MLB
Conventional wisdom had the Detroit Tigers as the Red Wings…an unstoppable force that had mashed its way through the giants of New York and Oakland. Conventional wisdom had the American League as the bully that kicked sand in the face of the National League (not a single win in the World Series in over two years). Conventional Wisdom had the Cardinals limping into the World Series with 83 wins and a long seven game series. How’d things work out pundits? The one piece of conventional wisdom everyone over looked was experience. The Cardinals players had been in competitive playoff series. The Cardinals had the bright lights of the World Series only two years before. The young Detroit players seemed to shrink in the limelight. Eight errors really were the difference between a Cardinals victory and a competitive series. Whenever the Cards needed a play, it was Detroit that would gift wrap, hand deliver a play in the form a sailing throw to first or third. Sorry if your more accurate throwing the ball throwing to the plate than you are to first base you don’t deserve to win. The only place were conventional wisdoms on the importance of experience fell short was for Adam Wainwright. Wainwright handled the big situations with bigger pitches and his performance frankly defied any conventional wisdom, prediction or guesstimate.
College Football
A USC victory in the PAC-10 is pretty standard wisdom. USC went through West Coast teams like Matt Leinart went through girlfriends (pregnancies not withstanding). However the USC loss at lowest of the OSU teams (Beavers) has opened up the BCS championship game. Short of a collapse on par with lets say Rome circa 400, the winner of Ohio State and the team up North (currently 1 and 2 in the BCS by a huge margin) is going to the Championship game. The Big East has the remaining three undefeated teams (from major conferences) with Rutgers, Louisville and West Virginia slated to play a round robin tournament alongside the original Mustache (Dave Wannstedt’s University of Pittsburgh). If Louisville or West Virginia makes it through untouched (Rutgers is too far back) then they will play in the championship game too. Assuming both fall that leaves a bunch of other teams. Given how USC has played getting through Oregon, Cal, Notre Dame and UCLA without another loss seems like a tough bid which would eliminate Peter Carroll. That Fat Fuck (TFF) known as Charlie Weis can complain all he wants but he’s not leap frogging into the championship game. That leaves the loser of the Big 10 battle and the SEC champion as the other champion contender. Florida has the easiest road to the SEC Championship while Auburn requires an Arkansas loss (with Arkansas at South Carolina, Tennessee and LSU remaining) to even get the SEC Championship. So in conclusion TFF and Boise State (the blue ball bandits on the blue turf) will hold two of the 10 BCS game slots but the rest are very much up in the air and well don’t even try to with BCS championship game.
NBA
Of all the conventional wisdom’s I’ve mentioned the one that probably is true is that the NBA runs on star power. David Stern warms his dark heart with the fires of Lebron, Wade, Dirk Kobes, etc megawattage. The refs give stars special protection and in turn the stars are the ones that win playoff series. A dark thought tickles the back of my mind, though. Basketball players, no matter how in shape, are not built for year round competition and nearly all of the best and brightest stars (or at least most likeable) played in the World Basketball Championships over the summer. What if those stars go down injured or at minimum don’t have the seasons that their respective teams need? Any prediction about the NBA season goes out the window if Dirk and Wade go down injured. I’m pretty sure David Stern is praying to Odin (I’m pretty sure he follows Norse mythology) that that scenario doesn’t come to pass.
NFL
On a random note, I have to tip my sombrero to Chad Johnson. While TO’s antics are tiresome and blatantly selfish, Chad entertains as few NFL players do. Johnson, repeatedly referred to himself as “Ocho-Cinco” during the week in honor of the NFL’s Spainish month (for our non-Spanish speaking readers literally 8-5 or his jersey number). During pre-game Johnson had “Ocho-Cinco” on his jersey before Carson Palmer ripped off the back to reveal his true identity. While I’m sure the NFL will step in to keep the fans from entertained in the meantime, keep up the work, Chad.
No comments:
Post a Comment