🎧Sports Brief: Yankees and Dodgers Clash in Epic World Series; Top-Ranked Ducks Host Surprising Illini; Former Also-Rans Rise in the Rankings

New York Yankees' Giancarlo Stanton hits an RBI double during the fourth inning in Game 3 of an American League Division baseball playoff series against the Kansas City Royals in Kansas City, Mo., on Oct. 9, 2024. Colin Braley/AP Photo

Greetings sports fans, and welcome to The Epoch Times Sports Brief for Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. I’m Bill Thomas, we’ve got some really exciting stories to share with you right now, and here’s what’s happening in the thrilling world of sports.

A hugely anticipated World Series gets underway, college football’s new top dog faces a significant challenge, and a few surprising unbeatens look to shatter college football’s glass ceiling on the march to the playoffs.

Also, a critical NFL scuffle might not kick off as expected, and watch out! Everyone’s talking about one team’s home-court advantage, and if you’re a hoops fan, you’ve gotta hear what they’re saying.

Oh, I almost buried the lede—we’ve got a bunch of really cool stuff that we can’t wait to give away—and later during the Sports Brief, we’ll let you know exactly how you can score your very own world-famous one-in-a-million, highly sought-after, much prized Epoch Times coffee mug. And so you know, these things have a retail value of about a buck and a half.

We begin this edition of the Epoch Times Sports Brief with the crack of the bat, the roar of the crowd, the pop of the catcher’s mitt, and a glamorous Fall Classic for the ages.

Yankees and Dodgers Clash in Epic World Series

The World Series we’ve all been waiting too long for begins this afternoon in Los Angeles when the Dodgers and the Yankees meet for the 12th time for baseball’s biggest prize, and if you want tickets for this series, you’ll have to take out a second mortgage on your house.

This year’s best-of-seven affair pits east versus west, laid-back versus uptight, and a pair of teams with the best records in all of baseball.

For the hometown Dodgers, it all begins at the very top of the lineup with the single greatest player in the entire game, 50/50 legend Shohei Ohtani. If that’s not scary enough, the boys in blue have a couple more former MVPs in Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, as well as a stacked lineup of clutch veterans who have an uncanny knack for stepping up their games whenever the season’s on the line.

The Bronx Bombers counter with a massive slugger of their own, the gigantic Aaron Judge, who hit 58 long balls this season. Judge is backed by Juan Soto, who just clinched the American League pennant with his 10th-inning bomb, and dominating slugger Giancarlo Stanton, another former MVP who’s apparently taken an enormous gulp from the Fountain of Youth.

Here’s a tip: Keep your eyes on underrated Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernandez, whose powerful bat might just give the boys in blue the slight edge they need to become world champions.

You should know that the Yankees will send reigning Cy Young Award winner Gerrit Cole out to the mound for tonight’s Game 1, while the Dodgers will counter with unpredictable right-hander Jack Flaherty. It looks like the key to the series may be the bullpen, where the Dodgers seem to have a significant advantage.

On a sad note, earlier this week legendary Dodgers pitcher Fernando Valenzuela passed away at the age of 63. It was Valenzuela who led the Dodgers to the World Series title against the Yankees in 1981. If they didn’t already have the edge in this series, the passing of their beloved teammate adds an emotional aspect to the L.A. squad that could very easily tip the scales in their favor. This will most likely be one of the most watched series in the history of baseball.

And now the moment you’ve been waiting for—it’s time for our prediction, and here’s how it all pans out: a tight series, lots of scoring, a major contribution from an unsung hero, and the way we see it, the Dodgers in seven.

We’ll move along now to the boiling turmoil we call college football. A new force has risen to the top of the rankings; tomorrow afternoon, they face a very difficult challenge, and here’s what you need to know.

Top-Ranked Ducks Host Surprising Illini

The undefeated Oregon Ducks will try to do what no one else has been able to pull off this season, and that’s hold on to the crown when they host the surprising Illinois Illini squad at raucous Autzen Stadium in Eugene.

Coach Dan Lanning has built one of the nation’s best programs, dual-threat quarterback Dillon Gabriel is putting up huge numbers, and the team with more uniform changes than a Paris fashion show just keeps on winning—even as a new member of the brutal Big Ten conference.

The 20th-ranked Illini have shocked a whole bunch of fans with their 6–1 record, and they’ve already knocked off three ranked teams—but they’ve never been tested like this.

Illini coach Brett Bielema has the rugged demeanor of a longshoreman, but he’s one heck of a leader, and knocking off the high-flying Ducks will put his team squarely in the hunt for a coveted spot in the expanded 12-team college football playoffs.

By the way, neither of these teams plays a ranked opponent the rest of the way—making this knockdown drag-out slugfest, on paper, the toughest challenge that either of them will face for the remainder of the season.

Whoever walks away with a hard-fought victory in this critical conference showdown earns a golden ticket to the express train for the playoffs.

By the way, a couple of other knucklebusters worth mentioning include one-loss Notre Dame visiting undefeated Navy and an SEC clash pitting Missouri against struggling Alabama. A loss by any one of these teams will likely put their burgeoning playoff dreams to sleep for the rest of the year.

We’ll stay on the college gridiron for a bit, and don’t look now, but a number of perennial doormats are still undefeated; none of them can afford to drop a single contest, and tomorrow, these underdog squads face some really tough competition.

Former Also-Rans Rise in the Rankings

Neither Iowa State, BYU, nor Indiana has lost a single game yet, and each of these very surprising programs is looking to turn the college football playoff race completely upside-down by sneaking into the postseason tournament.

The Hoosiers are the biggest surprise on the block, and grumpy new head coach Curt Cignetti is leading a remarkable turnaround in Bloomington, Indiana. So you know, tomorrow they host the Washington Huskies in a difficult Big Ten clash.

It’s worth mentioning that just last week, Indiana’s starting quarterback Kurtis Rourke injured his thumb, and tomorrow, he’ll be replaced in the starting lineup by backup Tayven Jackson, squarely placing the team on the upset alert.

On the other hand, both BYU and Iowa State play in the wide-open Big 12 conference. They’re not scheduled to meet in the regular season, but if they each win out, they’ll meet in the conference championship game in about six weeks.

Tomorrow, Iowa State will be in a dogfight against conference foe Texas Tech, while the Cougars fly to Orlando to grapple with the University of Central Florida.

So you know, the first playoff rankings come out in a week and a half, and on Election Day, we’ll all have a better idea of where these teams stand in the pecking order.

Let’s move over now to the big leagues, and a significant injury is threatening to wreak havoc on this weekend’s marquee NFL matchup. Here’s what we know.

Daniels Questionable for Huge NFL Matchup

On Sunday, the first-place Washington Commanders host the visiting Chicago Bears in a surprising battle of rising squads, but we still don’t know who’s going to play quarterback for the home team.

This fascinating contest has been on the radar for months and features the two top picks in the most recent NFL draft, Caleb Williams and Jayden Daniels.

Daniels is off to a fabulous start for the surprising first-place Washington football team. However, last week, he injured his ribs when he was tackled after a long run by the woeful Panthers, and whether or not he plays on Sunday is likely a game-time decision.

Earlier this week, head coach Dan Quinn said that Daniels is week to week, which is like code for “we don’t know yet,” and that’s expected to be the status right up until the first whistle.

If Daniels sits this one out, former Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota looks ready and able to lead his team to victory—but he’s the backup for a reason, and it’s not because he looks good holding a clipboard.

By the way, the Commanders have a physical ground game, an improving defense, and the best coaching staff in the league—but Daniels is a game-changer, and without their budding superstar, things get a little dicey.

On the other sidelines, the Bears are a shocking 4–2, but that’s simply not good enough in the bruising NFC North, the best division in football. The front office has stuffed this squad with quality receivers, revamped the defensive linemen, and drafted the widely heralded Williams, who’s been playing better and better each week.

It remains to be seen whether or not we’ll all get a chance to see the intriguing duel we all want between a pair of rising young signal callers, but either way, the arrow is pointing straight up for this exciting contest and a pair of squads that just might just get another chance to wrestle in the playoffs.

We have time for just one more story, and this one involves flying through the air, some devastating swats, and if you’re a hoops fan, a brand new place to take in a game that’s the absolute talk of the league.

New Arena Is the Talk of the NBA

The NBA regular season is off to a blazing start, and beginning tonight, this entire weekend is nothin’ but nonstop action.

So far, the defending champion Celtics have launched out of the gate and are still unbeaten, while Lakers superstar LeBron James and his rookie child Bronny just became the first father-and-son duo ever to lace up their hi-tops and play at the same time.

Also, last night, Oklahoma City knocked off Denver in a clash of Western Conference hopefuls, and former Warrior Klay Thompson looked pretty darn good in his debut with the revamped and victorious Dallas Mavericks.

However, the biggest story from the league’s opening week has got to be the brand-new, luxurious state-of-the-art $2 billion arena that was recently built for the L.A. Clippers in Inglewood, California. The basketball Taj Mahal was built by their bombastic billionaire owner, former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

It’s called the Intuit Dome, and it’s got the most modern features of any arena in the U.S.A. It has an enormous halo-style viewing screen that encircles the rafters, personal charging ports at every seat, and even some very advanced facial recognition technology.

Now, the most imposing feature of the arena is an area behind one of the baskets called “The Wall,” which includes 13 rows of specially vetted Clippers fans who stand, howl, and cause complete pandemonium in an attempt to distract the team’s opponents.

By the way, it works, and earlier this week at the venue’s NBA debut, even the visiting Phoenix Suns were impressed. Hoops legend Kevin Durant called the Wall “insane,” and both he and his teammate Devin Booker missed critical free throws apparently due to the antics of the screaming crowd.

By the way, the Clippers lost the game anyway, so it looks like it will take more than just a futuristic arena and a bunch of dancing maniacs to vault this long-suffering franchise over the top of their nearby neighbors, the beloved Lakers.

Before we go, we’d like to raise our gloves in honor of one of the greatest boxing champions of all time: Evander “the Real Deal” Holyfield. On this day back in 1990, Holyfield knocked out James “Buster” Douglas in the third round to win the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world.

The Real Deal would go on to win the coveted heavyweight belt a grand total of four times, punishing the great George Foreman, dismantling Larry Holmes, and even destroying the incredible “Iron” Mike Tyson, not once but on two separate occasions.

Looks like we’re out of time, so we’re going to call it a wrap for this edition of the Epoch Times Sports Brief.

But before we head out to watch the big game, we promised you a chance to win something from the world-famous Sports Brief prize closet and we always keep our word. In our comments thread, simply leave us your prediction for the winner of this year’s World Series, along with the number of games it will take. The winner gets a gorgeous Epoch Times coffee mug that you can use to sip some hot tea while you watch your favorite sports all year long. So you know, you can also use this mug to sip tea while you watch Downton Abbey on PBS.

If you have any thoughts about the Sports Brief program, we’d love to hear from you, and you can find us at [email protected].

For all of us here at The Epoch Times Sports Brief, I’m Bill Thomas.

The Epoch Times Sports Brief program is written by the spectacular Davey Ross.

Thank you for making us your one-stop source for a concise, accurate, and engaging rundown of the sports stories you absolutely need to know about.

Enjoy another great weekend of sports, stay safe, and please join us again next time for another edition of The Epoch Times Sports Brief.

Till then, let’s all continue to watch out for one another, have a superb day today, and remember to keep your eyes on the game. Bye for now.