One To Play

Some real juicy match-up's on the NFL schedule for today, led by Baltimore (3-0) at New England (2-1), the New York Jets (3-0) at New Orleans (3-0), and unless you've been living under a rock, a rather interesting story-line game between Green Bay (2-1) at Minnesota (3-0). For the first time ever, I'm pulling for the Packers.

Great question posed by sports handicapper Randall The Handle on fighting in the NHL: "if fighting is a part of hockey, why are there exactly zero goons in the NHL Hall of Fame?" In response, Bob Probert and Tie Domi declared themselves available for the next induction.

If today is, as some are speculating, Chipper Jones last game as a big leaguer, he will not only have spend his entire career with the Atlanta Braves, but also with one manager in the form of Bobby Cox.

Toronto Blue Jays fans can finally have something to look forward to, as days from completing year nine of his five year plan, the Jays tied a can to well-past-expiry-date JP Ricciardi. Sure, you can't blame all the Jays shortcomings in recent years on JP, but surely the GM has to be the ultimate fall guy for bad contracts, poor handling of Roy Halladay's pending move, and embarrassing the franchise as he did in situations like Adam Dunn's senseless calling out. Something tells me that Ricciardi, who went to the Gary Bettman School of Smug, will still have a few parting shots on his way out the door. The Jays would be wise to look to just fired San Diego Padres GM Kevin Towers.

The LA Dodgers almost blew a 6 game lead with seven to play, but beat Colorado last night to wrap up the NL West. I would've loved to mix in the 3-0 lead that Joe Torre blew against Boston in 2004 when he was the New York Yankees manager and add this as a second giant blemish on his resume. More than ever, I'm convinced the Yanks made the right move tying a can to Torre when they did, especially for how he tends to chew up his bullpen to the point nothing is left at the end of the season.

The Minnesota Twins and Detroit Tigers are dead even in the AL Central race. A win by both today, or loss by both today, will set up a one game playoff on Tuesday with the winner facing the Yankees Wednesday, who have to be licking their chops at the prospect of both teams in a pull-out-all-the-stops situation. With the Tigers using Justin Verlander today, that takes the best pitcher out of both teams from being used twice in the divisional series.

Would not have pegged Tottenham to draw 2-2 at Bolton, in a game where Spurs rode goals from two of their Croatian's in Niko Kranjcar and Vedran Corluka, and even less likely, Manchester United to need a last gasp own goal to escape with a 2-2 draw with Sunderland, who seem to give them trouble at least once a season.

So, about that Toronto Maple Leafs defence as pillar of the team. Nevermind. The Leafs gave up 6 in a 6-4 loss to the Washington Capitals. Their goaltending looks suspect, the defence looks lost, and one more loss like these and reality will set upon a fan base way too high over a solid pre-season.

Have a great Sunday.