Sports heck.

I won't say sports hell, but sports heck will do, I guess. 

An overly optimistic friend of mine has been watching the Beloved Mets coast along in first place all season, expecting a neat slide into the playoffs. An overly pessimistic friend has been expecting another September crash and burn. If you've been reading this blog for a while I'm sure you can guess where I fall. 

You must never underestimate the power of the S.S. Mets to hit an iceberg on a warm September day. Not that everything is over, but the Hated Braves have had an incredible winning streak, and this past week the Mets decided to start losing to poor teams, and we landed in second place over the weekend. The Mets rebounded, and it could be an exciting back-and-forth battle right down to the wire, but I expect the Braves to leap over the Mets and pull away, and the '22 Mets to become the Baxters in another legendary Atlanta season. 

As for football, meh. In years past I would be over the moon by the Giants' gutsy play that won their first game of the season, but I'm still disgusted by the NFL's descent into wokeness. The last places you'd expect to find political correctness were the Marines and the NFL, and they're both becoming riddled with it. I enjoyed the piece by America's Newspaper, the Babylon Bee, on this topic: "NFL Hoping 3rd Year of 'End Racism' Painted in End Zone Will Do the Trick." 

"This is the year that the NFL ends racism, once and for all. Third time's the charm!" said Commissioner Jim Hardleather at a press conference while surrounded by a dozen other old, white members of the NFL executive committee who also showed the courage to not dare recommend removing "End Racism" from the end zones for fear of being canceled.

Yeah, no doubt. 

My overly optimistic friend is a Giants fan, and he thinks the team looks much improved. My overly pessimistic friend is a fan of the Redskins Commanders, so he's already miserable. This is a guy who knows all the words to the original Redskins fight song: 

Hail to the Redskins!

Hail Victory!

Braves on the Warpath!

Fight for old Dixie!

Run or pass and score -- we want a lot more!

Scalp 'em, swamp 'em -- We will take 'em big score

Read 'em, weep 'em, touchdown - we want heap more

Fight on, Fight on -- Till you have won

Sons of Washington. Rah!, Rah!, Rah!

I kind of expect the fans to sing the old words (maybe the revised version that doesn't mention Dixie or use fake Indian talk though) instead of the "Hail to the Commanders" lyrics that have the Official Sanction. 

I don't think this team name controversy means a hill of beans to actual Native Americans compared to more serious issues, but the National Congress of American Indians cares. Mostly, though, it's another scalp -- uh, victory -- for sniffy college types who can't throw a football ten yards, have never been to a reservation, and never done a day of real work. But you know, if it makes the actual tribes happy, that's fine. 

I do wish the Cleveland MLB team had picked a better name than the Guardians. They're in first place now. It would just figure if Cleveland won its first championship since 1948 with that dumb name.