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The Championship Series in the American and National leagues are here.

You read it, with the 2008 MLB playoffs down to its final two best-of-seven championship series wars, only four teams remain all trying to advance to the biggest stage of them all, the World Series.

Two teams from the National League and another two from the American League will duke it out with a spot at the 2008 MLB World Series at stake. Yes, it only gets better people.

We’ll start with the NLCS as the National League West champions, Los Angeles Dodgers, meet the National League East champions, Philadelphia Phillies in a best-of-seven championship series beginning Thursday.

The Philadelphia Phillies, having the better regular season record, will have the home field advantage for this one. This series marks the first postseason meeting between the Phillies and the Dodgers since the 1983 NLCS, which Philadelphia won 3-1 before losing to Baltimore in the World Series. It also marks the first NLCS for both teams since the Division Series was instituted in 1994.

Overall, this is the fourth time these two teams have met in the postseason. In addition to the 1983 NLCS, the Dodgers defeated the Phillies 3-1 in the NLCS in both 1977 and 1978.

In the ALCS, we have the surprising Tampa Bay Rays looking to extend their Cinderella run against the defending…

Pavlik and Hopkins are on this October.

The reigning middleweight champion of the world, Kelly ‘’The Ghost’’ Pavlik, is set to go one on one with Bernard ‘’The Executioner’’ Hopkins on October 18 at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City in what could be the fight that will definie just how good of a champion Pavlik is.

Still undefeated at a perfect 34-0, Kelly ‘’The Ghost’’ Pavlik moved up in weight to face Hopkins for the 170-pound titular showdown. Pavlik has been compared to an express train as he continues to awe boxing fans with his stellar performances courtesy of his supreme aggressive ring style, jaw-breaking punches and almost 90 percent knock-out ratio.

Of course, he already did something Hopkins failed at, TWICE, that’s beating Jermain ‘’Bad Intentions’’ Taylor to keep the middleweight title. So how can a champion like this guy beat up a 43-year-old man? Hmm…

For Kelly Pavlik to win this match, Pavlik must take advantage of his speed and quickness being the younger fighter. Hopkins is a slick veteran with a bunch of boxing tricks in his bag, that’s why Pavlik shouldn’t try to brawl with Hopkins but instead, be patient and wait for openings Hopkins just might give up. Pavlik has one way to fight, defense with straight-forward throwing punches.

When he is in range, he lets the big ones fly. He should not change that, that’s the style that catapulted him to the upper echelons of boxing today, and if he plays his cards right, beating a future Hall-of-Famer like B-Hop with that kind of boxing style just might work.

What Pavlik will have to avoid is rough housing, clinches, pushes, head butts and wrestling. Brawling is Hopkins’ world and Pavlik should be aware of that. Pavlik also has to…

After starting the season under Jim Zorn with a 16-7 loss to the Giants, this team has never been the same since.

Since losing to the Giants, the Washington Redskins won four games in a row to go 4-1 after five weeks into the 2008-09 NFL football season. New Orleans and Arizona were their first two victims but after beating the best in the NFC, Dallas then Philadelphia, it was clear that the Redskins have a trip to the Super Bowl in mind.

You read it, the Washington Redskins just completed a two-week swing that could put them in a better position to make the playoffs come January.

Yes, the playoffs, who would’ve thought we’d be able to describe the Redskins as a playoff team with a new coach and a young quarterback eh?

After beating the Dallas Cowboys 26-24 last week, the Redskins followed it up with another huge win against another one of their NFC East rivals. This time, it was Philadelphia and since the NFC East is arguably the best division in football today, the Redskins have clearly shown that they belong.

The Philadelphia Eagles jumped on the Redskins right from the get-go, leading 14-0 in the first quarter thanks to the returning Brian Westbrook, who came up with a nine-yard touchdown run before Desean Jackson returned a punt for 68 yards to score Philly’s second touchdown.

After the first quarter, it was all Washington…

The Bills are no longer undefeated.

After galloping to a 4-0 start in the 2008-09 NFL football season, the Bills suffered their first loss after Arizona took out Trent Edwards in the very first quarter before winning convincingly, 41-17.

Yes, with just one play, the Buffalo Bills quickly remembered how losing tastes like. On the very third play of the game, Bills quarterback Trent Edwards went down with a concussion after Cardinals safety Adrian Wilson blitzed untouched, leveling Edwards and slamming him to the ground.

J.P. Losman took Edwards’ place but unfortunately, the Buffalo Bills were simply never the same as the Arizona Cardinals took advantage of the Bills who remained on the field without the guy who engineered this Cinderella run in Buffalo.

‘’I looked to see if the ball was completed, then he didn’t get up,’’ Arizona Cardinals safety Adrian Wilson said. ‘’I know the situation that happened with Anquan [Boldin] last week, so it was just a scary situation whenever you see a guy just laying there and not moving. So I just wanted to help out.’’

‘’I just came from Trent,’’ Bills coach Dick Jauron said in his postgame news conference. ‘’Trent was responding, but he was still a little groggy. Hopefully, he’ll be fine as time goes by here. It’s a good time to have a bye.’’

‘’I don’t think it was helmet-to-helmet but I’ve…”

If you’re fond of horse racing, feel free to read this.

The 2008 Breeders’ Cup world championships are coming and it will feature top class thoroughbred racing that will decide the year-end championship honors slated on October 24 and 25 at the Santa Anita Park.

The main event, if you will, is of course, the 2008 Breeders’ Cup Classic where the very best thoroughbreds will compete with some of the favorites to win it this year. Who are the favorites? Thoroughbreds like Big Brown, Colonel John, Pyro, Well Armed and Curlin should be some of ‘em and here’s why.

Big Brown has a record of 7-6-0-0 and is arguably the top contender to win the 2008 Breeders’ Cup. Trained by Richard E. Dutrow, last year’s Kentucky Derby champion was the second winner in history to break from post position 20. This colt is also the first horse since 1915 to win the Derby after only three lifetime starts.

Next we have Colonel John, the winner of the $1 million Travers Stakes Grade 1 by a nose at Saratoga last August 23. The contender worked four furlongs last September 14 on Santa Anita’s Pro-Ride surface in 48 4/5 for trainer Eoin Harty. The colt is listed in the top three favorites headed for the $5 million 2008 Breeders’ Cup Classic at the Oak Tree in the Santa Anita meet.

A Kentucky homebred son of Tiznow-Sweet Damsel, by Turkoman, Colonel John won both the Sham Stakes Grade III and Santa Anita Derby Grade 1 on Santa Anita’s main track earlier this year. However, those races were run on a hybrid synthetic track consisting of both Pro-Ride and Cushion Track materials.

Well Armed could create some noise as well. Owner…