Thursday’s 6-pack
Odds to win the College World Series:
3-1— Wake Forest
5-1— LSU
6-1— Florida
7-1— Virginia
10-1— South Carolina
12-1— Stanford, Tennessee
15-1— TCU
20-1— Kentucky, Texas
25-1— Duke, Oregon
30-1— Alabama, Indiana State, Oregon
40-1— Oral Roberts
Quote of the Day
“There still has to be consequences to actions. The people that left the PGA Tour irreparably harmed this tour, started litigation against it. Like, we can’t just welcome them back in. That’s not going to happen.”
Rory McIlroy
Thursday’s quiz
Hard question today: since 1930, there has been only one inside-the-park home run in a World Series game. It happened in 2015; who hit it?
Wednesday’s quiz
Phil Garner was the Houston Astros’ manager, the first time they played in a World Series, back in 2005.
Tuesday’s quiz
On the old animated TV show
The Jetsons, the dog’s name was Astro.
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Thursday’s Den: Doing some thinking out loud…….
— Nuggets 109, Heat 94
Nikola Jokic is first player ever with 30+ points, 20+ rebounds, 10+ assists in an NBA Finals game.
Other than Jimmy Butler (11-24), Miami’s starters were 12-43 from the floor.
Denver leads series, 2-1. Game 4 is Friday.
— AL Central standings— it is June 8th:
Twins 31-31
Guardians 28-33
Tigers 26-33
White Sox 27-35
Royals 18-44
It is conceivable that the winner of this division will have a losing record.
— Last couple days, it has been weird here in upstate New York; you’ve probably seen pictures of the smoke from hundreds of wildfires in Canada- that smoke drifted south and as a result, New York is facing the worst air quality it has seen in decades with conditions that he characterized as “unprecedented” and “the worst in memory.”
Things are expected to get better early next week, when it is supposed to rain in Canada.
— Chris Andrews runs the sportsbook at South Point Casino in Las Vegas; it is a very good sportsbook. Mr Andrews ran sportsbooks in Reno for 30+ years before coming to the South Point. He posted this on Twitter a few days ago:
“When I first got to the South Point in 2016 I had to fight with my crew every night to get hockey on a few TVs.”
These days, NHL playoffs share the big screens with NBA playoff games, in large part because the Golden Knights have done so well.
— There are 14 major league baseball teams with a payroll of $200M+; there are three teams with a payroll less than $100M.
— Most touchdown plays of more than 20 yards last year:
17— Eagles, Raiders
16— Seahawks, 49ers
15— Bills
12— Bengals, Patriots.
— Fewest touchdown plays of more than 20 yards last year:
2— Steelers
3— Colts
4— Falcons
5— Rams, Buccaneers
—
Inside the NFL is going to air on the CW this fall, first time it has been on network TV. All the stuff NFL Films does is really good, so this is a good addition for the CW.
— A’s 9, Pirates 5— Oakland split its last eight games, scoring 20 runs the last two games. A’s are 4-6 on Tuesdays, 10-44 the rest of the week.
— Reds 8, Dodgers 6
Benson’s first MLB home run was a walk-off shot.
De La Cruz also hit his first big league homer.
Last three weeks, Dodgers are 1-6 in games where winning run scored from 7th inning on.
— Arizona 6, Washington 2— Diamondbacks have a two-game lead in the NL West.
— Braves 7, Mets 5— Mets and their $375M payroll have lost five in row, are now 30-32
— Giants 5, Colorado 4— Rockies have lost 10 games in a row vs San Francisco.
— Rays 2, Twins 1— Arozarena hit a walk-off homer for Tampa Bay.
— Padres 10, Mariners 3
Wacha threw six shutout innings.
Soto went 5-for-5, knocked in three runs.
— Baseball injuries:
Bronx put OF Aaron Judge (toe) on the IL
— Movie of the Day— The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989)— The lives of two struggling musicians, who are brothers, change drastically when they team up with a beautiful, up-and-coming singer.
Michelle Pfeiffer is the singer; Jeff/Beau Bridges are the two brothers.
Movie was nominated for four Academy Awards, but made only $6.9M over budget at the box office.
—
USFL trends, thru eight weeks:
Stallions (6-2)
5-0 allowing 20 or less points; gave up 45-27 in losses.
4-4 ATS (favored in every game)
3-1 in games decided by 7 or less points.
under 3-1 last four games
Gamblers (5-3)
won four of last five games, after an 0-2 start
2-3 ATS as a favorite
last four games stayed under.
5-1 if they allow less than 29 points
Last three games were decided by 6-3-1 points.
Showboats (5-3)
won/covered last four games, after an 0-3 start.
allowed 27-42-30 points in losses; 10-10-0-20-16 in wins
under six of last seven games
5-3 ATS; have been underdog in every game.
Panthers (3-5)
lost five of last six games, after a 2-0 start
3-0 if they score 24+ points, 0-5 if they score less than 24.
3-2 ATS as an underdog.
five of last seven games stayed under total.
Generals (2-6)
lost last five games, by 3-3-6-3-9 points.
Allowed 3-13 points in wins; 0-6 giving up more than 13.
1-4 ATS as a favorite.
Six of eight games stayed under total.
Breakers (5-3)
Last five games were all decided by 7 or less points.
four of last five games stayed under total.
1-3 in last four games, after a 4-0 start.
4-2 ATS as a favorite
Stars (4-4)
won three of last four games (4-0 ATS)
4-1 in games decided by 6 or less points.
Losses are by 14-8-25-6 points.
3 of last 4 games stayed went over the total.
Maulers (2-6)
0-6 if they give up more than 13 points.
Two wins were 21-13/23-7
under 5-3
0-5 if they score less than 21 points.
— Recently, a violinist played for 45 minutes in a New York City subway; a handful of people stopped, a couple clapped, and the violinist managed to raise about $30 in tips.
No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. In that subway, Joshua played music with a violin worth $3.5M.
Two days before he played in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston and the seats averaged about $100 apiece; it goes to show you, sometimes, you just never know.
