Weekend winners
Bruce Pearl. Wow. Just wow. And as an Auburn grad this is a phrase I never – NEVER – expected to type, say or even think: Can’t wait for the Final Four to watch my alma mater. Oh my. We will have more – a lot more – on an amazing weekend – four days really – in a moment, but you knew I had to start here right? Right!?!?!
OK, one more. Auburn basketball in general. Think of the things that have happened. Yes, they have topped three of the most prestigious and blue-blooded teams in a row with tournament wins over Kansas, UNC and Kentucky in a row. Yes, they captured the hearts of casual fans as the Cinderella in each of those, and added to those emotional ripples with the entire Chuma Okeke injury and aftermath. Now add in the AU informercial that was Chuck Barkley’s corner of the CBS studio set. Yes, there are not many other options, but think of all the debates about the Greatest Ever and how many slivers of angles all of those debates. There simply is no debating this statement: “This was the greatest weekend in Auburn basketball history.”
San Diego. Yes, much was made about the Phillies offseason, and rightly so. And yes, this is a mighty small sample size, but the new-look Padres – who added Manny Machado and a slew of young dudes who can play – have started 3-1. The 2-0 start was the first time the Padres are two-games over .500 since being 19-17 on May 14, 2015.
Braves-Phillies rivalry. From the Phillies fans doing the Tomahawk Chop to the sweep, to the home run celebrations – and I am fine with those friends – and now to Rhys Hoskins getting plunked by a pitch and the fall-out, which included Gabe Kapler going nuts after the game – if the Braves can stay close, this could be a lot of fun
Those of us who get to read Weeds on college hoops. Great as always.
Josh Hader. Dude has the best fastball since when? On Saturday he threw nine pitches – all heaters – and struck out the side on those nine pitches with eight of them swings and misses. He has thrown 30 pitches this season. All of them have been fastballs. He has faced nine batters and fanned seven of them.
Atlanta Braves catcher Brian McCann, right, reacts to umpire Rob Drake after relief pitcher Shane Carle was ejected for hitting the Philadelphia Phillies’ Rhys Hoskins with a pitch during the seventh inning of Sunday night’s game in Philadelphia.Weekend losers
Braves. Wow, Braves Twitter is already bitter. A three-game sweep to last year’s also-ran team that said they were going to spend money and did against an Atlanta organization that won the NL East and pledge to pony up and didn’t will do that. And know this: Every pitcher who takes the ball to start the game will face a growing amount of scrutiny from a fan base that has a reason to feel betrayed.
Golf in general and Matt Kuchar in general. Those of us who follow the game of golf know the pressure and the back and forth of match play, the format of this weekend’s event. Well, if Tiger had not missed a 5-footer to save par on 18 in a loss to some cat named Lucas Bjerregaard (and yes, spell check has a field day with that one), Tiger would have been in Sunday’s semifinals and the ratings would have been noticeable, especially if Tiger had gotten to the finals. But he didn’t, and Kuchar, who lost to Kevin Kisner 3&2, did. Along the way, Kuchar got into a testy confrontation with Sergio in the quarterfinals after Sergio was acting like a petulant child (or as it’s known in golf, Sergio being Sergio). Well, the details regarding Kuchar’s involvement left a bad taste in several mouths of those associated with the game. Paul McGinley, the former player and European Ryder Cup captain and a current analyst for Sky Sports, said it’s the next example of how Kuchar’s nice guy image is a “big facade.”
TV habits with kids. OK, as you can imagine there normally is a lot of sports on TV. We normally DVR all the sports for any number of reasons. We spend a lot of time with our tots at sporting venues in and around town and Saturday was opening day at the ball park. We like the ability to sit and zoom through the breaks, which for some reason almost always includes this dramatic clips of the slew of horror movies that are everywhere these days. Hey, they pay for those and I understand that. (And DVR and zoom right by them.) But on Sunday night – at 7:30 p.m. mind you – we were watching Ellen’s Game of Games as a family. It’s a funny show that mixes slime and easy trivia and blind-folded stunts and all the other things that could make it easily enjoyable for adults and kids. Well, one of the contests was for tandems and two women competed against two women. One group said they were recently engaged. It caused my 11-year-old’s eyebrows to raise. It went right over my 8-year-old’s head. The engaged couple got to the finals and Ellen mentioned that the woman in the final was there with her fiancé, and my 8-year-old asked, “How can two women be engaged?” Side disclaimer: I have nothing against anyone marrying anyone. I believe you fall in love with who you fall in love with. If you find happiness and respect and connection, God bless. I know the religious arguments and debates. I also know that heterosexual couples who get divorced because of adultery are not excommunicated either, and in my tenets of belief, that seems way more against God’s wishes than falling for someone who shares your chromosome combination. Yes, that’s my humble belief. And I will have no problem sharing those beliefs with my kids and allow them to craft their own beliefs. But I’d like to have those conversations on my own timeframe, not dropped in our living room 15 minutes before the kids head to bed, if that makes sense. I don’t know if there is an answer for anyone else to propose here. I certainly do not want same-sex couples to not be on TV or be asked not to talk about themselves or those they love. But, I would like to be able to enjoy some mindless TV game show or family show or whatever without having any of the real-life issues – abortion, immigration, same-sex marriage to name but three – dropped on my 8-year-old’s mind, if that makes sense before we head upstairs and pick between reading The Pout-Pout Fish or The Giving Tree before bed.
Speaking of commercials, has Phil the average color commentator for those AT&T commercials passed Flo as the pitch person who has reached the “Fingernails on the chalkboard” top spot of annoyance. I say yes. (And who gave the green light to Orange-Vanilla Coke? Seriously?)
CBS executives. Wow, a Duke-UK title game would have been HUGE. Texas Tech-UVa, not so much.