We celebrate Labor Day by not engaging in much labor. I took that to heart this morning when I awoke at 0710; glanced at the clock; remembered that today was Labor Day; rolled over and went back to sleep until 0945. Let me say that it would not be very difficult to get used to that sort of a morning routine…
When the 32 NFL teams cut down from 90 players to 53 players on the roster, thee were a few guys who stood out on the list that I thought would get picked up fairly quickly.
- RB LeSean McCoy signed with the Chiefs and reunited with Andy Reid.
- RB Wendell Smallwood signed with the Skins
- RB Charcandrick West is unsigned as of this morning – but I think he will find work,
- WR Michael Floyd is a free agent – when he signs somewhere it will be his 6th team since 2016.
- WR Jordan Matthews is unsigned now but should find a home soon.
- TE Dwayne Allen is a good blocker and has averaged more than18 yards per catch for his career.
- DL Muhammed Wilkerson missed most of last season; don’t know his injury status.
- LB Shane Ray was a first-round pick in 2016 and is only 26 years old.
- DBs Eric Berry and Sua Cravens have an injury history.
- DB Teez Tabor was a second-round pick in 2017 and is only 23 years old.
Bob Molinaro had this item in a column last week in the Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot:
“Long ball: The Minnesota Twins are on pace to break the MLB single-season home run record. Quick, can you name a Twins hitter? Not so easy, is it?”
I could name 4 players of the top of my head – – but that is not a lot considering that the Twins carry 40 players on their roster. The 4 players that came quickly to mind included a pitcher, so he was not part of the Twins’ HR barrage. Here are the 3 hitters:
- Byron Buxton
- Nelson Cruz
- Jorge Polanco.
I got an email from a reader on Sunday afternoon alerting me to the fact the Carlos Zambrano is still pitching in professional baseball. Zambrano is a relief pitcher for the Chicago Dogs in the American Association. Zambrano is 38 years old; his last affiliation with a major league club was in 2013 when he was in the Phillies’ organization with Clearwater in the Florida League. His ERA with the Chicago Dogs is not all that great this year; he has pitched 61 innings to an ERA of 5.16. On a positive note, Zambrano has recorded 51 strikeouts in those 61 innings.
High school football is a very big deal in the State of Texas. The Prosper, TX school district is about 40 miles north of Dallas. Prosper HS sold the naming rights for its new football stadium to Children’s Health – a pediatric health care provider in Dallas. The deal runs for 10 years and the school district will collect $250K per year making the total value here $2.5M. Children’s Health will also provide medical personnel on the sidelines for the games. The Prosper HS district built the stadium for a total cost of $53M; the stadium has a capacity of 12,000 seats.
Finally, I think that Dwight Perry’s comment in the Seattle Times sums up succinctly and clearly the aftermath of Indy Colts’ fans booing Andrew Luck when he announced his retirement from football:
“Indianapolis Colts fans booed their very own franchise quarterback, Andrew Luck, when word of his retirement leaked out during a preseason game.
“Just thank your lucky stars that none of these fine people were on hand in 1939 at Yankee Stadium for Lou Gehrig Day.”
Those booing fans demonstrated a lot of class in that moment; too bad it was all low class…
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………
It should be noted – the population of Prosper Texas, with the 12,000 stadium? a little under 10,000
Ed:
People come from miles around to see high school football in that part of the world …