Phillies win second in a row with another late inning rally against Nationals.

Once again, the Nationals’ relief pitchers couldn’t hold a late inning lead, giving up two runs

in the top of the 9th leading to a 5-4 victory by the visiting Philadelphia Phillies.

The Nationals got off to a fast start with solo homeruns in the first two innings. Luis Garcia

hit his 13th homer in the bottom of the first, and Jorbit Vivas contributed his 3rd in the bottom

of the second. 2-0 Washington.

The Phillies struck back in the top of the 4th with 3 runs off of Bryson Stott’s rbi double, a sac

fly from J.T. Realmuto, and Gabriel Rincones, Jr’s, rbi single. 3-2 Philadelphia.

That score held until the bottom of the 6th when Curtis Mead hit his 13th homer to left

scoring Dylan Crews who was on base via a fielder’s choice. 4-3 good guys.

Well, lightning can strike twice as Derek Hill’s two-run pinch hit home run in the top of the

9th gave the Phillies a 5-4 lead. Hill, a former Nationals’ player, was down to his last

strike. Ouch!

Jhoan Duran sealed the deal for the Phillies by striking out the side in the bottom of the

9th. Game over.

In last night’s game Philadelphia set a team record by scoring 8 runs after 2 outs in the top

of the 9th.

It’s pretty obvious the Nats’ biggest issue is with their relief pitching. Washington wasn’t

really supposed to do much this season, but having been above .500 for most of the year,

the fans are now holding out hope for a playoff berth. These last two games have certainly

put a damper on those aspirations. There’s still about five weeks to go before the trade

deadline of August 3rd. We will just have to see what the future holds. ---

Game 4 of the

series is Thursday 6:45 EST

Dave’s Dime…I’m a huge college football fan. If I was told I could only watch one sport on

tv; college, professional, whatever, for the rest of my life what would I choose? I’d choose

college football. Major League Baseball would come in second, but why would I even tell

you that? I picked something else and it doesn’t really matter what I would pick

second. According to my supposition, I can’t watch it.

But, as any true college football fan certainly knows, the sport changed drastically in 2021

when players started receiving compensation for playing the game. If you do any research

at all, you’ll discover that starting players at Division 1 schools average around $75,000 a

season. Some elite quarterbacks and wide receivers can make as much as half a million.

But, on the flip side, nearly two-thirds of all college football players make less than $10,000

a season.

Now, I’m not claiming that they don’t deserve some compensation. They do. What I’m

more concerned with is a player’s ability to transfer from one team to another on a yearly

basis. The main reason a player would transfer is with the hope of making more money at

their next location. No loyalty to teammates or fans. It’s all about the Benjamins. It’s no

wonder some college players want to stay in college year after year.

Actually, there was a guy named Cam McCormick whose college football career spanned nine

seasons. Nine! Look it up.

I keep telling myself if I had this same opportunity I’d stay put and be loyal to my team and

fans. But would I really? I’ll never know because I graduated college decades ago and I’m

seventy-four years old.

This part of the fiasco started in 2024 when players were giving the power of unlimited

transfers. A player can transfer up to four times within a five-year period. Before 2021 a

player had to sit out a year if he wanted to transfer to another school.

Should we place a limit of one or two transfers per career? There are, of course, pros and

cons on both sides. I’m already writing more on this subject than I planned to, but when I

get riled up, I get fired up. Please do your own research if you want to learn more.

What I originally wanted to focus on was teams that find it necessary to change

conferences with no regards to geography. Now some of you might think that’s no big

deal. But I do think it’s a big deal because I’m all about geography. I sleep and eat

geography. Quick…someone tell me what’s the capital of Vermont? How about

Missouri? And, besides, jet fuel is through the roof price-wise so why would you want to

spend all that money?

I picked up the latest issue of Lindy’s Sports College Football National 2026 Preview

today. I now want to concentrate on the top four conferences in division 1-AA and let’s just

see how geographically correct they are and have a good laugh.

The first of the big four is the Atlantic Coast Conference. This year it’s made up of

seventeen teams. If you look at a list of those seventeen teams, you’ll see California and

Stanford on that list. Well, the last time I checked those schools were in the State of

California. Why in the world would they transfer to the ACC? It, of course, had something

to do with money. Actually, the Pac-12 conference was being poorly managed and the

member schools were jealous of the more lucrative media deals other conferences were

receiving. So, ten of the twelve member schools started looking elsewhere. This happened

in 2022 and 2023. The remaining two schools were not wanted by any other

conferences. Boy, that would sure put a damper on your recruitment trips! Those two

schools, Washington State and Oregon State, kept the conference name. How many

schools were in the Pac-12 for those couple of years? Two. Why wasn’t it renamed the Pac

2 conference? Because that sounds silly.

The Pac-2. LOL.

Oh, by the way, the other fifteen schools in the ACC are mostly confined to the east coast,

which is how it should be.

Let’s move on to the Big Ten. To begin with, the Big Ten Conference consists of eighteen

schools. Why isn’t it called the Big Eighteen Conference? Maybe because that sounds

silly. But what if I told you this conference stretches from Oregon and Washington State to

Maryland and Rutgers, which is in New Jersey? Now that is beyond silly. The remaining

fourteen schools are pretty much in the upper mid-west, so not all bad, I guess.

Let’s visit the Big Twelve next. What do you want to bet there aren’t twelve teams in this

conference? You’re right, there are sixteen. Why isn’t it called the Big Sixteen

Conference? See the above two paragraphs for the answer. This conference is all over the

map. We’ve got two teams from Utah (Utah and BYU), and one each from Ohio

(Cincinnati), West Virginia (West Virginia), and Florida (Central Florida).

The last of the big four college football conferences is the Southeast Conference

composed of sixteen teams. Now this one has the best grasp of geography out of the

four…by far. All schools are in the mid-south or southeastern part of the country. The

league stretches from Texas to Florida. And there isn’t a number in their conference name,

so it doesn’t really make any difference how many schools there are. Good job, SEC. You

get an “A”.

My main beef with all these teams transferring from one coast to another is the lack of

rivalries. No more Colorado-Texas or Oklahoma -Nebraska. No more Stanford-USC or

UCLA- Cal. It just doesn’t seem the same. And with so many teams in each conference it’s

impossible to play every other team in that conference on a yearly basis. For instance,

since a team plays only twelve regular season games, and there are eighteen teams in the

Big Ten, Ohio State’s schedule this year does not contain games against Wisconsin,

Michigan State, and Iowa. Rivals from the past, but not anymore. And next season they’ll

be more old rivalries not renewed. Teams alternate who they play from season to season,

so some of these old rivalry games don’t happen that often. Once again, I’m writing too

much. Please research if interested.

Boy, I sure rambled on concerning this topic. Sorry about that. But I’m old and I’m mad and

I like things the way they were and it’s past my bedtime and my head hurts, so good-night.

P.S. don’t ever get me started on today’s music!!

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