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Sunday’s 6-pack
Lowest opening day payrolls in major leagues:
30) Oakland A’s $67,475,833
29) Chicago White Sox $72,202,000
28) Tampa Bay Rays $78,219,329
27) Pittsburgh Pirates $86,344,999
26) Milwaukee Brewers $90,030,700
25) San Diego Padres $95,652,133
Quote of the Day
“These last 4 years have been a blessing, and I just got really emotional [when walking off the floor.]”
Kansas senior Devonte’ Graham, after his college career ended Saturday night
Sunday’s quiz
Who was last college basketball team to win the national title as lower than a #2-seed?
Saturday’s quiz
Bob Brenly managed the Arizona Diamondbacks when they won their only World Series title.
Friday’s quiz
Don Mattingly was manager of the Dodgers before Dave Roberts.
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Sunday’s List of 13: Wrapping up a sports Saturday
13) Michigan 69, Loyola 57— Ramblers were up 7 at the half; other than Wagner, Wolverines were 4-23 in first half, but Michigan scored 47 points in 2nd half, after only 22 in first, and they move on to the national championship game Monday night.
Loyola shot 39.8% on the arc for the season; they were 1-10 in this game.
12) Villanova 95, Kansas 79— With 6:52 left in first half, Villanova led by 14 and already had seven guys who made at least one 3-pointer- this game was 22-4 at one point, and was reminiscent of Villanova’s dismantling of Oklahoma in the national semis two years ago.
11) I’ve thought a lot about this, asked lot of people about it and still cannot find a decent reason to bat the pitcher 8th. Mets/Phillies are doing it this year with new managers.
Tony LaRussa used to do it, Joe Maddon has done it, which gives the idea credibility, but they did not do it in playoff games, which makes me a skeptic.
10) Scheduling quirk: AL West Houston Astros/Texas Rangers do not play this season after July 29th. All 19 of their meetings are before then.
9) Asdrubel Cabrera is the first ballplayer in 103 years to bat cleanup on Opening Day, then bat leadoff in the second game of the season.
Only one instance Interweb folks could find where a guy batted leadoff on Opening Day, then batted cleanup in the second game of the year— Hall of Famer Tim Raines, in 1989.
8) Obscure Stat of the Day: White Sox pitcher James Shields is the first pitcher since 1908 to allow four 1st-inning runs on Opening Day, but then go on to win that game.
7) Baltimore Orioles won in walk-off fashion in their last three Opening Day games.
6) Sporting News basketball writer Mike DeCourcy is from Pittsburgh; when Jeff Capel got the Pitt Panthers coaching job earlier this week, DeCourcy wrote an article about the Pitt job, and wrote about how Pittsburgh “….isn’t a basketball town.” Uh oh.
Why would you want to coach in the ACC at a school that isn’t in “a basketball town”?
5) Gonzaga will stay in the WCC next season, instead of bolting to the Mountain West.
4) A guy at SouthPoint Casino in Las Vegas risked $130,000 on Michigan to win SU; he got $50,000 for his trouble; after the Wolverines won, he quickly put the $50,000 on Kansas, +5.
3) Seems like the Arizona Diamondbacks wear a different uniform every night; I’m thinking it has to be at least a little distracting, especially early in the season.
2) Phillies’ rookie manager Gabe Kapler took his starting pitcher out in the 4th inning last nite in Atlanta, but there didn’t seem to be anyone warming up when he did it. The reliever took a long time to get to the mound and Braves manager Snitker got tossed when he objected to the pitcher being allowed his eight warmup tosses even after taking forever to get on the field.
1) Xavier Silas got signed by the Celtics this week; its been six years, over 2,100 days since he last played in the NBA. I remember seeing him play in an AAU tournament in Orlando when he was in high school— his dad James Silas was a terrific player in the ABA.
Imagine how great it must be to wait over six years and finally get that call again to play in the NBA? There had to be times he thought it would never happen, but it did.
Lowest opening day payrolls in major leagues:
30) Oakland A’s $67,475,833
29) Chicago White Sox $72,202,000
28) Tampa Bay Rays $78,219,329
27) Pittsburgh Pirates $86,344,999
26) Milwaukee Brewers $90,030,700
25) San Diego Padres $95,652,133
Quote of the Day
“These last 4 years have been a blessing, and I just got really emotional [when walking off the floor.]”
Kansas senior Devonte’ Graham, after his college career ended Saturday night
Sunday’s quiz
Who was last college basketball team to win the national title as lower than a #2-seed?
Saturday’s quiz
Bob Brenly managed the Arizona Diamondbacks when they won their only World Series title.
Friday’s quiz
Don Mattingly was manager of the Dodgers before Dave Roberts.
************************
Sunday’s List of 13: Wrapping up a sports Saturday
13) Michigan 69, Loyola 57— Ramblers were up 7 at the half; other than Wagner, Wolverines were 4-23 in first half, but Michigan scored 47 points in 2nd half, after only 22 in first, and they move on to the national championship game Monday night.
Loyola shot 39.8% on the arc for the season; they were 1-10 in this game.
12) Villanova 95, Kansas 79— With 6:52 left in first half, Villanova led by 14 and already had seven guys who made at least one 3-pointer- this game was 22-4 at one point, and was reminiscent of Villanova’s dismantling of Oklahoma in the national semis two years ago.
11) I’ve thought a lot about this, asked lot of people about it and still cannot find a decent reason to bat the pitcher 8th. Mets/Phillies are doing it this year with new managers.
Tony LaRussa used to do it, Joe Maddon has done it, which gives the idea credibility, but they did not do it in playoff games, which makes me a skeptic.
10) Scheduling quirk: AL West Houston Astros/Texas Rangers do not play this season after July 29th. All 19 of their meetings are before then.
9) Asdrubel Cabrera is the first ballplayer in 103 years to bat cleanup on Opening Day, then bat leadoff in the second game of the season.
Only one instance Interweb folks could find where a guy batted leadoff on Opening Day, then batted cleanup in the second game of the year— Hall of Famer Tim Raines, in 1989.
8) Obscure Stat of the Day: White Sox pitcher James Shields is the first pitcher since 1908 to allow four 1st-inning runs on Opening Day, but then go on to win that game.
7) Baltimore Orioles won in walk-off fashion in their last three Opening Day games.
6) Sporting News basketball writer Mike DeCourcy is from Pittsburgh; when Jeff Capel got the Pitt Panthers coaching job earlier this week, DeCourcy wrote an article about the Pitt job, and wrote about how Pittsburgh “….isn’t a basketball town.” Uh oh.
Why would you want to coach in the ACC at a school that isn’t in “a basketball town”?
5) Gonzaga will stay in the WCC next season, instead of bolting to the Mountain West.
4) A guy at SouthPoint Casino in Las Vegas risked $130,000 on Michigan to win SU; he got $50,000 for his trouble; after the Wolverines won, he quickly put the $50,000 on Kansas, +5.
3) Seems like the Arizona Diamondbacks wear a different uniform every night; I’m thinking it has to be at least a little distracting, especially early in the season.
2) Phillies’ rookie manager Gabe Kapler took his starting pitcher out in the 4th inning last nite in Atlanta, but there didn’t seem to be anyone warming up when he did it. The reliever took a long time to get to the mound and Braves manager Snitker got tossed when he objected to the pitcher being allowed his eight warmup tosses even after taking forever to get on the field.
1) Xavier Silas got signed by the Celtics this week; its been six years, over 2,100 days since he last played in the NBA. I remember seeing him play in an AAU tournament in Orlando when he was in high school— his dad James Silas was a terrific player in the ABA.
Imagine how great it must be to wait over six years and finally get that call again to play in the NBA? There had to be times he thought it would never happen, but it did.
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