Photo: www.shrinathsports.com
With all due respect to The Beatles, I’ve taken a little creative license with the lyrics to their iconic song, Come Together. It’s just that every September, sports of all kind do converge, meet, intersect, come together. With that in mind, I figured it might be fun to highlight the many different sports being played right now, making this a great time of year to be a sports fan!
Major League Baseball – The season is coming down the home stretch and things are getting really good. This we know, the Texas Rangers, Washington Nationals, and the Chicago Cubs will win their respective divisions. All the other ones are still in play (sort of), none more so than the American League East. As of this writing the Blue Jays and Red Sox are tied for first place with identical 77-61 records. The Orioles are 1 game behind, and the Yankees are just 4.5 games out. The four combatants will all be playing each other multiple times in these final weeks, in fact Toronto plays its final 3 games against the Bosox in Fenway Park, and Baltimore finishes its regular season slate against the Bombers at Yankee Stadium. It won’t be long now before we know how the East was won. Then of course there are the wild card situations in both leagues, which are intriguing as well, but I only have so much space to type here 🙂
NFL – The 2016/2017 season kicks off Thursday night. Carrie Underwood will debut her new song, “Oh Sunday Night”, and then we’ll have a rematch of last year’s Super Bowl (Panthers and Broncos). How will the locals do you ask? Well, before the Giants even played a game, their quest for an NFC title got a whole lot easier. That’s because the Cowboys and Eagles will open the season with rookie quarterbacks, Dak Prescott and Carson Wentz respectively. Give me Steve Spagnuolo, and the defense his owners paid a zillion dollars to assemble, against two rooks and a beatable Redskins team too. The one “Giant” concern with Big Blue is their offensive line play. As for the Jets, have you seen their schedule? It’s absolutely brutal to start the year, and that could bury them right out of the gates. They open at home with the Bengals, then hit the road to play the Bills and Chiefs. Up next are the Seahawks at home, before consecutive killer games on the road against the Steelers and Cardinals. Wow, that’s what I’d call running the gauntlet! If they’re still intact come week 7, let’s talk.
NCAA Football – What a weekend we just had in collegiate football. No less than four top 15 preseason teams lost (Oklahoma, LSU, Notre Dame, and Mississippi). Some surprises for me were, Clemson struggling with Auburn, Tennessee needing a recovered fumble in the end zone on the final play of the game to beat Appalachian St., and USC getting annihilated at Alabama. Of the many impressive teams I saw at least parts of their games this weekend, two stood out, Texas and Florida State. The Longhorns win over the Fighting Irish in 2 OT’s is huge for Charlie Strong and his program. The Seminoles getting off the mat (down 22 points) to beat a good Ole Miss team was stunning. Freshman quarterback, Deondre Francois (I LOVE saying that name slowly), made like Jameis Winston (who was on their sideline), by throwing for 419 yards and two scores, and rushing for 59 yards as well. Wow, that kid is fun to watch. One of Francois’ TD passes went to Travis Rudolph, my new favorite player, and the subject of the coolest story I’ve seen in college football in a long time. If you haven’t seen it, get out your Kleenex:
http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/fsu-football-star-shares-special-lunch-with-middle-schooler
US Open – Yes, I’m happy to report that tennis does still exist. I can’t tell you more than a few of the top player’s names, but I do know Serena Williams. She is not only the greatest women’s tennis player of all-time, when the 34 year-old finally retires, she will go down as the best female athlete of all time! On Monday, Serena won her 308th Grand Slam singles match, which is one more than Roger Federer, and by the way, is the most all time! If/when she wins this year’s crown, it will be her 23rd Grand Slam singles championship, one more than Steffi Graf, and one shy of Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24. You go girl!
PGA Golf – News broke today that Tiger Woods is coming back! He’s aiming to play in the Safeway Open, October 13-16, at Silverado Resort and Spa in Napa, California. This is welcome news for the PGA and golf fans worldwide, but is Tiger out of the woods healthwise? Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.
NHL and NBA – Believe it or not, they drop the puck on the first preseason NHL game on September 27th, and the NBA tips off its first preseason game on October 1.
So, if you’re a sport’s enthusiast like me, get excited!
And that is My 2 Sense for this week.
