MLB Opening night
I am stoked. Yes, the “er” months are magnificent, but the “arch” month is about excitement.
Right now — at least until about midnight tonight — every team is tied for first.
Yes, Spy is thinking, “Yeah, but the Yankees are also tied for last, Fat Face.”
And that’s true.
But we get Yankees-Giants tonight with Max Fried vs. Logan Webb.
(Bet the first five under, friends. And I may bet Aaron Judge props since he has faced a lot better competition heading into the season opener than everyone else after the WBC. More to come this afternoon.)
Let’s roll the dice on some player projections, because I do believe the only title conversation is Dodgers or the field.
(Side note: Yes, I’m a Dodgers fan, but their rotation is filthy and their top four in the order is going to be some form of Shohei-Mookie-Freeman-Kyle Tucker. That’s REE-donk-ulous.)
Which leads us to the unreal knowledge that Shohei Ohtani is a minus-130 favorite to win NL MVP. Yes, you get minus-money on Ohtani against every other player in the National League. Wow.
Let’s roll the player award wheel, shall we? I think we shall.
AL MVP — Bobby Witt Jr. I think voter fatigue will be a real thing this cycle, and Aaron Judge has more gold than Rick Davis. Witt’s team is going to contend, he plays a more important position and the kid is fun.
AL Cy Young — Garrett Crochet. Honestly thought he had a great argument last year. And yes, Tarik Skubal is still dealing in Detroit, but there’s a very real chance the Tigers deal Skubal to an NL team in late July.
AL Rookie of the Year — Kevin McGonigle. The Detroit shortstop has a clear path for a team with high hopes and has the skills to be a star.
AL Comeback Player of the Year — Mike Trout. Maybe this is a heart pick, but I am rooting for Trout to return from injury (again) with another stellar season.
NL MVP — Juan Soto. I think the Mets will win the NL East. He plays in New York, which helps. And then there has to be some Shohei fatigue, right? RIGHT!?!?!
NL Cy Young — Paul Skenes. If he stays healthy, he will be what Doc Gooden was supposed to be. He’s unbelievable.
NL Rookie of the Year — Nolan McLean. The Mets rookie kept his “rookie” status by two innings, but he now has MLB experience. And he has nasty stuff. Yeah, I’m bullish on the Mets, which scares the snot out of me.
NL Comeback Player of the Year — Ronald Acuña Jr. My current favorite non-Dodgers player looked awesome in the WBC, and if he’s fully healthy, he could be a 50-50 dude. Side note: Thanks again, EPB, and BravesVision is 328 on your EPB cable guide.
Hubert gets walked
OK, not sure why this just popped into my headful of useless knowledge.
I wrote Hubert and instantly recalled Q*bert, the 1982 video game that is now old enough to theoretically have little Q*berts headed off to Q*bert College — the Fightin’ Q*berts have a promising football program, I’ve been told — about now.
Which Way Wednesday: Which 1980s arcade game — if you had one quarter — would you go back and crush? Yes, Spy’s was an early, Early, EARLY form of pinball the Cavemen called “Flippers … FIRE, FIRE, FIRE.”
Which Way Wednesday spin-off: If we had a video game tournament here, which video game would you believe would deserve a 1 seed? And I offer this with the following truth: I made thousands of dollars gambling on Super Tecmo Bowl in college. Yep, Fast Eddie Felson tried to hustle pool. The fat-faced kid from Smyrna made CoCola money working wealthy kids at fraternities across the AU campus. Example 1,206 why it took me a few extra semesters to get the sheepskin. Lord, I have some stories.
Anywell, where were we?
Oh yes, UNC told Hubert Davis to hit the bricks.
Is Hubert a good coach? More than likely?
Is he a great coach? I’ve never thought that, and UNC is one of those athletic programs that truly have Great Expectations, copyright Chucky Dickens. Which is more accurate on a WWW: Chucky Dickens, underrated, overrated, properly rated?
UNC hoops is there with UK hoops, Alabama football, THE Ohio State football, and select other NCAA programs where good is simply not good enough.
UNC hoops is there with almost every NCAA program that when you are underperforming and your nemesis is cooking — like Duke is — the heat goes from Dante’s first circle to the seventh quicker than an elevator with a turbo booster.
And those crossroads landed on Davis, because Jon Scheyer and Duke are crushing on the floor, in the public eye and maybe most importantly in the recruiting realm.
Duke has proven to be portal proof by getting super recruit after super recruit. Heck, when Cooper Flagg goes one-and-done and earns PoY and then Cam Boozer is going to go one-and-done with a PoY, yeah, the elite five stars are paying attention.
As for Q*bert’s more athletic brother, H*bert, he was put on a scalding seat with UNC’s first-round implosion. He was officially cooked, according to reports, when he refused to make staff changes.
So, as we raise a morning coffee in honor of DPJ, who assuredly looks at Carolina Blue hoop hysteria the way I look at Crimson football fall-downs, who should be on the list of UNC Next?
My first call is Billy Donovan, the former national title winner at Florida, who is languishing with the 29-42 Chicago Bulls.
If he says no, I’m calling Billy Donovan again. If he doesn’t answer, I’m calling Brad Stevens, the Boston Celtics executive, who brings a ton of street cred and college hoops credibility as well as a known name.
And let’s be real: UNC needs a known name more than a family-tree name.
If those dudes want to stay with the bucks and lifestyle of the NBA, I am making Nate Oats a Godfather offer. Oats has accumulated enough skeletons in his stint at Tuscaloosa that Hannibal Lecter sent him a “Well Done” gift package of Crumbl Cookies.
But dude coaches his whistle his off, and his style at UNC would be dazzling.
Thoughts?
(Side note: I did a podcast on this last night for the good folks at Southeastern16. You can find it here.)
Jersey stories
So our first couple of diatribes were lengthy. Sorry, Clint.
Let’s turn the page.
So, Shohei Ohtani’s World Baseball Classic jersey sold for $1.5 million. That’s it. That’s the sentence.
Wait, that also made me think of this story: When I was growing up, my favorite player was always the best Dodgers player.
Started with Steve Garvey, the father of our country, as Spy calls him, because he “signed” my first glove. It was a first basemen’s mitt that was ENTIRELY too big, which worked since my “big-boned” frame was entirely too big for every youth sports jersey I can remember.
Well, in the early 1980s, the Dodgers’ best player was Pedro Guerrero, who was way better than you remember. And I saw in a baseball card book that I could buy a game-worn Pedro Guerrero jersey for $250 and asked Pop about it.
He paused, looked over the top of his glasses and said, “I wouldn’t pay $250 dollars to watch Pedro Guerrero eat a bay hail.”
Yeah, like the Soup Savant in “Seinfeld,” that was “No jersey for you.”
This and that
> Watched the simulated golfing thingy (is it called the SGT, because it should be?) and my biggest takeaways were these: a) Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood are clear examples why Europeans are better at team golf than U.S. players, and b) Tiger Woods looked bad. Did he get a facelift?
> Lavonte David retired with more than 1,700 career tackles in a 14-year NFL career with the Buccaneers. He is one of three NFL players in the last 44 years to have at least 40 sacks, 10 interceptions and 20 fumble recoveries. The other two are Hall of Famers Ray Lewis and Julius Peppers. Fair to ponder: Lavonte David, NFL Hall of Famer?
> The fastest rising name in college football recruiting has never played a down of football before. Meet Neff Giwa, a 6-foot-7, 295-pound rugby star who ran a 4.88 40 and has 37-inch arms. Somebody make sure Jevon Kearse has the nickname “Freak” copyrighted, because this dude certainly qualifies.
> Our rules state that Paschall’s college football takes must be linked. Here’s Paschall catching up with Lookouts exec Rich Mozingo — an all-around good dude, by the way — as the Lookouts’ new park is about to be debuted.
> Speaking of rules, of course Paschall dropped some football wisdom on the Vols. Here’s some insight to the next star in the UT WR room.
> Personal note: The Lil’ Miss 5-at-10 got her first softball recruiting letter in the mail Tuesday. She was pretty stoked. Proud of that young lady. She has worked her ponytail off to be good at this. I bet we have thrown 100,000 softballs. At least.
Today’s questions
Which Way Wednesday started above, but we will continue here.
Whose jersey would you want? Not as a collector, but as a fan.
(I have a signed Herschel Walker UGA jersey because I loved him growing up. Then got a signed Bo Jackson helmet because he replaced Herschel in my fandom. If I could have one framed jersey, I would likely get a 2010 Cam Newton jersey because that was the single most enjoyable sports season I can recall.)
Which way will UNC go with its coaching search?
You know the drill. Answer some WWWs, ask some WWWs.
As for today, March 25, let’s review.
The first Easter was celebrated on this day in 31.
The first Masters concluded on this day in 1934, with Horton Smith winning by a single shot over Craig Wood. Spy was there. He had like 14 pimento cheese sandwiches too, I bet.
Elton John is 79 today. What’s his song Rushmore?