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🏈 Y! Sports AM: Grass vs. turf
Grass vs. turf: Is the change worth the cost?
NFL players aren't pleased that the natural grass that covered their fields during the World Cup is already being replaced with the artificial turf they know and hate.Tue, July 21, 2026 at 12:12 PM UTC·10 min readYahoo Sports AM is our daily newsletter that keeps you up to date on all things sports. Sign up here to get it every weekday morning.
⚾️ 14 in a row: The Red Sox rallied for a 6-5 win over the Orioles on Monday for their 14th straight victory, the second-longest winning streak in franchise history. With another win tonight, they'll match their longest ever, set in 1946.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement🎓 Manuel is stepping down: Michigan AD Warde Manuel will step down at the end of the year after being implicated in an internal investigation into the saga surrounding head football coach Sherrone Moore's firing. Don't expect Manuel's exit, or Michigan's nonsense statement explaining it, to fix the school's culture problem.
🏀 Miles' big night: The WNBA-best Lynx (21-6) won their sixth straight game on Monday behind the best game of Olivia Miles' young career. The ROY frontrunner put up 32 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists, joining Candace Parker (2008) as the only rookies with those numbers in a game.
🌽 Is this heaven? Iowa and Kansas will face off in an exhibition this fall at Field of Dreams ballpark in Dyersville, Iowa, becoming the first Division I college baseball teams to play at the field originally constructed for the iconic 1989 film.
⚾️ Speaking of which: MLB's third Field of Dreams Game is fast approaching, with the Phillies and Twins playing there on Aug. 13 in throwback uniforms they unveiled on Monday.
🏈 Natural grass in the NFL: Is it #WorthTheCost?
By the time you've read this, there's a chance that the immaculate pitch at MetLife Stadium has already met its end, displaced for its artificial-turf replacement. The players who will take to that field in the coming months are the ones most upset about it.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement#WorthTheCost: On Saturday, NFL players voiced their displeasure with the temporary nature of the natural grass at some World Cup host venues. Their #WorthTheCost movement reignites a long-raging debate about the artificial turf that carpets half of the league's stadiums.
92% of NFL players prefer natural grass, and the installation of natural grass for the World Cup presented a high-profile opportunity to highlight what they view as an inconsistency in ownership's position.
The players' preference stems primarily from injury concerns, with the NFLPA insistent that artificial turf causes a higher incidence of non-contact lower-extremity injuries.
What does the data say? Does artificial turf actually increase the incidence of injuries? It depends who you ask.
Pre-2020, the data supported the notion that players were worse off on the fake stuff. Data collected between 2012 and 2018 showed a 28% higher rate of non-contact lower extremity injuries on artificial turf.
By the turn of the decade, the numbers started to shift. The gap in incidence narrowed toward near-equality in 2021 — a result the NFLPA viewed as an anomaly — before reverting to prior norms in 2022.
Worth noting: Studies differ in their conclusions. Some have found a higher incidence of injuries on turf and a higher likelihood of those injuries being season-ending. Others contend that the differences in injury rates are not statistically significant.
Follow the money: Why are owners reticent to install natural grass and placate their valued employees? Money, of course: Turf offers revenue upside and cost savings that grass can't replicate.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementGenerally, venues can host a greater volume of special events (think: concerts) on artificial turf than on grass, which requires a longer post-event recovery period.
Fewer events means less revenue. And owners of the artificially-turfed stadiums have busy calendars they'd rather not pare down.
The grass isn't greener: Solutions at some of the world's most advanced soccer facilities raise as many questions as they do answers. Both Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and Real Madrid's renovated Bernabéu feature retractable natural-grass pitches stitched with synthetic fibers.
Beneath Tottenham's retractable pitch lies an artificial playing surface used for NFL games and special events. The club generated £32 million ($43M) in revenue from other events in 2024-25.
Despite the cutting-edge nature of the construction, both Madrid and Tottenham are exploring whether the retractable pitches — and the shallower soil they use — are causing a concerning uptick in injuries.
Bottom line: Though NFL players are adamant that their safety is worth the financial trade-off, NFL owners presiding over turf are unlikely to concede that it meaningfully heightens risk, particularly given the dollars at stake. Want a clue about the strength of their convictions? Look no further than the immediate removal of the World Cup's natural grass.
⚾️ Joe Ryan’s historically bad night
Twins righty Joe Ryan, a two-time All-Star who is unquestionably one of the best pitchers in the American League, had himself a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad night on Monday in Cleveland.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementLaunch pad: Ryan allowed six home runs in Minnesota's 13-4 loss, tied for the most by any pitcher in a single game in MLB history. That's historic any way you slice it; it was also incredibly unlikely.
Ryan, an All-Star both this season and last, entered the game with a 2.85 ERA and just 10 HR allowed through his first 20 starts. He left it with a 3.38 ERA and — checks math — 16 HR allowed.
The Guardians, meanwhile, entered the game with the third-fewest homers in the majors before teeing off on Ryan. And two of their six long balls were the first two of rookie outfielder Petey Halpin's career after he'd come up empty in his first 39 MLB games.
Achilles' heel? Ryan, a six-year veteran with a sterling 3.65 lifetime ERA, does have an odd penchant for such blowups. Indeed, this was his third career game allowing 5+ HR, the most of any pitcher in MLB history.
Ball don't lie: As if Ryan's outing weren't strange enough already, let's add one more wrinkle. On June 30, his ERA ballooned to 3.36 after a clunker in which he allowed 6 ER in a single inning following a botched grounder. It was originally ruled a hit, but a week later was changed to an error, bringing his ERA back down to 2.85. On Monday, he gave it all back. Ball. Don't. Lie.
📈 How Gen Z engages with sports
Sports fandom comes in many different shapes and sizes, and while the prevailing narrative regarding Gen Z has long been one of a cohort that seemingly lacks interest in sports, recent findings suggest they're merely engaging in their own unique way.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementNew report: The latest study from Acceleration Community of Companies, in collaboration with USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, was published last week, exactly two years before the Opening Ceremony of the LA28 Olympics. Findings were drawn after surveying 2,154 Gen Z adults (currently aged 18-29) and conducting focus groups.
The key takeaway: Sports themselves are not the main draw for this generation, with nearly half (49%) of Gen Z fans saying they've become interested in a new sport or athlete via some sort of ancillary content like fashion, relationships, scandals or TV shows (chart above). If the inherent love of the game is the front door, think of this more like the side door.
Examples include one respondent who's now "obsessed" with F1 after seeing photos of Charles Leclerc and his wife, who were "so cute." Or another who became a Dodgers fan because the Twitch streamer they watch always has the game playing during his streams.
The same is true of live sporting events, which nearly three-quarters (78%) of Gen Z fans say they have attended or would attend primarily for the surrounding experience, such as concerts, brand activations and fan festivals.
Big picture: Old-school fandom does still exist, with 26% of Gen Z identifying as die-hards. But 48% fall in the middle ground (following athletes, trends or highlights more than specific teams) and 25% would rather follow an athlete's personal story than watch them compete. The real kicker? Just 8% stay off their phones while watching sports.
⛳️ Golf’s global champions
For just the second time in men's golf history, dating back to the inaugural Masters in 1934, the year's four major winners all hail from different countries.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement2026: Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy (Masters), England's Aaron Rai (PGA Championship), USA's Wyndham Clark (U.S. Open), New Zealand's Ryan Fox (The Open)
2010: USA's Phil Mickelson (Masters), Germany's Martin Kaymer (PGA Championship), Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell (U.S. Open), South Africa's Louis Oosthuizen (The Open)
Sorry, Uncle Sam: This was the first year since 2014 with fewer than two American major champions, which is particularly shocking considering how well the best Americans performed.
10 of the 14 golfers who made all four major cuts this year are American, including four of the five whose cumulative score to par in those events was better than -10.
Of those five, only McIlroy (-11) won this year, while Americans Scottie Scheffler* (-20), Sam Burns (-20), Xander Schauffele (-13) and Cameron Young (-11) combined for 10 top-10 finishes, but no wins.
For the sake of comparison, the lone American who did win this year — Clark — missed the cut at the PGA and Open Championships, and finished T21 at the Masters. Sometimes, you just get hot.
*Scottie's ridiculous: Scheffler has finished inside the top-five in more than half (11) of the 20 majors he's competed in since 2022, and has nearly as many wins (4) as finishes outside the top-10 (5) in that time.
📺 Watchlist: Tuesday, July 21
⚾️ Dodgers at Phillies
The battle of NL contenders continues tonight in Philadelphia (6:40pm ET, TBS) after the Phillies won Monday's series-opening slugfest, 10-7.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementOne-two punch: Zack Wheeler, who along with last night's starter Cristopher Sánchez forms the best one-two punch in the league, takes the mound tonight for Philly. Though Wheeler (somehow) wasn't an All-Star, he's in the midst of another Cy Young worthy campaign, going 10-1 with a 2.13 ERA, 0.89 WHIP and 4.7 WAR — second only to Sánchez (5.5) among all pitchers.
🚴 Tour de France: Stage 16 (7am, Peacock) … The second time trial of this year's Tour travels 16 miles from Évian-les-Bains to Thonon-les-Bains along the Swiss border.
🏀 The Basketball Tournament: Round 1 (7pm, FS1) … The action continues in the $2 million tournament.
Got plans tonight? Gametime is the best place to score last-minute tickets to the events in your city. Get tickets now!
Josh Kerr's record-breaking mile (3:42.66) over the weekend came 72 years after the once-unthinkable four-minute mile was first broken by the man pictured above.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementQuestion: What is that man's name?
Hint: RB.
Answer at the bottom.
🇪🇸 Time is a flat circle
In 2010, Spain won the World Cup and Rafael Nadal became the youngest man in the Open Era to complete the Career Grand Slam. In 2026, Spain won the World Cup and Carlos Alcaraz became the youngest man in the Open Era to complete the Career Grand Slam.
Vamos!
Trivia answer: Roger Bannister
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