Day 570

• If I can get the video together on some of this, probably a "You Expect Me To Believe This Shit?" post...
• Game 162:  Nothingburger.  No extra playoff games.  Boston and New York will play in the wildcard in Boston, both won.  San Francisco was giftwrapped 11-4 from the Padres to win the NL West.  106 wins on a MASH Unit sends the defending champs to a one-game elimination playoff with St. Louis, one of the hottest teams in history.  That's going to work out SOOOOOOOOO well Wednesday night...  
• I want this here for emphasis WHEN the fuck-job happens -- In the double-wildcard era, 15 teams got to 100 wins.  ONE TEAM got to 106 (Boston with 108 in 2018), even winning their division.  Only ONCE had a team with 100 wins even had to be in the wildcard game:  Yankees with 100, same season.
• Los Angeles has to play in the wildcard after 106 wins.
• Former NASCAR Truck and Xfinity driver John Wes Townley was shot and killed this weekend in Athens, GA.  A female companion in serious condition.
• And everyone up in arms over "FUCK JOE BIDEN!" at the NASCAR race today???  NECKCAR is one of the most conservative sports situations out there!  The only reason Joe Biden is still President anyway is that the current setup of the Senate would make naming another VP impossible.
• Apparent ref-ball to help the Packers over the Steelers today...

Certain infractions are easier to see from the field-level, but from the angles that I've seen of the field goal in #PITvsGB:

Unless the @Steelers were lined up in the neutral zone, the players move simultaneously with the snap which would mean no foul. pic.twitter.com/EBOvmtiPuB

— Gene Steratore (@GeneSteratore) October 3, 2021

• Very interesting result in the muck and downpour in Foxboro -- Brady beats Belichick, 19-17 and breaks the all-time passing yards record.  So is THAT gonna be enough? Probably not...  New England IS 1-3 with a rookie QB, after all.  
• And Tom Brady is now the 4th quarterback in league history to beat all 32 teams.

NFL Week 3 Fine Blotter

• In an admission the NFL attempted to rig the Sunday Night Football game so that the Packers would lose, Jimmie Adams of the 49ers was not even fined for the defenseless receiver foul no-called in the fourth quarter which put Davante Adams out.
• There have been no publicized fines that I can find on Spotrac, Twitter, ProFootballTalk, or NFL.com as of 2:35 AM Pacific Time October 3rd.
• But I will give you a complete evidence of a second rig-job, this successful.  The coach of the Detroit Lions has been told that Delay of Game...  IS A SUBJECTIVE PENALTY!!  

WHAT?????

2021 MLB Game 162 in Preview

Well, well...

Manfred has created a rather interesting Sunday.

All games start at 3:15 Eastern or so. give or take five minutes.

And at least three (and, at most, FIVE) games have massive relevance to the playoffs, etc.

NL:  All left to decide is the #1 seed and NL West winner.

The loser has to play a one-game elimination wildcard and host St. Louis Wednesday.

If the Giants win, they win the division.

If the Dodgers lose, ditto.

But if the Giants lose and the Dodgers win, the Dodgers get on a plane to San Francisco (Season series:  10-9 SF) for a Monday playoff.

And if the NL West loser wins the wild-card, then the two teams meet in a five-game series with the West winner having home field.

AL:  It's all about the wildcards, baby.  And there is almost every scenario in the book.

Let's simplify, because, right now, the Red Sox and Yankees and tied, with the Blue Jays and Mariners one back...

There are sixteen different scenarios for Sunday, and only six result in no playoff -- either the Red Sox and Yankees win (four scenarios) or both Seattle and Toronto lose.  In five of those scenarios, the AL wildcard is Yankees at Red Sox (that regular season series also 10 to 9!).  New York would have to be the only winner to host Boston Tuesday.

Otherwise...

Let's simplify:  Call Red Sox and Yankees Group A, and Blue Jays and Mariners Group B.

For there to be a playoff of some kind, at least one team from Group A must lose, one team from Group B must win.

One team from Group A loses, one team from Group B wins:  Two for one.  The Group B winner and the Group A loser face off in a one-game playoff Monday.

Boston would host Toronto (10-9) or Seattle (4-3).  So Boston gets at least one game at Fenway no matter what happens on Sunday.

New York would host Seattle (5-2)

Toronto would host New York (11-8)

That would be a one-game playoff Monday.

One team from Group A loses, both teams from Group B win:  That's three for one spot, as the winning team from Group A would win the right to host the wildcard.

At that point, the wildcard game moves to Wednesday.  The three teams would receive A B and C designations, based on head to head record.

A hosts B on Monday, winner hosts C on Tuesday.  Tuesday winner goes to the one winner from Group A for the one-game wildcard Wednesday.

If Boston is the losing team in Group A, they would get first choice.  Seattle would get second.

If New York is the losing team in Group A, (NY 13-13 vs. the other two, Toronto 13-12, Seattle 6-7), Toronto would get first choice, New York second.

Both teams from Group A lose, one team from Group B wins:  That's three for two.  Same principle applies.

Boston would get first choice, based on better records than both.  If Seattle is the Group B winner, then New York gets second choice.  If Toronto is the Group B winner, Toronto gets second choice.

A plays B Monday.  Winner goes to Wednesday, loser has to go to C for the other spot on Tuesday.

Both teams from Group A lose, both teams from Group B win:  That's simpler, actually.  That's a straight four-team tournament.

Boston would get first choice, with superior head to head over the remaining teams.

New York 22-23 against the other three, Toronto 22-22, Seattle 9-11.  So Toronto would choose next, then New York.

Chances are this means games in Boston and Toronto on Monday, winners face off for the wildcard Tuesday (at Boston if they win Monday, NY or Toronto would host Seattle, Toronto would host New York in that scenario).

Day 569

• Oh gee -- and what's this I spy??  Tom Brady needs 81 yards against the Patriots to break Drew Brees' record for passing yardage.  Aw, whoda freaking thought???   
• The deteriorating irrelevance of college football...  All week, ESPN was hyping up Arkansas as an unknown SEC contender and could challenge #2 Georgia...  Mid-third quarter -- 27-0 Georgia!!!
• Final:  37-0
• CFP National Title Game is Georgia-Alabama, people.  Get ready for the only relevant game this season.
• Giants magic number for the NL West is now 1 -- Padres laid down for them last night.  This is so obvious, it's not even funny.   
• Probably as a result of the Sumo Association's criticism of him after the July tournament, Hakuho has officially retired this week.  He will attempt to become a sensei of a new stable of wrestlers, but the Sumo Association isn't exactly cool with that, forcing Hakuho to promise certain things in writing to be allowed to do so.

A very good week for a historic champion....

(Many of these statistics are either taken directly or derived from Jeopardy! archivist Andy Saunders and his "The Jeopardy! Fan" and "J!-Archive" websites.)

Matt Amodio continues to make television history.

Tonight, he settled the dispute by passing John Carpenter's full $250,000 win on the Tournament of Champions of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (and the $1,250,000 total) with his 33rd win to pass James Holzhauer in that total.

This makes Amodio the tenth highest winner in American game-show history.  

He has 33 wins, $1,267,801, and an average win now of $38,418.

• He won $263,800 this week, and appears to be getting on quite the roll now.  Every game this week was a lockout game, where he had clinched victory after Double Jeopardy by exceeding double the second-place player's score.
• He has nine consecutive lockout matches -- and was barely aced out of one on September 20th by $801.
• The match September 20th was the only match this season so far in which Amodio has failed a lockout.
• That now means he has 27 out of 33 matches in which he has locked out.
• In the three weeks of the new season, in 15 matches, Amodio has won $693,000 -- an average of $46,200 a match this season.
• Key to his success?  This season, he has found 35 of the 45 Daily Double clues.  Of those, he has missed only five.
• Tonight, Amodio became the first person to crack the top ten list in 2 1/2 years.  Holzhauer broke onto the list on April 25, 2019.

So that's looking back.  Here's looking forward -- based on the average win over his entire run and the Wikipedia list of the top-ten highest game-show winners...

• #9 is Curtis Warren, who won "the lot" on both Sale of the Century and a sweeps-month million-dollar stunt on Greed at $1,546,988.  At current average, Amodio will over take that amount with win #41, a week from Wednesday (October 13th).
• #8 is the only other man in the Top Ten to win his winnings all on one show:  David Legler of Twenty-One, who became the pronounced "Game Show King" with $1,765,000.  Amodio would overtake that with 13 more wins, win #46 -- a week after he would pass Warren (October 20th).
• #7 is the only woman on the list, and the top winner in American game-show history to win winnings on only one show:  ABC's brief Mike Greenberg-hosted Duel, where Ashlee Register won the first season and an accumulated jackpot of $1,795,000.   Amodio would pass her on October 21st with win #47.
• Saunders has, with many years of data behind it, projected the winning streaks of every champion on the show -- but it's far more interesting when you get to Amodio and the like.  His current, as of win #33, projection is that the average streak in his simulations is 47.043 -- which would just pass about $1.8 million and Register.
• #6 on the all-show Top Ten is Ed Toutant, who won the recall of his ascending jackpot run on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? -- and a small amount on Jeopardy!.  Total:  $1,871,401 -- which would be win #50 on October 26th.
• From there, it gets well into the two-million club, and the possibility that tournament interruptions for November sweeps might clog up date projections.
• IF (*gulp*) Amodio were to continue at his current average, he would defeat Ken Jennings' $2,520,700 recognized regular-season record with a total of 66 wins, eight fewer than Jennings.  There is no way to currently estimate the date of that, but the best guess I can give would be somewhere near Christmas.
• And win #75 would be into 2022.

Ehh, Forgot Week 2's NFL Fine Blotter (And the preseason!!)

At least I THINK I did...

So Spotrac, and maybe some script-fiddling with Twitter, and let's see what I can find:

• Washington:  Samuel Cosmi:  $6,692 for a helmet foul.
• Seattle Seahawks:  Jamal Adams
• And Washington:  Chase Young, both $15,450 for Roughing the Passer

The rest of this is all Taunting, Unsportsmanlike Conduct, or Contact With An Official:

Taunting:

• Buffalo Bills:  Levi Wallace:  $9,526
• Cincinnati Bengals:  Von Bell
• Chicago Bears:  Tashaun Gipson
• and Los Angeles Chargers:  Jared Cook:  All $10,300

Unsportsmanlike Conduct:

• Los Angeles Chargers:  Keenan Allen:  $10,300
• Seattle Seahawks:  Gabe Jackson:  $12,875
• Seattle Seahawks:  DJ Reed $5,111
• Pittsburgh Steelers:  Trai Turner:  $15,450 for SPITTING.
• Las Vegas Raiders:  Maxx Crosby:  $6,971 for SPITTING.  

And for the ejection foul of official contact:

• Los Angeles Rams:  Kenny Young:  $12,000

Young, Turner, and Crosby should've all been SUSPENDED!!!

And, as long as we're catching up, here's what Spotrac found for the pre-season, which counts:

• Minnesota Vikings:  Christian Elliss, $3,731 for a helmet foul
• Buffalo Bills:  Efe Obada, $6,944 for a low block
• Kansas City Chiefs:  Will Parks, $5,500 for a low block
• Kansas City Chiefs:  Darwin Thompson, $4,900 for hitting someone in some fashion (it's called "Striking/Kicking/Kneeing")
• Buffalo Bills:  Cole Beasley
• And Isaiah McKinzey, both $14,650 for violations of the league's COVID protocols at the Bills facility.
• Buffalo Bills:  Andre Smith, $5,806 for Roughing the Passer

And the rest of this, again, ALL Taunting and UC:

Taunting:

• Baltimore Ravens:  Chris Westry, $5,500
• Indianapolis Colts:  Benny LeMay, $5,500
• New Orleans Saints:  James Dalton, $3,667

Unsportsmanlike Conduct

• Los Angeles Rams:  JR Reed, $5,566
• Las Vegas Raiders:  Nathan Peterman (the backup QB), $5,566
• Las Vegas Raiders:  Nasul Douglas, $5,500

Hey, NFL, GET THE HINT YET:

Crackdown's not working.

I got your answer, and you won't like it.

Two parts:

• Any valid NFL ejection is a minimum one-game suspension.  Contact with an official starts at two.
• Any valid unsportsmanlike conduct penalty is now considered flagrant and an automatic ejection.  No "warnings".

13 fines in Week 2, per Spotrac -- TEN FOR UNSPORTSMANLIKE CONDUCT

13 preseason fines, per Spotrac -- SIX FOR UC.

Day 568

• Here's how serious that Riley situation is for the National Women's Soccer League:  To facilitate a dialogue between the league and the Players' Association toward an investigation of his misconduct, all weekend matches this weekend have been called off.
• And now the Commissioner of the NWSL has been forced to resign -- one now has to wonder if ANY further matches are going to take place this season!
• The Sham Beau is now one of the final 16 in the World Long Driving Championships.  Drug testing required at that event?   
• He was eliminated in the final eight.
• Jacksonville lost it's 19th consecutive game last night, this one to Cincinnati, a Cliffhanger field goal at the gun.
• Who's not losing anytime soon is Jeopardy!'s Matt Amodio, who now is sole possession of 2nd on the number-of-wins list on the show, getting his 33rd tonight.  Will do a post on later, but $55,000 more today, and he is now OFFICIALLY the tenth-highest game-show winner of all time with $1,267,801.