Oreos.

The New York Mets just spent three months finding out what happens when you go with veteran pitches who have failed the year before during their epic collapse, and it hasn’t been a pretty lesson to watch.

The Mets bent over backwards to give chance after chance to the lines of Kodai Senga, Sean Manaea, David Peterson and Clay Holmes, and what they’ve seen is one failure after another.

It’s time for something different. Holmes is the only one of those hurlers who’s still in the picture in any viable way, and Senga will likely follow Peterson out the door very soon.

The Mets have an opportunity to do something very different. Nolan McLean has had some struggles with command and inconsistency, but he’s shown enough when he’s on to indicate that he could at least be a good pitcher at the top of a successful rotation.

Chrisitan Scott has shown that he, too, can be part of the same effort. He may end up being a third or fourth starter, but Scott has had enough success for the Mets to continue to give him run.