Talking Points
What’s the buzz from the world of sports? Here are some items that will have people talking:
1
Being traditionalists, we aren’t big fans of baseball’s wild card. For that matter, some of us pine for the days when there were no playoffs, when the NL champ met the AL champ in a World Series that ended while leaves were still on trees.
OK, we’re not really that old.
But we are old-fashioned enough to appreciate a really meaningful regular season. And, we have to admit, these baseball wild card races are winning us over.
If not for the wild card, there would be no drama today — the last of the 2011 baseball regular season.
Instead, the race for the wild card berth in both leagues comes down to today — and perhaps tomorrow. And that keeps our interest — even as football season hits its stride.
2
And you thought there would be no drama on the last day of this baseball season for the Mariners.
Ha!
Turns out that Seattle’s baseball team is in a race to the bottom with the defending World Series champions.
Entering play on Tuesday, the San Francisco Giants had scored 560 runs this season . The Seattle Mariners had scored 556, the low among the 30 teams in major league baseball. Alas, the Giants scored seven runs while the Mariners were shut out, forging a (probably) insurmountable lead.
3
We will know more about our Pac-12 football teams come Saturday.
The Huskies (at Utah) and Cougars (at Colorado) both go on the road for winnable contests. At least they should be winnable games, if UW and WSU are to be contenders in the North Division.
But Utah is coming off an impressive win at rival Brigham Young, and almost never loses at home. And WSU, despite the nice win at Oregon State late last season, still needs to prove it can play well away from Pullman.
If either wins this weekend, it will be reason for excitement.
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