(Recap via SB Nation and Sports Network)

St. Louis, MO (Sports Network) – The Cardinals used a similar script they followed while capturing the National League pennant in Game 1 of the World Series on Wednesday.

Behind a go-ahead, pinch-hit single by Allen Craig in the sixth and another solid performance by their bullpen, St. Louis earned a 3-2 victory over the Texas Rangers for the early edge in the Fall Classic.

"I think…that’s what you want to try and accomplish is set the tone, get ahead," said David Freese, who scored the go-ahead run.

Baseball’s biggest stage has been overtaken by the wild card-winning Cardinals, who received a quality start by Chris Carpenter (3-0) and three one-hit innings by their suddenly vaunted relievers.

Carpenter lasted six frames and allowed five hits and two runs — both coming on Mike Napoli’s game-tying homer in the fifth. His counterpart, C.J. Wilson (0-3), remained winless this postseason after getting charged for three runs on four hits and six walks in 5 2/3 frames.

The winner of the World Series opener has won the title 61 percent of the time. Game 2 is scheduled for 8:05 p.m. (et) on Thursday, as Jaime Garcia tries to maintain homefield advantage opposite Colby Lewis.

The weather was quintessential Midwest, a climate apparently suitable for the underdogs and depleting for the two-time American League champions.

With the score tied, Freese, the NL Championship Series MVP, doubled his way into scoring position by sending a line drive into the right-field gap with one out in the sixth, then moved to third when Wilson uncorked a wild pitch.

Wilson settled down by striking out Yadier Molina, then pitched around Nick Punto with Carpenter on deck. After the walk, the managerial chess match began. Tony La Russa brought Craig off the bench, and Ron Washington countered with righty Alexi Ogando.

Craig, down 1-2 in the count, sent a slicer down the line in right that fell just out of the reach of a sliding Nelson Cruz. Freese scored easily for a 3-2 lead, and the rest was up to St. Louis’ bullpen.

For reasons unknown, St. Louis’ relievers, which ranked 21st in the majors in the regular season with a 3.95 ERA, went 4-0 with a 2.55 ERA in the divisional and championship rounds and continued their dominance against the heavy- hitting Rangers.

Fernando Salas took over for Carpenter and was pulled following a one-out single and walk. Marc Rzepczynski got out of the jam by striking out a pair of pinch-hitters, first freezing Craig Gentry on a 1-2 chanegup before fanning postseason newcomer Esteban German.

Octavio Dotel and Arthur Rhodes combined to set down the top of Texas’ lineup in order in the eighth, and Jason Motte retired Michael Young, Adrian Beltre and Cruz in succession to lock down his fifth save of the postseason.

"We certainly didn’t lose tonight; we got beat," said Washington, the 15th manager in AL history to lead his club to the World Series in consecutive seasons. "They had an opportunity to push a run across. The pinch hitter got it done, and ours didn’t. Got to give them credit, they beat us. We didn’t give that game away tonight."

Carpenter and Wilson held the opposition off the board through the first three frames, but the Cardinals put their first three hitters on in the fourth to jump ahead.

Wilson, who had pitched to an 8.04 earned run average this postseason, lost control of a 2-1 slider against Albert Pujols and plunked the slugger on the left shin. Wilson’s next pitch was sent into the right-field corner by Matt Holliday, and Pujols gingerly advanced to third.

Lance Berkman, who was coveted by the Rangers in the offseason before signing with the Cardinals as a free agent, brought home both runners with a chopper down the first-base line.

The two-time American League champions tied things in their next turn — also behind a pair of offseason additions.

Carpenter kept pitching to the outside part of the plate, and the Rangers began going the other way, starting with Beltre lining a single to right. Cruz, the AL Championship Series MVP, struck out, but Napoli followed with a no-doubter deep into the right-field bleachers.

Texas stranded a runner on third in the sixth when Pujols made a sliding grab to his left and in one motion spun and tossed to Carpenter to nab Young by a step.

"Defensively [Pujols is] a Gold Glover several times now and he’s clutch. He knows exactly who the runner is, who the hitter is, the situation. He’s so aware of how the game is being played," La Russa said. "Carp getting over to first base is the second part of that good play. … That’s the play of the game, really, for us."

The duo paired for a similar play against Elvis Andrus in the opening frame, with Carpenter getting the out by making a head-first dive to the bag.

"[Pujols] threw that ball, it was a little out of my reach, and I dove. I was like, I’m going to go get it, and it turned out to work out," Carpenter said.

The AL owns a 62-44 record in the Fall Classic, though wins have alternated between leagues for the last six years, with the San Francisco Giants winning it last year for the NL…St. Louis, playing in its 18th World Series, has won three NL League pennants in the last eight seasons…The Cardinals surpassed the Dodgers and Giants for second place on the all-time World Series games played list with 106…Rhodes became just the third player in Major League history to play in the World Series against a team that he played for earlier in the same season…Motte has allowed one hit with seven strikeouts and no walks in nine innings this postseason…Freese has hit safely in 11 straight games, the longest ever postseason streak by a Cardinals player…The Rangers are the first American League team to win back-to-back pennants since the Yankees won four straight from 1998-2001…Young, who turned 35 on Wednesday, went 0-for-4…The only time these clubs met before this finale was a three- game set in June 2004.

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By now you know that the NBA has already had to cancel the first two weeks of the season due to the ongoing lockout and oatmeal-like negotiations that are now, allegedly, threatening even games as far away as Christmas.

Today has been targeted as a Big Day in negotiations by commissioner David Stern, with mediation beginning between players and owners.

How would you feel if the NBA canceled the entire season? Would you ever be able to be a fan again? Or would you just turn your back on pro b-ball and focus on the college game?

Click on the full article to see a poll in which you can cast your vote (I promise no Florida-like chads, either).

The Browns had a tough Sunday, but I guess it could have been worse -- we all could be fans of the Michigan Wolverines and the Detroit professional teams, and we could have seen our Wolverines lose on Saturday, our Tigers get knocked out of the baseball playoffs on Saturday night, and our Lions suffer their first setback on Sunday.

However, we are not (on this site, for sure) fans of those teams from Michigan, and all we have are the frustrating Browns right now and an Ohio State Buckeyes team that has three losses and absolutely no chance of attaining anything magical in 2011.

And now we see the Browns a full game and a half behind the Cincinnati Bengals and the Pittsburgh Steelers, and two games in arrears of the Baltimore Ravens as we head into Week 7 of the NFL schedule.

Here is a weekly look at the AFC North specifically, as well as a couple of links that will provide you with a look at the complete NFL standings from multiple sources.

In the Browns' division we will see three sets of numbers. The first set will be for the overall standings, the second will be the division record for each team, and the last will be the conference record for said teams.

• Baltimore Ravens          4-1-0          1-0-0          3-1-0
• Cincinnati Bengals        4-2-0          1-0-0          4-1-0
• Pittsburgh Steelers       4-2-0          0-1-0          3-2-0
• Cleveland Browns          2-3-0          0-1-0          2-3-0

The Ravens will be in Jacksonville to take on the Jaguars on Monday night, while the Bengals have their bye this week and the Steelers are in Arizona to face the Cardinals.

The Browns, of course, are at home on Sunday to face the 2-3 Seattle Seahawks.

And since it will become more and more pertinent as the weeks go on, we will begin, next week, taking a look at the whole AFC, with conference and division records, so we can begin tiptoeing through the minefield that is playoff possibilities.

NFL.com is always a terrific place to go for a look at the standings, as well as highlights, schedules, stats, etc.

ESPN also has a good take on the standings, and regardless of their somewhat cheerful coverage of LeBron James' departure from Cleveland last year, that does not mean that we cannot enjoy their comprehensive coverage of all sport.

If you want something simple and basic in your standings, there is always Yahoo! All you really need to know is your team's record, conference record, division record, points for and against and streaks? Yahoo is the place you will want to go.

If you want to read columns written by some of the best bloggers on the Net, I recommend highly SB Nation's NFL coverage.

Perhaps these little columns strike you at this stage of the season as underwhelming. There is a reason that it is. Later in the season I am going to be doing what I seem to do best -- I am going to be overly verbose, and these preliminary columns are truly the calm before the storm that you will find in these updates as November heads for December.

Enjoy, and go Browns!

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In a horrific 15-car pileup at Las Vegas Motor Speedway today, Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon was killed and three other drivers were injured.

Wheldon was a two-time winner at The Brickyard and was just 33 years old.

“IndyCar is very sad to announce that Dan Wheldon has passed away from unsurvivable injuries,” IndyCar chief executive Randy Bernard said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with his family today. IndyCar, its drivers and owners, have decided to end the race. In honor of Dan Wheldon, the drivers have decided to do a five-lap salute in his honor.”

More and more it is looking like the class of the country in college football resides in the Southeastern Conference, with the LSU Tigers and the Alabama Crimson Tide coming in at 1-2 in the latest AP rankings, released today.

But a representative from the Big Ten is forging their way into the national title mix, with the Wisconsin Badgers ranked 4th in the country, just behind the third-ranked Oklahoma Sooners.

Rounding out the Top 5 are the Boise State Broncos, while the rest of the Top 10 are Oklahoma State, Stanford, Clemson, Oregon and Arkansas.

The Big Ten has a total of five teams in the Top 25, with Nebraska 13th, Michigan State 15th, Michigan 18th, and Illinois (fresh off of a loss to Ohio State on Saturday) 23rd.

Penn State is just outside of the Top 25 in the AP poll, coming in at 26th.

The SEC has six teams in the AP poll.

The Texas Rangers will be going back to the World Series after eliminating the Detroit Tigers in six games, ending their series with a resounding 15-5 victory last night.

Maybe there was a reason that the Indians had such a hard time with the Rangers this year. Maybe Texas is just flat-out good.

And while I have absolutely no rooting interest in the Rangers, besides an obscure desire to see the American League win the Fall Classic, it is good to see that the team that was abandoned by Cliff Lee is going back to the Series, while the team Lee fled to — the Phillies — were eliminated in the first round.

Look for a World Series preview feature this Tuesday here on SB Nation-Cleveland

The Ohio State Buckeyes were able to do today what they were unable to do last week in Nebraska: take a lead, hold a lead and claim a victory.

Because they were able to get the job done this afternoon in Champagne, Illinois, to the tune of a 17-7 score, the Buckeyes claimed their first conference win of the season — and their first Leaders Division triumph ever in the newly-split Big Ten.

Dan Herron rang up 113 yards on 23 carries and scored one TD to lead an OSU ground game that totaled 207 yards.

And at quarterback? Well, here is a stat that is startling, and hearkens back to the old days under Woody Hayes, with its "Three yards and a cloud of dust" philosophy — Braxton Miller completed one pass…that’s right, one pass, in fact the only pass the Buckeyes completed all day. But that one completion was for a 17-yard touchdown to Jake Stoneburner in the fourth quarter that extended the lead to 17-0 and basically put the game out of reach, making a late Illinois score on a Nathan Scheelhaase to Evan Wilson pass academic rather than damaging.

Ohio State got on the board in the first quarter on a 43-yard field goal from Drew Basil, and it stayed 3-0 OSU until halftime.

Less than a minute into the third quarter Herron scored from 12 yards out to extend the lead to double digits, and Miller’s TD two minutes into the final stanza gave the Buckeyes all the breathing room that they needed.

Neither team mustered a ton of offense in total, with Illinois winning the yardage battle 272-224 and the first down edge 19-12. But as noted earlier, Ohio State’s ability to run the ball with Miller having a quiet game as he recuperates from last week’s injury made the difference on this day.

Besides Herron’s 113 yards, Jordan Hall added 55 yards on 12 carries, and Miller did a little damage on the ground with 33 yards on 13 carries.

Scheelhaase ran for 49 yards for the Illini, and went 19-of-34 for 158 yards, but had two interceptions.

The loss was Illinois’ first of the year after six straight wins, including a 2-0 start in the Big Ten.

Ohio State, now 4-3, will be off next week before returning to action on October 29 at home against 4th-ranked Wisconsin, while the Illini will hit the road and play Purdue next Saturday.

Can the Ohio State Buckeyes hang on and finish the deal this week, unlike last week against Nebraska?

That remains to be seen, but so far, so good. The Buckeyes lead Illinois 10-0 in the third quarter in Champagne, Illinois, on the strength of a Drew Basil 43-yard field goal in the first quarter and a 12-yard Dan Herron TD run at the start of the second half.

At this point the numbers look similar. With 1:40 left in the third quarter, OSU has the edge in first downs 10-9 and in yardage 178-139.

It is all about the ground game for the Buckeyes, and I mean all about the ground game. Braxton Miller is 0-for-3 through the air, and thus all of Ohio State’s yardage is on the ground.

For Illinois, Nathan Scheelhaase is 10-of-18 for only 91 yards, with an interception.

Look for a recap of today’s game later this evening.

Herron leads all rushers to this point with 106 yards on 19 carries.

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The Indians may not be in the postseason in 2011, but they are already set on the coaching staff for 2012.

Tim Belcher has been replaced as pitching coach by Scott Radinsky; the first base coach's box will be manned by Tom Wiedenbauer; and Dave Miller will be beyond the fences as the new bullpen coach.

Radinsky has spent eight years in the Tribe's organization, including the last two years in the bullpen. During the season just ended, the pen went 27-21 with a 3.71 ERA (fifth best in the American League) and 38 saves.

Wiedenbauer takes over for Sandy Alomar Jr., who has been promoted to bench coach, and Miller will take Radinsky's spot in the bullpen.

Radinsky appeared in relief 557 times in 11 seasons in the Majors, while Wiedenbauer spent 35 years in the Houston Astros' organization, as a player and later as a coach, manager, instructor and scout. Miller has spent the last 10 years as the Indians' minor league pitching instructor, and has been with the organization for 19 years.

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Brian Mahoney of Yahoo! Sports is reporting that NBA commissioner David Stern feels in his gut that there will be no basketball on Christmas Day (which kind of makes canceling the first two weeks seem like a volley across the bow before a full-on attack on the schedule, doesn't it?).

But wait, no NBA on Christmas? No watching LeBron and D-Wade highlights ad nauseum?

"Right now, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, just before my owners come into town, having brought in the labor relations committee and Billy (Hunter) having brought in his executive committee, it’s time to make the deal," Stern said Thursday. "If we don’t make it on Tuesday, my gut—this is not in my official capacity of canceling games—but my gut is that we won’t be playing on Christmas Day."

Oh my, we would then be reduced to...to...why, to spending time with family, doing holiday kinds of things, and hey, maybe the Lakers could actually spend time with their families as well. What a concept.

Ah well, I am sure that you will join me if there is no b-ball that day, and we will all make do.

Ho-ho-ho and no bricked free throws...it could be worse!

Justin Masterson, who was certainly the most consistent starter for the Indians in the 2011 season and who finished with a record of 12-10 with a 3.21 ERA, has had shoulder surgery. But the good news -- if anything good can be said to come out of a surgery -- is that the affected shoulder is his left (non-pitching) shoulder.

The procedure is to repair a torn labral according to the story via Yahoo! Sports and was performed today in Wilmington, Delaware.

Masterson is expected to make a full recovery and to be ready for the start of spring training in February

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We have reached the point in the NBA lockout where a lot of toe prints can be seen in the sand. Translation: both sides have established their guidelines for a settlement and some kind of compromise will be needed or else the first two weeks of the regular season (at least) are in jeopardy.

Today was the day that was set as a quasi-deadline to either get a deal done or see games canceled. The exhibition season already has been nixed.

With the deadline and the stakes in mind, last-ditch talks are taking place on Monday in New York.

The stance of each side is pretty basic. The owners want a 50-50 split of basketball-related income, as well as harsh taxes for big-spending teams, lowering the mid-level salary cap exemption, and a narrowing of players "Larry Bird" exception right.

Players, meanwhile, are resisting lowering their split to 50 percent without leaving most of the old system in place, according to the story on Yahoo! Sports.

After both sides got together for meetings on Sunday, Players Association president Derek Fisher said that the issue was "not necessarily closer" to being resolved, but that the two sides were going to keep on talking.

NBA commissioner David Stern has said that the first two weeks of regular season games would be canceled if an agreement is not reached by today.

Fisher said that he would begin using social media to push for a settlement (that would be more in favor of players, no doubt), and that he and New Orleans Hornets guard Chris Paul, a member of the union's executive committee, would be sending out a Tweet.

"LET US PLAY", the Tweet will say.

Sounds like a really fine idea to me. But it will take some major willingness to bend but not break on the part of both sides.

LeBron James, bless his heart, hosted a charity game in Miami the other night along with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, as chronicled in this story via Yahoo! Sports. At one point in the proceedings LeBron said to the assembled worshipers that "there's no us without you guys. Every last one of you guys."

Okay, not to nitpick (though I will anyway), but that was obviously addressed to the fans in attendance. And so, in the spirit of inclusiveness, I thought I would add a few more groups without which there would be no "you" for NBA players.

How about ushers and ticket-takers and vendors etc etc etc at the arenas that are dark during this canceled exhibition season?

How about servers and chefs etc etc etc at restaurants which are not serving the crowd after said exhibition games? Not to mention barkeeps etc etc etc in the local watering holes all across the land.

How about parking attendants, heck, even cops working a few hours to keep traffic moving and revelry civil?

How about....oh the heck with it, let's just say: How about all of the little people who actually orbit around the center of the galaxy which is an NBA contest?

And I say "little people" with tongue in cheek. The little people are actually all those who make profits in one year that some of us won't see in a lifetime, then grab a microphone and try to make heroic statements...but won't budge in contract negotiations, no matter which side they are on (and LeBron, I am not saying that you are unwilling to budge, just making an observation in general here).

How about thinking of all of the people this hideous lockout has hurt, is hurting now, and will continue to hurt if some common sense isn't forthcoming soon?

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A team which figured to get this far takes on a team that surprised in the first round as the defending American League champion Texas Rangers take on the Detroit Tigers in the AL Championship Series, beginning Saturday night at 8:05 ET in Arlington, Texas.

The Rangers dispatched the Tampa Bay Rays in four games to move on, while the Tigers took out the New York Yankees in five games to reach the ALCS for the first time since 2006 -- when Detroit made it all the way to the World Series before losing to the St. Louis Cardinals, who will open the National League Championship Series tomorrow against the Milwaukee Brewers.

Detroit won the season series against Texas this year 6-3, taking two-of-three in all three series vs. the Rangers, but since Texas won one more game overall than Detroit did, the Rangers will have the home field advantage in this series and will play the first two games -- then games five and seven if necessary -- in the friendly confines.

Here is the series breakdown via Yahoo! Sports.

A key piece of the Tigers' puzzle will be missing with the loss of outfielder Delmon Young. Young hurt his oblique in the series against the Yankees and will be replaced on the Tigers' roster for this series by Danny Worth, while Ryan Rayburn will take over Young's spot in left field.

'Bless You Boys' has all the coverage of the Tigers from a Detroit perspective, while on the Texas' side coverage comes from 'Lone Star Ball'.

Whether you have a particular rooting interest or not (maybe you want the team from the Indians' division to go to the World Series, and maybe you want the exact opposite), I hope that you will find much to enjoy in the next 4-7 games in the American League.

After that, look for a more comprehensive World Series preview.

Al Davis, a pioneer in the fledgling American Football League in the 1960s and the longtime -- and oftentimes controversial -- owner of the Oakland Raiders, has passed away at the age of 82.

Davis's death was announced on Saturday morning on the Raiders' website, and details are given in this story via Fox Sports.

After three years with the Los Angeles Chargers of the AFL, Davis joined the Raiders in 1963 as general manager-head coach, and compiled a record of 23-16-3 on the sidelines, then became commissioner of the AFL in 1966.

It was Davis's vigorous pursuit of NFL stars that began talks of a merger between the two leagues, although Davis himself opposed the idea. That merger, of course, became a reality in 1970, and the Browns were one of three teams (the Colts and the Steelers were the others) that joined the brand-new American Conference to bring balance to the NFL's new lineup.

A true pioneer and also a true rogue at times, but someone who will be missed.

Rest in peace, Mr. Davis.

The death of former Browns' offensive tackle Orlando Brown has been linked to a rare medical condition known as diabetic ketoacidosis, which is rarely fatal but was in Brown's case, and might have been a condition that Brown himself was unaware of, according to this story via Fox Sports.

Brown died two weeks ago at the age of 40.

Maryland chief medical examiner David Fowler said that there was no indication that Brown was ever treated for diabetes. And if left untreated, diabetic ketoacidosis can lead to kidney failure, cause fluid to build up in the brain, force a coma, or cause the body to shut down completely, sometimes in a matter of weeks.

Brown played for Cleveland in 1994-1995 and also in 1999, when he was involved in an incident where he was hit in the eye by a penalty flag and missed three seasons before returning to the NFL with the Baltimore Ravens in 2003; he finished his career in Baltimore, retiring after the 1995 season. The stint with the Ravens was his second, as he played for the ex-Browns from 1996-1998.

There was a real similarity in one respect between the Tigers' victory in the series just concluded over the Yankees and the 1960 World Series.

In that series 51 years ago, New York won games by scores of 16-3, 10-0 and 12-0. That is an aggregate total of 38-3. And yet, the Pirates won the series when Pittsburgh took four games by a total of seven runs, and, of course, the championship on Bill Mazeroski's walk-off homer in Game Seven.

And this year? This year the Yankees won two games over the Tigers by a combined score of 19-4, and yet Detroit won the series by winning three games by a total of four runs.

It is never easy to "root for" an "enemy" team when they have advanced, especially when that team trailed your team by seven games at one stage in the season, but I have to say: Congratulations Tigers. And good luck against the Rangers. Maybe we can hope that Jhonny Peralta and Victor Martinez can get a World Series championship after all.

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Well, so much for an NBA preseason being played in 2011.

After a failure on Tuesday to overcome the any major hurdles, the National Basketball Association canceled the exhibition schedule and we find out that if there is not an agreement by Monday the league will scrub the first two weeks of the regular season.

Monday might be an achievable date -- except that no new talks are planned, according to this story via Yahoo!

The issue, not surprisingly, remains money. The deal-breaker as far as Tuesday's meetings in New York went was when the players refused to consider a 50-50 revenue split.

“We were not able to make the progress that we hoped we could make and we were not able to continue the negotiations,” David Stern said after nearly four hours of talks between owners and players ended without gaining ground on a new deal.

According to the Yahoo! story, it could be a month or more before more meetings are held, and folks, putting on the commentary hat here, if it is November or later before there are more talks, we may not have to have anxiety over LeBron James winning an NBA title in 2012. Winning a title would follow playing a season -- you have to get up early to fool me!

Anyhow, back to being serious here...the 50-50 split that was proposed to the players is well below the 57% that the players were guaranteed under the previous collective bargaining agreement, but better than the 47% that was originally put on the table in this go-round.

Even so, when the even split was rejected, down came the curtain on the exhibition season.

This is nauseatingly like Canton, Ohio losing the Hall of Fame Game in the NFL. Yes, sure, special activities were held in conjunction with the game to try to recoup some of the lost revenue, but vendors lose out, ushers lose out, and what may matter most of all, fans lose out when there is nothing to look forward to where something to look forward to was supposedly a given.

Be sure to have a look at the seed article linked to above. It gives more detail to how each side sees this 50-50 split, and whether or not all sides see it as fair and as legitimate (hint: they don't).

Further updates will be passed along here when they occur.

Hopefully that will be some time before the Indians head for spring training.