Nutty About Sports BLOG

Winning 8 of their last 9? First place in the Northeast? Trashing Montreal 6 to 1? We’re not used to this… Granted, the NHL season is still young…

They must be dong their part to pick up for the faltering Patriots….

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I have to admit that they crept up on me too. The first I knew that the Major League Soccer Playoffs were happening was when the news started to report first round results. So for all of you who were as clueless as I was…

Round 1 of the MLS Soccer playoffs is a 2-game, total score round. The teams competing in round 1 are:

• The Chicago Fire vs. the New England Revolution - tied 0-0 after game 1. The next game is on Thursday, November 6.
• The Houston Dynamo vs. the New York Red Bulls - tied 1-1 after game 1. The next game is on Sunday, November 9.
• Chivas USA vs. Real Salt Lake - Real Salt Lake leads 1-0 after game 1. The next game is on Saturday, November 8.
• The Columbus Crew vs. the Kansas City Wizards - tied 1-1 after game 1. The next game is on Saturday, November 8.

The MLS Cup Championship game will be on Sunday, November 23.

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The first 6 weeks of the Patriots 2008 season did not prepare anyone for last night’s game against Denver. This is a team whose largest margin of victory was 9 points and who had lost 2 games very badly by 20 points or more. So where on earth did a 41-7 blow-out come from. Just when we were getting ready to write them off they show not only signs of life, but vigorous life… Something tells me that the 2008 New England Patriots season is going to be a lot like the stock market - a lot of big swings…

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All season long people have been saying that the Rays couldn’t last. The Rays will fold. The Rays do not have the experience. All season long they proved the naysayers wrong.

When the Red Sox came back to tie the ALCS all of the talk was about their experience and gutsy determination. All of the pressure was on the Rays. They are inexperienced. They will fold…

A funny thing happened. The Rays refused to listen and rewrote the ending to the Red Sox comeback script. Instead of it being another miraculous Red Sox come-from-behind victory, it became how the gutsy Rays once again proved the naysayers wrong to win their first pennant and head onto their first World Series.

The Tampa Bay Rays are to be congratulated on a great season and a great ALCS playoff series.

I know that I would not bet against them in the World Series…

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The Red Sox are not out of the woods yet. Not by a long shot. But, as they have done in the past, they managed last night to live on to play another game. This time they did it with the greatest postseason comeback in 80 years and the 2nd best postseason comeback ever (see: Largest Major League Postseason Comeback).

How many teams have been within a small number of outs of eliminating the Red Sox only to see it slip away? Tampa Bay has to be thinking about that, at least a little…

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The Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays are a study in contrasts:

Founded

• Boston Red Sox - 1901
• Tampa Bay Rays - 1998

First Playoff Appearance

• Boston Red Sox - 1903, the first World Series
• Tampa Bay Rays - 2008

First ALCS Appearance

• Boston Red Sox - 1975, beat the Oakland Athletics 3-0
• Tampa Bay Rays - 2008

Number of World Series Won

• Boston Red Sox - 7
• Tampa Bay Rays - 0

First Batting Champion

• Boston Red Sox - 1932, Dale Alexander
• Tampa Bay Rays - None

First Cy Young Award Winner

• Boston Red Sox - 1967, Jim Lonborg
• Tampa Bay Rays - None

First MVP

• Boston Red Sox - 1912, Tris Speaker
• Tampa Bay Rays - None

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The Detroit Shock completed a sweep of the San Antonio Silver Stars yesterday to claim the 2008 WNBA Championship title. for the Shock it was their 3rd title in 6 years. For San Antonio, it was their first trip to the finals.

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When you get to the playoffs, the regular season record becomes meaningless. The Boston Red Sox, 1-8 against the Angels during the regular season, proved that last night by taking game 1 of thier ALDS match up.

The Red Sox accomplished several things with their initial victory:

• They put the regular season series behind them
• They won 1 all important game in Anaheim
• They gained a psychological advantage by taking their 10th post-season game in a row against the Angels

That would pretty much be the definition of “off to a good start”…

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Read the paper, listen to the news, watch the news - it’s all pretty depressing. Politicians at each other’s throats telling us what is wrong with the country. A financial system in free fall. Yikes!

Count me as one who cannot wait for the MLB playoffs to start so that I have something else to pay attention to. Instead of burying my head in the sand I will be burying it in baseball…

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The Boston Red Sox played 2 3-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays in September. At the end of it all they won 2 and lost 4 and are now 2 games out of first in the AL East. The season record for the series between the two teams is Sox won 8 and the Rays won 7. Importantly, the Sox got 6 of their wins against the Rays in May and June and are 2-6 against them since…
Nobody else in the East matters any more as both the Blue Jays and the Yankees can be eliminated tonight or tomorrow (their elimination number is 2).

For the Sox, any combination of Rays wins and Sox losses adding up to 10 eliminates them from the AL East title. On the positive side, the Sox only need to win 4 of their last 10 to clinch the Wild Card.

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