Yes, it is October. Finally. Baseball has begun its march to the World Series with the first two rounds of the playoffs. The regular season drama that was anticipated was over before we hit last Sunday. In Wild Card action, Washington defeated the Brewers on some 8th inning heroics and a fatal outfield miscue. Tampa Bay took apart Oakland.
Thus the Divisional Series were set: Atlanta and St. Louis and Washington and the Dodgers in the NL; Minnesota and the Yankees and the Rays and Houston. The best of 5 series demands good pitching and timely hitting. The teams which are involved have those qualities, plus in the case of the Twins and Yankees, record-setting home runs, appropriate for the season of the long ball.
The Yankees have steam-rolled the Twins through 2 games. Yet the Twins scored a run in the ninth inning of Game 2, and shut the Bombers down after the 7 run outburst in the third inning. This, along with the energy of Target Field might awaken the Twins. Can the recent performance of Luis Severino persist and end the Twins season and continue their post-season losing skid to an amazing 16 games?
Houston has done what was expected with aces Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole—shut down Tampa Bay. With Zack Greinke up next in the rotation for the Astros, it could easily be sayonara for the Rays at the Trop on Monday.
The NL series are 1-1 affairs as they head to D.C. and St. Louis. Washington has gone all out to address its bullpen talent shortage by employing starters Steven Strasberg and Max Scherzer for critical late game stops on their throw days. This kind of activity could be too much for their aces—either now versus the Dodgers or, should the Nats make it to the next round. St. Louis stole Game 1 from the Braves. They are very capable of winning two more, whether it be at home or in a Game 5 back in Georgia.
By next weekend, we will have our survivors, the teams who will play for the right to participate in the World Series. It will seem like wall-to-wall baseball coverage, a lot like the carpet I am analogizing. This emotional roller coaster will be fun for some, excruciating for others. Such is the nature of playoff baseball.
With the end of the season, another ritual occurs. The firing of managers, coaches and sometimes even general managers. So far, Joe Maddon is gone from Chicago; Brad Ausmus is out in Anaheim; Mickey Callaway is no longer the Mets manger. Add in Andy Green, fired from San Diego and the retirements of Bruce Bochy and Ned Yost, there will be a bevy of speculation as to who ends up where, with Maddon and Joe Girardi leading the list of potential candidates. And this is just now, as there are other managers who remain on the hot seat, in tenuous position for returning to their teams for next season.
Pro football enters the fifth week of its season. On Thursday night, the Los Angeles Rams kicker couldn’t convert a 44 yard field goal in the waning seconds, losing to Seattle in Seattle. The Seahawks have this ridiculous statistic: they are 18-2 at home in prime time.
BTW—Russell Wilson, the guy married to Chiara and the QB who famously threw an interception at the goal line to gift a Super Bowl to New England, has thrown 12 TD passes without an interception this year. There is somebody living a charmed life, deservedly so.
The talking heads at Pardon The Interruption believe that there will be a good number of teams in the NFC who will have 4 losses. 12-4. That’s pretty darn good. The names included the Packers, Bears, Eagles, Cowboys, Rams, 49’ers, Seahawks and Eagles. That would be 8 of the 16 NFC teams at 12-4. Not happening. Besides, did they purposely exclude the Bucs, who stomped on the Rams last Sunday? Are they not ready to give Daniel Jones much credit with his 2-0 start, one of which was a come-from-behind victory in Tampa?
Does this mean that there are going to be some really bad teams like the Redskins? The Jay Gruden watch has begun in earnest after he threw a not-yet-ready Dwayne Haskins into the game versus the Giants which was disastrous, and now he went with his third QB, Colt Mc Coy. I do not particularly like the Redskins owner, Daniel Snyder. He knows very little about football and his hires have been atrocious. Expect him to impetuously fire Gruden this week if another big loss happens.
PTI really didn’t discuss the AFC. What I can say is this—it looks like the Chiefs and Patriots are headed for another showdown. Tom Brady looked a bit older in the win over Buffalo and he was highly critical about his play. Let’s see if age isn’t creeping upon on him or the Bills game was just a hiccup.
The Jets were likely to lose to the Eagles in Philadelphia. They made the right call on something that was critical. Sam Darnold may have some more strength and stamina, but his spleen can hardly be ready for the rigors of an NFL game. The league may mess up medial decisions at times, but this was an easy call, even if the Jets made it a little suspenseful.
Ditto the Giants showing the agility of Saquan Barkley during drills this week during practice. He had a high ankle sprain. This is only 2 weeks of recovery. Let him sit and rest. That is prudent. If Jones has ignited the team, a fresh Barkley will be an added spark for the club for the remainder of the season.
Rutgers did the right thing—they finally fired Chris Ash. His coaching and recruiting was abominable. AD Pat Hobbs, the former Seton Hall Law Dean, was left with no choice. The season was in tatters.
Now Nunzio Campanile, the former head coach at Bergen Catholic, a national prep power, has become the interim head coach. He went with his own former BC QB, which only led to a 48-7 trouncing by Maryland at home. Artur Sitkowski, the highly-touted local kid who came to RU to turn around the misery, requested not to play so that he can redshirt this year. Whether he or other players do the same and look to the transfer protocol remains to be seen.
What this means is that the heat is on Hobbs to make the right choice to resurrect RU football. Greg Schiano is the name mentioned the most—but does he want to return to a chaotic situation and does he really have the magic he showed us before? Schiano never was a great game day coach, but, if surrounded by the right staff, he can make a difference and he knows how to recruit New Jersey and Florida, among other places.
Which is why Hobbs has to get somebody who can recruit and keep the better football players from attending schools out of state. Win the recruiting battles and the improvement will be incremental. He HAS to get this right.
Notwithstanding the lack of a full slice of Big Ten money, Rutgers can be relevant in the conference if a good coach can recruit successfully. Right now, RU fans would take a 6-6 record and 3 conference wins. That would be a great opening statement that RU is on the way back. Remember—RU won the first collegiate game in 1869. How fitting could it be if RU, a program with history, creates a whole new history in the second century of the sport?
I saw an article listing the top 25 collegiate stadiums in the country. After reading the article, I found it to be bogus. The number 1 place go see a college game on this list is the Rose Bowl, where UCLA does not always sell out. A great bowl venue on New Year’s Day, but not the top place in my mind. The schools that followed were: 2) Ohio State; 3) Washington; 4) LSU; 5) Clemson; 6) Michigan; 7) Notre Dame; 8) Virginia Tech; 9) Oregon; and 10) Penn State.
Virginia Tech and Washington?? Really?? BYU at 18 and Yale at 19 ahead of Georgia at 20?? Alabama before Georgia? No mention of “The Swamp” at Florida, and actually ranking Florida State instead? North Dakota State? Minnesota and no mention of Iowa, with the wave towards the children in the nearby hospital? Texas A&M and not Texas? Oklahoma State and not Oklahoma, where the “Sooner Schooner” runs wild? Nothing about Arkansas? I can go on and on. I will leave to to my loyal readers to decide who deserves to be on the Top 25 list of college football venues.
I share these tidbits on the college games played this weekend. Florida proved to be the better team at home against Auburn. If I were Alabama, I would expect a real tussle when they play their arch rivals at the end of the season. Holy Cross and Lehigh won their Patriot League openers. Princeton and Yale at 3-0 are the pacesetters in the Ivy League.
In D III action, #7 Muhlenberg came to Lancaster and demolished F&M 49-6. Amherst lost a 2 OT thriller at home versus Middlebury, who remains undefeated. As an avid NESCAC watcher would have opined, Williams could run the table, which would include downing Wesleyan and Amherst in the season’s final two tilts, thereby winning the league title—if Wesleyan, the other unbeaten squad thus far, takes down Middlebury. Except that Wesleyan, at 4-0, is pretty good, too, and has its own designs on the crown.
All of this is nice. Winter sports are starting up. The NBA is in the exhibition season—TNT actually televised the Lakers helping the Warriors open the new Chase Center in San Francisco. LA, behind the duo of LeBron James and Anthony Davis, were too much for Golden State. Remember this—it was only an exhibition. Steph Curry, who hit for 18 points, would play more for the Warriors if this game counted. It was nice to see Klay Thompson revving up the crowd from a suite high above the floor.
What I do like about the NBA exhibition season are the names of some of the opponents. Besides Maccabi Haifa, and the Shanghai Sharks, there are the Adelaide 36’ers, Franca Franca, New Zealand Breakers, Buenas Aires San Lorenzo and the Guangzhou Long-Lions.
If the NBA gets the Washington Generals, the patsies for the Harlem Globetrotters, to play an NBA team, I’m all in. The best scenario would be if the Generals met the Washington Wizards for the bragging rights to DC. I’m not betting on the Wizards to win…lol
However, of course it is hockey season right now. The opening week of the National Hockey League season has happened. It is still hard to fathom that the defending NHL champs are the St. Louis Blues, who were defeated at home on opening night by Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals, who are 2-0-1 to open the season.
I love seeing the Canadiens and Maple Leafs play—they used to be blood enemies. In the old days, it was rare to see them meet on a weekend, as the other four of the Original Six would rotate in and and out of Montreal and Toronto on Saturday nights—or Hockey Night in Canada on the CBC. For the record, the Canadiens defeated the Leafs in Toronto in a shoot out this past Saturday night.
How are the locals doing? The revamped Rangers are 2-0, showing some signs of improvement. New Jersey is 0-1-1, losing at home to Winnipeg in OT then being stung by Buffalo by the tune of 7-2. The Islanders are 0-1 thus far.
Like I have done with baseball and football, I am going to provide the list of the three best players per franchise. There are some which I don’t agree upon, which I will explain. When I don’t list the first names of some players, it is obvious to even casual sports fans who they are.
NYR: Leetch/Bathgate/Messier; Henrik Lundquist and Mike Richter are next up.
NJD: Brodeur/Stevens/Niedermayer followed by Elias and Daneyko
NYI: Bossy/Potvin/Trottier the next 3 are Billy Smith, Pat La Fontaine and Clark Gillies
PHI: Parent/Clarke/Lindros
WAS: Ovechkin/Niklas Backstrom/Braden Holtby
PIT: Lemieux/Crosby/Jagr
CBJ: Nash/Sergi Bobrovsky/Artemi Panarin
FL: Bure/Luongo/Aleksander Barkov, Jr Jaramir Jagr is fourth here
TB: Nikita Kucherov/ Vincent LeCavalier/Martin St. Louis Steven Stamkos will may eventually be #1, as he is #4 now
CAR: Justin Williams/Rod Brind’Amour/Sebastian Aho
MON: M Richard/LaFleur/Beliveau Next two are Patrick Roy and Larry Robinson
TOR: Sundin/Gilmour/D Sutter Frank Mahavolich was #11!!
AZ: Shane Doan/Oliver Ekman-Larsson/Keith Tkachuk
VAN: Daniel Sundin/Mats Sundin/Pavel Bure
EDM: Gretzky/Messier/Connor Mc David 4-5-6: Kurri/Coffey/Fuhr
WIN: Teemu Selanne/Dale Hawerchuk/Bobby Hull Hull is from the WHA to NHL time
COL: Roy/Sakic/Peter Forsberg
MIN: Marian Gaborik/Zack Parise/Ryan Suter
NSH: Pekka Rinne/Shea Weber/Flip Forsberg Even I don’t know Forsberg
DET: Howe/Yzerman/Niklas Lindstrom
BUF: Hasek/Perreault/La Fontaine
CHI: Bobby Hull/Patrick Kane/Jonathan Toews Stan Mikita is #6?
DAL: Modano/Belfour/Jere Lehtinen Brett Hull is #7
SJ: Thornton/Pavelski/Marleu
ANA: Teemu Selanne/Kariya/Niedermayer
LAK: Gretzky/Robitaille/Anze Kopitar Drew Doughty is #4 and Marcel Dionne is at #5
STL: Brett Hull/Al MacInnis/Bernie Federko
BOS: Orr/Borque/Bergeron Esposito, Neely, Bucyk, Chara come next in order
OTT: Daniel Alfredsson/Eric Karlson/Jason Spezza
CGY: Jarome Igilna/Theo Fleury/Al MacInnis
VGK: Marc-Andre Fleury for fun. The franchise is too new to rank players
There are certain names you expect to see multiple times—Wayne Gretzky, Jaromir Jagr, Mark Messier, Scott Niedermayer. A surprise is Teemu Selanne as #1 in Anaheim and Winnipeg, until you realize how good he was and the dearth of talent in Winnipeg over the years. Al MacInnis, the defenseman with the wicked slap shot, is #2 In St. Louis and #3 in Calgary. I might have an issue of listing Bernie Parent over Bobby Clarke in Philadelphia. And no matter how well he plays, Sidney Crosby will never overtake Mario Lemieux in the minds and hearts of Pittsburgh fans. Five goalies lead their teams—Martin Brodeur, Patrick Roy, Dominik Hasek, Pekka Rinne and Bernie Parent. Showing the international influence in the NHL, the top performer on 10 franchises is not a North American native. A whole lot of current stars are among those enumerated.
Don’t worry. I plan on listing the NBA top player per franchise in a couple of weeks. A can’t miss blog. Until then, there is a ton of baseball and football to keep me—and you—occupied.
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