It's supposed to be a distraction from the trials and troubles of everyday life. An escape of sorts. Yet, we are oftentimes more identifiable by our professional sports allegiances than any other personality or character trait(s) that we possess. It gives us something to cheer for. Something to look forward to. Something to rally behind. During its most engaging moments, sports can cause thousands of strangers to instantly revel in pure ecstasy while simultaneously capturing the heart and soul of a city and its fan base. However, as most sports fans know, this is not always the case. In fact, it's more often the opposite-you feel let down, dejected, down right depressed. We all know what it feels like as fans to have our teams lose those close meaningful games. It leaves you with a sadness that takes days to shake...weeks...months...ill stop there. That being said, lets turn back to Monday night:
The Bad
Monday night featured game 4 for the Braves on the road against the Dodgers. An elimination game against the best pitcher in the sport in Clayton Kershaw. Did Braves fans honestly expect to head back to Atlanta for a potential Game 5 Wednesday night? I wouldn't necessarily be so sure, but take into consideration what the Braves had accomplished this year during the regular season-a 96-66 mark and complete domination of the NL East from start to finish. Fast forward to the eighth inning, and the Braves actually had a one run lead-Freddy Garcia had out pitched the soon to be 2013 NL CY Young award winner. And then...Juan Uribe. With Yasiel Puig (ROY?) on 3rd, Uribe goes deep to give the Dodgers a 4-3 lead and in the process reminds the Braves faithful of what it feels like in early October of pretty much every season in recent memory.
Back in Atlanta, the Falcons lost to the "at best slightly below average"Jets, causing the city of Atlanta to say goodbye to both football and baseball for the year within a few hours on an early October Monday night. How did this happen? I mean, was there ANYONE in America who really thought the Jets would walk into the Georgia Dome and, on national TV, defeat the Falcons? I don't think so. So, why are we (or I) so quick to write off the Falcons? Surely, most NFL teams will occasionally suffer the "bad" loss. Well, lets look at the closing minutes: The Falcons had come back from a 27-14 deficit to take a lead within 2 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. But that's good, right? Yes. But then, Geno Smith marches down the field in only eight plays and orchestrates a comeback win one week removed from a horrific start against the Titans. That is not good. The loss drops the Falcons to 1-4, who now trail the Saints by 4 games after only five weeks. Throw in a hobbled "Rowdy" Roddy White, the reports that Julio Jones, an All World receiver is out for the year, and the speculative trade rumors surrounding Tony Gonzalez heading back to KC, and you have a complete mess. So much so, that it appears Atlanta is relying on the Hawks for their winter entertainment...and we all know how that has worked out over the years.
While the Braves seem to always struggle to make it to Columbus day, the St. Louis Cardinals almost always seem to play well into October. Frustrating for most fans, these St. Louis teams seem to always have a knack for players playing well over their heads, and young pitchers stepping up and playing like experienced contributors. (Michael Wacha, Matt Adams, ect.). For a third straight year, we have to watch the Cardinals in the NLCS. I think most baseball fans (and human beings who want to see good things happen for deserving people) wanted to see the Pirates take on the Dodgers in the NLCS. What a revival its been in Pittsburgh this season, as the Pirates have played like the Steelers of recent memory, and the Steelers are playing....well...like the Pirates of most years. Finally snapping their consecutive losing seasons mark, it appeared like the Pirates were on their way to a magical season. Alas, it was not to be. (To the dismay of fans all across the country, including myself) Still, what may come out of this may be a nice rivalry between the Pirates and the Cardinals-two teams that have the young pitching and solid young core of everyday players to make the battle for NL Central supremacy something of a heated rivalry. Yes Pirates fans deserve this-it's been a few generations since they had a team worth cheering about. And, with guys like McCutchen, Marte, Cole and Alvarez, this core group can contend for years to come. This rivalry talk is a nice segway into a revival of what may become one of the hottest rivalries in hockey this year:
With the departure of the Red Wings to the Eastern Conference, the old Norris division rivalry between the Blackhawks and Blues comes center-stage. And there was no bigger demonstration of this than last night (it's now 3 am on the east coast-why am I still up?) The St. Louis Blues got a huge win over the Chicago Blackhawks. With 21 seconds left, Alexander Steen fired off a shot from inside the left circle to give the Blues a 3-2 win and increase their record to 3-0. Its early, of course, but Blues fans are understandingly excited in going 3-0 for the first time in 20 years. Off of a tough six game series last April with the LA Kings, the Blues have carried that momentum into the start of this season. They even have had ten different goal scorers over the first two games of the season. Fans in St. Louis have a right to feel proud today. Its a feeling all fans should enjoy at some point. But for some of us it doesn't come along often. Enjoy it while it last.
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This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
