"The Stack" 8-6-18
The NFL Hall of Fame Ceremony was held Saturday night. It was a memorable night to say the least.
The Stack is back on this Monday and I sure wish I was talking about Tiger Woods winning a tournament today, but alas, he faded over the weekend and was not close to winning the WGC Bridgestone Invitational. Justin Thomas won it at -15 (fifteen under). Maybe the PGA Championship will be better for him this week. We shall see. We don’t have a whole lot us to talk about, but let’s see what we have in “the stack” for today, Monday, August 6th:
NFL Hall of Fame Ceremony
The NFL Hall of Fame speeches were Saturday night and there were a number of touching moments from Brian Dawkins talking about depression to Ray Lewis talking for over a half hour about Lord knows what, it was certainly a memorable night in Canton. Jerry Kramer’s speech was touching. Randy Moss talked the late Dennis Green which was cool and emotional. A little ways to the south, in Chattanooga, Terrell Owens delivered an afternoon speech in which he went after the Pro Football Hall of Fame voters. I understand Owens’ frustration, but I believe he went about this all the wrong way. Maybe he should have been a better teammate, but that isn’t reason alone to deny him access to the hall right away. Not with those stats, but his antics showed why so many people didn’t want him in the hall in the first place. It was a great class that got into Canton. We’ll see who the next class will be come January 2019.
Mike Scioscia may step down at the end of the year
The longest tenured manager in Major League Baseball may be stepping down at the end of the season. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of (STOP ALREADY) manager Mike Scioscia is likely to be done at the end of the season though Scioscia himself says that may not happen. Scioscia won one World Series with the Angels, but I have always viewed him as an overrated manager, getting more credit than what he deserved and presiding over average teams without ever getting canned. Maybe I’m a little harder on Scioscia than I should be. He did have a number of great players on his teams like Tim Salmon, David Eckstein and Mike Trout (current) as well as Vlad Guerrero and Albert Pujols (current). I just didn’t find what he did to be all that special and I thought he got more credit than he deserves. The Angels looked like they might be going places this year, but Shohei Ohtani got hurt and the Mariners, Athletics and Astros have just been too good. We’ll see who the Angels go with in the offseason. One of the longest active runs in pro sports coaching/managing is coming to an end.
Red Sox sweep Yankees
The AL East race is for all intents and purposes over following thanks to the Boston Red Sox sweeping the four game series this weekend in Boston. The Yankees weren't feeling good about themselves entering Sunday's game, but they seemed poised to avoid the sweep, leading 4-1 going into the bottom of the ninth. Aroldis Chapman came in and had zero control, walking three and giving up a couple of runs to get the Red Sox back in it and then a throwing error helped led to the tying run. Andrew Benintendi singled in the game-winning run in the bottom of the tenth inning. The Yankees need to get the ship righted and fast. The Oakland A's are closing in and the Seattle Mariners also are a factor. The Yankees need Aaron Judge healthy and he should be back soon hopefully. Congrats though again to the Red Sox for winning the AL East in August.
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