Weekend winners The Mets. Wowser, the Mets whipped the Braves, taking four of the five games since Thursday in NYC. Whipped them. And if the Braves have a couple of young dudes with No. 1 starter stuff, the Mets trotted out two bona fide aces over the weekend, with Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom pitching Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. In 12.2 innings, Scherzer and deGrom allowed just 2 earned runs — both coming on a Dansby Swanson homer — and struck out 23 of the 38 outs they recorded. And everyone better realize this quickly: If the Mets can clinch the 2 seed in the NL draw and get that rotation set of Scherzer-deGrom-Carlos Carrasco, this bunch is going to be a very tough out in October.   Joohyung "Tom" Kim. This weekend's PGA Tour winner at the Wyndham did it in record fashion. He dropped a 61 in the final round, turning the final regular-season event filled with "Who's that again" names on the leaderboard into a runaway. He also became the first PGA Tour winner born in the 2000s and is the second-youngest winner on Tour since World War II. (Only Jordan Speech was younger than the 20-year-old Kim when the Texan won the John Deere in 2013.) Maverick. The Tom Cruise smash continues to climb in the all-time U.S. numbers, passing the vastly overrated "Titanic" over the weekend with $662 million in domestic ticket sales. That's seventh all time, behind "Avengers: Infinity War" ($678 million), "Black Panther" ($700 million), "Avatar" ($760 million), "Spider-Man: No Way Home" ($804 million), "Avengers: End Game" ($853 million), and "Star Wars: The Force Awakens) ($936 million). The Top Gun sequel will never match the global numbers because the movie is not being shown in China and Russia, which is another way Maverick is winning the weekend. The NFL Hall of Fame speeches. Do I think some of the dudes enshrined this weekend were more suited for the 'Hall of Very Good?' Yes, yes I do. But the speeches are always magnificent and moments true. And I did have my eyes opened a bit on Leroy Butler, who I assumed was more of HoVG than HoF. Before this weekend, Butler was the only first-team selection (non-specialist) for an NFL all-decade of the 1950s, '60s, '70s, '80s or '90s that was not in Canton. Weekend losers The Braves. The Braves now trail the Mets by 6.5 games. The Braves bats were inconsistent against the Mets, and arms were atrocious. That was surprisingly one-sided this weekend, no? And who in that rotation — now that the book is being authored on young fireballer Spencer Strider — behind Max Fried do you really trust in big moments? Kyle Wright? OK, but look above, and match Fried-Wright-Strider to the Mets 1-2-3 and unless peak Chipper Jones is back in the lineup with his Mets-wrecking ways, it's hard to see any way to favor the boys from Smyrna. The Yankees. That is too much money on a payroll to be swept by anyone. Period. Golf in general. Weather delays. A leaderboard that felt more Nationwide at Black Creek than an international event before the playoffs. And an entire Sunday round of guffawing and back-slapping of 'Sir' Nick Faldo made Sunday's action unwatchable. And considering the competition, the PGA needs quality action these days more than ever. Pete Rose. Yes, the hit king could be listed here regularly because as admirable as he was as a player is as despicable as he is as a person. Making a rare invited appearance at an MLB event — Sunday he was cheered as part of the reunion of the 1980 World Series champion Phillies — Rose was asked by a female reporter about an allegation of inappropriate behavior by Rose when he was in his early 30s. Rose's response was as delicate as a chainsaw. "I'm not here to talk about that, sorry about that. It was 55 years ago, babe." Gone Sooner

So Cale Gundy, the Oklahoma wide receiver coach and former OU player resigned his long-standing assistant job this weekend after he said a "shameful and hurtful" word in a film session with his players.

By every measure of every expectation we all have to believe Gundy, a white dude, said the N-word, right?

To a meeting of players that almost assuredly was mostly Black dudes, and in a program with a roster that is also mostly Black.

According to multiple stories, Gundy confiscated an iPad from a player who was not paying attention to the film session and read the words on the screen. That was the origin of the word. And in today's society, that's one of the quickest ways to get gone. That's not any type of judgment; that's simply an observation. Judging by his heartfelt and emotional apology, Gundy knew it too. I also think there is a place here for the number of former OU players — many of whom are Black — who have rallied behind and testified for Gundy. Among them was former OU RB and current Bengals star Joe Mixon. Do not look for meaningful discussion about this issue on social media. In fact, the 10 minutes I spent trying to find more details on Twitter actually made me dumber. Simply put, Gundy made a terrible mistake and uttered quite possibly the most destructive word in our language. And it cost him his livelihood. This and that — Speaking of golf, former Baylor School and UTC star Stephan Jaeger completed a dazzling conclusion to his regular season with a Sunday 62 that catapulted him to a T13 finish that netted $123,188. In his last four events, Jaeger has a T22, a fifth and Sunday's T13, which has allowed him to collect $504,773 since July 17. More importantly, it secured Jaeger's spot in the upcoming playoff and his PGA Tour card for the 2022-23 season by finishing 97th in the FedEx Cup standings. Fellow Baylor School alums Keith Mitchell (38th) and Luke List (30th) will also be in the playoff. His injury-riddled season that was derailed recovering from hip surgery will force Harris English to miss the upcoming playoffs, but English will keep his card because of his victories last season. — That's the great side of the narrative, especially for our local guys, but Sunday's CBS broadcast should have included much more on the guys who lost their tour cards in dramatic fashion. Like Austin Smotherman, who entered the Wyndham at 125 and missed the cut by two after making a double-bogey on his final hole Friday. Or Matt Wallace, who was bumped by Kim's victorious jump into the top-125. Or worst of all, Justin Lower, who fell out of the playoffs and will have to play in the Korn Ferry season-ending event to reacquire his Tour card after a three-putt bogey on the 72nd hole at the Wyndham dropped him from the top 125.   — You know the rules. Here's Paschall with some Alabama football news. Man, it's a testament to Saban's baptismal powers of redemption for any and all coaches to join his staff no?    

— So Jemele Hill believes ESPN has a conservative culture? Wow. That's even hard for Chas to fathom.

Weekend winners and losers. Go.

Multiple choice Monday looks like this: The Braves will finish? > First in the East; > Top wildcard in the NL;

> Put a fork in this bunch of rag-arms. As for today, Aug. 8, let's review. Dustin Hoffman is 85 today. Feels like we did a Rushmore of him before. Roger Federer is 41 today. It's also 8/8. Rushmore of 88s. Go.

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