Crowley's Corner

I don't know why I bother since Mercedes didn't listen to my Sainz suggestion in a previous post earlier in the year and this won't be any different but I'm going to post this anyway. GM/Cadillac/Andretti will join the grid in the 2026 season. The question is who will be the drivers. Here are my guesses who may get the drive except Ugo Ugochukwu, at best he'll be on the gird in 2027. Also, Danny Ric is out. He said he wasn't interested in the ride if offered. Jak Crawford: He'll be a F2 driver for next season and he's an Aston Martin reverse driver. Also, he's one of two Americans in the grid. He also has his super license or I think he does, he did finish 5th last season. Plus, more than likely he won't get the drive with Aston Martin unless Fernando Alonso retires after the 2025 season or Lance Stroll leaves (Good Luck with that). Why not offer Crawford a seat? Logan Sargeant: He was a Formula One driver and would only be out of the sport for a...

I know F1 rejected Andretti earlier because most of the teams had a bitch fit over their inclusion after the FIA approved them. Things have changed, and Andretti, Cadillac GM, or whatever they will be called will be on the gird in 2026. What changed? Leadership on both sides, Liberty Media had a new leader and Cadillac GM kicked Michael Andretti to a consulting role or something. Also, Cadillac will have Ferrari engines until 2028 when GM engines are ready for that season. Also, in 2026 Ford teams up with Red Bull hopefully though Red Bull kicked Jak Crawford to the crib? It probably would have been better if they kept him but what do I know? Speaking of Crawford, I believe he has a good shot at getting one of the seats for 2026 at GM. I doubt he'll stay at Aston Martin unless Fernando Alonso retires or Lance Stroll is forced out. Now who would get the second seat, I like to see Logan Sargeant get that seat though it is probably unlikely unless GM is okay with a lot of crashes. The...

I know it's been two months since my last post and alot of has happened. I'm starting to wish I talked about the Yankees-Dodgers World Series. Probably could have been a better Series if The Yankees got the final out in Game 1 and sorry Yankees fans Game 5. Trust me it sucks losing to the Dodgers in the World Series, my Rays lost to them and some Rays fans haven't forgiven Kevin Cash for pulling Blake Snell from Game 6 after only 71 pitches. Granted yes, Yankees to the Dodgers in More World Series like in 1964 and 1981 in addition to this past season. Also, Juan Soto got 765 Million Dollars for 15 Years to be with the Mets. Sorry Yankees fans. Speaking of the Yankees, The Rays will play the Yankees Spring Training and Tampa Tarpons home for the 2025 season and so far only for that season after the Roof at the Trop collapsed because Hurricane Milton hit the area. If you're wondering, Steinbrenner Field seats 11 thousand people. I wonder if they could add more seats in Le...

While I'm happy for Liam Lawson that he finally got a full-time ride in F1, I'm also sad that Daniel Ricciardo lost his. I think Lawson should have gotten his before the 2023 season instead of Nyck De Vries even though De Vries had an impressive debut in the 2022 Italian Grand Prix finishing 9th in a Williams which sadly was better than Logan Sargeant did in a Williams. However, De Vries got the sack 10 races into the 2023 season. In fairness, it did give Danny Ric a second chance in Formula One so there's that. If you've seen the Netflix show Formula 1: Drive to Survive, Danny Ric is one of the most entertaining drivers on the show if not the most entertaining driver. Some flat-out don't do the show or make a brief appearance. I wonder how much air time Logan Sargent will get in season 7 and yes there will be a season 7. Probably not as much as Danny Ric. I know people don't like Drive to Survive but it's a reason why F1's popularity grew and NASCAR and...

Man, has it been that long. Yes, On October 6, 2009 ESPN aired Kings Ranson about Wayne Gretzky's trade to the LA Kings. Since then, There have been 131 official 30 for 30 Docs and 14 that's counted under the 30 for 30 umbrella but not officially 30 for 30, and about 70 shorts and podcasts and that's not counting E60, SEC Storied, and the Last Dance. Also, I believe 30 for 30 also inspired the Untold on Netflix and maybe a few others. I've seen maybe half of them and some probably about a dozen like Pony Excess, Survive and Advance. ESPN also gave out the top 15 30 for 30's during the 15th anniversary special hosted by The Daily Show alum and Current CNN host Roy Wood Jr who I took a pic with and here is the list. 15.Elway to Marino 14. Miracles and Men 13. Dream On 12. Be Water 11. You don't know BO 10. Once Brothers 9. Nature Boy 8. Bad Boys 7. Fab Five though it wasn't officially a 30 for 30 6. The Price of Gold 5. Fantastic Lies 4. June 17th, 1994 3. The...

I should say spoiler alert for those who haven't watch it yet. Also, it got a fifth season. Wanted to share Besides who was the target, Sazz or Charles. Anyway, it starts after the play happened which I hoping becomes an actual play on Broadway. Sadly for Oliver, the play only lasts one night as his producers, the mother and son team are facing Murder/Attempted Murder charges and using that money for attorneys. Well the Murder charge with Cliff could be dropped down to manslaughter possibly. That's a shame, I would have loved to see Oliver continue working on that show. Heck I would like to see the play made for real. Charles maybe though he was the only one relived the show ended and possibly Oliver's girlfriend Loretta played by the legendary Meryl Streep who landed gigs in Hollywood. However, it wasn't the end for our heroes as they got emails from Paramount Studio to do a movie on their podcast. Also, if you remember from the season three finale. Sazz, Charles' ...

I know it's been six months since I posted about Victorious. Despite all from Dirty Dan, I've still watched the show on Paramount+. It's one of the shows I believe should that should have gotten either one more season or a proper finale but didn't joining in my opinion Scorpion, NCIS: Hawaii, and to some extent NCIS: New Orleans. Yes, New Orleans got a proper ending but I still believe the crooked cops storyline should have been wrapping up better aka the crooked cops arrest not just fired. There were a dozen reasons why Victorious ended because Nickelodeon going a different direction and getting rid of Musical shows like Victorious, How to Rock, and Big Time Rush. There's also other reasons like the alleged rumors that the show ended because of the alleged feud between Victoria Justice and Ariana Grande, Dirty Dan didn't want to two shows at once again, Dan canceling the show because Victoria rejected his advances, and popular one the cast partied too hard and ...

Honestly, I thought the Pac-12 should have disbanded after all but two teams (Oregon State and Washington State) left for the Big 12, Big Ten, and the ACC. I know last year I posted a post with the title "Bye Bye Pac 12,". I didn't think they would continue with only two teams and yet here we are. It's also still considered a major conference, I'm sure the Southwestern Conference and the original Big East would like to have a word or several with the NCAA However, it seems like they have some life in then after Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, and San Diego State is set to join the Pac 2 in 2026. Soon to be the Pac 6 I should said. They can't join earlier? However, they need two more teams to join the conference. Who else should join them? I got some teams/schools. The list will not include any schools outside of the West Coast so sorry University of South Florida fans.  Wyoming: The school that Josh Allen the quarterback went to and it has a rivalry...

It's an age-long question for any athlete. OK, it depends on the athlete and their situation. Sometimes athletes have to call it a career because the phone stops ringing and they have no choice but to retire or play internationally, and sometimes play in the minors to prove they have something in the tank. Sometimes it's because of injuries especially concussions especially in the NFL. Luke Kuechly retired at 28 because of Concussions and Chris Borland retired after a solid rookie season with the 49ers because of concern for head trauma (Concussions). That leads me to Tua Tagovailoa after the Thursday night game against the Bills after he suffered another concussion after getting hit by Damar Hamlin. This is Tua's third concussion in two years which includes another game against the Bills in 2022 and then five days later he ended up starting for some reason and got another concussion against the Bengals again five days after his first concussion well the second concussion s...

After Logan Sargeant got the boot from Williams during the season, I don't know if I want to be a Williams fan anymore. I was considering staying a fan with them when they signed Carlos Sainz for the next two seasons. Honestly, he should have been with Mercedes and put Kimi Antonelli with Williams. Sainz and Alex Albon deserved to be on the bigger teams (Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull, and McLaren). I get it, Sargeant was not coming next season which I understand. I can't defend it, I don't have much evidence to support that. The only thing I had is the US Grand Prix 2023 and that was aided by Hamilton and Leclerc being DQ'ed. However, could he not have the full season. Who was the last American F1 driver to not be fired during the season? Eddie Cheever? There was an American on the F2 grid in Jak Crawford. Still, he's a junior driver for Aston Martin who have Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll so even if he gets his super license he's going to wait for a while unles...

Especially the five first-rounders of the 2021 NFL Draft. Considering that four of those five were traded to other teams and are now backups especially since Mac Jones is now the backup to the number one overall draft pick and the only guy with the original team in the first round in Trevor Lawrence though later-round picks Kyle Trask, Davis Mills and Sam Ehlinger are still with the teams that drafted them and this is out of ten quarterbacks. That means 60 percent of the quarterbacks weren't with the teams, and 66 percent of those were first-rounders. It's understandable if the guy was drafted fourth round or later. I think those late round picks are lucky to make the team or a team but when your a first round pick and you're going in three years that's a problem. Well we don't know that's going to happen if Trask and Ehlinger make the final in the final cuts, I believe Mills will be safe and we don't know what will happen with the QB race in Pittsburgh with...

Honestly, I'm surprised that Carlos Sainz went to Williams. I thought he would have got to Red Bull or Mercedes though Red Bull decided to keep Sergio Perez for some reason. Granted Liam Lawson or Daniel Riccardo or Yuki Tsunoda had a better chance at the seat than Sainz though was a Red Bull junior some time ago. Maybe throw in Isack Hadjar, a Red Bull junior who is currently leading the F2 standings. Also, what's good about having a junior program if you're not promoting your juniors to F1? Ok why didn't Sainz sign with Mercedes which would have been fitting since Lewis Hamilton took Sainz's Ferrari seat however Mercedes is looking to promote their junior driver Kimi Antonelli. In one hand, it is nice to see a team promote someone from the junior team but really? One, we don't know if Antonelli will finish in the top 5 in F2 to get enough points for a super license and shouldn't Antonelli be the one in Williams and have Sainz at Mercedes? I wonder what hap...

2024 will be the first season where Oklahoma and Texas are in the SEC. Washington, Oregon, UCLA, and USC will be in the Big Ten. Arizona, Arizona State, Utah, and Colorado (again) join the Big 12. SMU, Stanford, and Cal join the ACC. Washington State and Oregon State is still with the Pac-2 for some reason. The NCAA should just assign them to be Independents or put them in another conference and dissolve the Pac-2. Also, is Pac-2 still considered a major conference? I will be pissed if that's the case because USF was with the Big East when it's was a major conference and when the original Big East was reformed as the American Athletic Conference, the AAC was downgraded. I don't have many nice things to say about the NCAA. South Florida was the number two team in the country at one point. Also, Florida State is trying to get out of the ACC because they got screwed over in the playoff committee. I will agree with that and this is coming from a Gator fan however, they got scre...

I asked because the Yankees retired 22 numbers, that's over 20 percent of the numbers available with a 25-player roster. Not to mention managers and coaches wear numbers as well which I don't agree with but that's for another post. Only the Boston Celtics have more with 24 numbers. At least with the Celtics, there's only 12 players on a rosters but still. You have the Chicago Bears and the New York Giants that have 14 retired numbers each in a sport with 53 players I believe. That's 2/3 numbers not available. The NHL it's the Toronto Maple Leafs with 19 numbers retired in a league with a 20-player roster. If you're wondering, The Montreal Canadians are second with 18 numbers retired. Also, you have MLB retiring 42 league-wide for Jackie Robinson, NBA retiring 6 for Bill Russell, and NHL retiring 99 for the Great One Wayne Gretzky. For my teams, The Tampa Bay Rays so far have two retired with Wade Boggs (12) and Don Zimmer (66). I hate to say those are questi...

 I feel like if a team messes up in free agency, it will be more of a problem than messing up in the draft, especially with the salary cap involved. Especially with a set salary for rookies in the NFL. They still make a lot but nearly as much as a top free agent now. Also, probably a good time to talk about Free Agency since we might see star players making 100 million dollars a year soon. Don't know if it will be the MLB or the NBA but it's going to happen. Shohei Ohtani's 700 million dollar deal for 10 years proved it. Back in the day, players would play on the same team year to year unless the team traded or released the players. Only the teams decided where to sent the players or release them. Curt Flood who was an outfielder for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1969 was traded to Philadelphia Phillies which he didn't want to go and he challenged the reserve clause. He took it all the way to the Supreme Court. Even though he lost, the reserve clause was removed in 1975 an...

After the Hungary Grand Prix, McLaren told Lando Norris to let Oscar Pisatri pass him with a few laps to let Pisatri win his first Formula 1 race. I got Senna-Prost vibes. Who were Senna and Prost? Both Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost were F1 legends in the 1980s and mid-1990s with a combined 92 wins, 186 podiums, and seven championships who were teammates at McLaren from 1988-1989. In 1988, only Gerhard Burger at Ferrari was the only driver outside of McLaren to win a race that season. It was similar to the 2023 season, Max Verstappen won 19 races and Sergio "Checo" Perez only won two races and a Ferrari driver (Carlos Sainz) was the non-Red Bull driver to win a race. However, unlike 2023 the results between teammates was closer. Senna won the title that year. However, there was friction between Senna and Prost. The following year, Senna had a chance to repeat though his teammate/rival was leading. Prost crashed into Senna in the Japanese Grand Prix ending their race or so Pros...

This has to be the fastest that someone went from the MLB Draft to make it to an All-Star team the following season in about a year. Even Stephen Strasburg wasn't that quick. Granted, he missed most of the 2011 due to injury. Also, Strasburg came into the 2010 season in June so it would have been a little late to get consideration for the All-Star game. Even Bryce Harper spent parts of three seasons in the minors though he became an All-Star at 19. Speaking of Harper, he's in his eighth All-Star game. Nearly 40 players are playing in the mid-summer classic. I'm mixed with this. In one hand, you want to see the same players playing in the All-Star game over and over like a Harper or a Judge or a Freeman. On the other hand, it is nice to see new blood because Harper and Judge aren't going to play forever and those new guys are going to be the future. At least we hope they're the future. Sadly, we've seen players who started out strong and later fate away due to in...

The Golden State Warriors and the Tampa Bay Lightning Dynasties said goodbye to Klay Thompson and Steve Stamkos respectively as they left for free agency to go to Dallas and Nashville. I remember that the local newspaper had Seen Stamkos in the paper before the 2008 NHL Draft referencing to the Lightning having the number one overall pick which they did pick Stamkos and the next year drafted Victor Hedman second overall the next year (Center John Tavares was the first pick in 2009). By the second year together, Stamkos and Hedman nearly led the Lightning to a Stanley Cup finals but lost to the Boston Bruins. They waited nearly a decade later to win the Stanley Cup in 2020 and 2021. Personally, I think it should have more but what's done is done. Golden State won four NBA titles with Klay, Steph Curry, and Draymond Green. Honestly, I wished as a Lightning fan, that they would have kept Stamkos for the rest of his career and I'm sure there are Warrior fans who wanted Klay to stay...

With the death of Willie Mays (may he Rest in Peace) at the age of 93 who people said was one of the greatest Major League Baseball players of all time. I think Mike Wilbon from Pardon the Interruption said that Mays didn't have the greatest arms, fastest player, best power hitter, etc. but that Mays was in the top five fastest players, power hitters, strongest arm, etc. Mays and Mickey Mantle had to been the first players to be considered five-tool players. Also, along with Duke Snyder of the Brooklyn Dodgers, they were the best center fielders in baseball and all in New York, remember this was before the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles and the Giants moved to San Francisco in the 1957-58 offseason. Also, another Giants legend Orlando Cepeda died ten days after Mays did at the age of 86. It should be noted that Willie Mays missed most of two seasons after his rookie year due to military service. He could have gotten 700 Home Runs, 2,000 RBIs, and about 3,500 hits give or take. I'...

I know I know it's not a popular thing to post but I think it's the truth. Yes, thanks to her more people are paying attention to the WNBA and she is having a good season so far and probably will be an All-Star this season and more to come. However, all of the ladies picked ahead of her have at least two All-Star Appearances. Yes I know it would be good marketing for Caitlin Clark to be there but is it to market the sport or to win the gold? For USA Basketball, it's the win the gold. I can make a case that maybe Diana Taurasi should stay home. OK maybe I should not said that. She's the only one that wasn't born in the 1990s. Heck, she's the only one that was born before I was and I should cheer on athletes like Diana Taurasi, Lebron James, Justin Verlander, and Fernando Alonso, among others. Also, that's another case against Caitlin Clark. All but Taurasi were born in the 1990s and Clark was born in 2002. Also, I'm sure there's conservatives who were...