The winners and everyone else

Good Monday morning, first Monday in November and the first of “standard” time.

Oh, boy.  Nothing like months of darkness starting before 6:00 PM.

And let me also add that yesterday was such a long day that it felt a bit like a death march.  I arose at around 6:20 by the new clock, and stayed up until well after 11:00 PM, since there were, you know, important sporting events being played at that hour.

But I digress.  I think that the twice-a-year time change is kind of silly, in the overall scheme of things.  If memory serves, the revised schedule of when our clocks are changed was part of a former president’s energy program, so there you go.  How that affects energy consumption is beyond me, and, no, I’m not talking about my own energy here, either.

So let’s talk winners here.  Like the Kansas City Royals, who play baseball games like a dammed up river and when that dam breaks, look out.  As it did last night, when they came from two runs down to win the deciding game of the World Series over the New York Mets.  Not only did they erase a 2-0 deficit by tying it up in the ninth inning against the tough Met pitcher Matt Harvey, but they erupted for five more in the top of the 12^th and put it away for good.  Drama suits these guys, who are all simply ballplayers—hardworking guys who grind out hits and runs and pitch and field and throw well.  Congrats to them.  If the Reds can’t win, nice to see a team that isn’t often in that position do so (meaning not the Cardinals, Yankees, Red Sox and Giants).

And what about all of that talk about Peyton Manning being washed up, despite the Denver Broncos being 5-0?  Last night he and his teammates dispatched the previously undefeated Green Bay Packers with some Peyton of old—passed zipped as though on a wire, long downfield throws for long gainers, passes fired into small spaces for big gains, you name it.  Not sure if Manning can keep that up, but, if he can, the AFC West race is all but over.

And lastly, let me just say that while I’m not a big horse racing fan, I am so pleased that American Pharoah did what he came to Lexington to do and won the Breeders’ Cup Classic last Saturday.  And did so in style, leading all the way and pulling away at the end.  After he won the Triple Crown (first time in a long time that any horse had) and then lost a race in early fall, I think we all knew that this was it, and he did it. 

Side note:  as a nearly lifelong resident of the Lexington area, I am so proud that Lexington and Keeneland Race Course put on a good show for the horse racing world with the entire Breeders’ Cup event.  Keeneland is supposed to have a capacity of around 20,000 under normal conditions but adapted with some temporary viewing areas to bring capacity to around 50,000 for this event, and did so extremely well.  Kudos to them!

Not everyone whom I favor competed successfully over the weekend.  Kentucky’s football team continued an uninspired stretch of football and lost big at home on Halloween night to border rival Tennessee, who appears to have found their footing.  First time in a long time that UK didn’t close the season (or at least the conference season) by playing Tennessee.  It didn’t matter, it was a beatdown, any way you look at it.

Finally, I played golf with a friend Saturday afternoon, if you can call it that.  I played the same course fifteen strokes better a week ago, if that tells you anything.  Some days, you just can’t get it going, and Saturday’s round was that for me.  Here’s the clincher:  Not just once, but twice, I found my ball nestled between two tree roots, with the trunk of each tree directly between me and the hole.  If that’s not the very picture of futility, I don’t know what is!