Sunday Showdowns..

Minnesota Vikings +4 @ Pittsburgh Steelers
Vikings are 6-0 after squeaking out a couple wins this year namely a hail mary back of the end zone miracle by Brett Farve, and a come from behind thriller last week vs Baltimore and lucking out on a missed field goal. Pittsburgh has been strangely mediocre this year, and Polamalu being out has been a huge detriment. I roll Minnesota here. Not only do I think they have a great shot to win the game outright, I just don't see the Steelers winning big. An interesting Nugget (and its true)..anytime the defending champion has played a team that is undefeated and has atleast six wins they have lost. Not really sure if there is much to make of that, but if the trend continues we got a Vikings win. Plus who doesnt want more Brett Favre coverage.

New England Patriots -14 @ Tampa Bay Buccs
Things do not get any easier for the Tampa Bay Buccs. I had a conversation with Pewch Revolution reader PC (who has been quiet for weeks) who is a die hard Boston guy. He made a great point when people forget about this Patriots team that it takes about 5-6 weeks for someone coming off of major knee surgery to trust the knee again and feel right. Well we are going into week 7 and I think Tom Brady thought to himself last week...."oh I remember how we did this in 07.

Don't think this team is 07 good, but they might have their swagger back. Wes Welker is healthy, and Joey Galloway is finally cut, leaving room for Julian Edelman to be welker 2.0. This team is so good that Bellicheat has decided to sit Pro-bowl linebackers as healthy scratches. What gives Adalius? 14 is a lot of points, but if you are going any direction in this game you got to lay the 14.

San Diego Chargers -4.5 @ Kansas City Chiefs
Chargers with a pretty disappointing performance last Monday night vs the Broncos. The offensive line was pitiful, and LT might officially be dead weight. Its unbelievable how Running Backs in this league hit the wall and hit the wall hard. They go from absolute studs to wastes of lives without a mediocre average season in between. Crazy. I like what Todd Haley is doing in KC and was thrilled to see them strip Zorn of his dignity last week. Dwayne Bowe is a monster, Cassel is solid, and I wish some of these young guys would step up. I think I realized that Glenn Dorsey and Jamarcus Russel have switched teams and positions and that's why they are both doing so bad. They are both the same size so who knows if they have or not.

Conventional wisdom says lay the points, but I am rolling with the Chiefs this week and I like them in the upset bid. Two solid performances vs the Cowboys and Skins and i think this team is learning how to play football.

San Francisco 49ers +3 @ Houston Texans
Two very tough teams to figure out. Matt stump the Schaub has been lights out and is coming off a 4 td performance. Slaton is starting to be utilized and Andre Johnson is Andre Johnson. This team is always dangerous. San Francisco has kinda faded from their hot start, but are a solid football team. This week we will see Michael Crabtree, and we will see him start apparently. Lets see if this kid was worth the wait. Every indication he gave us in College says he will be, but we shall see. I roll Houston at home here...don't forget they are a couple boneheaded plays away form having 2 more wins.

Green Bay Packers -7@ Cleveland Browns
Interesting article on ESPN Page 2 on Browns fans. It really is a good article by a special contributor. The thing that resonated with me is that how is Brady Quinn not the starting QB for this team? They drafted a stud QB who is essentially a third year rookie, and decided after 3 games of playing against unreal defenses and with a terrible supporting cast that he is not the guy for the future? Listen, your clearly not making the playoffs this year, so find out what the heck you have in Brady Quinn, because Derek Anderson right now looks like a flash in the pan.

As for the game I have one name why I am all over GB. AHMAN GREEN. Love AHMAN and happy he is back in the NFL and with the pack. Green claims he had such a bad time in Houston because of family issues with his daughters and the death of his father. Not that I wish injury on anyone, but I would love to see AHMAN back as the featured RB. Now if we can only get Samkon Gado back...

Indianapolis Colts -13 @ St. Louis Rams
Marvin Harrison is obviously a stud receiver, but the job that manning is doing with Garcon and Collie have to take a bit away from his illustrate career. Or maybe its just the fact that he has faded into oblivion because no one wants to mention that he may have shot a guy outside of his car wash in Philly and since he was a quiet guy we all assumed he was good. Peyton has that championship swagger back and the colts welcome back Bob Sanders. Dangerous team and don't have the Titans lingering around to give them problems in the division. They could run away with this thing real early.

I have to mention that Steven Jackson has been an absolute beast this year. He is putting up 100 yard games and doing what he always does. Great RB and wants to stay with this team. Hope the poor guy can find paydirt this week. As for the game, a lot of points, but St. Louis is bad and the Colts can score...

NY Jets -7 @ Oakland Raiders
I am not going to get into how the Raiders beat Philly, because I have no answers. What I do have an answer for is the following question. Do you like the raiders? Why yes, they are gonna start rolling baby.

Count me on the Richard Seymour bandwagon. Seymour said the other day that this team is making the playoffs and told Antonio "hide the gun" Pierce that he better shut his mouth and worry about his own team getting rung up for 50 pts. Jamarcus Russel still stinks don't let his mediocre stats last week fool you as 80 yrds and a TD came on a huge Zach Miller score. I just like this Raiders team...this week at least. The defense isn't shabby and Mark Sanchez is a rookie QB with 10 college games to his name. Its going to get a lot worse before it gets better.
Raiders stick with em, Just win Baby!

Buffalo Bills +7 @ Carolina Panthers
Terrell Owens???? Steve Smith???? I really don't like the bills, though AVP is calling plays for the sideline, and Fitzpatrick might be an upgrade over Trent Edwards. Caroline really doesn't justify being favored by a touchdown over anyone. Though expect them to run all over the Swiss cheese defense. I still like Buffalo to keep it a close game, maybe even win and instill some perfect false hope into a few naive fans...

Atlanta Falcons +4 @ Dallas Cowboys
Don't care that the Cowboys are off a bye and Falcons are working off a short week. I just kinda like Atlanta here, they are better on offense, better on defense, and the overall better team. I ride ATL and Matty Ice after their impressive victory over the Bears monday night.

Chicago Bears +1 @ Cincinatti Bengals
Some unreal tweeting has been going on this past week between Cutler and Ocho Cinco. Cutler was given a 2 year 30 million dollar deal and Ocho Cinco was taking credit for it. He then was tweeting some hilarious statements such as...

"Chicago Amber Alert; bears secondary ----if found please make sure they show up on Sunday, I cant wait."

"This just in fresh of the wire, the Bears secondary is listed as doubtful for Sunday...damn now what do I do"

"I just got this from sportscenter now. Bears secondary placed on waivers for refusing to cover Ocho this Sunday"

"CNN reports a new strand of the flu has been discovered by the Bears trainer H1N85. The chicken flu."

"Breaking news on ESPN; The NBA replacement officials to replace Bears secondary after Ocho Cinco is done with them."

"News flash, a small balloon though to be carrying Bears secondary seen floating over Chicago. Witnesses claim this is no hoax."

Okay enough is enough. As for my prediction I like the Bears here and think Cutler has a field day break out game proving for at least one game why they paid him 30 Million.

New Orleans Saints -7 @ Miami Dolphins
Lets see how the Saints do against the Wildcat...or will it matter, can anyone stop this juggernaut. If they are dropping 50+ on a good Giants defense then Miami stands no chance right?

Arizona Cardinals +7 @ NY Giants.
Mulldog probably has some more insight on this, but I like the Gmen here after an embarrassing loss to come back strong and dominate. Though it is concerning that the first good opponent they truly have played they get smoke showed.

Eagles -7 @ Washington Redskins
This line can't be high enough for me to back off the Eagles here. Coming off a bad loss and pissed. Not to mention this skins team is in total disarray and Jim Zorn is a lame duck. Play calling has been taken over by Sherm Lewis who was last scene reading Bingo Numbers at retirement homes. Good Riddance.

Also I forgot to mention the Patriots game is in London I think...they are still doing that apparently....

Few Notes

The Phillies are back in the World Series. Jimmy Rollins is getting hot and the team looks dangerous. The bullpen issued might be resolved and the only area of concern is that Cole Hamels threw a clunker. He's been pitching a lot better than most people think but he really labored out there last night and couldn't even make it the full five to gut out a win. The Phils are really going to need Lee and Hamels to be at their best to take out the Yanks (or what would be a hot Angels team). With how well they are hitting right now they might just want to root for the Yankees and get this thing underway.

I see Terrelle Pryor's high school coach said Ohio St. needs to let him run more. Thank you. What in the world are the buckeyes doing? Pryor does look like a robot. Yeah, Ohio St. has a winning formula which is more of a pro style offense than most college teams...but you have a player who could be one of the best in the nation and he doesn't fit that system. QB's who can run and move around to buy time are king in college football. Loosen the reigns and let him win you games.

Very alarming news coming out of the SEC - They have suspended the entire officiating crew from the Florida-Arkansas game after a personal foul was called as Florida rallied late for the win, apparently there is no video evidence for this foul. This is not the first time this has happened with this crew either, apparently a very similar call was made during the LSU-Georgia game earlier this month.

The crew won't be back until mid-November and probably won't be doing any post-season games. Arkansas head coach Bobby Petrino handled this issue with much class and isn't making any excuses. He said their focus is on Ole Miss.

Billboard City

Do the Buffalo bills realize that your supposed to get talent to win championships. I am talking about monsters with freakish ability that stay in school for minimum amount of time and only pass classes because they are on the football team. A coach from Yale, a starting QB from Stanford, and a backup QB from Harvard. You can't write this stuff.



For the record, I called the loss to the browns and the win against the jets two weeks before either game was played to mulldog. It's classic Bills football. They are going 7-9 folks. They will find a way to keep it interesting for a couple more weeks. I just hope Fitzpatrick can win a few games so we don't have to see Captain Check down anymore and we can officially draft a new QB to add to the long list of failures.



Main point of this post is to just show you a picture of the billboard referenced in a previous story.

Fall League Softball

Last night a friend asked me to fill in for his Fall League softball team. The game would cut into the start of the Yanks/Angels game but I decided to play anyway. As I pulled up in my customary fashion (that is two minutes before game-time)...I walked over to be greeted by a number of former teammates from our legendary Kingston City League Arc Pitch Softball team - the Laidlaw Killer Bees.

Yes, the infamous group of young kids who pulled up on a yellow school-bus a half-hour before gametime one early Summer evening, with our player/coach stepping off the bus and announcing to a stunned audience and paused softball game "The Champs is here." he then pressed play on the boom-box he held over his right shoulder and Juelz Santana repeated the phrase as we filed off the bus and 10-run ruled the first 5 or so opponents we faced.

Anyway, as I stood around bs'ing while the other team was on the field warming up, the guy making the lineup told me to swing a bat I was leading off. So I grabbed a bat stepped up, swung at the first pitch, roasted the right fielder and trotted around the base-paths for an in-the-park home run.

Normally this is of no merit and it really isn't anyway, but you had to see the guy I hit it off of. First, the guy was elder middle-agred, balding and out-of-shape. In other words, the prototype franchise pitcher for any city league softball team. He had an impressive arsenal too: throwing the fake pitches, throwing from way behind the mound, spinning the ball every which way; he had a curveball and a screwball (legitimately curved as I found out in a later at-bat), a front-spinner and a back-spinner.

Of most interest however, occurred after two of our batters fouled out (league rules state that a foul ball with two strikes is a strikeout)...after each strikeout, this man turned his back to our bench which revealed his jersey "number" to be a backwards "K". His name? "You Got Cha'd" And after each foul out he pointed to it with the pride most exhibit after a long home-run.


Unfortunately for Mr. Cha'd I knocked him and his bullshit pitches around to the tune of a 6-6 night with a homer, triple, four singles and even drew a walk. 22-8 final, Who really got Cha'd?

CC is a bear. Why he pitched in the 8th inning up 7-1 is beyond me. Girardi said he would be available for 115 pitches if necessary...this was far from necessary though. Either way, A-Rod continued his miracle run. When will him or Ryan Howard not have a RBI in a game?

Last night, to me, was the best case to date for this team's invincibility. It was the key game in the series as I think in LA, the Angels have a big advantage in game 5 with Lackey facing Burnett. They had a pitcher going on 3 days rest. On top of that, the Angels fan-base (for all my hate of the stupid rally monkey, which is incredibly stupid) is one of the best in baseball. That stadium was absolutely electric from start to finish last night. With their team down 5-1, most stadiums get a little quiet even in the post-season, but that place was electric. The bottom of the 6th inning had the place abuzz, ready to explode at the first guy crossing the plate. CC let the first two batters on and I thought for sure the rally was coming. CC brilliantly escaped the jam with a double play ball and a pop-out.

I still say the Phillies are not getting enough attention. Maybe Hamels goes out there tonight and makes a statement. On the other hand, if Hamels goes out there and throws poorly (or perhaps if the bullpen blows one) then the Yankees suddenly become big favorites again..and I do think the Yanks/Angels series is headed to a game 6 at least, so I'm not completely counting the Angels out. With that lineup and two of the next three at home with Burnett/Pettitte/CC though, that is a tall task for the Angels, unlike what Boston did to them down 3-0 when they essentially ran out of pitching.

I pointed it out in the divisional series and now it is getting more and more attention - the umpiring in baseball is terrible. It is one thing to miss some ball/strike calls..that is essentially part of the game and an incredibly difficult task. Most of the blown calls there are simply from the guy just having a "bad" strike zone. But, this bad calls on the bases - completely unacceptable. And I'm not talking about the occasional bang-bang play that we re-watch in ultra-slow motion five times before figuring out. There have been numerous calls on the base-paths that were completely obvious to the naked eye in real time, on my 13" non-HD, magnavox, 1994 tv set. It's the playoffs gentlemen, just as we expect the players to up their play the umpires are expected to do the same. Make all of the easy calls and do a decent job on the tough ones. That's all we ask...and if you can't do that, I'm quite sure technology is more than ready to replace you..so step your game up right now.

Clueless Joe?

Joe Girardi has been making moves this entire playoff run that have made me scratch my head. To this point, every move he made turned to gold. He got bailed out by the A-Rod home run Saturday or he was staring at Freddy Guzman (Hairston would have pinch-hit so Hairston I guess) and Gardner as his last hopes vs Fuentes. Meanwhile Sciosca brilliantly had his regular lineup in with the only change being at catcher with the defensive stop Mathis in for Napoli and Matthews in for a slumping Juan Rivera (Matthews drew a big walk and scored a big run). On top of that his pitchers went 7/2/1/1/1.1....Girardi's pitchers? 6.1/.1/.1/.2/2.1/1.1/.1/1.1 KISS. On top of that Rivera has now pitched in every game, most of which over an inning (over two Saturday)...he is amazing and has yet to surrender a run. But if he comes in one of these games, isn't sharp and gets knocked around look no farther than the guy in the dugout flipping around a binder for meaningless small sample statistics like "oh man, Howie Kendrick is 1-2 off Robertson this year, I better go to the pen and use another arm" like he did last night. TURRRIBLE.

Great game in Philly last night though it effectively ended the series in all likelihood. The manager formerly known as clueless Joe had to watch as his flame-throwing closer surrendered an improbable game-winning double to Jimmy Rollins with two men on and two outs in the bottom of the ninth. I will say this much - if that gets Jimmy Rollins going, whichever AL team ends up winning better get a little scared. With so much attention on the AL games there isn't enough talk that A) Ryan Howard is putting together one of the all-time post-seasons and B) The Phillies are every bit as good as the Yankees when their bullpen is pitching well and their lineup is going. People forget that the Yankees are going to be hurt when they have to travel to a National League park. They lose the DH and they don't have a very deep team. This World Series is far from the forgone conclusion many believe it to be. A big thing for the Phillies will be to see how Cole Hamels throws tomorrow. He's been pitching pretty well but always seems to have a rough inning when he gives up a three-run homer or just sees things fall apart. If he re-gains form here, this team is murderous.

Shocking News!

Detroit Basketball will no longer be played @ the Palace. They have decided to uproot and play in Tulsa, Oklahoma....Kinda strange since Oklahoma City already has a team, but Detroit must really be hit hard financially to move a proud franchise....

Wait? What? Ohhhh Nevermind its the WNBA Detroit Shock, not Pistons. Read the weekend Roundup below for real news stories.