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

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

13) Baseball teams with biggest drops in attendance this season:
501,090— Toronto
490,948— Seattle
350,168— San Francisco
241,173— Washington
195,516— Cleveland
192,168— Detroit
184,254— Baltimore
171,863— Bronx

There is no reason for fans of pathetic teams (Tigers/Orioles) to go to games; Giants are likely to miss playoffs for third year in a row and Bruce Bochy is retiring. Toronto/Seattle are just bad teams, though Blue Jays have nucleus of good young players. Nationals/Indians are having strong second halves, so their numbers figure to improve.

12) Baseball teams with biggest rises in attendance this season:
483,396— Philadelphia
245,025— Minnesota
158,287— White Sox
153,523— Cincinnati
153,005— San Diego
126,293— Dodgers

Phillies/Padres signed big stars and sold a lot of tickets; Twins are surprising contenders. No idea why White Sox/Reds have better numbers. Dodgers hit 3,000,000 fans for 8th year in row, earlier in the season than ever before.

11) Baltimore Orioles were -$129 favorites over Kansas City Monday, -$118 Tuesday, only the 5th/6th times in 126 games the Orioles have been favored this season. Miami Marlins have been favored in only five games this season.

10) Dodgers (48,661 fans/game) lead MLB in attendance; Marlins (10,047) are last.

9) Baseball stuff:
— Braves signed OF Billy Hamilton to use mainly as a pinch-runner.
— Chris Sale’s (elbow) season is over; it is hoped he can avoid Tommy John surgery.
— Indians shut down P Corey Kluber’s rehab (oblique).

8) Arkansas State football coach Blake Anderson is taking a leave of absence from the team; his wife Wendy passed away this week, after a bout with cancer. Defensive coordinator David Duggan will take over coaching duties.

7) USC isn’t in college football’s preseason top 25 for the first time since 2000, Pete Carroll’s first year with the Trojans. USC got only one vote for the AP top 25, UCLA didn’t get any, while Appalachian State got five, which seems a little weird.

6) Nebraska was 4-8 last year but is #25 in the preseason poll this year; thats a lot of faith in coach Scott Frost, who is in his second season coaching the Cornhuskers. Nebraska is 23-27 the last four years, since they fired Bo Pelini.

5) There are already 1,633 people signed up for the Westgate SuperContest (at $1,500 a pop); entrants pick five NFL games a week against the spread. Winner makes over a million bucks.

4) Of the first 31 calls challenged by NFL coaches this preseason, only five were reversed.

3) Refs called two false-start penalties on Arizona Cardinals QB Kyler Murray Thursday, for the abrupt clap Murray uses before the snap- they better get that stuff figured out before September 8th. They should’ve figured this out in mimi-camp, but they didn’t.

2) Josh McCown’s football career path:
2002-05- Arizona Cardinals
2006- Detroit Lions
2007- Oakland Raiders
2008- Miami Dolphins
2008-09- Carolina Panthers
2010- Hartford Colonials (UFL)
2011- San Francisco 49ers
2011-13- Chicago Bears
2014- Tampa Bay Buccaneers
2015-16- Cleveland Browns
2017-18- New Jersey Jets
July 2019- ESPN’s studio
August 2019- Philadelphia Eagles

1) What would happen if an NFL team wanted to sign a women’s soccer player to be their new kicker? Carli Lloyd drilled a 55-yard FG at Eagles’ practice Tuesday.

Armadillo