As any sports fan will tell you, October is one of the best months of the year. You have the World Series in baseball, the final races in the NASCAR Nextel Cup and football really gets going after working through the opening weeks.

I love sports; just about any kind of sports. I’ll sit through a golf match just as easily as a football game. About the only sport I don’t watch is hockey - and that’s mostly because in Florida, hockey isn’t exactly a natural fit. I say mostly, because even if I were a hockey fan, I imagine I’d have a hard time enjoying the games after the petty bickering and ultimate cancellation of an entire season (plus some!) over athlete’s salaries.By far, college football and NASCAR are my favorites, followed closely by baseball and NFL ball. This month has been a rough one for my teams. Last Saturday, I stayed up late flipping between the Florida State / Virginia game and the NASCAR race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. After a very late night, I went to bed quite disappointed. Not only did the Seminoles lose to the unranked Cavaliers, but my least favorite driver won the race (Jimmie Johnson).

The month of October has also seen some questionable game-deciding calls on the playing fields. Allowing Pierzynski to stay on first base after the umpire clearly signaled the strike three in game 2 of the ALCS immediately comes to mind. Of course, so does the robbery of the Contender rematch when the 2nd fight was given to Bonsante after he clearly beat Jesse Brinkley every round. I’m not even a big fan of Bonsante’s, but come on — were those referees not watching the same fight I was??

There were also the heartbreaking losses this past week like Notre Dame against USC after the out of bounds fumble by Leinart with only seconds left in the fourth quarter. The Gators suffered their second loss under new coach Urban Meyer when LSU beat them 21-17 after a great game by both defenses. Penn State’s unbeaten season came to an end after Michigan quarterback Chad Henne passed to Mario Manningham for a 10 yard touchdown with only 0:02 showing on the clock, giving the Wolverines a 27-25 victory.

I’ll be settling down this weekend to watch FSU go up against Duke while the Gators use their bye week to get their stuff ready for Georgia on October 29. I’ll be pulling for Ryan Newman and Tony Stewart to pull out a win at Martinsville. And, I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed the Astros can beat the White Sox when the series starts on Saturday.

Tags: Hobbies