Armadillo Sports

On MLB page: Our daily writeup on baseball; pitcher, team trends

Friday’s 6-pack:
NFL teams’ records last year in games decided by 9+ points:
9-0— Baltimore
5-0— Buffalo
11-2— San Francisco
9-3— Dallas
7-2— Detroit
6-2— New Orleans

Quote of the Day 
“There will be more of an emphasis on size of players in the return game than speed. You just need guys who can play at the point of attack, shed blocks, and defend their space because of the new alignment. So I think it will increase the size of the players that are on the field.”
Bill Belichick, talking about players on special teams, with the new rules

Friday’s quiz
Who was the New England Patriots’ coach before Bill Belichick?  

Thursday’s quiz
When the Rams win the Super Bowl in Heaven Can Wait, Warren Beatty plays QB for the Rams. He wore number 16 in the Super Bowl, the number Ron Jaworski wore for the Rams in real life back then. 

Wednesday’s quiz
Klay Thompson played his college basketball at Washington State. 

These are 15 of my favorite non-sports movies. Make your own list.

Remember, these are my favorite movies, not the movies that are necessarily the best. Of the 50 movies USA Today listed as the best ever, I’ve seen three of them. Seriously.

15) Runaway Jury— I’m a big fan of the John Grisham books; this was my favorite of the ones that were turned into movies. Gene Hackman plays a jury consultant whose client is a gun manufacturer; John Cusack is on the jury to manipulate the verdict.

14) Moon Over Parador— Richard Dreyfuss is an actor who is hired to stand in for the dictator of a Latin American country who suddenly dies. Jonathan Winters is a weird CIA agent whose wife is Polly Holliday, who played Flo in the old TV series Alice.

13) Dave— Made five years after Moon Over Parador, this is basically the same movie, just set in Washington, DC.

Guy who looks just the President runs a temp service in Washington; when the real president has a stroke while screwing around with his mistress, the guy (Kevin Kline) is hired as the stand-in president. Sigourney Weaver is the First Lady.

12) A Few Good Men— The last scene, with Jack Nicholson on the witness stand, is tremendous. Kevin Bacon, Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Pollak, JT Walsh as supporting actors is pretty strong.

11) The Verdict— Paul Newman is a struggling lawyer who is handed a winning case, but winning it is easier said than done. His friend is played by Jack Warden, one of my all-time favorites.

10) The Gambler— Remake of a James Caan movie from the mid-70’s. College professor (Mark Wahlberg) seems to have an excellent life, but he has a huge gambling problem which drags him down. John Goodman plays one of the people he owes money to; he is very good in this.

9) The Bodyguard— Whitney Houston is a famous singer with a contract on her head; Kevin Costner is the ex-Secret Service hired to protect her.

8) Prince of Tides— A football coach from the south comes to New York City to talk to his sister’s psychiatrist about his sister’s suicide attempt, and their family history- then they in love. Nick Nolte is the coach, Barbra Streisand is the psychiatrist.

— Famous birthdays for April 19th:
Keith Erickson, 80
Mark van Eeghen, 72
Frank Viola, 64
Spike Owen, 63
Ashley Judd, 56
Jeff Wilkins, 52
Kate Hudson, 45
Troy Polamalu, 43
Joe Mauer, 41

7) Leap of Faith— Steve Martin plays a traveling preacher whose bus breaks down, stranding his crew in a drought-stricken Kansas town. Miracles ensue. Liam Neeson, Debra Winger, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Meat Loaf all have supporting roles.

6) Lost In Translation— Bill Murray plays a washed-up actor who is in Tokyo getting paid $2M to do a whiskey commercial. He meets Scarlett Johansson in the hotel bar and they become friends.

5) Begin Again— Down-and-out music executive stumbles into a Manhattan bar and discovers a young singer who can resurrect his career, while starting the singer on her own career.

4) Good Will Hunting— Janitor at MIT can do complicated math problems better than the professors can, but he also has a criminal record, and has to get counseling for that. Robin Williams is great as the counselor.

3) Molly’s Game— Young woman runs high stakes poker games for celebrities/rich guys, but when members of the Russian mob enter the game, things get complicated. This is a true story, and as we’re learning nowadays, real life is often stranger than fiction.

2) Last Vegas— Four old friends get together in Las Vegas for the bachelor party of the one bachelor in group (Michael Douglas) who is marrying a woman 40 years younger than him. It is Douglas, Robert DeNiro, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Kline.

1) Rounders— Law student decides he’d rather play high stakes poker than go to law school. The scenes with Matt Damon and his law professor (Martin Landau) are excellent. Same guys who wrote this wrote the great Showtime series Billions.

— Bulls 131, Hawks 116
White scored 42 points, had 9 rebounds, 6 assists.
Atlanta ends the season by losing its last eight games.
Bulls play Miami Friday, for the last playoff spot in the East.

— 76ers 105, Heat 104
Miami led 51-39 at halftime.
Embiid scored 23 points, had 15 rebounds. 

76ers are 32-8 when Embiid plays, 16-27 when he doesn’t.
76ers advance to play the Knicks in the first round of the playoffs.

— Who is the American League leader in RBI’s?
Aaron Judge? Julio Rodriguez?
Mike Trout? Vladimir Guerrero?

Try Taylor Ward of the Angels, who hits behind Mike Trout in their lineup.

— Red Sox 2, Guardians 0
This game took 1:49 to play, the fastest MLB game since 2010; how long before people complain about baseball games going too quickly?

— Braves 5, Astros 4 (10)
Houston is 6-14 this season, 4-9 at home. Two years ago they won the World Series, then told their GM to take a hike. Maybe that wasn’t such a great idea.

— NFL Draft is next week; apparently Pat McAfee will have a channel on one of the ESPN’s during the draft, and one of the people with him on the broadcast will be Bill Belichick, which should be interesting.

— Famous birthdays for April 18th:
Pete Gogolak, 82
Steve Blass, 82
Cindy Pickett, 77
Eric Roberts, 68
Conan O’Brien, 61
Frederick Weller, 58
Derrick Brooks, 51
Miguel Cabrera, 41

— Movie of the Day: Heaven Can Wait (1978)
An NFL quarterback, accidentally taken away from his body by an overanxious angel before he was meant to die, returns to life in the body of a recently murdered millionaire.

Warren Beatty is the QB, James Mason is the guy who ran heaven, Jack Warden is the trainer for the Rams. Julie Christie, Charles Grodin, Vincent Gardenia, Dyan Cannon, Buck Henry are all in this movie- excellent cast.

When the QB is taken away from his body, they do a search and find that he was supposed to die in March of 2025, which at the time seemed like a ridiculously long time away. I was 18 back then; now that date is next year.

When this movie came out, the real-life Rams were in the midst of winning their division every year, then losing in the playoffs. Seeing them win the Super Bowl, even in a fictional movie, it was great. (I still have the poster of the movie that was in the theater).

— There is a college basketball player who just transferred from Iowa State to Ohio U; before he played for Iowa State, he played for Wofford. 

I’m sure a lot of college kids have transferred from Wofford to Iowa State to Ohio U, just can’t think of any others. College sports has gone nuts.

— A’s 6, Cardinals 3
Esteury Ruiz scored two runs, knocked in two runs.
A’s are 4-0 when Paul Blackburn pitches.
Oakland is 7-5 in its last 12 games, after a 1-6 start.

— Phillies 7, Rockies 6
Kyle Schwarber homered twice, including his 250th career home run. 

— Angels 5, Rays 4
Tampa Bay scored twice in 8th inning to take 4-3 lead.
Angels scored twice in 9th inning for the win.
Rendon, Ward had 9th inning singles for the Halos. 

— Nationals 2, Dodgers 0
Jake Irvin tossed six shutout innings for Washington.
CJ Abrams led the game off with a home run, the only run they needed.

— Giants 3, Marlins 1
Miami is 4-15, 0-7 in games where the winning run scored from 7th inning on.
Marlins are 8-9-2 in first five innings; they’ve struggled in late innings. 

— Lakers 110, Pelicans 106
Pelicans play Sacramento Friday for last playoff spot in West.
Zion Williamson hurt his hamstring late in this game.
Lakers move on to play Denver in first round of the playoffs.

— Kings 118, Warriors 94
Sacramento outscored Warriors 64-44 in second half.
Was this Klay Thompson’s last game with Golden State?

— BYU hired Kevin Young as its new basketball coach; Young has been an assistant with the Phoenix Suns the last three seasons.

— Milwaukee Bucks’ star Giannis Antetokounmpo will be on the sidelines when the Bucks start their playoff series with the Indiana Pacers; they’re hoping to have him back later in the series.

— Baseball injuries:
Brewers put OF Christian Yelich (back) on the IL.
Braves put 2B Ozzie Albies (broken toe) on the IL

— RIP Whitey Herzog; the great baseball manager passed away at age 92. He won three NL pennants with the Cardinals, winning the 1982 World Series. He also made the playoffs three times in five years managing Kansas City.

— Famous birthdays for April 17:
Marty Domres, 77
Geoff Petrie, 76
Boomer Esiason, 63
Marquis Grissom, 57
Tony Boselli, 52
Jennifer Garner, 52
Jed Lowrie, 40

— Arizona 12, Cubs 11 (10)
Ketel Marte tied game with a 9th-inning home run.
Cubs led 11-8 in seventh inning.
Ian Happ was 3-5, with three runs scored, 4 RBI

— Mets 3, Pirates 1
Pirate starter Jones threw 5 shutout IP, was yanked as planned, despite throwing only 59 pitches.
Last three games, Mets haven’t scored a run in the first five innings.
Mets have had 10 home games; five of the crowds were under 20,000.

— Rays 7, Angels 6 (13)
Caballero’s 2-run triple tied game in 9th for Tampa Bay
Rosario’s infield single was the walk-off hit.
With new extra inning rules, you don’t see a lot of 13-inning games.

— Guardians 10, Red Sox 7 (11)
Cleveland led 5-1 after five innings.
Gimenez single tied game in top of the 9th.
Red Sox are 2-6 at home.

— Phillies 5, Rockies 0
Suarez threw the second complete game in the majors this year.
Harper knocked in three of Philly’s five runs.
Last three games, Colorado scored a total of one run.

— Dodgers 6, Nationals 2
Mookie Betts went 5-5, with two runs scored, 2 RBI.
Jesse Winker homered, doubled for Washington.

— Orioles 11, Twins 3
Baltimore led 7-0 in the third inning.
Minnesota is 3-8 in its last eleven games.
Orioles scored 53 runs in their last eight games.

— A woman who accused Trevor Bauer of sexual assault has been indicted by a grand jury in Arizona on felony charges of fraudulent schemes and theft by extortion. Apparently she wanted $3.6M from Bauer, who remains a free agent this season. 

— People bet on the NFL Draft, hell, people bet on everything. Over/under on number of QB’s drafted in the first round next week is 4.5

— Colorado State signed basketball coach Nike Medved to a 7-year contract extension worth a total of around $13M.

— Baseball injuries:
Cubs put OF Seiya Suzuki (oblique) on IL
Marlins put 3B Jake Burger (oblique) on IL

— NBA $tuff
Phoenix Suns gave Grayson Allen a 4-year deal worth $70M. 

— NFL $tuff
Eagles gave WR DeVonta Smith a 3-year deal worth $75M. 

Colts gave DT DeForest Buckner a 2-year deal worth $46M.

— RIP to Ken Holtzman, the outstanding pitcher who passed away at age 78.

He pitched nine years for the Cubs, throwing two no-hitters for them, but then he got traded to the A’s after the 1971 season and he was instrumental in Oakland winning three straight World Series, from 1972-74. Holtzman went 77-55 in four years with the A’s. He was 4-1, 2.55 in seven World Series starts. 

RIP, sir.

— Famous birthdays for April 16:
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 77
Ellen Barkin, 70
Bruce Bochy, 69
Curt Young, 64
Jon Cryer, 59
Walt Williams, 54
Nolan Arenado, 33

— Royals 2, Chicago 0- White Sox and the 1907 Brooklyn Superbas as the only teams in MLB history to be shut out six times in their first 16 games of a season.

Rumors are floating around that the White Sox will sign OF/DH Tommy Pham to help their struggling lineup.

— Royals and Dodgers are only MLB teams that haven’t allowed an unearned run yet this season.

— Cubs 3, Arizona 2 (11)
Cubs’ 1B Michael Busch homered in his fifth straight game.
Cubs tied game in 9th inning when Hoerner scored from 2nd on a wild pitch.

— Angels 7, Rays 3
Tampa Bay led 1-0 after seven innings.
Mike Trout hit the home run that put the Halos up for good.

— Rangers 1, Tigers 0
Michael Lorenzen threw 5 shutout IP in his 2024 debut.
Marcus Semien knocked in the only run of the game.

— Random Knowledge:
Jesse Owens won four track gold medals in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin; in one of the races, the 200-meter sprint, the guy who finished second also broke the world record in that race. 

Guy named Mack Robinson won that silver medal, and he wasn’t even the best athlete in his own family; his brother was Jackie Robinson. 

— 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.