Tag: SportsCenter

Who’s Taking Home The Masters Green Jacket This Year? Scheffler? McIlroy? LIV?!

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Hello Friends.

If the current 40 degree temperatures in Boston have you doubting it, hearing those two words and seeing the Azaleas in full bloom are here to let you know that spring has arrived and with it comes The Masters. If that wasn’t enough to get you ready to call out of work on Thursday, may I remind you that sports gambling is now officially legal in Massachusetts making this truly the single greatest four day span on the sports television calendar.

So who’s going to take home the Green Jacket this year? Let’s dig in.

All odds shown below are courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook as of April 5th.

Favorites to Win The Masters:

  • Scottie Scheffler +650
  • Rory McIlroy +750
  • Jon Rahm +850
  • Tony Finau: +1800
  • Jordan Spieth +1800
  • Patrick Cantlay +2000
  • Justin Thomas +2200
  • Jason Day: +2200
  • Dustin Johnson +2200
  • Xander Schauffele +2500

Longshots to Win The Masters:

  • Tiger Woods +9000
  • Sahith Theegala +12000
  • Phil Mickelson +35000

Dark Horse Bets to Win the Masters:

  • Collin Morikawa +2800
  • Brooks Koepka +4000
  • Matthew Fitzpatrick +5000

Scottie Scheffler

Simply put, Scheffler went off last year with four wins, including The Masters, four runner up finishes, 11 Top 10 finishes, $14M in earnings, plus two more wins already this season. However, nobody has won back to back Masters since Tiger Woods did it back in 2002. In fact, over the last 16 years no defending champion has finished better than 12th at The Masters. So despite his blistering run last season, history is not on Scottie’s side here. With all that being said, Scheffler is the No. 1 golfer in the world for a reason and is still the favorite to don the Green Jacket yet again on Sunday. If you think the pressure is going to get to the resident Zen Master on tour, think again.

Rory McIlroy

Rory finished second to Scheffler at The Masters last year as the Green Jacket is the final major accolade that continues to elude him as he seeks to complete the career Grand Slam. I laughed out loud during an episode of the Netflix series Full Swing when after one of his kids points out a photo of Rory, he self depricatingly jokes “that’s back when Daddy used to be good.” So while he seemingly takes it in stride, make no mistake Rory is not taking it easy in Augusta this week.

Jon Rahm

Rahmbo is a threat to win any time he laces em up. Despite an uncharacteristic tank job last year when he finished tied for 27th, Rahm had finished in the Top 10 at Augusta four years in a row, with his best effort coming in 2018 when he finished fourth. With three wins already in the books for Rham this season, there are worse guys to put your money on.

Tiger Woods

Tiger may be going into Augusta at 90/1 odds, but don’t tell the patrons that because the five time Augusta champ is still THE fan favorite.

I’ll be honest, I always have a separate screen setup strictly dedicated to Tiger Watch even if he’s struggling and out of it on Day 1. Tiger himself even suggested he’s on borrowed time as he said in his Augusta presser, “I don’t know how many more I have in me.” Don’t ever rule out Sunday Red doing the unthinkable and taking over if Tiger is in contention come the weekend, but if nothing else make sure you truly enjoy watching Tiger Woods at Augusta while you still can.

Brooks Koepka

Koepka seems to be rounding into form with two recent wins on the LIV tour, which has my gambling spidey senses tingling. Before a rash of injuries and an unceremonious jump to the LIV tour, Koepka was like a majors whisperer. The guy was absolutely money in major tournaments, even if he seemed to lack that same focus in regular tournaments throughout the season. I guess it makes sense you’re more focused and geared up for The Masters than say the Honda Classic, but it’s wild when you look at Koepka’s career stats. Of his eight career victories, half of those are majors. While Full Swing showed a Koepka at his lowest and seriously lacking in confidence, maybe the recent run of success on the Saudi tour has given BK the juice he needs to finally slip on a green jacket this weekend.

LIV Golf at The Masters

What comes as a surprise to absolutely no one is things have been a little awkward in Augusta between the LIV rebels and the PGA Tour rank and file. You’ve got stories of a famously gregarious Phil Mickelson not saying a word at the Champions Dinner and mainly keeping to himself, which if we’re being honest bums me out.

Of course there was more venom being spit back and forth between Greg Norman and Fred Ridley after Norman publicly complained about not being invited to Augusta this year despite having spent the last 12 months trashing the PGA.

There’s even controversy over the attire of the LIV guys as most of them are sporting their LIV team gear at Augusta, which they are apparently contractually obligated to do according to Dan Wetzel.

Now if you are the type of sports fan who doesn’t have a horse in the race and is just rooting for chaos, then you’ll want to keep a close eye on the 18 LIV golfers this weekend. Norman has already gone on record to say the LIV golfers will storm the 18th green in celebration if one of their guys wins. What are the chances of that chaos coming to fruition this weekend? Not super likely, but there are obviously some big names who have had success here with six former Masters champions on the LIV roster including Dustin Johnson (+2200), Phil Mickelson (+35000), Patrick Reed (+8000), Sergio Garcia (+15000), Charl Schwartzel (+35000), and Bubba Watson (+25000).

Of course Cameron Smith is a solid bet at (+3500) and we already talked about Koepka. Maybe Joaquin Niemann (+5500), Mito Peirera (+8000) or even Bryson DeChambeau (+11000) breaks through, but I’m not putting my money on it. Hell even Phil might be worth throwing $5 on at 350/1 odds! The biggest roadblock to any of the LIV players though is going to be the relative lack of competition they’ve been playing against since defecting.

Whoever you do decide to place your wagers on, do yourself a favor and spread it around on a few different golfers and maybe some Top finish bets because if you haven’t realized yet the final round falls on Easter Sunday this year. Just make sure you give yourself something to hang onto so you’re not shouting at the TV in front of grandma when your only guy is shooting over par before brunch is even finished.

Enjoy the weekend folks.

Kyrie Irving Was Acting Like an Insufferable Asshole Once Again Before the Nets Celtics Game

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Is Kyrie gonna read some horoscopes and tarot cards like your earthy crunchy ex-girlfriend after the game too?

I understand this probably comes off as sour grapes to anyone that hasn’t had to listen to Kyrie’s bizarre press conferences and media appearances on a daily basis (buckle up Nets fans), but I swear the Celtics dodged a bullet when this guy decided to skip town. I’m not a very religious or spiritual person so I’m not here to dump on anyone’s beliefs, but seriously what in the hell is Kyrie doing here? He is legit every girl I went to school with that uses crystals and what position the moon is in to guide their life decisions.

If there’s one thing I give credit for it’s for just not giving a shit how out to lunch you appear to be to just about everyone because this little act came just hours after Charles Barkley roasted Kyrie for his media act.

Brooks Koepka Crushes New “This is SportsCenter” Commercial

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What can’t this man do? Dominate every major tournament he plays in, rocks banana hammocks while on vacation with his super model girlfriend, makes me feel some kind of way with his ESPN The Body Issue photo shoot, and now deadpan acting in his This is SportsCenter debut.

True story: one time Mattes and I completely punted on studying for our final exams in college because the night before the exam ESPN dropped a 2 hour long Best of This is SportsCenter Commercials special on us. The choice was out of my hands. Hey, I got a C so it was well worth it.

Whats your favorite SportsCenter commercial?

ESPN Laid Off 150 Employees Today. On-Air Talent Not a Part of the Purge.

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Chicago Tribune – ESPN says it is eliminating 150 studio and production employees as the sports broadcasting giant continues to shift its focus to a more digital future. The company says the layoffs, which were announced Wednesday morning in a memo to employees, don’t include on-air talent and will have a minimal impact on the network’s signature SportsCenter news program. The company says it will grow its business in several key areas, including the planned launch early next year of “ESPN+”, an app-based service that will allow viewers to purchase sporting events a la carte. The 38-year-old network has been squeezed by rising fees to broadcast live events. ESPN also has lost about 10 million subscribers during the past six years, based on estimates by Nielsen Media Research. The sports broadcaster has about 8,000 employees worldwide. ESPN laid off 100 employees in April, including some longtime on-air personalities.

The one piece I was hoping to hear coming out of all this was that it would be primarily on-air talent. Not that you ever want to see anyone get fired, but seeing 150 behind the scenes workers get laid off rather than the bloated on-air personalities is a shame. ESPN has clearly gotten too big for its own britches, but axing the camera guy making $30K a year isn’t really going to fix the problem.

Overpaying for live sports broadcasting rights, declining cable subscriptions, and multi-million dollar contracts for hosts of shitty shows is whats dragging the network down. The company continues to reshape itself, but I’m not convinced ESPN knows what it wants to be exactly. Cutting the fat and saying that you want to be “more digital” is like a string of buzzwords you’d expect to hear from the incompetent boss at your 9-5 job, not a billion dollar media empire.

Aside from all the business missteps, the biggest issue at ESPN is the content itself, which is why hearing things like the layoffs “will have a minimal impact on the network’s signature SportsCenter news program” is disappointing. Thats your problem.

SportsCenter used to be the go to show right before bed and again right when you woke up. Obviously it was always going to lose a bit of its luster with evolving technology as everyone now has every score and update right in their pocket. But great content is the one thing people will always come back for. People didn’t love SportsCenter for the score updates, they loved it because Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann were doing something no one had ever done before. They loved it because Stuart Scott was entertaining and legitimately made it *fun* to watch mindless highlights of a Milwaukee Bucks game you didn’t actually give a shit about.

ESPN used to bring the content and the characters, but thats fading now and they’re struggling to figure out the best way to plug the holes. Is it bringing in fresh talent like Katie Nolan? Or maybe revisiting partnerships with the pirate ship they fear most in Barstool Sports? Who knows. What we all do know though is that its going to take a lot more than laying off some production employees and cameramen to get them back on track.

PS – Seriously, RIP to the GOAT Stuart Scott. I met him once while taking a tour of the ESPN campus and he was the nicest guy. Was with his little daughter and still took a minute to stop and shoot the shit.

Rick Pitino Just Got Canned by Louisville and This Might be the End of the Road for Him

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Rick Pitino just got shitcanned by Louisville and it seems like this might be the end of the line for the controversial coach. Just one scandal after the next. There was the scandal with him banging the chick in the restaurant, the stripper parties that he threw an assistant coach under the bus for, and now this pay to play scandal. Guy is cooked. I think the term “lack of institutional oversight” gets thrown around a lot these days, but Pitino has that shit in spades.

 

And now Woj is tweeting out that Pitino had been putting out feelers on potential NBA jobs the past couple of years and there is “no interest.”

Ouch. College coaches always know when they’re in too deep and shits about to implode so thats when they start looking around. You think Pete Carroll just conveniently decided to take the Seattle Seahawks job right before the NCAA came down on USC for all the Reggie Bush sanctions? No way.

So now Pitino is out at Louisville after another massive scandal, there’s no interest from the NBA, and I’m sure he’ll have some kind of imposed multi-year suspension from coaching by the NCAA when this is all said and done. Theres no way another major school takes a shot on him potentially sinking their program too. Maybe we wind up seeing Pitino coaching Southern Connecticut or something down the line on the Isiah Thomas type comeback trail. I’d be remiss to not end this blog with the most Pitino-y Pitino moment of all time.

ESPNU Re-branding as The Ocho in a Hilarious and Timely Joke

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ESPN – Drawing inspiration from the 2004 hit movie “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story” featuring Vince Vaughn, Christine Taylor and Ben Stiller, ESPNU will become ESPN8: “The Ocho” on Tuesday, Aug. 8, or more appropriately, 8/8. For one day only, the faux network will feature a line-up of unconventional sporting events ranging from Disc Golf to Ultimate Trampoline Dodgeball and Firefighters World Challenge playing off the mantra highlighted in the movie: “Bringing you the Finest in Seldom Seen Sports”.

They say the key to comedy is timing. Well nothing more relevant and timely than a joke from a movie that came out THIRTEEN years ago. ESPN execs are probably sitting at their big desks up in their ivory towers thinking, “Yup, NAILED it.” Take the weekend off boys, our work here is done.

As bad as this joke thats almost old enough to drive is, I have to cover both sides of the story because I’m a former Big-J journalist and thats what the great ones do. So as stale as this idea is, something that will never not be funny are the This is SportsCenter commercials. I nearly flunked a final in college because I blew off studying to watch a best of This is SportsCenter Top 50 2-hour special. So you get credit for that ESPN, but not too much since Wieden+Kennedy created this idea. Only the most famous ad agency in the world. But hey, take the small victories where you can. CUE THE HIGHLIGHTS.

Tough Days at TWWL

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A reminder of better days at The Worldwide Leader.

It has been said before that your favorite Saturday Night Live cast is the first cast you are old enough to remember. That would explain my reverence for Weekend Update with Norm Macdonald and those early Celebrity Jeopardy sketches from the mid ’90s. The same could probably also be said about SportsCenter anchors.

With Saturday Night Live, there can be a legitimate debate over who anchored Weekend Update the best. Norm Macdonald might get my vote, but I recognize that good arguments could be made for Seth Meyers or Dennis Miller. There can be no debate over  SportsCenter anchors, though. [Sorry, First Take, et al.] The Olbermann/Patrick tag team was the best, hands down.

It’s disappointing to see what SportsCenter has become. I know that SportsCenter can’t go back to two guys reading news stories in front of a wood panel wall like the Ron Burgundy days. I know that the immediate availability of news and video on my phone in my pocket has to change the model of a sports news/highlights show.

But sometimes I just want to watch sports with the smartest, funniest people in the room. I’ll watch highlights of the Red Sox game for the 10th time if you give me something no one else does. Hell, I’ll watch MLS highlights if you don’t make me feel like a less-enlightened sports fan because I don’t know the name of the head coach of the Seattle Sounders.

I don’t care how many graphics or video boards you have. Just get me the highlights, the news and a couple of laughs. Don’t talk down to me and don’t bullshit me.
PS – A decent theme song wouldn’t hurt either. The current SportsCenter theme sounds like a race car engine on loop with the same six notes repeating. Do better, ESPN.