by John Walters
A Medium Happy 75th to Roy Blount, Jr., one of the most talented writers to ever have a byline at Sports Illustrated
Starting Five
Second-year defensive end Danielle (yes, that’s his name) Hunter was the youngest player in the NFL last season at 21
Yikes! Vikes!
The Vikes won again last night, 24-10, over the Giants, and are now 4-0. Guess which two teams have allowed the fewest points in the NFL after four games? The Eagles (27) and the Vikings (50). Guess which two unbeatens play one another in Philadelphia on October 23rd? Remember when the Eagles traded their starting QB to the Vikings in August? Guess who got the better deal on that trade? Both of them.
2. Trump Tank
“You lost $916 million in one year?!? I’m sorry, but I’m out.”
Giving this one away to the writing staff at Saturday Night Live: Do a parody of Shark Tank in which the entrepeneur appearing before the sharks is Donald Trump. “I’m looking for $916 million for 5% of a new hotel I’d like to build in CHI-na.” What were your revenues last year? “They were the best revenues.” Etc. Mark Cuban gets to play himself. Take it from there.
By the way, do you realize that Mark Burnett is the creator of both The Apprentice and Shark Tank? $$$$$ (as well as Survivor, of course).
3. Unwelcome Matt
Did I read that a hurricane was captured by ISIS? Nope. I read that footage of a hurricane was captured by ISS. The International Space Station. Ohhhhhhh. Never mind.
4. A Murder of Crows Fan?
Nappi, left, and Smith. The latter is a Mount Vernon firefighter.
In Baltimore Sunday, two mooks from Westchester County here in New York who were at the Raiders-Ravens game cheering on the visitors got into a fight with a 55 year-old Ravens fan. The 55 year-old, Joseph Bauer, suffered head injuries and is now in critical condition. The mooks, Scott Smith and Andrew Nappi, who both appear to be in their late 20s, are out on bail. But if Bauer dies, I can see 2nd-degree murder or voluntary manslaughter charges coming.
The last NFL game I attended, and the last one I likely will attend as a fan, was in September of 2012. Cowboys at Giants, Monday Night Football. I was wearing a Cowboys hat and my companion a Cowboys jersey. Three mooks confronted us in the parking lot after the game, which Dallas won. They wanted trouble so we got in our car to avoid them. One of the books threw a glass beer bottle as hard as he could at my head. The driver’s side window stopped it. We never even said anything inflammatory to them.
You’ve got a problem, Mr. Goodell.
5. Vin, Fin
Let’s leave on a lighter note. We didn’t get a chance yesterday to post Vin Scully‘s farewell message from his final broadcast on Sunday. Sixty-seven years with the same employer. Can you imagine what his 401-K looks like. May the rest of your years be wonderful, Vin. Also, a grateful goodbye to Dick Enberg, who also retired on Sunday. In the late Seventies he was NBC’s top sports announcer, doing the NCAA Final Fours and its biggest AFC games. In many ways, every bit the legend that Vin is.
Music 101
Go Your Own Way
I don’t know if an album could explode in this decade the way Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours did in 1977. The album spent more than half a year at No. 1 on the Billboard chart and spawned four singles, including this one. All this from a band with a California sound at the height of the disco era. The album has now sold 45 million copies and is right there with Dark Side of The Moon, Saturday Night Fever, Tapestry, London Calling, Born To Run and Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols among the most significant albums of the Seventies.
Remote Patrol
American League Wildcard: Orioles at Blue Jays
8 p.m. TBS
Britton only matters if the O’s are leading late
Just one week ago these birds convened in Toronto for a three-game set and now they’re back for one game, winner take all. The Orioles won two of those three. The Jays are starting Marcus Stroman, who went 0-5 in six September starts. The O’s are all about home runs (they led the majors with 253) and closer Zach Britton (a league-best 47 saves with a 0.54 ERA)
I read something surprising late last week & part of my surprise is that I didn’t see it HERE 1st – that China was allegedly “buying up the global supply of donkeys”. Come on, did you EVER think you’d see THAT headline? Some might say it was, ahem, ass-inine. Anyhoo, yesterday I read that several African nations are now banning China from purchasing their donkeys. Don’t worry China – right after the election, the USA can send you (FREE!) the biggest ass in history! 😉
One more donkey tidbit. When I was a kid, it was a “thing” in our area for the various organizations & groups (Kiwanis, Lions, 4-H, etc) to raise money by putting on “donkey baseball” games. There were at least 2 purveyors of said donkeys who would truck them around in a horse van to the appointed baseball diamonds. If I remember correctly (last one of these ‘games” I saw was when I was 11 I think), the hitter was standing in the batter box but if he got a hit, he jumped on the appointed donkey & rode around the bases. Alas, I cannot remember if the outfield or basemen sat on donkeys or not. And no, I’m NOT making this up! What may surprise you even more than the idea of “donkey baseball” is that no alcohol was sold at the events. (At least, not the ones I attended).
Susie B., I love that you have made Medium Happy “America’s No. 1 blog for donkey-related news coverage.”
Regarding today’s start of the baseball playoffs, here are 538’s assessment of each team’s chances to win the World Series: http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/major-league-baseball-is-about-to-get-random/
And yes, I offer this here for no other reason than to get JW’s goat by linking to a Nate Silver piece.
Might as well add this, too…http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-mlb-predictions/
Based on this, looks like even though Cubs/Red Sox is the most likely WS matchup, there is still only about a 15% chance of that.
I’m curious to know where wind speed, what the player’s had to eat that day, family relationship statuses, etc. play a role. I suppose those things play the same role as whatever is in their magic algorithmic formula. With the exception of the wild card teams, every team has an equal chance of winning the World Series. Let’s not quantify things for the sake of quantification.