My Wild Winning Weekend Watching Sports On TV

It was a wonderful, wild sports weekend, especially for me.

Having grown up cheering for the Mets, Jets, Nets and Islanders, I am used to mostly disappointment, disgust and disgrace. But for one weekend, the teams I was rooting seemed to have magic, pulling off improbably, incredible, impossible victories.

As someone who usually pulls for the underdog, the decision to hope the Dodgers would win the World Series was a difficult one. But Shohei Ohtani was worth it. He’s so great, I didn’t want to hear an argument about how many rings he has. 

Game 6 took place Friday night during my daughter’s Halloween party and I would sneak back to the den to check the score and see a few pitches. As the game wore on, and the Dodgers struggled to hold a 3-1 lead, the den filled up and we saw improbable plays. A potential run-scoring double by the Blue Jays got stuck in the padding on the bottom of the outfield wall, resulting in a ground-rule double. (I’ve seen balls get caught in the ivy at Wrigley, but this was really weird.) In the ninth inning, the Jays threatened again, but hit into an unlikely game-ending double play, with a runner caught off second base.

On Saturday, the college football teams I root for won. Both were favored but neither overwhelmed. Ole Miss (where my daughter atttends) beat South Carolina 30-14 to stay in the Top 10 and remain in the hunt for a playoff spot. My wife’s school, Notre Dame, struggled to beat 1-7 Boston College in the Holy War. A brilliant 94-year run by Jeremiyah Love sealed the deal for the Irish providing a much-needed thrill.

Then came World Series Game 7 and extra innings. The Blue Jays took a 3-0 lead when Bo Bichette hit a three-run 442-foot blast off Ohtani in the third inning but the Dodgers came back with runs in the 4th, 6th and 8th, tying it up with an unlikely homer by second baseman Miguel Rojas in the top of the ninth. 

In the bottom of the ninth, the Jays got two men on base when Yoshinobu Yamamoto came into the game. Yamamoto won Game 2 in a complete game and followed up with 90 pitches in the Game 6 victory. He loaded the bases by hitting Kirk with a pitch. The then got a forceout at home and the third out on a deep fly ball despite Andy Pages colliding with Kike Hernandez.

The Dodgers loaded the bases in the 10th, but the Jays escaped with a play at the plate. 

Finally in the 11th, Will Smith, who caught every inning of this crazy World Series, hit one into the seats. It was the first extra-inning homer in a Game 7. 

The Blue Jays nearly came back against Yamamoto in the bottom of the 11th. He gave up a double and a sac bunt, then walked Addison Barger, which set up a potential game-ending double play. When Alejandro Kirk hit a grounder to Mookie Betts at shortstop, the game was suddenly over and the Dodgers were the first repeat champions since the Yankees 25 years ago.

The Chicago Bears capped the weekend with an unbelievable win over an unbelievably bad Cincinnati Bengals squad. Those were the same Bengals that my Jets beat last week for their first victory last week.

The Bears seemed to be in trouble from the time they gave up a touchdown on the opening kickoff and trailed at halftime as the Bengals were unable to stop the Bears running and the Bears were unable to stop the Bengals passing.

In the second half, the Bears finally appeared to have the game under control, taking a 41-27 lead with 4:53 to go. Then the Bengals scored 15 points in 41 seconds, with an ancient Joe Flacco completing passes all over the field. They scored a TD and got the two-point conversion. The Bengals recovered an on-side kick and scored another quick TD.

But they left the Bears with 1:49 and Caleb Williams and the Bears cashed in. Rooke TE Colston Loveland caught a pass over the middle that would have put the Bears in field goal range, but he broke two tackles and chugged into the end zone for a 58 yard TD.

I jumped and shouted at the TV, but only the dog heard me in my otherwise empty house.

I assume other Bears fans were worried about the 17 seconds left in the game, but the Bears sealed the deal with an interception by Nahshon Wright on the last play of the game.

The Bears are 5-3 and play the Giants (boo) at Soldier Field next Sunday. Go figure. But the weekend was a rare winner for me. And that counts for something.

EXTRA NININGS

That thrilling World Series Game 7 drew an average audience of 25.45 million viewers according to preliminary figures from Nielsen. The largest number of viewers were tuned in at 11:30 to 11:45 pm ET. 

Those were the biggest numbers for a baseball game since Game 7 of the 2017 World Series. In 2016, more than 40 million viewers tuned in to see the Cubs break the curse in Game 7 vs Cleveland.