August 31, 2022 News and Notes

• Another Jimmy Connors run here at the US Open?  Serena Williams with the upset.  7-6, 2-6, 6-2 over #2 seed Anett Kontaviet.
• The infamous series of 3 overturned calls in the ALDS by 1st base umpire Angel Hernandez cost him a World Series spot that year, MLB learned.  He's got about the worst reputation of any current umpire out there, so no surprise.    
• After almost two days without a punter, the Bills signed Sam Martin to fill the void, eight days before their season opener in LA against the Rams.
• Tony Larussa is leaving the White Sox.  Medical tests for an unknown condition.
• Pat McAfee noted to Sports Illustrated that he contemplated suicide after a bad performance in a major game in 2007.  Car was vandalized, life was threatened, yard destroyed by irate fans after he missed two field goals in a 13-9 BCS elimination against Pitt.
• The two teams play again Saturday.
  

August 30, 2022 News and Notes

• Aaron Rodgers, are you going to shut the fuck up anytime soon, or are you angling to be Donald Trump's new favorite quarterback should he re-ascend?
• Donald Trump has now demanded he be reinstalled as the President or an immediate snap election be called because a major believed "obstructor" to the Hunter Biden case has been escorted out of the FBI.  As absurd as it sounds, there could be an end-around, if enough defectors in Congress turned the Congress red basically immediately and decided to revoke consent...
  
• Aaron Judge has hit his 50th home run of the season with over five weeks to go in the season.
• That said, the Yankee freefall continues:  With 33 to play, the Yankees lead over Tampa Bay is only seven, and Toronto eight.
• Every weekday at about midnight, Keith Olbermann debuts a new iHeart Countdown episode.  It now appears that the MAGAts are targeting it in at least one respect:  The second segment begins with a cause close to Olbermann's heart:  Dog rescue/adoption, in a portion of the show called "Every Dog Has It's Day".  A near-euthanization dog is featured in the hopes an owner (or at least the funds to rescue it out of it's plight) is found.
• One of the dogs he has featured in the first four weeks of the podcast was, in fact, adopted.  Two days later, it was returned with two shattered legs.  GEE, YOU THINK THERE WAS SOMETHING GOING ON HERE???   
• The latest wave of LIV defections DOES include 2022 Open Champion Cameron Smith and the other five people the ticket-examiners identified as defections for Boston:  Harold Varner III, Cameron Trinagle, Joaquinn Neimann, Marc Leishman, and Anirban Lahiri.
• An unsealed indictment indicates the concept of gang "follow-home" robberies is becoming quite prevalent.  It is the concept where either a person is celebrity-known or identified as rich (including, prosecutors in the indictment note, on social media) and is followed home and robbed.
• NFL player Calvin Ridley, Mariah Carey, and Brad Guzan of the Atlanta United soccer team are so named.  All have homes in the Atlanta area.
• It is becoming increasingly evident that any "law and order" situation in this country will either be militia-driven or require the military.    
• One of the last decent Russian leaders, Mikhail Gorbachev, passed away today at 91.
• Google has banned Donald Trump's Truth Social from it's search engines.  It now appears, in addition to everything else, Truth Social is, in fact, going into full league with 4chan.
• Well, THIS would be huge if it's true...  A New York Times best-selling author, Craig Unger, has apparently spoken with a former KGB spy, Yuri Shvets.  Shvets claims that a Palm Beach County Sheriff, one of four Americans ever actually granted asylum in the country, purchased tapes from Jeffrey Epstein for "kompromat" (compromising) circumstances.  This would now also make Epstein a Russian agent as well.

August 29, 2022 News and Notes

• Two football robberies, one on each side of the pond.
• Pierre Emerick Aubameyang was assaulted in a robbery in Spain.  The Barcelona soccer player was beaten with iron pipes by a gang who invaded his home -- days after an American teammate lost a 70,000 Euro watch in similar fashion.
• Third-round draft pick for Washington Brian Robinson was shot during a robbery in downtown Washington, DC.  His injuries do not appear to be life-threatening.
• Slated to be a part of the offense this year, the question for Robinson is now whether he will see the field again this year.
  
• We have a new Home Run King!!!!!!
• Kinda.
• With homer #694 tonight off of Ross Detweiler, Albert Pujols has the record for the most pitchers with home runs hit off of.  450, one more than Barroids.
• The good news:  Serena Williams has started her retirement tournament with a 6-3, 6-3 win.
• The bad news:  She gets the #2 seed in the second round!
• Because of teens huffing the nitrous oxide used to propel whipped cream in those cans, it is now illegal in the state of New York to purchase such cans of whipped cream until you are 21!  No, I am NOT kidding...    
• The Buffalo Bills are not done with their cuts yet!  Because of the San Diego State rape situation and another cut at the same position to provisionally get to 53, the team has no punter at all.
  

 

Am I beginning to see a case for MLB going "least-bad", like the NFL did last year?

So Houston's Justin Verlander went down after three innings today with a calf injury.

The Yankees are leaking parts all over the track.

I'm beginning to sniff a scenario where a 6 or 7 seed in one of the leagues getting through, beating the Dodgers or the like (because Rob Manfred), and winning the Series or something absurd like that.

Well, take this as an excuse for me doing the standings after the last Sunday in August (except for the Atlanta-St. Louis game, scheduled to be the Sunday nighter, but rain may have other ideas...):

American League:

AL East:  The Yankee freefall, somewhat leveled off, still has cut the lead over Toronto to 7.5.  9 over the Blue Jays, 10.5 over the Orioles!

AL Central:  Guardians are 2 up on the Twins, 5 up on the White Sox.

AL West:  Houston 11.5 up on Seattle, Texas is 23 back and pretty much gone.  The Oakland A's have been eliminated from the division.  The Angels' Tragic Number for the division is eight.

#1 Seed:  Houston is 3 1/2 up on the Yankees, no one else need apply.

Wild Cards:  Tampa Bay is 1/2 up on Seattle, 1 1/2 up on the Rays.

1. HOU (82-47)
2. NYY (78-50)
3. CLE (AL Central leaders, 67-59)
4. TB (70-57)
5. SEA (70-58)
6. TOR (68-58)
7. BAL (OUT, 67-60)
8. MIN (OUT, 65-61)

First round:  TOR@CLE, SEA@TB (Reminder for those not recalling:  Best of 3, higher seed hosts all.)

National League:

NL East:  NY Mets are setting up for another LOLMets September.  They are up 2 1/2 on the Barfs and 9.5 on the Phillies, who are SIXTEEN OVER .500!  Nationals have been eliminated for the division a couple of days now, even faster than the Oakland F's.

NL Central:  Cardinals are 5 1/2 up on the Brewers. 

NL West:  The Dodgers...  Yeah...  19 1/2 on the Padres.

#1 Seed:  Dodgers are 7 1/2 up on the Mets and 9 up on the Braves, should they overtake the Mets.

Wild Cards:  Braves are 7 up on Phillies, 9 1/2 on the Padres, 11 on the Brewers.

1. LAD (88-38)
2. NYM (82-47)
3. STL (NL Central leaders, 73-54)
4. Cobb County (79-49)
5. PHI (72-56)
   
6. SD (70-59)
7. MIL (OUT, 67-59)

First Round:  SD@STL, PHI@"ATL" 

Best Record In Baseball:  Dodgers 7 1/2 up on the Mets and Astros.

Magic Numbers:

Dodgers, Playoffs:  16

Dodgers, Division:  Also 16, San Diego (2nd in the NL West) and Milwaukee (current 7 seed in the NL) have the same number of losses.

Houston, Playoffs:  21

Tragic Numbers:

Oakland (AL West) and Washington (NL East) both ALREADY ELIMINATED from the divisions.

Colorado, NL West Division:  1.

Arizona, NL West Division and Anaheim, AL West Division:  8.

Miami, NL East Division:  9.

Closest to total elimination:  Washington is 9, Oakland 14.

August 28. 2022 News and Notes

• A second attempt to complete the Coke Zero 400 due to weather at Daytona has ended in The Really Big One.  A wreck on Lap 138 of 160 at the 2 1/2 mile track saw, with a spot of rain on the camera as the field went past in turn one, the front of the field began to spin out and no one had a prayer.  Maybe a baker's dozen of cars in the field survived it, most in the back.
• NASCAR lists 17 cars in the wreck.
  
• If the race is called here, as it now well should because of NASCAR's error with the rain, Austin Dillon and Martin Truex Jr. would go in the field.  Ryan Blaney would lose out on points.
• They finished.  Dillon won, Truex went out on points.
  
• For the first time, a regular-season win would actually be required to make the Chase.
• The continuing saga of Josh Gordon (suspended for two full seasons, twice indefinite) appears to be coming to another turn when he is cut in Kansas City to get the rosters to 53 this week.  What is he still doing being allowed in an NFL training camp or stadium, even as a spectator?  He should be about as welcome near the NFL as I would be at "The Body Remembers" Tour this summer or at Under 54 (or whatever that cabaret is called) last weekend!   
• The Buffalo Bills GM on firing Araiza:  "The culture here is more important than winning games."  BULLFUCKINGSHIT!  Stop.  Just.  Fucking.  STOP!  1) He's not the only one -- football has far too many of them EVERYWHERE for me to believe that.  And 2) He's only been sued at that point -- you've all but declared him guilty and there's one and only one reason for it.  The NFL believes he's guilty and has already told your team what is going to happen to them if they keep him for one hot minute further.  The only question left is whether they've told you, as things stand now, to make plans to be in Glendale, AZ next February...
• To be fair, as I'll say shortly when I do my preview, in a shoot world, it does appear that Buffalo has the best team, 1-53, to make it there.   
• In the "Don't Say Anything At All If You're Not Going To Say Anything" Department:  Tom Brady on his absence from training camp:  "I'm 45 years old.  A lot of shit is going on."
• Honolulu, HI mercy-ruled Curacao 13-3 to win the Little League World Series Championship game in just four innings.
• Rory McIlroy won the FedEx Cup and the $18,000,000 which came with it today by winning the handicapped Tour Championship.  Scottie Scheffler, the #1 seed and who came in up five shots to enter the final round, shot a 73 to McIlroy's 67.
  

 

There Are Questions So Stupid That They Need To Be Posted Without Further Comment

Spotted on a video that ESPN put up on their website today:

Why are there no Black head football coaches in the SEC?

headdesk

August 27, 2022 News and Notes

• Adidas has cut ties with Fernando Tatis, Jr.
• An increasing number of street takeover attempts have infuriated Anaheim residents, including one just literally kitty-corner of a block away from Disneyland.  One pissed off (against the takeovers) person actually brought a curved blade and had to be run off.   
• Additional names apparently ready to make the jump to LIV include two prominent golfers from Chile, Joaquin Niemann next week in Boston and Mito Periera eventually.
• If Niemann and World #2 Cameron Smith (who's been reported pretty much about the moment he won the 2022 Open Championship) make the jump, they will be ineligible for the Presidents' Cup in September, which IS a PGA Tour event.
• Niemann is the current #18 in the world, Harold Varner III (reported a day or two ago) #40.
• Northwestern defeated Nebraska on a botched onside kick call -- further heating the seat of former Central Florida coach Scott Frost.
• Honolulu, HI will face a team from Curacao for the Little League World Series Championship tomorrow.  It is Curacao's fourth championship appearance (won the title in 2004, lost in 2005 and 2019).  It is Honolulu's second (won the title in 2018).
• Rita Smith, an NFL senior advisor on sexual assault and domestic violence, believes DeShaun Watson is a bald-faced liar.  DUH!    
• Matt Araiza has been fired from the Buffalo Bills -- an almost-admission on their part that the punter is guilty in the San Diego State gang-rape situation.  Now, anyone responsible for getting or drafting him needs to go next.  Everybody KNEW there was this kind of a situation at San Diego State.
• And another thought:  Did someone from the NFL pop in in Buffalo and actually show them something????  Like the effects of the Britt Reid lawsuit trial on the Chiefs (Checked a day or two ago -- still scheduled for...  right during this upcoming football season!  *checks Kansas City off The List*), or even the plans for the NFL for this season???  
  
• Allen Greene was effectively fired from Auburn University as it's athletic director Friday.  Four years of football failure at the school has even drawn the congratulations of the Tennessee athletic director, Danny White, for maintaining some composure and finally getting the Hell out!  And if you want any indication of "football schools", etc., Auburn actually got to two College World Series and a Final Four in Greene's tenure.  Auburn is a football town, ma'am.  
  
• Aroldis Chapman of the Yankees is out an indeterminate period.  He got a tattoo -- it got infected!
• Police had to be called to the Duke bench of an early-season Duke-BYU women's volleyball match when a BYU fan hurled racial slurs at the only African-American starter on Duke's team throughout the match. 
• Not a student, sat in the student section.  Won't anymore.  Banned from all athletic events.
  

 

August 26, 2022 News and Notes

• "Directional A&M Sacrificial Lamb To Pay The Bills" strikes again!!  One of a number of waiver games to allow to be played this weekend, Florida A&M was scheduled to play North Carolina tomorrow.  The game should not take place:  27 of Florida A&M's players are not currently NCAA-eligible, leaving them with just seven offensive linemen.
• Florida A&M is going to make $450,000 IF the game takes place.  The entire 2021-22 budget for Florida A&M athletics was, per a budget request, just short of $9,500,000.
• Another is the first Big Ten game of the year:  Northwestern vs. Nebraska...  in Dublin, Ireland!
• Some possible future leaks for LIV Tour defections in the near future:  Marc Leishman, Cameron Trinagle, Anirban Lahiri (more on the Asian Tour, which is already bankrolled by the Saudis), and Harold Varner III.  They did so through an interesting method:  By checking names being used as 25% off codes for tickets to the September 2-4 LIV event in Boston.  Hideki Matsuyama's name, however, DOES NOT work.   
• Two women are suing George Foreman, claiming to have been raped by him in the 1970's.
• The next wave in the death of broadcast television is now being considered:  NBC is now looking to cut the 10-11 PM Eastern/Pacific hour out of prime time and give it to the local stations.  This would cut prime time from three hours a night to two except on Sundays, where it would go from four to three (and, for Sunday, only from about second week of January to first week of September).

And UrinatingTree's Next Contestant on "Wheel Of Discipline" appears to be...

Defending World Champion Aaron Donald of the Rams!

And this one looks like it's gonna be a biggie.

We had another camp joint-practice fight between the Rams and Bengals -- when THIS happened, according to the New York Post...   

Donald had already removed the helmet of a Bengals player and gave two whacks with it in the middle of the fight -- it would've been more if he hadn't been shoved to the ground.

That's at least a six-gamer, punk.  And the Rams can go to the back of the line, not that there is a line at this point in the NFC, isn't that why a certain player returned after retiring at the behest of his supermodel wife?

EDIT TO ADD:  Maybe not.  The NFL apparently has no jurisdiction in this situation, at least the league wants to proclaim...  *cough*

August 25, 2022 News and Notes

• Another year, more hazing in the name of FOOBAW!!!  Middletown, PA High School will not have a football team this year.  A hazing problem has arisen in the team which may gut the school.  More dehumanization in the name of creating that FOOBAW MACHINE!!! which will win CHAMPIONSHIPS!!!  (And rape, pillage, and plunder everything in their path...)   
• Kurt Busch is still too concussed to take part in the start of the NASCAR playoffs.  Getting some real Dale Jr. vibes from this, sadly...   
• JC Tretter, the President of the NFLPA, has retired from the game after eight years in the league.  He was released as a salary cap move by the Browns over the offseason, after starting 80 of 81 games the last five years.  Yeah, such loyalty...  Woo hoo.  And all the money in the world for a sexual predator who should be in GODDAMNED MOTHERFUCKING PRISON!  GO FUCK YOURSELF!   
• And, while we're at it:  Mr. Tretter, WHY IS YOUR FUCKING ORGANIZATION NOT WORKING TO PUT THIS SHITHEAD BEHIND BARS, NOT JUST OUT OF THE SPORT?   
• SPEAKING OF...  Matt Araiza, a punter trying to make the Bills as a rookie, is now accused of aiding in a gang-rape of a 17 year old as part of the culture problems at San Diego State University.  At least two other football players and a fourth man were involved.

August 24, 2022 News and Notes

• Len Dawson, one of the controversial figures in football in the start of the Super Bowl era, passed away today.
• Whoops...  (We hope.)  During the Sunday night broadcast of the Little League Classic, where MLB brings one game to the Little League World Series, an African-American player had his hair covered with cotton.  A LLWS report on the subject, after much social-media scorn for obvious racial reasons, says that was the only player they showed and a bunch of players were doing it.  Which would not surprise me, but you may have a POIDH (Pictures Or It Didn't Happen) moment, OR you may have some questions for ESPN, which has more than dabbled right-wing on some occasions and subjects.   
• In a move toward some old-school Americana, a school district in Missouri has actually reinstated spanking some children.  They best hope that doesn't escalate the violence in today's day and age.   
• A 2002 SNL after party has resulted in a sexual assault lawsuit -- and Jimmy Fallon has been added on as a possible enabler.  Then sue the entire damn network, because the entire entertainment industry enables this crap.   
• Tiger and Rory have begun a virtual golf league -- starting in January.  Hmmm, possible ESPN ties for after Monday Night Football?  (Yes, the matches -- with full arenas and crowds with virtual golf -- are being played on Mondays.)   
• The PGA Tour has gotten an agreement with some of it's more name players that they will play 20 events next year instead of the (former?) minimum 15.
• In exchange, the PGA Tour is upping prize money and benefits for players next year, in a direct broadside against the Saudi sportswashing tour.
• For the first time next season, every MLB team will play every other MLB team.  The intradivision games are the victims here.
• Fernando Tatis Jr. is doing the apology tour.  I don't know if he realizes what he's blown up with this suspension.  One prime shot for the Padres to off the Dodgers and do Manfred a favor, possibly two (since Tatis probably loses a month of next season, at the least!).   
• And THAT took two days...  There is now a leaked clip, stating that one of the judges from The Masked Singer, knowing of Tom Brady's absence from training camp, identified one of the singers from this season as Brady.  There is -- or at least WAS -- a mechanism where a judge could eliminate a singer outright with a correct guess, under penalty if they were wrong.  And there is an award the show gives for the judge with the most correct guesses in any event.   
• However, the show takes MASSIVE security precautions to prevent stuff like this -- although it didn't help spoiling Rudy Guiliani's pollution of last season, in which he made the second cut.
• In a move which can only increase the ideas that CM Punk is done with All Elite Wrestling, Jon Moxley has unified the World Championship again with a dominating performance over Punk.  They at least did an angle on Punk's surgically-repaired foot and the match was less than one segment.  Now watch the Internet Wrestling Community explode.
• And if Punk was still injured, STRIP HIM OF THE BELT and find another All Out opponent for Moxley -- this decision, bluntly, the WORST of both worlds.   
• Thunder Rosa has also been injured as AEW Women's Champion -- an interim title will be created as well.
• Because some pissants in the LA Sheriff's Department wanted to get stupid with Kobe Bryant's mangled deceased body after the crash with some pictures -- his wife has won a $16,000,000+ judgement because of their fucking insensitivity.

August 23, 2022 News and Notes

• Be interesting to see if anyone finds value in the Angels after how much Moreno has killed the franchise, but the long nightmare in Anaheim may be about to begin clearing:  Arte Moreno is beginning the process to look into selling the team.
• No one wants Kevin Durant, so he stays in Brooklyn.
• The NCAA will get it's women's basketball championship game on ABC for the first time next year.

Holy. Mother. Fucking. Shit.

Oh my fucking God...

It's bad enough that I actually now have a fight challenge I placed on the table against a transphobe for Dwayne Wade's daughter coming out as transgender and Wade, in full support, going to court for the name change and gender change...

(That resulted in about a four-hour fight with a fucking Republican transphobe who, if he is as he represents, is straight out of the outhouse big-beard MAGA BULLSHIT stereotypes...

And before anyone asks me "What is a woman?", I'm tempted to respond with "What is a human being?")

Because, while that was going on on one G/O Media site, we had another G/O Media site with an article about DeShaun Watson, and several statements made over the last preseason NFL weekend which seems to indicate the answer to "What is a woman?" is "Sex toy biatch who needs to shut the fuck up."

Deadspin reports this morning about the support DeShaun Watson and his sexual deviancy.

• Owner Jimmy Haslam, who gave Watson the largest guaranteed contract in the history of the NFL -- and gave up three first-round draft picks for a quarterback who never should play again in any organized (or non-prison DISorganized) sport -- came out in full support of the pig.
• A man in the parking lot in Cleveland selling shirts:  "BITCH, GIMME A MASSAGE"
• Two men, presumably father in son:  One sign:  "FUCK THEM HOES".  The other:  "FREE WATSON".

One of the reasons it's becoming increasingly evident that the only way to truly deal with such a level of criminal athlete may be to shoot him.  It is clear that this animal IS "Mr. Touchdown, USA" and that only a consistent effort on the part of the NFL will keep him from any further relevance -- and we know, on some level, THAT is not happening.

August 22, 2022 News and Notes

• If this isn't an indication of the type of sports world the pro sports have created...  We now have a Little Leaguer who actually, hot mic, said that ESPN is fixing the Little League World Series for it's own benefit.  Would I be 100% shocked?  Absolutely not!  That said, that's not something you want over the hot mic -- I think you've played your last in this season's tournament, kid.   
• What he feared was happening did not come to pass.  That said, again, I believe this is what the sports world of the last 30 or so years has created.  Anything you watch or take part in that has some tentacles in the corporate sports world has to be viewed with suspicion. 
• Tom Brady has apparently returned to Tampa Bay's training camp.  There was some discussion this was actually so that Brady could be on the new season of FOX's The Masked Singer.  He, naturally, is declining that at this point.  Would make sense, with the $400,000,000 contract with FOX once he retires...
• Aaron Judge has jacked #47 tonight against the Mets.
• #693 tonight for Pujols.  Six in eight days, seven since August 10th!  You know what?  700 is NOT that out of the question unless he cools down!
• Sounds like Donovan Mitchell is staying with the Utah Jazz -- Sports Illustrated notes that not only would the Jazz want 4 first-rounders for Mitchell, they'd want them not lottery protected!
• The monsoonal rains this summer, where they have occurred, have wreaked havoc.  At least four times in Las Vegas, and now at the practice facility at SMU, flooded by heavy rains.
• With chaos both in the boardroom with transfers and on the pitch with continued protests (I'm not sure the latter ever really ended!), Manchester United got a key three points from Liverpool with a 2-1 home victory today.

August 21, 2022 News and Notes

• Yet another example of "It's All About The Quarterback"...  Blake Gillikin is the starting punter for the New Orleans Saints.  In their game at Lambeau Field last night, Gillikin fired off an 81 yard punt.
• He punted from his own 7 yard line with the wind in Green Bay.  The punt landed at the opposition 12 and rolled into the end zone.  81 yards credited, 61 net, 81 in the air.
• The NFL, this morning, demanded a drug test.
• Seriously.
• I am not kidding...  

August 20, 2022 News And Notes

• Lead over Toronto for the Yankees is now just SEVEN, and the wheels are coming off.  9-26 since the break, they're lost 8 1/2 games since July 8.
• The loss today clinches the sixth consecutive losing series for the Yanks, first time for them in 27 years, according to Elias Sports Bureau.
• Two developments on PGA vs. LIV:  One is a report the PGA Tour will rescind it's nonprofit status to better challenge LIV...
• And a second is a report that Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy will propose to the PGA Tour Commissioner a group of "elite events" with $20,000,000 purses to try to equalize the prize money somewhat.
• And, would you believe it?  TWO MORE JACKS for Pujols today!  692 overall.  Five this week, six since August 10th.  (13 for the year)  Four away from A-Rod now.
• And the game is only in the 4th inning!

August 19, 2022 News and Note

• Well, if you need to know why the theme parks are so expensive, Six Flags' CEO has come out publicly and stated rates are going up, with the intention of pricing out families farming their teens out to the place to wreak havoc.  Can't say I blame him...  Really can't...   
• A Utah judge, two days after it was reported that a female athlete was investigated for winning by "too much", has thrown out the state's transgender athletes' ban.
• Vic Mignogna has lost the last of his appeals in Texas court, and now the paying has to begin.
• And it could even be worse -- the cross-appeal for the winners in the case, actress Monica Real and others, WON and that means the $125,000 could stiffly increase.
• Shortages in police staffing indicate there may be no Mardi Gras in New Orleans in 2023.
• The balls being used for the women's tournament in the US Open have been the subject of controversy, including statements by runaway World #1 Iga Swiatek.  And there may be merit:  The US Open is the only Grand Slam tournament which the women use different tennis balls than the men -- and, of the last seven US Open women's singles champs, five are first-time Slam winners!
• The Loire, the longest river in France, no longer exists.  European weather and climate have evaporated the entire river!
• Marcell Osuna of Cobb County got dinged with a DUI arrest this morning.
• CBS/Paramount will retain the rights of the UEFA Champions League tournament for the rest of the decade.  The six-year deal beats out Amazon for the honor.

August 18, 2022 News and Notes

• Kazuchka Okada has won his second consecutive G1, and will be the challenger for the IWGP World Championship on a ONE-NIGHT Wrestle Kingdom January 4, 2023-- in which there is some word AEW talent (which is being used to fill out some of the American work) may be involved.
• He defeated Will Ospreay in about 33 minutes.
• New Japan and women's promotion Stardom will have a second crossover event at the Palladium in New York City in October.
• With Wrestle Kingdom going back to one night, chaotic event New Year Dash (where the card is secret until the start of the card and new angles are begun for the next year) returns on the 5th.
• NXT UK has disbanded and a half a dozen wrestlers have been released.  It will reform as a larger full-European project, and the shambles that the sexual abuse by UK wrestlers has left is a large reason why.
• There is some consternation in AEW land toward CM Punk.  Mysteriously, the apparent PPV main event for All Out in September (between him as World Champion and Interim World Champion Jon Moxley) was moved up to a free Dynamite next week, and now word CM Punk almost no-showed last night, and did go into business for himself to blast Hangman Adam Page in a promo during this week's show.  Hoo Boy.
• The final DeShaun Watson verdict is in -- the arbitrator split the difference.  11 games.  STILL NOT NEARLY FUCKING ENOUGH.   
• A $5,000,000 fine has been added to the penalty -- meaning what games he plays until about Week 3 or 4 of next season are for free.
• Some chatter about Tom Brady's "personal matters" and when he might return to the Tampa Bay team.  Highly unusual, yes -- but this IS Tom Brady.
• The US Open tennis tournament will have over $60,000,000 in total prizes, a larger amount for more players in the earlier rounds -- which makes sense, when you think of it.
• A reporter for the Dodgers thought it might be fun to do Bernie Brewer's slide.  Two broken bones in his wrist and six broken ribs later when he didn't take the padding properly...
• The rumored deal for the Big Ten has been signed with NBC, FOX, and CBS.  Billion dollars a year for 10 years, the conference is talking "EXPOSURE" in the press.  Shyeah and right!   
• In the "Well, This Is Interesting..." Department:  A Dominican League game yesterday ended 2-0 (a Cubs affiliate beating a Pirates affiliate).  The interesting part of it is that BOTH TEAMS, technically, recorded no-hitters.  The regulation seven-inning game featured precisely ZERO hits, by either team!   
• Both runs were scored off of walks and throwing errors in the first inning.
• Albert Pujols, saying he was about a month and a half from his retirement, has hit three home runs in the last several days, 690 total...  Think he might come back for 700?  Maybe???   
• And in the "Fucking Sore Loser Bigot Bullshit" Department:  A Utah athlete, without her knowledge, had her gender investigated when the second and third place finishers in a competition last year (before Utah made transgender athletics illegal -- a practice challenged in their courts and now in force in at least 12 states) complained and demanded it after the athlete had defeated them, the Salt Lake Tribune and the AP state, "by a wide margin".  Records going back to kindergarten were examined -- the winner determined completely female.
• Not only the bigotry, but two other problems present itself:  The first is why I believe high school girls' sports are done -- the probability that a good athlete can rout the field like that is far increased in grade and high school levels.
• The second is:  Do you think part of this stupid bigotry is the possibility that this could be another high-testosterone female athlete that "doesn't look 'girl' enough" for the boys or men to grab pussy and all that type of shit -- which more people should know is the main purpose, now, for women's sports in this country?   

And once again, Vitale gets his own post...

 

Dr Rick Brown just notified me with my results of my major Pet Scan & told me news I wish EVERY cancer patient can hear . He said “Dick u have gone from being in remission to being CANCER FREE” ! Thank u to ALL of YOU that have sent me 🙏🙏🙏 .

— Dick Vitale (@DickieV) August 17, 2022

AWESOME WITH A CAPITAL A!!!!

My anonymous friend has participated in Relay For Life for 14 years. My friend had to remind me of something:

The bell is one thing - remission. THIS IS SO MUCH MORE.

To the ability to detect, DICK VITALE IS FUCKING CANCER FREE!!!!!

And Aqib Talib may have started another one -- this one, MURDER!!

Reader JAB128 (thank you) with another one, and why would none of this surprise me:

News this week of Aqib Talib's brother turning himself in in the murder of youth football coach Michael Hickmon near Dallas.

And now, further witnesses indicate none of this happens without one of the biggest hotheads in NFL history having gotten involved FIRST.

And now, about a month before Aqib becomes a contributor on the Prime Video Thursday Night Football broadcasts, multiple witnesses on a podcast indicate that the fight with officials and between two sets of coaches never occurs if Aqib doesn't stick his snout in it and escalate the fight to violence.

Here is that podcast, where a number of witnesses to the incident discuss the situation:

I think there's going to be a very real discussion as to where Aqib gets nailed if this gets to him.  He has almost certainly committed the Felony II in Texas of manslaughter (the reckless act, resulting in the death of another (TX PC 19.04(a)).  Would they try to go at least Murder for both of them, since Aqib may have started the incident and it might fall under "intends to cause serious bodily injury and commits an act clearly dangerous to human life which results in a death of an individual" (TX PC 19.02(b)(2)).

And when in the fucking Hell is this sport going on trial?  This was apparently born of an officiating dispute as to the SCORE OF THE CONTEST, I'm gathering from news sources?

SERIOUSFUCKINGLY?

August 17, 2022 News and Notes

• One out of every nine LAUSD students sat out the first day -- many, probably, due to COVID concerns.
• That isn't going to be allowed to stand for long.  That's 50,000 absentees.
• Half of all students in LA missed at least 18 days last year.
• If there's any evidence left to get as to who the Q-Anon T Party will nominate in two years:  Ten House Republicans voted to impeach Trump.  Four quit at the end of this term.  Four of the other six have lost, three to Trump opponents, including Liz Cheney tonight.  Only TWO made the November ballot.
• A couple weeks after her husband got it, now the First Lady, Jill Biden, has tested positive for COVID.
• As has the CEO of Pfizer.
• Patrick Reed has sued NBC Universal, The Golf Channel, and Branden Chamblee, a commentator on same, for three quarters of a billion dollars for Chamblee claiming Reed is a habitual cheater, etc. and so forth.  And criticism of the LIV Tour, which Reed is now on.
• Why am I getting the feeling we are going to see a major violent incident between the PGA Tour and LIV Tour golfers in short order?   
• Wrestler Sasha Banks got her car broken into during some time in Oakland.  Translated:  She left her car out for more than five minutes in the central Bay Area!   
• The Texas Rangers are in the middle of a shakeup.  Manager and Team President both fired this week.
• To show how little it is probably going to matter:  Jon Daniels has been the President of Baseball Operations for the Texas Rangers now for 17 years.  Two trips to the World Series (which I completely forgot about, but were right at the start of his tenure, lost a Wild Card game, dropped two ALCS as AL West Champion.
• Last winning season was their last playoff year in 2016.
• And it continues for Cristiano Ronaldo and Manchester United:  Slapped a mobile phone out of a 14 year old's hand.  Officially warned that can be used against him in an English court, if the situation requires.  Ronaldo wants out of the ManU Titanic -- and, if he's not careful, he's going to get out, by way of going to jail!  The FA now is going to investigate -- and may charge Ronaldo for the incident.  In 2013, Eden Hazard was banned three matches for striking a ball boy.
• And all pretense of unexpected booking for the G1 for the 50th Anniversary went out the window in the semifinals.  Kazuchka Okada defeated Tama Tonga for the chance to become the winner in consecutive years, a feat only managed five times, three by Antonio Inoki.
• His challenger will be Will Ospreay, who beat Tetsuya Naito in the other semifinal.  After a tournament with a lot of booking, it's Okada, who basically has defined New Japan Pro Wrestling for the last decade, and Ospreay, who, if his body would ever hold up, would be one of about four men or so who could unseat him.
• The winner of tonight's final wins an effective Money in the Bank -- they WILL be the challenger at the next Wrestle Kingdom (title currently held by Jay White, who almost won his block undefeated, but for a loss to Tama Tonga on the final group night -- meaning he wins a title shot, but not at WK (see above)), but will have to defend that "title" over the course of the intervening months.  Tradition has the defenses against anyone in the group phase who defeated them, so Ospreay would have to face David Finlay and another former IWGP Heavyweight Champion, Shingo Takagi.  Okada would only have to face JONAH, a recent IWGP signing.  Based on Gedo's booking, kinda six of one and half a dozen of the other here.  Okada has defined New Japan the last decade, Ospreay would bring the better challengers in the fall -- but at risk of another injury.  Going with Okada as a prediction.   

August 16, 2022 News and Notes

• Well, in the same way we talk about the Dodgers the one way (won Monday after losing Sunday, 13 of 14, 16 of 18, 24 of 29, 33-6 since July 1...), the Yankees are going the OTHER DIRECTION....
• 22 consecutive innings without a run of any kind.  Lost 5 out of 6, 10 of 12, 14 of 20, 16 of 25...  And they are STILL 28 over .500 and 10 up on Tampa and Toronto.
• Now 1 run in 31 innings, and another loss to the Rays tonight.
• I discussed earlier about Tiger Woods and the impact of him refusing the Saudi advances of the LIV Tour -- now he wants to talk to the rest of the PGA Tour on how to better fight the sportswashing upstarts.
• A confidential financial settlement between the 76ers and Ben Simmons finally closes the door on his tumultuous end with the team before they traded him to Brooklyn.
• Source states that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will sign Carl Nassib to a contract.  An OLB injury in the first preseason game will probably move Nassib into a rotational role with the team.  Head coach Todd Bowles has previously praised Nassib on his work ethic and all the other things good for a football player, according to reports.
• The Little League World Series begins Wednesday.
• Leaks on the NBA schedule for next season continue -- the NBA is apparently not scheduling any games for Election Night.  Sadly, probably a very good idea.
• GEDO, YOU COWARD!  The seven-way tie scenario for Group D in the G1 was averted.
• The semifinals are set:  Tama Tonga upset Jay White to win Group B and will face Kazuchka Okada in one semifinal.  It was White's only defeat of the tournament.
• El Phantasmo at least did his half of the mega-tie, and sent Will Ospreay to the semifinals.  He will face Tetsuya Naito, who defeated Zack Sabre, Jr., with EVIL besting Hirooki Goto to keep Goto out of a three-way tie scenario.  Those matches are tonight.
• Crystal Palace's Joachim Andersen has been given death threats for being headbutted by Liverpool's Darwin Nunez.  So he's supposed to just take shit because it's LIVERPOOL, gotcha.  Fucking morons.   

An interesting theory from one of my readers on the PGA Tour...

I occasionally get some interesting information, and JAB128 does not disappoint with a rather interesting take that the PGA Tour may only be held up by Mob/The Usual (American) Suspects money-laundering.

Miles Mathis, in late June, in response to the Saudi sportswashing with the LIV Tour, published a brief opinion PDF where he called "Bullshit" on the entire PGA -- wondering how the PGA Tour could, feasibly, throw the better part of $150,000,000 and finance at least the logistics of their own Tour (and perhaps the Korn Ferry, etc. as well).

He links to a Forbes article which states that most of the PGA Tour's finances are off the books, and that's the first basis of the call of "Bullshit".  

In short, Mathis concludes this, like many other operations (and I'd be interested to see how many sports he adds to this number) is laundering money from basically everywhere it can get EXCEPT Saudi Arabia, it seems (though the Asian Golf Tour is also (and, in this case, openly) Saudi-financed).

He states that he would like a boycott of all professional sports (don't stop there, then, Mr. Mathis -- college can go just as quickly!), and literally stomped his television set into the ground in 1993.

Read that.  Largely, it's a matter of "there's no other way the kind of money they are representing to be involved is actually involved without money laundering", but there it is for you.

Jeopardy! 2022 Tournament of Champions format and fieldS (!) revealed.

On today's official Inside Jeopardy! podcast (co-hosted by show Executive Producer Michael Davies and Sarah Foss -- the guest was 2017 winner and 2021 host of the Tournament Buzzy Cohen), the field for the direct 2022 Tournament of Champions was revealed:

• College Champion Jaskaran Singh.  Singh won $250,000 in a college prime-time tournament -- and, as tradition, the College Champion also gains a spot in the Tournament of Champions.
• College Professors Champion Sam Buttrey.  In 2021, he won the first Professors Tournament, a $100,000 prize, and, as tradition with all major tournaments, a spot in the Tournament of Champions.
• 40-time champion and all-time show female winnings record holder Amy Schneider (who defeated Andrew He in her first win, in probably the ULTIMATE Second Chance scenario -- He was leading going into Final and would've won if wagered right).   The first out transgender Jeopardy! champion, Schneider made history in the longest run of victory on the show since Jennings.  Her $1,384,800 places her 11th in all-time, all-shows, and second in the women to Ashlee Register of Duel.
• #10 on the all-time, all-shows list is also in the field, Matt Amodio.  His 38 wins and $1,519,601 -- and they also noted six different guest hosts on the run...  And none of them was Ken Jennings, who will host the 2022 Tournament.  Officially, with two more wins, Schneider will be the Tournament's #1 seed.
• The all-time Canadian winner on the show, Mattea Roach.  $560,983 is ninth all-time in show history.  Roach had 23 wins, fifth all-time.
• Ryan Long from Philadelphia, with 16 wins.  A couple of these were in the "HOW?" file, and with only just over $300,000, Long is more of a "quantity over quality" case in this Tournament.  According to Andy Saunders, 14-8 in Doubles, 8-9 in Final.  How he won 16, I have no idea.
• Jonathan Fisher, who created Jeopardy! history of his own -- an (eventual) ultrachamp taking down an ultrachamp (Amodio -- the first, and, to date, only person to do that).  His stats weren't nearly as impressive:  11 wins, $248,100, but he ends up the fifth-seeded ultrachamp in a show which has had only 14.
• Brian Chang -- who had an unfortunate end to his 7-win streak:  The carryover champion from pre-COVID (Zack Newkirk) could not safely start the new season.  By the time safety would allow, Newkirk defeated Chang for his fifth win and ended his run.
• Courtney Shaw -- the first superchamp on the show in 17 weeks (plus any tournaments and reruns) in S37.
• Eric Ahasic
• Zack Newkirk is also in the field.
• Megan Wachspress, who won six after defeating Ahasic (who had also won six), making that pair the third, through 10 players regular season, to both be in the Tournament (Amodio-Fisher, Chang-Newkirk, Wachspress-Ahasic).  The show notes Wachspress' low average -- did not note it for Fisher or for Long.
• Andrew He, who makes the fourth such pair in the tournament, as he lost to Schneider after five wins.
• Tyler Rhode, a five-time winner.
• Jackie Kelly, a four-game winner, winning the (normal) tiebreaker with $115,100.

That is the usual field size of 15.  HOWEVER, the show announced previously that another tournament would be held before the ToC, with some of the best of the best not to win a single game, but performed so well (probably against one of the ultrachamps) to gain a spot in a one-time Second Chance Tournament.  Here's THAT field, announced about two weeks ago:

• Isaac Applebaum (4th place, 2022 College Championship)
• James Fraser (not sure how he got in this field -- probably they just kept asking people and he was one of the last they needed to ask)
• Sadie Goldberger (Wachspress' first win, would've won with a correct Final)
• Aaron Gulyas (Long's 11th win, would've won if he remembered "Omaha" was the audible call of Peyton Manning.  (His Final was the creator of Omaha Productions, Gulyas said Ric Flair (?!?!?!??))
• Molly Karol (He's fourth win, would've won if He had missed his final, a total of over $30,000)
• Alicia O'Hare (kinda the same boat as Fraser -- acquitted quite well, but we seem to recall the initial idea of this Tournament was all the ultrachamps this season and occasional good challengers to those runs)
• Do Park (Schneider's 14th win -- gave her a good push, but are there 15 better candidates there?)
• Tom Philopose (Long's 15th win -- would've won (with Long's wager and his own) if he got his Final right)
• Tracy Pitzel (Amodio's 24th win -- would've won if she had known the Final, that a Dip containing acetone, benzene, and turpentine kills Toons, as in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"
• Nikkee Porcaro (this one really is a "Huh?" -- sounds like, after they ran out of super/ultrachamp-challenger candidates, they started finding anyone who would've won if they got their Final right to fill this field to the needed amount)
• Renee Russell (Roach's 18th win -- a correct Final would've meant a big score over $40,000 (but one Roach covered), and the producers deemed that sufficient)
• Pam Schoenberg (Schneider's 10th win -- see Russell, but over a $32,000 score if she'd bet fully)
• Jeff Smith (See Porcaro and probably Fraser and O'Hare as well)
• Sara Snider (Roach's 23rd and final win -- had the lead in Final, would've won with a correct response)
• Jessica Stephens (Amodio's defeat and Fisher's first win, and probably a great prototype for the creation of this tournament -- acquitted herself very well in the match!)
• Rowan Ward (Amodio's 18th win (and the final episode of S37) -- appeared under another name in this match (which Rowan uses as an FKA, Nicolle Neulist), falls kind of under the same concept as Russell and Schoenberg)
• Jack Weller (Chang's 4th win -- lost a tiebreaker question to Chang)
• Cindy Zhang (mis-wagered her way out of a championship)

Now, you'll notice that's 18 of those.

That is because there will be two separate nine-person tournaments -- EACH qualifying it's winner for the Tournament of Champions.  Winner-take-all semifinals three days, and a two-day final each week for the qualifier.

But wait!  That's now SEVENTEEN for the main Tournament, and Inside Jeopardy! announced how that's getting handled!

Well, that's because the field is 21!  Here are the four additional direct qualifiers before we get to how they straighten this out:

• John Focht -- four wins, $103,000
• Margaret Shelton -- almost $80,000 in four wins
• Maureen O'Neil -- defeated Margaret, making the fifth such pairing in the Tournament.  $58,200 in her four wins.
• Christine Whelchel -- $73,602 in her four wins, a cancer survivor.  Famously discarded her wig in solidarity and to normalize recovery and remission after Trebek's passing.

So how are they doing this Tournament?

In a manner similar to the Ultimate Tournament of Champions, the top three seeds (Amy, Matt, and Mattea) win automatic qualification to the semifinals.  Davies notes the bigger question (the difference between Mattea and the fourth seed was seven full wins, so granting advancement was never the issue!) was the familiarity with the stage and buzzer for the three seeds.

Davies also noted (and you can see from both lists) that there was no feasible way to get the field to 27 and do three pods.

The other 18 play quarterfinals.  Winner take all.  No wildcards.

Then the seeds come in for the three semifinals.  Winner take all.

BUT THEN, ANOTHER THROWBACK:

You remember The Greatest Of All-Time??  They're bringing THAT format forward, single-game format.

Three wins wins you the tournament.  $250,000 (presumably), and they're still trying to figure out if the "championship belt" format Buzzy Cohen started when his wife gave him a Rocky-style belt for his win is going to continue -- he had one made for James Holzhauer, Holzhauer had one made for Sam Kavanaugh.  No word yet on what Kavanaugh is doing.

August 15, 2022 News and Notes

• A very unusual and interesting scenario in the annual G1 tournament to declare the challenger at next January's Wrestle Kingdom, during the 50th anniversary of New Japan Pro Wrestling.

First:  This year, there are FOUR blocks instead of two.  So the second and third nights at the Budokan this week will determine the winner.  

Second:  Most times, you can kind of tell who is going to win the block (or at least have contention) by the final night's order.

This is the case in two blocks:  A and B.  A, Kazuchka Okada wins the block unless Lance Archer beats him.  That's the main event.  B, Jay White wins the block (and undefeated) unless Tama Tonga beats him.

But they are ordering the matches weirdly.  Two matches in each of the four groups, and the order has no merit on the situation, except for the two win-and-in matches.

And they pair the matches of each group in reverse order.  Group D first, then C, B, and A.

In Group C, both matches have importance.  Hirooki Goto faces EVIL in the third match of the night.  Goto must win, and then...

In Match 4:  Tetsuya Naito is must-win against Zack Sabre, Jr., and that's only if EVIL beats Goto.  Sabre only needs a draw to advance to the semis.  A three-way decision match between Sabre, Naito, and Goto is possible with wins by EVIL and Naito.

But that PALES in comparison to Group D, where, entering the opening two matches of the card tomorrow night, EVERY ONE OF THE SEVEN WRESTLERS IN THE GROUP is still in contention.

Will Ospreay faces Juice Robinson with undertones of the IWGP United States Championship involved.  If Ospreay wins or draws, he eliminates Robinson, along with El Phantasmo, Yukiri Takahashi, YOSHI-HASHI, and David Finlay.

Shingo Takagi does the same if he beats El Phantasmo, and he holds the tiebreaker with a tournament victory over Ospreay.

So if Takagi has a better result than Ospreay or they equal -- as long as they both win or tie -- Takagi advances.

If Ospreay has a better result than Takagi, he advances.

If El Phantasmo beats Takagi and Robinson bests Ospreay, we have a 7-way tie at 3-3!!  All we know at this point is that all seven would compete...  SOMEHOW... semifinal night in the Budokan, with the winner being in the semifinal later in the evening.

• If you want to see how fucked I think we are as a country, this story I found the headline for on MSN should do the trick:  A 14 year old, under the foster care of Texas Child Protective Services, was told by a worker for that division to enter sex work.  Being hungry and asking for more food while in a hotel, awaiting places, the Texas CPS worker encouraged the girl to become a prostitute for food money -- SURVIVAL SEX...
• Needless to say, the worker WAS fired.  I only wish it were out of a cannon, no net...   

August 14, 2022 News and Notes

• Oh gee, you think this happens if he's NOT going to the LIV?  The PGA Tour retroactively docked World #2 Cameron Smith two shots for playing from the wrong drop spot.  There'd been talk all Saturday night of how much damage Smith winning the first FedEx Cup playoff tournament would be, with all the talk of him jumping...  As I like to say...  HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM....   
• And that probably just sealed the deal, much like with Sergio.  

August 13, 2022 News And Notes

• The Bitch Was Back one last time at Soldier Field in Chicago a week ago, and, as a result, the field was in very questionable condition for a preseason game Friday night, and the NFLPA wants answers.  At least there will not be another preseason game at the venue.
• In a move not inconsistent with preseason, starting safety for Kansas City Justin Reid kicked an extra point in the game.  Reid actually made a simulated 65 yard field goal (not sure if it was fully snapped, etc.) during training camp!  There was at least twice teams appeared screwed last year without an available placekicker during games due to injury -- this is NOT a bad idea to at least get a look if you have one!!   
• It appears as if Manchester United is in serious trouble.  After dropping their home opener 1-2 to Brighton and Hove Albion, their second match has left them last in the table:  A 4-0 loss at Brentford, where Brentford probably could've gotten many more -- the four were all scored in THIRTY-FIVE MINUTES.
• It's Brentford's first win in any competition against Man U in 88 years -- and Ten Hag is the first Man U manager in over a century to lose his first two matches.
• An Atlanta United goal by by Andrew Gutman in the 83rd minute to square the match with FC Cincinnati is the 20000th MLS goal.  To give you perspective, I actually attended a post-match Debbie Gibson concert after a Tampa Bay-New York/New Jersey match on a July 4th in humid (and eventually stormy -- the match was delayed twice!) Tampa.  Roy Lassiter pocketed the only goal in the 19th minute past Tony Meola to give the hosts a 1-0 win.
• And, oh by the way, just to piss off CERTAIN PEOPLE:  Here is Debbie, from that night, with her version of Funny Girl's "Don't Rain On My Parade", just because.
• Yes, I do believe she spotted me in the audience and (non-verbally) pointed me out during the song.  Nyah.  :)   

I have one caution for the FBI and DoJ...

You better have It.

Because what's been either revealed or leaked of the Monday Mar-a-Lago raid is basically going to ENSURE the next battles of The Second American Civil War -- and they will be hot.

It's bad enough to be charged with taking Presidential documentation from the Presidency.   Most, if not all, of that is to end up with the National Archivist and the National Archives.  So, removal of that from the offices, even upon departure, can result in your disqualification from any further public office.

But that now pales in comparison to a leak reported in the Washington Post.

NUCLEAR DOCUMENTS.

Top Secret documents.

Documents even BEYOND Top Secret!

You know the old line from the movies:  "I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you."?  Those documents actually exist!!!  They're called SCIF:  Sensitive Compartmentalized Information Facility.

Meaning those documents cannot leave where they are being kept.  You can't take anything in to photograph or copy them.  You can't take them out -- anywhere...  It's so bad that some of these documents are actually going to be fingerprint-analyzed by the FBI to know EVERYONE WHO LAID HANDS ON THEM.

Why?  Because not only did Donald Trump have them at Mar-A-Lago (which is already a far stiffer penalty), but someone (and probably a NUMBER of someones!) let him take it from the facility.

That's getting down toward the realm of no less than ESPIONAGE!

When you add to the concoction Trump's apparent ties to Nazis and his apparent love for Vladimir Putin, as well as a $2,000,000,000 post-Presidency payment by the Saudis to Jared Kushner -- even though they viewed trying to invest with him as a joke!

Which makes you wonder:  Has a former President (and aspiring to be future as well!) committed NUCLEAR ESPIONAGE against the United States?

Or even adherence to the United States' enemies (Russia, probably the Saudi princes as well!), giving aid and comfort...

That is Constitutional (Art. III, Sec. 3) TREASON.

(Edit to add 7:10ish PM PDT:  MSNBC is now reporting the chance enough that it was transferred to a third party that the Espionage Act is in play!)

Penalty of Execution is definite in the latter and is often proposed in the former!

The problem, frankly, is that this takes that whole argument people claimed the FBI spoke to the birth-certificate truthers on Obama and said that going any further on this would mean violence in the populace.

I don't see how, at this point, that degree of violence can be avoided.

They have it, and act, there's a very good chance that a former President of the United States of America will have to be sentenced to execution -- along with probably at least one son and any number of confidants and ranking officials with the highest of security clearances.  That no less than ends the Union.  I don't know what survives from the ashes, but the United States, structurally -- even over and above the people who support Trump and his policies.  This would shatter the entire Executive institution.  If the White Right wants States Rights and the destruction of the Federal government, this would do it, in spades!!!

They have it, and DON'T:  Trump is proven correct as completely above the law, and re-ascends to power, and the democracy ends.  A number of right-wing fucks I read on terrorist sites like Zero Hedge openly state they do not like democracy at all and would like a(n Originalist) Constitutional Republic.  You know, White (Cis-)Male Landowners, preferably Old Testament-Christian.

(They probably can't stand the fact that Pope Francis is, in fact, in regular communications with a group of transgenders who are guests at a Rome church.  He does not totally sanctify their "sin", but believes they have as much right to Jesus Christ as anyone else -- something the thugs in this country have no concept of.)

They don't have it:  Once Trump re-ascends to God-King of America (which is what he is trying to do -- make no mistake!), the police and White Right militias get absorbed into (or BECOME) the military, and much of the Federal government ceases to exist, Thanos-style -- probably, now, starting with the DoJ and FBI.

So, no uncertain terms, boys...  You better have IT.  Whatever IT is to take this fucker down (to whatever sufficient level that statement can be made), the future of this continent depends that you have It.

Day 883

• As of this point, sans the force of habit or any real flare ups, this might, actually, be one of the, if not THE, last numbered day post.
• And not for a good reason:  The CDC has just dropped the quarantine and social distancing recommendations, for the most part.  We've lost.  Seriously.  We've lost to the fucking "Freedumb Fighters" to this thing, and that virus will now have to run it's course.   
• OOF!!!  Fernando Tatis Jr. has been given an 80-game PED drug suspension!!!  It appears it's medication Tatis wasn't careful with, by his own admission.  How -- as a professional athlete -- can you DO THAT?? You need to know what's going into your body, especially with all the drug things?  And this happens ALL THE TIME!!!  My anonymous friend takes it even a step further:  Minor League Baseball does not fuck around with drugs.  You think you're going to get away with all that on a rehab assignment, Fernando??? 
• Clostebol, a synthetic anabolic steroid.  Tatis claims he was using a medicine containing this to treat ringworm -- on himself!
• 48 games of this season, all of the playoffs, and the rest next year -- so at least a month of 2023 as well before he returns.
• The NIT is leaving Madison Square Garden and is traveling.  The final three games will be in Vegas next March and April, Indianapolis following that.
• Kirk Cousins misses a preseason game with COVID.  *snore*  Who cares?  (Not the COVID -- preseason!)   
• DeShaun Watson played in the first Cleveland preseason game -- in fact, he started!
• A Federal judge has actually approved equal pay for the US Men's National soccer team and the Women's...
• Tyson Fury, citing lack of challengers, has retired.  Good.  Fucking.  Riddance.  
• Frank Gore, arrested in New Jersey for a July domestic violence incident.
• Aaron Judge hits #46 tonight in a 3-2 10-inning loss to Boston.
• 11 in a row for the Dodgers as the insane run continues in Kansas City on the start of a 7-game road-trip.
• After what appears to be an impaired fiery crash in California, we are about to add Anne Heche to the list of passed celebrities.
  
• Rory Sabbatini can thank the LIV Tour for keeping his PGA card.  When the PGA Tour redid the rankings for who got to keep their card, Sabbatini, who last year used his Top 50 career money-winnings list one-time exemption at #29, failed to do much this year at age 46 and would've been off the Tour...
• ... except, now, the Tour has to keep two lists:  A full list, and an "eligibles" list.  And, after doing all the figuring, Sabbatini, #31 now on the all-time list, benefits from no fewer than NINE of the top 30 all-time money-winners quitting the Tour or being suspended from it, and hence, at Eligible #22, can now use his Top 25 for one more trip around the Tour.
• Bubba Watson's resignation from the Tour opens up four more spots in the Korn Ferry Finals as well.

Day 882

• Major League Baseball did it for Jackie Robinson.  The NHL did so for Gretzky.  I don't think anyone has done it in the NFL.  But today, Bill Russell's #6 has been retired league-wide by the NBA.
• Chris Flores, a prominent California athletic trainer with current ties to the NFL and college football, was arrested today in Bakersfield -- you guessed it, sexually fucking with a minor girl.  And given his ties to NFLers (not accusing them, but they range from JuJu Schuster-Smith to Michael Vick), can ANYONE be surprised?  
• This is probably going to break into a mega-story -- he's part of an outfit which basically ties into at least 100 students in a middle school which allows classes in the morning, athletic training in the afternoon.  Hoo boy, this is sounding Second Mile.
• A woman who accused Trevor Bauer of sexual assault and got sued for it for defamation -- has countersued.
• There is a report that DeShaun Watson might accept a half-season suspension. If I'm Goodell, I refuse and go for the life ban -- a year, and he has to reapply.  This gives time to get more victims time to file and report.   
• It appears one of the things sparking the Big Ten leaving ABC/ESPN is that the Big Ten wanted an NFL style schedule on Saturdays.  That meaning three windows of games, with as many prominent matchups as the new conference can provide, one each on NBC, CBS, and FOX.  This isn't as unreasonable, especially in a two major-conference setup, as one might think at first!   
• SI Sportsbook reports that the Yankees and Dodgers, not surprisingly, are now joint favorites to win the World Series at 7-2.
• The Dodgers are on an absurd run:  10 in a row, 13 of 14, 17-4 since the break, 30-5 since July 1, 77-33 for the season, 16 up with 52 to play.  That's on pace for 113 wins, just short of the record.
• But let's remember the two teams that achieved that record, and how long did those teams last in the playoffs?  (Anonymous baseball-fan friend notes a second team also got 116 wins as the Mariners (1906 Cubs), and that team lost their first (in their case, only) series!  The Mariners lost the ALCS to the Yankees, four games to one.) 
• Kurt Busch may be done, Dale Earnhardt Jr. style.  Concussion symptoms persist -- he's out at least a third race this weekend.
• The Premier of the Australian state of Victoria said that Australia, Olivia Newton-John's longtime homeland, "needs" a state funeral in the deceased legend's honor.  And, although her family will place her body to rest at her California ranch where she passed, they have accepted his request to have one.  Premier Daniel Andrews says it will be more of a concert than a funeral.
• Many worldwide monuments have been lit up in pink of honor of Olivia since her passing on Monday.
• Details of the Australian state funeral/concert are to be announced.
• And it appears we have MORE secret payments from Vince McMahon...  
• Another $5,000,000 -- not hush money to further sexual harassment/assault targets.
• According to people who have viewed IRS records -- these are Vince...  to the Trump Foundation.  Aiding and abetting in Trump's tax evasion schemes...

Assholes, Criminals, and Sporting Excellence...

I was going to do this article already, but Keith Olbermann and his daily new iHeartRadio Countdown podcast (yes, it's back, Republicans...) gives a bit of a precursor.

As a bit of an analogue to a thought I had while laying down and conserving power (100+ and dewpoint 50+ makes for a cranky circuit board) yesterday, Keith gave the Bronze Medal in Wednesday's "Worst Persons in the World" contest to Barfstool Sports' Dave Portnoy.

In response to the incident I just showed you at the Little League Regionals, Portnoy said, and I'm quoting from Olbermann:

"This isn't good sportsmanship. ..." 

And I cleaned that up, apparently this sod can't even recognize sportsmanship as one word!  Probably because he has neither seen nor recognized an act of sportsmanship in his entire sodden life!  

"It's dumb.  You got this kid on the mound.  He's rattled.  Trip to Williamsport [PA -- the site of the Little League World Series] on the line.  You can play 'Patty Cakes' after!  As far as the pitcher goes, that's your plate."

------------

I just want that to process as I put down a number of (not nearly all-inclusive) situations here.  And I'm not talking just football, though many football names and situations will be here.

• Michael Jordan and illegal gambling.
• Kobe Bryant and an all-but-certain rape they barely covered up.
• Latrell Spreewell choking his coach.
• The entire Malice at the Palace, both players and fans!
• Pete Rose and at least the statutory rape and tax evasion -- though, the more he opens his trap, the more we demand what evidence Dowd had to state he was, in fact, betting against the Reds.   
• Trevor Bauer and all we know and don't know he criminally did.
• Yasiel Puig and whatever drove him out of Major League Baseball...  (including a sexual assault he pretty much had to empty what money he had left to his accuser in a settlement)  For the record, he now plays in Korea.
• Domingo German, who lost the entire 2020 COVID season because he committed domestic violence.
• Ray Lewis
• Todd Hodne
• Deshaun Watson
• Adrian Peterson
• Aaron Hernandez
• Rae Carruth
• Robert Rameses  Those last three, all for MURDER.  
• Henry Ruggs III
• It appears Marshawn Lynch has another DUI to answer for this weekend.
• A litany of Olympic and professional athletes who are taking or have taken drugs openly prohibited by Federal law (Carl Lewis, Mike Powell, Barry Bonds and the entire BALCO regime, just for a few starters...) -- that includes, now, you, Aaron Rodgers...

And I could go on and on and on -- the point is simple:

I have said for a long time that I believe the sport of football, in it's own merit, should be put on trial.  I still believe that.

But now I believe I have come to a more disturbing conclusion.

I am not going to say this applies to all athletes, championships, etc. and so forth and so on.

However, I do have to begin to wonder:

Is the concept of sporting excellence at least partially... if not dependent, at least correlative, to criminality or other lack of boundaries on the part of the athletes.

That, in short, to be a successful athlete (in MANY CASES BUT NOT ALL), is it now necessary that such an athlete have mens rea, a pre-existing "criminal mind" which indicates you are willing to transcend what is considered "limits" or even "acceptable" to gain victory, not just off the sporting field, but on it as well?

Mens rea, for those not clear, is referred to as "criminal mind" in the judicial system -- that not only did the person commit a criminal action, but that the person knew it was wrong beforehand and did it anyway, probably with additional malice or violence.

I am, in no way, saying that sports do not offer and enable these idiots to act out without penalty -- far from it.  We know this is the case.

But I now wonder, ADDITIONALLY, if we are now looking at a feedback loop.  That either:

• These people are so far gone because of their coddling that they are now basically in permanent "criminal mind" and gain sporting advantage from going outside limits, rules, or acceptability on the field

and/or

• They've always been of "criminal mind" (from youth, even far before high school), at which point the coddling offers a feedback loop that their criminality is excused (and, in more than one case, encouraged...), creating more criminality, more coddling, etc.

Day 881

• Luis Ortiz of the Pirates minor-league system has done something unthinkable:  After doing so last night, he has broken the professional record for two immaculate innings the fewest days apart.  Only 25 days after he struck out AA Richmond on nine pitches in the second inning, he struck out AA Binghamton as well -- ALSO in the second inning!  Chris Sale did it 28 days apart for the Red Sox in 2019.
• More information coming out from the Vogue interview has Serena Williams stating she might not have had to retire if she didn't have to live up to expectations of being a woman.  I also wonder if she's also a victim of what is about to happen to the high-testosterone (and before any bigots show up, cis-)female athlete...  Recall the bigot in Russia, for example...   
• 7500 fans enjoyed a precursor to Thursday's Cincinnati-Cubs game at the Field of Dreams in Iowa, as two A-ball teams played there yesterday.  Chander Champlain with an outstanding pitching performance:  Quad Cities (Kansas City A-Ball) won over Cedar Rapids (Twins) 7-2.
• It appears that not only did the cancer get Olivia, but so did secondary infections she got in the hospital, according to reports attributing the information to her niece.
• And there goes #45 in an afternoon game for Aaron Judge -- 16 short of Maris and the known clean home run season record.
• ESPN's Michelle Voepel has announced he is a transitioning female-to-male transgender.  He will now be known as M.A Voepel.  Voepel has been with ESPN since 1996 and covers female sports.  I do not see his employment at the Worldwide Leader In Snorts lasting much longer.  If the obvious right-wing bigotry of the "Embrace Debate" ESPN doesn't get him (see the Michael Sam debacle!), harassment and hazing from his fellow employees or some of the athletes might finish the job.  Either way, this smells like someone leaving ESPN and then suing them.   

Playing Fair Time Again

Sometimes, the Little League World Series (and, in this case, it's final qualifiers) have just THAT MOMENT that just transcends all.

Like the pitcher whose team was getting annihilated and then his pitch just got annihilated, and his only reaction was being jaw-droppingly impressed by the home run.

Well, we had another one yesterday.

A team from East Texas was playing a team from Oklahoma yesterday, and the East Texas pitcher almost literally kills the batter.  If the pitch was literally half an inch lower on the ear, it would've caught the batter in the skull where the helmet couldn't protect.

Obviously, the batter's bell got completely rung, but the helmet did it's job.

This is the video of what happened, and what happened next....

Day 880

• Serena Williams announced in a Vogue interview this month that this US Open will be her last -- she's retiring.
• Aaron Judge belts #44 in his chase of Roger Maris, at the very least.
• The continuing travails of the WNBA as far as basic respect goes -- they've been petitioning the parent league to get private jets for the teams.  And, last weekend, we saw why:  The LA Sparks actually got stranded at the airport and had to sleep there!
• Reports have it that the new Big Ten is too rich for even a full rights deal with ESPN!
• It appears FOX will have the bulk of the new deal, with NBC and CBS joining in.
• The aborted World Junior Hockey Championships from last winter will be attempted again in the next two weeks.  No results nor forfeits carry forward.
• The LIV defectors have failed -- the judge has rejected their lawsuit to be allowed to be at and play in the FedEx Cup...
• ... on the same day 2022 British Open Champion and World #2 Cameron Smith has joined the LIV Tour for over $100,000,000 in Saudi blood money.  That fucker Norman's gonna win, ain't he?  The PGA Tour is probably now a secondary Tour.   
• A legal answer on the appeal of the DeShaun Watson suspension has Roger Goodell calling Watson "predatory" and should be at least a year suspension.  No timetable on the final decision of the appeal.  I'm going to have a blog post about something disturbing coming to mind -- sports in general, not football in specific.   

And some need three...

This is going to be one of THOSE fucking months, isn't it?

LaMont Dozier, of the iconic Holland-Dozier-Holland team.

He was 81.

Some greats only need one name to let you know who they are.

Olivia.

Cancer finally got her.  (dammit)

She was 73.

Day 879

• In response to the Federal lawsuit by the LIV defectors, the PGA Tour has now, in fact, taken out an injunction banning them from the FedEx Cup grounds -- not just playing in the tournaments, but even setting foot on their grounds.
• Oklahoma assistant coach Cale Gundy found and read aloud such a racist diatribe on an unattentive player's iPad that he has now been forced to resign.  I would have to wonder, however, if this means that said player is now also out a scholarship.  If he's White, definitely...   
• Pete Rose was back in Philadelphia to celebrate his presence on the 1980 World Series Champions there (postponed two years due to COVID).  He has been inundated with a series of questions regarding a 2017 personal fete which was scrapped when someone put statutory rape charges in the media against Rose -- dating back from 1967.  (Rose denies any sex until the age of consent in the state in which it occurred.)  The 81 year-old Rose then swore all over the television broadcast of the game, including using "locker room terms" (as reported by several sources), including directed toward announcer and cancer survivor John Kruk.  Keith Olbermann, on today's "Countdown", made note that Rose, in a short period of time, fired off THREE controversial moments yesterday -- and, by my math, that doesn't even include the fact he's banned from baseball in the first damned place!   
• Early indications are that the NFL wants to increase scoring again this year, after last year fell almost 3.6 points a game short of the record COVID year.  It's getting out that a Point of Emphasis this year will be the five-yard illegal-contact zone, and they want that five yards and an automatic first down penalty called more.  After being called nearly 100 times in the NFL in COVID 2020, it was called only 36 last year, according to league sources.  Oh gee, you think that might've had a part to play, along with the offensive holding situation, in the record scoring -- and then the reduction last year?  No...  Couldn't be!!!   
• The last two times the league made illegal contact a Point of Emphasis, flags TRIPLED on a year-over-year basis.  Of course, that would only bring us back to COVID 2020 numbers.
• Roughing the Passer is getting a clarification -- relevant contact must be "forcible" to be a foul.  Some officials were basically flagging any helmet contact to the quarterback at all as RTP.  This, I would assume, does not change the Clay Matthews Rule, weight on the quarterback to the ground being RTP.  
• Kareem Hunt wants out of Cleveland -- team's saying no.
• To no one's surprise, the first college football polls are out:  Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia -- in that order.  Clemson is #4 in the USA Today poll -- a poll in which there are precisely two non-P5+ND teams, and both are below #20.  They're not going to let that happen again after Cincy got rolled.   
• The NFL has formally announced that Aaron Rodgers use of ayahuasca is not in violation of the drug policy.  But that, as I said yesterday, may be only one of his possible problems.   

OK, DUMBASS-12, it's time you shut the fuck up.

Another year, another sabotage by the continuing stooooooooooooory of a quack who's gone to the Packers.

Look, I, like a lot of people, do try to keep an eye on my mental health.

But Aaron Rodgers has stepped in it again.  He announced last week that he has found peace in a psychadelic drug.  DMT (N-dimethyltriptamine), found in ayahuasca tea, to fire when serotonin fails.

That's...  nice.

Except for one problem, Aaron:  Though that form of DMT is not listed in the Banned Substances List of the NFL (at least as of 2020, the last one I could find online)...

Important note:  DMT is listed as a brand name of another drug which IS on the Banned Substances List, that is Desoxymethyltestosterone.

What IS a problem is that ayahuasca is mostly prohibited (except for religious use) as a Schedule I drug in the United States.

So Aaron Rodgers' mouth has probably gotten him, at minimum, in trouble with the league, should they choose to pursue it!

Nice job, shithead.

Day 878

• Well, we have found where Michael Sam has landed.  He was actually signed as a defensive player-coach (assistant on the defensive line) for the Barcelona Dragons of the European League of Football.  Now 32, Sam was blackballed by the NFL for being openly gay.
• Oh, come the fuck on...  There's no other explanation.  The guy was good enough in preseason, AND you can't tell me there isn't a place in the NFL for a designated pass rusher in "It's All About The Quarterback"!   
• And it's not out of the question Carl Nassib has joined him, after being released by the Raiders in the offseason -- though the Raiders may have just done this as a football move, there's nothing saying why the other 31 teams aren't giving him a look...
• In a move which will probably kill NASCAR:  Starting next year, the series will look to test and have as experimental races half-hour electric car races at six tracks in the series.  Oh, that's going to go over with NECKCAR fans SOOOO well...   
• USA Network wants the championships disassociated on Raw, and a World Champion crowned on the Raw roster.  One problem:  Vince's final legacy has been literally to make WWE around three men:  Roman Reigns and the Usos.  Vince has already gotten Roman to the point where his reign is the longest top-belt reign since Hulkamania I.  And, leukemia willing, he wanted Roman to at least get to Wrestlemania 40 (the one scheduled, now, for Philadelphia in 2024!) before possibly having someone like Rick Steiner's son Bron Breakker or Olympian Gable Stevenson defeating him!   

Brutal week. We've lost so many....

It's been a Hell of a week...

And I don't really know what else can be said of it.

Two cities, two icons, two voices – and that's just the beginning of what we lost.

On Sunday, many came to to the tragic news that we lost Boston Celtics great Bill Russell.

Bill Russell, who did things certain foolish and wretched one-dimensional ballhogs only wish they could've dreamed, in a more legitimate NBA... If a one-sided one, yes...

Yes, they basically won all the titles in the 1960's. The real story, however, is that Russell won many of those with such a heavy heart that he once said that he was winning for the Celtics, but not for Boston.

Why? Because Boston was (and remains) one of the last sports cities to truly accept Black athletes.

Russell knew it, he experienced it, so he understood the fights of the likes of Muhammad Ali and the like in the politically-charged 1960's. And maybe Russell wasn't quite of draft age and in the circumstances Ali was, but he stood firm.

He also had a great ally in Red Auerbach. He didn't see Black or White, gay or straight, he only asked if they played to the standard of Celtic Green...

… and, boy, did he. And he didn't have to throw up 100 shots to do it.

Often, it was this innovation called the “blocked shot” – and it wasn't even the “GET THAT SHIT OUTTA HERE!” you often see in the last 20 years or so.

Russell would block it, be able to control it, hit an outlet pass, and start Auerbach's favorite offense: the fast break.

And when it was time for Auerbach to take his victory cigar away from the bench, he trusted Russell – not a White man who Boston may have been more comfortable with at the time, but Russell, to coach the team while he was playing it.

Put into the Hall of Fame in the minimum time, as deserved. Attended neither that nor his number retirement by the Celtics. The media made it too difficult, and I don't think I have to state why.

He saw the NBA change away from his style of play, so two coaching stints didn't go so well.

He fell out of public life (probably, again, racism), but was still instrumental in many things, including, surprisingly, being the man to aid the end of the Shaquille O'Neal-Kobe Bryant feud.

In the style which eventually led the NBA to name the Conference Finals MVP trophies after the Bird-Magic rivalry, thirteen years before, the NBA named the Finals MVP trophy after Russell.

Russell, like another major sports personality who left us this week, won the Presidential Medal of Freedom, as testament to his perseverance and contributions.

Russell was named the first winner of the NBA Lifetime Achievement Award.

He passed at 88.

---

Later that same day, we lost a television legend: Nichelle Nichols, Uhura from the Star Trek franchise.

Much of her work was some of the first starring work that a Black woman had in television – and, in the spirit of Gene Roddenberry, some of the first which was neither stereotypical nor mocking.

The greatest example of this was in 1968. Originally intended to be taped with and without the action, William Shatner and Nichols deliberately made unairable (and Shatner doing even more to make it so than Nichols – imagine Kirk insisting he would not kiss her in that staccato scream Kirk would sometimes do!) every attempt to tape a scene without the two kissing – which was believed for many years to be the first in the history of television of an interracial couple. The kiss aired.

She would inspire Whoopi Goldberg in her role in Next Generation.

She had some music experience as well as work with NASA. President Obama was proud to admit a crush on Uhura!

She was 89. Heart failure along with age.

---

But that was not all for Sunday: Emmy and Grammy winner Pat Carroll, the voice of Ursula in The Little Mermaid, also passed at 95 from pneumonia. Largely a Broadway actress back in the day and a voice-over actress for animation later, she was also a standard on many of the 1970's celebrity game shows.

---

Little, however, could prepare me for the one sentence I received in the eight o'clock hour on Tuesday night:

“We lost Vin.”

Not that I can, honestly, say that I am surprised – Vin Scully had lost his wife about nineteen months before, and, as many of us know, losing that kind of a soulmate at his age would be devastating.

But nowhere near as devastating as the entirety of Dodger Nation when they had to process that their voice and muse – the man basically MADE baseball in Los Angeles – had left to join her, many of the men whom he was certain were laughing at him at various points, and The Great Scorer, whom one can only hope he is sitting next to in the Stadium of Heaven where all the greats play forever.

As early as the Dodgers' first year in LA, fans brought radios to the stadium to listen to Vin. At first, probably a necessity, given the odd dimensions the LA Memorial Coliseum used. But, as time went on, it became a homage to the voice of the team.

So much so, many cried when, in 2016, Vin wrapped it up. In his few appearances after, Vin was revered, and his cracks were still as wise then as they were when Sandy Koufax was on the mound.

To list Vin's achievements would swamp this blog for weeks. Basically, if there was an achievement in sports broadcasting, he won it. And they made a few more for him. And he also won the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

He also had universal respect – even from some of the announcers Dodgers fans hated. In the 2017 World Series, Joe Buck begged Vin to take his place for some of it. Vin, having done TWENTY-FIVE World Series, declined. Three years later, when the Dodgers won it, between strikes one and two of the final strikeout, Buck said Vin was “the greatest to ever do it” as he ran off a lot of the Dodger greats and owners who were about to gain a long-awaited Commissioner's Trophy.

And it went far beyond baseball. The call of “The Catch”, that classic Montana-to-Clark you see a zillion times in the Niner-jocking years of the NFL? Vin. Eight years of the Masters on CBS? The class that was Vin – the smooth voice almost TOO appropriate for Augusta National Golf Club.

Something I didn't know until Wikipedia, and a “What Would've Happened If?” Moment: He was offered Monday Night Football at it's inception. Had to turn it down because of the MLB/Dodgers overlap.

He was 94. And, as I typed this article, the fans at Dodger Stadium were asked to show up and be in the stadium, seated, at 6:30 Pacific for a 7:10 game with the Padres for a tribute ceremony.

First pitch was almost 7:20.

Day 876

• Turns out I was wrong.  The jury in the Alex Jones situation gave 10X the damages in punitives -- he's on the hook for $45 million.
• If early indications at training camps are any precursor:  Helmet hits and fights could well be the order of the day in the NFL this season.  Safety caps on helmets being experimented with are having players do illegal helmet hits more, and a number of reports of players getting thrown out of practice or practice berations by coaches due to fights have hit the wire this week.
• Today is the annual Ocho Day on ESPN -- the offbeat day of offbeat sports inspired by the movie Dodge Ball and it's fictional ESPN 8.
• The major European soccer leagues begin play this weekend.

Day 875

• The original judgement against Alex Jones is about $4 million.
• But it appears that a bombshell turncoat on the part of his own lawyers may not only mean criminality for perjury, it may also mean he was involved directly in January 6 and it's coverup.
• The lawyer not only made the contents of Jones' cellphone public record behind his back, he also may have revealed they contained many documents Q-Anon Republicans (up to Secret Service, at minimum!) have tried to destroy for the last two years!
• In a decision which may make it much harder for election deniers to have a path to do so, Pennsylvania's Supreme Court by 5 (Democrats) to 2 (Republicans) has allowed stand what two lower state courts denied in the 2019 no-excuse mail-in state ballot law.
• Clayton Kershaw has suffered a mid-season injury -- again.  Low-back pain in the last of four games in San Francisco this week.
• A four-game sweep for the Dodgers, even though Craig Kimbrel has everyone nervous for October!  Five in a row for the Dodgers, and only up by 12 because the Padres have done the same!
• Whit Merrifield is probably an unhappy camper right now.  He was traded this week -- to Toronto.  Meaning he was forced to get vaccinated for COVID.
• Brittney Griner will ostensibly spend the next 9 1/2 years in a Russian prison.  More likely, she will be executed when The Most Powerful Man In The World damn well feels like it.
• Tonight is the night many people jack off for:  The return of the NFL...  The Hall of Fame Game, Cliff Branch vs. Tony Boselli -- excuse me, Raiders vs. Jaguars.
• Peter Harvey, former New Jersey Attorney General, will hear the appeal of the six-game Watson suspension.  Harvey was part of the group that sanctioned Ezekiel Elliot for six games.
• Aaron Rodgers is a fucking idiot.  By admitting he now takes the psychadelic drug DMT for his mental health, he probably opens himself up to investigation under the league's drug policies, because a similar drug, DMA, IS on the banned list.
• The Saudis apparently have standards -- they don't want walking golf drunk John Daly ambling around the LIV Tour.

Day 874

• I can't believe Roger Goodell has done the right thing -- I guess "stopped clock, blind squirrel"...  The NFL has exercised it's right to appeal the 6-game Watson suspension.
• Goodell can either hear it or have his designee do so.  This decision IS final.
• The Premier League will no longer have a pre-game anti-racism taking of the knee.  Play begins this weekend to get a sufficient break in for the World Cup in Qatar.
• 11 LIV Tour golfers have sued to effectively end the PGA Tour, claiming an illegal monopoly.
• Now I know what the earlier comments problems were:  They were changing on Google's blogs to a different system.