Gritty is now a household name, a bona fide celebrity. But the feisty, furry Philadelphia Flyers mascot might not have invaded our lives quite as quickly without his memorable -- and painful -- debut on Sept. 24, 2018. Here's an oral history of how the new king of Philly ascended to the mascot throne and went from getting roasted to being the toast of the sports world.

Gritty's story doesn't begin where you might think. In February 2018, Philadelphia celebrated the biggest moment in its sports history. After winning the Super Bowl, the Eagles were welcomed home by crowds of fans ... and mascots.

Joe Heller, Flyers VP for brand strategy and creative content: I remember watching the Eagles' bus come back with the team on it. The people leading the parade were the Phillie Phanatic, the Eagles' Swoop and the 76ers' Franklin. And I thought, "Of all the things that we can't be part of ... We have nobody to align with those three mascots."

Shawn Tilger, former Flyers chief operating officer: We looked at each other and said, "OK, it's time to give this thing a shot."

Heller: The Sixers, Eagles and Phillies were so active with their mascots. We were missing 250 events a year where the Flyers were not represented.

The Flyers knew they needed a mascot. Now they needed a design.

Heller: Dave Raymond, the original Phanatic, was right here in our backyard. So my first call was to Dave. He met with us and said, "You guys can do this." But he warned us that people were not going to like this thing out of the gate. They were not going to like that a team that has been around for 52 years was suddenly shoving a mascot down their throats. This is a serious hockey town, with a team that's serious about winning.

The Flyers eventually landed on a design from Brian Allen of FlyLand Designs, but not before they agonized over every detail.

Allen: The only guidance the Flyers gave us was that they were pretty sure they wanted the mascot to be a monster -- somebody you'd want to high-five but not hug.

Tilger: There were a lot of options for us to pick from. Some were really safe, like an animal -- something you could easily identify. We wanted something that, when you looked at it, you were like, "What is this thing?" The Phanatic is probably the greatest mascot of all time. But you can't tell what he is.

Heller: We looked at maybe 125 different designs. We had squirrels on the table and bats and deer. One of the ones with the most potential was this character called "Monster D." He had angel wings, a big belly. So we're like, "There's enough here we can play with." We took the wings off. His mouth changed 13 different times.

Tilger: We argued about whether he should have eyebrows or no eyebrows, beard or no beard, googly eyes or no googly eyes, belly button or no belly button.

Heller: At one time we were gonna have smoke come out of his ears. We finally were like, "This is the guy."

And who better to name that guy than former Flyers forward and Senior Advisor Paul Holmgren?

Holmgren: We were just kinda shooting the breeze, kickin' ideas, spitballin'. But I said, "We should just call him Gritty." It's what the Flyers are known for -- being a gritty team. That's kind of how I view this city. It's a fast-paced, hardworking, blue-collar community.

Tilger: And then [Holmgren] made a joke saying that Gritty's hands should be made of sandpaper.

Next, Gritty went from paper to plush. But the Flyers still had their doubts.

Heller: His hair wasn't great. His beard was kind of bizarre. And you just don't know about him. That was our biggest fear, that this mascot wouldn't be adopted.

Tilger: We knew it was going to be very polarizing at first. We had done surveys and asked the fans [if they wanted a mascot]. Our fans were like, "Absolutely not. We're purists. We don't want a mascot. We don't need a mascot."

That fear was looming for a reason. The Flyers already had a mascot that hadn't been adopted -- back in 1976, for one season, when Holmgren was a rookie with the team.

Tilger: They tried it once before and it was a disaster.

Holmgren: I read somewhere that his name was Slapshot. I don't remember anything about it.

Heller: I saw one black-and-white photo of [Slapshot]. He wore a pilot's hat. My guess is that he wasn't Philly enough. So we had to play our cards right this time. We had to come up with something that the fans would embrace.

The Flyers won't reveal who inhabits the Gritty costume, but he came highly recommended by Dave Raymond, the original Phanatic.

Tilger: We found the craziest guy we could. After we met him, we knew he was the right person for the job.

Heller: So about a week before Gritty is to be seen in public, we bring the guy in to try on the costume. Gritty wasn't supposed to be wearing hockey pants; he just had this big jersey on. But the performer's a big guy -- taller than we expected -- and he's showing a lot of leg. So we added the hockey pants at the last minute. There are still some photos of Gritty out there where he has no pants.

The Flyers introduced Gritty at a private team media event on Sept. 13, 2018, and then officially set him loose on Sept. 24.

Tilger: We did a launch [with Gritty] at a museum with a bunch of kids from the Philadelphia school district. It was well received. The kids just loved him.

Heller: Kids are screaming with him, and no kids are running away from him. And we're like, "Awesome!" We had a preseason game that night. Gritty was gonna go to the game and we were gonna keep rolling. And so we put out the tweet of him.

It me. #Gritty pic.twitter.com/HfTMVtEAFy

— Gritty (@GrittyNHL) September 24, 2018

Heller: And then --- boom -- the tweets start coming in.

Tilger: We got blistered. We didn't realize that if you put googly eyes on a mascot and someone takes a still photo, it turns into crazy eyes.

Heller: Everybody is just like, "He's horrifying!" "He's the worst nightmare!" "Fire the marketing department!" "What were they ever thinking?"

Tilger: The first 24 hours, we all thought we were going to lose our jobs.

Christine Mina, Flyers senior manager, digital media: Everyone in our department kind of had a moment of, "Oh no. What did we do? Was this a bad idea?"

Just 60 minutes into his existence, the world declared Gritty a failure.

Heller: It was all bad. And then Pittsburgh chimes in. The Penguins fire off a tweet laughing at us. That opens the door for us to fire one back.

Sleep with one eye open tonight, bird. pic.twitter.com/wLmGBa0Oyh

— Gritty (@GrittyNHL) September 24, 2018

It took just nine minutes for Gritty to respond. And Flyers fans took notice.

Mina: That's when his first bit of real personality came out. It gave Philadelphians a chance to be like, "OK, this guy's defending us. Now we're going to defend him."

Tilger: They picked on one of our own, so our fans got behind him. And then the things that made Gritty controversial made him popular.

Holmgren: It was like, "Wait a minute ... you can't abuse him. He's ours."

Gritty had earned his new family's respect. Seven hours later, he made his debut on home ice.

Lou Nolan, Flyers PA announcer since the 1972-73 season: For the first game, I wasn't sure where or when he would be coming out. Suddenly there's what looks like a 7-foot-5 orange character walking out onto the ice. I don't think fans knew what to do at first.

Heller: The doors open up for his first walk on the ice, and Gritty bites it.

James van Riemsdyk, Flyers left winger: We're all kind of laughing to each other, wondering, "What the hell's going on out here?"

Nolan: I don't think he was trying to fall. There was laughter, but he immediately came up with the snow angel, and people loved that.

Holmgren: My first thought was, "Gritty needs to get in shape." Hockey's about fitness, and you got to be in good shape to play the game.

Gritty, through a mascot interpreter: All I remember is falling on the ice. Ice is super hard. Hit my noggin pretty bad. Don't remember much after that. I didn't quite have my ice legs yet. First days are tough -- Claude [Giroux, Philly's team captain and close Gritty confidant] told me so.

Yes, Gritty fell. But more important, he got back up.

Lauren Capone, Flyers marketing and communications coordinator: By later in that game, there were people running out of their seats to get photos with Gritty.

Lauren Robins, former Flyers digital media coordinator: I remember thinking, "He is breaking the internet." So the Kim Kardashian Paper Magazine cover [which features the reality star balancing a martini glass on her derriere] popped into my head. And I thought, "I think I can photoshop him into that position."

Mina: I was like, "OK, you need to photoshop this right now. I'll take care of everything else." So we sat in the press box, and she worked on that tweet.

Robins: It took me the whole game to do it. And then I came up with a simple caption, "Goodnight, internet."

Goodnight, internet. pic.twitter.com/gx2Pbxfcds

— Gritty (@GrittyNHL) September 25, 2018

Mina: He had over 50,000 followers that night, and he reached 100K within three days of us launching.

Robins: It was crazy. I've never seen something go viral like that.

Gritty: I don't really like to concern myself with the people who are tweeting about me; it's more about those who aren't tweeting about me. @KimKardashian -- I'll wait ... forever. As for the viral part, I've been checked, and I'm clean.

Gritty made his mark in just 24 hours. And ever since, he's been unstoppable.

Heller: People went from completely hating on him when he first made his debut to loving him by the end of the day, and from laughing at him to laughing with him. "Good Morning America" called and said they wanted to meet Gritty. And so they set up here at 4 o'clock the next morning. Two days later, he was on the Jimmy Fallon show.

Tilger: There are people who had no interest in hockey who love this concept of Gritty and who he is. It has transcended just what happens on the ice. People can't name players, but they can name Gritty.

Capone: He's like the little kid inside of everybody who wants to push the boundaries. Even when he's out in public or on the concourse at a game, he has no problem bumping a mom with a stroller aside and taking the stroller for a joyride around the concourse.

Tilger: Mascots are supposed to be fun, and everyone is having fun with this. Gritty has been great for our organization and for the sport. Commissioner [Gary] Bettman called me. I was like, "Oh boy. What's he gonna say?" And he just said, "Hey, this is great!"

Tilger: I'll be on the concourse before games and see these parents with their kid dragging them around looking for Gritty. They're here from Canada, California. It's unbelievable how many people have made special trips to games to see Gritty.

Everyone loved him. Well, not everyone. Even Gritty has his haters.

Heller: Gritty doesn't really have too many friends when it comes to the NHL mascot landscape. There's sort of a mascot rivalry going on there. And when Gritty appeared on the cover of The Hockey News, it didn't help. But the players voted him the best mascot in the league. It's the mascots who are fueling a lot of it. Our rivals -- the New York Rangers, Boston Bruins, Penguins, Washington Capitals -- are always going to hate us, but now they have some fans out there who say, "Hey, I'm a Caps fan ... but I kinda like Gritty." But here in Philly, the brotherhood between the four mascots has been great. They liked each other right out of the gate.

Thanks to his viral antics and in-game stunts -- which included zip lining into Lincoln Financial Field from the roof, lit up like a Christmas tree, to kick off the Stadium Series game in February against the Penguins and then streaking through the Linc, revealing his jersey-less body -- Gritty became a pop culture icon ... and a popular tattoo subject.

Heller: Gritty has a dad-bod thing going on. That's part of his appeal.

Steve Fawley, tattoo artist, Havertown Electric Tattoo: Gritty was announced as the mascot on a Monday, and by that night, a friend who's also a Flyers fan messaged me about getting a tattoo of him. I shook my head and said, "All right. I can do that. That could be fun." My friend couldn't come in until Friday, so I thought someone else might beat me to it, but no one did. I did the tattoo on him, we both posted it on Instagram, and by Saturday it was getting reposted all over the place.

Mike Harrison, Flyers fan who got a Gritty tattoo: Gritty is perfect. He's part of the team. The tattoo is permanent, but it's like if you bought Giroux's jersey and then he got traded. Flyers fans are just loyal, I guess. Through thick or thin. Gritty is my dude -- and he'll always be my dude.

Fawley: I've been tattooing for 10 years, and Gritty has been the most popular tattoo I have done, period -- sports-related or otherwise.

Robins: We nominated Gritty to be Time's Person of the Year. I wanted to photoshop him onto the Time cover, and then it hit me: If we switch the letters around in TIME, it spells "IT ME." So I rearranged the words to spell out IT ME instead of TIME. And that blew up too.

Time didn't select Gritty as Person of the Year. But he clearly made his mark in Philly -- and beyond.

Fawley: I'd say Gritty is one of the MVPs of the town -- even though he doesn't play.

Tilger: Gritty is someone who's identified by one name now. Like Prince. Or Madonna.

Heller: This is so above and beyond anything we expected when we were sweating bullets back in July of 2018, thinking about whether we should have a squirrel, a bull or a monster as our mascot. I'm glad we didn't pick the bull.

Gritty: It all comes down to being a quadruple threat: good looks -- 360-degree vision provides optimal peripheral vision angles -- advanced street magic, not that fake Criss Angel stuff, impeccable BMI (brilliant mascot intuition) and a heart that beats only for the Philadelphia Flyers. They set me free, and now I can't be tamed.

Additional reporting by Scott Cikowski and Anna Katherine Clemmons.

Ed Woodward has backed Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to return success to Old Trafford and called for "patience" after a disappointing start to the season.

United are eighth in the Premier League table having lost 10 of their last 19 games in all competitions dating back to last season.

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The latest set-back was the dismal 2-0 defeat at West Ham on Sunday but Woodward, speaking as United announced their latest financial results, has backed the Norwegian, who was handed a three-year contract in March.

"We and our growing global fanbase demand success," Woodward said. "Success means winning trophies.

"That target and that standard has never changed for Manchester United. The progress we have made on the business side underpins the continued investment in the football side. "Much of the progress made around that investment, in the academy, the recruitment department and the training facilities is behind the scenes and therefore not immediately apparent to those on the outside looking in.

"We've expanded our recruitment department in recent years to increase its efficiency and productivity. Many of the senior staff in these roles have been at the club for over 10 years. Recruitment recommendations and decisions are made by this department, the manager and his team.

"These investments, together with the commitment we made to Ole and his coaching staff in March has given us the building blocks for success. While we are confident this investment will deliver results, it is important we are patient while Ole and his team build for the future.

"We will continue to focus on the long-term strategy and won't be influenced by short-term distractions."

Solskjaer has faced criticism for his handling of the summer transfer window which saw Ander Herrera, Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez leave with no replacements coming in to strengthen the midfield or striking department.

Woodward, though, moved to defend the recruitment policy while pointing to the emergence of young players like 17-year-old Mason Greenwood as the benefit of working with a slimmed down squad.

"We were able to approach the window in a focused and disciplined way," Woodward said. "Dan James, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Harry Maguire joined a strong squad that also saw renewed contracts executed on a number of key players including Marcus Rashford, David de Gea and Victor Lindelof.

"We are optimistic for the future. The sale and loaning of players this summer has allowed the manager to involve more of our young players and provide a firm foundation and culture ready for building the next trophy-winning squad."

On Tuesday, United announced annual revenue of £627 million and profit of £50m in 2019. The latest results also showed United paid Jose Mourinho and his staff £19.6m in compensation when he was sacked in December.

Wages were £332.3m, up £36.3m over the prior year, because of "investment in the first team playing squad."

Meanwhile, Paul Pogba is expected to feature against Rochdale in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday after missing the last three games with an ankle injury. United are also hopeful that both Anthony Martial and Greenwood will be fit to return.

South Africa women opt to bowl v India women

South Africa women won the toss and opted to bowl in the first T20I of the five-match series against India women in Surat. Fifteen year old attacking batsman from Haryana, Shafali Verma, was handed a debut by India.

The second-youngest player to represent the India women's team after Gargi Banerjee, Shafali had impressed in the Women's T20 Challenge in May, preceding which she had set the 2018-19 senior women's inter-state T20 tournament alight, making 186 runs in six innings at a strike rate of 187.87, including a 128 off 56 balls against Nagaland. South Africa also handed a debut to slow left-arm spinner Nonkululeko Mlaba.

India captain Harmanpreet Kaur was quite happy to be asked to bat by her counterpart Sune Luus, saying that she would have done so anyway, before adding that the team was looking to try different combinations leading up to ICC Women's T20 World Cup.

India XI: Shafali Verma, Smriti Mandhana, JI Rodrigues, H Kaur (capt), P Vastrakar, Poonam Yadav, DB Sharma, V Krishnamurthy, T Bhatia (wk), RP Yadav, S Pandey

South Africa XI:L Lee (wk), T Brits, L Wolvaardt, N de Klerk, M du Preez, S Luus (capt), N Shangase, N Mlaba, S Ismail, A Khaka, TS Sekhukhune

The BCCI elections have been deferred by a day to October 23 owing to both Maharashtra and Haryana going to polls on October 21. In May, the Committee of Administrators (CoA) had finalised October 22 as the election date, but it has now decided to further postpone the already-delayed polls by a day.

The CoA has also pushed back the date by which state associations will need to conduct their elections, from September 28 to October 4.

The CoA has been determined to carry out the BCCI elections, whereby a new set of office bearers will be voted in for the first time as per the new BCCI constitution, which was amended as per the structural reforms recommended by the RM Lodha Committee that had been ratified by the Supreme Court. Accordingly, the CoA had set September 28 as the date for all the state associations (members) to carry out their polls.

The revised date would then allow the members to nominate representatives to take part in the BCCI elections for various positions. The basic eligibility for the members to conduct elections is to amend their constitution in line with the one registered by the BCCI in August 2018. By last week, all the members, barring three, had amended their constitutions and got them approved by the CoA.

Among those who were reluctant was the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA), which had reservations both with the Lodha Committee's recommendations as well as the CoA's advisory in September, which spelled out the eligibility rules concerning the tenure of the administrators (councilors) who are part of the members' working/managing/executive committee or are directors.

On September 16, the CoA issued an advisory stating no administrator could serve for more than 9 years - whether solely at the BCCI or at state level or a combination of both - and would need to undergo the three-year cooling-off period after six years in office. The CoA clarified that this would not be applicable for administrators sitting on the cricketing committees such as the technical committee or the cricket advisory committee.

In an emergency hearing on September 20, the Supreme Court accepted the TNCA's plea and said the disqualification norms would only be restricted to the office-bearers and not the administrators.

"We direct that disqualification shall be confined only to those who had held the post of "Office Bearers" of the Cricket Associations," the two-judge bench, comprising Justices SA Bobde and L Nageswara Rao, said.

The court also allowed the TNCA to elect an assistant secretary, an office-bearer position not listed by the Lodha Committee, subject to its final order. However, the court asked all the BCCI members to comply with the new BCCI constitution.

On Monday, the CoA filed a counter-plea asking the court to clarify its order only because it feared some members could misinterpret its judgement of last week. According to PTI, the CoA reportedly mentioned in its plea that its order was being "erroneously and mischievously misinterpreted by certain person" as they were trying to override its main judgement delivered in August, 2018 where it had mandated the Lodha Committee recommendations.

Today the court heard the matter again and said all other disqualification criteria remain the same as in its 2018 judgement. In a fresh advisory sent out today, the CoA "directed" the state associations and its electoral officers not to "reamend" the constitution and stick to the eligibility criteria listed earlier. "The State Associations who have not brought their constitutions in line with the BCCI Constitution run the risk of their election results not being recognised," the CoA said in the advisory.

Durham 262 for 8 (Watling 104*) v Glamorgan

Glamorgan's slim hopes of promotion took a huge hit thanks to the weather and BJ Watling in their Division Two clash against Durham at Chester-le-Street.

Only 15 overs of play were possible on day two due to heavy rain, although the home side were able to record two batting bonus points, while Watling notched his 17th first-class century to frustrate the Glamorgan attack.

Marchant de Lange took the two wickets to fall on day two, but Durham were able to grind out a strong platform for the rest of the game.

Glamorgan need to win the contest and hope Gloucestershire are unable to claim enough points from their clash against Northamptonshire to earn the final promotion spot to Division One. However, the rain has left their margin for error next to nothing heading into the final two days of the match.

"We're obviously frustrated with the weather around," said de Lange. "We knew it was coming. We would have loved to have scooped up the four wickets this morning. It didn't go that way for us, but we're still in it, and there's still two days left so we'll see how it goes.

"Everyone here and around the country is watching the points system, but at the same time we know what we need to do. We need to go session-by-session and get as many points as we can for bowling and batting we know that we need to put up a good total and hopefully it will come down to the last day.

"You never what can happen in this game."

The hosts resumed on 197 for 6 with Watling and Ben Raine at the crease. However, it took only three deliveries for Glamorgan to make the breakthrough. Raine got caught in two minds whether to leave a de Lange delivery and played on to his own stumps to fall for 26.

Leg byes brought up the 200 for the home side and the first batting point of the game before Brydon Carse upped the run rate as he pierced the off side with regularity to find the fence. He was looking comfortable at the crease, scoring a brisk 27, but then fended a rising ball from de Lange through to Chris Cooke behind the stumps.

Watling worked his way through the nineties and took his opportunity on 99 to send a quick single into the leg side, notching his first hundred for Durham from 201 deliveries. The home side secured their second bonus point after passing the 250-run mark, solidifying their position in the match before rain brought a premature to the day.

Ali Asfak Thara, the owner of Belagavi Panthers, one of the franchises in the Karnataka Premier League (KPL), has been arrested for allegedly betting on the tournament. Thara was arrested on Monday by the Central Crime Branch (CCB) in Bengaluru and booked for gambling under the Karnataka Police Act.

According to Sandeep Patil, joint commissioner of police (crime), there was enough evidence to establish Thara was involved in betting during this KPL.

"The team owner was found to be indulging in betting during the matches," Patil told ESPNcricinfo. "We have sufficient evidence to show that he was betting."

The Panthers lost in Qualifier 2 against Hubli Tigers in the recently-concluded eighth season of KPL. The tournament, the first T20 league conducted in India by a state association, is organised by the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA). Among the players that are part of Panthers' squad is India batsman Manish Pandey.

According to Patil the police will, during their investigations, also probe whether Thara, who informed them that he was in contact with a bookie, was involved in any form of match-fixing.

"He placed bets with a bookie who is allegedly in Dubai. If a team owner bets we have to see if the was any kind of match-fixing also."

ALSO READ: BCCI ACU launches inquiry into alleged approaches in TNPL 2019

Patil said the police would also be speaking with players and team officials as part of the investigation. "Ali was in touch with players of other teams during KPL. The players are being enquired."

The CCB is in touch with both KSCA as well as BCCI's anti-corruption unit (ACU) which provides cover for the KPL. "Based on the police report the ACU will check what all violations have been conducted under our code," Ajit Singh Shekhawat, the head of ACU, said.

Incidentally this is the second state-conducted T20 league which has come under the corruption cloud. Recently the BCCI ACU said it had begun an inquiry into approaches made to players from alleged corrupt elements during this year's Tamil Nadu Premier League.

Bangladesh and Afghanistan shared the T20 tri-series trophy after rain ruined the final in Dhaka. The weather stayed true to forecasts, as it began to rain at around 5pm local time, an hour before the scheduled start, and continued to rain till the umpires called off the game at 9pm. By then, both sides were milling around the ground for the latest updates, and upon being informed by the umpires of their decision, they shook hands.

The covers never came off although the crowd nearly filled up the stands by the time of the scheduled start at 6.00pm. There was definite hope among the spectators that despite the incessant rain, play would be possible. Three years ago during the Asia Cup final, even a storm and heavy rain for nearly an hour didn't cause the match to be abandoned. However, this time it was steady rain which usually doesn't stop easily.

Bangladesh finished with three wins in the four games, but they never looked too comfortable. Coach Russell Domingo said on the eve of the final that they were yet to play their perfect game. Afghanistan won two games, and lost the last two that snapped their record-breaking 12-match winning streak in T20Is.

They will leave these shores happy though, after having won the one-off Test in Chattogram earlier in the month, and dominated a more established cricket nation overall on tour.

MINNEAPOLIS -- The Minnesota Vikings are re-signing wide receiver Laquon Treadwell four weeks after parting ways with the former first-round pick, league sources tell ESPN.

Treadwell, 24, was among the 37 cuts Minnesota made upon finalizing the 53-man roster at the end of August.

The move reflects concerns the Vikings have over their wide receiver depth after Chad Beebe suffered an ankle injury in Sunday's 34-14 win over the Oakland Raiders and Josh Doctson was placed on injured reserve early in the season.

Beebe tore ligaments in his ankle in Week 3, according to a league source. While it doesn't appear the receiver will need surgery, sources said the team is going to reevaluate Beebe's injury in a week to determine further steps, including whether he'll be placed on injured reserve. While there is no concrete timetable, Beebe is expected to miss several of the Vikings' next games while he recovers.

Those injuries had Minnesota down to three healthy receivers -- Adam Thielen, Stefon Diggs and Olabisi Johnson.

But depth concerns have been mounting for some time. Late last week, the Vikings worked out former Philadelphia Eagles receiver Jordan Matthews, former New York Jets WR Deontay Burnett and former Chicago Bears WR Tanner Gentry, sources told ESPN.

Treadwell, a 6-foot-2, 215-pounder, never panned out to the level of expectations set forth when he was drafted 23rd overall in 2016 as a big, physical outside receiver who could also line up in the slot and create mismatches while running underneath routes. Treadwell was passed up by others on the depth chart and failed to grab hold of the No. 3 receiver position behind Thielen and Diggs during the 2017 and 2018 seasons.

Now, he's being given a second chance to ignite his NFL career in the place where it started.

The Vikings were already on the hook for the guaranteed portion of Treadwell's 2019 salary ($1.15 million) due to the fact that he hadn't signed with another team after he was initially released, and were set to incur a total of $2,506,360 in dead cap money between the guarantees and proration of his signing bonus ($1,356,360 million).

The home run ball that marked the 2,000th career RBI for Albert Pujols has finally landed in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Ely Hydes, the Detroit Tigers fan who wound up with the ball at Comerica Park on May 9, at first decided he wanted to keep it. Then, after a few days, he narrowed it down to giving the ball to either Pujols or the Hall of Fame.

Last month, Hydes made his choice and hand-delivered the ball to the Hall of Fame, he told the Detroit News. He received nothing in return despite offers from suitors -- including one for $50,000 -- and the Los Angeles Angels.

Finally, a resolution on that @PujolsFive 2,000th-RBI baseball.

Detroiter Ely Hydes turned down lots of cash and a whole bunch of other stuff, and last month hand-delivered the baseball to the @baseballhall.

He donated it in memory of his late son, Cy.https://t.co/LBnkv0pqV7 pic.twitter.com/IP0s7orFCp

— Tony Paul (@TonyPaul1984) September 24, 2019

The ball is significant because Pujols became only the third player in Major League Baseball history to drive in 2,000 or more runs in a career -- joining Hank Aaron (2,297) and Alex Rodriguez (2,086).

Rather than take criticism on social media for keeping the ball or profiting from selling it, Hydes instead donated it -- in the memory of his late son, Cyrus Arlo Maloney, who was 21 months old when he died in June 2018. He was named after Cy Young.

"I'll want to show her and tell her the story, just the whole thing," Hydes said of his infant daughter, Violet. "The good things that happened ... and the cautionary tale of social media."

For his donation, the Hall of Fame gave a lifetime pass to Hydes. In addition to honoring the memory of his late son, the display will also honor the "people of Detroit" for the donation.

All winter, the baseball world tracked the free agency of Bryce Harper and Manny Machado, with the two stars eventually settling in Philadelphia (13 years, $330 million for Harper) and San Diego (10 years, $300 million for Machado).

So how did the first years in their new homes work out? Do their teams have buyer's regret? And what do their futures look like? We asked ESPN baseball writers Eddie Matz, Sam Miller and David Schoenfield to weigh in.

Bryce Harper's first year with Phillies

What grade would you give Bryce Harper for his first year in Philly?

Eddie Matz: He has stayed healthy, which is a win. He's hustled, which is another W. And his defense has been way better than it was last year, probably because he was less concerned about getting hurt heading into free agency and more concerned with impressing a new fan base. But that's not why you pay Bryce Harper. You pay Bryce Harper to crush baseballs and put butts in seats. He currently has an OPS-plus of 123 (below his career average of 136), but attendance is up nearly 30% in South Philly. As a former high school math teacher (in Philly, no less), I feel comfortable giving Harper a B-minus.

Miller: Just Year 1? Not what Year 1 says about Year 2, or Year 13, but just Year 1? I'd give it an A-minus. He's seventh in the majors in win probability added, thanks to the highest clutch score in the National League. That's certainly not a skill the Phillies should bank on, but it means that, in clear and demonstrable ways, Bryce Harper did a ton to help the Phillies win this year. The rest of the Phillies were the problem.

Schoenfield: Harper's clutch numbers have been very good and he did very well against the first-place Braves, slugging .606 with seven home runs against them. His OPS+ is the same as Ronald Acuna Jr.'s, and Acuna might finish in the top five of the MVP voting. On the other hand, he's only 43rd in the majors in OPS, behind Trey Mancini, Hunter Dozier and Bryan Reynolds, and his 3.6 WAR ranks tied for 60th among position players. Even with extra credit for clutch performance, I can give him only a B.

What has surprised you most about Bryce's first year in Philly?

Matz: That he didn't make the All-Star Game. I have no clue what the odds on that would've been prior to the season, but I'm guessing it would've been roughly equivalent to the odds of a rookie hitting 50 home runs.

Miller: That the Phillies have been as bad around him as they have been. The Astros and Cubs made tanking to win look so inevitable, especially for a big-market team, but the Phillies have made it look like a huge gamble: They're two full years out of the trough, they made all the go-for-it moves, they've drawn down the value of the farm system they built, and they're still only a .500 team with a negative run differential and no real teamwide strengths. One could imagine them getting much better next year. One could also imagine Harper spending the next half-dozen years wondering whether he made a big mistake turning down the Dodgers so he could permanently attach himself to this organization.

Schoenfield: How little we've spent talking about him on a national level. The Phillies were in first place through early June, but Harper didn't hit that well the first two months (he was at .227/.355/.438 on May 26). Harper's best month was August (11 home runs, 1.025 OPS), but the Phillies went just 13-14 that month and kind of fell out of the race as the Braves surged. After the first few weeks, Harper was simply never in the regular discussion as one of the most riveting players of the season.

What does Bryce's first year with the Phillies say about the next 12?

Matz: It says that if the Phillies plan on being regulars in the postseason, then given what's going down in The Dirty (i.e., the success of the young Braves), they'd better get used to the whole wild-card thing.

Miller: The best thing it says is that his glove isn't a liability, as it looked like a year earlier. His defense in 2018 was disastrous, according to various advanced metrics, but has been somewhere between slightly above average and well above average this year. We all know that you sign a player like Bryce Harper hoping he hits 50 home runs, but the real threat to his value was that his defense would stay collapsed and he'd start every season needing to hit like an MVP to have value.

Schoenfield: It's looking more and more like his age-22 MVP season was a complete outlier and that even his very excellent injury-shortened 2017 season was a bit of an outlier. He's a good player who gets on base and hits some home runs (so did everybody in 2019), but the strikeout rate continues to rise and he has had one elite offensive season in the past four. Bottom line: He may be the straw that stirs the drink, but I'm not sure he's the best player on a playoff team anymore.

Manny Machado's first year with Padres

What grade would you give Manny for his first year in San Diego?

Matz: During Machado's first few seasons in Baltimore, he suffered two knee injuries and had the look of a star-crossed talent whose career could be torpedoed by health issues. But since 2015, nobody in baseball has played more games than Manny. That includes another 147 this year. So at least the Padres have been able to count on their $300 million man posting up. Beyond that, Machado's OPS+ is currently 106, which is depressingly close to league average (100). Some of that has to do with leaving Camden Yards, but still. And Machado's defense -- which is supposed to be his calling card -- has been good but not great. I'm issuing a C-plus.

Miller: B. Machado always looks terrifying at the plate, but he has really been great as a hitter for only three years, out of eight, and never transcendent. I keep waiting for him to turn into a 1.000 OPS player -- he was still only 26 for most of this season -- but he keeps gravitating toward the high .700s. His defense still makes him very valuable, a star, but the odds that he'll never win an MVP award are increasing.

Schoenfield: I miss the younger Machado, who sprayed line drives all over the place and played third base like Brooks Robinson. He has morphed into too much of a one-dimensional hitter (the player who once hit 51 doubles has hit just 20 this year) and that one dimension -- home runs -- doesn't play as well in San Diego as it did in Baltimore. He's still above average in the field, but he has lost a step from his all-world days when he first came up. Besides that 106 OPS+, he also leads the NL in double plays grounded into. Meh. C-plus.

What has surprised you most about Manny's first year with the Padres?

Matz: The freakishly low number of doubles. For a guy who led the American League in two-baggers his first full season and has always been a big doubles guy, 20 almost looks like a typo. But it's not. As of Wednesday night, of the 51 players who had at least 600 plate appearances, Machado had the fewest doubles of anyone. You might not think that's important, and truth be told, I'm not sure that I do, either. But it's definitely surprising.

Miller: That, within maybe three months of his first game as a Padre, it was clear that he's not the best player on the team; Fernando Tatis Jr. is. That's good. Machado is a great player, but we've seen that even Mike Trout can't carry a team all by himself. And Machado is no Mike Trout. (Tatis might almost be.)

Schoenfield: I attributed the slow start in April to the new team, big contract, trying to do too much and so on. When he had a monster June, it appeared he was finally settling in and would once again be one of the best all-around players in the game. But he has totally gone in the tank the final two months. In fact, he has been so awful you can hope he's been playing through some nagging injuries or something. Because if he simply has lost focus and interest because the Padres were out of it, that's not a good sign.

If given the chance for a do-over, do you think the Padres would still sign Machado for $300 million?

Matz: Sure. In the seven months since San Diego inked Machado, nothing has really changed inside the front office. So I have no reason to believe that Padres brass wouldn't make the same decision again.

Miller: Probably. Machado's future looks a little less promising now than it did 12 months ago, but the Padres' future looks really strong. They're going to be in good-player-collection mode for the next few years, and it's not as easy to get those good players as we sometimes assume. The Padres' outlook, at least for the next five years or so, is stronger because Machado is on the team.

Schoenfield: I think so. He's durable, plays good D and hits home runs. He was a 5.7-WAR player as recently as 2018 and next year he'll be just 27, so there's no reason he can't bounce back and be a 5-6-WAR player for several seasons to come.

Who ya got, Manny or Bryce?

After one year for the duo in their new homes, which of the two mega-contracts do you think will prove to be a better deal?

Matz: According to FanGraphs, Machado's WAR (2.8) is a full win lower than Harper's (3.8). Using the average annual value of their contracts, the Padres are paying $10.7 million per Manny win, while the Phils are dishing out $6.7 mil per Bryce victory. San Diego's attendance hasn't spiked nearly as much as Philly's. However, the Padres' TV ratings over the first half of the season were up 81%, best in the majors. And we all know that's really where the money is. But, as the commercials say, past performance is no guarantee of future results. So I'll just go with my gut and say ... Nolan Arenado.

Miller: As Bryce Harper said at his introductory news conference, "You're always remembered for winning." At the time, I thought the Phillies were positioned to be really strong for a half-decade. Now I'm not sure. I wasn't sure the Padres were, but now I'm pretty confident. I think Machado's signing will be a better deal, because I think it'll end up covering more playoff appearances -- at least, during the players' peak seasons.

Schoenfield: I think Sam nailed it. The Phillies were in win-now mode and the Braves absolutely crushed them. The Braves are younger, have more stars, more payroll flexibility and a better farm system. The Padres have to deal with the powerhouse Dodgers, but I would take their next five years over Philly's and I think Machado is the better bet to produce more WAR over the next five seasons.

Which player do you think will play a playoff game with his new team first -- and when?

Matz: Tie. The Padres and Phillies will face each other in the 2021 NL wild-card game.

Miller: I like the Padres to make another big move this offseason, to benefit quickly from their still-elite farm system, to have an MVP candidate in Tatis next year, and to clinch a wild-card spot in approximately 368 days.

Schoenfield: The Padres still have some major holes to fill on offense -- they don't score enough runs because they're last in the NL in batting average, last in strikeouts and 13th in OBP -- and I don't yet have confidence that they've proved they can develop all this young talent as successfully as, say, the Dodgers have with their young talent. But Tatis is a stud and there is talent to groom. So I'll say the Padres win a wild card ... in 2021. (Or 2020 if they hire Joe Maddon to replace Andy Green as manager.)