No Prisoners, No Mercy!

I hate to put words into the mouth of a philosophical concept, but something tells me Karma is not gonna like this:

Red Sox trounce Boston College 24-0 in exhibition opener
Red Sox beat Northeastern 15-0 with help of 12 walks

Wow. Nothing says, "Watch the fuck out, American League," like kicking the crap out of a couple of college teams. 39-0. I tried last year, after Texas beat Baltimore in that 30-3 debacle, and I couldn't even blow somebody out like that on a video game. It's not easy to do, generally speaking.

The last time the Red Sox hung 20 on a major league team was June 27, 2003, when the Grady Little All-Stars violated the Florida Marlins (including third baseman Mike Lowell and starting pitcher Josh Beckett) with fourteen first inning runs en route to a 25-8 beatdown. Florida rebounded to reach the playoffs and win the World Series, so I think the implications are clear here: Boston College fans should start booking hotel rooms in Omaha.

2008 NCAA Football Virtual Playoffs: Third Round Matchups

Now we're movin' - as I learned last year, after the first two rounds (and 96 games between them), this baby really starts to hum.


Wake Forest (32) @ Hawaii (1)
New Mexico State (99) @ LSU (3)
Auburn (27) @ Ohio State (6)
Florida Atlantic (39) @ USC (7)
Virginia (25) @ Georgia (8)
Nebraska (87) @ Virginia Tech (10)
Miami (86) @ Oklahoma (11)
Mississippi State (44) @ Boston College (12)
Rutgers (46) @ Arizona State (14)
UAB (114) @ Tennessee (18)
Florida International (116) @ Air Force (20)
South Carolina (68) @ Florida (29)
Louisville (66) @ Oregon (34)
Indiana (60) @ Texas Tech (37)
Florida State (56) @ East Carolina (41)
Northern Illinois (112) @ Navy (49)

2008 NCAA Football Virtual Playoffs Second Round: Games of Thursday, February 28, 2008

Utah State (110) @ Rutgers (46)
Final Score: Rutgers 24, Utah State 21
Rutgers advances to play Arizona State (14) in the third round.

(Note: Wild ending to this one. Utah State trailed 17-7 with 1:48 to play, then scored twice to take a 21-17 lead with :55 remaining. So what does Rutgers do? Returns the ensuing kickff 91 yards for the winning touchdown.)

Notre Dame (107) @ Miami (FL) (86)
Final Score: Miami (FL) 21, Notre Dame 17
Miami (FL) advances to play Oklahoma (11) in the third round.

Colorado State (103) @ Florida Atlantic (39)
Final Score: Florida Atlantic 24, Colorado State 10
Florida Atlantic advances to play USC (7) in the third round.

UAB (114) @ Arkansas State (79)
Final Score: UAB 7, Arkansas 0
UAB advances to play Tennessee (18) in the third round.

NCAA Football Virtual Playoffs Second Round: Games of Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Northern Illinois (112) @ Purdue (48)
Final Score: Northern Illinois 24, Purdue 0
Northern Illinois advances to play Navy (49) in the third round.


Baylor (108) @ Mississippi State (44)
Final Score: Mississippi State 14, Baylor 7
Mississippi State advances to play Boston College (12) in the third round.


Florida International (116) @ Memphis (52)
Final Score: Florida International 21, Memphis 10
Florida International advances to play Air Force (20) in the third round.


New Mexico State (99) @ South Florida (35)
Final Score: New Mexico State 21, South Florida 14
New Mexico State advances to play LSU (3) in the third round.

2008 NCAA Football Virtual Playoffs Second Round: Games of Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Wyoming (89) @ Virginia (25)
Final Score: Virginia 20, Wyoming 17 (OT)
Virginia advances to play Georgia (8) in the third round.


Eastern Michigan (91) @ Auburn (27)
Final Score: Auburn 41, Eastern Michigan 0
Auburn advances to play Ohio State (6) in the third round.


Texas Tech (37) @ Clemson (28)
Final Score: Texas Tech 34, Clemson 10
Texas Tech advances to play Indiana (60) in the third round.


North Carolina (93) @ Florida (29)
Final Score: Florida 21, North Carolina 14
Florida advances to play South Carolina (68) in the third round.


Oregon (34) @ Utah (31)
Final Score: Oregon 24, Utah 17
Oregon advances to play Louisville (66) in the third round.


Wisconsin (33) @ Wake Forest (32)
Final Score: Wake Forest 7, Wisconsin 0
Wake Forest advances to play Hawaii (1) in the third round.

The 2008 Tampa Bay Rays = The 1969 New York Mets?

It's hard to admit this, but I'm gonna go ahead and do it anyway: as a Red Sox fan, the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays scare me.

Last season, I kicked around an idea that made it as far as the drafts section without ever actually graduating to "Publish Post" status. The thinking was that the Rays, with a slew of young players on the rise, were in serious danger of putting their bleak history behind them and unleashing the pent-up fury of ten futile years on the American League...much like the 1969 Mets did during their Amazin' run to the pennant. The similarities were there, I could just never quite fit it all together the way I wanted.

Now, with the 2008 season fast approaching, I'm willing to try revisiting that line of thought. Here goes, in wonderfully lazy bullet point form:

• The Mets finished ninth or tenth in the first seven seasons of the franchise's existence, never winning more than 73 games. The Rays have finished fourth or fifth in the first ten seasons of their existence, never winning more than 70 games.


• The Mets were led by a pair of good young pitchers who set the league on fire in 1969: Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman. The Rays' rotation is anchored by former Mets draft pick Scott Kazmir and James Shields. Kazmir and Shields are 24 and 26, respectively - the same age as Seaver and Koosman in 1969.


• The Mets had an exceptional bullpen featuring Ron Taylor, Jack Dilauro, and Tug McGraw. The Rays have Juan Salas, Al Reyes, and Troy Percival. Okay, so it's not perfect.


• Average age of position players on the '69 Mets: 25.9. Average age of position players on the '07 Rays: 25.9.


• The Mets gained legitimacy in their early years thanks to their first manager, Casey Stengel. The Rays were first perceived as a threat when Lou Piniella came on board. Neither lasted past a fourth season or had a winning record with their respective team.


• It's likely that each team will field a rookie third baseman (Wayne Garrett and Evan Longoria), a shortstop who is below-average offensively and makes plenty of errors (Bud Harrelson and Jason Bartlett), an outfielder who is good offensively, but not as good as I first thought (Tommie Agee and Carl Crawford), and a player who is better with the bat than I expected (Cleon Jones and B.J. Upton).

That's all I've got at the moment. Were a couple of those points kind of a reach? Yeah, I'll admit it. But of the six, at least four are solid comparisons. Will the Rays 2008 end the same way as the Mets 1969?

God, I hope not.

It's Late February - Must Be Time For Basketball

I'm on vacation this week, which means that once the wife goes to bed around eleven, I have at least three or four hours of quality TV time remaining. Tonight, a slow night on the movie channels and an unwillingness to tolerate ESPN programming led me to take drastic measures: for the first time all season, I turned on a Celtics game.

NBA basketball is probably my fourth favorite sport to watch, so this isn't entirely unusual for me. The pattern was probably similar last year - college football ended, then the NFL ended, then I decompressed for awhile, then I checked out the C's once in a while.

And this will sound weird and a bit ungrateful, but I sort of miss that team. Yeah, they were so terrible that Paul Pierce was practically fine-tuning his resume on the bench during games, and pretty much the entire world accused them of tanking down the stretch to have a better chance at a high draft pick, and the average age at the end of the season was about 21, but there was something likeable about the team, a sense that while these kids may not know exactly what they're doing right now, watch out when they put it all together, 'cause they'll be tough to handle.

Of course, Danny Ainge traded every youngster except Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins in the offseason, and two of those guys - Delonte West and Gerald Green - have been dealt again, so maybe I'm just a huge, unknowledgeable homer. Entirely possible, if not probable.

Anyway, it's easy to see that the 2007-08 Celtics are a pretty good team, even without looking at the won-lost record (a league-best 42-12 heading into tonight's game). It's obvious just from watching them play - when I turned the game on, the lead over the Clippers was single digits; by the end of the third quarter, they were up twenty.

None of this is the reason I originally decided to post about the Celtics tonight, however. The real reason I opened up Blogger and began furiously typing was that I realized something in the third quarter: when the time comes for Tommy Heinsohn to hang up his microphone for good, I am going to miss him A LOT.

Heinsohn isn't working this game, which I think I mentioned at Awful Announcing before the season started. If memory serves (and it'll have to, because I'm not looking stuff up right now; how irresponsible of me), he has back trouble that tends to bother him more on cross-country trips (so he usually skips the West Coast swings) and his wife had some health problems that require him to stay close to home. Anyway, whatever the reason, he's not calling the game.

His replacement, Donny Marshall, is good at what he does. He played in the NBA, knows what he's talking about, and doesn't talk just to hear his own voice (yes, I got all of this from watching about fifteen minutes of game time). But there was a play in the third quarter, where Kevin Garnett missed a shot, got his own rebound, and fed Ray Allen for an easy two, where I wanted me some Tommy.

Mike Gorman and Marshall low-keyed the call - if one was listening instead of watching, it wouldn't have seemed like anything special (and it really wasn't - a nice play, but not highlight reel quality), just a bucket that extended the lead by two more points. Thing is, though, that as it unfolded, I found myself getting more and more hyped - my brain knew that Heinsohn wasn't there to go nuts over the play, but my body was still expecting Allen to lay it in and Tommy to lose his mind - only to ultimately be let down when the shot fell and the players trotted back to the other end of the floor.

This is why Tommy Heinsohn is my favorite announcer: like Gus Johnson, he has the ability to make any play in any game feel like Game 7 of the NBA Finals. Is he a blatant homer? Absolutely - it's one of the things I love about him. Is he loud? Without question. Do I care? Hell no. Guys like Donny Marshall are good, but I'm going to miss Tommy Heinsohn when he's gone.

2008 NCAA Football Virtual Playoffs Second Round: Games Of Monday, February 25, 2008

Oklahoma State (58) @ USC (7)
Final Score: USC 28, Oklahoma State 14
USC advances to play the winner of Colorado State (103) @ Florida Atlantic (39) in the third round.


Georgia Tech (57) @ Georgia (8)
Final Score: Georgia 21, Georgia Tech 14
Georgia advances to play the winner of Wyoming (89) @ Virginia (25) in the third round.

Florida State (56) @ West Virginia (9)
Final Score: Florida State 24, West Virginia 0
Florida State advances to play the winner of East Carolina (41) @ Oregon State (24) in the third round.

Alabama (55) @ Virginia Tech (10)
Final Score: Virginia Tech 24, Alabama 10
Virginia Tech advances to play the winner of Nebraska (87) @ Michigan (23) in the third round.

Middle Tennessee (75) @ Oklahoma (11)
Final Score: Oklahoma 14, Middle Tennessee 0
Oklahoma advances to play the winner of Notre Dame (107) @ Miami (86) in the third round.

Ball State (53) @ Boston College (12)
Final Score: Boston College 28, Ball State 21
Boston College advances to play the winner of Baylor (108) vs. Mississippi State (44) in the third round.

2008 NCAA Football Virtual Playoffs Second Round: More Games Of Monday, February 25, 2008

Arizona (78) @ Arizona State (14)
Final Score: Arizona State 27, Arizona 10
Arizona State advances to play the winner of Utah State (110) @ Rutgers (46) in the third round.

Navy (49) @ Cincinnati (16)
Final Score: Navy 14, Cincinnati 7
Navy advances to play the winner of Northern Illinois (112) @ Purdue (48) in the third round.

Kentucky (47) @ Tennessee (18)
Final Score: Tennessee 24, Kentucky 0
Tennessee advances to play the winner of UAB (114) @ Arkansas State (79) in the third round.

TCU (45) @ Air Force (20)
Final Score: Air Force 20, TCU 7
Air Force advances to play the winner of Florida International (116) @ Memphis (52) in the third round.

Nebraska (87) @ Michigan (23)
Final Score: Nebraska 17, Michigan 7
Nebraska advances to play Virginia Tech (10) in the third round.

East Carolina (41) @ Oregon State (24)
Final Score: East Carolina 21, Oregon State 14
East Carolina advances to play Florida State (56) in the third round.

This May Be A Morbid Question...

...but if Heath Ledger hadn't died a month ago, who would have closed out the annual In Memoriam montage at tonight's Oscars?

My wife says Jack Valenti. I say Ingmar Bergman.

Vanity Fair had Ledger as the favorite, followed by Valenti. Roy Scheider was third (he didn't appear in the montage; my wife tells me it's because he missed the cutoff by dying in February) and Deborah Kerr fourth.

(As if this isn't creepy enough, the following exchange just occurred between my wife and I:

Me: Oh good, Helen Mirren is only 62.
Wife: Okay.
Me: I thought she was in her 70s, which would've been a little creepy because I would totally do her.
Wife: Me too.
Me: She's hot.
Wife: She is. She's just...exquisite.

(Fifteen second pause)

Wife: She's amazing.

Congratulations to Ms. Mirren on her apparent addition to the Diane Lane All-Stars.)

Reverse Survivor: Ewe Win?

First and foremost: I'd probably know this already if I followed any college basketball at all, but the leading rebounder and second-leading scorer for the Temple Owls women's basketball team is named Lady Comfort. That is an awesome name.

Now, the big news...for the first time this season we have a frontrunner on the women's side of Reverse Survivor: the 0-27 Fordham Ewes*, who take the lead by virtue of CSU Northridge's 73-72 victory over CSU Bakersfield last Thursday. If Fordham loses its final two games this season (Wednesday at home against Charlotte and Saturday at #17 George Washington), it will set a women's record for losses in a season with 29. I think such a situation would clearly call for a charity exhibition game against NJIT.

Can't get too cocky yet, however - four one-loss teams, listed below, are still alive in this thing:

Zero (1)
Fordham (Atlantic 10, 0-27) – Next Game: Wednesday (two games left)

One (4)
Colgate (Patriot League, 1-26) – Next Game: Wednesday (two games left)
CSU Northridge (Big West, 1-22) – Next Game: Thursday (four games left)
Sam Houston State (Southland-West, 1-24) – Next Game: Saturday (four games left)
Grambling State (Southwestern Athletic, 1-23) – Next Game: Monday (four games left)

*Not a real nickname

Bo Jackson: An Even Greater Athlete Than Previously Thought

Every two years or so, it seems, Sports Illustrated puts out a special "Where Are They Now?" issue that invariably features Bo Jackson. As a child of the 80s, I have all sorts of love for Bo Jackson (one of these days, I'd like to play around with forecasting what his career totals migt have been), but the constant updates on his whereabouts are really not necessary.

Today, though, I learned something new about Jackson. His amazingness as an athlete was always indisputable* - I just never realized how otherworldly he was:

When 40-yard times are announced the next few days from the NFL scouting combine, there are a few things that should be kept in perspective.

First, there is no single "official" 40 time at the combine.

That said, Bo Jackson has the best verifiable time at a combine with his 4.12-second clocking at the Louisiana Superdome in 1986.

4.12? Ridiculous. Either he was using some phenomenal steroids or the sports world was absolutely robbed when he suffered that hip injury in 1991. I vote for the latter - Rob Huizenga, the Raiders team doctor when Bo arrived, was a big, big enemy of the 'roids. If Jackson was using, Huizenga likely would have figured it out.

*My favorite Bo Jackson story of all time is from Huizenga's book, "You're Okay, It's Just A Bruise". Apparently, Bo joined the team in 1987 right around the time the strike ended. In his first practice, he took a handoff and turned on the jets, leaving a veteran linebacker eating dust (I can't be sure without checking the book, but the linebacker might have been Matt Millen). The LB was concerned that his skills had eroded badly during the time off - until a teammate gave him the identity of the guy who had made him look foolish, at which point his attitude brightened.

Also included in that article are the best recorded times in the 40 since electronic timers were first used in 1999. The best, by four hundredths of a second, was Eastern Kentucky's Rondel Melendez, a wide receiver who flew the distance in 4.24 nine years ago (it felt really awkward to type "in 1999" at the end of two consecutive sentences). Today, that number was matched by East Carolina running back Chris Johnson. Darren McFadden, a likely Top Five pick, had the second-best time, 4.33.

Bartolo Colon To The Red Sox: Intriguing

Bartolo Colon compiled a 74-41 record with four teams (Cleveland, Montreal, Chicago White Sox, and Anaheim) between 2002 and 2005 and won the 2005 American League Cy Young Award. Unfortunately, he also threw 19 complete games in those years, including 17 in the first two seasons, which maaaaybe had something to do with the shoulder problems that led to his 7-13 record and ERAs above 5.00 in 2006 and 2007.

Today, ESPN is reporting that Colon has reached a preliminary agreement with the Boston Red Sox on a minor league contract.

Colon isn't getting any younger (he turns 35 on May 24), but this could be a good low-risk deal for the Sox, especially if Curt Schilling isn't able to pitch for an extended period of time. If Colon's shoulder issues are in the past, he helps take some of the pressure off of Clay Buchholz and Jon Lester to produce immediately. If he's still hurt, it's only a minor league deal.

This Should Keep Tito's Job Safe Until, Oh, June

The big baseball news in New England today is the announcement that the Red Sox signed manager Terry Francona to a three-year contract extension, plus team options for two more seasons. I wasn't sure about Francona when he first arrived in Boston (after Grady Little, I was hoping for someone with a little more fire), but it has become clear during the past four seasons that he has precisely the right temperament to handle himself in one of the toughest environments in baseball.

Some impressive facts about Francona's Red Sox tenure thus far:

• He is the first manager since Bill Carrigan in 1915-16 to lead the team to two American League pennants and World Series titles.
• If the Red Sox pick up both options, he will have managed the team longer than any man not named Joe Cronin.
• His 648 games managed are the seventh-most in Red Sox history. If he makes it through the next five years, he will move into second, behind only Cronin.
• If the Red Sox average 93 wins over the next two seasons, Francona becomes the second-winningest manager in team history, again behind only Cronin.

It will be interesting to see, at the end of these five years, where Francona sits in terms of games managed and career wins. If the Red Sox continue to win at roughly the same rate, say, 90 a season, he should be in the neighborhood of 1,100 (counting his time in Philadelphia), a number that will probably result in another extension and a legitimate shot at the Hall of Fame. But no pressure, Tito.

The Links: I Don't Know If Roger Clemens Is Lying Or Not; I DO Know That I'm Sick Of Hearing About Him

As is usually the case in these situations, there are multiple angles to the "Roger Clemens WAS at Jose Canseco's party!" story (Media Bias @ Sabernomics)

After two straight seasons that ended in heartbreaking last-minute losses, the Patriots are trying to strengthen the defensive coaching staff (Dom Capers analysis @ Reiss' Pieces)

Hunter Pence may be trying to kill my fantasy baseball hopes, but his sliding door mishap inspired an early front-runner for Headline of the Year ("Door, open!" @ Ump Bump)

One of the great scenes in "We Are Marshall" was when McConaughey and Fox were visiting West Virginia and saw the tribute to Marshall's fallen team on WVU's helmets; it's always nice when teams remember that there is more to life than winning or losing a sporting event (Virginia Tech Shows Its Northern Illinois Colors @ The FanHouse)

All things considered, I think Pettitte handled things well enough without having to murder any defenseless animals. Now, if Vlad Guerrero ever faces allegations of steroid use... (How Andy Pettitte should have dealt with his press conference @ Bugs & Cranks)

Scott Boras is having trouble with Alex Rodriguez, Kenny Rogers and Gary Sheffield, so what does he do? Goes out and signs Manny Ramirez as a client. Unbelievable (Manny Switches To Boras @ MLB Trade Rumors)

You can literally bet on just about anything these days (Satellite Shoot-Down Odds @ Vegas Watch)

The NFL combine took place in Indianapolis this week, which means it's time for everyone's favorite annual story: Mamula! (Searching for Mike Mamula @ Hashmarks)

Reverse Survivor: One Shining Moment

There will be more words on this later. For now, allow me to offer up congratulations to YOUR 2007-2008 college basketball Reverse Survivor champions...

The New Jersey Institute of Technology Highlanders!

NJIT lost its finale to Utah Valley State on Saturday, setting a single-season Division 1 record with 29 losses. It was the last game for head coach Jim Casciano, who announced earlier this week that he would resign at the end of the season.

The Highlanders take home Reverse Survivor awards as the last team to win a game and the team with the overall worst record in Division 1. This is the first time the RS competition has been run during the college basketball season.

Some stunning developments have taken place on the women's side of the draw this week; I should have an update on those at some point this weekend.

Sean Casey Is Quite A Pleasant Individual

If I were one of the talented writers behind Fire Joe Morgan, this article from Boston.com would probably be best described as a "gimme". Unfortunately, I'm not quite as good as those guys are, so I'll just have to pass along the first few lines sans commentary:

Sean Casey broke into a smile so huge that the creases beside his sparkling eyes deepened.

He even cracked up usually serious Jason Varitek as they stood by the batting cage Saturday. Casey's grin padded his lead for the spring training Triple Crown with the Boston Red Sox -- laughs, hugs and handshakes.

"Everyone will think that our team is a lot nicer because he's the nicest guy I've ever met in my life," Mike Lowell said.

The thing that most terrifies me about this article is that it's not a reach to think that I could have written it. When Casey signed earlier this month, I shared some thoughts on his arrival in Boston, with the high point being that he brought such a positive attitude to the table. There was no mention of smiles...but there could have been. But for the Grace of God, there could have been.

Hunter Pence Is Trying To Ruin My Fantasy Baseball Season

Over the next few months, I will be taking part in a sociological experiment conducted by Dave Lozo: can thirty random people come together over the Internet to form a smoothly operating fantasy baseball league?

The full breakdown of my team can be saved until the draft is done; for now, I feel it necessary to call attention to my second round pick, Houston Astros outfielder Hunter Pence, the second-year player who has apparently decided to do everything possible to ruin 2008 for both of us.

Last Wednesday, I selected Pence with the 32nd overall pick in the Lozoball draft. On Tuesday, I almost had a heart attack upon learning that Pence had sustained numerous cuts to his body when he fell through a sliding glass door at his home the previous night. Thankfully, he wasn't seriously injured.

Then, what happens yesterday? He takes a few imaginary swings in the clubhouse, hits his arm on a laundry cart, and almost hurts himself again. I believe Tommy Manzella said it best when he said, "Hunter, go sit down."

Seriously, this scares me. Pence has managed to injure himself twice in the first week of spring training - what are the odds of him making it through the first month of the season? The first half? The entire year? It's questions like this that made me draft Adam Dunn and his $10.5 million salary in the fourth round, even though I needed to spend two high picks on outfielders like I need a hole in the head.

Anyway, feel free to say a little prayer or two for Hunter Pence. Clearly, he needs some divine assistance with his day-to-day existence.

Say It Ain't So, Jim

Two months, one week, and two days. That's how long it's been since I fell in love with the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

It all started innocently enough: preparing for the first Reverse Survivor post of the college basketball season, I combed the conference standings at Yahoo! Sports for all teams with two or fewer wins. One of the worst: an independent that brought an 0-12 record and four initials to the table - N.J.I.T.

Over time, I came to love the team for its ineptitude. It defined both the team and the school, in my mind, gave it a national identity that it had not previously enjoyed. Every week, I dreaded looking into the standings and seeing that zero, that beautiful zero, replaced by a cold, ugly number one that would serve only to rob my Highlanders of their unique nature. Thankfully, it has yet to happen.

I thought we were all on the same page. I thought we were all in this together. I thought others cared as much as I did, wanted the winless season as much as I did. Oh, I was so young and naive!

At 9:22 this evening, the headline appeared in my Google Reader: Casciano stepping down as coach at winless N.J. Tech.

Oh, Jim - why now? The season ends in three days, immortality is achieved in three days...and now this? "In a statement issued by the school"? Why couldn't this have waited until Monday?

I think I know why, Jim, and it hurts. It hurts that you would attempt to use your departure as motivation for your team to charge into McKay Events Center on Saturday and declaw a bunch of Wolverines. You knew that your Highlanders only have a 2% chance of winning this game, so you decided to skew the odds in your favor. "Win one for the ol' ball coach, boys." It would be great strategy if it didn't make me feel so sad inside.

Jim, don't misunderstand me - I sincerely hope your health is okay and that you land on your feet somewhere, preferably a program with a long history of winning. In the one picture I've ever seen of you, you look like a decent guy. At the very least, anyone who guides a team through a winless season without going crazy deserves some measure of respect. But even so, I hope your players don't respond well to these motivational tactics. I want NJIT to lose this weekend.* They owe us all that much.

*If NJIT wins and spoils a "perfect" record in the last game of the season less than three weeks after the Patriots crapped the bed in the Super Bowl, I won't even have a word to describe how I'll feel.

Dave Niehaus Received What Might Be The Greatest Birthday Present Ever

As a lifelong East Coaster, my exposure to Dave Niehaus has been limited to his homerun calls for the old Ken Griffey, Jr., Nintendo games in the 1990s and little else. And I call myself a baseball fan.

Even knowing as little as I do about Niehaus, two facts about his career are enough to tell me that he is one of baseball's great announcers: one, he has worked for the Seattle Mariners since 1977, the team's first year of existence, and two, he was honored today with the National Baseball Hall of Fame's Ford C. Frick Award for "major contributions to baseball broadcasting":

Happy birthday, Dave Niehaus, you're headed for the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Niehaus, a fixture in the Seattle Mariners' broadcast booth since they entered the American League as an expansion franchise in 1977, was named the 2008 winner of the Ford C. Frick Award on Tuesday and will be honored at the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremonies on July 27 at the Clark Sports Center in Cooperstown, N.Y.

The news came on Niehaus' 73rd birthday. It marked the second consecutive year that the award for major contributions to baseball broadcasting has been won by an announcer who has covered his club since its inception. Niehaus follows Denny Matthews, the broadcaster for the Kansas City Royals since their debut season of 1969.

Niehaus will be one of nine men honored at the induction ceremony. Rich "Goose" Gossage was elected by the Baseball Writers Association of America in January; owners Barney Dreyfuss and Walter O'Malley, commissioner Bowie Kuhn, and managers Billy Southworth and Dick Williams were voted in by the Veterans Committee in December; Larry Whiteside was named the J.G. Taylor Spink Award winner for contributions to baseball writing; and Buck O'Neil will be honored with the creation of a lifetime achievement award in his name and the dedication of a statue in his honor.

Of the nine honorees, three are still living and should appear in Cooperstown on July 27: Niehaus, Gossage, and Williams.

Ladies And Gentlemen, Start Your Engines

In addition to a fascinating post on the Tampa Bay Rays and the historical relationship between preseason PECOTA projections and actual season-ending standings (the writer is clearly a genius), the AM Roundup over at The Big Lead featured a link to an article in which the leader of a Florida church challenged his congregation to get down and dirty every day for a month (the priest who married my wife and I referred to this as "speaking the language").

Good times, I suppose, although I guarantee that by Day Five, my wife and I would be laying in bed at approximately 11:52 PM, staring at each other and thinking, "I wonder how quickly we can get this over with. '90210' starts in eight minutes."

My favorite part of the brief article was the total contradiction between the fourth and fifth paragraphs. Observe:

Oh, and the flip side of the challenge? No rolling in the sheets for the unwed.

Church member Tim Jones and his fiancee agreed to take on the challenge, though he acknowledges it’ll be a tough month. But he added: “I think it’s worth trying to find out other things about each other.”

Call me a prude, but I'm not sure Tim Jones understands the rules. Where I'm from, "fiancee" equals "unwed", which would, in theory, make them "godless fornicators". (Not that I have any room to talk - my wife and I "lived in sin" for over three months before we got married.*)

*I really hope Father Kelly isn't reading this. I'm pretty sure we neglected to pass along this information during our premarital screening.

No Matter What I Do In This Scenario, It Will Probably Not End Well

Over the weekend, Vegas Watch passed along over/unders on each major league team's total wins in 2008. I thought I wanted to check the Red Sox first, but curiosity (and size 48 font) drew my eyes immediately to the "Tampa Bay" line. Early projection on the new look Rays? 72 wins.

My first reaction was scorn. "Ha! 72 wins," I thought haughtily to myself. "Easy money. There is no way Tampa Bay wins less than 72 games. Baseball Prospectus has them winning 82. 82! That's above .500! Where do I sign up to place a sizeable and completely legal bet on this?"

Tonight, however, I was playing around with BP's PECOTA depth charts, looking to see how it did at projecting results last season, and stumbled upon something that turned me into Winnie the Pooh: "Oh, bother."

First, a little background: the Lou Piniella Experiment lasted three seasons in Tampa. In that time, PECOTA came up with the following projections for the Devil Rays:

Year	PECOTA	Actual
2003	57-105	63-99
2004	56-107	70-91
2005	68-94	67-95

The six win differential in 2003 seems like a reasonable margin of error (I think Vegas Watch came up with something around 5.0 or 5.1 when reviewing PECOTA at the end of last season), while the fourteen in 2004 is way off (the Yankees and Red Sox were expected to absolutely destroy the American League that year). That 2005 prediction, however...nice work, gentlemen. Nice work indeed.

Now, compare that with the way Tampa Bay's actual records have matched up with the PECOTA predictions since the Joe Maddon Era started in 2006:

Year	PECOTA	Actual
2008	82-80	???
2007	78-84	66-96
2006	69-93	61-101

Two years in a row, PECOTA has swung the opposite way from previous years and drastically overrated the Devil Rays' expected performance. Even if one takes into account a three win adjustment that Nate Silver made to last year's total, we're still looking at a nine win differential. I don't know enough about computers or the way these things are figured out to try explaining why this might have happened, but it's still unnerving, especially if money is involved.

We all know where this ends. I keep my wallet in my pocket while the Rays finally break through, go 95-67 (outperforming their projected won-lost by thirteen wins), and win the American League East. I win nothing. Or, I put a few bucks on the over, Scott Kazmir and James Shields both flame out in spectacular fashion, and the team wins 53 games. It's what I like to call a no-win situation.

Of course, there's always Seattle and the under. No way they'll win 85 games...right?

Just One More Game, Fellas

By Saturday evening at about six o'clock, we will know the final historical place of the New Jersey Institute of Technology's men's basketball team. The question until then: will they be the 1972 Dolphins or the 2007 Patriots?

Fun fact about tonight's game against Longwood? The Highlanders scored a season-high 78 and allowed a season-high 96. Good times.

Bogan leads Longwood to 96-78 win over N.J. Tech

2008 NCAA Football Virtual Playoffs Second Round: Games of Monday, February 18, 2008

Ohio (65) @ Hawaii (1)
Final Score: Hawaii 17, Ohio 7
Hawaii advances to play the winner of Wisconsin (33) @ Wake Forest (32) in the third round.

Louisville (66) @ Kansas (2)
Final Score: Louisville 28, Kansas 21
Louisville advances to play the winner of Oregon (34) @ Utah (31) in the third round.

California (62) @ LSU (3)
Final Score: LSU 34, California 20
LSU advances to play the winner of South Florida (35) @ New Mexico State (30) in the third round.

South Carolina (68) @ Missouri (4)
Final Score: South Carolina 21, Missouri 14
South Carolina advances to play the winner of North Carolina (93) @ Florida (29) in the third round.

Indiana (60) @ Brigham Young (5)
Final Score: Indiana 20, Brigham Young 14
Indiana advances to play the winner of Texas Tech (37) @ Clemson (28) in the third round.

UCLA (70) @ Ohio State (6)
Final Score: Ohio State 13, UCLA 3
Ohio State advances to play the winner of Eastern Michigan (91) vs. Auburn (27) in the third round.

2008 NCAA Football Virtual Playoffs: Second Round Matchups

Just in case you a) haven't given up on this idea already (I've come to the realization that it's about 85% for my own amusement, and am fine with that) or b) don't feel like clicking on the bracket link in the sidebar, here are the second round matchups for the tournament:

(Key games in bold)

Ohio (65) @ Hawaii (1)
Louisville (66) @ Kansas (2)
California (62) @ LSU (3)
South Carolina (68) @ Missouri (4)
Indiana (60) @ Brigham Young (5)
UCLA (70) @ Ohio State (6)
Oklahoma State (58) @ USC (7)
Georgia Tech (57) @ Georgia (8)
Florida State (56) @ West Virginia (9)
Alabama (55) @ Virginia Tech (10)
Middle Tennessee (75) @ Oklahoma (11)
Ball State (53) @ Boston College (12)
Arizona (78) @ Arizona State (14)
Navy (49) @ Cincinnati (16)
Kentucky (47) @ Tennessee (18)
TCU (45) @ Air Force (20)
Nebraska (87) @ Michigan (23)
East Carolina (41) @ Oregon State (24)
Wyoming (89) @ Virginia (25)
Eastern Michigan (91) @ Auburn (27)
Texas Tech (37) @ Clemson (28)
North Carolina (93) @ Florida (29)
South Florida (35) @ New Mexico (30)
Oregon (34) @ Utah (31)
Wisconsin (33) @ Wake Forest (32)
Colorado State (103) @ Florida Atlantic (39)
Baylor (108) @ Mississippi State (44)
Utah State (110) @ Rutgers (46)
Northern Illinois (112) @ Purdue (48)
Florida International (116) @ Memphis (52)
UAB (114) @ Arkansas State (79)
Notre Dame (107) @ Miami-FL (86)

The Notre Dame-Miami game is exactly what I hoped for - the "Faded Glory" Bowl - even if it highlights a flaw in the NCAA '08 game that I'm using to perform the simulations: some of the teams on this game are way overrated, some are way underrated, which results in matchups like this. Neither team really has any business in the second round of a playoff, no matter how mythical it may be, but their good rankings in the game helped push them through.

The Links: I Am Still Not Willing To Concede That Mariano Rivera Is NOT Actually A Robot

Absolutely true: all too often, we forget that professional athletes are real people who just might have actual feelings (Devean George Deserves Your Applause, Not Your Scorn @ Signal to Noise)

Jeremy Brown, the "face" of Moneyball, is retiring, and the A's would like to send the whole concept packing along with him (Jeremy Brown and Moneyball @ Baseball Prospectus)

This is exactly what the Celtics were missing until Kevin Garnett came to town, that "I'm a legend, I'm better than you, and you had better learn to deal with it" swagger (Bird For 3 @ Boston Sportz)

It oughta be a lot of fun when Kyle Kendrick actually DOES get traded and refuses to believe it's true (Pranksters @ Baseball Musings)

Forget putting prospects from around the world on more equal footing - would a global draft mean more money in the owners' pockets? That's the question they'll want answered (The Need for a Global Baseball Draft @ The Serious Tip)

Question of the year: if you're a married time traveler, is it okay to get a little extra lovin' in the course of your journey, or will your spouse have a legitimate claim of infidelity when you come strolling back into your own dimension with lipstick on your collar? Personally, I think it probably violates the three state rule, but I'm not exactly the world's foremost expert on adultery (Time Travel and Fidelity @ World History Blog)

2008 NCAA Football Virtual Playoffs First Round: Games of Monday, February 18, 2008

We're down to the final four first round games, right here. The second round begins soon. Games should move at a faster pace, simply because there's half as many.

Second round matchups will be posted as soon as the final game is completed.

Louisiana-Lafayette (100) @ Florida (29)
Final Score: Florida 17, Louisiana-Lafayette 7

Florida advances to play North Carolina (93) in the second round.

North Carolina (93) @ Penn State (36)
Final Score: North Carolina 17, Penn State 14

North Carolina advances to play Florida (29) in the second round.

Utah State (110) @ Tulsa (19)
Final Score: Utah State 16, Tulsa 0

Utah State advances to play Rutgers (46) in the second round.

North Carolina State (83) @ Rutgers (46)
Final Score: Rutgers 14, North Carolina State 7

Rutgers advances to play Utah State (110) in the second round.

Reverse Survivor: All Over Except For The Crying

It's official: with North Florida's 67-57 win over Savannah State last Tuesday, the worst they can do this season is a tie for the Reverse Survivor championship (ironically, Savannah State would have won Reverse Survivor in 2004-05, had the competition existed then). That's because the Highlanders of the New Jersey Institute of Technology are still winless with just two games to play, both of them on the road. By next Sunday, at the latest, the final results will be in.

I'm really hoping that NJIT goes winless and Memphis goes undefeated. It would probably be reason enough to head down to Best Buy, pick up a college basketball video game, and simulate a best-of-seven series between the two teams.

On a more positive note, how about a hand for the Grambling State Tigers, one-time Reverse Survivor contenders who have ridden a hot streak (wins in six of their last eight games) to the middle of the Southwestern Athletic Conference?

Zero (1)
New Jersey Institute of Technology (Independent, 0-27)

• Next Game: Monday
• Pomeroy Rank: 340 (+1)
• Projected Record: 0-29
• Highest Win Probability: 12%
• Games Remaining: 2 (at Longwood, at Utah Valley State)
• Against Teams Ranked Below 300: 1
• Chances of Finishing Winless: 86.24%

Two (1)
North Florida (Atlantic Sun, 2-23)

• Next Game: Thursday
• Pomeroy Rank: 335 (+1)
• Projected Record: 3-26
• Highest Win Probability: 38%
• Games Remaining: 4 (vs. Kennesaw State, vs. Mercer, at Stetson, at Florida Gulf Coast)
• Against Teams Ranked Below 300: 2
• Chances of Losing Remaining Games: 37.8%

Dropped Out (1)
North Carolina Central (Independent, 3-23)

Women

I took the liberty of removing the two-win teams from the standings. There were just too many to deal with this late in the season. Limiting the number of wins to one means that five teams are still alive: winless Fordham and CSU Northridge and one-win Colgate, Sam Houston State, and Grambling State.

Zero (2)
Fordham (Atlantic 10, 0-25) – Next Game: Wednesday (four games left)
CSU Northridge (Big West, 0-21) – Next Game: Thursday (six games left)

One (3)
Colgate (Patriot League, 1-24) – Next Game: Wednesday (four games left)
Sam Houston State (Southland-West, 1-23) – Next Game: Saturday (five games left)
Grambling State (Southwestern Athletic, 1-21) – Next Game: Monday (six games left)

2008 NCAA Football Virtual Playoffs First Round: Games of Sunday, February 17, 2008

Iowa State (104) @ Virginia (25)
Final Score: Virginia 20, Iowa State 19

(Game Note: Best game of the playoffs thus far. Virginia took a 14-13 lead with less than a minute to play, followed twenty seconds later by a long Iowa State touchdown. Virginia then drove the length of the field for an upset-avoiding touchdown with no time remaining to win the game.)

Virginia advances to play Wyoming (89) in the second round.

Wyoming (89) @ Bowling Green (40)
Final Score: Wyoming 42, Bowling Green 21

Wyoming advances to play Virginia (25) in the second round.

Akron (92) @ Texas Tech (37)
Final Score: Texas Tech 21, Akron 7

Texas Tech advances to play Clemson (28) in the second round.

Marshall (101) @ Clemson (28)
Final Score: Clemson 17, Marshall 10

Clemson advances to play Texas Tech (37) in the second round.

Baylor (108) @Fresno State (21)
Final Score: Baylor 10, Fresno State 3

Baylor advances to play Mississippi State (44) in the second round.

Washington State (85) @ Mississippi State (44)
Final Score: Mississippi State 21, Washington State 7

Mississippi State advances to play Baylor (108) in the second round.

People Should Not Be Able To Do Some Of The Things That Dwight Howard Does

I was all set to sit at home last night and enjoy what promised to be the best Slam Dunk contest in years...until my wife informed me that her cousin had called and invited us to dinner and she would be very upset if I didn't go.

"Tom has a bigger TV than we do," my wife said, trying to sweeten the deal. "He'll probably put it on if you ask him."

I'm not the sort of person to go over to someone's house and make a request like that, especially when there were ten other people there, so I figured I'd just say a prayer to the Basketball Gods and hope for the best. Shortly after we arrived, somebody started flipping channels...past some movies...random sporting events...and then, the Dunk contest. I held my breath as The Guardian of the Remote paused...1...2...3...and continued on his or her merry way. Denied.

In the end, we watched UFC 81 and commented on the hugeness of Brock Lesnar. Around 8, I looked at my wife and said, "You know what? We have a DVR at home. I could have recorded the Slam Dunk competition myself. I am an idiot."

Oh well - at least the majesty of YouTube allowed me to see this Dwight Howard performance that everyone is talking about. My personal favorite is probably the "behind the backboard" one - it gets better and better, especially when you realize that he's pretty much entirely behind the backboard when he puts the ball through the hoop.

The Links: Who Knows, The Bedard Trade Might Work Out For All Parties

One of the few posts I saw that actually defended the Erik Bedard-to-Seattle deal (Bedard: The Day After; The Rundown & the Blogosphere @ Oriole Post)

Bob Knight never would have stood for this #$@! #!$@ on his $#@!ing watch *ducks flying chair* Apparently Recruiting Violations Are Worse Than Assault @ Signal to Noise)

An aging inside linebacker who has a problem with concussions? Somewhere, Bill Belichick is smiling (T.J. on Zach Thomas @ Reiss's Pieces)

"His memory will guide my decisions for the rest of my life." That alone is a pretty good punishment, if you ask me (Driver in fatal Halberstam crash is sentenced @ On Deadline)

It's time we stop deriding Emmitt Smith for his verbal miscues and start celebrating him for what he is: this generation's Yogi Berra (Emmitt Back For '08? Signs Point To Yes! @ Awful Announcing)

Seriously, if anyone can explain exactly WHY the Patriots spying scandal is such an awful thing, I'm all ears (Please Explain What I'm Missing... @ Baseball Prospectus Unfiltered)

I think Boney said it best in the comments: The Cavalier has gone mad (Stephon Marbury Needs A Friend @ YAY Sports!)

What we have here is a failure to communicate (Clemens-Pettitte. The Misremembered Conversation @ Joe Posnanski)

Oh, dear, where to use Joba (Joba Joba Joba @ Vegas Watch)

Which NFL Players Were Hall Of Famers In 1995?

Almost 12 1/2 years ago, in the September 4, 1995 issue, Sports Illustrated asked 33 of the 34 voters for the Pro Football Hall of Fame to consider which active players they would vote for at the time. The results were broken down into six categories: Shoo-ins, On the Bubble, Long Shots, Longer Shots, Back of the Pack, and Coaches. I found the magazine while cleaning several months ago, misplaced it before doing a whole lot, then found it again last week and decided to see what had happened to the various players named by the experts.

(If you can get your hands on a copy of this magazine, check out the article on the rise of 300-pounders in the NFL. There is a seriously remarkable picture of Nate Newton. It may take all my computer knowledge, but I will figure out how to get it online and post it here. It needs to happen. Also, the cover photo of Dan Marino is nothing short of terrifying.)

Shoo-ins
Dan Marino (33 of 33): inducted in 2005

Jerry Rice (33 of 33): eligible in 2010 - And this was before Rice put together the best season of his career in 1995 (122 catches, 1,848 yards, 15 touchdowns) and led the league with 108 catches in 1996. I might as well just type, "inducted in 2010" after his name.

Ronnie Lott (32 of 33): inducted in 2000

John Elway (32 of 33): inducted in 2004 - The three seasons immediately following this informal vote, 1995-97, Elway recorded the three highest touchdown totals of his career. Throw in a couple of Super Bowl wins and I'm guessing that lone voter changed his tune at some point.

Reggie White (32 of 33): inducted in 2006

Barry Sanders (31 of 33, one maybe): inducted in 2004 - In September 1995, Barry Sanders had 8,672 career rushing yards under his belt, six consecutive 1,000-yard seasons, and was coming off a season in which he had run for what was then the fourth-highest total in NFL history (it still ranks seventh overall)...yet two people wouldn't have voted him into the Hall of Fame at the time. That's silliness. Good thing he added 1,500+ in each of the next three seasons, including 2,053 in 1997.

Bruce Smith (31 of 33): eligible in 2009 - On the one hand, Smith is the only player in football history with 200 career sacks (well, the only player since sacks became an official statistic). On the other hand, only five of the top 100 are in the Hall of Fame. Take from that what you will.

On the Bubble
Emmitt Smith (27 of 33, two maybes): eligible in 2010 - Emmitt was still fairly young in 1995; he only had five full seasons under his belt (although that includes three consecutive rushing titles). Like Jerry Rice, he turned in one of his best seasons in 1995 (1,773 yards and a then-record 25 touchdowns). His string of 1,000-yard seasons eventually ran to eleven (1991-2001) and he retired as the NFL's all-time leader in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns. Between Emmitt and Jerry Rice, that 2010 ceremony is gonna be good.

Marcus Allen (25 of 33, three maybes): inducted in 2003
Rod Woodson (24 of 33, one maybe): eligible in 2009
Jackie Slater (18 of 33, seven maybes): inducted in 2001

Darrell Green (20 of 33, four maybes): inducted in 2008 - You know what amazes me the most about the career of the Fastest Man in the NFL? He had exactly one sack, in 1988. That's the sort of thing I could write 500 words on, if the mood is right.

Steve Young (21 of 33, one maybe): inducted in 2005 - Young entered 1995 with 3 1/2 remarkable seasons in a row under his belt, which was enough to get him those 21 votes. A Joe Montana and Bill Walsh-less Super Bowl victory in 1995 and four more years of excellence earned him first ballot induction.

Thurman Thomas (21 of 33): inducted in 2007 - Clearly on the downside of his career at the time of this poll, although he managed to grind out two more 1,000-yard seasons (bringing his streak to eight consecutive seasons) before fading into a part-time roll for his last four years. I'm guessing his poor showing here was a result of three things: one, the voters still weren't sure how the Bills would measure up historically; two, they didn't know exactly how much credit history would give him for the success the team did enjoy; and three, there were probably some people who had yet to forget that Thomas once missed the beginning of a Super Bowl because he misplaced his helmet.

Bruce Matthews (19 of 33, three maybes): inducted in 2007 - The highest ranking offensive lineman on the list (Slater had one less "yes" vote, but seven more "maybes", which says a lot about the way the position is judged, even by the so-called experts. Here are two interesting things, though: Matthews played in seven Pro Bowls before 1995 and seven after, and he holds the record for most games started in NFL history, with 292 (Brett Favre and Junior Seau are the active leaders, with 237).

Long Shots
Jim Kelly (15 of 33, six maybes): inducted in 2002 - Apparently Kelly did enough in his final two seasons to go from a longshot with less than 50% of the vote to a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Guess the voters decided where to allocate credit for those four Super Bowl appearances, and they did it in 2002.

Morten Andersen (17 of 33, one maybe): active in 2007 - Get this: Andersen is just over six months younger than Jim Kelly. Kelly retired in 1996; Andersen is one of two players in this poll that are still active. Granted, one was a quarterback, the other a kicker, but still - pretty amazing. Anyway...Jan Stenerud is the only kicker in the Hall thus far, so it's obviously pretty tough to get in the door if you play that position. Given Andersen's longevity, however, you'd have to think he has a decent shot when his time comes. (I just had a premonition of my son writing his Washington Post column - is it too much pressure for a seven-month-old kid to assume he'll hold a columnist position at a major newspaper someday? Should he master crawling and drinking out of a sippy cup first? - about Andersen's eventual retirement at the age of 85. It could happen)

Troy Aikman (13 of 33, three maybes): inducted in 2006 - Won a Super Bowl in 1995, his third in four years. Amazingly, he had more than twenty touchdowns in a season ONCE in his entire twelve-year career. That just seems like a shockingly low number. Granted, he had Emmitt Smith and his rushing touchdowns record on the team, but still...

Warren Moon (10 of 33, four maybes): inducted in 2006 - Had two good post-1995 seasons before slipping into a decline and staying around too long. If I had to guess, I'd say he was voted into the Hall because someone made a sensible plea to consider his CFL numbers as well.

Clay Matthews (10 of 33, two maybes)
Charles Haley (9 of 33, four maybes)

Herschel Walker (9 of 33, four maybes) - Until a couple of months ago, I thought Herschel Walker WAS in the Hall of Fame. Looking at the numbers, though, it's no surprise that he missed out: unbelievable college career that yielded only one truly great professional season and a bunch of solid ones (although he was also a very good kick returner, which boosted his all-purpose yardage totals).

Michael Irvin (9 of 33, two maybes): inducted in 2007
Kevin Greene (8 of 33, two maybes)
Nick Lowery (7 of 33, three maybes)

Longer Shots
Leslie O'Neal (7 of 33, two maybes)

Junior Seau (6 of 33, three maybes): active in 2007 - One of only two active players on this list, Seau had completed five excellent seasons going into 1995. He has since played twelve more, going to eight Pro Bowls and playing in two Super Bowls.

Derrick Thomas (5 of 33, eight maybes) - Probably could be in the Hall of Fame - Joe Posnanski was beside himself when Thomas was denied in the most recent election - but isn't, for whatever reasons. Unlike Steve Young and Troy Aikman, who I might argue were viewed more favorably for giving up the twilight years of their careers due to injury, Thomas seems to have been downgraded because of his shortened career. Posnanski, I think it was, suggested that personal issues that came to light after his death could be a contributing factor; I wonder if it's something less sinister, like good old-fashioned bias against defensive players.

Andre Reed (5 of 33, five maybes) - Funny that the Bills and Cowboys each had a star quarterback, running back and wide receiver on their teams in the early 1990s. When Emmitt Smith gets elected in 2010, all three Dallas players will be in; for Buffalo, Reed and his top ten totals in receptions and receiving yards remains on the outside looking in.

Andre Rison (5 of 33, three maybes)
Chris Spielman (5 of 33, two maybes)
Jim Lachey (5 of 33, one maybe)
Randall McDaniel (4 of 33, three maybes)
Carl Banks (4 of 33, two maybes)

Back of the Pack
Dermontti Dawson (3 of 33)
Pat Swilling (3 of 33)
Rickey Jackson (3 of 33)

Deion Sanders (2 of 33): eligible in 2011 - Five straight All-Pro selections from 1995-99, reputation as a tremendous cover corner, excellent versatility = things that help his case. Refusal to hit anyone, "Neon Deion", unwillingness to devote himself entirely to football = things that might hurt.

Gary Anderson (2 of 33): eligible in 2010 - Let's get this straight: in 2010, one of the greatest running backs, wide receivers, and kickers in history could all be inducted into the Hall of Fame. That's pretty impressive. I also like the idea of having three kickers in Canton, with two of them named Anders(o/e)n.

Greg Lloyd (1 of 33)
Steve Tasker (1 of 33)
Ray Childress (1 of 33)

Coaches
Don Shula (33 of 33): inducted in 1997 - Like there was ever any doubt.

Marv Levy (14 of 33, seven maybes)

George Seifert (16 of 33) - That three year stint in Carolina? Yeah, didn't really help the ol' reputation. Actually, if memory serves, it made Seifert the answer to a trivia question: who is the only coach to go 14-2 in his first year as a head coach and 1-15 in his final season?

Bill Parcells (10 of 33, two maybes)
Dan Reeves (8 of 33, four maybes)

Visual Crack: When I Was Eight, I Pronounced Jose Canseco's Name Phonetically

It feels like forever since I posted something (if "last Sunday" is the definition of forever), so I decided to forgo a fifth hour of sleep and drag myself over to YouTube to find something good.

Search..."Roger Clemens"...jackpot. The execution is a little terrible in spots (how, exactly, do you mess up the pronunciation for Jose Guillen, then turn around three seconds later and throw out a perfect Josias Manzanillo? Who are Jason Grimley and Danny Neagle?), but the concept is excellent:



Somehow, that didn't feel like enough, so I kept looking, and eventually stumbled upon a classic battle between good and evil:



(Random side note: One night when I worked overnights at Target leading up to Christmas 2005, my friend Mike and I discovered that the store sold a Pikachu doll. It looked innocent enough - until we hit the "Try Me!" button and the thing started to shake and yell, "Pi-ka-CHUUUUUU". It was terrifying, which amazes me to this day because it was a children's toy and I'm pretty sure every child I've ever met would be messed up for life after five minutes with this thing. Anyway, Mike and I realized the power of the beast, declared it "the Great Lord Pikachu", and set it atop one of the pallets, where it could keep an eye on the entire backroom. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what happens on the overnight shift at Target during the busiest time of the year.)

Scrolling steroid users sung to the tune of our National Anthem. Barry Bonds murdering a defenseless cartoon creature with one swing of the bat. This is why I blog.

Times Like These Are When I Miss David Halberstam The Most

For Christmas, my brother gave me "The Education of a Coach", David Halberstam's character study of Bill Belichick that traced his football career from its earliest days, when he cut his coaching teeth by helping his father break down tape, through the Patriots' 24-21 win over the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl XXXIX.

There was a lot of great stuff in the book, including Belichick's unbelievable ability to boil game film down to its most important points (the most frustrating thing about the spying scandal is that Halberstam isn't around to opine on it), but one point in particular stuck in my mind for a long time after I read it. On page 264, Halberstam wrote:

"As [Belichick] continued to work endless hours, even in the off-season, he knew that in countless other NFL offices there were very talented men working equally long hours, studying him and his teams, looking for the tiniest of flaws. Belichick was always aware that if there was a weakness and they spotted it before he did, they would surely exploit it. The danger of being Bill Belichick was that there might be a younger Bill Belichick out there, trying to gain on him, a younger, more cold-blooded gunslinger moving in to challenge the reigning gunslinger."

Hey Bill, you've met Steve, right?

2008 NCAA Football Virtual Playoffs First Round: More Games of Sunday, February 10, 2008

Kansas State (82) @ Kentucky (47)
Final Score: Kentucky 13, Kansas State 10 (OT)


Kentucky advances to play Tennessee (18) in the second round.


North Texas (111) @ Tennessee (18)
Final Score: Tennessee 16, North Texas 10

Tennessee advances to play Kentucky (47) in the second round.

Colorado State (103) @ Connecticut (26)
Final Score: Colorado State 31, Connecticut 14

Colorado State advances to play Florida Atlantic (39) in the second round.

Temple (90) @ Florida Atlantic (39)
Final Score: Florida Atlantic 14, Temple 7

Florida Atlantic advances to play Colorado State (103) in the second round.

Eastern Michigan (91) @ Troy (38)
Final Score: Eastern Michigan 14, Troy 7

Eastern Michigan advances to play Auburn (27) in the second round.

Rice (102) @ Auburn (27)
Final Score: Auburn 14, Rice 7

Auburn advances to play Eastern Michigan (91) in the second round.

2008 NCAA Football Virtual Playoffs First Round: Games of Sunday, February 10, 2008

Stanford (96) @ Wisconsin (33)
Final Score: Wisconsin 28, Stanford 24

Wisconsin advances to play Wake Forest (32) in the second round.

UTEP (97) @ Wake Forest (32)
Final Score: Wake Forest 6, UTEP 0

Wake Forest advances to play Wisconsin (33) in the second round.

Vanderbilt (88) @ East Carolina (41)
Final Score: East Carolina 17, Vanderbilt 10

East Carolina advances to play Oregon State (24) in the second round.

Kent State (105) @ Oregon State (24)
Final Score: Oregon State 17, Kent State 6

Oregon State advances to play East Carolina (41) in the second round.

Tulane (95) @ Oregon (34)
Final Score: Oregon 35, Tulane 14

Oregon advances to play Utah (31) in the second round.

Washington (98) @ Utah (31)
Final Score: Utah 7, Washington 3

Utah advances to play Oregon (34) in the second round.

Reverse Survivor: What Do You Call A Female Matador?

It's always a nice feeling when the end of Reverse Survivor appears on the horizon, because as interesting as I think this stuff is and as much fun as it is to share with my tens and tens of loyal readers, it requires a lot of time to put together for the first few weeks, especially for college basketball.

By this point, however, we're cruising toward the finish line, On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair, warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air. (I'm quoting the Eagles while listening to Stairway to Heaven - close your eyes and you'd swear it was the 1970s in my apartment.) Three teams fell out of contention this week, including Presbyterian and Grambling State, two schools that had been mentioned in the "Mixed Doubles" Award category (in case you're wondering, the answer is yes - I randomly make up new awards whenever I feel like it) in the last update. The Tigers' case is particularly impressive: after a 1-12 start, they have reeled off four straight wins to climb back into contention in the SWAC. Well, as "in contention" as a 5-12 team can be, anyway.

The New Jersey Institute of Technology is still winless as of yesterday. They gave the Texas-Pan American Broncos one helluva fight, though, going into halftime trailing by just one, 36-35, before coming apart in the second half. The final score isn't important; the only numbers I care about are four (number of game remaining) and zero (number of those games that are against teams ranked lower than 300 by Ken Pomeroy). Reverse Survivor was created to document seasons like this.

Zero (1)
New Jersey Institute of Technology (Independent, 0-25)

• Pomeroy Rank: 341 (--)
• Projected Record: 0-29
• Highest Win Probability (D1 Opponents Only): 10%
• Games Remaining: 4 (at La Salle, vs. Chicago State, at Longwood, at Utah Valley State)
• Against Teams Ranked Below 300: 1
• Chances of Finishing Winless: 81.97%

One (1)
North Florida (Atlantic Sun, 1-22)

• Pomeroy Rank: 336 (-2)
• Projected Record: 2-27
• Highest Win Probability (D1 Opponents Only): 40%
• Games Remaining: 6 (vs. Savannah State, at Jacksonville, vs. Kennesaw State, vs. Mercer, at Stetson, at Florida Gulf Coast
• Against Teams Ranked Below 300: 3
• Chances of Losing Remaining Games: 23.81%

Two (1)
North Carolina Central (Independent, 2-23)

• Pomeroy Rank: 340 (--)
• Projected Record: 4-25
• Highest Win Probability (D1 Opponents Only): 6%
• Games Remaining: 4 (vs. Chowan, vs. Utah Valley State, vs. Lenoir Rhyne, at Colgate)
• Against Teams Ranked Below 300: 0 (not including two non-Division 1 teams)
• Chances of Losing Remaining Games: 93.06% (not including two games against non-Division 1 opponents)

Dropped Out (3)
Presbyterian (Independent, 4-22)
Grambling State (Southwestern Athletic, 5-12)
Maryland Eastern Shore (Mid-Eastern, 3-21)

Women's Reverse Survivor

Still two winless wonders atop (abottom?) the women's game. Surprisingly, there are ten other teams with one or two losses on the season, which could make for a wild final few weeks of the season. Lots at stake as we head down the home stretch.

CSU Northridge is nicknamed the Matadors. Because when I think of the beautiful San Fernando Valley, my mind naturally turns to bullfighting. Truth be told, it's a little disappointing that the women's teams aren't called the Lady Matadors.

Fordham, on the other hand, uses the "Lady + Men's Team Nickname" model and it doesn't really work: the women are referred to as "the Lady Rams". Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't Rams male sheep? Guess the Fordham Ewes didn't have the same ring to it. I think the NCAA needs to investigate.

Zero (2)
Fordham (Atlantic 10, 0-24): Five games remaining

• Saturday, February 16 @ La Salle
• Wednesday, February 20 vs. Xavier
• Saturday, February 23 @ Temple
• Wednesday, February 27 vs. Charlotte
• Saturday, March 1 @ George Washington (14)

CSU Northridge (Big West, 0-20): Seven games remaining

• Saturday, February 16 @ UC Riverside
• Thursday, February 21 @ CSU Bakersfield
• Saturday, February 23 vs. Long Beach St.
• Thursday, February 28 vs. CSU Fullerton
• Saturday, March 1 vs. UC Irvine
• Thursday, March 6 @ UCSB
• Saturday, March 8 @ Cal Poly

One (5)
Presbyterian (Independent, 1-22) – Next Game: Wednesday
Brown (Ivy League, 1-19) – Next Game: Friday
Colgate (Patriot League, 1-22) – Next Game: Wednesday
Sam Houston State (Southland-West, 1-21) – Next Game: Thursday
Grambling State (Southwestern Athletic, 1-19) – Next Game: Monday

Two (5)
Winston-Salem (Independent, 2-17) – Next Game: Monday
Howard (Mid-Eastern, 2-19) – Next Game: Monday
Colorado State (Mountain West, 2-20) – Next Game: Wednesday
Idaho (Western Athletic, 2-20) – Next Game: Thursday
San Jose State (Western Athletic, 2-20) – Next Game: Thursday

Dropped Out
Norfolk State (Mid-Eastern, 3-13)
Wagner (Northeast, 3-16)

Is Thirty The New Forty?

If the worst case scenario happens and Patriots coach Bill Belichick is hit with a lengthy suspension for further rules violations, there is an outside chance that 31-year-old offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, an increasingly hot head coach prospect, could end up in charge of the team during Belichick’s absence (assistant head coach Dante Scarnecchia would be the likely interim replacement). In honor of McDaniels’ youth, I decided to use Pro-Football-Reference to look up a couple of things: the records of NFL coaches since 1970 who started their careers prior to the age of 40, and the starting age and career record of coaches in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Name	Start Age	Start Year	Pre-40 W-L	Overall W-L
Bill Belichick	39	1991	6-10	127-81
Monte Clark	39	1976	8-6	51-67-1
Bill Cowher	35	1992	53-27	149-90-1
Jeff Fisher	36	1994	24-30	115-99
Jon Gruden	35	1998	50-30	86-74
Lou Holtz	39	1976	3-10	3-10
Ed Khayat	36	1971	8-15-2	8-15-2
Lane Kiffin	32	2007	4-12	4-12
Eric Mangini	35	2006	14-18	14-18
Marty Mornhinweg	39	2001	2-14	5-27
Fred O’Connor	39	1978	1-6	1-6
Jack Pardee	39	1975	4-10	87-77
Ray Perkins	38	1979	10-22	42-75
Wade Phillips	38	1985	1-3	61-42
Dan Reeves	37	1981	21-20	190-165-2
J.D. Roberts	38	1970	5-14-2	7-25-3
Al Saunders	39	1986	3-5	17-22
Howard Schnellenberger	39	1973	4-10	4-13
Mike Shanahan	36	1988	8-12	138-90
David Shula	33	1992	19-52	19-52
Les Steckel	38	1984	3-13	3-13
Kay Stephenson	39	1983	8-8	10-26
Mike Tomlin	35	2007	10-6	10-6
Sam Wyche	39	1984	8-8	84-107

Of the 24 coaches mentioned above, eight are currently active: Belichick, Fisher, Gruden, Kiffin, Mangini, Phillips, Shanahan and Tomlin. Three of those started in either 2006 (Mangini) or 2007 (Kiffin and Tomlin), leading to my Completely Ridiculous Thought of the Day: in 1920-22, four Hall of Fame coaches, including George Halas and Curly Lambeau, made their debuts. In 1960-63, Tom Landry, Hank Stram, and Don Shula arrived on the scene. And in 1969, Chuck Noll and John Madden were given unto us. Could the Mangini-Kiffin-Tomlin trio, and possibly McDaniels if he winds up as a head coach in 2008 or 2009, join them in Canton someday? (I told you it was completely ridiculous.)

The serious Hall of Fame candidates in that group are probably Belichick and Bill Cowher. I think Belichick's candidacy and ultimate election will depend on the extent to which the spying scandal reaches, while Cowher's probably relies on him staying visible on TV for a couple years, then returning to win another 50-100 games before retiring for good. Shanahan might have a chance, but he probably needs to win (or at least reach) a Super Bowl without John Elway. Until then, he and Dan Reeves can discuss the effect that Elway had on their individual careers amongst themselves.

My favorite realization about these lists is that whenever a really young guy gets a head coaching job (say 36 or younger), we can play the "Which Shula?" game - Don, who was 71-23-4 before the age of 40, or David, who was 19-52? My vote on the three guys above, for the record, is David, David, Don.

Name	Start Age	Start Year	Pre-40 W-L	Overall W-L Record
George Allen	44	1966	NA	116-47-5
Paul Brown	38	1946	24-3-1	213-104-9
Guy Chamberlin	28	1922	58-16-7	58-16-7
Jimmy Conzelman	23	1921	53-32-14	87-63-17
Weeb Ewbank	47	1954	NA	130-129-7
Ray Flaherty	33	1936	54-21-3	80-37-5
Joe Gibbs	41	1981	NA	154-94
Sid Gillman	44	1955	NA	122-99-7
Bud Grant	40	1967	NA	158-96-5
George Halas	25	1920	107-33-20	318-148-31
Earl (Curly) Lambeau	23	1921	130-59-17	226-132-22
Tom Landry	36	1960	13-38-3	250-162-6
Marv Levy	53	1978	NA	143-112
Vince Lombardi	46	1959	NA	96-34-6
John Madden	33	1969	70-21-7	103-32-7
Earle (Greasy) Neale	50	1941	NA	63-43-5
Chuck Noll	37	1969	12-30	193-148-1
Steve Owen	33	1931	50-32-6	151-100-17
Don Shula	33	1963	71-23-4	328-156-6
Hank Stram	36	1960	30-24-2	131-97-10
Bill Walsh	48	1979	NA	92-59-1

Gross overreaction to this list: one has a better chance at the Hall of Fame if he becomes a head coach in his 20s than if he becomes one in his 50s. Technically true, I suppose.

Valid question: After starting their careers 13-38-3 and 12-30, respectively, Tom Landry and Chuck Noll combined for six Super Bowl wins in nine tries during the 1970s, including head-to-head matchups in 1975 and 1978. What if Tex Schramm or Art Rooney had pulled the plug?

The Links: The Odds On Me Losing Money On Any Given Wager Are 2-1

I'm half tempted to throw $20 on the Rays and hope for the best (Vegas MLB Odds @ Oriole Post)

It doesn't matter which sport we're talking about, or how much people dislike the system - I always have, and always will, love hearing about Hall of Fame elections (NFL Hall of Fame Gets Six New Members, Art Monk Is Finally One of Them @ The FanHouse)

Someone should really do this with blogs (Who Reads What? @ The Wizard of Odds)

Joe Posnanski on the Patriots spying scandal and what it means in relation to Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire (Cheating... @ Joe Posnanski)

Help me, Obi-Wan Jacoby, you're my only hope ( New England tries to remind itself the Red Sox are still awesome, FOCUS ON THE RED SOX! @ Bugs & Cranks)

Eddie Sutton came to San Francisco for a reason. Mission accomplished (It's All Over But The Quitting - Eddie Sutton Gets #800 @ Storming the Floor)

Remembering Muhammad Ali's vicious destruction of Ernie Terrell (Classic No Mas - What's My Name? @ No Mas)

Few Patriots have meant more to the team over the past decade than Troy Brown (Just a Football Player @ Half-Baked Ravings)

Guess it's a good thing I married a girl with brown eyes (All blue-eyed people share one common ancestor @ World History Blog)

I've decided on a new career goal: professional angry letter writer for PETA. I think that would be a fun way to earn a paycheck (PETA Would Like an Apology @ Babes Love Baseball)

Mike Carey is good at his job, a fact that helped cost the Patriots the Super Bowl. If he wasn't the greatest penalty signaler in NFL history*, I'd hate him (Super Bowl Ref Mike Carey on Eli Manning to David Tyree Pass: 'I Anticipated a Sack' @ The FanHouse)

*Seriously, the guy's arm movements when signaling a penalty or some other infraction are outstanding. I really need to find some video. He SNAPS the arm out to show which way the call is going, then softens it up a bit and casually rolls his hand over to show the down. He's awesome. Except when he didn't screw up and whistle this play dead, of course.

The first words of this post: "This really has nothing to do with anything, but I don't care." I might have to steal that and use it as the philosophy of this blog (Razzie Awards Odds @ Vegas Watch)

The homerun chase in the National League figures to be wide open this season (Who will win the 2008 National League HR Crown? @ Diamond Hoggers, 2008 MLB Home Run Champ Odds @ Vegas Watch)

The World According To Kickers

Earlier today, while in the midst of attempting to compile an All-World team of former NFL players who were born outside the United States, I came to a pair of very important realizations:

1) This project was going to require a fair amount of thought. Unfortunately, Thursdays are not designated "thinking days" for me.

2) The birthplaces of kickers are much, much more interesting.

Point number two was accidentally discovered when I sorted the information on Pro-Football-Reference to find the birthplace of the players with the most career games under their belts. To my surprise, number one was Danish, number two was South African, number fourteen was Norweigan, number sixteen was German, and so on down the line. More than just about any other position, good kickers seem to hail from countries that are more interested in soccer than football.

Armed with this information, I changed courses and started going through, country by country, and marking down every kicker who was born on foreign soil (briefly thought about doing the Americans as well before realizing that there were probably several hundred, which would both make this post horribly long and be a bitch to put together. So, yeah, no - we're gonna leave America out of this for now). The final list, seen below, featured a lot of good players from thirty different countries.

(This may not be the complete list of foreign-born kickers. PFR is a tremendous resource, but the kinks are still being ironed out; there are a few very obvious errors on the birthplace page and a lot of players who do not have birthplace information listed. If you happen to find an error, you can email me and use this link to report it to PFR. When you do, just be sure to mention what a great job they're doing there.)

Argentina
Bill Gramatica (Buenos Aires)
Martin Gramatica (Buenos Aires)

Austria
Toni Fritsch (Petronell)
Toni Linhart (Donawitz)
Ray Wersching (Mondsee)

Belgium
George Jakowenko (Charleroi)

Bolivia
Wilson Alvarez (Santa Cruz)

Brazil
Tim Mazzetti (Sao Paulo)

Canada
Steve Christie (Hamilton)
Dean Dorsey (Toronto)
Roy Gerela (Sarrail)
Jerry Kauric (Windsor)
Eddie Murray (Halifax)
Shaun Suisham (Wallaceburg)
Mike Vanderjagt (Oakville)

Colombia
Fuad Reveiz (Bogota)

Croatia
Momcilo Gavric (Senj)

Cyprus
Garo Yepremian (Larnaca)

Czech Republic
Mirro Roder (Olomouc)

Denmark
Morten Andersen (Copenhagen)
Hans Nielsen (Vejle)

El Salvador
Jose Cortez (San Vincente)

England
Vince Abbott (London)
Bobby Howfield (Bushey)
Ian Howfield (Watford)
Mick Luckhurst (Redbourn)
John Smith (Leafield)
Mike Walker (Lancaster)

Germany
Karl Kremser (Salzwedel)
Nick Lowery (Munich)
Horst Muhlmann (Dortmund)
Fred Steinfort (Wetter)
Uwe von Schamann (Berlin)

Holland
Jim Asmus (Meppal)

Hungary
Charlie Gogolak (Rapahidveg)
Pete Gogolak (Budapest)
Steve Mike-Mayer (Budapest)

Ireland
Neil O’Donoghue (Ireland)

Italy
Massimo Manca (Sassari)
Nick Mike-Mayer (Bologna)
Sandro Vitiello (Broccastella)

Mexico
Sergio Albert (Mexico City)
Raul Allegre (Torreon)
Frank Corral (Chihuahua)
Efren Herrera (Guadalajara)
Rafael Septien (Mexico City)
Joaquin Zendejas (Curimeo)
Luis Zendejas (Mexico City)
Max Zendejas (Curimeo)
Tony Zendejas (Curimeo)

Nigeria
Obed Ariri (Owerri)
Donald Igwebuike (Anamba)

Norway
Jan Stenerud (Fetsund)

Paraguay
Benny Ricardo (Asuncion)

Poland
Sebastian Janikowski (Walbrzych)
Chester Marcol (Opole)
Rich Szaro (Rzeszow)

Scotland
Tom Birney (Bellshill)
Ian Sunter (Dundee)
Lawrence Tynes (Greenock)

South Africa
Gary Anderson (Parys)

South Korea
John Lee (Seoul)

Sweden
Chris Gartner (Gothenburg)
Ove Johansson (Gothenburg)
Ola Kimrin (Malmo)
Goran Lingmerth (Nassjo)
Bjorn Nittmo (Lomma)

Venezuela
Alan Pringle (Los Taques)
Pat Ragusa (Caracas)

Wales
Allan Watson (Blockwood)

Yugoslavia
Novo Bojovic (Titograd)

2008 NCAA Football Virtual Playoffs First Round: Games of Thursday, February 7, 2008

Western Michigan (81) @ Purdue (48)
Final Score: Purdue 10, Western Michigan 7

Purdue advances to play Northern Illinois (112) in the second round.

Toledo (84) @ TCU (45)
Final Score: TCU 21, Toledo 13 (3 OT)

TCU advances to play Air Force (20) in the second round.

Army (106) @ Michigan (23)
Final Score: Michigan 21, Army 14

Michigan advances to play Nebraska (87) in the second round.

Nebraska (87) @ Houston (42)
Final Score: Nebraska 14, Houston 7

Nebraska advances to play Michigan (23) in the second round.

San Diego State (94) @ South Florida (35)
Final Score: South Florida 16, San Diego State 0

South Florida advances to play New Mexico State (99) in the second round.

Super Bowl XXXVI Was Not "All About Red Zone Stoppages"

Tim Brando's radio show this afternoon featured a "Best of Brando" format with highlights from the past few days (I only caught the tail end of the explanation, but I believe he couldn't do a regular show because he had some trouble getting home from wherever he had worked last night...something like that). One thing I was happy to hear for the second time was Brando's interview of Solomon Wilcots. When the interview originally aired, Brando made a comment that caught my attention about the latest spying allegations against the New England Patriots:

"That game, as I recall, was all about red zone stoppages for the Rams."

On Monday, I didn't have a chance to write about it until much later in the evening, by which time the exact wording of the quote had faded away with my zeal for the subject. Hearing that statement again this afternoon, however, allowed me to memorize the quote and convinced me to fire up the computer and tell the world why I think Brando was very wrong to say such a thing. Basically, his words are bothersome because they reflect a willingness to look at the available evidence and mold it to fit a very specific interpretation of the crime:

1) The Patriots might have taped the Rams final walk-through before the Super Bowl.
2) That walk-through consisted primarily of plays that would be used when the offense was in the red zone.
3) Tim Brando remembers that the Rams had a lot of trouble in the red zone.
4) The final margin of victory was three points; if the Rams hadn't struggled so much in the red zone, they might have won.

This is all well and good except for one thing: Brando recollection is completely wrong.

In Super Bowl XXXVI, the Rams drives ended at the following yard lines (results in parentheses):

New England 40 (punt)
New England 32 (field goal)
New England 34 (missed field goal)
St. Louis 39 (interception)
New England 50 (punt)
St. Louis 40 (fumble)
St. Louis 6 (end of first half)
St. Louis 47 (punt)
New England 45 (interception)
New England 2 (touchdown)
New England 49 (punt)
New England 26 (touchdown)

As you can see, the Rams had twelve offensive drives in that game. Of those, only one entered the red zone: number ten, a twelve-play, 77-yard march that lasted nearly seven minutes and ended with Kurt Warner plunging into the end zone on a quarterback sneak.

The Rams entered the red zone on the seventh play, a 22-yard catch-and-run from Warner to Marshall Faulk that moved the ball from the New England 31 to the 9. They then ran the six plays (five official and one nullified by a penalty) listed below:

First-and-goal at the New England 9: Warner passed for six yards.
Second-and-goal at the New England 3: Warner threw an incomplete pass.
Third-and-goal at the New England 3: Warner threw an incomplete pass.
Fourth-and-goal at the New England 3: Warner scrambled right for a one-yard gain and fumbled; Tebucky Jones recoverd the ball and returned it 97 yards for a touchdown; the touchdown was nullified by a defensive holding penalty on Willie McGinest*.

*Two things about this play: one, it's a little embarassing to remember this when I've been crying lately about how much I miss Willie McGinest's big play ability (make no mistake: if McGinest is playing for the 2007 Patriots, Eli Manning goes down in that crowd of blue jerseys, David Tyree stops screaming, "I'M OPEN!" and trots back to the huddle, and the game ends minutes later with New England celebrating its fourth Super Bowl win in seven years), considering the way he absolutely mugged Faulk when he tried to cross the middle; and two, as soon as I read the description, I had a vivid memory, not of the play itself, but of the rise and fall of emotion that accompanied it - from "YEAH, TOUCHDOWN, GAME OVER!!" to "I've got a bad feeling about this."

First-and-goal at the New England 1: Marshall Faulk ran right for a loss of a yard.
Second-and-goal at the New England 2: Warner ran up the middle for two yards and the touchdown.

The first play the Rams ran in the red zone came at the 11:21 mark of the fourth quarter. The touchdown was scored with 9:33 remaining. Total offensive time spent in the opposing red zone: one minute, 48 seconds.

Most interesting about all this is that the Rams ultimately finished off this lone red zone appearance with a touchdown, which essentially means that even if the Patriots did tape those plays, the Rams managd to overcome the disadvantage and score the maximum number of points anyway. So no, Gregg Easterbrook, this case cannot be used to prove that New England received "material benefit" from cheating. And no, Tim Brando, this game was not all about red zone stoppages.

Look, I'm not naive. Regardless of whether or not you think it's the first sign of the apocalypse or the no big deal, chances are good that the Patriots attempted to gain an edge over their opponents by pushing the envelope a bit farther than allowed by the rules. It's only natural to look at this information, think back through our own memories and experiences, and try to tie the accusations of wrongdoing in with stuff that didn't seem quite right at the time. My only problem is that while Brando (and Easterbrook) are doing this, they aren't taking appropriate care to check all the facts and see if there is an actual basis for their beliefs.

UNH Professor Loses Son In Iraq

One of the final classes I took at the University of New Hampshire before graduating in May 2003 was "History of American Sport," taught by Professor Steve Hardy. I remember Professor Hardy primarily for three reasons: one, after five semesters with a Religious Studies concentration in history, his class was a breath of fresh air; two, he taught me that it's the quality of the words in a piece of writing, not the quantity, that really counts; and three, he had the demeanor and self-assurance of a man who had seen his share of athletic competition.

I was sad to see a story from The Union Leader's web site today reporting the death of Professor Hardy's son, Nathan, in Iraq:

It was Navy SEAL Nathan Hardy's fourth deployment in Iraq, according to his father. His mother, Donna Hardy, is an administrative assistant in UNH’s psychology department.

Nathan Hardy grew up in Durham and was a 1997 graduate of Oyster River High School. He joined the Navy after graduation.

Nearly 4,000 U.S. soldiers have lost their lives in Iraq as the fifth anniversary of the war approaches, but this may be the closest one to me personally. My thoughts and prayers go out to the Hardy family, including Nathan's parents, Steve and Donna; his brother, Ben; and his wife, Mindi, and seven-month-old son, Parker.

OHHHHHHHHH, RAT FARTS!

I think the title and the photo, from Donald Miralle and Getty Images, just about says it all.

From start to finish, this was the most nerve-wracking football game I have ever watched, on par with the Red Sox playoff appearances in 2003 and 2004. At halftime, I actually took my pulse and took ten deep breaths in an attempt to slow my heart rate down; early in the fourth quarter, I looked at my brother-in-law and noted, "This is the first time I've ever felt like I was going to puke during a football game." It was intense, but not in a good way.

There were so many opportunities for the Patriots to win this game, especially on the last drive, and so many mistakes were made. Allowing Eli Manning to escape a certain sack and heave a desperation pass downfield was one; four defensive backs standing around while David Tyree made a tremendous leaping catch was another; Asante Samuel letting the game-ending interception slip through his hands was a third; Ellis Hobbs losing track of Plaxico Burress on the winning touchdown was a fourth. It could go on and on.

That said...credit the Giants for ignoring everyone who said they didn't have a chance in the world and coming to play tonight. I forget when exactly the feeling hit that we, the fans, were in for a long and stressful night, but I can look back and remember one play that signified how hungry the Giants were: a botched handoff between Eli Manning and Ahmad Bradshaw put the ball on the ground, with Patriots linebacker Pierre Woods in perfect position to fall on it and gain possession for New England. Before anyone knew what was happening, however, Bradshaw was on the ground, taking the ball away from Woods (who had eight inches and fifty pounds on the rookie). It was an unbelievable play, a "who wants it more?" play - a play that one normally would have expected the Patriots to make.

Still, despite that hunger, despite that "want to", it looked like New England would pull it off. There were cheers in my living room when Tom Brady hit Randy Moss with a seven-yard touchdown pass with 2:42 to play, a general feeling that finally, things were turning for the better. A Tedy Bruschi-Junior Seau man-hug on the sidelines, an imagined, "Four more stops and this thing is ours!" conversation, didn't hurt matters. And when Ray Ventrone bombed downfield and annihilated Domenik Hixon on the ensuing kickoff, it really looked like the Giants were finished. But I couldn't help myself - I looked at the screen, at that clock in the corner, with more than two minutes to play and a suddenly terrifying Eli Manning at the controls, and I knew: this game was far from over.

So in the end, the 2007 New England Patriots season wasn't about perfection. It was about watching a team progress to the brink of history, only to fall prey to some unseen force (karma, overconfidence, influenza, the Curse of Gisele?) just before the mission was accomplished. Is this the biggest choke in sports history, as Dan Shanoff suggested several weeks ago on his blog? I honestly can't say right now: the 2004 Yankees will always have a special place in my heart in that regard, simply because their choke required four consecutive losses while the Patriots only needed to lose one, but this is pretty tough to swallow.

I can only imagine how Bill Belichick feels.

Today, Sensationalism Is Spelled G-R-E-G-G

(I wrote part of this before tonight's Super Bowl and part of it after. With any luck, you can't tell where the break occurs.)

Since it broke five months ago, I haven't had anything to say about the spying scandal surrounding the New England Patriots, mainly because while I feel that it has become an overblown story driven largely by the media and anti-Patriots fans, I'm not smart or organized enough to back that opinion up with a logical argument. Unfortunately, saying, "Just because," is not exactly a valid argument.

Today, however, I read something at The FanHouse that almost made me laugh, it was so ridiculous. Michael David Smith wrote a post highlighting the comments of ESPN.com's Gregg Easterbrook (who was so serious in this article that he DROPPED HIS TUESDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK PERSONA! He means business, folks), who was a vocal critic of Bill Belichick and the Patriots when this whole thing started back in September. Here is the portion of Easterbrook's column that was quoted by MDS:

Also Saturday, Mike Fish reported on ESPN that St. Louis' [pre-Super Bowl XXXVI] walk-through was devoted to red zone plays -- all new plays and new formations the Rams had not shown during the season. Going into that Super Bowl, the Rams' "Greatest Show on Turf" was the league's highest-scoring team. In that game, St. Louis was held to a field goal in the first half. The Rams kept getting bogged down, as if New England knew what plays were coming. If the Patriots secretly taped the Rams' walk-through, then stopped the red zone plays the Rams showed in that walk-through, then won that Super Bowl by three points, then logic says New England materially benefited from cheating in the Super Bowl. If true, this would be the worst sports scandal since the Black Sox. (emphasis mine)

Let's put that in capital letters: IF TRUE. We don't yet know whether the Super Bowl allegations are true. Then again, we are into only the second day of information going on the record and the league finally answering some questions about the subject.

A quick note on the first part of the quote, regarding the walk-through: Easterbrook mentions that the Patriots are accused of taping the Rams final Super Bowl walk-through, which included previously unseen red zone plays, then held St. Louis to a field goal in the first half. The implication is that obviously, if the Patriots stopped the great Rams offense, then they must have known what was coming ahead of time.


One problem with this, at least the way it is stated: unless I'm reading something wrong, the Rams did not have a single red zone possession until the fourth quarter (which is mentioned in Fish's article). The field goal was kicked from beyond the thirty-yard-line. So why are the red zone plays and the first half point totals relevant to one another? They aren't. In fact, the one time the Rams reached the red zone, in the fourth quarter, they scored a touchdown on a quarterback sneak that Fish mentioned had not been part of the walk-through the day before. Imagine that, a team opting not to practice a quarterback sneak, a play quarterback Kurt Warner and his teammates had probably run hundreds, if not thousands, of times in their careers and that the Patriots should have been looking for.

That's not the portion of the quote that made me chuckle, however; no, that part would be the bolded sentence in the blocked off section above. Here it is again:

If true, this would be the worst sports scandal since the Black Sox.

To make such a sweeping statement shows a startling level of ignorance on the part of Easterbrook. The worst sports scandal since the Black Sox? Really? Are you sure about that? Because I can think of at least two scandals this decade that have more bearing on the integrity of their specific sport than this one - the steroid problem in baseball and the Tim Donaghy case in basketball. Or do those not count?

We can go back further, if necessary, to find more scandalous items that might have received greater exposure had they occurred in our current age of "instant history". How about Pete Rose? Various point-shaving scandals in college basketball? Gambling issues not related to the Black Sox in the 1920s? Institutional racism in baseball? The huge cocaine problem in baseball in the 1980s? None of this was worse than what the Patriots did, which was basically an extension of the videotape and review procedures that have become commonplace in sports over the past few decades? I'm not buying the sensationalism, Mr. Easterbrook.

Look, I understand that what the Patriots did was wrong. Rules were in place to prevent a certain action, they broke those rules, they deserved to be punished. But please, don't try to inflate this and make it into something bigger than what it is. It's insulting.

2008 NCAA Football Virtual Playoffs Round 1: Games of Sunday, February 3, 2008

North Texas (111) @ Tennessee (18)
Final Score: Tennessee 38, North Texas 0

Tennessee advances to play the winner of Kentucky vs. Kansas State in the second round.

Northern Illinois (112) @ UCF (17)
Final Score: Northern Illinois 17, UCF 14

Northern Illinois advances to play the winner of Western Michigan vs. Purdue in the second round.

Hey Guy

(This post would have achieved various levels of awesomeness if Ray Guy had been elected to the Hall of Fame today. Alas, he was not, so this post will probably suck. My deepest apologies.)

I'm on the go a lot at work, so it's not unusual for the janitor and I to cross paths a couple of times a week. I've worked at this job for almost two years, and every time we see each other, the exact same "conversation" takes place. Observe:

Me: Hi Sam.
Sam: Hey guy.

Now, you may be immediately struck by the fact that we've been visual acquaintances for this long, yet he obviously doesn't know my name. That's a fair point, I suppose, even if every single meeting we've ever had has lasted less than five seconds. The thing that gets me, however, is his usage of the word "guy".

Until now, my father was the only person I had ever heard address someone as "guy". When I was a kid, he would often close out telephone conversations with, "Okay, guy," which confused the hell out of me because my mother's cousin, my godmother, is married to a guy named Guy. Until I was about ten, I thought my father and Guy were good friends who talked on the phone all the time - again, confusing, because Tess and Guy lived in Massachusetts and my father rarely saw them when they came to visit. What can I say, I was a stupid kid.

Why waste my time and energy writing about this? No reason, other than it makes me chuckle now every time I say hello to Sam and remember that otherwise meaningless memory from my childhood.

2008 NCAA Football Virtual Playoffs First Round: More Games of February 2, 2008

A quick note before we get to the results: with the conclusion of the Arkansas State-Central Michigan game from the previous update, we are officially halfway through the first round. Bear with me, people - we're getting there, and hopefully things will start moving more quickly.

So far, we've seen the two biggest upsets in the history of this tournament: Florida International's 24-14 win over #13 Boise State (at Boise State, no less) and UAB's 21-7 win over #15 Texas. With 32 games left, we'll see if there are any other upset-minded underdogs out there.

Maryland (73) @ Florida State (56)
Final Score: Florida State 28, Maryland 14

Florida State advances to play West Virginia (9) in the second round.

Nevada (72) @ Georgia Tech (57)
Final Score: Georgia Tech 35, Nevada 14

Georgia Tech advances to play Georgia (8) in the second round.

Syracuse (113) @ Cincinnati (16)
Final Score: Cincinnati 3, Syracuse 0

Cincinnati advances to play Navy (49) in the second round.

Pittsburgh (80) @ Navy (49)
Final Score: Navy 21, Pittsburgh 3

Navy advances to play Cincinnati (16) in the second round.

Trades Involving Hall Of Famers? Yeah, The Mets Have Made One Or Two

In honor of the recently completed trade that sent Johan Santana from the Minnesota Twins to the New York Mets, I decided to compile a list of trades that involved players in the Hall of Fame (where Santana is headed one day, assuming he continues at his current high level of play).

What I didn’t account for was the sheer number of times that Hall of Famers have been traded: well over two hundred, enough to fill 22 pages in Microsoft Word.

Until I figure out what to do with all those names, here is a slightly smaller group to work with: trades involving Hall of Famers and the New York Mets. There’s a little bit of everything there, from lopsided trades (favoring and hurting the Mets) to deals for washed up stars.

Willie Mays – Traded by the San Francisco Giants to the New York Mets for Charlie Williams and $50,000 on May 11, 1972

It’s hard to describe Mays as “washed-up” in 1971 – his 158 OPS+ argues to the contrary – but one could see that the end wasn’t far off. His .425 OBP was a career-high, but it was accompanied by a career-high in strikeouts (123 in 417 at-bats, 31 fewer than the previous high) and a near low in homeruns (18, second-worst only to 1969’s 13). Unless there’s something I’m missing, it appears that while Mays’ body was getting relentlessly older, sapping him of his power and bat speed, he was learning to stave off Father Time by improving his plate discipline and being selective on the basepaths (23 steals, caught only three times).

Off to a poor start in 1972 (.184, 0 homers, 3 RBI, 79 OPS+ in 19 games), Mays was sent packing on May 11, returning to the city where he had begun his major league career 21 years earlier. While he recaptured some of the old magic with the Mets (.267, 8, 19, 145 in 69 games), the rebirth was not permanent or sustained: the following season, he hit .211 and struggled in the field before finishing his career with an 0-for-2 and two walks in front of 20,000 people in Montreal. He struck out in the seventh inning and was in the on-deck circle when Felix Millan grounded out to second to end the top of the ninth.

The other player in the Mays deal, Charlie Williams, spent seven mostly average seasons as a reliever and spot-starter in San Francisco.

Tom Seaver – Traded by the New York Mets to the Cincinnati Reds for Pat Zachry, Doug Flynn, Steve Henderson, and Dan Norman on June 15, 1977

Traded by the Cincinnati Reds to the New York Mets for Charlie Puleo, Lloyd McClendon, and Jason Felice (minors) on December 16, 1982

In trading for Santana, maybe Omar Minaya felt he was doing penance for the Seaver deal that took place nearly 31 years ago, when the 32-year-old former Rookie of the Year and three-time Cy Young winner who led the Amazins’ to the 1969 world championship was shipped to Cincinnati for four players. True, Santana is a little younger and his win totals are far lower, but the comparison seems apt.

For Omar’s sake, let’s hope Santana performs better in New York than Seaver did in Cincinnati, and for Bill Smith’s sake, let’s hope the prospects pan out better than did the ones that ended up in New York. Not that anyone really bombed or anything – Seaver recorded two top-five finishes in the Cy Young voting and three of the four new Mets players earned starting positions on the team – but I guess when the centerpiece of a trade is George Thomas Seaver, expectations are raised.

Exactly five and a half years later, the two sides were dealing again, with Seaver headed back to New York in exchange for three players, including two minor leaguers. While Seaver was the definition of average in one season with the Mets (9-14, 3.55, 103 ERA+), none of those three players did anything special at the major league level – Charlie Puleo was 7-14 in two seasons, Lloyd McClendon didn’t reach the majors until five years later and only saw limited action, and Jason Felice still hasn’t made his big league debut.

Really, the most interesting part of the two Tom Seaver trades is the realization that if we drop Seaver name for a minute, the Mets essentially traded Puleo, McClendon, and Felice to Cincinnati for Zachry, Flynn, Henderson, and Norman. Not the most exciting deal in the world, is it?

Nolan Ryan – Traded by the New York Mets with Frank Estrada, Don Rose, and Leroy Stanton to the California Angels for Jim Fregosi on December 10, 1971

Five months before the Mets landed Willie Mays, the acquired Fregosi, the guy who was supposed to anchor the infield for the foreseeable future. Instead, he played 146 games in two seasons while one of the guys he was traded for became the most unhittable pitcher in major league history. Oops.

If not for Nolan Ryan’s dominance as a member of the California Angels in the 1970s, nobody would remember this trade. Estrada never appeared in the majors for the Angels, Rose saw action in sixteen games before being traded to San Francisco, and Stanton spent five unremarkable seasons in the California outfield.

Ryan’s presence, of course, changes things. He played eight seasons in California, winning 138 games, striking out 2,416 batters, pitching four no-hitters, and building a Hall of Fame resume. Unfortunately, six of those eight teams were terrible, or his win totals would have been even more impressive. (Strange thing I just noticed about Ryan’s numbers: from 1980-93, he only won more than fourteen games twice and only struck out more than 270 batters once. He gets thrown into that longevity argument alongside Roger Clemens, but Ryan was clearly dominant for a stretch in the 1970s and followed that up with about fifteen years of very goodness for the rest of his career.)

Gary Carter – Traded by the Montreal Expos to the New York Mets for Hubie Brooks, Mike Fitzgerald, Herm Winningham, and Floyd Youmans on December 10, 1984

Carter was a seasoned veteran before the trade that brought him to the Mets, one of the many stars who helped build the Montreal Expos into a contender in the early 1980s. He made seven All-Star appearances as a member of the Expos and finished second in both the Rookie of the Year voting in 1975 and the Most Valuable Player voting in 1980.

Carter’s first season with the Mets was very good (32 homeruns, 100 RBI, 138 OPS+) and his second wasn’t bad (24, 105, 115, World Series championship). After that, however, he entered a six-year, career-ending offensive decline (no idea what, if anything, happened to his defense).

Brooks had one terrific half-season for the Expos in 1986 (a 161 OPS+ - the most amazing thing about his career is that he struck out exactly 108 times for three consecutive seasons) and Youmans’ promising career was derailed by drug use after a promising start. All told, I’d say the Mets got the better of the deal.

Andre Tippett Is A Hall Of Famer

When I was sixteen, I read somewhere that former New England Patriots linebacker Andre Tippett held a black belt in some form of karate (maybe multiple forms. I was sixteen a long time ago). This information was all it took to send me scampering off to the local dojo, where the sensei asked what had brought me to his door.

"Um...I read that Andre Tippett is a black belt at karate and I think it could help me as a football player," said oh-so-naive me.

"So you're interested in improving athletic performance?"

"Yes," I said, penciling it in on the "getting to know you" form with great confidence.

And the rest, as they say, is history. I went on to become a black belt, make All-State three times, and break numerous school records before moving on to play college football topped out as an orange belt, learned nothing about leverage, and spent most of my high school career on the bench.

Tippett's karate expertise didn't bring me gridiron glory, but it sure seems to have helped his career. The greatest pass rusher in Patriots history and the AFC's answer to Lawrence Taylor in the 1980s* was given the highest individual honor in football today, earning election into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It was the tenth time he had been considered.

*I'm pretty sure I read this somewhere, so it must be true. And yes, I stole this "put the italicized note in the middle of the page" idea from Joe Posnanski. Because let's face it: it's a good idea that makes reading easier.

An outside linebacker out of Iowa, Tippett recorded an even 100 sacks and recovered nineteen fumbles in eleven seasons with the Patriots. He appeared in five straight Pro Bowls from 1984 to 1988, recording a combined 35 sacks in 1984-85, before rupturing a muscle in his shoulder and missing the entire 1989 season. He returned in 1990 and recorded 27.5 sacks in his final four seasons.

Five other players were honored with enshrinement this afternoon: Redskins cornerback Darrell Green (54 interceptions, long considered the fastest man in football) and wide receiver Art Monk (940 career receptions, including a then-record 106 in 1984), Chargers and 49ers defensive end Fred Dean (28 sacks and 13 fumble recoveries in an era where neither was consistently recorded as an official statistic), Vikings and Broncos offensive tackle Gary Zimmerman (nine All-Pro selections), and Emmitt Thomas.

2008 NCAA Football Virtual Playoffs: Games of February 2, 2008

Minnesota (119) @ Virginia Tech (10)
Final Score: Virginia Tech 17, Minnesota 10

Virginia Tech advances to play Alabama (55) in the second round.

Middle Tennessee (75) @ Southern Miss (54)
Final Score: Middle Tennessee 14, Southern Miss 0

Middle Tennessee advances to play Oklahoma (11) in the second round.

Louisiana Tech (76) @ Ball State (53)
Final Score: Ball State 3, Louisiana Tech 0

Ball State advances to play Boston College (12) in the secound round.

San Jose State (77) @ Memphis (52)
Final Score: Memphis 17, San Jose State 0

Memphis advances to play Florida International (116) in the second round.

UAB (114) @ Texas (15)
Final Score: UAB 21, Texas 7

UAB advances to play the winner of Arkansas State (79) in the second round.

Arkansas State (79) @ Central Michigan (50)
Final Score: Arkansas State 21, Central Michigan 14

Arkansas State advances to play UAB (114) in the second round.

Fare Thee Well, Tina

My wife heard something on the radio this morning regarding Tina Cervasio and her status at NESN, so I did a little looking on the ol' Internet tonight and came up with some unfortunate news - Tina is done when her contract expires at the end of March:

"Tina expressed to us a need to be closer to her family and travel less," said Joel Feld, NESN vice president of programming and executive producer, in a statement. "We are appreciative of everything she has done for NESN and wish her the very best."

I've never met Tina Cervasio in person, but she was kind enough to take part in a lengthy email interview with me in September and recommended that I contact Erin Andrews if I was really interested in talking to her. The way I figure it, I owe her partial credit for about 50,000 hits.

It's too bad that Cervasio is leaving NESN, but it's hard to argue with her reasoning. Following your dreams is important, but it shouldn't come at the expense of personal happiness. Sometimes you have to cut back in one area to make another work. I wish her nothing but the best in her future endeavors.

Watch Your Back, Menino

The Red Sox might not have traded for Johan Santana this week, but general manager Theo Epstein still managed to make a pretty good move, signing first baseman Sean Casey to a one-year contract worth $800,000 on Friday.

Casey made his major league debut with the Cleveland Indians in 1997 before being traded to Cincinnati for Dave Burba prior to the 1998 season. The move paid off handsomely for both teams: Burba won 56 games in four full seasons with Cleveland, while Casey made three All-Star appearances in his eight years with the Reds.

My favorite thing about this deal (aside from the fact that it didn't cost six years and $137.5 million, guaranteed) is the positive reputation that Casey brings to Boston. He's well-known as a "character guy" who earned the nickname "The Mayor" and was overwhelmingly voted the friendliest player in baseball by his peers last season, three qualities that should fit in well in the Red Sox clubhouse that already features guys like Mike Lowell, David Ortiz, and Manny Ramirez.

The only concern is that Casey has never been a role player; not playing every day can be frustrating, even for the nicest guy in the world, and he is being brought in primarily as a low-cost backup for Kevin Youkilis. Unless The Beard falters, The Mayor's playing time will be much lower than he is used to. Other than that, I'm optimistic.

Hopefully This Is One Of Those Predictions I Manage To Get Right

Earlier this week, Chris from The Hot Route asked about thirty blogs, including mine, to submit our predictions for Sunday's Super Bowl. The catch? We had to do it in ten words or less.

I decided I could manage to write a sentence or two for the list, which received a great response (24 total predictions) and was posted for all the world to see today. I won't spoil the magic of my pick (just know that I was very careful to use exactly ten words), but you should definitely head over and check it out for yourself.

One prognosticator, however, deserves to be highlighted: TrueHoop's Henry Abbott, who submitted the following:

The genius principle. No one remembers who anyone picks, essentially -- unless they pick a long underdog, then that guy is a genius. As football isn't even my sport, I can afford to gamble. So... New England has no shot.

This thought has occurred to me literally dozens of times during the past week, so it's nice to be able to put a name to it. People are taking two routes in picking this game: either they are forgetting the "any given Sunday" theory that was proven correct by the 2001 Patriots, proclaiming this team unbeatable and predicting something along the lines of 42-21, or they are taking the Giants in the hopes that New York wins and they can come back next week with, "Hey, guess who correctly picked the biggest upset in NFL history? THIS guy!" I'm just glad someone like Henry, who everyone knows is smart, validated my thoughts by expressing the same sentiment.

For the record, because the score wasn't included at The Hot Route, I'm traveling the middle of the road: New England in a close one, 32-27.

UNH Student-Athlete Loses Fight With Rare Cancer

This is several days late, but a sad story from the alma mater:

When Holly Young came to the University of New Hampshire in 2004, she was poised to become one of the Wildcat's best young athletes. A life-long competitor, Young was armed with a tremendous vertical leap, a thunderous kill and a confident serve.

In 2003, after she led her Coastal Volleyball Club team to the Bay State Games Championship and received All-Scholastic awards from The Boston Globe and The Boston Herald, Young was recruited to play outside hitter and setter on Coach Jill Hirschinger's two-time defending America East championship Wildcats. She redshirted her first season on the team to gain experience with her new team.

It was only after that season, while seeking medical advice about a lump that had appeared on her right leg, that Young was diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer. Since then, Holly had become a different kind of competitor, one who championed causes off of the court.

Last Thursday, Jan. 26, Holly Young lost her three-year battle with cancer. She was 22.

The rest of the article is definitely worth a read. Holly Young sounds like a remarkable young woman who made the most of her limited time on earth by helping as many people and as many causes as she could.

The thing that struck me about Young's case was the infrequency with which Ewing's sarcoma strikes:

The Ewing's Family of Tumors (EFOT), which includes Ewing's sarcoma, are rare forms of childhood cancer that, according to the America Cancer Society, are diagnosed in about 250 children and adolescents in the United States each year. Statistically, it accounts for 2 to 3 percent of the childhood cancers diagnosed each year.

In a letter calling for more research on the disease, Mr. Young described the rarity of the cancer as such, "Consider filling Michigan Stadium three times with children and adolescents under the age of 21. Now pick one and say 'You have Ewing's sarcoma.' That is the national statistic."

Complicating matters is the fact that a significant percentage of cases, including Young's, have appeared within a relatively small area on Cape Cod.

UNH Volleyball Player Loses Battle With Cancer (The New Hampshire)