Author: Armadillo Sports

Some secrets of happy people………

— Have fun.

Leave yourself some time every to do stuff that is fun. Experts say that regularly having fun is one of the five most important factors in leading a happy life.

— Believe in yourself

In order to do something, we have to believe that we can do it; if you don’t believe in yourself, life becomes a lot tougher.

— Pay attention; you may already have what you want.

People tend to always want more; it is important to remember where you started and appreciate all the good things you’ve done.

— Be positive.

We gravitate to people who approach life with positive expectations; seeing the bright side of things makes people want to be around you more.

— Money does not buy happiness.

Few years ago, a guy won $13M in the lottery; a month later, his wife filed for divorce, and she got half the money. No bueno.

— Have realistic expectations.

People who are happy don’t get everything they want, but they want most of what they get. Try to make things better, not necessarily perfect.

— Accomplish something every day.

Make sure that every day, do something that moves you towards achieving a goal(s). At the end of the day, write down the positive things you accomplished that day. It helps.

— Famous birthdays, June 18th:
Isabella Rossellini, 74
Tom Clements, 73
Andres Galarraga, 65

Dave Leiper, 64
Bruce Smith, 63
Sandy Alomar Jr., 60

Jeff Saturday, 51
Alana De La Garza, 50
Antonio Gates, 46

— Be open to new ideas.

Never stop learning; the world keeps changing. If you’re willing to adapt to new things/ideas, you’ll wind up happier.

— Give yourself time to adapt to change.

If you move into a new situation, give yourself time to adjust. Easing yourself to new circumstances makes it easier to deal with changes that happen down the road.

— Keep a pen and paper nearby.

People who take notes when they get an idea feel more in control of things; it is frustrating to have a good idea, they forget about it because you didn’t write it down.

— Have a purpose

Have a reason why you do the things that you do. When you define what you want, it is easier to track what what you’re doing, and decide if they’re helping or not.

— Do what you say what you’re going to do

Staying focused and committed to your goals make them easier to accomplish, and achieving goals makes us happier. Starting things, then not finishing them is deflating.

— Busy is better than bored.

Having a lot of stuff to do is more interesting/fun that feeling like we have nothing to do. We won’t all run out of money, but eventually, we’ll all run out of time. 

Spend your time wisely, doing things that matter to you.

— Focus on what really matters to you.

Figure out what matters the most to you, then work like hell to get it. It is more fun competing in game if you really want to win it. 

— If the baseball playoffs started today (they don’t):
NL: Braves, Brewers, Dodgers. Wild Cards: Cardinals-Phillies-Padres
AL: Bronx, White Sox, Mariners. Wild Cards: Rays-Guardians-A’s/Tor

— There are only nine head coaches this season who are starting their 5th+ season as that team’s head coach.

— There are 10 new head coaches this coming season; six of those 10 coaches have never been NFL head coaches before. NFC North is only division that didn’t have a coaching change.

— Six of the 14 fourteen teams that made the playoffs in 2024 didn’t make the playoffs last year.

— Of the 32 quarterbacks expected to start in Week 1 this year, 24 were picked in the first round of the draft, three more were taken in the second round.

The other five:
Jacoby Brissett, 3rd round
Malik Willis, 3rd round
Kirk Cousins, 4th round
Dak Prescott, 4th round
Brock Purdy, 7th round……three of those five do not play for the team that drafted them.

— Long time ago (2017-20) Deshaun Watson went 38-37 as QB of the Houston Texans, starting three playoff games (1-2). He was traded for six draft picks (three first round picks) and then signed a huge contract with Cleveland (fully guaranteed $260M) but the wheels came off.

In the last five years, Watson was 9-10 as Cleveland’s starter; 19 games in five years, not great, but he still has one year left on that contract, and his salary cap hit would be $80M if they cut him.

Last year, Browns started 40-year old Joe Flacco four games and two rookie QB’s six/seven games; going to be very interesting where Watson fits in on the team this season.

— Baltimore Ravens are 3-5 in playoff games in eight years with Lamar Jackson at QB, playing in only one AFC title game, which is why John Harbaugh is coaching the Giants now.

— Harbaugh is Giants’ fifth head coach in the 11 years since Tom Coughlin left; Mike McCarthy is the Steelers’ 4th head coach since 1969.

McCarthy/Aaron Rodgers won a Super Bowl together with Green Bay, but that was 16 years ago, in 2010.

— Famous birthdays, June 16th:
Al Cowlings, 79
Frank Corral, 71
Laurie Metcalf, 71
Darrell Griffith, 68

Wally Joyner, 64
Calvin Schiraldi, 64
Kerry Wood, 49
Justin Jefferson, 27

— There are 20 new offensive coordinators this season, which doesn’t include Buffalo’s Joe Brady, who moved up from offensive coordinator to head coach.

— In 2004, only two NFL quarterbacks ran the ball for 300+ yards; Michael Vick, Daunte Culpepper. Last year, 12 quarterbacks ran the ball for 300+ yards.

— Dallas Cowboys had losing seasons the last two years, their first back/back losing seasons in 23 years. They gave up 59 touchdowns last year in 17 games.

— Kyler Murray was 38-49-1 as the QB in Arizona, losing his only playoff game; now he plays for the Vikings, a team that went 14-3 with Sam Darnold at QB two years ago, but they let him walk and Seattle won a Super Bowl. JJ McCarthy was 6-4 as Minnesota’s QB last year. 

Coach Kevin O’Connell is 43-27 in four years with the Vikings, but 0-2 in playoff games; he needs one of the QB’s to emerge as a star so he can get off his playoff schneid.

— NFL has had a 17-game season for the last five years; in only one of those five years has the NFC South champ won 10+ games. Last year, three teams tied for first place, at 8-9.

— Before the Buffalo Bills hired Sean McDermott as their coach, they had missed the playoffs 17 years in a row. They made the playoffs eight of the last nine years but didn’t get to a Super Bowl, so they told McDermott to take a hike and promoted offensive coordinator Joe Brady. 

— If the baseball playoffs started today (they don’t):
NL: Braves, Brewers, Dodgers. Wild Cards: Cardinals-Phillies-SD/Wsh/Chi
AL: Bronx, White Sox, Mariners. Wild Cards: Rays-Guardians-A’s

— Happy Armadillo Day!!!!

25 years ago today, we started this blog— typing that made me feel old……lol

It is fun doing this every day; hope you enjoy reading it.

— Hurricanes 3, Golden Knights 0
Carolina wins its second Stanley Cup, first one in 20 years.
37-year old Jordan Staal won the Conn Smythe trophy, MVP of the playoffs.
Vegas has been in the NHL for nine years, has already been in the finals three times (1-2).

— Marlins 4, Pirates 2
Max Meyer improved to 7-0, 2.75 this season.
Marlins are 10-2 so far in June.
In his last six starts, Paul Skenes is 0-4, 4.22.

— Mets 8, Braves 1
Mets scored four runs in the first inning.
Juan Soto batted 25 times this week, reached base 14 times.
Braves lost last two series, after going 18-3-1 in their first 22 series.

—  Diamondbacks 5, Reds 3
Gabriel Moreno hit a tie-breaking homer in the 8th inning.
Arizona manager Torey Lovullo got his 700th career win.
Cincinnati lost eight of its last ten games.

— White Sox 6, Dodgers 4
Down 1-0, White Sox hit three home runs in the 6th inning.
Chicago has won its last eight home series.
White Sox used five pitchers; none of them got more than 8 outs.

— Rockies 23, A’s 9
For some stupid reason (the hockey game???) they started this game at noon in Las Vegas, when it was 101 degrees outside (the new stadium will be covered).

A’s went 4-2 in Las Vegas this week; they scored 23 runs in the two losses. Now they go back “home” to Sacramento now, for the rest of the season. Pitching in Sacramento might seem like a cake walk after a week in the dry heat of the desert.

— Famous birthdays, June 15th:
Dusty Baker, 77
Jim Belushi, 72
Wade Boggs, 68
Helen Hunt, 63

Courtney Cox, 62
Andy Pettitte, 54
Michael Doleac, 49
Derek Anderson, 43

Tim Lincecum, 42
Cooper Kupp, 33
Dominic Smith, 31
Christian Scott, 27

— Dawned on me the other night that I was in 8th grade the last time the Knicks won an NBA title……I was freakin’ 13 years old. My dad would’ve loved watching this team play.

— When I was a kid, loved game shows- Hollywood Squares was my favorite. Was watching some re-runs the other night of Match Game 74, with Gene Rayburn hosting and six famous people trying to match contestants answers. Pretty good show, but damn that was a long time ago. Richard Dawson was one of the celebrities, before he hosted Family Feud.

— Royals 4, Astros 0
Stephen Kolek pitched 7.1 IP, gave up five hits.
Maikel Garcia was 3-for-4, with three RBI.
Astros are 33-40, three games out of the last playoff spot.

— Brewers 4, Phillies 0
Kyle Harrison allowed three hits in his six IP.
Jackson Chourio hit his fifth home run in five games.
Milwaukee leads the NL Central by five games.

— Nationals 10, Mariners 1
Miles Mikolas tossed seven shutout IP as the bulk reliever.
James Wood, Keibert Ruiz homered for Washington.
Seattle lost four of its last five games.

— Rangers 6, Red Sox 4
Wyatt Langford hit the first pitch of the game for a home run.
Kyle Higashioka homered, has three RBI.
Willson Contreras homered twice for the Red Sox. 

— If the baseball playoffs started today (they don’t):
NL: Braves, Brewers, Dodgers. Wild Cards: Cardinals-Phillies-Padres
AL: Bronx, White Sox, Mariners. Wild Cards: Rays-Guardians-A’s/Tex

15 of my favorite sports movies:

1) American Underdog– The true story of NFL MVP and Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner, who went from stocking shelves in an Iowa supermarket to becoming a big-time star.

Best part of this movie is when they slide some real footage from NFL Films into the scenes at the end of the Rams Super Bowl win over Tennessee.

2) Moneyball— Beginning isn’t very good, the end sucks, but I’m an A’s fan and this movie is about how the 2003 A’s put together a team that won 20 games in a row, made the playoffs.

Only really bad thing about this movie is they made skipper Art Howe look like a bad manager, and he was anything but— you don’t win 20 games in a row by accident. 

Movie is based on a book written by Michael Lewis, who also wrote The Big Short, The Blind Side and Liar’s Poker. He’s a great writer. 

3) Blue Chips— Nick Nolte is a college basketball coach who used to win a lot; in order to start winning again, he has to decide whether to break the recruiting rules or not. 

Bob Cousy is the AD; Shaquille O’Neal, Penny Hardaway are two of the recruits. Lot of cameos from basketball people; Jerry Tarkanian, Jim Boeheim, Rick Pitino, Dick Vitale.

4) For Love of the Game— Kevin Costner is a star pitcher for the Tigers who is at the end of his career; he has flashbacks throughout his last game. 

Detroit’s manager in this movie is JK Simmons, who is a Tigers fan in real life; New York’s manager is the late Augie Garrido, one of the all-time great college baseball coaches.

5) Invincible— True story about Vince Papale, a 30-year old bartender who tries out for the 1976 Philadelphia Eagles and makes the squad as a special teams player.

Papale wound up playing three years with the Eagles; Mark Wahlberg plays him, Greg Kinnear plays coach Dick Vermeil, Paige Turco plays Mrs Vermeil, Elizabeth Banks a bartender where Papale was working before the football thing happened.

6) Hustle— A basketball scout discovers a phenomenal player while watching a game on a playground in Spain and sees the prospect as the scout’s chance to get back into the NBA.

Adam Sandler is the scout, Queen Latifah is his wife, Robert Duvall has a cameo as the owner of the 76ers; lot of former/present NBA players in this movie

Basketball scenes are really well done; the parts filmed in Philadelphia have a Rocky-like feel to them. 

7) Fast Break— Gabe Kaplan manages a New York City deli until he applies for a job as a college basketball coach in Nevada. Bernard King, Michael Warren are two of his players; another one is a girl disguised as a guy.

Former UCLA coach Jim Harrick is the basketball advisor for this movie; he has a non-speaking role during the climactic game. 

8) Any Given Sunday— Al Pacino is a pro football coach whose team is struggling; Cameron Diaz is the owner, Dennis Quaid, Jamie Foxx are two of the QB’s. 

The third QB is Pat O’Hara, who was a backup QB in real life at USC, played in the Arena League for several years, was a QB coach in the NFL and has been a football advisor on ten different movies. 

Miami Sharks play against four teams in the movie, all coached by NFL Hall of Famers. 

9) Friday Night Lights— Billy Bob Thornton is a high school football coach in west Texas, where they take high school football very seriously. I think Thornton does the best job of portraying a coach in any movie on this list. 

10) One on One— Robby Benson is a hotshot high school basketball player who gets recruited by a big-time college team, then finds himself in over his head.

Basketball scenes at the end were filmed in Colorado State’s arena, where the Rams still play. 

The coach in this movie wasn’t great; he saw Henry Steele play in high school, and couldn’t tell that he was in over his head? Seriously? 

11) He Got Game— Underrated movie about college basketball recruiting; a prospect’s father is in jail for killing the kid’s mother. The prison warden work-releases the father, and if he can get the kid to go to college where the governor wants him to go, the father gets off the hook.

Denzel Washington is the father, NBA star Ray Allen is the prospect, Ned Beatty is the warden of the jail. Jim Brown, Rick Fox are also in this movie, which is a little intense, but very well-done. 

12) Major League— Female owner of the Cleveland Indians wants to move the team to Miami, so they field a team that is so bad that no one in Cleveland will go to the games, except they win.

(History shows that moving the team to Miami would’ve been stupid, anyway)

Bob Uecker should’ve won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Indians’ radio announcer Harry Doyle. 

13) Bull Durham— Kevin Costner is a minor league catcher who is brought in to mentor a hot-shot pitching prospect. Tim Robbins is the prospect, Robert Wuhl is the pitching coach, Susan Sarandon mentors the prospect off the field.

Durham Bulls are now the AAA team for the Tampa Bay Rays.

14) The Way Back– A high school basketball star walked away from the game after high school, forfeiting his future. Years later, when he reluctantly accepts a coaching job at his alma mater, he gets one last shot at redemption.

Ben Affleck is really good in this; the basketball scenes are very well done. A good deal of this movie is sad, but it has a positive ending.

15) Draft Day— Costner does a lot of sports movies; he is GM of the Cleveland Browns in this one, Denis Leary is the Browns’ coach. Jennifer Garner is the Browns’ salary cap guru, and is dating Costner’s character. 

The year this movie came out, NFL pushed back the draft so the movie could be promoted more, but Radio City Music Hall wasn’t available for the later date, which is why they started moving the draft around the country. Sometimes great ideas happen by accident.

— Bronx 13, A’s 8
Bronx scored all 13 of its runs in the third inning.
A’s pitchers threw 74 pitches in that inning.
Bronx didn’t have any other hits, except for the third inning.
A’s have lost seven of their last eight home games.

— White Sox 2, Tigers 1
Chicago scored both its runs in the seventh inning.
White Sox have won five games in a row.
Detroit has lost 21 of its last 25 games

— AL Central standings…….
Cleveland 34-27
Chicago 32-27
Minnesota 27-33
Kansas City 22-37
Detroit 22-38

— Mariners 3, Diamondbacks 2 (10)
Victor Robles’ infield hit drove in the game-ending run.
Bryce Miller/Luis Castillo both threw five innings for Seattle.
Mariners have won six games in a row.

— AL West standings…….
Seattle 31-29
A’s 28-31
Texas 28-31
Houston 27-34
LA Angels 23-37

— Oklahoma City Thunder were 4-8 against San Antonio this season, which just beat them in seven games in the playoffs. Against the rest of the NBA, Thunder was 71-14 this year.

— Nationals 4, Padres 2
James Wood, Luis Garcia hit solo homers for Washington.
Zack Littell is 4-0, 1.96 in his last four starts.
Keibert Ruiz had two hits, threw out three Padres trying to steal a base.

— Nationals’ SS CJ Abrams has challenged seven pitches at the plate this year; all seven were changed from a strike to a ball, best record by a hitter so far this year.

— Famous birthdays, June 1st
Brian Cox, 80
Larry Centers, 58
Tony Bennett, 57

Teri Polo, 57
Derek Lowe, 53
Santana Moss, 47

Nick Young, 41
Andrew Abbott, 27
Ivan Herrera, 26

Monday would’ve been Andy Griffith’s, Marilyn Monroe’s 100th birthday.

— Teams who have hit the most home runs this year:
86- Bronx
82- Braves
80- Dodgers
79- White Sox, Astros
75- Nationals

— Teams who have hit the fewest home runs this year:
39- Brewers
43- Red Sox
46- Marlins
47- Rays
49- Diamondbacks

— Cardinals 5, Cubs 1
St Louis led 5-0 after three innings.
Matthew Liberatore got 16 outs, didn’t allow a run.
Hunter Dobbins got the last 11 outs, earned his first MLB save.

— Brewers 2, Astros 0
Jacob Misiorowski threw seven shutout IP.
Jake Bauers hit a two-run homer in the fourth inning.
Milwaukee has won five of its last six games.

— Pirates 9, Twins 3
Braxton Ashcroft struck out 11 Twins in six IP.
Ryan O’hearn, Nick Gonzales homered for the Pirates.
Minnesota has lost five games in a row, giving up 46 runs.

— NL Central standings……..
Milwaukee 35-21
St Louis 31-26
Pittsburgh 32-28
Cubs 32-28
Cincinnati 30-28

— Orioles 9, Blue Jays 5
Colton Cowser homered, had five RBI
Orioles went 7-3 on their homestand.

Toronto OF Jesus Sanchez left the game in the sixth inning; someone in the stands threw a baseball on the field, and it hit Sanchez on his right wrist.

— If the baseball playoffs started today (they don’t):
NL: Braves, Brewers, Dodgers. Wild Cards: Padres-Cardinals-Arizona
AL: Rays, Guardians, Mariners. Wild Cards: New York-White Sox-Blue Jays

— Spurs 111, Thunder 103
San Antonio is in the NBA Finals for the first time in 12 years.
Spurs were +16 in 38:00 Julian Champagne played, minus-8 in the 10:00 he sat out.
Spurs shot 17-40 behind the arc.
NBA Finals start Wednesday: Knicks at San Antonio.

— A’s 6, New York 4
A’s get a much-needed win, snapping a six-game home losing skid.
JT Ginn allowed four hits, an unearned run in six IP.
Kurtz, Langeliers, Soderstrom all homered for the A’s.

— Phillies 4, Dodgers 3
Edmundo Sosa hit a two-run homer in the top of the 8th.
Jhoan Duran recorded his 12th save, pitching a scoreless 9th inning.
Under is 16-2 in Phillies’ last eighteen games.

— Pirates 10, Twins 9
Pirates led 7-1 in 2nd inning; game was 7-7 after four innings.
Jake Mangum was 3-for-4, scored twice, had two RBI.
Minnesota is 15-14 at home, 12-18 on the road.

— Rangers 7, Royals 6
Texas led 3-0 after six, Royals led 6-3 in the 8th.
Rangers scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth.
Ezequiel Duran had a walk-off single for the Rangers.

— Famous birthdays, May 31st:
Clint Eastwood, 96
Joe Namath, 83
Sharon Gless, 83
Tom Berenger, 77

Susie Essman, 71
Roma Maffia, 68
Chris Elliott, 66
Lea Thompson, 65

Jake Peavy, 45
Andrew Bailey, 42
Nate Robinson, 42
Emerson Hancock, 27

— Carolina Hurricanes are -155 favorites to win the Stanley Cup final over the Vegas Golden Knights. Carolina last won the Stanley Cup 20 years ago; Golden Knights won the Cup three years; they’ve been in the Finals three times in their nine years as an NHL franchise.

— Poinsettia Bowl is making a comeback this fall; Pac-12 champ is going to play one of the teams that bolted from the Pac-12, in San Diego.

— Freddy Peralta has finished the 6th inning in only four of his 12 starts; the Mets’ defense is suspect, which hasn’t helped much, but in his last three starts, Peralta allowed 11 runs in 16.2 IP.

Friday against the Marlins, Peralta threw 94 pitches, but didn’t finish the 5th inning; Marlins fouled off 21 of those pitches, whiffed on 12 of them. Mets need more length from Peralta, but they need to put a better defensive infield behind him.

— Chicago White Sox put 1B Munetaka Murakami on the IL; he is expected to miss 4-6 weeks with a Grade 2 hamstring strain.  

— Movie of the Day: Against All Odds (1984)- A gangster hires a retired football player to find his ex-girlfriend. When he finds her, they fall in love and things get complicated.

Jeff Bridges is the football player, Rachel Ward is the girlfriend, James Woods is the gangster; Alex Karras, Richard Widmark are also in this movie.

— Orioles 6, Blue Jays 5
Baltimore scored five runs in the bottom of ninth inning.
Pete Alonso had a walk-off single for the Orioles.
Toronto pitchers walked 11 Baltimore hitters.

— White Sox 7, Tigers 1
Chicago’s bullpen tossed four scoreless IP, allowing one baserunner.
White Sox have won 15 of their last 18 home games.
Detroit has lost 20 of its last 24 games overall. 

— Nationals 9, Padres 4
San Diego led 3-1 in 7th inning, when Nationals scored six runs.
Luis Garcia Jr was 2-for-4, with two RBI.
Fernando Tatis Jr hit his first HR this year, in his 233rd plate appearance.

— Mets 6, Marlins 1
Hayden Senger hit his first major league home run.
Christian Scott is 1-0, 2.97 in seven starts this season.
Marlins are 18-15 at home, 8-18 on the road.

— If the baseball playoffs started today (they don’t):
NL: Braves, Brewers, Dodgers. Wild Cards: Padres-Cubs-Arizona
AL: Rays, Guardians, Mariners. Wild Cards: New York-White Sox-Blue Jays

— Don’t want to write a lot about this right now, mainly because thinking about it makes me want to puke, but the players’ union and owners exchanged their opening economic proposals this week. The results weren’t promising.

MLB proposed a salary floor of $171.2M, a salary cap of $245.3M; they  also called for a 50/50 revenue split and the centralization of all television revenue. Right now, teams share 48% of all local TV revenue.

It seems doubtful that the players’ union would ever accept a salary cap.

People around the sport expect a long fight leading up to the December 1st expiration of the CBA; the start of next season could be in jeopardy. Not freakin’ good.

— Rockies 8, Giants 6
Colorado scored five runs in bottom of the 9th inning.
Ezequiel Tovar hit two homers, including a walk-off two-run blast.
Giants are 10-22 in their last 32 games.

— White Sox 4, Tigers 3 (10)
Miguel Vargas hit a two-run, walk-off HR for Chicago.
White Sox are 24-14 in their last 38 games.
Detroit lost 19 of its last 23 games.

— Mets 9, Marlins 7 (10)
MJ Melendez, who was 2 for his previous 35 at-bats, hit a walk-off homer.
Mets led this game 6-2 after four innings.
Marlins are 18-15 at home, 8-17 on the road.

— Mets TV analyst Keith Hernandez was a fine-fielding 1B in his playing days; he was saying the other night how he used two gloves a season. Something I never thought about much, how often guys switch gloves.

— Pirates 6, Twins 5
Bryan Reynolds hit a two-run, walk-off homer in the 9th inning.
Pirate bullpen got the last 14 outs, allowing one hit.
Minnesota led 5-4 after three innings; it stayed that way until Reynolds’ HR.

— Dodgers 4, Phillies 2
Dodgers hit four solo home runs off of Zack Wheeler.
Phillies didn’t get a hit until the sixth inning.
Under is 15-2 in the Phillies’ last seventeen games.

— Famous birthdays, May 30th:
Lydell Mitchell, 77
Mike LaCoss, 70
Billy Donovan, 61
Manny Ramirez, 54

Je’Rod Cherry, 53
Rasho Nesterovic, 50
Zach Wheeler, 36
Harrison Barnes, 34

— Ten years ago, starting pitchers finished the 6th inning in 54% of their starts; so far this year, starting pitchers have finished the 6th inning in only 36% of their starts.

— Brewers 5, Astros 4 (10)
Brewers bullpen threw six scoreless IP, allowing two hits.
Houston led 4-1 after four innings.
Milwaukee is 24-7 in its last 31 games.

— Guardians 4, Red Sox 3
Cleveland scored all four of its runs in the first inning.
Cade Smith got his 20th save, most in the majors.
Red Sox have lost six of their last seven games.

— Rays 8, Angels 5
Yandy Diaz homered twice for Tampa Bay.
Trailing 2-1, Rays scored seven runs in the bottom of the 7th.
Nick Martinez improved to 5-1, 1.62 this season.

— Padres 7, Nationals 5
Jackson Merrill hit a two-run homer in the 7th inning.
Mason Miller got his 17th save (4th with getting 4 outs)
Washington is 10-17 at home, 19-12 on the road.

— Craig Kimbrel recently signed with Tampa Bay; he’s had an interesting 17-year career:
2010-14- Braves
2015- Padres
2016-18- Red Sox
2019-21- Cubs

2021- White Sox
2022- Dodgers
2023- Phillies
2024- Orioles

2025- Braves
2025- Astros
2026- Mets
2026- Rays…….If he gets into the Hall of Fame, which hat goes on his plaque?

— If the baseball playoffs started today (they don’t):
NL: Braves, Brewers, Dodgers. Wild Cards: Padres-Cardinals-Arizona
AL: Rays, Guardians, Mariners. Wild Cards: New York-White Sox-Blue Jays

NL East
Trends are thru May 28th
— Braves (38-19)
Braves are 12-6 in their last 18 games.
Atlanta is 20-13 vs righty starters, 18-6 vs lefties.
Over is 8-0-1 in Braves’ last nine road games.

— Marlins (26-31)
Marlins are 18-15 at home, 8-16 on road.
Miami is 19-17 vs NL teams, 7-14 vs AL teams.
Over is 7-0-1 in Marlins’ last eight road games.

— Mets (26-31)
Mets lost seven of their last nine games. 
New York is 4-11 vs lefty starting pitchers.
Mets are 13-1 when they score 5+ runs, 13-30 when they don’t.

— Phillies (29-27)
Phillies are 20-8 in their last 28 games.
Under is 14-2 in their last sixteen games.
Phiilies are 22-14 vs righty starters, 7-13 vs lefties.

— Nationals (29-28)
Nationals are 10-16 at home, 19-12 on the road.
Over is 15-7 in their last 22 games.
Nationals are 16-22 vs righty starters, 13-6 vs lefties.

NL Central
— Cubs (31-26)
Chicago won its last two games, after an 0-10 skid.
Cubs are 9-4 in one-run games.
Over is 6-0-1 in Cubs’ last seven road games.

— Reds (29-26)
Reds are 1-7 in last eight games, when winning run scored from 7th inning on.
Over is 17-5 in their last 22 home games.
Reds are 20-23 vs righty starters, 9-3 vs lefties.

— Brewers (33-20)
Milwaukee is 23-7 in its last 30 games.
Milwaukee is 25-2 when they score 5+ runs.
Under is 16-5-2 in their last 23 games.

— Pirates (29-28)
Pirates are 8-11 in their last 19 games.
Pittsburgh is 24-18 vs righty starters, 5-10 vs lefties.
Over is 11-5 in their last sixteen home games.

— Cardinals (29-25)
St Louis lost its last four games, scoring eight runs.
St Louis is 13-13 at home, 16-12 on the road.
Cardinals are 10-5 in one-run games.

NL West
— Diamondbacks (31-24)
Arizona won 14 of its last 18 games.
Diamondbacks are 22-21 vs righty starters, 9-3 vs lefties.
Under is 9-2-1 n their last 12 home games.

— Rockies (20-37)
Rockies are 6-20 in their last 26 games.
Colorado is 16-27 vs righty starters, 4-10 vs lefties.
Over is 10-5-1 in their last sixteen road games. 

— Dodgers (36-20)
Dodgers are 12-2 in their last fourteen games.
Under is 10-5 in their last fifteen games.
Dodgers are 32-2 when they score 4+ runs.

— Padres (29-20)
San Diego lost its last four games, scoring fine runs.
Under is 13-2 in their last fifteen home games.
Padres are 21-4 when they score 4+ runs.

— Giants (22-34)
Giants are 10-21 in their last 31 games.
SF is 17-26 vs righty starters, 5-8 vs lefties.
Over is 7-1 in their last eight home games.

— Famous birthdays, May 29th:
Blue Moon Odom, 81
Annette Bening, 68
Sam Clancy, 68
Eric Davis, 64
Raef LaFrentz, 50

Shaun King, 49
Carmelo Anthony, 42
Steven Matz, 35
Puka Nacua, 25
Paul Skenes, 24

AL East
— Orioles (26-31)
Baltimore is 5-2 in its last seven games.
Orioles are 20-19 vs righty starters, 6-12 vs lefties.
Orioles are 4-8 in one-run games.

— Red Sox (23-32)
Boston is 9-19 at Fenway, worst home record in MLB.
Over is 4-1-1 in their last six games.
Red Sox are 4-8 against their AL East rivals.

— New York (34-22)
New York won 15 of its last 19 home games.
Under is 6-1 in their last seven games.
New York is 21-17 vs righty starters, 13-5 vs lefties.

— Rays (34-19)
Tampa Bay lost its last four games, outscored 28-10.
Rays are 22-16 vs righty starters, 12-3 vs lefties.
Tampa Bay is 14-6 against their AL East rivals.

— Blue Jays (28-29 )
Toronto is 7-2 in its last nine games.
Blue Jays are 17-13 at home, 11-16 on the road.
Toronto is 20-8 if they score 4+ runs.

AL Central
— White Sox (29-27)
White Sox are 23-14 in their last 37 games.
Over is 5-2-1 in their last eight games.
Chicago is 23-8 when they score 4+ runs.

— Guardians (33-25)
Cleveland won 12 of its last 16 games.
Guardians are 19-21 vs righty starters, 14-4 vs lefties.
Guardians are 12-6 in series openers.

— Tigers (22-35)
Tigers are 14-14 at home, 8-21 on the road.
Detroit is 16-23 vs righty starters, 6-12 vs lefties.
Tigers are 4-10 against their AL Central rivals.

— Royals (22-34)
Kansas City lost 13 of its last 16 games.
Royals are 15-17 at home, 7-17 on the road.
Under is 17-9-2 in their last 28 games.

— Twins (27-30)
Minnesota is 18-18 vs righty starters, 9-12 vs lefties.
Twins are 15-14 at home, 12-16 on the road.
Over is 15-5-1 in their last 21 road games.

AL West
— Astros (26-32)
Houston won six of its last seven games.
Over is 3-0-1 in their last four games.
Astros are 9-13 against their AL West rivals.

— Angels (22-35)
Halos won five of their last six games.
Eight of Angels’ last ten road games stayed under the total.
Angels are 15-25 vs righty starters, 7-10 vs lefties.

— A’s (27-29)
A’s lost five of their last six games.
A’s are 10-15 at home, 17-14 on road.
Under is 8-2 in their last ten road games.

— Mariners (28-29)
Mariners won five of their last seven games.
Seattle is 26-12 when they score 3+ runs, 2-17 when they don’t.
Mariners are 14-9 vs their AL West rivals.

— Rangers (25-31)
Texas lost five of its last six games.
Under is 10-4-1 in their last 15 home games.
Rangers are 2-6 in home series openers.

— If the baseball playoffs started today (they don’t):
NL: Braves, Brewers, Dodgers. Wild Cards: Padres-Cubs-Arizona
AL: Rays, Guardians, Mariners. Wild Cards: New York-White Sox-Blue Jays

— Dodgers 4, Rockies 1
Shohei Ohtani led off the first inning with a home run.
Ohtani also pitched six innings, didn’t allow a hit.
Rockies have lost their last ten games in Dodger Stadium.

— Brewers 2, Cardinals 1
Dustin May no-hit Milwaukee for the first seven innings.
Brewers scored the winning run on an error by the St Louis SS.
St Louis has lost seven of its last nine games.

— Phiilies 3, Padres 0
Cristopher Sanchez pitched seven shutout innings.
Sanchez has thrown 44.2 consecutive scoreless IP, the all-time Phillies’ record.
Phillies are 20-7 in their last 27 games.

— Astros 4, Rangers 3
Yordan Alvarez homered twice for the second night in a row.
Joc Pederson also hit two home runs, scored three runs.
Texas is 9-13 against its AL West rivals.

— Umpire Emil Jimenez had a rough night behind the plate at the Reds-Mets game Tuesday night. Teams challenged nine of his pitch calls; seven of the nine calls were overturned.

— Mets 4, Reds 2
Juan Soto homered for second day in a row, Mets snap a five-game skid.
In their last seven games, Mets have scored a total of 12 runs.
In this game, Cincinnati left 17 men on base, was 3-15 with RISP.

— In 2022, Aaron Judge hit 62 home runs; here are the counts he hit them on:
0-0- 10 home runs
1-0- 8 home runs
2-0- 3 home runs

0-1- 4 home runs
1-1- 6 home runs
2-1- 6 home runs
3-1- 4 home runs

0-2- 2 home runs
1-2- 5 home runs
2-2- 5 home runs
3-2- 9 home runs

— Famous birthdays, May 27th:
Tom Blanchard, 78
Steve Watson, 69
Bill Doran, 68
Ed Rubbert, 64

Glen Rice, 59
Michael Oher, 40
Craig Kimbrel, 38
Rafi Gavron, 37

— Kansas City Chiefs’ tight end Travis Kelce became part of the Cleveland Guardians’ ownership group as a minority investor; Kelce grew up in Cleveland. Must be nice to be really rich.

— Northern Arizona is playing a basketball game at New Mexico November 10th; Lumberjacks are getting a check for $88,000 from New Mexico for making the trip to Albuquerque.

— Guardians 3, Nationals 2
Gavin Williams tossed 7 IP, retired last 13 batters he faced.
Cade Smith recorded his 19th save of the season.
James Wood went 8-for-12 in this series, scoring fine runs.

— Tigers 4, Angels 0
Five Tiger pitchers combined on a two-hit shutout.
Detroit’s win snapped their seven-game home losing skid.
Loss snapped the Angels’ four-game winning streak. 

— Cubs 10, Pirates 4
Ian Happ hit a three-run homer, had five RBI.
Cubs snapped their ten-game losing skid.
This was the 2,000th regular season game at PNC Park (Pirates 1003-996-1)

— Blue Jays’ C Tyler Heineman threw out four Marlins runners trying to steal a base Tuesday, the first time any major league catcher has done that since 2011.

— If the baseball playoffs started today (they don’t):
NL: Braves, Brewers, Dodgers. Wild Cards: Padres-Cardinals-Arizona
AL: Rays, Guardians, Mariners. Wild Cards: New York-White Sox-Min/Tor

— Pirates 12, Cubs 1
Pirates scored five runs in the first inning.
Esmeryn Valdez hit his second HR in his 4th MLB game.
Cubs have now lost ten games in a row.

— It is still May; the Cubs have two ten-game winning streaks and a ten-game losing streak. Only other team to do that over a full season; the 2017 Dodgers. 

— Reds 7, Mets 2
Reds got six runs, 11 hits, 3 walks in five innings off of David Peterson.
Cincinnati bullpen got the last 11 outs, giving up one hit.
Mets have lost five in row, scoring six runs on 25 hits in those games.

— At one point last year, the Mets were 45-24, at the time the best record in the National League. Since then, they are 60-88.

— Rangers 10, Astros 7
Monday night, Texas didn’t get any hits, lost 9-0.
Tuesday night, Texas scored eight runs in the first inning.
Yordan Alvarez homered twice, had four RBI for Houston.

— Angels 10, Tigers 6
Detroit led 6-4 after seven innings.
Vaughn Grissom hit a grand slam, had six RBI.
Tigers have lost 12 of their last 14 games.

— Kyle Schwarber has 21 home runs; here are the counts he hit them on:
0-0- 5 home runs
1-0- 2 home runs
0-1- 3 home runs
1-1- 1 home run

2-1- 3 home runs
3-1- 1 home run
1-2- 2 home runs
3-2- 4 home runs

— Famous birthdays, May 26th:
Lee Meriwether, 91
Jackie Slater, 72
Richard Schiff, 71
Allen Leavell, 69

Peri Gilpin, 65
John Jaha, 60
George McCloud, 59
Frank Thomas, 58

Jeff Bagwell, 58
Garrett Richards, 38
Yoan Moncada, 31
Daniel Jones, 29

— Thunder 127, Spurs 114
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 32 points, had nine assists.
Thunder were +29 in the 31:00 Cason Wallace played.
Alex Caruso scored 22 points in 28:00 off the bench.
Oklahoma City leads the series, 3-2. 

— Chargers gave S Derwin James a three-year deal worth $75.6M, making him the highest-paid safety in the NFL.

— Braves 7, Red Sox 6
Michael Harris was 4-for-4, homered, had three RBI.
First two batters of the game for Boston hit home runs.
Atlanta leads the NL East by 8.5 games.

— Twins 5, White Sox 3 (11)
Brooks Lee hit a bases-loaded double in the 11th inning.
Munetaka Murakami hit his 19th homer for the White Sox.
Minnesota has won seven of its last nine games.

— Chances are, umpire Chris Segal isn’t enjoying the ABS challenge system. He’s had 51 pitches challenged this season, which is a lot, and 35 (68.6%) of those calls were overturned.

— RIP Bob Horner, who passed away this week. Horner played for the Braves from 1978-86; he was the first Atlanta Brave to hit four home runs in a game. He hit 218 home runs, was Rookie of the Year in 1978.

Bob Horner was 68 years old. RIP, sir.

— If the baseball playoffs started today (they don’t):
NL: Braves, Brewers, Dodgers. Wild Cards: Padres-Cardinals-Arizona
AL: Rays, Guardians, A’s. Wild Cards: New York-White Sox-Twins

— Astros 9, Rangers 0
Tatsuya Imai, two relievers combined to pitch a no-hitter.
Christian Walker hit his 4th home run in his last three games.
Texas falls to 24-29, in third place in a bad AL West.

— That was the 18th no-hitter in Astros’ history; five of the 18 were combined no-hitters.

— Orioles 9, Rays 7 (13)
Colton Cowser hit his second walk-off HR in Baltimore’s last three games.
Rays lost on a walk-off homer for the second day in a row.
Tampa Bay’s bullpen allowed seven runs in the last three innings.
Only second MLB games this season that reached the 13th inning.

— Reds 7, Mets 2
Nolan McLean gave up seven runs in 3.2 IP.
Mets lost their last four games, outscored 17-4.
With the 2nd-highest payroll in MLB, Mets are 22-32, 3-11 vs lefty starters.

— Mets are 21-9 when they score 3+ runs, 1-23 when they score less than three.

— Pirates 2, Cubs 1
Henry Davis had the go-ahead homer in the 7th inning.
Pittsburgh bullpen allowed one baserunner in four IP.
Cubs have lost nine games in a row, and 13 of last 15.

— Major League leaders in hits:
70- Otto Lopez, Mia
64- Luis Arraez, SF/Xavier Edwards, Mia
63- Bobby Witt Jr, KC
61- Ernie Clement, Tor
60- Riley Greene Det/Shea Langeliers A’s/Elly De La Cruz Cin

— Famous birthdays, May 26th:
Darrell Evans, 79
Pam Grier, 77
Dan Pastorini, 77
Philip Michael Thomas, 77
Tom McMillen, 74

Wesley Walker, 71
Margaret Colin, 68
Travis Lee, 51
Ben Zobrist, 45
Paul Sewald, 36

— Knicks 130, Cavaliers 93
Knicks are in the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999.
New York made 19 of its 43 three-point shots.
Knicks have won 11 games in a row, ten of them by 10+ points.
Knicks now have nine days off until the NBA finals start June 3rd.

— Vanderbilt missed the NCAA baseball tournament for the first time since 2005. LSU is the 7th defending national champ to miss the baseball tournament the next year.

— White Sox 3, Twins 1
Munetaka Murakami hit his 18th home run.
Anthony Kay allowed one run, five hits in six IP (94 PT)
Twins have lost their last seven games against Chicago.

— Last three years, White Sox lost 102-121-101 games; this year, they’re 27-26. Will Venable is your early leader for AL Manager of the Year.

— Bronx 4, Royals 3
Anthony Volpe hit a two-run single in the 9th inning.
Bobby Witt Jr had put the Royals ahead with an 8th inning homer.
Kansas City has lost 12 games in a row against Bronx.

— Nationals 10, Guardians 2
Washington hit six home runs, two by Luis Garcia Jr.
Zack Littell pitched seven IP, after an opener pitched the first 2 innings.
Nationals are 18-11 on the road, 10-16 at home.

— Phillies 3, Padres 0
Kyle Schwarber hit his 21st home run, most in MLB.
Jesus Luzardo allowed four hits in his six IP.
Phillies are 3-4 in last seven games, scoring total of 17 runs.

— If the baseball playoffs started today (they don’t):
NL: Braves, Brewers, Dodgers. Wild Cards: Padres-Cardinals-Arizona
AL: Rays, Guardians, A’s. Wild Cards: New York-White Sox-Twins

— Monday is Memorial Day, a national holiday, but there are only 13 major league games, so four teams have a national holiday off. You’d think that attendance would be better on a holiday but the schedule makers have a different idea. 

Plus, Toronto is playing at home, even though Memorial Day isn’t a holiday in Canada.

— Astros 8, Cubs 5
Cubs have already had two ten-game winning streaks this season; now, they have an 8-game losing streak.

Christian Walker hit a three-run homer for the Astros.
Houston has won four of its last five games.

— Marlins 4, Mets 0
Heriberto Hernandez hit a grand slam in the bottom of the ninth inning.
It was the first walk-off grand slam in the major leagues since 2013.
Mets got swept in Miami, going 11-88 at the plate, scoring 2 runs in the three games.

— A’s 5, Padres 2
Carlos Cortes led the game off by hitting a home run.
Nick Kurtz extended his 0n-base streak to 47 consecutive games; the record is 84.
4-3 road trip to southern California this week for the first place A’s.

— Dodgers 5, Brewers 1
Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one run in seven IP.
Kyle Tucker put LA ahead for good with a two-run triple.
Dodgers wound up their three-city road trip with a 7-2 record.

Dodgers’ bullpen hasn’t allowed a run in its last 36 innings pitched.

— Angels 2, Rangers 1
Reid Detmers allowed one hit, struck out 14 in eight IP.
Jake Burger’s 2nd inning home run was the only hit he gave up.
Winning run scored in bottom of 9th on a throwing error.

— Major league RBI leaders:
45- CJ Abrams, Wsh/Andy Pages, LA
44- Liam Hicks, Mia
42- Jordan Walker StL/Matt Olson Atl
38- Drake Baldwin Atl/Jonathan Aranda, TB

— Famous birthdays, May 25th:
Leslie Uggams, 83
Karen Valentine, 79
Bob Knepper, 72
Mike Myers, 63

Todd Walker, 53
Miguel Tejada, 52
Brian Urlacher, 48
Chris Young, 47

Kevin O’Connell, 41
Michael King, 31
Jake Fraley, 31
Cam Ward, 24

Missed two birthdays yesterday; the great musician Bob Dylan turned 85, and Buck Showalter turned 70. We could use more Buck Showalter on TV analyzing baseball games.

— Spurs 103, Thunder 82
San Antonio led 50-38 at halftime.
Victor Wembanyama scored 33 points, had five assists.
Series is now tied, 2-2.

— UFL standings:
7-2- Orlando
6-3- St Louis
5-4- DC Defenders
5-4- Louisville
4-5- Birmingham
3-6- Houston
3-6- Dallas
3-6- Columbus

— Twins 6, Red Sox 5
Minnesota has won 10 of its last 14 games.
Red Sox fell to 8-17 at home on a rainy, cruddy day.
Boston 1B Willson Contreras got his 1,000th career hit this weekend.

— Bronx 4, Rays 0
Aaron Judge hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth.
Good pitching duel between Drew Rasmussen/Ryan Weathers.
Tampa Bay still leads the AL East by 4.5 games.

— Nationals 2, Braves 1
Foster Griffin allowed three hits in six scoreless IP.
Washington is 17-11 on the road, 10-16 at home.
This was only second series Atlanta (14-2-1) has lost this year.

— Major league leaders, runs scored:
45- James Wood, Wash
41- Brice Turang Mil/Aaron Judge NYY
39- Drake Baldwin Atl/Mike Trout LAA
38- Xavier Edwards, Mia

— If the baseball playoffs started today (they don’t):
NL: Braves, Brewers, Dodgers. Wild Cards: Padres-Cardinals-Cubs
AL: Rays, Guardians, A’s. Wild Cards: New York-White Sox-Twins

— Marlins 4, Mets 1
Liam Hicks hit two home runs.
Max Meyer allowed one hit in seven shutout IP.
Mets lost four of their last five games, are in last place.

— NL East standings:
Braves —
Phillies 9.5 GB
Nationals 10 GB
Marlins 12 GB
Mets 13.5 GB

— Astros 3, Cubs 0
Christian Walker hit two home runs.
Kai-Wei Teng allowed two hits in his six IP.
Cubs have lost seven in a row, 11 of last 13 games.

— Cardinals 8-6, Reds 1-7 (10)
Teams split a twin bill caused by Friday’s rainout.
Jordan Walker knocked in seven runs in the two games.
Bryan Torres homered in his MLB debut for St Louis.

— NL Central standings:
Brewers —
Cardinals 2 GB
Cubs 2.5 GB
Reds 4.5 GB
Pirates 5.5 GB

— Phillies 3, Guardians 0
Zack Wheeler pitched six shutout innings.
Phillies are 6-0 in Wheeler’s starts this season.
Start of the game was delayed two hours by rain.
Loss snaps Cleveland’s seven-game winning streak.

— Twins 4, Red Sox 2
Trevor Larnach was 4-for-5, scored twice.
Taj Bradley allowed three hits in 5 IP, in his return from the IL.
Minnesota has won nine of its last 13 games.

— Famous birthdays, May 24th:
Gary Burghoff, 83
Mitch Kupchak, 72
Kristin Scott Thomas, 66
Pete Metzelaars, 66

Joe Dumars, 63
John C Reilly, 61
Jerry Dipoto, 58
Jeff Zgonina, 56

Bartolo Colon, 53
Dash Mihok, 52
Tracy McGrady, 47
Aaron Ashby, 28

— Knicks 121, Cavaliers 108
Jalen Brunson scored 30 points, had six assists.
Knicks have won 10 in a row, nine of them by 10+ points.
Cleveland was only 12-41 behind the arc.
New York leads series, 3-0.

— Blue Jays 5, Pirates 2
George Springer hit his 65th career leadoff home run.
Toronto has won four in a row, seven of last ten games.
Blue Jays are 15-11 at home, 10-16 on the road.

— AL East standings:
Rays —
Bronx 5.5 GB
Blue Jays 10.5 GB
Red Sox 13 GB
Orioles 13 GB

— Giants 10, White Sox 3
Harrison Bader hit his second grand slam in a week.
Giants had scored total of 12 runs in their previous four games.
San Francisco bullpen got the last 13 outs, not allowing a run.

— AL Central standings:
Guardians —
White Sox 3.5 GB
Twins 5 GB
Royals 9 GB
Tigers 10 GB

— They’ve been talking on Mets’ TV broadcasts this week how official scorers give out a lot more hits now on marginal scoring decisions. Teams have their lowest batting averages since 1968, the year before they lowered the pitching mounds (and added four new teams).

There was a play Saturday night in Miami where Xavier Edwards was gifted a hit, when it was obviously an error. Official scoring needs to get better.

— If the baseball playoffs started today (they don’t):
NL: Braves, Brewers, Dodgers. Wild Cards: Padres-Cardinals-Cubs
AL: Rays, Guardians, A’s. Wild Cards: New York-Min/Tor

— Guardians 1, Phillies 0
Kyle Manzardo hit a pinch-ht home run in 9th inning.
Quite a pitching duel; Cristopher Sanchez-Gavin Williams.
Game took only 2:05 to play, on a drizzly night.

— Rays 4, New York 2
Tampa Bay scored four runs in the 8th inning.
Gerrit Cole threw six scoreless IP in his return from the IL.
Tampa Bay leads the AL East by 5.5 games.

— Marlins 2, Mets 1
Eury Perez gave up two hits in a strong 6.1 IP.
Owen Caissie knocked in both of the Marlins’ runs.
Juan Soto was 2-for-3 with a HR; rest of the Mets were 1-for-25.

— Brewers 5, Dodgers 1
William Contreras hit a three-run homer in the first inning.
Six of the first seven Milwaukee batters in the game got hits.
Logan Henderson threw five shutout IP for the first-place Brewers.

— Rockies 3, Diamondbacks 2
Arizona led 2-1 after seven innings.
TJ Rumfield tied the game with an 8th inning double.
Chad Stevens won the game with a 9th inning single.
Colorado improves to 10-17 on the road.

— Famous birthdays, May 23rd
Joan Collins, 93
Drew Carey, 68
Rich Karlis, 67

Jay Feely, 50
Kirk Saarloos, 47
Jordan Zimmerman, 40

Chad Hall, 40
Aaron Donald, 35
Jonathan Aranda, 28

— Cubs catcher Carson Kelly has challenged 26 called balls this season; 22 of the 26 pitches were changed to strikes, that’s the best percentage of any catcher this season.

— Payroll for USC’s football team this fall is scheduled to be $37M; QB Jayden Malava is going to be paid $2.5M.

— LSU’s football team hired its former head coach Ed Orgeron as an assistant coach who will work in recruiting/defense. As a head coach, Orgeron led LSU led to the 2019 national title. He is a great recruiter.

— Thunder 123, Spurs 108
San Antonio started the game on a 15-0 run.
Thunder’s bench outscored San Antonio’s subs, 76-23.
Oklahoma City was +28 in 24:00 Alex Caruso played.
Thunder leads series, 2-1

— Knicks 109, Cavaliers 93
Jalen Brunson scored 19 points, had 14 assists.
Knicks outscored Cleveland 32-21 in third quarter.
Cavaliers shot only 9-35 on the arc.
Knicks have won their last nine games, lead this series, 2-0.

— In the history of the NBA, teams leading a best-0f-7 series 2-0 won 336 of 365 series.

— Movie of the Day: A Few Good Men (1992)- A military lawyer intends to prove that two US Marines charged with murdering a fellow Marine were only following their base commander’s orders.

Tom Cruise is the lawyer, Kevin Pollak/Demi Moore are lawyers helping him on the case. Kevin Bacon is the opposing lawyer; Kiefer Sutherland, JT Walsh, Noah Wyle, Joshua Molina are also in this epic cast, but the biggest star is Jack Nicholson, who plays Colonel Jessup- his testimony on the witness stand is one of the best scenes in movie history. 

Aaron Sorkin wrote the film, Rob Reiner directed it. An excellent movie.

— Mariners 2, Royals 0
Mitch Garver hit a two-run homer in the 7th inning.
Logan Gilbert got 17 outs, allowing only two hits.
Royals scored nine runs in their last six games.

— Astros 4, Cubs 2
Spencer Arrighetti threw 5 scoreless IP; he is 6-1, 1.32 this season.
Christian Vazquez homered, had two RBI.
Cubs have lost six in a row, 10 of last 12 games.

— Angels 9, Rangers 6
Zach Neto hit two home runs for the Halos.
Wade Meckler hit the first pitch he saw in the majors for a three-run homer.
Jacob deGrom took the loss, giving up six runs in three IP.

— White Sox 9, Giants 4
Chicago scored all nine of its runs in the 4th inning.
Davis Martin got the win; he is 7-1, 2.04 this year.
Last three years, White Sox lost 324 games; they’re 26-24 this year.

— If the baseball playoffs started today (they don’t):
NL: Braves, Brewers, Dodgers. Wild Cards: Padres-Cardinals-Cubs
AL: Rays, Guardians, A’s. Wild Cards: New York-White Sox-Mariners

NL East
Trends are thru May 21st
— Braves (35-16)
Braves are 9-3 in their last dozen games.
Atlanta is 20-12 vs righty starters, 15-4 vs lefties.
Braves’ last five games went over the total.

— Marlins (22-29)
Marlins are 15-15 at home, 7-14 on road.
Miami is 1-6 in last seven series openers.
Marlins’ last nine games went over the total.

— Mets (15-25)
Mets won seven of their last ten games. 
New York is 3-10 vs lefty starting pitchers.
Mets are 13-1 when they score 5+ runs.

— Phillies (25-25)
Phillies are 16-6 in their last 22 games.
Under is 8-2 in their last ten games.
Phiilies are 18-13 vs righty starters, 7-12 vs lefties.

— Nationals (25-26)
Nationals are 10-16 at home, 15-10 on the road.
Over is 12-4 in their last sixteen games.
Nationals are 14-20 vs righty starters, 11-6 vs lefties.

NL Central
— Cubs (29-21)
Chicago lost five in row, nine of last 11 games.
Cubs scored 31 runs in those eleven games.
Under is 8-4 in their last dozen games.

— Reds (26-24)
Reds lost their last seven games, when winning run scored from 7th inning on.
Over is 16-4 in their last 20 home games.
Reds are 18-21 vs righty starters, 8-3 vs lefties.

— Brewers (29-18)
Milwaukee is 19-5 in its last 24 games.
Milwaukee is 22-2 when they score 5+ runs.
Under is 11-4-2 in their last 17 games.

— Pirates (26-24)
Pirates are 5-7 in their last 12 games.
Pittsburgh is 22-15 vs righty starters, 4-9 vs lefties.
Four of their last five games stayed under the total.

— Cardinals (28-21)
St Louis is 14-8 in its last 22 games.
St Louis is 13-13 at home, 15-8 on the road.
Cardinals are 10-3 in one-run games.

NL West
— Diamondbacks (26-23)
Arizona won nine of its last twelve games.
Diamondbacks are 18-20 vs righty starters, 8-3 vs lefties.
Arizona is 2-7 in road series openers.

— Rockies (19-32)
Rockies are 5-15 in their last 20 games.
Colorado is 15-23 vs righty starters, 4-9 vs lefties.
Over is 7-3 in their last ten road games. 

— Dodgers (31-19)
Dodgers are 7-1 in their last eight games.
Under is 6-3 in their last nine games.
Dodgers are 27-2 when they score 4+ runs.

— Padres (29-20)
San Diego is 13-4 in games when winning run scored from 7th inning on.
Under is 8-1 in their last nine home games.
Padres are 20-4 when they score 4+ runs.

— Giants (20-30)
Giants are 8-17 in their last 25 games.
SF is 17-23 vs righty starters, 3-7 vs lefties.
Under is 12-5 in their last 17 road games.

— Famous birthdays, May 22nd:
Richard Benjamin, 88
Tommy John, 83
Michael Kelly, 58

Randy Brown, 58
Dre Bly, 49
Eric Sogard, 40

Lauri Markkanen, 29
Ezequiel Duran, 27
Jordan Walker, 24

AL East
— Orioles (21-29)
Baltimore is 6-14 in its last 20 games.
Orioles are 18-18 vs righty starters, 3-11 vs lefties.
10 of their last 13 games stayed under the total.

— Red Sox (22-27)
Boston is 12-10 since they changed managers.
Under is 9-2 in their last eleven games.
Red Sox are 4-8 against their AL East rivals.

— New York (30-21)
New York won 11 of its last 14 home games.
Over is 8-3 in their last eleven home games.
New York is 19-16 vs righty starters, 11-5 vs lefties.

— Rays (33-15)
Tampa Bay won 21 of its last 25 games.
Rays are 21-13 vs righty starters, 12-2 vs lefties.
Tampa Bay is 13-2 against their AL East rivals.

— Blue Jays (23-27)
Toronto is 7-10 in its last seventeen games.
Blue Jays are 13-11 at home, 10-16 on the road.
Toronto is 16-8 if they score 4+ runs.

AL Central
— White Sox (25-24)
White Sox are 19-11 in their last 30 games.
Over is 6-2-1 in their last nine games.
Chicago is 20-7 when they score 4+ runs.

— Guardians (30-22)
Cleveland won nine of its last ten games.
Guardians are 18-18 vs righty starters, 12-4 vs lefties.
Guardians are 11-5 in series openers.

— Tigers (20-31)
Tigers are 13-12 at home, 7-19 on the road.
Detroit is 15-20 vs righty starters, 5-11 vs lefties.
Tigers are 4-10 against their AL Central rivals.

— Royals (20-30)
Kansas City lost nine of its last ten games.
Royals are 13-13 at home, 7-17 on the road.
Under is 13-7-2 in their last 22 games.

— Twins (23-27)
Minnesota is 3-10 in games when winning run scored from 7th inning on.
Twins are 15-14 at home, 8-13 on the road.
Over is 11-4 in their last 15 road games.

AL West
— Astros (20-31)
Houston is 5-12 in its last 17 home games.
Under is 9-2-1 in their last twelve games.
Astros are 6-12 against their AL West rivals.

— Angels (17-34)
Halos lost 24 of their last 29 games.
Six of Angels’ last eight road games stayed under the total.
Angels are 11-24 vs righty starters, 6-10 vs lefties.

— A’s (26-24)
A’s won six of their last eight road games.
A’s are 19-16 vs righty starters, 7-8 vs lefties.
50 games into the season, A’s are in first place in AL West.

— Mariners (24-27)
Mariners lost eight of their last 12 games.
Seattle is 23-11 when they score 3+ runs, 1-16 when they don’t.
Mariners are 18-18 vs righty starters, 6-9 vs lefties.

— Rangers (24-25)
Texas is 7-4 in its last eleven games.
Under is 9-2 in their last 11 home games.
Rangers are 2-5 in home series openers.

— If the baseball playoffs started today (they don’t):
NL: Braves, Brewers, Dodgers. Wild Cards: Padres-Cardinals-Cubs
AL: Rays, Guardians, A’s. Wild Cards: New York-White Sox-Rangers