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08/14/2023

Billy Walters Unloads....

Add-on posted Tuesday p.m.

For those not watching “Hard Knocks,” just catch the first ten minutes of Episode 2 and Oz Perlman, who is always amazing.

MLB

--The Yankees lost their opener Monday in Atlanta, 11-3, just another horrendous effort, and are 26-35 over their last 61 games.

And they lost tonight, 5-0, one-hit by the Braves, Luis Severino, 3 earned in 4 innings, falling to 2-8, 7.98!

The Yankees are 60-60.  Haven’t had a losing season since 1992.

Kind of warms the cockles of those who are not fans of this immensely cocky franchise, in a Dickensian way.

--Max Scherzer is 3-0 with the Rangers, after throwing seven innings of one-hit ball, 11 strikeouts, in Texas’ 12-0 blowout of the Angels Monday in Arlington.

Separately, Shohei Ohtani said he will skip his next scheduled start Wednesday at Texas, with manager Phil Nevin saying Ohtani was feeling some arm fatigue.

Nevin said he is not injured and will return to the rotation next week.

All of this goes into the equation in the offseason when teams are pondering whether or not to give the guy $500 million.

--Major League Baseball placed Tampa Bay shortstop Wander Franco on the restricted list as it launched an investigation into social media posts that questioned the alleged nature of a relationship between Franco and a younger woman.

Franco didn’t make the trip to San Francisco as the Rays crushed the Giants Monday night, 10-2, in the opener of a three-game series.

The alleged relationship involves a woman in the Dominican Republic, where Franco grew up.

In November 2021, the Rays and Franco agreed on an 11-year, $182 million contract extension, an extremely rare instance of largesse from the Rays, and he’s batting .281 this season, 17 home runs, 58 RBIs and 30 stolen bases.

College Football

--The only poll that matters, the AP Preseason survey, has Georgia on top, an easy pick it seems this season.

1. Georgia (60 first-place votes)
2. Michigan (2)
3. Ohio State (1)
4. Alabama
5. LSU
6. USC…last season for cheerleaders in Pac-12…
7. Penn State
8. Florida State
9. Clemson
10. Washington

13. Notre Dame
18. Oregon State…Beaver Nation (ecstatic) despite conference turmoil…
21. North Carolina

Wake Forest with not a single vote, which I kind of like.  After hopefully a 3-0 start (Elon, Vanderbilt, Old Dominion), we have a brutal schedule, including Clemson, Florida State and Notre Dame, along with Pitt, Duke and North Carolina State, all of whom received votes from the AP.

Georgia is going for an unprecedented college football championship three-peat (no team has won three straight during the AP Poll era, dating to 1936).  But they haven’t been preseason No. 1 since 2008.  In 2021, they started No. 5, and last year were preseason No. 3.

Alabama was preseason No. 1 in each of the last two seasons, and five of the previous seven.  Clemson was preseason No. 1 the other two.

But it’s the first time since 2009 the Tide haven’t been ranked No. 3 or higher.

NFL

--Jets fans have to be excited about the signing of running back Dalvin Cook to a one-year deal that could pay him up to $8.6 million. [I am!]

Cook had offseason shoulder surgery and isn’t slated to begin practice for at least another week, but this is major insurance as the Jets’ Breece Hall is coming off a torn ACL and the team doesn’t want to overwork him early in the schedule.

Cook has had four straight 1,000-yard rushing seasons.  You can never have too many pieces in the injury-riddled NFL.

--The Patriots are signing Ezekiel Elliott to a one-year deal, which includes a $3 million base salary, a $1 million signing bonus, and incentives that can take the total up to $6 million.

Elliott was released by Dallas back in March in a salary cap move, after a career-low 876 rushing yards in 2022, averaging just 3.8 yards per carry, also a low.

But he’s a good complement to stud back Rhamondre Stevenson.

Golf Balls

--I posted Sunday prior to the playoff at the FedEx St. Jude Championship and for the record, Lucas Glover, 43, claimed his second straight PGA Tour victory, besting Patrick Cantlay and becoming the first player 40 or older to win consecutive events since Vijay Singh in 2008.

The turnaround for Glover has been remarkable, with five top-10 finishes in his last six events.

Two weekends ago, Glover needed a solo second at the Wyndham Championship just to move into the top 70 and qualify for the playoffs.  Now he sits No. 4.

This week, the BMW Championship, as we winnow the playoffs from 50 down to the final 30 and East Lake.

--Eamon Lynch / Golfweek…on the topic of Phil Mickelson’s gambling…

“The reputation of golf, and the integrity of its competitions, must be of concern to all stewards of the game.  The issue presented here is not the PGA Tour’s alone.  It extends to the PGA of America, the USGA, the R&A and the Masters – organizations that run events in which Mickelson continues to compete.  Golf’s stakeholders have an obligation to investigate if one of the sport’s greats wagered on tournaments in which he played and to what extent, if any, those events were compromised or corrupted.

“Hopefully, he didn’t and they weren’t, but that can’t be left to his word.

“Much as golf likes to pat itself on the back about values and integrity, it is no less susceptible to nefarious conduct than any other major sport.  Studies have shown that hundreds of soccer matches in Europe were fixed.  Tennis had to establish an ‘Integrity Unit’ to address a ‘tsunami’ of corruption.  Tim Donaghy, a mob-affiliated NBA referee, bet on games he officiated for several seasons and tipped inside information to associates.  He was exposed in a separate FBI investigation, but the case still demanded a policy response by the NBA, which hired an outside law firm and ultimately established guidelines on gambling and the monitoring of officials.

“If there’s evidence that any golfer gambled in a manner that compromised tournaments, that is criminal fraud and it also undermines the very bond between fans and their sport.  Ensuring authentic, fair competition is the duty of every organization in golf.  Golf’s reputational standing has always been its greatest asset.  It ought to be reinforced with transparency rather than left to exist under a stench of suspicion because you can bet fans are wondering if Mickelson really drew the line where he says he did.”

Stuff

--Spain defeated Sweden 2-1 in what they say was a thrilling Women’s World Cup semifinal but I forgot it was on, early Tuesday morning.

It was chaos the last 8 minutes.  Salma Paraluello scored in the 81st minute to give Spain a 1-0 lead, Rebecka Blomqvist tied it in the 88th, and Olga Carmona scored in the 89th to snatch the lead back for the Spanish.

Yes, I’d say that’s thrilling.

It will be Spain’s first Women’s World Cup final appearance, as they await the winner of Australia and England, who play 6:00 a.m. ET Wednesday morning.

--Neymar signed a two-year contract with Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hilal after six years with Paris St. Germain in which the Brazil forward won several domestic trophies but not the coveted Champions League the club craves.  The fee was reported to be about 90 million euros ($98 million) plus add-ons and subject to a medical for the 31-year-old.  French newspaper L’Equipe said the deal could net him 160 million euros ($175m).

Among the others the Saudis have recently signed are Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, and Roberto Firmino.

Give Lionel Messi credit for jumping to the MLS instead, while Kylian Mbappe, heavily courted by the Saudi league, seems ready to extend with PSG.  Good for him as well.

--You gotta love James Harden.  He exercises his player option for $35.6 million with the 76ers and then promptly asked to be traded.

Philadelphia team president Dary Morey said he was unable to find a suitable deal and that the franchise was not compelled to deal him unless it could find a package that would enhance their chance to contend.

Harden then called Morey a liar at a promotional event in China.

And so into the December file goes Harden, specifically for the [cue Jeff Spicoli] category.

Next Bar Chat, Sunday p.m.

-----

[Posted early Sunday p.m., before most late sports action.]

Very brief Add-on up top Tues. p.m.

NFL Quiz: Just getting rid of some basics as we gear up.  1) Name the six with 14,000 career rushing yards.  2) Who is the only back to average 100 yards per game.  Answers below.

MLB

--The Yankees thought they’d do something cute last Wednesday in Chicago against the White Sox.  Instead of starting Luis Severino, they chose to use an opener for an inning, then brought Severino in and in two innings, he allowed 4 earned, eventually taking the loss in a 9-2 pasting.

Severino fell to 2-7, 8.06.

You want him?  He’s a free agent after the season.

But then there are the Yankees’ injury issues.  Nestor Cortes, who made his return last Saturday after a two-month injury absence and pitched four effective innings, is back on the IL with a rotator cuff issue.

And word is, GM Brian Cashman is not going to get fired, but manager Aaron Boone’s future is less certain, according to sportswriter Bob Klapisch of NJ.com.

The Yanks then split their first two in Miami over the weekend, taking the first 9-4, losing yesterday 3-1, as Sandy Alcantara spun his third complete game of the season, 10 strikeouts.

Alcantara, last season’s NL Cy Young Award winner, has had a bizarre season, 5-10, 4.09, but he’s given Miami consistency…24 starts, 158 1/3 innings.  Even when he hasn’t had his best stuff, he’s given the Marlins length for the most part.

So Sunday, I watched much of the first seven innings of Yanks-Marlins, Gerrit Cole going six, two earned, another outing where he wasn’t spectacular but good enough, the Yanks up 7-3 going to the bottom of the ninth.

I then switched to golf and later thought to check the final to write it up….and Holy Toledo!  Miami pulled it out with five in the bottom of the ninth off Clay Holmes!  Final 8-7.

Massive win for Miami…massive loss for New York.

--The Dodgers have been on a roll, 10 of 11 entering Saturday’s game against the Rockies at Chavez Ravine.

Thursday, Clayton Kershaw returned, giving up just one run and three hits in five innings, though a no-decision in a 2-1 win, his ERA lowered to 2.51.

Hopefully, for the sake of Dodgers fans, Kershaw is healthy through October.

And the Dodgers have hit it big with trade deadline acquisition Lance Lynn, who had a 6.47 ERA for the White Sox.

But Lynn, who went 5 innings, zero earned, in Friday’s 6-1 win over Colorado, is now 3-0, 2.00, for LA. In his three starts.

Make it 11 of 12, seven in a row, 4-1 over the Rockies Saturday, Tony Gonsolin with six innings of one-run ball.  L.A. has stretched their lead in the NL West to 8 ½ games over the Giants.

And it’s now 12 of 13…Dodgers winning 8-3.

--Remember when Arizona was first?  They snapped a 9-game losing streak Saturday, 3-0 over the Padres.  Before this, the D’Backs had lost 17 of 20!

--The Angels had a rare good night, Wednesday, beating the Giants 4-1, as Shohei Ohtani threw six innings, zero earned, improving to 10-5, 3.17, the first player to have double-digit wins and 40 home runs, as well as the first to have multiple seasons of 10 wins and 10 home runs.

But L.A. lost at Houston, Friday, 11-3, and have lost eight of ten entering Saturday’s play, 58-59, 6 ½ back in the wild card.  Very depressing for Angels fans, after going all-in at the trade deadline.

For Houston, though, on Friday Jon Singleton hit two home runs, a career-high five RBI in the win.

It was his first game at Minute Maid Park since 2015.  Singleton had been out of baseball from 2017-2021 before restarting his career in the Mexican League.

Justin Verlander, in his second start with Houston, picked up the win, No. 251 for his career, with six effective innings, three runs.

Back to Singleton, his stretch between home runs, the last one having been July 29, 2015, was the longest stretch between home runs by a position player in the majors since Rafael Belliard went 10 years and 144 days between the only two homers of his career – for Pittsburgh in 1987 and for Atlanta in 1997.

Incredibly, the Angels lost again to Houston by the same score, Saturday, 11-3.  I had to keep checking to make sure I had this right.

Today, L.A. rebounded, 2-1, Ohtani with home run No. 41.  They stay somewhat relevant.

--Tampa Bay suffered a huge blow as Shane McClanahan was declared out for the rest of the season because of forearm tightness, surgery a possibility, including TJ surgery.

McClanahan, who made the All-Star team this year, is 11-2, 3.29.

--The Mets (notice how I’ve relegated them from the top of this portion of B.C.) had a game for the ages Friday night.  They became the first team in MLB history, since 1900, to receive 9 walks and bang out 7 hits, yet get shutout, 7-0 by Atlanta.

Fourteen runners left on base, 0-for-12 with runners-in-scoring position.

What a fun team to watch, my Metsies are this year.

And then Saturday happened.  In a day-night doubleheader, the Braves humiliated the Mets 21-3 in the first game, as infielder Danny Medick was brought in with the score 13-3 and promptly yielded 8 earned in 1 1/3.

So in the nightcap, New York trotted out Jose Quintana, and for the fifth straight outing since returning from the injured list, having missed the entire first half of the season, Quintana was everything we thought he would be, a solid veteran presence, six innings, one run, and for the fifth straight time, the Mets lost in his start.

Get this, Quintana, who it seems the Mets smartly kept at the trade deadline, Quintana being under contract for 2024, is 0-4, 3.03 ERA.

And that’s your 2023 New York Mets, boys and girls.

Sunday night baseball…Mets-Braves…it’s a tension convention! …not…

--Going back to Wednesday, I have to note the 124-pitch no-hitter thrown by the Phillies’ Michael Lorenzen, 7-0 over the Nationals in Philadelphia.

The 124 pitches is the most by any pitcher in a game this season.  Lorenzen is also 2-0 (17 innings, 2 earned) since he was acquired from Detroit at the trade deadline, where he had a 3.58 ERA in 18 starts.  He also has an MLB-best 1.11 ERA since July 1.

--Wild Card standings, thru Saturday….

AL

Tampa Bay 71-48…+6
Houston 68-50…+3.5
Toronto 65-54…--
Seattle 63-53…0.5
Boston 61-56…3
New York 60-57…4
Los Angeles 58-60…6.5

NL

Philadelphia 65-53…+3.5
San Francisco 62-55…+1
Chicago 61-56…--
Miami 61-57…0.5
Cincinnati 61-57…0.5
Arizona 58-59…3
San Diego 56-61…5

What a great job by the Cubs and Mariners recently.

College Football / Basketball Realignment

--I mentioned in my Add-on that the ACC was kind of, sort of, thinking of adding Cal and Stanford, which makes absolutely zero sense, but talks were held and some in the conference are looking for 12 “yes” votes.  But Florida State, North Carolian, Clemson and NC State are opposed, as of Friday.

The ACC has its own issues, like a $30 million annual revenue gap with the SEC and the Big Ten, and the priority of athletic directors is to try to significantly enhance revenue in the league.

If the ACC is to expand, it needs to add schools that could help solidify the conference into the future.

It seems more and more, Florida State is close to leaving.

--With the collapse of the Pac-12 and all the other changes, SEC Commissioner Gerg Sankey said of the 12-team College Football Playoff that earmarked six automatic bids for conference champions while reserving six at-large bids for other deserving teams:

“Circumstances have changed, and I think it’s wise for us to take a step back and reconsider what the (CFP) format might look like.

--Meanwhile, four more Iowa State football players and three more members of the Iowa football program have been charged in the state’s investigation into sports wagering, which alleges that several athletes placed bets on games in which they played.  The group includes ISU starting running back Jirehl Brock and three others with starting experience.

Brock is alleged to have placed a staggering total of 1,327 wagers for over $12,050, according to court records.  He placed bets on four Iowa State football games while a member of the team, and bet 13 times on Iowa State basketball.

Two of the three Iowa players had transferred, to Oklahoma State and Troy.

All four Iowa State athletes have not been practicing.

One now-former Iowa player, receiver Arland Bruce IV, who has been practicing at Oklahoma State, made 11 wagers on games he played in during 2021 and eight on games he played in during 2022, according to an affidavit. Bruce bet the under points total in a 2022 game against Northwestern and in the 2022 Music City Bowl against Kentucky.

--The agreed upon four-game suspension for Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh has hit a snag and will not happen, according to Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wetzel.  The case will now go through the normal hearing process, which likely will push any punishment into 2024.

Golf Balls

--At the FedEx St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee, it was hot.  Friday, the heat index hit 111, as the 70 golfers in the field played in the second round of the first of three playoff events.

While some of us might have preferred to see a few more in the field, maybe 90 golfers having made the cut, there is a lot on the line in the first one.  Aside from trying to improve your point standing for the finale at East Lake in two weeks, you have to ensure you finish this week in the top 50, which guarantees one access to all Signature Events for 2024, a huge deal, the eight events including Pebble Beach, the Genesis, Arnold Bay Invitational and Memorial, with elevated purses.

So entering the final round today….

Lucas Glover -14…amazing run he is on
Taylor Moore -13
Tommy Fleetwood -12
Max Homa -11
Jordan Spieth -11

Six at -9…Rory McIlroy, Viktor Hovland, Patrick Cantlay, Tom Kim, Emiliano Grillo, Sungjae Im

Well, we had a weather delay and I’m posting before the end…

Then again, we have a playoff between Glover and Cantlay…and I’m moving on.

Hideki Matsuyama moved up from 57 to 47…huge for him.

Ditto Wake Forest’s Cameron Young, who goes on to the BMW, finishing 46 in the points standings after starting the week 48.

More in my Add-on.

--I’ve been pounding the table for a long time that ‘just wait until gambler Billy Walters comes out with his book on Phil Mickelson.’

And it’s coming out, Aug. 23.

But for Golf Digest, and its partner, Fire Pit Collective, Walters released an excerpt from “Gambler: Secrets from a Life at Risk.”

Walters talks about meeting Mickelson in 2006 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, and Walters and his pro, Freddie Jacobson, made the cut and were paired with Mickelson and his amateur partner.

“Phil and I talked nothing but sports, oblivious to the beguiling beauty of the Monterey Peninsula and one of my favorite courses in the world.  It was evidence that he knew of my sports-gambling success and was trying to connect on that level….

“In May 2008, I was invited to play in another Pro-Am at the Wachovia Championship in Charlotte, North Carolina, as a guest of the bank.  I bumped into Phil in the locker room. This time, he was more direct.

“ ‘I hear you do partnerships,’ he said.

“ ‘I do,’ I said.  ‘But only if someone has access to places I can’t bet.  Or places where they can bet more money than me.’

“Phil had both.”

And so the two entered a gambling partnership that lasted five years.  During that time they played dozens of golf rounds together. 

“We always had a small bet on the line – usually $10,000 – but our matches were never about money.  We became what I thought were friends.  If you’ve ever had a golf buddy, you know what I’m talking about….

“From the start, our betting agreement – one we verbally negotiated – called for us to split everything fifty-fifty.  Phil put up half the money; I put up the other half. That way, we shared an equal amount of risk and reward.

“Phil said he had two offshore accounts that would take big action from him.  In all the decades I’ve worked with partners and beards, Phil had accounts as large as anyone I’d seen.  You don’t get those types of accounts without betting millions of dollars.

“My reason for partnering with him was simple. Given my reputation in the gambling world, my limits with Phil’s two bookmakers were roughly $20,000 a game on college and $50,000 on the pros. Even after our fifty-fifty split, Phil’s limits of $400,000 on college at offshore sportsbooks and another $400,000 on the NFL enabled me to at least double my limits.  Phil also had a $100,000 limit on college over/under bets with each book twenty times my maximum.

“By his own admission, Phil was worth an estimated $250 million during our time betting together (he collected a reported $50 million annually in endorsements alone).  We agreed that anytime our winnings or losses reached $3 million, we would settle up.  In truth, I was no more worried about Phil paying me $3 million than an average person owing me a thousand bucks.”

Understand, Walters had to disguise who he was or the offshore bookies wouldn’t have accepted the bets, so in the beginning, Walters emulated Phil’s betting patterns.

“The offshore bookies failed to detect anything different in the pattern of Phil’s bets other than that he was winning far more often.  Despite our best efforts to keep the two accounts alive, it wasn’t long before the offshore bookies closed them.  They told Phil the bets were far more disciplined than usual, so they knew they weren’t solely his.  He could resume betting, they said, but only if it was on his own. This led Phil to activate a formerly dormant account for our partnership.

“As I said, Phil liked to gamble as much as anyone I’ve ever met.  Frankly, given Phil’s annual income and net worth at the time, I had no problems with his betting. And still don’t.  He’s a big-time gambler, and big-time gamblers make big bets.  It’s his money to spend how he wants.”

But in September 2012, Phil was playing in the Ryder Cup at Medinah, just outside Chicago.  Mickelson was feeling confident that the Americans, with Tiger, Bubba Watson, and Phil himself were going to reclaim the Cup from the Euros.  He asked Walters to place a $400,000 wager for him on the U.S. team to win.

“I could not believe what I was hearing.

“ ‘Have you lost your fucking mind?’ I told him.  ‘Don’t you remember what happened to Pete Rose?’  The former Cincinnati Reds manager was banned from baseball for betting on his own team.  ‘You’re seen as a modern-day Arnold Palmer,’ I added.  ‘You’d risk all that for this?  I want no part of it.’

“ ‘Alright, alright,’ he replied.

“I have no idea whether Phil placed the bet elsewhere.  Hopefully, he came to his senses, especially considering the ‘Miracle at Medinah.’  Trailing 10-6 going into the final day of singles matches, the Europeans pulled off the greatest comeback in Ryder Cup history.  They won eight matches and tied one to beat the Americans by a single point, 14 ½ to 13 ½.

“Phil’s loss to Justin Rose that Sunday contributed to the stunning defeat.”

Walters then says after his betting partnership with Phil ended in the spring of 2014, he learned a lot more about Mickelson’s sports gambling “from two very reliable sources.”

Phil would wager “$100,000 or $200,000 a game on football, basketball, and baseball”…including “He bet $110,000 to win $100,000 a total of 1,115 times.  On 858 occasions, he bet $220,000 to win $200,000.  (The sum of those 1,973 gross wagers came to more than $311 million.)….

“He made a staggering 7,065 wagers on football, basketball, and baseball.

“Based on our relationship and what I’ve since learned from others, Phil’s gambling losses approached not $40 million as he has previously reported, but much closer to $100 million.  In all, he wagered a total of more than $1 billion during the past three decades.

“The only other person I know who surpassed that kind of volume is me.”

A lot of what will be in Billy Walters’ book will concern insider trading charges.

“A number of people in the media, on Twitter, and in the golf world have suggested that Phil ratted me out… That is not what happened.

“What happened was much worse.

“Phil Mickelson, one of the most famous people in the world and a man I once considered a friend, refused to tell a simple truth that he shared with the FBI and could have kept me out of prison. I never told him I had inside information about stocks and he knows it.  All Phil had to do was publicly say it. He refused.

“The outcome cost me my freedom, tens of millions of dollars and a heartbreak I still struggle with daily.  While I was in prison, my daughter committed suicide – I still believe I could have saved her if I’d been on the outside.

“While this excerpt focuses solely on our betting relationship, my book explores how Phil finagled his way out of not one, but two cases that ended in criminal convictions.  As my book makes clear, Phil is not always the person he seems to be.”

Michael Rosenberg / SI.com

“Mickelson has said he no longer gambles. But golf is still paying for his addiction.  When time passes and the full history of the PGA Tour and LIV Golf is told, Mickelson’s gambling could end up as the first scene.  More than any other current player, he pushed LIV into existence.  If Mickelson hadn’t lost so much money gambling, would he have been so determined to jump to a new tour that could replenish his savings? And if he hadn’t been so determined, would LIV leaders Greg Norman and Yasi Al-Rumayyan have convinced any other stars to jump?  Mickelson did not jump first, but that was only because he was fighting a public relations battle after his comments about the Saudis. He was first in line for months….

“The golf world has eagerly anticipated Walters’ book because everybody assumed he had dirt on Mickelson – and there may be more to come when the full book is released.

“The excerpt is not revelatory, but it does bring some clarity.  Mickelson had already acknowledged that a gambling addiction threatened his lifestyle.  It was common knowledge that he and Walters are ex-friends.

“I did not expect to read that Mickelson placed 43 bets on Major League Baseball games in one day, mostly because I didn’t think he had the patience to watch that much baseball.  I mean, this was before the pitch clock.  I also did not expect to read that Mickelson tried to bet $400,000 on the U.S. to win the Ryder Cup, but that’s because I have seen Mickelson play in the Ryder Cup.

“But I assumed Walters would detail huge gambling losses for Mickelson – and it’s possible that even Walters does not know the full extent of them.

“Addicts get desperate and make awful decisions, whether they are famous or unknown, wealthy or destitute.  Mickelson deserves empathy for his gambling addiction – even if, as with the proposed bet on his own Ryder Cup team, he tried to cross ethical lines….

“But the depth of Mickelson’s addiction should inform any analysis of his actions after he apparently stopped gambling.  He complained about the Tour’s ‘obnoxious greed.’  He screamed that the Tour was sitting on ‘$20 billion in digital assets.’  He complained that he did not own the media rights to shots he had hit. Then he helped create LIV and threw the game he loves into a chaotic state for more than a year.  He sued the Tour for antitrust violations, then withdrew his name rather than go through a possible trial.  When the PGA Tour dipped deep into its reserves to try to keep its remaining stars happy, Mickelson acted like he was right about the Tour all along.

“He sold the story well enough that many people bought it. Could the PGA Tour have been more transparent?  Absolutely.  Could it have afforded to pay stars more?  Probably.

“But it feels like a lot of the same people who believed the Tour was sitting on money also believe the Tour reached its ‘framework agreement’ with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund because it was going broke.  You can’t have it both ways.

“If the PGA Tour was sitting on $20 billion in assets, do you really think it would try to strike a deal with the people who funded LIV Golf?  Did it occur to Mickelson that pretty much every sports league considers the footage from its own events to be proprietary?  NFL players are supposed to pay a licensing fee to show footage of themselves for any commercial reason, even when they speak at a corporate meeting.

“Did Mickelson notice that when LeBron James plays an NBA game, the only advertisement on his jersey is for a company that pays the Lakers?  PGA Tour players splatter their clothing with ads for sponsors who pay them – and only them. They can use clubs and balls from any company they choose. What is that worth?

“Mickelson convinced himself he knew something other people didn’t.

“As much money as he had, he became hell-bent on getting more.

“Gosh, it’s almost like Mickelson just redirected his gambling impulses toward his fight with the Tour.

“Addicts deserve empathy, Mickelson included.  But actions deserve scrutiny.  Publicly admitting he had a problem is not the same as Mickelson taking responsibility. The PGA Tour did not dig his hole.  He did it.  All of golf would have been better off if he had owned it.”

For his part, Mickelson said he did not place a wager on the 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah.

In a statement given to Sports Illustrated, Mickelson said Thursday he didn’t make that bet nor gamble on his own golf.

“I never bet on the Ryder Cup,” Mickelson said.  “While it is well known that I always enjoy a friendly wager on the course, I would never undermine the integrity of the game. I have also been very open about my gambling addiction.

“I have previously conveyed my remorse, took responsibility, have gotten help, have been fully committed to therapy that has positively impacted me, and I feel good about where I am now.”

Rory McIlroy, when asked to comment on the Ryder Cup story, said of Phil:

“At least he can bet on the Ryder Cup this year because he won’t be a part of it,” Rory told reporters.

--PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan addressed reporters for the first time on Wednesday since returning to work, after taking a month off to deal with health issues caused by anxiety.

But Monahan didn’t provide any new details on the ‘framework agreement’ between the Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

He did say the two sides had met last weekend and that Dec. 31 is still the target date for having everything formalized.

“The expectation is that we’ll complete an agreement, but there are always contingencies, and the PGA Tour, as I said earlier, part of the reason that you enter into the conversation is because you’re in as strong a position as we are in… If we’re not successful, I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”

Monahan said one of his biggest goals is regaining the trust of the players.  He acknowledged it was an ineffective rollout and that he has suffered “a setback” in his relations with the players.

--Concerning the “Signature,” limited-field events for next year, Jon Rahm made a good point.

“I voiced this when it came up,” Rahm said.  “I wasn’t in favor of those tournaments having invites or (sponsor) exemptions, however you want to call it.  Everybody that’s playing has earned it one way or another.  You just don’t want it to go to somebody who just – for whatever reason, they liked.”

The Signature/Designated events will be comprised of the top 50 from this year’s final FedEx Cup points list; anyone who is in the top 30 in the Official World Golf Ranking at the time; PGA Tour winners in 2024, 15 players that will come from two different FedEx points lists; and four sponsor invites.

“As a person who got his PGA Tour card through PGA Tour exemptions, you want them to go to the right person,” Rahm said.

“I’m hoping those events realize the position they’re in and give it to people that truly, truly can do something out of it.  There is a way for players not into those events to somehow qualify into those events, so I’m hoping they use some of those to people who were close and didn’t quite make it, players that have earned it throughout their play in the past.”

One guy who could receive some exemptions, if he hasn’t earned his way in through play in the non-designated events, is obviously Justin Thomas*.  No one would have a problem with that, as long as he’s playing pretty well.

*Adam Scott, Shane Lowry…all three of whom ended up between Nos. 71 and 80 on the points list through the end of the 2022-23 wraparound season.

But you can see where there is going to be some bitching, including from good golf fans such as yours truly.

--Cam Smith won the LIV event this week at Trump Bedminster by seven shots.  Phil Mickelson was playing well until he had an eight on the par-3 seventh and finished T9.

I watched ten minutes on Saturday and, because of the FedExCup delay, about 30 minutes today, and it was absolutely scintillating!  NOT.

The “Golf But Louder” motto is so f’n irritating…the music in the background beyond stupid.

NFL

--I watched the first episode of “Hard Knocks” last Tuesday, only because it was the Jets.  Normally, I don’t watch this show…not otherwise interested.

I loved the production, but I could see why some didn’t like it because it was “The Aaron Rodgers Show” and he looked perfect in all ways.  Leader, athlete, funny, teammates gushing….

But then reality hit during the week as the Jets played a joint practice with the Carolina Panthers down in South Carolina (Wofford College) and the Jets’ offensive line apparently sucked.  Quarterbacks weren’t allowed to be hit in this one, but if they were, Rodgers would have been sacked a number of times.

Rodgers said after: “I thought we maybe didn’t have the same type of energy (as Carolina), for whatever reason, at the start of practice.”

Rodgers didn’t play Saturday in the actual game against the Panthers, and the team is hinting he may not play in the entire preseason, making it imperative that he get reps with the O-Line to build chemistry.

Bottom line, “Hard Knocks” might have a little different tone next time.

That said, the Jets played well in their 27-0 beatdown of the Panthers and No. 1 pick Bryce Young.  Zach Wilson has looked pretty good thus far in getting most of the reps at quarterback.

--But the big news this weekend was Buffalo’s Damar Hamlin seeing his first game action since he suffered cardiac arrest and collapsed in a game against the Bengals in January, requiring emergency responders to resuscitate him.

In a game against the Colts, Hamlin made three tackles in the first half.

“It was super fun,” Hamlin told reporters after the game.  “It was a great experience, just another milestone of getting back to myself.”

Hamlin spoke about the support he has received from his family and teammates throughout his ordeal.  He shared an embrace with wide receiver Stefon Diggs, who he said was the first of his Bills teammates to visit him in the hospital.  Diggs “pretty much (said), ‘Let it loose.’”

Premier League

--Harry Kane is off to Germany, and Bayern Munchen.  The now-former Tottenham striker agreed to leave after the two clubs shook hands on a $110 million euro transfer fee ($120 million dollars).  The end of an historic run for Kane with the Spurs, 213 Premier League goals, second all-time to Alan Shearer’s 260*, but no trophies.

Kane’s 213 are the most with a single club.

Tottenham did do a good job in getting a huge bounty in return for Kane instead of letting him walk for nothing after the season, which was slated to be his last.

Soccer/football players are paid weekly salaries and Tottenham had offered to double Kane’s contract…200,000 British pounds to 400,000 ($507,000), but Bayern met Spurs chairman Daniel Levy’s demand on the transfer side and it was a no-brainer…time to move on.  Bayern then agreed with Kane on the $507,000 weekly tally.

Meanwhile, as the 2023-24 Premier League season opened this weekend, the BBC polled 27 broadcasters and pundits on their pick to win the title and, zero surprise, 26 of 27 selected Manchester City, which doesn’t bode well in terms of season-long interest in the league.

I’m not excited about my Tottenham boys’ prospects, sans Kane, for example.

City beat Burnley 3-0 in its opener Friday.  Newcastle had a nice 5-1 win over Aston Villa, many pundits picking Villa to finish top four.

Tottenham played at Brentford and picked up a 2-2 draw in the first game of the post-Harry era.

Stuff

--Lionel Messi keeps scoring goals for Inter Miami, his eighth in five games – all victories – with one Friday in the team’s 4-0 win over Charlotte FC in the Leagues Cup quarterfinals.

--Bad news for us Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone fans.  She has pulled out of the world track and field championships beginning next weekend in Budapest.

McLaughlin wrote on Instagram: “After consulting with my doctors and coaches, I need to take care of a minor knee issue so that I can be fully healthy for next years’ Paris Olympics. I look forward to seeing everyone back on the track soon!”

Coach Bobby Kersee told the Los Angeles Times that her 2023 season is over, but her injury will not require surgery.  Kersee said she will undergo physical therapy along with strength and conditioning work.

Picture organizers in Budapest.  McLaughlin-Levrone was to be the highest-profile story.  A month ago she had pulled out of a high-profile meet in Monaco with what Kersee cited at the time was a lingering knee issue.

Well, all about next spring and the first reports on what kind of shape she’s in for Paris, and the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials, I hasten to add.

--On the fifth and final day of the 50th White Marlin Open, John Ols of Laytonsville, Maryland, landed the first and only qualifying billfish of the tournament, and it was a whopper worthy of a world-record $6.2 million from a $10.5 million purse.

Ols caught a 640.5-pound blue marlin, fishing with a team aboard a boat based in Ocean City, Maryland, where the tournament is based.

The five-day event is billed as the “World’s Largest and Richest Billfish Tournament,” as reported by The Virginia-Pilot.  [David Strege / USA TODAY]

--I see that a famous donut chain is coming to my area…Duck Donuts, founded in Duck, N.C.

Check this out… “Bacon in the Sun” flavor, made up of maple icing, chopped bacon, and salted caramel drizzle.

I’m drooling all over myself, like Homer.

--The woman who was bitten viciously off Rockaway Beach, Long Island, the other day, losing “20% of her calf,” was apparently bitten by a sand tiger shark, which can grow up to 10 feet, though we’ll probably never know.  It was the first attack in this immediate area in 70 years.

--We note the passing of Robbie Robertson, the chief composer and lead guitarist for the Band.  He was 80 and died after a long illness.

Jim Farber / New York Times:

“The songs that Mr. Robertson, a Canadian, wrote for the Band used enigmatic lyrics to evoke a hard and colorful America of yore, an especially amazing feat coming from someone not born in the United States. With uncommon conviction, they conjured a wild place, often centered in the South, peopled by rough-hewed characters, from the defeated Confederate soldier in ‘The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down’ to the tough union worker of ‘King Harvest Has Surely Come’ to the shady creatures in ‘Life Is a Carnival.’…

“ ‘I wanted to write music that felt like it could’ve been written 50 years ago, tomorrow, yesterday – that had this lost-in-time quality,’ Robertson said in a 1995 interview for the public television series ‘Shakespeares in the Alley.’

The Band (original members Garth Hudson, Levon Helm, Richard Manuel, Rick Danko and Robertson) lived with Bob Dylan in Woodstock, N.Y., the summer of 1967, where they recorded some of their most important songs, a few of which leaked out in the form of the bootleg record, “The Great White Wonder.”

In 1974, the Band reunited with Dylan, backing him on the album “Planet Waves,” which became a No. 1 Billboard hit.

Two years later, the Band gave what at the time was called its final concert, held in San Francisco and billed at the time as “The Last Waltz.”  The concert featured guest artists from Joni Mitchell, to Van Morrison to Muddy Waters and Neil Young, as well as Dylan.  A film of the show, released in 1978 and directed by Martin Scorsese, was lionized by Rolling Stone magazine in 2020 as “the greatest concert movie of all time.” 

The Band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

Top 3 songs for the week 8/15/64:  #1 “Everybody Loves Somebody” (Dean Martin)  #2 “Where Did Our Love Go” (The Supremes)  #3 “A Hard Day’s Night” (The Beatles)…and…#4 “Rag Doll” (The 4 Seasons)  #5 “Under The Boardwalk” (The Drifters)  #6 “Wishin’ and Hopin’” (Dusty Springfield)  #7 “The Little Old Lady (From Pasadena)” (Jan & Dean)  #8 “C’mon And Swim” (Bobby Freeman)  #9 “I Wanna Love Him So Bad (The Jelly Beans)  #10 “The House Of The Rising Sun” (The Animals… ‘A’ week…)

Very brief Add-on by Tuesday evening.

NFL Quiz Answers: 1) Six with 14,000 career rushing yards….

Emmitt Smith…18,355
Walter Payton…17,726
Frank Gore…16,000
Barry Sanders…15,269
Adrian Peterson…14,918
Curtis Martin…14,101

LaDainian Tomlinson…13.684
Jerome Bettis…13,662

2) Only back to average 100 yards per game…Jim Brown, 104.3.  Sanders was at 99.8.

Brown retired at the age of 29, averaging 5.3 yards per carry in his last season (289-1,544).

 



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Bar Chat

08/14/2023

Billy Walters Unloads....

Add-on posted Tuesday p.m.

For those not watching “Hard Knocks,” just catch the first ten minutes of Episode 2 and Oz Perlman, who is always amazing.

MLB

--The Yankees lost their opener Monday in Atlanta, 11-3, just another horrendous effort, and are 26-35 over their last 61 games.

And they lost tonight, 5-0, one-hit by the Braves, Luis Severino, 3 earned in 4 innings, falling to 2-8, 7.98!

The Yankees are 60-60.  Haven’t had a losing season since 1992.

Kind of warms the cockles of those who are not fans of this immensely cocky franchise, in a Dickensian way.

--Max Scherzer is 3-0 with the Rangers, after throwing seven innings of one-hit ball, 11 strikeouts, in Texas’ 12-0 blowout of the Angels Monday in Arlington.

Separately, Shohei Ohtani said he will skip his next scheduled start Wednesday at Texas, with manager Phil Nevin saying Ohtani was feeling some arm fatigue.

Nevin said he is not injured and will return to the rotation next week.

All of this goes into the equation in the offseason when teams are pondering whether or not to give the guy $500 million.

--Major League Baseball placed Tampa Bay shortstop Wander Franco on the restricted list as it launched an investigation into social media posts that questioned the alleged nature of a relationship between Franco and a younger woman.

Franco didn’t make the trip to San Francisco as the Rays crushed the Giants Monday night, 10-2, in the opener of a three-game series.

The alleged relationship involves a woman in the Dominican Republic, where Franco grew up.

In November 2021, the Rays and Franco agreed on an 11-year, $182 million contract extension, an extremely rare instance of largesse from the Rays, and he’s batting .281 this season, 17 home runs, 58 RBIs and 30 stolen bases.

College Football

--The only poll that matters, the AP Preseason survey, has Georgia on top, an easy pick it seems this season.

1. Georgia (60 first-place votes)
2. Michigan (2)
3. Ohio State (1)
4. Alabama
5. LSU
6. USC…last season for cheerleaders in Pac-12…
7. Penn State
8. Florida State
9. Clemson
10. Washington

13. Notre Dame
18. Oregon State…Beaver Nation (ecstatic) despite conference turmoil…
21. North Carolina

Wake Forest with not a single vote, which I kind of like.  After hopefully a 3-0 start (Elon, Vanderbilt, Old Dominion), we have a brutal schedule, including Clemson, Florida State and Notre Dame, along with Pitt, Duke and North Carolina State, all of whom received votes from the AP.

Georgia is going for an unprecedented college football championship three-peat (no team has won three straight during the AP Poll era, dating to 1936).  But they haven’t been preseason No. 1 since 2008.  In 2021, they started No. 5, and last year were preseason No. 3.

Alabama was preseason No. 1 in each of the last two seasons, and five of the previous seven.  Clemson was preseason No. 1 the other two.

But it’s the first time since 2009 the Tide haven’t been ranked No. 3 or higher.

NFL

--Jets fans have to be excited about the signing of running back Dalvin Cook to a one-year deal that could pay him up to $8.6 million. [I am!]

Cook had offseason shoulder surgery and isn’t slated to begin practice for at least another week, but this is major insurance as the Jets’ Breece Hall is coming off a torn ACL and the team doesn’t want to overwork him early in the schedule.

Cook has had four straight 1,000-yard rushing seasons.  You can never have too many pieces in the injury-riddled NFL.

--The Patriots are signing Ezekiel Elliott to a one-year deal, which includes a $3 million base salary, a $1 million signing bonus, and incentives that can take the total up to $6 million.

Elliott was released by Dallas back in March in a salary cap move, after a career-low 876 rushing yards in 2022, averaging just 3.8 yards per carry, also a low.

But he’s a good complement to stud back Rhamondre Stevenson.

Golf Balls

--I posted Sunday prior to the playoff at the FedEx St. Jude Championship and for the record, Lucas Glover, 43, claimed his second straight PGA Tour victory, besting Patrick Cantlay and becoming the first player 40 or older to win consecutive events since Vijay Singh in 2008.

The turnaround for Glover has been remarkable, with five top-10 finishes in his last six events.

Two weekends ago, Glover needed a solo second at the Wyndham Championship just to move into the top 70 and qualify for the playoffs.  Now he sits No. 4.

This week, the BMW Championship, as we winnow the playoffs from 50 down to the final 30 and East Lake.

--Eamon Lynch / Golfweek…on the topic of Phil Mickelson’s gambling…

“The reputation of golf, and the integrity of its competitions, must be of concern to all stewards of the game.  The issue presented here is not the PGA Tour’s alone.  It extends to the PGA of America, the USGA, the R&A and the Masters – organizations that run events in which Mickelson continues to compete.  Golf’s stakeholders have an obligation to investigate if one of the sport’s greats wagered on tournaments in which he played and to what extent, if any, those events were compromised or corrupted.

“Hopefully, he didn’t and they weren’t, but that can’t be left to his word.

“Much as golf likes to pat itself on the back about values and integrity, it is no less susceptible to nefarious conduct than any other major sport.  Studies have shown that hundreds of soccer matches in Europe were fixed.  Tennis had to establish an ‘Integrity Unit’ to address a ‘tsunami’ of corruption.  Tim Donaghy, a mob-affiliated NBA referee, bet on games he officiated for several seasons and tipped inside information to associates.  He was exposed in a separate FBI investigation, but the case still demanded a policy response by the NBA, which hired an outside law firm and ultimately established guidelines on gambling and the monitoring of officials.

“If there’s evidence that any golfer gambled in a manner that compromised tournaments, that is criminal fraud and it also undermines the very bond between fans and their sport.  Ensuring authentic, fair competition is the duty of every organization in golf.  Golf’s reputational standing has always been its greatest asset.  It ought to be reinforced with transparency rather than left to exist under a stench of suspicion because you can bet fans are wondering if Mickelson really drew the line where he says he did.”

Stuff

--Spain defeated Sweden 2-1 in what they say was a thrilling Women’s World Cup semifinal but I forgot it was on, early Tuesday morning.

It was chaos the last 8 minutes.  Salma Paraluello scored in the 81st minute to give Spain a 1-0 lead, Rebecka Blomqvist tied it in the 88th, and Olga Carmona scored in the 89th to snatch the lead back for the Spanish.

Yes, I’d say that’s thrilling.

It will be Spain’s first Women’s World Cup final appearance, as they await the winner of Australia and England, who play 6:00 a.m. ET Wednesday morning.

--Neymar signed a two-year contract with Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hilal after six years with Paris St. Germain in which the Brazil forward won several domestic trophies but not the coveted Champions League the club craves.  The fee was reported to be about 90 million euros ($98 million) plus add-ons and subject to a medical for the 31-year-old.  French newspaper L’Equipe said the deal could net him 160 million euros ($175m).

Among the others the Saudis have recently signed are Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, and Roberto Firmino.

Give Lionel Messi credit for jumping to the MLS instead, while Kylian Mbappe, heavily courted by the Saudi league, seems ready to extend with PSG.  Good for him as well.

--You gotta love James Harden.  He exercises his player option for $35.6 million with the 76ers and then promptly asked to be traded.

Philadelphia team president Dary Morey said he was unable to find a suitable deal and that the franchise was not compelled to deal him unless it could find a package that would enhance their chance to contend.

Harden then called Morey a liar at a promotional event in China.

And so into the December file goes Harden, specifically for the [cue Jeff Spicoli] category.

Next Bar Chat, Sunday p.m.

-----

[Posted early Sunday p.m., before most late sports action.]

Very brief Add-on up top Tues. p.m.

NFL Quiz: Just getting rid of some basics as we gear up.  1) Name the six with 14,000 career rushing yards.  2) Who is the only back to average 100 yards per game.  Answers below.

MLB

--The Yankees thought they’d do something cute last Wednesday in Chicago against the White Sox.  Instead of starting Luis Severino, they chose to use an opener for an inning, then brought Severino in and in two innings, he allowed 4 earned, eventually taking the loss in a 9-2 pasting.

Severino fell to 2-7, 8.06.

You want him?  He’s a free agent after the season.

But then there are the Yankees’ injury issues.  Nestor Cortes, who made his return last Saturday after a two-month injury absence and pitched four effective innings, is back on the IL with a rotator cuff issue.

And word is, GM Brian Cashman is not going to get fired, but manager Aaron Boone’s future is less certain, according to sportswriter Bob Klapisch of NJ.com.

The Yanks then split their first two in Miami over the weekend, taking the first 9-4, losing yesterday 3-1, as Sandy Alcantara spun his third complete game of the season, 10 strikeouts.

Alcantara, last season’s NL Cy Young Award winner, has had a bizarre season, 5-10, 4.09, but he’s given Miami consistency…24 starts, 158 1/3 innings.  Even when he hasn’t had his best stuff, he’s given the Marlins length for the most part.

So Sunday, I watched much of the first seven innings of Yanks-Marlins, Gerrit Cole going six, two earned, another outing where he wasn’t spectacular but good enough, the Yanks up 7-3 going to the bottom of the ninth.

I then switched to golf and later thought to check the final to write it up….and Holy Toledo!  Miami pulled it out with five in the bottom of the ninth off Clay Holmes!  Final 8-7.

Massive win for Miami…massive loss for New York.

--The Dodgers have been on a roll, 10 of 11 entering Saturday’s game against the Rockies at Chavez Ravine.

Thursday, Clayton Kershaw returned, giving up just one run and three hits in five innings, though a no-decision in a 2-1 win, his ERA lowered to 2.51.

Hopefully, for the sake of Dodgers fans, Kershaw is healthy through October.

And the Dodgers have hit it big with trade deadline acquisition Lance Lynn, who had a 6.47 ERA for the White Sox.

But Lynn, who went 5 innings, zero earned, in Friday’s 6-1 win over Colorado, is now 3-0, 2.00, for LA. In his three starts.

Make it 11 of 12, seven in a row, 4-1 over the Rockies Saturday, Tony Gonsolin with six innings of one-run ball.  L.A. has stretched their lead in the NL West to 8 ½ games over the Giants.

And it’s now 12 of 13…Dodgers winning 8-3.

--Remember when Arizona was first?  They snapped a 9-game losing streak Saturday, 3-0 over the Padres.  Before this, the D’Backs had lost 17 of 20!

--The Angels had a rare good night, Wednesday, beating the Giants 4-1, as Shohei Ohtani threw six innings, zero earned, improving to 10-5, 3.17, the first player to have double-digit wins and 40 home runs, as well as the first to have multiple seasons of 10 wins and 10 home runs.

But L.A. lost at Houston, Friday, 11-3, and have lost eight of ten entering Saturday’s play, 58-59, 6 ½ back in the wild card.  Very depressing for Angels fans, after going all-in at the trade deadline.

For Houston, though, on Friday Jon Singleton hit two home runs, a career-high five RBI in the win.

It was his first game at Minute Maid Park since 2015.  Singleton had been out of baseball from 2017-2021 before restarting his career in the Mexican League.

Justin Verlander, in his second start with Houston, picked up the win, No. 251 for his career, with six effective innings, three runs.

Back to Singleton, his stretch between home runs, the last one having been July 29, 2015, was the longest stretch between home runs by a position player in the majors since Rafael Belliard went 10 years and 144 days between the only two homers of his career – for Pittsburgh in 1987 and for Atlanta in 1997.

Incredibly, the Angels lost again to Houston by the same score, Saturday, 11-3.  I had to keep checking to make sure I had this right.

Today, L.A. rebounded, 2-1, Ohtani with home run No. 41.  They stay somewhat relevant.

--Tampa Bay suffered a huge blow as Shane McClanahan was declared out for the rest of the season because of forearm tightness, surgery a possibility, including TJ surgery.

McClanahan, who made the All-Star team this year, is 11-2, 3.29.

--The Mets (notice how I’ve relegated them from the top of this portion of B.C.) had a game for the ages Friday night.  They became the first team in MLB history, since 1900, to receive 9 walks and bang out 7 hits, yet get shutout, 7-0 by Atlanta.

Fourteen runners left on base, 0-for-12 with runners-in-scoring position.

What a fun team to watch, my Metsies are this year.

And then Saturday happened.  In a day-night doubleheader, the Braves humiliated the Mets 21-3 in the first game, as infielder Danny Medick was brought in with the score 13-3 and promptly yielded 8 earned in 1 1/3.

So in the nightcap, New York trotted out Jose Quintana, and for the fifth straight outing since returning from the injured list, having missed the entire first half of the season, Quintana was everything we thought he would be, a solid veteran presence, six innings, one run, and for the fifth straight time, the Mets lost in his start.

Get this, Quintana, who it seems the Mets smartly kept at the trade deadline, Quintana being under contract for 2024, is 0-4, 3.03 ERA.

And that’s your 2023 New York Mets, boys and girls.

Sunday night baseball…Mets-Braves…it’s a tension convention! …not…

--Going back to Wednesday, I have to note the 124-pitch no-hitter thrown by the Phillies’ Michael Lorenzen, 7-0 over the Nationals in Philadelphia.

The 124 pitches is the most by any pitcher in a game this season.  Lorenzen is also 2-0 (17 innings, 2 earned) since he was acquired from Detroit at the trade deadline, where he had a 3.58 ERA in 18 starts.  He also has an MLB-best 1.11 ERA since July 1.

--Wild Card standings, thru Saturday….

AL

Tampa Bay 71-48…+6
Houston 68-50…+3.5
Toronto 65-54…--
Seattle 63-53…0.5
Boston 61-56…3
New York 60-57…4
Los Angeles 58-60…6.5

NL

Philadelphia 65-53…+3.5
San Francisco 62-55…+1
Chicago 61-56…--
Miami 61-57…0.5
Cincinnati 61-57…0.5
Arizona 58-59…3
San Diego 56-61…5

What a great job by the Cubs and Mariners recently.

College Football / Basketball Realignment

--I mentioned in my Add-on that the ACC was kind of, sort of, thinking of adding Cal and Stanford, which makes absolutely zero sense, but talks were held and some in the conference are looking for 12 “yes” votes.  But Florida State, North Carolian, Clemson and NC State are opposed, as of Friday.

The ACC has its own issues, like a $30 million annual revenue gap with the SEC and the Big Ten, and the priority of athletic directors is to try to significantly enhance revenue in the league.

If the ACC is to expand, it needs to add schools that could help solidify the conference into the future.

It seems more and more, Florida State is close to leaving.

--With the collapse of the Pac-12 and all the other changes, SEC Commissioner Gerg Sankey said of the 12-team College Football Playoff that earmarked six automatic bids for conference champions while reserving six at-large bids for other deserving teams:

“Circumstances have changed, and I think it’s wise for us to take a step back and reconsider what the (CFP) format might look like.

--Meanwhile, four more Iowa State football players and three more members of the Iowa football program have been charged in the state’s investigation into sports wagering, which alleges that several athletes placed bets on games in which they played.  The group includes ISU starting running back Jirehl Brock and three others with starting experience.

Brock is alleged to have placed a staggering total of 1,327 wagers for over $12,050, according to court records.  He placed bets on four Iowa State football games while a member of the team, and bet 13 times on Iowa State basketball.

Two of the three Iowa players had transferred, to Oklahoma State and Troy.

All four Iowa State athletes have not been practicing.

One now-former Iowa player, receiver Arland Bruce IV, who has been practicing at Oklahoma State, made 11 wagers on games he played in during 2021 and eight on games he played in during 2022, according to an affidavit. Bruce bet the under points total in a 2022 game against Northwestern and in the 2022 Music City Bowl against Kentucky.

--The agreed upon four-game suspension for Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh has hit a snag and will not happen, according to Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wetzel.  The case will now go through the normal hearing process, which likely will push any punishment into 2024.

Golf Balls

--At the FedEx St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee, it was hot.  Friday, the heat index hit 111, as the 70 golfers in the field played in the second round of the first of three playoff events.

While some of us might have preferred to see a few more in the field, maybe 90 golfers having made the cut, there is a lot on the line in the first one.  Aside from trying to improve your point standing for the finale at East Lake in two weeks, you have to ensure you finish this week in the top 50, which guarantees one access to all Signature Events for 2024, a huge deal, the eight events including Pebble Beach, the Genesis, Arnold Bay Invitational and Memorial, with elevated purses.

So entering the final round today….

Lucas Glover -14…amazing run he is on
Taylor Moore -13
Tommy Fleetwood -12
Max Homa -11
Jordan Spieth -11

Six at -9…Rory McIlroy, Viktor Hovland, Patrick Cantlay, Tom Kim, Emiliano Grillo, Sungjae Im

Well, we had a weather delay and I’m posting before the end…

Then again, we have a playoff between Glover and Cantlay…and I’m moving on.

Hideki Matsuyama moved up from 57 to 47…huge for him.

Ditto Wake Forest’s Cameron Young, who goes on to the BMW, finishing 46 in the points standings after starting the week 48.

More in my Add-on.

--I’ve been pounding the table for a long time that ‘just wait until gambler Billy Walters comes out with his book on Phil Mickelson.’

And it’s coming out, Aug. 23.

But for Golf Digest, and its partner, Fire Pit Collective, Walters released an excerpt from “Gambler: Secrets from a Life at Risk.”

Walters talks about meeting Mickelson in 2006 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, and Walters and his pro, Freddie Jacobson, made the cut and were paired with Mickelson and his amateur partner.

“Phil and I talked nothing but sports, oblivious to the beguiling beauty of the Monterey Peninsula and one of my favorite courses in the world.  It was evidence that he knew of my sports-gambling success and was trying to connect on that level….

“In May 2008, I was invited to play in another Pro-Am at the Wachovia Championship in Charlotte, North Carolina, as a guest of the bank.  I bumped into Phil in the locker room. This time, he was more direct.

“ ‘I hear you do partnerships,’ he said.

“ ‘I do,’ I said.  ‘But only if someone has access to places I can’t bet.  Or places where they can bet more money than me.’

“Phil had both.”

And so the two entered a gambling partnership that lasted five years.  During that time they played dozens of golf rounds together. 

“We always had a small bet on the line – usually $10,000 – but our matches were never about money.  We became what I thought were friends.  If you’ve ever had a golf buddy, you know what I’m talking about….

“From the start, our betting agreement – one we verbally negotiated – called for us to split everything fifty-fifty.  Phil put up half the money; I put up the other half. That way, we shared an equal amount of risk and reward.

“Phil said he had two offshore accounts that would take big action from him.  In all the decades I’ve worked with partners and beards, Phil had accounts as large as anyone I’d seen.  You don’t get those types of accounts without betting millions of dollars.

“My reason for partnering with him was simple. Given my reputation in the gambling world, my limits with Phil’s two bookmakers were roughly $20,000 a game on college and $50,000 on the pros. Even after our fifty-fifty split, Phil’s limits of $400,000 on college at offshore sportsbooks and another $400,000 on the NFL enabled me to at least double my limits.  Phil also had a $100,000 limit on college over/under bets with each book twenty times my maximum.

“By his own admission, Phil was worth an estimated $250 million during our time betting together (he collected a reported $50 million annually in endorsements alone).  We agreed that anytime our winnings or losses reached $3 million, we would settle up.  In truth, I was no more worried about Phil paying me $3 million than an average person owing me a thousand bucks.”

Understand, Walters had to disguise who he was or the offshore bookies wouldn’t have accepted the bets, so in the beginning, Walters emulated Phil’s betting patterns.

“The offshore bookies failed to detect anything different in the pattern of Phil’s bets other than that he was winning far more often.  Despite our best efforts to keep the two accounts alive, it wasn’t long before the offshore bookies closed them.  They told Phil the bets were far more disciplined than usual, so they knew they weren’t solely his.  He could resume betting, they said, but only if it was on his own. This led Phil to activate a formerly dormant account for our partnership.

“As I said, Phil liked to gamble as much as anyone I’ve ever met.  Frankly, given Phil’s annual income and net worth at the time, I had no problems with his betting. And still don’t.  He’s a big-time gambler, and big-time gamblers make big bets.  It’s his money to spend how he wants.”

But in September 2012, Phil was playing in the Ryder Cup at Medinah, just outside Chicago.  Mickelson was feeling confident that the Americans, with Tiger, Bubba Watson, and Phil himself were going to reclaim the Cup from the Euros.  He asked Walters to place a $400,000 wager for him on the U.S. team to win.

“I could not believe what I was hearing.

“ ‘Have you lost your fucking mind?’ I told him.  ‘Don’t you remember what happened to Pete Rose?’  The former Cincinnati Reds manager was banned from baseball for betting on his own team.  ‘You’re seen as a modern-day Arnold Palmer,’ I added.  ‘You’d risk all that for this?  I want no part of it.’

“ ‘Alright, alright,’ he replied.

“I have no idea whether Phil placed the bet elsewhere.  Hopefully, he came to his senses, especially considering the ‘Miracle at Medinah.’  Trailing 10-6 going into the final day of singles matches, the Europeans pulled off the greatest comeback in Ryder Cup history.  They won eight matches and tied one to beat the Americans by a single point, 14 ½ to 13 ½.

“Phil’s loss to Justin Rose that Sunday contributed to the stunning defeat.”

Walters then says after his betting partnership with Phil ended in the spring of 2014, he learned a lot more about Mickelson’s sports gambling “from two very reliable sources.”

Phil would wager “$100,000 or $200,000 a game on football, basketball, and baseball”…including “He bet $110,000 to win $100,000 a total of 1,115 times.  On 858 occasions, he bet $220,000 to win $200,000.  (The sum of those 1,973 gross wagers came to more than $311 million.)….

“He made a staggering 7,065 wagers on football, basketball, and baseball.

“Based on our relationship and what I’ve since learned from others, Phil’s gambling losses approached not $40 million as he has previously reported, but much closer to $100 million.  In all, he wagered a total of more than $1 billion during the past three decades.

“The only other person I know who surpassed that kind of volume is me.”

A lot of what will be in Billy Walters’ book will concern insider trading charges.

“A number of people in the media, on Twitter, and in the golf world have suggested that Phil ratted me out… That is not what happened.

“What happened was much worse.

“Phil Mickelson, one of the most famous people in the world and a man I once considered a friend, refused to tell a simple truth that he shared with the FBI and could have kept me out of prison. I never told him I had inside information about stocks and he knows it.  All Phil had to do was publicly say it. He refused.

“The outcome cost me my freedom, tens of millions of dollars and a heartbreak I still struggle with daily.  While I was in prison, my daughter committed suicide – I still believe I could have saved her if I’d been on the outside.

“While this excerpt focuses solely on our betting relationship, my book explores how Phil finagled his way out of not one, but two cases that ended in criminal convictions.  As my book makes clear, Phil is not always the person he seems to be.”

Michael Rosenberg / SI.com

“Mickelson has said he no longer gambles. But golf is still paying for his addiction.  When time passes and the full history of the PGA Tour and LIV Golf is told, Mickelson’s gambling could end up as the first scene.  More than any other current player, he pushed LIV into existence.  If Mickelson hadn’t lost so much money gambling, would he have been so determined to jump to a new tour that could replenish his savings? And if he hadn’t been so determined, would LIV leaders Greg Norman and Yasi Al-Rumayyan have convinced any other stars to jump?  Mickelson did not jump first, but that was only because he was fighting a public relations battle after his comments about the Saudis. He was first in line for months….

“The golf world has eagerly anticipated Walters’ book because everybody assumed he had dirt on Mickelson – and there may be more to come when the full book is released.

“The excerpt is not revelatory, but it does bring some clarity.  Mickelson had already acknowledged that a gambling addiction threatened his lifestyle.  It was common knowledge that he and Walters are ex-friends.

“I did not expect to read that Mickelson placed 43 bets on Major League Baseball games in one day, mostly because I didn’t think he had the patience to watch that much baseball.  I mean, this was before the pitch clock.  I also did not expect to read that Mickelson tried to bet $400,000 on the U.S. to win the Ryder Cup, but that’s because I have seen Mickelson play in the Ryder Cup.

“But I assumed Walters would detail huge gambling losses for Mickelson – and it’s possible that even Walters does not know the full extent of them.

“Addicts get desperate and make awful decisions, whether they are famous or unknown, wealthy or destitute.  Mickelson deserves empathy for his gambling addiction – even if, as with the proposed bet on his own Ryder Cup team, he tried to cross ethical lines….

“But the depth of Mickelson’s addiction should inform any analysis of his actions after he apparently stopped gambling.  He complained about the Tour’s ‘obnoxious greed.’  He screamed that the Tour was sitting on ‘$20 billion in digital assets.’  He complained that he did not own the media rights to shots he had hit. Then he helped create LIV and threw the game he loves into a chaotic state for more than a year.  He sued the Tour for antitrust violations, then withdrew his name rather than go through a possible trial.  When the PGA Tour dipped deep into its reserves to try to keep its remaining stars happy, Mickelson acted like he was right about the Tour all along.

“He sold the story well enough that many people bought it. Could the PGA Tour have been more transparent?  Absolutely.  Could it have afforded to pay stars more?  Probably.

“But it feels like a lot of the same people who believed the Tour was sitting on money also believe the Tour reached its ‘framework agreement’ with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund because it was going broke.  You can’t have it both ways.

“If the PGA Tour was sitting on $20 billion in assets, do you really think it would try to strike a deal with the people who funded LIV Golf?  Did it occur to Mickelson that pretty much every sports league considers the footage from its own events to be proprietary?  NFL players are supposed to pay a licensing fee to show footage of themselves for any commercial reason, even when they speak at a corporate meeting.

“Did Mickelson notice that when LeBron James plays an NBA game, the only advertisement on his jersey is for a company that pays the Lakers?  PGA Tour players splatter their clothing with ads for sponsors who pay them – and only them. They can use clubs and balls from any company they choose. What is that worth?

“Mickelson convinced himself he knew something other people didn’t.

“As much money as he had, he became hell-bent on getting more.

“Gosh, it’s almost like Mickelson just redirected his gambling impulses toward his fight with the Tour.

“Addicts deserve empathy, Mickelson included.  But actions deserve scrutiny.  Publicly admitting he had a problem is not the same as Mickelson taking responsibility. The PGA Tour did not dig his hole.  He did it.  All of golf would have been better off if he had owned it.”

For his part, Mickelson said he did not place a wager on the 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah.

In a statement given to Sports Illustrated, Mickelson said Thursday he didn’t make that bet nor gamble on his own golf.

“I never bet on the Ryder Cup,” Mickelson said.  “While it is well known that I always enjoy a friendly wager on the course, I would never undermine the integrity of the game. I have also been very open about my gambling addiction.

“I have previously conveyed my remorse, took responsibility, have gotten help, have been fully committed to therapy that has positively impacted me, and I feel good about where I am now.”

Rory McIlroy, when asked to comment on the Ryder Cup story, said of Phil:

“At least he can bet on the Ryder Cup this year because he won’t be a part of it,” Rory told reporters.

--PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan addressed reporters for the first time on Wednesday since returning to work, after taking a month off to deal with health issues caused by anxiety.

But Monahan didn’t provide any new details on the ‘framework agreement’ between the Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

He did say the two sides had met last weekend and that Dec. 31 is still the target date for having everything formalized.

“The expectation is that we’ll complete an agreement, but there are always contingencies, and the PGA Tour, as I said earlier, part of the reason that you enter into the conversation is because you’re in as strong a position as we are in… If we’re not successful, I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”

Monahan said one of his biggest goals is regaining the trust of the players.  He acknowledged it was an ineffective rollout and that he has suffered “a setback” in his relations with the players.

--Concerning the “Signature,” limited-field events for next year, Jon Rahm made a good point.

“I voiced this when it came up,” Rahm said.  “I wasn’t in favor of those tournaments having invites or (sponsor) exemptions, however you want to call it.  Everybody that’s playing has earned it one way or another.  You just don’t want it to go to somebody who just – for whatever reason, they liked.”

The Signature/Designated events will be comprised of the top 50 from this year’s final FedEx Cup points list; anyone who is in the top 30 in the Official World Golf Ranking at the time; PGA Tour winners in 2024, 15 players that will come from two different FedEx points lists; and four sponsor invites.

“As a person who got his PGA Tour card through PGA Tour exemptions, you want them to go to the right person,” Rahm said.

“I’m hoping those events realize the position they’re in and give it to people that truly, truly can do something out of it.  There is a way for players not into those events to somehow qualify into those events, so I’m hoping they use some of those to people who were close and didn’t quite make it, players that have earned it throughout their play in the past.”

One guy who could receive some exemptions, if he hasn’t earned his way in through play in the non-designated events, is obviously Justin Thomas*.  No one would have a problem with that, as long as he’s playing pretty well.

*Adam Scott, Shane Lowry…all three of whom ended up between Nos. 71 and 80 on the points list through the end of the 2022-23 wraparound season.

But you can see where there is going to be some bitching, including from good golf fans such as yours truly.

--Cam Smith won the LIV event this week at Trump Bedminster by seven shots.  Phil Mickelson was playing well until he had an eight on the par-3 seventh and finished T9.

I watched ten minutes on Saturday and, because of the FedExCup delay, about 30 minutes today, and it was absolutely scintillating!  NOT.

The “Golf But Louder” motto is so f’n irritating…the music in the background beyond stupid.

NFL

--I watched the first episode of “Hard Knocks” last Tuesday, only because it was the Jets.  Normally, I don’t watch this show…not otherwise interested.

I loved the production, but I could see why some didn’t like it because it was “The Aaron Rodgers Show” and he looked perfect in all ways.  Leader, athlete, funny, teammates gushing….

But then reality hit during the week as the Jets played a joint practice with the Carolina Panthers down in South Carolina (Wofford College) and the Jets’ offensive line apparently sucked.  Quarterbacks weren’t allowed to be hit in this one, but if they were, Rodgers would have been sacked a number of times.

Rodgers said after: “I thought we maybe didn’t have the same type of energy (as Carolina), for whatever reason, at the start of practice.”

Rodgers didn’t play Saturday in the actual game against the Panthers, and the team is hinting he may not play in the entire preseason, making it imperative that he get reps with the O-Line to build chemistry.

Bottom line, “Hard Knocks” might have a little different tone next time.

That said, the Jets played well in their 27-0 beatdown of the Panthers and No. 1 pick Bryce Young.  Zach Wilson has looked pretty good thus far in getting most of the reps at quarterback.

--But the big news this weekend was Buffalo’s Damar Hamlin seeing his first game action since he suffered cardiac arrest and collapsed in a game against the Bengals in January, requiring emergency responders to resuscitate him.

In a game against the Colts, Hamlin made three tackles in the first half.

“It was super fun,” Hamlin told reporters after the game.  “It was a great experience, just another milestone of getting back to myself.”

Hamlin spoke about the support he has received from his family and teammates throughout his ordeal.  He shared an embrace with wide receiver Stefon Diggs, who he said was the first of his Bills teammates to visit him in the hospital.  Diggs “pretty much (said), ‘Let it loose.’”

Premier League

--Harry Kane is off to Germany, and Bayern Munchen.  The now-former Tottenham striker agreed to leave after the two clubs shook hands on a $110 million euro transfer fee ($120 million dollars).  The end of an historic run for Kane with the Spurs, 213 Premier League goals, second all-time to Alan Shearer’s 260*, but no trophies.

Kane’s 213 are the most with a single club.

Tottenham did do a good job in getting a huge bounty in return for Kane instead of letting him walk for nothing after the season, which was slated to be his last.

Soccer/football players are paid weekly salaries and Tottenham had offered to double Kane’s contract…200,000 British pounds to 400,000 ($507,000), but Bayern met Spurs chairman Daniel Levy’s demand on the transfer side and it was a no-brainer…time to move on.  Bayern then agreed with Kane on the $507,000 weekly tally.

Meanwhile, as the 2023-24 Premier League season opened this weekend, the BBC polled 27 broadcasters and pundits on their pick to win the title and, zero surprise, 26 of 27 selected Manchester City, which doesn’t bode well in terms of season-long interest in the league.

I’m not excited about my Tottenham boys’ prospects, sans Kane, for example.

City beat Burnley 3-0 in its opener Friday.  Newcastle had a nice 5-1 win over Aston Villa, many pundits picking Villa to finish top four.

Tottenham played at Brentford and picked up a 2-2 draw in the first game of the post-Harry era.

Stuff

--Lionel Messi keeps scoring goals for Inter Miami, his eighth in five games – all victories – with one Friday in the team’s 4-0 win over Charlotte FC in the Leagues Cup quarterfinals.

--Bad news for us Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone fans.  She has pulled out of the world track and field championships beginning next weekend in Budapest.

McLaughlin wrote on Instagram: “After consulting with my doctors and coaches, I need to take care of a minor knee issue so that I can be fully healthy for next years’ Paris Olympics. I look forward to seeing everyone back on the track soon!”

Coach Bobby Kersee told the Los Angeles Times that her 2023 season is over, but her injury will not require surgery.  Kersee said she will undergo physical therapy along with strength and conditioning work.

Picture organizers in Budapest.  McLaughlin-Levrone was to be the highest-profile story.  A month ago she had pulled out of a high-profile meet in Monaco with what Kersee cited at the time was a lingering knee issue.

Well, all about next spring and the first reports on what kind of shape she’s in for Paris, and the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials, I hasten to add.

--On the fifth and final day of the 50th White Marlin Open, John Ols of Laytonsville, Maryland, landed the first and only qualifying billfish of the tournament, and it was a whopper worthy of a world-record $6.2 million from a $10.5 million purse.

Ols caught a 640.5-pound blue marlin, fishing with a team aboard a boat based in Ocean City, Maryland, where the tournament is based.

The five-day event is billed as the “World’s Largest and Richest Billfish Tournament,” as reported by The Virginia-Pilot.  [David Strege / USA TODAY]

--I see that a famous donut chain is coming to my area…Duck Donuts, founded in Duck, N.C.

Check this out… “Bacon in the Sun” flavor, made up of maple icing, chopped bacon, and salted caramel drizzle.

I’m drooling all over myself, like Homer.

--The woman who was bitten viciously off Rockaway Beach, Long Island, the other day, losing “20% of her calf,” was apparently bitten by a sand tiger shark, which can grow up to 10 feet, though we’ll probably never know.  It was the first attack in this immediate area in 70 years.

--We note the passing of Robbie Robertson, the chief composer and lead guitarist for the Band.  He was 80 and died after a long illness.

Jim Farber / New York Times:

“The songs that Mr. Robertson, a Canadian, wrote for the Band used enigmatic lyrics to evoke a hard and colorful America of yore, an especially amazing feat coming from someone not born in the United States. With uncommon conviction, they conjured a wild place, often centered in the South, peopled by rough-hewed characters, from the defeated Confederate soldier in ‘The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down’ to the tough union worker of ‘King Harvest Has Surely Come’ to the shady creatures in ‘Life Is a Carnival.’…

“ ‘I wanted to write music that felt like it could’ve been written 50 years ago, tomorrow, yesterday – that had this lost-in-time quality,’ Robertson said in a 1995 interview for the public television series ‘Shakespeares in the Alley.’

The Band (original members Garth Hudson, Levon Helm, Richard Manuel, Rick Danko and Robertson) lived with Bob Dylan in Woodstock, N.Y., the summer of 1967, where they recorded some of their most important songs, a few of which leaked out in the form of the bootleg record, “The Great White Wonder.”

In 1974, the Band reunited with Dylan, backing him on the album “Planet Waves,” which became a No. 1 Billboard hit.

Two years later, the Band gave what at the time was called its final concert, held in San Francisco and billed at the time as “The Last Waltz.”  The concert featured guest artists from Joni Mitchell, to Van Morrison to Muddy Waters and Neil Young, as well as Dylan.  A film of the show, released in 1978 and directed by Martin Scorsese, was lionized by Rolling Stone magazine in 2020 as “the greatest concert movie of all time.” 

The Band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

Top 3 songs for the week 8/15/64:  #1 “Everybody Loves Somebody” (Dean Martin)  #2 “Where Did Our Love Go” (The Supremes)  #3 “A Hard Day’s Night” (The Beatles)…and…#4 “Rag Doll” (The 4 Seasons)  #5 “Under The Boardwalk” (The Drifters)  #6 “Wishin’ and Hopin’” (Dusty Springfield)  #7 “The Little Old Lady (From Pasadena)” (Jan & Dean)  #8 “C’mon And Swim” (Bobby Freeman)  #9 “I Wanna Love Him So Bad (The Jelly Beans)  #10 “The House Of The Rising Sun” (The Animals… ‘A’ week…)

Very brief Add-on by Tuesday evening.

NFL Quiz Answers: 1) Six with 14,000 career rushing yards….

Emmitt Smith…18,355
Walter Payton…17,726
Frank Gore…16,000
Barry Sanders…15,269
Adrian Peterson…14,918
Curtis Martin…14,101

LaDainian Tomlinson…13.684
Jerome Bettis…13,662

2) Only back to average 100 yards per game…Jim Brown, 104.3.  Sanders was at 99.8.

Brown retired at the age of 29, averaging 5.3 yards per carry in his last season (289-1,544).