Monday Morning Back Up Quarterback

The NFL playoff picture becomes a bit more clear after this week of games:

Exciting Finishes: Bears over Saints in OT, Chargers beat Chiefs with an on-side kick and a Rivers' TD drive, Jets win on a fumble returned for a TD versus the Bills, Atlanta triumphant in overtime at home against the Bucs, and the Steelers win their division on a reviewed TD pass from Big Ben.

Awful Games: Bay Area football is put in check by the AFC East, Carolina rolls a terrible Denver team (that will win the AFC West), Bengals/Redskins is unwatchable, The Cowboys dominate a team that once was thought to be the best in the league but no looks awful (NY Giants), and the Vikings put one nail in the coffin of the Bears by beating the Cards.

That's about all for the NFL. I'm less and less interested as I realize the Bears won't be going to the post-season.

The Yankees Have Cash to Burn-ett: Don't you hate lame sports story titles that think they are clever? Me too- I apologize for just typing one moments ago. The Yanks have now spent $243 million on CC Sabathia and AJ Burnett. That's $60.75 million per initial. If I was a Yankees fan, I'd be half pumped, and half worried that the Brewers wrecked CC's arm and that AJ's was never fixed to begin with. We'll see how it goes...

BREAKING NEWS: Reggie Theus is out as Sacramento Kings coach. I didn't think he was doing a bad job with what he had to work with, but I've also heard the team was very disorganized and management did not like that. I imagine a coach should be pretty hands-on with a young team, so maybe it's a good move. You know what's not a great move? Firing Rick Adelman. Oops!

Monday Morning Back-up Quarterback

Who's excited for the 49ers to face the Cardinals tonight? Anyone? Seriously, somebody has to be excited... Really? No one?

Oh well. Let's talk about the rest of the league, starting with my favorite inconsistent team:

The Bears lose to the Titans in a frustrating game. So why is it that every time I watch the Bears on TV, they frustrate me? If they lost in a way that was less maddening, I swear I could deal with it. However, the Titans (who totally rely on the run) had 20 total rushing yards. 20! Yet Kerry Collins had 289 yards passing. Compare that to the 251 total yards the Bears earned on offense and you have a terrible football game. With Brian Griese throwing for over 400 yards against the Bears defense, and now Kerry Collins throwing for an effective 289 yesterday, the Bears have officially allowed two members of AARP to look like young Joe Montanas.

And I haven't even gotten to Sexy Rexy. I think I've been his biggest Bear fan supporter throughout the years. Guess what Rex? I'm off the bandwagon. I may have jumped off after your wagon began it's decent down a canyon, but at least I'm not hitting the ground with you. Rex looked good in the first drive, the proceeded to throw for no passing yards for the rest of the first half. Just terrible.

As far as the Titans go, I'm going to have to cheer for them to go undefeated now because I still hate the 1972 Dolphins. Especially Mercury Morris. When is that guy going to rear his ugly face on TV. Shove it Mercury. An 8-8 team today would destroy your Dolphins and their 13-0 regular season record (16-0 total.)

PS: Jevon Kearse's 9-0 jersey thing was pretty funny. Even I can appreciate that.

Giants are the team to beat in the NFC East - Thank goodness I'm not an Eagles fan as well. There's another frustrating team to watch. Donovan McNabb never seems to get the job done.
Whether he is losing NFC Championship games, throwing up in a huddle during the Super Bowl, or allowing his team to flounder in mediocrity- McNabb just doesn't seem like the championship caliber quarterback people once thought he could be.

The Raiders are going to get their NFL team status taken away. Seriously, they are that bad.

Other notes: Patriots are still pretty good without Tom Brady, the Lions are AWFUL, I can't believe the Colts beat the Steelers at home, the NFC North is lucky the NFC West exists, and the Jets are overrated.

It's also good to have the NBA back, except the Cavs have already proven that they are way better than the Bulls, and with the trade of Allen Iverson to the Pistons, the Bulls have no shot in that division this year. It's exciting to see Derrick Rose out there, but it is a buzz kill to know your team is an 8 seed at best. Oh well, let me sooth myself with memories of 6 championships from the 1990s.

Monday Evening Back-up Quarterback

Sorry for the lateness of this blog. The Bears had a bye week this week so I was not as interested in the NFL this week. HOWEVER- Mike Singletary had the best post game news conference of the year. I liked it so much, I'm posting it now:



My fantasy football team won because the Reggie Wayne Campaign was completely unproductive tonight. I was up 7 points, so if he had caught a touchdown, I most likely would've lost. 3 catches for 29 yards is a beautiful stat line.

The Phillies/Rays game was postponed tonight, so the World Series will not be decided tonight. They will resume tomorrow and play the game from the 6th inning with a 2-2 score. I guess it's better to decide the World Series during regular weather, but it was fun to watch them roll around in the mud for an inning-and-a-half.

Besides all that, here's a non-sports story. Leaving my future in-laws place tonight, I was driving down Madison Ave in Carmichael, CA. I was being tailgated by a beat up Ford sedan. I tapped my breaks a couple times, but they would not stop. We finally got to a light where they wanted to turn left and they shot ahead of me and screeched their brakes at a red light (that I'm not sure they saw initially.) I shot them a bad glance, and they were giggling. I debated reporting their license plate number, but low and behold there was a Highway Patrol car right behind me once the other car had gone left.

I figured he would head that direction, but NO. He stuck right behind me, basically tailgating me as well. He drove behind me for about 3 blocks, then went around me and cut me off to get ahead of me. What kind of an alternate universe is this?! I'm getting tormented by stupid drivers, one of which is supposed to lay down the law. The Highway Patrol in that area is awful and they need to seriously get re-trained as to how to uphold the law.

Other headlines:

NBA starts this week
Titans rule, Colts drool
Saw V, really similar to Saw II through IV
Bay Area Football Worse Than Ever
Big Ben Destroyed By The Giants
Cowboys Beat Bucs, Prove Nothing
Heroes Is Still An Awful TV Show

Sports News From the Weekend

It's a good thing I waited to make this entry because I can start by mentioning the 49ers coaching situation:

Mike Nolan is out, Mike Singletary is in: Mike Nolan's disastrous tenure as Niners' head coach is over. They've been a non-factor in the NFL for many years now, and Nolan has done nothing to change that. In fact, his manner of dodging questions at press conferences and making inept in-game decisions has only fueled the fire of the Niners' futility. Luckily, he's being replaced by one of my childhood heroes- Mike Singletary. If nothing else, this guy is going have awesome pregame and halftime speechs. I would hate to be a player making a mistake and have Singletary staring me down. Direct gaze from his eyes can make small woodland creatures scatter.

It is interesting that they did not choose Mike Martz to take over. He has been running the offense and is a more experienced (some vs. none) coach in the NFL than Singletary. I'm also surprised they did not wait until the end of the season. I feel like Mike Holmgren might be available to bring back to the Bay Area. The other option might be Bill Cowher, but he has no shot at the job because his name is not "Mike."

Raiders beat the Jets - The Raiders squeak out a victory over the Brett Favre led Jets. I couldn't help but cheer against them at the end because of head coach Tom Cable calling a time out right before the Jets kicked a possible game tying field goal. Jets kicker Jay Feely missed the kick, but got a re-do because of the Raiders calling timeout. He, of course, made the second kick and sent it into overtime. I wish teams would stop such shinanigans, but I know they won't.

Sebastian Janikowski ended up kicking a 57 yard field goal in overtime to with the game for the Raiders. I text messaged my friend, Phil, to congratulate him on the Raiders win and this is what he had to say: "F*** ya! They must have given [Janikowski] double the amount of blow than he normally does before a kick..." Truer words may have never been spoken.

The Rays are going to the World Series - That's cool. I like the players on the team. But come on, it's hard for me to take all of these expansion teams seriously. If the team didn't exist when I was born, I lose a little bit of interest if they make it to the World Series. D'Backs, Marlins, Rockies, Rays and I'll even throw in the Nationals. I can't believe the first four I named have won or at least gone to the World Series. As a Cubs fan, am I jealous? You bet I am. (Side note: How great would a Cubs/Yankees World Series have been in 2003? Can you say HIGHEST RATINGS EVER?)

So far the Pats are playing well and up 13-0 in the 2nd quarter. If Tom Brady was playing, this game would be over already.

Squib Kicks

This week of NFL action had multiple games come down to last second field goals, touchdowns, and an overtime.

Bears/Falcons - This was a crazy game. To be honest, the Bears were completely outplayed and still almost won the game. They were as good at stopping the Falcons at third downs as Hugh Grant is at stopping himself from cheating on Elizabeth Hurley (and we know how that worked out.) Yet, Kyle Orton led the Bears down field and scored with 11 seconds left in the game. They squib kicked to the Falcons, which was as good of an idea as fourth installment of Indiana Jones. The Falcons subsequently got the ball on their own 45 yard line. With 6 seconds left, Matt Ryan completed a 25 yard pass to Michael Jenkins out of bounds with 1 second left on the clock. Jason Elam kicked a field goal and that was that. Game over, Bears.

As a side note, former Ravens coach, Brian Billick, was announcing the game and he called Kyle Orton "Kyle Boller" at least three times. I wonder if Billick wakes up out of a nightmare, sweaty, yelling "BOLLER!!!" I bet he does.

Houston/Miami - The Texans won their first game of the year by beating the Dolphins on a last second QB sneak by Matt Schaub. I didn't watch the game, but what the heck is up with QB's named "Matt" getting it done today?

Minnesota/Detroit - Vikings beat the Lions on a last second field goals. This leads to two questions: How the hell are the Vikings tied for first in the NFC North? (ANSWER: That division is awful.) AND How on earth did this game get decided on a last second field goal? (ANSWER: Both the Vikings and Lions are also awful, but the Lions are just a little bit more of a pathetic football team than the Vikings.)

Cowboys/Cardinals - Easily the best part of the game was when Cardinals' coach, Ken Wisenhunt, called timeout right before the Cowboys last second field goal. The Cards blocked the field goal and were running it back for a touchdown as the refs blew the whistle and informed everyone that the Cardinals had called timeout. Cowboys try again, and kicker Nick Folk makes the kick. For a split second, I actually wanted the Cowboys to win. That wore off quickly and I'm glad they lost on a blocked punt returned to the end zone. The Cardinals are for real (pause... NOT! Their division also is awful!)

Bay Area Teams - give me a reason to talk about you, and I will. Until then, you're out of the blog. Do something about it Al Davis or Mike Nolan.

Baseball is trucking along with the ALCS at 1-1 and the NLCS at 2-1 (advantage Phillies.) I really don't care who wins, I guess maybe the Phillies or Rays, but let's be honest, I can hardly watch baseball without seeing flashbacks of the Cubs kicking the ball all ove the infield. Ahhh... I just felt a shiver up my spine...

The Week In Revew

Well, Sports Fans- I don't know what to say. The Cubs looked like a Little League team versus the Los Angeles Dodgers. I was awfully frustrated and disappointed with their performance. The fact is that the Cubs have scored 12 runs in their last 6 playoff games. They have not won a playoff game since they were up 3-1 in the 2003 NLCS against the Marlins. I had a lot of fun enjoying this season, but the end was anti-climatic. I don't have any other in depth analysis other than to say that "Next year is the year... it's always the year"

On to happier topics, the Bears dominated the Detroit Lions. Kyle Orton threw for over 300 yards, 2 TDs and 0 INTs. Go Bears.

The 49ers couldn't come through against the short-handed New England Patroits. The offense looked great initially, and looked like the Cubs' offense in the second half. No points=loss almost every time.

To be honest, I was a groomsman in my friend, Mike's wedding this weekend so I was not able to watch too much sports this weekend (including the Cubs final playoff game) but I'll end this with my two extremes picks of the week:

Most Impressive Performance: (besides the Dodgers who I will completely ignore) the Washington Redskins. Once again, I was sure they would let down this week (I picked against them in Week 2) and they played a GREAT game against the Eagles. They are making me a believer. You never know- we might be on a collison course for a Bears/Redskins playoff match-up.

Least Impressive Performance: (besides the team from the North Side of Chicago that I've already mentioned) the San Diego Chargers. This team is SOOOOOOOOO talented and Norv Turner is clearly not getting the optimal performance out of his players. They start slow EVERY game. The underacheive every game. LT is coming off as a powdy whiner. I like the Chargers, but I can't stay on the bandwagon if they keep choking in games they should win.

Basically, this was a depressing sports week for me, so it's hard for me to get very excited about much in the way of athletic contests. I will leave you with quick predictions:

World Series: Red Sox beat Phillies

Super Bowl: Dallas beats Steelers

NBA: Sacramento Kings make the 8 spot in the West (bold, ain't it.)

NASCAR: I'll pay attention the day Cole Trickle and Ricky Bobby show up and actually race in a race.

A Case of the Mondays

Here are some recent current events in sports that interest me:

Cubs will play the Dodgers - Being a Northern Californian, I do enjoy watching an occasional Giants game. I'll cheer for them as long as they are not playing the Cubs. Because of this, I've also taken to the Giants hate for the Dodgers. It should be an interesting series, but I'm ready to enjoy playoff baseball in October for the second year in row. Now that I've seen the way things have shaped up, I probably would've rather the Cubs play the Mets, but whatever. You have to beat everyone to win the World Series, so let's do this.

NFL Week 4 - Wow, what a week! My first mistake came when I started Phillip Rivers over Drew Brees in Fantasy Football. Ouch, Brees had arguably the best week of any QB and Rivers tried to let the Raiders win their second game of the week (that seems like the only way the Raiders will win games is if the other team allows them to get the W.)

The Bears beat the Philadelpia Eagles on the Sunday Night Game of the Week. To be honest, I watched the last two minutes of the game because I had a show in Walnut Creek during the game. Coincidentally (or not if your superstisious) the Bears are 2-0 on days when they play on Sunday Night Football. They are also 2-0 when I play at Pyramid in Walnut Creek during the game and 2-0 when I wear a particular long sleeve t-shirt. They are 0-2 when I watch the game or put more effort into following the results, yet when my effort is going towards entertaining- they win. Well, I guess I need to put as much focus on the Bears as I do the Tyra Show, and they'll play better.

The Redskins upset the Cowboys in Dallas. They played a great game and I was especially impressed with the Redskins defense (besides their Prevent defense at the end of the First Half.) Great win. The NFC East is the toughest division in football.

Current undefeated teams left: Titans, Ravens, Giants and Bills. Odds of any of those teams winning the Super Bowl: 100 to 1

Well, Entourage was frustrating and now I'm watching Family Guy waaaaay too late at night. If there any requests for sports topics, leave it in the comments. Hey-ooooooooooooooooo!

A Case of the Mondays

Hi there. I'm Tony, and I'll be posting about sports every Monday. To give you some background on me, I am a huge Chicago sports fan (Cubs, Bears, Bulls) and I'm a former high school basketball player. I play fantasy football and baseball every year, listen to KNBR 680 every day, and watch way too much ESPNews. It's in fact amazing that I have time to do all of this, while holding a job, and playing live music at least two nights a week (www.tonybataska.com).

So without further delay, here are the sports stories that caught my attention recently:

Cubs Win NL Central! - This is the 100th anniversary of the last time the Cubs won the World Series. Regardless of whether they win or lose in the playoffs, the Cubs have already had an amazing season that have seen a couple first in my lifetime:

This is the first time I've ever seen the Cubs win their division two years in a row. The last time they did this was actually three in a row (1906, 07, 08).

This is the first time I've ever seen the Cubs go to the playoffs two years in a row (once again, 06-08).

Carlos Zambrano threw the only Cubs no hitter I've ever seen. Milt Papas threw the last one in 1972. Apparently every year at the Cubs Convention, Milt would tell Zambrano, "You're going to be the next one to do it." Good call, Milt. You are correct, sir!

Week 3 of the NFL - There were many great games this weekend, and here's the quick recap:

The Bears blew another 4th quarter lead - For the second week in a row, the Bears have the lead going into the 4th quarter, and they leave the game losers. Luckily, this week I didn't go out of my way to watch the game. On the negative side, the Bears were beat by Brian Griese whom they traded to Tampa Bay in the offseason. Griese had over 400 yards passing. Way to welcome back your former teammate. A nice gift basket of fruit would've been sufficient, but letting him march up and down the field in overtime was a little too nice of the defensive unit.

The Giants beat the Bengals in overtime - The second overtime game of the week found defending champion NY Giants beating the hapless Cinncinati Bengals. Each week I'm more and more impressed with Eli Manning. He looks to have found his identity in the NFL.

Oakland loses to the Bills on last second field goal - I watched the large majority of this game and it wasn't half as bad as I thought it was going to be. The Raiders looked a lot better than the sorry, ridiculously terrible team they were in Week 1. The Raiders running attack looked great and their defense was tenacious until the end. On the flip side, the Bills are 3-0 for the first time since the early 90s.

Other games of note:

Jags beat Colts, Niners destroy Lions, Cowboys beat Packers, and Vikings beat Panthers. Sorry if I missed your team, I'll try to work in more teams next week.

US wins Ryder Cup for the first time since 1998:

I'm not a huge golf fan, but since the US hadn't won the Ryder Cup in a decade, I figured it was worth a mention. U-S-A, U-S-A!

So that's the first installment, come on back as I update the Cubs playoff results and the rest of the NFL season.