Greetings from the sports desk located somewhere below decks of the Good Pirate Ship RedState. Now that the NHL season is in full swing — more on that in a bit — Sammy the Shark and Karl the Kraken are hard at work bringing you all the action ...

What, you were expecting those two lunkheads to do some actual work?

Anyway, this is the best time of the year for professional sports fans, with all four major sports in action. In the NBA’s case, it’s action of the preseason variety, but at least it's there.

We start with the baseball playoffs, where three of the four teams in the league championship are known. In the American League, it’s Lone Star State Fever, with the Texas Rangers set to take on the Houston Astros. Baseball purists doubtless decry two divisional rivals vying for the league championship, and everyone outside of Houston is decrying the Astros making their seventh straight ALCS. But it is what it is, and while the Rangers have little if any national following, most everyone will be pulling for them for the sole reason that they’re not the Astros.

Meanwhile, in the National League, a championship matchup looms that no one saw coming. The Philadelphia Phillies are one game away from eliminating the heavily favored Atlanta Braves from postseason play for the second consecutive season. At the same time, in the wild, wild west, the Arizona Diamondbacks have swept the Los Angeles Dodgers to secure their first NLCS appearance in 16 years. The Diamondbacks took full advantage of both shaky (to put it mildly) Dodgers starting pitching plus their starters silencing Los Angeles’ loaded lineup on their way to victory. The Snakes are stomp-proof thus far in October, and should they meet the Phillies, it has all the signs of being a terrific series to watch. As to the Dodgers, maybe the Rams can avenge them next Sunday when they host the Cardinals. Oh, and get a real manager. Dave Roberts is the gold standard of getting the least out of his lineup.

On to football. Sports, in general, finds its proper societal ranking when the real world takes the stage, such as is presently the case in Israel. This makes the current jawing between assorted Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers even more pathetic, as each team seems fiercely determined to win the Worst Winner and Worst Loser awards, respectively. It started with 49ers tight end George Kittle flashing a "F--- Dallas" t-shirt beneath his jersey during his team’s 42-10 win over the Cowboys on October 8. Next, Dallas linebacker Micah Parsons called out Kittle, and then San Francisco receiver Deebo Samuel said we’ll beat you even worse next time. Pure class on all sides. Granted, it is a class consisting of third graders.

NFL-wise, the best matchup this coming weekend, strictly in terms of the best records going into the game, is the Detroit Lions at Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It will be the battle of quarterbacks picked first in the draft that their original teams eventually decided weren’t such good ideas after all. Jared Goff has been opening eyes in his Lions tenure, while Baker Mayfield remains wildly inconsistent but always entertaining to watch. The most interesting game matchup-wise is the Indianapolis Colts visiting the Jacksonville Jaguars. With Colts rookie quarterback Anthony Richardson out for several weeks (shoulder), it now falls on Garner Minshew to keep Indianapolis on track against an inconsistent Jacksonville squad that entered the season as prohibitive divisional champion favorites. Can Minshew Mania rise to the occasion? Will a healthy and re-signed Jonathan Taylor make the Colts’ ground game go? Will Trevor Lawrence ever sign a shampoo endorsement? So many questions.

On the college football side, the most interesting matchup happens way out west with a battle of undefeated, as the Oregon Ducks visit the Washington Huskies for the last time as PAC-12 rivals. Elsewhere, USC visits Notre Dame in a game where both teams have much to prove. Miami goes to North Carolina, where the Tar Heels fan base will doubtless have all kinds of helpful advice for Hurricanes head coach Mario Cristobal regarding end-of-game clock management, and Missouri travels to Kentucky in a test of whether wildcats or tigers are more resilient felines after losing last week.

As Sammy and Karl could tell you, were they not preoccupied with shoving fish crackers in their faces, the NHL season has begun. Since I’m a Sharks fan, I’m already reviewing scouting reports regarding who stands out as potential high picks in the 2024 draft. One player that has no such problem is this year's #1 Connor Bedard, whom ESPN, in their inimitable style, has hyped to the level where he may be the nicest kid in the league, yet everyone still hates his guts because they're sick to death of hearing about how he’s Gordie Howe, Mario Lemieux, and Wayne Gretzky rolled into one. Let the kid play. But fear not; with the NBA season approaching, ESPN will turn its attention to hyping San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama with even greater fervor as the greatest player ever since ESPN designated the last greatest player ever. Speaking of which, other than at a physical therapy center, has anyone seen Zion Williamson lately?