Early Weekend Thoughts

This has been a great weekend of sports with college football and the baseball playoffs in full swing with a nice slate of NFL games coming today.

-Friday started with the nonsensical infield fly ruling. How on Earth would they have turned a double play from short left field? Wouldn't happen so the rule should not have been enforced. Even worse than the call itself was the media trying to explain it by saying umpire Sam Holbrook was not used to being positioned in left field which caused his mistake? What?? That's one of the most pathetic excuses I have ever heard. This guy is a professional umpire. Being 50 feet away from where he is normally stationed made him make an awful call? Come on, man!

-Later that night, the never say die Orioles started Joe Saunders, yes that  Joe Saunders in a must-win game. What happened? Of course, they won. This team can do nothing wrong right now despite having the most no-named pitching staff in playoff baseball history. Name three members of their starting rotation... still waiting...still waiting.... Buck Showalter is a magician.

-On Saturday, Matt McGloin, aka "the worst starting quarterback in college football", covered a 3-point spread costing me a few dollars units.I'm happy for Penn State and Bill O'Brien but watching McGloin succeed really irritates me. His touchdown dive and celebration combo were laughably pathetic, almost as pathetic as Northwestern's fourth quarter defense which surrendered an 11-point lead to McGloin and Co. I like Pat Fitzgerald and always root for the Wildcats, but this guy needs to win a big game at some point, right?

-Can Rutgers be this year's BCS buster? They are 5-0 after beating UConn and don't face a ranked opponent until November 29th when they host Louisville in their season finale.  Could a 12-0 Rutgers play for the BCS title? Very doubtful but you never know.

-Gene Chizik must feel like Cam Newton graduated, err left school, 7 years ago. It's been less than two but his seat is getting HOT at Auburn.

-Your 2012 Fraud of the Year: Virginia Tech. I thought these guys were supposed to be good. (Please do not let the Jets spend a high first round pick on QB Logan Thomas. Have some mercy on me.)

-How about those Mountaineers? West Virginia was my pick to win the BCS title this year and so far so good. 

-There were three matchups featuring two top-11 teams yesterday. The aforementioned Mountaineers survived Texas 48-45; Florida squeaked by LSU in a snoozer, 14-6; and South Carolina destroyed Georgia.

-The upset of the year so far occurred in Raleigh when NC State knocked off #3 Florida State. Patting myself on the back alert: I have now teased two 14.5 point underdogs in the last three weeks that have won outright (Kansas State over Oklahoma and NC State last night).

-To recap, the numbers 3, 4, and 5 teams all lost yesterday.

-Also Memphis won for only the fourth time since October 10, 2009! Good for them.

-As a nightcap, both baseball teams I was rooting for - the Tigers and Reds - won.

-Hoping for more big things today.