Wednesday’s 6-pack
— Jose Altuve had a setback in his injury rehab, now has problems in both legs.
— Byron Buxton (knee) left the Twins’ game after crashing into the OF fence.
— Nationals’ OF Victor Robles has been hit by a pitch four games in a row.
— Legalized sports betting was voted down in Louisiana Tuesday.
— Reds 11, Pirates 6— Derek Dietrich hit three home runs.
— Crowd in Tampa Bay Tuesday: 5,786. Don’t bitch when they move to Montreal.
Tweet of the Day
“I get booed everywhere I go. Great players get booed.”
Manny Machado, always very modest
Wednesday’s quiz
What three QB’s won Super Bowls playing for Joe Gibbs?
Tuesday’s quiz
Jacob deGrom is a really good pitcher, but the Mets are 16-25 in his last 41 starts.
Monday’s quiz
Steve Kerr played his college basketball at Arizona.
****************************
Wednesday’s List of 13: Mid-week musings……
13) 5-star Class of 2019 basketball recruit RJ Hampton announced Tuesday that he will skip college and will play professionally in Australia/New Zealand this season to prep for the 2020 NBA Draft. He reclassified from the ’20 class to 2019 earlier this spring with an eye on becoming eligible for the 2020 draft.
So this is a 6-5 guard who is supposed to be in a senior in high school, but who will travel all the way to Australia and play pro ball this season, then go to the NBA Draft when he could’ve been a freshman in college, in the 2020-21 season.
It is a free country, but sometimes you wish parents would let their kids be kids. It’ll be interesting to see how this works out, and if others follow his path.
12) Here are some guys who shunned college for playing overseas:
— Brandon Jennings has scored 7,801 points in nine seasons (14.1 ppg); he was a double-figure scorer and starter for the first six years of his career, and has earned around $41M total.
— Emmanuel Mudiay has scored 2,901 points in four NBA seasons, including 14.8 points per game for the Knicks; he’s earned around $14M so far.
— Three years ago, Terrance Ferguson skipped college to play pro ball in Australia; he’s played the last couple years for Oklahoma City, scoring 5.2 ppg in 20 mpg over 135 games, earning $3.9M for those two seasons.
— Jeremy Tyler played overseas in 2010, then scored 3.6 ppg in 9.9 mpg in 103 NBA games in three seasons. He still plays ball overseas; he made $2,396,488 in the NBA.
11) Yesterday, on the same day Bill Buckner passed away, the Twins called up a rookie pitcher named Devin Smeltzer, who then called one of his old coaches, former big league pitcher Woody Williams, to tell him the good news.
Back in 1993, when Williams got called up to the majors for the first time by Toronto. he was told by an instructor in the Blue Jays’ organization. A guy named Bill Buckner.
10) Hitters who have come up with most men on base this season:
— Marcell Ozuna, StL- 173
— Xander Bogaerts, Bos- 171
— Rhys Hoskins, Phil- 161
9) Hitters who have knocked in highest %age of runners from 3rd base (minimum of 10 runners on 3rd base):
— Gio Urschela, NYY- 10-14 (71.4%)
— Eric Hosmer, SD— 8-12 (66.7%)
— Max Kepler, Minn- 10-16 (62.5%)
8) Hitters who have knocked in lowest %age of runners from 3rd base (minimum of 10 runners on 3rd base):
— John Hicks/Francisco Cervelli- 1-16 (6.25%)
— Martin Maldonado, KC- 1-14 (7.1%)
— Randal Grichuk, Tor- 2-19 (10.5%)
7) College basketball transfer portal:
— Joey Hauser jumps from Marquette to Michigan State.
— Sam Hauser jumps from Marquette to Virginia.
6) Baseball stuff:
— Tigers put 2B Josh Harrison (hamstring) on IL.
— Angels put 3B Zach Cosart (shoulder) on IL.
— Twins put P Michael Pineda (knee) on IL.
5) Phillies’ OF Odubel Herrera was placed on administrative leave by MLB after he was arrested on a domestic violence charge in Atlantic City Monday.
Very unusual for teams not to play on Memorial Day; I’m guessing Herrera wishes the Phillies had a game yesterday. This will wind up as a very expensive visit to Atlantic City.
4) When major league teams come to New York City, they get to explore a little, whether it be at MLB Network, or the Topps baseball card HQ, or other media outlets.
Bob Scanlan, a Padres broadcaster, posted a baseball card of a young Tony Gwynn playing for San Diego, but wearing number 53, not number 19. Looked like a spring training game.
3) Joe Gibbs got elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame last week; he is already in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, so that puts him in a unique place in sports history.
Gibbs won three Super Bowl titles with the Redskins, with three different QB’s.
2) Two TV series I wish hadn’t ended:
— Without a Trace was a show about finding missing people; Anthony LaPaglia played Jack Malone, a sarcastic FBI agent who led the unit, but who also had problems of his own. Just an excellent show; it still re-runs late night on cable.
— In Plain Sight used to be on USA Network; this show was about people re-located in the Witness Protection Program. They had some really good stories, there was a good mix of drama with some humor added in, but the show’s star got a better offer to be in a show on network TV, so she quit and the show ended. Too bad.
1) Speaking of late night TV, I see those Peloton exercise bike commercials and I want to trade my exercise bike in for one of those, since everyone on their commercials looks like an Olympic athlete. No overweight, bald people ride a Peloton; you think it would help? Nah, me either.
