Tuesday’s 6-pack:
Major League leaders in OPS (on-base % + slugging percentage)
1.119— Mookie Betts, LA
1.056— Marcell Ozuna, Atl
1.047— Alec Bohm, Phil
1.041— Shohei Ohtani, LA
1.011— CJ Abrams Wsh/Jose Altuve Hst
1.000— Salvador Perez, KC
Quote of the Day
“I hated the All-Star Game. I hated having to talk to guys that I spent the rest of the season trying to kick their ass. They were the enemy to me.”
Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson
Tuesday’s quiz
In the movie Major League, what position did Corbin Bernson’s (Roger Dorn) character play?
Monday’s quiz
Joe Girardi was the Bronx Bombers’ manager, before Aaron Boone.
Sunday’s quiz
Atlanta Falcons have played in two Super Bowls; Chris Chandler, Matt Ryan were their quarterbacks in those two games.
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Summer Olympics are in Paris this year; they start in late July and will be broadcast on NBC and Peacock. NBCUniversal is raising the price of Peacock for the second time in two years, adding $2 a month onto the cost of the streaming service this summer, around the time of the Paris Olympics.
Go figure.
— Minnesota Timberwolves just swept Phoenix 4-0 in their playoff series, winning their first playoff series in 2o years, but Minnesota coach Chris Finch ruptured the patellar tendon in his right knee after Minnesota PG Mike Conley collided with him on the sideline near the end of the game.
Minnesota plays Denver in the next round…….
— Nuggets 108, Lakers 106
Denver wins the series, 4-1.
Nikola Jokic had 25 points, 20 rebounds, 9 assists.
Jamal Murray scored 32 points, had 7 assists.
— Celtics 102, Heat 88
Derrick White scored 38 points without taking a foul shot, the 2nd-most points ever scored in a playoff game with no free throws taken- Chuck Person scored 39 points in a 1991 game.
Boston leads this series, 3-1.
Miami is now 1-11 ATS as a home underdog this season.
— Spurs-Pacers are going to play a couple of regular season games in France next January.
— Edmonton Oilers’ star Connor McDavid scored 32 goals this year, had 100 assists, the first NHL player with 100+ assists since Wayne Gretzky in 1991. Bobby Orr, Mario Lemieux are the only other two players with 100+ assists in a season.
— When the Rangers swept Washington Capitals 4-0 over the weekend, it was their first series sweep since 2007, when they swept the Atlanta Thrashers 4-0.
Four years after that, the Thrashers moved to Winnipeg and became the Jets.
— Famous birthdays for April 30:
Jerry Stovall, 83
Phil Garner, 75
Isiah Thomas, 63
Al Toon, 61
Dave Meggett, 58
Stephen Kunken, 53
Edouard Julien, 25
— Mariners 2, Braves 1
Mitch Garver hit a 2-run, walk-off homer for Seattle.
Max Fried threw six no-hit innings for Atlanta.
— Cubs 3, Mets 1
Christopher Morel hit a 2-run homer for the Cubs in the 9th inning.
Luis Severino no-hit Chicago for the first seven innings.
— A’s 5, Pirates 1
A’s held Pittsburgh to two hits; Joe Boyle tossed five IP, getting the win.
Oakland is 5-3 in its last eight games.
— Texas rookie Wyatt Langford hit an inside-the-park home run Sunday, his first career home run. He is the 14th player since 2000 whose first career home run was inside-the-park.
— Baltimore 2, New York 0
New York scored 15-15 runs Saturday/Sunday, but got blanked by Grayson Rodriguez and three relievers here. New York was 0-8 with runners in scoring position; these teams are now tied for first place in the AL East.
— Milwaukee’s pitching coach is Chris Hook, a fitting name for a pitching coach; guy is struggling on the mound, here comes the hook.
— 6-7 Ryan Petraitis transferred from Air Force to Cal; you don’t see a lot of Air Force basketball players get poached in the transfer portal.
— UConn has won the last two national titles in college hoop; now they’ve poached PG Aidan Mahaney, a two-time first-team all-WCC selection at Saint Mary’s. Big addition for the Huskies.
Major League leaders in OPS (on-base % + slugging percentage)
1.119— Mookie Betts, LA
1.056— Marcell Ozuna, Atl
1.047— Alec Bohm, Phil
1.041— Shohei Ohtani, LA
1.011— CJ Abrams Wsh/Jose Altuve Hst
1.000— Salvador Perez, KC
Quote of the Day
“I hated the All-Star Game. I hated having to talk to guys that I spent the rest of the season trying to kick their ass. They were the enemy to me.”
Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson
Tuesday’s quiz
In the movie Major League, what position did Corbin Bernson’s (Roger Dorn) character play?
Monday’s quiz
Joe Girardi was the Bronx Bombers’ manager, before Aaron Boone.
Sunday’s quiz
Atlanta Falcons have played in two Super Bowls; Chris Chandler, Matt Ryan were their quarterbacks in those two games.
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Tuesday’s Den: Clearing out a cluttered mind……..
— “Greed Is Good”……remember Michael Douglas saying that in Wall Street? That movie was made in 1987, but not much has changed since then, as far as businesses go.Summer Olympics are in Paris this year; they start in late July and will be broadcast on NBC and Peacock. NBCUniversal is raising the price of Peacock for the second time in two years, adding $2 a month onto the cost of the streaming service this summer, around the time of the Paris Olympics.
Go figure.
— Minnesota Timberwolves just swept Phoenix 4-0 in their playoff series, winning their first playoff series in 2o years, but Minnesota coach Chris Finch ruptured the patellar tendon in his right knee after Minnesota PG Mike Conley collided with him on the sideline near the end of the game.
Minnesota plays Denver in the next round…….
— Nuggets 108, Lakers 106
Denver wins the series, 4-1.
Nikola Jokic had 25 points, 20 rebounds, 9 assists.
Jamal Murray scored 32 points, had 7 assists.
— Celtics 102, Heat 88
Derrick White scored 38 points without taking a foul shot, the 2nd-most points ever scored in a playoff game with no free throws taken- Chuck Person scored 39 points in a 1991 game.
Boston leads this series, 3-1.
Miami is now 1-11 ATS as a home underdog this season.
— Spurs-Pacers are going to play a couple of regular season games in France next January.
— Edmonton Oilers’ star Connor McDavid scored 32 goals this year, had 100 assists, the first NHL player with 100+ assists since Wayne Gretzky in 1991. Bobby Orr, Mario Lemieux are the only other two players with 100+ assists in a season.
— When the Rangers swept Washington Capitals 4-0 over the weekend, it was their first series sweep since 2007, when they swept the Atlanta Thrashers 4-0.
Four years after that, the Thrashers moved to Winnipeg and became the Jets.
— Famous birthdays for April 30:
Jerry Stovall, 83
Phil Garner, 75
Isiah Thomas, 63
Al Toon, 61
Dave Meggett, 58
Stephen Kunken, 53
Edouard Julien, 25
— Mariners 2, Braves 1
Mitch Garver hit a 2-run, walk-off homer for Seattle.
Max Fried threw six no-hit innings for Atlanta.
— Cubs 3, Mets 1
Christopher Morel hit a 2-run homer for the Cubs in the 9th inning.
Luis Severino no-hit Chicago for the first seven innings.
— A’s 5, Pirates 1
A’s held Pittsburgh to two hits; Joe Boyle tossed five IP, getting the win.
Oakland is 5-3 in its last eight games.
— Texas rookie Wyatt Langford hit an inside-the-park home run Sunday, his first career home run. He is the 14th player since 2000 whose first career home run was inside-the-park.
— Baltimore 2, New York 0
New York scored 15-15 runs Saturday/Sunday, but got blanked by Grayson Rodriguez and three relievers here. New York was 0-8 with runners in scoring position; these teams are now tied for first place in the AL East.
— Milwaukee’s pitching coach is Chris Hook, a fitting name for a pitching coach; guy is struggling on the mound, here comes the hook.
— 6-7 Ryan Petraitis transferred from Air Force to Cal; you don’t see a lot of Air Force basketball players get poached in the transfer portal.
— UConn has won the last two national titles in college hoop; now they’ve poached PG Aidan Mahaney, a two-time first-team all-WCC selection at Saint Mary’s. Big addition for the Huskies.
NEW YORK is 19-5 ATS (13.5 Units) after scoring 100 points or less over the last 2 seasons.
ORLANDO is 96-64 ATS (25.6 Units) versus good shooting teams - making >=46% of their shots in the last 3 seasons.
INDIANA is 8-0 ATS (8 Units) in road games on Tuesday nights in the current season.
NBA
Dunkel
Tuesday, April 30
NBA
Long Sheet
Tuesday, April 30
ORLANDO is 96-64 ATS (25.6 Units) versus good shooting teams - making >=46% of their shots in the last 3 seasons.
INDIANA is 8-0 ATS (8 Units) in road games on Tuesday nights in the current season.
NBA
Dunkel
Tuesday, April 30
NBA
Long Sheet
Tuesday, April 30
Armadillo Sports
Wednesday’s 6-pack:
Biggest salary cap hits in the NFL this coming season:
$63.8M— Deshaun Watson, Clev
$55.5M— Dak Prexcott, Dal
$53M— Russell Wilson, Den-Pitt
$49.5M— Matthew Stafford, Rams
$49.1M— Kyler Murray, Ariz
$47.9M— Daniel Jones, NJG
Quote of the Day
“Why do we park on driveways, but drive on parkways???”
Steven Wright
Wednesday’s quiz
In the history of the Tampa Bay Rays, who scored the most runs?
Tuesday’s quiz
In the movie Major League, Corbin Bernson’s character (Roger Dorn) played third base.
Monday’s quiz
Joe Girardi was the Bronx Bombers’ manager, before Aaron Boone.
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Wednesday’s Den: Mid-week musings…….
— Saw something tonight I’ve never seen before:
Brewers 8, Rays 2
Brewers lead Tampa Bay 6-1, top of the 6th. Jose Siri is batting for Tampa, Freddy Peralta is cruising for Milwaukee, but he has a 3-0 count on Siri and he hits him in the butt with a pitch.
Siri had homered in his previous at-bat; the umpires gather, and throw Peralta out of the game for hitting Siri on purpose. It was a 3-0 pitch when he had a 5-run lead; Milwaukee manager Murphy got tossed (for second night in a row) and the game went on.
Next time Siri was up, he grounded out to first base; words were exchanged and a scuffle broke out; apparently the Brewers don’t like Siri very much.
— Marlins 7, Rockies 6 (10)
Colorado scored five runs in 1st inning, led 5-0 in bottom of the 9th; it would’ve been the first game all season they never trailed in, but the Marlins tied the game with five runs in the ninth, then won it in the 10th on Dane Myers’ walk-off single.
Rockies have now trailed in all 29 of their games, the only team since 1900 to do that.
— Start of the Dodgers-Arizona game was delayed by two hours because there was a swarm of bees behind home plate; the beekeeper who got rid of the bees threw out the ceremonial first pitch, was interviewed on TV. Arizona switched starting pitchers because of the delay, moving Jordan Montgomery’s start to another day.
Arizona 4, Dodgers 3 (10)
Christian Walker’s 2-run homer in the 10th was a game-winner.
— Astros 10, Guardians 9 (10)
Victor Caratini had a pinch-hit, walk-off 2-run homer to give Houston its third straight win.
Astros led 8-3 after five, blew the lead, but won for only 2nd time in their last 13 extra inning games.
— A’s 5, Pirates 2
JJ Bleday homered twice; the A’s win in front of 3,876 loyalists.
Oakland is now 6-3 in its last nine games.
— Orioles 4, New York 2
Dean Kremer pitched seven strong innings for Baltimore.
New York is 5-6 in its last eleven games.
Orioles take over first place in AL East.
— Twins 6, White Sox 5
Max Kepler drove in winning run in the 9th; Minnesota has won nine in a row.
— Famous birthdays, May 1st:
Rita Coolidge, 79
Dann Florek, 74
Tim McGraw, 57
Curtis Martin, 51
Wes Welker, 43
Marcus Stroman, 33
Chet Holmgren, 22
The original host of Jeopardy!, Art Fleming, was born 100 years ago today.
— Mike Trout has a torn meniscus in his knee, will have surgery, a surgery that usually comes with a 2-3 month rehab period.
Trout has been hurt a lot; from 2021-23, he played in 237 of a possible 486 games (49%), and now this. No bueno.
— Cardinals 2, Tigers 1
Pitching against against his former team, Jack Flaherty struck out the first 7 batters he faced; he struck out 14 guys in 6.2 scoreless IP, but St Louis scored twice in the 9th inning for the win.
In his previous four starts, Flaherty was 0-1, 6.56. Go figure.
— Brandon Nimmo hit a first inning home run Monday; Mets were the last team in the majors to hit a first inning home run this season.
— Oklahoma City’s sweep of New Orleans was their first series win in seven years, so long ago that Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook were on the team back then.
— 76ers 112, Knicks 106, OT
76ers trailed by six points with 0:28 left in regulation; Tyrese Maxey scored seven points in the last 0:25 of regulation, as Philly avoided elimination.
— QB Kedon Slovis signed a free agent deal with Indianapolis; he had an interesting journey thru college football:
2019-21- USC
2022- Pittsburgh
2023- BYU
He played his high school ball at Desert Mountain HS in Scottsdale, AZ, where his QB coach was Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner.
— Time goes by quickly; it is May 1st already; some things that have happened recently that are difficult to process:
Bill Belichick and Pete Carroll got told to take a hike, and no one hired them to coach their team, which makes no sense. Hopefully someone hires Carroll to do TV work; he’d every good. I’m not sure Belichick has the personality to be good on TV. We’ll see.
Nick Saban walked away from coaching; it I tough to recruit when you’re in your 70’s; your rivals use it against you, plus the transfer portal is sheer lunacy. From what I heard last week, Saban will be a good listen on TV.
The Pac-12 doesn’t exist anymore, which is really strange; college sports is off its rocker, but USC and UCLA being in the same league as Rutgers and Maryland in really nonsensical.
Is it me, or have major league umpires become a much younger group of people?
Wednesday’s 6-pack:
Biggest salary cap hits in the NFL this coming season:
$63.8M— Deshaun Watson, Clev
$55.5M— Dak Prexcott, Dal
$53M— Russell Wilson, Den-Pitt
$49.5M— Matthew Stafford, Rams
$49.1M— Kyler Murray, Ariz
$47.9M— Daniel Jones, NJG
Quote of the Day
“Why do we park on driveways, but drive on parkways???”
Steven Wright
Wednesday’s quiz
In the history of the Tampa Bay Rays, who scored the most runs?
Tuesday’s quiz
In the movie Major League, Corbin Bernson’s character (Roger Dorn) played third base.
Monday’s quiz
Joe Girardi was the Bronx Bombers’ manager, before Aaron Boone.
*********************************************
Wednesday’s Den: Mid-week musings…….
— Saw something tonight I’ve never seen before:
Brewers 8, Rays 2
Brewers lead Tampa Bay 6-1, top of the 6th. Jose Siri is batting for Tampa, Freddy Peralta is cruising for Milwaukee, but he has a 3-0 count on Siri and he hits him in the butt with a pitch.
Siri had homered in his previous at-bat; the umpires gather, and throw Peralta out of the game for hitting Siri on purpose. It was a 3-0 pitch when he had a 5-run lead; Milwaukee manager Murphy got tossed (for second night in a row) and the game went on.
Next time Siri was up, he grounded out to first base; words were exchanged and a scuffle broke out; apparently the Brewers don’t like Siri very much.
— Marlins 7, Rockies 6 (10)
Colorado scored five runs in 1st inning, led 5-0 in bottom of the 9th; it would’ve been the first game all season they never trailed in, but the Marlins tied the game with five runs in the ninth, then won it in the 10th on Dane Myers’ walk-off single.
Rockies have now trailed in all 29 of their games, the only team since 1900 to do that.
— Start of the Dodgers-Arizona game was delayed by two hours because there was a swarm of bees behind home plate; the beekeeper who got rid of the bees threw out the ceremonial first pitch, was interviewed on TV. Arizona switched starting pitchers because of the delay, moving Jordan Montgomery’s start to another day.
Arizona 4, Dodgers 3 (10)
Christian Walker’s 2-run homer in the 10th was a game-winner.
— Astros 10, Guardians 9 (10)
Victor Caratini had a pinch-hit, walk-off 2-run homer to give Houston its third straight win.
Astros led 8-3 after five, blew the lead, but won for only 2nd time in their last 13 extra inning games.
— A’s 5, Pirates 2
JJ Bleday homered twice; the A’s win in front of 3,876 loyalists.
Oakland is now 6-3 in its last nine games.
— Orioles 4, New York 2
Dean Kremer pitched seven strong innings for Baltimore.
New York is 5-6 in its last eleven games.
Orioles take over first place in AL East.
— Twins 6, White Sox 5
Max Kepler drove in winning run in the 9th; Minnesota has won nine in a row.
— Famous birthdays, May 1st:
Rita Coolidge, 79
Dann Florek, 74
Tim McGraw, 57
Curtis Martin, 51
Wes Welker, 43
Marcus Stroman, 33
Chet Holmgren, 22
The original host of Jeopardy!, Art Fleming, was born 100 years ago today.
— Mike Trout has a torn meniscus in his knee, will have surgery, a surgery that usually comes with a 2-3 month rehab period.
Trout has been hurt a lot; from 2021-23, he played in 237 of a possible 486 games (49%), and now this. No bueno.
— Cardinals 2, Tigers 1
Pitching against against his former team, Jack Flaherty struck out the first 7 batters he faced; he struck out 14 guys in 6.2 scoreless IP, but St Louis scored twice in the 9th inning for the win.
In his previous four starts, Flaherty was 0-1, 6.56. Go figure.
— Brandon Nimmo hit a first inning home run Monday; Mets were the last team in the majors to hit a first inning home run this season.
— Oklahoma City’s sweep of New Orleans was their first series win in seven years, so long ago that Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook were on the team back then.
— 76ers 112, Knicks 106, OT
76ers trailed by six points with 0:28 left in regulation; Tyrese Maxey scored seven points in the last 0:25 of regulation, as Philly avoided elimination.
— QB Kedon Slovis signed a free agent deal with Indianapolis; he had an interesting journey thru college football:
2019-21- USC
2022- Pittsburgh
2023- BYU
He played his high school ball at Desert Mountain HS in Scottsdale, AZ, where his QB coach was Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner.
— Time goes by quickly; it is May 1st already; some things that have happened recently that are difficult to process:
Bill Belichick and Pete Carroll got told to take a hike, and no one hired them to coach their team, which makes no sense. Hopefully someone hires Carroll to do TV work; he’d every good. I’m not sure Belichick has the personality to be good on TV. We’ll see.
Nick Saban walked away from coaching; it I tough to recruit when you’re in your 70’s; your rivals use it against you, plus the transfer portal is sheer lunacy. From what I heard last week, Saban will be a good listen on TV.
The Pac-12 doesn’t exist anymore, which is really strange; college sports is off its rocker, but USC and UCLA being in the same league as Rutgers and Maryland in really nonsensical.
Is it me, or have major league umpires become a much younger group of people?
