Tids and Bits

Written for your enjoyment by: Raff

The Phillies are facing elimination tonight. The Yankees are facing elimination tomorrow night. If, and I guess it's still a big if, but if the Giants face the Rangers in the World Series its a big rematch. A big rematch of what you might ask? A big rematch of the first interleague game in Major League history. Some of us knew that off the top of our head. Ironically enough the Giants won the game 4-3 way back on June 12th 1997. Ok I had to look some of that up.

The Mount website now lists road games with Penn State and Northwestern available on The Big Ten Network. There is nothing listed on mattsarzsports.com which has been my authority for finding out television broadcasts in the past. You may recall when the Mount played at Penn State two seasons ago, the game was available online through the Big Ten Network. Matt Sarz does have a game Northern Iowa at Iowa listed as Big Ten Network programming the night of the Mount Penn State game.

Congrats to former Mount assistant, current Holy Cross assistant and friend of the FanBlog, Kevin Robinson and his wife Trish are the parents of newborn Katherine Nicole (Nikki) Robinson. Holy Cross head coach Milan Brown tweeted that Trish was in labor yesterday and that Kevin's life was about to change for the better. No doubt about it. All reports are that Mom, Dad and the newborn are doing well and getting ready for the start of the Crusader season. We wish them all the best.

18 days until the start of the season officially begins on ESPNU. 7pm from the Petersen Events Center with Pitt facing Rhode Island. Could be a pretty decent opener. Navy plays at Texas that night as well, and Maryland hosts Seattle that evening. The three hosts as well as Illinois are all part of the Coaches Vs Cancer Classic which takes place at Madison Square Garden the following week. Syracuse won the event last year.

It was a surprise to me that Kris Joseph wasn't a part of the First-Team All Big East Presason team. But it really doesn't matter. I expect Joseph to have a sensational season and I expect Syracuse to be nearly as good as it was a year ago. The Orange has gotten to the point where they are reloading and not rebuilding. And even though they lost a lot from last year's team they seem to have folks capable of stepping in. It isn't quite what it was like a year ago in that regard, but the parts are definitely there to replace what has departed. Should be another fun season on the Hill.

Expect a better performance from the SU football team on Saturday versus West Virginia. The Orange might have gotten a little bit ahead of itself versus Pitt over the weekend, but it still is a work in process. Still I think the effort will return this week in a little bit more grounded form and even though I don't expect a win, I think many will be surprised when the final numbers are tallied.