Sunday?s six-pack
? John McCain?s mother is still alive; she is 106 years old.
? Reds? P Homer Bailey makes $21M this year; Cincinnati is 1-16 in his starts.
? Hawai?i 43, Colorado State 34? Ugly start to the season for the Rams.
? Wyoming 29, New Mexico State 7? Disappointing home opener for the Aggies.
? Washington Nationals have been shut out in their last three games.
? Betting handle for Travers Day at Saratoga Saturday was $52,086,597; that includes everywhere around the country where people wager on horse racing. On-track handle was $11,466,264.
Quote of the Day
?You?re not as bad as you think.?
Nebraska coach Tom Osborne to Nick Saban in 1995, when the Cornhuskers beat Saban?s first Michigan State team 50-10 in the season opener.
Sunday?s quiz
Which current major league team used to be known as the Seattle Pilots?
Saturday?s quiz
Vikings? QB Kirk Cousins played his college football at Michigan State.
Friday?s quiz
Troy Aikman played college football at Oklahoma and UCLA.
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Sunday?s List of 13: Nobody asked me, but??.
13) ESPN?s Sunday night game this week is New York-Baltimore, because ESPN is obsessed with New York and the Red Sox. There is no other way to explain it.
Putting the pathetic (37-93) Orioles on national TV in late August during the heat of the pennant race is gross stupidity. Meanwhile, Cardinals-Rockies is an important series in the NL Wild Card race, but no chance ESPN ever puts Colorado on national TV, and for that, they?re idiots.
12) Milwaukee Brewers beat the Pirates 7-6 in 15 innings Friday night, in a strange game where the Brewers scored four times in the first inning, blew a 9th-inning lead, then scored three times to win the game after Pittsburgh grabbed a 6-4 lead in the 15th.
Milwaukee never scored from the 2nd to 14th inning; they were down 6-4 in the 15th, had two on and two out with pitcher Jordan Lyles, a career .123 hitter up- he drew a walk, and two hits later, the Brewers had an emotional win.
11) Why did the Cubs trade for Daniel Murphy? Murphy has the best batting average of any regular player ever at Wrigley Field, over .400.
10) One of my all-time favorite TV shows was Magnum, PI; for better or worse, I can still recite stuff from episodes I first saw 35 years ago.
CBS is re-making Magnum PI this fall; not sure how I feel about that.
9) Detroit Lions tried a 62-yard FG just before the half in Tampa Friday; Adam Humphries caught the ball nine yards deep in the end zone and ran it back 109 yards for a TD, lot like the Alabama-Auburn game a few years ago.
Not a lot of real fast, athletic guys blocking for field goals, so Detroit?s tackling was suspect.
8) Lions were down 27-6 in third quarter of this (meaningless) game, but rallied to win 33-30, scoring a TD with 0:30 left for the win, after an 80-yard punt return for a TD brought them back to within 30-26 with 4:53 left. Meaningless, but very entertaining.
7) New Orleans Saints faked a punt in the first quarter of their game with the Chargers Saturday, then went for 2 points after their first TD. Thats what preseason games are for, to try stuff. In two weeks, everyone will get real conservative and we?ll know the regular season is here.
6) I wouldn?t hate it if the NFL put in a rule that said any kickoff that went thru the uprights would be worth one point, kind of like a rouge in the CFL. Would make kickoffs more exciting.
5) Pretty big change to basketball recruiting next spring/summer; there will be only two weekends of games (one in April, one in July) where college coaches can go to the games.
4) Hall of Fame pitcher Bert Blyleven, who made his living with a great curveball, says kids shouldn?t throw a curve until they?re 13 or 14 years old.
3) Happy 72nd birthday to the great Rollie Fingers, who saved 341 games during his Hall of Fame career. In his five busiest seasons, Fingers AVERAGED five outs an appearance, which means he would come in with one out in the 8th inning and finish the game.
Anybody doing that these days?
2) RIP to Senator John McCain, who passed away Saturday after a bout with brain cancer. He had a lot of what we need more of today; character, guts and the knowledge that even though we often disagree on things, we?re all Americans and our opinions need to be tolerated.
RIP, sir.
1) This tweet is from Steve Schmidt, who ran Sen McCain?s Presidential campaign in 2008:
?John McCain belongs to the ages. He perfectly loved this country and served it with valor, courage and integrity for 60 years. He was a patriot and a hero and America will never see a political leader like him again. He was the greatest man I?ve ever known. Godspeed John McCain?
