The Major League Baseball playoffs are set. The Rays, Yankees, Twins, and Rangers will represent the American league, while the Braves, Phillies, Giants, and Reds will represent the National league. The last day of the season on Sunday could have ended up with several play in games that would have happened on Monday and/or Tuesday, but the Giants and Braves both won their games to eliminate the need for one game playoffs. This is the time of year when most fans actually pay attention to baseball, and this post season should be a good one. Although, it seems that the trading deadline in baseball has once again negated results of the first half of the season, as it made the Phillies the team to beat going into the playoffs. A few story lines to watch will be the turnout of fans to Rays games during the playoffs, Bobby Cox coaching his last games in Atlanta, and are the Reds capable of beating the Phillies.
Oregon leap frogs Boise State in latest College Football Polls. Oregon is now ranked #3 in the country while the Broncos slipped to #4 after they defeated New Mexico 59 – 0. Oregon spotted a top 10 Standford team a 21 – 3 lead before putting 50 points on the board to win the game easily in the second half. Anyone who was a realist knew this was going to happen because Boise State is lacking the quality opponents on their schedule to stack up to some of the other schools in the top 5. Oregon is undefeated and scoring well over 40 points a game, and has not played a close game this season because of their offensive output. Do the Broncos have an argument? Of course they do, they did not lose the game, instead they won in blow out fashion and yet they still dropped in the polls. But to be honest until they can find a way to get some of the “big boys” on their schedule this will continue to be a problem, unless schools come to their senses and establish a playoff.
Donovan McNabb and the Washington Redskins were able to hold on to beat the Philadelphia Eagles. McNabb was serviceable in his performance throwing for less than 150 yards, but he made enough plays to lead the Eagles to a 17 – 12 victory over his former team. Michael Vick left in the first half with an injury that appears to be injured ribs, so it ended up being McNabb vs. Kevin Kolb head to head in the end. Kolb moved the ball, but was not able to get the team in the end zone except on one occasion after he took over for Vick. The fans in Philly gave McNabb a standing ovation at the beginning of the game, and then treated him like an opposing quarterback for the rest of it. It seems the fans were influenced by all the media coverage asking whether they were going to cheer or boo him, so they chose to not look like ass holes on National Television. The extent of Vick’s injury is unknown, but it would be safe to say expect Kevin Kolb to be playing next week.
The United States Women’s Basketball Team won a gold medal at the world championships after an 89-69 victory over the Czech Republic in the women’s basketball title game Sunday night. This team avenged a loss in the 2006 world championships by blowing through this tournament. It was an important goal for the team because they wanted to get U.S. Womens basketball back on the top of the world after the disappointment four years ago.
The Chicago Bulls 2010 season is starting off on a sour note. Bulls forward Carlos Boozer, one of Chicago’s top offseason acquisitions, broke his right hand after tripping over a bag at his home and could miss two months. Boozer fractured the fifth metacarpal bone in his hand Saturday and will have surgery Tuesday. Boozer is expected to miss eight weeks, which will be one month of the regular season since teams are just starting training camp. Boozer tripped over his training camp bag as he ran to answer the door at his home, and when bracing himself while falling he broke his hand. Those sure are not the actions of a man who just signed a multi-million dollar contract. Having the bag in the floor is excusable, but running through the house in the dark is just dumb.
