Weekend winners
Boston. What a season. What a team. And, yes, Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez were real-life studs all year. But this is the quintessential definition of the sum being better – way better – than its parts. Especially in the postseason.
Georgia’s response. Amid all the hubbub, the Bulldogs went to Jacksonville and hammered the Gators. From front to back and from start to finish. Boom.
This dude. Yes, that is a $1,200 parlay and an $800 parlay and each hit. Total payout from the Fan Duel Sportsbook in Jersey? Almost $300K. As Ice Cube taught us, “Get me on the court and I’m trouble; Last week messed around and got a triple double; Freaking brothers every way like M.J.; I can’t believe, today was a good day.”
Kentucky’s defense. Holding future first-round quarterback Drew Lock and the Tigers without a first down on their final seven possessions – yes, seven straight three-and-outs friends – was amazing. It allowed the slow-moving UK offense to finally get in the end zone on the final play for a 15-14 win that sets up a winner takes everything game at home against Georgia on Saturday. We’ll go to our UK correspondent Chas now for this question: “Is this the biggest home football game in Wildcats history?” (That said, the pass interference call against Mizzou that gave UK one extra, untamed down was brutally bad. UK receiver initiated the contact and the ball was thrown out of the back of the end zone.)
Matt Colburn. No, the other Matt Colburn. Kidding. Colburn is the Wake Forest running back who had 243 rushing yards and three TDs against whatever that is that Louisville calls a defense. (Wake Forest and its renowned ground and pound rushed for 368 yards against the House of Cards’ D in a 56-35 win over this imploding Louisville bunch.) Sure there were college dudes who had better stats Saturday than Colburn, but how many can match Colburn’s added bonus of revenge being served cold three-years-later cold in fact. Colburn was committed through most of his recruiting cycle to Louisville back in 2015. The Cards pulled the scholarship offer 48 hours before signing day leaving him scrambling to find a college destination. Saturday, he left Louisville scrambling to put a hand on him. Kudos kid.
Xander Schauffle. Dude is 25 and has three PGA Tour victories. His career earnings are now north of eight figures at a stunning $10.335 million. And just because we like to randomly check in on these things, did you know that Ringgold’s own Luke List is 275th all-time in career PGA tournament earnings with $5,793,237. He recently passed some dude named Jack Nicklaus, who made $5,734,031 in golf earnings.
Patrick Mahomes. Wow. Dude has 26 TDs through eight games and has now thrown for 300-plus in seven straight games. Just wow.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston (3) tosses the ball against the Atlanta Falcons during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018, in Atlanta. The Atlanta Falcons won 34-29. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)Weekend losers
The 5-at-10’s Fantasy Football team. How bad has the injury bug hit the Fightin’ 5-at-10s? Well, we were forced into playing Duke Johnson of the Browns. He catches two passes on Cleveland’s first two plays and we’re thinking “Giddy Up.” He gets kicked in the Ding-Ding on one of the plays and he finishes the game – after receptions on the first two plays mind you – with two carries (for 0) and those two catches. Our starting RBs were supposed to be Leonard Fournette and Devonta Freeman. Together they have produced about 6 points all year. We are cooked. (Oh yeah, we also have the Vikings D, which happens to have its two best playmakers – Xavier Rhodes and Anthony Barr – beat up too. Yeah that was $50 down the shooter.)
FSU. Oh, my. There are dumpster fires filled with dirty diapers and Indian food looking at the FSU football program and Willie Taggert’s first year and thinking, “Man, at least we’re not big of a disaster. Taggert said some of his players quit Saturday in a record-tying 59-10 loss to Clemson. Clemson is good, there’s no doubt, but with the athletes and facilities in Tallahassee, FSU shouldn’t lose by seven TDs to anyone this side of the L.A. Rams. Or Bama, maybe. We’re starting to wonder if the powers that be at FSU are wondering whether they should cut their losses and pay Taggert to go away. This is unthinkably bad.
Jameis Winston. Winston had four more picks Sunday and was replaced by Ryan Fitzpatrick, who rallied the Bucs and tied the game before Cincy won 37-34 on the final play of the game. Winston is going to be rich. The Bucs picked up his fifth-year option for $20.9 million for the 2019 season. But the questions about his long-term employability are lingering in a big way. This would be the time for the franchise to extend franchise QBs – same goes for Marcus Mariota too – because that monster $21 million extension could be spread out for cap purposes in a four- or five-year extension. Now, there’s no way Tampa Bay can believe Winston is the long-term solution. He has 54 interceptions in 48 career games, and yet the biggest issues are the off-the-field concerns around Winston.
This jackwagon. Yes that loon defended dressing his 5-year-old as Hitler for Halloween because they are history buffs. Stop it. Just stop it. We are quick to point a finger at the folks that overly PC and need safe spaces from chalk words on a sidewalk. And rightly so. Those instances take away from real issues like this one in which some crackpot pretends to not see the hatred in dressing up as a Nazi and putting your child in an Adolf Hitler costume. We’ve written this before, and in today’s hate-filled society – in both directions from each side of the aisle gang – just because you have the right does not make it right. And yes, Americans are blessed to have the freedoms we do, but your freedom to do anything does not mean you are free from the fallout and reaction to those actions.
Arkansas. Speaking of first-year coaches who are taking monster body blows. Vandy strolled into Fayetteville and just waxed the Hogs. Waxed them.
Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw gestures after an out during the seventh inning of Game 5 of the NLCS against the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday night in Los Angeles.Is that the end?
Boston was the best team in baseball all year. (Or should that be the ‘Betts’ team in baseball?)
They were overwhelming. They were supremely talented – a group that had the highest payroll and the highest play-role, meaning this bunch worked during every at-bat, every inning, every substitution.
You name the Red Sox did it better than your team. OK, they did not have the all-time collection of starting pitching the Astros did, but they were no worse than top-three in terms of rotation.
Yes, they did not have the all-time power numbers the Yankees did, but they finished top 10 while having the best batting average and on-base percentage in baseball. And fine, the Brewers bullpen is an all-time strength, but the Red Sox, who finished top-10 in ERA too, used what it had during the postseason – and that meant starting pitchers as extended relievers or set-up guys – and pushed every button masterfully. (Speaking of that, as dominant as the Red Sox were, the biggest whipping a guy in a ‘B’ hat gave to a guy in an interlocking ‘LA’ hat was the clipboard beating Alex Cora gave Dave Roberts. Egad. Cora was aces; Roberts looked lost.)
And all of that was clear and deserved. Boston was the World Series favorite from mid-June on, and that designation was deserved and delivered upon. But this morning we look at what just happened and the clear question for me is what do we make of Clayton Kershaw?
Regular season Kershaw is an all-timer. A decade worth of dominance that resembles Clemens and rivals Koufax. He finished top five in Cy Young voting seven times and won an MVP. He’s led the majors in ERA four times and made seven consecutive all-star teams from the ages of 23 to 29 before missing last year’s NL team because of injuries.
And that’s just in terms of his esteem and place among the game. The individual stats are even more staggering in a day-and-age of increased power – both pitchers and hitters – try this on for size: He leads all qualified active pitchers in winning percentage (.689; he’s 153-69), ERA (2.39), shutouts (15), WHiP (1.005), hits per 9 innings (6.7) and homers per 9 innings (0.6).
By almost every measure, if Kershaw retired today he’d have a strong case to be a Hall of Famer.
Well, by every regular-season measure.
Kershaw looks destined to be fourth in the Williams-Malone-Marino Rushmore of the best to never win it all, and his postseason performances have been as bad as they have been puzzling.
And they have been just as well documented. He’s 9-10 with a 4.32 ERA after getting two of the Dodgers four World Series losses, and the nuance and complexity of the Dr. Jekyl that is the regular-season Kershaw and the Mr. Hyde of October/November Kershaw can’t be overstated.
Los Angeles is not a playoff mainstay without regular-season Clayton. The Dodgers own six straight NL West titles. In that title run, Kershaw has been the definition of an ace. He’s 94-32 (.746) since 2013, which is clearly 62 games over .500. Since 2013, the Dodgers are 565-408 (.581).
But the playoff struggles and the hallmark notes – he has pitched more postseason innings than anyone in history without a title is a big one – are starting to pile up.
And its clear that the power pitcher he was at the apex of his career and the current, 90-mph fastball, wicked curve, technician he has become are not cut of the same cloth.
Kershaw did not pitch badly Sunday night. He was victimized by the homer and a team that has done that to almost every pitcher they have seen all year long. But Kershaw the regular-season ace through the years has found ways to pitch the erratic Dodgers bats through games like that one and end winless streaks before they became full-blown losing streaks. And the Dodgers have counted on that through the years and rewarded Kershaw ($32 million in 2018, by the way) for that legit top of the line, stopper ace that he has always been.
Those days appear gone, and the questions now turn to the following: Was that Clayton Kershaw’s last start as a Dodger, and how will history remember him?
The future is impossible to know. As a Dodgers fan, I hope that Kershaw ends his career in blue for a lot of reasons. I can make the argument that he’s no worse than the second-best Dodgers pitcher ever behind Koufax and ahead of Hall of Famers such as Drysdale and Sutton and short-period dominators like Fernando and Hershisher.
As for the latter question, the Marino symmetry is interesting here because for those of us saw Marino throw it, compared to Montana or so many others there simply was not comparison. Heck, Marino’s skill set of accuracy-arm strength-release is only rivaled by Aaron Rodgers and maybe Brett Favre in my opinion.
But his lack of success in the playoffs, which granted is important but always overstated for quarterbacks more than any other position player in sports, leave Marino way down the list when talking about all-timers.
Kershaw’s legacy may very well meet a similar end.
This and that
– Wow, that was a tough loss for the Vols. The fumble that wasn’t. The inability to protect the QB and a 12-point second-half lead. The two failed fourth-down tries. Tough loss. Improvement? We think so, and know this, after getting absolutely hammered by Alabama the week before, these Vols played hard. That counts for something for Jeremy Pruitt for sure.
– Monster comeback for the UTC Fightin’ Arths. In a multi-score hole early, the Mocs rebounded for a must-have win over winless VMI on homecoming, 34-27. Playoff dreams still alive.
– Fab 4 picks went 3-2. We hit West Virginia on Thursday night, Iowa State over Texas Tech and Houston over South Florida. We underestimated Michigan State’s back-up QB, who was lights out in his first start, and backed Texas A&M, which failed in the red zone down eight with less than 4 minutes to play before Nick Fitzgerald landed a back-breaking 80-yard TD run. So it goes, and we had a fast start, so we had big hopes. But 60 percent against the number is always entertaining. We’re now 34-23-1 on the season. That’s 59.6 percent against the spread, and, knowing that this could very well jinks the entire process, looking back, we’ve only had one losing weekend this season. Yes, the last month-to-six weeks has been filled with 4-3s and 3-2s, but riding that tortoise will prevent you from pulling your hair out Saturday night and into payday Tuesdays.
– Was not sure where to put this but needed to include it. Well-played Texas Rangers twitter. Well-played indeed. Here’s the social media post after the Dodgers’ debacle against the Red Sox was officially over. “Hey @Dodgers, the support group for back-to-back #WorldSeries losers meets on Tuesdays.”
– We saw all the Mike Gundy love for making ‘fart’ noise about Twitter and the ha-ha-ha-ha’s. Here’s my take: Gundy is a goofball bully who is more communist than congenial. He hates the first amendment and he and his mullet can go take a long walk off a short Great Clips.
– How good is the high school football at St. John Bosco in Bellflower, Ca., these days? Know this: Oregon has offered the ball boy a scholarship. Yep, you read that right. St. John Bosco’s ball boy is also the eighth-grade little brother of junior star quarterback D.J. Uiagalelia, who is the No. 1-ranked prospect in the 2020 class. To be fair, the younger Uiagalelia is Matayo, a 6-3, 210-pound defensive end who seems rather large and accomplished as a middle-schooler. Still, when the Bosco boys show up and they have more talent at ball boy than the opposition has on the field, well, that’s pretty special.
– What a finish to the Rams-Packers game Sunday evening, huh? The best offense in the league against the best quarterback I’ve ever. Final score Rams 29, Packers 27. And.. well, Rams were an 8-point favorite at kickoff and the over/under was 57. And Todd Gurley broke through the line on a third-down run deep in the Packers’ territory and fell to the turf inside the Green Bay 5 rather than running in for a the score. Gurley’s quote after the game on if he had taken two more steps and scored – and covered the spread and eclipsed the total as well as delivered another TD for fantasy owners everywhere: “Forget fantasy, forget Vegas.”
– How’s this for a crazy stat? If the Pats beat the Bills on Monday night football tonight in Buffalo, Tom Brady will have the third most wins of any quarterback ever – including Bills QBs – in Buffalo. He would be 15-2 in Buffalo, trailing only Jim Kelly and Joe Ferguson.
– Alabama opened as a 14-point favorite at LSU. Georgia opened as a 12-point favorite for their trip to Kentucky. Each of those games Saturday will be on CBS. Each will decide their respective SEC divisions. Just passing that along.
– Side note: We actually saw some highlights to the finish of the NASCAR race, and Joey Logano’s bump-and-go win over Martin Truex Jr. was quite thrilling. It really made me miss NASCAR from a generation ago.
Today’s questions
Weekend winners and losers. Have at it.
Today’s National Cat Day, National Oatmeal Day and International Internet Day.
As for Oct. 29, well, let’s review.
On this day in 1929, “Black Tuesday” happened and the Wall Street crash triggered the Great Depression.
On this day in 1971, Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle wreck.
Richard Dreyfuss is 71 today. He has a better catalog than you may recall.
R.A. Dickey is 44 today.
Rushmore of baseball players known by their initials. Go.