A Post About Sports? What!?

Yeah, it's been a while, but the world of sports has been incredibly slow, but October means EPIC SPORTS MONTH! The MLB Postseason begins later this week, we're 4 weeks into the current NFL season, and the NBA and NHL seasons begin later this month. As usual in the world of Enrique, 2 sports have me excited and the other 2 sports are either massive failures or are going to be massive failures.

In the world of baseball, the Giants have finally made the postseason for the first time since 2003. I'm not expecting them to reach the World Series, but at least making it to the NLCS would be great. I really don't expect them to be able to beat the Phillies, much less the Rays or Yankees, but hey, can't a fan hope?

He may be a pothead, but he could be the reason the Giants reach the World Series.

In football, the 49ers have been a massive disappointment. Even the sports "geniuses" over at ESPN can't explain why the 49ers are 0-4; most people predicted the 49ers to be 3-1 at this point of the season. The defensive line is as good as ever, the offensive line has been a huge improvement from last year, and Alex Smith has matured a lot as quarterback. The main problems have been Jimmy Raye's lack of desire to be on the sidelines during game time, needing to talk to the QB coach and then the QB coach speaking to Singletary, and finally Singletary talking to Smith. That problem was thankfully solved by firing Jimmy Raye. Although he was the best offensive coordinator the 49ers have had since 2002, he was also infamous for being difficult to understand by anyone other than his QB coach, who has become the new Offensive Coordinator in Jimmy Raye's departure. Another reason for the 49ers doing badly has been the Special Teams Unit. Ted Ginn Jr. did fantastically in the preseason, but the fucker just had to get injured for up to 2 months! In his place, a extremely mediocre wide receiver has been taking his place, where Michael Crabtree should be playing double duties of offense and special teams. Can the 49ers recover to win the NFC West, the worst division in football? It's possible if they decide to start caring!

Good riddance to you and your stupid hat!

In basketball, the Lakers are almost guaranteed to make it to the NBA Finals for a 4th year in a row. Despite all that, it seems that the regular season has been dubbed completely pointless with too many games and complete lack of concern as to how a team does unless they are in danger of not making the playoffs. This has been evidenced by Andrew Bynum putting off his knee surgery until after the World Cup and discovering his condition was much worse than anticipated and he will now miss the first 2 months of the regular season. As much as Lakers fans love Bynum, he's also incredibly frustrating because he keeps getting injured all the time! I really love Bynum's post play, but god dammit the kid keeps busting a knee! I'd love to replace Bynum, but the fact is that he is one of the last true centers playing basketball. He's proven his value as a traditional center by leading the Lakers to defeat 7 teams that lacked a true center in the past 2 postseasons and defeating one team that actually had a real center (The number would have been 6 teams if Yao hadn't gotten injured during the 2009 playoffs). Everything's going to be ok though, the Lakers got a much better schedule compared to last year where the beginning of the season was full of almost nothing but home games and the end of the season was almost nothing but away games.

It's a very bad thing that this image is no longer shocking. But, the kid got game.

In hockey.... the LA Kings are..... well, to put it simply, the Kings have never managed to match the success that they had in the Gretzky years. They've certainly improved their uniform since the silver & black days, but that's about all one can say about them. Sure, they make the playoffs every so often despite being a disappointment every year, but they've only made it to the second round once since reaching the Stanley Cup Finals back in the early 90s. Last year was probably the best the Kings have had since Gretzky's departure and there are some high hopes for the team this year. Unfortunately, they were not able to sign Ilya Kovalchuk to a contract during the offseason and he decided to sign a 15-year contract with the team he was already on, the New Jersey Devils. Despite all that, the Kings are still expected to make the playoffs for the 2nd year in a row, the first time they will have done so since Gretzky. I don't have any expectations for the Kings, but hey, if they can make it to the 2nd round, I won't hide that not only am I a hockey fan, but I'm a Kings fan.

Help us Dustin Brown, you're our only hope!

So there we have the prognosis of the Big Four sports. The SF Giants will at least make it to the NLCS, the 49ers have a shot of winning the NFC West as long as they start winning games, the Lakers are a shoe-in for a 4th consecutive appearance in the NBA Finals, and the LA Kings are more than likely going to make the playoffs for the 2nd year in a row. Sometimes, I hate that not all my teams can be as successful as each other. Such is the curse of being a sports fan in California...