Wednesday’s 6-pack:
Interesting college football spreads for this week:
— West Virginia (-2) @ Pittsburgh
— Indiana (-3) @ UCLA
— Colorado (-7) @ Colorado State
— Central Florida (-2.5) @ TCU
— Maryland (-2.5) @ Virginia
— Rice @ Houston (-4)
Quote of the Day
“They’re definitely not sending cash. It’s funny. When they lose money, they want their money back. But when they win money on a parlay, no one’s ever sent me any of the money.”
Auburn QB Payton Thorne
Thursday’s quiz
In the movie
Bull Durham, what well-known actor plays the Bulls’ pitching coach?
Wednesday’s quiz
Jim Bunning is the only major league pitcher to throw a no-hitter, and later become a US Senator after his playing days were done.
Tuesday’s quiz
Aaron Rodgers played his college football for the Cal Bears.
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— Auburn QB Payton Thorne said angry bettors sent him Venmo requests after they lost their bets on Auburn:
“They’re definitely not sending cash. It’s funny, when they lose money, they want the money back, but when they win money on the parley, no one’s ever saying they want to pay the money.”
Thorne threw 4 INT’s in Auburn’s upset loss to California last week; I’m thinking that these college teams have to have security teams around the players in their dorms, making sure some nitwit doesn’t try to make an appearance on
Law & Order.
— Arizona State plays Texas State in football tonight; the QB for Texas State is Jordan McCloud, who has had an interesting college career:
2019- He threw 224 passes for South Florida (4-8)
2020- He threw 194 passes for South Florida (1-8)
2021- He threw 73 passes for Arizona (1-11)
2023- He threw 412 passes for James Madison (11-2)
2024- He’s thrown 57 passes for Texas State (2-0)
Six years, five seasons, four colleges. Someday he can write a hell of a book. He’ll be 25 in early November, older than any of the three rookie QBs starting in the NFL this month.
— Not only did Northern Illinois upset Notre Dame 16-14 last week, they banked a check for $1.4M on the way home, the guarantee $$$ they got for visiting South Bend.
Teams in the MAC/Sun Belt usually get their butts kicked in these guarantee games, but they bank big checks which help finance their mid-major programs. Every once in a while an upset happens. NIU actually outgained Notre Dame 388-286 in that game.
— Random trivia: When the New York Jets started playing in the AFL in 1960, they were the New York Titans, not the Jets- they became the Jets in 1963.
When the Tennessee Titans started playing in the AFL in 1960, they were the Houston Oilers; they moved to Tennessee in 1997. Oilers won the first two AFL titles, way back when.
This week, the old Titans (the Jets) meet the current Titans (the old Oilers) in Nashville.
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Famous birthdays, September 12:
Mickey Lolich, 84
Joe Pantoliano, 73
Rachel Ward, 67
Deron Cherry, 65
Vernon Maxwell, 59
Ki-Jana Carter, 51
Yao Ming, 44
Andrew Luck, 35
Freddie Freeman, 35
— Should the Carolina Panthers sit QB Bryce Young? The 2nd-year QB is 2-15 as a starter; would it help him to sit back for a few weeks and watch veteran backup Andy Dalton play?
Carolina lost its last three games by a combined 82-10; it isn’t Young’s fault that the morons in the Carolina front office traded Christian McCaffrey to the 49ers and DJ Moore to the Bears, but getting pummeled every week doesn’t seem to be working very well. Maybe a change of pace would slow the game down for Young and help him improve
(subtle reminder that Patrick Mahomes’ first career start was the last game of his rookie year)
— In addition to betting totals on games, you can bet over/unders on team totals; in Week 1, over was 16-13-3 in team totals. I actually think team totals are a fun way to bet NFL games.
— San Diego Padres were 82-80 last year, they’re 82-65 this year.
Last year’s Padres were 2-12 in extra innings, 80-68 in nine-inning tilts.
This year’s Padres are 8-1 in extra innings, 74-64 in nine-inning tilts.
— Is it a bad thing (yes, it is) when your favorite NFL team signs three new offensive linemen two days after their first game of the season?
LA Rams signed C Dylan McMahon off the Eagles’ practice squad.
They also signed Ty Nsekhe and Geron Christian off the street. Nsekhe played for the Browns LY, has played the Rams before. Christian has played for four different NFL teams.
— Pittsburgh Steelers lost P Cameron Johnson (knee) for the year last week; he was also the holder for kicker Chris Boswell, who was 6-6 on field goals in the win at Atlanta.
—
Word of the Day: Potpourri- a mixture of things, especially a musical or literary medley.
This used to be a category on the old daytime Jeopardy! TV gameshow; you never knew what the question was going to pertain to. “Art, I’d like Potpourri for $60, please”
— New York Mets are only team in the major leagues that hasn’t had one at-bat taken by a rookie this season.
Mets 6, Blue Jays 2
Toronto P Francis had a no-hitter thru 8 IP (110 PT)
Francisco Lindor hit his 111th pitch out of the park to tie the game, 1-1. Mets then scored five more runs off the Toronto bullpen.
It is the second time in 18 days Francis had a no-hitter thru 8 IP; both times, the leadoff guy in the 9th inning hit a home run. The home run against the Angels came on his 117th pitch.
Francis has been great the last month or so; you’d think a non-contender like Toronto would want to protect him some, keep him healthy for next year, but no, the genius who manages the Blue Jays won’t take him out— not brilliant.
— Dodgers 10, Cubs 8
Dodgers hit four home runs in the first inning, then blew a 7-3 lead.
Shohei Ohtani homered, now has 47 taters and 48 stolen bases.
—Arizona 14, Rangers 4
Eugenio Suarez went 4-4, with two HR’s, scored four runs.
Ketel Marte went 3-4, with four RBI
— Red Sox 5, Orioles 3 (10)
Tyler O’Neill hit a walk-off, 3-run homer in the 10th inning.
Orioles are now 1.5 games out of first place in AL East.
— A’s 5, Astros 4
Backup C McCann hit the go-ahead HR in the sixth inning.
Houston’s lead in AL West is down to 3.5 games.
— Phillies 3, Rays 2
Zack Wheeler struck out nine hitters in 6 IP.
Philly’s magic number to clinch NL East is 9; this will be their first NL East title since 2011.
— Mariners 5, Padres 2
Bryan Woo had a perfect game thru six innings.
Luke Raley, JP Crawford both knocked in two runs.
