Wednesday’s 6-pack:
Over/under for CONFERENCE wins this season:
7.5— USC
6.5— Oregon, Utah, Washington
6— Oregon State, UCLA
4— Washington State
3— Arizona
2.5— Arizona Státe, California
2— Colorado
1— Stanford
Quote of the Day
“Rowing harder doesn’t help if the boat is headed in the wrong direction.”
Kenichi Ohmae
Wednesday’s quiz
When was the last time major league baseball had expansion teams?
Tuesday’s quiz
Steve Kerr was a part of five NBA championship teams as a player, three with the Bulls and two with San Antonio.
Monday’s quiz
Russell Wilson finished his college football career at Wisconsin; he started it at NC State.
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— Records/payrolls of some of the wealthier baseball teams:
New York (N) 54-66, payroll of $358,910,769
San Diego 57-63, $254,538,326
New York (A) 60-60, $273,861,822
Lot of underachieving teams out there; maybe the wave of the future is to go back to the old way of doing things, scrap analytics. Just acquire good athletes and let ‘em play ball.
— Was reading where Justin Verlander thought the Mets’ analytics crew was inferior to the one in Houston. He offered some suggestions, and ruffled some feathers.
— Baseball needs another trade deadline, one closer to the end of August. Why?
The current deadline is August 1 or so; there are more playoff teams (12) now; teams fall out of contention later in the season. Who wants to give up before you’re 100% sure you’re out of the playoff race? As a result, there aren’t many trades made around August 1st.
Trades create interest; the more attention a sport gets, the better for the sport.
— Atlanta Braves have hit 35 homers in first inning this year, their opponents have hit 9.
— Indianapolis Colts named rookie QB Anthony Richardson their starting QB for Week 1; the kid started only 13 games in college at Florida. This is going to be interesting.
— Last 10 years in the NFL, rookie QB’s have won only 36% of their starts.
— NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs haven’t won the Stanley Cup since 1967, which was the NHL’s last season with only six teams. It was their fourth title in six years, but the NHL doubled in size the next year, adding six expansion teams, and Toronto hasn’t won the Cup since.
NHL is up to 32 teams now.
— Movie of the Day— Brian’s Song (1971)— Real-life story about the friendship between Chicago Bears’ teammates Brian Piccolo and Gale Sayers and the bond established after Sayers’ knee injury, and then when Piccolo discovers that he is dying.
James Caan played Piccolo, who became a starter after Sayers tore up his knee. Billy Dee Williams played Sayers; his speech near the end of the movie is pretty epic. Jack Warden plays coach George Halas, Bernie Casey plays one of the Bears, but in real life, he was a good WR in the NFL.
I was 11 years old when this movie first came out (it was a made-for-TV movie). Very sad, but an excellent movie.
— NFL Trend of the Day— Under Nick Sirianni, Eagles are 9-3 ATS as a home favorite, 4-7 ATS as a road favorite.
— Tampa Bay Rays won the first game in their last seven series, are 27-12 in series openers for the season.
— Josh Bell has five home runs in his first 13 games for the Marlins.
— Padres 10, Orioles 3— Marlins/Padres were the only big league teams without a grand slam this season, but Gary Sanchez hit one in the first inning for San Diego in this game.
— Most shutouts in a single season:
13— Bob Gibson, 1968
11— Dean Chance, 1964
11— Sandy Koufax, 1963
— Braves 5, New York 0— Bryce Elder allowed one hit in 7 shutout IP.
— Blue Jays 2, Phillies 1
Game was scoreless after five innings.
Winning run scored on a hit batter with the bases loaded in 8th inning.
— Pirates 7, Mets 4— Pittsburgh scored six runs in 7th inning, snapping a 1-1 tie.
— Arizona 8, Colorado 5— Diamondbacks scored five runs in top of the ninth.
— Rangers 7, Angels 3— Corey Seager hit two home runs for Texas.
— Mariners 10, Royals 8 (10)
Seattle led this game 7-0 in fifth inning.
Kansas City tied game with three runs in ninth.
Ty France got the game-winning hit in the 10th.
Over/under for CONFERENCE wins this season:
7.5— USC
6.5— Oregon, Utah, Washington
6— Oregon State, UCLA
4— Washington State
3— Arizona
2.5— Arizona Státe, California
2— Colorado
1— Stanford
Quote of the Day
“Rowing harder doesn’t help if the boat is headed in the wrong direction.”
Kenichi Ohmae
Wednesday’s quiz
When was the last time major league baseball had expansion teams?
Tuesday’s quiz
Steve Kerr was a part of five NBA championship teams as a player, three with the Bulls and two with San Antonio.
Monday’s quiz
Russell Wilson finished his college football career at Wisconsin; he started it at NC State.
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Wednesday’s Den: Mid-week musings………
— Records/payrolls of some of the wealthier baseball teams:
New York (N) 54-66, payroll of $358,910,769
San Diego 57-63, $254,538,326
New York (A) 60-60, $273,861,822
Lot of underachieving teams out there; maybe the wave of the future is to go back to the old way of doing things, scrap analytics. Just acquire good athletes and let ‘em play ball.
— Was reading where Justin Verlander thought the Mets’ analytics crew was inferior to the one in Houston. He offered some suggestions, and ruffled some feathers.
— Baseball needs another trade deadline, one closer to the end of August. Why?
The current deadline is August 1 or so; there are more playoff teams (12) now; teams fall out of contention later in the season. Who wants to give up before you’re 100% sure you’re out of the playoff race? As a result, there aren’t many trades made around August 1st.
Trades create interest; the more attention a sport gets, the better for the sport.
— Atlanta Braves have hit 35 homers in first inning this year, their opponents have hit 9.
— Indianapolis Colts named rookie QB Anthony Richardson their starting QB for Week 1; the kid started only 13 games in college at Florida. This is going to be interesting.
— Last 10 years in the NFL, rookie QB’s have won only 36% of their starts.
— NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs haven’t won the Stanley Cup since 1967, which was the NHL’s last season with only six teams. It was their fourth title in six years, but the NHL doubled in size the next year, adding six expansion teams, and Toronto hasn’t won the Cup since.
NHL is up to 32 teams now.
— Movie of the Day— Brian’s Song (1971)— Real-life story about the friendship between Chicago Bears’ teammates Brian Piccolo and Gale Sayers and the bond established after Sayers’ knee injury, and then when Piccolo discovers that he is dying.
James Caan played Piccolo, who became a starter after Sayers tore up his knee. Billy Dee Williams played Sayers; his speech near the end of the movie is pretty epic. Jack Warden plays coach George Halas, Bernie Casey plays one of the Bears, but in real life, he was a good WR in the NFL.
I was 11 years old when this movie first came out (it was a made-for-TV movie). Very sad, but an excellent movie.
— NFL Trend of the Day— Under Nick Sirianni, Eagles are 9-3 ATS as a home favorite, 4-7 ATS as a road favorite.
— Tampa Bay Rays won the first game in their last seven series, are 27-12 in series openers for the season.
— Josh Bell has five home runs in his first 13 games for the Marlins.
— Padres 10, Orioles 3— Marlins/Padres were the only big league teams without a grand slam this season, but Gary Sanchez hit one in the first inning for San Diego in this game.
— Most shutouts in a single season:
13— Bob Gibson, 1968
11— Dean Chance, 1964
11— Sandy Koufax, 1963
— Braves 5, New York 0— Bryce Elder allowed one hit in 7 shutout IP.
— Blue Jays 2, Phillies 1
Game was scoreless after five innings.
Winning run scored on a hit batter with the bases loaded in 8th inning.
— Pirates 7, Mets 4— Pittsburgh scored six runs in 7th inning, snapping a 1-1 tie.
— Arizona 8, Colorado 5— Diamondbacks scored five runs in top of the ninth.
— Rangers 7, Angels 3— Corey Seager hit two home runs for Texas.
— Mariners 10, Royals 8 (10)
Seattle led this game 7-0 in fifth inning.
Kansas City tied game with three runs in ninth.
Ty France got the game-winning hit in the 10th.
