Sunday’s 6-pack:
Major league leaders in batting average:
.365— Luis Arraez, Mia
.342— Freddie Freeman, LA
.336— Ronald Acuna, Atl
.331— Cody Bellinger, Cubs
.323— Yandy Diaz, TB
.321— Bo Bichette, Tor
Quote of the Day
“Tommy Lasorda came up to me and said, ‘Are you ready to pitch tomorrow?’ I said, ‘I’m ready, that’s what I was looking for, the opportunity to show what I can do.”
Fernando Valenzuela; the Dodgers retired his #34 this weekend
Sunday’s quiz
Who was coach of the Patriots before Bill Belichick?
Saturday’s quiz
Terry Collins was manager of the Mets, last time they were in the World Series.
Friday’s quiz
When Michael Jordan played for the Dream Team in the 1992 Olympics, he wore uniform number 9.
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— AJ Preller has run the San Diego Padres’ baseball operations since 2015; they’ve had only two winning seasons during his tenure, one of which was the 2020 short season.
Since 2015, the Padres have spent $1,301,658,674 in player salaries; during that time, they’ve made the playoffs twice, going 7-10 in playoff games.
$1.3B for seven playoff wins, not exactly a good return.
Preller was once suspended 30 days without pay for submitting false medical records to the Boston Red Sox during trade negotiations- there is very little evidence that he is good at his job, but somehow he keeps it. Oh yeah, he went to Cornell, another Ivy League nitwit.
San Diego’s payroll is $254,538,326 this year and they’re under .500; how does this freakin’ guy keep his bleeping job?
— Seattle Mariners inducted Felix Hernandez into their team’s Hall of Fame Saturday; he is one of only two pitchers EVER to pitch a perfect game and hit a grand slam.
The other one was Don Larsen, whose perfect game came in the 1956 World Series.
— Billy Walters, a professional gambler in Las Vegas, wrote in a new book that Phil Mickelson bet more than $1B on sports and tried to place a $400,000 bet on the 2012 Ryder Cup in which he participated. Apparently that bet was never made.
Walters/Mickelson first met at the 2006 AT&T Pebble Beach pro-am and two years later they entered into a gambling partnership that would last five years.
Walters claims that Mickelson would regularly bet $100,000 or $200,000 on football, baseball, basketball- he alleges that Mickelson’s total gambling losses were close to $100M.
Walters was convicted of insider trading in 2017 and served time in prison. He said in the excerpt of his book that Mickelson “refused to tell a simple truth” that could have kept him out of prison.
Mickelson was a relief defendant in Walters’s case, nut was never charged— he had to to pay back about $1M he made in a stock deal.
All of this helps explain why Mickelson grabbed as much as $200M from the LIV Golf tour.
— John Smoltz was traded to the Atlanta Braves in 1987; he was in the minor leagues back then, turns out he was in Glens Falls when the trade happened. Glens Falls is about an hour north of where I live, just outside Albany, NY- it is also Jimmer Fredette’s hometown.
— One of the Mets’ TV guys interviewed Cubs’ SS Dansby Swanson while the Cubs were in the Big Apple this week; Swanson was saying how the Atlanta Braves’ culture is that the best players need to be in the lineup every day- that was a big part of how the Braves became so good.
— Movie of the Day—
Blue Chips (1994)— A college basketball coach decides to break the rules in order to get the players he needs to stay competitive.
Nick Nolte plays the coach; he spent time with Indiana’s program back then to prep for this role, so there is a lot of Bobby Knight in his character. Bob Cousy is the school’s athletic director, Mary McDonnell is his ex-wife, two players he recruited for Western U are Shaquille O’Neal and Penny Hardaway.
The basketball scenes were filmed in a high school gym in Indiana; high school gyms in Indiana are really nice. Lot of big-time college players from 30 years ago are in those games.
JT Walsh plays one of Western U’s boosters, Ed O’Neill is the sportswriter who helps expose Nolte’s breaking the rules.
Very good movie; even Dick Vitale makes a cameo appearance.
— NFL Trend of the Day— Last three years, Chiefs are 19-26-1 ATS as a favorite.
— Braves 21-6, Mets 3-0— Very rough day in Flushing for the home team; they’re 2-10 since the trade deadline.
— Rays 6, Guardians 5— Tampa Bay scored three runs in 9th inning; Randy Arozarena sent the fans home happy with a 9th inning single.
— Marlins 3, New York 1
Sandy Alcantara threw a 116-pitch complete game.
He seems to pitch way better when he’s on my fantasy team’s bench.
— Nationals 3, A’s 2— Keibert Ruiz hit a walk-off homer for Washington.
— Arizona 3, San Diego 0— Zac Gallen ends Arizona’s 9-game losing skid.
— Orioles 1, Mariners 0 (10)— Cole Irvin/George Kirby had quite the pitching duel; Ryan Mountcastle drove in the game’s only run.
— If the baseball playoffs started today (they don’t):
NL: Braves, Brewers, Dodgers. Wild Cards: Phillies, Giants, Cubs
AL: Orioles, Twins, Rangers. Wild Cards: Rays, Astros, Blue Jays
— Ravens 20, Eagles 19— Baltimore has now won 24 exhibition games in a row; they didn’t beat the spread though— they’re 26-6 ATS in their last 32 exhibitions. Anthony Brown threw a pick-6 with 7:03 left when the Ravens led 20-13; Philly went for 2 points and failed.
— Bills 23, Colts 19— Backup QB Barkley was 14-15/172 with two TD’s for Buffalo.
— Bears 23, Titans 17— DJ Moore scored a 62-yard TD for Chicago the first time he touched the ball for his new team.
— Chargers 34, Rams 17— Rams have 36 rookies in training camp; their defense will probably be the youngest defense in 40 years. Their kicker-punter-long snapper are all rookies.
On the bright side, rookie QB Stetson Bennett was 17-29/191 passing; he looked halfway decent in his NFL debut.
