Best bets

Last week: 3-1
Year-to-date: 12-8-1

Typically I spend my mornings in front of my laptop with CNN droning on in the background. That’s mostly because the morning fare on television is beyond bad and I like to pretend like I’m informed. CNN seems to be the most objective of all of the news networks and it’s easy to turn off the sound and turn on music or a podcast without losing contact with what’s going on in the world.

But this morning I felt a little bored with CNN so I decided to get a little crazy with my viewing… yeah that’s right, I flipped on the BBC.

The allure here is that the BBC – channel 114 on your Comcast dial – doesn’t have to worry about upsetting the special interests in the United States and can present the news earnestly. They also keep the sensationalism to a minimum, which means viewers get significant news segments on what’s happening in Asia instead of the Spears-Federline break up.

Nevertheless, this morning the BBC did a story about the big comeback for Kylie Minogue, who is recovering from breast cancer and is giving a concert in Sydney soon -- the BBC says the concert will be one of the biggest ever in Australia.

But that’s about as sensational or as deep as the entertainment news gets for the BBC. Besides, the story was enhanced by a mid-30s hipster reporter in a black suit and white shirt opened at the collar.

Apparently that look will never go out of style.

Speaking of style, are you like me? Do you like baseball statistics? Yeah? Well try this out – according to Peter Gammons, who read Bill James’ latest post-season stat geek yearbook, Ryan Howard is projected to out-homer Jim Thome during his career. Here it is:

Projected career homers: Bonds 884, Adam Dunn 618, Ryan Howard 711, Vladimir Guerrero 633, Troy Glaus 539, A. Jones 677, Pujols 867, A. Rodriguez 772, Jim Thome 619, Jason Tyner 0.

My guess is if Howard has 711 homers at the end of his career he’ll hang around to get 715.

Also on the BBC they talked about football, but the players didn’t have last names, like Ronaldo or Beckham. The highlights made the “football” game look really exciting, but they can’t fool me. I’ve seen that brand of football played and the prospect of watching baseball or paint dry is much more appealing.

As an aside, there are many things we Americans get wrong, but we are definitely right about soccer.

So you want to know what’s going to happen in the real football games this weekend? Slow down, I’ll tell you…

Seattle minus 3½ over St. Louis
The Seahawks looked darned good in the shutout victory over the Raiders last week. Actually, the quarterback sackers looked good and the rest of the team seemed to do just enough to get by. Watching on Monday night made me think of that scene in Stripes when Sgt. Hulka asked John Winger (played by Bill Murray, who now that I think about just might be one of my heroes) why he was last during the morning running drills.

“I’m pacing myself, sir,” Winger deadpanned.

I’m going to assume that the Seahawks are pacing themselves until Shaun Alexander and Matt Hasselback return from their injuries. In the meantime the Seahawks will improve to 6-3.

Six-and-three.

Can anyone else believe that Stripes came out in 1981? That’s 25 years ago… when did I get old?

Temple plus 36 over Penn State
Penn State, of course, will not have Joe Paterno pacing up and down the sideline this weekend after he broke his leg in a freak accident last Saturday in Wisconsin. At least they say it was an accident, but something seems fishy. Perhaps those wily folks up on North Broad thought their only chance to surprise the Nittany Lions this Saturday in the erector set model called Beaver Stadium was to take away the brains of the operation. Perhaps Paterno was "taken out."

Why not? Remember Tonya Harding and Jeff Gillooly?

Aside from the linebacker (I can’t spell his last name correctly without looking it up and I don’t feel like looking it up right now) who could win the Butkus Award, the Lions have some problems in the talented players category. Oh, they aren’t bad, they’re just a slightly above average team that will struggle to beat Temple by 36 points.

Thirty points is a different story, but 36 are a little too much.

Next season Penn State comes to Philadelphia to play Temple – that’s a long drive for the Lions just to have a home game.

New Orleans plus 4½ over Pittsburgh
Is this line a misprint? Yeah, the Steelers are playing at home, but come on. Not only are the Saints 6-2 against the spread this season, but also they are 8-0 against the spread in their last eight games in Week 10.

Washington plus 7 over Philadelphia
Take the Eagles to win but Redskins to cover. Plus, the Eagles are 2-8 against the spread in their last 10 games against NFC East teams.

Do those stats and trends really mean anything? How about this one: the Eagles really, really have to win this Sunday.