Friday Tidbits - 11/3/06

Well, the baseball season has come to a close. The St. Louis Cardinals are your World Champions. I'm amazed at the way they were able to turn things around after the way they finished the regular season. The same can be said for Detroit, although that layoff proved costly. The mental errors were just too much to overcome. If your team didn't make it, don't fret. Spring training is only a few short months away. Until then it will be plenty of player movement, and even more speculation about player movement. A-Rod and Manny Ramirez are probably the least likely to be mentioned in trade rumors. Nobody ever talks about trading these guys. Barry B*nds, Nomar Garciaparra, and Frank Thomas are some of the guys who could find new homes for next year. Those three are all coming off bounceback seasons. Barry Zito and Alfonso Soriano will probably command the biggest price tags. The Roger Clemens watch has officially started. Excuse me while I vomit. Former pitcher Joe Niekro passed away last week. One can hope he got the call to the "Big Leagues!" where he's dazzling with his knuckler again. Guillermo Mota was suspended for 50 games for a failed steroid test. Doesn't he know about HGH? If you fail the drug test, it's because you are sloppy (sarcasm).

Speaking of failed drug tests, Shawne Merriman dropped his appeal and will begin serving his four game suspension. Too bad for St. Louis that he waited until after their game to drop the appeal as he sacked Bulger three times. To me they should wait until the player declines or loses the appeal before the suspension is revealed. Chad Johnson (I refuse to call him Ocho Cinco) shaved off his mohawk...who cares? Pacman Jones was suspended by the Titans for spitting in a woman's face. That must be a new mating call I'm not aware of. The Titans are making a run at the Chargers as the #2 worst behaved NFL franchise. Sinsinnati has the top spot locked up. Albert Haynesworth threatened to stomp Jeff Fisher for suspending Pacman. The Colts and Pats lock horns this weekend. Can Peyton solve the Pats D? Only time will tell. Shaun Alexander is still at least a week away from returning. John Madden has sure angered a lot of fans with his curse. David Garrard is starting again for Jacksonville this week. Has Leftwich lost his starting gig? I saw a funny headline in the Sporting News football section. "Bucs QB Simms could land on IR". No kidding. He had his spleen removed. I'm surprised he hasn't gone on it sooner.

The NBA is underway. The season kind of sneaks up on you. It's not like football and baseball where you count the days. Instead you open up the paper and notice there are basketball boxscores available. Miami got pounded in the opener by 42. The Lakers are now 2-0 without Kobe Bryant. In a new rule that the Tyrant David Stern introduced Mike Bibby, Carmelo Anthony, and Rasheed Wallace were tossed for complaining. This is one decision I actually support. The whining has gotten beyond old in recent years. I'm shocked they didn't pull any punches with the stars. Set the tone early I guess. I "Guaransheed" this isn't the only time Rasheed gets an early exit. Jason Kidd proved he still has it with his 76th career triple-double. Kevin Garnett and the Timberwolves have won their 12th straight home opener. That's pretty impressive. The Celtics had a great turnout to celebrate the life of Red Auerbach. Unfortunately the C's couldn't win for Red despite Paul Pierce's 19 rebounds.

Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin scored goals in his first six games tying the record held by Joe Malone, Newsy Lalonde and Cy Denneny who accomplished the feat in the 1917 season. He goes for the record Saturday night against San Jose. In a scene that you would usually only see in a movie, Minnesota Wild RW Brian Rolston fired a slapshot past Canuck goalie Roberto Luongo on a penalty shot. What makes this even more surreal is Wild Coach Jacques Lemaire told Rolston he had a dream about him using a slapshot on a penalty shot. The man is coaching in his sleep even. A quick look at the standings and you find the Buffalo Sabres on top with 23 points. They are perfect no longer, picking up a shootout loss against Atlanta last Saturday. Anaheim is next with 22 points. They have yet to lose in regulation having 1 overtime loss and 3 shootout losses. Dallas and Minnesota follow with 20 points, and Atlanta rounds out the top five with 19 points. Jaromir Jagr leads all scorers with 20 points. Brendan Shanahan leads the league with 13 goals. Jagr leads with 16 assists. Kings goalie Mathieu Garon leads the league with a 1.72 GAA. Ray Emery, Manny Fernandez, and Martu Turco also sport sub-2.00 GAAs. Anze Kopitar leads all rookies with 13 points. One would think Malkin will occupy that top spot soon.

I just discovered my long-lost brother Brad Lester plays at Auburn. The freshman has 15 touchdowns this year. Every 10.3 times he touches the pigskin he reaches paydirt. Wish I scored that frequently in college. Last week Va tech knocked off #10 Clemson, Ohio State squeaked by Minnesota, Oregon State beat USC, #19 Oklahoma showed #23 Missouri who's boss, and Okie State pounded #20 Nebraska. This week the big matchup was #3 West Virginia vs. #5 Louisville. Louisville pulled off the "upset" behind Brian Brohm's 354 yards in a 44-34 defensive struggle. The offenses really had a tough time sustaining any sort of drives, frequently stalling out in the endzone. It's kind of nice to see the Big East in the spotlight, especially after you consider the defections they had a few years ago. Louisville now finds itself in the previously unlikely position of facing the winner of the Ohio State-Michigan game for the National Championship! In other matchups #8 Tennessee takes on #13 LSU, #16 Boston College takes on #22 Wake Forest, #18 Oklahoma faces #21 Texas A&M, #4 Texas battles Okie State, #17 Wisconsin takes on 6-3 Penn State, and #19 Clemson faces 6-2 Maryland. Things are heating up college football fans.

That concludes the Tidbits. As always, feel free to add any stories you liked this week in sports or discuss any of the stories I mentioned.