The NFL is down to the final four

On Sunday, the Eagles are playing the Washington Commanders at 3 p.m. at home. It should be a great game. The Commanders have made a great transformation this year, mostly due to their very good quarterback, Jayden Daniels. The Eagles played a good game last week in the snow against the Los Angeles Rams, especially in the second half. Saquon Barkley continued his very successful season, but I thought he might’ve scored a little too early to make it a 12-point game. Then the Rams had an impressively quick drive down the field to make the game too close for comfort. The person who actually saved the Eagles bacon was defensive lineman Jalen Carter, who made a great third down play, sacking the Rams quarterback, and on the next play forced a hurried throw that went out of bounds and won the game for the Eagles.

Regardless of the Eagles final outcome this season, and even if they win the Super Bowl, Jalen Hurts is going to have to go through some serious rehab or surgery on his knee. If the Eagles do advance to the Super Bowl, I don’t know who I would want to play between the Buffalo Bills and the Kansas City Chiefs. Josh Allen, the quarterback for the Bills, seems to be on mission this season and he is an incredible quarterback, and the Chiefs have Patrick Mahomes and he seems to be able to win huge games regardless of how good his team is around him!

The 2025 Baseball Hall of Fame class was announced Tuesday. Ichiro Suzuki headlined the class as the first Japanese born player who played in the major leagues to be elected with 99.7% of the vote. He was an amazing player, mostly for the Seattle Mariners. One of the most impressive things about him was the fact that he got to 3,000 hits in the major leagues when he started his rookie season at 27 when he firstd came over from Japan. If you add up the hits that he got in Japan, he almost had 4,300 hits in his professional career, which is crazy. His hand/eye coordination was very impressive. Most of his hits were singles and doubles. He was hitting like Tony Gwynn used to do. He would basically catch the ball with his bat and spray it all over the field. Left handed pitcher, CC Sebathia got over 80% of the vote. He was an American League pitcher for a long time for the Cleveland Indians and New York Yankees as well as the Milwaukee Brewers. He was built more like a football player. He was close to 300 pounds, and very durable. Billy Wagner got in on his 10th and final chance on the baseball writers ballot. He played mostly for the Houston Astros and actually for two seasons with the Phillies. Dave Parker and Dick Allen were also elected by the veterans committee as well. Chase Utley got almost 40% of the vote in his second year on the ballot. I think he is eventually going to make it up to the required 75%. Jimmy Rollins only got 18%, so I think he’s going to fall short, which is unfortunate. He should definitely be a Hall of Famer in my book.

The Australian Open tennis tournament is coming down the end and there are two Americans still in the singles draws. Madison Keys is going to the finals against Aryna Sabalenka, which will air on Friday or Saturday U.S. time. She definitely needs to take advantage of this opportunity because she’s played professionally for over 10 years. You never know if this is going to be her last chance to win a grand slam. She’s definitely playing well enough to do it. I hope she is not completely exhausted from the semi final  victory she had over Iga Swiatek in a third set tiebreaker.

On the men’s side, 21 seed American, Ben Shelton is in the semifinals, facing the number 1 seed Italian, Jannik Sinner. Ben will be trying to break the 22-year drought for US men winning a Grand Slam tournament, but that will be difficult because Novak Djokovic is also still in the tournament.