Some Sports Talk

It's been a while since I wrote anything about sports on this blog.  Well, there's not that much going on...baseball's regular season is more than two thirds of the way through and the Florida teams aren't doing so well...Tampa Bay in the American League has fallen to .500 at 59-59 and Miami in the National is continuing to do slightly worse with a 55-60 record: at least both teams have remained competitive...so far.  Boston, Cleveland, Houston, Washington, Chicago Cubs, and L.A. Dodgers are leading their respective divisions, although the Cubs are only percentage points ahead of resurgent St. Louis.  In Major League Soccer, Orlando City continues their downward slide after having won six of their first seven matches...they're now mired firmly out of playoff position with little hope of turning things around.  Portland, on the other hand, seems like they'll make the postseason this year after missing it in 2016 (they won the championship the year before).  In English soccer, the Premier League opened its season this weekend with three promoted teams: Newcastle, Brighton, and Huddersfield.  Defending champion Chelsea was upset at home against Burnley while 2016's champion Leicester City lost a close one on the road against Arsenal.  In Mexico's premier league, "my" UANL Tigres are only 1-1-1 after three matches...I wonder whether they still have it within them make another run for the title this season...

And then, of course, there's football.  Living in Gainesville, I hear plenty of press about this 2017 edition of University of Florida football...hopes are high for the offense to reestablish itself for the first time in many years, but the Gators' stellar defense lost many seniors and are a big question mark.  UF might do really well this year...or things might just as well fall apart.  In the pros, the Miami Dolphins snubbed their valuable backup quarterback Matt Moore after he carried the team last year into the playoffs...for the first time since 2008...following starter Ryan Tannehill's season-ending injury. He's out again for this year and Miami opted to coax retired QB Jay Cutler to join the team as Tannehill's starting replacement.  Who wants to bet that Moore won't be back in there after just a few weeks?  I'm disappointed in the Dolphins' choice of Cutler, but I'll still be rooting for him to succeed...