— Sacramento A’s signed 1B/DH Brent Rooker to a 5-year extension worth $60M; Rooker hit 39 homers LY, knocked in 112 runs, had a .927 OPS.
A’s didn’t suddenly decide to become aggressive with $$$; they’re getting around $70M in revenue sharing money— they have to spend it to appease the players’ union, but at least the product on the field in 2025 is going to be better than it has been in several years.
— Las Vegas Raiders fired coach Antonio Pierce Tuesday; he was 9-17 as coach of the Raiders, 4-13 this year, after being an interim coach last year.
This will fuel speculation that Raiders owner Mark Davis is going to hire Deion Sanders to coach the team, with Shadeur Sanders being the next quarterback. Good luck with that.
Whoever coaches the Raiders next year will be their 14th coach since 2002; by way of contrast, the Steelers have had three coaches since 1969.
Moral of the Story: Rich people who inherited their fortune aren’t necessarily very smart.
— Tennessee Titans fired GM Ran Carthon Tuesday; Titans went 9-25 in his two years on the job, going 3-14 this year- they drafted QB Will Levis in 2023- he’s been a bust, which is why Tennessee has the first pick in the 2025 draft.
Two years ago, the Titans fired their GM while the team was in first place; they’re getting a new stadium in Nashville, but what they need more is a new owner.
— Northern Illinois will join the Mountain West Conference as a football-only member in 2026, giving the Mountain West eight football teams. Grand Canyon/Cal-Davis are joining the league for sports other than football.
— This time last year, the NBA’s Detroit Pistons were 3-33; this year, they’re 18-18, the first time in six years they’ve been a .500 team after January 1st.
— New York Mets will retire David Wright’s #5 jersey on July 19th; Wright played his entire 14-year career with the Mets, hitting .296 with 242 home runs and an .867 OPS. He made seven All-Star teams.
— Los Angeles Rams have had 12 rookies start a game this year, most of any NFL team.
— I was watching the 1978 movie Heaven Can Wait the other night; Warren Beatty plays a QB who wins the Super Bowl for the Rams. The movie is part fantasy; Beatty’s character gets killed in an accident, but when he goes to heaven, the guy who runs heaven (James Mason) finds out that Beatty wasn’t supposed to die that day, so they let him take over another dead person’s body.
In the movie, they said the day Joe Pendleton was supposed to die is “March 20, 2025”
In real life, Warren Beatty is 87 years old; he’ll be 88 on March 30, 2025.
Love that movie; I have the poster from the theater in my house.
— Famous birthdays, January 8th:
Calvin Natt, 68
Mark Herrmann, 66
Willie Anderson, 58
Jason Giambi, 54
Billy Joe Hobert, 54
Carl Pavano, 49
Jeff Francoeur, 41
Ken Waldichuk, 27
Wednesday would’ve been Elvis Presley’s 90th birthday.
— Florida 73, Tennessee 43
Tennessee was the last unbeaten team in the country.
This was the worst loss by a #1 team in country since 1968.
Vols shot 23.1% from the floor for the game.
— Iowa 97, Nebraska 87 OT
Bad beat if you had the Huskers +3.5; they led by 15 with 14:10 left in game.
Iowa shot 17-35 on the arc; Nebraska was only 12-22 on foul line.
— St John’s 82, Xavier 72
St John’s can’t shoot; last 4 Big East games, they’re 8-64 on the arc.
St John’s can defend; Xavier shot 36.7% from the floor.
St John’s can rebound; they beat Xavier 50-30 on the boards.
— Georgia 82, Kentucky 69
Dawgs were 29-38 on the foul line.
Georgia has #14 eFG% defense in country.
Kentucky lost three of last four games away from home.
— Marquette 74, Georgetown 66
Georgetown led 35-21 late in first half, 38-29 at halftime.
Chase Ross had 27 points, six steals for Marquette.
Marquette is 5-0 in Big East for 2nd time in their 20 years in the league.
— Texas Tech 72, BYU 67
BYU led by 5 with 8:20 left in the game.
Tech was 10-28 on the arc, Cougars 5-23 (12-21 on foul line)
Red Raiders are quietly 12-3, albeit only 2-3 vs top 100 teams.
