A Transcendent Weekend in Sports: Laugh For A World Made of Fantasy

     

     Only on rare occasions are we treated to such a multitude of sports buffets on weekends such as this last one....this sports metamorphosis can often occur during summers with a World Cup, in which an NBA Finals, a Stanley cup, baseball season getting into the grind and the biggest sporting event on earth colliding.
        But what we had this last weekend, especially if you're a Red Sox fan, a Barcelona fan, or happen to be in the LA area and are not a fan of the Dodgers, then this was as good as it gets.

WORLD SERIES WEEKEND: THREE DAYS DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE IN L.A

    All in one weekend, from Friday, to Saturday, to Sunday, we had 3 straight World Series games at Dodgers Stadium in L.A, playing out in the epicenter of sports, with the Lakers and LeBron in town, the Clippers and their big-money owner and Billy Crystal holding a weapon to the heads of LA residents, the LA Rams and their undefeated record and showtime squad of stars and young energetic coach, the LA Chargers with Phillip Rivers and his arsenal of offensive weapons...and the LA Dodgers...the annual "sure bet" for a World Series title...after all they've got "the best pitcher in baseball" in Clayton Kershaw, right?
     But over this crazy weekend, we went down the rabbit hole in L.A.
    We had the World Series go from the 18 inning spectacle and maniacal length of Game 3, with all of its supposed stakes indicating that whoever won that game would win the series. But then we saw a topsy turvy Game 4, where the resurgent Dodgers came out flying, up 4-0 early, only to let Boston comeback with 9 straight runs, battling their fatigue and mental stress from what should've been a devastating 18 inning defeat less than 24 hours before, in which Boston skipper Alex Cora

had used 9 of their pitchers and 7 stressful innings from the supposed Game 4 starter in Nathan Eovaldi.

     Eovaldi, the brilliant young prospect, went through extras, heroically and then gave up a potential confidence damaging walk off home run.
      Game 3 will go down, surely, as one of the greatest baseball games ever played, with the maximum effort displayed across the board: the performance of Eovaldi bringing Rick Porcello to tears and all of the pitching scouts across America to stomp their feet and gnash their teeth that they didn't get to him first.
      Eovaldi, Boston's reliever and sometime starter, is a survivor of two Tommy John's surgeries and here he was going 7 innings in relief to try and get the win in an 18 inning contest, hinged at 1-1, then 2-2 due to an insane 13th inning where errors occurred and runs were scored, involving Nunez flying around and hobbling on one foot as he slid to the bag, then flying into the third base line, and into the seats, to catch a fly ball an inning later.
      Even still, Eovaldi kept throwing at 100mph+, daring the Dodgers hitters and sitting them down with 7ks and barely letting anything passed him.
     That was, until the 18th when Max Muncy came up to the plate and finished it off for the merciful sake of everyone involved, hitting a walk off home run on Eovaldi's 99th pitch.
      Despite the heartbreaking loss, Nathan Eovaldi showed so much power in his pitching, mental toughness and strength to withstand the stress and carry his team, with nobody in the bullpen to back him up. This was in the World Series.....his first....
      In the loss, he gave the rest of the Boston pitching staff the desire, the will to battle on.
      And as we saw in the next two games, the Red Sox didn't look back.
     The best team in baseball rallied when their team needed it most and put 9 on the board in Game 4 to shut down any and all Dodgers momentum, less than 24 hours after going 18 innings and losing, all of the signs heading the Dodgers direction and it still didn't matter.
     We saw the making of former Cardinals reliever and sometime starter Joe Kelly, the goofy, hilariously odd and lightheartedly adventurous right-hander.

      Joe Kelly was seeking redemption, having lost in Game 7 of the NLCS to the San Francisco Giants as a rookie, allowing a 2-0 Giants lead to balloon into a 7-0 Giants stranglehold after only 2/3 innings of work. He then reached a no decision as a starter against his current team and eventual champions in the 2013 World Series in his only start, coughing up runs in his other relief appearances.
      And after experiencing every form of postseason heartbreak, Joe Kelly responded the entire playoffs, throwing strikeouts with impunity and delivering the victory in Game 4 while shutting down a dangerous bases loaded situation for the Dodgers with a filthy strikeout.

    Kelly, a late bloomer who only started pitching in college, has a devastating repertoire of pitches, with a velocity that borders on the insane and the un-hittable.
      It would be superb if he found his way to San Francisco....
     The Red Sox stayed the course, only using one start out of ace Chris Sale and one superb save that clinched the World Series in Game 5, great relief from John Smoltz favorite Heath Hembree and abrasive closer Craig Kimbrel and two brilliant starts (3 counting the ALCS clincher) from formerly cursed pitcher David Price who not only exorcised his demons, he sent them firmly upon doomed Dodgers pitcher and perennial loser, Clayton Kershaw.

      The 3 time Cy Young award winner, former MVP and 2x World Series choke artist, had mentally checked out after the first pitch of the game, allowing the Red Sox hitters to go yard on him and make contact on almost every at bat. He looked a shell of his surfer boy self, searching for anything that would work, his fingers pressed into the temples half hidden by his matted blonde Wooderson hair; His eyes rolling up to the heavens in a Valium daze, as if the headline, the story...was all to familiar: all he had to do was help the outcome on its way...by pitching like shit.
    He slid into a groove in the middle innings, every Dodgers fan being lulled into a false sense of security with each one of his few strikeouts and then, in a bout of poorly thrown softees over the plate, Kershaw continued to allow a litany of contact on his pitches, hanging them up in the strike zone with a tired, pissed off body language.
      The Dodgers are deserved losers and the Red Sox are the best team in baseball.
      I wanted a Game 7 on Halloween but I also didn't want this Dodger team to win a World Series it had no business winning and that has come to pass.
      Kershaw.....wow....when oh when will it happen for him?
      I guess when he stops worrying about his contract more than whether he can get outs in a World Series....
       And it definitely won't with a diabolical manager like Dave Roberts, who made insane decisions such as approaching the mound with a near perfect Rich Hill in Game 4, with a 4-0 lead.
     Roberts supposedly said, after the game, that he wasn't going to pull Rich Hill when he went out to the mound, he was only going to go talk to him. But before the game, Hill and Roberts had a dialogue where Hill understood that if Roberts ever came to the mound, that he was going to be asking for the ball.
   Hill, without saying a word to Roberts, gave him the ball, with Roberts switching gears and immediately going to his bullpen (like he knew what he was going to do next....jesus). What happened next was Ryan Madson delivering on his promise of being one of the worst postseason pitchers of all time and allowing the Red Sox to comeback in the game with a fury, all while the helpless Rich Hill could only sit and watch in horror.
       This stunning lack of communication sent the Dodgers into a landslide of haphazard pitching changes and match-up errors that caused Madson, then Jansen to blow an opportunity to close the Red Sox out and sent the game into a tailspin.
      It was only by the sheer luck of Boston being stretched thin that LA won Game 3.
    And where was Cody Bellinger in Game 5? Max Muncy in Game 2? These decisions cost you games and the Dodgers, under Dave Roberts, have second guessed themselves more than any team under any manager I've seen lately.
     And so the Dodgers and their fairweather fanbase wither and writhe in defeat and it feels good, doesn't it?

EL CLASICO: THE 5-1 STUNNER WITHOUT MESSI AND HOW BARCA DID IT

    In the match most of the world stopped to watch, all together across many different nations, languages and ethnicities, was el Clasico: Barcelona vs Real Madrid. The eternal battle between good and evil, as defined and set in motion politically during the Spanish Civil War, with Franco's oppressive Madrid regime committing atrocities against the Catalan people and their club, Barca.
    Both clubs have become symbols of these political paths: Madrid being the more conservative, robust financially and an oppressive corporation that cares about its sponsors as much as it does winning, with Barcelona being the club of freedom, color, vibrancy of play and with a cool, freespirited air about it.
     These stereotypes are never so air tight anymore, with Josep Maria Bartomeu and his group of thugs (who run Barcelona) taking the Catalan giants from a club that didn't even have a corporate sponsor until 2011, to an organization trying to mirror Madrid in all capacities it seems, while at the same time lying to its fans that the club has stayed as pure as before.
    Barcelona and Real Madrid squared off in the first Messi and Ronaldo-less El Clasico since 2007 and it was a stunning match on all accounts, with the only atrocities coming from Barca and their guerrilla style midfield press. 
   Messi was out for the second straight match with a broken arm suffered against Sevilla, but just like against Inter Milan on Wednesday, Barca came out ready to play.
     Luis Suarez led the team with a disgusting hat trick of goals, putting Madrid to the sword in absolute style, besieging them with a 5-1 victory in front of a watching and impressed, Lionel Messi.
     They were pressing and hounding Madrid into mistakes left and right, scoring awesome goals and showing an untouchable style of midfield play we haven't seen since the days of Xavi and Iniesta: Arthur and Busquets spinning a tale at the core, with the revamped lineup displaying 5, sometimes 6 midfielders in Rafinha dropping deep to help a further back Rakitic, or Roberto tucking in on the inside right and Coutinho doing the same on the left side, creating an evolving, interchanging pulsation of midfield artistry and stamina.
    Barca's manager Ernesto Valverde, who I've come to criticize more than Donald Trump, got everything right on the day: beginning with his use of Rafinha at RF and RCM to clog up the wing areas and interiors of the midfield area, this helping to shut down Marcelo's runs and Kroos and Modric's outlet passes to the Brazilian fullback.
     Instead, Barca broke on to Madrid like a swarm of bees, pushing and pulling Madrid either way once they got on the ball.
    Barca dictated the tone of the match early, with physical challenges from Roberto or Pique and even Suarez, fouling and giving Madrid no space or time.
      They continually coughed it up in the worst areas for Barca to pounce, with Valverde smartly putting Semedo on at right back at a crucial time in the match where, usually, Valverde's negative tactics would ruin us.
      Instead, the Barca manager sent on Semedo to couple with Roberto on the right wing, something I've been wanting for nearly a season and a half, then minutes later, he acted like a real Barca manager, even with our intense control of the match, and subbed winger Ousmane Dembele

onto the pitch, shoving aside rumors that Dembele's discipline had been under fire recently in the Barca dressing room.
     This caused an immediate siege upon the Real Madrid back four, with Ousmane turning and running at the defense, waiting and holding on to the ball until Roberto held his run and suddenly dishing an inch perfect key pass that Roberto dinked into   Suarez, the Uruguayan veteran using every fiber of his neck muscles to power a nasty header from a yard outside the penalty spot and passed Courtois.
     Dembele, Semedo and Roberto's speed was something Madrid could never cope with, a perfect example being when Roberto notched another assist after he stripped the ball and suckered Ramos away, sending a through ball for Suarez to chip into the net. Barca's interchangeable and speedy XI continued to swarm with wild vertical runs from Semedo, causing absolute havoc and inviting desperate tackles from the broken Madrid players.
     And by the time Ousmane Dembele turned Nacho inside out on the wing and then scooped in a perfect cross for substitute Arturo Vidal to bury home, the Camp Nou was singing and the Madrid players looked like an 1800s saloon after Orrin Porter Rockwell went through it.
     The man of the match for me must go to the irreplaceable and increasingly valuable Sergi Roberto,

who not only played both right back and right midfield as if his life depended on it, chipping in 5 interceptions, he also very well could've ended up tying Xavi's stunning El Clasico record of 4 assists in a single match (achieved in May 2009), finishing with 2 assists both to the Uruguyan striker, with the other two chances sent into Suarez who pinged one off of the post at point blank range and forced a save from Courtois on the other.           Roberto has displayed a telepathy with Luis Suarez we don't see outside of Messi: Since the beginning of last season, Roberto has set up 8 assists for Luis Suarez. He could've had 4 assists, all to Suarez yesterday against a team that has won the last three Champions league titles...
    Roberto showed intense commitment in everything he did and should be a shoe-in, an automatic starter, no matter where he's needed on the pitch, from right center back to right center mid, to right forward, right back, attacking mid or left center mid, he can play anywhere and do anything required for Barca.
    In one of the greatest El Clasico performances in Barca history, Ernesto Valverde finally pushed all the right buttons, got the team sheet spot on , gave prodigal son Ousmane Dembele a chance to shine and play in his first ever el Clasico and he kept Arthur in midfield, who impressed again.
      If we see Barcelona like this WITH Messi, one can only imagine they'll be lifting all the big trophies come late May...

THE NFL: BLOODLUST AND BEASTS OF BURDEN

     In America, the Land of Bad Blood and Chipped Bone, we saw the NFL have a crazy Sunday.
    The LA Rams and the Packers played a fascinating contest that delivered in all aspects an NFL game can deliver. But ultimately, Sean McVay, showing he has what it takes to become a top coach in the league, kept the ball out of Aaron Rodgers hands instead of keeping it in his young quarterback's and while surrendering the potential to score more, this route could've given Rodgers the ample amount of time to get back into the game, as he did on a few occasions already.

     Instead, the Rams ground Green Bay's run defense down with Todd Gurley and made it clear to the entire NFL that to beat these LA Rams, one must be ready to play a near perfect game.
     We saw the Under pressure (BUT NOT UNDER PRESSURE ACCORDING TO DOUG PEDERSON) Super bowl champion Eagles return to winning ways, barely pulling it out just in time to keep pace with the 5-2 Washington Redskins who listlessly put away the absolutely wretched New York Ugly Giants.
    It was only through the mercy of Defensive coordinator Greg Minuski's favoring of a prevent defense with a big lead that gave Eli a 300 yard game and let the Giants score an offensive point.  Without this late game backing off on the defensive gas pedal, the Giants probably don't even score more than 6 points. 
     The Redskins defense had 7 sacks, 8 tackles for loss, 8 hits of the quarterback and intercepted Eli Manning twice, both to Swearinger in a dominant display against the lowly, awful and unmotivated New York Giants.

    This is a Redskins defense that has been mocked for comparing itself to the 2000 Baltimore ravens defense, but they never compared themselves to that Ray Lewis led Super Bowl winning defense: it was just D.J Swearinger declaring that the 2000 Ravens defense was the bar they wanted to reach. And with a bevy of turnovers forced, sacks and tackles for loss from their unrelenting pass rush, led by Ryan Kerrigan, the two Alabama studs in Payne and Allen, Matt Ioannidis who had 2.5 sacks on Sunday, the versatile Preston Smith and a linebacking core of Zach Brown and Mason Foster, this Redskins team doesn't look like allowing much through the ground.

    Then, in the secondary,

with a refreshed and impactful Josh Norman (a forced fumble and an interception against his former team Carolina and a consistent tackling presence on the corner), a young gun in reliable corner Quinton Dunbar and the all pro, defensive-player-of-the-year-hunting D.J Swearinger, who had his 2nd 2 interception game of the season on Sunday, the Redskins secondary isn't too bad either.
     What it is IS thin. The Redskins need another option or two in their secondary, but if everyone remains healthy and young cornerback Stroman improves, the Redskins secondary can hold their own (unless it's against Drew Brees).
    D.J Swearinger now has 2 forced fumbles, 1 recovered fumble and 4 interceptions on the season. When he talked a big talk on ESPN's First Take, waxing beautifully about the Redskins defense to a bewildered and stunned Stephen A. Smith and Will Cain, Redskins safety D.J Swearinger  meant every word of it  and backed it up with another stunning performance leading the surprising (to everyone but me) Redskins to a 5-2, NFC East leading record.
     And we haven't yet discussed the 149 yards on 26 carries from Adrian Peterson

continuing his barrelhouse bruising of all opponents, scoring a rushing and receiving touchdown in the victory and capping it all off with his 69 yard touchdown scamper.
    Peterson is the workhorse that can mask Alex Smith's deficiencies, rest this aggressive and speedy defense and help to keep the ball for long stretches of the game.      And, with the Washington offensive line blocking as if they've resurrected the pignoses and floral dresses of the Hogs, Jay Gruden's team has proven to be a tough out for any team and a worthy leader of their shitty division.
     In the NFC South, we saw the Panthers make easy business of the supposed "best defense in the league" scoring 36 points on the Ravens, the Saints continuing their trajectory by outlasting the inconsistent predictability of Kirk Cousin's Minnesota Vikings  (remember, this team couldn't score 10 points against Buffalo) and Jameis Winston channels his greatest Ty Detmer (in the NFL) impersonation and chucks 4 interceptions, one for every rape he got away with.
    This was followed up by a healthy dose of Fitzmagic with the Harvard grad throwing 3 4th quarter touchdowns and a 2 point conversion shovel pass to lead the Bucs to a 34-34 tie.
      The Bengals replied calmly gaining yards down the field and scoring a field goal, putting that to an end and bringing back the Fitztragic emoji feels to the tune of a 34-37 loss.
      We saw the Steelers honor the dead from the ghastly and evil shooting at the synagogue that claimed many lives, winning to cap it all off: for once no drama from Pittsburgh, just a victory to go with an honorable way to conduct themselves as a team, leading and uniting the community against violence.
     This event may be just the thing Mike Tomlin

needed to calm his fiery, often volatile team of studs and all-pro players and get them to understand their common goal.
     Usually tragic events have a way of boosting these teams in the wake of the evil that has befallen, uniting a community as one. We saw this with Boston in 2013 after the Marathon bombings and how the Red Sox then won it all, to name a notable and recent example.
    So what we've got is still a bunch of mystery when it comes to the NFL.  We still have a few more weeks left before the men separate from the boys and we learn who the contenders and the pretenders are.
    One thing is definitive: anyone playing the Redskins may win the game, but they're going to be hurt for a while after, the LA Rams could go undefeated with their myriad of ways to win and Jared Goff expertly killing defenses with a mix of passes and smart quarterback runs, the Steelers and Saints are under the radar and firing, the Patriots are waiting patiently with Josh Gordon looking fantastic every time he plays, the New York Giants are horrendous, ugly, horribly coached and ran as an organization, lack any will or desire to win and should frankly be ashamed and when will Adam Thielen NOT get 100 yards receiving?

CRAZY STATS:

- Colts quarterback Andrew Luck has 3 touchdown passes in his last 5 games including Sunday vs Oakland. This is the current longest active streak in the NFL. The rumors of his demise prove to be fallacy.

- On the other hand to illustrate Gruden's ineptitude the Oakland raiders are 0-4 when leading at half time.....wow

   
- The LA Dodgers had never lost a postseason game when leading by 4 runs...until Game 4, a crucial 9-6 loss to Boston that broke their backs.

- The Dodgers join the 2010 and 2011 Texas Rangers as the last team to lose consecutive World Series titles.

- At 7 hours and 20 minutes, Game 3 of the World Series surpassed Game 3 of the 2014 NLDS between San Francisco and Washington (that also went 18 innings but only lasted 6 and a half hours) (ONLY) as the longest MLB postseason game of all time. Giants reliever Yusmeiro Petit came in and got the victory for the Giants that night in what would be a series defining game.

- Real Madrid have scored a paltry 5 goals in their last 8 matches  (allowing 5 in their last game alone), while being shut out in 4 of those matches and hitting the post 9 times during that span.