Sports this 'n' that

 Oakland has been the home to the Athletics since the 60's. Last weekend, they honored the 50th anniversary of their 1973 title team in the course of getting swept by the Mets, who, in a way, extracted some payback for losing the 1973 World Series in 7 games. Then again, this year's A's are among the dregs of the American League.

Now comes word that the A's are planning to join the Raiders in Las Vegas after buying some property for a new stadium. Doesn't Vegas still have a minor league team?

The elephant that is the A's mascot should be dressed as a hobo as a result, as the team is setting up to relocate around 2026 for the first time since leaving Kansas City for Oakland roughly 60 years prior. The current ownership of the A's will remind folks here of how cheap the Wilpon family was before Steve Cohen bought the Mets after the 2020 season

It just doesn't smell right.

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Speaking of the Mets, ace Max Scherzer is already serving his 10 game suspension for using an allegedly foreign substance in Wednesday's game vs. Los Angeles. Scherzer's rationale? If an impartial arbitrator heard were to hear his case, things might be different, but Major League Baseball had other ideas, using their own arbitrator.

What they should be doing is investigating whether or not umpire Phil Cuzzi, who had a previous ejection for a foreign substance in 2021 overturned (they don't specify if it was Arizona's Caleb Smith or Seattle's Hector Santiago) is overstepping his bounds and going all Judge Roy Bean on players he doesn't like. Trust me on this. When Cuzzi, Dan Bellino, & their crew come to New York to work a Mets series, they're going to get booed.

Cuzzi might want to talk to that other notorious ump, Angel Hernandez.....

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4 Detroit Lions players were suspended by the NFL for violating the league's policy on gambling. Seems the placed bets on games, allegedly league games, though there are people saying it might've also been some college games, on NFL property. Two Lions players were cut. Players suspended "indefinitely" will be eligible to petition for reinstatement following the Super Bowl in February 2024.

A 5th player, from Washington, was also suspended.

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As long as we're discussing the Commanders, the team has a new ownership group coming in to replace Napoleon Snyder, who got bum-rushed because of a sexual harassment scandal, not too dissimilar to what forced Donald Sterling to sell the LA Clippers of the NBA. The new group includes NBA Hall of Famer Earvin "Magic" Johnson, who had previously had a share of the Dodgers.

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Earlier today, Chicago Cubs pitcher Drew Smyly had a day vs. the Dodgers, a perfect game through 7 innings, as seen on MLB Network.

The reason Smyly's down on the field? A collision with catcher Yan Gomes in the 8th inning, leading to an infield hit and the end of Smyly's bid for the perfecto. He went 7 2/3 innings with 10 K's, as the Cubs cruised. Outfielder Cody Bellinger continued to torture his former team, homering for the 2nd straight game.

Former Cubs catcher Joe Girardi, almost a year removed from being dismissed as manager of the Philadelphia Phillies, has joined the carousel of commentators for the Marquee Sports Network, in its 3rd season, as a color analyst. The Cubs, it seems, are copying the Yankee formula of a rotating lineup of not only game analysts, as the Yanks do, but play by play announcers, too. The roster includes ESPN's Jon Schiambi and Beth Mowins, and game analyst Rick Sutcliffe, a ESPN alum who pitched for both the Cubs & Dodgers in his career.

On that salient note, we're begging the Mets to move PA announcer and part-time WPIX anchor Marysol Castro out of the PA booth and into the broadcast booth as the Flushing answer to the Yanks' Suzyn Waldman, who is stuck playing 2nd banana to ageless John Sterling on radio. Even as his career winds down, the 80-something Sterling still calls games as if he was Mr. Magoo.

Moving Castro to the booth to spell Gary Cohen occasionally would also be the reverse of the Yankees' rehiring Paul Olden to be their PA guy after the passing of Bob Sheppard a few years ago. Something to think about.

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With the 2023 USFL season underway, it's interesting to hear Fox's Curt Menefee calling games on NBC. The two networks are sharing announcers during the season, with Menefee partnered with college analysts Joel Klatt and Brock Huard, the latter of whom is working as a sideline reporter who also stays in communication with Menefee & Klatt, the way the late Tony Siragusa did doing NFL games when he was at Fox. Cris Collinsworth's soundalike son, Jac, is also in the announcers' pool this season.