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In case you missed Chris Coghlan's dive into home plate last night... pic.twitter.com/cgnllS9m34

— Norm Kelly (@norm) April 26, 2017

I think it's safe to say Toronto Blue Jay's Chris Coghlan slide/dive last night in St. Louis over Yadier Molina is in the pole position for MLB play of the year.  If one of us mere mortals even attempted such a slide good chance we would end up with a broken neck.

 

I think it's safe to say we have reached peak Jim Harbaugh.  The Michigan football coach gave "His Holliness" Pope Francis a full size Michigan football helmet and a classic pair of Maize and Blue Air Jordans at the Vatican with his football team.  I'm actually more shocked Harbaugh didn't offer the Pope a warm glass of milk.  

You gotta give credit where credit is due: Harbaugh is one of a kind.  Despite his winless record vs Ohio State he's getting people to talk about Michigan football around the world.  That in itself is a holy miracle considering they got one split national championship in the last 70 years!

Harbaugh doing God's work...

 

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Notre Dame football completed spring camp with their final practice, the 15th, in the annual Blue-Gold game at Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday.  After the long 4-8 season of 2016 it was refreshing to see Notre Dame not lose.

In all seriousness there were a lot of bright spots for ND.  

The two QBs, Brandon Wimbush and Ian Book, while wearing no contact red jerseys both performed admirably.  Wimbush is the presumed starter and he showed off some NFL throws to WR Chase Claypool.  Wimbush was a little inconsistent with a couple of turnovers but I think a large part of that was the red jersey messing with his routine.  Book was excellent and the rising sophomore looked very capable of handling the back up duties this fall.  I had to do a couple of double takes because I thought Johnny Manziel decided to come back to college and be the backup QB at ND.  Book was that good with his throwing (much better arm than I anticipated) and accuracy along with reading the defenses and making quick decisions.  The backup QB spot is in good hands with Book. 

I also thought the RB trio of Josh Adams, Tony Jones Jr., and Dexter Williams provided a much needed balance to the offense.  All three ran with purpose and had individual highlight plays.  

I was also extremely impressed with the receiving core.  Claypool, Equanemious St. Brown, and Miles Boykin all started at the X, Y and Z positions and caught everything from what I recall.  Each one of them is over 6'4 and I'm starting to get 2005 flashbacks with Brady Quinn throwing the ball up to the likes of Jeff Samardzija, Maurice Stovall and Anthony Fasano.  The tight ends also looked tremendous with Alize "Return of the Mack" coming off his academic suspension and basically being unstoppable.  

The defensive line to my surprise provided consistent rush to the QBs accounting for 9 sacks total.  Remember the QBs had no contact red jerseys so as soon as the defender was close it was ruled a sack.  Rising sophomore Daelin Hayes was a monster and looked like the 5-star prospect coming out of high school.  Daelin had 3 sacks and Jay Hayes (no relation) also had a couple from what I recall.

The linebacking core played great and instead of engaging with blockers they actually played downfield for a change.  You can tell new defensive coordinator Mike Elko has made a huge difference in the mentality of the defense.  Guys like Nyles Morgan (tremendous trucking of All-American left guard Quenton Nelson) and Greer Martini were unstoppable at times and rover Drue Tranquill looked like a Harrison Smith clone out there.

The secondary also played well and picked up some turnovers.  It's refreshing to see ND have a lot of depth on the back end of the defense and despite some missed tackles I thought they played extremely well.

Also Jonathan Doerer, the freshman kicker brought in for insurance in case Justin Yoon can't kick this fall, showed a consistent leg and nailed all of his field goal attempts in the middle of the uprights.

The only knock I had on the team was the play of the offensive line which is suppose to be a strength.  Offensive line coach Harry Hiestand looks like he has some problems on the right side of the line where DE Daelin Hayes was basically having a field day in the backfield.  They got plenty of time to correct those mistakes though as the season is still 120 plus days away.

Overall I liked what I saw from the glorified practice scrimmage.  You can tell the coaching changes have helped and I love seeing Chip Long use the tight ends more while also having the QB line up behind center and have some two-back sets.  I don't see any reason with the starting and second string talent why Notre Dame can't break many offensive records this year.  The tackling still needs work but I thought the defense played fast.  Still need to get more consistent effort from the likes of Jerry Tillery and Daniel Cage in the middle and I think with freshman Darnell Ewell coming in summer will help push their effort level.

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Well well well.  It looks like little Rickie Fowler caught himself a grand slam trophy of a girlfriend in internet sensation Allison Stokke.

If you recall Stokke went viral back in high school a few years ago for her incredible looks as a pole vaulter with this single picture:

We tied?

A post shared by Allison Stokke (@allisonstokke) on Apr 23, 2017 at 4:47pm PDT

Not to be outdone Fowler posted on his Instagram too a picture with Stokke with the caption "I won!"

I won!

A post shared by R I C K I E (@rickiefowler) on Apr 23, 2017 at 4:47pm PDT

This is a match made in sports heaven.  You gotta a guy who is really good at getting his balls into a little hole with a woman who knows how to handle a long pole.  In the meantime lets take a look at some more pictures of Stokke for "research purposes."

A post shared by Allison Stokke (@allisonstokke) on Jan 25, 2017 at 12:19pm PST

A post shared by Allison Stokke (@allisonstokke) on Jun 3, 2016 at 1:33pm PDT

✔️

A post shared by Allison Stokke (@allisonstokke) on Feb 1, 2016 at 1:50pm PST

Oh MadBum you crazy mother fucker.  It's bad enough the San Francisco Giants are sitting at 6-10 on the season but now they just lost their ace for 6-8 weeks because of a fucking dirt bike crash on their off day.  I'm sure the Giants and their fans are happy about it.

But honestly if you could think of one baseball player doing something like this I think one of the first names that would pop up is an admitted redneck like Madison Bumgarner.  He was probably riding the dirt bike and saw some harmless dude with a Dodgers hat smile at him and swerved while shouting "DON'T LOOK AT ME!" and BAM...shoulder AC sprain and his season is basically fucked.

Oh well.  Just gives me more of a reason to sell more of the #DON'TLOOKATME shirts!

By the way you can buy them here...just saying.

Someone please remind me again how Georgia lost to this Vanderbilt team at home on homecoming?  A Vandy team that makes sorority parody videos during spring practice.  No lie I chuckled a couple of times at the Anchor Down lines and one of my littles but it didn't make me laugh nearly as much as watching LB Zach Cunningham tackle little guy Isaiah McKenzie on 4th and 1 for a loss instead of going to Nick Chubb or Sony Michel.  That's not smart football Kirby (pun intended).

This is what happens when you win your first World Series in 108 years: the nipples are free in Wrigley Field.  You gotta love the title of the Youtube video of "drunk" woman.. I would say that's a tad presumptuous but we are talking about the bleacher bums here.  Drunk is a foregone conclusion especially when you are showing off your chesticles.  You know some kid named Johnny or Tommy got his first bare breast facial at the Cubs game and unlike the past when nothing was recorded he can actually brag to his classmates the next day and prove it by pulling up this Youtube video. 

What a time to be alive.  Boobs and baseball.  If that ain't Americana then I don't know what is.

 

Splashdown. https://t.co/WMPykx91OL pic.twitter.com/hkGpJrRNyt

— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) April 20, 2017

If you are a Braves fan this was the one highlight from last night's rout by the hands of Bryce Harper and the Nationals losing 14-4.

Freddie Freeman set an Atlanta Braves franchise record by reaching base for the 12th consecutive time by hitting a solo shot into the SunTrust Park fountain just beyond the centerfield fence.

Freeman's 6th home run of the year kept his scorching hot bat going where his OPS is at a ridiculous 1.453 while he leads the majors in batting average at .440 and on base percentage at .533.  Even with Freeman's 6 HRs, 4 doubles and 1 triple he only has 8, yes 8 RBIs, batting 3rd in the lineup.

Why only 8 RBIs?  Because the man batting in the 2 spot aka Dansby Swanson has been horrible the first two weeks of the season (155 OBP) and simply can't get on base to set the table for MVFreeman.
Brian Snitker gets paid handsomely to manage the Braves albeit only a one year contract so he needs to do the right thing and drop Dansby in the order while either putting either Nick Markakis (367 OBP) or Brandon Phillips (362 OBP) in the 2 spot in front of Freeman.  It's an absolute crime for Freeman to only have 8 RBIs.

With Matt Kemp coming off the 10-day DL today my hope would be the top of the order will be:

1) Ender Inciarte (started slow but slowly heating up)
2) Brandon Phillips
3) Freddie Freeman
4) Matt Kemp
5) Nick Markakis

Roll with this lineup for at least a week while dropping Dansby to 7 or 8 in the lineup and see where your chips fall.

Love was in the air at the Braves game last night. pic.twitter.com/zFyn1ZB6jh

— Old Row Sports (@OldRowSports) April 19, 2017

Haven't seen this much dry humping since Tim Tebow was playing with his Jesus pillow in Gainesville.  Good lord people get a room.  The only dry humping allowed in the Braves new SunTrust Park should be myself on Freddie Freeman's bat because holy shit is he hot right now.

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