An advice column for people who live with people who live for sports
Wednesday, October 22
A Royal Surprise: After eight straight wins in the playoffs, the Kansas City Royals finally lost in the first game of the World Series. The San Francisco Giants jumped on them early, with three runs in the first inning, as if to say, “things are going to be different now that you’re playing us.” The Royals could never quite get their feet on the ground and ended up losing 7-1. If you missed our preview of the World Series (really just a reblog of the two best other previews out there,) read it here. Line: Now we’ll see what the Royals are made of. What’s Next: Game two is tonight, at 8 p.m. ET on Fox.
Giant scores in the Champions League: As we explained in our article about the UEFA Champions League, the tournament is set up with the twin goals of inclusion and competitive balance. Yesterday’s slate of games had a few examples of what happens when inclusion overwhelms balance. Bayern Munich beat AS Roma 7-1, Chelsea beat NK Maribor, 6-0, and Shakhtar Donetsk beat BATE Borisov 7-0. They weren’t all blow-outs though, the most exciting a surprising result was a comeback 2-2 draw between Manchester City and CSKA Moscow. Line: If you let all the champions of all the leagues, even the small ones, into the tournament, sometimes you’re gonna get some blow-outs. What’s Next: Another set of games today at 2:45 p.m. ET on ESPN3 and ESPN Deportes.
Cowboys waive Sam: That’s right, remember Michael Sam? The first openly gay person to be drafted by a major professional sports team? After being cut by that team before the season started, Sam was signed by the Dallas Cowboys to play on their practice squad. Yesterday he was cut by the Cowboys. This doesn’t necessarily mean he wasn’t good enough, practice squads are pretty small and teams often need to cut players for positional reasons (they need an extra wide receiver there more than they need a defensive end, for example.) Still, it means that Sam is another step farther from landing a contract as a roster player for a team. Hopefully this is a case of one-step-back-two-steps-forward. The New England Patriots just lost their best defensive end (the position Sam plays) for a month yesterday… maybe they’ll sign Sam? Line: People get cut from practice squads all the time for all sorts of reasons. Let’s hope this isn’t the last we hear of Sam.
