The second round is set to begin and neither league leader in wins is still around playing. The Cubs went out without a fight and the Angels proved it’s all about the postseason with their downfall to the Red Sox.

      With the sweep of the Cubs, the Dodgers advanced to play the Phillies with a trip to the World Series on the line. The last time these two teams met in the playoffs was 1983. 

      The Dodgers hadn’t even won a series since 1988 and that was when they won it all. Los Angeles is still a Laker town, but you’d be hard pressed to stop someone on the street who wasn’t bleeding Dodger blue. With the off season hiring of Joe Torre and the midseason pickup of Manny Ramirez the Dodgers are poised to make a deep playoff run. The people at FOX sure are banking on it for ratings.

     The Boston Red Sox disposed of the Angels in four games to set up a showdown with the upstart Tampa Bay Rays. The series was a mild surprise as the Angles had beaten the Sox eight out of nine, had the league’s best record and had home field advantage. The Red Sox on the other hand had really owned the Angels when it counts, in the postseason having beaten them eleven straight times and eliminating them in the process.

   It now looks like the Red Sox are on a collision course with the Dodgers. The back stories there are endless. The Red Sox traded Manny in midseason, the former Yankee manager Joe Torre would be in the mix and the current Dodger owner had made a failed attempt to purchase the Red Sox before settling on the Dodgers. Just like it always is in corporate America, it’s all about ratings and the all mighty dollar. In my case I just hope my Dodgers come out on top.   

     There are only five days to go in baseball’s regular season and there are still four playoff spots up for grabs. The pennant races are very much in the balance. The White Sox and Twins look like they are taking their battle to the final day of the season.

   The White Sox currently hold a two game lead in the lose column, but the Twins are right on their tails. They are in the middle of a three game series in Minnesota that could really jam the Sox if they can’t leave there with at least one win. The Twins took the opener last night 9-3 and look to keep the pressure on tonight.

    The Sox haven’t fared well this season in Minnesota losing all but one of their games in the dome. Mark Buehrle toes the slab hoping to halt the momentum and keep the Twins at bay. Last night the Metrodome was packed with thirty-five thousand fans and it really seemed to unnerve the Sox at times.

   Manager Ozzie Guillen seemed a little concerned by his team’s play, but stopped just short of hitting the panic button as he stated his team was still in first place and still had two tries to get one win before closing out the season at home. 

  This past Saturday night was labeled “the collision in the coliseum” and when all the hype stopped and the teams took the field it was top ranked USC standing tall as it crushed #5 Ohio St. 35-3 in what supposed to showcase two national powers.

  USC was just too big, too strong and to fast for the overmatched Buckeyes who had a semi excuse, they were playing without their star running back Chris “beanie” Wells, but it wouldn’t have mattered. The Trojan defense was swarming and flying sideline to sideline making plays all over the field.

  The Buckeyes marched down the field early and kicked a field goal to take a 3-0 lead, but SC came right back and scored a touchdown to take the lead and never look back in fact they would go on to score 35 unanswered points to humiliate the Bucks. The turning point in the game came early when Ohio St thought they had scored on a pass to Brian Robiskie only to have it called back due to a penalty.

  In fact Ohio St played uncharacteristically sloppy having been penalized numerous times including roughing the passer twice and a couple of personal fouls which made the Bucks play with a longer field. USC on the other hand is very deep with talented running backs kept bringing in fresh tailbacks to run all over the exhausted Buckeye defense. What does this all mean??? For Ohio St. it probably means it’s not ready to be an elite team, they’ll go home, roll up their sleeves and try to regroup and start their conference schedule. For USC, this means they have made a major statement throughout the country solidified their spot at the top of the polls and are poised to make a run at another National Championship. 

 
    This years’ “game of the century brings us to Southern California. It pits number 1 USC vs. number 5 Ohio St.  There has been so much hype regarding this game it feels like a national championship.

   The Buckeyes and Trojans haven’t played since 1990 and pundits around the college football industry are all jacked up over this game. The Buckeyes are making this trip west at less than full strength.

  Their star running back and Heisman Trophy frontrunner Chris “beanie” Wells is listed as doubtful after injuring his toe in their season opener. Southern Cal. Fans aren’t buying into this whole “doubtful” scenario Jim Tressell is throwing out there. There is no way the vest is going cross country with his squad at less than 100 percent. I fully expect Ohio St to bring their A game. Whether that’s good enough to beat the air attack & punishing defense of USC is still up in the air.
 
  Newly minted USC quarterback Mark Sanchez is early in his career, but looks to be the answer that SC has sorely lack the last couple of years. And with the Trojans loaded at tailback look for the Trojans to pound the Buckeyes early and open it up late.

  This game will send shock waves throughout the country and have titanic recruiting implications around the country for years to come.

 My prediction is USC 27 Ohio 13..

    The battle between the Cubs and Brewers are heating up as we enter the final three weeks of the season. The Cubs still hold a four game lead over their rivals to the north, but don’t seem as invincible as they once did.

    The Cubs have been struggling mightily the last two weeks. They looked like world beaters when they won seven in a row, but have since dropped eight out of their last nine. That type of play might bury most teams, but not the Cubs. The reason being the Brewers who had the schedule all set up with a nice ten game home stand have lost seven out of the first nine games and have failed to make up any ground.

   The Cubs have bigger issues in front of them as their starting rotation is now experiencing problems. Carlos Zambrano was scratched and pushed back from a start only to take the mound a few days later and be less than impressive. Rich Harden who has been carving up the National League since his arrival in late July was also shelved for two starts to “give him some rest” The Cubs say it was a scheduled shut down, but my question is why they would shut a guy down in a heated pennant race when the guy has been lights out unless there was a concern? They both have since been cleared to pitch and are on schedule this week.

   After stumbling out of the all-star break and giving up most of their division lead, the Cubs have been playing exceptional baseball of late.

   They went up to Milwaukee for an intense four game series with the division lead on the line and swept the red hot Brewers. They beat co aces C.C. Sabathia and Ben Sheets in consecutive days. Then to add insult to injury before they left town they beat down the Brew crew 11-4 extending their division lead to 5 games.

  With the momentum clearly on the Cubs side as they returned home, they took four of the first six games before the hated Cardinals made their first 2008 appearance at Wrigley. The Cubs took the series opener in extra innings Fri., but the Cards came back and beat down ace Carlos Zambrano on Sat. and then in the series finale the Cubs got outstanding defense and capitalized on a couple of the red birds miscues to take the game and the series. All three games featured standing room only crowds and tickets were extremely to find.

 Now the Cubs head south to battle the pesky Atlanta Braves for three games before their weekend series with the upstart Florida Marlins. With seven weeks left in the season, every series becomes big as the Brewers and Cardinals are both still in contention. The Cubs schedule is pretty favorable the next four weeks with most of the teams under .500 and probably looking to pack it up for the summer.

The Beijing Olympics are here and if the first few days of events are any indication of how they will play out, it is going to be an unbelievable seventeen days.

    With these games American swimmer Michael Phelps is looking to become U.S.A’s most decorated athlete. He is competing in eight events and is looking to become the first athlete to win eight gold medals at a single Olympic game. 
 
  Monday was a little dicey. Phelps was the lead anchor in the men’s 4 x 100 freestyle relay, so he had to nervously watch as Southern Californian native Jason Lezak chased down the trash talking Frenchman Alain Bernard in the final metre to keep his dream alive. The race is already being widely regarded as the greatest in Olympic history.  

  What makes things even more interesting is that before the games, France’s Alain Bernard was quoted as saying they were coming to Beijing to “smash” the Americans and oddly enough he was the one who didn’t get things done, as Phelps and his teammates celebrate don the deck, Bernard stayed in the pool sulking with his head down and was the last to get out of the water.
 
 It only gets harder from here as mounting pressure; fatigue and an ungodly media blitz will surely start to catch up to Phelps. Here’s hoping he finds the strength to reach his goal and go eight for eight.  

As the second half begins it seems both the Cubs & the White Sox are feeling the pressure of being in first place. They have both come out in the second a little sluggish and the teams chasing them have come out with fire.

Seventeen teams are still in the mix vying for eight playoffs spots. I can’t remember the last time there were so many contenders this late in the season. Of course most of the teams are pretenders; there might be some surprises come playoff time. Take the Cubs for instance; they opened up the second half having lost 4 of 6 including two of three from their old nemesis the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Monday’s game had a playoff atmosphere and a playoff type outcome. Future hall of famer Randy Johnson showed why he is still one of the greatest pitchers of our generation out pitching the newly acquired Rich Harden 2-0. Both the Brewers and the Cardinals are hot on the heels of the Cubs as the gap has closed and the Cubs division lead has dwindled to a single game. These three teams figure to fight it out for the remainder of the season.

  So I’ve been to hundreds of baseball games in my lifetime and I’ve even gotten a few balls from time to time. It’s not really my thing, but my brother knows a few players and it’s pretty cool when I get one and hand it off to someone who appreciates it a little more than I do.

    Here are a few good pointers from my perspective on how to get one. First off you pretty much have to have great seats and by great seats I mean you have to be in the first 10 rows over the dugouts or in the first few rows down the line where the outfielders come in & out each inning. Next it helps to be a kid; players’ loves kids especially when they are all decked out in the teams’ jersey and a hat. Having a glove doesn’t hurt either. Even these over priced athletes for the most part can’t resist a young kid screaming out his name. Thirdly just like in life it really helps to be a cute girl. Everyone knows cute girls get away with…. Well you get the point. 

 It’s also a big plus to know the players, either personally or at least have a program and know who’s who. 

    A few years back I was at Dodger Stadium sitting in the second row behind the Florida Marlins on deck circle with a female companion of mine. Mark Kotsay who had played with and against my brother in their high school days was taking swings. I introduced myself to him and asked for a ball. He acknowledged me and my request and next time he was in the on deck circle he flipped me a ball. I in turn handed it over to a kid sitting not to far away from us with a Marlins shirt.

      Most recently I was at a Cubs game at Wrigley Field sitting four rows behind the bullpen of the Chicago White Sox with an out of town friend of mine and we were sitting next to a woman who was at her 1st game at Wrigley field. In the later innings I spotted relieve pitcher Matt Thornton backing up the pitcher warming up. I yelled to Thornton to say hey & make him aware of the fact that this was her first game at Wrigley and asked him for a ball for her.   
   
     He nodded back and motioned for me to wait until 3 outs. At the end of inning he called me over and handed me a ball. I thanked him for the ball, we talked briefly about the fact that we were at the same bar a week earlier watching the Lakers/Celtics game and that was that. I handed the ball over to the woman and she couldn’t thank me enough, not only was she impressed, but my friend in town from LA was equally impressed. I had come through like a champ and it felt pretty good.     

In what seems like an eternity, the Cubs finally return from their longest road trip of the season and begin a six game home stand at Wrigley Field. The trip wasn’t all that bad either. After the White Sox returned the favor by sweeping the Cubs last weekend, the Cubs split four games with the Giants before taking two out of three from the hated Cardinals. Blowing a two run lead in the ninth Saturday was a little hard to watch, but overall it was a successful trip.

More important at this stage in the season is that the Cubs are starting to get healthy. Getting back ace Carlos Zambrano was huge and Friday night he showed he can carry a team, having pitched six shut out innings before giving way to the bullpen. The Cubs also got back leadoff hitter and team spark plug Reed Johnson who had been out for some time. What Reed lacks in numbers he more than makes up for with intangibles. Now word comes that Alfonso Soriano is doing light baseball drills, taking batting practice and looks to return to the lineup in the very near future.

Soriano’s return couldn’t come at a better time as the Milwaukee Brewers have made a blockbuster trade today and acquired last year’s American League Cy Young award winner C.C Sabathia. This move really shakes things up in the NL Central, because now the Cubs can’t just stand pat. It’s very likely they will go after a top of the rotation guy to solidify their starting pitching. It should be a great pennant race down the stretch.