Fab 4 picks
Man, spinning wheels is a great time when you're 17, couple of iced-down Coca-Colas in the mud.
Yep, as Hardy tried to sing, growing up, I was rednecker than you.
In the entertainment cycle, spinning your wheels means you have to pay that man his money.
Too many picks? Maybe.
Too little preparation? Too much? Maybe.
Ignoring the trending ways of betting - laying first-half numbers or half team totals? Almost assuredly.
But our biggest miss was getting on the terrible teams too late.
And before we get to the picks, how about this story for dreadfulness?
And amazingly, it has nothing to do with UMass, which is so bad it is getting 10 points - at home - from a 1-6 UConn.
It also has nothing to do with the Akron Arths, who remain perfectly imperfect straight up and against the number. Tom Arth's Zips lost 21-0 last week and are 0-7 in the ledger of the stats and in the eyes of Vegas. (Akron plus-23 at Northern Illinois with a total of 45. Likely going to parlay both of those - NIU and the under - this week.)
It has nothing to do with Georgia Tech or Vandy, who not only covered for much-maligned coaches, they pulled off outright wins as 17-plus-point underdogs.
This is about Rutgers, which has assumed a historic place of stinkyness among Power 5 conference schools.
How bad is Rutgers through that prism?
Rutgers is paying Liberty $1 million to come to New Jersey - hey, if you've been to Jersey, you understand. And you may need to negotiate more than seven figures.
But a Power 5 paying a lesser foe that kind of coin to come for a whippin' is nothing new.
To pay that kind of freight and realize that Liberty is a 7.5-point favorite.
Seriously.
(As for the actual picks, we had some daddy obligations and an early morning meeting today. Check back at noon. Deal? Deal.)
World Series wrap?
So that happened.
Lots of numerical history in the Nats' improbably impressive and impressively improbable Game 2 win over the Houston Astros.
Think about the run the Nationals are currently riding.
They have handed postseason losses to at least three pitchers on track to be Hall of Famers - Cole, Verlander, Kershaw - in a record-tying eight-game winning streak in a single postseason.
In that eight-game streak, Washington has outscored the Dodgers, Cardinals and Astros 53-19.
Beating Cole and Verlander was beyond generational. ESPN Stats and Info tweeted this morning that Cole and Verlander were the first teammates to each win 20 or more games during the regular season and lose Games 1 and 2 of the World Series since Drysdale and Koufax in 1965. (Dodgers won that series in 7, in case you're curious.)
In the macro sense, the Nationals grabbing firm control of this series and being two games from a world title shows truly how meaningless the regular season is.
Get to the dance and the hottest team in baseball's coldest month is the heavyweight.
After 50 games, the Nationals were 19-31, which was the same record as the Detroit Tigers. (The Tigers finished 47-114.)
The Nationals were down 3-1 with two outs in the eighth in the wildcard game against Milwaukee. A bad-hop single became a three-run knock and the Nationals advanced.
The Nationals were in a 2-1 hole against the best Dodgers team ever and found a way out, including an extra-inning Game 5 clincher that included three homers in the final three innings.
Now, after becoming the first team since the 1999 Yankees to take Games 1 and 2 on the road, the Nationals are staring a conclusion that 50 games into the season, or 24 outs through the wildcard game, or after three games against Dodgers, was forever unlikely.
Welcome to the 'er' months, my friends.
NFL thoughts
Crazy to think that Josh Gordon and Antonio Brown - two of the most gifted wide receivers of their generation - ended their careers playing with Tom Brady and neither made a significant impact.
As for the rest of the league, two quick thoughts:
First, starting with tonight's game, the monstrous growth in point spreads is telling about a league that forever has craved - and crafted rules - for parity is seeing a record divide between the top and the bottom.
(That said, going into last weekend, there were a record number of games decided by three points or fewer through the first six weeks. So there's that.)
The other thing that is worth watching is the growing intrigue around the NFL trading deadline.
Could be a slew of activity between today and next Tuesday, and teams that truly believe they have a championship window will be more willing than ever to part with significant draft capitol.
And I am 100 percent all in for it.
This and that
- Here's today's A2 column on some truly outrage- and sorrow-inducing local storylines. Among them is the news that two of the vehicles at the Austin Hatcher Foundation - the local group working with kids with cancer and their families - were stolen over the weekend. There is a GoFundMe page for those looking to help replace the vehicles, which were going to be auctioned off to raise money for the foundation.
- Yep, we're here. Black pumpkins at Bed, Bath and Beyond have been pulled from the shelves because of the concern that it's too close to blackface and racially insensitive. Wow. Two of the great pumpkin experts of our time - Charlie Brown and Phil Fulmer - had no comments.
- Speaking of the World Series, Simone Biles crushed the first pitch, with a special twist that reminds all of us the amazing physical gifts gymnasts have.
- Speaking of college football spreads, there are two college football games with over/under totals right at 37 with double-digit favorites, Cal-Utah and Iowa-Northwestern. Each game brings varying ranges of good-to-great defenses and struggling offenses. We talked about some team total bets, and the team over-under for the Cal Bears is right at 8. For the whole game.
- Side note: If your guy lets you take particular sides, I think about getting reasonable numbers on Alabama minus-whatever in the first half and the game total in the second half when the Hogs go to Tuscaloosa on Saturday. I can see the Tide starting quickly and letting Mac Jones getting comfortable and seeing what he is comfortable doing, especially if Tua can't go against LSU. And I can really see a 31-0 halftime lead becoming a 37-7 Alabama win, too.
- Kyrie Irving dropped 50 in his debut with the Brooklyn Nets. Not sure which is more noteworthy, that he did it without a single turnover or that he is now the record-holder for the most points ever scored in a debut with a new team.
Today's questions
Go. And if we're worried about racially insensitive pumpkins, we've got to be heading toward a complete reversal of Thanksgiving in terms of the feelings of the turkeys.
And the cranberries.
As for today, Oct. 24, let's review.
On this day 90 years ago, the Black Thursday that saw the Dow Jones dip 12.8 percent that led to the Black Monday that led to the Great Depression happened.
On this day 40 years ago, Paul McCartney was recognized by Guinness as the best-selling singer-songwriter of all time. Wow, that's pretty cool.
Kevin Kline is 72 today.
I think KK could make the Rushmore of underrated actors of the modern era, because his body of work will surprise you.
Rushmore of Kevin Kline movies. Go.