Thursday’s 6-pack:
Baseball teams whose attendance went down last year:
-24.1%— White Sox
-20.1%— A’s
-16.7%— Mets
-11.2%— Cardinals
-10.7%— Angels
-7.7%— Blue Jays
Thought of the Day
“Without you, I would not have been the second-leading scorer on a championship team. … I can’t thank you enough, are you kidding me? I didn’t even think that was possible.”
Klay Thompson, thanking the doctor who operated on his injured achilles tendon in 2020
Thursday’s quiz
Where did Klay Thompson play his college basketball?
Wednesday’s quiz
Blake Snell is the last pitcher to throw a complete game no-hitter in the major leagues.
Tuesday’s quiz
Oakland A’s have won four World Series, under Dick Williams (2), Alvin Dark, Tony LaRussa.
***********************************************
Tuesday night in LA, the Lakers beat Dallas 107-99; Klay Thompson scored 22 points, had 8 rebounds for the Mavericks. After the game, Thompson gave a 2022 NBA championship ring to Dr. Richard Ferkel, who surgically repaired Thompson’s torn achilles tendon in 2020.
“Oh my gosh, this is unbelievable.” Dr. Ferkel said, when he saw the ring he was getting. NBA championship rings are very big, and very expensive.
Showing gratitude is simple enough, but needs to happen more often.
— For three years now, the NFL Players Association has done a report card that grades teams on 11 different categories as far as off-field things; treatment of families, food/cafeteria, nutritionist/dietician, locker room, training room, training staff, weight room, strength coaches, team travel, head coach and owner.
Arizona Cardinals were lowest-ranked team, after being 27th last year.
League-wide, there were four F-minus grades given out:
1- Cardinals- locker room.
Players think the locker room and weight room are too small.
2- Bills- team travel
Only 35% of players said they had a comfortable amount of personal space on team flights. Players sit in smaller seats during travel while coaches/auxiliary staff sit in first class.
3- Bengals- treatment of families
Cincinnati is one of only three teams in the NFL that doesn’t offer daycare during home games, and one of 10 teams that does not offer a family room.
Also, the team’s dietitian only works two days a week; players want her hired full-time.
4- Browns- locker room
Cleveland upgraded its weight room last year; players gave it an A grade this year, but now they would like a bigger locker room, too.
— NFL Combine starts Thursday, lot of 40-yard sprints and interviews with Mel Kiper.
— Major league teams must make a decent amount of $$$ during spring training; Mets drew over 7,200 fans for their Grapefruit League opener last week. Cubs draw bigger crowds than that out in Arizona.
— Washington Nationals signed closer Kyle Finnegan for one year, $6M; Finnegan had 38 saves for Washington last year.
— Someone who needs to be in the Baseball Hall of Fame:
Charlie Finley was an insurance salesman who got rich selling group medical insurance to doctors; he bought the Kansas City A’s in 1960, moved them to Oakland in 1968, was the team’s general manager as well as a great promoter.
Finley’s A’s won three straight World Series from 1972-74, but then free agency became a thing and Finley couldn’t compete with the big $$$ owners who then infiltrated the game. He sold the A’s in 1980, but think about the impact Finley had/still has, actually.
Finley’s A’s were the first team to wear more colorful uniforms; think about how much $$$ teams make now from selling hats/jerseys/jackets. Billions of dollars; Finley helped that ball get rolling, over 50 years ago.
He wasn’t very well-liked, so he’ll probably never get inducted into Cooperstown, but he damn sure should be.
— Famous birthdays, February 27th:
Joanne Woodward, 95
James Worthy, 64
Greg Cadaret, 63
Matt Stairs, 57
Loy Vaught, 57
Duce Staley, 50
Devin Harris, 42
Aníbal Sánchez, 41
Chris Godwin, 29
— Michigan State 58, Maryland 55
Kid on Michigan State drained a 1/2-court shot at the buzzer.
Spartans had blown a 9-point lead with 5:24 left to play.
Teams combined to shoot 8-35 on the arc.
— San Francisco 74, Oregon State 72
Beavers’ tying basket came half-second after the horn sounded.
Oregon State was only 14-24 on the foul line.
San Francisco won seven of its last eight games.
— Arkansas 86, Texas 81 OT
Arkansas led by 14 with 10:15 left in the game.
Razorbacks played only seven guys.
Texas lost five of its last six games.
— Vanderbilt 86, Texas A&M 84
Lot of fouls; Vandy was 28-36 on line, Aggies 31-39
Bracketology has Vanderbilt as a #10-seed in NCAA’s.
Aggies lost last three games, after a 20-5 start.
— Villanova 59, Seton Hall 54
Seton Hall led 37-21 early in second half.
Pirates were only 8-17 on the foul line.
Wildcats won five of their last seven games.
— Kentucky 83, Oklahoma 82
6-4 junior Oweh scored 28 points, had no assists- his job is to shoot.
Both teams shot 63% inside the arc.
Sooners are 4-11 in SEC, after a 13-0 pre-conference mark.
— East Tennessee State 59, Mercer 58
ETSU beat Mercer twice TY, by total of three points.
ETSU survived shooting 7-13 on the foul line.
Buccaneers won six of their last eight games.
Baseball teams whose attendance went down last year:
-24.1%— White Sox
-20.1%— A’s
-16.7%— Mets
-11.2%— Cardinals
-10.7%— Angels
-7.7%— Blue Jays
Thought of the Day
“Without you, I would not have been the second-leading scorer on a championship team. … I can’t thank you enough, are you kidding me? I didn’t even think that was possible.”
Klay Thompson, thanking the doctor who operated on his injured achilles tendon in 2020
Thursday’s quiz
Where did Klay Thompson play his college basketball?
Wednesday’s quiz
Blake Snell is the last pitcher to throw a complete game no-hitter in the major leagues.
Tuesday’s quiz
Oakland A’s have won four World Series, under Dick Williams (2), Alvin Dark, Tony LaRussa.
***********************************************
Thursday’s Den: Doing some thinking out loud…….
— There’s a lot of BS going on in the world these days, let’s start with some good stuff.Tuesday night in LA, the Lakers beat Dallas 107-99; Klay Thompson scored 22 points, had 8 rebounds for the Mavericks. After the game, Thompson gave a 2022 NBA championship ring to Dr. Richard Ferkel, who surgically repaired Thompson’s torn achilles tendon in 2020.
“Oh my gosh, this is unbelievable.” Dr. Ferkel said, when he saw the ring he was getting. NBA championship rings are very big, and very expensive.
Showing gratitude is simple enough, but needs to happen more often.
— For three years now, the NFL Players Association has done a report card that grades teams on 11 different categories as far as off-field things; treatment of families, food/cafeteria, nutritionist/dietician, locker room, training room, training staff, weight room, strength coaches, team travel, head coach and owner.
Arizona Cardinals were lowest-ranked team, after being 27th last year.
League-wide, there were four F-minus grades given out:
1- Cardinals- locker room.
Players think the locker room and weight room are too small.
2- Bills- team travel
Only 35% of players said they had a comfortable amount of personal space on team flights. Players sit in smaller seats during travel while coaches/auxiliary staff sit in first class.
3- Bengals- treatment of families
Cincinnati is one of only three teams in the NFL that doesn’t offer daycare during home games, and one of 10 teams that does not offer a family room.
Also, the team’s dietitian only works two days a week; players want her hired full-time.
4- Browns- locker room
Cleveland upgraded its weight room last year; players gave it an A grade this year, but now they would like a bigger locker room, too.
— NFL Combine starts Thursday, lot of 40-yard sprints and interviews with Mel Kiper.
— Major league teams must make a decent amount of $$$ during spring training; Mets drew over 7,200 fans for their Grapefruit League opener last week. Cubs draw bigger crowds than that out in Arizona.
— Washington Nationals signed closer Kyle Finnegan for one year, $6M; Finnegan had 38 saves for Washington last year.
— Someone who needs to be in the Baseball Hall of Fame:
Charlie Finley was an insurance salesman who got rich selling group medical insurance to doctors; he bought the Kansas City A’s in 1960, moved them to Oakland in 1968, was the team’s general manager as well as a great promoter.
Finley’s A’s won three straight World Series from 1972-74, but then free agency became a thing and Finley couldn’t compete with the big $$$ owners who then infiltrated the game. He sold the A’s in 1980, but think about the impact Finley had/still has, actually.
Finley’s A’s were the first team to wear more colorful uniforms; think about how much $$$ teams make now from selling hats/jerseys/jackets. Billions of dollars; Finley helped that ball get rolling, over 50 years ago.
He wasn’t very well-liked, so he’ll probably never get inducted into Cooperstown, but he damn sure should be.
— Famous birthdays, February 27th:
Joanne Woodward, 95
James Worthy, 64
Greg Cadaret, 63
Matt Stairs, 57
Loy Vaught, 57
Duce Staley, 50
Devin Harris, 42
Aníbal Sánchez, 41
Chris Godwin, 29
— Michigan State 58, Maryland 55
Kid on Michigan State drained a 1/2-court shot at the buzzer.
Spartans had blown a 9-point lead with 5:24 left to play.
Teams combined to shoot 8-35 on the arc.
— San Francisco 74, Oregon State 72
Beavers’ tying basket came half-second after the horn sounded.
Oregon State was only 14-24 on the foul line.
San Francisco won seven of its last eight games.
— Arkansas 86, Texas 81 OT
Arkansas led by 14 with 10:15 left in the game.
Razorbacks played only seven guys.
Texas lost five of its last six games.
— Vanderbilt 86, Texas A&M 84
Lot of fouls; Vandy was 28-36 on line, Aggies 31-39
Bracketology has Vanderbilt as a #10-seed in NCAA’s.
Aggies lost last three games, after a 20-5 start.
— Villanova 59, Seton Hall 54
Seton Hall led 37-21 early in second half.
Pirates were only 8-17 on the foul line.
Wildcats won five of their last seven games.
— Kentucky 83, Oklahoma 82
6-4 junior Oweh scored 28 points, had no assists- his job is to shoot.
Both teams shot 63% inside the arc.
Sooners are 4-11 in SEC, after a 13-0 pre-conference mark.
— East Tennessee State 59, Mercer 58
ETSU beat Mercer twice TY, by total of three points.
ETSU survived shooting 7-13 on the foul line.
Buccaneers won six of their last eight games.
