Weekend Viewing Guide 8/31/12

Finally.  The summer doldrums are just about over and the best time for sports fans is upon us.  Not only is baseball headed towards the playoffs, but both college football and the NFL are beginning.  In a months time the NBA will be back and hopefully the NHL will be as well.

Let me say thank you to the Olympics, Euro Cup 2012, Golf majors, Tennis Grand Slams, the College World Series and last but not least Major League Baseball for getting us through a very hot summer.  Baseball has been especially exciting for me as an Oakland Athletics and Washington Nationals fan.  I will definitely not forgot about them come September, but with so many other options to choose from I will certainly have plenty of story lines to crow about in the next couple of months.

But enough about the next couple of months...we have a three day weekend ahead of us as the summer torch unofficially changes into the fall torch.

7. College Football (Non ranked vs. ranked games)

The first weekend of College Football is feast or famine when hoping to see a competitive game.  Not every game will be LSU winning by 40 points against North Texas.  There are some fun match ups to whet our palettes here in late August/early September.  Teams that don't like each other very much meet up as Marshall and West Virginia square off.  Clemson and Auburn will fight over which mascot gets to keep the name Tigers.  Penn St. tries to return to normalcy as they begin their life post-Joe Pa and scandal against Ohio.  USC starts the season #1 and welcomes Hawaii in for a warm up.  One game I'm intrigued to watch will be Navy and Notre Dame playing in Ireland.  With a perfect 9am start time it will be a great way to start the weekend (while at work for me).

6. Boise St. Broncos at Michigan St. Spartans

Gone are Kirk Cousins and Kellen Moore for the respective schools.  With both teams starting from scratch it will be interesting to see if either team will be able to be a national contender this season.  Whether successful or not this year, it is a fact that Boise St. will be leaving the Mountain West conference and heading to the Big East as of next year.  Geographically challenged issues aside, it will be good for their school to finally face better competition to try and prove if they are actually as good as they think they are.  This should be a rebuilding year for Boise St., but with a preseason ranking of 13 for Michigan St., hopes are high for a smooth transition from Cousins to senior quarterback Andrew Maxwell.

5.  St. Louis Cardinals at Washington Nationals

A possible playoff preview in the Nation's Capital.  The defending champions against a team primed to be in contention for the foreseeable future.  This is a huge 4 game set for both teams.  The Cardinals have been chased out of contention in the N.L. Central due to the continued excellence of the Cincinnati Reds, and are currently trying to fend off both the Pittsburgh Pirates and the L.A. Dodgers for the 2nd Wild Card spot.  The Nationals have been slumping of late with a recent 5 game losing streak but starting last night, they have 11 straight games at home.  They look to have a comfortable five game lead over the Atlanta Braves, but with the distraction of the Stephen Strasburg shutdown and the fact that they have never been in this position in September anything is still possible.

4. Baltimore Orioles at New York Yankees

I don't think anyone had this series circled in April one that could hold the key to who will win the A.L. East, but that's why they play the games.  The Orioles sit only 3 games back of the might Yankees and with a miraculous weekend they could be tied by Labor Day.  The Tampa Bay Rays are right there as well sitting one game behind Baltimore and are playing lowly Toronto with hopes of keeping this a 3 way race all the way until the end of the season.  Maybe this will be the weekend where New York starts to build towards the playoffs.  Since going to Oakland in mid-July the Yankees are only 18-21 and have nearly squandered the 10 game lead they had at that point.  Nobody seems to understand just how Baltimore is winning.  I'll put it simply...their bullpen has been fantastic.  Without a great bullpen you can't go 24-6 in one run games and 12-2 in extra innings like the Orioles currently are.


3. U.S. Open Tennis

 With the first couple of rounds out of the way, the real tournament can now begin.  Even though he probably won't be around much past this weekend, American Andy Roddick has announced he will be retiring after the U.S. Open.  For nearly a decade he was the best hope for the U.S. to win in Men's Tennis Grand Slam event after Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi retired.  After winning the U.S. Open in 2003, Roddick could never climb that mountain again in a Grand Slam event.  As for people who could win this year all the usual suspects are around (save for Rafael Nadal who is once again nursing injuries).  Federer, Novak, Serena and Sharapova are all alive and are expected to contend, but when the lights are on in New York City magical things sometimes happen and that is why we watch.

2. Chicago White Sox at Detroit Tigers

I'll admit it, I called the A.L. Central over long ago.  I thought for sure the Tigers would have run and hid from the White Sox by now.  What do I know anyways?  Heading into this series Chicago still holds a 3 game lead with no signs of wavering.   This series also brings us Chris Sale vs. Justin Verlander on Sunday night.  As the final Sunday without the NFL to compete with, MLB has given fans the ultimate treat as a send off.  Two Cy Young candidates facing each other with the division title at stake...niiiiice.  I'm still saying the Tigers win the division and I still say it will be by around 4 or 5 games so sweeping Chicago this weekend might be a good start to make me look less foolish.

1. Michigan Wolverines vs. Alabama Crimson Tide

The defending champions get a real test right out of the gate as Alabama and Michigan head to Dallas Cowboys Stadium to get the first weekend of College Football started off with a bang.  This will be the first time that these two school meet outside of a Bowl Game and only the fourth time ever.  Senior quarterback Denard Robinson will need to be more like he was in 2010 than 2011 for Michigan to keep close.  After breaking onto the scene, Robinson regressed in almost all statistical categories last season.  Alabama may have lost some key pieces, but they don't rebuild, they just reload and the defense that was NFL worthy last season should be extremely stingy once again.