5-at-10: Shohei's speedbump, Brady's indifference, Spring football truth, Rushmore of all-time U.S. sporting venues in pro sports


              FILE - In this Nov. 12, 2016, file photo, Japan's designated hitter Shohei Otani reacts after hitting a solo home run off Netherlands' starter Jair Jurrjens in the fifth inning of their international exhibition series baseball game at Tokyo Dome in Tokyo. Texas, the New York Yankees and Minnesota can pay the most to an international free agent as highly touted pitcher-outfielder Shohei Otani prepares to enter the market, and Major League Baseball and its Japanese counterpart have agreed to the outlines of a deal to keep the old posting system for this offseason. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara, File)
FILE - In this Nov. 12, 2016, file photo, Japan's designated hitter Shohei Otani reacts after hitting a solo home run off Netherlands' starter Jair Jurrjens in the fifth inning of their international exhibition series baseball game at Tokyo Dome in Tokyo. Texas, the New York Yankees and Minnesota can pay the most to an international free agent as highly touted pitcher-outfielder Shohei Otani prepares to enter the market, and Major League Baseball and its Japanese counterpart have agreed to the outlines of a deal to keep the old posting system for this offseason. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara, File)

Shohei as in bye

A blistering start undone by a blister early in a start.

After two awesome starts against the Oakland A's Shohei Ohtani took the mound against the Red Sox on Tuesday night.

I was super excited.

I was then super disappointed. Ohtani allowed three earned runs in two innings and needed 66 pitches to get through six outs before being pulled for a blister on his pitching hand. (On the bright spot, at least we got to bed at a reasonable hour for the West Coast start.)

First, the obligatory news item: The Red Sox are really good. Like 14-2 good. And Mookie Betts hit three homers last night, including one to lead off the game off a 97-mph Ohtani fastball. (Betts Side Note 1: Betts now has three three-homer games for the Red Sox, tying the most in team history with some dude named Theodore Williams. We have said before if you are on a golf list with Jack and Tiger and a basketball list with Jordan and Kareem, it's a good thing. If you are on a Red Sox list tied with Teddy Ballgame, well, that's an accomplishment Mr. Betts. Betts Side Note 2: If you had a Rushmore of Mookie, and we take Wilson, Blaylock, Betts and could the Mookie Rushmore be the first three-face Rushmore ever?)

Anyhoo, as for Ohtani, maybe we needed to pump the brakes a little on the Ohtani Avalanche or the Shohei Tsunami or whatever the media storm has been. And that's fine.

But the basic truth before we get to the numbers is this: No matter how hard you throw - Betts' homer was on a 97-mph fastball down and in, the next RBI hits was on a 100-mph fastball away and the third was on a 96-mph pitch - if your second or third pitches are not strikes you are going to have a hard time with major league hitters.

Period. End of discussion. (This will lead us to a new segment of the show: Whatcha' got Wednesday? If we asked for three pitchers who could only throw one pitch and had the best chance for MLB success, and we took Rivera's cutter, Neikro's knuckler and Randy Johnson's slider, can you crack that three. Whatcha got?)

Blister or no, here are some Ohtani numbers from ESPN stats and info:

Of his 29 off-speed pitches, 10 were strikes. That was 34 percent, down from 68 percent in his previous two starts. And the ones that missed were not even close, with 62 percent of those fell into the category known as "noncompetitive" - which is a fancy term that means they were at least 18 inches from the center of the zone.

Without the splitter and the curve, Ohtani had only three of the 27 swings that missed. That's 11 percent, a number way down from his staggering MLB-leading 47 percent swing-and-miss rate in his previous two starts.

Either way, we're still riding the Ohtani wave.

photo New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady can't catch a pass during the first half of the NFL Super Bowl 52 football game against the Philadelphia Eagles Sunday, Feb. 4, 2018, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)


Perplexed Patriots

We talked earlier this week about Rob Gronkowski skipping the voluntary workouts with the Patriots.

News came this morning - from Adam Schefter, no less - that Tom Brady has not committed to playing next year.

Say what?

Could this be jazz hands and sideshow noise? Maybe, but that's never been the Patriots' way. At least not since the last, extended dynasty the salary cap NFL will ever see.

Know the following: Gronk, who had whispered behind the scenes that he may retire, forfeited a $250,000 workout bonus for skipping these sessions.

Danny Amendola left for money - something that is assuredly the Patriots' way - but he bad-mouthed Bill Belichick on his way out the door.

Now comes the Brady news from Schefter. And it comes on the heels of the second consecutive offseason in which Mrs. Brady - Gisele Whoseherpants - has talked openly about TD Tommy stepping away and/or concussions and what have you.

What do we make of this? In truth, we think it makes next week's festivities even more intriguing.

We are eight days from round one of the NFL draft. We love the draft. You know this.

The Patriots have two picks in round one and two more in round two.

And while all this could very well be talking points because there is very little NFL talking points. Or it could be the biggest story in all of sports.

But if the Patriots are on the move to head north for a quarterback, well, then we may well know way more.

photo Alabama defensive back Ronnie Harrison (15) hits Florida State quarterback Deondre Francois (12) during the second half of an NCAA football game, Saturday, Sept. 2, 2017, in Atlanta. Alabama won 24-7. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)


Almost all spring news is bad news

If your team makes notable headlines during spring football, well, more times than not, it is not something you want to hear.

Transfers. Injuries. Doghouses.

And of course, run-ins with the law.

That takes us to Tallahassee, where police obtained a search warrant and raided the apartment of quarterback Deondre Francois.

Now, you could easily make an argument that Francois was the most valuable player in all of college football last year. FSU was preseason top-five, Francois was a dark horse Heisman candidate.

He was injured and lost for the season in the opening loss to Alabama. From there, FSU went from top-five nationally to bottom-five in the ACC and the Jimbo Fisher experience was done.

As for this spring, well, Francois' presence is equally valuable to Willie Taggert and his new staff.

As for the police story, well, the Tallahassee authorities conducted surveillance of Francois for two months and raided his place late last week under the suspicion that he was dealing marijuana. Here are more details, including the Orlando Sentinel reporting that police raided Francois' garbage four times for evidence and plastic bags with cannabis residue, innards of blunt cigars, a grinder, an instant drug test cup and three vials of pain medication was found.

And those details make it seem pretty clear that this was a pretty close call for Francois, who was not arrested after the raid yielded only a small amount of marijuana, and Francois said that belonged to his girlfriend.

Hard to know how this will turn out, but we know one thing for certain: If you see your school in the headlines in the spring, well, good luck with that.

photo Tennessee quarterback Quinten Dormady (12) is seen on the sidelines during the game against South Carolina at Neyland Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 14, in Knoxville, Tenn.


This and that

- OK, we have a few side items that we love. The draft is on that list. You know this. So is the Masters and LeBron. (Well, LeBron may not be full blown love, but we are seriously crushing.) There's some other stuff too family and God and country and blah-blah. Let's add another one: Game shows, especially the Family Feud. With that in mind, consider us slap giddy for the upcoming Celebrity Family Feud between Kayne West's family and the Kardashians. And if you need extra coal for that anticipation, well, watch this clip.

- What happened to Kelsey Jansen. Last year, he was an absolute shutdown closer. He already has allowed three homers and six earned runs while blowing two save chances in 6.2 innings in 2018. All of last year, Jansen allowed 10 earned runs and three homers while blowing just one save chance in 68.1 innings.

- Former Tennessee quarterback Quinten Dormady is now Houston Cougars quarterback Quinten Dormady.

- Las Vegas Golden Knights are now 4-0 all-time in postseason to remain the only undefeated team in professional team sports to be perfect in the playoffs.

- Speaking of hockey, our new favorite player Brett Connolly and the Capitals won in overtime at Columbus, which cut the Blue Jackets series lead to 2-1. Good times.

- One more Ohtani stat that is pretty cool: This was the first Angels home sellout on a Tuesday night in four years. And when it happened on a Tuesday in 2014, it was on Mike Trout Bobblehead Night.

- Cool move by the A's on Tuesday. They gave away free attendance and free parking to the first 35,000 fans to celebrate the team's 50th anniversary.

photo FILE - In this May 24, 2016 file photo, Conan O'Brien attends "A Night Out With" FYC Event held at The Theatre at Ace Hotel in Los Angeles. Turner says TBS has closed a new deal with Conan O'Brien that runs through 2022. TBS and sister Turner network TNT plan to launch a total of six new series with such stars as Snoop Dogg, Daniel Radcliffe and Michael Moore.(Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)


Today's questions

We've offered our first Whatcha' got Wednesday above. (Reminder: Whatcha' got Wednesday? If we asked for three pitchers who could only throw one pitch and had the best chance for MLB success, and we took Rivera's cutter, Neikro's knuckler and Randy Johnson's slider, can you crack that three. Whatcha got?)

As for today's stuff, well, on April 18

In 1775, Paul Revere's famous ride was today.

In 1906, the great San Francisco earthquake happened.

James Woods is 72 today. Conan O'Brien is 56. Einstein and Dick Clark died on this day in 1955 and 2012, respectively.

In 1923, Yankee Stadium opened. Wow, that's pretty big. Rushmore of all-time professional sports venues in the U.S.

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