Knucklehead of the Week
Baseball players who lean over the plate get beaned now and then. That’s what happened to the Padres’ Carlos Quentin on Thursday when the Dodgers’ Zack Greinke plunked him … on a full count in a 1-run game in the sixth. Quentin has been beaned more than any batter since 2008, but he went ballistic and charged the mound. Greinke ended up with a broken collarbone. Quentin got an eight-game suspension.
I’m back from vacation. We drove 800 miles to the lovely beaches of Alabama, which meant we had to deal with Crimson Tide fans. Luckily, the Gulf of Mexico’s waves drowned out the SEC! SEC! cheers. I reminded my new friends that it was basketball season, but they looked at me like I had shrimp crawling out of my ears. Wonder if they’ve even heard of Anthony Grant.
So Tiger Woods broke the rules and got caught. Sounds familiar. A delayed 2-stroke penalty might keep Woods away from the green jacket, or it might motivate him to shoot a 61 today. One thing I know for sure is that the only way Tiger gets disqualified from the Masters is if he pours an Arnold Palmer on Arnold Palmer.
As long as Tiger can hang within, say, five strokes of the lead, the winners in this drama are golf fans who want to get out of yard work and CBS, which can’t count on guys like Marc Leishman and Brandt Snedeker to entice viewers.
The officials who worked the NCAA national title bout had trouble keeping up with a fantastic game. They missed an early Louisville goaltending and botched the ridiculous foul call on Trey Burke's late rejection of Peyton Siva.
That said, Louisville deserved its 82-76 victory. Will Hancock’s pivotal pump fakes from the 3-point line got Burke in foul trouble in the first half and effectively took Mitch McGary out of the game with his fourth foul in the second half.
If you have a Twitter account, I highly recommend following college hoops analyst Jay Bilas. He is one of the brightest guys in the game and has a great sense of humor. He also has opinions, especially when it comes to the NCAA.
On the other end of the social media spectrum, don’t bother with college football expert Kirk Herbstreit. I like to listen to Herbie on ESPN, but his tweets are as bland as oatmeal without brown sugar.
I feel bad for Jose Reyes, the Blue Jays shortstop who injured himself "sliding" on a play at second base. Jose apparently skipped the day they covered that baseball fundamental during Little League.
Cody Zeller announced he's leaving Indiana for the NBA after two solid college seasons. Did he watch the tape of the Hoosiers' loss to Syracuse a couple weeks ago?
I used to dislike UConn women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma. Thought he was a hot dog. Now I kind of like him. He's very thoughtful, gives great interviews and seems like a decent guy.
Joe Flacco has signed on to play Johnny Unitas in a movie. Good thing, because the Ravens don't have enough players to field a team this year.
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