Unless There’s Leprechaun Magic, Tide Should Roll in Championship Game

Notre Dame
plays Alabama for the college football title Monday evening. The game has been
well-hyped and should receive a ton of attention and a high television rating (8
p.m. EST, ESPN). It’s a
marquee matchup of two storied programs, yet I am somewhat amazed at how easily
everyone seems to accept that this is the matchup.



Alabama,
at 12-1, is a no-brainer, for sure. The defending

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Lots to Ponder: NFL Wild Card Weekend Offers Tantalizing Matchups and Opportunity for Riveting Television

If the
zebras let ‘em play, the coming weeks of NFL playoff football should be great.
This is one of those years where it’s even less clear how much separates
division winners and wild-card entries, and as the recent past has taught us,
home field isn’t always the advantage it’s presumed to be.





There’s a
ton of youth on these squads, with six of the 12 quarterbacks either
rookies or

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Munchak Survives Black Monday…But Not for Lack of Trying

Gailey,
Crennel, Reid, Whisenhunt, Turner, Smith, Shurmur...did we miss anybody?? Black
Monday (yesterday) in the NFL saw the ouster of some very familiar head
coaching names. None of ‘em had ever won a Super Bowl, but Andy Reid, Ken
Whisenhunt and Lovie Smith got close. And Norv Turner and Romeo Crennel won the Super Bowl as assistants.





The
Bears’ Smith got fired despite a 10-6 record. His

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New Beginning

A new year is coming and I plan to redouble my efforts to return here to my blogging roots. I have a lot of sports ideas and media-wise observations to proffer and develop, so we'll see how that goes. Expect plenty of linkage via Twitter (BRADY1M) and Facebook. 

Happy Holidays to All. Happy New Year, too!

Signed, 

Martin

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Grading Davey Johnson

With their startling and
rather pathetic demise in the baseball playoffs, the Washington Nationals are
finding little sympathy in cyberspace.



People are still grousing
about the Strasburg Decision, of course, but we’ll let that one lie for now.
(Yes, Stephen Strasburg’s presence in the NLDS could’ve made a difference. The
Nationals were a better team with him, and management blew its

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Nationals Nightmare Fueled by Power Outage

Our Long “Nationals” Nightmare began about 9:30 p.m. Central Standard Time last night.


In the top of the 5th inning of the deciding Game 5 of the National League Divisional Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Washington Nationals,  Nats lefty Gio Gonzalez was pitching with a 6-2 lead, buoyed by an early outburst of long-ball power by Bryce Harper, Ryan Zimmerman and Michael

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 Men Among Men: Historical
Reflections in the Age of Strasburg





So ace pitcher Stephen
Strasburg is shut down. Only 24, gifted as can be, having completed a mostly
magical season of dominance over National League hitters, his bosses with the
Washington Nationals have said, “Sit down, kid. Your season is over.” This
while the club has the best record in baseball and is poised to be the first

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