Jon Greenberg and Zac Jackson cover Chicago sports and the Cleveland Browns, respectively. So they know you have to celebrate the small victories, like both going 3-2 last week.
JON GREENBERG (3-2 last week, 12-15-1): I’m done with baseball for the year and to celebrate last Sunday, I watched the Browns play football. My question: How do you live like that?
It took a month but I’m starting to get a feel for the season. I’ve even hit some baseball bets lately.
Who knew the Dodgers are better than the Brewers when they’re actually trying to win? My favorite Dodgers-are-rich fact I learned during the postseason, the one that makes other baseball execs shake their heads, is that they use two charter planes during the season. Two planes! the Guardians probably still use that propeller plane from “Major League.”
Let’s move on to college football. Remember the Calgorithm? That seems like five seasons ago, not one. Cal’s QB from last year, Fernando Mendoza, is now a top Heisman candidate at Indiana and the team is 4-2 with two bad losses (34-0 to San Diego St. and 45-21 to Duke last week). On Friday night, they welcome everyone’s least-favorite team, the UNC Tar Heels, who are 0-3 against real competition (no offense to Charlotte and Richmond), having been outscored 120-33 by TCU, UCF and Clemson. I’ll happily take Cal -8.5 and wait for the memes from the very online Berkeley crew.
It’s homecoming in Athens, Ohio and the Bobcats are welcoming lowly northern Illinois. Ohio is -11.5 against a Huskies team that is 0-5 as beating Holy Cross to