Bengals, Bearcats and even the Redlegs

Yesterday was a monster day in Cincinnati sports. The Bengals had to whittle down their rosters while keeping an eye on the waiver wire and possible trades. The Bearcats played their first game under new head coach Butch Jones, Former coach Brian Kelly coached his first game with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, and the Reds were smack in middle of their final series against arch-rival St. Louis Cardinals.

Let's start with the Bengals: our boys in stripes made some surprising roster moves, but started the day with more obvious ones. Thanks to Twitter, this year fans were able to see in close to real time the actual order players were released, which was a good distraction during extremely non-competitive afternoon SEC football games. First to go were WR Matt Jones (18), K Dave Rayner and a rookie whom they clearly hope will be one their practice squad, WR Dezmon Briscoe.

Next on the chopping block was S Kyries Hebert, OT Issac Sowells and S Marvin White. Hebert thus far was the only cut you could call a surprise, though no one could truly have been happy with Cincinnati's depth at safety.

There's a WORLD Cup?

The title's a joke. I am of course aware of the World Cup. I would wait for our "futbol" columnist ANDY_HAMS to write an entry, but we'd probably have to wait until 2014.

Anyway, I woke up early tomorrow to get brunch and mimosas at a WC function. I ended up with a table from which I couldn't clearly see a TV, but I think I got the gist of it. Greece lost, somebody won, whatever.

By the time the USA played (and by the time I'd chanted U-S-A 50 times) I had a good seat. Good thing too - America is going to make some noise this year! They tied England, a supposedly top 4 team, 1-1.

This basically ensures the United States berth into the next round. If you want specifics look it up yourself, but a tie against the best team of their grouping makes the USA that much closer to advancing. A win and a tie against the other (much shittier) teams in the group would give America a pass into further WC play. Realistically, they should get two wins. They basically stole a point by tying the English.

Anyway, I usually don't follow Soccer (futbol?) or baseball, but the USA and the Cincinnati Reds are both sweet right now. I'll take what I can get.