Pastime reigns amid the start of the NFL

Start spreading the news… well not yet.

Before diving into sports rhetoric that will surely prove biased and ill-informed, let me begin by notifying those who read this column that they will be joining me in my first and last extra curricular activity at Loyola. Now let us explore the widewide world of sports.

With football season knocking at our doors, many people across the nation are anxiously waiting for America's new favorite pastime to get back into the swing of things, dominating Sunday and Monday night ratings and luring people into a world of fried food and cold beer.

Though as pumped as I am for another Jets losing season, I'm not willing to trade in my pinstriped number 51 jersey for my green number 28 just yet.

Keeping the beer in hand, but substituting the Buffalo wings for a few hotdogs, I could not be more excited for the next few weeks of America's real favorite pastime. From the end of the regular season all the way through the playoffs, I will be tuning in to the voice of John Sterling.

As much as I would like to dedicate this article to the impending 27th championship of the New York Yankees with a victory over the New York Mets (which I will in a few weeks), I probably should hold off on the predictions before the teams actually make the playoffs. Though they are both the favorites out of their respected leagues (sorry Tigers but your play against playoff caliber teams this year has been well below par) their equally suspect pitching and undetermined playoff foes constitutes as much reason to hold off their coronation.

This unprecedented doubt towards the Yankees and Mets series comes from the excitement that surrounds the entire league and the cities across the nation. With six teams having legitimate chances to still make the playoffs, and a few others still in the hunt, it is still too tough to make a call on who will be playing baseball in October.

These division and wild card races that seem to be coming down to the wire give Major League Baseball an extra kick entering the playoffs. For such teams as the defending champion White Sox, Twins, Padres, Phillies, Marlins and even division leading Tigers and Dodgers, every game in the next few weeks is a playoff game. How much more exciting does it get?

The Detroit Tigers, baseball's upstart team with the best record in the A.L., still has a chance of not only losing the Division, but not making the playoffs period. Of their twenty-two remaining games this year, they have a four game series with the Twins as well as a three game series against the White Sox. Considering their mediocre play as of late, combined with the Twins' pitching (if Liriano makes a solid return) and the White Sox lineup, the Tigers' stock is dropping faster than that of Hezbollah Apartment Complex, 100 Main Street, Lebanon.

Of course this is only a small piece of the insanity running rampant through the A.L. centra (and that does not even count Ozzie Guillen). Chicago and Minnesota are within a half game of each other and a three game series between the two to close out the season lurks.

In the NL wild card race, the Padres have a three game lead over the Marlins and Phillies, with the Giants and Barry Bond's torso bringing up the rear at 3.5 games out. This tight race can lead one forget that the Dodgers have only a game lead over the Padres, which essentially translates into having the overall Wild Card lead. Like the Tigers, the Dodgers with their miniscule lead, have seven of their remaining 22 games against their division rivals. This does not even include the surging Marlins and Phillies who will be playing each other TEN times before the season is over. If October is the month that brings an eight team playoff to baseball, then September is the month that provides a playoff spanning twelve teams, all fighting for one of those coveted spots.

These next few weeks of intense games are just precursors to what awaits sports fans in October. So get off your computer and tear yourself from an even creepier version of Facebook, don't worry about the work you don't have and enjoy America's favorite pastime in its glory.

T.V. Pick of the week: Survivor Cook Islands, Sept. 14 at 8p.m. on CBS

I've never watched the show but its new team format based on race is just too intriguing. If you think the show's format is racist, you're just scared your own race is going to lose.