Weekend winners
Game of Throne fans. Dear buckets was that some kind of TV. In fact, the combination of Ramsey Bolton passing Joffrey to become the single biggest jackwagon villain in all of TV history and the eyes of Jon Snow opening, well, that was glued-to-your-seat TV. Oh, P.S. - spoiler alert.
Leicester City. Yes, we normally spend about the same amount of time discussing soccer as we do discussing "The Golden Girls" but this deserves mention. Leicester City was a 5,000-to-1 pick before the season to win the Premier League. But after a 1-1 draw against Manchester United, the Foxes could wrap up the title today if Tottenham loses or ties Chelsea. Those are the facts, and these are the numbers: By comparison, the 5,000-to-1 payout will be the largest in betting history. The St. Louis Cardinals were 999-to-1 to win it all late in the season in 2011 before overcoming a 4.5-game deficit with 15 games left in the wildcard race to make the playoffs before rolling to the title. Want to know a couple of other things betting houses put such lofty, 5,000-to-1 odds on? How about Elvis being found alive, the Loch Ness monster existing and Kim Kardashian being elected president in 2020.
Clayton Kershaw. Dude is so electric. He went the distance with 14 Ks in a 1-0 win over the hapless Padres. For good measure, Kershaw knocked in the Dodgers' lone run.
Draymond Green. With Steph Curry in street clothes, Green dropped a triple double with the offense running through his point-post skills as the Warriors took Game 1 against Portland. It was a huge win for Golden State, which in a perfect world will be able to limp through this series with the Blazers with Curry playing little - if at all - so he can rest that knee for a date with the Spurs (or the Thunder) in the Western Conference Finals. Green was huge Sunday.
Jacksonville Jaguars. We will have more on the draft below, but the Jags got arguably two of the top five players in the draft with Jalen Ramsey and Myles Jack and did it without trading anything.
Boston Red Sox's Christian Vazquez, right, celebrates his two-run home run with teammate Hanley Ramirez during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees in Boston, Sunday, May 1, 2016. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer) Weekend losers
New York Yankees. Any time the Yankees lose three straight to the hated Red Sox, you have to wonder what the Boss would be saying if he were still alive. Maybe he'd ask Costanza. Know this, the whispers about a manager change will get loud if the Yanks do not get better.
Danica Patrick. A wreck on pit road? Really? Yes, she wrecked amid the traffic on pit road early and hit the wall hard late at Talladega. She actually was able to get back to the front after the early pit-road mishap to lead a race for the first time this season, but the late wreck left her 24th behind winner Brad Keselowski. You have to wonder how much more sponsorship coin she'll continue to generate considering she has two top 10 finishes in her 46 starts dating back to the start of the 2015 season. Her best finish in 10 races this year was a 16th at Martinsville.
The Braves. No, this is not about the team, per se. Yes, Saturday closed a 5-18 April that was dreadful, but Sunday's win means the Braves are tied with 15 other teams for the best record in May and are on pace to set an all-time winning percentage for a single month. (The Braves are 1-0 in May and at this pace would finish May with a 1.000 winning percentage. How's that for random positivity?) No the Braves find themselves in this category because somehow someone in the organization misunderstood the transaction fineprint and despite calling up Emilio Bonifacio and sending down Chris Withrow on Saturday, the Braves played the Cubs with only 24 eligible players Sunday. This is not the Carolina League fellows.
Carlos Martinez. The St. Louis starting pitcher took a leave of absence from the team because he is being sued for $1.5 million for battery and negligent transmission of sexual diseases. He returned to the team Sunday, starting in a 6-1 loss that was the Cards' fourth straight defeat. That's a bad weekend.
Robert Patterson prepare the stage at Auditorium Theater of Roosevelt University for the second and third rounds of the 2016 NFL football draft, Friday, April 29, 2016, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast) NFL draft
Man, we love the draft. You know this. It was wall to wall and entertaining.
We believe draft grades are amazingly difficult at this point.
With that in mind - we will re-grade the drafts from 2010, 2011 and 2012 in the coming days. As we review the weekend, we'll simply offer our best and worst picks of each round. Deal? Deal.
Round 1
Best pick: Laremy Tunsil, Miami. The Dolphins got arguably the best player in the draft at No. 13. Tunsil's social media snafus aside, he will be the Warren Sapp of his generation - a Hall of Famer that the teams who passed on him will regret.
Worst pick: Josh Garnett, San Francisco. Garnett is arguably the best guard in the draft, so there's that. But, the 49ers traded back into round one to get a guard, and there's a real chance he would have been on the board when the 49ers picked in round two. Remember kids, good drafts are about talent acquired; great drafts are about the value and the place where that talent was acquired.
Round 2
Best pick: Myles Jack, Jacksonville. Yes, there are knee concerns, but it's a very real possibility that the Jags added the two biggest defensive difference-makers in this draft without trading up to do it. (And the last time a team added this much defensive talent in one draft was when Tampa Bay added Sapp and Derrick Brooks in the first round of the 1995 draft.)
Worst pick: Robert Aguayo, Tampa Bay. A kicker in round two? That should be grounds for dismissal for everyone in the war room.
Round 3
Best pick: Jonathan Bullard, Chicago. What a great addition. Bullard has the size-speed combo (6-3, 285 with a 4.8ish 40) to be an end on early downs and a rush defensive tackle on passing downs. An every-down defensive lineman in a league craving defensive linemen is a bona fide steal.
Worst pick: Cody Kessler, Cleveland. This is a head-scratcher for a number of reasons, not the least of which is who was still on the board
Round 4
Best pick: Andrew Billings, Cincinnati. The mammoth Baylor defensive tackle was a first-round name on a lot of early lists. He fell into round four and the Bengals got a steal.
Worst pick: Seth Devalve, Cleveland. A late fourth-round pick, the Princeton tight end surprised a lot of folks. You have to wonder if the Browns regret this one, considering the next name off the board was Cardale Jones, who could be a starting quarterback in this league..
Round 5
Best pick: Kentrell Brothers, Minnesota. The Missouri linebacker made a ton of plays in the SEC last year. That's a fine litmus test against top-notch competition.
Is there really such a thing as a worst pick in rounds five, sic or seven? Seriously, this is about finding special teams guys or depth, and if you find a legit starter, then it can completely overhaul the perspective of any draft three years down the road.
Round 6
Best pick: Cody Core, Cincinnati. The former Ole Miss wide out got lost in some of the shadows created by Rebels teammates Laquan Treadwell and tight end Evan Engram, but the kid can play. And for the Bengals, who lost their second- and third-leading wide outs in free agency, this was a late-round steal.
Round 7
Best pick: Scooby Wright, Cleveland. The former Arizona All-American linebacker is an overachiever who not only could make the roster, but would it surprise any of us if he figures his way into the lineup.
In this 2010 file photo, Inside the NBA host Ernie Johnson Jr., left, talks while analysts Kenny Smith, center, and Charles Barkley listen on the set at the TNT studios in Atlanta.This and that
- Thought this was funny, as NBA on TNT producers take shots at the talent and force Shaq to walk off the set in protest. (We believe it was faux protest, but protest nonetheless.)
- Braves right fielder Nick Markakis drove in the game winner Sunday with a sacrifice fly. Couple of interesting tidbits about that: The Braves had four runs and none scored on a base hit; also Markakis is on pace to drive in 135 runs without hitting a homer. There is only one played since 1900 to have 100 or more RBIs without a home run, and that was Lave Cross with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1902. (The record for most RBIs without a homer belongs to Hughie Jennings, who had 121 in 1896 for the Detroit Tigers.)
- We will have a Kentucky Derby contest coming tomorrow. You can win stuff, and as always, it don't cost nothing' anyway.
FILE - In this May 26, 2015 file photo, Dwayne Johnson arrives at the premiere of "San Andreas" at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles. While speaking to TV critics Thursday, July 30, 2015, about his HBO series “Ballers,” Johnson was asked to comment on the tape of Hulk Hogan making racist comments. Johnson, also a former pro wrestler, said he was “disappointed” when he heard about Hogan’s remarks, but also said the comments didn’t match his personal history with him. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File) Today's question
Weekend winners and losers are always welcome.
Feel free to throw out your draft thoughts, too. (Side note: ESPN's draft coverage averaged three million viewers which is pretty strong. The opening round averaged almost 7 million viewers and a 3.9 rating.)
OK, Dwayne Johnson turns 44 today. The man known as The Rock has become an A-list Hollywood star. Rushmore of 'rocks' and feel free to use your imagination. (We'd think Rolling Stones would have an argument considering their place in ROCK and roll history.)