Sweet birthday wishes to a kind lady, Sweet Virginia! May your teams do you proud this year! Happy birthday to you! Cheers.

Hell yeah that would be impressive! Much more impressive than the Cardinals, who so far have only shown themselves to be the Atlanta Braves of the 2000s. I took a break from thinking about baseball but now that Game 1 of the WS is finally here...I thought Bud Selig might wait until Thanksgiving to schedule the Series...I guess my heart says Kansas City and my head says San Francisco. My mom is rooting for San Francisco as well as some friends of mine. But I feel so bad for the fans of Kansas City and it's always fun when some new blood wins. Just want to see some good competitive games and may the best team win.

Or the guts to pick Jacksonville...et cetera, et cetera...

Week 8 Schedule Thursday Oct. 23 San Diego @ Denver Sunday Oct. 26 Detroit @ Atlanta Falcons - WARNING! This game is being played in London Baltimore @ Cincinnati Buffalo @ New York Jets Chicago @ New England Houston @ Tennessee Miami @ Jacksonville Minnesota @ Tampa Bay Seattle @ Carolina St. Louis @ Kansas City Philadelphia @ Arizona Indianapolis @ Pittsburgh Oakland @ Cleveland Green Bay @ New Orleans Monday Oct. 27 Washington @ Dallas

Wow! We have a 5-way tie for first this week...Anjin-san, apantherfrommd, jabe, jb126, and Walter all came in at 11-4. Congratulations on your picking prowess! jabe gets his first star of the season! As for the season standings, no major movement but jb126 is beginning to separate herself from us plebes. Oh, and sound the trumpets! zepscoda has broken the .500 mark for the year at last. Week 7 Results Anjin-san: 11-4* apantherfrommd: 11-4* jabe: 11-4* jb126: 11-4* Walter: 11-4* paul carruthers: 10-5 Strider: 10-5 zepscoda: 10-5 Bong-Man: 9-6 ebk: 9-6 (blame it on the crud) in_the_evening: 8-7 LedZeppfan77: 8-7 mack: 8-7 Season Standings after 106 games: 1. jb126**: 73-32-1 2. Walter**: 69-36-1 3. Anjin-san***: 68-37-1 4. apantherfrommd**: 66-39-1 4. Bong-Man*: 66-39-1 5. ebk**: 63-42-1 5. jabe*: 63-42-1 5. paul carruthers: 63-42-1 5. Strider: 63-42-1 6. mack: 62-41-1 7. in_the_evening: 60-45-1 8. LedZeppfan77*: 59-46-1 9. zepscoda: 54-50-1 * = winner of a week

Happy birthday indeed to one who blazes a happy path thru life...chillumpuffer! May the Rioja flow and the buds bloom forever and ever. Happy birthday! And to Sathington and any other Super Bowl-babies I missed in the past week or so, a belated happy birthday to you all! May the Zeppelin Spirit keep you flying! Cheers!

^^^ Cool pics zepscoda. Looks like at least you're not in the sun-glare zone. Seriously, what is wrong with Dallas architects? Can't they design a simple football stadium? No other city in the country has the design problems Dallas has. First it was Texas Stadium, and now Jerry World has the same issues. Embarrassing.

^^^ How about those Taters?!! Did everyone see the referees blow the end of the Seattle-St. Louis game? Terrible...just terrible. Every week there are horrible calls that are inexcusable. What has happened to the quality of refereeing?

Everyone talks about Jacksonville going 0-16 but I think Oakland is a better bet for going winless for the season. As Woody Paige so often likes to say on "Around the Horn", "Let's look at the schedule!" First, the Raiders have their six games with their fellow AFC West division opponents...home and away. Does anybody think the Raiders can beat Denver, San Diego or Kansas City, all of whom are playoff contenders? So that's six loses automatically right there. In addition to their divisional rivals, the Raiders this season play all the teams in the AFC East and the NFC West. They've already lost to the Jets, New England and Miami...that leaves Buffalo and that game is in Oakland. With Buffalo's injuries mounting up, that is the one game on Oakland's schedule which offers a glimmer of hope for a victory. As for the NFC West teams, that division is one of the toughest in the league, so I don't see the Raiders having a prayer of victory against San Francisco, St. Louis, Arizona and Seattle. The Raiders have to go to Seattle so that will be a wipeout of supreme proportions. So that's 8 more losses to add to the 6 division lossees. The remaining two games are with random AFC teams...and the Raiders already lost one of them...to Houston a few weeks ago. The other is a road game in Cleveland. Cleveland is beatable but the Raiders don't play well on the road. So you can see that, with the exception of maybe Buffalo, there is no team on the Raiders schedule that they will be favoured against...it all adds up to a 0-16 season!

More injuries for Buffalo...Jackson and Spiller. Nothing is going right for any of Rick's teams. It's enough to drive a man to drink.

It's that early Sunday morning bravery everybody feels, haha. I do think the Jackoffs will eventually win a game and kind of feel this might be the week. Cleveland are no road monsters. But I have trouble picking a team with a quarterback named 'Blake Bortles'. So I'll stick with the Browns. What can Brown do for you?

I'm disappointed in Notre Dame's loss to FSU. I prefer Notre Dame to be highly ranked and undefeated if possible when they play USC. It makes it that much more satisfying when USC beats them. USC and Notre Dame will still be ranked when they meet...hopefully...but not as highly as people thought before the season. ND should still be in the top 10 even after losing to #3 FSU but USC won't be no higher than the mid-teens.

Another loss for Buffalo...this time a 4-0 wipeout at home vs. the Bruins. They're certainly tanking as Rick wishes.

As Rick likes to say...the refs are ruining the game: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/columnist/bell/2014/10/18/bell-tolls-nfl-officials-ruining-games-with-absurd-penalties/17504559/

Don't forget the rest of your picks, KB. Sunday is coming soon.

Thanks New England for holding on for dear life last night. The rest of my picks... Baltimore Green Bay Indianapolis Cleveland Chicago Buffalo New Orleans Seattle Washington San Diego Arizona Dallas Denver Pittsburgh

Oh man, you slay me.

:)

Well Paul, we won't have to worry about too much rest affecting the Royals now, thanks to the Giants taking care of business tonight. Congratulations to San Francisco and Kansas City advancing to the World Series. They certainly are playing their asses off...the Royals mowing down the Angels and Orioles without a loss and the Giants almost as ruthless in their march thru the National League playoffs. Purists will cringe, but once again we have Wild Cards playing in the World Series. It is often said the baseball season is a marathon, not a sprint. But the Wild Card puts that viewpoint in doubt. It's truly not how you play from April to September...it's what team catches fire in September-October. One thing I hope for as a sports fan: a truly competitive World Series between Kansas City and San Francisco. No sweep or 4-1 series, please. While I have a liking for the Giant's Tim Lincecum as a player, because Kansas City has endured a 29-year drought, I have to cheer for the Royals to win the Series. It would be good for the city and their long-suffering fans. Let's have a good World Series. Play ball!

Gawd I hate Thursday football. It barely gives you time to regroup from the games just completed and assess the upcoming slate of games. New England Brady Bunch. Other picks later.

Three books that made a deep impact and have always stayed with me ever since reading them were: "In Cold Blood" Truman Capote "Helter Skelter" Vincent Bugliosi "The Executioner's Song" Norman Mailer But after a while, I got weary of reading true crime books...especially ones dealing with serial killers. I worry about Ann Rule's sanity sometimes, haha, dwelling on all that madness. I remember the Ted Bundy case well but have no further interest in him or his crimes. It's all a bit morbid.

Hope you-know-who is a good nurse!

Baltimore is certainly doing their part to make the Kansas City Royals look like the 1976 Cincinnati Reds. The Royals look unstoppable...everything is going right for them and nothing is happening for the Orioles. I imagine it hurts to be an Os fan right now, for this surely isn't how most folks figured the ALCS would go. ebk and Rick and Black Dawg, I know you're suffering. Yet, I remember an ALCS ten years ago that also looked all but over for the Red Sox as they were down 0-3 to the Yankees and even fell way behind in Game 4 before mounting that miracle comeback. If it happened once, it can happen again. Why not the Orioles in 2014?

At least we get a baseball double-header today. I'm with you ebk...I'm crossing my fingers for Zen Chen. I'd like an all-Orange World Series.

WTF happened with my post? It didn't look like that on the pc last night when I posted the schedule but now on my phone the Chicago, Buffalo and Detroit games are in tiny print? I'll try to fix it at work today. Damn...it's too late, it won't let me edit my post. Sorry for the screwup. Hope it isn't too distracting.