This past fall weekend was a glorious immersion of sports programming that provided high-capacity couch adhesion with deft dexterity of the remote. It was a thing of beauty although Mrs. Yard conveyed a litany of disdainful looks. Yard perseverance is legendary. There were amazing college football games intertwined with the Ryder Cup, the NFL and MLB regular season closing out the evening. Yard staff mentioned that the weather was amazing, we would not know. The AC was keeping us chilled and so were the outcomes. The Ryder Cup was electric. The Dodgers and Giants are going down to the wire with both teams splaying every team on their way to the playoffs. The Bruins won at Stanford and the Trojans lost at home. The Raiders capped the hometown schedule with an OT victory over the Fish. All that was left was the Pinot Noir and Sushi celebration for all my good fortune.
The city of Las Vegas exploded with live sports all over the city this past weekend besides what was televised. The Raiders had 59,000 strong for their game with the Miami Dolphins. NASCAR left turned their way around the oval at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway before 50,000. The Golden Knights Hockey Exhibition drew 17,000 for a freaking hockey exhibition. 125,000 revelers enjoyed a wide spectrum of sports content across the Las Vegas Valley.
The Ryder Cup was the highlight of the weekend. The Ryder Cup has such a rich history and the Euros have had their way with the top US Ryder Cup Teams since 1985 when the competition changed to Euros, not just the UK and Ireland. The US dominated the UK for the first 58 years winning 22 times to just three for Britain and their constituency . When the format changed to US against all of Europe, the outcome was 11-4 for the Euros since the participating nations changed up. Most years, the US had the better team on paper, but the Europeans still prevailed both on their soil and ours. The European roster of Grahame McDowell, Seve, Sergio, Rory, Ian Poulter, and the rest always seem to play their best in the Ryder Cup. The US Team had Tiger, Phil, Rickie, and the rest of our best who all always seemed to be stumbling in the rough. The European Team played the perennial underdog and boat raced the more revered and feared US team repeatedly. This year’s cup might have finally flipped the paradigm. The Euros looked old as they trotted out their mainstays including 48-year-old Lee Westwood. But they could not keep pace with the US twenty somethings and lost by the largest margin in Ryder Cup history. 37-year-old Dustin Johnson was the stoic leader of the resurgence going 5-0 in his matches in one of the few times in a Ryder Cup match history. Paulina Gretsky was beaming after the round which might have a bigger incentive on Sunday for DJ. These young Turks stormed Whistling Straits and set the stage for cups to come. In a prescient moment on the first tee, Ryder Cup mainstay Sergio Garcia bombed his first drive right down the middle of the fairway to the cheers of some. The partisan crowd roared when Bryson DeChambeau teeing off second, crushed his ball on to the 408-yard Par 4 first green. Game on!
USC losing to the Oregon State Beavers for the first time since 1960 was newsworthy. The Trojans have always had football success, the Beavers not so much. 61 years is a long time between wins at the Coliseum, and this was a large upset. Clay Helton got fired for losing a home game by more than 20 as a heavy favorite just two weeks ago. Yard staff has determined that the interim coach probably will not get whacked for the same offense. Donte Williams did ice his exclusion from the ongoing head coach job search. UCLA is making it interesting in 2021 and we have some cake on DTR winning the Heisman. That is as far fetched as UCLA being relevant after twenty years wandering in a football wasteland. We are trying to keep our historical myopia in a box in the attic until we process more data.
The real emotional trauma is unfolding in the MLB playoff picture particularly in the NL West. The Dodgers and Giants have battled all season. The biggest lead either team had was five games and mostly it has been between 1-2 games all season. They have the two best records in baseball. This was expected of the Dodgers especially before Bauer went rogue. The Giants looked like they were stitching a patchwork team together of veterans and other old people. Unfortunately, the pumpkin patch flipped the game board and did not just keep pace but surpassed the Dodgers in this moment. There are few games left to close it out but neither team wants that Wild Card game. To win 100+ games and lose a play in a game would be painful. My heart rate heightens as I type. The one and done situation is scary but what is scary is that the other WC team is most likely the Saint Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals have been the Dodgers playoff kryptonite the past 20 years winning four of five playoff series. The Cardinals just won 17 in a row to roar into the second WC spot from the back of the pack. We had the Cards over 86 wins at the book, so it was bittersweet. The Dodgers will be tough out in any playoff series, but a one game winner take all can turn out badly without a tomorrow to recover. The Giants are the Cardinals Huckleberry, so we know who they are rooting for next week if they hang on to first. It is not over for the NL West Crown and this Dodger team is never satisfied. With all the injuries and the one miscreant, they are tailgating the Giants to the finish line. It will be a NASCAR finish. Last night when Mad Max did not have his good game and blew a big lead, the Dodgers bombed four homeruns in the 8th to overcome the friar’s uprising. They won another game that should have been a defeat. The Padres have been on the wrong side of several this year. It should be a fun run; we hope it is a long one.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment