Briefly today from Dublin, Ireland… The World Series took a U-Turn in Washington. The Nats came home from Houston with a 2-0 lead having beaten Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander on the road. As I left town, fans there were talking about a sweep. Well, the Astros repaid the favor and swept the games in DC to take the Series lead 3-2. The only way for the Nats to win now would be to sweep the Astros in Houston once again meaning that the World Series would be won by having the visiting team win all 7 games. For the record, I did not see that as even a remote possibility…
Last Saturday, Rutgers played a home football game against Liberty University. Let me assure you that Liberty is not a football blueblood; it is not nearly the “Protestant analog to Notre Dame”. Here is the embarrassing part:
- Oddsmakers installed Liberty – on the road – as a 7.5-point favorite.
That line is a blight on the Big 10 Conference; other teams in the Big 10 think of Liberty as one of the tune-up opponents they get to come in for a game in early September; it is a step up from an intra-squad scrimmage. Rutgers did save what little there is of its football cred by winning the game outright. But still…
Just maybe there is a glimmer of hope for Pimlico racecourse. A previous study indicated it would take $424M to upgrade the track and to do some development in the area such that the Preakness Stakes could stay at Pimlico. No one stepped forward to foot that bill. However, here is the latest development in a nutshell:
“A multi-party agreement dependent on legislative change has been reached to keep the Preakness, middle jewel of American racing’s Triple Crown, at Pimlico racecourse in Baltimore for at least 30 years.”
Here is a link to a report with the details of this agreement. Of course, the four words here that provide plenty of uncertainty are “dependent on legislative change”. Here is the translation:
- There is a deal in place – – but the deals have not yet been made with the State legislators who will necessarily want to get something in return for their support of necessary “legislative change”.
- Can the deal survive negotiations with the legislators?
Finally, here is an observation from syndicated columnist, Norman Chad:
“If it’s all about launch angle, I suspect Albert Einstein would’ve been an incredible baseball GM and sports bettor.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………
When Cole is pitching like he was last night the Astros are very hard to beat. But the Nats scored only 3 runs in 3 games. That generally leaves you 0-3.