The Glass Eye: Local Football Excitement October is over, which means on the national scene sports hit a bit of a lull – the NFL season is about at the halfway point; baseball is done; NBA and NHL are each well into their 6-month grind of a season. There’s local excitement, as high school football concludes the regular season...
The Glass Eye: MLB Predictions Review I make a lot of predictions in this column, as do a lot of writers around the Internet. Unlike most of them, however, I always try to look back after the season and acknowledge where I went wrong, and why (we’ll also look at the ones I got right, but we’ll spend less time on...
The Glass Eye: World Series Preview Well, we missed a prediction in the last round, as the Dodgers proved no match for the Phillies, but with our Yankee prediction the Eye is now 5-1 this postseason. The World Series may prove the toughest series to predict yet, however – they appear to be fairly evenly matched, with similar...
The Glass Eye: Fixing Major League Baseball's Umpiring Well, for awhile last night I thought today’s column would be a World Series preview of the Yanks and Phils – but kudos to the Angels for extending the series, so the preview column will come out early next week. Instead, I’d like to weigh in on the subject everyone’s...
The Glass Eye: MLB Championship Series Previews Well, that was kind of a dud, wasn’t it? Three sweeps and a start-and-stop 4-game series later, what have we really learned? Well, the first topic has to be the umpiring, which has generally been atrocious in the postseason – as many of you know I officiate several sports, but at this...
The Glass Eye: Division Series Previews Last October, we had a lot of new stories – the Rays, the White Sox, the Brewers – this season the big boys struck back, and high payroll, big-market teams rule the day in 2009. There are two true underdog stories – the Rockies, who came out of nowhere, and the Twins, who overcame...
The Glass Eye: NHL Eastern Division Preview Last week, we previewed the west – this week let’s tackle the east, including the defending champion Penguins. As before, we’ll spend more time dissecting the good teams than the bad ones.
Eastern Conference
Northeast Division
Boston Bruins: The best team in the East a season...
The Glass Eye: NHL Western Division Preview The NHL season is almost upon us already – Pittsburgh raises their 2009 Stanley Cup banner next Friday before their home opener! The format will be by division – predicted order of finish and a few comments about each team. I’ll tend to go into more detail about a.) better teams,...
The Glass Eye: Odds and Ends This time of year is the busiest of the sports calendar – baseball is nearing its postseason, the NFL is in full swing, basketball and hockey are almost in season, and high school sports are well underway. In the weeks to come we have MLB playoff previews, NHL previews, local stories, and...
The Glass Eye: NFL Preview Part 4 - Last and Least Part 4 of our NFL preview focuses on the worst divisions, the AFC and NFC West. Last season these 8 teams produced only one over-.500 record, and 2009 may bring more of the same. On the other hand, the preseason Super Bowl favorite was in the AFC West last year, and the NFC West produced the...
The Glass Eye: NFL Preview Part 3 - NFC North and South Previews Welcome to Part 3 of our 4-part NFL preview. Part 1 covered the East divisions, Part 2 covered the AFC North/South (to accommodate the Thursday Steeler/Titan tilt), and Part 4 will cover the West divisions this weekend. Check the other columns for the format…let’s get to the...
The Glass Eye: NFL Preview Part 2 - AFC North and South Previews In light of the game this Thursday between the Steelers and Titans, rather than continue to go AFC/NFC I figured we’d better get AFC North and South finished. The rest of the previews will come out this week and weekend. For a look at my AFC/NFC East predictions, click here. Again, I’m...
The Glass Eye: Curwensville Football Preview
Curwensville- The Curwensville Golden Tide have established a tradition of excellence under Head Coach Andy Evanko, and despite the loss of several standout seniors the 2009 squad boasts a lot of talent. Leading rusher Jed Greslick returns, along with several key linemen. Sam Gardner takes of...
Glass Eye: Clearfield Football Preview
Clearfield-- The Clearfield Bison football team will have some big holes to fill in 2009, as they have lost several standouts to graduation, most notably RB Isaiah Morgan, QB Jarrin Campman, OL/DL Cruise Kerr, and OL/DL Nick Redden. However, while a repeat of last season’s 10-3 record may...
The Glass Eye: NFL Preview Part 1 - Beasts of the Easts With the NFL season nearly upon us, it’s time for my annual team predictions. Keep in mind, I picked the Lions to win 9 games last year, so these are DEFINITELY for entertainment purposes only. We’ll start with the NFC and AFC East divisions this week. With each team I’ll list the...
Glass Eye: Clearfield Soccer Association Part 2
Glass Eye: Clearfield Soccer Association Part 1
The Glass Eye: MLB Trade Deadline Review It was a very active month for MLB general managers, with a total of 36 trades since June 30 – and when the dust settled, it was clear that the Pirates were in 100% rebuild mode, having been involved in six separate deals. We’ll take a close look at the Pirates after we look at the...
The Glass Eye: Eye of the Storm There are a lot of exciting things coming very soon with this column – last week’s podcast was only the beginning of what I hope develops into a series of local interviews, covering the entire local sports/youth landscape. Also fall will be here before you know it, and with it coverage...
Glass Eye : Podcast This week for The Glass Eye, I'm proud to present the first gantdaily podcast, an interview with Curwensville head softball coach Allen Leigey.As you probably know, his girls captured the PIAA class-A title, their second title in 3 years. Allen discussed both teams with me in some detail.Please...
The Glass Eye: NL Review Last week, we took a look at what’s happened in the AL so far, and revisited my predictions. This week let’s take a tour around the Senior Circuit and see who the surprising teams are, and what we can expect. We’ll start in the NL East. As with last week, it might be a good idea...
The Glass Eye: AL Review I’ve been promising a baseball review for a while, and we’ll definitely start that this week with the A.L. – but since I heard something about a big silver cup being won last week, we’ll take one last look at the Penguins’ magical run.
Friday night, the Pittsburgh...
The Glass Eye: Perpetual Rebuilding? This past spring, the Pittsburgh Pirates signed CF Nate McLouth to a 2-year contract extension with a club option for a third year. President Frank Coonelly declared that McLouth was one of the team’s core players to build around, along with Paul Maholm and Ryan Doumit. On Wednesday McLouth...
The Glass Eye: Rematch! As expected, the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red wings both advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals, a series with more intrigue than you might expect in a rematch. We’ll go over how they got here, what to look for and of course our predictions. Thus far in the postseason The Eye is 12-2...
The Glass Eye: Go Pens
Yes, I know, I’ve covered the Penguins a lot lately – if you’re looking for baseball, I promise we’ll cover that in the next two weeks. I originally was planning to review the baseball season at the quarter-pole, but after attending Game 2 of the Hurricanes-Penguins series...
The Glass Eye: Conference Finals The amazing run of the 2009 Pittsburgh Penguins continued, as they advanced to the NHL conference finals with a Game Seven whipping of the Capitals. They will face another unlikely finalist, the Carolina Hurricanes, in another intriguing matchup. I’ll offer analysis and predictions on this...
The Glass Eye: NHL, NFL, and NASCAR Well, the first round of the NHL playoffs went mostly to form, with the Ducks’ upset of the Sharks the only notable upset (albeit a big one). We’ll take a look at each of the round 2 matchups, as well as a quick look at the Steelers’ draft, but first I have to discuss the NASCAR...
The Glass Eye: MLB Early Season Surprises Take a look at the MLB standings today, and you’ll see some very strange things. Toronto is 11-5, Kansas City is 8-6, Seattle is 9-6, Florida is 11-4 (even AFTER being swept), San Diego is 9-6, and the Pirates (!!!) are 9-6. On the other hand, the Diamondbacks, Mets, Phillies, Angels,...
The Glass Eye: NHL Playoff Preview! The Glass Eye: NHL Playoffs Begin!
At last, the Easter Eggs are found, the Masters is over, and the NHL playoffs are set. Speaking of the Masters, I think there’s a case to be made that the first full week of April is the best sporting week of the year. You get the NCAA basketball...
The Glass Eye: Penguins Season Review In this space 6 weeks ago, I blasted the Penguins for changing coaches, and was very down on their chances of making the playoffs. Certainly I wasn’t the only skeptic, but one cannot argue with the results since then: after last night’s systematic 6-1 dismantling of the sad-sack New...
The Glass Eye: National League Preview, Part Two Last week, we talked about 8 of the 16 National league teams. This week, let’s finish up our MLB tour, and touch on a couple other odds and ends as well.
NL EAST
Atlanta Braves – 2008 record: 72-90, Vegas line: 84.5 wins. I’ll be honest, I don’t get this...
The Glass Eye: National League Preview, Part One Last week, I gave some thoughts on the American League, with my predictions for each team, and how those predictions compare to Vegas’ predictions. This week we’ll cruise around half of the Senior Circuit, and finish up next week. We’ll also take a brief look at the NCAA...
The Glass Eye: American League Preview Sorry for the missed week, folks, I was sick as a dog and in no condition to write a column…but I’m back, and ready to tackle the start of baseball season. This week we’ll look around the American League. I’ll name my surprise teams and also my ‘best bets’...
The Glass Eye: Odds and Ends A lot has happened over the past two weeks, and it’s been awhile since I wrote a ‘notes’ column, so let’s take a look at several different subjects that I’ve covered recently.
-First up, after my steroids column last week I got an email from a Mr. Ron...
The Glass Eye: Steroids and the Hall of Fame With baseball almost upon us and the recent ‘revelation’ that Alex Rodriguez used steroids in 2003, I think it’s time to discuss the performance-enhancer situation in major league baseball – the history of cheating in the game, how the owners are complicit in this, the...
The Glass Eye: Penguins Panic
You’ve probably heard by now that the Penguins fired coach Michel Therrien last weekend. Many pundits applauded the firing, or at the very least were understanding of it. As you will see, I’m far less sympathetic to the move. We’ll take a look at the circumstances that led...
The Glass Eye: Clearfield Winter Sports Roundup With the NFL finished up, hockey in the ‘dog days’ of February, and pitchers and catchers only now reporting to spring training, it seems like a good time to turn the Eye a bit closer to home. This week we’ll take our first look at local sports – specifically the wrestling,...
The Glass Eye: The Big Game Have you noticed that the era of the ‘Super Blowout’ is long gone? Growing up, it seemed like every Super Bowl was a Super Bore, with the notable exceptions of 1988 (49ers win late over Bengals) and 1990 (Norwood wide right). Since 2001, however, nearly every game has been close, and...
The Glass Eye: Super Bowl Preview At last the game approaches! I’ve managed to avoid most of the crazy hype – I didn’t watch or read any coverage of Media Day, and the only analyst who really caught my eye with his breakdown was Rod Woodson – and we’ll get to him later. This is probably the hardest...
The Glass Eye: NFL Championship Game Recaps and Penguin Review Only one more game to play in the NFL season, and despite injuries, a tough schedule, and other challenges the Steelers are the favorites to bring home the Lombardi trophy. We’ll analyze their matchup with the Arizona Cardinals in-depth next week; this week, we’ll recap the conference...
The Glass Eye: AFC - NFC Championship Games Bill Simmons on espn.com has opined that the 2008 NFL season has been the wackiest season in the past decade, and with the 9-7 Cardinals HOSTING a conference title game, and 3 of 4 bye-week upper seeds losing, I can’t really argue the point. The penultimate weekend of the season features...
The Glass Eye: Divisional Playoff Weekend Some great football last weekend – exciting finishes, big plays, and better still: another round of good matchups this week. The Eye’s crystal ball only went 2-2 last week; I got the Cards and Eagles right but missed on the Colts (tough one) and Dolphins (in retrospect a dumb...
The Glass Eye: NFL Wildcard Weekend Well, after another exciting NFL season, and a week 17 that held more intrigue than the past few years, we finally have the playoff matchups set. Since Editor Jay needs some help with his playoff pool picks, we’ll make the picks against the spread this time around and see how we fare. Before...
The Glass Eye: Belly of the Beast Greetings again from icy Philadelphia. I have survived three weeks of cheesesteaks, driving the Schuylkill Expressway, Flyers fans, and boring training classes, and I'm not sure which of the above was most harmful to my health. I had the opportunity to attend both a 76ers and a Flyers game, and I...
The Glass Eye: Free Agent Ramblings Hello sports fans, I apologize for the missed week - and this week's edition is going to be a bit abbreviated. My day job has me in the Philly area for training and finding time to write a column has been challenging - but there is certainly plenty to discuss! This week we'll take a look at the...
The Glass Eye: Giving Thanks! We’ve spent a lot of time over the last year-plus detailing problems with sports in this column, and rightfully so – I believe we should ALWAYS strive to improve in all facets of life. Today, however, the column will not be analyzing, criticizing, or otherwise complaining – turkey...
The Glass Eye: Quiz and Rant I have a lot of little things to discuss today, but none deserving of their own column. Also, in honor of the Bison football team reaching the PIAA class AAA round of 16, I have a rules quiz for you. We’ll start with the quiz, and then the little things, with the quiz answers at the bottom of...
The Glass Eye: MLB Awards We’re hitting a bit of a lull in the sports world – hockey is really just getting started, baseball is over, we’ve already recapped the NFL season thus far…and if you want NBA analysis/commentary, check out ESPN, they basically become the NBA Network at this time of year....
The Glass Eye: World Series and NFL Reviews Before we look ahead, let’s stop and review both the "Fall Classic" (for Phils fans at least), and the NFL at the halfway mark. We’ll look at my preseason predictions and have a few laughs (yes, I picked the Lions to be decent).
In my World Series preview, I had a few keys to success...
The Glass Eye: World Series Preview A little bit better showing for the Eye in the last round – both teams I picked are in the World Series. Now, before we go on, ask yourself: what kind of odds would you have given in March on a Tampa-Philly World Series matchup? Regardless of how this ends, both teams have shown amazing...
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