Sports this 'n' that

 After today's game, the Boston Red Sox will supposedly begin a search for a new manager. Again.

Ron Roenicke, hired to replace the suspended Alex Cora, will not return next year, not after the under-manned Sawx, who lost ace Chris Sale to Tommy John surgery, and dealt David Price & Mookie Betts to the Dodgers in the off-season, finished, as most expected, in last place in the AL East.

But are the Red Sox playing with fire by even considering bringing Cora back? He's already at the top of a list, assuming there really is one, to replace Roenicke next season. Mind you, no one's considering Carlos Beltran for a job after the Mets were forced to divest themselves of their former star for his part in Houston's sign stealing scandal three years ago. Cora apparently didn't play as much of a role, even after leaving for Boston in 2018, but took responsibility for not cutting things off when he should have. And maybe that plays a part in his return.

Penance is a good thing, after all.

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Speaking of the Mets, fans are split regarding whether or not rookie skipper Luis Rojas will return next year. One would have to believe that incoming majority owner Steve Cohen, bringing back former GM Sandy Alderson as team president, might want his own guy in the dugout to erase the stench of three underachieving seasons under Rojas, and, before him, Mickey Callaway, who's now in Anaheim as Joe Maddon's pitching coach, and missing the playoffs again.

The Mets were eliminated Saturday in a doubleheader sweep at the hands of last year's champions, the Washington Nationals, who have gone from first to worst, as the most the Nats can do now is a 4th place tie with New York, should they win on getaway day today.

If there is a positive to this underachievement, it's the fact that the Mets found themselves another front line starter in rookie David Peterson, who outdueled fellow rookie Ian Anderson and veteran Patrick Corbin in his final two starts of the season, to complement ace Jacob deGrom, who will not win his 3rd straight Cy Young after misfortune bit him over and over again in his final three starts, including yesterday.

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The Las Vegas Raiders have barely settled into their new home, and already they're dealing with scandal.

It's not the fact that coach Jon Gruden was fined for not wearing a mask on the sidelines, but there are other COVID-19 protocol violations that the NFL is investigating.

You know what they say. If you're not looking for trouble, trouble finds you anyway.

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As reported over at Tri-City SportsBeat yesterday, former Tri-City Valleycat Hunter Pence, after a 14 year major league career that saw him go from Houston to Philadelphia to San Francisco to Texas, and back to San Francisco, officially retired, days after the Giants had cut him, ending his 2nd tour of duty with the team.

Hunter's 1st taste of pro post-season came with the Valleycats in 2004, his rookie year. He won two World Series with the Giants in 2012 & 2014, and was a multi-time all-star. His future likely includes a coaching job with, if not the Giants, but maybe with Houston.

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The final dominoes fell in college football, as the Pac-12 & Mid-Atlantic Conference (MAC) both reversed field, and will play shortened seasons this year. It's all about revenues for the member schools, more so than, say, political pressure, even as each league has schools in swing states in the coming election. The MAC, for example, has teams in Ohio & Michigan, same as the Big 10. The only politics these leagues would rather be concerned with, you see, are the politics that keeps their teams out of the College Football Playoff, which has been dominated by the SEC & ACC.