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Armadillo: Wednesday's six-pack
-- Pirates are only 1.5 games out of second Wild Card, but Andrew McCutchen left Tuesday's game (ribs) not a good thing for the Bucs.
-- Baltimore/Washington have the two biggest divisional leads in baseball; could it be a Beltway World Series?
-- Mariners are in contention; GM Jack Zduriencik got a contract extension.
-- Two of UTEP's best basketball recruits fail to qualify academically and will go to junior college, so two JC coaches got a hell of a lot smarter this week, at least for one year.
-- Giants 3, Rockies 0-- Bumgarner had a perfect game thru seven innings.
-- Pete Carroll left USC just before the NCAA got there; now the NFL has fined him and the Seahawks $300K for breaking their rules regarding excessive contact in Seattle's minicamps. Wonder who turned them in?
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Armadillo: Wednesday's List of 13: Mid-week musings on a hot day....
13) Patriots traded their best offensive lineman, Logan Mankins (who is 32) to Tampa Bay for TE Tim Wright and a 4th-round pick. Wright played for former Bucs’ coach Greg Schiano at Rutgers; Belichick is friends with Schiano. Bucs have enough cap room to absorb Mankins’ salary. Interesting trade.
12) CBSsports.com pointed out Tuesday that in the last five college football national title games, seven of the ten starting QB’s had never started a college game before that season………
11)…….. I‘ve spent more than a few hours this summer tracking what college teams have experience and who doesn’t; when I read that factoid, wasn’t sure if I had been wasting my time or not. Probably not, but still, Manziel/Winston won last two Heismans, both in their freshman year. Unusual for sure.
10) 49ers tore up the turf on their new Levi’s Stadium field again Monday; their home opener is September 14 against the Bears—they were still debating yesterday what type of grass to put down, kind of like they would at a golf course.
9) Burger King bought Tim Horton’s donut franchise for $11B this week and will move its headquarters to Canada. The two BKs in my town both closed up in the last few years but apparently elsewhere they’re thriving.
8) Cubs brought up another of their prospects, OF Jorge Soler, who is said to be a good hitter, but why did they trade Jeff Samardzija for a shortstop prospect, when they already had three solid middle infield prospects?
Pitching is and always will be the most essential element of the game and the Cubs’ farm system isn’t producing many of them.
7) Rays’ SS Yunel Escobar basically refused to get traded to the A’s, after they claimed him on waivers, so now he becomes my most disliked player in baseball. He already had a reputation as a bad actor, but has done well with Joe Maddon in Tampa, which is apparently why he wants to stay there. Good for him.
6) Quick Lane, a tire/auto care place, and the Detroit Lions are sponsoring a bowl game at Ford Field in December, replacing the old Little Caeser’s Bowl. This bowl will have better teams, Big 14 vs ACC. Think the Caeser’s Bowl was MAC vs Sun Belt or C-USA.
5) Turner Broadcasting is laying off 550 people this month; hopefully one of them is Shaquille O’Neal, since I can rarely understand what he is saying on the NBA studio show anyway.
4) Since July 1, Houston’s Chris Carter leads MLB in home runs; he is this generation's Rob Deer-- lot of homers, lot of strikeouts
3) USC DB Josh Shaw has two sprained ankles; how he got them is now a mystery, since it appears his story of jumping off a 2nd-story balcony to save his 7-year old nephew from drowning might not be the truth. Oy.
2) Sounds like an 18-game NFL regular season will be on the table at the next labor negotiations; Jerry Jones usually gets what he wants.
1) Royals 2, Twins 1-- Alex Gordon hit a dramatic walk-off homer as Royals move to 15 games over .500 with this unlikely win.
-- Pirates are only 1.5 games out of second Wild Card, but Andrew McCutchen left Tuesday's game (ribs) not a good thing for the Bucs.
-- Baltimore/Washington have the two biggest divisional leads in baseball; could it be a Beltway World Series?
-- Mariners are in contention; GM Jack Zduriencik got a contract extension.
-- Two of UTEP's best basketball recruits fail to qualify academically and will go to junior college, so two JC coaches got a hell of a lot smarter this week, at least for one year.
-- Giants 3, Rockies 0-- Bumgarner had a perfect game thru seven innings.
-- Pete Carroll left USC just before the NCAA got there; now the NFL has fined him and the Seahawks $300K for breaking their rules regarding excessive contact in Seattle's minicamps. Wonder who turned them in?
**********
Armadillo: Wednesday's List of 13: Mid-week musings on a hot day....
13) Patriots traded their best offensive lineman, Logan Mankins (who is 32) to Tampa Bay for TE Tim Wright and a 4th-round pick. Wright played for former Bucs’ coach Greg Schiano at Rutgers; Belichick is friends with Schiano. Bucs have enough cap room to absorb Mankins’ salary. Interesting trade.
12) CBSsports.com pointed out Tuesday that in the last five college football national title games, seven of the ten starting QB’s had never started a college game before that season………
11)…….. I‘ve spent more than a few hours this summer tracking what college teams have experience and who doesn’t; when I read that factoid, wasn’t sure if I had been wasting my time or not. Probably not, but still, Manziel/Winston won last two Heismans, both in their freshman year. Unusual for sure.
10) 49ers tore up the turf on their new Levi’s Stadium field again Monday; their home opener is September 14 against the Bears—they were still debating yesterday what type of grass to put down, kind of like they would at a golf course.
9) Burger King bought Tim Horton’s donut franchise for $11B this week and will move its headquarters to Canada. The two BKs in my town both closed up in the last few years but apparently elsewhere they’re thriving.
8) Cubs brought up another of their prospects, OF Jorge Soler, who is said to be a good hitter, but why did they trade Jeff Samardzija for a shortstop prospect, when they already had three solid middle infield prospects?
Pitching is and always will be the most essential element of the game and the Cubs’ farm system isn’t producing many of them.
7) Rays’ SS Yunel Escobar basically refused to get traded to the A’s, after they claimed him on waivers, so now he becomes my most disliked player in baseball. He already had a reputation as a bad actor, but has done well with Joe Maddon in Tampa, which is apparently why he wants to stay there. Good for him.
6) Quick Lane, a tire/auto care place, and the Detroit Lions are sponsoring a bowl game at Ford Field in December, replacing the old Little Caeser’s Bowl. This bowl will have better teams, Big 14 vs ACC. Think the Caeser’s Bowl was MAC vs Sun Belt or C-USA.
5) Turner Broadcasting is laying off 550 people this month; hopefully one of them is Shaquille O’Neal, since I can rarely understand what he is saying on the NBA studio show anyway.
4) Since July 1, Houston’s Chris Carter leads MLB in home runs; he is this generation's Rob Deer-- lot of homers, lot of strikeouts
3) USC DB Josh Shaw has two sprained ankles; how he got them is now a mystery, since it appears his story of jumping off a 2nd-story balcony to save his 7-year old nephew from drowning might not be the truth. Oy.
2) Sounds like an 18-game NFL regular season will be on the table at the next labor negotiations; Jerry Jones usually gets what he wants.
1) Royals 2, Twins 1-- Alex Gordon hit a dramatic walk-off homer as Royals move to 15 games over .500 with this unlikely win.
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