NEW YORK, NY – I know Tuesday was offering up a cornucopia (too soon for Thanksgiving imagery?) of sports stuff, with four MLB Playoffs Divisional Round games and the beginning of the NHL season, but I’m really in no mood to write all that much today. I’ve been at this a long time and there are other things currently happening in my life that need my attention. To that end, I may need to take a mini-break soon. Stay tuned. As for today, I won’t leave you with nothing. Here’s a few meager sports scraps for those of you who might be desperately hungry. Eat up!
Worst Good Team/Best Bad Team. The NFL season is only five weeks old, but I’m ready to declare my first place 4-1 Minnesota Vikings as the Worst “Good” Team in the league. Sure, they started the year good enough, beating Green Bay in Minnesota, but then they got walloped in Philly, barely (and dramatically) beat the Lions at home in Week 3, double-doinked by a Saints team in London that was so depleted they were thisclose to suiting up Wes Chandler and Gill Fenerty, and just squeaked by an awful Bears team at home again. Hell, now that the Packers lost the the Giants, I don’t think Minnesota has a single quality win in those 4 Ws. On the other side of the coin, the snakebit 1-4 Vegas Raiders could just as easily be 3-2 and have played mostly decent teams (though the loss to Denver was awful). Their point differential is only -5. That’s some tough luck right there. One other team worth mentioning, the defending SB Champ Rams look God awful.
Who to Root for in Baseball Right Now. You don’t need me to tell you where your fan loyalties should lie the rest of this MLB post-season, but I’m going to anyway. (You Yankees fans can excuse yourselves now. I’m not going to try to reason with you garbage-throwing louts.) Anyway, the picture in the National League is fairly simple. The Dodgers are playing the cheaters, whose manager is Bob Melvin, who I hate. So, Go Dodgers! In the series featuring the Braves and Phillies, you’re basically rooting for a natural disaster or blimp accident to wipe the whole mess out and from our memories. In the AL, you root for the unlikely scenario where the Guardians might beat the Yankees. You do this because you feel sorry for the Guardians having the worst nickname in baseball and they haven’t won a World Series since Harry Truman was in the White House. Out West, it’s all Mariners all the time. This team is young, fun, and they never got caught cheating like the Astros. Oh, and Seattle hasn’t been to the playoffs in 21 years and haven’t won bubkes. In fact, forget all the rest of the teams and pull for the Mariners. Among other things, they used to have the best bullpen car. Ahoy! Plenty o’ Room on the S.S. Bandwagon!
That’s all for today… and maybe longer than that. Come back tomorrow for Buddy Diaz.
