Weekend Preview for the Sports Enthusiast

Lot’s of stuff to watch this weekend. First and foremost, watch the US Women’s Soccer team in the Women’s World Cup. “Ladies and gentlemen, can I please have your attention. I’ve just been handed an urgent and horrifying news story. I need all of you, to stop what you’re doing and listen. Cannonball!” Unfortunately, I do have a horrifying news story; the U.S. Women lost 4-0 today to Brazil. On the bright side, that frees up some viewing time for other sports that need to get our undivided attention this weekend.

Like baseball, “As in Gene Tennis at the plate WHAMMY! WHAMMY!” I haven’t been following the races as closely since the Indians clinched the Central. I’d get excited about winning the Division, but it’s all about the Series for this year’s Tribe. They’re Hot, Hot, Hot heading into the playoffs. But, I just need a brief glance at the standings to see what’s going on. The AL is wrapped up except for match-ups. The standings indicate that the NL, however, is mayhem.
New York Mets: lost 3 straight; 4-6 in the last 10; Choke alert moving to defcon 5!!!
Philadelphia Phillies: Won last night; 7-3 in the last 10; On the warpath! Losing to Charlie Manual would add insult to injury for Mets fans.

Mets, Padres, Phillies and Diamondbacks clawing to see who will achieve the highest level of mediocrity and the NL Wild Card if they don’t get caught by the red hot Rockies. “WHAMMY!!”

College Football starts with an intriguing match-up with West Virginia at South Florida on Friday night. I don’t care if South Florida is on a tear and ranked 18th, if West Virginia is really a title contender, then they blow out the Bulls (I had to look that up) tonight. From there it’s pretty tame this weekend. If you have to give up a college football weekend to your significant other, I’d pick this one. Cal/Oregon should be a good game. And Washington could hang with USC for awhile….. it’s pretty slow. I know that two of my buddies are whipped into a frenzy over the Texas A&M/Baylor match up and that I’m going to the Navy/Air Force game. There’s the train wreck that is Notre Dame if anyone’s interested. “This is worse than that time the raccoon got in the copier!”

The NFL match-ups feature some interesting (and some overplayed) stories. Brett Favre facing that whole ‘I can’t play in domes’ thing again in Minnesota. Cleveland will revisit it’s never ending hate affair with the Baltimore Ravens and specifically Art Modell. Ken Whisenhunt facing the Steelers for the first time… uh-oh, it looks like I’m reaching again. At least Monday Night’s game has shootout potential. “That’s how I roll.”