Welcome back to “I’m Curious!”

It’s hard to believe but the calendar has flipped to September and it’s the de facto end of summer with Labor Day weekend in the books.

You can see it in the sports schedule, as summer sports like MLB and the WNBA wind down and both pro and college football pick up.

On the East Coast at least, we’ve been blessed with some glorious weather that straddles the best of both summer and fall.

There has been plenty to tackle in both the news and sports worlds, so let’s jump in.

But first, here’s Peach!

The Most Curious Thing This Week

It’s Big Dumper! Cal Raleigh, the slugging Seattle Mariners catcher, set records last week by breaking the more than half-century old record for most home runs by a catcher in a season and becoming the first catcher in MLB history to hit 50 home runs in a season.

While Raleigh has cooled off this week, having slightly less than one month of the season to go means that he could have an outside chance at becoming just the second player in the last 20 years to hit 60 home runs in a season.

The other player to do that, Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees, is neck-and-neck with Raleigh in the race for American League MVP. While Judge has fewer home runs, he has the advantage in the three “triple-slash” statistics of batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage, as well as in the primary weighted statistics.

But while Judge has won two of the last three AL MVP awards, Raleigh is having a breakout season after a fairly unheralded career as a big power, low average, good defensive catcher, including his first All-Star appearance and a win in the Home Run Derby at the All-Star Game in July.

And then there’s the nickname. It sounds more like what I call my dog than like what the public calls a top-notch baseball player. There’s an urge for me to sing it to the tune of Shirley Bassey’s “Big Spender” every time I hear it.

Why, you may ask, did Raleigh earn the nickname “Big Dumper?” You may think it has something to do with him hitting home runs, which often have dump-adjacent nicknames like “tanks.” Nope.

The nickname came to be when former teammate Jarred Kelenic used the term to refer to the 6’2”, 235-pound catcher’s butt when Raleigh got into his catcher’s stance.

Catcher is a position for bulky guys who have to do a lot of squatting, so Raleigh definitely earned the nickname, even if it took him time to warm to the nickname. 

The Mariners have leaned into the nickname, running a “Big Dumper Trucking” ad starring Raleigh as well as a “Big Dumper Era” ticket deal and a “Platinum Dumper” bobblehead to honor Raleigh for winning a Platinum Glove award last year.

@mariners

“It’s quite plump.” 🤣 #MLB #baseball #mariners #baseballtiktoks #sportstiktoks #

Even Raleigh’s mom Stephanie has accepted it. “I’ll roll with it,” she said in a mid-game interview on a Mariners telecast earlier this season. “He’s accepted it, so I’m good with it too. I won’t say I love it though.”

While it isn’t exactly a nickname a mom would give her son, Big Dumper has become a phenomenon all its own. And Raleigh, as the carrier of the nickname, is having his best season yet and has become a household name among baseball fans.

In a sport where star-making is as hard as ever and even casual fans struggle to pick a legend like Mike Trout out of a lineup, it’s exciting to see a new star become the face (or maybe the butt) of the league.

My Reporting

NWSL

The lowly Chicago Stars, sitting in 13^th place out of 14 teams in the NWSL, have turned things around since the league’s summer break. They still only have one win on the season but notched their fifth consecutive draw, holding a 1-1 tie on the road despite being mostly outplayed by the Washington Spirit in DC.

In a game where Washington outshot Chicago 15 to 9 and soccer analytics site Fotmob estimates Washington notched 1.56 expected goals to Chicago’s 1.01, the Stars held the Spirit scoreless at halftime despite several big chances for Washington, including thanks to a couple of big saves by Stars keeper Alyssa Naeher.

The Spirit weren’t able to capitalize in the first half but did offer a lighthearted touch for defender Rebeca Bernal’s birthday, making her the focal point of the team’s pre-match photo.

Out of the break, a chance in the 57^th minute put the Spirit in the lead, as a mad dash from winger Trinity Rodman led to her barely keeping the ball in play and crossing it into a crowd in front of the net, where striker Sofia Cantore was able to back up and put it into the open right side of the goal.

It took hardly ten minutes for Chicago to bring things back level after an errant pass from Washington midfielder Hal Hershfelt opened up an opportunity for Stars forward Ludmila to use her speed to dash into a mostly open attacking half of the field and outpace Spirit defender Tara McKeown to pot a goal past the diving goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury.

It was a visible miscue in an otherwise serviceable game from the second-year midfielder, who led all players with nine passes into the attacking third of the field.

Speaking at the post-match press conference, Washington Spirit head coach Adrián González told me a bit more about what he told Hershfelt after the game.

“I just gave her a hug and I said that, ‘We haven’t tied because of that.’ I mean, as a team we win, we lost, we tie all together. I said that I love her and it’s going to be fine. She was doing and she’s done an amazing game,” González said.

He zoomed out and looked at the play as a small part of the whole game.

“Something to learn, obviously, for her, for the team, but that’s just a detail,” González said. “And again, we played, I don’t know, maybe 100 minutes today. So you can get the big picture or you can get just one detail. That’s one detail. We could have scored goals, more goals, and if that happened, we win the game and we wouldn’t be talking about this.”

On the Chicago side, it was another positive result for a team that has waited a long time to start accumulating points. The team was playing its first match under its fourth head coach of the season, interim coach Anders Jacobson. The team had two interim coaches following the early-season firing of coach Lorne Donaldson, and Jacobson is serving as an interim for new Swedish coach Martin Sjögren until he comes over in the offseason.

After interim coach Masaki Hemmi left to take a job, assistant coach Ella Masar stepped up and led the team to four straight draws before Jacobson took over for Sunday’s match.

For the team, it’s been not only a chance to learn a range of coaching styles but also an opportunity to still give it their all against higher-ranking competition.

“I’m sure you could look at the table and think a certain thing, but this, this is our lives. Like this is our lives inside the locker room,” Stars forward Ally Schlegel said after the game. “We’re trying to grow and win and prove ourselves every single day.”

Schlegel added that it’s fun to play from the bottom of the standings and potentially spoil things for teams higher up.

“I think it is fun to be an annoying younger sibling right now, just scrapping out ties, lol. It’s what it feels like sometimes.”

Her teammate, defender Sam Staab, added, “I think we’d be doing a disservice to the league if we just laid down just because we’re in last place and felt sorry for ourselves.” 

It was also an emotional moment for Staab, who played five seasons for the Spirit before being traded to the Stars ahead of the 2024 season. She suffered an injury before the Stars came to Washington last year, so Sunday marked her first game at Audi Field since leaving the team.

Fans welcomed her back, cheering for her in pregame introductions. The Spirit Squadron, the team’s primary supporters group, serenaded her with chants after the final whistle. At least one fan brought a sign that said, “We miss you, Sam.”

Before the presser, Staab was surprised that one stadium staffer remembered her. She brought a similar feeling to her remarks when she was asked about what it was like to be back.

“It’s nice that the fans remember me,” Staab said. “They hold a really special place in my heart, and Audi will always feel like home.”

The Stars head back home to host the defending champion Orlando Pride, but they’ll do so in a special home game at the temporary lakefront stadium on the campus of Northwestern University.

The Spirit will host Canadian side Vancouver Rise FC in a game that is part of the continent-wide CONCACAF W Champions Cup tournament before then hosting the Seattle Reign for their next league game on Sunday.

And one more thing stood out at Sunday’s game, largely separate from the action on the pitch.

The game served as a reflection on the moment in Washington and in America in 2025. Sunday marked the Spirit’s annual Pride match and it fell a few weeks into the occupation of the city by the US military and state National Guards operating under the orders of President Donald Trump.

With troops posted outside the stadium, fans inside and the home team created a welcoming space. The Spirit are, to date, the only professional sports team representing DC to issue any sort of statement of support for the city since the occupation began last month.

Ahead of the match, the team warmed up in special shirts, saying “I <3 DC” on the front and “Different roots, same home, one Spirit” on the back.

Drag queens featured prominently, with local queen Shi-Queeta Lee (who original readers may remember from way back in Edition 1) singing the national anthem and leading a halftime parade around the pitch. 

Over 100 fans participated in the Spirit Squadron’s pre-match “tifo,” holding up placards illustrating the transgender pride flag over roughly ten rows of the supporters section, all while the classic rainbow pride flag covered the top rows of the section further up.

And in the 51^st minute, as they did at the last home game and at the Spirit’s road game in San Francisco last weekend, “Free DC” chants rang out across the stadium, as over 16,000 fans called for an end to the occupation and the conditions that made it possible.

During the anthem, fans holding the large Spirit logo banner across the field raised their fists, with many of them wearing “Free DC” signs.

While members of the military pick up trash for lack of crime to address, and federal authorities brutalize people at frivolous traffic stops or for being homeless, the people of DC and the surrounding areas show up on a weekly basis at their local pro women’s soccer team’s games, not only to defy the occupation and celebrate their favorite sports team, but to stand up against the injustices they’re seeing.

In the face of that, fans, teams and players alike show that, as much as it may be politically convenient for DC to be a crime-ridden hellhole, it’s a place to express freedom and love.

To bring it full circle, far before her in-game miscue, Spirit midfielder Hal Hershfelt may have put it best. It may have ended up a draw on the field, but I think she nabs a win on this one.

MSNBC

Sometimes, the stories that mean the most aren’t the ones that get the most views or feature the biggest names.

And this story from Friday was a very poignant example.

We spoke with attorney Jay Edelson, who is representing the parents of Adam Raine. Adam committed suicide in April, having hidden the extent of his depression from his parents. In his final months, he relied extensively on OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and by the end, the bot was helping him hide signs of his suicidal tendencies and discouraged him from seeking help.

While OpenAI gave a statement expressing sadness at Adam’s loss and noting that ChatGPT has safeguards if a user tells the service they are suicidal, the company acknowledged that their safeguards have limitations in longer chats like the ones Adam was having.

Adam’s parents believe that their son would be alive were it not for ChatGPT and are suing the bot’s maker OpenAI and company CEO Sam Altman in a civil lawsuit.

Teen suicides do happen and every single one is painful and horrific. But Adam’s is the first to lead to a wrongful death lawsuit against an AI manufacturer.

It will be interesting to see where the lawsuit goes but I found it notable that Edelson mentioned a part of Adam’s chat that we cut at the last moment due to time constraints.

Adam, Edelson mentioned, said he wanted to leave a noose up so that his mom or someone in his house could find it. ChatGPT, the complaint and the New York Times article we quoted said, told Adam not to leave it out and to talk to it, the bot, instead.

I am no policy expert and no lawyer, so I can’t say much about whether the suit will succeed on the merits.

But I’m glad we could tell his story and make sure that people think about Adam. His mother told NBC News in a separate interview last week that she hoped people remember Adam for being a funny kid, a good friend and son. 

Getting his story in front of a national audience, I hope, will do just that.

Other Sports Takes and Things of Note

Micah Parsons moved – For the second time this year, a Dallas sports team has traded away a generational star player due to petty frustrations from ownership. First it was the NBA’s Mavericks trading star guard Luka Doncic after his weight fluctuated, now it’s the NFL’s Cowboys trading generational linebacker Micah Parsons after he wouldn’t agree to a team-friendly contract.

Jerry Jones, the Cowboys’ owner, has ruled the team with an increasingly tight iron fist as he heads into his eighties. The Cowboys have frequently contended but have not made it to the NFC Championship, let alone the Super Bowl, since the 1995 season. 

While the team has relied on quarterback Dak Prescott to helm an increasingly middling offense, Parsons has been a defensive anchor. His 52.5 sacks in his four seasons in the league are fifth among all defenders over that span. And at just 26, he was set to serve as a talent for the Cowboys to build around in the years to come.

With Parsons holding out for a more favorable deal and recent concerns over a sprained joint in his back, Jones decided to pull the trigger on a trade sending Parsons to Green Bay and netting three-time Pro Bowl defensive lineman Kenny Clark and two first-round picks in 2026 and 2027 in return.

Definitely not the worst haul for a star like Parsons but also not the type of move you make unless you’re holding a petty grudge, as Jones is prone to do.

U.S. Open action – Monday’s match between 3^rd -ranked Coco Gauff and 23^rd -ranked Naomi Osaka was set to be a barnburner. Gauff has been the stronger performer in the last few years, winning the U.S. Open in 2023 and the French Open this spring. But Osaka, who gave birth to a daughter in 2023, had not made it past the third round of a Grand Slam since winning the Australian Open in 2021. 

Osaka broke that streak by reaching Monday’s fourth-round showdown with Gauff, and did so on Flushing Meadows’s hard court, a surface where Osaka has had success. All four of her major wins have come at the U.S. Open or Australian Open, both of which are played on hard courts.

In Monday’s match, she looked like her peak self, clinically managing Gauff by repeatedly targeting the American’s forehand. The Japanese star won 6-3, 6-2 in just one hour and four minutes.

Osaka advances to the quarterfinals, where she’ll play Czech 11^th seed Karolina Muchova on Tuesday.

Something Good I Ate

A few weeks ago, I made it back to North Carolina for the first time in several years. I took a bit of a detour on the way down to Raleigh to stop in Ayden, NC, at Skylight Inn BBQ.

I visited in early 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic started and had some pretty delicious, authentic, Eastern North Carolina-style BBQ.

Unlike its counterpart from the western part of the state, Eastern NC-style BBQ relies on a vinegary sauce and uses the whole hog, as opposed to just the shoulder. “Everything but the squeal” is the line you’ll hear from many a cook.

Skylight Inn has been around for over 75 years, even installing a US Capitol dome replica on its roof after National Geographic declared many years ago that Skylight was a barbecue capital. Outside, you can see the firewood and smokers that are used to prepare each day’s meat.

Inside, customers line up to order at a pair of registers. In between, cooks make a constant knocking noise as they chop up large quantities of pork.

I went ahead and ordered a serving of pulled pork with a side of cole slaw and their old-style cornbread on top, with a cup of North Carolina’s own cherry-flavored soda Cheerwine to wash it all down.

The Cheerwine paired well with the tangy sauce that goes on the pork. The meat was full of flavor and melted in your mouth, with some crunchy crackling pork skin and fat mixed in. The cornbread was crunchy and tasted more like hush puppies than the fluffier cornbread you find elsewhere. Along with the creamy slaw, Skylight served up a delightful BBQ meal that was at least as good as I remembered. Definitely worth the detour.