Gee, I can't imagine why these aren't flying off the shelves at Toys "R" Us, but there sure were a lot of them. Only 10 bucks a piece according to the TRU web site.

The UConn football team is heading to the Papa John's Bowl in Birmingham, Alabama on January 2nd.
Stayed tuned to news channel 8 at 6 for more details.

It's been a forgone conclusion for weeks, but this week it became official that Charlie Weiss was fired as head football coach at Notre Dame. Many say it was the loss to UConn that was the final straw. Either way, there will be a new era at Notre Dame next season. For the sake of college football, we ALL need Notre Dame to be successful again.

See, Notre Dame has the ability to do what no other school can do. Force a BCS playoff system. Notre Dame is a BCS football team. However, they are not affiliated with a conference, giving them the freedom to pick and choose their opponents as they please. It also means they don't have to do what Florida, Alabama, and Texas have to do: risk the entire season on your conference title game after a perfect regular season.

Imagine this. Let's say Weiss did restore glory to Notre Dame, and they were undefeated right now. How could the NCAA justify that a team like Notre Dame could be left out of the title game? They couldn't, it would be the biggest sports story going right now. Yet, as I write this, Cincinnati, TCU, and Boise State are all undefeated, and know they will have no chance to play for the title.

This is where Notre Dame is different. Notre Dame is too powerful a school, too big a name, too much of a money maker for them to be shut out. And if they did, Notre Dame is the ONLY SCHOOL with their athletic director on the BCS committee. No other school has such a direct voice, they all have to go through their respective conference chairman. Notre Dame is such a powerhouse, that they have direct representation on the committee. Are you telling me at the first meeting after an undefeated Notre Dame is kept out of the title game, there aren't going to be motions on the table for a playoff system?

NCAA Division 1A football is the only college sport/division without a playoff system (even Division II & III have one for football). And that is not going to change until something forces it too. So, whether you like them or not, Notre Dame is that something to force a change in the BCS. Now, we all just have to hope that Notre Dame can return to the national power they once were.

We've been giving a lot of good-natured grief to baseball fan Chris Velardi over the past few days. As a long time New York Mets fan, it galls him to see those New York Yankees win yet another World Series. So of course, we assigned him to cover Yankees-related stories for the past two days! This morning we gave him a ticket out of town and said go to the city and cover the parade.

Connecticut Yankees fans on the train to the championship parade in New York City. (Photo: Chris Velardi)

Tweeting from the rails, @cvelardi says "On the train to NYC - they could call this the Yankee Clipper."

Have fun Chris! More of Chris' pictures are posted here, and watch his report tonight on News Channel 8.

A bit of premature celebration by the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper Monday. The paper ran an ad congratulating the team for winning back-to-back World Series Championships. That would be on the same day the sports page reported that the Yankees took a three games to one lead in the series.

Ad in Philadelphia Inquirer.

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I have come to accept certain truths in life. I have to pay my taxes, I have to go to work, and I will never grow up to be Hugh Hefner. I also know that I root for the single biggest villain in all of sports, the New York Yankees.

As Yankees fans around the country gear up for Game 1 of the World Series tonight, there is no question that pretty much everyone outside of those Yankees fans is rooting for the Phillies. And you know what? I have no problem with this. Every story needs a great villain, the Yankees fit the bill perfectly, and the rest of baseball should be thankful for the Yankees.

Think of this in movie terms. Darth Vader, Hannibal Lector, Norman Bates, and so on. All of these characters are far more memorable than their counterparts, and make their respective movies memorable. You root against them, but there is a part of everyone that wishes they could be more like them. That is the New York Yankees. Every sports fan hates them for what they are, but wishes their team was just like them. Name one sports fan wouldn't want their team to be a contender every year, if all it meant was losing favor with the fans of other sports teams? Waiting.... waiting... no one?? Thought so.

Without the Yankees, there is no villain, and the story falls flat. Say what you will about sportsmanship, but people enjoy the games more when there is drama, when there is a clear cut good guy and bad guy. It's the same formula the pro wrestling bases their billion dollar industry on, and in baseball, the Yankees are an entire team of King Kong Bundys, Iron Sheiks, and Randy Ortons. Would you care if this World Series was the Rockies versus the Twins? Of course not. Regardless of the quality of the games, ratings would plummet and the World Series would be a second rate story.

The Yankees are what the World Series needs. People will watch, even if just to root against them. You can call them the evil empire, you can say they buy their players, and you can even say they are what's wrong with sports. But no matter what, the Yankees bring drama, the Yankees bring storylines, and the Yankees make the World Series matter. The Yankees are the perfect villain.

Former UConn standout Hasheem Thabeet makes his debut with the Memphis Grizzlies tonight. He had some fun Tuesday with the Fox station in Memphis and their Meteorologist Joey Sulipeck. In the interest of sharing some fun, here's the longer clip of the outtakes.

Ok, so this isn't exactly the match-up I was hoping for in the World Series, but this should be a good one to watch. The Yankees get to celebrate their first World Series in eons (at least it feels like that long for pinstripe fans) in their new park. It's their 40th overall. And Philadelphia gets to try and repeat as World Series champions, and no one has done that since the (irony alert) 1998-2000 Yankees.

I'm going to say this one goes all the way to seven games. Game one is Wednesday night.