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04/17/2023

Playoff Time....

Add-on posted early Wed. a.m.

NBA

--The Kings beat the Warriors again Monday, 114-106, to take a 2-0 series lead over the defending champions.

Warriors forward Draymond Green was ejected after stomping on the chest of Sacramento’s Domantas Sabonis.

The play happened in the fourth quarter. With the Warriors pushing the ball up court and Sabonis on the ground, Green took a hard step on Sabonis’ chest.

Sabonis was called for a technical foul for grabbing Green’s leg and Green was given a flagrant-2 foul that led to an automatic ejection.

Sacramento was only 9 of 38 from 3, but Golden State turned it over 20 times.

The NBA then suspended Green for one game.

“The suspension was based in part on Green’s history of unsportsmanlike acts,” the NBA said in a statement.

Green will serve his suspension Thursday when the Warriors host the Kings for Game 3.

--Philadelphia took a 2-0 lead over Brooklyn, 96-84.  Joel Embiid had 20 points, 19 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 blocks; Tobias Harris had 20 points, 12 rebounds; and Tyrese Maxey had 33 points for the Sixers.

--Miami upset Milwaukee in their opener Sunday night, 130-117, as Giannis Antetokounmpo exited early in the second quarter with a lower back bruise, but he’s expected back in Game 2 Wednesday night.

One who won’t be back for this series is Miami’s Tyler Herro, who broke his right hand in the second quarter, a huge blow for the Heat.  But for one game at least, Jimmy Butler, 35 points, 11 assists, carried Miami to victory in Herro’s absence. 

--Knicks fans were super-psyched after our big win last Saturday in Game 1 at Cleveland.

But we came back down to earth last night, crash-landing, as the Knicks were destroyed by the Cavs, 107-90, in a game that was nowhere near as close as it looks.

Darius Garland was superb, 32 points, 6 of 10 from 3, while Donovan Mitchell had 17 points and 13 assists.  The Knicks were just 7 of 29 from downtown.

So what Knicks team will show up Friday night at the Garden for Game 3?

--Boston took a 2-0 lead over Atlanta, 119-106.

--Phoenix evened their series with the Clippers, 1-1, with a 123-109 victory at home, Devin Booker with 38.

NHL

--The Stanley Cup Playoffs opened up Monday night and the Cup favorite Boston Bruins had a solid 3-1 win over the Panthers, while the New York Islanders fell to the Carolina Hurricanes 2-1 in Raleigh; the Isles with some solid chances in the final seconds with the extra man on ice.

But we had a big early upset, as the Kings defeated the host Oilers in Edmonton, 4-3 in overtime, Alex Iafallo with the game-winner for L.A.

The NHL’s leading scorer, Connor McDavid (153 points, 64 goals), was held scoreless by the Kings defense, though teammate Leon Draisaitl (No. 2 in the league with 128 points, 52 goals) tallied twice for Edmonton.

But it would be a shame if the Oilers can’t advance a round or two.

By the way, the Bruins’ David Pastrnak was tied for third in the league with 113 points*, and second in goals with 61.

*Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov also had 113 points.

--But last night the Rangers whipped the Devils, 5-1, Chris Kreider with two goals (becoming the all-time playoff goal scorer for New York), while Adam Fox had 4 assists.

The ease of this one was shocking at the Pru Center, Game 2 back there Thursday.

Let’s Go Ran-gers!

--Winnipeg upset the Golden Knights in Las Vegas, 5-1.  In this one, Jets forward Morgan Barron took a skate to the face in a scramble in front of the Knights’ net, requiring 75 stitches!

And in true hockey fashion, he returned to the ice less than a period later.

Zion Williamson would have announced his retirement within 30 minutes due to trauma.

MLB

--The Red Sox have a traditional 11:00 a.m. start on Patriots’ Day, as the Boston Marathon is being run, and it didn’t work out that well for Shohei Ohtani who was on the mound.  Thanks to a lengthy rain delay, Ohtani was limited to two hitless innings, though one run, and when play resumed he remained in the game as the designated hitter.

Ohtani had two hits as the Angels beat the Red Sox 5-4.

--Texas’ Jacob deGrom was cruising along against Kansas City Monday, 4 innings, no hits, but then he exited with a sore right wrist.  The Rangers said deGrom was removed as a precaution.

“I felt a little bit warming up,” deGrom said.  “I thought it was going to loosen up and it actually tightened up a little bit as the game went on… I just want to play it safe.  We’ve got a long season ahead of us.”

Texas signed deGrom to a five-year, $185 million contract as a free agent in December.

The Rangers won the game 4-0 over the 4-13 Royals, completing a one-hitter.

Texas then blasted the Royals (4-14) 12-2 on Tuesday.

DeGrom announced he felt better and is prepared to make his next start.

--The Mets won the opener of their series in Los Angeles on Monday night, beating the Dodgers and Dustin May, 8-6.  May, who entered the game with a 1.47 ERA, yielded five earned in 5 2/3.

Highly-touted Brett Baty made his 2023 debut for the Metropolitans and went 1-for-4 with an RBI single.

But last night the Mets lost 5-0, as Clayton Kershaw won his 200th career game, seven masterful innings, no walks, 9 strikeouts.

Kershaw joins Don Sutton and Don Drysdale as the only Dodger 200-game winners.

But Kershaw is also 200-88 lifetime, .694 winning percentage, the best in baseball history for anyone with 200 wins.

--The Cubs beat the A’s in Oakland Monday, 10-1, as Patrick Wisdom hit two home runs, giving him eight on the young season, while Cody Bellinger went 5-for-5 to hike his average to .310.

But the A’s are 3-14. It’s going to be a struggle for them to win 50.  Major League Baseball needs to get this team out of Oakland, quickly.  It’s an embarrassment. 

Make that 3-15, as the A’s fell to Chicago last night 4-0, the Cubs with four in the eighth.

For Chicago, Marcus Stroman had his fourth straight terrific 6-inning outing, lowering his ERA to 0.75.

--April 18 is the 100-year anniversary for when the original Yankee Stadium opened, with its 463-foot dead center field and monuments in play (eventually, after the likes of Babe Ruth et al were honored decades later).

Speaking of Ruth, he hit the first home run in a 4-1 win over Boston before 74,200, at the time believed to be the largest crowd to see a baseball game.

“Ruth’s circuit,” the Associated Press wrote, “added the one touch needed to complete the most picturesque drama in diamond annals.”

Yankee Stadium was built at a cost of $2.5 million, astronomical then.  The Little Bandbox That Ruth Didn’t Build then replaced it in 2009.

Well, Shohei Ohtani came to town last night and in true Ruthian fashion, he clouted a home run…on the anniversary…100 years to the day, Ohtani matches Ruth.  Way cool.

Ohtani also singled, stole second and later scored as part of the Angels’ 5-2 win.

--Baseball America Top Ten (April 17)

1. LSU
2. Florida
3. Wake Forest
4. Vanderbilt
5. Arkansas
6. South Carolina
7. East Carolina
8. Coastal Carolina
9. Virginia
10. Campbell

That’s a pretty cool top ten.  Next week, Coastal Carolina, who handed Wake an early loss, has a rematch with the Deacs, which will be a huge game for Wake in terms of NCAA seeding.

Meanwhile, on the CWS watch, refundable rooms have been secured.

NFL

--The Eagles and quarterback Jalen Hurts agreed to a five-year, $255 million extension, including $179.3 million guaranteed.  Hurts was rewarded for his breakout season when he was named an AP NFL most valuable player finalist and led the Eagles to the Super Bowl, where they lost to the Kansas City Chiefs.

“Keeping the main thing in Philly,” the Eagles tweeted.  “We’ve agreed to terms with Jalen Hurts on a 5-year extension through the 2024 season.”

The 24-year-old is expected to receive $51 million per season, with only Deshaun Watson ($230 million) and Kyler Murray ($189.5 million) receiving more in a single contract.  These other two deals look beyond outrageous in hindsight.

Philadelphia was 14-1 in games Hurts started, 0-2 when he sat out two late-season games because of a sprained right shoulder.

--Incredibly, safety Damar Hamlin announced Tuesday he was ready to resume playing football.

“This event was life-changing, but it’s not the end of my story,” he said, speaking at the team’s facility for the first time since he went into cardiac arrest and had to be resuscitated on the field some four months ago.  “I plan on making a comeback to the NFL.”

Godspeed, Damar.

--In College Football, a rather stunning story out of the University of Colorado.  All of its season tickets for 2023 are sold out.  And you can thank one man, Coach Prime, Deion Sanders, who was hired last December.

“We sold out, which is a blessing,” Sanders said Monday.  Heck, more than 45,000 are expected to attend Saturday’s spring scrimmage!  The school’s previous record spring game crowd was 17,800 in 2008.

And this from a team that went 1-11 last year. 

But according to 247Sports, Coach Prime has reeled in the top class of transfer players in the nation.  Heck, I hope Colorado has a great season.

Golf Balls

--Not knowing how long Sunday’s playoff at the RBC Heritage between Jordan Spieth and Matt Fitzpatrick was going to go, I had to post after the first hole of sudden death, and there was Fitzpatrick on the third hole, hitting a 9-iron for the ages on his approach to the 18th hole, a tap in for the win, his second on the PGA Tour, the other at last year’s U.S. Open.

Fitzpatrick moved up to eighth on the Official World Golf Ranking by winning this designated event.

1. Jon Rahm 10.86
2. Scottie Scheffler 10.58
3. Rory McIlroy 8.84
4. Patrick Cantlay 7.66
5. Xander Schauffele 6.15
6. Cameron Smith 5.69…can only pick up points in the majors, for now
7. Max Homa 5.68
8. Matt Fitzpatrick 5.63
9. Jordan Spieth 5.26
10. Will Zalatoris 5.18…out for the season with back surgery

Stuff

--Evans Chebet of Kenya won his second straight Boston Marathon Monday, leaving Eliud Kipchoge, the world record-holder considered the greatest marathoner of all time, behind at Heartbreak Hill to spoil the two-time Olympic gold medalist’s much-anticipated debut and win in 2 hours, 5 minutes, 54 seconds.  Kipchoge finished sixth, just his third major marathon loss to go with 12 victories.

Kenya’s Hellen Obiri, a two-time Olympic silver medalist in the 5,000 meters, won the women’s race in just her second marathon.  Obiri finished sixth last fall in the New York marathon in her marathon debut.

So Obiri’s victory completed the third straight Kenyan sweep in Boston.

Doug Flutie ran it, finishing in 5:28:34.

This was the tenth anniversary of the 2013 finish line bombings that killed three people and wounded hundreds more.

--Kyle Larson picked up his second NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday, career win No. 21.  Joey Logano was second, and Martin Truex Jr. third (his best performance of the season).

Chase Elliott, back from his broken tibia, finished tenth.

They have a very cool trophy at Martinsville…a Grandfather Clock.

--A bear was captured in the Italian Alps 12 days after it killed a 26-year-old jogger.

Italians were shocked by Andrea Papi’s death in the northeastern region of Tentino-Alto Adige.

Once the bear was identified as a 17-year-old known as JJ4, authorities issued an order for it to be put down.

The order for the she-bear to be shot on sight was later rescinded and JJ4 has been taken to a wildlife center, her fate to be determined.

Bears are a protected species in Italy, and their population has been increasing in recent years after they were reintroduced to the region two decades ago.

--As reported in the Winston-Salem Journal, Furman University is taking a popular cheer and turning it into a bourbon…FU All the Time.

“We thought FU All the Time bourbon would be popular, and it was a huge hit,” Elizabeth Lichtenberg, senior director of brand strategy and visual communications for Furman, said in a press release.  “Everyone loved it.  It felt good to be able to offer the Furman Family something new and unique that they can enjoy and take some pride in, and give them a new way to toast and celebrate Furman.”

The bourbon was developed by Ironclad Distillery in Newport News, Virginia, which makes a variety of bourbons and whiskeys.

Next Bar Chat, Sunday p.m.

-----

[Posted early Sunday p.m.]

Add-on up top by noon, Wed.

MLB Quiz: Name the eight with 2,000 career runs scored. [No trick names, all post-1900] Answer below.

NBA Playoffs

--The real playoffs opened up Saturday and Sacramento’s return to the postseason after a 17-year absence was a special one; De’Aaron Fox with a dazzling playoff debut, 38 points, 29 in the second half, as the Kings rewarded their loyal fans with a 126-123 victory over the defending champion Warriors.

Watching some of this one, yes, the crowd was loud. Good stuff.

--I was glued to the Knicks-Cavaliers game in Cleveland, Saturday, this 4-5 matchup promising to be a highly competitive one, and with Julius Randle making his return after a 17-day absence due to a severe ankle sprain, the Knicks prevailed, 101-97, making a huge statement.

Randle played 34 minutes, 19 points, 10 rebounds, while Jalen Brunson, 27 points, had some huge buckets down the stretch.

But it was Josh Hart who was the man, if you had to select just one star, as he did what Josh Hart does…17 points, 10 rebounds off the bench, diving for all the loose balls, just the toughest competitor on the floor.

And the Knicks managed to pull it out despite Donovan Mitchell’s 38 for the Cavs.

--The Sixers rolled over the Nets 121-101 in their opener in Philly.  James Harden was solid, 23 points, 13 assists, 7 of 13 from three.  Joel Embiid, while hardly dominating with 26 points and 5 rebounds, was nonetheless 11 of 11 from the free throw line, which is just so clutch…see the Raptors down below.

--Boston had no problem with Atlanta, 112-99, this one 74-44 at the half.  The Celtics held Trae Young to 10 below his average, just 16 points on 5 of 18 shooting.  This series is already over.

--Today, all the other games this evening, the 7-seed Lakers whipped 2 Memphis 128-112, as Rui Hachimura had 29 off the bench.  A big win for LeBron and Company.  [The networks very pleased.]

--I watched the Bulls-Raptors play-in game Wednesday night and like Tuesday’s two contests, it was a terrific game, Chicago overcoming a 19-point deficit to surge past Toronto, 109-105, as the Bulls’ Zach LaVine scored 30 of his 39 points in a spectacular second half, fellow star DeMar DeRozan with 23.

But the story was really about Toronto’s beyond pathetic effort at the free throw line, 18 of 36; one choke job after another, especially by Pascal Siakam down the stretch.  Siakam was a 77.4% foul shooter in the regular season but went 5 for11 Wednesday.  [The 18 misses the most in a winner-take-all game since 1969.]

How much DeRozan’s daughter, Diar, was a factor in Toronto’s performance at the stripe, playing in front of their usual raucous, and supportive, home crowd, is hard to quantify.

But we learned early on that Diar, sitting with her mom behind the basket, was screaming her lungs out during the Raptor’s free throws, a scream that was audible over any other fan’s chants.  It got so the cameras focused on her before each shot and you see how the Raptors did.

After a while, though, I, like I’m imagining many of you watching, had the same thought.  This is going to end badly.

Diar, just 9 years old, went viral with her piercing screams and some Toronto fans were so incensed, she became the target of “severe online threats,” TNT’s Chris Haynes reported.  Haynes said the NBA made the Bulls aware of the threats, and team security escorted her out of Scotiabank Arena and to the team bus alongside DeRozan.

I’ll bite my tongue on this whole situation for now.  DeMar DeRozan is one of my favorite players in the NBA, and he really didn’t know what was going on.  But the kid is just nine.  The mother has to be more aware of today’s crappy society and the consequences.

--I have written of Zion Williamson critically more than once over the years, including recently and how Knicks broadcaster Wally Szczerbiak called Zion out for not even being able to play 20 minutes a game down the stretch to help his Pelicans in their attempt to reach the playoffs.

And so the other day Stephen A. Smith went after the oft-injured one.

Smith said Zion is “raising suspicions” with his recent quotes about his chronic absence.

Earlier this week, Williamson, out since Jan. 2, was asked if he could be ready to return for the playoffs.

“Physically I’m fine, now it’s just a mater of when I feel like Zion,” the 2019 No. 1 overall NBA draft pick answered.

“I know the atmosphere I’d be entering based off like the playoff experience.  So now it’s just a matter of when I feel like Zion.”

Cue Jeff Spicoli.

The Pelicans lost the play-in game Wednesday night to the Thunder, season over.

I’ve told you how Zion has played in a whopping 114 games in four seasons, only 29 this season.

“He’s missed 169 games in his [four-year] career and hasn’t played in at least 40 percent of his games,” Smith said.  “You can’t make a statement like, ‘Oh, when I feel like Zion.’

“Players taught us a long time ago.  ‘We never feel like we’re 100 percent. Sometimes we never feel like our fresh, completely healthy selves.”

Smith issued a decree to Williamson that he has to be more available in the future than he’s been his first four years in the league.

“He’s gotta find a way to get back on the court. Period,” Smith said. 

“Because it’s starting to look very bad and it’s raising suspicions everywhere.”

Zion is a lazy ass.  And it’s become more and more apparent his family is interfering, as they did in the whole recruiting process at Duke.  The guy is a flat-out loser.

--The Mavericks were fined $750,000 by the NBA for “conduct detrimental to the league” after an investigation into the franchise’s decision to sit several key players for the April 7 loss that eliminated the team from play-in contention.

The Mavs rested Kyrie Irving, Tim Hardaway Jr. and a number of other key players, while playing Luka Doncic just 12 minutes, in a 115-112 loss to the Bulls.

Before the game, coach Jason Kidd cited “an organizational decision,” attributing it to Mavs owner (he’s officially called a ‘governor’) and GM Nico Harrison.

The league determined that the Mavericks “violated the NBA’s player resting policy and demonstrated through actions and public statements the organization’s desire to lose the game in order to improve the chances of keeping its first-round pick” in this draft, according to a news release from the NBA.

The decision “undermined the integrity of our sport,” Joe Dumars, NBA executive vice president/head of basketball operations, said in a statement.  “The Mavericks’ actions failed our fans and our league.”

Cuban has been fined before for publicly admitting that the Mavericks were tanking.

The Knicks were to receive the draft pick as part of a 2019 trade, but it was top-10-protected.

--Speaking of the draft, it’s all about 7-foor-3 French phenom Victor Wembanyama, the surefire No. 1 selection.  Detroit, Houston and San Antonio, with the three worst records this season, have the best odds of winning the lottery, 14% apiece.

--In College Basketball….

UConn star Adama Sanogo plans to enter the NBA Draft.  The 6-foot-9 power forward was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four and averaged 19.7 points and 10.0 rebounds as UConn won six games by an average of 20 points.

Mikey Williams, ranked 34th in ESPN’s list of the top 100 recruits in the 2023 class and headed to Memphis, was arrested Thursday in San Diego on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon.

The San Diego Sheriff’s Department said Williams paid a $50,000 bond and was released.  He is scheduled to make his first court appearance Thursday.

According to police documents, there are multiple counts of assault with a deadly weapon against Williams, but according to police is likely to face one charge that carries a maximum sentence of up to four years in prison.

Memphis said it was gathering more information.  Shots were fired in the incident, with multiple minors involved, though it seems no one was hurt.

Williams has nearly 4 million Instagram followers, at least at the time of his commitment to Memphis, and more than 2 million TikTok followers. In October 2021, he became the first American high school basketball player to sign a sneaker deal with a global footwear company when he reached a multiyear endorsement deal with Puma.

Yes, guns and college basketball have been in the news a bit the past few months…New Mexico State, Alabama….

Former Washington State guard TJ Bamba, one of the top transfers this spring, committed to play at Villanova next season.

Bamba picked Villanova over a host of schools including Tennessee, Kansas, Texas, Georgia Tech, Auburn, North Carolina and St. John’s.

“This gives me the best chance to reach my ultimate goal of playing in the NBA,” Bamba said.  “Players in my mold like Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo have gotten drafted from Villanova and proven to be valuable pieces.  My hope is to follow in their footsteps.”

Bamba averaged 15.8 points for Washington State last season, shooting 37.2% from 3.

Bamba is a New York kid so he’ll get to play before family and friends at multiple Big East venues.

But Bamba is also testing the NBA draft waters now.

Before I did my Add-on, I missed that Duke’s 7-foot Kyle Filipowski announced he was returning, a big boost for the Blue Devils.  This guy is NBA ready, in my book, but will surely benefit from another year to work on his shot before being a high lottery pick in 2024.

But then top-10 recruit Mackenzie Mgbako pulled his commitment to Duke after seeing the Filipowski news and knowing this would cut down on his playing time.

MLB

--It’s been all about the Tampa Bay Rays the first two weeks of the season, and they stretched their winning streak to a franchise-record 13 games on Thursday, outscoring their opponents 101-30.  13-0 matched the record opening streaks of the 1987 Brewers (who outscored their opponents by 38 runs) and the 1982 Braves (+32).

But the Rays couldn’t continue the streak up in Toronto Friday night, and they fell to the Blue Jays 6-3.  George Springer hit a leadoff homer for Toronto and Bo Bichette had five hits and an RBI.

It does have to be noted that the Rays’ 13 wins were against Detroit, Washington, Oakland and Boston.

Draw your own conclusions.

And so the Rays lost again, Saturday, 5-2, Toronto 10-5 and just 3 games back.

--The Yankees’ Domingo German was 18-4, though with a 4.03 ERA, back in 2018, and has had just 34 starts since due to injuries, and an 81-game domestic violence suspension.

So the guy is talented, but, who is he?

Saturday, he was good, five innings of no-hit ball before leaving after 6 1/3, one run, 11 strikeouts, as the Yanks (9-6) beat the Twins (10-5) 6-1 at the Stadium.

[There was controversy, however, when umpires asked German to remove rosin from his pitching hand, which is legal, but clearly it was in excess.  German was asked by the umpires to wash it off, he clearly did a half-ass job at doing same, but he got away with it. The Twins’ manager, Rocco Baldelli, was not happy and got ejected over the matter.]

Anthony Volpe had three steals, Saturday, giving him six on the young season.

Friday, in a 4-3 loss to the Twinkies, Volpe hit his first career home run and a diehard Yankees fan, Marvin Castillo, caught the ball.

The fans around him were telling him to hold onto it for cash, and indeed, if Volpe goes on to have the career virtually everyone believes he’ll have, it would be worth a pretty penny.

But Castillo said, “As a diehard Yankees fan, I’m not going to take that away from Volpe.  I let the Yankees know from the jump that I was going to give it back to him.”

So he got a few photos snapped with the ball gripped in his hand, but then he gifted it to security officers, who went into their Monty Hall act and put together a deal: Castillo was swapped autographs, photos with Volpe after the game, a clubhouse tour and tickets to a future game, when he can watch batting practice on the field (and Yankees tickets are expensive).  I hope he also got a signed bat, something cool to pass down through the generations of Castillos.

The Yanks sent Gerrit Cole to the mound today, but prior to the contest, Giancarlo Stanton went on the 10-day IL with a left hamstring strain, which means he’ll probably be out three months, he wrote facetiously…maybe.

Since 2011, Stanton has been on the injured list in all but the 2014, 2017 and 2018 seasons, and it’s the fifth straight season with some type of injury.  He hasn’t played 140 games in a campaign since 2018.

The Yankees need his home run power…period.

But as for Cole, give the guy major credit.  He entered today 39-19, 3.21, as a Yank.  Not spectacular (ERA) per his $36 million a year contract, but top five in the league, generally, and he’s off to a Cy Young start in 2023…twirling a 2-hitter, 10 Ks, his first shutout since 2021, as the Yanks win 2-0 to move to 10-6.

Cole is 4-0, 0.95.  As Ronald Reagan would have said, reading the Monday morning sports pages, Nancy fixing him just oatmeal as she was rushing to have breakfast with Jeanne Martin, ‘Not bad, not bad at all.’

--The Red Sox got to .500, 8-8, with a 2-1win Sunday over the Angels, Trout and Ohtani a combined 0-for-8.

L.A. is off to a typical Angels start, 7-8, normally poor starting pitching outside of Ohtani, and it’s the same old, same old.  They made some nice moves I thought in the offseason, but not enough, and Ohtani has to be gone at or before the trade deadline.  And that would be a shame, as Trout wastes away in anonymity.

--So I was watching the Mets at Oakland game Friday night and the first thing us viewers learned was that Gary Cohen and Ron Darling were doing the game from a spare booth, not the traditional visiting television broadcasters’ booth, due to the fact that a possum was living in the wall.

Well, that’s kind of a scary thought, I mused, wondering if the possum would figure out where they were and attack them.  Then Gary said the story was the possum had deposited what possums do all over the booth, and it was kind of disgusting.  Stadium staff have laid out traps for the possum, but to no avail.

And since we’re talking a couple stories above field level, how did the possum get up there?

Anyway, the story seemed to set up the game perfectly as Oakland proceeded to walk 17 Mets, 17!  One shy of the major league record, the Red Sox giving up 18 versus Cleveland on May 20., 1948.  Only four other times in baseball history had a team yielded 17 walks.

Needless to say, the Mets took advantage of such largesse and won going away, 17-6.  They had two innings where they scored six runs on just one hit.

Francisco Lindor had a 7-RBI game, the most ever by a Mets shortstop.

Saturday, the Metropolitans had a more conventional 3-2 win to improve to 9-6.

I’m posting before the conclusion of late-starting Mets game Sunday (due to an extended ceremony honoring the 1973 World Champion A’s).

But the story is the Mets organization, and veteran manager Buck Showalter, are both biting the bullet.

Buck favors veterans, to a fault, but he can’t ignore the potential of catcher Francisco Alvarez, up from AAA due to an injury, and third baseman Brett Baty, called up today from AAA after a scorching hot start.

Alvarez today is finally getting a back-to-back start, which is the only way he’s going to hit his stride, and Baty will be starting in Los Angeles Monday night no doubt.

There’s a buzz…a freakin’ buzz, I tell ya…among Mets fans.  The future is arriving.  Granted, some of us may be dead before Alvarez and Baty are All-Stars, but we’ll enjoy these moments while we can. [Gallows Gotham humor.]

--Cardinals rookie Jordan Walker, who doesn’t turn 20 until May 22, extended his hitting streak Wednesday to 12 games in a win over Colorado, tying Eddie Murphy of the 1912 Philadelphia Athletics for the longest streak to start a season by a player 20 years old or younger.  He then went 0-for-4 the following game against Pittsburgh.

--Kind of a strange start to the season.  Aside from Tampa Bay’s 13-0 opening, it’s been kind of bleh.

Not in that the changes to speed up the game haven’t been great…just a lot of teams immediately bunched together and you get the sense that’s the way it might be all season, which in the end is good…good pennant/wild card races.

What we do know is that pitching is still key.  Thru Saturday, these were the top teams in ERA and the corresponding W/L record.

1. Twins 2.62 (10-5)
2. Tampa Bay 2.64 (13-2)
3. Brewers 3.14 (10-5)
4. Yankees 3.25 (9-6)

Then quite a gap…

5. Astros 3.65

30. A’s 7.97 (3-12)

Johnny Mac will get a kick out of this.  The 1899 Cleveland Spiders, that we’ve written of before, were 20-134, yet their ERA of 6.37 looks sterling compared to Oakland’s.

--Stolen bases are back, but shockingly, these three teams haven’t received the message.

Thru 15 games….

Dodgers 2 SBs
Rockies 2
Twins 1

--In College Baseball…No. 3 Wake Forest (Baseball America) took 2 of 3 at 10 Louisville, so that won’t hurt us.  In Game 2, a 3-0 win, top-20 upcoming draft prospect Rhett Lowder threw seven shutout innings, striking out 9.

Visions of College World Series are dancing through some of Demon Deacon fans’ heads. [Dollars being laid out early, perhaps prematurely, just sayin’…]

NHL

--The playoffs start Monday, with locals looking at Islanders-Hurricanes, while the first-place Bruins square off against the Panthers.

Tuesday, the big series commences…Rangers-Devils.  This will be a tension convention.

So with the three New York area hockey teams in the playoffs, and the Nets and Knicks being in the postseason, it’s the first time all five local NHL and NBA teams made the postseason since 1994…29 years.

By the way, the last time a New York team in any of the four major sports won a championship was Feb. 5, 2012, when the Giants won Super Bowl XLVI.

--About a ¼-mile from the global headquarters of StocksandNews is Chatham, N.J., across the mighty Passaic River.  A Chatham resident, Alex Laferriere, who played hockey two years for Chatham High School before moving on to play in the USHL and then Harvard, just signed a three-year entry level contract with the Los Angeles Kings for an average annual value of $875,000. Good for him!

Golf Balls

--At the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head, S.C., we had a number of story lines I’ll get into later, but after two rounds, we had a surprise leader in this designated event…Jimmy Walker.

Walker, 44, won six times on the PGA Tour from 2013-2016, including the 2016 PGA Championship at Baltusrol, and then he disappeared largely due to a debilitating bout of Lyme Disease.

The only reason Walker is in this exclusive field is because of the LIV Golf tour.  Specifically, he finished just 201st on the money list last season, with just over $201,000 in seasonal earnings, which when you consider all the expenses is really nothing.

But that was enough to lift him to 59th on the official career money list.  And after nine LIV defectors were removed, Walker found himself in 50th place – and eligible for a one-time, season-long exemption to play on tour.

So this is someone to root for.

After 36 holes….

Walker -12
Scottie Scheffler -9
Justin Rose -9
Xander Schauffele -9

Jon Rahm -6 (72-64)

Rahm could have taken the week off after last week’s grinding Masters win, 30 holes the final Sunday, and no one would have blamed him, but he said prior to the start of the RBC Heritage, “I feel like I’m going to be feeling better every day. So, I think it could be a little challenging early on, but if I can get through the first two days, I think on the weekend I’ll feel back to normal.”

Well, his opening 72 proved his point, but there he was on Friday, right back into it.  And Rahm proved again he has a different moral compass.

“It did cross my mind, but I made a commitment earlier in the year, and I want to honor that commitment,” Rahm said.  “Talking to Kelly, I put myself in the shoes of not only the spectators, but the kids as well. If I was one of the kids, I would want to see the recent Masters champion play, good or bad, just want to be there.”

So after 54 holes…we had eight within three shots of the lead, Matt Fitzpatrick, who came to Hilton Head with his family on vacations when he was a little kid, shooting his best-ever round on the course, 63, to grab the lead.

Fitzpatrick -14
Patrick Cantlay -13
Jordan Spieth -12
Walker -11
Scheffler -11
Tommy Fleetwood -11
Mark Hubbard -11
Taylor Moore -11

Rahm -8

Well, after 12 holes today…

Spieth -16
Cantlay -16
Fitzpatrick -15

But then Cantlay bogeyed 13, Spieth birdied it, and Spieth had a 2-shot lead.

Fitzpatrick then rallied back and he was tied with Spieth at -17 heading to 18.

And we headed to a playoff, after a clutch par putt from Spieth.  It was great to see the two smiling, laughing as they headed into extra time.

Great sportsmanship.  Cantlay finished one behind at -16.  [But his slow play is going to cost him potential PIP $s, one would think.]

And on the first sudden-death hole, Spieth missed his birdie/winning putt by a fraction, while Fitzpatrick had a six-footer to stay in it…he does…we move on…and I need to as well.

More in my Add-on.

--As I noted in my Add-on Wednesday, Rory McIlroy opted out this week, the second such designated event in which he had done so, and there was a cost.  Rory would give up $3 million or 25 percent from his Player Impact Program bonus of $12 million from 2022.

None of Rory’s fellow players at the RBC were sympathetic, and I’m sure Rory understands.

“I feel like Rory was leading the charge on the changes that have been made and he helped make the rules,” fellow Tour pro Joel Dahmen said about McIlroy’s predicament.  “He knew what the rules were.  So, he knew what was coming.  He also has so much money, he doesn’t care about $3 million.” [This last bit was said somewhat tongue-in-cheek.]

Commissioner Jay Monahan, who has total discretion to fine or penalize a player under the PGA Tour rules, took little time in making his feelings known about McIlroy’s absence.

“Rules are the rules,” Xander Schauffele said Thursday.  “So, I mean, for the most part, a lot of what he wanted is what’s happening. And the irony is that he’s not here.”

“It doesn’t matter who you are, that’s a ton of money,” Justin Thomas said of the $3 million.  “All of us knew going into the year what the situation was and what we had to do to get extra X or Y and for him Y is a lot in this situation, finishing second (in the PIP rankings).  So, it wasn’t a surprise to him or any of us it just was kind of where he ended up in the rankings and not playing this week is I guess a consequence.”

--No doubt many of the top players are gassed because of all the recent designated events and majors.  Adam Scott, the chairman of the Players Advisory Council, acknowledged the crammed schedule but insisted there was light at the end of the tunnel.

“Yeah, it’s been a little loaded, but we all knew it was going to be this bridge year, so we’ve got to deal with it for a year,” Scott said. “I think the tour has addressed that cadence for next year.”

The cadence Scott speaks of relates to a likely rhythm of two consecutive designated events followed by a swing of three non-designated events.

--The PGA Tour released its new fall schedule/format…7 events, $56 million in purses, with all kinds of incentives for the players, and reasons for golf fans to watch, even during football season.

Winners of the seven events will earn a two-year tour exemption and entry into the 2024 Sentry Tournament of Champions, Players Championship and the majors that have invited PGA Tour winners in the past.  Winners of each of the fall events will receive 500 FedEx Cup points and points earned in the fall events will finalize priority ranking heading into 2024.  The 10 players who are not already eligible who have the most season-long FedEx Cup points through the fall will earn exemptions into the first two designated events after the Sentry Tournament of Champions. 

I like it a lot.

NFL

--An investment group led by Josh Harris reached a preliminary agreement to purchase the
Washington Commanders from owner Daniel Snyder, as first reported on Thursday.

Harris’ group would buy the team from Snyder for $6.05 billion if the deal is completed. 

While NFL team owners are optimistic about approving the tentative deal, the process may not be the mere formality it has been with other recent franchise sales.

The owners’ desire for Snyder to leave the league with as little additional contentiousness as possible may lead them to ratify the deal despite a measure of disappointment within their ranks about the sale price.

According to people with direct knowledge of the league’s inner workings and owners’ views, one of the Washington Post’s sources said, “Even if the price is a little disappointing at $6 billion, it’s his right to sell the team to who he wants to,” adding that the owners have no issue with Harris or the group’s primary investors and “that won’t be a problem.”

A Canadian bidder, Steve Apostolopoulos, supposedly remained active in the bidding, but Tilman Fertitta, the owner of the NBA’s Houston Rockets, said Wednesday he would not raise his $5.6 billion bid.

The league’s owners meet next month in Minneapolis and the sale should be finalized then.

Snyder bought the team in 1999 from the Jack Kent Cooke estate for $800 million.

The last sale was the $4.65 billion paid for the Broncos last year, a group led by Walmart heir Rob Walton.

Harris owns the Philadelphia 76ers and the NHL’s New Jersey Devils.  His top partner, Mitchell Rales, is a businessman and philanthropist based in Potomac, Md.  Former NBA great Magic Johnson is also an investor in Harris’ group and could be hugely important on the PR front going forward.

If the sale is approved, Harris has his work cut out for him. Aside from repairing the franchise’s relationship with its fan base (see Magic), he has to identify a site for a new stadium to replace FedEx Field.  Many within the NFL and throughout the region would like to see the team return to the District at the RFK Stadium site.

Harris grew up in Chevy Chase, Md.  He was the co-founder of Apollo Global Management and is a general partner of the English Premier League’s Crystal Palace football club.  He has an estimated net worth of $6 billion, according to Forbes.

--In a non-surprise, Giants running back Saquon Barkley refused to sign his franchise tag and does not plan to do so before the team’s offseason program begins Monday.  Giants owner Jon Mara said last month he hoped to sign Barkley to a long-term deal to keep him in a Giants uniform for the rest of his career, but negotiations are at a stalemate.

The team has until July 15 to work out a long-term deal, or Barkley would make $10.091 million in 2023 under the one-year franchise tender.

Last season was Barkley’s first full campaign since his rookie year, 2018, as he’s been plagued by injuries, including missing almost all of 2020 due to a torn ACL in his right knee.

Premier League

For the second straight week, Arsenal blew a lead and the contest ended in a draw, allowing Manchester City to surge closer.

Last week, it was Liverpool, this week Arsenal had a 2-0 lead at West Ham and the Hammers stormed back from a 2-2 draw today.  Saturday, City defeated Leicester 3-1, and suddenly they are only 4 points back with a game in hand.

Elsewhere, Aston Villa stayed alive in the Champions League hunt with a huge 3-0 win over 4 Newcastle; Fulham dealt Everton a big blow, 3-1; and Tottenham had a dreadful home loss, 3-2 to Bournemouth.

This afternoon, Manchester United beat Nottingham Forest 2-0.

Standings…Played (30/31 of 38) – Points

1. Arsenal…31 – 74
2. Man City…30 – 70*
3. Man U…30 – 59
4. Newcastle…30 – 56
5. Tottenham…31 – 53
6. Aston Villa…31 – 50

17. Everton…31 – 27
18. Nottingham…31 – 27
19. Leicester…31 – 25 …their fans are absolutely sick to their stomachs
20. Southampton…31 – 23

*April 26, sports fans…Arsenal at Man City.

Stuff

--Chase Elliott returned to NASCAR Cup Series competition this weekend at Martinsville Speedway, having missed the last six races after surgery on his tibia following a snowboarding accident in Colorado.

Elliott, an experienced snowboarder, does not have plans to change how he approaches extracurricular activities.

“I had surgery on my tibia in a couple of different places,” he said.  “I have a few screws in the top of my tibia.  It’s really knee-located (more) than it is lower leg.”

Elliott said it could have been worse.  There were no ACL tears or meniscus injuries.

--Theater goers are in mourning in New York tonight, as the “Phantom of the Opera” ends a 35-year-long run on Broadway.

Friday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams presented Andrew Lloyd Weber with a key to the City.

“I grew up on his plays and the performances from ‘Phantom of the Opera.’  One of the longest-running performances is closing, but it gave us many years of just joy throughout the years,” gushed Adams outside the Majestic Theater on West 44th Street.

The show first appeared in London’s West End in 1986 before coming to New York in 1988.  For decades to come it would be the toughest ticket in Gotham.

I’ve actually only seen it once…at a terrific dinner-theater production in Minneapolis.

--Jeff B., who is known in Bar Chat lore for having sat next to Paul Newman and Joanne at a restaurant in Connecticut a mere two weeks before Newman passed away, was at dinner Friday night and he and wife Kathy were seated next to none other than Keith Richards, wife Patti, and their two daughters!  Jeff said Keith was in total ‘Keith garb,’ Patti was beautiful, ditto the daughters.

Keith and Patti left, and Jeff and Kathy talked to the daughters who he said could not have been nicer.

And that’s your Bar Chat celebrity minute.

Top 3 songs for the week 4/15/67: #1 “Somethin’ Stupid” (Nancy and Frank Sinatra)  #2 “Happy Together” (The Turtles)  #3 “This Is My Song” (Petula Clark)…and…#4 “Bernadette” (Four Tops)  #5 “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You” (The Monkees) #6 “Western Union” (The Five Americans)  #7 “I Think We’re Alone Now” (Tommy James & The Shondells)  #8 “Dedicated To The One I Love” (The Mamas & The Papas)  #9 “I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)” (Aretha Franklin) #10 “Jimmy Mack” (Martha & The Vandellas…B+ week…)

MLB Quiz Answer: Eight with 2,000 career runs scored.

1. Rickey Henderson 2295
2. Ty Cobb 2245
3. Barry Bonds 2227
4. Hank Aaron 2174
    Babe Ruth 2174
6. Pete Rose 2165
7. Willie Mays 2068
8. Alex Rodriguez 2021

9. Cap Anson 1999…I don’t count him…entire career in 1800s
10. Stan Musial 1949
11. Derek Jeter 1923
12. Albert Pujols 1914

Add-on up top by noon, Wed.



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Bar Chat

04/17/2023

Playoff Time....

Add-on posted early Wed. a.m.

NBA

--The Kings beat the Warriors again Monday, 114-106, to take a 2-0 series lead over the defending champions.

Warriors forward Draymond Green was ejected after stomping on the chest of Sacramento’s Domantas Sabonis.

The play happened in the fourth quarter. With the Warriors pushing the ball up court and Sabonis on the ground, Green took a hard step on Sabonis’ chest.

Sabonis was called for a technical foul for grabbing Green’s leg and Green was given a flagrant-2 foul that led to an automatic ejection.

Sacramento was only 9 of 38 from 3, but Golden State turned it over 20 times.

The NBA then suspended Green for one game.

“The suspension was based in part on Green’s history of unsportsmanlike acts,” the NBA said in a statement.

Green will serve his suspension Thursday when the Warriors host the Kings for Game 3.

--Philadelphia took a 2-0 lead over Brooklyn, 96-84.  Joel Embiid had 20 points, 19 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 blocks; Tobias Harris had 20 points, 12 rebounds; and Tyrese Maxey had 33 points for the Sixers.

--Miami upset Milwaukee in their opener Sunday night, 130-117, as Giannis Antetokounmpo exited early in the second quarter with a lower back bruise, but he’s expected back in Game 2 Wednesday night.

One who won’t be back for this series is Miami’s Tyler Herro, who broke his right hand in the second quarter, a huge blow for the Heat.  But for one game at least, Jimmy Butler, 35 points, 11 assists, carried Miami to victory in Herro’s absence. 

--Knicks fans were super-psyched after our big win last Saturday in Game 1 at Cleveland.

But we came back down to earth last night, crash-landing, as the Knicks were destroyed by the Cavs, 107-90, in a game that was nowhere near as close as it looks.

Darius Garland was superb, 32 points, 6 of 10 from 3, while Donovan Mitchell had 17 points and 13 assists.  The Knicks were just 7 of 29 from downtown.

So what Knicks team will show up Friday night at the Garden for Game 3?

--Boston took a 2-0 lead over Atlanta, 119-106.

--Phoenix evened their series with the Clippers, 1-1, with a 123-109 victory at home, Devin Booker with 38.

NHL

--The Stanley Cup Playoffs opened up Monday night and the Cup favorite Boston Bruins had a solid 3-1 win over the Panthers, while the New York Islanders fell to the Carolina Hurricanes 2-1 in Raleigh; the Isles with some solid chances in the final seconds with the extra man on ice.

But we had a big early upset, as the Kings defeated the host Oilers in Edmonton, 4-3 in overtime, Alex Iafallo with the game-winner for L.A.

The NHL’s leading scorer, Connor McDavid (153 points, 64 goals), was held scoreless by the Kings defense, though teammate Leon Draisaitl (No. 2 in the league with 128 points, 52 goals) tallied twice for Edmonton.

But it would be a shame if the Oilers can’t advance a round or two.

By the way, the Bruins’ David Pastrnak was tied for third in the league with 113 points*, and second in goals with 61.

*Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov also had 113 points.

--But last night the Rangers whipped the Devils, 5-1, Chris Kreider with two goals (becoming the all-time playoff goal scorer for New York), while Adam Fox had 4 assists.

The ease of this one was shocking at the Pru Center, Game 2 back there Thursday.

Let’s Go Ran-gers!

--Winnipeg upset the Golden Knights in Las Vegas, 5-1.  In this one, Jets forward Morgan Barron took a skate to the face in a scramble in front of the Knights’ net, requiring 75 stitches!

And in true hockey fashion, he returned to the ice less than a period later.

Zion Williamson would have announced his retirement within 30 minutes due to trauma.

MLB

--The Red Sox have a traditional 11:00 a.m. start on Patriots’ Day, as the Boston Marathon is being run, and it didn’t work out that well for Shohei Ohtani who was on the mound.  Thanks to a lengthy rain delay, Ohtani was limited to two hitless innings, though one run, and when play resumed he remained in the game as the designated hitter.

Ohtani had two hits as the Angels beat the Red Sox 5-4.

--Texas’ Jacob deGrom was cruising along against Kansas City Monday, 4 innings, no hits, but then he exited with a sore right wrist.  The Rangers said deGrom was removed as a precaution.

“I felt a little bit warming up,” deGrom said.  “I thought it was going to loosen up and it actually tightened up a little bit as the game went on… I just want to play it safe.  We’ve got a long season ahead of us.”

Texas signed deGrom to a five-year, $185 million contract as a free agent in December.

The Rangers won the game 4-0 over the 4-13 Royals, completing a one-hitter.

Texas then blasted the Royals (4-14) 12-2 on Tuesday.

DeGrom announced he felt better and is prepared to make his next start.

--The Mets won the opener of their series in Los Angeles on Monday night, beating the Dodgers and Dustin May, 8-6.  May, who entered the game with a 1.47 ERA, yielded five earned in 5 2/3.

Highly-touted Brett Baty made his 2023 debut for the Metropolitans and went 1-for-4 with an RBI single.

But last night the Mets lost 5-0, as Clayton Kershaw won his 200th career game, seven masterful innings, no walks, 9 strikeouts.

Kershaw joins Don Sutton and Don Drysdale as the only Dodger 200-game winners.

But Kershaw is also 200-88 lifetime, .694 winning percentage, the best in baseball history for anyone with 200 wins.

--The Cubs beat the A’s in Oakland Monday, 10-1, as Patrick Wisdom hit two home runs, giving him eight on the young season, while Cody Bellinger went 5-for-5 to hike his average to .310.

But the A’s are 3-14. It’s going to be a struggle for them to win 50.  Major League Baseball needs to get this team out of Oakland, quickly.  It’s an embarrassment. 

Make that 3-15, as the A’s fell to Chicago last night 4-0, the Cubs with four in the eighth.

For Chicago, Marcus Stroman had his fourth straight terrific 6-inning outing, lowering his ERA to 0.75.

--April 18 is the 100-year anniversary for when the original Yankee Stadium opened, with its 463-foot dead center field and monuments in play (eventually, after the likes of Babe Ruth et al were honored decades later).

Speaking of Ruth, he hit the first home run in a 4-1 win over Boston before 74,200, at the time believed to be the largest crowd to see a baseball game.

“Ruth’s circuit,” the Associated Press wrote, “added the one touch needed to complete the most picturesque drama in diamond annals.”

Yankee Stadium was built at a cost of $2.5 million, astronomical then.  The Little Bandbox That Ruth Didn’t Build then replaced it in 2009.

Well, Shohei Ohtani came to town last night and in true Ruthian fashion, he clouted a home run…on the anniversary…100 years to the day, Ohtani matches Ruth.  Way cool.

Ohtani also singled, stole second and later scored as part of the Angels’ 5-2 win.

--Baseball America Top Ten (April 17)

1. LSU
2. Florida
3. Wake Forest
4. Vanderbilt
5. Arkansas
6. South Carolina
7. East Carolina
8. Coastal Carolina
9. Virginia
10. Campbell

That’s a pretty cool top ten.  Next week, Coastal Carolina, who handed Wake an early loss, has a rematch with the Deacs, which will be a huge game for Wake in terms of NCAA seeding.

Meanwhile, on the CWS watch, refundable rooms have been secured.

NFL

--The Eagles and quarterback Jalen Hurts agreed to a five-year, $255 million extension, including $179.3 million guaranteed.  Hurts was rewarded for his breakout season when he was named an AP NFL most valuable player finalist and led the Eagles to the Super Bowl, where they lost to the Kansas City Chiefs.

“Keeping the main thing in Philly,” the Eagles tweeted.  “We’ve agreed to terms with Jalen Hurts on a 5-year extension through the 2024 season.”

The 24-year-old is expected to receive $51 million per season, with only Deshaun Watson ($230 million) and Kyler Murray ($189.5 million) receiving more in a single contract.  These other two deals look beyond outrageous in hindsight.

Philadelphia was 14-1 in games Hurts started, 0-2 when he sat out two late-season games because of a sprained right shoulder.

--Incredibly, safety Damar Hamlin announced Tuesday he was ready to resume playing football.

“This event was life-changing, but it’s not the end of my story,” he said, speaking at the team’s facility for the first time since he went into cardiac arrest and had to be resuscitated on the field some four months ago.  “I plan on making a comeback to the NFL.”

Godspeed, Damar.

--In College Football, a rather stunning story out of the University of Colorado.  All of its season tickets for 2023 are sold out.  And you can thank one man, Coach Prime, Deion Sanders, who was hired last December.

“We sold out, which is a blessing,” Sanders said Monday.  Heck, more than 45,000 are expected to attend Saturday’s spring scrimmage!  The school’s previous record spring game crowd was 17,800 in 2008.

And this from a team that went 1-11 last year. 

But according to 247Sports, Coach Prime has reeled in the top class of transfer players in the nation.  Heck, I hope Colorado has a great season.

Golf Balls

--Not knowing how long Sunday’s playoff at the RBC Heritage between Jordan Spieth and Matt Fitzpatrick was going to go, I had to post after the first hole of sudden death, and there was Fitzpatrick on the third hole, hitting a 9-iron for the ages on his approach to the 18th hole, a tap in for the win, his second on the PGA Tour, the other at last year’s U.S. Open.

Fitzpatrick moved up to eighth on the Official World Golf Ranking by winning this designated event.

1. Jon Rahm 10.86
2. Scottie Scheffler 10.58
3. Rory McIlroy 8.84
4. Patrick Cantlay 7.66
5. Xander Schauffele 6.15
6. Cameron Smith 5.69…can only pick up points in the majors, for now
7. Max Homa 5.68
8. Matt Fitzpatrick 5.63
9. Jordan Spieth 5.26
10. Will Zalatoris 5.18…out for the season with back surgery

Stuff

--Evans Chebet of Kenya won his second straight Boston Marathon Monday, leaving Eliud Kipchoge, the world record-holder considered the greatest marathoner of all time, behind at Heartbreak Hill to spoil the two-time Olympic gold medalist’s much-anticipated debut and win in 2 hours, 5 minutes, 54 seconds.  Kipchoge finished sixth, just his third major marathon loss to go with 12 victories.

Kenya’s Hellen Obiri, a two-time Olympic silver medalist in the 5,000 meters, won the women’s race in just her second marathon.  Obiri finished sixth last fall in the New York marathon in her marathon debut.

So Obiri’s victory completed the third straight Kenyan sweep in Boston.

Doug Flutie ran it, finishing in 5:28:34.

This was the tenth anniversary of the 2013 finish line bombings that killed three people and wounded hundreds more.

--Kyle Larson picked up his second NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday, career win No. 21.  Joey Logano was second, and Martin Truex Jr. third (his best performance of the season).

Chase Elliott, back from his broken tibia, finished tenth.

They have a very cool trophy at Martinsville…a Grandfather Clock.

--A bear was captured in the Italian Alps 12 days after it killed a 26-year-old jogger.

Italians were shocked by Andrea Papi’s death in the northeastern region of Tentino-Alto Adige.

Once the bear was identified as a 17-year-old known as JJ4, authorities issued an order for it to be put down.

The order for the she-bear to be shot on sight was later rescinded and JJ4 has been taken to a wildlife center, her fate to be determined.

Bears are a protected species in Italy, and their population has been increasing in recent years after they were reintroduced to the region two decades ago.

--As reported in the Winston-Salem Journal, Furman University is taking a popular cheer and turning it into a bourbon…FU All the Time.

“We thought FU All the Time bourbon would be popular, and it was a huge hit,” Elizabeth Lichtenberg, senior director of brand strategy and visual communications for Furman, said in a press release.  “Everyone loved it.  It felt good to be able to offer the Furman Family something new and unique that they can enjoy and take some pride in, and give them a new way to toast and celebrate Furman.”

The bourbon was developed by Ironclad Distillery in Newport News, Virginia, which makes a variety of bourbons and whiskeys.

Next Bar Chat, Sunday p.m.

-----

[Posted early Sunday p.m.]

Add-on up top by noon, Wed.

MLB Quiz: Name the eight with 2,000 career runs scored. [No trick names, all post-1900] Answer below.

NBA Playoffs

--The real playoffs opened up Saturday and Sacramento’s return to the postseason after a 17-year absence was a special one; De’Aaron Fox with a dazzling playoff debut, 38 points, 29 in the second half, as the Kings rewarded their loyal fans with a 126-123 victory over the defending champion Warriors.

Watching some of this one, yes, the crowd was loud. Good stuff.

--I was glued to the Knicks-Cavaliers game in Cleveland, Saturday, this 4-5 matchup promising to be a highly competitive one, and with Julius Randle making his return after a 17-day absence due to a severe ankle sprain, the Knicks prevailed, 101-97, making a huge statement.

Randle played 34 minutes, 19 points, 10 rebounds, while Jalen Brunson, 27 points, had some huge buckets down the stretch.

But it was Josh Hart who was the man, if you had to select just one star, as he did what Josh Hart does…17 points, 10 rebounds off the bench, diving for all the loose balls, just the toughest competitor on the floor.

And the Knicks managed to pull it out despite Donovan Mitchell’s 38 for the Cavs.

--The Sixers rolled over the Nets 121-101 in their opener in Philly.  James Harden was solid, 23 points, 13 assists, 7 of 13 from three.  Joel Embiid, while hardly dominating with 26 points and 5 rebounds, was nonetheless 11 of 11 from the free throw line, which is just so clutch…see the Raptors down below.

--Boston had no problem with Atlanta, 112-99, this one 74-44 at the half.  The Celtics held Trae Young to 10 below his average, just 16 points on 5 of 18 shooting.  This series is already over.

--Today, all the other games this evening, the 7-seed Lakers whipped 2 Memphis 128-112, as Rui Hachimura had 29 off the bench.  A big win for LeBron and Company.  [The networks very pleased.]

--I watched the Bulls-Raptors play-in game Wednesday night and like Tuesday’s two contests, it was a terrific game, Chicago overcoming a 19-point deficit to surge past Toronto, 109-105, as the Bulls’ Zach LaVine scored 30 of his 39 points in a spectacular second half, fellow star DeMar DeRozan with 23.

But the story was really about Toronto’s beyond pathetic effort at the free throw line, 18 of 36; one choke job after another, especially by Pascal Siakam down the stretch.  Siakam was a 77.4% foul shooter in the regular season but went 5 for11 Wednesday.  [The 18 misses the most in a winner-take-all game since 1969.]

How much DeRozan’s daughter, Diar, was a factor in Toronto’s performance at the stripe, playing in front of their usual raucous, and supportive, home crowd, is hard to quantify.

But we learned early on that Diar, sitting with her mom behind the basket, was screaming her lungs out during the Raptor’s free throws, a scream that was audible over any other fan’s chants.  It got so the cameras focused on her before each shot and you see how the Raptors did.

After a while, though, I, like I’m imagining many of you watching, had the same thought.  This is going to end badly.

Diar, just 9 years old, went viral with her piercing screams and some Toronto fans were so incensed, she became the target of “severe online threats,” TNT’s Chris Haynes reported.  Haynes said the NBA made the Bulls aware of the threats, and team security escorted her out of Scotiabank Arena and to the team bus alongside DeRozan.

I’ll bite my tongue on this whole situation for now.  DeMar DeRozan is one of my favorite players in the NBA, and he really didn’t know what was going on.  But the kid is just nine.  The mother has to be more aware of today’s crappy society and the consequences.

--I have written of Zion Williamson critically more than once over the years, including recently and how Knicks broadcaster Wally Szczerbiak called Zion out for not even being able to play 20 minutes a game down the stretch to help his Pelicans in their attempt to reach the playoffs.

And so the other day Stephen A. Smith went after the oft-injured one.

Smith said Zion is “raising suspicions” with his recent quotes about his chronic absence.

Earlier this week, Williamson, out since Jan. 2, was asked if he could be ready to return for the playoffs.

“Physically I’m fine, now it’s just a mater of when I feel like Zion,” the 2019 No. 1 overall NBA draft pick answered.

“I know the atmosphere I’d be entering based off like the playoff experience.  So now it’s just a matter of when I feel like Zion.”

Cue Jeff Spicoli.

The Pelicans lost the play-in game Wednesday night to the Thunder, season over.

I’ve told you how Zion has played in a whopping 114 games in four seasons, only 29 this season.

“He’s missed 169 games in his [four-year] career and hasn’t played in at least 40 percent of his games,” Smith said.  “You can’t make a statement like, ‘Oh, when I feel like Zion.’

“Players taught us a long time ago.  ‘We never feel like we’re 100 percent. Sometimes we never feel like our fresh, completely healthy selves.”

Smith issued a decree to Williamson that he has to be more available in the future than he’s been his first four years in the league.

“He’s gotta find a way to get back on the court. Period,” Smith said. 

“Because it’s starting to look very bad and it’s raising suspicions everywhere.”

Zion is a lazy ass.  And it’s become more and more apparent his family is interfering, as they did in the whole recruiting process at Duke.  The guy is a flat-out loser.

--The Mavericks were fined $750,000 by the NBA for “conduct detrimental to the league” after an investigation into the franchise’s decision to sit several key players for the April 7 loss that eliminated the team from play-in contention.

The Mavs rested Kyrie Irving, Tim Hardaway Jr. and a number of other key players, while playing Luka Doncic just 12 minutes, in a 115-112 loss to the Bulls.

Before the game, coach Jason Kidd cited “an organizational decision,” attributing it to Mavs owner (he’s officially called a ‘governor’) and GM Nico Harrison.

The league determined that the Mavericks “violated the NBA’s player resting policy and demonstrated through actions and public statements the organization’s desire to lose the game in order to improve the chances of keeping its first-round pick” in this draft, according to a news release from the NBA.

The decision “undermined the integrity of our sport,” Joe Dumars, NBA executive vice president/head of basketball operations, said in a statement.  “The Mavericks’ actions failed our fans and our league.”

Cuban has been fined before for publicly admitting that the Mavericks were tanking.

The Knicks were to receive the draft pick as part of a 2019 trade, but it was top-10-protected.

--Speaking of the draft, it’s all about 7-foor-3 French phenom Victor Wembanyama, the surefire No. 1 selection.  Detroit, Houston and San Antonio, with the three worst records this season, have the best odds of winning the lottery, 14% apiece.

--In College Basketball….

UConn star Adama Sanogo plans to enter the NBA Draft.  The 6-foot-9 power forward was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four and averaged 19.7 points and 10.0 rebounds as UConn won six games by an average of 20 points.

Mikey Williams, ranked 34th in ESPN’s list of the top 100 recruits in the 2023 class and headed to Memphis, was arrested Thursday in San Diego on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon.

The San Diego Sheriff’s Department said Williams paid a $50,000 bond and was released.  He is scheduled to make his first court appearance Thursday.

According to police documents, there are multiple counts of assault with a deadly weapon against Williams, but according to police is likely to face one charge that carries a maximum sentence of up to four years in prison.

Memphis said it was gathering more information.  Shots were fired in the incident, with multiple minors involved, though it seems no one was hurt.

Williams has nearly 4 million Instagram followers, at least at the time of his commitment to Memphis, and more than 2 million TikTok followers. In October 2021, he became the first American high school basketball player to sign a sneaker deal with a global footwear company when he reached a multiyear endorsement deal with Puma.

Yes, guns and college basketball have been in the news a bit the past few months…New Mexico State, Alabama….

Former Washington State guard TJ Bamba, one of the top transfers this spring, committed to play at Villanova next season.

Bamba picked Villanova over a host of schools including Tennessee, Kansas, Texas, Georgia Tech, Auburn, North Carolina and St. John’s.

“This gives me the best chance to reach my ultimate goal of playing in the NBA,” Bamba said.  “Players in my mold like Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo have gotten drafted from Villanova and proven to be valuable pieces.  My hope is to follow in their footsteps.”

Bamba averaged 15.8 points for Washington State last season, shooting 37.2% from 3.

Bamba is a New York kid so he’ll get to play before family and friends at multiple Big East venues.

But Bamba is also testing the NBA draft waters now.

Before I did my Add-on, I missed that Duke’s 7-foot Kyle Filipowski announced he was returning, a big boost for the Blue Devils.  This guy is NBA ready, in my book, but will surely benefit from another year to work on his shot before being a high lottery pick in 2024.

But then top-10 recruit Mackenzie Mgbako pulled his commitment to Duke after seeing the Filipowski news and knowing this would cut down on his playing time.

MLB

--It’s been all about the Tampa Bay Rays the first two weeks of the season, and they stretched their winning streak to a franchise-record 13 games on Thursday, outscoring their opponents 101-30.  13-0 matched the record opening streaks of the 1987 Brewers (who outscored their opponents by 38 runs) and the 1982 Braves (+32).

But the Rays couldn’t continue the streak up in Toronto Friday night, and they fell to the Blue Jays 6-3.  George Springer hit a leadoff homer for Toronto and Bo Bichette had five hits and an RBI.

It does have to be noted that the Rays’ 13 wins were against Detroit, Washington, Oakland and Boston.

Draw your own conclusions.

And so the Rays lost again, Saturday, 5-2, Toronto 10-5 and just 3 games back.

--The Yankees’ Domingo German was 18-4, though with a 4.03 ERA, back in 2018, and has had just 34 starts since due to injuries, and an 81-game domestic violence suspension.

So the guy is talented, but, who is he?

Saturday, he was good, five innings of no-hit ball before leaving after 6 1/3, one run, 11 strikeouts, as the Yanks (9-6) beat the Twins (10-5) 6-1 at the Stadium.

[There was controversy, however, when umpires asked German to remove rosin from his pitching hand, which is legal, but clearly it was in excess.  German was asked by the umpires to wash it off, he clearly did a half-ass job at doing same, but he got away with it. The Twins’ manager, Rocco Baldelli, was not happy and got ejected over the matter.]

Anthony Volpe had three steals, Saturday, giving him six on the young season.

Friday, in a 4-3 loss to the Twinkies, Volpe hit his first career home run and a diehard Yankees fan, Marvin Castillo, caught the ball.

The fans around him were telling him to hold onto it for cash, and indeed, if Volpe goes on to have the career virtually everyone believes he’ll have, it would be worth a pretty penny.

But Castillo said, “As a diehard Yankees fan, I’m not going to take that away from Volpe.  I let the Yankees know from the jump that I was going to give it back to him.”

So he got a few photos snapped with the ball gripped in his hand, but then he gifted it to security officers, who went into their Monty Hall act and put together a deal: Castillo was swapped autographs, photos with Volpe after the game, a clubhouse tour and tickets to a future game, when he can watch batting practice on the field (and Yankees tickets are expensive).  I hope he also got a signed bat, something cool to pass down through the generations of Castillos.

The Yanks sent Gerrit Cole to the mound today, but prior to the contest, Giancarlo Stanton went on the 10-day IL with a left hamstring strain, which means he’ll probably be out three months, he wrote facetiously…maybe.

Since 2011, Stanton has been on the injured list in all but the 2014, 2017 and 2018 seasons, and it’s the fifth straight season with some type of injury.  He hasn’t played 140 games in a campaign since 2018.

The Yankees need his home run power…period.

But as for Cole, give the guy major credit.  He entered today 39-19, 3.21, as a Yank.  Not spectacular (ERA) per his $36 million a year contract, but top five in the league, generally, and he’s off to a Cy Young start in 2023…twirling a 2-hitter, 10 Ks, his first shutout since 2021, as the Yanks win 2-0 to move to 10-6.

Cole is 4-0, 0.95.  As Ronald Reagan would have said, reading the Monday morning sports pages, Nancy fixing him just oatmeal as she was rushing to have breakfast with Jeanne Martin, ‘Not bad, not bad at all.’

--The Red Sox got to .500, 8-8, with a 2-1win Sunday over the Angels, Trout and Ohtani a combined 0-for-8.

L.A. is off to a typical Angels start, 7-8, normally poor starting pitching outside of Ohtani, and it’s the same old, same old.  They made some nice moves I thought in the offseason, but not enough, and Ohtani has to be gone at or before the trade deadline.  And that would be a shame, as Trout wastes away in anonymity.

--So I was watching the Mets at Oakland game Friday night and the first thing us viewers learned was that Gary Cohen and Ron Darling were doing the game from a spare booth, not the traditional visiting television broadcasters’ booth, due to the fact that a possum was living in the wall.

Well, that’s kind of a scary thought, I mused, wondering if the possum would figure out where they were and attack them.  Then Gary said the story was the possum had deposited what possums do all over the booth, and it was kind of disgusting.  Stadium staff have laid out traps for the possum, but to no avail.

And since we’re talking a couple stories above field level, how did the possum get up there?

Anyway, the story seemed to set up the game perfectly as Oakland proceeded to walk 17 Mets, 17!  One shy of the major league record, the Red Sox giving up 18 versus Cleveland on May 20., 1948.  Only four other times in baseball history had a team yielded 17 walks.

Needless to say, the Mets took advantage of such largesse and won going away, 17-6.  They had two innings where they scored six runs on just one hit.

Francisco Lindor had a 7-RBI game, the most ever by a Mets shortstop.

Saturday, the Metropolitans had a more conventional 3-2 win to improve to 9-6.

I’m posting before the conclusion of late-starting Mets game Sunday (due to an extended ceremony honoring the 1973 World Champion A’s).

But the story is the Mets organization, and veteran manager Buck Showalter, are both biting the bullet.

Buck favors veterans, to a fault, but he can’t ignore the potential of catcher Francisco Alvarez, up from AAA due to an injury, and third baseman Brett Baty, called up today from AAA after a scorching hot start.

Alvarez today is finally getting a back-to-back start, which is the only way he’s going to hit his stride, and Baty will be starting in Los Angeles Monday night no doubt.

There’s a buzz…a freakin’ buzz, I tell ya…among Mets fans.  The future is arriving.  Granted, some of us may be dead before Alvarez and Baty are All-Stars, but we’ll enjoy these moments while we can. [Gallows Gotham humor.]

--Cardinals rookie Jordan Walker, who doesn’t turn 20 until May 22, extended his hitting streak Wednesday to 12 games in a win over Colorado, tying Eddie Murphy of the 1912 Philadelphia Athletics for the longest streak to start a season by a player 20 years old or younger.  He then went 0-for-4 the following game against Pittsburgh.

--Kind of a strange start to the season.  Aside from Tampa Bay’s 13-0 opening, it’s been kind of bleh.

Not in that the changes to speed up the game haven’t been great…just a lot of teams immediately bunched together and you get the sense that’s the way it might be all season, which in the end is good…good pennant/wild card races.

What we do know is that pitching is still key.  Thru Saturday, these were the top teams in ERA and the corresponding W/L record.

1. Twins 2.62 (10-5)
2. Tampa Bay 2.64 (13-2)
3. Brewers 3.14 (10-5)
4. Yankees 3.25 (9-6)

Then quite a gap…

5. Astros 3.65

30. A’s 7.97 (3-12)

Johnny Mac will get a kick out of this.  The 1899 Cleveland Spiders, that we’ve written of before, were 20-134, yet their ERA of 6.37 looks sterling compared to Oakland’s.

--Stolen bases are back, but shockingly, these three teams haven’t received the message.

Thru 15 games….

Dodgers 2 SBs
Rockies 2
Twins 1

--In College Baseball…No. 3 Wake Forest (Baseball America) took 2 of 3 at 10 Louisville, so that won’t hurt us.  In Game 2, a 3-0 win, top-20 upcoming draft prospect Rhett Lowder threw seven shutout innings, striking out 9.

Visions of College World Series are dancing through some of Demon Deacon fans’ heads. [Dollars being laid out early, perhaps prematurely, just sayin’…]

NHL

--The playoffs start Monday, with locals looking at Islanders-Hurricanes, while the first-place Bruins square off against the Panthers.

Tuesday, the big series commences…Rangers-Devils.  This will be a tension convention.

So with the three New York area hockey teams in the playoffs, and the Nets and Knicks being in the postseason, it’s the first time all five local NHL and NBA teams made the postseason since 1994…29 years.

By the way, the last time a New York team in any of the four major sports won a championship was Feb. 5, 2012, when the Giants won Super Bowl XLVI.

--About a ¼-mile from the global headquarters of StocksandNews is Chatham, N.J., across the mighty Passaic River.  A Chatham resident, Alex Laferriere, who played hockey two years for Chatham High School before moving on to play in the USHL and then Harvard, just signed a three-year entry level contract with the Los Angeles Kings for an average annual value of $875,000. Good for him!

Golf Balls

--At the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head, S.C., we had a number of story lines I’ll get into later, but after two rounds, we had a surprise leader in this designated event…Jimmy Walker.

Walker, 44, won six times on the PGA Tour from 2013-2016, including the 2016 PGA Championship at Baltusrol, and then he disappeared largely due to a debilitating bout of Lyme Disease.

The only reason Walker is in this exclusive field is because of the LIV Golf tour.  Specifically, he finished just 201st on the money list last season, with just over $201,000 in seasonal earnings, which when you consider all the expenses is really nothing.

But that was enough to lift him to 59th on the official career money list.  And after nine LIV defectors were removed, Walker found himself in 50th place – and eligible for a one-time, season-long exemption to play on tour.

So this is someone to root for.

After 36 holes….

Walker -12
Scottie Scheffler -9
Justin Rose -9
Xander Schauffele -9

Jon Rahm -6 (72-64)

Rahm could have taken the week off after last week’s grinding Masters win, 30 holes the final Sunday, and no one would have blamed him, but he said prior to the start of the RBC Heritage, “I feel like I’m going to be feeling better every day. So, I think it could be a little challenging early on, but if I can get through the first two days, I think on the weekend I’ll feel back to normal.”

Well, his opening 72 proved his point, but there he was on Friday, right back into it.  And Rahm proved again he has a different moral compass.

“It did cross my mind, but I made a commitment earlier in the year, and I want to honor that commitment,” Rahm said.  “Talking to Kelly, I put myself in the shoes of not only the spectators, but the kids as well. If I was one of the kids, I would want to see the recent Masters champion play, good or bad, just want to be there.”

So after 54 holes…we had eight within three shots of the lead, Matt Fitzpatrick, who came to Hilton Head with his family on vacations when he was a little kid, shooting his best-ever round on the course, 63, to grab the lead.

Fitzpatrick -14
Patrick Cantlay -13
Jordan Spieth -12
Walker -11
Scheffler -11
Tommy Fleetwood -11
Mark Hubbard -11
Taylor Moore -11

Rahm -8

Well, after 12 holes today…

Spieth -16
Cantlay -16
Fitzpatrick -15

But then Cantlay bogeyed 13, Spieth birdied it, and Spieth had a 2-shot lead.

Fitzpatrick then rallied back and he was tied with Spieth at -17 heading to 18.

And we headed to a playoff, after a clutch par putt from Spieth.  It was great to see the two smiling, laughing as they headed into extra time.

Great sportsmanship.  Cantlay finished one behind at -16.  [But his slow play is going to cost him potential PIP $s, one would think.]

And on the first sudden-death hole, Spieth missed his birdie/winning putt by a fraction, while Fitzpatrick had a six-footer to stay in it…he does…we move on…and I need to as well.

More in my Add-on.

--As I noted in my Add-on Wednesday, Rory McIlroy opted out this week, the second such designated event in which he had done so, and there was a cost.  Rory would give up $3 million or 25 percent from his Player Impact Program bonus of $12 million from 2022.

None of Rory’s fellow players at the RBC were sympathetic, and I’m sure Rory understands.

“I feel like Rory was leading the charge on the changes that have been made and he helped make the rules,” fellow Tour pro Joel Dahmen said about McIlroy’s predicament.  “He knew what the rules were.  So, he knew what was coming.  He also has so much money, he doesn’t care about $3 million.” [This last bit was said somewhat tongue-in-cheek.]

Commissioner Jay Monahan, who has total discretion to fine or penalize a player under the PGA Tour rules, took little time in making his feelings known about McIlroy’s absence.

“Rules are the rules,” Xander Schauffele said Thursday.  “So, I mean, for the most part, a lot of what he wanted is what’s happening. And the irony is that he’s not here.”

“It doesn’t matter who you are, that’s a ton of money,” Justin Thomas said of the $3 million.  “All of us knew going into the year what the situation was and what we had to do to get extra X or Y and for him Y is a lot in this situation, finishing second (in the PIP rankings).  So, it wasn’t a surprise to him or any of us it just was kind of where he ended up in the rankings and not playing this week is I guess a consequence.”

--No doubt many of the top players are gassed because of all the recent designated events and majors.  Adam Scott, the chairman of the Players Advisory Council, acknowledged the crammed schedule but insisted there was light at the end of the tunnel.

“Yeah, it’s been a little loaded, but we all knew it was going to be this bridge year, so we’ve got to deal with it for a year,” Scott said. “I think the tour has addressed that cadence for next year.”

The cadence Scott speaks of relates to a likely rhythm of two consecutive designated events followed by a swing of three non-designated events.

--The PGA Tour released its new fall schedule/format…7 events, $56 million in purses, with all kinds of incentives for the players, and reasons for golf fans to watch, even during football season.

Winners of the seven events will earn a two-year tour exemption and entry into the 2024 Sentry Tournament of Champions, Players Championship and the majors that have invited PGA Tour winners in the past.  Winners of each of the fall events will receive 500 FedEx Cup points and points earned in the fall events will finalize priority ranking heading into 2024.  The 10 players who are not already eligible who have the most season-long FedEx Cup points through the fall will earn exemptions into the first two designated events after the Sentry Tournament of Champions. 

I like it a lot.

NFL

--An investment group led by Josh Harris reached a preliminary agreement to purchase the
Washington Commanders from owner Daniel Snyder, as first reported on Thursday.

Harris’ group would buy the team from Snyder for $6.05 billion if the deal is completed. 

While NFL team owners are optimistic about approving the tentative deal, the process may not be the mere formality it has been with other recent franchise sales.

The owners’ desire for Snyder to leave the league with as little additional contentiousness as possible may lead them to ratify the deal despite a measure of disappointment within their ranks about the sale price.

According to people with direct knowledge of the league’s inner workings and owners’ views, one of the Washington Post’s sources said, “Even if the price is a little disappointing at $6 billion, it’s his right to sell the team to who he wants to,” adding that the owners have no issue with Harris or the group’s primary investors and “that won’t be a problem.”

A Canadian bidder, Steve Apostolopoulos, supposedly remained active in the bidding, but Tilman Fertitta, the owner of the NBA’s Houston Rockets, said Wednesday he would not raise his $5.6 billion bid.

The league’s owners meet next month in Minneapolis and the sale should be finalized then.

Snyder bought the team in 1999 from the Jack Kent Cooke estate for $800 million.

The last sale was the $4.65 billion paid for the Broncos last year, a group led by Walmart heir Rob Walton.

Harris owns the Philadelphia 76ers and the NHL’s New Jersey Devils.  His top partner, Mitchell Rales, is a businessman and philanthropist based in Potomac, Md.  Former NBA great Magic Johnson is also an investor in Harris’ group and could be hugely important on the PR front going forward.

If the sale is approved, Harris has his work cut out for him. Aside from repairing the franchise’s relationship with its fan base (see Magic), he has to identify a site for a new stadium to replace FedEx Field.  Many within the NFL and throughout the region would like to see the team return to the District at the RFK Stadium site.

Harris grew up in Chevy Chase, Md.  He was the co-founder of Apollo Global Management and is a general partner of the English Premier League’s Crystal Palace football club.  He has an estimated net worth of $6 billion, according to Forbes.

--In a non-surprise, Giants running back Saquon Barkley refused to sign his franchise tag and does not plan to do so before the team’s offseason program begins Monday.  Giants owner Jon Mara said last month he hoped to sign Barkley to a long-term deal to keep him in a Giants uniform for the rest of his career, but negotiations are at a stalemate.

The team has until July 15 to work out a long-term deal, or Barkley would make $10.091 million in 2023 under the one-year franchise tender.

Last season was Barkley’s first full campaign since his rookie year, 2018, as he’s been plagued by injuries, including missing almost all of 2020 due to a torn ACL in his right knee.

Premier League

For the second straight week, Arsenal blew a lead and the contest ended in a draw, allowing Manchester City to surge closer.

Last week, it was Liverpool, this week Arsenal had a 2-0 lead at West Ham and the Hammers stormed back from a 2-2 draw today.  Saturday, City defeated Leicester 3-1, and suddenly they are only 4 points back with a game in hand.

Elsewhere, Aston Villa stayed alive in the Champions League hunt with a huge 3-0 win over 4 Newcastle; Fulham dealt Everton a big blow, 3-1; and Tottenham had a dreadful home loss, 3-2 to Bournemouth.

This afternoon, Manchester United beat Nottingham Forest 2-0.

Standings…Played (30/31 of 38) – Points

1. Arsenal…31 – 74
2. Man City…30 – 70*
3. Man U…30 – 59
4. Newcastle…30 – 56
5. Tottenham…31 – 53
6. Aston Villa…31 – 50

17. Everton…31 – 27
18. Nottingham…31 – 27
19. Leicester…31 – 25 …their fans are absolutely sick to their stomachs
20. Southampton…31 – 23

*April 26, sports fans…Arsenal at Man City.

Stuff

--Chase Elliott returned to NASCAR Cup Series competition this weekend at Martinsville Speedway, having missed the last six races after surgery on his tibia following a snowboarding accident in Colorado.

Elliott, an experienced snowboarder, does not have plans to change how he approaches extracurricular activities.

“I had surgery on my tibia in a couple of different places,” he said.  “I have a few screws in the top of my tibia.  It’s really knee-located (more) than it is lower leg.”

Elliott said it could have been worse.  There were no ACL tears or meniscus injuries.

--Theater goers are in mourning in New York tonight, as the “Phantom of the Opera” ends a 35-year-long run on Broadway.

Friday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams presented Andrew Lloyd Weber with a key to the City.

“I grew up on his plays and the performances from ‘Phantom of the Opera.’  One of the longest-running performances is closing, but it gave us many years of just joy throughout the years,” gushed Adams outside the Majestic Theater on West 44th Street.

The show first appeared in London’s West End in 1986 before coming to New York in 1988.  For decades to come it would be the toughest ticket in Gotham.

I’ve actually only seen it once…at a terrific dinner-theater production in Minneapolis.

--Jeff B., who is known in Bar Chat lore for having sat next to Paul Newman and Joanne at a restaurant in Connecticut a mere two weeks before Newman passed away, was at dinner Friday night and he and wife Kathy were seated next to none other than Keith Richards, wife Patti, and their two daughters!  Jeff said Keith was in total ‘Keith garb,’ Patti was beautiful, ditto the daughters.

Keith and Patti left, and Jeff and Kathy talked to the daughters who he said could not have been nicer.

And that’s your Bar Chat celebrity minute.

Top 3 songs for the week 4/15/67: #1 “Somethin’ Stupid” (Nancy and Frank Sinatra)  #2 “Happy Together” (The Turtles)  #3 “This Is My Song” (Petula Clark)…and…#4 “Bernadette” (Four Tops)  #5 “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You” (The Monkees) #6 “Western Union” (The Five Americans)  #7 “I Think We’re Alone Now” (Tommy James & The Shondells)  #8 “Dedicated To The One I Love” (The Mamas & The Papas)  #9 “I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)” (Aretha Franklin) #10 “Jimmy Mack” (Martha & The Vandellas…B+ week…)

MLB Quiz Answer: Eight with 2,000 career runs scored.

1. Rickey Henderson 2295
2. Ty Cobb 2245
3. Barry Bonds 2227
4. Hank Aaron 2174
    Babe Ruth 2174
6. Pete Rose 2165
7. Willie Mays 2068
8. Alex Rodriguez 2021

9. Cap Anson 1999…I don’t count him…entire career in 1800s
10. Stan Musial 1949
11. Derek Jeter 1923
12. Albert Pujols 1914

Add-on up top by noon, Wed.