NBA season tips off, NFL update

NBA Tips off 2012-13 Season

• The NBA regular season started last night with three games, including the defending NBA champion Miami Heat. In the first game, the Cleveland Cavaliers, powered by Kyrie Irving and Anderson Varejao, defeated the Washington Wizards 94-84.
• The Heat began their title defense against the Boston Celtics. Before the game, they raised their championship banner and received their rings and then proceeded to beat the Celtics behind 29 points from Dwayne Wade and 26 from Lebron James. Ironically, when the Celtics raised their championship banner in 2008, James was on the sidelines as a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers. 
• In the closing seconds of the game, Rajon Rondo grabbed Wade around the neck as he went to the basket and was assessed a flagrant foul.  Wade said the foul was a "punk play" and James said it "wasn't a basketball play."
• In the late game, the L.A. Lakers showed off new premier acquisitions Dwight Howard and Steve Nash against the Dallas Mavericks but it was the Mavs new acquisitions of Elton Brand, Darren Collison and O.J. Mayo who played better as Dallas won 99-91 despite not having Dirk Nowitzki who will be out for 6-8 weeks because of a knee surgery.
• Howard had 19 points and 10 rebounds but shot a miserable 3-14 from the Free Throw line and Nash had only 7 points and 4 assists.  All was not terrible for the Lakers though as Kobe Bryant was a very efficient 11-14 for 22 points and Pau Gasol had 23 points, 13 rebounds and 6 assists.


NFL almost halfway done

• The best teams in the league prove their dominance in Week 8. The Green Bay Packers, New England Patriots, Atlanta Falcons and San Francisco 49ers all won by at least 9 points.
• The New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys played a see-saw game. The Giants roared out to a 23-0 lead but the Cowboys came all the way back to take a 24-23 lead. The Giants were able to claw back by kicking 2 fourth quarter field goals. A last minute desperation touchdown by the Cowboys was deemed to be out of bounds by the slightest of margins when Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant’s fingers landed out of bounds before any of the rest of his body landed in play.
• Perhaps the biggest surprise of the day was the Cleveland Browns holding the San Diego Chargers to only 6 points in their 7-6 victory. The Browns, behind rookie running back Trent Richardson’s 122 yards, dominated a nasty-weather game. The Chargers fell to 3-4 after a 3-1 start, are still in the hunt for a playoff spot if they are able to turn it around and show some consistency.
• The Chargers look to get back on track tomorrow in this week's Thursday night game against the Kansas City Chiefs who are mightily struggling and will start QB Matt Cassel only a week after he was benched because backup Brady Quinn suffered a concussion.

World Series, NCAA wrap, NBA trade

Giants win World Series

• The Giants must have just decided that they were tired of coming from behind.  Despite being on the brink on elimination twice in the National League portion of the playoffs, facing a total of six elimination games in those two series, the San Francisco made it to the World Series, where they put their fans through much less stress, easily defeating the Detroit Tigers in a 4-0 sweep.
• The final game was played in Detroit and went to 10 innings where Marco Scutaro drove in Ryan Theriot to give the Giants a 4-3 lead before Sergio Romo shut down the Tigers hitters in the bottom of the inning to set off a wild celebration.
• The high-powered Tigers offense, led by Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera and free agent signee Prince Fielder managed only 6 runs in the entire series and none in games 2 or 3.  The loss was even more painful for Tigers infielder Omar Infante who broke his hand when he was hit by a pitch in the 8th inning.
•The series MVP was Pablo Sandoval in set the tone in Game 1, hitting three home runs for the Giants, who take home their second World Series title in three years.


NCAA Highlighted by Horrific Injury

• South Carolina was looking to bounce back after back-to-back losses when they played Tennessee this Saturday and things were off to a good start as Junior running back Marcus Lattimore, fresh off of a major knee injury last year, was leading the Gamecocks to victory. In the second quarter, he was hit low by the helmet of a UT player and the world collectively gasped. Lattimore’s knee bent in a very unnatural way and he collapsed to the ground. The verdict is unclear, but Lattimore will not be playing any more this year, and his 2013 season is up in the air. In the eyes of your author, this injury only has one comparison in its ugliness, that was Willis McGahee in 2003 during the national championship game. Lattimore can be comforted by the fact that McGahee has had a long, productive NFL career.
• The second biggest piece of news out of College Football this weekend was Georgia defeating Florida. Florida was ranked #2 in the country, but turned the ball over six times leading to a 17-9 victory of the Bulldogs.
• Notre Dame continued to prove they belong by defeating the #8 overall Oklahoma Sooners 30-13. Meanwhile, Arizona defeated USC for the first time at home since 1999, giving the Trojans their second loss of the year.


Big Trade in the NBA

• In a league defined by Big Trios, the Oklahoma City Thunder looked like they had their core trio of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden, all under 25 and all top 25 players in the league. The wildcard in those three was Harden, who was the 6th man for the Thunder (the first guy off the bench). He entered this season on the last year of his contract.
• The Thunder offered Harden a four year-$55 million contract. Harden refused, knowing he could get more on the open market. Instead of waiting for Harden to leave next summer, the Thunder made a move by sending Harden, as well as 3 other players, to the Houston Rockets in exchange for sharpshooter Kevin Martin, recent draftee Jeremy Lamb and 3 draft picks (including 2 first rounders).
• Harden will be able to be the star in Houston (alongside Jeremy Lin) and the Thunder will have a ton of pieces to play with as they look to continue to build around Durant and Westbrook. It is a little surprising that the move was made when it was, as the Thunder were one of the few teams who had legitimate title aspirations. It is unclear at the moment whether this move will help or hinder those aspirations.

NBA commissioner announces retirement plans, World Series is 2-0.

Stern to retire in 2014

• Longstanding NBA commissioner David Stern has announced that he will retire on February 1, 2014.  Stern's hand-picked replacement, Adam Silver will replace him at that time and the owners are already planning to negotiate a deal with him to make the transition occur seamlessly.
• During Stern's tenure, the average player salary jumped 20 times, from $250'000 to around $5 million and the TV revenue increased by 40 times.  Stern is not without his dark spots though, having twice watched the NBA lose regular season games due to lengthy lockouts, and even more recently, vetoing Chris Paul's trade to the Lakers, instead watching him get dealt to the cross-town rival L.A. Clippers.
• The reasoning for the exact date of his departure is that it is exactly 30 years to the day after he first took the job (pictured above), a decision that in itself is in character with Stern's need to be in control and micromanage details.


Giants go up 2-0

• A day after Pablo Sandoval hit three home runs to fuel a rout, the Giants won Game 2 by a score of 2-0 with a double play RBI, a sacrifice and a terrific pitching performance from Madison Bumgarner. 
• The closest the Tigers got to scoring was in the second inning when Prince Fielder was hit by a pitch and tried to score on Delmon Young's double.  He was thrown out at home and instead of having no outs with men at second and third, the Tigers had one out with a man at second and could not get him (or anyone else) across the plate.  The Tigers would only manage one more base hit, a single by Omar Infante (who was then picked off) for the rest of the game.
• The series now heads back to Detroit where the Tigers will try to come back and make it a series.  The Giants on the other hand are in unusual territory, leading a series, after being down 2-0 and 3-1 in their previous two series. 
• On Saturday, Detroit's Anibal Sanchez goes against San Francisco's Ryan Vogelsong.

Managers moving, World Series starts tonight

Coaches on the move

- The Boston Red Sox, on Tuesday, announced the hiring of their next manager, former Toronto Blue Jays skipper John Farrell. Farrell was the Red Sox pitching coach from 2007-2010, and a favorite amongst many of the players.  He replaces Bobby Valentine, who only lasted one disastrous year, and made enemies with many of the team's longstanding stars, including David Ortiz, who Valentine took a parting shot at.
- Meanwhile, in Miami, the Marlins announced that they would be firing manager Ozzie Guillen. Guillen, who was suspended early in the season for comments about Fidel Castro, and has made waves many times in his managerial career which began with the White Sox, underachieved by only winning 69 games despite having the 7th biggest payroll in the Major Leagues. As of now, there is no reported replacement.


World Series Starts Tonight

- The San Francisco Giants and Detroit Tigers will begin the 2012 World Series tonight in San Francisco.  Homefield advantage, which is decided during the All-Star game is definitely appropriate given that Giants ace Matt Cain was the winning pitcher for the NL, Verlander was the losing pitcher for the AL and Giants 3B Pablo Sandoval drove in 3 runs with a first inning triple (off of Verlander).  One All-Star who will be missing from the World Series, however, is All-Star game MVP Melky Cabrera who was suspended for performance enhancing drugs soon after his All-Star appearance.
- Barry Zito, who has underachieved for most of his 7 year, $126 million deal but has played well this year, gets a chance for some redemption as he is slated to pitch Game One against Tigers ace Justin Verlander.  Zito was left off of the Giants 2010 World Series team despite not being injured.
- The Tigers completed their sweep of the New York Yankees almost a week ago and are led by Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera and slugger Prince Fielder.  The Tigers will also be well rested, having finished their ALCS round on Thursday as opposed to the, Giants who completed the NLCS only Monday.

World Series Almost Set, and the Best Keep Getting Better in College

Baseball preparing for the World Series

The American League representatives are set. The Detroit Tigers took advantage of a New York Yankees team that was hurt and had forgotten how to hit, sweeping the Yanks out of the playoff s and themselves into the World Series.

After defeating the Giants 8-3 Thursday night, the Cardinals are one win away from their fourth World Series berth in the past nine years, but they know better than to take the Giants for granted after the Giants just won three straight do or die games against the Reds to advance to this round.
 Adam Wainwright was dominant in this game, only allowing 1 run and 4 hits in his seven innings of work and the Cardinals pounded out 12 hits, including 3 doubles as the game was never close.
 The Cardinals also led the 1999 NLCS 3-1 but lost the next three games to the Atlanta Braves, including two losses by 14+ runs. It's doubtful that anyone playing for this team knows or cares about that history, but it's just proof that it's happened before and could potentially happen again if the Giants get hot.
 In Game 7, which will take place tonight, Giants ace Matt Cain will pitch against the Cardinal’s Kyle Lohse, who pitched in Game 3.

NCAA Cream Rises

·         Alabama continues to dominate Tennessee 44-13 to keep their #1 ranking. The rest of the top 5 also held up their end of the bargain.

·         Florida, Oregon and Kansas State all dominated their opponents, with Florida (South Carolina) and K-State (West Virginia) defeating top 15 opponents, soundly.

·         In the most recent BCS rankings, Kansas State leapfrogged Oregon to take the #3 spot, behind only Alabama and Florida. Oregon fell to 4 and Norte Dame held at #5.