It's Monday. You know what we do.
From the "Talks too much" studios, there's power in silence.
Weekend winners
Philadelphia Phillies' starting pitcher Cole Hamels delivers during the first inning of baseball game against the Chicago Cubs in Chicago on Saturday, July 25, 2015. (AP Photo/Matt Marton) Cole Hamels. Dude dropped a no-no on the Cubs and got an amazing defensive play from outfielder Obdubel Herrera. Hamels will be a much-discussed trade chip this week.
Pedro Martinez and the Hall of Fame class. Pedro stole the show with a mixture of humor and emotion and it should have been expected from a guy that at the height of his powers may have been the Sandy Koufax of his day. As Weeds points out here, John Smoltz was also good - and familiar for those who attended the Best of Preps banquet.
That guy. No name yet, but there was a guy who put a 50-cent bet on trying to pick winners in five consecutive races. It's a pot bet, meaning everyone puts the money in and the winners split the pot. Well, this guy was the only one who got all of the winners - Realm (11-1), English Minister (3-1), Site Read (21-1), Hey Bro (24-1) and Saratoga Mischief (6-1) - so he collected the entire pot of $471,124.50. That's four bits well spent.
Kyle Busch. Dude is driving the wheels off his NASCAR.
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Weekend Losers
FILE - In this Nov. 6, 2014 file photo, entertainer Bill Cosby gestures during an interview at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art in Washington. Lawyers for Bill Cosby argue in a new court filing his admission he used quaaludes in the 1970s doesn't mean he drugged and sexually assaulted women. The lawyers on Tuesday, July 21, 2015, asked a court to preserve the confidentiality of his 2006 settlement in a sexual-battery lawsuit. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File) We need a ruling on Andrew Orischak as for whether the kid won or lost the weekend. Orischak was leading the U.S. Junior Amateur, up five holes with eight to play. He lost five of the final eight and the playoff hole. Tough stuff and his responses showed that he has the mettle to bounce back from this. As a side wager - a big-time prop bet, mind you - Orischak bet Fox Sports golf analyst and foxy Holly Sonders if he won she'd have to go to the prom with him. Sonders said she'd go any way, so there's that.
Baseball. With the trading deadline, the Hall of Fame inductions and all pennant races, you'd think baseball would be a key talking point right? Wrong. The top five stories Monday morning on CBSsports.com were: Colts, Ravens wanting Brady suspension to stand; DefelateGate rule changes; SI poll on Belichick and Pats being most hated; Seattle offering Russell Wilson $21 million per year; Big Ben saying the Steelers can score 30 a game.
Bill Cosby. The New Yorker has a powerful cover image of the 35 women who have accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault. That's a Pudding Pop to the solar plexus indeed.
FILE - In this Oct. 15, 2012 file photo, former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, arrives for a news conference at the United States Courthouse in Tampa, Fla. World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. has severed ties with Hogan. The company did not give a reason, but issued a statement Friday, July 24, 2015, saying it is “committed to embracing and celebrating individuals from all backgrounds as demonstrated by the diversity of our employees, performers and fans worldwide." (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara, File) Hulk Hogan and Colin Cowherd and any of the other double-letter sports stars that offend our society's knee-jerk interweb morality mob. Hogan was fired Friday and removed from the wrestling Hall of Fame this weekend after a years-old tape with racial slurs on it surfaced. It was offensive and the WWE is in the public-perception business. It is also frightening for all of us that the difference of what a tape of potentially your worst 3 minutes on this planet can mean. Cowherd was fired by ESPN on Friday for a statement about the Dominican Republic's educational system. Cowherd offered a tepid apology on Friday after his statements on Thursday about the overestimated "thinking man's" aspect of baseball since so many Dominicans have success playing the game. The research and the stats support Cowherd's assertion - the Dominican Republic is last or in the bottom three of all the educational statistical categories among Latin America - but that's beside the point. Yes, ESPN may have used this platform to ship Cowherd - who has announced he won't return to the four-letter monster and has been reported to be headed to Fox Sports - to damage Cowherd's image.
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Hall of flame
We could not help but pause Sunday as a truly great Hall of Fame class was inducted among baseball's immortals.
There's a collison on the horizon. A collision of fact - that many of the sports best in the last generation used steroids - and an opinion of the majority of voters to forbid entry to those tainted by the lasting haze of performance-enhancing drugs.
FILE - In this March 29, 2011, file photo, former baseball player Barry Bonds arrives for his trial at federal court in San Francisco. The U.S. Department of Justice formally dropped its criminal prosecution of Barry Bonds, Major League Baseball's career home run leader. The decade-long investigation and prosecution of Bonds for obstruction of justice ended quietly Tuesday morning, July 21, 2015, when the DOJ said it would not challenge the reversal of his felony conviction to the U.S. Supreme Court. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File) As some of the best ever - guys such as Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens who almost assuredly used PEDs to guys like Mike Piazza and Jeff Bagwell who were only rumored to be involved - sit and wait.
That list will only continue to grow in coming years.
Take a look at a couple of guys in the twilight of their careers, guys who were renowned power hits throughout the steroids era.
Alex Rodriguez has become the face of the bad side of the PED mess. He has lied routinely about his involvement. He was suspended for more than a year. He once was viewed as potentially the best to ever play - he was a Gold Glove shortstop hitting 45 bombs a year in his 20s - he now is a cautionary tale of cheating and ignorance and whatever else.
But when he hit three homers Saturday, he raised his numbers to 23 dingers this season and 677 on his career. He's already among the rarified air of a guy with more than 3,000 hits (there are 29 all-time), 600 homers (there are eight all-time) and 2,000 RBIs (four all-time). Through the history of the game, there's only one other player to be in all of those clubs, and his name is Hank Aaron.
Hank Aaron waves to the crowd during a ceremony celebrating the 40th anniversary of his 715th home run before the start of a baseball game between the Atlanta Braves and the New York Mets on Tuesday, April 8, 2014, in Atlanta.A-Rod turned 40 on Monday, but with his comeback season - he's hitting .277 and has 58 RBIs in addition to his 23 homers this season - and a contract that runs through 2017, he likely will be back in pinstripes next year adding to those numbers.
A-Rod has no chance in the current climate to get into the Hall, because let's face if Bonds is persona non grata, then Rodriguez has to be regarded as even more egregious. Bonds was never found guilty of violating the PED rules and his decade-long Federal court case was recently dropped by the prosecutors who spent almost a dozen years and tens of millions trying unsuccessfully to make steroids stick to Bonds.
A-Rod has failed tests, admitted to lying about it and been suspended for using PEDs. There's no doubting his involvement - or his long-term greatness - but as long as Bonds is forced to wait, Rodriguez has no chance.
The other aging slugger is Boston DH David Ortiz, who failed a drug test in 2003 but said adamentally he never "knowingly took" steroids earlier this year. That's a similar claim to what Bonds has made from the start, but Ortiz is huggable and affable.
He's Big Papi and the images we keep are of him smiling and clapping those massive hands as the Red Sox rallied in the postseason and changed the culture and narrative of one of the most popular franchises in all of sports.
Ortiz, who is 39, drove in seven runs against Detroit on Sunday, moving from 41st all-time to 38th, and passing Al Kaline, Rogers Hornsby and Harmon Killebrew in one evening's work.
Ortiz' numbers are not as clear-cut as A-Rod. Yes, Ortiz has made nine All-Star teams, but that's a tangent of his popularity as much as his prowess.
He's a career .285 hitter with 485 homers and the 1,587 RBIs. But Ortiz has been a DH in more than seven times more games than he has played in the field, and he's at best a mediocre fielder.
He has 17 postseason homers, which helps as does the fact that he's immensely popular. That last point will be interesting, since for the most part the guys with the PED cloud have been viewed in negative lights.
Boston Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz reacts as he crosses the plate after hitting a two-run home run during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles at Fenway Park, Wednesday, June 24, 2015, in Boston. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola) Ortiz, though, failed that test and has been followed by whispers that surrounded Bonds for years too. Ortiz' numbers were better from ages 35-39 than they were from the ages of 25-29. It's the same claim that routinely scarred Bonds' run of dominance from those ages when Bonds won four MVPs, two batting titles and set a record for most homers in a season between the ages of 35-39.
We know A-Rod will be on the outside looking in until the voters decide to wise up and realize the the Hall of Fame is where the best players from every era belong, even the Steroid Era.
But Big Papi will be an interesting Hall test case down the road. Will Ortiz get a more favorable view because he's likable and has a fun nickname? We'll see.
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Matt McCall speaks during a news conference announcing him as the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's new head men's basketball coach while at the UTC University Center on Monday, April 14, 2015.This and that
- UTC announced its men's basketball schedule this morning. Here's the story and here's the complete slate. If you have a question for UTC men's basketball coach Matt McCall, he'll join us on Press Row in the 4 p.m. hour today. In fact, we are have a 4-at-4, UTC style this week. With regular Press Row cohost David Paschall off this week, McCall will join us today with AD David Blackburn stopping by Tuesday, Jim Foster on Wednesday and Russ Huesman on Thursday. Good times.
- Amen to this Grantland story. We miss EA Sports College Football game.
- And since the Buckeyes are a 11-to-5 pick to win the whole college football world domination title, this seems natural that they are an unanimous pick to win the Big Ten.
- Check back to timesfreepress.com throughout the day for the annual prep football tour that Stephen Hargis does. Good times indeed.
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Today's question
Who won the weekend and who lost it?
United States’ Jordan Spieth drives the ball from the 18th tee during the third round of the British Open Golf Championship at the Old Course, St. Andrews, Scotland, Sunday, July 19, 2015. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip) It's Monday after all.
Any of you Johnny Mocs Fans have a specific questions for the UTC lineup feel free to pass them along and I'll consider them. (Side question: What happened to Mocsfans.com?)
As for today's question, well, Mr. Jordan Spieth turns 22 today. Yes, he has carved out a pretty nice place in this world. He's 22, at the top of his profession, a nine-figure bank account, yep, he's got the bull by the horns.
OK, kid is 22 and has two major titles. If we put the over/under at 8, whatcha' got?
Discuss.