Armadillo Sports
Wednesday’s 6-pack
College basketball scrimmages this month, with Big East teams:
October 15— Marquette-Loyola Chi
October 22— Creighton-Iowa State
UConn-Harvard
Georgetown-Temple
Villanova-VCU
October 29— Marquette-Missouri
Quote of the Day
“People say New Yorkers can’t get along. Not true. I saw two New Yorkers, complete strangers, sharing a cab. One guy took the tires and the radio; the other guy took the engine.”
David Letterman
Wednesday’s quiz
In the old TV show Magnum PI, what were the names of Higgins’ two dogs?
Tuesday’s quiz
Daryle Lamonica played QB for the Raiders, the first time they were in the Super Bowl (SB II)
Monday’s quiz
San Diego Padres have played in two World Series, losing both; Hall of Famer Dick Williams managed them in 1984, future Hall of Famer Bruce Bochy in 1998.
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Wednesday’s Den: Mid-week musings…….
Before we start today, a word of thanks to two people and the folks who work for them.
Three years ago today, my retina detached in Las Vegas; I had an operation 10 days later, with Dr Mallick fixing my retina. I am eternally grateful to him and his staff for their expertise. He has moved to New Jersey since then; hope he is doing well.
Few months later, I had to get cataracts removed from that eye, which were a by-product of the retina surgery. Dr Lemanski and her staff did a great job, so now my vision is good again. I’m very appreciative of both these great doctors and the skilled people who work for them.
— My Question of the Day, and I’ve given this one some thought— I’m not 100% sure of my answer, but if you were the GM of the Baltimore Ravens, and you made $2M a year or whatever it is that job pays, would you pay Lamar Jackson $40M a year to be your quarterback?
Jackson is 40-14 in regular season games with Baltimore, 1-3 in playoff games.
If your $2M a year job depended on whether the Ravens won/lost, would you pay Jackson to be your franchise QB? Ravens are going to have to make the decision pretty soon.
By the way, if I was the Ravens’ GM, I’d pay Lamar.
— Phillies 7, Braves 6
Nick Castellanos went 3-5 with 3 RBI and had a sliding catch to end the game. Phillies are 3-0 so far in these playoffs.
— Braves weren’t swept in any series this year, first time in 18 years that happened in the major leagues. This year, Atlanta was 18-2 in Game 2 of a series when they lost the opener, and the two times they lost, they won the third game both times.
— Astros 8, Mariners 7
Yordan Alvarez hit a walk-off HR to cap Astros’ big rally.
Seattle led 7-3 in 8th inning.
Top three guys in Seattle lineup went 7-13 with 5 RBI
Verlander gave up six runs in four IP.
— Of the 26 players on Seattle’s roster for this series, 17 were acquired via trade, only 6 are home-grown players. Astros have 14 home grown players, with nine acquired via trades.
— New York 4, Guardians 1
Cole allowed one run, got 19 outs on 101 pitches.
Rizzo hit a two-run homer.
9th-place hitter Bader also homered.
— Dodgers 5, Padres 3
Dodgers led 5-0 in third inning.
Dodgers didn’t get any hits after the third inning.
LA used four relievers who threw four shutout innings.
— NFL teams who’ve gone over the total the most this season:
Browns, Raiders, both 4-1. Raiders 3-1-1
NFL teams who’ve stayed under the total the most:
Bengals, Colts both 5-0
— You see that Allstate commercial with Chiefs’ coach Andy Reid drawing mustaches on the face of people sleeping on the airplane? Apparently in real life, Reid loves to sketch; when he doodles, he sketches faces a lot.
Reid grew up in the Los Angeles area; his father painted sets for stage productions in LA.
— UCLA Bruins football team is 6-0 for the first time since 2005.
— Oklahoma Sooners got waxed 49-0 by Texas last week, first time the Sooners got shut out since 1998, when Texas A&M shut them out, 29-0, when John Blake was Oklahoma’s coach.
— I neglected to post this Sunday, because it happened at 2:25am Saturday night, but there was a great comeback out west, with Oregon State scoring on a 56-yard TD pass with 0:13 left to beat Stanford, 28-27. Was a terrific game, but this was an ugly loss for the Cardinal.
— When the Tampa Bay-Cleveland game went extra innings the other day, had to be reminded that there are no ghost runners in the playoffs, which is a good thing, the way it should be.
Am looking forward to when they announce the rule changes for next baseball season; pretty sure the ghost runner will still be a thing, but shifts will be gone and a pitch clock figures to be added. Not really sure who that will help.
— Kansas Jayhawks are off to a surprising 5-1 start; their game Saturday was on FOX, with Jason Benetti as the announcer. They showed a guy standing behind Kansas coach Leipold; apparently he is the analytics guy who stands right behind the coach to give him his input on any strategic decisions that pop up.
Odd thing is, the guy apparently asked the FOX people not to show him or say his name on the air; no idea why, but Benetti did quickly say his name on the air.
— Whoever put a TV camera inside the pylon on the goal line deserves a big raise.
— Denver QB Russell Wilson has a torn lat in his throwing shoulder; he got some platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections in the shoulder, and will try to play thru the injury.
— NFL divisions records against the spread, in non-division games:
NFC East— 9-5 ATS, 5-0 as a home favorite.
NFC North— 6-6 ATS, 4-2 at home.
NFC South— 5-7 ATS, 2-5 at home.
NFC West— 6-8 ATS, 1-5 as a favorite.
AFC East— 9-5 ATS, 6-2 on road, 5-1 as a favorite.
AFC North— 7-7 ATS, 3-2 as an underdog.
AFC South— 6-6 ATS; they were an underdog in 10 of 12 games.
AFC West— 4-8 ATS, 0-4 as a home favorite, 1-0 as an underdog.
