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Armadillo's Den:
Friday's List of 13:
Nobody asked me, but........
Baseball knowledge on MLB page; every game analyzed
College football writeups are on the CF page
CFL writeups coming later this week

Friday's six-pack -- Florida Atlantic won 32-31 at UAB; Howard Schnellenberger is just an ageless coach. He's building a good program at FAU. Owls trailed in first quarter 14-0-- this is a terrific win for them. -- If you add up the ages of Hawai'i's two coordinators, they'd still be six years younger than USC's DC Monte Kiffin, who is 70. -- Rutgers beat Norfolk State 31-0, but it was only 6-0 at the half. -- Minnesota won 24-17 at Middle Tennessee; Gophers would have been in deep trouble if MTSU QB Dasher hadn't been suspended. -- Utah survived shaky clock management, beat Pitt 27-24 in OT; this is why teams play cupcakes in openers. Starting a season 0-1 sucks. -- Phillies scored nine runs in 7th inning, won pivotal makeup game in Denver 12-11, a damaging loss for the Rockies, who led 7-3.

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Friday's List of 13: Nobody asked me, but.........
13) Too many college football teams open the season with a glorified scrimmage against an inferior opponent, or as Al McGuire used to call them, "cupcakes". Stony Brook-Norfolk State-Elon-South Dakota, none of these teams have a rat's chance of winning, but they'll take home a big paycheck for losing gracefully. To me, it cheapens the sport.

12) Put it this way; Ohio State played Marshall, Texas is playing Rice; no way are they losing those games, but at least they're playing against a D-I opponent. Florida State playing Samford is ridiculous.

11) Big 11 split up Ohio State-Michigan into different divisions, but the two rivals will still meet every year. Michigan State lucked out as they doled out "annual rivalries". Spartans will play feeble Indiana annually.

10) San Jose State's first two games are at Alabama, at Wisconsin; their coaches are going to have to soothe a lot of bruised egos after they get crushed twice, but the school's accountants will be dancing with joy as two fat paychecks roll into their athletic department's bank account.

9) East Carolina is 20-7-1 vs spread in its last 28 games as an underdog, so we know Skip Holtz can coach. Look for South Florida to become a giant in the Big East. They came close under program founder Leavitt, the Bulls had been finishing seasons poorly the last few years.

8) USC has kicking issues; they went for two after their first three TDs Thursday night. How can a school the size of USC not have some kid on campus who played soccer in high school? This will cost them a win.

7) FedEx is the #1 business in the Memphis area; guy named Fred Smith is the CEO of FedEx. Fred has a son named Cannon who originally went to Miami, playing one game for the 'canes, but now goes to Memphis. Kid named Cannon has to be a quarterback, right?

6) How would you like to be Larry Porter, the new head football coach at Memphis? Is there any doubt who the starting QB is for the Tigers? You got it, the Miami transfer, son of the FedEx CEO, Cannon Smith.

5) It should be illegal to say the words "Heisman watch" before regular season is over in baseball.

4) Kellen Clemens apparently took a pay cut to stay with the Jets; he's the 3rd string QB for Gang Green. He's started nine games in four years.

3) Sam Bradford was 6-6 for 68 yards against Baltimore's second string defense, but lets be honest here, the kid lit it up this summer. It would be very shocking if Sam the Ram doesn't start the opener vs Arizona. The NFC West is weak; my Rams have as good a shot as anyone!!!!

2) Brooklyn Cyclones are 49-23 in NY-Penn League, six games better than anyone else in league; their manager is Wally Backman, who needs to be the next manager of the Mets. He wins, he's feisty, he's a Met. His presence on the bench would invigorate a depressed fanbase.

1) I love football season starting, because business really picks up here at the website for the next seven months, but this has been the warmest and best summer ever here in upstate New York. I'll be sad to see it go.

Thursday's List of 13: Clearing out a cluttered mind..........
13) Next year, the Big 11 will have 12 teams; in 2012 the Big 12 is going to have 10 teams, and you wonder why I'm confused?

12) You know The Most Interesting Man in the World, from those Dos Equis commercials? Turns out he is Jonathan Goldsmith, an actor who once drove a garbage truck for a living. Stay thirsty, my friends, and do not forget to recycle.......

11) Rams have a rookie TE named Michael Hoomanawanui who slipped through some cracks in scouting because Illinois had terrible QBs, so he didn't catch many passes-- the guy has seven syllables in his last name. Coach Spagnuolo refers to him simple as "Illinois Mike".

10) Only one Super Bowl champ has gone winless in preseason and that was in a strike-shortened season-- the '82 Washington Redskins.

9) Core Logic, which provides financial information, clues us in that last year, 18.5% of borrowers chose 15-year mortgages when buying a home, compared to only 9.4% in 2007.

8) Instant replay in tennis is the best replay system of any sport.

7) Angels lost Scott Kazmir's last seven home starts, and were blanked in each of Jered Weaver's last three starts. Terrible year for the Halos.

6) Whats with Friday nights in AL East? Bronx Bombers lost five in a row on Friday. Tampa Bay is 1-15 in its last 16 Friday games. Wow.

5) Mets scored two or less runs in 13 of Johan Santana's 28 starts.

4) Carlos Delgado/Adam LaRoche have hit three HRs into McCovey Cove in San Francisco, the most splash hits of any visiting player.

3) Cardinals at Rams, Week 1. Who would've guessed the best QB in this game would be wearing blue and gold?

2) Why would anyone want Manny Ramirez at this stage of his career? He's a quitter. Effort should never be negotiable.

1) College football starts tonight. Real games. Not soon enough.

Wednesday's List of 13: Things I'm looking for in September.......
13) There's a guy playing AAA baseball in Albuquerque named Lindsey who is 33 years old; he's played 16 years in minors with a career batting average of .311, but he's never made the big leagues. If the baseball gods have an ounce of compassion, Lindsey will get the call this week; as it turns out, he's having his best season (.363, 23 HRs, 90 RBI).

12) I'm hoping that by the end of September, I'll be really good at using my new cellphone. Seems like it can do a lot of things.

11) Which I-AA college football team will upset a I-A team this fall?

10) If Eldrick Woods had an ounce of humor in his veins, he'd show up at the first tee of a pro-am with Jenna Jameson as his caddy, everyone could have a good chuckle (OK, almost everyone) and then he could go on with his business of trying to win his first tournament of 2010. Can't hurt to break some tension, can it?

9) Will the Saints have a post-championship hangover? They waited so long to win a title, they celebrated harder than any champ ever has.

8) Want to see an exhibtion hockey game; looking at the schedules, looks like October 1st in Glens Falls is my night. There's an NHL game out in Las Vegas, but its after I come home, so Glens Falls it will be. Hockey in person is bigtime fun; if you haven't done it, treat yourself.

7) I'm looking to see if the sandwiches at the Carnegie Deli in the Mirage are as big and as delicious as they were last year; I'm guessing they are.

6) Looking to see if Jake Locker can get Washington to a bowl game; I'm a big Locker fan, but this is the year he needs to get UDub to a bowl.

5) I'm curious to see if Erin Andrews is any good hosting Game Day on Saturday mornings; part of her new contract is that she gets to host an hour early in the show. For all the time she's been on TV, no idea if she is any good as a broadcaster.

4) I'm looking to see if Lane Kiffin can coach; guy gets lot of good jobs, but what has he done to deserve them? USC only has 67 scholarship players this year (limit is 85) so this will challenge him as a coach.

3) Can Terry Francona get his banged-up Red Sox into the playoffs? If so, its one of the great managing jobs in recent years.

2) I'm looking to see if my A's can finish 2010 with a winning record; in the current baseball landscape, its a good annual goal for them.

1) I've never gone through a football season without drinking lot of soda, so this will be the first time for that. Will the Rams drive me to drink?

Tuesday's List of 13: Things I learned/re-learned in August
13) As much as I love the NFL, exhibition games are basically boring, but it would still be fun to have the NFL Network and watch replays of these boring games. Too bad my cable system doesn't carry NFLN.

12) Cash is king. Greed rules. I mean, for the love of Pete, I'm willing to pay extra for NFL Network, the Sunday Ticket, whatever, but because Time Warner and the NFL hate each other, I'm screwed. Good thing we have two soccer channels and four home shopping networks. Terrific.

11) I learned that its very hard to pick winners at the racetrack. I don't even try anymore, preferring to donate my money by buying fantastic saltless pretzels, one of the great inventions of our time.

10) I learned that Bryant Westbrook signed with the 49ers as free agent because Mike Singletary is their coach; we'll see how that works out for him. When Steve Spagnuolo gets named Coach of the Year after season, can we get a comment from the oft-injured Westbrook?

9) I learned that Billy Fuccillo is America's #1 KIA dealer; he has about 50 commercials a day on TV, reminding us of that fact. I don't know one person who drives a KIA, but thats just me.

8) Sports Illustrated named Donovan McNabb as best NFL player who ever wore number 5. I'm thinking Paul Hornung, who helped the Packers to multiple NFL championships. Your thoughts?

7) I learned that Juan Marichal is last pitcher to throw a no-hitter in the same season where his team lost a no-hitter in one of his starts; that was way back in 1963.

6) I learned that Joe Torre doesn't look quite as smart when his team doesn't have a lot more resources than everyone else.

5) I learned for the 40th time that if talking were an Olympic sport, Rex Ryan would make Michael Phelps look like the Pittsburgh Pirates.

4) I learned that going to a playground and shooting hoops is still a lot of fun. Can't play ball anymore (never could.....lol) but shooting is fun.

3) I learned that people are hell of a lot easier to find when they have $$ coming to them. If they owe you money? Easier to find Bin Laden.

2) I learned that Johnny Damon doesn't like Boston too much.

1) One of the great benefits of writing this site is when I get to meet the people who read it; had chance to meet some fellas from Boston at the racetrack this weekend. Good people, soild handicappers. Thanks.

Monday's List of 13: Wrapping up a sports weekend.........
13) Fantasy Football Tip of the Day: Find out what week first round of your playoffs are; you probably don't want QB/WRs who will have a game in Buffalo/New Jersey/Green Bay that week. You'd rather have games in warm weather or a dome. Make sense?

12) When the NFL goes to 18 games in 2012, they should take Labor Day weekend completely off from games, give players/coaches/fans little down time to get ready for the season opener, It would also make both exhibition games good ones, since there wouldn't be one less than a week before a regular season game.

11) Lefthanded batters are 5-39 against Brian Fuentes this season, which is why the Twins went out and got him this week.

10) Bengals cut Antonio Bryant, eating just under $8M in guaranteed $$ they gave him to sign. They probably figure rookie Shipley and Terrell Owens are a bargain, which cuts their losses. We'll see.

9) Donovan McNabb has a bum ankle, may not play in opener against the Cowboys, which would leave Rex Grossman as the Washington QB, with John Beck as his backup. Not the ideal situation.

8) Darrelle Revis' fines for missing first 28 days of camp: $462,644.

7) Aaron Corp was going to be USC's starting QB last year, but he got a broken leg during summer workouts; he transferred to Richmond, and he is now the Spiders' starting QB. Richmond's stadium was just expanded to seat 8,700 fans, a little different than the LA Coliseum.

6) LA Angels have used 107 lineups in their first 131 games.

5) It has been proven that fly balls go an average of ten feet farther when the roof is open at Chase Field in Phoenix. Diamondbacks are thinking about moving the fences back a little, to help their young pitchers.

4) Houston Astros are 42-36 since June 1; they've got nine rookies on their roster. Manager Mills is doing a solid job, but somehow they have to get some better starting pitching to contend in 2011.

3) What a race between Albert Pujols/Joey Votto in NL Triple Crown statistics. Keep in mind Votto plays in a much better hitters'park.
Pujols-- .320 batting average, 35 HRs, 95 RBI
Votto-- .325 batting average, 32 HRs, 93 RBI.

2) Eldrick Woods had a strange tournament at Barclay's: He was -8 thru first 27 holes, +8 thru next 18 holes, then -7 thru the last 27 holes. I'm thinking he's going to have a very big 2011 season.

1) NFL preseason is now basically over; Week 4 exhibition games are a joke, coaches protect against injuries as much as they can. Some teams are in much better shape than others going into the season. We'll take a look at which ones are which over the next 10 days.........

Sunday's List of 13: Clearing out a cluttered mind........
13) I forgot that ESPN shows high school football games live every year on this weekend; still haven't decided what I think of it. Guess its fun for the kids, but seems like lot of pressure on the coaches. Imagine coaching a high school game and getting drilled on national TV? Not good.

12) You look at the White Sox' desperate attempt to contend by trading for Manny Ramirez, then you realize that they traded Daniel Hudson to the Diamondbacks, and somehow traded Gio Gonzalez, not once, but twice. How do you trade that much young quality pitching???? Would they even need to catch Minnesota if they kept Gonzalez????

11) White Sox have until 1:30 Tuesday to trade for Ramirez, or else he stays with the Dodgers the rest of the season.

10) Houston Astros have nine rookies on their 25-man roster.

9) Mets' average home attendance this year is 33,349; last year, it was 38,941. But they have great milkshakes in the Shake Shack. Too bad the ballclub is run like a crummy American Legion team.

8) NFL has a problem, as far as putting the umpire behind QB instead of behind the defensive line; it slows down hurry-up attacks, since umpire was responsible for spotting the ball. Now someone else has to do it. Peyton Manning wasn't a happy camper Thursday night.

7) You know those big pretzels they sell at the racetrack? Had my first one that was totally without salt-- what a great idea!!! Instead of taking a half hour to pick the salt off, you eat it while its warm. Excellent!!! What the hell took so long to come up with saltless pretzels?

6) Ben Zobrist's games by position: 93 in RF, 31 at 2B, 12 in CF, 11 at 1B, and one in LF. Pretty valuable guy.

By the way, Zobrist is making $438,100 this season; he's hitting .297 when he bats 3rd, .225 when he bats anywhere else in the order.

5) Encouragement for Stephen Strasburg: Nine pitchers in this year's All-Star Game have had Tommy John surgery.

4) You know its going to be a bad week when one of the better pitchers on your fantasy team tears his knee up tying his shoelaces. Ladies and gentlemen, your 2010 Armadillos and Ricky Nolasco!!!!

3) If you ever want to feel like an idiot, try upgrading your cellphone and go into one of those stores in the mall, where they'll explain the new applications, then you'll go home and forget everything they said. Fun.

2) World Championship basketball on TV; 9:30am Sunday USA team plays Slovenia; Monday at 2:30, they play Brazil.

1) Saturday was the last Saturday in 2010 with no college football, and to that, I tip my many hats.

Saturday's List of 13: Our summer look at Big East football
Cincinnati-- New coach, new starting QB; Bearcats are 14-6 vs spread in game following a loss last six years. Visit Fresno, NC State and then host Oklahoma in September; tough non-league slate. Bearcats lost six starters on defense, but five of their top six receivers return.

UConn-- Eight starters back on offense (senior QB, four starters on OL); open season in Ann Arbor- Huskies were 5-0 as road dog LY, after being 5-14 from 2004-08. 3-1 in bowls, including upset of South Carolina LY. Potential problem area is that their only punters are freshmen.

Louisville-- Strong inherits team with only four starters back on defense; he'll need his defensive expertise. Cards are 5-9-1 as underdog last two years, were 5-15-1 vs spread in Big East under Kragthorpe. Lost three in row vs rival Kentucky, after winning seven of previous eight in rivalry.

Pitt-- 14-5 vs spread on road last four years, but scored just 10.5 ppg in losing three of four bowls. Top four runners are back (soph Lewis ran it for 1,799 yards, 17 TDs LY). Pitt has new starting QB and three new starters on OL. Panthers play four primetime games this season.

Rutgers-- Soph QB Savage completed just 52.3% of passes LY; Knights were +20 in turnovers, have six starters back on both sides of ball. Won last four bowls, scoring average of 40.8 ppg (second-tier bowls, though). Lost four of top five tacklers. 14-6 vs spread on road last four years.

South Florida-- Holtz takes over for program founder Leavitt, who was 4-9 as road favorite last three years. Soph QB Daniels has to improve on 54% completions of LY; Bulls have 10 starters back on offense, five on defense. USF is 12-5 vs spread following a loss the last four seasons.

Syracuse-- 10 starters back on defense, as alumnus Marrone rebuilds a trainwreck (14-45 since firing Pasqualoni). Favorite is 17-8 vs spread in last 25 games in Carrier Dome. Orange has five of top six rushers, five of top six tacklers back. Haven't played in a bowl game since 2004.

West Virginia-- New QB, four starters back on OL, but only one senior starter on line. WV is 14-21-1 vs spread after win last four years, 3-8 as home fave under Stewart- they're 4-1 in last five bowls, scoring 37.2 pg. Nine starters back on defense, including seven of top eight tacklers.

Friday's List of 13: Nobody asked me, but.........
13) Somewhere out in the desert, Jerry Tarkanian must be smiling-- his old joke about the NCAA came true-- they must have gotten really mad at something Kentucky Wildcats did, since they put Morehead State on probation this week. What could Morehead do that Kentucky doesn't, other than get caught?

12) How much basketball do NBA players normally play in offseason? I have no idea. Do they just do workouts? Do they play pickup? 1-on-1? Would be nice if they did work on individual drills, to improve skills.

11) If I was a basketball coach, I'd have kids play lot of 3-on-3 against each other in practice. Get lot more reps in that way.

10) Strange college basketball game of year will be December 8 in Glens Falls, NY, 45 minutes north of me here in Albany, as BYU will travel all the way here to play Vermont. BYU's senior guard Fredette is from here so he gets a home game. Figures to be a home game for BYU, as far as crowd supprt goes. On a Wednesday, Vermont won't bring many folks.

9) Weird baseball streaks......Colorado lost last four Jimenez road starts. Red Sox lost last four Lester home starts. Bronx lost six of Burnett's last seven home starts.

8) Indians drew 2.2M fans two years ago, are on pace to draw 1.4M this year; maybe they should have kept CC Sabathia. Ya think?

7) When the great actor Sean Connery was 13, he quit school to become a full-time milkman; at 16, he quit that to join the Navy.

6) Packers open in Philly this year, just their fourth Week 1 road game in last 23 years; its the 50th anniversary of Eagles' last NFL title, a win vs Green Bay. Packers won 10 of last 14 season openers.

5) Average worth of an NFL team dropped 2% last year, which doesn't happen often. League average is $1.022B, with Dallas being worth most, at $1.805B, and Jacksonville the least ($725M).

4) Browns are opening on road for first time since before Art Modell went to Baltimore; they're 1-10 in last 11 openers, losing last five, with four of those five losses by 14+ points.

3) Carlos Gonzalez has 26 HRs for the Rockies, but he hit 20 of them in Coors Field.

2) Roy Oswalt played two innings in LF for Phillies Wednesdsy, after Ryan Howard got ejected, leaving Phils out of position players. So of course, first guy up for Houston hits a fly ball right to him.

1) Big trial starts in LA next week, the McCourt divorce trial, which is going to determine who winds up owning the Dodgers. Ugly stuff.

Thursday's List of 13: Quick thoughts for a summer Thursday
13) I don't know of one NFL fan who isn't in favor of the new 18-game schedule, which looks like will happen for the 2012 season.

12) Carl Crawford should sign with the Astros this winter; he's from the Houston area, the leftfield boxes are already called Crawford Boxes (the street outside the dome in that area is Crawford Ave) and its a ballpark where he'll put up bigger numbers.

11) US hammered Greece by 28 in final tuneup for world tournament in Turkey next week, but one red flag: Other than Eric Gordon, the team was just 3-21 behind the arc. Gordon was 4-7. Teams pack in their zone defense against American teams, figuring we won't shoot the ball well.

10) Spain got some very easy baskets against the US team with simple back cuts; theres lot more movement without the ball in an international basketball game, which is part of why it is more fun to watch than the NBA game. NBA players seldom see both their man and the ball.

9) Its going to be weird seeing Florida State without Bobby Bowden on the sidelines. It'll be almost like not having Chief Osceola there.

8) If I owned the Brewers or Indians, it wouldn't sit well that my team let CC Sabathia walk; the guy is terrific and he is durable, and he is very much worth whatever he gets paid.

7) Matt Leinart is one more disappointing season away from being a QB in either the CFL, UFL or Arena League. I'll be very surprised if Cards win more games than they lose this season.

6) Still hard to imagine Nebraska playing in the Big 11, which they will be after this season.

5) Michigan Wolverines signed a point guard from Columbus, OH; hard to imagine Big Blue gets a lot of players from under Ohio State's nose.

4) The longest eight miles in sports has to be the distance between the ballparks in Bronx/Queens; Bronx Bombers have huge resources, but are also run wisely and have expectations of success. Mets seem to have a cloud of gloom hanging over them; their fans expect the worst. People who run the franchise act like they're running a small market team.

3) There are 120 college football teams in Division I; 70 of them will be in a bowl game this season. Of other 50, my guess is at least 17 teams will have new coaches next season. Bowl teams that have losing seasons might fire their coaches too.

2) I'd be curious what differences there are, if any, between golf balls in the 60's/70's and golf balls now. Are today's golf balls juiced?

1) The issue of People Magazine with Ms Privacy (Elin Nordgren) in it is going to cost 50 cents more than normal, even though both sides are denying she got paid for the article.

Wednesday's List of 13: Nobody asked me, but........
13) Back when he was coaching, Bill Parcells won a lot of his exhibtion games; now that he's running the Dolphins, they're also winning a lot of exhibition games, winning their last nine. Winning helps, losing doesn't.

12) Temple Owls went 9-4 LY and played in a bowl for first time in 30 years; so how is it that Al Golden is still coaching the Owls? How come no bigger school gobbled him up? Is he waiting for the Penn State job?

11) Apparently Daniel Snyder is very hard to work for; the Washington Redskins have now had seven PR directors this decade.

10) Michigan Wolverines are only a 3-point favorite over UConn is their season opener. In Ann Arbor. Lot of pressure on Wolverines this year, most of it on the head coach, who is 8-16 the last two years.

9) A's/Angels have both won 62 games, but Oakland has allowed 114 less runs than the Halos. Too bad they can't hit very well.

8) Winning is profitable; Rays' fans spent 119% more per person in the magical 2008 season than they did during '07, which was just one more in a long line of dreadful Tampa Bay seasons. People love jumping on a winning bandwagon, and so do the team's accountants.

7) Sales of golf apparel are up 11% this year, but sales of Eldrick Woods' apparel is down 7.5%. People tend to jump off losing bandwagons.

6) Things you don't see too often on the PGA money list........
#82-- Jerry Kelly $891,493
#83-- Eldrick Woods $872,086
#84-- Josh Teater $869,939

Wonder how much Josh Teater shirts are going for at Dick's?

5) USC has only 67 scholarship players this year, and since they're only giving out 15 scholarships a year in the next three recruiting cycles (25 is the normal yearly limit), it is logical to assume that the next 5-6 years will be rough for the Trojans.

4) Apparently, Tennessee Titans' coaches have a clause in their contract that allows them to call for a free taxi cab 24/7 if they've been out on the town drinking. Good idea to be safe, but why is it necessary?

3) When Johnny Damon refused his trade to Boston, he cost the Tigers $1.8M they would have saved by not paying him the rest of the year.

2) Surprised to see that over the last six baseball seasons, the first player to get to 40 home runs has been a different guy every year.

1) Is Rich Brooks the only guy ever to be a head coach in the Pac-10, NFL and SEC? I can't come up with anyone else. Lane Kiffin is going to join him on that list this year. Dennis Green coached in the NFL, Big 11 and Pac-10, Steve Spurrier coached in the NFL-SEC-ACC, but for the Pac-10/SEC/NFL, Brooks/Kiffin is all I have.

Tuesday's List: Handicapping trends for all the NFC teams.......
Arizona-- 16-8 at home last three years, after being 24-32 in seven years before that; are 13-5 in NFC West last three years, 14-16 in other games. Over last five years, over is 12-3 in their last three games of year. With Kurt Warner retired, have to improve running game that has ranked 28th or worse in each of the last five years.

Atlanta-- Had first-ever back/back winning seasons LY; are 12-2-1 as a single digit favorite last three years, 13-6 vs spread in last 19 games on natural grass- they covered 14 of last 20 vs AFC teams. Weird schedule in that they don't play division rival Carolina until Weeks 14-17.

Carolina-- Very inexperienced at QB with Delhomme gone; lost four of last five home openers (were favored in four of five). They're 26-15-1 vs spread in divisional games last seven years, 13-8 vs spread in game after a loss. Panthers won't pay a coach big $$$; Fox is likely a lame duck.

Chicago-- Over last decade, 14th is highest Bears ranked in yardage thru air; that should change with Martz coaching Cutler; they've been ranked higher than 23rd in scoring once in last 10 years. 1-8-1 as road underdog last two years, 5-14-2 vs spread after a win, 11-18-2 as road underdog vs non-divisional opponents.

Dallas-- Over last decade, are 15-23-2 vs spread vs AFC teams, 3-8 as a double digit favorite since '07. In last five years, over is 12-7-1 in their first four games of season- they averaged 36 ppg in first two games of last three years. Are 6-2 as road dog vs non-divison foes since 2005.

Detroit-- Minus-37 in turnovers last four years, ranked higher than 24th in rushing once in last nine years. Lion QBs been sacked 212 times last four years. Detroit is 5-11-1 vs spread on grass, 7-21-2 vs spread in the rare games they played in the week following winning a game.

Green Bay-- Pack is 17-7 vs spread outside its division last four years; are +35 in turnovers last four years, after being -13/-24 in turnovers with Favre at QB in '04-'05. Improved LY from 26th to 1st in stopping run. Over last three years, over is 11-4 in their first five games of the season.

Minnesota-- 10-5 vs spread in divisional home games last five years, are just 12-22-1 vs spread in last 35 games on grass. Three of their first six games this season are in primetime, a sign NFL knew Favre was coming back. Have 131 sacks last three years, ranking 8-4-1 in that category.

New Orleans-- LY was first time in five years they were + in turnovers; are just 2-6 in last eight games as double digit favorite. 8-0 vs spread in AFC games last two years (13-18-1 from 2000-07), are 14-5-1 against non-division foes last two years. Ranked 1-4-1-1 in total offense the last four seasons. How will they react to being the defending champs?

NJ Giants-- Only once in last four seasons have they won more games than they've lost at home; are 12-6 vs spread as favorite of three points or less since '05. Giants are 9-4-1 vs spread as dog of 3 or less points in last four years. 6-2 in last eight tries as a road dog in divisional games.

Philadelphia-- Over last three years, Eagles are 11-3 vs spread as a home favorite in non-division games, 1-6 in divisional games. Philly is 8-3 as a road underdog last four years, but just 7-13 last 20 times they were fave of three or less points. Lot of pressure on Eagles' new QB Kolb.

Rams-- 6-42 last three years, have been underdog last 36 games they've played, are minus-28 in turnovers last three years. Have been minus-10 or worse in turnovers seven of last ten years. 7-14 vs spread as dog at home since '07; they're 9-3-1 vs spread in game after one of rare wins.

San Francisco-- Are 13-43 on road since '06, haven't had winning season since '04, but are 4-5 favorites to win shaky NFC West. Improved from -17 to +9 in turnovers LY, but won only one more game. Need running game to rank better than 27-25-25 it has last three years. Just 2-6-1 as a road favorite the last eight years.

Seattle-- Pete Carroll brought in Alex Gibbs as new OL coach, so Seattle will chop block and run ball better; they ranked 26th running ball LY, so lot of room to improve. Seahawks are 6-19-2 vs spread as road dog vs non-division foes, 4-13 in all games as road dog since '07. Ranked 28th in sacks LY, after ranking in top ten four years before that.

Tampa Bay-- Hard to believe Bucs were last in NFL in rush defense LY; favorites are 9-3-1 vs spread in last 13 home division tilts. Bucs are 2-8 as road favorite in non-division games, 8-14-1 as single digit dog, 2-9-1 vs spread vs AFC teams. QB Freeman broke tip of his thumb, his subs are very inexperienced, but Tampa Bay is favored in season opener.

Washington-- Over last five years, Redskins scored just 13.7 ppg over first two games of season; over last three years, under is 11-3-1 in first five games of season. Have another new coach/OC, but Shanahan is a two-time champ, so improvement expected. Skins are 5-13-1 as a home favorite since '06, 10-5-3 as road dog since '07.

Monday's List of 13: Wrapping up a sports weekend.........
13) Good basketball from Spain on NBATV Sunday, as Americans held on to win 86-85 at Spain in a tuneup game for World Championships that are being held in Turkey next week. Spain led in last 30 seconds before Derrick Rose made couple of foul shots with 0:17 left.

12) Not for nothing, but the best Coach K can do for tactical help is Jim Boeheim? Come on, thats like a gourmet chef hiring a helper and coming up with freakin' Ronald McDonald. This is a guy who lost to LeMoyne last year because his players didn't know how to play man-man. Yikes.

Boeheim has won hundreds of games at Syracuse because he has a dome and the team draws 25,000 when school is in session, so he recruits really well. He also isn't a control freak-- kids like playing for him. But to enlist him as an assistant on our national team is insulting to guys who haven't had the chance to coach Carmelo Anthony but are excellent tacticians.

11) By the way, I'm told the betting line at BWins.com was pick 'em, so you had to sweat it out if you had the American side.

10) Foreign referees call travelling. Its refreshing to see.

9) Jets-Carolina game Saturday contained nine sacks, seven turnovers, no touchdowns, 16 first downs and a total of 287 yards. Not good.

8) They sold 41,386 tickets for Chiefs-Bucs in Tampa Saturday and only 30,413 showed up, not the best crowd for a franchise that hasn't got a lot of high hopes for this year. Tampa is a football-crazy area, but they're not not high on the Buccaneers right now.

7) Michigan Wolverines didn't get any votes in the writers' poll, and only one point in the coaches' poll. Been long time since that happened.

6) Matt Stairs set a big league record Saturday when he hit his 21st career pinch-hit home run, breaking the record he held with Cliff Johnson.

5) Jose Reyes' slugging percentage is 100 points higher batting lefthanded than it is batting righty.

4) New York Times reported that since 2006, Mets, a big market team, ranked 29th out of 30 teams in money spent on draft choices, which goes a long way towards explaining why they're not very good. .

3) Pirates clinched their 18th straight losing season this weekend, which is just not good at all. Watching them a lot against the Mets, doesn't seem to be a lot of hope for the immediate future, either. Its a sad situaton.

2) ESPN's Darren Rovell reported Sunday that some guy bet $8 on tennis player named Fish at 89-1 odds, when he trailed Andy Roddick 4-6/2-5, and the guy pocketed $712 when Fish came back for the big upset. Not a bad payoff for an $8 bet. Wow.

1) Arjun Atwal won the Wyndham golf tournament Sunday after having to qualify on Monday, just to get in the field. He's the first qualifier to win a PGA Tour event in 26 years, when Fred Wadsworth won Southern Open after getting in via a Monday qualifier.

Sunday's List of 13: Random stuff for a soggy summer Sunday
13) Lou Piniella is leaving the Cubs after Sunday's game; his mother isn't doing too well in Florida, so he moved his retirement up six weeks.

12) FOX's Kenny Albert was saying on air Saturday that when Piniella became a broadcaster a few years back, he didn't know how to keep score of a game, which you need to do in order to broadcast well. Would expect to see Lou back in a FOX booth next season.

11) When was last time an NFL QB played a whole exhibition game? Giants' Rhett Bomar (Oklahoma's QB before Sam Bradford) got in a lot of work Saturday, as he tries to earn a roster spot. Why wouldn't Giants add an Arena League QB (their season just ended) to play some while the #1/#2 QBs healed up? Better than having one guy play whole game, and leave open the possibility of having to play without a QB.

10) Alex Rodriguez has missed 11 games this year; Bronx won all 11.

9) Cliff Lee is 0-2, 8.24 in his last three starts; he's allowed 13 home runs but only ten walks. Maybe he doesn't back guys off the plate enough.

8) Mets sold Rod Barajas to the Dodgers for cash, as they raise the white flag to their season of mediocrity. LA badly needs a catcher who can hit a little with Russell Martin probably out for the year.

7) USA beat Lithuania in basketball yesterday, but trailed at the half in a pretty fun game to watch. International rules make a better game, and the NBA should adopt them, other than keeping the game at 48 minutes.

6) The Lithuanian team has an ad for pokerstars.net on its uniforms. How long before NBA teams have ads on their uniforms?

5) When did sliding feet-first become obsolete in baseball? Jose Reyes slid headfirst into home Saturday night and damn near got crushed when Bucs' catcher landed on him. Sliding feet-first is just smarter way to run bases.

4) Stephen Strasburg left game with a strained flexor tendon, which is in the elbow and is very scary for Nationals' fans. This is why teams coddle pitchers, especially higher-paid ones.

3) Tampa Bay QB Josh Freeman fractured the tip of his thumb last night, will miss the rest of preseason; Josh Johnson/Rudy Carpenter are other two QBs with Tampa Bay. Think they regret firing Jon Gruden? Things are so bad there, last night was first time in 12 years they had a blackout.

2) Would an NFL team that struggles to sign free agents try reducing its offseason program, as an inducement to sign new players? Look at whole Favre situation-- do you really need all this offseason work? Favre starts at QB for Minnesota tonight, after three whole days of practice.

1) Obviously I have no knowledge of this, but watching baseball for eight hours a night, seven days a week, I swear to God big league umpires have been schooled to lean towards the out call on close plays at first base, the obvious exception being the last out of the Galarraga one-hitter. Anytime there is a bang-bang play at first, 75-80% of them are called out. Weird.

Saturday's List of 13: Some of my favorite movie quotes........
-- "Kids are starving in India and you're walking around with a sombrero full of peanuts." Bill Murray in Meatballs.

-- "God likes me!!! He really, really likes me!!!!" Richard Dreyfuss as a degenerate gambler having a very good day in Let It Ride.

-- "I didn't come halfway to the bleeping Arctic Circle to lose to these goons." Ed Lauter as coach of the Hamilton Mustangs in Youngblood.

-- "You didn't come into this world to sit on the bench. Get your ass out there and play." Walter Matthau in The Bad News Bears

-- "Of course its hard!!! If it was easy anyone could do it. The hard is what makes it great" Tom Hanks in League of Their Own.

-- "Just follow your heart son. You'll do fine." Robin Williams' parting words to Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting.

-- "Nothing ends well, or else it wouldn't end." Bryan Brown in Cocktail.

-- "I'd rather be with you people, than the finest people in all the world." Fred Willard, as the hapless mayor in Roxanne.

-- "Make it a good one, Strap." Gene Hackman to a religious player as he knelt in prayer before the critical sequence in Hoosiers.

-- "Life is about the six inches in front of your face. On this team, we fight for those six inches......." Al Pacino in Any Given Sunday.

-- "You know Joel, sometimes you just have to say 'What the bleep!!!"" Rebecca DeMornay to Tom Cruise in Risky Business.

-- "Thats the name of the game. Put the ball in the hole." Bob Cousy as an athletic director in Blue Chips, as he makes seven straight free throws as he talks with his coach (Nick Nolte) who ad libs the line "Don't you ever miss?" The scene was shot in one take. .

-- "If you give in now, you might lose. Never bleep with a winning streak." Kevin Costner giving advice in Bull Durham.

Friday's List of 13: Our summer look at AFC trends........
Baltimore-- Ranked 6th or higher in total defense in each of the last seven years; are 41-18-2 as home favorite the last decade, but 2-10 as a favorite on road since '05. Lost last three visits to Pittsburgh, but play Steelers in Week 4 this year, before Roethlisberger comes back.

Buffalo-- Ranked 25th or worse (out of 32 teams) in each of last seven years, but are 10-5 vs spread last 15 times they were favored by three or less points. Have new coach, new GM, but not lot of optimism in '10.

Cincinnati-- 11-24-2 as home favorite since '01, 1-7 as road favorite since '07, but 10-2-1 as underdog of 3 or less points since '05. Why did they go out and get Owens? Last two years, they ranked 32/24 in total yardage.

Cleveland-- Rank in total yardage last four years: 31-8-31-32. Are 16-6 vs spread as favorite in non-divisional games since '03. Lost last five season openers by an average score of 28-13. Delhomme is new QB; with Seneca Wallace the new backup. Guess Holmgren didn't like Anderson/Quinn.

Denver-- Just 4-19-1 as home favorite since '06, 1-8-1 in divisional games. Since 2003, are 15-25-3 vs spread in game following a loss. Improved in turnover margin LY from -17 to +7 but somehow had same record, with rank in total offense dropping from 2nd to 15th with Cutler in Chicago.

Houston-- Minus in turnovers last five years (-35 total) but went 9-7 LY as TO margin improved to just minus-1; a positive TO ratio gets them to playoffs. Are 7-3 as underdog of 3 or less points since '06, 1-4 vs spread when favored on road in their franchise history.

Indianapolis-- Colts are 4-8-1 as divisional home favorite since '05. Since 2000, they're 24-10-2 when spread is 3 or less points, 8-1-1 if dog, 16-9-1 if favored. Are 17-7-1 as non-divisional road favorite since 2001.

Jacksonville-- Are 0-10 vs spread as home favorite last two years, in part due to average home attendance of 49,651 LY (31st out of 32 teams); are 2-7 vs spread last nine times they were favored by 3 or less points. Are also 2-7 vs spread in last nine games where spread was double digits.

Kansas City-- Just 4-20 SU at home last three years, 6-17-1 against the spread, 0-6-1 as home favorite. 6-12 vs spread in last 18 games as a home dog vs non-divisional foe. Total yardage rank last three years: 31-24-25.

Miami-- Since 2003, are 5-24 vs spread as home favorite, an amazingly bad figure. Are 2-9-1 vs spread against NFC teams the last three years. Underdog is 6-0 vs spread in Henne's road starts.

New England-- Since 2006, Patriots are 19-11-1 as single digit fave, but in divisional home games the last five years, are just 5-10 against the spread. Very surprised they haven't paid Brady for all he's done for franchise.

NJ Jets-- Road team is 18-5-1 vs spread in their divisional games last four years; Jets are 9-3 vs spread in divisional road games, 2-9-1 at home, but now they have new home, which isn't going to be sold out. Made it to the playoffs LY because Colts tanked a Week 16 game.

Oakland-- In Weeks 3-8 LY, were outscored by combined score of 167-45 and they won one of the games; since 2003, are 0-4 as a davisional fave. Surprised to note that since '06, Raiders are 10-2 as a divisional road dog. Average home crowd of 44,284 LY was worst in the league.

Pittsburgh-- No Big Ben for at least first four games; Steelers are 27-13-1 vs spread as underdog since '00, 4-1 at home, 23-12-1 on road. Are 6-11-1 vs spread as road favorite under Tomlin. Since 2002, are feeble 5-19-1 if favored by three or less points.

San Diego-- Last five years, started season 2-3/2-3/4-1/2-3/2-3; need fast start to earn home field in January. Bolts are 18-5-2 as underdog since '04, but 3-8 last 11 times they were double digit favorite. Are 11-4-3 on road in division last six years, +49 in turnover margin the last four years.

Tennessee-- Jeff Fisher played for run-loving John Robinson in college at USC; last four years, his Titans ranked 5-5-7-2 in rushing yardage. 10-5 vs spread in last 15 games that had a double digit spread (6-2 as favorite, 4-3 as underdog). Are 19-9-1 vs spread as underdog since 2006.

Thursday's List of 13: Clearing out a cluttered mind........
13) BYU bolted the Mountain West, is rumored to be going independent in football while looking for a basketball home. Meanwhile, MWC added Fresno State and Nevada, as college conference chaos continues. Boise St. must be wondering why they bothered to bolt the WAC for the MWC.

12) Washington Nationals came to an agreement with Bryce Harper with 0:26 (that seconds, not minutes) before the signing deadline. Washington is 7-0 with Stephen Strasburg if they give him more than two runs.

11) ESPN's Fran Fraschilla thinks American basketball should move to a 24-second clock at all levels, to create more possessions, better players. Only seven of fifty states use a shot clock of any kind for HS games.

10) Jordan Kent, son of former Oregon hoop coach Ernie Kent, has a real chance to make the Rams as a WR/special teamer. Young Kent didn't play football until his junior year in Eugene.

9) Mets are now 27-40 this year in games decided by 1 or 2 runs.

8) Giants' rookie WR Victor Cruz caught six passes for 145 yards in his first pro game Monday (oh yeah, he had three TDs, too); kid didn't get on the field at I-AA UMass until his junior year.

7) Underrated TV show: Pawn Stars on the History Channel. One of the little nuggets I learned watching this fine TV program: William H Taft was the first president to give out matchbooks with his name on it to voters as an inducement to vote for him.

6) Alabama's football team visited the White House recently, a reward for winning the national title last year; it cost $79,314 to charter the plane to bring the team to Washington. Seeing as they draw 90,000+ to the spring football game, I'm thinking the athletic department can afford it.

5) Jim Mora Jr and Kurt Warner will both be NFL game analysts on the FOX network this season; Mora is on the #3 FOX team, the two-time MVP Warner on the #7 team, meaning part-time duty for him, and in all probability, more than one Ram game. .

4) Dodgers have played 27 games where the losing team got shut out.

3) Arizona Diamondbacks have been outscored 75-46 in 8th inning,76-35 in 9th inning-- thats a ludicrous 151-81 in last two imnings combined.

2) Since the Mets are saving a decent amount of money because KRod is suspended, shouldn't they eat some money and release Oliver Perez?

1) Fueling the pitch count debate: Brondon Morrow threw 131 pitches in his 1-hitter August 8 against the Rays; he didn't pitch again until Tuesday in Oakland, when he lasted just four innings, throwing 80 pitches, none of which resulted in a swing/miss. Morrow is a diabetic, another reason why it didn't make much sense to have him throw so many pitches.

80 pitches without a swing/miss is 5th-most in major leagues this year, as Fausto Carmona's 87 pitches Wednesday became 4th-most this season. .

Wednesday's List of 13: Random Lists of 3's.........
13) 3 most underrated people in any sport........
Chuck Noll.......Henry Aaron........Oscar Robertson

12) 3 guys for a great foursome of golf.......
Bob Uecker.......Bill Murray........Steve Martin

11) 3 things I'd lik to do after I retire........
Be an extra in a movie........
Learn to play keyboard......
Go to see the A's in spring training in Arizona

10) The 3 most attractive female celebrities..........
Vanna White........LeeAnn Tweeden.......Elisha Cuthbert

9) My 3 all-time favorite Oakland A's......
Catfish Hunter.........Tim Hudson..........Miguel Tejada

8) The 3 best basketball players ever........
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.........Michael Jordan.........Magic Johnson

7) The 3 best quarterbacks ever..........
John Elway..........Roger Staubach.........Tom Brady

6) My 3 favorite Ram QBs...................
Kurt Warner.........Vince Ferragamo..........James Harris

5) My 3 least favorite Ram QBs......................
Pat Haden..........Jeff Kemp...........Marc Bulger

4) 3 places I'd still like to go.........
Baton Rouge-- An LSU home football game on a Saturday night.
Chicago-- Been there, but not for a weekday afternoon at Wrigley.
Oakland-- An A's home game.......or three.

3) My 3 favorite baseball TV analysts
Ron Darling, Mets.......Bert Blyleven, Twins.......Mark Grace, Arizona

2) My 3 favorite times of year........
The two weeks in March-- Championship Week/1st week of NCAAs
The 10 days from just before Christmas to New Year's Day.
Thanksgiving weekend, the best sports weekend of the year.

1) The three places where I've had the most fun........
Las Vegas-- If you can't have fun there......not sure what to say.
Stockholm, Sweden-- I was 20 at the time. Use your imagination.
Philadelphia-- World Series on a Saturday night, Eagles-Falcons the next afternoon; weekends don't get any better than that.

Tuesday's List of 13: Nobody asked me, but.........
13) Here is a table of baseball scoring over the last five years..........

Year	BA	OB%	SP	runs/game
2010	.259	.328	.406	8.86
2009	.262	.333	.418	9.22
2008	.264	.333	.416	9.30
2007	.268	.336	.422	9.60
2006	.269	.336	.432	9.72

12) As you can see from the table above, offense in baseball is dying. Not sure what the powers-that-be can do to turn this trend around, other than tell the umpires to call fewer strikes. Doubt Joe West will go for that.

11) No-hitters are so commonplace that Kevin Slowey got taken out on Sunday when he had a no-hitter after seven innings against the A's-- the crowd wasn't happy at first, but Slowey has had elbow problems and he had already thrown 106 pitches. The smart decision was made.

10) Bryce Harper signed a last-minute, five-year deal with Washington for $9.9M guaranteed, as scumweasel agent Scott Boras gets even wealthier on the deadline of 2010 draft picks signing with their new team.

9) Jeremy Hellickson is pitching so well for the Rays, hard to believe he will get taken out of the rotation once Niemann/Davis get healthy. He is Tampa Bay's second-best pitcher right now; he has to stay in rotation.

8) My father came up with the operative question watching the whole Dustin Johnson debacle Sunday; "What if this had been Tiger Woods? What would they have ruled then?"

My opinion is that Woods would've been smart enough to ask the rules guy for a ruling, but if not, my dad does raises an interesting question......

7) I'm guessing the rules officials are going to be a lot busier on Sundays in the near future. Golfers are going to err on the side of caution from now on anytime the rules are the least bit in a gray area. You can bet on it.

6) Former Texas Tech football coach Mike Leach signed up with CBS College Sports as a game analyst. He's an interesting guy who figures to be back on the sidelines (Arizona State??) in 2011.

5) Looks like Tim Tebow's college roommate, WR Riley Cooper, is going to stick with the Eagles. He has good size and excellent hands.

4) Larry Fitzgerald has a strained knee; am guessing Cardinals are going to be cautious with him, which means he'll miss Arizona's opener with the Rams. New QB, no Fitzgerald; Cardinals will struggle on offense to start the season. The NFC West figures to be wide open.

3) Dodgers lost on the field Monday, but beat LSU's football team out when they signed pitching prospect (and LSU QB prospect) Zach Lee to a big contract. Bayou Bengals now have one less quarterback prospect.

2) Met closer Francisco Rodriguez is done for the year because he tore ligaments in his pitching thumb, supposedly when he was pummeling his girlfriend's father last week. Now KRod pitched an inning in Saturday's game-- he did that with a torn ligament in his pitching thumb? Hmmmm

1) Did the Mets simply put KRod on ice (with pay) for the rest of this season? There are murmurs they're going to try to void his $11.5M deal for next year and there is precedent to support that. Its just hard to think a guy could warm up, pitch Saturday with torn ligaments in his thumb.

Monday's List of 13: Wrapping up a sports weekend.......
13) No shortage of drama at the PGA, where Dustin Johnson lost out on a chance to win his first major because of a mixup involving bunkers and rules sheets and players not reading those rules sheets. Its too bad a great event was marred by an administrative foulup.

12) I mean, this all happened because of a similar foulup at a tournament in 2004, when Stuart Appleby got a 4-stroke penalty. If you're going to make millions in a business, its smart to know the rules of the business, and it sounds like none of these guys are sticklers for knowing the rules. Unfortunately, it might've cost Dustin Johnson a million bucks Sunday.

I'm guessing next time the PGA is at Whistling Straits, in 2015, there will be clear markings of what is and isn't a bunker.

11) Just for the record, Bubba Watson earned $810,000, while Johnson is going to get a check for $270,833, so Johnson's mistake cost him at least $540,000, a lot more if he had actually won the playoff, because Martin Kaymer is getting a check for $1,350,000 for winning.

10) Tigers had a little fracas in their dugout Sunday, before exploding late in the game for a 13-8 win over the fading White Sox. Detroit is heading to New York this week as their season slips away, mainly due to injuries. Lot of frustration at this time of year for teams falling out of contention.

9) Does anyone like Joe West? His one-man crusade to speed up games seems to be annoying just about everyone, especially the TV people. He got into a couple arguments with Mike Scioscia in Anaheim Saturday.

8) Carlos Beltran isn't a major league centerfielder right now; guy is really having trouble with anything not hit right at him.

7)Tim Tebow was 8-13/105, ran for a TD in his pro debut for Broncos, who lost 33-24 in Cincinnati. He also had a fumble returned for a TD, but that fumble and the TD were oveturned by replay.

6) Trevor Cahill tied a modern major league record with his 20th start in a row with 5+ innings pitched, six or less hits allowed. Nolan Ryan has the other part of the record, so its a prestigious one.

5) Texas Rangers lowered parking/concession prices in the first days with Chuck Greenberg as the new owner; they're selling out games now and it looks like the team is headed to the playoffs, giving Michael Young his first experience in the postseason, which will be well-deserved.

Odd that Greenberg and Mark Cuban, Dallas Mavericks' owner, are both from the Pittsburgh area. Greenberg seems like a regular guy, and its good for the Rangers that Nolan Ryan will still be running the baseball end.

4) Phil Dawson made a 58-yard FG for the Browns at Lambeau Field in Cleveland's 27-24 win Saturday; you'd be surprised at how few FGs that long have been made in NFL history. Not many. Actually surprised the Browns tried one that long int he preseason with a veteran kicker.

3) Improved Astros are 9-6 since trading away veteran stars Oswalt and Berkman........Mariners scored 8 runs in last seven starts by King Felix.

2) Giants have to be concerned that Tim Lincecum is 1-3, 6.15 in his last six starts; they'll need him at full strength to make the playoffs.

1) Its not an exaggeration to say that Bubba Watson will probably re-live that shot he hit in the water every day the rest of his life, or at least until he wins a major. With his talent, it might not be too much longer, but for sure, it'll be at least until next April.

Sunday's List of 13: Odds/ends for a summer Sunday.......
13) Tennessee Titans ran a successful fake punt early in second quarter in Seattle with a 7-3 lead. Unusual for the first preseason game. Seahawks' new backup QB Charlie Whitehurst looked good in his Seattle debut.

12) If you look at the first two games of the last three regular seasons, the Cowboys have averaged 36 ppg in those six games.

11) Tony Romo is 9-13 vs spread in divisional games, 22-15 in Cowboys' non-divisional games.

10) Tom Brady is making $6.5M this year, an uncapped year. Its hard to believe the Patriots haven't taken care of this guy, who has given back in the past, even though the Patriots haven't always used that money to get themselves better players. It just doesn't make sense.

9) Donovan McNabb is 24-13 against spread as a road underdog.

8) Underdogs are 6-0 vs spread in Chad Henne's road starts for Miami.

7) Baltimore is 13-5 vs spread as a favorite with Joe Flacco starting.

6) Jay Cutler is 4-15-1 against the spread as a home favorite.

5) If you're a Ram/Viking fan, replay of Sam Bradford's first NFL game is on NFL Network Sunday night at 1am, Wednesday afternoon at 4.

4) For first four months of season, Orioles hit .217 when they had guys in scoring position; from August 3-13, they hit .382, making Buck Showalter look like a combination of Miller Huggins/Joe McCarthy. .

3) It bothers me that the Giants have a great new stadium, but won't let the A's get one. Lew Wolff wants to move his team to San Jose, which is 36.32 miles farther away from San Francisco than Oakland is, according to Mapquest. So the A's want to move 36 miles farther away, but they can't because the Giants own territorial rights to San Jose. Fantastic.

2) Dr Jerry Buss is in the Basketball Hall of Fame, but Jerry Tarkanian isn't; someone in Springfield should be very embarrassed by that.

1) The great Steve Martin, the funniest man alive, turned 65 Saturday.

Saturday's List of 13: Random thoughts for a summer Saturday
13) Phillies are 0-4 at Citi Field this season; haven't scored a run yet.

12) Mets haven't hit a grand slam this year, have allowed nine; in their last four wins, they haven't allowed a run.

11) You know the Angels are in serious trouble when Maicer Izturis is the guy batting third. Not a bad player, but hardly an ideal #3 hitter.

10) TBS/TNT announcer Ernie Johnson seems like a great guy, the kind of guy you'd like as a buddy.

9) NFL Network replays every preseason game, which is great, if your cable system carries this fine channel. Mine doesn't :-(

WOULD IT KILL THE NFL AND TIME WARNER TO COME TO AN AGREEMENT ON THIS?!?!?!?!? Oh sorry, didn't mean to shout.

8) Francisco Rodriguez' 2-game suspension from the Mets will cost him a cool $125,683, or what I make..........in roughly 2.5 years.

7) Side issue here is that Rodriguez' contract calls for him to make $17M in 2012, if he finishes a combined 110 games in 2010-11. He's finished 45 games so far this year. He ain't worth $17M, so you know Mets wouldn't mind getting out from under his contract. Could they void his contract if he gets convicted on the assault charge?

6) Basketball recruits surveyed by ESPN.com said that handwritten notes from recruiters carry a little more weight that generic, form-type letters.

5) Braves owe Chipper Jones $28M over next two years; now that he's blown out his knee, he can't retire, can he? All he'd have to do to get paid millions is to stay at home and rehab the leg. Hard work, but he's going to have to do it anyway, no?

4) Josh Hamilton has 46 RBI in 57 home games this season.

3) Wandy Rodriguez is pitching pretty well for Houston this year, but in his last two starts, Astro bullpen allowed ten runs in 5.2 IP, blowing both wins for Rodriguez. Houston will be a tough out for contenders as season comes down the stretch.

2) Carolina Panthers have almost no experience at QB. Moore/Clausen are kids who both played big-time college ball, but this is new to them. Just for the record, when Moore left UCLA, he played a year at College of the Canyons, before moving on to Oregon State. Not lot of NFL QBs played at College of the Canyons.

1) There have been forty 1-0 games in big leagues this season, the winning pitcher finished only eight of the 40 games.

Friday's List of 13: Clearing out a cluttered mind.........
13) All you need to know about NFL exhibition games; they're great fun to watch, because we all love football, but two years ago, the Lions went 4-0 in the preseason, then went 0-16 when the games counted.

12) Carolina rookie punt returner Armanti Edwards was the QB for one of college football's biggest upsets, when Appalachian State pulled off a huge upset over Michigan in Ann Arbor. He looked good returning punts last night, but caught only two passes for 13 yards and dropped a couple when hit hard by defenders.

11) Dallas-Cincinnati preseason game Sunday night got the biggest ratings for an exhibition game in the last ten years.

10) Pittsburgh Steeler defensive coordinator/Hall of Famer Dick LeBeau is 72 years old, but has already shot 72 or better on golf course 20+ times so far this year. If you're as young as you feel, LeBeau is still 22.

9) Veteran QB Jeff Garcia signed on with Omaha Nighthawks of UFL, so he will be the first QB to play in the NFL, CFL and UFL. All he needs is a stint in the Arena League to make his nomadic career complete.

8) Speaking of Canada, former Florida Gator QB Chris Leak now earns a living as backup QB for the Montreal Alouettes of the CFL.

7) This is how good Jon Lester has been for Boston this year; in the five Lester starts where Red Sox scored only two runs, they're still 3-2.

6) Arizona Diamondbacks are 9-5 in last 14 games, as Kirk Gibson has shown that players will play hard for him; from a distance, it would be a shame if Gibson wasn't named the Snakes' full-time skipper.

5) Dodgers lost eight of their last nine Friday night games.

4) Jayson Werth's stolen base in 4th inning Thursday was first allowed by Clayton Kershaw in his last 88.1 innings on the mound.

3) If the Cardinals win the NL Central, look back to 4th inning of game on Monday; game was scoreless, until St Louis scored six runs in a 19-pitch span of the 4th inning, then went on to sweep Cincinnati. Turning point.

2) Former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach is going to hang over the head of every struggling bigtime college coach this season, especially the ones who live in warmer climates, like, say........Tempe, Arizona.

1) 35 bowl games this football season means that 70 of the 120 teams in Division I will go bowling; anyone want to hazard a guess on how many of the other fifty will get fired during/after the season?

Thursday's List of 13: Overrated/underrated things........
13) Underrated-- Henry Aaron. You rarely hear his name mentioned as the game's greatest player, but who was better? 755 homers, never hitting more than 47 in one season, a .305 career BA, .928 OPS, 240 steals. Oh, he also knocked in 2,297 runs. Still, he remains underappreciated.

12) Overrated-- Batting Average-- One of the most misleading stats in all of baseball. Royals are second in major leagues in BA, but 22nd in runs scored, and runs are what win games, obviously. On-base percentage is an important stat, as is how you do with two outs, with men on base.

11) Underrated-- Tom Flores won two Super Bowls as a head coach, with a 8-3 career record in playoff games. You could probably win a bet with a buddy on that one-- ask him to name coaches who won 2+ Super Bowls.

10) Overrated-- Long hitting streaks-- One hit a game; whats the big deal? Oh yeah, a guy that played in New York City holds the record. 190 RBI is a great record, but no one knows who Hack Wilson is. Ted Williams is record-holder of a more important record, most games in a row reaching base safely-- thats a more important record than longest hitting streak.

9) Underrated-- NHL-- Best playoffs, do their draft the best, moving it around the league. Pro hockey in person is tremendous. Too bad the guys who run the NHL don't see fit to have games on ESPN for more exposure.

8) Overrated-- NBA-- Its a hybrid of streetball/real basketball, the league seems obsessed with international play and promoting stars, yet the NBA doesn't use international rules, which makes for more attractive games to watch. Go figure. Allowing teams to play any type of zone would help.

7) Underrated-- San Antonio Spurs-- Originally were Dallas Chapparals in ABA, moving west after six years in Dallas, were 4th team NBA let in via '76 merger, have now won 4 NBA titles in last dozen years. Name the owner, or pick the GM out of a lineup. They're selfless, they win a lot.

6) Overrated-- New York Knicks-- Last won a title in 1973, owned by the biggest moron of any sports franchise in America, and that includes the nitwit who owns the Clippers. Have record of 269-450 since they let Jeff Van Gundy walk out the door, ending a decade of winning records.

5) Underrated-- Your five starters on an NFL offensive line are a lot like a starting five on a baseball pitching staff; without a solid group there, your team is not going to win. Yet no one knows who offensive linemen are.

4) Overrated-- New Giants Stadium-- $1.6B so Woody Johnson and the Maras can get wealthier. Fantastic. They knocked down the 33-year old stadium that held so many great memories, just so more luxury boxes get sold, and amazingly loyal fans can get extorted out of thousands. Great.

3) Minute Maid Park-- Ballpark with a retractable dome is in downtown Houston; easy parking, good sight lines, can stand in area above the fence in leftcenter field. Lot of concession stands, they sing Deep in the Heart of Texas at the 7th inning stretch. Loudly. An underrated experience.

2) New Year's Day-- What used to be THE DAY for college football is a jumble of meaningless games now, rendered meaningless by a goofy BCS system that no one understands. If there was a playoff and damn it, there should be, New Year's could be the cornerstone, with four games all going to fill in the brackets leading to a huge payday and a national title game.

1) Thanksgiving weekend- They've extended college football season to get even more TV money, making Thanksgiving Day weekend new Rivalry Saturday which combined with college hoop starting and NFL/NBA/NHL going on, well, Thanksgiving weekend is probably best sports weekend all year. Depends on your preferences, but is sure is a busy time.

Wednesday's List........Our summer look at ACC football
Boston College-- 30-18 in ACC last six years, have eight starters back on offense, six on defense; soph QB is older dude who played pro baseball. 12-4 as road dog since '03. Four starters back on OL (three seniors start). Had 8-bowl win streak snapped, losing last two bowls 16-14/24-13.

Clemson-- Lost three of last four bowls, despite being favored in all four. Seven starters back on offense, six on defense; soph QB started 10 games LY, first time in five years Tigers completed less than 50% of its passes. . 11-3 vs spread as underdog since '05. Four starters back on OL.

Duke-- Will miss QB Lewis, who set 49 school records; soph Renfree is back from knee surgery, was 34-50 LY. Just 9-17 as a home dog last five years. Nine starters back on offense; hosting Alabama this year. Their last bowl game was '94, last bowl win was 1960, in Cotton Bowl.

Florida State-- New era begins with eight starters back on offense, senior QB (22 starts) but their best WR is off team. Just 7-18 vs spread as home fave last five years. Bobby Bowden won three of last four bowls, scoring 36.8 ppg, but problem is, they were second tier bowls.

Georgia Tech-- Tech 13-4 in ACC under Johnson, 9-2 vs spread on road, running ball for 273-295 ypg, but one-dimensional attack stalled in bowls, losing 38-3/24-14. Experienced senior QB with 25 starts, but three new starters on OL. Haven't completed 50% of their passes since 2003.

Maryland-- Slipped to 2-10 LY, are 3-13 vs spread as home favorite since '04. Seven starters back on offense; junior QB has only two starts. Three sophs start on OL. Won four of last five bowls, scoring 30.2 ppg. Opener with Navy in Baltimore is only teams' second meeting since 1965.

Miami-- Over .500 in ACC LY, first time since '05; just 7-14 vs spread in game following a loss last five years. Starting two sophs on OL 1-3 in last four bowls, scoring only 13.8 ppg. Playing Ohio State/Pitt on road out of conference, an unusually tough non-conference slate.

North Carolina-- 19 starters back, four on OL, senior QB, but guys from NCAA been snooping around this summer. Just 10-19 vs spread as home fave last 10 years, 8-15 as fave anywhere since '05. Lost Charlotte bowl last two years by combined total of 3 points; last bowl win was 2001.

NC State-- Disappointing 16-21 in O'Brien's first three years, are 5-17 as home favorite since '03. Junior QB has 23 starts, but three new starters on OL, with three sophs starting. Have been minus-11 or worse in TOs four of last six years. Nine of their 12 opponents played in bowls last year.

Virginia-- New coach is from I-AA Richmond, who Cavs open up against. Coordinators are in from NFL. Senior QB with 10 starts, six starters back on both sides of ball; 3-7 vs spread as favorite last three years. Al Groh was 59-53 in his nine years at UVa, not the easiest place to win.

Virginia Tech-- Lose seven starters on defense, but have senior QB with 28 career starts; 8-3 vs spread as underdog since '04. Last six years, are +60 in TO ratio, +34 in last three. Last time Tech had less than 10 wins was '03. Top five rushers, top five receivers back this season.

Wake Forest-- Going back to option; new QB played WR LY, as Skinner was 4-year starting QB. Slipped to 5-7 LY after going 28-12 three years before that. 9-2 as home dog since '04. Seven starters back on defense, so LY's 26.3 ppg allowed (4s back) should be fairly easy to improve upon.

Tuesday's List of 13: Random thoughts on a summer day......
13) Underrated fact: In 1988, Toronto's Dave Stieb lost a no-hitter with two outs in the 9th inning, two starts in a row. That pretty close to tying Johnny Van de Meer's record.

12) 64 golfers have earned $1M on the PGA Tour in 2010. Then there are these three guys, one of whom you might have heard of........
#83 DA Points $825,773 #84 EWoods $825,326 #85 JTeater $813,991

11) Phil Mickelson is 10-1 at PGA this week, Woods is 12-1, first time in twelve years he's not favored to win a major that he's entered in.

10) Bethel U in Tennessee is first college to offer scholarships to kids who show promise in the sport of bass fishing.

9) In 11 of Johan Santana's 24 starts, Mets scored two or less runs.

8) Ump Joe West was working 1st base in Texas-Oakland game Sunday; he kept going to mound from first base to hurry along mound conferences. Man is on a one-person crusade to speed up games. Announcers make fun of him a lot. Wonder what managers think of him.

7) Mariners took Brandom Morrow with 5th pick of '06 draft, ahead of Washington native Tim Lincecum; then Seattle traded Morrow to Toronto for reliever Brandon League, which hasn't worked out too well either. So what did the Seattle front office do Monday? They fired the manager.

6) The person who signed Milton Bradley should be fired, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't Don Wakamatsu. Gutless decision by the Seattle GM, who shouldn't be resting too comfortably these days.

5) Morrow is just third pitcher since 1920 to throw a one-hitter in which he struck out 17 batters; Kerry Wood/Curt Schilling are other two.

4) Last time USC/Notre Dame changed football coaches in same season? 1941.

3) Raptors/Nets will play two regular season games in London in March. Have a feeling with a Russian owner, the Nets are going to see a lot of the world until their new arena in Brooklyn is finished.

2) Bill Walton made an appearance on Giants-Cubs telecast Monday, as it was Jerry Garcia Night at the ol' ballpark; he has now had 36 orthopedic operations but doesn't have back pain for the first time since 1974. Was surprised to discover by listening to him broadcast games that Walton is one of the nicest, most enthusiastic people around.

1) Only thirty days left until the NFL regular season begins, 23 until the college football season kicks off. Can't wait.

Monday's List of 13: Wrapping up a sports weekend........
13) Tampa Bay Rays swing at 72 of Brandon Morrow's pitches Sunday: they fouled off 41 of them, missed 20 of them and got one lone hit on the 11 pitches they put in play-- an infield hit. Quite a performance.

12) Morrow is now 3-0, 1.71 in his last three starts; this is same guy that walked six of 14 Boston batters he faced in a dismal May 10 start, and gave up 15 runs in 16 IP in three starts from June 29-July 10.. With some guys, it just takes some time for the light bulb to go on over their head.

11) Now was it wise for Cito Gaston to leave him in to throw a ball 137 times? Edwin Jackson threw 149 pitches in his no-hitter, but within one month, the manager had been fired and Jackson traded to the White Sox. Morrow threw 69 innings LY, has 127 this year; he's obviously a talent, maybe in the Blue Jays' long term interest, leaving him in wasn't wise, as he's already shouldered a much bigger load than he's used to this summer.

10) Mets lost two of three to a Philly team with Howard-Utley-Victorino on the DL; I'd be curious to know salaries of Met GM Minaya and Phils' GM Amaro, because one does his job a hell of a lot better than the other.

9) Football is an emotional, often vicious game played by powerful men who crash into each other at high rates of speed; they risk their long-term health on every play, and thats no exaggeration. All of which makes the speeches at the Pro Football Hall of Fame superior entertainment, since this enshrinement is the pinnacle of a great career. They get emotional as they stand at the podium to accept the game's greatest honor. Its cool.

8) Emmitt Smith was gracious in thanking a ton of people at his speech in Canton Saturday night, a much better speaker than he showed during his horrendous stint as an ESPN analyst. Good for him; too bad nobody told Michael Jordan before his speech at the Basketball Hall of Fame that this is the way a enshrinee is supposed to act. The contrast was striking.

7) 15 of last 18 US Presidents played golf, with average handicap of 22.

6) Orioles did cool thing this weekend, having the White Sox broadcaster Steve Stone throw out the first ball Saturday; Stone was 25-7 for the '80 Orioles, 82-86 the other ten years of his career. In fact Stone's career was over after the '81 season, at age 33. Anyway, it was a nice gesture.

5) New Mexico State's turnover ratios the last five years:
-23.......-10.........-15..........-6.........-10.........
If they could just even out the turnover ratio, they could add 3-4 wins to their record. Easier said than done, but its a window for improvement.

4) If I'm a baseball contender looking for a bat off the bench, I'm looking at the Mets' Jesus Feliciano, who hit .292 in 65 AB for the Mets this year, his first in the big leagues. These are Feliciano's minor league averages the last four seasons, all in AAA........
-- 2007: .315......2008: .308........2009: .311.........2010: .346.

3) Josh Beckett against Bronx this year: 19.1 IP, 24 runs allowed.

2) I guess its amusing that major league managers need a bench coach who does the adminstrative things managers used to do, like mark subs on the lineup card. What else does a manager have to do during the game? Bench coaches started out as managers' drinking buddies; now its a real job.

1) Tough TV night Sunday; Bengals-Dallas on NBC, with Terrell Owens, Chad Johnson dominating airwaves, with decent amount of Brett Favre talk thrown in.......on ESPN, the insufferable Bronx-Boston rivalry which ESPN seems to think counts extra in the standings. At least its fun to look forward to the inevitable implosion of the Bengals.

Sunday's List: Our summer look at Big East football......
Cincinnati-- Coach Kelly will be very tough act to follow; UC was 17-4 in Big East under Kelly, 7-1 vs spread as underdog. New QB was 93-124 as backup LY, with 10 TDs/2 INTs. Bearcats are 14-6 vs spread coming off a loss last six years. UC has to replace six starters on defense.

UConn-- Senior QB has only nine starts; Huskies have eight starters back on both sides of ball, including four on OL. Played in bowl game last three years, winning two in row, beat South Carolina LY. Opener at Michigan will be interesting. UConn is 9-2 as home underdog since 2005.

Louisville-- New coach, senior QB has seven starts; four starters back on OL will help, but lost seven starters pn defense, including six of top eight tacklers. Lost last three games vs rival Kentucky, allowing 32.7 ppg. Are 5-15-1 vs spread in Big East tilts last three years.

Pitt-- New QB, only 11/22 starters back; Panthers are 5-8 vs spread as a home favorite last three years. 1-3 in last four bowls, scoring total of just 42 points. 17-10 vs spread following a win last four years. Wannstedt is 19-16 SU in Big East play, 10-4 last two years.

Rutgers-- Soph QB started 11 games LY; three new starters on OL, with only one senior starter. 9-2 as road dog since '06, 12-5 vs spread in game after a loss. Won bowl game last four years, scoring 40.8 ppg, but they were favored in all four. LY's +20 turnover ratio will be hard to duplicate.

South Florida-- Soph QB started 10 games LY; new coach Holtz comes in to replace program founder Leavitt (3-1 in last four bowls). Bulls are 8-5 as home fave last four years, 8-4 as road dog. Outscored 80-16 in last two games vs Rutgers. Five starters back on OL should help

Syracuse-- 14-45 since stupidly firing Pasqualoni; new QB was 36-68 LY with three TD passes. Have 10 starters back on defense; they've allowed foes to complete 63%+ of passes last four years, are just 5-11 vs spread as home dog last three years. Three new starters on offensive line.

West Virginia-- New QB, four starters back on OL, nine on defense; just 8-14-1 as home fave last four years. 4-1 in last five bowls, scoring average of 35.2 ppg. Most teams sub a lot on OL to develop depth; WVa doesn't- their four returning starters on OL took almost 99% of snaps LY.

Saturday's List of 13: Ranking the top 13 big league teams........
13) Rockies-- Melvin Mora ranks 2nd in major leagues in percentage of runners driven home from 3rd base (10 of 15). For some reason, Rockies are using Rogers (23 runs in 29.2 IP) to start Sunday instead of 22-year old Chacin (70 hits allowed in 82.1 IP). And yes, Chacin is on my fantasy league team, which is why I am bitter about this. .

12) Cardinals-- Top four positions in majors by slugging percentage:
NL 1B: .467.....AL 1B: .452......NL RF: .449..........AL RF: .444.

11) Twins-- Michael Cuddyer has come to bat with 350 men on base this year, 11 more than any other player; he's driven in only 11.4% of those runners, worst percentage of anyone ranked in the top 13.

10) Red Legs-- Toronto's Jose Bautista has driven in 20% of runners from first base this year, best %age in majors; next highest is Joey Votto of the Reds (12.9%). Thats a huge gap!!!! Newcomers Michael Stanton of the Marlins and Chris Johnson of Houston are tied for third in this stat.

9) Phillies-- Watching Philly beat the Mets Friday night, one phrase was sticking in my head. "Expectation of winning." Phillies go out and do stuff that helps their team win-- they trade for Halladay-Lee-Oswalt, they go get Mike Sweeney, all of which makes their players believe thay they've got the best chance to win. What has the Mets' front office done to help fortify their team this summer? Ummmm....nothing.

8) Red Sox-- AL DHs are hitting .247 this year, with on-base percentage of .325, slugging percentage of just .421.

David Ortiz is hitting .259, with OB% of .370, slugging %age of .533. He's a huge reason of why the Red Sox are still in the pennat race.

7) White Sox-- Edwin Jackson is still only 26 years old, but has a 45-49 record in 132 major league starts-- he's already on his fifth team, fourth in last three years. Why does a guy like this get traded so often? In Detroit last year, he was 13-9 but they shipped him off to Arizona-- why?

6) Padres-- San Diego stole Ryan Ludwick from St Louis because Cards had to dump salary in anticipation of giving Albert Pujols huge money in the near future. In 2008-09, Ludwick hit a combined 59 HRs, knocked in 210 runs-- he should give Adrian Gonzalez great lineup protection.

5) Giants-- Bruce Bochy is an underrated manager, having won four NL West titles in his first 15 years as a skipper. You know a guy is good if he has five losing seasons in row (SD '99-'03) and that team doesn't fire him.

4) Rangers-- Seattle's Felix Hernandez (same birthday as Catfish Hunter) is still just 24 years old, but he's already made 162 career starts for a total of 16,701 pitches, or 103.1 pitches per start. That awful lot of mileage for such a young guy, but he could be another CC Sabathia, someone whose large frame makes him more durable than most.

3) Braves-- A's farmhand Jeff Larish (.238 in 188 career AB in Detroit) knocked in 10 runs in a doubleheader for AAA Sacramento Friday, in his third day as a member of the Oakland organization.

2) Rays-- New big thing for high school football are these 7-on-7 events that are pretty much flag football games for QBs/WRs, that mirror AAU basketball tournaments. They allow high school teams to work together to hone their skills in the summer months-- its only a recent thing, having started in the late 90's.

Coaches that use a run-based offense during the high school season aren't fond of 7-on-7, since it doesn't incorporate any of the components of a running attack, just passing. As for me, I much prefer passing.

1) Bronx-- Chris Greisen of the Milwaukee Iron led the Arena Football League this season with 5,146 passing yards; he tossed 107 TDs, with 11 INTs. Arena Football is highly entertaining, and a good training ground to help QBs get adjusted to making fast decisions at game speed.

Friday's List of 13: Random thoughts on a summer day.......
13) Saints were 3.5/4-point favorites over Minnesota in Week 1 opener at the Superdome, but with Favre now expected not to play that night, the books expect the Saints to be wind up as an 8-point favorite at kickoff.

12) Cincinnati is expected to bring Cuban lefty Aroldis Chapman up to big leagues soon to bolster their pitching; Chapman is said to have hit 103 mph in the minors. Me? I think the radar guns are on steroids.

11) How managers help/hurt their teams: Wednesday, Brian McCann was up with two on, two out in fifth inning with Braves up, I think it was 3-2. Met pitcher Pelfrey was struggling mightily. McCann was 17-36 in his career against Pelfrey, but manager Manuel still left him in to pitch.

Now McCann is 18-37. That was as graphic an example as I can come up with as to how amanager cost his team a chance to stay in the game.

10) Another football season is approaching, still no NFL Network on my TV, since Time-Warner and NFL couldn't agree on what day it is. Jerks.

9) Is it me, or have their been lot more concussions in baseball this year?

8) Rough week for catchers, as Russell Martin, Carlos Santana and young Rockies prospect Wilin Rosario are all out for the year with injuries after getting hurt, all happening this week.

7) Has to be tough on foreign players coming to this country to play, but more at the minor league level, since big league clubs all have lot of money for translators, or the player himself can bring one over. For guys in minor league baseball, though, it has to be tough riding buses when the language being spoken isn't yours. I know I wouldn't want to do it.

6) Georgia Bulldogs have ten starters back on offense, but the one starter who is new will ne the QB; expect Dawgs to run the ball a lot.

5) Michigan was -10/-12 in turnovers the last two years when they were an amazingly bad 8-16. Lot of pressure on Rich Rodriguez this season.

4) Big 11 has decided that Lucas Oil Field in Indy will be site of the very first Big 11+1 football championship game in the fall of 2011. Nebraska is the new kid on the block; once they join, the title game is on.

3) If you looked at the season-long win-loss over-under prop for Eagles, you would see that the over is 8-2-1 in the last 11 seasons, meaning that Andy Reid gets most out of his team, exceeding expectations consistently. Andy Iskoe provided someone I follow on Twitter with that info.

2) Fifty years ago, Eagles won their last NFL title, beating the Packers; it is no coincidence that Philly opens its 2010 season, fifty years later, with a home game against Green Bay.

1) I live in Albany, 148 miles north of New York City, 140 miles west of Boston; bars in this area make a killing when Bronx-Boston play, since they're the two most popular teams in the area. Me? I'd rather get locked in a closet with my laptop, a pizza and the Pirates-Rockies game.

Thursday's List of 13: Clearing out a cluttered mind.......
13) One of the most basic elements of pitching is getting a batter to swing and miss, right? So far this season, four pitchers have gotten 25+ swings and misses in a start........
-- Buchholz/Morrow, 26........Josh Johnson/Weaver 25

12) On the other hand, if you can't anyone to swing/miss, you're going to have a rough night; Wednesday, Mike Pelfrey became 22nd pitcher so far in 2010 to start a game and not induce a swing/miss- his 89 pitchers are 3rd-highest this season, of pitchers who couldn't get a swing/miss......
-- Fister 106, Correia 92, Pelfrey 89, Buehrle/Monasterios 86.

11) David Price became 16th pitcher this year to get 30+ called strikes in a start. Home plate umpire Phil Cuzzi was the accomplice.

10) Milwaukee led 3-1 in 6th inning at Wrigley Wednesday, but lost by 12 runs on a rainy day in Chicago. If I was a Brewer fan, would definitely want Ken Macha fired. On a happier note, Bob Uecker (Mr Baseball) did the honors Tuesday and sang Take Me Out to the Ballgame at Wrigley; he looks pretty good, considering he's coming off of heart surgery.

9) Texas scored 10 runs in Cliff Lee's first five starts (2-3); Lee has a 2.36 RA in his last four starts, but Rangers are jogging in AL West, and with news that Nolan Ryan's group outbid Mark Cuban's for control of team, Wednesday was just another great day for the 2010 Tezas Rangers.

8) Pirates are 3-14 on Fridays this year, scoring more than four runs once in the 17 games. They scored three or less runs in 11 of 14 losses, four runs in each of the other three.

7) My one-word analysis of Shaquille O'Neal and the Celtics: Why?

6) Between June 2009/June 2010, Sandra Bullock earned $56M and they say athletes are overpaid? Blind Side made roughly $310M at box office, with a budget of roughly $30M, but how much of that is due to Bullock?

5) Giants were 40-39 on July 2, are 22-7 since. Pitching wins.

4) Wednesday was another unusual night in that 27 of 30 starting pitchers got decisions, and only reason Medlen didn't get one is because he hurt his elbow in fifth inning, before he qualified for a win. Not a lot of late inning drama this week.

3) Detroit Lions have already purged all 11 defensive starters from their 0-16 team of two years ago. NFC North is interesting race; at first look, would appear that Green Bay has the least question marks, right?

2) My take on the Vikings is that they're going against everything that makes team sports great with their double standard where Brett Favre is concerned. How does Brad Childress look his other players in the eye, especially the other QBs? How do you run productive practices when the starting quarterback is working out with HS kids 1,500 miles away?

Its hard to believe NFL would be duped into scheduling Vikings-Saints as Week 1 Thursday night season opener, unless they had it on really good authority that Favre would be playing. Just another attention junkie, #4.

1) A friend of mine who knows an awful lot about Penn State football is convinced that Bill Cowher will succeed Joe Paterno in Happy Valley.

Wednesday's List of 13: Random thoughts on a summer night.....
13) Greedy New Jersey Giants still have 1,250 unsold PSLs for this year; had to believe a team that had a huge waiting list for season tickets for as long as I can remember suddenly can't sell out their new $1.6B stadium. Greed isn't always good.

12) Here are some of the PSLs that remain unsold.........
-- Mezzanine B-- $7,500 just for the PSL, then $400 a game.
-- Club Level A-- $12,500 for the PSL, then $500 a ticket per game.
-- Coach's Club-- $20,000 for the PSL, then $700 a ticket per game.

11) By the way, this new $1.6B stadium replaced a stadium that was only 33 years old and was perfectly fine, except it didn't suck enough of the money out their loyal customer's pockets. Greedy bastards.

10) Juan Samuel won't stay on Buck Showalter's staff after going 17-34 as interim manager of the Orioles. He'll do some scouting in the Dominican for the O's, then hopefully hook on with some other major league club.

9) Would love to see how Nolan Ryan's Rangers would have handled the pitching phenom Stephen Strasburg. Nationals have to be worried about keeping the kid healthy- he's made them a lot of money this year. Texas has a more old school philosophy to developing pitchers.

8) Was wondering what all the fuss was about Jeremiah Masoli going to Ole Miss, after leaving Oregon, then I realized the kid is eligible to play this year, and the Rebels desperately need a QB. Masoli has been thru a decent amount of turmoil recently; not sure how much of it is his fault, and how much is just wrong place/wrong time, but lot of eyes are going to be on him this fall. QB in the SEC is a fishbowl position.

7) Was watching the original Rocky Monday night; when he was running thru streets of Philly during the training scenes, he's wearing an old school pair of Chuck Taylor Converse All-Stars. Nike didn't even exist in 1976.

6) Rumor that won't go away: Memphis winds up in the Big East.

5) Sacramento Kings' guard Tyreke Evans was caught going 130 mph out in California Memorial Day weekend, and was arrested at gunpoint when he was finally pulled over. Kid drives a purple Mercedes, so least his car is in team colors. Imagine owning a team and paying your best player the kind of money Evans makes, and he's out driving 130 mph? Yikes.

4) Blackhawks let their goialie go because they've decided that it is more important for them to have strong defense/centers than a marquee goalie, and with the salary cap, they had to cut costs somewhere.

3) They have instant replay at Little League World Series? Good God.

2) Watching A's-Royals game Tuesday night, and Hohn/Darling are in a few more disputes; night after night, you see the same umps involved in arguments. The umpires you never notice? They're the good ones.

1) Joe Webb might be the happiest man in Minnesota; he was #4 on the Vikings' QB depth chart, but if Favre retires, he moves up to #3 and will likely start the season in uniform.

Ugliest rumor I saw all day was Favre not coming back until after Week 4 bye, figuring he can't play all 16 games, but could play 13. Just great......

Tuesday's List of 13: Clearing out a cluttered mind........
13) Trading deadline often defines contenders/pretenders; Mets look like a dead team, as do the Dodgers, even though they added Lilly/Theriot. Hard to believe LA is now nine games behind the pitching-rich Padres.

12) Home plate ump Barrett really helped Clayton Richard in 10-5 San Diego win Monday night; the Padres' lefty threw 105 pitches, with 31 of them called strikes (only 16th game all year where starting pitcher had 30 or more pitches called strikes). Dodgers swung/missed at Richard pitches only three times in 5.1 IP and got 10 hits on 18 balls in play.

11) Cubs lost 17-2 Friday night, 18-1 Monday; there are nine weeks left to go this season, but Cubs have quit. Management should say thanks to Lou Piniella, then send him home and let Ryne Sandberg manage the club the rest of the season.

10) Winner of Greenbrier Classic makes more than winner of Canadian Open, and twice as much as the winner of Reno-Tahoe Open? Hmmmm

9) Has a team ever won the Stanley Cup and then dumped its goalie like the Blackhawks did? Just seems unusual, thats all.

8) ESPN will focus totally on Cincinnati's attention junkie WRs this fall, but the best story in the Queen City is that both Bengal coordinators are friends who have coached together on and off for the last 30 years, since they were on a staff together at I-AA Weber State. Its togetherless like this that can help a staff stick together, which makes the team stronger.

7) Tampa Bay rookie Hellickson was tough in his big league debut, with a win over Minnesota (two runs/seven IP/107 PT) but remember Morneau and Mauer didn't play for the Twins. Kid looked polished though.

6) Rays got mocked for adding Chad Qualls from Arizona, but Qualls has retired four of first five batters he's faced for Tampa Bay.

5) Indians' rookie catcher Santana hurt his knee in a homeplate collision; looks like Ryan Howard might be headed to DL with sprained ankle, not what I wanted to hear, with fantasy playoffs only two weeks away.

4) Joe West's crew has Washington-Arizona series this week; Monday's game was 2:19. West is bad news for concessionaires everywhere.

3) Trevor Cahill blanked Royals on three hits Monday, the third complete game in a row for Oakland, first time they've done that in 10 years. Young Cahill has the lowest batting average against of any AL starter.

2) A's outfield combo of Davis-Crisp covers lot of ground; when they put Gross in for defense late in games, they have a terrific defensive outfield, which is big part of why their pitching has improved dramatically. That, and fact that their fine young pitchers are maturing.

1) Its August 3rd and the A's are over .500. They probably won't make it to the playoffs, but if they could finish over .500, that would be a terrific accomplishment, and I'm dead serious.

Monday's List of 13: Wrapping up a sports weekend.......
13) Stuart Appleby shot the first-ever 59 on a par-70 course on the PGA Tour, and still had to sweat out last two holes before winning the PGA tournament this week in West Virginia. It was his first win in four years.

12) Charles Howell didn't have a bogey all week, first PGA golfer in four years to have no bogeys in a 72-hole tournament and not win.

11) Some fantasy baseball leagues are AL/NL only; imagine how hideous it is for guys who had Haren, Cantu or Podsednik on their teams? They just lose those guys for no reason.

10) Jerry Hairston Jr should pay me to watch his games; he's hitting .251 this year, but he has to be hitting .600 when I'm watching his at-bat. Guy never makes an out if I have his at-bat on TV. Very strange.

9) Reds-Braves series drew 122,855 fans this weekend, biggest crowd for a three-game series in history of Great American Ballpark in Cincy.

8) Mets' stellar front office turned down a trade of Octavio Dotel for AA pitcher Robert Carson, who is 0-3, 9.16 in the Eastern League, Terrific.

7) Pirates' acquisition of Chris Snyder might signal an eventual move to 1B for Ryan Doumit, who has had concussion issues behind the plate.

6) Dimaondback fans must be confused; they traded Max Scherzer for Edwin Jackson, they quickly flipped Jackson for Daniel Hudson, who had a good first start Sunday, but if I rooted for a team that traded for the combo of Bobby Crosby/Ryan Church, I'd question their competence.

5) Padre reliever Luke Gregersen is having a stellar season, he was thrown in at tail end of the trade that sent Kahlil Greene to the Cardinals back on March 23, 2009. Somethese these throw-ins become a great bargain. .

4) Dodgers lost last five games of Giant/Padre road trip, are now 8 games out in NL West race, 6.5 out of Wild Card race, and sinking fast.

3) At this point in NFL training camps, except for contract signings, no news is definitely good news. I'd rather read nothing about the Rams until the first exhibition game. Boring is good this time of year.

2) Seems like some people around Jets expect Gang Green to be given the Lombardi Trophy before Labor Day; easy to forget that the Colts went in the tank in Week 16 last year, or the Jets never make the playoffs. With so many combustible personalities and the New York media willing to be the lighter fluid, a team with a second-year QB is no guarantee.

1) For sure, the trading deadline is worst time of year to root for a small market baseball team; it just reinforces how helpless your team is.

Sunday's List of 13: Things I'm looking for in August........
13) August is a fun month around here; people I don't see the rest of the year drop in and out of town, whether for the racetrack or training camp for the Giants. Then I don't see them for another 11 months. Go figure.

12) I'm eagerly awaiting seeing #8 play QB for St Louis. Sam the Ram.

11) I'm not eagerly awaiting ESPN's 24/7 coverage of the Bengals.

10) Will the Patriots take care of Tom Brady? How can these heartless, cheating bastards not reward the cornerstone of their franchise, who has sacrificed financially to help the team? They need to pay Brady.

9) How will the Broncos deploy Tim Tebow? The money they gave him, it says he's going to start and soon. Now there's a significant gamble for a team that was close to being a playoff squad last season.

8) Which NFL star will get hurt in an exhibition game? Pretty soon, the regular season is going to be 18 games, the preseason two- no reason to put your starters at risk in meaningless games.

7) How much will Ben Roethlisberger play in preseason? He ain't playing for first four games of season, and maybe not the first six-- its uncharted territory for a coach (Tomlin) who isn't always a good game manager. He needs to get either Leftwich or Dixon ready to face Atlanta Sept 12.

6) Will Eldrick Woods win a golf tournament? If he doesn't win at Akron, where he's won several times in the past, then his whole episode is being filed under "Debasco" an event whose consequences are so heinous that they have a permanently negative effect on that person. Its a combination of debacle/fiasco and mercifully, they don't happen often.

5) Did you see where local TV ratings for the Red Sox are down 36% this season? For real fans, this should be an exciting season, as Francona has been managing his butt off keeping an injury-ravaged team in the pennant race. But whiny Beantown frontrunners are crying, saying the team isn't exciting enough. Try rooting for the Pirates, you pathetic nitwits.

4) Will Kirk Gibson have an ulcer by the end of August? Snakes traded for both Ryan Church/Bobby Crosby this week, players the Pirates didn't want. Thats usually a pretty bad sign.

3) Will Omar Minaya emerge from his coma in August? He seems like a nice guy, but the people he works for seem like jackasses.

2) Common wisdom on July 31 is that lot of players will clear waivers in August; if so, that means there are a lot more trades to come.

1) When we're talking here a month from now, how many pennant races will there be, and what teams will be in them?

Saturday's List of 13: Things I learned/re-learned this month.........
13) Media pushes for interesting stories; they weren't resting until some stupid team signed Terrell Owens. Now they're covered for August, as far as attention junkies like Owens, Chad85Johnson and Brett Favre taking up a lot of time and space that could be used on actual football stuff.

12) Baseball's All-Star Game is dying; it needs a jumpstart, say like next year having US All-Stars play a World team, then East vs West the year after that, then AL-NL in 2013. Would make it more interesting.

11) They should let non-All-Stars in Home Run Derby, and always one guy fron the home team. This could be the lineup next year in Arizona
AL-- Ichiro Suzuki-Carlos Pena-Vladimir Guerrero-David Ortiz
NL-- Mark Reynolds-Adam Dunn-Joey Votto-Adrian Gonzalez

10) I was pleasantly surprised to learn this month that sometimes even the blindest of squirrels finds an acorn now and then.

9) Saw 10 times more football jerseys than baseball jerseys in the casinos of Las Vegas; cocktail waitresses and cab drivers can't wait for football, so the people will come pouring back into the desert on the weekends.

8) Sitting in emergency exit row on long flights is good for your knees.

7) This is the third summer in row I didn't get to Florida for the summer hoop tourneys; I miss them. Nothing like 12-hour days watching lot of kids you've never heard of play ball. It doesn't sound like fun, but it is, in a degenerate kind of way. I do wonder if I could still do it now since I've given up drinking soda. Used to suck down a lot of Cherry Coke there.

6) Minor league baseball is still a fine way to spend a summer night.

5) We need to dig deeper into our stats; Michael Cuddyer (.278, with 10 HRs, 49 RBI) looks like he's having a solid year, but facts are, he's come to bat with 328 men on base, more than anyone in MLB, and knocked in only 39 of them, or 11.9%, which ranks 233rd out of 301 players who've had at least 150+ PAs. Thats really not such a great season.

4) Watching the British Open live from Scotland when its Thursday there and still 1am Wednesday night in Las Vegas, well that was both fun and a little disorienting. Mostly fun though.

3) Basketball legend Walt Frazier is a good guy, very soft spoken, a great ambassador for the NBA and the Knicks. If you like the NBA, I really do recommend NBA Summer League-- all the coaches are there, and you can talk to them. Plus, its another excuse to go to Las Vegas.

2) Nuggets' owner Stan Kroenke, who also owns 40% of the Rams and is trying to buy the other 60%, took the time to explain to me how it works for him to follow the NFL's rules so he can buy the Rams. Think he was a little surprised with my enthusiasm, but its good that he is going to be the new owner. Rams were stuck with a lousy front office for years.

At one point he's talking to me and it flashes in my head..... "this guy is worth freakin' $2.9B!!!!" Anyway, he was cool and I appreciate it.

1) You see in the paper all the time, people getting sick or dying way too young. There's nothing wrong with having fun. July was a fun month. Go out and make August a fun month, too..........

Friday's List of 13 (+3) Our weekly look at National League......
16) Pirates-- Good news: Pittsburgh hasn't sold anyone off at the trading deadline this year. Bad news: No one wants any of their players, except for Andrew McCutchen.

15) Diamondbacks-- Edwin Jackson since his 149-pitch no-hitter against his old team, the Rays: 1-4, 7.90 in five starts. Now the question; did the 149 pitches cause the problems, or is it just a coincidence?

14) Astros-- Brett Wallace hasn't played in big leagues yet, but already has been part of organizations for St Louis-Oakland-Toronto-Philly and Houston. Acquiring Wallace signals that Lance Berkman is next guy out of Minute Maid; this is what Astros have to do to get younger and have a better outlook for the future.

13) Nationals-- Not sure if they did or didn't, but when Strasburg was late scratch this week (he went on DL Thursday) they should've given 40,003 fans in attendance a coupon for free food or some such thing. You have to think at least half the fans were there solely to see Strasburg.

12) Cubs-- If they were going to hire Ryne Sandberg as manager, shouldn't he be in Wrigley right now, managing the Cubs and getting experience for next season? Lou Piniella mailed this season in; he hardly ever argues, he laughs in the dugout-- if he wants to quit, then just go away.

11) Brewers-- Went to a minor league game in Pittsfield Wednesday, and got to hear the great Bob Uecker on Sirius radio on the way over, calling the Reds-Brewers tilt. Made the 45-minute drive seem a lot shorter.

10) Marlins-- Trading Cantu makes sense; they'll move Coghlan to 3B and Morrison will play LF. Florida got a pair of AA pitchers for Cantu. Got to see Anibal Sanchez toss a 1-hitter Thursday, in his second start after I traded him in my fantasy league (for the red-hot Uggla, though).

9) Rockies-- Sounds like Rockies have gone from buyer to seller after this losing streak that ended Thursday; Aaron Cook could be going to St Louis (Rockies would plug Chacin back into rotation) and Hawpe could also be on his way out of Denver.

8) Mets-- As I type this, Metropolitans are 5.5 games behind Giants in Wild Card race. Memo to GM Omar Minaya: DO SOMETHING!!!!!!

7) Dodgers-- My 84-year old dad goes to horse races at Saratoga - they're getting $8 for a beer now. Anything that is popular gets attacked by the greedy parasites until they strangle all the life out of it. An exacta box is $12, but a freakin' beer is $8. Well, you shouldn't drink/gamble anyway.

6) Reds-- Twins had a catching prospect named Wilson Ramos, but since they also have Joe Mauer, Ramos just got dealt to Washington for closer Matt Capps, as Minnesota goes for the jugular this season.

5) Cardinals-- Bobby Valentine was busting LaRussa's chops on TV the other night, as far as the Redbirds' pitcher batting 8th. "He's never done it in playoffs or World Series, so he musn't really believe in it." One thing LaRussa has done is win two World Series, two more than Valentine.

4) Phillies-- Acquiring Roy Oswalt was unspoken admission that trading Cliff Lee last winter was goofy. Two-time defending NL champs are only two games out of the Wild Card slot. Oswalt makes Phils' debut Friday.

3) Braves-- Omar Infante was picked for the All-Star team; he's hitting a crisp .330 this year, but in 13 Atlanta games since the break, he's had 21 plate appearances, and he's healthy. If a guy doesn't start for his own club how in the name of Chico Ruiz was he on the freakin' All-Star team?

2) Giants-- Buster Posey is hitting .358 as a rookie; you wonder in a tight race like this one, if they'll be kicking themselves for waiting so long to get the kid up to the major leagues this season (debut was May 29).

1) Padres-- Superior move adding the great leader Tejada Thursday; now the question is, will he play SS or 3B? Drew 42,075 fans Thursday, so it looks like the natives are starting to believe in the Friars.

Thursday's List of 13: Clearing out a cluttered mind........
13) Always wonder why guys like Derrek Lee reject trades from a losing team to a contender; Lee vetoed a trade to the Angels Wednesday.

12) Orioles are 0-12 against Toronto this year; considering they also have 57 games against Boston/Tampa Bay/Bronx.....well, its hard to describe their plight as anything other than hopeless.

11) Off-Track Betting has a truck in downtown Albany where people can go to bet horses on their lunch hour. Seriously. Kind of like Good Humor Man for gambling.

10) Roy Halladay is on pace to toss 274 innings this year, most in majors since Dave Stewart threw 275.5 IP in 1988.

9) Six of Alabama's 12 opponents this season have the week before their date with the Crimson Tide off. That'll make it a little harder for Bama.

8) Northwestern has never been in the NCAA hoop tournament; they're supposed to have a good team this winter, but one of their best players gave up playing for the Wildcats this week, just because he didn't want to play anymore. Its a free country, but lot of guys would give eye teeth to play one more season of ball, and this guy is giving his last year up. Gotta feel for Wildcat coach Bill Carmody, who is a good coach.

7) MLB is looking at starting the 2011 season on a Friday, and ending it on a Wednesday, which would mean the '11 playoffs would start on the weekend, which seems like a good idea.

6) White Sox are 17-1 in their last 18 home games.

5) Florida's Chris Coghlan is out for six weeks after tearing meniscus in his knee while trying to hit a teammate with a pie during an interview on TV. He joins Kendry Morales/Mat Latos on the '10 bizarre injury list.

4) Edwin Jackson threw 149 pitches in his no-hitter at Tampa June 25; Arizona's manager was fired before his next start. Jackson is 1-4, 7.90 in his five starts since the no-hitter.

3) How did this Tony Hayward guy from BP not get fired before this?

2) When you get a chance, say a prayer for Bob Bratkowski- he's going to have a long year. Bob is the Bengals' offensive coordinator, and now he's in charge of VH1's favorite recruiting corps. Good luck, Bob.

1) Odd stat of the day: Reds have been shut out in six of their 16 Sunday games, including the last three in a row.

Wednesday's List of 13 (+1): Our weekly look at American League
This week, something a little different; I'm listing with each team the one player that most comes to my mind when I think of that team. It won't be the best player necessarily, just my subjective opinion.......

14) Orioles-- Met Brooks Robinson once at a function; really nice man, but he denied wearing a shorter brim on his batting helmet than the other players did. Look at pictures; he definitely wore a shorter brim. When I was growing up, my friend's brother Bobby idolized Brooks, which why to me, he's the most memorable Oriole. .

13) Indians-- When Manny Ramirez came up with the Tribe, he hit two or three home runs in the Bronx, where he is from, and there were 100 or so people just going nuts down in the leftfield cormer.

12) Mariners-- For some reason, I remember Billy Swift getting drilled in the head by a line drive, and the ball going all the way down the leftfield line at the Kingdome. Thats my most memorable Mariner moment, other than the Mariner Moose falling off a skateboard and breaking his ankle.

11) Royals-- Kids now have no idea, but 30 years ago, the Royals were a really good team, and George Brett was by far their best player. For his career, Brett hit .305, twice hitting 45 doubles in a season-- those seasons were 12 years apart. He was an All-Star 13 straight seasons.

10) Blue Jays-- Dave Stieb pitched 265+ innings four years in a row, and had an excellent career, going 176-137 in 16 seasons. His book had one of the great titles, referring to a few close calls with no-hitters: "Tomorrow I'll Be Perfect". He really was a good pitcher.

9) Tigers-- I'm old enough that I remember the last of the guys who didn't wear batting helmets; Bob Montgomery, backup catcher for the Red Sox and Norm Cash, who hit .271 with 377 career HRs, winning the batting title for Detroit when he was only 26, in his second full season.

8) A's-- Jim (Catfish) Hunter became my favorite player when I was five years old; his name is misspelled on his rookie baseball card. Somehow I noticed that, and adopted him as my favorite, even though Kansas City A's were rarely if ever on TV then. Pretty good decision for 5-year old.

7) Angels-- They used to have hats with the halo on it, right where a halo would be; they also used to play some 5:00 local starts for national TV on ABC, and when Nolan Ryan pitched in one of those games, a no-hitter seemed almost inevitable. He is my most memorable Angel.

6) Twins-- Kirby Puckett looked like a ballplayer, but a beer league type, not a major leaguer. But boy could he play, helping the Twins to a couple world championships. I might be the only person who misses the dome.

5) White Sox-- Wilbur Wood was a lefty knuckleballer who once started in both ends of a doubleheader and went 24-17/24-20 in 1972-73; after that, he went 20-19/16-20 the next two years. He won 106 games over a five-year stretch for a team that wasn't that good. Can you remember any other lefty knuckleballers? I'm having trouble......

4) Red Sox-- All the games I've watched A's play Boston, the guy who put the most fear in my heart was Jim Rice. He hit 124 homers in 3-year stretch from 1977-79; seemed like half of them were against my A's, who were in serious decline after a great run earlier in the decade.

3) Rangers-- Pudge Rodriguez caught for 12.5 years in Texas heat; he is a .298 career hitter with 306 homers. He is 39 and still playing. Could be he is the most underrated player of the last 20 years, winning two titles.

2) Rays-- Carl Crawford is the best player in Tampa history, but when he walks as a free agent this winter, Rays will fall into a small market abyss that has engulfed lot of other teams. New York fans say there's nothing wrong with the sport. Shows how much they know.

1) Bronx-- Tim Leary and I share a birthday; he was 9-19 for Bombers in 1990, when Bronx went 0-12 against the A's, when Mr Walter Haas was alive-- Oakland's owner had significant resources. That was fun, having a level playing field to compete on.

Tuesday's List of 13 (-1) Our summertime look at the Big 12
This is the last year of the Big 12 Conference. Here's a look.....

Baylor-- Get Griffin (knee) back at QB but lost seven starters on defense; Bears are 7-3 vs spread as road dog under Briles, 4-0 as road favorite over last decade. Last bowl was '92; they are 3-21 in Big 12 last three years.

Colorado-- 10 starters back on offense, seven on defense in make or break year for Coach Hawkins (10-22 in Big 12 play). Lost last 12 away games. Top 10 on OL return, have experienced QBs. -17 in TOs last 3 years.

Iowa State-- Lose 8 starters fron defense that allowed 14 less points per game in '09 than '08; was +8 in TOs in 9-7 win at Nebraska, its first win in Lincoln since '77. Last winning season in Big 12 play was back in '00.

Kansas-- Were 5-0, then lost 34-30 at Colorado (-9) and wheels come off so badly that Mangino got fired; new coach, new QB, but five OL starters are back. Allowed 123 points in last three games; defense needs fixing.

Kansas State-- Average total in K-State games in '08 was 70.7; LY, it was 46.3, with Snyder back at helm. QB Coffman started four games in '09. Wildcats are 1-9 as road fave since '04; Snyder 6-1 as home dog since '00.

Missouri-- 8 starters back on both sides of ball; Gabbert threw 24 TDs in '09, nine INTs. Tigers just 2-8 vs spread at home last two years; they are 8-1 as road fave last three years. OL has 80 returning starts; thats good.

Nebraska-- Won first bowl since '05 LY, are just 6-1 to win national title. 8 seniors, 3 juniors start on offense, with senior QB. Just 7-11 as a home fave last three years. September schedule is unusually easy for good team.

Oklahoma-- Soph QB Jones started 10 games LY; OU broke 3-game bowl skid. Lost six starters from defense that allowed 14.5 ppg LY. Sooners are 16-6-1 vs spread as home fave last four years. 3-8-1 vs spread on neutral fields the last four years (0-3-1 vs spread in Red River Rivalry).

Oklahoma State-- Lose seven starters on both sides of ball; no seniors on OL, new QB, could be rough year. 10-15-1 as dog under Gundy,12-7 as a fave last two years. Gundy 0-5 vs Sooners (outgained 367-109 last year).

Texas-- McCoy won 45 games as Texas QB; not easily replaced; Gilbert's dad was NFL backup. Four returning starters on OL helps. 70-13 in Big 12 last decade, scoring 35.3+ ppg last 7 years. 7 starters back on defense. Won four of last five bowl games, averaging 33 ppg.

Texas A&M-- Prolific senior QB Johnson (23 starts) should lift Aggies to first winning year under Sherman (10-15, 5-11 in Big 12). A&M is 9-22 as road dog since '00. Only two starters back on OL (one senior starter).

Texas Tech-- Leach is going to be tough act to follow; scored 36.2+ ppg in six of last seven years (32.9 in 7th year). Only one senior starter on OL, a new DC. Tech is 40-24 in Big 12 play since '02. Tuberville has solid track record, but Leach is unique character who built unique program at Tech.

Monday's List of 13: Wrapping up a sports weekend.......
13) Bad day to root for Diamondbacks, who dumped Dan Haren's salary to Anaheim for Joe Saunders and three prospects. Severe ugliness for the Snakes-- two of the three prospects are still in A ball.

12) Put it this way, when A's traded Haren to Arizona, they got six guys back. They made out way better than the Diamondbacks did........
-- Chris Carter-- AAA first baseman for Sacramento. Will be up soon.
-- Dana Eveland-- Pitched for A's, Toronto; now with Pirates.
-- Carlos Gonzalez-- Traded to Colorado for Matt Holliday
-- Greg Smith-- Also traded to Rockies in the Holliday deal.
-- Aaron Cunningham-- Dealt to Padres for Kevin Kouzmanoff
-- Brett Anderson-- On DL now; when healthy, is A's best pitcher.

11) In 1988, teams threw an average of 136 pitches per game. So far this year, teams are throwing an average of 147 pitches per game.

10) Nationals did something I've never seen before Sunday; they hit pair of balls back/back off wall in left-center, but they didn't score a run or get a guy thrown out on bases. Somehow, Adam Dunn only got a single on the first ball off the wall, and got to third on the second.

9) QB Raymond Cotton left Ole Miss program, leaving Rebels with just two scholarship QBs, not best situation. Rumors popped up that they're interested in former Oregon QB Jeremiah Masoli.

8) This is how global golf has become: Tim Clark is from South Africa, Carl Pettersson from Sweden; they were college teammates at NC State.

7) Overachieving A's drew 17,439 for their Saturday game vs Chicago, a first-place team. Cowboys drew 19,000 for their training camp practice in San Antonio. Go figure.

6) A's gambled $10M that Ben Sheets would pitch well enough to either help the A's contend or get Oakland some prospects in a trade. Neither is happening; Sheets has a bad elbow, could now be out for the year.

5) Mets were shut out four times on this 2-9 road trip; they've had dozen walkoff losses this year, and its looking like management will be firing one of the coaches soon, as a scapegoat to quell natives' restlessness. Mets are only big league team without a grand slam; they've allowed eight.

4) I'm thinking the NBA's fascination with international tournaments has created this environment where players want to create their own teams to play on during the regular season, rather than having talent more evenly spread out amongst the league's teams. Serves them right for promoting the individual over the teams. Now they have a brewing mess.

3) Speaking of which, wouldn't it be smart if NBA went to international rules? Wouldn't it help them in these tournaments they like so much?

2) On the bright side, Larry Bird's 1990 All-Star Game jersey attracted a bid of $6,500 online this weekend. I'm guessing it wasn't Spike Lee's bid.

1) Was hoping to catch umpire Miller doing the plate when I was out in Las Vegas; as it turns out, his first game behind the dish was the day we came home. Under is now 15-4 in his last 19 games behind the plate, with his last seven all staying under.

Sunday's List of 13: My ever-changing list of Life's Basic Truths
We always hear how teams go back to basics when things aren't good; in my life, I keep a list with me at all times, with reminders about things I've considered to be important over the years. This isn't a complete list (I've got to keep some hole cards secret......lol) but here are some of them

13) Time is more precious than money. Most people aren't going to run out of money; eventually, everyone will run out of time.

12) Everyone is more attractive when they're smiling.

11) Doing things you love keeps you younger.

10) Always do/be your best; you never know who is watching. If you're prepared when opportunity knocks, great things can happen.

9) Doing the difficult things first actually makes life easier.

8) Its almost impossible to learn when you're talking; want to get smarter? Then shut up for a few minutes and listen.

7) Always give yourself options; put yourself in a position to succeed. If you pursue your passions, it'll keep you invested, and it makes getting up in the morning a whole hell of a lot easier.

6) Learn from your successes and failures; take notes on what happened and why you think it happemed. Scenarios repeat themselves.

5) Respect is earned, not given. Nothing worthwhile is free.

4) Its rarely a bad idea to think before you speak.

3) Karma's a bitch; do the right thing, especially if nobody's watching.

2) It doesn't cost anything extra to be nice, but never let people mistake kindness for weakness. Always stand up for yourself.

1) As Robin Williams said to Matt Damon in the classic movie Good Will Hunting: "Follow your heart, son. You'll do fine."

Saturday's List of 13: Checking in at summer's midpoint.......
13) Royals lead MLB in batting average, but are 20th in runs scored; over last 35 years, the MLB leader in batting average has never finished worse than 13th in runs scored. Losing DeJesus for the year ain't going to help.

12) The more you read about the divorce mess involve Dodgers' owners Frank/Jamie McCourt, the more you realize that being rich may not be all its cracked up to be. Not that I wouldn't want a chance to find out......

11) Mets are now 2-7 on their road trip, after winning 6-1 Friday; in first eight games of this trip, Metropolitans had scored a total of 15 runs.

10) Some restaurants in Las Vegas actually handwrite a suggested tip on your bill; bad idea. Some people would tip more than 15%, but if you're going to be obnoxious enough to handwrite a suggested tip and its lower than what I was going to give, I'm giving the lower amount.

9) There's nothing like stepping out on the Vegas Strip at midnight when its still 102 degrees and having the desert air hit you in the face.

8) When baseball season ends, the most significant offseason event of last winter might be Texas paying Vlad Guerrero $5.5M, while Bronx paid Nick Johnson $5M and Angels gave Hideki Matsui $6M.

7) Hard to believe Joe Girardi doesn't have a contract for next season.

6) Reds sold out (37,868) Stephen Strasburg's start Wednesday; the other three games of series drew 21,243/22,876/23,115, so the kid is helping to draw fans to the ballpark, even on the road.

5) Kelly Johnson hit for the cycle Friday, but Arizona still lost 7-4 to the Giants. The other NL West teams (27-10) are pounding on the Snakes.

4) New Vanderbilt football coach Robbie Caldwell was so entertaining at SEC Media Day this week, the media applauded him when he was done.

3) Rams will start Sam Bradford after two milestones have been met:
a) He is ready for the increased speed of the NFL game.
b) His offensive line can adequately protect him so he doesn't get killed. Don't laugh; the Rams are 6-42 the last three years. You don't go 6-42 in any league unless your offensive line is leaky.

2) If I'm running the Patriots, I take care of Tom Brady financially, to the point of giving him one dollar more than Peyton Manning makes. Don't you think he's earned it?

1) Next eight days will be interesting; baseball's trading deadline, training camps open in the NFL. We're in the second half of summer now........

Friday's List of 13: Some Friday football to think about.......
13) Ben Roethlisberger will be suspended for the first Steeler-Raven game in Week 4; Steelers won four of last five games vs Baltimore, with four of the five games decided by four or less points. Big edge for Ravens there.

12) Weird to see that Tampa Bay was last in NFL against the run in '09. Maybe they should've kept Derrick Brooks around one more year.

11) Patriots have won 13 games in row over division rival Buffalo, but the two wins last year were by a combined total of just eight points.

10) New England outscored opponents 352-189 in first three quarters LY, but were outscored 96-75 in fourth quarter/OT.

9) Tennessee was outscored 328-247 in first three quarters, but outscored its opponents 107-74 in fourth quarter/OT.

8) Eagles are 8-2 in last ten visits to Washington, but now McNabb is on the Redskins' side. Speaking of McNabb and the Eagles......

7) .........maybe Andy Reid decided to go with Kevin Kolb at QB because Philly tried 37 field goals LY, most in the NFL. Touchdowns win titles.

6) NFL referee Walt Anderson is a retired dentist.

5) Oakland Raiders are 42-89 in eight years since Jon Gruden left, 25-71 in six years since Bill Callahan left.

4) Leaders in turnover margin LY: Packers +24, Eagles +15, Saints +11.

3) Trailers in turnover margin: Lions -18, Rams/Raiders -13, Browns -11. Of the five teams with the worst TO margins, only Detroit will have the same quarterback it had last season.

2) 24 of 32 NFL teams threw more INTs than they lost fumbles; two had same amount, six teams lost more fumbles.

1) Cowboys led NFL averaging 6.3 yards/play......Miami Dolphins ran a total of 1,088 plays, most in the league.

Our guest columnist talks horse racing.............
MacDaddy's early take on Saratoga.

A simple question...When is more of a good thing simply too much? The answer...7/23/10. Thats right, opening day of the Saratoga 2010 race meet. Those who know me know I LOVE Saratoga. I look forward to this time of year more than any other sporting event/season. With that said.....

WHAT THE HELL IS NYRA THINKING?. Expanding the meet by 4 racing days from 36 to 40 may not seem like a big deal but at this particular time in thoroughbred racing both on a national level and a state level, expanding the season could not have come at a worse time. The horse racing industry is in trouble and no where else is that point more obvious than here in NY. So what does NYRA do....add more races?

Breeders have reported record LOWS for foals over the past couple years. In some places (Hollywood Park) races have had to be cancelled because they could not fill fields. The economy is in tough shape....NYRA is a fiscal disaster...NYC OTB is defaulting on its debt and NYRA's response is to add almost 40 extra races requiring over 300 horses to fill out the fields. Did any one look at the opening day card? 3 $25,000 claimers....are you kidding me? It wasn't that long ago that Saratoga didn't even offer claiming races below $35,000 and now I look at the condition book and see a $12,500 race in the future.

NYRA PLEASE READ SOME SUGGESTIONS BELOW.

1-GET THE VLT's OPERATIONAL!!! Be careful though...the extra $$ they will generate will not be a cure all. Especially if NYRA continues to be mismanaged the way it has for the past decade.

2-CANCEL AQUEDUCT WINTER RACING - OR AT LEAST REDUCE IT TO 3 DAYS/WEEK. Aqueduct winter racing is terrible. If you insist on continuing it reduce it to 3 days/week. The 3 day racing week was instituted by Monmouth this year out of necessity...it's working out well.

3-RESTRUCTURE NYRA MANAGEMENT - I have listened to and spoken with Charlie Hayward on several occassions. He is a nice enough man but the facts are the facts...CURRENT NYRA MANAGEMENT IS A DISASTER.

4-PLEASE...PLEASE...TALK WITH OTHER TRACKS AND GET YOUR ACTS TOGETHER ON A NATIONAL LEVEL. This sport will continue to toil as a second (maybe even 3rd) level sport if they do not get together nationally and promote their product. Instead of working against one another the tracks should start working together. For gods sake the last national ad campaign was with the girl from the Tom Hanks girls playing baseball movie where he says "there's no crying in baseball"...remember that ad campaign...."Go baby go" was the slogan. For cripes sake get your crap together.

5-FINALLY, DON'T REDUCE SARATOGA BACK TO ITS 36 DAY MEET...REDUCE IT TO 34. Sometimes less is more. Leave the fans wanting more.

I will still attend...I will still wager. I just wish it wasn't on a 7 yr old gelding in a restricted $25,000 claimer.

Talk to you more on Friday.

Thursday's List of 13: Our weekly look at the American League
14) Mariners-- Figgins leads MLB 2Bs with 52 walks, but still has only .327 OB%. Felix Hernandez is now 4-1, 1.46 in his last eight starts after the pitching duel with Gavin Floyd Wednesday at Safeco.

13) Orioles-- No Baltimore hitter has knocked in more than 14% of baserunners this year; Corey Patterson (14.0%) leads team. Four of top six Orioles in this category are 32+ years old. Other than Markakis, Jones and Weiters, position players need an infusion of youth/talent.

12) Indians-- Young catcher Santana has 32 walks in 35 games; his OB% of .443 is 53 points higher than any teammate. Peralta has 30 walks, but in 354 PA (85 G). Had 6-game win streak snapped by Liriano Wednesday

11) Royals-- There are 13 first basemen with 150+ AB who are hitting .290+; Butler is hitting .315/.383. Moustakos/Hosmer are top prospects for Royals' future, but at some point, they need to win in the present.

10) Blue Jays-- Was kicking myself in butt for not adding Vernon Wells in offseason for fantasy team, but he's cooled off (.316 OB%) after his hot start. Buck leads MLB catchers with 45 RBI. Wonder where they'll turn for a new manager; they need someone who will sell some tickets.

9) A's-- Tuesday was just second time in Braden's 16 starts that Oakland scored 4+ runs; it was also first time in nine Braden starts that A's won-- his last win was perfect game. At 49-48, Geren deserves MOY votes.

8) Tigers-- Cabrera has 1.064 OPS, 82 RBI, eight more than any other 1B, 16 more than any AL 1B. Tigers got seven shutout innings from Scherzer (123 PT) Wednesday to snap long losing skid.

7) Twins-- Need Morneau healthy and back in lineup; Span is second in AL with 57 runs scored from leadoff spot. Minnesota is 3-9 in last dozen road games; they'll need to do better there to stay in contention.

6) Angels-- Napoli has 17 HR, 43 RBI and has played some 1B; he is 4th amongst catchers in slugging percentage. Kendrick has only 18 walks in 377 PA; his .318 OB% is unacceptable. Big series in Texas coming up.

5) Red Sox-- I'm sitting here at 2:15am watching Mets-Arizona playing in 14th inning; Mets were blanked for last eight innings by bullpen that has a chance to be the worst of last 50 years. Ollie Perez just pitched scoreless innings. Have to go outside and see if its a full moon.

4) White Sox--Tough loss Wednesday, as Floyd was brilliant for seven innings, Vizquel got huge hit to put Sox up 1-0 in 11th but then Jenks did not slam door and Seattle won 2-1. Sox need to trade for a new closer.

3) Rangers-- Hunter is 7-0, 2.09; didn't realize how strong his numbers are so I need to go retract trade offer I put in for him. Rumors are that Mark Cuban is interested in buying team; now that would be very interesting.

2) Rays-- They're 9-0 on road when Neimann starts. Have decent-sized lead in Wild Card race, which begs question as to what moves they'll make before July 31. They're rumored to be going after Jayson Werth.

1) Bronx-- If you were thinking about going to Hamilton-Saskatchewan CFL game in Regina July 31, keep in mind the game is now a sellout, so you'll need to find a scalper. Roughriders are off to a 3-0 start.

Wednesday's List of 13: Clearing out a cluttered mind........
13) Clayton Kershaw/Joe Torre got tossed from Giant-Dodger game in the 7th inning, after Kershaw hit his second batter of the game; it proved to be costly, as interim manager Mattingly screwed up a rule in top of ninth inning, which forced him to remove closer Broxton, as Giants rallied for three runs in the ninth to escape LA with a 7-5 win.

12) Mattingly visited Broxton on the mound, turned to leave, took couple of steps off the mound, then went back to the mound, which technically is two visits to the mound, so the pitcher has to leave. Torres, Sandoval followed with hits, and the Dodgers suffered a damaging loss.

11) Lets compare two big leaguers who play the same position.........
Player A: .338, 7 HR, 37 RBI, 52 runs, .391 OB%, .916 OPS
Player B: .271, 8 HR, 44 RBI, 62 runs, .335 OB%, .719 OB%

Player A is three years younger; if you were looking at free agent SSs, which one would you give more money to?

10) Kevin Kouzmanoff drilled a game-winning single to right at 1:37am as the 48-48 A's came back from down 4-0 to beat the Red Sox. Balkin' Bob Davidson called a balk in the 10th inning that was huge in the outcome.

9) Strange stat on Lou Piniella; he made his big league debut in 1964 for the Orioles, playing in four games. He wound up winning Rookie of the Year five years and three teams later, for the '69 Royals. Without the big expansion (four teams) in '69, we might never have heard of Sweet Lou.

8) Carlos Silva has to be hurting; he's allowed 24 baserunners, 11 runs in his last two starts, getting a total of seven outs. In his seven starts before that, Silva was 3-2, 2.31. Something has to be bothering him.

7) On days when Matt Holliday is rested, Albert Pujols has to be treated like Barry Bonds; you can't pitch to him in any big spot, unless bases are loaded. he's just too good, especially if Holliday is sitting out.

6) 17 of 32 NFL teams aren't going away for training camp this year; as recently as nine years ago, 26 of 31 NFL teams went away for camp.

5) On June 11, Jets slashed the prices of 9,000 unsold PSLs, some by as much as 50%; they claim to have since sold almost 75% of those PSLs. It is going to be weird to see empty seats in the Meadowlands this fall.

4) NFL Media Guide always has defending champs on the cover; have to admit its very cool to see the Saints on this year's cover.

3) When you're staying in a hotel, do you ever wonder who was in your room before you, or who will be there next? I think of these things.

2) In #11 up above, Player A is Rafael Furcal; Player B, Derek Jeter.

1) How good a player was Wally Pipp, that he played ahead of one of the game's greats, Lou Gehrig? Pipp played 15 years in big leagues, hit .281 with 148 career triples, 90 career homers. Weren't many HRs back then. Pipp placed 8th/15th/15th in MVP voting in three different years. There were no All-Star games back when he played. Pipp wound up his career playing for the Reds for three years after Gehrig displaced him.

Tuesday's List of 13: Notes I scribbled on way home from Vegas
13) Other than Times Square in NYC, walking on the Strip in Las Vegas is a unique experience; the lights, the people, the intense heat. Its something I would recommend everyone do once. Its different and fun.

12) This was a great week to go to Vegas (every week is at least good to go); the NBA Summer League is underrated, the World Series of Poker is fascinating to see (even if it is boring as hell to watch for long), and British Open comes on at 1am Thursday/Friday morning. Its destructive to any type of sleep pattern, but there's no shortage of activity, for sure.

11) That said, ESPN does an amazing job editing poker telecasts to make them look as good as they do. There are so many players playing, it has to be terribly difficult to isolate the best stories, especially since the best of the players rarely make it to the final table.

10) Saturday night in Vegas was like Prom Night; tons of young people all dressed up to go out, mostly in black. Tons of energy in the air. I'll put it this way; if I had a daughter, no way she gets within 100 miles of Vegas until she turns 21.

9) AAU basketball comes to Las Vegas this week; wouldn't want to be an AAU coach, responsible for teenagers in a place with so much temptation so close. DisneyWorld seems like a much safer place to go.

8) Cocktail waitress/cab drivers/bartenders in Vegas are eagerly awaiting football season; things get a little slow during week in the summer there.

7) Shuttle from airport to your hotel is a bad idea unless your hotel is on the end of the Strip near MGM. Otherwise, its an endless succession of speedbumps, stop signs and sitting in traffic. Note to self: in September, take a cab from the airport to the hotel. Quicker is better.

6) Read today that a total of $1.5B was bet legally on World Cup soccer. How the hell do you handicap soccer? Notice I said legally-- imagine how much was bet illegally??? Wow.

5) I'm not sold on British Open as a great event; seems like there is way too much luck involved with who wins. Weather changes happen almost every hour; some players get eliminated by when their tee time is.

4) Was good to get back in my car and drive around tonight; its one thing I missed on vacation. That and Arnold Palmer Lite. Could not find it out west, the terrific half iced tea/half lemonade drink.

3) Sad to see that actor James Gammon passed away last week; known as manager Lou Brown in Major League, he was also Don Johnson's dad in Nash Bridges. He also did lot of commercials with his distinctive voice.

2) Baseball's All-Star Game is dying a slow death; they need to spruce it up-- I suggest making it US vs the World one year, then East-West for a year, then AL-NL after that. Mix it up, keep it interesting.

1) I'm saying this for the 100th time, but having the All-Star game count for something is stupid. Really, really stupid. League that win most games in interleague play should have home field edge in World Series.

Monday's Den: Our preview of the 2010 Big 11 football season
Illinois-- One bowl game in last eight years; they're 12-28 in Big 11 under Ron Zook, 8-14 vs spread as favorite. New QB this year, but the old one wasn't any good. Have been minus in turnovers each of last seven years.

Indiana-- Non-league slate is laughably easy; they've played in one bowl since '93 (loss 49-33); their last bowl win was '91. QB completed 62% of his passes LY; he's good. Have to improve on LY's 91st on special teams.

Iowa-- Senior QB with 22 career starts (17 TD, 15 INT LY); Hawkeyes are 7-12 as home fave last four years, but 4-1 vs spread in bowls over last six years. Offensive line graduated 128 starts from LY. Last three years, they're +2/+8/+8 in turnovers. Very well-coached team.

Michigan-- 8-16 under RichRod, 2-9 as favorite; playing in USA's biggest stadium, Les Miles is here in '11 if this isn't a big year. Seven starters back on offense, eight on defense. 3-9-1 vs spread on road last three seasons.

Michigan State-- Lost last four bowls, three by 10+ points; gave up 26+ ppg in five of last six years. Don't leave Michigan until Oct 23 this year. 4-9-3 as home dog since '02. Beat Michigan back/back for first time since the Bubba Smith days (1966-67).

Minnesota-- 9 starters back on offense, just 2 on defense; played in five bowls last six years, but lost last four, three by 3 or less points. Gophers lost last 14 games vs ranked foes. Have four seniors starting on off. line.

Northwestern-- 0-5 in bowls since '00, giving up 42.4 ppg, losing in OT last two years; are 4-18 as home fave since '01, but are 7-0 as road dog in last two years. New QB was 20-34 LY (2 TD, 2 INT). Four starters on OL are back, but only one of the starters is a senior.

Ohio State-- +17/+16 in turnover margin last two years; have nine starters back on offense, four on OL. 33-19 vs spread last five years in game after a win. 12-5 vs spread since '00 in game following a loss. 4-1 choice to win BCS title game, second-favorite in country, behind Alabama.

Penn State-- 8 starters back on offense, but new QB threw only 11 passes LY; are 8-1 as road favorite last two years. 4-1 in last five bowls, winning two of three when underdog. 29-11 in Big 11 last five years. Are 0-5 vs the spread as an underdog the last four years.

Purdue-- Miami transfer Marve is new starting QB; lost three starters on OL, have no senior starters. 7-13 as home favorite last five years. Lost its top four rushers from LY. Luckily don't play Penn State/Iowa this year.

Wisconsin-- 10 starters back on offense, but just 9-15 vs spread in Big 11 last three years. Top six rushers from LY are back; this is first time since '06 Badgers have starting QB back for second year (went 12-1 that year). Won at least nine games in five of last six seasons.

Sunday's List of 13: Random stuff from the desert........
13) Josh Hamilton has had a 2-0 count on him 46 times this year; in those at-bats, he is 19-35 with 11 walks.

12) Joe Buck said there is merit to the Cardinals batting the pitchers 8th; he didn't say exactly what that merit is, but I'll take his word for it.

11) If your favorite NFL team is in the news at this time of year, chances are it ain't going to be good news.

10) Saw Spurs' GM RC Buford interviewed on NBA TV this week; not sure I've ever seen the guy before, despite all the success his Spurs have had, winning four NBA titles. Some people promote themselves, some let their performance speak for itself.

9) If I had a dollar for every woman I saw wearing black last night, this vacation would be for free. Had to be around 70%.

8) 10,000+ people showed up for an American Idol audition in Nashville this week; everyone wants to be famous.

7) Watching baseball in sportsbook last night, noticed that racetrack in the midwest had a camel race, and there was betting on it. Prairie Meadows also has ostrich races.

6) You can smoke in casinos here; in New York, you're not allowed to in any public place that is indoors.

5) Cal Ripken apparently has a game-used glove signed by Ronald Reagan that is now worth as much as $40,000.

4) Not only did Braves upgrade at shortstop with Alex Gonzalez, they got a lefty reliever named Tim Collins who is only 5-7, but had 73 Ks in his first 43 innings pitched this season. He's a lefty Lincecum-type.

3) Mets' pitcher Mike Pelfrey had his start pushed back from Saturday to Monday, because he got a stiff neck from sleeping in awkward position on the flight out west. Yikes.

2) Eldrick Woods three-putted 10 times in his first 54 holes this week, ranking him 71st in putting out of 77 players.

1) You have to wonder now, with Woods not winning at Pebble Beach or at St Andrews. if he's going to win this year. He's won numerous times at Akron, but he's never had a drought like this in his career, and the lid has come off on criticizing his game on TV. It'll be interesting to watch.

Saturday's List of 13: Random thoughts from the desert.......
13) Someone remind me never to go to Scotland on vacation. Ever.

12) Bengie Molina hit for the cycle Friday, but pulled up lame on a triple and now could be on the shelf for a few days. What are the odds?

11) Nice of the Mets to come out of the gates flying in the second half-- two games, no runs. They made Barry Zito look like Steve Carlton.

10) People don't talk about Josh Johnson that much, but he has an ERA of 1.70 and a 0.96 WHIP. Those are bigtime numbers.

9) It was 110 in Las Vegas today, but I didn't know it when I was walking on the Strip; I was less comfortable last week at home, when it was 95 on a day with 80% humidity. Go figure.

8) Was back at UNLV today for more NBA Summer League; think that Detroit hit the jackpot with Georgetown's Greg Monroe. He has a lot of game, very well-rounded.

7) DeMarcus Cousins had a Summer League triple-double; 15 points, 12 rebounds and 10 fouls (you foul out here on the 10th foul). He shot 5-18 from the floor and had a much tougher time than he did the last game.

6) I think New York fans will like Landry Fields; he's undersized, but if he touches the ball, good things happen.

5) Watch out for Washington's 7-1 JaVale McGee, who went for 31 in the Wizards' 90-89 win over New Orleans. McGee made 13-16 from floor; he is the son of Pam McGee, who was a terrific player at USC. John Wall had 31 points in that game, which Washington won despite Hornets' 26-7 scoring edge in second quarter.

4) John Lucas III is playing well with Chicago's summer league team; he is a point guard who has put up good numbers this week.

3) Amare Stoudemire was at the Knick-Detroit game Friday, did a stint on the MSG Network and then left. Lopez brothers were courtside for games on Wednesday, supporting former Stanford teammate Fields.

2) Miami is now the favorite to win the most games next NBA season, but really, they're an expansion team with Lebron/Wade/Bosh. To have the best team in the league, they need a lot more than that. Ilgauskus and Mike Miller are a start, but for them to be a betting favorite? Nope.

1) Safe to say no one has Louis Oosthuizen in our golf pool. Now that I look at it, no one has seven of top nine guys on the leaderboard.

Friday's List of 13: Things I'm looking for in baseball's 2nd half
13) July 31 trade deadline is baseball's next big thing; who will be buyers, who will be sellers? What players will move?

12) At what point will the Nationals shut Stephen Strasburg down?; Nats play the Mets the last week of the season-- could be big games.

11) It would be something if Washington didn't shut Strasburg down, but chose only to pitch him in home games in September.

10) Will Yunel Escobar try harder for Toronto than he did for the Braves? Pretty sad when a kid's teammates have to plead with him to play harder, which is what was happening in Atlanta.

9) Can the Red Sox tread water until their injured players get healthy?

8) Tampa Bay's starting pitchers, especially Sheilds/Gsrza have not been pitching as well as the past couple years; will Rays bring up the prospect Jeremy Hellickson, or will they stick with Wade Davis as the #5 starter?

7) Can the Mets' crackerjack medical staff get Jose Reyes healthy?

6) Will the Astros do the right thing and fortify their farm system with trades for Roy Oswalt and Lance Berkman?

5) Can the Padres/Reds continue their Cinderella runs to division titles?

4) Will Joe Torre leave the Dodgers after this year, or will he stick around and try to see LA through its ownership's off-field soap opera?

3) As this season goes on, Bobby Cox is going to become a bigger story in this, his last year managing the Braves. Atlanta is playing well, they have excellent pitching, and look like a playoff team right now.

2) Here in my hotel's casino, Twins are 7-2 to win the AL; White Sox are 10-1, but the Pale Hose are in first place. Go figure.

1) Will 2010 continue as Year of the Pitcher? At the All-Star break, runs scored per game were as low as they've been since 1992.

Thursday's List of 13: Random thoughts from the desert........
I'm totally screwed up on the time difference, so apologize for posting in the afternoon back east. Guess it means I'm having fun........

13) Went to NBA Summer League at UNLV Wednesday; underrated fun. Just watching a game in Thomas & Mack Arena is great; so much history in the building that the Runnin' Rebels call home.

12) Met Knick great Walt Frazier; good guy. Soft spoken. He works on TV for MSG Network, which televises Knick summer league games.

11) Guy in front of me watching the Denver-Houston game was playing online poker on his Blackberry as he watched the game. Only in Vegas.

10) Toronto's DeMar DeRozan jumps like no other player I've ever seen in person; too bad he didn't spend another year in college, to improve his skills with the ball in his hands. He could be one of the great stars.

9) Ish Smith from Wake Forest is trying to make the Rockets; kid is great passer, but no one guards him on the perimeter because he can't shoot if his feet are set. Now, in late-clock situations, he'll make a tough runner or find an open man, but until he can make a simple jump shot, hard for him to make an NBA roster.

8) Watching Hawks-Spurs game, at one point three of the ten players on the court were Alabama alumni, which reminds me that it is surprising that Crimson Tide hasn't been in the Final Four- they've had some really good players over the last twenty years.

7) There is no bad time to be in Las Vegas, but this week is great; went to bed after watching golf for a couple hours, woke up and it was still on. John Daly hasn't had a top 10 in five years, but he shot 66 Thursday and is in contention. One of the great characters in American sports history.

6) Any team that signs Terrell Owens gets exactly what it deserves.

5) Jon Gruden is the best addition to sports TV in the last 20 years; his pieces for SportsCenter, where he helps coach his son's high school team in Florida, are tremendous television.

4) Scoring in baseball is at its lowest level since 1992; home runs are at their lowest level since '93.

3) According to espn.com, in 1988, baseball accounted for 26% of sports gambling here in Las Vegas; today, it is down to 19%, with football taking up the extra 7%.

2) Waiting list for Green Bay Packer season tickets: 83,881.

1) Golden State Warriors were sold today for $450M; considering one of the wealthiest people in the world just bought the Nets, not sure how the owners tell the players they're bleeding money. Why would all these rich dudes want to buy teams, if they are a bad investment?

Wednesday's Armadillo's Den: Odds and ends from Las Vegas
13) If Alex Rodriguez wasn't healthy enough to pinch-run in ninth inning, why the hell was he on the roster? How do you run out of players in a nine-inning game, when you have a 34-man roster?

12) If the Bronx Bombers are planning on recruiting Carl Crawford as free agent this winter, they probably shouldn't bat him 9th in All-Star Game. Dude is hitting .321 with 11 HRs and is a veteran star. Not good.

11) Memo to FOX; on your graphics that show baserunners, making the runners yellow makes them show up a lot better. Not sure why this was changed, but the way they do it now (red) isn't good.

10) My dad is 84, loves baseball, but if a game starts at 8:50, he ain't up for the end of it. Can't they start the game at 8:20 or so?

9) Was surprised that the Home Run Derby didn't sell out; thought that had become a very hot ticket.

8) By the way, Joe Girardi's contract runs out in October; wonder if he makes the World Series but loses Game 7 (on the road) if tonight will get held against him in negotiations?

7) CFL's Toronto Argonauts did something last week I guarantee doesn't happen in the NFL this year; they had a 102-yard touchdown drive.

6) So Scott Boras thinks Prince Fielder is going to get more than $169M for 7 years (what Ryan Howard got)? Someone needs to tell Scumweasel Scott that out of 338 major leaguers with 100+ PA this year, Fielder is ranked 334th in % of runners driven in (19 of 264). Terrible.

OBI is RBI minus home runs hit. So a grand slam would be three OBI.

5) Speaking of that stat, Rafael Furcal (23.2%) leads big leagues, Mike Stanton is second (22.4%), Johnny Gomes third (22.3%). ARod is 6th, Manny Ramirez 11th, Miguel Cabrera 12th, Vladimir Guerrero is 14th and David Wright 15th, so its a pretty telling stat.

4) Leaders in number of men on base when a hitter bats: Teixeira/Howard are tied for big league lead (281), Evan Longoria (275) is next, then Billy Butler/James Loney (268). Guys at top of this list almost have to knock in 100+ runs; they always have lot of opportunities.

3) One guy that stood out, only because he hasn't been around so much, is Cleveland's young catcher Santana; he's driven in 11 of 52 runners, good for 21.2%, a strong number. Don't tell the Indians, or they'll trade him.

2) If they had all this stat analysis stuff when I was in school, probably never would have graduated. High school.

1) Was at the World Series of Poker today; saw Sammy Farha and Dan Harrington and Humberto Brenes. Amazing operation; picture an indoor football field, covered end-to-end with poker tables. All you hear is the clicking of poker chips, much like hearing the squeaking of sneakers on a basketball court. Now watching guys play cards ain't much fun, so didn't spend lot of time there, but it was great seeing how it is all set up.

Tuesday's Armadillo's Den: You the readers take over for a day
I asked you the readers to write in with what sporting event you would go to, if you could only go to one. Here are your answers, in the order they were received..........
-- Garvey-- Super Bowl, as long as it was in a warm weather site.

-- Frank Maloof-- Game 7 of Stanley Cup finals. Action-packed intensity.

-- Client 9-- Watching my son play baseball is the greatest gift ever and it doesn't matter if he goes 0-4 or 4-4.

-- Big Dawg-- The AVI (adult film) awards in Las Vegas.

-- Mr Met-- To go see my team (Mets or Brooklyn Dodgers) play in the seventh game of the World Series.

-- jkj11jkj-- Winter Olympics. Been fortunate enough to see most of the other events, but never the Winter Olympics.

-- PhillyJoe-- To sing along with "Fly Eagles Fly" as Andy Reid hoists the Lombardi Trophy after the Eagles win the Super Bowl.

-- Shooter Smith-- BCS Championship Game. Always going to be a greast game in a great client. Can't go wrong.

-- THawk-- British Open at St Andrews-- My family (mom, dad, oldest sister) are from Scotland.

-- Mrs G-- I would love to go to a Super bowl because I love football and it would be a total thrill.

-- KL Wheat-- Super Bowl, as long as the Giants were playing.

-- Chris Neuheisel-- Daytona 500-- I don't like making right turns.

-- Danny the Glover-- Kentucky Derby, with 150,000 of my closest friends.

-- Downtown Brown-- Looking back, the 1980 Olympic hockey game. Looking forward, the Masters-- a 4-day event, not just one game.

-- Tebowl300-- Either Breeders' Cup or Running of the Bulls in Spain.

-- LI Phil-- Mets in the World Series; I was there in '86; it was terrific.

-- Professor-- To see US soccer team play in World Cup finals.

-- Chopper-- Summer Olympics-- Greatest atheltes in world competing for their countries.

Monday's List of 13: Random thoughts as I head to the desert.....
13) Not sure if they still do it or not, but Bruins/Red Sox used to have an award given at the end of the season, ".......for the player who performs above and beyond the call of duty." WSBK-TV gave the award; it was the 7th Player Award for Bruins, 10th Player for the Red Sox. Pretty cool.

Just thinking about some guys who might win an award like that for their teams this year......Angel Pagan for the Mets, Trevor Cahill for A's, Carl Pavano for the Twins, Luke Gregerson for San Diego.

12) Funny that Pavano has 10 wins for Minnesota this year; in his four years stealing the Bronx Bombers' money, he won a total of nine games.

11) With White Sox, Arizona using a sixth starting pitcher for first time in 2010 Sunday, Tampa Bay remains only team in MLB to have used only its five original starting pitchers this season, although Niemann left with a bad back Sunday. The extra rest should help him. .

10) Just for the hell of it, I wish Barry Bonds had asked to have his own personalized PA announcements when he played, to have the previous guy's voice announce his name, not the current guy. The media would've killed him, because they didn't like him. Derek Jeter does it, and the media turns him into some sort of Mother Teresa. Go figure.

9) MLB has already sold 78,000 Stephen Strasburg jerseys; so the young man will wind up more than making back whatever they're paying him.

8) Atlanta's Matt Diaz is 14-26 in his career against Johan Santana. Wow.

7) 82 guys have been named All-Stars, but Felix Hernandez/Mat Latos are still not going to Anaheim? Who makes these decisions?

6) Reds/Rangers had terrific first halves, but both had horrible weekends, getting swept by Philly/Baltimore. Cincy got shut out the last two days, losing a game where their pitcher retired the first 24 Philly hitters. Both teams should take solace from '08 Rays, who lost last seven games before the break, but regrouped and made it to the World Series.

5) Back in 1967, the All-Star Game in Anaheim (first one at night) went 15 innings, with Tony Perez hitting the winning HR. 10 guys played the whole 15-inning game that night. My, how things have changed.

4) Wild Card races look like this:
NL-- Rockies/Dodgers are tied, game ahead of the Mets, 1.5 ahead of the Phillies, two ahead of the Cardinals/Giants.
AL-- Rays are three games ahead of Boston, five ahead of Detroit.

3) Streaking teams that didn't need a break right now: White Sox are 25-5 in their last 30 games, and took over first place Sunday.......Rockies won 10 of their last 13 games, even with Tulowitzki out hurt.

2) Slumping teams that are very happy to get 3-4 days off:
Texas, which just got swept four straight at home by the Orioles, as well as the Twins, Cubs, Pirates and Seattle are all glad to see the break come.

1) If playoffs started Monday, the playoff teams would look like this:
NL-- San Diego-Cincinnati-Braves-Colorado or Dodgers
AL-- Texas-White Sox-Bronx-Tampa Bay

Sunday's Armadillo's Den: Our look at football in the Pac-10.....
Arizona-- Only Pac-10 team never to play in Rose Bowl; they've covered 10 of last 12 home games, are 9-1-1 as home dog since '05. Their top four RBs and the QB are all back, with four seniors on OL- is this the year?

Arizona State-- Lost 13 of 22 starters, have no senior starters on OL and new QB; are just 9-15 last two years, losing last six games in '09. 8-21-1 as road dog since '01; they start '10 with pair of I-AA foes. Rebuilding.

Cal-- 24-17 as home favorite under Tedford, who has rep as QB guru, but instead has put seven RBs in NFL. Bears 3-9 in last 12 as home fave, but won four of last five bowls, scoring 34.6 ppg. Finished over .500 in all of Tedford's eight years; they were 3-8/1-10 two years before he got there.

Oregon-- Five starters back on OL (85 career starts) to protect a new QB; scored 36-42-32 ppg last three years, covering 18 of last 26 as home fave. 31-13 SU in Pac-10 last five years, covered 27 of their last 41 home tilts.

Oregon State-- Beavers are 10-4 as road dog since '06, but non-conference slate of TCU/Louisville/Boise State is too hard. 19-8 vs spread in last 27 Pac-10 games; have four starters back on OL, protecting their new QB.

USC-- Total X-factor, with probation and players defecting at rapid clip. New coach, QB who threw 15 TD, 14 picks LY; Trojans scored 26.5 ppg LY, 11 ppg less than '08. USC is 3-9 vs spread in last 12 as a road fave.

Stanford-- Scored 35.5 ppg LY, 9.0 ppg more than any of the previous six seasons; 7-3 as home favorite under Harbaugh, 10-2 vs spread in last 12 at home, but just 5-8 as road dog. Who replaces departed star RB Gerhart?

UCLA-- 17-7 as home favorite, but 14-5 non-conference mark will get big test from slate of K-State/Houston/Texas. 22-9 vs spread in game after a loss. Experienced OL with 92 starts, but they've had trouble keeping QBs healthy. Soph QB averaged 308 yards/game LY when he was healthy.

Washington-- I think QB Locker wins Heisman; he's Tim Tebow without bigtime teammates. Four starters back on OL (88 starts), all the receivers are back; they were +4 in turnovers LY (minus-52 the previous six years)

Washington State-- Last two years, allowed 96 sacks, minus-32 in TOs, so not sure having four starters back on OL is good. 9-16 vs spread in last 25 games as road dog. Shut out in four of last 18 games; last bowl was '03, last time they were favored to win a game was '07. 10 of their 11 losses in '09 were by 18+ points. Being competitive weekly would be a huge step.

Saturday's List of 13: Random stuff for a steamy Saturday.......
13) So the Texas Rangers outmaneuver the Bronx Bombers and trade for Cliff Lee; now all they have to do to make it worthwhile is sign him after the season. Lee is from Arkansas, so that could help some.

12) Mets dropped out of the bidding when Seattle asked for Ike Davis and Jonathon Niese, which was too expensive a package, but at some point in July, Omar Minaya needs to start acting like the GM of a big market club, not the Montreal Expos. The Mets need another quality starting pitcher.

11) Guy who owns the Dodgers hasn't paid state/federal taxes since 2004; how is this possible? No wonder I'm not rich; I pay my damn taxes.

10) OK, everyone who had David Price vs Ubaldo Jimenez as starters in All-Star Game back in April raise your hand; nah, me neither. Wouldn't have come up with Josh Johnson either.

9) Rewarded myself today with a little gift; called Southwest Airlines and changed my flight to Vegas from Tuesday to Monday. 24 extra hours in America's favorite city-- thats a solid gift.

8) Amare Stoudemire's agent is a man named Happy Walters; am guessing he's just a little happier than normal this week. 4% of $100M can make a man happier, even if he's Happy to begin with.

7) Brewers beat Pirates Friday, scoring in 8-9-10th innings, first time they did that since 1993, when they were an American League team.

6) Part of why the Saints sucked for most of their history until last year; in 1979, they drafted a punter named Russell Erxleben, two spots ahead of Kellen Winslow, one of the greatest TEs ever. Years later, they picked Marc Bulger 30 spots before New England picked Tom Brady. Yikes.

5) Its fun to think about how one thing happening has a domino effect on totally unrelated things. Alabama is a national power in football again, but only because Miami Dolphins chose Daunte Culpepper over Drew Brees in free agency a few years back. If Nick Saban chooses Brees, Miami wins more games, Saban probably stays and Bama goes in another direction for its new coach. Chances are, they wouldn't be nearly as good right now.

And no doubt the Saints wouldn't be Super Bowl champs now.

4) Lets remember than Pat Riley became an NBA coach because a fellow named Jack McKinney fell off his bicycle. Seriously. McKinney was 10-4 as coach of the 1979-80 Lakers, Magic Johnson's rookie year, when he got badly injured riding his bike. Paul Westhead took over, plucked Riley out of the Lakers' radio booth to be an assistant, and the Lakers won the NBA title, so Westhead stayed as coach, even when McKinney got healthy.

3) Magic got Westhead fired after a 7-4 start two years later, and Riley became head coach of the Lakers; he went on to run with that opportunity and become one of the league'e great coaches (1,210--694, five titles) but if not for a guy falling off his bike, maybe none of that happens.

2) Before NBA analysts anoint Chris Bosh as a superstar, keep in mind he's played in 11 playoff games in seven years. Won three of them.

1) Last thought until October on the Lebron/Miami thing; he has the right to go anywhere he wants. Just thought if he was going to leave the town he called home, he should have done it in a quieter, less public way. Kind of like how Kevin Durant announced his new contract.

Friday's List of 13 (+3): Our weekly look at NL teams........
I'm a little braindead; vacation is one day away, Vegas awaits next week, so the comments with this week's rankings will serve to clear a cluttered mind. It was certainly a very unusual Thursday, especially for July........

16) Pirates-- Check out the letter Cavaliers' owner Dan Gilbert posted on the team's website; he doesn't pull any punches. The quote up above was only the tip of the iceberg of his rant. Am guessing Miami-Cleveland tilts will all be on national TV next season, maybe even Opening Night.

15) Arizona-- Miami sent Michael Beasley to Minnesota, to clear salary cap room for Lebron; I'm sure Beasley is thrilled to be leaving Miami for the frozen north. Timberwolves get a guy with potential pretty much for free, but not really sure how much he'll help.

14) Brewers-- Giants came to Miller Park on a 2-10 skid, then outscored the Brew Crew 36-7 in four games. Its time for Ken Macha to go away.

13) Astros-- Total of 7,319 entrants in this year's World Series of Poker Main Event, so first place will be a hefty $8,944,138. Everyone who gets to the November Nine will become a millionaire. Will be fun to see all this activity in person next week.

12) Cubs-- Are umpires graded on how they call check swings from first or third base? This is like the block/charge in basketball; every umpire has his own interpretation of what is/isn't a swing. In my humble opinion, too many checkswings are called swings. I look at the hands, not the bat, but I'm thinking the rule is to look at how far the bat goes. Go figure.

11) Nationals-- Won Livan Hernandez' last eight home starts. Forgot that Reggie Jackson once made All-Star Game 13 times in 14-year span (1971-84) with only year he missed the only year he played for Orioles ('76).

10) Marlins-- Pitcher named Mike Kilkenny pitched for four teams in '72 season; both Tigers/A's traded him after he pitched one inning for both, he then pitched four innings for San Diego, got traded to Cleveland, where he threw 58 innings, then he was out of baseball the next year, at age 28. One of the strangest career lines in history. Why was he traded so much?

9) Cardinals-- St Louis media isn't happy with the Redbirds after a brutal week in Denver; blowing 9-3 lead in 9th inning Tuesday was bad enough, then they lost game Wednesday after they led 5-0. Holliday killed ball in his old home park, but they're still looking up at the Red Legs.

8) Phillies-- Am writing this while trying to decide what I thought of the whole Lebron thing. I like Lebron, he seems like a good guy, but this era seems to be one where celebrities are becoming attention junkies. Would it have been too much trouble just to send out a press release announcing he was signing with Miami? Lebron is being advised by amateurs.

7) Giants-- The hotel I'm staying at next week had a concert tonight; lot of the spectators were in the pool, listening to music. Many of them had a beverage in their hand. I'm thinking next week is going to be fun.

6) Dodgers-- One thing I'm looking for next week is umpire Miller; in last 18 games he umpired, under is 14-4. Lot of strikes, lot of batters behind in count, lot of low-scoring games. He umpired in Chicago Thursday, so he probably has first game of a series next week, which will make it harder to identify which game he has. I'll be on the case, though.

5) Mets-- 1,125 poker players started in World Series of Poker Monday, the first day of Main Event; it took nine hours to get down to 766, which is a long day of playing cards. One of many reasons I don't play poker is that I could never sit there for nine hours. Lot of people love it, though.

4) Rockies-- There is a basketball player at Erie CC in western PA named God's Gift Achiuwa; thats right, kid's first name is God's Gift. He's pretty good player too, with Kansas-Pitt-St John's-Tennessee interested.

3) Reds-- Just heard Mike Miller got $30M for five years from Miami, as the Beasley money they freed up gets used quickly. When Heat wins the NBA title, does Minnesota GM Kahn get a championship ring?

2) Padres-- Adrian Gonzalez is hitting .250 with 34 walks at home, .340 with 13 walks on the road. You'd think pitchers would challenge him lot more in the bigger ballpark, but apparently not. Mat Latos missing out on All-Star Game is another reason Bud Selig has to pick these teams, not a manager who has other agendas. Latos is a definite All-Star.

1) Braves-- Atlanta is 10-1 in Medlen starts; return of Jurrjens makes the pitching staff even stronger. Am wondering what kind of prop bets there are for All-Star Game; will have to report back to you on that next week.

Thursday's List of 13: Our look at SEC football in 2010.......
Alabama-- 26-2 last two years; the QB is 30-0 as starter in HS/college, but defense has only two starters back. Covered six of last seven as a favorite on road, but going to be hard to duplicate last year's +19 TO ratio.

Arkansas-- Mallett is best QB in SEC; Hogs have 10 starters returning on offense, with OL having 90 career starts. Scored 36 ppg LY after 21.9 in '08, thanks to +15 TO ratio. Last year was first bowl win since 2003.

Auburn-- Eight starters back on defense, seven on offense. Florida transfer Newton (won JC national title LY) could be new QB; Tigers are 4-1 in last five bowls, winning last three; all four wins were by exactly 3 points.

Florida-- Post-Tebow era begins; Gators are 13-5 vs spread as home fave last three years, are +57 in turnovers last five (only +7 LY). 4-1 in bowls last five years, with average total, 59.8. Only 5 starters back on defense.

Georgia-- 10 starters back on offense, but whos the QB? Play three SEC games in September, then odd road trip to Colorado. Only 2-8 vs spread as home favorite last two years. Minus-19 in turnovers last two years.

Kentucky-- They'll miss underrated coach Brooks (3-1 in bowls last four years); only one senior starter on OL/soph QB- they'll be growing pains for team that covered seven of last nine on road. Lost half of '09 starters.

LSU-- First six games are four SEC tilts, non-league games against North Carolina/West Virginia; Miles is just 11-19-1 vs spread as home favorite. Only four starters back on defense. LSU is only 17-9 last two seasons.

Ole Miss-- Snead threw 20 INTs LY, was early exit blessing in disguise? Rebels are 14-7-2 vs spread at home last four years, but with new QB and no seniors on OL, Nutt will be in his more desired role, as an underdog.

Mississippi State-- One winning season in last nine years; 0-7 vs spread as home favorite last five years. Have seven starters back on both sides of ball, scored 25.6 ppg LY in Mullen's first year, up from 15.3 ppg in '08.

South Carolina-- Nine starters back on offense, seven on defense; but -22 in turnovers last three years. Spurrier 1-3 in bowls with 'cocks, giving up 31.3 ppg, but 11-6-1 vs spread as underdog. More is expected this year.

Tennessee-- Third coach in three years, only nine returning starters, but this coach is an upgrade; back/back October road games at LSU/Georgia won't be pretty. Offensive line has only three starts-- they're very young.

Vanderbilt-- 7-1-1 vs spread as road dog last two years, but 5-13 as home favorite since '01; lost 11 starters from LY but they were 2-10, so does it matter? Jordan Rodgers is rare JC recruit; QB is Aaron Rodgers' brother.

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