All Sport Report

Today was a big day in the Evans household. I had my remote set to flip between three different sporting events. At 1:00 PM EST, the Detroit Tigers took on the Oakland A’s. If they happened to win this game, they had the chance to move half a game ahead of Cleveland for 1st place in the AL’s Central Division. Of course, the Tribe would also have to lose their game today to the New York Yankees for this to occur. With the Yankees playing some damn good baseball lately that seemed like the inevitable outcome.

Meanwhile, Football’s pre-season began in Detroit when the Lions took on the Bengals. I’m not a fan of either team (though as a little tyke my heroes were Icky and Boomer – I perfected my “Icky Shuffle”). However, seeing football on TV was exciting enough to get me all riled up. Besides, being in Michigan, I feel minor loyalty to the Lions, even if they have had some rather “sucky” streaks in the past few years. The exhibition game just happened to be on my Detroit CW station with the Tigers on one of my other, local stations.

Then, at 2:00 PM EST, in the height of both games, one of the fiercest races I’ve seen took place at Watkins Glens on ESPN. I had time to see the Tigers take the lead and the Lions give up way too many points to the Bengals before hearing the words that were music to my ears…”Gentlemen, start your engines!” This race was a nail biter. Sure, the Tigers had a few scares when pitchers gave up runs, but the team played well and glimpses of the old Tigers team I love shone through. Besides, watching Magglio get two home runs in one inning, made my day. My Tigers ended up winning by 11-6. That just meant the Tribe had to lose for the Tigers to resume first place in their division. Luckily, they did!

At Ford Field, things weren’t going so well. By the mid-way point of the 4th quarter, the Lions were down by 9. The score was 26-17, but after rallying, getting one touchdown, and recovering to score a goal with just a few moments left to spare, the Lions took a 27-26 lead and managed to pull out a win! I can’t say I expected it, but you can bet there was plenty to celebrate in Detroit as two of their top sports teams got their acts together and did something with the skills they possess.

As if my day wasn’t exciting enough, I spent a few hours watching a race I never expected to see. Early on, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was out of the race. He blew out an engine. Then, there was a massive on course collision, which involved Juan Pablo Montoya, Kevin Harvick, and Jeff Burton. The entire race track had to be cleaned up and a red flag had us sitting on the edges of our seat in anticipation. What would happen next?

At one point in the race, Tony Stewart (the leader at the time) spun out in the first turn losing twelve or so places. Having crawled back into second, with Earnhardt Jr. gone from the race, it was a battle between Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin, and Carl Edwards (or as I tell my girlfriend who can’t tell them apart Dupont, Home Depot, FedEx, and Office Depot) to see who would win. I can’t say that Hamlin and Edwards didn’t fight fierce as they fought to gain spots ahead of Stewart. However, Tony maintained second place with two laps to go when…the unexpected happened! Race leader Jeff Gordon spun out in turn one, the same place Stewart spun out earlier.

As it is, Stewart was victorious! Four is his lucky number. He won his fourth victory at Watkins Glen and moved up one spot in the overall rankings to 4th place. I recommend he play it in the lottery (just kidding, of course). Either way, it was a great day at the Evans household. How did all you sports enthusiasts spend your Sunday?

Detroit Tigers, Magglio Ordonez, NASCAR, Watkins Glens, Detroit Lions, American Football, NFL, Baseball, MLB, Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin