College football starts today!

While a college football Thursday isn’t the same as a college football Saturday, I’m still excited about today. College football is an extremely fun sport to follow, even without a playoff system, and the wait for the season to begin is finally over.

No huge games today, unless Mississippi State can keep it close against LSU (5 p.m., ESPN). It isn’t likely, but it could happen.

A lot of big names play today, but unfortunately, not against each other. Your full schedule:

Tulsa at Louisiana-Monroe, 4 p.m. (ESPN2)
Buffalo at #16 Rutgers, 4 p.m.
Miami (OH) at Ball State, 4 p.m.
SE Missouri State at Cincinnati, 4 p.m.
Murray State at #11 Louisville, 4:30 p.m. (ESPNU)
#2 LSU at Mississippi State, 5 p.m. (ESPN)
Kent State at Iowa State, 5 p.m.
UNLV at Utah State, 5 p.m.
SE Louisiana at New Mexico State, 5 p.m.
Weber State at #24 Boise State, 6 p.m.
Utah at Oregon State, 7 p.m.

I’ll have a look at Friday and Saturday’s games later on.

Thursday baseball preview: Contenders face-off

Today is yet another action-packed day with games all day long. As usual, all times Pacific because I live out there.

AFTERNOON:

New York Mets at Philadelphia Phillies, 10 a.m. I don’t think I had ever seen a game end on an obstruction call before Wednesday, when the Mets were called for obstruction on a play that would’ve scored the tying run if it weren’t for the call. Wow. Here’s Mets’ fan reaction, and here’s Philly fan reaction — just a tad different. The Mets have lost three in a row to the Phillies since Monday and could use a win tonight — if not, Philly’s officially back in the race for real.

Boston Red Sox at New York Yankees, 10 a.m. The one bad thing about my Angels sweeping the Mariners is that the Yankees are now tied for the wild-card lead with Seattle. One of the many good things — the Angels are now only one game behind Boston for the best record in the major leagues.

EVENING:

Seattle Mariners at Cleveland Indians, 4 p.m. This is one of those makeup games from when the Mariners were snowed out in Cleveland back in April. Lookout Landing took the sweep a bit hard and admits that the Angels just have more talent than the Mariners. But I’m still pulling for them to win the Wild Card (over the Yankees) — just stay far enough behind the Angels where I feel secure.

Milwaukee Brewers at Chicago Cubs, 5 p.m. I’ve run out of jokes about how bad the NL Central is. The Brewers won Wednesday with the return of Ben Sheets, 6-1. The Brewers are back at .500, and the Cubs’ lead over them is reduced to 1.5 games (and 2 ahead of the Cardinals).

NIGHT:

Arizona Diamondbacks at San Diego Padres. The Padres have won three in a row against the D’Backs, tying them for first place in the NL West (with the other getting the wild card). The winner of tonight’s game will be alone in first.

A strange waiver claim

We’re used to seeing August deals when players have passed through waivers. What you don’t see often in August is a player being claimed off of waivers without any compensation.

Wednesday, the Dodgers picked up Esteban Loaiza from Oakland off waivers. The Dodgers are responsible for the remainder of Loaiza’s salary, including $7 million next year. But there’s no prospects going to Oakland, no players or anything. It’s a waiver move, not a trade.

Loaiza has only made two starts this year coming off of an injury, so he’s very unproven. But the Dodgers aren’t exactly giving up anything, other than money, which Dodger owner Frank McCourt probably has tons of. They probably figure he can’t be worse than their current back end of the rotation, so why not take a gamble? Dodger fans should hope that this doesn’t mean the team is already penciling Loaiza into his 2008 starting rotation — who knows how well Loaiza might hold up over a full season. But this is a good move for them trying to win this year.

The A’s look very cheap by not getting anything back. But given their small-market, low-payroll needs, this might be exactly what they needed. Loaiza is cheaper than a lot of league-average starters have gone for lately, but maybe the A’s really need that money for other, better players.

Has there ever been a win, win waiver claim?