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Morning Briefing: Red Sox should know who to thank for their resurgence

President Trump meets with some members of the Boston Red Sox on the South Lawn of the White House last week.
President Trump meets with some members of the Boston Red Sox on the South Lawn of the White House last week.
(Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP)
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The Boston Red Sox have won five of their last six and there’s only one reason for that: Their visit to President Trump last week. And if you doubt me, just ask President Trump.

Trump tweeted Monday that “Has anyone noticed that all the Boston @RedSox have done is WIN since coming to the White House! Others have also done very well. The White House visit is becoming the opposite of being on the cover of Sports Illustrated! By the way, the Boston players were GREAT guys!”

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And yes, a couple of those wins came before they visited Trump, but just the excitement of seeing the president and getting served a wonderful selection of the best and freshest fast food is enough to start the good luck early.

Somehow, the Washington Generals need to visit the White House so they can finally reverse their luck against those darned Harlem Globetrotters.

PGA Championship questions

What better way to boost the excitement this week over the PGA Championship (which starts Thursday at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, N.Y.) than with a four-day series of quizzes? Yes, it combines the excitement of watching golf with the terror of middle-school tests. We’ll do a group of four each day, and the first person to email me (houston.mitchell@latimes.com) the correct answers will get their name listed in Friday’s Morning Briefing. You also will get a free subscription to our award-winning Dodgers and daily Sports Report newsletters (Editor’s note: Those newsletters have won no awards, and they are already free).

Here are today’s questions.

1. Who finished runner-up in the last PGA Championship that was match play and then won the first PGA Championship that was stroke play?

2. Which PGA Championship winner had the highest 72-hole score?

3. Who was the last golfer to win the PGA Championship with a 72-hole score that was over par?

4. John Mahaffey owns the PGA Championship record for the greatest final-round comeback, at seven strokes. Who was the 54-hole leader?

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The best ever

Former Clippers star Blake Griffin is really looking forward to watching Duke’s Zion Williamson play in the NBA. Why?

“If he keeps playing like he is, he’s going to be a monster,” Griffin told TMZ Sports. “His basketball IQ is good. He can make plays, he can do a lot of stuff. He’s probably going to do some things we haven’t seen in a while.”

All bets are on

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a bill into law Monday that makes it legal in the state to bet on professional, collegiate and international sporting events. It also legalizes fantasy sports contests and internet fantasy sports betting but delays betting based on college sporting event statistics until May 2020.

The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission has been developing rules that will determine how sports betting will work at the state’s casinos, online and through a mobile application.

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This brings up a very important question: Just how do they determine the odds for tractor pulls and the hay-bale tossing?

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