Hey, kids, it's been a while! I'm writing from the friendly confines
of the greatest city on earth--besides Syracuse--which would have to
be Ann Arbor, Michigan. (Also receiving votes: Philly and Albany. And
one vote for Columbus, Ohio from the Transylvanian judge.) I'm just
going to jump right in because it has been a great week in sports, and
as Aerosmith (and more famously, Jose Barrero in Say What Karaoke
sophomore year) once said, "I don't wanna miss a thaaaaaaing!!!!!!11"

I was just looking at the leaderboard for the World Golf
Championships' American Express Championships--or the WCGAMEXCHMP if you want to save some time and space and logic--and I see that Tiger Woods is up by about 7 strokes. Let me be the next one to ask, how good is this guy? Remember all that talk about Tiger's slump the last
two years? Me either. Tiger is playing the best golf of his life,
starting with that senseless bludgeoning of the field back at the
British Open. He's playing controlled golf and doing what he does
best, which is making amazing approach shots with his irons from the
fairway and putting like a madman. Along the same token, I also
remember some other pro who was starting to play like that. You know,
the one who double-bogeyed the 72nd hole of the US Open at Winged
Foot. The one who was supposed to step up and be Tiger's first
legitimate challenger. What was his name again? Gosh, I don't
remember. I remember that he did have nice breasts, though.

In my opinion, honestly, the biggest reason for Tiger's success is
that he has gone back to wearing red on Sundays. NOT wearing red on
Sundays in the times before this recent Limit Break he's on is one of
the greatest "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" moments in sports of
all time. Seriously, look back on the footage. When Tiger wasn't
winning majors and wasn't winning as many tournaments, he wasn't
wearing red on Sunday. He started again, and he's been doing well. Any
correlation? I don't know. I'm just sayin'.

Look at some other examples of the "if it ain't broke" mantra through
the years. Syracuse hoops had beaten Notre Dame some ridiculous number
of times in a row through the years, at home and on the road, between
sometime in the Troy Muprhy era and two seasons ago, McNamara's junior
year. Notre Dame in the Dome was the big College GameDay game, a night
game on Saturday, and the 'Cuse decided to bust out the throwback
script "Syracuse" jerseys they played with into the early 90s. (I love
those throwbacks, by the way.) Well, needless to say, Syracuse came
out terribly in that game and never recovered, getting humiliated on
national TV by Chris "Just Not a Syracuse Kinda Guy" Thomas and Notre
Dame. Why wear the throwbacks for Notre Dame? I know it was a big
game, but you NEVER lose to those guys. Save the throwbacks for a team
you can never seem to beat, like Connecticut, so that if you DO win
you can just wear the throwbacks every time and start a new "if it
ain't broke" cycle.

Another example of this I just love to think about happened in the
2002-2003 NFL season, during the NFC Wild Card game between the Giants and the 49ers. Long-snapper Trey Junkin was a late-season acquisition
for the Giants, a free agent signed shortly before the playoffs
because he was an experienced veteran they knew they could count on to
get the ball in play on field goal tries. Junkin had been in the
league at least 15 years, and long-snapped just fine. Then, for some
reason, in the final five minutes, Junkin decided to try something new
and snap like an idiot, just in time for him to botch the snaps on the
Giants TWO game-winning field goal attempts. He retired immediately
after the game. That loss still hurts, Trey. Your long-snapping was
fine. And it wasn't broke. So I wish you hadn't tried to fix it.

Wiping tears away...

So the playoff picture is set in the MLB, basically. I wish to send
condolances to Mr. Arthur, whose Reds put up a really good fight this
season, but have once again missed the playoffs. I was really rooting
for them. Instead, the NL Wild Card belongs to either the Dodgers or
the Padres. I don't like that a division of such utter mediocrity can
take two playoff spots, but that's the rules, I guess. They did have
the best records of the second-place teams, but they benefitted a lot
from playing each other. Face it: despite all the hype the Rockies and
D-Backs got earlier this season, they returned to mid-season form...
around mid-season... and started rolling over and dying for the rest
of the season. The Phillies had to play more games against a better
division, including the Amazins, a resurgent Marlins team under
(really should be) NL Manager of the year, Joe Girardi, and the "we
might not have won the division but we're still not that bad" Braves.

And then in the Central, I am just amazed by the Astros. I really hope
they pull it off and overtake the Cardinals to make the playoffs. For
one thing, I think it's always more fun to see a team that's finishing
strong overtake that team that's stumbling into the postseason. The
Cardinals are not playing well, and if they make it, it will just make
for another unappealing year of NL Playoff baseball. Plus, Grimsley
allegations or not, if you're a sports fan, you HAVE to want to see
Roger Clemens back in the playoffs. How disgusting would it be if the
Astros managed to end up in the postseason and then in a great NLCS
against the Mets or Dodgers? Or in a World Series against the
Yankees?! Andy Pettite and the Rocket return to New York to face
(maybe) Randy Johnson and Mike Mussina. That would be fun.

In the AL, it was a pretty anti-climatic September. There were two
pennant races, but in the Central it ended up not REALLY mattering who
won because both teams were destined for the playoffs. Then out West,
the Halos were never really out of Oakland's sights but did anyone
actually expect the Angels to do anything? As far as I'm concerned,
the Angels would have made the playoffs if every game they played in
September were against the Yankees. They always MURDER the Yanks and I can never quite figure out why.

So it's still a few hours too early to do playoff predictions for
either side of the bracket, but I'll do my best. Starting with the AL:

ALDS: Twins vs. Yankees. (Probably.)
This could be an interesting series. Johan Santana will pitch two
games out of the five (if necessary), likely facing Chien-Ming Wang in
Game 1. The Yankees definitely have the more potent lineup, but there
are a few nice bats in the Twins' order--namely the two headed,
strange hybrid first baseman-catcher named Morneauer. Even without the
Unit, however, I like the Yankees' chances. What will be big in this
series will be getting runners home from third with less than one out,
something the Yankees, and namely, A-Rod, have not been able to do
well this season. They have enough power to make up for it, but in a
short series, you can't take any run for granted.

Yankees win series 3-1.

ALDS: A's vs. Tigers. (Again, probably)
All signs point to the Tigers. They have an exciting  lineup featuring
guys like Curtis Granderson, Craig Monroe and Magglio Ordonez. They
have some pretty nice pitching featuring (the stumbling but still
dangerous to cameramen) Rogers and the boy wonder Verlander. Edge:
Tigers. It seems that most conventional logic points to picking the
Tigers. But I have a hard time beliving the A's will just roll over
and die because "it's the Tigers' time" or whatever. (I practically
live in Detroit now, and I am still not catching a whiff of Tiger
fever.) I just don't want to pick the Tigers. But that being said, I'm
going to. Begrudgingly. I just really think that the A's have a chance
to mess things up in a short series. They've roared into the playoffs
and really seem to have a lot of confidence.

Tigers win series 3-2. Barely.

ALCS: Yankees vs. Tigers
This would be a great series. These teams played some really good
games this season. Randy Johnson throws a complete-game shutout in
Comerica on the 4th of July. Craig Monroe hits a walk-off homer
against the Yanks at the end of August to complete a monster rally. (I
was in a Detroit sports bar. I rememeber this well.) In a series like
this, you can look at matchups and whatever else you want, but
basically, they're evenly-matched. It's tough to pick against my boys,
but I think that unless the Yankees really resurrect the ghosts and
get the clutch factor going and a little more team spirit, they're
going to get out-played by the Tigers. (If they get by the A's they'll
be fired up.) I can't pick against the Yankees officially, but know
that I think this will be a hard-fought series.

Yankees win series 4-3.

In the NL, I really like the Dodgers. More than the Mets sans
Pedro--take that for what it's worth in a potential first-round
matchup. I don't like the Cardinals beyond the first round. Same with
the Astros. I don't like the Padres; I like them even less than the
Cards. I don't know how the matchups will go yet but I'm feeling like
the Dodgers and Mets in the ALCS would be fun. I like the Dodgers.

World Series? This is based so much on conjecture that there's really
no point in saying anything. Again, I like the Dodgers, I like whoever
comes out of the AL, though, too. The NL is more like AAAA-ball.
That's how much better the AL is.

Just like most of us thought/feared, it's October 1st and the
Wolverines and Buckeyes are both still undefeated. OSU has probably
looked more impressive on the whole, but Michigan hasn't exactly been
slacking and they have proven a lot as well. The last game of the
season between Michigan and OSU--The Game--has potential to be
absolutely catastrophic. After the game, regardless of the outcome,
McKeever and I will likely engage in an epic clash of the titans.
Mountains will crumble. Villages will be razed. Hot girls will be
porked. All signs point to this year's edition of The Game being one
of the most consequential games of the year, with potential national
title hopes on the line for both sides.

DMac, I just want to say right now, whatever happens, I will still
love you. It might take you a while to recover, but I will accept you
back into my life when you decide you can talk to me again.

lol, troy smith for senator.
lol, mike hart for president.
lol, mario manningham for Jesus.