10 Awesome Things That Happened This Past Weekend (11/4-11/6)

10. Baltimore Orioles Name Former Red Sox GM Dan Duquette GM
            Duquette got a bad rap in Boston (his comments about how he hoped to keep Roger Clemens in Boston through the “twilight” of his career after Clemens signed with Toronto being the most infamous), but the guy had as much (if not more) to do with the core of the 2004 Red Sox than Theo Epstein did. Pedro Martinez, Manny Ramirez, Johnny Damon, Derek Lowe, and Jason Varitek were all players acquired by Duquette. Duquette also was the general manager of the greatest team no one remembers, the 1994 Montreal Expos. Until realignment comes it will be tough sledding, but Baltimore made a wise decision for their next general manager.         

9. Trevor Bayne Wins First Nationwide Race, Danica Finishes Eleventh

            I wouldn’t fault you for forgetting that Trevor Bayne existed before he passed Carl Edwards on Saturday. NASCAR would benefit from both Bayne and Danica Patrick having more consistent success in 2012.

8. Northwestern Upsets #9 Nebraska

            Somewhere, Michael Wilbon was very happy Saturday afternoon.        

7. Patrick Peterson Makes Incredible Game-Winning Punt Return

            This play was amazing for the following three reasons, even though it occurred in a game between two 1-6 football teams.

1. Peterson caught the ball on the 1-yard line. Any football fan that knows anything about the sport that the rule is if a punt looks like it is going to land inside the 10, let it go.
2. The runback itself looked like Bo Jackson in TECMO Super Bowl.
3. More importantly, Arizona was favored by three. Typically once a game reaches overtime it ends in a field goal (unless it’s a college game that doesn’t include LSU and Alabama). If you bet on Arizona, or picked them to win like I did, the odds were that you were either staring at a loss or a push. Peterson’s overtime clincher not only gave Arizona their second victory, but people with sick gambling addictions that actually wagered on this game a thrilling victory.

6. Packers Hang on in Shoot-Out, Win 45-38 in San Diego
            It felt like Aaron Rodgers only had the ball for five minutes in this game, but he still managed to throw for 250 and four touchdowns.

5. Tony Stewart Wins Fourth Race of Chase, Within 3 Points of Carl Edwards

            My Chase preview is starting to look more and more like a comedy piece with each trip Tony makes to victory lane. It’s going to be a lot of fun the next two weeks with Smoke and Cousin Carl locked in a tight battle. Look for Edwards to make a stand at Phoenix next week. He had the fastest car their last spring before getting crashed out.

4. LSU Wins “Game of the Century” in Overtime Over Alabama
            After watching four quarters of this game before falling asleep on my couch right before overtime, I’m still trying to figure out how two teams with quarterback play that appears to be somewhere between mediocre and putrid could be ranked 1-2 in the polls. If either team had Andrew Luck under center, they would’ve beaten the other by three touchdowns. I really hope we don’t have to watch a rematch in the BCS Championship Game.

3. NASCAR Parks Kyle Busch

            I’m all for drivers settling their business amongst themselves, but there is no rational defense for what Kyle Busch did to Ron Hornaday in the truck race Friday night. Kudos to the suits running NASCAR for finally putting an end to the “have at it” era.

2. Ravens Shock Steelers

            I’ve never thought all that much of Joe Flacco. He’s certainly been a solid quarterback during his NFL career, but I never though of him as someone who could eventually carry a franchise to a Super Bowl. Last night’s 92-yard drive to sweep the season series over the Steelers was a good way for him to win me over.

1. Eli Leads Another Late-Game Comeback Against Patriots

            It’s hard to believe, but we live in a world where Eli Manning owns Tom Brady.

           

Ideas for Irrelevant Sporting Events

            If you told me a week ago that the lead story on “Pardon the Interruption” would be the football game between Northwestern and Illinois, I would’ve said that you are on drugs. You’re telling me that a match-up between two unranked Big-10 teams is more important than the Colts-Patriots game this Sunday? Apparently it is, thanks to the quirky field dimensions at Wrigley Field. If you haven’t seen footage of the east end zone, take my word that it harkens back to the days of the Arena Football League. Padding over the outfield wall literally hangs over the field (keep in mind the padding is covering bricks). In the name of safety, it has been decided that all offensive plays will be run towards the west end of the field (sorry to the poor saps who bought seats in the east end zone. Good luck getting a refund).

            I don’t know who came up with the field layout at Wrigley Field, but they should get an immediate raise. This person inadvertently created more buzz for this game than any promoter ever could. Other than fans of the two schools, I’m sure there weren’t more than 500 people in the country that even knew the two teams were playing this weekend. Kudos to you, idiotic field layout guy.

             Shortly after watching the segment about the game on “PTI”, I started thinking about other irrelevant sporting events that could use gimmicks like this to raise their profile (I’m talking about you Major League Soccer). Here’s my quick list I came up with.

1. Regular Season MLB Games

            When you have 30 teams playing 162 games a year, it’s hard to get super jazzed about a regular season baseball game (on second thought, I have a hard time getting excited for any baseball game at this point, but that’s my personal opinion). This is a very simple fix…bring back steroids.

            Baseball was way more fun when we had 12 guys a year hitting 50+ homers. Remember when Luis Gonzalez randomly hit 57 home runs in 2001 (he had only one other season in his 19 year career where he hit more than 30)? Those were good times. I’d like to bring them back.

2. NASCAR

            The NASCAR season concludes with their race to the Cell Phone Cup (alright I digress, the trophy is called the Sprint Cup) this Sunday. I was going to suggest planting explosives in various points of the track that detonate at random, but instead I’ll go with a more realistic suggestion.

            NASCAR starts their season a week or two after the Super Bowl in February. It ends the Sunday before Thanksgiving. The season is too damn long. The start date is fine, but NASCAR should consider ending their season in September. Competing with college football and the NFL is a battle NASCAR will never win.

3. PGA

            Someone from the PGA needs to tell Tiger Woods that he’s no longer married. He doesn’t need to keep up the “born-again-family-man” routine. If lining up the ladies like pins and knocking them over like a bowling ball was what got Tiger’s golf game going, then that’s what the executive’s for the PGA need to make happen. Television ratings make it very clear that the majority of America doesn’t care about golf unless Woods is doing well.

4. MLS

            This fix is so simple. I’m not sure why it hasn’t been used already. All we need to do is take footage from the Spanish Premier League, use a little CGI to replace the Spanish players with images of Americans, and we’re good to go. People will be raving about the quality of play.

            In all seriousness, I have a feeling that the United States will be one of the strongest soccer nations in the world within 20 years. More and more parents are not letting their children play football because of perceived risks of concussions. Soccer stands to benefit the most from this. Imagine if athletes like Tennessee Titan’s runningback Chris Johnson were playing soccer instead of football? Soccer will soon see an influx of quality athletes.

5. Horse Racing

            More jockey fights. Enough said.

            That’s all I have for now. Within the next couple of weeks, I’ll post some thoughts for lacrosse, curling, and figure skating. Until next time, keep your stick on the ice.