Wednesday’s 6-pack:
NFL players who have scored the most points this year:
68— Jake Elliott, Phil
66— Raheem Mostert Mia/Christian McCaffrey SF
64— Harrison Butker, KC
63— Brett Maher, Rams/Ka’imi Fairbairn, Hst
60— Brandon Aubrey, Dal
59— Blake Grupe, NO
Quote of the Day
“It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard… is what makes it great.”
Tom Hanks in
A League of Their Own
Wednesday’s quiz
Chris Paul has been in the NBA for 18 years; where did he play his college basketball?
Tuesday’s quiz
Detroit Lions are the only NFC team that has never played in a Super Bowl.
Monday’s quiz
Hall of Famer Dick Vermeil coached the Philadelphia Eagles, the first time they played in a Super Bowl.
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— Diamondbacks 4, Phillies 2
Arizona’s bullpen tossed five scoreless innings.
Corbin Carroll went 3-4 with two runs scored, two RBI.
Arizona-Texas World Series starts Friday night in Dallas.
— Texas Rangers the last six years:
2018: 67-95
2019: 78-84
2020: 22-38
2021: 60-102
2022: 68-94
2023: 90-72
Texas hired Bruce Bochy as their new manager last winter; now they’re in the World Series. Bochy has previously led the Giants and Padres to four World Series. When this season is over, they should fly him to Cooperstown and induct him into the Hall of Fame. He deserves it.
Bochy is 6-0 in winner-take-all playoff games, by the way.
— For three days in February 2021, Adolis Garcia was a free agent, could’ve been scooped up by any major league team. You’re telling me that none of these over-educated Ivy League geniuses that run major league teams knew enough to sign him up?
Go figure.
— Houston Astros the last seven years:
2017- won World Series
2018- lost ALCS
2019- lost World Series
2020- lost ALCS
2021- lost World Series
2022- won World Series
2023- lost ALCS
Pretty nice run they’re on; there are rumors that manager Dusty Baker is going to retire— he is 74 years old. If he does retire, it’ll be interesting to see who they turn to as manager— they figure to be a contender for the next few years, at least.
Astros were 40-47 at home this season, 56-30 on the road; it makes no sense.
— New Mexico State 27, Louisiana Tech 24
New Mexico State kicked 31-yard FG with 5:16 left for the win.
Aggies ran ball 40 times for 232 yards.
New Mexico State has won four games in row, for first time since 2002.
— Liberty 42, Western Kentucky 29
Flames led 14-10 at half; they’re 8-0 this season.
Liberty ran ball 54 times for 323 yards, 6.0 yards/carry.
WKU QB Reed was 30-44 passing for 365 yards, 4 TD’s.
— Word of the Day: flummoxed— utterly confused or perplexed.
Handicapping NFL games this season has me flummoxed; lot of erratic play. Can’t get a handle on things yet.
— Saturday night in Seattle, Arizona State led Washington 7-6 with about 8:30 left; ASU had the ball deep in Washington territory, 4th-and-3.
8:30 left in the game, Washington hadn’t scored a TD the whole game. If the Sun Devils kick a field goal, they’re up 10-6, and Washington has to score a TD to win, something they hadn’t done the whole game. So they kick the field goal, right? Did I mention that Washington hadn’t scored a touchdown the whole game?
No- this is 2023, and football coaches are screwing up situational football; it actually is OK to be conservative now and then, really it is. Washington goes for it on 4th-and-3, and they throw a pick-6, and Washington winds up winning, 15-7.
Oy.
— Oregon QB Bo Nix started his 54th college game last week, the most by any college QB ever, passing Colt McCoy and Kellen Moore (now the Chargers’ OC).
— USC lost 34-32 to Utah Saturday: after the game, no Trojan players were made available to the media, which is a bad look for USC. How are you preparing your players for the next level when they don’t have to answer questions after a tough loss?
Also makes you wonder how Lincoln Riley would do if he coached in the NFL; media access is a given there, and their seasons are a lot longer than college seasons.
— Morehead State guard Mark Freeman, preseason OVC Player of the Year, hurt his wrist and is likely out for the season. Freeman scored 15 ppg last year and helped Morehead upset Clemson in the first round of the NIT.
— Montana Grizzlies have a shooting guard who is in his 7th year of college basketball; the guy is married with two kids.
— Zach Collins plays for the San Antonio Spurs; in five years, he’s started 42 of the 245 games he’s played in, playing 18.9 minutes a game. Last year, he scored 11.6 ppg while starting 26 of the 63 games he played in. He is complimentary player, nothing wrong with that, but for sure, he isn’t a star.
I remember seeing him play in a high school tournament in Las Vegas when he was in 10th grade, December 2013. He played for Bishop Gorman HS in Las Vegas.
Now he is really rich, just signed a 2-year deal with the Spurs for $35M. Playing in the NBA is really profitable, when subs are banking $17.5M a year.
— Washington Commanders on 3rd down, last four games:
Week 4- 8-17 @ Philadelphia
Week 5- 6-12 vs Chicago (14-27 in consecutive games)
Week 6- 2-10 @ Atlanta
Week 7- 1-15 @ NJ Giants (3-25 in last two games. Not good)
— Rams cut their kicker Tuesday; he missed two field goals and an extra point Sunday. The new kicker is Lucas Havrisik, who was on the Browns’ practice squad- he was on the Colts’ practice squad last year, after kicking in college at Arizona.
— San Francisco Giants made a good move and hired Bob Melvin as their new manager.
