It’s a great time of year for sports. Baseball is pushing into the post season. NASCAR is just starting their post season. Football is beginning. All of these things make for wonderful weekends with all sorts of events worth watching. Football is back and that means you will always have something to watch on the weekends. Saturday and Sundays are filled with grown men running around chasing a ball and hitting each other. It is awesome.
As baseball chugs into the post season, divisional races begin to heat up. Well really only 3; National League West and East and American League East. The other divisions are pretty much set and their leaders of them have been and will stay that way. The New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays are fighting it out for first place in the AL East but it isn’t all that important because both will make it into the playoffs. One will just be going as the Wild Card. In the NL West the Padres have been on a sharp decline as of late and have allowed the San Francisco Giants and Colorado Rockies back in the hunt. These last weeks will be intense because every game will count and pretty soon any game could be a team’s last chance at post season glory. The NL East is in the same boat as the AL East. The Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves are battling for the top but most likely the one who doesn’t get first will make it in on the Wild Card. So there are still games worth watching in baseball.
So enjoy this wonderful time of year because pretty soon there won’t be as much baseball, the race car drivers will be stopped and before you know it we will be talking about football playoffs and national title hopes. Here are this weeks games that you and your fam should enjoy and hopefully get some lifelong memories from the moments.
Top Games To Watch
1. NFL – New York Giants at Indianapolis Colts – Sept. 19 @ 8:20 pm
Manning Bowl 2010 is this week and this time it is Peyton who needs to come out and prove himself over Eli. In Week 1 the Colts lost on the road to the Houston Texans and while Peyton didn’t look so bad, his team did. Peyton needs to fire his team up and get the motivated for a big win against his younger brother Eli who had a good first game of the 2010 season. Eli and the Giants beat the Carolina Panthers with Eli throwing for three touchdowns to his new big receiver Hakeem Nicks. The Giants looked solid (especially in the second half) and can make a big statement to the rest of the league if they can keep big brother Peyton under wraps and score and impressive win against the Colts. If you think sibling rivalry doesn’t play into this then think again. Now that they both have Super Bowl victories anything one can get to one-up the other will be jumped on. The first Manning Bowl was close but Peyton edged out Eli back in 2006. These games only occur once every four year and neither wants to show up to family dinners and have to be ribbed about it for four long years. This will be a fun game with lots of story lines to keep things interesting.
2. MLB – Los Angeles Dodgers at San Francisco Giants – Sept. 13 – 15
This old old rivalry is one of the best in sports and it will come to a head this week when the Giants (currently tied with the San Diego Padres for first in the National League West Division) and Dodgers meet with playoff implications hanging in the balance. The Giants will be looking to secure first place to all their own but the Dodgers would love to knock them off their high-horse and be responsible for costing the Giants and their fans a trip to the post season. The Dodgers at this point are all but out of the post season race. They would need a lot of wins and everybody else in the division would have to tank for them to even come close to making the playoffs. But if they can take out their bitter rival then the season might be bitter-sweet for them and their fans. The Giants will be ready though with the knowledge that they need these wins badly to gain some ground on the faltering Padres. Look for some fierce fighting and scraping for every run and look for some high intensity from all the players. These should be some very competitive games.
3. NASCAR – Sprint Cup Series @ New Hampshire Motor Speedway – Sept. 19 @ 1 pm
The stage is set and all of the excess racers are done. The Sprint Cup Series is here and the top 12 drivers from the season are ready to start everything over and race for The Cup. Denny Hamlin lead the way and was at the top of the standings but that means nothing now because all points are taken back to zero and it’s basically a whole new season of racing. Among the other racers going for it all are Jimmy Johnson, Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch and Kurt Busch. Anyone one of them or the other drivers in the field have the potential to take the Cup and be the best. All it takes is some fast driving and smart decisions on the track. These races mean something and these drivers all want it more than anything right now. Plus NASCAR coverage on television is like nothing else. So much information, analysis, camera angles and inside scoops to keep you interested in the race even though that are just traveling in circles. Make sure to catch these races, they are fun and with the high level of competition, these should not be missed.
Things To Keep An Eye On
- Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Kevin Kolb suffered a concussion during the first game of the season and Michael Vick came in and did fairly well. Kolb may not be cleared to play by next week so Vick would be the starter. Will he be able to capitalize and make a quarterback controversy in Philadelphia?
- Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals and Joey Votto of the Cincinnati Reds are each making runs at the National League Triple Crown for hitting and that hasn’t been done since Carl Yastrzemski in 1967. Leading the league in home runs, batting average and RBI’s is extremely difficult and worth following.
- The Boise State Broncos are trying to make it to the National Title game and need to win every single game in convincing fashion or they won’t be considered. Keep watching them so you’ll either be able to say you watched them do it or you saw when they fell out of contention.
