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Armadillo: Friday's six-pack
-- Cubs' leadoff hitter Emilio Bonifacio is 11-18 in his first three games, batting a cool .688. He's on pace for 594 hits this season.
-- Spurs had their 19-game winning streak snapped by the Thunder, who match up really well with San Antonio.
-- Georgia's Mark Fox, Utah's Larry Krystkowiak both got contract extensions, as offers from other schools get them a bump in salary.
-- Missouri guard Jabari Brown led the SEC in scoring this year; now he's gone to the NBA. Teams that avoid these early departures are the teams that win, except for Kentucky, which seemingly has a new team every year.
-- You watch Cuban 1B Jose Abreu play for the White Sox and you wonder if he has ever played ball in 35-degree weather before. It can't be a lot of fun.
-- Umpire Sean Barber's first MLB game behind the plate lasted 4:02, with total of 363 pitches, as the A's beat Seattle 3-2 in 12 innings. He'll never forget it.
*****
Armadillo: Friday's List of 13: Random thoughts with the weekend here.......
13) The two people in this world who have made me laugh the most are Steve Martin and David Letterman; Thursday night, Letterman announced that he'll retire from his CBS show sometime next year. What a career he has had, starting out as a weatherman in Indianapolis, then on a variety show with Mary Tyler Moore, then an ill-fated daytime show, before hitting it big in latenight TV.
Thanks for the laughs, sir. You'll be missed.
12) ESPN's Trey Wingo tweeted Thursday how his first job in TV was as an NBC page in New York, at Letterman's TV show there, and how it is still the most fun he's ever had in his career. Pretty cool tribute.
11) Boston College hired Jim Christian to replace Steve Donahue; Christian was a steady winner in the MAC (186-80, 101-37 in league), but went 56-73. 18-44 at TCU, and BC is a fairly similar job in the ACC to what TCU is in the Big X. Hard to be a strong ACC team at BC.
If BC was serious about basketball, they would've gone after alum Bruce Pearl.
10) Wake Forest is trying to lure Danny Manning from Tulsa, but its hard to throw cash at a guy who made $56M during his NBA playing career, especially when Tulsa offered to double his salary and give him a private plane to recruit with. His man question has to be, “Can I win at Wake Forest?” You’re in the same neighborhood as Duke/Carolina and at a very small school. Tough decision.
9) Colorado Rockies' star Carlos Gonzalez left Wednesday's game in Miami early after he got sick from swallowing tobacco juice. Oy.
8) Cleveland Browns blew off Jadeveon Clowney’s pro day because they had Blake Bortles in for his private workout. Browns have to take a QB in the draft; they cut two of the three they had last year.
7) Xavier Musketeers are going to Brazil for nine days in August, which gives them ten extra practices before they leave; those trips are usually very beneficial, unless one of the players gets hurt. USC/Butler both lost key players for the season on foreign trips; Butler this year, Trojans lost PG Jio Fontan for the season back when Kevin O’Neill was coaching and it led to the end of his tenure there.
6) I’m wondering if Richard Pitino will someday wind up replacing his dad as the coach at Louisville; pretty cool seeing the elder Pitino rooting like hell for his son's Gophers from behind the Minnesota bench at the NIT final in New York. .
5) Tubby Smith once won a national title at Kentucky, coaching Rick Pitino's players in his first season in Lexington; now Pitino's son wins an NIT title coaching Smith's players after Tubby moved from Minnesota to Texas Tech.
4) With A’s moving their spring training to Mesa next spring, Arizona State’s baseball team is taking over Phoenix Municipal Stadium, moving their home games off campus, but to a much nicer facility.
3) St John’s can’t keep players from leaving early; now Chris Obekpa (2.9 blocks per game in 20 minutes/game) is transferring. Hard to develop a winning program when you never have veteran leadership.
2) Things you learn watching Kansas City Royals’ games: Nori Aoki’s last name means “blue tree” in Japanese.
1) Next season, DeSean Jackson will count as $4.25M against the Redskins' salary cap, $6.25M against Philadelphia's. Go figure.
-- Cubs' leadoff hitter Emilio Bonifacio is 11-18 in his first three games, batting a cool .688. He's on pace for 594 hits this season.
-- Spurs had their 19-game winning streak snapped by the Thunder, who match up really well with San Antonio.
-- Georgia's Mark Fox, Utah's Larry Krystkowiak both got contract extensions, as offers from other schools get them a bump in salary.
-- Missouri guard Jabari Brown led the SEC in scoring this year; now he's gone to the NBA. Teams that avoid these early departures are the teams that win, except for Kentucky, which seemingly has a new team every year.
-- You watch Cuban 1B Jose Abreu play for the White Sox and you wonder if he has ever played ball in 35-degree weather before. It can't be a lot of fun.
-- Umpire Sean Barber's first MLB game behind the plate lasted 4:02, with total of 363 pitches, as the A's beat Seattle 3-2 in 12 innings. He'll never forget it.
*****
Armadillo: Friday's List of 13: Random thoughts with the weekend here.......
13) The two people in this world who have made me laugh the most are Steve Martin and David Letterman; Thursday night, Letterman announced that he'll retire from his CBS show sometime next year. What a career he has had, starting out as a weatherman in Indianapolis, then on a variety show with Mary Tyler Moore, then an ill-fated daytime show, before hitting it big in latenight TV.
Thanks for the laughs, sir. You'll be missed.
12) ESPN's Trey Wingo tweeted Thursday how his first job in TV was as an NBC page in New York, at Letterman's TV show there, and how it is still the most fun he's ever had in his career. Pretty cool tribute.
11) Boston College hired Jim Christian to replace Steve Donahue; Christian was a steady winner in the MAC (186-80, 101-37 in league), but went 56-73. 18-44 at TCU, and BC is a fairly similar job in the ACC to what TCU is in the Big X. Hard to be a strong ACC team at BC.
If BC was serious about basketball, they would've gone after alum Bruce Pearl.
10) Wake Forest is trying to lure Danny Manning from Tulsa, but its hard to throw cash at a guy who made $56M during his NBA playing career, especially when Tulsa offered to double his salary and give him a private plane to recruit with. His man question has to be, “Can I win at Wake Forest?” You’re in the same neighborhood as Duke/Carolina and at a very small school. Tough decision.
9) Colorado Rockies' star Carlos Gonzalez left Wednesday's game in Miami early after he got sick from swallowing tobacco juice. Oy.
8) Cleveland Browns blew off Jadeveon Clowney’s pro day because they had Blake Bortles in for his private workout. Browns have to take a QB in the draft; they cut two of the three they had last year.
7) Xavier Musketeers are going to Brazil for nine days in August, which gives them ten extra practices before they leave; those trips are usually very beneficial, unless one of the players gets hurt. USC/Butler both lost key players for the season on foreign trips; Butler this year, Trojans lost PG Jio Fontan for the season back when Kevin O’Neill was coaching and it led to the end of his tenure there.
6) I’m wondering if Richard Pitino will someday wind up replacing his dad as the coach at Louisville; pretty cool seeing the elder Pitino rooting like hell for his son's Gophers from behind the Minnesota bench at the NIT final in New York. .
5) Tubby Smith once won a national title at Kentucky, coaching Rick Pitino's players in his first season in Lexington; now Pitino's son wins an NIT title coaching Smith's players after Tubby moved from Minnesota to Texas Tech.
4) With A’s moving their spring training to Mesa next spring, Arizona State’s baseball team is taking over Phoenix Municipal Stadium, moving their home games off campus, but to a much nicer facility.
3) St John’s can’t keep players from leaving early; now Chris Obekpa (2.9 blocks per game in 20 minutes/game) is transferring. Hard to develop a winning program when you never have veteran leadership.
2) Things you learn watching Kansas City Royals’ games: Nori Aoki’s last name means “blue tree” in Japanese.
1) Next season, DeSean Jackson will count as $4.25M against the Redskins' salary cap, $6.25M against Philadelphia's. Go figure.
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