Once upon a time, there was a concept called a climactic playoff chase.

Then the White Sox and Twins happened, THE END.

Earlier this week the Sox and Twins gave us a great taste of the A.L. Central playoff chase.  The Twinkies swept the Sox and left us waiting for the final series against the tomato can Royals** and Indians.

Then the mouse roared.  The Twins lost the first two against K.C. and the Indians are giving the ChiSox a nice S&M beat down.

I LOVE the end of the MLB season.  Pick your cliche and use it.

That's why they play the games.

Every game counts.

It ain't over till it's over...

The Pac Ten is overrated.  Whoops, wrong post.

**Don't hate me. I'm a fan of the Royals and small franchise mediocrity.

Here's what's been popping into my little brain the past few days.

1a) CBB-NBA  - Kansas had the rep as the white bread college basketball program.  A while back a daily sports show lead-in mentioned a NBA rookie and ganja.  Immediately, I thought I'd won the 'Beasley busted for pot' lottery!  Nope, it was a couple NBA rooks from Kansas.  Gasp!  The reason the Wizard of Oz didn't want us to pull back the curtain was because a big pile of fatties was back there.  Party on Wayne!   Hey, these guys weren't even caught WITH maryjane!  They were merely suspected.  Of course, running into the can and flushing several times is normal for a couple dudes to do together, isn't it?  The team that shares together, stays together.

1b) NCAA FB -  Beanie will play, won't play, will play, won't play...excuse me while I throw up.  Is this 3rd grade?   What's up with too darn many of the 'everyones'** calling Ohio State ,OSU, all over the place.  While growing up, OSU meant Oklahoma State.  To others it means Oregon State.  At the same time, we know the 'U' means home of gun toting felons.

2) NBA - Kobe posts in the Blog NBA section.  Good god, does anyone else play in the NBA?  The legion of Kobe's sycophant, wannabe friends is scary.  For the record, Mamba did NOT jump over the sports car in the YOUTUBE video; Kobe did attempt to jump a Colorado concierge.

3) MLB - Cy Young Award.  Cliff Lee!  We talkin' Cliff Lee?  His first name is really Cy, but goes by he Cliff.  Playing for a losing team and still cranking out +20 wins against two losses is amazing!  Guess who has the lowest ERA, too.    Sorry K-Rod, you're a reliever on a team that plays too many close games.  That's how you've been in so many save situations.  

4) Kansas @ South Florida -    This morning a South Florida graduate/friend called to ask about hurricane Ike in Texas and Friday night's game.  Man, how the CFB landscape is changing.  Warm weather, high population states are starting to take over CFB.  (When asked about his South Florida jersey, the response was, "I don't have any South Florida clothes."  It figures.)

5) CFB-NFL  - Austin, Texas...don't drink the water.  What's up with the stud Texas players once in the pros?  The over-reporting on Vince Young may show a troubled young man.  The recent sports lead-ins mention suicide and a handgun.  Yikes.  This story is just getting fired up.   Ricky Williams and his ganja soap opera has slowed; his recent play had Miami give him a contract extension.  Ced Benson.  Remember him?  This Chicago Bear was busted for BUI-Boating Under the Influence.  T-sip loyalists came out and made rude, lewd, crude and abusive comments at anyone who questioned Ced's actions.  "It was a set-up."  Add the following DUI and poof, Cedric is gone from the NFL and so are the blind bloggers who loved the dude.

6) Tom Brady's Knee. - How has this not been an ESPN sports ticker category.  He's out for the season, so it's like he's dead.  Shaddup already!

7) CFB Predict The Score Blogs - No, the blogs are great subjects.  The homer responses are too predictable.  Go to an Ohio State blogger's blog and you'll see it loaded with Ohio State fans who all predict a win.  What, you guys think mini-Ditka is suiting up for the nuts?

That's it.  I'm out of time.   Lisa H and the USC song girls will now lead us in My Sharona.

 **Per the B&O/JokersWild/SteveoInHTown spelling class, I may make schizznit words up where needed...because I'm an artist.

I can't take it any more and needed to vent about what's making me turn off the Olympics.  Things driving me nuts are:

 1) Bob Costas

 If he says, "LIVE" again, I'll puke.  Someone on FoxSports has stated the same thing about Bobby!  I think he's the offspring of a frickin' gopher and locust.  Every so often he shows up and annoys us.  Thank God he doesn't do NFL games.

 2) Chinese Gymnasts

 Olympic gymnasts must be 16 to participate.  These kids still have baby teeth and Hello Kitty t-shirts.  No one is fooled.

 Who did their birth certificates, a Dominican baseball coach?

 3) Olympic Beach Volleyball

 There's not enough of it!  Do NOT show dudes again!

 4) Gymnastic Judges

 Apparently the East German and French figure skating judges are now doing women's gymnastics.

 Oh, if a competition isn't head to head or against the clock, it's an activity, not a sport.  Judges are political tools.

 5) NBC

 The network is China's lap dog.  The show is an infomercial for the Red Menace.   Nice hard hitting, personal interest stories about TEA make me puke.  Point out the gulags built by the Russkies for Mao's bad boys.  Wanna buy a smog face mask?  Whoops, can't show those either.

 6) Chinese Olympic Committee/Politbureau

 You may have noticed some strange things during the Opening Ceremonies.  I did and screamed, "Bullshad!" immediately.

 It seems the sneaks used computer generated graphics to phony up what you saw on the screen.  To make it worse, some politicians decided that the little kid scheduled to sing a song wasn't cute enough!  They pulled a Milli Vanilli and had a better looking kid lip synch.  Seems the US is having an influence on China!

 7) Medal Trackers

 I don't see this as country by country competition.  Some countries are better at given activities.  That's the way it is.

 I watch to see the best, especially without corrupt judges deciding results in advance.

8) Russia

 Nice timing there, Putin.  You invaded Georgia, during the Opening Ceremonies.  You've been busted for killing journalists and attempting to kill heads of state.  The Hague should be in your future.  (Left wing liberal pukes need not add their anti-Bush slants.)

 9) Not enough hottie shots

 I keep seeing writeups about all the cheer squads(code for  babes) at sports venues.  Hey NBC, where are these lovelies.   Since Ana Ivanovic withdrew, the hotness factor has dropped.

 10) Brett Favre

 Why him?  It took the Olympics to move this drama queen off the hourly sports intro.  Stop the tabloid reporting.  I don't need made up items reported as fact.  Now, where are those cheerleaders?

Bonus

11) The US Olympic Committee

Mark Spitz was hosed by the USOC.  Instead of bringing Spitz over for the games, we're forced to hear the announcer insert a Spitz comment into every sentence containing Michael Phelps.  This was handled poorly, which isn't a shock.  Maybe the Chinese can use some more CGI to drop Spitz into the crowd!

As we type, another network is pushing a segment on Title Town.  Ok, them is fighting words, Vern.   This is as stupid as claiming which NCAA football conference is the best.  Several conferences need to travel TO bowl games instead of playing at home stadiums before the masses will offer total respect.  Remember the four-letter network's terrible "Who's Now" segment last year?  I'm still hosing down the living room to remove the stench.  This is more of the same refuse.

No city owns the Title Town moniker and plenty of fine citizens will offer to fight over the name.

Green Bay was ONCE known by that name; it's lame to make a claim to a name that has applied only ONCE since the late 1960's.  Let it go, Green Bay.  Be happy you still have an NFL franchise.  Los Angeles will be sniffing for an NFL team in a few years.

Please feel free to toss replies with team/franchise nicknames that really piziss you off.  Yes, I live in DFW; I grew up despising the Cowboys, since Pearson pushed off on the Hail Mary pass against my beloved Vikes!

What franchise do you hate and why?  Here are the leading contenders.

NFL-

America's Team!  That was a name created for a NFL FILMS video.  Tex Schramm and his Cowboys cronies jumped on it and the flea bag media and fans kept it going.  Hey!  Every sport needs a Dr. Evil franchise for everyone else to hate.  Philly fans should be happy it's not them the rest of the leagues hates and is jealous of, too.

In the 80's the SuperStation, TBS, a Turner commodity, attempted to bogart the name, America's Team, for the Braves.  Didn't work, did it.  How can a team from a city that can't build a freeway to loop the city be hated?  Well, unless Ray Lewis has a weapon, I'm not worried!

The New England Pats are rising on the hate charts, courtesy of the video camera and three, lame three point SuperBowl wins(?).

MLB-

The prissy Yankees and their astronomical payroll win in an uncontested match.  How can we not hate the Yankees!  It's as easy as ' A squared + B squared = C squared.'  The highest payroll in the western hemisphere can't buy titles any more.  I love it.  Red Sox fans, quit your crying.  You're the second most hated franchise in  MLB, since your 'Johnny come lately' fans have a huge sense of entitlement.  Go back to worshipping Dennis Leary, please.  Anyone know who's the daddy of A-Rod's kids? 

NHL-

Let's face it, Detroit is the bomb.  This is the Title Town of the NHL.   I respect the pizza franchise dictator's running of the Red Wings.   This only leaves teams with dirty players and that leaves Sean Avery, dirtbag-turd.  The NHL created a rule, during the playoffs because of this swine.   Wait, he just signed with the Stars.  Whoops!  I'm not impartial any more.  Fans are more jealous of the Red Wings than anything else.

NBA-

That's  beyond easy, since Kindergarten kids hate the Lakers.  There's nothing more to say.  At least the Police Blotter has not included Lakers lately.

MLS-

Psych.  The masses aren't watching.

Gentlemen, start your fisticuffs. 

American gluttony again took center stage on t.v. 

It's Hot Dog eating time. B-U-R-P!