Briefly.
Trivia: Difficult – Who hit the first MLB homerun in an indoor stadium.
SportsBusiness Journal reports that the NBA is showing impressive gains in both national and local viewership this season. Nationally, NBA games on ABC, ESPN, NBA TV and TNT are showing double-digit viewership increases. Locally, the Celtics have showed the biggest percentage increase of all teams so far this year with an 82% lift on their games. Conversely, the NFL saw a drop of 9% this season and 8% the season prior, while college football viewership took a hit this past season with CBS, ABC, NBC, and ESPN all posting significant declines.
On Sunday night’s “farewell to the Olympics”, Mike Tirico pointed out that, aside from the gold/silver/bronze medals that the USA won, they also finished 4th or 5th 26 times. Hey Mike, if you don’t medal, you don’t medal. No one cares who came in 4th or 5th.
Trivia #1 hint: He hit it on the road during an exhibition game.
Gronk’s retiring, Gronk’s not retiring. Yawn.
You asked for it. The Tim Tebow update. OK no one really asked for it but… Tebow is with the Mets in Port St. Lucie. He recently caught his foot on the sprinkler head at the training facility and sprained his ankle. He’s 30 years old!
Headline of the week: A Texas woman defecated in her pants to hide drugs during an arrest.
Here’s just another example of why W/L’s (for a pitcher) in baseball may be the most useless statistic. On Sunday the Red Sox beat the Orioles 7-1. Carson Smith got the “W”. He pitched one inning and let up two hits and the only run. He got the win because he happened to pitch the 5th inning when the Sox scored three runs to go up 4-1. Six others pitched, each either one or two innings. Two of them each let up one hit, the others – no hits.
This week’s sign of the apocalypse: “Transgender boy wins girls’ state wrestling title for second time”
Of the 44 starters in this year’s Super Bowl, 16 were drafted in the third round or later and 11 went undrafted.
Jersey Street. Puh-lease!
Last week, Japanese pharmaceutical company Shionogi announced that the flu medication they have developed, Xofluza otherwise known as baloxavir marboxil, has been approved to be manufactured and sold in Japan. Compared to Tamiflu, which requires two doses each day for five days, apparently only a single dose of Xofluza will be needed to treat the flu.
Quote of the week: “Good, better, best. ‘Til your good is better and your better is best.” – St. Jerome
Trivia answer: Mickey Mantle hit the first indoor homerun in the first-ever game played in Houston’s Astrodome.
“Let me flow into the ocean,
Let me get back to the sea.
Let me be stormy and let me be calm,
Let the tide in, and set me free.”
Ed's Head On Friday 