Tuesday’s 6-pack
Six more interesting college football spreads for next week:
— Pitt (-3.5) @ Tennessee
— South Carolina @ East Carolina (-2)
— Air Force (-6.5) @ Navy
— Memphis (-4.5) @ Arkansas State
— Vanderbilt @ Colorado State (-6.5)
— San Diego State @ Arizona (-1)
Quote of the Day
“Crazy, wild game. It wasn’t pretty. It was beautiful at the end.”
Tampa Bay DH Hector Cruz
Tuesday’s quiz
What team did Archie Manning play most of his NFL career with?
Monday’s quiz
Greg Maddux made his MLB debut as a pinch-runner in the 16th inning of a game.
Sunday’s quiz
Danny Ford was Clemson’s coach the first time they won the football national title.
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Tuesday’s Den: Wrapping up Labor Day weekend
13) Rays 11, Red Sox 10 (10)
— Boston led 7-1 after two innings.
— Austin Meadows tied game with an inside/park homer in 9th inning, first time that happened in major leagues since 2008 (Mark Teahen).
— Red Sox have 11 guys on the COVID list; because of that, they’re basically only MLB team working with a 40-man roster right now- they added SS Jose Iglesias, recently dropped by the Angels.
12) Ole Miss 43, Louisville 24:
— When the Louisville coach publicly criticizes his QB to a reporter at halftime, it isn’t good.
— ABC TV crew spent lot of 4th quarter talking about their dogs; this was a bad game.
Terrible job by MLB, by the way; only two major league games on Labor Day night?
11) This weekend, an average of 52.3 ppg were scored in I-A college football games, the lowest total for Labor Day weekend since 2009.
10) Giants 10, Rockies 5:
— Giants over/under win total this spring was 75.5; they’re 88-50 after this game.
9) Nationals 4, Mets 3:
— Washington scored twice in 9th for an unlikely win.
— 10 of Mets’ last 11 games were decided by one run.
8) An ex-Patriots player was quoted Monday as saying that rookie QB Mac Jones was tutoring Cam Newton on learning New England’s offense this summer, which may help explain why Newton is no longer on the Patriots.
7) Houston Texans named Tyrod Taylor (24-21-1 as an NFL starter) as their #1 QB for their game with Jacksonville Sunday. Deshaun Watson will be on the roster, but isn’t expected to be active; rookie Davis Mills is supposed to be Houston’s #2 QB.
6) Bad news for the Minnesota Gophers; star RB Mo Ibrahim will miss the rest of the season because of a leg injury he suffered against Ohio State. Ibrahim rushed 30 times for 163 yards before the injury.
5) Mentioned yesterday that UConn football coach Randy Edsall announced he’ll retire after the season; the school overruled him Monday— Edsall is gone immediately, after Huskies started the season 0-2, with a horrible loss to Holy Cross.
4) Over last seven weeks, St Louis Cardinals are 2-10 in games where the winning run scored in last three innings. Despite, St Louis is only 3.5 games out of the second Wild Card spot.
3) Royals’ 3B Hanser Alberto has batted 221 times this year; he’s walked TWICE. Twice. He walked five times in 224 PA’s last year. Not good.
2) Not only did I-AA Montana upset Washington Saturday, the Griz took home a $650,000 guarantee check for their trip to Washington.
1) Wild Card races:
NL: Los Angeles, San Diego
— Reds are a game behind San Diego, Phillies two games behind.
— Cardinals are 3.5 games behind, Mets 4.5 games.
AL: New York, Boston
— Toronto, Seattle are 3 games behind
— A’s are 3.5 games behind
Connecticut @ Dallas
Connecticut
Connecticut is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games
Connecticut is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games when playing Dallas
Dallas
The total has gone UNDER in 7 of Dallas's last 8 games when playing Connecticut
The total has gone UNDER in 6 of Dallas's last 7 games
Washington @ Seattle
Washington
Washington is 5-0 ATS in its last 5 games when playing Seattle
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Washington's last 5 games when playing Seattle
Seattle
Seattle is 17-3 SU in its last 20 games when playing at home against Washington
The total has gone UNDER in 5 of Seattle's last 6 games at home
Wednesday’s 6-pack
Head/head matchups; who will throw more TD passes this year?
— Mahomes (-4.5) vs Josh Allen
— Brady vs Rodgers (pick ‘em)
— Herbert vs Prescott (-1.5)
— Wilson (-5) vs Lamar Jackson
— Stafford vs Tannehill (even)
— Mayfield vs Roethlisberger (-1.5)
This wager is available at SouthPoint in Las Vegas, one of best sportsbooks in Vegas.
Quote of the Day
“You don’t get the vaccine for yourself. You get it for the people around you.”
Charles Barkley
Wednesday’s quiz
Where did Charles Barkley play his college basketball?
Tuesday’s quiz
Archie Manning played most of his NFL career with the Saints.
Monday’s quiz
Greg Maddux made his MLB debut as a pinch-runner in the 17th inning of a game.
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Wednesday’s Den: Mid-week musings……..
13) Dodgers-Giants was ESPN’s Sunday night game, maybe the two best teams in baseball. For some unknown reason, both teams had day games on Labor Day, both on the road.
How stupid is this? MLB only had two night games Monday, in Houston/Anaheim; they couldn’t put Dodgers/Giants in Monday night games, then showcase them on TV?
You want to showcase your best teams. Weird thing is both teams won on Monday anyway.
12) It has been 20 years since an AFC team got to the Super Bowl with preseason odds higher than 10-1; this year’s AFC teams that are 10-1 or lower:
5-2— Kansas City
5-1— Buffalo
6-1— Baltimore
8-1— Cleveland
10-1— New England
11) Angels 4, Padres 0:
— Blake Snell took another no-hitter into 7th inning, but only hit he gave up scored two runs as four Angel hurlers blanked the struggling Padres.
— In his last three starts, Snell has allowed 4 hits, 3 runs in 21.1 IP, but San Diego lost two of the three games.
— San Diego is 7-16 in its last 23 games.
10) MLB needs to mike the umpires, so they can explain replay reviews to fans in the stands; Lord knows the NFL has done it for decades. It is good business. At least mike the crew chief, so he can clear up any confusion about unusual plays.
9) Going into Tuesday’s play, Dodgers/Rays led the two leagues in runs scored- both teams were hitting .241 for the season, the lowest batting average for league leaders in runs since the 1968 Detroit Tigers.
They lowered the mound after pitching-dominated 1968; hopefully there will be several changes to next year’s rules, to increase offense in the game.
8) Atlanta Braves signed P Charlie Morton to a one-year, $20M deal for next year; he will be 38 next year. Braves have a team option to sign for Morton for 2023.
7) Dallas Cowboys have 36 new players on their roster this year; that’s a lot.
6) Astros 5, Mariners 4:
— Alex Bregman tied the game with a 9th-inning homer.
— Carlos Correa walked it off with a 10th-inning double.
5) Toronto 5, New York 1:
— Gerrit Cole left his start Tuesday with a hamstring issue; Bronx is 2-8 in last ten games.
— Blue Jays are only two games out of the playoff picture.
4) NBA’s Detroit Pistons totally overhauled their roster; their longest-tenured player is Killian Hayes, who has played only 26 games for Detroit.
3) Kentucky Wildcats got a commitment from five-star recruit Shaedon Sharpe, the #1 recruit in country; it is first time in 10 years John Calipari signed the #1 recruit in America.
2) I can’t stand the Nick Saban AFLAC commercials that take over college football games during timeouts. Saban is always bland/standoffish when doing interviews on regular TV, but pay him to do an insurance commercial, and he is Mr Happy. Yeah, sure.
1) If the baseball playoffs started today (they don’t):
NL: Braves, Brewers, Giants. Wild Card: SD/Cin @ Los Angeles
AL: Rays, White Sox, Astros. Wild Card: Boston @ New York
Phoenix @ Atlanta
Phoenix
Phoenix is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games
Phoenix is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games on the road
Atlanta
The total has gone UNDER in 5 of Atlanta's last 5 games
The total has gone UNDER in 5 of Atlanta's last 5 games at home
Minnesota @ Las Vegas
Minnesota
Minnesota is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games
Minnesota is 5-1 ATS in its last 6 games when playing on the road against Las Vegas
Las Vegas
Las Vegas is 10-2 SU in its last 12 games at home
The total has gone OVER in 4 of Las Vegas's last 5 games when playing Minnesota
Thursday’s 6-pack
Six most valuable NFL franchises:
6) Washington, $4.25B
5) San Francisco 49ers, $4.27B
4) New Jersey Giants, $4.63B
3) Los Angeles Rams, $4.68B
2) New England Patriots, $5.35B
1) Dallas Cowboys, $6.92B
Quote of the Day
“Honestly, I think it’s bullshit. Nobody talked to me [about coming out]. It’s not like I just made my debut yesterday. I’ve been doing this for a while. It’s extremely frustrating.”
Astros’ P Jake Odorizzi, who was pulled after throwing only 66 pitches Tuesday
Thursday’s quiz
In the gambling movie Lay the Favorite, what famous actor plays pro gambler Dinky?
Wednesday’s quiz
Charles Barkley played his college basketball at Auburn.
Tuesday’s quiz
Archie Manning played most of his NFL career with the Saints.
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Thursday’s Den: Doing some thinking out loud……..
13) Philadelphia Eagles signed a guy off of Denver’s practice squad; the guy was going to make $165,000 on the practice squad ($9,200/week). He’s going to make $36,666/week ($660,000 for the year) if he sticks in Philadelphia.
12) Big X is going to expand from 10 to 12 teams, with Texas/Oklahoma leaving, and BYU, UCF, Cincinnati and Houston joining.
West Virginia-Cincinnati basketball games will be interesting, with Bob Huggins coaching against a program he led to the Final Four.
11) Of the 130 quarterbacks who started for I-A college teams last week, 49 of them (37.7%) transferred in from another school.
10) Last two seasons, records in games decided by 8 or fewer points:
Seahawks 18-5
Chargers 7-16. This is why the Chargers have a new coach now.
9) Colleges with most active players on NFL rosters:
53— Alabama
47— Ohio State
43— LSU
35— Georgia
34— Notre Dame
33— Clemson
8) This week, Nelson Cruz became the third player ever to hit 30+ homers after age 40; the other two guys are David Ortiz, Darrell Evans.
7) Seattle 8, Houston 5— Mariners scored four runs in 9th, are 2.5 games out of the second Wild Card slot.
6) Baltimore 9, Kansas City 8— Royals led 5-0 in bottom of 8th; Orioles scored nine times in bottom of 8th, then held on for dear life in the 9th. Baltimore is a bad baseball team, but they can score some runs.
5) San Francisco 7, Colorado 4— Giants scored four times in 9th, grabbed a 2-game lead over the Dodgers in the NL West.
4) Cubs 4, Reds 1 (10)— Jason Heyward hit a walk-off homer for the Cubs, dropping Cincinnati out of tie with San Diego for the second Wild Card slot. Cubs are playing well right now.
3) Was pretty cool to see Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing in Cooperstown at the Hall of Fame inductions Wednesday.
2) We were debating Wednesday on future Hall of Famers and a New York City debate broke out: was Don Mattingly or Keith Hernandez the better first baseman?
I don’t think either one should/will make it into the Hall of Fame, but to me, Mattingly was clearly the better player and if you know me and my dislike of the Bronx Bombers, that emphasizes my opinion.
1) When your name is Biff and you love baseball and you’re 15 and a catcher named Biff shows up in the big leagues, he quickly becomes a hero. I have a signed post card of Biff Pocoroba on the shelf in my living room, right next to ones from Catfish Hunter, Rollie Fingers.
Johnny Bench narrated a tribute video for the baseball Hall of Famers who passed away in the last year. Lot of big names passed away, very sad. One of the Hall of Famers they showed was the great knuckleballer Phil Niekro— in two of his clips, the Braves’ catcher was #4, which got me pretty excited.
Biff Pocoroba was shown in a video at the Hall of Fame inductions; TWICE- tremendous!!!!
Connecticut @ Los Angeles
Connecticut
Connecticut is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games
The total has gone UNDER in 5 of Connecticut's last 5 games when playing on the road against Los Angeles
Los Angeles
The total has gone UNDER in 5 of Los Angeles's last 5 games when playing at home against Connecticut
The total has gone UNDER in 8 of Los Angeles's last 9 games when playing Connecticut
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