Sports this 'n' that

Major League Baseball began a tradition last year with the introduction of the Little League Classic, a regular season game played at the home of the Little League World Series, Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

This year's game capped a 5-game, 4-day series between the Philadelphia Phillies, whose NY-Penn League team plays in Williamsport, and the Mets. The Mets knocked the Phils out of a tie for 1st in the NL East with an 8-2 win. Jason Vargas, the weak link in the Met rotation this season, picked up the win, a little more than 24 hours after Jacob deGrom pitched a complete game gem against the Phils. And everyone thinks the Mets won't make the playoffs? There's still a little more than a month to go, and, as the Yankees proved 40 years ago, a lot can happen in that amount of time.
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Meanwhile, the Tri-City Valleycats are hanging on to 1st place in the Stedler Division of the NY-Penn League by a thread as they entertain Brooklyn tonight after getting swept by second place Lowell over the weekend. Including tonight, the 'Cats have just six home games left, as they will visit the Hudson Valley Renegades after their series with Brooklyn finishes on Wednesday. Would they still get in as a wild card? I'm not so sure.
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As of press time, Saturday's Northeastern Football Alliance game between the Troy Fighting Irish and Syracuse Strong had not been reported. Syracuse is the only team to beat Troy this season, and that was at Lansingburgh High earlier this summer. The Irish return to Lansingburgh for the home finale vs. Auburn on Saturday night, and a loss to Syracuse would give the Strong the division.
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Vince McMahon needs to get a clue.

It was one thing that Roman Reigns finally took down Brock Lesnar and ended the latter's overlong Universal title reign Sunday at Summerslam, even with Braun Strowman looming with the Money in The Bank briefcase. Lesnar disposed of Strowman, preventing a cash-in and the likely coronation of Strowman as the new standard bearer for the company, ensuring that McMahon finally got what he wanted, and that was Reigns as the top dog for Monday Night Raw. McMahon's myopic tunnel vision has gotten Reigns nothing but scorn from the internet community the last four years, and it's going to take a long time before Reigns, who was a college football star at Georgia Tech (real name-Joseph Anoia) before turning to wrestling, mirroring the career path of his much more famous cousin, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (a Miami grad), can be redeemed in the eyes of the fans.

On the other hand, McMahon engendered even more apathy over on Smackdown in the women's division. After Becky Lynch had earned a title match vs. Carmella, Charlotte Flair came off the disabled list at the end of July, and was inserted into the title match at Summerslam. The end result? Flair won the title, and Lynch, with a rabid Brooklyn crowd behind her, turned on her friend after the match. Obviously, McMahon wanted the opposite reaction, and didn't get it, and this is where he needs to really find a few clues. Today's fans are a lot smarter than the 72 (soon to be 73 later this week) year old promoter would care to admit, and it shows in places like Brooklyn, Chicago, Montreal, etc., where audiences will cheer for whomever they want, not specifically the ones McMahon has anointed as the crowd favorites. In Brooklyn, the crowd turned on Flair, the daughter of Hall of Famer Ric Flair, right along with Lynch.

Do I have to say it? It's way past time for McMahon to retire.

Of course, the bigger headline in the aftermath of Sunday night wasn't Reigns finally beating Lesnar, but rather, former UFC star Ronda Rousey reducing Raw women's champ Alexa Bliss to a quivering schoolgirl in claiming the title, and becoming the 2nd fighter to win titles in both WWE & UFC (Lesnar, of course, is the other). People will complain about this, too, feeling that Rousey, who's also an actress in her spare time (her latest, "Mile 22", opens this week), was rushed to the title if only to get some attention on ESPN, FS1, etc., but the sad truth is that this is exactly what McMahon craves at his advanced age. He wants to keep his company relevant, even if his main roster brands have been eclipsed by NXT.

And, on that note, Triple H (Paul Levesque) should be the one running the main roster now. He is the man in charge of NXT, and has turned it into an even bigger phenomenon than WWE itself was in the glory years of the 80's and in the Attitude Era. However, McMahon stubbornly, defiantly, clings to the only success he's had, thinking WWE will crumble without him. Someone should get him a sedative and send him to the retirement home.