Rob Manfred announced yesterday that he’ll step down as MLB commissioner in 2029, which…Rob. Are…Are you expecting a retirement tour? Are you expecting us to spend the next five years giving you gifts before games start? Little knickknacks representative of our cities? Scalps of Bally Sports executives? Pieces of our favorite kinds of metal? Do you even like gifts, Rob? You seem like the kind of guy who throws away most gifts. To yourself, to others…
The worst part about Rob Manfred retiring in five years is that it’s very possible the next guy will be worse. That’s the thing about MLB commissioners. We have no counterfactual. We never know how good or bad a guy really is or was.
Credit to Rob for speeding up the game. That seemed like a dumb quest when it started. Possibly counterproductive. It turned out well. We’ll revisit in five years.
Who Is Jack Hughes? Do People Pay to Watch Him Play?
Fun moment last night in Devils vs. Kings (a rivalry as old as Saul himself) in which the Devils’ Jack Hughes, on his way to the penalty box, chirped to Viktor Arvidsson, “People pay to watch me play!” This got me curious. Do people pay to watch Jack Hughes play?
Turns out, yes. I looked up a list of the best NHL players right now and Hughes’s was near the top of the list. Apologies for only knowing players on Canadian teams. Sorry for being a purist!
Austin and the Dillo
Austin FC has an alternate jersey this year honoring the Armadillo World Headquarters, and my dumb brain first thought, “The trolley?” They are not honoring the trolley. They’re honoring the national guard armory that got turned into a live music venue where Willie Nelson played a lot on the way up. But there are two Dillos in Austin history, and I don’t know why, but I thought of the wrong one.
This got me thinking about the Dillo (the trolley), which got me googling the Dillo, which got me to this link:
Austin Once Considered a Gondola Public Transit System
Again, my brain associated a key word with the wrong thing. I thought they were talking about boats. Not an enclosed ski lift.
NASCAR Is Back
It’s looking very unlikely that the Daytona 500 will happen on Sunday as scheduled (rain), but if it does, we will be excited, and if it doesn’t, we will still be excited but we will be excited on Monday. I am not ashamed to admit that I like to watch a good, fiery crash, provided everyone is ok afterwards. This one, from last night’s Duels? I know everyone’s ok, so I think it’s pretty cool. This one, from tonight’s Trucks race? I’m pretty sure everyone’s ok, but I’m not positive yet, so I’m going to hold off on calling it cool.
Etc.
The NIT, NITexas, and 2019 NIT Champion Shaka Smart:
- I’m obsessed with UCLA now, so congratulations to Mick Cronin for that. Won’t be so funny when I show up at your house and ask if you want to be best friends! (That is a joke, I want to observe Mick Cronin from afar with reverence, not become his sidekick.) Very excited for this weekend’s basketball. I don’t know where to start. Yale plays at Princeton tomorrow. But that’s at night! Night is no place to start.
- Texas visits Houston, and I have to say: It’s hard to be a Texas hater when you can’t be confident they’ll lose a game like this one. They’re talented enough and confident enough that you can’t count them out of road games, even against arguably the best team in the country. Messed up stuff.
- Our guy Shaka Smart gets a crack at UConn in Connecticut, and we cannot promise you victory but we can promise you emotion. This was one Marquette lost last year.
Chicago:
- We misread a schedule, and boy do we feel dumb. The Bulls did not play the Celtics last night. That’s probably a good thing.
Burnley and the Ottawa Senators:
- The Sens got smoked by the Ducks of all people, and while the bright side is that the Sens were recently smoked by the Rangers and returned to winning just fine, the dark side is that the Ducks are bad and the Rangers are good. The fellas visit the Blackhawks tomorrow, looking to keep the Hawks’ losing streak going.
- Burnley hosts Arsenal, who’s third in the table and a mere 39 points (that’s 13 wins in what’s only been a 24-game season) ahead of the lads. Would be a fun time to surprise people! Including me!
