Month: April 2026

Crown Tournament in Las Vegas
— Oklahoma 90, Colorado 86 OT
Colorado led by 10 late in the first half.
Oklahoma led by 7 with 1:51 left in regulation.
Nijel Pack had 20 points, five assists for the Sooners.

— Baylor 67, Minnesota 48
Bears outscored Minnesota 36-22 in second half.
Baylor had 37-29 age on the boards.
Gophers shot 3-23 on arc, 7-15 on foul line. 

— Siena hired Marquette assistant Nevada Smith as its new basketball coach; Coach Smith has been a head coach in the G League, he assisted Shaka Smart the last six years at Marquette and Texas. Siena made the NCAA’s this year for the first time since 2010; coach Gerry McNamara then became the head coach at Syracuse, his alma mater.

— Tyler Lundblade is a 3-point shooter who played the last two years at Belmont, after playing the two years before that at TCU. He’ll be playing next year at Tennessee, which got only 25% of its points this season on the arc (3326 out of 365 teams).

This year, Lundblade made 40.9% of the 274 3-pointers he shot; he took only 66 2-point shots.

— Orioles 8, Rangers 3
First major league game that ended on a called 3rd strike, via replay review.
Albert Suarez got his first save in nine years.
Corey Seager homered for Texas.

— Cardinals 2, Mets 1 (11)
Masyn Winn had the walk-off bloop single for St Louis.
Mets went 1-for-29 with RISP in this three game series.
Mets lost three of last four games, scoring total of eight runs.

— Marlins 10, White Sox 0
Sandy Alcantara threw a 93-pitch complete game.
Liam Hicks went 3-for-4, with a homer, 4 RBI
Marlins are off to a 5-1 start.

— Famous birthdays, April 2nd:
Reggie Smith, 81
Linda Hunt, 81
Roy Gerela, 78
Larry Drew, 68

Christopher Meloni, 65
Pete Incaviglia, 62
Roselyn Sanchez, 53
Austin Riley, 29

— Phillies 6, Nationals 5 (10)
Washington led 5-1 in the 7th inning.
Edmundo Sosa hit a 2-run single to tie game in 9th inning.
Cade Cavalli allowed one run in 6 IP for the Nationals.

— Rockies 2, Blue Jays 1 (10)
Tyler Freeman had the game-winning hit for Colorado.
Rockies won 2 of 3 in this series, are now 3-12 all-time in Toronto.
Kevin Gausman is the first pitcher in the last 100 years with 10+ strikeouts in each of his first two starts, with no walks. 

— Astros 6, Red Sox 4
Carlos Correa hit a 3-run homer in the fifth inning.
Astros have won five in a row, after an 0-2 start.
Boston starts the season with a 1-5 road trip.

— Royals 13, Twins 9
Jonathan India homered, had five RBI.
Kyle Isbel went 4-for-4, scored three runs.
Kansas City led 12-1 after six innings; their bullpen struggled.

— Guardians 4, Dodgers 1
Gavin Williams struck out 10 guys in seven scoreless IP.
Jose Ramirez hit his first home run of the season.
Cleveland starts the season with a 4-3 road trip.

— Padres 7, Giants 1
Ramon Laureano homered, had two RBI.
Mason Miller has gotten a save in both San Diego wins.
Luis Arraez had three of the Giants’ four hits.

— Diamondbacks 1, Tigers 0
Corbin Carroll’s first-inning homer was the game’s only run.
Zac Gallen allowed four hits in six shutout IP.
Detroit starts the season with a 2-4 road trip.

Less than a week into the baseball season, and there are no winless teams, and no unbeaten teams, which seems unusual.

— Diamondbacks 7, Tigers 5
Rookie Jose Fernandez hit two homers in his MLB debut.
Trailing 5-1, Arizona scored six runs in the 8th inning.
Detroit had all six of its hits in a five-run third inning.

— Giants 9, Padres 3
Willie Adames went 4-for-5 with a homer, two RBI
Jung Hoo Lee went 3-for-4 with three RBI
San Diego is off to a 1-4 start.

— Dodgers 4, Guardians 1
Shohei Ohtani allowed one hit in six shutout IP.
Max Muncy homered for the Dodgers.
Dodgers are off to a 4-1 start.

— A’s 5, Braves 1
Shea Langeliers hit his 4th home run of the season.
Four Sacramento relievers didn’t allow a run in four IP
Aaron Civale got the A’s first win in five games this year.

— Rangers 8, Orioles 5
First three hitters in Texas order went 6-14, with four runs scored.
Corey Seager, Danny Jansen, Ezequiel Duran homered for the Rangers.
Orioles’ P Zach Eflin left in the 4th inning with a sore elbow.

— Marlins 9, White Sox 2
Liam Hicks homered for the 4-1 Marlins.
Miami bullpen got 14 outs, didn’t allow a hit.
Marlins 2B Xavier Edwards is off to an 8-19 (.421) start.

— Phillies 3, Nationals 2
Andrew Painter struck out 8 guys in 5.1 IP in his MLB debut.
Kyle Schwarber, Adolis Garcia homered for the Phillies.
First four guys in Phiilies’ batting order are all hitting under .200.

— Famous birthdays, April 1st
Ali MacGraw, 87
Annette O’Toole, 74
Mark Jackson, 61
Jumbo Elliott, 61

Daniel Murphy, 41
Brook Lopez, 38
Robin Lopez, 38
David Dahl, 32

Today was my grandmother May’s birthday; she lived in Queens with my grandfather, who was a conductor on the subway. They were married more than 50 years, and they were always very nice to me; happy heavenly birthday!!!

— Was watching the Twins-Royals game Monday; they were saying on TV how Salvador Perez is much more likely to challenge pitches for being high/low, rather than inside/outside. He says he sees those pitches better.

— Between the pitch clock, three-batter minimum for pitchers and the ABS challenge system, Major League Baseball has done very well with their recent rule changes.

— Colt Emerson is a 20-year-old infielder who signed an 8-year, $95M contract with the Seattle Mariners this week, even though he’s never played in the major leagues. He played 34 games at the AA level last year, six more in AAA. He is 5-14 in his first three AAA games this year, and now he is really, really rich.
 
— Blue Jays P Cody Ponce had to be carted off the field Monday night after he twisted his knee while chasing a ground ball. He had an MRI Tuesday; he has a sprained ACL and will miss a lot of time.

— ACC basketball teams went 3-11 ATS in this year’s NCAA Tournament, the 2nd-worst any league has done (with 10+ games) in the last 25 years.

— NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights fired their coach this week; he was his record:
2022-23- 51-22-9, won the Stanley Cup
2023-24- 45-29-8, lost in the first round of playoffs
2024-25- 50-22-10, lost in second round of playoffs
2025-26- 33-26-16, and got fired

Four years: 203-115-43 with a championship, and they fired him.

Oy.

— Chicago Bears’ QB Caleb Williams is trying to trademark the nickname “Iceman”, which caught the attention of basketball Hall of Famer George Gervin, who has been known as the Iceman since back in his ABA days in the 70’s. In 1987, the San Antonio Spurs retired Gervin’s number 44. They once had a poster of Gervin sitting on blocks of ice.

I don’t know much about copyright rules, but apparently Gervin may have messed up by not applying for the “Iceman” trademark, while Williams has done that, which may give him the upper hand in this matter. We’ll see what happens.