by John Walters

Also happy birthday to the sister of an MH staffer, who does not play a doctor on TV…

Starting Five

1. Departing Flights

 

Salvador Perez

Carlos Gomez

Carlos Correa

Carlos Core again

Colby Rasmus

Eric Hosmer

Josh Donaldson

Kevin Pillar

Kyle Schwarber

Starlin Castro

Kris Bryant

Anthony Rizzo

Jason Heyward

Jorge Soler

Dexter Fowler

Stephen Piscotty

Travis d’Arnaud

Yoenis Cespedes (BOMB!)

Adrian Gonzalez

Howie Kendrick

One day of playoff baseball, four games, 21 home runs, which is a Major League Baseball record for dongs in one day of the postseason (in unrelated news, Florida QB Will Grier was suspended for an entire season for using an over-the-counter supplement). There were also a total of 61 runs scored. Are you not entertained? Only one of the eight teams, the Texas Rangers, failed to hit a home run on Monday.

2. Another Day, Another USC, Another Steve…

The HBC is now the FHBC, as Steve Spurrier resigns in the midst of a season when everyone could see the handwriting on the wall. He took South Carolina places it had never been, although he was unable to get them to the summit he had gotten the Gators to in Gainesville. He departs, at the age of 70, with a record of 228-89-2 and one national championship, at Florida, in 1996.

The HBC also owns a Heisman Trophy and some of the most memorable quotes in the history of coaching. No one was more unapologetically pleased if a barb at the expense of an opponent was actually. My favorite is when he saluted Peyton Manning for returning for a senior season at Tennessee because “he wants to become a three-time Citrus Bowl MVP.”

Spurrier, by the way, is originally from Tennessee. A glorious career and a highly intelligent man who never lacked for confidence in doing things his way who also just happened to have the keenest of wits. Here’s one of his former players, Florida walk-on offensive lineman Andy Staples, with a few words….

By the way, my Top 5 for vacant Southern Cal job: 1) Chip Kelly 2) Chris Petersen, Boise State 3) Brian Kelly, Notre Dame (why not?) 4) Tom Herman, Houston (raised in Simi Valley, and was actually a PA at XTRA sports radio in LA) 5) Bryan Harsin, Boise State.

3. Novocure: The Cure for the Common Stock Portfolio*

*At least for now….

On October 2, just 11 days ago, the cancer drug biotech Novocure (NVCR) went public with an IPO price of $22. But this was in the shadow of that dude who had hiked the price of his company’s AIDS pill %5,500, and the subsequent Hillary Clinton tweet that made everyone loathe biotechs, or at least their stock prices, for a few days.

So NVCR quickly sank to $20 a share. Five days later, on October 7, or last Wednesday, the stock plummeted to $15 per share. At that point Jim Cramer opened his show, which airs after the closing bell, Mad Money, by featuring NVCR. “This is exactly the kind of recent biotech IPO that I think is worth betting on,” Cramer said, “and the fact that Novocure is down nearly 19 percent from where it came public last Friday only makes that opportunity more attractive,” Cramer said.

You may loathe Cramer — I don’t, which is not to say that I think he always speaks the gospel truth. But this time I listened. Today the stock reached a peak of $30.89, or in other words greater than a one-hundred percent leap in just six days. That doesn’t happen very often.

4. Aggie-ravated Assault (or Worse)

Former Texas A&M wide receiver Thomas Johnson has some anger issues. On Monday morning Johnson, 21, who withdrew from school a couple of years ago, hacked a random jogger to death on the White Rock Creek Trail in Dallas.

Two bizarre footnotes: 1) Johnson had three catches (thrown by Johnny Manziel) in the Aggies’ upset of No. 1 Alabama in Tuscaloosa in 2012 and 2) three other people were killed near White Rock Lake on Monday in two other unrelated incidents. Four homicides, three incidents, if you’re keeping score. Is that better or worse than a lone gunman on a shooting spree?

5. Where In The World?

Friday’s answer: Eiffel Tower

Music 101

Animal

This tune from Provo’s finest, Neon Trees, reached No. 13 on the Billboard chart in 2010. They first gained exposure by opening for The Killers in 2008 and I have to wonder if they wrote this song before or after that since it sounds exactly like a song The Killers would write.

Remote Patrol

Cardinals at Cubs, Game 4

TBS, 4:37 p.m.

Dodgers at Mets, Game 4

TBS 8:37 p.m.

Meet the Matz! Mets rookie pitching phenom (no, not that one, the other one…no, the OTHER one) Steven Matz who, like his franchise, is from Long Island (Stony Brook… the Mets play in Queens, but it is part of Long Island), gets the chance to send Clayton Kershaw to an 0-2 postseason….again. But first in Wrigley, John Lackey tries to keep baseball’s best team during the season from dropping out in the divisional round. A Mets-Cubs NCLS would be insane, though.