The Weekend in Sports: Yankees World Series Bound
After grinding out 162 regular season games and nine playoff games, the New York Yankees finally punched their ticket to the World Series Sunday night with a 5-2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. It will be the Yankees first trip to the big dance since 2003 when they lost to the Florida Marlins in six games. Although they have struggled sealing the deal this decade, the Yankees history is quite illustrious. This marks the 40th time they have won the American League pennant and a win over the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series would be their 27th time winning it all.
Of course, the Phillies will more than put up a fight to defend their World Series crown. The match up features some of the best pitchers in the game (Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels, CC Sabathia, Mariano Rivera, etc.) as well as some of the leagues’ premier hitters in Ryan Howard and Alex Rodriguez. Game one is scheduled Wednesday in New York at a time to be determined.
Other baseball news: The Yankees victory over the Angels and subsequent berth in to the World Series was not the only piece of interesting baseball news over the weekend. After much debate in St. Louis over whether or not manager Tony La Russa would return to the club next year, it was announced that he and management agreed to a one year deal for 2010 that includes a mutual option for 2011. However, the real buzz surrounding the agreement was word that the Cardinals will be replacing hitting coach Hal McRae with a former slugger most recently known for his refusal to speak about the past during a Congressional hearing on steroids. That slugger is none other than Mark McGwire, who was coached by La Russa during his time with the Cardinals and Oakland Athletics.
College football: For those of you (like me) who do not like the BCS and desperately want to see a playoff system implemented, the storm clouds have started to brew with the most recent set of BCS rankings. The top four teams in the current standings — Florida, Alabama, Texas and Iowa — are all undefeated and barring an upset, three of those teams will likely end the season that way. A one-loss USC team comes in at number five and is followed by another set of undefeated teams in TCU, Boise State and Cincinnati. Even if only half of these top-eight teams win out we are looking at plenty of BCS drama and will hopefully move one step closer to a playoff system.
NFL: After seven weeks of play there are still three undefeated teams (Indianapolis Colts, Denver Broncos, and New Orleans Saints) attempting to join the 1972 Miami Dolphins in the NFL history books. The Dolphins ran the table that year and remain the only team to have ever completed a perfect season. The field was nearly trimmed down to two teams this week as the Saints struggled against, ironically, the Dolphins. The Saints found themselves down 34-24 at the end of the third quarter but scored 22 unanswered points in the fourth to secure the victory.
What do you think was the biggest story of the weekend? What are you looking forward to the most this week? Let us know in the comments section below.
