May the 4th with you, today’s tune is Star Wars (Main Title) composed and conducted by John Williams. Back in 1977, the London Symphony Orchestra’s rendition that was used in the original film landed at #10 on the US Billboard Hot 100. I watched the old Star Wars trilogy at my grandparents’ house and saw the prequel trilogy in theaters as a kid. I haven’t seen all of the new ones they are making now, can’t keep up with all the sports & such, but it’s a classic American cinema franchise.
Anyway, here is the bit I put together this morning for the craic on Social Media…
Written about 17 minutes ago from Hoboken…
Week to Week Notes
Sidenote: Not going to lie it was kinda cool to see the Week to Week Notes pop up like Star Wars…
May the 4th ‘24…
Alright @YouTheReader,
Well… usually I start these off by rambling under the lyrics of today’s tune. The problem with the Star Wars Theme is they don’t have any lyrics so I gotta make this up on the fly.
Did any of you hear Drake and Kendrick’s newest diss records? Jeez, that escalated fast. It sounds like they don’t really like each other too much, sorta like Darth Vader & Luke Skywalker, eh?
Anyhoo, today’s Saturday Sports is about the Yanks, Mets, and quick hits around the MLB. There are also previews for the Western Conference Semi-Finals. Lastly don’t forget the limes with your Coronas for tomorrow’s Cinco de Mayo.
Cheers!! 🫡
On to the sports…
We’re already in Week 6 in America’s Best Baseball Town, here is a detailed report on the Yanks and another quick bit on the Mets.
Game 29 (4/28 ‘24)
- The Yanks win a laugher in Milwaukee. They scored 15 runs Back to Back games for the first time since ‘07. Anthony Volpe and Aaron Judge each homered while driving in 3 runs. Happy Belated Cake & Candles to Anthony Volpe, it is officially his Jordan year.
Game 30 (4/29 ‘24)
- The Yankees are in Baltimore and Aaron Judge gets his first career MLB start in Left Field. It feels bizarre, almost like when Bernie Williams played a bit of Right Field toward the end of his career. The Yankee offense spoils a nice Clarke Schmidt start as he goes 5.2 innings allowing just 1 run. Yanks get shut out, failing to score despite outhitting Baltimore 7 to 4.
Game 31 (4/30 ‘24)
- Got home in the 7th inning and at halftime of the Knicks Game 5 against Philly. The Yanks were down 4-2 and wouldn’t mount a comeback. Soto homered in the 6th and Austin Wells hit his first homer of the year in the 3rd inning, otherwise the bats were asleep for a 2nd straight night.
Game 32 (5/1 ‘24)
- Got home in the 8th inning, Yanks up 2-0. Aaron Boone is handing the ball to Clay Holmes to get 5 outs with runners on 1st and 2nd. It’s also the top of the Orioles lineup so not an easy task. Holmes strikes out Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutchsman to get out of the 8th-inning jam and proceeds to complete the save in the 9th. Goose Gossage is somewhere smiling if he is watching the game. A big-time save by Clay Holmes, when he is on like he was on Wednesday, he’s truly an elite closer.
Game 33 (5/2 ‘24)
- The Yankees lose to Baltimore and lose the 4-game series 3 games to 1. Anthony Volpe doubled and Juan Soto tripled. Aside from that, the offense has been terrible since leaving Milwaukee. The only Yankee you can’t blame for the offense going cold has been Soto, who is now on a 10-game hitting streak.
Game 34 (5/3 ‘24)
- Friday night affair in the Bronx. Marcus Stroman is on the hill. Austin Wells drops a foul pop-up in the 3rd inning, not the first time that’s happened this year as he seems to have trouble with those. Michael Kay and Paul O’Neill are talking about the Old Tiger Stadium. O’Neill loved hitting batting practice there because any homer to Right Field was an upper-decker with their seats. “It was so majestic.”
- Stroman pitches into the 6th inning allowing just 1 run and it came on him walking a batter with the bases loaded. Ian Hamilton gets out of the bases loaded jam but the Yanks offense again hasn’t traveled with the team since Milwaukee. In the 8th inning, Juan Soto snaps his 10-game hitting streak by making the 3rd out. In the 9th inning, Aaron Judge leads off with a single up in the middle. With Detroit’s Third Baseman playing deep, Alex Verdugo flirts with bunting until eventually, he lays down a push-bunt single. Mike Stanton, after striking out in his first 3 at-bats, avoids the golden sombrero by slapping a line drive double to RF, scoring Aaron Judge to tie the game. With Verdugo on 3rd and no outs, Detroit has to play the infield in as Anthony Rizzo walks off the game on a hard-hit grounder past the Tiger 2nd Baseman. Yanks win! 21-13 through the Week 6 Report.
- The Mets since last week’s report went 3-4 to make their overall record on the season an even 16-16. After a horrific start to his season, SS Francisco Lindor has climbed his batting average up over the Mendoza line and is hitting .207. 3B Brett Baty has steadily been the team’s top hitter since the start of the season. Last night in their loss to Tampa Bay, Baty hit his first multi-homer games of his career. One of the homers hit the Catwalk in Tropicana Field and was declared a home run. On the hill for Saturday, Mets rookie pitcher Christian Scott will make his MLB Debut. He is currently ranked the #5 prospect in the Mets organization by MLB.com. Scott was a 5th-round pick in the ‘21 MLB Draft out of Florida. In his 45 games in the minors, Scott threw to a 3.30 ERA and had 221 strikeouts in 174.2 innings. At 6’4”, he throws a high 90s fastball with an upper 80s split-change and a slider.
Racing Around The Bases
In the American League, young Shortstops Gunnar Henderson and Bobby Witt Jr. have their ball clubs positioned near the top of their Divisions. Gunnar Henderson’s 10 homers are the most of any active player because he shares the home run lead with Mike Trout, who just underwent knee surgery and will be out a while. Jose Altuve is once again raking but as of today the Astros are 12-20 and tied for last in the AL West. Houston has got a problem with their pitching this season as their staff ERA is 4.74, the 4th worst in all of baseball.
In the National League, Ronald Acuna hasn’t gotten off to much of a hot start but is still scoring runs at a ridiculous pace. He scored a run late last night (after the Excel Spreadsheet was finished) and currently leads the MLB with 30 runs scored. Acuna led baseball in runs scored last season with a ridiculous 149 while hitting 41 homers and stealing 73 bases. Elly De La Cruz is one of the most exciting young players in baseball. He is currently on pace for an absurd 42 homer and 94 stolen base season. As a kid, I remember how it was a big deal how Alfonso Soriano nearly joined the 40-40 club (39 HRs & 41 SBs) in ‘02 so the pace that De La Cruz is at is insane. The last player to swipe 90+ bags in a season was Rickey Henderson for the Yanks in 1988. Mookie Betts is the current best bet at NL MVP. One has to wonder if Shohei Ohtani has action on Betts and is holding back from jumping into the race.
Former Met bullpen stud, Seth Lugo, had a terrific month of April in the Kansas City rotation. His 45-innings pitched lead all of baseball. He was more of a strikeout pitcher when he was in the bullpen, appearing to pitch a bit more to contact as a starter for the Royals. Lugo made 26 starts for the Padres last year and went 8-7 with a 3.57 ERA. He came up in the Mets organization as a starting pitcher around the Mets era of Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Bartolo Colon, & Steven Matz, so they decided to use him more as a multi-inning RP and he was very effective in the role. Lugo is enjoying a great start as a starter for the Royals.
In the National League, another former Met, Zack Wheeler, is also enjoying a nice first month of his season down in Philadelphia. Wheeler, like Lugo, was also a part of that same era of Mets starting pitcher. He was a much more highly touted prospect compared to Lugo as the Mets acquired Wheeler in exchange for Carlos Beltran in ‘11. Unfortunately, Wheeler had to get Tommy John surgery in ‘15 and wouldn’t fully recover from the injury until ‘18. He signed with the Phillies in ‘20 and with Philly has pitched up to his potential as the highly-touted prospect he once was. Thus far in his 5 seasons with the Phils, Wheeler has pitched to a 2.99 ERA with 9.7 strikeouts per inning and a 46-28 record. With Lugo and Wheeler both off to great starts, Joe Beningo must be saying to himself “Oh the pain.”
O’s Colton Cowser was named the AL Rookie of the Month for his .277 batting average with 6 dingers and 18 RBIs. The Tigers’ Wenceel Perez is just 17 games into his big-league career and already batting in the 3 hole for Detroit. It almost feels like cheating to have Evan Carter eligible for Rookie of the Year after he hit .300 in the Rangers World Series run last season, but technically the 21-year-old is still a rook as he only played 23 regular season games in ‘23. The qualifier for a better is 130+ at-bats or 45 days on the active roster before September 1st.
CF Jacob Young has been a bright spot on the Nationals. He’s batting .311 with 12 stolen bases. On Friday night the Nationals moved him from the 9th spot in the lineup to leadoff. Shonta Imanaga of the Chicago Cubs has been by far the best rookie of in all of the MLB thus far. He is pitching not only like a Rookie of the Year candidate but a CY Young winner as well. Imanaga is 5-0 with a 0.78 ER. His ERA is the lowest of any pitcher in the first 6 starts of his career since Fernando Valenzuela in 1981. (Source: SlangsOnSports). The other Japanese rookie who chose to play for the Dodgers instead of the Yankees is 3-1 with a 2.91 ERA.
1st Round
- The Orlando Magic and Cleveland Cavaliers will play a Game 7 on Sunday at 1 PM ET on ABC. While neither one of these young squads will win the championship this year, it’s been a fun series with each team defending their home court through 6. In game 6, Donovan Mitchell went off for 50 points and Darius Garland had 21. The only problem for Cleveland was the rest of the team only scored 25. The Magic dominated the offensive boards, crashing the boards for 15 rebounds compared to the Cavs 7. Orlando also made the free throw line 26 times to the Cavs’ 10. It was a very physical game down in Disney World with Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, and Jalen Suggs combing for 75 points in their 103-96 victory. The series now heads to Cleveland for the decider.
Game 7 Prediction: Cavs 103 - Magic 105
1st Round Predictions Thus Far: 5-2 in the 1st Round. I was totally wrong about the Suns and didn’t know the severity of the Greek Freak’s injury.
In their regular season series, the OKC Thunder beat the Mavs 3 games to 1. The Thunder and Mavs have gone at it 3 times in the NBA Playoffs since ‘11. Back in the ‘11 Western Conference Finals, Dirk would be KD & Russ on their championship run over the Big 3. The Thunder would get their revenge in the opening rounds of ‘12 and ‘16, as OKC has won the last 2 playoff series matchups.
Fresh off their series win over the Clippers, the Mavericks are riding high. Led by the dynamic duo of Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, the pair combined to score 56.3 points per game against LA. Luka led the Mavs in points, rebounds, and assists, just like he did all regular season and Kyrie played the perfect sidekick in the opening round. For the Mavs to make a further run, you’d have to expect a few more guys to step up, one being PJ Washington who scored 14 points on 4 3-pointers in Game 6. Dallas may be without Tim Hardaway Jr. for the start of this series as he is dealing with an ankle and missed Games 3-6. That could just mean more Luka & Kyrie, which wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing. Both players have proven that they can get it done in the playoffs and have more experience than anyone on the Thunder.
Game 1 of this series won’t be until Tuesday, May 7th, meaning the Thunder will have gone more than a week since their last game. For a team full of vets, I would the extra rest would be a blessing, but all 5 members of the OKC are 25 or under so I’ll ride with they’ll be rusty narrative. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was fantastic in the 1st Round, averaging 27.3 points per game. His matchup with Luka Doncic should be must must-watch TV for hoop fans. Surprisingly, both Luka and SGA are the same age, however, the OKC guard has never played a game outside of the 1st Round before…Neither have any of the rest of this young team. While the Thunder made things look easy playing the Pelicans of the Big Easy, I don’t see them walking over Dallas despite having a more talented overall roster. Whether Chet Holmgren can hold down the defensive paint on the Mavs’ guards’ drives may be the decider in this one. I got Dallas’ crafty ball-handlers upsetting the West’s #1 seed.
Prediction: Mavs in 6
The 3-seed T’Wolves and 2-seed Nuggets split their regular games 2-2. The two Western Conference teams have played twice in the NBA Playoffs, once back in ‘04 when Carmelo Anthony was a rookie and Kevin Garnett was in his prime (25.8 points, 14.8 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 blocks, & a steal per game). They also played each other in the opening round of the playoffs last year with Denver winning in 5. They play Game 1 tonight at 7 PM ET on TNT.
In Minnesota’s opening round, Anthony Edwards cold-bloodedly took the soul of one of his childhood idols, Kevin Durant. Edwards averaged 31 points per game in their sweep over the Suns and even dropped his 2nd career 40-point playoff game in Game 4. Karl Anthony Towns also had a nice series over the Suns, hitting on 52.3% of his 3-points. KAT will have Aaron Gordon on him and the Aaron Judge lookalike won’t make things as easy for the Jersey native. As for when Minnesota is on defense, Rudy Gobert will have his hands full trying to guard Nikola Jokic, but this is exactly why Minnesota traded for the 3-time Defensive Player of the Year. This is the 1st time Minnesota is playing outside of the 1st Round of the NBA Playoffs since the ‘04 Garnett team lost to the Shaq&Kobe Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. This sounds rather obvious but for Minnesota to advance Anthony Edwards will have again need to dominate, KAT will need to hit his shots, and Gobert will need to limit the Joker.
The defending champs took it to the LA Lakers in their sweep. The Joker made his 28.2 points, 16.2 rebounds, and 9.8 assists per game in the opening round look easy. Jokic has faced Rudy Gobert in 12 games in the playoffs and averaged a close stat line of 26.3 points, 9.9 rebounds, and 6.9 assists, with the Nuggets winning both series. After being fairly inconsistent in their playoff run last year, Michael Porter Jr. was excellent in their series over LA. MPJ averaged 22.8 points in the series and even scored a playoff career-high of 27 points in Game 4. If MPJ is going to hit anywhere close to 48.8% from beyond the arc in Minnesota, Denver will be awfully difficult to defend. After doubting Denver last year, lessons were learned so we’ll go with them this go-around.