— Had a laser procedure on my right eye Friday morning and now I can see a lot better than I did two days ago. Many thanks to Dr Lemanski, who is an excellent eye surgeon.
Must be something to be so good at such an important job, helping people see better.
— Mariners’ OF Jarred Kelenic broke his left foot the other night when he kicked a water cooler after striking out; not good.
I mean, seriously, grow the bleep up. Mariners are within reach of a playoff spot after making it last year, but now they’re without one of their best hitters for a month, for no good reason.
Long time ago, the Angels put a punching bag up in the tunnel behind their dugout, so players could relieve their frustrations in a safer way. Maybe Seattle needs to do this.
— Every NFL team got $375M from the league for last year; the salary cap was $208.2M, so before any team sells a souvenir or a ticket, they were $166.8M to the good.
— Oakland A’s are having a truly dismal season, but they’ve found a keeper in 1B Ryan Noda, who has a .375 on-base %age in 90 games.
Tuesday night, Noda took a grounder off his mouth before the game, but he played in the game and homered/doubled in Oakland’s 3-0 win. Turns out that he got two hits while playing with a broken jaw. Now he is on the Injured List, but he is a solid piece of the A’s future.
— How often do high draft picks make it to the major leagues?
1st round picks make it to the majors 66% of the time.
2nd round picks make it only 49% of the time.
— DJ Uiagalelei played QB at Clemson for three years, then transferred to Oregon State last spring. LA Dodgers think Uiagalelei could play some baseball— they drafted him in the 20th round of the amateur draft.
— Rays 3, Orioles 0— Zach Eflin was a stopper here; seven shutout IP in a game that the Rays needed to stop the bleeding.
— Padres 5, Tigers 4— Juan Soto homered twice for San Diego.
— Guardians 6, Phillies 5— Bryce Harper played first base for first time this season, Schwarber DH’d.
— Angels 8, Pirates 5— Ohtani was winning pitcher, but in his last three starts on the mound, he allowed 15 runs in 16.1 IP.
— Rockies 6, Marlins 1— Marlins shut down 20-year old pitcher Eury Perez because of innings issues; he is 5-3, 2.36 in 11 starts, really good, but there is a belief that if you blow past last year’s innings total by more than 20%, it greatly enhances his chances of getting hurt.
So they shut Perez down for a while; they’re 2-8 since his last start, 0-7 since All-Star break.
— Mariners 3, Blue Jays 2
Lot of Blue Jay fans cross border for Toronto-Seattle games; they had 42,000+ tonite.
Teoscar Hernandez lined a walk-off single off the right field wall to end the game.
— Astros 6, A’s 4
Kyle Tucker hit three home runs.
Oakland was 1-11 with runners in scoring position, Houston 1-1.
— Movie of the Day: Good Will Hunting (1997)— A custodian at M.I.T., has a gift for complex math, but needs help from a psychologist to find direction in his life.
Matt Damon plays the custodian; Ben Affleck is his best friend, Robin Willians is the counselor who helps Will Hunting (Damon) find his way. Minnie Driver is very good in this movie.
This is an excellent movie.
— College Football Trend of the Day: Last five years, Iowa Hawkeyes are 24-14-1 ATS coming off a win.
— QB Alex McGough signed on with the Green Bay Packers, trying to win a backup job; McGough led the Birmingham Stallions to two USFL titles. He played college ball at Florida International.
— Daniel Weinman won the Main Event at the World Series of Poker this week, earning himself a hefty $12.1M.
— From 2024-30, over the next seven NBA Drafts, the Orlando Magic currently have 8 first round picks and 12 2nd round picks. Will be interesting to see how they turn that bounty of picks into an improved roster.
— The paths announcers take; Watching American Underdog the other night, they showed clips from games in the late 90’s.
When Kurt Warner played in the Arena Bowl for the Iowa Barnstormers in 1996, the TV announcers were Todd Christensen and Kirk Herbstreit. 27 years later, Herbstreit is one of the best analysts in college football.
Warner’s first start for the Rams was in 1999; the play-by-play guy that day was Gus Johnson, who is still a prominent voice on network TV, 24 years later.
— RIP to the great singer Tony Bennett, who passed away this week at age 96.
Mr Bennett released more than 70 albums, bringing him 20 Grammys — all but two after he reached his 60’s. He callee himself “A tenor who sings like a baritone”
RIP sir.
