1-Man’s Opinion on Sports-Friday “NBA-FINALS-ROLLERCOASTER RIDE”

Posted by on June 20th, 2025  •  0 Comments  • 

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“NBA-ROLLER COASTER”
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We have 1-more game on the NBA schedule, capping off a schizophrenic championship round.

This Oklahoma City-Indiana Pacers final round denies description.  It all started early with the Pacers grit and grime win in Oklahoma City to start the series.

It progressed to the scorch job Thunder win on Indy’s home floor when OKC would have gone down 3-1 in the series.

There was the 71-point combo night from Oklahoma City’s stars Shai Gilegous-Alexander and Jalen Williams.

And then there was Thursday night’s devastation. A raucous crowd, an Indy team hitting 8-of-10 shots early to grab a big lead.  A (17-2) burst in the 2nd quarter.  The Pacers choke hold defense forcing a ton of turnovers.  Indy burying 3-point shots all over the 317-area code.  And the lead went to 30-points at one point in the second half.

All this with an ailing superstar Tyrese Haliburton playing limited minutes with a calf.

It looks as if OKC’s heart did not make the flight to Indianapolis.  Turnovers, tons of them, at one point (1-11) shooting from 3’s, and a team that got mugged all night long, all over the court by the Pacers defense.

It’s been a long time since the Pacers won a championship.  A decade ago the franchise had Reggie Miller and Ric Smits.  Back in the 1970s, the Pacers were ABA champions with the likes of George McGinnis, Mel Daniels and Roger Brown.

So they head to the 7th and final game of as wild a series as we have seen in a long time.  Sunday will be as hostile in Oklahoma City as Thursday night was in downtown Indianapolis.

Hard to think OKC’s Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren and the others would have another clinker of a performance, especially at home.  Of course, the youngest team in NBA playoff history has not been down this hallway before.  Neither has Indiana-this deep into the finals.

Shall be fun.  Sitting in the front seat of this roller coaster?  Hold on.  The Thunder and Pacers are about to provide one final ride come Game 7.
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1-Man’s Opinion on Sports-Thursday “LAKERS–A NEW ERA??”

Posted by on June 19th, 2025  •  1 Comment  • 

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Hacksaw’s Thursday Podcast-1:30-pm
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“LAKERS-CHANGING OF THE GUARD”
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The NBA off season has not yet begun, but we now have the story that has stolen the entire off season.

The LA Lakers have been sold.  The Buss family, which brought us Showtime, 12-championships, Kobe and Shaq, and more recently LeBron and Luka, have sold the legacy franchise.

Jerry Buss bought the team in 1979, signed every glittering star player out there, won those rings, and on his death, turned it over to his daughter Jeannie to run.  Here came Phil Jackson, with all his Chicago Bulls rings, and then the galaxy of more star players.

But this is not her father’s Lakers team anymore.  Jeannie’s version of the Lakers has just 1-NBA ring, and only 6-winning seasons in the last 13-years.

GMs have come and gone.  The coaching turnover has been staggering.  There are no home grown stars there anymore.  And the legacy roster is made up of guys who came from other teams, the latest being Luka Doncic and LeBron James.

The Lakers, with all its banners and glitter, don’t seem to be the lure they were once upon a time,, but that might be about to change.  Salary cap-Luxury Tax be damned, the incoming owners may well run the franchise differently.

Mark Walter, who runs TWG-Capital, purchased the Lakers for a record (10B) from the Buss estate.  The same Mark Walter, who led Guggenheim Investments to buy the Dodgers out of the bankruptcy grasp of Frank McCourt.
and the rest is baseball history.

The Dodgers have a World Series ring, 11-NL West titles.  They have had a record 1B-in revenues.  They have spent a high water (380M) this year in baseball payroll.  They signed Shohei Ohtani to a record (700M) contract.  They established an all time high 1B-revenue this past season.  And they have invested over (500M) in renovations at the historic Dodgers Stadium.

They also own the legendary Chelsea soccer team, and the Cadillac F-1 newly formed racing team.

That’s a pretty good track record.

So it is apparent the Lakers will embark on a different era with new leadership, deeper pockets, and a history of enormous business and sports success.

Yes, Jeannie Buss will remain on as the Lakers rep on the Board of Governors.  Yes GM-Rob Pelinka just signed a contract extension.  JJ Redick is still here as coach.  There is still LeBron James’ contract, the Doncic extension is coming, and there are hardly any draft picks in the cupboard to improve the team.

But Mark Walter’s resume is spectacular and tomorrow’s new leadership could be very different from the way the franchise operated yesterday.

The Lakers sale knocked the Oklahoma City-Indiana Pacers off the front pages and off the big topics of NBA sportstalk.

The top two franchises in the LA Sports Market are the Lakers and Dodgers.  And they are now both under the banner of Mark Walter’s leadership.

Stay tuned to see where all this goes.  Indeed a changing of the guard in LA.
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1-Man’s Opinion on Sports-Wednesday “NL-WEST…CHAOS”

Posted by on June 18th, 2025  •  0 Comments  • 

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“NATIONAL LEAGUE WEST-FACT VS FICTION”
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We are at mid-June on the baseball schedule and the teams are in turmoil in the National League West.

We are 6-weeks away from the Baseball Trading Deadline, and one big deal has already been made, but there may be limitations on other teams making deals.

A quick look at NL-West storylines:

DODGERS:

The calvary is on the way and it might save the Dodgers season heading into the playoffs.  LA has had 18-pitchers on the disabled list this first half of the season and the jury is still out what they will get out of the biggest names on that pitching staff.

Shohei Ohtani’s first outing was a statement, and now we wait to see how quickly he can build his innings and pitch counts from one start to another.

Clayton Kershaw has re-emerged with a couple of solid starts after spending the first third of the season recovering from surgeries.  As a 4th or 5th starter-he is trustworthy.

It does not appear there will be any Roki Sasaki sighting this year, because of the shoulder impingement that led to a cortisone injection.  Such an impressive start has come to a crashing halt.  They have to rebuild his mechanics.  Fix his psyche.  Hope they can build a pitch count for him.  He might not be ready till September if at all.

Blake Snell has not pitched this season and has been slow to rebound from his own shoulder woes.  Might he be a month away, but what will he be like when he gets back, with his history of lousy starts.  They owe him alot of money and he drags a pretty shoddy reputation to the mound with him based on first half failures virtually every year.

Tyler Glasnow may be the next in line, but you wonder about his propensity to breakdown with shoulder issues, forearm strains, now back tightness, as they try to fix his delivery to protect all the moving parts.  He likely is the next to arrive in the rotation, but for how long.

An alarm bell also rang this week with a 3rd bad outing in a row from Yosh Yomamoto, with the analytics people admitting the ace cannot hold up to pitching in a 4-man rotation.  They may try to slot him once a week, where his career ERA is (0.67) on 6-days rest.  Stay tuned for that scouting report next.

The LA bullpen is deep, banged up, recovering, but in recent weeks, the Dodgers have gone to bullpen days twice a week.  How look does that hold up?

LA is rich, deep in talent, unafraid to gamble, deep in the pockets despite its payroll.  Maybe there is another trade rental like last year’s Jack Flaherty rental.

SAN FRANCISCO:

A rock solid first half of the season on the mound, rotation and in the bullpen.  Think about this, they are a home run out of first place and have zero wins from Justin Verlander.  And they had 7-wins from Robbie Ray, with his history of arm problems.

The arrival of Raf Devers from the Red Sox shocked the world.  Now he joins Willy Adames and Matt Chapman in what could be a strong batting order, after an anemic first half at bat.  But we await to see how Devers hits in the bigger yard that is Oracle Park, vs what was the Green Monster, the Pesky Foul Pole and all things Fenway Park.

PADRES:

The good ship AJ Preller is taking on water.  They have half a rotation.  Dylan Cease has two wins and it’s mid June.  Nick Pivetta, who was the third wheel in the rotation on opening day, has 8-wins.

And despite a spotty resume, think about the number of decent innings they have gotten from Randy Vasquez, Ryan Berget and Stephen Kolek.

But the starters struggle to get to the 5th-6th innings, there is a ton of over reliance on the bullpen, and there is really nothing left to bring up from El Paso.

The great unknown is whether there are very many innings left from Yu Darvish, having his 3rd straight summer of elbow issues.  And the mystery of how to treat Michael King’s shoulder impingement.  And of course there is no Joe Musgrove.

How do the Friars stay in a pennant race with 3-key starters either not winning, or not even on the roster.  Think of past summers, when all those starters made 30-starts each.  Feels like this is the price being paid for what those guys gave you 3-summers in a row.

Preller’s winter shopping spree at Dollar General netted him home runs from Gavin Sheets, some decent play from super sub Jose Iglesias, but virtually nothing else.  A black hole in left, non-hitting catchers, not much of a bench bunch.

Complicating it all, there’s not much to use as trade bait.  Ownership seems to have a lid on the 210M-payroll the GM has spent on.  No one wants the big veteran contracts he has handed out either.

Hate to think the (14-3) Padres start was the best baseball you will see from this team. They are under .500 since then.  It feels like they are on borrowed time despite the stars in the lineup and in the batting order.

ARIZONA:

Last year was a surprise.  This year is a disappointment, as they struggle to stay at .500.

Losing front line starter Corbin Burnes for the year with elbow surgery was devastating, alot of money to a guy who never had arm problems.

The devastating shoulder surgery for Jordan Montgomery, all that wasted money invested in him.  Ditto for Eduardo Rodgriuez who has hardly been a good investment.  Not much help for once-ace Zac Gallen.

They never replaced departed 1st baseman Christian Walker either.  It’s just a fractured team right now.

COLORADO:

Are they still in the National League West?  What a disgrace.  I am sure there are roster changes coming.  Should be an ownership change too.  The worst start for a major league team since 1899.

If they were healthy, maybe somebody would make a run at Rockies pitchers German Marquez or Kyle Freeland or maybe 3B-1B-Ryan McMahon.

Their season was over by May 1st.

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1-Man’s Opinion on Sports-Tuesday. “DODGERS = ELECTRICITY SQUARED”

Posted by on June 17th, 2025  •  0 Comments  • 

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“PADRES-DODGERS-ELECTRICITY SQUARED”
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It was a night of expectation and anticipation.

And why not, it was Dodgers-Padres..a potential fight for first place.

It was Shohei Ohtani’s pitching debut, two years in the making after elbow surgery.

There was Dylan Cease, who struck out 11-Dodgers last time he faced them.

There were over 52,000-fans on hand expecting lots of fireworks.

It wound up being a Dodgers comeback outing.

Ohtani was obviously amped,throwing 28-pitches in a long first inning.  He cranked pitches of 98-99-100 in the lone inning.  But he was overthrowing and the Padres got a single run on a sacrifice fly.

Cease was electric to start, fanning 5-straight Dodgers in the start, but it caught up to him.  He wound up laboring, giving up 5-runs in a 30-pitch struggle of a 4th inning.  When he was done, he threw 101 pitches and gave up 6-runs, despite a 9-strikeout night before they pulled him.

The Dodgers did what the Dodgers do, hammering hits all over the yard.  Ohtani damaged them with an RBI single and run scoring double.  Mookie Betts drilled an RBI single.  Max Muncy blew it open with a 2-run double.

The Padres had one of their top arms starting while the Dodgers countered with another bullpen day because of their injury decimated rotation.  And yet, despite the odds stacked towards San Diego, LA smacked them around again.

It only counts as one game and there are three more to be played in LA, and there is likely another LA bullpen day coming too because of these pitching shortages.

Still a chance for the Friars to make a statement.  A loss Monday would put them 5-backs in the win column chasing LA.  If they get swept this week, the chase for first place could be officially over.

The best of Ohtani on the mound is still to come.  And they are getting more of their injured pitchers back.  The worst of the Padres could be coming though if they cannot get better starting pitching and if the bottom half of the lineup doesn’t start hitting.

It was electric in Chavez Ravine on Monday night.  The Friars need to find some of that juice and turn it into a winning streak.
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1-Man’s Opinion on Sports-Monday “US OPEN GOLF-A DAY TO REMEMBER”

Posted by on June 16th, 2025  •  0 Comments  • 

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“US OPEN-WIN OF A LIFETIME”
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JJ Spaun, an Aztecs golfer, struggling to find his PGA career, had a golf day for all time, surely the greatest day of his so-so career.

One never to forget.

Spaun beat the Oakmont Country Club course, heavy rains, winds, 5″deep rough, pot bunkers, and a field that was self-destructing around him, to win the US Open on the historic Cathedral Golf Course outside of Pittsburgh.

He bogeyed 5-of the first 6-holes on Sunday, a far cry from his very good first and second rounds.  He did not cave in.  The rain delay let him refocus-reset.

And then as the course buried everyone of the other 6-golfers who were jammed at the top of the leaderboard, he steadied and made shots.

Spaun did not lose his composure, birdied 17, and then hit a 64′ putt up hill and curled it into the cup for the monumental birdie putt win

it was an amazing final day that gets him guaranteed spots for a decade in the Masters and the US Opens.

As golfers got to the turn the horizon looking towards Pittsburgh looked ominous.  It was a skyline of black clouds and impending bad weather.  It started to drizzle, then it was rain drops as big as gum drops, and then it stormed a deluge.  It came so quick the greens flooded and the fairways looked like rivers.  It took nearly 2-hours to get a break in the weather, and get the water off the greens.

It was stunning to see the rain wipe out Nick Burns, a leader for two days.  Ty Hatton self destructed .  Adam Scott lost his putter along the way.  Scottie Scheffler dug too deep a hole to rally back.  The Scottish star Robert McInryre ran out of holes as did the Swede Victor Hovland.

But an Aztec-4-Life shocked the world, beat the weatherman, subdued the historic course, and won the 123-year old US Open.  And as he came off the 18th green, the soaked-sellout crowd rained cheers on him, shouting “JJ-JJ”, a sight to behold for one of our own.

A day, a round, a weekend forever with a US Open Trophy now to highlite his career.  The hardest road to travel, and JJ Spaun slogged thru it, put on a dazzling show, with an exclamation point birdie putt,  never to be forgotten.

What a day for an Aztec-4-Life.
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