Okay, the first string is back calling the shots this week after Week 8 backup CBall got pounded 1-5 (ouch).

CBall’s fumbles have left Team Lineman (6-0 in the Lineman’s last start in Week 7 in case anyone forgot) perilously close to the .500 mark but the big guy is back and so is the momentum as we head into the second half the schedule.

Record: 25-34. Last week: 1-5. Pick of the Week: 4-4

PICK OF THE WEEK:

Houston Texans (5-3) at Indianapolis Colts (7-0) (Line Texans plus 9 1/2) Colts quarterback Peyton Manning has been red hot at the controls of the NFL’s top ranked passing game. But wait a second; who is that guy ahead of him leading the league in most yards passing and touchdown passes? Why it’s Texans quarterback Matt Schaub.

Texans monster wide receiver Andre Johnson is scary good and leads NFL with 697 yards on 44 catches but Manning’s favourite target Reggie Wayne has just eight yards less on 55 catches.

After a stuttering start to the season the Texans have won three straight and are 3-1 on the road so should not be intimidated coming into the “Big Oil Drum” Lucas Oil Stadium.

What is intimidating, however, is the Colts 13-1 record against the Texans and a surprisingly stingy defence that has surrendered just 13 points per game - tops in the league.

The Colts could remain unbeaten after Sunday but giving up 9 1/2 to a quality team finding its mojo is just too much.

Take the Texans and the 9 1/2.

Carolina Panthers (3-4) at New Orleans Saints (7-0) (Line Panthers plus 14 1/2) Panthers quarterback Jake Delhomme went off the rails tossing five interceptions in a playoff loss to the Cardinals to end last season and has had problems getting back on track ever since.

After a 0-3 start, the Panthers have displayed some bite with three wins in their last four games but none have come against the type of quality opponent they will face on Sunday.

The Saints high-flying offence led by quarterback Drew Brees can score at will averaging a league best 39 points and 428 yards per game.

The New Orleans defence also knows how to find the end zone returning five interceptions for TDs — not good news for Delhomme who has been a turnover machine tossing 13 picks against just five touchdowns.

But Delhomme, a Louisiana native and former Saints backup, is 6-0 on visits to the Big Easy and is coming off his first turnover free game of the season with last week’s win over Arizona.

The Panthers also catch the Saints coming off a short week following a tough Monday night win over Atlanta.

Brees will be wary of a Panthers top ranked pass defence and defensive end Julius Peppers is a beast with six sacks in last four games.

The Saints march on but giving up two touchdowns is too much.

Take the Panthers and the 14 1/2.

Green Bay Packers (4-3) at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (0-7) (Line Packers minus 9 1/2) Tampa Bay will wear their vintage 1976 popsicle orange jerseys on Sunday which are sure to bring back memories of the bad old days of when the Bucs were the worst team in the NFL.

Oh wait, the winless Bucs are the worst team in the NFL…

Now that the Brett Favre homecoming circus is behind them, the Packers can focus all their attention on locking up an NFL wildcard spot.

Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers is the NFL’s top rated QB but the Packers have had problems protecting their quarterback, who has been sacked a league high 31 times.

That however, should not be a concern against the Buccaneers, who couldn’t get to the passer with a road map.

Buccaneers are already onto their third quarterback this season handing rookie Josh Freeman the start.

The Pack enjoy a weekend in the sun.

Take Green Bay and give up the 9 1/2.

Detroit Lions (1-6) at Seattle Seahawks (2-5) (Line Seahawks minus-9 1/2) The beat up Seahawks have just two wins this season but both have been home blowouts, 41-0 over the Jaguars and 28-0 against the Rams.

The Lions make the long trip west to hostile Qwest Field where they have not won since 1999.

For the second consecutive season the Seahawks have been undone by injuries with a dozen starters missing one game or more but have more than enough manpower to handle the toothless Lions, who got dumped by winless St. Louis last week.

Despite having just two wins the Seahawks will be motivated as they remain very much in the hunt for a playoff spot in the weak NFC West sitting just two back of the front-running Cardinals.

Take the Seahawks and surrender the 9 1/2.

Tennessee Titans (1-6) at San Francisco 49ers (3-4) (Line 49ers minus 3 1/2) After a strong start to the season the 49ers have dropped three straight and need a win to keep the pressure on the NFC West leading Cards.

San Fran’s last two defeats to the Colts and Texans were by a combined seven points and this week return to Candlestick Park for their first home game in almost a month.

The NFL’s best team a year ago, the Titans finally got their first win last week over the Jaguars benching aging QB Kerry Collins in favour of Vince Young.

The running game is likely to provide the key to victory in this one with Titans Chris Johnson, who rushed for a franchise-record 228 yards against the Jaguars, going toe-to-toe against 49ers Frank Gore.

But San Francisco has the NFL’s second ranked rush defence yielding just over 84.9 yards a game.

Young and Johnson have provided the Titans with some spark but 49ers coach inspirational Mike Singletary will have his team even more fired up for this one.

Take the 49ers and give up the 3 1/2.

Pittsburgh Steelers (5-2) at Denver Broncos (6-1) (Line Steelers minus 2 1/2) The well rested Steelers come off a bye week while the Broncos come into the Monday Nighter off their first loss of season.

The Broncos, who surprised everyone with their 6-0 start, came back to earth with thud falling to the Ravens and now face another tough challenge with the Super Bowl champions coming into Mile High riding a four game win streak.

The Steelers wildman safety Troy Polamalu is back to full fitness and creating havoc and all sorts of headaches for Broncos quarterback Kyle Orton.

Pittsburgh QB Ben Roethlisberger can also expect a tough night going against a Broncos defence that has allowed just over 13 points a game and has 23 sacks.

But the Steelers tame the Broncos, who drop their second in a row.

Take the Steelers and give up the 2 1/2.

PHOTO: Houston Texans quarterback Matt Schaub (8) looks down on the Tennessee Titans during second half of their NFL football game at LP Field in Nashville, Tennessee September 20, 2009. REUTERS/M. J. Masotti Jr.

Homegrown talent and store-bought superstars — the Yankees formula for success for their 27th World Series championship claimed Wednesday with a Game Six victory over the Philadelphia Phillies that returned the team to the winners’ circle for the first time in what seemed to Yankee Nation like an endless nine years of waiting.

A bottomless checking account for free agents is not the only thing making the Yankees great.

Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte and Jorge Posada, four pillars of the Yankee teams that won four Fall Classic titles in five years starting in 1996, all came up through the farm system and were still thriving on the October/November stage in 2009.

Young fireballers Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes were developed by the Yanks, as was second baseman Robinson Cano.

There is no question, however, that the New York high-rollers have a big advantage in their gambles to hit the jackpot with the right free-agent signings, and the Yankees have been vilified in some quarters for outspending the competition to win their titles.

Their 2009 payroll of $200-plus million was about $100 million more than the Phils. More than $420 million in off-season free agent signings netted the Bronx Bombers CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira.

Baseball’s highest paid player, Alex Rodriguez, mans the middle of the batting order, and Japanese slugger Hideki Matsui single-handedly overpowered the Phillies in the Series clincher with a record tying six RBIs.

Meanwhile, TV ratings for this World Series were the highest in recent years.

So the Yankees back to winning — good or bad for baseball?

PHOTO: New York Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia holds the MLB World Series championship trophy while being sprayed with champagne in the locker room after the Yankees defeated the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 6 of the 2009 Major League Baseball World Series in New York November 4, 2009. The victory was the 27th World Series win in Yankees history. REUTERS/Mike Segar

Sportswrap is back with a bang, as we take in Hideki Matsui’s heroic performance for the New York Yankees, Usain Bolt bottle-feeding a creature that will one day outrun him and Rafa Benitez trying to invoke the spirit of You’ll Never Walk Alone only to come a cropper in the Champions League.

Written by Kevin Fylan, presented by Owen Wyatt from our Canary Wharf studios and with a jaunty hat tip to Half Man Half Biscuit for the Liverpool joke.

Eleven years ago I sat near a high school-aged Daisuke Matsuzaka as he used field glasses to watch a Japan-MLB All-Star game at the end of both leagues' seasons.
  
I wrote a story based on that image about Japanese wanting to know "How good are we?" It was a question encompassing more than sport, as the same doubts existed for Japan in terms of corporate or diplomatic might, while the way the nation usually measured itself was in comparison to the U.S.
 
The 2009 baseball season, which began with Matsuzaka and Ichiro Suzuki leading Japan to its second World Baseball Classic title and ended with Hideki Matsui winning the World Series MVP in helping the New York Yankees to the crown, hasn't ended that self-assessment. Instead it has widened it to "How good can we be?"
 
Matsui, whose decision to leave the Yomiuri Giants at the end of the 2002 was broadcast live across the island nation, hit a grand slam in his first New York home game but has been hobbled by injuries in seven seasons that may have made his Series heroics a Yankees coda.
 
Ichiro, who set the record in 2009 for most consecutive MLB seasons with 200 hits and delivered the winning RBI in the WBC title game, is the greatest baseball export Japan has produced so far, but his zen approach to hitting and perceived statistics orientation have not always resonated with fans or teammates.
 
Matsui, meanwhile, nicknamed "Godzilla" in high school for his power display at the national baseball championship, is less polished and a little more rough and ready. But he's a player that nary a cross word has been said or written about, rather a "slugging salaryman" portrayal whose team focus is absolute, who even hit his sixth game Series homer to the Komatsu banner in rightfield.
 
An MLB-insider told me after Game Six of the World Series: "Ichiro Suzuki will be elected into the Hall of Fame, Hideki Matsui will not. But Ichiro will never achieve what Matsui did last night."

Ichiro may not, but another Japanese player may, as the once distant fields of dreams across the Pacific have grown closer thanks to the countrymen's feats in 2009, with Japan's questions about how it rates becoming easier to answer.

Photo credit: REUTERS/Mike Segar

Roughly once a decade throughout the 20th century, a group of South Seas islanders in the guise of the New Zealand All Blacks would invade Europe to teach the old world the ways of the new.

There were reverses, notably at the hands of Wales in 1905, 1935 and 1953, three of the first four games between the two small rugby-mad nations. But the win-loss ratio remained overwhelmingly in favour of the All Blacks, whose distinctive all-black uniform and pre-match haka (Maori war dance) enhanced their special aura.

Familiarity, the curse of modern sport with its perpetually swelling fixture lists, has inevitably diluted the appeal of the All Blacks who now visit Europe once a year along with the other southern hemisphere nations.

There are, though, more fundamental reasons for querying a common assumption that the All Blacks are the once and future kings of world rugby.

Their record against European opposition is still undeniably impressive. Under head coach Graham Henry, New Zealand have won 16 times in Europe and lost just once since 2004.

That defeat, though, is more significant than all the wins put together.

Dismissed on the official All Blacks website as a “blemish”, the 20-18 Cardiff loss to France in the 2007 World Cup quarter-finals represents the earliest exit for New Zealand at the quadrennial tournament.

The current All Blacks are undoubtedly entertaining, partly through necessity as they throw the ball about to compensate for the loss of the forward dominance they enjoyed for most of the 20th century.

Captain Richie McCaw and flyhalf Daniel Carter would be serious candidates for a place in a mythical all-time All Blacks side. Yet something more than a rugby match was lost in Cardiff on the evening of October 6, 2007.

New Zealand had assembled a squad which possessed world class players in all positions and on paper looked at least a dozen points better than their closest rivals.

Despite all their advantages and the most meticulous of buildups, they were still unable to summon the guile or wit to get three points in the final 10 minutes against the French.

The World Cup is the arena in which Henry and the All Blacks must be judged. Henry was given a handsome budget and a free rein before the 2007 tournament, held 20 years after New Zealand’s sole triumph, but still presided over the country’s worst performance.

Even victory in 2011, when they will be hosts and probably again the bookmakers’ favourites, will not assuage the sceptics. Current champions South Africa, Australia and England have each won the Webb Ellis trophy on foreign soil.

Failure to win the ultimate prize since David Kirk held the Webb Ellis aloft at Eden Park in 1987, remains the reason New Zealand can not be ranked with Brazil, winners of the football World Cup a record five times, or the Australian cricketers, winners of the last three 50 overs World Cups.

Even in the 20th century, South Africa were consistently the world’s best team both home and away before they were banished into the sporting wilderness through widespread revulsion at their brutal racial policies.

The Springboks won the 1995 World Cup at home at the first time of asking after their return from apartheid exile. They won again in Paris in 2007. This year they defeated the British and Irish Lions and were by some distance the best side in the Tri-Nations.

It is they, not the All Blacks, who will rightly command the most respect when they visit Europe this month.

PHOTO: New Zealand All Blacks captain Richie McCaw (C) stands between his players as they perform the Haka before taking on Australia’s Wallabies in the Bledisloe Cup at Olympic Stadium in Tokyo October 31, 2009. REUTERS/Toru Hanai

Out of eight Spanish and English teams playing in the Champions League this week, only Arsenal were victorious.

Was this a blip for the two powerhouses, or is it another indication that Europe's top club competition is becoming more balanced?

I did a video blog on Tuesday about the difficulties in Italian football (and got a bit of stick for it!) and for 86 minutes of Dynamo Kiev v Inter Milan the problems were still there.

But a quick double burst by Jose Mourinho's men gave them a 2-1 comeback win and they are now top of the group. If they beat Barcelona at the Nou Camp next time out then the holders could be in real trouble. 

In the long run, I still maintain that a Serie A side will really struggle to win it this season but what about flying Bordeaux?

It's possibly beyond a French side as well, which leads me back to Arsenal.

Manchester United are suddenly looking shaky at the back while Chelsea, Barca, Real Madrid are far from perfect.

I reckoned at the start of the season that Arsenal, with their youthful exuberance and delightful play, could be real challengers in Europe and although they have probably had an easier group and are not even through yet, their chances look to be increasing.  

PHOTO: Arsenal's Cesc Fabregas scores his second goal in the 4-1 home win over AZ Alkmaar, Nov 4, 2009. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh

The New York Yankees beat the Philadelphia Phillies 7-3 Wednesday to win the World Series.

The 4-2 series victory gave the Yankees their 27th Fall Classic crown and first since 2000.

Hideki Matsui was named Most Valuable Player after batting .615 with three home runs and eight RBIs over the series.

The Japanese slugger drove in six runs in Wednesday’s clincher, tying the World Series record for most RBIs in a game set in 1960 by Yankee second baseman Bobby Richardson.

PHOTO: New York Yankees players (L-R) Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada (obscured), Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera look at the World Series trophy after the Yankees defeated the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 6 to win the 2009 Major League Baseball World Series in New York, November 4, 2009. REUTERS/Pool-David J. Phillip

Taiwan’s flagship sport is unravelling like an old rotted baseball, a university graduate said, reflecting the public mood of the moment, as she and I waited at a news conference for the cabinet spokesman to emerge with an official response to an illegal betting scandal.

The case, far from over, has put six people in jail and pointed fingers at eight more, including two of the island’s best known pitchers, since it was announced in the final days of October after months of investigation.

Taiwan, population 23 million, wants to be an international player, rivalling South Korea and Japan in Asian baseball. Then from 2008 it lost twice to baseball upstart and political rival China, prompting calls for reform. As part of a broader baseball reform package, the government pledged to stamp out illegal gambling rings that pay players to throw impossible pitches or drop easy fly balls to make bets come true as the Chicago White Sox players did in 1919.

As the anti-gambling campaign got underway, a massive mafia-driven betting scheme unfolded throughout the Chinese Professional Baseball League (www.cpbl.com.tw) summer season, a local prosecutor said. Among the eight suspects are former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Tsao Chin-hui, a household name among Taiwan fans, and former Chinese Taipei (effectively a national team) pitcher Chang Chih-chia.

Fans stunned by nonstop broadcasts of the latest betting scandal and put off by the losses to China have turned to televised U.S. major league games, killing off the local league’s TV viewership. Basketball is on the rise among younger folk who haven’t picked a favoured sport. 

“Some fans might even start watching amateur baseball,” said Yu Jun-wei, author and assistant professor at a Taiwan sports university. “This case could have a huge impact on the whole professional league.”

The college grad waxed on about the Red Leaf Junior Baseball Team, legendary for beating a Japanese rival in 1968 and giving the sport’s first big boost in Taiwan. Glory days that are gone for how long?

Cabinet spokesman Su Jun-pin said they’d come back as the government begins to strike at the dark heart of the “black channel,” a literal translation of the Chinese term for mafia. “It’s not just about players. What’s important is that if we can’t strike the leaders, the origin of the problem can’t be exhausted,” Su told the news conference.

Toyota team principal Tadashi Yamashina was in tears as the Japanese company announced it has withdrawn from Formula One with immediate effect.

Japan has deserted motorsport on mass during the economic crisis (Honda and Bridgestone to name just two).

Company president Akio Toyoda apologised for the team’s failure to record a single race victory since joining F1 in 2002 despite an estimated annual budget of around $300 million.

“It was a very difficult but unavoidable decision,” he told a news conference in Tokyo.

The departure opens the door for BMW Sauber’s new Swiss owners to take their place on the grid.

PHOTO: Toyota Motorsport Chairman and Team Principal Tadashi Yamashina cries at a news conference at the company’s headquarters in Tokyo November 4, 2009 REUTERS/Issei Kato

Henrique Meirelles, Brazil's highly rated central bank president, gave unusual insight into current thinking at the International Olympic Committee in a speech in Oxford the other night.

Diverging from his main theme on Brazil's remarkable journey from economic basket case to emerging market superpower, Meirelles said that he had gone to Copenhagen last month as part of Rio de Janeiro's successful bid for the 2016 Olympics. The reason: The IOC asked him to come.

Meirelles said that the IOC knew that Brazil currently had all the conditions needed to host the Games, but wanted to know about how predictable it was that this would carry through over the next seven years. "They wanted to know what is really happening," he said.

Essentially, the IOC wanted to check with the top economic manager that the country's finances will still be shining when the Games are held.

 Perhaps they were thinking of London 2012.