Friday, October 25, 2013

Sports this 'n' that

Two games into the World Series, and it has all the feel of a preseason game with all the errors. Each side has given away a game with defensive lapses, and as the scene shifts to St. Louis on Saturday night, Boston will lose a little on defense as DH David Ortiz moves to first base, which either sends Mike Napoli to the bench or back to his old position as catcher, where he played for the Angels & Rangers before coming to the Red Sox. If Napoli does catch, that allows the Sox to retain their strongest offensive players, though I highly doubt it.

Realistically, the momentum has already shifted to the Cardinals, who'd be heavily favored against a team of Duck Dynasty wannabes. It's either that, or the Red Sox players are growing beards just for the sake of posing for a box of Smith Brothers cough drops.

By the way, after winning a bet by default from Oakland's Josh Reddick earlier this year, don't you think the WWE's Daniel Bryan would want to lay a wager with any of the Red Sox? Actually, the Boston players might be waiting for a group deal with Gillette........!

The struggles of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, one of two winless teams in the NFL as of now, recall the team's formative years in 1976-77, when it took them nearly 2 full seasons before they finally won a game. The fans have turned on 2nd year coach Greg Schiano, who might be better off waiting for his former employers at Rutgers to ask him back if in fact he does get the axe before the season ends. Schiano is finding out, as South Carolina's Steve Spurrier did before him, that success at the college level doesn't translate to the pro game that easily.

Closer to home, high school football playoffs begin tonight. Earlier this week, I wrote about a Texas parent that cried foul over perceived bullying after a game that saw Aledo blow out Western Hills, 91-0. Makes the games in New York seem like small potatoes by comparison. Last week, Christian Brothers Academy made mincemeat out of LaSalle in their annual game to the tune of 70-6. Ouch! Troy High, not to be outdone, has blown out their last two opponents, Averill Park & Mohanasen, by an aggregate score of 104-20. Tonight, Troy plays Gloversville in a rematch of last year's quarterfinals, which was another beatdown, as the Flying Horses romped, 56-14. This could be over early, and fans could be headed for the exits by halftime if this is a rerun.

Brett Favre is content coaching high school football in Mississippi and making commercials for Wrangler, which is grooming New Orleans' Drew Brees as an eventual successor to Favre as Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s running buddy in those ads. So why did the St. Louis Rams waste their time asking Favre to come out of retirement to replace Sam Bradford, gone for the season with a torn ACL, as their starting quarterback, after picking up Brady Quinn, whom the Jets cut earlier this week without playing a single down. Anything to get attention, I suppose, but no NFL owner is willing to pick up the phone and talk to Tim Tebow about filling a vacancy. Tebow won't give up his dream of being a starting QB, but he's got a better chance of landing a talk show on Trinity Broadcasting than fulfilling his fondest wish. Just sayin'.


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