Wednesday, October 7, 2026

After Further Review (Baseball): Idiot tries to be Jeremy Maier...

... replay rules make him Steve Bartman instead, and I wouldn't be 100% surprised, if he's doxxed, he's a dead man walking in New York tonight.

Volpe in the 6th, runner on 2nd, down 4-2.

4-3, and the Yankees didn't score again and are swept by the Rays. 

MLB: Someone explain this, please???

And the owners want a cap...

So when a number of anonymous people are asked by ESPN the possible impact of the playoffs on a lockout, etc., they were then asked about what would happen if, in the counterexample to the Dodgers, the Brewers and Rays, two smaller-market teams who have never won the Series before, made the World Series.

(Both are the #1 seeds in their leagues.)

This is what an unnamed NL executive said this.  To which I ask:  "Then why do those teams exist if you believe THAT bullshit?"
"I don't think people want Rays-Brewers for reasons beyond the lockout; they are just bad markets and not especially appealing to casual baseball fans. I think you can contort any matchup to help sell an argument. I don't think it really matters unless the Dodgers win again and everybody can pile on."


Tuesday, October 6, 2026

After Further Review: Jake the Awake for Week 4

You know the drill by now.  Let's see what he came up with.  I've got a couple ideas.

Inlay:  Seattle-LA Chargers

10)  Cincinnati-Jacksonville.  16-10 in the 4th, 6:35 to go, Jacksonville leading and with the ball at the Cincy 25.

Three Cincinnati players, according to Jake, are playing flag football instead -- if there were only flags for them to get.  As a result, Chris Rodriguez Jr. seals it with the touchdown run.

9) Same game, 22-17, and Joe Burrow throws it right to the defender for the Last Chance Miss.

If you want people not to believe you're doing this intentionally, you do not lead the defender.

8) Buffalo-New England  7-0 New England, early 2nd quarter

James Cook hurdling touchdown -- and Jake thinks those are scripted too.

There's one problem.  Hurdling is such an unsafe play that it's illegal in high school football.  Not sure about college.  I wouldn't be surprised if they are ducking -- for self-preservation!

7) Take Me Down To Muff Punt City, it's Seattle and the Chargers.  3-0 Chargers, first quarter.

Derius Davis is the perpetrator here.  Davis barely made the team this year, and this didn't help matters any.  One play later, 7-3 Seattle.  No word yet on whether Davis will still be with the Chargers by Sunday.

6) And speaking of the music, it's Return of the Doink.  We have only one this week to total eight so far in the season.

But he also missed one in Week 1 to bring the total to eight.

The Week 4 one is Carolina-Detroit, 13-6 Carolina mid-second quarter.  And it's slightly shorter than an extra point at 33 yards.

And this one does look like it's a magnet job -- it looks to start going right toward the center of the uprights until it takes a HARD RIGHT into the right upright and is no good as a result.

5) Back to Seattle and the Chargers, and this still isn't the one he put in the pre-list, so this game gets at least three!

And it's another pseudo-scripted Justin (S)Herbert interception -- thrown into basically triple coverage.  Even if the defender didn't make a good play at the 40, chances are the defender five down the field would've gotten it.

4) Giants-Arizona, and it's the convenient last...  possible...  play.  4th and goal, down 6, Arizona at the Giants 4...

And if you don't think that Jake is right, I want to ask you a question about that pass.  If the Arizona quarterback (Jacoby Brisset) seriously wanted his receiver to catch it, why does he put it to the INSIDE of the defender?  That Last Chance Miss, and apparently intentional, gets the place on this list as a result.

3) Back to Seattle and the Chargers for the third time, and I think this one was the play that he used as the inset.  This was the play after the muffed punt.

Screen, blockers, four missed tackles, including one comedically low.  Touchdown, Emanuel Wilson.

2) Back to Buffalo-New England.  29-26 New England, 1:14 to go, 2nd down on about their 40.  Two timeouts.

And he chucks it God Knows where into double coverage where one defender can literally park a car underneath and wait for it to come down.

1) He doesn't even do the one from Minnesota.  In fact, it's the third one from Buffalo-New England, and gets the last five and a half minutes of the video.

He's calling a magnetic-glove catch here.  This was the game-winning touchdown with 1:50 to go to Efton Chism III.

Since it's the first one of the year, he has to break out the video for actual marketing of a magnetic glove situation -- but, again, he makes it clear the ad doesn't mention legality with respect to the NFL...

And there's a reason for that belief.  The ball literally goes into one hand of Chism and stays there.  Not only doesn't it really move, but how in the Hell does he get it like THAT and then go to the ground and somehow pass the NFL definition of a catch?  Watch the replays -- the ball doesn't move.  How in the Hell do you get that kind of grip on the ball without Stickem?

Magnets.

And that's the end of Tyreek Hill's career. Good riddance.

 

Various Odds and Sods, October 6

  • As can probably be expected, the referees' union has appealed the suspensions from Sunday.
  • There have been 963 accepted penalties in the first 64 games of the NFL season.  That's an average of 15.05 penalties per game.
  • It is also a recorded record for the NFL -- records for that situation go back to about 1978.
  • UEFA may want another crack at Man City after the Premier League's process is done.  There is RUMOR the sanctions could come out next week, but no confirmation on that end.  The first round of appeals will probably go until March.
  • 6:50 PM PDT:  The entire Greek system of the University of Arizona has been provisionally suspended.  Every fraternity and I believe sorority as well.  Misconduct allegations across the board.
An ESPN study into tanking, taken for the new draft rules going into effect this year, has come out:
  • Four of the last five seasons have broken records for games with margin of victory over 20 points.
  • 22% of all games last year in the NBA were decided by more than 20 points.
  • From the All-Star break on forward, teams identified as tanking teams were getting blown out 20 or more at a rate well over 30%.
  • By the April part of the regular season, it was over FORTY PERCENT -- of all games those teams played.
There's plenty to say about it, and I'll get to that if I have the want to.

Monday, October 5, 2026

2026 NFL Week 4 Score Report

The big news of the week:

Penalties.

Lots of them.

Try 271 of them -- almost 17 a game.  Most penalties in a week since Week 2 of 2015, where it blasted past 18 a game for one week.

And there have been studies made which state some very disturbing things so far of the NFL season:
  • Most offensive penalties per game first 4 weeks since 2003
  • It's clear that offensive penalties of all kinds, including holding and pre-snap, were more a silent Point of Emphasis this year (most holding calls in six years, most pre-snap penalties since before the turn of the millenium)
  • Most offensive penalties in the red zone on record
  • Most offensive penalties on fourth down on record
  • 17 touchdowns in four weeks (just 64 games) have been removed through indiscipline -- and from what I see on the Fine Blotter, that number should be HIGHER.  (Last year had 5, two weeks ago had 4.)
Face it, it's a discipline problem -- not one necessarily with fines, suspensions, what have you...  But it is a discipline problem.

So, on to the numbers for the week:
  • 764 points for the week, average 47.75
  • 2958 points for the 64 games, 46.22
  • Home teams 8-7 for the week, 36-25 for the season.
  • Five of the sixteen games finished outside one score.
  • Only the Jets and Saints couldn't make the games competitive.
  • 39 of the 64 games have finished within one score, 23 in the last 32.
  • 5 Cliffhangers in 4 games  21 Cliffhangers in 13 games in the season
  • 6 Last Chance Misses in 5 games.  28 of the 39 games within one score have a Last Chance Miss
  • Multiples:
    • Pittsburgh tying TD at 1:42, Cleveland winning field goal at :10.
    • Dallas winning TD :45, Houston ball in the air at the gun
    • Las Vegas with a double LCM:  Onside miss at 1:46, interception at midfield at :10


NFL Suspension Blotter, but NOT the usual!

There are a lot of people who want the officials held more accountable.

Most times they do it, however, they don't understand that a league has the legal right to rig their games.

But the referees have limits, and, Sunday, two of them exceeded them, as I showed you in videos and X posts during my Gold Medal of the Dud of the Week on the Political Rankings posts.

And, today, as is usual for suspensions, they were announced -- just not the ones that you usually see announced.  According to Ari Meirov:
  • Jeff Seeman, for his viral FUCK YOU at a Arizona Cardinals player, will be sitting out the next two weeks.
  • And Adrian Hill sits one week for his viral rant at a Minnesota Vikings player who accidentally ran him over and then tried to help him up.