Sport and Cinema.com

At the start of this season I had one team from the 2010 World Series returning to the Fall Classic. The Giants. While I missed that, look for the other team, the Rangers, to win their first title in its 50 year history as they take on the St. Louis Cardinals beginning Wednesday in the 107th Fall Classic.

Fans of the Friday Night Lights television series will once again be able to recapture the drama of the Dillon Panthers as ESPN will air the entire series with episodes set to premiere on July 12.

This year’s Fall Classic promises one thing – there will be a new champion. The Giants have never won since moving to San Francisco and Texas has never been to the World Series.

The strain on Kobe to carry a team that was supposed to lean more on Ron Artest and Lamar Odom has been evident down the stretch. The health concerns of Andrew Bynum will likely increase the burden on Bryant. For the Thunder to have a shot, they will need to have Russell Westbrook step up as it is likely that Kevin Durant will be slowed from the attention showered on him by the Lakers D.

As we begin 2010 it is time to consider which is the BEST sports movie from the first decade of the 21st Century.

There are some very good choices. Documentaries, by the way, like “Dogtown and Z-Boys” deserve their own column.

Here is the Top Ten:

The Tide’s Heisman running back, Mark Ingram and Longhorn mobile QB Colt McCoy may be taking a rare back seat to a pair of defenses that are likely to determine the winner in the first-ever BCS Championship clash of 13-0 teams.

For the Giants to get to the top of the East again, they’ll have to do it with a whole new receiver corps. With former Super Bowl-MVP David Tyree, Plaxico Burress and Amani Toomer out of the picture, New York will depend on youth in their wideouts – Hakeem Nicks (first round) and Ramses Barden (third) to go with 5-year vet Domenik Hixon.

Mack Brown has 14 starters returning. The Longhorns are long on defense with 48 sacks to lead the nation last year, but they also lost end Brian Orakpo who won the Bronko Nagurski Award as the country’s top collegiate defender. Veteran Sergio Kindle and newcomer on the end position, Alex Okafor, could cause a lot of disruptions to opposing offenses this year. No doubt their game against rival Oklahoma will have national title implications.