That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but as it pertains to my want to write every now and then, it sure doesn’t help when there’s nothing to really talk about outside of sports. Like really, I comb through news sites, and I try to watch a little bit of news here and there, but on a regular basis, it’s the same old shit that’s being driven further into the ground every single time it comes up, so there’s really nothing particularly interesting to me that gives me any inspiration to really write.
On the local level, the AJC further reinforces the notion that they’re a clown outlet, since the front page of the site has basically turned into the SEC football daily, providing links and news for not just Georgia, but just about every single SEC school’s football programs. Granted, I guess it sure beats the alternative to the daily shootings, robberies and killings in Southwest Atlanta, but surely, surely, there has to be stuff worth reporting on aside from college football.
National and global news are more of the same crap involving sexual harassment dogpiling, talk of building a wall, and the perpetually constantly rising tensions between the United States and other countries.
Same shit, different day.
It’s no wonder why I always fall back onto sports and wrestling to talk about, because there’s not much else worth writing about that doesn’t just trigger, bother, infuriate or simply annoy.
That being said, the Houston Astros validated my predictions by overcoming a 3-2 series deficit against the Yankees, and advancing to the World Series where they’ll meet the Dodgers in a Fall Classic that people had predicted since June when both teams were the top teams in their respective leagues.
At this point, I’m fine if the Dodgers won the World Series, but in order for me to look like the smartest baseball asshole out there, I do need the Astros to finish the job and win the whole thing. I’d be very pleased to see former Braves in Brian McCann and Evan Gattis get a championship, and I’d genuinely be happy for Carlos Beltran if he won his first title and then walked afterward. But on the flip side, I’ve always had a fandom for Clayton Kershaw since I lucked into witnessing his debut in 2008, and it’s been a real pleasure to see him ascend to being the best pitcher in the game over the last few years, and I’d be satisfied at see him become a champion as well.
Virginia Tech also had a good weekend, obliterating North Carolina by hanging 59 points on them. Sure, Tech has had a fairly cush first half of a schedule, save for Clemson and West Virginia, but the remainder of the season gets real dicey with games against Miami and the always-pesky Georgia Tech left on the schedule, along with trap games like Duke and Pittsburgh. And even UVA, in spite of getting de-pantsed by Boston College has been playing way better than the usual Virginia football squad often does, and it’s only a matter of time before there’s an upset in the Commonwealth Cup.
But despite the fact that Tech has ascended back up to #13 in the AP rankings, they’re still treated like a jobber, and held to lower regard than Miami and even the surging NC State. In one hand, I like the idea of Tech being a covert sleeper contender, apt to being overlooked and capable of low-pressure beating opponents, but at the same time, I feel like it’s a lack of respect for arguably the most prominent football program in the ACC Coastal over the last decade. I guess I should prefer the former, considering every time the Hokies get the respect they deserve, they tend to collapse and fuck it up against a school like Georgia Tech or Pittsburgh, so if I want Tech to get into a prominent bowl instead of a Toilet Bowl presented by like BattleFrog or Cabela’s, I guess resume overlooking them, pls.
And in nerdy competitive spectator sport, the semifinals of Worlds are set, with both series being Korea vs. China, as SK Telecom faces Royal Never Give Up and Samsung Galaxy faces Team WE. Obviously, I am rooting for the Koreans to oust their Chinese competition, setting up a scintillating rematch from last year’s Worlds finals, but I can’t help but have this nagging pit in my stomach telling me that this Worlds just might be something of a disappointment for me.
SKT looked real bad, getting stretched to five games against Europe’s Misfits Gaming, with some very blatant weaknesses that a more competent team like RNG will be capable of exploiting. And despite Samsung’s dominating statement upset over the Korean #1 seed Longzhu, I’ve often said Team WE is probably the best team in China in spite of their #3 seed positioning coming into Worlds, and is easily capable of competing on the level of Korea’s elite.
And again, after so many years enjoying Korean champions much like I’ve enjoyed seeing Tech win the Commonwealth Cup year after year, all good things eventually come to an end. But if the finals of Worlds ends up being China vs. China, I probably wouldn’t have any real interest in watching.
I have nothing to say about the NFL, because I’m not even bothering to watch. Not because I’m boycotting the product on account of Colin Kaepernick, although if I had to pick a side, I’m on Team Kaep, and believe he’s blackballed on account of collusion, but mostly because I just don’t care. The NFL just isn’t that fun to watch in comparison to college, and by the time Sundays roll around, I’ve been fried already from watching so much Worlds, MLB playoffs and an entire Saturday’s worth of college games, and I just want to spend my Sundays being as obligation-free as possible.
So despite the fact that I might bitch about boredom, or feeling like I have nothing to do on Sundays, just remember that those feelings are still superior states of being compared to watching the NFL. Or the NBA. Or any league full of grossly overpaid Twitter-whining sissies.
However, I did indulge some time to watch WWE’s TLC pay-per-view, which was marred by viral meningitis for key participants such as Roman Reigns and Bray Wyatt. Neither of whom were particularly missed, because of the nature of Reigns’ participation in a 3 vs. 5 schmozz wouldn’t have matter if it were him, or the substituting Kurt Angle, because the match would have gone the exact same way with the exact same finish had it been Reigns. If anything at all, having Angle participate was a pretty ingenious decision made that I felt wasn’t, but what do I know? It kept attention on the match, and by the time it was over, smarks like me realized they still just sat through the whole thing.
And the loss of Wyatt was even less relevant, because in its place, the WWE replaced him with an emergency dream match between Finn Balor and AJ Styles. And as should be no surprise, the two of them tore the house down and had a great match, easily the best of the entire night, capped off with a seemingly blatant and ironically poignant Wolfpac 2 Sweet hand salute at the end of the match between the two competitors to fully acknowledge on-screen the backstage drama between the WWE and the Bullet Club of New Japan Pro Wrestling. However, being two of the biggest draws in the company, it’s like Balor and AJ know they can get away with it, which is why they did it.
Amazing just how easily the words fly in spite of the fact that I felt like I had nothing to write about. That’s sports in a nutshell, for those who like and appreciate them. Sure beats the stagnant news and the world we live in, that’s for sure.
