Back To Baseball For This Seas...

Every once in a while during the football season I find that I have to step away from the game and focus on other sports for a few days, perhaps even a week. Basically I do this to maintain my sanity and my mental balance. I also do it to remind myself that football isn’t everything, that there are other things going on in life, I think. It’s not an easy task but if you put your mind to it the benefits are enlightening and when you return to the game after your hiatus, your refreshed, you can look at football in a whole new light, hopefully. So let’s all take a little breather from football. Don’t worry, it will still be here in a week so relax.

October will always signify for me the beginning of the baseball playoffs. The long hot summer is finally surrendering to cool autumn afternoons and evenings, in many instances the temperatures dipping low enough for a sweater or a hoddy. Thank God! There are many teams out there this year with the ability to win it all. Some have shown strength all season long while others have managed to sneak into the post season right at the end. All in all it is shaping up to be some exciting match ups.

After spending hundreds of millions of dollars on big name players both The New York Mets and The New York Yankees will sit out the post season. It’s obvious that you can’t buy championships. We’ve known this for decades. You can buy talent but you can’t buy a winning attitude. This year, the Baltimore Orioles and The Houston Astros are leading the American League while The Los Angeles Dodgers and The Atlanta Braves are in it for The National League. All four of the teams await the winners of the Wild Card play-in games, The Rangers, Rays, Blue Jays and Twins for The American League and The Diamondbacks, Brewers, Marlins and Phillies for The National League. Except for Miami where the temperature is still in the 90’s, the fans are certain to need some cool weather clothing as many games will be played in Canada and Minnesota. Bring a wool cap and a scarf!!

Houston, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Tampa Bay have been playing strong all year but don’t put it past teams like Miami, Texas or Milwaukee to sneak into a league championship. Teams that come on strong at the end of the year have won it all by getting into the playoffs thru the back door of a wild card game. Personally I’m hoping the Miami Marlins can continue this year’s tradition of winning Florida teams! We’ll have to wait and see. Win or loose, baseball makes October. Sit back and enjoy!

Speaking of Miami, I’m beginning to wonder what happened to the wave of Messi Mania that rolled over South Florida a few weeks ago. His Highness has apparently been a bit overworked by both MLS and International play and has sat out several games, all of which Inter Miami lost in his absence. I think that load management might be rearing it’s ugly head here or perhaps Messi’s age is starting to show. Maybe it’s the Miami nightlife or the Cuban pizza. Either way it’s obvious that Inter Miami is nothing without him playing. The thousands of fans that spent several hundred, perhaps several thousands of dollars, on tickets have not been impressed by his absence. Maybe Messi has been a flash in the pan for South Florida, maybe not. He cried like a baby when he left Barcelona, maybe he should go back. Adios Amigo! We’ll have to wait and see. Don’t worry, I’m not going to pack away my pink number 10 jersey yet but I will be happy if he starts playing again soon.

Every two years the world of international golf presents us with The Ryder Cup Tournament. Two teams, one representing the United States and one representing Europe, square off for three days in best ball play (in pairs) then in head to head match ups over one round of 18 holes. In the golfing world it’s a very big deal. Between the world’s best golfers from both sides of the Atlantic there is quite a bit of subtle trash talking and rich, self entitled spoon babies trying to act like real athletes. The team captains and the selection process for who plays on the teams plays out like some sort of secret religious ritual that I find quite frankly hard to understand. Well known players are selected next to golfers I’ve never heard of. The point of the selection process is getting the right mix of players together, supposedly. The tournament itself is played on golf courses in lush, richly appointed areas. The television coverage is huge. This year, The United States was crushed by a European team that featured some of the worlds top golfers such as Spaniard Jon Rham and the boisterous Irish Upstart Rory Maclroy. Both of these players have won major tournaments and gave the viewers a grand display of golf’s pedigree and gentlemanly sportsmanship. It presents great viewing until the games come on around noon time or until NASCAR starts. The U.S. Team this year was terrible, almost pathetic, losing to the Europeans by the second of three days. I think it’s time for Tiger Woods to get involved with the Captaincy and selection process for America. The Scottish may have invented golf but America owns the game. Enough said.

 I’ll go ahead and finish off with just a tad bit of football just to get my blood pressure back up. I know I promised a pause but what the heck you’re nobody if you can’t change your mind right?

Look out now but the Jets and Zack Wilson may be staging a come back. After taking more kill shots from the media and ex Jets players then the German army at Stalingrad, Zack and the Jets played a stout, exciting game on Sunday night. They didn’t win but they covered the spread and I was pleasantly impressed. The referees were ridiculously atrocious as usual. Patty Cake Mahomes is being treated more and more like Tom Brady and should just exchange game jerseys with the refs now. The coverage of Taylor Swift, reportedly in a relationship with KC star Travis Kelci, has reached a level that I personally find offensive and childish. By the way, Kelci played horribly and Zack Wilson’s girlfriend is much better looking then Taylor Swift.

All in all the NFL season has progressed much like everyone thought it would. It’s only week number 4 and for some teams it’s come to a point of put up or shut up. Teams on the hot seat include Cincinnati, The New York Giants, The Bears, Denver, Carolina, Las Vegas and New England who are either winless or sit at 1-3. Cruising along at undefeated The 49ers and Philadelphia sit all alone. In between all this are a couple dozen teams that could make it or break it in the next couple of weeks so at this point all we can do is say Play On!!!

 Finally to my picks for this week. I lost one and won one in the college ranks and stayed away (officially) from the NFL for a week. I haven’t been able to figure out either of them. At this point I’m holding off on making that deposit for that condo in Lake Tahoe so I’ll take some professional advice and take a week off to re-evaluate my strategy! Best of luck to all!!

Kev

Kev's Corner Our Staffs Weekly Sports perspective

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