DON'T LET THE WARM WEATHER FOOL YOU...

It's almost October and the International Gold Cup is looming.

The weather will cool off, and the leaves will start to turn.

The signs of autumn are everywhere.

The Nats are done, and when we say "done," we mean REALLY done. In fact, when they recently lost 8-0 to Philadelphia, the Phils popped champagne to celebrate clinching the division.  The Nats clinched last place in the NL East a few months ago...Mind you they refrained from losing 100 games -- the high standard of low excellence for major league baseball.

The goggles are a nice touch, don't you think?

College football is underway, but who's worth going to see?  Maryland is mediocre, Virginia is rebuilding and Virginia Tech can't decide whether or not they want to be good after stumbling through losses to Boise State and James Madison. Why burn a perfectly good Saturday afternoon on that?

The Capitals and Wizards are getting underway and setting the stage to disappoint us all sooner (Wizards) or later (Caps).

The Redskins just lost to the Rams -- a team that hadn't won a home game since the end of the Crimean War (something like losers of 603 out of their last 608 games) -- and, even if you do remain loyal, they don't play on Saturday.  You have to wait until Sunday to feel the Skins special brand of pain.

See anybody you know?

So, simply put, set aside Saturday, October 16th for the International Gold Cup.

You will be glad you did.

Bring your friends. You will be glad you did that too.