Weekend In Review Pt I. Cubs Lose, USC Upset

Hey Lou, How long you gonna let Zambrano pitch in game 4... oh wait ya'll got eliminated last night nevermind.
I've heard so many coaches talk about they are looking only at the game in front of them, which makes the puzzling move by Cubs manger Lou Pinella all that more egregious. Pulling staff ace Carlos Zambrano after 85 pitches to supposedly have him ready on three days rest for a game 4. To quote the imitiable Herm Edwards "Hello? You play to win the game!" That kind of talk seemed to deflate the Cubbies who seemed quietly confident heading into this postseason. 3 games and 3 defeats later they look at a long winter. To hear the pathetic bleatings of fans that support this team is getting a bit tiresome, but if the Cubs did win the World Series, you'd have so many fans that wouldn't know what to do. It wasn't like 3 years ago when the Sox won it all. Their fans were like "Finally!" Cub fans wouldn't know what to do and some think that the lustre and charm would disappear cause they couldn't have anyone to feel sorry for them anymore. Well as it stands know, a century will have passed before the Cubs have a shot at being the best in the baseball world.

The D-Backs face the Rockies who after sweeping out a good Phillies squad are in their first NLCS in team history. This team was as many a 4.5 games out of a playoff spot at one time, and just have forgotten what losing is all about. They have lost one time in their past 18 games. ONCE!!! This is a series that will be a long hard battle. Also there are players that the media have not given a lot of love to that will get needed pub, though I have the feeling that if the Yankees rally from an 0-2 deficit to get into the ALCS no one will pay attention to this series. Which is a shame. But seriously if you live east of the Rocky Mountains name three Rockies and three D-Backs. I doubt you can...

One last note on baseball, George Steinbrenner who seems to oneup himself on the stupidity of his comments, flatly stated that if the Yankees lose today and are eliminated by the Indians in a sweep Joe Torre will be out of a job. Are you serious? This team was 21-28 and 14.5 out of first place in late May. I think Torre did his best job of managing and getting the most mileage a weak pitching staff. This team went 73-40 from their furthest point out of contention to win the wild card and now Steinbrenner still wants to fire Torre? Unbelievable!

Moving on to the wild college football world, which seems to get crazier by the week. USC got knocked off by Stanford and the college football mavens are...
Hold up wait a minute...
Did I write that, did I hear that right???
USC got beat by Stanford???
In L.A.???
Yup, the very same Stanford that had taken beatdowns by UCLA (who I'm taking to task later), Oregon and Arizona State, the latter two by respective scores of 55-31 and 41-3.
Stanford was the last team to beat USC in the ancient LA Memorial Coliseum waaaay back in Sept 2001 and they did it in dramatic fashion, picking themselves off the canvas to rally from a 9 point defcit and score the winning TD with less than a minute left to stun the #2 Trojans. USC's 35 game home winning streak and 24 game home Pac-10 winning streak have all gone by the boards...
Damn.

LSU survived a mammoth scare with rally of their own, though losing to a solid Florida team would have not been as much of a shock. They will no doubt be the undisputed #1 when the polls come out this week.
Another top 5 team took an L as Wisconsin got beat. When is Illinois gonna get some love???
Notre Dame finally got a win beating UCLA (who has to be the most puzzling team in college football) 20-6 to get their first win of the season. And believe it of not, I heard some Irish fans talking about running the table to get to 6-5 and get into a bowl game and possibly a BCS game (they are delusional on both counts) I'm thinking (and I'd appreciate the info) that a team has to win at least nine or ten to be BCS eligible. Even if the Irish ran the table. A highly unlikely scenario with BC and USC are still on the Irish docket. But You will hear Irish fans talk of upsetting BC and putting a scare into USC, running their cupcake schedule and saying that they deserve a major bowl bid. If that improbable scenario happens. I will stop watching college football.
And finally for all ya'll haters that said my beloved Bearcats would get exposed (Yeah I'm talking to you bitter Kentucky and Louisville fans) The Bearcats beat Rutgers 28-23 in a gritty gutty, nationally televised game to remain unbeaten. I told you not to sleep on the Bearcats!!!

More on the weekend, later. Until next post fellow sports fans!!!