Month: April 2024

— Yesterday, I complained about what a terrible umpire Angel Hernandez is, which is true; well, here is the other side of the coin. 

Friday night, Chad Whitson worked home plate at the Chicago-Seattle game; of the 129 pitches that were taken by hitters, Whitson only missed one call the whole freakin’ game. Now that is what a major league umpire is supposed to do.

— Padres 6, Dodgers 3
Second night in a row, start of a game at Dodger Stadium was delayed by rain.
San Diego is surprisingly 9-9; Manny Machado hit a home run for the Padres.
Dodgers are 4-5 in their last nine games.
Dodger pitchers walked 14 batters, had only 3 strikeouts.

— A’s 7, Nationals 6
Trailing 6-1 in sixth inning, A’s scored six times in bottom of the 6th. 

After a 1-6 start, A’s are 6-3 in their last nine games.

AL West standings, after 18 days of games:
Texas 8-8
LA Angels 7-8
A’s 7-9
Seattle 6-10
Houston 6-11

— Most career home runs, leading off a game:
81- Rickey Henderson
57- George Springer
54- Alfonso Soriano
53- Craig Biggio

— Toronto Blue Jays are 4-2 at home; they’ve scored in first inning in five of those six games.

— If the baseball playoffs started today (they do not):
AL: New York, Cleveland, Texas. Wild Cards: Royals, Orioles, Tigers
NL: Atlanta, Milwaukee, Los Angeles. Wild Cards: Pirates, Reds, Cubs

— Famous birthdays for April 15:
Julie Sommars, 83
Ted Sizemore, 79
Michael Cooper, 68
Emma Thompson, 65
Jason Sehorn, 53
Brock Huard, 48
Seth Rogen, 42

— Movie of the Day: Prince of Tides (1991)- A high school football coach from the South comes to New York City to meet with his suicidal sister’s psychiatrist about their family history and falls in love with her in the process.

Nick Nolte is the coach, Barbra Streisand is the psychiatrist. George Carlin is her neighbor, Blythe Danner is the coach’s wife. 

Not the most pleasant movie, but a very good one.

— Fresno State hired Vance Walberg as its new basketball coach; he is the innovator of the dribble drive motion offense, and has coached in high school, junior college, college and the NBA. He was once head coach at Pepperdine, was an assistant for three NBA teams and has coached in high school for 20+ years. 

Walberg is 67 years old; his last college job was 13 years ago, but if Fresno gets some NIL $$$ to recruit better ballplayers, they’ll make some noise in the Mountain West. 

— Knicks 120, Bulls 119 OT— Knicks win 50+ games for the first time since 2013.

— Tuesday’s NBA play-in games:
Lakers @ New Orleans
Warriors @ Sacramento

— Wednesday’s NBA play-in games:
Heat @ Philadelphia
Hawks @ Chicago

— Panthers 34, Roughnecks 20
Michigan outscored Roughnecks 22-3 in third quarter.
Panthers converted 7-12 third down plays.
Houston is off to an 0-3 start.

— Battlehawks 31, Brahmas 24
St Louis led 17-9 at halftime.
Butler caught six passes for 87 yards and a TD.
There were only five penalties called in this game. 

— Angel Hernandez is a terrible umpire; how does he keep his job? 

Friday night, he had the plate in Houston; once the Rangers got a big lead, Hernandez started calling every pitch the Astros threw a strike. He called Wyatt Langford out on a pitch that was 6.8 inches outside!!!!

Hernandez called 55 pitches strikes in that game; 12 of them were balls, a terrible %age for a big league umpire. No idea how the guy hasn’t been fired.

— Twins 11, Tigers 5 (12)
Zach McKinstry had a really bad 12th inning in this game; his error at third base let three runs score, including the go-ahead run. Then, when Detroit threw the towel in later that inning, they put McKinstry in to pitch, since it was the first game of a doubleheader. Not really sure why they did that, but they did.

McKinstry then gave up a 3-run homer to Matt Wallner in the same half-inning.

— Phillies 4, Pirates 3- Philadelphia’s last ten games stayed under the total.

— Dodgers 5, Padres 2- There was a 2:15 rain delay before this game, which doesn’t happen much in Los Angeles. Game ended around 2am here in the east.

— Brewers 11, Orioles 5- Over is 7-1-1 in Milwaukee’s last nine games; in their last six games, Brewers scored 58 runs.

— Royals 11, Mets 7- Catcher Salvador Perez hit his 250th career home run.

— Defenders 29, Renegades 28
Washington kicked a 49-yard FG at the gun, improve to 2-1.
Arlington led 14-9 at halftime.
Renegades outgained the Defenders, 419-259.

— Stallions 33, Showboats 14
Birmingham outgained Memphis 424-212.
Stallions outscored Memphis 15-2 in second half.
Understatement; the Memphis offensive line had a bad day.

— Famous birthdays for April 14:
Julie Christie, 84
Pete Rose, 83
Brad Garrett, 64
Stan Humphries, 59
David Justice, 58
Greg Maddux, 58
Craig Kupp, 57
Adrien Brody, 51
Baker Mayfield, 29

— Baseball players get hurt a lot:
Dodgers put P Bobby Miller (shoulder) on IL
Texas reliever Brock Burke punched a wall after a poor outing, broke his non-throwing hand.
Colorado OF Kris Bryant (ribs) left Saturday’s game after he ran into a fence catching a line drive.

— Of the 655 position players last year, only four played in all 162 games:
Matt Olson
Marcus Semien
Juan Soto
Eugenio Suarez

— Last three years, Freddie Freeman played in 159-159-161 games.

— French-born big man Alex Sarr will be an interesting player when the NBA Draft rolls around; he is 7-foot-1, 19 years old, averaged 9.4 points/game in an Australian pro league this past season.

— There are weasels around college basketball who are calling for the end of automatic bids to the NCAA Tournament. This would be a HUGE mistake; the mid-majors are what gives March Madness its appeal, especially the first weekend.

I’d rather watch the champs of the Big Sky, Ivy League and Sun Belt play than a bunch of teams that went 7-11 in their conference season. March Madness is a great event; they need to keep it the way it is. 

— Baseball game in Cleveland got rained out Friday; Guardians will play a day/night twinbill Saturday, then a day game Sunday, then an 11am road game Monday morning in Boston, where Patriots’ Day is a holiday. Will be a busy 48 hours for them. 

— Rangers 12, Astros 8
Last three games, Houston starting pitchers gave up 24 runs in 7.2 IP.
Astros are 4-11, their worst 15-game start since 2013.

— Padres 8, Dodgers 7 (11)
Dodgers led 7-3 after three innings, didn’t score again. 

Yamamoto allowed three runs in 5 IP; he hasn’t lasted more than 5 IP in any of his four starts for the Dodgers.

— A’s 2, Nationals 1
Lawrence Butler had the walk-off hit as the spunky A’s won for sixth time in seven games. Paul Blackburn threw 6.1 more scoreless innings, has now thrown 19.1 innings this year, without giving up any runs.

— Angels 7, Red Sox 0
Reid Detmers is the first Angel pitcher to win his first three starts of a season since Jered Weaver won six straight games to start the 2011 season.

— Cardinals 9, Diamondbacks 6
St Louis blew a 6-0 lead, but Goldschmidt’s 7th inning single put them ahead for good.
Nolan Arenado was 3-5 with three RBI.

— Pirates 5, Phillies 2
Bailey Falter allowed one run in 5 IP, beating his former team- they dealt him to Pittsburgh at the trade deadline last summer. 

— Famous birthdays for April 13th:
Dennis Thurman, 68
Garry Kasparov, 61
Bo Outlaw, 53
Dan Campbell, 48
Quentin Richardson, 44
Hunter Pence, 41

— All 30 NBA teams played Friday night; there are no NBA games Saturday, then all 30 teams play again on Sunday, the last day of the regular season.

— Eastern Washington hired Dan Monson as its new basketball coach; Monson coached the last 17 years at Long Beach State. Monson got fired just before last month’s Big West Tournament, but then he won the tournament, and led Long Beach to the NCAA’s for the second time.

— AAC has 80 players in the college basketball transfer portal, the most of any league; ACC, Pac-12 and Missouri Valley are next, with 68 players each.

— Flying home from Las Vegas on Southwest Airlines this week was easier, because you can watch movies for free on your phone. The flight from Baltimore to Albany is short anyway, plus the only empty seat on the plane was the middle seat next to me, making life a little better.

— NHL’s Arizona Coyotes are going to move to Salt Lake City next season; Coyotes have made the NHL playoffs once in the last 12 seasons. 

— Vegas Golden Knights have been in the NHL for seven years, have never had a losing season, making the playoffs six times now, after they clinched a playoff spot with Friday’s 7-2 win over Minnesota.

— Last time an NBA/NHL player from teams in same city both won MVP in the same season was 1988-89, when Magic Johnson/Wayne Gretzky did it. 

— OJ Simpson has passed away at age 76. 

He was a Pro Football Hall of Famer, a great running back.

He was acquitted of double murder in 1995; his ex-wife and a male friend of hers, after he was arrested following a slow-paced car chase on national TV.

He was convicted of armed robbery in 2008.

The trial in 1994-95 was a huge deal on TV; prosecutor Marcia Clark wound up as a celebrity guest on the Hollywood Squares, and she lost the trial. 

While the trial was going on, a friend of mine who is a lawyer told me that OJ would never get convicted; he was correct.

In any event, my dad and I bet $3 on the verdict; I had guilty, my dad had not guilty. When they announced when the verdict would be announced, I drove over to his house, and we each threw $3 on the floor. When they said “not guilty” my dad jumped off the couch, scooped the $6 off the floor and jogged out to the kitchen to tell my mother he won $3 from me. 

One bet I didn’t mind losing; just hearing his laugh was worth it.

— NFL schedule gets released next month; obviously the Chiefs play at home on Thursday night in Week 1, but this year, Packers-Eagles are playing on Friday in Week 1, with the game taking place in San Paolo, Brazil, the NFL’s first-ever game in South America.

— Chiefs’ WR Rashee Rice faces eight criminal charges, including aggravated assault, after he and another driver caused a chain-reaction accident in Dallas on March 31. Rice was driving a Lamborghini, the other driver a Corvette.

— Tuesday night in the NBA, Golden State Warriors made 26-41 3-point shots in their 134-120 win over the Lakers in Los Angeles. Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green were a combined 16-23 behind the arc.

— Jrue Holiday agreed to a 4-year, $135M contract extension with the Boston Celtics; Holiday is shooting 43% on the arc this season, 62% on corner 3’s, which makes his more valuable.

— HBO’s great comedy program Curb Your Enthusiasm ended Sunday night; 120 episodes over 12 seasons. Great comedy is hard to do; they did it for 12 seasons, stretched out over 20 years. 

— Famous birthdays for April 12th:
Mike Garrett, 80
Ed O’Neill, 78
David Letterman, 77
Andy Garcia, 68
Jerry Goff, 60
Paul LoDuca, 52
Brad Miller, 48
Claire Danes, 45

— As I type this, they’re talking on the Orioles’ TV broadcast about the possibility of MLB eventually going to a slightly smaller baseball, like the ones they use in Asia. The recent rash of injuries to pitchers has MLB looking for an answer to the problem.

— Royals 13, Astros 3
Royals sweep Houston, have now won seven games in a row.
In the first inning, Kansas City scored 9 runs on 11 hits.

— Mets 16, Braves 4
Mets led 7-0 in the third inning.

— A’s 1, Rangers 0
JP Sears got 19 outs, allowed only four baserunners.
Seth Brown’s 2nd inning homer was the game’s only run.
A’s won four of their last five games, after a 1-7 start.

— White Sox 3B Yoan Moncada is out 3 months or so with an adductor strain.

— Field for the Maui Classic basketball tournament in November:
Gonzaga, Kansas, Marquette, Purdue
Syracuse, Tennessee, UCLA and the host school, Chaminade.

— DePaul has hired former Butler coach LaVell Jordan to be its general manager, a new term in college basketball. Acquiring players is a real thing in college sports; it is now a miniature version of pro sports, for better or worse.

— There have been 61 head coaching changes in D-I college basketball, with Kentucky figuring to be #62, if/when they find someone they want who also wants them. 

Kentucky is now negotiating a 5-year deal with BYU coach Mark Pope, a 1996 Kentucky alum who played two years for the Wildcats. Pope was 77-56 coaching Utah Valley, 34-24 in WAC games, then he went 110-52 in five years at BYU, 49-29 in conference games. 

— Diamondbacks have scored in the first inning in 9 of their 13 games (6-7).

— Over is 7-2-1 in Atlanta Braves’ games.

— Cubs are 5-1 in Chicago, 2-4 on the road.

— I have two guys on the Reds on my fantasy team:

Christian Encarnacion-Strand is hitting .154
Jeimer Candelario is hitting .152.

Freakin’ awesome.

— Colorado Rockies are 2-4 at home, 1-6 on road; over is 5-2 in their home games.

— LA Dodgers are 6-1 at home, 4-4 away from home. 

— Miami Marlins are 2-11, 0-7 at home, where the over is 5-2. 

— Over is 5-1-1 in the Milwaukee Brewers’ last seven games.

— Mets’ pitching staff is 22nd in WHIP, but #8 in earned run average. 

— Phillies’ last seven games stayed under the total. 

— Pittsburgh Pirates are 9-3, have best record in the National League. 

— Under is 6-2 in the Cardinals’ last eight games.

— San Diego Padres are 2-7 when they score less than six runs. 

— Over is 7-0 in Giants’ road games, under is 5-1 in their home tilts.

— Washington has scored in first inning in only one of its 12 games. 

— Famous birthdays for April 11th:
Peter Riegert, 77
Micheal Ray Richardson, 69
Jim Breech, 68
Bret Saberhagen, 60
Jason Varitek, 52
Mark Teixeira, 44

— Orioles’ opponents have a .205 on-base %age, tied with Boston for best in MLB.

— Tyler O’Neill is hitting .343 with six home runs, but has only 7 RBI.

— White Sox are 1-6 in games where winning run scored from 7th inning on.

— Cleveland Guardians won six of their last seven games.

— Detroit is 6-1 in games where winning run scored from 7th inning on.

— Astros haven’t had a losing year in a full season since 2014; they’re off to a 4-9 start this year, 0-5 in games where winning run scored from 7th inning on.

— Kansas City Royals haven’t had a winning season since they won the World Series in 2015; they’re off to a 8-4 start this year, 7-2 at home. Royals got a quality start in nine of their 12 games so far. 

— 3B Anthony Rendon makes $38M a year, more than Mike Trout; Rendon is hitting .150 so far this season. Trout is off to a .318 start, with six homers, 8 RBI

— Minnesota Twins lost six of their last eight games; under is 4-1 in their home games.

— Aaron Judge is off to an 8-45 start, but he’s walked 14 times; his on-base %age is .367.

— Oakland A’s are 1-6 at home, 3-2 on the road; they’re 4-3 when they score 4+ runs, 0-5 when they don’t.

— Mariners lost six of their last eight games; under is 9-3 in their last 12 games.

— Tampa Bay 1B Yandy Diaz hit .296/.330 the last two years; he’s off to a .208 start this year, with a .561 OPS. His career OPS is .813. 

— Under is 6-2 in the Texas Rangers’ last eight games.

— Toronto scored in first inning in two of its three home games, only one of its 10 road tilts. 

— Two weeks in Las Vegas is always fun; hung out with friends, watched lot of games, even made a few bucks gambling, but after two weeks, it is good to be home.

Took me 13 hours Tuesday to get from my hotel room in Las Vegas to my living room in upstate New York; I’m not at my best being around a lot of people. Will be fun to chill here at home by myself the next couple of days.

— I’ll repeat myself: DuPar’s in the SunCoast casino has the best pancakes I’ve ever had.

— There are murmurs on the Interweb that a part of the reason that John Calipari left Kentucky for Arkansas is that he wanted to hire his son Brad as an assistant coach, and the powers-that-be weren’t real receptive to that.

Brad Calipari was director of on-court player development at Vanderbilt this past season; the Commodores went 9-23, and head coach Jerry Stackhouse and his staff was fired. 

Will be interesting to see if Brad Calipari surfaces at Arkansas with his father.

— A’s 4, Rangers 3- Oakland C Shea Langeliers knocked in all four A’s runs with three homers, as the spunky A’s won their third consecutive game- they’re 3-1 on the road, 1-7 at home.

— White Sox 7, Guardians 5- Teams had been 0 for their last 41 with runners in scoring position against Cleveland, but they scored five runs in the first inning here, against Logan Allen, who I added to my fantasy team this week (then cut him when Chicago scored their 5th run in this game).

It is only April 10th and I’ve already cut two pitchers off my fantasy team, while they were still pitching in a game; I could never be a doctor, because I have no patience. (its a joke, kind of)

Cleveland tied the game, but Dominic Fletcher won it with a 2-run double in the top of the 8th inning for the Pale Hose.

— Tigers 5, Pirates 3- Pittsburgh was three outs from a 10-2 start, but Detroit scored four runs in the 9th inning, to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

— Rays 6, Angels 4- José Caballero went 3-4, with two runs scored, two RBI, as Tampa Bay evened its record at 6-6. 

— Famous birthdays for April 10th:
Mel Blount, 76
Ken Griffey Sr., 74
Steve Tasker, 62
Scott Bentley, 50
Kenny Satterfield, 43
Robert Woods, 32
Jake Burger, 28

The late actor Chuck Connors was born on April 10, 1921; he was The Rifleman on TV, and also played in both pro basketball (53 games for Boston) and major league baseball (67 games from 1949-51, mostly for the Cubs)

The late actor Harry Morgan (Colonel Potter on M*A*S*H) was born on April 10, 1915

— Baseball injuries:
Houston P Framber Valdez (elbow)
Angels’ P Chase Silseth (elbow)
White Sox 3B Yoan Moncada (adductor)
Red Sox 2B Trevor Story (shoulder) is out for the year.

— In December 2019, Washington Nationals signed star P Stephen Strasburg to a 7-year, $245M contract that didn’t turn out so well. Having just won the World Series, Washington spent some cash on one of its stars, but Strasburg was 1-4, 6.89 in 31 innings after the contract was signed.

Strasburg retired this week; since he signed the contract, Washington is 221-335- they won 90+ games in three of his last four healthy seasons.

— Braves 6, Mets 5
Atlanta led 5-0 in 4th inning, hung on for dear life.
Ronald Acuna was 2-3, stole three bases, scored three runs.
Reynaldo López tossed six shutout IP, before the bullpen’s rough night.

— Royals 4, Astros 3 (10)
Royals are 7-4, Houston is 4-8.
Astros led 3-0 in 5th inning; throwing error by Bregman tied the game 3-3.
Salvador Perez had a walk-off single in the 10th inning,

— Dodgers 6, Twins 3
Tyler Glasnow had 14 strikeouts while throwing seven shutout innings; he threw only 88 pitches. Since 1988, that is the fewest number of pitches thrown by a hurler with 14+ strikeouts in a game.

— Blue Jays 5, Mariners 3
Chris Bassitt needed 115 pitches to get 20 outs, the most pitches thrown in a game this season.

Seattle is off to a disappointing 4-8 start.

— Baltimore Orioles are calling #1 prospect Jackson Holliday up from the minor leagues; the son of former big leaguer Matt Holliday, the 20-year old infielder hit .333 in ten AAA games this month.

— Favorites did unusually well in the NCAA Tournament:
Favorites went 39-28 ATS in all the games, best favorites have done since 2008.

In the seven games from the Elite 8 on, favorites were 6-1 ATS, best they’ve done since 1981. 

Tournament favorites of 8+ points went 20-5 ATS, the best they’ve ever d0ne.

Top-3 seeds went 21-10 ATS against #4 or lower seeds, their best record since 2009. 

— UConn 75, Purdue 60
UConn wins the national title for second year in a row.
Zach Edey scored 37 points, the other Boilermakers 23.
Last two years, Huskies are 12-0 SU/ATS in the NCAA Tournament.

— Purdue led 23-21 with 7:24 left in the first half, but trailed 36-30 at the half.

— UConn lost five of its top eight scorers from last year, and still won another national title. Really, a tremendous accomplishment.

— Saturday’s Final Four games were first time since 2018, and only 4th time since 2002 that both favorites covered in the national semi-finals.

— Last week’s Sweet 16 had five upsets in eight games, the most of any Sweet 16 since 2011.

— Big 14 still hasn’t won a national title in college basketball since Michigan State in 2000.

— I’m sitting in the Rampart Casino sportsbook yesterday for the first time; nice place. Friend of mine is talking to this older guy while we’re sitting there watching baseball. Eventually we get up to leave, I say good night to the older guy and he says to me, “You need a hair cut!!!”

Thanks, buddy. 

— Famous birthdays for April 9th:
Rob Scribner, 73
Dennis Quaid, 70
Kyle Macy, 67
Kirk McCaskill, 63
Bo Kimble, 58
Zac Stacy, 33
Luis Arraez, 27

— Padres 9, Cubs 8
Chicago led this game 8-0 in the sixth inning,
Fernando Tatis had the game-winner, a 2-run homer in 8th inning,

— Nationals 8, Giants 1
Blake Snell had a rough debut with SF: 3 IP, 3 runs; 33 balls. 39 strikes.
Lane Thomas was 3-5 with three RBI for Washington.

— Marlins’ OF Bryan De La Cruz is off to a 14-48 (.292) start this season, but he hasn’t walked at all in his 48 at-bats. No walks, 11 strikeouts, one home run, one RBI.

— Pirates 7, Tigers 4
Bryan Reynolds hit his 100th career home run.
Pittsburgh is off to a 9-2 start.
Mitch Keller allowed two runs in 6 IP, with 9 strikeouts.

— Mets 8, Braves 7
Atlanta led 4-0 after three innings.
DJ Stewart hit the game-winning home in the 8th inning.

— Astros 10, Rangers 5
Texas scored five runs in bottom of 1st inning, but no more after that.
Yordan Alvarez was 3-5, with three runs scored, three RBI. 

— Phillies 5, Cardinals 3 (10)
St Louis tied game with two runs in ninth inning.
Alec Bohm had the game-winning double in top of the 10th.

— Fifty years ago this week, Hank Aaron hit his 715th career home run, breaking Babe Ruth’s record. 

— OK, so this came out of nowhere; John Calipari is bolting from Kentucky to Arkansas; if this had happened last Monday, would’ve assumed it was a (bad) April Fools Day joke.

Kentucky was 23-10 this year, 13-5 in a tough SEC, with the #317 continuity team in America, but in the three years since the pandemic, Kentucky is 1-3 in NCAA tournament games, which doesn’t fly with a very spoiled fanbase.

Calipari spent 15 years at Kentucky; he made the Elite 8 five of his first six years there, but lately, not so much. Overall, Kentucky was 32-11 overall in NCAA Tournament games under Calipari.

Calipari is a great coach; he got freakin’ UMass to the Final Four. Will he change his approach at Arkansas? Will he use the transfer portal more and recruit fewer freshmen? Will he bring his son Brad along with him? Brad Calipari was an assistant at Vanderbilt the last couple years.

Where Kentucky turns from here (Mick Cronin?) is a very interesting question. .

— One thing for sure; college sports if off its rocker; crazy stuff going on.

— Pirates 3, Orioles 2- Pittsburgh is 8-2 for first time since 2018; they’re already 5-0 in games where the winning run scored from the 7th inning on.

— Marlins 10, Cardinals 3- Miami gets its first win this year in its 10th game; Luis Arraez went 4-5 with three runs scored. Marlins scored six runs in the first inning.

— Cubs 8, Dodgers 1- Early part of this game was played in cruddy weather; there was nearly a 3-hour rain delay after the Cubs led 6-0.

— Rays 3, Rockies 2- Ryan Pepiot tossed six shutout innings, struck out 11 while allowing only three hits. 

— Famous birthdays for April 8th:
Ricky Bell, 69
Terry Porter, 61
Robin Wright, 58
Carlos Santana, 38 (first baseman, not the singer)
Jeff McNeil, 32
Zach Eflin, 30
CeeDee Lamb, 25

Today would’ve been Hall of Fame pitcher Catfish Hunter’s 78th birthday.

— Astros 3, Rangers 1- Houston pitcher Ronel Blanco is the first pitcher in the last 50 years (50 years!!!) to start a season by throwing 13 no-hit innings.

— A’s 7, Tigers 1- A’s are 3-0 when they score in the first inning, 0-7 when they do not.

— Giants 3, Padres 2- San Francisco scored a total of six runs in this 3-game series, somehow won two of the three games.

— Red Sox 12, Angels 2- Boston starts the season with a 7-3 road trip; their home opener is Tuesday against the Orioles.

— Royals 5, White Sox 3- Chicago is off to a 1-8 start, 0-5 in games where the winning run scored from the 7th inning on.

— Birmingham 20, Michigan 13
Stallions outgained Michigan 302-205, held Panthers to 47 rushing yards.
Birmingham backup QB Martinez threw for 88 yards, ran for 65 more. 

— DC Defenders 23, Houston 18
Defenders outscored Houston 11-0 in fourth quarter.
Houston converted 3-13 on third down against Gregg Williams’ defense.
Jordan Ta’amu threw a 17-yard TD pass with 6:04 left for the winning score. 

— Purdue 63, NC State 50
Purdue never trailed, held NC State to 36.8% from the floor.
Purdue out-rebounded the Wolfpack, 41-28.
64 possessions; slow pace. Three Boilers played 38:00+.

— If I had a vote, I’d vote for Purdue coach Matt Painter as Coach of the Year in college basketball; his team lost in the first round as a #1-seed last year, only the second time that has ever happened, had to be a tough summer for him, but now they’re one win away from doing the same thing Virginia did, winning a national title the year after they got beat by a #16-seed.

— UConn 86, Alabama 72
Huskies outscored Alabama 42-32 in second half.
63-possession game, slowest-paced game Alabama played all season.
Last two years, UConn is 11-0 SU/ATS in NCAA Tourney games.

— Early line on Monday’s championship game:
UConn, -6.5 vs Purdue

— San Antonio 20, Memphis 19
Memphis led 16-0 after three quarters.
Brahmas scored two TD’s in the last 0:48 of game.
San Antonio QB Garbers threw for 287 yards, three TD’s.

— St Louis 27, Arlington 24
Battlehawks kicked a 22-yard FG at the gun for their first win.
St Louis led 14-11 at halftime.
Arlington was 6-11 on third down, St Louis 3-10.

— Famous birthdays for April 7th:
Janis Ian, 73
Tony Dorsett, 70
Jackie Chan, 70
Thurl Bailey, 63
Ronde/Tiki Barber, 49
Adrian Beltre, 45
Josh Hader, 30

— A’s 4, Detroit 0
Paul Blackburn is 2-0, 0.00 in 13 IP this season.
Rest of the A’s are 0-7, outscored 46-15.

— Dodgers 4, Cubs 1
Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s last two starts:
10 IP, seven baserunners, no runs allowed, with 13 strikeouts.

— Cardinals 3, Marlins 1
Marlins are first MLB team since 2016 to start a season 0-9.
Steven Matz threw five shutout IP.

— Pirates 5, Orioles 4 (11)
Don’t look now, but Pittsburgh is off to a 7-2 start.
Joey Bart had a HR/double in his first two AB’s for the Pirates.

— Braves 9, Diamondbacks 8
Arizona led 6-0 after the top of the first.
Austin Riley had the game-winning single in the 8th inning,

— Rays 8, Rockies 6
Colorado led 6-1 after six innings.
Yandy Diaz had the game-winning single for Tampa Bay.

Sometimes here in Las Vegas, the unpleasant aspects of gambling pop up; while I was watching the Tampa Bay-Colorado game, there was a guy sitting in front of me who bet on the Rays, and for the 2:45 of this 3:03 game, he did nothing but bitch and moan about every aspect of his bet, which was Tampa Bay and over.

If you bet the over on f-bombs this guy used, it probably went over the total in the third inning; Colorado led this game 6-1 after six innings. Dressed like an undercover cop, with long hair, a ski cap and sunglasses, his response when the Rays rallied late to take the lead was “It’s about time” When the Rays won, he got to the cashier, got his money and quietly bolted.

— Baseball injuries:

Cleveland P Shane Bieber (elbow) is out for the year.
Atlanta P Spencer Strider (UCL) is going on the IL.

— One of the best parts of casinos here are the good conversations you have with total strangers; had a few this week with a guy who is an options trader, but also has done some acting work in movies. He showed me a picture Saturday of himself with the late James Caan in a movie they were both in— that had to be pretty cool.

— Was watching the A’s play Friday morning here; there were only two other people watching the game in the sportsbook, and one of those guys was on the phone with his brother somewhere in the eastern time zone. Apparently the brother is having some personal problems.

The guy was loud; he said, at least five times to his brother:”This is just between the two of us” forgetting that I was five feet behind him, and the people selling betting tickets 30 feet away could hear him, too.

The brothers are in business together; the eastern brother’s marriage is falling apart, and there are rumors his personal assistant could be a reason why. Hopefully everything will turn out OK, but I wouldn’t count on the Las Vegas brother to keep things quiet.

— Modern college basketball: 11 of the 20 players who started in the Final Four Saturday transferred to their current team. 

— Bronny James put his name in the transfer portal, but might also declare for the NBA Draft. Interesting situation.

Lebron James’ son had a cardiac arrest at a July workout, then sat out four months; he averaged 4.8 ppg in 25 games for USC, starting six times (USC went 1-5 in those games). 

Whats next?

USC coach Andy Enfield bolted to SMU; Eric Musselman, a former NBA head coach, is USC’s new head coach. Seems kind of doubtful that Bronny would transfer, if he stays in college.

If Bronny goes pro, he is likely to wind up wherever his dad is, and then they can play on the same team for a while, but Bronny isn’t an NBA player yet— he would likely wind up playing in the G-League for 2-3 years after he played some with his dad.

— It snowed a few times during the Oriole-Pirate game Friday; seems like every time it snowed, Pittsburgh was batting.

— Kid playing third base for the A’s Friday was dressed like he was playing for the Packers at Lambeau Field in January. 

— Earlier this week, it snowed in upstate New York; Friday morning, there was an earthquake in New Jersey that measured 4.8 on the Richter scale. Good thing I’m out here in the desert, away from all the fun.

Oh yeah, there’s an eclipse coming Monday afternoon, too. Glad I won’t be flying home during that.

— Every night I’ve been in the sportsbook here, a young guy comes in, runs over and says hi to one of the ticket sellers, then starts yelling “Lets go Buffalo!!!” even though no teams from Buffalo are playing. Then he yells some stuff about Josh Allen, then roots for whatever teams he bet on. It has happened every night.

— They don’t have Apple TV in the sportsbook; couldn’t watch Mets-Reds or Astros-Rangers Friday night. MLB is so greedy that they forget to market their sport the right way.

— Famous birthdays for April 6th
Billy Dee Williams, 86
John Ratzenberger, 77
Bert Blyleven, 73
Marilu Henner, 72
Sterling Sharpe, 59
Bret Boone, 55
Paul Rudd, 55
Oliver Miller, 54
Tim Hasselbeck, 46

— Dodgers lost 9-7 to the Cubs Friday; LA is 7-3- they’ve scored a total of 23 runs in the three games they lost. Once their pitching gets healthier, they’ll be very hard to beat.

Shohei Ohtani hit his 2nd homer of the year; he is 12-42 (.286) so far this season.

— There was a kerfuffle involving the baseball Ohtani hit for his first Dodger home run; a fan got the ball, and then a Dodger employee bargained to get the ball back. The woman got a signed bat, two signed hats and an autographed baseball, I’m guessing around $400 worth of stuff, not a bad haul, but the woman complained, because she wanted to meet Ohtani.

I’m guessing when the Dodgers go back home, the meeting will be arranged, public relations being what they are.

— Dodgers have scored 5+ runs in their first ten games this year, which a graphic on TV said was their longest streak ever to start a season.

— Rockies 10, Rays 7
Colorado led 6-2 after eight innings.
Rays scored five runs in the top of the 9th
Ryan McMahon hit a walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the 9th.

— Mets 3, Reds 2
Edwin Diaz got his first save since September, 2022
Jeff McNeil was off to a 1-18 start before he homered in 7th inning.

— Brewers 6, Mariners 5
Seattle tied game with two runs in top of the 9th
Mariner reliever walked four guys in bottom of 9th, including a walk-off walk.

— Giants 3, Padres 2
Thairo Estrada had a walk-off double as Giants won their home opener. 

— Seton Hall 79, Indiana State 77
Pirates ended game on a 9-0 run to win the NIT
Game was 39-39 at halftime.
Seton Hall was +7 in turnovers (15-8)

— Going to be a tough few days for the Sycamores; ISU coach Josh Schertz is expected to leave Terre Haute this weekend, to take the vacant coaching job at Saint Louis.

— Voters in Kansas City rejected extending a sales tax this week, that would’ve paid for major renovations at Arrowhead Stadium along with a new downtown stadium for the Kansas City Royals. The sales tax is currently in place through 2031; Tuesday’s vote was asking the people of Jackson County to extend the tax through 2064.

Chiefs and Royals will now have to figure out what their next step is going to be; re-location is an option, especially for the Chiefs.

— Oakland A’s are going to play the 2025-27 seasons in Sacramento, before they move to a new stadium in Las Vegas in 2028. This is their last season in Oakland, where they started playing in 1968, after moving from, ironically, Kansas City.

— NBA’s Toronto Raptors have lost 15 games in a row, going 3-12 ATS in those games.

— Golden State Warriors are 26-12 ATS on the road, best road record in NBA this season.

— Detroit’s Malachi Flynn scored 50 points off the bench in Atlanta Wednesday, in the Pistons’ 121-113 loss to the Hawks. Flynn is just the third guy ever to score 50+ points coming off the bench, joining Nick Anderson (1993) and Jamal Crawford (2014). 

Coming into the game, Flynn was averaging 5.2 points/game.

— Guy sat next to me in the sportsbook and lit up a cigarette, blowing smoke in my direction. I’d forgotten that you can smoke in casinos here; smoking indoors in public isn’t allowed in New York State.

— Famous birthdays for April 5th
Michael Moriarity, 83
Oliver Luck, 64
Dale Hatcher, 61
Tony Banks, 51
Dane Looker, 48
Marc Bulger, 47
Stephen Jackson, 46

— USC hired Eric Musselman as its new basketball coach; Musselman went 111-59 coaching at Arkansas the last five years. Before that, he was 110-34 in four years coaching Nevada. He has also been a head coach in the NBA, for Golden State/Sacramento.

— Purdue big man Zach Edey has taken 424 foul shots this year, the most in one season by a college player since Pete Maravich, way back in 1970.

— UConn’s trip to the Final Four Wednesday night was delayed eight hours due to mechanical issues with the airplane; they finally landed in Arizona at 3:12am local time.

— If you like the NBA, you should be here in Las Vegas July 12-22, when they have the NBA’s Summer League at UNLV. It is fun to watch, it isn’t real expensive, lot of famous people in the arenas, and it is air conditioned— it’ll be over 100 degrees outside.

— On Opening Day of baseball season, there were 166 players on the Injured List, 5.5 players per team.

— Miami Marlins’ pitching prospect Eury Perez is going to have Tommy John surgery, is out for the season.

— Odd Fact of the Day: New York Mets have won two World Series, in 1969/1986.

In 1969, last out of the World Series was made by Baltimore 2B Davey Johnson.

In 1986, the Mets were managed by former Baltimore 2B Davey Johnson.

— Big trade in the NFL Wednesday; Buffalo Bills traded star WR Stefon Diggs to Houston, for three draft picks: 2nd/6th round picks later this month, then a 5th round pick in 2025.

Diggs put up 100+ yard receiving games in five of his first six games last year, then averaged only 51.2 yards/game the rest of the season. Buffalo takes a $31M dead cap hit this year, while the Texans are positioning themselves to be favored in the AFC South this fall.

— People here in Las Vegas have been looking at NFL totals bets every day, but how can you do that before the draft in three weeks? Rosters can/will change a lot between now and then. 

Teams like Vikings, Broncos don’t know who their QB will be this season; I’m told that QB is kind of an important position in football.

— Sun Coast hotel/casino here in Las Vegas has a 24-hour coffee shop, Du-Par’s, which has the best pancakes I’ve ever had, seriously, they’re excellent.

— Tigers-Mets got rained out the last two days in Queens, will try and play a doubleheader on Thursday, which means I’ll be waking up way earlier than I wanted to.

— In his last three games against New Orleans, Phoenix Suns’ star Devin Booker scored 52-52-58 points, making him only the second player ever to score 50+ points three games in a row against the same team.

Wilt Chamberlain is the other player, but he did it against nine different teams, not just one.

— Milwaukee Bucks were 30-13 when they fired coach Adrian Griffin earlier this season; they’re 15-15 since they hired Doc Rivers to replace him.

— Famous birthdays for April 4th:
Mike Epstein, 81
Craig T Nelson, 80
Christine Lahti, 74
Tommy Herr, 68
Jack Del Rio, 61
Scott Rolen, 49
Ben Gordon, 41
JP France, 29

— RIP to Joe Flaherty, the great comic actor who passed away at age 81; Flaherty was in Second City TV, where he played anchorman Floyd Robertson next to Eugene Levy’s Earl Camembert in the news skits on that excellent comedy show. RIP, sir. 

RIP to Barbara Rush, who passed way at age 97; she is one of six actors to appear in both the TV series Batman and the original Magnum PI, where she played Magnum’s Aunt Phoebe. She played Nora Clavicle on Batman. RIP, ma’am.

— College basketball’s Final Four is this weekend; there are already 1,360 names in the college basketball transfer portal, because that is how the sport works now. With 362 Division I teams, that works out to an average of 3.76 players per team in the portal. 

— Forgot to mention this earlier in the week, but lefty pitcher Shota Imanaga threw six shutout innings in his MLB debut Monday, not giving up any hits until the 6th inning. Imanaga didn’t get much hype when he signed; that was reserved for Yomamoto with the Dodgers, but so far, so good, although the wind was blowing in Monday and Imanaga is a fly ball pitcher.

— Dodgers 5, Giants 4- Shohei Ohtani hit his first home run for the Dodgers.

— Back in 1948 a guy named Fred Gehrke got paid a dollar a helmet to paint the LA Rams logo on all the Rams’ helmets— they were the first team to have their logo on a helmet, and for that, he is the Pro Football Hall of Fame, as an innovator.

Fred Gehrke has a well-known great-grandson; Christian Yelich, outfielder for the Brewers.

— This week marks the 48th anniversary of a cruddy day in A’s history, when they traded Reggie Jackson and Ken Holtzman to the Orioles, as they slowly dismantled what had been a great team, winning the World Series three years in a row (1972-74). By 1977, they were truly terrible, as free agency had started in the major leagues and the A’s couldn’t match up $$$-wise.

Now this year, the A’s are 1-6, and have been shut out three times already. It would be nice if a really, really rich person bought the team and they actually tried to win again.

— For second day in a row, a team lost its DH during a game, but this time, it came back to bite them, in an embarrassing way.

Arizona trailed 6-5 at home in the 11th inning- they had runners on 1st/3rd with two outs, but Bronx walked their next batter intentionally, because Arizona’s DH Ketel Marte went in to play shortstop after they pinch-ran for Geraldo Perdomo, which left the Snakes without a hitter when Perdomo’s spot in the order came around in the 11th inning.

Pitcher Scott McGough took a called third strike to end the game. Managing in the DH era is supposed to be easier, but two teams losing their DH in the first week of the season, both in close games, seems like managerial malpractice. 

I’m going to start posting daily baseball knowledge on the MLB page next Friday (April 12), but in the meantime, here are some trends to get you thru this week:

— Miami Marlins are 0-6; over is 5-1 in those games, their bullpen is 0-3. Marlins led two of the games 4-0/5-0 after the first inning.

— Cincinnati Reds are 3-2; all five games went over the total. Reds haven’t scored a run in the first inning yet.

— Detroit Tigers are 4-0; their bullpen got three of the four wins.

— New York Mets have been outscored 19-8 in their 0-4 start.

— Pittsburgh Pirates scored 39 runs in their 5-0 start, all road games.

— Bronx is off to a 5-1 start; their bullpen got four of the five wins.

— Famous birthdays for April 3rd:
Eric Braeden, 83
Gary Pettis, 66
Alec Baldwin, 66
Tim Conroy, 64
Eddie Murphy, 63
Pervis Ellison, 57
Rodney Hampton, 55
Jared Allen, 42
Kam Chancellor, 36

— Astros are off to a 1-6 start; game-winning run in four of the six losses came from the 7th inning on. Under is 5-1 in their last six games.

— Rockies are 1-5; they scored a total of seven runs in the five losses, nine runs in the one win.

Kris Bryant is off to an 0-16 start; the guy makes $28M a year, after playing in 122 out of a possible 324 games in 2022-23. Not good.

— Diamondbacks scored in the first inning in five of their six games.

— Cubs won their last three games, scoring 26 runs; their scored 3-2 runs in their two losses.

— Over is 4-0-1 in the Dodgers’ last five games.

— Giants lost their last three games; over is 6-0 in their games this season.

— Nationals lost three of their four games (over 4-0)

— Four of last five Seattle games stayed under the total.

— Word of the Day– Squander- waste an opportunity to succeed.

— Braves are 3-2; their starting pitchers are 1-0- four of their five games came down to their bullpen. Atlanta scored 30 runs in their three wins; 2-4 runs in their losses.

— Milwaukee Brewers are 4-0 (under 3-1).

— Philadelphia Phillies are 2-3; all five games went over the total. Phillies scored in the first inning in their last four games.

— San Diego Padres lost four of their last five games; over is 4-1-1 in their last six games.

— Los Angeles Angels won their last three games, after an 0-2 start.

— Boston Red Sox won their last three games, scoring 19 runs.

— Chicago White Sox lost four of first five games (under 3-1-1). 

— Something I’ve never seen before; Tuesday night, A’s-Red Sox are tied 4-4 in bottom of 10th, A’s have a guy on 3rd, one out. They score, they win.

Boston walks JJ Bleday intentionally; A’s have guys on 1st and 3rd.
Boston brings in a 5th infielder, but doesn’t load the bases with another walk. 

Next batter hits a ball right back to the pitcher but instead of getting an easy double play, he gets the runner trying to come home. The 5th infielder goes back to the outfield.

They strike out the next hitter, then win the game in the 11th inning. Had never seen a fifth OF used like that before. 

— Astros 10, Blue Jays 0
Ronel Blanco threw a no-hitter in his 8th major league start.
Kyle Tucker, Yainer Diaz both hit two home runs.
First win for Houston after an 0-4 start.

— Tigers 5, Mets 0 (10)
Olson threw 5.2 scoreless IP, Manaea 6 scoreless IP.
Kelly hit a 3-run homer in the 10th inning.
Mets have been outscored 19-8 in their 0-4 start.

— Reds 6, Phillies 3 (10)
Steer hit a grand slam in the 10th inning.
Reds’ bullpen threw 4.2 IP, didn’t allow an earned run.
Phillies lost three of first four games (over 4-0)

— Orioles 6, Royals 4
Westburg hit a walk-off homer in the bottom of the 9th.
Royals had tied game 4-4 in top of the 9th.
Baltimore is off to a 3-1 start.

— Famous birthdays for April 2nd:
Reggie Smith, 79
Linda Hunt, 79
Roy Gerela, 76
Christopher Meloni, 63
Adam Rodriguez, 49
Austin Riley, 27

— USC basketball coach Andy Enfield bolted to SMU; Trojans were 106-100 in Pac-12 play in their 11 years under Enfield, making five NCAA Tournaments. 

USC is bolting to the Big 14 next year, SMU (for some reason) will be in the ACC.

— Steve Lutz is the new basketball coach at Oklahoma State; he is 69-35 in three years as a head coach, two at A&M-Corpus Christi (47-23), one at Western Kentucky (22-12).

— QB Carson Wentz signed a deal to be Patrick Mahomes’ backup in Kansas City. Wentz is 47-46-1 in eight years as an NFL starter. 

— Peter Marshall, one of the best game show hosts ever, turned 98 years old over the weekend; there is a special about him on YouTube, including an old episode of Hollywood Squares, with Charley Weaver, Rose Marie, John Davidson.

— Word of the Day– Reunion- two or more people coming together again after being away from each other for a while.

— Rangers 9, Rays 3
Adolis Garcia hit his 100th career home run.
Josh Jung knocked in four runs, but later broke his wrist, is out indefinitely.

— Pirates 8, Nationals 4
Pirates are 5-0 for the first time since 1983.
Pittsburgh scored 43 runs in its first five games.
This game was 3-3 after the 7th inning.

— Angels 7, Marlins 4
Miami is 0-5, giving up 42 runs in those games.
Last two nites, Marlins led 5-0/4-0 after first inning, but lost both games.
Mike Trout hit two home runs for the Angels.

— Red Sox 9, A’s 0
In a 5-inning stretch from 8th inning Sunday thru 3rd inning of this game, the A’s made eight errors. 8 errors. 5 innings. No bueno. 

Tanner Houck tossed six shutout IP, striking out 10 guys. 

— There have been 55 baseball games so far this season; of the 110 starting pitchers, only four lasted 7+ innings:

Thursday- Pablo Lopez, Minnesota- 7 IP, 84 PT
Saturday- Logan Gilbert, Seattle- 7 IP, 91 PT
Sunday- Paul Blackburn, A’s- 7 IP, 88 PT
Brady Singer, Kansas City- 7 IP, 98 PT

Only 30 of the 55 starting pitchers finished the sixth inning.

— NC State 76, Duke 64
Duke led 27-18 with 1:39 left in first half.
Wolfpack is 9-0 since March 12.
NC State was 2-7 in its last nine regular season games.

— Purdue 72, Tennessee 66
Purdue is in Final Four for first time since 1980.
Tennessee’s entire team was 7-11 on foul line.
Zach Edey scored 40 points; he was 14-22 on foul line, by himself.

— Pointspreads for Final Four:
Purdue -9.5 vs NC State
UConn -11.5 vs Alabama

— San Antonio 27, DC Defenders 12
Defenders were 5-14 on 3rd down, Brahmas 1-8
San Antonio converted 3-4 fourth down plays.
Defenders’ only TD came on a 40-yard pass on a fake field goal.

— Memphis 18, Houston 12
Showboats’ QB Cookus threw for 204 yards and a TD.
Memphis was 9-15 on third down, Houston 3-8.
Time of possession: Memphis 39:32, Houston 20:28.

— Famous birthdays for April 1st:
Ali McGraw. 85
Willie Montanez, 75
Annette O’Toole, 72
Mark Jackson, 59
Daniel Murphy, 38
Brook and Robin Lopez, 36

— Torey Lovullo has been the Arizona Diamondbacks’ manager since 2017, winning the NL title last year; his father Sam was a producer on the old TV show, Hee Haw.

— Brewers 4, Mets 1- Mets’ GM David Stearns quit the Brewers to jump to New York, but the Mets start his tenure by getting swept at home by Milwaukee.

— Dodgers 5, Cardinals 4- Max Muncy’s 2-run homer in the 8th inning was a game-winner.

— Pirates 9, Marlins 7 (11)
Marlins scored five runs in the first inning.
Pittsburgh’s bullpen allowed two runs in 20.1 IP in the 4-game sweep.
Miami was the last MLB team to hit a home run. 

— Reds 6, Nationals 5
Will Benson tied game with a 2-out home run in the 9th inning.

Next batter, Christian Encarnacion-Strand, walked it off with another homer, his first hit in 13 at-bats this season.

— New York 4, Astros 3
Juan Soto’s 9th-inning single, his 3rd of the day, was the game-winner.
Houston is 0-4 for the first time since 2011.

— Tigers 3, White Sox 2
Andy Ibanez’ pinch-hit single in the 9th inning was the game-winning hit.
Both back-up catchers started this game, batted 9th; they both hit a home run.

— Cubs 9, Rangers 5
Chicago scored four runs in 9th, salvaged Game 4 of the series.
Cubs’ bullpen threw five shutout innings.

— A’s 4, Guardians 3
Abraham Toro’s bases-loaded walk gave the A’s their first win of the year.
Paul Blackburn tossed seven shutout innings.