Commentary: The Good, The Great & The Ugly

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It’s Tuesday and time for the Good, the Great & the Ugly …

First the good: For baseball lovers, it’s Christmas! Four MLB wildcard series get going today beginning at 1:08 pm ET and running right through to midnight. Game 1 of Best-of-3s feature the Tigers at Guardians, Padres at Cubs, Red Sox at Yankees and Reds at Dodgers.

It’s all kinds of good! The Blue Jays get to sit back, watch, and wait for their ALDS opponent while MLB can be happy that New York and L.A. are represented as well as historic baseball markets like Chicago and Boston. It’s the perfect field.

Next the great: It was nice to be back in my happy place Monday Night — Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, FL. It’s Season 5 of covering the Florida Panthers and what a ride it’s been.

Someone pointed out the last time everyone convened there, the Stanley Cup was being handed out in Game 6 between the Panthers and Oilers.

The actual chase begins with opening night next Tuesday with Connor Bedard and the Chicago Blackhawks in town.

I’ve got friends from Sask coming to stay with me and go to the game.

I can’t think of anything more great than that.

And finally the ugly: Knee surgeons in South Florida are getting a workout. First it was Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov tearing two ligaments in his right knee last Thursday – sidelining him for 7-9 months – and last night on Monday Night Football, Dolphins star Tyreek Hill was carted off with what they’re saying is a dislocated knee and multiple torn ligaments.

You know what was running through my head when I saw the injury?

So much for the safety of grass fields.

That’s today’s Rod Pedersen Commentary.

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