SEATTLE — Picked-up pieces while wondering how long before Seattle gets another NBA team . . .
⋅ Here’s hoping there’s no football for Drake Maye this weekend. He’s already had too much time to think about unhappy endings. After seven months of dwelling on his February Super Bowl stinker (six sacks, three turnovers, 0 points in first three quarters), the 24-year-old star Patriots quarterback now has 10 days to stew over his Lumen Field fourth-quarter meltdown (blowing a 10-0 lead, intercepted on final three possessions).
This would be a good time for the Drake to get away from it all for a couple of days.
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Let’s have no college football or NFL on TV this weekend. No solicitation of Seattle’s Dr. Frasier Crane, “Ted Lasso” Dr. Sharon Fieldstone, or Jersey’s Dr. Jennifer Melfi. Tom Brady’s TB12 is shuttered and the Drake needs no help from Alex Guerrero or Brady’s biomechanics guru, Tom House.
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Nope. It’s time for the Drake to get away and clear his head. Between now and the Sept. 20 home opener against the Steelers, he should watch “Beyond Bakemas” in place of “Good Morning Football” and “Sunday NFL Countdown.”
It also would be a good time to connect with his three ball-playing older brothers, Luke, Cole, and Beau. All sports stars from North Carolina, they’re bigger and wiser than the Drake. Like Rob Gronkowski’s older brothers in Buffalo, and Larry Bird’s older brothers in French Lick, they pounded on the kid brother when he was little. They made him tough.
They’re the ones who prepared him for this.
“This” is the nasty noise and nonstop commentary that’ll dog Maye between now and the next time he steps on a football field in front of a sellout crowd and a national television audience.
Maye was almost the NFL’s MVP last season, finishing second to the Rams’ sentimental favorite, Matthew Stafford. Since the Patriots acquired star receivers A.J. Brown and Romeo Doubs this past offseason, Maye has been picked by a lot of folks to win this season.
Now, some are raising the name of Mac Jones. Or Tony Eason. Forever spoiled by Brady — did you know he was intercepted on four straight possessions against the Broncos in his first season as the starting quarterback? — fans are suddenly questioning a kid quarterback who completed 72 percent of his passes and threw only eight interceptions in 17 regular-season starts last year.
“We’ve got nothing but utmost confidence in him,” Mike Vrabel said after Maye’s brutal finish Wednesday. “We’ll have to learn from it and stick together. It’s never about just one guy.”
That’s great coach-speak there, and we wish it were true, but it’s not the way the NFL works.
Fair or unfair, the Patriot narrative at this hour is all about their star quarterback. How good is he? How good can he become? How will he recover from the bookend booberies of Santa Clara and Seattle? Losing to Drew Lock?
“This starts with me getting back to work and having the right intention in practice,” the ever-accountable Maye said minutes after Wednesday’s crusher. “You can say there’s a full season ahead, but you’ve got to get this thing going early . . . I vowed to myself to be better.”
Go for it, Drake. Bake some pies. Talk to your bros. Unplug the big screen. And stay off the internet.
⋅ Quiz: 1. Name four players who were 35 or younger when inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame; 2. Name four teams that scored in the single digits in a Super Bowl this century. (Answers below.)
⋅ What’s dumber than the NFL playing games in Europe? How about a game in Australia? The Rams and 49ers flew 17 hours for Thursday night’s showcase in Melbourne. It was possibly the biggest American-themed sports event there since Bill Russell, K.C. Jones, and friends ran the table winning Olympic basketball gold for the United States in the 1956 Olympics. Those “summer” games were played in November-December, which delayed rookie Russell’s first game with the Celtics until Dec. 22, 1956.
More than 100,000 fans were announced as in attendance as the Rams and 49ers opened their seasons in Melbourne.
More than 100,000 fans were announced as in attendance as the Rams and 49ers opened their seasons in Melbourne.
⋅ We’ll be telling Joe Morgan stories forever. Former Worcester Telegram scribe Bill Ballou knew Morgan best, and he says Morgan was the Forrest Gump of baseball.
Fiercely loyal to Walpole, loved by all, Morgan was a tremendous athlete in his time, and perhaps better at hockey than baseball. After signing a professional baseball contract with the Braves organization, Morgan played two minor league seasons, then served two years in the Army before resuming his baseball career. Morgan’s best was at Double-A Atlanta in 1957, when he hit .316 with 12 home runs, but the World Series-bound Braves didn’t need much help with an infield that included Johnny Logan and future Hall of Famers Eddie Mathews and Red Schoendienst.
Morgan finally made it to the bigs in 1959, and he was in the Braves’ dugout when Pittsburgh’s Harvey Haddix pitched 12 perfect innings at County Stadium . . . and lost. In the locker room after that game, Morgan noticed a well-dressed man standing near the interview scrum around Haddix’s locker. Noticing that the man was not taking notes, Morgan introduced himself and asked the man what he was doing in the room. It turned out to be the new coach of the Green Bay Packers, a guy named Vince Lombardi.
Morgan played parts of four big league seasons, facing 86 major league pitchers, including Hall of Famers Early Wynn, Don Drysdale, Bob Gibson, Juan Marichal, and Jim Bunning. Morgan went 4 for 8 against Wynn, hit a double off Drysdale, and went 1 for 2 against Gibson. Morgan started and played third base against the Giants at Candlestick Park in 1960, when rookie Marichal pitched his first major league game, a one-hit, 12-strikeout, 2-0 win. Morgan went 0 for 3 with two fly outs and a grounder to first.
Tollway Joe never took himself too seriously, which came in handy when his own organization misidentified him in its annual press guide in 1988 — the year he took over as the team’s manager in July. The ’88 official Red Sox press guide accidently flipped the photos of coaches Morgan and Rac Slider in the bio section. Two days after the 95-year-old Morgan died last Saturday, ESPN’s website used a photo of Johnny Pesky instead of Morgan in its obituary.
⋅ Great to see Rich Gedman in the Red Sox’ dugout in Baltimore last weekend. One of the more valuable, underappreciated contributors to Red Sox successes for almost a half-century, Geddy signed out of St. Peter-Marian High in Worcester 49 years ago, played 13 years in the bigs, and has been coaching in the Boston system for 21. He’s officially the Sox’ player development hitting adviser, but he’s much more to folks in the clubhouse. As a Red Sox catcher, Gedman was a two-time American League All-Star, Roger Clemens’s favorite receiver, and a big threat at the plate. How many guys can say they homered for the Red Sox in the seventh game of the World Series? Geddy’s solo shot off Ron Darling in the second inning at Shea in 1986 gave the Sox a 2-0 lead that would grow to 3-0 before they lost, 8-5.
Rich Gedman played 13 major league seasons, 10-plus with the Red Sox.
Rich Gedman played 13 major league seasons, 10-plus with the Red Sox.Rizer, George Globe Staff
⋅ Cubs outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong cracked his 41st home run this past Monday and went into the weekend with 36 stolen bases. If he gets to 40 steals, he joins Jose Canseco, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Alfonso Soriano, Ronald Acuña Jr., and Shohei Ohtani in the 40-40 club. Canseco got a lot of attention when he became the first 40-40 player in 1988, and the late Mickey Mantle, in Larry Bird-like fashion, once told me, “If I’d known 40-40 was gonna be such a big deal, I’d have done that every year!”
Cubs star Pete Crow-Armstrong appears on his way to baseball's seventh 40-40 season.
Cubs star Pete Crow-Armstrong appears on his way to baseball's seventh 40-40 season.Marta Lavandier/AP Photo/Marta Lavandier
⋅ I know you hate to hear it, but going into Friday, Rafael Devers ranked among the NL’s top six sluggers in homers (35) and RBIs (92). Oh, he also played every game of the last two seasons before Giants manager Tony Vitello made him take a day off Wednesday. That’s 309 consecutive games. Remember this Sept. 29 when the Red Sox get to Yankee Stadium for the Wild Card Series.
⋅ When did big league catchers stop using their mitt as a target for pitchers? It was standard practice in days of yore, but today most catchers move the mitt downward when their pitcher goes into his delivery.
⋅ How did Rutgers coach Greg Schiano not get fired after losing to UMass, 37-21, on Sept. 3? Mighty UMass carried a 16-game losing streak into that game and goes into Saturday’s showdown vs. Sacred Heart with a 27-134 record since moving up to the FBS in 2012.
⋅ UCLA tight end Harry Lodge, the great-grandson of Henry Cabot Lodge (who ran for vice president on the Richard Nixon ticket against John F. Kennedy in 1960), caught a pass for the Bruins in last Saturday’s win over Cal. Lodge played for Belmont Hill and Wake Forest before going to UCLA, where he now plays for former Holy Cross coach Bob Chesney.
⋅ Serena Williams apparently bailed on sister Venus when it came time for media obligations after their US Open doubles loss on Sept. 4. Serena pulled the same disappearing act when she lost her singles match at Wimbledon at the end of June. She’s a great champion and a sore loser. Evermore.
⋅ Joe Cimino, who died Aug. 31 at the age of 82, owned many restaurants and bars in the Back Bay, one of which was Daisy Buchanan’s at 240A Newbury Street, which he owned with Bruins superstar Derek Sanderson. It was the meeting spot for professional athletes in long-ago days. On Sunday, Oct. 1, 1978, when the Yankees lost their final regular-season game to Cleveland, forcing a one-game playoff in Boston the next afternoon, the Yanks flew to Logan, checked into the Sheraton Boston, and most of the team hiked over to Daisy’s to unwind for Monday’s big game.
“I was nervous and worrying about that game until I walked into Daisy’s that night and saw all of my teammates,” Lou Piniella said years later. After Graig Nettles caught Carl Yastrzemski’s popup for the final out of New York’s victory, Nettles was asked what he was thinking as he caught the ball and said, “I was thinking how long it was going to take me to get to Daisy’s.”
⋅ RIP Steve Corcoran, who died Aug. 29 at the age of 87. An Army vet and assistant principal in Wellesley, Corcoran was director of security for the Red Sox at Fenway Park from 1978-2003, then transitioned to daytime operations supervisor, earning four World Series rings.
⋅ RIP John Allen, who won a lot of games and changed a lot of lives as football coach at Mt. Greylock Regional in Williamstown from 1964-2003.
⋅ Quiz answers: 1. Gale Sayers (34, inducted in 1977), Luke Kuechly (35, 2026), Jim Brown (35, 1971), Calvin Johnson (35, 2021); 2. Chiefs (9 points vs. Buccaneers, 2021), Rams (3 vs. Patriots, 2019), Broncos (8 vs. Seahawks, 2014), Giants (7 vs. Ravens, 2001).