Sign up for the daily newsletter, Jay's Plays of the Day, to get sports betting recommendations for the top games of the night and the week ahead.
Weekend winners
Viktor Hovalnd. Score one for the dorky guys. Wow, Hovland was all levels of boss Sunday. A 61 to win and move into contention for the eight-figure payday that awaits next week at East Lake. Side question: If you were going to name your kid Victor/Viktor, are you going "c" or "k"? Discuss.
The Braves. Sunday was a disappointing loss, granted. But wow. This machine keeps churning, and you know what else? The Braves have the largest lead of any division in the game, and they still battle to the very end. See Saturday night as an example. Visor tip to the culture the Snit has created.
College football fans. It's Zero Week. Hooray. And while we are here, Georgia named Carson Beck it's QB1. Raise your hand if you are surprised. Side question: Will Carson Beck be an All-SEC QB this year? Remember there are three teams if memory serves, so will Beck be one of the three best QBs in the SEC this fall? Discuss.
Dylan Crews. Forget winning the weekend, Crews is winning the year. He's been promoted to Double-A (already) and likely will make his big-league debut in September. Now recall that he was the star of LSU's march to the baseball natty, the No. 1 overall pick in July and is reportedly good buddies with Olivia Dunn. Yep, as Charlie Sheen would have said during his crazo-run — "Winning."
Everything about the Phillies-Nationals game at the Little League World Series. Be a poo-poo-er if you choose, but Bryce Harper in the stands on a Sunday afternoon rooting on a Little League team from Pennsylvania is cool. A Phillies player taking a customized pencil bat to the plate in an MLB game is cooler. And the fact that the crowd was Little League players and their families (plus some sponsors) and no tickets were sold is the super coolest.
Weekend losers
Aaron Boone. Dude has done his best Bobby Cox impression — he gets tossed from games in memorable ways — but the Yanks are huge disappointment at 60-64. And this weekend he allegedly met with one of the Steinbrenners. Aaron Boone meet pink slip; pink slip, this is Mr. Boone.
Baker Mayfield. Yeah the whole No. 1 overall thing has not worked out like he had hoped seeing that he is on, what, team 62 at this point. But even worse is having to sue your old man for a missing $12 million. That sucks.
Alabama's title hopes. The SEC is filled with one landmine after another, and that's especially true when you wear the bull's eye of success that Nick Saban has crafted. Well, the Tide's unwillingness/inability to pick a QB1 at this late stage reminds me of the old Spurrier adage: "If you think you have two QBs you don't have a good QB."
The future generations. We debate cancel culture and consequence culture all the time. This is 100% the former in my mind. The all-time great rock band Queen has removed the classic "Fat Bottomed Girls" from its greatest hits collections in an overly sensitive attempt not to "appease" the next generation.
Ryder intrigue
So the discussion about making the U.S. Ryder Cup team have hovered above all of the PGA-LIV spats.
Let's set some parameters:
Here are the six U.S. Ryder Cup team automatic picks: Scottie Scheffler, Wyndham Clark, Patrick Cantaly, Brian Harman, Max Homa and Xander Schauffle.
Between them, they have all of three appearances in the pressure-cooker that is the Ryder Cup stage, and none have made more than one trip.
With the way the points fell, Brooks Koepka, who was fourth in the points qualifier before this weekend's BMW Championship now would have to be a pick from captain Zach Johnson.
Koepka is arguably the best big-tournament player on the planet. Koepka is undoubtedly part of LIV, though, so his points came from standout play in the majors rather than the compilers not named Scottie listed above.
So now the questions loom about Johnson's captains picks, and there are slew of good choices.
If you are the U.S. captain, you have to think Jordan Spieth is a lock. Heck a lot of folks are talking about Justin Thomas and his experience being a valuable asset, too.
But if you are going to pick JT — who has struggled the back half of the summer — because of his experience, then Koepka has to be a dunk, right?
And if experience and past Ryder Cup success is — and it should be — important in the picking process, then what about DJ and Patrick Reed?
Some folks who loathe LIV were ecstatic that Schauffle's late charge Sunday pushed Koepka out of the automatic spots. Looking at you Brandel Chamblee, who likely was doing topless cartwheels on the Golf Channel set.
But it actually made it a bigger headache for Johnson.
And what happens if Johnson turns his back on the qualified Americans who are in the LIV and the relatively young U.S. team gets spanked in Rome next month?
This and that
— We'll have a full preseason recap tomorrow, but dude, Jordan Love sure looks the part in Green Bay.
— Lainey Wilson, overrated, underrated, properly rated?
— You know the rules. Here's Paschall on UT's explosive kick returned Dee Williams.
— Hope you enjoyed the grand coverage of the start of high school football season from the TFP. Keep your head on a swivel, there could be a special prep football project involving a couple of folks you know in the coming days. Stay tuned.
— If Mean Gene Henley's story is any indication from the weekend, UTC athletics has very interest in even listening to possible conference or classification movement. I believe this John Wooden cliché, especially when it comes to all these machinations in college sports: "You either get better or you get worse, but you never stay the same." And staying the same in this day age is a path to Div. III if I had to guess.
Today's questions
Weekend winners and losers. Go.
Sweet buckets, if we're going to pull punches on music, where would it or even could it end?
Could any rap song from the late 1980s — looking at you Eazy E, LL Cool J, Luke and so many others — even be listed in this culture?
Which of these suggestive rock songs from my formative years will be the next one to fall victim to the cancel realm?
— "Pour Some Sugar on Me" by Def Lepard.
— "Girls, Girls, Girls" by Mötley Crew.
— "Strokin'" by Clarence Carter.
— Everything Prince released starting with Purple Rain.
— Other.
As for today, Aug. 21, let's review.
"Bambi" was released on this day in 1942. True or false on a Monday, you cried when you watched Bambi. Actually that's a true or "LIAR" question. If you didn't cry when Bambi's momma got got, then that's on you.
Nickelback's "How You Remind Me" was released on this day in 2001. This is perfect. We are celebrating the birthday of "How You Remind Me" and trying to erase "Fat Bottom Girls." And we wonder what's wrong with society.
Some awesome birthdays. Kenny Rogers would have been 85. Wilt Chamberlain would have been 87.
Usian Bolt is 37.
Best sports applicable name for an athlete, because a record-setting sprinter named "Bolt" has to be there right? Go.