Month: August 2024

— Monday is Labor Day, a national holiday, but there are only 11 baseball games, which means that eight teams have Labor Day off, which is nonsensical.

— There were also 11 baseball games Thursday; Oakland A’s were only team of the 22 that played who scored a run in the first inning. I mention that because you can bet on whether or not teams score in the first inning.

— A’s 9, Rangers 2
Brett Rooker homered twice for the A’s, who have now had consecutive winning months for the first time since 2021.

Mark Kotsay has legitimately done an excellent job managing this young team; the guy in Kansas City will get Manager of the Year, but Kotsay deserves kudos for the job he is doing.

— Astros 3, Royals 2
Framber Valdez pitched 7 innings, didn’t allow a hit.
Paul DeJong tied the game 2-2 with a 9th inning home run.
Jose Altuve walked it off with a 9th inning double off the Crawford Boxes.

— Cubs 7, Nationals 6
Chicago scored seven runs in the second inning.
Cubs scored 80 runs in their last eight games.
Cubs are 8-2 in last ten games, are five games out of last playoff spot.

— Royals 1B Vinnie Pasquantino broke his thumb Thursday, is out 6-8 weeks, which means he is likely out for the year. Pasquantino has 19 homers, 97 RBI this year; big loss for the Royals.

— Braves 7, Phillies 2
Orlando Arcia homered twice for Atlanta.
Phillies lead the Braves by five games in NL East, with 27 games to play.

— Famous birthdays, August 31st:
Richard Gere, 75
Tom Candiotti, 68
Hideo Nomo, 56

Debbie Gibson, 54
Larry Fitzgerald, 41
Matt Adams, 36

Ronel Blanco, 31
Jalen Brunson, 28
Desmond Ridder, 25

— Indiana Pacers gave guard T.J. McConnell a 4-year contract extension worth $45M; he scored 10.2 ppg last year, first time in his nine NBA seasons that he averaged double figures.

— TCU 34, Stanford 27
TCU scored two TD’s in 1:22 span late in 4th quarter for the win.
Cardinal led 17-10 at halftime.
Horned Frogs outgained Stanford, 457-288.

— Michigan State 16, Florida Atlantic 10
First score of game was a safety for the Spartans.

MSU led 16-3 at the half, didn’t score in second half.
Teams combined to convert 5-28 third down plays.

— Wisconsin 28, Western Michigan 14
Badgers led 10-7 at halftime.
Broncos led 14-13 early in 4th quarter.
Wisconsin was 10-16 on 3rd down, Broncos 3-10

— Oklahoma 51, Temple 3
From 2015-19, Temple was 43-24.
Since 2020, Temple is 10-34.
Oklahoma is in the SEC now, which takes some getting used to.

— They have a 2:00 warning in college football now, probably because they make lot of $$$ for TV commercials during the 2:00 warning, but it does make a difference for coaches.

— Miami Dolphins gave coach Mike McDaniel a contract extension thru 2028; Dolphins are 20-16 in two years under McDaniel, 0-2 in playoffs- they haven’t won a playoff game since 2000, when Dave Wannstedt was their coach. 

— If you know Steph Curry, today would be a good day to ask him for a loan; the great shooting guard signed a one-year extension with Golden State, which will net him $62.6M two years from now, when Curry will be 38 years old.

In 2026-27, Curry will be making $763,414 for every game the Warriors play.

Curry’s salary the next three years:
2024-25: $55.76M
2025-26: $59.6M
2026-27: $62.6M

— North Carolina 19, Minnesota 17
Tar Heels kicked a 45-yard FG with 1:44 left for the road win.
UNC lost its QB, Max Johnson, with a leg injury.
Minnesota missed 47-yard FG at the gun; they also missed a 27-yarder early in the game.

— Colorado 31, North Dakota State 26
Bison, a I-AA team, led 20-17 at halftime.
Colorado outgained North Dakota State, 504-449.

— 49ers and WR Brandon Aiyuk agreed on a 4-year, $120M contract extension

— New England named Jacoby Brissett as its starting QB for the season opener in Cincinnati; Brissett is 18-30 as an NFL starter, for four different teams. Rookie QB Drake Maye figures to be the starter before the season is over, but not yet.

— Apparently there is a casino called Muckleshoot, which is about a half-hour from Seattle. I’ve got nothing else about the casino, other than Muckleshoot is an unusual name.

— Famous birthdays, August 30th:
Elizabeth Ashley, 85
Bill Keller, 77
Timothy Bottoms, 73

Robert Parish, 71
Michael Chiklis, 61
Michael Michele, 58

Cameron Diaz, 52
Cliff Lee, 46
Adam Wainwright, 43

— Phillies 5, Braves 4
Nick Castellanos hit the game-winning home run in the 7th inning.
Atlanta led 4-0 in the sixth inning.
Phillies increased their NL East lead to six games over the Braves.

— Angels 3, Tigers 0
Rookie Jack Kochanowicz pitched six shutout innings.
SS Zach Neto joined the 20-20 club by hitting his 20th home run.

— Dodgers 6, Orioles 3
Dodgers are 8-2 in their last ten games.
LA leads NL West by 4 games over San Diego, 5 over Arizona.

— Reds 10, A’s 9
Reds scored 3 runs in bottom of 9th, after A’s scored 3 in top of 9th
Oakland OF Lawrence Butler hit three more home runs.

— Blue Jays 2, Red Sox 0
Bowden Francis took a no-hitter into the six inning.
Francis has a 1.06 ERA in five August starts.
Boston reliever Rich Hill made his ’24 debut, his 20th year in the majors.

— Mets 3, Diamondbacks 2
Jose Iglesias had the game-winning hit in the ninth inning.
Mets are 6-4 in their last 10 games, vs Orioles, Padres, Arizona. 

— Rangers 2, White Sox 1
Corey Seager hit his 200th career home run.
Nathan Eovaldi tossed seven shutout IP.
White Sox are an unbelievably bad 31-104. 

— Dodgers 6, Orioles 4
Shohei Ohtani homered, stole two bases on his bobblehead night. 

People lined up eight hours before the game to get a bobblehead; only 40,000 of the 53,290 fans got one. I’m guessing they’re reasonably priced on EBay today.

Five of the Dodgers’ six runs were unearned.

— Astros 10, Phillies 0
Yordan Alvarez hit three home runs for Houston.
Rookie Spencer Arrighetti didn’t allow a hit until the 8th inning,

— Cubs 14, Pirates 10
Pittsburgh led 10-3 after six innings.
Cubs scored 68 runs in their last seven games.
Chicago is 17-8 in its last 25 games.

— A’s 9, Reds 6
A’s blew a 5-0 lead in 7th inning, but scored four runs in the 8th.
Seth Brown hit two home runs for a spunky Oakland team.
Since July 1st, A’s are 28-19. Sadly, the season started in April.

— Diamondbacks 8, Mets 5
Corbin Carroll homered twice, knocked in five runs.
Carroll’s 8th-inning grand slam off Edwin Diaz was the game-winner.

— Mariners 6, Rays 2
Seattle is 43-4 this year when they score 5+ runs, 25-62 when they don’t.
Mariners bullpen threw 3.1 perfect innings to record the save for Luis Castillo.

— Movie of the Day: Up in the Air (2009)- George Clooney plays a guy whose job is to travel around the country firing people. When his boss hires Natalie, who proposes firing people via video conference, he tries to convince her that her method is a mistake.

Clooney, Anna Kendrick, Vera Farmiga, Jason Bateman are the cast, with cameos by Sam Elliott, JK Simmons, Zach Galifianakis.

Very good movie, a little disturbing at times, but a good movie.

— Rams traded LB Ernest Jones and a 6th round pick to Tennessee, and only got a 5th round pick in return; Jones is entering the final season of his rookie contract and LA has promising rookies on defense, so they made the deal. 

Rams have five undrafted free agent rookies on their roster, all defensive players.

— LA Chargers got a new backup QB when they acquired Taylor Heinicke from Atlanta, in exchange for a 6th round draft pick. Heinicke is 13-15-1 as a starter in six seasons in the NFL, for four different teams.

— Pittsburgh Steelers named Russell Wilson their starting QB for their season opener next week in Atlanta; Steelers’ OC Arthur Smith was the Falcons’ head coach the last three years, so this game obviously has a little extra meaning.

— Famous birthdays, August 29th:
Elliott Gould, 86
Eddie Murray, 68- Lions kicker, not the Orioles’ 1B
Rebecca De Mornay, 65

Carl Banks, 62
Carla Gugino, 53
Roy Oswalt, 47

Jamal Lewis, 45
Noah Syndergaard, 32
Hunter Brown, 26- He’s pitching tonight

— Longest at-bats in the major leagues this year:
Twins OF Manuel Margot had a 16-pitch at-bat against Andrew Heaney- he lined out. Margot was the first batter of that game, which Minnesota won, 4-3.

Brewers C William Contreras walked on a 15-pitch at-bat, the 2nd-longest at-bat this year.

— Milwaukee Brewers have $1 hot dog day coming up Monday; their TV guys were talking about the Nathan’s hot dog eating contest- the analyst was saying how gross he thinks the contest is, while the play-by-play guy was egging him on, which made for good TV.

— OF Jason Heyward signed on with Houston, after the Dodgers dumped him last week. Astros are Heyward’s 5th team in his 15-year career.

— Teams that have made 4+ errors this season are 7-12 in those games; you’d think the record would be even worse than that.

— Watching TV late at night, they have all these commercials for a product that supposedly restores hair loss. Listening to those commercials, you’d think going bald was the same as getting pancreatic cancer or some other hideous disease. Oy. 

— White Sox are the worst baseball team in the last 100 years; Tuesday night, their best pitcher is pitching, a young guy (Garrett Crochet) whose innings they’re trying to limit, because he has already thrown 128 innings this year— he’s thrown a TOTAL of 73 IP in the previous FOUR years combined, so he is at risk of injury, according to analytics people.

So Tuesday night, Crochet throws four pitches and it starts raining and never stops; the game is suspended until Wednesday. I’m thinking there is no way they let Crochet warm up again and pitch Wednesday, which is good news for Texas, the team they’re playing.

— Royals 6, Guardians 1
Kansas City wins first three games in series; the teams are tied for first in AL Central.
Royals are 23-13 since All-Star break; they were 56-106 last year.

— A’s 5, Reds 4
When I see the A’s winning in Cincinnati, I think of October 22, 1972, my all-time favorite day as a sports fan.

A’s beat the Reds in Game 7 of the World Series
Rams won on a 54-yard field goal on the last play of the game, also against Cincinnati. 

12-year old me was very happy that day.

— Orioles 3, Dodgers 2
O’Hearn, Urias homered for Baltimore.
Dodgers 1B Freddie Freeman (broken finger) sat this game out.

— Rays 3, Mariners 2
Game was scoreless after five innings.
Jeffrey Springs tossed five shutout IP for Tampa Bay. ‘
Siri, Diaz homered for the Rays.

— Braves 8, Twins 6 (10)
Atlanta led 4-0 in 7th inning.
Braves have won eight of their last ten games.

— Red Sox brought 44-year old Rich Hill back to the majors; Hill has pitched for 13 different teams in his 20-year career. In his MLB debut, he came in to relieve Greg Maddux for the Cubs, that’s how long he’s been around.

— Famous birthdays, August 28th:
Lou Piniella, 81
Barbara Bach, 78
Ron Guidry, 74
Joel Youngblood, 73

John Long, 68
Shania Twain, 59
Anthony Weaver, 44
Jeff Green, 38

— Sometimes late at night, I watch re-runs of Hollywood Squares, the great game show; it baffles me why someone would start a game of tic-tac-toe and not try to win the center square first, but I’m thinking less than half the games start with the center square being won/lost.

— NFL teams with most turnovers last year:
37- Cleveland
34- Minnesota
33- Jets
32- Washington
30- Jacksonville

— NFL teams with fewest turnovers last year:
14- Houston
16- Cincinnati
16- Dallas
16- Pittsburgh
17- Seattle

— Cleveland Browns kept four QB’s on their initial 53-man roster, which is unusual.

— Of the 19 quarterbacks drafted in 2021-22, only six of then are still with the team that drafted them:
Trevor Lawrence, Jaguars
Kyle Trask, Buccaneers
Davis Mills, Texans
Sam Ehlinger, Colts
Skylar Thompson, Dolphins
Brock Purdy, 49ers

— Baseball injuries:
Reds put P Nick Lodolo on IL, for 4th time this year
Giants put P Robbie Ray on the IL

— Word of the Day: Chicanery- The use of trickery to achieve a purpose.

— Dallas Cowboys gave WR CeeDee Lamb a 4-year deal worth $136M, with $100M guaranteed, including a $38M signing bonus.

— Green Bay Packers upgraded at backup QB, acquiring Malik Willis from Tennessee, in exchange for a 7th round draft pick. Titans drafted Willis in the third round of the 2022 draft; he played in 11 games for Tennessee, starting three times (1-2) in 2022.

— Pittsburgh Pirates are switching Oneil Cruz from shortstop to center field; Cruz is hitting .265 this year with 18 home runs, but he’s also made 24 errors at shortstop. 

— Should a designated hitter win the MVP? I know Shohei Ohtani has done amazing things, but with year, he never steps on the field, except to hit. Dodgers have other stars; Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, so Ohtani isn’t their only big name.

Seems like Mets SS Francisco Lindor would be an good choice for MVP; he plays every day, bats leadoff, plays shortstop. It is an interesting debate.

— Orioles acquired P Trevor Rogers from the Marlins at the trade deadline, for two prospects; Rogers then went 0-2, 7.11 in his first four starts for Baltimore, and they sent him down to AAA.

Makes me feel better when I screw something up with my fantasy team; guys who are getting around $1M a year make mistakes, too.

— New York Stock Exchange closed Monday at 41,241, the highest it has ever been, which is good news if you’ve invested in the market.

— Famous birthdays, August 27th:
GW Bailey, 80
Buddy Bell, 73
Diana Scarwid, 69

Mike Maddux, 63
Jim Thome, 54
Patrick Adams, 43

Darren McFadden, 37
Kevin Huerter, 26
Franz Wagner, 23

— Royals 4-9, Guardians 3-4
Kansas City sweeps a twinbill, moves within a game of first place.
Salvador Perez knocked in six runs in the nightcap.

— Mariners 5, Rays 1
Bryce Miller is 6-3, 2.14 in 14 home starts.
Bryce Miller is 4-4, 4.75 in 12 road starts.
Randy Arozarena homered against his old team.

— Phillies 3, Astros 2 (10)
Bryce Harper had the walk-off single for Philly.
Houston is 2-5 in its last seven games.

— Cubs 18, Pirates 8
Chicago had 21 hits, stole eight bases.
Cubs are 7-3 in their last ten games.

— Florida Gators have a freshman center from Canada named Olivier Rioux, who is a very tall young man; he is 7-foot-9.

— A’s have a pitcher Grant Holman who made his MLB debut August 17; so far he’s allowed a run in 3 IP, in four relief appearances.

On August 16, 2013, Holman threw an extra-inning no-hitter in the Little League World Series, the first one of those since 1979.

— Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lakob has listed his Malibu home for $44M; he bought the house five years ago, for $29.1M— the property taxes are $350,000 a year.

— UCLA’s football team will travel 22,048 miles this year; they have road games at both Hawai’i and Rutgers, which are 4,935 miles apart. Bruins will cross 26 time zones in their travels this season. 

— Very busy couple of days for NFL front offices; teams have to trim their rosters from 90 players to 53 players, by 4:00 Tuesday. 

1,184 players will be released, waived or put on injured lists; 544 of those players will wind up on somebody’s practice squad.

This week’s episode of Hard Knocks is usually the best one of the summer.

— Cruddy teams will be scouring the waiver wire, improving their roster by pouncing on guys cut by the better teams.

— Tigers 9, White Sox 4
It is August 26, the White Sox have already lost 100 games.
They traded for Miguel Vargas from the Dodgers on July 29; he is 6-62 for Chicago.

Oy.

— Padres 3, Mets 2
Mets led this game 2-0 in 8th inning,
Jurickson Profar tied game with an 8th inning home run.
Jackson Merrill walked it off with a ninth inning tater.

— Astros 6, Orioles 3
ESPN’s Sunday night crew likes to put a microphone on a player and interview him while he’s in the field; for this game, they chose 20-year 2B Jackson Holliday, who is hitting .171 for an Oriole team that is 6-8 in its last 14 games, as they struggle to make the playoffs.

This is why ESPN has become annoying; Baltimore has a lot of good young players, why not choose one of those? Someone hitting over .200, maybe? Why put mikes on players at all? They just ask stupid questions and distract the players.

— A’s 4, Brewers 3
When I was in Las Vegas for Opening Day of baseball season, the A’s season win total was 56.5; this was their 56th win this year, after last year’s horrific 50-112 nightmare. 

A’s are 19-14 since the All-Star break; manager Mark Kotsay is doing a good job with the hand he was dealt.

— Dodgers 3, Rays 1
Mookie Betts hit a 2-run homer in the 8th inning.
Dodgers are 78-53, have MLB’s best record. 

— Cardinals 3, Twins 2
Lars Nootbaar hit a two-run single with two out in 9th inning.
St Louis has won four of its last five games.

— Famous birthdays, August 26th:
Brett Cullen, 68
Melissa McCarthy, 54
Morris Peterson, 47

Macaulay Culkin, 44
David Price, 39
Elvis Andrus, 36

James Harden, 35
Ranger Suarez, 29
Kyren Williams, 24

— Cardinals’ C Willson Contreras broke the middle finger on his right hand when he was hit by a pitch Saturday, bad news for St Louis (and my fantasy team). Contreras missed six weeks earlier this year- he broke his left hand when a hitter smashed it while batting.

— The high temperature in Las Vegas Friday was 96, the first time in 65 days the temp didn’t to 100 degrees on the Strip. Friday’s low temp was 77, the lowest temperature in Las Vegas since June 20th.

— On August 4, 1982, Joel Youngblood played for two different teams in two cities, on the same day; he went 1-2 for the Mets against Hall of Famer Ferguson Jenkins at Wrigley Field, then got dealt to Montreal— he flew to Philadelphia, got a pinch hit off of Hall of Famer Steve Carlton in that game.

Five Hall of Famers played in that Expos-Phillies game.

— I’ve never had cotton candy or coffee; cotton candy looks gross. My parents drank coffee, but to me, it just looked like warm mud.

— Joe Musgrove has thrown 20 consecutive scoreless IP against the Mets.

— In 1952, a pitcher for the Tigers named Virgil Trucks threw a no-hitter on May 15 another one on August 25, and also threw a one-hitter on July 22nd.

What makes this interesting is Trucks’ record for 1952:

5-19, 3.97 in 29 starts, with two no-hitters and a one-hitter.

— There is no on-deck circle on the field at Fenway Park; it just looks strange. 

— Congrats to Hall of Famer Rod Carew; the 78-year old native of Panama became an American citizen last week. Good for him!!! He was a career. 328 hitter, just a great freakin’ hitter. 

— Georgia Tech 24, Florida State 21
Tech was a 10.5-point underdog in this game, played in Ireland.
Aidan Birr made a 44-yard field goal at the gun for the win.
Tech ran ball for 190 yards, 5.3 yards/carry.

— SMU 29, Nevada 24
Mustangs outscored Nevada 16-0 in 4th quarter.
SMU threw a 35-yard TD pass with 1:18 left for the win.
SMU was favored by 27.5 points, their first game as an ACC team.

— Montana State 35, New Mexico 31
Montana State scored two TD’s in last 4:35 for the road win.
Bobcats outscored New Mexico 21-0 in fourth quarter.
Despite being a I-AA team, Montana State was favored by 13.5 points.

— There are murmurs that UConn is going to bolt the Big East for the Big X in every sport except football in 2026- they would wait until 2031 to join the football Big X. UConn already bolted the Big East once; that didn’t go too well.

College sports is run by greedy, over-educated morons; wonder if Dan Hurley will bolt UConn for the NBA if that happens?

— Chargers 26, Cowboys 19
Dallas QB Trey Lance threw 5 INTs; he is the 2nd QB in last 30 years to throw 5 INTs in an exhibition game, joining Seattle’s Glenn Foley (6 INTs) in that select group.

— Packers 30, Ravens 7
Last two years, Baltimore is 0-6 ATS in exhibition games; from 2016-22, Ravens were 20-3 ATS in preseason tilts.

— Thanks to the Russell Wilson debacle, Denver Broncos have $53M in dead money on their salary cap this year, $32M more on next year’s cap.

— Life changes quickly; in 1989, Troy Aikman signed the biggest rookie contract in NFL history, a six-year deal worth $11.2M. He makes more than that broadcasting now.

— Famous birthdays, August 25th:
Rollie Fingers, 78
Gene Simmons, 75
Ashley Crow, 64

Cornelius Bennett, 59
Albert Belle, 58
Robert Horry, 54

Marvin Harrison, 52
Justin Upton, 37
Max Muncy, 34

— Former NBA player/coach Al Attles passed away last week, at age 87; Attles played for the Warriors for 11 years, scoring 8.9 ppg, helping the Warriors win the Western Conference twice.

Attles then coached the Warriors for 14 years, leading them to the 1975 NBA title behind the great Rick Barry. Attles was 588-548 coaching Golden State; he was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2019.

RIP, sir.

— After the Olympics, Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic bought all 11 of his teammates on the Serbian national team a Rolex watch, worth $32,500 each.

— On June 26, a Toronto-Boston game was suspended by rain in the 2nd inning; it will resume Monday. Catcher Danny Jansen started the game behind the plate for the Blue Jays, but was later traded to the Red Sox. When he takes the field Monday for Boston, he’ll become the first player EVER to play for both teams in the same game.

— Dodger 3B Max Muncy turns 34 Sunday; he was drafted by the A’s in the 5th round of the 2012 draft, played 96 games for Oakland, but became a star of sorts in Los Angeles.

Three years ago, the A’s drafted another Max Muncy, a high school shortstop who is hitting .277 in AAA for Las Vegas this year.

Why do I mention this? The younger Max Muncy was also born on August 25, which is weird.

— Rays 9, Dodgers 8 (10)
Junior Caminero tied the game with a 9th inning homer.
Jose Caballero won the game with a 10th inning homer.
Shohei Ohtani hit his 41st home run for the Dodgers.

— Blue Jays 3, Angels 1
Bowden Francis didn’t allow a hit until the 9th inning, when Taylor Ward hit is 117th pitch out of the park.

Francis was born in Tallahassee; there’s a pretty good chance that he was named after Bobby Bowden, the great football coach at Florida State.

— Cubs 14, Marlins 2
Seiya Suzuki homered twice, also hit a triple. 

Cubs are 65-65, at .500 for first time since June 5th (6/5). 

— I’m confused why Amazon hired Kirk Herbstreit as the analyst for its Thursday night NFL games; Herbstreit never played in the NFL, he already has a big job doing college football on Saturday- what’s the point of him having two jobs?

My suggestion; former NFL QB Jay Cutler, who was supposed to be an analyst for CBS before the Dolphins signed him up to play QB for them in 2017. He played that year, CBS replaced Cutler with Tony Romo and Cutler hasn’t gotten another look from a network.

He was on TV a little; his ex-wife had a reality show about her business and Cutler was in that once in a while— he seems to have a sarcastic sense of humor. He played in the NFL for 12 years; his insights would be interesting.

— Seattle Mariners pushed the panic button Thursday, fired manager Scott Servais, who was 682-645 as Seattle’s manager since 2106. 

Mariners are coming off a 1-8 road trip; they’re 20-34 in their last 54 games- they led the AL West by 10 games on June 18, and are 5.5 games behind Houston in the AL West, are 7.5 games out of a Wild Card slot. 

Last four years, Seattle is 113-85 in one-run games; they’ve got an excellent starting rotation, but the hitters they brought in haven’t delivered, so Servais and the hitting coach were told to take a hike- they’re the scapegoats, not the general manager.

Hall of Famer Edgar Martinez was named the Mariners’ interim hitting coach; he was a great 3B for Seattle from 1987-2004.

I have Luis Castillo on my fantasy team, so I watch lot of Mariners games; their ballpark isn’t a good one for hitters, plus JP Crawford/Julio Rodriguez got hurt this year. As an A’s fan, I’m glad Servais is gone; think this move hurts their franchise.

— Meanwhile in Anaheim, the Angels gave GM Perry Minasian a contract extension thru 2026; Angels are 277-337 in his four years as GM, but the hideous Anthony Rendon contract was done before he was GM, and the Ohtani debacle was probably done in the owner’s office, so he gets a mulligan on the Angels’ recent failures.

Mike Trout is signed thru 2030 at $37M a year; he and Rendon combined make more money than the A’s entire roster, and Oakland just passed the Angels in the standings.

In Minasian’s first draft as Angels GM, he made headlines by selecting pitchers in all 20 rounds of the draft; Chase Silseth/Sam Bachman are only two who have made it to Anaheim so far.

Here’s the thing; Trout is 33 years old and has played in only three playoff games in his career. Sounds like Minasian has two years to fix that, or else……..

— Astros manager Joe Espada, Orioles manager Brandon Hyde are married to sisters, so with the Astros visiting Baltimore this weekend, it is a family reunion of sorts.

— There are only seven NFL teams this year that have the sane head coach and both of their coordinators back from last season. Five of those seven teams have the same QB this year.

— After spending three seasons as a backup, USC named Miller Moss its starting QB for this season; Moss threw for 372 yards, 6 TD’s in USC’s 42-28 bowl win over Louisville, after the Trojans had lost five of their last six regular season games with Caleb Williams at QB.

— Boise State named soph Maddux Madsen its starting QB over USC transfer Malachi Nelson, who was the Trojans’ 3rd-string QB last year. Madsen replaces Taylor Green, who bolted to Arkansas in college football’s seemingly endless game of quarterback hopscotch.

— Famous birthdays, August 24
Anne Archer, 77
Kevin Dunn, 68
Steve Guttenberg, 66

Cal Ripken Jr, 64
Reggie Miller, 59
Marlee Matlin, 59

Tim Salmon, 56
Allen Robinson, 31
Mason Miller, 26

— When the NFL Sunday Ticket switched from DirecTV to YouTube TV, I switched too, and I’m glad I did. It is less expensive, and I have way more viewing options, which isn’t great for my sleeping habits, but it is a lot more fun. While you’re sleeping, I’m watching replays of games or watching my favorite movies/TV shows.

I have every episode of my favorite TV shows recorded; if I go out while watching a show, I can finish it when I get home.

— Speaking of which……….
Movie of the Day: Necessary Roughness (1991)- Due to NCAA sanctions, Texas State University has to field a football team from their actual student body, with no scholarships to help, to play their football schedule. The results aren’t good.

Hector Elizondo/Robert Loggia are the team’s coaches, Scott Bakula is the 34-year old QB, Kathy Ireland is the kicker, Fred Thompson is the school president, Sinbad is a defensive lineman. Really good cast for a strange movie.

— Mariners 6, Giants 5 (10)
Seattle trailed 5-1 in 8th inning, but got six consecutive singles during the game-tying rally.
Giants are five games out of the last Wild Card slot.

— San Diego SS Mason McCoy is 3-8 in three big league games this year; he batted once in six games for Toronto last year, all after he played in 767 minor league games, batting 2,865 times.

— Dodgers 7, Rays 3
Shohei Ohtani hit a walk-off grand slam in this game.
Horrible bad beat if you bet the under in this game.
Ohtani became a 40-40 guy with that home run.

— Blue Jays 5, Angels 4
Toronto got back/back homers in 9th inning from their #7/#8 hitters.
Angels have lost 11 of their last 14 games.

— Orioles 7, Astros 5
Houston led 5-2 in 7th inning, then their bullpen imploded.
Anthony Santander’s grand slam was the game-winning hit.

— If the baseball playoffs started today (they don’t):
AL: New York, Guardians, Astros. Wild Cards: Orioles, Royals, Twins
NL: Phillies, Brewers, Dodgers. Wild Cards: Diamondbacks, Padres, Braves 

Cardinals
Since 2010, Arizona is 102-123-1 in regular season, 1-3 in playoffs.
From 2019-22, Kliff Kingsbury was their coach; he’ll be back in Arizona in Week 4, as OC of the Washington Commanders.

Falcons
Atlanta’s starting QB’s since 2021:
2021- Matt Ryan
2022- Marcus Mariota
2023- Desmond Ritter- They went 7-10/7-10/7-10 last three years
2024- Kirk Cousins/Michael Penix

Panthers
Carolina is 19-48 SU/27-38-2 ATS in four years since they let Ron Rivera go.
This year will be first time since 2018 they had same #1 QB two years in row.
Last four years, Panthers are 0-9 ATS as a favorite of 3 or fewer points. 

Bears
Chicago’s single season leaders in passing yardage:
3,838- Erik Kramer, 1995
3,812- Jay Cutler, 2014
3,666- Jay Cutler, 2009
3,659- Jay Cutler, 2015
3,274- Jay Cutler, 2010

Chicago is the only NFL team that has never had a QB throw for 4,000+ yards in one season.

Cowboys
Dallas won Super Bowl after the 1995 season; since then, they’re 5-13 in playoff games.
Last three years, Cowboys were 12-5/12-5/12-5, but went 1-3 in playoffs.

Lions
Detroit won NFL titles in 1952, 1953, 1957, but none since.
In Super Bowl era, they’re 3-13 in playoff games.
In his 8-year career, QB Jared Goff in 5-4 in playoff games.

Packers
Last 7 years, favorites are 15-6 ATS in their NFC North home games.
Last five years, Green Bay is 6-1 ATS as a road dog vs NFC North rivals.

Rams
Lions took Matthew Stafford with 1st pick of 2009 Draft; Rams took OT Jason Smith with the 2nd pick, but he lasted only three years with the Rams, played another year with Jets.

Other QB’s picked in first round of ’09 Draft:
Mark Sanchez, 5th pick by Jets
Josh Freeman, 17th pick by Tampa Bay

Famous birthdays, August 23rd:
Barbara Eden, 93
Sonny Jurgensen, 90
Rik Smits, 58

Rex Grossman, 44
Mike Yastrzemski, 34
Seth Curry, 34

Tyler Glasnow, 31
Lane Thomas, 29
Bryce Miller, 26

Vikings
Kirk Cousins was Minnesota’s QB the last six years; in the 12 years before that, Vikings had used nine different #1 QB’s, everyone from Matt Cassel, Christian Ponder to Tavaris Jackson.

Since 2005, Minnesota is 3-5 in playoff games.

Giants
In two years under Daboll, Giants are 11-5-1 ATS at home.
In two years under Daboll, under is 12-5 in their home games.

Saints
New Orleans QB’s the last four years:
2020- Drew Brees
2021- Jameis Winston
2022- Andy Dalton
2023- Derek Carr- they went 37-30 in regular season, 1-1 in playoffs.

Eagles
Last three years, over is 19-6 in Philly home games.
Last year, Eagles went 11-6 despite a minus-10 turnover ratio; they fired both coordinators.

49ers
Last six times San Francisco made the playoffs, they went WWL
Last five years, 49ers are 4-1 ATS in their post-bye game.

Seahawks
Last three years, Seattle is 5-10-1 ATS as a home favorite.
Last three years, Seahawks are 16-10 ATS as an underdog.

Buccaneers
In Bruce Arians’ last two years, Tampa Bay was 29-10, 5-1 in playoffs.
First two years without Arians, they’re 18-19, 1-2 in playoffs.

Commanders
Washington hasn’t won a playoff game since 2005, when Joe Gibbs was coach.

Washington QB’s since 2017:
2017- Kirk Cousins
2018- Alex Smith
2019- Case Keenum
2020- Alex Smith
2021-22- Taylor Heinicke
2023- Sam Howell
2024- Jayden Daniels

NFL trends
AFC
Ravens
Baltimore won Super Bowl 12 years ago; since then, they’re 3-6 in playoff games.
Last nine years, Ravens are 29-13-2 ATS as an underdog.

Bills
Last four years, Buffalo is 48-18 in regular season, 4-5 in playoffs.
Last three years, under is 15-10 in Buffalo home games.

Bengals
Marvin Lewis was 131-129-3 as Bengals coach, but 0-7 in playoff games.
Zac Taylor is 42-46-1 as Bengals coach, but 5-2 in playoff games.

Browns
Cleveland has three straight road games, Weeks 4-6; in Weeks 13-16, they’ve got three road games in an 18-day span, with a home game against the Chiefs also in there.

Deshaun Watson makes a boatload of $$$, but he’s played in only 12 games (8-4) the last three years. He was 39-31 in four years as QB of the Texans.

Broncos
Denver QB’s since 2017 (their last winning season was 2016):
2017- Trevor Siemian
2018- Case Keenum
2019- Joe Flacco
2020- Drew Lock
2021- Teddy Bridgewater
2022-23- Russell Wilson

Texans
Houston has been in playoffs seven times; they’re 5-2 in first round playoff games.
They’re 0-5 in second round playoff games.

Last two years, Texans are 9-4-1 ATS as a road underdog.

Colts
Colts have made the playoffs only twice in last nine years (1-2). 

Colts’ QB’s since 2018:
2018- Andrew Luck
2019- Jacoby Brissett
2020- Philip Rivers
2021- Carson Wentz
2022- Matt Ryan
2023- Gardner Minshew
2024- Anthony Richardson

Jaguars
Since 2014, over is 32-21-1 in Jaguars’ non-divisional road games.
Jaguars were 10-9/9-8 in Doug Pederson’s first two years; before he got to Jacksonville, they had 11 consecutive losing seasons. 

Chiefs
From 1994-2017, Chiefs were 1-10 in playoff games.
Last five years, Kansas City is 14-2 in playoff games.

Raiders
Raiders have had ten head coaches since 2005 (0-2 in playoff games)
By way of comparison, Steelers have had three head coaches since 1969.
Since 2016, Raiders are 5-12-1 ATS as a road favorite. 

Chargers
Last ten years, Chargers are 20-35-2 ATS as a home favorite.
Last ten years, Chargers are 19-37-8 ATS, in games with spread of 3 or fewer points.

Dolphins
Miami has had four straight winning seasons, but went 0-2 in playoffs those years.
Under McDaniel, under is 12-5 in their home games, over is 12-5 on the road. 

Patriots
Tom Brady was 249-75 as New England’s quarterback.
In his career, Bill Belichick is 249-75 with Brady at QB, 82-103 without him.

Jets
Last time Jets made playoffs, their QB was Mark Sanchez, the coach was Rex Ryan.
Last ten years, Jets are 13-25-2 ATS as a favorite.

Steelers
OC Arthur Smith faces his old team (Falcons) in Week 1.
QB Russell Wilson faces his old team (Broncos) in Week 2.
Last ten years, Steelers are 38-21-3 ATS as an underdog.

Titans
Since 2017, Tennessee is 14-7-1 ATS as a home underdog.
Last three years, under is 17-8-1 in Titans’ home games. 

13) On May 17, 1979, Phillies beat the Cubs 23-22 in 10 innings, in one of the strangest games ever: Phillies were 24-10 at the time; Chicago was 16-16. Cubs had 26 hits in the game, Phils had 24.

12) The game was 7-6 Phillies, after the first inning. Somewhere in this great country of ours, someone bet the under in this game. Oy.

11) Phillies starting pitcher Randy Lerch homered in the top of the first inning, never finished the bottom of the first. Both starting pitchers got only one out before being removed.

10) Pete Rose, Mike Schmidt hit 3rd/4th in Phillies’ order; they combined to score seven runs and knock in eight. Light-hitting Larry Bowa was 5 for 8 in the game.

9) Bob Boone was 3-4 with five RBI’s; his son Aaron is now the manager in the Bronx. Boone and Schmidt were both walked intentionally twice.

8) Reliever Tug McGraw faced 10 batters; seven of them scored. McGraw is the father of the singer Tim McGraw.

— Famous birthdays, August 22nd:
Carl Yastrzemski, 85
Paul Molitor, 68
Wes Chandler, 68

Ty Burrell, 57
James Corden, 46
Adam Thielen, 34

Randall Cobb, 34
Maxx Crosby, 27
LaMelo Ball, 23

7) 22 of the first 53 Cubs who came to bat scored, but Rawly Eastwick slammed the door shut in the last two innings, retiring all six Cubs he faced.

6) Donnie Moore faced 14 batters and seven of them scored, but he did hit a triple, one of his two career three-baggers.

5) Phillies led this game 21-9 in the 5th inning but Cubs tied the game off of Ron Reed in the 8th inning; Reed pitched 19 years in the major leagues and also played 119 games for the NBA’s Detroit Pistons from 1965-67.

4) Dave Kingman hit three homers for the Cubs; Bill Buckner knocked in seven runs, seven years before his infamous error in the ’86 World Series.

3) Phillies went home the next day and got swept in a 3-game series by the Expos. Chicago lost its next four games after this one.

2) 1979 turned out to be the only year in a six-year stretch where the Phillies missed the playoffs; they finished 84-78, the Cubs 80-82.

Phillies fired manager Danny Ozark late in 1979, hired Dallas Green and won the ’80 World Series. 

1) Naysayers like to criticize baseball now but attendance that day was 14,952; other than in 2020, when was last time the Cubs drew less than 15,000 for a home game?

— College football teams have general managers now; Alabama’s GM Courtney Morgan just got a raise to $825,000 a year, because acquiring/buying players has replaced recruiting them, to a certain extent.

Morgan was the GM at Washington last year; USC tried to poach him when Kalen DeBoer moved on to the Crimson Tide, but Morgan will be in Tuscaloosa this year.

— Oklahoma State announced Tuesday that the Cowboys will sport QR codes on their helmets linking to a donation page for the school’s NIL fund, believed to be a first in college football.

The QR codes on the back of each helmet will be 1.5 square inches. The school said that while the codes won’t be visible from the stands on game day, fans watching during television broadcasts will be able to capture them on their phones.

Oklahoma State thinks this will help raise the team’s NIL value throughout the year; they’re ranked #17 in the pre-season top 25.

— Dallas Cowboys’ kicker Brandon Aubrey made two field goals last week, 54 and 66-yard field goals. 66-yarder would’ve tied the all-time record, had that been a regular season game.

— Montana State is an 11-point favorite over New Mexico Saturday in Albuquerque, which I mention because Montana State is an FCS (I-AA) team, while New Mexico is an FBS (I-A) team, playing in the Mountain West Conference.

Not a good omen for the Lobos’ prospects this season.

— First round matchups in November’s Maui Classic, which is returning to the Lahaina Civic Center this year- terrible wildfires moved the event off of Lahaina last year:

UConn-Memphis
Colorado-Michigan State
Auburn-Iowa State
Dayton-North Carolina

— Word of the Day– Integrity- Doing the right thing when nobody is watching, doing what you said you would do.

— Utah Utes QB Cam Rising is 25 years old; he is older than eight starting QB’s in the NFL:
25- Will Levis
24- Trevor Lawrence, Brock Purdy
23- Bryce Young, Jayden Daniels
22- CJ Stroud, Anthony Richardson, Caleb Williams

— Chicago Bears GM Ryan Poles was an offensive lineman in college at Boston College, where his roommate was longtime NFL QB Matt Ryan.

— Since 2015, New Jersey Jets have had 28 games where they didn’t score an offensive TD; during that time, no other team has more than 17 (Carolina Panthers).

— Over the last 20 years, the biggest pointspread in any NFL exhibition game was when the Broncos were favored by 9.5 points over the Rams three years ago. Denver won that game 17-12.

— Famous birthdays, August 21st:
Willie Lanier, 79
Archie Griffin, 70
Gary Hogeboom, 66

Jim McMahon, 65
Craig Counsell, 54
JD Martinez, 37

Brandon Drury, 32
Mike Evans, 31
Corbin Carroll, 24

Wednesday would’ve been Wilt Chamberlain’s 88th birthday

— Banged-up Atlanta Braves signed 3B Gio Urshela to replace Austin Riley, who is out 6-8 weeks with a broken hand.

— Kansas City Royals were 56-106 last year; they’re 70-56 this year.

— Blue Jays 10, Reds 3
George Springer hit two home runs.
Jose Berrios won his third straight start,

— Dodgers 6, Mariners 3
Jason Heyward hit a pinch-hit, 3-run homer in 8th inning for the win.
Mariners are 1-7 on this road trip.

— Red Sox 6, Astros 5
Jarren Duran went 4-4, including the game-winning home run,
Both teams scored three runs in first inning.

— Pirates 4, Rangers 0
Mitch Keller allowed three singles in 7 IP.
Rangers were shut out for sixth time this season.

— Padres 7, Twins 5
Jurickson Profar hit a 3-run homer in bottom of 8th inning,
San Diego is 22-5 in its last 27 games. 

— When I was a kid, I freakin’ loved TV game shows, watched way too many of them and one of the best, if not the best game show, was Hollywood Squares, which won four Daytime Emmys as the best game show.

Nine stars would be arranged in a tic-tac-toe format and contestants would agree/disagree with the answers they gave, to earn an X or an O, with the winner being the person who got tic-tac-toe.

From 1966-81, Peter Marshall hosted Hollywood Squares; he was an actor and singer before he got this gig, but he was a great game show host. He would set up the celebrities for their jokes with his questions; he was smart and good-natured. It was an awesome TV show.

Sadly, Peter Marshall passed away last week, at age 98. RIP, sir

— Peter Marshall’s real name was Ralph Pierre LaCock; his son Pete LaCock played nine years in the major leagues, as a 1B/OF for the Cubs, Royals.

— There must be a boatload of $$$ involved with hosting fantasy football leagues; ESPN hosts a 27-hour fantasy football marathon every year, which in the middle of the night can be oddly entertaining.

— QB Colt McCoy has retired from the NFL, will work this fall as a studio analyst for college football games for NBC.

McCoy was in the NFL for 12 years, starting 36 games (11-25) for five teams. He played college ball at Texas, was a 3rd round draft pick by Cleveland.

— Washington Commanders announced that rookie QB Jayden Daniels will start the season opener at Tampa Bay. Kliff Kingsbury is the OC for Dan Quinn in Washington; it’ll be very interesting to see how he does, after playing in college at Arizona State/LSU.

— Atlanta Falcons shocked a lot of people when they drafted QB Michael Penix with the 8th picks in the draft in April, now they’ve raised more eyebrows, by not playing him in their last two exhibition games, after he was 9-16/104 passing in the first exhibition game.

Why not give the kid more game experience? They’re paying Kirk Cousins $45M a year to be the starting QB for this year (you would think) so why not let Penix get some experience? It makes very little sense.

— Oklahoma State’s quarterback is Alan Bowman, who someday can write an interesting book:
2018- He threw 218 passes for Texas Tech
2019- He threw 154 passes for Texas Tech
2020- He threw 232 passes for Texas Tech

2021- He threw four passes for Michigan
2022- He threw seven passes for Michigan

2023- He threw 501 passes for Oklahoma State
2024- He will start for Oklahoma State. Again.

He must have a doctorate by now; seven years in college is a long time.

— Famous birthdays, August 20th:
Peter Horton, 71
Quinn Buckner, 70
Mark Langston, 64

Tom Brunansky, 64
Todd Helton, 51
Amy Adams, 50

Cory Sullivan, 45
Demi Lovato, 32
Mitch Trubisky, 30

— Baseball injuries:
Dodgers P Tyler Glasnow
Reds P Hunter Greene
Braves 3B Austin Riley
Diamondbacks 2B Katel Marte……..all go on the IL.

— Miami Marlins are 46-79 this year, they’re a bad team, but they’re 19-16 in one-run games.

Last year, Marlins were 33-14 in one-run games; Skip Schumaker is a really good manager- 52-30 in one-run games is a telling stat. Marlins will miss Schumaker as a manager next year.

— Arizona 9, Marlins 6
Rookie C Adrian Del Castillo is from Miami; he homered, knocked in six runs— it seemed like most of the small crowd in Miami was made up of his friends/family.

— A’s 3, Rays 0
JJ Bleday homered, Joe Boyle tossed six shutout IP.
Not to jinx anything, but the A’s aren’t in last place; they’re a game ahead of the Angels!!!

— Mets 4, Orioles 3
Francisco Alvarez hit a walk-off homer for the Mets.
Trevor Rogers is 0-2, 7.11 in four starts since the Orioles traded for him.

— Astros 5, Red Sox 4
Yainer Diaz hit a walk-off home run for Houston.
Astros have won 11 of their last 12 games.

— Rangers 4, Pirates 3
Corey Seager homered in his first two at-bats.
Pirates are 2-12 in their last 14 games. 

— If you insist on wagering on preseason NFL games, you should know that under is 26-6 in NFL games so far this summer. Underdogs are 20-11 ATS.

— Las Vegas Raiders named Gardner Minshew their starting QB; he was 7-6 as starting QB for the Colts last year, is 15-22 overall as an NFL starter. Raiders are Minshew’s fourth team in his sixth NFL season.

— Miami Hurricanes are 1-11 in their last dozen bowl games, losing their last five in a row. Has to be a decent amount of heat on coach Mario Cristobal, who is 12-13 SU in his first two years with the Hurricanes.

— Florida Gators’ football schedule this fall is daunting; their five games in November, as of right now, are all against teams ranked in the top 13 in the country. Tough stretch.

— New England Patriots traded pass-rushed Matthew Judon to Atlanta, in exchange for a 3rd round draft pick. Judon has played in four Pro Bowls in his eight years, but played in only four games last season.

— Cincinnati Bengals paid kicker Evan McPherson, giving him a 3-year, $16.5M extension to his contract. McPherson has made 78 of 93 field goals in his 3-year NFL career.

— With rookie QB JJ McCarthy out for the year, Minnesota Vikings added QB Matt Corral to their roster; Corral was a 3-year starter at Ole Miss, but got hurt in the Rebels’ bowl game his last year, and has bounced around since then, winning all three of his starts for Birmingham in the UFL this post spring.

— Famous birthdays, August 19th:
Gerald McRaney, 77
Gary Gaetti, 66
Rickey Pierce, 65

Ron Darling, 64
Bobby Hebert, 64
Nate Burleson, 43

JJ Hardy, 42
Kirk Cousins, 36
Darrell Henderson, 27

— OF Monte Harrison hit .176 in 50 games with Marlins/Angels from 2020-22; he was part of the package the Marlins from Milwaukee in the Christian Yelich trade.

Harrison is out of baseball now; this fall, he’ll be a 29-year old freshman WR for the Arkansas Razorbacks football team in the SEC.

— There is a hotel in Milwaukee, the Pfister Hotel, where major league teams stay when they’re visiting the Brewers. Problem is, there are people who believe that the Pfister Hotel is haunted; Mookie Betts, for one, refuses to stay at the Pfister when the Dodgers are in Milwaukee.

— Rangers 6, Twins 5 (10)
Minnesota led 4-0 in 7th inning.
Carlos Santana tied the game with a 9th inning home run
Josh Jung’s single, followed by a throwing error, allowed the winning run to score.

— Giants 4, A’s 2 (10)
Last Giants-A’s game ever played in Oakland drew 32,727 fans.
Jerar Encarnacion’s 2-run homer was the game-winner.
Final tally in Bay Bridge Series: Oakland 76 wins, Giants 73.

— Marlins 3, Mets 2
Marlins are first team since 1991 to win a game when they had three base runners picked off in that game.

— Orioles 4, Red Sox 2
Albert Suarez has now thrown 17.2 consecutive scoreless IP.
Orioles won this game despite being out-hit, 11-3.

— MLB divisional races:
AL East: New York/Orioles are tied for first, at 73-52, seven games ahead of Boston. 

AL Central: Cleveland leads the Twins by two games, Guardians by three.

AL West: Astros lead Seattle by four games.

NL East: Phillies lead Atlanta by 7 games, the Mets by 9.

NL Central: Milwaukee leads this division by 11 games. Wow.

NL West: Dodgers lead San Diego by three games, Arizona by four.

— Wild Card teams (as of now):
AL: New York, Twins, Royals……3.5 games ahead of Boston.
NL: Padres, Diamondbacks, Braves…….two games ahead of the Mets. 

— There are 32 teams in the NFL; on Rams-Chiefs-49ers-Packers, the head coach is really the offensive coordinator, so that leaves 28 OC’s in the league right now. Of those 28 OC’s, 16 of them are in their current job for the first season in 2024. 

That makes handicapping early season games a lot harder, with so much turnover in the coaching ranks. 17 of 32 defensive coordinators are also in their first year in this job.

Notes from NFL preseason games:
— Rams 13, Chargers 9
Game-winning TD was caught by rookie WR JJ Laap, who won a national title last year playing Division III football at Cortland State in central New York.

Hall of Fame QB Dan Fouts was the TV analyst for this game; he was not complimentary when analyzing Rams’ backup Stetson Bennett, who has taken every snap every center for the Rams so far this summer.

— Cowboys 27, Raiders 12
Raiders have a QB dilemma, as in, neither guy has played very well this summer.
Kicker on Dallas made a 66-yard field goal at the end of the first half.

— Ravens 13, Falcons 12
Atlanta failed on a 2-point conversion in the last minute.
Not sure why, but rookie QB Michael Penix didn’t play for the Falcons.

— Texans 28, Giants 10
Daniel Jones threw a God-awful pick-6 for the first score of the game.
Giants turned ball over five times on 11 drives, were outgained 369-279.

— Lions 24, Chiefs 23
Detroit kicked a 43-yard FG as time expired for the win.
Carson Wentz is the Chiefs’ backup QB now, his 5th NFL team in nine years.

— Famous birthdays, August 18th:
Robert Redford, 88
Greg Pruitt, 73
Denis Leary, 67

Lafayette Lever, 64
Jim Les, 61
Edward Norton, 55

Christian Slater, 55
Bogdan Bogdanović, 32
Seiya Suzuki, 30

— Vikings 27, Browns 12
Part of the reason starters play less now in preseason games is that they get lot of work in during the week, when the teams practice against each other. I’ve read where coaches say they just get more reps in during those practices, which makes them more beneficial.

Browns QB Deshaun Watson is scheduled to play against Seattle next week.

— Bears 27, Bengals 3
Rookie QB Williams was 6-13 for 75 yards passing.
Backup QB Bagent was 7-8 for 87 yards passing, but the media only talks about Williams.

— Bills 9, Steelers 3
Russell Wilson played five series, during which the Steelers didn’t score.
Buffalo scored total of 15 points in splitting two games this month.

— Colts 21, Cardinals 13
Gus Bradley is the Colts’ defensive coordinator; right now his son Carter is the 4th string QB for the Las Vegas Raiders- he is fighting for a job on an NFL roster.

Colts backup QB Kedon Slovis was 8-11/79 passing; he played for three different colleges- the offensive coordinator for his high school team was Hall of Fame QB Kurt Warner, whose son was a receiver on that team.

— Dolphins 13, Commanders 6
Tua Tagovailoa led Miami to a TD on the only series he played.
Rookie QB Jayden Daniels played two series for Washington- they drove 46-52 yards on the two drives, splitting pair of field goal tries.

— Titans 16, Seahawks 15
Rookie kicker who wasn’t expected to make Tennessee’s roster kicked three FG’s in the 4th quarter, including a 59-yarder. If he doesn’t wind up in Tennessee, he’ll be on somebody’s roster.

Former Commanders QB Sam Howell was 11-14 for 153 yards passing for Seattle.