Baseball season started earlier than ever this year (I think the date is earlier, I know the 6:05 EST first pitch was early), following the trend set by Fat Tuesday and Easter (ironically, my New Year's was an hour later than usual.)
Much wailing and gnashing of teeth towards DirectTV who decided that giving me a consistent signal of ESPN and ESPNews was fine, but not ESPN2 which was carrying the game.
So basically, I woke up at 5:45am to follow a baseball game online.
I was all set to have a pre-7am beer too.
The overall verdict?
A win is a win is a win.
I will tell myself that often, so as to not fret about Dice-K nearly shitting the bed in the first inning, Papelbon looking decidedly un-Papelbon-ish, Big Papi going hitless, and Kyle Synder still pitching like he was on the Royals.
In the meantime, Jacoby Ellsbury can fly, literally, Manny is still Manny, and Brandon Moss...welcome to the bigs.
Baseball season just started and the Sox are in 1st place in the AL East.
Skipping over to the not-yet-playing-games-that-count National League...I'm cautiously optimistic about the Braves this season.
Last year they had a very good offense (once they added Texiera) and that figures to be true this season as well (yep, going out on a limb and predicting they don't miss Andruw Jones' 2007 production) but were stuck with Tim Hudson and John Smoltz as their only good pitchers, plus a deranged mess of a bullpen.
The bullpen may be better (it's certainly less David Wellsian in size), but the starting pitching could be vastly improved. If Mike Hampton can somehow be not the Mike Hampton of the past couple seasons (Viz. injured and not pitching) and Jair Jurgens can continue being surprisingly badass...suddenly the Braves have a really good starting rotation. Sure, no one's going to be Johan Santana...but the Mets don't have #4/#5 starters like say, Hampton, Glavine or Jurgens either. And over 162 games a good #1-5 trumps a great #1 each time.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Thursday, January 10, 2008
On Second Thought, Maybe No One Wants to Win It All
So the BCS bowl announcement should be on FOX soon (it's 7:30 pm EST right now...in the background I have sadly unmuted the annoying smugness that is Joe Buck, hoping that Rex Grossman and/or Eli Manning will hurry up and choke the game away).
Yesterday the #1 and #2 teams lost. UGA was #4.
Odds are, UGA doesn't play for the title.
You know what? I'm actually ok with that.
I said Nebraska didn't belong in 2001, and neither did OU in 2003. Of course both those teams also LOST their last game prior to the bowl, whereas UGA hasn't lost since the first weekend in October, something none of the other contenders for the BCS title can say.
But 11-2 and an SEC title trumps 10-2 and no SEC title in my book. Even though I think LLes Miles is an idiot and horrible public speaker (oh, and the misspelling of his first name is intention, given the number of Ls he gets per year.)
So my take is LSU sort of kind of deserves to be in the game.
Who doesn't? The Buckeyes.
Don't tell that to ESPN, who treated an Ohio State University in the title game as fait accompli from about halftime of the Big 12 title game on.
Of particularly crappy journalistic note was Kirk Herbstreit, who it should be noted played QB for anOSU in the early 90s, suddenly doing an about face from last year's politicking. He had no issue with a Michigan team, that just lost it's last game AND didn't win its conference, playing anOSU team again. But suddenly this year, everything's changed, and LSU's conference title mean's more than UGA's being previously ranked higher in the standings.
I'm not saying Herbie's biased, but it'd be nice if they put "Kirk Herbstreit, ESPN Analyst and former Ohio State QB" whenever he's on tv.
And the inconsistencies in reasoning bugs me.
UGA doesn't play and is penalized for it. AnOSU doesn't play and moves up.
LSU wins a conference title and moves up a lot. OU beats the #1 ranked team--by a large margin--and moves up, but only a little.
The worst possible scenario--a Hawaii-Kansas matchup--won't happen. I think.
But the best--and at this point I think it's an LSU-OU match up--won't either, because too many jacklegs at ESPN think Ohio State is the shit, despite:
1. No wins over a currently ranked team (vs. several other contenders having multiple wins over currently ranked teams.
2. Losing to the best team they played (a 9-3 Illinois team--in the Horsehoe--that was dismantled at a neutral site by Missouri).
3. Playing in the Big 10, which for this year at least, is one hell of a shitty conference if you go by the out-of-conference schedule. Sure, the Pac-10 had teams lose to Notre Dame, but Northwester lost to the only team Notre Dame whipped, Duke.
And worse, those old, tradition-loving Big 10 fans at the Rose Bowl will screw the public and UGA out of a game that could be better than the tile--USC-UGA--by selecting Illinois to keep "Tradition" alive. Leaving UGA playing Hawaii, who is overrated.
Bah.
On second thought, blow it up: Kansas-Hawaii for the title.
I almost feel like I've watched too much college football yesterday anyway (probably because I was semi-bed ridden and feverish all day, and watched the Big 12 title because I felt too sick to go to an OPEN BAR company Christmas party. Yeah, being sick on the weekend sucks.)
Yesterday the #1 and #2 teams lost. UGA was #4.
Odds are, UGA doesn't play for the title.
You know what? I'm actually ok with that.
I said Nebraska didn't belong in 2001, and neither did OU in 2003. Of course both those teams also LOST their last game prior to the bowl, whereas UGA hasn't lost since the first weekend in October, something none of the other contenders for the BCS title can say.
But 11-2 and an SEC title trumps 10-2 and no SEC title in my book. Even though I think LLes Miles is an idiot and horrible public speaker (oh, and the misspelling of his first name is intention, given the number of Ls he gets per year.)
So my take is LSU sort of kind of deserves to be in the game.
Who doesn't? The Buckeyes.
Don't tell that to ESPN, who treated an Ohio State University in the title game as fait accompli from about halftime of the Big 12 title game on.
Of particularly crappy journalistic note was Kirk Herbstreit, who it should be noted played QB for anOSU in the early 90s, suddenly doing an about face from last year's politicking. He had no issue with a Michigan team, that just lost it's last game AND didn't win its conference, playing anOSU team again. But suddenly this year, everything's changed, and LSU's conference title mean's more than UGA's being previously ranked higher in the standings.
I'm not saying Herbie's biased, but it'd be nice if they put "Kirk Herbstreit, ESPN Analyst and former Ohio State QB" whenever he's on tv.
And the inconsistencies in reasoning bugs me.
UGA doesn't play and is penalized for it. AnOSU doesn't play and moves up.
LSU wins a conference title and moves up a lot. OU beats the #1 ranked team--by a large margin--and moves up, but only a little.
The worst possible scenario--a Hawaii-Kansas matchup--won't happen. I think.
But the best--and at this point I think it's an LSU-OU match up--won't either, because too many jacklegs at ESPN think Ohio State is the shit, despite:
1. No wins over a currently ranked team (vs. several other contenders having multiple wins over currently ranked teams.
2. Losing to the best team they played (a 9-3 Illinois team--in the Horsehoe--that was dismantled at a neutral site by Missouri).
3. Playing in the Big 10, which for this year at least, is one hell of a shitty conference if you go by the out-of-conference schedule. Sure, the Pac-10 had teams lose to Notre Dame, but Northwester lost to the only team Notre Dame whipped, Duke.
And worse, those old, tradition-loving Big 10 fans at the Rose Bowl will screw the public and UGA out of a game that could be better than the tile--USC-UGA--by selecting Illinois to keep "Tradition" alive. Leaving UGA playing Hawaii, who is overrated.
Bah.
On second thought, blow it up: Kansas-Hawaii for the title.
I almost feel like I've watched too much college football yesterday anyway (probably because I was semi-bed ridden and feverish all day, and watched the Big 12 title because I felt too sick to go to an OPEN BAR company Christmas party. Yeah, being sick on the weekend sucks.)
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