Category: Sports

Baseball is in the final two weeks of the regular season. And while it’s not quite 1967 or 1978, with the (sliding) Yanks, Blue Jays and (maybe stabilized) Red Sox bunched together at the top of the wild card standings, with Seattle and Oakland lurking just behind there’s an engaging race underway for the winner-take-all game playoff to qualify for the ALDS. That is if you don’t mind teams staying in it because everyone else is losing more than they are. Which could make this, if you can follow the logic, the worst good pennant race in history.  

Here’s a recap of what’s happening as we go down the stretch.   

Whether you like their approach or not you have to give Tampa Bay credit for the results. They were the first to 90 wins in the AL which was the 9th time that’s happened for them since 2007, which is pretty good given since their miniscule payroll is about $100 million per year less than the Yanks and Sox spend.
The first to 90 wins was San Francisco, who also was the first to clinch a playoff spot. And even though they may have 100 wins by the time you read this, after looking over the roster and their individual and team 2021 stats I still have no clue how they’ve done it. If you want to know why, ask my friend the insurance mogul Dick Lombardi, who just sent me an email with so many stats/reasons it made my head hurt. But they do make sense.

The Manchester F-Cats alumni association is behind the Blue Jays roaring down the stretch with an offense that scored 42 runs in a three-game sweep of the Orioles two weekends ago and 108 as they went 12-2 in their first 14 games in September to climb back into the wild card race. Leading the way are alums Vlad Guerrero Jr., who may win the Triple Crown as 46 homers and .321 average lead though he’s 8 back in the RBI race, and shortstop/F-Cat teammate Bo Bichette, who has 22 homers and 88 RBI. Plus second baseman Marcus Semien has 40 homers and 95 RBI to make him the best free agent signed of the year.  

On the other side, how in the name of Bucky Dent can a team win 11 in a row to take control of a playoff spot and then immediately lose 10 of their next 12, as the Yankees did from the last days of August through the first 10 days in September? Made worse by getting swept four straight by Toronto when they never led even one batter during the entire series. That hadn’t happened to a Yankee team since 1924, which for the mathematically challenged is a whopping 97 years ago!   

Given that mess, should talk radio still be slobbering over Brian Cashman’s trade deadline brilliance to spend big in prospects for crazy Joey Gallo and Anthony Rizzo while Chaim Bloom got killedfor getting Kyle Schwarber? Gallo does have 10 homers, but he’s hitting .151 in 180 at-bats with 18 RBI, while it’s .203 after an e-covid illness hot 10 games for Rizzo, but overall he’s got 6 homers and 17 RBI to Schwarber’s .276 with 4 homers and 13 RBI in less at bats.   
Arguably the year’s top feat goes to San Diego’s Blake Snell’s 13.2 consecutive hitless innings pitched on Aug. 31 and Sept. 7, the longest such streak since Johnny Vander Meer pitched back-to-back no hitters in 1938. It also reinforced how wrong the Tampa Bay stat geeks were to force Kevin Cash to yank Snell in Game 6 of last year’s World Series because they didn’t want him to face the Dodgers order a third time to blow the series. This time after walking a pair he got yanked in the 7th inning of the first game with a no-hitter in progress. The relievers gave up three hits but the Pads held on to beat Arizona. But they lost Game 2 to the Angels when after surrendering his lone hit to lose a PERFECT game he was yanked and the pen immediately gave up four hits!

Speaking of needlessly yanking guys early. With the bullpen in free fall, why would Alex Cora take out E-Rod after just six innings and 90 pitches with a 4-0 lead vs. Tampa Bay while pitching his best game of the year? Ditto for Chris Sale after five innings, one run allowed and 79 pitches on Friday.

I love the Shohei Ohtani story where at 9-2 with a 3.34 ERA, 44 homers and 94 RBI he’s had a pitch-hit year few in history can match. But two major names give him a run for his money. In 1919 Babe Ruth was 9-5 with a better ERA (2.97) in his last year as a pitcher when he also led the AL in runs scored (103), homers (29) and RBI (113) during the final year of the dead ball era. On the other side was the great Walter Johnson, who was 20-7 with a 3.07 ERA while hitting .433 when the Senators won their second straight World Series in 1925. Yes I said .433! He did it in 107 at-bats with two homers and 20 RBI, which projects to 12 and 120 in a full season. And remember Ohtani DH’s when he doesn’t pitch while Babe had to play in the field, and with 115 innings pitched he won’t get near the 229 the 37-year-old Big Train threw in 1925.  

While the above gives Ohtani my Player of the Year vote, sorry, when your team is out of it after the first two months you can’t be the MVP. Thus I’m good with Vlad Jr. or teammate Marcus Semien as the most valuable player for stellar play during Toronto’s September push. But get ready for the WAR-infatuated stat geek shut-ins still voting for Ohtani.

As Frank Costanza would say, SERENITY NOW!

We got a glimpse of what the 2021 football season will be like on TV all through Thursday’s season opener when Cris Collinsworth slobbered over Tom Brady from the opening kickoff to after Ryan Succop’s game-winning FG. Not that he doesn’t deserve high praise for playing like he’s still 27, but enough already. Because if the usually solid Collinsworth continues like this unabated through the entire season the Bucs kicker ain’t gonna be the only answering to the name suck-up.  

It continued ad nauseam on CBS Sunday from the pregame show to game’s end when all involved did everything but nominate Mac Jones for the Nobel prize. Again, a very encouraging Game 1 for Big Mac, but let’s pump the brakes a bit, please. That let us know that right behind Brady/Tampa Bay in the news caravan will be his former team/coach and their QB heir apparent. After that are a host of interesting stories that trail the first two by about the distance the runner-up finished behind Secretariat as he finished off his Triple Crown win at the Belmont in 1973.

Here are a few random observations on some of them as we head to Week 2. 

By the way, sorry, Cam, forget “Mac and Cheese.” I nominate Big Mac as a better nickname. More descriptive and the endorsement possibilities are endless.

I think the biggest Patriots story is not the kid, it’s can Coach B pull all the new pieces together quickly enough to reclaim the AFC East?

Brady’s bunch of stories: First, got to say that Crypto FTX commercial with Tom and Yoko was pretty good. From the local barkeep — “I wouldn’t take you back.” Brady — “yes you would.” Funny.

TB is now in Babe Ruth territory. Meaning when the Babe passed Roger Connor’s home run record in 1922 every time he hit one after that broke his own record. With No. 2 man Drew Brees now retired, it’ll be the same for Brady every time he throws a TD pass. With active leader Aaron Rodgers 173 behind Brady’s 585 he’ll break his own record every time he throws one for the rest of his career.
Brady will soon go by Brees’ 80,358 yards to become the all-time leader in career passing yards. And it’s possible that (gulp) the record could fall in Game 4 at Gillette. Fitting I suppose. But just don’t make it happen on a TD pass to win the game!     

To the ceaseless “what’s Mac’s ceiling?” chatter from the yakers. First tell us what you had for Brady’s ceiling in 2000. If you got his right I might listen. But no one got it right. Ditto for Joe Montana, Johnny Unitas, Bart Starr, Drew Brees, Brett Favre and Russell Wilson.

Just an idle thought watching Dak Prescott having a 400-yard passing day as he came back from an injury just as gruesome as the one suffered by Gordon Hayward a couple of years ago in the Celtics 2016 opener. It’s like he didn’t even remember it happened while it took Hayward a full playing season to mentally recover. Does that say something about football players vs. hoopsters or Zach’s mental toughness vs. Hayward’s lack of it? 

Tampa Bay is just the 6th SB winner to bring its entire team back for the next year. However, given that the 1992 Redskins were the last to do it, their feat is much harder to pull off having been the lone one done in the salary cap era.  

It’s more obvious by the game thatGronk needed that year off to rehab/refresh his body. He looked old and slow in 2018, but he was the nearly unstoppable real Gronk again on Thursday night. It makes me sadder to see him in a different uniform than Brady.  

An amazing unreported story is the QB turnover around the NFL where an astonishing 15 of the 32 teams will have a new Game 1 starter from 2020.  

Sorry, I’ll never get used to them being called the Las Vegas Raiders.    

Talk all you want about the five QB’s who got drafted but the Chargers QB Justin Herbert is likely to be the biggest breakout story among all the young QB’s.    

The saddest news of the week was the death of David Patten in a South Carolina motorcycle accident. He was a big contributor in the first three SB wins and huge in the run to the first title with TD catches vs. Pitt in the AFC title games and vs. the Rams in the SB. Gone too soon at 47. RIP.   

Predicted division winners: NFC: Washington, Minnesota, SF and TB. Wild card qualifiers:L.A., GB, Seattle. AFC:Buffalo, Tennessee, Cleveland, KC. Wild card qualifiers: NE, Pitt and Baltimore.      

MVP: Josh Allen. I’ll pat myself on the back for being the earliest guy I know of to say this guy has “it” when everyone else was saying he doesn’t after an uneven first year. Now among the league’s best.

Biggest wish for the season: Tampa Bay vs. New England in the Super Bowl. That would be the most anticipated SB since the first one.   

Bet of the year: With gambling now OK’d by the NFL, I’ll bet anyone out there that unless he gets injured and misses time Jones will surpass what Brady did statistically in 2001 when he threw for 2,843 yards and 18 TD’s in 2001 and I think the 86.3 QB rating is possible too.     

Back to Big Mac’s ceiling for a second. Here’s my take: See what I said about Josh Allen. Different game. Same result.

After the 2019 season I said the Patriots were about to undergo an 18-month renovation. The Brady-Belichick divorce was happening to bring a major change at QB, and with them up against the cap, they couldn’t replace the larger than normal number of guys about to leave in free agency until the winter of 2020, when they had a boatload of cap room.

Well, that turned out to be right on the, er, money. While I’m not sure the house is totally finished, the remodeling is mostly done and on Sunday vs. Miami we’ll begin seeing how good the re-done team is.

The Big Story: With the surprising release of Cam Newton, Mac Jones is now the biggest story and ready or not it’s his job now. Having said that, while he played better than Camin pre-season I think the main reason he got the job is because he does what they want in a QB better than Cam — quick decisions, quick release and accurate. Thus, as I said a couple of weeks ago, this is going to be the dink and dunk Brady 2.0 to play ball control on O with the D being the biggest part of the equation to start. Said another way, if this year were a movie it would be Back to the Future 2001.    

Strengths

Offensive line: Ultra-durable Joe Thuney has moved on and while that’s is a big loss, second man Michael Owenu slid over from tackle to his spot with little apparent change. So with guards who can play tackle, and two tackles who can play guard, the line is versatile, good in the passing game, outstanding in the run game and big. All are important, because with a rookie QB the run game and play action passing that comes with it is vital because that controls the clock and buys Jones more time to throw. How this group does is a big key to how the season goes.   

Running backs: I’m on record for being against the Sony Michel trade because it drained their depth. Having said that, the situational benefits offered by the combination of short yardage/goal line power of Rhamondre Stevenson and explosiveness of J. J. Taylor made Michel the odd man out. Plus there’s the reliable James White with a clearer head in the third down back role. Now, if lead back Damian Harris can stay healthier than his first two seasons, when he’s missed 16 games, they have something. But if he can’t, you’ll see why I would have kept Sony over special teamer/RB Brandon Bolden. 

Linebackers: Keeping nine LB’s shows this is the deepest and more versatile part of the team. Some want to include the line here to say it’s the front seven, but I’m wait and see on them. Kyle Van Noy, Josh Uche, Chase Winovich and newcomer Matthew Judon give them four quality edge rushers, while Van Noy and Judon will help the returning Dont’a Hightower and Ja’Whaun Bentley fortify the run D.  

Weaknesses

Wide receivers: Aside from Jakobi Meyers no one, especially speedy newcomer Nelson Agholor, did anything to dispel fears they could again be a weakness. So beyond the evolving Meyer they’re totally wait and see.

Injury concerns: Durability is important and while I like the new tight ends, both Hunter Henry and Jonnu Smith have injury histories, as do Isaiah Wynn, Trent Brown and Damian Harris. There are also the concerns expressed last week about whether the slightly built rookie QB can last amid NFL pounding for 17 games. So there is a hold your breath quality for some key parts of the team. 

Backup QB: Given what I just said, with Cam gone they have a big hole behind Jones until either Jarrett Stidham makes it back from the PUP list sooner than later, or they trade for someone like Nick Foles because Brian Hoyer isn’t up to it.

Kicker: Speaking of hold your breath issues, how about keeping the big-legged but inconsistent Quinn Nordin, who made just 72 percent of his FG attempts in college? Especially when Nick Folk made his last 26 kicks a year ago, including two game-winners as time ran out. So his course seems like a risk.  

Stephon Gilmore: Seven months seem like an awfully long time for a quad not to heal; his absence feels a lot more like a holdout than injury. Which makes the six weeks he’ll miss a test to see how they play without him during the softest part of their schedule and how JC Jackson stands up as the number corner. Both are up for contracts next year and only one at most will be re-signed. So my guess is if Jackson does well, Gilmore could be traded by the time he’s ready to come off the PUP.  

Other stuff 

The Division: It’s much tougher now because they’re competing against good coaches in Sean McDermott and Brian Flores as opposed to the band of doofuses Coach B mostly faced for 20 years. With Josh Allen at QB Buffalo is a SB contender and Miami likely takes another step up, thus the division is much tougher now, Meanwhile, the Jets should be better, but they’re not ready yet.  

Outlook: It’s harder to predict than in the good old days when you start with 12-4 and subtract, or more likely add, a win or two. They start with the softest part of the schedule with four home games (including vs. you know who) and have the Jets and quarterback-less Houston on the road. So it could be a 5-1 start. Tougher over the next 11, but they do get the Browns and Titans at home, along with the Jets, Falcons and Jags — so there’s five more wins. Then the battle for the AFC East plays out in December when they face Buffalo twice and Miami, where they win one of those three.

Prediction: 11-5 and a wild card berth.

We have begun one of the most interesting months on the sports calendar. I love September because it’s where the rubber hits the road in baseball and football begins.

It finally gives baseball the sense of urgency it mostly lacks during five interminable months of non-drama game after game. While each game played has the exact same value, wins and losses in September seem so much bigger — an irony for a game that brags it’s best because it has no clock. But it’s actually made much better as sand slips through the hourglass over the final 30 days. That ratchets up the tension and reduces the room for error to make baseball’s final month better than any other sport because they play almost every day.

The opening week of the NFL is exactly opposite of baseball, because with so few games a loss really matters, instead of just being one of 162. So the pennant race starts immediately. And while we pretty much already know who’ll be in the college football Final 4 — Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia and Clemson — it offers a pageantry and excitement unmatched in other sports. Plus it gets major points for having marching bands at halftime instead of the “entertainment” shows pro sports are so married to. And with local lads Chip Kelly, Ryan (make my) Day and Dan Mullen head coaching UCLA, Ohio State and Florida respectively, there are many local rooting interests as well.

So that’s what lies ahead starting in the year’s ninth month, which, as you can probably tell, I’m jacked and pumped for! These were some of the big stories as we entered September.

Sox are in the hunt, but… The Red Sox enter the final month running on fumes as they’re not just losing to the good teams, they’re losing to the bad teams, and even when they win it’s been scary. Like winning by just a run over the 55-71 Twins on Wednesday when they yanked closer Matt Barnes four hitters into the 9th inning after blowing a 9-4 lead. The biggest reasons are (1) maybe he had to because the starters were so bad, but Alex Cora has blown out the bullpen, (2) they needed two “good” arms for the pen and Chaim Bloom got them two flamethrowers instead, (3) the big boys aren’t hitting consistently, (4) they’re terrible defensively and make dumb mistakes. Not sure how they’ll turn that around in the next 30 days.   

Sailing along: coverage: The lone piece of good news the Red Sox got in August was Chris Sale blasting out of the blocks to win his first three starts with a 2.35 ERA. That was most encouraging. And as someone who absolutely hates when a pitcher in the pitch count era wastes a pitch trying to get someone to swing at a bad pitch on an 0-2 count, you know I loved seeing him strike out three Twins on nine pitches in the third inning on Thursday. It made him and the great Sandy Koufax the only pitchers to do that three times in their career.  

Cam gets axed: Well, I didn’t see that coming. But whether sooner than later, it was inevitable that Mac Jones would eventually be the starter. Guess Coach B overcame concerns outlined by Greg Bedard in the Boston Sports Journal about the under-developed physically developed Jones could last the rigors of a 17game NFL season. Similar concerns were why Tom Brady red shirted his rookie year as the fourth QB because they knew he needed a year under an NFL training program to get stronger and sturdier. But in the end, Cam Newton’s refusal to get vaccinated and Jones outplaying him in the preseason were viewed as the more important factors. I’ll have more on this in next week’s season preview.  

Sony forecast in L.A.: Given that J. J. Taylor and Rhamondre Stevenson have demonstrated far more explosive speed and power on short yardage and plays around the goal line, the combination offers more utility than the departed Sony Michel. But, given their intent to ground and pound, I’m not sure that was the smartest move of the pre-season. The banging style of lead back Damian Harris has forced him to miss 16 games in his first two seasons and that could put their depth to a test. Yes, Brandon Bolden is a special team ace, but with him having been with Miami in 2019 and taken a Covid pass last year, they’ve survived without him for two of the last three years. So, if they are searching for help at RB due to injuries in November, tell me then whether getting picks in rounds 5 and 6 for Michel was worth it.   

Jackie Mac hangs it up:Pioneering female sports writer and one-time UNH hoopster Jackie MacMullen hung up her ESPN notepad the other day. She was a trailblazer in the once male-dominated profession who became one of the most respected voices around the NBA. She earned my respect for two observations she made soon after she began covering the Celtics for the Boston Globe. I’m a skeptic by nature and doubly so because she was a “girl” then, so I thought saying Larry Bird shouldn’t be playing hurt with his back problems was too dainty for me. She also kept talking about how good this guy Xavier McDaniel of the Seattle Supersonics was, and I didn’t think he was that good. But it just took a few games after he joined the Celtics following Bird’s retirement for me to say, “I like this guy — he’s tough and a leader.” So Jackie was right about X, and since Bird was forced to retire early because of his back issues, she was right about that too. Both observations earned my respect from then on. So congrats on a job well done, and happy retirement.

So the “Should it be Cam or Mac?” media soap opera raged on again all last week. It got a weird jolt when both played very well in the Patriots’ 35-0 pre-season rout of the Eagles. Though it should be noted it all came against the second team Philly D.

Depending on which camp the media member was in, the pontificators said the showing was further evidence their choice should be the Week 1 starter. Not that it matters, because with Coach B leaning toward the veteran, I suspect no matter what Mac Jones does, it’s Cam Newton’s job if he keeps playing like he did vs. Philly, when he had more mustard on his throws than he did all last year.

But here’s my question: why can’t the Patriots play both guys based on game circumstances and match-ups? Especially since their distinctly different skills are so complementary?

Say what you will about Cam’s puny eight TD passes last year, but he still ran for nearly 600 yards while scoring a QB team record 12 touchdowns to account for just four fewer touchdowns than Tom Brady threw for in 2019. As for Mac, his game is about quick, accurate, on the money short throws that move the chains and he’s run the no huddle in each game, which is something Newton never did in 2020.

Of course playing two quarterbacks challenges the old axiom that says if you have two quarterbacks you have none. And there’s also the same voices the likes of the Wright Brothers, Henry Ford, Steve Jobs and others heard on their way to changing the world from folks with tiny brains who said, “We can’t do that, because we’ve never done that before.”

Except when it comes to NFL football it has been done already, and quite successfully at that, though admittedly not recently. Here are a few examples.

1950 L.A. Rams: I know this was 1950, but with two Hall of Fame quarterbacks and HoF wideouts in Crazy Legs Hirsch and Tom Fears this team chucked it all over the lot. So much so that their 38.3 points per game season scoring average is still the highest in NFL history. Norm Van Brocklin and Bob Waterfield each started six games and played in all 12 games, as NVB threw 233 passes for 2,061 yards and 18 touchdowns, while Waterfield managed to throw 213 for 1,540 and 11 while being married to ’50s Hollywood starlet Jane Russell. The combined 29 passes would have been a NFL record if done by one guy. They made it to the title game, where they lost to the Browns 30-28.

1956 Giants: Kind of a weird setup where Don Heinrich started all 12 games but Charlie Conerly came off the bench to play more snaps in every game as he threw twice as many passes (170-88) as Heinrich. It worked, though, as the G-Men went 8-3-1 and crushed the Bears 47-7 in the title game.

1970 Raiders:Daryle Lamonica was the starter and backup George Blanda only threw 55 passes. But George, not Lamonica, was the 1970 Player of the Year because over a seven-week period he rallied Oakland from behind to win or tie six games in the final minute by throwing the winning TD pass or moving them in position to where he kicked the winning (or tying) FG.

1972 Washington Football Team: To this day I don’t know why George Allen played the wobble and win ex-halfback Billy Kilmer at QB over the great Sonny Jurgensen. But any time they were down by 10 or so in the second half, in came the relief-pitching Sonny to chuck spirals all over the yard. It was actually a multi-year thing, but in ’72 it took them all the way to the SB before they lost as the Dolphins completed their undefeated season.

Can it work? In a word, yes, but it’s likely up to Cam. QB controversies are most destructive when the locker room gets split over who should play. So if Cam fought it there might be issues. But then again, this is his last chance to show he can still win big as a starter, so if Bill wants the kid to play he may have to go along no matter what.

As for implementation, football is now a game of situational players and player groups. Long yardage, short yardage, red zone packages, down 14 in the fourth quarter, up 14 in the fourth, quarter etc. Just assign the appropriate QB to the appropriate package and their job will be to be ready when the call comes and produce when on the field. What’s the big deal?

How would it work? Given their knack for innovation I’m sure Josh McDaniels and Coach B could come up with plenty of ways to employ their combined skills, like these:

The change of pace:With Mac already showing he can handle the no huddle, they could pick up the pace to start the second half (and derail any adjustments) by running it for three or four series. Then bring Cam back in with a jumbo package to ground and pound a winded defense to control the ball and clock.

The wildcat: If the choice is to start with the pinpoint passer, then make Cam a Wildcat QB like New Orleans successfully did last year with Taysom Hill, who is neither the passer nor the runner Newton is.

Relief pitcher: If Jones turns out to be the more reliable passer, then he plays the Jurgensen/Blanda relief pitcher role if they fall behind and need to pass on most downs.

I’m not sure if Coach B would try this, but I am sure if they did they could pull it off. Plus it would be great to see the naysayers kill it until it worked and then spend the next few years pontificating about how they knew it would work from the start.

Got it.

You know it’s strange when a Little League team from Manchester and Hooksett gets to the New England Regional Final game and doesn’t even get to use their own name because the team they played was Manchester of Connecticut. At least according to the Hartford Courant. So North Manchester-Hooksett is New Hampshire. But someone tell me why the other guys weren’t called Connecticut? And don’t get me started on a championship game being called after four innings on the mercy rule with North — ah, New Hampshire leading 11-1. How in the name of Frank Malzone can a championship game be decided by the mercy rule? Incredible.

However, that’s the “get off my lawn” portion of this column, so let me add: North Manchester-Hooksett in the Little League World Series — wow! Thrill of a lifetime. Congrats. Looking forward to all those accounts from my one-time broadcasting partner Jamie Staton streaming in on WMUR.

OK, here’s some other stuff that’s going on.

People often forget what a marathon an MLB baseball season is. Latest example is the Yankees being just three games behind the Sox as their crucial series started on Tuesday after being given up for dead on July 24 after falling nine back of the Sox after losing three of four to them at the Stadium.

I don’t get the criticism of Chaim Bloom bringing in Kyle Schwarber over Anthony Rizzo at the trade deadline. The prime objective was to get a productive left-handed bat to balance off the lineup against right-handed pitching. At the deadline Rizzo was hitting .213 with 9 homers and 26 RBI against righties vs. Schwarber’s .258, 23 homers and 46 RBI. So he got a better 2021 hitter for a better price. Thus instead of (now red hot) Bobby Dalbec sitting out, it’s .215 hitting rookie Jarren Duran, with Alex Verdugo playing center, Schwarber and J.D. Martinez splitting time at DH and in left field. Not a defensive enhancement for sure, but half the time it’ll be in left at Fenway, where anyone can play. Dicier on the road, so Duran gets more time as a defensive replacement. True, Schwarber was IL’d at the time of the deal, but after a hot start Rizzo went to the Covid-19 inactive list on Aug. 7.

Ditto on the pitching. True, it’s a bit risky to rely on Chris Sale, but if healthy who got a better starter at the deadline than maybe the Dodgers? As for the relievers he got, I’m guessing with Garrett Richards and Martin Perez now in the bullpen they’re unneeded/mop-up arms stockpiled in case someone gets hurt.

Since we’ve already had a record eight no-hitters this year, my claim micro-managers are taking the drama/thrill out of one of baseball’s great feats by regularly yanking guys with no-no’s in progress sounds a little dumb, doesn’t it? They didn’t even have that many in the Year of the Pitcher in 1968. Though they did see San Francisco’s Gaylord Perry no-hit the Cardinals one day and the Cards’ Ray Washburn come back the next day and no-hit Perry’s Giants.

The best of the best was Arizona’s Tyler Gilbert throwing on Friday in his first major league start. Only the fourth time that’s happened since they started pitching overhand in 1884.

Speaking of first ever starts, Mac Jones made his during the 21-13 win over the Washington Football Team last Thursday. Not bad, but not earth-shattering as some made it sound. Basically, he was Brady 2001 in dinking and dunking his way to a meager 4.6 yards-per-attempt average. Overall he was 13-19 for 87 yards with no TD drives against WFT’s second teamers. In a word: progress.

What a Stupid I Yam Note of the Week: In last week’s column on the biggest Patriots stories as pre-season play began, I left out arguably the most important story: With likely six new starters on offense and six more on D, the key to the season is how quickly the new people assimilate to the system and mesh with their new teammates.

Speaking of dumb, am I the only one who thinks it’s beyond ridiculous that the PGA Tour forbids players from wearing shorts on super hot days? What does that accomplish?

The Celtics fan in me has always hated the newly acquired Dennis Schroder whenever he’s played against them because he plays chippy. But he brings what’s needed most to the oh so placid Celtics, someone who plays with a feisty edge. They haven’t had anyone like that since they foolishly let Marcus Morris walk after 2018. And thanks to a whopper of a business error, they get him for a measly $5.7 million.

Can’t take credit for this as I saw it on one of those dumb internet trade proposal things. It has the Celtics getting the dying to get out of Sacramento Marvin Bagley III for Grant Williams, Romeo Langford and a pair of second-round picks. He’s been disappointing so far, so it’s a risk, but one with a high upside if the former second overall pick gets it together. If he doesn’t, he’s still a 14 and 7 career guy who can come off the bench to play the 4, and even 5 in small lineups, while also making them bigger. Worth the risk — do it.

OK, one more “get off my lawn” comment. Forget Shohei Ohtani, just think of what Tristan Lucier’s 2 home run, 9 strikeout effort would have been if the Final had gone the full six innings vs. the other Manchester! And finally, hey, New Hampshire, er, I mean North Manchester-Hooksett! Everyone back here is pulling for you!

P.S. Whatever you do, next time you see him, don’t ask Staton about our interview with John McCain during a pretty good football game between Dartmouth and Cornell the day of the first GOP debate at Dartmouth during primary season back in 2000.

A disaster.