October's off to a great start
Now that was a weekend to remember.
We’re counting Monday this time, obviously, since there were TWO division-deciding baseball games — and then the first serious reckoning for NFL wonderchild Patrick Mahomes.
Unfortunately, it was not a fun weekend for Earl Thomas — more on him in a moment — nor the U.S. Ryder Cup washouts, the Cubs or the Rockies.
Those last two teams, though, live to fight another day — today, in fact, facing each other as National League wild-card teams.
The losers bracket, in other words
Meanwhile, the Brewers and Dodgers can take deep breaths and wait to play later in the week, with the curious Atlanta Braves having watched the whole shebang from the comfort of their recliners.
Sunday was the season finale for the Seattle Mariners, as well.
Bittersweet, I suppose.
THE M’s won 89 games, sixth-best total in the 42-year history of the franchise, but got nothing because the two powerhouse wild cards in the AL — the Yanks and A’s — bagged 100 and 97 wins, respectively.
You can look at this season either way from Seattle’s standpoint.
You cannot say that 89 victories would have won some other division (it wouldn’t have, not in either league), but the Mariners had to play in the same division with two real sluggers and another decent club in Anaheim.
That makes for a pretty brutal schedule.
One last note before we say good-bye to the Mariners, and perhaps Nelson Cruz, for today.
We know the Seahawks have a worse mess on their hands than they did three days ago with Thomas breaking his leg against Arizona — while still squabbling about his contract.
But the Mariners also have an issue with shortstop Jean Segura, their only .300 hitter. Segura got into a clubhouse fight with Dee Gordon and then was benched the last week of the season for not running hard.
Doubt if he’ll be back ... but more on the M’s another time.
THAT NOW brings us to Mr. Thomas, who claimed last week that he was skipping practice to protect himself — only to snap his lower leg on a Cardinals TD pass.
The situation would have been bad enough for both Thomas AND the Seahawks, but it only got worse when Earl raised his middle finger toward the Seattle sideline as he was being carted off the field.
Pete Carroll has urged us to give the guy a break — no pun intended, for sure — because he was distressed in the heat and heartbreak of the moment.
In any case, being charitable or not, nobody knows how on earth this saga will play out.
How long will Thomas take to recover?
His trade value is gone, and even if he returns in 2019, would the Seahawks try to work out something?
Or is Earl just so steamed that he wouldn’t come back under any circumstances?
Either way, what we do know is that this year’s team doesn’t look like much.
They’ve scraped by Dallas and winless Arizona with Russell Wilson not only running for his life, but out blocking for sweeps, as well.
If HE goes down ...
Sigh.
MEANWHILE, the baseball was thrilling.
All four teams shooting for a National League division title scored at least 10 runs on the final Sunday.
The Cubs and Brewers, with the best records in the league, played a thriller on Monday, while the Dodgers put away Colorado pretty easily.
What fun, eh?
Gave folks a chance to call in sick for a day AND night of sports, what with Mahomes and the Chiefs on Monday Night Football.
Well, now ...
Is there any question that this kid is very, very, very special?
The combination of the Broncos’ fierce defense, an ear-splitting crowd, a rash of horrible Chiefs penalties at the worst times and the loss of star receiver Sammy Watkins combined to frustrate Mahomes most of the night.
To the kid’s credit, he didn’t make any rookie mistakes and he ignored all the adversity to show up as a taller version of Joe Montana in the fourth quarter, even completing a critical pass left-handed to keep a drive going.
He’ll learn even more as he goes, and he won’t get ALL the bad breaks he endured on Monday.
Which is positively scary, as Mahomes escaped everything the state of Colorado could chuck at him to deliver a comeback 27-23 victory.
A future superstar?
Or is he already there?
Oh, just realized ...
Didn’t say anything about the U.S. getting mauled in the Ryder Cup.
Thank heaven it was on TV in the middle of the night.
Will that do?
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Steve Cameron is a columnist for The Press.
A Brand New Day appears from Wednesday through Saturday each week.
Steve’s sports column runs on Tuesday.
Email: scameron@cdapress.com
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