The Giants and Tigers have been major league franchises for well over a century but they will square off in the World Series for the first time, beginning Wednesday in San Francisco. The Giants are National League champions following a 9-0 rout of the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 7 of the NLCS in San Francisco. It's the 20th pennant for the Giants, who earned it by becoming only the seventh team to win a league championship series after trailing three games to one. Each member of the Giants' starting lineup scored a run and/or collected an RBI by the end of the third inning. That includes starting pitcher Matt Cain, who laced a run-scoring single in the second and limited the Cardinals to five hits over 5 2/3 innings.
In Monday Night Football, the Chicago Bears generated just enough offense to complement another outstanding defensive performance. Brian Urlacher, Julius Peppers and Zack Bowman each recovered one of Detroit's six fumbles and the Bears improved to 5-1 by silencing the Lions 13-7. The Bears forced four turnovers to stop a Detroit team that actually outgained Chicago 340 yards to 296.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says the league will consider dropping the Pro Bowl if the level of play doesn't improve. Appearing on SiriusXM NFL Radio's "Town Hall" on Monday night, Goodell said: "If we cannot accomplish that kind of standard (of high play), I am inclined to not play the Pro Bowl." The league still would select a Pro Bowl team through voting by players, coaches and fans, but "just not play the game." The Pro Bowl will take place in January, a week before the Super Bowl, after the players lobbied to keep it, promising to upgrade their performances. Goodell and others were disappointed in the quality of last year's Pro Bowl, won 59-41 by the AFC and missing any semblance of hard hitting.
In preseason basketball yesterday, the Knicks and Carmelo Anthony returned to Melo’s home turf, taking on the 76ers at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse. As a freshman at Syracuse in the 2002-03 season, Anthony led the Orange to a 17-0 record at home in the dome en route to the national championship but the Knicks were not as lucky against Philadelphia, losing 98-90. Anthony and Raymond Felton each finished with 23 points for the Knicks (2-3). Anthony also had six rebounds, five assists and four steals.
Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press