Tuesday's List of 13: Nobody asked me, but……

Tuesday's List of 13: Nobody asked me, but……

13) Angels’ pitcher Tyler Skaggs passed away Monday in Texas; he was 27 years old.

Monday’s Angels-Rangers game in Arlington was postponed.

RIP, young man.

12) 29 years ago today was the only time I was ever fired from a job; it was a job in the NY State court system, and I was there for 10 months- the person they wanted to have the job didn’t score well enough on her civil service test, so they needed a schmuck to fill the item until she became reachable on the list.

I was that schmuck.

So on July 2, 1990 I was told to take a hike by the Chief Clerk, which taught me a few lessons, the biggest one being: Money ain’t everything; happiness is way more valuable.

Don’t stress out about things you can’t control. Do your best, be a good person, and things will work out well enough in the end. Health and happiness are the most important things.

11) Friday/Saturday, the Cleveland Indians became the first major league team EVER to get shutout in consecutive games, while allowing 13+ runs in both games.

10) Think about how much the NFL has changed over the last 40 years.

In 1976, the Eagles hired Dick Vermeil as coach; he had open tryouts for the public- a 30-year old bartender made the team as a special teams player, a story that was chronicled in the fine movie Invincible, with Mark Wahlberg.

That summer, the Eagles did 2-a-day practices six days a week for six weeks, played six games in the preseason. Now, 2-a-days are forbidden, they play four preseason games (the better players play 2 or 3 games, if that) and there is very little hitting in camp, to avoid injuries.

9) LSU’s football team hired former USC/Rams’ head coach John Robinson as a consultant; LSU coach Ed Orgeron became friends with Robinson when Orgeron was as assistant at USC. Robinson’s wife is from New Orleans; he last coached at UNLV in 2005, is 83 years old.

8) Tampa Bay Rays’ rookie Brendan McKay won his MLB debut on the mound over the weekend, allowing one hit, no runs in six IP. Monday night, he was the Rays’ DH.

7) Mets will pay All Stars Jeff McNeil, Pete Alonso a combined $1,122,714 this season

Mets are paying Bobby Bonilla $1,193,248 this season, and every year until 2035.

6) Golfer Zach Johnson dropped out of the top 100 in the world rankings for the 1st time in over 15 years (April 2004).

5) St John’s sports teams (mostly their basketball team) switched from Under Armour to Nike this week; their 300 athletes will be outfitted wearing the swoosh.

4) Two Cleveland State basketball players joined the transfer portal Monday: Tyree Appleby (17.2 ppg, 5.6 apg) and Jaalam Hill (11.2 ppg, 6.1 rpg). There are rumors that four other players are also considering leaving- they’re not happy with coach Dennis Felton.

3) Charlie Blackmon hit .412 in June, scoring 30 runs, knocking in 25 in 22 games.

2) Kevin Durant played three whole seasons for Golden State, but the Warriors are going to retire his #35, which is weird. Golden State went 140-24 the two years before Durant got there, splitting a pair of Finals appearances. Will Andre Iguodala get his number 9 retired? Have to think Curry, Thompson, Green will all get theirs retired.

1) I’m guessing the people who make the NBA schedule (and TV schedule) have their hands full doing next season’s schedule— once the free agent dust settles, they can come up with the games they want to feature on opening night and Christmas Day.

Toronto-Brooklyn on opening night? Lakers-Warriors in Golden State’s new arena?