10 Awesome Things That Happened This Past Weekend (10/14-10/16)

10. Prompto Saves Me Some Cash

            To make a long story short, I brought my car in for an oil-change. Even though it had been three months, I barely drive my car so the oil was still in great shape. Instead of going ahead with a change and making an easy $20 (even though I’m a NASCAR fan, I’m a dolt when it comes to cars. They could’ve done a change and I wouldn’t of even known whether or not my oil was fine or not), the good folks at Prompto advised me to hold off for a month or two because a change wasn’t necessary. Kudos to the Prompto people for having morals and doing the right thing (which is saving me money).     

9. Sean Payton Injured During Loss to Buccaneers

            I’m going to bring you folks to a dark place with the following paragraph, but I really enjoy it when coaches get wiped out on the sidelines. As long as there isn’t a fatality (which is always a real possibility when Joe Paterno is involved), I could watch a montage of coaches crumbling to the ground all day.

8. St. Louis Knocks Off Brewers to Earn World Series Berth

            At least for Brewers fans, they can now spend time on more important things, like watching the Packers and increasing their cholesterol.

7. Ravens Win 29-14 Over Houston

            Wouldn’t be noteworthy under normal circumstances, but this game was the first one that No Credentials wagered real cash on. A good start for No Credentials on Sportsbook.

6. Donovan McNabb Gets Benched (Again)

            In this case, it was properly in McNabb’s best interests that Vikings coaches decided to pull him from a 39-10 Bears blowout. Expect Christian Ponder to be starting within three weeks.

5. Matt Kenseth Wins, Jimmie Johnson Crashes Late at Charlotte

    

While it’s easy to get excited that Jimmie Johnson is in eighth place in The Chase with five races to go, we need to get through Talladega before declaring that Johnson has no chance to win another title.

4. Texas Rangers Advance to Second Straight World Series

            I must be out on baseball, because I had forgotten that Texas won the American League pennant last season. I expect the Ranger’s superior firepower to overwhelm St. Louis in six games (you know what that means loyal readers, bet on Cardinals in five!).

3. Lions and 49ers Attempt to Stage Post-Game Coaches Fight
            For the record, if Jim Harbaugh and Jim Schwartz ever meant in a boxing ring, I’d expect it to go the full 12. Schwartz would be favored (because he’s psychotic), but I’d like Harbaugh to win in a split-decision.

2. Cowboys Rip My Heart Out in Person, Lose Late to Patriots

            I didn’t get to personally witness Romo choke, but instead get to say I was at a game that Jason Garrett ended up as the scapegoat (here’s some real-life reporting for you…I don’t think Pats fan would’ve known who Jason Garrett was if he was standing on the sideline with a t-shirt that said, “Hi, My Name is Jason Garrett.” Rob Ryan on the other hand? Completely different story. Ryan was booed lustily all 678 times he was shown on the Jumbotron. I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or not, just merely making an observation). For the record, everyone at the stadium knew Dallas was going to run the ball three times on their final possession. Our seats were fairly high up, so we had a pretty clear of both Patriots safeties flying up to the line of scrimmage before the ball was snapped on first down. If Romo is supposedly an elite quarterback, Garrett had to give him a chance to ice the game. We’ll talk more about this game later in the week on No Credentials.

1. Indy Car Drivers Pay Tribute to Fallen Comrade Dan Wheldon
            With all of the safety advancements that auto racing has seen since the death of Dale Earnhardt, it’s been easy to forget just how dangerous the sport really is. Racing lost one it’s best personalities in Dan Wheldon. If Wheldon had been a successful NASCAR driver for the last decade, his sense of humor and joy for life would’ve easily made him a household name. For those that didn’t see the race (which I’ll assume is all of you), here’s what transpired.

            Dan Wheldon leaves behind his wife Susie, 2-year old son Sebastian, and 6-month old son Oliver. He was only 33 years old. R.I.P.

10 Awesome Things That Happened This Past Weekend (5/27-5/29)

10. Avril Lavigne Lashes Out At Tampa Bay Ray’s Fans

            Let the record show that this 10 spot on this list was blank until 11:24pm Sunday when I read this story on Yahoo. I hadn’t realized that Avril’s career had gone so far off the tracks that she was performing a concert after a baseball game. 

9. Cleveland Cavaliers Attempting To Acquire 2^nd Overall Pick in NBA Draft

            So let me get this straight…Cleveland fans are supposed to be excited about their favorite basketball team potentially having the top two picks in the draft when this year’s crop of rookies is considered to be the worst in over a decade? Man it sucks cheering for the Cavaliers.

8. Golfer Jordan Spieth Skips High School Graduation to Play PGA Tour Event

            In retrospect, I would’ve gladly skipped my high school graduation ceremony to get in a couple of extra games of “MVP 2004”, so I don’t fault Spieth for missing his to actually do something worthwhile. He pulled within 3 shots of the lead before fading on the back 9.

           

7. Djokovic Wins 43rd Straight Match

            I’m not going to sit here and pretend I’m a tennis expert (although I am pretty solid at Wii Tennis), but I do know that winning 43 straight matches is pretty hard to do. If he keeps the streak alive, he’ll more than likely face Roger Federer in the semi-finals of the French Open.

6. David Ortiz Hits Pinch-Hit Home Run To Lift Red Sox Over Tigers

            For all the talk about the 0-6 start, Carl Crawford’s struggles, and Adrian Gonzalez proving his worth, there hasn’t been enough talk about David Ortiz. Big Papi delivered a rare pinch-hit home run off of Tigers closer Jose Valverde to give Boston a 4-3 win in Game 1 of a doubleheader Sunday. After two horrid starts in both 2009 and 2010, Ortiz has hit at a .305 clip (9^th in the AL), a team-leading 11 home runs (5^th in the AL), and is currently 5^th in the American League in OPS. Either Papi is back on the juice, or he’s really happy to have Adrian Gonzalez in the lineup.

5. Barcelona Hammers Manchester United, Wins Champions League Title

            If you want to keep your kid away from football for fear of injury, have him or her watch highlights of Lionel Messi. That should be able to hook them for life.

4. Steven Stamkos Undeterred By Broken Nose

            Hockey players come back from stuff like this all the time, but it never ceases to amaze me. The last thing I would do after taking a frozen rubber brick to the sniffer was return to the very same activity that resulted in the injury 15 minutes later.  

3. Dale Earnhardt Jr. Runs Out of Gas on Last Lap

            After the craziness that happened in the Indy 500 earlier in the day, about the only thing that could’ve knocked the 500 off the front page would’ve been a win by Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the Coca-Cola 600. Amazingly, he came within about a 500 feet of pulling it off. Kevin Harvick was again the beneficiary of Junior’s misfortune (like Martinsville earlier this year).

2. Boston Bruins Advance to Stanley Cup Finals

            I’m not going to write too much here due to the fact that my Stanley Cup Finals preview will be up within 36 hours from now.

1. JR Hildebrand Chokes, Gives Dan Wheldon Indianapolis 500 Victory

            Hildebrand could go on to win three 500’s during his career, but he’ll more than likely never forget the mistake he made on the final corner of the last lap.