by John Walters
Starting Five
Granted, these are some nutty throwback uni
1. Golden Statement
Pelicans by 1 after one, 26-25: “Warriors, come out and play….”
Pelicans by 11 at halftime, 63-52: “Warriors, come out and play-ay!”
Pelicans by 20 after three, 89-69: “Warriors, come out to PLAY!”
Maybe just shut up and play defense?
Golden State outscores New Orleans by 20 in the fourth quarter and wins 123-119 in overtime as Stephen Curry scores 40 points. GS up 3-0 as the legends of Steve & Stephen, Kerr & Curry, continue to grow.
“You Warriors are good. Real good.”
“The best.”
2. Play Brawl!
Then again, the Royals are 12-4, which is the best record in the American League. Put ’em up, put ’em up!
Where can we buy tickets to the Mayweather-Royals bout? Or maybe just Pacquiao-Ventura? In three of Yordano Ventura’s four starts for Kansas City this young season, a benches-clearing contretemps has occurred, including in last night’s game at Chicago. Simmer down. Simmer down, now!
Meanwhile, the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight tix went on sale yesterday and all 14,000 of them were gone in 60 seconds. I do hope the bout is fast and furious. Some 1,100 of those ducats, not for public sale, were sold at $10,000 per ticket. The true heavy hitters will be in the front rows at the MGM Grand.
3. Calbuco!
Gee, I have no idea why ancient peoples, with no idea how science works, witnessed sights such as this and decided that God was punishing them. Anyway, click here for a score of photos of the first eruption of the Calbuco in Chile, in 42 years. See, Calbuco, this is what happens when you keep things pent up inside for too long. Serenity now, insanity later.
4. Jamie, FOX
This photo of Rosie Huntingon-Whitely appears here because she is a fox, which is a 1979 term for hottie.
You recall Jamie Horowitz? The programming whiz at ESPN who is mostly responsible/to blame for many of the shows we despise so much (First Take, Sports Nation). People watch those shows and Horowitz brokered that into a prime gig at NBC, which lasted all of 10 weeks (read this Vanity Fair piece).
Now the Williams Amherst College alum has been named FOX Sports National Networks President, which is another way of saying, “You’re Almost, But Not Quite, Eric Shanks.” I know Jamie a little. A little. The feeling I’ve always gotten is that when he’s not reading The Prince by Machiavelli, he’s reading The Art of War by Sun-Tzu.
Horowitz is scheduled to return to his alma mater appear at Williams College on April 30 to hand out the Frank Deford Award to some deserving Eph undergrad.
5. Amazon, Amazin’
My friend Mary Pat, spouse of one of my closest friends on earth and certainly my dearest friend in McHenry County, Ill., Smoron, last week: “I’m thinking of buying some Amazon stock before next week’s earnings report. I think it’ll be good news.”
Dubs: Yeah, yeah, whatever.
Amazon (AMZN) reported after the bell last night and the stock is up 12% in pre-market trading this morning. What was I saying earlier this week?!?
Oh, and the Apple Watch goes on sale today. That little-known equity is up nearly 5% this week, which makes Tim Cook “happy.” It’s not rocket surgery.
Music 101
Hold On
This sounds like a good song…for me to POOP on! I only say that because the band behind this Seventies Arena Rock standard is Triumph. If you ever wondered if This Is Spinal Tap was inspired by real-life bands, well, this Canadian power-chord trio certainly qualifies. Triumph is to Rush as Seger is to Springsteen. The song reached No. 38 on the Billboard charts in 1979.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_C5s7wXmn0
Remote Patrol
Late Show
CBS 11:35 p.m.
Seinfeld, Duchovny, Dave, most likely in the early 90s
We are less than one month away from the final show (tears, shredding of garments, self-immolation to follow) and tonight’s guest is the legendary Jerry Seinfeld. Don’t watch if you don’t feel like it. For me, this is personal. My two heroes, and it’s probably the final appearance for Jerry, who’s been making the scene on this program since the 1980s.
I have mentioned this here once, twice or maybe 5 times, but AMZN was my very 1st individual stock purchase back in Nov 2008. (I’d been investing in mutual funds since mid 80s & still do with my retirement monies). Anyhoo, I bought at $36. Still own of course. I also weep “of course” when I realize NOW that Jim Cramer’s “diversify, diversify, DIVERSIFY” mantra may NOT always work in your favor! I diversified my opening stock money also into YHOO (a 5-bagger for me) &, er, um, RIMM (after it had fallen from $150 to low $30s, but still).
AMZN doubled less than 6 months after I bought it & a guy I work with & also invests in stocks told me I should sell. I laughed (well, snorted) & screeched “I would at LEAST triple my money within 3 years!”). He then laughed at me. Well, it tripled before the year was up. And as of today I now have 12-bagger. Who’s laughing NOW? Well, as long as I don’t look at BBRY (was RIMM), which I also still own. Keeps me from thinking investing “is not rocket science”. 😉
I missed the GS-NO game last night. Sounds like that 4th quarter was, ahem, AMAZ-ING for the Warriors & especially Curry.
For the Bulls-Bucks, I didn’t watch either but was desperately hoping the Bucks would win & heck, they got it to 2 OTs, but sadly lost. My solace is maybe Rose will be all used-up/tuckered out by the time they face the King.
And speaking of LeBron, he played pretty damn great again (even without the long-lost headband, sigh). And maybe it’s just my imagination, but I swear, he looks even thinner than when he started the season. I guess that could make him quicker & it’s less stressful on his legs, but since the REFS seem to think it’s a-ok (!) for the opposing team to HORSECOLLAR him & throw him to the ground (’cause he’s so big & strong, etc, etc), I worry this thinner body may ultimately hurt him.
Question – IF the Spurs actually get past the Clippers (& Rockets?), do YOU think they can beat the Warriors 4 out of 7? If the Warriors stay healthy, I’d say no, but I don’t think the Spurs will even get that far. Then again, I didn’t think the Thunder would fire the headcoach after a season of injury hell & they STILL almost made the playoffs, so whadda I know.