— Today is/was my dad’s birthday, and also my Aunt Josephine’s. Two of the nicest people I’ve ever met, I was lucky to know them. Hopefully they’re up in heaven having a good laugh today.
— Pet Peeve Department:
a) “He’s a winner” You hear this on TV and it makes my blood boil, because for every winner, there is a loser, and no way in hell is anyone automatically “a loser”
b) College basketball analysts tend to call games in the same leagues, and they become shills for that league.
The Big X analysts: “Teams in the Big X play harder than any league in the country”
The SEC analysts: “The SEC is deeper than it has ever been; best league in the country”
Not good. Just announce the game; stop being a shill.
— You can make this wager at Circa in Las Vegas:
UConn or Purdue to win the college hoop national title: +260
Any other team in the country to win the college hoop national title: -320
— Baseball futures bets for this season:
Ronald Acuna stolen bases: over/under 56.5
Oakland A’s wins: over/under 56.5
Hopefully for my sake, Acuna won’t get more steals than the A’s get wins, or it’ll be another long summer for me (A’s fan since 1965). Oakland has improved its starting pitching, they figure to be a little better, but they were 50-112 last year. No bueno.
— MLB Network re-played a show about Hall of Fame pitcher Dennis Eckersley the other day; I was reminded that he threw a no-hitter for the Cleveland Indians in 1977, his third year in the major leagues. I listened to that game on the radio, with the great Joe Tait on the mike.
In that game……..from 1977
Eckersley allowed only one baserunner (he walked Tony Solaita)
Rick Manning was the Indians’ CF: he is still an analyst on Guardians games.
Duane Kuiper was the Indians’ 2B: he is still a play-by-play guy on Giants games.
Jerry Remy was the Angels’ 2B that day; he wound up in the same TV booth with Eckersley, doing Red Sox games for years.
Ray Fosse was the Indians’ catcher that day; he worked A’s games on TV for 30 years.
Bobby Bonds played for the Angels that day; Barry Bonds’ dad, and a hell of a ballplayer.
Stressful no-hitter; Cleveland scored a run in the first inning, the only run of the game. Time of the game: 2:02.
— Over the last 2.5 years, NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder is 126-85-7 (.597) against the spread.
— New Jersey Giants went 6-11 this past season, despite a +12 turnover ratio; they’re only NFL team in the last 20 years to have a +12 or better turnover ratio, and finish with a losing record.
— For some reason this weekend, ESPN showed a buzzer beater in a D-3 game between Cortland-Plattsburgh, two schools in New York State where it gets very cold at this time of year. When I was in college, spent a few nights in those two gyms; we never got on ESPN.
— Baseball Stuff: Salt Lake City, Nashville are frontrunners for baseball’s next round of expansion, which should happen in the next few years.
1B Eric Hosmer retired Tuesday; he played 13 years in the big leagues, hit 198 home runs with an OPS of .762. He won three Gold Gloves, was an All-Star in 2016.
SS Amed Rosario gets a one-year, $1.5M deal with the Tampa Bay Rays.
P Hyun Jin-Ryu went home to Korea to finish up his baseball career; he pitched in the big leagues for 10 years, went 78-48, 3.27 in 185 career MLB starts.
— Movie of the Day: Last Vegas (2013)- Four senior citizens who’ve been best friends since childhood head to Las Vegas, for the bachelor party of the one friend (Michael Douglas) who has never been married. He is marrying someone who is half his age, which complicates things.
Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman, Robert DeNiro, Kevin Kline, Mary Steenburgen; obviously an epic cast of characters.
— Washington State is in the college basketball top 25 for the first time since 2008; Coogs have won seven in a row, 10 of last 11 games- they have the #2 eFG% defense in the country.
— Penn State 90, Illinois 89
Illinois led by 7 with 0:37 left in the game.
Penn State was +12 (18-6) in turnovers.
Illinois’ Shannon was 13-19 on foul line.
Penn State’s whole team was 12-20 on the line.
— Alabama 98, Florida 93 OT
Florida led by 9 with 6:11 left in game.
Brickfest: teams combined to shoot 17-62 on the arc.
Alabama had 21 offensive rebounds, beat Gators 54-44 on boards.
Crimson Tide won 13 of its last 15 games.
— St John’s 90, Georgetown 85
Red Storm led 35-14 early on, hung on for dear life.
St John’s shot 62.8% inside the arc.
Last four games, St John’s allowed 78.5 ppg.
— George Mason 71, Dayton 67
Dayton led 33-27 at halftime.
Mason was 24-29 on foul line, Dayton 10-14.
Dayton is 5-3 in last eight games, after a 16-2 start.
— Rice 94, UAB 71
Owls were 11-19 on arc, scored a ridiculous 1.47 points/possession.
Blazers had won five of six games, before this debacle.
— LSU 75, Kentucky 74
LSU scored a hoop off a broken play at the buzzer for the win.
Kentucky led by 15 points early in second half.
— New Mexico 68, Colorado State 66
Donovan Dent drove in for game-winning hoop with 0:02.8 left.
Lobos were +8 (12-4) in turnovers.
New Mexico is now 9-5 in Mountain West, tied for 3rd with San Diego State.
— There are four college basketball teams who don’t have a senior this year:
Air Force (8-17, 1-12)
Louisiana (17-10, 9-5)
Rhode Island (11-15, 5-8)
Wofford (15-13, 8-7)
