I’m back. I’ve been here before. After hounding John – politely I hope – a weekend edition (both Saturday and Sunday) will now be at your disposal. You can read it, or you can spend the day outside – with family and friends. The latter of which is less provocative…hopefully. 

STARTING FIVE

Greg Oden may win an NBA championship before Kevin Durant.

1. Roll, Heat, Roll

It was inevitable. The Pacers have been enigmatic for months now. Last night, thank goodness, was the night the Heat put the Pacers out of their misery, advancing to the NBA Finals – dismantling Indiana 117 – 92.  But, boy oh boy, did the Pacers ever flutter so unevenly.

John can break down the game, if he so wishes to, but I’ve been caught in this conundrum for a few days. That is, how in the world did the Pacers lose fans’ confidence? We have the Heat – winners of three straight Eastern Conference championships and two straight NBA championships – against the Pacers, a team that caught fans’ attention just a year ago. Even being the higher seed, the Pacers were still the underdogs.

The point being, fans love the underdog. But, to answer my own question, Lance Stephenson decided to wreak havoc with some inane gestures. Stephenson, to quote Bill Simmons, simply acted like a jackass.

Now it is hard to root against the Heat. Think about rooting for the Yankees in the American League Championship while they are playing the Oakland A’s. That is how screwed up the Pacers were.

 2. The Three Amigos

If there’s legs to this story, Ichan holds the key.

Carl Ichan, Billy Walters, and Phil Mickelson walk into a bar…and purchase Clorox?

It’s been over two years since the insider-trading deal was allegedly performed. Does this story have legs? My initial reaction is no. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have been gathering and analyzing data for awhile now. What’s to believe that someone – as they say – “blows the whistle?”

Further, Josh Brown (@ReformedBroker) had this to say on Twitter: “I’m still amazed people are so stupid to think they’re going to pull off an insider trade in the options market the week before a deal.” 

Exactly.

We are talking about a billionaire and two millionaires. Granted, Wall Street is no exception to fraud (in fact, they’ve  redefined it), but I’m going to use my if-I-think-it’s-dumb-it’s-dumb card. If there was fraudulent behavior, these three gentlemen basically wrapped it in a box and handed it to the SEC. But, you know, the SEC has yet to find any explicit evidence.

This is just another kink in the road.

3. “Mama don’t want none!”

How dare you adventure outside!

So, Facebook wants to start targeting children, I see.

I get it, Facebook. Teens don’t find Facebook nearly as exciting as they use to. But, to even bother to attract kids below the age of 13 (even high school, really), is — in a way — all too selfish. Zuckerberg is a smart dude, he gets it most of the time. This just doesn’t make sense to me, at all.

This is just a variable of what really is the problem: the Jekyll and Hyde of technology. Technology is marvelous. It really can enhance your capability to learn. But the sword is sharpened on both ends.

We have kids walking around with their smartphones, and now we want to give them a Facebook, too? Trust me, teenagers tend to have a gazillion friends on Facebook. Out of those friends, I’d say they know – on a personal basis – a third of them, if that. We are going to start seeing 13-year-old kids “friending” 18-year-old seniors, who most likely post some of the most ridiculous, irrelevant information in the world.

Let’s just use our common sense and not make recess all about drama.

4. The Road to Omaha 

College baseball is a bore before May. It is alright to admit it. But, as a Nebraska native, the College World Series is a great event. Yesterday was the start of the the 64-team tournament, in which only eight advance to Omaha.

I’m not saying you should binge watch collegiate baseball for the next three weeks. I am encouraging you to tune in for the action, though. It is not March Madness, but it is still cool.

Maybe you can do something new this year and watch more.

 5. De Facto Stanley Cup Winner

Not drawn to scale…

To be honest, I know nothing about hockey. I do know, however (thanks, Melrose!), that the winner of Sunday’s Game 7 matchup between the Los Angeles Kings and the Chicago Blackhawks will be huge favorites against the New York Rangers in the Stanley Cup Finals. So, is tomorrow’s Game 7 the de facto NHL championship game?

The majority of our friends at ESPN seem to be Ranger fanatics, Melrose excluded. Does that mean anything? No, not really. But the cynical me wants Linda Cohn hosting SportsCenter the night the Western Conference winner wins the Stanley Cup.

That’d be like having Michelle Beadle host the NBA Countdown show the night the Heat win their third championship in a row.

Remote Patrol

Spurs at Thunder, Game 6

TNT 8:30 p.m. 

The Spurs are one win away from a rematch with the Heat for the NBA championship…

Every game in this series has been decided by double figures. Will tonight be any different?

We’ll see…

STARTING FIVE

The 5’9″ Swanepoel is what fellow South Africans would describe as “slightly above average.”

1. They Won’t Date You, Either

I’m going to go ahead and say that the timing for the release of the “Maxim Hot 100” (or as I refer to it, “Leo’s Grocery List”), the magazine’s annual ranking of the world’s 100 most beautiful women, might not be the best. Just days after a mass murder in Santa Barbara motivated by a deranged boy’s ire that the beautiful people are all hooking up and he isn’t.

Finishing atop the rankings is 25 year-old South African Candice Swanepoel who, perhaps not coincidentally, looks more like a Barbie Doll than anyone on the list.

Not on the list, and hence negating the credibility of said list? Bar Refaeli, Kate Bock, Taylor Swift, Paulina Gretzky, Julianna Hough or Robin Wright.

2. Rout 28

Every Gregg Popovich press conference is the deposition scene from “The Social Network.”

The Spurs defeat OKC by 28 –they won Game 1 2 by 35 –to take a 3-2 lead in the series. Each contest has been won by the home team and by at least 11 points, prompting a direct and valid question by a reporter in last night’s post-game presser to Pop (thanks to Yahoo! Sports for this exchange, reprinted here):

Reporter: Five games, five blowouts. To us who don’t really know the game, how do you explain that?

Popovich: You’re serious. You really think I can explain that. … Heh …

Reporter: In simplest terms. I know you can. The question is “will you?”

Popovich: Good lord. And they pay you, don’t they?

Reporter: Very little.

Popovich: Thus the question!

Reporter: That’s why I’m not up there!

Kudos to the reporter, who is nameless in every story I’ve searched (more than half a dozen), whose “very little” line saved this from being an (other) awkward and uncomfortable exchange.

Here’s the truth, Ruth: Popovich gets away with being a jerk to the media because his teams consistently win. Granted, you can see that he’s probably a swell egg underneath (note his message to Craig Sager) and that he simply has contempt for the print media for wasting his time nearly every day. Got it.

But he often goes out of his way to be condescending. That act wouldn’t fly if he were coaching the Bucks.

3. Baseball Update

George Springer: His bat is even more valuable than his million-dollar smile.

Lastros rookie George Springer hits his seventh home run in as many games, while…

The Lastros win their sixth straight and now have baseball’s longest win streak because…

The Blue Jays finally lost, to K.C., ending their win streak at nine games despite…

Edwin Encarnacion going yard –twice. That gives Encarnacion five multi-homer games in May and 16 homers this month, one shy of Barry Bonds’ dubious all-time record. My thoughts on that are encapsulated in the kicker line from this classic film scene.

4. Quite a Cameo

Yes, Mick does look like a crazy old cat lady.

The Rolling Stones performed in Lisbon on Wednesday night and were joined onstage for “Tumbling Dice” by Bruce Springsteen. That’s a pretty good old-timer’s lineup. And here’s Bruce earlier this year in New Zealand doing a kick-ass version of Kiwi native Lorde’s “Royals.”

5. Oops!

Yeah, baby, yeah! They outed me!

Story from last weekend, sorry I forgot: The CIA head in Afghanistan is inadvertently outed by the White House in a memo about POTUS’ visit to the troops there. And they may have gotten away with it except that they printed a second memo without his name on it.

I mean, if this is the incompetent level of being a sneak we have at our nation’s top levels, I fear for our nation’s welfare.

Reserves

Carlos Tevez, an Argentinian, was Juventus’ top scorer and mime this season.

Lost amid the Madrid madness with the UEFA Champions League and the excision of Landon Donovan from the USMNT squad of 23, Juventus capped an amazing season in Serie A a little over one week ago. The Turin-based club won its third consecutive league title, or Scedutto, with a record of 33 wins, 2 losses and 3 draws. Los Bianconeri also became the first team in league history to eclipse 100 points (102), based on wins (3 points) and draws (1).

Remote Patrol

Pacers at Heat, Game 6

ESPN 8 p.m.

Does anything else need to be written?

STARTING FIVE

Rickles with Amber Heard and Johnny Depp: The Tat Pack?

1. The Merchant of Venom*

If you missed “One Night Only”,  the two-hour salute to Don Rickles on Spike TV last night –and why they named it after a song from “Dreamgirls“, I don’t know–it airs again tonight, the show’s title notwithstanding, at 12:30 a.m. DVR it, at the least.

Not only does it chronicle Rickles’ fabulous career of put-downs (telling Clint Eastwood “You’re not a very good actor”, or Regis of his standup act, “You stink”, or noting that Orson Welles was married to a number of women and “all of them are now flat”) but it also shows why he was able to get away with it. Because beneath the venom and, let’s face it, the cold truth, there was love.

DeNiro: “Dead is the average age of your fan base.”

As Ray Romano stated, “His nickname, Mr. Warmth, has a double meaning. It’s sarcastic, but it’s also true.” Said Tracy Morgan, in what at first would seem ironic except that it’s accurate, “You never discriminate.”

(In the words of Tina Fey: “You’re a friend to everyone: Polacks, Chinamen, Coloreds, Broads…”)

The comedy lineup is legendary: Jerry Seinfeld, Jon Stewart, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, Morgan and David Letterman, while non-comics such as Robert DeNiro and Marty Scorcese, and Brian Williams, were even more caustically funny. Taped tributes by the likes of Eddie Murphy, Bill Cosby, Romano and Brad Garrett, Jimmy Kimmel (brilliant twist at end) and Rickles’ closest bud, Bob Newhart, are all hilarious.

“But back to Don…”

Don Rickles is the reason that comedy roasts exist.

There’s a terrific moment (one of several) during a montage when he’s working some sort of roast, notices Julia Roberts at a table, and chides her for not visiting him even though they live just two blocks from one another.

“We live closer than two blocks,” Roberts says.

Rickles cuts her off. “Julia, you have no lines. Just nod your head.” The laughter that erupts from Roberts is, like Rickles’ line, spontaneous and genuine. Don Rickles made an entire career out of talking like that to people whom you can’t talk to like that.

As Letterman closed, “Life is funnier because of Don Rickles.”

Yup.

*A pseudonym coined by Newsweek.

2. Reporter Trolling

LeBron got treated poorly by the refs, Lance Stephenson and then Mark Schwarz in Game 5.

The Miami Heat trail the Pacers, 93-90, with less than :24 remaining when LeBron James drives toward the hoop. There are two Pacers guarding him when he dishes off to Chris Bosh in the corner, whose potential game-winning three is off the mark. Pacers win.

Afterward, ESPN’s Mark Schwarz asks both David West and Roy Hibbert of the Pacers if that was the higher percentage play to make. We know this because Schwarz and/or his producer include both questions in the package that is used for “SportsCenter.”

Hibbert answers, correctly –in strict terms of “higher percentage”– that LBJ taking to the hoop was the play to make.

So then Schwarz scurries out to the podium, where he gets in a question to King James, a question in which he mentions that HE asked Hibbert this question, and here was Hibbert’s answer, and what does LeBron think about that????

Again, we know this because Schwarz and/or his producer included it in the package.

A few things, Mark:

1) You are not the story.

2) Your question to Hibbert was off the mark, excuse the pun. Regardless of what the “higher percentage” play was, if Bosh hits that three –and he’d hit two of six to that point–the game and series are over. Have you been watching the playoffs? Sometimes it takes cojones and sometimes that pays off.

3) Your entire act of approaching LeBron and doing the “He said this, what do you think?” smarm, attempting to manufacture a controversy, I think most of us moved past that in seventh grade.

This is a guy who’s been with ESPN for more than two decades. Awful work, intellectually dishonest as well as self-absorbed. I hope someone in Bristol tells him so.

3. You Don’t Tug On Superman’s Cape

LBJ: Seven points in 24 minutes in Game 5.

I didn’t watch assiduously, but from what I spotted in the highlights at least two of LeBron James’ fouls were actually fouls on the Pacers (Paul George should have been called for the block, and as incredible as Lance Stephenson’s strip was, he fouled LBJ in the scrum for the loose ball) and a third should never have been called.

Lance Stephenson actually blew into LBJ’s ear as they lined up for a free throw?!? That really happened?

And then the Mark Schwarz ridiculousness.

LeBron, as has become his custom, handled it all with grace.

I don’t recall the last time, if ever, I watched basketball’s superior played treated with such disrespect in the playoffs. And I don’t mean “Spill a drink on him, so here comes a double homicide” disrespect. I mean genuine disrespect.

Game 6 is in Miami and I predict very bad things for Indiana. LeBron has never scored 50 in a postseason game. This would be a good moment for him to reach that  bar.

4. It Happens Every Springer

Springer has blossomed in May, blasting nine home runs in the past 21 days.

Beware the Lastros, baseball’s (second-) hottest ball club. You read that right.

Houston has won five straight after sweeping the Royals in K.C. and that happens to coincide with the power burst from rookie right fielder George Springer, who has hit six home runs in the team’s last six games. The six-foot-three Springer, who grew up in “Hard hittin’ New Britain” (Conn.), and played at UConn, has nine homers this month.

5. Re: Morse

Robert Morse’s send-off? “Bravo!”

Love this interview that The New York Times did with 83 year-old Robert Morse about his character’s posthumous musical number that closed the semi-season finale of Mad Men. Great line: “My phone has been ringing off the hook. And they’re not really hooked any more.”

Over at Grantland, Andy Greenwald moves away from his stellar Game of Thrones recaps to pen an outstanding Mad Men recap (thus steaming Molly Lambert’s tea?), noting that the second half of Season 7 will not be unlike that Apollo 11 mission: the moon landing (i.e, the “Waterloo” episode that just aired) received all the fanfare, but the real trick was the splash down back to Earth.

Remote Patrol

Citizen Kane

TCM 8 p.m.

“Mork calling Orson. Come in, Orson.”

“Rosebud.” Honestly, I’ve never seen Orson Welles’ masterpiece, which the American Film Institute and others routinely list as No. 1 in the pantheon of best movies of all time. I do know what “Rosebud” refers to, as you probably do as well. This is a personal blind spot, so I will consume this film tonight (or DVR it for later) even though I’m sure I will not enjoy it as much as I did “Kingpin.”

STARTING FIVE

1. Fitting the Bill: Russell Westbrook

(the judges will also accept “So This Is 40”)

40 points, 10 assists, five boards and five steals for Russell in a pivotal Game 4 of the Western Conference finals, as OKC wins, 106-92. You can argue that Westbrook has not been the best player on his own team since high school –he was a college teammate of Kevin Love’s and has been an NBA teammate of Kevin Durant’s –but there may be no more self-assured player in all of hoops.

It’s funny. Russell is always No. 2, just like that other animated Russell whose big brother was the bigger star of the show (Even if it was named for a third character, “Hey, hey, hey!”)

Another famous second-banana Russell.

Remember the steal he made on Michael Conley late in Game 4 of their series? Or the three he took against the Clippers, in which Paul fouled him, that while ill-advised (and off-target), rescued them in Game 5 of that series? RW will make you grimace at times with his recklessness, but when he’s on, he can be the most potent player outside of LeBron.

2. Re: Encarnacion

Encarnacion checks for termites.

Edwin Encarnacion of the Toronto Blue Jays hit two home runs in April, but has since clouted 14 in May. The Blue Jays, winners of eight in a row, now lead the MLB in home runs with 76, nine more than the next closest team. Six different Blue Jays are in the Top 20 in the American League in Home Runs: Encarnacion, 2nd, 16; Jose Bautista, T-5th, 12; Colby Rasmus and Juan Francisco, T-12th, 9; and Melky Cabrera and Brett Lawrie, T-17th, 8.

Suspicious ff the Blue Jay way? Me?!? Why would I be? There’s nothing at all suspicious about the Jays having one-third of the American League’s top home-run hitters, one of whom previously served a 50-game suspension for PED use.

This is what happens when a disciplined civic leader such as Mayor Rob Ford takes a leave of absence –he left for rehab on April 30.

3. Soeur Losers

Serena, not serene.

At Stade Roland Garros in Paris, sisters Serena and Venus Williams are both bounced by unknowns on Wednesday in the second round. If both had won –and Serena was the No. 1 overall seed–they’d have met in the next round. Coincidence? The sassy sisters have not met in a Grand Slam since the 2009 Wimbledon final and they’ve never enjoyed playing against one another, particularly in big matches. Lifetime, Serena has won 17 Grand Slam titles and Venus seven.

4. “Dude, You’re Getting Adele!”

This is 10 year-old Olivia Kay of Edmond, Oklahoma. She sang the national anthem before Game 4 of San Antonio-OKC and her performance, not aired, was so magnificent that the “Inside the NBA” crew invited her up to their booth for an encore. This is what makes this show the best of its kind. Watch as she destroys “Rolling in the Deep” and as Shaq and Kenny fight to sign her…while Chuck just smiles in awe. Cool moment.

5. Pullman, Oxford, or Stark Vegas: They are coming/To your Ci-taaaaaaay!

“Hotty Toddy, Gosh almighty!”

So, ESPN’s “College GameDay” maester, Lee Fitting (does he have brothers named Levi? Polo?), just tweeted, “This year, @CollegeGameDay will broadcast from a location we’ve never been to before. Always fun.”

That means one of three locales: Oxford, which unbelievably has never been a College GameDay site for the popular pre-game show despite having one of the most charming atmospheres and tailgating traditions (“The Grove”) in all of the sport; plus, frequent contributor Wright Thompson calls Oxford home; Pullman, because those people who carry the Wazzu flag to every site deserve to be rewarded, but then there’s the whole Pirate Captain conflagration over Bruce Feldman’s dismissal, which was ridiculous; or Starkville, which is the sexy SEC West dark horse this summer. But who wants to spend a Saturday in Starkville?

Remote Patrol

One Night Only: A Tribute to Don Rickles

Spike TV 9 p.m.

Hey, hockey puck! Comedy’s heaviest hitters –Letterman, Seinfeld, Fey & Poehler, Stewart, Romano and Newhart — convened at the Apollo Theater earlier this month to salute The King of the insult comics. My favorite Rickles story involves Don, his date and Sinatra (check out Ol’ Blue Eyes’ shirt here).

Heat at Pacers, Game 5

ESPN  8 p.m.

Luis Scola: If John Cusack had ever come down with a case of gigantism.

Indiana has been trolling the entire postseason, so why would anyone be shocked if they actually won this evening to force a Game 6 back in Miami? However, I like the idea of Miami possessing a killer instinct and forcing ESPN to come up with alternative programming for Friday.

STARTING FIVE

Robert Morse, back in the Sixties, singing in an ad agency (he was Pierrepont Finch then, not Bert Cooper)

1. How To Succeed in Business Without Really Dying

Thoughts, quotes, observations from the “Mad Men” final season semi-finale:

“I don’t want to go to Newark.”

“Nobody does.”

—-
The hunk with the Rutgers athletic scholarship (poor lad)? He’s wearing a scarlet-and-gold No. 32 football jersey in the summer of ’69, when the reigning Heisman Trophy winner was O.J. Simpson, No. 32 for USC. It’s not an exact replica –two shoulder stripes instead of one –but I wonder if Matt Weiner was calling attention to this.

—

The actor portraying Lou Avery is a hired hand on “Mad Men” this season, so it’s funny when Jim Cutler tells Lou that he’s a “hired hand.” That’s so meta.

Peggy takes the pebble from Don’s hand…but only cuz he offered.

—

“Marriage is a racket.”

No one does severely unctuous and yet wickedly funny better than Vincent Kartheiser, as Pete Campbell.

—

Robert Morse (a.k.a. Bert Cooper) has sung in a Manhattan office before, just never as a posthumous character. Check out the line at 0:55 (“Let’s not forget he’s in advertising, and that does something to men’s brains.” If How To Succeed…” isn’t the direct inspiration for Weiner creating this series, then I’ll go to the beach with Bob Benson.)

—-

Is Roger Sterling everyone’s favorite character? Recall that the season begins with Roger lying naked in a pool of hippies and ends with him seated on the couch, hugging his grandson, as they watch Neil Armstrong take man’s first steps on the moon. Loved the astronaut helmet, by the way.

——

“We have NO liquor.”

——

Roger does for Don what he couldn’t do for his daughter: rescue him.

Of course Matt Weiner was trying to tell us something: Sally Draper would rather be with the optimist nerd than the cynic hunk; with the kid who’d rather watch the wonders of the universe directly -abetted by a telescope–than on TV. And then there was the “Best Things In Life Are Free” number, capped by a shoeless soft-shoe.

In other words, stop spending so much time in front of the screen (will heed that advice myself), Weiner is saying (sure, now that you’ve made millions by it, Matt.) Still, it’s true. When I hear people say that they don’t believe in miracles, my first thought is always, What an idiot. Look around you. If life and seasons aren’t miracles, I don’t know what are. Just because you can explain how something happens doesn’t make it any less miraculous.

—-

Did anyone else notice the Wall of Optimism Weiner erected here? Roger and Don are both exponentially better people now than they were at the end of Season 6. Peggy is finally at a peaceful place. Is Weiner setting us up for the tumultuous end of a tumultuous decade? Don’t know, but we still have seven episodes to go, so the cat hasn’t been saved yet…

—-

The always insightful Alan Sepinwall’s review….

2. Great Race, Bad Call

It was THAT close.

Please do me the favor of watching the final seven laps of the Indianapolis 500 and noting the call of lap-by-lap commentator Allen Bestwick, who is not to be confused with Barry Bostwick, who may be confused with Barry Melrose, who is not to be confused with Melrose Place, which may be confused with Peyton Place, which is not to be confused with Peyton Manning, who is not to be confused with Danny Manning, who is not to be confused with Danny Ongais, a former Indy 500 racer.

Where were we?

Oh, yeah. Ryan Hunter-Reay passes three-time champion Helio Castroneves with an all-time fake out maneuver (fakes outside, passes on the inside), who then passes him back only to be passed again just as they enter the final lap. Crazy.

But it sure didn’t feel that way to hear Bestwick call it. I don’t like ripping announcers, especially those making their first call on a network for such a prestigious event, but we really missed Jim McKay on Sunday.

And I’m not even going to venture into that whole “Real WAGs of Speedway, Ind.” aspect that ABC/ESPN forced on us with the split-screens near race’s end, though others will.

Lindsay Czarniak, by the way, as your pre-race host, was terrific.

 3. Gareth Bale Out

Bale’s heady game-winner.

Things looked bleak for Real Madrid in stoppage time of the UEFA Champions League final Saturday night in Lisbon. They trailed intra-city neighbors Atletico Madrid 1-0 in the 93rd minute when Sergio Ramos headed a ball into the corner of the net to tie the score.

Then, in extra time, Gareth Bale, who’d been the goat (as opposed to GOAT) of the match before Ramos’ goal, missing numerous chances, scored on a tremendously athletic header.

Then, with the outcome no longer in doubt, Ronaldo decided that he’d like to see the sphere and got himself fouled in the penalty box, which led to a free kick, which led to a goal, which led to utter shirtlessness. What an A-Rod move.

Real Madrid, the world’s most valuable sports franchise, wins, completing yet another overdog tale. That said, more post-game press conferences should go like this. Although, I gotta be honest, it did remind me a little of Anwar Sadat’s assassination. Too soon?

4. Hooray for Iran

Whereas in the USA, “too big to fail” actually means “too big to jail.”

An Iranian billionaire, Mahafarid Amir Khosravi, is executed after he is convicted for playing a role in a $2.65 billion bank scam. Even “Homeland” wouldn’t try this story arc. Can we get some Iranian justice here, please?

 5. Of Course…Baseball

And why haven’t the Lastros signed Conrad Gregor’s dad yet?

We’re going to designate this as Rule No. 7: “In baseball you can always count on seeing something that you’ve never seen before.”

And here we’re not even talking about the fact that Jeff Samardzija, winless through nearly two months of the season despite having the game’s lowest ERA, finally gets off the schneid (what is a schneid, by the way? I never too German) by defeating the team with baseball’s best record at their park.

We’re not even talking about the Dodgers nearly pitching back-to-back no-hitters despite the fact that neither of their Cy Young Award-winning pitchers, Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke, were involved.

No, we’re talking about Conrad Gregor, the Houston Astros prospect who hit his first home run of the season for the Quad City River Bandits and had his dad, Marty, standing in right-center, catch it.

Just to catch a home run ball as a fan is both unlikely and, without a glove, requires a little talent. To catch one hit by your son? That’s nutty. I hope they send that ball to Cooperstown.

Also, you have to love that the younger Gregor was witty enough to quip afterward that he hoped he could work out a deal with his pops to get that ball back.

 Remote Patrol

Rangers at Canadiens, Game 5

NBC Sports 8 p.m.

The last two games have gone into overtime between these Original Six rivals. This is plain riveting hockey, from someone who couldn’t have told you what ethnicity P.K. Subban was two months ago. Okay, two weeks ago.

Laura

TCM 10 p.m.

Gene Tierney, a first-ballot inductee of the soon-to-be-revealed Hall of Dame.

There’s beautiful, there’s classically beautiful, and then there’s Gene Tierney. Here she is in a film noir classic, arguably her greatest role. If you don’t watch it tonight, at least DVR it and save for worse weather watching.