Armadillo: Thursday's six-pack
-- San Diego State 60, UNLV 58-- Referee David Hall worked his 89th game in 111 nights this college basketball season.
-- Eight of UNLV's last nine losses were by 6 or less points or in overtime.
-- Turns out that Jim Harbaugh is a big fan of Judge Judy's TV show; who knew?
-- Odd fact: Werner Ladder is the official ladder of the NCAA tournament.
-- Dodgers apparently have offered to pay about half of the $56M they owe Andre Ethier over the next three years, if some team will trade for him.
-- Leftfield bleachers in Wrigley Field won't be available until at least May 11; ones in rightfield not until June at the earliest, as renovations at the ballpark are dragging.
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Armadillo: Thursday's List of 13: Doing some thinking out loud.......
13) Hard to believe its been 25 years since Hank Gathers died. Young man was a star for Loyola Marymount; he had a heart attack on the court during the WCC tournament and passed away shortly thereafter. Very sad, seems like yesterday.
12) Irony of Reggie Jackson being called Mr October: first time one of teams he played for made the World Series, in 1972, Jackson didn't play in the series because he tore his hamstring sliding into home plate in Game 5 of the playoff series with Detroit. A's replaced him with George Hendrick/Angel Mangual in that series.
11) Exhibition baseball is therapeutic, but I watch highlights Tuesday and I see Josh Donaldson playing for Toronto, Yoenis Cespedes for Detroit and for those several minutes, it is not fun to be an A's fan. No one good ever stays.
10) This goes all the way back to New Years Eve, 1974; I was 15 and went bowling. Came home and turned the sports ticker channel on, the cool channel with a light blue screen that spouted out sports stuff whenever the stock market was closed.
That night, the channel delivered me bad news: Catfish Hunter had signed with the baseball team in the Bronx. My favorite player had left the A's for money, something that has repeated itself over and over and over for the last 40 years. It sucks.
9) Side note that I mentioned here once before: that bowling alley, Sunset Lanes, will soon be turned into a warehouse for the many Asian grocery stores and restaurants in this area. America needs more bowling alleys, not less. Not all change is positive.
8) While I'm complaining about things, selling Personal Seat Licenses to stadiums should be illegal. You build a stadium with taxpayer dollars, you charge fans a fee just to have the right to buy tickets for the games there; how is this not extortion?
7) There were 14,400 pitching changes in the major leagues last year, thats 5.94 per game, or roughly 2,500 more than in 1998. How long does a pitching change take, if it is done during a half-inning? 5-7 minutes? There are two main reasons baseball games are longer now than they were 20 years ago:
-- More commercials in between innings.
-- More pitching changs, a lot more.
6) Baseball fans don't care that games are a little longer; the media does and the media influences a lot of what the average fan thinks, so the things they bitch about become the things a lot of average fans bitch about. Its too bad.
5) Saw this somewhere today, maybe an ESPN magazine I was reading: the average number of balls in play during a 2014 baseball game: 52. There are obviously 54 outs in a 9-inning game if home team bats in 9th inning; subtract strikeouts, add in hits and errors and you get 52. I had never thought about it, but it is an interesting number.
4) Peyton Manning took a $4M pay cut for next year, will play for $15M, which is not pocket change, but it is less than his brother Eli makes.
3) Peyton Manning threw 21 TDs with only four INTs at home LY; he threw 18 TDs, 11 INTs on the road.
2) Virginia is expected to get Justin Anderson back for its next game at Louisville Saturday and more importantly, the ACC and NCAA tournaments. Anderson is their best player; would be curious to see the Cavaliers play Kentucky.
1) Underrated move: Buffalo Bills traded for Matt Cassel Wednesday. Cassel once led the Patriots to an 11-5 record when Tom Brady got hurt in the season opener. He never started a game at USC, backing up Carson Palmer/Matt Leinart.
-- San Diego State 60, UNLV 58-- Referee David Hall worked his 89th game in 111 nights this college basketball season.
-- Eight of UNLV's last nine losses were by 6 or less points or in overtime.
-- Turns out that Jim Harbaugh is a big fan of Judge Judy's TV show; who knew?
-- Odd fact: Werner Ladder is the official ladder of the NCAA tournament.
-- Dodgers apparently have offered to pay about half of the $56M they owe Andre Ethier over the next three years, if some team will trade for him.
-- Leftfield bleachers in Wrigley Field won't be available until at least May 11; ones in rightfield not until June at the earliest, as renovations at the ballpark are dragging.
**********
Armadillo: Thursday's List of 13: Doing some thinking out loud.......
13) Hard to believe its been 25 years since Hank Gathers died. Young man was a star for Loyola Marymount; he had a heart attack on the court during the WCC tournament and passed away shortly thereafter. Very sad, seems like yesterday.
12) Irony of Reggie Jackson being called Mr October: first time one of teams he played for made the World Series, in 1972, Jackson didn't play in the series because he tore his hamstring sliding into home plate in Game 5 of the playoff series with Detroit. A's replaced him with George Hendrick/Angel Mangual in that series.
11) Exhibition baseball is therapeutic, but I watch highlights Tuesday and I see Josh Donaldson playing for Toronto, Yoenis Cespedes for Detroit and for those several minutes, it is not fun to be an A's fan. No one good ever stays.
10) This goes all the way back to New Years Eve, 1974; I was 15 and went bowling. Came home and turned the sports ticker channel on, the cool channel with a light blue screen that spouted out sports stuff whenever the stock market was closed.
That night, the channel delivered me bad news: Catfish Hunter had signed with the baseball team in the Bronx. My favorite player had left the A's for money, something that has repeated itself over and over and over for the last 40 years. It sucks.
9) Side note that I mentioned here once before: that bowling alley, Sunset Lanes, will soon be turned into a warehouse for the many Asian grocery stores and restaurants in this area. America needs more bowling alleys, not less. Not all change is positive.
8) While I'm complaining about things, selling Personal Seat Licenses to stadiums should be illegal. You build a stadium with taxpayer dollars, you charge fans a fee just to have the right to buy tickets for the games there; how is this not extortion?
7) There were 14,400 pitching changes in the major leagues last year, thats 5.94 per game, or roughly 2,500 more than in 1998. How long does a pitching change take, if it is done during a half-inning? 5-7 minutes? There are two main reasons baseball games are longer now than they were 20 years ago:
-- More commercials in between innings.
-- More pitching changs, a lot more.
6) Baseball fans don't care that games are a little longer; the media does and the media influences a lot of what the average fan thinks, so the things they bitch about become the things a lot of average fans bitch about. Its too bad.
5) Saw this somewhere today, maybe an ESPN magazine I was reading: the average number of balls in play during a 2014 baseball game: 52. There are obviously 54 outs in a 9-inning game if home team bats in 9th inning; subtract strikeouts, add in hits and errors and you get 52. I had never thought about it, but it is an interesting number.
4) Peyton Manning took a $4M pay cut for next year, will play for $15M, which is not pocket change, but it is less than his brother Eli makes.
3) Peyton Manning threw 21 TDs with only four INTs at home LY; he threw 18 TDs, 11 INTs on the road.
2) Virginia is expected to get Justin Anderson back for its next game at Louisville Saturday and more importantly, the ACC and NCAA tournaments. Anderson is their best player; would be curious to see the Cavaliers play Kentucky.
1) Underrated move: Buffalo Bills traded for Matt Cassel Wednesday. Cassel once led the Patriots to an 11-5 record when Tom Brady got hurt in the season opener. He never started a game at USC, backing up Carson Palmer/Matt Leinart.
