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Monday’s 6-pack
Six interesting college football spreads on Labor Day weekend:
— North Carolina (-6) @ Virginia Tech
— Michigan State @ Northwestern (-7.5)
— Western Michigan @ Michigan (-17.5)
— Penn State @ Wisconsin (-4)
— Indiana @ Iowa (-6)
— Alabama (-18.5) vs Miami (@ Atlanta)
Quote of the Day
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
Wayne Gretzky
Monday’s quiz
Who was the football coach at Alabama before Nick Saban?
Sunday’s quiz
UCLA hasn’t won a bowl game since 2014; Jim Mora Jr was coaching the Bruins back then.
Saturday’s quiz
Don Mattingly was the Dodgers’ manager, last time they missed the playoffs.
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Monday’s Den: Wrapping up a sports weekend
13) Few years ago, maybe 10 years ago, I’m at the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, which is good stuff. You pay $30 or so for the day, sit in air conditioning all day when it is 110 outside, watch really good basketball and the concession stand is pretty good.
I’m sitting there with a buddy watching games and this very large human sits in front of us; the guy is probably a bodybuilder, and he launches into a spiel how he bet on this game and he was going to win, because “……..they posted a bad spread” at the sportsbook.
Uh-oh.
“Team A is an underdog here; they won by 20 yesterday; they’re going to kill Team B!!!”
One small problem; teams don’t always play the same guys in every summer league game- they have to see all the prospects play. The guys who won by 20 for Team A yesterday were sitting at the end of the bench, watching the other guys get blown out of the gym by Team B.
The bodybuilder didn’t catch on; I considered telling him, but they often kill the messenger, so we just moved to another seat at halftime. Moral of the story: they don’t post bad spreads.
12) May 12, 2001, AJ Burnett threw a no-hitter for the Marlins in San Diego, a strange game.
— Burnett threw a no-hitter while walking 9 guys, striking out 7.
— Game was only 3-0, so having that many men on base had to be dicey.
— Read where he threw 129 pitches, facing 36 hitters.
Guys on the Padres that day included Rickey Henderson and current major league coaches Dave Magadan, Phil Nevin, Mark Kotsay. San Diego stole three bases that day, but didn’t score.
11) Pirates 7, Cardinals 2— Young man named Max Kranick made his MLB debut in this game, a game he will never forget. Kranick retired all 15 batters he faced, and on only 50 pitches. His minor league record isn’t that great, but this performance sure was.
Pirates led 7-0 when they took him out. A great day for Sam Kranick.
10) San Francisco Giants are 10-2 after a day off this year, best in the major leagues.
9) So far in June, other than Adam Wainwright, St Louis starting pitchers are 0-12 with an ERA of over 7.00.
8) Arizona Diamondbacks snapped their 24-game road losing skid Saturday night, but then blew a 4-2 lead in 7th inning Sunday, and lost 5-4 in San Diego. Arizona is having a terrible season.
7) June 27, 2003 the Red Sox scored 14 runs in the first inning against the Marlins- they scored 10 runs before they made an out. Marlins threw 91 pitches, just in the first inning. Long night for the Marlins, but they got over it and wound up winning the World Series that year.
6) Jesse Chavez pitches for the Braves these days; he’s been traded 8 times in his career:
July 31, 2006— Traded from Texas to Pittsburgh for Kip Wells.
November 3, 2009— Pirates traded him to Tampa Bay for Akinori Iwamura.
December 11, 2009— 38 days later, Rays traded him to Atlanta for Rafael Soriano
July 31, 2010— Braves traded him to Kansas City in a 5-player deal.
October 21, 2011— Blue Jays acquired him on waivers from the Royals.
August 24, 2012— A’s purchased his contract from Toronto.
November 20, 2015— A’s traded him back to Toronto for Liam Hendriks.
August 1, 2016— Toronto traded him to the Dodgers for Mike Bolsinger.
July 19, 2018— Texas traded him to the Cubs for Tyler Thomas.
He’s also signed as a free agent five different times; he must pack really well.
5) Boston is 47-31, Bronx is 40-37, 6.5 games behind. Red Sox are 6-0 against Bronx this year, so they’re pretty much equal against everyone else.
4) Bucks 113, Hawks 102:
— Milwaukee grabs a 2-1 series lead.
— Middleton scored 38 points, was +16 for the game.
— Trae Young left with a sprained ankle, came back, scored 35 points.
3) Peyton Manning is going to be hosting a gameshow on NBC on Tuesday nights; College Bowl, pitting teams of college students against each other. This was a TV show from 1959-70, back when Archie Manning was in college.
Guess it will interesting to see Peyton Manning as a quizmaster; Aaron Rodgers did pretty well as a guest host on Jeopardy!
2) Of all the college basketball teams in the top five conferences, Purdue/Stanford are the only two teams that haven’t poached a transfer for this coming season.
1) Happy birthday to the great comedian Mel Brooks, who turns 95 today; this guy is a comic genius. Remember the old TV show Get Smart? It was back when I was a little kid, in the 60’s, about bumbling spies. Funny show.
Agent Maxwell Smart had a phone inside his shoe; he would talk into the heel. We laughed about it then, but it was the first cellphone!!! Mel Brooks is a genius; happy birthday!!!
Six interesting college football spreads on Labor Day weekend:
— North Carolina (-6) @ Virginia Tech
— Michigan State @ Northwestern (-7.5)
— Western Michigan @ Michigan (-17.5)
— Penn State @ Wisconsin (-4)
— Indiana @ Iowa (-6)
— Alabama (-18.5) vs Miami (@ Atlanta)
Quote of the Day
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
Wayne Gretzky
Monday’s quiz
Who was the football coach at Alabama before Nick Saban?
Sunday’s quiz
UCLA hasn’t won a bowl game since 2014; Jim Mora Jr was coaching the Bruins back then.
Saturday’s quiz
Don Mattingly was the Dodgers’ manager, last time they missed the playoffs.
**********************************************
Monday’s Den: Wrapping up a sports weekend
13) Few years ago, maybe 10 years ago, I’m at the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, which is good stuff. You pay $30 or so for the day, sit in air conditioning all day when it is 110 outside, watch really good basketball and the concession stand is pretty good.
I’m sitting there with a buddy watching games and this very large human sits in front of us; the guy is probably a bodybuilder, and he launches into a spiel how he bet on this game and he was going to win, because “……..they posted a bad spread” at the sportsbook.
Uh-oh.
“Team A is an underdog here; they won by 20 yesterday; they’re going to kill Team B!!!”
One small problem; teams don’t always play the same guys in every summer league game- they have to see all the prospects play. The guys who won by 20 for Team A yesterday were sitting at the end of the bench, watching the other guys get blown out of the gym by Team B.
The bodybuilder didn’t catch on; I considered telling him, but they often kill the messenger, so we just moved to another seat at halftime. Moral of the story: they don’t post bad spreads.
12) May 12, 2001, AJ Burnett threw a no-hitter for the Marlins in San Diego, a strange game.
— Burnett threw a no-hitter while walking 9 guys, striking out 7.
— Game was only 3-0, so having that many men on base had to be dicey.
— Read where he threw 129 pitches, facing 36 hitters.
Guys on the Padres that day included Rickey Henderson and current major league coaches Dave Magadan, Phil Nevin, Mark Kotsay. San Diego stole three bases that day, but didn’t score.
11) Pirates 7, Cardinals 2— Young man named Max Kranick made his MLB debut in this game, a game he will never forget. Kranick retired all 15 batters he faced, and on only 50 pitches. His minor league record isn’t that great, but this performance sure was.
Pirates led 7-0 when they took him out. A great day for Sam Kranick.
10) San Francisco Giants are 10-2 after a day off this year, best in the major leagues.
9) So far in June, other than Adam Wainwright, St Louis starting pitchers are 0-12 with an ERA of over 7.00.
8) Arizona Diamondbacks snapped their 24-game road losing skid Saturday night, but then blew a 4-2 lead in 7th inning Sunday, and lost 5-4 in San Diego. Arizona is having a terrible season.
7) June 27, 2003 the Red Sox scored 14 runs in the first inning against the Marlins- they scored 10 runs before they made an out. Marlins threw 91 pitches, just in the first inning. Long night for the Marlins, but they got over it and wound up winning the World Series that year.
6) Jesse Chavez pitches for the Braves these days; he’s been traded 8 times in his career:
July 31, 2006— Traded from Texas to Pittsburgh for Kip Wells.
November 3, 2009— Pirates traded him to Tampa Bay for Akinori Iwamura.
December 11, 2009— 38 days later, Rays traded him to Atlanta for Rafael Soriano
July 31, 2010— Braves traded him to Kansas City in a 5-player deal.
October 21, 2011— Blue Jays acquired him on waivers from the Royals.
August 24, 2012— A’s purchased his contract from Toronto.
November 20, 2015— A’s traded him back to Toronto for Liam Hendriks.
August 1, 2016— Toronto traded him to the Dodgers for Mike Bolsinger.
July 19, 2018— Texas traded him to the Cubs for Tyler Thomas.
He’s also signed as a free agent five different times; he must pack really well.
5) Boston is 47-31, Bronx is 40-37, 6.5 games behind. Red Sox are 6-0 against Bronx this year, so they’re pretty much equal against everyone else.
4) Bucks 113, Hawks 102:
— Milwaukee grabs a 2-1 series lead.
— Middleton scored 38 points, was +16 for the game.
— Trae Young left with a sprained ankle, came back, scored 35 points.
3) Peyton Manning is going to be hosting a gameshow on NBC on Tuesday nights; College Bowl, pitting teams of college students against each other. This was a TV show from 1959-70, back when Archie Manning was in college.
Guess it will interesting to see Peyton Manning as a quizmaster; Aaron Rodgers did pretty well as a guest host on Jeopardy!
2) Of all the college basketball teams in the top five conferences, Purdue/Stanford are the only two teams that haven’t poached a transfer for this coming season.
1) Happy birthday to the great comedian Mel Brooks, who turns 95 today; this guy is a comic genius. Remember the old TV show Get Smart? It was back when I was a little kid, in the 60’s, about bumbling spies. Funny show.
Agent Maxwell Smart had a phone inside his shoe; he would talk into the heel. We laughed about it then, but it was the first cellphone!!! Mel Brooks is a genius; happy birthday!!!
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