Isles Showing Signs of Life

OK, Islanders fans, cheer up. New York got off to a disappointing start of the 2009-10 season, blowing several third-period leads and losing games either in overtime or in the shootout, but things are starting to change.

Those five overtime losses, which give me a pain in my heart, may turn out to be big points, and the Islanders have only built on those tough losses and are making a HUGE noise in the NHL.

After losing in overtime to Washington and at Montreal, New York has answered in a tremendous way, taking out two first-place teams and a second-place team.

First, they beat the second-place and fiercely-rivaled Rangers 3-1, then they beat the Caps in Washington in overtime, 3-2, and now have shut out the Buffalo Sabres, who are in first place in the Northeast Division.

And what a game the Isles played.

Where do we start? Matthew Biron earned a shutout for his 200th career win and 25th career shutout, Jeff Tambelini showed signs of scoring life, which the Islanders have been waiting for, with a hat trick, and for once, New York did not rely on all of their scoring coming from John Tavares and Matt Moulson.

The Islanders look good right now, and if they stay the course, they could make life miserable for a lot of teams come playoff time.

Go Islanders.

Girardi the Idiot

Baseball has some very fundamental unwritten rules when it comes to managing. One of them is that when your in a tight game, say trailing by a run or the game is tied, and you have a runner on first base and no outs, you have your batter lay down a bunt to move the runner into scoring position. Anybody who knows anything about baseball knows that. Except Yankees manager Joe Girardi.
In the bottom of the fifth inning in tonight's game, the Yankees had not one, but two runners on base and nobody out. Melky Cabrera was at second, Jose Molina was on at first, and the batter was Derek Jeter.
The no-brainer call of the game was to have Jeter bunt the runners to second and third. But, instead, Girardi helps the Angels out by not making Jeter bunt. Jeter then promptly bounces a ball back to the pitcher, who goes to second for the 1-4-3 double play.
Jeter was shown on replay to be safe at first, and of course Girardi doesn't even come out of the dugout to argue.
That is neither here nor there, as the point is that it should have never came to that. Girardi should have put the bunt on and prevented the double play, which he didn't, so the Yankee rally was killed, and the Angels got out of the inning.
Girardi has made many questionable calls as the Yankees manager, but this was perhaps his biggest blunder.
It just shows, once again, how he is lacking in basic baseball knowledge.
I don't know what it is that the Yankees are so impressed about when it comes to him, but he's far from the second coming of Joe Torre.
He's more like what the newspapers labeled Torre when he was first announced as the Yankees manager.
Girardi truly is the clueless Joe.

Irish Lose Tough One

In recent years, the University of Southern California football team has had Notre Dame in their back pockets. USC has dominated play over the last few meetings, but this year things were different.

Notre Dame played well from the start of today's game, and even tied the game at 7-7 by the end of the first quarter.

But soon things began to go USC's way, such as some generous calls from the refs (what a surprise, you say?), and suddenly, after a couple of field goals, the Trojans held a 13-7 lead by halftime.

The two teams traded touchdowns in the third quarter to make it a respectable-looking 20-14 affair, but USC scored again to make it 27-14 with less than three minutes left in the period.

Southern Cal opened the fourth with a touchdown to extend its lead to 34-14, and it looked as though the Irish were done.

But Notre Dame showed a lot of character in this game, and they mounted a comeback, led by quarterback Jimmy Claussen.

Just two minutes after the Trojans' score, Claussen dove into the end zone to pull the Irish to within 34-20, and with 11:13 remaining, you had to wonder if Notre Dame was actually going ot make a game out of it.

They did, as the defense stiffened after yielding the touchdown that put USC at 34 points, and with 7:28 left, Claussen hit Golden Tate with a 15-yard pass to make it 34-27.

The game ended in quite dramatic fashion, as Notre Dame was in position to tie the game in the final minute with the ball in the Trojans' red zone, and after two incomplete passes by Claussen, the Fighting Irish were down to their final play.

Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weiss again put the ball in the hands of his quarterback, but again the pass was incomplete. Everyone thought that the game was over, but Weiss argued to the refs that there should have been one second left on the clock. After the play was reviewed, the refs agreed with Weiss, and Notre Dame had one last chance. On the final play, Notre Dame's wide receiver fell down in the end zone, the pass fell wide, time expired and USC escaped with the win.

So, the Irish didn't beat USC again, but at least this time they had an opportunity to win in the end and have nothing to be ashamed of. And with this showing today, they will deserve a little more respect.

Sabathia Tosses a Gem

In the shadows of recent Yankees' postseason woes against the Anaheim Angels, CC Sabathia pitched a beautiful game to kick off the 2009 A.L.C.S.

Sabathia did something that the Yankees bullpen desparately needs: he went eight innings, leaving no work for anyone but Rivera. That's huge for the Yankees' pitching staff.

You need your best players to perform to win championships, and that is exactly what Sabathia did tonight for New York. In eight innings, CC surrendered just four hits and one earned run, and he struck out seven batters while walking just one. The one walk is huge, because as we all know, walks (especially of the lead-off variety) can come back to haunt you big time, especially in the postseason when you are facing the better lineups in the league.

There were not many hits in the game on either side, as the Yanks had just 10, but, of course, leading the way was Jeter, as he, Damon, and Matsui all had two-hit games.

But tonight was Sabathia's night. He made the Angles' hitters look foolish on many occasions, and the Yankees are going to need more nights like this if they are going to post their 27th World's Championship.

Economy or Ineptitude?

In the midst of tremendous economic suffering in the United States at the moment, the fallout is reaching the National Football League.

Or is it?

For the first time in quite some time, the NFL is having to enforce its TV blackout rule. The rule is that if you do not sell out your home game, it isn't on television in your market. This is something that happens once in a while in the NFL, but recently it is happening more and more.

There are two reasons that we can turn to to understand why this phenomenom is taking place.

First of all, with the cost of NFL tickets as high as they are, most people simply don't have the expendable cash to spend a couple of hundred dollars on a day at the stadium. Between ticket prices, tailgating, and food and beverages inside the stadium (and souvenirs, especially if you're taking kids to the game), right now people are finding that they're money is better spent somewhere else. Like the rent. Or gasoline for the car.

But there is another reason which is slightly more tangible. Have you seen an NFL game lately? They're getting to be like college games, with their 53-3 drubbings and other scores of the like.

If you look at the numbers, it's not hard to see why some of these teams have tickets left over on Sundays.

Nearly 1/4 of the league is unwatchable at this time. The Raiders, Chiefs, Rams, Lions, Browns, Bucs, Bills, and Titans are absolutely horrendous this season. And there are others that are on the cusp of this ineptitude.

These eight teams that were named represent a quarter of the entire NFL. That means that at this point in time, one out of every four NFL clubs are unwatchable. That's a disgrace. The combined records for these eight miserable teams is 4-36. That's barely a 10 percent winning percentage. Not very good for a league that has boasted such parody over recent years that the two teams that played in the Super Bowl were different just about every season, especially since New England's run has ended.

But if you look at the Super Bowl over the course of the last 10 years or so, aside from the Patriots, the teams that have gone to the big dance has changed almost annually.

I'm not going to go into detail about how horriffic these teams are, other than to say that when the Raiders are on the schedule, it's pretty much considered a bye week, or a glorified walk-through practice.

Giants linebacker Antonio Pierce stated after the game this week that it didn't even seem as if Oakland was trying.

So, chalk it up to whatever reason you want, but the NFL is in a little bit of trouble right now. Don't get me wrong, it's not like they're going bankrupt or anything, but it's not good when one out of every four teams in your league is slightly better than a college team.

So, if the wife is nagging you to go shopping on Sunday, at least you know that if you root for one of these atrocious teams, you won't be missing much. You won't even want to go to the electronics department to watch the game in High-Def while she's busy shopping.

NFL Week 5 Review

Week 5 of the NFL season is complete (except for the Jets-Dolphins), so let's take a look at the highs and lows.

The first high is the New York Giants. They were unmerciful against the Oakland Raiders, allowing them less than 200 yards of total offense, while the G-men piled up over 400.

This game actually covers the best and the worst.

The Giants had this game in the bag so early that Tom Coughlin pulled Eli Manning midway through the second quarter.

The Giants did exactly what a top-notch NFL team is supposed to do to a miserable team like the Raiders. If Dallas expects anyone to take them seriously, they need to watch New York and see how it's done. They certainly did not impress anyone by having to go into overtime to beat the Chiefs, another of the league's miserable teams.

The Giants ran and threw all over Oakland all day, and the defense was superb, as Justin Tuck sacked JaMarcus Russell twice and Osi Umenyiora had a down lineman's trifecta: forcing a fumble, recovering the fumble, and then taking it to the house for a touchdown. All together, Big Blue sacked Russell six times and limited him to just eight completions for 100 yards.

Minnesota and Philly romped, which was no surprise since they were playing the Rams and the Bucs, disrespectively.

Cincinnati won in surprising fashion yet again, as they won in Baltimore in the last seconds. What an unbelievable season the Cardiac Cats are having. First, they lose to the Broncos on a last-second play, and then went out and won four straight games in the last minute of the game. And how about that hit that Ray Lewis put on Senor Ochocinco? It was ugly, and it clearly showed how frustrated the Ravens defense was getting.

Atlanta won in impressive style, as they thumped the 49ers on the road. San Francisco has not been very good the last few years, but this season they have been known for their defense, as they have been one of the top defensive units in the league thus far.

Not yesterday. Matt Ryan threw for over 300 yards and a pair of TD's, and Michael Turner ran for just under 100 yards and three TD's. Good win for the Falcons.

The Colts improve to 5-0, and again it was not difficult, as they were in Tennessee to play the winless Titans (or is it the Titanics?). Peyton was terrific, as he's been all season, and this just may be his finest season to date. Which doesn't bode well for the rest of the top teams in the AFC who may have to find a way to defend him in the postseason.

And, the Colts are playing amazing defense. The most amazing point to me is that they have been doing it all without Pro-Bowl defensive back Bob Sanders. What is this defense going to become when he comes back? Scary stuff.

Seattle laid a good old-fashioned whipping on the Jaguars, but seriously, who didn't see that coming? Jacksonville is another of the league's teams that are not very good. Jacksonville plays well twice a year: when they play the Colts. For some reason, the Jags match up well with Indianapolis. They don't match up well with anyone else, but they do, for whatever reason, play like a contender against Indy. Too bad they don't play them 16 times a year. Maybe they would have a winning season.

That's about all of the games worth talking about. Shut up Pittsburgh fans. If you have to fend off Detroit, you get no love from me. Ciao for now!

Giants Destroying Raiders

You know, I knew that my Giants were going to beat my Raiders with relative ease this week, with or without Eli Manning, but I didn't think that it was going to be this easy.
With 6:30 remaining in the first half, the G-Men are winning by a 28-0 score, the Raiders just picked up their first first down of the game, and before JaMarcus Russell completed this pass just now, four members of the Giants offense had outgained the entire Raiders offense, who have 18 yards.
The Giants really have a chance to pour it on in this game, and Eli is already putting up some fairly hefty numbers.

Yankees Keep the Drama Train Rollin'

The Yankees led the major leagues in walk-off wins this year, and they did it again last night as they took a commanding 2-0 lead over the Twins in the A.L.D.S.

They received a solid pitching outing from A.J. Burnett, but when Minnesota took a 3-1 lead in the top of the eighth inning, it appeared that the series may be tied as the teams headed to Minnesota for game three.

The Yankees offense couldn't get anything consistently going, and it looked bleak that they would pull it out. Especially when you consider that the Twins have one of the better closers in baseball, Joe Nathan.

But, once again, the Yankees found a way to win. A-Rod should feel like the weight of the world is off of his shoulders as far as his postseason critics are concerned, as he's had several big hits in this series so far, but none were bigger than his two-run jack that tied the game. But I'm sure that the questions will still follow him until he produces in baseball's biggest event, the World Series.

Those are fair criticisms, but let's not forget that you don't get to the series unless you produce along the way, so even if his bat doesn't lead the Yankees to winning it all, don't forget that he helped them get there (if, indeed, they do).

And can enough be said about Mark Texeira? Many free agents have been signed to huge numbers in the past and found that they could not handle the pressure of playing on the game's biggest stage, New York City (can you say Rick Rhoden?).

Texeira, however, has shown since game one of the season that playing in New York agrees with him, and he did everything humanly possible for this team to be in the place that it's in right now.

He has a good chance to be voted the league's MVP, and I can't recall if any other player came to the Big Apple and was voted the MVP in their first New York season, be it Yankee or Met.

At first, I didn't think that Texeira's shot had a chance of making the seats, because I don't think that the ball got more than 20 feet off of the ground its entire trip. Had the left field wall in Yankee Stadium been six inches higher, Texeira most likely would have been held to a long single, given the speed in which the ball got to the wall.

But, it cleared the fence, and the Yankees are heading to Minnesota with a two-games-to-none lead and are sitting in the driver's seat.

Couple that with the fact that the Ded Sux' bats have gone silent on the left coast, and all is right in the baseball world on this fine autumn Saturday. Go Notre Dame.

Islanders Lose Another One Late

For the second time in this short NHL campaign, the Islanders still have not only not won, but have lost both games that they have played after regulation time expired.

On opening night, they held a lead for most of the game against the defending champion Penguins until Dwayne Roloson gave up a late goal and then the game was lost in the shootout.

Now, in game two of the season, the Isles came back from a 2-0 deficit, only to allow the winning goal just 32 seconds into the OT period for their second OT loss of the year.

The Islanders brought in a couple of new goalies this season, but the team seems to have the same results.

They have no real firepower, and that is what hurt them last year, and it's going to hurt them again this year, because they think that John Tavares is going to do all of the scoring for them. They won't admit it, but by the looks of the offense that they brought in...ummm...and that would be...no one, that the organization that isn't serious about NOT being the second-worst scoring team in the NHL.

So, what are we supposed to surmize from their lack of recruiting.?

Tavares had a good game and is off to a very good start, with a goal and an assist for two points in two games, but that is not the answer right now.

Hell, even when the Islanders had Mike Bossy, they still had Trottier, Nystrom, Potvin, and a host of others that could score points. That is far from the team that Tavares has. In fact, if they rounded those guys up, they might STILL be better than what the organization is putting on the ice right now. I know that I would rather pay to watch them at their ages then to watch this dismal product.

Lee Phenominal in Debut

Starting Pitcher Cliff Lee made his postseason debut for the Philadelphia Phillies yesterday afternoon, and Phillies fans got what they paid for as Lee threw an absolutely dominating game against the Colorado Rockies to go up 1-0 in their N.L. Divisional Series.
You can't say enough about the job that Lee did, going the distance, which he did five times this season for the Phils, and showing incredible command of his pitches as he did not walk a single batter.
Phillies' fans are pumped up about defending their first World Championship in nearly 30 years, and Lee gave them every reason to believe that Philly will go deep into the playoffs once again.

Jeter Leads Yanks Into Postseason

After a year break, the Yankees are once again in the postseason, and Derek Jeter continues to deliver, setting the table with a home run to propel the Yanks to a win over the Minnesota Twins in the first game of the A.L.D.S.

It seems almost as if Jeter sets another record with nearly each hit. His list of accomlpsihments keeps growing, and this year he achieved one of the most historic feats of his career when he passed Lou Gehrig as the all-time Yankees hits leader.

Since then he has cracked the top-50 all-time in Major League history, and each hit draws him closer to 3,000, a plateau that he should reach sometime in the 2011 season.

There is only one active player with more hits than the Captain, and that is Ken Griffey, Jr., with about 20 more hits. And the way that Junior exited the field after Seattle's final game this season, it appears that 2009 may have been his last season.

CC Sabathia gave up two quick runs last night in game one, but Jeter's shot pulled both the Yankees and the fans right back into the ball game, and the Yankees kept the momentum going until they built their lead.

Even Alex Rodriguez produced, as he FINALLY picked up a hit with a runner in scoring position, something that he had not in any of his previous 19 postseason at-bats. A-Rod took it a step further when he slapped another shot into the right field corner later in the game, driving in another run.

Sabathia went on to have a fine outing, now let's see what happens in game two.

The Twins have a lot of confidence and momentum going into this series, and losing the first game will not deflate them. After all, pretty much every road team loses the first game of any series, so they won't be all that dejected by the loss. What the Yankees need to do is sweep at home, and that might darken Minnesota's perspective on the series.

Minnesota is the type of team in the postseason where you have to stand on their proverbial necks and not let up. If you go into that dome and the fans have anything at all to cheer about, you won't be able to hear yourself think, and that can rattle a visiting ball club.

That's what the Twins are counting on, and that's what the Yankees must prevent.

Go into Minnesota with a two-games-to-none lead, score first in game three, and New York should be watching the other series to see who they play in the second round.

Giants Looking Strong

We are four weeks into the NFL season, and once again the New York Giants have proven themselves to be one of the premiere teams in the league.

After four games, the Giants first defeated NFC East rival Washington at home, and then went on to win three consecutive road games in quite impressive fashion. The icing on the cake is the fact that the Giants spoiled the unveiling of the new Cowboys Stadium. That's about as sweet as it gets for Giants fans.

New York played extremely well in that game, and if it were not for the usual inefficiency in the red zone and a poor call by the refs, the Giants would have had a 17-point lead at halftime.

In fact, the Giants have played so well that it was easy to overlook their red zone inefficiency. Also, not many people knew that going into the game at Tampa Bay in week three, New York was the only team in the league without a red zone touchdown.

Eli has played very well, including a 104.1 passer rating, he has completed 63.2 percent of his passes, and has thrown eight touchdowns with just two interceptions.

Brandon Jacobs has yet to be as dynamic as he was a year ago, with just 288 yards for 3.6 yards-per-carry and one TD in four games, but that has allowed Ahmad Bradshaw to step up, and step up he has, with roughly just 20 yards fewer than Jacobs on just over half the carries and a 5.6 yards-per-carry.

One of the question marks that surrounded the Giants entering the 2009 campaign was who was going to step up at wide receiver, with Amani Toomer in Kansas City and Plaxico Burress in the New York Penal League.

Enter Steve Smith, who has played primarily on special teams and has been a third-down receiver for Big Blue. Smith is becoming Manning's favorite receiver, recording 34 catches for 411 yards, a 12.1 yards-per-catch average, and four TDs. His 411 yards leads the league, 12 yards more than Indianapolis' Reggie Wayne. His four touchdowns also leads all receivers. So, for the time being, at least, it appears that New York has answered that question.

Yesterday, the Giants blew out the Chiefs, one of the worst teams in the league, in a game that was basically over in the second quarter. The score doesn't reflect how one-sided the game was.

One negative to come out of this game was an injury to Eli. It's being called a bruised foot for now, but apparently it has something to do with a tendon that runs from your heel to the bottom of your foot. He's going for an MRI tomorrow, and we'll see what happens later in the week.

If Eli can't go on Sunday, or if the Giants decide to play it safe and rest him, David Carr should fill in just fine for the G-men because they basically have a bye week with the Raiders coming to town. The attrocious JaMarcus Russell and company should pose no threat to New York on their hoime turf. I would be shocked if the Giants couldn't win this game with all of their second units in.

NHL Season Underway

The National Hockey League began its 2009-10 campaign this past Friday night and once again, I am filled with hope and at the same time reality (or disappointment) for my lowly New York Islanders.

Goalie Rick DiPietro is coming off of yet another knee injury and surgery and will not be available until late October at the very earliest. This year, however, I give the Islanders much more credit than least year when they were in this predicament because at least this year they are somewhat prepared for such a loss.

Instead of sitting on their hands and leaving the fate of the club in the hands of two goalies who have less than 25 games of NHL experience under their belts, New York went out and signed two former Stanley Cup goalies: Martin Biron and Dwayne Roloson.

In case you're not familiar with them, Biron is formerly of the Buffalo Sabres, and Roloson was part of that terrific goalie tandem of himself and Manny Fernandez in Minnesota before going on to be the number one guy in Edmonton and taking them to the playoffs in recent years.

So, the Islanders should be fairly solid in goal. But, what about the forwards and defensemen?

Still lacking firepower as well as a payroll, New York did not attempt to replace the offensive presence of Bill Guerin, their former captain that they traded late last season.

Instead, the Islanders are resting their hopes on several of their kids, including number-one draft choice John Tavares. New York is putting a lot of pressure on Tavares' shoulders, whether they admit it or not.

They say in the press that it's unfair to have all these expectations of a rookie, but what do you expect people to do when you have the kid on your number one line and no veteran scorers for him to learn from?

I think the Islanders are asking too much of this kid, and if they wanted to properly develop him, they would have gone out and signed some veterans for him to ease the pressure of being the only one who can find the back of the net on this club.

New York has done nothing (outside the drafting of Tavares) to make anyone believe that they are serious about winning and are dedicated to being a contender.

Doug Weight has returned, as has Mark Streit and Brendan Witt. The Islanders will be tough, but will they be able to stop teams from scoring? They couldn't do it last year, and I'm not convinced that they can do it this year, either.

The Islanders may have had a bunch of inexperience between the pipes last season, but when you're being outshot by 15 shots per game, I don't care who's in net, there's going to be problems.

And the Islanders had plenty of them last season. Can they improve on that this year? We'll see.

Yankees Win first Place, All is Right

On to baseball. I can't believe that I have not made a single post the entire baseball season.

Especially with all that has gone on this year, with Alex Gonzalez starting the season on the disabled list with the hip injury as well as answering more steroids allegations, Derek Jeter breaking Lou Gehrig's all-time Yankee hit record as well as cracking the top-50 all-time Major League hits list, Boston taking the first eight meetings from the Yankees, and the Yankees responding by winning eight of the next nine games with the Sux to erase the memories of those early losses, and plenty of other stories around the league.

But the icing on the cake is that all is said and done for the regular season for the Yankees and the Bronx Bombers finished well ahead of the hated Red Sux to win the American League East. Yes, that is a sign that all is well in the baseball world.

Not to say that it was easy, especially in the end when Boston creeped back into the race with a couple of weeks left, pulling to within five games of New York. But the Yankees fended off that threat and clinched the division with time to spare.

And, in an unbeleivable turn of events, in the A.L. Central, the Minnesota Twins fought back in the final series of the season to tie the Detroit Tigers in a most unlikely situation.

The Tigers, who were leading the division most of the season, were ahead of a red-hot Minnesota club by a mere two games with three to play.

Minnesot was hosting the lowly Royals, while Detroit was hosting the Chicago White Sox.

The Twins needed a sweep of the Royals and needed the Tigers to lose all three games to the Sox in order for the Twins to steal the division. One of the problems that Minnesota had was that Kansas City had their ace, Zack Greinke, scheduled to pitch the middle game of the series. It was certain that the Twins would not sweep. And even if they did, they still needed Tigers to drop two or three at home to Chicago, who have underachieved all season. Not likely.

If the Tigers lost two games and the Twins swept, that would put the two teams in a tie for first place and force a one-game playoff.

So, what happens? Minnesota DOES sweep the Royals, including tagging Grenke for four runs in a 5-4 win in the middle game.

Things looked even better for the Twins on Saturday night because Detroit lost the first two games against Chicago, which meant that if Minnesota won on Sunday that they would own at least a share of first place.

The Tigers ended up taking thre final game of their series against the Chisox, but the Twins won again, forcing Tuesday's playoff game.

This helps the Yankees even more, because now either they get an extra two days' rest before they play the Twins, who they swept in eight games this season, or they get Detroit, who will undoubtedly pitch their ace, Justin Verlander, in this crucial playoff game for the Tigers and he will then not become available until at least game three against the Yanks, should they win. And the Yanks could have a 2-0 series lead over the Tigers by then.

So, the Yankees begin the postseason against either the Tigers or the Twins, and New York will be well rested.

The Yankees' pitching staff has had holes and has been questionable all season, but I think that New York will be just fine with their top three guns of Sabathia, Pettitte, and Burnett.

The rest of the rotation had been, for the most part, atrocious, but I think that the short series' of the post season will make that point moot.

I believe that the World Series will place the Yankees against the Dodgers, and wouldn't it be special to see Joe Torre announced at the World Series in Yankee Stadium. What a response he will undoubtedly receive. Probably the best by any opponent in Yankees history.

It all begins on Wednesday, so buckle up, buttercup, it's going to be a hell of a ride!

Don't Pay the Ransom...I escaped!

Well hello. That's right, I didn't fall off of the face of the earth, or get that ever-elusive big-time radio or newspaper job. No, instead, I have been held captive on a ship with no internet, but you need not pay that ransome note (which I'm sure that all of you have gotten together and organized a fund-raising drive for my lovely wife), because, using the guile and cunning of a fugitive, I escaped so that I could come back to all of you fine people and get back to the really important things in life....sports!!

In fact, there has been so much that has transpired in the world of sports since my last posting, it's difficult to know where to start.

Let's see...Jeff Gordon has gone on to have a decent season in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Again, he's having trouble winning races, even though he has consistenlty finished in the top 10 or top 5. He made the Chase, so, once again, at least he has a chance. But does anyone really have a chance against that monster known as the 48 Lowe's Chevrolet, or more specifically, Jimmy Johnson? Johnson continues to be one of the, if not THE, premier driver in the sport and is sitting pretty in the Chase for the Cup.

Johnson has four wins again so far this season, just one behind current points leader Mark Martin.

And speaking of "the old man," as he's fondly referred to in NASCAR circles, what about the year he's having? Martin, who's gone back to a full-time ride with Hendrick Motor Sports, has started every race this year, won five of them, and is currently leading the Chase by 18 points over three-time defending champion Johnson.

So, the 24 team has their work cut out for themselves. Right now, Gordon is in seventh place in the Chase, 103 points behind Martin.

That covers NASCAR. To avoid having this piece drag on to 10,000 words, I'll do my catching up one piece at a time. Ciao for now.