Morning. We’re back in town, which is kind of a rarity. So far this month — today is the 25th — we have slept in Tennessee six nights, Florida seven nights and Alabama 11 nights.
Home is where the car is apparently.
Let’d do this, and a quick thanks to the long-time readers. Friday was our 1,500 consecutive non-weekend day with a 5-at-10, and it’s because of the feedback and the interaction that we keep this ball rolling.
FILE – In this Jan. 7, 2014, file photo, Yahoo president and CEO Marissa Mayer speaks during the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Mayer will walk away with a $55 million severance package if the company’s auction of its Internet operations culminates in a sale that ousts her from her job. The payout disclosed in a Friday, April 29, 2016, regulatory filing consists of cash, stock awards and other benefits that Mayer would get should she be forced out as CEO within a year after a sale. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson, File)
Weekend winners
Jhonny Vegas (great name by the way). Dude drops a 64 on the field Sunday to post a number that no one can catch at the Canadian Open and eases into the PGA Championship this weekend with his second career victory and his first win since 2011. Also of note here, Baylor School graduate Luke List deserves some mention on the winners list after a final round 67 Sunday — which was 10 shots better than his Saturday score when he was in the final group of the third round with some dude named Dustin Johnson — moved List back into the top 15. He pocketed a tad more than $95,000 for his effort this weekend and got a ton of pressure-packed experience. Both of those things have a lot of value.
Your Atlanta Braves. Yep, the ultimate definition of winning by losing. Hey, if you are going to be bad, you might as well be the absolute worst, and the Braves are the best at being the worst. They are 2-8 in their last 10 and, at 33-66 are 4.5-games clear of the Twins in the dash for last. Add to that theSunday performance of the Double-A trio of Ozzie Albies (2-for-4, two RBIs with a steal; he’s hitting .372), Dustin Peterson (3-for-4, two RBIs and two doubles; he’s hitting .296) and Dansby Swanson (2-for-5, two RBIs; he’s back above .260), well, the Braves are losing games but in some ways building hope.
Twitter. The social media device has again scored a live-broadcast deal with a sporting league, joining with Campus Insider to stream more than 300 live college sports events next year. If you are scoring at home — or if you are all by our self — Twitter has streaming deals with the NBA, the Pac-12 and the NFL for Thursday Night Football. Hey, SEC, you best get on the board sooner rather than later.
Marissa Mayer. The Yahoo CEO, who really was pretty terrible at her job, got a $57 million severance package when Yahoo sold a majority of its holdings toVerizon for roughly $4.8 billion. Yes, $4.8 is a lot of coin, but about 15 years ago at the peak of its value, Yahoo was worth roughly $125 billion. All told, Mayer received more than $210 million for four years of pretty pour leadership. Ouch-standing, and you thought A-Rod’s contract was bad.
Charles Barkley (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)
Charles Barkley (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)
Weekend losers
Charles Barkley. We love Chuck. Dude is honest and gregarious. But this is not about basketball or his overflowing fountain of opinion — including his true hatred of Kevin Durant’s decision. This is about golf, and Chuck was awful and TURR-ible this weekend at the annual celebrity event at Tahoe. He finished 40 points behind Larry the Cable Guy for Pete’s sake. Yes, he’s had some hip problems, but buckets, there’s talk about Chuck restarting the game as a lefty. To that, we say it can’t be much worse.
NASCAR. This could have been a huge weekend for the struggling racing sport. It should have been a huge weekend for the sport. At the Brickyard with more than 200,000 seats available with Tony Stewart making his final start at his home track and Jeff Gordon coming from the booth to drive Dale Jr.’s car. It should have been an infomercial for the sport. Rather it’s a wake-up call for the powers-that be considering there were roughly 50,000 people there by some estimations (and remember the Indy 500 in May sold-out its 235,000 seats) and the race was rendered boring by Kyle Busch’s dominance.
The Rio Olympics. Man, this side of Johnny Manziel, is there a more common pick for a weekend loser than the upcoming summer games. Take all the stuff we know: The poo-poo water. The crime and murder rates and the violence. The threat of terrorism. The mosquitoes and viruses. Now, add the fact that Australian athletes can’t stay in their Olympic village because it was condemned and deemed unsafe. You stay classy Rio.
Chris Sale. Dude was suspended for five games for destroying the 1976 throwback uniform and refusing to wear it because he said it was uncomfortable. He rationalized this childish behavior because it interfered with ‘winning’ or some other mumbo jumbo. His actions — this is not the first time he has been a fly in the ointment — mean the team will be without their best pitcher for five days. So which ‘interferes with winning’ more wearing a throwback jersey or costing your team your services for a start?
The DNC. Man, just when you thought the circus that was the GOP convention could not be topped, here comes the Democrats with leaked email scandals about undercutting Bernie Sanders and the party chair resigning. Ah American politics, where everyone needs a shower after a convention.
National Baseball Hall of Fame electees Ken Griffey Jr., left, and Mike Piazza smile during an awards ceremony at Doubleday Field on Saturday, July 23, 2016, in Cooperstown, N.Y. The two are to be inducted into the Hall of Fame on Sunday. (AP Photo/Heather Ainsworth)
Hall of Fame
Kudos to Mike Piazza and Ken Griffey Jr.
The two were historic inductees into the baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday, with Junior — who appropriately had his hat backward during his speech — being the first No. 1 overall pick to be inducted and Piazza, who was picked 1,390th in 1988, as the lowest draft pick selected.
Also, Griffey Jr. was picked on the highest percentage of ballots ever (99.32 percent) passing Tom Seaver. Man, baseball Hall of Fame voters are strange. As great as Seaver and Griffey Jr. were, it’s hard to understand how they rank as the top two most clear picks to be Hall of Famers of all-time.
The false theories of never voting for someone because some chowder head in the first class didn’t vote for Babe Ruth is wrong on so many levels it boggles the mind.
But that’s a lament that has circled about this time each year. There are some baseball writers who vote on the Hall of Fame who will never vote for a player in his first year because of tradition. Which is akin to a doctor using leaches to treat blood issues because, well, tradition.
No, the big news here is that Piazza is the first inductee from the steroid-era who had been linked to PEDs in his past. Granted he never failed a test, but the whispers of back acne and his name being on a couple of reports left him short of admittance since becoming eligible in 2013.
Piazza’s numbers are that of a sure-fire first-ballot Hall of Famer considering he’s the greatest hitting catcher ever, and it’s not really that close. Not only does he have the most career homers as a catcher (396 of his 427 career home runs were as a catcher) and a .308 career average, considering this stat:
Number of seasons with 30-plus homers, 100-plus RBIs and a .300-or-better average — Mike Piazza six; every other catcher who has ever played in the majors nine.
So does this open the door for more PED-accused/using players? And make no mistake, five years from now, when Big Papi is on the ballot and eventually gets in because he’s Big Papi for Pete’s sake (man, everyone forgets David Ortiz was suspended for PEDs; Piazza was just rumored to have used them), well, how are the voters going to rationalize not voting for Clemens or Bonds then?
This and that
— Ladies and gentlemen, meet Mr. Isaiah Stokes, the ‘little’ brother of Jarnell Stokes, the former UT hoops player and current. NBAer. Isaiah is 6-foot-8, 280 pounds and does not take kindly to any back talk from a backboard. Egad.
— In the world of football, a quarterback competent quarterback can’t be overvalued. Ask Auburn last year, when the wheels fell off because of bad QB play. Here’s a look from Vegas at five guys who are coming off big years for teams that may surprise.
— FYI — TFP sports editor Stephen Hargis is doing his yearly high school football tour. Follow along at @StephenHargis. It’s a cool tradition. Also, we’ll try to catch up with Stephen around 4:10 on Press Row today to get his take on the adventure.
Today’s question
You know the drill. Winners. Losers. Go.
OK, if you need a Rushmore, pick from either of these two:
Twenty-six years ago today Rosanne was booed off the field after arguably the worst National Anthem performance ever. Who joins her on the Rushmore of the worst anthems of all-time?
On this day 150 years ago, Congress authorized the Army to classify the rank as General, with Ulysses S. Grant becoming our country’s first full Army General. Rushmore of Generals?
Go, and thanks again for playing along each morning around these parts.
