Armadillo Sports
Saturday’s 6-pack:
NFL teams who’ve spent the most $$$ on receivers this year:
$44.6M— Broncos
$44M— Buccaneers
$42M— Jaguars
$40.3M— Raiders
$39.1M— Browns, Dolphins
$38.2M— Chargers
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
Saturday’s quiz
Who managed the Arizona Diamondbacks when they won their only World Series title?
Friday’s quiz
The first time Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the Super Bowl, Brad Johnson was their QB.
Thursday’s quiz
Tony LaRussa got a pinch-hit for the A’s in their first home game in Oakland, back in 1968.
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Saturday’s Den: Wrapping up a busy Friday
— Happy birthday to the great comedian/actor Steve Martin, who turned 78 Friday. One of my boyhood heroes, I loved his appearances on the Tonight Show. He also turned out to be a really good actor (Roxanne, Shopgirl, Leap of Faith, The Jerk).
First time I ever saw him on TV, he was on the Tonight Show, when Buddy Hackett was a guest host. The A’s had just lost in extra innings; 12-year old me was in a bad mood, but within two minutes of seeing Steve Martin on stage, I was laughing my head off. Very funny man, but also a skilled banjo player and a good writer.
Happy birthday, sir.
— Couple years ago, San Francisco 49ers traded three #1 picks to Miami, to move up in the draft so they could take QB Trey Lance. Friday, they traded him to Dallas, for a 4th round pick.
Lance went 2-2 as a starter with the 49ers, after he played only one game his senior year at North Dakota State.
Not sure what the Cowboys will do with him, but they told backup QB Will Grier that he’ll play the whole game against the Raiders this week, then they’re cutting him, so he is in effect auditioning for the other 31 teams.
— Atlanta Falcons play five of their first six games at home; they need to get off to a fast start, with December road games outdoors in New Jersey/Chicago (cold weather).
— Argonauts 39, Stampeders 31— Chad Kelly threw for 361 yards, three TD’s; he is Jim Kelly’s nephew, played college ball at Ole Miss.
— Lions 26, Panthers 17— Rookie QB Young was 7-12/73 passing for Carolina, which played four QB’s. Detroit’s starting Goff sat this game out.
Panthers went 0-3 this preseason; they have a new coach, a rookie QB, a first-time offensive coordinator. Not the best recipe for success.
— Titans 23, Patriots 7
Tennessee ran 65 plays for 368 yards.
New England ran 42 plays for 79 yards.
Mac Jones didn’t play for New England, but those stats are a red flag.
— Chargers 23, 49ers 12
Joshua Kelley had a 75-yard TD run for the Chargers.
Chargers outscored San Francisco 13-0 over the final 20:00 of play.
Weird day for the 49ers, with Trey Lance getting traded away.
— Movie of the Day— Someone to Watch Over Me (1987)— A married New York City cop falls for the socialite murder witness he’s been assigned to protect.
Tom Berenger is the cop, Mimi Rogers is the witness, Lorraine Bracco is the cop’s wife, Jerry Orbach is another policeman.
Recently, Mimi Rogers has been in Bosch, a police drama on Amazon Prime. She was in an episode of Magnum PI in 1982, then 35 years later, she was in an episode of Blue Bloods, also with Tom Selleck.
— College Football Trend of the Day— Last two years, Navy was 12-6 ATS as an underdog.
— Stephen Strasburg retired this week; he still has a contract worth $35M a year that runs until 2026— he will bank all that money, though lot of it will be on deferred payments. He will wind up earning over $350M as a big league pitcher.
— Angels 3, Mets 1— Shohei Ohtani is in the Big Apple with the Angels, Kodai Senga pitched for the Mets— there were 50 press passes given out to the Japanese media. Patrick Sandoval went six innings for the win.
— A’s 12, White Sox 4— 9th-place hitter Nick Allen went 4-5 with five RBI; he is hitting .209 for the season, but had a big night here.
— Orioles 5, Rockies 4— Gunnar Henderson hit a 2-run homer in the bottom of the 8th inning for the come-from-behind win.
— Tigers 4, Astros 1
Framber Valdez tossed 7 innings of no-hit ball.
Matt Manning tossed 6.1 innings of one-hit ball.
Astros led 1-0 in 9th inning; Parker Meadows hit a walk-off homer for Detroit.
— Pirates 2, Cubs 1— Mitch Keller tossed eight shutout innings.
— If the baseball playoffs started today (they don’t):
NL: Braves, Brewers, Dodgers. Wild Cards: Phillies, Arizona, Cubs
AL: Orioles, Twins, Tex-Sea. Wild Cards: Rays, #2 AL West, Astros
— Arizona 10, Cincinnati 8— Weird game; there was an especially strange play late in the game, when Arizona’s Tommy Pham hit a long fly ball to left field.
Reds’ LF Spencer Steer jumped for the ball, had it in his glove, but a young fan (10-12 years old) reached over the fence, and also got his glove on it. When Steer fell to the ground, the kid had the ball, Steer didn’t, but after a replay review, Pham was called out for fan interference.
After that happened, they moved the kid and his father out of that area, but they didn’t throw him out of the park. Diamondbacks are surging, and people are happy.
Saturday’s 6-pack:
NFL teams who’ve spent the most $$$ on receivers this year:
$44.6M— Broncos
$44M— Buccaneers
$42M— Jaguars
$40.3M— Raiders
$39.1M— Browns, Dolphins
$38.2M— Chargers
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
Saturday’s quiz
Who managed the Arizona Diamondbacks when they won their only World Series title?
Friday’s quiz
The first time Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the Super Bowl, Brad Johnson was their QB.
Thursday’s quiz
Tony LaRussa got a pinch-hit for the A’s in their first home game in Oakland, back in 1968.
**************************************************
Saturday’s Den: Wrapping up a busy Friday
— Happy birthday to the great comedian/actor Steve Martin, who turned 78 Friday. One of my boyhood heroes, I loved his appearances on the Tonight Show. He also turned out to be a really good actor (Roxanne, Shopgirl, Leap of Faith, The Jerk).
First time I ever saw him on TV, he was on the Tonight Show, when Buddy Hackett was a guest host. The A’s had just lost in extra innings; 12-year old me was in a bad mood, but within two minutes of seeing Steve Martin on stage, I was laughing my head off. Very funny man, but also a skilled banjo player and a good writer.
Happy birthday, sir.
— Couple years ago, San Francisco 49ers traded three #1 picks to Miami, to move up in the draft so they could take QB Trey Lance. Friday, they traded him to Dallas, for a 4th round pick.
Lance went 2-2 as a starter with the 49ers, after he played only one game his senior year at North Dakota State.
Not sure what the Cowboys will do with him, but they told backup QB Will Grier that he’ll play the whole game against the Raiders this week, then they’re cutting him, so he is in effect auditioning for the other 31 teams.
— Atlanta Falcons play five of their first six games at home; they need to get off to a fast start, with December road games outdoors in New Jersey/Chicago (cold weather).
— Argonauts 39, Stampeders 31— Chad Kelly threw for 361 yards, three TD’s; he is Jim Kelly’s nephew, played college ball at Ole Miss.
— Lions 26, Panthers 17— Rookie QB Young was 7-12/73 passing for Carolina, which played four QB’s. Detroit’s starting Goff sat this game out.
Panthers went 0-3 this preseason; they have a new coach, a rookie QB, a first-time offensive coordinator. Not the best recipe for success.
— Titans 23, Patriots 7
Tennessee ran 65 plays for 368 yards.
New England ran 42 plays for 79 yards.
Mac Jones didn’t play for New England, but those stats are a red flag.
— Chargers 23, 49ers 12
Joshua Kelley had a 75-yard TD run for the Chargers.
Chargers outscored San Francisco 13-0 over the final 20:00 of play.
Weird day for the 49ers, with Trey Lance getting traded away.
— Movie of the Day— Someone to Watch Over Me (1987)— A married New York City cop falls for the socialite murder witness he’s been assigned to protect.
Tom Berenger is the cop, Mimi Rogers is the witness, Lorraine Bracco is the cop’s wife, Jerry Orbach is another policeman.
Recently, Mimi Rogers has been in Bosch, a police drama on Amazon Prime. She was in an episode of Magnum PI in 1982, then 35 years later, she was in an episode of Blue Bloods, also with Tom Selleck.
— College Football Trend of the Day— Last two years, Navy was 12-6 ATS as an underdog.
— Stephen Strasburg retired this week; he still has a contract worth $35M a year that runs until 2026— he will bank all that money, though lot of it will be on deferred payments. He will wind up earning over $350M as a big league pitcher.
— Angels 3, Mets 1— Shohei Ohtani is in the Big Apple with the Angels, Kodai Senga pitched for the Mets— there were 50 press passes given out to the Japanese media. Patrick Sandoval went six innings for the win.
— A’s 12, White Sox 4— 9th-place hitter Nick Allen went 4-5 with five RBI; he is hitting .209 for the season, but had a big night here.
— Orioles 5, Rockies 4— Gunnar Henderson hit a 2-run homer in the bottom of the 8th inning for the come-from-behind win.
— Tigers 4, Astros 1
Framber Valdez tossed 7 innings of no-hit ball.
Matt Manning tossed 6.1 innings of one-hit ball.
Astros led 1-0 in 9th inning; Parker Meadows hit a walk-off homer for Detroit.
— Pirates 2, Cubs 1— Mitch Keller tossed eight shutout innings.
— If the baseball playoffs started today (they don’t):
NL: Braves, Brewers, Dodgers. Wild Cards: Phillies, Arizona, Cubs
AL: Orioles, Twins, Tex-Sea. Wild Cards: Rays, #2 AL West, Astros
— Arizona 10, Cincinnati 8— Weird game; there was an especially strange play late in the game, when Arizona’s Tommy Pham hit a long fly ball to left field.
Reds’ LF Spencer Steer jumped for the ball, had it in his glove, but a young fan (10-12 years old) reached over the fence, and also got his glove on it. When Steer fell to the ground, the kid had the ball, Steer didn’t, but after a replay review, Pham was called out for fan interference.
After that happened, they moved the kid and his father out of that area, but they didn’t throw him out of the park. Diamondbacks are surging, and people are happy.
