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Reversal
of Fortune The World Series is set, with the Phillies entertaining one of my "Packman 9" selections, the Tampa Bay Rays. With the elimination of the Red Sox, make sure to take all the sharp objects away from the entire Red Sox pom-pom waving baseball staff at ESPN. While the tears will be flowing in Bristol and with all of Chowder-Head Nation, I'm sure you can hear the screams and suicide alerts on the West Coast where the FOX Sports executives are kicking themselves with the upcoming match-up of Phillies and Rays. Normally, I enjoy it when we have new teams battling for a world title as is the case in this year's Fall Classic, but there is something missing for me this year with this match-up. One part of me is thrilled for the worst-to-first story with Tampa Bay, but I have a hard time rooting for them when their own fan base barely showed up all season long, during their amazing transformation. Philly is a different story, too. The die-hard fans from Philadelphia have been waiting for a championship in any pro sport for decades. I can't imagine what they will do, if they fall short in the World Series by losing to Tampa Bay. Of course, there are so many Northeast transplants in Florida, that the Phillies are liable to have home field in every game of the series. So as we get ready for the first pitch from Tampa, I wait in anticipation of Peter Gammons' live reports from Boston. Last week, I wrote about Tommy Bowden's future at Clemson. I didn't see how he was going to survive in Tigertown; little did I know that the day following my post, he would step down as the head coach of the Clemson program. Exit Bowden, enter Dabo Swinney. The announcement of Swinney makes sense for a number of reasons. He's well-liked by the players and administration, plus he's one of the Tigers' top recruiters. There is no question that the second half of the season is his audition as the potential "full-time" head coach of the football program. While Swinney had a wild week to get ready for Georgia Tech, one thing remained consistent with the Tiger program....they are simply not good enough to close the deal on game day. Clemson lost a fourth quarter lead at home, and dropped their third straight ACC game. My instincts tell me that Dabo is the perfect pick for the rest of the season, but the Tigers will go for a bigger name as their next head coach. How bad was the Division I football in the Carolinas this past weekend? With the exception of the East Carolina Pirates snapping their losing streak and getting back to the win column, everybody else suffered a loss. I mentioned Clemson losing at home to the Yellow Jackets. South Carolina blew a second half lead at home to LSU, and dropped their third conference game of the season. Steve Spurrier's Gamecocks are now 2-9 against Top 25 teams when playing at Williams-Brice. The Tar Heels still haven't won at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville since 1981. This time, they let the Wahoos drive it down their throats in the final minute of regulation for the game-tying TD and eventually lost in OT. Duke is back to being Duke. They blew a 10-point lead to Miami and were blown away by the Hurricanes. Wake Forest was shut out for the first time in over a decade, as they laid an egg in College Park. N.C State lost a home lead on national television to Florida State and fell to the Noles. If anybody can figure out the two best teams in the ACC, please let me know....there's no way you can figure this stuff out. I hope the Carolina Panther fans that were calling and emailing me about the gloom and doom of the Tampa Bay fiasco enjoyed watching their team on Sunday. As I mentioned too many times on the air last week, there was no need to panic or read too much into the pathetic effort in Tampa. Just as it made zero sense to think the Panthers were Super Bowl-bound based on their shutout of Kansas City. The 30-7 destruction of the New Orleans Saints was a great sign that the team was embarrassed by their effort the previous week. The big win will also make it interesting to see if the team begins to read the headlines and hear the ubiquitous praise of how well they played on Sunday. The NFL is about as wacky as college football....each week is a different game and scenario. It's also a reminder that we're only approaching the halfway point. There is no doubt that we can eliminate some teams from the playoff discussion, but for the most part, it is as wide-open a year in the NFL as I can ever remember. Getting back to the Panthers, I think the best sign of the 2008 season has been their dominating play at home. For the first time in a long time, the Panthers are delivering great performances in front of the hometown fans. This element has been missing for years...and if this trend continues, the Panthers should be in good shape as we get to meaningful football in January. How 'bout dem Cowboys? I just had to do it. Jimmie Johnson won again. He won in Martinsville for the fourth time in the past five Cup races at the old venue. He's also making the Chase for the Cup a snoozefest. With the win, Johnson now has a 149 point lead over his closest challenger, Greg Biffle. NASCAR's post-season has not delivered. Don't get me wrong, Johnson is a great driver and legit champion, but he has absolutely zero persona and unless you're a JJ fan, you couldn't care less what he does from week-to-week on the track. Without Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch or Dale Jr. in the hunt, the sport has figured out a way to disappear from the national headlines. I know the NASCAR beat writers defend their sport to the hilt, but this year's "playoffs" have been boring. |
Packman
on Sports Commentary
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