I’m not going to go out and make any wild predictions. I’m not going to stamp my foot down with certainty, or rave over possibility, or yell about opportunity. Nope. I just want to inform you to keep your eyes on the 6-2 Falcons, who seem to have all the ingredients for a Super Bowl caliber team. Including, dare I say, the best quarterback in the NFC.
Like the blink of an eye, the ALDS series between the two American League Sox was over. At the end of it all, it seemed like Boston did not know what hit them. They were supposed to score the runs, come from behind, and have all the fun. They were the most recent “October kids”, fresh off a historic postseason in which they broke almost all the unwritten rules. They were supposed to face the Yankees in the next round.
Except Chicago did not really agree.
With the return of Barry Bonds to a hopeless lineup, and the comeback of Lance Armstrong to a competition-less race, we as fans are desperate for answers. We are trained to believe that legends will ride off into the glorious sunset, and that there is no greater stage than the ones in our memory, on SportsCentury, or in the catalogues of the written recollection. But this isn’t anything like that. Bonds and Armstrong, two unrivaled dominators of their respective sports, are back in their games primarily to restore their credibility and move past an ambiguous past.
As Ken Griffey Jr. was carted off the field in the late innings of Sundays game versus the Braves, the only word that came to my head was bittersweet. It was a memorable night for The Kid in more ways than one, as he tied Mickey Mantle for 12th on the all-time home run list with the 536th of his career, and 35th of the season, but then needed assistance in the 12th inning after spraining his ankle.
Danny Ainge, the Director of Basketball Operations for the Boston Celtics, is doing a tango. And it’s not looking pretty. After trading Antoine Walker to the Miami Heat on August 2nd, part of a 5-team mega deal involving 13 players, Ainge sent a message to his program: we’re getting younger. Except, the same message was delivered last year and the year before, and so far the only real big name to have moved is Walker–twice.