One Giant Cup of Sports Chowdah Update- The Constant Bumgarner, Giants Ace Comes Out of Bullpen to Cinch World Series; Brady's Bunches, Patriots QB throws 5 TDs Against Chicago; Hokies Smoked, Boston College Becomes Bowl-Eligible With Win in Blacksburg;

WORLD SERIES- Those of us who wanted a Game 7 in the 2014 World Series weren't disappointed.

Game 7 was made possible by the Royals lighting up Giants starter Jake Peavy early in Game Six on Wednesday, cruising to an easy 10-0 win and tying up the series at 3 games apiece.

For Game 7, the Giants got out to an early 2-0 lead off of Kansas City starter Jeremy Guthrie thanks to a pair of RBI sac flies- one off the bat of Michael Morse and Brandon Crawford. However, the Royals got those two runs back in the bottom of the second and managed to chase San Francisco starter Tim Hudson after 1⅔ innings when Alex Gordon hit an RBI double and then advanced to third before coming home on an Omar Enfante sac-fly.

In the top of the 4th, Giants 3B Pablo Sandoval led off with an infield single, followed by a Hunter Pence single and a Brandon Belt fly ball to left field that advanced Sandoval to third. By this point, Royals manager Ned Yost pulled Guthrie and brought Kelvin Herrera in from the bullpen. Morse singled, which brought Sandoval in from 3rd before Herrera struck out Brandon Crawford and got Juan Perez to ground out and end the inning.

Nursing a 1-run lead, Giants manager Bruce Bochy brought in starter Madison Bumgarner from out of the bullpen. Although dominant against the Royals earlier in the series, Bumgarner immediately gave up a single to Omar Enfante followed by an Alcides Escobar sac bunt to move Enfante into scoring position, but that was followed by fly ball off the bat of Nori Aoki to left that LF Juan Perez managed to run down for the second out. Bumgarner then managed to get Lorenzo Cain to strike out and end the bottom of the 5th.

Instead of going to the bullpen, Bochy went with Bumgarner into the 9th inning, with the Giants starter getting better as the innings progressed. In the bottom of the 9th, he got Eric Hosmer and Billy Butler to go down quietly for the first two outs. Alex Gordon stepped into the batter's box and hit a line drive into left center that was misplayed by Gregor Blanco which rolled all the way to the wall. Gordon beat the throw to third and brought the increasingly demoralized crowd at Kauffman Stadium back to life with the tying run 90 feet away. However, Bumgarner got Salavor Perez to pop up to 3rd to clinch San Fransico's third World Series title since 2010.

For his two commanding starts and the Game 7 relief appearance, Madison Bumgarner was named the MVP of the 2014 World Series. On Friday, the City of San Francisco held their third World Series parade in less than five years.

NFL- After struggling just to outlast the Jets on Thursday night last week, the Patriots made it look easy against the Chicago Bears last Sunday when Tom Brady threw for 5 TD passes at Gillette Stadium.

New England had a 31-7 lead in the final minute of the first half when Bears QB Jay Cutler fumbled deep in Bears territory and Rod Ninkovitch recovered and ran it back for a TD with 55 seconds left in the half.

Brady would then connect with Gronkowski for a 46 yard TD reception to make it 45-7 on the Patriot's opening possession of the second half. The Patriots would cruise to an easy 51-23 win over Chicago thanks to 3 TD passes from Brady to Gronk, along with TD passes to Tim Wright and Brandon LaFell. Brady went 30-35 with 354 yards on the day to go with the 5 TDs on the day. Gronk caught 9 passes for 149 yards and the 3 TDs while Gostkowski made all three of his FG attempts.

This Sunday's game is a marquee matchup between two first-ballot Hall of Fame QBs when the Patriots will host the Denver Broncos and QB Peyton Manning at Gillette this weekend. Kickoff is scheduled for 4:25 ET and the game will be televised on ESPN.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NFL- As good a day as Brady had last week, Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger had an even better one, with 6 TDs and 522 yards, going 40-49 in the Steeler's 51-34 win over the Indianapolis Colts. The performance set a Steelers franchise record and was an exclamation point on Big Ben's 100th career win.

NCAA FOOTBALL- The Boston College Eagles are now bowl-eligible after a road win in Blacksburg, VA against Virginia Tech. Although the Hokies got out to an early lead in the first, the Eagles took a 14-10 lead into halftime.

After the half, the Eagles extended their lead to 23-10, but Virginia Tech made it a 23-17 game early in the 4th quarter and took a one point lead on a pass from QB Michael Brewer to TE Bucky Hodges to give the Hokies a 24-23 lead.

With just over five minutes to go in regulation, Alex Howell gave Boston College the lead once again thanks to a 44 yard FG attempt. After the Eagles defense held the Hokies to a 3 and out on the following possession, the Eagles started to pull away thanks to a 57 yard TD run from QB Tyler Murphy to make it 33-24 Boston College. The Hokies would close the gap to 31-33 thanks to another driver from Brewer that was capped with a 5 yard TD pass with 1:09 to go, but the following onsides kick was recovered by the Eagles, which allowed them to simply take a knee and run out the clock.

Murphy went 8 for 15 with 110 yards and two TDs passing and 122 yards rushing with another TD. Charlie Callinan and Marcus Outlow each had TD receptions on Saturday as well.

This would be Boston College's second win in a row after beating Wake Forest on the road last Saturday by a 23-17 final. Next Saturday, Boston College will host the Louisville Cardinals at Chestnut Hill. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:25 PM ET and the game will be televised on ESPN 2.

NHL- After blowing a 3rd period lead to the Minnesota Wild at home, the Boston Bruins hit the road for a quick trip against the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night, getting past Buffalo 3-2 in OT thanks to a Brad Marchand tally just 1:20 into OT.

On Saturday night, the B's returned home to host the Ottawa Senators for the first time this season. Marchand would open up the scoring on Saturday night, giving Boston a 1-0 lead a little over a minute into the contest. Mark Stone got the equalizer for Ottawa with about 30 seconds to go in the first period, giving the Bruins a 3-1 lead.

The second period was all about Matt Fraser as he had two tallies less than 90 seconds apart to give Boston a 3-1 lead. Heading into the 3rd, the Bruins would add tack on some more insurance when Seidenberg got an unassisted goal just over two minutes into the period. Ottawa would get on the board once again with a Mika Zibanejad goal with about five minutes left to go, but that would be it for the Sens.

Tukks Rask turned aside 27 of 29 shots faced on Saturday as the Bruins went on to win by a 4-2 final in their first meeting with Ottawa.

The Bruins homestand continues on Tuesday when the B's will host the 4-2-3 Florida Panthers at the Garden. Puck is scheduled to drop at 7:00 ET and the game will be televised on NESN

Instant Sports Chowdah Update- Failure to Launch, Patriots Survive Jets on Last Second Blocked FG; Wakey Wakey, Boston College Outlasts Deacons; Near Miss, LSU Hands Ole Miss First Loss of Season

NFL- With the longer-than-usual wait after last Thursday night's game, at times it almost felt as though the Patriots had a bye week.

The Patriots got out to an early lead in their only Thursday night game of the season, but a very game New York Jets team was never far behind. New England took a 17-12 lead against New York into halftime, thanks to a 39 yard Gostkowski FG as time expired in the 2nd quarter.

With 9 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter, the Jets took their first lead of the night with a drive that was capped by a short Nick Ivory TD run to give them a 19-17 lead. On the following drive, the Patriots got as far as the Jets red zone, and even though they had to settle for another Gostkowski field goal, the Patriots re-took the lead with 4:10 to go in the first.

It looked as though the Patriots were beginning to pull away midway though the 4th quarter when Brady connected with WR Danny Amendola for a 19 yard TD reception to make it a 27-19 lead, but with just over two and a half minutes to go, the Jets capped an 81 yard drive that took just under 5 minutes with a 10 yard TD pass from Geno Smith to TE Jeff Cumberland to bring the Jets to within two- however, the two point conversion attempt failed and New England still clung to a 27-25 lead.

After the Jets defense held New England to a 3 and out, the Patriots were forced to punt and managed to succeed in pinning the Jets back at their own 12 yard line with just over a minute to go in regulation. With the clock ticking, the Jets were able to get the ball as far as the Patriots 40 yard line with just 5 seconds left on the clock, setting up a potential game-winning FG attempt of nearly 60 yards [difficult, but not impossible- NANESB!]. However, in a bit of payback from last year's Jets win on a FG, DT Chris Jones managed to Block Folk's 58 yard attempt as time expired, giving New England the 27-25 victory- their second straight win against an AFC East opponent.

The Patriots homestand will continue with an early afternoon game against the Chicago Bears with a 1:00 kickoff at Foxbourough on Sunday afternoon. The game will be broadcast on FOX and XM subscribers can listen on channel 85.

WORLD SERIES- Those of you who had their hearts set on an all-Missouri World Series have Giants infielder Travis Ishikawa to blame for that not taking place this year.

Ishikawa belted a walkoff home run in extra innings of Game 5 of the NLCS which ended the Cardinals season and punched the Giants ticket to their 3rd World Series since 2010.

The Giants faced a game Kansas City, who made pretty quick work of the Orioles in the ALCS. Despite San Francisco dominating Game 1 behind a commanding performance by starter Madison Bumgarner, going on to win by a 7-1 final, the Kansas City Royals came storming back in Game Two. This send to series to San Francisco tied at 1 game each.

After winnign Game 3 by one run, Kansas City headed into Saturday night's Game 4 with a 2 games to one lead and things were looking promising when the ROyals batters were able to chase Giants starter Ryan Vogelsong off the mound after just two and two-thirds innings and take a 4-1 lead over San Francisco. However, the Giants batters would go on to score a total of 10 unanswered runs, tying the game with a Hunter Pence RBI single and Juan Perez RBI sac-fly in the bottom of the 5th followed by a 2-RBI single by Pablo Sandoval and a Brandon Belt RBI single in the bottom of the 6th to San Francisco the 7-4 lead. However, the Giants weren't done and got plenty of insurance runs tacked on in the bottom of the 7th and would go on to win Game four by an 11-4 final and tie the series up at 2-2, ensuring that the series would head back to Kansas City regardless of outcome.

DENVER BRONCOS- On Sunday afternoon, Broncos QB Peyton Manning surpassed Brett Favre to become the NFL leader in career TD passes during the October 19th win against the San Francisco at Mile High. Manning recorded a total of 4 TD passes in that game and three TD passes in Thursday night's 35-21 win over the San Diego Chargers at Denver for a career total of 513.

Manning, who has been in the league since 1998, is only one of seven all-time NFL quarterbacks to surpass the 300 career TD mark- although the other two include both Tom Brady and Drew Brees.

NCAA FOOTBALL- After a close loss to Clemson on Chestnut Hill last week, the Boston College Eagles travelled to the Tarheel State to take on Wake Forest on Saturday. The Eagles took a 17-0 halftime lead into the locker room and were able to add onto it in the 3rd and 4th quarters, jumping out as far as 23-3 in the second half before the Deacons could get any kind of offensive rhythm going.

But with BC seemingly cruising in the 4th quarter, the Deacons managed to string together a drive that netted their first TD of the day with just over 8 minutes too go in the ballgame. Still trailing 23-10, Wake got the ball back deep in BC territory when BC sophomore Myles Willis funbled the kickoff deep in Eagles territory. Starting on BC's 15 yard line, the Wake offense was able to punch it in and make it a 1-possession game, with the Eagles still clinging to a 23-17 lead.

However, BC junior Justin Simmons was able to pick off Deacons QB John Wolford on the next Wake Forest possession, sealing the game for Boston College late in the 4th quarter. Eagles QB Tyler Murphy had 165 yards passing and a TD along with 77 yards rushing on the day. RB Jon Hilliman rushed for 101 yards and 2 TDs on the afternoon.

Next Saturday, Boston College will travel down to Blacksburg, VA to take on Virginia Tech. Kickoff is scheduled for 12:30 ET and the game will be streaming on ESPN3.

ELSEWHERE IN THE ACC- Last week's highly-touted battle of the unbeatens lived up to the billing as #2 Florida State was able to get by #5 Notre Dame last Saturday by a 31-27 final. This leaves Florida State as one of the few remaining undefeated teams in the NCAA top 25 polling.

The Seminoles actually have this week off, but will return to action on Thursday night against 6-2 Louisville. That game gets underway at 7:30 ET and the game will be televised on ESPN.

ELSEWHERE IN NCAA FOOTBALL- And then there was only one undefeated in the Magnolia State.

On Saturday night, the #24 LSU Tigers handed #3 Ole Miss their first loss of the 2014 season in Baton Rouge in what turned out to be a surprisingly low-scoring affair. The Rebels led 7-3 for most of the game until 5:45 to go in the 4th quarter when the bayou Bengals took their first lead of the night on a 4 yard TD pass from QB Anthony Jennings to TE Logan Stokes to put LSU up 10-7.

Although Ole Miss had a couple of late chances to tie the game or go ahead, they were undone by a penalty that put them out of FG range with 14 seconds left in the game. Instead of trying for the game-tying FG, Ole Miss opted for a Hail Mary since the penalty that had pushed them out of FG range. The game would end on LSU intercepting Ole Miss' 30 yard pass attempt with less than 10 seconds left, giving the Ole Miss Rebels their first loss of the season.

NHL- Hockey Night in Canada got underway on Saturday night north of the border with an Original Six matchup that pitted the Boston Bruins against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

This was the first home game for the Maple Leafs since Wednesday's attack on Canada's Parliament, and the pregame ceremony honored Cpl. Cirillo, the Canadian soldier at the War Memorial who was shot dead by the gunman before he made his way to the parliament building.

For the Bruins, this was the first game after their 3-2 loss to the Islanders at home on Thursday night.

Carl Soderberg got the Bruins on the board early just three and a half minutes into the first. Tukka Rask made it hold up, carrying a shutout to the final five minutes of the 3rd period and David Krejci make it a 2-0 Bruins lead late in the 2nd before Greg Campbell and Dougie Hamilton scored less than two and a half minutes apart to give Boston a 4-0 lead.

Toronto broke through with a goal from Richard Panik with just over 5 and a half minutes to go in the 3rd, but the Bruins would go on to win by a final of 4-1.

After Saturday, the Bruins will head back to Boston where they'll face the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night. The game will be televised on NESN and NBC Sports with the puck scheduled to drop at 7:00 ET.

Buffalo Springfield Sports Chowdah Update- Pats Put Damper on Coming Out Party for Bills New Onwership; Detroit Block City- Rask, Bruins Outlast Red Wings; Royal Festivities- Kansas City Parties Like Its 1985

NFL- A week after handing the last undefeated team of the 2014 NFL season their first loss, the Patriots travelled to western New York for Bills first game under new owner Terry Pagula. Pagula- a multimillionaire that made his money on the natural gas boom in the Marcellus Shale also owns the Buffalo Sabres and is a major donor to the Penn State hockey program- was approved by the NFL as the teams' new owner in an October 8th owners meeting. Pagula successfully outbid tycoon Donald Trump, rocker John Bon Jovi and Canadian interests who openly supported relocating the franchise to Toronto. Pegula, who promised to keep the franchise in western New York, purchased the Bills from the estate of the late Ralph Wilson earlier this year.

However, the key name to remember from Sunday's game was Patriots WR Brandon LaFell, an unheralded signing in the offseason earlier this year.

After a scoreless first quarter, the Patriots got the ball back with a shorter field when LB Jamie Collins intercepted a pass attempt from Bills QB Kyle Orton at the New England 39 yard line. Thanks to a Bills penalty, the ball moved to the Buffalo 1 yard line where Brady connected with TE Tim Wright for the first score of the game. After a three and out for each team, the Bills got the ball back on their own 33 yard line with 8:43 to go in the half. Orton kept the drive going for the Bills with a 28 yard pass to Scott Chandler to give Buffalo the ball on the Patriots 19 yard line. The Bills would tie the game up at 7-7 when Orton connected with Robert Woods on 2nd and goal from the Pats 7 yard line and the PAT was good.

Although the Bills got the ball back after holding New England to a 3 and out following the kickoff, DE Chandler Jones managed to break through and sack Orton and strip the ball, giving the Patriots the ball back on Buffalo's own 24 yard line. Although the Bills defense were able to keep the Patriots out of the red zone, the ball was still close enough for a Gostkowski chip shot FG to put New England up 10-7.

The following kickoff was a touchback and Buffalo actually lost yards when DE Rob Ninkovitch sacked Orton, pushing the Bills back to their own 13. While the Patriots had good field position at their own 42, they'd once again go three and out after Brady was sacked. After the Patriots kickoff, the Bills got the ball back on their own 30 yard line with 14 seconds to go in the half. On first and 10 for Buffalo, CJ Spiller rushed for 12 yards before he fumbled, which was recovered by Patriots DE Zach Moore at the Bills 42 with all of 6 seconds left in the half. With the clock ticking, Brady completed a quick 7 yard pass to Julian Edelman to give Gostkowski a slightly shorter field to work with for this FG attempt. As time expired, the 53 yard FG attempt was good and the Patriots headed to the locker room with a 13-7 lead.

New England got the ball back to start off the second half, and after a 3 and a half minute drive that started out on their own 20, the Patriots barely crossed into Buffalo territory when Brady connected with WR Brian Tyms for a 43 yard TD pass to put New England up 20-7. However, Buffalo would counter with a nearly 7-minute drive from their own 20 that was capped with a 1 yard Fred Jackson TD run to cut New England's lead to 20-14.

The Patriots replied with a drive that went all the way to the Buffalo 22, where New England had to settle for another Gostkowski FG to make it a 24-14 game. However, the Patriots began to pull away with their first possession of the 4th quarter thanks to an 18 yard TD pass from Brady to WR Brandon LaFell to make it a 30-14 lead. After a touchback on the following kickoff, Buffalo started from their own 20 and after the drive appeared to sputter on the Bills 40, Orton managed to convert a 4th and 2 thanks to a 35 yard completion to WR Robert Woods. With just under 6 minutes to go, Orton connected with Chris Hogan for an 8 yard TD pass to once again make it a 1-score game, with New England now leading 30-22.

However, the Patriots would strike back quickly and take a 37-22 lead thanks to a 56 yard completion from Brady to LaFell for his second TD of the afternoon with 2:39 left in the game.

That would be all New England would need, putting a damper on the celebrations for the start of the Pegula era in Buffalo. With talk of Brady's career being all but over after the Monday Night fiasco in Kansas City, Brady is now 23-2 against Buffalo in his career.

Turns out this is a short week for New England- they head home to take on the Jets for a Thursday night game. Kickoff is 8:25 PM ET and the game will be televised on the NFL Network and CBS.

NHL- It was a rather forgetful weekend for the Bruins- after winning the season opener, Boston dropped three straight to the Red Wings, Washington and Colorado [Washignton shut out Boston 4-1 while the Avalanche won in the final second of regulation- NANESB!].

On Wednesday night, the Bruins travelled to the Motor City hoping to break their 3-game skid and got off to a pretty good start when David Krejci scored a little over five minutes into the first to give Boston a 1-0 lead. However, Tomas Tatar got the equalizer about three minutes later.

The Bruins re-took the lead in the second when Reilly Smith scored an even-strength goal to make it 2-1. The Bruins would take their 2-1 lead to the 3rd period until Gustav Nyquist scored a power play goal just 2:56 into the 3rd. The power play tally was enough to force OT, and after a scoreless OT, the game would head to a shootout. The Red Wings would miss on both of their shootout chances while Krejci and Reilly Smith would score for Boston to give them the shootout win and snap a 3-game losing streak.

The Original Six action continues on Thursday night when the Bruins travel to Montreal for the first meeting of the 2014 season. Puck drops at 7:30 ET and the game will be broadcast on the NHL network.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NHL- Buffalo Sabres announcer Rick Jeanneret missed the team's home opener this month after being diagnosed with throat cancer in July. The Sabres radio and TV play-by-play man- who has been with Buffalo since their inaugural season in 1971- received the diagnosis in his native Canada after doctors discovered a malignant golf-ball sized growth in his throat. Jeanarette will undergo treatment in the USA and was given an 85% chance of recovery.

ALCS- For the first time in 29 years, the Kansas City Royals are going to the World Series....and they got there by making quick work of the teams with the two best records in the American League.

After getting out to a 3-0 series lead against Baltimore, the Royals got out to a quick 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first at Game 4 in Kauffman Stadium on Wednesday. All of the scoring for Kansas City came in the bottom of the first with a one out and runners on second and third when Eric Hosmer hit a ground ball between first and second for a fielder's choice. O's 2B Jonathan Schoop threw home to C Caleb Joseph as Alciedes Escobar slid on, but the throw went past the catcher and Nori Aoki immediately came home on the error to give Kansas City the quick 2-0 lead.

Although he would give up a solo homer to Baltimore's Ryan Flaherty to cut the Royals lead to 3-1 in the top of the 3rd inning, Kansas City starter Jason Vargas would throw 5⅓ innings and the bullpen would allow no additional runs by Baltimore. Despite allowing a leadoff walk to Adam Jones to start off the 9th, Greg Holland got Nelson Cruz to hit into a fielder's choice, erasing the potential tying run at second, before Delmon Young struck out swinging and JJ Hardy hit a groundout up the 3rd base line to finish off the series.

Kansas City has gone an impressive 8-0 this postseason, and have only trailed in a few innings between the Wild Card game, the Division Series and the ALCS. This performance has already drawn comparisons to the 2007 Rockies, who got off to a similar start as a Wild Card in the postseason [but because of inclement weather and a prolonged ALCS between the Indians and Red Sox never were quite the same once the World Series beagn- NANESB!].

The Royals await the winner of the NLCS between the St Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants- San Francisco is taking a 3-1 series lead into tonight's game five and the Cardinals will have to win three in a row if there's to be a rematch of 1985's "I-70" World Series.

NCAA FOOTBALL- A pretty good weekend, although not as turbulent and dramatic as week 6. As far as nationally ranked teams go, the big story would have to be Baylor's roaring-from-behind-in-the-4th-quarter win over Texas Christian to remain the only undefeated team in the Big Twelve conference. The #4 Baylor Bears came all the way back to beat the #12 TCU Horned Frogs by a 61-58 final on Saturday afternoon.

The Magnolia State continues to produce winning football as Ole Miss and Mississippi State are nearly done with the most difficult part of their respective schedules [Ole Miss hosts Auburn on Nov 1st while Mississippi State travels to Alabama on Nov 15th- assuming the two teams run the table, that sets up a matchup between undefeated Mississippi State and Ole Miss on Nov 29th for Rivalry Week- NANESB!].

As for Week 7, the #3 Mississippi State Bulldogs hosted Auburn and would go on to beat them by a 38-25 final while the #1 Runnin' Rebels ran out of College Station, TX with a 35-20 win over the Texas A&M Aggies.

MEANWHILE IN THE ACC- The Boston College Eagles came out of their off week looking pretty good, travelling to the Tarheel State and beating the NC State Wolfpack by a 30-14 final.

Tyler Murphy had 132 rushing yards and ran for two 2 TDs while passing for another 132 yards. John Hilliman and Sherman Alston also had rushing TDs on the day. The win is also Boston College's first against an ACC opponent this season.

This weekend, the Eagles once again return to host a ranked opponent at Chestnut Hill as they host #24 Clemson. Kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 ET and the game will be televised on ESPNU.

ELSEWHERE IN THE ACC- The game of the week- at least one involving an ACC team- will be a matchup between two undefeateds when #2 Florida State will host #5 Notre Dame at Tallahassee on Saturday. Both teams are sporting 6-0 records coming into Saturday's prime time matchup. Kickoff is scheduled for 8 PM ET and the game will be televised on ESPN.

Magnolia State Madness Sports Grits Chowdah Update- Mississippi Blues for Aggies, Crimson Tide; Royal Flush- Kansas City Sweeps Angels to Advance to 1st ALCS Since 1985; Patriots Bounce Back Against Cincinnati.

NCAA FOOTBALL- Every once in awhile, I'll encounter a subset of football fans who are outright dismissive of college football, sneering that REAL football is played on Sundays- as though their favorite NFL player was cultivated in some magic football orchard hidden off from the rest of the world until their product was ready. On Saturday, I genuinely felt bad for those people.

Where to start? Obviously the biggest story of Saturday afternoon was the Ole Miss vs #1 Alabama game in Oxford, MS. For the first time since 2003, when Eli Manning was the Rebels QB, Ole Miss bested the Alabama Crimson Tide thanks to a 4th quarter rally. This also marks the first time since 1962 that the Rebels have gotten out to a 5-0 start.

Midway through the 4th quarter, Mississippi trailed 17-10 before pulling even on a 34 yard TD pass from Bo Wallace to WR Vance Sanders with 5 and a half minutes remaining in regulation. With the ensuing kickoff, Alabama's Christion Jones fumbled and Mississippi recovered on the Alabama 31 yard line. It didn't take long for the Rebels to capitalize, with Wallace connecting with RB Jaylen Walton for a TD catch and run to put Ole Miss up 23-17 with just under 3:00 remaining in the 4th. The Rebels attempted to go for two, but were unsuccessful, giving Alabama one last chance to pull ahead for good in the final minutes.

With just 37 seconds to go, the Tide had one last shot at the end zone, but Rebels outfielder-turned-DB Senquez Golson managed to get his hands on a Blake Sims pass attempt in the end zone and after a lengthy review was able to corral it for a galme-clinching INT.

Wallace ended up throwing for 251 total yards and 3 TDs, including two in the fourth quarter. The victory propels Ole Miss to 3 in college football polling as well.

This Saturday, the Running Rebels will travel to College Station, TX to take on #14 Texas A&M.

ELSEWHERE IN THE SEC- Saturday's stunner in Oxford was by no means the only upset in the SEC, let alone NCAA Football. The only-slightly-less-favored Aggies fell to Mississippi State in Starkville by a 48-31 final in what ended up being a track meet. Like in-state rival Ole Miss, the Mississippi State Bulldogs are out to a 5-0 start and will host #2 Auburn this weekend.

ELSEWHERE IN NCAA FOOTBALL- The upsets actually began as early as Thursday night, with the Arizona Wildcats holding on against the #2 Oregon Ducks by a 31-24 final. On Firday night, the Utah State Aggies handed #18 BYU their first loss of the season, going on to win 35-20.

On Saturday, Texas Christian handed the Oklahoma Sooners their first loss in a wild one at Amon G Carter Stadium in Fort Worth that included Horned Frogs LB Paul Dawson picking off Sooners QB Trevor Knight's pass and running it back 41 yards for a TD early in the 4th quarter. On the point after attempt, it was successfully blocked before being run back for 2 points by Sooners DT Jordan Phillips to cut TCU's lead to 37-33. However, that would be the last of the scoring and #25 TCU remains undefeated and advances to #9 in the college football standings while #4 Oklahoma was handed their first loss and dropped down to #11 in the rankings.

But there was more......especially out on the West Coast. Utah ended up beating #8 UCLA by a final of 30-28 while Arizona State trailed #16 USC late in the fourth. The Sun Devils had the ball on the Trojans 46 and trailed 34-32 with just 7 seconds left in the game when this happened.



The Trojans would go on to lose by a 38-34 final, their second loss since playing Boston College at Chestnut Hill and their first loss of the season within the Pac 12 conference.

MEANWHILE IN THE ACC- The Boston College Eagles had the weekend off after their September 27th 24-21 loss to Colorado state, but will resume this weekend in Raleigh, NC as they take on the North Carolina State Wolfpack on Saturday. Kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 ET and the game will be broadcast on ESPN3 streaming.

NFL- And then there were none.

The last of the undefeated teams in the NFL this season turned out to be the Cincinnati Bengals, and that only lasted until Sunday night against New England at Gillette Stadium.

Heading into Sunday night's game there were a number of storylines- could the Pats and Brady bounce back after last week's fiasco at Arrowhead, not to mention the final remaining undefeated team in the NFL [Arizona also got out to a 3-0 start, had a bye and then lost to the Broncos earlier in the day- NANESB!]. But what really had people talking during and after the game was the Patriot's tribute to the cancer-stricken daughter of defensive lineman Devon Still in the 3rd quarter.

During a timeout in the third quarter on Sunday night, the Patriots let Still know that they were with him and his daughter during their battle. Patriots cheerleaders donned Still’s Bengals jersey as the music video played on the big screens, and Patriots owner Robert Kraft donated $25,000 to the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Medical Center in Leah’s name.

Still was shown on the big screen following the music video, and got a little emotional when he received an ovation from the Gillette Stadium crowd. You could see tears stream down his face,

Reaction across Social Media was quick, with accolades for the Patriots as well as pledges of support from other NFL players and owners for Devon and Leah Still. Still was sporting a nose strip that had the hashtag #LeahStrong on the Sunday night game.

Meanwhile, on the field Brady seemed to have quieted his critics with a TD pass in the first half as well as a 1 yard Stevan Ridley TD run and 3 Gostkowski field goals to make it a 20-3 game at the half.

Cincinnati scored on their second possession of the second half with a 37 yard TD pass from QB Andy Dalton to WR Mohamed Sanu to make it a 20-10 lead for New England, but on the following possession, Brady capped an 86 yard drive with a 16 yard TD Pass to TE Rob Gronkowski to put New England up 27-10. Things only got worse for the Bengals when they fumbled the ensuing kickoff and it was recovered by Kyle Arrington on special teams and run back for the second Patriots TD in just 6 seconds of playing time.

Unlike Kansas City, the Patriots would go on to cruise to a 43-17 win, with all the scoring in the 4th quarter coming off the leg of Gostkowski. Tom Brady would go 23-35 with 292 yards and 2 TDs while Cincinnati's Andy Dalton would go 15-24 with 204 yards and 2 TDs. Stevan Ridley would lead New England's ground attack after rushing for a total of 113 yards and a TD.

This sets up only the second intra-conference matchup for New England this weekend when the Patriots travel to Orchard Park, NY to take on the Buffalo Bills, who are sporting a similar 3-2 record [but do have at least one win against an AFC East opponent this year- NANESB!]. Kickoff is at 1:00 ET and the game will be televised on CBS.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NFL- Week 6 gets underway with a Thursday night AFC South matchup between the Houston Texans and Indianapolis Colts. Kickoff is 8:25 PM and the game will be televised on the NFL Network.

MLB PLAYOFFS For the first time since 1985, the Kansas City Royals are advancing to the American League Championship Series. This comes after the team completed a sweep of the Anaheim Angels at Kauffman Stadium on Sunday night- a sweep of the team that could boast the best regular season in MLB, no less.

The only time the favored Angels led was in the first inning when outfielder Mike Trout belted a 412 foot solo homer to deep left center off of starter James Shields- I'm not talking just game 3, but the only time in the entire American League division series. In the bottom of the 3rd, a shaky CJ Wilson ended up loading the bases with singles to Nori Aoki and Lorenzo Cain and waling Billy Butler after striking out Eric Hosmer. That brought up the home-grown Alex Gordon, who belted a 2-2 offering off of the wall in left center field to clear the bases with a 3-RBI double and give the Royals the lead back as they led it 3-1.

Halos manager Mike Socia went to the bullpen early, but that wouldn't slow down the Royals as they got two more runs in the bottom of the 3rd thanks to a 2-run Eric Hosmer homer to make it a 5-1 game. The Angels would close the gap a little thanks to a 391 foot solo homer from Albert Pujols, but the Royals would start of pull away in the 4th thanks to a Mike Moustakas solo homer and Lorenzo Cain RBI sac fly to give KC a 7-2 lead.

The Royals would go on to cruise to an 8-3 win over the Angels, sweeping the team with the best record in the Majors. This sets up a meeting with the Baltimore Orioles, who put the finishing touches on a sweep of their own, bouncing the AL Central winning Detroit Tigers from the first round of the postseason.

NLDS- Meanwhile in the National League Division series, it will be a rematch of the 2012 NLCS after the St Louis Cardinals bested the LA Dodgers 3 games to 1 in the first round while the San Francisco Giants also got by the Washington Nationals by a similar margin, including an 18 inning marathon in the nation's capital last weekend.

That series gets underway on Saturday night and will be televised on FOX and FOX Sports One.

NHL- It's here! It's here!

The NHL regular season got underway on Wednesday night with the Bruins taking on the Flyers at the TD Garden.



Reilly Smith got the scoring started in the first with a power play tally midway through the first. Through 2 periods, Rask turned aside 13 shots from Philadelphia while Steve Mason turned aside 19 of 20 shots from the Bruins, keeping the Flyers very much in the game.

Just four minutes into the 3rd, the Flyer managed to tie the contest up at 1-1 thanks to a Sean Coutourier goal. However, Chris Kelly would notch the go-ahead goal for the B's with just a minute fifty to go. The Bruins hang on to win by a 2-1 final in their home opener and will immediately travel to Detroit to take on the Red Wings for Thursday night's game.

Puck is scheduled to drop at 7:30 ET at Joe Louis Arena and the game will be televised on NESN.

Kansas City Smoked Sports Chowdah Update- Red Sox Season, Jeter's Career Wraps Up At Fenway; Rollin' Royals Eliminate Oakland, Take Game 1 of ALDS; Fail to the Chiefs- Patriots Thrashed at Arrowhead Stadium on Monday Night

RED SOX- The Major League Baseball regular season came to an end on Sunday and with it, the disappointing 2014 seasons for both the New York Yankees and defending World Series champion Boston Red Sox. Fans of the Red Sox were hoping for a more spirited defense of their 2013 title while Yankees fans wanted a postseason appearance for captain Derek Jeter's final season.

Although the Yankees had been mathematically eliminated by that point, Jeter's final home game at Yankee Stadium ended in memorable fashion as the Bronx Bomber's shortstop hit a walkoff RBI single in the bottom of the 9th, breaking a 5-5 tie against the AL East Champion Baltimore Orioles on September 25th.

The Yankee captain's final game on Sunday drew a national TV audience as the game was televised on TBS. The Yankees got out to an early lead in the 3rd inning, thanks to a one out, two RBI single from Ichiro Suzuki. Jeter made it a 3-0 game when he hit a high chopper up the 3rd base line that he beat out for an infield single as Suzuki made his way home. As it turned out, that would be it for Jeter. Manager Joe Girardi immediately decided to pull Jeter for pinch runner Brian McCann.

The Yankees would go on to win by a 9-5 final and would take two out of three from the Red Sox in the weekend series. The Red Sox, finishing a mere 25 games out of first place in the AL East, wrapped up the season with a 71-91 record and were increasingly unrecognizable from the 2013 squad that won the World Series. For instance, the only starting pitcher remaining from the 2013 team was Clay Buchholz after Peavy, Lackey, Lester and Doubront were traded earlier in the season.



WASHINGTON NATIONALS- The Nationals have done nothing less than quietly dominate the National League East this season. Although they were among the first to secure a playoff berth, they ended the regular season in dramatic fashion when Nats starter Jordan Zimmerman threw the Nats first no-hitter.

Heading into the top of the 9th inning, Washington had a 1-0 lead over the Miami Marlins with two away when outfielder Christian Yelich belted what looked like a sure double to not only break up the Zimmerman's no-hit bid, but put the tying run in scoring position for Miami. However, late inning defensive replacement and rookie outfielder Steven Souza, Jr made a spectacular diving catch to rob the Marlins of a base hit, ending the ballgame and sealing Zimmerman's no hitter.

The well-rested Nats will play the San Francisco Giants in the NLDS beginning Friday, October 1st. First pitch is scheduled for 3:07 ET at Nationals Park and the game will be televised on Fox Sports 1.

KANSAS CITY ROYALS- After narrowly missing out on the AL Central pennant, the Kansas City Royals managed to secure their first postseason berth in nearly 30 years, prompting a 1-game playoff with the Oakland A's at Kauffman Stadium on Tuesday Night.

With Jon Lester on the mound for Oakland, KC took a 3-2 lead with an RBI double from Lorenzo Cain and an RBI single from Eric Hosmer in the bottom of the 3rd. However, the Royals bullpen would implode in the top of the 6th, allowing a 3-run homer off the bat of Brandon Moss before an out was even recorded. The A's would get two more runs to make it a 7-3 ballgame and quiet down the crowd at Kauffman Stadium. However, the Royals would immediately start to chip away with RBI singles from Cain and Billy Butler in the bottom of the 8th along with Hosmer coming home on a wild pitch to make it a one run game. In the bottom of the 9th, pinch hitter Josh Willingham led off the inning with a single before being pulled for pinch-runner Jarrod Dyson. Dyson moved into scoring position on a sac bunt by Alcides Escobar before stealing 3rd. Dyson would then come home on a Nori Aoki sac-fly to tie the game up at 7-7 and force extra innings.

The 7-7 deadlock wouldn't be broken until the top of the 12th when Alberto Callaspo hit an RBI single for the Athletics, giving them an 8-7 lead over KC. However, Hosmer would get a 1-out triple on ball that barely stayed in the park and Christian Colon would get an RBI infield single in the bottom of the 12th, bringing Hosmer home to tie the game up once more- this time at 8-8. Alex Gordon fouled out to third for the second out, bringing up Salvador Perez, who had gone 0-5 on the night. However, Perez managed to hit a ball fair past a diving Josh Donaldson and into left field to bring home the winning run.

The win set up an ALDS matchup with another AL West team- this time the Angels- on Thursday night. Despite having the best record in all of baseball this season, the Angels never led in what would be an extra innings affair much like Tuesday night's affair. Royals 3rd baseman Mike Moustakas would turn out to be key in this one, hitting a tie-breaking solo homer to lead off the top of the 11th to make it 3-2 Kansas City. Greg Holland would come out of the Royals bullpen and get a clean 1-2-3 inning to close out game one for the Royals.

ELSEWHERE IN THE AMERICAN LEAGUE- The Baltimore Orioles took Game 1 of their series against the Detroit Tigers after the Tigers bullpen imploded and allowed 8 unanswered runs in the bottom of the 8th in what had previously been a close game. In fact, between the bottom of the 2nd and 7th innings, it was a pitcher's duel between Max Scherzer and O's starter Chris Tillman.

The Orioles go on to win game one of their series by a 12-3 final and the series will resume almost immediately on Friday at noon.

MEANWHILE, IN THE NATIONAL LEAGUE- It's actually been pretty quiet in the National League this week, with only one game since the end of the regular season on Sunday- that was the single game Wild Card playoff between the San Francisco Giants and the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park on Thursday night.

San Francisco's Brandon Crawford would hit a grand slam off of Pirates starter Edinson Volquez in the top of the 4th inning to give the Giants an early 4-0 lead. That would be all the Giants needed to get past Pittsburgh as Madison Bumgarner threw a complete-game 4-hit shutout on Thursday as San Francisco cruised to an 8-0 win. The victory earns the Giants a matchup against the Nationals inside the beltway for game one of the NLDS on Friday night.

The other NLDS matchup on Friday features the Dodgers hosting the St Louis Cardinals at Chavez Ravine on Friday night.

PATRIOTS- New England's first Monday night game of the 2014 season didn't go particularly well. Coming off a win in which the Pats seemed to just barely hold off the woeful Raiders at Foxborough, the Patriots seemed unprepared and overwhelmed by their Monday night game at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

The Kansas City Chiefs offense and QB Alex Smith seemed to move the ball at will, and while the Chiefs 17-0 lead at halftime didn't seem insurmountable, things got worse for the Patriots in the second half as Kansas City jumped out to a 27-0 lead before the Patriots finally got on the board. Believe it or not, things actually got worse for the Patriots in the 4th with the Chiefs scoring 14 quick points thanks to an Alex Smith TD and a Hussain Abdullah pick six of Tom Brady.

The only bright spot was when backup QB Jimmy Garoppolo got some playing time and managed to put New England in double-digits on a 3 minute, 81 yard drive that was capped by a 13 yard TD pass to Rob Gronkowski. The Patriots would go on to lose by a 14-41 final.

Sports Chowdah Update- Twice as Freaky, Giant's Lincecum No-Hits Padres For Second Time Since 2013; Sweepless in Seattle, Red Sox avoid M's Sweep; V is For Vandetta Vanderbilt

MLB- For the second time in less than a year, San Francisco Giants starter Tim Lincecum has thrown a no-hitter against the San Diego Padres. The lanky San Francisco starter known as 'The Freak' when he first came up through the Giants organization in 2007 threw a total of 113 pitches and allowed just one baserunner in nine innings of Wednesday's 4-0 win over the Padres. Wednesday afternoon's outing was much more efficient than his career high 148 during the July 13, 2013 no-hitter against the Padres at San Diego's PetCo Park. During his outing, Lincecum struck out 6 batters and allowed just one walk.

Lincecum's no-no was the Giant's fourth no-hitter since 2009- three of them against the Padres. Last season, Lincecum's no-hitter at PetCo Park came less than two weeks after Cincinnati's Homer Bailey threw a no-hitter against the Giants at the Queen City's Great American Ballpark. Interestingly, the Reds- the last team to no-hit San Francisco- are in the city by the Bay this weekend to face the Giants.

With Wednesday's no-hitter, Lincecum became the first Giants pitcher to throw two no-hitters since Christy Matthewson no-hit the Chicago Cubs in 1905. Lincecum also is the first MLB pitcher to no-hit the same team twice since Cleveland's Addie Joss no-hit the Chicago White Sox in 1908 and again in 1910.

RED SOX- Wednesday night also marked the return of Clay Buchholz from his rehab stint in AAA Pawtucket as the Red Sox were looking to avoid the sweep in Seattle.

The Red Sox got off to a promising start early as David Ortiz belted a 2-run homer off of Hisashi Iwakuma in the first inning, but the Mariners would take the lead in the bottom of the 2nd when Kyle Seager belted a solo homer off of Buchholz, followed by a 2-run homer off of Mike Zunino to give Seattle a 3-2 lead.

In the top of the 3rd, Jackie Bradley Jr led off with a double to right center followed by a Brock Holt single that put JBJ on 3rd with nobody out. Bradley then came home on a Nava RBI single to tie the contest while Holt moved to second. Dustin Pedroia then flew out to right field with no advance by the runner before Big Papi beat the shift and hit a single to right, bringing Holt all the way home and once again giving Boston the lead before Iwakuma struck out Gomes and Pierzynski to end the inning.

The Red Sox managed to chase Iwakuma from the mound in the top of the 5th after the Mariners starter gave up back to back singles to Holt and Nava before walking Pedroia to load the bases with nobody out. Tom Wilhelmsen came out of the Seattle bullpen and got Big Papi to hit into a double play, but not before another run crossed the plate for Boston to make it a 5-3 Red Sox lead.

As it turned out, that extra run would come on handy as Brad Miller belted a solo homer to lead off the bottom of the 8th for Seattle and make it a 1-run game. Buchholz would then get Stefen Romero to fly out before Andrew Miller came in from the Red Sox bullpen and got Mariners pinch hitters Willie Bloomquist and Cole Gillespie to strike out.

For the bottom of the 9th, Koji Uehara came out of the Sox bullpen and quickly got Robinson Cano out before allowing a single off the bat of Kyle Seager and then walking Logan Morrison to give the Mariners the potential game-tying run in scoring position with only one away. However, Koji would get Mike Zunino to strike out and then get Dustin Ackley to ground out to first to end the Seattle threat and close out Boston's 4-5 win over the Mariners.

Wednesday night's game closes out a rather lackluster West Coast road trip in which the Red Sox lost three out of four to the Oakland A's in Alameda County and dropped two out of three to Seattle at Safeco Field.

The Red Sox road trip continues on Friday night, albeit much closer to home, when they take on the New York Yankees in the Bronx. Brandon Workman [1-0; 2.88 ERA] is scheduled to get the start against New York's Vidal Nuño [1-4; 5.88 ERA]. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 ET and the game will be televised on NESN and the MLB network.

COLLEGE WORLD SERIES- For the first time in Vanderbilt's 120+ year history, the Commodores can celebrate winning a men's national title in any sport after besting Virginia in the College World Series in Omaha on Wednesday night.

On Monday, the Commodores were seemingly poised to squander a considerable lead and held off the Cavaliers to win Game 1 by a 9-8 final. Virginia evened up the series on Tuesday night with a 7-2 win over Vanderbilt, forcing the deciding Game 3 on Wednesday.

The Commodores got out to a quick 1-0 lead after Virginia catcher Robbie Coman threw a ball into center-field with runners at first and second who were attempting the double steal. Dansby Swanson came home from 3rd while Bryan Reynolds went from 2nd to 3rd on the errant throw.

Virginia managed to tie the game at 2-2 in the 6th inning on a bases loaded grounder to Vandy SS Vince Conde that clanged off his glove and allowed the runners to advance safely. However, Vanderbilt took the lead for good when John Norwood belted a solo homer in the top of the 8th inning just past the 335 sign at Omaha's TD Ameritrade Field. Vanderbilt's Adam Ravenelle came out of the bullpen to close out the game and Vandy's first NCAA baseball title.

FIFA WORLD CUP- Despite losing Thursday afternoon's contest to Germany by a 1-0 final in rainy Recife, Team USA advances out of Group G and will face Belgium on Tuesday July 1. In Pool play, the USA has amassed a 1-1-1 record with a 2-2 draw against Portugal over the weekend. Although Portugal has a similar 1-1-1 record, the USA edged Portugal out by virtue of the goals allowed differential. Portugal's first win of the 2014 FIFA World Cup came on Thursday afternoon in their 2-1 victory over Ghana in the Brazilian capital city of Brasilia- besides the draw against Team USA, the Portuguese were shut out by Germany 4-0 in the first game of the 2014 FIFA tournament.

OTHER WORLD CUP NEWS- Uruguay striker Luis Suarez has been banned from the 2014 World Cup after FIFA determined he intentionally bit Italy's Giorgio Chiellini during Uruguay's' 1-0 win over Italy on Tuesday. Suarez left for Uruguay on Thursday after FIFA came down with the ruling.

According to the BBC, this isn't the first incident involving biting that Suarez was involved in. In April 2013, while playing for Liverpool, Suarez was given a 10 game ban for biting Chelsea's Brianaslav Ivanovich's arm during an English premier league match. As captain for Dutch soccer club Ajax in 2010, Suarez received a 7 game suspension for biting the shoulder of PSV Eindhoven's Otman Bakkal.

Blue State Graft Watch- California State Senator Who Authored Gun Control Laws Arrested on Charges of Weapons Trafficking, Ties to Organized Crime

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California Dreamin' Sports Chowdah Update- Red Sox West Coast Road Trip off to Giant Start; Detroit Motors Over New England in Preseason Matchup

RED SOX- Gotta say- actually going to some of the games makes it difficult to find some time to blog them after the fact.

After an explosive weekend versus the Yankees, the Red Sox kicked off their week-long California road trip on Monday night in San Francisco against the defending World Series champion Giants. John Lester threw 8⅓ innings of shutout baseball in Monday night's 7-0 win. However, the Red Sox allowed a golden opportunity to fall by the wayside and a bases-loaded walk off walk to Giants SS Marco Scutaro in the bottom of the 9th cost Boston the game.

Tuesday afternoon was the rubber game of the series- Felix Doubront was scheduled to go up against Chad Gaudin, but Gaudin was placed on the night before and Barry Zito got the start in his place. The Red Sox basically took batting practice off of Zito, with the Red Sox jumping out to a 6-1 lead before the Giants starter got the hook after 3⅔ innings. Meanwhile, Doubront allowed 5 hits- including a Joaquin Arias solo homer- in 8 complete innings of work as the Red Sox offense exploded for 6 more runs against the Giants bullpen- including a 3 run homer from Stephen Drew in the 7th and Koji Uehara had a 1-2-3 inning to close out the 12-1 Boston win.

The Red Sox take two out of three from the defending World Series champion San Francisco Giants. Will Middlebrooks went 1-3 with a homer and two RBI while Stephen Drew went 1-3 with a homer and 3 RBI in Wednesday afternoon's rubber game.

David Ortiz left the 5th inning of Wednesday's game due to tightness in his lower back while shortstop phenom Xander Bogaerts went 0-3 in his MLB debut during Tuesday night's game after getting called up from Pawtucket.

The Red Sox California road trip will continue Friday night when they travel to LA to take on the scalding-hot Los Angeles Dodgers. LA has gone 18-3 in the month of August. John Lackey [8-10; 3.22 ERA] is scheduled to get the start against Ricky Nolasco [9-9; 3.60 ERA] with first pitche scheduled for 10:10 ET from Dodger Stadium. The game will be televised on NESN.

OTHER RED SOX NEWS- Red Sox starter Ryan Dempster received a 5-game suspension and was fined an undisclosed amount after intentionally hitting Yankees 3B Alex Rodriguez with a pitch in Sunday night's nationally televised game. Surprisingly, Dempster wasn't ejected from the game, which prompted irate Yankees manager Joe Girardi to come out of the dugout and argue with one of the umpires before getting thrown out of the Sunday night game.

With two off days within a week, Dempster will miss- at most- one start as a result of the suspension.

LOS ANGELES DODGERS- The Dodgers have activated former San Francisco Giants pitcher and Londonderry, NH native Brian Wilson from the DL earlier this week. Wilson was signed to a one year contract by LA back in July after undergoing a second Tommy John surgery.

OTHER DODGERS NEWS- Hall of Fame announcer Vin Scully announced that he will return to the Dodgers' broadcast booth for a 65th season in 2014. There was speculation that Scully might retire at the end of the 2012 season, but the veteran announcer who cut his teeth with the Dodgers in Brooklyn announced his plans to return for the 2013 season on a limited basis, citing his enthusiasm for the new ownership group spearheaded by LA Lakers Hall-of-Famer Magic Johnson.

In recent years, Scully limited himself to calling home games at Dodgers Stadium as well as road games against the San Francisco Giants, San Diego Padres, Los Angeles Angels or Arizona Diamondbacks- this is expected to be the case for 2014 as well.

MLB- Major League Baseball announced a proposal that would dramatically expand the use of instant replay in baseball, including a 'challenge' system similar to the NFL where managers could contest the umpire's ruling on a certain play. Currently, the league uses instant replay to determine whether a home-run ball is fair, foul or is still in play.

The expanded replay and challenge system would include:

• A review will be initiated when a manager informs the umpire that he wants to challenge a play. He will be allowed one challenge in the first six innings and two more from the seventh through the end of the game.

• If the manager wins his appeal, he retains the challenge. The challenge from the first six innings does not carry over.

• Not all plays are reviewable.

• If a manager disagrees with a reviewable call, his only recourse would be to use a challenge. Managers would not be able to argue a reviewable call in a bid to get it overturned without the use of replay. A manager could still argue in situations not open to review, such as when defending a player or questioning an improper substitution.

MLB owners are expected to vote on the revised rules at the upcoming meetings in November.

PATRIOTS- Well, about the only positive from last night's preseason game against Detroit was that it was a preseason game and, thus, didn't count in the standings.

The Lions forced no less than four turnovers in the first half in their 40-9 rout of New England and Tim Tebow spent then entire game on the bench, speculating that the Heisman winning QBs days in New England and the NFL are coming to an end. In fact, up until a Ryan Mallet TD with 32 seconds remaining in the game, the only ponts for New England came off the foot of Stephen Gostkowski in the second quarter.

The final preseason game is set to take place next Thursday at Foxboro against the New York Giants.

Iron Horse Roundup For July/August 2013

AFP Photo

MONTREAL, MAINE & ATLANTIC- In the wake of last month's deadly runaway train wreck that devastated the southern Quebec town of Lac Megantic, Hermon, ME-based Montreal, Maine & Atlantic filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in federal bankruptcy court in Bangor, ME.

The MM&A has also petitioned Canadian civil courts for relief under that country's Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act. The company appears to have set aside nearly $786,000 as “indemnification and/or contribution in connection with wrongful death litigation and other claims,” according to a listing of the company’s 20 largest creditors.

MMA still owes $27.5 million of a $35 million loan it received from the Federal Rail Administration in 2005, according to Gardner’s affidavit. The railroad also has a $6 million line of credit with the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway Co. issued in June 2009. That company has sought to protect its security interest, the affidavit said.

Other creditors include JD Irving subsidiary New Brunswick Southern, a subsidiary of San Antonio, TX-based Valero energy [NYSE- VLO], Minneapolis, MN-based Flex Leasing LLC and the Canadian Pacific railroad [NYSE- CP; TSX- CP].

Although a federal bankruptcy judge ruled that the MM&A could continue to operate under Chapter 11 reorganization, the line through Lac Megantic is still closed, effectively severing the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic in two. At the end of July, Maine state officials had entered into talks with four other unnamed railways to continue service in anticipation of the MM&A shutting down.

The MM&A laid off 79 workers in the wake of the Lac Megantic disaster. Meanwhile, Canadian officials have raised the death toll in Lac Megantic to 47 during the July 6th derailment.

Xoan Soler- La Voz de Galicia

SPAIN- The driver of a train that derailed and killed 78 passengers in northwestern Spain has been provisionally charged with multiple counts of negligent homicide, although he wasn't required to post bond or sent to jail because he wasn't considered a flight risk.

Garzon was questioned for almost two hours at the court in Santiago de Compostela, the northwestern town near where the accident occurred.

Garzon was driving the train carrying 218 passenger in eight cars that hurtled far over the 80-kph (50-mph) speed limit into a high-risk curve on Wednesday evening, tumbling off the tracks and slamming into a concrete wall, with some of the cars catching fire.

The Spanish rail agency has said the brakes should have been applied four kilometers (2.5 miles) before the train hit the curve

However, a local resident who rushed to the scene of the accident said in an interview broadcast Sunday that minutes after the crash Garzon had told him he had been going fast and couldn’t brake.

The resident, Evaristo Iglesias, said he and another person accompanied the blood-soaked Garzon to flat ground where other injured people were being laid out, waiting for emergency services to arrive.

“He told us that he wanted to die,” Iglesias told Antena 3 television. “He said he had needed to brake but couldn’t,” Iglesias said. He added that Garzon said “he had been going fast.”

In its report about the accident, Antena 3 television showed a photograph of Iglesias in a pink shirt and cap helping to carry the driver after the train accident. The station also aired television footage of Iglesias working beside the wrecked train to help other survivors.

Garzon was reportedly on the phone with an agent at the next station to determine which track his train was to come in on. While in the USA, train crews are now prohibited from talking on the phone while operating the train, Spain's state-run RENFE uses what's referred to as 'tren-tierra' or train to land lines to communicate between stations and crew. Shortly before the accident, the train passed from an area where computers control most of the train's functions to one where the driver has to brake and accelerate accordingly. It's believed that Garzon may have missed this transition point while he was on the phone.

ARGENTINA- Transportation officials in Argentina's capital of Buenos Aires have released in-cab CCTV footage of engineers reading, napping or playing on their phones while the train is in motion.

In one clip, the driver is seen stepping up to the camera in his train cabin, attempting to obscure the lens so his activities cannot be seen. Other drivers are more overtly distracted, with some taking a nap, reading a book or playing on their mobile phone.

Argentina's Interior and Transport Minister Florencio Randazzo has since vowed to lead a crackdown on dangerous train drivers.

He plans to ban phone calls and unauthorised people in the cab

Mr Randazzo has introduced daily medical checks on all drivers to gauge their fitness to drive and to reduce the risk of them falling asleep at the controls.

Under the new system, all those caught distracted on camera will either be disciplined or fired.

The release of the footage comes more than a year after a commuter train plowed into a terminal in Buenos Aires, killing 49 and injuring hundreds.

FRANCE- Investigators in France believe a faulty switch system was to blame in a deadly derailment that killed six passengers at a station south of Paris last month.

After leaving the tracks, the train crashed into the station at Bretigny-sur-Orge.

A passenger speaking on France's BFM television said the train was going at a normal speed and was not meant to stop at Bretigny-sur-Orge.

He described children unattended in the chaotic aftermath, and swarms of emergency workers at the scene.

Two train cars, numbers 3 and 4, initially derailed, then knocked the other cars off the track, SNCF chief Guillaume Pepy said.

"Some cars simply derailed, others are leaning, others fell over," he said

A spokesman for the French state-run railway- SNCF- said the train was carrying an estimated 350 passengers when it derailed at 5:15 PM local time at Gare Bretigny sur Orge. The official death toll from the accident was 7 with more than 20 injured.


CALIFORNIA- Governor Jerry Brown has ordered a 60-day 'cooling down' period between San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit and workers threatening to strike over an expired contract with the transit agency.

Last month, a 4-day strike had left Bay Area commuters scrambling for alternate transportation. It was the first strike for BART since 1997.

Prior to Brown's announcement, both the Service Employees International Union and Amalgamated Transit Union were hoping the looming deadline of Sunday, Aug 11th would be sufficient to pressure BART management to agree to a renewed contract on the union's terms. Prior to Brown's intervention, the unions had threatened to resume their strike after this weekend.

The two month delay would take away some leverage from unions representing BART employees as it would allow the agency time to recruit replacement workers from out of retirement. An odd clause in the contract originally signed in 1979 would have prevented BART from hiring replacement drivers until the workers actually went on strike, and even then the replacement workers would only after completing a 15 week training course.

Reuters/Denis Balibouse

SWITZERLAND- Transportation officials in Switzerland are investigating the cause of a head-on collision between two passenger trains in the western part of the country. The crash killed the driver of one of the trains and injured at least 35 passengers.

The two Swiss Federal Railways regional passenger trains collided with one another head-on at Granges-Marnand in the Vaud Canton outside of Lucerne on July 29th. Although some press outlets have speculated that one of the trains left the Granges-Marnand station too early and collided with an incoming train, officials have yet to determine the exact cause of the crash and are moving both wrecked train sets to another location to closer examine the wreckage.

SOO Line SD60 #6053 leads an SD60M over county highway G38 outside of Washington, IA with a northbound Kansas City-St Paul manifest freight train on June 2012. Eric Rasmussen photo.

CANADIAN PACIFIC- In a surprise move, the Canadian Pacific Railroad announced that they are seeking bids for more than 40 former Soo Line SD60s and SD60Ms. The solicitation comes as the CPR is more than halfway through an extensive rebuild of their SD60 fleet. Some of the units are being stored at CP's St Luc yard in Montreal. All of the overhauled units have been rebuilt to Tier 0+ EPA compliance and feature AESS Locomotive Automatic Engine Start/Stop and Positive Traction Control in compliance with an upcoming PTC mandate expected to take effect starting in 2015- several more are supposed to undergo rebuilding at Montreal's CADRAIL facility.

The Soo Line ordered the SD60s from EMD in 1987 and with CP Rail's takeover, the burly 3800 HP six axle EMDs could be found anywhere from the Canadian Rockies to upstate New York although they were (and still are) outnumbered by CP Rail's far more prolific fleet of SD40-2s.

Canadian Pacific has also started putting up their fleet of former Milwaukee Road GP40s for sale- Respondek Rail Corp and United States Sugar Corp have already purchased a pair.

With the arrival of rebuilt GP20C-ECO and SD32C-ECO from Caterpillar [NYSE- CAT] subsidiary Progress Rail, Canadian Pacific returned their only two Gensets to National Railway Equipment in Illinois in July. The two Gensets- #2100 and #2101- were largely paid for by a province of Ontario 'green energy' intiative.

Quicke All Star Break Sports Chowdah Update- Red Sox Come Up Short After Workman-Like Effort in Oakland; Lincecum No-Hits Padres

Ben Margot photo

RED SOX- The Red Sox wrapped up the first half of the season with a Sunday afternoon game against Oakland out on the west coast. It also marked the MLB debut of Brandon Workman as starting pitcher. Workman had a 5-1 record and 3.43 in 11 games for the AA Portland Sea Dogs and a 3-1 record with a 2.80 ERA in 6 games for AAA Pawtucket and made his first appearance of the season for Boston on Tuesday in relief of Felix Doubront against Seattle.

Although the Mariners managed to rough up Workman- including giving up two doubles, a homer and 3 RBI in two innings of work- it was a different story in Oakland. Workman managed to confound the Oakland bats, not allowing a hit through the first six innings. The Red Sox took a 2-0 lead thanks to RBI singles from Dustin Pedroia and Brock Holt and managed to chase Bartolo Colon from the mound after 6⅔ innings. The A's managed to break up Workman's no-hit bid in the bottom of the 7th with a leadoff infield single from former Red Sox outfielder Coco Crisp. A's outfielder Josh Donaldson then homered to the deepest part of the stadium to tie it up at 2-2. The game remained deadlocked at 2-2 until the bottom of the 11th when recently-acquired Red Sox reliever Matt Thornton gave up a walkoff RBI single to Donaldson to give Oakland the 3-2 win. Oakland wins the weekend series by a margin of 2 games to 1.

The silver lining is that despite the lackluster road trip to the West coast, the Red Sox still have the best record in all of MLB. And keep in mind that this is without Lester at his sharpest, the services of Buchholz or a clearly defined closer in the bullpen for the last several weeks.

AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi

SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS- What was a battle for last place in the NL West in San Diego's PetCo Park on Saturday night garnered the attention of MLB as San Francisco Giants starter Tim Lincecum threw his first career no-hitter.

Lincecum threw 148 pitches in the complete game 9-0 win over the Padres in San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter. The no-no was the Giants third no hitter since 2009, with two of those coming against the Padres and one of them against the Houston Astros. Jonathan Sanchez no-hit the Padres in July 2009 in what was the first-ever no-hitter at San Francisco's AT&T Park while Matt Cain threw a perfect game against Houston in June 2012 for the first-ever perfect game at the park.

The successful no-hit bid was the first one from a pitcher not named Homer Bailey since September 2012. Lincecum's no-no on Saturday was the first ever no hitter thrown in San Diego's PetCo park, which opened in 2004. The Padres remain the only MLB club that doesn't have a no-hitter to their name.

ALL STAR GAME- Oakland Outfielder Yoanis Cespedes won the 2013 Home Run Derby at New York's Citi Field on Monday Night. The Cuban defector bested Washington's Bryce Harper 9-8 in the final round to take the 2013 title.

Tuesday night's All-Star game is set to have the Mets' Matt Harvey [7-2; 2.35 ERA] go up against Detroit's Max Scherzer [13-1; 3.09 ERA] . Scherzer lost his first start of the season on Sunday afternoon against the Rangers.

First pitch is scheduled for 8:00 ET and the game will be televised on FOX with ESPN Radio carrying the radio broadcast feed.