Weekly Update October 2, 2023

October Coming Up This Month

Baseball: Post season is here! Who won? Who lost? All Star retirees. Wakefield passes.

Football – NCAAF: 5 ranked teams lose. Other major headlines. Top 25 this week.

Football – NFL: This week was not one for close games. More like 20+ vs single digit games. Only 2 undefeated teams left and 2 winless.

Golf: Europe wins Ryder Cup.

Olympic Sports: Biles 2 debut. Breaking WRs – road racing and weightlifting. 2036 Olympic bids. Shippers retiring.

Coming up this month – October

World Championships – Gymnastics 10/1-10/8, Post-season MLB 10/3 – 11/4, World Series 10/27-11/4, Beach Volleyball World Championships 10/6-15, F1 – COTA CP 10/22

Baseball – MLB:

• Well season is over and the divisions have been decided and some came down to the end! The AL West was intense as we had a winner, playoff berth and an elimination all on the table and a 3-way battle. It was all up in the air with the Rangers taking a lead last week. The Astros won 5 of the last 6 games to rally, including 2 of 3 against the Mariners. Whereas the Rangers lost 4 of their last 7 including 3 to the Mariners. The win n Saturday put the Astros into playoffs but not sure about the division, until Dallas lost their game on Sunday 1-0. That put the Houston and Dallas team ended up tied with the same win percentage 90Ws vs 72Ls. But the Stros had the tie breaker which is a head-to-head record against the Rangers, where Houston won 9 of 13 games. The Brewers solidified their spot this week as well with wins in 4 of the last 6 games. They end the season with 92Ws and 70 Ls. That also eliminated the rest of their division from playoffs.
  • AL: East – Orioles, Central – Twins, West – Astros
  • NL: East – Braves, Central – Brewers, West – Dodgers
  • Eliminated: (NL) Cubs*, Reds*, Padres*, Giants*, Mets, Nationals, Pirates, Cardinals, Rockies and (AL) Tigers*, Mariners*, Yankees, Red Sox, Guardians, Angels, White Sox, Royals and A’s

• The Rockies hit the 100^th loss this week and ended with 103 losses for the season. They were not alone though. The White Sox and Royals had 101 and 106, respectively. But the A’s were the worst with 112, surpassing their franchise record low of 109.

• We have some all-star retirements to talk about as this season comes to an end as well.
  • Tigers DH Miguel Cabrera ended this career with a win over the Guardians on Sunday. He is a World Serie Champion (2003), 12x All-Star, 2x AL MVP and got a Triple Crown in the AL in 2012. He ends his career with 511 HRs, .306 batting average at the age of 40.
  • Cardinals P Adam Wainwright spent 18 years in St. Louis, is a World Series Champion and ends with 200 wins, 3x All-Star and 2 Golden Glove awards.
  • Tony Francona ended his HoF career after 10 years as a MLB player and 23 as a manager. He has 1950 wins (13^th all time), 3 AL division titles and 2 World Series pennants.

• The Braves may have lost their season finale to the Nationals 9-10 but Ozuna HR’d twice. That means that the Atlanta team tied the MLB single season record of 307 homeruns. Ozuna ended the season with 40 himself. The other team that hit the 307 mark was the 2019 Twins. The Braves did break the old MLB record for slugging percentage with .501. Needless to say they finished with the league best record of 104-58. The Orioles and Dodgers did manage to break into the 100 win category as well with 101 and 100, respectively.

• 2x World Series champion P, Tim Wakefield has died from complications with brain cancer at the age of 57. Wakefield was known for his 17 year tenure at the Red Sox where he won 200 games, 186 with the Red Sox (3^rd in their franchise history). He is the leader in innings pitched as a Red Sox with 3,006. He is already in the Red Sox HoF and his jersey #3 was retired by his college. We just found out about the brain cancer last week as a former teammate disclosed it on a podcast without Wakefield’s permission.

Football – NCAAF:

• We actually had some upsets this week! Only 5 ranked teams lost this week.
  • QB Cam Rising being out finally took a toll on #10 Utah. #19 Oregon State had a nice bounce back win at home beating the Utes 21-7. The only TD scored by Utah was in the final 6 minutes of the game. After losing to #21 Washington St in a close one, they get the upset here. The Beavs have their work cut out though as they end the season with Washington and Oregon who are currently ranked #7 and #8 respectively.

• • SEC fans close your ears because this game was a bad defensive game (like 3Q of 21 points by one team bad) – super entertaining though! #20 Ole Miss came out hot scoring 21 points in the 1Q then #13 LSU returned the favor making it 28-31 at half. It looked like LSU was going to escape another close game leading 42-34 at the start of the 4^th and 49-40 with 8 minutes left. LSU was 95-1 when scoring 49 points or more. But then again Lane Kiffin and the Rebels offense went charging down the field in a great slightly-over 2 minute drill. Were now 49-47 LSU. LSU gained 20 yards in their first play but the Rebels D came up big with a stop and forced a punt. The get the ball back with 2:36 on the clock and all they need a FG. It wasn’t needed though as it took 8 plays to go the 88 yards needed (really 54 yards happened in 3 plays) but they get a TD to go up 55-49. Good thing too because LSU went 49 yards and were absolutely in FG range but couldn’t get the TD. Ole Miss upsets LSU. This is Ole Miss’s first sec game with 300 yards in both rush and pass and 711 total which is their sec best. Only other 49pt LSU loss there was the 7OT game with Texas A&M.

• • #17 Duke hosted College GameDay for the first time ever (for football) for their game vs #11 Notre Dame. It was all Notre Dame early in a slug fest, 10-0 at half but Duke fought back scoring 14 points in the 2H. It was not enough however as ND wins their 30^th straight game over an ACC team 21-14. More problematic for Duke is that their star QB Riley Leonard went out in the final drive with an ankle injury. They will need him if they want to keep being competitive on this level.

• • Unranked yet undefeated Kentucky put the beat down on #22 Florida. It was 22-7 at half and the final was 33-14. Kentucky RB Ray Davis was responsible for 4 TDs himself. Even having 13 men on the field for a goal line stand couldn’t keep the Wildcats out of the endzone.
  • #3 Texas could’ve let this trap game/look ahead game get to them. But #24 Kansas being ranked, I think helped refocus them. Longhorns get it done easily 40-14 against KU’s backup QB.

• Other major storylines:
  • Should Georgia be ranked #1? Auburn went up 10-0 on the back-to-back champs by the end of 1Q. Then it was all Georgia tying it up 10-10 at half. That’s when you thought, oh well that was fun while it lasted but Auburn kept coming! It was tied 20-20 with only 6:21 to go in the game but that’s when TE Brock Bowers really hit his stride, helping the Dawgs score their final and game-winning TD off a 40 yard pass. Georgia escapes 27-20. They are the only team in the Top 25 to not cover a single game all season.
  • #2 Michigan finally covered a spread and actually looked like the #2 team, beating Nebraska 45-7.
  • Unlike last week, Colorado put up a fight! It took Caleb Williams throwing 6 TDs to beat Colorado 48-41. Now #8 USC was up 34-14 at half but the Buffs managed to pull within a score and were driving down the field. But truthfully it never felt like USC would lose this game. That being said, Caleb Williams didn’t ride the bench like he prob thought he was going to. USC has huge problems on D.
  • #6 Penn St had a slow start against Northwestern tied 10-10 at half. After that, the Nittany Lions turned it on though, winning 41-13.
  • #7 Washington let Arizona hang around only winning 31-24.

• • At one point during the game (2H), UCF led 35-7 over Baylor. But Bears, who have had a rough go this season, did not roll over. Baylor scored 29 unanswered points and won on a 25 yard FG to beat the Knights 36-35. When trailing by 25 or more in 4Q, teams were 892-0 and the last one to comeback from that was in 2017.
  • WV and TCU went toe to toe in a back and forth game in the Big 12. TCU would score and WV would tie it up again. Literally TCU did not trail until the final Q with 10 minutes remaining in the game when WV scored a 49 yard FG. WV wins 24-21.

• Top 25 this week: Kentucky obviously made its debut on the list after their big win over Florida. Also breaking in, undefeated Louisville. No surprise that Florida and Kansas dropped out after their losses. Utah, Duke and LSU all lost but are still ranked. USC also got punished for the 2^nd straight week for giving up so many points against an unranked team, dropping 1 spot. There were no changes inside the top 7.
  • Undefeated teams not ranked: Maryland, JMU, Marshall, Air Force, Liberty,

Football – NFL:

• This week in the NFL: Bears have yet to win with another loss, this time close to the Broncos. The Denver team was down 28-14 at the beginning of the 4Q but scored 17 unanswered points to win by 3. The Vikings handed the Panthers another loss winning 21-13. The Chargers did all their scoring in the 1H with 24 points but that’s all that was needed to put away the Raiders, winning 24-17. The Rams/Colts game was a tale of two halves. The 1H, it was all Rams with the LA team going up 20-0 but the Colts came back 2H scoring all their 23 needed to force OT. But the Rams scored a TD in OT to put the game away. That wasn’t the only game to go to OT as well.

• Continued: The undefeated Eagles needed OT to get it done against the Commanders. We went to OT with both teams scoring 31, the Commanders went 3&out while the Eagles nailed a 54 yard FG for the W. But now let’s talk about the not-so-close-games. RB Christian McCaffrey, who has been plagued by injuries, is having a great season. This week he scored in the endzone 4xs, giving the 49ers a 35-16 win over the Cardinals.

• Cont: Bills QB Josh Allen went off with 5 TDs handing the Dolphins their first loss of the season 48-20. There were a lot of 20+ point to single digit wins this week, 6 to be exact! The Cowboys beat Patriots by the worst margin in Belichick’s career, winning 38-3. The Patriots have benched their starting QB but that didn’t seem to work either as they got 0 TDs. The Texans won their 2^nd game of the season (what?!) beating the Steelers 30-6. The Jags beat the Falcons 23-7 including a 61 yard pick-6. Titans RB Derrick Henry got to pass the ball in a ticket play, shutting down the Bengals 27-3. Baker Mayfield is making a comeback in Tampa, beating the Saints 26-9. The Patriots, Saints, Bengals, Browns and Steelers all did not score a single TD this week.

• The power of #Traylor is continuing. Tickets sales for the Chiefs/Jets game hit a record 34% sold most single day ticket sales all season. Taylor brought a bunch of celebs to the game as it was in NY including Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively and Hugh Jackman. The Jets tried to keep it close and even had a late interception on Mahomes. But there was a penalty that brought the INT back and the Chiefs pulled out the win 23-20.

• Still undefeated: 49ers and Eagles / Still winless: Bears and Panthers

Golf:

• After Friday, it was no surprise that Europe won the Ryder Cup. Team USA failed to win a single match on the first day, trailing Europe 6.5-1.5. Although the Americans didn’t play badly the first day, it was just Europe’s day. Rahm made 2 eagles on the final 3 holes and Hovland and Rose sank crucial, well-timed birdie putts to steal full points away. The 2^nd day was more of the same but the US did get a win eventually. Not by World #1 Scottie Scheffler and LIV golfer Brooks Koepka though, who suffered the worst defeat in Ryder Cup history losing 9&7. Needless to say they were both benched that afternoon. The afternoon went way better with the US winning 3 of the 4 points available. The US trailed 10.5-5.5 after Day 2 and would need the biggest comeback in history to win. The largest comeback had only been done from 10-6. The most points ever on Sunday singles was 8 but the US still lost that 1997 Ryder Cup by .5. Sunday was just inevitable. There’s no other word for it. 14.5 was the magic number and its hard to rally 7 straight points without tying. After the first 5 matches, Europe only needed .5 in the Homa/Fitzpatrick matchup. Max Homa, a Ryder Cup rookie, played well in Rome going 3-1-1 and playing all 5 sessions. He was nothing short of clutch on 18. His tee shot went wide and he had to take an unplayable (meaning adding a penalty stroke). All Fitzpatrick needed to do was make an 18-foot birdie putt to seal the Ryder Cup with a half point tying match. But he missed then Max Homa makes his clutch 7 footer to save his point and keep US hopes alive. We made it all the way to 14-10 before the nail was put in the coffin. When Rickie Fowler hit the water on 18, that was it. Fleetwood wouldn’t need to 3 putt solidifying the EU takeover of the Ryder Cup. Just goes to show that Team Europe is hard to beat in Europe. The USA hasn’t managed to do it on European soil since 1993.
  • If you want to know more about the Ryder Cup, see this post.

Olympic Sports:

• World Championships in gymnastics has begun (only qualifying but still) Simone Biles is already making a splash. She debuted a new vault last night, which is now her 5^th named element and 2^nd on the vault. It was Yurchenko Double Pike (a roundoff into back hand spring and a double pike) of the vault. This will now be officially known as the Biles 2. The US team put up a total of 171.395 points in qualifying with ITA qualifying 2^nd, a full 9 points behind. The Team title is Wed and all-around finals are Fri. Event finals will be Sat and Sun.

• For the first time ever, Road Running Championships were held. So no surprise that WRs were broken as we are just at the beginning of this discipline. USA Hobbs Kessler ran a 3:56.13, beating the previous mark by 5 seconds which was set in April. ETH Diribe Welteji stunned the favorite KEN Faith Kipyegon to win with a time of 4:20.98. Too bad the men competed after the women because the previous WR for the women was set by Nikki Hiltz from the USA, 7 seconds slower than it is now.
• Poland, Indonesia, Mexico and India have all put their name in the hat to host the 2036 Olympic Games. Turkey and Hungary are also expected to put their names in the hat as well. The 2032 Games were given to Brisbane, AUS.
• North Korean weightlifters broke WRs on Saturday at the Asian Games. Ri Song Gum snatched 92kgs and clean and jerked 124kgs for a combined 216 kgs (476.2 lbs) to win the 49 kilo category. Kang Hyong Yong snatched 103kg and 130kgs for a combined 233 kgs (513.7lbs) in the 55 kgs category. The previous record was in 2019 at 227kgs.

• NED World Champion Dafne Schippers has decided to retire at 31 years old. She was a heptathlete to start, winning bronze at the 2013 Worlds in that event before turning to the sprints. She then won gold in 200m in 2015 and again in 2017. She is an Olympic silver medalist in the 200m at the 2016 Rio Olympic games.

What to watch this week

Baseball – MLB:

• Tues 10/3
  • AL Wild Card – Game 1: Rangers at Rays @ 2pm on ABC
  • AL Wild Card – Game 1: Blue Jays at Twins @ 3:30pm on ESPN
  • NL Wild Card – Game 1: Diamondbacks at Brewers @ 6pm on ESPN2
  • NL Wild Card – Game 1: Marlins at Phillies @ 7pm on ESPN
• Wed 10/4
  • AL Wild Card – Game 2: Rangers at Rays @ 2pm on ABC
  • AL Wild Card – Game 2: Blue Jays at Twins @ 3:30pm on ESPN
  • NL Wild Card – Game 2: Diamondbacks at Brewers @ 6pm on ESPN2
  • NL Wild Card – Game 2: Marlins at Phillies @ 7pm on ESPN
• Thurs 10/5 – if necessary
  • AL Wild Card – Game 3: Rangers at Rays @ 2pm on ABC
  • AL Wild Card – Game 3: Blue Jays at Twins @ 3:30pm on ESPN
  • NL Wild Card – Game 3: Diamondbacks at Brewers @ 6pm on ESPN2
  • NL Wild Card – Game 3: Marlins at Phillies @ 7pm on ESPN
• Sat 10/7
  • ALDS – Game 1: TBD at Orioles @ TBD on TBD
  • ALDS – Game 1: TBD at Astros @ TBD on TBD
  • NLDS – Game 1: TBD at Braves @ TBD on TBS
  • NLDS – Game 1: TBD at Dodgers @ TBD on TBS
• Sun 10/8
  • ALDS – Game 2: TBD at Orioles @ TBD on TBD
  • ALDS – Game 2: TBD at Astros @ TBD on TBD
• Mon 10/9
  • NLDS – Game 2: TBD at Braves @ TBD on TBS
  • NLDS – Game 2: TBD at Dodgers @ TBD on TBS

Football-NCAAF:

Top 25
Week 6
Top 25 Games
Visitor	Home	Day	Time (CT)	TV	Line
12. Oklahoma	3. Texas	Sat 10/7	11:00 AM	ABC	+6.5
23. LSU	21. Mizzou	Sat 10/7	11:00 AM	ESPN	-6.5
11. Alabama	Texas A&M	Sat 10/7	2:30 PM	CBS	-2.5
20. Kentucky	1. Georgia	Sat 10/7	6:00 PM	ESPN	+14.5
10. Notre Dame	25. Louisville	Sat 10/7	6:30 PM	ABC	-7
*GameDay indicated in bold*

Football-NFL:

• Mon 10/2
  • Seahawks at Giants @ 7:15pm on ABC and ESPN
• Thurs 10/5
  • Bears at Commanders @ 7:15pm on Prime
• Sun 10/8
  • Jaguars at Bills @ 8:30am on NFL in London
  • 6 games @ 12pm on FOX/CBS
    • CBS: Titans at Colts – or – Saints at Patriots – or – Ravens at Steelers
    • FOX: Texans at Falcons – or – Panthers at Lions – or – Giants at Dolphins
  • Eagles at Rams or Bengals at Cardinals @ 3:05pm on FOX
  • Jets at Broncos or Chiefs at Vikings @ 3:45 pm on CBS
  • Cowboys at 49ers @ 7:20pm on NBC
• Mon 10/9
  • Packers at Raiders @ 7:15pm on ABC or ESPN

Golf:

• Thurs 10/5
  • Korn Ferry: Tour Championship – Round 1 @ 1pm on Golf Channel
  • PGA: Sanderson Farms – Round 1 @ 3pm on Golf Channel
• Fri 10/6
  • Korn Ferry: Tour Championship – Round 2 @ 11am on Golf Channel
  • PGA: Sanderson Farms – Round 2 @ 3pm on Golf Channel
• Sat 10/7
  • Korn Ferry: Tour Championship – Round 3 @ 11am on Golf Channel
  • PGA: Sanderson Farms – Round 3 @ 3pm on Golf Channel
• Sun 10/8
  • Korn Ferry: Tour Championship – Final Round @ 12pm on Golf Channel
  • PGA: Sanderson Farms – Final Round @ 3pm on Golf Channel

Motorsports:

• Sun 10/8
  • F1: Qatar GP @ 12pm on ESPN

Olympic Sports:

• Wed 10/4
  • Volleyball: NCAAW – Illinois vs Purdue @ 5pm on FS1
• Sat 10/7
  • Sport Climbing: World Championships – Lead, Speed @ 11am on FS1
• Sun 10/8
  • Rugby: World Cup @ 11am on NBC
  • Gymnastics: World Championships – Highlights @ 1pm on CNBC

Soccer:

• Mon 10/2
  • Premier League: Fulham vs Chelsea @ 2pm on USA
• Wed 10/4
  • MLS: Nashville SC vs Orlando City @ 7:30pm on FS1
  • MLS: LA FC vs Minnesota United @ 9:30pm on FS1
• Thurs 10/5
  • NCAAW: Georgetown vs Xavier @ 6pm on FS1
• Fri 10/6
  • NWSL: OL Reign vs Washington Spirit @ 7pm on CBS
• Sat 10/7
  • Premier League: Luton Town vs Tottenham @ 6:30am on USA
  • Premier League: ManU vs Brentford @ 9am on USA
  • Premier League: Teams TBA @ 11:30am on NBC
• Sun 10/8
  • Premier League: West Ham vs Newcastle @ 8am on USA