October 5th, 2015

There was only one important sporting event on the schedule tonight and that was the Monday Night Football game between the Seattle Seahawks and the Detroit Lions.

I didn't watch all of the game, I got home from my high school football practice at about 6pm and after a snack, I watched the game for a bit until dinner. After dinner I watched the game on and off until it got interesting in the fourth quarter.  When I think of the Seahawks and Monday Night Football, I think of the classic game between the Packers and Seahawks in 2012 where the game was decided on the last play of the game with replacement refs that game.

Tonight's game was a very sloppy game. Seahawks didn't play very well but escaped with a 13-10 win. In the Pete Carroll era, the Seahawks have been a excellent team at home and for the first time in a regular season game in awhile, the Seahawks struggled at home and didn't look like themselves.

Despite all of this, the Seahawks defense was as good as advertised tonight, the Lions offense was having a hard time getting going and in the early part of the game it looked like the Seahawks were going to pitch a shutout.

The Seahawks are now 2-2 and are back in the thick of things in the NFC West. In contrast, the Lions fall to 0-4 and would likely have to go 10-2 the rest of the way to make the playoffs.

Tomorrow October 6th, 2015

The American League Wildcard game is tomorrow and the Astros will be looking to spoil the Yankees party. The Astros will send ace Dallas Keuchel out tomorrow night. He posted a 20-8 record this year with an impressive 2.48 ERA. His counter part will be Masahiro Tanaka.

I think the Astros will be able to put the Pinstripes to bed tomorrow night, the Yankees are sliding fast right now and have backed-in to the postseason, while on the other hand, the Astros needed to go 6-2 in their last 8 games just to get in the postseason.

I'll be watching this game tomorrow with great interest, unfortunately, I'll have to record it as I'm going into Vancouver tomorrow on the train for an appointment.

Astros 5:08 PM Yankees

Baseball 162

The 2015 Baseball regular season has came to an end and for me, it was one of the best seasons I have ever seen. For the second time in my life, my family purchased the MLB.TV package and quite honestly, it is one of the best things someone who is a baseball fan that can get. 

I think it is only $169.99 CND, it seems like a lot but it comes out to just over a dollar per game if your favorite team is outside of your TV market. For me, the deal is even sweeter. Over the course of my life, I have been to a total of 24 Major League ballparks, in other words I enjoy watching a lot of different games as it is always great to see a place on TV where you have been. 

I had started the season wanting to do a daily blog for the New York Mets. Unfortunately, things this summer for me didn't go quite as planned but I'm hoping to start fresh next year with the Mets and be on this blog as much as I can. 

162 games later, my World Series prediction of the Angels and Nationals has totally blown up in my face. Neither of which made the playoffs but that's baseball for you. It is the hardest sport to get a playoff streak going. For instance, in the NHL the Detroit Red Wings playoff streak is at 24 straight years. Duplicating this in baseball is almost downright impossible because of how competitive the bottom teams are in baseball and the number of playoff spots baseball has among many other reasons. 

Over the course of the season, I estimate I watched parts of between 350-450 baseball games. I watched, just over 100 Mets games, just under 100 Angels games, 80ish Blue Jays games and about 100 random games through out the year. Am I baseball'd out? 

If your answer was yes you would be incorrect. Baseball is down to 10 teams and in 60 hours we will be down to eight. I'm really looking forward to this years playoffs as most teams enter the playoffs with long World Series droughts. This will make for an extra good playoffs. 

And for those of you who have a favorite team that didn't make the playoffs, there is only 182 days until the the 2016 baseball season begins! 

October 2nd, 2015

I'm kinda scared, but at the same time, I am kinda proud of myself. I was able to upload a video from my iMovie to to Youtube.

The video is alright as I am just getting used to speaking on a video.

I talk about the final weekend series' in baseball this weekend and also touch on where the Mets might start in the post-season. Who knows, it could be a blessing that the Mets start out west at Dodger Stadium next week.

It's going to be a great month of baseball coming up in October!



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR7ihdZQ2aQ&feature=youtu.be

Junior Hoilett Commits to Canada

For the last few years, Canadian soccer fans have waited patiently about what Midfielder Junior Hoilett was going to do with his international career. On Wednesday, Canada got a huge boost to there 2018 World Cup Qualifying campaign as Junior Hoilett announced he will suit up for Canada.

It seems simple, but as it always is with the Canadian Men’s National team, it was everything they needed. Hoilett was born in Brampton, Ontario but has ties to Jamaica. During the last Qualifying cycle in 2011-12. Hoilett never committed to any country, as he wanted to focus on his club situation. As it turned out, Canada could have used him as they were edged by Honduras and Panama by a single point.

Hoilett plays for the English-side on the Queen Park Rangers, who are currently in the second tier of English Football. Hoilett’s preference was to play for England’s national team but was ineligible.

For a country that’s population in 35 million, only qualifying for one World Cup has been a disappointment. The teams lack of goal scoring and ultimately a lack of wins has consistently been Canada’s downfall over the years. More importantly, over the last decade and if not more, there have been many players who are eligible to play for Canada but have chosen to play for a different country. This had become devastating for the National team as with top players playing for other countries, it has become very difficult to field Canada’s best team possible and therefore compete with CONCACAF’s best teams.

Hopefully, this is a sign of things to come. In the last four months, two others have committed to Canada. The others include Frasier Aird and Tesho Akindele. All three, should give Canada hope that they can ultimately turn the corner.

A deep run from their national team is something that Canada has been waiting for a long time now. With an upcoming friendly against Ghana on October 13th, Canada seems poised to put their best team put forward before they head into the fourth round of CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying. Canada got placed in the “Group of Death” that also features Mexico, Honduras and El Salvador. The fourth round beings November 13th at B.C. Place as Canada welcomes Honduras.

Only time will tell if this boost is enough to help Canada reach their heights that they haven’t seen in almost two decades.

Sports Guide Sept. 24th, 2015

The Few to View:

Pirates vs Cubs 11:20am PT
Rangers vs Astros 5pm PT
Stanford vs Oregon State 7pm PT


In College Football, Boise State makes the cross country trip to Virginia and a Pac 12 matchup in Corvallis as Oregon State entertains Stanford.

Friday, September 25

MATCHUP		TIME  (PT)	NAT TV	LOCATION	TICKETS
Boise State	Virginia	5:00 PM		Scott Stadium, Charlottesville, VA	740 tickets available from $20
#21 Stanford	Oregon State	7:00 PM	FOXS1	Reser Stadium, Corvallis, OR

Nine days to go in the regular season for baseball, teams are stating to clinch a playoff berth. Congrats to the Royals who clinched the AL Central Title last night. Cubs can clinch today at 11:20 and a big series in Houston this weekend as the Astros welcome the Rangers.

Friday, September 25

MATCHUP		TIME  (PT)	NAT TV	PITCHING MATCHUP	TICKETS
Pittsburgh	Chicago	11:20 AM		Gerrit Cole vs Jon Lester	Buy on StubHub
Chicago	New York	4:05 PM		Carlos Rodon vs CC Sabathia	1,440 tickets available
Philadelphia	Washington	4:05 PM		Jerad Eickhoff vs Jordan Zimmermann	1,190 tickets available
Tampa Bay	Toronto	4:07 PM		Jake Odorizzi vs R.A. Dickey	879 tickets available
Minnesota	Detroit	4:08 PM		Mike Pelfrey vs Matt Boyd	1,161 tickets available
Baltimore	Boston	4:10 PM		Wei-Yin Chen vs Rich Hill	659 tickets available
New York	Cincinnati	4:10 PM		Noah Syndergaard vs Anthony DeSclafani	1,716 tickets available
Atlanta	Miami	4:10 PM		Ryan Weber vs Jose Fernandez	397 tickets available
Texas	Houston	5:00 PM		Yovani Gallardo vs Scott Kazmir	749 tickets available
Cleveland	Kansas City	5:10 PM		Carlos Carrasco vs Edinson Volquez	749 tickets available
Los Angeles	Colorado	5:10 PM		Mike Bolsinger vs David Hale	473 tickets available
Milwaukee	St. Louis	5:15 PM		Ariel Pena vs Carlos Martinez	636 tickets available
Seattle	Los Angeles	7:05 PM		Vidal Nuno vs Garrett Richards	1,052 tickets available
San Francisco	Oakland	7:05 PM		Mike Leake vs Sonny Gray	1,224 tickets available
Arizona	San Diego	7:10 PM		Rubby De La Rosa vs Casey Kelly