May 15, 2023 News and Notes

• Texas Rangers won Saturday and Sunday over the Oakland A's, putting the A's record to 9-33.
• Saturday:  5-0.  8,230 are purported to have bought tickets.
• Sunday:  11-3.  7,793.
• And the real fun begins Monday, the D-Backs are in town.
• Three more ejections in the Phillies/Rockies game yesterday.  Bryce Harper enhanced a bench-clearer the Rockies pitcher started by trying to go after the Rockies bench.
• I get the point, but...  Ladies and gentlemen, one of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition cover models for 2023 is...  EIGHTY-ONE YEAR OLD MARTHA STEWART???
• If you want to see how much is invested in manipulating the NFL, etc.:  The Saturday Night "Super Wild Card Weekend" game is, at least for the 2023-24 iteration, going to be exclusively streaming to Peacock (and on the local-market NBC stations).  Cost for ONE GAME, ONE YEAR of this experiment:  $110,000,000!
• On December 23, a regular-season game between the Bills and Chargers is also exclusive to the streaming service -- that is part of the new rights deal going into effect this year.
• This now makes TEN (eleven?) different outlets for NFL games this year.
• All four major networks
• ESPN outside ABC, including + (not counting 2 at this point, so we might as well make that 11)
• Amazon
• NFL Network
• Peacock's two games (above)
• And the Sunday Ticket Package for 300 or so on YouTube
• I've estimated it might well take a thousand dollars to properly watch the NFL this year, between streaming and cable.
• Ejection total, as of Sunday (we think Close Call Sports is finally done with Sunday):  Sixty-one.  At least FIVE on Sunday.
• Eight will contest The Preakness Stakes on Saturday at Pimlico.  Kentucky Derby winner Mage from post position 3 is the early 8-5 favorite.
• Not among them is Forte.