SPORTS TEASER By George Hassell
Happy November Sports Teaser fans. Can you believe in just a few weeks we will be eating turkey and dressing and talking about Santa Claus? I
can’t either. It is a glorious time of the year with football, football and more football. College football has about 4 to 5 weeks left and the NFL is about
at its halfway point. Hopefully your teams are doing well as we get closer to college bowl games, college playoffs and the NFL playoffs.
First I want to touch on baseball and the disappointing end to the season for the Atlanta Braves. What had been a great 97 win regular season all
came to a screeching halt in the top of the first inning in Game 5 of the NL division series. The St. Louis Cardinals scored 10 runs before most fans even
got in their seats at SunTrust Park and went on to a 13-1 win to move on in the playoffs. Seems like there’s a good bit of blame to go around from lack
of timely hitting and some questionable pitching decisions. I know this won’t happen but I sure would like to get a manager like Joe Maddon or Joe
Girardi or somebody different from the Bobby Cox chain. It’s almost like a Mark Richt UGA situation in that they can’t win the big games. It’s obvious,
history does not lie. 10 consecutive playoff losses is a record that nobody wants to own, but the Atlanta Braves do. The good news is they are still a
very young team with a very bright future; but at some point you’ve got to get the job done. As usual, maybe next year.
It’s been a pretty straightforward season in college football thus far. Most of the teams we expected to be near the top are still there and I don’t
see too many surprises at this point. Alabama, Clemson, Georgia and Ohio State seem to be still the top four with Oklahoma and now LSU hot on their
heels. I’m beginning to think there is a high likelihood that there will be two SEC teams in the college football playoffs but I know as sure as I write
this, it won’t happen. Everyone has their thoughts and everyone thinks that so and so’s going to beat so-and-so and knock them out, but the bottom
line is whoever wins all their games or all but one will end up in the playoffs and probably winning the national championship. Great analysis, I know.
There are lots of pivotal games to keep an eye on as the season progresses for sure. Go Dawgs!
Now in the NFL, on the other hand, some of the preseason favorites have slipped and some new faces have taken their place. Of course Kansas
City and New England seem to be the teams to beat in the AFC, along with New England, but who really is the best team in the NFC? Seattle, San
Francisco, Minnesota, New Orleans? One thing we do know is that the Atlanta Falcons are having a dismal season and the Jaguars aren’t far behind.
We are just past a quarter point in the season as of this writing, so there’s time to right the ships; but they seem to be taking on a bit of water at the
moment. But alas, it’s football!
Don’t eat too much turkey sports teaser fans and we’ll see you in December!
38 TYBEE BEACHCOMBER | NOV 2019