Monday Morning Coffee

Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw throws against the Tampa Bay Rays during the first inning.

October 26, 2020

The Dodgers sure know how to make this stressful for their fans. Saturday night was the most 2020 ending to a ballgame ever. There’s 1,000 things I could say about Dave Roberts and Andrew Friedman’s scripted decisions, regardless of what is happening before their very eyes. It happened Saturday, and it nearly happened Sunday. I just hope it doesn’t prevent them from winning one of the next two games. I’m also dreading the fact that on Tuesday night they will manage the game like they managed game 2: knowing it’s not truly a must-win situation. On the bright side, Corey Seager is an absolute beast. It was also great to see Clayton Kershaw picking up a couple of wins in this series, and he’s been great in this postseason, despite all that lame “playoff Kershaw” narrative. The bottom line is that if the Dodgers are going to win this series and end the 30+ year drought, the bullpen is going to have to come through.

To the NBA, where Lakers President of Basketball Ops Rob Pelinka has basically revealed his plan for the Lakers moving forward. Pelinka appeared on the Woj Podcast last week and said that his plan is to try to keep his championship team together, while preserving roster flexibility to add a very talented young player to play with AD and Lebron. The explains why he’s trying to get rid of the extra $5 million owed to Luol Deng that counts toward the salary cap. As far as I’m concerned, the league should remove it, even if it means letting Deng touch the Championship Trophy and take a picture with the Laker girls. The league did the same for Timofey Mozgov and the Magic, so this is a far more reasonable ask than is being reported. As for Pelinka though, this means that CP3 probably isn’t among his top choices, since he said “young player”. The only problem with all this is that unless AD or Lebron take less money next summer, they can’t sign a max free agent. They can only trade for one, and I don’t think they have too many good assets to move. Then again, Rob Pelinka has already shown you that he can move mountains in the middle of an earthquake, so the man obviously has something up his sleeve. Even when he tells you his plan, he’s more stealth than you think.

If the Chargers win a game, but none of their fans were actually their to see it in SOFI Stadium, does it actually count? Then again, they have no fans that would show up at Sofi Stadium, so I guess it’s only fair that it should. Not only did the Bolts win, but more importantly, Justin Herbert continues to look elite. He’s only the 2nd player with at least 250 passing yards in each of his first five starts. The other was Patrick Mahomes, who happens to play in his division. He also had a 31-yard run for a TD, which was the longest run by a Chargers QB since 1988. Yes it’s a bit alarming that they blew a 16-0 lead against a team that’s 1-6. Yes it’s even more alarming that they trailed by a touchdown in the 3rd quarter. However, 3 of their 4 losses have come against solid teams where they just didn’t know how to finish. Considering they are just one game out of the last playoff spot with Broncos, Chargers, and Dolphins looming, now would be a good time to start finishing.

Tonight’s Monday Night Football game against the Bears has me pretty worried for the Rams. Everybody thought the Bears were frauds, yet they are 5-1, near the top of the NFC after beating a really good Bucs team. Everyone thought the Rams were good, but now everybody thinks they suck because all their wins have come against crummy NFC East teams. Thank God this game is at home, because Jared Goff shrivels up in the cold like Harry and Lloyd did in “Dumb and Dumber” when they got to Aspen. Still the Bears defense can give the Rams fits, and I’m not feeling so great heading into this one.

Elsewhere around the NFL in Week 7, the Cowboys got crushed by Washington, and the NFL should air the rest of their games on a high school football channel. The Falcons lost to the Lions and should have all their remaining games replaced by a blank screen. The Jets got beat by the Bills and should have their games moved to Comedy Central. All other NFC games should be moved to 4 am so nobody has to be subjected to them. The Patriots got crushed by the 49ers, and Cam Newton is out here throwing bounce passes like he’s Magic Johnson. The Cardinals beat the Seahawks, but DK Metcalf chased down Buddha Baker like your kid chases down the ice cream truck.

It’s been two months and I’ve gotta be honest: I just can’t get into College Football this year. It’s already predictable enough that we’re going to see another Clemson vs Alabama Championship Game. However, to make it even less intriguing, half the Power 5 schools weren’t even playing before this past weekend. Even Notre Dame, who is undefeated, probably doesn’t stand a chance against Clemson when they meet in two weeks. Touchdown Jesus himself couldn’t lift the Irish to victory if he were starting at Quarterback. It’s anti-climactic, and even more anti-climactic without many fans in the stands. College Football needs fans. Not just for the revenue, but for the energy and the quality of the game itself. It’s missing the crowd more than any other sport.

Finally, The Bachelorette has been ridiculous, even by 2020 standards. First of all, ABC picked the oldest Bachelorette ever. Bad move. I’m also starting to think Clare should’ve gone to therapy instead of being on the bachelorette. In fact, I’m beginning to think watching a whole season of Bennett inviting the other men one by one into his suite, doing face masks, and getting to know each other by the pool could be more interesting than what we’ve seen in the first couple of episodes. Clare gets pissed when a guy that shows up on the show doesn’t know her astrological sign, blood type and date of her last period. Then of course Clare wanted to get a look at “the goods” and make all those dudes strip down naked after they lost at Dodgeball. Of course there is no chance any Bachelor could pull that off during their seasons with all the women. I definitely needed a full week to recover from that train wreck of an episode.

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