Hello! Every fall, CHANGES occur. Days get shorter, temps go down, summer routines are a thing of the past, vaca days are a just a memory. Sooo…it’s true in sports also.
…Facing an unexpected ranked showdown, Mizzou had a good game against Boston College . Credit to new BC head coach Bill O’Brien, who followed the upset of Florida State with a 56-0 shutout of Duquesne and has breathed new life into the Eagles. It’s a coach-program pairing that makes all sorts of sense. But the headliner is a Mizzou squad that has climbed to No. 6 after outscoring its opponents 89-0 across two games. The Tigers’ schedule is manageable by SEC standards — no Georgia, Ole Miss, Tennessee or LSU — but they had a surprise chance at a Top-25 win before entering league play. It’s also a chance to get wide receiver Luther Burden III going after just 7 catches for 64 yards through two blowout wins.
… It was a CHANGE for Mizzou this week. Competing against a ranked team in the top 25, Mizzou rose to the occasion. But…it didn’t start that way. Boston College (BC)under new HC-Bill O’Brien grabbed a 14-3 lead with 9:44 left in the 1st half. Mizzou responded Field Goal with Field Goal, Touchdown; Field Goal, Touchdown. MU’s defensive line handled the LOS to turn the tide. On offense, it became obvious that MU has to get the ball into Luther Burden’s more often. I’m sure that Mizzou will work on getting him the ball more frequently….he’s too good to be overlooked. But…he has to play more than 73% of the plays. Burden has 13 receptions in the first 3 games. He’s only been the target in 17 passes. He’s the STAR player who can CHANGE a game in an instant. GET HIM THE BALL! On the other hand, QB Brady Cook played 100% of the offensive downs!!? Surely, a 2nd team QB could have found some useful time late in the game to gain experience against a worthy opponent.
…Two Saturday’s ago, the College Football world was stunned by some of the CHANGES! Notre Dame, after paying N. Illinois $1.4 m to play them, then lost to them 16-14! Going into the game as a top 5 ranked team, ND was brought down by this unranked team. It was the 1st time since 2002, that ND, as a top 5 team, fell to an unranked team. That loss probably knocked them out of the new playoff system since their schedule currently features on only other two ranked teams. Well…this week, ND took “it out” on Purdue. Final Score 66-7! ND was still running their “no huddle” offense in the 4th quarter with the game far out of hand. I would guess that we won’t see Purdue on the ND schedule any longer. Why would you?
…College football fans are trying to digest all the CHANGES in the conferences. I’m not going to list them all…it’d take ½ a page 😊 But…the size of each conference, alone is staggering! The former Big 10 CHANGED to 18 teams (still called the Big 10??). The Big 12’s CHANGE led them to 16 teams!! The CHANGE of the Big 12 is also significant, they now have 16 teams. I guess BIG 16 doesn’t sound good? The CHANGE of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is also significant. The ACC now has 17 members from Coast to Coast. Stanford, California, SMU, Florida St. Louisville, Boston College are now part of the widespread ACC. Clearly with this number of teams, you can’t play each team in the conference any longer. I imagine most will have divisions within the conference. Sooo…in some cases, the rivalry games will either be discontinued or likely, held every other year or so in football. The “rivalry” game may between the 2 schools may become the basketball game in some cases.
…There will be an impact on ol’ fashioned rivalries. Instead of seeing your “rival” every other year for a home game. Now with some current schedule, It could be once every 4 or 5 years before your rival plays a game on YOUR field. That will probably lead to a gradual crumbling of the rivalry. The ol’ adage…outta sight…outta mind applies!!
….It’s been a slow, but steady, CHANGE @ Oklahoma State. HC Mike Grundy has pushed the program upward. Prior to his arrival, the Cowboys had been to 7 bowls in the previous 20 years and NEVER finished the season in the top 25. Since Grundy’s arrival in 2005, the only season that they’ve missed a bowl was his 1st ONE! WHAT A CHANGE for OSU! His record there is 168-79 and his club has been in the TOP 25 at season’s end 7 times! Does he want to do it again @ Mizzou 😊?
…As the MLB season moves closer to post-season play, some things DON’T seem to CHANGE. The TOP 3 MLB teams over the past 10 years are #1 LA Dodgers 932 wins, #2-Astros-879, #3 NYY-856. Our StL Cards are 7th in that 10 year span with 806 wins. That’s why the last 3 seasons seem so bad to us!
….But…for this 2024, the playoffs (with about 2 weeks remaining), look like this on this day (Sun, Sept 15th)—NL— Phil Phillies (88-58); LA Dodgers (87-59); Milwaukee Brewers (84-62);Az Diamondbacks (82-64); SD Padres (82-65) & NY Mets (80-66). Still in the “hunt (meaning they aren’t eliminated statically) are Atl Braves (79-67)-1 GB; Chicago Cubs (75-71)-5 GB; StL Cardinals (74-72)-6 GB and
SF Giants (72-75) 8.5 GB. Time is running out…Cards have 16 games remaining as I write this on Sunday. Obviously, Atlanta could push their way into the playoffs in these final weeks.
…There has been some REAL CHANGES in the playoff bound AL teams. NY Yankees (85-62); Cleveland Guardians (84-63); Houston Astros (78-68);Baltimore Orioles (83-64); Kansas City Royals (80-67);
Minnesota Twins (78-68). It’s refreshing to Cleveland, Baltimore, KC & Minn names as playoff bound teams. Still in the hunt, albeit it requires some phenomenal play to reach the playoff bound teams are: Detroit Tigers (75-72) 3.5 GB; Seattle Mariners (74-73) 4.5 GB;Boston Red Sox (74-73) 4.5 GB and
Tampa Bay Rays (72-75) 6.5 GB.
…The most amazing to me fact to me is the Tampa Bay Rays. Despite being 28th (of 30 teams) in spending, TB is still in the “hunt” with 3 weeks to go!!! I’m happy that the Cardinals hired a former Ray official—Chaim Bloom at the end of the ’23 season. The evidence that Bloom has found ways to make Tampa Bay competitive with a very modest salary base, the Cardinals brought him into their system. Look for him to become GM when a CHANGE occurs and John Mozeliak “moves on”.
……CHANGE has already taken place on some levels for the Cards. Dealing Tommy Edman to the Dodgers earlier this year was a bit stunning. The Cards drafted him in 2016. When he reached the MLB level- he held the #5 highest WAR numbers for the Cardinals in 2023. This year- now in a better team (Dodgers), his WAR is #11 on a very talented LA team. It’s a bit puzzling– offensive numbers that seemed to indicate that he should be a regular, the Cards used his versatility defensively to bounce him around from spot to spot…like a substitute player. Sooo… Over time, the notion being sent by the Cards (at least to me) was that he WASN’T a “regular” despite his batting marks. The 3-way trade between StL, Dodgers & White Sox, brought 32 year old pitcher- Eric Fedde & Tommy Pham (already gone) to the Cardinals. Looks like a gamble to me.. a 32 year old starting pitcher who hasn’t made the MLB regular rotations yet for Tomy Edman? But…now Edman contributes for the Dodgers with a .300 average as I write this. He’s on a much better team than the Cardinals and finding playing time. Maybe it’s in the Cardinals trend to trade players who will be free agents soon. They don’t intend to get into a salary struggle w/free agents—so they trade them. Edman will reach that point after the 2025 season (next year). It seems to me, at some point, a team has to decide that these players are my “building blocks” of the future. Apparently, Edman didn’t fit into the category.
…On the other end of the stick, the Chicago White Sox are setting records this year!! Yes… records associated with being one of the WORST teams in the History of the MLB. Major CHANGE will take place with all levels of this team this off-season. Ownership? Upper Management? Field Manager? Players…my over/under of returning players to the roster for 2025 is 10 players. They just snapped a 21 game losing streak!! Chicago’s 3.09 runs per game are the lowest in the past 50 years of MLB. The White Sox are scoring 1.33 fewer runs/game than the average club, with the second-largest gap since 1974 belonging to the 2019 Tigers at 1.22. As of today, the White Sox need to finish their 2024 season 9-6 to avoid owning the modern-day record for most single-season losses. It makes our Cardinal season look not only good…but great 😊. What’s really sad is that the White Sox aren’t last in salary spending (30th), they are 18th in the MLB in player salary rankings!!!
….Over time…CHANGE occurs in everything. That includes NCAA-Football titles. Currently, we immediately think of Alabama and they HAVE won a lot of NCAA Titles. In fact, they’ve won 16 NCAA football championships. That’s #2 in overall football championships. The school with the Most NCAA Football Championships is YALE! Yes…that Yale of the Ivy League! Yale has 18 titles. None in recent vintage…here are the Football championship years for Yale.. 1874, 1876, 1877, 1880, 1881, 1882, 1883, 1884, 1886, 1887, 1888, 1891, 1892, 1894, 1900, 1907, 1909, 1927. Soooo…they aren’t too recent 😊 I was surprised that they had NCAA-Football championships way back then!! The last 4 NCAA-Football Champions have come from the SEC conference.
…CHANGE takes place EVERY year in NCAA-Football. But…it seems to me that ratings of teams rely on recent past history. Georgia squeaks by Kentucky 13-12. Kentucky was held to 4 FG’s but…and it’s a big but….Georgia barely beat this 1-3 team! Kentucky may be better than their record… they lost to a strong Clemson 38-35, but got crushed by S. Carolina 31-6. One may think that the #1 team in the USA should handle a 1-3 team with much more ease. Where can I vote?
…NO MORE CHANGES for this week. Thanks for your time & read! I’d love to read your thoughts…I’ll publish it with your initials if you want that to happen. Have a super week! Bob
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