World Series

The Cardinals have been the better team in the World Series through 3 games over the favored Rangers.

The St. Louis Cardinals won game 1 of the World Series by the score of 3-2 over the Texas Rangers. The Cardinals, who have home field advantage courtesy of the All-Star game, got the game winning hit from Allen Craig. Chris Carpenter would get the win over CJ Wilson. Jason Motte got another save for Cardinals. The Rangers would take game 2 on a 9th inning come from behind victory where Jason Motte would get the loss. Albert Pujols missed the cutoff which gave Texas the victory. Pujols would make up for this in game 3. Albert Pujols hit 3 home runs on Saturday to give the St. Louis Cardinals a 16-7 victory in game 3 of the World Series. The win puts the Cardinals up 2-1 in the Series. Pujols went 5-6 in the game with 6 RBI's, including a 3-run home run in the 6th inning, 2-run home run in the 7th inning and solo home run in the 9th inning. Lance Lynn got the win for the Cardinals. Game 4 is Sunday in Texas. Only Babe Ruth and Reggie Jackson had hit 3 home runs in the World Series.

Potential NBA Lockout

After no official agreement was met on Monday, the possibility of the entire 2011-12 NBA season being locked out grew even stronger. David Stern, NBA commissioner, officially cancelled the 1st 2 weeks of the NBA regular season.

The reason for the lockout is over the revenue sharing. The NBAPA is after a 57 percent share, but the owners only want to give up a 50 percent share. The players may be willing to go to a 53% revenue share. While this does not seem to be a huge difference, in the world of sports lockouts it can be huge. The NFL was in a lockout all summer, but came to an agreement. Just a few years ago, the NHL locked out a whole season, and looks like the same might happen in the NBA. The league last lost games to a work stoppage in the 1998-99 season, which was reduced to 50 games. The owners want to reduce the annual mid-level salary cap exception for free agents from $5.8 million to $3 million, and limit the maximum length of contracts. But while Stern claimed that owners have moved away from their stance of establishing a hard salary cap, Lakers guard Derek Fisher claimed that the league would create a system that provides a large enough luxury tax penalty to serve as a deterrent. “It’s still as close as you can get, if not a hard cap,” Fisher said.

While I am not a huge fan of the NBA, I do not want to see the season locked out. I would rather watch highlights of basketball games on Sportscenter and weekly games on TNT rather than analysts talking about luxury taxes and watching reruns of Law and Order. Hopefully something will be worked out soon.

Sabres Get Out To Fast Start

The Buffalo Sabres got out to a fast start this season, picking up 2 wins while on their European road trip. On Friday, the Sabres beat the Anaheim Ducks by the score of 4-1. They would then go out on Saturday and defeat the Los Angeles Kings 4-2. The line up Thomas Vanek, Luke Adam and Jason Pominville has been off to a great start so far, and Ryan Miller is looking very sharp.
The Sabres have their First Niagara Center opener this Friday against the Carolina Hurricanes.