Baseball: World Series is set! HOU vs ATL starts Tues 10/26 and runs through 11/3 if needed.
Basketball-NBA: Co-favorites for championship in preseason both lose season openers. Nets struggle without Irving. Anthony 9th on NBA All-Time scoring list.
Football-NCAAF: 5 losses in Top 25 in a week with no ranked show downs. Wash St and Texas Tech without HCs. Week 9 has a Top 10 Big 10 matchup.
Football-NFL: Brady hits 600 TD passes. Lions win-less. Cardinals undefeated. Mahomes out in 4th and loss. Ertz to Cardinals.
Golf: Hideki wins Zozo Championship. JPN golfers wins in JPN.
Motorsports: F1 American GP. MotoGP World Champion declared.
Olympic Sports: Beijing games will require daily testing. USA ice dancers win last Skate America. RUS Melnikova wins All-Around worlds. RUS Triathlete caught doping – 1st Tokyo DQ. Shiffrin wins 70th WC title.
Soccer: #1 Florida St goes down to Duke.
Baseball-MLB:
- The World Series are set! The Houston Astros vs the Atlanta Braves will begin the best of 7 series tomorrow at 7:09pm and you can watch it on Fox. Starting pitchers are set for the first game and its Charlie Morton vs Framber Valdez. The Astros won their last WS in 2017 while the Braves haven’t won since 1995. The Braves have won 3 times. The Astros have only taken the title once.
- For more info on the WS, check out last Thursday’s post.
- 3 new umpires will be working the World Series. These 3 rookies include the ump behind home plate for Game 1, Chris Conroy along with Dan Bellino (2B) and Mike Muchlinski (LF). Bellino will be behind home plate for Game 4 and Muchlinski will work game 6.
- The Cardinals have hired a new manager (remember they just fired their old manager, Mike Shildt, despite making the wild card game and a 17 game win streak). Oliver Marmol is the new manager of the St. Louis team and is the youngest active manager in MLB at age 35. He is even younger than 8 players on the team this past season.
Basketball-NBA:
- Season started last week and the co-favorites for the championship, Lakers and the Nets, both lost game 1. Steph Curry opened the season with a triple-double for the Warriors to win 121-114 over the Lakers. While the reigning champs, the Bucks, beat the Nets 127-104 with the help of Giannis’ 32 points.
- After the season opener, the Nets have struggled without their starting G, Kyrie Irving who remember isn’t allowed to play due to refusing to get the vaccine which is mandated in the state of NY. The team scored just 20 and 17 points in the second half against the Hornets (L 111-95). Only KD and James Harden had points in the double digits. The HC Steve Nash is moving guys around trying to make things work without Kyrie but the team is confident.
- Lakers F Carmelo Anthony is now 9th on the NBA All-time scoring list after the game against the Grizzlies on Sunday. He scored 28 points in that game, a team high for him. The team is looking strong after losing their season opener, with 6 players scoring over 20 points a piece. LeBron scored 40 and Westbrook had 37 points.
Football-NCAAF:
- There were 5 loses in the Top 25 in what was a ‘bland’ week in college football. #7 Penn St lost in 9OT to Illinois, giving us a view into the new OT rules. It was hard to watch after 3-7OT were unsuccessful and just plain sloppy but the Fighting Illini pulled it out in the end. 2 undefeated teams went down this weekend. #8 Oklahoma St was upset by unranked yet favored Iowa St. #14 Coastal Carolina lost their first game of the season to App St. #18 NC St got beat by 1 point by Miami. Finally ranked #25 Purdue lost to Wisconsin, who put up 30 points on the Boilermakers.
- #GFHint: the new OT rules was implemented after the 2018 LSU vs Texas A&M game went into the 7th OT leaving both teams beaten up and playing into the wee hours of the night. Originally two-point conversion attempts began in the 5th OT but it was moved to the 3rd OT this year. It is supposed to make it shorter and more entertaining to watch. And with 2 offensive powerhouses it should be fun to watch but with Penn St vs Illinois which ended regulation tied at 10 apiece, it was just kinda sad (cue: whomp whomp sound effect).
- Hot topic of the weekend: Iowa St had a terrible taunting call against it as their WR Hutchinson ran into the endzone with the slightest of a high step. This has been hotly debated this week, especially because since the ‘penalty’ was incurred during the field of play and not in the endzone, the TD did not count. Luckily this did not effect the outcome of the game as Iowa St ended up winning anyway. The NFL has gotten rid of these types of rules as fans actually love to see some trash talking or celebrations.
- Loses: 7. Penn St, 8. Oklahoma St, 14. Coastal Carolina, 18. NC St, 25. Purdue
- Don’t do this at home kids but Boomer!
- Ole Miss retired #10 in honor of Eli Manning during halftime of the LSU game. Manning played QB for Ole Miss from 2000-2003. His father, Archie, also had his number 18 retired by the school along with Chucky Mullins #38.
- The American Athletic conference has voted to add FAU, Charlotte, UNT, UTSA, Rice, UAB to their conference. This pretty much dooms Conference USA and this also prob means that AAC expects to lose some more teams before this restructuring is over…
- A dash of politics with your football? Washington St no longer has a HC or about 4 others of its staff after the vaccine mandate went into effect last week. HC Mike Rolovich is now suing the university in a wrongful termini nation lawsuit. It is not known whether Rolovich’s religious exemption was denied by the state or not, all we know is it had not been approved by the Monday deadline. Rolovich is a devout Catholic, although Pope Francis has encouraged Catholics to get the vaccine. I’m sure this wont be the last we hear of this but I do know that the team and players deserves better from everyone involved.
- Texas Tech also fired their HC Matt Wells after the Red Raiders lost to K St over the weekend by 1 point, after having a 2 TD lead in the second half. His overall record with the team was 13-17 after taking the job from now-Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury 3 years ago. He will be replaced for the rest of the season by Sonny Cumbie who played QB at the school under Mike Leach in the early 2000s.
- Week 9 has 2 big matchups in the Big 10 with Top 10 face off of Michigan at Michigan St and then we have Penn St at Ohio St at night. Also #10 Ole Miss goes on the road against #18 Auburn and Bo Nix. Georgia faces a good Florida team for what is prob their biggest test in the SEC East. And Baylor better watch its back with UT coming to town.
- Upset watch: 1. Georgia, 8. Michigan St, 16. Baylor, 17. Pitt, 18. Auburn, 20. Penn St, 21. San Diego St
Football-NFL:
- Week 7 recap
- The Browns beat the Broncos despite being on their 3rd string QB, Case Keenum, after Mayfield is out with a shoulder injury.
- The Cardinals had an easy week facing the Texans to stay undefeated. They won 31-5.
- The Lions remain win-less after playing the Rams closer than expected 28-19.
- The Falcons avoid a loss to the Dolphins with a FG as time expires to win 30-28. Miami won the stats though with time of possession, total yards and 1st However sometimes that just isn’t enough.
- The Bengals, Patriots, Giants and Bucs all win big.
- The Chiefs only scored 3 points in their game against the Titans and Mahomes was pulled out of the game due to a hard hit to the head and checked for a concussion. However that was just in the 4th quarter when the Titans were already up 27-3. This is the first time in Mahomes’ career that his team did not score a TD in the regular season. The chiefs had 3 turnovers this game.
- Tom Brady became the first QB in history to throw 600 TD passes in his career. He already had the record for the most (and it obviously kept increasing by the week) but this is truly an extraordinary mark. Also WR Mike Evans didn’t realize it was the record setting pass when he gave the ball to a fan. That fan was asked to return it…oops!
- Going back to Friday, longtime Eagles TE Zach Ertz was traded to the Cardinals for CB Tay Gowan and a 2022 5th-round draft pick. Not a bad switch if you’re Ertz who went from being 2-5 on the Eagles to the only undefeated team in the NFL. The Cardinals lost their starting and most affluent TE Maxx Williams to a season ending knee injury last week.
- Let’s do a mid-season check in with the standings.
- American conference: Bengals, Raiders, Titans and Ravens all have 5 wins in a tight race in the conference.
- National conference: Cardinals lead with 7 wins followed by the Bucs, Packers and Rams were 6. So while the American is much closer with all teams in the 1-5 win range, the National has a wide range of wins 0-7.
Golf:
- Fittingly JPN golfer and Masters Champion, Hideki Matsuyama won the Zozo Championship in Japan by 5 strokes this weekend. This was just the 2nd time this tournament has been played in Japan; Tiger won it in 2019 and in 2020, it was moved to California due to COVID restrictions. This was Hideki’s 7th PGA Tour win. Cameron Trinagle only trailed Hideki by 2 going into the final hole but Hideki made eagle and Trinagle scored a bogey giving Hideki that 5 shot cushion.
Motorsports:
- F1 was in Austin this weekend for its only American stop (for now). Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won over Lewis Hamilton. Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez ran his race mostly without any working water but took 3rd. Verstappen has a 12-point championship lead with only 5 races left in the F1 season which ends in Abu Dhabi in December.
- #GFHint: Better get used to hearing about Formula One because it is becoming increasingly popular in the states now. Thanks in part to the Netflix docuseries “Drive to Survive” and no covid restrictions, there were 140,000 people in Austin on Sunday for the American GP. F1 is adding a Miami GP next year and there is even an American team now, Haas.
- MotoGP also had noteworthy moments. Fabio Quartararo clinched the MotoGP World Championship after Bagnia crashed out in the last couple of laps. Marc Marquez won the race looking back to his old self after his arm injury from the first race of the delayed and shorten 2020 season sidelined him for more than a year. Before that injury, he had captured 6 world titles himself (all from 2013-2019 except 2015). He’s back (Texas fan’s voice). This was also GOAT’s Valentino Rossi’s last race on Italian soil. He is retiring at the end of the season (in 2 weeks) after racing in MotoGP for 21 years.
Olympic Sports:
- Olympic athletes will have daily testing and will remain in a closed-loop (aka bubble) for the entirety of the Beijing Olympics that includes transportation to and from venues. Participants who are not vaccinated will have to quarantine for 21 days upon arrival. Vaccines are not mandated by China but the USA and CAN teams have mandated them. China has shut its borders to international travel and will only allow international flights for participants in the games. No foreign spectators will be allowed.
- USA Ice dancers, Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donahue, won the final and their final Skate America competition. The duo have said that this will be their final season and will retire after the Beijing Games or Worlds in March. They are the only ice dancing team to win a medal in the last 3 Worlds. This latest win is their 4th in a row at Skate America which ties them with Meryl Davis and Charlie White for the longest streak in Skate America history.
- Tokyo Olympic Bronze medalist, RUS Angelina Melnikova, won the women’s all-around at gymnastics worlds this weekend. Her highest scores were in the vault and uneven bars. Both Simone Biles and Suni Lee, the defending champ and the gold medalist from Tokyo, making this competition ripe for someone new to step in. Melnikova had won 4 medals from past world championships but never taken a title before this week. USA Leanne Wong and Kayla DiCello took silver and bronze. Wong you may remember as she was the Olympic alternate whose roommate tested positive for COVID in Tokyo.
- USA Stephen Nedoroscik won the pommel horse for the first ever event win for the USA. BRA Rebecca Anrade won the vault so she is now the Olympic and World Champion in that event.
- The first Tokyo Olympic athlete has been DQ’d for doping and it is RUS triathlete Igor Polyanskiy. He has now been banned for 3 years, that is through the Paris 2024 games (well 1 day before the closing ceremonies). He placed 43rd in Tokyo and was apart of the 14th place in the mixed relay, which has also been DQ’d. He was also 31st in Rio.
- Back in the blog again, Mikaela Shiffrin won the World Cup skiing opener in the Giant Slalom, clinching her 70th WC victory. She just edged out GS world champion, SUI Lara Gut-Behrami by .02 in her opening leg and .14 in the final. Overall world champion, Petra Vlhova placed 3rd but 1.3 seconds behind the other 2. Shiffrin is now the 3rd skier in history to surpass the 70 WC wins mark, trailing only Ingemar Stenmark and Linsey Vonn with 86 and 82 wins respectively.
Soccer:
- Told you last week that NCAAW soccer team #1 Florida St would have a tough week and it ended up being ust that. The Seminoles lost to Duke and have now fallen to #3 with the Blue Devils taking their top spot in the rankings.
What to watch this week
Baseball-MLB:
- Tues 10/26
- World Series Game 1: Braves at Astros @ 7:09pm on FOX
- Morton vs Valdez
- World Series Game 1: Braves at Astros @ 7:09pm on FOX
- Wed 10/27
- World Series Game 2: Braves at Astros @ 7:09pm on FOX
- Fri 10/29
- World Series Game 3: Astros at Braves @ 7:09pm on FOX
- Sat 10/30
- World Series Game 4: Astros at Braves @ 7:09pm on FOX
- Sun 10/31
- World Series Game 5: Astros at Braves @ 7:15pm on FOX
- If necessary
- World Series Game 5: Astros at Braves @ 7:15pm on FOX
- Tues 11/2
- World Series Game 6: Braves at Astros @ 7:09pm on FOX
- If necessary
- World Series Game 6: Braves at Astros @ 7:09pm on FOX
- Wed 11/3
- World Series Game 7: Braves at Astros @ 7:09pm on FOX
- If necessary
- World Series Game 7: Braves at Astros @ 7:09pm on FOX
Basketball-NBA:
- Tues 10/26
- 76ers at Knicks @ 6:30pm on TNT
- Nuggets at Jazz @ 9pm on TNT
- Wed 10/27
- Hawks at Pelicans @ 6:30pm on ESPN
- Grizzlies at Trail Blazers @ 9pm on ESPN
- Fri 10/29
- Hornets at Heat @ 6:30pm on ESPN
- Mavericks at Nuggets @ 9pm on ESPN
Football- NCAAF:
| Top 25 | |||||
| Week 9 | |||||
| Top 25 Games | |||||
| Visitor | Home | Day | Time (CT) | TV | Line |
| 6. Michigan | 8. Michigan St | Sat 10/30 | 11:00 AM | FOX | |
| Texas | 16. Baylor | Sat 10/30 | 11:00 AM | ABC | |
| 1. Georgia | Florida | Sat 10/30 | 2:30 PM | CBS | |
| 10. Ole Miss | 18. Auburn | Sat 10/30 | 6:00 PM | ESPN | |
| 20. Penn St | 5. Ohio St | Sat 10/30 | 6:30 PM | ABC | |
| *GameDay indicated in bold* | |||||
Football-NFL:
- Mon 10/25
- Saints at Seahawks @ 7:15pm on ESPN
- Thurs 10/28
- Packers at Cardinals @ 7:20pm on FOX
- Sun 10/31
- 8 games on @ 12pm depending on location on CBS/FOX
- FOX:
- Panthers at Falcons
- 49ers at Bears
- Eagles at Lions
- Rams at Texans
- CBS:
- Dolphins at Bills
- Steelers at Browns
- Titans at Colts
- Bengals at Jets
- FOX:
- Patriots at Chargers – or – Jaguars at Seahawks @ 3:05pm on CBS
- Washington at Broncos – or – Bucs at Saints @ 3:25pm on FOX
- Cowboys at Vikings @ 7:20pm on NBC
- 8 games on @ 12pm depending on location on CBS/FOX
- Mon 11/1
- Giants at Chiefs @ 7:15pm on ESPN
Golf:
- Thurs 10/28
- Bermuda Championship – Round 1 @ 1:30pm on Golf Channel
- Fri 10/29
- Bermuda Championship – Round 2 @ 1:30pm on Golf Channel
- Sat 10/30
- Bermuda Championship – Round 3 @ 1pm on Golf Channel
- Sun 10/31
- Bermuda Championship – Final Round @ 1pm on Golf Channel
Motorsports:
- Sat 10/30
- NASCAR: Xfinity – Dead on Tools 250 @ 5pm on NBCSN
- Sun 10/31
- NASCAR: @ 1pm on NBC
Olympic Sports:
- Thurs 10/28
- Mountain Biking @ 12:30pm on NBCSN
- Fri 10/29
- Sat 10/30
- Curling: Mixed Doubles Olympic Qualifying Semifinals @ 12pm on NBCSN
- Figure Skating @ 3pm on NBC
- Sun 10/31
- Curling: Mixed Doubles Olympic Qualifying Finals @ 7pm on NBCSN
Soccer:
- Tues 10/26
- MLS: LAFC vs Seattle Sounders @ 9:30pm on ESPN
- Wed 10/27
- Thurs 10/28
- NCAAW: Boston College at Clemson @ 4pm on ESPNU
- NCAAW: Louisville at 1. Duke @ 4pm on ACC
- NCAAW: 3. Florida St at 6. UVA @ 6pm on ACC
- NCAAW: Mississippi State at 11. Ole Miss @ 7pm on SEC
- Fri 10/29
- NCAAM: UNC vs Notre Dame @ 3 :30pm on ESPNU
- NCAAM : Clemson vs Louisville @ 6pm on ACC
- Sat 10/30
- Premier League: Leicester City vs Arsenal @ 6:30am on NBCSN
- Premier League: Teams TBA @ 9am on NBCSN
- Premier League: Tottenham Hotspur vs ManU @ 11:30am on NBC
- Sun 10/31
- Premier League: Norwich City vs Leeds United @ 9am on NBCSN
- Premier League: Aston Villa vs West Ham @ 11:30am on NBCSN
- MLS: MN United at Sporting Kansas City @ 12pm on ESPN
