Rule No. 7 (In any baseball game you have a chance of seeing something you’ve never seen before) was in full effect last night as the Cardinals put up a 10-run first that included one sacrifice bunt and zero home runs. The series was over before the Braves ever got to bat.
St. Louis wins Game 5 13-1 in a contest in which they were out-homered by Atlanta, 1-0.
Defeat of Clay
In a first-ballot Hall of Fame career, Los Angeles Dodger pitcher has never given up back-to-back home runs on consecutive pitches—in the regular season. He’s now done it twice in October as he allowed back-to-back blasts to Washington’s top hitters, Anthony Rendon and Juan Soto. The Nats tied the game 3-3 on those bombs and then used a Howie Kendrick grand slam in the 10th to win 7-3 and advance.
Meanwhile, anyone remember when Bryce Harper’s departure was supposed to leave the Nats mediocre? Also, another Rule No. 7 moment as in the bottom of the first Joc Pederson hit a ball through the outfield fence (an opening in the chain link fence).
By the way, the Nats are now 3-0 this postseason in their navy-blue tops. Manager Davey Martinez: “I’m not superstitious. I’m just a little stitious.”
There’s An App For That
Given a rare prime-time TV appearance, Appalachian State moves to 5-0 with a 17-7 win at Louisiana. The Mountaineers are now 16-2 the past two seasons, the lone defeats being at Georgia Southern and in overtime at Penn State. A note on first-year coach Eli Drinkwitz, 36: he never played college football but was the student body president at Arkansas Tech.
The Mountaineers have a decent shot of being the Group of Five school that plays in a New Year’s Six bowl.
This is what “I Want Not To Be Here” looks like from a compromised politician whose sole role is to defend his crooked boss.
Give Her The Turnover Chain
Surveillance footage shows a hotel employee in Kentucky turning the tables on an armed suspect, picking up his gun and pointing it in his direction after he set it down to scoop up the cash.
I’ve been friends with @kennyloggins for thirty years and every time we’ve had dinner somewhere and the server asks if he’d like anything else and he says, “I’m alright” as soon as they walk away I look at him and go, “Seriously?”
In Saint Petersburg, the Tampa Bay Rays stave off elimination a second consecutive night with a 5-1 defeat of Houston to force Game 5 in the ALDS. The Rays also do the Yankees a favor by forcing the Astros to start GerritCole in Thursday’s game and wasting a Justin Verlander start. Even if he Astros win, chances are Cole and Verlander would be unavailable for Games 1 and 2 in Houston—the Astros swept the Yankees three straight way back in early April the only time the two teams played in Houston this season.
Meanwhile, this defensive relay play from centerfielder Kevin Kiermaier to 2nd baseman Willie Adames to catcher Travis d’Arnaud to nail 2017 AL MVP Jose Altuve is as beautiful a defensive play as you’ll ever see on the diamond.
Heigh Ho, Silver!
Given a day or two to mull its official Sunday statement calling Daryl Morey’s tweet urging solidarity with Hong Kong “regrettable,” the NBA and commissioner Adam Silver game out in favor of truth, justice and the American way.
Before a preseason game between the Houston Rockets and the Toronto Raptors (you may remember them? the NBA champs?) in Tokyo, Silver said, ““Daryl Morey, as general manager of the Houston Rockets, enjoys that right [to free expression] as one of our employees. What I also tried to suggest is that I understand there are consequences from his freedom of speech, and we will have to live with those consequences.”
Houston Rockets artwork on an indoor basketball court in Shanghai being painted over. We live in sad times. pic.twitter.com/RR6owruj3N
(Well of course they’d whitewash something in a Communist country using red paint)
Money’s original tweet, since deleted? “Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong.”
CCTV, China’s state-run television, has canceled the airing of two NBA preseason games (as a service to its fans? I hate exhibtion games) and the Chinese Basketball Association, run by former Houston Rocket Yao Ming, has severed all ties with the Rockets…who may wind up being the most watchable team in the NBA this season.
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich says he supports the comments from NBA commish Adam Silver surrounding the controversy with the league and China. pic.twitter.com/kKadrF6Xwp
China, meanwhile, says that it too believes in freedom of expression unless it threatens the sovereignty of the state, which is like saying you believe in dinner but not after 3 p.m.
Silver: “If those are the consequences of us adhering to our values, I still feel it’s very, very important to adhere to those values.”
This is what a leader looks like. Values over dollars. If only our president or secretary of state had the integrity of Adam Silver.
The Cables Guy
In the Italian Alps, a near-miracle. A small plane was a second or two from crashing into terra firma, which would have killed both occupants. Instead it gets tangled in a chair lift at Prago Valentino ski resort in Teglio and flips upside down. Both the pilot, 62, who was thrown onto the wing, and the passenger, 55, are fine.
This is Bugs Bunny-level stuff. Unbelievable.
Dam Shame
The nation of India, which leads all nations in selfie-assisted suicides (really; India’s Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care.did a study in 2018, Susie B.), added four more people to the list recently. A newlywed, 20, and three family members aged 15 to 22 drowned when they slipped while attempting to take selfies shots at Pambar Dam (above). The groom and his sister survived.
From October of 2011 to November of 2017 some 259 people died worldwide due to incidents involving attempted selfies. And the editors at MH can only thank them for helping to fill out our final item or two on many a morning.
Before this tweet fades into the mist, I wanted to post it and have it here to represent the simplest disconnect between those who still side with Trump and those who side with the U.S.A. and the Constitution.
In case the type is too small, I will post it here in ALL CAPS and bold:
“I THINK WHAT MOST LIBERALS ARE MISSING IS THAT THIS ISN’T ABOUT RIGHT AND WRONG. IT’S ABOUT WINNING AND LOSING. I’VE ATTACHED MY ENTIRE WORLDVIEW TO THIS MAN AND I AM GOING DOWN WITH THE SHIP. NOT ONE OF YOU IS GOING TO CONVINCE ME OTHERWISE.”
It’s funny. A New York judge orders the president of the United States to hand over his tax returns; he ignores the order. Congress subpoenas a former ambassador to Ukraine to appear before it and the White House blocks it. And on and on and it may go to federal court, but WHO CARES?
Even if the Supreme Court rules against Donald Trump, does anyone really believe he will comply with it? He will simply keep stonewalling and do the Roy Cohn 101 bit, akin to pulling an Al Pacino in And Justice For All…
I really doubt that he will ever admit defeat, will ever willingly abandon office even if the Senate ratifies the House’s impeachment vote. Resign? Never. It will take a Colonel Jessup moment wherein two giant Marines walk into the Oval Office and haul him out as he threatens Nancy Pelosi, here in the role of Lt. Daniel Kaffee, in the most vile of terms.
In the end, only an overwhelming preponderance of evidence (PUT OUT BY THE MEDIA!!!!) will produce a turning of hearts and minds in precincts that had formerly bought MAGA hats by the thousands, which will eventually stir some Republican legislators who’ve been riding the Trump Train to at last get religion, which may at last stir Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, who is the lynch pin in this entire affair, to pull the plug on his support for Trump.
Meanwhile, Nobody Republicans such as Jim Jordan and Matt Gaetz (below) and Devin Nunes will eventually wind up in jail as well as the scrap heap of history as their political careers are last seen in that mobile-dumpster-on-fire GIF.
In the interim, the U.S. abandons its allies in Ukraine and the Kurdish, most likely for the personal enrichment of the Trump family. Last night I was talking to a friend (who took me out to dinner…sweet!) and likened the U.S. foreign policy situation, and our image among the global community, to a house party when the parents away. The sane part of the country is the Lisa Simpson type, and Donald Trump is like a teenaged Bart, who has decided to throw the greatest bash ever while Homer and Marge are out of town.
Someone vomited in Marge’s underwear drawer. Someone else broke a vase. There’s pizza on the ceiling. The cat is in the dryer (at least it’s not running). The place is a mess and here we are, Lisa, helpless to do anything really until Hurricane Bart and his friends play themselves out and/or pass out. Then we’ll get to the task of cleaning up after them for the gigantic mess they’ve made. We just hope they don’t burn the house down before we can get to work.
Reserves
Rageaholics Autonomous
In Philadelphia—of course—Wells Fargo Arena introduces a “Rage Room” where fans of the Sixers and Flyers are welcome to take out their frustrations. I don’t see that counter lasting very long. How was this not ever a plot angle on It’s Always Sunny….? It’s pure genius.
Music 101
Only Love Can Break Your Heart
We’ve finally begun watching Fleabag and there’s a terrific line in the first or second episode. You know the one: “Don’t make me hate you; loving you is painful enough.”
This was Canadian native Neil Young‘s first single to chart, in 1970, and is reportedly about the breakup between his ex-bandmate Graham Nash and yet another influential Canadian musician, Joni Mitchell (No. 2 on the Most Influential Canadians list?). Young’s music has an inimitable, and often searingly heartbreaking, sound. I love it.
Remote Patrol
GAMES 5!!!!!
Cardinals at Braves
5 p.m. TBS
Nationals at Dodgers
8:30 p.m. TBS
Heat Miser doppelganger Justin Turner has been the hottest bat in the N.L. this postseason
I’m SO down for all of this. October. Baseball. Do or die doubleheader!
Commissioner Adam Silver issues new, much stronger statement on China/Rockets uproar, emphasizing NBA's values of "equality, respect and freedom of expression." pic.twitter.com/MccS3FC4ZZ
Certainly the Yankees are Savages, but the Minnesota Twins just lost their 16th consecutive playoff game. And their 13th in a row to the Bombers, a team that only won two more games (103 to 101) than they did this season.
The Yanks become the only team to sweep their divisional series. Gleyber Torres, 22, had a home run and two doubles while making an incredible defensive play in short right from his second-base spot. Gleyber, Judge, D.J. LeMahieu and Didi Greglorious (!) all made fantastic defensive plays.
If only there were an appropriate word in the English language to accurately describe a Yankees team that just dismantled the greatest HR-hitting team of all time. pic.twitter.com/mlgD1tBO1v
On Sunday TV host and Extremely Wealthy Woman Ellen DeGeneres and her partner, Portia de Rossi, were guests of Jerry Jones in the owners’ box at the Packers-Cowboys game. Well, they were more closely guests of Jones’ daughter, Charlotte. Ellen, who sat next to the 43rd president of the United States, had a few wise things to say about her pilgrimage to Jerry World on Monday.
Another Flag Incident In San Francisco
In the midst of the 49ers’ 28-3 pasting of Baker Mayfield and the Browns, Niner rookie Nick Bosa sacked Baker Mayfield and celebrated by figuratively planting a flag in the turf.
Bosa played at Ohio State in 2016 and ’17 (he mostly sat out last season) and while there only lost one game at the Horseshoe: to Mayfield and the Oklahoma Sooners—a game after which Mayfield planted a flag in the Ohio State turf.
I’m not sure if MNF payback really counts—but the Niners are 4-0.
Follow You, Follow Me
We caught Phil Collins’ “Not Dead Yet” show at Madison Square Garden last night.
Now, before you say that you’re more of a Peter Gabriel guy/gal than a Phil Collins guy/gal, hey, so are we. But do you know the other artists who sold more than a 100 million records both as a member of a band and as a solo artist? It’s a short list: Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson and Phil Collins.
Collins, who must be seated for most of the show due to complications from back surgery, played plenty of hits both from his solo career and Genesis (we wanted to hear “Turn It On Again” but alas, no), but the true highlight of the show was the band’s 18 year-old drummer, Nicholas Collins.
Besides holding his own at dad’s drum kit, Nicholas also played piano for a duet with his proud pop. Can you imagine being 18 years old and not only touring with a world-class artist but also your father? And holding your own? Good-looking kid, too.
The Last Point After
Almost, if not every, former Sports Illustrated staffer grew up a fan of the magazine (had my first subscription at age seven or so and only dropped it when I was hired) and most have given eulogies-in-kind in the past week. I worked there for 15 years in two stints: 1989-2001 and 2003-2006. I actually started on July 20th both times.
Anyway, today I want to talk about SI for two reasons. The first is this Point After piece by Rick Reilly buried deep in Peter King’s “Football Morning In America” column this week. It’s worth the scroll down as it’s vintage Reilly.
When I was in college Reilly was the guy my Notre Dame buddy Marty Burns and I would read religiously, and it’s a wonderful gift of fate that Mister Burns and I were both able to work at SI for more than a decade. When I was in my post-collegiate existential crisis between attending grad school, making lots of money and marrying far above my station or pursuing my childhood dream of working for SI, I wrote to Reilly. Like, a letter. In an envelope. With a stamp.
He wrote back to this nobody. A letter. In an envelope. With a stamp. When we finally met in person he was gracious and funny and humble and just incredibly kind to all the twenty something fact-checkers at SI whom he knew aspired to be him. I read a lot of cheap shots taken at Reilly these days on Twitter, blogs; those folks can go suck eggs. In his prime, Reilly was the absolute best at his craft and when he’d visit the office (he lived in Denver at the time), he was a charismatic presence who brought laughter to every office he visited.
The second thing I’d like to talk about today is something I’ve not heard anyone mention. To work at SI or even to be a sportswriter is, hopefully, to eventually be brought into spheres of people who tell you that they don’t follow sports. This happens to me a lot and at first glance I find plenty of folk, particularly here in Manhattan, think of us as Oscar Madison. Or worse.
To me the appeal of sport, the longer I’ve had to think of it, is that unlike ballet or Broadway or a recital (and those things all have their appeal), there is genuine excitement because Darwinism is involved. Somebody wins, somebody loses, just as has been taking place for millennia out on the Serengeti Plain or the Kalahari.
Sport is the surrogate for survival for our subconscious and instinctive self, a 21st-century being that no longer has to worry about maintaining the hearth or fending off saber-tooth tigers (although, ironically, Nazis remain a threat). When I’ve posited my theory at dinner parties, etc, I’ve seen people genuinely look at me differently. They’d never thought of sport that way. But to me that is why it has such passionate and universal appeal; it is providing that same anxiety/thrill our ancestors felt when riding a stagecoach across Apache lands or going to war against the Visigoths.
Now, I bring that all up because what are layoffs than just another example of Darwinism (and I’ve been on the wrong side of a layoff or two, so I have empathy for these jettisoned SI staffers, I do)? Yes, Maven is a corporate vampire that will use up SI’s last remaining drops of integrity the way a pimp uses a pretty 18 year-old girl’s virtue and charms, no doubt. But this is also a story of natural selection: half the staff was selected to survive and the other half was sent out into the wilderness.
As a sportswriter or jettisoned SI staffer, maybe (not now) you will one day appreciate the irony of it all (right now you will grieve, perhaps publicly and on various podcasts). Sports are all about one side making the cut and the other not. And that’s what happened at SI last week. Although, honestly, I believe that those who did not make the cut will ultimately be better off.
I’ve written this before, but when SI laid me off in June of 2001—on the morning of the wedding of my SI buddy Steve Cannella, where I was headed; Cannella is now the co-editor in chief of the mag— I received plenty of nice notes and calls of conciliation from co-workers. The one call I will never forget came from my close friend, then and now, Austin Murphy. “John, Austin,” the driest sense of humor in journalism began. “Better you than me.”
Life isn’t fair, as every pro athlete knows. You don’t deserve anything. I learned that lesson and good when SI laid me off. It’s a lesson you need to experience but once you do, everything gets better. It’s a lesson plenty of ex-SI staffers are feeling, perhaps truly for the first time, this week.
On Sunday Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted out an image that read, “Fight For Freedom. Stand With Hong Kong.”
Quickly, Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta said that Morey does not speak for the team.
Then Yao Ming—remember him?—who is the president of the Chinese Basketball Association, said that the CBA is suspending its relationship with the Rockets.
Then the NBA itself called the tweet “regrettable.”
Then the Rockets’ two future Hall of Famers had to take one for the team.
And sure, because you cannot just have colonies breaking away from their repressive nation and forming an independent country of their own. That would be chaos, right?
RIP, Rip
Long before people in Hollywood—or elsewhere—were publicly allowed to be gay, actor/comedian Rip Taylor was heralded as being “flamboyant.” Taylor, who died this weekend at age 84, was someone whom I did not recall seeing in anything other than a flowery scarf and a bright leisure suit.
Folks of my age know him from his frequent and outlandish appearances on The Merv Griffin Show, often accompanied by Phyllis Diller. What a pair.
Also a RIP to former Cream drummer Ginger Baker, who by that name you may have thought was an old black jazz singer. Baker, who passed away at age 80 this weekend, was a primal force of rock drumming although he always insisted that he was “a jazz drummer” (see?). I’m also informed by my sister, whose late husband was a rock-and-roll drummer, that Baker and I slept on the same couch (though not on the same night). Baker, by his own admission, “quit heroin 29 times” and was as much a character off stage as he was a virtuoso behind the kit. An ex-wife once said of him that if Baker were a passenger in a plane that went down he’d be the only survivor “because the Devil takes care of his own.”
Standing Pats
A little more than one month into the NFL season, the New England Patriots are the league’s only undefeated franchise (5-0). The Pats, who strangled the Washington Redskins 33-7 yesterday, a team whose coach, Jay Gruden, was fired shortly afterward, have outscored their five opponents by a combined 121 points.
The next-best point differential in the NFL thus far is +42, by the 3-0 San Francisco 49ers, whose quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo, learned at the foot of Tom Brady. Who is probably the only Patriot I can name off-hand.
So, unless Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs can take care of business this time, it’s not too early to book the Pats to the Super Bowl for the sixth time in the last nine seasons. While you’re waiting, though, read this revealing story inVanity Fairabout owner Robert Kraft’s visit to a sex spa.
Second Whistleblower, First-Hand Knowledge
A second intelligence official, reportedly with first-hand information about President Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, and with grave misgivings about them, has come forward but has yet to file a formal complaint. Meanwhile, all that 45 and his supporters such as Senator Lindsey Graham are able to do is to beg for the whistleblowers to be outed so that they can show that these people are “partisan hacks.”
Not only is this witness intimidation, of course, but it’s also the last Hail Mary pass of a president and his cronies who know that the facts are not on their side. It’s the Roy Cohn School of Self-Defense: attack the integrity of your accuser when the facts clearly show that you are guilty.
Brown testifying
Meanwhile, on the topic of witness intimidation, the neighbor of Dallas murder victim Botham Jean, a young black man (and former college football player) named Joshua Brown who had testified at the murder trial of Amber Guyger, was himself murdered on Friday night. Guyger received a soft (in our opinion) 10-year sentence for murdering Jean in his own apartment. On Friday night Brown was shot once in the mouth and once in the chest outside an apartment complex. There was no known motive. Uh huh.
Remember this photo from Cinco de Mayo, 2016? Your Republican presidential nominee tweeting out his support of Mexicans because he enjoys the Taco Bowl from the Trump restaurant inside Trump Tower? If you look closely at that open drawer behind the future president, you’ll notice not one but a few boxes of Sedated (if you blow up the photo, it’s easier to spot of course).
We would advise you to visit the Twitter feed of @JRehling to learn about all of the possible effects of abusing this well-known decongestant, but it’s important to note that there is a limit to the frequency an individual may purchase Sudafed and that these limits were clearly being circumvented. Of course, President Trump does sniffle a lot.
In what must have been the bloodiest day in the history of Sports Illustrated staff shakeups, 50% of the current staff were shown the door at 225 Liberty. Sadly, and a sign of what has happened to the iconic 63 year-old mag in the past decade, you will not recognize most of the names.
Here are some of the job postings that Maven, the soulless vampire company responsible for all the cuts, has posted in the wake of the layoffs: “managing editor,” “pre-editor,” “editorial lead,” “insider (reporter),” “sport editor” and “expert writer.“
And dig, I’ve been critical of the way SI failed to adapt to the changing new media landscape the past 25 years, but those of us who were there at SI before the internet and before America went mad over SportsCenter (we co-wrote that piece in December, 1992) can appreciate that there was no real way to stop this tidal wave.
If you’re under 40 and grew up in an age before cable news and ESPN and USA Today and the web, this may shock you: Americans used to watch sports on the weekends and wait until Thursday to read what Sports Illustrated had to say about it. Sure, you’re local KPNX news guy would spend 30 seconds on it, if the event were big enough, before talking about the local teams; and your local newspaper, if your city was large enough, would send someone to cover a World Series or NFL playoff game.
But if you wanted the ONE AUTHORITATIVE VOICE to take you, the reader/viewer, to that game after it happened (and remember, most everything that was taking place was NOT on live television…that’s why “This Week In The NFL” was such a popular weekly show; it was Berman and Jackson’s NFL Blitz before that show existed), you read Sports Illustrated.
As soon as SportsCenter became the cool hangout (not until about 1991) and then the internet came along shortly thereafter, that all changed. Sports consumers no longer had that sort of patience, and why should they? And SI, which easily could have put those written-on-Sunday stories on its website Monday morning, still made readers wait until Thursday or Friday to view them. At least in the beginning.
The bell tolled for thee, and that bell originated in Bristol and on the WWW.web.
Acuna Matata
So gifted. So maddening.
Atlanta Braves 2nd-year superstar Ronald Acuna, Jr., went 3-4 with a two-run home run in his team’s Game 1 loss to the Cardinals last night, but everyone’s angry with him. Why? Because he spent too much time admiring a 7th-inning hit that he thought might go over the right-field porch and was held to a single. Later that inning he was doubled off second base when by all intents he should have been on 3rd when the ball was hit.
The Braves have lost an MLB-record 10 consecutive postseason Game 1’s.
Enough Already
Late in the Rams-Seahawks game, Clay Matthews was penalized for roughing the passer on this play. Pathetic. The Rams led 29-24 at the time and this penalty gave the Birds 15 yards and a first down, which they’d use to finish the game-winning drive. Pathetic, no?
A Star Is Born
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNMsn35vESE
To be fair, the acoustics inside subway stations are really, really favorable.
This is Emily Zamourka, who has been homeless in the past two years in Los Angeles (but still dresses better than I do) and is from Russia. Her background:
She’s a classically-trained violinist and pianist who moved to the United States from Russia 30 years ago. She worked as a music teacher, but when her medical bills piled up due to a serious health problem, she played her violin in the streets to make extra cash. That $10,000 violin was stolen a few years ago, and Zamourka became homeless. But she still performs for subway commuters, despite not being a trained singer.
–From CBS Los Angeles
We picture a national underground tour, playing some of the most iconic subway stops in New York City, D.C. and Boston. Perhaps even an L station in Chicago.
It was an LAPD officer, Frazier, who shot the video and changed Zamourka’s life (she’s already received $100,000 in GoFundMe donations). That is, until some enterprising newspaper uncovers her old racist tweets.
It’s Katie McCollow’s Birthday!
Happy Birthday to MH’s funniest contributor and to the most talented stay-at-home actress we know. You may not recognize Katie’s face, but you’ve heard her voice on quite a few national TV commercials in the past few years.
All those casting directors who told you that you’ve got a great face for radio. Who got the last laugh? You did, Katie. You did. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
p.s. Katie and Mike are now empty nesters and since they have no interest in touring the nation to visit Civil War battlefields, you can help keep Katie busy by soliciting her to paint someone or some pet you love (Mike will golf in 30-degree weather so don’t worry about him). It makes a wonderful Christmas or birthday present. We have two Katie originals hanging in the MH world headquarters.
Music 101
I Lost It
Our dream country-rock concert would be Lucinda Williams and Son Volt. And if you don’t own Williams’ 1999 album Car Wheels On A Gravel Road, from whence this song comes, you’re not living your best life. We’re here to help, America.
Remote Patrol
Rays-Astros
2 p.m. FS1
Cardinals-Braves
4:30 p.m. TBS
Twins-Yankees
7 p.m. MLB Network
Nats-Dodgers
9:30 p.m. TBS
October playoff baseball quadruple header. You’re welcome, America! Bask in the glory.
