Baseball Playoffs

The Cinderella story dances on, as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays finished off the Chicago White Sox 6-2, and won their first playoff series EVER!  This run is completely unbelievable.  For those of you wondering how a young expansion team like the Devil Rays can be playing so well after being so terrible for almost a decade… here’s an answer.  Essentially, a new team like Tampa Bay has very little money to make offers to the stars of the league.  They have a lot of trouble bringing in established talent.  However, they get great draft picks.  And over a ten year span, all those #1 draft picks start to make a pretty nice team.  This year… they finally jelled, yielding one of the most exciting sports stories of the year. 

Concurrently, the Boston Red Sox put the Los Angeles Angels to rest behind a brilliant performance by the Red Sox new ace pitcher, Jon Lester.  He held the Angels to four hits in 7 innings, but didn’t get the win because the Angels scored twice in the 8th.  However, the game ended with a clutch hit by the rookie, Jed Lowrie, which brought in a run, and gave the Red Sox the victory. 

Now, we have an incredible American League showdown between the Devil Rays (the upstart magical team), and the Red Sox (the defending world champions).  Yes, you can say it, it’s the little guy vs. the big guy, and it’s gonna be wild.

Football

And over in the NFL, the Minnesota Vikings held off a pesky New Orleans Saints team.  Saints all-star Running Back (and boyfriend of Kim Kardashian of the “I don’t know why She’s famous fame”), Reggie Bush, had 2 punt returns for Touchdowns, but their running game couldn’t do much else.  Minnesota won the game with a game-closing 30-yard field goal by Ryan Longwell.  Minnesota 30, New Orleans 27. 

Ultimate Fighting Championship

Finally, an item of note from the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship).  Kimbo Slice, the enigmatic powerhouse who terrorized and destroyed his opponents for the larger part of this year, and graced the cover of magazines with the billing ‘UNSTOPPABLE’ — well — his 15 minutes of fame ended in exactly 14 seconds.  Seth Petruzelli, a last minute replacement to fight Kimbo Slice in the MAIN EVENT, absolutely destroyed him in just a meager 14 seconds.  The ref had to stop the fight, and the myth that is Kimbo Slice (a guy who started out as a literal street fighter) was over.  But… it was a great story while it lasted.