It’s transitioned from September into October. This means that my time will be primarily filled with sports. Whether it’s watching TV or doing on line reading, I’m busy.
Which is a good thing. At least for me. It’s kinda what I thought retirement might be like. Wall-to-wall sports coverage. ESPN. The networks. I even watched a video sent to me by my intrepid editor, who is away in Rhode Island for Applefest.
Heck, I saw Caitlin Clark and her Indiana Fever go down to another defeat at the hands of supernova Aja Wilson and the Las Vegas Aces. And I caught a tiny bit of the New York Liberty eliminating the top-seeded Minnesota Lynx. On CNBC, no less.
NHL hockey began this week. The first game of the new season was between Florida and defending champion Carolina at the ungodly starting time of 5:00 P.M. That was part of a televised triple header. Recently-maligned Canada, with its deep hockey history, got to open with the storied Montreal Canadiens being entertained by their arch-rival, the Toronto Maple Leafs.
End of September hockey seemed early to me. It looked that way to the fans in the stands in Raleigh, many who weren’t there to see the Stanley Cup paraded around once more, as has become tradition when the winning team raises a triumphant banner to the rafters. That venerable trophy won’t be on too many road trips until the Stanley Cup Finals arrive in June, 2027.
Given my childhood when there were only six NHL franchises and for awhile 12 in the 1970’s, it has always felt odd that the Stanley Cup would end up in places like Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New Jersey, North Carolina, Texas and Florida, to name a few non-hockey frontiers. But it also seems, at least to me, more appropriate that franchises like Edmonton and Calgary have won the Cup. After all, hockey is the national sport of Canada. Not tariffs.
Besides peeking in on the Panthers downing the Hurricanes, I managed to catch a few more games on ice. I saw New Jersey stop Philadelphia in overtime on a beautiful goal by American star Jack Hughes. That Hughes brother certainly knows how to score goals in overtime—see the most recent Olympics where he scored the clincher.
The Devils need him to remain healthy if they are going to contend this season. Hughes has a history of injuries, which included a mishap in Chicago which resulted in cuts that sidelined him for a significant period last season.
ESPN reporter AJ Mleczko went that route with a question after the first intermission, which Hughes found to be inappropriate. Whether she was joking or not, it was bad form. Hughes abruptly skated away.
Luckily for her, in this day and age, nobody is seeking to ban her from Devils games for her unfavorable reporting style. At least not yet.
I caught the some of the home opener for the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. As far as I could tell, there was nothing left over from when the arena was used for a wedding this past summer.
NYR humbled the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night. The 5-1 score alone wasn’t the news. It was the goal score by New York goaltender Igor Shesterkin on a full ice shot.
Incredibly, that was the first time a Rangers netminder has accomplished that feat. He became the 18th player to do such, which was the 21st time a goalie has done that including playoffs. Shades of Ron Hextall, who did it once during the regular season and once in the playoffs. The legendary Martin Brodeur holds the record with three goals scored—two in the regular season and once in the playoffs.
I did catch the Rangers the following night playing at an Original Six member, the Detroit Red Wings. New York won, but I came away with how garish the Red Wings’ all-red with white numbers, trim and emblems uniforms looked.
I believe some Wild Card baseball took place on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday—that last day was reserved for the Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves to settle their series in a deciding third game. Atlanta won that game to move on to face the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
It was really no surprise that the Chicago White Sox dispatched Houston in Houston. The Astros had no punch in their lineup save slugger Yordan Alvarez, and even less pitching. This is why they limped into the playoffs with a.500 record, surrendering 32 more runs than they scored.
I am not implying that the White Sox were designated as world beaters. Hardly. CWS didn’t play well down the stretch and lost the chance for a first round bye. Instead, AL Central rival Cleveland won the division.
With their win, the White Sox and Guardians meet once more in a best-of-five series. Which I believe will be entertaining. Chicago drew first blood with a 3-0 win over their rivals.
The team from the North Side of Chicago looked overmatched. Which they were.
Baseball’s hottest team, the San Diego Padres, continued to roll, decisively sending the Cubs packing. The Padres moved on as expected. As a result, the hot bats and great pitching headed to Milwaukee to face the NL Central winners, the Milwaukee Brewers.
Then there was the series which I focused on ( I did watch pieces of each opening round) inning by inning. My New York Yankees were hosting the hated enemy—the Boston Red Sox.
While NYY had been playing some good baseball, the team could not get past division foe Tampa Bay. This relegated the Bombers to the Wild Card series against the team from Beantown.
Yankees fans are a curious lot. Forensic and clinical psychologists would have a field day evaluating the mindset of New Yorkers normally. Make those subjects to be Yankees fans in the midst of a World Series drought since 2009 and having megastar Aaron Judge remain sidelined with his calf injury, there weren’t enough jitters and angst before the start of the series on Tuesday night that any doctoral thesis could ably do justice to.
Yankees fans look for the worst to happen. See Judge’s second injury after his prolonged absence due to rib injury as proof. They were ready for the lineup to fall on its face. Cam Schlittler, the presumptive AL Cy Young Award winner, wouldn’t be up the the task in Game 1. Or that Manager Aaron Boone would make a move which would backfire.
As much as there was bravado, there was fear in the hearts and minds of the Yankees brethren. Too many times they have been disappointed. Could Boston be this year’s spoiler?
After another brilliant pitching performance by Schlittler against Boston—he shut down the Red Sox in Game 3 of the 2025 Wild Card series—followed by almost equally as dominating pitching by Max Fried, the Yankees moved on.
It didn’t hurt that the long ball and solid play were earmarks of the Yankees’ success. Boston Manage Chad Tracy made grievous pitching changes which allowed the Yankees’ bats to pounce on Red Sox receivers. The carnage was absolute, to the joy of the sated NYY fans, who needed blood. It was an execution done right, unlike the botched one in Tennessee.
Still, Boone haters pointed to his pinch hitting moves—Luis Garcia hit into a double play to end a rally. And did he over use Schlittler by allowing his ace to throw 117 pitches—a number way outside of his norm? Will this lead to problems when he goes against the Rays?
Even with Boston now on he sidelines, Yankees fans have a new level of agitation. Tampa did win the season series and their hitting and pitching is top notch.
Moreover, this is a five game series—better than a best-of-three. But there is more comfort in a seven game series, as a Game 1 loss on the road isn’t necessarily as bad as in a seven game series. Those are now reserved for the LCS and World Series.
One more note. MLB needs to utilize a seasonal record approach for setting the matchups. Otherwise, we would never have had NYY and Boston in the first round nor the Rays and Yankees in the ALDS. The NL luckily worked out okay.
Not to let you think that I didn’t check on football, I did. First up was Monday Night Football. I went to sleep thinking Denver wasn’t going to rally against a LA Rams team with many believed was a legitimate Super Bowl contender. Wrong on that one.
Denver may have saved their season with the come-from-behind victory. Meanwhile, the Rams travel to Philadelphia to seek a critical road win to keep their season off of life support.
Thursday Night Football featured a battle between two long-standing rivals—the Pittsburgh Steelers came to Cleveland to face the pugnacious Browns. Todd Monkin, the fiery head coach for Cleveland, has instilled his personality into the team he coaches. And his players believe in him.
On he other side, egotistical Aaron Rodgers once more got into it with his head coach. Mike Mc Carthy and Rodgers repeatedly butted heads in Green Bay. The animus goes back to draft day when Mc Carthy, then the Offensive Coordinator in San Francisco, opted to pass on the Cal product and take Alex Smith instead.
Rodgers, with his supreme arrogance, has never let go of that anger towards Mc Carthy. Even with the level of success the Green Bay teams had.
When the plays coming in weren’t fast enough, Rodgers cursed out his HC. Mc Carthy went right back at him. This is going to be continuing theater throughout the season. Which may not be good for the team.
Pittsburgh rallied to tie the score in the fourth quarter. It took a 56 yard field goal with no time remaining to seal the victory for the Browns.
Neither team looks to be a Super Bowl team. Somebody in the division will get to the playoffs. Baltimore and Cincinnati are maybe a lick better than the Steelers and Browns. And maybe they aren’t.
Yes, I did watch college football. On Friday night, I saw Penn State head to Evanston, Illinois to help Northwestern re-dedicate a beautiful and modern Ryan Field. This edition of Nittany Lions were nice guests, succumbing to the Wildcats. PSU’s Matt Campbell is finding that the Big Ten wis a lot rougher than what Iowa State faced in the Big 12.
I went to sleep thinking former PSU coach James Franklin had things under control with his Virginia Tech team ahead of Pittsburgh. Instead I awoke to learn that Va Tech lost the game on a missed field goal which many thought was good.
Controversy with officials at the collegiate level? It began with Western Michigan at Michigan and evidently hasn’t gotten any better. Besides, Michigan should be 2-3 after its loss to now 4-1 Minnesota in Minneapolis. Some measure of justice when justice is seemingly absent elsewhere these days?
Yes, I tuned into Franklin and Marshall being tested by long-standing opponent Gettysburg in Lancaster. F&M came into the game 3-0 while the Bullets were a credible 2-1.
Evidently Gettysburg’s wins over an always downtrodden Juniata and a home win over Western Connecticut State proved very little. Ditto the close home loss to Washington & Lee.
There is a large disparity within Division III football as to which are the good teams. F&M was one vote shy of being in the DIII Football Top 25.
The Diplomats overpowered Gettysburg by a 29-0 score to improve to 4-0. This might lead to a Top 25 ranking.
F&M should not rest on its laurels. Next up is a trip to Muhlenberg—traditionally a difficult place to play at. Then in comes Dickinson, which beat Johns Hopkins, a NCAA semi-finalist of a year ago, and which only has a loss at FBS Davidson to mar its resume. Ursinus is after Dickinson; the Bears are also undefeated like F&M.
Stout Carnegie-Mellon and Hopkins still have to be played. Navigating the Centennial Conference this season is almost trying to get ships through the Strait of Hormuz. Almost.
So I have taken a small respite in sports viewing to write this blog. You know I will be glued to my set watching the Yankees and Rays. Flipping the remote around to catch other MLB games. As well as more college football.
A big day of NFL football is ahead on Sunday. More baseball on Monday.
Those psychologists I previously alluded to, if they were dubbing this phenomenon of sports and more sports, might have a name for it. I do—October Overload. Certainly not a Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out. At least not yet.
