Baseball is OVER!!

Thank goodness, the baseball season has finally come to an end.

They're finally done dragging the season out. Yeah, I'm a hockey fan, and the NHL takes heat for the 8 month season, but there's actual action in a hockey game...9 months of it isn't enough. But, this isn't about hockey, I do enough of that here, this is about baseball and all its annoyances...

First of all, the bane of all my Tribe fan buddies' existence is the off game in the middle of the three game home stand. Don't these guys spend all summer playing three and four game series? Don't they string three series together at times, playing 9 or 10 straight days? You get a "travel day" to get alllll the way from Boston to Cleveland, and then you need an off day in Cleveland after game 4? Why? Sight seeing? The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is nice, but I'm sure Schilling can bring the family back in January to see it. (Because what's more beautiful than Cleveland in January? Well, other than Buffalo...) The NL was done by then, there was no baseball on, just the Sawx and Tribe lounging around in Cleveland in October waiting on the first lake effect snow.

Secondly, why do playoff games take 4 and a half hours? Extra innings puts you into the wee hours of the morning. During this year's playoffs I managed to watch a whole football game (Ohio State @ Purdue) during roughly 8 innings of a baseball game, and I got an entire Jackets game in before the 7th inning even started in one of the ALCS games. Honestly, Fox, do you need to start these games at 8 and end them at 1:26 in the morning? I understand that the American League is involved in at least half the playoff games, so I expect them to take a while, but even AL fans are complaining about how long these games are taking.

And finally, Sawx fan should be thrilled that they just won the Series in less than 85 or so years from the previous one. Do they celebrate? No, they bitch and moan because A-Rod decided to use that day to say he wouldn't be a Yankee next year. So what? You guys hate the Yankees anyway, right? You have the ultimate "SCOREBOARD!" on them, why whine about one of their players announcing they'd leave? Suck it up a little Sox fan...sheesh. You'd think the whole A-Rod thing was like the press would act if Joe Torre turned down a contract with the Yankees. (What? He did? How'd I miss that??)

So, now we're on to the once daily gold glove, Cy Young winner announcements to keep baseball in the news until Christmas or so...or long since forgotten by any self-respecting football fan. I'm sure some member of the Yankees will take a dump in the next 24 hours and the press will be all over it for us. Hell, somebody might actually spot the National League, but nobody in the press would notice because the Yankee turd would probably be a world record of some kind.

Ahhh, baseball season is over...pitchers and catchers report in only 48 hours or so...

Stupid TV...

As blogged last week, I'm supposed to be in Lexington with my brother watching the LSU-Kentucky football game. (Currently LSU is up 10 playing under cloudless skies.) I'm not in Lexington because CBS decided this should be a 3:30 game rather than the 7PM start it was originally scheduled to be. When did they make this decision? Last Sunday.

Since Kevin coaches JV football, we weren't going to make it from Waynesfield, OH to Lexington and get parked and get in the stadium in 3 hours. One traffic delay would mean $200+ in tickets would have gotten us maybe a half of football...and no pre-game beers. So, thank you CBS, for trashing a pretty good plan the Wingfield boys had in place. (Kev did get the tickets sold, and we lost $30 a piece on them. Could have been worse.)

Stupid TV gripe part two...WOW taking a dump on hockey fans...

I've managed the first two weeks of the NHL season without Center Ice...barely managed. Why? WOW currently isn't carrying it, and indications are they aren't going to carry it at all this year. What that means here is we're likely about to become DirecTV customers again. So, after three years of WOW cable, all three where they offered the Center Ice package, it's time to leave. In this instance, choice is nice. (And, no, Time-Warner isn't an option...same crap as WOW, different name. Plus, DirecTV is offering 35 or so HD channels at the moment...about 34 more than TW or WOW have....)

In the meantime, though, no Hockey Night In Canada...

In other news, Iowa won a football game today. I might mention that in my weekly recap tomorrow.

The Cardinal unrolls a Trojan

The debate over whether USC or LSU should be #1 ended yesterday as Jim Harbaugh, everybody's favorite Michigan grad, and his Stanford Cardinal pulled off the big upset of USC. If not for Appalachian St. beating Harbaugh's alma mater, it may have been the biggest upset of the year.

So, while USC was losing at home, Florida was going down in Death Valley. Imagine that, LSU winning a night game at home...whodda thunk it? Even in guiding his team to its second loss in two weeks, Tim Tebow is rumored to have passed a loaf on the sidelines and daisies immediately sprang forth and children were heard to be signing.

In the grand ol' Big 10(11), the suckitude continued...this time it was Wisconsin dropping, and at the hands of upstart Illinois. The Illini find themselves one 6 point loss to Mizzou from being tied with Ohio State for the outright lead. Other semi-surprises were Indiana winning again, and Northwestern taking down MSU in OT. Non-surprises of the weekend...Ohio State winning at Purdue and Iowa losing. Again.

So, the joy of college football rolls on. We sit with three undefeated teams at the top, and a bunch of one-loss teams behind them. Can Ohio State survive trips to State Penn and Ann Arbor? Will Cal survive another showdown with USC? Will LSU survive the always tough, and ridiculously deep SEC? (Kev and I will be in Lexington next week...will they bite it there at the hands of UK?) One thing's for sure, there's enough drama left in this season to give the BCS boys fits again.

Good.