sportsblog

Obviously, the Ryder Cup was only part of the excellent weekend we had in sports this past weekend. The pennant race in baseball is nearing its end and there are some races that have been decided already, but the ones that haven’t been decided yet are really interesting.

In the AL, the East division race has come down to the Rays and the Red Sox with the loser most certainly going to win the Wild Card (at this point the Red Sox just need to win a game to clinch that scenario). The Rays kept themselves in the driver’s seat this weekend taking two of three from the Twins and then winning last night at Baltimore. They now have a two and a half game lead in the last week of the season and are tightly in control and they should certainly be able to hold on to the lead. Look for them to win their first division title and for the Red Sox to easily hold on the Wild Card.

In the AL Central (the only other race in doubt) the White Sox hold a two and half game lead over the Twins for the division title. The two teams play a three game series starting tonight. The Twins essentially need a sweep to win the division. Their young pitchers have been great all year long, but are looking a little worn down and the Sox are certainly the team to beat. I can’t see them getting swept or missing the playoffs. This really has been the surprise of the season for me. The White Sox are really a third place team, but they have really bound together and played much better as a team than the Indians or Tigers who were expected to be the challengers for the division title (and really the World Series). But the White Sox have made this their division and they and the Cubs will be in the playoffs at the same time for the first time in over 100 years.

Over in the NL, a lot less is clear. The Dodgers lead the NL West by two games over the Diamondbacks with 6 games to play for both teams. The Dodgers are hot and should hang on here, especially since they play the Padres and the Giants in their last two series while the Diamondbacks have to play in St. Louis and then at home vs. the Rockies. The Diamondbacks do have some serious pitching and have gotten hot lately as well, but it looks to be too little too late after their ten game swoon earlier this month.

The Central has been decided (as has the best record in the NL) as the Cubs really ran away over the last month of the season. The Brewers are still alive (as are the Astros, but they are on life support) for the Wild Card. The Wild Card race is closely linked to the NL East race as the Phillies currently sit atop the NL East by two and half games in front of the Mets and the Mets lead the Wild Card by a game over the Brewers. The Brewers and Mets have both been slipping of late and it seems to be the team who shoots themselves in the foot least will win the Wild Card, but both have serious pitching (or at least in the case of the Mets, one serious pitcher) and can make a run to clase the season. The Mets have three more games against the Cubs and then finish with the Marlins. The Brewers have three against the Pirates and then finish with three at home against the Cubs. The Phillies have two more games against the Braves and then three final home games against the Nationals.

Given the scheduling, I think the Phillies should hold on (although Lord knows how nervous I am about it) to win the NL East and I think the Mets will find a way to hold off the Brewers. One of the major reasons I think that the Phils will hold on in the East is because the Brewers are so close in the Wild Card. Obviously, the Phillies have to win down the stretch to close it out, but the Mets have as much pressure on them as (if not more than) the Phillies given that the Brewers are tracking them down (after the Phillies already had last week). This race should be pretty exciting this week and oh man do I hope the Phillies put this race away this week and go into the playoffs with some momentum.

With the Ryder Cup, pennant race baseball (including the last game at Yankee Stadium), Week 3 in the NFL and the Chase for the Cup on in NASCAR. Oh, and preseason hockey and basketball are right around the corner. There really isn’t much of a better time for sports.

The Ryder Cup certainly lived up to its billing this year. There was no blowout as in years past and the US played with emotion that it had lacked in years past. Boo Weekley, Anthony Kim, JB Holmes, Kenny Perry and the rest of the US team played with a passion and a fire that had been lacking from the US side. Boo goofed off, Kim got fired up and gave out more high fives, JB and Kenny made the crowd explode for their hometown boys and the US team sunk big putt after big putt.

Aside from the energy and passion that US played with, they also managed to play great golf. Each of the four guys I mentioned played extremely well on top of bringing an edge, all winning their singles matches on Sunday to help the US clich. Boo and Kim didn’t just win, they crushed their opponents: Oliver Wilson (who actually played pretty well) and Sergio Garcia (who looked awful) respectively.

All four of these guys were impressive and took their game to another level for the Cup, but the player who impressed me most with his play was Hunter Mahan. He was simply as cool as the other side of the pillow.His game might not have been as explosive as Anthony Kim or JB Holmes, but the guy can flat out play and he did. He was just very smooth and controlled. There weren’t very many bad shots from Mahan all weekend. He got pumped up like the rest of the guys, but the steadiness of his play was unrivaled. I was really impressed with him.

Mahan was the most impressive from a purely playing standpoint to me and I love Boo Weekley and everything he did this weekend to win the match and drive the Europeans, but my favorite golfer of the weekend was definitely Anthony Kim. It was close between Kim, Boo, Mahan and JB Holmes, but Kim wins because of how he obliterated Sergio on Sunday, got fired up throughout the week and generally played great golf, exciting golf. His game was electric all weekend, playing shots better than Johnny Miller (who was downright atrocious this weekend in the booth) could envision in the booth. But the thing that stood out most about Kim was his ability to drive Sergio up the wall. Firstly, he was playing better golf than Sergio, but he was also making Sergio putt everything out and questioning rulings and whether or not Sergio really needed to take a drop on one hole. Basically, he was everything that Sergio used to be in the Ryder Cup, but he was doing it to Sergio and you could just see how it was driving Sergio crazy. I loved that.

Azinger really did a great job putting this team together down to the last man and every single player earned his keep. The US has found plenty of Ryder Cup stars for years to come and I am already excited for the next Ryder Cup. What a great win.

I am watching the farewell to Yankee Stadium and it really is the perfect send off (given the circumstances of no playoffs for the Yankees and the scheduling gaffe MLB made in not making the Red Sox the final opponent) for the House that Ruth Built. Firstly, the Yankees won, which I think was really important for a night like tonight. Secondly, nothing was really scripted. There was no bloated send-off (after the game anyway; I still have to watch the coverage beforehand) and no official ceremony on field. Jeter grabbed the microphone and spoke from his heart to thank the fans and then the Yankees took a lap around the stadium. No one wanted to leave including the players. The players looked like kids at a playground as their parents wanted to leave running around the stadium to grab some dirt or pose for another picture. It was just a great scene to watch. Jon Miller and Joe Morgan did the scene justice by letting the picture speak for itself and not trying to put their own soundtrack to it. It was just a great finish for Yankee Stadium. More to come tomorrow after I watch the pregame stuff.

These late summer/early fall Sundays are some of the most exciting in sports. We have pennant race baseball, the NFL season is underway, NASCAR has hit the Chase and Golf has the FedEx cup playoffs and this week the Ryder Cup, which I grow to love even more each year. This year’s US Open was the most exciting golf event I have ever seen, but the Ryder Cup when it’s close like this year is always a close second.

There is always just an incredible energy surrounding the Ryder Cup and when it reaches Sunday with the result in doubt there is an atmosphere that is hard to match in sports. The weather today at Valhalla is beautiful and the crowds are in full swing with fans from both the US and Europe. The singles matches probably aren’t as much fun as the foursomes of Friday and Saturday (there isn’t much that is funnier than the awkward high fives and fist pounds between teammates), but the energy out there today more than makes up for it.

I think both captains wanted to start the day with serious energy as evidenced by their starters for the singles matches: Anthony Kim and Sergio Garcia. This match should be one of the most fun to watch of the day and the energy of these two guys is exactly how the teams and the captains wanted to start the day. I love the next two picks by Azinger too with Hunter Mahan and Justin Leonard who have been two of the most steady performers throughout the matches. Then comes Mickelson who really should (and I mean should) be able to beat Justin Rose. I love the lineup that Azinger is using today. The only change that I would have made would be to switch Steve Stricker and Chad Campbell. Stricker is third to last and Campbell is last. I would have Stricker as the closer in case it comes down to that because of his putting stroke which has been on all week. He is one of the best putters in the world and really puts the ball in the hole so that’s why I’d want him closing it out.