Apr 17, 2026; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Baltimore Orioles relief pitcher Ryan Helsley (21) delivers a pitch in the ninth inning against the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-Imagn Images | David Richard-Imagn Images
The Redbirds outhit the Tides 13-3 in a lopsided seven-inning result. Nestor German started Game 1 and failed to complete two innings. German allowed five earned runs on six hits, two walks and two strikeouts.
Despite the result, Baltimore fans should be happy to know that Ryan Helsley looked sharp in his first rehab appearance. The closer struck out three batters and allowed a single in a scoreless inning. The Baltimore Sun’s Jacob Calvin Meyer reported that Helsley averaged 97.7 MPH and topped out at 99.7 MPH with his fastball.
The Tides managed to get on the scoreboard in this one, but Memphis completed the Thursday sweep. Former Oriole Bruce Zimmermann allowed two runs (one earned) on three hits over 5.2 innings.
Dietrich Enns started a bullpen game for Norfolk and failed to complete the first. Enns allowed five runs after issuing four walks and surrendering a two-run homer.
Tommy Pham went deep in what was likely his last game in a Tides uniform. The Sun’s Josh Tolentino reported yesterday evening that Pham plans to opt out of his minor league deal.
Enrique Bradfield Jr. finished 0-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts. Johnathan Rodríguez tallied Norfolk’s other two hits.
The Baysox took a no-hitter into the seventh inning, but the Curve managed a two-out single. Luis De León tossed five hitless innings with seven strikeouts and two walks. Alex Pham, Keagan Gillies and Micah Ashman completed the shutout for Chesapeake.
Aron Estrada gave Chesapeake an early lead with a solo shot in the first inning, and Fernando Peguero doubled the advantage with an RBI-single in the second. Estrada manufactured two more runs with a pair of ground outs in the fifth and ninth innings. Six of Chesapeake’s ten hits came from the seven, eight and nine hitters. Carter Young went 2-for-3 with a walk, a double, and two runs scored.
High-A: Frederick Keys 3, Brooklyn Cyclones (Mets) 2
Frederick scored in the fifth, seventh, and eighth innings to squeak out a 3-2 win. Elis Cuevas got the Keys on the board with a solo homer in the fifth inning. Cuevas evened the score at two with a sacrifice fly in the seventh, and Victor Figueroa drove in the go-ahead run with a sac fly in the eighth.
Leandro Arias finished 2-for-4 from the leadoff spot. Ike Irish went hitless in four trips, and Wehiwa Aloy managed a hit and a run in four at bats.
Vance Honeycutt left the game with left quad tightness.
The Tides scored the tying run off of former Orioles prospect Justin Armbruester. Armbruester found his way to High-A on a rehab assignment.
Low-A: Columbia Fireflies (Royals) 9, Delmarva Shorebirds 8
Delmarva led this game 8-0 and still found a way to lose. Eat your heart out, San Antonio Spurs.
Brendan Parks and Eccel Correa allowed nine runs (eight earned) in the seventh and eighth innings. Delmarva starter Stephen Still did his part with four scoreless frames. Still limited Columbia to two hits and two walks. He struck out seven.
Edwin Amparo extended the lead to eight with a two-run homer in the fourth inning. Amparo, Braylon Whitaker, Stiven Martinez, and Raylin Ramos all recorded multiple hits. Jose Perez doubled and scored a run.
Max Scherzer might be in the last years of his career, but what a career it has been. Without a doubt, he will be headed to the Hall of Fame, but now he’s gunning to make it to the top 10 strikeout leaders of all time, and he doesn’t have far to go. This week, Scherzer notched his 3,500th career strikeout, and he only needs seven more to take the tenth overall spot away from Walter Johnson. There is only one active MLB pitcher on the board ahead of Scherzer, and that is Justin Verlander, who currently sits at 3,554 strikeouts. Verlander has been on the IL this year for the Tigers, but is poised to return to the majors soon, so he and Scherzer can continue to deck it out to see who can get the most Ks before they wrap up their respective Hall of Fame careers.
We’ve got that and more in today’s links roundup, so let’s just dive in and get to the news.
The @SFGiants are the first team in MLB history with a walkoff grand slam to cap off a comeback from 8+ runs down in the 8th inning or later. pic.twitter.com/bm10N5hUKk
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - AUGUST 23: General view during a game between Bay FC and Washington Spirit square off before a record-setting crowd at Oracle Park on August 23, 2025 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Karen Hickey/ISI Photos/ISI Photos via Getty Images) | ISI Photos via Getty Images
Good morning, baseball fans!
The San Francisco Giants are home this weekend, so let’s take a look at what Oracle Park has on deck for fans who are thinking about taking in a game.
First up, tonight is Pride Night at Oracle Park. The special event tickets are sold out, but if you happened to get your hands on those there’s a pretty great jersey giveaway. Everyone else can look forward to some Pride Night fireworks after the game!
As with all Saturday home games this season, Saturday will feature a Fiesta Gigantes celebration throughout the park. Additionally, soccer fans will want to get there early, because the first 20,000 fans in attendance will receive a Giants themed soccer jersey, just in time for the World Cup!
Sunday is Hello Kitty Day! The special event tickets for this are sold out as well, but fans who got them will be getting a pretty cool jacket. Everyone else can still get their hands on a Giants themed Hello Kitty plush keychain, if they’re one of the first 25,000 fans in attendance that is. So get there early!
If you’re headed to the park this weekend, have fun and make sure to share pictures in the comments!
What time do the Giants play today?
The Giants welcome the Chicago Cubs to Oracle Park tonight to begin a three-game series starting at 7:15 p.m. PT.
SEATTLE, WA - MAY 02: Kyle Isbel #28 of the Kansas City Royals looks on prior to the game between the Kansas City Royals and the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park on Saturday, May 2, 2026 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Rod Mar/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
The big news yesterday was the Kyle Isbel injury. Anne Rogers reported it:
On Thursday, he was diagnosed with a Grade 3 tear of a portion of his left plantar fascia, which is a severe tear and will take some time to heal before he gets back to baseball activity. The Royals are hoping to have a better understanding of a timeline for his return after Isbel is further evaluated in the coming days.
Isbel began limping as he got aboard with a single. He knelt on the base before walking slowly toward the Royals’ dugout.
“I think it was like my first step past the base,” Isbel said. “Kind of tried to turn it on and get a double and felt it in my foot.”
The Royals placed Isbel on the 10-day injured list Wednesday. Now, he will begin the long road to recovery.
It sounds like this recovery is going to be measured in weeks or months, not days.
The team got better news about Seth Lugo and his scary injury. Again, per Anne:
Lugo went through the necessary testing and protocol Wednesday night, and his CT scan came back clear, which is an even better sign. With the welt that has formed on his head, Lugo said he feels the throbbing when he bends over but hasn’t had any headaches. His left elbow is cut up and actually hurts the most from falling on it.
Lugo received a lot of support from his teammates. Multiple players came up to check on him as he got ready for Thursday’s game.
“It’s family in here,” Lugo said. “When something like that happens, it’s scary. You know, it’s one of the dangers of baseball. And as a pitcher, you know, you can’t think of that before it happens. You would never throw a strike. We all feel for each other when something bad happens out there, but you know, it’s part of the game.”
The Royals haven’t determined Lugo’s next steps. It’s still too early to tell how his symptoms will progress in coming days. He had a large bump on his forehead and a few scratches on his arm.
How about three stories from The Athletic ($) about the Royals?
On June 18, Under Armour will drop a player-exclusive cleat and turf shoe for Bobby Witt Jr., a move that, on the surface, reads as a standard brand decision for one of baseball’s best young players. But for Witt, it’s the ultimate “Dream Pull.”
…“Dream Pull” is inspired by the thrill of ripping a pack of baseball cards and chasing a big hit. It’s that collector’s high that has driven recent growth in the hobby and prompted pro players like Witt to collect.
…Collectors and fans have multiple ways to get the new footwear. Starting on June 18, limited quantities of the Dream Pull will be available in both cleat and turf versions on Under Armour’s website and mobile app, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and Academy.com. Anyone who purchases through Dick’s Sporting Goods or Under Armour receives an exclusive Panini card in the box. But on June 20, the Under Armour Factory House in Kansas City will stock pairs with some boxes containing randomly placed autographed Witt Jr. cards. (The Dream Pull PE will be playable in MLB The Show 2026’s “Road to the Show” game mode.)
This is my second or third shoe story in the last couple of months. I’m currently working on a shoe-related OT, but it’s not ready yet. Can you do a little better on your timing, guys?
When the Kansas City Royals traded catcher Freddy Fermin to the San Diego Padres at last year’s deadline, they were happy to acquire right-handers Stephen Kolek and Ryan Bergert. They also knew Carter Jensen was nearly ready for the majors, making them deep enough at catcher to pull off such a move.
The Royals lack the pitching equivalents of what Jensen was, potential candidates for next year’s rotation in the upper minors. So, even if they fall out of contention, they likely will not be as comfortable moving starters such as right-handers Seth Lugo (under club control through 2027) and Michael Wacha (through 2027).
Left-hander Kris Bubic, a potential free agent, would be more likely to go, along with others on expiring contracts — outfielder Lane Thomas, lefty reliever Matt Strahm and righty reliever John Schreiber, among them.
The Royals, like all teams, are open to anything. If they could trade Wacha and/or Lugo for quality pitchers under longer club control, they would need to consider it. Any form of teardown, though, is likely not an option. The Royals want to win with shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. and third baseman Maikel Garcia, both of whom are under contract through at least 2030.
Keith Law released his Mock Draft 2.0 yesterday and had the Royals taking “Jacob Lombard”.
Over the past few weeks, the manager Matt Quatraro has been shuffling around his lineup. Maikel Garcia has not led off for the Royals since May 27, partially to place him in the heart of the batting order, and partially due to a hamstring injury. Since May 27, Quatraro has favored Carter Jensen to lead off against right-handed pitchers and Lane Thomas against left-handed pitchers. However, Jensen has been slumping lately, and it could be time to shake up the order yet again.
…Massey is far from the perfect leadoff hitter. His current on-base percentage of .283 is less ideal. His baserunning does not stand out in particular. His sprint speed is below average in the 37th percentile. He has only one stolen base attempt this season and has been thrown out more often than he advances when trying to take the extra base on the basepaths. If Massey can‘t improve his baserunning, he could be a frustrating fixture on the bases with stars like Bobby Witt Jr. at the plate.
Also at Royals Keep, Matt Crossland writes about one of my… do I say “favorite” topics(?)… in “The Tragic Tale of Gil Meche”:
In a memorable game against the Diamondbacks, Meche pitched a complete game shutout, only giving up four hits and striking out six. At the time, it was seen as Meche’s masterpiece, but there was only one stat that stuck out like a sore thumb: his pitch count. Meche threw 132 pitches, which is too many pitches to throw for a shutout, and it would eventually take a toll on him. Manager Trey Hillman again gave Meche too long a leash in his next two starts as he threw 121 and 114 pitches in back-to-back starts. He would finish 2009 with a record of 6–10 and an ERA of 5.09 while giving up almost 8 earned runs per game over his last nine starts. He would not be the same pitcher after that.
And this is the perfect time to link to Poz’s article from the time. The “how would you wash a unicorn” analogy has stuck with me to this day:
I don’t know. Maybe at some point, when you’re SO FAR down the wrong road, you just go: “What the hell, might as well keep going and hope we run into something good.” Maybe it would have been more damaging to have Meche throw 117 pitches and then pull him before the inning was done. I don’t know. I really don’t know. We are in such la-la land here, there can be no logical questions … these are like “How would you wash a unicorn?” questions. I do know that Meche threw four more pitches and did get Morneau to fly out to right.
We have a couple of blogs that don’t post very often.
Actually, that’s unfair to Jeff Wayman at The Diamond Chronicles. He posts mostly on Mondays. But I never get to link to his stuff because, well, it wouldn’t be very timely for “Friday Rumblings”. Still, I’ll do it this week to remind you to check him out on Mondays.
Patrick Glancy is mostly posting to his new blog, Powder Blue Pulp. But he did some baseball writing this week, too: “Back to Baseball”. He wrote about what has happened with the team this season so far.
I’m writing this on my birthday, the day before I actually publish it on Substack, and it feels a little strange to be back in baseball mode again. As most of you know, I’ve been hard at work on my debut crime novel, Shivering in Hell, which I announced in my most recent post. I’ve also been publishing short fiction through my other newsletter, Powder Blue Pulp, and I haven’t actually written about baseball since I made my preseason predictions back in March.*
A few weeks ago, over on another blog, we were talking about dinosaurs and the idea of paleontology came up. I was also in Chicago over the past weekend and we were at the Field Museum.
We joke all the time about civilizations from the future that dig up our current time and make bad assumptions. You know, the jokes about how future archeologists will dig up Memphis and assume large swaths of the population worshipped a god-king named Elvis. Better authors than I have come up with great angles on this idea.
But I was having fun noodling around with the (literally) mind-boggling concept of time and had a little fun.
I’m not a great student of history so we’re going to fall down a wiki rabbit hole. I know Wikipedia is imperfect, but it’s good for general knowledge like this.
* * * * *
We’re going to start with this concept: Events from 50 years ago seem old to an individual human. We only get, at best, maybe 100 years on this earth. 300 years ago is another civilization entirely. It seems like a good “block” to measure time in this exercise.
300 years ago (1726), the world was a very different place. Humans hadn’t achieved space flight, automobiles, or flight. But there were crude trains and civilization had sailed the seas for much longer. There was no United States, but there were a lot of other modern countries you could name. How many people could you name that were alive in 1726? Benjamin Franklin? Isaac Newton? Johan Sebastian Bach? Voltaire? Maybe you couldn’t have told me with certainty they were alive then, but you know who they were and that we were in the ballpark. It’s history, but it’s nowhere near ancient history. And this is where our journey starts.
We’re going to use a quick little “o” to represent each 300-year block. A graphic designer, I am not.
Another 300 years before that (1426) is the late Middle Ages and the start of the Renaissance. I could probably give you a few bits off the top of my head. I’d be wrong about some of it, but I’d be right about quite a bit. Joan of Arc, Vlad the Impaler, Johannes Gutenberg? We know those names. Gotta be honest, I only know of Donatello because of TMNT. But anyone with a real appreciation of art would know him. FYI: Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael don’t come along until later in the century.
Suffice to say, I feel like we have a “decent” grasp of these first two sets of “300-year” blocks. There are many major events logged in many parts of the world. There’s just a lot of written history from these times. Modern history is aware of so much happening at these times that Wiki’s editors have to spend a significant amount of energy to limit pages to “important” things.
I think this is our first major jump. Could you even tell me anything about 1126? Maybe a couple of things, but it wouldn’t be many. Dark Ages, Indeed. How much do people even know about that time? I asked Gemini who are the most famous people alive at that time and didn’t recognize any names. Anyone here a big fan of Peter Abelard, Henry I, Imad al-Din Zengi, or Emperor Huizong of Song? I’m not saying they aren’t famous – Gemini assures me that Huizong is one of China’s most famous rulers – I just don’t know who they are. Looking at the map, there’s a few countries that have their modern name, even if they’re in different shapes (England, Scotland, Denmark, Norway, France, Poland, Hungary, Ethiopia, Oman, Yemen, Japan, etc). But there’s no Spain, no Germany, no Turkey, no Greece, no China, no India, no Russia.
Our information is becoming sparse very quickly. Know anything about 826? 526? Each of those years barely has a page worth of stuff on Wikipedia. We just don’t know much. How about that 500 AD map above? I don’t think there’s a single country there that has the same name. Maybe Nepal? Ghana and Albania exist, but not where they are today. 226 has an artifact in modernity: Saint Valentine! He was born in 226 and died in 269.
Now we’ve crossed over into BC. 74 BC and 374 BC have a couple of entries of known events. 674 BC only has one. Just think about that for a second. This is less than 3000 years ago. It’s in a time when there was paper and civilization. Various estimates have the world population between 50M and 150M, so let’s split the difference. There were 100M people wandering around and we know of exactly one thing that happened in the entire world. 100,000,000 people! That’s more than France, the UK, Germany, Turkey, or Iran. That’s Italy plus Canada put together. That’s California, Texas, New York, and Illinois combined (using 2022 estimates).
And we know next to nothing. If you’re curious:
Esarhaddon puts down a revolt in Ascalon supported by Taharqa, king of Kush and Egypt. In response, the Assyrians invade Egypt, but Taharqa is able to hold them off.
Here’s our next big gap. When I search Wikipedia for 974 BC, it redirects me to the page for 970s BC. We can’t even tell you anything that happened in 974. But we know that Egyptian pharaoh Shoshenq I was born and King Zhao of the Chinese Zhou dynasty ascended to the throne during that decade. In Israel, King Solomon may have had his coronation and King David might have been born – but it’s listed as “possible”.
.oooooooooo <- You are here (974 BC)
The 1270s BC were surprisingly busy. While 1274 doesn’t get its own page, there are a number of events on the 1270 page listed as happening in 1274. For instance, the Battle of Kadesh is noted as being “the largest (5,000–6,000) chariot vs. chariot battle in antiquity”. The 1570s BC page is starting to look like the pages for 826 and 526 AD. Only instead of knowing of only a couple of events those years, it’s only a couple of events from that decade.
Did you know that the Bronze Age isn’t a specific set of years for the world? It’s different for different parts of the world? I guess that makes sense, but I didn’t know that until I started looking this up.
.oooooooooooo <- You are here (1574 BC)
* * * * *
So, after 12 hops of 300 years, we get another major jump in Wikipedia chronology. Our 13th jump gets us to 1874 BC. It doesn’t even redirect me to a decade. Now it’s just a century. None of the dates are exact, and there are only about 20 major events. Kansas City gets a mention(!): “1836 BC-1818 BC: Head of Senusret III is made. Twelfth dynasty of Egypt. It is now kept at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri.”
.ooooooooooooo <- You are here (1874 BC)
This is both fascinating and boring at the same time. For each entry I run across, the picture gets fuzzier and fuzzier. I’m not going to keep stretching this out one by one.
We’re going to skip a few to 20 jumps of 300 years. A nice, round 6000 years. This is the last page Wikipedia has for a single century: 40th century BC. There are no entries on the page that can point to a single year. There are things like “approximate time of the construction of the Merheleva Ridge complex”, “the Linear Pottery culture gives way to the Funnelbeaker culture in the north”, and “plough in use”. That’s it. That’s all we’ve got.
Also, here’s a sobering thought for anyone trying to make a name for themselves across history. Population estimates have the world at anywhere between 7M and 50M people. And you know what? There isn’t a single name of a single person known from that century. Or for the next century. Or even a few more. Seriously.
Writing doesn’t come about until about 3300BC and do you know our best bet at who is the oldest name in history? A guy named “Kushim the Accountant” who signed his name to a number of stone tablets counting barley shipments. Eat your heart out, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. The first person in recorded history? Kushim, a late Stone Age Excel guy.
I’m hesitant to add this because of the sensitive nature of the topic. But we’re all adults here, so we can talk about it. Biblically, this is about how old the Earth is. That is, if you add up your begats, take your ages literally, and claim the Earth was created in six literal 24-hour days. It assumes fastidious record-keeping with very limited corroborating evidence, documents people who are hundreds of years old (969-year-old Methuselah, 950-year-old Noah, and 930-year-old Adam come to mind), and even whistles past some minor genealogical conflicts in different books of the Bible. Personally, I could also argue that it misses the main message, claiming it as literal and perfect records rather than trying to point towards the idea of God keeping his covenant.
.oooooooooooooooooooo <- You are here (3974 BC)
* * * * *
After that, Wiki skips to millennia. Not just our individual years, but our whole 300-year blocks aren’t good enough to have their own page – we have to lump them in with a couple of others. But I don’t even see the point anymore. We don’t know years, we don’t know people, we’re making best guesses at places, and we’re often heavily speculating on events. We’re well past “they worshipped Elvis” territory if you’re trying to study history.
As I was writing, I needed a pause here. That’s a lot to take in. We’ve gone back 6000 years and the picture is very fuzzy. This is more-or-less what is considered “recorded history”.
On the one hand, that’s after “only” 20 of these 300-year blocks. Or 60 of 100-year lifespans. If you want to call 20 years a generation, that means 300 generations. That sounds a lot longer. It really depends on how you want to chop this up. In short, for an individual human, it’s a long time. For humanity, it’s the blink of an eye. For the history of the Earth, it’s imperceptible.
* * * * *
Humans, as in homo sapiens, have been around for 300K years, give or take.
We barely know anything after 6K years or 20 blocks.
“Modern” humans have been around for 1000 blocks.
At this point, my simple visualization starts to break down. This probably will look pretty bad, but we’ll see how it goes.
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo <- You are here
We were just at 20 blocks and that seemed an almost unfathomable time ago. And this is 50x that. Humans, as we understand them, have been around that long. But we’re really in the “making best guesses” territory now. So little is around from 6000 years ago, much less 300K years ago.
If you want to take the whole “Homo” genus, that’s roughly 3M years. It was probably closer to 4M years that we evolved from Australopithecus. But let’s just roll with the 3M number to keep it an even 10,000 blocks.
Before you start thinking “well, 10K blocks, that’s not very many”. I mean, we just jumped from “we know very little about the world from 20 blocks ago” to “10K is pretty similar”? I mean, it’s just 3 more 0’s 20 -> 10000. Yeah, the logarithmic scale is rough. No, I’m not going to take that block of 1000 o’s above and draw 10 of them here. Use your imagination.
I considered taking that 6K span of time, that time we have gone from knowing nothing about it to modernity and making a block to represent that. But, really, when we’re getting into these numbers, does it even help? I think we’re just too abstracted at this point.
Besides, how different could Australopithecus be?
The brains of most species of Australopithecus were roughly 35% of the size of a modern human brain with an endocranial volume average of 466 cc (28.4 cu in). Although this is more than the average endocranial volume of chimpanzee brains at 360 cc (22 cu in) the earliest australopiths (A. anamensis) appear to have been within the chimpanzee range, whereas some later australopith specimens have a larger endocranial volume than that of some early Homo fossils.
Jokes about your friend who uses only a third of his brain aside, it kind of feels like we’re talking more monkey than man at this point. So in the time it takes to get from monkey to modern man, it’s 3M years.
…
At this point, I think our exercise has broken down and we’re just having funsies.
Want to walk back to the age of dinosaurs? That’s the Mesozoic Era. I think most of us know about the 65M years ago number. So, if we use 3M year blocks to go from monkey to man. You have to jump through 20 of those just to get to the end of dinosaurs. And dinosaurs were around for 60 of those. So, in short: the time after dinosaurs is one giant honking block. Dinosaurs lived for three of those.
Do you know how hard it is to find a timeline to scale using search? I just can’t find a good one to link here. We’re so egocentric that everyone wants to make the Paleozoic (252-539 Ma, Mesozoic (66-252 Ma), and Cenozoic (now-66 Ma) the same sized blocks. Since we lived in that later period, we want to make it as big as other periods that are much longer. Never mind that humans are only a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of the Cenozoic.
How tiny (using round-ish numbers)?
The genus Homo is around 1/20th of the Cenozoic
Homo sapiens only 1/200th
Recorded history is only about 1/10000th
And, your entire life, if you’re lucky and get to 100, are only 1/660,000th
One more? There are about 70 of those periods (from now to 65M years ago) between the start of the Earth and now.
Homo has been around for 1/1500th of that
Homo sapiens for 1/15,0000th
Recorded history for 1/750,000th
And, you, maybe 1/45,000,000th
How’s your little corner of existence feel right now?
* * * * *
This whole conversation came up because of Tyrannosaurus Rex. T-Rex was around 69-66 Ma, though it could have been around as early as maybe 80 Ma. So it was around at least as long as the Homo genus. Want a rough estimate of how many ever existed: “Over the span of the genus’ existence, it is estimated that there were about 127,000 generations and that this added up to a total of roughly 2.5 billion animals until their extinction”. Add this up with “Lastly, the study suggests that in most cases, only one in 80 million Tyrannosaurus would become fossilized, while the chances were likely as high as one in every 16,000 of an individual becoming fossilized in areas that had more dense populations.”
Obviously, there are huge error bars for something like thi- wait, what did that say? Roughly 2.5 billion (with a “B”) T-Rexes existed in history. No kidding? Wow!
Sadly, we’ve only found about 60 specimens. It’s hard for things to survive 100 years, much less millions
FYI: The estimated number of humans who have ever lived is a little over 100 billion. There’s a cool graphic at the top of the wiki page about that.
* * * * *
Finally, as I went back further, I ran across the name Rodinia. Most people have heard of Pangaea, but there are other supercontinents (theoretically) before that. It was from roughly 1130-750 Mya.
How was it?
Unlike later supercontinents, Rodinia was entirely barren. It existed before complex life colonized on dry land. Based on sedimentary rock analysis, Rodinia’s formation happened when the ozone layer was not as extensive as it is now. Ultraviolet light discouraged organisms from inhabiting its interior. Nevertheless, its existence significantly influenced the marine life of its time.
Yikes.
That page also had a link to something called the Snowball Earth hypothesis.
Then again, supercontinent theory gets really theoretical really fast.
Growing up, I loved the book “An Incomplete Education” (which is probably a bit outdated now). An entertaining reference book? Catnip for adolescent me.
In the science chapter, there’s a section on different types of numbers: integers, rationals, reals, etc. Then it starts getting a little out of control, with things like transfinite numbers and ending with quaternions. This is its explanation of them:
The feeling that, once having learned to walk, one can run. Also fly. The lesson here is that when you extend numbers beyond the complex stage, you do so at the expense of something called permanence; one by one, properties you took for granted fall away. For instance, with quaternions, you have to give up either the role 0 plays or multiplicative commutativity (i.e., x times y no longer equals y times x). Say good night, Gracie.
Yup, I think it’s bedtime.
* * * * *
This seems like the perfect opportunity to revisit Chrono Trigger.
Today’s song plays with the idea in the previously linked to Canticle for Leibowitz.
“Corridors of Time” is the overworld theme for the Kingdom of Zeal. The game starts in the present (modern-ish) times. Shortly after, you’re thrown into a dystopian future and the assumption is that civilization had peaked before the Lavos cataclysm. It’s not until late in the game that you come to find out that a much more advanced civilization existed long before, in 12000 BC. However, their hubris set in motion the events that doomed Zeal and would doom the future. But no one in the present even knew, because nothing of their civilization remained.
The Prem’s top points scorer has been rejuvenated this year as the Chiefs look to overturn their fancied hosts Bath in Saturday’s semi-final
It is early afternoon in Exeter and Henry Slade is reflecting on his day so far. As a type 1 diabetic he has already injected himself “four or five times” and a training schedule change has left him playing catchup with his insulin levels. “I had a bit of a stinker today. I had to bang some carbohydrate down me before training but didn’t quite get it right. I was a bit on the low side and didn’t feel very good. I guess it was my fault for not reading the schedule properly.”
Later there will be further injections and more monitoring, none of it stress free for someone who wrestles with obsessive compulsive disorder. Plus, there are the demands of having three daughters under six back at home; the youngest, Delphine, is not yet three months old. After an intensely physical match even changing a nappy can be challenging. “With the last two I’ve spent hours on the floor changing nappies. It’s a nightmare getting up again. We’ve now got nappy-changing tables which are an absolute gamechanger.”
Tobias Myers started this game and went two-and-two-thirds innings before reliever Matt Turner finished the third inning. And then Jack Wenninger pitched the remainder of the game, giving up all three of Buffalo’s runs in his five innings of work. The Syracuse lineup didn’t get much going.
Kodai Senga’s rehab start was his best one thus far during this rehab assignment, as he went six innings, gave up just one run on one hit, struck out five, and walked one. Unfortunately, Binghamton’s bats didn’t do much, and the two runs that the bullpen allowed were all Somerset needed to beat them.
The Cyclones led 1-0 and 2-1 in this one, but a pair of late runs allowed by the bullpen turned the game in Frederick’s favor. Cyclones starter Nicolas Carreno struck out nine and walked two, allowing just one run in six innings of work.
GOODYEAR, ARIZONA - FEBRUARY 12: Daniel Espino #66 of the Cleveland Guardians poses for a portrait at Cleveland Guardians Photo Day during 2026 Spring Training at Goodyear Ballpark on February 12, 2026 in Goodyear, Arizona. (Photo by Russell Lee Verlinger/Cleveland Guardians/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The Guardians have demoted Codi Heuer and promoted Daniel Espino. They also traded Nolan Jones to the White Sox for $250K in international free agency.
It’s quite exciting to think of Espino finally making the big leagues. Zack Meisel has a story out about his arduous journey.
Nolan Jones is not good, but if he is somehow miraculously good with the White Sox, it’ll be time o fire the hitting coaches here.
Meisel has an article on the hitting issues for the Guardians.
The Tigers will start Jack Flaherty vs. Tanner Bibee tonight at 7:10PM, Tarik Skubal vs. Joey Cantillo on Saturday at 4:10PM and probably Casey Mize vs. Gavin Williams on Sunday at 1:40PM. Feels like a very important series right now. The Guardians are on a four-game losing streak.
AROUND MLB:
The Tigers destroyed the Twins and the Royals lost to the Rangers.
The Atlanta Braves were unable to seek a win on Thursday evening, as the series finale against the Chicago White Sox was a washout. The game will be made up on August 20th at 2:10 ET.
The road trip has continued to New York, where the Braves face the Mets in a three-game series. First pitch is set for Friday night at 7:15 ET.
More Braves News:
MLB Pipeline’s latest mock draft has new names connected to the Braves.
Isaiah Drake logged two homers and a double in Rome’s win on Wednesday. More in the minor league recap.
MLB News:
The Philadelphia Phillies have acquired outfielder Derek Hill and international bonus pool finds from the Chicago White Sox. In exchange, the Sox received two prospects.
Two factions of former Philadelphia Flyers have been pitted against each other in the Stanley Cup Final, but only one end is living up to their end of the bargain so far.
With a 4-2 win over the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday night, the Carolina Hurricanes are in the driver's seat to win their first Stanley Cup in 20 years, taking a 3-2 series lead.
They've managed that on the strength of longtime Flyers nemesis Jordan Staal, the Hurricanes' captain who has scored in each of the first five games of the series, making him the first player to do so since Rocket Richard in 1956
Additionally, Staal's five-game scoring streak is tied for the longest such streak in Stanley Cup Final history.
The wily vet has been historically great for the Canes when it matters most, while a former Flyers goalie at the other end of the ice has been historically terrible.
On Tuesday night, after allowing five goals in a 5-3 loss to the Hurricanes, ex-Flyers netminder Carter Hart became the only goalie in NHL history to allow four or more goals in each of the first four games of a Stanley Cup Final.
Things only got worse for the 27-year-old on Thursday night, as another four goals by the Hurricanes put his team down in the series for the very first time, extending his historically bad record by one more game.
Hart was a strong playoff performer dating back to his early days with the Flyers, but he's had a save percentage no higher than .879 in his last five starts for the Golden Knights.
As a result, his once-elite numbers this postseason have plummeted to a more average 2.59 GAA and .909 save percentage. Still respectable, but hardly jaw-dropping as they were previously.
At the other end of the ice, the Hurricanes have turned to Brandon Bussi in place of Freddie Andersen; Bussi has now won two straight with Andersen serving as a scratch and not dressing at all.
Former Flyers head coach John Tortorella has one more chance, with or without Hart, to figure it out for Vegas, before the Stanley Cup goes home with Carolina.
The Columbus Blue Jackets have a few areas on their roster that they should be looking to improve during the summer. Among them is their blueline, as their defensive group could simply use more depth.
When looking at this year's pending unrestricted free agents (UFAs), Buffalo Sabres defenseman Logan Stanley is an interesting potential option for the Blue Jackets to consider.
The first thing that immediately stands out about Stanley is his size. The 6-foot-7, 231-pound defenseman would provide the Blue Jackets' defensive group with a hulking defenseman, which is never a bad thing for a team with playoff expectations like the Blue Jackets to have around.
Stanley also showed this season that he is capable of providing some offense from the point in addition to his toughness. In 76 games this season split between the Winnipeg Jets and Sabres, Stanley set new career highs with nine goals, 17 assists, and 26 points. If he translated this kind of offense over to next season, he would give the Blue Jackets a bit more offensive production from the point, which is needed.
However, Stanley's biggest impact comes from his gritty style of play. The big blueliner isn't afraid of the physical side of the game, as threw 110 hits and had 128 penalty minutes this season. He would be a good player for the Blue Jackets to have around when the games get tougher and would give them another player to protect their top stars.
Another appealing factor about Stanley is his age. This is because the Sabres defenseman just turned 28 years old in May and has multiple years left in his prime. With this, he could be a nice long-term fit on a Blue Jackets club that is looking to break out and become real threats in the Eastern Conference.
If the Blue Jackets signed Stanley, he could fit well on their bottom pairing. He would also give them another option to work with on their penalty kill because of his shutdown ability.
Overall, if Stanley ends up not re-signing with the Sabres and testing the market, he is one of the defensemen that the Blue Jackets should have on their radar. While he is not a star, he would be a good hard-nosed defenseman for the Blue Jackets to add to their roster.
In 278 career NHL games over six seasons, Stanley has recorded 14 goals, 48 assists, 62 points, 333 penalty minutes, 351 blocks, 467 hits, and a plus-29 rating.
Next Up For Columbus: The NHL Draft is on June 26 and 27 in Buffalo, where the CBJ will own pick #14.
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JUNE 10: Members of the New York Knicks celebrate their 107-106 victory against the San Antonio Spurs in Game Four of the 2026 NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden on June 10, 2026 in New York City. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Dustin Satloff/Getty Images) | Getty Images
There aren’t enough words in the English language to describe the impossibility of the Knicks’ 29-point comeback to win Game 4 of the NBA Finals. Or the euphoria that spread like wildfire from Madison Square Garden across the city and the surrounding areas, into the hearts of every Knicks fan on the planet.
It’s still something that, 36 hours later, doesn’t feel real. Even as this team has repeatedly shown that nothing is impossible, they continue to find a way to up the ante over and over again.
Just drilling into Wednesday night’s miracle. A 29-point comeback has only happened 17 times in the history of the sport, regardless of time of year. Of those 17, only nine saw the lead overcome in just one half of basketball. To cherry-pick, it’s the seventh-largest comeback of any kind in the final 21:30 of a game.
Only one of those games, a 2019 thriller between the Clippers and Warriors, happened in the playoffs. These larger comebacks, while more impressive in size, come nowhere close in terms of the leverage of the NBA Finals. It’s pound-for-pound the greatest comeback in NBA history, and likely, basketball history.
There will be time for historical, multi-sport comparisons, but the point of this article is to talk about the team that made said comeback. One-off comebacks happen all the time. Sometimes, a team pulls a rabbit out of the hat twice, or even three times.
This team has somehow done it a half dozen times over the last two postseasons. Since 2024, five of the eight 20-point comebacks in the playoffs belong to the Knicks. There aren’t enough stats I can easily find that encapsulates how ridiculous this is.
Here’s one. Two of the top-five largest comebacks in Finals history belong to the Knicks… this year.
This isn’t their only time this postseason with such an outlier comeback that makes no sense. Remember the 22-point comeback against Cleveland? Well, there’s only one other game in history where a team came back from that deficit with under eight minutes, and it happened 50 years ago, which is honestly extremely impressive given the lack of a three-point line.
I’ve completed my research into the #Knicks’ historic comeback. The only other time an NBA team has made this big a comeback so late in a game was the Bucks’ 117-115 win on November 25, 1977. Milwaukee was down 29 with 8:10 left. What we don’t know is if they were down by more… pic.twitter.com/i51ZCVb2rC
Well, in Game 4, the Knicks trailed by 20 with 9:20 to go. They were eerily close to what they did against Cleveland in terms of a dead sprint, while additionally upping the raw numbers.
But unlikely comebacks have been engrained in this team’s DNA ever since Jalen Brunson became the head of the snake in New York.
The ridiculous narrative of continuous Knicks doubters as this series has progressed is that the Spurs have had firm control of this series, losing three games merely because of failed execution late. It was them blowing it, not the Knicks rallying back!
But these first-half 12-14 point leads are nothing in the modern NBA, and they’re child’s play to the Brunson-era Knicks. Observe.
2024 Game 1 against the Sixers. Philly led 32-19 in the first quarter and 78-72 in the third quarter after rallying back from a valiant Knicks charge. Guess who out-executed whom in the end?
2024 Game 2 against the Sixers. This time, they effectively maintained a 9-10 point lead for the first 22 minutes of the game, and ultimately seemed to be evening up the series with a 101-96 lead with 30 seconds left. We all know what happened next.
2024 Game 4 against the Sixers. Again, a 10-point lead in both the first and third quarters. Again, they blew it. Is this sounding familiar?
2024 Game 6 against the Sixers. The Knicks blew a 22-point lead in an eyeblink, and soon trailed 71-61 in the third quarter. About 12 minutes later, the Sixers lost their final lead of the season and endured a slow death after a fourth consecutive blown double-digit lead.
2024 Game 2 against Indiana. The Pacers led 75-63 in the first minute of the second half. While the series, as we know, didn’t go our way, it was another sign of resiliency.
2025 Game 1 against Detroit. The first 15 minutes of the second half were all Pistons, to the point where they led 98-90 with 9:10 to go. How’s a 21-0 run sound to you? Shoutout Turbo.
2025 Game 4 against Detroit. The Knicks were down 11 in the third, 10 in the fourth, and four with just 90 seconds to go. Karl-Anthony Towns to the rescue.
2025 Game 6 against Detroit. After going up 11 early in the fourth in a closeout game, the Pistons went on a 20-2 run to go up seven with under 2:30 to go. Somehow, the Knicks found a way… again.
Now it’s time for the good stuff.
2025 Game 1 against Boston. The Celtics led 75-55 midway through the third quarter. The Knicks won in overtime.
2025 Game 2 against Boston. The Celtics led 73-53 with 2:20 left in the third quarter. The Knicks won in regulation.
2025 Game 4 against Boston. At the World’s Most Famous Arena, the Knicks responded to a dominant first half by the Celtics and found themselves down 14 with 9 minutes left in the third. They won again.
2025 Game 3 against Indiana. In the only bright spot of a miserable return to the Eastern Conference Finals, the Knicks somehow found their way back down 20 from late in the first half and as many as 15 with 2:15 to go in the third.
2026 Game 3 against Philly. The desperate Sixers sprinted out to a 20-8 lead in the first six minutes. The Knicks took the lead for good just nine minutes later.
2026 Game 1 against Cleveland. The Knicks are down 22 with under eight minutes to go. Cue Harden-flavored BBQ chicken.
Game 3 of the NBA Finals. The Knicks are down 29 early in the third. They’re down 20 with 9:20 to go. They win… again.
In the last three playoff runs, the Knicks have made five 20-point comebacks, 13 double-digit comebacks, and three additional unlikely comebacks given big momentum shifts.
The defining trait of the Brunson era has been to never give up. To never let go of the rope. Sure, they’ve still been blown out a few times over the years, but there’s a reason the team somehow has a winning record when they trail by 20 the last two years.
They don’t point fingers. They don’t sulk. They don’t look at a deficit and say, “We’ll get ‘em next time.” No lead is impossible to overcome for them.
This is what has the Knicks one game from the ultimate dream. A ridiculous level of buy-in and belief in one another that breaks the scale of what should be possible in the NBA.
No matter how discouraged, no matter how depressive, no matter how bad the intrusive thoughts get, they never give up.
They stared down the barrel of being forced into a Game 7 against Philly in 2024 and Detroit in 2025. They stared down a 3-0 deficit against Indiana in 2025. They risked completely bottling the 2-0 road leads against Boston in 2025 and the Spurs this year. They risked losing home-court advantage against Indiana in 2024 and Cleveland this year.
All the times the vibes have been utterly rancid, they refuse to let the noise impact them. When adversity hits, they pick each other up.
After the missed layup…
Hart collapsed to the floor and sat there for a second.
For a brief moment, disbelief, disappointment and dejection overtook him.
He buried his head in his hands. Then his teammates came to pick him up.
So as the Knicks embark on the quest to win the toughest closeout game ever, as they wake up on Saturday to be the first to wear the orange and blue with a chance to win a championship with one more win in 32 years, here’s one more note to leave you with.
The Knicks have never lost three consecutive playoff games in the Brunson era. They’ve played 60 of them. The last three-game playoff skid was in 2021, when not a single player on this roster played (Mitch was hurt!).
The only way this season ends without the euphoria of a championship is a historic aberration. A team that has shown time and time again that their will is unbreakable and that they will never spiral into the despair that has plagued multiple teams this postseason alone will have to be driven to that point by the youngest NBA Finals team in history, who’ve consistently failed to execute late in games, have a star running on fumes, and won’t have a real home-court advantage.
SAN ANTONIO, TX - OCTOBER 9 : Jacob Tobey and Sean Elliott smiles during the game between the Utah Jazz and San Antonio Spurs at the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Texas on October 9, 2024. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2024 NBAE (Photo by Michael Gonzales/NBAE via Getty Images) | NBAE via Getty Images
First of all, thanks to all of you who came out last night to see Bill Schoening & Friends, Jacob Tobey, and me perform at Sam’s Burger Joint. Jacob is a gifted singer-songwriter whose songs draw the listener in. Bill’s storytelling blends so well with his Philly-based rhythms, his band really takes his sound to the next level. It was a great evening, and the surprise appearance by Matt Bonner was a treat for all.
Bonner is in town because tonight he and Tobey and Jaren Jackson, Sr. are all guests on Inside the Green Room with Danny Green and Harrison Sanford. The podcast is recording a live episode in San Antonio at Bar 3 Oak from 6-9 PM. Admission is free, but you need to sign up to reserve your seat. The Eventbrite link is HERE.
At the same time, Bill Schoening is in New Braunfles at the Brauntex Theater participating in An Evening with the Spurs: Coyote Tales and Court Stories. Bill, along with Sean Elliott and Rob Wicall who was The Coyote from 2004-2016, share behind-the-scenes stories and nostalgia from their distinctive careers with the Spurs. If you have tickets from the original May date, those will be honored. Any available tickets can be found HERE.
Plenty of Spurs related events to keep you entertained until Game 5 on Saturday.
Go Spurs Go!
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SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH - MARCH 14: Anthony Mantha #39 of the Pittsburgh Penguins reacts to scoring a goal in the second period during a game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Utah Mammoth at Delta Center on March 14, 2026 in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Photo by Eli Rehmer/NHLI via Getty Images) | NHLI via Getty Images
Vitals
Player: Anthony Mantha Born: Sep 16, 1994 Height: 6’5” Weight: 240 pounds Hometown: Longueuil, Quebec, Canada Shoots: Left Draft: First round pick (20th overall) in 2013 with Detroit Red Wings 2024-25 Statistics: 81 games played; 33 goals; 31 assists; 64 points; one assist in six playoff games Contract Status: Impending free agent on July 1, completed a one-year contract
Story of the Season
“It just goes back to all the work I put in last year. I knew I wanted to be a talked-about player this year. That’s the focus and mentality I came in [with].” – Anthony Mantha
Mantha gave that quote after a three-point night where he was named the first star of the game on March 30th, in what was likely the most pivotal single game of the Penguins’ whole season against the NY Islanders. NYI came into the game one point ahead of Pittsburgh in the standings for second place in the Metropolitan Division. After that game, Pittsburgh wouldn’t lose their hold on the second spot the rest of the way. It was fitting that Mantha was a primary reason for the success in that game, his two second period goals changed the score from 3-3 to 5-3, on the way to a decisive 8-3 win. He was a driving force that night as he was pretty much all year long to help elevate the Pens back to the playoffs with a team-high 33 goals and career-best 64 point campaign.
Mantha played like he had something to prove, and he certainly did. An ACL injury in 2024-25 ended his season in November. Months before that, his 2023-24 season ended as a playoff healthy scratch for four-straight games for Vegas – hardly what they or he wanted when he was picked up at the deadline with the intentions of being a quality upgrade. It would be a bit dramatic to say Mantha’s NHL career was on the line based on 2025-26 but its future certainly was hanging in the balance after signing a one-year deal worth $2.5 million with the Penguins (plus an addition $2 million in potential incentives).
Just about everything Mantha touched in the regular season turned to gold. Often paired with Justin Brazeau, the two monster wingers spent plenty of time being centered by both Evgeni Malkin and Ben Kindel. No matter who was on the ice with them, it worked with Mantha and Brazeau both shattering their previous personal bests in goals, assists and points on a season. Mantha didn’t get to rack up a ton of minutes or time on the first power play but still found ways to make it count in a supporting role.
The negative came in the playoffs, where Mantha disappeared from the scoreboard besides one assist. The team leader in goals was unable to score his first career NHL playoff goal, now lasting 20 total games. The postseason ended up as an unfortunate coda to a brilliant season.
Overall, Mantha’s time in Pittsburgh should be remembered more for nights like that Islanders game and helping the Penguins qualify for the playoffs for the first time since 2022. He was brought on as something of a rehabilitation project and in the end Mantha did something of the same by helping rehabilitate the team in a true win-win outcome for both parties.
Which means this go-round in free agency will be looking a lot different for Mantha. Just as he wanted, he will be talked about this summer in NHL circles in a much different manner than last year.
Mantha’s production hit a big dip in November, but other than that was close to being a point per game player in every other month of the year. Considering his role of playing between 13-16 minutes a night and doing most his damage at even strength, that’s really saying something special to maximize the output on a somewhat limited basis considering most skilled players get a larger role. Mantha’s 26 5v5 goals tied for sixth in the entire NHL with such names as Kucherov, Robertson, Gauthier, Necas and Kempe at the same number.
On these reviews we often touch on the importance of March, when the season was at a critical juncture and one or both of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin were out for the majority of the games. Mantha was great in March, and you could also see his hit levels rising to season-highs after low metrics at the beginning of the season for the only month he was credited with 1+ hit per game, showing involvement in many aspects.
Regular season 5v5 advanced stats
Data via Natural Stat Trick. Ranking is out of 18 forwards on the team who qualified by playing a minimum of 150 minutes.
There was nothing special about territorial domination for Mantha, there certainly was a lot to write home about for being skilled/opportunistic enough to cash in on chances. Popping a 2+ P/60 is nothing new in Mantha’s career, he’s often put together great stretches in small doses. This year he did it for the duration to a higher level than ever before with that 2.83 P/60 that ranked ninth in the entire NHL (min. 500 minutes).
Pretty sight to see a natural goal scorer’s work. Mantha’s finishing was off the charts good – he recorded a 21.7% shooting percentage when a typical season for him is in the 11-13% range (although he did shoot a higher percentage once at 5v5 in 2023-24 with Washington, which also happened to be during a contract season…) That might lead to some buyer beware for a potential regression in the future, but his hot streak never cooled off this year.
Mantha found a fit with the Penguins, especially hanging out on a third line and going to work on the rush. Give him a good pass and he knows what to do with the puck at that point.
As a big, strong player Mantha could put some pepper on his shots, seven 90+ mph and 24 80+ shots were well above the norm for forwards. While he shot from all over the place, 24 of his goals came from the high danger area in front of the net, which can help explain the finishing numbers. It becomes easier to score when you’re 6’5, 240 and getting to the front of the net with frequency.
NHL players are really a marvel: a 240-pound person coming off an ACL surgery shouldn’t be able to strap skates to their feet and move as fast as what we see above, yet Mantha did. Mantha is not Connor McDavid or Quinn Hughes out there, but to get a body that big to have that much burst at age-31 with his injury history is seriously impressive. It wasn’t always easy – Mantha’s wife posted a light-hearted Instagram story that showed while she was in the hospital recovering giving birth it was her husband getting a massage therapist come right into her room with a table to work on his back. Whatever it took, Mantha was able to play in the first 81 games of the season before getting to rest during the finale, in doing so capturing all $2.0 million of his available bonus money (which got paid in $200k increments for every 10th game played).
While it seems like an answer to the question has been determined, market forces on a thin free agent pool will push Mantha into commanding a multi-year deal at a much higher rate than the $4.5 million total that was earned this season. Getting a $25 million commitment could be considered a somewhat conservative estimate for the windfall in store on July 1. The Pens probably aren’t going to offer that type of money and term to a supporting level 32-year old for the future, no matter how good the past season was. How they will go about replacing the 33 goals and 64 points headed out the door becomes the real question that Kyle Dubas and company will be wrestling with this summer.
Ideal 2026-27
Mantha has bounced around a bit lately, playing for four different teams (Washington, Vegas, Calgary, Pittsburgh) in less than three calendar years of 2024-26. In ideal for him would be to pair that big ol’ incoming contract with some trade protection to finally provide some stability for a player who has only started+finished three consecutive seasons with the same team one time in his career (with Detroit from 2017-20).
Bottom line
Mantha did everything and more than could be expected in the regular season. He likely had what will go down as being his his finest personal season. You never know how redemption opportunities will wind up, it’s very rare to see one work out as well as this one.
PensburghGrade: A
The regular season was unquestionably A+ work (probably even A++). The poor playoff was so bad it leaves enough of an aftertaste to knock a small bit of the superlative off the final grade.
NEWARK, NEW JERSEY - APRIL 02: Nico Hischier #13 of the New Jersey Devils reacts during the third period against the Washington Capitals at Prudential Center on April 02, 2026 in Newark, New Jersey. The New Jersey Devils defeated the Washington Capitals 7-3. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Here are your links for today:
Devils Links
A Nico thought:
👀 Although talks are ongoing, my speculation is that C Hischier and @NJDevils will land on a medium term contract extension somewhere between 11M- 13M range … #HockeyXpic.twitter.com/UgX43i5Cjj
“There’s no doubt the 2025-26 season was a disappointment for the New Jersey Devils, but with that should come change, unlike last offseason. New GM Sunny Mehta will likely be busy this summer, as the Devils’ roster has a few holes to address. What should Mehta prioritize via trades and free agency?” [Devils on the Rush]
“The New Jersey Devils need a top-six forward this summer. Not only is Jordan Kyrou a strong candidate, but he’s also a realistic target. The Devils have plenty going for them with Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, and Jesper Bratt leading the charge, but their top-six scoring dried up too often last year. Even-strength production was a real sore spot, and it showed in the standings. Bringing in a winger who can generate chances, finish plays, and keep up with that pace would go a long way toward fixing it. Kyrou from the St. Louis Blues keeps coming up as someone who fits that bill pretty cleanly.” [New Jersey Hockey Now]
Hockey Links
The Hurricanes are one win away from the Stanley Cup:
THE CANES ARE ONE WIN AWAY FROM THE #STANLEYCUP!!! 😱😱😱
“The NHLPA expects a full NHL investigation of coach Mike Babcock before the Edmonton Oilers can hire him, sources told ESPN on Tuesday. The investigation would cover Babcock’s time with the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2023, when he was hired but never coached a game for the team.” [ESPN]
“As the Edmonton Oilers navigate hiring Mike Babcock as head coach, they continue on another path: finding a new home for one of their longest-tenured players, alternate captain Darnell Nurse. Last week, Sportsnet’s Mark Spector reported the Oilers would like to trade Nurse, and, according to multiple sources, the defenceman recently went to the organization and said he would like to be traded. He now feels it is time for him to move on.” [Sportsnet]
“There might not be another player in the entire National Hockey League with as unique a resume as Taylor Hall. He won two Memorial Cups in junior and was drafted first overall into the NHL. Eight years later, he won the Hart Memorial Trophy as the league’s most valuable player. And now, another eight years later, Hall is putting himself firmly in the conversation for the Conn Smythe Trophy, awarded each year to the NHL’s playoff MVP.” [Daily Faceoff]
Feel free to discuss these and any other hockey-related stories in the comments below.
Sep 10, 2024; San Francisco, California, USA; General view of the helmet used by the Milwaukee Brewers before the start of the first inning against the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park. Mandatory Credit: Stan Szeto-Imagn Images | Stan Szeto-Imagn Images
Greetings, Brew Crew Ball community. The Brewers had another slightly underwhelming week, as they swept the Rockies in Colorado and won an extra-innings slugfest on Monday night in Las Vegas but ultimately dropped their series with the A’s. Elsewhere in the division, the bottom three teams (Pirates, Cubs, and Reds) struggled, but the Cardinals continue to surprise, as they’ve closed the gap in the division. The Brewers are now back home as they’ll welcome the Phillies and Guardians over the next week.
Feel free to use this thread to chat about (almost) anything you want: video games, food, movies, non-baseball sports, the Brewers, you name it. As long as it’s appropriate and is allowed by our moderators, it’s fair game here.
