The Big Story – Soto Goes to the Mets: The Juan Soto sweepstakes ended Sunday with him getting the highest deal in history, an astronomical $765 million for 15 years from the New York Mets.
We’ll never know if the talk of signing him was just Red Sox PR speak. But the good news is (a) he’s not a big enough difference-maker to justify spending all their free agent money on when their biggest need by far is pitching; (b) it wounds the Yankees deeply, not just in losing him but in the top prospects they gave up to get him for just one year, and (c) since people here barely know the NL exists he’ll rarely be thought of again.
Now open the checkbook for pitching.
Sports 101: Nine current NBA teams have failed to win even one league title. Name them.
News Item – Sox Sign Aroldis Chapman: It’s nice to see them spending, but $10.75 million for an eighth-inning set-up man seems pricey.
The good news is at 36 he struck out an astonishing 98 batters in just 61.2 innings, which says he still has major juice on the fastball. The bad news is the 3.79 ERA and 1.346 WHIP are the second-worst of his career. That suggests command is enough of an issue to make the Nation squeamish in tight games. But it’s a one-year deal, so good move.
News Item – Alumni News: Among the recent Patriots I found most vexing was Jonnu Smith, who was a calamity waiting to happen. Balls he should have caught weren’t just dropped, they bounced to defenders for interceptions or, worse, pick 6s, which happened twice. Think of his role in the humiliating loss on a bonehead series of final play laterals in Las Vegas that wouldn’t have happened if his mindless motion penalty hadn’t taken a TD off the board in lieu of a FG that kept it a one-score game.
And now he’s in Miami, where his 61 catches are more than any Patriot has now and the meager 55 he had in two seasons in Foxboro. It includes 14 catches for 149 yards in two Miami wins over NE and his game-winning TD in OT vs. the Jets on Sunday.
The Numbers:
3.1 – million dollars bet on Philadelphia to beat Carolina by some guy in Kentucky for a $422,000 payout that was in doubt until a final-seconds Carolina TD was overturned on replay to make Philly the winner.
235 – most receiving yards ever in a first game against the team that traded the player by Cleveland’s Jerry Jeudy in a 41-32 loss to Denver.
… Of the Week Awards
Doink of the Week – KC Chiefs: They lucked into another win. This time while down one to the L.A. Chargers when third-string kicker Matthew Wright hit the crossbar on a point blank FG try to give beyond belief lucky KC a 19-17 win.
Dumb Gamble of the Week – Dan Campbell: I know the analytics crowd will laud him for going for it on fourth down, especially because it worked. But while I like the faith he has in his team, passing on a 38-yard field goal attempt in lieu of going for it on fourth and one from the Green Bay 21 with 43 seconds left in a game tied 31-31 seemed like too big a risk. Especially when his kicker had two walk-off game winners already. Plus they nearly botched it when the center stepped on Jared Goff’s foot and he had to lunge just to make the hand-off falling to the ground. So what did it gain?
Wow Moment of the Week – Ja Morant Dunk: Caught it in the corner, the 6’2” guard drives the baseline, goes up with back to the basket but pulls it down against a double team, then double pumps and dunks it backward on 7’4” Kristaps Porzingis.
I’m guessing only Dr. J and Michael Jordan could have pulled that off.
Those new Denver Broncos uniforms with the white helmets are You-gly.
Sports 101 Answer: The nine teams to never win a NBA title are the Magic, Jazz, Nets, Clippers, Hornets (originally Bobcats), Pacers, Grizzlies, T-Wolves and Pelicans (originally Hornets).
Thunder have never won, but they did as the Supersonics in Seattle.
Final Thought – Suspension Policy All Wrong: Sorry, folks, the three-game suspension given to Houston’s serial cheap shot artist Azeez Al Shaair for the one that ended Trevor Lawrence’s season was not outrageous. The penalty should be that if a guy hurts someone with an intentional cheap shot he should not play for as long as the player he hurt is out.
The QB is the most important player on every team, so why should the player who takes him out with an intentional cheap shot only miss three games while Jacksonville’s QB misses the rest of the season? If you want this stopped make the penalty onerous.
Email Dave Long at [email protected].
