There’s talk out of Arizona that the greatest left handed pitcher of the 21st century might be headed to the Cubs. And the talk is coming from both sides, so it’s not that far fetched that Randy Johnson could end his Hall of Fame career at Wrigley field.

   How RJ was unable to strike a deal with his home town D-Backs, even at a fifty percent pay cut is beyond me. The guy pitched great in the second half of the season and his bullpen blew at least a handful more wins. He sits five wins away from the immortal 300, which has been the standard for pitching immortality. He’s also just over 200 strikeouts for 5K in his illustrious career.

    Can you just imagine the already volcanic Wrigley field in early summer buzzing as we count down 300 wins?  Plus Randy would undoubtedly me a mentor to the young guys on the team. Sean Marshall would undoubtedly benefit the most from the big units’ expertise as he is in the same mold. Both left handed, both tall and lanky. Well you get it. My point being is, it makes perfect sense for the big left hander to sign a one year contract and spend his summer in Wrigleyville. 

 The NBA season is barely two and half weeks old and the teams everybody thought would jump out to a great start have. As expected the Lakers, Celtics and Cavaliers have all come out of the gate flying.

  What the league probably didn’t expect was the Atlanta Hawks to jump on the opposition the way they are. The hawks are tough. I went and saw them this week when they beat the Bulls to remain one of two undefeated teams. They have since lost at Boston.

   Having gotten great draft picks the last few years for the futility, the young guns are really starting to come into their own. Take Marvin Williams for example. He was a top five pick four years ago after only one year of college. He is steadily gotten better every year and now teamed with the super athletic Al Horford who is only in his second year and they have a very solid and very young front court. Tuesday night in Chicago Horford had a career high 27 points and pulled down 17 rebounds. He controlled the paint so ferociously that he blocked six shots and ran down numerous loose balls. And then they have veteran leadership in point guard Mike Bibby, who at times looks to shot first, but he is easily a ten guard in the league.

  After barely getting into the playoffs last year, they pushed Boston to the limit taking them to game seven, the Hawks figure to get a high seed and really shake things up this year. The eastern conference breaks down in probably this order. Boston is the class, followed by the Detroit Pistons and Atlanta is probably next in line with Cleveland right on their tails.

The NBA tipped off its season this week and if this year is anything like last year it’s going to be one wild ride.

   With so many young players emerging last year and leading their teams deep into the playoffs this season looks to be more of the same. It’s seems to be a real transition period in the league with a lot of the older players being asked to move aside and let the younger players lead.

    Teams like New Orleans with Chris Paul, Utah with Deron Williams and of course league superstar LeBron James proved themselves more than capable of leading a franchise. All three of those teams are expected to challenge for the championship, but it’s the Lakers and Celtics that are garnishing all the attention and expected to meet in the finals. 

    The Celtics bring back their entire core of players that won the title last year and the thinking is that they have a full year under their belt and might even be better than last year. On the other hand out west the Lakers were sailing along until a knee injury to wunderkind Andrew Bynum ended his season. Thus making the Lakers soft and thin in the frontcourt. Bynum is now fully recovered and looked great in his first two games.

   The Lakers have great depth on the bench and teamed with fellow seven foot Pau Gasol form a menacing force down low. With so much parity in the league, there are just endless games of must see basketball and with so many players switching teams in the off season it’s hard to tell where your favorite player is.    

   So far this post season there has only been one thing capable of stopping the Phillies and that is Mother Nature. A torrential downpour of Rain has halted the World Series and now baseball must wait to crown a new champion. 

   With the champagne on ice and the city of Philadelphia coming unglued in anticipation of the city’s first championship in twenty eight years, they must now wait until at least Wednesday to try and secure it.

   Game 5 started innocently enough with the Phillies taking a 2-0 lead. Tampa fought back to cut the lead in half in a light but steady rain. Around the fourth inning it became very clear there was going to be a problem. They played through it until the six inning when the Rays tied it and the field was a virtual puddle. The groundskeepers tried to do the best they could, but the rain came down so hard and so steady their efforts were being wasted.

  The league was in a very hard predicament. They wanted to do everything in their power to get the game in, but they had to be fair to both teams and not stop it and burn the starting pitchers. I myself think they should have stopped the game way before they did, but I’m not sure that would have been in the best interest of the sport. In the regular season when there are so many games to be played, they usually stop the game after the fifth inning and declare a winner. However with this being a potential championship clinching game it never crossed the leagues mind to call it quits.

   Now they will wait until Wednesday and see if the heavy rain in the area will subside long enough to finish this game. Commissioner Bud Selig has said they will not move the game and “celebrate Thanksgiving” in Philly if it takes that long to get it in. If Tampa can get the win, they would still be down in the series three games to two, but would be going home for games six and potentially game seven in the dome where they would have no issues whatsoever. Go Tampa!!

   The fall classic begins tonight and of all places Tampa Bay/St. Petersburg area. The feel good story of the year, the Tampa Bay Rays are trying to finish up their Cinderella story and win their first baseball championship.

    They beat the Boston Red Sox Sunday night in a very intense elimination game to advance. When everybody in the country thought the Red Sox had them dead to rights, the Rays picked themselves up off the mat, got themselves together and did the unthinkable. Matt Garza showed the poise of a ten year veteran and after giving up a first inning home run settled in and dominated the rest of the game.

   Combine home field advantage and with what manager Joe Madden calls his “new toy” David Price and Tampa Bay is looking poised to take down the Phillies.

    I think the Rays can beat the Phils in six games. My thinking is the Rays with their strong home field presence will take the first two games at home and then probably lose two out of three in Philly and come back and celebrate on their soil. I just think the Rays have to much fire power offensively for the Phils to keep up with. Not that the Rays have great starting pitching, but they have decent starting pitching and their bullpen has been very solid with the exception of game five in Boston when they couldn’t get seven outs before the Red Sox could score seven runs and force everybody to get on a plane and play the final two games.

     The middle of the Rays lineup is just plain scary. They have three big boppers in the middle and they are all in their mid twenties. The ratings will be a disaster, because the match up lacks big name stars but it will be worth watching to see what new October heroes are born.

 
 The second round is set to begin and neither league leader in wins is still around playing. The Cubs went out without a fight and the Angels proved it’s all about the postseason with their downfall to the Red Sox.

      With the sweep of the Cubs, the Dodgers advanced to play the Phillies with a trip to the World Series on the line. The last time these two teams met in the playoffs was 1983. 

      The Dodgers hadn’t even won a series since 1988 and that was when they won it all. Los Angeles is still a Laker town, but you’d be hard pressed to stop someone on the street who wasn’t bleeding Dodger blue. With the off season hiring of Joe Torre and the midseason pickup of Manny Ramirez the Dodgers are poised to make a deep playoff run. The people at FOX sure are banking on it for ratings.

     The Boston Red Sox disposed of the Angels in four games to set up a showdown with the upstart Tampa Bay Rays. The series was a mild surprise as the Angles had beaten the Sox eight out of nine, had the league’s best record and had home field advantage. The Red Sox on the other hand had really owned the Angels when it counts, in the postseason having beaten them eleven straight times and eliminating them in the process.

   It now looks like the Red Sox are on a collision course with the Dodgers. The back stories there are endless. The Red Sox traded Manny in midseason, the former Yankee manager Joe Torre would be in the mix and the current Dodger owner had made a failed attempt to purchase the Red Sox before settling on the Dodgers. Just like it always is in corporate America, it’s all about ratings and the all mighty dollar. In my case I just hope my Dodgers come out on top.   

     There are only five days to go in baseball’s regular season and there are still four playoff spots up for grabs. The pennant races are very much in the balance. The White Sox and Twins look like they are taking their battle to the final day of the season.

   The White Sox currently hold a two game lead in the lose column, but the Twins are right on their tails. They are in the middle of a three game series in Minnesota that could really jam the Sox if they can’t leave there with at least one win. The Twins took the opener last night 9-3 and look to keep the pressure on tonight.

    The Sox haven’t fared well this season in Minnesota losing all but one of their games in the dome. Mark Buehrle toes the slab hoping to halt the momentum and keep the Twins at bay. Last night the Metrodome was packed with thirty-five thousand fans and it really seemed to unnerve the Sox at times.

   Manager Ozzie Guillen seemed a little concerned by his team’s play, but stopped just short of hitting the panic button as he stated his team was still in first place and still had two tries to get one win before closing out the season at home. 

  This past Saturday night was labeled “the collision in the coliseum” and when all the hype stopped and the teams took the field it was top ranked USC standing tall as it crushed #5 Ohio St. 35-3 in what supposed to showcase two national powers.

  USC was just too big, too strong and to fast for the overmatched Buckeyes who had a semi excuse, they were playing without their star running back Chris “beanie” Wells, but it wouldn’t have mattered. The Trojan defense was swarming and flying sideline to sideline making plays all over the field.

  The Buckeyes marched down the field early and kicked a field goal to take a 3-0 lead, but SC came right back and scored a touchdown to take the lead and never look back in fact they would go on to score 35 unanswered points to humiliate the Bucks. The turning point in the game came early when Ohio St thought they had scored on a pass to Brian Robiskie only to have it called back due to a penalty.

  In fact Ohio St played uncharacteristically sloppy having been penalized numerous times including roughing the passer twice and a couple of personal fouls which made the Bucks play with a longer field. USC on the other hand is very deep with talented running backs kept bringing in fresh tailbacks to run all over the exhausted Buckeye defense. What does this all mean??? For Ohio St. it probably means it’s not ready to be an elite team, they’ll go home, roll up their sleeves and try to regroup and start their conference schedule. For USC, this means they have made a major statement throughout the country solidified their spot at the top of the polls and are poised to make a run at another National Championship. 

 
    This years’ “game of the century brings us to Southern California. It pits number 1 USC vs. number 5 Ohio St.  There has been so much hype regarding this game it feels like a national championship.

   The Buckeyes and Trojans haven’t played since 1990 and pundits around the college football industry are all jacked up over this game. The Buckeyes are making this trip west at less than full strength.

  Their star running back and Heisman Trophy frontrunner Chris “beanie” Wells is listed as doubtful after injuring his toe in their season opener. Southern Cal. Fans aren’t buying into this whole “doubtful” scenario Jim Tressell is throwing out there. There is no way the vest is going cross country with his squad at less than 100 percent. I fully expect Ohio St to bring their A game. Whether that’s good enough to beat the air attack & punishing defense of USC is still up in the air.
 
  Newly minted USC quarterback Mark Sanchez is early in his career, but looks to be the answer that SC has sorely lack the last couple of years. And with the Trojans loaded at tailback look for the Trojans to pound the Buckeyes early and open it up late.

  This game will send shock waves throughout the country and have titanic recruiting implications around the country for years to come.

 My prediction is USC 27 Ohio 13..

    The battle between the Cubs and Brewers are heating up as we enter the final three weeks of the season. The Cubs still hold a four game lead over their rivals to the north, but don’t seem as invincible as they once did.

    The Cubs have been struggling mightily the last two weeks. They looked like world beaters when they won seven in a row, but have since dropped eight out of their last nine. That type of play might bury most teams, but not the Cubs. The reason being the Brewers who had the schedule all set up with a nice ten game home stand have lost seven out of the first nine games and have failed to make up any ground.

   The Cubs have bigger issues in front of them as their starting rotation is now experiencing problems. Carlos Zambrano was scratched and pushed back from a start only to take the mound a few days later and be less than impressive. Rich Harden who has been carving up the National League since his arrival in late July was also shelved for two starts to “give him some rest” The Cubs say it was a scheduled shut down, but my question is why they would shut a guy down in a heated pennant race when the guy has been lights out unless there was a concern? They both have since been cleared to pitch and are on schedule this week.