Armadillo Sports

On MLB page: Our daily writeup on baseball; pitcher, team, umpire trends

Friday’s 6-pack:
— A’s 3, New York 1- Spunky A’s split four games in the Bronx.
— Dodgers 2, Nationals 1- Yamamoto tossed six shutout innings.
— Rockies 10, Padres 9- Colorado scored six runs in bottom of 8th.
— Brewers 7, Pirates 5- Sanchez hit pinch-hit homer in 8th for 16-8 Milwaukee.
— Phillies 5, Reds 0- Harper homered, in his first game after paternity leave.
— Cubs 3, Astros 1- Rookie OF Crow-Armstrong’s first MLB hit was a home run.

Quote of the Day 
“He makes some big plays … [but] he’s going to need some work in reading defenses, reading coverages. He’s kind of quick to bail out of the pocket, he’s going to have to hang in there a little bit longer, I think, and find those receivers. … This is a kid that can make all the throws. He just needs to be more consistent.”
Bill Belichick, talking about Drake Maye, the Patriots’ new QB

Friday’s quiz
Which NFL team drafted Hall of Famer John Elway?

Thursday’s quiz
Peyton Manning was first pick in the 1998 NFL Draft; QB Ryan Leaf was the second pick, by the Chargers.  

Wednesday’s quiz
In the movie A League of Their Own, the team that Tom Hanks managed, that also had Madonna and Geena Davis playing, was the Rockford Peaches. 

Lot of stuff going on; baseball, NHL/NBA playoffs, but tonight I focused on the first round of the NFL Draft.

— Before we start talking football, let me vent for a second; I’m in my 60’s, since 2019 I’ve had three operations on my right eye. The eye is fine now, thanks to my two surgeons, but I’m still a stickler for taking good care of your eyes.

It drives me nutty when I see people wearing sunglasses indoors; take care of your damn eyes!!! Why were several guys at the draft wearing sunglasses inside? It is nonsensical.

— Chicago Bears had the first pick in this draft, the first time since 1947 they had the first pick; they took USC QB Caleb Williams, then later took Washington WR Rome Odunze with the 9th pick. Bears have never had a QB throw 30+ TD’s in a season, or for 4,000+ yards in a season; they seem determine to break those trends.

In two years at USC, Williams took only seven snaps under center (as opposed to the shotgun) but lot of college QB’s have gone thru that recently, so no big deal there.

— Commanders/Patriots followed by doing the expected, taking QB’s Jayden Daniels, Drake Maye; this was the 4th time since 1971 that the first three picks in a draft were QB’s.

— Before the draft, Eagles signed WR AJ Brown to a 3-year extension worth $96M, with $84M of that guaranteed.

— NFL commish Roger Goodell had back surgery 3-4 weeks ago, so his greetings on stage with guys who got drafted were a little more subdued this year.

By the way, they estimated that there were 275,000 people at the draft in Detroit. Must have been a solid night for the pickpockets in the crowd.

— Atlanta Falcons stunned lot of people (including newly acquired QB Kirk Cousins) by drafting Washington QB Michael Penix with the #8 pick. Penix has already torn his right ACL twice, and separated both shoulders; he wasn’t even at the draft, but went with the 8th pick.

— Vikings traded up one spot and drafted Michigan QB JJ McCarthy; they later traded up again and took Alabama LB Dallas Turner. 

To get Turner with the 17th pick, Vikings gave Jacksonville a 5th round pick this year, plus 3rd and 4th round picks next year- they must really like him.

This was the earliest the Vikings have ever drafted a QB; in 1999, they took Daunte Culpepper with the 11th pick in the draft. 

— Denver drafted Oregon QB Bo Nix with the 12th pick; Mel Kiper said Nix reminds him a little bit of Drew Brees. Nix started 61 games at Auburn/Oregon, the all-time record for college starts; he gets to learn from Sean Payton, one of the better QB gurus.

— Famous birthdays for April 26th:
Carol Burnett, 91
Gary Cuozzo, 83
Doug France, 71
Phil Olsen, 66
Kevin James, 59
Cole Beasley, 35
Joey Wendle, 34
Aaron Judge, 32

— One of the surprising things about the Falcons drafting a QB is that they need defense; over the last three years, Atlanta has a total of only 81 sacks, least in the NFL.

— Apparently, Vikings/Patriots both called the Chargers and tried to trade for QB Justin Herbert; both were told to take a hike.

— Cardinals drafted WR Marvin Harrison Jr; he is the 5th first round pick ever whose dad was an NFL Hall of Famer.

— Two LSU receivers went in the first round:
Giants took Malik Cabers, Jaguars took Brian Thomas.

Last three LSU receivers drafted in the first round:
2021- Ja’Maar Chase
2020- Justin Jefferson
2014- Odell Beckham

— First 14 players drafted play offense, which is an all-time record.

— Lot of media people are obsessed with “Who won the trade?” but it is possible for both teams to win (or lose) a trade.

— Rams had their first 1st round pick since 2016 (Jared Goff); they took DE Jared Verse of Florida State, who played his first two college years at I-AA Albany, where I went to school. With Aaron Donald retiring, Rams need to bolster their defense.

— Last month, Steelers traded a 6th round pick for QB Justin Fields; word comes out that they’re not going to pick up his 5th-year $25M option next winter, since they also acquired Russell Wilson.

— Six of the first 12 picks were quarterbacks, tying 1983 for the most QB’s taken in the first round; for what its worth, four of those six players transferred during their college careers.

— Draft continues Friday, with the 2nd/3rd round picks happening then. 

— Detroit Lions signed WR Amon-Ra St Brown to a 4-year deal for $120M, with $77M of that guaranteed, the most guaranteed money for a WR in a single contract in NFL history. They also signed OT Penei Sewell to a 4-year, $112M deal.

St Brown was the 17th wide receiver drafted in 2021, another example of how the draft is such a fascinating process. He’s caught 315 passes in his first three NFL seasons.

— This stat is kind of weird, in a bad way.

Chicago White Sox are playing in their 8th series this week; in their eight series openers, White Sox have scored a total of two runs. 2.

They’ve been shut out in six of eight series openers.

— James Shields was a good big league pitcher: 145-139 career record in 13 years, led the league in games started three years in a row, but he gave up a couple memorable home runs:

October 5, 2014, he gave up a home run to Mike Trout in Game 3 of the ALDS; Shields won the game 8-3. That home run is Trout’s only hit in 12 career post-season at bats.

May 7, 2016, Shields gave up a home run to Bartolo Colon in San Diego, his only home run in 326 career plate appearances.

— Baltimore Orioles have gone 99 consecutive series without being swept, the longest streak in American League history, third-longest streak ever. Cardinals went 142 consecutive series without being swept, back from 1942-44.

— Rookie 2B Jackson Holliday is wearing #7 for the Orioles, like his dad did when he played in the majors. Holliday is the first Oriole to wear #7 since Bill Ripken; Ripekn wore #7 because that was the number his father Cal Ripken Sr wore when he managed the Orioles from 1985-88. 

Holliday is off to a 2-34 start as a 20-year old rookie. He got rushed to the majors to a little bit, but how do they handle this? Orioles are a playoff contender, but they don’t want to crush the kid’s confidence. This will be interesting to follow.

— I get 7-8 e-mails a day from people trying to give me a job, which is funny, since sometimes, the jobs are for lawyers or counselors and Lord knows, you definitely wouldn’t want me being your counselor, much less your lawyer, although I do watch Law and Order re-runs a lot. 

If someone wants to send me a job offer to be a basketball analytics person, I’d listen…….

— Sampling of the college basketball transfer portal:
Kentucky poached a big guy who was very good for Drexel.
Syracuse poached a guard from Hofstra.
UCLA poached a guy from South Dakota State

Drexel was 20-13 last year, 13-5 in CAA; losing this kid hurts.

— Famous birthdays for April 25th:
Al Pacino, 83
Tony Phillips, 65
Art Schlichter, 64
Hank Azaria, 60
Gina Torres, 55
Tim Duncan, 48
Sean Mannion, 32
Trevor Williams, 32
AJ Puk, 29

— Cubs 4, Astros 3
Last four games, Houston was outscored 13-0 in first inning.
Dansby Swanson homered for Chicago.

— Mets 8, Giants 2
Giants put P Blake Snell (adductor) on IL; this became a bullpen game.
Francisco Lindor was 4-5 with two homers, 4 RBI

— Orioles 6, Angels 5
Gunnar Henderson was 3-3 with a homer, 3 runs scored, 3 RBI
Angels are 10-15; their bullpen gave up 4 runs in 4 IP

— AL West standings as we speak:
Texas 13-12
Seattle 12-12
Angels 10-15
A’s 9-16
Houston 7-18

— Red Sox 8, Guardians 0
Cooper Criswell tossed five shutout IP
Wilyer Abreu was 4-5 with an RBI and run scored.

— Reds 7, Phillies 4
Cincinnati used six relievers to get the last 12 outs.
Will Benson went 2-5 with a homer, two RBI

— Dodgers 11, Nationals 2
Dodgers had 20 hits, Washington 3
First four guys in LA’s lineup went 12-23, with 7 RBI

— Mavericks 96, Clippers 93
Clippers’ bench shot 5-23 from the floor.
Doncic scored 32 points, had nine assists.
Series is 1-1.

— Pacers 125, Bucks 108
First win by a road team in these playoffs.
Siakam scored 37 points, grabbed 11 rebounds, had 6 assists.
Series is 1-1.

— Timberwolves 125, Suns 108
Phoenix led 51-50 at halftime.
McDaniels scored 25 points; Minnesota was +24 with him on court.
Minnesota leads series, 2-0.

— So far this season, Rory McIlroy has earned $1.7M on the pro golf tour.

Tim Scott has earned $1.8M this year; he is Scottie Scheffler’s CADDY.

— Matchups for the Big East-Big X basketball challenge next fall:
Baylor @ UConn
Kansas @ Creighton
Butler @ Houston

Marquette @ Iowa State
Kansas State @ St John’s
Xavier @ TCU

Cincinnati @ Villanova
BYU @ Providence
Oklahoma State @ Seton Hall

Georgetown @ West Virginia
DePaul @ Texas Tech

— Famous birthdays for April 24th:
Shirley MacLaine, 90
Barbra Streisand, 82
Eric Bogosian, 71
Vince Ferragamo, 70
Michael O’Keefe, 69

Dino Radja, 57
Melinda Clarke, 55
Jeff Brohm, 53
Chipper Jones, 52
Carlos Beltran, 47

— Pirates 2, Brewers 1
Monday night, Pirates’ rookie P Jared Jones threw six innings/91 pitches in his 4-2 win over Milwaukee, six nights after he was taken out of a game he led 1-0 after five innings, when he had thrown only 59 pitches.

What changed in six days? I’m guessing there were some conversations in the Pittsburgh front office after they basically gave away a game while they were 11-6, off to a surprisingly good start- they lost their next four games, too.

Now they’ve won two games in a row, are 13-11; will be interesting to chart Jones’ starts from this point on.

— Angels 7, Orioles 4
Mike Trout batted leadoff for the first time in three years; he hit his first leadoff home run in 11 years— he hit leadoff all the time when he was a rookie. His last leadoff home run was against Texas, when the Rangers’ manager was current Angels’ manager Ron Washington.

Monday night’s loss was the 10,000th game in Angels’ history.

— Rockies 7, Padres 4
San Diego scored twice in first inning; Colorado has now trailed in all 24 of its games this year, the first team to do that since the 1939 Reds. 

Brendan Rodgers hit a grand slam for the struggling Rockies, who are 2-8 in their last 10 games.

— Cubs 7, Astros 2
Mike Tauchman homered twice for the Cubs.
Houston is 7-17, first time since 2016 they’ve been 10 games under .500.

— Guardians 4, Red Sox 1
Cleveland is 17-6, their best start in franchise history.
Game was scoreless after six innings.
Jose Ramirez homered for Cleveland.

— Tigers 4, Rays 2
Riley Greene had his first multi-home run game.
Detroit is 5-0-1 in road series, first time they’ve done that well since 2007.

— Braves 5, Marlins 0
Marlins got shut out two nights in a row.
Max Fried threw a 92-pitch complete game for Atlanta.

— Twins 6, White Sox 5
Alex Kirilloff hit a two-out, walk-off single, after Byron Buxton tied the game with a home run, as the White Sox fall to 3-20 on the season.

— Giants 5, Mets 1
Mets have scored only six first-inning runs this season, least in MLB.
Logan Webb threw eight shutout IP for San Francisco. 

— You hear a lot about guys who played more than one pro sport; Bo Jackson, Deion Sanders, Brian Jordan, Dave DeBusschere, Danny Ainge.

Back in the late 60’s, Tennessee Vols had a punter named Ron Widby; he wound up punting for seven years in the NFL, for Dallas/Green Bay, but he was also a good enough basketball player that he played 20 games for the New Orleans Buccaneers in the old ABA. He punted for Dallas when they won Super Bowl VI.

He punted in Tennessee’s bowl game one year, and also played in their basketball game the same day, getting ferried back and forth by boosters’ airplanes. He was also on the school’s golf team. Widby scored 50 points in a basketball game against LSU.

Impressive career, for sure.

— Jets traded QB Zach Wilson to Denver Monday; in return, they moved up from a 7th round pick to a 6th round pick late in the draft.

Wilson was the 2nd pick in the 2021 draft; he went 12-21 in three years as the Jets’ starter.

— Denver Broncos’ quarterback room as we speak:
Jarrett Stidham
Zach Wilson
Ben DiNucci

Will they draft a quarterback this week?

— Top five QB’s drafted three short years ago, in 2021:
Jacksonville- Trevor Lawrence- 21-31 as Jaguars’s starter, 1-1 in playoffs.
Jets- Zach Wilson- traded to Denver
San Francisco- Trey Lance- traded to Dallas
Chicago- Justin Fields- traded to Pittsburgh
New England- Mac Jones- traded to Jacksonville.

— Matt Ryan officially retired Monday, with career earnings of $304M; he had a career record of 128-115-1, 4-6 in playoff games.

— A 15-year old kid finished T20 on the Korn Ferry golf tour this weekend- that’s the AAA golf tour, the old Nike Tour. Pretty impressive for a high school kid.

— Alabama poached a kicker from Miami OH; college sports is like baseball now, the rich steal from the not-so-rich.

— Speaking of which, FedEx kicked in $25M to the NIL program at Memphis, which figures to be a big boost to their recruiting efforts.

— Famous birthdays for April 23rd:
Lee Majors, 85
Gail Goodrich, 81
Joyce DeWitt, 75
Joe Ferguson, 74 (Bills’ QB)
Uwe von Schamann, 68
Valerie Bertinelli, 64
Andruw Jones, 47
Gavin Sheets, 28

— Astros-Rockies are playing couple of games in Mexico this weekend; very high altitude, games figure to be hitter-friendly.

— Dodgers just finished a homestead where they lost all three series, first time that happened since 2011.

— Baseball season is only four weeks old, but who would’ve thought that Shota Imanaga would be a better pitcher than Yoshinobu Yamamoto?

Listening to the wise guys this winter who supposedly know all this stuff, no one thought Imanaga would be a big deal, but so far, he is 3-0, 0.84 in four starts.

— Mets’ catcher Francisco Alvarez (thumb) is out for a couple months.

— A’s 2, New York 0
Zack Gelof’s 9th-inning homer provided the game’s only runs.
JP Sears tossed six scoreless IP against the team that traded him away.

— Twins 7, White Sox 0
Chicago was blanked for the 8th time in 22 games.
Paddack was 0-1, 8.36 in three starts before this game.

— Padres 3, Rockies 1
Cease allowed one baserunner in 7 IP.
Rockies are 1-8 in last nine games, scoring total of 15 runs.

— Cardinals 5, Diamondbacks 3
Nolan Gorman snapped an 0-19 skid with a walk-off homer.

— Phillies 7, Reds 0
Ranger Suarez has a 25-inning scoreless streak.
Phillies have won seven games in a row. 

Quick trends for all 30 MLB teams…….
— Diamondbacks are 1-6 in series openers, 9-6 in all other games.

— Braves are 14-1 when they score 5 or more runs.

— Cubs are 3-0 in home series openers, 1-3 in road series openers.

— Reds are 11-3 when they score 4+ runs, 1-6 when they don’t.

— Rockies are 1-16 when they score less than seven runs.

— Dodgers are 2-5 in games where winning run scored from 7th inning on.

— Marlins are 1-10 against lefty starting pitchers.

— Brewers have 5 wins where they scored 3 or fewer runs, tied with the Mets for the most in the major leagues.

— Over is 7-1 in the Mets’ last seven road games.

— Phillies are 13-1 when they score 4 or more runs.

— Pirates lost their last six games, scoring total of nine runs.

— Cardinals are 2-9 in day games, 7-4 in night games.

— Padres have been held to 2 or fewer runs in 10 of 24 games; they’re 0-10 scoring 2 or fewer runs, 10-2 scoring 3+ runs.

— Barry Bonds hit 45 home runs in 2004; since then, no Giant player has hit 30+ homers in a season. During that time, every other major league team has had 5+ seasons where a player hit 30+ homers.

— Nationals are 8-5 in their last 13 games, after a 2-6 start.

— Famous birthdays for April 22nd:
Jack Nicholson, 87
Peter Frampton, 74
Terry Francona, 65
Jimmy Key, 63
Jeff Hostetler, 63
Bimbo Coles, 56
Marshawn Lynch, 38

Eddie Albert, the star of Green Acres, one of the funniest TV shows ever, was born on this day in 1906.

— Orioles are 11-3 vs righty starting pitchers, 3-4 vs lefty starters.

— Red Sox are 10-2 when they score 5+ runs, 3-8 when they don’t.

— White Sox are 7th team since 1960 to start a season 3-18 or worse.

— Guardians have a 16-6 record, best record in American League. 

— Tigers are 4-0 vs lefty starting pitchers, 8-10 vs righty starters.

— Astros are off to a 7-16 start; their last losing year in a full season was 2014 (they went 29-31 in 2020, the pandemic season).

— Royals are off to a 13-9 start; their last winning season was 2015, when they won the World Series.

— This is Mike Trout’s 14th year in the majors; he’s played in three playoff games, going 1-12 at the plate in those games- the one hit was a home run.

— Twins lost six of its last seven games; they’re 2-6 at home.

— New York is 15-2 when it scores 3+ runs.

— A’s are 3-0 when they score 6+ runs, 5-14 when they don’t.

— Mariners won five of their last six games; under is 10-2 in their last 12 games.

— Rays are off to a 12-11 start; they’ve made the playoffs the last five years, have been over .500 the last six seasons.

— Rangers are 4-5 in their last nine games; they’re 12-11, leading AL West by a game.

— Blue Jays scored in the first inning in 7 of their last 12 games. 

— RIP to former NFL QB Roman Gabriel, who passed away Saturday at age 83.

I became a Rams fan back in 1966, when I was 6 years old; Gabriel was the Rams’ QB for the first seven years I rooted for LA- they went 63-28-5 with Gabriel starting during those years.

Distinctly remember him hitting Jack Snow on an 80-yard TD pass to spur the Rams to a 34-10 win over the Colts in the 1967 series finale, giving the Rams a division title. No idea why the Rams and Colts were in the same division, but they were.

Bigger than most QB’s back then, Gabriel was hard to sack; he was MVP of the NFL in 1969, when the Rams started the season 11-0. He later played five years for the Eagles.

RIP, sir.

— Knicks’ guard Josh Hart is the great nephew of Elston Howard, the outstanding catcher who played 15 years in the big leagues in the late 50’s/60’s.

— So far this season, Mets have outscored opponents 47-14 in innings 7-9.

Mets put C Francisco Alvarez (sprained thumb) on the IL.

— Mookie Betts has reached base safely 14 of 23 times he’s batted in first inning this year.

— Twins pitcher Bailey Ober has had an odd start to his season:
March 31, he gave up 8 runs in 1.1 IP at Kansas City. No bueno.
In three starts since then, Ober has allowed 2 runs in 17 IP, allowing only 11 baserunners.

— Blake Snell’s first three starts for the Giants:
11.2 IP, 23 baserunners, 15 runs allowed; 0-3 with an 11.57 ERA.

— Famous birthdays for April 21st:
Dick Green, 83
Al Bumbry, 77
Tony Danza, 73
Jesse Orosco, 67
Andie McDowell, 66
Tony Romo, 44
Rodney Stuckey, 38
Joc Pederson, 32

— Movie of the Day: The Cincinnati Kid (1965)- An up-and-coming poker player tries to prove himself in a high-stakes match against a long-time master of the game.

Steve McQueen is the up-and-coming player, Edward G Robinson the older guy. Karl Malden is another player in the game; a very young Ann Margret is also in the movie, along with Rip Torn, Cab Calloway and Joan Blondell.

One thing about older movies; people smoked like chimneys in them. Lot of cigarettes.

— Nationals 5, Astros 4 (10)
Washington tied game with two runs in 9th inning. 

Joey Meneses had the walk-off hit in 10th inning.
Astros fall to 7-15.

— Mets 6, Dodgers 4
Starling Marte hit a 3-run homer.
Mets have won six games in a row.

— Tampa Bay 2, New York 0 (10)
Eflin allowed only 3 baserunners in 6 IP.
Aaron Judge was 0-4 with four K’s; he’s hitting .179.

— Brewers 12, Cardinals 5
Brewers improve to 13-6 on the young season.
Bottom 4 guys in Milwaukee’s lineup were 8-17, with 6 runs scored.

— Giants 7, Diamondbacks 3
Patrick Bailey was 4-4 with a homer, three RBI

— Phillies 9, White Sox 5
White Sox’ first hit Friday was in 7th inning; Saturday, their first hit was in 8th.
Castellanos was 3-3, with two runs scored, two RBI

— Orioles 9, Royals 7
KC starter Ragans threw 49 pitches in 2nd inning; he didn’t finish the inning.
Santander was 3-5, with three doubles, 2 RBI

— Mariners 7, Rockies 0
Castillo got his first win, tossing 7 shutout IP.
Colorado falls to 4-16 this season. 

— Heat 112, Bulls 91
Miami led 34-17 after the first quarter.
Bulls were 8-10 on foul line; Kevin Love was 10-10 and he didn’t start.
Heat play Boston in the first round of the playoffs.

— Pelicans 105, Kings 98
Pelicans’ three subs were a combined +39 in 66:00.
Sacramento shot 11-41 on the arc.
New Orleans plays Oklahoma City in the first round of the playoffs.

— Why is the NFL Draft such a fascinating thing? Because great players come from all over; even with all the $$$ teams spend on scouting, guys slip thru the cracks.

Hall of Famer Kurt Warner, Northern Iowa, undrafted
Hall of Famer Jerry Rice, Mississippi Valley, 16th pick
Cooper Kupp, Eastern Washington, 3rd round (69th pick)
Hall of Famer Harold Carmichael, Southern, 7th round (181st pick)
Tom Brady, 6th round (199th pick)

Draft is next week; should be an interesting three days.

— College football is adding a 2:00 warning for each half; teams will also have coach-player radios in the helmet of one player on the field at a time, just like the NFL.

— Watched one of my favorite movies late Wednesday night; Invincible, with Mark Wahlberg, the real-life story of Philadelphia bartender Vince Papale, who went to an open tryout the Eagles had in 1976, and made the squad as a special teams player, lasting three years in the NFL.

Papale’s son Vinny is a wide receiver for the Memphis Showboats in the UFL.

— Left a movie off of yesterday’s list, one of my favorite movies, A Star is Born, with Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga. Fourth time the movie has been made; this version is very similar to the 1950’s version with Judy Garland and James Mason. 

— 7-foot center Oumar Ballo transferred from Arizona to Indiana; people on the Interweb are saying the price tag was $1.2M, for one year. Ballo had also previously played at Gonzaga.

— There are over 1,700 names in the college basketball transfer portal, which works out to roughly 4.7 players per team.

— Famous birthdays for April 20th:
Steve Spurrier, 79
Tommy Hutton, 78
Jessica Lange, 75
Clint Howard, 65
Don Mattingly, 63
John Carney, 60
Allan Houston, 53
Brandon Belt, 36

— Braves 8, Rangers 3
Travis d’Arnaud hit three homers, had six RBI, his first three homers this year.
Not often your #8 hitter has three home runs in a game. 

— Brewers 2, Cardinals 1 (10)
William Contreras knocked in both Milwaukee runs.
Freddy Peralta tossed six shutout IP.
Paul Goldschmidt is struggling, off to a .169 start.

— Mets 9, Dodgers 4
Dodgers tied game 4-4 in 6th, after trailing 4-0.
Lindor’s 7th-inning tater put the Mets ahead for good.
Yamamoto is 1-1, 4.50 in his first five MLB starts.

— Phillies 7, White Sox 0
Alec Bohm hit a pair of 3-run homers in his first two at-bats.
Spencer Turnbull is 2-0, 1.23 in his first four starts for Philly.
White Sox are off to worst offensive start of any team since 1939.

— Astros 5, Nationals 3
Justin Verlander tossed six innings and won in his first ’24 start.

— Reds 7, Angels 1
Lodolo has allowed one run in 12 IP in winning his first two starts.
Angels lost five of their last seven games.

— Tigers 5, Twins 4
Rookie OF Perez had game-winning hit in 9th inning.
Jack Flaherty struck out 10 guys in six IP, but blew a 4-2 lead in the 6th.

— Royals 9, Orioles 4
Vinnie Pasquantino has 11 RBI in his last eight games.
Loss ends Baltimore’s 4-game winning streak.
Royals have won their last nine home games. 

These are 15 of my favorite non-sports movies. Make your own list.

Remember, these are my favorite movies, not the movies that are necessarily the best. Of the 50 movies USA Today listed as the best ever, I’ve seen three of them. Seriously.

15) Runaway Jury— I’m a big fan of the John Grisham books; this was my favorite of the ones that were turned into movies. Gene Hackman plays a jury consultant whose client is a gun manufacturer; John Cusack is on the jury to manipulate the verdict.

14) Moon Over Parador— Richard Dreyfuss is an actor who is hired to stand in for the dictator of a Latin American country who suddenly dies. Jonathan Winters is a weird CIA agent whose wife is Polly Holliday, who played Flo in the old TV series Alice.

13) Dave— Made five years after Moon Over Parador, this is basically the same movie, just set in Washington, DC.

Guy who looks just the President runs a temp service in Washington; when the real president has a stroke while screwing around with his mistress, the guy (Kevin Kline) is hired as the stand-in president. Sigourney Weaver is the First Lady.

12) A Few Good Men— The last scene, with Jack Nicholson on the witness stand, is tremendous. Kevin Bacon, Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Pollak, JT Walsh as supporting actors is pretty strong.

11) The Verdict— Paul Newman is a struggling lawyer who is handed a winning case, but winning it is easier said than done. His friend is played by Jack Warden, one of my all-time favorites.

10) The Gambler— Remake of a James Caan movie from the mid-70’s. College professor (Mark Wahlberg) seems to have an excellent life, but he has a huge gambling problem which drags him down. John Goodman plays one of the people he owes money to; he is very good in this.

9) The Bodyguard— Whitney Houston is a famous singer with a contract on her head; Kevin Costner is the ex-Secret Service hired to protect her.

8) Prince of Tides— A football coach from the south comes to New York City to talk to his sister’s psychiatrist about his sister’s suicide attempt, and their family history- then they in love. Nick Nolte is the coach, Barbra Streisand is the psychiatrist.

— Famous birthdays for April 19th:
Keith Erickson, 80
Mark van Eeghen, 72
Frank Viola, 64
Spike Owen, 63
Ashley Judd, 56
Jeff Wilkins, 52
Kate Hudson, 45
Troy Polamalu, 43
Joe Mauer, 41

7) Leap of Faith— Steve Martin plays a traveling preacher whose bus breaks down, stranding his crew in a drought-stricken Kansas town. Miracles ensue. Liam Neeson, Debra Winger, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Meat Loaf all have supporting roles.

6) Lost In Translation— Bill Murray plays a washed-up actor who is in Tokyo getting paid $2M to do a whiskey commercial. He meets Scarlett Johansson in the hotel bar and they become friends.

5) Begin Again— Down-and-out music executive stumbles into a Manhattan bar and discovers a young singer who can resurrect his career, while starting the singer on her own career.

4) Good Will Hunting— Janitor at MIT can do complicated math problems better than the professors can, but he also has a criminal record, and has to get counseling for that. Robin Williams is great as the counselor.

3) Molly’s Game— Young woman runs high stakes poker games for celebrities/rich guys, but when members of the Russian mob enter the game, things get complicated. This is a true story, and as we’re learning nowadays, real life is often stranger than fiction.

2) Last Vegas— Four old friends get together in Las Vegas for the bachelor party of the one bachelor in group (Michael Douglas) who is marrying a woman 40 years younger than him. It is Douglas, Robert DeNiro, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Kline.

1) Rounders— Law student decides he’d rather play high stakes poker than go to law school. The scenes with Matt Damon and his law professor (Martin Landau) are excellent. Same guys who wrote this wrote the great Showtime series Billions.

— Bulls 131, Hawks 116
White scored 42 points, had 9 rebounds, 6 assists.
Atlanta ends the season by losing its last eight games.
Bulls play Miami Friday, for the last playoff spot in the East.

— 76ers 105, Heat 104
Miami led 51-39 at halftime.
Embiid scored 23 points, had 15 rebounds. 

76ers are 32-8 when Embiid plays, 16-27 when he doesn’t.
76ers advance to play the Knicks in the first round of the playoffs.

— Who is the American League leader in RBI’s?
Aaron Judge? Julio Rodriguez?
Mike Trout? Vladimir Guerrero?

Try Taylor Ward of the Angels, who hits behind Mike Trout in their lineup.

— Red Sox 2, Guardians 0
This game took 1:49 to play, the fastest MLB game since 2010; how long before people complain about baseball games going too quickly?

— Braves 5, Astros 4 (10)
Houston is 6-14 this season, 4-9 at home. Two years ago they won the World Series, then told their GM to take a hike. Maybe that wasn’t such a great idea.

— NFL Draft is next week; apparently Pat McAfee will have a channel on one of the ESPN’s during the draft, and one of the people with him on the broadcast will be Bill Belichick, which should be interesting.

— Famous birthdays for April 18th:
Pete Gogolak, 82
Steve Blass, 82
Cindy Pickett, 77
Eric Roberts, 68
Conan O’Brien, 61
Frederick Weller, 58
Derrick Brooks, 51
Miguel Cabrera, 41

— Movie of the Day: Heaven Can Wait (1978)
An NFL quarterback, accidentally taken away from his body by an overanxious angel before he was meant to die, returns to life in the body of a recently murdered millionaire.

Warren Beatty is the QB, James Mason is the guy who ran heaven, Jack Warden is the trainer for the Rams. Julie Christie, Charles Grodin, Vincent Gardenia, Dyan Cannon, Buck Henry are all in this movie- excellent cast.

When the QB is taken away from his body, they do a search and find that he was supposed to die in March of 2025, which at the time seemed like a ridiculously long time away. I was 18 back then; now that date is next year.

When this movie came out, the real-life Rams were in the midst of winning their division every year, then losing in the playoffs. Seeing them win the Super Bowl, even in a fictional movie, it was great. (I still have the poster of the movie that was in the theater).

— There is a college basketball player who just transferred from Iowa State to Ohio U; before he played for Iowa State, he played for Wofford. 

I’m sure a lot of college kids have transferred from Wofford to Iowa State to Ohio U, just can’t think of any others. College sports has gone nuts.

— A’s 6, Cardinals 3
Esteury Ruiz scored two runs, knocked in two runs.
A’s are 4-0 when Paul Blackburn pitches.
Oakland is 7-5 in its last 12 games, after a 1-6 start.

— Phillies 7, Rockies 6
Kyle Schwarber homered twice, including his 250th career home run. 

— Angels 5, Rays 4
Tampa Bay scored twice in 8th inning to take 4-3 lead.
Angels scored twice in 9th inning for the win.
Rendon, Ward had 9th inning singles for the Halos. 

— Nationals 2, Dodgers 0
Jake Irvin tossed six shutout innings for Washington.
CJ Abrams led the game off with a home run, the only run they needed.

— Giants 3, Marlins 1
Miami is 4-15, 0-7 in games where the winning run scored from 7th inning on.
Marlins are 8-9-2 in first five innings; they’ve struggled in late innings. 

— Lakers 110, Pelicans 106
Pelicans play Sacramento Friday for last playoff spot in West.
Zion Williamson hurt his hamstring late in this game.
Lakers move on to play Denver in first round of the playoffs.

— Kings 118, Warriors 94
Sacramento outscored Warriors 64-44 in second half.
Was this Klay Thompson’s last game with Golden State?

— BYU hired Kevin Young as its new basketball coach; Young has been an assistant with the Phoenix Suns the last three seasons.

— Milwaukee Bucks’ star Giannis Antetokounmpo will be on the sidelines when the Bucks start their playoff series with the Indiana Pacers; they’re hoping to have him back later in the series.

— Baseball injuries:
Brewers put OF Christian Yelich (back) on the IL.
Braves put 2B Ozzie Albies (broken toe) on the IL

— RIP Whitey Herzog; the great baseball manager passed away at age 92. He won three NL pennants with the Cardinals, winning the 1982 World Series. He also made the playoffs three times in five years managing Kansas City.

— Famous birthdays for April 17:
Marty Domres, 77
Geoff Petrie, 76
Boomer Esiason, 63
Marquis Grissom, 57
Tony Boselli, 52
Jennifer Garner, 52
Jed Lowrie, 40

— Arizona 12, Cubs 11 (10)
Ketel Marte tied game with a 9th-inning home run.
Cubs led 11-8 in seventh inning.
Ian Happ was 3-5, with three runs scored, 4 RBI

— Mets 3, Pirates 1
Pirate starter Jones threw 5 shutout IP, was yanked as planned, despite throwing only 59 pitches.
Last three games, Mets haven’t scored a run in the first five innings.
Mets have had 10 home games; five of the crowds were under 20,000.

— Rays 7, Angels 6 (13)
Caballero’s 2-run triple tied game in 9th for Tampa Bay
Rosario’s infield single was the walk-off hit.
With new extra inning rules, you don’t see a lot of 13-inning games.

— Guardians 10, Red Sox 7 (11)
Cleveland led 5-1 after five innings.
Gimenez single tied game in top of the 9th.
Red Sox are 2-6 at home.

— Phillies 5, Rockies 0
Suarez threw the second complete game in the majors this year.
Harper knocked in three of Philly’s five runs.
Last three games, Colorado scored a total of one run.

— Dodgers 6, Nationals 2
Mookie Betts went 5-5, with two runs scored, 2 RBI.
Jesse Winker homered, doubled for Washington.

— Orioles 11, Twins 3
Baltimore led 7-0 in the third inning.
Minnesota is 3-8 in its last eleven games.
Orioles scored 53 runs in their last eight games.

— A woman who accused Trevor Bauer of sexual assault has been indicted by a grand jury in Arizona on felony charges of fraudulent schemes and theft by extortion. Apparently she wanted $3.6M from Bauer, who remains a free agent this season. 

— People bet on the NFL Draft, hell, people bet on everything. Over/under on number of QB’s drafted in the first round next week is 4.5

— Colorado State signed basketball coach Nike Medved to a 7-year contract extension worth a total of around $13M.

— Baseball injuries:
Cubs put OF Seiya Suzuki (oblique) on IL
Marlins put 3B Jake Burger (oblique) on IL

— NBA $tuff
Phoenix Suns gave Grayson Allen a 4-year deal worth $70M. 

— NFL $tuff
Eagles gave WR DeVonta Smith a 3-year deal worth $75M. 

Colts gave DT DeForest Buckner a 2-year deal worth $46M.

— RIP to Ken Holtzman, the outstanding pitcher who passed away at age 78.

He pitched nine years for the Cubs, throwing two no-hitters for them, but then he got traded to the A’s after the 1971 season and he was instrumental in Oakland winning three straight World Series, from 1972-74. Holtzman went 77-55 in four years with the A’s. He was 4-1, 2.55 in seven World Series starts. 

RIP, sir.

— Famous birthdays for April 16:
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 77
Ellen Barkin, 70
Bruce Bochy, 69
Curt Young, 64
Jon Cryer, 59
Walt Williams, 54
Nolan Arenado, 33

— Royals 2, Chicago 0- White Sox and the 1907 Brooklyn Superbas as the only teams in MLB history to be shut out six times in their first 16 games of a season.

Rumors are floating around that the White Sox will sign OF/DH Tommy Pham to help their struggling lineup.

— Royals and Dodgers are only MLB teams that haven’t allowed an unearned run yet this season.

— Cubs 3, Arizona 2 (11)
Cubs’ 1B Michael Busch homered in his fifth straight game.
Cubs tied game in 9th inning when Hoerner scored from 2nd on a wild pitch.

— Angels 7, Rays 3
Tampa Bay led 1-0 after seven innings.
Mike Trout hit the home run that put the Halos up for good.

— Rangers 1, Tigers 0
Michael Lorenzen threw 5 shutout IP in his 2024 debut.
Marcus Semien knocked in the only run of the game.

— Random Knowledge:
Jesse Owens won four track gold medals in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin; in one of the races, the 200-meter sprint, the guy who finished second also broke the world record in that race. 

Guy named Mack Robinson won that silver medal, and he wasn’t even the best athlete in his own family; his brother was Jackie Robinson. 

— Yesterday, I complained about what a terrible umpire Angel Hernandez is, which is true; well, here is the other side of the coin. 

Friday night, Chad Whitson worked home plate at the Chicago-Seattle game; of the 129 pitches that were taken by hitters, Whitson only missed one call the whole freakin’ game. Now that is what a major league umpire is supposed to do.

— Padres 6, Dodgers 3
Second night in a row, start of a game at Dodger Stadium was delayed by rain.
San Diego is surprisingly 9-9; Manny Machado hit a home run for the Padres.
Dodgers are 4-5 in their last nine games.
Dodger pitchers walked 14 batters, had only 3 strikeouts.

— A’s 7, Nationals 6
Trailing 6-1 in sixth inning, A’s scored six times in bottom of the 6th. 

After a 1-6 start, A’s are 6-3 in their last nine games.

AL West standings, after 18 days of games:
Texas 8-8
LA Angels 7-8
A’s 7-9
Seattle 6-10
Houston 6-11

— Most career home runs, leading off a game:
81- Rickey Henderson
57- George Springer
54- Alfonso Soriano
53- Craig Biggio

— Toronto Blue Jays are 4-2 at home; they’ve scored in first inning in five of those six games.

— If the baseball playoffs started today (they do not):
AL: New York, Cleveland, Texas. Wild Cards: Royals, Orioles, Tigers
NL: Atlanta, Milwaukee, Los Angeles. Wild Cards: Pirates, Reds, Cubs

— Famous birthdays for April 15:
Julie Sommars, 83
Ted Sizemore, 79
Michael Cooper, 68
Emma Thompson, 65
Jason Sehorn, 53
Brock Huard, 48
Seth Rogen, 42

— Movie of the Day: Prince of Tides (1991)- A high school football coach from the South comes to New York City to meet with his suicidal sister’s psychiatrist about their family history and falls in love with her in the process.

Nick Nolte is the coach, Barbra Streisand is the psychiatrist. George Carlin is her neighbor, Blythe Danner is the coach’s wife. 

Not the most pleasant movie, but a very good one.

— Fresno State hired Vance Walberg as its new basketball coach; he is the innovator of the dribble drive motion offense, and has coached in high school, junior college, college and the NBA. He was once head coach at Pepperdine, was an assistant for three NBA teams and has coached in high school for 20+ years. 

Walberg is 67 years old; his last college job was 13 years ago, but if Fresno gets some NIL $$$ to recruit better ballplayers, they’ll make some noise in the Mountain West. 

— Knicks 120, Bulls 119 OT— Knicks win 50+ games for the first time since 2013.

— Tuesday’s NBA play-in games:
Lakers @ New Orleans
Warriors @ Sacramento

— Wednesday’s NBA play-in games:
Heat @ Philadelphia
Hawks @ Chicago

— Panthers 34, Roughnecks 20
Michigan outscored Roughnecks 22-3 in third quarter.
Panthers converted 7-12 third down plays.
Houston is off to an 0-3 start.

— Battlehawks 31, Brahmas 24
St Louis led 17-9 at halftime.
Butler caught six passes for 87 yards and a TD.
There were only five penalties called in this game. 

— Angel Hernandez is a terrible umpire; how does he keep his job? 

Friday night, he had the plate in Houston; once the Rangers got a big lead, Hernandez started calling every pitch the Astros threw a strike. He called Wyatt Langford out on a pitch that was 6.8 inches outside!!!!

Hernandez called 55 pitches strikes in that game; 12 of them were balls, a terrible %age for a big league umpire. No idea how the guy hasn’t been fired.

— Twins 11, Tigers 5 (12)
Zach McKinstry had a really bad 12th inning in this game; his error at third base let three runs score, including the go-ahead run. Then, when Detroit threw the towel in later that inning, they put McKinstry in to pitch, since it was the first game of a doubleheader. Not really sure why they did that, but they did.

McKinstry then gave up a 3-run homer to Matt Wallner in the same half-inning.

— Phillies 4, Pirates 3- Philadelphia’s last ten games stayed under the total.

— Dodgers 5, Padres 2- There was a 2:15 rain delay before this game, which doesn’t happen much in Los Angeles. Game ended around 2am here in the east.

— Brewers 11, Orioles 5- Over is 7-1-1 in Milwaukee’s last nine games; in their last six games, Brewers scored 58 runs.

— Royals 11, Mets 7- Catcher Salvador Perez hit his 250th career home run.

— Defenders 29, Renegades 28
Washington kicked a 49-yard FG at the gun, improve to 2-1.
Arlington led 14-9 at halftime.
Renegades outgained the Defenders, 419-259.

— Stallions 33, Showboats 14
Birmingham outgained Memphis 424-212.
Stallions outscored Memphis 15-2 in second half.
Understatement; the Memphis offensive line had a bad day.

— Famous birthdays for April 14:
Julie Christie, 84
Pete Rose, 83
Brad Garrett, 64
Stan Humphries, 59
David Justice, 58
Greg Maddux, 58
Craig Kupp, 57
Adrien Brody, 51
Baker Mayfield, 29

— Baseball players get hurt a lot:
Dodgers put P Bobby Miller (shoulder) on IL
Texas reliever Brock Burke punched a wall after a poor outing, broke his non-throwing hand.
Colorado OF Kris Bryant (ribs) left Saturday’s game after he ran into a fence catching a line drive.

— Of the 655 position players last year, only four played in all 162 games:
Matt Olson
Marcus Semien
Juan Soto
Eugenio Suarez

— Last three years, Freddie Freeman played in 159-159-161 games.

— French-born big man Alex Sarr will be an interesting player when the NBA Draft rolls around; he is 7-foot-1, 19 years old, averaged 9.4 points/game in an Australian pro league this past season.

— There are weasels around college basketball who are calling for the end of automatic bids to the NCAA Tournament. This would be a HUGE mistake; the mid-majors are what gives March Madness its appeal, especially the first weekend.

I’d rather watch the champs of the Big Sky, Ivy League and Sun Belt play than a bunch of teams that went 7-11 in their conference season. March Madness is a great event; they need to keep it the way it is. 

— Baseball game in Cleveland got rained out Friday; Guardians will play a day/night twinbill Saturday, then a day game Sunday, then an 11am road game Monday morning in Boston, where Patriots’ Day is a holiday. Will be a busy 48 hours for them. 

— Rangers 12, Astros 8
Last three games, Houston starting pitchers gave up 24 runs in 7.2 IP.
Astros are 4-11, their worst 15-game start since 2013.

— Padres 8, Dodgers 7 (11)
Dodgers led 7-3 after three innings, didn’t score again. 

Yamamoto allowed three runs in 5 IP; he hasn’t lasted more than 5 IP in any of his four starts for the Dodgers.

— A’s 2, Nationals 1
Lawrence Butler had the walk-off hit as the spunky A’s won for sixth time in seven games. Paul Blackburn threw 6.1 more scoreless innings, has now thrown 19.1 innings this year, without giving up any runs.

— Angels 7, Red Sox 0
Reid Detmers is the first Angel pitcher to win his first three starts of a season since Jered Weaver won six straight games to start the 2011 season.

— Cardinals 9, Diamondbacks 6
St Louis blew a 6-0 lead, but Goldschmidt’s 7th inning single put them ahead for good.
Nolan Arenado was 3-5 with three RBI.

— Pirates 5, Phillies 2
Bailey Falter allowed one run in 5 IP, beating his former team- they dealt him to Pittsburgh at the trade deadline last summer. 

— Famous birthdays for April 13th:
Dennis Thurman, 68
Garry Kasparov, 61
Bo Outlaw, 53
Dan Campbell, 48
Quentin Richardson, 44
Hunter Pence, 41

— All 30 NBA teams played Friday night; there are no NBA games Saturday, then all 30 teams play again on Sunday, the last day of the regular season.

— Eastern Washington hired Dan Monson as its new basketball coach; Monson coached the last 17 years at Long Beach State. Monson got fired just before last month’s Big West Tournament, but then he won the tournament, and led Long Beach to the NCAA’s for the second time.

— AAC has 80 players in the college basketball transfer portal, the most of any league; ACC, Pac-12 and Missouri Valley are next, with 68 players each.

— Flying home from Las Vegas on Southwest Airlines this week was easier, because you can watch movies for free on your phone. The flight from Baltimore to Albany is short anyway, plus the only empty seat on the plane was the middle seat next to me, making life a little better.

— NHL’s Arizona Coyotes are going to move to Salt Lake City next season; Coyotes have made the NHL playoffs once in the last 12 seasons. 

— Vegas Golden Knights have been in the NHL for seven years, have never had a losing season, making the playoffs six times now, after they clinched a playoff spot with Friday’s 7-2 win over Minnesota.

— Last time an NBA/NHL player from teams in same city both won MVP in the same season was 1988-89, when Magic Johnson/Wayne Gretzky did it.