Surpise Me NOT!

If you were surprised to learn that Brett Favre was coming back for an unheard of 20th NFL season in the modern football era 1990-Present you've been under a rock or something! Does anyone remember the last blog? Let's look at the time table again shall we.

Let's start with this time the previous pre-season. I needed more plutonium for my flux capacitor so we'll have to really use our brains this time.

2009
1. After sabotaging the Jets playoff hopes with his usual antics he called it quits again. He also wanted to go to Minnesota and the only way to do that was retire again.

2. Then in July 2009, Favre started texting coaches and players about how he was not going to give it another run and stay retired.

3. Around this time last year Brett Favre was on the practice field. He just didn't want to go to camp.

Let's go to the present now.

Favre had more or less announced he was going to retire due to the lack of mobility on his surgically repaired ankle. Then his coach Brad Childress goes down to Mississippi to see where he is at. At that time yours truly explains that he does not want to go to training camp. Then on Monday (8/16/10), Ryan Longwell, Steve Hutchinson, and Jared Allen, his three closest friends on the team, unexpectedly arrived at his doorstep on Monday night. Wednesday he's back with the team and wants to play against the 49ers this weekend. This is more like a man favor to me. This is almost like saying hey, "I'm moving this weekend can you help me move the couch?" This is why those guys went down to see him and they realize they aren't going to get that close with the quarterback roster they had before Favre came back.

Well at the very least he joins a list of people that are considered old by football standards and as of last year were still playing.

As of the 2009 NFL season, there were seven active players in the NFL over the age of 40 including Favre:

Jeff Carney, 2009 New Orleans Saints, born April 20, 1964
Jeff Feagles, 2009 New York Giants, born March 7, 1966
Matt Stover, 2009 Indianapolis Colts, born January 27, 1968
Matt Turk, 2009 Houston Texans, born June 16, 1968
Brett Favre, 2009 Minnesota Vikings, born October 10, 1969
John Kasay, 2009 Carolina Panthers, born October 27, 1969
Junior Seau, 2009 New England Patriots, born January 19, 1969

For the complete listing of old guys as of 2009 who were the oldest to play you can look here.

Moving onto a first in my blogging history a double story. You might say that you got two for the price of one, however, since this blog costs nothing, well you might also think you got nothing out of it. So I would like to think that you got nothing for nothing and you are no worse off than you were before.

Anyhow...

The Major League Baseball races continue to be very close. Let's take a look shall we. Let's start with the American League Eastern Division.

Here are the standings as of 6:24 EST or while I was writing this blog if you want to get technical.

New York Yankees	75	46	.620	--	40-21	35-25	26-18	21-12
Tampa Bay Rays	74	47	.612	1.0	39-24	35-23	29-18	24-11
Boston Red Sox	69	53	.566	6.5	36-24	33-29	24-24	14-12

This is pretty much a two pony race. The Yankees who have the best pitching by far for the playoffs in Andy Pettitte, AJ Burnett, CC Sabathia, Mariano Rivera and then the addition of Kerry Wood to eat up bullpen innings. However, I watched something that the Rays did that I thought I would never see and that was carve up Rangers pitcher Cliff Lee last week. Plus the Rays are hitting .253 and have an On Base Percentage of .338. Carl Crawford is hitting .301 while Evan Longoria has 81 RBI and is hitting .295. If I had to pick this one I would still go with the Yankees in the AL East. The playoffs will be great this year. Oh, and if you were wondering about the Red Sox well they are 6 1/2 back in this race and 5 1/2 back in the wild-card race.





Moving onto the American League Central Division.

Minnesota Twins	70	51	.579	--	38-21	32-30	14-18	33-18
Chicago White Sox	66	55	.545	4.0	35-24	31-31	8-14	23-27

I didn't really have the heart to include the Detroit Tigers with football season on its way and we all know how that usually goes for the city. If you must know the Tigers are 12 games back and no shot at the wild card. The Twins on the other were once tied in this race and have pulled ahead quite nicely. Now if you were to base the entire season on last night's performance than well they stink. The White Sox shut out the Twinkies 11-0. Yet I am still optimistic about the Twins. In the last two weeks of the season the Twins play Kansas City, Toronto, Cleveland and the Oakland A's. All teams under .500. Joe Mauer has hit fairly well while Carl Pavano has quietly been the best pitcher on the team in wins with 15. Francisco Liriano has also been great with 165 strikeouts and 11 wins of his own. Although the White Sox could still make a late charge. Paul Konerko leads the Sox in batting at .308, RBI with 85, and home runs with 31. They have other power spots in the lineup from Alex Rios, Andruw Jones, and Carlos Quentin. I just don't think the pitching rotation though is going to be enough without Jake Peavy who had to shut it down for the year.



In the American League West...

Texas Rangers	67	53	.558	--	39-23	28-30	12-22	18-13
Oakland Athletics	60	60	.500	7.0	37-25	23-35	17-18	16-14
Los Angeles Angels	61	61	.500	7.0	33-27	28-34	12-21	16-17

The Rangers pretty much have this locked up if they don't pull their usual franchise cursed crap at the end. Josh Hamilton has played so well he should be the MVP of the American League. Even if the Rangers end up blowing it like in years past he has hit .353 with 26 Home runs. The off-season acquisition of Vladimir Guerrero has been great as well he has hit 87 RBI and is hitting .299. CJ Wilson and Cliff Lee have been doing well on the pitching side. Wilson with 11 wins and an ERA of 3.19 while Lee has 10 wins on the season including his time in Seattle and an ERA of 2.77. What the Rangers will need is for Cliff Lee to continue to play well and for Ian Kinsler and Nelson Cruz to come off the disabled list for the stretch run.

Since Brett Favre took much of my energy out of me I'll wait for the National League until next week. I want to see if the Phillies, Cardinals, and Giants can actually get closer in their respective divisions. If they can't make it in their divisions how's this for a race... I'll leave you with this little gem!

Philadelphia 68 52 .567 - - 7-3 L1 San Francisco 68 54 .557 1.0 41 5-5 W1 St. Louis 65 53 .551 2.0 42 5-5 L4

The American League race stinks so here it is to be fair.

Tampa Bay	74	47	.612	-	-	7-3	L1
Boston	69	53	.566	5.5	36	6-4	L1
Chi White Sox	66	55	.545	8.0	34	3-7	W1

By the way for the technical people with nothing better to do it got posted at around 8 EST.