1. The Twins won a playoff game Tuesday for the first time since Oct. 5, 2004. The 19-year drought included an 18-game losing streak that was snapped with Minnesota’s 3–1 victory against the Blue Jays in Game 1 of the wild-card round.
As you would expect, Twins fans were more than ready to celebrate a postseason victory. And celebrate they did. When Minnesota's Fox 9 newscast threw to reporter Jim Rich on the scene at Target Field after the game, we were treated to a classic local news moment as ecstatic fans bombarded Rich.
This was not your typical “fans scream into camera” moment, though. There were layers. The first dude was basically delirious. Then Rich tried to bond with a fan walking by, but it turned out he wasn’t a Twins fan. And then things really went haywire when a group of fans surrounded Rich, jumped up and down, screamed into the mic, danced and threw a stray at the Yankees, who aren’t even in the playoffs.
Just a tremendous scene all around. Enjoy.
2. I wasn’t the only one who had some issues with NBC’s coverage of the Chiefs-Jets game Sunday night. Jason and Travis Kelce called out the NFL and NBC on their latest podcast episode of New Heights about going “overboard” with the Taylor Swift stuff.
Jason and Travis Kelce call out the NFL and NBC for going “overboard” on Taylor Swift coverage. pic.twitter.com/fT0xtn3RjB
— Jimmy Traina (@JimmyTraina) October 4, 2023
3. I need to address this ridiculous tweet I got this morning because I’ve seen a decent amount of ignorant people speculate about the NFL being fixed after Patrick Mahomes slid down at the end of Sunday’s game instead of scoring the touchdown, which would’ve covered the point spread for Kansas City.
@JimmyTraina Ok, now write about how the NFL embarrassed itself when Mahomes slid down and completely fixed the spread. https://t.co/6rScf4erO3
— Ben Stanfield (@Ben_Stanfield) October 4, 2023
Mahomes is in the middle of a $450 million contract. There isn’t a bookie alive who has enough money to make it worthwhile for him to fix a game. Be smarter, people.
4. Here is this week’s edition of “Bad Beats.”
Bad Beats
— Stanford Steve (@StanfordSteve82) October 3, 2023
Week 5 pic.twitter.com/tEI8VvZEZP
5. Nobody in sports media does performance art better than Stephen A. Smith. Nobody.
Breaking down “The Golden Bachelor” pic.twitter.com/7aVcBgcePE
— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) October 3, 2023
6. The latest SI Media With Jimmy Traina dropped, featuring a conversation with New York Post sports columnist Andrew Marchand about the latest sports media news and story lines.
Topics discussed include ABC/ESPN using staggered start times for their Monday Night Football doubleheaders, how the Pat McAfee–ESPN marriage is going, the Deion Sanders effect on college football, Chris “Mad Dog” Russo’s viral cocktail/gambling/gummy moment on First Take, a New York radio fight, the expected move for WWE's Monday Night Raw and much more.
Following Marchand, Sal Licata from WFAN radio and SNY TV in New York joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week, we discuss Sal’s NFL-watching dilemma, whether the NFL should ban the Eagles’ push play, single-game streaming costs, bizarre Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce prop bets and more.
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.
You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on YouTube.
