
October 20, 2025
It’s great to see the Dodgers “ruining baseball” again! The Boys in Blue just rolled right through the Milwaukee Brewers in a 4-game sweep last week, and are headed back to their 2nd straight World Series. One of the reasons we watch sports is to witness individual greatness, and the moments that come with it. Shohei Ohtani gave us all that and more in game 4 of the series. There is nobody in baseball who can take over a game the way that Ohtani did in that game. He was dominant on the mound, striking out 10 batters over 6 shutout innings, and absolutely took over the game at the plate with three home runs. The man is just a walking box office and you should stop everything you’re doing to watch him when you have the opportunity. The Dodgers are like that student in your class that goofed around all semester, and now that the final exams are here (i.e. – the playoffs), and they are cramming for the exam and coming out of it with an A in the class. It’s not like they have been tearing the cover of the baseball and scoring all these runs either. Their pitching has been so phenomenal, allowing only 4 runs in 4 games. The Brewers were the best regular season team in baseball this year, yet the Dodgers held them to the fewest hits of any team through the first 3 games of a playoff series in 119 years. That’s unbelievable! Baseball is a very weird game and either of the AL Teams left could easily win the World Series. However, the Dodgers have a great chance to cash in now on a back-to-back championship while they have a CBA in their favor, and while they still have a core of star players that are still in the midst of their baseball prime. Oh and allowing Clayton Kershaw to go out as a champion is a nice cherry on top of the Sundae too!
Let’s go to the NFL, where the Rams played one of those stupid international games yesterday against the Jaguars. They dominated and came away with a victory going into their bye week. The NFL has a ton of parody right now, but the Rams look as good as anybody in the NFC does after 7 weeks of football. They are really starting to come together in all facets of the game. Prior to the 4th quarter yesterday, their defense had allowed just 3 points in their last 7 quarters, and they only allowed 3 out of 15 3rd down conversions by the Jags. Jared Verse is so good, I completely forgot about Aaron Donald, even though he was one of the best all-time when he played. On offense, no Puka Nacua? No problem. Davante Adams scored three touchdowns, and Matt Stafford threw 5, while they continuously pounded the ball up the middle to control the game. It was as impressive of a win as the Rams have had all season. The Rams have a very winnable game against the Saints in two weeks, then they’ll have to contend with two really good divisional opponents in the 49ers and Seahawks.

I don’t know what was uglier, the Chargers uniforms or those urination edition uniforms they played in yesterday. Maybe the reason they wore that color was so it would disguise the defense from peeing down their legs in fear of the Colts. Injuries are obviously a huge part of the problems for the Bolts, and that can explain why the Colts were getting pressure on almost every possession. However, it doesn’t explain why the Chargers defense was awful. This is not what Jim Harbaugh teams are supposed to look like. Suddenly the Chiefs look like they are about to overtake the Chargers and Broncos for 1st place. The Chargers schedule isn’t too bad, but if they don’t get healthy quickly, they will be in a dog fight just to get into the playoffs.

In College Football, USC’s Playoff hopes were torpedoed on Saturday night when they lost to Notre Dame 34-24. Notre Dame looks for real and like one of the top 5-10 teams in the country. Meanwhile, the Trojans are a Top 20 team, but not much better than that. I’m sure everyone wants to cook Lincoln Riley after seeing his team get completely run over on the ground, and beat up in the trenches. It felt like same old Trojans. They are a finesse team, and can win with finesse, but that’s tough against a lot of the elite teams in the country, and especially in The Big Ten. They could still quite easily get 9 wins and go to a nice bowl game, but that won’t get them to the CFP. Riley’s real saving grace is the fact he has the #1 recruiting class in the country next year. If he can’t make some major progress with that, then USC truly has the wrong guy coaching them. As for the rivalry game itself, it would be completely wrong for USC and Notre Dame to end their rivalry. They need to figure it out and I think they will. I get that USC now plays in the Big Ten with tough travel, but at least put Notre Dame earlier as part of the non-conference schedule. There are certain traditions that should always be honored, and in addition to the tradition, both teams really need each as other as part of their strength of schedule.
Then there’s UCLA, who won their 3rd straight game. I don’t know who this team is, but they are interesting. After beating Maryland, they are now tied for 4th in the Big Ten. Also credit to Nico Iamaleava, who overcame injury and came back for the final drive of the game. I have so much respect for this Bruins team and what they have been able to pull together, especially Jerry Neuheisal. With that being said, there’s some lightning in a bottle going on here. This team still lacks talent in the big picture, and I think come next week there will be a bit of a reality check. The Bruins have to face Indiana, followed by Nebraska, and Ohio State, with 2 of those 3 on the road. That’s a brutal schedule, but if they want a real shot at the Big Ten title like some people think they have, they’ll have to deal with those teams. Crazier things have happened, but I don’t think the Bruins can get by either of those ranked teams.

Get ready for the start of the NBA season! The Lakers will get things going on Tuesday night at home against the Golden State Warriors. My expectation is that the Lakers are still going to be playing very well to start the season, even without Lebron James. When I see Austin and Luka play together, they look really good, and they also have some credible rotation pieces as well, like DeAndre Ayton. The West is very hard to handicap 1-10, and all the teams aren’t going to be separated by much, which means healthy will probably be the deciding factor. However, the Lakers were 3rd in the West last year with a limited sample size with Lebron, Luka, and Austin in the lineup. I can’t imagine that they will be any worse than last year, as long as they are reasonably healthy.

Finally, what in the world is going on with the LA Kings. They have 1 regulation win in 6 games. For a team with the type of aspirations this team does, that’s completely inexcusable. I realize their schedule was a bit difficult, but everyone expects much better. The problem? Their defense could not defend a parked car, and it has regressed with the free agent signings of two veteran stiffs in Cody Ceci and Brian Dumoulin. They are nothing more than traffic cones on defense, and it’s also possible their starting goalie Darcy Keumper has regressed due to age. That would fundamentally destroy the Kings and they might suddenly not be a playoff team. I’m not saying that’s going to happen because a lot of the Kings losses so far are due to undisciplined play and just not staying out of the penalty box. However, keep an eye on where this goes, because if the Kings aren’t good, Adrian Kemp may want to look elsewhere and not re-sign. If that happens, the Kings are really screwed.
