A sporty October Month in Review
Happy Halloween! It's October, which means that all the major sports in North America are playing simultaneously. There’s enough news in the world of balls and pucks that they deserve their own Month in Review. Let's take a look:
The baseball playoffs are in full swing. The three teams with the best regular season records are long gone. The Orioles and Dodgers didn't manage to win a game. The Braves only managed to win one. Even the defending champion Astros blew a three-games-to-two lead and lost the final two home games to the Rangers. Apparently, the regular season in baseball doesn't mean a thing when it comes to the playoffs. Just do enough to sneak in and then take your best shot.
Houston manager Dusty Baker has decided to retire. He won a championship as a player and a manager. He’s also rumored to have been the one to start the ‘high 5.’ Instead of a handshake, he slapped hands with teammate Glenn Burke after a home run. Also, when hearing of his retirement, former Cubs pitcher and current Dodger pitching coach Mark Prior has decided to try a pitching comeback now that Dusty won't be around any team to ruin his arm through overuse again.
This year’s World Series features the Texas Rangers and the Arizona Diamondbacks. Both teams lost one hundred games just two seasons ago. Based on how they turned their fortunes around figure on the White Sox and Rockies being in the 2025 Series…or maybe the Royals…or A’s?
The winter sports season has begun. Last year, in the National Hockey League, there were plenty of controversies whenever a team hosted a Pride night. On a few occasions, a player refused to wear the team’s Pride jersey during the warmup session. This year the league made a proactive move to ban Pride tape on hockey sticks. Then, they backed off on that. The NHL wants to change its reputation and history of being the worst sport in terms of inclusiveness, but it can’t figure out how to do it.
The NBA began its season last week. In their first game, the Chicago Bulls lost to Oklahoma City by twenty points. During the game, there was a loud argument on the bench between head coach Billy Donovan and center Nikolai Vucevik over the way Nik was being used on offense. After the game, the team held a players-only meeting. Again, all this happened during the first game. Welcome to team dysfunction. The team record currently sits at 2-2. Only seventy-eight more to go.
Both college and professional football have moved past the halfway point of their seasons.
In Chicago, where they have a long history of bad quarterback play, it’s said only somewhat jokingly that the most popular Bears player is the backup QB. When starter Justin Fields was injured, we got to see this put to the test. Undrafted rookie Quarterback Tyson Bagent stepped in to lead his team to a 30-12 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders. Bagent’s stat line of 21/29 for 162 passing yards with one touchdown was impressive, especially for a first professional start. It led many fans and media types to overblown this one game into him becoming the savior for the franchise. The hype lasted all of one week. In his second game, the stat line went 27/37 for 232 yards, no touchdowns with two interceptions. The Windy City can now come back to reality.
Plenty of good stories in college ball:
The University of Southern California lost a pair of games, to Notre Dame and Utah. That pretty much ended their national championship hopes. Their head coach, Lincoln Riley, was absent from two days of practice after the second loss. The speculation was Riley was leaving and he was off interviewing with NFL teams. I even saw a meme of him photoshopped into standing next to one of the Chicago Bears owners, George McCaskey. It turns out Riley was suffering from a case of pneumonia. He was back with his team for their Saturday game and win at Cal. This doesn’t mean he’s not leaving…just not today.
The instate rivalry between Michigan and Michigan State can get pretty intense. Not this year as the Wolverines handed a 49-0 beatdown to the Spartans. The game wasn’t the big story, however. Before the game began, there was a trivia question on the video board about the birthplace of Adolf Hitler. It was accompanied by his photo that was left on the screen for more than fifteen seconds. This led to apologies from the school’s president and the athletic director. Here’s some advice, not only to the folks in East Lansing but to everyone: Any time you think breaking out Hitler for anything other than a history lesson, DON’T!! It always leads to something like this and never works out in your favor. You’re welcome.
Things aren’t going much better in Ann Arbor. The Wolverines have been accused of having a staff member scouting games in person and recording the team’s offensive and defensive sideline signals. The excuses and denials were immediate. Head coach Jim Harbaugh denied having any knowledge of this; while many others say it’s not a big deal because everyone does this. But, it’s a big enough deal that the Big Ten office made offers to their future opponents to see if they still wanted to play games against Michigan. It’s a big enough deal that the NCAA came to campus to confiscate the electronic devices of staff members. The sad thing is this is the best Michigan team in a couple of decades. They have a legitimate chance to win the national championship. You know the NCAA doesn’t want to have to vacate a title because of something that can be prevented. Usually, they move extremely slowly on things like this. They aren’t doing that now and it has to be scary for the folks in AA and their supporters.
That’s a lot of sporting things for one month. We’ll get back to more serious news in November. Watch this space.