Things are getting exciting around here with wild card games in baseball, a new partnership announcement between Sports Illustrated and Fox Sports AND the release of the Forbes 400 list. Whew. Try to control yourself. It’s only Wednesday and you’re going to need that energy to make it to Friday.
Simmer down now,
The Last Night’s Game
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Five things to know about the MLB Playoffs
- The playoffs are made up of three division winners from the American League and National League, along with two wild card winners that are determined by a playoff game (see below).
- The first round (Division Series) is a best-of-five game series and the next two rounds (League Championship Series and World Series) are best-of-seven games.
- The Chicago Cubs had baseball’s best record this season, but haven’t won a World Series Championship since 1908, a 108-year drought. (Click here for more about the Cubs).
- The Washington Nationals won their division by hitting the ball harder than any other team. According to Statcast™, their batters had an average exit velocity (how fast the ball is going after it leaves the bat) of 90.3 miles per hour. Be glad that’s not coming at you when all you’re wearing is a little leather glove.
- What are the odds your team will win the World Series? Let’s check in with VegasInsider.com:
- Chicago Cubs – 9/4 odds
- Boston Red Sox and Texas Rangers - 6/1 odds
- Washington Nationals – 7/1 odds
See the full postseason schedule here.
MLB (Major League Baseball)
- Getting wild. In last night’s American League wild card game, Toronto Blue Jays beat Baltimore Orioles in 11 innings (two extra innings). Blue Jays’ Edwin Encarnacion hit a walk-off home run to secure his team’s spot in the postseason. This sets up a rematch of last year’s tense series between Blue Jays and Texas Rangers. Bring it on.
- Control your excitement. Tonight is the National League wild card game between San Francisco Giants and New York Mets (8 pm EST). The game will feature two of the most electric pitchers in baseball in a win or go home game – Giants’ Madison Bumgarner vs Mets’ Noah Syndergaard.
NFL (National Football League)
- Just plain stupid. Over the summer, Denver Broncos’ Aqib Talib was shot in the leg, but could not recall who shot him. Dallas police determined that Aqib actually shot himself in the leg. Hmm I thought he looked familiar.
Overtime
- Two of the biggest names in sports, Fox Sports and Sports Illustrated, have announced they’re partnering up to share content across digital platforms, combine talent for big sporting events like MLB playoffs and there’s a little revenue sharing involved. Swimsuit models not included.
What does that mean for you? More sports coverage. Oh hooray. For them? It means they might beat out ESPN.com in online visitors. ESPN.com has 79 million unique monthly visitors, while SI and Fox Sports combined have around 68 million.
Sideline stat
- The Forbes 400 list has been released and the list of people with a nifty net worth include some notable sports figures:
- #15 Steve Balmer- Los Angeles Clippers owner - $27.5 billion
- #18 Phil Knight - co-founder of Nike - $25.5 billion
- #21 Paul Allen - Seattle Seahawks owner - $18.9 billion
- #94 Jerry Jones - Dallas Cowboys owner - $5.2 billion
In case you’re curious, Bill Gates tops the list at a cool $81 billion. See the whole list here.
Coaches’ corner
- What does it meant to go into extra innings in baseball? When two teams are tied at the end of the nine innings in baseball, the game goes into extra innings. The two teams will continue to play inning by inning until a winner is determined. Remember – an inning consists of both teams getting a chance to bat. So it can be a long night and in some cases teams run out of pitchers and have to pull in other players on their team with any pitching experience to take the mound. The longest baseball game on record for time was an agonizing 8 hours and 6 minutes over 25 innings.