October 13, 2025

The Dodgers somehow survived a 5-game series against the Phillies and advanced to the NLCS vs The Brewers. The baseball Gods definitely evened the scales of justice after the Dodgers lost to the Phillies in devastating fashion in 2008 and 2009. That came when Orion Kerkering lost his mind and threw the ball home in extra innings instead of making an easy play by throwing to 1st base, which would have ended the 11th inning. The Dodgers somehow won 2 games on the road in Philly, and won 2 games at home while hitting like Little Leaguers. That’s because their starting pitching has been lights out, and their bullpen has been stabilized by Roki Sasaki, who suddenly looks like the 2nd coming of Mariano Rivera. If the Dodgers are going to beat the Brewers and ultimately win the World Series, they will need Shohei Ohtani to hit. The man is struggling so bad to hit anything right now, even his wife has been saying no. The Brewers remind me of the Lakers vs Spurs playoff matches from 2000-2010. You always knew the Lakers were the more talented team, but they had to execute at a very high level to beat the Spurs because they were so fundamentally sound. That’s exactly what will need to happen here. The Dodgers will need to put the ball in play, manufacture runs, run the bases well, and play good defense. You can count on both teams pitching well, but it will take a much higher level of execution for the Dodgers to win this one.

Before we get to some football, I’ve gotta mention how embarrassing the Angels are. Yusei Kukuchi told Japanese reporters after his final start that he had to exit due to cramping. The reason for that is because the weight room in Anaheim has no A/C, so he is always drenched in sweat. He even asked the team to fix the lack of A/C, but they did never did all season. An additional story is floating around on Twitter that an Armenian friend of Perry Minasian is saying that Arte Moreno won’t even pay for a personal assistant or admin for his GM. Who knows if that part is true, but it certainly fits the narrative that Moreno is the slum lord of MLB owners. For the life of me I can’t understand why Albert Pujols or Tori Hunter would want to manage a team with limited talent and resources. They must be incredibly bored.

To the NFL, where the Rams defeated the Ravens yesterday on the road. I don’t know what happened in the 1st half, as it was another case of the Rams playing down to their competition. It’s hard to enjoy a sloppy lifeless win when your expectations are winning the Super Bowl. However, the good news is that the Rams are still 4-2, and firmly in the mix for a top playoff spot in the NFC. It’s also clear that some of the other top teams like the Eagles, Packers, and 49ers are having their own issues at times as well against what you would think is inferior competition. What’s up with Davante Adams? He’s suddenly dropping balls like it’s New Years Eve. The injuries are a bit of a concern too with Puka dealing with a foot issue, and then Blake Corum with an ankle injury. It was good to see Kyren Williams get in the end zone though, and get his confidence back up after last week’s disaster against the 49ers.

The Chargers also had to deal with some injury issues, but still got by the Dolphins 29-27 on the road yesterday. Justin Herbert still looks amazing, throwing two more touchdown passes. Kimani Vidal was piling up receiving yardage like he was playing PlayStation, and Ladd McConkey looked like last years elite receiver. Ironally, the Bolts are one of the worst teams in the red zone in the NFL. Although it almost cost them, Cameron Dicker is the most accurate kicker in the NFL. Imagine that? A Chargers kicker that is actually accurate! That has never happened! I do think they are a playoff team, but I’m not totally convinced the Chiefs aren’t going to come back and win this division. They have Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and Taylor Swift on their team. We know anything is possible with Taylor Swift on your side!

In College Football, the Trojans took down Michigan at home on Saturday night at the Coliseum. That put them up to #20 in the AP Poll, heading into a showdown with Notre Dame, who is #13 in the polls. We give Lincoln Riley a lot of crap for his coaching when they’ve lost, but in this case he deserves a lot of credit. A lot of people pegged the Trojans as a soft team, and his coaching style as very finesse. He had his team ready to play, and it was by far the most complete game we had seen USC play in a long time. Now with USC sitting at #20, it’s a huge game next weekend for both teams, with major playoff implications on the line. If USC wins, they have some momentum and may actually have a shot at the College Football Playoff. If Notre Dame wins, they will suddenly launch themselves back into the Top 12, and strengthen their case for a playoff spot with a win over a ranked opponent.

In another shocking development, UCLA went on the road and dismantled Michigan State 38-13. All of a sudden this looks like a totally different team than the one we saw the first 4 games of the season. Most of that is thanks to the offensive genius of Jerry Neuheisel, who is making his offense look like the Greatest Show On Turf from the early 2000’s. He really did revive Nico Iamaleava, and this team might actually be fun to watch for the rest of the season. However, I’m not ready to anoint these guys Big Ten contenders or anything like that. Let’s slow our roll a bit. What I would do though if I were UCLA is call James Franklin, who would be an excellent hire if this program is serious about football. The problem is I’m not so sure that Martin Jarmond is a serious Athletic Director.

In the NBA, Lebron is the biggest troll I’ve ever seen. Making us all think he’s going to retire, only to announce some cheesy Hennessey partnership. The guy suing Lebron because he bought tickets to the last game is an idiot though. Why don’t you just ask for money back on your stock market losses while you’re at it? The Lakers also learned that Lebron James is going to miss the start of the season, and will be re-evaluated in 3-4 weeks with a glute injury. You know, I really want to believe he’s hurt, and for the time being I’m going to believe that Lebron is really hurt. However, there is a small part of me, and maybe a big part of some of you that think he doesn’t want to risk his 40-year old body until he sees what this Laker team can do without him. It’s so ridiculous to think that a player as good as Lebron would need to feel like he is on a completely stacked team in order to compete, but I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt for now and assume he is really hurt. I reserve the right to change my mind depending on how this plays out. It would be pretty funny though if the Lakers started 10-1 with Luka, yet Lebron ends up coming back and ruining team chemistry. More than anything though Lebron’s glute injury is symbolic because lately, he and Rich Paul have just been a big pain in the ass!

Finally, it’s been quiet in Clipper land for a couple of weeks now since Pablo Torres latest reports on Kawhi Leonard and Aspiration. The Clips have to hope it dies down because on the court, it appears as though they have a pretty good team. Like every year, it always depends on the health of Kawhi, but also, health of everyone else. The Clips are talented but older. Chris Paul, Brooke Lopez, Bradley Beal, James Harden. They are getting long in the tooth and can miss games. If and when that happens, the Clippers will once again be just a great concept, with not actual reality of winning.

October 6, 2025

What a great win by the Dodgers on Saturday night in game 1 against the Phillies.   That was definitely the game they needed to win on the road, with Ohtani going in game 1, Glasnow backing him up, and little middle relief help.  Say what you will about Teo’s shortcomings as a defender, but he is proving to be an excellent postseason performer, with clutch hits.  The same can be said for Kike Hernandez, who basically becomes Barry Bonds in October.  Ironically, the Dodgers were starting to get more from Michael Conforto in September, but it wasn’t enough for him to make the postseason roster.  It turns out they were just waiting for Kike to be completely healthy to give him a regular spot in the lineup.   On the other hand, if the Dodgers are unable to use Tanner Scott to close a game right now, then he shouldn’t be on the playoff roster.   Not sure they even trust him with an 8-run lead.   I’m afraid someone is going to accuse me of being racist, but the Dodgers DH looks exactly like their game 1 starter, but that’s impossible right?  Not if you’re Shohei Ohtani.  He really did pitch outstanding and settled down after 1 tough inning.  It was a rough night at the plate, but he can’t always be lights out every night on both sides.  The Phillies have such a potent lineup and can make you pay, I’m still not 100% convinced the Dodgers will win this series, only because of that shaky bullpen.

 As for the Angels, Perry Minasian spoke to the media on Saturday to answer some questions about the Halos season.  As usual, there was 0 accountability.  We heard the same thing we’ve heard for maybe a decade, that they have to drastically improve the pitching.  Minasian also said they have to stop striking out and improve their defense.  Well at least it’s good to know that the man knows how to read a stat sheet.  There was also no indication from Minasian that the Angels were going to spend more money to try and be more competitive.   Of course the candidates for their manager position are Albert Pujols and Tori Hunter.  They are already on the club payroll, so Arte Moreno won’t have to pay them much more!  And of course Arte wasn’t going to bring back Ron Washington when he might have to incur great cost on his health insurance.   This situation is the most Moreno thing in the world.

In the NFL, that was a terrible loss for the Rams on Thursday night against 49ers.  San Francisco had a handful of their very best players sittings out because of injury.  They should have never been down 14-0 in the first place, Kyren Williams cannot fumble on the goal line with the game on the line, and Sean Payton has to call better plays than we saw on the last play.   This team has always had a tendency to play down to competition, so when an opponent like San Francisco is missing so many players and they play like this, it’s not all that surprising.  At least Sean McVay owned it, saying that he put his players in a bad situation and has to call better plays.  Given his track record, I’m sure he will.

All of a sudden, the Chargers look like the Chargers of old, and that’s not a good thing. They really Chargered that game yesterday against the Commanders. They were up 10-0, and in the blink of an eye, took a lot of bad penalties and made costly turnovers, which cost them the game. Suddenly the team can’t block, they can’t catch, and they can’t tackle for all the talent that they have. Jim Harbaugh says that all of these mistakes are extremely correctable, and some of them are. However, I’m not sure how they protect Justin Herbert with the injuries they have. The penalties though, they can do better. What they really need to be worried about is the Chiefs and Broncos, who suddenly look really good and ready to take the division by storm.

 For just one week, we can feel good about UCLA Football.   They pulled off an absolutely stunning win at the Rose Bowl Saturday against Penn State.  I would have assumed the odds of winning the Power Ball were higher than the Bruins winning that game.  Even better is Jerry Neuheisel, who brought so much emotion and attitude to the table that rubbed off on his players for a week.  I’m not going to get caught up in some prisoner of the moment, “he should be the next head coach” campaign, but it was really nice to see some pride from everyone for a week in symbolizing what UCLA football can actually look like.

I know many of you just hate Notre Dame, but it’s happening.  The Irish lost their first two games by a combined 4 points to two top 5 teams.  After that they handled business easily against Purdue, Arkansas, and Boise State.  They are now ranked #16 in the AP Poll, when a couple of weeks ago, you thought they shouldn’t be ranked at all.  Of course as an alum, I hate it when people act like their ranking isn’t earned, just because they are Notre Dame.  Well their #16 ranking is now in fact justified, because they should be one of the Top 16 teams, and probably even Top 12 when it’s all said and done.

In the NBA, the Lakers opened the preseason over the weekend.  It’s that time of year where everyone loves to micro analyze every little thing wrong with the team.  I refuse to do it.  It’s preseason.  Many of the guys on the floor are going to be delivering my Door Dash in about a week.  For that reason, I’m not going to jump on DeAndre Ayton for only scoring 1 point in a preseason game, and micro analyzing his 8 rebounds and 2 blocks.  Relax people.  72 hours after camp starts for a preseason game is a little ridiculous.  You can start your complaints about players on October 21st.  As for LeBron, I’m a litttle surprised he hasn’t come out during media day and announced this will be his last season.  I think he knows, but he’s waiting for the right time to make the announcement.  You know he will want a real farewell tour, and the way he is talking makes it seem like it’s coming very soon.  Let’s see if he announces it in the next two weeks before the season starts.

Then there’s the Clippers, who opened training camp with the Kawhi Leonard-Aspiration investigation hanging over their heads.  Kawhi was clearly perfectly coached on media day, saying the company defrauded the Clippers and that it’s old news to him.  For all the criticizing we do of Ramona Shelburne, she asked good questions and pressed him on the issue.  It’s still suspicious that Kawhi can’t exactly explain what he did for Aspiration.  At some point; it’s going to be fascinating to see if the NBA comes down with a huge punishment on the Clippers, and if so, what that does to their season.