October is Upon Us

What a great sports weekend! What a great sports month! I love October, not quite as much as March, but close. October brings us Major League Baseball playoffs, conference play gets into full swing in college football and the NFL has made it to the second quarter of the season. This weekend is a great example and just a small sample of what this month has to offer. Oh, by the way, this year we get the Ryder Cup too!

Yesterday started the month; it also started the last weekend of the MLB regular season. Today kicks off the first of five football weekends in the month of October. Let’s take a closer look at what exactly this weekend has to offer to sports fans everywhere.

The Ryder Cup
24 of the best golfers in the world playing against each other for 3 straight days. Golf, a game normally played by individuals, being played in a team format. It brings out some of the best shot-makers in the world doing just that. What is more exciting when watching golf than to see guys take dead aim at the stick and playing ultra aggressive? That is what you get at the Ryder Cup. You get the best players in the world making some huge risk/reward shots because if they miss, they have a teammate for once who can make the shot if they miss. Unfortunately, since the Cup this year is being played in Wales, you need to be awake at 3am (as I am right now as I type this) to watch when it starts.

College Football
5 games featuring top 25 teams playing each other.

The headliner? Alabama v Florida. The winner of this game the past 2 years went on to win the national championship. Also today, another top 10 showdown, Stanford @ Oregon. This is a game that could let a PAC-10 jump right into the thick of the national championship debate. How about the Red River Rivalry? When was the last time this game was the 3rd biggest game of the weekend? Texas-Oklahoma, the stadium split down the middle at the 50, one half red, the other burnt orange.

The last two match-ups are Big Ten match-ups. Michigan State hosting Wisconsin and Penn State @ Iowa. Now we all know that there is almost no such thing as a big time Big Ten match-up, but they are all in the top 25 and both games are somewhat intriguing. In the Michigan State-Wisconsin game, we get to find out which Big Ten team will be undefeated and overrated all the way into November. The loser will still be ranked because, well, they play in the Big Ten, and there is a clause in the rankings that says at least 5 Big Ten teams must be ranked at all times. In the Penn State-Iowa game, you get to watch the Fighting JoePa’s lose to Iowa again. What’s not to love about that? Penn State is 1-7 vs Iowa in their last 8 games, and who could forget that barnburner in 2004 which the Hawkeyes won 6-4?

NFL
Week 4 of the season and the schedule is loaded with great match-ups. Despite it being the first week of bye weeks with 4 teams not playing, there is no shortage of marquee games on the slate. Maybe the best game of the week will also be the first one completed. At 1:00, the 3-0 Steelers take on the 2-1 Ravens for control of the AFC North. Anyone who has seen these teams play in the past knows that there is no love lost between these teams. From Joey Porter going onto the Ravens bus calling out Ray Lewis after a game, to the Ravens bitching and whining about the referees in the Santonio goal line touchdown catch. This game has become the biggest and best rivalry in the league. This will be a slugfest, with two hard-nosed and rugged defenses. First team to blink loses. And that is only the first game!

At 4:00, you have the battle for the brotherly love. Vick vs McNabb. Will they boo McNabb or not? Will Vick beating McNabb in Philly Sunday crush the legacy Donovan had in the city? If McNabb and the Skins pull the upset, will Andy Reid suddenly be on the hot seat? This game, although probably not a great game, does have many great storylines attached to it. I personally want McNabb to stick it to the Eagles with a 400+ yard, 4 TD game. Do I think that will happen? Hell no! McNabb has as many offensive weapons in Washington as Obama has fulfilled promises; ZERO!

To cap off the weekend, we head to South Beach Monday night for the Pats and the Fins. This doesn’t seem like much of a showdown, but in recent years, the Dolphins have been a huge pain in the side of Tom Brady and Co. With the Jets already beating both teams, this game could be huge in a fight to catch New York. Despite the Patriots being the most successful team this past decade and the Dolphins being the epitome of average, the Patriots have won exactly ONE more game than the Dolphins in this series since 2000.

MLB
By the time the Monday Night game concludes, we will know exactly who is playing in this season's Major League Baseball playoffs. Coming into the last weekend of play, there are still 2 open spots to be claimed: The NL West and NL Wild Card. The west will be won in San Francisco this weekend or in San Diego on Monday. Those two teams play today and tomorrow in San Fran, with the Giants needing just one win to clinch the west. If the Padres were to sweep the series, the two teams would head about 400 miles south to play on Monday in a winner-take-all one-game playoff. The loser does have a chance of making the playoffs the wild card team if the Braves can’t beat the Phillies ONE TIME this weekend. In the AL, the Yankees and Rays are battling for the AL East crown. However whichever team loses will be the wild card team from the AL. Also this last weekend, the Twins are in discussion for home field advantage. Currently the Yankees have a slight lead over both the Rays and Twins in that regard.

There you have it - a great weekend schedule, leading to a great month of sports! Enjoy! I know I will!