Armadillo: Wednesday's six-pack
-- All nine starters for AL's All-Star team are age 27 or younger.
-- Arizona Cardinals are -4.5 over the Patriots in Week 1; a handicapping quandary, since Jimmy Garoppolo will be New England's quarterback.
-- Wil Myers' brother drilled him in the ribs with a pitch at the Home Run Derby.
-- Minnesota Timberwolves haven't made NBA playoffs since 2004.
-- NFL teams who travelled three time zones LY were 17-14-1 vs spread; 9-6-1 going from west to east, 8-8 going from east to west. .
-- Someone has to explain to me what this Pokeman stuff is. No freakin' idea.
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Armadillo: Wednesday's List of 13: Happy Hump Day.......
13) Baseball commish Rob Manfred came out and said that expansion is on hold until A's, Rays get new stadiums.
Translation: We're using potential expansion cities to hold over the heads of people in Oakland, Tampa to extort $$$ for new stadiums out of them. Good luck there, since the A's and Rays both suck this year. The Montreal Rays? Could be.
12) TV people raved about the timing aspect of Home Run Derby, but ratings were down for it this year. Not sure why. Wonder if they asked David Ortiz to participate this year, his last in big leagues. Still think Ichiro should be in HR Derby once.
11) I would be OK with it if they let players use aluminum bats in the HR Derby.
10) Then there is Chris Berman, whose annoying, self-promoting act is really old. Few years ago, I'm sitting at the bar in the sportsbook at Planet Hollywood in Vegas, playing video poker and just relaxing. Except they had the HR Derby's volume up on TV's, so even though Cespedes is winning and he's on the A's, it is annoying as hell to listen to "back!! back!!! back!!!" 120 times in a row.
So I leave the bar and go out in the casino so I can't hear the damn TVs and I win $300 playing blackjack, so it was a good thing that night that Berman is so annoying.
9) East Meadow HS on Long Island this year, nine sets of twins graduated, which is a lot of kids who look alike.
8) Last five NBA MVPs who went to college went to: Davidson, Texas, Santa Clara, Memphis and Wake Forest. Really good players are everywhere, not just on TV.
7) Nets signed Tyler Johnson, Allen Crabbe to offer sheets, but both were matched by Miami, Portland. Brooklyn needs some players-- their new GM is Sean Marks, who comes from the Spurs' basketball tree-- thats the best part of the Spurs, Warriors being real good teams- their style will be imitated throughout the NBA.
Cleveland's style can't be imitated; there is only one Lebron James. .
6) Last time I went to NBA Summer League, I'm sitting behind this guy who looks like a damn bodybuilder-- huge guy and he is drinking- he bet on the game being played and he bet on the team that was losing. Badly. He was not happy about it.
It was a Minnesota-Cleveland game, that I remember and Minnesota had 18 guys on its roster. Problem for the guy betting was this: the nine guys who won for Minnesota the day before weren't playing in this game- the other half of the roster was getting its butt kicked. Moral of the story: Please do not bet on summer exhibition games.
5) Got to see the Hard Knocks with the Jets for the first time this week-- much more interesting than in recent years, where the coaches have been little more bland. If some network put Mike Westhoff in its studio, it would be TV gold.
4) Brian Schottenheimer was OC for the Jets back then; he later moved to St Louis, where he was saddled with Sam Bradford's injuries and cruddy backups, then he was at Georgia last year, when Mark Richt got fired despite consecutive 10-3 seasons. Now his career has taken him to Indisanapolis, where he will be the Colts' QB coach.
3) When Michael Douglas was in high school, he was accepted to go to college at Yale but went to Cal-Santa Barbara instead, since he wanted to be an actor like his father Kirk, who was also a great actor. Staying close to Hollywood was an excellent idea.
If you've ever been on UCSB's campus you know it is so scenic-- half the cars in the freakin' parking lot had surfboards on them. Santa Barbara or Connecticut? That one is an easy call, especially from November-March.
2) NFL Films does a half-hour lighlight film on every team; wonder if they draw straws to see who does the highlight films for the bad teams?
Rams haven't had a winning season since 2003, not lot of highlights there. Losing isn't something you want to reminisce about. Guess they just focus on their infrequent wins and whatever players had good seasons, but it can't be easy work.
1) Kerwin Danley umped first base at the All-Star Game last night; he played college ball at San Diego State with the late Tony Gwynn.
-- All nine starters for AL's All-Star team are age 27 or younger.
-- Arizona Cardinals are -4.5 over the Patriots in Week 1; a handicapping quandary, since Jimmy Garoppolo will be New England's quarterback.
-- Wil Myers' brother drilled him in the ribs with a pitch at the Home Run Derby.
-- Minnesota Timberwolves haven't made NBA playoffs since 2004.
-- NFL teams who travelled three time zones LY were 17-14-1 vs spread; 9-6-1 going from west to east, 8-8 going from east to west. .
-- Someone has to explain to me what this Pokeman stuff is. No freakin' idea.
**********
Armadillo: Wednesday's List of 13: Happy Hump Day.......
13) Baseball commish Rob Manfred came out and said that expansion is on hold until A's, Rays get new stadiums.
Translation: We're using potential expansion cities to hold over the heads of people in Oakland, Tampa to extort $$$ for new stadiums out of them. Good luck there, since the A's and Rays both suck this year. The Montreal Rays? Could be.
12) TV people raved about the timing aspect of Home Run Derby, but ratings were down for it this year. Not sure why. Wonder if they asked David Ortiz to participate this year, his last in big leagues. Still think Ichiro should be in HR Derby once.
11) I would be OK with it if they let players use aluminum bats in the HR Derby.
10) Then there is Chris Berman, whose annoying, self-promoting act is really old. Few years ago, I'm sitting at the bar in the sportsbook at Planet Hollywood in Vegas, playing video poker and just relaxing. Except they had the HR Derby's volume up on TV's, so even though Cespedes is winning and he's on the A's, it is annoying as hell to listen to "back!! back!!! back!!!" 120 times in a row.
So I leave the bar and go out in the casino so I can't hear the damn TVs and I win $300 playing blackjack, so it was a good thing that night that Berman is so annoying.
9) East Meadow HS on Long Island this year, nine sets of twins graduated, which is a lot of kids who look alike.
8) Last five NBA MVPs who went to college went to: Davidson, Texas, Santa Clara, Memphis and Wake Forest. Really good players are everywhere, not just on TV.
7) Nets signed Tyler Johnson, Allen Crabbe to offer sheets, but both were matched by Miami, Portland. Brooklyn needs some players-- their new GM is Sean Marks, who comes from the Spurs' basketball tree-- thats the best part of the Spurs, Warriors being real good teams- their style will be imitated throughout the NBA.
Cleveland's style can't be imitated; there is only one Lebron James. .
6) Last time I went to NBA Summer League, I'm sitting behind this guy who looks like a damn bodybuilder-- huge guy and he is drinking- he bet on the game being played and he bet on the team that was losing. Badly. He was not happy about it.
It was a Minnesota-Cleveland game, that I remember and Minnesota had 18 guys on its roster. Problem for the guy betting was this: the nine guys who won for Minnesota the day before weren't playing in this game- the other half of the roster was getting its butt kicked. Moral of the story: Please do not bet on summer exhibition games.
5) Got to see the Hard Knocks with the Jets for the first time this week-- much more interesting than in recent years, where the coaches have been little more bland. If some network put Mike Westhoff in its studio, it would be TV gold.
4) Brian Schottenheimer was OC for the Jets back then; he later moved to St Louis, where he was saddled with Sam Bradford's injuries and cruddy backups, then he was at Georgia last year, when Mark Richt got fired despite consecutive 10-3 seasons. Now his career has taken him to Indisanapolis, where he will be the Colts' QB coach.
3) When Michael Douglas was in high school, he was accepted to go to college at Yale but went to Cal-Santa Barbara instead, since he wanted to be an actor like his father Kirk, who was also a great actor. Staying close to Hollywood was an excellent idea.
If you've ever been on UCSB's campus you know it is so scenic-- half the cars in the freakin' parking lot had surfboards on them. Santa Barbara or Connecticut? That one is an easy call, especially from November-March.
2) NFL Films does a half-hour lighlight film on every team; wonder if they draw straws to see who does the highlight films for the bad teams?
Rams haven't had a winning season since 2003, not lot of highlights there. Losing isn't something you want to reminisce about. Guess they just focus on their infrequent wins and whatever players had good seasons, but it can't be easy work.
1) Kerwin Danley umped first base at the All-Star Game last night; he played college ball at San Diego State with the late Tony Gwynn.
