BASEBALL

The NY Mets are heading to a National League Championship Series showdown with the Chicago Cubs after their exciting game 5 victory Thursday night over the Los Angeles Dodgers. Second baseman Daniel Murphy homered in the 6th inning to give the Mets a 3-2 lead they never lost. The best of 7 series against the Cubs begins on Saturday night in New York. This will be an exciting series!

FOOTBALL

In a huge win over UCLA, Stanford’s wide receiver Francis Owusu had arguably had one of the most incredible catches in college (or pro) football history. He grabbed the ball behind the defender’s  back to score a TD in the end-zone. It’s worth watching the video just to see the catch! Stanford’s QB Christian McCaffrey propelled the team to a big 56-35 win with his record setting 4 TD’s and 243 yards rushing.

In the NFL’s Thursday night game, the New Orleans Saints pulled it together and handed the Atlanta Falcons their first loss of the season. The Saints needed a big win and in unsurprisingly they pulled it off at home. The team has won 19 of their last 21 primetime games in the Superdome. Saints 31, Falcons 21.

BASEBALL

There were a couple of exciting and deciding Game 5’s.  The Texas Rangers went back to Toronto to take on the Blue Jays in front of a raucous crowd.  The Rangers had a 2-0 lead, but then couldn’t win at home to clinch the series.  The Rangers put their new star pitcher Cole Hamels on the mound for game 5 in hopes of pulling out the win.  Hamels pitched well, and the Rangers had a 3-1 lead going into the 7th, but that’s when the Blue Jays offense got hot thanks to Jose Bautista’s 3-run homer.  The Blue Jays got the win and are heading to the ALCS.  Toronto 6, Texas 3.

The next game featured the Houston Astros heading to Kansas City to take on the Royals.  Houston pulled out to an early lead, but the Royals are one of the best teams in the league, and were not going to be ousted from the playoffs on their home field. Their strong offense was capped off when Kendrys Morales blasted a 3-run home run. The Royals will now take on the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALCS.   Kansas City 7, Houston 2.

BASKETBALL

Former Los Angles Laker Lamar Odom was found in a near death condition in a Vegas brothel.  Employees at the brothel reported he had been using cocaine. He had to be airlifted to a hospital, and is reportedly hanging on for his life.  His estranged wife, Kloe Kardashian is making the medical decisions for him. His former teammate and friend, Kobe Bryant, immediately left a Lakers exhibition game in Vegas to be with his old friend in the hospital.

BASEBALL

The Chicago Cubs had a chance to clinch a series at home, something that hasn’t happened in over 100 years at Wrigley Field.  They were beating the Cardinals, but when the Cardinals came back to tie in the 6th inning, Cubs fans instantly felt the “curse” was real.  But this year is different, as the Cubs took the lead, and were able to hold on for the win.  The Cubs advance to the NLCS… incredible!   Chicago Cubs 6, St. Louis 4.

So who will the Cubs play?  The New York Mets have been dominating the Los Angeles Dodgers but the Dodgers turned to their ace Clayton Kershaw in Game 4 who pitched a solid game to send the series to a game 5 in LA.   LA Dodgers 3, NY Mets 1.

FOOTBALL

One of the greatest coaches ever in college football is calling it quits. South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier abruptly resigned, effective immediately.  Spurrier said he felt he was becoming a recruiting liability to the organization.  He said it’s hard to tell a recruit that he’s going to still be the coach in 5 or 10 years, and felt that was time to call it a day.  To be clear, however, Spurrier said he was “resigning”, not retiring.  He still loves coaching, and said he may still coach High School football for fun.

FOOTBALL

In the Monday Night Football matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the San Diego Chargers, the game was pretty unexciting in the first half, but in the second half, the teams traded touchdowns. The Steelers had a choice at the end of the game at the 1-yard line — kick a field goal to tie the game and send it to overtime or put their trust in the hands of star running back .  They trusted Bell, lined him up at quarterback, and Bell ran for the game winning touchdown.  Pittsburgh 24, San Diego 20.

BASEBALL

The Houston Astros thought they had it all locked up against the Kansas City Royals, as they had a 4 run lead headed into the 8th inning.  The governor of Texas even sent a tweet congratulating Houston on winning the series and going to the ALCS.  He, um, spoke to soon, as the Royals staged an amazing late game comeback to not only tie the game, but take a commanding lead.  The teams will now play the series deciding Game 5 in Kansas City.   Kansas City 9, Houston 6.

In Texas, we witnessed a similar scenario where the Texas Rangers thought they were going  to the ALCS but they still had to beat a juggernaut Toronto Blue Jays team that had severely under-performed this post-season.  The Blue Jays, however, came to play and crushed the Rangers.  One announcer said the Blue Jays were like a super expensive shiny sports car that is just sitting in the garage, and are just now being exposed.  These guys are good, but still have their work cut out for them if they want to beat the Rangers.  Toronto 8, Texas 4.

BASEBALL

The National League Division Series is tied with 1 game a piece for for the NY Mets and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Saturday night’s matchup was not without controversy, however. Dodgers’ second baseman, Chase Utley illegally slid into Mets’ shortstop Ruben Tejada and broke his right leg. The umpires ruled the slide legal but after review, MLB Execs came down with a two playoff game suspension. Utley will appeal the ruling and it remains to be seen if he’ll be able to play during the appeal process. Game 3 is Monday night at Citi Field.

FOOTBALL

It was a wild weekend in the NFL

In Cincinnati, the undefeated Bengals took on the Seattle Seahawks. Seattle has struggled to find their rhythm this season, and the Bengals haven’t had a true test to see how good their offense actually is.  Seattle pulled out to a big lead, which would normally mark the end of the Bengals, but this year’s Bengals, under the direction of quarterback Andy Dalton, have a different look.  The Bengals clawed back into the game, and scored a field goal to win in overtime.  Bengals remain undefeated.  Cincinnati 27, Seattle 24.

In Atlanta, the Falcons were hoping to stay undefeated at home as they took on an enigmatic Washington Redskins team.  Atlanta struggled out of the gate, and their superstar juggernaut WR Julio Jones couldn’t get anything going.  Washington came charging back, with Redskins’ quarterback Kirk Cousins orchestrating a 4th quarter drive to go into overtime.  In OT, however, Cousins faltered and threw a ‘Pick 6’ that gave the Falcons the win.  Atlanta 25, Washington 19.

The New England Patriots came to Dallas and destroyed the Cowboys.  The Cowboys were hoping they could get by with Tony Romo and Dez Bryant out, but they are losing badly.  They need their starters back ASAP!  Brandon Weeden has been under center for the Cowboys, but it’s likely they will make a switch next week to Matt Cassel.   New England 30, Dallas 6.

Finally, at night in New York, the Giants hosted the San Francisco 49ers.  The Niners unexpectedly played well and looked like they were going to win, but late in the 4th quarter, Eli Manning drove the Giants downfield, hit tight end Larry Donnell for an amazing touchdown pass and won the game.   New York Giants 30, San Francisco 27.

BASEBALL

The Houston Astros were coming off a big wild card win over the New York Yankees and they brought that momentum into their first game against the Kansas City Royals on Thursday. The Astros now have a 1-0 lead in the series.  Johnny Cueto will take the mound for the Royals in game 2 Friday afternoon. He was acquired in late July for just this kind of pressure game. Expect an exciting game 2. Houston 5, Kansas City 2.
Elsewhere in the baseball playoffs, Toronto fans had high hopes going into the post-season, but on Thursday they took on the visiting Texas Rangers who looked primed for the post season.  Yovani Gallardo gave a solid pitching performance for the Rangers, and Texas now leads 1-0 in the 5 game series.  The Blue Jays better hope their bats show up for Game 2.  Texas 5, Toronto 3.

FOOTBALL

In the NFL, it was Thursday Night Football between the Indianapolis Colts and the Houston Texans.  Just before the game, the Colts announced they would be without Andrew Luck for the second straight week, and would have to turn to 40-year old Matt Hasselbeck for the road game in Houston.  The Texans, however, had to jockey between two of their quarterbacks and seemed incapable of doing anything special. Hasselbeck, on the other hand, had a very nice game throwing for two touchdowns and leading the Colts to victory.  The Colts are now 2-0 with Hasselbeck under center.  Indianapolis 27, Houston 20.

BASEBALL

In the National League wild card game, The Chicago Cubs defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-0.  Jake Arrieta is the first pitcher since 1945 to pitch a no-hitter for the Cubs in postseason.  The Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals will meet in a best-of-five series beginning Friday night in St. Louis.

FOOTBALL

The Dallas Cowboys’ Greg Hardy’s suspension is over and will be playing and likely tackling quarterbacks on Sunday. Hardy was suspended 4 games for domestic violence but charges were dropped in February when his accuser accepted a settlement and left town. The issue now is that Hardy is not expressing any remorse and has made flippant comments about how attractive Tom Brady’s wife is and how his suspension was“the most awesome period of my life, man. I’m a Dallas Cowboy. Dream come true.” Many are disappointed in Hardy’s character and his attitude.

BASEBALL

The American League Wild Card match-up between the Houston Astros and the New York Yankees took place Tuesday night.  The winner of the game would take on the Kansas City Royals in a 5-game series.  The Astros looked sharp, and thanks to a stellar pitching job from their ace Dallas Keuchel, they cruised to an easy victory against the Yankees on the road. The Astros haven’t been to the World Series in a decade so the fans were excited to get to the next hurdle.  Houston 3, NY Yankees 0.

Elsewhere in baseball, Yankees ace pitcher CC Sabathia had to check into rehab for alcohol abuse.  He called his manager and said “I need help”.  Many saw the warning signs about Sabathia’s alcohol abuse in Baltimore last week when the Orioles/Yankees game was rained out.  Sabathia was stumbling around and seen offering a small cup with brown liquid to a teammate saying “Take a sip”.

OTHER

The big story in the sports world is the controversy surrounding the Daily Fantasy Sports betting.  An employee for Draft Kings won $350,000 on Fan Duel.  Until now, employees for these companies were permitted to play Daily Fantasy.  But, since fantasy sports are legal, this felt like a form of “Insider Trading”, in which the Draft Kings’ employee was privy to insider statistical information (e.g. the ownership of certain players in tournaments that the casual fan wouldn’t know about), and thus had a big advantage over the regular players.  There was no proof that this employee had access to confidential information, but it’s not good news for an industry that already has a less than stellar reputation.

FOOTBALL

The end of the Monday Night Football matchup between the Detroit Lions and the Seattle Seahawks did not disappoint.   This game was pretty uneventful until the 4th quarter. The Lions were in a position to win when QB Matthew Stafford threw the ball to his favorite target, WR Calvin Johnson. Johnson was diving into the end-zone for what looked like a touchdown, but at the 1-yard line, the Seahawks’ safety Kam Chancellor knocked the ball out of Johnson’s hands, and the play was ruled a touchback.  Unfortunately for the Lions, the NFL admitted after the game that the ball was illegally batted out of the end-zone so the Lions should have had the ball back on the one yard line.   The Seahawks escaped with the win, and the Lions went home with a disappointing record of 0-4.  Seattle 13, Detroit 10.

Elsewhere in the NFL, just a day after the Miami Dolphins lost to the New York Jets in London, the Miami brass fired head coach Joe Philbin.  The Dolphins had very high expectations coming into this season.  They thought they were going to have a fast-paced, explosive offense under Ryan Tannehill.  At 1-3, their offense looks lackluster and the team appears dysfunctional. Over the weekend, Philbin apparently told the practice squad to go easy on Tannehill so as not to affect his confidence and Tannehill reportedly derided the squad for not making as much money as him by saying, “Enjoy your practice squad paycheck, enjoy your practice squad trophy.” Clearly the team needs a change of attitude and leadership.

BASEBALL

The Washington Nationals fired their manager Matt Williams.  Just like the Dolphins, the Nationals were supposed to dominate this season.  They paid over the top for a number star pitchers and hitters but supposedly there was an ugly chemistry in the Nationals’ clubhouse.  The chaos was apparent when slugger Bryce Harper recently fought in the dugout with his teammate Jonathan Papelbon.

Also, in baseball, check out the first wild card game Tuesday night between the Houston Astros and the New York Yankees.   Winner moves on, loser goes home.  It’s great post-season baseball drama.

FOOTBALL

In Washington, the Redskins took on the Philadelphia Eagles.  Chip Kelly’s Eagles offense needed to finally show off their “explosive offense” if they wanted to be taken seriously this season.  The Redskins’ defense came to play, however, and the Eagles offense (even with some nice plays down the stretch) struggled again. The Redskins held on for the win.   Washington 23, Philadelphia 20.

In Chicago, everyone had ruled out the Bears this season. The Bears have even publicly stated they are putting some of their offensive stars on the trade block, including Matt Forte.  They were likely going to have to endure another week of Jimmy Clausen as their QB, but their starting QB Jay Cutler was ready to play at game time.  It was a close game against the Oakland Raiders, but a last second field goal by Robbie Gould gave the Bears the win.   Chicago 22, Oakland 20.

The Arizona Cardinals were looking to dominate this weekend after they crushed the 49ers last weekend, but the St Louis Rams came to PLAY.  The Rams’ Todd Gurley did not disappoint, running all over the supposed “incredible Cardinals defense”.  The Rams grabbed a road win against the Cardinals.  St. Louis 24, Arizona 22.

In San Francisco, the 49ers hosted the red hot and undefeated Green Bay Packers.  The Niners were coming off a horrendous loss last week and were looking to rebound.  Aaron Rodgers played brilliantly for the Packers (again), and Colin Kaepernick was less than impressive for the Niners.  There was even one play where the Packers’ defense stopped Kaepernick and the linebacker Clay Mathews taunted him by saying, “You ain’t no Russell Wilson, bro” (referring to the skills of the Seattle Seahawks quarterback).   Green Bay 17, San Francisco 3.