September 29, 2022 News and Notes

• Aaron Judge finally got a mistake he could drive, and, as a result, has tied Roger Maris for the legitimate non-steroid home run record with his 61st.  3-2 pitch in the 7th.
• Roger Maris Jr., last night, joined the growing cacophony to nullify Barry's "record", along with McGwire's and Sosa's steroid-ridden bomb seasons.
  
• The home run ball went off a clash of two gloves over the left field fence and landed safely in the Blue Jays bullpen.
• The ball is now in the custody of...  Judge's mother, through a bullpen coach who ended up getting it first.  His wife joked both about retiring and then filing for divorce when she found out her husband ended up with the ball, then gave it to the Yankees.

Quick kayfabe standings:

• Took all night and The Manfred Run for the Dodgers to plate one in the tenth, the only one they needed over the Padres.  That and an Astro loss to Arizona means magic number for home field throughout is 2.
• Only one division are left to settle.  NL East, Mets are up 1 on the Barfs while we wait to see what Ian is going to do to Atlanta for the purposes of figuring out what of the three games between the two teams can be played when and where.
• Because of the new first round, MLB got rid of Game 163.  So, since St. Louis won the season series with Milwaukee 10-9 and their Magic Number would otherwise be 1, they clinched the NL Central on Tuesday.
  
• Wild Cards:  Twins were finally eliminated last night in the AL.  Orioles Tragic Number is four.  Once that's taken care of, it's the Jays, Rays, and Seattle -- but the order is still to be decided.  Jays Magic Number for playoffs is 1, 1.5 up on the Rays, 2 up on the Mariners.
• NL:   NL East loser is the #4, that's for sure.  Padres 2 1/2 up on Philadelphia.  Margin for out is now only 1/2 game from Milwaukee.  And the Giants are still around -- Tragic Number with Philly is 2.
• Seeds:  AL:  Astros Magic Number for the #1 with the Yankees is 2.  Guardians are the 3, the only seed locked in right now.
• NL:  Dodgers 1, NL East Winner 2, Cardinals the 3, NL East loser the 4.

Other stuff:

• Sirius XM has fired Brett Favre for the growing welfare-fraud incident he helped perpetrate through his charities, at least partially to fund a football facility at his old university.
• Myles Garrett was cited for driving at an unsafe speed, leading to his crash.  He is back at practice facilities.  Police are noting, on a slick road, 65 in a 45.
  
• Minneapolis was told to prepare for a possible relocation of the Tampa-Kansas City game, but just across the wire at 1 PM Eastern, Tampa says they will be ready to host.  And you know what that probably means...  Prepare for 2-2, Kansas City!
  
• A listless 0-0 draw with Saudi Arabia in Spain followed a 2-0 loss to Japan in Germany for the US men's national team, and coach Gregg Berhalter is not happy with what he's seeing, two months from the group phase.
• To give the general interest in these final tune-ups, if a thousand people showed up for USA-Saudi Arabia, most observers would be shocked.
• A minor-league pitch clock has appeared to work.  25 minutes (almost 15% of the 3:03 which the average minor-league game was last year) were cut off the average game in all of the minor leagues, Fuck Rob Manfred reported yesterday.
• The LIV-PGA feud continues -- the PGA has countersued, stating LIV interfered and tampered with PGA players' contracts.
• In a move Deadspin correctly notes is Rihanna bending over and taking it up the ass to the anti-female NFL, she will do the Super Bowl halftime.  One wonders how few clothes she'll be wearing, if the NFL-ordered Shakira/JLo jigglefest a couple years back is any indication.  
• Jezebel is reporting on the continuing efforts of literally hundreds of rape and sexual assault victims in the Ohio State athletic program over two decades to get justice from the school.  What makes this unusual is that all of them, save one, were male athletes at the school.  Here's a reminder about "Dr. Nuts", "Dr. Feelgood", "Dr. Drop Your Drawers", and coaches basically using the threat of being sexually assaulted and raped by this doctor in practices from Sports Illustrated.  
• The new "Pro Bowl Games" -- the replacement for the Pro Bowl -- will have a monetary stake.  $84,000 a man for the winning conference, based on scores of events throughout the week.  Half that for the losing conference.
• And a second concussion incident, along with head and neck injuries, put Tua Tagovailoa on the deck for over 10 minutes in the second quarter of tonight's game.  Stretchered to a hospital.