Armadillo Sports
Saturday’s 6-pack
All-time home run leaders, among active players;
507— Miguel Cabrera, Det
461— Nelson Cruz, SD
382— Giancarlo Stanton, NYY
353— Mike Trout, LAA
342— Joey Votto, Cin
333— Evan Longoria, Az
Quote of the Day
“Philly is a very hard media market. We were 9-0 and I did my presser and they say, ‘Coach, we want you fired.’ And I said, ‘We’re the No. 1 defense in the NFL right now, in every statistical category. Why do you want me fired?’ ‘You don’t blitz enough.’ I said, ‘Well we lead the league in sacks by 30-plus sacks, so if you want to come call the defense, then you can have at it.'”
Arizona Cardinals’ head coach Jonathan Gannon
Saturday’s quiz
Milwaukee Brewers played for one year in a different city, before moving to Wisconsin and becoming the Brewers in 1970. What team were they in 1969?
Friday’s quiz
Sacramento Kings used to call Cincinnati home; they were the Cincinnati Royals back then.
Thursday’s quiz
2014 was the last time the Angels made the playoffs.
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Saturday’s Den: Wrapping up a busy Friday…….
— Hawks 130, Celtics 122 (Boston leads 2-1)
Atlanta led 74-67 at the half; not a lot of defense there.
Hawks shot 56% from the floor, 15-34 on the arc.
Home team won all three series games.
— Knicks 99, Cavaliers 79 (New York leads 2-1)
New York led 45-32 at halftime.
Cleveland shot 38.8% from floor, 7-33 on arc.
Every Cavalier starter was minus-16, or worse.
— Nuggets 120, Minnesota 111 (Denver leads, 3-0)
Denver shot 57.1% from the floor.
Jokic scored 20 points, grabbed 11 rebounds, dished out 12 assists
Minnesota’s four subs shot a combined 4-17 from the floor.
— Clippers-Lakers-LA Kings all play in the same arena; used to be called Staples Center, now it is the Crypto com Arena. They’re having a busy week there:
Thursday 10:30— Suns @ Clippers
Friday 10:00— Oilers @ Kings
Saturday 3:30— Suns @ Clippers
Saturday 10pm— Grizzlies @ Lakers
Sunday 9:00— Oilers @ Kings
Monday 10:00— Grizzlies @ Lakers
Guys who change the set-up from basketball to hockey and back again will be logging some overtime this week, that’s for sure.
— LA Kings 3, Edmonton 2 OT— Kings have led a game for just over 8 minutes in this entire series, yet they led the series 2-1, with a pair of overtime wins.
— Good night of baseball Friday; in 6 of 14 games, the winning run scored from the 7th inning on.
— Rays 8, White Sox 7— Brandon Lowe’s 2-run walk-off homer capped a 3-run 9th inning rally, and Tampa Bay is now 17-3. Rays scored four runs in 1st, trailed 7-4 in the 4th.
— Cubs 13, Dodgers 0…….Pirates 4, Reds 2…….Seattle 5, Cardinals 2
NL Central standings:
Brewers 14-6
Pirates 14-7
Cubs 12-7
Cardinals 8-12
Reds 7-13
— Arizona 9, San Diego 0— Zac Gallen tossed 7 shutout innings against a Padre team that is the most disappointing team in the big leagues. In their last six games, San Diego scored 0 or 1 run in five of them; Gallen got 21 whiffs on 66 swings from Padre hitters.
— Mets 7, Giants 0— San Francisco is now 6-13, 0-6 if they won their previous game. Mets got seven shutout innings from Joey Lucchesi, who was making his first start since 2021.
— A’s 5, Rangers 4— Good week for the A’s, who actually won a game they trailed 4-0 in first inning. Oakland is 4-7 in games when winning run scores from 7th inning on; they’re 0-9 in all their other games. Rookie Jordan Diaz’s first major league homer was the game-winner.
— Angels 2, Royals 0— Shohei Ohtani tossed seven shutout innings, struck out 11.
— Astros 6, Braves 4— Houston trailed 4-1 after six innings; spots 7-9 in Houston lineup were 5-11, with three runs scored. Alvarez hit the game-winning homer in the 9th inning.
— Big change in college football rules; the game clock won’t stop after first downs anymore, which will greatly reduce the numbers of plays in college football games. It will shorten games, and make them lower scoring.
Another, more obscure change was that they changed the rules on certain types of blocks. As a result, Army’s coach announced that the Cadets won’t run the triple option anymore. Most of the service academy teams have run some kind of option offense for years.
— Former Arizona Cardinals’ GM Steve Keim was on a podcast; he told a story about when the Cardinals interviewed Nick Bosa before the 2019 draft.
Bosa told Keim: “I think you guys are probably going to draft that little quarterback (Kyler Murray), and if you do, I will haunt you for the rest of your career.”
But the Cardinals did draft Murray and since then…….
— they’ve had one winning season out of four
— they haven’t won a playoff game
— they went 10-22-1 at home
— Murray has a $52M cap hit next year, and is coming off major knee surgery
— Keim got fired this past winter
— Tampa Bay Rays have hit a home run in each of their first 20 games, tying the all-time record at the start of a season.
— Toronto Maple Leafs are first NHL team ever to give up 7+ goals in the first game of a playoff series, then score 7+ goals in the second game.
— College basketball transfer portal never stops……..
Caleb Grill transfers from Iowa State to Missouri
2020— Iowa State
2021— UNLV
2022-23— back to Iowa State
2024— Missouri
Creighton star Ryan Nembhard transferred to Gonzaga; he played two tears for the Bluejays, scoring 11.8 ppg, dishing out 4.6 assists/game. His brother Andrew played for two years with the Zags, before heading on to the NBA’s Indiana Pacers.
Gonzaga also added Wyoming big man Graham Ike Friday; Ike missed last season with a lower leg injury, will have three years of eligibility left. Ike averaged 19.5 ppg, 9.6 rebounds/game in 2021-22, leading Wyoming to a 25-9 season and an NCAA Tournament bid.
— Toronto Raptors fired coach Nick Nurse, four years after he won an NBA title in Toronto; Nurse went 252-179 in five years with Toronto, winning the title in his first year as head coach. Raptors were 41-41 this past season.
— 76ers’ star Joel Embiid sprained his knee, is out for Game 4 against Brooklyn.
