23rd Edition - 10/6/06

• MLB Playoffs

Three close, well-pitched ball games yesterday. Quite surprising considering most of the pitchers involved were over 40-years-old.

Tigers 4, Yankees 3 (Series Tied 1-1)
Johnny Damon hit a three-run homer, but the Tigers chipped away.

Cardinals 2, Padres 0 (Cards lead 2-0)
Have the Cardinals forgotten they stunk down the stretch? What is their problem?

My Mets
Mets 4, Dodgers 1 (Mets lead 2-0)
Tom Glavine pitched six scoreless innings. Billy Wagner got his second save, and Jose Reyes drove in two RBI. The Mets are in control. At least half the teams I jumped on the bandwagon of, are doing fine (Twins being the other).
Yesterday's name of the game: Glavine, he might not have gone the 8 innings I promised, but he didn't give up a run and proved to be an oldie, but goodie.

My Twins
At 3:00 central it's the Twins vs. A's (A's lead 2-0). Radke vs. Haren. Either the Twins find a way to win and begin an amazing comeback, or the A's start getting dressed for the AL Championships.
The Name of the Game: Torii Hunter shakes off the diving catch, which led to an inside the park home run.

• The Picks

I'm back baby. I went a combined 5-1 last weekend. Before this, I had never had the chance to roll in money. Actually, it's not as cracked up as I thought it would be. Plus, I still can't find $20.
j NCAA: (Season 7-4-1)
Iowa -11 over Purdue
Pitt -7 over Syracuse
Nebraska -6.5 over Iowa State

j NFL: 2-1 (Season 8-3-1)
Titans +19 over Colts
Redskins +4.5 over Giants
Rams -3 over Packers

• The Movie

The Departed

Plot: Based on the Hong Kong film "Infernal Affairs," "The Departed" gets a South Boston makeover. The Massachusetts State Police are waging a war against crime lord Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) from the inside. Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) goes undercover to try and gain Costello's trust, while Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) has worked his way up the Special Investigations Unit and is assigned to take down Costello's crew. What no one knows is that Sullivan grew up with Costello in South Boston.

Bottom Line: Hype. The big movies in 2006 have been surrounded by hype with very few payoffs. Superman was back and boring. Jack Sparrow took us on a pointless roller coaster ride, and no one bothered to see the all-star cast in "All the King's Men."

So, although I am a huge Martin Scorsese fan and Nicholson, DiCaprio, Damon, Mark Wahlberg and Alec Baldwin were involved, I didn't want to get too excited about "The Departed."

Well, go ahead, get excited. The story of good guys being bad, bad guys being good and the layers in between have this film immediately becoming a classic.

Whether it is a random at a bar getting a glass smashed in his face, a gun going off, or Costigan slowly losing his grip while undercover--every moment is intense. And beyond the intensity is a great touch of humor with everyone trying on their Boston accents and Baldwin coming away as the funny guy in the group. And of course, Nicholson shows off as the mob boss you don't mess with, plus bad hair and worse outfits.

The one knock on "The Departed" is that half the music is great. The other half ("Gimmie Shelter" from the Rolling Stones starts us off) feels like Scorsese just lifted songs from his previous films.

Hype, we finally have a movie in 2006 that has lived up to it.
Grade: A

22nd Edition - 10/5/06

• My Twins: Dead Twins Walking

A's 5, Twins 2 (A's lead 2-0)
I'm sure there are a million stats going against the Twins and for the A's, but the thing about a baseball game is, there really isn't a reason why one team can't win three in a row. It's unlikely, but baseball has a lot more ups and downs than any other sport. I haven't given up on the Twins yet, and the crowd was still in the game with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. Torii Hunter's misplayed dive, which led to an inside the park home run by Mark Kotsay will be the play everyone remembers, but just before that there was a double play that didn't get turned.
My name of the game yesterday: Morneau, 2-4 with a HR (I'm getting better at this)
The Twins play again on Friday, so it is highly unlikely that they will lose another game before then. Crafty verteran Brad Radke will be pitching on Friday.

• My Mets: Meet my Mets greet my Mets

Dodgers 5, Mets 6 (Mets lead 1-0)
Jeff Kent and J.D. Drew were both called out at home on the same play in the 2nd inning. That's the sort of thing that leads to a loss. The Mets beat the Dodgers 6-5, with Jeff Maine starting for the Mets and giving up 1 ER in 4 1/3 innings.

I even got to speak to a couple of Mets fan at the game yesterday. One of them missed the whole play, the other missed the second out because he was busy cheering from the first. I know the sample size is only two here, but that's a pretty poor showing from Mets fans.

If you want a running journal of the Mets - Dodgers game. Here is it, from ESPN's The Sports Guy.

My name of the game yesterday: Cliff Floyd, 1-3 with a HR (Yes, I'm brilliant)

They play again today with crafty veteran (all veterans are crafty) Tom Glavine going for the Mets.
My name of the game: Glavine, too much has been made about the Mets not having pitching, Glavine goes into the 8th today and the Mets get a second win.

• MLB Playoffs : The Others

The Yankees and Tigers were rained out. The play today, along with the Cardinals vs. Padres.

• NHL

It began. I think. Though I'm not totally sure.

• Stuff

Oh, what's this? A pedestal? All right, maybe I'll stand on it for a litte while... I think the number of times I have now fast-forwarded a DVD and expected the "jump back" feature from Tivo to kick in, is now up to double digits. So the question is, why don't DVD players adopt this feature? The two-second "jump back" is exactly what I want, especially when I am watching a bad movie such as "The Jacket" and I'm just waiting to see if Keira Knightley has a sex scene (the answer is yes). Now, I understand if you are watching "Usual Suspects" and you accidentally see Kevin Spacey lose his limp, but if you were fast-forwarding that part, you couldn't have cared that much anyway, and if I just destroyed "Usual Suspects" for you, fine go ahead and hate me, I already hated you ... Anyway, DVD player makers, give me the option at least of turning on the "jump back." That is all.

21st Edition - 10/4/06

• Last Wednesday I decided every Wednesday would be "The Wednesday Fluff," focusing on life outside of sports. Well, I'm not sticking to my guns already. Fluff will happen when and where it can. No day can officially be fluff when ...

• My Twins (Hurting)

A's 3, Twins 2 (A's lead series 1-0)
Barry Zito (a free agent after this season who would look great in a Cubs uniform) outpitched Johan Santana mainly because of Frank Thomas. A year ago Thomas was washed up, and the Sox happily dumped him, now he is a Hall of Famers who might lead his team to the promised land. Don't you love when sports analogies get religious? Punto was my name of the game (new phrase I am trying out that means pick to click). He went 0-3.
And now Bonser (a rookie) is pitching against Loaiza (another ex-White Sox) today at noon.
Name of the Game: Morneau, time for him to show the season stats weren't a fluke.

• My Mets (Hurting even more)

No Pedro, and now El Duque (Orlando Hernandez) felt discomfort in his leg during a jog, but at this stage, he's going to pitch. The pitching staff just doesn't look good, but the great thing about baseball is that the Mets could put up 8 runs a game and it just wouldn't matter who pitches. The Mets play at 3:00 central this afternoon.
Name of the Game: Cliff Floyd, he's hurting with a sore Achilles, but it won't matter when he hits a home run.

• MLB (The others)

Cardinals 5, Padres 1 (Cards lead 1-0): Pujols homers, Carpenter pitches a gem and the Cards forget they have sucked recently.
Yankees 8, Tigers 4 (Yanks lead 1-0): Jeter, Abreu and Giambi all have great days.

• My Cubs (My real team)

Dusty Baker is gone. Joe Girardi is available. I am nervous. It makes too much sense. And the Cubs aren't good at making sense. Before Baker the Cubs never had a real manager (except for Don Zimmer) in my life. Though after being at Wrigley with my girlfriend (now fiancee) for Game 6 of the 2003 NL Championships, I realized Baker is not a good in-game manager. He lost control of his ball club after the Bartman thing, and putting in Farnsworth instead of a rested Zambrano, or a change of pace lefty (Prior had started) are still decisions that bug the hell out of me today.

• NFL (But, really let's just talk about the Bears)

There is a new number one NFL team in the power rankings on ESPN. Click here to read. The short version is, everyone is starting to realize the Bears are good.

• Stuff

Did anyone bother watching "Friday Night Lights?" I have it on Tivo, haven't watched yet.

Also - I was talking to friends about the best movies of the year for me. Here's the list.

The quick list (in no order)
Little Miss Sunshine
The Heart of the Game
Mission Impossible 3
Thank you for Smoking
Beerfest
The Inside Man
Jackass Number Two
Brick

It's a short list, and it's not official. Am I forgetting anything?

20th Edition - 10/3/06

• Fantasy (Everybody's doing it)

I hesitate to talk about Fantasy Sports. Supposedly it is the biggest crime of the new century. But last night, in my league, "Shane Falco" led "Bo Knows" 110-109.58 (both had more points than anyone else in our league). Falco is in Italy for 10 days with his wife, but still managing his team. He started Brett Favre, interceptions get negative points, QB yards aren't worth much ... final score Falco (108.2) - Bo Knows (109.58). Hurts.

• Steriods (Everybody's probably doing this too)

A federal prosecutor said there were "significant inacurracies" in the report the Los Angeles Times made, sighting Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, Miguel Tejada and others to steriod use. So who knows what that means at this point. Here's the thing, WE'LL NEVER KNOW. We won't know officially who did steriods, HGH or anything else. I don't know if the public would even care unless Bonds was going after the all-time home run record. Take that away coupled with the fact that most reporters hates Bonds because he hates them, and it doesn't become front page.

IF baseball didn't have the home run race between McQwire and Sosa, it would have taken a lot longer for baseball to come back. IF someone (reporter, commissioner, manager, player, fans) would have demanded a steriod investigation back then, this wouldn't be a problem. NO ONE wanted to stop the home runs.

We need to move on, the only way that happens is to decide it was the Steriod Era, allow all the stats, and cheer like hell that someone like Pujols or Howard destroy all home run records.

I'm sick of players making comments such as, "I have never tested positive." Then reporters decide that means he found a way to pass all his tests.

• NFL (Hopefully not everybody is going to do this)

Albert Haynesworth is suspended for five games. Click here for the full story and video. He stomped on the head of Andre Groude, who's helmet had already been knocked off. Five games is a ton, and he deserved it. Keep in mind, for something that happened on the field, this is the longest suspension EVER. The pervious long was when a Green Bay Packer threw Jim McMahon to the ground in 1986. He got two games.

• My Twins (moving on to happy thoughts)

Home field advantage and at least two pitching performances by Johan Santana. That should be enough to get past the A's. I don't care for the best-of-five series, it doesn't give an accuarate test of who's the best team ... But in this case, I'll take it.

By the way, it's the afternoon game, so fire up the espn.com at 12:09 central, and enjoy the rest of your work day.

Player of the Game (Besides Santana): Punto.

• My Mets (a little nervous, we'll talk tomorrow)

• Stuff (Saturday Night Live)

I forgot to talk about SNL on Monday (a new weekly feature, since I am the only one who watches it religiously). Dane Cook isn't all that funny. He's lost something for me. Brian Williams had a nice cameo during the news, but Seth Myers looked nervous and talked WAY too fast during his first time doing "Weekend Update" with Amy Poehler. "Weekend Update" also has a new set, which looks like my elementary school's wallpaper, high class all the way.
Funny SNL's for 2006/07: 0-1 (Dane Cook)

19th Edition - 10/2/06

• NFL

The Bears are back! The Bears are back! The Bears are back! They tossed the Seahawks aside last night 37-6. I haven't been this excited about a Bears team since I was convinced we would win the Super Bowl in 1986, 1988, 1991 ... and then started to realize it just wouldn't be happening. Hope is coming back to Chicago ... yes, with hope resting on the shoulders of Rex Grossman, I'm still a little nervous.

The Best
QB
Drew Brees: 349 yards, 1TD
Mark Brunell: 329 yards, 3TD, 1INT
RB
LaMont Jordan: 128 yards, 1TD
Laurence Maroney: 125 yards, 2TD
WR
Roy Williams: 139 yards
Santana Moss: 138 yards, 3TD

The Unbeaten (no losses): Colts, Ravens, Bears
The Beaten (no wins): Lions, Buccanears, Titans, Raiders

• Golf (Tiger continues to go streaking)

Even though Tiger Woods has said his streak of consecutive wins is over (because of a match play tournament), the PGA says otherwise. Woods won the AmEx tournament by eight shots to win his sixth tournament in a row. The record is 11, held by Byron Nelson who recently died.

• College Football (Nice Try)

The Hawkeyes kept it close. Thanks to Mr. Cannon for the text messages. I wasn't able to watch the Iowa vs. Ohio State game on Saturday night because I was at a wedding. Not a big deal since Ohio State controlled almost every aspect of the game. Now I am just hoping we only have one more loss (at Michigan).

• MLB (the Playoffs are here ... Finally)

Bold team has home field advantage (more tomorrow)
AL:
Oakland vs. Minnesota
Detroit vs. New York
NL:
Los Angeles vs. New York
St. Louis vs. San Diego

• The Picks (revisited)

j NCAA: 3-0 (Season 7-4-1)
billy z NCAA: 2-1 (Season 7-3-2)

j NFL: 2-1 (Season 8-3-1)
mike d NFL: 1-2 (Season 7-5)