Wednesday's List of 13: Mid-week musings…….

Wednesday's List of 13: Mid-week musings…….

13) I’d rather watch NBA Summer League games than Home Run Derby; just would rather watch actual games with guys competing for jobs.

Overall I’m a much bigger baseball fan than an NBA fan, but I like games, not batting practice.

12) Been listening to Sam Mitchell do analysis on NBA Summer League games; he’s great, he tells stories, just sits there and talks about ball, which is all I’m asking for.

11) Tip of the cap to my friend Phil, who nailed a $50 bet on Pete Alonso at 5-1 to win the Home Run Derby.

This makes up for the summer night in 1983 when we were at jai-alai in Hartford, CT and Phil didn’t do so well; he unleashed a torrent of epithets at a player named Gurney who cost Phil a quinella with a bad blunder. To this day it is the hardest I’ve ever laughed in my entire life; had tears running down my face, I was laughing so hard.

Phil….he wasn’t laughing; hope this makes up for it.

10) Cincinnati Reds used five different left fielders in Sunday’s game, the first time that has happened since 1908; they also used four 2B Sunday, first time they’ve done that since 1958.

In that 1958 game, Gus Bell went 1-5 for the Reds with a run scored and an RBI; his grandson David is the Reds’ manager now.

9) Jay Bruce is the first player in MLB history to hit 10+ home runs for two different teams before the All-Star break; he hit 14 for Seattle, has 10 for the Phillies.

8) Astros, Twins, Braves and Brewers are supposedly the teams most interested in Madison Bumgarner; Minnesota is the only one of those teams that can acquire Bumgarner without his permission.

7) Jaxson Hayes is running amok for the New Orleans Pelicans in summer league; this is a kid who never started a high school game until his senior year, which means that only 20 months ago, he had never started a game, and now he looks like an NBA star in the making.

6) Seth Greenberg is really good on TV and he was a good college hoop coach, but he said something the other day, that was odd…….odd as in, people who work for ESPN aren’t allowed to criticize guys who played for Duke.

He was talking about Cam Reddish on the Hawks: “He was regarded as a good shooter coming out of high school, but he didn’t make many shots last year.”

It is pretty easy to decide who the good shooters are: they make the most shots. Reddish shot 39.4% inside the arc, 33.3% outside the arc at Duke last season. Not good.

5) Thanasis Antetokounmpo is signing a fully guaranteed two-year, $3M veteran’s minimum deal with the Bucks. Milwaukee is getting creative with ways to keep his brother Giannis, one of the best players in the league, but as a lifelong Oakland A’s fan who had to live thru the Jeremy Giambi era, it likely won’t work.

4) Rams’ QB Jared Goff got his first hole-in-one a few weeks ago. I got a hole-in-one once, but it came on a windmill hole, so I’m told that doesn’t count.

3) Chinese Nationals 84, Hornets 80— I know it is only summer league, but Michael Jordan owns the Hornets and he couldn’t have been too happy after this game Monday night.

2) Has the Home Run Derby hurt the All-Star Game’s popularity? Sometimes it seems like the home run contest has surpassed the game as a fun event for fans.

1) Commercial on the Mets’ game Sunday: “Cremation starting for as little as $895!!!”

Who knew cremation was such a good deal?