Since I’m your Saturday editor today, filling in for the estimable Robert Spencer, who is under the weather, I figured I’d share some random sports stories. We’ll start with a scandal that could ensnare some top athletes.
Little Jerry was unavailable for comment.
Two jockeys racing in Saturday’s Preakness Stakes have allegedly been taking part in cockfighting. USA Today reports:
Jose Ortiz and Irad Ortiz Jr., among the top jockeys in horse racing and brothers from Puerto Rico, dueled in a thrilling finish at the Kentucky Derby almost two weeks ago. Their Triple Crown run continues this weekend with potential scrutiny.
With the Ortiz brothers set to ride May 16 in the Preakness Stakes, photos found by USA TODAY Sports on social media appear to link Jose Ortiz, 32, and Irad Ortiz Jr, 33, to illegal cockfighting.
A video from November shows what is reportedly the brothers collecting money off the floor of a cockfighting ring.
Lo que hacen las malas juntas con Jara...
— Josmaestre13 (@Josmaestre131) November 23, 2025
Los galleros hipicos 🤣😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/Cj6UfWDGD0
The Ortiz brothers aren’t the only high-profile athletes who may be involved. Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Edwin Diaz may also be involved in cockfighting activity. USA Today uncovered alleged photos of advertisements for cockfighting events using Diaz’s likeness.
Text in one of the ads, translated into English, reads, “The Puerto Rico Cockfighting Club invites all enthusiasts to a special match and a grand tribute to one of our island’s greatest sources of pride: A Tribute to the Puerto Rican Star and Cockfighter Edwin 'Sugar' Díaz."
El Nuevo Día, the largest circulating newspaper in Puerto Rico, published a story March 10 with a photo showing Diaz standing in the pit of a cockfighting arena. Translated into English, the article quotes Diaz saying, "It’s a pastime I’ve followed since I was a child. It’s legal in Puerto Rico, thank God. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here."
Edwin Diaz is linked to illegal cockfights, per @USATODAY
— Talkin' Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) May 15, 2026
"It’s legal in Puerto Rico thank God. Otherwise I wouldn’t be here. I feel safe here. The cockfighting arena is like my home," said Diaz
A federal ban on cockfighting took effect in Puerto Rico in 2019 pic.twitter.com/NAFrNQAd3m
There’s some trouble with Diaz’s assertion. Cockfighting has been illegal in all 50 states and Puerto Rico since 2019.
Will the Ortiz brothers and Diaz land in hot water? That remains to be seen, but if they do, we’ll report on it here.
Recommended: College Baseball Pollsters Keep Choosin’ Texas, but the SEC Standings Are Choosing Georgia (Update: order has finally been restored with Georgia ahead of Texas in the polls.)
The canceled games phenomenon
College baseball’s regular season is winding down this weekend. Conference tournaments will begin next week, and after that will follow the Regionals, Super Regionals, and the College World Series.
Some schools are canceling midweek non-conference games to protect their record. It’s easy to see why. To use my Georgia Bulldogs as an example, we lost a rough game to Troy University early in the season, and our charity game against hated rival Georgia Tech, another team riding high in the polls, was a miserable loss.
The NCAA is asking teams not to cancel those games. ESPN reports:
The NCAA has issued what's becoming an annual appeal to Division I baseball coaches to not cancel nonconference midweek games to protect their teams' positioning for the national tournament.
Scheduling hijinks allow teams to avoid no-win situations this time of year, so games against mid- or low-major opponents sometimes are called off because a win wouldn't help the RPI and a loss would hurt it, perhaps badly.
In a memo sent to coaches last week, the Division I Baseball Oversight Subcommittee said it was concerned with the practice of canceling games for reasons other than inclement weather.
Here’s more:
Oregon, No. 19 in the RPI, canceled two games against No. 212 Grand Canyon last week with no reason given. No. 42 North Carolina State announced it canceled a game against No. 279 North Carolina A&T by mutual agreement. No. 34 Miami said it canceled a game against No. 219 Florida International "due to overnight conditions" that made its field unplayable, but no details were given about the nature of those conditions.
I doubt that these teams will listen, but the NCAA is sure to keep asking. It’s hard to find that balance between maintaining a record and playing games that you might lose.
Related: The Most Wonderful Time of the Year: College Baseball Returns
What’s in a nickname?
Indulge me for a few minutes with some history about my alma mater and its sports teams. If you’ve read any of my coverage of University of Georgia sports, you’ll be aware that I refer to the teams as the Dawgs often. “Dawgs” has been an official nickname for the Georgia Bulldogs for about 50 years now.
I always assumed that the phrase “Go Dawgs” stemmed from our glorious Southern accents, but today, I was simultaneously amused and dismayed to find out that “Dawgs” came from a carpetbagger trying to mimic a Southern drawl. Patrick Garbin tells the story of Gene “Blue” Robbins at UGA Sports/On3:
“I’ve had a couple of articles or stories written about me coming up with ‘Dawgs.’ And there are some Georgia players from the mid-70s who’ve said the first time they saw it spelled ‘D-A-W-G-S’ was by me,” Blue said. “Some of my family and friends up here in Maryland get a big kick out of it all. And a couple of them will tell you the entire story if they find out you’re a Georgia fan.”
A Maryland native at UGA, Robbins hung around with the football team a lot. One day, the late, legendary coach Vince Dooley once overheard Robbins’ cheer.
Just before driving away in a distinct white Ford Pinto with wood paneling, Blue usually shouted Georgia’s familiar battle cry of “Go Dogs!” Except when expressed by him, the cheer sounded very different than when anyone else articulated it.
Blue’s sharp Maryland accent, coupled with an exaggerated attempt at a southern drawl, made his cheer sound more like, “Go D-aaawwwgggs!”
“A few of the players would rib me about my accent, saying I talked funny,” Blue said. “But, to me, because of their southern drawls, I thought that some of them talked funny. So, I just exaggerated ‘Go Dogs!’ to make it sound more southern.”
After Blue shouted “Go D-aaawwwgggs!” in the Coliseum parking lot one particular Sunday afternoon in 1976, it seemed even Georgia’s acclaimed head coach, Vince Dooley, had accepted his presence.
A sign that Robbins made for the team read, “GO DAWGS.” It soon began to take off and eventually became official.
According to Jason Hasty, the UGA Athletics History Specialist at the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, “the first time in the Red & Black (UGA student newspaper) that ‘Dawgs’ is used explicitly as a reference to our teams” was in an edition in late September of 1977. Also, according to Hasty, just a few years later, the 1980 national championship season seemed to have solidified the use of “Dawgs” among Georgia fans and the media. We’ll add that, by then, it was already more commonplace to say, “Go Dawgs” than merely “Go Dogs.”
And, nowadays, as Blue said, it seems like you see “Dawgs” being used everywhere.
“Georgia has one of the top histories and traditions in all of college football,” Blue said. “And to be kind of associated with that history, even if it’s unofficial and may have started as a joke. It’s a huge honor. And it’s also made me a huge follower and fan of Georgia football for more than 50 years now…
“Go Dawgs!”
And that’s how a nickname took hold. Go Dawgs!
Sports are supposed to be the fun escape, but lately, even the games come with scandals, bureaucratic nonsense, and the kind of absurdity that makes you wonder whether the NCAA has a special committee devoted entirely to missing the point. From horse racing controversies to college baseball scheduling shenanigans to the strange and wonderful origin of “Go Dawgs,” we’ll keep calling it like we see it — no replay booth needed.
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