▪ And speaking of golf, Xander Schauffele making birdie on the 72nd hole to win a major by one stroke is the most dramatic moment in golf, one that not many have experienced.
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This year’s PGA will be remembered for the Scottie Scheffler episode, but the truth is that it was a great tournament. You don’t want every major course to be as easy as this one, but it sure was fun to watch.
▪ With their 64-18 record, this group of Celtics became the 14th in franchise history to win 60 or more games. The first was the 1961-62 team, which took advantage of an expanded NBA Schedule to become the league’s first 60-win team (60-20).
It’s probably no surprise that the Lakers are next on the list with 11 60-win seasons. The rest of the NBA has only 54 60-win seasons, and the Nuggets, Clippers, Grizzlies, Timberwolves, Nets, Pelicans and Raptors have combined for zero.
▪ Now that Major League Baseball, like the rest of the sports world, has married gambling, I am reversing my long-standing stance and now say there is no longer a reason to keep Pete Rose out of the Hall of Fame. Baseball has lost its moral authority on this matter. And if you need someone to pick you up at the airport, I raise my hand.
▪ What strikes me about the NFL’s annual calendar is that in the quest to serve the interests of viewers in Fargo, Ashtabula, Chula Vista and other American communities, the people whose needs and wants are never addressed are the ticket real. buyers and their families. Night games are a logistical nightmare for most people.
▪ I always laugh at those post-Draft stories where someone ranks the “winners” and the “losers.” Actually? Shouldn’t the success of a certain 199th overall draft pick remind everyone that there will always be colossal failures and stunning upsets?
When it comes to drafts in all sports, it’s wise to remember what Samuel Johnson said about second marriages. They are, he stated, “the triumph of hope over experience.” The same goes for all sports drafts.
▪ Greet the shot clock. Now if only they would eliminate that ridiculous “ghost corridor”, or whatever you want to call it.
▪ I love the defense that Canada will present to the world in the next Olympic Games. Say hello to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of Toronto, Ontario, and Jamal Murray of Kitchener, Ontario. They will match anyone. By the way, Canada should have gotten a medal a long time ago.
▪ It will be very interesting to see how baseball Hall of Fame voters evaluate pitchers as the years go by. We’ve seen the last of the possibility of 300 wins, as 41-year-old Justin Verlander (259), 39-year-old Max Scherzer (214) and 36-year-old Clayton Kershaw (210) are the current winning leaders. After that, the drop to 33-year-old Gerrit Cole (145) is terrifying. The 200 will undoubtedly be the new 300.
Yes, I know wins are degraded now, but still. There was a certain romanticism associated with big numbers.
▪ Don’t get me started on the chaos that surrounds major college football and basketball teams. As I have long pointed out, we are the only country where higher education institutions provide meaningful entertainment for the masses (Canada? Very low-key compared to us). But we always pretended that the priority was Education. Ha! I’d love to know how many of these transfer portal people ever see a classroom in their new port of call.
It is important to identify the real villains here. They are not the coaches. They are not sports directors. And they’re certainly not the, ahem, “student-athletes.” It is the school presidents who have been seduced by the dollar sign. None of this crazy conference realignment, nor any other example of the new nonsense, is happening without your approval.
▪ I bet you never thought of Terre Haute, Indiana, as a vacation destination. The new Larry Bird Museum opens May 30 in downtown Terre Haute. There you go.
You can contact Bob Ryan at robert.ryan@globe.com.
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