CNOTES 2021-2022 NHL TRENDS, NEWS, BEST BETS AND OPINIONS THRU THE PLAYOFFS !

[Udog]

Armadillo Sports

Monday’s 6-pack
— Seattle 7, Boston 6— Mariners scored twice in bottom of 9th.
— Phillies 4, Arizona 0— Phillies have won nine games in a row.
— Braves 10, Pirates 4— Atlanta scored eight times in 7th inning.
— Angels 11, Mets 6— Jared Walsh hit for the cycle.
— Padres 2, Rockies 1 (10)— Winning run scored on a throwing error after a wild pitch.
— Lightning 3, Rangers 2— Tampa Bay vs Colorado is the Stanley Cup final.

Quote of the Day
“If teams are gonna give us favorable one-on-one matches against their best corner, I don’t see why teams don’t utilize their best receiver. And that’s where probably like me and the Chiefs fell apart right there. When I’m like, yo, I don’t mean to talk or be a diva in some situation, but can I see the pill some time, please? Just give me the ball, please.”
WR Tyreek Hill, newly signed with the Dolphins. If he didn’t like playing with Patrick Mahomes, not sure how he’ll feel about catching passes from Tua Tagovailoa

Monday’s quiz
Who scored the first touchdown in the Super Bowl four months ago?

Sunday’s quiz
Keith Hernandez wore number 17 with the Mets; he wore number 37 with the Cardinals.

Saturday’s quiz
Steve Nash was the last player from Santa Clara drafted by an NBA team.

************************************

Monday’s Den: Wrapping up a sports weekend……..

13) When they vote for the Pro Football Hall of Fame next winter, these two quarterbacks will be up for the vote. Here are their blind resumes:

— Quarterback A: 72-72 regular season W-L record, 8-2 in playoffs, won 2 Super Bowls.
— Quarterback B: 117-117 regular season W-L record, 8-4 in playoffs, won 2 Super Bowls.

Is Player B more qualified because of the extra 90 regular season (45-45) games?
Interesting question.

12) Was watching the replay of last year’s Super Bowl last night; I forgot that Dick Vermeil is getting inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this summer, which is just tremendous. His speech should be excellent.

11) Mets 4, Angels 1— Unfortunate scheduling; this was the last game of an 11-day road trip for the Mets, and was the ESPN Sunday night game. That means that you might be reading this before the Mets’ plane landed back in New York City, expected to be around 9am Monday.

10) Rangers 8, White Sox 6 (12)— Chicago isn’t playing good baseball; this game ended with a runner getting thrown out at third base, when he tagged up after a fly ball. That run meant very little; you can’t ever get thrown out in that situation. It just isn’t smart.

9) Since 2015, Tampa Bay Lightning has won 82 NHL playoff games, more than any other team; Pittsburgh is next on that list, with 45.

USFL Week 9 games:
8) New Jersey 25, Michigan 23:
— Generals won their last eight games.
— Michigan outgained the Generals, 336-251.
— 1-8 Panthers turned ball over three times (-2).

7) Generals’ QB Luis Perez has bowled 12 perfect 300 games; he bowled four games of 299 before his first perfect game, which came when he was 12 years old.

6) Houston 17, Birmingham 15:
— First loss of season for the Stallions, who scored 10-15 points in last two games.
— Birmingham outgained the Gamblers, 329-187
— Houston snapped a 7-game losing streak.

5) New Orleans 17, Tampa Bay 6:
— Breakers clinch spot in playoffs in two weeks.
— New Orleans led this game 17-0 at halftime.
— Tampa Bay outgained the Breakers 352-215, but turned ball over four times (-2)

4) Philadelphia 17, Pittsburgh 16:
— Pittsburgh kicker made a 58-yard FG, also threw a TD pass on a fake FG.
— But he also missed a 49-yard FG with 0:59 left in game.
— Pittsburgh is a much better team when Vad Lee plays QB, like he did in this game.

3) Wondering why pro golfers are bolting to this LIV Tour? Charl Schwartzel banked $4.75M for winning the tournament in London this weekend. The big-name players got paid ludicrous amounts of money to join this tour— Dustin Johnson is rumored to have banked $100M, just for showing up.

Johnson’s father-in-law is Wayne Gretzky; I’m wondering what the conversation was like, when Johnson told him that he was skipping the Canadian Open to play in this LIV. Gretzky could be the most popular person in all of Canada.

2) In major league history, there have been 316 no-hitters, 337 cycles. Jared Walsh of the Angels hit for the cycle Saturday night in Anaheim.

1) Last five World Series champs finished in the top 5 in batting average with runners in scoring position (RISP), something to keep an eye on as the season goes on.

 

[Udog]

No games today.... finals begin Wednesday.

 

[Udog]

Armadillo Sports

Tuesday’s 6-pack
Odds for the US Open this weekend:
12-1— Scottie Scheffler
14-1— McIlroy, Rahm, Thomas
18-1— Cameron Smith
22-1— Morikawa, Schauffele, Spieth, Zalatoris
27-1— Viktor Hovland
29-1— Sam Burns, Shane Lowry

Quote of the Day
“Matt’s an incredibly smart guy, but one of the things I’ve continued to be impressed by—he doesn’t want to expand things, he wants to consolidate things. It’s a little bit Peyton-esque like that: ‘Don’t try to overcoach, don’t get too cute, don’t try to overscheme, let’s just run the same things over and over again…….’”
Colts’ coach Frank Reich, talking about QB Matt Ryan

Tuesday’s quiz
Where did Matt Ryan play his college football?

Monday’s quiz
Odell Beckham Jr scored the first touchdown in the Super Bowl four months ago.

Sunday’s quiz
Keith Hernandez wore number 17 with the Mets; he wore number 37 with the Cardinals.

**************************************

Tuesday’s Den: Nobody asked me, but…….

— Warriors 104, Celtics 94:
Golden State was +12 in turnovers (6-18)

Wiggins scored 26 points, had 13 rounds.
Warriors won, despite Curry going 0-9 on the arc.
Golden State leads series, 3-2

— When they vote for the Pro Football Hall of Fame next winter, these two quarterbacks will be up for the vote. Here are their blind resumes:

Quarterback A: 72-72 regular season W-L record, 8-2 in playoffs, won 2 Super Bowls.
Quarterback B: 117-117 regular season W-L record, 8-4 in playoffs, won 2 Super Bowls.

Is Player B more qualified because of the extra 90 regular season (45-45) games?
Interesting question.

Quarterback B is Eli Manning; Quarterback A is Jim Plunkett.

— Eli Manning’s 8-4 postseason record is interesting; only 3 of the 12 games were at home. He went 1-2 in home playoff games, 5-2 in road playoff games, 2-0 in Super Bowls- the two Super Bowls will get him into the Hall of Fame.

But it says a lot about his mediocre regular season record that the Giants earned only three home playoff games in his 16-year career. He will get into the Hall of Fame, hopefully not on the first ballot.

— There are 21 QB’s from the Super Bowl era who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame. Here are their W-L records in playoff games:
Troy Aikman 11-4
Terry Bradshaw 14-5
Len Dawson 5-3
John Elway 14-7
Brett Favre 13-11
Dan Fouts 3-4
Bob Griese 6-5
Sonny Jurgensen 0-0 (played one game in relief)
Jim Kelly 9-8
Peyton Manning 14-13

Dan Marino 8-10
Joe Montana 16-7
Warren Moon 3-7
Joe Namath 2-1
Ken Stabler 7-5
Bart Starr 9-1
Roger Staubach 11-6
Fran Tarkenton 6-5
Johnny Unitas 6-2
Kurt Warner 9-4
Steve Young 8-6

— Baseball injuries:
Red Sox put P Nathan Eovaldi (back) on IL
Detroit put P Edwin Rodriguez on the restricted list
Dodgers P Walker Buehler is out 6-8 weeks.
Washington put P Stephen Strasburg back on IL
Atlanta 2B Ozzie Albies broke his foot Monday night.

— Duke’s basketball team added four grad transfers for next season, one each from Illinois, Harvard, Princeton, Northwestern.

— Wisconsin-Stanford have an early season basketball game at Milwaukee’s Miller Park on November 11.

— Oklahoma City Thunder have a ridiculous number of draft picks this year and next year; they traded the 30th pick in this month’s draft, and two 2nd-round picks to Denver, for F JaMychal Green and a 2027 first-round pick.

Thunder still has the #2, CSS Examples and Flying Pigskins (NFL) picks in this year’s draft.

— Major league records in Game 3 of a series, if first two games were split:
Arizona 3-5
Atlanta 7-7
Cubs 3-3
Cincinnati 2-2
Colorado 6-4
Dodgers 4-3
Miami 2-4
Milwaukee 5-5
Mets 9-3
Philadelphia 1-6
Pittsburgh 4-3
St Louis 3-4
San Diego 7-5
San Francisco 3-4
Washington 3-5

Baltimore 6-4
Boston 5-5
White Sox 3-5 (0-5 at home)
Cleveland3-3
Detroit 2-7
Houston 5-5
Kansas City 3-3
Angels 7-1
Minnesota 4-4
New York 3-3
A’s 3-4
Seattle 5-4
Tampa Bay 5-4
Texas 3-5
Toronto 5-3

— RIP Philip Baker Hall, who passed away this weekend at age 90; Hall was a great actor with 185 acting credits to his name. I remember him best from a 1996 gambling-themed movie Hard Eight with Gwyneth Paltrow and John C Reilly. RIP, sir.

— From 2016-21, 23,687 amateur golfers tried to qualify for the US Open golf tournament; only 23 of them made it.

 

[Udog]

No games today.... finals begin tomorrow.

 

[Udog]

Armadillo Sports

Wednesday’s 6-pack
— Cardinals 3, Pirates 1— Miles Mikolas came within one out of a no-hitter.
— Paul Goldschmidt knocked in eight runs in the St Louis twinbill sweep.
— Braves 10, Nationals 4— Atlanta has won 13 games in a row.
— Padres 12, Cubs 5— Chicago led 5-0 after five innings.
— Astros 4, Rangers 3— Houston scored four times in 8th inning.
— Dodgers 2, Angels 0— Gonsolin is 8-0, 1.42 this season.

Quote of the Day
“I’m praying before training camp. I just want him there Day One of training camp.”
Arizona Cardinals’ coach Kliff Kingsbury, when asked about Kyler Murray’s contract

Wednesday’s quiz
When was the last time the Dodgers missed the playoffs?

Tuesday’s quiz
Matt Ryan played his college football at Boston College

Monday’s quiz
Odell Beckham Jr scored the first touchdown in the Super Bowl four months ago.

****************************

Wednesday’s Den: Happy Armadillo Day, everyone!!!!

13) 21 years ago today we started this blog; doesn’t seem like that long ago.

I’d like to thank you for reading; hope you enjoy it and maybe sometimes you learn some stuff, too. We’ll see if I can make it another 21 years

Happy birthday to the Big Dawg; hope he has an excellent day, sitting by his pool.

12) Read on the Interweb today that minor league games where the pitch clock is used are running 24 minutes a game shorter than the other games. MLB experts are assuming that the pitch clock will become a thing in the major leagues next season.

11) There are many major league teams that completely suck; I’m not sure why you would own a team and deliberately not try to at least compete, but here we are:

A’s are a minor league team. It is depressing to see.
Pirates are bad, but at least they’re promoting some prospects, none of whom pitch
Royals are a bad team.
Washington is terrible, and they won the World Series in 2019
What the Cubs are doing is inexcusable; a big market team tanking. Makes no sense.
Cincinnati is also really bad, with no real solutions in sight.

This is why I’m in favor of a mandatory salary floor for MLB teams; at least pretend you’re trying.

10) Doing local TV/radio for these bad teams is a tough job; you have to tell the truth, but you cannot be overly critical, seeing how you travel on the road with the players/coaches you’re broadcasting. Guys who do the Pirate games sound like they’ve been tranquilized before they do do games. They spent half the game Tuesday talking about how hot it was in St Louis.

9) Coming into Tuesday’s game, White Sox’ Albums hitters led the team, with a .477 slugging %age; their Blogs hitters have only a .303 slugging %age, which makes very little sense.

8) Angels have already lost ten games that they led in the 7th inning or later; they’ve spent a lot of money on payroll, but again, their pitching is bad. Pitching is kind of important in baseball.

7) Diamondbacks have been shut out last three times Madison Bumgarner pitched; MadBum was a pretty good hitter. He probably wishes they’d ditch the DH and let him hit.

6) St Louis is a nice place, I mean, the people are genuinely nice. Was there a couple times when the Rams played there. At Cardinal games, when a visiting player makes his MLB debut, the PA announcer tells the crowd it is this guy’s debut, and they politely applaud him.

Could you imagine that happening in New York? Didn’t think so.

5) Just about everything NFL Films does is really good; Tuesday afternoon, I watched an hour-long special on the 2006 Texas-USC Rose Bowl, which Texas won at the very end. The special centered around the two QB’s, Matt Leinart/Vince Young, how they were great college players who fizzled in the pros.

— The two coaches in that game, Mack Brown/Pete Carroll are still coaching 16 years later.
— Vince Young got drafted by the Titans, even though their coach (Jeff Fisher) and OC (Norm Chow) were USC guys. In this film, Fisher made it clear that it wasn’t his choice to take Young, who lasted only six years in the NFL, five with Tennessee.
— Fisher claims that Titans owner Bud Adams overrruled his football people and ordered them to draft Young.
— Leinart got drafted by Arizona; he also lasted six years in the NFL. They both mentioned that if they knew where they would be drafted, they would’ve stayed in college another year.

— This was also the last game the great Keith Jackson broadcast; when I think of college football on TV, I think of Keith Jackson. He was excellent.
— Friend of mine who I met maybe 6-7 years ago told me a great story about how he wagered a lot of money on this game in Las Vegas; luckily for him, he had Texas.
— Reggie Bush got drafted before Leinart/Young; he wound up scoring 54 TD’s in his 11-year NFL career. Key play in the Texas-USC game was the Trojans failing on a 4th-and-1 while leading with 2:13 left. Bush was inexplicably on the bench for that play.

4) Passing yardage leaders in the USFL:
1,750— Kyle Sloter, New Orleans
1,502— Jordan Ta’amu, Tampa Bay
1,241— J’Mar Smith, Birmingham
1,028— Case Cookus, Philadelphia

3) Baltimore QB Lamar Jackson doesn’t have an NFL agent negotiating his pending mega-deal with the Ravens; how is this possible?

Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports writes:
”If you are under the impression that Jackson is some na?ve, out-of-his-depth, disengaged vessel in terms of his contract, you would be incorrect. Numerous sources close to this situation indicated he is quite well-versed in the NFL quarterback financial landscape……..”

Good for him, plus he saves the 3% agents usually get.

2) There are 358 Division I college basketball teams; there are over 1,400 transfers this year, which means that October/November will be a nightmare, trying to piece together which teams did well and which teams are going to get hammered because of all the roster turnover.

1) There is a commercial on Minnesota Twins’ TV promoting pheasant hunting in South Dakota; an attractive young woman has herself a rifle and is out in a field firing that rifle at birds, who do not have a gun to fire back at her.

Add South Dakota to the list of states I’ll never visit.

 

[Udog]

TAMPA BAY is 26-6 ATS (19.4 Units) revenging a loss vs opponent as a road favorite over the last 2 seasons.




NHL
Dunkel

Wednesday, June 15

NHL

Wednesday, June 15

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Trend Report
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Tampa Bay @ Colorado
Tampa Bay
The total has gone UNDER in 5 of Tampa Bay's last 5 games
Tampa Bay is 10-2 SU in its last 12 games
Colorado
Colorado is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games
The total has gone OVER in 4 of Colorado's last 5 games when playing Tampa Bay


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Lightning are 19-7 in the past 26 games overall.
Lightning are 4-1 in the past five as an underdog.
Lightning are 5-1 in the past six Stanley Cup Finals games.
Lightning are 13-3 in the past 16 playoff games as a 'dog.
Avalanche are 56-19 in the past 75 games overall.
Avalanche are 62-19 in the past 81 games as a favorite.
Avalanche are 35-16 in the past 51 playoff games as a favorite.
UNDER is 10-1 in the past 11 games for the Lightning
UNDER is 5-1 in the past six road games for the Lightning.
UNDER is 7-3 in the past 10 as a road 'dog for the Lightning.
OVER is 7-2-3 in the past 12 playing on three-plus days of rest for the Avs.
Favorite is 15-4 in the past 19 meetings.
Road team is 9-3 in the past 12 meetings.
Lightning are 5-1 in the past six trips to Denver.
OVER is 4-1 in the past five meetings.

 

[Udog]

Armadillo Sports

Thursday’s 6-pack
NFL leaders in passing yardage last year:
5,316— Tom Brady, TB
5,014— Justin Herbert, LAC
4,886— Matthew Stafford, Rams
4,839— Patrick Mahomes, KC
4,804— Derek Carr, LV
4,611— Joe Burrow, Cin

Quote of the Day
“Develop your own players, so you can manage salaries.”
Jerry West’s advice to Bill Belichick, back in 2004

Thursday’s quiz
Where did Klay Thompson play his college basketball?

Wednesday’s quiz
Last time the Dodgers missed the playoffs was in 2012.

Tuesday’s quiz
Matt Ryan played his college football at Boston College

*****************************************

Thursday’s Den: Doing some thinking out loud…….

13) Here is something we’ll never see again:

August 19, 1969, day game at Wrigley Field; Cubs beat Atlanta 3-0, as Ken Holtzman pitched the first of his two no-hitters, in front of a crowd of 37,514.

Here’s what makes it unique; Holtzman tossed a no-hitter but he didn’t strike anyone out. He walked three guys, facing 30 batters, so he probably threw 110-115 pitches.

This was a Braves’ lineup with Hank Aaron, Orlando Cepeda, Rico Carty, Felipe Alou- they made the playoffs that year. Losing pitcher that day was Hall of Famer Phil Niekro.

Holtzman went on to win three World Series rings with the A’s; his career record was 174-150, 4-1, 2.55 in World Series games.

12) Wednesday afternoon, something we’ve never seen before; Astros had two pitchers throw an immaculate inning (strike out the side on 9 pitches). Luis Garcia, Phil Maton. Maton pitched just that one inning, then they took him out.

In major league history, there have been 106 immaculate innings; there have never been two on the same day, much less in the same game. Not only that, but the same three guys struck out for Texas in both of those innings.

11) White Sox 13, Tigers 0— Detroit used three different position players to pitch, and they did better than the regular pitchers. Roger Clemens’ son pitched the 8th inning, giving up a run.

After the game, the dismal Tigers held a (long) team meeting; they’re 24-38, scoring 2.7 runs/game, half a run/game less than any other team. The natives are restless.

10) Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium, Mike Trout got a broken bat single, but part of the broken bat hit plate umpire Nate Tomlinson in the mask, getting inside the mask. He suffered a bruised retina and a scratched cornea, which is scary stuff.

TV people seemed to think he was going to be OK, that it could’ve been worse. Hopefully he’ll be back on the ballfield pretty soon.

9) Pirates 6, Cardinals 4— Something else you don’t see much these days; David Bednar got an 8-out save for Pittsburgh, throwing 43 pitches.

Going back a long time, in Hall of Famer Rollie Fingers’ five busiest seasons, he AVERAGED five outs a game, meaning his typical save started with one out in 8th inning. Times have changed.

8) Tuesday night in St Louis, Cardinals pitcher Miles Mikolas threw 129 pitches, coming within one out of a no-hitter. That is the most pitches anyone has thrown in a big league game this year.

Cincinnati P Tyler Mahle threw 119 pitches in Arizona Tuesday, in a game that was scoreless after nine innings. Reds eventually won in 12 innings.

7) Arizona 7, Cincinnati 4:
— Diamondbacks scored four runs in bottom of 8th.
— Zac Gallen allowed two hits in seven IP, but he also hit four of the first eight batters he faced. That is what happens when you pitch inside; guys these days don’t get out of the way very well.

6) My favorite gambling-related movies:
— Rounders
— Let It Ride
— Lucky You
— The Gambler (2014 version)

5) You can wager on how many of the golfers who played in last week’s LIV golf tournament will make the cut this week at the US Open. Over/under is 5.5 golfers to make the cut.

4) Minnesota Twins’ TV guy Dick Bremer is an outspoken advocate for the automated strike zone. It is becoming evident that the automated strike zone will happen in the near future; I’m not sold that it is that great an idea, we’ll see what happens.

3) Avalanche 4, Lightning 3 (OT)
— Andre Burakovsky scored at 1:23 pf overtime.
— Avalanche led 3-1 after the first period.
— Colorado outshot Tampa Bay, 38-23.
— Colorado leads Stanley Cup final, 1-0

2) Houston Rockets are trading C Christian Wood to Dallas, in exchange for Boban Marjanovic, Sterling Brown, Trey Burke, Marquese Chriss and the Batter Up pick in next week’s NBA draft.

This season with Houston, Wood averaged 17.9 ppg, 10.1 rebounds/game in 30.8 minutes/game.

1) Braves 8, Nationals 2— Atlanta has now won 14 games in a row. Austin Riley was 3-5 with four RBI for the Braves.

 

[Udog]

No game today.... game 2 on Saturday.

 

[Udog]

Armadillo Sports

Friday’s 6-pack
Major league leaders in OPS:
1.070— Paul Goldschmidt, StL
1.062— Aaron Judge, NYY
1.048— Jose Ramirez, Clev
1.043— Mike Trout, LAA
1.026— Yordan Alvarez, Hst
.994— JD Martinez, Bos

Quote of the Day
“We’ve had so many great players. But Steph is ultimately why this run has happened. Much like Timmy [Duncan] in San Antonio. I’m happy for everybody, but I’m thrilled for Steph. To me, this is his crowning achievement in what’s already been an incredible career.”
Steve Kerr, talking about Steph Curry

Friday’s quiz
Steph Curry was the 7th pick of the 2009 NBA Draft; who was the Home pick?

Hint: He played in the NBA this season

Thursday’s quiz
Klay Thompson played his college basketball at Washington State

Wednesday’s quiz
Last time the Dodgers missed the playoffs was in 2012.

*****************************************

Friday’s Den: Week 10 USFL notes and other random stuff…….

— Myles Copeland, a player for Toledo Glass City of The Basketball League, saved a referee’s life during a game this week. The referee started wobbling, passed out and became unresponsive on the court. Copeland, whose daytime job is being a firefighter, quickly administered CPR until paramedics arrived, ultimately saving the referee’s life.

Good to hear some good news now and then.

— Golden State 103, Boston 90
Warriors win their fourth NBA title in eight years.
Steph Curry scored 34 points.
Golden State had a 21-0 run.
None of the games in this series were decided by less than 10 points.

— Question to tackle in the near future; where does Curry rank among the all-time greats of the game?

— Pretty busy weekend going on in Boston:
a) Game 6 of the NBA Finals was in Boston Thursday.
b) US Open golf tournament is in Brookline, MA this weekend
c) Cardinals-Red Sox in Fenway Park this weekend.

— They were talking on the Texas Rangers’ TV broadcast last night how more and more major league coaches are taking college head coaching jobs, for two reasons:
a) money isn’t as good for big league coaches nowadays
b) because of analytics, coaches have less influence than they used to have.

— Washington Nationals are retiring number 11 this week, for Ryan Zimmerman, who played his entire 16-year career in Washington, helping the Nationals win the 2019 World Series.

I had Zimmerman on my fantasy team for 5-6 years; it was an annual event that he would go on the disabled list every April/May, like the swallows returning to Capistrano.

One night, I’m driving up the Thruway, coming home from Long Island late at night, listening to WFAN in New York City. Zimmerman had been on a roll; it dawned on me that he hadn’t been on the DL yet that season. Five freakin’ minutes later, the update says “Washington Nationals put Ryan Zimmerman on the Disab—-“ I clicked the radio off, pulled into a Thruway rest stop and got myself a Cherry Coke, shaking my head. Not good.

— Rangers 3, Tigers 1— Rookie Ezequiel Duran hit a bases loaded triple with two out in 9th inning, giving Texas an unlikely win. Detroit is now 1-6 on this home stand; they’ve scored a total of seven runs in their last five games.

— Padres 6, Cubs 4— Chicago has now lost 10 games in a row, outscored 90-28.

— Angels 4, Seattle 1— Trout hit two homers, Ohtani threw six shutout innings.

— New Orleans Saints are going to wear black helmets in at least one game this year, with the same logo they’ve always had. This will be the first time in their 55-year history that they will not be wearing a gold helmet.

— Cleveland 4, Colorado 2— Guardians have won 13 of their last 16 games; Terry Francona is a great manager. This is not a great roster, but Cleveland is currently holding the third/last Wild Card spot in the American League.

Week 10 USFL games……..
Philadelphia vs New Jersey (-2.5)
Philadelphia Stars (6-3)
— Won four row, five of last six games.
— Last six weeks, they’re +11 in turnovers.
— Gave up 23+ points eight of nine games (over 5-1 last six).
— Have been outgained in seven of nine games (3-5-1 ATS).
— 1-2 ATS as an underdog.
— 5-0 if they score more than 17 points.

New Jersey Generals (8-1)
— Won last eight games (5-3 ATS), scoring 24.6 ppg in last seven.
— Last three games, Generals are +5 in turnovers (7-2)
— Outscored last three foes 56-24 in first half.
— 3-3 ATS as a favorite
— Five of their last six games went over the total.

These teams play in USFL playoffs next week, in Ohio.

First meeting:
— Generals (+1) won 24-16 back in Week 3.
— New Jersey outrushed the Stars, 269-31.
— Philadelphia led 10-3 at halftime, was outgained 458-259.

Tampa Bay vs Birmingham (-3.5)
Tampa Bay Bandits (4-5)
— Bandits lost four of their last six games.
— Minus-13 in turnovers— have only six takeaways.
— 1-3 ATS as an underdog.
— Were shut out in second half in 4 of 9 games.
— Their last three games stayed under the total.

Birmingham Stallions (8-1)
— Both their quarterbacks have been banged recently.
— Trailed at halftime in five of their nine games
— Outscored opponents 126-58 in second half.
— 0-3 vs spread the last three weeks (6-0 first six weeks)
— Scored 10-15 points last two games (26.9 ppg first seven)
— Stallions have a playoff game in Ohio next week.

First meeting
— Week 4, Stallions (-2.5) beat Tampa Bay 16-10.
— Tampa Bay led 10-7 at half; they were outgained 228-158.
— Birmingham outgained Bandits 126-53.
— Stallions blanked Tampa Bay 9-0 in second half.

Michigan (-2.5) vs Pittsburgh
Michigan Panthers (1-8)
— Lost their last six games (2-4 ATS)
— 0-6 in games decided by 7 or fewer points.
— Last six games, they’re minus-9 in turnovers.
— Scored 27-24-23 points in last three games.
— Last six games went over the total.
— Michigan is 1-2 ATS as a favorite

Pittsburgh Maulers (1-8)
— Have been outscored 124-55 in first half of games.
— Are 1-8 with a minus-2 turnover ratio.
— Completed less than half their passes in four games.
— Six of their last eight games went over total.
— Covered spread four of last six weeks (4-4-1 ATS for year).

First meeting:
— Michigan’s only win was 24-0 over Pittsburgh in Week 3.
— Panthers ran for 244 yards, Pittsburgh 103.
— Michigan completed only 11-25 passes for 65 yards.
— Game was 16-0 at halftime.

New Orleans (-3) vs Houston
New Orleans Breakers (6-3)
— 5-0 when they score more than 17 points.
— Scored 9-17 points in last two games.
— Four of last six games went over the total
— Have seven takeaways in last two games (+2)
— 4-3 ATS this season as a favorite.
— Breakers have a playoff game in Ohio next week.

Houston Gamblers (2-7)
— Lost seven of last eight games (3-5 ATS)
— Led eight of their nine games at halftime.
— Have a bad record, despite a +6 turnover ratio.
— Six of last eight games went over total
— Outscored 116-47 in second half.

First meeting:
— New Orleans (-6.5) Houston 23-16 in Week 4.
— Gamblers led 13-10 at halftime.
— Breakers outgained Houston 523-155, but were minus-4 in turnovers.

 

[Udog]

Finals resume tomorrow....

 

[Udog]

Armadillo Sports

Saturday’s 6-pack
— Phillies 5-7, Nationals 3-7— Philly is 14-2 in its last 16 games.
— Cubs 1, Braves 0— Chicago ends 10-game losing skid, Braves’ 14-0 run.
— Giants 2, Pirates 0— Rodon threw eight shutout innings.
— Astros 13, White Sox 3— Houston has 9-game lead in AL West.
— Mariners 8, Angels 1— Halos lost 19 of their last 22 games.
— Guardians 2, Dodgers 1 (10)— LA is just 6-10 in its last 16 games.

Quote of the Day
“The graveyards are full of indispensable people.”
Charles de Gaulle

Saturday’s quiz
Which major league baseball team drafted Arizona Cardinals’ QB Kyler Murray in the first round of the baseball draft?

Friday’s quiz
Steph Curry was the 7th pick of the 2009 NBA Draft; Blake Griffin was the Home pick.

Thursday’s quiz
Klay Thompson played his college basketball at Washington State

******************************

Saturday’s Den: NFL rosters by round drafted, baseball records in close games, and other thoughts

— Davidson basketball coach Bob McKillop retired Friday, after 33 years coaching the Wildcats. McKillop had a career record of 634-380; he led Davidson to the Elite 8 in 2008, with a pretty good guard named Curry playing for him.

Davidson was in the Southern Conference back then; they’re in the Atlantic 14 now. Since that run to the Elite 8 in ’08, SoCon teams are 1-13 SU in the NCAA Tournament.

McKillop’s son Matt is taking over the Davidson job; he’s been an assistant for his dad the last 14 seasons, after playing at Davidson.

— Steph Curry was the 7th pick of the 2009 NBA Draft; Minnesota had the 5th and 6th picks- they took a pair of guards, Ricky Rubio/Jonny Flynn. Whoops.

— From 1957-1986, the Boston Celtics won 16 NBA titles; since 1987, they’ve won one, back in 2008. Celtics/Lakers are tied with 17 NBA championships, with Golden State third with seven.

— Cubs 1, Braves 0:
Braves came into this weekend on a 14-game win streak, Cubs on a 10-game losing skid; the last time a team on a double-digit losing streak beat a team on a double-digit win streak? Back in September, 1999 when the Phillies beat Houston.

— San Diego Padres entered this weekend in first place, the first time they’ve been in first place in June since 2010.

— Boston College’s football team lost G Christian Mahogany for this season; he tore his right ACL. Mel Kiper had Mahogany listed as the Forum guard prospect in next April’s draft.

— Former Tennessee governor Bill Haslam is going to buy the NHL’s Nashville Predators. Haslam is worth $2.3B; his brother and sister-in-law, Jimmy/Susan Haslam, are the owners of the NFL’s Cleveland Browns.

— Bruno Mioto posted this information on Twitter this week, breaking down NFL rosters by which round of the draft each team’s players were taken in, and how many undrafted free agents each team had.

— Most first round draft picks on NFL rosters last year:
13— NJ Giants
12— Pittsburgh/San Francisco
11— Atlanta/Baltimore
10— Cleveland, Denver, Las Vegas

— Fewest first round draft picks on NFL rosters last year:
4— Indianapolis, Kansas City
5— LA Rams
6— New England, Seattle, Tennessee
7— Houston, Jacksonville, Minnesota

— Most second round draft picks on NFL rosters last year:
11— Tampa Bay
10— Jacksonville, Miami, NJ Giants, Seattle
9— Arizona, Chicago, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Kansas City, LA Rams

— Fewest second round draft picks on NFL rosters last year:
3— Baltimore, Detroit
4— LA Chargers, NJ Jets, New Orleans, Washington
5— Buffalo, Carolina, Dallas, Pittsburgh, San Francisco

— Most undrafted free agents on NFL rosters last year:
23— Tennessee
21— Detroit
18— LA Chargers
16— Carolina, Denver, Miami

— Fewest undrafted free agents on NFL rosters last year:
6— NJ Giants
7— Pittsburgh
9— Minnesota, Seattle
10— Cincinnati, Cleveland, Houston, NJ Jets

Major league records in games where winning run scored from 7th inning on:
These are thru Thursday’s games
Home/Away….Total
Arizona 5-6/5-2….10-8
Atlanta 6-5/3-1….9-6
Cubs 4-6/4-2….8-8
Cincinnati 1-4/5-5….6-9
Colorado 5-6/5-4….10-10
Dodgers 2-2/2-4….4-6
Miami 2-4/4-5….6-9
Milwaukee 1-1/8-5….9-6
Mets 4-4/2-2….6-6
Philadelphia 4-7/3-4….7-11
Pittsburgh 6-3/3-5….9-8
St Louis 4-4/4-2….8-6
San Diego 5-5/7-6….12-11
San Francisco 1-5/4-3….5-8
Washington 1-1/2-2

Baltimore 5-3/2-3….7-6
Boston 4-4/4-7….8-11
White Sox 6-5/6-2….12-7
Cleveland 3-4/8-3….11-7
Detroit 6-4/7-3….13-7
Houston 3-1/5-4….8-5
Kansas City 2-6/3-4….5-10
Angels 0-6/2-4….2-10
Minnesota 2-6/2-4….4-10
New York 6-3/4-4….10-7
Oakland 3-9/4-4….7-13
Seattle 3-7/4-2….7-9
Tampa Bay 6-2/5-4….11-6
Texas 4-4/9-4….13-8
Toronto 4-4/6-4….10-8

 

[Udog]

TAMPA BAY is 13-4 Over (8.6 Units) in road games after covering 4 of their last 5 against the spread in the current season.




NHL
Dunkel

Saturday, June 18

NHL

Saturday, June 18

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trend Report
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tampa Bay @ Colorado
Tampa Bay
The total has gone UNDER in 5 of Tampa Bay's last 6 games
The total has gone OVER in 5 of Tampa Bay's last 6 games when playing Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games
The total has gone OVER in 5 of Colorado's last 6 games when playing Tampa Bay


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------




Lightning are 19-8 in the past 27 games overall.
Lightning are 5-2 in the past seven Stanley Cup Finals games.
Lightning are 13-4 in the past 17 playoff games as a 'dog.
Avalanche are 57-19 in the past 76 games overall.
Avalanche are 63-19 in the past 82 games as a favorite.
Avalanche are 36-16 in the past 52 playoff games as a favorite.
UNDER is 10-2 in the past 12 games for the Lightning
UNDER is 5-2 in the past seven road games for the Lightning.
UNDER is 7-4 in the past 11 as a road 'dog for the Lightning.
Favorite is 16-4 in the past 20 meetings.
Road team is 9-4 in the past 13 meetings.
Lightning are 5-2 in the past seven trips to Denver.
OVER is 5-1 in the past six meetings.

 

[Udog]

Armadillo Sports

Sunday’s 6-pack
Major league leaders in ERA (minimum 50 IP)
1.42— Tony Gonsolin, LA
1.59— Joe Musgrove, SD
1.68— Sandy Alcantara, Mia
1.84— Shane McClanahan, TB
1.94— Nestor Cortes, NYY
2.00— Alek Manoah, Tor

Quote of the Day
“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
Abraham Lincoln

Sunday’s quiz
Who was the 2nd President of the United States?

Saturday’s quiz
Oakland A’s drafted Arizona Cardinals’ QB Kyler Murray with the 9th pick in the first round of the 2018 baseball draft.

Friday’s quiz
Steph Curry was the 7th pick of the 2009 NBA Draft; Blake Griffin was the Home pick.

*********************************

Sunday’s Den: Clearing out a cluttered mind…….

13) Unusual situation in the NBA, where Golden State assistant coach Kenny Atkinson was expected to be hired as the new head coach in Charlotte; he even called the assistant coaches in Charlotte to set up interviews, but apparently Atkinson changed his mind and is going to stay as an assistant coach with the Warriors.

Atkinson’s last three years:
2019-20— Head coach, Brooklyn
2020-21— assistant with Clippers
2021-22— assistant with Warriors

Apparently Atkinson now believes that both professionally and personally it would be best to stay with the Warriors; winning is also a lot of fun. Golden State probably gave him a nice raise, too. Money never hurts, and moving every year gets old.

12) Atkinson has a track record of developing point guards, and guards in general; developing young players is what the NBA is all about now, since kids come out of college way too soon these days.

Warriors have a sub, Gary Payton II who averaged 17.6 minutes/game this year, the first time in his six NBA seasons that he became a regular in a team’s rotation. Payton has played for five teams in the G-League for a total of 128 games; under Atkinson’s tutelage, he’s a contributor on a championship team. He also has pretty good genes; his dad was a great player.

11) By the way, Steve Kerr is just about due to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame; the guy has nine championship rings, five as a role player, four as the Warriors’ coach. In 14 years as an NBA player, Kerr was on five title teams. It is good to know Michael Jordan.

For his career, Kerr made 45.4% of his 3-point shots. He also led Arizona to the 1988 Final Four.

10) One of the more interesting players in next week’s NBA Draft will be Shaedon Sharpe, who went to Kentucky last year, practiced with the team but never played in a game.

A 6-6 guard, Sharpe talks a good game: “I see myself being one of the greatest players to ever play the game of basketball, just getting after it and competing” but here’s the thing; no one in the NBA knows how good he is, if he can fit in with a team.

By the time next season starts, he will not have played in a game for 18 or 19 months. Will he even want to play in the NBA Summer League, which is next month in Las Vegas?

Anyway, his story will be interesting to follow Thursday night.

9) Baseball injuries:
— Mets’ P Tyler Megill (shoulder) is shut down for a month
— Angels’ 3B Anthony Rendon (wrist) is done for the season.
— Dodgers’ RF Mookie Betts (cracked ribs) goes on the IL

8) Dodgers, by the way, are 0-5 in extra innings this season; they’re 40-24 and will likely make the playoffs, but they’ve been struggling lately (7-10 in last 17 games).

7) When baseball has its amateur draft during the All-Stsr break next month, keep in mind that in 1999, the 402nd pick was a pretty good player— Albert Pujols. Not often a 13th round pick is a Hall of Famer, but you never know.

6) Jesse Winker signed a 2-year, $14.5M deal with Seattle this week; he’ll be a free agent after next season. Winker is off to dreadful start with the Mariners, hitting .212. Angels started two lefties in their twin bill Saturday, and Winker didn’t start either game. Not good.

Last year, Winker hit .305 with a .949 OPS for the Reds; moving to a bigger home ballpark has screwed up his approach this year.

5) My favorite baseball movies:
Moneyball, For Love of the Game, Major League, Bull Durham

4) NFL training camps start next month; there is a very narrow margin between winning and losing for most NFL teams. Think about this: the team that won last year’s Super Bowl went 0-3 in November with a bye week mixed in between. Lot of things have to go your way to win a championship.

3) I signed on with Amazon Prime this week, so I have access to old movies/TV shows and get free shipping on anything I buy from them. Bought a book Thursday and it got delivered in less than 48 hours. They send you an e-mail when it is delivered, with a picture of where they put the envelope. Pretty impressive customer service.

2) Harry the Handicapper checked in this week with a good story; back in 1970, long time ago but not that long ago, Marquette turned down a bid to the NCAA Tournament and decided to play in the NIT instead, which they won.

Al McGuire was Marquette’s coach; he was unique, a total character who later became a great analyst on TV. McGuire wasn’t happy with Marquette’s seeding/placement in the NCAA field, so he said the hell with it and turned the bid down. Seven years later, he won the national title and then retired as coach.

Stuff like that would never, ever happen today; way too much $$$ involved, but the NIT, once upon a time, was a pretty big deal.

1) Few years ago, I’m driving from Albany to Philadelphia and I stop for gas in New Jersey; I had absolutely no idea that in New Jersey (and Oregon) you’re not allowed to pump your own gas.

So I get out of the car and walk up to the pump and some Asian guy comes running out of the mini-mart and starts yelling at me, before I can start pumping the gas. You learn something every day; I was fine with someone else pumping my gas for me.

 

[Udog]

No game today.... finals resume tomorrow.

 

[Udog]

Armadillo Sports

Monday’s 6-pack
Major league leaders in on-base %age
.443— Luis Arraez, Minn
.423— Paul Goldschmidt, StL
.405— JD Martinez, Bos
.403— Yordan Alvarez, Hst
.401— Xander Bogaerts, Bos
.400— Manny Machado, SD

Quote of the Day
“Forgiveness is accepting the apology you will never receive.”
Shawne Duperon

Monday’s quiz
Which NFL team drafted John Elway?

Sunday’s quiz
John Adams was the 2nd President of the United States.

Saturday’s quiz
Oakland A’s drafted Arizona Cardinals’ QB Kyler Murray with the 9th pick in the first round of the 2018 baseball draft.

**************************************

Monday’s Den: Wrapping up a sports weekend…….

13) Monday kicks in a new baseball rule; teams will limited to 13 pitchers, instead of 14, which means that 18 teams have to send a pitcher down Monday, and add a position player.

12) Braves 6, Cubs 0— Kyle Hendricks’ last three starts vs Atlanta: He allowed 20 earned runs in 12 IP.

11) Pirates 4, Giants 3— Rookie Jack Suwinski hit three home runs, including a walk-off tater in the ninth inning.

10) Astros 4, White Sox 3— Rookie TJ Matijevic hit his first major league home run (also his first MLB hit) into the Crawford Boxes in left field. The 16-year old fan who got the ball negotiated with a team employee, so that Matijevic could get that baseball. Here is what the fan got:

— Six tickets to a future game.
— Six tickets to a batting batting experience
— A baseball signed by Jose Altuve

The young man also wanted a jersey signed by Justin Verlander; the team spokesman declined that request, but few innings later, the fan got a bag with the signed jersey in it.

It was Matijevic’s first MLB hit; the fan had the Astros over a barrel- he did pretty well, but he could’ve done a lot better had he wanted to.

9) Marlins 6, Mets 2— Rookie RF Jerar Encarnacion is the first player EVER to hit a grand slam and steal a base in his first major league game. He also threw out a runner at 2B from the right field fence— he can really throw.

Sandy Alcantara threw eight strong innings and finally got some run support.

8) Arizona 7, Minnesota 1— Just like Encarnacion, Buddy Kennedy’s first MLB home run was a grand slam. Kennedy is the grandson of former big leaguer Don Money, who played 16 years in the major leagues, for the Phillies/Brewers.

Week 10 USFL games:
7) New Jersey 26, Philadelphia 23:
— These teams meet in USFL playoffs next week.
— New Jersey lost its opener, then won its last nine games.
— Generals ran for 178 yards, threw for 232 more.

6) Birmingham 21, Tampa Bay 18
— Stallions led 14-0 at halftime, survived four turnovers (minus-3)
— Birmingham outgained Tampa Bay 379-285
— Stallions play New Orleans in playoffs next week, in Ohio.

5) Michigan 33, Pittsburgh 21
— Michigan’s only two wins this season were against Pittsburgh.
— Panthers scored 27 ppg in their last four games.
— Pittsburgh was outscored 145-58 in first half this season

4) Houston 20, New Orleans 3
— Breakers ran 53 plays for 116 yards; it is possible they mailed this one in.
— New Orleans plays Birmingham in playoffs next week.
— Houston went 3-7; they led nine of ten games at halftime.

3) The last time a golfer lost a major tournament in a playoff, then won the next major? Way back in 1962…….Arnold Palmer.

2) Colorado 8, San Diego 3— Padres have now lost 10 straight games in Denver; they also lost 3B Manny Machado to a sprained ankle, when he slipped on first base. X-rays were negative; at some point, MLB is going to change the bases (make them flatter?)

1) MLB began enforcing a rule on hand attachments this week; Cincinnati pitcher Graham Ashcraft wasn’t happy when umpires told him to remove his wedding ring from under his glove by umpires during Saturday’s game against Milwaukee. Ashcraft wound up moving his wedding ring to his necklace chain for the rest of the game.

 

[Udog]

TAMPA BAY is 9-0 ATS (9 Units) in home games after failing to cover 2 of their last 3 against the spread in the current season.




NHL
Dunkel

Monday, June 20

NHL

Monday, June 20

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trend Report
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Colorado @ Tampa Bay
Colorado
Colorado is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games
Colorado is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games on the road
Tampa Bay
Tampa Bay is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games at home
The total has gone UNDER in 5 of Tampa Bay's last 5 games at home


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------




Avalanche are 57-19 in the past 76 games overall.
Avalanche are 23-9 in the past 32 road games.
Avalanche are 7-0 in the past seven road playoff games.
Avalanche are 41-18 in the past 59 on a day of rest.
Lightning are 8-3 in the past 11 Stanley Cup Final games.
Lightning are 40-15 in the past 55 home games.
OVER is 5-2 in the past seven road games for the Avalanche.
OVER is 9-4-1 in the past 14 vs. Eastern Conference teams for the Avs.
UNDER is 7-0 in the past seven on a day of rest for the Lightning.
UNDER is 5-0 in the past five home games for the Lightning.
Avalanche are 4-1 in the past five meetings.
Favorite is 16-5 in the past 21 meetings.
OVER is 5-1 in the past six meetings.
OVER is 4-0 in the past four meetings in Tampa.

 

[Udog]

Armadillo Sports

Tuesday’s 6-pack
Spreads on NFL games this season:
Week 1— Green Bay (-1.5) @ Minnesota
Week 2— Arizona @ Las Vegas (-2)
Week 3— Buffalo (-4) @ Miami
Week 4— Seattle @ Detroit (-2)
Week 5— Cincinnati @ Baltimore (-2.5)
Week 6— Washington (-2.5) @ Chicago

Quote of the Day
“I’m not much of a golfer. I don’t have any friends. And all I like to do the day of a game is to go home and be alone and worry about ways not to lose.”
Bear Bryant

Tuesday’s quiz
In the movie Blue Chips, Nick Nolte plays the basketball coach at fictional Western University. Which basketball Hall of Famer plays Western’a athletic director in the movie?


Monday’s quiz
Baltimore Colts drafted John Elway in 1983, then traded him to Denver.

Sunday’s quiz
John Adams was the 2nd President of the United States.

*********************************

Tuesday’s Den: Nobody asked me, but…….

I wavered on whether I wanted to do this or not, but here are my top 20 NBA players of all-time. This is obviously open to debate; make your own list, see what you come up with.

First team:
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar— the best player ever
Michael Jordan
Lebron James— 2nd/3rd best players, or 3rd/2nd best players
Bill Russell— won 11 titles in 13 seasons as a player
Earvin Johnson— the best point guard ever.

Next five guys:
Wilt Chamberlain— Averaged 22.9 rebounds/game in his career
Tim Duncan— only 7 guys have won 4+ rings, 2+ MVP’s.
Kobe Bryant
Oscar Robertson
Steph Curry— the best shooter ever.

Third team:
Larry Bird
Karl Malone
Shaquille O’Neal
David Robinson
Dwyane Wade

Players 16-20:
Hakeem Olajuwon
Jerry West
Kevin Durant
John Stockton
Rick Barry— maybe the most underrated player ever

Again, these are all GREAT players. Also, sometime in the next few days, I’ll realize that I left someone off this list and I’m going to update it, but this is my list, for now. Again, make your own list; lot of great players to choose from.

— Seattle Mariners have already been shut out ten times this season, not good for a team that was supposed to contend for a playoff spot. Mariners are 29-39, the most disappointing team in the major leagues so far this year.

— Why do teams shift against the Mets’ Jeff McNeil? He is a slap hitter, and pretty skilled at locking his hips and poking the ball thru the vacant shortstop hole.

Shifts are way overdone in baseball, part of the reason it’ll be good to see them go next year.

— Brewers 2, Cardinals 0— St Louis is 13-2 against the Reds/Pirates, 25-29 against everyone else. Milwaukee leads NL Central by a game over the Redbirds.

— Four of the eight teams in the College World Series are from the SEC.

Over/unders in the last game of a series:
Arizona under 14-7
Atlanta over 10-9-2
Cubs over 12-8-1
Cincinnati 10-10-1
Colorado over 11-10
Dodgers under 10-9-2
Miami over 13-8
Milwaukee over 12-9
Mets over 11-8-2
Philadelphia over 11-10
Pittsburgh under 13-7-1
St Louis over 13-9
San Diego under 12-9
San Francisco 10-10-1
Washington under 11-8-2

Baltimore 10-10-1
Boston under 11-7-3
White Sox over 12-9
Cleveland under 12-9
Detroit under 11-9-1
Houston under 13-8
Kansas City over 13-8-1
Angels under 13-6-2
Minnesota under 11-10
New York under 12-9
Oakland under 10-9-2
Seattle under 11-10
Tampa Bay under 13-8
Texas 10-10-1
Toronto over 11-10

— Arizona rookie IF Buddy Kennedy hit a grand slam Sunday, for his first major league homer; he hit a 3-0 pitch over the fence. Turns out Kennedy had the take sign but didn’t know it- he thought the count was 2-0. These things get excused when you hit a home run.

— Pirates 12, Cubs 1— Rookie Oneil Cruz, a 6-7 shortstop, knocked in four runs in his major league debut. Pirates have brought up several rookies the last few weeks.

— Royals 6, Angels 2— Halos lost 20 of their last 26 games, are fading fast.

— Lightning 6, Avalanche 2— Home team has won all three games in Stanley Cup finals; Colorado leads 2 game to 1.

---

 

[Udog]

No game today.... finals resume tomorrow.

 

[Udog]

Armadillo Sports

Wednesday’s 6-pack
— Royals 12, Angels 11 (11)— Halos lost despite Ohtani knocking in eight runs.
— Angels are now 2-12 in games where GW run scored from 7th inning on.
— Tampa Bay 5, New York 4— Isaac Parades hit homers his first three trips to the plate.
— Tampa Bay now has 15 guys on the injured list.
— Guardians 6, Twins 5 (11)— Teams are tied for first in AL Central.
— There were four extra inning games last night, lot of good action.

Quote of the Day
“One event doesn’t make 14 wins (in a row) happen. But it was nice to hear Snit get up there and tell everyone to relax a little. We were not playing great baseball as far as the complete package, so it was just a ‘take a deep breath’ type of meeting.”
Braves’ 1B Matt Olson

Wednesday’s quiz
Who has hit the most postseason home runs in major league history?
Hint: He retired in 2011

Tuesday’s quiz
In the movie Blue Chips, Nick Nolte plays the basketball coach at fictional Western University. Bob Cousy plays Western’a athletic director in the movie.

Monday’s quiz
Baltimore Colts drafted John Elway in 1983, then traded him to Denver.

*******************************

Wednesday’s Den: Turning points to think about…….

There are turning points in all walks of life; if this hadn’t have happened, then that wouldn’t have followed. The flowchart of life takes some interesting turns. Here are some memorable turning points that I remember:

13) In 1965, Richard Nixon was offered a $100,000 salary and an unlimited expense account to become commissioner of baseball. He turned it down: “Don’t tell Pat. She’d kill me for turning you down.” Pat was Mrs Nixon.

The history of our country would be vastly different had he accepted the job.

12) 1984 NBA Draft; Houston Rockets took Hakeem Olajuwon with the first pick; that turned out very well. Houston won a couple of NBA titles.

Portland then took Sam Bowie with the Forum pick; he played 10 years in the NBA, but started only 349 games, scoring 10.9 ppg.

History of the NBA would be a little different if Portland had chosen the guy the Bulls took with the Blogs pick that year— Michael Jordan.

11) In 2006, Nick Saban was coaching the Miami Dolphins; they went 9-7 in his first season, but were looking for a QB to upgrade from Gus Frerotte. There was a free agent QB who had played for the Chargers, going 30-28 as San Diego’s starter. QB was well-regarded, but he tore his labrum in his shoulder in 2005, and the Chargers had a young Philip Rivers, so they moved on to the younger QB.

Miami’s team physician recommended passing on the free agent QB, so they signed Daunte Culpepper instead. Culpepper played four games for the Dolphins.

Imagine how football would be different had the Dolphins signed Drew Brees:
a) Saints might’ve never won a Super Bowl.
b) Saban would probably still be coaching the Dolphins and never would’ve gone to Alabama, where he became, arguably, the best coach in college football history.

10) Robert Irsay bought the Los Angeles Rams on July 13, 1972; he then immediately traded the franchise to Carroll Rosenbloom, who was the owner of the Baltimore Colts. Rosenbloom made the deal in part because he saved $4.4M in taxes.

— 11 years later, Irsay moved the Colts to Indianapolis, right after he drafted John Elway and traded him to Denver.
— Irsay’s son Jim now owns the Colts; he is a much better owner than his dad was.
— In 1979, Rosenbloom died in a swimming accident; his wife Georgia inherited the team, and in 1995, moved the Rams to her hometown of St Louis.
— After Georgia Frontiere died (Rosenbloom was her 6th husband, Dominic Frontiere her 7th) Stan Kroenke bought her 70% of the team and moved the team back to Los Angeles.
— As of 2019, according to Forbes Magazine, the Rams were worth $3.8B, the Colts #2.65B. After last season, Rams might be worth more now.

9) Dell Curry played 16 years in the NBA, scoring 12,670 points; he played his college ball at Virginia Tech, not a traditional hoop power.

Curry’s two sons were pretty good high school players, but Virginia Tech didn’t recruit either one of them. Bad move.

Seth Curry started at Liberty, then transferred to Duke; he’s scored 11.3 ppg in his eight years in the NBA.

Steph Curry played college ball at Davidson; they made the Elite 8 in 2008, while Virginia Tech made the NCAA Tournament once in Seth Greenberg’s nine years as the Hokies’ coach.

Greenberg does a very good job as ESPN’s studio analyst, but had he recruited Steph Curry, he might still be coaching Virginia Tech.

Steph Curry, obviously, is an all-time great in the NBA, one of only seven players ever to win 4+ championships and 2+ MVP awards.

8) Speaking of Steph Curry, he was the 7th pick in the 2009 NBA Draft. Smart move. Golden State has won four championships in the Curry/Klay Thompson era. Warriors are 101-54 in playoff games, since they drafted Curry.

Minnesota Timberwolves had the 5th and 6th picks that season; they needed guards but took Ricky Rubio and Jonny Flynn instead of Curry. Bad move.

In 13 years since then, Minnesota has made the playoffs twice, going 3-8 in playoff games.

7) In the fall of 1979, Jack McKinney was coach of the Los Angeles Lakers; they had a rookie point guard named Earvin Johnson, and were off to a 10-4 start. On an off day, McKinney went out for a bike ride but had an accident and had a brain injury. He never coached the Lakers again, though he did coach the Pacers/Kings down the road.

Paul Westhead took over from McKinney; Lakers won the NBA title that year, but two years later, he had a falling out with Earvin Johnson and the Lakers fired him, after a 7-4 start.

The new coach was Pat Riley, who prior to McKinney’s bike accident, was the color analyst on Lakers’ radio broadcasts. Riley turned out to be one of the best coaches in NBA history (he won five NBA titles) and is still running the Miami Heat franchise, but the fact is, had McKinney’s bike accident never happened, Riley may have never gotten his chance to be a coach.

6) August 12, 1987, the Detroit Tigers acquired P Doyle Alexander from the Atlanta Braves, trading away a minor league pitcher. Guy named Smoltz.

Detroit went 98-64 in 1987, winning the AL East; they lost the ALCS to Minnesota, but this was only the second time Detroit had made the playoffs in 15 years. They didn’t make the playoffs again until 2006.

Meanwhile, John Smoltz went on to a Hall of Fame career, winning 213 games and saving 154 others; dealing Alexander in 1987, when Atlanta went 69-92, helped the Braves make the playoffs 14 times in 15 years, starting in 1991.

5) Dodgers bolted Brooklyn and moved to Los Angeles after the 1957 season; they needed a second team to move to the west coast, to make travel feasible for the other six teams in the National League. Move has obviously turned out to be a great one for the Dodgers.

At the time Dodgers/Giants/Bronx were all in New York City; the Giants were doing the worst of the three on the field, and attendance at the Polo Grounds wasn’t good, so they agreed to move, figuring a move to the Bay Area would be more lucrative then splitting the financial pie with a more successful team in the Bronx.

Problem is, Candlestick Park wasn’t such a great ballpark; very windy, had to share it with the 49ers. Giants didn’t do their due diligence on Candlestick Point, and wound up, for 40 or so years, with a sub-standard stadium.

Their new stadium is way better and now the Giants have a good deal, but think about it; would you rather own the Giants or the Mets, who came into being in 1962, filling the void left by the two teams bolting to California?

4) When Brett Favre was Green Bay’s quarterback in 1994, his backup was Mark Brunell, who wound getting traded to Jacksonville the next year, the Jaguars’ first season.

Green Bay had another QB in camp in 1994, but they cut him. Guy wound up playing in the Arena League for three years, then in NFL Europe, before signing with the Rams in 1998. Now he is in the Hall of Fame— Kurt Warner.

Had Green Bay kept Warner instead of Brunell, they might mot have made a movie about him.

3) Baseball’s 1970 All-Star Game in Cincinnati went 12 innings; National League won 5-4 when Pete Rose bowled over catcher Ray Fosse to score the winning run, even though Fosse didn’t have the ball yet.

Fosse suffered a separated shoulder and wasn’t the same player after that. Cleveland traded him to the A’s two years later. Fosse helped the A’s win two World Series and wound up being a TV analyst for Oakland for 35 years after he retired.

2) In 2017, Chicago Bears traded up (gave up a 3rd and 4th round pick) to the Forum spot in the NFL Draft, in order to take QB Mitchell Trubisky, who went 29-23 as Chicago’s starter in his four years there. Not a bad record, but the Bears lost both playoff games in the Trubisky era.

Problem is, Chicago could’ve kept those 3rd/4th round picks and taken Patrick Mahomes, who was the 10th pick that year. NFL would look a lot different had that happened.

Of course, Chicago could’ve also taken Deshaun Watson that year; then they would have a much different kind of mess on their hands. Watson was the 12th pick in that draft.

1) Tom Brady was the 199th player picked in the 2000 Draft, a 6th-round pick. He became the starter in New England because Drew Bledsoe got hurt in a 2001 game.

Since then, Brady has won seven Super Bowls and is one of the best QB’s ever. Every team in the NFL passed on him multiple times, including the Patriots.

Brady’s record in New England: 249-75
Bill Belichick’s record as a head coach: 321-156
With Brady: 249-75
Without Brady: 72-81

 

[Udog]

TAMPA BAY is 10-0 ATS (10 Units) in home games after failing to cover 2 of their last 3 against the spread in the current season.




NHL
Dunkel

Wednesday, June 22

NHL

Wednesday, June 22

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Trend Report
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Colorado @ Tampa Bay
Colorado
The total has gone OVER in 5 of Colorado's last 5 games when playing on the road against Tampa Bay
Colorado is 7-1 SU in its last 8 games
Tampa Bay
Tampa Bay is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games at home
The total has gone OVER in 5 of Tampa Bay's last 5 games when playing at home against Colorado


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Avalanche are 57-20 in the past 77 games overall.
Avalanche are 23-10 in the past 33 road games.
Avalanche are 7-1 in the past eight road playoff games.
Avalanche are 41-19 in the past 60 on a day of rest.
Lightning are 9-3 in the past 12 Stanley Cup Final games.
Lightning are 41-15 in the past 56 home games.
OVER is 6-2 in the past eight road games for the Avalanche.
OVER is 10-4-1 in the past 15 vs. Eastern Conference teams for the Avs.
UNDER is 7-1 in the past eight on a day of rest for the Lightning.
UNDER is 5-1 in the past six home games for the Lightning.
Avalanche are 4-2 in the past six meetings.
Favorite is 17-5 in the past 22 meetings.
OVER is 6-1 in the past seven meetings.
OVER is 5-0 in the past five meetings in Tampa.