5 Suggestions for the Cubs

By Jared

There are only three teams with less wins than the cursed Cubs in the progressing MLB season and any true fan can’t help but expect it to get worse. As we all know, it always gets worse for the Cubs. Now, I can’t go back to the NL Championship against Florida and blame Bartman but I do have a few suggestions for Jim Hendry and the Cubs organization. In descending order:

1. Spend more money. The Cubs are owned by a billion dollar media conglomorate and their fans have never stopped coming out to Wrigley, even though they haven’t won in half a century. Cubs jersey sales and merchandise are among the highest in any professional sport. The North Siders still have more die hard fans than the South Siders, yet the Sox have $8 million more in payroll. They had a chance three years ago to get Vlad Guerrero and opted only for Maddux. They have the cash, they just need to spend it.

2. Keep your pitchers healthy in the off season. I’m not sure if they do but they really should require their out-of-shape pitchers to do something in the off season. Over the last five years they have had the most injuries to their rotation, more than any other notable team. Maybe there is nothing they can do but it seems like a pro ball club could implement some kind of workout program for the young staff to take part in instead of tearing muscles in their arms.

3. Make a big trade. They need to change things up a bit. I like what they did in the off season by getting Jacque Jones and Juan Pierre but what they need to do is send Wood or Prior packing. Maybe even put Aramis Ramirez on the block. I don’t pretend to be a GM but a big trade could be a substitute shake-up instead of firing manager Dusty Baker.

4. If they fire anybody, it should be Jim Hendry. You can’t blame anyone for the injuries this season but if you must, start at the top of the pyramid. Baker may be out after this year anyway and face it, there won’t be any turn around substantial enough to overcome a 14 game deficit in the NL Central. So maybe give Ol’ Hendry one more year to get it turned around. I know they just extended his contract but it’s worth bringing in someone without attachments to the current roster to maybe turn things upside down.

5. Give Michael Barrett a raise for punching AJ Pierzynski. Now he just needs to beat the crap out of the rest of the hitters on the team. Maybe then the second lowest scoring team in the League can get their heads on straight.

Jun 01, 2006 • Sports

• • • MS • • •

Paterno’s Words Reportedly Misread

By Mike

On the eve of the Orange Bowl between Penn State and Florida State, the ever resilient Joe Paterno was asked about the suspension of a Florida State linebacker, A.J. Nicholson, over an alleged sexual assault. Paterno replied, “There’s some tough — there’s so many people gravitating to these kids. He may not have even known what he was getting into, Nicholson. They knock on the door; somebody may knock on the door; a cute girl knocks on the door. What do you do?”

“Geez. I hope — thank God they don’t knock on my door because I’d refer them to a couple of other rooms,” Paterno continued. “But that’s too bad. You hate to see that. I really do. You like to see a kid end up his football career. He’s a heck of a football player, by the way; he’s a really good football player. And it’s just too bad.”

The National Organization for Women, or NOW, has demanded that Paterno step down from his post of 40 years stating that his comments were deemed inapporpriate and claiming that his statements endorsed rape and sexual assault.

Paternor replied by telling ESPN.com, “Most people know me. I am what I am, I had no intention … it was taken out of context. Having said that, they have every right to do what they want to do.” He also stated, “If my kids calls for [my resignation], if my squad calls for it … but when people don’t know what they’re doing are looking for publicity or trying to give publicity to their cause or looking for some sort of scapegoat, no, it doesn’t bother me.”

Penn State officials have said that Paterno made the statement in the larger context of bowl game distractions, rather than an endorsement of sexual misconduct. However advocates from NOW have continued to volley verbal assaults on the venerable Paterno.

Hopefully the situation can be resolved for the old ball coach, and I’m not entirely convinced that his statements were intended as NOW claims, but we’ll find out soon enough.

Jan 11, 2006 • Sports

• • • MS • • •

Tis The Season To Go Bowling

By Jared

Continuing on this beaten path of Bowl bid talk, here are the actual BCS Bowls.

Rose Bowl (Championship)
USC (12-0) v. Texas (12-0)

Not even the BCS could’ve gotten this match-up wrong.

Fiesta Bowl
Notre Dame (9-2) v. Ohio State (9-2)

Two at large teams were picked for this game for one reason: to make some money. Easily the second best BCS Bowl pairing.

Orange Bowl
Florida State (7-4) v. Penn State (10-1)

The flaw of having automatic bids is that FSU gets in to a BCS bowl and Oregon gets left out. One play against Michigan and PSU could’ve really rattled the BCS system.

Sugar Bowl
West Virginia (10-1) v. Georgia (10-2)

Georgia was the best team in the SEC and West Virginia hasn’t gotten the respect they deserve. What happened to Alabama?

Some other notable bowls that should be interesting:

Champs Sports Bowl
Clemson v. Colorado

MPC Computers Bowl
Boston College v. Boise State

Alamo Bowl
Michigan v. Nebraska

Holiday Bowl
Oregon v. Oklahoma

Peach Bowl
Miami v. LSU

Cotton Bowl
Texas Tech v. Alabama

Capital One Bowl
Wisconsin v. Auburn

Gator Bowl
Louisville v. Virginia Tech

Let’s hear some predictions on the BCS bowl games. Maybe we could get a pool going on just the BCS games, with spreads and all.

Dec 05, 2005 • Sports

• • • MS • • •

Who’s Playing in What Bowls?

By Jared

I was just curious to see what you all thought about how the BCS Bowls will play out. Here are my guesses:

Rose Bowl (National Championship)
USC vs. Texas

Barring any disasters.

Fiesta Bowl
Ohio State vs. West Virginia

Orange Bowl
Penn State vs. Notre Dame

Sugar Bowl
Virgina Tech vs. LSU

I’m not really sure how the conference championships play into this, if say, the Big 12 champ West Virginia has to play in a certain bowl or not.

Post your predictions.

Nov 30, 2005 • Sports

• • • MS • • •

The BCS BS

By Jared

As a complete fanatic over college football, one wishes that a formula, more complicated than the US tax code, didn’t decide what two teams get to play for the Championship.

Bowl games are great. In no way should college football axe the bowl games. They make college football, college football. Plus they contribute monetarily to the schools that play, so they’re good for the program. But this BCS garbage, it’s crazy. Trying to understand the formula is like trying to speak Mandarin Chinese. In fact, it would be no surprise if China authored the extreme equation.

Figured into determining the number one and two teams in the Nation goes something like this. There are six computer rankings that average out a number between 1-25. This number is used as the computer average in the BCS and carries 1/3 of the weight of the BCS ranking.

Next are two human polls. The Harris Interactive Poll and the USA Today/Coaches Poll. Both accounting for 1/3 of the BCS ranking. Each assigns a numerical ranking to the top 25 teams in reverse order of the votes. For example: USC gets voted number 1 they get 25 points.

The problem is the computer rankings look at an enormous amount of variables including points scored, margin of victory, and yards gained. Now, if a team with a tough schedule loses one game but a team with cupcakes outside of the conference schedule loses none, and wins by considerably more points, the computers don’t know the difference. So their data is skewed. With the two polls, both human voted polls, the members are people who know college football but don’t necessarily have the time to analyze all the teams. Coaches of teams who vote in the USA Today poll have full time jobs and rely on what they see on highlight shows to cast their votes. The Harris Poll has members who were coaches, players, and sports writers. Notre Dame’s Athletic Director Kevin White helped to select the voters out of the 300 nominees.

Seems like there is some bias in the process of selecting the two teams to vie for the National Championship at the end of the year.

What are the alternatives though?

Nov 14, 2005 • Sports

• • • MS • • •

World Series Update

By Jared

When it comes to baseball, I’m a Cubs fan through and through. I nearly had a hernia when the debacle took place in 2003 as they dropped three in a row to the Marlins to lose the series. So when it comes to this year’s World Series, I am rooting against the White Sox. Just because all the sad memories will be revisited as the jokes come out about how at least one Chicago team can win.

But it doesn’t seem like it’s going to make a difference. The series is early but it does look as though the Sox can’t be beat. The Astros don’t have the offensive power, Bagwell and Biggio are aged while Berkman, Lamb, and Lane aren’t stepping up to the plate (that was a terrible pun; for Ward’s sake). Meanwhile the White Sox can’t seem to do anything wrong. Their pitching is stellar, both starting and relief, and guys who didn’t hit any HR’s during the regular season are hitting walk-offs in the World Series.

As a Cub fan however, I sit back and try to be optimistic, as we always are. The Red Sox won last year to quench their drought and now the White Sox are in the position to end their famine of faux pas. Maybe next year will be the year the Cubs do the same so the cycle can reset and the teams can have another 50 plus years to look forward to being upset come October.

Oct 24, 2005 • Sports

• • • MS • • •

Top Hartford Football Contests

By Jared

I just decided to make a new thread since I figured everyone would comment on this. Hope this organizes it a little better for everyone so other people know what we’re talking about.

I have a few games I thought were great.

First I’ll start with while I was in school. Scott mentioned that Watervliet game in 1999. It was full of energy and renewed our rivalry with our neighbors. I remember Jeff Holland catching that 32 and go pass from Pruiett for like 80 yards to retake the lead I think. Seeing Jeff sprinting with his tiny arms under those shoulder pads was classic, I was jumping up and down.

The Coloma game that year was pretty good too. That was when Tank or Dozer or whatever his name was, he was a junior. It was at Coloma and we beat them by like 2 or 3. But Decatur that year was awesome, even though we lost 6-0. It was all defensive, hard fought, in the trenches type of game.

I won’t mention the next season. Sorry. “For the fallen heroes.”

2001 and 2002: Pretty much blew out every team in conference. Of course there was the double overtime thriller with Decatur in 01 and the loss to Coloma the next week. The 02 debacle against Decatur, that was a terrible game. We should’ve destroyed them but we went in with an embarrassing game plan for that game.

I tried to think of more games that I remembered being close but I couldn’t really do it, not regular season anyway. With the exception of Decatur, we never were really challenged, until recently. I can remember in like 94 us losing to Watervliet then beating LMC in a great game. Maybe 98 or 97 we had a good game against Galien actually. A really good playoff game was in 95 against Union City when we lost 7-6 because Ricky Ricardo missed that extra point and the ref said Winans didn’t break the plain on that QB sneak. That was a cold day.

Oct 19, 2005 • Nostalgia, Sports

• • • MS • • •

BCS Rankings

By Mike

Its that time again. Anyone ready for some more controversy, cause I know I can’t wait?

Oct 18, 2005 • Sports

• • • MS • • •

USC, Michigan Win

By Mike

USC at Notre Dame

Billed as one of the best games of the season, and hyped up all week long, this one lived up to all expectations and more as this game will probably end up going down as one of the greatest in the USC and ND rivalry.

Notre Dame and USC traded punts early in the first quarter. After USC punted to Notre Dame, Brady Quinn got brushed and threw an errant pass that got intercepted at the 40 yard line and returned for 10 yards to the 50. One play later, the scoring got started when Reggie Bush took it to the endzone after leaping over one defender for a 36 yard touchdown run. USC went on top 7-0.

USC kicked off to Notre Dame, and the on ensuing possession Notre Dame ran a couple of plays that were hardly memorable. On fourth and one (I think it was one, all I know is that it was short) Weis made the decision to go for it deep in their own territory. Notre Dame converted, and took the ball the rest of the way down the field. Travis Thomas took it in on a nice 16 yard run to tie it up at 7-7.

USC responded relatively quickly by scoring about a minute later after 3 plays on a Lendale White 3 yard run up the middle to bring the Trojans on top again, 14-7.

Notre Dame wasted little time and responded with a 10 play 75 yard drive. Brady Quinn threw a beautiful 32 yard pass to Jeff Samardzija to tie it up at 14-14.

USC got the ball, but went three and out. Time to punt. What happened next really got my attention.

USC punted the ball to Tom Zbikowski and after several great blocks during the run had returned the punt 60 yards for a touchdown to put the Irish on top 21-14 and the score would stay that way for the rest of the first half.

Whoa, already I’m going crazy. I’m starting to think that Notre Dame is going to pull off one of the greatest upsets I’ve ever seen in my life and beat the team that started out in such dominating fashion early in the season.

Alright, so the second half begins, and the Trojans get the ball after a an Irish three and out. Reggie Bush takes it in untouched from 45 yards out on a beautifully blocked run up the middle, putting him over the century yard mark for the fifth straight game and tying the game at 21-21.

Notre Dame drives the ball several possessions later hit a 32 yard field goal to go on top 24-21.

With five minutes left in the fourth quarter, Reggie Bush (have you heard that name enough?) takes it in from 9 yards out to put the Trojans on top 28-24.

The Irish take the ball on their next possession and drive 87 yards to go on top 31-28 after Brady Quinn dives into the endzone from 5 yards with 2 minutes remaining. Irish fans were going crazy.

Ok, USC gets the ball. After a few botched plays and penalties, the Trojans end up with a fourth and 9 at their own 26. True to his Heisman winning heritage, Leinart threw a nice, almost perfect, 62 yard pass over a defensive back to Jarret to convert and set up the Trojans in scoring distance. Leinart then drops back to pass, but has no one open and tries to run it in, but gets hit at the one and has the ball come loose and go out of bounds. In error the game clock ticks down to zero and Notre Dame and her fans think they’ve just won the game. They rush the field and everyone goes wild. The referees have to clear the field, and put 7 seconds back on the clock. Trojan ball, 1st and goal at the one yard line.

Leinart calls his own number and after a lumbering spin move as well as the assistance of Reggie Bush, punches it in from one yard out to put the Trojans on top for good 34-31. In the span of only a few seconds the Irish go from winning the game to losing a heartbreaker. I couldn’t believe what I had just seen, and I figured it would be close, but not this close.

I thought that whoever could pass on who would be the team to win, but in the end, it was the running of Reggie Bush that gave the Trojans any chance to win. Sure the heroics of Leinart were huge, but other than his 301 yards passing and one yard touchdown run, he had a relatively un-Leinart like day having no passing touchdowns and two interceptions.

Even though I’m not a Notre Dame fan and I was rooting for USC, I felt like ND played the better game. They made plays on special teams, defense, and on offense when they needed it the most and they just dominated time of possession. Except for that final drive, the Irish won the game in my book. But the ending is what makes champions champions. I loved the win, and putting the time back on the clock was the right thing to do. However, the win somehow feels tainted.

What an unbelievable game.

Penn State at Michigan

I didn’t get a chance to enjoy this thriller of a Michigan victory, but I knew the Maize and Blue weren’t nearly as bad as their record indicated.

This one came down to the final second. On a fourth and four, Michigan’s Chad Henne threw a touchdown to Manningham in the back of the endzone to put the Wolverines on top 27-25. Wolverine fans everywhere went crazy.

I’ve seen the highlights of this one, and I love it. A huge win at the Big House.

This weekend had a lot of amazing college football. Too bad I have to watch the NFL on Sunday.

Oct 16, 2005 • Sports

• • • MS • • •

USC at Notre Dame

By Mike

I’m not what you would call a sports statistics buff. If you needed statistics for any purpose whatsoever, you probably wouldn’t come to me. I know just enough about the sport of football statistically and historically to get by, but I would never wow you with my ability to call up the rushing yardage of any random player.

Unfortunately, for you the reader, I’m going to try to figure out who will win this game. I mean, I know in my mind that USC is the better team from an athletic standpoint. They’ve got speady backs (Bush, White) and receivers, and a pretty good quarterback in Leinart.

BUT
They had fallen behind in two of their last three games before they even had a chance to score.

At Oregon they were down by 13 points before they fired off 45 unanswered points (W 45-13). I guess this one wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been. It was a nice, large margin of victory.

However, two weeks ago against Arizona State they were down 21-3 at the half; a lamentable position for any team to overcome. They eventually came back and scored 21 unanswered points to take the lead, but fell behind before scoring two more touchdowns to take the win right out of Arizona State’s collective mouth. (W 38-28) (Take a look at Arizona State’s record after losing to Oregon. They look a lot like Michigan, yet they’re still ranked.)

So What?
What does any of that mean? It makes me wonder if USC’s defense can stop Brady Quinn and the Irish and can the Irish stop the very potent Trojan rushing attack?

What this game comes down to in my book, which is a very limited book of sports, is who can pass on who. I’m going to go with USC on this, they just have too many weapons for the porous Irish secondary to overcome (They give up over 300 yards a game).

One other usually important factor is the running back factory that USC is running right now. They have two powerful weapons in White and Bush, who both have over 600 yards rushing. If they cannot be stopped, we might not see Leinart at all, and boy wouldn’t that be some good football? I love a powerful rushing attack.

Of course everyone is talking about that 31 point difference USC has won by the past few years, but I don’t think it’ll be a factor. ND isn’t going to be shocked and awed into submission this year, Weis is too good a coach to let his team think that way.

Again, I’m just throwing some numbers and ideas out there; I really don’t know what I’m talking about, but watch the game, it’ll probably be a good one for a few quarters.

USC 45 – ND 35

Don’t miss this one.

Location: South Bend
Game Time: 3:30 ET NBC

Oct 12, 2005 • Sports

• • • MS • • •