LA Story Sports Chowdah Update- Red Sox Escape From LA With Series Win; NCAA Football Set to Kick Off This Week

Mark J. Terrill- AP

RED SOX- In a matchup that some of the more hyperbole-prone broadcasters were dubbing a World Series Preview, the Red Sox dealt the Los Angeles Dodgers their first series loss in more than two months. The TV coverage seemed to reflect some of this hype, with two out of the three games in the weekend series getting national TV coverage.

Despite John Lackey pitching a complete game and allowing only three hits in Friday night's series opener, one of those hits was a 2-run Hanley Ramirez homer and Dodgers starter Ricky Nolasco managed shut out the Red Sox. LA took the series opener by a 2-0 final.

In Saturday afternoon's game, the Red Sox jumped all over Hyun-Jin Ryu in the first thanks to a Mike Napoli RBI single and Johnny Gomes 3-run homer to give the Red Sox a 4-0 lead. Ryu would settle down, and that would be all the Red Sox offense would get. However, Lester would go 7⅓ innings and giving up three hits, an earned run [that Junichi Tazawa inherited when he gave up a 2-RBI double to former Red Sox infielder Adrian Gonzalez in the bottom of the 8th- NANESB!]. After Craig Breslow struggled, Koji Uehara came on in the bottom of the 8th for a 4-out save, sealing the Red Sox 4-2 win.

Sunday's series finale was nationally televised on ESPN and had Jake Peavy go up against Springfield, MA native Chris Capuano. Mike Napoli got the Red Sox on the board in the first with a ground rule double, and despite loading the bases, Capuano was able to escape the first without any further damage. Another run came home in the 3rd on a Pedroia sac fly and in the top of the 4th, Xander Bogaerts was credited with his first big league RBI after doubling to right center to make it 3-0.

However, Gonzalez would get the Dodgers on the board with a solo homer, but that would be all LA was getting. Not only was Peavy Dealing, he was getting plenty of run support in his complete-game gem in Los Angeles.



Capuano left the game after five innings and the Red Sox batters would just tee off of Dodgers reliever Chris Withrow. Saltalamacchia would belt a 2-run homer in the 6th, followed by a solo homer from Victorino in the 7th to make it 6-1 Boston. For good measure, Mike Napoli tacked on a 2-run homer in the top of the 9th and Peavy decided to give the bullpen the night off and close out the Dodges himself in the bottom of the 9th.

So for the first time since mid-June, the torrid Dodgers have lost a series. Although Boston missed Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers didn't get to see Clay Buchholz, this series still had a number of sports commentators hinting that this was a 'World Series in August' matchup. Interestingly, Big Papi was only in one of this weekend's games, going 0-3 in Friday night's loss while playing first base.

Monday was a travel day, but for Tuesday night, the Red sox will return home to face the Baltimore Orioles. Felix Doubront [9-6; 3.79 ERA] is scheduled to get the start against Baltimore's Wei Yin Chan [7-6; 3.19 ERA] with first pitch scheduled for 7:10. The game will be televised on NESN.

ELSEWHERE IN THE AL EAST- While the Red Sox were travelling on Monday afternoon, they got a little help from the Kansas City Royals. The Tampa Bay Rays had to fly out of Kauffman Stadium to play a game against the slumping Royals that was postponed in early May due to snowfall. Kansas City got off to an early 1-0 lead on a Billy Butler RBI single off of Rays starter Jeremy Hellickson in the first and broke it open in the 4th before going on to win by an 11-1 final. The win is only the Royal's second in 7 games, but put Tampa Bay an additional ½ game behind the Red Sox in a tight race for the AL East pennant.

NEW YORK METS- Mets phenom pitcher Matt Harvey is likely to miss the remainder of the season after being diagnosed with a partial ligament tear in his right shoulder. Harvey has a 9-5 record this season with a 2.27 ERA, although he was outduelled by Tigers starter Max Scherzer in his last start.

The struggling Mets are 58-71 and next to last in the NL East, meaning that even if Harvey's injury wasn't as serious as feared, he still would be sidelined as a precaution since the Mets are well out of any pennant or wild card chase.

NCAA FOOTBALL- College football in New England gets underway a little earlier than usual with UConn hosting FCS opponent Towson at East Hartford's Rentschler Field on Thursday night with a 7:30 kickoff

The other two New England FBS programs will kick off on Saturday, Aug 31st, with the UMASS season opener likely drawing the most national eyes as they open on the road against the #23 ranked Wisconsin Badgers in Madison's Camp Randall stadium.

Meanwhile, the BC Eagles will host Villanova from the FCS's Colonial Conference on Saturday at noon on Chestnut Hill.

All American Sports Chowdah Update- Forgive Me Padres, For I Have Sinned; Beat-All Bailey, Red's Starter Part of No-No Homers Club Again; The Butler Did It- Celtics Wrap Up Short Head Coaching Search With Stevens Hire

NEW POLL UP- With about 10 days to go until Major League Baseball's All Star Break, look to the left for a new poll to vote in. Feel free to weigh in on what you think is the most difficult division in MLB this season. For some reason, Blogspot will only let me put in four possible answers (instead of being able to list all six divisions), so looks like you can only choose from those four.

Jim Rogash, Getty Images

BOSTON RED SOX- The Red Sox second interleague series of the season got off to a pretty good start on Tuesday night when John Lackey allowed just one unearned run during eight innings of work against the Padres during Boston's 4-1 win. Lackey allowed six hits- including a solo homer to San Diego 1B Jesus Guzman in the 7th- and struck out six while recent Paw Sox callup Brandon Snyder continues to impress, breaking a scoreless deadlock in the bottom of the fourth by hitting a 1-out bases-clearing double off the Monster towards deep center to give Boston a 3-0 lead [although he got greedy attempting to and was thrown out at third attempting to stretch it out into a triple- NANESB!].

Wednesday night's matchup was more of a pitcher's duel with Lester getting the start against San Diego's Edinson Volquez. Playing in an American League park, the Padres slotted OF Kyle Blanks into the DH spot and it paid immediate dividends as he drove in a two out RBI in the first inning to give San Diego the early lead.

Although the Red Sox were able to get runners on board in the bottom of the first thanks to a ground-rule double by Victorino, an infield hit by Dustin Pedroia followed by a stolen base, a familiar face put the kibosh on any further attempts at bringing a run home when Padres SS Pedro Ciriaco caught a line drive off the bat of Big Papi and stepped on second to get Pedroia out and end the threat.

The Red Sox were able to tie the game up at 1-1 after Mike Carp led off the bottom of the 4th with a single and came home on a Saltalamacchia RBI double. The Padres looked like they were in trouble in the bottom of the 7th after Nick Vincent led off the inning by giving up a double to Dustin Pedroia and then intentionally walking David Ortiz, but Luke Gregerson came out of the bullpen and struck out Daniel Nava, got Carp to fly out to shallow center before striking out Saltalamacchia to end the Red Sox threat.

After Junichi Tazawa struck out the side in the top of the 8th, Koji Uehara came on in the top of the 9th and got the first two batters out before walking Guzman. However, he got Yasmani Grandal to fly out and end the inning for the Padres.

For the bottom of the 9th, John Farrell decided to lead off the inning with Johnny Gomes coming on as a pinch-hitter. That paid off handsomely, as this happened after working the count to 2-2:

Red Sox win it in walkoff fashion for the 8th time this season, with Gomes' pinch hit solo homer giving Boston the 2-1 win in the bottom of the 9th. The Red Sox will wrap up their homestand with a 4th of July day game at Fenway- Eric Stults [6-6; 3.51 ERA] gets the start against Allen Webster [0-2; 9.50 ERA]. The game gets underway at 1:35 PM ET, 10:35 AM Pacific and will be televised on NESN.

After the Independence Day game at Fenway, the Red Sox will take off for a 10-game west coast road trip, starting with the Angels in Orange County on Friday night before moving on to Seattle for a four-game series and then a 3-game set against Oakland before the All-Star break.

AP Photo/Al Behrman

OTHER MLB NEWS- Cincinnati's Homer Bailey threw a complete game no-hitter against the defending World series champion San Francisco Giants on Tuesday night. This is the first no-hitter of the 2013 and second of Bailey's career- the first of which was the second most recent no-hitter in MLB, dating back to September 28, 2012 when Bailey no-hit the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park towards the end of the regular season.

Bailey's no hitter was in jeopardy in the top of the 7th- after a leadoff walk to San Francisco outfielder Gregor Blanco, former Red Sox and Blue Jays SS Marco Scutaro grounded out to third as Blanco advanced to second. Giants catcher Buster Posey then hit a broken-bat ground ball towards first with Reds 1B Joey Votto shaded about midway towards second. Bailey broke late from the mound to first and it looked like Posey would reach first and break up the no-no until Votto threw to third base where Blanco was caught in the rundown.

The Reds got runs on a Votto sac-fly in the first off of Giants starter Tim Linceum and a 2-run Brandon Phillips homer in the bottom of the 6th for the 3-0 win. While there have been a couple of flirtations with no-hitters, the closest anyone came prior to Tuesday night was Texas' Yu Darvish, who was one out away from a perfect game against Houston when Astros SS Marwin Gonzalez singled the first week of the regular season.

ELSEWHERE IN MLB- The Dallas Morning News is reporting that former Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Indians outfielder Manny Ramirez has signed a minor league contract with the Texas Rangers. The controversial slugger tested positive twice for banned performance enhancing drugs- the most recent of which took place in 2011 before the outfielder abruptly announced his retirement rather than face a 2nd suspension.

In 2012, the Oakland A's signed Manny to a minor league contract where he batted .302 with 19 hits and 14 RBI in 17 games with the AAA Sacramento River Cats. The deal called for a $500,000 bonus if he was called up from the minors, but within two weeks of his reinstatement, he requested (and was granted) an outright release from Oakland.

Since then, he has been playing ball for Águilas Cibaeñas of the Dominican Winter League and the EDA Rhinos of the Chinese professional league over in Taiwan. Since the 2008 trade that sent him from Boston to the Los Angeles Dodgers, Manny has played for the Chicago White Sox and Tampa Bay Rays.

Manny is expected to start as a DH for the AAA Rangers affiliate, the Round Rock Express. Manny will report to Round Rock on July 4th and participate in team exercises before being activated.

The Rangers have a history of giving second chances to players long suspected of using performance enhancing drugs. Texas was the last MLB team Sammy Sosa played for in 2007- two years after his English-speaking abilities seemed to abandon him while being questioned about steroid use in Major League Baseball. Sosa reportedly tested positive for performance enhancing drugs as far back as 2003- the findings were uncovered as part of a federal investigation of the infamous BALCo labs.

PATRIOTS- A witness in the Aaron Hernandez case that police were hoping to interview was killed in a single-car accident in Connecticut over the weekend.

Police say 33-year-old Thaddeus Singleton III of Bristol was killed when the car he was driving slammed into the Farmington Country Club early Sunday morning. The Hartford Courant reported that investigators wanted to speak to Singleton because of his relationship with Hernandez.

Singleton is married to Hernandez's cousin, and police say the car involved was registered to Hernandez's uncle. Their home has been searched several times by Massachusetts police investigating a 2012 double homicide linked to the former NFL star.

Police seized a vehicle from that home on Friday.

The cause of the accident has not been determined. Police said a woman in the car was in the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Her name has not been released.

Meanwhile, investigators continue to gather and search for more evidence as Hernandez remains in a jail cell charged in the murder of 27-year-old Odin Lloyd, of Dorchester

Police documents show that police located a white hooded-sweatshirt and a baseball cap allegedly worn by Hernandez the night Lloyd was murdered at an apartment Hernandez rented in Franklin.

Investigators said they also found a valet parking ticket from the W Hotel, which is within walking distance of the Rumor nightclub.

Investigators initially believe that Hernandez had Odin Lloyd killed after the semipro player was seen talking to people at the Rumor nightclub that Hernandez had a falling out with. However, police are also looking at Hernandez's involvement in a 2012 double homicide in South Boston and believe that the former Patriots TE orchestrated Odin's death because they thought he knew too much about the South Boston killings.

BOSTON CELTICS- With the Doc Rivers era over for barely a week, the Celtics made an early and highly unexpected move to fill their coaching vacancy on Wednesday.

On Wednesday afternoon, Celtics GM Danny Ainge announced the hiring of Butler University head coach Brad Stephens to replace Doc Rivers as head coach of the Boston Celtics. Stephens led the Butler Bulldogs to back to back NCAA Men's title games in 2010 and 2011 (where they lost to Duke and UConn, respectively). Most recently, Butler lost to Marquette in the third round of the 2013 NCAA tournament.

The Celtics and the 36 year old head coach agreed to terms on a 6 year, $22 million contract. This would not be the first time the C's had hired a coach out of the NCAA- in 1997, the Celtics hired Rick Pitino away from the Kentucky Wildcats. However, this would be the first time since 1948 that the Celtics would hire a collegiate coach with no professional experience when the NBA's predecessor- the Basketball Association of America- was only two years old.

Meanwhile, the Butler basketball program made official their move from the Atlantic-10 to the Big East effective July 1st.

Quickie June Boom Sports Chowdah Update- Bruins Steel Eastern Conference Opener From Pittsburgh; Bronx Bombed- Victorino Notches Grand Slam As Bats Come Alive Against Pinstripes

Gene J Puskar- AP

STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS- The Eastern Conference Finals got off to a good start for the Bruins on Saturday evening as David Krejci got Boston on the board just over 8 minutes into the first period with an even-strength goal that beat Pens netminder Tomas Vokoun.

While there was no scoring in the second period, the game took a turn for the feisty when Boston archenemy Matt Cooke was given a five minute major and ejected after his hit from behind on Adam McQuaid.

With the Bruins still leading 1-0, period number two closed out with a scrap between Evgeni Malkin and Patrice Bergeron. This was in addition to Penguins Captain Sidney Crosby jawing skyward at Boston Captain Zdeno Chara- although, sadly, the altercation didn't become physical.

Four minutes into the third period, the Bruins doubled their lead over the Pens thanks again to David Krejci. Right before the eight minute mark, Nathan Horton decided he wanted to get in on the action and beat Vokoun to make it a 3-0 lead, giving the Bruins even more insurance not even halfway through the 3rd period. However, given Rask's outstanding performance in net Saturday night, Krejci's first goal would be all the Bruins needed. Boston takes Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals from Pittsburgh in the Consol Energy Center by a 3-0 final. Tukka Rask turned aside all 29 shots he faced on Saturday while stopped 27 of 30 shots faced. Both teams went 0-4 on the power play, as well.

Game 2 will get underway on Monday night from Pittsburgh at 8:00 ET and will be televised on NBC Sports or the CBC depending on where you're trying to watch the game from.

ELSEWHERE IN THE STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS- After trailing early to Los Angeles, the Chicago Blackhawks scored two unanswered goals to go on and win by a 2-1 final in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals.

Marian Hossa scored late in the second for the game-winning goal and Corey Crawford stopped 21 of 22 shots faced in the Blackhawks Game 1 win on Saturday afternoon. Game 2 will get underway on Sunday at 8:00 ET and the contest will be televised on NBC Sports Network and TSN.

Paul J. Bereswill

RED SOX- One night after CC Sabathia stymied the Red Sox bats, Boston flexed their offensive muscle against starter Phil Hughes and the Yankees bullpen.

Although he came into Saturday night's game with a high ERA, Boston starter Felix Doubront had a winning record and his career ERA against the Yankees (2.78 heading into tonight) than his career ERA of 4.86.

Doubront struggled early, walking three batters and allowing two hits in the first two innings, but the Yankees were unable to capitalize on those opportunities.

It was a different story for the Red Sox though- Jackie Bradley Jr led off the top of the 3rd with a double, followed by a sinfle from Daniel Nava. Mike Carp then got the Red Sox on the board with an RBI double to make it 1-0 Boston. After Hughes struck out Pedroia, the decision was made to intentionally walk David Ortiz. With the bases loaded, the Mike Napoli made the Yankees pay for that by belting a 2-2 Hughes offering into the bullpens in right-center field. The grand slam put Boston up by a score of 5-0.

The Yankees got a run back in the bottom of the 4th on a sac fly, but Boston would blow the game wide open in the top of the 8th with a 3-run Daniel Nava homer. The Red Sox would touch up the Yankees bullpen for three more runs (including a Stephen Drew solo homer) for an 11-1 win. This evens up this weekend's series at 1-1, with the rubber game set for Sunday night with Clay Buchholz [7-0, 1.73 ERA] against Hiroki Kuroda [6-3; 2.39 ERA]. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball with first pitch scheduled for at 8:05 PM ET.



NCAA BASEBALL- After winning their first Big East baseball title in nearly 20 years, the UConn Huskies advanced to the NCAA regionals in Blacksburg, VA. After winning the opening game against host Virginia Tech on Friday by a 5-2 final, the Huskies were downed by the Oklahoma Sooners in 12 innings by a 5-3 final.

The Huskies will face a rematch with Virginia Tech on Sunday in the double elimination tournament- a loss means that a trip to Omaha is out of the question while a win still puts them in the hunt.

UConn is the only Division I New England school to qualify for the NCAA baseball tournament this season.

No Longer Locked Out Sports Chowdah Update- Game On: NHL Set to Resume Play This Month; Tide Sweeps Away Irish; Bloody Monday- 7 NFL Coaches Get the Axe on New Year's Eve; Red Sox Get Relief From Pirates

NHL- After a protracted disupte with the NHL and the players' union which forced the cancellation of the Winter Classic and NHL All Star Game, it appears as though there will be an abbreviated hockey season in 2013.

The 113-day lockout was the third such labor stoppage under NHL Comissioner Gary Bettman. The previous labor agreement had expired on September 15th, 2012 and the lockout led to the cancellation of more than 480 games throughout the league. Some of the idle NHL players stayed in shape by playing in the American Hockey League [All AHL teams are affiliated with NHL parent clubs- NANESB!] as well as over in Europe.

This year's NHL All Star Game and the New Year's Day Winter Classis were cancelled as a result of the work stoppage. Although the complete schedule for the abbreviated season hasn't been released yet, the season begins on January 19th. Barring any changes on the NHL's part, the Bruins are slated to start the season at the TD Garden on the 19th against the New York Rangers. The defending Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings are scheduled to raise their champioship banner in the Staples Center the same day.


NCAA FOOTBALL- Man- do I have a shitload of games to catch up on. Is it just me, or aside from the Rose Bowl, did all the top tier BCS games turn out to be snooze-fests while the 'lesser' games turned out to be fairly close and much more interesting contests.

I've already posted the final scores for the New Mexico Bowl, the Idaho Potatoes Bowl and the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl before going on my Christmastime hiatus. Here are the finals from the remaining bowl games.

Beef O'Brady Bowl
Ball State- 17
UCF- 38

R+L Carriers Bowl
East Carolina- 34
Louisiana-Lafeyette- 43

Maaco Las Vegas Bowl
Washington- 26
Boise State- 28

Sheraton Hawaii Bowl
Fresno State- 10
Southern Methodist- 43

Little Caesars Bowl
Western Kentucky- 21
Central Michigan- 24

Military Bowl
San Jose State- 29
Bowling Green- 20

Belk Bowl
Cincinnati- 48
Duke- 34

Bridgepoint Holiday Bowl
Baylor- 49
UCLA- 26

Independence Bowl
Ohio- 45
Louisiana-Monroe- 14

Russel Athletic Bowl
Rutgers- 10
Virginia Tech- 13

Meineke Bowl
Minnesota- 31
Texas Tech- 34

Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl
Rice- 33
Air Force- 14

New Era Pinstripe Bowl
West Virginia- 14
Syracuse- 38

Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl
Navy- 28
Arizona State- 62

Valero Alamo Bowl
Texas- 31
Oregon State- 27

Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl
Texas Christian- 16
Michigan State- 17

Music City Bowl
North Carolina State- 24
Vanderbilt- 38

Sun Bowl
USC- 7
Georgia Tech- 21

Liberty Bowl
Iowa State- 17
Tulsa- 31

ChickFilA Bowl
LSU- 24
Clemson- 25

Gator Bowl
Mississippi State- 20
Northwestern- 34

Heart of Dallas Bowl
Purdue- 14
Oklahoma State- 58

Capital One Bowl
Georgia- 45
Nebraska- 31

Outback Bowl
South Carolina- 33
Michigan- 28

Rose Bowl
Wisconsin- 14
Stamford- 20

Orange Bowl
Northern Illinois- 10
Florida State- 31

Sugar Bowl
Louisville- 33
Florida- 23

Fiesta Bowl
Oregon- 35
Kansas State- 17

Cotton Bowl
Texas A&M- 41
Oklahoma- 13

BBVA Compass Bowl
Pittsburgh- 17
Ole Miss- 38

GoDaddy.com Bowl
Kent State- 13
Arkansas State- 17

BCS Title Game
Notre Dame- 14
Alabama- 42

To hardly anybody's surprise, the title game ended up being a fairly lopsided affair, with Brent Musburger's on-air comments about Crimson Tide QB AJ McCarron's girlfriend- Katherine Webb- generating more attention than Alabama's convincing victory over the Irish [For the record, the 73 year old Musburger basically pointed out how attractive Webb is and encouraged kids in Alabama to start throwing the pigskin around if they wanted to land a future Miss Alabama- NANESB!].

ELSEWHERE IN NCAA FOOTBALL- Boise State has announced the cancellation of their geographically improbable move to the Big East conference and will remain in the Mountain West conference. The university weighed the costs of playing in-conference games on the east coast and decided it would be more cost-effective to pay the Big East the one-time $10 million exit fee.

San Diego State, which was supposed to make the move to the Big East along with the Broncos, is now reconsidering their participation. With Boise State already gone from the Big East before even playing a game, the Aztecs can remain in the Mountain West without paying an exit fee due to a clause reportedly included in the agreement between the Big East and SDSU.

NCAA FCS FOOTBALL- For the second consecutive season, the North Dakota State Bisons are the FCS Champions, beating the Sam Houston State Bearkats by a final of 39-13 in a rematch of last year's FCS title game.

The UNH Wildcats did make the cut for the FCS bracket, but were eliminated in their first game after losing to Wofford by a 23-7 final on December 1st. This season, New Hampshire holds the distinction of being the only New England team- FBS or FCS- to qualify for a postseason game.

NFL- OK, so Eli Manning, Drew Brees and Ben Roethlisberger walk into a bar.....to watch the playoffs on TV.

The NFL regular season wrapped up with the defending Super Bowl Champion NY Giants failing to make the playoffs along with New Orleans, Pittsburgh or Chicago.

New England finished the regular season with wins against Jacksonville and the Dolphins. Interestingly, the last place Jaguars gave the Patriots more of a challenge than Miami- Jacksonville's final drive started around midfield and got as far as the Patriots 12 yard line before QB Chad Henne was picked off in the end zone by safety Patrick Chung to hang on for the 23-16 win.

To wrap up the regular season, the Patriots shut out the Dolphins at Foxborough by a 28-0 final to finish the regular season with a 12-4 record- good enough for a 1st round bye, but not quite enough to clinch home field advantage. Instead, that honor goes to the 13-3 Denver Broncos who will host the Baltimore Ravens this weekend while New England hosts the Houston Texans for the second time in a month. Kickoff is set for 4:30 ET at Gilette Stadium and the game will be televised on CBS.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NFL- No less than 7 NFL  head coaches were handed their walking papers on December 31st. This includes Norv Turner of the San Diego Chargers, Romeo Crennel of the Kansas City Chiefs, Andy Reid of the Philadelphia Eagles, Lovie Smith of the Chicago Bears, Pat Shurmur of the Cleveland Browns, Ken Wisenhunt of the Arizona Cardinals and Chan Gailey of the Buffalo Bills.

After about a week, the Chiefs made the decision to hire Reid as the head coach while Oregon Ducks head coach Chip Kelly interviewed with the Bills, Eagles and Browns. However, unnamed sources have indicated that Kelly is interested in staying on at Oregon.

Jamie Rhodes- USA Today photo

NCAA VOLLEYBALL- For the first time since 1988, the Texas Longhorns have won the NCAA Women's volleyball title. The lady Longhorns swept the Oregon Ducks 25-11, 26-24 and 25-19 in the title game at Louisville, KY on December 15th. Longhorns Junior Bailey Webster led the way with five kills and a .714 hitting percentage in the first match alone.

This was Oregon's first appearence in the NCAA Volleyball title game and Texas' second appearence in the championship game since 2009, when the Penn State Nittany Lions swept the Longhorns in the title match.

ELSEWHERE IN NCAA VOLLEYBALL- The university of Nebraska has announced that they will be adding women's sand volleyball as an intercollegiate sport beginning this year. This will be the 24th intercollegiate sport in the Cornhusker athletic program.

Sand/Beach volleyball was recognized as an 'emerging sport' by the NCAA in 2009 and in 2012, sixteen schools began fielding teams. However, most of these programs were for colleges located in California, Florida or Hawaii. The announcement by Nebraska signifies a significant move inland for the sport, which the NCAA decided to refer to as 'sand volleyball' to invite the participation of teams from colder and more landlocked venues.

It remains to be seen whether or not additional midwestern schools will follow the Cornhuskers lead into the burgeoning sport.

RED SOX- The Red Sox have signed former A's and Diamondbacks shortstop Stephen Drew to a 1 year $9.5 million contract. Drew is the younger brother of former Red Sox outfielder JD Drew and has a .265 batting average with 77 HR and 349 RBIs over seven seasons. Although the youngest Drew brother got off to a lackluster start with Arizona in the 2012 season, he hit .250 with 5 HR and 16 RBI after being acquired by the Oakland A's on August 20. Drew also would reportedly recieve a $500,000 bonus if he had 500 plate appearences in a season.

OTHER RED SOX NEWS- In a 6-player trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Red Sox have acquired Joel Hanrahan along with infielder Brock Holt. Boston sends outfielders Mark Melancon and Stolmy Pimentel as well as infielders Ivan DeJesus and Jerry Sands to the Steel City.

The Red Sox have been searching for a closer since the 2011 departure of Jonathan Papelbon who left as a free agent and signed with the Phillies.

Hanrahan had 36 saves in the 2012 seasons with a 2.72 ERA. Holt spent most of 2011 in AA Altoona before breaking through and getting called up by the Pirates late in 2012. In 24 games with the Pirates, Holt batted .292 with 3 RBI.

Championship Weekend Sports Chowdah Update- Chief's Belcher Kills Girlfriend, Self; Patriots Clinch AFC East Title; Rick Majerus Passes Away at Age 64; NCAA Volleyball Finals Under Way; Boxer 'Macho' Camacho Dies From Gunshot Wound

John Rieger, US Presswire

NFL- Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher shot himself at the team's facilities in Arrowhead Stadium moments after murdering his 22 year old girlfriend- Kasandra M Perkins- on Saturday morning.

Belcher had reportedly shot Perkins nine times at their home before speeding the relatively short distance to the Arrowhead stadium. Kansas City general manager Scott Pioli and former Patriots defensive coordinator and current Chiefs head coach Romeo Crennel were summoned to the parking lot where they came face-to-face with Belcher, who thanked the two men for giving him a chance in the NFL before putting the gun to his head and pulling the trigger.

Needless to say, the football world in general was stunned by this grim turn of events and Kansas City's disappointing 1-10 season suddenly paled in comparison to Saturday's murder-suicide.

Originally from Long Island, Belcher played Division I-AA football [now called FCS- NANESB!] for the University of Maine Black Bears of the Colonial Athletic Association between 2005 and 2008. Black Bears head coach Jack Cosgrove described Belcher as "a tremendous student-athelete" where he garnered preseason CAA honors and had 293 tackles and 18 sacks in 44 games before graduating with a bachelor's degree in child development and family relations.

The murder-suicide leaves Belcher and Perkins' 3 month old daughter, Zoey, without a mother or father. One of his former Maine teammates reportedly texted Belcher the night before the murder-suicide, congratulating him on the new arrival and joking about getting a gun to ward off future boyfriends. Belcher reportedly replied that he had at least eight firearms to choose from.

The Chiefs' decision to play the Carolina Panthers as scheduled [Kansas City would win by a 21-27 final- NANESB!] the following day came under criticism from some corners of the media. However, some of the media coverage itself drew withering criticism for painting Belcher in a sympathetic light and seemingly ignoring the fact that he killed his girlfriend.

ESPN's Tom Jackson had what many considered to be the most direct comment out of all the Sunday kickoff shows: ""Remember that Jovan Belcher, as we hear about what a great teammate he was and how close some of the guys where to him, that he is in fact a murderer. ... So as we look at the outpouring of sympathy that will go toward Belcher today, I would ask people to remember Kasandra Perkins."

3-month old Zoey is reportedly with Belcher's mother on Long Island while Chiefs players have announced plans to create a benefit fund for Perkins' daughter.

Photo/Rhona Wise

NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS- During Sunday's road game in Miami, the New England Patriots were held to fewer than 35 points for the first time since October 21st. However, despite this fairly noteworthy accomplishment, it was not enough to help the Miami Doplhins in their first matchup against New England this season.

Miami's Brandon Fields would fumble the ball on the Dolphin's first possession of the game, giving New England the ball inside the Dolphins red zone and a rushing TD from Stevan Ridley and putting New England on top 7-0.

With about 3:10 to go in the first and New England driving, Miami safety Reshad Jones managed to pick off Brady and appeared to run it back for a TD- however, the officials threw a flag on the return and the touchdown was negated. Miami would still get a 44 yard FG off the boot of Dan Carpenter to get on the board and make it a 7-3 game.

In the 2nd quarter, the Patriots would make it a 17-3 game thanks to a short brady TD pass to Wes Welker and a 43 yard Gostkowski FG. But instead of running away with it at the half, with just under seven minutes to go, Miami would start off what would be their last drive of the first half from their own 5 yard line thanks to a pair of penalties. However, when RB Reggie Bush wasn't running for 7 or 8 yards, Dolphins QB Ryan Tannehill would throw 12-15 yard passes to put Miami on New England's goal line inside the two minute warning. To cap off the drive, Tannehill would punch it in himself to make it a 17-10 game at the half and make it a one-score game.

There would be no scoring in the 3rd quarter and despite moving the ball inside the Dolphin's 2 yard line to start off the 4th, Brady was sacked twice and New England had to settle for the FG to make it 20-10.

Miami's next drive would bring them inside the New England 10, but LB Jarod Mayo managed to sack Tannehill at the 15, forcing the Dolphins to settle for a FG and 4th and 15.

From there on out, Carpenter and Gostkowski would exchange FG's to make it a 7 point game and while Miami would attempt to get one last posession with 31 seconds to go in regulation, the Patriots would recover the onside kick to close out the game by a 23-16 final.

New England hangs on to win this one and clinch their 9th AFC East title in 10 seasons, joining the Atlanta Falcons and Denver Broncos in clinching their respective divisions on Sunday.

The Patriots next opponent- the 11-1 Houston Texans- have clinched a playoff spot, but the AFC South title isn't official yet. This will be a prime-time matchup [one of the relatively few New England is scheduled to appear in- NANESB!] with the two teams going at it from Foxbourough, MA on Monday night football. Kickoff is scheduled for 8:30 PM ET and the game will be televised nationally on ESPN.


NCAA FOOTBALL- The UConn Huskies, the only New England FBS school with a shot at a bowl game, instead ended the regular season with a 34-17 loss to Cincinnati on Saturday. Between Boston College, UMass and Connecticut, the three schools had 8 wins between them in the 2012 Football season. The Minutemen and Eagles wrapped up their respective regular seasons last week.

While this wasn't entirely unexpected for UMASS's FBS debut season, this is the second straight year the Eagles finished under .500 and were Bowl ineligible.

ELSEWHERE IN NCAA FOOTBALL- Pretty busy Championship Saturday, so I'll try to wrap it up as best I can. In what was no doubt the most anticipated game over the weekend, Alabama held off the Georgia Bulldogs to punch their ticket to the BCS Championship game against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on January 7th.

There was a pair of conference championship games on Friday night as #8 Stanford held off #16 UCLA by a 27-24 final to win the Pac-12 title. Meanwhile, over in Detroit the #21 Northern Illinois Huskies needed double OT to get past the #17 Kent State Golden Flashes with that one ending in a 44-37 win for NIU.

The OT Championship games resumed on Saturday when the Tulsa Golden Hurricanes got past Central Florida by a 33-27 final for the Conference USA title. The Sun Belt title game wasn't anywhere near as close as Arkansas State routed Middle Tennessee State by a 45-0. #12 Florida State held off a game Georgia Tech [don't let that 6-6 record fool you, I guess- NANESB!] to win by a 21-15 final in prime time while the Wisconsin Badgers simply demolished Nebraska by a 70-31 final in the Big Ten title game.

It was just another Saturday in the Big 12- albeit the final Saturday of the regular season which saw a couple of contests pitting ranked teams against one another. The most marquee matchup was the primetime game between #7 Kansas State and #23 Texas on Saturday- which was sort of a de-facto Big 12 title match. Although they looked a little lost and confused in the first half, the K State Wildcats had a great second half and pulled away from the Longhorns to win by a final of 24-42. #11 Oklahoma managed to beat Texas Christian by a 24-17 final and Baylor played spoiler to #24 Oklahoma State, taking care of business in Waco by a 41-34 final.

The only remaining regular season college football game this upcoming weekend is the annual Army-Navy game from Philadelphia. The game will be televised on CBS and kicks off a 3:00 ET.

OTHER NCAA NEWS- Wisconsin Badgers head coach Bret Bielema has been announced as the new Arkansas Razorbacks head coach on Tuesday. The announcement came barely 48 hours after Wisconsin handily beat Nebraska in the Big Ten title game and earned a spot in the Rose Bowl and third straight Big Ten title.

Bielema was with Wisconsin for 7 seasons and has an overall record of 68-24. He replaces interim Razorbacks head football coach John L Smith, who in turn replaced former head coach Bobby Petrino after the University dismissed him amid revelations he was having an affair with a University of Arkansas Athletic Department employee.

Jamie Sabau/Getty Images

NCAA HOOPS- St Louis Billikens head coach Rick Majerus passed away at the age of 64 this weekend. The jovial basketball coach was perhaps best known for helming the Utah Utes to the 1998 NCAA Men's final and had just one losing season in his 25 year coaching career.

Majerus ended the Billiken's 12 year NCAA tournament drought last season and St Louis took a contest with top regional seed Michigan State down to the wire. Throughout his coaching career, the Wisconsin born Majerus also was head coach of Marquette, Ball State and Utah- as well as a brief stint as an assistant with the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks in the 1980s. Overall, Majerus had a record of 516-217 as a head coach.

Having been the Billiken's head coach since 2007, Majerus announced in August that he would not be returning due to ongoing health issues- he had been suffering from heart problems for the last 20 years. Assistant coach Jim Crews has been the Billiken's interim coach since then.

Yale Athletics photo

NCAA VOLLEYBALL- Well, the regular season for NCAA Women's volleyball has wrapped up and the only New England schools who earned an invite to the Division 1 tournament are Yale and Fairfield.

Yale finished the season with an impressive 14-0 record and clinched the Ivy League title, only to lose to Bowling Green 3 sets to 2 in the first round.

Fairfield Stags celebrate their MAAC volleyball title

Like last season, Yale and another small school from Connecticut [not UConn- NANESB!] were the lone schools representing New England in the NCAA women's volleyball tournament. Last year, Sacred Heart university of Fairfield, CT was felled by Stanford in the first round. This year, it was a different school from the same Connecticut town.

Siena's Lesli Akeo (#9) and Taylor Akana (#12) in action against MAAC opponent Fairfield- Photo: JS Carras- Troy Record

Fairfield, which plays Division volleyball in the Metro Atlantic Conference, had a 15-3 regular season record and came from behind to best the Siena Saints in the MAAC tournament. Siena hasn't appeared in the NCAA tournament since the 2008 season.

However, Fairfield was swept out of the tournament by the USC Trojans last week- the same volleyball program that had eliminated Yale in the first round of last year's tournament.

Louisville's Katie George and Haley Pouliezos seen celebrating win. Scott Utterback- Courier Journal photo

BIG EAST VOLLEYBALL- Despite a pretty good regular season in which they went 19-12, the UConn Huskies made an early exit from the Big East tournament after losing to the Cincinnati Bearcats by a final of 3 sets to 2 on November 16.

UConn finished the regular season in 4th place in the Big East. However, the Big East tournament loss was particularly frustrating as no less than three Big East teams had been selected to the 2012 NCAA tournament. Louisville won the Big East title after sweeping the Marquette Golden Eagles 3 games to none, but both Marquette and Notre Dame managed to secure at-large bids. However, Marquette was swept by Creighton and Notre Dame was swept by Ohio State in the first round.

Louisville came into the tournament ranked #10 and managed to get by Belmont in the first round but lost in the following round to Michigan.

ACC VOLLEYBALL- The BC Eagles women's volleyball wrapped up their 2012 with a 13 game slide, with the soon-to-be-departing the ACC Maryland Terrapins getting a measure of revenge over Boston College for an earlier loss in September. Boston College finishes the regular season with a record of 10-22, behind every school but Virginia in the ACC.

For the ACC tournament, Florida State defeated Miami 3 sets to 1 to clinch the 2012 ACC Volleyball title. Besides FSU, North Carolina, Miami and North Carolina State earned at large bids. However, North Carolina State and Miami made early exits with the Hurricanes losing 3 sets to 2 to the College of Charleston and the Wolfpack losing 3 sets to 1 to Texas A&M in the first round.

The Tarheels and Seminoles managed to advance to the second round with Florida State sweeping Hofstra and North Carolina getting past Cal. However, in the seond round, the Tarheels were dispatched in Ames, IA by the Iowa State Cyclones while the Purdue Boilermakers eliminaetd the Seminoles.

COLONIAL ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION VOLLEYBALL- Depsite a promising regular season in which they finished with a 20-7 record, the Northeastern Huskies lost in the first round of the CAA volleyball final to James Madison.

Towson finished the regular season ahead of Northeastern and beat the Huskies in head-to-head competition last month, but they ended up losing in the CAA champioship game to Hofstra before Hofstra was eliminated from the NCAA tournament in the first round.

BOXING- Professional boxer Hector 'Macho' Camacho died at a hospital just days after being shot multiple times in him hometown of Bayamon, Puerto Rico. The southpaw had won major championships in featherweight, lightweight and welterweight categories.

Camacho's family moved to New York when he was three and repeatedly got into street fights as a teen. A teacher persuaded Camacho to take up boxing as a more constrictive outlet and within a few years, he began winning amateur titles around New York.

Some of Camacho's noteworthy opponents include Sugar Ray Leonard, Julio Caesar Chavez and Oscar De La Hoya. Throughout his boxing career Camacho won a total of 45 matches by knockout- including a bout where he reportedly ended Sugar Ray Leonard's career.

Camacho's body was laying in state for two days in San Juan Puerto Rico before being transported to New York for burial at the request of his mother and sisters. However, the open casket viewing was disrupted when an altercation between Camacho's sisters and a woman claiming to be his girlfriend broke out.....because funeral catfights are apparently the best kind of catfights.

Belated Sports Chowdah Update- UMASS Zips It Up For 1st FBS Win; Bills Just About Due For Patriots; Tigers Land Big Game Hunter;

Minutemen LB Jovan Santos Knox seen celebrating a game-clinching turnover late in the 4th quarter that sealed Massachusetts first-ever FBS win AP Photo/Akron Beacon Journal, Phil Masturzo

UMASS FOOTBAL- First and foremost, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the UMass Minutemen for their first-ever FBS win on Saturday afternoon.

The win came at Akron's InfoCision Stadium on Saturday, November 10th [take notes- this may show up as a trivia question at some point in the future- NANESB! and actually gives the 1-9 Minutemen a better intra-conference record than the Akron Zips who are currently 1-10 and winless against MAC opponents.

Thanks to a trio of Blake Lucas FGs and a TD pass from QB Mike Wegzyn to RB Alan Williams, UMass took a 15-0 lead heading into halftime. But Akron got on the board in the second half and made it a one TD game with a rushing touchdown from RB Jawon Chisolm with 9:55 to go in the 3rd.

The Minutemen looked as though they had the game as good as put away when the Zips were pinned deep in their own end zone and with 6:11 to go in regulation, Umass safety Joe Colton picked off Zips QB Dalton Williams, giving the Minutemen the ball on Akron 1 yard line. Wegzyn then ran it in to make it a 22-7 game with 4:44 remaining, but the Zips weren't done yet.

Akron responded to what should've been a knockout blow by the Minutemen by starting off with the ball on their own 24 with just under 4 minutes to go and moving it downfield in 1:10 to hit paydirt when Williams connected with WR Marquelo Suel for a 19 yard TD pass to make it a 22-14 game with 2:40 remaining.

After a touchback, the Minutemen went three and out and burned a mere 30 seconds off of the play clock, deciding to punt on 4th and 1 from their own 34 with just under 2 minutes to go.

The Zips got the ball as far as mid-field, but UMass DL Ryan Delaire evaded an Akron blocker and lunged at Williams, knocking the ball free before it was scooped up by fellow DL Kevin Byrne with 1:28 to go. That sealed the 22-14 win for Massachusetts, causing the UMass sideline to erupt in celebration and dump a cooler of Gatorade on head coach Charley Molnar.

With two games remaining in the season, the Minutemen will see if they can try and keep their newfound winning streak intact against the 3-7 Buffalo Bulls this Saturday at Foxborough. Kickoff is a 3:00 ET

BOSTON COLLEGE FOOTBALL- Of course, all eyes were on a different Bay State football program on Saturday night as Boston College and #4 Notre Dame faced off in the 'Holy War'.

Although the undefeated Fighting Irish had survived a late scare against the Pitt Panthers the week before, hanging on to win by a 29-26 final in triple OT. However, there was no such drama against Boston College in Saturday's prime-time, nationally televised matchup from Chestnut Hill.

While much of the first half was a fairly tight defensive battle with the Irish taking a 7-0 lead on an Everett Golson TD in the first half and a Nate Freese FG to make it 7-3 early in the 2nd, the Irish started with the ball on their own 13 yard line with just over 9:03 to go and methodically marched the ball down the field before hitting paydirt with 45 seconds left to go in the half to give the Irish a 14-3 lead.

It would be all they needed as the only offense Boston College could muster was another Nate Freese FG in the second half. Notre Dame goes on to win by a final of 21-6 and will face another ACC team- Wake Forest- this weekend while Boston College will play host to the 4-6 Virginia Tech Hokies at Chestnut Hill this Saturday at 12:30 PM ET.

ELSEWHERE IN NCAA FOOTBALL- All eyes were on Chestnut Hill Saturday night in part because of an earlier contest in the SEC that whittled down the ranks of the undefeated.

In their first year as an SEC team, 7-2 Texas A&M marched into Tuscaloosa and shocked #1 Alabama by hanging on to win by a final of 29-24 on Saturday. The loss knocked Alabama down to #4 in the standings while the Irish leapfrogged past the Crimson Tide to take #3 in the AP Top rankings.

The Oregon Ducks in the Pac 12 and Kansas State Wildcats of the Big 12 also remain undefeated, earning them the #1 and #2 spots in the AP poll [Ohio State is undefeated, but is bowl-ineligible due to NCAA sanctions from Jim Tressel's final year there- NANESB!]. Besides a matchup against Wake Forest, Norte Dame closes out the regular season with a matchup against the #18 ranked USC Trojans at the Collesium on November 24th. Notre Dame also would be playing one fewer game than either Oregon, Kansas State or Alabama since the Pac 12 and SEC also have a conference championship game as well. Oregon's remaining games will be a road game against #13 Stanford and a rivalry weekend game against the #16 Oregon State Beavers as well as (in all likelyhood) the Pac 12 title game.

Alabama's two remaining games are against the 1-9 FCS Western Carolina and Auburn as well as a likely appearence in the SEC title game. With the last Big 12 Championship game taking place in 2010, Kansas State's final two games will be against Baylor and #15 Texas.

COLONIAL ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION FOOTBALL- With woeful performances by Boston College, UMass and to a lesser extent, UConn, pretty much the only shot for a New England football team to be playing well into December is if they did well in the NCAA's Football Championship Subdivision (FCS)- formerly known as Division I-AA.

With a few exceptions, most of the FCS schools in New England play in the Colonial Athletic Association [with the notable exepctions of UMass, who moved on to the FBS and Northeastern, who discontinued their Football program- NANESB!]. The Colonial was very well represented in the FCS playoffs last season with New Hampshire, Maine, Towson, Old Dominion and James Madison earning berths (although none of them would advance to the final four).

Although Old Dominion leads the Colonial with a 9-1 record, New Hampshire is a close second with an 8-2 record with one game to go against Towson. However, it's also worth pointing out that New Hampshire's two losses were against Minnesota and none other than Old Dominion back in September. After coming off a 28-25 win against William & Mary earlier this month, the UNH Wildcats could bolster their chances for a return to the FCS Championship bracket with a win over Towson this weekend [they actually qualified last season with three losses- NANESB!].

AP Photo/Elise Amendola

NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS- Well it sure was messy, but it will go down as a win for the Patriots.

After getting out to an early 10-0 lead in the first quarter against the Bills at Foxbourough on Sunday, but Buffalo came roaring back in the second and after heading into the halftime with New England clinging to a 24-17 lead. Although it appeared as though the Patriots would start to pull away in the 3rd, the Bills and QB Ryan Fitzpatrick would not go away, cutting a ten point lead to 34-31 with just under 8 minutes to go. With just over 2 minutes in the 4th, Gostkowski added to the Patriots lead, making it a 37-31 game with Buffalo getting the ball back on their own 20.

Although Bills QB Ryan Fitzpatrick managed to put together a quick drive that jeapordized the Patriots' lead, the game was sealed when Safety Devin McCourty picked him off in the end zone with 23 seconds remaining in the 4th, preserving the 37-31 lead for New England.

Tom Brady went 23 for 28 with 237 yards and 2 TDs while Buffalo's Fitzpatrick was 27-40 with 337 yards, 2 TDs and was sacked three times along with a fumble and an interception.

Buffalo will continue facing off against the AFC East with a Thursday night game against the Miami Dolphins while the Patriots will host the Indianapolis Colts for the first time in the post-Peyton Manning era on Sunday afternoon with a 4:25 ET kickoff. The game will be televised on CBS.

MLB- The Toronto Blue Jays and Miami Marlins are reportedly on the cusp of a blockbuster deal that would send shortstop Jose Reyes and starting pitchers Mark Buehrle and Josh Johnson north of the border in exchange for shortstop Yunel Escobar, catcher Jeff Mathis, pitcher Henderson Alvarez and prospects Adeiny Hechavarria, Justin Nicolino, Anthony DeSclafani and Jason Marisnick.

Although the Marlins had made waves with a number of free-agent signings and the hiring of the mercurial Ozzy Guillen as manager last offseason in order to christen their new ballpark, Miami finished dead last in the NL East with their worst record since 1999.

Closer Heath Bell was traded to Arizona in late October and within days, the Marlins dismissed Guillen as manager even though they still owe him $7.5 million over the next three seasons. Earlier this season, Guillen had prompted a considerable backlash from Miami's Cuban community over laudatory remarks about Cuban dictator Fidel Castro in an interview. In fact, the Marlins brand new ballpark is located at the periphery of the Little Havana neighborhood.

The Reyes/Buehrle/Johnson trade is expected to free up nearly $190 million in salary for the Marlins, but has already triggered an angry backlash from fans accusing the front office of reverting to the 'fire sale' days of the 1990s where the ownership would quickly dismantle a championship-caliber team while the more talented players could fetch a premium price in transactions with other MLB teams.

The reported deal is still subject to approval from MLB comissioner Bud Selig, but analysts say that there is little reason for him to overturn the deal between the Marlins and Blue Jays.

DETROIT TIGERS- The Tigers and outfielder Torii Hunter have reportedly agreed to terms on a two year contract. The 37 year old outfielder returns to the AL Central after signing a 2 year, $26 million contract on Wednesday, according to USA Today.

This past season, Torii Hunter was batting .313 with 16 HR and 92 RBI for the Angels. Since his 1997 debut with the Minnesota Twins, Hunter has a career batting average of .277 with 297 HR and 1143 RBI. In 2008, Hunter left the Twins as a free agent and signed with the Anaheim Angels.

BOSTON RED SOX- WEEI is reporting that the Red Sox have reached a 2 year $6.2 million deal with former Atlanta Braves catcher David Ross. In 62 games with Atlanta last season, Ross hit .256 with 9HR and 23 RBI.

In an interview, Red Sox GM Ben Cherrington said that he expects Boston to have one of the highest payrolls in MLB starting next season. An August deal sent outfielder Carl Crawford, 1B Adrian Gonzalez, starting pitcher Josh Beckett and infielder Nick Punto to the Los Angeles Dodgers- LA is expected to absorb more than $260 million owed they players after the 2012 season while Boston has just $45 million in garunteed salary starting in 2013- meaning they have more money to pursue free agents or use for contract extensions with players already on the roster like David Ortiz, Jacoby Ellsbury and Andrew Bailey.

BC Sophmore Kellie Barnum setting up against Virgnia. John Quackenbos photo via Palasadian Post

NCAA VOLLEYBALL- Well, the Eagles volleyball team has been looking for a win ever since last month's road trip against Duke and Wake Forest. Since then, Boston College has gone 0-10 with three games remaining in the regular season, including #24 Miami in Coral Gables and #11 Florida State in Talahassee before wrapping up the regular season against Maryland at Chestnut Hill.

The Eagles also announced the signing of National Letters of Intent by three highly touted prep volleyball players Jackie Bowman, Madisen Lydon and Anna Skold.

Kevin Ahearn/Huntington News photo

Meanwhile, across town the Northeastern Huskies are getting ready to wrap up their regular season and start with the Colonial Athletic Association. Although they had their 9-game winning streak broken by Delaware [before losing to Towson, who has yet to lose to a CAA opponent this season- NANESB!], the Huskies won three out of their remaining four games and will begin the CAA tournament against James Madison.

The Huskies are currently in second place behind Townson and hold a 20-6 season record, going 9-3 against other Colonial teams.

Stephen Slade/UConn photo

Down in the Nutmeg state, while the UConn Huskies didn't have quite as good a regular season as Noertheastern did, their 10-5 in-conference rerord (19-11 overall) was enough for them to earn an invite to the Big East Volleyball tournament-finishing in 4th place behind Louisville, Marquette and Notre Dame.

Friday night's Big East tournament opener in Milwakee will feature a rematch between UConn and the Cincinnati Bearcats.Cincinnati won 3 sets to two in Storrs during the October 12th matchup.

Fall Classic Sports Chowdah Update- Jets Grounded by Pats in OT; Kung Fu Panda Flying High in Game 1 of World Series;

AP Photo/Stephan Savoia

NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS- Between snatching defeat from the jaws of victory and snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, there was a whole lot of snatching going on late in Sunday's game at Foxbourough.

After the Jets got a TD on their opening posession, New England's Devin McCourty took the ball back 104 yards to tie the game at 7-7 on a kickoff return for a TD.

For the second straight week, it was looking as though the Patriots were going to pull away thanks to a 17 yard TD reception from Brady to Gronkowski late in the 1st and then got two more after Jets QB kicked the ball out of the back of the end zone after fumbling the handoff to RB Shonn Greene on the Jets own 12 yard line. The safety made it a 16-7 game, but the Jets were able to cut the Patriots lead to 7 thanks to a late 54-yard Nick Folk FG. The teams headed into the locker room for halftime with the Patriots up 16-10.

For their first possession of the 3rd quarter, the Jets were able to march the ball down into the new England Red Zone, but were unable to punch it in on 3rd and 2 from the Patriots 3 yard line, settling for a 21 yard FG to make it 13-16.

But on the next posession, the Patriots marched to ball 78 yards down the field to give them a 23-16 lead. The drive took 6:43 and was capped by a short TD pass from Brady to Gronkowski.

However, momentum began swinging the Jets' way when the 4th quarter got underway. With just under 6 minutes to go, New York closed the gap to 23-20 on a 7 yard TD pass from Sanchez to TE Dustin Keller. The Jets defense then held New England to a 3-and-out before getting the ball back and moving as close as the Patriots' 25 yard line. After being stopped on 3rd and 4, Nick Folk made a 43 yard FG to tie the contest up at 23-23.

Near-disaster struck on the following posession when Devin McCourty fumbled the kickoff return inside the Patriots' own red zone and the Jets covered on the New England 18. However, on 3rd and 7, Pats LB Dont'a Hightower came up with the second most important sack of the game [the most important? That was yet to come- NANESB!] dragging down Sanchez for a 10 yard loss and forcing the Jets to attempt a FG instead of going for it on 4th and 17. Still, Folk's 43 yard FG was good and the Jets took the lead for the first time since the 1st quarter, going agead by a 26-23 margin with 1:37 to go in regulation.

On the following kickoff, McCourty managed to hang on to the ball and got it as far out as the New England 21. This gave Brady and the Pats offense a little over 90 seconds to drive the ball down into FG range [or try and get the kill shot with a TD- NANESB!]. And that's exactly what happened as the Patriots marched down the field, getting as far as the Jets 25 with 16 seconds remaining. As time expires, Gostkowski kicked a 43 yard FG to tie the contest up at 26-26 and force overtime.

This was the first time the Patriots had to play under the NFL's revised OT rules and New England won the coin toss and got the ball to start off with. Starting from their own 16, the Patriots moved the ball thanks to a series of short passes to Welker, Woodhead, Hernandez and Deion Branch, advancing as far as the Jets 30 before bringing in Gostkowski for a 48 yard FG attempt which was good.

Under the old rules, that would've ended the ballgame right there, but the new format allowed the Jets a posession with which the could tie the game or go ahead with a TD for the win. However, after a couple of quick gains that brought New York from their own 15 to near mid field, Mark Sanchez was sacked by DE Rod Ninkovitch and then fumbled the ball. New England recovered the football, thus ending the game right there. After dropping the late lead, Patriots come from behind to force OT and shut the Jets out in OT, winning by a final of 29-26.

Brady went 26-42 with 2 TDs and 259 yards while Rob Gronkowski had 6 receptions on the day, two of them for TDs.

This weekend, the Patriots will travel to jolly old England for a rematch of Super Bowl XXXVI against the St Louis Rams. This is actually considered a home game for the Rams and will kick off at 1PM Eastern time.

AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

WORLD SERIES- Perhaps the best baseball news as far as I was concerned came last Tuesday when the Detroit Tigers competed a sweep of the New York Yankees thanks to an 8-1 shellacking in Game 4 at Comerica Park in which Yankees starter CC Sabathia gave up 6 earned runs before getting pulled in the top of the 4th. Matt Scherzer pitched a gem through 5⅔ and the Tigers advanced to their first World Series berth since 2006.

And for awhile, it was looking as though it would be a rematch of the '06 World Series with the Cardinals taking a commanding 3-1 lead over the San Francisco Giants in the NLCS. However, the Giants would come roaring back and win the next three games by a combined total of 20-1, including shutouts thrown by Barry Zito in Game 5 and Matt Cain in Game 7.

For Game 1 of the World Series, the Giants appeared to have picked up right where they left off, taking an early 1-0 lead thanks to a Pablo Sandoval homer off of Tigers ace Justin Verlander in the bottom of the first. In the bottom of the 3rd, Giants Outfielder Angel Pagan reached when what looked like a routine ground ball took an odd bounce off of 3rd base and squirted into shallow left field with two away. Pagan then came home on an RBI double from former Red Sox infielder Marco Scutaro, who the Giants picked up from Colorado in an unheralded midseason transaction. Scutaro's base hit gave the Giants another run and brough up Pablo Sandoval to the plate where he once more went yard on Justin Verlander to give San Francisco a 4-0 lead.

As it turns out, that would be all they would need for Game 1, but starter Barry Zito helped his own cause by adding to the lead with an RBI single in the bottom of the 4th and Sandoval would get his 3rd homer of the night- another solo shot in the bottom of the 5th to make it 6-0 Giants. The Tigers would get a run on a Miguel Cabrera RBI in the top of the 6th, but Detroit would answer with RBI base hits from Buster Posey and Marco Scutaro.

San Francisco would cruise to the easy 8-3 win in Game one with Barry Zito getting his first-ever win in the World Series and Pablo Sandoval becoming the 4th big leaguer to hit 3 home runs in a single World Series game, joining Babe Ruth, Reggie Jackson and Albert Pujols.

On Thursday night, Game 2 of the 2012 World Series turned out to be more of a pitcher's duel with Giants starter Madison Bumgarner outlasting Detroit's Doug Fister- who took a line drive off of his noggin in the 2nd inning- in a 2-0 Tigers loss. Thursday night's win gives Detroit a 2-0 series lead. Fister was examined by doctors postgame and showed no additional symptoms of a concussion.

The series heads back to Detroit on Saturday, with Friday being a travel day for both teams and the media. Ryan Vogelsong [14-9; 3.37 ERA] gets the start for San Francisco against Detroit's Anibal Sanchez [9-13; 3.86 ERA] at Comerica Park. San Francisco backup catcher Hector Sanchez will reportedly be the NL Champion's designated hitter while playing in the American League ballpark. First pitch is scheduled for 8:07 PM ET and the game will be nationally televised on FOX.

I think the image is pretty self-explanatory. AP Photo/Charles Krupa

BOSTON RED SOX- So barely a year after Terry Francona's departure from Boston, the Red Sox have decided to revisit the Francona epoch with the signing of Toronto Blue Jays manager John Farrell. Farrell was the Red Sox pitching coach between 2007 and 2010 before being hired on north of the border and was announced as the 46th manager in the club's history.

The Red Sox had also interviewed Brad Ausmus, DeMarlo Hale and Tim Wallach for the managerial spot. While this is sometimes done for show and the eventual favorite eventually gets hired anyway, there were some doubts as to whether or not Toronto would release Farrell from his contract. In his first season as the Blue Jays manager, the team had improved to 81-81, but in 2012 Toronto finished just a game ahead of the last place Red Sox and the Jays were more willing to part with him.

From the perspective of owner John Henry and GM Ben Cherrington, Farrell has the advantage of being familiar with some of the players and front office staff. The Red Sox had to part with infielder Mike Aviles in order to coax Toronto into releasing Farrell. The 50 year old former pitching coach still had a year remaining on his contract with the Blue Jays.

ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS- Former San Diego closer Heath Bell has made his way back to the NL West in a surprise move announced over the weekend.

Just one year into his 3 year, $27 million contract with the Florida Miami Marlins, Bell was traded to Arizona in exchange for infielder prospect Yordy Cabrera who came to Arizona in a deal with Oakland that sent outfielder Chris Young to that AL Team by the Bay.

The Marlins will also reportedly pay $8 million of the $21 million still owed on Bell's contract. JJ Putz would remain the D-Backs closer while Bell would move into a setup role.

Earlier in the month, there had been widespread speculation that the New York Yankees were looking to deal Alex Rodriguez after a disappointing performance in the postseason. The Marlins were considered a likely candidate since Rodriguez was from the area and the Yankees were willing to eat a large portion of his contract in order to deal the high-salaried infielder. Dealing Bell could fuel speculation that the Marlins are getting ready to clear salary cap space for a possible A-Rod deal, although the fact that Bell went 4-5 with a 5.09 ERA for the Marlins could mean that Miami was just willing to get rid of a relief pitcher who wasn't working out for them.

NCAA FOOTBALL- Four former Louisiana State University football players, including 2011 Heisman candidate Tyrann 'Honey Badger' Mathieu were arrested by police in Baton Rouge, LA on drug charges.

Mathieu was dismissed from LSU's football in August after violating the University's substance abuse policy. Mathieu was arrested along with former starting QB Jordan Jefferson and former DB's Karnell Hatcher and Derrick Bryant on multiple counts of drug pesession as well as posession of marijuana with intent to distribute. Police were responding to a call about an individual- later identified as Jefferson- forcing his way through a gate at an apartment complex in Baton Rouge. After exchanging words with a maintainence man, the police were called and knocked on the door of an apartment where Mathieu answered the door. Officers noticed the strong smell of marijuana. A search of the apartment yielded 10 bags of high-grade marijuana and a digital scale.

BOSTON COLLEGE EAGLES- Georgia Tech picked up their 3rd win of the season after a 37-13 thumping of Boston College in Atlanta last weekend. This was the first contest since the Yellowjackets fired defensive coordinator Al Groh.

The Yellowjackets had built up a 31-3 lead on Boston College before QB Chase Rettig connected on two TD passes, one to Alex Amidon late in the 3rd and another to TE Chris Pantale, to make it 31-17, but Georgia Tech got the last word in with a late rushing TD from RB David Sims with just over 5 minutes to go in the 4th.

This upcoming weekend, BC will host Maryland at Chestnut Hill and try and snap its ACC losing streak, this time against the 4-3 Maryland Terrapins.

UMASS- With the exception of one close game at Foxborough, the UMASS Minutemen haven't had much more luck with the Mid-America conference than they've had with the other FBS programs they've faced in their first season as a FBS program.

The futility continued last Saturday when they committed 4 turnovers against the Bowling Green Falcons, including a pick and 48 yard return from Bowling Green LB Dwayne Woods. Bowling Green shuts out the Minutemen by a 24-0 final.

UMASS will travel to Music City for their final non-conference game of the 2012 season on Saturday- taking on Vanderbilt in Prime Time. The 0-7 Minutemen come in to Saturday night's contest as 32 point uderdogs. Kickoff is at 7:00 ET and will be streaming on ESPN3.

BIG EAST- After last Friday's 40-10 loss to Syracuse at the Carrier dome, the Huskies are in their bye week. The Huskies are 3-5 overall and 0-3 against Big East teams heading into their off week and will face the South Florida Bulls. Presently USF is the only Big East football team with a worse record than UConn- also sporting an 0-3 record in conference. USF will play the Pitt Panthers this weekend before their home game against the Huskies.

ELSEWHERE IN THE BIG EAST The Cincinnati Bearcats have been knocked from the ranks of the undefeated. Coming into last weekend's game, Cincinnati was ranked #21 in the nation.

And it was a MAC team that spoiled the party for Cincinnati, with the Toledo Zips getting out to an early lead against the Bearcats. The Bearcats briefly took a 19-20 lead before Toledo's Bernard Reedy retuned a kickoff 91 yards for a Rockets TD to put Toledo on top for good as they went on to win by a final of 29-23

Sports Chowdah Update- Tiger Trap in ALCS; Hawk Heaven- Seattle Rallies Late Against Pats; New England FBS Schools 0 for October; Navy Thinks Big (East);

AP Photo/Elaine Thompson

NFL- This one you can't blame on the replacement officials.

Unlike last week's home game against Denver, the first half of the Patriots road game against the Seahawks was a back-and-forth affair with a couple of lead changes before the Patriots went in front by a 17-10 score late in the first half and had a chance to break the game wide open after Seahawks punter Jon Ryan mishandled a snap deep in Seattle territory on 4th and 4, giving the Patriots the ball back on the Seahawks own 24 yard line with 40 seconds to go. Brady got the Patriots down to the Seattle 3, but couldn't punch it it in. However, with two seconds to go and before New England could bring Gostkowski out for the FG attempt, the [full time] referees huddled and decided that Brady was guilty of an intentional grounding penalty with less than 6 seconds remaining. This included a 10 second runoff of the clock, meaning there would be no FG attempt and Seattle dodged a HUGE bullet.

At the time, any New England fan worth their salt was wondering exactly how the penalty at the end of the first half would come back to haunt them as the teams headed into the locker room with the Patriots up 17-10.

I get the feeling its a matter of 'when', not 'if', that intentional grounding penalty @ the end of the half will bite #Patriots in tucchus
— Fen Wei (@Fenway_Nation) October 14, 2012

As it turns out, we wouldn't have to wait very long to find out. Seattle's defense would hold the Patriots to two Gostkowski FG's, giving the Pats the 23-10 lead.

With less than 10 minutes to go in the 4th, Seattle quickly got themselves back in the game thanks to WR Golden Tate's 51 yard run on the following posession plus a 15 yard penalty against New England tacked on to the end of the run, followed by converting 4th and 3 thanks to a 10 yard TD pass from QB Russel Wilson to WR Braylon Edwards to cut into New England's lead by a score of 23-17.

The Seahawks would get the ball back with 2:38 to go with a good field position thanks to a 25 yard Leon Washington punt return and on 1st and 10 from mid-field, Wilson connected with WR Sidney Rice for a 46 yard catch and run to give the Seahawks a 24-23 lead- and the dire warning from myself and others at the end of the first half loomed large as the Patriots got the ball back with 1:08 left, but weren't able to do anything with it, going 4 and out deep in their own territory and turning over the ball with rougly 50 seconds to got. From there, Seattle got the ball back and simply took a knee to run out the clock.

Former Patriots head coach Pete Carroll gets a measure of revenge against his former team as the Seahawks won on Sunday by a 24-23 final.

Brady went 36-58 and had 395 yards along with 2 TDs and 2 interceptions while Seattle's Russel Wilson went 16-27 with 293 yards and 3 TDs, so those of you who had Wilson on your fantasy team (and didn't bench him) were in for a pleasant surprise. This is New England's second loss to an NFC West team by less than two points in the closing minutes of a game- all three of New England's losse have been by a margin on one or two points so far.

Seattle goes on to play the San Francisco 49ers on the NFL Network's Thursday night game while New England hosts the Jets in Foxbourough on this Sunday. Kickoff is set for 4:25 PM ET and the game will be televised on CBS.

The loss puts the entire AFC East in the unusual position of having every team hold a 3-3 record. This actually puts the Patriots in 2nd place behind the Jets. Sunday's game is sure to break the deadlock one way or the other.

OTHER NFL NEWS- Baltimore Ravens Linebacker Ray Lewis is expected to miss the remainder of the season with an injury to his triceps in his right arm. This is Lewis' third stint on the DL in ten seasons. Lewis turns 38 next spring, and the season-ending injury has cast some doubt on his future in Baltimore.

The Ravens will face the Houston Texans this Sunday- the Texans are coming off of their first loss of the season, leaving the Atlanta Falcons as the NFL's only undefeated team so far this season.

DENVER BRONCOS- Monday Night's game between the Broncos and San Diego Chargers gave Patriots fans reason to think that their team was fortunate to be 3-3 after fending off a 2nd half Denver rally in hindsight.

Despite an atrocious 1st half in which the Chargers jumped out to a 24-0 lead, the Broncos staged a remarkable comeback in the second half in which the defense not only kept the Chargers off the scoreboard, but ran up 35 unanswered points for the 35-24 win. Like New England, the win gives Denver a 3-3 record.

NCAA FOOTBALL- Well, not quite 2 weeks into October and I'm going to make the bold prediction that none of the BCS schools in New England will be appearing in any bowl games this season.

The only reason the UMASS Minutemen didn't lose this weekend was because it was their bye week. Despite playing the undefeated Bobcats well in a 37-34 loss at 'home' [i.e. Foxbourough- NANESB!] in Week 5, the following week was a dramatically different story as the Minutemen were on the losing end of a 52-14 thumping in Kalamazoo.

This weekend, the Minutemen will take on the 4-3 Bowling Green Falcons at Gillette Stadium.

BOSTON COLLEGE- UMASS isn't the only FBS school in Massachusetts to have allowed 50 or more points against their last opponent.

Boston College had a tough road game in Tallahassee against 12th ranked Florida State and looked as though they would make a game of it on their opening posession as they took the football and marched down the field to the Seminoles 1 yard line before getting shut out of the end zone on 4th and goal. From there on out, it was all Noles all the time as they cruised to a 51-7 over Boston College.

The Eagles travel to Atlanta to take on Georgia Tech- who currently sport a woeful 2-4 record- on Saturday at 3 PM ET.

UCONN- The Huskies- who are the only New England FBS school to have been above .500 this season- are on a 2-game skid after losing a week 6 matchup to Big East for, #22 Rutgers, by a 19-3 final. Last weekend, the Huskies blew a late lead against Temple after giving up a late TD to the Owls with 42 seconds left to tie up the game 14-14.

Connecticut got the ball first in OT but missed a chip shot FG. Temple got the ball back and made their FG attempt from the 29 yard line, giving them the 17-14 OT win.

This week, 3-4 UCONN travels to the Carrier Dome to take on the Syracuse Orangemen. This will likely be the last time the Huskies face Syracuse as the Orange are set to jump to the ACC beginning in 2013. Currently Navy sports a 3-3 record and faces Army each December during the Army-Navy game. This will likely continue once Navy football is integrated into the Big East.

NAVY- The US Naval Academy Midshipmen football program has reportedly agreed to start playing in the Big East conference starting in 2015. Navy has been playing football as an independent since 1879.

The move would leave the Army Black Knights as the only service academy that plays FBS football as an independent- the Air Force Academy Falcons have been playing in the Mountain West conference since the late 1990s.

AP Photo/Paul Sancya

MLB- After nearly giving away Game 1 of the ALCS in the bottom of the 9th, the Detroit Tigers have taken a 3-0 series lead on the New York Yankees.

Tuesday night saw the series move to Detroit's Comerica Park and Tigers ace Justin Verlander on the mound. Verlander went through the first three innings without allowing a baserunner while he got some run support in the form of a line-drive solo homer from Delmon Young to make it 1-0. Detroit then added to their lead in the bottom of the 5th with an RBI double from Miguel Cabrera to make it 2-0.

Verlander would end up pitching 8⅓ innings before allowing a solo homer to Eduardo Nunez in the top of the 9th. Despite giving up 2-out back to back singles to Mark Teixera and Robinson Cano, reliever Phil Coke got ALDS hero Raul Ibanez to strike out to end the ballgame and give Detroit a commanding 3-0 lead in the ALCS.

The Yankees have been playing without team captain Derek Jeter since game 1 after he left Game 1 of the ALCS with a fractured ankle. The injury has left the Yankees without Jeter for the remainder of the season- this is the first time since the 1990s the Yankees have been in the postseason without Jeter, closer Mariano Rivera or catcher Jorge Posada.

Detroit took Game 1 of the ALCS in Yankee Stadium by a 6-4 final in 12 innings, despite blowing a save in the bottom of the 9th. On Sunday afternoon, Tigers starter Anibal Sanchez threw 7 shutout innings in Detroit's 3-0 win at Yankee Stadium.

Game 4 is set to take place on Wednesday night at Comerica Park, with CC Sabathia [15-6; 3.38 ERA] taking the mound for the Yanks while Max Scherzer [16-7; 3.74 ERA] will get the start for Detroit. First pitch is scheduled for 8:07 ET and the game will be televised on TBS.

NATIONAL LEAGUE- The St Louis Cardinals have advanced to the ALCS in the most heart-ripping-out-iest manner possible after a deciding Game 5 in the nation's capital Saturday night.

After jumping out to an early 6-0 lead, the Nationals seemingly thwarted a Cardinals rally in the bottom of the 5th that cut the Nats lead in half. Even though a Daniel Descalso solo homer in the top of the 8th made it a 1-run game for the Cards, the Nats got a run back in the bottom of the 8th to make it a 7-5 Washington lead. However, the Washington bullpen imploded in the top of the 9th, allowing a leadoff double to Carlos Beltran before issuing two out walks to Yadier Molina and David Freese. Descalso then hit a 2-RBI single to tie the contest up at 7-7 and suck the air out of Nationals Ballpark before Pete Kozma singled and drove in two more runs, giving them a 9-7 lead.

The Nationals were unable to get any kind of offense going in the bottom of the 9th and the Cardinals rally punched their ticket to the NLCS where they faced off against San Francisco.

After splitting the first two games at San Francisco, the series moves to St Louis Wednesday afternoon. Game 3 gets underway at 1:07 ET Wednesday afternoon and will be televised on FOX.

BC's Katty Workman has garnered ACC Freshman of the Week honors no less than three times this season. John Quackenbos/ BC Athletics Photo

NCAA VOLLEYBALL- After a successful road trip to North Carolina earlier this month where Boston College beat Wake Forest and swept the Duke Blue Devils, the Lady Eagles had a brief flirtation with .500 before falling back to a game under .500 after getting swept in three sets by #12-ranked Florida State and a hard-fought loss against the Miami Hurricanes on Chestnut Hill this weekend. Courtney Castle and Katty Workman both had double-doubles in the 5 set loss to Miami and finished up the match with more kills, assists and digs than the Hurricanes. Currently, the Eagles sport a 10-11 record, going 4-5 against ACC opponents.

This upcoming weekend will see BC Volleyball return to the Tarheel state for matches against the North Carolina Tarheels and NC State Spartans.

On Monday, the ACC named outside hitter Katty Workman and NC State middle blocker Alesha Wilson ACC volleyball players of the week.

ELSEWHERE IN NCAA VOLLEYBALL- Across town and in the Colonial conference, the Northeastern Huskies women's volleyball team is on a tear having won nine in a row, including six against CAA opponents. This upcoming weekend, the Huskies will face Delaware and current CAA leader Towson- whose volleyball team has won 12 consecutive games, and also sports a 6-0 record in the Colonial conference.