Sports Odds & Ends, Props to Lisa Lampanelli, Marole Endorsement, and my NCAA & NFL Picks

I am a big fan of Lisa Lampanelli. She is a comic who appears often on Howard Stern’s show, and whenever she participates on one of the roasts (they barbequed Ba Ba Buey yesterday), she just kills me. If you ever get a chance to see her live or she does any sort of special on cable, I highly recommend her comedy.

The Tigers have St. Louis right where they want them. Last time these two teams met in the Fall Classic, Detroit rallied from a 3-1 deficit to win the final 3 games. Mickey Lolich won three games in that series for Detroit, including a complete Game 7 on two days rest (after pitching a complete Game 5) to beat Bob Gibson (who also pitched 27 innings, and won games 1 & 4), the man whose ERA that year was 1.12. Anyway, Detroit is not coming back from anything this year unless their pitchers can stop throwing the ball away at least once a game. Brutal!

As an Eagle fan, it is fun to pronounce the Dallas Cowboys D-U-N, DONE! Everybody’s favorite player is the back-up quarterback, until he actually gets on the field and throw three interceptions in a half, including one returned for a touchdown. The Cowboys will not go to the playoffs with Tony Romo at the helm. And wasn’t it fun to watch the cancer T.O. immediately throw the deposed quarterback under the bus, stating that he worked so hard to create chemistry with Bledsoe but the quarterback just could not get on the same page with him. And Parcells just looks like he is in the middle of a root canal, just gritting through when this horrible experience will end already.

Kyle Singler, one of the top 10 high school basketball players in the country, is expected to announce his decision to attend Duke University later this afternoon. That will complete another awesome recruiting class for Coach K, who will need to replace Josh McRoberts next year in all likelihood. It will be interesting to watch Duke lpay some tough November and December games (Indiana, Georgetown, Gonzaga, and the CBE Classic, at which possible opponents include Marquette, Texas Tech, Stanford and Air Force) without an actual point guard. It will be fun to watch McRoberts actually play some point at 6’10”.

I watched the Flyers beat the Thrashers last night in their first game under the John Stevens regime. They won in a shootout. I actually think the 4-on-4 overtime sessions are pretty exciting hockey. I think they should get rid of the shootout and go with overtime until someone scores. At the pace at which they go, very few games would drag on….it is more exciting than the shoot out.

Clemson lost to Virginia Tech last night in what was a good old fashioned football game. Clemson, who has been about the best rushing and offensive team in the country, could not run the ball and could not stop the run. Virginia Tech got back to Basics and played some Beamer ball.

Speaking of college football, Charlie Weis should stop whining. Just go out and win your games and everything will take care of itself. If you want to stop dropping in the polls to teams at home eating cheeseburgers, stop needing come from behind wins at the buzzer against inferior teams. Anyway, I still have no earthly idea why the geniuses at the NCAA cannot figure out that we need a playoff system in place. DUH!!!

One thing specifically for those of you who live in the congressional district that has Lois Murphy and Jim Gerlach cutting each other down and never telling us what is so great about themselves: consider not voting for either, and instead writing in the name Marole Leteber. Marole is focused on the issues, and not why the other candidates suck so bad. Marole is also the only one of the three that has ever done a guest column on this blog. Write in Marole Leteber for U.S. Congress on November 7th.

OK, let’s get down to business. It is time for my NCAA and NFL picks for the week.

NCAA (Last week: 2-3; Season, 22-23-1, 49%, YUCK)

Notre Dame (-13.5) at Navy. Notre Dame is going to come out and bury someone now that they realize they are going the wrong way ni the polls with close games. Navy does not have a good come from behind squad.

Baylor (+5) vs, Texas A& M. Baylor is good enough to keep this game close. A&M is not good enough to lay 5 points on the road against a decent team.

USC (-11) at Oregon State. USC has a week off to correct some issues. Two weeks of prep for Pete Carroll will be enough to have his team (finally) dominate somebody they should be ripping through.

Arizona St (-1.5) at Washington. Who would have throught a sports team would miss a guy named Isiah? Certinaly no Knicks fans. The third string QB is simply not cutting it for the Huskies. Ariaona St is playing better of late.

Missouri (-2) vs. Oklahoma. This game actually looks too easy, which worries me. But I cannot help myself, with no Adrian Peterson, Missouri will win this game at home.

NFL (Last week: 3-3-1; Season 23-15-2, 61%)

Cincinnati (-4) vs. Atlanta. Cincy is still somewhat shaky, but look for last week’s win to get them back on track. I will be amazed if Michael Vick can string together two straight solid passing days.

New York Giants (-9) vs. Tampa. Gradkowski is ready for one of those tough days on the road where he has to play catch up. Gulp.

Arizona (+3.5) at Green Bay. I know, I know. Just trust me on this one.

Baltimore (+2.5) at New Orleans. I am still not sold on New Orleans. Not sold on Baltimore either, but I will take the meager offering of points.

Pittsburgh (-9) at Oakland. That was it for Oakland. They won their Super Bowl last week. Pittsburgh will be in a foul mood after giving up 41 in Atlanta. They will roll.

Denver (-2.5) vs. Indianapolis. Denver runs well. Indy cannot stop the run. Indy has a great defense to slow the Colts. This is a revenge game from past couple playoffs. Look for the Bears to be the only remaining unbeaten after this week.

Carolina (-5) vs. Dallas. We will see how happy T.O. is when he gets lots of passes but no wins!

A couple other NFL notes: The Jets, who have taken care of business against all the bad teams they have played, are underdogs at Cleveland, who is terrible, and their bad offense took a blow when their offensive coordinator just up and left this week. This screams trap to me (and to Stitzer by the way). That being said, I still do not have the guts to pull the trigger on Cleveland, even though it seems that the oddsmakers have.

The Eagles should win against a tough Jacksonville team this week. But how that line is 7 is beyond me. Too many points. Anyway, I will be there as always, and will be tailgating. Email me if you are interested and I will give you directions to our tailgate….

Have a good weekend.