IFAF EuroBall Championships and Game 4 of the World Series

Tuesday, October 28, 2025

Today was a BIG sports day on our two favorite continents, Europe and North America.

We'll start with two important American football games being contested in Krefeld, Germany.

The IFAF European Championship

The Bronze Medal Game between

Germany and Italy was of the

greatest interest to me

A total of six our former Varese Skorpions were playing for Italy's Blue Team, the Azzurri.

Awesome result in another

tough game for the Azzurri

The Bronze Medal it is!

Our Skorpions on the Azzurri

celebrating a great accomplishment

The Gold Medal Game

Austria vs. Finland

Team Austria was defending their 2024 IFAF European Championship title.

Team Austria was simply too much

for Team Finland

The Final score was Austria 27 - Finland 0.

Other American football thoughts from the net . . .

Notre Dame's jerseys for this Saturday's

Boston College game are . . .

bright?

So old that it's good

Loved all of these throw-back logos

of the 18 BIG-10 teams

Does anybody know what the deal was with 12 of the teams sporting sailor caps in the old days?

On to the World Series . . .

Nostalgia

This photo of Los Angeles Dodgers stalwart pitchers Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax before the 1963 World Series, a 4-0 sweep of the New York Yankees, brought back positive memories from my youth.

After the 18 inning marathon

that was Game Three last night . . .

. . . what would tonight bring?

We joined Koreen and Brian FitzGerald at their home for dinner and the ballgame.

Well, actually, it was only a

regulation nine inning affair tonight

Not the result we all wanted

The World Series is now tied, 2-2

Game Five will be played at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday before the Series moves back to Toronto for Game Six and Game Seven if needed.

More thoughts from the net . . .

Most of my friends fit into this

in some way, shape or form

Cafe con Leche y Vino Tinto sounds

about right to me if memory serves

Hard to believe that it has been 15 years now since my 33 day, 500 miles Camino de Santiago trekking experience in our beloved Spain.

It usually is not

Well, it is Halloween Week after all

What a GREAT Night to Be a Dodgers Fan!

Monday, October 27, 2025

Laurie and I settled in at 5:00 p.m. by the TV for the start of the Blue Jays-Dodgers' World Series game.

I was going to attend a dandy C.I.F.-Southern Section Flag football quarterfinal playoff game that had the Huntington Beach H.S. Oilers (24-1) playing at the Camarillo H.S. Scorpions (25-2) but I decided instead to sit next to the Dodgers #1 fan in Ventura County and help her get through another game.

Good call.

Little did we know what an amazing game we would be watching.

By the way, Huntington Beach (25-1) won the playoff game, 20-6, thus beating the Scorpions (25-3) for the second time this year.

Game 3 of the World Series

saw the teams tied at a win apiece

It was the first World Series game in Los Angeles after playing the first two in Toronto.

Out of curiosity, I looked to StubHub to see what two tickets to the game were going for on the secondary market.

The price range that I found ranged from a low of $698 per ticket to a high of $3,168 per ducat.

Sitting at home watching the game unfold was definitely the call.

Price gouging for parking?

We had a sold out game. Now, forgetting about oversized vehicles, and the Dodger Stadium parking lot able to hold 16,000 cars, that meant a potential windfall of $1,280,000 in parking revenues alone.

That would be more than enough to pay for about six weeks of Brian Kelly's LSU buyout.

Max Scherzer vs. Tyler Glasnow

was an excellent pitching matchup

Once again, Shohei Otani was

INCREDIBLE!

While his heroics certainly kept the Dodgers' hoped alive, they were still not enough for a win.

This Game 3 was one for the ages

that went to extra  innings

LOTS of extra innings

At this point, both much maligned bullpens had combined for NINE consecutive shutout innings.

It would go a bit longer.

Who the hell is Will Klein?

Why the latest Dodgers' unlikely World Series hero of course Move over Sandy Amoros.

He pitched the final four innings of this 18 inning marathon, allowing no runs.

It was an amazing performance by the last pitcher available in the Dodgers' bullpen although Game Two starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto was warming up during the 18th inning if needed.

By the end of the top of the 18th inning, the Dodgers' relievers had extended their shutout streak to an astounding 11 innings. 

It included a great effort by Clayton Kershaw who was brought in to face a lone batter with the basses loaded in the 12th inning. The future Hall-of-Fame hurler induced a dramatic ground ball out to end the Toronto threat.

As the game reached the bottom of the 18th inning, the Dodgers had used ten pitchers, the Blue Jays nine. 

So this was the situation that the

Dodgers clutch hitter Freddie Freeman

was facing to lead off the Dodgers

half of the 18th inning

Full count, nobody on, could he come through one more time?

A walk-off Home Run to the deepest

part of Blue Heaven on Earth in

straightaway Center Field worked!

dodgers win!

Dodgers Win!!

DODGERS WIN!!!

What a Final Line score!

WHAT A GAME!

This epic game tied the 2018 game

between the Dodgers and the Boston

Red Sox for the longest contest

in World Series history at 18 innings

The Dodgers won that game too, thanks to a walk off home run by Max Muncy.

Both teams made some great

defensive plays too

How did that bon vivant Waldo

get the moolah for a game ticket?

The game ended just before midnight. We were both glad that we did not have to pick up the grandkids for school in the morning.

For those that did need to go to work on Tuesday . . .

. . . the Dodgers had their backs!

For the Dodgers, the Road to the Title

now stands at 11 postseason wins down,

TWO WINS TO GO!

A Non-NFL Sunday as the Rams Had a Bye

Sunday, October 26, 2025

Since the Los Angeles Rams had a bye, I had no interest in any of the NFL action today.

Still, it was nice to see that the San Francisco 49ers (5-3) lost to the Houston Texans (3-4) this afternoon, 26-15, to slip into third place while the Rams (5-2) and Seattle Seahawks (5-2) are now tied for first place in the NFC West.

The latest AP Top 24 Poll was released this afternoon.

Still no Washington Huskies at 6-2

Even with wins in the Huskies next three games at Wisconsin (2-6), vs. Purdue (2-6) and at UCLA (3-5) may not move the needle much in the polls.

A win at home over currently #6 Oregon (7-1) in the season's final regular season game would be a huge plus on many levels though.

NCAA Division I only has

six perfect teams left

Texas A&M Aggies (8-0)

Southeast Conference

Brigham Young Cougars (8-0)

Big-XII Conference

Georgia Tech Yellowjackets (8-0)

Atlantic Coast Conference

Navy Midshipmen (7-0)

American Athletic Conference

Ohio State Buckeyes (7-0)

Big-10 Conference

Indiana Hoosiers (8-0)

Big-10 Conference

As for the perfect teams at the NCAA's FCS level . . .

There are only six of them too

From top to bottom:

Harvard Crimson (6-0)

Ivy League

Lehigh Mountain Hawks  (8-0)

Patriot League

Montana Grizzlies (8-0)

Big Sky Conference

North Dakota State Bison (8-0)

Missouri Valley Football Conference

Tarleton State Texans (9-0)

United Athletic Conference

Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles (8-0)

Big South-Ohio Valley Football Association

Then there was another long discussed, high profile firing in the college ranks announced this evening . . .

The Louisiana State Tigers

are looking for a new coach

Now a former Head Coach, Brian Kelly, had a career record at LSU of 34-14.

At LSU, that was not good enough, especially when the Bayou Bengals lost three of their last four games while ranked #4 at #13 Mississippi, 24-19, as the #10 ranked club at #17 Vanderbilt, 31-24, and last night when LSU was still ranked #20 vs. #3 ranked Texas A&M, 49-25.

Before coming to LSU, Kelly was the Head Coach at Notre Dame for 12 seasons with a record of 113-39. Twenty-one of those wins in 2012 and 2013 were later vacated by the NCAA.

How will Kelly and his family survive in these trying times without a job in hand you may ask.

Quite well, thanks to the hefty

buyout clause in his LSU contract

that still had six seasons left

I leave you with a question . . .

Often

College Football Saturday, Week Nine

Saturday, October 25, 2025

After last night's long hours at the East L.A. Classic, I was resigned to the fact that all my potential co-conspirators in American football mania were too tuckered to go to the Redlands (4-2/2-2 SCIAC) at Cal Lutheran (5-1/3-1 SCIAC) NCAA DIII game in the evening.

Truth be told, I was feeling fairly lethargic, too.

We would have to suffice on watching God only knows how many college games on TV.

One game in particular did bring us all back together at midday.

#25 Illinois Fighting Illini (5-2)

at

Washington Huskies (5-2)

GREAT idea!

In Big-10 Conference play,

both teams were a modest 2-2

Mary getting Game Ready

Would any of the preparation and strict dietary discipline have an influence on the outcome of the game?

ABSOLUTELY!

The big win improved the Huskies record to 6-2/3-2 in Big-10 games.

This sixth win of the season now makes the Huskies Bowl eligible. Next up for the Huskies is a Saturday, November 8th game at struggling Wisconsin (2-6/0-5 Big-10).

The Fighting Illini (5-3/2-3 Big-10) will host Rutgers (4-4/1-4 Big-10) on Saturday, November 1st.

I found this of interest as, other

than West Florida, I had no clue

who these seven logos represented

So I did some research on who these teams were that were still unblemished after today's NCAA DII contests. Here is what I found out. Logos from left to right, top to bottom:

Ferris State (Michigan) Bulldogs 8-0

Harding (Arkansas) Bisons 8-0

Kutztown (Pennsylvania) Golden Bears 8-0

West Florida Argonauts 8-0

Western Colorado Mountaineers 8-0

Augustana (South Dakota) Vikings 8-0

Findlay (Ohio) Oilers 8-0

On the EuroBall front, we had some big doings in the IFAF European Championship Tournament today.

DAMN, our Team Italy friends were

nipped in their semi-final by Team Finland

In the other semi-final, Team Austria

hammered Team Germany

Both of those games were played in Düsseldorf, Germany.

On Tuesday, still in Düsseldorf, Team Italy will confront Team Germany in the Third Place game followed by the Team Finland vs. Team Austria European Championship Game.

Team Sweden beat Team Hungary

for Seventh Place in the European

Championship Tournament today

NFL nostalgia time . . .

My all-time favorite Los Angeles Ram

#40 Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch

We had been asked this week

to vote for our favorite Rams helmet

I have to go with the #2 choice, the closest to the one that "Crazylegs" was wearing in that photo above.

By the way, face masks are for wusses.

In the evening, it was time to watch the World Series.

A CRITICAL game for the Dodgers

who lost Game 1 to the Blue Jays, 11-4

 

Yoshinobu Yamamoto's complete game

was absolutely DOMINANT!

And extremely necessary too!

 

The World Series is now tied,

Los Angeles Dodgers - 1 Win

Toronto Blue Jays - 1 Win

After playing the first two game in Toronto, the World Series moves to Los Angeles for the next three games on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

If Games Six and Seven are needed, they would be played in Toronto next Friday and Saturday.

Finally, about that Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) game between Redlands at Cal Lutheran that we opted not to attend, we missed a barn burner!

FINAL SCORE

Redlands Bulldogs (5-2/3-2 SCIAC) - 30

Cal Lutheran Kingsmen (5-2/3-2 SCIAC) - 24

IN TWO OVERTIMES!