Armadillo Sports
Saturday’s 6-pack:
Major league leaders in slugging %age:
.631— Marcell Ozuna, Atl
.626— Kyle Tucker, Hst/Shohei Ohtani, LA
.619— Aaron Judge, NYY
.607— Gunnar Henderson, Balt
.581— Juan Soto, NYY
.563— Brent Rooker, A’s
Quote of the Day
“We’re going to be open to listening to anybody and everybody. We’re not closing any doors. Whoever wants to talk about deals, I’m open.”
Juan Soto, who is a free agent after this season
Saturday’s quiz
Who is the last pitcher to get a hit in a World Series game?
Hint: It happened in 2021.
Friday’s quiz
When David Cone threw his perfect game in 1999, Joe Girardi was his catcher.
Thursday’s quiz
Charles Barkley played his college basketball at Auburn.
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Saturday’s Den: Random stuff with the weekend here…….
— TV game analysts/studio analysts should be former coaches/players, people who have been in the arena and can tell us what it was like.
TNT has Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith on their NBA show.
TNT has Wayne Gretzky, Henrik Lundqvist (and others) on their NHL show.
ESPN has Mark Messier, PK Subban on their NHL show.
This is the way it is supposed to be.
Then there is ESPN’s NBA show, which for some regrettable reason, has Stephen A Smith and Michael Wilbon it; they’ve played/coached in the NBA as much as I have.
Former Warriors GM Bob Myers is good, having Chris Paul/Draymond Green is good; they can tell us what being in the playoffs are like.
I listen to games so I can learn stuff; if you have overpaid nitwits spouting palaver at halftime, I quickly hit the mute button, or change the channel.
— There are only 11 major league games on Memorial Day; you’d think on a national holiday, everyone would play, maybe even play a doubleheader.
— If TNT loses rights to NBA broadcasts after next season, and it looks like they will, it is said they’ll lose $500M a year in advertising revenue. No bueno.
— NBA needs to re-calibrate how they track assists:
They should count how many points a player assists to teammates.
— An assist on a 3-point basket would obviously be 3 points.
— An assist that leads to free throws should also count.
This would be a more telling stat than the way they do it now.
— Giants 8, Mets 7
Giants are the first team since 1999 to win three straight games when trailing by 4+ runs; they’re the first team to do it on the road since 1932.
— Brothers who have homered for the same team, in the same inning:
Hank/Tommy Aaron
Cal/Bill Ripken
Josh/Bo Naylor- Cleveland, this year
— Kansas City Royals are only team with an extra-base hit in every game this season.
— Relief pitcher for the Twins came into a game this week in Washington on the Nationals’ bullpen cart; when he got out of the cart, he tipped the driver $5.
— 2025 NFL Draft will be in Green Bay, 2026 draft will be in Pittsburgh.
— Famous birthdays for May 25th:
Leslie Uggams, 81
Bob Knepper, 70
Mike Myers, 61
Kendall Gill, 56
Todd Walker, 51
Molly Sims, 51
Miguel Tejada, 50
Brian Uhrlacher, 46
Kevin O’Connell, 39
— Notes on NFL season win totals:
Last eight years, Broncos are under 7-0-1 against their win total.
Last five years, Bears/Chargers are both under 4-0-1.
Last five years, Dolphins are over 4-0-1 against their win total.
Last four years, Steelers are over 4-0.
— Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa missed a day of Miami’s organized team activities because he was playing in Nick Saban’s charity golf tournament; he has missed some other days, maybe because his people are negotiating a new contract with the Dolphins.
Last year (his 4th NFL season) was first time Tagovailoa played in all 17 games; he threw for 4,624 yards, completing 69% of his passes, with 29 TD passes.
— Utility guy Joey Wendle went 8-36 in 18 games with the Mets; they told him to take a hike, and now the Braves have stopped him up, which is probably bad news for Zach Short.
— Marlins 3, Arizona 0
Braxton Garrett threw a 95-pitch complete game shutout.
Marlins have five shutout wins in their last nine games.
— Sacramento State basketball coach David Patrick quit to become the associate head coach at LSU; Sac State was 14-18/10-24 in Patrick’s two seasons. It is the second time Patrick has quit being a head coach (Cal-Riverside) to become a D-I assistant. He had previously been at LSU as an assistant coach, from 2012-16.
— Phillies 2, Rockies 1
Bryce Harper struck out in the top of the first, and got tossed from the game; the last time Harper got thrown out of a game was last year, the last time the Phillies played in Denver.
Colorado rookie OF Jordan Beck had 80 plate appearances without drawing a walk, a little bit of a red flag; he finally walked Friday night, but it was an intentional walk in th
— Dallas Stars’ coach Peter DeBoer has coached in the NHL’s Final Four 5 of the last 6 years, but with three different teams:
2018-19- San Jose 46-27-9, 10-10 in playoffs
2019-20- San Jose 15-16-2, got fired during season
Las Vegas hired him, he was 15-5-2, 12-8 in playoffs.
2020-21- Las Vegas 40-14-2, 10-9 in playoffs.
2021-22- Las Vegas 43-31-8, missed playoffs
2022-23- Dallas 47-21-14, 10-9 in playoffs.
2023-24- Dallas 52-21-9, 8-6 playoffs.
Coach DeBoer has had lot of success, coaching in Stanley Cup finals twice, but he’s on his fifth team in 15 years. It doesn’t make much sense.
