Weekend winners
Golf fans looking for drama. On the PGA Tour there were guys standing over 5-footers to decide if they were going to have a PGA Tour card next year. On the Web.com Tour, a slew of local names were changing and re-arranging how next week could look. In the U.S. Amateur, two dudes were playing for a lifetime title and had arguably one of the best finishes in match play we’ve seen in a long time. (Congrats to Clemson golfer Doc Redman, who won on the first playoff hole.) That was fun.
Speaking of the golfers with local ties, the Web.com Tour in Knoxville could have been renamed the Chattanooga Metro on Sunday. Jonathan Hodge (former UTC golfer) finished second and made $59,400. Baylor School grads Keith Mitchell finished tied for third ($31,900) and Stephan Jaeger tied for seventh ($16,568.75). Jaeger has clinched his spot on the PGA Tour next season; he’s second on the money list with more than $278K. The top 25 get promoted to the PGA Tour. Hodge is 34th; Mitchell is 36th.
High school football fans. Week Zero – yes, that’s arguably the silliest name in sports – in Tennessee is in the books and there were several standout performances and upsets. Ty Boeck scored three touchdowns as Soddy-Daisy toppled Red Bank. Cleveland scored late to shock Rhea County. East Hamilton held off an improved Signal Mountain bunch. Good times.
Baseball. The pennant races – well, other than the Dodgers – are starting to tighten. The Little League World Series is fun. (Side note: Hey, baseball, notice how excited those kids are when someone hits a homer? Is that against the fabric of the game? If so, why are those 12-year-olds not brushing back the next hitter? Oh never mind.) The fact that the Cards-Pirates played at Williamsport was awesome, too. Good times.
Mark Richt. Dude is and has always been a class act. Last weekend’s social media efforts only add to that fact.
FILE – In this Aug. 23, 2016 file photo, former Los Angeles Lakers star Magic Johnson speaks at a groundbreaking ceremony for a stadium which will be home to the Los Angeles Football Club in Los Angeles. The Boston Celtics are trying to go from No. 1 seed to No. 1 pick. The Los Angeles Lakers don’t need to be first, but they sure better not be worse than third. There’s plenty at stake for the NBA’s greatest champions on Tuesday, May 16, 2017, in the draft lottery. (AP Photo/Nick Ut, File) Weekend losers
The Indiana Pacers. The Pacers are claiming Magic Johnson tampered with Paul George, and a large part of the evidence is Johnson’s interview with Jimmy Kimmel. Man, the Pacers are headed to Hawks-ville.
Seattle Seahawks. We talk about it a lot – the only thing that really matters in preseason is health. Who can stay healthy; who loses key pieces? The Seahawks have a lot of stars, but their offensive line is a huge question mark. And that was before losing starting left tackle George Fant to a torn ACL this weekend. Ouch-standing.
Comedy fans. We lost Jerry Lewis, who died last weekend. He was 91. He also became the face of telethons everywhere. And in all the great advancements in technology we can all agree that the calls begging for money are way worse than the old-school telethons.
Indiana compliance department. How does this happen? And how does it seemingly happen every year. An IU defensive back will be ineligible because the folks behind the desks stirred him incorrectly.
DeMaurice Smith. The boss of the NFL players association made some headlines this weekend, telling Monday Morning Quarterback that a lockout/strike is almost a certainty when the current CBA expires in 2021. That’s the first part. The bad part for Smith is news that Roger Goodell is about to get a contract extension through the 2024 season. A + B = the players will have to look long and hard about whether they should replace Smith – lockout or no – because simply put, he and Goodell simply can’t stand each other.
Alabama quarterback Jalen Hurts takes a snap from center Bradley Bozeman (75) during Saturday’s scrimmage that was briefly halted by rain.Poll position
The AP poll comes out today at noon.
Yay. Or boo. Or both. Or neither. (Psst, don’t tell anyone, but we feel pretty sure that Alabama, FSU and THE Ohio State will be highly regarded. Maybe even the top three. Who knows? Oh the excitement.)
Anyhoo, as for the poll, we’re not sure what purpose a preseason ranking serves. Some will argue that it gets people talking about college football and that’s a good thing.
Maybe that’s the case, but in the 24/7 sports news cycle aren’t we already talking about college football a lot already, especially less than two weeks before the full opening weekend. We also don’t know that it hurts anything, especially in the day and age of the college football playoff that has four teams picked by a committee of folks in a Hilton somewhere in December.
And to be fair, now that the committee releases those team rankings come late October and those rankings are way more important, the biggest question as we are waiting on the poll is not who is ranked atop the poll as much as it’s do we even need the AP poll anymore?
Thoughts?
This and that
– Anquan Boldin announced his retirement this weekend, which gave cause to the discussion of his Hall of Fame candidacy. Bolden’s numbers are better than you may realize, but dude only made three Pro Bowls. Maybe he gets in at some point – he’s ninth all-time in catches – but if he or Steve Smith or Andre Johnson get into Canton before Terrell Owens, then everyone with a ballot should be ashamed.
– Speaking of local ties, former Signal Mountain High School star Reese Phillips has locked down the starting quarterback job at Montana. He was listed as QB coming out of spring and put away all doubts with a glowing showing in a scrimmage Saturday.
– Nick Saban does not have the solar eclipse fever. Huge shock, right?
– This is a crazy stat: Bartolo Colon now has a win over all 30 MLB clubs. How long has Colon, who added the D-Backs to over the weekend to complete the MLB sweep, been around? His first win came before the D-Backs had ever played a game.
– Here’s a story about a dad who pulled a Luke Duke and jumped a rising draw bridge with his family in the car after the bridge started to rise when they were right there. Crazy stuff.
Today’s question
Got a weekend winner? Please share. Got a weekend loser? Add it to the list.
Today is eclipse day. Do you have the fever? We’re tepid at best.
As a side question in honor of today’s big event: Which monster sports record has the best chance to be ‘eclipsed’ sooner rather than later? Go. (We’d start with Kareem’s all-time points; safest is Cy Young’s career wins.)
On this day in 1911, the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre. It was recovered two years later. On this day in 1959, Hawaii became a state. On this day in 2000, Tiger beat Bob May in a playoff at the PGA. it was his third major of the year.
Wilt Chamberlain would have 81 today. Usain Bolt is 31. Hayden Panettiere is 28.
Also, Kenny Rogers is 79 today (his face is 14). If we did a Rushmore of most popular country musicians of all-time, we think Kenny makes a strong case. (Notice we did not best, we said most popular.)
So, in honor of Kenny’s wildly underrated “Six Pack” let’s go here: Rushmore of movies with a popular singer as its star. Go.