Major League teams are playing their eighth series of the season this week; here is how they all did in their first seven series:
6-0-1 Braves
5-1-1 Dodgers
Diamondbacks
5-2 Cardinals
Padres
4-2-1 Reds
Pirates
Guardians
Tigers
Bronx
4-3 Cubs
Brewers
Twins
3-3-1 Marlins
A’s
Mariners
Rangers
3-4 Giants
Orioles
Rays
2-3-2 Angels
2-4-1 Rockies
Nationals
Red Sox
White Sox
Astros
2-5 Mets
Phillies
1-5-1 Royals
1-6 Blue Jays
— Famous birthdays, April 21st:
Dick Green, 85
Tony Danza, 75
Mark Olberding, 70
Jesse Orosco, 69
Andie McDowell, 68
Spencer Tillman, 62
Gary Grant, 61
Tony Romo, 46
Joc Pederson, 34
Jack Leiter, 26
— Ravens/Dolphins will be the only NFL coaching staffs this fall with no one on their staff who has ever been an NFL head coach. New Dolphins coach Jeff Hafley was the head coach for four years at Boston College, before going to Green Bay as defensive coordinator.
— Before last week, the last time Shohei Ohtani pitched in a major league game, but didn’t bat in that game, was 2021, when he was playing for the Angels.
— There will be another round of conference re-alignment this fall, with the Pac-12 coming back to life as a glorified version of the Mountain West, after UCLA/USC, Oregon/Washington bolted to the Big 18 and the Arizona schools skipped off to the Big X.
Hell, Cal/Stanford are in the ACC now; if I was a kid these days, I’d for sure fail Geography.
— UConn poached a basketball player from Duke; Nikolas Khamenia, a 6-8 sophomore who scored around five points a game last year. I’m wondering how much it was about adding a bench player, as opposed to busting Duke’s balls and poaching one of their guys.
— This past weekend, umpire Austin Jones was working the Mets-Cubs series, while Tyler Jones was working the Royals’ series in the Bronx.
They are the first-ever twin brothers who both became major league umpires; overall, they’re the fourth set of brothers who became big league umps. First twins, though.
