Daily Sports: More Of The Braves-Cards On Friday

The four-game series between the Atlanta Braves and the St. Louis Cardinals continues on Friday. MLB Network carries the Braves-Cards for the second straight night and the 8 PM ET game is the highlight of the daily sports agenda.

It’s become a pretty good rivalry in recent years—the Cards catching the Braves from behind in their amazing 2011 run, and then the wild-card game controversy of a year ago. Both teams are headed for October again this year, and these regular season games could be the appetizer for another big postseason battle.

Speaking of the Braves, TheSportsNotebook’s MLB coverage is going to focus in on them today. By the time September begins, baseball coverage is going to focus more strictly on teams that are in tight playoff races, and Atlanta’s blowing open of the NL East does not qualify. But we want to make sure to celebrate what’s been a great year for Atlanta. It might be premature for manager Fred Gonzalez and everyone else in the organization, but for those of us on the outside, it’s actually long overdue.

The NFL preseason will be on CBS tonight, and it’s a matchup that provides as much intrigue as you can possibly get for an August game. Seattle visits Green Bay in an 8 PM ET kickoff on CBS. After last year’s Monday night travesty in Seattle, the game that finally ended the officials’ lockout, what kind of reception will the Seahawks get?

Actually, there’s no intrigue at all in that question—there’s going to be a lot of boos, especially for head coach Pete Carroll, whose unseemly celebrating as he stood right next to the official, looked like a scene straight out of The Naked Gun. But will the hostility extend to quarterback Russell Wilson, who become beloved in this state (my home state) when he led Wisconsin to the Big Ten crown in 2010 and did so with a lot of class and dignity? I hope not.

TheSportsNotebook has added a lot of college football coverage and NFL analysis over the last three days, particularly on the college side, as we build to the August 29 opener. As mentioned, today we’ll be focused on the National League playoff race in general and the Atlanta Braves in particular, and then over the weekend more football will be back on the agenda.