- Niners win, Rams lose — There were two things that stood out in last night’s football game which ended as a 31 – 17 victory for the San Francisco 49ers over the St. Louis Rams: The first was a phantom penalty call against the Rams at the end of the first half which stopped them from increasing their lead from 14-3 to 21-3. After that bad call, the 49ers scored 28 of the next 31 points in the game. The other notable thing was the Rams wearing their bright, beautiful (to my eyes) yellow and blue uniforms from the 1990s. Fun!
Line: If it hadn’t been for that phantom offensive pass interference call at the end of the second quarter, things might have turned out a little differently. - Baseball playoffs quaintly rained out — It seems like a remnant of a nicer, kinder past for sports, but the baseball playoff game last night between the Baltimore Orioles and the Kansas City Royals actually got rained out! It’s kind of cool that some things, even if they are elemental, are more important than sports and television schedules.
What’s Next: The game has been rescheduled for tonight at 8 p.m. ET and will be televised on TBS. - Topsy turvy start for some hockey teams — The Boston Bruins played a rare Monday matinee hockey game yesterday against the Colorado Avalanche and lost 2-1. This brings their record to 1-3 and means that after a win on opening night, the Bruins have lost three games in a row. This is a rare bad patch for the Bruins. It’s been 145 games since they last lost three in a row. That said, it’s probably a little bit too early to worry. Just like no one really expects the Tampa Bay Lightning or Nashville Predators to remain undefeated.
Line: It’s a long season, let’s all just take a deep breath.
Category: Cue Cards
Monday, October 13
- Cardinals walk off with a homer and a win — The St. Louis Cardinals won the second game of their best-four-out-of-seven series 5-4 against the San Francisco Giants on a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning. The game was close throughout but Cardinals fans had to be fearing the worst when the Giants tied the game in the top of the ninth inning. Their fear of losing a second straight game to the Giants was ameliorated when Kolten Wong blasted the ball 370 feet and out of the ballpark.
Line: The line between being down two games to zero and being tied one to one is so thin.
What’s Next: Game three is on Fox Sports 1 at 4:00 Tuesday, October 14. - Fascinating day, boring night in the NFL — There were gobs of excellent football games yesterday. The Panthers and Bengals played to an unusual 37-37 tie. The Packers eeked by the Dolphins on a late touchdown drive. The Titans hit a last second field goal to keep the Jaguars winless for the season. The Chargers sneaked by the unexpectedly feisty Raiders. The day’s titanic game between the Cowboys and Seahawks lived up to expectations. But the prime-time game between the Giants and Eagles was b-o-r-i-n-g! Brush up on all the games with our Week Six NFL One Liners.
Line: The NFL was exciting all day but then it turned into a pumpkin at night.
Thursday, October 9
- Finally a good Thursday Night NFL Football Game — Thursday Night National Football League games have been taking heat in the media lately. It’s one thing that we all sort of know they’re cruel and unusual for players who get only three days to heal their bodies between a Sunday game and having to play again Thursday. It’s another thing that they’re not fun to watch. Every Thursday game this year had been a blow-out. That’s when the complaints really heated up. The game last night between the Indianapolis Colts and the Houston Texans looked like it was going to follow suit after the Colts went up 24-0 in the first half. “Here we go again, another blow out” people were saying all over the world. The Texans came back to make it interesting though and had the ball, down only five points, with two minutes to go. After their quarterback fumbled, the game was over and the comeback attempt had come up short.
Line: At least it wasn’t another boring Thursday Night game like it looked like it was going to be. - Hockey’s back again — Last night was the second night in the National Hockey League season but the first for many teams. There were twelve games played last night and if you were a fan of one of the teams playing their first game, you were excited about the start of the season.
Line: I know it sounds wimpy but I just want my team to get through the first week with no major injuries. Seems like players are falling like leaves this year. - International soccer? — It’s not the world cup but the countries of Europe are playing each other in games to qualify for the next European Championships. Some games, like England’s 5-0 win over San Marino are mismatches in size and power, but others like Russia and Sweden playing to a 1-1 draw are exciting and even rivalries. The most interesting game was Slovakia’s 2-1 win over Spain, whose World Cup swoon now looks more like the end of an era than a glitch in the matrix.
Line: Every “golden generation” of soccer players comes to an end. Looks like Spain’s generation is at its end now.
Cue Cards 10-9-14
Cue Cards is a series designed to assist with the common small talk about high-profile recent sporting events that is so omnipresent in the workplace, the bar, and other social settings.
Yesterday — Wednesday, October 8
- Hockey opens with four games — The NHL season started yesterday with four carefully chosen games. Two games were in Canada between Canadian teams and two were in the United States between American teams. Two were in the East, two were in the West. All the teams involved were good teams from markets that support them well.
- The Boston Bruins beat the Philadelphia Flyers 2-1.
Line: The Bruins are definitely the best team in the East and it’s probably not that close. - The Montreal Canadiens beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-3.
Line: Not that one game matters that much, but this result matches the tradition of these two teams that goes back at least fifty years. Canadiens win, Leafs lose. - The San Jose Sharks beat the L.A. Kings 4-0.
Line: After a humiliating loss to the Kings in last year’s playoffs, the Sharks show some pride in winning this game. - The Vancouver Canucks beat the Calgary Flames 2-0.
Line: Hard to find a second good team in Western Canada for the Canucks to play. The only other choices, Calgary and Winnipeg, are likely to be among the worst teams in the league.
- The Boston Bruins beat the Philadelphia Flyers 2-1.
- Everyone else breathed — No games for the NFL or MLB yesterday. The stretched-out football weekend starts tonight with a game between the Indianapolis Colts and the Houston Texans. The two Championship Series’ in the baseball playoffs start on Friday and Saturday.
Cue Cards 10-8-14
Cue Cards is a series designed to assist with the common small talk about high-profile recent sporting events that is so omnipresent in the workplace, the bar, and other social settings.
Yesterday — Tuesday, October 7
- Good bye Washington — The San Francisco Giants beat the Washington Nationals 3-2 to win game four of their series and advance to the next round. The Nationals were said to have the best five pitcher rotation in the league, and they might have, but scoring nine runs in four games was just not enough to beat the Giants.
Line: It wasn’t Washington’s pitching that mattered in the end because their hitting was so bad.
What’s Next: The Nationals clean out their lockers and go home. The Giants advance to the National League Championships (the semifinals) which begin on Saturday. - Another home run, another victory — One swing of the bat was enough to lift the St. Louis Cardinals over the Los Angeles Dodgers. Matt Adams hit a three run home run in the seventh inning and the Cardinals beat the Dodgers 3-2. The most gossip-worthy plot point of this game was the Dodgers’ manager’s decision to bench young star Yasiel Puig who had not been playing well. It’s never clear in hindsight whether it was a good move or not (the Dodgers could have lost more decisively if their manager hadn’t done that) but because sports is so results oriented, I’m sure the manager will be a much criticized man today.
Line: I don’t think I would bench my star in an elimination game no matter how poorly he was playing.
What’s Next: The Cardinals move on to play the Giants in the NLCS which starts on Saturday.
Cue Cards 10-7-14
Cue Cards is a series designed to assist with the common small talk about high-profile recent sporting events that is so omnipresent in the workplace, the bar, and other social settings.
Yesterday — Monday, October 6
- Cardinals over Dodgers — We’ve written a lot about the bunt in the last few days because the Royals have been using it so effectively in this year’s playoffs. Think of the Cardinals as the anti-Royals, if only in this game. They beat the Dodgers 3-1 thanks to two home runs from Matt Carpenter and Kolton Wong.
Line: Talk all you want about bunts but you can score in one fell-swoop with home runs.
What’s Next: The Cardinals now lead the best-three-out-of-five series two to one. Game four is today at 5 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 1. - Nationals over Giants — The Washington Nationals avoided a 3-0 sweep by winning 4-1 over the San Francisco Giants. The biggest play of the game came when the Nationals were able to score two runs on a wild throw by Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner.
Line: Sometimes, in the playoffs, a little bit of luck is all you need to turn things around.
What’s Next: The Giants still lead the series two games to one. Game four is tonight at 9 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 1. - Washington loses to Seattle — Washington put up more resistance than expected in Monday’s featured NFL game but still lost 27-17. Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson was the star of the game, throwing for 200 yards and running for 122. That’s roughly the production you’d expect out of your starting quarterback and your starting running back.
Line: It’s hard to talk about moral victories when your team is 1-4 but Washington actually looked pretty good.
Cue Cards 10-6-14
Cue Cards is a series designed to assist with the common small talk about high-profile recent sporting events that is so omnipresent in the workplace, the bar, and other social settings.
Yesterday — Sunday, October 5
- Two baseball sweeps — The Kansas City Royals and Baltimore Orioles both won games yesterday to complete three straight out of five game sweeps of their American League division series. In case you need to check quickly, this is how the Major League baseball playoffs work. The Royals beat the Los Angeles Angels 8-3 and the Orioles beat the Detroit Tigers 2-1.
Line: I guess in this case, having the early series be a best three out of five instead of four out of seven was the right choice. Both teams won convincingly in sweeps.
What’s Next: The Royals and the Orioles get a little rest before their series starts on Friday. That’s because the four teams in the National League, the Cardinals, Dodgers, Nationals, and Giants are still playing their divisional series. The National League divisional series continue today. - An exciting day in the NFL — The NFL had its customary slate of games yesterday but they were more closely contested than most weekends. There were two overtime games and another won in the last second. All the recaps you want or need can be found in our NFL One Liners column.
Line: Football overtime isn’t as good as hockey or baseball overtime but it’s still unusual and exciting.
What’s Next: Monday night football is lined up to be a clunker. It’s a good chance to do something else!
Cue Cards 10-3-14
Cue Cards is a series designed to assist with the common small talk about high-profile recent sporting events that is so omnipresent in the workplace, the bar, and other social settings.
Yesterday — Thursday, October 2
- The Royals magic continues — The Kansas City Royals won game one of their playoff series with the Los Angeles Angels 3-2. Like their first game of the playoffs, this game went into extra innings. Mike Moustakas hit a home run in the eleventh inning to push the Royals ahead of the Angels.
Line: The Royals sure are exciting!
What’s Next: Game two is Friday night at 9:37 p.m. ET on TBS. - Beat down in Baltimore — The Baltimore Orioles beat the Detroit Tigers 12 – 3 in game one of their playoff series. Baltimore isn’t quite the feel-good story that the Royals are but they have only made the playoffs one other time since 1997, so they’re a good underdog to root for also.
Line: Detroit has such great pitchers, you don’t expect to see them lose in such a lopsided, high-scoring game.
What’s next: Game two is Friday at noon ET on TBS. - You wanna buy a duck? — The Oregon Ducks’ college football team went into last night’s game ranked number two in the country. They lost 31-24 to Arizona. This is the second straight year that Arizona has upset them. The Ducks are famous for their dynamic spread-offense and their flamboyant uniforms. The coach of Arizona’s team, Rich Rodriguez, spent many years coaching at West Virginia about ten years ago where he was one of the early adopters of the spread-offense. Perhaps he knows how to defend it better than most.
Line: Sad to see the Ducks lose so early in the season. That said, they’re the most exciting when they are looking to upset the top teams, not the other way around. - Thursday Night NFL games continue to stink — There’s so many reasons to dislike having NFL games on Thursdays. It breaks the rhythm of the weekend, it sullies fantasy games, it’s terrible for the health of the players, and it’s a unabashed money grab by the NFL, but perhaps the best argument against them is that they stink! So far this year, of the five Thursday games, the scores have been 36-16, 26-6, 56-14, 45-14, and now, 42-10 with last night’s Green Bay Packers win over the Minnesota Vikings. No fun!
Line: It’s barely even worth watching these Thursday night games. They’re over before they even get started.
Cue Cards 10-2-14
Cue Cards is a series designed to assist with the common small talk about high-profile recent sporting events that is so omnipresent in the workplace, the bar, and other social settings.
Yesterday — Wednesday, October 1
- Following a boom with a fizzle — After the epic single-elimination Wild Card game between the Royals and the As, fans probably were expecting a little more from the second Wild Card game last night. This one was impressive but not exciting as the San Francisco Giants beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 8-0. I suppose we shouldn’t be that surprised. Of the four Wild Card teams, the As, the Royals, and the Pirates are all long-time tortured franchises while the Giants are a traditional power. If you just took a baseball fan out of a time-machine and told them those four teams were in the Wild Card round, after they fainted from surprise that the first three even made the playoffs, they would recover to say that the Giants were sure to advance.
Line: I’m not surprised but I do (unless you live in San Francisco) feel for the Pirates. It means so much for them to even make the playoffs and now their out having only played one game and scored no runs. - Basketball (and LeBron) is back — That’s right — preseason basketball has begun. The first official preseason game is not until this Saturday but teams are already practicing and scrimmaging. Yesterday, the Cleveland Cavaliers had a public scrimmage and showed off their new acquisitions, Lebron James and Kevin Love. These two players are expected to launch them back into the championship hunt.
Line: LeBron is back in Cleveland and this time, I think he’s going to bring them a championship.
Cue Cards 10-1-14
Cue Cards is a series designed to assist with the common small talk about high-profile recent sporting events that is so omnipresent in the workplace, the bar, and other social settings.
Yesterday — Tuesday, September 30
- Well now, baseball — The Kansas City Royals beat the Oakland Athletics 9-8 in a game that went into the 12th inning (past the normal nine), lasted four hours and forty five minutes, and ended well after midnight. It was a shockingly exciting game. Down 7-3, the Royals looked like their first playoff appearance in 29 years was going to be a short one. That’s before they starting hitting and running like there was no tomorrow (or like they wanted the game to keep going into tomorrow) and the crowd started screaming and stomping and the As started to wilt, just a little, under the pressure. It wasn’t a two act play though, this one had the full five acts of back and forths, rallies and missed opportunities. The final act became a redemption story when catcher Salvador Perez, who was 0-5 on batting attempts for the night, including two chances to win the game already, finally got his bat to the ball and hit in the winning run.
Line: If that’s what the baseball playoffs are going to be like, sign me up! - Soccer’s answer to the red zone channel — There were seven simultaneous games in the European Champions League tournament yesterday. The headline was Paris Saint-Germain winning 3-2 over the extraordinarily talent laden Barcelona. Beyonce, Jay-Z, and David Beckham (who, it must be said, at one point was actually a soccer player) attended the game and gave it an air of cultural happening. Italian living legend, Francesco Totti, became the oldest man to score in Champions League play while leading Roma to a 1-1 tie with Manchester City. German club Bayern Munich beat CSKA Moscow 1-0 in a weird setting. The game was in Russia but the stadium was completely empty. This was a punishment for CSKA Moscow because of “racist chanting by their fans last season.”
Line: Down goes Barcelona! It’s the group stage though, they’ll be fine.