SDS Mailbag: Heisman Trophy sleepers, Tennessee recruiting, retro games and most-watched TV episodes/movies
I can’t believe this Sunday is already the Sunday where we will see the final 2 episodes of “The Last Dance.” I’m not ready for it to be over!
I know there are people out there who just can’t be happy with anything and criticize any piece of culture that has the decency to make any single person on this planet happy. But, regardless of those people, I’ve been loving this documentary. It brings back some of my first memories as a kid growing up in Illinois.
I’d rather have live sports taking place, of course, but I’ll definitely be tuned in to the final 2 episodes on Sunday night. Then, in even better news, ESPN is going to air a documentary called “Long Gone Summer” on June 14, chronicling the home run race between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa during the summer of 1998.
Many people credit that home run race with saving baseball. As a Cardinals’ fan, I still remember where I was when Big Mac hit home run No. 62 to break Roger Maris’ iconic record.
Hopefully sports return soon, but until then, I appreciate ESPN churning out the documentaries about some of my favorite sports moments.
Anyway, here are your questions for this week’s Mailbag:
@SChinni12:
I read Connor’s article on guys he’d rather bet on to win the Heisman Trophy this year than frontrunners Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields. Who are some of your sleepers?
Funny you should ask, because I just tweeted about this the other day. Based on the odds for Heisman trophy, I named these 4 guys as good value bets:
My favorite value bets for the 2020 Heisman Trophy (via @betonline_ag):
Jamie Newman, QB, UGA: 14-1
Kedon Slovis, QB, USC: 25-1 (LOVE this one)
Najee Harris, RB, Bama: 40-1
Tanner Morgan, QB, Minnesota: 50-1— Adam Spencer (@AdamSpencer4) May 12, 2020
As I noted, I love Kedon Slovis at USC (assuming the Trojans are able to actually play football this fall). He stepped in as a true freshman last year and made some huge plays. Yes, he lost WR Michael Pittman Jr., OL Austin Jackson and others, but the Trojans still have talent on their roster.
Amon-Ra St. Brown is a potential first-round pick in 2021 at receiver for the Trojans, and Tyler Vaughns also had a solid 2019 season. The Trojans didn’t run much in 2019, but their top 2 rushers — Vavae Malepeai and Stephen Carr — return this fall, too.
Newman has perhaps the best path to the Heisman, though. We’ve seen transfer quarterbacks win the past 3 Heisman Trophies (Joe Burrow, Kyler Murray and Baker Mayfield). If he leads the Bulldogs to the SEC East title and puts up big numbers, Newman could find his way to New York.
If you’re going to bet on someone other than Lawrence or Fields, those are some good places to start.
@MichaelJtr8:
Now that Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2 are being remade, which other sports video games would you like to see remastered?
Man, I cannot wait to play those games. I loved the Tony Hawk gaming world as a kid. (Side note: Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2 was also an incredible game.)
#THPS is back! Break skateboarding boundaries with the fully-remastered Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2 collection. Available September 4, 2020 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. Pre-Order Now. pic.twitter.com/RaZQrXSNgP
— Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 and 2 (@TonyHawkTheGame) May 12, 2020
To answer your question, though — first and foremost, I want to see the NCAA Football franchise and any sort of college basketball video game return. We took a step toward that with the recent names, images and likenesses (NIL) rule changes, but there are still some hurdles to overcome before those games return.
Other games I’d love to have come back include NFL Blitz, NFL Street and, perhaps most of all, I really want to play Ken Griffey Jr.’s Slugfest again. That game was the best. I’d spend hours playing as the Mariners. I remember there was even a cheat code to ensure Griffey hit a home run in every at-bat.
Bring those games back, please!
@AndrewLittleto2:
Do you honestly think all these recruits will stay at Tennessee?
No way.
But, of course, I’m not saying that to be negative about Tennessee. The Vols and Jeremy Pruitt are on 1 of the best recruiting runs I can remember this month, and it has been incredible to watch. Pruitt has stabilized the Tennessee program and has some positive momentum building on Rocky Top.
I say no way because these are 17- and 18-year-old kids. They change their minds all the time, and that’s fine. They have the right to do that until they sign their Letter of Intent (and then they can still transfer).
Hardly any recruiting classes retain their commitments through the entire cycle these days, and that’s OK. I think Pruitt and his staff will have 1 of the Vols’ best classes in years when all is said and done, but yeah, some of these guys will decommit.
If and when players are allowed to take official visits again, things could change in a hurry for any number of schools.
Robert:
Is there a movie or TV episode you think you’ve seen more than anyone else on the planet (other than those affiliated with its production)?
My initial reaction to that would be to say no. I don’t think there’s any way I’ve watched something more than anyone else in the world. There are some real fanatics out there.
But, if I had to pick a couple of TV episodes I might be on the leaderboard for, I’d go with 1 episode of “The Office” and 1 episode of “Rick and Morty.” I turn “The Office” on for background noise while I fall asleep, and at least once a week, I seem to end up on the “Fun Run” episode. I’ve probably seen that episode more than 100 times.
Another potential option is the “Rick and Morty” episode from Season 4 called “One Crew over the Crewcoo’s Morty.” That only aired back in November and I’ve probably watched it 20-25 times already. Again, I bet some “Rick and Morty” fanatic has watched it hundreds of times by now, but maybe I’m in the top 50 when it comes to people who have watched that episode?
Now you have me wondering what the least-watched piece of media has been. That would be a good question, too. Although, I’m not sure I’d want to become the person who has viewed something that bad the most.
Have a question for next week’s Mailbag? Tweet at us using #SDSMailbag or email me at ASpencer@SaturdayDownSouth.com.
I love your optimism about Newman, but I’m really not sure UGA’s 2020 offense will allow a QB to amass the stats and film to be a serious Heisman contender. I obviously hope I am wrong, though. And I would be surprised if Tennessee holds on to all of their commits. Once official and unofficial visits start happening and games are played, I think it’s natural for commitments made during this period to be questioned — and I think that will happen to all programs not just UT.
I like the Tanner Morgan pick. But I agree with boxstar355, Georgia’s offense doesn’t run on 1 player, but many. Living near Wake Forest, I’ve seen him play quite a couple games and he isn’t the guy to single handedly win games.
1. First, McGuire was on steroids. Secondly, not sure of game numbers when each hit #61 but I do know that back in the 60’s the season was 156 games, not 162. Third, the fences have been brought in through the years.
2. Newman will not even be on the list of top 10 Heisman hopefuls. UGA will hide in his doghouse often.
It’s McGwire. And he needed only 145 games to hit 62 home runs. Also, the pitchers were juicing, too.
Not every pitcher was juicing so that is a ridiculous justification. McGwire was juiced for every game. To say that McGwire, Sosa and Bonds records were legitimate because everybody else was cheating even a more ridiculous justification. You know who didn’t cheat to set the record? Hank Aaron. You might want to sweep your misspelling doorstep before you correct anyone. McGwire played DD in my home town and I thought he was nice. Doesn’t negate that he cheated.
Hank Aaron never held the single-season home run record. You’re trying to start an entirely different conversation.
Fair enough. I should have stated that Aaron didn’t cheat to win the all time home run record. Bonds did. So, Roger Maris never cheated to hold the single season home run record. McGwire did. So now what semantics would you like to use to ignore the fact that Mac cheated when he took steroids. Saying other people doesn’t excuse or negate the fact that he cheated. Maybe you can use the excuse that MLB didn’t have a rule that was already a federal felony. The conversation was about using illegal substances in order to achieve a higher level of play. Try again to actually give a response without side stepping the issue.
Honestly, wtf does it matter? Adam is right, he’s not the only one who juiced. Besides that, has anyone ever thought that it takes more than just pure strength to hit a home run? Even if he was on roids it’s still an accomplishment. Tell you what, go juice up for a bit and then see if your smart@$$ can hit 62 home runs off mlb pitching. Please get back to me afterwards.
Are you seriously asking if cheating matters? Pathetic.
Just because a juiced up amateur isn’t able to smash homeruns doesn’t mean its ok for professional baseball players to cheat.
What is pathetic about it? And I didn’t mean it was ok. Point is it’s still quite an accomplishment to do what they did. Especially if “everyone” was on the same stuff at the time. I think my biggest issue is baseball gets highly politicized and endless investigations over steroids yet everyone seems to turn there head with football. Can you imagine if they investigated football like they did baseball? Probably not because it would severely tarnish the game. Can’t do that with football can we? Sorry, I’m a baseball guy as much as football so forgive me if I think it’s “pathetic” that baseball gets the bad rep when we all know football had it even worse and it affected the outcome of the game way more than baseball. No matter how big you are, you still have to have the ability to play baseball.
A lot of independent research has been done on MLB home run rates. Every seasonal spike in home rates is now understood to be mostly due to changes in the ball (tighter winding and/or reduced drag). Even so, McGuire’s and Sosa’s 1998 performance are still outliers that cannot be completely explained by changes in the ball. And even if their performance could be entirely explained by changes to the ball, and even if many others were cheating, cheating is still cheating. Period.
Yes Tennessee will lose some of these Athletes…it’s called attrition. Maybe that one Great Game that some other team plays sways a recruit…usually does. Newman has not played even one Game in The SEC, so honestly he’s got a lot to learn. We know the SEC is not the Always Cushy Conference & the Clemson DB’s ate his lunch. Who wins the Heisman ? Anyone not named Trevor Lawrence will be O.K. with me.
No live sports? Nascar returns Sunday. At least that is something to watch.
“Fun Run” is a good episode, but c’mon, it’s nowhere near the elite strata of episodes like “Stress Relief” and “Diversity Day”.
Never said it was. Just said it always seems to come up when I’m trying to fall asleep. Can’t watch “Stress Relief” when I’m falling asleep because of the smoke alarms, haha.
That was a fun summer of baseball. Too bad it turned into a skidmark. Neither McGwire or Sosa will make it into the HOF…at least they shouldn’t. It will be interesting to see what the documentary focuses on.
I think the comparisons of Mayfield, Murray and Burrow to Newman is disingenuous. They all are transfer QBs but the other 3 won in their second year at the school. Newman will have to it in his only year with no adjustment period. I’m not saying it can’t or won’t happen. Just pointing out the situation is different and the curve steeper. “Pickle Rick” is the must see Rick & Morty episode.
Excellent observation about Burrow, Murray and Mayfield (and Mayfield had three years at Oklahoma).
Highly recommend…
Mad Men – Nixon v Kennedy
Breaking Bad – Ozymandias
Rick & Morty- The Rickshank Redemption
Sopranos – Pine Barrens
South Park – Major Boobage
Letterkenny – Modeans 2
Pretty much all these shows are worth checking out.
I wish the Def Jam fighting game series never got botched up so bad. Those were super fun and I think would make a great comeback.
Adam – since you’re in the comment section for this one, let me say I hope you’re doing well.
“I know there are people out there who just can’t be happy with anything and criticize any piece of culture that has the decency to make any single person on this planet happy.”
I start to worry when I read the above. Hang in there, buddy.
As for Tennessee’s recruits, hey – there’s probably not a single school out there that’s going to keep every commit they get, right? Maybe Tennessee will, but odds are they won’t because no school keeps all their commitments.
There was a pretty old table-top “Football Arcade” game by Atari nicknamed “X’s and O’s” with a trackball you’d have to spin to make your guys run. It was pretty fun.
And much like I quit investing emotional energy into the Heisman race after the 1997 season, I also quit caring about baseball after they cancelled the 1994 World Series. But nobody could avoid hearing about that HR race. Even though it’s not an apples to apples to compare guys like Mantle & Maris with McGwire & Sosa, I think we can all agree McGwire & Sosa had a level playing field compared to each other, and for that reason, it was a fun contest.
And finally, for live sports, check out the Bundesliga starting back up tomorrow morning (Saturday the 16th). Dortmund versus Shalke’04 is a big rivalry — think the Steelers versus the Browns or Ohio State-Michigan, except the stadiums are only like 20 miles apart. Both of these teams have a young American playing for them. 8:30am Missouri time, Adam!
Kedon Slovis (if he doesn’t get injured) will put up some ridiculous numbers. USC has as good of a WR Corp as anyone.
I’m either excited or worried when Najee gets the ball, depending on who the Tide’s playing. Scary runner. Don’t see how he won’t be in the conversation.