“LOTS TO LOVE” this sports weekend… I know, I know---you want to

talk “Gators-Alabama”… And, I WILL… But FIRST---if you CRAVE

competition---and “care at all” about golf---check out the Ryder Cup at

“KEL-tic Manor” in "rain-ravaged" WALES… there’s NOTHING like it---golf in

an “individual sport”---but this is “TEAM COMBAT”… USA against Europe…

LAST CHANCE for “a happy ending” to a sad ‘n bad year for Tiger

Woods... I KNOW, I KNOW---Bama/Gators---I’ll get there… Major League

Baseball ends its 6-month season... Atlanta and its retiring

manager---the likeable Bobby Cox---“should survive a scrap” with San

Francisco and San Diego and reach the National League playoffs…

In the American League, the struggling Tampa Bay Rays try to out-

GUT the Yankees for No. 1 in the “powerhouse EAST”… OKAY---Florida/Alabama

football… Barely into October---this one has the SPICE of an SEC

championshipgame… a week ago, I would’ve given the Gators no better than

a “30 percent chance” against the No. 1 TIDE---IN Tuscaloosa… But

the “SPLASH and HOPE” from Florida’s crushing of Kentucky

“has JUICED the possibilities”.. I now think the

Gators have a “45 percent chance”… It’s “CHALLENGING but DO-able”---

facing “a BETTER Alabama” team than last year’s 15-and-0 national

champs… IF the Gator defense “keeps rising”---and IF John Brantley’s

offense is SHARP and CREATIVE---I SAY “Florida WILL DO IT”…

I’m Hubert Mizell, and that’s what I think.