Ask Gary: On a crooked hat and a climbing ERA

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Saturday, 4 a.m.

Why does Alex Colomé where his hat crookedly?

Scott Myers

I think his head is making a left turn.

I'm not sure why Colome wears his hat crooked unless it's just a bit of personal flair. That's what it was with Fernando Rodney. He thought he looked rather jaunty with his hat crooked. Of course, Rodney also came up with shooting his arrow into the air, so the guy had a bit of hot dog in him.

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I always get a grin out of players who try to find some distinction in a uniformed game. Maybe it's their shoes, maybe it's their hat, maybe it's their sleeves. But there are a lot of "look at me" moves.

You know what I've discovered? If a player is performing well, it's cute. It's an affectation, like Indiana Jones' whip or Bat Masterson's cane. But if the player is terrible, it looks silly. These days, Colome needs to travel under disguise.

Is Urban Meyer correct when he says that the Big Ten is now equal to the SEC? I mean Urban wouldn’t lie to us would he?

Larry Beller

What would you expect him to say? I'm sure Meyer would pick the Big 10, and Dabo Sweeney would pick the ACC and Jim Mora would pick the Pac-10. It's just smart. Besides, the dog with the biggest teeth is the one that's biting you, right?

There are a lot of ways to decide the best conference. National titles. Teams in the final top 25. Teams in bowls. Teams in the playoffs.

And you know what? A lot of leagues are pretty darned good. Last year, the ACC, Pac 10 and SEC all had five teams in the final top 25, and the Big 10 had four. But all of those leagues also had some bad teams at the bottom. Who cares if Vandy is better than Indiana?

Right now, the best dynasty in college football is probably Alabama. The best league with the top teams may be the ACC with Clemson and FSU. But the Big Ten had four teams in the final Top 10 last year. That's pretty good.

It's funny to me. No one really argues the best division in the NFL, do they? Why, the NFC East is better than the AFC West! But we care when it comes to colleges.

I think another way to look it is the division of true contending teams. Alabama and Ohio State and FSU and LSU and Oklahoma and Southern Cal and Penn State. All of those teams could win the title this year.

To me, it depends on how you phrase it. If an SEC fan wants to say that no league has had as many title teams in a row as the SEC, well, that's true. If a Big Ten team wants to talk about the rich tradition of the league, that's true too.

If you want to say the Big Ten was the best last year, you've got a right. But a Clemson fan can say his team won the national title. An Alabama team can say his team was in another title game.9

On 7/4/2017 when Logan Morrison criticized the selection of Gary Sanchez to be included in the Home Run Derby competition his slash line was:

His slash line for the 17 games he has played since then (through 7/27/2017 and hitting just 2 home runs) is:

Has Gary Sanchez put a hex on him?

Scott Myers

It's possible. Sanchez is a very talented ballplayer. Maybe hexes are part of his skill set.

Morrison is one for his last 21, and it's partially a reason to be concerned. The Rays are a better team when Morrison is hitting.

But if Sanchez put a hex on him, how do you explain Corey Dickerson. Did he get hit with the spell, too? Dickerson is two for his last 19.

Come to think of it, maybe someone cast a spell on Alex Colome. And on Jake Odorizzi. And so forth. My god, it's a spelling bee!

Meanwhile, there are these things called "curveballs."

Gerald McCoy is talking about being under appreciated on twitter again. One day he says he needs to do more to be a team leader and now he says he is underappreciated. Is the guy conflicted or is this all just a pre-quell to a Hard Knocks story line? Will we be being seeing a lot more of this kind of acting out on the HBO series?

 Larry Beller

I talked to Gerald today, and he kept darting around the issue. To me, you don't say something on Twitter unless you're willing to speak about it in your press conference.

I like Gerald, but I agree with those who say he's a trifle thin-skinned.

You may have a good point about Hard Knocks. I'm sure that's why Kwon Alexander suddenly has red-tipped hair and a huge back tattoo. Different players perform in different ways in different ways. And some sulk because the camera never does love them.

I think we're going to like seeing the Bucs on Hard Knocks. This team is young enough and fresh enough -- interesting enough -- to have something even for the seasoned fan. Jameis Winston has star charisma. So does Mike Evans.

Still, it's a sideshow that a lot of coaches don't want. I'll bet Dirk Koetter isn't crazy about the idea. But for you and I, I think it could be entertaining and informative.