the mad sports man

 The Tampa Bay Rays and Seattle Mariners are both postseason bound.  For Seattle,  it's their first postseason trip since 2001. That is all six spots in the AL.

 Yup the Toronto Blue Jays clinch a wild card spot with Baltimore losing to Boston this afternoon. Less than a week to go to the end of the season. 

 Aaron Judge has tied Roger Maris with his 61st home run of the season. Also ties an American league record. Also ties a Yankees record. 

 By beating Toronto tonight,  the New York Yankees are AL east champions with a 8.5 game lead on said Toronto Blue Jays. Plus Atlanta is in the postseason and St Louis has the NL Central after beating Milwaukee. 

 The Cleveland Guardians are al central champions (they took it yesterday), despite having a $66m payroll.  The rest of the division has about double that.  Yikes.

 Albert Pujols is the 4th MLB player to hit career homer 700. Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron and Barry Bonds are on the list. Congrats to Albert. 

Fall makes its arrival at 7:04 pm tonight, making tomorrow the first full day of fall. And it's sure starting to feel like it. Been chilly the last few mornings. Enjoy the day. 

 Houston Astros have taken the AL west division and has a first round bye with an 8 game lead on the Yankees for best record in the American league. Meanwhile the New York Mets have a playoff spot and a two game lead on Atlanta for the NL East. Getting fun now 

 The Los Angeles Dodgers won the division the other night. The first team to clinch a division and a playoff spot. Fall I also in the air. The fall classic is coming soon. 

 This season had (yeah you know) 70 games and 6 teams. NHLPA and the owners agree to a $5000 base salary.  Players allowed to decide when they are healthy enough to play.  October 19 Maurice Richard scores goal #500.  January 18 Willie O'Ree is first black player in the NHL.  Semi finals: Montreal 4 Detroit 0, Boston 4 New York 2. Stanley Cup: Montreal 4 Boston 2. Montreal wins cup #10 and 3rd in a row. 

 The NFL season begins the 2022 season tonight with the Buffalo Bills playing the Los Angeles Rams. The Rams will be raising their super bowl banner.  The run for super bowl 57 begins here.

 Italy and Netherlands have qualified for next years womens world cup. Italy won group G and Netherlands won group C. Uefa will have a playoff to determine the last two spots and decide the last inter conference spot. Playoffs are next month. 

 Canada begins defense of their gold on Boxing day vs Czech Republic, followed by Germany on the 28th, Austria on the 29th and Sweden on New Years Eve. It's the most wonderful time of the year. 

 With a 2-1 win over the USA, Canada has defended their title for the third year in a row. Plus Olympic gold. Congrats to Canada. Next year the tournament is in Canada to a city to be announced. 

 It took to a shootout for Japan to win 5th place over Finland 1-0. Finland finishes 6th and goes to group B.  Meanwhile the Czech Republic wins their first ever womens hockey medal,  and its a bronze, a 4-2 win over Switzerland. Congrats to Czech Republic.  Puck drop for Canada vs USA is momentarily. 

 Canada will be playing the USA for gold tomorrow after blowing out Switzerland 8-1. Switzerland will be playing Czech Republic for bronze, also tomorrow. 

 England and Germany are going to the womens world cup.  England won group D and Germany took group H in the uefa tournament.  That is 25 teams in and 7 to go.

 First the placement games.  Finland beat Hungary 3-2 in overtime and Japan beat Sweden 5-4. Finland will play Japan for 5th and last spot in group A for next years tournament. Meanwhile the USA blew out Czech Republic 10-1 and will play either Canada or Switzerland. Canada leads 4-1 in the 2nd period. 

 Norway is into next year's womens world cup after taking group F. 23 teams have now qualified and 9 to go. Who will qualify tomorrow? Stay tuned.

 Canada beat a game Sweden team 3-0. They will play Switzerland, who beat Japan 2-1 in a shootout. The USA plays Czech Republic in the other semi. USA blew ou Hungary 12-0 while Czech Republic beat Finland 2-1 in overtime. Semis are Saturday.