Armadillo Sports

Baseball information on MLB2 page………Week 9 CFL info  now posted on NHL page……

Sunday’s six-pack
— Cardinals-Pirates ESPN game tonite is from Williamsport- they’ve got a NY-Penn League team there. Little League WS is going on now in Williamsport.
— Dodgers are now 52-9 in their last 61 games- they lead the NL West by 20 games, and the 2nd/3rd place teams are the two NL Wild Card teams.
— Going into Sunday, Angels/Twins are tied for the 2nd Wild Card in the AL.
— There were five penalties on the same play in the Broncos-49ers game; four on Denver, one on the 49ers. Somehow, all five penalties offset.
— Blue Jays acquired P Tom Koehler from Miami for a minor leaguer.
— DL moves:
Washington puts P Max Scherzer (neck) back on the DL
Dodgers put P Yu Darvish on the DL.

Quote of the Day
”Thats one thing I talked about with my granddad. If you’re not nervous, he said, you should maybe look into doing something else. That means you don’t care, don’t want it.”
Pro golfer Sam Saunders, whose granddad was the great Arnold Palmer

Sunday’s quiz
Which active quarterback has thrown the most touchdown passes?

Saturday’s quiz
Antonio Gates is the active NFL player who has scored the most touchdowns (110)

Friday’s quiz
Steven Jackson holds the Rams’ record for most career rushing yards (10,135).

13) Lot of major league umpires wore white wristbands Saturday to protest Ian Kinsler not being suspended after he verbally thrashed umpire Angel Hernandez earlier this week.

Earlier this month, umpire Joe West was suspended for three days, simply for saying that Adrian Beltre complained more than any other player.

The statement from MLB is clear; players matter more than umpires.

12) Mets’ game Friday night ended around midnight; Curtis Granderson was traded right after the game, and was in Detroit Saturday afternoon, batting 5th for the Dodgers in a game that started at 4:00. Joc Pederson was sent to AAA to make room for Granderson.

11) Is great to hear 82-year old Dick Enberg calling the Dodgers-Tigers games this weekend. One of the all-time great broadcasters, Mr Enberg called Padre games up until last season. To me, he is best-known for doing college basketball on NBC in the late 70’s/80’s.

10) Umpire Adam Hamari is from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan; he had the plate in Detroit Saturday, and had lot of family at the game. Do friends/relatives of umpires cheer loudly for good calls? Do they take grief if a call goes against the home team?

9) Giancarlo Stanton is the 4th big leaguer to hit 23 homers in a 35-game span; the other three were Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa.

8) Brooklyn Nets will play regular season games against the Thunder and Heat in Mexico City in December.

7) Detroit’s Justin Upton hit a homer Friday night; when he was between 2nd and 3rd base, he suddenly backtracked and went back to touch first base again, just to make sure he got it. Never saw that before If you miss first base, you dion’t even get credit for a hit, much less a homer, run scored and an RBI.

6) Tight end Nick O’Leary caught three passes for 50 yards for Buffalo Thursday night; the Florida State alum is the grandson of golfing great Jack Nicklaus.

5) Not only did Joc Pederson get sent to AAA, but San Diego sent RF Hunter Renfroe down to AAA El Paso— he was in an 8-for-64 skid at the time of his demotion.

4) 53-year old Davis Love III is three shots out of the lead after three rounds of the Wyndham Championship in North Carolina. Love’s son is also in the Wyndham field; the last time a golfer won a PGA Tour event when his son was in the field? Craig Stadler, at the 2003 BC Open.

3) Seattle Seahawks lost starting LT George Fant for the year with an ACL injury; Fant was a basketball player at Western Kentucky but had improved enough to become an NFL starter.

2) Donald Trump sent out a tweet Saturday where he spelled “heal” “heel”; he did it twice in the tweet so it wasn’t a typo. I’m just asking: whose job is it to tell him that he spelled the word wrong? Don’t think that is a job I’d want. His 11-year old kid should know the difference between heel and heal.

1) Former Boston Bruins’ coach/TSN hockey announcer Don Cherry sang Take Me Out to the Ballgame at Wrigley Field Saturday, dressed in a suit jacket, with, um……cherries on it. Cherry was a really good coach who is a complete character as a TV analyst.

13) Rashard Davis returned punts for the Eagles Thursday night; the free agent from James Madison was signed earlier this week.

Last Saturday, while the chaos in Charlottesville was going on, Davis was working as a waiter in a restaurant in Charlottesville near the park where the mayhem with the statue of Robert E Lee occurred. He was hiding from his boss in the restaurant as he took calls from his agent updating him on the Eagles’ deal.

One day you’re a waiter, the next day you’re playing ball on national TV. Pretty cool.

12) Something to think about when college football kicks off next weekend; only one of the last 19 national champs lost a non-conference game, Ohio State in 2014 (to Virginia Tech).

11) There were 345 replay reviews in the NFL last year, the fewest since 2009, and 70 less than in 2015.

10) 130 free agents changed teams in the NFL this offseason, also the fewest since 2009.

9) Bill Belichick’s coaching record: 263-125
Tom Brady won-loss record: 208-61
Belichick’s record without Brady: 55-64

8) Baltimore Ravens play in London in Week 3, but they don’t have the usual bye the next week- they host their rival, the Steelers. Ravens don’t have their bye until Week 10.

7) Penn State gave coach James Franklin a 6-year contract extension, worth $34.3M. Franklin is 25-15 at PSU, 14-11 in league games, 1-2 in bowl games; Nittany Lions were 11-3 last year.

6) Jacksonville kicker Jason Myers struggled in Thursday night’s loss to Tampa Bay, now they’re bringing in Dan Carpenter to compete with Myers. Maybe it is contagious; Jacksonville lost to the Buccaneers Thursday, who just fired their kicker last weekend.

5) Le’Veon Bell’s agent had an agreement with the Steelers on a contract back in mid-July, but Bell nixed the deal at the last minute. Not sure if that was a great move by him.

4) Arizona football coach Rich Rodriguez is being sued by his old agents for $230,250; he fired them a couple of years ago, but they say he didn’t pay them enough. Rodriguez agreed to pay them 10% of the money he made from CBS Sports Network, 4% of his money from Arizona.

Rodriguez is a good dude; I have no idea about this lawsuit, but when he left CBS to coach at Arizona, the crew at CBS left his chair empty for their first show without him, thats how much they thought of him.

3) During the Blue Jays-Cubs game Friday, the Cubs’ roving reporter interviewed hockey star Patrick Sharp, who was sitting in the stands. Sharp grew up rooting for the Jays, but he tried to be political saying which team he was rooting for.

2) Not the best week to be a statue, eh? Except for the home run sculpture in Miami, which Dade County says can’t be taken out of Marlins Park.

1) Some good news for Marlins’ fans; David Samson is out as team president. This is a guy who was president of a baseball team who went on Survivor during baseball season— he was the first person voted out on Survivor.

At one point, he was Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria’s stepson. Now the Marlins are rid of Loria and Samson, and they’re much better off.

13) Joey Votto recently reached base 2+ times in 20 consecutive games, one short of Ted Williams’ all-time record of 21; an underrated record. Votto’s on-base %age this year is .448— muy bueno.

12) Then why doesn’t Votto bat leadoff, with a .448 OB%? Isn’t that what leadoff hitters are supposed to do, get on base? Cincinnati bats fleet-footed Billy Hamilton 1st, but his on-base % is a woeful .298.

As my late father liked to say, “You can’t steal first base.”

11) Reds 13, Cubs 10— Jon Lester gave up nine runs in 1.2 IP, then left with a lat injury. Reds blew a 9-0 lead but rallied late for the win.

10) Our thoughts/prayers go out to the people in Barcelona, after the terrorist activity Thursday; basketball teams from Arizona-Clemson-Oregon State-Tulane are all in Spain right now.

Everyone on all four teams is safe and sound. They’ll be glad to get home.

Oregon State’s team was having dinner in the hotel when the terrorist activity happened, right in front of that hotel.

9) Atlanta Falcons’ new domed stadium has Chick-fil-A in it, but Chick-fil-A never opens on Sunday for religious reasons and the Falcons have only one non-Sunday home game this season.

8) Angels had Thursday off, in between series with Nationals/Orioles, so Mike Trout was in Philly last night to see his beloved Eagles play Buffalo.

7) Colorado has yo-yo’d OF Raimel Tapia up and down from AAA a lot this year; he is obviously major-league ready, but the Rockies don’t have a full-time slot for him right now.

Since going back to Albuquerque the last time August 12, Tapia is 12-21 (.571) for the Isotopes. He will be a starter in the major leagues next year, whether in Denver or somewhere else.

6) On July 23, 2013, Nicky Delmonico was traded from Baltimore to the Brewers for Francisco Rodriguez, in a deadline deal; in February 2015 he was released by Brewers.

Now he is hitting .396 in his first 54 plate appearances with the White Sox— he homered twice in LA Wednesday. He is only 25; sometimes it takes a while to become an overnight sensation.

5) Mets had catcher Travis d’Arnaud playing 3B Wednesday night, for the first time in his career; Asdrubal Cabrera and D’Arnaud swapped between 2B and 3B 23 times.

4) Oakland Raiders are 1-5 vs spread in their last six pre-bye games; they covered their last five post-bye games.

3) Last eight years, Minnesota Vikings are 8-0 vs spread in the game just before their bye; they’re 1-7 vs spread in the first game after their bye.

2) Colorado’s star 3B Nolan Arenado got hit on the hand by a batted ball yesterday and left the game; looked like the ball hit him in the same spot where he was hit by a pitch in Miami last weekend. Rockies need Arenado in the lineup and more importantly, in the field.

1) If you’re a fantasy football owner, what do you do with Ezekiel Elliott? Dallas has an early bye, so for fantasy purposes, Elliott’s 6-game suspension is really seven games, since he isn’t eligible to play until Week 8 against Washington. Most fantasy regular seasons are 13 games, right?

13) I hope Ryan Fitzpatrick writes a book someday; he went to college at Harvard, which means he didn’t get an athletic scholarship, but he still made the NFL and entering his 13th year as an NFL quarterback. Tampa Bay is his 7th team.

Fitzpatrick played for four teams in four years, but what is weird is that he started 9+ games in all four of those years— there is no way anyone else has ever done this before, not at QB.
2012 Buffalo, 16 starts
2013 Tennessee, 9 starts
2014 Houston, 12 starts
2015 NJ Jets, 16 starts

What a unique career; if he makes the Buccaneers this summer and it looks like he will, it is unlikely he’ll play much, with Jameis Winston entrenched as the Bucs’ starting QB.

12) In 42 games batting in the #4 or #5 slot this year, Giancarlo Stanton hit .262 with 11 HR, 30 RBI, and an OB% of .335.

In 71 games since moving to the #2 slot in the order, Stanton is batting .302, with 33 HR’s, 64 RBI and a .404 on-base %age.

11) They told a funny story on the Padres’ game yesterday; there used to be an umpire named Frank Pulli, who was considered to be one of the better umpires. Pulli was doing an exhibition game behind the plate and after he calls a borderline strike on David Bell, he says to Bell:

“You better swing the bat today; it’s my grandson’s birthday”, inferring he had a party to go to and this was going to be a fast game.

10) Good grief; heard the other night that they change the bases in major league games every three innings, and then sell the bases online. Game used bases!!!! Greed knows no bounds.

9) Interesting comment from an NFL coach/executive, I can’t remember who it was, someone with the Colts or Lions, but they came out and said that NFL teams get more out of joint practices during the week than they do from the exhibition game that is played on the weekend, which is a good piece of knowledge.

8) Houston Astros swing at more first pitches than any team in baseball; they’ve hit 47 homers not eh first pitch of an AB, most in the majors this season.

7) Didi Gregorius batting cleanup, Todd Frazier batting 8th; interesting lineups Joe Girardi puts on the field. Manager of the Year in the AL will be tough to decide, if the Angels make the playoffs. Girardi and Mike Scioscia are both doing really good jobs this season.

6) Mets have saved a total of roughly $9M from their salary dumps this summer (Duda, Walker, Bruce, Reed). Too bad they’re not in a big city with a new, publicly-funded stadium, then they could actually try and w— oh wait, New York City is a big city. The Wilpons are slimy; thank the Lord they don’t own the A’s.

5) Strange ballgame in Oakland Tuesday night; A’s led Kansas City 4-3 after seven innings but their bullpen imploded in the 8th and KC led 8-4- there was no joy at Armadillo World HQ, that is for sure. Then Oakland scored six runs in the bottom of the 8th; Matt Joyce hit a bases loaded double after the Royals walked Rajai Davis intentionally so they could pitch to Joyce with the bases loaded (lefty-lefty BS).

Weird game with a happy ending, unless you had the Royals or the under.

4) Last season was first time since 2003 that both Super Bowl teams missed the playoffs the following season.

3) Since 2005, the defending Super Bowl champ is 4-7 in playoff games the next season, with Seattle in 2014 getting two of the four wins.

2) Last year was first time in eight years that the Super Bowl loser missed the playoffs the following season. Last time the Super Bowl loser made it back to the Super Bowl the next season? The 1993 Bills, losing their 4th consecutive Super Bowl.

1) 1994 Patriots are the last team to repeat as Super Bowl champs.

13) One thing Cubs’ manager Joe Maddon has changed in baseball is that he introduced “themed” road trips, where players dress up in outfits that correspond to where they’re going, breaking up the monotony of a long season.

For instance, the Diamondbacks flew to Houston last nite, so they all dressed up like astronauts, with helmets and all. When some teams go to Toronto, they all wear NHL jerseys. Sounds goofy, but it make people laugh, and laughter is healthy. Winning also helps.

12) Houston Astros swing at the first pitch of an at-bat more than any other team; they’ve hit 47 first-pitch homers this year, most in the major leagues.

11) 64 players have 20+ homers this season; in 2014, 57 players hit 20+. It is only August 16.

10) Vic Fangio is defensive coordinator for the Bears; he coached under Jim Mora Sr with the Philly/Baltimore Stars in the old USFL in 1984-5. He must have some excellent stories.

9) Buffalo Bills haven’t made the playoffs since 1999; they’ve been 8-8 three times, 9-7 twice during that stretch, but no postseason games. They’re 24-24 the last three years, but now with a new GM are stockpiling draft picks for the next few years, which could very well be the start of the post-Brady era in the AFC East.

8) Battle for Atlantis is a very good hoop tournament in November. 1st-round matchups:
— Villanova vs Western Kentucky
— Purdue vs Tennessee
— SMU vs Northern Iowa
— NC State vs Arizona

7) Jose Altuve is hitting “only” .305 on the road this year with six homers; on the road, he is batting .417, with 12 homers. Go figure.

6) St Joseph’s College in Connecticut is starting a basketball program in 2018-19; one of the candidates for the head coaching job is former UConn coach Jim Calhoun, who is 75. He isn’t working on ESPN anymore and says he is interested in the position; his wife apparently has the last word on whether he takes the job or not.

5) Mike Shula is Carolina’s offensive coordinator; he was Alabama’s head coach from 2003-6, just before Nick Saban, but other than that, has never coached college football— he’s been an NFL assistant coach for 26 of the last 30 years.

4) Lets not forget that Nick Saban left college ball briefly for the NFL; he went 48-16 at LSU, is 114-19 at Alabama, but in between, he went 15-17 as coach of the Dolphins in 2005-6, famously choosing Daunte Culpepper over Drew Brees as a free agent QB signing. No one’s perfect.

3) In my opinion, Buck Showalter is a great manager; his Orioles are 21-10 in games this season where the winning run scored after the 6th inning- they’re 38-50 in other games. Last two years Baltimore is 71-53 in games decided by 1 or 2 runs.

Look at their pitching staff and explain how they’re in contention.

In his career, Showalter is 1,488-1,375 as a big league skipper; New York and Arizona won World Series right after he left. He is 606-542 in Baltimore, making playoffs three of last six years. They hadn’t made the playoffs for 13 years before he got to Camden Yards.

2) Milwaukee is 13-22 this season in games where winning run scores from 7th inning on; they’re 61-59 overall, which makes them 48-37 otherwise. Brewers have legit shot to be a Cinderella playoff team, but they need to be better in the late innings.

1) The bar is low for new Rams’ coach Sean McVay; the 2003 Rams went 12-4. Since then, they’ve gone 8-8 twice and lost 10+ games in 7 of the other 11 years, with three 7-9 years and a 7-8-1 season thrown in. No winning seasons since 2003; we’re not asking for much!!!!

13) Cool to see Chad Bettis pitching for the Rockies Monday night, coming back from testicular cancer to make it back to the major leagues. Not only that, but he shut the Braves out for seven innings. Had to be a very emotional night for Mr Bettis. Good for him.

12) Looking forward to Hard Knocks tonight, when the Bucs part ways with kicker Roberto Aguayo. Tampa Bay TRADED UP to draft a kicker in the 2nd round, then cut him a year later. If I owned the Bucs, I’d want some answers on that one.

Nick Folk is now the Buccaneers’ 7th kicker since 2013.

11) Worst base running play ever Sunday: Phillies have bases loaded, one out, down 4-1. Nick Williams is up; he flies out to short CF- the runner on third tags up but doesn’t try to score. When the throw from the outfield gets by the cutoff man, the guy on second takes off for third, only to find a teammate standing on third when he got there. Oy.

Pay attention; this is why losing teams lose, they get mentally tired and stop paying attention. This was just an awful, careless play by a bad team. Hard to watch.

10) Bills traded for WR Jordan Matthews last week; he got a chip fracture in his sternum during his first practice with Buffalo, and is now week-to-week.

9) Baltimore Ravens signed backup QB Thad Lewis; he’s started six NFL games in his career and has bounced around a lot of rosters— I liked him when he was a backup for the Rams, but what this really is is a signal that Colin Kaepernick is going to have a hard time finding an NFL job.

8) Milwaukee Bucks’ star Giannis Antetokounmpo makes only $25,000 a year to wear Nikes; now that he is a star (his Bucks’ contract is four years, $100M) and his shoe contract is about to end, he is going to break the bank with a new shoe deal.

7) White Sox traded Tyler Clippard to the Astros, as Houston struggles to improve its pitching. Astros will be Clippard’s 6th team in the last three seasons- he must be very good at packing.

6) NFL should have their 2018 draft at a casino in Niagara Falls, seeing how Buffalo/Cleveland both have six picks in the first three rounds next year. Lake Erie will be the draft’s epicenter.

5) It cost $40 just to park for Patriots’ home games in Foxboro. Even exhibition games.

4) Matt Nagy is the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator; his dad was a high school coach in New Jersey who once coached Jets’ head coach Todd Bowles.

The elder Nagy played in the World Football League in the 70’s, a league that played for a year and a half and had some really good players. Matt Nagy played QB for four teams in the Arena League, including for coach John Gregory, who had previously coached Kurt Warner in Iowa.

3) I’m not fond of kids having press conferences to announce their choice of college. Too many young people are attention junkies; just post on Twitter when you’ve made a decision and thats that.

2) Bryce Harper got hurt slipping on a wet base Sunday; for the love of God, lets not over-react and get rid of bases the way they are. Having a kid dry off the bases in between innings would be fine, but lets not get wacky over this and put in flat bases or something like that.

The horse collar tackle rule in the NFL came about because Bo Jackson got hurt on a tackle like that while he was playing for the Raiders. A star gets hurt, people go nuts. Relax.

1) Get well soon to wrestling legend Ric Flair, 68, who is in an ICU in a Georgia hospital with heart problems. Flair has been a positive voice and a great entertainer for decades; hope he feels better soon.

Random notes on NFC teams:

Arizona— Carson Palmer turns 38 on Dec 27; only 27 NFL QB’s have thrown 200+ passes at age 38 or older— 13 of those 17 are or will be in the Hall of Fame. Arizona had the oldest offense in the NFL last year; their time to win a Super Bowl is this year, or else. Over is 13-3 in Arizona road games the last two years; since 2014, under is 14-9-1 in Cardinal home games.

Atlanta— Blew a 28-3 lead in the Super Bowl, fired their DC, lost their OC, have a new stadium this year. Falcons scored 58 TD’s last year, punted 48 times with only 11 turnovers— they were only the third team since 1996 to score a TD on more than 33.3% of their drives. Now what? Underdogs are 13-3 vs spread in Falcon home games, since Quinn has been coach.

Carolina— How is Cam Newton’s shoulder? That is Question #1. Panthers were -2 in turnovers LY (6-10), after being +20/+3/+11 the three years before that (15-1/7-8-1/12-4). Over last four years, Carolina is 4-10-1 vs spread as a road favorite- their front office had in-fighting this winter— the GM got fired— will that affect the players?

Chicago— QB Mike Glennon played QB at NC State after Russell Wilson bolted for Wisconsin; then he went 5-13 over two years as a starter in Tampa Bay before they drafted Jameis Winston. He’s thrown 11 passes the last two years, is now renting the Bears’ #1 job until they decide that #1 pick Mitch Trubisky is ready to be the starter. Awkward situation.

Dallas— Dak Prescott makes $540K this year, $630K next year, which bails Dallas out of a lot of its salary cap quandries. Cowboys ran the ball 59.4% of time on 1st down LY, averaged 5.1 yds/rush on those runs, and averaged 8.9 yds/pass on play action passes. As a result, Cowboys faced 3rd-lowest number of 3rd downs in NFL. Will Prescott fight the sophomore jinx this year?

Detroit— As a Ram fan, I was frustrated by how bad OT Greg Robinson was for the Rams the last few years; now he is a Lion and is the LT, protecting Matthew Stafford’s blind side. Detroit’s backup QB’s are Jake Rudock/Brad Kaaya. Lions have lost nine playoff games in a row- their last playoff win was in 1991. If Detroit makes the playoffs this year, I’ll be very surprised.

Green Bay— Since 1992, Packers have had Favre/Rodgers at QB, two first-ballot Hall of Famers. They won Super Bowl in ’96 and ’10, lost in ’97- should they be winning more than they have? Pack made playoffs last 7 years and 14 of last 20 years, but are just 13-13 in playoff games since Favre won his Super Bowl. Last three years, Green Bay is 14-7-2 vs spread as a home favorite.

LA Rams— 31-year old Sean McVay was hired to develop Jared Goff as a QB, but before that, they have to put together an offensive line that can protect him. 35-year old Andrew Whitwroth was brought in from Cincinnati to play LT and fortify the line. Rams were 4-5 LY, led Miami 10-0 with 5:00 to go in Goff’s debut in Game #10— had they won that game, Jeff Fisher would likely still be the Rams’ coach.

Minnesota— Vikings went 8-8 with a +11 turnover ratio; no bueno; they had 54 third-and-1’s last year, converted 11-15 (73.3%) times when they threw the ball, 25-39 (64.1%) when they ran it. Sam Bradford is 32-45-1 as an NFL starter, 14-15 since leaving the Rams. Minnesota hasn’t won a playoff game since 2009; since ’05, they’re 1-4 in playoff games. Vikings have had eight #1 QB’s over the last 12 years. Bridgewater’s knee injury last summer was incredibly bad luck.

NJ Giants— Giants have had one #1 QB since 2005; Eli Manning has played all 192 games, and that is his greatest strength— he shows up to work every week. Giants won Super Bowl after 2007/2011 seasons, going 4-0 in playoffs both years; other than those two years, since 2001, Big Blue is 0-5 in playoff games. Have been in playoffs twice in last eight years, are 1-5 in Week 1 the last six years- they open vs Dallas this year for 5th time in last six years.

New Orleans— Does signing Adrian Peterson mean Saints will run ball more to protect a poor defense and a 38-year old QB? NO scored 400+ points the last six years, but made playoffs only once in last five years, going 7-9 in other four. Last three years, Saints are 5-13-1 vs spread as a home favorite, 5-0 as home dogs- they’re 3-8 in last 11 tries as a road favorite. Over is 16-8 in Superdome games the last three years; over is 13-11 in NO road games during that time.

Philadelphia— Eagles missed playoffs five of last six years; their last playoff win was in 2008, but they had to be happy with rookie QB Wentz LY. This will be first time since 2012 that Iggles had same #1 QB as year before (Michael Vick). Philly was 4-1 vs spread as a home underdog LY, after being 1-10 in that role from 2007-15. Eagles were favored in only two of their eight home games LY; the last five years, they’re 5-9-1 vs spread in home games vs divisional rivals.

San Francisco— Four head coaches in four years is never good; they’re 7-25 since Jim Harbaugh took his act to Ann Arbor. Over last five years, 49ers have averaged 3.96 starts per draft pick, which is poor, so John Lynch runs franchise now; smart guy, but he’s never done this before. As of June 3, 51 of 90 players on roster were acquired since Lynch took over- they let 27 of 31 free agents walk. Kyle Shanahan is the new coach, after helping Falcons win NFC title last season.

Seattle— Seahawks are 56-23-1 the last five years; they’ve won at least one playoff game in 8 of last 10 seasons, but throwing that INT on goal line at end of Super Bowl will haunt them until they win another Super Bowl. Russell Wilson is 8-4 in playoff games; he was a 3rd-round pick, just like Joe Montana, who was 16-7 in playoff games. Seattle is 6-10 vs spread as a road favorite the last three years; under Carroll, they’re 26-11 vs spread as a home favorite.

Tampa Bay— Bucs haven’t made playoffs since 2007; their last playoff win was the Super Bowl 15 years ago- they were 9-7 LY, their first winning season since ’10. Adding DeSean Jackson will give Jameis Winston another explosive option; listening to the first episode of Hard Knocks, this is a confident team that expects to make the playoffs, but they’ll need to play better at home. Last three years, Tampa Bay is 8-16 vs spread at home, 2-6 in divisional home games.

Washington— Sean McVay is in LA; they fired their DC, so two new coordinators this season for Jay Gruden, who goes back to calling plays. Skins were 17-14-1 the last two years; since 2006, they are 0-3 in playoff games. Last time Washington was a playoff game, Joe Gibbs was coach. Gruden is 4-8 vs spread as a home favorite; last two years, Washington is 9-4 vs spread coming off a loss. Last five years, over is 25-14-1 in Redskin road games.

13) There is only one cut in the NFL this summer, from 90 to 53 players on Labor Day weekend, which means that 1,184 guys will hit the streets all at once, and lesser teams will scurry around and try to improve their roster by adding guys the better teams release.

12) I’m thinking it hurts HBO’s Hard Knocks some that there is one less cut date; that is the best part of the program, watching coaches tell guys they didn’t make the team. Sad for the player but compelling TV— lot of times those players move on and play for other teams anyway.

11) St Louis Cardinals are first team to score 8+ runs in six straight wins since ’06 Braves.

10) Cardinals-Pirates are playing a game in Williamsport, PA next weekend, five miles from where the Little League World Series takes place.

Williamsport has a team in the Class A NY-Penn League, so there is a stadium in place there, unlike last year, when Marlins-Braves played a game on a military base in South Carolina, where a stadium was basically built for that game.

9) Tampa Bay Bucs traded up to draft Florida State kicker Roberto Aguayo in the 2016 Draft, but he’s been a disappointment and been beaten out by Nick Folk. Aguayo missed an extra point and a 47-year old FG Friday night— he got cut Saturday, which should make for an interesting scene on Hard Knocks Tuesday night.

8) If you’re not contending for a Wild Card spot in the American League, your team stinks, because some of the contending teams aren’t very good.

7) Pat O’Hara is a QB coach for the Houston Texans; he was in the terrific football movie Any Given Sunday, playing Dennis Quaid’s backup QB who also gets hurt, which forces Jamie Foxx’s (#3 QB) character into the game, where he becomes a star.

In real life, O’Hara was mostly a backup QB at USC; he played for seven different Arena League teams and has had a very interesting career. NFL Films should do a feature on him.

6) Total plays run from scrimmage in last February’s Super Bowl: Patriots 93, Falcons 46.

5) Cincinnati Bengal fans should be slow to criticize coach Marvin Lewis, who is 118-110-3 in 14 years as the Bengals’ coach, From 1984-2002, before Lewis took over, Cincy went 116-192 under four different head coaches. Be careful what you ask for……..

4) Denver Broncos have only one road game in the first six weeks this season; they have a bye and four home games, then play on road in Weeks 7-9, with a Week 8 Monday night game, then a Week 9 game in Philly six days later. Unusual schedule; Denver has a new head coach and very little experience at quarterback.

3) Consider the career of former NFL QB Tony Banks:
— From 1996-98, Banks went 14-29 as QB of the Rams. When they cut him loose after 1998, they won the Super Bowl in ’99 behind Kurt Warner, who backed up Banks in ’98.

— In 2000, Banks started the first eight games for the Ravens, going 5-3, but Games 7-8 were 10-3/14-6 losses, so Banks was replaced by Trent Dilfer……and the Ravens won the Super Bowl.

I’ll leave the facts there and let you make your own judgments.

2) Gregg Williams is the new defensive coordinator in Cleveland; he has his son Blake back on the coaching staff this year. Blake Williams was on the Rams’ coaching staff as linebackers’ coach in 2012, the year Gregg Williams was suspended by the NFL because of Bountygate, but apparently the other coaches couldn’t stand young Williams and he was shown the door.

1) If I was an NFL head coach (a frightening thought), my team would go for it on 4th down a lot and go for 2 after every TD in exhibition games. Games don’t matter; it is a good chance to get more plays to evaluate your players. Thats what these exhibition games and mainly for….that and ripping off fans who pay regular season prices to watch games that don’t matter.

13) Buffalo Bills had an active Friday; they traded WR Sammy Watkins and a 2018 6th-round pick to the Rams, getting CB E.J. Gaines and an ’18 2nd-round pick in return.

They also traded CB Ronald Darby to the Eagles for WR Jordan Matthews and a 2018 3rd-round pick. Buffalo now has six picks in the first three rounds of the 2018 draft.

In 2014, Bills traded two first-round draft picks to move up and acquire Watkins ahead of Mike Evans, Odell Beckham, Jr. Oy.

12) Dallas Cowboys’ RB Ezekiel Elliott was suspended by the NFL for six games; Dallas has a Week 6 bye, so Elliott can return for the Week 8 game with the Redskins.

11) Indians @ Rays Thursday night; attendance was 9,533
Indians @ Rays Friday night; attendance was 16,794

When the Rays move to Canada and become the Montreal Expos, this is why…….

10) Eagles’ backup QB Matt McGloin was 28-42 passing in Green Bay Thursday; lot of passes for a third-string QB to throw in an exhibition game.

9) Chicago Bears have a veteran QB trying to hold off a first-round draft pick, with a head coach on the hot seat. Sound familiar?

The 2016 Rams had a veteran QB (Case Keenum) trying to hold off a first-round draft pick (Jared Goff), with a head coach on the hot seat (Jeff Fisher).

Hope this season works out better for Coach Fox than last year did for Jeff Fisher.

8) Didn’t help Chicago’s new QB Mike Glennon when he threw a pick-6 0:48 into the Bears’ first preseason game, Thursday vs Denver. People are not patient in today’s world.

7) One of the prettiest plays of the weekend was Miami backup QB David Fales throwing a 99-yard TD to Damore’ea Stringfellow, an undrafted free agent from Ole Miss.

6) Golfer Patrick Cantlay eagled the 7th hole at the PGA Thursday and Friday. Hard to do.

5) Dodgers started this season 10-12; they’re 71-21 since. LA was 9-11 when they called Cody Bellinger up to the big leagues on April 25- you do the math.

4) Houston Astros were 58-27 in their first 85 games, with a 3.91 team ERA.
Since then, they’re 13-16, with a 5.20 team ERA.

3) Cardinals’ pitcher Lance Lynn got drilled in the top of his head by a line drive hit by Lorenzo Cain Thursday night, but he stayed in the game and pitched six innings. St Louis swept four games from Kansas City- they hit grand slams in consecutive games Wednesday/Thursday for the first time in six years.

2) Jeffrey Loria has apparently sold the Miami Marlins for $1.25B, thats billion, with a B, to a group of 16 investors, most famous of which is Derek Jeter, who will run the baseball side. Fans in Miami are better off without Loria.

1) Over the last seven years, A’s/Nationals have made ten separate trades; it is almost like your local fantasy league, where certain people only trade with certain other people.

But in a business where teams are worth $1B or so, or more, do teams really do each other favors when one team is in contention and the other isn’t?

On July 16, the A’s sent Sean Doolittle/Ryan Madson to bullpen-starved Washington- the Nationals also added Brandon Kintzler from the Twins. Problem solved for Washington.

When the A’s needed a catcher in 2013, all of a sudden Kurt Suzuki fell into their lap, a gift from the Nationals. It helps to have friends.

13) Damned if you do, damned if you don’t: I know people who stopped watching the NFL last year because of the Colin Kaepernick/kneeling thing. Granted, these people aren’t avid fans, but they did stop watching games.

Now there is a petition with 130,000 names on it claiming THEY will boycott games if some NFL team doesn’t sign Kaepernick. The fact that he may have turned down Seattle’s offer to be a backup doesn’t seem to matter to these humans— maybe they want him to take Tom Brady’s place.

I don’t know, but if I never hear the word “politics” again, it’ll be too damn soon.

12) Mets saved $4M by trading Jay Bruce to the Indians. Its always good when the Wilpons can bank an extra $4M, seeing as how they’re friends with Bernie Madoff and all— a little extra change never hurt anyone.

Bronx Bombers offered $1M and two prospects for Bruce; the two prospects mustn’t be very good, or else the Mets just preferred cash.

11) 44-year old pitcher Bartolo Colon was in the big leagues before 17 of the current 30 major league stadiums were opened.

10) Houston Texans have five Clemson guys on their squad, a good college team to pick from. Never hurts to have players who are used to winning.

9) Scary story about Oakland University hoop coach Greg Kampe, who almost died this summer when six kidney stones that were lodged in his kidney became infected. He wound up in intensive care for five days— he is OK now, but in his early 60’s, sepsis is a very dangerous thing to have in your system. He was smart to go to the ER to get treatment.

Kampe is 583-424 in his head coaching career, all of which has been spent at Oakland.

8) If you care about such things, ESPN will have 28 consecutive hours of fantasy football coverage on its airwaves, starting Monday night at 7pm.

7) Mike Krzyzewski is having knee replacement surgery this week, so Duke’s basketball team has cancelled its summer trip to the Dominican Republic. Teams can only take one of those trips every four years; they’ll probably go next year now.

6) Odd Fact of the Day: A 91-year old woman in Thailand earned a college degree after spending more than 10 years studying for it— she got her diploma from the country’s king. Good for her.

5) With Padres leading 3-2 at Cincinnati Thursday with one out and tying run on second with one out in the bottom of the 7th inning, manager Andy Green changed pitchers, replacing righty Kirby Yates with lefty Brad Hand with a 2-2 count on Joey Votto.

Not sure how many times I’ve seen this before, but it is very few. Hand is San Diego’s closer, but to close this win, he had to get eight outs!!! Unusual strategy.

Votto walked, Adam Duvall struck out, then Scooter Gennett hit a grand slam, making Green’s strategy a complete disaster.  Have no idea what he was thinking; the San Diego TV guys said this: “…..some interesting decisions by Andy Green”

4) UAB has brought back its football team this year, after it was gone for a couple years; the mayor of Birmingham says the team’s return will have a $50M positive impact on the city’s economy.

Maybe he thinks the Crimson Tide are moving from Tuscaloosa to Birmingham.

3) Mets had a deal to send Neal Walker to the Bronx at the trade deadline, but when Bronx acquired Sonny Gray, they scuttled the Walker deal, using Walker’s medical records as the excuse why. Mets’ brass wasn’t amused, which may be why Jay Bruce is in Cleveland now.

That and the thing about Bronx not wanting to absorb Bruce’s contract, which the Indians did.

2) Quarterbacks are valuable; there are reports that the Bengals turned down a 2nd-round pick for backup QB AJ McCarron. That is surprising.

1) Atlanta Falcons had six games LY where they had a +3 or better turnover ratio; thats going to be really difficult to replicate this season. Numbers people think Atlanta will regress some this season, and thats before factoring in the fact that they have two new coordinators this year.

13) Umpire Joe West was suspended for three games recently because he identified Adrian Beltre of the Rangers as the biggest complainer in the major leagues. Umpires are better off seen and not heard.

12) Apparently Jameis Winston will be a big part of Hard Knocks this summer; last year, Jared Goff was hardly on the show— it was almost like the Rams signed 3 or 4 scrubs that HBO could focus on in Hard Knocks, so the more prominent players could be left alone.

Bucs’ defensive coordinator Mike Smith went thru the Hard Knocks thing a couple years ago when he was coaching the Falcons— he wound up getting fired.

11) “Stay away from the QB….Stay away from the QB…..Stay away from the QB.”

Bucs’ coach Dirk Koetter, after a pass rusher bumped into Winston’s blind side during a passing drill. Quarterbacks wear a different color jersey during practice, so they don’t get touched.

10) One thing about NFL Films/Hard Knocks- they like showing players bowling on their days off. Happens every year.

9) Bucs’ coach Dirk Koetter has a pretty cool gadget in his office; a touchscreen like the one John King used on CNN during the elections. He can move guys on his depth chart just by touching, dragging the name to a different column. Easier that writing/erasing names on a board.

8) Cleveland Indians are in stretch of 41 games in 41 days, with one doubleheader, so at least there is one day off in there. Tribe had several rainouts, which created the logjam in games.

7) Last time the National League won the season series with the American League was 2003, but this year is closer than usual. AL won by 26+ games the last three years, but this year it is only 112-102 AL, going into Tuesday’s games.

6) Jaguars’ tackle Branden Albert retired, then when he was informed he had to return some of the money the Jags paid him, apparently wanted to unretire.

From ESPN.com: “Jaguars put him on the reserve/retired list, which means the team retains its rights to Albert because he’s under contract to the Jaguars for two more seasons. If Albert were to un-retire, the Jags would have the first option of his services. If they no longer want him, Albert would go through the waiver process and if no team claimed him he would become a free agent.”

5) The Electoral College system in our Presidential elections make no sense to me; they were saying that Republicans completely ignore California/New York because they know they can’t win those states. How do you ignore the two biggest states?

Our system needs updating; whoever gets the most votes should win. I’d rather Idaho and West Virginia get ignored than California and New York. No offense to Idaho and West Virginia.

4) Huge red flag for the Astros: In three starts since coming off the DL, Dallas Keuchel has allowed 14 runs in 12 IP. Lance McCullers is on the DL; Houston has huge pitching issues, which won’t matter until October.

3) Quote of the Day, part 2, from Charles Barkley:

“You want to be on a good team. You want to play with other great players. This notion where you want to be the man, I just think is so stupid. If I got a chance to play with another great player, I want to do that. The objective is to win.”

He is talking about Kyrie Irving wanting out of Cleveland.

2) If you want to buy 33.3% of an NFL team and have $660M to throw around, you can be a part-owner of the Tennessee Titans. One of Bud Adams’ daughters put her share of the team up for sale this week.

1) Apparently I’m out of touch with pop culture; these two “celebrities” are getting divorced, Twitter is blowing up over it, and I’ve never heard of either person. Very disappointed in myself.

Baltimore: With Flacco hurting, who will the QB be? Backup Mallett is shaky, at best. Ravens ran ball for only 91.4 yards/game LY (28th). Ravens lost their last six road games- they allowed 28.5 pts/game during 1-3 stumble at end of year, after they started season 7-5.

Buffalo: Another new head coach, and now they have 4th offensive coordinator in last four years; Bills finished 3-7 LY after a 4-2 start, were 2-6 in games decided by 7 or less points. Haven’t been in playoffs since 1999, longest drought in league, longer than even the Browns.

Cincinnati: Dropped from 7th in scoring in 2015 to 24th LY, then two offensive linemen left in free agency last winter. Missed playoffs LY for first time in six years, but Marvin Lewis is 0-7 in playoff games. Bengal fans have forgotten how bad the Bengals were before Lewis got there.

Cleveland: Who is the QB? Browns are 2-10-1 vs spread as a home underdog last two years- five of their 15 losses were by 6 or less points. Cleveland hasn’t won much; since 2010, Browns are 10-17-2 vs spread in game following a win. Cleveland last made the playoffs in 2002.

Denver: Have new coach, young QB’s, after going 9-7 in first season since Peyton Manning retired, missing playoffs for first time in six years. Broncos won last five season openers, all at home; they open at home against the Chargers on a Monday night this season.

Houston: Finished 9-7 in all three of O’Brien’s seasons; he is 16-5-1 vs spread as a favorite with the Texans, 12-4-1 at home— he is 9-15-1 as an underdog. Houston is 12-7-1 vs spread in game following their last 20 losses. How long before rookie QB Watson plays?

Indianapolis: How is Luck’s shoulder? Without him, Colts are screwed. Indy made playoffs in 12 of last 16 years, but missed the last two years (8-8/8-8). Colts finished 10th in yardage LY. Indy lost four of last five season openers- they visit the Rams in Week 1 this year.

Jacksonville: Tom Coughlin runs franchise now; they’re 22-74 the last six years, are -26 in turnovers in their last 32 games. Jags will try to run ball more to take pressure off QB Bortles, who is struggling in training camp this summer. Since 2012, Jax is 13-26-2 vs spread at home.

Kansas City: Chiefs are 43-21 in regular season under Reid, 1-3 in playoff games- they’re 11-2 vs spread as road favorites under Reid, 13-17 as home favorites. New OC Matt Nagy played in the Arena League for six years; Chiefs are +30 in turnovers in their last 32 regular season games.

LA Chargers: Year of transition; Bolts will play in 30,000-seat soccer stadium the next three years. Philip Rivers will be 36 in December; new coach Anthony Lynn has two very experienced coordinators, smart of him to do. Chargers were 8-16 vs spread at home the last three years.

Miami: Jay Cutler (68-71 career record) gets $10M to try and salvage the Dolphins’ season, with Ryan Tannehill (knee) out for at least half the year. In 11 years, Cutler is 1-1 in  playoff games. Miami was 9-1 LY when they scored more than 17 points, 1-6 if they scored 17 or less points.

New England: Have had same OC/DC since 2012; they’re +40 in turnovers the last four years, are 17-8-3 vs spread as home favorites since ’13, covering last seven tries as a double digit fave. Offensive line was healthy LY, after using 39 different line combinations in 2015.

NJ Jets: Their long snapper is having a rough camp; they’re looking at new guys for that job. 38-year old McCown was signed for year to play QB; their two young backup QB’s are suspects. Since ’07, Jets are 5-13-1 vs spread as a home favorite in divisional games, but 8-3 as home dogs.

Oakland: Made playoffs LY for first time since 2002; they were +16 in turnovers LY, after being -23 in turnovers previous three years combined. Oakland is 12-3 vs spread on road under Del Rio, 8-2 as road dogs. Raiders made change at OC this year, promoting QB coach Downing.

Pittsburgh: Steelers were 4-5 at one point LY, then won nine games in row before losing AFC title game in Foxboro. Pitt is 18-12 vs spread as a favorite last two years, 9-3 as non-division home favorite the last three years; they’re 12-5 in last 17 games as a favorite of 3 or less points.

Tennessee: Had first winning season since 2011 LY; still haven’t made playoffs since 2008- their last playoff win was in ’03. Jumped from 30th to 11th in yards gained LY; six of their nine wins were by 6 or less points. Titans were even in turnovers LY; they were -24 from 2013-15.

13) Think about how smart/fortunate the Green Bay Packers have been; since 1992, their starting QB’s have been Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers. Thats it. Two Hall of Famers.

By way of contrast, my favorite team, the Rams, have had 10 different #1 QB’s since ‘92, and Jared Goff will be #11 this season.

12) Chargers’ QB Philip Rivers has 8 kids, and therefore is being allowed to commute 71 miles from his home to training camp every day. Very odd situation— chances are Rivers will be retired by the time the Rams/Chargers move into the new Hollywood Park stadium in 2020.

Since 2002, Drew Brees/Philip Rivers have been the Chargers’ #1 QB’s; not bad. In the five years before that, 1997-2001, the Chargers had five different #1 QB’s: Stan Humphries, Craig Whelihan, Jim Harbaugh, Ryan Leaf and Doug Flutie. Continuity is very important.

11) This from the Football Outsiders Almanac, which I just bought online:

“Last year’s Oakland Raiders had the lowest scoring differential (plus-31) of any 12-4 team in NFL history. The other seven teams that went 12-4 with a scoring differential of plus-70 or lower averaged a 9-7 record the next year.”

10) I’m not a big fan of fantasy football, but a ton of people are, and one of the questions those people need to answer this season is what impact Adrian Peterson will have in New Orleans. Saints open the season in Minnesota, against Peterson’s old team, the Vikings.

9) The daughter of Saints’ coach Sean Payton goes to college at Pepperdine; she is a PR intern at the Cowboys’ training camp in Oxnard, CA this summer.

8) Cam Newton isn’t practicing with the Panthers just yet; his shoulder’s health is going to determine a lot of how well Carolina does this season.

7) John Elway’s new contract nets him $6M a year to run the Denver Broncos, who’ve won more games than any team in the NFL during Elway’s tenure as GM, except New England.

6) Tennessee Titans wanted QB Marcus Mariota to gain weight to play this season, but he came to camp lighter, at 215.  We’ll see how that works out for him.

5) QB Brock Osweiler will start the Browns’ preseason opener this week.

4) Bob Stoops retired as Oklahoma’s footballl coach back in June, at age 56, young for a coach to retire. Seems odd until you read that Stoops’ dad was a really good high school coach who died during a game when he was only 54. Then it makes a lot more sense.

3) Chargers have a new head coach in Anthony Lynn, but he has experienced coordinators, in ex-head coaches Ken Whisenhunt, Gus Bradley. That makes good sense.

2) This is a fun week ahead of us: NFL exhibitions resume Wednesday, and the last major of the golf season is this week, as well as the last week of the regular season for my fantasy baseball league. Rams play Dallas Saturday night— looking forward to seeing the Rams’ new offense.

1) My 12-day vacation to Las Vegas/Canton, OH was great fun; seems like six weeks ago I watched LaVar Ball’s AAU team play in Vegas, but it was only 13 days ago. Any night spent watching baseball in the Westgate SuperBook is also tremendous.

That said, it is good to be home.

13) Saw an underrated athletic feat this weekend; for some reason, the Saints had a portable basketball goal on the line in the back of the end zone. Drew Brees stood on the 10-yard line, 20 yards away, and swished three footballs in a row into the basket from the 10-yard line.

20 yards is 60 feet; half court on a regulation court is 47 feet, so basically Brees made three shots in a row from the backcourt, using a football. Not bad.

12) Rental car return at the Cleveland airport was ridiculously busy Sunday morning, even at 6am. Quick turnaround last night; speeches ended just before midnight, then I’m out of the hotel and off to the airport by 4:45 Sunday morning. Not great planning on my part.

11) A college teammate of LaDanian Tomlinson said on Twitter this weekend that LT was so intense, he wore a mouthpiece while lifting weights. Never heard of that before.

10) Terrell Davis played two years at Long Beach State, including a red-shirt year under the great coach George Allen, but a year after Allen passed away, Long Beach State dropped football and Davis transferred to Georgia, luckily for him.

9) Dodgers are 44-7 in their last 51 games, the best 51-game stretch for any big league team since 1912.

8) Unusual that Morten Andersen is the all-time leading scorer for both the Falcons/Saints, who have the most underrated rivalry in the NFL, having come into the league a year apart in the 60’s. Anderson’s speech Saturday night was full of good humor— former Michigan State football teammate, baseball star Kirk Gibson was in Canton to support him.

No, I didn’t make an effort to meet Gibson, whose home run ruined the 1988 World Series for me.

7) The fewest interceptions by any cornerback in the Hall of Fame? 40. Darrelle Revis only has 29 in his career, so he’ll have to buck a trend to make the Hall, either that or pick off a lot more passes the rest of his career.

6) A’s traded 1B Yonder Alonso to Seattle for journeyman Boog Powell; Alonso played very well for the A’s for two years, but he is a free agent-to-be, which in Oakland means……..good-bye.

5) Mitchell Robinson, one of the best incoming freshman basketball players this fall, got his release from Western Kentucky and will go to LSU, which also got the kid from Southern Utah who wants to be a graduate transfer. LSU should be pretty good this winter.

Western Kentucky had hired Robinson’s godfather as an assistant coach, but he left earlier this summer and now the kid is gone too. Maybe WKU is better off.

4) Listened to Alex Rodriguez for a while on TV this weekend, broadcasting on FOX; he does a good job analyzing baseball. I mean, the guy doesn’t need the money, so he must enjoy the work.

3) Jay Cutler officially signed a 1-year deal with the Dolphins, delaying his broadcast career. I feel bad for Miami backup QB Matt Moore, who is a capable player, because Cutler didn’t sign up to sit on the bench. Moore could start for a few NFL teams.

Cutler gets $10M for this season, by the way. Not bad.

2) Justin Turner’s baseball career:
2009-13, Orioles/Mets: 8 home runs/926 plate appearances, .322 OB%
2014-17: Dodgers: 63 home runs in 1,737 plate appearances, .379 OB%

1) Some writers were complaining Saturday night about the length of the Hall of Fame speeches; Kurt Warner’s speech didn’t start until after 11pm. Only suggestion I can think of is players-only give speeches. I don’t need to hear that Jerry Jones was hung over when he decided to buy the Cowboys, and I don’t need to hear him to thank Rupert Murdoch, either.

All seven speeches lasted at least 19:30; Jones had the longest speech, at 36:46.