The Sports Report: It was Matt Harvey swivel-head day at Angel Stadium

Hello everyone. My name is Houston Mitchell and let’s get right to the news.

Angels

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, California, United States, North America, Earth, Solar System, Milky Way, signed Matt Harvey in the off-season hoping he could recapture at least some of the greatness he had early in his career when he was a phenom with the New York Mets.

It hasn’t worked out that way.

Harvey gave up four home runs in 2 2/3 innings of a 16-7 loss to the Minnesota Twins on Thursday, leading to a messy eight earned runs on seven hits and one walk. That’s less than ideal.

Harvey has pitched 48 innings this season and has a 7.50 ERA. He has had two good starts, the rest have been brutal.

“He’s been trying to find it since spring training,” catcher Jonathan Lucroy said. “There’s flashes of it. He’s just trying to find a way to be consistent with it right now. … If we can get to a point where he can repeat those deliveries and repeat those mechanics to where his stuff is nasty like when I see him make a great pitch, he’s going to be successful.”

“That’s the frustrating part,” Harvey said. “I feel good, I feel healthy. It’s just the ball’s not coming out right.”

In his first three seasons (2012-13, 2015) in the majors, Harvey had a 2.53 ERA. Since then it has been 5.65. How long can the Angels continue trotting him out there? Considering they are paying him $11 million, probably for quite a while longer.

So you might as well take advantage of it while you can. When you see he’s starting, buy a ticket in the outfield seats. Your odds of getting a home run ball go way up with him on the mound.

WNBA

Helene Elliott on the WNBA, which is beginning its 23rd season:

“The WNBA has experienced the franchise moves and failures that historically have affected sports leagues in their early years and still faces unhappy circumstances like those that have shunted the New York Liberty to substandard facilities, but it has come a long way as it prepares on Friday to begin its 23rd season with games in Atlanta and New York.

“It has a new logo — the silhouetted player wears her hair in a bun instead of a ponytail and has been freed from the artist’s box that confined her — and a new agreement with CBS Sports Network to go with its ESPN rights deal. After being run by four presidents, it will have a commissioner when Cathy Engelbert, chief executive of the professional services firm Deloitte, takes office on July 17. The title is significant because it puts her on par with heads of the other major North American professional sports leagues.

“Engelbert, who played college basketball at Lehigh, said during a conference call last week she saw “a lot of opportunity to bolster visibility for this sport and give it the cool factor that it deserves. … I think there’s really an opportunity to build the WNBA into a thriving business.”

“No one before her has found a successful formula. The WNBA is still searching for enough backing from fans and sponsors to loosen its ties to the NBA, which partly owns and supports it. “I think that’s probably one of the reasons I was selected for this role, to come in and bring a business plan to build the WNBA into a real business and a thriving business, quite frankly,” Engelbert said.

“If not her, and if not now, will the WNBA ever become self-sustaining?

“The league has reached a crucial moment. Its announced attendance average fell from 7,716 in 2017 to 6,768 in 2018, partly because the Liberty left Madison Square Garden for its 5,000-seat home in Westchester.

WNBA players — including many who supplement their earnings by playing in Europe and, as a result, risk incurring wear-and-tear injuries — opted out of their collective bargaining agreement with the WNBA. The CBA will expire on Oct. 31, or the day after the final playoff game.

“Among the WNBA stars who begin the season injured after playing overseas include Seattle forward Breanna Stewart, the defending champion’s reigning MVP. She tore her right Achilles’ tendon playing for Russia’s Dynamo Kursk in the Euroleague title game.

“The players are all in. Always have been,” Terri Jackson, the executive director of the WNBA, said. “The more you invest in the players and professionalize the league, the more it will grow.”

“They’re among a wave of female professional athletes pursuing improved pay and working conditions. In March, 28 members of the U.S. women’s soccer team filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against U.S. Soccer; in early May, more than 200 female hockey players announced they wouldn’t play professionally until they got the resources they felt they deserved. Some were paid as little as $2,000 to play in the National Women’s Hockey League, which isn’t affiliated with or funded by the NHL. The women hockey players last week filed articles of incorporation to form the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Assn.

“The salary cap for each WNBA team is $996,100 this season. The maximum player salary is $127,500, with a minimum of $41,965. But besides higher salaries and a bigger share of revenues — Forbes has estimated players get about 22% of league revenues — Jackson said players were concerned about health and safety issues and creating a sustainable business model.

“It’s not just about what the players can achieve for themselves right now, immediately,” she said. “It’s about how to protect, be the caretakers, of this legacy, because they see themselves as responsible for ensuring that their sisters — the young girls and young women coming behind them — have this league as something to aspire to and have it at a far higher level than where it is right now.”

“The NBA has been patient in funding the WNBA. It can afford to be. It has deep pockets, and its losses can be written off in the name of supporting diversity. Speaking to Canada’s CBC network, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver acknowledged he felt “a bit of an obligation” to keep the WNBA going. But at some point, NBA owners — his bosses — might put the bottom line ahead of sentiment.

“I think we can never look at sports as just any other business. Because frankly if it were any other business, the WNBA probably would not still be in business because the people making the investments would say, ‘We’ve been at this for a long time. We’re not making money yet,’ ” he said.

“With the WNBA, I think in many ways we were way ahead of our time because it’s just now we’re beginning to see the mainstream acceptance of professional women’s sports, and ultimately if it’s going to be a business, that’s required because you need people to buy the tickets and buy the merchandise and watch it on television.”

Clippers

Will Kevin Durant end up with the Clippers? Arash Markazi takes a look:

“While the Clippers have long been thought of as the favorite to land Kawhi Leonard in free agency, they emerged as perhaps an equally favored destination for Kevin Durant when he also becomes a free agent this summer.

“Marc Stein of the New York Times sent NBA Twitter into a frenzy when he wrote, “Within the last month, very smart and plugged-in people I have consulted say that the Los Angeles Clippers have emerged as an equally dangerous threat to the Knicks to sign Durant away from Golden State. And I believe it.”

“The Clippers will have two maximum slots to sign players this summer and they were always going to make a run at Leonard and Durant but were viewed as more of a longshot for Durant. While speaking on a panel in New York this week, Rich Kleiman, Durant’s business manager, said Durant is “100%” undecided about his future.

“That makes sense for a player in the midst of trying to win his third straight title, but his interest in the Clippers also makes sense. Kendrick Perkins, who was a teammate of Durant’s in Oklahoma City and played for Doc Rivers in Boston, further fueled the Durant-to-the-Clippers talk when he sat down with Kristine Leahy on her show “Fair Game.”

“Don’t be surprised if K.D. signs with the Clippers,” Perkins said. “Everybody is screaming New York but do not be surprised if K.D. signs and plays for Doc. I don’t even have to recruit him. He likes the organization. He likes Doc Rivers.”

NBA playoffs

Western Conference Finals

All times Pacific

at Golden State 116, Portland 94

at Golden State 114, Portland 111

Golden State 110, at Portland 99

Golden State 119, at Portland 117 (OT)

Eastern Conference Finals

All times Pacific

at Milwaukee 108, Toronto 100

at Milwaukee 125, Toronto 103

at Toronto 112, Milwaukee 108 (2 OT)

at Toronto 120, Milwaukee 102

Toronto 105, at Milwaukee 99

Saturday, 5:30 p.m., Milwaukee at Toronto, TNT

*Monday, 5:30 p.m., Toronto at Milwaukee, TNT

*-if necessary

NHL playoffs

Stanley Cup Finals

All times Pacific

Monday, 5 p.m., St. Louis at Boston, NBC

Wednesday, 5 p.m., St. Louis at Boston, NBC

Sat., June 1, 5 p.m., Boston at St. Louis, NBCSN

Mon., June 3, 5 p.m., Boston at St. Louis, NBC

*Thur., June 6, 5 p.m., St. Louis at Boston, NBC

*Sun., June 9, 5 p.m., Boston at St. Louis, NBC

*Wed. June 12, 5 p.m., St. Louis at Boston, NBC

*-if necessary

Scheduling note

No newsletter this weekend, as one of my daughters is graduating from high school and I will be focusing on that. We’ll be back on Monday.

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Odds and ends

Dodgers reliever Pedro Baez shrugs off boos, quietly gets the job done…. How Pirates switch-hitter Josh Bell became a feared home run threat…. LeBron James earns record-tying 15th selection to All-NBA team…. Slava Voynov’s suspension is reduced, but he won’t play for Kings again…. Bubba Nickles’ selfless play has been key for UCLA’s softball team…. LAFC looks to continue hot streak while Galaxy would just like a goal…. World Cup won’t expand to 48 teams in 2022, FIFA says…. Nebraska’s Michael Lewis is hired as UCLA basketball assistant…. Future of horse racing in California discussed at tension-filled meeting…. Predicting an Indianapolis 500 winner is hard. Just ask the Andretti family…. Branded or not, Raptors teammates sport their own signature gear…. Angels upset after losing a day off because field didn’t drain well…. Ohio State coach pleads guilty to sexual battery of underage diver.

Today’s local major sports schedule

(All times Pacific)

Dodgers at Pittsburgh, 4 p.m., SportsNet LA, AM 570

Texas at Angels, 7 p.m., FSW, KLAA 830

Born on this date

1899: Tennis player Suzanne Lenglen

1910: Golfer Jimmy Demaret

1963: NBA player Joe Dumars

1964: NHL player Pat Verbeek

1966: Race car driver Ricky Craven

1979: NBA player Tracy McGrady

1990: Race car driver Joey Logano

Died on this date

1908: Golfer Old Tom Morris, 86

1966: Golfer Jim Barnes, 80

And finally

Marvin Hagler vs. Thomas Hearns. “The War.” Watch it here. (Technical glitches caused some people not to be able to see this video yesterday).

Golfer Jimmy Demaret appears on “I Love Lucy.” Watch it here.

That concludes the newsletter for today. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, please email us here. If you want to subscribe, click here.