This week has been chock full of sports news and accomplishments. I will briefly try to digest what has happened.
Let’s start with golf. Phil Mickelson won a rain-delayed Pebble Beach Pro-Am on Monday. It was his record-tying 5th victory in the event.
Then there was the saga of Matt Kuchar. On a whim, Kuchar played and won the Mayakoba Classic, receiving a check for over $1.2 million. He used a substitute caddie, made an agreement with him for payment of no more than $4,000 and paid him an extra $1,000 after the win. The following outcry led Kuchar to reconsider his dumb and cheap mistake, so he remunerated the man $50,000 with an apology.
The tennis news is this: Naomi Osaka, winner of the U.S Open and the Australian Open, summarily fired her coach, Sascha Bajin. No reason was provided, and it is curious since Osaka has literally come from obscurity to becoming the top player in women’s tennis.
In hockey news, the St. Louis Blues are red hot, having won 9 in a row to project them back into the Western Conference playoff picture. The Blues ended San Jose’s 6 game winning streak. The Boston Bruins have won 5 on a row and are 7-0-3 in their last 10 contests.
When Carolina beat the New York Rangers, it was the first time since 2010 that the Hurricanes had won on the ice at Madison Square Garden. Matt Murray’s 50 saves in a Pittsburgh win at Philadelphia was a career high. Detroit’s win at Nashville was the Red Wings 9th in 10 games against the Predators.
Auston Matthews, the young and exceptionally talented Toronto star scored his 100th goal against Marc-Andre Fleury in a Maple Leafs victory at Vegas. His teammate, Mitch Marner, thrilled a young Toronto fan in the same game after he scored a goal by tossing the puck to her and then posing for an in-game Valentine’s Day selfie.
Meanwhile, Tampa Bay is running away from the pack and look to be the clear favorites to make the Stanley Cup Finals, barring injury. Last year’s finalists, Vegas and Washington are poised to make the playoffs but face tough roads ahead to repeat last season.
From football, we have learned that disgruntled Pittsburgh WR Andre Brown said goodbye to Steeler Nation, noting that it was time to move on. On the heels of that, Pittsburgh’s management requested a meeting with Brown which will occur next week. Stay tuned for further developments.
Super Bowl XLVII M.V.P. Joe Flacco has been traded by the Baltimore Ravens to quarterback-starved John Elway and his Denver Broncos. The emergence of Lamar Jackson in Baltimore made this move necessary.
As a result of Flacco heading to Denver, Eagles’ extraordinary backup QB Nick Foles delivered a $2 million cashier’s check to management to buy out a $20 million option, as a prelude to a potential franchise tag and subsequent trade. Philadelphia has made it clear that they are still favoring Carson Wentz as their QB.
Former Jets C Spencer Long, who had so much difficulty in New York and was released, only to resign with division rival Buffalo on a three year deal.
Friday’s big news was that Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid settled their collusion lawsuit against the NFL. There is a non-disclosure agreement in place, so terms have not been released. For Reid, this comes after he inked a three year deal with Carolina.
Kaepernick turned down an inquiry from the Alliance of American Football, counter offering $20 million to play in that league. Tim Tebow, former University of Florida and NFL QB, and Mets hopeful, spurned the AAF’s repeated inquiries, preferring to try to make the big club after he starts the season in Triple A.
Looking at college basketball, #1 Tennessee, was one of four teams starting Saturday with an unbeaten conference records (Gonzaga, Sam Houston State and Wofford were the others), traveled to Lexington, Kentucky to take on the the #5 Wildcats at Rupp Arena in a critical SEC matchup. Kentucky took care of Tennessee’s unbeaten SEC record by thrashing the Volunteers. Sam Houston dropped to 12-1 in the Southland Conference with its loss.
Conversely, California, Chicago State, Portland, San Jose State, Tulane and Vanderbilt have yet to obtain their first conference victory. Plus there are a number of teams with only 1 conference victory.
Heading into a Saturday evening matchup with #21 Iowa at a sold out RAC which included my wife and me, Rutgers has won 2 road games and recorded 5 Big Ten wins in a season for the first time. They lost a heartbreaker on a wild, prayer shot banked in from the corner with .2 left on the clock. Questionable officiating may have benefitted Iowa, but RU played tremendously and deserved to win when guard Geo Baker sank a three pointer with 3.3 seconds left to give the Scarlet Knight the lead by 1.
Duke is the most formidable team in Division I. They won convincingly at #3 Virginia, then roared back from a 23 point deficit to defeat home standing #16 Louisville and overpower N.C. State.
Teams to watch out from the non-Power 5 conferences for in the NCAA Tournament, if they reach it, are: 24-1 Houston: 21-5 Vermont; VCU and Davidson, both at 19-6; Liberty and Lipscomb from the Atlantic Sun; UC Irvine and Hofstra are tough at 22-5; ODU with a 21-6 record; Northern Kentucky out of the Horizon; Yale is sporting a 17-4 mark, Buffalo, the Mid Americian leader has a 22-3 record; Loyola of Chicago, last year’s Cinderella team, is in front in the MVC; 23-1 Nevada is a Top Ten squad and conference runner-up Utah State is 20-6; Wofford with its 23-4 record; Sam Houston State has recently been a thorn to the top tier schools; Texas State from the Sun Belt is 21-5; and New Mexico State is at 22-4 coming from the WAC.
I purposely omitted two teams. First, there is Murray State, tied for first with Belmont, a potential tournament team in the very tough Ohio Valley Conference. Murray State has Temetrious “Ja” Murray, who is averaging nearly 25 points per game and over 10 assists per contest. He is projected to be a top lottery pick when he declares for the NBA Draft.
Secondly, I did not talk about the South Dakota State Jackrabbits of the Summit League. Led by 6’9” school scoring record holder Mike Daum, SDState suffered its second loss in conference to Nebraska-Omaha on Thursday via a buzzer beater. They are a legitimately good team. Like Iowa, they survived Saturday on a buzzer beater by their own wonderfully talented guard, David Jenkins, Jr. Jenkins hit for 24 points today to help overcome a 17 point lead by North Dakota State in Fargo. Jenkins had 34 in the loss on Thursday. Daum contributed 31 points and snared 12 rebounds for his 50th double double. SDState sort of reminds me of Indiana State in 1979, two outstanding players leading the way. Except that Daum is not Larry Bird.
I have one more college game left on my schedule. #10 Marquette will come to the Prudential Center for a Big East battle with NCAA hopeful Seton Hall. Seton Hall will have to play exceptionally well to overcome the number two team in the conference.
Honorable mention goes to the former leader of the MAAC. That’s Monmouth, who began the campaign at 0-11 and is now 9-5 in conference, with a 10-17 overall record. Head Coach King Rice, a former North Carolina star, knows how to coach and has kept his team focused and ready despite the horrible opening to the year.
In viewing the list of games on TV Saturday, I counted 37 college contests. That is amazing and is over saturation at its finest or at its worst.
One more college basketball report. As Centennial Conference play started on Saturday, Muhlenberg, Franklin and Marshall, Dickinson and Gettysburg were all playing for the right to be in the 4-5 playoff game on Tuesday. The results are in—F&M and Washington College will meet in Chestertown for the right to play number 1 seed Swarthmore by virtue of F&M’s road win over third place Ursinus, Muhlenberg’s home loss to Gettysburg and Washington routing Dickinson. The Shoremen have beaten F&M twice in a season for the first time in 13 years. Winning three times is very difficult, even if the game is at home.
Pro basketball takes center stage in its All-Star Game in Charlotte. Local heroes, the Curry Brothers, met in the 3 point shooting contest; sentimentally, Dirk Novitzki is participated, and Devon Booker was there to defend his crown. Joe Harris of Brooklyn won the shootout by 2 points over Steph Curry. I don’t care much for the Skills Competition or the Slam Dunk Contest, nor do I care for the supposed All-Star Game between Team LeBron and Team Giannis. Check out the video of Sonya Curry, herself an athlete at Virginia Tech, swishing a half court shot underhanded.
LeBron has been in the news for the All Star team he selected. Many of his squad are free agents and LeBron and his agent Rich Paul have been accused of recruiting. That also happened when the duo appeared at the Duke-UVA game, as LeBron has a relationship with some of the Duke players and he loved the way Duke big man Zion Williamson played.
Golden State, everyone’s favorite to repeat as champs, is now 9-0 and when Curry, Kevin Durant. Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and DeMarcus Cousins are together in the starting lineup.
James Harden now has 31 games in a row scoring over 30 points a game. Kevin Durant has 52 consecutive games scoring 20 or more in a game. LeBron James has 912 consecutive games where he has scored at least 10 points, which is the NBA record.
New addition Marc Gasol went 5-5 in the fourth quarter to propel Toronto to a win over Brooklyn. The Raptors are an even better team with his addition.
Scottie Pippen started a controversy when he opined that James was not a clutch player in the fourth quarter when having chances to win the game on his shot, unlike his teammate, Michael Jordan or the Lakers’ Koby Bryant. Pippen was partially correct—Jordan hit on 50% of those attempts, James on 37% of his attempts and Kobe hit only 25%.
New York ended its club record consecutive game losing streak at 18, with a road win at Atlanta. Charlotte lost to Orlando for the first time in the last 14 meetings. And the Magic had 2 consecutive 30+ point wins for the first time in franchise history.
Embattled New Orleans GM Darrell Demps was fired in the wake of the Anthony Davis trade fiasco. The owner of the Pelicans and the Saints is Gayle Benson. She has had a rough start to 2019 with the terrible officiating costing the Saints a spot in Super Bowl LVIII and now with the Davis debacle.
The Lakers didn’t look much better in their overt pursuit of Davis, which has clearly rattled the team and placed their chances to make the playoffs in jeopardy.
This is where the NBA sits at its All Star break. At least the league didn’t lose Adam Silver to the NFL, as several owners checked on his willingness to be their leader. Silver is basketball geek and loves where he is, in a league that is very profitable globally. This makes me feel that current NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell might not be in good standing among
ownership.
College baseball season is upon us. Rutgers went on its annual trip to Miami to face the Hurricanes. The trip has not been kind the Scarlet Knights, with the Hurricanes punishing RU in all three games. F&M opens its 2019 campaign with two Saturday games in North Carolina versus Greensboro and Guiford, then a Sunday test at #3 Randolph-Macon.
Justin Verlander, the Astros’ ace pitcher, feels he can pitch until age 45, like Tom Brady believes he can be an effective QB with New England. This kind of thought must come from the fact that they are both married to hot, celebrity/model wives.
As pitchers and catchers have reported to Spring Training, the Phillies signed young ace Aaron Nola to a 4 year, $45 minion extension and the Yankees gave their young ace Luis Severino a 4 year, $40 million pact with a club option 5th year which would raise the total package to $52.5 million, most of it front-loaded.
Reigning NL Cy Young Award winner, Jacob deGrom, has told the Mets he will not negotiate an extension beyond opening day and if nothing happens, he might put himself on a self-imposed pitch count. Memo to Mets management—get moving!
Didi Gregorius is throwing as he rehabs from Tommy John surgery. Former Met Matt Harvey, now with the Angels, is on the Injury List, the successor to the Disabled List. Gary Sanchez says he is close to 100% from off season surgery. Injury-plagued Yankees’ OF Jacoby Ellsbury now has to contend with plantar fasciitis while he continues to mend from hip surgery. Jordan Montgomery remains confident he will be back to the Yankees the season. Clint Frazier is ready to play again, as he is not being plagued by the concussion he suffered last spring.
Corey Seager of the Dodgers indicated he is ready to resume his spot at shortstop after injury sidelined him in 2018. Roberto Osuna has been named the closer for the Astros; Osuna had previously been suspended 75 games for domestic abuse. The Rays have indicated that starter by committee will again be in vogue in 2019. Jameson Tailon has been named by Pirates’ manner Clint Hurdle as the opening day starter.
C.C. Sabathia announced that 2019 is his last season in baseball as a player. He is on the precipice of reaching 3,000 strikeouts and 250 wins in his illustrious 18 year career. C.C. has started 538 of 539 games he has pitched in. He is a 6 time All-Star and won the 2007 A.L. Cy Young Award while with Cleveland. Sabathia is not a first ballot Hall of Fame inductee, but he should merit a great amount of consideration once his name is up for consideration.
Lastly, there are a slew of name free agents like Adam Jones, Dallas Keuchel, Craig Kimbrel, Jose Iglesias, Mike Moustakis, Marwin Gonzalez who have not been signed. The players feel that the owners are trying to drive salaries down in the free agent market while signing younger players to team friendly deals. There is rising tension between the owners and the MLBPA which will probably get uglier as the CBA ends after the 20121 season.
This is a contributing factor as to why prime free agents Manny Machado and Bryce Harper remain unsigned. Their agents, Dan Lozano for Machado and Scott Boras for Harper, have told their clients to steadfastly remain true to their goals of mega contracts for over $300 million a year. In a climate like this, while teams interview each player, it doesn’t mean they will ultimately open up their coffers and pay (or maybe overpay) for these stars.
When this will end is like guessing when Robert Mueller will complete his report. Machado, Harper and the rest of the free agents seemingly have a deadline—the start of the season is in late March and they will need time to get ready. Unless the owners dig in and play hardball.
If I were in Atlantic City or Las Vegas, I would think that the odds for signing both free agents would be about even with when the Mueller Report will be completed. That pales in guessing who will have the better outcome—Mueller or Machado/Harper/MLB.
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