WEEKEND WRAPUP

Fred Faour: On actual odds of Lebron to the Rockets, Tiger Woods, Blake Bortles and the world is flat. Really.

Fred Faour: On actual odds of Lebron to the Rockets, Tiger Woods, Blake Bortles and the world is flat. Really.
Lebron to the Rockets? Some gambling sites think so. NBA.com

One of the things that has become popular is the practice of gambling web sites releasing prop odds for things that will spark people’s interest. Such things as Odds to win the Heisman, which coach will be fired first, which coach will get a certain job. There are even odds on who sits on the Iron Throne at the end of Game of Thrones.

They are designed to be fun, create talking points and get the web sites’ names out there more than anything else. So I found it interesting this morning to see that The Big Lead fell hook, line and sinker into a topic that will be of interest to Houston fans: Where will Lebron James wind up next season?

It’s interesting because the Rockets are first favorite on one site, second favorite on the other. The reality is James will probably stay in Cleveland, but at least national news outlets are noticing the Rockets and how well they are playing and do not consider the possibility to be a joke. That sites have them so low is also a show of respect.

Odds are just speculation based on potential outcomes. And there is still a lot of time left before the season ends. After all, the Rockets appear to be title contenders now. But it’s always fun to speculate, right?

Tiger’s back?

Main headline on the front page of USA TODAY sports this morning:

TIGER IMPRESSES

Woods finishes 12th while Thomas wins Honda Classic

The golf world is so desperate for Woods to be good again, it’s almost pathetic. (The media is the same way. You are much more likely to click on a story that says Tiger Woods than Luke Thomas. Wait for it...Gotcha. You probably didn’t even notice that his name is Justin -- not Luke -- Thomas and he is on fire on the Tour). But hey, Woods finished 12th! Tiger being good benefits everyone, so expect more of the same moving forward. “Tiger finishes 10th; Speith wins tournament.” “Tiger shows promise with a ninth-place effort; that Thomas guy wins again.”

Rock solid

The U.S. men won gold for the first time in Olympic curling. It might be the first time I have watched an entire curling match. There is a hell of a lot going on in that game. It seems like it would be a fun beer league thing. But now it will go back into oblivion for four years.

Shame bell to NBC for the awful karaoke rendition by the team of Don’t Stop Believin’. I stopped believing four bars in.

Blake superior

The Jaguars locked up Blake Bortles for three years. He is signed through 2020 and the numbers look big -- $54 million -- but the Jags can essentially bail after one year without much penalty, and if he plays well they have him at a fair price. If you think you can win with Bortles, and the Jags clearly think they can, it is a good deal. I think there were better options out there for a team that is a QB away. Maybe Bortles can take a key step forward, but as we see with a lot of franchises, their window is now. There is no guarantee that a great defense will carry over from one year to the next. For now, Bortles is the man. If the Jags are wrong, they will miss out on a golden opportunity.

Flat out stupid

I would like to assume Geno Smith was trolling when he started buying in to the flat earth argument only to back off later when he was destroyed on Twitter.

One of the positives to social media is it has given people a way to share their views without filter. And that, too, is the negative. No filter means no one to say, “hey, you are going to look dumb if you tweet this.”

His last tweet was this: “I find it funny how you all assume I believe Earth is flat lol I just think you guys should have an open mind because as we know a lot of the “truths” that we thought were true actually aren’t.”

First off, slapping an LOL on it does not make it OK. Secondly, I’m all for questioning things that need to be questioned, but someone thinking the earth is flat is not a “truth.” It’s dumb.

What’s next Geno?

Truth: The moon is made of cheese. And there is a man in it.

Truth: The stars are just God’s night lights.

Truth: I can jump off a building because gravity does not exist and I will float like a leaf on the wind.

Truth: Scarlett Johannson has a secret crush on me and going to leave her attractive husband for an old, disgusting radio host.

Yeah, feel free not to believe any of those "truths."

I think it’s time we focus our energy on some real truths, like Geno Smith sucks at football. But Don’t Stop Believin’ buddy.

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The Astros regular season is officially in the books. Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images.

The regular season finale between the Guardians and Houston Astros was canceled Sunday after a lengthy delay, preventing Cleveland third baseman José Ramírez from a shot at hitting his 40th home run and joining the exclusive 40-40 club.

With Houston set to open its AL wild-card series at home on Tuesday, and with a forecast of steady rain expected for several more hours, the game never started and was called following a 3-hour, 5-minute delay.

The Guardians finish at 92-69 and the AL Central champions will host an ALDS game on Oct. 5. They'll play either the AL West champion Astros (88-73) or Detroit Tigers, who clinched a wild-card berth.

Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt and Houston manager Joe Espada met on the tarped field with the umpiring crew, head groundskeeper and Guardians' front office members for 15 minutes at about 2:20 — 55 minutes before the scheduled first pitch.

The hearty fans who stayed inside Progressive Field during the long delay watched the Browns-Las Vegas Raiders game on Progressive Field's giant scoreboard.

Ramírez finished with 39 homers, leaving him short of becoming the seventh player in MLB history to hit 40 homers and steal 40 bases in the same season. The six-time All-Star also ended with 39 doubles, one shy of a rare 40-40-40 season, which has only been accomplished by Alfonso Soriano in 2006.

Cleveland's jump in the standings after winning 76 games in 2023 also led to a bump in attendance as the Guardians drew more than 2 million fans at home for the first time since 2017.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Astros: LF Yordan Alvarez (knee sprain) was scheduled to do more baseball activities in Houston, and as long as he continues to make progress, it's likely he'll be on the wild card roster. The swelling in Alvarez's knee has gone down and Espada was cautiously optimistic about the slugger's availability this week.

Guardians: RHP Alex Cobb (middle finger blister) had his usual velocity during a 35-pitch simulated game. He'll throw another on Thursday and Vogt said the team is moving forward with plans to have him pitch in the postseason. Cobb has been sidelined since Sept. 1, and made just three starts since being acquired in a trade on July 30.

UP NEXT

Astros: Host the No. 5 seed Detroit Tigers in the wild card on Tuesday.

Tigers ace Tarik Skubal with square off with Framber Valdez in Game 1.

Guardians: Will rest and await wild-card winner in ALDS, starting Oct. 5.

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