Welcome back college football fans!
 
Rules: I pick Top 25 teams playing each other.  It's not fair to pick a ranked team over a "cupcake".  I challenge myself in picking games between ranked powers.  I also pick some local favorites, i.e. Syracuse (mine), Rutgers (Kathleen's team), etc.  (Steve doesn't follow college football.)

I don't know what to make of Rutgers other than the fact that they are a disappointing 1-5 going into today's game at home.  Rutgers played in a bowl game last season so I'm not sure what is going on.

Top 25 Match ups:

#1 Texas holds off a tough Missouri team.

#4 Oklahoma bounces back from their disappointing loss to Texas last week and beats #16 Kansas at home.

#10 Georgia beats #22 Vanderbilt at home. 

#12 Ohio State goes into Lansing and beats #20 Michigan State.

Local Teams:
Syracuse loses at #19 South Florida.

Connecticut wins at Rutgers.  By recent reputation, you would think that Rutgers would be 5-1 and Connecticut would be 1-5.  Coach Schiano is a very good coach who recruits well.  Beware of a Rutgers upset.


Posted by The Tank back in the college football groove.

This is Steve checking in from Novi Sad, Serbia in complete disbelief. First off, Steve is in denial about the Phillies going to the World Series. Having been in Europe since October 3rd, I missed most of the playoffs and it seems for good reason. A Phillies-Rays World Series, come on? How boring. In addition how much more would hurt a Mets fan, Jimmy Rollins holding the MVP trophy or Scott Kazmir? No, I was rooting for LA vs Boston to rub it into the Yankees face that 1. Boston is still the better team and 2. the Yanks should never have fired Joe Torre. Plus the added bonus of watching Boston freak over Manny playing against them. With the Red Sox were down 3 games to 1, a Rays-Phillies World Series looked rock solid.

But something happened on the way to the Rays-Phillies World Series. Boston woke up and forced a game 6.Sounds familiar? Seven outs away from the World Series the Rays have one of the worst post season chokes of all time and give up a 7 run lead.

Can the young Rays team recover from such a crushing loss? Probably not. Watch for a Red Sox-Phillies World Series. Nightmare for the Tank who claims to be both a Mets and Yankees fan. :)

Posted by Steve in Novi Sad, Serbia.

The Phillies finished off the Dodgers last night in Mannywood, I mean Hollywood.  Manny Ramirez wasted no time and filed for free agency today.  Wow!  Manny joked that he deserves more money because gas costs more.  Manny hasn't stopped being Manny.

Fox's worst nightmare will come true if the Rays win tonight or over the weekend.  Fox wanted Manny going against the Boston.  Boston is down 3-1 but if anyone can come back, the Red Sox unfortunately have and can. 

However, props to Editor in Chief and Perma Guest Outlaw Jack for the bringing up the possible omen of the fire at the famous Citgo sign that towers over the Green Monster. 

Go Rays!

Posted by a concerned Tank in NY.

I'm not a Dodgers fan.  But, Kurt Gibson's home run against the As won Game 1 of the 1988 World Series exactly 20 years ago today.  The magic of baseball is that it can change with the swing of a bat. 

The late great Jack Buck's call of the home run "I don't believe what I just saw!" was equal to the feat itself.  Gibson limped around the bases and pumped his arm.  The As were favorites to win the World Series but Gibson's home run propelled the Dodgers to victory.

I was a freshman in college when it happened.  Wow!  Time flies!

Posted by The Tank in Nostagliaville.

The Giants went into last night's game in Cleveland on top of the world as the undefeated World Champions at 4-0.  Cleveland was coming off a bye week at 1-3.  Their excellent coach, Romeo Crennel, job was on the line. 

Translation: The Browns were due for a win and the Giants were due for a loss, especially since it was the first Monday night game in Cleveland since 1995.

The Browns won 35-14.  A key play was made by a friend of the blog, Braylon Edwards, who I met at last year's NFL Draft.  Braylon caught an 11 yard touchdown pass to put the Browns up 27-14 at the beginning of the fourth quarter.  Braylon and I are pictured below.

Yes, Tennessee is undefeated at 5-0.  But, New England has lost Tom Brady for the season and San Diego and Indianapolis are not as good as I and others thought.  At 2-3, the Browns' season is not lost and have a chance to make the playoffs.  The Giants better hope that Browns stay hot and do a favor of beating the Redskins on Sunday.  In sports, anything can happen. 

Posted by The Tank in NY.

The Tampa Rays routed the Red Sox 9-1 this afternoon at Fenway Park this afternoon.  This is huge because the Red Sox are tough at home AND the Rays took a 2 games to 1 lead over the Red Sox. 

As I write this post, the Dodgers have 5-3 lead on the Phillies.  The Phillies have a 2 games to 1 lead over the Dodgers.  Last night's game featured a benches clearing incident which resulted in fines for seven players and coaches.  Manny was held back from a fight.  Nothing unifies a team like a fight and Manny may have increased his value in Mannywood, I mean Hollywood. 

Posted by The Tank in NY.

It hasn't been easy but I am getting back into football.  I watched parts of some good college games yesterday including #5 Texas beat #1 Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry, North Carolina beating Notre Dame in a barn burner, and then Florida beat up on defending national champion LSU in the night cap.

I watched the Jets beat the winless Bengals today which was a solid win.  But what really got me going was Matt Schaub running into the end zone to beat the Dolphins with about 3 seconds in regulation.  A quarterback draw to win the game.  Yeah, that's football!  Though I kind of felt bad for a dejected Chad Pennington on the sideline but not too bad because the Dolphins are an arch-rival and my brother-in-law's team. 

I needed that to get out of my two week plus baseball funk. 

Posted by an energized Tank in NY.

Due a sharp hamstring pain last Saturday morning, I passed on running Greta Gallop's, the half marathon honoring nine time NYC Marathon Women's Champion and cancer survivor Greta Waitz.  It pained me because of the hamstring pain itself.  More importantly, I am running for cancer research at Memorial Sloan-Kettering in honor of Greta.  (We are pictured below after last year's Greta's Gallop.) 

However, I erred on the sign of caution and signed up for this morning's 20 mile Running Center training run.  I started running (not racing) at a good pace, touch wood.  After we finished the first loop of the reservoir, one of my fellow runners shouts "Howard Stern!"  I thought she was listening to a recording on her iPod of previous Howard show.  Nope, it was the real guy running with a blue running head band.

Howard was unfortunately running in the other direction.  We missed an opportunity to talk and see if I could guest host for him. 

Congratulations to Howard for his recent wedding with Beth Ostrovsky!  Good luck to Beth who will be joining me (touch wood) and about 38,000+ of our closest running friends in the NYC Marathon three weeks from tomorrow!

You know I always want to meet celebrities like Howard Stern.  However, I'm focused on the run against cancer.  Please sponsor me below at this fundraising permalink OR copy and paste the link below into a browser:

https://fredsteam.mskcc.org/fundraising/Controller?action=userHome&user_id=35640&event_id=113

Many thanks in advance for your support in these difficult economic times for a great cause.

Posted by a grateful Tank running against cancer in Central Park.

I'm not quoting Alaska Governor Sarah Palin in her recent Vice Presidential debate against Senator Joe Biden.  But, the old adage is directed at former Yankee and current Dodger manager Joe Torre.

The Dodgers have fallen behind the Phillies 2-0 in their best of seven NLCS.  To their credit, the Phillies defended home field advantage.  The Dodgers need to go home and defend their turf.  We'll see what happens. 

Posted by a somewhat apathetic Tank in NY.  I'm still not yet totally ready for football, hockey, and basketball.

I joined Aussie Rod and hundreds of my closest fellow Aussie citizens for the Aussie Rules Grand Final, AKA the Australian Football Super Bowl.  (BTW, I hold honorary Aussie, Canadian, Dominican, Kiwi, and Puerto Rican citizenships.)  We gathered at BowlMor Lanes in the Village on Friday night on late Friday, September 26, 2008.  JH unfortunately can't make it but is with us in spirit. 

I love baseball, football (soccer), basketball, hockey, and other sports but Aussie Rules is my favorite sport.  It's my favorite because it basically combines the best of "hot potato" and "kill the guy with the ball".  You have to bounce the ball and then pass it to another guy within three steps.  Seriously, it combines the athleticism of football (soccer) with the team work of rugby without the injuries caused by American football's metal helmets. 

Aussie Rules is a fast moving game with 4 quarters of 20 minutes of moving time.  It's a high scoring game where six points are awarded for a goal (like a touchdown in American football), one point for a behind (like an extra point in American football), and you add them together.  Therefore, if you see 13 + 15 = 93 points, it is 78 points for the goals (13 times 6) + 15 (15 one points for behinds) = 93 points.  You'll often see points in the high double digits or low triple digits.  

Back to tonight's action.  Geelong was the defending champion after winning their first title in 44 years last year.  Hawthorne was the second seeded team.  The game was close in the first half but Hawthorne pulled away in the second half.

To get in the spirit of the game, I impersonated one of the umpires who signals a goal.  (I just came from the Mets loss at Shea to the Marlins so I wasn't in the best of moods.)
 

Hawthorne won the game 115 - 89.  Congratulations to Hawthorne for winning the Grand Final! 



Mega thanks to Aussie Rod for the invitation! 

To learn more about the world's best sport, Aussie Rules Football, please check out the NY Magpies Australian Football Club website for rules, schedules, and other fun information. 

Posted by The Tank reporting live from BowlMor Lanes in the Village.