EL BARRIO, EL FALLS – Happy Monday! It has been an exhausting week because my kids had colds that caused them to miss some days of daycare. Since we now live in The Time of COVID, I had to get them tested before our pediatrician would approve their return. That process took 2 days because my wife switched jobs, so we had to pick out a new health plan and go through the state. That process has me convinced that we – America – is/are far from a developed nation when compared to Europe. That’s my soapbox observation of the day, now let’s get to LeBron & His Lakers, MLB Playoffs & NFL Highlights.
Congrats to Lebron & His Lakers
LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA COVID Shortened Season Trophy. This makes the third time LeBron has been MVP and this is the third different team he’s led to a title (4 titles altogether). He’s more than halfway to Michael Jordan’s total and he’s got 5 years or so to possibly collect another 3 to beat MJ. LeBron’s team is still young and developing and can definitely get better as he gets older, so he won’t have to carry as much of the weight. The only fly in the ointment is that he is in the Western conference and in the west is stacked. The current incarnation of the West brings back memories of the Eastern Conference in the late 80s and 90s with Boston at #1 followed by Detroit, Chicago and New York. Philly was good, too and you also had Dominique and the Hawks. There were at least one if not two Hall of Famers on each of those teams. But it’s great for LeBron that he won number four. He is a great public figure and activist and over the years he’s he’s won me over, so congratulations to King James and his Lakers.
MLB Playoffs
I have to acknowledge one piece of post-season baseball news: Congrats to the Tampa Bay Rays for knocking the New York Yankees out. I’m taking a sip of whiskey just for that, as you all know how much I hate the Yankees. The respective championship series look to be good match-ups. In the AL you have the good-guy Rays facing the cheatin’ Stros, who are in their 4th straight ALCS since changing from the National League. This year they won’t (we think) have sign-stealing, so we will see how far they go. The Rays have the edge with big arms and even bigger bats. They are up 1-0 after holding on last night… Meanwhile, the National league has Atlanta versus Los Angeles. That seems to be another match-up where both teams have solid arms, which is what you need in October. I think the Dodgers have some bigger bats, so that’s who I’m leaning towards to win this.
NFL Highlights
I saved the NFL for the last because there’s just so much news and there’s no way I can touch on all 16 games. We had a bunch (read 4) games re-scheduled due to Covid, including the Buffalo Bills playing the Tennessee Titans moved to Tuesday. Congrats to Houston for winning their first game after firing their head coach midweek. After going 0-5, the Falcons followed the Texans, firing head coach Dan Quinn and the Hollywood villain-vs-Jason Statham guy that is the GM who hired him. What’s really crazy is that the J-E-T-S haven’t fired their coach and it would make sense to everybody in the league if they did… In other news, Alex Smith made a triumphant return in a loss for the Redskins Washington Football Team after breaking his leg two years ago. Smith may be needed as a mentor of sorts for Dak Prescott of the Cowboys, as Prescott broke his ankle (?) vs the Giants. Prescott’s injury was so bad that he had surgery within hours of being carted off the field. Of course he will be out the rest of the season and now his signing of a one-year contract seems to have been a bad idea. Replacing Prescott (which sounds like a Hallmark movie) on the field for Dallas was the Red Rifle, Andy Dalton, who led Dallas to a game-winning field that should stir the warring factions on our MTM Staff. The win makes the Cowboys 2-3 and also the division leaders, which makes me shake my head.
Anyway, thanks for reading and come back tomorrow for Boisterous Ben Whitney, who may give you a far better football recap.
