(“The TEN” is not a top ten but ten items worth being included in “The TEN”)
1. The Big Ten will open the College Football season Saturday October 24.
2. The Miami Heat beat the Boston Celtics 106-101 Thursday night to take a 2-0 series lead in the Eastern Conference Finals.
3. Lakers vs. Denver Nuggets Game 1 Western Conference Finals, Friday night, 6:00 p.m.
4. The Cleveland Browns beat the Cincinnati Bengals 35-30 on Thursday Night Football.
5. The Chargers four-time Pro Bowl center Mike Pouncey will undergo season ending hip surgery the team announced Thursday.
6. The Athletic Directors from USC and UCLA have received confirmation from the LA County Public Health Department that there will not be any restrictions beyond what’s mandated by the state of California as it relates to the football teams. The Pac 12 is hopeful that it can start the season by the end of October.
7. With a 7-5 victory over the San Diego Padres Wednesday night the Dodgers were the first team to clinch an MLB playoff berth. This is the eighth consecutive year that the Dodgers have made the playoffs.
8. Former Oklahoma running back, 1978 Heisman Trophy winner Billy Sims, turns 65 today. Sims, the first overall pick in the 1980 NFL draft, played five years for the Detroit Lions and rushed for over 5,000 yards before a knee injury ruined his career.
9. The Chicago White Sox clinched a playoff berth for the first time since 2008 with a 4-3 win over the Minnesota Twins Thursday.
10. “I think internally, we always felt this was not a championship-or-bust year for us.” – Clippers forward Paul George after the Clippers Game 7 loss to the Denver Nuggets Tuesday night in the second round Western Conference playoff series. The Clippers blew a 3-1 series lead.
The L.A. Chargers are likely to get crushed by the Kansas City Chiefs tomorrow unless they can play a lot better on offense. Then, they might have a chance.
The Rams can win a close one in Philadelphia if they play almost totally mistake-free football. They need to run the ball successfully, and Jared Goff will have to play well. Their defense will keep them in the game.
That is good news. However the numbers reflecting how so-cal behaved during labor day weekend are only today starting to come in. The country is seeing a big rise as of yesterday. We will wait and see about the SGV.
Congratulations to the Dodgers on making the playoffs again.
L.A. is now in a good position to win its eighth straight National League West title. If the Dodgers can just go 5-4 in their last nine regular-season games, San Diego would have to win out in order to catch them.
It was great to see Dustin May pitch five-plus innings in Wednesday’s game against the Padres; I thought he might have been done for the season after a batted ball caromed off his leg a few games back.
Another positive development for the Dodgers was the fact Pedro Baez recorded a save in that final game of the San Diego series. It was his first appearance in a game since he went on the injured list weeks ago.
Mookie being Mookie: .304 batting average, .377 on-base percentage, 15 homers & 36 runs batted in, and a team-leading nine stolen bases.
But don’t forget about Corey Seager: .309 BA, .357 OBP, 13 HR’s & 36 RBI’s. (He shares the team lead in RBI’s with Mookie Betts.)
I believe that the Dodger player who has improved the most during the 2020 season is catcher Will Smith, who hit below the .200 mark during the first half or so. He has really turned it on at the plate.
Smith’s current stats for the season: .303 BA, .417 OBP, 6 HR’s & 20 RBI’s.
Although the Dodgers took two out of three games in San Diego, the Padres put the Dodgers to the test. Two of those games, one won by the Dodgers and the other by the Padres, could’ve gone either way.
San Diego is again a force to be reckoned with in the National League West. This should be a good rivalry for a while.
All Whittier Union High School District high schools begin football “conditioning Monday, 9/21. This includes; La Serna, Cal, Whittier, Santa Fe, and Pioneer.