Friday’s 6-pack:
2025 luxury taxes in baseball, 2025:
$168,657,856— Dodgers
$86,194,127— Mets
$60,205,499— Bronx
$48,112,313— Phillies
$10,000,000— Padres, Blue Jays
$1,105,612— Astros
Quote of the Day
“We have a 3.0 GPA, that’s wonderful…..if we were running a daycare. We run a competitive basketball program. We’ve got a lot of casual personalities on this team.”
NC State basketball coach Will Wade
Friday’s quiz
What southern city hosts the Independence Bowl every year?
Thursday’s quiz
In 1995, Montreal Expos drafted Tom Brady as a catcher.
Wednesday’s quiz
2000 was the last time a team from the Big 10 Conference won the national championship in college basketball, when Michigan State won.
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Rams led 30-14 with 9:00 left in the game.
Seahawks ran a punt back 58 yards for a TD to start the comeback.
Seattle went 3-for-3 on two-point conversions.
Smith-Njigba caught 8 passes for 96 yards, all after halftime.
Stafford threw for 457 yards, three TD’s.
Nucua caught 12 passes for 225 yards, two TD’s.
Rams outgained Seattle 581-415.
Seattle takes over first place in the NFC West.
— Miami Dolphins are giving rookie QB Quinn Ewers his first career start this week, at home against Cincinnati; they’re stuck with Tua Tagovailoa for now— his upcoming cap hits:
2025- $39.1M
2026- $56.4M
2027- $53.4M
2028- $65.8M
Dolphins’ front office has a major headache here.
— San Diego Padres signed P Michael King for three years, $75M; he was 5-3, 3.44 in 15 starts last year, after being 13-9, 2.95 in 30 starts in 2024.
— President, general manager, manager of the Washington Nationals are all 35 or younger.
— World Series shares were announced; a full share got the Dodgers players/coaches $484,748 apiece. 82 full shares, 12.5 partial shares were given out.
— Famous birthdays, December 19th:
Tim Reid, 81
Elaine Joyce, 80
Kevin McHale, 68
Jennifer Beals, 62
Arvydas Sabonis, 61
Randall McDaniel, 61
Joe Slusarski, 59
Tom Gugliotta, 56
Alyssa Milano, 53
Warren Sapp, 53
Jake Plummer, 51
Rafael Soriano, 46
— Arkansas State 34, Missouri State 28
Arkansas State led this game 24-7 at halftime.
Missouri State was 8-15 on third down, Ark State 2-11.
Ark State QB Raynor threw for 288 yards, three TD’s.
Both teams had over 100 yards in penalties.
— Missouri QB Beau Pribula is going in the transfer portal, will skip Mizzou’s bowl game against Virginia in the Gator Bowl. In 10 games, Pribula completed 67.4% of his passes for 1,941 yards with 11 TD’s, 9 INT’s. He also ran for 297 yards with six TDs. Pribula spent his first two years in college at Penn State
— TCU QB Josh Hoover is going in the transfer portal, will skip TCU’s bowl game against USC. Hoover has been TCU’s starting quarterback since midway through the 2023 season, throwing for 439 yards and four TD’s in his first start against BYU. In 2024, he set a school record with 3,949 passing yards. He’s not going pro this year; he’ll transfer somewhere, make a lot of $$$ in his last year of college eligibility.
— Texas Longhorns fired their defensive coordinator, hired Will Muschamp to replace him; Muschamp was the Texas defensive coordinator from 2008-10. He was 56-51 as a head coach at Florida, South Carolina.
— Movie of the Day: Margin Call (2011)— This movie is pretty intense, about people at an investment bank over a 24-hour period during the early stages of the 2008 financial crisis.
Kevin Spacey, Demi Moore, Jeremy Irons, Mary McDonnell, Stanley Tucci— good cast.
— Bradley 108, Indiana State 99, 3OTs
Bradley led by 13 early on, trailed by 4 in the third OT.
Indiana State was 30-43 on foul line, Bradley 17-27.
Bradley’s bench outscored the Sycamores’ bench, 47-19
— Illinois State 75, Southern Illinois 68
Salukis led 35-30 at halftime.
Illinois State shot 68.8% inside the arc.
Redbirds are 9-3, shooting 57.3% inside the arc (#54)
— Murray State 81, Drake 72
Racers were 26-31 on foul line, Drake 17-23.
Murray won its last five games, scoring 91.4 ppg.
Racers are rebounding 37.9% of their missed shots (#39)
— Southern Miss 62, Louisiana 54
Southern Miss was 26-39 on foul line, Ragin’ Cajuns 10-13.
Golden Eagles won despite shooting 31.3% from the floor.
Louisiana is 1-11, has lost its last ten games.
— Long Beach State 81, Pepperdine 78
Pepperdine shot 74.2% inside the arc and still lost.
Waves committed 18 turnovers, Long Beach had only nine.
Sixth loss in last seven games for Pepperdine.
2025 luxury taxes in baseball, 2025:
$168,657,856— Dodgers
$86,194,127— Mets
$60,205,499— Bronx
$48,112,313— Phillies
$10,000,000— Padres, Blue Jays
$1,105,612— Astros
Quote of the Day
“We have a 3.0 GPA, that’s wonderful…..if we were running a daycare. We run a competitive basketball program. We’ve got a lot of casual personalities on this team.”
NC State basketball coach Will Wade
Friday’s quiz
What southern city hosts the Independence Bowl every year?
Thursday’s quiz
In 1995, Montreal Expos drafted Tom Brady as a catcher.
Wednesday’s quiz
2000 was the last time a team from the Big 10 Conference won the national championship in college basketball, when Michigan State won.
*********************************************
Friday’s Den: Random stuff with the weekend here…….
— Seattle 38, Rams 37 OTRams led 30-14 with 9:00 left in the game.
Seahawks ran a punt back 58 yards for a TD to start the comeback.
Seattle went 3-for-3 on two-point conversions.
Smith-Njigba caught 8 passes for 96 yards, all after halftime.
Stafford threw for 457 yards, three TD’s.
Nucua caught 12 passes for 225 yards, two TD’s.
Rams outgained Seattle 581-415.
Seattle takes over first place in the NFC West.
— Miami Dolphins are giving rookie QB Quinn Ewers his first career start this week, at home against Cincinnati; they’re stuck with Tua Tagovailoa for now— his upcoming cap hits:
2025- $39.1M
2026- $56.4M
2027- $53.4M
2028- $65.8M
Dolphins’ front office has a major headache here.
— San Diego Padres signed P Michael King for three years, $75M; he was 5-3, 3.44 in 15 starts last year, after being 13-9, 2.95 in 30 starts in 2024.
— President, general manager, manager of the Washington Nationals are all 35 or younger.
— World Series shares were announced; a full share got the Dodgers players/coaches $484,748 apiece. 82 full shares, 12.5 partial shares were given out.
— Famous birthdays, December 19th:
Tim Reid, 81
Elaine Joyce, 80
Kevin McHale, 68
Jennifer Beals, 62
Arvydas Sabonis, 61
Randall McDaniel, 61
Joe Slusarski, 59
Tom Gugliotta, 56
Alyssa Milano, 53
Warren Sapp, 53
Jake Plummer, 51
Rafael Soriano, 46
— Arkansas State 34, Missouri State 28
Arkansas State led this game 24-7 at halftime.
Missouri State was 8-15 on third down, Ark State 2-11.
Ark State QB Raynor threw for 288 yards, three TD’s.
Both teams had over 100 yards in penalties.
— Missouri QB Beau Pribula is going in the transfer portal, will skip Mizzou’s bowl game against Virginia in the Gator Bowl. In 10 games, Pribula completed 67.4% of his passes for 1,941 yards with 11 TD’s, 9 INT’s. He also ran for 297 yards with six TDs. Pribula spent his first two years in college at Penn State
— TCU QB Josh Hoover is going in the transfer portal, will skip TCU’s bowl game against USC. Hoover has been TCU’s starting quarterback since midway through the 2023 season, throwing for 439 yards and four TD’s in his first start against BYU. In 2024, he set a school record with 3,949 passing yards. He’s not going pro this year; he’ll transfer somewhere, make a lot of $$$ in his last year of college eligibility.
— Texas Longhorns fired their defensive coordinator, hired Will Muschamp to replace him; Muschamp was the Texas defensive coordinator from 2008-10. He was 56-51 as a head coach at Florida, South Carolina.
— Movie of the Day: Margin Call (2011)— This movie is pretty intense, about people at an investment bank over a 24-hour period during the early stages of the 2008 financial crisis.
Kevin Spacey, Demi Moore, Jeremy Irons, Mary McDonnell, Stanley Tucci— good cast.
— Bradley 108, Indiana State 99, 3OTs
Bradley led by 13 early on, trailed by 4 in the third OT.
Indiana State was 30-43 on foul line, Bradley 17-27.
Bradley’s bench outscored the Sycamores’ bench, 47-19
— Illinois State 75, Southern Illinois 68
Salukis led 35-30 at halftime.
Illinois State shot 68.8% inside the arc.
Redbirds are 9-3, shooting 57.3% inside the arc (#54)
— Murray State 81, Drake 72
Racers were 26-31 on foul line, Drake 17-23.
Murray won its last five games, scoring 91.4 ppg.
Racers are rebounding 37.9% of their missed shots (#39)
— Southern Miss 62, Louisiana 54
Southern Miss was 26-39 on foul line, Ragin’ Cajuns 10-13.
Golden Eagles won despite shooting 31.3% from the floor.
Louisiana is 1-11, has lost its last ten games.
— Long Beach State 81, Pepperdine 78
Pepperdine shot 74.2% inside the arc and still lost.
Waves committed 18 turnovers, Long Beach had only nine.
Sixth loss in last seven games for Pepperdine.
