I Got a Fever...

Cleveland, Toronto, and all the other teams
Lie broken on the Yankees' field of dreams
Their arch-foes, the Red Sox, are their big treat
They torture them into glorious defeat
--Baseball's Mortal Sin, Joe Pickering Jr.

As if baseball needed to get better, the end of September is starting to shape up with some ridiculousness all over the place. Last night alone we saw (or read about, or don't care about) the on-fire Indians getting a few late runs to beat the White Sox and cut a once-insurmountable lead in the AL Central to just 2.5 games, a dude named Bubba hit a walk-off homer at Yankee Stadium to bring the pinstripes within a half-game of the BoSox in the AL East, Khalil Greene (yes, that scrawny, surfer-looking shortstop Khalil Greene) hitting two home runs, the second of which came in the ninth inning and propelled the Padres to an 8-7 win over the Rockies, giving said ballclub a record above .500 and a six-game lead in the division, the A's get a great start from Barry Zito and hold off the Twins to pull within 1.5 games of the idle Angels, Roger Clemens get beat by a Pirates rookie, dropping the Astros to just a one-game lead in the NL Wildcard race--and we only had eight games the whole day. Monday Night Football had two games, the second of which provided a tremendous finish, but they've got nothing on baseball right now. I'll readily admit that Sunday needs to be about football (despite the 0-2 record of a certain Southern California squad), but in two weeks, the final day of the regular season falls on a Sunday, and there can (and will) be all kinds of playoff implications: among others, the suddenly vulnerable White Sox visit the Indians and the Yankees head to Fenway, both of which should be epic encounters. The Angels and A's are both on the road, playing division foes, and the Marlins and Astros get home games while the Phillies have to play at Washington. Who knows how the 11 or 12 games between now and then are going to play out, but it's going to be quite exciting down to the finish. Who would have guessed that the Padres would be far more comfortable about their post-season status than the Yankees, Red Sox or even the White Sox? By the way, that's pennant fever I've got, in case it took you this long to figure that out...

Gotta flash back to Friday real quick to wrap up a great USC-centric show we did, on location in front of Tommy Trojan. Coach Pete Carroll was the big draw, in addition to a piece with Rodney Peete hanging out with Matt Leinart (and running into Reggie Bush on campus--funny stuff). Old school Frank Gifford brought at least a hint of respectability to the show, and the band and song girls (yes, Kristen was definitely in the house) brought a little flair. Didn't have the pleasure of heading down there for the day, because bigger responsibilities existed in-house, and while it would have definitely been fun to be out there, being here was a very good thing--a sign of things to come, if you will. Got to go to the actual game on Saturday (our show was basically a promotion for the FSN college football opener, USC-Arkansas), and I'm firmly convinced that I've never seen a better offense in college football. Ever. I wrote about this not long ago, and now I have no doubt. They aren't great defensively, but they cannot be stopped. People say this Oregon game is going to be a test, but I can't see Oregon coming close to slowing down this attack. The Ducks gave up 24 points to Houston and 34 to Fresno State, so I'm imagining a little trouble keeping up with Leinart and Bush and all the nineteen other weapons they have on offense. Awesome performance earlier in the day by the Bruins, earning easily the biggest win in Karl Dorrell's three-year tenure. I had to go into that one a little hesitant, so as to avoid the disappointment that has plagued the Dorrell era thus far, but it's hard to hold back the excitement at this point. Drew Olson is having his Drew Brees '04 season, Maurice Drew and Chris Markey aren't quite Reggie Bush and LenDale White (okay, they're nowhere near it), but they've been outstanding, Marcedes Lewis is the best tight end in the country (one of three positions at which we actually have an advantage over those Trojans), and Spencer Havner came up with a HUGE fumble return for a touchdown (he's advantage number two; Justin Medlock is number three). I know Oklahoma is down and I know SDSU and Rice are SDSU and Rice, but we're 3-0 for the first time in quite awhile (lost the opener last year, two out of the first three in '03 and the third game in '02) and I'm excited about it. We're still going to be undefeated next week (bye on Saturday), heading into a match-up at home with the University of Dub, likely coming off a rough loss to the Fighting Brady Quinns. We then get Cal at home (beatable--their quarterbacks are AWFUL), and then don't play another real tough game until the last two: hosting ASU November 12 and then at the Coliseum (hopefully in a showdown for the Pac-10 title) December 3. We need this to be a good year...

Sports Guy's links came in handy the other day, with an advisory about turning one of the buttons on the TiVo remote into a 30-second skip button, meaning that watching anything with commercials becomes a much quicker deal. Watched "Prison Break" as such last night, which meant I could start it at like 9:20 and finish it on time. That Earl show is on tonight, if I have enough energy after church, which doesn't seem likely, given the normal weeknight energy level these days. Looking forward to a dark day Friday, and hoping that this whole less-than-one-entry-a-week thing doesn't last too much longer. Peace...