Weekend winners
Huascar Ynoa. No, he did not homer like he did in his previous two starts. But this may be more impressive and more important for a Braves team starving for a No. 1 atop the rotation. Ynoa took the ball in a series tied 1-1 and went against the Phillies best pitcher in Aaron Nola. And Ynoa what happened? The hard-throwing Braves right-hander cleaned Nola's clock. Six innings, four hits and one walk with six Ks and one earned in a 6-1 win. Yeah that works.
Baylor School golf. After Keith Mitchell and Luke List entered Sunday's final round first and fourth and played in the final two groups, CBS's coverage was a three-hour-plus Baylor golf infomercial, and we need to see if Jim Nantz has a kid there the way he was fawning over the excellence of the Red Raiders. (Side question: Did anyone else get the vibe that at times Nick Faldo sounded like he had two nephews at McCallie? He was rather harsh on some of Mitchell's play in my opinion, but I am such a huge fan of Keith's I could be a little sensitive.)
Anywell, yes, Mitchell's short game went cold Sunday and the tough Quail Hollow track made List's hole too deep, but Keith finished T-3 and collected $477,000 and List was T-6, which was good for $273,375. Happy Mother's Day indeed. And more than anything else - well, maybe not more than the money, but close - you can't put a value on that kind of experience in that kind of pressure and that kind of competition.
And while we're here, Rory McIlroy won the event, ending the longest losing streak of his professional career. But considering what Rory makes, maybe we should call it the longest non-winning streak, don't you think? This may shock you, Rory has 19 wins and four majors since turning pro in 2007. He's made more than $56.3 million in golf alone. That's the sixth-most ever, according to this.
Russell Westbrook. Dude is the best player in short pants in the world right now and it's not close.
Sports. Whether it was the full house as the Braves took two of three from the Phillies - hey Charlie Morton, let's get your (Bleep) together, huh? - or the growing galleries at the Wells Fargo or even the shots of the limited numbers of folks at AT&T, the return of fans is better than I even expected in terms of watching the game. Good times.
Weekend losers
California leadership. For all the arrows slung at Ron DeSantis - and the COVID news out of Florida over the weekend appeared pretty positive - it's hard to see any state handling its BID-ness right now than California. And now, several districts, including those in and around L.A. and San Francisco, are facing large numbers of high school kids saying, "Thanks but see ya" in terms of returning to school. The number I saw was 48% of California students are in class. That's embarrassingly low and means a lot of those students completely wasted a year.
Deion Sanders. Couple things Coach Prime Time. First, there's the issue of calling out a high school kid on Twitter. Yes, I know said-prospect was told not to reveal whether he was or was not invited to your camp and did. But it's a sour look to call out a teenager from the social platform for a Hall of Famers with a since-deleted Tweet. And this came a couple of days after Neon Deion put the NFL on blast because no Historically Black Colleges and Universities were selected in the draft. As the saying goes, ball don't lie. I believe the locker room more than any workplace, worship place or anyplace is the most color blond room in society. If you're green with bright pink polka dots and you can run the football, they will find a spot for you. Period. And to hint that race kept HBCU players from being drafted is a disservice to them and to the programs, especially since the league is 70% Black. And Sanders more than most should know that, because his antics in the league were the epitome of what Crash told Nuke, that "when you win 20 in the Show, you can let the fungus grow back on your shower shoes and the press will think you're colorful. Until you win 20 in the Show, it means you're a slob."
Funky Cold Medina Spirit. Awful news that Medina tested positive for some short of drug thingy. What if Bob Baffert came to the stand when news broke Sunday and said it was a horse COVID vaccine. That would have been awesome.
My prediction about FCS being a springtime hit. Egad was I way off on that one. I thought, "Yeah, we have betting, we have football that means something, we have open TV portals, because who wouldn't rather watch mid-major college football than major-major college lacrosse or volleyball." Yep, I was unaware until I saw it this morning that the FCS playoffs are down to the title game, and I'm not sure I saw a single snap this spring.
The NBA. No, this is not about the minuscule TV numbers as the regular season winds down. This is not even about all the injured players that miss extended periods and then return to an every-other-night schedule before the playoffs. This is about the worst collective officiating in team sports - and that's saying something considering the way the MLB umps have started the season - and the NBA's complete indifference to fix it. Take the $50,000 fine Pelicans team president David Griffin got for simply telling the truth about Zion Williamson's broken finger. Griffin blamed it on the officials, saying Williamson gets 'mauled' every time he enters the paint. And Griffin is right, not unlike LeBron for more than the last decade and Shaq at the height of his powers, Zion gets fouled every time he goes to the basket. Not most times, not a lot of the time. Every. Single. Time. But they can't call it every time, so eventually it becomes open season on those physical forces of nature.
Not in Knoxville anymore To'o, To'o
We have several items of interest, but not sure if it's winning to losing the weekend.
Take for instance the story of linebacker Henry To'o To'o, who picked Alabama as his next locale to tackle and cover. If he goes there and gets on the field, well, he'll be an NFL dude. If he goes there and plays special teams, well, who knows.
(Side note: You know the rules, here's Paschall on the former Vols player and current Alabama enrollee.)
With the looming decision about his eligibility, the To'o To'o scenario allowed TFP ace sports columnist Mark Wiedmer to opine on it today as well. As always, he's aces.
Weeds' assertions and questions about transferring in-conference or to a team that is on your schedule next year are interesting and accurate and point to the loopholes in the discussion of immediate transfer eligibility.
Those also further demonstrate the world-class awful leadership and problem solving of everyone from Mark Emmert on down at the NCAA office in Indianapolis. (Side note: Has there been a worse administrator of a billion-dollar business in my lifetime? Seriously, if I asked for the highlight of the Emmert era, what is?)
Anywell, as schools and programs are worried about competitive advantages and disadvantages and in-house secrets and play calls and pl;aybooks, To'o To'o may not be the best poster child against in-league transfers.
UT fired the coach that recruited him - and rightly so in my opinion - and as far as we know, To'o To'o knows as much about the inner workings of the new regime's regime as Spy does.
Gang, as we are examining the pros and the cons of the transfer rule, among my strongest feelings on this is, if School A fires Coach B, the players Coach B recruited can say "C you later" without penalty.
That's only fair because those kids almost universally came to play for Coach B and the staff that recruited them, a heck of a lot more than they came for School A.
And the "Choose a school for the school and not the coach' muckity-muck for elite players and talents in football especially rings as disingenuous at best and as a downright lie at worst.
This and that
- Speaking of the Braves, a) Kung Fu Panda, Pablo Sandoval, is an absolute star in the clutch. His two-run homer Saturday tied the game with two outs in the ninth and set the stage for a wild comeback followed by another wild comeback as the Braves won in 12 in a game that really could be one of those "Remember that wild win over the Phillies in May that started a 16-wins-in-20-games run for the Braves? B) Freedie Freeman homering in back-to-back games is a much-needed lift, especially his big blastr on Mother's Day. C) Let's join virtual hands and say a silent prayer that Ronald Acuña Jr.'s finger is better sooner rather than later. And, hey, Snit, when they hit the best player on the planet - and the absolute linch pin to any type of postseason hopes you have - let's have a little more fire after the game, huh? When asked about it Snit looked like he just reviewed the options of investment in his 401K.
- Here's Saturday's A2 column from that fella with the rather large, somewhat rounded face.
- Fast and then world-class fast. That's the dividing line we saw Sunday as Seattle WR DK Metcalf tried his feet in the U.S. track and field Olympic trials. His 10.37 time in the 100 meters was great, and by all measures way more than football fast. But in terms of world-class fast, his 10.37 was last in his semifinal and the third slowest of the 17 burners in the event.
- Not sure why this is so hard for smart people to understand on either side of the aisle. The Big Lie is crap. Our election system needs to be updated and given more security measures. Those facts can both be true and not an either or proposition people. It's not that difficult, but politicians need to galvanize and polarize the straight-forward to empower their stance and more importantly for them, their standing within their circle. And that may be the most shameful part of all of it.
Today's questions
Weekend winners and losers, go.
And I did not watch SNL but apparently it created some buzz with Elon Musk and Miley Cyrus as its guests. Whatever.
As for a multiple choice Monday, let's try this:
Bono is 61 today. I would have guessed older. So, on this MC Monday, how would you describe U2?
> All-time great;
> Good-to-very good;
> Wicked overrated.
Yikes, Mark David Chapman and John Wilkes Booth were born on this day. So was Chris Berman, and while he may be a jack wagon of major proportions, he is no doubt on the Rushmore of ESPN. (Side note: I think we've done that one before, but I'm not sure.)
It also, among many things, is also national shrimp day.
Rushmore of shrimp. Go and have a little fun.