It's That Time of Year Again

If the sports year was like a Catholic calendar, then September would be Advent and October would be Lent. This is one of my favorite parts of the year as the Baseball season heats up and the Football season gets started. After a quiet baseball summer, things are getting interesting. The Astros had an awful year until August (including some time in last place in the Central), but have suddenly caught FIRE in the past 5 weeks. They have one of the best records in the majors since August 1, and are actually clicking on all cylinders. Unfortunately, so have the Cubs (1st place in the division) and the Brewers (1st place in the wild card standings). As of tonight, the Astros stand 7 games back of the wild card with 20 games to go. So a playoff trip is very unlikely, but possible (which is much better than I would have predicted a month ago). If anything, we're just a game back of the 3rd place Cardinals, and it's always nice to finish ahead of them. Hopefully, we can finish strong, continue to rebuild in the off-season, get some more help in starting pitching and middle relievers, pick up another bat, and hopefully come back strong in '09. Until then, it's always fun to watch your favorite team play well, especially when Roy Oswalt pitches a 1 hitter like he did tonight. Way to go Roy!



Meanwhile, the Red Sox are finally getting healthy again with Lowell and Beckett back in the lineups (and making very impressive debuts). As of tonight, the Sox are in 1st place in the wild card standings and just 2.5 games behind the Rays in the East. With Beckett, Lester, Dice-K and a solid Wakefield in a playoff rotation, the Sox could make another run at the World Series. It should be an exciting October!








Also, another very exciting thing is happening in baseball right now............The Yankees ARE (probably) NOT GOING TO MAKE THE PLAYOFFS!!!!! For the first time in over 12 years, it appears the Yankees will not be playing in October. After firing one of baseball's best managers, spending $200 million on payroll, and putting a bunch of prissy celebrities together and calling it a "team," the Yankees now stand 8 games behind the wild-card. I'm so thrilled to not have to see a bunch of conceited New Yorkers gloat about their evil empire. Oh, by the way, Steinbrenner's, have fun this off-season moving away from baseball history and moving into a charmless and dull new stadium that's easier for New Jersey bandwagon fans to get to. I hate the Yankees, and it is so fun to kick them while they're down for a change.

In other news......do you hear that?.......there's a sound in downtown Nashville.......it's getting louder.........there's a mass of people on the walking bridge over the Cumberland River........what's that they're chanting?.......

LET'S GO TITANS!!! LET'S GO TITANS!!!! That's right! It's football time again! And I couldn't be more excited for kick-off tomorrow. The Titans begin their season at noon against their rival Jaguars. The Titans will be lead by Albert Haynesworth, Kyle Vanden-Bosch and a crushing defense. Meanwhile, Vince Young and the offense will seek to improve with the additions of Algie Crumpler at Tight End and blazing speedster Chris Johnson at running back. I still wish the Titans had done more to improve the receiver position, but I think Vince Young will be a lot better with Mike Heimerdinger back at Offensive coordinator and the Madden curse off his back. (Speaking of which, what happens when the relentless Madden curse faces off with an invincible quarterback who hasn't missed a start in approximately 5 zillion games? We'll find out this season with Brett Favre. This situation is just what the Joker described in The Dark Knight, when "an unstoppable force meets an immovable object." I've got my money on Batman, I mean, Favre.)

I think the Titans will be a better team this year, but that still may not be enough to reach the playoffs. The AFC is just so good this year, with at least 11 teams with legitimate shots at the 6 playoff spots. Plus the AFC South was ridiculously difficult last year (no teams under .500!) and will be even better this year. I'm not saying we won't make the playoffs, it will just be a tough ride. But it will be fun all the way and it's exciting to see a team that's on its way up.

Meanwhile, back at the Ranch........

TONY ROMO! TERRELL OWENS! JASON WITTEN! MARION BARBER! DEMARCUS WARE! BRADIE JAMES! TERRENCE NEWMAN!

Do you see all those amazing players? Those are just 7 of the 13 pro-bowlers from last year's 13-3 squad. Plus, add in the amazing Zach Thomas, the reformed Adam Jones, and the electrifying Felix Jones, and you've got a potentially better squad and a championship contender. However, after last year's heartbreaking playoff loss to the Giants, it is important to remember that despite last year's success and this year's expectations, we must take everything one game at a time and take no one for granted. We are in an incredibly tough division and we are going to be getting everyone's best shots this year. We must play focused football during the regular season if we want to return to the playoffs. If we get there, we have to play our game and fight hard to and win our first playoff game since 1996. Only then can we start thinking about winning a............you know what, I'm not even going to say it........we'll just say it rhymes with Cooper Mole. Until then, I'm going to enjoy every game with this fun team, and root for my Boys as we run and gun on offense and smash and gash on defense. After the depressing 2000-2005 years with 8,362 different quarterbacks, it's so nice to sit back and enjoy Romo and his gang ever Sunday. I love this team!


This is normally the space I would devote towards getting pumped up for our UT Vols, but I'm still scarred from last Monday's loss to UCLA. The hard thing about college football is that you can see all your title hopes destroyed in the first game of the season. Hopefully we can turn things around real quick in conference play, and everything would be perfect again if somehow we can pull off a monster upset on Florida in two weeks. But until then, I'm worried about our difficult schedule and our sketchy offense. Let's just move on........

I love the fall: checking all my teams' websites every day, getting pumped every weekend, getting swept up in the highs and lows of sports, and cheering along with my friends. So come on, let's grab some food from the Student Center and watch the games tomorrow! Woo hoo!