Random Thoughts: baseball and more

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports

This week’s installment of Random Thoughts includes congratulations, teams in first, a quick firing, a college quarterback entering rehab, and a draft that looks good.

Belated congrats

Congratulations to Lincolnview’s Lainey Spear for becoming the school’s new softball record holder for career RBIs. She has 146 and counting, surpassing the previous record of 145 held by former standout Destiny Coil. Earlier this season – Game No. 2 to be exact – she broke the school’s career home run record, which was 35.

Last week, Lincolnview head coach Eric Schwab hit 100 career wins. Also last week, Ila Hughes surpassed 300 career strikeouts. 

So far so good

Of course it’s very early in the Major League Baseball season but if you’re a Cincinnati Reds, Chicago Cubs or Cleveland Guardians fan, there’s some good news. As of Monday, the Reds were alone in first in the NL Central division, with the Cubs just a game behind. The Guardians were a game behind first place Detroit in the AL Central division.

That didn’t take long

What have you done for me lately? For Alex Cora, not enough for the Boston Red Sox, who fired him on Saturday, just 27 games into the season. Boston was 10-17 at the time. He wasn’t the only one to be shown the door – five members of his coaching staff were given the boot as well.

Cora won the 2018 World Series, then was fired by the Red Sox in 2020 in connection with the sign stealing scandal. He was brought back the following season but has had just two winning seasons since then – 2021 last year.

Despite his struggles, he’ll mostly likely be a highly sought after hire in the offseason.

Not good

Former Indiana and Cincinnati quarterback Brendan Sorsby, who transferred to Texas Tech and was expected to be one of the top quarterbacks in college football this fall is entering treatment for a gambling addiction.

Information has come out that he bet on Indiana games during his freshman season at Indiana in 2022. He reportedly bet on the Hoosiers to win.

His college career is almost certainly done now, as the NCAA has no tolerance for college athletes betting on their games. Unfortunately for Sorsby, the NFL doesn’t take very kindly to it either. He may eventually sign with a pro team but it would almost certainly be as an undrafted free agent and after a suspension.

NFL draft

Of course we really won’t know for at least a couple of seasons but as a Cleveland Browns fan, it appears as though the Browns drafted well for the second consecutive year. It looks great on paper but the results on the field will tell the true story.

As always, if you have thoughts or questions on any of the above topics, feel free to email me at sports@thevwindependent.com.