CJ Franco Makes Her Debut, Bill Belichick Out With His Girlfriend & Baker Mayfield In Pajamas?

Has your golf buddy ever drilled a guy with a drive before?

I experienced a couple of firsts this weekend on the golf course that immediately go into the memory bank for 19th hole stories to share for years to come. (1.) My buddy Kirk got things going Friday night by drilling a guy in the leg with his drive on No. 18. I'm talking on the fly. A liner right off the leg. Kirk immediately goes up to the guy, thinking the worst. Yes, he yelled, "FORE," but you just never know these days how a guy's going to react to being drilled. It turns out the guy told Kirk it was no big deal and to go back to playing.

Then Saturday, it finally happened. Par 3. About 128 yards over a small pond. Mosquitos drilling me. 100% humidity. Greens about as soft as you're going to find them in July. I stepped up and popped a ball up on the green and...I got my name on a closest to the pin marker and held on for a victory. That might not be impressive to those of you who dominate at golf outings, but for a person like myself, this is a huge accomplishment because I'm typically chipping on from 30 feet off the green. You're damn right that one goes right into the 19th hole memory bank. As a matter of fact, I might frame that closest-to-the-pin paper so I never forget that moment in life.

And then I took home a Mich Ultra golf bag and umbrella in the door prize raffle. I'm telling you, it was just one of those days at the course where everything clicks. You go in thinking, "Let's just have fun, try to contribute to the team," and then you leave with a loaded-up memory bank.

Now I can go back to sucking at golf.

•Chad R. writes:

Hello Joe,

I hope you are doing well.  What former Cincinnati Red did you think was going to be a star/solid MLB player for years to come, but they ended up flaming out in a relatively short amount of time?  Thanks again.

I think it has to be Pokey Reese. “This guy is in a class by himself, and that’s after only one year at second base. There’s nobody close,” Davey Lopes said about Reese in 2000. By 2002, Reese was in Pittsburgh and eventually won a World Series with the Red Sox in 2004. That was the final time he appeared in the Majors.

• Mike in Maryland writes:

Clearly, you see the outpouring of support for TNML. It, along with your other Screencaps gold, is the daily elixir for this screwed-up world we now live in. I think the main factors in it’s resonance are pride and effort... two things in short supply these days.

From the old-timers( the octogenarian making clean lines) to the new generation being taught properly, taking pride in things(home, landscape, family, country) is what pulls our group together. The effort put forth brings respect especially when done right... but even if it wasn’t a winner.

Everyone appreciates the hustle plays in any sport. I am slightly nervous that we have broken the first rule of Fight Club by talking about it( it could be similar, minus the hug from Meatloaf) and thereby increasing to the masses who will eventually sully and cheapen it. But I have faith in you and our group to keep it earnest. Thanks for the excellent content.... keep mowing.

• How about this Cleveland Guardians situation where the city has a roller derby team that's been going by the name for years. The roller derby team even owns www.clevelandguardians.com. Granted, MLB teams don't have individual sites, as everything is under the MLB URL umbrella, but when someone types in NewYorkYankees.com it redirects to MLB.com/yankees. What's this all mean? That roller derby team is about to make a few dollars if they ever decide to run some Google ads on their page and maybe add a baseball section to their page.

• How are you guys feeling about the Olympics? I've already watched more indoor men's volleyball and women's beach volleyball than I have over the past four years and that was accomplished on Saturday. My only complaint here is that there's so much content that I get overwhelmed and tend to just leave it on NBC with a mindset that Mike Tirico will show me the best of the best moments that I need to see. If I really need to watch every minute of Team USA trouncing Japan in water polo, I can get it over on NBCSN.

• Here's a subject I've dabbled in over the last year -- U.S. population growth. Not only is there a worker shortage, but there's also a shortage of baby-making banging going on in this country. Folks, we're now closing in on zero population growth, according to a Fox Business report. "Some demographers cite an outside chance the population could shrink for the first time on record," the report states.

• And that's about all this morning. The sun is out. NFL camps are officially on and we're a day closer to pigskin firing up again. Let's go have a strong start to the work week.

Email: joekinsey@gmail.com

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