Congratulations to the College Football Champs

Roll Tide!  This is a bit late but, congratulations to the University of Alabama Crimson Tide on winning the national College Football Playoff Championship over the Ohio State Buckeyes 52-24.

The Crimson Tide scored early and often and had the game put away by halftime.  For the record it never was close in the second half and Alabama won its sixth national title in 12 years under head coach Nick Saban.

The Tide finished the season at 13-0, while the Buckeyes ended its COVID-19 shortened season at 7-1.   I saw Alabama open the season the last Saturday night in September when it beat my beloved Missouri Tigers 38-19.  I was disappointed with Mizzou's defense that night, but in retrospect the Tigers played Alabama as well as any team all season, with the possible exception of Florida, who lost by six but gave up 52 to the Crimson Tide.

Rants and Rambles

Happy October!  The weather has finally cooled off to more seasonable temperatures and fall has finally checked in where I live.  Instead of highs in the low 90s temperatures are now in the upper 50s.  I welcome fall, but wait until this winter and I will bitch about how cold it is.

In no particular order here are a few things I have been thinking about.

-NCAA Football.  My beloved Missouri Tigers are 3-2 on the young season and play at Tuscaloosa this Saturday night against the top rated team in the country; the Alabama Crimson Tide.  'Bama is a 28 point favorite and the over under number is 74.  I think if I were a betting man I would take the over number.  Mizzou has generated offense in every game it has played this year, but it's secondary leaves a lot to be desired and will have a hard time getting stops against the Tide.

-Times of games.  The NCAA still needs to figure out a way to speed up its games.  They are way too long and I am getting tired of sitting in the stands at Mizzou games watching the teams stand around and do absolutely nothing.  For starters, when a 30 second timeout is called, make the teams stay at the line of scrimmage and start play 30 seconds after the timeout is called.

-Baseball has done absolutely nothing and despite all of the hype about limiting the number of visits to the mound the games are still way to long.  The playoffs have brought the games to a crawl, with too many now taking over four hours to play.  This is ridiculous.  As I wrote earlier this year, keep the hitters in the box and the pitchers on the rubber, and limit the number of commercials and the games will have more action.  Oh, and have the umpires call the strike zone as it is written in the rule book.

-Baseball Predictions.  I think it will be the Red Sox and Brewers in the World Series.  And I think the Red Sox will win it all.  The Sox won 108 games this year and seem to have it all.  I look forward to both of the League Championship series too. While I like the Sox and Brewers, I may be wrong since Houston and the Dodgers seem to be peaking at the right time.

Well enough for now.  But, I will leave you with a picture I took while on vacation of a spot I had always wanted to visit.  It is the new Yankee Stadium at 161st Avenue in the Bronx.  The view is looking down the first base side of the ballpark.  I hope you enjoy it.

Congrats to 'Bama

Congratulations to the University of Alabama football program and its winning the national college football championship last night.

To be honest I was cheering for the Georgia Bulldogs because they're from the same division of the Southeast Conference as my beloved Missouri Tigers.  I was pleased to see the Bulldogs jump on 'Bama 13-0 at the half, but as we all know they don't pay off on the halftime score.  You know the rest, the Crimson Tide rebounded and came out in the second half much different than in the first half winning the game in overtime 26-23.

Give 'Bama Head Coach Nick Saban credit as he replaced starter Jalen Hurts with true freshman Tua Tagovailoa.  Tagovailoa gave the Alabama offense a badly needed spark and was able to move the offense when Hurts couldn't.  The Tide outscored Georgia 20-6 in the second half and could have won in regulation had it not missed a FG as time was running down.  And it was Tagovailoa who threw the game winning 41 yard touchdown to DeVonta Smith in overtime after Georgia had taken a 23-20 lead on its OT possession.

Georgia played well but not quite enough defense to be national champions.  Congratulations to Saban on his sixth national championship and fifth at Alabama.

Florida Bound

My beloved Missouri Tigers football team is headed to Orlando on New Year's Day to take on the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the Citrus Bowl.

Mizzou is 10-3 and got there by winning the Southeast Conference East Division and then losing the league championship to Alabama.  The Tigers got beat by the Crimson Tide 42-13.  (Yes, I know it happened a week ago but it has taken me some time to get past it).

But that's history now.  The Tigers and the Gophers will kickoff at Noon Central Time on New Year's Day on ABC.  M-I-Z

All Hail the Crimson Tide

OK, this is late in being posted but I still need to say it.  Congratulations to the Alabama Crimson Tide on winning the 2013 NCAA Football Championship. 

If you watched the game you know it was no contest.  Had it been a prize fight it would have been stopped in the second quarter.  The Tide totally dominated Notre Dame in the 41-14 win.  My thought at the end of the game was Notre Dame was about the same level as Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.  The Irish would have been beaten by LSU and Texas A&M.  If Notre Dame played Alabama 20 times Alabama would win each time and they would all be mis-matches.  The Tide are just that good.

Congratulations to the SEC on winning it's 9th BCS championship in 15 years.  The next closest conference in BCS wins is the Big 12 with a whopping two victories.