Seeing Red Cup of Sports Chowdah- Freese Frame Puts Cards in WS; Texas Hangs Lone Star on Cruz; Last 2 Cup Champs Face Off in Chi-town; Cowboy Down

Jonathan Daniel- Getty Images

ST LOUIS CARDINALS: Who would've thought it? As a reminder that Boston's September collapse wasn't the only late 2011 implosion, the St. Louis Cardinals found themselves trailing the Atlanta Braves by 10 ½ games on August 25. One month later, they narrowed the deficit down to one game on September 25- with only three games against the Houston Astros remaining in the regular season. The Cards took two out of the three against Houston while the Braves would ultimately get swept by Philadelphia.

After dispatching the NL-best Phillies in the NLDS, a matchup with division rival (and 1982 World Series opponent) Milwaukee Brewers was in the works. After splitting the first two games at Milwaukee, the NLCS moved back to St Louis where the Cards took 2 out of three. The series headed back to Milwaukee's Miller Park on Sunday evening in a do-or-die game for the Brewers. Almost immediately, things broke the Cards way when Shaun Marcum gave up a 1-out RBI to OF Lance Berkman before walking 1B Albert Pujols before giving up a 2-run blast to 3B David Freese to put St Louis up on to 4-0 right away.

In the bottom of the 1st, Corey Hart would deliver a leadoff homer to get the Brewers on the board, but Milwuakee would be playing catch-up all night as the Cardinals continued adding to their lead. Marcum would only pitch the one inning for Milwaukee as the Brewers went to the bullpen early and often.

St Louis wins this one pretty convincingly- by a 12-6 final and with National League Championship Series MVP David Freese going 3-4 with the early home run to bury the Brewers and a total of 3 RBI in Game 6. This would be the Cardinals 18th National League Penant and sets up an October 19th meeting at Busch Field with the American League Champion....


TEXAS RANGERS: And this one was over pretty early in Arlington, with Texas exploding for nine runs in the bottom of the 3rd after the Tigers took an early 2-0 lead. That kind of offense makes it hard to summarize or highlight just one batter, but infielder Micheal Young went 3-6 with a home run, 5 RBI and 2 runs scored on Saturday night while eventual ALCS MVP would go 2-4 with a home run and 2 RBI. Cruz had earlier left his mark on the series by winning Game two in extra innings with the postseason's first ever walk-off grand slam.

The Rangers win Game 6 by a 15-5 final and advance to their 2nd consecutive World Series.

RED SOX: Stop me if you've heard this one before-

Q: What's the difference between the 2011 Red Sox and the movie Unstoppable?

A: One was a giant train wreck that took out everything in its path and the other had Denzel Washington on a locomotive.

With the Cubs and the Red Sox still negotiating for the services of GM Theo Epstein, the Red Sox are expected to promote assistant GM Ben Cherington to the soon-to-be-vacant General Manager position.

Also this week, team owner John Henry made an appearance on a Boston radio show to distance himself and Red Sox management from an article in the New York Times North Boston Globe published earlier this week depicting a dysfunctional clubhouse culture and claiming that former manager Terry Francona was distracted by painkillers and marital problems in the latter portion of the 2011 Red Sox season.

Henry denied that the front office circulated the rumors about Francona that were seemingly singlehandedly designed to limit his managerial career prospects after leaving Boston. Henry said he also expressed reservations over the signing of Outfielder Carl Crawford to a big contract, but deferred to then GM Theo Epstein.

K.C. Alfred- San Diego Union Tribune

OTHER RED SOX NEWS: After being in storage for nearly a decade, the daughter of Hall of Famer Ted Williams has decided to auction off some of her father's keepsakes from both his baseball and military career.

“The time has come in my life to let go of some of my father’s awards and personal memorabilia,” Claudia Williams said in a prepared statement.

“The reality is these items have remained locked away in a storage unit where his deserving fans and esteemed collectors are denied the right to enjoy them and share in a piece of American history.”

In the middle of the Hoover High gymnasium, beneath the words HOOVER LEGENDS, is a picture of Williams, Class of ’37, following through on his sweet left-handed swing.

Nicknamed “The Splendid Splinter” because of his tall, lean physique, Williams was the last player in the major leagues to hit .400, batting .406 in 1941. He was 21, only four years removed from Hoover.

He won six batting titles, including the last in 1958 when he was 40, making Williams the oldest player to win a batting title. Of the 24 players to hit 500 or more home runs, Williams owns the highest lifetime batting average, .344.

Also nicknamed “The Kid” and “Teddy Ballgame,” Williams died in 2002. He was 83.

Hunt Auctions, based in Exton, Pa., will handle the selling of Williams’ memorabilia. Company President John Hunt said Williams’ collection will earn “a significant amount of money, well into multiple six figures.”

“These items are worth what anybody will pay for them,” Hunt said. “There’s an enormous amount of emotion involved when you have a player as significant as Ted Williams. He’s a 20th century American icon. Sometimes you can throw the price tag out the window.”

Figler estimates Williams’ 1949 MVP plaque will draw bids in excess of $100,000.

“There will be a bidding war for something like that,” Figler said. “When the dust settles, probably that plaque could easily go for $100,000. You have a lot of Ted Williams fans out there.”

Included in the baseball collection to be auctioned are Williams’ Hall of Fame ring and a baseball signed by Ruth and given to Williams.

[San Deigo County Resident and memorabilia collector Jeff] Figler estimates the ring could attract a $100,000 bid and the Ruth autographed baseball $75,000.

Williams finished his career with 521 home runs, despite missing three full seasons and the majority of two more seasons in the prime of his career while serving as a Navy flight instructor during World War II and later flying more than 30 missions during the Korean conflict.

Williams’ military record adds to his lore. Among the items to be displayed at the Hall of Champions will be one of his aviator manuals, complete with Williams’ handwritten logs.

A famed outdoorsman, particularly noted for his fishing prowess, Williams was inducted into the Fishing Hall of Fame. Some of his rods and fly reels will be auctioned.

“We are honored to be involved with Ted Williams and his family,” Hunt said. “Claudia wanted his collection to be seen by fans who can’t attend the auction. And she wanted them to be seen first in San Diego, his hometown.”

The collection will start out in William's hometown of San Diego, CA then be displayed in another city (yet to be named) before the items go up for auction.

NFL: Talk about your last-minute men!

I gave up on knocking Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, not because I have a newfound respect for him or the Cowboys organization but because I couldn't think of anything derogatory that thymes with 'Romo'.


Why is it that when the Patriots manage to build up a late lead, I get nervous if they don't keep adding to it or have to punt at some point? Yet when they're trailing by less than a touchdown late (OK, VERY late), I hardly bat an eyelash.

The Cowboys came into Gillette stadium on Sunday for the late afternoon game against New England, and this one turned out to be a surprisingly low-scoring affair with plenty of turnovers and both teams having a difficult time finding the end zone- particularly in the 2nd half.

Still, trailing 16-13 with 2:31 to go in regulation, the Patriots got the ball back on their own 20 and- perhaps to nobody's surprise- Brady began methodically moving the ball downfield with short quick passes to Wes Welker (as well as Gronkowski and Woodhead) in the face of pressure from Dallas before almost casually connecting with Aaron Hernandez from the Dallas 8 yard line for the go-ahead TD to pur New England on top by a score of 16-20 with all of 22 seconds remaining in the game.

Dallas would get the ball back on their own 20 with almost as many seconds remaining, and Romo would succeed in moving the ball down to mid-field with enough time for a hail-mary pass that was ruled incomplete (plus out of bounds and possibly intercepted if not incomplete) for New England to hand on and win by the 16-20 final.

Brady went 27-41 with 289 yards, 2 TDs and 2 interceptions while Romo threw for the same amount of completions/attempts, with a TD and interception on 317 yards. Pats finish this one strong heading into their bye week before travelling to Pittsburgh to take on the defending AFC Champion Steelers (currently 4-2) the day before Halloween. With a Buffalo loss and the winless Miami Dolphins and 2-3 Jets taking each other on for Monday night, the Patriots currently sit alone atop the AFC East.



INDYCAR: Reigning Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon was killed on Sunday afternoon in a massive 15 car crash during a race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The 33 year old British driver had previously won the Indy 500 in 2005 and was named IRL's top rookie driver in 2003.

I don't normally follow motorsports, but I remember Dale Earhhardt's death in 2001. The crash seemed pretty tame by NASCAR standards, where its not uncommon to have massive, firey collisions with cars bouncing off the track walls like ping pong balls only to have the respective drivers climb out unscathed and walk away. This was nothing like the crash that killed Dale Sr. Many veteran Indycar drivers (including those involved in the crash) said it was the worst they had ever seen or been involved in.

Wheldon was 33 years old. He leaves behind his wife Susie and sons Sebastian (age 2) and Oliver (7 months).

NHL: After scuffling a bit (or mightily, depending on your willingness to panic), The Boston Bruins travelled to the Windy City for an early season contest that would pit the last two winners of Lord Stanley's Cup against each other. After the Blackhawks got out to the early 1-0 lead, Chris Kelly would knot things up at 1-1 early in the 2nd period thanks to a shorthanded tally that found its way past Chicago netminder Corey Crawford. However, Chicago would get the lead right back after a Patrick Kane tally not even two minutes later. Nathan Horton would tie things up to force OT and after 5 scoreless minutes in the OT, force a shootout.


As much as we all love Tim Thomas, remember how seeminlgy awful he was in the shootout last year? Spectuacular in regulation and the OT, but almost like the tin man in The Wizard of Oz before Dorothy found the oil can once the shootout got underway.

That wasn't the case Saturday night. Thomas turned aside all three shots faced in the shootout while Tyler Seguin would be the only one to get one past Crawford, which gave Boston the 3-2 win on the road.

The defending Stanley Cup champion Bruins (nope...not getting tired of saying that) next game will take place at home against the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night.

NCAA FOOTBALL: Although they came into East Hartford sporting the better record, Big East opponent South Florida was still looking for their first conference win. And after Saturday's game, they can keep on looking. Even though UConn didn't score an offensive TD. Rather, the Huskies got on the board with three Dave Teggart FG's but were still trailing 10-9 in the 3rd with South Florida deep in their own end. USF Running Back Darrell Scott fumbled the ball on the Bulls own 10 yard line and the Huskies Byron Jones was able to run it back for the Huskies only TD of the game, enough to give them the 16-10 win after stopping the Bulls on a key 4th down late in the game.

The Huskies (3-4) will have a bye (of sorts) next weekend befor taking on the Pitt Panthers (3-4) at Heinz Field on the evening of Wednesday, October 26th. Kickoff is scheduled for 8PM ET.

ELSEWHERE IN NCAA FOOTBALL: OK- it's officially getting ridiculous now.

The Mountain West conference and Conference USA announced earlier this week plans to merge their football programs into a 'mega-conference' that could be home to as many as 24 different teams as early as 2013 [so basically double the Pac-12 then- NANESB!].

Boise State jumped from the Western Athletic Conference to the Mountain West this year while the Nevada Wolfpack and Fresno State Bulldogs are expected to follow suit in 2012. However, the Mountain West lost two football programs beginning this season when Utah made the move to the former Pac-10 (now Pac 12) and Brigham Young struck out on its own as an independent program. The merger talks have some observers wondering whether schools like Boise State or Air Force Academy will end up leaving the Mountain West if they do end up merging with Conference USA.

A name for the conference hasn't been finalized yet.

COLONIAL ATHLETIC ASSOSCIATION: The UMass Minutemen, themselves destined for a bump up to the FBS, have won two in a row by jumping out early in front of Delaware and hanging on to win by a final of 21-10 on Saturday.

This sets up a meeting with the UNH Wildcats at Amherst on Saturday with a 3:30 PM kickoff. New Hampshire is sporing a similar 4-2 record as UMass, but won last year's clash with the Minutemen by a 39-13 final.

Detroit Has A Chance? Nah...

7 Tigers, 5 Rangers
I know these playoffs ratings have been horrible but great baseball is being played. This series has been pretty awesome and last night was the same thing. Jim Leyand was in the hole in the beginning of the game as he announced Joquin Benoit and Jose Valverde will not be available because he is over using them, however, he did have Justin Verlander and when you have that, it's never a bad thing. It's funny Verlander has yet to have a game that has WOWed me. Last night he went 7.1 let up 4 runs and Kd 8. I want to see a 9 inning game with 15 Ks god dammit. But the real hero of the game is Delmon Young, who wasn't even going to be on the ALCS roster due to an oblique injury. Delmon hit 2 HRs and 3 rbis and knocked CJ Wilson around. Speaking of CJ Wilson, why does everybody want him? He has sucked these entire playoffs and looks like a deer in headlights every time he wants to pitch. But the Captain wants him so I guess that makes it a great signing. (The Captain also loved the Lackey deal when it happened too). Nelson Cruz made it interesting by hitting his 5th home run in the 8th, but it was too little too late.

The series is at 3-2

Brewers beat St. Louis 4-2.
Series is at 2 all.

It was actually cool to see throwback Randy Wolf come in and throw 7 semi dominant innings. After letting up a homerun by Allen Craig in the 3rd he was really good. I want the Brewers to take this. I despise the Cardinals for some reason.

Just Win, Baby! Sports Chowdah Update- Raiders Owner Al Davis Deat at 81; No Frequent Flier Miles For Jets @ Foxboro; Avs Varlamov Stifles B's

NFL- Oakland Raiders owner and former AFL commissioner Al Davis passed away at the age of 82 on Saturday. Born in Brockton, MA and growing up in Brooklyn, Davis would graduate Syracuse and start his coaching career with Adelphi college and the US Army. In 1962, he was hired as the head coach for the Oakland Raiders of the American Football League, leading them to their first ever winning season in 1963 with a record of 10-4.

Davis was also briefly the AFL commissioner in 1966 and was against the proposed merger of the AFL and NFL. After stepping down as commissioner a few months later, Davis would return to the Raiders and purchase a 10% stake in the organization, gradually increasing his holdings over the next few seasons until he head near-total control of the organization.

In 1982, he moved the Raiders from Oakland to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum before moving the team back to Oakland in 1995 after a dispute with Los Angeles over expansion at the Coliseum. The city of Oakland spent nearly $200 million in refurbishing the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum to accommodate the move.

The Raiders have seen only limited success since moving back to the Bay area, with their last playoff (and Super Bowl) appearance taking place in 2002 and a seemingly non-stop coaching carousel taking place each season.

While the team is expected to stay in Davis' family, there are rumors circulating that his heirs would be more receptive to a possible return to L.A.


PATRIOTS: Under Rex Ryan, there seems to be this pattern of the Jets talking all sorts of shit in the week leading up to a game against the Pats and then falling flat on their face. The New York tabloids and ESPN seem to love it, but the Patriots and their fans find it about as intimidating and endearing as a shrill, yippy little chihuahua circling and barking.



More often than not, I DO enjoy what comes afterwards. Of course, before the most recent Jets-Patriots game, its worth noting that the defending Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins paid a visit to Gilette Stadium with the coveted trophy for a pregame ceremony (as well as the team posing with owner Robert Kraft and the three Vince Lombardi trophies as well as Lord Stanley's Cup).

Once it got underway, Sunday afternoon's game saw the New York Jets put up only 255 yards against the New England defense and Tom Brady going 24 for 33 with 321 yards and a TD as well as a pick. Antonio Cromartie ran back the Brady INT for about 40 yards to finish up the first half of the game. New England headed in with a 10-7 lead (they were poised for more until Cromartie's pick) and after getting a TD on their opening drive of the 2nd half, the Pats made it a 17-7 game, but the Jets came right back and made it a 17-14 game after Mark Sanchez completed to WR Jeremy Kerley.

However, that would be as close as the Jets would get as a 4 minute Patriots drive taht started on their own 23 was capped by a short Ben Jarvus Green-Ellis TD run late in the 3rd. The law offices of Ben Jarvus Green-Ellis had 27 rushes for 136 yards and 2 TDs while the team donned the old-school red jerseys and Patriot Pat helmets.

No Vince Wilfork INTs run back this week, but we're not even halfway through the season and considering he already has two more than his career total so far, it's probably best if the big guy paces himself.

Next week will see the 2-2 Dallas Cowboys in Foxboro with a 4:15 ET kickoff. The Cowboys are coming off their bye week and this weekend's game will be televised on FOX.

OTHER PATRIOTS NEWS: Make way for another Gronkowski! The Patriots signed TE Rob Gronkowski's older brother Dan to play tight end. Dan saw action in 12 games last season with the Denver Broncos.

MLB: The two NLDS game Fives were decided by a pretty close margin heading into last weekend. In Milwaukee, Brewers OF Nyjer Morgan's 10th inning walkoff RBI single sent the Diamondbacks packing while in Philadelphia, Chris Carpenter sent the National League team with the best record home thanks to a complete game 3-hit shutout of Philadelphia, setting up an all-midwest NLCS.

The Brewers came from behind to win Game 1 on Sunday, winning by a 9-6 final after a huge 6-run 5th inning. However, Monday night's game was all St. Louis with the Cards winning by a lopsided 12-3 final.

Game 3 is set to take place on Wednesday in St. Louis with a first pitch at 8:05 ET on TBS. The Cards' Chris Carpenter is set to go up against the Brew Crew's Yovani Gallardo.

Over in the ALCS, the Texas Rangers seemed to have little trouble handling the Detroit Tigers in Arlington. Game 1 was pretty close, with Detroit clawing their way back prior to a rain delay with the bases loaded, but the Rangers were able to get out of the jam and hang on to win by a 3-2 final.

The series headed to Detroit with the Tigers down 0-2, losing in dramatic fashion thanks to a Nelson Cruz walkoff grand slam in the bottom of the 11th- the first ever walkoff grand slam in postseason history.

However, the home cookin' at Comerica park seemed to be working for the Tigers on Tuesday night. In his first start since sending the Yankees packing in Game 5 of the ALDS in the Bronx, Tigers starter Doug Fister would go 7 ⅓ innings, giving up 7 hits and two earned runs. Victor Martinez would get the scoring started for Detroit with a solo homer to tie the game at 1-1 before Miguel Cabrera, Jhonny Peralta and Austin Jackson would go on to give Fister additional run support in the Tigers 5-2 win on Tuesday night.

Texas still leads the ALCS two games to one, with game 4 set to get underway at 4:19 PM ET. Rick Porcello is slated to start against the Ranger's Matt Harrison with the game to be televised on FOX TV.

RED SOX: Less than two weeks after the departure of manager Terry Francona, the Associated Press is reporting that Red Sox GM Theo Epstein will be leaving Boston to become President of baseball operations for the Chicago Cubs in the next 48 hours.


NHL: After winning their first game of the season against Tampa Bay over the weekend, the Bruins gave Tim Thomas the day off as the defending Stanley Cup champions hosted the Colorado Avalanche.

Tukka Rask showed little signs of rust from the offseason in Monday afternoon's game, but Milan Hejduk buried one past Rask in the 3rd to give Colorado a 1-0 lead while Avs netminder Seymon Varlamov stopped all 30 shots he faced to preserve the lead and the Avalanche win.

The Bruins will hit the road on Wednesday to take on the Carolina Hurricanes. The game will be televised on Versus and gets underway at 7:30 PM ET. The Bruins will reportedly be playing without C David Krejci, who injured his leg in practise on Tuesday afternoon.

OTHER BRUINS NEWS: The team announced on Tuesday that they had reached an agreement with C Rich Peverly on a 3 year extension of his contract. Financial terms of the deal were not immediately disclosed.



ELSEWHERE IN THE NHL: After a 15 year hiatus, NHL hockey has returned to Winnipeg, Manitoba. The new-look Jets started off their 2011-2012 season at Winnipeg's MTS Centre on Sunday with a 'sloppy' 5-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens. The former Atlanta Thrashers are idle until Thursday when they travel to Chicago to take on the Blackhawks.

NBA: In the midst of a protracted labor dispute between players and owners, League Commissioner David Stern has cancelled all preseason games and the first two weeks of the regular season.

The impasse is prompting a number or players to entertain offers from overseas clubs, the most notable of which is reportedly the owner of Italian club Virtus Bologna aggressivley looking to sign NBA stars Kobe Bryant and Manu Ginobli.

NCAA FOOTBALL: Looks like my dire-but-realistic predictions regarding Boston College and UConn's respective games against to 25 opponents came true over the weekend. The BC Eagles managed to avoid a shutout, but were downed by the Clemson Tigers by a 36-14 final while in Morgantown, WV, the Mountaineers downed UConn by a 43-16 final on Saturday.

The 2-4 Huskies will next host the University of South Florida on Saturday afternoon at East Hartford while Boston College (mercifully) has a bye this weekend, but will resume in Blackburg against #19 Virginia Tech (currently 5-1) on October 22nd. Between now and then, the Hokies have a game against the 4-1 Wake Forest Demon Deacons, who are undefeated (3-0) against ACC opponents this season.

NCAA HOCKEY: Unlike the struggling football team, the Boston College men's hockey team is off to a promising start after the previous weekend's Break the Ice tournament in Grand Forks, ND. The BC Eagles notched a 5-2 win over the Michigan State Spartans and capped the tournament with a 6-2 win over #3 North Dakota.

On Friday, the BC Eagles will host Denver before travelling to the Granite State to take on the UNH Wildcats on Saturday.

MLB Playoff Updates

7 Rangers, 3 Tigers
You have to give it to Derek Holland. He had a real bad game, but he is trying his hardest with that mustache. It's a dirty disgusting mustache, however, he's going all in with it. Last night he didn't have the best game and only lasted a couple of innings but Ron Washington managed the bullpen beautifully (something Francona could have never done) and was able to pull it out. It went into extra innings and was capped off by a Nelson Cruz grandslam.

The Rangers now have a 2-0 lead on the Tigers.

12 St. Louis, 3 Milwaukee

I'm pretty sick of St. Louis, I was happy that they knocked off the Phillies, but there is nothing likable about this team. I'm not a Pujols guy, not a Tony La Russa guy and just not a Cardinals guy. I hope the Brewers go into Beast Mode and take this seires over as it is now 1-1. I'm not even going to talk about last nights game because I hate them so much.

MLB Playoff Updates

Texas beats the Rays in the series 3-1.

Maybe the Rays weren't as good as we thought they were or maybe Texas was a lot better than we assumed. The Rays were on the ropes for the last couple of months of the season and they couldn't continue their living on the edge streak. Former Red Sox player Adrian Beltre belted 3 solo home runs last night, it's a shame that we couldn't sign him last year because we had no space to put him. Matt Harrison was able to shut down the Rays to get the win in the final game. Harrison and Colby Lewis really did a great job in the back end of that rotation for the Rangers.

Yankees tie up the series 2-2 with the Tigers

AJ Burnett may have not been the best, but he did his job. Burnett went 5.2 innings allowing 1 run wih 4 bb and 3 ks. The game could have got ugly in the 1st when the bases were loaded and Don Kelly hit what should have been a double or triple but Curtis Granderson made a leaping catch ending the threat. For the Yankees Robinson Cano drove in 2 runs and A Rod got off his drought to drive in one himself.

Phillies have a 2-1 lead over St. Louis

Not impressed with the Phillies so far, but Cole Hammels came up big last night going 6 and striking out 8. Phillies should take care of business today with Roy Oswalt on the bump.

The Brewers will eventually win this series no reason to talk about it.