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Monday’s 6-pack
Week 1 NFL spreads:
— Dolphins @ Patriots (-2)
— Browns @ Chiefs (-6)
— Broncos (-1) @ Giants
— Packers @ Saints (-2.5)
— Bears @ Rams (-7)
— Ravens (-4.5) @ Raiders
Quote of the Day
“I think a lot of it has to do with their attitude toward us. They hate us, and so it’s easy for us to get more excited to play those guys. It’s kind of how they’ve behaved in the past couple years with us pitching inside, with them throwing at our guys, stuff like that.”
Rays’ reliever Ryan Thompson, talking about the Bronx Bombers
Monday’s quiz
Who was the Knicks’ coach, last time they played in the NBA Finals?
Sunday’s quiz
Hank Aaron has the most RBI’s in baseball history, 2,297.
Saturday’s quiz
Houston Astros started playing in the Astrodome in 1965, their 4th year in existence; before they moved into the Astrodome, their nickname was the Colt .45’s, as in the Colt .45 gun.
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Monday’s Den: Wrapping up a busy Sunday
13) Should have mentioned this yesterday; Twins’ 3B Josh Donaldson scored the 2,000,000th run in major league history Saturday. Pretty big deal; Bob Watson scored the 1,000,000th run back in 1975.
12) San Diego Padres played extra inning games four days in a row, then did something weird Sunday, to rest their bullpen.
Trailing 7-0 after the third inning, Padres replaced starter Blake Snell with Joe Musgrove, another starter who is probably their #2 pitcher. Musgrove threw five hitless innings, which is great, but they lost anyway and now he misses his regular turn in the rotation Monday, kind of a big deal.
San Diego couldn’t bring minor leaguers up to fortify the bullpen? Now Musgrove misses a start against the Cubs, good news for Chicago.
11) Weather has screwed up a lot of baseball schedules this spring; Indians played a twinbill against Toronto Sunday, and have another one with the White Sox today.
This is the first time since September 2000 that Cleveland has played doubleheaders two days in a row- they played four games in two days at Fenway Park back then.
10) Arizona 9, St Louis 2— Diamondbacks snap their 13-game losing skid; Ketel Marte homered, Josh Reddick had three hits against a lefty starter.
9) Chicago 3, Baltimore 1— Now the Orioles have a 13-game losing skid; they’ve scored a total of nine runs in their last five games.
8) Angels 4, A’s 2:
— A’s started the season 1-7; not good.
— Then the A’s won their next 13 games; very good.
— A’s are 17-17 since then; they lead AL West by 1.5 games.
7) Giants 5, Dodgers 4— LA lost four of its last five games, giving up 24 runs in their last three games.
6) Colorado 4, Pittsburgh 3— Rockies scored twice in ninth inning to break a 5-game losing skid; they’ve been shut out three times in their last five games. Now they go home to Denver, where they hit the ball way better than they do on the road.
5) Hawks 113, Knicks 96:
— Atlanta leads series 3-1; they led by 13 at halftime of the loss.
— Hawks were +29 with Bogdanovic on the court, minus-12 in 13:00 he sat out.
4) Suns 100, Lakers 92:
— Chris Paul scored 18 points, had 9 assists, played 32:00.
— Lakers’ star Anthony Davis missed second half with a leg injury.
3) Nets 141, Celtics 126:
— Brooklyn shot 57.8% from the floor, made 16-27 3’s- they led series 3-1.
— in first three quarters, Nets scored 112 points on 71 possessions, really good.
2) Clippers 106, Mavericks 81:
— Road team has won all four series games.
— Dallas made only five of 30 3-point shots.
1) RIP to former Utah Jazz center Mark Eaton, who passed away at age 64 after a bike accident. It was touching reading people praising Eaton as a kind soul who was nice to everyone- we need more kind souls in this world. He worked as a motivational speaker in his retirement.
Eaton played college ball at UCLA; he led the NBA in blocked shots four times in his 11 years with the Jazz, where he teamed with Karl Malone/John Stockton on some great teams.Leave a comment:
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51TAMPA BAY -52 CAROLINA
CAROLINA is 13-2 ATS (11.4 Units) in home games vs. winning teams in the current season.
53VEGAS -54 COLORADO
VEGAS are 21-8 ATS (13.7 Units) against good offensive teams - averaging 29.5+ shots on goal per game in the current season.
NHL
Sunday, May 30
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Trend Report
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Tampa Bay @ Carolina
Tampa Bay
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Tampa Bay's last 5 games when playing Carolina
The total has gone UNDER in 5 of Tampa Bay's last 7 games on the road
Carolina
Carolina is 9-1 SU in its last 10 games at home
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Carolina's last 5 games when playing Tampa Bay
Vegas @ Colorado
Vegas
Vegas is 4-1 ATS in its last 5 games when playing on the road against Colorado
Vegas is 4-1 SU in its last 5 games on the road
Colorado
Colorado is 5-0 ATS in its last 5 games
Colorado is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games
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Sunday’s 6-pack
NFL over/under win totals:
— Pittsburgh 8.5, -130
— San Francisco 10, -125
— Seattle 9.5, -130
— Tampa Bay 11.5, -130
— Tennessee 9, -115
— Washington 8.5, -120
Quote of the Day
“If you’re a manager, you need a good bullpen and a sense of humor; if you don’t have one, you better have the other one.”
Whitey Herzog
Sunday’s quiz
Which Hall of Famer has the most RBI’s in baseball history?
Saturday’s quiz
Houston Astros started playing in the Astrodome in 1965, their 4th year in existence; before they moved into the Astrodome, their nickname was the Colt .45’s, as in the Colt .45 gun.
Friday’s quiz
Tom Brady was drafted as a catcher by the Montreal Expos.
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Sunday’s Den: Wrapping up a sports Saturday, with some venting included
13) Major League Baseball has a great product, but they’re TERRIBLE at promoting it.
I watch baseball every night, at least 5-6 hours a night, more than that on weekends, but until Saturday, I had no idea that the 2,000,000th run in major league history was going to be scored this weekend. How is this possible? How could this not be promoted, talked about????
The commissioner should be fired for this; the 2,000,000th run would’ve been something they could’ve promoted all season, had contests as to who would score the 2,000,000th run. Instead, crickets.
What are they thinking about?!?!?!?!
12) I’m 61 years old; when I was 15, the millionth run in major league history was scored, and believe me, MLB made a big deal out of it.
— There was a cash prize given to whatever guy scored the 1,000,000th run.
— Couple guys hit home runs that last day and sprinted around the bases, thinking they might be THAT guy (this was way before the Interweb).
— A candy company was giving away stuff connected to the 1,000,000th run; it was fun.
Bob Watson of the Astros scored the 1,000,000th run that year; pretty sure he scored it on a Sunday afternoon, maybe in San Francisco?
Anyway, the point is that baseball is a great sport, but the people who run baseball act like they don’t like baseball— this is a problem. They’re the problem; the game is just fine.
11) By the way, Bob Watson was a .295 career hitter who drove in 989 runs in his career, yet the thing I remember him for is scoring that 1,000,00th run.
It was a big deal back then; it should’ve been a big deal this month.
10) Padres 11, Astros 8 (12)
— Tatis his a foul pop that should’ve been the last out in the 9th inning, but it wasn’t caught; he then tied the game with a 3-run homer.
— Wil Myers hit a 3-run homer in the 12th for the win.
— This was San Diego’s 4th straight extra inning game; the record is five, set by the 1908 Tigers.
9) Astros played the Dodgers/Padres at home this week.
— Last two games, they’re 3-32 with runners in scoring position.
— This week, in four games, Houston’s bullpen allowed 25 runs in 16.2 IP.
8) There are some really bad teams this season:
— Arizona has lost 13 games in a row.
— Baltimore has lost 12 games in a row.
— Colorado is 3-22 on the road, shut out nine times in those 22 losses.
Maybe these teams should dump the over-educated imbeciles in their front offices, and hire some old-school baseball people who know how to construct a roster. Or maybe if Colorado paid Arenado, or Arizona paid Goldschmidt, those teams wouldn’t be so bad.
7) Bucks 120, Heat 103:
— Milwaukee sweeps series 4-0, winning last three games by 34-29-17 points.
6) 76ers 132, Wizards 103:
— Sixers lead series 3-0, winning last two games by 25-29 points.
5) Jazz 121, Grizzlies 111:
— Utah grabs home court advantage back, leads series 2-1.
— Jazz made 19-43 on the arc; Conley made 7-10.
4) Trailblazers 115, Nuggets 95:
— Series is tied 2-2; NBA office has to be relieved there is one good series.
— Worst plus-minus for the Portland starters was +16; they cruised in this game.
— Portland held Denver to 47 first half points, a big improvement.
3) If you’re on Twitter, follow former NBA player Rex Chapman; he gets some great stuff sent to him, and he retweets it, most all of it good natured, fun stuff.
Saturday he posted a video of a woman juggling, but the camera was over her head; it was a very unique way of watching someone juggle. Pretty cool actually.
2) Last time the NHL went thru a playoff season without at least one series going to seven games? Way back in 1977.
1) RIP to Gavin MacLeod, 90, who passed away this weekend. He had two great television roles:
— He was Murray Slaughter, a writer at WJM TV on Mary Tyler Moore Show. His job basically was to bust anchorman Ted Baxter’s chops.
— Then he graduated to his big role, Captain Stubing on The Love Boat.
168 episodes of Mary Tyler Moore, 250 episodes of Love Boat; the man was in our living rooms an awful lot, from 1970-1987. A terrific actor. RIP, sir.Leave a comment:
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41TORONTO -42 MONTREAL
MONTREAL is 21-33 ATS (-20.6 Units) against mistake free teams - opponents average <=4 power plays/game in the current season.
45NY ISLANDERS -46 BOSTON
NY ISLANDERS are 20-8 ATS (12.2 Units) against good offensive teams - >=29 shots on goal, convert >=17% pp in the current season.
NHL
Saturday, May 29
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Trend Report
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Toronto @ Montreal
Toronto
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Toronto's last 5 games when playing on the road against Montreal
The total has gone UNDER in 5 of Toronto's last 7 games on the road
Montreal
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Montreal's last 5 games when playing at home against Toronto
The total has gone UNDER in 8 of Montreal's last 11 games at home
NY Islanders @ Boston
NY Islanders
NY Islanders is 7-1 ATS in its last 8 games
NY Islanders is 4-1 ATS in its last 5 games on the road
Boston
Boston is 10-1 SU in its last 11 games at home
The total has gone UNDER in 5 of Boston's last 6 games
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Saturday’s 6-pack
Week 1 NFL spreads:
— Steelers @ Bills (-6)
— 49ers (-7.5) @ Lions
— Jets @ Panthers (-4)
— Chargers (-1) @ Washington
— Dolphins @ Patriots (-2)
— Browns @ Chiefs (-6)
Quote of the Day
“You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.”
Dr Seuss
Saturday’s quiz
Houston Astros started playing in the Astrodome in 1965, their 4th year in existence; what was the Astros’ nickname before they moved into the Astrodome?
Friday’s quiz
Tom Brady was drafted as a catcher by the Montreal Expos.
Thursday’s quiz
New Orleans Hornets drafted Anthony Davis when he came out of college in 2012; they became the Pelicans two years later.
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Saturday’s Den: Clearing out a cluttered mind………
13) Baseball is fun in part because you often see things you’ve never seen before; Thursday, there was a 62-pitch complete game. You don’t see that much.
Rockies lost first game of a doubleheader 1-0 to the Mets; German Marquez was the losing pitcher, giving up 3 hits, one run in six innings. He only needed 62 pitches to finish six innings, and there was no 7th inning, since the Mets won.
Seven inning doubleheaders are still weird to me. Hopefully this year will be the last of them.
12) Colorado is 3-20 on the road, 16-12 at home. They figure to trade SS Trevor Story before the trade deadline (he is a free agent this winter). Going to be a long summer in Denver.
11) One of the cool new stats programs they have in baseball is called StatCast; when someone hits a home run, the TV guys can tell you a few minutes later in how many ballparks it also would have been a homer in.
Dodgers’ Matt Beaty hit a homer down the rightfield line Friday night; couple minutes later, Joe Davis reported that it would’ve been a home run in 20 of the 30 major league stadiums.
10) Giants 8, Dodgers 5 (10)- Wild game late Friday night.
— Giants broke a 2-2 tie with three runs in 8th inning.
— Austin Barnes tied game with a pinch-hit homer in the 9th.
— Albert Pujols appeared to have won the game with another homer, but LF Tauchman robbed him of a homer by catching the ball, sending the game to extra innings.
— Giants scored three runs in the 10th for the win.
— For the game, Dodgers were 2-14 with runners in scoring position.
9) Giants are 31-20, tied with the Dodgers for 2nd in the NL West; they’ve got 19 players who are 30+ years old, most in the major leagues.
8) Padres 10, Astros 3 (11)
— Third straight extra inning game for San Diego.
— Bad beat if you had under 8 runs in this game; Astros led 2-1 in the 8th.
— Houston put OF Michael Brantley (hamstring) on IL.
7) Detroit 3, New York 2 (10)— Robbie Grossman hit a walk-off tater in the 10th inning for Detroit. Was pretty good pitching duel between veteran Cole and youngster Mize.
6) Billy McKinney is an OF for the Mets; he is 26 years old, has been in the majors for four years- he’s already played for four different teams:
— A’s drafted him in first round in 2013, but he never played for them.
— July 5, 2014- A’s traded him to the Cubs in a 5-player deal. Jeff Samardzija came to the A’s.
— July 25, 2016- Cubs traded McKinney, three other guys to Bronx for Aroldis Chapman.
— July 26, 2018- Bronx traded him and Brandon Drury to Toronto for JA Happ.
— September 14, 2020- Milwaukee claimed him off waivers.
— May 26, 2021- Milwaukee traded him to the Mets for a minor leaguer.
McKinney is only 26, but he must be good at packing.
5) Celtics 125, Nets 119:
— Jayson Tatum scored a career high 50 points; he was 9-32 from floor in first two games.
— Nets were +16 in 25:00 with Blake Griffin on floor, minus-22 in the 23:00 he sat out.
— Nets lead series 2-1; home side won all three games.
4) Hawks 105, Knicks 94:
— Atlanta grabs 2-1 series lead.
— Hawks shot 52% from floor; all five starters scored between 11-21 points.
— Knicks’ star Julius Randle is 13-54 from floor in series.
3) Clippers 118, Mavericks 108:
— Down 2-0 in series, Clippers fell behind 30-11 early in this game.
— Clippers shot 57.9% from floor; Kawhi Leonard scored 36 points.
— Road team won all three series games.
2) If the baseball playoffs started today (they don’t):
NL- Mets, Cardinals, Padres. Wild Card: Dodgers-Giants
AL- Rays, White Sox, A’s. Wild Card: New York @ Boston
1) I’m writing this while watching an old episode of Columbo, from 1980 or so; haven’t seen this show since I was in college. This episode is about the owner of a pro football team who gets murdered; the football clips in this episode are Edmonton-Saskatchewan clips from the CFL.
Pretty good show; Peter Falk was a great actor.Leave a comment:
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35MINNESOTA -36 VEGAS
VEGAS are 10-0 ATS (10 Units) in home games revenging a road loss versus opponent by 2 goals or more over the last 2 seasons.
NHL
Friday, May 28
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Trend Report
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Minnesota @ Vegas
Minnesota
Minnesota is 9-2 ATS in its last 11 games when playing on the road against Vegas
Minnesota is 4-1 SU in its last 5 games when playing on the road against Vegas
Vegas
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Vegas's last 5 games when playing at home against Minnesota
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Vegas's last 5 games at home
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Friday’s 6-pack
Nevada casinos’ net win in April:
— sports betting $27.2M
— craps $28.1M
— baccarat $29.4M
— roulette $32.4M
— blackjack $70.2M
— penny slots $340.8M
Quote of the Day
“We are bitterly disappointed that the great Oklahoma-Nebraska rivalry, on the 50th anniversary of the Game of the Century, will kick off at 11 a.m. [local time]. We tried every possible avenue to proactively make our case. The Big 12 Conference also supported our strenuous efforts to secure a more traditional time that would honor this game and our fans. However, in the end, our TV partner chose to exercise its full contractual rights and denied our requests.”
Oklahoma AD Joe Castiglione
Friday’s quiz
Which major league team once drafted Tom Brady as a catching prospect?
Thursday’s quiz
New Orleans Hornets drafted Anthony Davis when he came out of college in 2012; they became the Pelicans two years later.
Wednesday’s quiz
The first night World Series game was in 1971, Orioles-Pirates
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Friday’s Den: Random stuff with the long weekend here…….
13) Trade deadline is going to be fascinating in baseball this summer, as teams try to keep their rosters fresh with healthy bodies. Guys are dropping like flies; will big market contenders part with prospects to try and acquire players who will help them win now, seeing how everyone should be operating at 100% capacity attendance-wise, by the end of June?
12) Bucks 113, Heat 84:
— Milwaukee leads series 3-0, winning last two games by 34-29 points.
— Miami was 20-50 on arc in Game 1, lost in OT; they haven’t been the same since.
— Dragic started this game for the Heat but went only 3-14 from floor.
11) Nuggets 120, Blazers 115:
— Denver grabs a 2-1 series lead.
— Carmelo Anthony is minus-29 in 69:00 in this series.
— Jokic scored 36 points, had 11 rebounds, five assists.
10) Lakers 109, Suns 95:
— LA grabs a 2-1 series lead.
— Suns scored only 12 points in second quarter.
— Anthony Davis scored 34 points, grabbed 11 rebounds.
9) Orioles’ CF Cedric Mullins is 17-44 this season in the first inning, the most first inning hits of any major leaguer so far this season.
8) Cubs 5, Pirates 3— Chicago’s bullpen has thrown 34.2 consecutive scoreless innings, the best stretch in franchise history. Cubs now trail St Louis by only a half-game in NL Central.
7) Have to feel bad for Pirates’ P Tyler Anderson; he gave up two extra runs in this game after his 1B made the worst defensive play I’ve ever seen in a big league game.
Man on second, two out, Javy Baez hits a grounder to 3rd; throw pulls the 1B off the bag, but he is standing there with the ball, blocking Baez from getting to the bag.
Instead of giving up, Baez retreats towards home and the 1B chases him like an idiot, instead of just going and touching first base. When the 1B sees the running from second trying to score, he actually flips the ball to the catcher, and Diaz sprints to an uncovered first base.
The guy “scoring” from second wouldn’t have scored if he had just tagged Baez. Totally brain dead; if I was the Pirates’ GM, I’d have sent the 1B down to AAA or released him.
In Anderson’s last home start, a high pop up between the mound and home plate landed untouched with two out in an inning; next batter hit a two-run homer. The guy has no luck.
6) Cubs TV guy/former MLB pitcher Jim Deshaies was telling a story on the air Wednesday, about when he was teammates with John Elway in the NY-Penn League, with Oneonta.
Elway considered baseball his summer job; he knew his future was in football; Deshaies was saying that Elway, a lefty hitter, was a skilled bunter who would drag bunts for hits, and that he probably would’ve made the majors, had he stuck with baseball. Elway hit .318 with a .432 on-base %age, in his one season with Oneonta.
I’m thinking he made the right career choice.
5) Brewers 6, Padres 5 (10)— Jackie Bradley Jr had his first game-winning RBI in 3,448 career plate appearances, which was the most PA’s of any active player without a walk-off RBI. Jake Lamb (2,359) now has the most.
4) MLB suspended former Mets’ manager Mickey Callaway thru 2022 and the Angels fired him as pitching coach, following an investigation into sexual harassment allegations.
3) College football over/under win totals are out; not a lot of respect for UNLV’s squad, as they start their first season in front of fans as the new Allegiant Stadium. UNLV’s win total for this season is a paltry 1.5.
2) They released the college bowl schedule this week; things kick off on December 17, with the Bahamas Bowl and Belk Bowl.
1) December 29, there is a Fenway Bowl at 11am, followed by the Pinstripe Bowl at 2:15. I’m not sure college kids are going to be real excited about freezing their butts off in Boston/Bronx on a Wednesday afternoon in late December.
Hawai’i Bowl is Christmas Eve; I expect to be watching that in a casino in the desert. Nothing says you have no social life as much as watching a bowl game in a casino on Christmas Eve!!!!Leave a comment:
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21MONTREAL -22 TORONTO
MONTREAL is 20-33 ATS (-22.6 Units) against mistake free teams - opponents average <=4 power plays/game in the current season.
23CAROLINA -24 NASHVILLE
NASHVILLE is 7-1 ATS (6.8 Units) in home games against mistake free teams - opponents average <=4 power plays/game in the 2nd half of the year in the current season.
NHL
Dunkel
Thursday, May 27
NHL
Thursday, May 27
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Trend Report
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Montreal @ Toronto
Montreal
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Montreal's last 5 games when playing Toronto
Montreal is 6-2 ATS in its last 8 games when playing on the road against Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is 5-1 SU in its last 6 games when playing Montreal
Toronto is 5-1 SU in its last 6 games at home
Carolina @ Nashville
Carolina
Carolina is 16-5 SU in its last 21 games when playing Nashville
The total has gone OVER in 5 of Carolina's last 7 games on the road
Nashville
Nashville is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games at home
Nashville is 4-1 ATS in its last 5 games when playing at home against Carolina
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