After two games in the 2014 World Series, the Kansas City Royals were tied at 1-1 with the San Francisco Giants, having rallied from a Game 1 defeat to win Game 2. I wrote last year how had the Giants taken both games in Missouri, there was a strong chance the series wouldn’t return to Kauffman Stadium, but that split eventually led to one of the most memorable World Series in recent memory.

Fast forward to this year; the Royals and Mets were engaged in a tough battle in Game 1 before the hosts prevailed on a sacrifice fly in extra innings. In Game 2, the Royals batting lineup took charge, giving them a commanding 2-0 lead in the series.

Friday marks Game 3 at Citi Field, a game the Mets have to win to maintain hopes of winning their first world championship since 1986. No team has ever rallied from a 3-0 deficit to win a World Series, although it’s happened before in previous rounds, notably the 2004 ALCS. The Mets will be sending Noah Syndegaard to the mound, one of the team’s star pitchers this year along with Jacob deGrom, who struggled in Game 2. The Royals’ starter, Yordano Ventura, also has a powerful fastball that can give the Mets’ batters fits.

One group who will be very interested in the next two nights are NBC Sports executives. With this week’s Sunday Night Football matchup featuring the undefeated Packers and undefeated Broncos, they’ll want to draw in a huge audience for ratings. However, Sunday is when Game 5 of the World Series is scheduled, and if Kansas City wins either Friday or Saturday (with the Mets winning the other game), they’ll have a chance Sunday to win their first title since 1985. It’s fair to say NBC is hoping the Royals can finish a sweep of the Mets Saturday, or that the Mets take both of the first two games so that Sunday’s game isn’t one where the Royals can win the series. If it is a 3-1 series going into Sunday night, it will be intriguing to see which game earns the higher ratings.

Can the Mets get out of a 2-0 hole to at least send the series back to Kansas City? Or will the Royals finish the job they nearly accomplished twelve months ago?

It’s been a rough start to the 2015-16 season for the Columbus Blue Jackets. The franchise began a new NHL campaign with high hopes of returning to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but have endured a disastrous 0-7 start. Their latest loss, a 4-0 defeat to the New York Islanders Tuesday, proved to be the final straw for management, as head coach Todd Richards was fired shortly afterward. Richards will always be remembered for being the head coach that led the Blue Jackets to their first ever playoff wins in team history, but a poor start to the season produced a decision that some viewed as inevitable.

General Manager Jarmo Kekalainen wasted little time finding a replacement, with John Tortorella introduced Wednesday as the new head coach. Tortorella brings an impressive resume to Columbus; he’s a Stanley Cup winner with the Tampa Bay Lightning, and has also managed the New York Rangers and Vancouver Canucks. In addition, he’ll be Team USA’s head coach for the World Cup of Hockey next year.

Tortorella also brings an interesting personality to the Blue Jackets. He is notorious for polarizing behavior during press conferences, and many will see his arrival as the start of a spark for a club desperately needing one. His reunion with Brandon Dubinsky, who played for him with the Rangers, will be one of the critical points that determines whether this move will work both short-term and long-term.

Despite the disappointing start to the season, the Blue Jackets can look to recent history for optimism. The Flyers parted ways with Peter Laviolette three games into the 2013-14 season, but Craig Berube helped the team clinch a playoff spot. After four games in 2008-09, Chicago fired Denis Savard, and Joel Quenneville not only led the Blackhawks to the playoffs that year, they’ve won three Stanley Cups since.

Columbus begins a four-game road trip Thursday at Minnesota, perhaps the ideal time for a new coach to begin his tenure. Tortorella’s job will be to keep the team focused and free from distractions, whether it’s the negativity that an 0-7 start usually breeds or the hype that surrounds the hiring of a new coach. It gives the Blue Jackets a chance to get critical road wins before they return to Nationwide Arena at the end of the month.

Is Tortorella the answer for Columbus? It’s up to him to turn the Blue Jackets’ fortunes around.

Thursday marks 10 years since one of the most significant days in recent college football history. With many games across the country carrying conference and perhaps national championship implications, the emotions of the teams involved varied as the afternoon went on. In its montage remembering the 2005 regular season, ABC Sports included its own segment on October 15, 2005.

Some of the games featured in that video…

Michigan State at Ohio State

The Buckeyes were coming into the game off a loss at Penn State, already their second of the season. Any hope of a Big Ten championship run, let alone an outside shot at the Rose Bowl National Championship Game, meant a win over the Spartans was mandatory. Yet Michigan State dominated the first half and was poised to take a 20-7 lead into the locker room….until that field goal attempt was blocked and Ashton Youboty returned it for a touchdown. Ohio State rallied in the second half to win a game that not only saved their 2005 season, but at the time the legacy of then-head coach Jim Tressel (before the BCS Championship Game collapses and the memorabilia scandal in 2010).

Penn State at Michigan

After struggling for several years, Penn State got off to an undefeated start in 2005 and seemed destined to win the Big Ten title. Defending champion Michigan, meanwhile, struggled with losses to Notre Dame and Minnesota. In a back-and-forth game, the Nittany Lions were one play away from escaping Ann Arbor with a win, and keeping national championship hopes alive. But Chad Henne’s pass to Mario Manningham gave Michigan the win, revitalizing their season and giving them hope for a share of the conference title.

USC at Notre Dame

The top-ranked team in college football and the defending BCS national champion, against a traditional power re-energized under a first-year head coach. Notre Dame was on the cusp of upsetting the Trojans, until Matt Leinart’s fourth-down completion to Dwayne Jarrett kept the visitors’ drive alive. Chaos ensued as the clock ran out after one play when Leinart ran toward the goal line, even though the ball was clearly knocked out of bounds with time remaining. The time was correctly reset, allowing for the infamous “Bush Push” play, and the Trojans escaped South Bend with a 35-31 win.

As the season played out, each team featured above had unpredictable finishes to the season. Ohio State won out the rest of its season, including a come-from-behind victory at Michigan before beating Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl. Michigan State, known for struggling down the stretch of a season under John L. Smith, continued to do so again. Michigan would go to the Alamo Bowl, with their loss to Nebraska best known for the final play of regulation. Penn State shared the Big Ten title with the Buckeyes, and would survive a three-overtime Orange Bowl with Florida State. USC would make it to the Rose Bowl, before losing an epic battle with Texas – a result that given how the Trojans have fared since, many analysts could refer to as “the beginning of the end.”

This weekend, rivalries are once again renewed. USC visits Notre Dame, with the Trojans hoping to play spoiler as the Fighting Irish still have a lot to play for, even with one loss already this season. In the Big Ten, it’s not the rematches of ten years ago Thursday, but Michigan does face Michigan State; are the Wolverines back under Jim Harbaugh or do the Spartans still have the upper hand in the rivalry? Ohio State hosts Penn State in a primetime battle as the Nittany Lions try to end the Buckeyes’ unbeaten run. Saturday should be full of great college football, both for neutrals and for fans of the participating teams.

The most recent PGA Tour season ended September 27 with a result that summed up how the year went; Jordan Spieth winning the Tour Championship in dominating fashion. What a year for the young Texan: he won the Masters convincingly in April, then followed it up with a U.S. Open win after Dustin Johnson’s surprising three-putt on the 72nd hole. Spieth just missed out on a career and calendar Grand Slam, while Jason Day also became a major champion with his performance at the PGA Championship.

The official end to the 2015 season came with the Presidents Cup in South Korea. Having won the previous five editions, Team USA arrived in Asia as heavy favorites, and certainly played that way on the opening day. But the International team came back on the second and third days, leaving it all to play for in the Sunday singles matches. The Americans prevailed by a point, as the weekend came down to the final match before Bill Haas, son of Team USA captain Jay Haas, got the critical win over Sangmoon Bae, who now begins two years of mandatory service in the South Korean military.

Now comes the start of a new season, the 101st in PGA Tour history, with the Frys.com Open beginning Thursday. There are still several months to go before the Masters at Augusta, but the first few tournaments should provide some excitement. Will there be as much chaos atop the World Golf Ranking as there was the last few months? Is Rory McIlroy ready to put that foot injury that kept him out of the Open behind him, and get back to regular competition? Is there a new golfer about to go on a hot streak, the way McIlroy did at the end of 2014 and Spieth did at the start of 2015? Golf fans won’t have to wait long to find out the answers, as the new season has arrived.

Manchester United have completed the first two months of the 2015-16 season, currently sitting atop the Premier League, while finding themselves in a wide open Champions League group. It appears for the moment that the Red Devils have returned to the form that’s made them one of the most legendary clubs in the world, but can the club continue that as the campaign goes on?

United opened the Premier League season with a pair of 1-0 wins over Tottenham and Aston Villa. As many players will say, three points is three points, but the club looked less than convincing in both matches, and that continued in a lackluster draw with Newcastle followed by a loss at Swansea, a club that has given United fits over the last two years. But the arrival of Anthony Martial and others on deadline day brought a new spark to Louis van Gaal’s charges, as they won all three EPL matches in September, over Liverpool, Southampton, and Sunderland. Those wins, coupled with Manchester City’s two upset losses, sees the Red Devils atop the League for the first time since the opening weekend of 2013/14.

In the Champions League, the club have endured far fewer struggles. They did concede an early own goal to Club Brugge in the first leg of the play-off round tie, but thanks to Memphis Depay – followed by Wayne Rooney in the return leg – the Red Devils comfortably clinched a spot in the group stage. Although they opened group play with a loss at PSV, it’s been widely acknowledged that the game was the toughest of United’s away matches, so to have it out of the way will be a relief. A come-from-behind home win over Wolfsburg – coupled with CSKA’s win over PSV – means all four clubs in Group B have three points after two matches, with plenty to play for the remaining four matchdays.

Manchester United return to Premier League action Sunday when they travel to Arsenal. This has been historically one of the marquee Premier League fixtures, although Arsenal’s recent EPL struggles have taken away from the game’s mystique. The Red Devils need to take measures to not get caught looking ahead to the international break the following week, or their home date with City on October 25th. They’ve done well the first two months, but can they keep it up over a long season?