Playoffs are here

Baseball playoffs are here and this is definitely a fun time of the year. We get to share our attention between the baseball playoffs, college football and the NFL. Baseball is not exactly the most popular or fun sport during the regular season and I don't spend a lot of time watching those games. But playoff baseball is riveting and usually a lot of fun. I am looking forward to it this year since the Arizona Diamondbacks have made it. Also, the exciting and strange way in which the regular season ended by eliminating the Boston Red Sox and the Atlanta Braves has definitely help raise the interest in this post-season. The Red Sox were leading the Rays by 9 games for the wild card in early September and still managed to lose it with just one strike to go in the season. They lost a one-run lead in the 9-Th and ended up losing to the Orioles 4-3. The Sox went 7-20 in September to achieve this meltdown. The Rays on the other hand came back from a 0-7 deficit in their final game to beat the Yankees 8-7 in 12 innings to win the wild card. That was an amazing and unbelievable sequence of events that put the Rays into the playoffs! The Braves went 9-18 in September to lose their playoff spot as well on the last day to the Cardinals. Both wild card races had spectacular finishes and historic collapses. Now we have the Rays and the Cards in the playoffs and no Braves or Red Sox. Braves will be fine, but some big names are going to lose their jobs in Boston.

As for the playoffs, the fun starts tomorrow with the AL games. Justin Verlander and C.C. Sabathia are the headliners for day 1. That should be a fun matchup. The D-Backs kickoff October baseball on the first of the month and Ian Kennedy will take on Yovani Gallardo in Milwaukee. The Brewers have home-field and that can be a challenge for the snakes since the Brew-crew just does not seem to lose at home. Both teams have solid pitching as most playoffs teams tend to do and the Brewers have MVP candidates Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder in their lineup on top of that. That should make them the favorites, but thats why they play the games - to defy logic and numbers and to create new records. A lot rides on Kennedy in game 1. In the other NL contest, Philly should be an overwhelming favorite over the Saint Louis Cardinals with that pitching. Halladay goes in game 1, but it doesn't get any easier for the Cards after that as Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels will attack them just as effectively as Halladay. The Phillies should be the favorites to win it all with that pitching, but again, there's a reason why we actually play the games. Just so that the Dbacks can upset the Phillies and then the Yankees! I am sure this playoffs will throw us a few more astonishing moments just like the ones we saw yesterday when the Sox and the Braves wrapped up their historic collapses. Bring it on!

Football weekend is almost upon us. Pittsburgh crushed 16-Th seeded South Florida today to set the stage for a fun college weekend. ASU has re-entered the top-25 with an impressive win over USC last weekend. They should continue that trend when they host Oregon State. The big games of the weekend are Alabama-Florida, Clemson-Va Tech and Nebraska-Wisconsin. Thats a great way for Nebraska to start their life in Big 10 with a visit to the 7-Th seeded Wisconsin. Madison will be ready for that. SEC football at the swamp is always fun and they will welcome Alabama this weekend. UCLA at Stanford will be a fun, late night, Pac-12 contest as well. In the NFL, Patriots at Oakland promises to be one of the great match ups along with Detroit at Dallas and Pittsburgh at Houston. All 3 games featuring surprising teams in Oakland, Detroit and Houston that have not been in the playoffs the last few years, but have all looked good the last 3 weeks. The headliner will be the Jets at Baltimore, but the real action might be in those other 3 contests. The Raiders can definitely shock the Patriots since they can run the ball. Run DMC is an absolute monster and the Pats are going to have issues stopping Darren McFadden. Brady will be a handful for the Raiders as well and the team that commits the fewest mistake should take this one. Not a path-breaking theory, but I think it's going to be the case with this one given the Raiders tendency to commit mistakes and penalties. If they stay in their shoes, they have a shot.