Second Thoughts

Miller: U.S. better team in Ryder Cup

Johnny Miller of Napa, Calif., reacts to his shot from the first tee of the Olympic Club during his 18-hole match against Jack Nicklaus in Shell's Wonderful World of Golf in San Francisco, Tuesday, July 29, 1997.  The match will be televised later this year.
Johnny Miller of Napa, Calif., reacts to his shot from the first tee of the Olympic Club during his 18-hole match against Jack Nicklaus in Shell's Wonderful World of Golf in San Francisco, Tuesday, July 29, 1997. The match will be televised later this year.

Johnny Miller doesn't agree with Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III that this U.S. team is the best "maybe ever assembled." He still has a hunch the Americans finally will win, mainly because of the European team they are facing.

"I do believe the Euros have got, at least on paper, the worst team they've had in many years," Miller said Saturday at the Tour Championship.

Europe is going after its fourth consecutive victory -- and ninth out of the past 11 -- in the Ryder Cup next week in Minnesota at Hazeltine National. Europe has six rookies on its 12-man team. It has never won a Ryder Cup with that many rookies when the matches were in America.

"I just think with all those rookies ... when you lose [Ian] Poulter, it's like tearing your heart out," Miller said. "I think this is the year not only could the U.S. win, they could win by like five points."

Miller, a two-time major champion and now the lead analyst for NBC Sports, played in only two Ryder Cups when it was one-sided. He went 6-2-2, and the Americans won those two Ryder Cups (1975 and 1981) by a combined 19 points.

"There's a bunch of guys you just don't have that much confidence in," Miller said. "Even [Lee] Westwood, I don't know if he can make putts in Ryder Cup pressure. Chris Wood? Who knows? Thomas Pieters has a good game for Hazeltine, but he might melt under Ryder Cup pressure."

Unwanted record

As the Cincinnati Reds staggered to 14 losses in their last 18 games before the All-Star break, Walt Jocketty predicted better days ahead.

"You can see the progress we're making, and it's fun to see where that's going," said Jocketty, the Reds' president for baseball operations. "I think you're going to see us get better in the second half as we continue to grow and these guys get more experience and start getting healthy again."

Jocketty, who built a championship team in St. Louis and three playoff teams with the Reds, was right. After going 32-57 before the break, the Reds had gone 31-33 since then through Friday. But the improvement was not enough to prevent a dubious record.

Cincinnati has received fairly reliable performances from starters Dan Straily, Brandon Finnegan and Anthony DeSclafani. But the Reds' staff set a major-league record Monday by giving up its 242nd home run of the season, the most any team has ever allowed.

The previous record, by the Detroit Tigers of Felipe Lira, Greg Gohr and Omar Olivares, stood for 20 years. After the Reds broke it, their manager, Bryan Price, acknowledged the obvious.

"We certainly have to improve the quality of the talent, and we have to get guys who can get the ball on the ground more often than we have this year," said Price, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer. "We've got a lot of fly-ball pitchers. It hasn't worked."

Back to Cleveland

Associated Press columnist Paul Newberry is pondering ways on how anybody can stop the New England Patriots. One way he suggested is to send Coach Bill Belichick back to Ohio.

"Belichick wasn't always the evil genius of the NFL," Newberry wrote. "Remember when he coached the perpetually hapless Cleveland Browns? Remember when he got fired? For five seasons in the early 1990s, Belichick and his hoodie compiled a record of 36-44 with only a single trip to the playoffs. It didn't even help to have soul mate Nick Saban as his defensive coordinator. The Browns wound up moving to Baltimore and changing their name to the Ravens.

"Maybe it's time to banish Belichick back to Cleveland. It worked before."

Sports on 09/25/2016

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