Hand of Go...umm...Mud

The Tigers took care of business on Sunday night, beating the Cardinals 3-1 to even the World Series at 1 game apiece. It wasn't, however, without some controversy, as the Fox television cameras spotted a "dark spot" on the palm of Kenny Rogers' pitching hand, and from that point on (early in the first inning), the speculations ran wild. Rogers ended up washing the 'mystery spot' off of his hand (he claims it was dirt, most people think it was pine tar (which would be illegal); I currently am sporting my Navy and white sunglasses, so I have no idea :-) ) after the first inning, when it was brought to his attention, but the media has harped on this issue for the last day and a half, and it's really quite annoying. Fact is, he threw 7 innings of shutout ball AFTER the hand was washed, so obviously it wasn't making that big of a difference on his pitches, and he now has a streak of 24 consecutive innings in the post-season without allowing a run, 3 innings shy of the 27 that Christy Mathewson threw for the New York Giants in 1905. Anyway, series resumes tonight, Chris Carpenter pitching for the Red Birds against Nate Robertson, and we'll just have to see what kind of 'dirt' gets dug up.

U-M football team took care business on Saturday, beating Iowa 20-3, remaining perfect, and moving up to 2nd in the BCS standings, and in most major polls (except the coaches poll). Mike Hart made the difference, once again running for over 100 yards and scoring 2 touchdowns, while the Michigan defense was solid again, allowing 41 yards rushing all day. The road is relatively clear for Michigan to take an undefeted record with them down to Columbus to face a possibly undefeted Ohio State team, but we have Northwestern, Ball State, and Indiana to play still, and must not look ahead to that large Nov 17 game...but it may be a clash for the ages.

The Lions..........same results, different days it seems like, as they took another loss, 31-24 to the New York Jets. It's not that they're getting blown out of any of these games (except for the Chicago game), but they just cannot make that crucial stop when they need it, or get the crucial first down, and just snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. This week, the Lions have a bye, and they may be able to beat that bye team, but who knows.

And finally Arsenal took care of business this weekend, beating Reading 4-0 on the strength of a Thierry Henry brace (meaning=2 goals), and additional goals by Alieksandr Hleb (who played one hell of a game, and is looking better and better this season, much much better than last season) and Robin van Persie. And they probably could've scored more goals, but they kinda shut it down in the 2nd half, happy with their victory. Their passing was excellent, and this is probably the best Arsenal match I have witnessed in the 4+ years I have been following them (goals here, here, here and here - commentary in french - best I could do).