Thursday’s 6-pack:
Interesting NFL spreads this week:
— Dolphins @ Seattle (-4)
— Ravens (-1) @ Dallas
— Lions (-3) @ Arizona
— Chiefs (-3.5) @ Atlanta
— Jaguars @ Buffalo (-5)
— Commanders @ Cincinnati (-7.5)
Quote of the Day
“Yeah, I’m interested in coaching. My dad was a college coach, I was a college coach at Pitt, my wife was a cheerleader at Tennessee when I met her. Hell yeah, I’m interested in coaching. I know I can help a team, I know I can help young players get better, and I know I can hire a good staff, and that’s the only thing I can guarantee. But yeah, I’m very interested in coaching at any level, period.”
Former NFL coach Jon Gruden
Thursday’s quiz
Washington Nationals won the World Series five years ago; who led the Nationals in RBI that year?
Wednesday’s quiz
In the history of the NFL’s Chargers, Antonio Gates caught the most passes (955); Keenan Allen caught 904 passes.
Tuesday’s quiz
Kirk Cousins played his college football at Michigan State.
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— Little bit of a strange news day; ESPN’s NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski quit the network, and will become the general manager of the men’s basketball program at St Bonaventure, his alma mater.
“I am retiring from a dream job at ESPN and am so incredibly grateful for my time and experiences with the Worldwide Leader.” Wojnarowski said.
General managers have become more common in college basketball in recent years, as the transfer portal has made wholesale roster turnover a bigger part of the sport.
St Bonaventure is in Olean, NY, on the state’s southern tier, kind of in the middle of nowhere. Recruiting really good basketball players to go there ain’t easy. Bonnies have been to the NCAA tournament three times in the last 20 years, going 0-3 in those games.
— One of the best college football games this weekend is Tennessee at Oklahoma, a game filled with subplots.
In 2000, QB Josh Heupel led Oklahoma to a national title; Sooners haven’t won a national title since then. Heupel is now Tennessee’s coach.
In 2011, Heupel became Oklahoma’s offensive coordinator, and over the next four years, the Sooners averaged 475 yards per game, but they fired him after a 40-6 bowl loss to Clemson. It was a controversial dismissal; firing alums can be frowned upon.
Saturday, Heupel will be back in Norman for the first time since they fired him; his Vols are 3-0, winning 51-10/71-0 in their two games vs I-A opponents.
As if all that isn’t enough, this is also Oklahoma’s first conference game since joining the SEC. Sooners are also 3-0, giving up a total of 34 points in the three games.
Should be interesting.
— Milwaukee Brewers are first team to clinch a playoff spot; they’ve won NL Central the last two years, will be in the playoffs for sixth time in seven years.
— You see all these TV commercials asking for money “For only $19 a month……..”
These commercials are always on TV………
— abandoned pets
— symbolically adopting an elephant
— disadvantaged kids
— American Civil Liberties Union
Whats the deal with $19 a month? Why not $29 or $34/month?
Inquiring minds want to know……..
— Under was 21-11 in NFL team totals in Week 2, after over was 16-13-3 in Week 1.
Underdogs were 8-7 SU in Week 2 NFL games, 10-4-1 ATS.
— Only two baseball teams ever have made the World Series after giving up more runs than they scored in the regular season:
1987 Minnesota Twins
2023 Arizona Diamondbacks
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Famous birthdays, September 19th
David Ray, 80
Nat Moore, 73
Dan Hampton, 67
Jim Abbott, 57
Raja Bell, 48
John Jaso, 41
George Springer, 35
CJ McCollum, 33
Dejounte Murray, 28
Today would’ve been Adam West’s 96th birthday; the star of
Batman, the TV series.
— Jermaine Dye was a good ballplayer, played OF for the A’s in the
Moneyball era; he had a career OPS of .826, once broke his leg fouling a pitch off his shin.
These days, Jermaine Dye’s son is a cornerback on the Kansas Jayhawks’ football team.
Kansas is playing its non-conference home games in a 25,000-seat soccer stadium; their conference home games will be at Arrowhead Stadium, home of the Chiefs. Jayhawks are-havng their football stadium refurbished this year.
— Billy Joe Hobert was an NFL QB for five years for three teams, starting 17 games, mostly with the Saints.
These days, Hobert’s son is a receiver for Texas State, which has a pretty good team.
— When the Giants scored a TD on their first drive at Washington Sunday, it was their first opening drive TD in their last 27 games, which was the longest brought in the NFL.
— Movie of the Day:
Jerry and Marge Go Large (2022)- Based on the true story about an older married couple Jerry and Marge Selbee, who win the lottery and use the money to revive their small town. Turns out that Jerry was really smart, and figured out how to beat the lottery.
Bryan Cranston, Annette Bening are the couple. Michael McKean is also in the movie; he was in the old TV series Laverne & Shirley— his wife’s name in this movie is Shirley.
This was an interesting movie to watch, especially because it is a true story.
— A’s 5, Cubs 3
Oakland’s win clinched the NL Central for the Brewers.
Tyler Soderstrom homered, scored twice, had 2 RBI
— Guardians 5, Twins 4 (10)
Cleveland scored three runs in bottom of 10th.
Guardians’ magic number to clinch a playoff spot is 1.
Cleveland has 41 comeback wins this year, most in MLB.
— Giants 5, Orioles 3
Baltimore is 3-9 in its last 12 games; they’ve scored nine runs in last five games.
— Diamondbacks 9, Rockies 4
Corbin Carroll homered twice.
Eduardo Rodriguez struck out 11 guys in 6.1 IP.
— Bronx 2, Seattle 1 (10)
New York clinches a playoff spot.
— If the baseball playoffs starter today (they don’t):
NL: Phillies, Brewers, Dodgers. Wild Cards: Padres-Diamondbacks-Mets
AL: New York, Guardians, Houston. Wild Cards: Orioles-Royals-Twins
Mets/Arizona lead Atlanta by two games for the last two NL playoff spots.
Twins lead Detroit by half a game for the last AL playoff spot.
