Sunday Morning Coffee — September 29, 2024 — Sunday Morning Scramble
There are 162 regular season games in a Major League Baseball season. For the New York Yankees today is game 162 and the biggest one of the season. For me anyway. Back in March I bet the Yankees to win over 93.5 games this season. Incredibly, they come in to today’s finale with 93 victories. It’s all or nothing this afternoon against the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates. The same Pittsburgh Pirates that will be headed to the golf course this week while the Yankees go to the playoffs. The same Pittsburgh Pirates that have already beaten the Yankees twice this weekend. The same Pittsburgh Pirates that were my boyhood team. The same Pittsburgh Pirates that still have a soft spot in my heart. But the same Pittsburgh Pirates that I hope take one on the chin today.
Asking for a friend: When a torrential storm hits Springfield, Ohio, does it rain cats and dogs?
If there was any question that college football is broken look no further than UNLV. The Rebels, never a football power, are in the midst of their best season in their 47-year history ranked in the top 25 for the first time ever. Included were road wins over Houston and Kansas. On Tuesday quarterback Matthew Sluka left the program claiming he wasn’t paid the NIL — Name, Image, Likeness — money he was guaranteed when he transferred from Holy Cross in the spring. UNLV denies the $88,000 Sluka said was due so the quarterback up and quit the program and his teammates. As always in these situations the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. College athletics were so much better when the student-athletes were ‘compensated’ only with full academic scholarships in return for their participation and any monies paid to the stars was in cash, under the table. Yesterday, behind new quarterback Hajj-Malik Williams, UNLV blew out a good Fresno State team 59-14 to move to 4-0 for the first time in program history. The double good news for the Rebels is Williams hasn’t asked for more money. Not yet, anyway.
Keeping an eye on the Eagles Friday night at Sphere.
We saw the Eagles at Sphere on Friday night. The show was okay. The guts of the band are well into their 70’s and combined with a mature crowd and an 8:45 start time the energy in the building was on the low scale. Sphere is probably the only music venue in the world where sitting further from the stage is choice: the entire illusionary experience, combined with the music, plays better from the 200, 300 and even up on the 400 tier than the lower 100’s. The Eagles’ two hour set was tight, they played their entire portfolio of hits and Sphere has no rival when it comes to sound. Both Andi and I felt graphically the show took a back seat to the illusions we saw during U2, Phish and Dead & Company in the same venue. However, if you are an Eagles fan and it’s your first Sphere experience the one word we heard over and over leaving the event was ‘phenomenal.’
Tuesday night’s veep showdown between JD Vance and Tim Walz has all the makings of a big nothing. As SMC political pundit Ed Rogers reminds us, “In the big picture a vice-presidential debate will not matter. No electoral votes will flip because of it.” CBS will host the debate in a New York studio that used to be the home of Captain Kangaroo. I’m not sure what that says.
Rumor has it the latest poll released by Trump University has the Donald leading in all 72 states.
Here we go again: duplicate absentee ballots have been sent to 2,000 voters in the Democratic stronghold of Madison, Wisconsin.
Classless: the aforementioned Pittsburgh Pirates signed outfielder Rowdy Tellez to a 2024 contract that awarded him a $200,000 bonus if he had 425 plate appearances this season. Going into last Tuesday night’s game he was at 421 with six games remaining. The Pirates cut him Tuesday morning.
Salt into the open wound: the Chicago White Sox set a modern day futility record with 121 losses so far this season and still one game to play. It beat the previous worst of 120 by the expansion New York Mets in 1962. The White Sox payroll to accomplish infamy was $130 million. That’s higher than five of the teams that will be headed to the playoffs this week.
It seemed much longer but The Addams Family only ran on television for two seasons— 1964 & ‘65.
And speaking of an Addams family, what really surprised me about New York Mayor Eric Adams indictment last week on five felony counts including bribery is he’s the first sitting NYC mayor to ever be indicted. That just doesn’t seem possible.
So much for all the parties. Tupperware has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Until I watched Gangs of London on Netflix, I never would have guessed that Sweden has Europe’s highest gun homicide rate.
Just for kicks to pass the time during the MLB playoffs we played San Diego at 5-1 to win the National League and 10-1 to win the World Series.
The NFL overtime rule needs to change. During the opening weekend the Rams and Lions wound up tied in regulation. Detroit wins the OT coin toss and marches down the field for a touchdown. Per rules, game over. LA never touches the ball. No other major sport denies each team an equal opportunity to score in overtime. In baseball, both sides get at least one at-bat; in basketball it’s a full-five minutes and in hockey it’s conceivable that one team won’t possess the puck but that’s the result of an equal opportunity face off, not a coin flip.
Talk about playing a complete football game. Last Monday night in their rout of Cincinnati, Washington didn’t punt nor commit a turnover. It’s the first time they have done that since 1940 when the Redskins were still the Redskins and Sonny Jurgensen was in the first grade.
The Perfect Couple on Netflix is good but bolstered in the ratings by co-stars Liv Schreiber and Nicole Kidman. For my two cents Meghann Fahy, who we first saw on White Lotus, steals it.
The nation’s homeless problem just got worse. After 57 seasons the Oakland A’s have played their last baseball game ever in Oakland. Their new stadium in Las Vegas won’t be ready until 2028. For the next three seasons they will play at a minor league stadium in West Sacramento, California. But you won’t see that in the standings. They will be homeless, only calling themselves the A’s.
With the former Oakland Raiders now in Vegas and the A’s heading that way in three years you can buy a tee shirt in Northern California that aptly states ‘What happens in Vegas started in Oakland.’
And let’s give the Oakland baseball fans their due. While attendance has lagged for years in an outdated stadium, on Thursday a sell-out crowd of 47,000 was on hand to say their good-byes to a franchise that in the past gave them some great baseball. In 1957 when the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants moved to California the last Dodgers game in Ebbets Field only drew 6,700 and the Giants farewell in the Polo Grounds a little over 11,000. Well done Oakland.
After following baseball for the better part of the last six decades, there’s not much I get to see for the first time, but it happened a week or so ago during the Las Vegas-Albuquerque AAA game at Las Vegas Ballpark, two miles from our front door. What I never saw before was an umpire call a pitch outside for a ball and then the catcher immediately challenge it. Up on the scorecard came a replay. Outside corner, strike one. No doubt the forerunner for the big leagues.
Grade school math wiz Herbie Shainker.
Longtime readers with long term memories might remember Herbie Shainker. He was the subject of our April 10, 2022, SMC titled When Herbie Talks. (https://royberger.com/sunday-morning-coffee-april-10-2022-when-herbie-talks/). Shainker is a friend and fellow club member at Red Rock Country Club; we detailed his prowess in winning season sports over/under wagers. He claims through the years he’s won about 80% of his plays including this baseball season with the Kansas City Royals. Herbie turned 70 a couple of weeks ago and threw himself a birthday roast, primarily because nobody else would. Shainker is the Al Czervik of our golf club as Rodney Dangerfield’s character was at Bushwood Country Club in Caddyshack. Both Shainker and Czervik are acquired tastes among fellow members. Somehow Herbie wrangled 70 people to attend his roast, no doubt because it included a meal. No not dinner, which would have been over the top for his frugal pockets. Instead, a breakfast with shell fragments still in the scrambled eggs to ensure nobody wanted seconds; a two cup of coffee limit; partially defrosted orange juice and as the non-observant Jew that he is, bacon on Shabbat. However, we did find out the secret to Herbie’s gambling successes. It started early. A speaker told the story of Herbie growing up in Cleveland — he knew his sports but didn’t give a damn about school. In the second grade his teacher devised a way for Herbie to learn the addition tables. She asked, ‘Herbie, if the Indians score one run in the first inning and one run in the ninth, what do you have?’ Seven-year-old Herbie’s eyes lit up. His face beamed. He was so proud. Finally, he knew the answer to a math question. Without hesitation Herbie exclaimed, “The under!” That’s how it all got started.
Shainker’s NFL football play this season is Vegas under seven wins and once again he may be on to something. Arguably Raiders first year head coach Antonio Pierce is the worst in the league. As the season progresses this will probably become noticeably apparent. The former All-Pro, Super Bowl champion linebacker with the Giants, AP is a good position coach who was given too much responsibility, too soon. Raiders ownership and upper management must have realized that early on as the Vegas staff of assistant coaches, 32 of them, is the largest in the league. On that staff are former NFL head guys Marvin Lewis and Joe Philbin while Tom Coughlin consults. The very flamboyant Rob Ryan tutors the defense. In spite of all the help, Carolina’s ancient quarterback Andy Dalton looked like Y.A. Tittle last Sunday carving up the Raiders. Lose to Cleveland today and the Raiders will be playing the balance of the season for the top of the draft board. And that might not be a bad thing.
And finally, to everyone celebrating the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashanah this week a wish for a very happy, healthy, sweet and if possible, peaceful, Shana Tova. As for me, I will head to the airport after Thursday’s temple service and over to London to spend the weekend with son Scott and daughter-in-law Cayla, UK residents. Coincidentally, our Jets are playing the Vikings next Sunday in London. Okay, the trip is no coincidence.