Category: Sports

Commentary and news about sports and sports teams — and media coverage of them.

The web gets interesting when the principals participate

Boston Red Sox: Fan Forum — Curt Schilling communicates with the fans.

This second message from Curt38 is among the comments:

From: Curt38 Nov-28 3:37 am
To: emasterv (17 of 980)

60047.17 in reply to 60047.14

Not sure how to make you believe it’s me. I have two dogs, Patton is my Rottweiler, and Shonda and the kids (Gehrig 8, Gabriella 6, Grant 4, Garrison 18 months) bought me a puppy for my birthday, kids named him Rufus, not sure why, but it stuck.
And btw, it’s Shonda 🙂
Not Shanda, Shondra, Shandra

TMQ Challenge

The Tuesday Morning Quarterback challenge this week:

University of Delaware teams are Blue Hens. What’s the goofiest name you know for a college or high-school football team? Give specifics and web links. Offer your suggestions at TMQNFL@yahoo.com, being sure to include your name and hometown for mention in the column. Also, if you think you’ve got a winner, include your email address so that I can contact you. Bear in mind that this isn’t a contest, simply a challenge. We promise nothing, the rules are kept secret even from the judges, and the final decision will be completely arbitrary.

How about Carlsbad (NM) High School Cavemen?

Marital bliss

From the Morning Briefing in the Los Angeles Times

[Tommy] Lasorda says he has OnStar in his Cadillac and loves it.

“If I lock my keys in the car, all I have to do is call OnStar and they unlock my car,” he said. “If the car were ever stolen, they can lock all the doors and trap the thief in the car.

“Whenever my wife tells me she is taking my car to go shopping, I call OnStar and tell them my car has been stolen.”

Absurdity alert

From The Cavalier Daily

University President issues statement regarding alleged racial epithet used by Medical Center employee….

Howell reported that the offender “said something like this: ‘I can’t believe in this day and age that there’s a sports team in our nation’s capital named the Redskins. That is as derogatory to Indians as having a team called Niggers would be to blacks.'”

Though Howell said no staff members said they were personally offended by the remark, they said they would have preferred if the word had not been used….

Counterpoint to Frank Solich firing

Denver Post writer Bill Briggs toured the Big 12 this fall dressed in the colors of the opposing team. His tour included Lincoln on the day of the Nebraska-Kansas State game; a game Nebraska loss by the largest margin at home since 1958. The scene he describes might surprise you.

NewMexiKen read only a few of Briggs’s other Big 12 articles but those I read were amusing and interesting. Colleagues at the National Archives used to spend autumn Saturdays attending games at various colleges. It doesn’t seem like a half-bad pastime. Offhand NewMexiKen remembers going to games at eight different campuses. Seems like a good beginning.

Yesterday, November 28, 2003…

a date which will live in University of Arizona infamy. The football ‘Cats lose to ASU 28-7 to complete their worst season — won 2, lost 10. Last in the Pac 10 in offense, defense and special teams. Two freakin’ field goals all season!

Then the basketball ‘Cats lose to Florida 78-77. No points in the final 2:37. Hello, the game is played for 40 minutes!

Coach Olson: “I’ve often said I would rather lose a game like this than beat some team by 40. We can take a lot out of this game. We have a lot to learn.”

NewMexiKen agrees, the games don’t mean a lot until March if you win enough of them (and Arizona surely will). But Coach, can we run a few more plays? The team with the best athletes doesn’t always prevail.

Hitting the books, not foes: TCU may nix bowl

From ESPN.com

TCU was unable to land a spot in the Bowl Championship Series. Now it appears the Horned Frogs may turn down the next best thing.

The school is planning to decline an expected invitation to the GMAC Bowl because of academic considerations, athletic director Eric Hyman told The Washington Post on Wednesday night.

TCU had its sights sets on a BCS bowl, but those hopes were dashed by a loss to Southern Miss on Nov. 20. As a result, the Horned Frogs will likely finish second in Conference USA and earn an invitation to the GMAC.

However, Hyman says the school will likely decline the bowl bid because the game falls in the middle of their exam period (Dec. 18). The bowl could have pitted a pair of impressive mid-majors (TCU and Miami-Ohio) against each other.

“I can’t do that,” TCU Athletic Director Eric Hyman told the Washington Post on Wednesday night. “I have to be sensitive to our young people. They are student-athletes, but they are also students, and they are coming to school to get an education. We cannot disrupt their exams. It’s not fair to them.”

Money Players Not What They Used to Be

How out of whack are baseball salaries? New Angel pitcher Kelvim Escobar, who was 13-9 with a 4.29 earned-run average for the Toronto Blue Jays last season, will have a salary of $5.5 million next season.

Warren Spahn, the winningest left-hander in major league baseball history, never made more than $87,500. Spahn, who died Monday, pitched in the majors until 1965.

From Morning Briefing in the Los Angeles Times.

What a strange sport

Also from Stewart Mandel

The BCS standings were officially intended to determine only the two participants in the national championship game and the eligible teams for a BCS at-large berth. A couple of conferences, however, have adopted them for their own use, which will make for a pretty strange finish to their respective races.

In the Big East, should Pittsburgh beat Miami and West Virginia beat Temple next weekend, the Panthers and Mountaineers would finish tied for first at 6-1. Seeing as West Virginia beat Pittsburgh 52-31 just last week, the Mountaineers should hold the tiebreaker, correct?

Nope. Apparently to avoid situations just like this one, in which a four-loss West Virginia team could be the Big East’s BCS representative, the league included a clause that the team that won head-to-head must also be within five spots in the standings of the team it beat. In Palm’s latest projections, Pittsburgh stands 26th, West Virginia 30th, but the Panthers’ schedule will be boosted by playing Miami, the Mountaineers’ hurt by playing Temple. So it looks like West Virginia is out, which, if the Panthers end up winning, would be a shame.

The SEC is using the same rule to break its likely three-way tie between Georgia, Florida and Tennessee in the East. The Dawgs are seventh, the Vols, whom Georgia beat, eighth and the Gators, who beat Georgia but lost to Tennessee, 11th, so Tennessee would need Georgia to lose to Georgia Tech, and the Gators would at the very least need to beat Florida State and probably also have the Vols lose to Kentucky.

That’s right, two non-conference games could determine who plays for the SEC championship.

What a strange sport.

New Coaches Poll

ESPN.com – College Football Rankings

The new Top 25 (with remaining scheduled opponent).

  1. Oklahoma 12-0
  2. USC 10-1 (Oregon State)
  3. LSU 10-1 (Arkansas)
  4. Michigan 10-2
  5. Georgia 9-2 (Georgia Tech)
  6. Texas 9-2 (Texas A&M)
  7. Ohio State 10-2
  8. Tennessee 9-2 (Kentucky)
  9. Florida State 9-2 (Florida)
  10. Miami 9-2 (Pittsburgh)
  11. Florida 8-3 (Florida State)
  12. Iowa 9-3
  13. Purdue 9-3
  14. Washington State 9-3
  15. Kansas State 10-3
  16. Miami (Ohio) 10-1 (Central Florida)
  17. TCU 10-1 (SMU)
  18. Boise State 10-1 (Nevada)
  19. Mississippi 8-3 (Mississippi State)
  20. Virginia Tech 8-3 (Virginia)
  21. Pittsburgh 8-3 (Miami)
  22. Minnesota 9-3
  23. Nebraska 8-3 (Colorado)
  24. Oklahoma State 9-3
  25. Bowling Green 9-2 (Toledo)

He Proves Mom Will Take One for Team

From the Morning Briefing in the Los Angeles Times

University of Miami linebacker D.J. Williams recently told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that when he was a sophomore at Concord De La Salle High, he had to complete a questionnaire that included the query: “What would you do if your mother was returning a kickoff?”

Williams talked his mother, Sherri Gonzalez, into putting on his uniform, kicked the ball to her and then “hit her pretty good” as a video camera rolled.

Williams then showed the tape to his coaches and earned a spot on special teams.

Largest college stadiums

The attendance at Michigan Stadium Saturday was an all-time college record: 112,118.

Michigan’s is the largest stadium. Can you name the other three that exceed 100,000? Answer in Comment(s).

Update: See here for a list of the 30 largest college stadiums.

What’s a Wildcat?

Surely among the most common names for college mascots.

University of Arizona Wildcats
University of Kentucky Wildcats
Northwestern University Wildcats
Kansas State Wildcats
Villanova University Wildcats
University of New Hampshire Wildcats
Weber State Wildcats
Davidson College Wildcats
Chico State Wildcats
Indiana Wesleyan University Wildcats
Louisiana College Wildcats

What’s a Hokie?

From hokiesports.com

The answer leads all the way back to 1896 when Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College changed its name to Virginia Polytechnic Institute. With the change came the necessity for writing a new cheer and a contest for such a purpose was held by the student body.

Senior O.M. Stull won first prize for his “Hokie” yell which is still used today. Later, when asked if “Hokie” had any special meaning, Stull explained the word was solely the product of his imagination and was used only as an attention-getter for his yell. It soon became a nickname for all Tech teams and for those people loyal to Tech athletics.

The official university school colors – Chicago Maroon and Burnt Orange – also were introduced in 1896. The colors were chosen by a committee because they made a ‘unique combination’ not worn elsewhere at the time. The official definition of “hokie” is “a loyal Virginia Tech Fan”.

The HokieBird…has evolved from a turkey.

Virginia Tech teams were once called the “gobblers”!