Recently in sports Category

During the last year, I've done virtually NO sports posts, which is very unrepresentative of me and my daily life, where I watch games, expecially college BB during March. I just saw this "Experts" pick page, and they all missed the final four. Exactly ONE person on this list picked ONE team correctly: the editor, Andy Glockner, who wasn't even pictured. They ALL picked Duke, which I had thought was quite predictable, and thry lost to the one teamto which they all SHOULD have been paying attention, LSU, because of their ferocious defense and rebounding, and they did a number on Duke on both counts. Their other favorite, UConn, barely escaped Kentucky (and perhaps a THIRD SEC team, given thast the way to the final four AFTER the 1 vs 8 second round battle between Ky and UConn was relatively easy (if you count George Mason as "easy"; but still, I gotta belive that a Ky-George Mason game was "winnable" for Ky, although it most likely would have been a barn burner as well. GM seems to have caught something.

Anyway, 2 SEC teams in is pretty cool for someone who follows Ky. I'm REALLY rooting for an LSU-Florida matchup in the final. The last "conference game" in NCAA final history? I'll have to look it up.

ESPN.com - NCB/NCAATOURNEY06 - ESPN.com expert Final Four predictions

ESPN.com experts: UConn's the heavy favorite

An interesting article about Baseball Fan Blogs

A blog for baseball fans builds a league of sites | CNET News.com

Da Reds! Opening day comeback against the Mets! Wooohoo!

As you might could tell, I love NCAA basketball. (I am NOT in any way much of an NBA fan. I rarely watch it prior to the playoffs, and there I tend to watch only the semis and finals, but not even all of those games.

With NCAA, I watch every minute of every Kentucky game (when I don't forget when they're playing. Sometimes my brain goes on one track, like one Saturday last December I got up late, got my coffee and started blogging, and the next thing I knew my Dad was calling me and said "They had it all along". I said "What?" Then it hit me. It was about 2:00, and I had missed the entire Kentucky-Louisville game, which had been won by Kentucky on 3 three throws with a half second left (Patrick Sparks had been fouled on a three-point attempt just before the buzzer was about to sound).

Anyway, All three of my teams, my favorite (UK) and my former favorites (Louisville and Cincinnati) won their opening round games, UK and Cinci met (69-60 Kentucky, which I watched tape delayed since I was both nervous, and a bit down at the end of the day after the 2 year mark of the Iraq war, and felt that getting all excited about a basketball game would have been too strange a mix of emotions. So, feeling drained, I put in a VHS tape and went to bed at about 8:00 and kept the TV off from 7:00 on. At about 9:15, I woke up and decided to check the score ---I was thinking it would be over. But there was 7 minutes left and it was 58-55 Kentucky. So I turned it back off and waited for another 20 minutes. I saw the score flash across the top as they were already switched over to W.Va-WakeForest who were about to go into overtime.)

Kentucky plays Utah tonight. Louisville won their sweet 16 game and will play West Virginia, who beat Texas Tech. Louisville and Kentucky would only meet in the Championship game. That's what I had happening in my bracket. I had Louisville beating Illinois in the final 4, and Kentucky beating (whoops: Florida. They were a disappointment after entering the NCAA hot off an SEC tourney championship and beating Kentucky the final game of the regular season in Florida. They had risen out of the ashes from unranked to 18 as they entered the tourney with a 4 seed. So I had to pick them since they had downed Kentucky twice on consecutive Sundays. They barely won their game with 13 seed Ohio after blowing an 18 point lead in the second half. Then Villanova shut down Roberson completely, and held Walsh down as well, and Lee fouled out after scoring 20 points, and beat them by 12. Now 'Nova gets Carolina (as in North).

I was shocked that Louisville, ranked #4 in the country, would get a 4 seed. They just dominated the 1 seed, Washington, that seemingly got the seed by being the only Western team anywhere close to the elite teams. Washington is a good team (87 points a game), but Louisville was seriously disrespected. They won the game 93-79. They took over from point where it iwas 32-31 Washington, and the next time the Huskies could take a breath, it was 50-36 Louisville.

I used to be a UL fan, from 1979 until the early 90's, when I went to an SEC tourney in 93 with my Dad and brothers, and Kentucky won and went to the final four, then won the championship in 96 and 98 (and runner up in 97). I was in Louisville at Seminary 1978-81, so this is when I got hooked on Louisville (Darrell Griffith was the big star, All-American. I often wonder what he would have benefitted from the 3 pointer (not in use yet), becuase he could really light it up from outside, but he was a definite POWER GUARD as well, often faking the outside jumper and then driving and slamming it home. The three may have dissuaded him from taking the driving route as much. Who knows? When we moved to Cincinnati in 1985, the Cincinnati Bearcats were just about to hire Bob Huggins, and start their return to prominence. When they went to the final four in 92, I was really into it. They lost to the Fab Five of Michigan when the fab were all freshmen in that final four. (The fab 5 were to lose two straight championship games that year and the next--- the next year it was Kentucky they beat in the final four to get to the final, so I was no fab five fan. In 96, Cincinnati was back in the hunt, and lost to MIssisippi State, who had beaten Kentucky in the SEC tourney championship game for Kentucky's second loss of the season. If they had beaten Miss.St. and then met Syracuse (who had just beaten Louisville), they could well have beaten Syracuse and met Kentucky in the final (or Mississippi State could have met Kentucky again in the NCAA final. Syracuse and Raschid Wallace won the games though, and then Kentucky won the final.

That trio of favorite teams of mine, Louisville , Cincinnati, and Kentucky, is an absolute rarity, since all three of those teams fan bases hate the other two teams like they hate no others (at least the hatred for Kentucky is pretty rabid among Cincinnati fans and Louisville fans --- and Louisville's coach , Pittino, of course, took Kentucky to an elite 8, a final four, and 2 championship games)

Anyway, it was fun seeing Cincinnati and Kentucky play for the first time since 90. This time, there was no problem pulling for UK. I'm died in the wool now after 12 years of hard rooting. But I still relish the matchups between UK and Louisville or Cincinnati.

I have spent a fair amount of time looking for a download of the Kentucky-Louisville game from this past December. I am somewhat shocked that it is nowhere. In fact, sports are relatively rare, which is wierd, given how many fantasy players and sports fans there are. It almost verifies the idea that geeks are not sports fans. There are some who are not, but I am just shocked that more College basketball hgames aren't shared amongst the fandom.

If anybody has seen one, or could make it available, that would be great.

A call CANOT be reversed unles there is IRREFUTABLE evidence in the replay that the call that was made was wrong. They just reversed a call on the field the Titans still lead 17-3, but it cost them the 3, becuase a ball that was intercepted in the end zone was ruled incomplete on a VERY un-conclusive replay. That's what burns me about these guys. It was POSSIBLE that the ball hit the ground, but in NO WAY certain or obvious. Unbelieveable.

The refs blew it in Nashville today. The Titan's Derrick Mason caught the ball IN THE END ZONE, the Colts defender stripped it away and they gave the Colts the ball as a touchback. Physically impossible. Once the ball is caught in the end zone, even if the defender also has his hands on the ball, the catch is good, and they are in the End Zone, it is a TOUCHDOWN. At that point, the play is over. No change of posession can happen. The Play is over. Jeff Fisher blew it by not challenging the play. I don't get it. The rip-away was a rip-OFF, and the refs missed it.

After reaching their pinnacle of 12 games over 500 back on Jun 7, The Reds have descended in an up and down manner, but clearly downward, toward the Pirates in the cellar, and are in the process of losing 2 of 3 to the Pirates at home (and if it weren't for a heroic grandslam Friday night by Pena, they would have been swept.)
After June 7th, the Reds lost 7 in a row, took 3 straight from Texas (bouncing back, right? ) then lost 3 of the next 4, then won 3 in a row again, before dropping the last two games 1-0 (wasting a rare good pitching perfomance by the bullpen) and now are getting rocked 13-3, the seond straight bad outing for Paul Wilson, who was 7-0 with at least three other wins blown by the bullpen.....is now 7-2. Phil Norton and Mike Matthews, the Reds lefties in the bullpen (now they have Gabe white, who is a legitimate pitcher), need to be let go. They have been pounded time in and time out, and Norton has wildness to go with his inability to make key stops for an already worn out Reds bullpen. When you can't take at least 2 of 3 from the cellar teams AT HOME, where they had played well all year, it looks like a downward trend. And add to that Sean Casey leaving the game with a tight hamstring. Those are always scary, especially when you consider the Red's MVP this getting slowed down. Not looking good at all.

I finally decided to try a one-day pass to MLB TV at MLB.com, since they advertised a Reds-Astros game as available tonight. I sat down to watch it, and "Whaaaa??" Blacked out! I'm in Nashville, TN. The game is in Cincinnati. I waqtch Reds-Cubs games that are in Cioncinnati, Reds-Braves games, ESPN games....never blacked out. Go figure. MLB.com strikes out again.

I don't know about others, but from the almost complete absence of "people I know" who actually pay for this stuff at these prices, I assume that MLB's attempts to make a business out of offering "online MLB live games" has been a dismal failure. I used to listen to WLW via their website, now MLB doesn't allow them to do so. They want to charge $14.95 to listen to the games , and a whopping 14.95 a month for video.

Now I'm a huge baseball fan. But something just doesn't work for me here It seems they need more "try before you buy", on ALL features, and make this available every month (like 1 day per feature...or 12 hours......something.) Nothing like "whetting the appetitite" for luring paying customers. It seems to me that MLB could also offer free radio broadcasts for one team, and use that avenue to market directly to baseball fanatics and also for Team focus and items of interest to THAT team (including deals on tickets for going to the games, or for subscribing to things like Extra Innnings...and vice-versa.

With me being in Nashville, and my team (the Reds) being in Cincinnati, I used to love being able to listen to the WLW radio broadcasts, and I would be doing that alongside whatever else I'm doing in my office. Now that broadband is "in", the offerings and tie-ins would be unlimited. Right now, it's all too mysterious and too steep for what we can "experience" of it.

I had thought, when I heard that they were seeding the number ones in the brackets, that they were re-seeding the final four, so that the highest remaining seed played the lowest remaining seed. Not so. They merely seeded the region's number one seeds, so that the number one nuumber one seed played the number four number one seed (which resulted in Kentucky's region pitted against St.Joe's region).

I like my original impressions better. Re-seed the final four, and let the number one overall play the lowest overall. I suppose that would put too much power in the hands of the committee. Plus, I WOULD think that since Kentucky would reap all those "benefits" this year. Oh well. So Duke did lose out on getting pitted against St. Joe's instead of Stanford by losing to Maryland. I still like that , as Kentucky fan.

I'm looking around (so far, on ESPN.com and CBS's Sportsline.com, and nobody, that I can find, is showing the times for next week's regionals semis and finals! They have to know when the games are! Where the heck are they?)

I know that Kentucky plays UAB, and the matchup between today's two winners in Milwaukee ( BC-Ga.Tech and Pacific-Kansas games) are in St. Louis. That's two games on Thursday or Friday (which is also what I want to know) and times, both night games, but who's first?

OK, I just found this on cnnsi.com:

All times EST. * -- approximate start time.

Second Round -- Saturday, March 20
Reg. Site Game Time
ATL Raleigh Duke vs. Seton Hall 1:10 p.m.
STL Seattle Nevada vs. Gonzaga 3:20 p.m.
ER Raleigh Manhattan vs. Wake Forest 3:40 p.m.
ER Buffalo Saint Joseph's vs. Texas Tech 5:30 p.m.
PHO Denver Maryland vs. Syracuse 5:40 p.m.
PHO Seattle Stanford vs. Alabama 5:50 p.m.
PHO Buffalo DePaul vs. Connecticut 8 p.m.
ATL Denver North Carolina vs. Texas 8:10 p.m.

Second Round -- Sunday, March 21
ATL Orlando Xavier vs. Mississippi State 12:10 p.m.
STL Milwaukee Boston College vs. Georgia Tech 2:15 p.m.
ER Kansas City Memphis vs. Oklahoma State 2:20 p.m.
ATL Columbus Illinois vs. Cincinnati 2:30 p.m.
PHO Orlando Vanderbilt vs. North Carolina State 2:40 p.m.
ER Milwaukee Wisconsin vs. Pittsburgh 4:45 p.m.
STL Kansas City Pacific vs. Kansas 4:50 p.m.
STL Columbus Kentucky vs. Alabama-Birmingham 5 p.m.

Regional Semifinals -- Thursday, March 25
ER E. Rutherford Saint Joseph's-Texas Tech winner vs. Manhattan-Wake Forest winner
ER E. Rutherford Memphis-Oklahoma State winner vs. Wisconsin-Pittsburgh winner
PHO Phoenix Stanford-Alabama winner vs. Maryland-Syracuse winner
PHO Phoenix Vanderbilt-North Carolina State winner vs. DePaul-Connecticut winner

Regional Semifinals -- Friday, March 26
ATL Atlanta Duke-Seton Hall winner vs. Illinois-Cincinnati winner
ATL Atlanta North Carolina-Texas winner vs. Xavier-Mississippi State winner
STL St. Louis Kentucky-Alabama-Birmingham winner vs. Pacific-Kansas winner
STL St. Louis Boston College-Georgia Tech winner vs. Nevada-Gonzaga winner

Regional Finals -- Saturday, March 27
ER E. Rutherford Semifinal winners
PHO Phoenix Semifinal winners

Regional Finals -- Sunday, March 28
ATL Atlanta Semifinal winners
STL St. Louis Semifinal winners

Final Four -- Saturday, April 3
San Antonio East Rutherford champion vs. St. Louis champion
San Antonio Atlanta champion vs. Phoenix champion

Championship -- Monday, April 5
San Antonio Final Four winners

Wow. What a first half! 60-52 at the half. Kentucky shot 60% from the field, and about the same from 3point range. trouble is, so did Florida A&M! They were fast, and they hit everything! Kentucky gives up an average of 63 points a game on defense, and here they'd surrendered 52 at the break! It didn't get much easier anytime soon. it wasn't until about halfway into the second half, when the pace of scoring slowed down dramtaically (only 11-10 Kentucky) thatKentucky began to pull away (it had closed to a 66-62 game after about 5 minutes of the second hlaf.....then I think A&M began to tire (evidenced by several wild out of control turnovers, many of them by their scoring star of the first half).

I had just said out loud to myself, "When is this going to end?" as A&M cut it to 66-62, but then it began almost immediately, and a 15-5 run made it 81-67, then another 11-2 run made it 92-69. It ended 96-76, and not even the highest scoring game of the night (UAB beat Washingtpon 102-100, in regulation time, later last night). UAB will be Kentucky's opponent tomorrow.

Jut returned from Atlanta where Kentucky, thanks to Duke's loss, grabbed the number one overall seed, and the easiest bracket according to all. While AKMA was comforted that Duke still got a #1, the difference in their winning and losing could well have been more significant than losing a #1 seed , looking at the bracket they got compared to Kentucky's. Then again, Kentucky did lose to Georgia twice this year (although they got 'em back in the SEC Tourney to stop the dogs hopes for a bid) and Vanderbilt (who got in by knocking off Mississippi State) ---- so anything can happen. But the key ingredient for Kentucky is always peaking in March, which is a good time.

Add to the above about the difference in getting number one of number ones and number two: the tourney this year is RE-seeded at the final four, which means the highesty remaining seed gets the lowest remaining seed, so any cinderella automatically gets the highest seeded remaining team. That could be huge.

My sports blogging has been almost completely nonexistent for a while. This is not any indication that my sports fan-dom has waned. I've been watching (the Titans, who lost a close one last weekend to the Patriots, and the Kentucky Wildcats, who were just terrible yesterday). I'm watcing the NFC Championship now as I read a bit in Linked: The New Science of Networks, which explores many types of Networks, and the common properties. It was interesting to see the author identify the Apostle Paul as one of the examples of an early use of networks. (Anyway, this digresses from sports--- more on Linked in a bit)

I 'm pulling for Philly, even though they've been there before (albeit 24 years ago). They've been to the NFC Championship 3 years in a row and not gotten past it yet, so I feel a bit empathetic (being a Rams fan back in the 70's and 80's, when the Rams made it to several NFC championships and seemed to lose everytime to either the Cowboys or the Vikings, but finally made it in 79)

The AFC game I was pulling for Indy, but Peyton couldn't do it quite as easily against a much stingier Pats defense (4 picks).

For the third straight year! Horrors! The Yankees DON'T win it all. (If you know me, you know I'm being sarcastic.....I LOVE seeing the fat-cats LOSE. I've actually disliked the Yankees mostly because I tend to bail from any semblance of pulling for a team once they threaten to become or renew anything that can be construed as a dynasty (except when it's my team, of course, like the Reds in the 70's. It was really gratifying in 1990 when the Reds, years removed from their former dynasty-threatening status, ended the A's run of dominance (and the A's haven't won a post season series since).
Anyway, way to go Marlins!

In an earlier post, I was commenting on the signs that said "destiny", a nd said, "Yeah right, how many times have they made it , 30, 35?" 39! Here, the word means "It's the destiny of most fans to have to endure , over and over, the same tedius, over-dramatic hype about a team with the baseball's highest payroll, who bought their pitching staff" (all except for Pettite).

Just saw Bobby Valentine say (see it on the ESPN Motion on the espn home page) , when asked if they left Pedro in too long, that "The Red Sox had a great season and Whatever Grady Little did was the right thing to do"......WHAT? OK, let's all be nice. Bull. It reminds me of the scene in Bull Durham where Crash (Kevin Costner) is telling the rookie pitcher all the "lines" and "cliches" that ballplayers and managers use....Pedro should NEVER have faced Matsui. Not with the Series on the line. No way. Then Little leaves him in to face Posada. Gimme a break.

Cubs and Red Sox; don't bother wasting energy on 'em. I did. What a total bummer. I don't mind the Marlins so much as the freakin' Yankees. The Red Sox manager blew it as badly as Baker did for the Cubs. Stayed WAY too long with Martinez; Baker did it twice, with Pryor and Wood.

I can't say I'll be re-arranging anything, or going pout of my way to get in front of a TV for any of the Series.

The topper for all this is Aaron Boone winning it for the Yankees, one of the "firesale" players jettisoned by the Reds back in late July. When I saw that Boone had hit all those long loud fouls off of Wakefield when he beat the Yanks in game 1, the thought occurred to me just before he launched it. The fans holding signs that say "Destiny" are confused. The Yankees have been there how many times now? 30? 35? Yeah, there's drama. Right. It's like a bad movie.

When the Cubs suffered that horrifying 8th inning and loss last night, in the manner they did, my thoughts went back to the wild game 6 of the '75 series, and how I felt as a Reds fan as Carlton Fisk completed a comeback that began in the 8th inning as well, whern Bernie Carbo erased a 3-run deficit with a 2 out 3-run homer. I felt like Sparky Anderson did that night. Sleepless, worrying about "destiny" defeating the Reds, who had won 108 games that year. The dramatics from Carbo and Fisk made it seem that this could be the time for the Sox. The Reds won game 7 and finally had their World Championship.

I do not recall ever having been nervous about a game for a team other than my team, until this one. I'll probably watch the West Wing as a distraction. Go Cubs! The entire baseball world outside of Florida is for the Cubs (at least it seems so). It's not looking good at ll for the Red Sox now, heading to Yankee stadium needing to take 2 to meet the winner of the Cubs-Marlins.

Boy, did the Cubs ever win a wild one last night (I suppose it returned the favor to the Marlins for game 1). I woke up my wife with a "Oh No!" when Ramirez let the ball get behind him on that last play. Seems to me Castilla was not thinking too well on that one. If the ball was bounced so easily directly to the third baseman, how in the world would he expect to make it? Just stick close and let the batter reach base and continue on with the meeting and give Cabrerra a shot (who was 2-4 and hitting .429 for the series). Then again, I wasn't on base. Go Cubbies! (I'm pullin' for the "Dream Series": Redsox-Cubs)

As I began to say before I was so rudely interrupted (see previous post), I have been doing hardly any mention or reflection on any Sports lately , having been busy trying to do "Work related" stuff (like trying to find a source of income to supplement what OSG has been scraping together for me as I work on our Web makeover and Flash/Weblog/Forum development).

But, I have to mention how pleased I am that once again, the Braves are out of the postseason, and the Cubs are making a run at getting back to the Series, and that it might (hopefully) even be the Redsox as their opponent. That would be amazingly touching for me if that were to happen. It would be a big boost for baseball. All the baseball hopes and dreams of all those fans who seem to be fated to be the "patient and devoted" fans.

After my post of dismay about Fox Sports NOT having the Cubs game on Saturday,  I did see that they did a lot of switching over to the Astros and the Cubs games.  I just wonder,  still,  why wasn't the Cubs game the POINT game?  What OTHER story was there on Saturday?  I could see a coverage of the Astros as primary in Astors territory,  with lots of switching to the Cubs game.  The Braves-Phillies was worth absolutely zero. 

I turn on the TV to watch the ONLY REMAINING baseball with any meaning today,  the Cubs, and I see the Atlanta Braves and Phillies?  Get a clue Fox!   And don't give me any scheduling crap.  Yeah,  it's a double header,  but it is THE GAME today.  Nobody cares about anybody else compared to this,  if they are baseball fans.  Get your buts to wherever it takes to cover baseball,  or don't cover it at all.  Geez!

From Reds Coverage at the Cincinati Enquirer Website

Most of this season,  I've avoided writing anythking about the Reds.  One is,  at least earlier,  they didn't provide much to "write home" about.  Bad pitching,  bad defense,  and for a while,  bad hitting.  The first two remain a problem,  but the hitting has finally reached a level that Reds fans had been talking about but not seeing much over the past two seasons.  And it has made for some exciting finishes at Great American Ball Park. 

Fans in Cincinnati have been absolutely horrible to Ken Griffey , Jr,  and today,  more morons were yelling and criticizing him as he lay in the outfield with a dislocation of the shoulder after diving for a ball to try and prevent a bases-clearing double.  

For me,  I'm not mad at Griffey.  I am pretty much out of any real hope that this will ever end.  Every year since 2001,  it's been a nightmare,  and a real shame to see a guy who came to Cincinnati at age 30 only 102 homers shy of 500,  and entered 2001,  at 31,  only 62 away.  Now,  two years later,  he still has 39 to go.  I was hopeful,  after the good spring,  that this would be the year when he shut up all the loud mouths.   Now, they're crowing again,  and I'm so glad I don't live there anymore so I don't have to hear it.