I did end up watching the NLCS between the Dodgers and the Atlanta Braves go to a climatic Game 7. It was a great series as Cody Bellinger’s 7th inning home proved to be the game winner. Bellinger’s blast sends the Dodgers back to the World Series for the third time in the past four seasons.
I kept to my pledge of not watching the Houston Astros get eliminated in seven games to the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALCS’s Game 7 final.
I actually liked the Atros before their cheating scandal was made public this last off season. Altuve, Springer, and Bregman are three of the game’s most exciting players.But they went too far.
What a year of sports so far for the three Tampa Bay professional franchises. The Lightning won the Stanley Cup. The Rays are in the Wolrd Series. While Tom Brady and the Busc routed Aaron Rodgers and the previously unbeaten Packers yesterday.
I guess when Brady went south from the Pats to the Bucs the mantle of City of Champions travled south with him.
I’m a Dodgers fan and I hope this is the year they get Klayton Kershaw his ring. I saw quite of few of these current Dodgers play their Triple A ball in Oklahoma City …even Kershaw twice in rehab assignments.
Hopefully…Bellinger didn’t hurt his shoulder celebrating the homer.
Now that Houston is out I can watch the World Series and not go back on my word.
Clemson is a bad, bad football team. A team I would not want any Big 12 football team to ‘even’ get on a football field with in the national playoffs. But let’s put Tide quarterback Mac Jones and Steve Sarkisian’s offense next in line in our college football rankings after seven weeks.
This Alabama offense is what Auburn’s Gus Malzahn wishes he had at Auburn. Or what Lincoln Riley or Mike Gundy used to have at OU and O State.
By the way..Big 12 fans in case you don’t remember…Sarkisian was Pete Carroll’s offensive coordinator for those iconic USC teams back in the day.
This is a Tide offense with more spread firepower at quarterback, running back, and receiver than any team in the nation albeit maybe Clemson or perhaps Ohio State.
With shocking ease Mac Jones and his offense turned a 24-20 halftime deficit into an easy 41-24 stroll through the park against overrated SEC also-ran Georgia with three straight second half touchdowns.
So much for the question if Georgia’s defense or Alabama’s defense is the premier unit in the SEC.
Nick Saban taunted the Covid-virus and for the 22nd straight time beat another one of his former assistants to show the rest of the college football world once we see Ohio State… the four team national playoff will be looking for a fourth team to join the bracket in January if college football makes it that far.
Saban is a smart dude. Even though defense is his bread and butter he knew what college football was becoming when he benched Jalen Hurts for Tua and installed his first version of the spread. Saban knew even at Alabama you have to score with the other elite spread offenses in college football.
To Saban’s credit he changed his offensive philosophy and his program. Alabama along with Clemson and Ohio State are the top three programs in college football currently. Everyone else is on the oustide looking in if they want to hoist a crystal Dr. Pepper ball.
Saban has an offensive team with more talent than OU, Auburn, and O State combined. He has a football distributor in QB Mac Jones. He has elite running backs and receivers Lincoln Riley wishes he had this season. Saban has a team Auburn will want no part of when the Iron Bowl rolls around and spread guru Gus Malzahn will probably be needing a win to save his job.
Alabama is a beautiful offensive football team. A racehorse who comes down the stretch like Secretariat. Worlds better than any Big 12 offense this season. Every bit as dangerous as LSU’s offense was last season…albeit Jones isn’t as elusive as Joe B.
But there’s Clemson to ponder and probably at some point former Georgia QB Justin Fields once the Buckeyes are allowed to show us what they are this season.
What we learned from this game in Week 7 is the rest of the SEC is ordinary and Georgia’s defense is nothing special when paired against a talented, well coached spread offense.
Which in the end makes this blogger think…after Auburn fires Gus Malzahn will Saban’s now offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian be the next head coach of the Tigers.
Ohio State and Justin Fields…show us what you have in your first game in Week 8.
The bracket awaits while Georgia appears to be the second best team in the SEC because they can’t score with Saban’s sleek new version of the spread.
Note to Lincoln Riley…this is what you used to have offensively and if you want to win a national title before becoming an NFL coach maybe you should become the offensive coordinator at Alabama or Clemson.
I would guess this will be part of Michael’s show sixteen days from the election.
Does it even matter to the Trump base? Of course not.
It may matter to some Independents and moderates who don’t live on Fox 24/7…but I would guess when people like John Kelly and James ‘Bulldog’ Mattis say things like this it’s just more fake news for the people who continue to enable Donald Trump.
Sixteen days. Keep in mind in 2016 the Access Hollywood video was released on October 7th and it didn’t even matter to evangelicals like Mike Pence and such.
The guy who’s daddy got him out of serving his country ostensibly for having bone spurs is who the Trump base listens to regarding military service and patriotism. How adorable. Hillary had it all wrong…they’re Adorables and they have lower effective marginal rates to show for it.
I wonder if even the most staunch Trump defender can name the four Trump chief of staffs to date. Who amongst you can name all four without Google?
Which Trump enabler can name all of Trump’s press secretaries without Google?
For those in Oklahoma who voted for Trump thinking he would be a godsend for oil and gas… tell me what the market price of West Texas Crude was the day Barack Obama left office and what the price was today as of closing market prices.
2016 average closing price West Texas Crude… $43.29. 2020 average closing price West Texas Crude… $38.73. Trumpers won’t talk that party line. Fake news. Adorables don’t talk fake news.
They also won’t mention the multiple effects of Trump mishandling China and Iran and how that has added to the glutted oil inventories. They also won’t mention Fed chair Jerome Powell had already predicted the GDP would slow to around 2% growth in 2020 way before the outbreak of Covid-19.
I don’t know if Michael Smerconish will cover all of this on his show today…we’ll see.
What I’m going to do on my blog from this point forward until the election is only quote Republicans and former Republicans pertaining to the rancid presidency of Donald J. Trump.
So…NBC decides to do a last moment dueling town hall with Trump. Par for the course. I don’t think it matters what he says because there are going to be somewhere between 60-to-70 million people who vote for him regardless of what he says or does.
It doesn’t matter if he says Bin Laden is still alive and living with the Obamas in their basement. It doesn’t matter if he makes Alice Cooper his next Supreme Court nominee. It doesn’t matter if Mike Gundy is his next Attorney General who replaces Bill Barr. It just doesn’t matter.
If he were running against Teddy Roosevelt or Abraham Lincoln it wouldn’t matter.
So…you just have to be that adult in the room. Accept the fact this is the America we live in and it will most likely get worse even if Trump ‘loses’ this election and deal with it in your own unique way.
Nick Saban tests positive. O State vs. Baylor postponed. Same with LSU vs. Florida. Even in the SEC which is the NFL grooming ground the virus shows no one is immune. Why would Georgia even get on a field with Alabama right now other than the CBS contract?
My own unique take is that Mike Leach might as well be the next POTUS because it doesn’t matter at this point.
Watch great music videos. Eat interesting food. Spend time with your dog. Watch hockey. Go fishing as much as possible. But most of all be kind to other people even the ones who vote for Pussy Grabber. Be kind to others. Don’t talk politics at Thanksgiving. It’s pointless.
Great song and I’m glad it’s being put and front center to these younger generations. If you can watch this video to its conlusion because the female host and her husband included some pics from their recent bike trek from Toronto to Niagra Falls which are spectacular. I actually got a chance to do this route in 2003 and can vouch it’s a hike, walk, drive, or bike ride which you won’t forget.
Steven Schmidt is a former GOP strategist who among other things ran John McCain’s presidential campaign. He currently now is a Lincoln Project member who it appears finds the human junk bond in the White House even more distateful than I do.
Maybe Carville and Schimdt are wrong. Maybe there are still enough angry white males out there lurking in the abyss of the Silent Majority to elect Trump to a second term.
Twenty-one days to the finish line and not one former Republican president in my lifetime starting with Eisenhower and running through Bush 43 would be caught dead on a convention stage with the Grifter in Chief.
This is how far the conservative movement in this country has sunk in the past four years. Maybe the Trump white militant militia will try kidnapping a different Democratic governor from a swing state other than Michigan in the last week of the campaign. Prominent Dems in either Iowa or Wisconsin would make Electoral College Don’t sleep on Iowa, Nate Silver.
Maybe that’s the game changer this time around. I think that was sarcasm, but I’m not sure anymore.
The face of the American Christian evangelicals. You bought it…you own it regardless of which way the election goes.
Why even attend church? Why go through the pretense? It was always about the tax cuts and loading the Supreme Court plus the federal court circuits. What are you going to church for?
‘Yayest thou we walk through the valley of the shadow of the pussy grabber’. That’s the church you bought. This is who you’ve become. Yikes. Proud much?
I guess you could technically call me one of those Lincoln Project former Republicans who left the party. I love Carville. I’d love to float down the White River with him some day drinking bourbon and catching brown trout.
This is from part of his War Room podcast back in June. It’s being predicted over 150 million voters are going to vote in the presidential election on November 3rd. If so…this will be the greatest voter turnout in an American presidential election since Kennedy edged Nixon in 1960.
BTW…Nixon got somewhat hosed in Chicago and could have turned the election into a war over the electoral votes in Illinois…but opted not to do so because he feared of divsion it would cause in the country. I challenge any Trump supporter to tell me with a straight face that Caligula II would ever display such wisdom.
Just another example of how the con artist grifter human junk bond Trump far exceeds Nixon in the Art of the Grift.
If the Dems lose this presidential election to this dimwit for a second straight time then what should happen is moderate Dems and moderate Republicans should form their own party which should become the second major political party in the country. Enough of the bullshit from the extreme fringe factions of both parties.
Three weeks to go. Nobody should be taking anything for granted.
After the surprising loss in Game 5 the Lakers with ease and a suffocating defense put an end to the Miami Heat’s dream post season with a 106-93 win in Game 6.
Don’t let the final score mislead you—this game was a swift and decisive execution. The Heat were never in this game and in reality it was a standing eight count TKO win for the Lakers even before this game made it to the halftime intermission.
Jimmy Butler looked worn out and spent from his heroics in Game 5 which prolonged the series to a Game 6. But it wasn’t just Butler who struggled for the Heat. It was a team effort in that it would be tough to look at the Heat stat sheet and say any Miami player had an effective game on Sunday night inside the Bubble.
The Lakers came out from the opening tip with a sense of competitive ferocity which had been lacking since they won the first two games of these Finals by double digit margins and easily looked to be the superior team.
LebRon tripled doubled with 28, 14, and 10 on a night when he once again won the Finals MVP Trophy and the fourth ring in his illustrious career.
Anthony Davis was engaged from the get go and played like a man who was determined to win his first NBA ring.
Rajon Rondo was superb with 19 points coupled with his overall floor leadership.
Alex Caruso started in place of Dwight Howard as coach Frank Vogel went small from the opening tip. Anthony Davis played center and the Heat could never get Davis out of the lane in their offensive zone.
Add Kentavious Caldwell-Pope having a nice shooting night and that was all the help LeBron needed as the Lakers ended the longest season in the history of the NBA on October 11th, 2020.
I would think all parties involved are glad its over…especially NBA commish Adam Silver. To just finish this season amid all the challenges our nation faced this year in and of itself was quite an accomplishment.
The Miami Heat have nothing to be ashamed of in losing in six games. They surprised the basketball world by reaching the Finals and for the most part gave us a decent NBA Finals.
We never saw the much anticipated Lakers vs. Clippers matchup in the Western Conference Finals, but what we did see were some good young teams in Miami, Denver, Boston, and Dallas who should all be fairly formidable next season. Plus—the Clippers and the Milwaukee Bucks who were both massive underacheivers in the Bubble.Golden State with the Splash Brothers, Draymond Green, and a lottery pick should be interesting.
At thirty-six years of age LeBron is still atop the mountain as the best player in the NBA. I would think the Lakers are primed to make another serious run at a title next season as long as LeBron James has the passion for the game he displayed this season.
As far as the Oklahoma City Thunder…I don’t think anyone yet knows exactly what Sam Presti is doing until it becomes more clear what the financial template will be for small market teams as they adjust to smaller revenue bases heading into next season until there is a vaccine which allows arenas back at full capacity.
Adam Silver will have many challenges next season reshaping the economic order of the NBA. But so will every other sports entity both college and professional.
I’m pretty well jacked for tonight’s Game 6. I can’t imagine the Lakers wanted any part of a Game 6 inside of a neutral bubble with a Pat Riley team, but here we are with Duncan Robinson and Jimmy Butler coming in after fantastic efforts in Game 5.
I have these six role players circled in red on my game sheet tonight…Tyler Herro, Duncan Robinson, Jae Crowder, Kyle Kuzma, Danny Green , and Markieff Morris.
Who out of these six brings something special tonight in what is a second straight elimination game for the Heat?
Since our local CBS affiliate decided to make us watch the feeble 0-4 NY Giants vs. the almost as feckless rabble Dallas Cowboys… tonight’s Game 6 will be my only sporting event to witness in this 24 hour cycle. Watching NFC East games is possibly even worse than watching some of these Big 12 games. But you gotta play hurt to get to the good stuff.
As a passionate NBA fan and blogger—this is why I take the time to maintain and write about ‘some’ basketball on my blog. To be clear this is a life blog with basketball on it…plus some other things.
That’s it for me until my recap of Game 6. I’m going to listen to some Tom Petty and get my game face on.
I love Tyler Herro’s snarl. Shoot the ball, stud. You and AD both went to Kentucky. This should be your night. Duncan did his part.
I feel like shit. Like a semi-truck ran over me and then ran over me again and again. This was not a pretty game. It was the survival of OU’s season to still hang around and possibly win a sixth straight Big 12 banner and keep the possibility intact they could go 9-2 and play in one of those second tier BCS bowls .
But I tell you what…I feel better after having watched Alabama’s pourous defense get lit up by Ole Miss in Oxford. Same thing with defending national champ LSU…they absolutely suck. James Carvelle may be dead this morning. Bill Clinton better go check on him and make sure he didn’t check it in during the wee hours last night drinking hard bourbon.
Florida Gators are a group of posers as well. Same thing with the Aggies in College Station. I saw one team yesterday in the entire SEC who played any defense whatsover… that was Kirby Smart’s Georgia Bulldogs. But here’s the thing they have to play Alabama on the road next Saturday. Talk about a Big Boy Brtiches game in mid-October. One of those teams will be playing the rest of the season to avoid a second loss.
After watching the SEC teams yesterday…I’m going to predict right here and now either Clemson or Ohio State will win the national championship if Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields stay healthy.
So the Big 12 now has three undefeated teams… Mullet King State, Iowa State, and Kansas State. OU clearly has no margin for error. But here’s the thing…despite the two lossses I still feel when they get Ronnie Perkins and LaMondre back they’ll have the best team in the conference.
Iowa State concerns me the most as a Sooner fan. I respect their coach. Sharp kid. In fact…if Lincoln had taken an NFL job…the Iowa State kid is who I would have gone after. Not that Joe C confers with me on these matters. But I think he’s a good coach.
I don’t think K-State is all that good. OU literally gift wrapped and gave that football game away.
As far as Mullet King State…they definitely have some talented pieces, but you know what else they have…they have a Mullet King-Breibart head coach who would be 1-14 against these horrible OU defenses if Bob Stoops hadn’t repunted to the NFL’s most explosive player Tyreke Hill.
What I’m saying is that…Mike Gundy better than any other coach in America knows how to not beat OU. He has a PhD in losing to those horrible bad tackling defenses. As long as Holder keeps Mullet King on his and Boone’s sideline…as an OU fan I like OU’s chances.
It’s not that I have anything personal in regards to Gundy. I sat with him in my brother’s Panera Bread restaurant and talked…nice enough dude with a mullet. But he just wouldn’t be my football CEO.
I’m also thinking Spencer Rattler at this point knows if he loses to O State that’s not something you want on your OU resume as a potentially iconic OU quarterback alum.
So all in all…I feel much better about OU’s football season than I did a week ago after the loss in Ames. Winning does that for you. Winning is like a contagious drug in team sports. Your team builds on it and should get incrementally better each week as Spencer Rattler grows a little week by week.
Once that kid figures out his pocket presence at this level and speed of game…OU is going to be a somewhat dangerous team looking down the road.
I’ll be recapping Alabama-Georgia next Sunday morning. Here’s my question of the week…is Alabama’s offense or Georgia’s defense the most dominant unit in college football this mid October?