I can finally sympathize with Ozzie Guillen

In Saturday's game between the A's and White Sox Esteban Loaiza limited the Sox to three hits in seven innings, and Chicago lost the game 4-2, dropping the Sox to three games out of the wild card (they currently stand four games out after another former White Sox player, Frank Thomas, hit a three-run homer to lead the A's).
After Saturday's game, Guillen was said to be profane and angry...because he couldn't drink his misery away.
Apparantly, because of Loaiza's DUI problems, the A's no longer allow alcohol in the clubhouses. Guillen was none too happy about it.

“He doesn’t run my club. I run my club,” Guillen said, referring to A's general manager Billy Beane.

And apparantly, Guillen likes to run his club the way any of us would...drunk.

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Mark Brunell is Jeff Fassero in shoulder pads

"The Redskins are actually starting Mark Brunell?"
-Everyone, two years ago

And whatd'ya know--the wiley, crafty, grizzled southpaw is still tossing those pretty, slow-moving, six-yard spirals two seasons later.

Line so far tonight: 8/19, 69 yds, 0TD, 1 INT, RAT: 30.4

All the grit, guile, and veteran savvy in the world can't make those numbers look good. Someone should tell Joe Gibbs it's not 1998 anymore.

And by the way, this has nothing to do with Jason Campbell being on my fantasy roster.

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Notre Dame Loses, A Nation Rejoices

In what has got to be one of the most satisfying trips to the woodshed I've seen in college football in a long time, Michigan absolutely pasted ND on Saturday. Yeah, I know, it's old news, but come on - this one is REALLY satisfying.

Exposed in the game was ND's lousy defense and the fact that Brady Quinn is nothing special, even with Charlie "Honey" Weis pulling the strings. ND had no business at #2 and now they're going to be where they should have been all along - in the 10-15 range of college football's best.

So, with that, ND's title dreams for a title go down in flames and the world no longer needs to be forcefed rich-kid Irish bullshit.

Hail to the victors.

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A few thoughts on the NFL games thus far

Sucky and Suckier I love being right. I really do. For some reason I cannot understand, people thought that Daunte Culpepper was the savior in Miami. I maintained that he sucks, and will simply be throwing picks in warmer weather. Same thing with Jake Plummer. I cannot remember a player who has so consistently sucked, yet so consistently had a filled-to-capacity bandwagon. Honestly, Damon Huard looks better than Plummer. Cutler should be the starter by October.

At least we're getting SOME answers After week 1, the question that ESPN experts could not answer was "Who's the worst team in the NFL? The Packers or the Raiders?" They shouldn't have any trouble this week. Even though they lost, the Packers at least looked like an NFL team this week. The same cannot be said for the Raiders, or for that matter the Lions or Titans.

Santa Claus wouldn't agree The FOX halftime crew called Philadelphia fans "great fans." Are you serious?

It Must Be Football Season...the 2002 season We all love those commercials. Watching the grocery store cashier getting plunked with a pineapple makes me chuckle everytime. But can't they come up with some new ads? It seems like a theme that has endless ideas. Boo ad agencies mailing it in. Hooray beer!

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In what was the greatest performance since a certain fullback ran for 4 touchdowns for Polk High, Rex Grossman proved that Bears fans will soon forget the days when they thrilled the nation with their "T" formation. Rex "The Wonder Dog" looked cool all day in the pocket as he picked apart the Lions supposed "quality" defense. The Bears line did not give up any sacks (the Lions had 5 last week against the Seahawks) and the defense punished Lion receivers (aka Roy Williams) all day.

This game illustrated that the NFC North runs through FIB land for really the first time since the early 90's when DITKA was roaming the sidelines.

In the words of Al Bundy: " how do you plan on stopping the 1966 All-City fullback???"

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Yes, it's time for the encore

On October 29th, the BEARS will once again showcase their superb orange jerseys... Doesn't this just make you yearn for the days of the creamsicle look???

Here's a pic of the coolest look on the block.

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Pam Ward is, or at least used to be, a MAN!

Actual conversation between me and Matt Bechtel this morning midway through the Iowa/Iowa St. game. (paraphrased)

Matt: "These announcers really suck."
Me: "The one guy sounds like a chick."
Matt: "Dude, it IS a chick. That's Pam Ward.
Me: "Really?"

I didn't catch who was announcing the game, and I honestly couldn't tell it was Ward. Seriously, she sounds like a slightly feminite guy.









p.s. Although Matt discredited the whole Ward/Gottfried team, Gottfried actually had one money comment on Duke's blocked XP: "Well, they get a lot of practice."

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YCS One-Line NFL Predictions - Week Two

Alright ladies, gentlemen and children of all ages. Hope everyone enjoyed the week one action and was able to revel in the fact that I was so awesomely right for a good majority of the weekend. God damn, I rule.

Anyway, on to this week's picks (Gentlemen, start your gambling!)

Buffalo at Miami: Miami was a preseason playoff contender and they'll walk the walk as they rebound from a tough opening week loss.

Carolina at Minnesota: The return of Steve Smith (or maybe not?) will get the running game back on track as the Panthers win this one.

Cleveland at Cincinnati: While Charlie Frye and co. looked improved against the Aints, they're still a year or so away and Cincinnati, who looked excellent against KC will run off with this one.

Detroit at Chicago: Roy Williams' mouth and math won't get it done on offense enough for the Lions to upset the Bears.

Houston at Indianapolis: The Texans looked hapless against Donny Mac and the Eagles, and their defensive woes will continue against the Colts this week.

New Orleans at Green Bay: Man, this will be a lousy game.

N.Y. Giants at Philadelphia: The Giants looked good in their loss to Indianapolis and figure to be the better team in this one, but it will be close.

Oakland at Baltimore: This year's Oakland Raiders team may be the worst in NFL history.

Tampa Bay at Atlanta: Though they have a good history against Mike Vick, the Bucs seem to have regressed this year and will struggle again against the Atlanta defense.

Arizona at Seattle: I like Seattle's running game to rebound in a big way this week as they get it done in a shootout against the Cards.

St. Louis at San Francisco: The Rams laid waste to Jake Plummer last week, so it doesn't figure to be a good day to be Alex Smith (but then again, what does?).

Kansas City at Denver: The Chiefs haven't won in Denver in 6 years, and without Trent Green, they won't do it this year either.

New England at N.Y. Jets: The Jets burned me last week as they blew Tennessee away, but they're going down this week against the Pats.

Tennessee at San Diego: Marty Schottenheimer paid big money to someone in the NFL front office to set up this early schedule.

Washington at Dallas: The Skins offense looked pretty lousy versus a solid Minnesota D, and although the 'Boys lost a tough one last week to the Jags, I like them to rebound for this one.

Pittsburgh at Jacksonville: They could easily splice in footage from 1940's bloodbath games and nobody would know the difference in this game - I like the Steelers, but not by much.

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Where's the money going to come from?

Nate made some great points in his post, and feeling that another great YCS debate is about to be touched off, I've decided to throw my two cents in.

The question that wasn't posed (as it often isn't) was, "Who's going to pay for it?" The money to pay college athletes isn't going to come out of nowhere. Any change in the NCAA financial structure will not happen in a vacuum. There will be consequences, both positive and negative. Some of these consequences could include...

A.) Schools cutting sports to save money (which wouldn't save much cash, since the ones on the chopping block are likely to be non-revenue-generating sports like crew or judo or whatever. Sports which, as non-revenue-generating as they may be, often represent the top level of competition for that sport in the US, ie: Women's Soccer, Men's Wrestling).
or
B.) An increase in student tuition to cover the increased costs, which many in this country are not willing to stomach, especially if the money isn't going towards academics.
or
C.) Payment of college athletes would come out of existing university money (endowment?), which would mean that the rich would likely get richer, since schools that can afford to pay players will perform better than schools who can't afford to pay players. The resulting increase in competition could lead to television rights being split even less evenly among schools than they are now. Think how big a deal it was when Utah finally made it into the BCS from the Mountain West Conference. In 8 seasons (64 BCS slots) there has been only one team not from a BCS conference (or Notre Dame) to make it to the big payday. I don't see how paying athletes will help this ratio.

Nate brought up a "salary cap," which I think would be integral to any sort of plan to pay college athletes. However, I'm not sold on a cap leveling the playing field in this situation. Even if a cap is established, there's still the matter of actually having the cash in hand. For instance, Notre Dame's endowment is over $3 billion. Will schools that don't have that kind of money lying around (say, Miami of Ohio or Central Florida or even Boston College) be able to regularly compete? OK, maybe they don't already, (granted) but it would seem that introducing payment to athletes would only widen that gulf.

I'm not even going to mention the possible tax hikes that could come as a result of state-funded institutions like UW-Madison having to pay their players, and the political ramifications that would entail.

To see how all this money adds up, for instance, just look at football. To pay its 89-man roster of football players $1,500/month as Nate proposes, the University of Tennessee would have to pay them $1,602,000 per year. It adds up fast. An ADDITIONAL $1.6 million to what's being sent already. That's one sport, admittedly UT's largest in terms of roster size, but UT carries 20 sports. Even the women's soccer team would be an extra $324,000 per year. Why bring up women's soccer? Because if you pay the football players but not the women's soccer players, then you have Title IX issues to worry about.

UT is admittedly a bigger athletic school and would probably be able to afford the increase through a combination of endowment, tuition hikes, ticket price hikes, and taxpayer funds, but what about schools like Kent State? KSU has an 89-man football roster as well (another $1.6 million). They also have 15 other sports that would need money. Does Kent State have that kind of money lying around?

On a nationwide scale, only Division I-A football would cost an additional $190,638,000 PER YEAR. Do the NCAA and its member schools really have almost 200 million extra dollars a year to pay just the football players? (Keeping in mind that the NCAA sponsors 88 championships in 23 sports).

I agree, college athletes sometimes get a raw deal (The Majerus fast food incident was my favorite), but if they're going to be paid, the money has to come from somewhere, and any change won't happen in a vacuum. Non-athlete students, schools that don't sponsor as many sports, and taxpayers will likely take the brunt of these new costs.

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I'm not sure whether I should be horrified or laughing my ass off

Remember that guy who ran onto the football field and attacked the 13-year-old who put a late hit on his son? Well thanks to this T-ball coach, the football dad won't even win the YCSPY for biggest bonehead move in a youth sporting event.
Mark Downs Jr. paid one of his T-ball players to bean a 9-year-old teammate during warm ups so that the teammate, who is autistic, could not play in a June playoff game.

Read that again.

Mark Downs Jr. paid one of his T-ball players to bean a 9-year-old teammate during warm ups so that the teammate, WHO IS AUTISTIC, could not play in a June playoff game.

Okay, I have to...I just HAVE to...

Have you seen my baseball?

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