UT or not UT, that's the question
So we are closing in on college football. War Everyone.
The preseason polls are out. The camp fights are becoming old and tiring. Heck, Deion Sanders is mad his Colorado Buffaloes aren't fighting enough, which is a rich take from a Hall of Fame defensive player who was allergic to tackling.
But the games are close, and we still follow the rules around these parts. So here's Paschall on UT QB1 Joe Milton.
Reading Paschall's prose about Milton's improving ability to protect the football and avoid INTs is worth your time.
It also serves as a springboard into the very real talking point that Milton may be the most important player in the SEC and maybe the country.
Sure there are better QBs. Caleb Williams at USC. Jayden Daniels at LSU. And there are better teams than these Vols, too.
But the ceiling is really the playoffs for Tennessee. The schedule is doable. The roster has been revamped. Josh Heupel is a dude.
And all of those high hopes and lofty August aspirations hinge directly on Milton, who has one of the strongest arms in the sport. At all levels.
He throws as pretty a deep ball as anyone I can recall since Jeff George or Randall Cunningham.
And as Paschall notes, if he's not throwing it to the other side that's a plus too.
But somewhere in between those perfectly placed go routes and throwaways to avoid picks, Milton's going to have to deliver that 18-yard post than Hendon Hooker made time and time again.
MLB cleaner?
So we are on pace to have the fewest errors ever in a Major League Baseball season.
The average is right at 1.01 errors per game, down from 1.19 per game in 2019.
There are some conspiracy theories out there that official scorers have become more lenient and are giving hits on balls that used to be errors.
Maybe.
But I also believe that the pace of play is helping limit the errors.
It's universally accepted that teams play better defense behind pitchers who throw a lot of strikes because they are forced to be ready.
I think that overlaps with the increased efforts to pick up the pace of the game, too.
Defensively players are more engaged and there's less standing around.
Either way, here's more and it's pretty interesting to me.
Was this that difficult
Someone cue the Guinness cartoon dudes from the beer commercials.
"Brilliant!"
The Swimming World Cup will be in Berlin in October.
And they are going to have an "open" category for transgender athletes like Lia Thomas, the Penn swimmer who won an NCAA title swimming against cisgender female competitors.
Here's more.
Now it's hard to know how many folks will enter the "open" category, but this is one of those things that makes too much sense, you know?
Which likely means someone is going to have beef with it, sadly.
And it comes on the heels of this story, where the top international chess federation is saying transgender women are ineligible to play in tournaments against cisgender female competitors.
Because it's rather mind-blowing that NCAA swimming — a sport that highlights the physical advantages a male would have over a female — allowed Thomas to be a national champion, but chess is standing firm.
Good knight.
This and that
— Braves played. Braves won. Braves swept the Yankees right out of Smyrna. Charlie Morton had 10 Ks. Charlie Morton will be a critical piece if these Braves are going to contend for the Series.
— Sports memorabilia is a monster industry, and no single player has more nostalgia attached to his memory and legacy than Mickey Mantle. Here's a story that a game-worn Mantle jersey will likely fetch more than $2.2 million at auction. Wowser.
— Here's the CBSsports.com preseason All-America teams. Yep, Georgia had the most players picked, led by unanimous selection Brock Bowers.
Today's questions
It's one of those Thursdays, where anything goes. So fire away, and remember the mailbag.
As for today, Aug. 17, let's review.
Robert De Niro is 80 today.
Does he make the all-time leading man Rushmore, and like Duvall, Bobby D. has multiple Rushmores?
Go.