Saturday’s 6-pack
Major league leaders, runs scored:
107— Vladimir Guerrero, Tor
105— Freddie Freeman, Atl
104— Bo Bichette, Tor
100— Marcus Semien, Tor
97— Jose Altuve, Hst
96— Mitch Haniger, Sea
Quote of the Day
“I spent a lot of years playing with a lot of those guys. Coming through the right field fence here [the visitor’s entrance], I’d never even set foot on that side of the concourse, so I was lost. I had no clue where I was going. All these cameras were in my face, so I tried to play it off like I knew was I was doing. It’s still so new, sitting in another dugout, in a different uniform and actually facing the guys I played with for so long.”
Kris Bryant, on returning to Wrigley Field Friday
Saturday’s quiz
When the Cubs won the 2016 World Series, who did they beat?
Friday’s quiz
Dak Prescott played his college football at Mississippi State.
Thursday’s quiz
Former Colorado Rockies’ 1B Todd Helton was QB at Tennessee before Peyton Manning.
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Saturday’s Den: Clearing out a cluttered mind…….
13) NFL needs to get step back from its crackdown on taunting; none of us who watch games give a rat’s ass about players running their mouths. Tell the officials to tune the players out and only penalize players who hit each other illegally.
Week 14, 2017; Eagles @ Rams. Big game. Carson Wentz throws an incomplete pass on third down, Philly is going to try a field goal, but the ref flags the Rams’ DB for taunting, giving the Eagles a first down. Later in that same series, Wentz runs with the ball and tears his ACL. Had that taunting flag not been thrown, Wentz wouldn’t have torn his ACL, Nick Foles wouldn’t have been Super Bowl MVP.
Taunting penalties are way too subjective; sometimes stepping back from a bad decision is the best way to go and this is one of those times.
12) 40 or so years ago, Texas Longhorns had a basketball coach named Abe Lemons who was ahead of his time; his teams played fast (this was before the shot clock era), he was a character, would’ve been a big star on social media today.
One year his team was struggling; Lemons’ weekly TV show opened with the shot of a coffin on the set, with a spotlight on it. The camera focused in on the coffin, with organ music playing in the background.
The door of the coffin opens and there is coach Lemons in suit/tie; he sits up, looks at the camera, smiles and says…….
“We ain’t dead yet!!!”
Like I said, the man was ahead of his time.
12) Dallas Cowboys lost RT La’el Collins for five weeks; there are rumors that Collins didn’t flunk drug tests, he simply neglected to show up for them.
Dallas is expected to get Zack Martin back next week, but now their OL still won’t be 100% until at least Week 7.
11) Thursday night, Cowboys were 4th NFL team EVER to gain 450+ yards, have a +3 or better turnover ratio and yet still lose the game.
10) When Teddy Bridgewater takes the field Sunday, he’ll be the 10th QB to start for Denver since Peyton Manning retired five years ago.
9) Doug Kezirian is hosting Daily Wager on ESPN and he just called Mike McCarthy “an idiot” and roasted him for a couple minutes on national TV. Yikes.
8) Now that my fantasy baseball team has been forcibly removed from the playoffs, I’m scouting guys for next year (it is a dynasty/keeper league).
When I’m scouting a young player, prefer to watch the other team’s TV feed; they’re way more likely to give honest opinions about players on the other team. The home TV network guys always say positive things, even if the guy is playing poorly.
I mean, Keibert Ruiz is hitting freakin’ .107, but the Washington TV guys praise his defense, his eye at the plate if he takes a pitch out of the strike zone. He was a career .301 hitter in the minor leagues, so he figures to hit eventually, but it is OK to criticize a guy until he does.
7) Mets 10, Bronx 3— Bronx is 2-11 since their 13-game winning streak; they’re 2nd team in MLB history to go 2-11 or worse in the 13 games immediately following a single-season win streak of 13+ games (1991 Rangers).
6) Reds 4, Cardinals 2— Joey Votto hit his 30th homer, Reds scored two runs in 9th.
Dodgers 3, Padres 0— San Diego drops into a tie with the Reds for the second Wild Card slot.
5) When Big X snubbing Memphis in its expansion, should the Tigers try to join another league, like the ACC? They’re elite in basketball, halfway decent in football; they’d help some league, and the AAC seems like a conference on a serious decline right now.
4) Sports betting became legal in the state of Washington Thursday; former Sonics’ star Shawn Kemp made one of the first bets.
3) Trevor Bauer’s administrative leave was extended again; he is done for this season, and is likely to be eventually suspended for all of next season, too.
2) Marvin Miller got inducted into baseball’s Hall of Fame this week; he made all the players a boatload of money, had a tremendous impact on the business of baseball, not sure he made the game better or worse, but the players sure as hell better appreciate all he did for them.
The guy who gave the speech honoring Miller Wednesday went on longer than he was supposed to; the crowd was restless, was giving him grief, a crowd made up mostly of Bronx Bomber fans. Ungrateful bastards; it was Miller’s work that played a huge part into the advent of free agency and buying players, which is the only reason Bronx regained prominence in the late 70’s- they’ve gone on to outspend teams in smaller markets for decades.
If anyone should’ve given Miller’s legacy a huge ovation, it is New York fans.
1) I’m not saying summer went by fast or anything, but NBA training camps open in less than three weeks.
Major league leaders, runs scored:
107— Vladimir Guerrero, Tor
105— Freddie Freeman, Atl
104— Bo Bichette, Tor
100— Marcus Semien, Tor
97— Jose Altuve, Hst
96— Mitch Haniger, Sea
Quote of the Day
“I spent a lot of years playing with a lot of those guys. Coming through the right field fence here [the visitor’s entrance], I’d never even set foot on that side of the concourse, so I was lost. I had no clue where I was going. All these cameras were in my face, so I tried to play it off like I knew was I was doing. It’s still so new, sitting in another dugout, in a different uniform and actually facing the guys I played with for so long.”
Kris Bryant, on returning to Wrigley Field Friday
Saturday’s quiz
When the Cubs won the 2016 World Series, who did they beat?
Friday’s quiz
Dak Prescott played his college football at Mississippi State.
Thursday’s quiz
Former Colorado Rockies’ 1B Todd Helton was QB at Tennessee before Peyton Manning.
***********************************
Saturday’s Den: Clearing out a cluttered mind…….
13) NFL needs to get step back from its crackdown on taunting; none of us who watch games give a rat’s ass about players running their mouths. Tell the officials to tune the players out and only penalize players who hit each other illegally.
Week 14, 2017; Eagles @ Rams. Big game. Carson Wentz throws an incomplete pass on third down, Philly is going to try a field goal, but the ref flags the Rams’ DB for taunting, giving the Eagles a first down. Later in that same series, Wentz runs with the ball and tears his ACL. Had that taunting flag not been thrown, Wentz wouldn’t have torn his ACL, Nick Foles wouldn’t have been Super Bowl MVP.
Taunting penalties are way too subjective; sometimes stepping back from a bad decision is the best way to go and this is one of those times.
12) 40 or so years ago, Texas Longhorns had a basketball coach named Abe Lemons who was ahead of his time; his teams played fast (this was before the shot clock era), he was a character, would’ve been a big star on social media today.
One year his team was struggling; Lemons’ weekly TV show opened with the shot of a coffin on the set, with a spotlight on it. The camera focused in on the coffin, with organ music playing in the background.
The door of the coffin opens and there is coach Lemons in suit/tie; he sits up, looks at the camera, smiles and says…….
“We ain’t dead yet!!!”
Like I said, the man was ahead of his time.
12) Dallas Cowboys lost RT La’el Collins for five weeks; there are rumors that Collins didn’t flunk drug tests, he simply neglected to show up for them.
Dallas is expected to get Zack Martin back next week, but now their OL still won’t be 100% until at least Week 7.
11) Thursday night, Cowboys were 4th NFL team EVER to gain 450+ yards, have a +3 or better turnover ratio and yet still lose the game.
10) When Teddy Bridgewater takes the field Sunday, he’ll be the 10th QB to start for Denver since Peyton Manning retired five years ago.
9) Doug Kezirian is hosting Daily Wager on ESPN and he just called Mike McCarthy “an idiot” and roasted him for a couple minutes on national TV. Yikes.
8) Now that my fantasy baseball team has been forcibly removed from the playoffs, I’m scouting guys for next year (it is a dynasty/keeper league).
When I’m scouting a young player, prefer to watch the other team’s TV feed; they’re way more likely to give honest opinions about players on the other team. The home TV network guys always say positive things, even if the guy is playing poorly.
I mean, Keibert Ruiz is hitting freakin’ .107, but the Washington TV guys praise his defense, his eye at the plate if he takes a pitch out of the strike zone. He was a career .301 hitter in the minor leagues, so he figures to hit eventually, but it is OK to criticize a guy until he does.
7) Mets 10, Bronx 3— Bronx is 2-11 since their 13-game winning streak; they’re 2nd team in MLB history to go 2-11 or worse in the 13 games immediately following a single-season win streak of 13+ games (1991 Rangers).
6) Reds 4, Cardinals 2— Joey Votto hit his 30th homer, Reds scored two runs in 9th.
Dodgers 3, Padres 0— San Diego drops into a tie with the Reds for the second Wild Card slot.
5) When Big X snubbing Memphis in its expansion, should the Tigers try to join another league, like the ACC? They’re elite in basketball, halfway decent in football; they’d help some league, and the AAC seems like a conference on a serious decline right now.
4) Sports betting became legal in the state of Washington Thursday; former Sonics’ star Shawn Kemp made one of the first bets.
3) Trevor Bauer’s administrative leave was extended again; he is done for this season, and is likely to be eventually suspended for all of next season, too.
2) Marvin Miller got inducted into baseball’s Hall of Fame this week; he made all the players a boatload of money, had a tremendous impact on the business of baseball, not sure he made the game better or worse, but the players sure as hell better appreciate all he did for them.
The guy who gave the speech honoring Miller Wednesday went on longer than he was supposed to; the crowd was restless, was giving him grief, a crowd made up mostly of Bronx Bomber fans. Ungrateful bastards; it was Miller’s work that played a huge part into the advent of free agency and buying players, which is the only reason Bronx regained prominence in the late 70’s- they’ve gone on to outspend teams in smaller markets for decades.
If anyone should’ve given Miller’s legacy a huge ovation, it is New York fans.
1) I’m not saying summer went by fast or anything, but NBA training camps open in less than three weeks.
