QUICK QUIZ
What college did Cooper Kupp of the Los Angeles Rams attend?
QUOTABLE QUOTES
“There goes Rick Monday. He and Manny Mota are so old, they were waiters at the Last Supper.” – Former Los Angeles Dodgers skipper Tommy Lasorda.
“I had caffeine poisoning. I literally had six Monsters the day of the game because I like a caffeine-induced euphoria to play video games in.” – Illinois basketball player Matthew Mayer on why he was absent from a Fighting Illini practice.
“I heard I was too small to play in high school, in college, and in the NFL. It just made me work harder.” – Former running back/kick returner Darren Sproles.
IDLE THOUGHTS
Last week the Cincinnati Reds played in front of the smallest crowd to see a game in 21 seasons at Great American Ball Park. The crowd of 7,375 watched the Reds beat the Tampa Bay Rays 8-1 in the opener of a three-game series. This was the fourth crowd smaller than 8,000 in the stadium’s history. Tough to pay the light bill with those paltry numbers.
Hockey referee Bruce Hood, in his book, “Calling the Shots – Memoir of an NHL Referee," mentioned the worst hockey rink he’s ever worked in. “Probably the shabbiest rink I ever worked in was the old arena in Providence, Rhode Island. The dressing room was always a filthy mess. The shower was old and only spouted a trickle of water, and the floors, which were cold and cracked wooden racks, were always covered with a layer of slime. And it was the same thing, week after week, and year after year. It was also the only rink in which the doors from the players benches opened outward onto the ice. A number of times I would be going full tilt up the boards only to be flattened during a line change.”
Talk about inflation. Hockey Hall of Famer and current ESPN analyst Chris Chelios is selling his beachfront home in Malibu, California., and the listing is not for a typical buyer. Chelios is asking $75 million for the home. Chelios’s residence in Malibu is an impressive 3,795-square foot dwelling, boasting four bedrooms, 4 1/2 bathrooms, 90 feet of beach frontage, and amenities such as a deck with a fireplace. He initially bought the house in 2003 for $6 million and has owned it for the past 20 years. The former defenseman played in the NHL for 26 seasons from 1983 to 2010, playing for four different teams in that span. He was named to 11 All-Star teams, won the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top defenseman three times, and won three Stanley Cups, two with the Red Wings and one with the Canadiens. Chelios joined ESPN’s NHL coverage in 2021 when the network began broadcasting hockey games for the first time since 2004 as part of the network’s new media deal with the league.
New York Mets owner Steve Cohen has supplied Edwin Diaz with a trainer, nutritionist and personal chef at his home while he is recovering from the injury, he suffered during a World Baseball Classic celebration. Diaz injured his patellar tendon in his right knee during an on-field celebration after his Puerto Rico team beat the Dominican Republic and will likely miss the entire 2023 baseball season.
Speaking of the World Baseball Classic, Cuba’s bullpen catcher Ivan Prieto made history by becoming the first player to ever defect during the World Baseball Classic. He did not join the rest of the team on their flight back to Cuba from Miami after the Cuban team was eliminated.
Former Detroit Tiger hurler Max Scherzer, who now plays for the New York Mets, is the third pitcher to get ejected for foreign substance since checks were put in place. All three have been checks done by umpire Phil Cuzzi who should be nicknamed “Columbo.”
The Chinese Basketball Association disqualified the Shanghai Sharks and Jiangsu Dragons after they engaged in fixing matches during the playoffs. The league announced. Shanghai and Jiangsu were playing each other in a quarterfinal series, with the Sharks defeating the Dragons two games to one. One of the Sharks top players is former NBA guard Eric Bledsoe, but he was suspended for four games before the playoffs started. Consequently, the Sharks were found to have given up in the second half of Game 2 against Jiansu so they could play a Game 3, which would get Bledsoe back sooner in the next round. Then, in the last two minutes of Game 3, the Dragons were up four with 97 seconds left when they turned the ball over five times, leading to a 10-0 Sharks run. The Dragons did not appear to try to stop the run, and Shanghai won the game, 108-104. As a result, the CBA fined each team the equivalent of $750,000 and suspended Sharks head coach Li Chunjiang for five years, Sharks GM Jiang Yusheng for three years, Dragons GM Shi Linjie for five years and Dragons coach Li Nan for three years. Basketball Hall of Famer Yao Ming is currently the president of the CBA, and he commented on the situation following the punishment. “We conducted a very prudent investigation to help us make the decision based on precise matters. We believe that everybody feels quite distressed about this,” Ming said, via ChinaDaily.com. “For sports games, the most important thing is reputation, rather than ability. Credit is what everybody, every team, the league, and the association is based on. We need to draw a profound lesson from this and change some things in the future to make what we have paid for valuable.
From the Man vs. Horse Department, the Triple-A Rochester Red Wings invited a winless racehorse to try his luck against a human on August 18, 2000. Zippy Chippy brought his 0-86 record to Frontier Field in Rochester, New York, where he raced Red Wings player José Herrera on a makeshift track in the outfield. Herrera won the race and Zippy lost again.
Congratulations to the Saginaw County Sports Hall of Fame’s Class of 2023. Leading the way are basketball stars Jason Richardson (Arthur Hill) and Tori Jankoska (Freeland), along with football standout Alfonso Boone (Arthur Hill), softball whiz Jenni Rasmussen (Swan Valley), Saginaw Valley gridder Ken Tolfree (Merrill), track speedster Don Voorheis (Frankenmuth), Saginaw News/MLive veteran sports writer Hugh Bernreuter (Frankenmuth), softball coach Larry Graf (Hemlock), and the Nouvel Catholic Central girls’ basketball state championship teams from 2006 and 2008. They will be honored at the HOF Banquet on Sunday, November 5th at Horizons Conference Center.
I recently read a nice story in The State News about the grounds crew that tends to Michigan State University’s athletic fields. According to Andy Flynn, head athletic turf manager at MSU, his tasks depend on the season and the day-to-day schedule. He oversees all of the turfgrass at the varsity athletic fields, and he and his coworkers bounce around campus from field to field. On an annual basis there’s no telling how much work will go into Spartan Stadium before MSU’s spring game. Flynn said it depends on when the growing season begins and there’s always a chance the field will be yellow or some sort of yellow-green shade. Moisture is one of the biggest factors that’s monitored. During the June recruiting period, the field is painted every single weekend to mimic as much as possible what Spartan Stadium looks like on game day. Spartan Stadium is equipped with eight sensors buried in the field that allows Flynn to measure the exact amount of water in the soil.
Keith Magnuson was born April 27th 1947 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Magnuson was best known among his friends for having a poor memory. Once in Saskatoon, Magnuson drove his dad's car to the rink for a Blades game, only to drive home with a teammate, the two of them completely immersed in the game they had just played. The next morning, Magnuson's father asked where the car was. "Keith had to run back to the rink to get it," said Dale Zeman, one of Magnuson's former junior and college teammates. "There was also the night Keith and I went bowling when we were freshmen at Denver. We came out and couldn't find the car. It had rolled backwards three blocks because Keith forgot to put it in park."
Major League Baseball is going haywire because of its crappy pitch clock rule. Home plate umpire Adam Beck recently ejected Milwaukee Brewers manager Craig Counsell and shortstop Willy Adames – the 33rd and 34th ejections of the young MLB season. In the bottom of the 6th inning of the Angels vs. Brewers game, Brewers batter Willy Adames, with a 1-0 count, claimed Angels pitcher Jaime Barria had violated the Max Scherzer rule pertaining to pitchers prohibited from coming set prior to the batter in the box and alert to the pitcher. Replays indicate Barria was pitching from windup and not set position, and thus, was not subject to the Scherzer rule prohibiting a pitcher from coming set. A pitch clock violation was subsequently issued while Adames was arguing the prior pitch's no-call, resulting in an automatic strike added to the count when Adames was not in the batter's box and alert to the pitcher for the ensuing 1-1 pitch.
This is the 17th manager ejection of 2023.
This is the 13th player ejection of 2023.
This is Milwaukee's 1/2nd ejection of 2023.
This is Craig Counsell's 1st ejection since August 4, 2022.
This is Willy Adames' first career MLB ejection.
Hats off to a couple of local hockey players. During the recent draft, the Saginaw Spirit selected two players who were born and raised in Saginaw. The Spirit took Cooper Bordeaux in the eighth round and Sammy DiBlasi in the ninth round. Both played for Detroit Little Caesars and for the Saginaw Jr. Spirit. Bordeaux played in 81 games for Little Caesars, scoring 13 goals with 14 assists. DiBlasi posted a 1.56 goals-against average and .900 save percentage in 28 games for Little Caesars.
Whatever happened to Tom Timmermann?
QUICK QUIZ ANSWER
Answer: C. Cooper Kupp played for Eastern Washington from 2013-16. Kupp, a native of Yakima, Washington, had one of the greatest college careers from a wide receiver in FCS history. Starting with his true freshman season, Kupp dominated the competition setting school, conference and FCS records. He won the top FCS offensive honor, the Walter Payton Award in 2015 to go along with his 30 career first-team All-American honors. Kupp is the NCAA Division I Football Championship career leader in receptions, yards, and receiving touchdowns. He also holds the NFL record for most receiving yards in a combined season and postseason, posting 2,425 yards in the 2021 season.
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May 03, 2023
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