Friday’s 6-pack
Duke’s non-conference basketball schedule for this fall:
Nov 6— vs Kentucky (@ Indianapolis)
Nov 11— Army
Nov 14— Eastern Michigan
Nov 19— @ Maui Classic (vs San Diego State 1st round)
Nov 27— Indiana
Dec 1— Stetson
Dec 5— Hartford
Dec 8— Yale
Dec 20— Texas Tech (@ Madison Square Garden)
Feb 2— St John’s
Zero true road games. As usual.
Tweet of the Day
“I’m annoyed about the whole three-game series. It happened two days ago — a rain delay with two outs in the first inning — and it happened again tonight. I’m not happy about it.”
Red Sox manager Alex Cora, talking about the rained out game on Wednesday
Friday’s quiz
Which major league team used to play home games in Riverfront Stadium?
Thursday’s quiz
Houston Astros used to play in the National League; JR Richard hit 10 homers, the most homers of any Astro pitcher while wearing a Houston uniform.
Wednesday’s quiz
In the movie The Hangover, Mike Tyson’s tiger gets stolen by the movie’s stars- they brought it back when they sobered up.
*************************
Friday’s List of 13: Random stuff with weekend here…….
13) If you like the NFL and play fantasy or bet games or want to learn more about football, the Warren Sharp Football Preview is something you need to buy.
A softcover textbook basically, the Preview goes thru each NFL team, which explicit breakdowns on red zone targets and formations run and all kinds of fun technical football stuff.
12) For instance, when Buffalo Bills threw an incomplete pass on 1st-and-10 LY (in quarters 1-3), they ran ball on 2nd down 82% of the time, averaging 3.4 ypc. In the 18% of the time when they threw the ball, they averaged 5.5 yards/play.
It makes me laugh that so many NFL teams automatically run ball on 2nd-and-10, because 3rd-and-10 situations make most coaches want to puke.
Anyway, thats the kind of stuff that is in this book; educational football things.
11) My suggestion for the AAF and XFL, the two new spring football leagues that will sprout up the next two years, is to not have radio transmitters in the QB’s helmet. Let the QB call the plays- the game is way more exciting/fun when the players run the game.
Coaches have six days to prepare the players to play; game day should be the players’ day!!!
10) Lebron James’ son is 13 or 14 years old; he was supposed to play an AAU game at Liberty HS in suburban Las Vegas Wednesday night, but the game got cancelled when the tiny gym got really crowded after Lebron Sr showed up. “Security concerns” was the reason given.
This gym had three rows of bleachers; tournament organizers are going to have to make special arrangements for this kid’s games, if his very famous father is going to show up to watch.
9) When Tampa Bay traded one of its three starting pitchers (Nathan Eovaldi) to the Red Sox, the prospect they got back was Jalen Beeks, who is 5-5, 2.89 in 16 AAA starts this year, but was 0-1, 12.79 in two big league games, throwing 6.1 innings.
8) Was listening to a podcast this week where an author received 800 rejection letters for his writing— the guy kept all 800 rejection letters, to fuel himself to work harder and stick with his craft. The guy has now written around 20 books, including a NY Times bestseller.
7) White Sox 1B Jose Abreu went from June 26-July 25 without hitting a double, which is hard to believe. He had 27 doubles on June 25; now he has 28. He also homered twice Thursday.
6) Read something on the Interweb this week that CBS/Kelsey Grammer are talking about bringing the TV show Frasier back, which would be a good idea- the Cheers spinoff was a fun show.
5) Angels 12, White Sox 8— Angels’ starter Nick Tropeano allowed five hits Thursday, all home runs, becoming the 4th pitcher ever to do that, joining Denny McLain, Mat Latos and Steve Stone, who ironically was broadcasting this game on White Sox TV.
4) On February 12, 2016, Milwaukee traded Khris Davis to the A’s, for Bubba Derby and Jacob Nottingham. If Oakland makes the playoffs this year and they make Moneyball 2 (the sequel), this trade is a big part of why, absolute larceny.
Since coming to Oakland, Davis has hit 112 home runs, scored 235 runs, knocked in 289.
Nottingham is a catcher who is 4-20 in seven MLB games. He hit .259 in six minor league seasons. Derby is a pitcher who is 4-5, 4.95 at AAA Colorado Springs this season.
3) I’ve been an A’s fan since the mid-60’s; remember driving from Las Vegas to Los Angeles in 1986, thought it was so cool that I was listening to an A’s-Angels game on the radio, coming in from San Bernadino. Now, the A’s were dreadful that year, and they had a relief pitcher named Eric Plunk.
Plunk comes in, walks the first three hitters he faced, so of course, the 4th guy hits a grand slam. To this day, 32 years later, when a pitcher walks several guys then gives up a homer, I think to myself “….bleeping Eric Plunk”
Milwaukee rookie Freddy Peralta is on my fantasy team; Tuesday, he walks the first two guys in the 5th inning, then of course the next guy hits a 3-run homer. Eric bleepin’ Plunk, and Peralta damn sure will wind up being better than Plunk was.
2) From the NY Post: “……..Jets surprisingly fired senior director of team operations Clay Hampton last month. Hampton had worked for the team for 30 years and had been in charge of operations since 2006. His father, Bill, was the team’s equipment manager from 1964 through 2000.”
Former Jets coach Rex Ryan said this: “He was awesome. The six years I was there, he was better than great. Everything was done at such a first-class level. Not one time ever did we have an issue with any of the places we stayed, the airlines. It was awesome. To me, he was an amazing guy and someone I was really proud that I had the opportunity to work with him.”
1) Cubs 7, Diamondbacks 6– Chicago hit back/back homers in bottom of 9th to split this series. Tough loss for Arizona, which is in the middle of the playoff chase.
Duke’s non-conference basketball schedule for this fall:
Nov 6— vs Kentucky (@ Indianapolis)
Nov 11— Army
Nov 14— Eastern Michigan
Nov 19— @ Maui Classic (vs San Diego State 1st round)
Nov 27— Indiana
Dec 1— Stetson
Dec 5— Hartford
Dec 8— Yale
Dec 20— Texas Tech (@ Madison Square Garden)
Feb 2— St John’s
Zero true road games. As usual.
Tweet of the Day
“I’m annoyed about the whole three-game series. It happened two days ago — a rain delay with two outs in the first inning — and it happened again tonight. I’m not happy about it.”
Red Sox manager Alex Cora, talking about the rained out game on Wednesday
Friday’s quiz
Which major league team used to play home games in Riverfront Stadium?
Thursday’s quiz
Houston Astros used to play in the National League; JR Richard hit 10 homers, the most homers of any Astro pitcher while wearing a Houston uniform.
Wednesday’s quiz
In the movie The Hangover, Mike Tyson’s tiger gets stolen by the movie’s stars- they brought it back when they sobered up.
*************************
Friday’s List of 13: Random stuff with weekend here…….
13) If you like the NFL and play fantasy or bet games or want to learn more about football, the Warren Sharp Football Preview is something you need to buy.
A softcover textbook basically, the Preview goes thru each NFL team, which explicit breakdowns on red zone targets and formations run and all kinds of fun technical football stuff.
12) For instance, when Buffalo Bills threw an incomplete pass on 1st-and-10 LY (in quarters 1-3), they ran ball on 2nd down 82% of the time, averaging 3.4 ypc. In the 18% of the time when they threw the ball, they averaged 5.5 yards/play.
It makes me laugh that so many NFL teams automatically run ball on 2nd-and-10, because 3rd-and-10 situations make most coaches want to puke.
Anyway, thats the kind of stuff that is in this book; educational football things.
11) My suggestion for the AAF and XFL, the two new spring football leagues that will sprout up the next two years, is to not have radio transmitters in the QB’s helmet. Let the QB call the plays- the game is way more exciting/fun when the players run the game.
Coaches have six days to prepare the players to play; game day should be the players’ day!!!
10) Lebron James’ son is 13 or 14 years old; he was supposed to play an AAU game at Liberty HS in suburban Las Vegas Wednesday night, but the game got cancelled when the tiny gym got really crowded after Lebron Sr showed up. “Security concerns” was the reason given.
This gym had three rows of bleachers; tournament organizers are going to have to make special arrangements for this kid’s games, if his very famous father is going to show up to watch.
9) When Tampa Bay traded one of its three starting pitchers (Nathan Eovaldi) to the Red Sox, the prospect they got back was Jalen Beeks, who is 5-5, 2.89 in 16 AAA starts this year, but was 0-1, 12.79 in two big league games, throwing 6.1 innings.
8) Was listening to a podcast this week where an author received 800 rejection letters for his writing— the guy kept all 800 rejection letters, to fuel himself to work harder and stick with his craft. The guy has now written around 20 books, including a NY Times bestseller.
7) White Sox 1B Jose Abreu went from June 26-July 25 without hitting a double, which is hard to believe. He had 27 doubles on June 25; now he has 28. He also homered twice Thursday.
6) Read something on the Interweb this week that CBS/Kelsey Grammer are talking about bringing the TV show Frasier back, which would be a good idea- the Cheers spinoff was a fun show.
5) Angels 12, White Sox 8— Angels’ starter Nick Tropeano allowed five hits Thursday, all home runs, becoming the 4th pitcher ever to do that, joining Denny McLain, Mat Latos and Steve Stone, who ironically was broadcasting this game on White Sox TV.
4) On February 12, 2016, Milwaukee traded Khris Davis to the A’s, for Bubba Derby and Jacob Nottingham. If Oakland makes the playoffs this year and they make Moneyball 2 (the sequel), this trade is a big part of why, absolute larceny.
Since coming to Oakland, Davis has hit 112 home runs, scored 235 runs, knocked in 289.
Nottingham is a catcher who is 4-20 in seven MLB games. He hit .259 in six minor league seasons. Derby is a pitcher who is 4-5, 4.95 at AAA Colorado Springs this season.
3) I’ve been an A’s fan since the mid-60’s; remember driving from Las Vegas to Los Angeles in 1986, thought it was so cool that I was listening to an A’s-Angels game on the radio, coming in from San Bernadino. Now, the A’s were dreadful that year, and they had a relief pitcher named Eric Plunk.
Plunk comes in, walks the first three hitters he faced, so of course, the 4th guy hits a grand slam. To this day, 32 years later, when a pitcher walks several guys then gives up a homer, I think to myself “….bleeping Eric Plunk”
Milwaukee rookie Freddy Peralta is on my fantasy team; Tuesday, he walks the first two guys in the 5th inning, then of course the next guy hits a 3-run homer. Eric bleepin’ Plunk, and Peralta damn sure will wind up being better than Plunk was.
2) From the NY Post: “……..Jets surprisingly fired senior director of team operations Clay Hampton last month. Hampton had worked for the team for 30 years and had been in charge of operations since 2006. His father, Bill, was the team’s equipment manager from 1964 through 2000.”
Former Jets coach Rex Ryan said this: “He was awesome. The six years I was there, he was better than great. Everything was done at such a first-class level. Not one time ever did we have an issue with any of the places we stayed, the airlines. It was awesome. To me, he was an amazing guy and someone I was really proud that I had the opportunity to work with him.”
1) Cubs 7, Diamondbacks 6– Chicago hit back/back homers in bottom of 9th to split this series. Tough loss for Arizona, which is in the middle of the playoff chase.