A week into MLB, with the Final Fours ahead, national media taking potshots at Kim Mulkey, and two weeks away from The Masters, this seems like a great day for a pop quiz.
True or false:
• The annual NFL owners meeting is being held in Cincinnati so there’s no beaches or nightlife to distract anyone, in a city known for Skyline Chili, which makes no sense, since there’s no skyline to speak of in the Queen City and whatever that is, it ain’t chili.
• One of the great perks of covering an NFL team is attending the NFL owners meeting because those owners would never willingly spend more than a few hours in Cincy, and instead gather at resorts in places like Palm Beach.
• We have Les Miles to thank for the tush push, which in a couple days is probably gonna be illegal.
• My favorite Tiger fan pal says no matter what we may think of Lester, he beat everybody to the twist of bringing in offensive linemen to replace running backs and receivers, eliminating line splits and having the quarterback (Jordan Jefferson in this case) tuck behind the tail of the center or guard and get shoved forward.
• The Bronx Bombers have mastered the big fly thanks to a bat redesign from a PhD from MIT who worked on a NASA-funded research team and was a physics professor at Miles’ alma mater, Michigan, for seven years.
• The men’s Final Four brings together the four No. 1 regional seeds for only the second time in tournament history, and it’s gonna happen more and more if the whiz kids at the NCAA convention this week redesign March Madness by expanding the field from 68 to 94 or 128, probably inevitable because these are people who would drain the fun out of Disney World to funnel every penny their way.
• Kim is gonna Kim. When she says something bold, brash, or even outlandish, blow-hards like Stephen A. Smith will rip her, infinitely more than they did when guys like Bob Knight, Gregg Popovich, the Bills (Parcells, then Belichick) and the Sabanator bristled at a question, or took an angle they missed entirely that might have actually had a humorous slant dripping in sarcasm.
• Min Woo Lee fought off a charge by two-time Masters champion Scottie Scheffler Sunday to win the Texas Children’s Houston Open on a Memorial Park course that charges a $38 greens fee. Seriously.
• The Pittsburgh Pirates’ first three games of the MLB season in Miami all were walk-off losses, the first time in 101 years that a big league team managed to choke away three games to set the tone for a season. The last team to do it? The 1924 Pirates. Three years later, they made it to the World Series but Ruth, Gehrig and crew were there waiting. Even with Paul Skenes as the staff ace, barring an overdue ownership change, all we Bucco fans can hope for is a winning season sometime in the next three years.
• The LSUS baseball team is 33-0 with four wins by one run and nearly every other one by a lot. The Pilots just swept Texas College in a three-game series by the combined score of 94-4, winning the final game 42-4 and the first one 37-0. Have to question what Texas College, which is 2-27, did to keep Game 2 down to 15-0.
All of which is true. Except the first half of the first one. Facts begin with this valid statement: there’s good reason you can’t get Skyline Chili anywhere else.
It’s important to sort through the alternative facts and seek the truth every day and especially on this day. This is the anniversary of LSU announcing it was installing a purple artificial turf field in Tiger Stadium.
You can take it from here.
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com