Hockey Pictureshow

For my birthday, I got 4 sets of hockey tickets. For starters was the Redwings/Panthers game on the 15th. I was so excited because this was surprisingly my first NHL game. It was also dollar hotdog night. I ate 4. Did I mention they were only a dollar? I was surprised at how little "promotion" and "show" there was surrounding the game. There were no player introductions, no cheesy promotional games, and nothing more than a blaring siren when a player scored a goal. At intermission, they had a little kid hockey player shootout. The Redwings were 3-6 on the powerplay and 1-2 on penalty shots (the first time in team history they've had 2 in a game). In the end, they won 5-2. Here's a look from our seats.

On my birthday, Stacey gave me an envelope with two Bluejackets tickets (thanks Stacey!!! I love you!). I was pretty excited, but even more so when I realized that the game was that night. I was then ecstatic when I realized they were 3rd row seats. Hockey is a little different when you are sitting this close.


The hits look a little like this


And I got to see my first live hockey fight.


The game was interesting because you can DEFINITELY tell the difference between a team that is 25-6 and another that is 14-13. The Bluejackets finished the game with 10 penalties - if they played the Redwings like that, they would give up at least 5 goals while shorthanded. Fedorov is ineffective - he has 6 G 11 A in 33 games. The one thing the team does well is making the game exciting. They had great intros, funny jumbotron clips, cheesy intermission games like musical chairs on center ice, a scantily clad "Mountain Dew Ice Crew" that cleans the ice during breaks, and they shoot a freaking cannon off after goals. Too bad we only got to see one during their 3-1 loss to the Flames.

A Bluejacket, by the way, refers to a Union soldier and is "celebrating patriotism, pride and the rich Civil War history in the state of Ohio and, city of Columbus."

After watching two NHL games live, you realize how poorly it translates to TV. The hits are louder, the scoring opportunities are more exciting, and there is so much more happening on the ice than the small portion that you see on TV. I'd rank sports the following in terms of how well it translates on TV: basketball, baseball, football, hockey. The only reason why I rank baseball 2nd is because a good portion of the enjoyment comes from sitting in the beautiful, open ballpark. I love hockey, but I am growing tired of watching it on TV.

Oh, and the other two hockey games? The Fri/Sat night series of MSU at OSU. Can't wait!

Bowls

Here's what the stories of the Bowl Season will be:
1. Playoffs?! I just read that NCAA President Myles Brand supports a "plus-one" plan to involve a 4 team playoff. The BCS can't change until after the current biggest-monopoly-in-sports contract expires in 2009. I am confident 2010 will be the birth of a playoff system.
2. Big 10 doesn't show up again. 3 of the Big Ten's 8 opponents were ranked 1 or 2 at some point in the season and 5 are currently ranked #16 or higher (compared to only 2 Big 10 Teams). I have them going 2-6; I think they are a solid lock to lose at least 4.
3. Almost Every Florida team going bowling.... except Miami?! This would sound absolutely ridiculous 3 or 4 years ago. Florida Atlantic, Central Florida, South Florida, Florida State, and Florida are playing on while Miami's program has gone down hill fast. The only other one staying at home is perennial "Bottom 10" placeholder, 1-11 Florida International. There was a segment on College Gameday this year about how schools like South Florida are growing exponentially by throwing more money into their athletic programs. Their lower academic standards are luring top recruits that can't play at schools like Miami and it's working. How did Miami finish 2-6 in the ACC?
4. Distractions. What effect will coaching changes have on Arkansas, Michigan, West Virginia, Georgia Tech, Houston, Navy, Southern Miss, Texas A&M, and UCLA? A major one if I'm right - I have all 9 losing in their bowls.

Poinsettia Utah over Navy
New Orleans Memphis over Florida Atlantic
Papajohns.com Cincinnati over Southern Miss
New Mexico Are you allowed to pick anyone to defeat New Mexico in their bowl game? I can't... New Mexico over Nevada
Las Vegas BYU over UCLA
Hawaii Boise St over East Carolina
Motor City Upset special... CMU defeats Purdue
Holiday Second best non-BCS matchup - Arizona St over Texas
Champs Sports Huge mismatch. BC big over MSU
Texas It is a true Texas matchup, I like it. TCU over Houston
Emerald "Crabcakes and football..." sorry, not this time. Oregon State over Maryland
Meineke Car Care Great basketball game... UConn over Wake Forest
Liberty Mississippi State over UCF
Alamo Penn State over Texas A&M
Independence Alabama over Colorado
Armed Forces Same rule as the New Mexico Bowl... can't go against the Armed Force in their game. Air Force over Cal
Humanitarian Fresno State over Georgia Tech
Sun Dennis Dixon not playing? This one's easy. South Florida over Oregon
Music City 25 FSU players out? This one's even easier. Kentucky over Florida State
Insight Indiana over Oklahoma State
Chick-fil-A Auburn over Clemson
Outback Tennessee over Wisconsin
Cotton Best non-BCS matchup. Missouri over Arkansas
Gator Texas Tech over Virginia
Capital One Michigan's weakness: spread offense. Best spread offense team in the country: Florida. Happy retirement, Lloyd. Your reward is to be massacred on New Year's. Florida over Michigan
Rose USC over Illinois
Sugar Georgia over Hawaii
Fiesta Oklahoma over West Virginia
Orange Virginia Tech over Kansas
International Rutgers over Ball State
GMAC Tulsa over Bowling Green
BCS National Championship LSU over Ohio State

The streak continues....

I'm on a little bit of a blogging streak... 4 posts in 4 days. Let's take a second and acknowledge my lameness.

Since I couldn't sleep last night, I turned on ESPN to find the Bobby Petrino Arkansas press conference and DeAngelo Hall's comments. Just for fun, I am going to defend him since everyone else is attacking him. This column, therefore, is dedicated to Kevin, the king of "devil's advocate".

To begin, take a step back and look at the process of quitting your job in the first place. If you are searching for another job, most people don't tell their boss. It can feel kinda sneaky, but you could be setting yourself up for a bad situation if you do. The timing of Petrino's situation (coaching the Falcons on MNF, brown nosing the Razorbacks' boosters on Tuesday) is peculiar. Obviously, he and his agent got the ball rolling on this weeks ago. DeAngelo Hall berated him for trying to get the players to buy into his system while he knew he was on his way out the door. But wasn't that his job until the second he left - to coach the team? If he would have told the players and management of his plans earlier, wouldn't they have asked him to leave? What then if the Arkansas position fell through?

Another reason why he's been dragged through the coals is that he came to Atlanta for a very short period of time after leaving college. From the reports that have come out, it sounds like he had a difficult time adjusting to coaching pro athletes. DeAngelo Hall pointed out that you can't treat guys whose job is to play football to support a wife and kids the same way you coach 18 and 19 year olds. He's definitely right and I think that may be one of the reasons why Petrino didn't adapt well to the NFL. That, and the fact that his franchise QB was suspended before the season began. He didn't leave for more money or "a better position" - he left because he realized he made a mistake in going to the NFL.

The problem many had specifically with the timing is that he left before the season was over. While it may have been more admirable to stay through the end of December, college jobs are filled by then. He will have a lot of work to do to save Arkansas' recruiting class and build a coaching staff. Contracts are treated as suggestions by teams; coaches can be fired any minute. So shouldn't he be able to leave according to the contract's out clause?

Ok, now that I am done defending him, I want to make it clear I wouldn't want him within 10 feet of MSU or the Lions. I hear he is currently in talks with U-M about their vacancy. He looked so shady during the press conference. Plus, does any one believe Arkansas is the position he is really looking for? We'll be seeing him asskiss some other school's boosters in 2-3 years and we all know it. DeAngelo Hall put it best when he said "they're not a great team in the SEC anyway."

Two Reviews and a Statistic

WWE Smackdown vs. Raw
The commercials make it look cool - you get to do a crotch chop just like Shawn Michaels! But that is actually the only fun thing about this game. And that gets old after 2 minutes. The problem with this game is that they made every single move involve shaking the Wii remote. Wanna punch someone? Shake the remote. Wanna tie someone up in a grapple? Shake the remote. Wanna reverse a move or kick out of a pin? I think you get the point. This was a bad game to play right after I donated blood. I felt like I was going to have cardiac arrest. The story mode is horrible. You get challenges through text messages (screw you and the other t.m. addicts, Mike) and it is too difficult to beat people. I guess I wasn't shaking the remote hard enough. 2 out of 5

My Sims
I literally played this game for less than 5 minutes. My impression of the game was that it would be the Sims with your Miis. Wrong and wrong. This is a dumbed-down version of the Sims where you can rebuild a crappy city. Rebuilding involves stacking the chimney on top of the roof on top of the 2nd story on top of the first. Even though this is probably for 10 year olds, I give it a 1 out of 5

Now for the stat
16, -3, 56, 23

Those are the rushing totals for the Lions against the Minnesota Vikings over the past two seasons. That's only 92 total yards!

Who U-M Should Hire

It's been almost a month since Lloyd Carr stepped down and U-M still is looking for a head coach. After being rejected by Schiano and Miles, the position has lost a lot of its luster. They can't use "it's Michigan" anymore and expect to get the top head coaches scrambling to interview. To me, there are a few people they should go after right now.

Tyrone Willingham
He played at MSU and was an Asst. Coach for MSU and CMU.
His record at Notre Dame was 21-15. Charlie Weis' is currently 22-15.
His record at Washington has been bad, but I think he's a good coach. He recruited the players that went 9-2 in Weis' first year.

Jim Herrman
Defensive Coordinator for U-M for 9 seasons, current LB coach for NY Jets.
He lead some of the best Defenses that U-M has had. This year's team was weak on D.

Ron English
Current Defensive His name has been mentioned for a number of vacancies in the past and he's already interviewed. He has the experience to take the next step.

2007 Movie Reviews

One of the thing I miss since we've moved out is rating movies. Below is a collection of my thoughts on every movie I've seen this year. In parenthesis is where each movie ranks on the current box office standings in 2007.

Thumbs Up
Knocked Up (11) - Best comedy I've seen in about 2 years. After watching the bonus features, I am convinced at least 50% of the movie was ad-libbed.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (5) - Seen it 3 times (for a total of like $9). It was my favorite movie of the franchise.

300 (7) - Everything I was hoping for, especially on iMax.

Bourne Ultimatum (6) - Best of the series. He's the best action hero in years.

Thumbs 3/4
Ratatouille (8) - Surprisingly good. Pixar really has the formula for creating movies that both kids and parents can enjoy.

Simpsons Movie (9) - Almost every review: it wasn't spectacular, but it didn't kill the franchise. I agree that it got the job done.

Superbad (15) - A more realistic American Pie. Not as good as Knocked Up, but still pretty funny.

Reign over Me (95) - Adam Sandler did a great job.

Idiocracy (limited release in 06) - A few improvements to the script, some bigger name actors, and a marketing plan and this would have easily cracked the Top 30 Box Office of 07. The concept was great.

Thumbs Middle
We Are Marshall (Released in 06) - It was a decent "football movie". McConaghey and Fox made the movie.

License to Wed (46) - Worth the $1. Robin Williams wasn't obnoxious, but his young boy partner was. Did anyone else think it would be a bad idea for a priest to have a 13 year old boy as a sidekick?

Evan Almighty (23) - It was cute, but nothing special.

Shrek the Third (2) - They should definitely stop now.

Thumbs 1/4
Blades of Glory (18) - Mediocre. Talladega Nights - Nascar jokes + gay skating jokes - some humor = Blades of Glory

Spiderman 3 (1) - It was bad. I think the actors' apathy about the series that we saw on talk shows the week it came out was very telling.

Thumbs Down
Ocean's 13 (19) - Horrible. Much of it didn't make any sense to me. Reminds me of the original Ocean's 11 - put a bunch of famous actors together and people will watch it even though they half-assed the plot.

Epic Movie (52) - Lame recycled jokes and pointless gross out humor.

More Wii Reviews

I am starting to consider selling my Wii for $450-500 and buying a new one in February or March. Have you seen the demand for them right now???

Anyway, Stacey and I resumed our monthly game pass. Here's my latest ratings.
Mario vs. Sonic in the Olympics
This is apparently the first time Nintendo has featured both characters in the same game. They really got the character aspect right. If memory serves me correct, you can play as 16-18 different people plus any of your Miis. Each character has different controls. For example, during the swimming events, you may do the butterfly or the backstroke, etc. depending on your character. The one thing I question is the playability of the game. There don't seem to be a ton of events, so you may get bored after a month. The best events are rowing, swimming, archery, and fencing. Overall: 3.5 out of 5

Super Mario Galaxy
The Nintendo 64 version brought the game into 3 dimensional landscapes. Galaxy takes it one step further because in one world you can travel any direction around a planet. Even if you are upside down, you stay attached due to gravity. Dimension seems to be the biggest aspect of the game as you are launched from planet to planet in different galaxies. There are still the familiar Mario aspects - the music, goombas, stars, 1 ups, etc. Ok, I admit, I haven't played this game for 1 second. I watched Stacey play it for 5-10 minutes and she really likes it. 4 out of 5.

I am concerned about the 2007 version of the Yankees/Red Sox arms race. It feels very similar to the battle for ARod in 2003. This time, of course, the gem is Johan Santana. I was totally fine with Boston's offer of Jon Lester and Coco Crisp + minor leaguer. I was excited when the Yankees looked like they were willing to give up the farm for him. Now that the Red Sox have offered Ellsbury, I am upset. Lester and Crisp make perfect sense - pitching for pitching and you give up Crisp (who hopefully wouldn't be starting next year anyway). I really like Ellsbury, though. I just don't see the need for Santana for a year when you have Daisuke, Beckett, Schilling, and Bucholz coming up. They're turning into the Yankees. Ok, you guys can wake up now, I'm done.

BCS Mess

Even though I know every sportswriter in the country will kick this dead horse of an issue over the next month, I have to comment about the BCS Armageddon season. First, I want to take a look back at how we got to this situation. The first sign this season was going to be a disaster was when App State beat Michigan, who many predicted would be in the National Championship game. Since then, 11 teams that were ranked #1 or 2 have lost (including S. Florida, who was number 2 after week 7.) At this point, I see legitimate arguments for nine teams to fill 2 spots in the National Championship game: Ohio State, Georgia, West Virginia, LSU, Virginia Tech, Kansas, USC, Oklahoma, and Hawaii. If we had a (I won't say the dirty word, but it rhymes with shmayoff), then we would be arguing over which 8 of those 9 would have a shot rather than which 2. I think we can all agree that is a preferable situation.

At this point, it seems OSU is a lock to make the championship and make me sick for another month. So how will the voters and computers decide their opponent? For starters, the BCS voters aren't ready for a non-BCS team to make the championship game, so Hawaii is out. (The way the top 6 conference chairpeople formed the BCS, thereby deciding only their teams are worthy of competing for the Division 1 Championship is the worst example of a sports monopoly today). The second criteria they're gonna use is winning your own conference. That takes the team many believe to be playing the best right now (Georgia) and the other one-loss team (Kansas) out of the picture. The next factor that they are going to use is how they finished - it doesn't seem fair to put a team that lost their last game in the championship, so bye bye West Virginia. Finally, you have to look at head-to-head matchups. In week 2, LSU destroyed Va Tech 48-7. In the end, strength of schedule will decide among USC, LSU, and Oklahoma. Tonight, LSU will jump three teams that were ranked ahead of them (none of which lost yesterday) to become the #2 team in the country. What a great day for Tiger fans - they keep their coach and make their way back into the national championship game.

Who, you may wonder, do I think should make the National Championship game? Hawaii. They did everything they were asked to do - beat all 12 teams on their schedule.

This year has made the need for a shmayoff even more apparent. Let's revisit the arguments against one.
1. The regular season is a playoff - every game matters! Partially true - U-M was knocked out when the last second ticked off the clock against App State. However, as I said before, Hawaii went undefeated and they won't be playing for the National Championship. Kansas only lost 1 game, but a 2 loss team will be playing instead of them. Out of the 3 teams with similar credentials, only one will make it.
2. The playoff will interfere with academics. We have to worry about finals! I can sympathize with this argument, but the NCAA isn't truely worried about this. Team tutors administer exams to athletes on the road all the time. Plus, not every school follows the same academic calendar. Ohio University students take their finals before Thanksgiving and have a month and a half of Winter break. However, the largest hole in this argument is the fact that the other Divisions have had successful football playoffs for years.
3. It will ruin the bowl season. We must keep the tradition! Bowl season tradition was killed when we were introduced to the Papajohns.com Bowl and on January 3rd, 2002 when neither a Big 10 team or a Pac 10 team played in the Rose Bowl. An 8 team football playoff could begin next week with the second round on the following weekend. The bowl season would begin the weekend after and would conclude with the National Championship game as always. Or, you could enhance the bowl season by having the semi-finals on New Year's Day with the Championship taking place one week later.

The current BCS system is bringing a lot of attention to the sport and causing a lot of discussion, but for negative reasons. There really is a lot at stake over who makes the national championship game. Besides the obvious excitement for players and fans, there is a lot of money at stake. The payout to each conference is expected to be $17 million. On top of that, there is the increased amount of donations a school receives because of excited alumni who want to be a contributing part of the action by signing a check. If you don't think this is a big deal, read this article about the University of Florida's success. In the end, I will watch the bowl games like I normally do and be hopeful that MSU is never the team on the outside looking in like USC and Oklahoma will be on January 7.

Addendum
After seeing the BCS Results show (which was painful to watch) the biggest winner other than LSU was Illinois. I am excited that we will see a Big 10/Pac 10 matchup. The lowest scoring game will be the Alamo Bowl - Penn State vs. Texas A&M. Most interesting: Brut Sun Bowl - Oregon vs. S. Florida. Upset: Motor City Bowl - CMU vs. Purdue. Biggest Blowout: International Bowl - Rutgers vs. Ball State. I really like MSU's opportunity; BC is a tough opponent and it will be fun to watch.

In my research, I discovered 7 Big 10 teams have made a BCS Bowl - MSU, Minnesota, Indiana, and Northwestern are the only ones who haven't. Florida State, Notre Dame, and Michigan are a combined 2-11 in BCS games. LSU and OSU are 7-1.

Edjukshun

You spent 10-15 seconds trying to figure out that title, didn't you? On the way home from work, I heard a radio commercial for a local technical college that attacked traditional colleges by arguing "you don't learn how to repair a computer by reading Shakespeare". This reminded me of all of the worthless classes I had to take to graduate with a business degree (IAH anyone?) The university would argue such curriculum is required to provide a well balanced education. Two and a half years removed and I hardly remember how to balance a ledger let alone anything from my astronomy class. While I feel like I learned a great deal from college (calculating profit margins, navigating through financial statements, marketing and sales tactics, why mixing gatorade and vodka is a bad idea). The system is rigid and outdated due to deeply engrained traditions and philosophies of academia. (I learned how to write an argument like that in High School, not college).

As a business major, I wasn't allowed to touch a non-economics business class until I was halfway done with college. How was I supposed to know a marketing degree was right for me if I was stuck taking life science, spanish, and IAH? If I decided after a year that it wasn't what I wanted, I'd be changing majors at the beginning of my senior year. On top of that, many economic principles are difficult business concepts to understand - how am I supposed to really comprehend them without any business background?? Luckily, I ended up enjoying marketing and was quite successful, minus one bad econ class.

In my opinion, anyone beginning a marketing degree should take Marketing 101 on day one so they know what they're getting themselves into. Same goes for any other major (do they have Teaching 101 Mike?) Since I will never ever deal with any science outside of the animals at the zoos that Stacey and I visit, I shouldn't have been required to take any. In addition, IAH is a complete joke and should be eliminated effective immediately. Anyone who had to sit through it should be reimbursed or at least receive a coupon to the Dairy Store (mmm... revenge ice cream!) Instead of taking rediculous prerequisites, I should have been allowed more time to take electives instead of the 3-4 I was allowed to take to complete my 120 credits. I learned of a Entrepreneur class my senior year that would have been a great learning experience in independence and creativity. Sadly, it wasn't even offered to business majors. Having the ability to better tailor your education to your own needs is critical.

Since we're on the subject of college, I want to discuss some college football since I can't go without talking about sports. I would love to see West Virginia take on OSU if Mizzo loses. Pat White and Steve Slaton are like Juice Williams and Mendenhall from Illinois... except a lot better. They will destroy OSU. I am so hopeful that we get to see Illinois vs. Florida in the Citrus Bowl. It would be a very exciting game to watch and I would love to see Ron Zook stick it to Florida.

Merry Thanksgiving Eve Eve

I seriously feel like it's Christmas because MSU is playing the #1 team in the country and I get to see it! Yes, it is only November, but I think this is MSU's best chance in the next at least the next 2, possibly 3 years. I can't wait to see our freshman trio before one of them leaves for the NBA (one of them will after their sophomore year, mark my word). But MSU will bounce back, just like America did after Pearl Harbor and 9/11! (Thanks Saban, you ignorant jackass.) The class of 2009 has a lot of highly ranked players in the midwest and most are considering MSU. I pay a little attention to recruiting and the one thing I can't understand is why so many kids across the country consider OSU. Their program used to be mediocre but when Thad Matta steps through the door, every kid in the country wants to be a Buckeye. I am still trying to find the secret OSU Hummer dealership and Team VIP strip club. Case in point: three of the Top 10 recruits for the class of 2010 are already committed to OSU. Ok, time to stop discussing 16 year olds. Did anyone else hear Master P's son, Lil' Romeo committed to USC? Make em say Uggh!

So here's my initial thoughts on MSU. I really like how they look defensively (which is easy to say being that they haven't given up a point in the first 5 minutes). Their positioning is great - they look like they have the cohesiveness of a Jan./Feb. team on defense. Naymick is a complete liability on defense, though. Offensively, they have some work to do. They get a little bit of a pass since their leader has the stomach flu. They need to improve upon their passing when they get in their half court sets. Chris Allen has really had some flashes of greatness early on with the falling jumper and the turnaround layup. Raymar Morgan looks great on both ends of the court. I am still hoping to see Marquise Gray step up offensively and defensively. I don't know why the referees decided to be so much more conservative 5 minutes into the game. Does anyone know where Maurice Joseph wound up? We just passed the 10 minute mark in the first half, so I'm out.

Baseball in November

Somewhere between the A-Rod and Bonds talk, I got to thinking about the baseball team I would field if I had any choice of players. The result was a payroll of $121,292,075 - third highest in the league. Granted, I have some roster spots to fill, but I would have $73,936,970 to work with if I had the Yankees payroll. That's about $10 million per person. So here's what I came up with. And yes, I did spend way too much time on this.

C Jorge Posada
1B Albert Pujols
2B Chase Utley
3B David Wright
SS Derek Jeter
LF Manny Ramirez
CF Curtis Granderson
RF Magglio Ordonez

SP Jake Peavy
SP Johan Santana
SP CC Sabathia
SP Josh Beckett
SP Brandon Webb
CP Jonathan Papelbon

I love looking at players' salaries on ESPN. My most interesting find: Josh Beckett made $6,666,667 in 07. Is he the devil? Also, 16 of the 25 players on the Florida Marlins make the league minimum of $380,000 and I don't think I've heard of a single one of them. Plus, Jason Giambi is the most overpaid player. For one Jason Giambi, at $23,428,571, you can get:

The Jason Giambi All Stars
C Joe Mauer
1B Prince Fielder
2B Dustin Pedroia
SS Hanley Ramirez
3B David Wright
LF Matt Holliday
CF Curtis Granderson
RF Nick Markakis

SP Francisco Liriano, Fausto Carmona, Scott Kazmir, Justin Verlander, Chien-Ming Wang
CP Jonathan Papelbon

Sad part - you'd still have almost $9 million to spend on the rest of the team.

Stacey and I got the One Month Game Pass from Hollywood Video again. We started with the Simpsons game, so here are some thoughts. I was suprised to see that the game isn't based on the movie. So far, the levels haven't been as true to the show as other games have. One level took place at the Natural Science museum and another involves Lisa and a tree clearing plant owned by Mr Burns. The two player mode is pretty good because only one of you can complete certain tasks. The funniest part of the game are the "video game cliche's" from Comic Book guy (example: spending 3 hours to find one object and the "double jump"). The worst aspect by far is the camera. It doesn't react how it should and turns an easy task like jumping across 3 platforms into a 30 minute task (sadly, it's true). Overall, it isn't as solid as the Simpsons Hit and Run. I'd give it a 3 out of 5.

Daily Show

No Title

"The Red Sox can have their Nation. The Yankees have the universe."
"It doesn't matter to me," (in response to A-Rod's timing of his opt-out announcement)
"Where was Joe's career in '95 when my dad hired him? My dad was crucified for hiring him."
"I think the most important thing is whoever we hire, give 'em a chance because he's not getting the '96 Yankees. He's getting an even younger team or for the most part a team in transition. Give him a little while."

Ok, I hate Hank Steinbrenner.

Favorite World Series stat: Only 3 Red Sox batted below .300 (Manny, Pedroia, and Youkilis. Jacoby Ellsbury's nickname from here on is "Free Taco".

Colts/Pats is not anywhere near as overhyped as the Yankees turmoil with ARod and Torre. I am really looking forward to it.

America's Teams are in disarray. Think about it - NY Yankees lost their manager, their top player, and are in danger of losing much more. The Lakers' best player wants to be traded, but will reject a trade that would leave his new team barren of talent. (Interesting fact: Kobe is the only player in the NBA with a no trade clause). Notre Dame football (enough said). The only "America's team" that is in good shape is the Cowboys, but they have T.O. so that can turn negative quickly.

Zumaya injured his arm helping his family save things from their house and now he may be ready midseason. He has the worst luck. At least he didn't injure himself playing Wii again.

The Pistons are starting McDyess at center. That puts their starting 5 at an average age around 30. I am glad they got rid of Webber, but I hate this move. He is going to get worn down and will be ineffective come playoff time if he is injury free by that point.

Is the Pac 10 really good this year or are they all just very mediocre?

I am so excited for MSU/U-M. I feel like it is a chance to knock off that arrogant, more successful older brother that I never had. Will MSU ever figure out how to win conference games?

Colin Cowherd is broadcasting tomorrow afternoon from Eddie George's Grill.

Will someone freaking trade me for one of my running backs so I can get something out of them?

This has got to be the worst, most incoherent post I've ever made and I don't give a shit.

Ultimate Fantasy Draft

I am currently watching the Lions/Bears game... what a surprise to see Fox decided to show this! Devin Hester really is the key to the Bears.

I looked back at our Fantasy draft to see what kind of team I really could draft. Here's the sad news at what could've happened. In bold are the picks I did make.
1.Tom Brady
2.Brian Westbrook
3.Ronnie Brown/ McGahee/C Portis
4.Randy Moss
5.Braylon Edwards
6.Tony Romo
7.Dallas Clark
8.Marshawn Lynch
9.L Coles
10.Marion Barber III
11.Dewayne Bowe
12.New York Giants
13.Minnesota
14.Adrian Peterson
15.Jason Witten
16.Wes Welker
17.Derek Anderson

Music

Last year, I made a list of the best songs ever. I thought it would be silly to make another list like that, so I came up with the list of the most important songs in my life. Year by year, these are the songs that I connect with different events, moments, and feelings from my life. Everytime I hear each of these songs, it brings back memories.

1994 "Self Esteem" The Offspring - For Christmas, I received what the kids called a boom box and my first CD - The Offspring's Smash. My mom picked it out because that's what the guy at the store recommended (that store, most likely, was Tape World, which is kind of ironic because it was a CD). My favorite song was "Self Esteem" which is so appropriate because I had a ton of teen angst in middle school.
1995 "Lightning Crashes" Live - The first song I ever slow danced to. I felt like the coolest 6th grader because some hot 8th grader asked me to dance.
1996 "Glycerine" Bush - I don't know why, but this is the song I would most associate with middle school.
1997 "Seasons of Love" Rent - I first fell in love with Rent around 97. Since I can sing almost every song verbatim, I had to include it on this list.

1998 and 1999 - I swear I liked music then, but I really couldn't come up with anything memorable.

2000 "I Will Remember You" Sarah Maclachlan, "In My Life" Beatles - The two senior songs I had (The first was our senior song in Varsity Blues). I am cheating a little, since we graduated in 2001. I still remember getting choked up while singing both, which means it had a pretty big impact on me. Not so much the choked up part, but the fact that I still remember it.
2001 "Wish You Were Here" Incubus, "Thunderstruck" AC/DC - My favorite Incubus song. Plus, freshman year was lonely, so it's fitting. The one thing I loved most about freshman year, though, was football Saturdays. I miss the Thunderstruck entrance (I don't think they do that anymore). Stacey and I decided it is going to be our entrance music to the reception. I wasn't joking.
2002 "I Shall Not Walk Alone" Ben Harper, "Lose Yourself" Eminem - Another tie. The two things I will remember most about sophomore year is the 8 Mile premiere and working at the radio station. I discovered Ben Harper at the radio station - in my opinion he's the most underrated artist of the past decade... he's brilliant. I felt a great deal of independence sophomore year, so the song is fitting.
2003 "Fa Fa" Guster - The first time I really discovered Guster was Tastefest. Although FaFa isn't my favorite Guster song ("Demons" is), it was the one I remembered most from that day.
2004 "Jesus Walks" Kanye West - I feel like Kanye West was the biggest artist of the year. The song doesn't have any ties for me to 2004 - I just like it.
2005 "Don't Stop Believin'" Journey - One of the Lugnut's had this as their intro song. I made sure we played it every chance I had. It reminds me of the long summer days in the ballpark. Plus, I remember it shot up to the iTunes Top 10 just because it was on Laguna Beach one night.
2006 "Mike and Mike Podcasts" - Discovering this gem reinvented my mornings and got me through many boring days of postering campus. It may not be a song, but it was the most important audio to me in 06.
2007 - I really don't know yet. It may be too early to tell.

College Football

Before the season started, I made fun of Jesse "The Bachelor" Palmer for saying that he was excited for different team's chances at the National Championship, including South Florida. I called him a douche bag and I haven't seen him on ESPN since. So far they have beaten West Virginia and Auburn and later today, they will likely be announced as the #3 team in the country. Palmer is still a douche bag.

When I saw that Cal had lost, following LSU's loss earlier, I realized Ohio State was the number one team in the country. Then I got a huge grin on my face because I am convinced we will upset them next weekend. Here's why:
1. In 1998, OSU was favored to beat MSU by 24 at home. They beat every other team by at least 10 points. MSU ended up winning 28-24 in OSU's only loss of the season.
2. Dantonio is a Tressel protege'. He is going to have his team playing up for this game like you wouldn't believe.
3. The number one team has lost the past 2 weeks and this season has been full of upsets.
4. Nobody is giving us a chance. The media and the fans are looking past MSU; the team could too. Their schedule after MSU is Penn St, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan. On the news this morning, they started to discuss the National Championship game and listed the obstacles in their way - MSU wasn't one of them.
5. We're the number 15th ranked offense and 36th ranked defense in the country.

Then I came back to reality and realized why we will lose.
1. It's not 1998 anymore. Tressel is going to be drilling that into the players' heads this week.
2. Dantonio was also aware of MSU's history of losing the game after a big game and said he was going to have his players ready for that one. Fuck Northwestern.
3. The other upsets are going to have no effect on this game.
4. The players probably won't be looking past this game... see #1.
5. They're the number 1 ranked defense. Enough said.

Either way, win or lose, I am so freaking excited for next Saturday - MSU vs. OSU and a possible game 7 of the ALCS. Oh, and I guess I am kinda excited that you guys are coming to visit.

USA Today Poll

#23 Michigan State

Enjoy it while it lasts boys! We've got Wisconsin next Saturday.

Predictions

College Football
Miami def. Texas A&M
USC def. Washington St
LSU def. S. Carolina
Penn State def. U-M
MSU def. Notre Dame in a game that will be embarrasingly close
Georgia def. Alabama

NFL
Eagles def. Lions
Colts def. Texans
Saints def. Titans
Bengals def. Seahawks
Rams def. Bucs

-I'm taking a poll... who realized the NHL preseason began this week? I was shocked when I heard a Blue Jackets game on the radio
-The Falcons getting rid of Schaub has turned into the worst off season move
-Is anyone else sick of seeing the Yankees field their AAA team in April and May, only to come back and win the division in August and September? (which will happen, I promise you)
-How many SEC teams could defeat the best Big 10 team in a 5 game series? My count is 6 (Florida, South Carolina, Alabama, LSU, Kentucky, and Arkansas).

Sports Weekend

MSU vs. Pitt
Red Sox vs. Yankees
U-M vs. Notre Dame
Shit, even USC vs. Nebraska and Shock vs. Mercury

As you can tell, I'm excited for the sports on TV this weekend.

Here's my predictions:
MSU, Sox take 2 of 3, U-M big, USC, and Shock win title number 3.

OH how I hate....

A few years ago I created a "OH how I hate Ohio State" cheer. Or maybe I heard it from somewhere, stole it, and forgot where it came. Anyway, it is perfect because Ohioans love that their state begins with OH. After becoming immersed in the OSU culture (which is the culture of 90% of Ohio), I have admired their team pride to the point where I am even a little jealous. They even played "Hang on Sloopy" at the Indians game, which is 2 hours away from campus.

As MSU grads, we have a pretty similar distaste for U-M. However, I haven't enjoyed U-M's recent downfall. It's not fun to see them lose on New Year's and it is sad to watch the final nails put into Lloyd Carr's career. I have that "nobody picks on my brother" attitude with U-M. Their loss to App State and ass kicking from Oregon makes the Big 10 look terrible (Northwestern v. Northeastern... quality football you can ONLY watch on the Big Ten Network!)

Most OSU fans, however, revel in the losses. I would say local tv and radio spends 60% of their college football coverage on U-M's downfall and 40% on OSU. It's as if they are saying "hey, we know we're going to face our own reality vs. Washington this week, but look how bad U-M is doing!" I saw a series of OSU sports drawings in Kroger... one of them was a crowd of OSU fans at a game with 2 sad looking U-M fans in the middle. The glory they take in U-M's misfortunes is pathetic. It makes me feel they envy U-M and the whole state of Michigan and seeing U-M lose gives them more self-worth.

I also heard this week a story about how cops pick up U-M fans who may have decided to spend the night in their car and allow them to sleep in a private jail cell instead so they can avoid people who roam the streets looking for cars with Michigan plates to damage. I know the story sounds like a joke, but the person was serious.

I had my mind made up until I spoke with one of my teachers. He has been teaching at OSU for years and he just had his 20 year anniversary with us. (Side note: Do the math... the guy started teaching with us when I was 4. And I'm his boss! It makes me feel like Topher Grace in the movie "In Good Company". I love it.) I asked him today if the fans at the Horseshoe went crazy over the U-M's loss. He said the OSU game was over before U-M's historic App State loss, but that he wasn't happy to see it. Then he began to compare U-M to a brother, and I realized not every OSU fan was envious.

Big Ten Network

As I have said before, I love my monopoly-on-most-of-Ohio cable company, Time Warner Cable. We get perfect reception on each one of the nearly 70 channels we receive and it costs just over $70 with internet. (Side note: writing that last sentence made me have one of those really weird, "oh yeah, I live in Ohio." moments. I still am not used to it. Continue...) There has been a pretty entertaining battle lately in the media between my media conglomerate and the Big Ten Network. However, as I sit here on a Saturday afternoon with the option of watching West Virginia/Marshall, Oklahoma/Miami, or Nebraska/Wake Forest, I am pissed. Here's the problem.

The Big Ten Network is charging cable companies $1.10 per customer for rights. (They are charging a ridiculous $.10 per customer in non-Big 10 states). If everyone did this, Time Warner would have to pay $77 to all of my networks for me to watch them.

They vowed that the price is worth it because they are bringing loads of content to Big 10 Fans. Their website claims:

"...the Big Ten Network will feature shows produced by students from Big Ten Universities that will showcase academic breakthroughs, honored alumni, current students, renowned faculty, as well as the academic challenges to name a few."

A) It doesn't. #2) If it does eventually, I don't give a shit and neither does anyone else. We don't need a channel that is a commercial for local universities.

Here is what they are actually showing today: 4 hours of a show called "Big 10 Tonight", 6 hours of a show called "Friday Night Tailgate", 4 hours of a pregame show, postgame show, and evening wrap up, 2 hours of the 1999 Minnesota/Penn State game, and an impressive 7 football games. However, if you have the station on basic cable... you only end up getting to watch 2 football games on a football Saturday! The network doesn't add any more value than the ESPN/ESPN2/ABC Regional coverage. The scary thing is that they will be carrying 8 MSU basketball games, almost guaranteeing that I won't be able to watch any MSU games this year.

Cable companies have been extremely resistant because they know the Big 10 Network doesn't add value and is charging a ridiculous fee. While their negotiations are failing miserable, they decided to step up their ads. Their current commercials feature different Big 10 coaches making statements like "True Buckeye fans deserve the Big 10 Network." The league has grown too greedy and is forcing their coaches to make asses of themselves.

Cleveland Rocks

Before I dive into my weekend Cleveland trip, I feel it is necessary to discuss college football because I can't believe that you, Mike, both love the NFL (your favorite sport, I believe you have said in the past) and like college football the least. Here's my top 5 things that I love about college football (in no particular order).

The upsets. Appalachian State was paid $400,000 to come destroy Michigan's season and put the first nail in Lloyd (not David) Carr's career at U-M. While that loss was the first time Even if the Raiders beat the Colts, you would forget about it by the next day.

One and done. Michigan's national title hopes are over. Every game matters and they proved it this weekend.

The pagentry. Every school has goofy traditions and peculiar trophies to play for. Just another thing to add to the excitement.

The different offenses and trick plays. The plays Boise State pulled out were ridiculous. Even more ridiculous was that they worked perfectly. Besides what Michael Vick used to do on the field, one NFL offense doesn't look too different from the other.

Rivalries. I had to hear my boss play a song called "we don't give a damn for the whole state of Michigan, we're from Ohio" If you have never heard it, enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx5TVBf6cWM (Ignore the added Gwen Stefani beat) This song is another example of how I both love the area's passion and hate the fact that it's against me.

Ok, now that's off my chest, the Tigers season is over. I am sad to say it, but I had the opportunity to travel to enemy territory this weekend and see the Indians in action. Here's why you should start looking forward to next year:

-The Indians only have one starter that's hitting over .300 They also have nobody that is hitting under .255 They are vastly consistent from the top of the lineup to the bottom. Detroit's problem is that they are the exact opposite. Maggs is having an MVP caliber season. The Tigers also have a few guys that aren't pulling their own weight (Inge is hitting .234 and Pudge is a liability).

-They don't really have any holes in their pitching staff. Again, nobody is going to really blow you away, but nobody is going to give up a game the way Todd Jones can. Plus, the Tigers have had way too many injuries, forcing them to start 11 different guys this year, only 3 of whom have started over 20 games (If you're counting at home, the Indians have started 8; half of whom have made 20+ starts.) It's difficult if you can't get your staff into a consistent groove.

-The way both teams look right now, turning around those 6 games looks insurmountable. Catching up to the wild card lead is a little more realistic, but I wouldn't bet against the Yankees.

I'll leave you with my impressions of Jacobs Field compared to the other stadiums I've visisted:
-They have a really cool looking 3 story restaurant off the third base side
-There is an amazing LED board that spans almost all of left field
-The scoreboard has a giant LED screen that they only fully utilized during the player intros, which were awesome. Except for the fact that they played Dropkick Murphy's "Shipping off to Boston" - a great song, but didn't make sense in the context
-The city skyline beyond the outfield was disappointing. They should've put the stadium next to the Browns' off Lake Erie
-They did a great job of positioning the upper deck close to home plate so you could feel close to the game
-The loudest crowd pop was for Kenny Lofton

Overall, I would rank the stadiums I've been to:
PNC Park (Pittsburgh) - Great view of the city, can bring outside food in
Fenway - Historic
Camden - Crab cakes, tvs under the upperdeck overhang were very useful during rain delay
CoPa - Giant tigers, GM Fountain
Jacobs Field - see above
Citizens Bank (Philly) - Amazing cheesesteaks, neon liberty bell sign swung for HRs

I'll leave Skydome and Comisky off the list since it was so long ago that I visited them. Next up will be Great American Ballpark in Cinci next year.

Sports Musings

I watched ESPN's 25 hours of College Football program. It was very impressive, although they weren't broadcasting for all 25 hours. So I don't get where they came up with the idea. Here's my thoughts:
-Jesse Palmer should be hereforth announced as Jesse "the Bachelor" Palmer.
-Palmer announced that he is most excited about the Big East and all of their potential teams that could go undefeated and get into the National Championship game: Louisville, West Virginia, Rutgers, Southern Florida... Yes, he did in fact say he was excited for Southern Florida's chances at getting into the National Championship game.
-Palmer rounded out his excellent commentary by calling Michigan's coach David Carr. Yes, his career with the Texans was so bad, he decided to pack it in and coach.

The summary of my previous thoughts is Jesse Palmer is a douche.

Overall, the show was really exciting. College football is my favorite sport and I now live in one of the top 5 College Football cities. You know it's a college football town when you see Kirk Herbstreet's face planted on the side of a Vitamin Water truck. The excitement here is palpable and students don't come back for another 2 weeks. The sad thing for me is that college football team is my second least favorite team (behind Nebraska).

Fantasy Trades

Assuming you have the second set of players on your team, would you accept the following trades?

1. Donovan McNabb and Terrell Owens for Tom Brady and Larry Fitzgerald
2. Willie Parker and LJ Smith for Joseph Addai (your starting TE is Chris Cooley)
3. Carson Palmer and Cadillac Williams for Donovan McNabb and Willie Parker (this was the bs counter offer I received)
4. Brandon Jacobs for Lee Evans (the trade I may propose to Mike)
5. Calvin Johnson for Marques Colston (the trade I may propose to Kevin)
6. Brian Westbrook and Jason Witten for Joseph Addai (your starting TE is Dallas Clark)
7. Brian Westbrook and Vernon Davis for Joseph Addai (same situation, different TE)
8. Tony Romo and Frank Gore and Calvin Johnson for Peyton Manning (your #3 WR is Anthony Gonzales, your RBs are Edgerrin James and Fred Taylor, and your other QB is Steve McNair)
9. Philip Rivers and Marvin Harrison for Tom Brady and Braylon Edwards (your other WRs are Steve Smith and Torry Holt, your other QB is Matt Leinart)
10. Tony Romo for Eli Manning

MSU Football

Fuck them. We get a new coach and all of a sudden they are trying to revitalize the program. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for that. The revitalization I am looking for will be seen on the field with their improved effort. Not through some lame overhyped marketing promo for season tickets http://adcsquad.com/msu/fb/wearespartans/index2.html

Why am I so pissed with the football program then? In my attempt to find tickets for the MSU/OSU football game for the center of our semi-planned reunion, I discovered away game tickets are available to season ticketholders only. They should be honored that they have fans willing to drop $30-$40 to watch their crappy program hundreds of miles away from East Lansing. They can hardly get a home field advantage in East Lansing. (Remember the sea of scarlet chanting OH-IO during last year's game at Spartan Stadium?) Never fear, my dad's friend is a season ticketholder who will most definitely not be interested in treking down to Columbus, so we still should be able to get tickets... details to come.

I did come across this, which completely made my day, however unlikely it may be. If they wanted to create a marketing campaign, this is what they should have done. Credit unknown.

The Return: Why Soccer is Better

ok, I'm back. I may not post too often, but it will be fun to discuss sports again with you guys. I'm going to start by delivering Kevin with his soccer post I promised over a year ago.

Stadium Experience
I have a much better perspective on the subject now, as I have actually gone to a live soccer game. The experience seemed much more intimate since you can sit closer to the field (for less money). I really enjoyed the die hards that were chanting and drumming. I did not enjoy the people throwing streamers at the opposing goalie -while it was funny, it took 3-4 times before security kicked the person out. What was worse, every time the Crew scored, the team launched confetti that blew over the entire opposing goal. That kind of overcelebration and indirect taunting doesn't belong in sports. The final aspect of the stadium experience - the "promo squad" - was dull. They halftime dance team's routine doesn't come off well when done in the middle of a wide open field and the fan contest lacked imagination.

Game Play
They don't score much. There's two sides to it - boring because of the low scores and frequent ties, exciting when someone actually scores. I don't mind the low scoring so much, but I don't like the 1-0 games or the ties. What I do like is that the game will end after 90 minutes, plus an extra minute or two of "stoppage time", which in my opinion is handed out arbitratily. It seemed like the perfect amount of soccer. Baseball can drag on for over 3 hours too frequently. Plus, the running clock avoids the lull that baseball has between innings and during pitching changes. I can't go much deeper into the game, because I don't understand it enough myself. Put the ball in the net, but don't crowd around it like every 5 year old's game.

Intangibles
To really enjoy soccer, you can't limit yourself to MLS. You have to look at EPL (impressed that I used the acronym?) or at the World Cup. As I said before, the deep rooted rivalries among countries is still alive in soccer, unlike in the Olympics. There's a reason why it's one of the most popular sports among kids. The problem in America with the sport is that there aren't enough people that stay attached to the sport and continue that interest into watching it professionally. It is possible that, slowly, the MLS will give kids athletes to be awed by and will gradually peak more and more people's interest. Much like Jose Canseco both gave birth to and temporarily destroyed my interest in baseball. Sadly, hockey is leaving that door open for them to creep into the #4 slot in America's sports pasttimes.