Good morning, all and Happy Friday!
Did the great Willie Mays almost become the manager of the New York Yankees? I explain it all in the video.
Here are some other thoughts on this last Friday in March:
Talk about a busy sports Friday. There are some Sweet 16 games that are off the charts tonight, including a doubleheader out of Washington, D.C. St. John’s plays Duke in the first game of the men’s tournament, followed by UConn vs. Michigan St. Then you have all of the baseball, NBA, NHL, golf and much more. It is going to be a late night.
Pirates fans need not worry about pitching ace Paul Skenes being lifted after 37 pitches in the first inning of yesterday’s Opening Day loss to the Mets, 11-7. If Oneil Cruz, a converted shortstop playing center field, had not botched a couple of balls hit at him, Skenes would have been out of the jam. When these things happen on Opening Day, the coverage is overblown, particularly in this social media-crazed world, where every baseball game of a 162-game season is treated like the seventh game of the World Series.
Word is, when each Dodgers player arrived at his locker in the clubhouse yesterday, he found a $4,000 watch, a gift from teammate Shohei Ohtani, with a note, “Let’s three-peat.” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts also gifted each of his players a bottle of Traveler whiskey.
To these sports-TV critics going after Netflix for promoting its programming, during the Opening Night telecast between the Yankees and the Giants, I have one question. What did you think Netflix was going to do? They have plunked down $150M over three years to televise two baseball games and the MLB home run derby contest. Did you not think they were going to promote Netflix? That is the idea behind these streaming services outlaying big bucks to carry sporting events. Baseball fans and critics, who tuned in - I was not one of them, choosing to listen on the radio - thinking they were going to get a baseball telecast, need to take off the blinders.
Draw any conclusions you want about the Opening Day baseball results, but I am one who doesn’t even start looking at the standings until May.
So much for actor Bill Murray being a regular at UConn men’s basketball games. Murray’s son, Luke, has been an assistant coach on Dan Hurley’s staff. Yesterday the genie was out of the bottle, with word Boston College has hired Luke Murray to be its next men’s basketball coach, meaning his dad will now become a regular in Beantown.
Well, that didn’t last long. Will Wade managed to coach the NC State men’s hoop team for one season, before returning to LSU. Word is LSU was willing to not only offer Wade more money to coach but give him more NIL dough than the Wolfpack. Wade was fired for cause by LSU four years ago, but now he returns. Welcome to college sports in 2026.
That is going to do it for today’s newsletter. Thank you for subscribing and have fabulous Friday!
DAN
