OK, we’re going to try to move quickly this morning.
Today is our 13th wedding anniversary, and the family went to the scene of the nuptials to celebrate. (We were married in Church in the Pines on Lake Martin right outside of Alex City, Ala. And yes, when we got our marriage license in Fort Payne, one of the questions was “Are you two related?” To make matters worse, the next line was not “Please turn this application in now; this is not happening” but simply, “How?” Egad. War Eagle.)
Anyhow, we woke up this morning 3 and a half hours from Chatty-Vegas. Wrote the 5-at-10; pulled a Bandit routine North (sub the Trans Am for a black Tahoe, and you get the idea) to get to school registration, an A2 column and the radio.
Full day, with loads of coffee.
That said, we owe a monster thanks and I love you to the Mrs. 5-at-10 today. Hard to believe it’s been 13 years, and for all us Southern wildnecks who were lucky enough to find women to put up with us, well, you guys know. War Women.
From the “Talks too much satellite studios” with our toes in the water, let’s do this.
Weekend winners
Everyone involved in this morning’s Mark Wiedmer’s column. Form the Belcher family, to Blake himself, to all of the Tennessee Titans who made a magical day for a sick guy come to life, this made me happy to be a sports fan. And someone who will certainly now wants those Titans to succeed even more than before. Also of note: Weeds did not mention it in his column, but it was his original piece that got this ball rolling, and that makes me proud to be his colleague. War Everyone.
Hideki Matsuyama. It’s only a matter of time before this cat wins a major, right? Dude was aces against a stout leaderboard all weekend at the Bridgestone. He dropped a 9-under 61 on Sunday and now has three PGA wins this year and leads the Fed Ex Cup standings.
The Dodgers. Yes, we are a Dodgers fan. And yes, it feels like we put them here every Monday. But this weekend, the Dodgers closed a 50-game stretch at 43-7, become the first MLB team in more than a century to do that. They got to that mark in Saturday’s debut of pitcher Yu Darvish, who became the first Dodgers pitcher since 1900 with 10-plus Ks and one ore fewer walk in his first start with the team.
The NFL Hall of Fame festivities. From the preseason game to all the speeches – and yes, we’re a sucker for those sappy filibusters – it was a home run. And to prove we are a) starved for football and b) the NFL should be mildly concerned but not overly worried about last year’s declining TV numbers, check this out: The preseason HoF opener between a lot of guys who will not be Cowboys and a lot of guys who will not be Cardinals drew 8.2 million viewers. Barring the NBA Finals or the World Series, the top numbers for the rest of the playoffs in pro basketball and baseball were 8.1 million for Game 1 of Spurs-Warriors in the Western Conference Finals and 9.7 million – which was a monster outlier – for the Cubs clinching the NL pennant. (All other MLB games were lower than 8.5 million.)
Yes, we’ve given Bartolo Colon a fair amount of grief around these parts. Well, over the weekend, Twins righty Colon became the oldest pitcher to throw a complete game in the American League since some dude named Nolan Ryan did it in 1992. And yes, when you and Nolan Ryan are on a list together, that’s generally a good thing.
FILE – This Feb. 3, 2017 file photo shows Atlanta Falcons cornerback Jalen Collins (32) throwing during a practice for the NFL Super Bowl 51 football game in Houston. For the second straight year, Collins will be suspended for the start of the season for a violation of the league’s policy on performance enhancers. The NFL announced Sunday, Aug. 6, 2017 that Collins has been suspended without pay for the first 10 games of the 2017 season. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, file) Weekend losers
Jalen Collins. The former LSU star has been suspended for 10 games for a second PED violation. Collins filled in nicely for the Atlanta Falcons after Desmond Trufant was injured last year and looked to be part of a deep and dynamic collection of corners for the Falcons.
Usher. The former Chattanooga resident and current pop superstar has been served with three more lawsuits alleging he knowingly passed along an STD. The lawsuits were filed by two women and a man.
Josh Doctson. The Redskins rookie was torching preseason drills and offered what looked to be a fine replacement to DeSean Jackson. Dotson, though, spent all of Sunday’s practice in the trainer’s tent and limped off the field without taking questions. No es bueno.
College football fans. Yes, the pads are popping and everyone is counting down the season one way or another. But here comes another way the powers that be are closing access, this time at Notre Dame. Want to know the other crazy thing? Because of the spin of lovable coaches – and every other big-named jack wagon who blames the “evil media” for whatever ails them – fans probably like this limited access.
Usain Bolt. Yes, for most folks a third-place finish in a world sprinting championship would not merit this landing spot. But Bolt is not most people. To make matters worse, it was his final race of his career – allegedly. That said, if he wanted to say he’s the fastest non-University of Tennessee sprinter on the planet right now, he certainly could since Justin Gatlin and Christian Coleman – the former was a Vol, the latter still is a Vol – took one and two.
Definition of sportsmanship
OK, we thought this was very interesting on a lot of levels.
A 12-14 Little League softball team from Atlee – a suburb of Richmond, Va. – was disqualified from its regional championship game for a SnapChat photo of about half the team flipping birds directed to tournament host Kirkland (Wash.) after a heated semifinal game in which Atlee won after Kirkland was accused of stealing signs and even had a player and a coach ejected.
The Atlee coach protested the Little League Inc. ruling but to no avail. Here’s some more on the story.
Now, since we are talking sportsmanship – especially among kids – we were wondering if the ‘sportsmanship’ angle applies to the South Carolina 12-year-old who surrendered this monster shot from a Peachtree City, Ga., slugger that is making all the rounds on social media and websites as big as USA Today.
Yes, there’s a clear line. One was a kid’s success – albeit in a soul-crushing way over a preteen who will live in internet infamy – and that’s cool. But the other was a bunch of preteens doing something stupid on social media, which is about as rare as speeding in today’s society. (The biggest problem, here, unfortunately is that any longterm lessons that could be gleaned here will forever be washed away by the coach’s protest and likely the parents’ blaming the association or the host or anyone but the girls for the result.)
Hey, it was unsportsmanlike conduct for sure, and while the punishment may be harsh, some punishment was merited considering the way the rules are written.
And after all, considering the nature of the stupid ‘unwritten’ rules in baseball and softball, next time instead of a relatively harmless social media picture, the Atlee softball team can turn to the sportsmanlike, traditionally accepted answer for all disputes and throw pitches as hard as they can at people’s head.
Deal? Deal.
This and that
– Local golf round-up: Luke List tied for 29th at the Barracuda Championship. He made $21,450 and moved to 44th on the Fed Ex Cup points list. Harris English finished 53rd and made $7,788 in the same event. Keith Mitchell finished tied for 11th at the Ellie May Classic and made $12,720. Dude dropped a 64 on Sunday to move up the board. With a 65 Sunday, Stephan Jaeger moved into a tie for 20th at and made $6,500 in the same Web.com event. Jonathan Hodge, the former UTC player, was a shot back of Jaeger and tied fro 26th, which meant $4,529.60.
– Side note: While Jaeger’s big finish moved him to No. 2 on the money list, his Tour card was already punched. Keith Mitchell may have been the big winner of that group. Consider this: He moved to 50th on the money list this year with a really nice night on the town shy of than $92,000. He’s a couple of big finishes or a win from really jumping up the leaderboard. Plus, the magical 25th spot, which would mean a PGA Tour card for next season, is less than $40K away. Is that a big jump with roughly six weeks left in the season? Yes, yes it is. But Mitchell, who also was the leader this week in driving distance at more than 328 yards per drive, has more top 25 finishes this year than Jaeger. And if that elusive win comes, look out. (It also would mean four former Baylor School golfers could be on the PGA Tour next year.)
– Aside from all the hubbub about Jay Cutler signing with the Dolphins is this amazing stat: Since 2001, there have only been two starting quarterbacks to win the AFC East: Tom Brady and Chad Pennington, who did it twice for the Jets. So yeah, the Cutler jazz-hands experiment is much ado about nothing more than Colin Kaepernick.
– Speaking of that, and we’re sure we do not need to write it again, but we’re stunned by how many of the national guys are letting emotion and hot takes dictate the Kaepernick dialog. We’ve said all along that it was going to take a starting quarterback to get injured for Kaepernick to get a serious look, because, not unlike Tim Tebow, the baggage and distracts and business hit that comes with Kaepernick is not worth it for signing a guy you hope holds a clipboard for the next six months. Now, if it’s the difference between winning nine games and contending for the playoffs rather than winning four games without your starting QB – and not needing a QB next April in the draft – then that makes it worth the potential PR and financial hits. That said, Miami was the worst place for Kaepernicks because a) Adam Gase has a rich history with Cutler and b) while his flag protest offended the Americans in Miami, his Castro T-Shirt ticked off the Cubans in Miami. In fact, Miami may have been the place Kaep’s Q-rating is the lowest.
– Remember, starting tonight at midnight ESPNU becomes ESPN the Ocho. We’re a little needlessly excited about this for some reason.
Today’s question
Weekend winners? Weekend losers?
Help yourself.
As for today, Aug. 7, well, in addition to our anniversary, it’s the birthday of a couple current top stars in their respective sports.
Mike Trout turns 26 today, and moves off the list of best athletes 25-and-under. Sidney Crosby is 30. Charlize Theron is 42 today. Don Larsen was born on this day in 1929.
Also of note, Carl Switzer – better known as Alfalfa in the “Little Rascals” – would have been 90 today. Wayne Knight is 62 today. Newman.
On this day in 1955, Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering started selling its first transistor radio. Stock of that corporation would do OK in the end. That company became Sony.
Oliver Hardy died on this day in 1957.
Peter Jennings died on this day in 2005.
Let’s go there. In this age of so many “Fake News” claims, were Jennings and Dan Rather the last two network faces that were viewed as trustworthy by both sides?
Rushmore of National TV news people. Go.