FanHouse

From the Windup is FanHouse's daily, extended look at a particular portion of America's pastime.

Before the season MLB FanHouse ran a series entitled "Old Boss/New Boss," in which possible new-school rivalries were discussed. Josh Alper covered a possible development in the AL East involving the Rays. See, we knew this year's group was feisty enough to make some noise on and off the field ... we just missed which large market team would step forward.

Well, we know now. The Tampa Bay Rays and the Boston Red Sox have a burgeoning rivalry. Just check out a few elements that create a true rivalry.

- The "we don't like each other" factor. Well, they've had this for quite a while. Go back to the Gerald Williams-Pedro Martinez fight and a few other dust-ups from in recent history. With these two specific groups, you had a huge brawl in Beantown this year when Coco Crisp went after James Shields to conclude a series worth of incidents... only to smugly accuse the Rays of fighting "like girls" in post-game interviews. The fight was unlike most, because you had two teams really wanting to fight each other. Usually there are like three dudes brawling and everyone else standing around. Not this one, it was the dictionary definition of a brawl. These teams do not like each other one bit, and I love it.

Sorting the Sunday Pile looks back at the NFL weekend that was. It's also an unofficial Mittens blog.

It took six weeks, but the Colts are back. Or it sure seems that way after yesterday's effort. In the first month of the season, Indianapolis looked old, but it was probably more accurate to describe them as injured and inexperienced.

Peyton Manning underwent two offseason knee surgeries, and it showed in the Week 1 loss to the Bears; Marvin Harrison was also returning from a knee injury, and in the first four games, he appeared slow, frail and out of place. That all changed Sunday.

If you're wondering why Tony Gonzalez, who has spent his entire 12-year NFL career with the Chiefs and always talked about how much he loved playing in Kansas City, is suddenly open to being traded, consider the encounter he had with Barack Obama.

Gonzalez -- who is apparently buddies with Obama -- tells Joe Posnanski that Obama told him he should read My Losing Season by Pat Conroy. When a person like Obama is giving you subtle hints that you're going to have to learn how to get through a bad year, that's a stark reminder that the Chiefs are going to be lucky to win five games this season.

My Losing Season, for the record, is Conroy's memoir of his senior year in college at The Citadel, when he was the point guard of a bad basketball team. This is not one of those sports stories that has a happy ending, with the main character leading his team to victory in the big game.

But the good news for Gonzalez is that with a little over 24 hours left before the NFL trade deadline, it's still possible that he could end his career with a contender. Maybe some day Gonzalez will write My Winning Season.

In the Playoff Pulse series, our MLB editor takes on a hot topic.

Leave it to Mannywood -- ahem -- Hollywood to drum up some much-needed October drama. There's nothing like postseason baseball, but let's face it, the nailbiting, heart-stopping tension that makes it so great has been in short supply this month.

In fact, in the 25 completed playoff series since 2005, only three of them have gone the full five or seven games. Conversely, 12 of the series have been sweeps.

The Rays did their part Saturday night to ensure the ALCS wouldn't be a short one, pulling out a see-saw 5-hour, 27-minute marathon to pull even with the Red Sox. But playing in a city where every busboy and gas station attendant has a script, the Dodgers and Phillies weren't about to be outdone.

Los Angeles had had just about enough of pitches up and in, high and behind and low and on the kneecap to Manny Ramirez and Russell Martin when, in obvious retaliation, Hiroki Kuroda buzzed Shane Victorino in the third inning of Game 3.

Like a good actor, the fiery Victorino played his role perfectly, gesturing vividly to his head and his ribs repeatedly. Moments later, the benches cleared. Ramirez had to be held back by Martin and Joe Torre. The Phillie-turned-Dodger Larry Bowa and the Dodger-turned-Phillie Davey Lopes were screaming at each other. And the FOX cameras caught it all.

It's just one loss, right? There's no need to press the panic button after one loss, right? That's probably the truth. The Phillies are still winning the NLCS two games to one, even after their 7-2 thumping at the hands of the Dodgers in Game 3 on Sunday night. They still only need two wins in the last four games to lock up their first World Series berth in 15 years. Still, the Phils shouldn't let that lead mask some serious concerns after three games.

Even with two hits from Ryan Howard last night, he and Jimmy Rollins still only have three combined on the series. Maybe Howard's starting to break out of his postseason slump, but I think I need to see more than a double and a single from the big man to be convinced he's back. And beyond that, Jamie Moyer and Brett Myers have now given up 11 earned runs in the last two starts for the Phillies. Their bullpen is good, but they're going to need either one of those two or Joe Blanton to step things up, because Cole Hamels can't win two games by himself with only one start left in the series.

All of this likely sounds like an incredibly negative outlook for a team that's still up 2-1 in the series. It probably is. But it was hard to not get the sense that the series was swinging around significantly between the beating the Dodgers laid on Moyer and the brawl that took place after Shane Victorino watched a Hiroki Kuroda fastball sail over his head. They say that momentum is only as good as your next starter, so it's up to Joe Blanton to be the Phillies' stopper. If he can do it, the Phillies should have the series on lock. If he can't, well, I don't think the Phillies want to think about that.

I love the NBA. I love the regular season, I definitely love the playoffs and I even love the summer league.

But I hate the preseason.

Why? First and foremost, the NBA makes it nearly impossible to watch a game. I'm a Pistons fan, and even though they were one of the last four teams standing last year, the four months from the end of the conference finals to the start of the preseason felt like an eternity. So when the Pistons took the court for their first preseason game last week, I was understandably geeked ... until I realized it wasn't even televised, at least not in the Detroit market.

Sadly, that's actually a common occurence for preseason games -- of the eight games on Detroit's slate, only three will be televised in metro Detroit. I'm baffled by the decision -- the best I can gather is that TV execs are worried about ratings what with the MLB playoffs, the NFL and college football, the NHL and cars with lots of advertisments driving in circles competing for the average sports fan's attention.

But still, there are a lot of fans who only have eyes for the NBA, and denying them a chance to watch not one, not two, but a full 60% of the preseason? It just doesn't make sense. Certainly there's at least one station willing to show the game, right? And if there's not, why not just put it online? In fact, that might actually be preferable since it'd kill two birds with one stone: appeasing local fans who'd otherwise be shutout as well as throwing a bone to international fans who weren't going to have a chance to tune in.

Thanks to just one ceremonial puck drop with Republican Vice Presidential nominee, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, the National Hockey League has turned into a political football -- and a lot of the folks are working very hard trying to influence what and how you think about it.

In the last 24 hours, I've seen a pair of interesting instances of how the events of Saturday night are being reported that are worth noting. Details follow after the jump.

Did you know that Matt Hasselbeck, once upon a time, backed up Brett Favre? It's true -- he drafted by Green Bay and learned under the Great One and Mike Holmgren for two years before heading to Seattle with his coach.

So there was something oddly bizarre about not seeing the 'Beck sit this one out, while his would-be successor for holding Favre's clipboard -- Aaron Rodgers -- fought through several injuries for the second straight week to attempt and lead the Packers to victory. Which, as you can see from the title, he did.

And it was one of those MUST WIN-wins (a phrase that needs to die, and quickly, unless we're speaking of elimination games), and Rodgers did what he needed to, "rushing" for a touchdown and throwing for two more. Both were Favre-like, in that they were, individually, a long bomb to Greg Jennings and a one yarder to John Kuhn. (Who? Exactly.)

Meanwhile, Charles Lester Frye wasn't much like anyone worthwhile, completing 12 passes for 83 yards, even though it included two touchdowns. Koren Robinson was his leading receiver with 23 yards and Keary Colbert pulled in a five yard catch in the end zone, his only of the day. So, yeah, you could say everything's coming up Seattle these days.

Earlier this week, Eagles quarterback Donovan Mcnabb wrote that he was "embarrassed" by the way he and his teammates were playing over the past couple of weeks. Well, Donovan can turn that frown upside down, at least for today, as the Eagles put up 23 fourth quarter points on their way to a 40-26 win at San Francisco.

Mcnabb completed 23 of 36 passes for 278 yards and a pair of touchdowns, while DeSean Jackson hauled in six passes for 98 yards in his homecoming of sorts. And they did it all without Brian Westbrook.

The Eagles had to come from behind after blowing a 17-6 lead of their own, and it started to slip away on the last play of the first half when San Francisco's Anthony Strickland returned a block field goal 41 yards for a touchdown. On the opening drive of the second half, Frank Gore capped off a six-play, 78-yard drive when he scored on a six-yard run to give the 49ers their first lead of the day. Gore finished the game with 101 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries.

Later in the quarter, Joe Nedney booted a 29-yard field pushing the San Francisco lead to nine points. Things looked good for the 49ers ... until the fourth quarter started.

In the aftermath of Team USA's 6-1 thrashing of Cuba in a World Cup qualifier on Saturday night, I couldn't help but feel like there was one thing missing -- and that was the presence on the field of one of the future start of the U.S. Men's National Soccer Team, Maurice Edu. With Edu now playing with Glasgow Rangers of the Scottish Premier League, fans in North America just don't get enough chances to see him play.

Unless of course you pick up the video game FIFA '09 from EA Sports. Edu is such a big star these days that he earned himself a place on the cover beside Ronaldinho of AC Milan and Guillermo Ochoa of Mexico's Club America. Edu is pictured here wearing the kit of Toronto FC, the club he played with in MLS.