Starting Five
Hour 41 of “Football On Your Phone” playing inside my head.
1. The Max Factor
The Summer of Max continues…
Max Scherzer of the Detroit Tigers stands for two things in 2013: Wins and Run Support. He leads the majors in both categories. Last night the A.L. ace easily secured his 17th victory (17-1) as the Tigers provided him with 10 runs, moving his per game average to 6.17. He becomes just the second hurler in MLB history to begin a season 17-1, joining Roger Clemens (2001) and Don Newcombe (1955).
The question is, Why does baseball put more stock in Wins over ERA for pitchers? Sixteen hurlers, for example, have lower ERAs than Scherzer this season.
Have you ever noticed how baseball makes 300 wins a hallowed perch? Twenty of the 24 300-game winners in baseball history are in the Hall of Fame, while three of the remaining four (Tom Glavine, Randy Johnson, Greg Maddux) soon will be. Roger Clemens may be out of luck.
Meanwhile, few observers laud the Sub-2.40 ERA Club, which has just 27 members in Major League history, most of whom were born in the 19th century. Worth noting: Only one member of the Sub-2.40 ERA Club is currently active and he is the highest-ranked pitcher born after the Titanic sunk. That pitcher? Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees, whose career 2.20 ERA puts him at 11th. Curmudgeonly baseball scribes who are contemplating not making Mo the first unanimous first-ballot HoF’er should remember that.
Ruth was nearly as dominant on the hill.
By the way, the pitcher just five spots below Mo on the list of baseball’s all-time lowest ERAs, at No. 16? George Herman “Babe” Ruth, with an ERA of 2.28.
2. Get Plucky
Matt Damon: Every late-night host’s best friend.
What do you do when the French duo Daft Punk cancels its gig to perform the summer’s second-biggest hit (after “Football On Your Phone”) on your late-night cable talk show (The Colbert Report) because it has a conflicting date to appear as a surprise guest on another network (MTV) that is also owned by your parent company (Viacom)? If you are Stephen Colbert hosting Stephest Colbchella, you refer to them as “The Artist Formerly Booked as Daft Punk”, claim you’ve been “Daft Punk’d”, and then you enlist your NYC-based pals to partake in a video dance party that far surpasses what two guys dressed as Darth Vader might have brought to the table, anyway.
3. BYU Dismisses “Tradition”, “Spirit” and “Honor”
Would you really deprive us of “MANUMALEUNA”, Coach Mendenhall?
BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall arrived at practice yesterday with a surprise for his Cougars: new jerseys that would no longer feature their surnames on the back, but instead the school’s core values of “Tradition”, “Spirit” and “Plural Marr–“Honor.” And nearly to a man the brawny men of Provo responded with a sideways, “Grrrrreeeaaaaaaaat.”
Linebacker Kyle Van Noy, a preseason first-team All-American and by far BYU’s most influential personage, told Jay Drew of the Salt Lake Tribune, “I am not really sure how I feel about them yet.” Remember when your parents gave you that chemistry set for Christmas? Yeah, that’s how Van Noy felt.
By day’s end Mendenhall had performed the equivalent of the Day After Christmas exchange, promising to only bring out the core value jerseys for homecoming. Smart move.
4. Pound for Pound
I’m not even gay and I think Real Madrid should play all its games shirtless. Just paint a “7” on his back.
Real Madrid, home of the world’s most famous handsome athlete –and arguably its top striker — Cristiano Ronaldo, 28, is interested in adding the most famous handsome soccer player/top striker of the future to its roster. That would be Gareth Bale, 24, (noted MH man-crush object) of Tottenham Hotspurs by way of Wales.
Real Madrid is offering 86 million pounds, or $133.3 million for Bale. Tottenham, whose owners met with Real Madrid’s owners in the exotic European region known as Florida this week, are seeking 100 million pounds, or $155 million.
Ronaldo would give his new mate some pointers on preening.
“Seems a lot,” said Real Madrid president Florentino Perez, which is a much different reaction than “No deal.” Our guess is that the two sides meet somewhere around 95 million pounds (Real Madrid paid 80 million pounds to acquire Ronaldo from Manchester United four years ago) and that Spain’s capital city becomes a universal nexus of Handsome that may cause the earth to tilt off its axis.
5. White Collar Miracle Worker?
Authorities in Missouri are asking citizens to be on the lookout for this man.
In the “Show Me” State, a Catholic priest arrives at the rural scene of a vehicular accident, offering prayers for the driver who was trapped in her Mercedes and anointing her with oil. Shortly thereafter emergency crews free Katie Lentz, 19, from the car and the priest has disappeared. Vanished. The highway had been blocked off for a quarter-mile in either direction and the priest’s figure does not appear in any photos taken at the crash site.
This is the greatest Missouri Miracle since 1997, when Nebraska beat the Tigers on that touchdown pass that was kicked into the air.
Career ERA is of little use in evaluating Mariano Rivera comes, because he pitched so many fewer innings than nearly everyone else on even the top 100. If you look at career pitcher WAR, he is 71st all-time. That’s pretty darn good, but perhaps it wouldn’t be a crime if he weren’t a unanimous first-ballot Hall of Famer.
Rivera tends to be overrated just because people overrate the importance of his position. Even if he is the best ever at his position (i.e, one-inning closer, a “position” that has really only existed since the 1980s or so), he still hasn’t been as valuable as common wisdom suggests. That’s because he pitches so few innings, and because the Yankees nearly always have a 9th-inning lead when he comes in.
By comparison, among the pitchers rated higher than Mariano on the career pitching WAR list are Rick Reuschel, David Cone, Chuck Finley and Dave Stieb – great pitchers all, but not first-ballot HOFers.
I find Tebow & LeBron more handsome but must say Ronaldo looks mighteee fine. I’m surprised the ladies of Spain haven’t started a petition mandating shirtless matches.
Loved Colbert’s ‘video dance party’ but would think you’d have been a bit misty-eyed since it featured your ex-theme song. Ahem.
Speaking of TV, what happened to the REMOTE PATROL section? Loved, loved the name & the alerts to worthwhile time sucks.
I’ve been thinking a little more about yesterday’s revelations & the thing I don’t understand is WHERE did you find the TIME for all that extracurricular activity?! I long ago decided you were one of those freaks, I mean ‘gifted’ folks, that live on 3-4 hrs sleep each & every night, but between work, working out, watching all sports & seemingly all TV, reading EVERYthing, tweeting round the clock, & writing this daily site, when did you have time for ‘dating’? Do you mainline 5HR Energy? Some other PED? Do tell.
The only complaint about the Colbert bit is that he protrayed they came up with the whole thing in 28 hours. The giveaway they didn’t was him dancing across the AGT stage because the judges were wearing something different from what they wore earlier that night.