Let’s handle our business and start with the Rushmores.
Rushmore of TV bosses. People — Michael Scott, Tony Soprano, Lou Grant, Louie De Palma; Cartoons — Montgomery Burns, Mr. Slate, Mr. Spacely, Mr. Krabbs.
Rushmore of country music over the past 40 years: Garth, King George, Kenny Chesney and Willie Nelson.
Rushmore of George C. Scott movies: “Patton,” “Taps,” “A Christmas Carol” and “The Hustler” (and that’s feeling bad because he was excellent in “Exorcist III,” which scared the pants off me).
Rushmore of actors with the most-famous middle initial: George C. Scott, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael J. Fox and Michael B. Jordan.
Also, Evander Holyfield is 61. Rushmore of boxers after Muhammad Ali retired? Tyson, Mayweather, Sugar Ray Leonard, Manny Pacquiao.
You know the rules. Here’s Paschall with some UT-Bama story lines.
More rules. Here’s Hargis on high school football. This is Bryce Harper-seeing-an-82-mph-fastball level crushed.
Here’s this week’s “Bets and Ballgames” podcast with my man Brian Edwards and me.
To the bag.
From Tyler
Jay, What the hell man?!?! Your picks Thursday were for Wednesday’s games!!!
Dude, I depend on you!
Tyler,
Not sure how that happened, but it had to be some sort of glitch that was my bust.
I am truly sorry for that. That said, my picks last night were off base — I was on Philly and their over — other than James Madison covering the number against Marshall, but that one was in the Fab 4 I think.
I’ll double check on that and try to make sure that doesn’t happen again.
From Matthew
Jay, been reading your picks. Are you lucky or are you this good?
Matthew,
Not sure. Can I say yes?
I will say, I take an immense amount of pride in making sure I do my research.
I also should try to do a better job of limiting the number of picks I offer.
Last night we would have gone 1-3. But this week — Wednesday I think — was a year to the day we started this thing and the numbers are pretty strong.
And yes, I occasionally get something from a random reader — normally when I have a 1-3 night — that my numbers are propped.
I know there are more than a few of the regulars around here who are also on the email newsletter and I am 100% comfortable asking any of them to vouch for my numbers because the one thing I made sure the bosses knew up front was that I had to be 100% transparent in this or it would fail early and badly.
The 1FTM pick is now 178-118-1, so, depending on the odds of such picks, that’s a tidy sum.
And since last night was a no-show, we’re plus-96.024 units overall.
We have had some good lucky. But that’s pretty dagnabbin’ good too.
From JoeDon
JG —
I enjoy your daily reads and typically support your arguments. But not on Justin Herbert. He is not “a dude.”
Why does everyone continue to defend this guy?
In 54 career games, he’s 27-27. Dude’s don’t play .500 ball in three+ seasons. The Chargers had two weeks and one day get ready for MNF … at home … and Herbert was pedestrian. In fact, 27-27 is a pedestrian career thus far, and he gets to play the Broncos and Raiders twice each season.
Big Tuna Parcells says: “You are what your record says you are.” Herbert is a .500 QB, not a dude.
JoeDon,
Yes, his record is the very definition of mediocre, but before I get to Justin Herbert’s case, we need to explore the W-L record as a fair QB stat.
Is it a fair gauge? In some ways yes. Great QBs win, sure; but was Dan Marino better than Terry Bradshaw at QBing?
Was Joe Montana better than Peyton Manning?
Herbert checks a lot of boxes physically, and maybe he is more “He’s crazy, I want you bad” Nuke LaLoosh than “Rayanne, that’s a beautiful name” Nuke LaLoosh at the moment.
But there are not many teams in the league who would say no right now if the Chargers called and said, “Let’s trade QB1s?”
The Chiefs, the Bills and the Bengals are hanging up the phone.
The rest of the league is listening for sure, and either checking the salary cap to make sure it’s doable or running to the locker room to pack their current QB1’s stuff.
And if you are a top-five talent at the most critical position in sports, doesn’t that by definition — more than W-Ls — make you a dude?
From Pat
The website awful announcing is asking readers to rate the postseason announce teams. I gave Bob Costas and Ron Darling a D. And that was before last night.
In the span of a few short minutes, we had this: Costas saying the Diamondbacks are playing for the double play around second. Which is fine. Except there were already two outs.
Then, there was a graphic showing how many balls and how many strikes the Dodgers reliever Grove (obviously not a descendant of Lefty, because this guy stinks) had thrown. A minute later, Darling chimes in. “He’s thrown a lot more balls than strikes.” Yeah, thanks Ron, the graphic that was up three pitches ago told us that. Thanks a ton.
Pat,
Costas has fallen into the George Will category of “I am the conscience and authority of this game” territory.
And it’s watered-down his former greatness. It happens.
That said, the play-by-play guy that’s working with Jeff Francoeur has been aces. As has Francoeur.
In fact, Braves fans better brace for Frenchy to head to a national platform. He’s been good in these playoffs.
And while we’re here, the TBS studio show is trying to match its NBA studio show but falling way short.
Thanks for the question and all the support, friends.
Have a great weekend.