Hole Punch Sports

Happenings in the three major sports this weekend: Game One of The 2005 WhoCares.Com Bowl, also known as the World Series, is tomorrow. (Seriously, it's time for baseball to swipe that BCS from college football. Yes, it's backwards, but a) it guarantees a recognizable matchup and b) so is baseball.) The Sports Illustrated NBA season preview hits mailboxes and newsstands. The issue is notable only for its props to the Earl of Boykins, whose team it predicts to finish No. 2 (!) in the West. And finally, a full slate of NFL games, which brings us to Broncos-Giants. Now's a good time to point out that I missed something kind of big in the AFC West forecast earlier this week; namely, the Broncos' winning streak is even less impressive than my man Marvelous made it out to be. Why? Because in the last five weeks, the Broncos have already played half of their home games. That's right, four of the five wins came at Mile High II, meaning only four home dates the rest of the...

Sweet! The power just went out and I lost the start to this beautiful post, so here we go again on our tour of the AFC West. Here's the short of it: Denver and San Diego will compete for the division title. Kansas City is in second but still has the same old defense, and Oakland still has the same old one-dimensional offense. As for the long version, well... Denver (5-1): The Broncos wisely heeded the advice of what is surely Coach Shanahan's favorite website and focused on their multifaceted rushing attack to return to prominence. Led by the power of Mike Anderson and the elusive speed of Tatum Bell, the Broncos have propelled their way up the league rushing charts, currently standing in third place with 153 yards per game. Unsurprisingly, this has led to a five-game winning streak (ignore that I wrote that column when the Broncs were already one game into the streak). Who is the man now? The Broncos have played better than recent final scores would indicate, jumping out to ...

It's awfully cheap to pick a World Series winner after the games have started, I know. Thing is, I've been too lazy to update this recently, so you'll just have to trust that I picked my team before the postseason started. But I don't really care if you believe me, because I don't expect to be right. First, I didn't follow baseball much at all this year, and second, baseball's playoffs are so unpredictable, I'd be lucky to be right even if I did. Having said all that, I think the Saint Louis Cardinals will be your 2005 World Series Champions! But I could be happy with a few teams winning, and a lot less happy with others. So instead of making wildly incorrect predictions, here's my picks in order of who I want to win (not who I think will) from most-wanted to least: 1. St. Louis: Because I just picked them and I enjoy being right. (Not to get all cocky here, but Hole Punch Sports has never predicted a champion incorrectly. I have to say that now bec...