Weekend winners
The Yankees. Baseball’s winter meetings are this week and the Yankees are expected to announce a monster deal to bring monster slugger Giancarlo Stanton to the Bronx. Wow, that’s going to be a monster lineup in NYC: If you go Gardner (.264, 21 homers, 63 RBIs), Aaron Judge (.284-52-114), Stanton (.281-59-132), Gary Sanchez (.278-33-90), and DiDi Gregorius (.287-25-87) as the top five of your order, that’s strong. On average that’s .279 with 38 homers and 97 RBIs per dude. Read that again, and know Stanton would be the third reigning MVP to be traded in the offseason. (The first was in 1914 when the Philadelphia A’s traded Eddie Collins to the White Sox for $50,000. The other was A-Rod going to the Yankees before the 2004 season.)
Jimmy Garoppolo. Jimmy G has won back-to-back starts with the San Francisco 49ers. He is 4-0 in his career, and if it all ended today, he would be the record-holder for career winning percentage. (Yes, there are almost a dozen other QBs with a 1.000 winning percentage as a starter, but none of the others are better than 3-0.) Still, Jimmy G’s career is far from over. And so are the paychecks. He is completing two-thirds of his throws and averaging 9.0 yards per attempt. He has solidified himself as either getting a one-year, $20-plus-million franchise tag deal from the 49ers or a long-term deal from someone. CHA-ching.
Baker Mayfield. The controversial Oklahoma Sooners quarterback won the Heisman Trophy on Saturday. Oklahoma now has six Heisman winners, one behind Notre Dame and THE Ohio State. (USC has six officially since Reggie Bush had to give his back.) While we are here, thought TFP all-around college football whiz and Press Row cohort David Paschall had a nice recap of Kirtk Herbstreit getting a little crow to eat over the weekend. It was prepared by UT defensive back Rashaan Gaulden who pointed out the opposite opinions Herbstreit had on Gaulden’s double-bird salute to Alabama fans – which Herbie completely trashed – and Mayfield’s crotch-grabbing, obscenity tirade – which Herbie waved off as spirit and feistiness. Herbstreit owned the juxtaposition and apologized to Gaulden.
Army. Man, that was a fun game. In the story. All the tradition. All the energy and passion from the future leaders of our country, be them on the field on in the stands. In the end Army held on for a 14-13 win – an upset and an under that we discussed on Friday. (Side note: Our college football picks finished the year 50-30-1 with those final two selections. That’s a nice, round 62.5 percent. Good times.)
The NFL. Wow, what a finish to week 14 of the season. The snow game in Buffalo. The Cowboys staying alive in playoff contention. The Packers doing the same, and making it very possible that Aaron Rodgers can make a comeback bet week in a game that matters. The Rams-Eagles game was fantastic, and we are moving a little slowly this morning because the Steelers-Ravens was too fun to turn off. While we are talking about the Steelers, Pittsburgh’s Killer B’s were devastating in a 39-38 win that secured the AFC North. Le’Veon Bell scored three times; Antonio Brown caught 11 passes for 213 yards; Chris Boswell kicked four field goals; Ben Roethlisberger threw for 506 yards. Rothlisberger’s three career games with at least 500 yards passing are the most all-time.
Weekend losers
The NFL. While the action was awesome this weekend, another emerging superstar was seriously injured. Philadelphia, which looked the part of Super Bowl contender and chief competition to the Patriots, won the game at L.A. but may have lost the war. Carson Wentz, he of the league-leading 33 TD passes and a 7-to-4 MVP pick in Vegas, hurt his knee Sunday and there are fears it was an ACL tear. He would join the star-studded roster of big names that have missed monster parts of this year. And now, after the best slate of games this season, the NFL is now pondering what to do with the players involvement in the postgame melee on the field in Jacksonville.
Everyone involved in the end of the Seattle-Jacksonville game. From the contentious fight as time was running out after the Seattle defense submarined the Jags offensive line on the kneel down to the ugly scene as Quentin Jefferson tried to climb into the stands to fight some drunken jackwagon fans who were yelling and throwing beer at him, it was not a good look at all. If you think the NFL numbers are declining already, have a defensive lineman rip a season-ticket holder’s head off and see what happens. This is not defending the absolutely goof balls in the stands; throwing things on the field is never acceptable. But right behind putting your hands on a referee has to be fighting fans. (Also of note here is the claim of one of Jefferson’s teammates that the N-bomb was used from the stands. OK. Hey we weren’t there, but there were black and white Jags fans yelling at Jefferson and no one flinched at the most unacceptable insult that almost certainly would have made some head turns in the stands, too.)
Hue Jackson. Wow, with less than two minutes to play the Browns have the ball and a 21-14 lead. But the Browns being the Browns, well, let’s just say they dropped the Browns off a few steps short of the Super Bowl. Jackson is now 1-28 as a head coach in Cleveland and 9-36 overall. (He went 8-8 in one year with the Raiders.) How bad is that, well, of the 489 dudes who have ever served as an NFL head coach, Jackson being 27 games under .500 has him tied at 473rd on that list. That said, he has a ways to go to reach Marion Campbell, who is DFL on the list at 34-80-1 and 46 games under .500. (Also of note, Steve Sapgnuolo, the interim Giants head coach, dropped to 29 games under – 10-39 – with Sunday’s fourth-quarter meltdown against Dallas.)
Those poor folks left in the Ron and Mike Survivor Pool. A survivor pool is an NFL picks contest in which everyone puts up a certain amount of money. Each picker picks one NFL game a week and that game must win or you are out. Just winners. No spreads. The kicker is you can only pick a team once all year, so now a lot of pickers would be getting to choosing between, say, the Jags and Titans, which feels a lot like suicide. Anyhoo, Ron and Mike’s Pool is one of the largest in the country and had tens of thousands of players. Heck, the guys who run the pool even copyrighted the name. Heading into last weekend, there were at least three pools with millions at stake that had a couple of dozen players still alive. And the Feds shut it all down. Cue Bluto from Animal House: “They took the bar. The whole (bleepin’) bar.”
Baseball Hall of Fame standards. Hey, we think Jack Morris has been a Hall of Fame from the jump, if for no other reason than he was the best postseason pitcher of his generation. But Alan Stinkin’ Trammell? To catch you up, there were a handful of dudes that were on the ballot from the ‘modern era’ which somehow falls between the amphetamines era and the PED era in that 1970-87 window. Yes, Morris has the highest ERA of any pitcher in the Hall, but still. But we would have been fine without Morris in the Hall than some sham committee adding extras in after the fact. And simply put, that Trammell – who never won an MVP – made it in over Murphy, is staggering. We’ve never understood the candidates who some how, some way get much better six, eight, 15 years after they are done playing is baffling. There should be three chances to be on the ballot. First ballot, an honor reserved for about 10 percent of players ever. The no-brainers. The second-year guys, guys that are Hall of Famers but not first-ballot guys. Then one year on the veterans committee and then that’s it. This is not the Hall of Really Good or even the Hall of Great. This is the Hall of Fame, and adding folks like Trammell really seem to water it down.
College football ratings. Yes, CBS reported that the numbers for the Army-Navy broadcast set a 23-year high, but the rest of the news for almost all the rest of the networks paying huge dollars for the rights to show college football took a kick to the shorts. According to college football rating guru Austin Karp, who is the assistant managing editor of Sports Business Daily, CBS, ABC, NBC and ESPN posted heavy decreases in viewership this season. Fox was the only one to post gains, and those gains were significant due to the network’s new Big Ten deal.
TV bounce back for CFB?
Before we get to the Bowling for Bowls of Bowl Game Success (Bowl optional) contest, let’s expound on the numbers Mr. Karp dropped on the college football TV ratings.
First, this caveat, there were more eyeballs total watching college football than ever this year because of the growing number of platforms. Tuesdays and Wedensdays MACtion. Thursday night games. Friday night Pac-12 games. Saturday games from noon to midnightand beyond. More networks – heck every SEC football game can be watched by almost anyone across the South – offering more games than ever.
But the ratings – especially in the big portals for the big TV deals that drive advertising revenue to its peak, which is what TV networks need to be able to offer those monster deals – were noticeable lower.
Here are the averages, via Mr. Karp and his fine work at the Sports Business Daily:
CBS: 4.951 million viewers, down 10% from 5.489 million in 2016.
ABC: 4.203 million, down 18% from 5.097 million.
Fox: 3.625 million, up 23% from 2.951 million.
NBC: 2.742, down 3% from 2.814 million.
ESPN: 2.155 million, down 6% from 2.300 million.
FS1: 819,000, up 4% from 743,000.
The CBS SEC package was again the most watched on average but that number was its lowest in more than a decade, and a lot of that had to do with a very top-heavy SEC in which Auburn, Alabama and Georgia blew a lot of folks out.
When asked about his conclusions of the numbers by SI sports media wizard Richard Deitsch, here’s something of note from Karp: “Networks like CBS and ESPN need to see improvement from some big-time programs like Texas, Tennessee, Florida, Nebraska and maybe even an Oregon. That would increase the availability of bigger games for those networks.”
So there’s that.
On to the contest. We have more than 30 entries already. Deadline is Friday friends and all picks must be in by end of BID-ness on Friday, Dec. 15. Entries must be emailed – yes emailed – to me at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com.
Dilly. Dilly.
Note: Most of these games are in chronological order as they appear on the schedule. The Arizona Bowl is in late December, and we did not see the need to have NMSU and USU be a five-pointer.
ONE POINT GAMES (6 points possible)
New Orleans Bowl: Troy (-5.5) vs. North Texas
Autonation Care Bowl: Georgia State (-4.5) vs. Western Kentucky
Las Vegas Bowl: Oregon (-7.5) vs. Boise State
New Mexico Bowl: Colorado State (-5.5) vs. Marshall
Camellia Bowl: Arkansas State (-3.5) vs. MTSU
Arizona Bowl: New Mexico State (-3.5) vs. Utah State
TWO-POINT GAMES (12 points possible)
Cheribundi Tart Cherry (now that’s a name) Boca Raton Bowl: FAU (-23) vs. Akron
Frisco Bowl: SMU (-5.5) vs. La. Tech
Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl (another excellent name): Temple (-7.5) vs. FIU
Bamahas Bowl: Ohio (-7.5) vs. UAB
Famous Idaho Potato Bowl: Wyoming (pick em) vs. Central Michigan
Birmingham Bowl: South Florida (-2.5) vs. Texas Tech
THREE-POINT GAMES (21 points possible)
Armed Forces Bowl: Army (pick em) vs. San Diego State
Dollar General Bowl: Toldeo (-7.5) vs. App. State
Hawaii Bowl: Fresno State (-3.5) vs. Houston
Heart of Dallas Bowl: Utah (-6.5) vs. West Virginia
Quick Lane Bowl: Duke (-3.5) over Northern Illinois
Catcus Bowl: Kansas State (-2.5) vs. UCLA
Independence Bowl: FSU (-14.5) vs. Southern Miss
FOUR-POINT GAMES (28 points possible)
Pinstripe Bowl: Iowa (-3.5) vs. Boston College
Foster Farms: Arizona (-3.5) vs. Purdue
Texas Bowl: Missouri (-3.5) vs. Texas
Military Bowl: Navy (-3.5) vs. Virginia
Camping World Bowl: Oklahoma State (-6.5) vs. Virginia Tech
Holiday Bowl: Michigan State (-3.5) vs. Washington State
Alamo Bowl: TCU (-2.5) vs. Stanford
FIVE-POINT GAMES (30 points possible)
Belk Bowl: Wake Forest (-2.5) vs. Texas A&M
Sun Bowl: N.C. State (-6.5) vs. Arizona State
Music City: Northwestern (-7.5) vs. Kentucky
Outback Bowl: Michigan (-7.5) vs. South Carolina
Taxslayer Bowl: Louisville (-6.5) vs. Mississippi State
Liberty Bowl: Memphis (-3.5) vs. Iowa State
SIX-POINT GAMES (30 points possible)
Cotton Bowl: THE Ohio State (-6.5) vs. USC
Fiesta Bowl: Penn State (-2.5) vs. Washington
Orange Bowl: Wisconsin (-6.5) vs. Miami
Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl: Auburn (-9.5) vs. UCF
Citrus Bowl: LSU (-3.5) vs. Notre Dame
SEVEN-POINT SEMIFINALS (14 points possible)
Rose Bowl: Georgia (-1) vs. Oklahoma
Sugar Bowl: Alabama (-2) vs. Clemson
TEN POINT BONUS (10 points possible)
NATIONAL CHAMPION (no line, just the winner):
This and that
– Speaking of the Hall of Fame stuff up above, thought this Tweet from Dale Murphy was completely classy: “Again thanks to all for your support for the HOF and the Modern Era ballot. We appreciate it so much! Congratulations to Jack Morris and Alan Trammell. Well deserved!”
– How this for a winter time golf trick shot? Good stuff.
– The Titans offense is extremely limited. Do not know if those limitations are because of Marcus Mariota’s ability to throw the ball 15-plus yards. Do not know if those limitations are because of a receiving corp that, other than Delanie Walker, is so void of playmakers that in the last-gasp play of Sunday’s 12-7 loss to Arizona, Mariota forced a pass to Adoree’ Jackson, a rookie cornerback who is getting some time at receiver too. Don not know if those limitations are because of a very Don Shula, pre-Marino gameplan that is run at left tackle on first down, run around right tackle on second down and throw the checkdown on third-and-8 for 5 yards before punting. Tennessee had eight sacks and did not allow a TD on the road and still lost. Dick LeBeau, you sir know what the heck you are doing coaching defense.
– My NFL picks ah, the Chuck Worley 2-and-2. Yet again. And kudos to A Reader for writing in last week wanting more college – and less NFL – picks. Our college numbers are salty; our NFL mark of 27-28-1 is not at all entertaining.
– Speaking of inexplicable dichotomies, did you know that in overtime games, including the playoffs, Packers quarterback Brett Hundley is now 2-0. His predecessor Aaron Rodgers is 1-7 in games decided in overtime. So there’s that.
– Speaking of eye-popping stats, Russell Wilson now has 15 fourth-quarter TD passes this season. It’s the most in a single season in NFL history, edging Eli Manning’s mark of 15 in 2011. We have three NFL games left.
– One more item here: How Tom Savage got back on the field after an obvious concussion Sunday in Houston’s loss to San Francisco is at best puzzling and at worst completely guts any seriousness in which the public things the NFL and its players are worried about injuries. Here’s a Tweet we saw from a brain doctor on Sunday evening: “Disgusted that the @HoustonTexans allowed Tom Savage to return to the game after 2 plays after showing these horrifying #concussion signs (is that a seizure?) after a head impact. I would not let my worst enemy go through the 2017 #NFL sideline concussion protocol” Wow.
Today’s questions
Weekend winners and losers. Yes, please.
We are two weeks from Christmas. Are you ready?
Hailee Steinfeld is 21 today. DJ Yella of NWA fame is 50. Wow, that’s a hard-lived 50. Nikki Sixx is 59 today. That also likely a very hard-lived 59.
John Kerry is 74.
Hey, the Mayflower pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock on this day in 1620.
On this day in 1972, Apollo 17, the sixth and final moon landing, happened.
As for Rushmores, this week, we’re all about the new Stars Wars. It hits theaters on Friday and will likely break all sorts of records and make billions.
Hey we got a 10-year-old who is all in. In fact, the Star Wars saga was on TV this weekend, and well, we’re pretty well re-caught up. (At least on the classic three of our generation. Jar-Jar Binks can take a long walk off a short Death Star.)
Anyhoo, our first Star Wars-related Rushmore: Rushmore of movie franchises. Have to have have at least three films. But these are more than money-making trilogies ‘ looking at you Pitch Perfect. These are sagas. Think the Skywalkers or the Corleones.
Go.