Author: Armadillo Sports

13) Steelers 31, Rams 19:
— Even though they lost, it was first time Rams made it to a Super Bowl.
— Rams led 19-17 after third quarter; they were 10.5-point underdogs.
— This was Pittsburgh’s fourth Super Bowl title in six years.

12) Giants 17, Patriots 14:
— The thought of a New England team going 17-0 was nauseating.
— Subway sandwich chain has been sued by people who claim the “tuna” in Subway’s tuna subs is something other than tuna.
— I used to eat lot of Subway subs, until they hired Bill Belichick to do commercials, then I switched to Jersey Mike’s. Much better subs.

11) Chiefs 23, Vikings 7:
— NFL Films’ highlight film of this game made KC coach Hank Stram a household name.
— “Keep matriculating the ball down the field, boys” NFL Films struck gold miking the coach.
— This was the last game before AFL/NFL merged; Chiefs were a 12-point dog.
 
10) Raiders 32, Vikings 14:
— Minnesota made the Rams’ life miserable in 70’s playoff games, so this was a good result.
— This was my senior year in HS; I played in a CYO basketball league where the games were played in a Jewish Community Center. Go figure.
— We had a game scheduled at same time as the Super Bowl; our refs didn’t show up until after the football game. I sat in a lounge and ate chips/drank soda watching the football game. Needless to say, I was fairly useless during the basketball game.

9) In his ten Super Bowls, Tom Brady’s team scored one first quarter TD; this was the first Super Bowl where Brady’s team led after the first quarter (1-4-5). He won seven of the ten games SU.

8) Patriots 13, Rams 3
— Game was 3-3 in 4th quarter; the Rams being in this game made it great for me.
— This was Sean McVay’s second year as Rams’ coach; before that, Rams had 13 consecutive losing seasons. Winning is more fun than losing. 

7) Only twice has the team that lost a Super Bowl won the big game the next season:
— Dallas lost Super Bowl V to the Colts, beat Miami the next year.
— New England lost Super Bowl LII to Philadelphia, won the Super Bowl the next year.

6) Saints 31, Colts 17:
— Saints were in the NFL 21 years before they played a playoff game.
— Someone made a commercial of Saints fans’ reactions at home parties when Tracy Porter ran back a pick-6 74 yards to clinch the game for New Orleans. It is a great commercial.

5) Chiefs 31, 49ers 20:
— Whenever the 49ers lose, I’m probably pretty happy.
— I’ve never heard anyone say they dislike Andy Reid, and I know someone who hates Ray Romano. Reid won his first world title in his 21st year as a head coach.
— 49ers led this game 20-10 after third quarter.

4) Eagles 41, Patriots 33:
— Nick Foles is 29-29 as a regular season starter, 4-2 in playoff games.
— He’s played for six teams in 11 years, but will always be a Philly legend.
— Foles caught a TD pass on a trick play to give Philly a 22-12 halftime lead.

3) Steelers 27, Cardinals 23:
— Arizona lost, but getting Cardinals here put Kurt Warner in the Hall of Fame.
— Warner threw a 64-yard TD pass to Larry Fitzgerald with 2:37 left to put Arizona ahead.
— Big Ben won it with a 6-yard TD pass to Santonio Holmes with 0:35 left.

2) Rams 23, Bengals 20:
— Stafford-to-Kupp with 1:25 left was the game-winning score.
— Bengals led 20-13 midway thru third quarter.
— Sean McVay is the youngest coach to win a Super Bowl.
— Second year in row the host team won Super Bowl; before that, it had never happened. 

1) Rams 23, Titans 16:
— 73-yard TD pass from Warner to Bruce with 1:54 left put Rams ahead.
— Mike Jones tackles a Titans’ WR on 1-yard line as time ran out.
— Warner capped off a storybook season, throwing for 414 yards.
— 13 years later, then-Titans’ coach Jeff Fisher was hired as coach of the Rams. 

AFC
Baltimore
Since winning Super Bowl 10 years ago, they’re 2-4 in playoff games, 0-2 at home. Ravens also won the Super Bowl in 2000. Lamar Jackson is 1-3 in playoff games, scoring 13 ppg.

Buffalo
Went WL in playoffs the last two years; before that, they went 0-5 in playoff games from 1996-2019. Bills are 0-4 in Super Bowls, with their last appearance in 1993.

Cincinnati
Before winning AFC title last year, Bengals went 0-7 in playoff games from 1991-2020. Cincinnati won playoff games at Tennessee/Kansas City LY; before that, in their entire history, Bengals were 0-7 in road playoff games.

Jacksonville
All-time record in playoff games: 7-7, 4-6 on the road. Made the playoffs seven times in their history, went 5-2 in their first playoff game those years.

Should also be noted that Doug Pederson won a Super Bowl coaching the Eagles.

Kansas City
Last three seasons, Chiefs are 7-2 in playoff games. From 1994-2018, Kansas City was 2-11 in playoff games.

Andy Reid has a 19-16 record in playoff games.

LA Chargers
Chargers have an 11-13 record in NFL playoff games, getting to one Super Bowl, in 1994. Bolts went WL in the playoffs, three of last four times they got in.

In their AFL days, Chargers played for the title five of the first six years, but went 1-4 in those title games, winning the AFL championship in 1963.

Miami
Dolphins haven’t won a playoff game since 2000, going 0-4 in last four playoff games, outscored 104-23 in those games. Dolphins last made the playoffs in 2016; before that, 2008.

NFC
Dallas— Cowboys are probably going to open on the road in the playoffs this year; since 1993, Dallas is 0-8 in road playoff games. Their last road playoff win was 30-20 in San Francisco, 30 years ago.

Minnesota— Since 1997, Vikings have been in playoffs 11 times; they went WL in playoffs in 8 of those 11 years, lost in first round the other three times. Vikings are 0-4 in Super Bowls, with their last appearance in 1976.

NJ Giants— Haven’t been in playoffs since 2016; they’ve won four Super Bowls, last one in 2011. Nine of their last 11 playoff games were either on road/neutral field games.

Philadelphia— Won their first Super Bowl title five years ago; since then, they’re 1-3 in playoff games, scoring 13.5 ppg. Eagles are 2-3 in last five home playoff games. 

San Francisco— Since 2012, 49ers have been in playoffs four times; they went WWL all four times, losing Super Bowls to Ravens/Chiefs, losing NFC title games at Seahawks/Rams.

49ers have won five Super Bowls, but last one was in 1994.

Tampa Bay— Buccaneers won Super Bowls in 2002/2020; in between, they went 0-2 in playoff games. Obviously, Tom Brady has won seven Super Bowls in his career, one with the Bucs.

Washington— Redskins won a playoff game 17-10 in Tampa in 2005; since then, they’re 0-5 in playoff games. Last three times Washington made the playoffs, they lost first round home games, all by 8+ points.

Playoff notes on other NFL teams:
Arizona— 4-0 in home playoff games, 2-8 in road playoff games, 0-1 in Super Bowls.

Atlanta— Hasn’t made playoffs since 2017, year after they blew that 28-3 lead in Super Bowl. 

Carolina— Lost Super Bowl seven years ago; they’re 0-1 in playoff games since then.

Chicago— Last made Super Bowl in 2006; since then, they’re 1-2 in playoff games, with lone win in 2010.

Cleveland— Old Browns became the Baltimore Ravens; the new Browns are 1-2 in playoff games, with lone win in 2020, when Baker Mayfield was their QB.

Denver— Won Super Bowl in 2015 with Peyton Manning; haven’t been in playoffs since.

Detroit— This year will be the 57th Super Bowl; during that time, Lions are 1-12 in playoff games, with lone win 31-6 against the Cowboys in 1991.

In fairness, back in the 50’s, Lions won three NFL titles in a six-year span, but that was before the AFL even existed, way before there was a Super Bowl.

Green Bay— Packers won Super Bowl in 2010; since then, they’re 7-9 in playoff games.

Houston— In their history, Texans are 4-2 in home playoff games, 0-4 on road.

Indianapolis— Haven’t made playoffs since 2018; they’ve won two Super Bowls, in 1970 and 2006.

Las Vegas— Lost Super Bowl in 2002; since then, they’re 0-2 in playoff games. They’ve won three Super Bowls, last of which was in 1983. 

LA Rams— 7-3 in playoffs under Sean McVay, winning Super Bowl last year- they also won a Super Bowl under Dick Vermeil in 1999. 

New England— Bill Belichick is 31-13 in playoff games; his last playoff win was in 2018.

NJ Jets— Lost AFC title game in 2009 and 2010, haven’t been in playoffs since then.

New Orleans— Lost their last three playoff games, all at home.

Pittsburgh— Haven’t won a playoff game since 2016; they’ve won six Super Bowls, last of which was in 2008.

Seattle— From 1985-2004, went 0-5 in playoff games; are 14-11 in playoffs since then.

Tennessee— Lost 20-13/19-16 in playoffs the last two years, which is why they drafted Malik Willis last spring. 

13) Jack Nicholson as Colonel Jessup on the witness stand in A Few Good Men– “You WANT me on that wall; you NEED me on that wall!!!” Great acting. 

12) In Prince of Tides, when Nick Nolte’s character takes Barbra Streisand’s husband’s Stradivarius violin and dangles it over the edge of the balcony, until he apologizes to his wife for being rude. Then he tosses the million-dollar violin in the air but catches it, then walks out of the dinner party. 

11) In Any Given Sunday, when QB Willie Beamen visits the coach’s house for dinner and a “talk” and coach Tony D’Amato lectures him— “You’re the goddamn quarterback!!!” 

I think this scene is better than the “Game of Inches” speech that Pacino gives near the end of the movie, before the last game. 

10) Rocky II wasn’t a good movie, but the last fight scene, where Rocky Balboa wins the heavyweight title for the first time, is a great fight scene, probably the best scene in all the Rocky movies. 

9) In the movie Heat, there is a scene with Al Pacino (the cop) and Robert DeNiro (bank robber) where they actually talk in a diner about how someday, their situation will come to a head and either the arrest will be made, or harm will come to the cop. Deniro and Pacino; a great scene. 

8) Susan Sarandon and James Spader were in a 1990 movie called White Palace; I only saw this movie for the first time in the last couple years. 

There is a scene where a lot of people were at Thanksgiving dinner and they’re talking about politics; the patriarch of the family is Steven Hill (the original DA on Law and Order). 

When a younger person says something Hill’s character sees as uninformed, he snaps at her, “Would it kill you to pick up a newspaper?” Good stuff. 

7) In the true story Invincible, when 30-year old bartender Vince Papale breaks the news to his best friend that he made the Philadelphia Eagles’ roster, despite never having played college football. 

6) In Friday Night Lights, when the coach (Billy Bob Thornton) delivers a halftime speech when his team is getting smoked. He talks about “being perfect” and how giving your all is the most important thing of all. 

Of all the sports movies I’ve seen, I think Thornton’s character in this movie is the best portrayal of a coach that I’ve seen. 

5) In the original Bad News Bears, when the coach is talking to his worst player, ordering him into the championship game- the kid is too nervous to go out and play. 

“Listen, Lupus, you didn’t come into this life just to sit around on a dugout bench, did ya? Now get your ass out there and do the best you can.”

4) In Roxanne, Steve Martin’s character has a very long nose, like Cyrano de Bergerac; guy in a bar insults his long nose, the whole bar shuts down, and Martin mocks the insult. 

“I suppose you could do better?” and Martin proceeds to give 20 jokes (actually 26) that were all funnier than the guy’s insult. 

3) In Rounders, the scene where Mike (Matt Damon) finds his law professor (Martin Landau) in a restaurant and the professor tells him how his parents disowned him because he chose to study the law instead of becoming a rabbi.

2) Oakland A’s 20-game winning streak in Moneyball; at least they showed Miguel Tejada’s walk-off homer in the 18th straight win- they gave him almost no credit in the book/movie for how good the A’s were that year— he was the best shortstop in the game that year. 

1) Bob Cousy shooting free throws in an empty gym with Nick Nolte in Blue Chips. Cousy was 65 at the time, made 10 in a row while wearing a shirt and tie- they filmed the scene in one take. He made the last foul shot left-handed. 

13) The Fabulous Baker Boys— Two struggling musicians, who are brothers, team up with a beautiful, up-and-coming singer, who revitalizes their careers. Michelle Pfeiffer is the singer; Jeff/Beau Bridges are the two brothers. 

12) Bull Durham— Susan Sarandon is a minor league baseball groupie; Kevin Costner is a journeyman catcher brought in to mentor the team’s young pitching prospect. Durham Bulls were a Class A farm club when this movie was made (1988); they’re a AAA team now. 

11) Major League— The new owner of the Cleveland Indians puts together a horrible team on purpose so they’ll lose and she can move the team to Miami, but it is the movies, so of course, they win the pennant. 

Couple of things:
— Moving a ball club to Miami turned out to be a terrible idea in real life.
— Bob Uecker steals the show in this movie as the team’s radio announcer. 

10) Prince of Tides— A high school football coach from the South (Nick Nolte) talks to his suicidal sister’s psychiatrist (Barbra Streisand) in New York City about their family history and, because it is the movies, they fall in love. George Carlin has a pretty good cameo as a neighbor of the psychiatrist.

9) Cousins— Ted Danson plays a dance instructor in a failing relationship who meets a woman (Isabella Rossellini) at a family wedding and they become great friends- her husband isn’t amused. Lloyd Bridges is excellent as Danson’s father. William Peterson played the unhappy car salesman/husband.

Danson/Peterson both wound being the star of CSI, at different times. Cousins ends with the happy couple literally sailing off into the sunset. 26 years later, in the last scene of CSI, William Peterson/Jorja Fox also sail off into the sunset, a very similar scene. 

8) The Bodyguard— A former Secret Service agent takes the job of a famous singer’s bodyguard,  whose lifestyle is a lot different than a President’s.

Of the 13 movies on this list, Robert Wuhl has a small role in three of them; he plays the host of the Academy Awards in this movie. He was a pitching coach in Bull Durham, and a basketball recruiting guru in Blue Chips. 

7) Leap of Fsith— A huckster faith healer (Steve Martin) is stranded with his entourage in a small Midwestern town that is going thru tough times financially, because of a drought. He decides to set up camp in the town for a few days and put on some shows to make money.

Liam Neeson is the town’s sheriff; Debra Winger, Meat Loaf and Philip Seymour Hoffman are part of his entourage. 

6) Last Vegas— Four longtime friends take a break from their day-to-day lives to throw a bachelor party in Las Vegas for their last remaining bachelor friend. Morgan Freeman, Robert DeNiro, Michael Douglas, Kevin Kline; tremendous cast. Mary Steenburgen is a singer in Binion’s Casino who becomes friends with the group. 

5) A Star Is Born— A famous musician helps a young singer find fame/fortune as age and alcoholism ruin his own career; this is the fourth time this movie has been made.

Andrew Dice Clay adds to the movie as Lady Gaga’s father; the guitarist in Bradley Cooper’s band is Lukas Nelson, whose dad is Willie Nelson.

This Lady Gaga/Bradley Cooper version is very similar to the 1954 version, with Judy Garland, James Mason. The 1976 movie, with Barbra Streisand/Kris Kristofferson, was a lot different. 

4) Rounders— A young gambler plays big stakes poker to help a friend pay off loan sharks, while balancing his relationship with his girlfriend and his commitments to law school. Every movie star who gambles in the movies comes out ahead, except for Mark Wahlberg in The Gambler, who is very grateful to wind up even.

3) Moneyball— Would be ranked higher if the A’s won at the end, or in the beginning; oh well. This is the story of how Oakland GM Billy Beane put together a baseball team on a small budget by using computer-generated analysis to evaluate players.

I was lucky enough to meet Michael Lewis, who wrote the book Moneyball, in 2004. Nice guy. 

2) Blue Chips— A college basketball coach is forced to break the rules in order to get the players he needs to stay competitive; two of the players he recruits are played by Shaquille O’Neal and Penny Hardaway. Jerry Tarkanian/Dick Vitale/Jim Boeheim have cameos. Nick Nolte spent some time with the Indiana Hoosiers to prep for this role. 

Basketball scenes were filmed in a high school gym in Indiana; they have some really nice high school gyms in Indiana. 

1) American Underdog— What did you think I would have at #1? This is the story of Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner, who went from stocking shelves at a supermarket to becoming a football star, leading the Rams to a Super Bowl title.

Seriously, this movie was better than I thought it would be; it is a great story, but they avoided making the movie too sappy. 

26) Bulworth— Warren Beatty plays a suicidal liberal politician who puts a contract out on himself and takes the opportunity to be bluntly honest with his voters. When he falls head over heels for a younger woman (Halle Berry), he tries to cancel the contract, but it turns out that the woman is the hit man. 

25) Molly’s Game— The true story of Molly Bloom, a young woman who ran the world’s most exclusive high-stakes poker game and later became an FBI target, when Russian mobsters joined the poker game. This movie is a continuation of a book she wrote about her experiences. 

24) Dave— Guy who runs an employment agency is recruited by the Secret Service to become a momentary stand-in for the President of the United States- he looks exactly like the President. But the President dies suddenly, and his henchmen keep the lookalike in charge, so they can run the country…….or so they think. 

23) The Verdict— Paul Newman plays an outcast, alcoholic Boston lawyer who sees the chance to salvage his career and self-respect by taking a medical malpractice case to trial rather than settling. Jack Warden is his friend/co-counsel; one of the great supporting actors of all-time.

22) Lost In Translation— A movie star on the down side of his career and a neglected young woman form an unlikely friendship after crossing paths in Tokyo. Bill Murray is great in this; Scarlett Johansson is the young woman. 

21) Good Will Hunting— Matt Damon plays a janitor at M.I.T. who has a gift for math, but needs help from a psychologist (Robin Williams) to find direction in his life. Robin Williams is great in this, and Ben Affleck is excellent as Damon’s best friend. 

20) The Hangover— Three friends wake up from a bachelor party in Las Vegas, with no memory of the previous night and the fourth friend (the bachelor) missing. They make their way around the city trying to find their friend so he can drive back to Los Angeles to get married.

This movie had two sequels; Hangover Part 2 is one of the worst movies ever, Hangover Part 3 is pretty good. 

19) Let It Ride— A cab driver gets a hot tip on a race horse and wins big, but he can’t seem to stop gambling. Hilarity ensues; Richard Dreyfuss is the gambler, Teri Garr is his frustrated wife, Robbie Coltrane adds a lot as the ticket seller at the racetrack. Jennifer Tilly is in this, before we knew she was hanging out with professional poker player Phil Laak. 

18) One on One— A small-town basketball star goes to a big-time college and tries to impress his tutor, teammates, and coach. He isn’t always successful. Robbie Benson was excellent as Henry Steele, the ballplayer. G.D. Spradlin was the coach; he also played Tom Landry in North Dallas Forty. Melanie Griffith has a cameo appearance as a hitchhiker early in the movie. 

17) Begin Again— A chance encounter between a down-and-out music executive and a young singer-songwriter, new to Manhattan, turns into a promising collaboration between the two talents. If you like music, you’ll enjoy this movie; Mark Ruffalo is the music executive, Keira  Knightley the singer. James Corden adds a lot as her friend from back home.

16) Any Given Sunday— Al Pacino plays an aging football coach with a struggling team that is owned by an impatient young lady (Cameron Diaz). Jim Brown is an assistant coach, Lawrence Taylor is a linebacker. Two of the team’s three QB’s are Dennis Quaid, Jamie Foxx.

Pacino’s Miami Sharks play teams all coached by Hall of Famers: YA Tittle, Johnny Unitas, Bob St Clair, Warren Moon, Dick Butkus. 

15) Heaven Can Wait— An NFL quarterback, accidentally taken away from his body by an overanxious angel before he was meant to die, returns to life in the body of a recently murdered millionaire. I was 18 when this movie came out, at a time when the Rams made the playoffs every year but never won the Super Bowl. 

For the next 20 years, I was convinced that this movie was the only time I was ever going to see the Rams win the Super Bowl— I still have the actual movie poster from the theater.

Warren Beatty, Jack Warden, James Mason are in this: Beatty/Warden were both in Bulworth, Mason/Warden were both in The Verdict. 

14) Fast Break— Gabe Kaplan plays a New York City basketball enthusiast who works in a deli, but he really wants to coach ball. He is offered the coaching job at a small Nevada college; he recruits some players, who are a bit odd but good- one of his starters is a young lady.

Bernard King, Michael Warren played big-time basketball for real; they’re on his team, too. 

There are turning points in all walks of life; if this hadn’t have happened, then that wouldn’t have followed. The flowchart of life takes some interesting turns. Here are some memorable turning points that I remember:

13) In 1965, Richard Nixon was offered a $100,000 salary and an unlimited expense account to become commissioner of baseball. He turned it down: “Don’t tell Pat. She’d kill me for turning you down.” Pat was Mrs Nixon. 

The history of our country would be vastly different had he accepted the job. 

12) 1984 NBA Draft; Houston Rockets took Hakeem Olajuwon with the first pick; that turned out very well. Houston won a couple of NBA titles.

Portland then took Sam Bowie with the #2 pick; he played 10 years in the NBA, but started only 349 games, scoring 10.9 ppg.

History of the NBA would be a little different if Portland had chosen the guy the Bulls took with the #3 pick that year— Michael Jordan. 

11) In 2006, Nick Saban was coaching the Miami Dolphins; they went 9-7 in his first season, but were looking for a QB to upgrade from Gus Frerotte. There was a free agent QB who had played for the Chargers, going 30-28 as San Diego’s starter. QB was well-regarded, but he tore his labrum in his shoulder in 2005, and the Chargers had a young Philip Rivers, so they moved on to the younger QB.

Miami’s team physician recommended passing on the free agent QB, so they signed Daunte Culpepper instead. Culpepper played four games for the Dolphins.

Imagine how football would be different had the Dolphins signed Drew Brees:
a) Saints might’ve never won a Super Bowl.
b) Saban would probably still be coaching the Dolphins and never would’ve gone to Alabama, where he became, arguably, the best coach in college football history. 

10) Robert Irsay bought the Los Angeles Rams on July 13, 1972; he then immediately traded the franchise to Carroll Rosenbloom, who was the owner of the Baltimore Colts. Rosenbloom made the deal in part because he saved $4.4M in taxes.

— 11 years later, Irsay moved the Colts to Indianapolis, right after he drafted John Elway and traded him to Denver.
— Irsay’s son Jim now owns the Colts; he is a much better owner than his dad was.
— In 1979, Rosenbloom died in a swimming accident; his wife Georgia inherited the team, and in 1995, moved the Rams to her hometown of St Louis.
— After Georgia Frontiere died (Rosenbloom was her 6th husband, Dominic Frontiere her 7th) Stan Kroenke bought her 70% of the team and moved the team back to Los Angeles.
— As of 2019, according to Forbes Magazine, the Rams were worth $3.8B, the Colts #2.65B. After last season, Rams might be worth more now.

9) Dell Curry played 16 years in the NBA, scoring 12,670 points; he played his college ball at Virginia Tech,  not a traditional hoop power.

Curry’s two sons were pretty good high school players, but Virginia Tech didn’t recruit either one of them. Bad move. 

Seth Curry started at Liberty, then transferred to Duke; he’s scored 11.3 ppg in his eight years in the NBA.

Steph Curry played college ball at Davidson; they made the Elite 8 in 2008, while Virginia Tech made the NCAA Tournament once in Seth Greenberg’s nine years as the Hokies’ coach.

Greenberg does a very good job as ESPN’s studio analyst, but had he recruited Steph Curry, he might still be coaching Virginia Tech.

Steph Curry, obviously, is an all-time great in the NBA, one of only seven players ever to win 4+ championships and 2+ MVP awards. 

8) Speaking of Steph Curry, he was the 7th pick in the 2009 NBA Draft. Smart move. Golden State has won four championships in the Curry/Klay Thompson era. Warriors are 101-54 in playoff games, since they drafted Curry.

Minnesota Timberwolves had the 5th and 6th picks that season; they needed guards but took Ricky Rubio and Jonny Flynn instead of Curry. Bad move.

In 13 years since then, Minnesota has made the playoffs twice, going 3-8 in playoff games. 

7) In the fall of 1979, Jack McKinney was coach of the Los Angeles Lakers; they had a rookie point guard named Earvin Johnson, and were off to a 10-4 start. On an off day, McKinney went out for a bike ride but had an accident and had a brain injury. He never coached the Lakers again, though he did coach the Pacers/Kings down the road.

Paul Westhead took over from McKinney; Lakers won the NBA title that year, but two years later, he had a falling out with Earvin Johnson and the Lakers fired him, after a 7-4 start.

The new coach was Pat Riley, who prior to McKinney’s bike accident, was the color analyst on Lakers’ radio broadcasts. Riley turned out to be one of the best coaches in NBA history (he won five NBA titles) and is still running the Miami Heat franchise, but the fact is, had McKinney’s bike accident never happened, Riley may have never gotten his chance to be a coach. 

6) August 12, 1987, the Detroit Tigers acquired P Doyle Alexander from the Atlanta Braves, trading away a minor league pitcher. Guy named Smoltz.

Detroit went 98-64 in 1987, winning the AL East; they lost the ALCS to Minnesota, but this was only the second time Detroit had made the playoffs in 15 years. They didn’t make the playoffs again until 2006.

Meanwhile, John Smoltz went on to a Hall of Fame career, winning 213 games and saving 154 others; dealing Alexander in 1987, when Atlanta went 69-92, helped the Braves make the playoffs 14 times in 15 years, starting in 1991.

5) Dodgers bolted Brooklyn and moved to Los Angeles after the 1957 season; they needed a second team to move to the west coast, to make travel feasible for the other six teams in the National League. Move has obviously turned out to be a great one for the Dodgers.

At the time Dodgers/Giants/Bronx were all in New York City; the Giants were doing the worst of the three on the field, and attendance at the Polo Grounds wasn’t good, so they agreed to move, figuring a move to the Bay Area would be more lucrative then splitting the financial pie with a more successful team in the Bronx.  

Problem is, Candlestick Park wasn’t such a great ballpark; very windy, had to share it with the 49ers. Giants didn’t do their due diligence on Candlestick Point, and wound up, for 40 or so years, with a sub-standard stadium.

Their new stadium is way better and now the Giants have a good deal, but think about it; would you rather own the Giants or the Mets, who came into being in 1962, filling the void left by the two teams bolting to California?

4) When Brett Favre was Green Bay’s quarterback in 1994, his backup was Mark Brunell, who wound getting traded to Jacksonville the next year, the Jaguars’ first season.

Green Bay had another QB in camp in 1994, but they cut him. Guy wound up playing in the Arena League for three years, then in NFL Europe, before signing with the Rams in 1998. Now he is in the Hall of Fame— Kurt Warner.

Had Green Bay kept Warner instead of Brunell, they might mot have made a movie about him.

3) Baseball’s 1970 All-Star Game in Cincinnati went 12 innings; National League won 5-4 when Pete Rose bowled over catcher Ray Fosse to score the winning run, even though Fosse didn’t have the ball yet.

Fosse suffered a separated shoulder and wasn’t the same player after that. Cleveland traded him to the A’s two years later. Fosse helped the A’s win two World Series and wound up being a TV analyst for Oakland for 35 years after he retired. 

2) In 2017, Chicago Bears traded up (gave up a 3rd and 4th round pick) to the #2 spot in the NFL Draft, in order to take QB Mitchell Trubisky, who went 29-23 as Chicago’s starter in his four years there. Not a bad record, but the Bears lost both playoff games in the Trubisky era. 

Problem is, Chicago could’ve kept those 3rd/4th round picks and taken Patrick Mahomes, who was the 10th pick that year. NFL would look a lot different had that happened.

Of course, Chicago could’ve also taken Deshaun Watson that year; then they would have a much different kind of mess on their hands. Watson was the 12th pick in that draft. 

1) Tom Brady was the 199th player picked in the 2000 Draft, a 6th-round pick. He became the starter in New England because Drew Bledsoe got hurt in a 2001 game.

Since then, Brady has won seven Super Bowls and is one of the best QB’s ever. Every team in the NFL passed on him multiple times, including the Patriots.

Brady’s record in New England: 249-75
Bill Belichick’s record as a head coach: 321-156
With Brady: 249-75
Without Brady: 72-81

13) “I think everyone should go to college and get a degree, and then spend six months as a bartender and six months as a cab driver. Then they would really be educated”
Al McGuire

12) “It’s not that I’m so smart; it’s just that I stay with problems longer”
Albert Einstein

11) “Be nice to people on way up, because you meet them on your way down”
Jimmy Durante

10) “Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards”
Soren Kierkegaard

9) “Money won is twice as sweet as money earned”
Fast Eddie Felson, from The Color of Money

8) “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work”
Thomas Edison

7) “To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved”
George McDonald

6) “I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts”
John Locke 

5) “The best way to cheer yourself up is to cheer everyone else up”
Mark Twain

4) “Success is never final”
Winston Churchill

3) “I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more of it I have”
Thomas Jefferson

2) “The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that, you’ve got it made”
Jean Giraudoux

1) “Trust everybody, but cut the cards”
Fimley Peter Dunne

13) “……here’s the thing. If you can’t spot the sucker in your first half hour at the table, then you ARE the sucker.”
Mike McDermott, Rounders

12) “I’ve got a trig midterm tomorrow and I’m being chased by Guido, the killer pimp.”
Miles, Risky Business

11) “You’re a goddamn quarterback! You know what that means? It’s the top spot, kid. It’s the guy who takes the fall. It’s the guy everybody’s looking at first – the leader of a team – who will support you when they understand you. Who will break their ribs and their noses and their necks for you, because they believe. ‘Cause you make them believe. That’s a quarterback.”
Al Pacino, Any Given Sunday

10) “He’s a great player, but I don’t think we can get him in academically.”
Jerry Tarkanian, Blue Chips

9) “Listen, Lupus, you didn’t come into this life just to sit around on a dugout bench, did ya? Now get your ass out there and do the best you can.”
Walter Matthau in The Bad News Bears

8) “I’ll get to the bottom of this……if I have to go all the way to the top.”
Colonel Flagg, M*A*S*H*

7) “Do whats in your heart, son. You’ll be fine.”
Robin Williams, from Good Will Hunting

6) “God likes me!!! He really, really likes me!!! What a day!!! What a fabulous day!!!”
Richard Dreyfuss in Let It Ride

5) “Being perfect is not about that scoreboard out there. It’s not about winning. It’s about you and your relationship with yourself, your family and your friends. Being perfect is about being able to look your friends in the eye and know that you didn’t let them down because you told them the truth…….”
Billy Bob Thornton, Friday Night Lights

4) “Why would you want to dance with someone who doesn’t want to dance with you?”
Adam Sandler, The Wedding Singer

3) “It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard… is what makes it great.”
Tom Hanks in A League of Their Own

2) “A little song, a little dance……a little seltzer down your pants”
Chuckles the Clown, from The Mary Tyler Moore Show

1) “There’s no such thing as a sure thing, thats why they call it gambling.”
Oscar Madison, The Odd Couple

13) Without a Trace— Jack Malone (Anthony LaPaglia) runs an FBI unit specializing in missing persons investigations, while his personal life falls apart around him. Sometimes they found the people, sometimes they didn’t, which is part of what made the show so good.

12) The West Wing— Martin Sheen is the President; this show is about his staff and how they deal with the every day happenings in Washington. An excellent cast; ton of great actors passed through this show over its 7-year run. 

11) Lost In Space— This show was on in the 60’s; a space colony family struggles to survive when a spy/accidental stowaway throws their ship hopelessly off course. Dr Smith (Jonathan Harris) was the annoying stowaway who provided comic relief; his interaction with the Robot (“Danger!!! Danger!!!) were one of the highlights of the show.

One of the prized pieces of my bobblehead collection is a Robot bobblehead.

10) Addams Family— The Addams Family is not your typical family: it takes delight in most of the things of which normal people would be terrified. Gomez Adams (John Astin) is an extremely wealthy man and is able to indulge his wife Morticia’s (Carolyn Jones) every desire, whether it’s cultivation of poisonous plants or a candlelit dinner in a graveyard.

Morticia would read the stock ticker, and if Gomez lost, he would say “Easy come, easy go”

Cousin Itt, Thing, Lurch were all excellent characters.

1993, I have an emergency appendectomy; I’m in the hospital couple of days. Guy in the next hospital bed is watching Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, and when they run the credits at the end of the show, I get kind of excited, because Felix Silla played one of the robots.

Felix Silla played Cousin Itt on the Addams Family; my neighbor wasn’t impressed when I gave him that bit of trivia. The nurse smiled, then checked to see if she gave me too much medication.

9) White Shadow— An NBA player retires and gets a job as a basketball coach in a inner-city high school; the uniforms that Carver High wears in this show are the same ones that the star (Ken Howard) of the show’s team wore in high school on Long Island.

The basketball scenes were very well done.

Bruce Paltrow was the show’s creator; Gwyneth Paltrow’s father.

8) Green Acres— A New York City attorney (Eddie Albert) and his city-loving wife (Eva Gabor) attempt to live as farmers in the bizarre community of Hooterville. Hank Kimball was my favorite character, playing the bumbling county agent.

My lasting memory of this show is that seemingly every time I had it on, my father would walk in the room and say “Why the hell are you watching this?” Then five minutes later, he’d be laughing harder than I was.

7) Mister Ed— A wisecracking talking horse is the star, but he only talks to the guy who owns the barn he lives in, Wilbur Post (Alan Young). Mister Ed was a big baseball fan; he once took batting practice off of the Dodgers, with Sandy Koufax on the mound.

Good trivia; Dodgers’ CF Willie Davis was Mister Ed’s favorite ballplayer.

6) M*A*S*H— The staff of an Army hospital in the Korean War find that laughter is the best way to deal with their often-horrendous situation.

Hawkeye Pierce (Alan Alda) is the star of the show; Alda was so recognizable as Hawkeye that it probably hurt his acting career after M*A*S*H went off the air— the series finale is one of the most-watched TV shows ever.

Alda played a therapist on Ray Donovan the last couple seasons.

5) Billions— Showtime series has now finished six seasons, a U.S. Attorney goes after a hedge fund king in a battle between two powerful New York figures. Making things sticky is that the attorney’s wife (Maggie Siff) works as a psychologist for the hedge fund guy.

Lot of interesting cameos thru the years; John Malkovich, Kevin Pollak, Eric Bogosian, pro wrestler Becky Lynch, Mark Teixeira, Kevin Durant, Mark Cuban. Great show.

4) Law and Order— 20 years, 456 episodes that follow a crime (usually a murder), usually adapted from current headlines, from two separate vantage points, the police investigation and the prosecution in court.

One of the few shows that survived the stars of the show moving on and being replaced by other characters. This show was a launching pad for many acting careers; there are 26 actors who have appeared in Billions who also appeared in at least one episode of Law and Order.

3) CSI— An elite team of police forensic evidence investigation experts work their cases in Las Vegas; in real life, I searched fingerprints for ten years for the state of New York, so I know a little bit about this line of work, but what attracted me to this show was a) Las Vegas and b) the loyalty the characters had to their co-workers and their jobs.

The eulogy Gil Grissom (William Peterson) gives after Warrick Brown is murdered is one of the great speeches (albeit a short one) in television history.

2) Odd Couple— Two divorced friends who are complete opposites share an apartment; one is really neat and stuffy photographer, the other a sloppy, easy-going sportswriter.

1) Magnum PI— The adventures of a Hawaii-based private investigator (Tom Selleck), as he solves cases with the help of his buddies, TC (Roger Mosley) a helicopter pilot, club manager Rick (Larry Manetti) and Higgins (John Hillerman) who runs the estate Magnum lives on.

The parade of beautiful women as guest stars on the show was an 80’s who’s who of  Hollywood: Sharon Stone, Jill St John, Mimi Rogers, Leslie Uggams, Erin Gray, Dana Delany, to name a few.

Frank Sinatra did an episode near the end of the series; Ernest Borgnine, Carol Burnett, Cesar Romero, Ten Danson, Dennis Weaver— a long list of famous guest stars.

In honor of Weekend at Bernie’s being on TV tonight. Here are 20 of my favorite non-sports movies (in alphabetical order)
— Begin Again— A down-and-out music executive discovers a young singer in a New York City bar; the two go into business together. James Corden is excellent as the young lady’s friend from back home in England. If you like music, you’ll like this movie.

— The Bodyguard— A former Secret Service agent becomes the bodyguard for a famous singer, but the singer thinks he works too hard at protecting her, until her attacker kills her sister.

Debbie Reynolds, Robert Wuhl, Ralph Waite (the father on The Waltons) have bit parts.

— Bulworth— A suicidal politician puts a contract out on himself and takes the opportunity to be bluntly honest with his voters. In the meantime, he falls head over heels for a young lady, who turns out to be hit the hit man who was hired to kill him.

Halle Berry, Jack Warden, Don Cheadle, Paul Sorvino, Wendell Pierce; excellent cast.

— Cousins— Two married people find out their spouses are having an affair with each other, which brings them closer together.

End of this movie has the two main characters (Ted Danson/Isabella Rossallini) sailing off into the sunset together. 26 years later, the final scene of CSI has William Peterson/Jorja Fox sailing off into the sunset. Very similar scenes.

Danson/Peterson were both in Cousins; they were also both head of the crime lab on CSI.

— Danny Collins— An aging rock star discovers a 40-year-old letter written to him by John Lennon; he then decides to look up his son in New Jersey, who he had never met.

Quality cast: Al Pacino, Jennifer Garner, Christopher Plummer, Annette Bening.

— Dave— Guy who runs a temp agency is hired by the Secret Service to become a momentary stand-in for the President of the United States- they look exactly alike. Then the President has a stroke, and the stand-in finds his role extended indefinitely.

Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver, Charles Grodin, Frank Langella, Ving Rhames, Kevin Dunn, Ben Kingsley. Quite a cast.

— Fabulous Baker Boys— Two brothers play smaller clubs as dueling piano players; their business picks up when they add a beautiful, up-and-coming singer to their act. Michelle Pfeiffer is the singer; Jeff/Beau Bridges are the two brothers.

— Good Will Hunting— A young janitor at M.I.T. has a gift for math, but needs help from a psychologist to find direction in his life.

Robin Williams is great in this as the psychologist; Matt Damon is the math whiz, Ben Affleck plays his friends who offers good advice now and then. Minnie Driver plays a Harvard student who is surprised that she is attracted to a janitor from south Boston.

— Last Vegas— Four senior citizen friends throw a bachelor party in Las Vegas for their last remaining single pal. Robert DeNiro, Morgan Freeman, Michael Douglas, Kevin Kline, Mary Steenburgen. Quite a cast.

— Leap of Faith— A huckster preacher is stranded in a small town when his tour bus breaks down; they set up their tent and put on shows in a smaller down suffering through a drought.

Steve Martin, Debra Winger, Liam Neeson, Meat Loaf, Philip Seymour Hoffman. I’m a huge Steve Martin fan; this is some of his best work.

— Let It Ride— Richard Dreyfuss plays a cab driver/degenerate gambler who gets a hot tip on a race horse and wins big, and for one day, he can’t seem to stop winning.

If you’ve spent any time at the track, you’ll laugh hard at some of this stuff; Dreyfuss is great, with help from David Johansen, Jennifer Tilly, Robbie Coltrane, Teri Garr.

— Lost in Translation— An aging movie star and a neglected young woman form an unlikely bond after crossing paths in Tokyo, where the movie star is getting paid a 7-figure sum to do whiskey commercials. Bill Murray is great in this non-comedic role; Scarlett Johansson is his new friend.

— Molly’s Game— The true story of Molly Bloom, an Olympic-class skier who ran the world’s most exclusive high-stakes poker game after she quit skiing. This movie is a continuation of the book she wrote to help pay all her legal bills.

Book/movie are both excellent, helping prove that real life is stranger than fiction. Idris Elba, Jessica Chastain are the stars of the movie; Kevin Costner has a small role as Molly’s father.

— One More Time— Christopher Walken plays a fading singer who plots his comeback, while dealing with two adult daughters with a sibling rivalry.

Oliver Platt is in this movie; he’s been in a lot of good stuff. Bulworth, A Time to Kill, The West Wing, just to name a few. Quite a resume he has.

— Prince of Tides— A high school football coach from South Carolina comes to New York City to meet with his sister’s psychiatrist, after the sister threatens suicide. Because it is a movie, the two of them fall for each other, even though both of them are married.

The scene at the dinner party with the expensive violin is the best part of this movie.

Great cast: Nick Nolte, Barbra Streisand, George Carlin, Blythe Danner, Kate Nelligan.

— Rounders— A young gambler who quit after being cleaned out returns to playing big stakes poker to help his sleazy friend pay off loan sharks.

Matt Damon, Edward Norton, John Malkovich, John Turturro, Martin Landau make up an excellent cast. The guys who wrote this movie also write Billions, the Showtime series.

— Searching for Bobby Fischer— A sportswriter realizes that his 7-year old son is a chess prodigy, then struggles with how to help his son realize his potential.

Back in junior high, I loved chess and my last name is Fischer— this was about the same time that Bobby Fischer was a world champion at chess, so I was a big fan, although Bobby Fischer turned out to be kind of a wack job, albeit the best player in the world.

Joe Mantegna is the sportswriter, Joan Allen plays his wife. Laurence Fishburne, Ben Kingsley play the kid’s two chess mentors, who have vastly different philosophies.

Excellent movie about chess, and also about how parents push their kids, whether that’s the right thing to do or not.

— A Star Is Born— A famous singer discovers a young singer in a drag bar; the two become friends, as her career takes off, while he struggles with personal problems. 

This is the fourth time this movie has been made; this version is very similar to the 1954 version, with James Mason/Judy Garland.

Bradley Cooper/Lady Gaga are the stars; Andrew Dice Clay adds a lot to the movie as her father.

— This is Where I Leave You— After their father dies, four grown siblings are forced to return to their childhood home and live under the same roof for a week. 

My dad died in 2015; when I came home from the funeral, I put the TV on and this movie was on HBO, first time I had ever seen it, which was a little weird.

Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Connie Britton, Corey Stoll, Rose Byrne, Adam Driver, Jane Fonda. Impressive cast.

— Weekend at Bernie’s— Two young men are trying to make their way in business; when they go to the president of the company with a serious financial error on a printout, he pretends to be thrilled and invites them to his beach house for the weekend. He actually plans on having them killed, to keep his chicanery out of sight.

The boss gets murdered because he is messing around with his work partner’s wife; the two guys then pretend Bernie is still alive, because they think they’ll get blamed for his death otherwise.

I didn’t explain that very well, but the movie is on Sundance tonight. Very funny. 

13) Pitching has certainly changed a lot; from 1952-55, Robin Roberts started 154 games; he finished 118 of them, going 97-52 in those four seasons. 154 starts in four years is 38.5/year; most anyone would start now is probably 32 or so. 

12) In his Hall of Fame career, Tony Gwynn was intentionally walked 203 times; he hit only 135 home runs. 

11) Pretty sure I underestimated how productive Frank Thomas was in his career; seven years in a row, he walked 100+ times, scored 100+ runs, knocked in 100+ runs, hit .300+. 

10) Mike Mussina took five no-hitters into the 8th inning, but never threw a no-hitter. Too bad he wasn’t around for the 7-inning games in doubleheaders couple years ago.

9) Ichiro Suzuki is the only player ever with 200+ singles in a season; he did it twice. Ichiro led the American League in singles ten years in a row.

8) There are seven father/son combinations in MLB history, where both father/son made an All-Star team and father/son played the same position. 

7) Hall of Famer Larry Walker was a hockey goalie growing up in Canada; one of his teammates was NHL great Cam Neely. Walker has three brothers: Barry, Carey, Gary. His parents must have a good sense of humor. 

6) Tris Speaker was a centerfielder who, in his career, pulled off six unassisted double plays. Not sure how an outfielder did that, but he did. 

5) In 1947, Johnny Mize hit 51 homers, struck out only 42 times; I’m guessing he never heard of the term “launch angle”. 

4) Of all the players since 1961 who had 3,000+ plate appearances, these players had the best batting averages:
.338 Tony Gwynn
.331 Roberto Clemente
.328 Wade Boggs

3) In 2015, Max Scherzer came pretty close to Johnny Vander Meer territory; he threw a 1-hit shutout, giving up a 7th inning single. His next start, he threw a no-hitter, the only baserunner a hit batsman with two out in the 9th inning. 

2) Remember Phil Niekro, the great knuckleball pitcher? Turns out one of his childhood friends was NBA great John Havlicek, who apparently wasn’t very good at catching knuckleballs. 

1) Three guys who today might have been passed over in the amateur draft:
1,390th pick— Mike Piazza
574th pick— John Smoltz
511th pick— Ryne Sandberg

Going forward, amateur draft will only be 20 rounds; scouting becomes even more important now, to find the kids who fall through the cracks.

In couple days, I’ll remember that I forgot a show from long time ago, and I’ll have to re-do this list, but this is the list for today

13) In Plain Sight— Show about a US Marshal’s unit that relocates federal witnesses; show ran for four years, but it was on USA Network, and it ended when the show’s star got a role on a show on regular network TV, which obviously was more lucrative.

Not lot of TV shows are set in Albuquerque; this was a very good show.

12) Ray Donovan— The most violent program on this list; just about everybody on this Showtime series that isn’t related to the Donovans eventually winds up dead.

Ray Donovan is a fixer for rich people, but he can’t fix his own family; his wife passes away from cancer, his father is a creep, his daughter seems destined to follow in her dad’s footsteps. 

Live Schreiber plays Ray, Jon Voight plays his father (a genuine creep); they’ve had guest stars like Susan Sarandon, James Woods, Wendell Pierce, Hank Azaria. Alan Alda, C Thomas Howell. 

Very good show but also very violent.

11) M*A*S*H— Years later, after watching re-runs of this show on our local channel 10 and the Boston channel for hours at a time, it dawned on me that this was actually a very sad show, with humor/jokes masking the grotesque sadness of wartime Korea.

The McLean Stevenson episodes were the best; he was Colonel Henry Blake for the first 75 episodes, and a lot of them were classics, just funny as hell.

10) Green Acres— As a kid, I spent lot of hours watching Green Acres re-runs; my dad would walk into the room, say “Why the hell are you watching this?”, but within five minutes, he’d be sitting there laughing harder than me and would leave the room before my mother came in and saw the both of us laughing. She wasn’t a big fan of Hank Kimball or Arnold Ziffel.

9) Billions— Showtime series about rich hedge fund traders who push the boundaries of the law while New York prosecutors  try to catch them in the act of doing illegal stuff.

Chuck Rhoades is an attorney who claims to be the moral compass of New York, but he is also into S&M- his ex-wife was his dominatrix, and she is also the psychiatrist for the hedge fund company. Small world.

This show is really well-written, especially since the main hedge fund character had to be written out of the show because his wife died in real life- they’ve successfully changed the tenor of the show with the new hedge fund guy, a less sketchy trader.

Trivia: Paul Giamatti plays the prosecutor; he is the son of former baseball commissioner Bart Giamatti. I suggested a cameo role for Pete Rose, but so far, that hasn’t happened.

8) West Wing— Martin Sheen plays the President in this show; his cabinet included Rob Lowe, Allison Janney, Richard Schiff, John Spencer— great cast.

Actor Duke Hill was in both West Wing and Suits; Mary Louise Parker was in this and is also in Billions. Alan Alda was in this, Ray Donovan and of course, M*A*S*H

Jimmy Smits, Mary MacCormack, Tim Matheson, Gary Cole, just a ton of excellent actors. 

In one episode, President Bartlet has to throw out the first pitch at an Orioles’ game, but he never played ball, so one of his aides has to teach him how to throw a baseball in a hallway in the White House, where an errant toss breaks an expensive vase.

7) Without a Trace— Show about the FBI Missing Persons Squad that finds missing people by applying advanced psychological profiling to reveal the victims lives.

Anthony LaPaglia was great as Jack Malone, the squad’s leader. Like a lot of main characters on TV, he is better at his job than he is at managing his own personal life. 

6) White Shadow— Ken Howard plays a washed-up NBA player who becomes a high school basketball coach in Los Angeles. Show only lasted three years, because well, high school kids graduate so they would’ve had to turn most of the cast over every other year. 

The basketball scenes were really well-done; Gwyneth Paltrow’s father was the creator of the show. Lot of the issues they tackled in this show were issues that real high school in the inner city had to deal with. Ken Howard was great as Coach Reeves; he wasn’t some all-knowing guy; he had flaws but he fought for his kids and they respected him for it (most of the time).

5) Mr Ed— This show ran on network TV from 1961-66, so I never saw it until the re-runs came on at 4:30 weekdays on a local channel in the early 70’s.

Mr Ed was a talking horse, but he only talked to Wilbur Post, an architect who worked at home but never seemed to actually work. 

Mr Ed was a big Dodger fan; his favorite player was OF Willie Davis. In one episode, the horse takes batting practice against Sandy Koufax, and hits a ball off the wall at Dodger Stadium, with the bat held in his mouth. A fun show, not necessarily a realistic one.

4) CSI— I spent a good chunk of my work career searching fingerprints and working for the NY State Division of Criminal Justice, so I enjoyed all the CSI shows, but especially the one set in Las Vegas— the actors seemed to have a chemistry working together.

The episode where Warrick Brown gets murdered and Gil Grissom gives his eulogy in church is just horrendously sad, but a great scene.

I have this idea (a teacher friend of mine scoffed at this) that CSI should be taught to all high school kids, so they realize how difficult it is to get away with crimes, so maybe there would be fewer crimes. What could it hurt?

3) Odd Couple— As a kid, Oscar Madison was one of my heroes; a sportswriter who always spilled food on his clothes but was a good natured guy who somehow dated a doctor, one of the Pidgeon sisters, or the princess of some obscure country (“You bought her a salty pretzel!!! Oh boy!!!”). 

To this day when I see my cousin’s husband, we recite lines from Odd Couple episodes; when they owned a greyhound racing dog, or appeared on Password (a game show). Great stuff.
(Trivia: they played against Betty White on Password; White was married to Allen Ludden, the host of Password)

Never, ever say the word “assume” to me, or I’ll recite the scene where Felix is in court, writes “assume” on a chalkboard, then says, “When you assume, you make an ass of u and me”

Even the judge was impressed with that one. 

2) Law and Order— 20 years, 456 episodes, a great launching point for lot of acting careers, not to mention the spinoff shows that branched off this original show. 

Take Billions; there are 32 actors who have appeared in 12+ episodes of Billons; 14 of those 32 actors appeared in at least one episode of Law and Order, and two others were in Law and Order SVU, and that doesn’t count Eric Bogosian, who was in Law and Order: Criminal Intent for 61 episodes, but was only in 10 episodes of Billions (so far).

1) Magnum PI— I’ve never been to Hawai’i, but if I ever went, would like to visit Robin Masters’ estate; I’m told you can visit there, it is a museum or something. 

One of the best episodes was when Frank Sinatra played a retired New York City cop whose granddaughter was murdered— this was near the end of both the series and Sinatra’s career. 

The overriding themes of the show were that great friends will do all kinds of stuff for each other, and if you’re really good looking and drive a Ferrari, women will like you 🙂

I had a really interesting den ready to post today, but it’ll have to wait for another day, because Sunday night, the Rams won the Super Bowl!!!! Second Super Bowl title for the Rams, their first in LA, and very dramatic.

Rams went 0-3 in November, were 7-4; the naysayers were having a field day. We live in a fickle society, so you have to win to keep the rats from jumping off the ship, and boy, from December 1st on, the Rams did nothing but win, often by the skin of their teeth.

Last time the Rams won it all, this blog didn’t exist, so hopefully I won’t be too obnoxious here.

First of all, the game and its trappings:
The game
— 15 plays, 72 yards, 4:48, the game-winning drive. Tremendous. Cooper Kupp (of course) scored the game-winning TD with 1:25 left.

Rams didn’t have Robert Woods, Odell Beckham Jr missed the second half, and LA’s top three tight ends were out; Brycen Hopkins (#88) came out of nowhere to catch four passes for 47 yards— he caught one pass in the regular season, as the Rams 4th-string tight end.

GM Les Snead deserves a huge heap of credit— more on him later.

— Sean McVay is now 55-26 in regular season, 7-3 in playoff games. Five years, two Super Bowls, coaching a franchise that before he got there, hadn’t had a winning season in 13 years. Whatever they pay him, it ain’t enough. 

— First 4:41 of the third quarter was an unmitigated disaster; Cincinnati threw a 75-yard TD pass on first play of third quarter, then picked off a pass and kicked a field goal- they led 20-13 with 10:19 left in the third quarter. Things didn’t look good.

— There was a weird stretch in the second half, before the game-winning drive where both teams punted three times in a row; Rams ran nine plays for nine yards, Cincinnati 11 plays for no yards.

— Matthew Stafford was 26-40 for 283 yards and three TD’s; now people can start thinking about his chances to eventually be a Hall of Famer. He was awesome this season.

There was a sporting goods store in Detroit selling “Detroit Rams” t-shirts, that’s how popular Stafford is after playing 12 years for the Lions.
Imagine what he must be thinking right now?
Imagine what Lion fans  must be thinking right now?

— Cooper Kupp caught eight passes for 92 yards and two TD’s; the guy went to college at freakin’ Eastern Washington, a I-AA football program. He is a great receiver.

— 3rd down conversions: Rams 6-15, Cincinnati 3-14

— Aaron Donald, Von Miller, Leonard Floyd, they put lot of pressure on Joe Burrow, sacked him seven times.

I’m standing in my living room watching the last series, and I’m as confident as I’ve ever been that the defense ain’t getting scored upon, and sure enough, they shut the Bengals down.

— Total of only six penalties were accepted in this game; football should always be officiated this way, though the facemark penalty on the long Cincinnati TD should’ve been called.

— The wife of Rams’ WR Van Jefferson was taken to the hospital during the game; she had a baby, so really big day for the Jeffersons.

— Rams’ safety Taylor Rapp proposed to his girlfriend on the field after the game; she said yes. She gets an engagement ring; he gets a Super Bowl ring.

— Potentially expensive day for Odell Beckham Jr, who caught two passes for 52 yards and a TD; he hurt his knee in second quarter. A doctor on Twitter thought it was a torn ACL, which won’t help his chance to cash in as a free agent this spring.

— Rams’ GM Les Snead deserves a huge pat on the back for all this: quality depth wins in the NFL; Snead has done an exceptional job of fortifying the Rams’ roster, while dealing first round draft picks for proven stars.

Skeptics were everywhere; like I said, our society is fickle. After the game, people on NFL Network were debating whether Les Snead’s approach will spread around the league. Back in November, they were thrashing the guy for trading draft picks.

— This is I know; on Thursday September 8, the Rams will host the NFL season opener.

Trappings:
— Too damn many commercials and too much hoopla before the game; the first two or three series of the games were smothered by commercials. I know the NFL exists to make $$$, but good grief, has to be tough for the players to get a rhythm for the game.

— I mute TV during all the Ram games, so didn’t hear Dwayne Johnson’s act before kickoff; was getting antsy waiting for the freakin’ game to start, can only imagine what the players are thinking while they’re waiting for the biggest game of their lives while hijinks are going on all around them.

— John Calipari just showed up on an episode of Billions; brilliant casting, and he’s good, giving the hedge fund traders a pep talk.

— Don’t watch the Super Bowl commercials, don’t care about them, I know some people do, I do wonder how effective they are; when other teams play in the Super Bowl, hardly watch the commercials. Use timeouts to get food or hit the men’s room or play word games on my phone.

— Halftime was long, over a half hour; do players hate this? Cincinnati’s kicker stayed out on the field and watched halftime. Does it help coaches make adjustments?

— Now we look forward to the 2022 football season, but we’ll get into that down the road- the draft, the schedule release, free agency and trades. Will be an interesting offseason, for sure.

“The most competitive business in the world”

NFL has 32 teams, some are run better than others- things have to break just right and to win a championship. This year, things broke just right for the good guys.

Tonight, Armadillo World HQ is a freakin’ happy place.  

It is easy to sit here and criticize everything, so before I sit here and criticize everything, here are some good ideas that have been put into play:

— NHL, NFL moving their drafts around the country— Anything that gets the fans closer to the league is a good thing. NHL started this; NFL kind of stumbled into it, but it helps them.

I’m guessing the NFL Draft in Las Vegas this spring should be fun.

— Hard Knocks in season— Brilliant idea they’re doing this year for the first time. The more people see behind the curtains, the better for the league’s business. Plus, the Colts are hot now, so it makes the show more interesting.

— Whoever put the TV camera in the end zone pylon deserves a raise; gives us an interesting view of the action.

— Baseball adding the Wild Card needed to happen, now they want to expand the playoffs further, maybe to 14 teams.

Why? To make more money from the networks (that’s the answer to every question)

Some suggestions to make the (sports) world a better place:
Non-sports stuff:
— More game shows, less of these BS talk shows where the hosts stage arguments so they can yell at each other. Game shows were excellent, made people at home think some.

— We need to respect each other more; just because we disagree about something doesn’t mean we have to hate each other. Agree to disagree, but maintain respect for each other. Debating stuff can be fun.

Sports stuff
Baseball
— Universal DH is a must. Why?
a) Pitchers suck at hitting
b) Pitchers get hurt hitting/running bases
c) DH’s make more $$$ than relief pitchers; the players’ union likes the DH.
d) More offense equals a more interesting game.

— Banning shifts. Why?
a) Line drives in the gap are more fun to watch than having every guy swing for the fences.
b) More balls in play equals quicker games, more action.
c) Great fielding plays make for better highlights, which attract fans.

— Allow draft picks to be traded.
a) This will give smart teams (maybe with less $$$) to outwit rich, impatient teams.
b) Gives fans/media more stuff to talk about.
c) Anything that keeps baseball in the forefront of conversation is a good thing.

— Market the game better. How?
a) Create an NFL Films-type group that produces a Hard Knocks show where we can see some of the inner workings of baseball. It would be great.
b) Imagine last cuts in spring training? Would be good television.
c) Trade negotiations at the deadline? It would be like watching Moneyball all over again.
d) Show Winter League games from Central America.
e) Get rid of all TV blackouts; you WANT people to watch baseball.

— Geographic realignment. Why?
a) Create more local rivalries— Padres TV guys were complaining that every time they visit Dodger Stadium, they pass thru Anaheim, yet they rarely play the Angels. 

b) More rivalries mean bigger crowds, better TV ratings, more $$$
c) Reduce travel costs.
e) All five California teams in one division; those teams would play 119 of their 162 games in California.

— Market ALL the teams, not just New York, Boston and the Dodgers.
a) Every team has to appear on Sunday Night baseball every so often.
b) Mike Trout is really good; put the Angels on national TV more. 

c) Houston/San Diego are big cities; show the Astros/Padres more on national TV. 

— Make Wild Card playoffs best-of-3. One game just doesn’t cut it; you fight for six months to make the playoffs, then lose one game and you’re out. 2 out of 3 would be better, plus it gives the other playoff teams a few days to rest up for their playoffs.

— Showing games from Japan/Korea in the mornings wouldn’t be a bad idea, either.

Basketball
— Let kids go straight from high school to the NBA, the way it was when Lebron James was in high school. Kids going to college for one year is a farce.

— They’ve turned college basketball into a glorified version of AAU; players transfer at the drop of a hat. Kid at a mid-major makes two layups in a row, he wants to play in the ACC. Not too sure how to fix it, but having obvious pro prospects skip college altogether would help.

— Shorten NBA playoff series, make series best-of-5, increase the drama.  Upsets now and then are a good thing, like the NCAA tournament.

— I’m curious to see how this play-in tournament is going to work. It’ll shorten the regular season by four games

— Big East should host their conference tournament at Butler’s Hinkle Fieldhouse one year, the gym where they filmed the end of Hoosiers. You have Butler in your league, take advantage of it.

Football
— No more Thursday Night Football, except for Week 1 and Thanksgiving. Instead, they should have Monday night doubleheaders, 7:00/10:30 kickoffs. It would be popular. Football wasn’t meant to be played on three days’ rest.

— Add a second bye week for each NFL team, play a 19-week schedule with 17 games, and have the Super Bowl on Sunday of Presidents’ Day weekend, when everyone is off on Monday.

— Add the AAF’s onside kick rule, when instead of an onside kick, the kicking team gets the ball on their own 35-yard line, 4th-and-15. They get the first down the keep the ball; the onside kick rule they use now isn’t good. Too hard for a recovery by the kicking team.

— If a kickoff goes thru the goal posts, the kicking team gets one point.

— Higher seed in playoffs chooses their opponent in playoffs; they do this in the G-League and it is a good idea. Would make for a good TV show when they choose their opponents.

— College football needs to change their recruiting calendars, to end the insanity of the coaching carousel before bowl season. What happened this fall was embarrassing, schools throwing $$$ at coaches, just before the early recruiting period.

Too many bowl games with lame duck coaches and quarterbacks transferring as soon as they’re not the starter anymore. 

— College football playoffs should be 12 teams; cut out some of these low-level bowl games which mean nothing.

These are just suggestions, but they would improve things.
What do you think? Have any ideas? 

13) “There’s no such thing as a sure thing, thats why they call it gambling.”
Oscar Madison, The Odd Couple

12) “I’ve got a trig midterm tomorrow and I’m being chased by Guido, the killer pimp.”
Miles, Risky Business

11) “You’re a goddamn quarterback! You know what that means? It’s the top spot, kid. It’s the guy who takes the fall. It’s the guy everybody’s looking at first – the leader of a team – who will support you when they understand you. Who will break their ribs and their noses and their necks for you, because they believe. ‘Cause you make them believe. That’s a quarterback.”
Al Pacino, Any Given Sunday

10) “He’s a great player, but I don’t think we can get him in academically.”
Jerry Tarkanian, Blue Chips

9) “A little song, a little dance……a little seltzer down your pants”
Chuckles the Clown, from The Mary Tyler Moore Show

8) “I’ll get to the bottom of this……if I have to go all the way to the top.”
Colonel Flagg, M*A*S*H*

7) “Listen, Lupus, you didn’t come into this life just to sit around on a dugout bench, did ya? Now get your ass out there and do the best you can.”
Walter Matthau in The Bad News Bears

6) “God likes me!!! He really, really likes me!!! What a day!!! What a fabulous day!!!”
Richard Dreyfuss in Let It Ride

5) “Being perfect is not about that scoreboard out there. It’s not about winning. It’s about you and your relationship with yourself, your family and your friends. Being perfect is about being able to look your friends in the eye and know that you didn’t let them down because you told them the truth…….”
Billy Bob Thornton, Friday Night Lights

4) “……here’s the thing. If you can’t spot the sucker in your first half hour at the table, then you ARE the sucker.”
Mike McDermott, Rounders

3) “It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard… is what makes it great.”
Tom Hanks in A League of Their Own

2) “Why would you want to dance with someone who doesn’t want to dance with you?”
Adam Sandler, The Wedding Singer

1) “Do whats in your heart, son. You’ll be fine.”
Robin Williams, from Good Will Hunting