Sports Feast

With November staring us in the face, I thought it a good time to point out that this time of year is one of the best for sports fans.

Baseball just wrapped up with the Red Sox sweeping the Rockies Sunday night. Boston was just so impressive on so many levels. Pitching, clutch hitting, good defense. The Red Sox are the trendy pick to repeat next year even though they will probably lose Curt Schilling and Mike Lowell to free agency. Don't be surprised to see Lowell joining former Sox (and Royal) Johnny Damon on the Yankees next season since A-Rod decided to opt out of his contract.

Speaking of A-Rod, nice job by his agent, Scott Boras, of announcing that Rodriguez was opting out of his contract during the final game of the series. Nothing says class like trying to upstage baseball's grandest event by calling a Fox sports columnist and giving him the go-ahead to tell the world that your meal ticket decided he has had enough playing in New York.

The best part of the story came out Monday, when Boras was quoted as saying that A-Rod chose to opt-out because he was unsure if "his" catcher (Jorge Posada), "his" best reliever (Mariana Rivera), and "his" front line pitcher (Andy Pettitte) would re-sign with the Yanks. EXCUSE ME?!?!?!... When did he take part ownership in the team?? And where was George Steinbrenner when all this went down? The more I read about A-Rod, the more I realize that he is always going to be a stat-stuffer during the regular season, but an under-achiever when it comes to postseason pressure, and it all revolves around the money and the huge contract that he will most likely get from some idiot owner looking to put butts in the seats. A-Rod is everything that is wrong with the game today, with the exception of the steroid and HGH problems.

College football has been thrilling this year with parity shifting the axis of power in the game. It's nice to have KU and K-State showing signs of success this season after some lean years. Both schools are solid defensively and if the coaching staffs stay consistent at both, maybe the Big XII North will reverse the fortunes or misfortunes of the past few years in it's struggle to be competitive with the south teams.

Would sure love to see the Jayhawks undefeated going into the final weekend against Mizzou, but they have some tough games ahead before that clash. This weekend at home against Nebraska will be a test, even though the Huskers are in a free-fall over the past month. Like a wounded dog, I wouldn't want to take Nebraska lightly at this point. The following week is a road game against Oklahoma State that won't be a cake-walk either. Iowa State, at home, on the 17th should be a nice tune-up for the Missouri game, which hopefully will decide who gets to play Oklahoma for the Big XII championship.

College hoops begins tomorrow night with KU hosting Pitt State in an exhibition game at Allen Fieldhouse. KU is going on the 20th anniversary of the last National Championship. This could be the year if everything falls in place as the Hawks are preseason top five.

I would encourage high school football fans to head over to South Haven this Saturday if you want to see football the way it's suppose to be played. It's 8-man, it's fast-paced and exciting, and in a lot of ways, it's a step back in time. It almost has a "Hoosiers" feel to it. Hard to explain unless you've experienced it. The Cardinals are 10-0 and ranked #2 in the Wichita Eagle football poll.

Like the South Haven girls basketball team that won the State title last spring, this Cardinal football team has a special feel about it. Coaches Hughes and Gressel have the kids focused and if they can get through this regional round, who knows what might be in store for that little village 19 miles to the west.

Good Luck Cardinals!!