...I am without a doubt wanting the Twins to come out on top, and then upset the Yankees.

Ditto!

Despite having won 8 of their last 10 games the Twins remain 2 games behind the Tigers going into tomorrow's series in Detroit. If the pennant is not decided there, it may go down to the season's last weekend.

And Brett Favre threw a 32-yard touchdown pass with 2 seconds left in the game to lift the Vikings to a 27-24 win over San Francisco in the home opener this afternoon (there's a sentence I'd never expected to write until recently ).

Did anyone see the Rockies dramtical final play against the Cardinals? With runners on the corners with one out, 2B Clint Barmes sprinted for a right-field blooper, made a rolling catch and threw out Pujols at first for a game-winning double play.

It's debatable which is the better race, the AL Central or the NL Wild Card. Twins and Tigers go head to head and Rockies have to hold off the Braves. Twins and Tigers is straight forward. Win the series, you likely get the Division. Rockies and Braves is going to be tight. Rockies host the Brewers before going to LA Dogers. The Braves have the Marlins before finishing with the Nationals. I can't remember if the Braves won the season series with the Rocks or if they tied, but that will be important if they do tie. It's going to be a tight showdown. Go Rockies.

The biggest NFL suprise this year is the Broncos. Expected by some to go 4-12 at best, Denver has gone 3-0 to start the season. Yes they beat the Bengals, Browns and Raiders, but the Bengals beat the Packers and the Steelers, and the Raiders have an improved defense (until today). Next week, they host the Cowboys. Living in Texas, I can't wait to root for my home team (Denver).

Things have been getting interesting in college football. Tim Tebow suffered a concussion during the Kentucky game and had to spend the night in the hospital. Everyone's been making a big deal about it because of the LSU game coming up, but the bye week before then should be give Tebow enough time to recuperate. Even if he's not 100%, Florida can just rely on their defense, Jeff Demps and Chris Rainey. I think Florida wins by double digits.
After earning a top ten ranking, Miami got torched by Virginia Tech. That takes a little of the luster off the Miami-Oklahoma game next week, but the possibility of Sam Bradford's return from a shoulder injury will still make that interesting.
Alabama absolutely stomped on my beloved Razorbacks last Saturday. Their defense is so good it's ridiculous, their offense has been very effective, and Nick Saban is worth every penny of that ridulously high salary of his. It pains me very much to say that.And it pains me even more to say that I think come December, Alabama is going to beat Florida in the SEC Championship and advance to the National Championship game. Darn that Crimson Tide.

Fencer, earlier I forgot to mention that among NL teams I do like the Rockies. Part of that is probably due to the fact that I attended a game in their inaugural season at Mile High Stadium, and it was a blast! The fans were so excited to have Major League Baseball in town. So I'll definitely be rooting for them on the NL side.

The Twins split today's doubleheader against Detroit (resulting from last night's rain delay). So they remain 2 games back with 2 more to play in this series against the Tigers.

If the Twins don't sweep the next two games, they are done. I don't see the Twins pulling a two game deficit with three games even if they split. They need to win both to make it a very tight three game race.

Rockies just won on a 2-run blast in the 11th innning. With the Braves defeat, thier magic number to clinch the Wild Card is 3 games. With the Dodgers losing as I type this 3-1, the Rocks still might overtake them (with more Padre assistance). And with the Rockies taking 2 of 3 from St. Louis this past weekend, they have proven they can still play against elite teams. They'll just hope the Phillies or the Cards eliminate the Dodgers in the NLDS. Go ROCKIES!!!

Got to bump this up.

Colorado Rockies just clinched at least the Wild Card in the NL. All four teams are set in the NL, but amazingly enough, Colorado has a chance to rip the NL West Title out of LA's hands this weekend. That would be absolutely glorious.

The AL Central is still not settled. The Twins knocked off Detroit today to pull within two with three games to go. The Twins have two easy games against the Royals, and one super challenging game against Zack Greinke, AL Cy Young Candidate. Tigers have three against the White Sox and could have thier hands full with that. I could see this end up required a playoff game.

And on another note, the NHL season begins tonight. I'll be rooting for my home team, the Colorado Avalanche, who finished dead last last year in the Western Conference. Joe Sakic's jersey was retired tonight, but they have a prospect with Peter Forsburg seeking to come back. We'll see how this season turns out.

All the best to your NHL team, Fencer! My family are avid fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs, so we watched the opening game this evening vs. the Montreal Canadiens. The Leafs lost in Overtime, but all in all we are optimistic about this upcoming season, and are looking forwards to seeing if the Leafs can keep up their pre-season pace.

I'm glad that Colorado is retiring Sakic's jersey, I didn't get to see him play a whole lot (being in the Eastern Conference hockey wise), but I remember him well from the Olympics (especially the 2002 ones) and he always impressed me as not only a good player but a real guy off ice.

And congrats to the Rockies! I'll be cheering for them this weekend, as a sweep of the Dodgers would give them the division.

And if the Twins should sweep KC at home this weekend (that game against Greinke likely the biggest obstacle) and Detroit lose 2 against Chicago (or some similar combination), then the one-game playoff would occur in Minnesota due to the Twins' 11-7 record against the Tigers this season. (Here is a discussion of playoff scenarios).

But that game would probably not come before Tuesday, because the Metrodome will host the Vikings against arch-rival Green Bay on Monday Night Football.

I will miss Sakic this seaon. He is definately slated for the Hall of Fame. Top 20 in points, assists, and goals, two Stanley Cup titles, and I don't know how many Lady Bing Trophies (Sportsman of the Year). If I ever wanted to meet a sports hero, Sakic is high on my list.
And speaking of the Avs, they are up 5-2 against the Sharks after two periods in thier opener.

As for Rocktober, a Rockie sweep will give them the NL West and likely to host St. Louis. And they just proved they can beat the Cards ace pitchers (they drew all three of the Cardinals likely post-season starters, beat two of them, and fought well with the other). One loss against LA will send them to Philly (baring a Philly collapse to let the Cards get ahead of them). Though Philly took the series 4-2, they have pitching problems right now, especially in the bullpen. I predict the Rocks will advance to the NLCS in 4 games regardless of opponent. Then for the NLCS, it depends on who survives to face them.

For the second straight year, the Twins must play a one game tiebreaker to determine the division championship, thanks to their 3-game sweep of the Royals (and a little help from the White Sox). The game will be held at the Metrodome tomorrow afternoon.

Yesterday's game featured some "last baseball game in the Dome" ceremonies, but it turns out it isn't really the last - and should the Twins defeat the Tigers tomorrow then there will be at least one playoff game here, against the Yankees.

The Rockies couldn't pull it off against the Dodgers, but they are still in the playoffs. On Wednesday, they take Game 1 in Philly. Cole Hammels vs Ubaldo Jimenez. If Philly wins, this series goes to 4 or 5 games. If Rockies win, there could be another sweep.

Avalanche got to a great start with wins against San Jose and Vancouver, but I didn't see the scores yesterday, so I don't know if they played or not.

And on a totally different subject, the reason I didn't see the results is because I didn't have internet access at my hotel room while in Amarillo, TX for the Amarillo Open, a regional fencing tournament. There were teams from El Paso TX, Amarillo College (Amarillo, TX), Santa Fe NM, Boulder, CO, and the Air Force Academy. The prize for the Open Epee and Open Foil events was something: an authentic katana. My chances of winning were slim because the Air Force has grown Olympic quality fencers and two of the guys who were there have a wonderful tendency of winning everything they come to. But I wasn't going to go down without a fight.

In Epee, I had some very good bouts in the pool round, but only pulled off 2 out of 7 bouts and seeded 41 out of 49 for Direct Elimination. I drew the 24th seed and we had one of the most fun bouts I have ever had. We were perfectly evenly matched trading one touch for another. I got two two-touch leads, but that wasn't enough. We went to a one-minute overtime, tied at 13 and he got me.
Foil was even better though. I won 2 of 5 pool bouts and seeded 16th out of 29. My first DE opponent was the 17th seed and an aggressive Air Force girl. With my specialty being defense, I shut her down fast and cruised to a 15-9 win. Then I drew the top-seed, who was also from the Air Force. We fought to a 3-3 tie before he ran away to an 8-3 lead. But I came back to 7-8, and we traded touched till he took a 10-8 lead after the 1st of 3 periods. We traded two more touches before he figured out my distance and finished me 15-9. It was the best performance I had ever had against such talented fencers and I already want a rematch. I will get that in November when I face them again in the New Mexico Open.

Ok, so for all of you college football fans out there, DID YOU HEAR ABOUT TIM TEBOW??? Ok, i'm just a little bit of a Florida fan. (Don't get confused by my interests, when it comes to the Gators, all of their opponents go DOWN!) Okay, me, my sister, and our dad went to Applebees the other night to watch the Florida game. It was the only game that we've seen this year, live and on tv. (We've seen a couple via the internet.) The first play we saw Tim went down, and didn't come back up. When daddy came back from the bathroom where he had been for the whole play, me and my sister were like freaking out. Daddy said later that we looked like we had just lost our grandmother. He asked us if we were all right, or if we wanted to leave or anything. We said yes and no we wanted to stay, but we were both pretty shaken up. When you see big guys like Tebow lying helplessly on the ground, not moving much, it's kind of scary. And now Sam Bradford is injured, another favorite of mine, and Mathew Stafford. Where will all of this end!!!!

Yet another reason why fencing is still the greatest sport out there. Full action, full of suspense, fencing truly has the best combination of both physical and mental capabilities and all with little risk of injury (except to maybe a few egos). The injury rate of fencing is about 3 out of 10,000 each year, with the vast majority of the injuries being sprained ankles and pulled groin muscles (from overlunging). And as much as I love watching football and hockey, those sports are slow in comparison. Studies have shown that not only is the fencing sword the fastest moving object out of every sport execept a rifle bullet, but fencers have more leg power than football players. I'll still follow the other sports, but they will never topple fencing in my book.

After earning a top ten ranking, Miami got torched by Virginia Tech. That takes a little of the luster off the Miami-Oklahoma game next week, but the possibility of Sam Bradford's return from a shoulder injury will still make that interesting.

I don't even want to talk about that Sooners game... let's just say that all of my teams in every sport (at every level) are having bad (or downright awful) seasons...

It's finally official. After nearly 4 hours, the Twins have successfully pulled off the comeback and defeated the Tigers in a 12-inning playoff game. So the MLB playoff tables is set.

AL:
Twins at
Yankees

Red Sox at
Angels

NL:

Cardinals at
Dodgers

Rockies at
Phillies.

Playoffs begin tomorrow.