Quick hits

Here's a few quick thoughts on the sports world, both local in Iredell County and nationally. Make sure you check out the post below and watch our first "Sports Show."

Before the baseball season started, I threw out a few predictions for the playoffs. To recap: my division winners were Boston, Detroit, Oakland, New York Mets, St. Louis and Arizona with the Angels and Braves earning the wild cards. Some hits and misses. I said I wasn't ready to pick Milwaukee - or the Cubs - to win the division, when it was the Cardinals who had a big drop-off. I can at least defend the Oakland pick in that I just read the book "Money Ball" and loved it so much I became an A's homer. If I had a re-do? Right now, I'd go with Boston, Detroit, Los Angeles and the Mariners (barely over the Indians for the wild card) in the AL and New York, Chicago (homer!) and the surprising Diamondbacks (my best pick) with the Braves still in the wild card. World Series? I'd begrudgingly take Boston and Atlanta.

It's almost fantasy football time, and my self-promise of being in only one league this year didn't last through July. As of now, I am in three - including a college fantasy football league, something I've never done before. Despite my terrible No. 1 overall selection of Shaun Alexander and my platoon of Joseph Addai, Reggie Bush and Maurice Jones-Drew, I somehow made the championship game of our league last season. My best drafting advice for this year? Draft running backs in the first two rounds no matter what. Don't feel pressured to take a quarterback early. NEVER draft a kicker until the last round. And try to draft a top tight end, if possible.

I'll be at the South Iredell-Lake Norman football game Friday night and the Mooresville-North Iredell soccer match on Monday. Some of my thoughts on the South Iredell-Lake Norman game can be found on The Sports Show Web cast, but to expound on them a little bit, this is a fascinating matchup in my eyes. I know some of you readers don't live near Iredell County, so to sort of put it in perspective, this would be like Texas Tech (Lake Norman) against Navy (South Iredell), the air attack versus the ground game. I picked South Iredell, and my predicted score would be 17-14 or something along those lines.

So, is the Little League World Series the next "big" thing? I don't mind that the games are on T.V., and I might decide to put them on in the background if I'm bored, but all-day showings complete with highlights on SportsCenter? Is this a bit much?