Soccer Update

We have some drama left in the 2025-26 European soccer season.

Arsenal, seeking its first league title since the 2003-04 season, has led the English Premier League almost the entire year.  But today, Manchester City beat Arsenal 2-1 at Manchester City, and now the top of the EPL looks like this:

1.  Arsenal:  21-5-7 (70 points) (goal differential of 37)

2.  Man City:  20-5-7 (67) (goal differential of 36)

If Man City wins at Burnley on Wednesday, the Sky Blues will take over first place.  And they will be very tough to catch after that.  Still, the title is very much up for grabs.  The British oddsmakers have Man City favored to win the league at odds of 4 to 6, while you can get Arsenal at 6 to 5.

Manchester City is also favored to win the F.A. Cup.  Next weekend, they will play the semi-finals of the F.A. Cup, and here are the matchups:

4/25/26:  Manchester City v. Southampton

4/26/26:  Chelsea v. Leeds United

Here are the odds to win the cup:

Man City:  1 to 2

Chelsea:  11 to 4

Leeds:  9 to 1

Southampton:  20 to 1

On the other hand, Manchester City is out of the Champions' League -- they were beaten by Real Madrid in the Round of 16.  The Champions' League is also down to the semi-finals, and those matchups look like this:

Paris Saint-Germain (FRA) v. Bayern Munich (GER)

Atletico Madrid (ESP) v. Arsenal (ENG)

These semi-finals will be two-legged matches played on April 28-29 and May 5-6.  Here are the odds to win the Champions League.  As you can see, it's very much up for grabs as we await the final in Budapest on May 30:

Bayern Munich:  7 to 4

Arsenal:  9 to 4

PSG:  5 to 2

Atletico Madrid:  7 to 1

And finally, we have a thriller in the Scottish Premier League.  With only five games left in the season, Heart of Midlothian is still trying to become the first club outside of Celtic and Rangers to win the Scottish League since 1985.  Here are the standings:

Heart of Midlothian:  21-5-7 (70 points)

Rangers:  19-2-12 (69)

Celtic:  21-8-4 (67)

Here are the odds, with the smart money being put on Rangers:

Rangers:  21 to 20

Celtic:  2 to 1

Hearts:  13 to 5

So there's a lot to play for over the next month and a half -- and then we get the 2026 World Cup, which begins on June 11.  Here are the current favorites to lift the trophy in East Rutherford, N.J. on July 19:

Spain:  +450

France:  +550

England:  +650

Argentina:  +800

Brazil:  +800

Portugal:  +1000

Germany:  +1400

Anyway, if you have any interest in soccer, you should be tuning in from now through the end of the World Cup -- this is all about as good as it gets.

The Swingin' A's

Currently lead the AL West.

Pope Update

Matt Jones after Rob Wright said he was returning to B.Y.U. instead of transferring to UK:

Kentucky will try to get Zoom Diallo wrapped up today.  If that doesn't happen, then I will start to be a bit concerned.

UK had two different recruiting plans based on whether they ended up with Wright or Diallo.  But they have to get one.

The Two Mitches!

1979

I am excited to announce that I get today 1979's Doonesbury.

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-paducah-sun/195483586/

Article from Apr 13, 1979 The Paducah Sun (Paducah, Kentucky)

I often don't get the joke in Doonesbury, but today I do, and I think it and I are very clever.

Comments flow ...

The Masters: Final Thoughts

Every year, I tell myself that I'm going to spend Saturday and Sunday watching the Masters, and most years I do not fulfill that promise.  This year, however, things worked out and I got to see most of the play on Saturday and all the play on Sunday.  Here was the final top ten:

1.  R. McIlroy (NIR):  -12 (67+65+73+71=276)

2.  S. Scheffler:  -11 (70+74+65+68 = 277)

T3.  T. Hatton (ENG):  -10 (74+66+72+66=278)

T3.  R. Henley:  -10 (73+71+66+68=278)

T3.  J. Rose (ENG):  -10 (70+69+69+70=278)

T3.  C. Young:  -10 (73+67+65+73=278)

T7.  C. Morikawa:  -9 (74+69+68+68=279)

T7.  S. Burns:  -9 (67+71+68+73=279)

T9.  M. Homa:  -8 (72+70+71+67=280)

T9.  X. Schauffele:  -8 (70+72+70+68=280)

A few observations:

1.  As you can see, it was a pretty crowded leaderboard.  But the whole story was whether Rory McIlroy would repeat.  After his 65 on Friday, he had a six-shot lead with 36 holes to go.  By the end of the day on Saturday, he had fallen into a tie with Cameron Young at 11 under.  After the 6th hole on Sunday, he was 9 under and several strokes off the pace.  But from there to the end, he was rock solid.  He had a two-shot lead going to the last hole, and took an easy bogey for the one-shot victory.

2.  Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler are the two best golfers in the world, and they had a very strange battle over the weekend.  After two rounds, McIlroy was 12 shots ahead -- 132 to 144.  Over the next two rounds, Scheffler played almost perfect golf -- he was the first man since 1942 to play the third and fourth rounds without making a bogey.  He made up eight shots on Saturday and three more shots on Sunday, outscoring McIlroy 133 to 144 over two days.  But that still left Scheffler one shot behind.  The golfing world will be excited to see the rematch next month at the PGA in Philadelphia.

3.  Rory won four majors between 2011 and 2014 -- and then didn't win another major tournament for 11 years.  Now he's repeated as the Masters Champion, leaving him with six majors in total:  2 Masters, 1 U.S. Open, 1 British Open, and 2 PGA's.  Much has been made of the fact that Rory is one of only six men -- including Nicklaus, Woods, Hogan, Player, and Sarazen -- to win all four majors.  But only eleven men in history have won more than six total majors, and you've heard of all of them.

4.  With six majors in total, Rory is now tied with Lee Trevino, Nick Faldo, and Phil Mickelson.  McIlrooy and Mickelson are the only men to pick up their sixth Major Championship since Tiger Woods did it back in the early 2000's.  Brooks Koepka has five majors.  Scheffler has four.  No other active player has won four majors.

5.  The LIV guys were not competitive in this tournament.  Now that Koepka has left LIV and returned to the PGA, it seems to me that the only truly world-class golfer in LIV is Bryson DeChambeau.  But this year DeChambeau was six over after the first two rounds, and as a result he missed the cut.

6.  The Masters seems to be as popular as it has ever been in my lifetime.  All sports are doing well these days, but even by that standard, the Masters appears to be unusually popular.