Spring is springing, birds are chirping, vax needles are poking, and the world is once again starting to bear a bit of a resemblance to the world before COVID-19. It’s so refreshing it’s crazy, because, like, who woulda thunk a year and a half ago that going back to business as usual (at least in re: the general comings and goings of the world) would feel so exhilarating. I myself have tried to imbue my day-to-day with this kind of vivacity, but lemme tell you, there’s only so much celebration you can French Press out of writing/editing copy and taking out the recycling one time out of three. What I’m saying is I’m chained-to-my-desk busy. Still, I have an internet connection and with that internet connection I can talk to my friends, watch my NBA Top Shot valuation plummet day after day, and, as of a few days ago, watch NBA playoff games with fans in the building.
That last one is some shit I can get hyped for, and if you watched Atlanta/New York on Sunday you know what I’m talking about. That, my friends, was a playoff game that felt like a playoff game. The Knicks being good is good for basketball, but the Knicks being disappointing in prime time is good for fans of normalcy, because with all the uncertainty we’ve been dealt in the last fifteen months or so we need as much familiarity as possible to reacquaint us with some version of that business-as-usual concept.
Real talk: this week’s issue features some good-as-hell trivia and we hope you enjoy it because a lot goes into making this thing week after week. If you want to help us out, and we’d like to think you do:
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Jonathan and I have some big hopes and bigger plans for Oddball and we can only achieve them if and when we have a bigger audience, and anything y’all can do to help us build that audience would be very, very appreciated.
Yours in sports,
— DJ
Answers from last week’s issue
What two former NBA Coach of the Year award winners also once served as head coach of the Albany Patroons of the Continental Basketball Association? They went on to face each other in the NBA Finals during the 1990s.
Phil Jackson and George Karl have both served as the Patroons head coach. The Zen Master led them to their first CBA championship.
Future Minnesota Timberwolves owner Álex Rodríguez was one of the first three Latino players to go #1 overall in the MLB Entry draft. Who were the other two? (Hint: one of them is still active.)
Adrián González (2000) and Carlos Correa (2012) followed Rodríguez (1993) on this very short list.
Edmonton Oilers star Connor McDavid just completed a phenomenal regular season, tallying 105 points in only 56 games. McDavid’s career regular season output of 574 points puts him 8th on the Oilers’ all-time scoring list. Who are the seven players above him?
Wayne Gretzky, Jari Kurri, Mark Messier, Glenn Anderson, Paul Coffey, Ryan Smyth, Doug Weight are the names we were looking for. (We are not currently looking for any droids.)
What two NFL teams are named for individual people?
The Buffalo Bills (Buffalo Bill Cody) and the Cleveland Browns (Paul Brown) were the answers we were looking for. Bernadette Lions and Montgomery Fortyniner were not.
#wholiofranco
There are 13 players who are in the NBA's all-time top 100 in points, rebounds, and assists. Name the four players who are former Celtics.
Who is the only pitcher in MLB history to both throw a complete game no-hitter and earn the save in a no-hitter? Both no-hitters were with a team where he is fourth all-time in wins, innings pitched, and strikeouts — a team that has changed its name twice since his time there.
The last pick of the 1991 NHL expansion/dispersal draft was a Hall of Fame player (who was already a member at the HOF at the time) who was traded back to the team he was drafted from, promptly retired, and took a front-office job with that club. Who was the player?
Among the top ten placekickers who have made the most NFL postseason field goals, two played for only one team in their careers. One played in the 1990s but did not win any Super Bowl championships. The other is a current player who has made the playoffs 11 out of his 14 seasons, and has won a Super Bowl. Name the kickers.
#postscript
Many thanks to the ageless Julio Franco — who, along with Jesse Orosco, will outlive us all — for being named his name and to you for being named your name, unless your name is Guy Incognito, because if it is you can say “you already used this joke!” to make us feel bad and we don’t want to feel bad.
Until next week, be the Ezequiel Carrera you wish to see in the world.
— DJ/JY