Whew…that was fun!

First of all, a huge “thank you” to the media members and head football coaches that participated in a…well, rather “wild” high school regular season-worth of polling.  In a dozen years of covering scholastic sports and running a poll, I’ve never seen the number of different teams mentioned in a poll, nor seen as many different teams ranked number one in a single season—not to mention almost every voter’s “polling card” looked different—both from other voters and from themselves—from week to week.

We enter the playoff season with two clear “number one” teams in our poll and five different “number one seeds” (thanks to the expanded playoff system) through the teams in the five classifications in our area.  At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if at least one or two of them fail to capture a District championship, due to the extreme parity in the area.

Speaking of the post-season, we hope you’ll tune in for our playoff preview edition of “RCN SportsTalk presented by The Morning Call” this Thursday and on our Friday podcast.  This week’s panel includes Morning Call high school football writers Keith Groller and Steve Miller, who will offer up insights, news and predictions on as many football playoff games in our area as time will allow.

Before we can move on to the playoffs, however, it’s time for the unveiling of our final high school football poll of this incredible 2016 regular season 

Big School Football Poll–FINAL
1) Emmaus (10 – 1^st place votes)
2) Parkland
3) Whitehall
4) Freedom
5) Pleasant Valley

Small School FB Poll — FINAL
1) Central Catholic (eight -1^st place vote)
2) Bethlehem Catholic
3) Saucon Valley
4) Notre Dame
5) Palisades

Thanks also to everyone who took the time to comment on our football polls throughout the season.  You may recall a few years back I was thinking of ending the poll, only to be surprised how many people enjoyed reading and seeing our local experts’ opinions on the local teams.

By the way– and, if we get enough feedback–I’m entertaining the thought of doing a first-ever high school basketball poll this winter.  If that’s something that you, our area high school sports fans, would be interested in, please email us at rcnsportstalk@rcn.com and we’ll see if it generates enough interest.  (Note: this would mean MUCH MORE work for me, but I’m willing to work late on Monday nights if it’s something you’d really like to see 🙂 ).

Now that our football polling is completed, don’t forget to check out and bookmark the RCN football playoff schedule here on the RCN-TV website and check back often for our schedule as we follow your favorite teams deep (hopefully, if they keep winning) into the state playoffs!

I know Donald Trump constantly complains about our inability to compete with China imports.  No one says much about American exports, but this past month one such export finally was brought to fruition.  After four years in the planning stages, China imported American arena football.  And their league’s version of the Super Bowl is being played on November 6.

The first China Bowl will be played in Shanghai.  The league kicked off its inaugural season this past month with six teams playing 8-on-8 arena football.  Four Chinese players and four “foreign” players are on the field at a time for each team.

Even though this league is not affiliated with the Arena Football League in the US, the ownership is very familiar to Philadelphia Soul fans.  The whole concept is the brainchild of successful businessman, Marty Judge, who happens to own the Philadelphia Soul of the AFL.  One of his partners is former Eagles quarterback, Ron Jaworski, and the League Executive is former Eagles head coach, Dick Vermeil.  And, does the name Lou Tilley sound familiar?  He used to be the sports guy for the local Philadelphia TV channel.  He is the Vice President of Creative and Broadcast Operations for the new league.

Local Forks Township resident, Mick Moninghoff, is also spending time in China.  He is part of Lou Tilley’s enterprise and does both marketing and broadcasting work for the new league.  The games are broadcast both in Mandarin and in English and Mick is part of the broadcast team.

The league held its first draft on June 10.  500 players registered for the draft. 120 players were selected.  60 of the players were American; 43 of them had AFL experience and some had NFL experience.  60 Chinese players were from China or of Chinese descent.  Germany, Spain, and Italy were, also represented on the rosters.  The season was called the “Super Series” leading up to the championship finale – The China Bowl.

The six teams are the Beijing Lions, Dalian Dragon Kings, Guangzhou Power, Qingdao Clipper, Shanghai Skywalkers, and Shenzhen Naja.  If you want to know how to pronounce the team names and see some of the action, watch here:

Qingdao will take on undefeated Beijing for the title.  I do not know if China also imported American sports gambling so I cannot give you the spread on the game.  However, for Judge and company, this venture has to be the ultimate in “fantasy football”.

ABOVE THE EARS (SOME MUSINGS) 

1. Did you see that the average ticket price to see the Cubs in Chicago this past week was $2,603 for Game 3 and $2,327 for Game 4? This was the highest average price ever sold for a World Series and topped every Super Bowl except the last two.  Game 6 looked like a bargain when the average price on the secondary market was @$650.
2. If you were in charge of your team’s draft picks and knowing what you now know, would you take Dak Prescott of the Cowboys or Carson Wentz of the Eagles? I still like the Eagles’ choice.
3. Since I made you a GM in the last musing, now I ask you as the Dallas Cowboys head coach, would you start Tony Romo once he is healthy or stick with Prescott?
4. Alabama, Clemson, Washington, and Michigan are ranked #1-4 and all of them are undefeated. Western Michigan is, also, undefeated and ranked #8.  Can the top four hold their spots to vie for the national championship?  Ohio State is looming at #5 and they want in.
5. On Friday, November 4, the District football playoffs begin. Ironically, there are not many attractive match-ups with quite a few mismatches on tap.  We tried to pick the best.  The RCN-TV crew will have the 6A Nazareth – Parkland LIVE at 7:00 PM.   That game will be followed by 4A Bethlehem Catholic at Central Catholic.  They played each other just one week ago and Central prevailed.  That game is on at 9:30 PM.  Lehighton will play Notre Dame on Saturday in 3A at 2:00 and we will have it LIVE.

Gary’s Guesses: NFL Picks – (Last week – 7-5-1; Overall – 71-50-2 – 59%)
Week Nine
             ATLANTA
            PITTSBURGH
            PHILADELPHIA
            MIAMI
            DALLAS
            KANSAS CITY
            DETROIT
            CAROLINA
            NEW ORLEANS
            TENNESSEE
            GREEN BAY
            DENVER
            BUFFALO

We’ve talked quite a bit this fall about how the early start to the high school football season has made the season go faster than normal.  That fact has almost been lost as a few of the winter sports coaches whose school will now probably not make the playoffs.  In talking with several of them over the last few days, they’ve suddenly realized that their athletes, as of October 29, may be turning their attention to basketball, wrestling, swimming and rifling.

As we head into the final week of the regular season for District XI teams, it’s time we once again look at this week’s “RCN SportsTalk” football poll for the teams in our coverage area.

First, a quick recap of how we put our polls together and arrive at our conclusions for our bi-weekly  results.

We take the 400-male enrollment number as the cutoff for schools within the District XI/RCN footprint.  All schools above that number qualify as “big schools” in our poll. These schools consist of Parkland, Liberty, Allen, Easton, Emmaus, Liberty, Dieruff, Freedom, Stroudsburg, Pleasant Valley, Northampton, Nazareth, East Stroudsburg-South, Whitehall, Southern Lehigh and Bangor.

“Small schools” (below 400-male enrollment) consist of Saucon Valley, Central Catholic, Bethlehem Catholic, Northwestern, Wilson, Palisades, Palmerton, Salisbury, Notre Dame, Pen Argyl, Northern Lehigh and Catasauqua.  Each pollster will identify their top five teams in each group—the top school gets five points, the second team gets four points and so on, with an average score determining the order of teams in the poll.

Unlike polls that consist of a couple representatives within the same organization, our poll is much more varied with input from many different people over a wider scope.  Our voting panel consists of local media members from different outlets, along with local coaches and athletic directors from across the entire district.  The voters are not identified (unless they appear on our “SportsTalk” TV show and podcast and chose to reveal themselves) so they can give their honest impressions without any worry of outside pressures or “bulletin board” material, and we rotate different pollsters from different schools each year, including guests from our biggest to our smallest schools.

Now, here are this week’s poll results…

(Note/for the record: one of our voters was “MIA” for this week’s poll).

“ BIG” SCHOOL Football Poll (10 pollsters)
1) Emmaus – 48 (eight – 1^st place votes)
2) Parkland – 42 (two – 1^st place votes)
3) Freedom — 17
4) Pleasant Valley – 16
5-tied) Nazareth/Whitehall – 13
Other schools receiving more than one vote:  Stroudsburg

 “Small SCHOOL” Football Poll (8 pollsters)
1) Becahi – 41 (six – 1^st place votes)
2) Central Catholic – 35 (three -1^st place vote)
3) Saucon Valley – 29
4) Notre Dame – 16
5) Palisades – 10

Other schools receiving more than one vote:  Pen Argyl

Coming up on this Thursday’s “SportsTalk” show (7pm LIVE, RCN-TV), we have a jammed-packed show with different sports topics.  Keith Groller and I will break down all the various playoff scenarios heading into the final week of the high school football regular season.  Georgetown University Head Football Coach Rob Sgarlata will talk about his team’s impressive performance against Fordham last week and give his thoughts on this weekend’s game against Lafayette.  Plus, Phillies beat writer Stephen Gross will talk about the World Series and the Phillies off-season agenda.  Gross also covers the Phantoms and will talk about the Flyers upcoming season as well as top prospects to keep an eye on.

Email me at rcnsportstalk@rcn.com and tune in for this week’s “SportsTalk” show and podcast for more

The Chicago Cubs have me watching baseball again.  And I would suspect a larger number of people will tune in to see if the Cubs can win their first World Series since 1908, 108 years ago. Teddy Roosevelt was the president.  They last played in the World Series in 1945.

The Cleveland Indians have not set the baseball world on fire either.  Their last World Series victory was in 1948 during the Harry S. Truman administration.  They did play in the 1997 Series and blew a ninth inning lead and lost in the eleventh to the Florida Marlins.

It will be very interesting to see if this storyline catches on with ALL fans.  World Series ratings have declined steadily, with three of the last four years owning the lowest ratings in history.  I, for one, became interested enough to watch the Cubs in their playoff games.  I enjoyed the games and was also frustrated by the sport.  There are things wrong with baseball.  With that in mind, I, along with many others, have come to some conclusions:

1. There are too many playoff spots. Ten teams make the playoffs: five American League teams and five National League teams.  There are a possible 42 games that could be played to decide the overall champion.  42 games!  With the current set-up of three divisions, changing the format would be difficult.  Eliminating one wild card berth only reduces the playoffs by two games.  We are stuck with this system.
2. The games take too long. This is the biggest drawback to truly enjoying baseball.  Pitchers take too long to pitch.  Batters take too long to get ready to hit.  Managers have too many options available that only slow down the game.  So, what is there to do?  Here are a few suggestions:

• Hitters must stay in the batter’s box.
• Pitchers must throw a pitch in 20 seconds.
• 2:00 breaks between innings.
• Three mound visits per game, not counting pitching changes.
• Limit the number of pitching changes per inning.

3. Start games earlier. I know this is an East Coast problem, but would it be bad to actually finish games BEFORE midnight?  Regular season games take around three hours.  The playoff games usually take around 3.5 hours.  Throw the first pitch at 8:00pm and the problem is solved.  Wait to 8:30pm and lose a big part of your audience.
4. Young people are not watching. Because of reasons #2 and #3, young people have just not been turned on to the sport as far as viewership is concerned.  Sure the seats at the ballparks are filled for the most part and television revenue is up, but overall viewership is way down and the long-term outlook as far as interest has to be in trouble.
5. The All-Star game winner gets home field advantage for the World Series. The team with the best record during the regular season should get home-field advantage.  The powers-that-be should not use a game that is so unlike a real game.  Enough said.

ABOVE THE EARS (SOME WORLD SERIES MUSINGS) 

1. The Cubs actually won back-to-back World Series in 1907 and 1908.
2. The Indians lost three World Series match-ups in 1954, 1995, and 1997.
3. Indians’ manager Terry Francona led the Boston Red Sox to a championship in 2004, following an 84-year drought. Ironically, he was hired by the Red Sox over Joe Maddon.  More irony in that Cubs’ General Manager Theo Epstein hired Francona over Maddon in Boston and hired Maddon in Chicago.  He seems to know what he is doing.
4. Joe Maddon grew up in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. He attended Lafayette College and played baseball and football.  He received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Lafayette in 2010.  As a player, he was never able to go higher than Class A in his baseball career.
5. On Friday, October 28, the RCN-TV crew will have the Parkland – Emmaus game LIVE at 7:00 PM. Emmaus can win the EPC South championship with a win.  That game will be followed by Easton-Nazareth.  That game is on at 10:00 PM.  The crew will have Georgetown at Lafayette on Saturday LIVE at 12:30PM.  Freedom-Liberty will be on at 7:00PM.  By the way, you can catch both of these award-winning bands on November 10 (8:00 PM), 11 (6:00 PM), and 12 (8:00 AM).

And that will end the regular season with District playoffs up next!

Gary’s Guesses: NFL Picks – (Last week – 9-4-1; Overall – 64-41-1 – 61%)

Week Eight

TENNESSEE
SEATTLE
NEW ENGLAND
OAKLAND
CINCINNATI
DENVER
KANSAS CITY
DETROIT
ARIZONA
GREEN BAY
JETS
DALLAS
MINNESOTA

 The next several days at the RCN TV studio is known as “parade week.”  We know, based on the feedback we get from our viewers each year, that our audience loves the fall/Halloween season and their community parades that celebrate the holiday.  These parades feature many local residents and organizations that we serve.  That means here at the studio (to borrow a baseball playoff term) it’s “all hands on deck” for our RCN crew members, as they are busy being out-and-about in the area in order to cover as many local parades as we can during the next ten days or so.

Consequently, some of our regular work assignments, including those of us on the “RCN SportsTalk” show, take a back seat for the next week in order to provide coverage of these special events.  This Thursday, instead of a live, call-in/email-us edition of the show, we will have a taped program (at 7pm), dealing with the controversial new high school playoff system in Pennsylvania, with local administrators & coaches giving their insights on the new systems, policies and changes that have/will continue to affect all scholastic sports.

We’ll return next week with our live show and a whole new round of District XI high school football poll results, leading up to the final week of the regular season.

In the meantime–and to get you set for what will be an exciting “playoff push” for teams in our coverage area, here’s a look back at highlights from recent games broadcast on RCN TV.  We hope you enjoy–and remember to check back here next week for more sports insights, videos and opinions.

*****
Last but not least, the RCN family lost two wonderful people this past week.

Former Sports Director Bob Gehris passed away last weekend.  While I never had the pleasure of working with Mr. Gehris directly—he retired prior to me starting with the company—I knew of his great reputation here in the Lehigh Valley for many years.  When I started here at RCN, he approached me warmly and always offered me great encouragement, advice and some tremendous stories of all of his great experience calling games over the years.  He would often greet me at local sports venues or the Allentown Fair to ask me how things were going, and he was always a wonderful guest when he made special appearances on our “RCN SportsTalk” program.

Ironically, one of Mr. Gehris’s close friends was our own Bob Gery, who also left us this weekend.

Bob served many roles for decades at Twin County/RCN and was a true friend to everyone who knew him.  He served countless roles—many of them not seen nor noticed by our viewers, and that’s because of Bob’s dedication and tremendous work ethic behind the scenes.  While we are scrambling to try to cover for all of Bob’s work responsibilities, it pales in comparison to the great human being the community has lost.

While he was a very quiet person to most people, he was very passionate about things he loved:  politics, history, the Beatles, the Flyers, golf and the local sports landscape.  Bob worked very long hours during our busiest times of the sports season, but always had a smile on his face when he’d be out at productions and see familiar sports personalities—Doug Snyder, Steve Shiffert, Bob Shriver, Bron Holland, were just a few of his favorites.

We spent many hours in the back offices coordinating different projects for “Community Spotlight,” “SportsTalk,” remote productions and whatever else came our way, but Bob was at his best when we could come into my office and relax and talk about whatever was on his mind—and he always had great insights in whatever he chose to talk about.

Both are viewed as Lehigh Valley television legends in my mind, while serving very different, but both essential, roles.  Both were class acts, and both of them will be very much missed by all.

Be sure to also check out Gary Laubach’s “Behind the Mic” blog this week for his reflections on the passing of Bob Gery.

Every week, while doing a game, someone wins and someone loses.  Announcers, and I am one of them, praise the winners and talk about how difficult it might be to rebound from a loss, and coming back the following week.  It’s just the verbiage of sports.

This past week, the RCN studio family suffered a loss that dealt a blow to our very core. It was the loss of one of our own – cameraman and producer Bob Gery.  Bob was always “behind the scenes” and he would not have wanted it any other way.  Unless you are a rare viewer who actually reads the credits at the end of a program or sporting event, you would not have seen the name.  The sad part is that those very people (directors, engineers, cameramen, audio and graphics people, grips, etc.) are greatly responsible for your enjoyment of a game or a program.  They are in the background to you, but not for those of us in front of the cameras.  We know and appreciate their value.

Bob produced Community Spotlight, kept our vehicles safe and running, and worked our weekend sporting events, doing audio or manning a camera.  He did all of these jobs extremely efficiently and was so conscientious about his performance.  He was a man of character and would take time to make sure everything was in order.

Personally, Bob was a very simple man.  He never wanted the material things in life.  Early on, he took care of his parents until they passed.  He was a dedicated and loving son.    He was quietly interested in life.  He loved history; he loved politics; and he loved reading.  He was quite intellectual and enjoyed debating the current issues of the world.  One of his pastimes was to visit the graves of past presidents and the Presidential libraries.  He was a huge Beatles fan and was planning a trip to England this coming summer.

I looked forward to his frequent visits to my office.  He always wanted to talk about high school and Lafayette College sports.  He was adamant about this current election and I cannot believe he will not vote.  He ALWAYS voted and cast a thoughtful and well-informed ballot.  He felt it was his duty.

Recently, he had been discussing with me the pros and cons of retirement.  His financial advisor told him he could make that decision because he had been frugal all his life.  His finances were in order. He was ready to leave the daily grind of television and reap the rewards of his labor.  No one deserved to do that more than Bob.  Fate took that away from him.

And there was no warning.  Bob worked camera for a weekend football game on October 7, as he has done for 17 years.  We all had a rare Saturday off since Lafayette was not being televised.  Bob thoroughly enjoyed the Lafayette games, but he looked forward to the break and even took the following Monday as a vacation day.

None of us at the studio ever spoke with Bob again.

The RCN studio just does not feel the same right now.  There is an empty cubicle in the office and an empty spot in our hearts.  We will continue on; ask someone to take on Bob’s responsibilities; and cope; and manage our loss.  No one knew better than Bob that in our world the show must go on.

But, make no mistake; it will not be the same.

ABOVE THE EARS (SOME MUSINGS) 

1. If you want to pick the Super Bowl winner right now, the best bet would be the New England Patriots. Tom Brady’s numbers in his two games back from suspension are ridiculous – 782 yards and six touchdowns.  And the defense gives up just 15.2 points per game.
2. The Steelers’ loss to Miami this week not only killed one of my “just for fun” pools, but Las Vegas reported that there were seven times more straight bets placed on Pittsburgh than on Miami. And there were 15 times more bets on Pittsburgh as a package with other games.  The bad guys won again.
3. Watching Clayton Kershaw pitch against the Cubs on Sunday night and win 1-0 made me assume that he was greatly responsible for their success this season. But the Dodgers won 74 games without him.  Manager Dave Roberts has done a masterful job changing lineups and utilizing the entire pitching staff.  Going up against Cubs’ manager Joe Maddon makes this a particularly interesting series for the student of the game.
4. If you need to blame someone for the Eagles’ loss to the Redskins on Sunday, blame Lane Johnson and he did not even play. And that is the problem.  Johnson is suspended for 10 games for using performance-enhancing drugs.  His replacement was awful and allowed Redskins linebacker Ryan Kerrigan to dominate the line of scrimmage.
5. On Friday, October 21, the RCN-TV crew will have the Saucon Valley – Notre Dame game LIVE at 7:00 PM followed by Emmaus- Easton. That game is on at 10:00 PM.  The crew will have Lafayette at Bucknell on Saturday LIVE at 1:00 PM.

 Gary’s Guesses: NFL Picks – (Last week – 10-5; Overall – 55-37 – 60%)
Week Seven
 
GREEN BAY
GIANTS
MINNESOTA
KANSAS CITY
DETROIT
CINCINNATI
BUFFALO
JACKSONVILLE
INDIANAPOLIS
BALTIMORE
ATLANTA
TAMPA BAY
NEW ENGLAND
SEATTLE
DENVER

While the Eagles have clearly stolen the sports spotlight in the Eastern Pennsylvania region, the Phillies’ “positives” this season should not be forgotten.

With their season coming to an end (and insights on the baseball playoffs with MLB.com’s Bill Ladson, and other guests, here: rcn.com/atvn/sports-talk), here’s a look at the top three “feel-good stories” of the year, along with my guesses as to who makes the Opening Day roster next spring.

The starting rotation
I thought at the beginning of 2016 that if half of the top-level prospects (eg., Aaron Nola, Jared Eickhoff, Vincent Velasquez) showed me some flashes of getting MLB-hitters out on an everyday basis, that this year’s team would be a great success.  Save Nola, who struggled before succumbing to a season-ending injury, I feel nearly every one of those prospects took a major stride forward this season. Throw in the better-than-expected performances of Ben Lively, Joely Rodriquez and others, and the team looks like it will actually be in the great position of having competition among those prospects for the top five spots in the rotation next year.  A quality team will use/need at least eight starting pitchers in a given season, and the Phillies might already have eight available (and quality) arms before you even think about your off-season shopping list.

Tommy Joseph
I remember talking with a scout behind the backstop at a Lehigh Valley IronPigs game in 2015 commenting on how far the once-prized catching prospect had fallen offensively, following several concussions that severely limited his playing time since being acquired by Hunter Pence.  In late August of that summer, Joseph looked completely lost at the plate and there were major questions whether he would even return to the 40-man roster.  Fast forward to spring 2016 and he not only excelled in what started as a platoon-role as a new position, but hit 20 home runs with the parent club.  Furthermore, he seemed to adjust and hit his way through slumps and, at the very least, should be counted in as the starting first baseman for Opening Day.  I’m not prepared to say he’s going to be a star in the Majors, but he certainly has worked hard enough to be given that position to start the 2017 campaign.

Hector Neris & Edubray Ramos
I talked with Phillies Manager Pete Mackanin in January about his bullpen, and he seemed really excited about a trio of young arms in the organization—one of them being Neris. Although he really didn’t get much of a chance to show what he could do as the team’s full-time closer, he certainly exhibited “closer-type stuff” all season long, and became the team’s most consistent pitcher.

Edubray Ramos was a guy I didn’t hear very much about from the organization’s top tier, but did hear a few people who have seen him pitch warn to “keep an eye out” for him.  He quickly rose from Double-A, to Triple-A briefly, and then to the Majors and formed a formidable bridge, along with Neris, to closer Jeanmar Gomez.

If Neris and Ramos equal their efforts in 2017 and the Phillies can get a couple more of their young arms to have success at the Big League level, the team’s bullpen will be a key part of future success without having to look elsewhere for much help.

Now, here’s a look at who I think we’ll start next season (along with a few suggestions for additions) for 2017:

Rotation
Jeremy Hellickson (or another veteran presence, if he elects Free Agency)
Eickhoff
Velasquez
Thompson
(combination of Alec Asher, Adam Morgan, Ben Lively and, when healthy, Nola and Zach Eflin)

Bullpen
Neris
Gomez
Ramos
Rodriquez
Severino Gonzalez (as a long-man/spot starter)
At least one or two additional veteran presence and perhaps another “swing man” to start in a pinch.

Catchers
Cameron Rupp, A.J. Ellis (both prospects Jorge Alfaro and Andrew Knupp, if not traded, still need more time, and so a veteran backstop will be needed).

Infielders
Joseph
Cesar Hernandez
Freddy Galvis
Maikel Franco
Either re-sign super utility (and all-around good guy) Andres Blanco or another stable veteran backup.

Outfielders
Odubel Herrera
Roman Quinn
Aaron Altherr
Cody Asche (he MUST improve in 2017, and should learn to play first base as a left-handed compliment to Joseph on a part-time basis).

A significant, but not a ‘break-the-bank’ offensive threat who can provide some much needed support to a very young and erratic offense.  We’ll take a look at possible options and best fits for the Phillies in the coming weeks.

Note:  No Nick Williams or J. P. Crawford on this list.  I still think both could use some seasoning and, at the very least, keeps these guys off the MLB roster until you can get another year before free agent eligibility kicks in (cover your ears, agents).  Plus, I’d like to see a few guys (ie., Altherr, Hernadez, Galvis) try to continue (improve upon?) what they showed flashes of during the 2016 season—especially more offense needed from Altherr.

What do you think of my off-season shopping list and 2017 Opening Day projections?  Email me at rcnsportstalk@rcn.com and tune in for this Thursday’s “SportsTalk” show for more sports conversations.

Obviously, I spent much of Sunday watching NFL football.  Between the Eagles, the Steelers, and the Red Zone, the day was filled up from 1:00 – 7:30.  And, once you get into that frame of mind, it is hard to adjust to other programming.  It is an afternoon of adrenaline.

Other programming on Sunday consisted of “60 Minutes” and the second Presidential Debate.  “60 Minutes” did not calm me down because it was all about artificial intelligence, which seems to be closing in on replacing all of us no matter what we do.

Since I was still wired from football, and certainly not calmed by a report that robots could replace us all, I found myself watching the debate in a football frame of mind.  I looked at both candidates as if I were an NFL official.  And it didn’t take long to throw the penalty flag.  For example:

FALSE START:  Neither candidate shook the opponent’s hand to begin the debate.  That should be a 5-yard penalty.

DELAY OF GAME:  Both had trouble sticking to the two-minute time limit for their answers.  They obviously need to work on their “two-minute drill”.

ENCROACHMENT:  This 5-yard penalty could have been tossed on numerous occasions as Donald Trump stalked Hillary Clinton as she was answering questions.  Instead of taking a seat, he paced and hovered throughout the debate.

NEUTRAL ZONE INFRACTION:  Hillary often stepped over onto Trump’s side of the field to get closer to the crowd.  There’s another 5-yard penalty.

ILLEGAL SUBSTITUTION:  When asked about e-mails and Benghazi, Clinton substituted Russia and Syria; when Trump was asked about his biases, he substituted ISIS.  These penalties were offsetting.

PASS INTERFERENCE:  Since “making passes” seemed to be a favorite pastime for Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, the media exposure is an excellent example of “pass” interference.  Due to contact by both sides, those penalties were “offsetting”.

TAUNTING:  No explanation necessary and that is a 15-yarder against both candidates.

UNSPORTSMANLIKE CONDUCT:  Both Clinton and Trump were quite eager to bring up the indiscretions alluded to by the Trump  tapes that were released a few days earlier, and Trump not only brought up Bill Clinton’s past problems with women, but he had four of the women in the audience.  Both should have been given 15-yard penalties.

TOO MANY MEN ON THE FIELD – For the life of me, after all the rhetoric of the last year, how can anyone say they are still an “undecided”?  The audience on Sunday was made up of just those people and there were too many of them.  Throw the flag on all of them and tell them to pay better attention.
And like any player that spent the day engaged in battle, I went and took a shower!

ABOVE THE EARS (SOME MUSINGS) 

1. Locally, there has been so much talk about Carson Wentz, the rookie quarterback of the Eagles, that many around here have not noticed what Dallas rookie QB Dak Prescott has done. The Cowboys are 4-1.  On Sunday, he took apart the Bengals and passed Tom Brady’s record for most pass attempts to start a career without an interception.  The Eagles play at Dallas on Sunday night, October 30.  Tony Romo should be healthy by then.  Should Romo or Prescott start?
2. Speaking of Carson Wentz, he lost his first game this past week against the Lions and most post-game headlines talked about his interception at the end. He certainly could have run his first real two-minute drill better, but the game should not have come down to Wentz at all.  Without the Ryan Matthews fumble, the Eagles probably win the game.
3. I’m watching the MLB playoffs and wondering how anybody hits these top pitchers. They are scary good!  If you can, catch the Real Sports show on HBO where they discuss the use of the ball-strike box to actually call the pitches.  It’s a fascinating report.  More robots!
4. Which team or teams will win the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference South division title? Bethlehem Catholic and Emmaus have one loss and Parkland, Nazareth, and Liberty have two.  Beca finishes with Whitehall, Freedom, and Central Catholic (this game doesn’t count for the division).  Emmaus has Liberty, Easton, and Parkland.  There could be multiple champions.
5. On Friday, October 14, the RCN-TV crew will have the Emmaus – Liberty game LIVE at 7:00 PM followed by Palmerton facing Catasauqua. That game is on at 10:00 PM.  The crew will have Nazareth at Freedom on Saturday LIVE at 7:00 PM.  Lafayette travels to  West Point to play Army.  You can watch that game on CBSSN at noon.

 Gary’s Guesses: NFL Picks – (Last week – 9-5; Overall – 45-32 – 58%)
 Week Six
 

DENVER
PITTSBURGH
NEW ENGLAND
BUFFALO
GIANTS
PHILADELPHIA
NEW ORLEANS
DETROIT
JACKSONVILLE
TENNESSEE
GREEN BAY
ATLANTA
KANSAS CITY
HOUSTON
ARIZONA

The American League
The Rangers had the best record (95-67) in the American League.  Amazingly, they won 36 one-run games.  And, more amazingly, their bullpen has not been all that good, ranked 14^th in the league.  That does not bode well for them in the playoffs.

The Indians pitching staff WAS strong, but no longer.  Their three top starters are probably out of the postseason, so they will need plenty of players to step up.  If their starters can get the job done until the Indians get to the bullpen, they have a chance.

The Red Sox could make some noise if, and it’s a big IF, David Price looks like the David Price of last year and not this year.  Their ace is Rick Porcello and he should get his job done, which is win when he pitches.  If he wins and Price is the old Price, the Red Sox will be formidable in the playoffs.

The Blue Jays did not play well at all down the stretch going 26-26 since early August.  Their hitters didn’t hit and their bullpen was dismal.  Based on recent performances, they should not make it to the World Series.

No team hits the ball as far as the Orioles (253 home runs –the best in the majors).  Six players hit 20 or more and Mark Trumbo hit 47.  However, the playoffs are almost always about pitching, but maybe the Orioles can change that perception.

As you can see, choosing a pennant winner in the AL is difficult   I am picking the Red Sox and the onus for that prediction lies on David Price.

The National League
The Cubs last won the World Series in 1908 and, in case you don’t want to tax your math skills, that’s 108 years ago. They last played in the World Series in 1945.  They then went 39 years without getting into the playoffs.  The Cubs were one victory away from the World Series in 1984 and again in 2003.  Last year, they made it to the National League Championship Series.  The Cubs have the best record in baseball, but it’s the playoffs – will that matter?  Let’s look at their biggest competition.

The Nationals won 94 games and won the NL East easily.  But they have problems going into the postseason.  Their catcher is out, Daniel Murphy hasn’t played for two weeks, Bryce Harper has a sore thumb, and Stephen Strasburg hasn’t pitched since the first week of September.  These players are the heart of this team.

The Dodgers really struggle against left-handed pitching and do not seem strong enough to make the NLCS.  The Mets are just too banged up with six players out due to injuries. And did you know that only the Phillies posted a worse second half record than the Giants?

The Cubs should be in the National League pennant.

The Cubs will beat the Red Sox in six games and the 108-year drought will come to a close!!

ABOVE THE EARS (SOME MUSINGS) 

1. Ryan Howard played his last game as a Phillie on Sunday and the Philadelphia crowd showed their appreciation. He made his Philadelphia debut on September 1, 2004, at the age of 24, and played 13 years with the Phils.  He hit 382 home runs; his last, a two-run shot on Saturday.  His MVP year, Howard hit 58 home runs and batted .313, with 149 RBIs.  Many think he will become an AL designated hitter.
2. The #3 Louisville at #5 Clemson game came down to the wire with an interesting 4^th and 12 play. If you want to watch an analysis of that play, check this out:

http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2016/10/2/13136970/louisville-clemson-football-james-quick-first-down

3. Speaking of officials’ calls, we had an interesting one on Friday at the Emmaus-Freedom game. Emmaus “pooched” a kickoff near the end of a tight game and their own player caught the ball in mid-air.  The officials seemed very confused with what to call.  The rule says the ball must touch the ground or a receiving player before the kicking team can touch the ball.  Interference was finally the call and was correct, but it seemed that it was not enforced properly.  Emmaus should have been penalized 15 yards and Freedom taking the ball after the penalty.  Instead, there was a penalty and “rekick”.
4. The Ryder Cup is the best of television golf. Instead of your attention being on a few leaders, every match and every player is significant.  Sunday’s crowd and the drama of watching some great matches made it scintillating television.  For that given Sunday, I chose the golf over the NFL.
5. On Friday, October 7, the RCN-TV crew will have the Parkland – Bethlehem Catholic game LIVE at 7:00 PM followed by a Freedom facing Whitehall. That game is on at 10:00 PM.  The crew will have a Saturday to themselves with Lafayette traveling to the Bronx to take on Fordham.  You can watch on campusinsiders.com at 1:00 PM.

Gary’s Guesses: NFL Picks – (Last week – 7-8; Overall – 36-27 – 57%)

Week Five

ARIZONA
MINNESOTA
MIAMI
NEW ENGLAND
PITTSBURGH
BALTIMORE
PHILADELPHIA
CHICAGO
ATLANTA
BUFFALO
OAKLAND
DALLAS
GREEN BAY
CAROLINA

Without question, it’s been one of the wildest high school football seasons in recent memory, and our poll experts have had a heck of a time trying to give us perspective on which have been the top teams each week.  Heck, we pretty much went the last two years with Parkland being the definitive top team in the Lehigh Valley region.

Undaunted, we’ll proceed in unveiling this week’s listing of the best teams in the RCN coverage area for District XI.

But first, a quick recap of how we put our polls together and arrive at our conclusions for our bi-weekly  results.

Unlike polls that consist of a couple representatives within the same organization, our poll is much more varied with input from many different people over a wider scope.  Our voting panel consists of local media members from different outlets, along with local coaches and athletic directors from across the entire district.  The voters are not identified (unless they appear on our “SportsTalk” TV show and podcast and chose to reveal themselves) so they can give their honest impressions without any worry of outside pressures or “bulletin board” material, and we rotate different pollsters from different schools each year, including guests from our biggest to our smallest schools.

Despite this fall’s change in the PIAA classification, our poll remains with the standard, tried-and-true format that we have utilized for many seasons.  We will take the 400-male enrollment number as the cutoff for schools within the District XI/RCN footprint.  All schools above that number qualify as “big schools” in our poll. These schools consist of Parkland, Liberty, Allen, Easton, Emmaus, Liberty, Dieruff, Freedom, Stroudsburg, Pleasant Valley, Northampton, Nazareth, East Stroudsburg-South, Whitehall, Southern Lehigh and Bangor.

“Small schools” (below 400-male enrollment) consist of Saucon Valley, Central Catholic, Bethlehem Catholic, Northwestern, Wilson, Palisades, Palmerton, Salisbury, Notre Dame, Pen Argyl, Northern Lehigh and Catasauqua.  Each pollster will identify their top five teams in each group—the top school gets five points, the second team gets four points and so on, with an average score determining the order of teams in the poll.

Now, here are this week’s poll results…

“ BIG” SCHOOL FB Poll (10 pollsters)
1. Emmaus – 50 total points (ten – 1^st place votes
2. Parkland – 40
3. Whitehall – 19
4. Liberty – 16
5. Freedom – 14
Note: Pleasant Valley and Stroudsburg also received at least one vote.

“Small SCHOOL” FB Poll (9 pollsters)
1. Becahi – 44 total points  (eight – 1^st place votes)
2. Central Catholic – 34  (one -1^st place vote)
3. Notre Dame – 26
4-tie  Northwestern – 15
Saucon Valley — 15
Other schools receiving at least one vote: Pen Argyl

Disagree with someone’s placement?  Should one team be ranked higher than another?  Feel free to email us at rcnsportstalk@rcn.com or call us during our live show this Thursday to voice your opinion and talk football with us.  Joining Keith Groller and me will be Philadelphia Eagles Beat Writer Nick Fierro to preview the Birds game against Detroit this weekend (Nick also has some interesting thoughts on HS football as well).  We’ll also have Bill Ladson (mlb.com writer) on this week’s show to talk about the MLB playoff races.