WWE

With "real" sports on the back burner last night, I decided to watch WWE Smackdown.

It's amazing how real life news gets in the way of fake sports.

WWE has contracted with Saudi Arabia to present as many as 20 major wrestling events there over the next 10 years. All well and good. But when the crown prince has a dissident reporter executed by government goons, the world notices.

And now WWE has a major PPV scheduled there for Friday, and some of the bigger name wrestlers (John Cena and Daniel Byran) are choosing not to participate.

That gave me a great main event on Smackdown last night. A.J. Styles versus Daniel Bryan.

A different wrestler, Samoa Joe, is going to Saudi Arabia instead, taking Bryan's place in the co-main event there.

Politics is everywhere, nowadays. You can't escape the political ads. It's amazing how something scripted can't escape the real world either.

sigh

I can't even get fake sports without real world implications...

NBA

The Wolves BEAT LeBron and the Lakers last night.

Let me repeat that. The Wolves won. Against LeBron. And the Lakers.

This will probably be the highlight of the season for Wolves fans.

Enjoy it.


In other NBA news, the Warriors cruised past LeBron's old team, the Cavs. In that game, Klay "Trey" Thompson set an NBA record with 14-3 pointers. We live in athletic times.

My Patriots? After a slow start last night, they went on to beat Buffalo 25-6.

A very good night of sports.

Disappointing

Bears won.

The Pack, the Lions, and the Vikings lost.

The Red Sox won.

At least Thielen had another 100 yard receiving day. But his fumble was basically a 14-point turnaround. The difference in the game.

sigh

Red Sox Rebound Big Late

This Series is probably over...

Walk-Off Drama Classic

Now, that's a World Series game. Great pitching. 2-2 tie going into the bottom of the EIGHTEENTH inning.

BOOM!

Walk-off home run.

The problem?

Nearly everyone was in bed by then.

I know I was.

Wolves Offered 4 1st Round Picks for Butler

Houston wants him.

Randy Savage

I came across this photo the other day. When Randy was a minor league baseball player. Oh, yeah!!

Twins hiring 37 Year-Old Manager

Rocco Baldelli, who spent he last 4 years as a Tampa Bay coach, will be the youngest manager in baseball.

Personally, I like hiring someone younger. Old guys are usually stuck in old ways. How do I know this? I'm an old guy.

Boston Up 2 Games to None

As ESPN pointed out this morning, the Dodgers are wining on the strength of their free-agent spending.

That's how baseball works, now.

That's how most sports work, now.

sigh

World Series Game 1

I'm not used to this much hitting. Aces should pitch shutouts.

Sports

I was switching between an average Monday Night football game, (seriously, the Giants are featured on Monday night with a record of 1-6?) the Wolves at home (they won!) and Monday Night Raw ( the biggest shock of the night, Roman Reigns, their Universal Champion had to step down because his cancer is back.)

World Series tonight. I'm at least planning on watching some of it. Go Dodgers!

Vikings

The Vikings find themselves alone in first place after going 3-0-1 in their last 4 games.

The Saints are next, so that undefeated streak may very well end next week.

Yesterday's pluses? Thielen, Murray, and the defense.

Minuses? Cousins is still throwing a lot of balls batted down at the line. I've never seen anybody do that before. It's going to cause some major problems before long.

For now, it's nice seeing the Vikes at the top of the heap, seven games in. But everybody is "thisclose" to being in first place now. No time for a let down.

My Patriots and my Chiefs won, too, so it was a good day of football.

Saturday Night Sports

The Dodgers are going to the Series.

Both teams used something like 80 pitchers total in the seven games. I'm thinking we're closer than ever to teams planning on using 4 or 5 pitchers every game instead of just a rotation of starters. I've been advocating this for so long, and it seems like baseball has finally "discovered" that equipping a team with relief specialists is a lot easier than finding 4 or 5 elite starters and their immense salaries.

The Timberwolves scored 136 points last night and still lost.

sigh

Number 2, Ohio State, got blown out by unranked Purdue last night 49-20. And the Gophers looked pathetic against Nebraska yesterday afternoon.

Lots to watch. Nothing was good.

Except my Dodgers!

Go Dozier!!

Vikes/Jets at noon. A church business meeting will prevent me from seeing most of it. But the fellowship meal before the meeting will more than make up for it.

Go Vikes! Just don't embarrass yourselves!!!

Butler Booed, Leads Wolves to Win

Typical Minnesota crowd. They hate Butler at the beginning, but his great play gets them cheering shortly after the game starts.

If I were Butler, I would not want to play for Minnesota, either.

As a fan, I'd rather have Butler play for us than against us.

Wolves are 1-1 on the season. If history is any indication, it won't get much better.

It never does.

Boston Goes to World Series

The first 5 innings last night were good, solid pitching.

Boston took control after that. All I could think of that the two starters in last night's game were from the Tigers 4 years ago, and what Detroit fans must be thinking.

Dodgers Win

Go Dozier.

And fan interference took away a two-run homer in Houston. Maybe.

Baseball is back, baby!

Dozier!

Brian Dozier deserves a world title.

He drove in the first run of the game last night. Over 5 hours later, the Dodgers scored their second run of the evening and won the game.

I now have a rooting interest.

Go Dodgers!

My Packers!

I went to bed last night with two minutes left, the Pack at midfield trailing by 7. I figured they'd win in in OT.

I was wrong. They didn't even NEED OT!

The standings are tightening up...

Vikings!

Okay, beating the Cardinals may not be a big deal at this point, BUT they did win, and they won fairly easily.

Highlights?

Theilen. 6 straight games to start the season with at least 100 yards. Only one player in history has done more back in 1961. He had 7.

Theilen. His touchdown dance was a hoot. Catch it if you can.

Theilen. 58 catches through the first 6 games. NO ONE has ever had more.

Murray. 155 yards rushing. The best Vikings rushing day of the season.

The bad? As much as I enjoy Cousins, he sure throws a lot of balls into the hands of defensive linemen. I lost count how many were batted down yesterday at the line. 7 or 8 at least. PLUS and awful interception, and another fumble.

The Vikings defense was so good it didn't matter, but against a good team? It would have been a different story.

Speaking of good teams. The game last night between the Patriots and Chiefs was incredible. A 43-40 score only added. My Patriots won. But I'm probably going to be calling them my Chiefs before long. Patrick Mahomes ( the son of former Twins pitcher Pat Mahomes) is an outstanding rookie quarterback. He's going to be fun to watch in the future.

The worst? It looks like the Vikings lost their star rookie cornerback, Mike Hughes, to a torn ACL. A simple play and out for the season.

sigh

Astros Beat Red Sox

I don't hate the Red Sox, but they get to the playoffs every year like the Yankees, so I'm rooting for the Astros at this point.

It's something.

Vikes face the 1-4 Cardinals today. I don't expect anything, but I hope the Vikes play well enough to win. They have not nurtured any confidence in their fans so far this season. Maybe today they can start.

Go Vikes!

I didn't expect the Gophers to beat Ohio State yesterday. And they didn't, BUT they kept it close for 3 quarters and for a 3-3 team that never seems to get any better, it's not exactly like they disappointed me. It's not exactly like I want to watch them much either. I'm sick of waiting for them to get better.

Baseball

It's kind of weird, now that Yankees are eliminated, I've lost all interest in the baseball playoffs. I guess my dislike of the Yankees was way more important than having a rooting interest in any other team.

By the next round, something is bound to catch my attention.

Today? The Gophers have a prime slot against Ohio State. I'll try to watch the ending of that one if it's close.

Giants Lose

It was tough choosing who I wanted to lose most last night. I despise both the Eagles AND the Giants.

When it was all over the worst team lost, and I have no problem with that. I don't know why Eli is still playing. He should have retired last year.

Sano

I was waiting to see if anything else was reported about Miquel Sano before writing this.

4 days ago I read a story about how Sano was arrested for an incident down in the Domicican where he had a dispute with an officer, and by the time it was over the officer had two broken bones in his leg.

The whole story? Sano had borrowed a friend's truck to  go out to a nightclub with his wife. When he was ready to leave a policeman noticed that Sano's truck didn't have any license plates. Sano, when questioned didn't have his driver's license with him, either.

After talking to the officer, Sano got in his truck, with his wife to leave. He accidentally backed over the guy who had not yet left or moved his motorcycle. It was a dark parking lot. He stayed and assisted the officer until medical help could arrive.

One day later he was cleared of all charges. There was no fight.

Somewhere in all of this, the truth lies.

Sano ended up paying all the medical expenses of the officer.

We probably won't hear any more about this.

Yankees Eliminated!!!

That's all the good sports news I needed to start the day!

Yankees Clobbered 16-1!

Boston leads the series, now, 2 games to 1.

Go Sox!

I watched some of the Monday night football game last night because I wanted to see Drew Brees set the all-time passing yardage record. Of course, every time, from now on, when you watch him complete a pass, you will see him set the all-time passing record. So maybe it wasn't that big a deal...

Vikings Win!

Looks like I'll have to follow them a little longer now.

The Eagles are definitely NOT the same team that won the Super Bowl last year.

The Vikings looked good in the first half and then looked really bad in the  second. It's a good thing Philly didn't know how to work it all to their advantage either.

Green Bay should have won yesterday but THEIR kicker missed 4 field goals AND an extra point. He's been great for them for over a decade, but sometimes it's best to say good-bye before it gets worse.

The Vikings kicker missed two field goals, too.

I'm puzzled as to why kickers are becoming so inconsistent. It's just weird.

At least football will be fun to watch for another week or two...

NFL

I'm not exactly rooting for the Vikings to LOSE today, but if they lose a few more times in the next couple of weeks it will be very "freeing" for me. Once the Twins started losing this season, it became easy to stop watching them.

The same thing is already happening for me with the Vikings who I don't expect will win today against the Super Bowl champs who clubbed them in last year's NFC championship game.

A 1-3-1 record, five games into the season, will make it nearly impossible to get back into the the playoff picture, especially with the Bears playing so well AND the Packers also ahead of us.

Sure, I'll watch until it gets painful. But I will no longer be sitting around watching the pain continue. There's plenty of stuff more enjoyable than watching your team lose.

That really is freeing.

Go Vikings! But if you lose, it will be me leaving!

UFC Has WWE Break Out

Last night Conor McGregor was choked out by undefeated champion Khabib Nurmagomedov.

THEN it got good. Khabib jumped over the cage to attack another fighter from McGregor's stable while two of Khabib's stable entered the cage and started a beatdown on the already fallen McGregor.

That's what WWE would do. I have not seen everything that occurred but Vince McMahon couldn't have written any better. The lines are starting to blur between sports and entertainment.

And the UFC has never been popular. Dana White says he may strip Khabib of the title because of the incident.

That's just what Vince McMahon would say.

This is starting to get good...

Go UFC!!!

Yankees Lose!

Is there any sweeter news during playoff season?

Sports!

You know, just when I thought I was growing tired of sports, Thursday happened.

The Brewers/ Rockies game was fantastic last night, especially when I saw the Brewers implement my "perfect pitching plan". 4 relievers pitching a couple of innings each to keep the Rockies hitters off balance for 8 innings and just ONE hit.

The commentators actually said how great the idea was! Oakland had tried the same thing against the Yankees the day before, but when you have a starting line-up that averages 30 home runs per position player for the year, it really doesn't matter who you pitch or how you pitch them.

THIS could be the start of the trend that I have been pushing for over a decade. Starters aren't nearly as important as great relievers, short stints, and reasonable rests between appearances.

Go BASEBALL!!!

Then later last night, Brady got his 500th TD pass and the Patriots started to look once more like the team that everyone is afraid to face. My Patriots were good last night.

So was the game.

Yankees Win One Game Playoff

Of course they did.

sigh

Boston versus New York next.

This rivalry is renewed almost every year.

Money talks

Almost every year.

Baseball

Molitor is gone.

That move was not totally unexpected. The new front office boys had the largest payroll costs in Twins history this season, and they expected to compete.

They didn't. So the easiest thing is to blame the manager. Me? Those awful free-agent signings and Santana's finger caused more problems than anything Molitor did or did not do.

I don't care as much as usual, though. My guess is that by the beginning of next season, we won't even recognize the Twins.

This organization is going to get an overhaul, from the minors on up.

And THAT is not necessarily a good thing.

AS to the playoffs-

WOW! Last night's National League Wild Card game was amazing. 13 innings and FIVE hours of pitchers keeping batters off the bases.

I feel sorry for the Cubs. No baseball season should end with a single playoff game loss like that. Baseball IS a series sport.

Here's hoping they figure out how to make every playoff at least series best of 5 again.

Those poor Cub fans.

KC Beats Denver Late

Case Keenum was good for Denver last night.

Mahomes was better for KC, including a left-handed pass for a 1st down as pressure was coming.

THAT was a very good Monday Night game.

There were TWO sudden death playoff games in baseball yesterday. I didn't feel like watching either. Baseball just doesn't hold the appeal for me that it used to.

Two more one and done Wild Card games are next. THEN the postseason can really start.

Twins Win 6th Straight!!

That was a nice way to end the season. Joe Mauer getting to catch one pitch in the ninth was a super nice gesture as well, and then leaving the game with a standing ovation after that one pitch, was a very classy move by both teams.

I've been extremely vocal about my dislike of Joe Mauer's salary the last several years, but I've aways liked Joe Mauer the ball player. He was paid too much for what he gave back to the Twins. But he was a very good ball player. His defense at first was under-rated.

IF he decides to play a couple of more seasons, no one is going to pay him anywhere near what he made the last few years on his current contract.

He did lead all of baseball this year with a .410 batting average with players in scoring position. That tells me he IS still Mr. Clutch. But his home run power vanished along with his knee and leg strength many moons ago.

I actually hope he decides to leave the game at this point. He's got nothing else to prove.

And I'm looking forward to seeing what the Twins do with the freed up money from his contract...