Weekend winners
The Braves. Yeah, how do you shake off a terrible trip to NYC, by blitzing Boston and mauling Miami. So now the Braves have won six straight heading into a four-game rematch at Truist with the Mets. And the Braves will need all that momentum, because while they got to avoid Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara, they will run into the teeth of the New York pitching staff. According to Dave O'Brien the pitching match-ups for the Braves-Mets will be Strider vs. Carrasco tonight, Morton vs. Walker on Tuesday, Odorizzi vs. Scherzer on Wednesday and an unnamed Braves pitcher vs. deGrom on Thursday.
Jacob deGrom. Let's see, so far this year he has faced 56 batters and has 28 strikeouts and allowed seven baserunners. Seven. No other pitcher in the modern era has had a three-start stretch (minimum of 55 batters faced) in which he struck out at least half the batters he faced while having at least four times as many Ks. Did I mention he was a free agent in a few months?
High school football fans. Not only was the annual prep tab in Sunday's paper, but it's game week. Let's go.
Matt Araiza. My goodness and buckets of bully bunions, the rookie drilled an 82-yard punt. And the film is even more impressive.
Rookie QBs in the NFL. We may delve more into this later this preseason, but man, these young dudes look the part. And the common theme - other than a vast majority of them were taken after the first round - is how many starts they made in college before heading to the league.
Weekend losers
DeShaun Watson and the Browns. Do we even need to mention Watson? Yeah, we kind of do. Now he's showing remorse? And if you think this first round of boos and chants is bad, oh buckets wait till he heads to Baltimore, Cincy or Pittsburgh.
Fernando Tatis Jr and the Padres. Sorry, but the claims of "I took that banned substance by mistake" almost always ring hollow for me when players get suspended. Take Tatis Jr., for example, who said he took Clostebol - a PED - that was part of his medicine to treat ringworm. First, yeah, every team has experts that can easily check what is in and not in the medicine a player takes. Especially a star player. To make matters even more difficult to believe, Tatis does not have the best track record for being a responsible teammate. As for the Padres, man, his 80-game suspension ends his season before it ever started and takes a major piece out of a championship-worthy batting order. And yeah, this is the second year of Tatis' 14-year, $340 million contract with the team. You stay classy San Diego.
PGA scoring system. Will Zalatoris wins his first career event and now he's right there with Scottie Scheffler, who has four wins and a major this year, in the standings? Yeah, crazy. Plus, the late penalty between rounds three and four on Cam Smith - who is rumored to be LIV-bound after the playoffs - has conspiracy theorists buzzing too.
The huge drama around sorority rush at Alabama. Have you seen this story? Yeah, the New York Times sent someone to Tuscaloosa to cover it, and I don't think they even talked to Nick Saban.
UK coaches and administrators. OK, John Calipari and Mark Stoops can squabble and debate the importance of football to the basketball-crazed denizens of Big Blue Nation until they're big blue in the face. No big whoop. (And in truth, if you read the entirety of Cal's quote about UK being a basketball school, it's really rather benign. But AD Mitch Barnhardt and Co. blaming this on the media is a crock. Hey, the media does a lot of things that deserve blame and ridicule. Heck, we're somewhere between hitmen and IRS agents on the popularity scale. (And at least that last group is hiring, right?) But unless Cal is saying he was misquoted, that's on him, and Barnhardt trying to flip the script makes him look either petty, intimidated by Cal or stupid. (And I'm pretty sure he's not stupid.)
Next in the cash line
So, another weekend winner could easily be all the kids and families on the teams that advanced to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa.
Truth be told, that is always a joyous event and one that makes me think of my dad, because a) he always coached my teams growing up and b) he loved to watch those games from that classic stadium in Pennsylvania.And that brings me to this question?
How long before those kids start to get compensated?It's a fair question as the ripples of Oscar Tshiebwe making more playing for the Kentucky Wildcats over the last 12-plus months than almost half of the NBA first-round picks made in 2021.
It's fair because I can assure you ESPN and ABC are not giving away those commercial slots in between innings and before and after games.
I'm not advocating for it, per se, just wondering when it will happen.
And who knows, maybe Little League baseball is smarter than the leaders at the NCAA (who isn't?) and can get out in front of this thing by covering all the expenses for all the teams that make it to the rounds that are televised.
Or find a way to give back to ballparks and organizations across the country with the money that is piling up from TV deals.
Because if the NIL stuff has taught us anything, it's not if they will ask for it or if they will get it, it's when and how prepared will the organization be.
This and that
- Speaking of golf, Keith Mitchell continued his consistent strong play this season with a tie for 31st in Memphis. That was worth $78,886. Stephan Jaeger continued his late-season surge with a tie for 46th, which netted $42,330. Keith heads to the penultimate event of the season in Delaware 38th in points. Fellow Baylor School alum Luke List is in the field, raking 42nd in the FedEx Cup standings. Each will have some work to do to get into the top 30 and earn an invite to East Lake for the final leg of the Fed Ex Cup playoffs Aug. 25-28. Jaeger's season ends in 89th in the playoff standings (94th in FedEx Cup rankings, which still have some LIV guys) and with $1,289,503 in earnings this year.
- You know the rules. Here's Paschall on what sounded like a pretty tight scrimmage for UT over the weekend.
- Prayers up for Len Dawson, the former Chiefs QB and NFL Hall of Famer. He's been moved to hospice care. Don't remember him as a player, but loved him on Inside the NFL back in the day on HBO. Man that show was great, back when we were starving for more highlights and insight. Now it feels like it's everywhere, no?
Today's questions
Weekend winners and losers, go.
As for Multiple Choice Monday, let's do this:
Of these 1980s sports highlights staples, which was your favorite?
> This Week in Baseball with Mel Allen;
> George Michael's Sports Machine;
> Inside the NFL on HBO;
> Wide World of Sports on ABC?
Discuss.
As for today, Aug. 15, let's review.
A decade ago on this day Feliz Hernandez threw a perfect game. There has not been one since.
On this day in 1939, "The Wizard of Oz" premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
If there was an all-time Rushmore of all-time impactful movies, does "The Wizard of Oz" make it?
Discuss.