Washington and Oregon are tied 24-24 in the third quarter. The Huskies trailed 24-17 at halftime but scored first in the second frame, so maybe their second-half woes are finally behind them? We shall see. A win here would be huge for the bowl eligibility hopes of Washington (2-4), which has Arizona and Stanford next on its schedule. The Huskies play 13 games, so they need a 7-6 record to make a bowl game. [UPDATE: While I was writing this post, Oregon scored a TD to take a 31-24 lead with 3:38 left in the third.]

An Oregon loss would mean that Cal and Oregon, who have been the presumptive Pac-10 favorites since USC lost to Stanford, would both have 2 losses in conference, while the Trojans have just one, and Arizona State and UCLA — yes, UCLA, which got pummelled by Utah and handed Notre Dame its only win of the season — are both unbeaten in conference play. And with all but one game between and among the Trojans, Ducks, Bears and Devils still to come, it looks more and more like the Pac-10 standings will end up looking a bit like the SEC East. But of course, if that happens, it’ll mean the Pac-10 is “overrated,” whereas in the SEC, it means the conference is “really competitive.”

[UPDATE 2: Um, yeah, so, nevermind. Oregon 55, Washington 34, final. Another second-half Husky collapse — specifically, a fourth-quarter collapse. It was tied at 31-31 with 1:12 left in the third.]

Speaking of the SEC, Auburn just took a 14-7 lead over LSU. And in the Big Ten, Michigan leads Illinois 17-14 at halftime. GO ILLINI!! BREAK THE SKUNKBEAR/BUCKEYE HEGEMONY!!

Meanwhile, in baseball, the Red Sox appear well on their way (knock on wood!) to erasing their 3-1 deficit against the Indians, tying the series at 3-3 and forcing a decisive Game 7 at Fenway Park tomorrow night. Admittedly, it’s only the third inning of Game 6 right now… but it’s already 10-1 Boston, thanks in part to a first-inning grand slam by J.D. Drew:

Nice.

SI’s Tom Verducci on Joe Torre and the Yankees:

[H]ere is how Levine & Co. treated the Hall of Fame bound manager:
they offered to cut his pay by 23 percent — so insulting that the
players’ association has rules against such a huge cut for its members
– to bring him back only for one year (which keeps their sniping of a
lame-duck manager in play) and to throw in "performance bonuses" (which
are unprecedented even for the least accomplished managers) based on a
postseason model any baseball observer with the least bit of sense
understands is more random than controllable.

One year? Goodness, Charlie Manuel, Joe Maddon and Ozzie Guillen
were given multiyear contract extensions! No manager of Torre’s resume
or dignity would have accepted those conditions and Levine, who wanted
Torre out for years, knew it. It was not the money; Torre doesn’t need
it. It was knowing that your employers don’t want you, knowing that if
another season began 21-29, as this season did, the snipers and leakers
would be firing away with impunity. How could he ask respect from his
players when his bosses did not respect him? …

If the Yankees wanted to fire Torre, they should have just fired him
after the ALDS, laying responsibility on him for a "failure" to get to
the World Series seven straight years. It was the way of George. It was
certainly their right. You could argue Torre didn’t deserve it, but you
had to respect the dictatorial right of Steinbrenner, even as the
Yankees cling to this "World-Series-or-bust" mentality that has long
been rendered obsolete in this revenue-sharing age. Instead, under
Levine, they took the cowardly way out and think they are slick enough
that you won’t notice.

Meanwhile, Red Sox manager Terry Francona called Torre to leave him a supportive message yesterday. Francona was also asked a bunch of questions about Torre at his pregame press conference before Game 5 of the ALCS last night. He finally had to gently change the subject:

"I hope that however it came down - and nobody knows but Joe and
whoever he was dealing with - I hope Joe is happy," Francona said. "I
think he deserves the respect, and I think you’re going to hear people
in baseball, every area of baseball, say probably very, very kind,
respectful things about Joe the next couple days and they’re all
deserved."

Overall, of the seven questions asked of Francona during his pregame
news conference, three were about Torre, and he finally deflected the
last one as best he could.

"This is sort of a big day for us," Francona said. "We need to try to
win this game tonight or I might be getting phone calls. Joe might be
calling me."

Heh.

South Florida and Rutgers are about to kick off another huge Thursday-night ESPN game. GameCast here.

As I said before, I expect Rutgers to pull the upset. And as a Trojan fan, I suppose I should root for the Scarlet Knights, since USC needs unbeaten teams to lose. But I just can’t bring myself to root against the Bulls, not yet, not when I suspect USC will end up losing at least one more game, and South Florida — as the resident underdog/Cinderella story — would be my second choice among the current BCS Top 20, excluding USC. So, screw it. GO BULLS!!

Meanwhile, the Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Indians will shortly begin Game 5 of the ALCS. Can Josh Beckett get the series back to Boston, or will C.C. Sabathia outduel him this time? GO SAWX!!!

I daresay I’ll be doing a fair amount of channel-flipping over the next few hours. :)

UPDATE: Dude! That punter can throw!

UPDATE 2: Okay, so I’m having trouble really jumping on the USF bandwagon here. I was on the Rutgers bandwagon last year, and darn it, I like them. I dunno. I’m not sure who I’m rooting for. I’m just enjoying watching the game. It’s 20-17 Knights in the 3rd.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox lead the Indians 2-1 in the 5th. Go Sox!

UPDATE 3: Down goes Frazier South Florida! Rutgers wins an entertaining game, 30-27. The Bulls’ BCS title dreams are dead.

Sorry, Jenn:

Aaaand I’m back to rooting for Rutgers to win the Big East. R-U! RAH RAH!

I feel ashamed for ever rooting against them. It was just my general love for Cinderella stories, and my desire to see BCS chaos, that caused me to flirt with USF — but I never stopped loving you, State University of New Jersey! :)

Meanwhile, the Red Sox lead 7-1 in the 8th.

P.S. Er, when I say "rooting for Rutgers to win the Big East," that assumes UConn won’t be a contender. Of course I would root for the Huskies above everyone else in that conference. But, notwithstanding their current 5-1 record, I’m assuming they will not be a serious threat to win the Big East.

P.P.S. If Ohio State loses to Michigan State on Saturday, would it be the first time in college-football history that both the #1 and #2 teams in the AP poll have lost for two consecutive weeks? Make it happen, Spartans!!

FINAL UPDATE: SOX WIN! Eight innings and a win for Beckett, one inning and a save for Papelbon. Nice. Back to Fenway, baby! See you Saturday night!!

In the always punchy words of the New York Post, "Joe Torre fired The Boss."

The New York Yankees offered their manager of 12 years a one-year contract today, and Torre rejected it — a shocking twist in the "Will Torre be fired?" speculation that has dominated baseball (well, aside from that whole playoffs thing) since the Indians eliminated the Yankees last week. So now Joe is officially gone, and the Yankees are looking for a new manager… who will know that he was George Steinbrenner’s second choice.

The contract that Torre was offered would have been a pay cut — sort of. He made $7 million this year; under the offered deal, he would have made $5 million, but with the potential for as much as $3 million in bonuses ($1 million per playoff round). So if the Yankees had been successful, he actually could have come away with as much as $8 million.

I wonder what Torre’s motivation for rejecting the contract was? Did he consider the its one-year term an insult? Did he not like the bonus-based scheme? Or, the most delicious possibility of all for us Yankee-haters: was he planning this all along, rope-a-doping The Boss into making Torre an offer he don’t refuse — and then refusing it, just to embarrass the old man? Hahahaha… Joe Torre, now that you aren’t a Yankee anymore, I can say this without shame: you are awesome.

Plans are still somewhat up in the air, but it’s looking increasingly likely that I’ll be visiting Denver again from October 28-30. It will be essentially a business trip, and it’ll suck to be away from Becky on my birthday, but on the bright side, I’ll be in Denver on the evenings when Game 4 and, if necessary, Game 5 of the World Series are being played there. Of course, I hope I’ll be rooting against the Rockies, but if the Indians do manage to close out the ALCS against the Red Sox, then I’ll be root, root, rooting for the home team. Either way, although I don’t expect to go to any games, it’ll be fun to be in town while they’re going on. Kristy and V live right downtown, less than a mile from Coors Field and in the midst of a central strip with tons of bars and such.

Then, next month, Becky and I will be going to a pair of Tennessee basketball games: the men’s home opener against Temple on November 9, and the Lady Vols’ showdown with Texas on November 18. There will be bigger games during the SEC season, of course, but we wanted to make it out to Thompson-Boling Arena before the baby comes. Anyway, the tickets came in the mail yesterday and today, and I’ve added the games to my countdown sidebar at left (along with my birthday — dunno why I wasn’t counting down to that before!).

Speaking of games, Jay and I may be going to a UT football game before the season is out — probably either South Carolina on October 27 or Arkansas on November 10. But that’s still up in the air as well.

More immediately, next Thursday, Becky and I are going to the WDVX Birthday Party at the Bijou Theater. So that should be fun. And on Tuesday, we start taking a birthing/baby class, where we get to learn all about, uh, birthing and babies and stuff.

So yeah. Lots of stuff to look forward to!

P.S. Breaking news: Shannon got a puppy! AWW!

UPDATE: Speaking of the Rockies, and of the SHA girls, Kristy was at Coors Field when Colorado won the pennant Monday night. She sent me a cell-phone photo earlier today:

Cool.

The Cleveland Indians are up 3 games to 1 on the Boston Red Sox. Damn. Looks like the Sox are going to have to try and pull out some of that Pete Carroll Second-Half Magic 2004 Comeback Magic.

Or, they could just start Josh Beckett in Game 5 and then head back to Fenway for Games 6 and 7. Yeah, that might work too.

Uh, but yeah. Backs against the wall, Thursday night. (No game tomorrow.) GO SAWX!!

P.S. Cleveland’s magic number to win the World Series is 5. HA!

The Red Sox have just fallen behind 2 games to 1 in the American League Championship Series against the Indians. D’oh.

Meanwhile, the Colorado Rockies are trying to sweep the Arizona Diamonbacks tonight in Denver and advance to their first-ever World Series. The Rockies have won nine straight games and 20 of 21 — the latter a feat “which has been done a handful of times in the 100-plus years of baseball history, but never like this, never with each of the wins so crucial, never with [six] (and counting) in the playoffs.” Ironically, Colorado’s only loss in the last 21 games was Arizona’s playoff-clinching win. Now the D-Backs face elimination at the hands of the apparently unstoppable Rockies.

UPDATE: Make that 21 of 22. The Rockies are going to the World Series!

Yes, it’s a swing and a miss for Chris  :).

Here’s how eastern Connecticut’s Journal Inquirer called the play  (emphases added :)

Major League Baseball has put a stop to U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd’s raffle of two tickets to see the Boston Red Sox play the Cleveland Indians for the American League Championship.

Dodd, a candidate for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination and self-professed lifelong Red Sox fan, last week offered a chance at the coveted playoff tickets to supporters of his long-shot bid for the White House.

There were a couple of critical catches.

The first was that the winner had to sit in the seats next to Dodd’s.

The other was that entrants had to either make a campaign contribution of $20.04, a number that represented the last time the Red Sox won the World Series three years ago, or recruit two dozen friends who would sign up on the Dodd campaign Web site.

The tickets were for Game 6 of the playoff series, and, if that didn’t happen because the Sox eliminated the Indians, the winner could go to Game 2 of the World Series.

Should the Sox lose the playoffs, Dodd was promising the winner free airfare to Iowa or New Hampshire to join him on the campaign trail.

But Dodd spokeswoman Colleen Flanagan said Friday that Major League Baseball had "scuttled" the plan…

Here’s a Boston Globe take.  / The "Contribute" page linked from Chris’s campaign website states:

"NOTE: The Chris Dodd Fenway Tickets contest is no longer active. Thank you."

:)

Forgive me whilst I gloat over this. 

Next Round–Indians and Red Sox // Rockies and Diamondbacks.

Let’s go Sawx!

If I’m George Steinbrenner and have more money than God, and I use it every year to buy the best team that I possibly can, and they can’t win their division or make it past the first round of the playoffs… it must be the manager’s fault.

Right, George.  Blame Torre because your bought team can’t win the championship every year.

Oh, and Go Sox!  Spank that Rally Monkey!

The Arizona Diamondbacks have become the first team to advance to their Championship Series, completing their sweep of the Chicago Cubs.  Since Arizona finished with the best record in the National League this season, they know that they will face the winner of the Phillies/Rockies series at home in Phoenix on Thursday and Friday.

My heart goes out to Cubs fans, who will have to again say "Maybe next year," which will  be the 100th anniversary of the start of The Curse of the Billy Goat.

With Boston, Cleveland, and Colorado all up 2-0 in their respective series, the first round of this year’s playoffs might go quickly.  Go Sox!  Spank the Rally Monkey!

Update: WTF?  The lights are off in Colorado!  The dumb thing?  Only the lights went out!  The scoreboard and smaller scoreboards around the field are still on!

~~The lights went out here because of a computer error!  There was no power outage at all.

The Cubs are in deep trouble as they head home to Chicago. The Rockies, on the other hand, are on the verge as they come home to Denver. Back in the AL, the Yankees are down 1-0 even as the Red Sox are up 1-0.

Rockies vs. Diamondbacks in the NLCS, Indians vs. Red Sox in the ALCS? That’s how it looks so far, but it could all very easily change, especially in the AL.

Go Sox!

is awesome.

For those of you who haven’t heard (either you’ve been living under a rock or have been clouded in a sea of purple Rox fans)… Here are the Division Series updates as of this morning.  All games are on TBS; all times are Eastern (what’s the point of posting if I can’t show my own east-coast bias?).

01 (game 2 Friday at BOS, 8:30)

0 0  (game 1 today at CLE, 6:30)

1 0 (game 2 today at PHI, 3:00)

0 1 (game 2 today at ARI, 10:00)

It took a while (especially given the 13-inning one-game playoff for the NL Wildcard), but the 2007 MLB playoffs are set:

vs

vs

vs

vs

Update: Phillies logo fixed, I hope.