— Friday night, retired NFL stars announced the picks that their old teams made; the Chargers’ representative was former kicker Rolf Benirschke, who kicked for the Chargers for ten years, then later hosted Wheel of Fortune for six months in 1989, when Pat Sajak left briefly to host an ill-fated talk show.
— Sounds like eventually, the NFL is going to go to an 18-game schedule, with each team having two byes, which would put the Super Bowl on Presidents’ Day weekend.
— 23 of the 32 picks in the first round were offensive players, six of the top 12 QB’s, but since then, no other quarterbacks have been taken.
— 5 of the first 62 players drafted were offensive players from the Washington Huskies.
— Since 2002, the Washington Commanders have drafted five QB’s in first round:
2002- Patrick Ramsey, Tulane
2005- Jason Campbell, Auburn
2012- Robert Griffin III, Baylor
2018- Dwayne Haskins, Ohio State
2024- Jayden Daniels, LSU
By way of comparison, the Saints haven’t drafted a QB in the first round since Archie Manning, way back in 1971.
— With the 100th pick in the draft, Washington drafted Rice WR Luke McCaffrey, Christian McCaffrey’s brother.
— Rookie quarterbacks shouldn’t start, they should observe and learn: here are Aaron Rodgers’ stats for his first three NFL seasons:
7 games, no starts
35-59 passing, for 329 yards, one TD, one INT.
That is for his first THREE YEARS in the NFL.
Rodgers’ record as an NFL starter is now 159-85-1.
— Famous birthdays for April 27th:
George Gervin, 72
Herm Edwards, 70
David Whitehurst, 69
Sheena Easton, 65
Roland Williams, 49
Keenan Allen, 32
JD Davis, 31
Corey Seager, 30
One of my favorite actors, Jack Klugman, was born on this day in 1922.
— Cubs 7, Red Sox 1
Shota Imanaga is a surprising 4-0, 0.98 for the 17-9 Cubs.
Michael Busch went 3-4, with two runs scored.
— Brewers 7, New York 6 (10)
Joey Ortiz had the walk-off single and 4 RBI for 17-8 Milwaukee.
Brewers’ bullpen tossed five scoreless innings.
— Rangers 2, Reds 1
Marcus Semien homered in the bottom of 8th inning.
Texas bullpen pitched three perfect innings.
— A’s 3, Orioles 2 (10)
Oakland is 3-2 this week, despite scoring 3 or fewer runs in all five games.
Abraham Toro tied game with a 9th inning double.
Brent Rooker’s double plated the game-winning run.
Orioles sent rookie 2B Jackson Holliday back to AAA, after he went 2-34 in ten games.
— Giants 3, Pirates 0
Patrick Bailey snapped a scoreless tie with a walk-off, 3-run homer.
Pirates were 0-7 with runners in scoring position.
— Couple of prominent pitchers got hurt Friday:
Marlins’ lefty Jesus Luzardo (elbow tightness) went on the IL
Arizona ace Zac Gallen (hamstring tightness) left his start in the 6th inning
— Royals 8, Tigers 0
Seth Lugo tossed 7 shutout IP, allowing five baserunners.
Game was 1-0 in ninth inning; Royals scored seven runs in the ninth.
— Astros-Rockies are playing two games in Mexico City this weekend; Mexico City is in high altitude; total on Saturday’s game is 16.5, a very high total.
