Outcomes and Aftermaths

  In sports, as in life, we talk about outcomes. Good or bad. Expected or unexpected. 

We view the final score, how the game was determined or the management decisions favorably or unfavorably. That depends on which side you’re on or if you are a neutral observer. 

The outcomes determine the course for the players. They may lead to replacement or a trade. Or a new contract or greater NIL money at another school. 

There is always an aftermath to what happens on and off the field, in the arena or on the court. Sometimes it takes time to assess what the true outcome is once past the immediate impact. 

Outcomes can be positive, neutral or negative. Aftermaths are usually associated with something that occurred once a negative event took place. There are consequences associated with both. 

I look at my current illness. Originally diagnosed as viral, the doctor told me to wait 7 to 10 days and I would be fine. That was the anticipated outcome. 

Except that the doctor did not recognize my history of sinus infections nor was she aware that I had COVID three times. Had I been treated differently, the ultimately positive outcome would have occurred sooner.. 

Instead, the aftermath of the missed diagnosis led to much coughing, discolored mucus, fatigue and some low grade fevers as my body attempted to fight off the malady. It was obvious that I wasn’t healing and if I wanted to get back to a normal life, I would need help. 

After speaking with my general practitioner, she put me on Azithromycin (Z-Pak) plus Extra Strength Mucinex DM. Her goal was to shock my body to help fight the bug which wasn’t going away. 

So now I wait for a new outcome. The aftermath of the treatment is immediate in how my body adapts to the medication. So far. So good…

I want to stay with the theme of aftermaths and outcomes. At this point, with Autumn now in full swing, it is a good time to analyze.

I was struck by some outcomes from last Saturday’s college football games. Some were predictable and others unanticipated. 

Look at the non-conference matchup in Nashville between North Carolina State and Vanderbilt. Vandy was the favorite and NC State played like they were the better team. 

The Wolf Pack was one snap away from leaving Music City with a win. All the Wolf Pack quarterback had to do was scramble a little bit then run through the back of the end zone to give the Commodores a safety with no time on the clock, preserving the victory.  

Sounds like a great outcome for NC State on the road against a SEC team? One would think so.

Except that the QB scrambled in the wrong direction—sideways—and then was swarmed by the Vandy defense. In the scrum, a defender knocked the ball loose. It tumbled to the ground, where the home team recovered the football for a game-winning touchdown. 

The aftermath was chaos on the field and in the stands. It sent shockwaves nationally as to how the game ended. 

The win boosted Vanderbilt to 3-0 before heading to face 2-1 Auburn in Alabama. NC State stumbled to 1-2 and played host to a 3-0 Appalachian State team it was supposed to beat. 

Vandy didn’t fare well against the War Eagles, losing by 6. NC State got the medicine it needed with App State, winning handily. 

The aftermath for these two teams is cloudy. That’s what non-conference play can cause—uncertainty as to how good or bad a team really is. One thing for sure—neither is likely to win their respective conferences. 

Rutgers was supposed to roll over when #12 USC visited Piscataway last Saturday. The Trojans were supposed to be far superior to a Rutgers team which was embarrassed by a UMass team which went 0-12 last season (the Minutemen are 4-0), then lost at Boston College, which was clobbered by Cincinnati in its opener. 

Nobody told RU they couldn’t compete against the vaunted team from Southern California. Employing a fake punt deep in their own territory, RU made a game of it for the entire four quarters. 

It felt like USC escaped from the East Coast with a win. They drew Oregon, ranked #2 to start the season, for their next opponent at the LA Coliseum. Oregon had been smarting from a loss at Oklahoma State and took it to the Trojans. 

There was an unseemly hit by a highly-touted USC defender on Dante Moore, the talented Ducks QB which hospitalized him. That kind of unsportsmanlike behavior, which began with bad blood between the two teams in the tunnel before entering the LA Coliseum, has to be better policed. The USC-imposed one game suspension for Desman Stephens II isn’t sufficient, either.

RU had a cream puff on the schedule. Howard came to SHI Stadium and was demolished 58-7. RU showed the swagger it should have over a weaker team. 

This doesn’t mean that the Scarlet Knights will rise up and stop defending National Champion Indiana next Saturday in New Jersey. IU had a ton of trouble with Big Ten foe Northwestern in Bloomington on Friday night, escaping with a 29-23 win in a game much closer than experts thought. 

But then again, who believed RU could play well enough to give USC trouble? Not me. I thought there would be carnage. Which it is unsurprising that Oregon took apart USC on Saturday.

In addition to IU avoiding defeat on Friday night, Penn State and Michigan lost their Big Ten openers at home. Now Iowa and Wisconsin remain undefeated and once-beaten Ohio State looms large. For those who recognized Western Michigan actually winning at Michigan, a very good Boise State team came to Kalamazoo and burst their bubble in the “Bronco Bowl” in honor of the two teams’ nicknames.. 

Then there was the much-heralded contest between LSU and Mississippi. The two SEC heavyweights, who both have called Lane Kiffin their coach—Kiffin unceremoniously left Oxford for greener pastures in Baton Rouge. 

Of course this was the headline for the national TV event. Ole Miss fans versus the villain.

It turned out to be not much of a contest between to Top 10-ranked teams. The Rebels went out to 17-0 lead and and led 24-7 at the half. LSU tried to make a game of it, but Ole Miss QB Trinidad Chambliss—the best QB in college football not named Arch Manning— insured the victory with a late score. 

Mississippi had little time to savor its victory, as its next opponent was 3-0 Florida waiting in “The Swamp” in Gainesville. LSU had no respite, as a wounded Texas A&M came to Louisiana after a shocking conference loss to a better-than-expected Kentucky team in College Station. 

It certainly appeared that Mississippi overextended themselves in the emotional win over LSU. The aftermath of the game left them unable to fully compete with a Florida squad which could be among those vying for a college playoff spot. The Gators took it to the Rebels. 

Then again, this is the SEC, where on any given weekend, almost anybody can beat anybody. It would be a surprise if any team went undefeated this season. Florida has to play at Texas then go against Georgia; Alabama and Georgia slug it out this season. Don’t forget formidable foes like Auburn, Tennessee, LSU, Mississippi, Missouri, Mississippi State on everyone’s schedule. Talk about a gauntlet. 

I am not forgetting last year's runners-up Miami and Notre Dame. The two powers meet on November 7 in South Bend, Indiana. The Irish will have to navigate some tough games with Bill Belichick’s North Carolina team up next plus a trip to Provo, Utah to take on #9 BYU. Miami has Clemson, Florida State, Pittsburgh and UNC ahead of the anticipated showdown. 

The New York Jets should be 2-0. I kept telling myself that, especially after Green Bay, which rallied to down the Green and White in New Jersey last Sunday, was walloped at home on Thursday night by an Atlanta team which nobody gave much of a chance to win. 

Historically, when it comes to the Jets, raised expectations are never a good thing. Recent history supports that, as when NYJ wins a game, invariably a winning streak rarely follows. 

Head Coach Aaron Glenn was shown repeatedly shaking his head in frustration during the fourth quarter last Sunday. He now returns to face his mentor, Dan Campbell, and a struggling Detroit Lions team which eked out an overtime win over New Orleans when the Saints elected to go for two points and a road win to open the season and weren’t successful, followed by being blown out by Buffalo when the Bills opened their new stadium.

This is the kind of game which would define the direction each team heads in. 2-1 sounds better than 1-2. More so for the Lions, as the NFC North seems to be up for grabs. 

Managing to tie the game late in the fourth quarter, NYJ couldn’t stop Detroit QB Jared Goff and RB Jahmyr Gibbs enough to secure the much needed win. It was a better offense at home doing what it needed to do to overcome a decent defense. Kudos to NYJ QB Geno Smith and WR Garrett Wilson for their stellar play.

Yet what the aftermath of this game was for Jets fans is really simple: another loss at the start of another season not making the playoffs. While Buffalo, Miami and New England appear to be vulnerable in the AFC East, winning the division is seemingly outside the Jets grasp. Even with a 1-2 record. Call me disenchanted. 

Meanwhile, the Harbaugh Era in New York came apart at the seams in Inglewood, 

California on Monday night. The Giants fans sensed something special was happening again, especially after a win over arch rival Dallas to begin the NFL season. 

QB Jaxson Dart seemed poised for a big season. The Rams might have been on their heels after the disastrous trip to Australia and the loss of All-Pro Myles Garrett, the anchor of their defensive line. 

Whatever hopes NYG fans had went to the turf when Dart fell awkwardly in the first series of Monday night’s game. NYG lost the game and lost their QB for the season. This aftermath was far from the outcome the team wanted.  

The Giants luckily drew a poor Tennessee team in rainy NorEaster conditions in the Meadowlands. They came away with a 12-7 win. 

The outcome doesn’t change the plight of the Giants. It didn’t help that division foe Washington, with QB woes still managed to defeat Seattle. The Giants’ situation is still the same without Dart—unlikely to make the post-season.  

I left baseball for last. Game 162 on the schedule for everyone. Four games still had playoff implications. 

Texas and Houston, both with sub-.500 records, were locked in a fight for the AL West crown and the chance to meet the resurgent Chicago White Sox, a franchise more known for its recent 100 loss seasons, in the first round of the AL playoffs. Houston played the A’s and Texas was in Minnesota. Houston routed the A’s. They’re in and host the White Sox. 

More acutely, the Philadelphia Phillies, once leading the Wild Card race by 6.5 games on September 1st, began Sunday in serious trouble. Having gone 5-7 in their previous 12 games including four straight losses, echoes of the 1964 Gene Mauch-led collapse were reverberating around Philadelphia.

Meanwhile, Arizona was on a six game winning streak until playoff-bound San Diego stopped the Snakes 10-7 on Saturday night. Arizona held the tiebreaker if Philly lost and the D-backs won. 

Drawing AL Regular Season champion Tampa Bay while having pitching woes down the stretch did the Phils no favors. Once loud Philadelphia bats were suddenly hitless. 

Showing their pedigree, the Phillies stepped up when the pressure was the greatest. They secured the final NL Wild Card slot. They drew fellow NL East opponent Atlanta. 

Finally, Steph Curry received a 2 year $116 million extension. That’s the outcome nearly everybody wanted. Golden State still will be lucky to make the playoffs. 

Outcomes and aftermaths. Foreseen and unforeseen. That is what makes betting on games so perilous. No matter how certain something appears, it isn’t always that. 

Was It The Illness Making Me Crazy?

  I thought about how things are going now that the Jewish New Year has passed. Most things looked up for a change. The New York Yankees have reached the playoffs and still have a mathematical chance to catch AL East leader Tampa Bay with aa four game series starting Tuesday in the Bronx. Plus Aaron Judge was back in the lineup, making the NYY attack more potent.

Those moribund New York Jets actually won their season opener—by defeating Tennessee on the road. This kind of stuff doesn’t normally happen. The Green and White actually looked good. 

The Franklin and Marshall football team went to 2-0 with a road win at Westminister last Saturday. A trip to Catholic and another win could put the Diplomats at 3-0 heading into Centennial Conference play. Plus Johns Hopkins, the heavy favorite to win the CC title, already has a loss. 

I thought this would be a simple blog about MLB as it heads into the final week. College football’s last weekend in the Summer. And of course the NFL. I will cover all of those topics and more. 

I mentioned the Yankees and Rays. It’s more than time to give Tampa Bay some respect for winning the most games in the American League—at least thus far. They have combined solid pitching with a dependable lineup. 

Third baseman Junior Caminero, is a verifiable super star. Caminero has slugged 41 home runs, driven in 97 runs and accumulated 162 hits for a solid .277 batting average. Since his MLB debut in 2023, he has made consecutive American League All-Star appearances and he helped the Dominican Republic attain a bronze medal in the 2026 World Baseball Classic. The slugger even reached the semi-finals of the 2026 Home Run Derby held the day before the All-Star Game in Philadelphia.

His swagger and positivity outweigh any deficiencies in his game. I know that the ostensible leader for the AL M.V.P.Award is Houston’s Yordan Alvarez. Alvarez has a higher batting average at .312; he has 167 hits; and he has clubbed 40 homers and has the same R.B.I. total as Caminero. 

I don’t want to hear that New York Yankees pitcher Cam Schlittler should be the front runner for the M.V.P. Award. I know that if the exotic metrics are factored in, he’s more important to his team than either Alvarez or Caminero. 

But there’s a reason there is a Cy Young Award—one trophy given to celebrate the top pitcher in each league since 1967 after only one was presented for both leagues. Pitchers are normally not recognized for their overall importance to a team.

Twenty-five pitchers have been voted M.V.P. The most recent was Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw in 2014. Justin Verlander won the AL M.V.P award in 2011 as a member of the Detroit Tigers. 

Some of Schlittler’s statistics are strikingly similar to those of Kershaw. The major differences are that Schlittler started more games but pitched fewer innings with less strikeouts, a touch higher E.R.A., with Kershaw winning 21 games and losing only 3; Schlittler does not match up on that key statistic. Nor did Schlittler pitch two complete games, one of which was a no-hitter. 

Do I love Schlittler and how he burst onto the scene and has become a bona fide ace? Absolutely. He just doesn’t quite compare to to those who have won the M.V.P. Award in addition to the Cy Young Award. And some think that Schlittler isn’t a shoe in for the AL Cy Young Award either. 

Which brings me back to the Alvarez-Caminero duel for AL M.V.P. I realize that Alvarez had been chasing a Triple Crown—but his lead is only in the batting average category. His Offensive Wins Above Replacement (WAR) and On-Base Plus Slugging (OPS) numbers are the best. Caminero only is ahead of Alvarez by one home run.

Yet Houston is in a dogfight with Texas for the AL Central crown, with each team at or near .500. Tampa Bay has the best record in the league and Caminero stands out among his teammates. Even if the Yankees somehow overtake the Rays and win the AL East, it was Caminero who led the team to where it ended the season. 

I am not diminishing Alvarez’s season. He has been phenomenal. For a very average team. Caminero has been the star on one of the top teams in baseball. To me, he’s more valuable than Alvarez. 

It’s not much of a contest for NL M.V.P. Pete Crow-Armstrong has outpaced everyone across the board—even if he does not lead in any statistical category other than OPS. It’s his 9.4 WAR which blows away everyone in both leagues. 

PC-A has to worry about his Chicago Cubs making the Wild Card round of the NL Playoffs. Once in the top spot, which would mean hosting the three game series to open up the playoffs, the Cubs find themselves tightly bunched with San Diego and Philadelphia. It would take a total collapse and a hot streak by Arizona to expel CHC from the first round. 

Besides the National League Wild Card drama, the American League has much more at stake during the final week or so of the season. In the AL Central, the Cleveland Guardians have caught up with and passed the Chicago White Sox for first place. CWS does hold the tiebreaker. The Sox suffered a bad loss on Friday night when Detroit scored 5 runs in the top of the eighth inning to claim the win and drop Chicago a game behind Cleveland. 

Right now, the White Sox have the last Wild Card spot in the American League. But both Texas and Houston are threatening and even a late surge by the Orioles has kept Baltimore in contention. 

It would be a great story if the White Sox make the playoffs. From 2023-25 CWS lost over 100 games each year. Such a turnaround just doesn’t happen. 

Would it be meritorious if the Sox finished near, at or above .500? Yes. 

But meritorious rises aren’t measured in wins and losses. They are decided by playoff berths. 

I want to comment on Pete Alonso. The Orioles’ first baseman is having another Pete Alonso-type year—a lot of home runs and a ton of R.B.I. 

This is the guy the New York Mets did not want to offer enough money to stay a Met for life. And what kind of season did the Mets have? Last place in the NL East, to be exact. With a bloated payroll and insufficient pitching. 

Alonso returned to Citi Field, welcomed by the adoring Mets fans who offered tribute after tribute to their franchise hero. In his 7 seasons in Flushing, the Polar Bear set the team record for most career home runs. 

He did so in dramatic fashion, slugging his 300th career homer to tie the score on Tuesday night in a game the O’s eventually won. Pete then hit #301 on Wednesday for good measure. 

Alonso loved his time with the Mets. He never wanted to leave. Now he is very happy in Baltimore and hopes to end his career there. A career which could approach 500 home runs and possible enshrinement in Cooperstown. 

Whoever made the decision not to retain Alonso—whether it was GM David Stearns or owner Steven Cohen or both—blundered. Badly. 

I haven’t addressed the albatross in the room. The New York Yankees. And number 99, Aaron Judge. 

Judge came back last week and looked rusty. To be expected. He didn’t want a major league rehab stint, which almost all players endure as part of the road of return to the big leagues. 

The Yankees captain convinced Yankees brass that he could make it work without a trip to the minors. They agreed. After all, this is Aaron Judge. Three-time AL M.V.P. winner. The man with the single-season American League home run record. Who would know better about his body than Aaron?

On Monday in Minnesota, Judge launched his first home run on his return, a mammoth shot into the second deck in left field. He was back. The Yankees future looked brighter than it has been in quite awhile.  Their leader would lead them to the World Series, fans thought. 

Until Wednesday night. While playing right field, Judge felt tightness in his right calf. He tried to play through the soreness. He was lifted for a pinch hitter in the sixth inning. 

Yankees Nation fretted over the news. Was this just soreness that would need a little rest? Or was it something worse? The visions of the muscular Giancarlo Stanton’s calf issues sidelining him were all too troubling for the NYY faithful. 

On Friday Judge was placed on the 10 day IL. His regular season was effectively over. He would not be there to challenge the Rays during the critical four game series at Yankee Stadium beginning on Tuesday. 

Moreover, would Judge even be available for the projected first round matchup against the Red Sox? Would his return be more of a liability than a benefit especially considering how he had performed in his limited return from the rib injury which had sidelined Judge for so long? 

Yeah, I know that New York fans could turn their attention to their football teams. Both won on Sunday, with the Giants outclassing the Dallas Cowboys on national TV in John Harbaugh’s debut as head man for the G-men. 

That euphoria may be short-lived as the Giants travel to Southern California to take on a Rams team still licking its wounds after a disastrous trip to Australia and a loss to the 49’ers. LAR will be without top pass rusher Myles Garrett, out after arthroscopic knee surgery. Former All-Pro Aaron Donald will make his return in Garrett’s place rather than alongside him. 

Unless the Giants are now that good and the Rams are that overrated, who would be surprised if NYG was 1-1 after Monday night?

Ditto the Jets. Green Bay lost at Minnesota and will be in an ugly mood coming to New Jersey. NYJ will be without key players at wide receiver and on defense this week. Green Bay is much better than the Tennessee Titans. Besides, are the Jets even as good as the 2-0 Buffalo Bills or New England? 

In college football, the big game is LSU-Mississippi. I find myself rooting for the Rebels only because LSU Head Coach Lane Kiffin is generally somewhat deplorable. 

Both schools push the limits on who can play for them. Mississippi QB Trinidad Chambliss is playing in his seventh year —who goes to college for that long unless there is a sweetheart deal keeping him there—academically or monetarily. Meanwhile LSU wants kids who signed NFL contracts but didn’t make the rosters to be able to play this season. 

The Ole’ Miss fans will be nasty towards Kiffin on Saturday night, Kiffin left Mississippi before last season’s bowl game and he tried to poach players and staff to go to Baton Rouge. In the end, both schools get what they deserve—even if one wins and one loses. 

Don’t you just love SEC football? It reminds me of the old Southwest Conference where cheating and dastardly doings were the norm. It’s kind of ironic that four former SWC schools—Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Texas A&M—are SEC members. Kind of fitting?  

My Rutgers moment is this—Saturday afternoon RU is a 29.5 point underdog to #12 USC at home. That’s right—the University of Southern California is coming to play in Piscataway. That’s true college football royalty visiting SHI Stadium to likely demolish Rutgers. 

In some quick research, USC joins such blue bloods as the original Big Ten, and the other West Coast schools that joined the conference to play at Rutgers. College football royalty such Army, Texas and Notre Dame have visited Piscataway. Others played games versus the Scarlet Knights at Giants Stadium. 

And in an anomaly in 1925, LSU visited Rutgers in New Brunswick and RU won. Don’t let Lane Kiffin know about this—he’d schedule RU in Baton Rouge for a revenge annihilation. Using whatever means allowable. 

As for me, I believe that I am in some way at fault for all the New York chaos. Since last Saturday, I have had problems securing new cell phones and then securing delivery of a split box spring. All that was fixed and my neighbor and I secured the right tree expert for removal of a pin oak on our properties. 

Then I was the last one sick in my house—a virus infection which came on suddenly on Wednesday morning. As I was gleefully thinking about how much of a great post-season the Yankees would have. 

I sweated out the low-grade fever and the hacking cough is subsiding. I am most likely not going to the Jets game in the predicted rain for Sunday. 

Somehow, I am going to have to do a lot of atoning on Sunday and Monday when Yom Kippur arrives. Otherwise the Yankees are doomed. Isn’t that what New York fans must do these days for success on the order of the NBA championship the Knicks won after 53 years? 

Given the plights of the Giants, Jets, Yankees and Mets, is selling your soul worth it? Hard to tell. 

Or was it just the illness making me crazy?