Weekend winners
All of us. College football returns this week. It’s game week, and that’s a great thing. (For those wondering, yes, we are bringing the picks back this year. We’ve been doing college football picks – against the number – since 2011, and we’re hovering around 60 percent, which is, shall we say, highly entertaining. Plus we find it, you know, actually entertaining.)
Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos. Yes, the Braves have overachieved all season. And yes, most of those players were assembled by the previous (rule-breaking) regime. But this weekend especially, Anthopoulos can feel really good about his job. Know this: The Braves absolutely had to have another starting pitcher for the pennant chase. No ifs, ands, ors, or buts. But, Anthopoulos also did not want to break the minor league system or commit to a monster (bloated) salary heading into the offseason with major bucks to spend and a real contender for 2019. So he added Kevin Gausman from Baltimore and nixed a trade for the more coveted and the way more highly regard Chris Archer, who has a monster upside but was dealt to Pittsburgh for a slew of prospects. The results: Gausman is 4-1 with a 1.69 ERA since coming to the Braves; Archer has a 6.45 ERA since joining the Pirates.
TFP subscribers. The College Blitz preview magazine in Sunday’s paper was excellent. No possible way to link all the college football-ly goodness. If you don’t have it – and care event moderately about the Dawgs, Mocs, SEC, Tide and Vols, – you need to track it down.
Tiger Woods. Hey we are are all for athletes sharing their thoughts. If that’s what they want to do, mind you. Apparently Tiger refused to be baited in this debate. And you know what, that’s just as much his right as it is any other athlete to start lobbing verbal jabs. In some views, the reporter asking the questions appeared to bait this generation’s most famous athlete. And Tiger’s final answer in the exchange was priceless. From the article: “No,” Woods replied when asked if he wanted to share his thoughts on race relations and discourse in the United States. “I just finished 72 holes and really hungry.”
Hawaii Little League team. If you did not watch the Fightin’ Alohas finish the drill and take home the title, well, that was your loss. This bunch was energetic, always classy, great sports and awesome ball players. And Williamsport is the Masters of pre-teen sporting events friends. (Although some of those kids look 15.)
In this Nov. 3, 2008, file photo, Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., speaks at a rally in Tampa, Fla. Aide says senator, war hero and GOP presidential candidate McCain died Saturday, Aug. 25, 2018. He was 81. Weekend losers
All of us. This was a stink-testic weekend for ‘Merica. First, John McCain, a true American hero, died on Saturday. he was 81. Then, as TFP ace sports columnist Mark Wiedmer wrote about here, https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/sports/columns/story/2018/aug/27/wiedmer-when-will-there-be-no-more-jacksonvil/477837/ three were killed senselessly at a Madden 19 video game event in Florida.
The 5-at-10 clan. For the third time in less than three weeks, I had to turn my limited writing skills toward a eulogy. In the month of August, my dad’s brother, my dad and, after last weekend, the Mrs. 5-at-10’s uncle died. Oh yes, we are ready for September. For a slew of reasons.
Our “local” NFL teams. For the most part we can all agree that the Falcons and the Titans are the ‘home’ teams of Chattanooga-area folks, right? OK. Well, we may want to start looking around. The Titans offensively have been bad. The Falcons offense dropped a slew of passes Saturday against Jacksonville and continued to settle for field goals and wasted good field position. Neither has won a preseason game, which everyone knows, is completely meaningless. But playing well does have merit, especially in Week 3 of the preseason when most of the starters play at least a half.
The state of Major League Baseball. There are talks that MLB has a tanking problem. There are questions whether more than half the teams in the league – from small-market teams like K.C. to major-market teams like Miami – have the resources and money to build winning franchises for an extended period. And to make matters worse, there’s discussions of possible expansion. Say what? The reality of baseball is much more dire. This story https://www.yahoo.com/sports/10-degrees-baseballs-attendance-woes-mlb-owners-rightfully-spooked-031815621.html details the staggering drop in attendance at MLB games across the country. MLB attendance is going to be down 3 million fans year-to-date and it will be less than 70 million for the first time since 2003. And the numbers on ‘tanking’ teams is alarming. Miami’s average attendance is down more than 50 percent (20,585 to 10,054) and Toronto’s average attendance dropped by more than 10,000.
West Virginia quarterback Will Grier’s final college season will kick off Saturday in Charlotte, N.C., against Tennessee. A handful of the Vols’ defensive players saw Grier up close when he led Florida to a 28-27 victory against them in 2015.Game week Hooray
OK, we’re going to do some breakdowns this week as we get ready for the glorious return for college football. We also, will have college football Rushmores each day. (If there are other daily oddities that require an extra Rushmore, well, then bully-bully for us.)
Today is fearless predictions, national-style.
We’ll start with the college football playoff field. Like everyone else on the planet we’ll start with Alabama and Clemson. Dude Clemson’s front seven is NFL-worthy. We know Georgia is good – very good in fact – but the challenge of duplicating last year’s run after losing so many of last year’s leaders seems daunting. Next we’ll go Washington, because we think they have a slew of not only future NFL players, but a handful of future NFL stars. Finally, we’ll go with Wisconsin. Better schedule. Excellent talent.
Lets go with five crazy predictions, shall we? I think we shall.
We are on the opposite of the Tua Tagovailoa bandwagon. Yes, we do think he’s going to be the starter. But quick, name any time that an Alabama quarterback put up the video game numbers needed to win the Heisman. Plus, Jalen Hurts will get plenty of time to make sure he’s sharp in case of injury. Crazy prediction: Tua will not even be the first team all-SEC quarterback. (And to go one step further, he won’t even have the best stats in the state.)
Crazy prediction: West Virginia will be in the Big 12 title game. Yes, that November schedule is nuts, but get them in the top two and they got a chance.
Crazy prediction: Arizona will be in the Pac-12 title game. Yes, the last big win for Kevin Sumlin that did not involve a scratch-off ticket was when Johnny Manziel was still on the reservation. Remember this name casual college football fans: Khalil Tate, the run-first, run-fast quarterback for the Wildcats. Dude is going to put up monster stats. The best bet week-in, week-out will be the over in whatever game Arizona is playing. (And West Virginia too, for that matter.)
Crazy prediction: One of the following three (and maybe all three) of Kliff Kingsbury, Larry Fedora and/or Ed Orgeron will be gone before Thanksgiving.
Crazy prediction (that is not all that crazy): Shae Patterson is going to cool the seat under Jim Harbaugh’s khakis. That kid can really sling it. (And rest assured that Michigan over Notre Dame will be a FOR-sure contender for Thursday’s picks.
This and that
– The U.S. Open starts today. We’re sure Paschall and Weeds are stoked. Side stat: Did you know the last time Roger Federer won in NYC was 2008?
– UTC freshman football players Isaiah Cobb and Nyvin Nelson were arrested over the weekend. As Mean Gene Henley, the TFP UTC all-sports poobah, tells us here, said players were suspended. Also of note, UTC football coach Tom Arth will join Press Row today at 3:10 p.m. Here’s betting this topic comes up.
– In the rare, back-to-back Mean Gene shoutout, here’s his update on the local kickball squabble between the CFC and the yet-to-be-named USL club coming to ChattaVegas. Let’s just say that everything between those two has been anything but friendly.
– Hey, we’re all for TV attempts to make the viewing experienced better. But the “Green Zone” from NBC seemed rather pointless and silly. And our friends at Twitter were, well, they were less than kind.
– Neil Simon died over the weekend. He was 91. Dude was a genius. Period, end of discussion. Mr. Simon if you’re nasty, made a splash with a little play called “The Odd Couple” and eventually won a Pulitzer.
– Here’s Tom Brady getting his panties in bunch in an interview with a Boston radio station. It was about Brady’s personal ‘doctor’ Alex Guerrero and he cut it off quickly. In truth, it actually is about the obvious – and growing? – rift/feud between Brady and coach Bill Belichick.
– Thought this was cool. Andy Dalton, the Bengals QB who helped Cincinnati toppled Baltimore in the season finale last year and get Buffalo into the playoffs, got a standing O from Buffalo fans before last weekend’s preseason game.
– I was impressed with this story. Laura Ricketts – an openly gay lady who is part owner of the Cubs – addressed the decision to acquire Daniel Murphy, the former Washington slugger who said “I disagree” with the gay lifestyle. said she was consulted and impressed by the discussion and signed off on the deal.
Today’s questions
Weekend winners and losers. Discuss. Also feel free to leave a crazy college football pick if you’d like. We’re sure there are a couple of ours up there that are going to be laughable come December.
As for today, Aug. 27, let’s review.
It’s “Just Because” Day. (Which means for parents everywhere, tomorrow must be “Because I said so day.”)
It’s also National Banana Lover’s Day. Banana Split, friend or foe? (And before you answer, ask yourself, when was the last time you ordered one or the last time you took the time to make one?)
On this day in 1955, the Guinness Book of World Records published for the first time.
LBJ would have been 110 today. Pee-Wee Herman is 66 today.
Let’s get to the college football Rushmore: Rushmore of best pregame traditions. Go.