There is no better story this year in baseball than the Texas Rangers. A bankrupt franchise sold to the highest bidder mid-season that made more strategic moves down the stretch than their well financed peers. Their recovering crack addicted All-Star outfielder led the majors in hitting. Their recovering coke addict manager guided the franchise to their first playoff series win beating the Yankees on their way to the World Series. Their ace pitcher was traded for the third time in two years at the deadline is undefeated in the playoffs for the last two years. Timmy Lincecum might think he is a bad boy blowing some weed while driving 80 in Washington. Brian Wilson might think he is an animal for growing a pirate beard. The Rangers are the real story. The Giants might take issue with that declaration but this is the Yard and they are the Giants.
The author behind the story that is the Rangers success can be traced to one man-Smokin' Nolan Ryan. Ryan is the embodiment of the old school toughness that has grinded the Rangers through the challenging baseball season. The 162 games are tough enough but having creditors and trustees haggling over the future, the Rangers season is all that more remarkable as is Nolan Ryan’s leadership. He is part owner and team president of this halfway house of baseball excellence. The face of the franchise took the team to a place no one saw them visiting.
Nolan knows all about magic in the bottle. In his 27 year career, Ryan pitched for all four of the baseball expansion franchises of the 1960’s-The Mets, Angels, Astros, and Rangers by way of DC. The only one of those teams that he did not lead to the playoffs was Texas. Ryan won his only World Series title as part of the 1969 Miracle Mets. He was later traded to the then California Angels for Jim Fregosi who would later return to manage him. The trade was largely ignored at the time as the Mets went on to win another title in 1973, But Nolan Ryan for Jim Fregosi? Really? It is amazing to think about it now considering Ryan’s legacy and the Met’s idiocy.
During the early 1970’s, Nolan Ryan was the biggest story in local baseball. The Dodgers were still finding their way after the retirements of Koufax and Drysdale. The Angels were hopping along under the shadow of the Gene Autry era. In 1973, Smoking Nolan won 21 games and pitched 26 complete games. In 1974, he won 22 games and pitched another 26 complete games. While you wrapping your head around 52 complete games over two seasons, factor that the entire Giant pitching staff had six complete games this year. Nolan threw four no-hitters and tied this Sandy Koufax record during his Angel days. He would break Koufax’s season strikeout record with 383 in 1973. As Koufax would joke,”He broke my strikeout record by one and exceeded my base on balls total by 91. I suspect half those guys swung rather than get hit.”
It was never pretty but Ryan was a battler much like his team. Ryan led the majors in strikeouts seven of the eight seasons he played in Anaheim. He also led the league in walks in six of those years. He is the only pitcher to walk 200 batters in a season and he did it twice. The Angels were terrible during those years making the playoffs only once as the tortured Cowboy tried to find the right pieces to surround a player who should have been the face of the franchise yet never was. Autry and Ryan were kindred warriors who would have fought to a championship if history and Buzzie Bavasi had allowed them to ride off into the sunset together.
Ryan was 26-27 in his last two years with the Angels and then General Manager Buzzie Bavasi let him go without even making an offer to keep him. Bavasi quipped to the LA times that he could replace Ryan with two 8-7 pitchers. He was sadly mistaken and declared letting Ryan go his biggest mistake as a baseball executive. Ryan went on to pitch another 14 seasons, strike out another more 2800 batters and pitch three more no-hitters. He had a Hall of Fame Career with the Angels and another one after he left to finish his life in Texas.
Ryan threw seven no-hitters as a major leaguer and an amazing 12 one-hitters. He only pitched four games in his career that he did not walk a batter. He is the only pitcher to strike out the side on nine pitches in both leagues. Nolan was elected into the Hall of Fame in 1991 and proudly wears a Rangers uniform even though his greatest statistics were with the Angels. The Angels are still waiting for their first HOF inductee. The Angels did elect Ryan to their team HOF and retired his #30. The Astros and Rangers have done the same making Ryan the only Major Leaguer to have his jersey retired by three teams.
In one of the final starts of his career on August 4, 1993, he hit Robin Ventura with an inside fastball. Ventura charged the mound with an unconcerned Ryan barely moving from the pitching rubber waiting for him. First of all, baseball players named Robin should not charge the mound under any circumstances. Ventura was 26 years old and he was racing to his destiny with the 46 year old Ryan. He just did not know it at the time. Nolan put a head hold on him and pummeled his face repeatedly before Pudge Rodriguez dragged him off the youngster. If it was in the Octagon, they would have stopped the fight. The video is still on You Tube and Ventura never quite lived up to his budding superstar billing after suffering that shellacking by the Smokin’one.
During the summer while the Rangers future was decided by the bankruptcy trustees, Ryan shepherded the franchise to the AL West Title. He took a chance on Josh Hamilton and recruited Vlad Guerrero to DH. He found starters CJ Wilson in his bullpen and Corby Lewis in Japan. Vlad Guerrero was not re-signed by the Angels and Nolan provided him exile in the Ranger batting order. He traded for Cliff Lee at the trading deadline.
The Yard loves this Ranger team. Not just because of the Giant vitriol gurgling in our esophagus because they are good and a great story. Josh Hamilton was tatted and out of baseball messed up on drugs by the time he was 22 years old. He is sober and a leading MVP candidate for Ryan’s red necks. Bengie Molina has the distinction of getting a World Series ring no matter who wins. He was the Giants starting catcher before he was shipped to Texas to make room for Buster Posey. He is the only starting catcher in major league history to face his team after being traded during the season. He is a difference maker as he showed during the Yankee series. His three run home run sunk the pinstripes. His post game comment of “It’s not a bad for a fat Mexican kid that everybody makes fun of when he runs,” was hilarious. Cliff Lee struggled to a 12-9 record and a 3.18 regular season but he is money in the playoffs. He is 7-0 with a 1.26 ERA the last two seasons in the playoffs. The Giants will see him twice. Manager Ron Washington apparently only snorted blow one time in his life and tested positive a few days later. He must have been really unlucky and Nolan stuck with him.
Nolan is guiding the ship from the land of Misfit Toys on their way to Oz.
Inside the lines: Shock story of the week was the Maria Sharapova and Sasha Vujacic gave her a $250,000 engagement ring. Not the ring, we just thought Sharapova had more sense. She seems like a classy broad and Sasha seems like a load.
Extra Innings: One of the Rangers creditors was NY Yankee Alex Rodriguez! The Rangers owe him $26 million in deferred compensation. A-Rod had to get out Texas and get to NY City because the Rangers were never going to win anything. Six years later, A-Rod has played in one World Series and the lowly Ranger knocked him out this year. Priceless!
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Trivial Pursuit
With the nation spiraling to horrifying depths with each passing news cycle, it is an unsettling ingest of this daily content. Trivial matters of undocumented household help and derogatory personal slurs make headline news. All of those issues might cause problems but we have bigger problems. We need bigger people to tackle them. The mid-term election has become a 6th grade note passing exercise and so far no one has to spend the lunch hour on the benches. They pester me during prime sports viewing with their negative rhetoric game.
Is Meg Whitman’s alleged undocumented housekeeper really an issue for local debate? We think Meg did not need to cut corners to find cheap hired help the way most of us do. This did not stop celebrated attorney Gloria Allred from grabbing the headlines for another tour of the muck she harvests. Ms. Allred apparently does have a law degree but we never hear about her exploits in the court room only at the press conference. The Yard would support deporting Allred rather than Whitman’s illegal. Others are outraged that Jerry Brown was covertly recorded calling Ms. Whitman a whore. If she wins the election, she will be called much worse in the next few years…deal. We do not condone either trivial news event we just wonder which stop the real issues got off the campaign bus.
Of greater concern was the performance of the Giants this year. The Yard has rained down unrelenting negative rhetoric on the Giants since our first kilobyte. There never had been a reason to look in the rear view mirror. The Yard had more legendary demons to vanquish with our words. It has looked like a scary horizon with that pitching staff in the playoffs and Yard karma coming home to roost.
The rivalry with the Giants is more important to San Francisco that it is to LA. My son, the telecom exec, crystallized the rivalry for me the other night. He lives in San Francisco and roots for their 49’ers and hates the Giants. The 49er’s are the only shining sports star in the history of San Francisco Sports albeit an ancient irrelevant 0-5 one at time of this musing. As he explained to me over a pitcher of margaritas in the Mission district, the Dodgers want to win championships. The San Francisco Giants want to beat the Dodgers. The venom at a Dodger-Giant game in San Francisco is on a magnitude ten times higher on the Scoville scale than at the Ravine. LA could be a better rival to the Giants but we have so many other rivals, in so many other sports during all of these championship runs. San Francisco only has the Giants versus the Dodgers as an arch rival in any sport.
The Yard is staring into the mouth of the demon with the Giants taking the Dodger’s annual spot in the NLCS against the Phillies. The Phillies are playing like the 1927Yankees right now so we can probably rest easy. Halladay does not need throw another no-hitter to win Game 1. With 2008 World Series MVP Cole Hamels as their #3 starter, the Phillies are looking to win their 2nd title in three years. The Giants are just happy to have gone farther than the Dodgers.
Brent Musburger stirred the pot this week when he stated to a group of journalism students at the University of Montana that the use of performance enhancing drug use by professional athletes might not be so terrible if done under a doctor’s supervision. The US Anti-Doping Federation reacted with venom that made them seem like they were maybe on steroids.
We applaud Musburger’s candor and support his view point. He was clear to point out that high school and college athletes should be restricted but pro athletes could take whatever enhancements that they chose to subject their bodies as long as they do so with understanding and guidance. If their testicles shrink, their head explodes, they have a coronary at 50 years old then they do so at their own educated risk. Viagra, Paxil, and Ambien permeate our society and our bed stand with five minute disclosures that go with the 45 second advertisement on TV. Hard working professionals in business are taking HGH and all the rest of their enablers under a doctor’s supervision today and all days. These aging Americans are taking drugs to enhance performance in work, life or in the bedroom. It is all a risk but if Barry wants to risk his manhood so he can hit 75 home runs, it is his choice not the media’s.
Baseball purists are all about the statistics and the history. Performance enhanced ballplayers have blown away many of the historic records. This has led to the asterisk club and exclusion from the Hall of Fame. Baseball statistics are always a product of an era. In the early years, baseball was game played in the day by white men east of Saint Louis. This is not our great grandfather’s baseball. Baseball fans want to see their heroes play longer in their careers, recover from injuries faster and bomb the rock out of the yard with their prodigious exploits. They are not purists, they are fans. The owners are about the fans not the purists.
Bud Selig rooted out the PED crisis that he helped create but he cannot figure out if instant replay is a good idea. Little League baseball decided that they needed instant replay for the Little League World Series but not Bud. He might have rooted out steroids but he has provided fans few reasons to root otherwise. His decision is for the purists who never want to see this dying sport change.
Pundits suggest it would slow an already slow game. Really? How much time does Lou Pinella take arguing a call that could be reviewed? How many games has Bobby Cox been ejected from a game after ten minutes of blood vessel popping frustration for a missed call? Most of the time he is right but the decision is never changed even when game changing. The game would be shortened without Lou or Bobby Cox waddling out to argue a call at second base.
Instant replay in baseball would be simpler than it is in football. Football has 22 players slamming into each other fighting to change possession of a ball and they get it right most of the time. Baseball plays would be far easier to review. There are plenty of football calls that are difficult to review from multiple angles. There has yet to be a replay in baseball that was unclear. Baseball would have a chance to get it right.
In Game 1 of the NLDS, SF Giant catcher Buster Posey was clearly out at second base on a botched hit and run play in a 0-0 game. He was called safe by the umpire. He eventually scored the only run in a 1-0 win for the Giants. If Posey is correctly called out, he does not score and it could have changed the entire game and maybe the series. Bruce Bochy does not let Tim Lincecum pitch a complete game if it is 0-0in the 7th with Tim of the Bong is coming to bat. Maybe, Lincecum gets yanked for a pinch hitter. Maybe Atlanta rallies in Bobby Cox’s final playoff series to win the first game on the road in the playoffs. Maybe Bobby does not get thrown out of Game 2 for arguing a call and telling the ump he missed the call last night as well. Our bias cannot be ignored and neither can the impact of this missed call.
“We will dominate them mentally and physically and then we will steal their girlfriends.” Steve Martin, Center for CSUN about their rivalry with Cal-State Hayward.
Is Meg Whitman’s alleged undocumented housekeeper really an issue for local debate? We think Meg did not need to cut corners to find cheap hired help the way most of us do. This did not stop celebrated attorney Gloria Allred from grabbing the headlines for another tour of the muck she harvests. Ms. Allred apparently does have a law degree but we never hear about her exploits in the court room only at the press conference. The Yard would support deporting Allred rather than Whitman’s illegal. Others are outraged that Jerry Brown was covertly recorded calling Ms. Whitman a whore. If she wins the election, she will be called much worse in the next few years…deal. We do not condone either trivial news event we just wonder which stop the real issues got off the campaign bus.
Of greater concern was the performance of the Giants this year. The Yard has rained down unrelenting negative rhetoric on the Giants since our first kilobyte. There never had been a reason to look in the rear view mirror. The Yard had more legendary demons to vanquish with our words. It has looked like a scary horizon with that pitching staff in the playoffs and Yard karma coming home to roost.
The rivalry with the Giants is more important to San Francisco that it is to LA. My son, the telecom exec, crystallized the rivalry for me the other night. He lives in San Francisco and roots for their 49’ers and hates the Giants. The 49er’s are the only shining sports star in the history of San Francisco Sports albeit an ancient irrelevant 0-5 one at time of this musing. As he explained to me over a pitcher of margaritas in the Mission district, the Dodgers want to win championships. The San Francisco Giants want to beat the Dodgers. The venom at a Dodger-Giant game in San Francisco is on a magnitude ten times higher on the Scoville scale than at the Ravine. LA could be a better rival to the Giants but we have so many other rivals, in so many other sports during all of these championship runs. San Francisco only has the Giants versus the Dodgers as an arch rival in any sport.
The Yard is staring into the mouth of the demon with the Giants taking the Dodger’s annual spot in the NLCS against the Phillies. The Phillies are playing like the 1927Yankees right now so we can probably rest easy. Halladay does not need throw another no-hitter to win Game 1. With 2008 World Series MVP Cole Hamels as their #3 starter, the Phillies are looking to win their 2nd title in three years. The Giants are just happy to have gone farther than the Dodgers.
Brent Musburger stirred the pot this week when he stated to a group of journalism students at the University of Montana that the use of performance enhancing drug use by professional athletes might not be so terrible if done under a doctor’s supervision. The US Anti-Doping Federation reacted with venom that made them seem like they were maybe on steroids.
We applaud Musburger’s candor and support his view point. He was clear to point out that high school and college athletes should be restricted but pro athletes could take whatever enhancements that they chose to subject their bodies as long as they do so with understanding and guidance. If their testicles shrink, their head explodes, they have a coronary at 50 years old then they do so at their own educated risk. Viagra, Paxil, and Ambien permeate our society and our bed stand with five minute disclosures that go with the 45 second advertisement on TV. Hard working professionals in business are taking HGH and all the rest of their enablers under a doctor’s supervision today and all days. These aging Americans are taking drugs to enhance performance in work, life or in the bedroom. It is all a risk but if Barry wants to risk his manhood so he can hit 75 home runs, it is his choice not the media’s.
Baseball purists are all about the statistics and the history. Performance enhanced ballplayers have blown away many of the historic records. This has led to the asterisk club and exclusion from the Hall of Fame. Baseball statistics are always a product of an era. In the early years, baseball was game played in the day by white men east of Saint Louis. This is not our great grandfather’s baseball. Baseball fans want to see their heroes play longer in their careers, recover from injuries faster and bomb the rock out of the yard with their prodigious exploits. They are not purists, they are fans. The owners are about the fans not the purists.
Bud Selig rooted out the PED crisis that he helped create but he cannot figure out if instant replay is a good idea. Little League baseball decided that they needed instant replay for the Little League World Series but not Bud. He might have rooted out steroids but he has provided fans few reasons to root otherwise. His decision is for the purists who never want to see this dying sport change.
Pundits suggest it would slow an already slow game. Really? How much time does Lou Pinella take arguing a call that could be reviewed? How many games has Bobby Cox been ejected from a game after ten minutes of blood vessel popping frustration for a missed call? Most of the time he is right but the decision is never changed even when game changing. The game would be shortened without Lou or Bobby Cox waddling out to argue a call at second base.
Instant replay in baseball would be simpler than it is in football. Football has 22 players slamming into each other fighting to change possession of a ball and they get it right most of the time. Baseball plays would be far easier to review. There are plenty of football calls that are difficult to review from multiple angles. There has yet to be a replay in baseball that was unclear. Baseball would have a chance to get it right.
In Game 1 of the NLDS, SF Giant catcher Buster Posey was clearly out at second base on a botched hit and run play in a 0-0 game. He was called safe by the umpire. He eventually scored the only run in a 1-0 win for the Giants. If Posey is correctly called out, he does not score and it could have changed the entire game and maybe the series. Bruce Bochy does not let Tim Lincecum pitch a complete game if it is 0-0in the 7th with Tim of the Bong is coming to bat. Maybe, Lincecum gets yanked for a pinch hitter. Maybe Atlanta rallies in Bobby Cox’s final playoff series to win the first game on the road in the playoffs. Maybe Bobby does not get thrown out of Game 2 for arguing a call and telling the ump he missed the call last night as well. Our bias cannot be ignored and neither can the impact of this missed call.
“We will dominate them mentally and physically and then we will steal their girlfriends.” Steve Martin, Center for CSUN about their rivalry with Cal-State Hayward.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Austin Burning
The Yard circled the September 25, 2010 date on the calendar when our beloved football Bruins would visit the University of Texas. The Darrell K. Royal Memorial Stadium was on our bucket list for college football stadiums and Austin rocks. An informal Yard poll confirmed that none of us would ever want to live in Texas but if we have to, Austin would be the place. Austin has great food with rock & roll emoting from its taverns on 6th street and a “keep it weird” attitude that is as cool as it is scary. Weird rednecks slurping Bud Tall Boys while pin balling down the sidewalk pulling a St. Bernard with long horn balloons attached to its dome is a photo op best taken from a distance.
The football game was a placeholder for the weekend. It was more about the good times than the gutting that the Bruins were expected to receive before, after and during the coin toss. The outcome had been forecasted and the only decisions were dinner reservations. Extensive preparation had been made at the Yard to insulate our fragile psyche from another 1-3 start of the football season. It sounded like a good idea to go to Kansas State and it was fun. We thought a win was possible but a loss was not a lost season. BCS Bowls games are not one of the annual football objectives in Westwood. The Stanford game was a miserable loss. The entire team, coaching staff, and fan base had a monumental meltdown that night in the 35-0 thrashing. The Houston win was a surprise actually any win is a surprise!
This past weekend, with the Eyes of Texas serenading the stadium, their beloved Longhorn steer Bevo in his corral, and the victory cannon ready to roar, the Longhorns welcomed the Bruins for their tune up game before the Red River Shootout with Oklahoma this weekend. Austin was a better draw for Bruin travel than Manhattan, KS even though the chance of a victory was higher in the Little Apple. The 91 degrees of wet Austin heat ensconced at 80% humidity was slow torture. The lack of stadium beer was inhuman under such conditions. The play on the field made the post-game California Pinot Noir all the sweeter.
The upset has been well heralded across the land and still is played on Sports Center nightly. The Yard received congratulatory calls from associates all week complimenting us on being in attendance. Not sure what our attendance had to do with the outcome but we were gracious and accepting. As the pundits at ESPN dissect the Oklahoma Texas game, the UCLA game is always the first thing mentioned. It has been a good week because the Bruins rarely are mentioned on ESPN and never in a positive light.
The Pac-10 is better this year, much better. UCLA had not been part of that discussion prior to 5:15 PM CST last Saturday. We are not sure they are now but we will take the upset. It was not just that Texas lost to a 15 point underdog from the West Coast. They lost to the team picked to and who may still finish 8th in the conference. They lost by 22 points at home with their only touchdown coming in the waning minutes of this lost Texan afternoon to said team. That was a Texan meltdown that took some of the sting out of our aforementioned Stanford experience.
Longhorn fan can take solace. UCLA might have exposed their weaknesses to the nation and Mack Brown is a good enough coach to learn from that. Longhorn fan should thank UCLA. The Bruins have been there for Texas for over thirteen years helping show Longhorn nation the way and the light. In 1997, while the Longhorn’s rich history was muddling through John Mackovic’s tenure as head coach, the golden era of UCLA intersected. Gunslinger Cade McNown was riding success he would never see again. The same could be said for UCLA head football coach Bob Toledo. UCLA was in the BCS mix before the BCS had fully evolved. Major Applewhite was the starting QB for Texas that day. McNown threw for five 1st half touchdowns on the way to a 66-3 UCLA victory. It was the last time UCLA played in Austin and still remains the worst home loss in UT history. The moral to the story is that loss led the way to Mackovic being fired and current Texas coaching legend Mack Brown being hired. Without UCLA’s bitch slapping that Saturday in 1997 Mack 1 might not have been sacked for Mack 2. Y’all are welcome.
UCLA’s upset victory has also helped compartmentalize the disaster at the Ravine. Baseball season was quietly boxed up and stuffed in the attic a few weeks back. The only thing left to discuss is Jamie and Frank’s trial and the need for another starting pitcher in 2011. Joe is gone and we withhold judgment on Don Mattingly until he loses his first game. Oh wait! He did that this year with that second trip to the mound against the hated ones. We will still withhold judgment on Donnie until then. We would suggest he lose the soul patch. We let Phil grow that little facial triangle under his lip for a few seasons but he was piling up championships. The Dodger manager has no such mulligan.
The Phillies are our new team. They look ready to return to their 3rd straight World Series and they have the pitching to beat down all comers. They should win their second title in three years in the coming weeks. The Cincinnati Reds are a great story and to clinch their post season berth with a walk off home run is great karma. They do not have the pitching to beat all comers and they are just happy to make the playoffs. It will be a short stay. Ditto Rangers.
We root for the Devil Rays to beat the Evil Empire in the Bronx. They might have the pitching but they do not have the support. The Devil Rays are in first place in arguably the best division in baseball. Monday night only 12,421 people in Tampa could find nothing better to do than go to their game against the Orioles. The Dodgers have been out of the pennant race since early August and still draw 35,000 per night. The Rays gave away 20,000 tickets for Tuesday night’s game so the cell phones would not echo through the stadium and disrupt play.
The Yankees are stumbling to the finish line and besides Sabathia and possibly Petite, they look beatable and the Rays have been beating them. Yard memory does not recall the Yankees winners of 25 titles breaking out the champagne for winning the wild card as they did Tuesday night in Toronto…bad karma.
Back Stretch: When Secretariat and Affirmed were retired to stud after their glory years at the track had ended, it was what champion stallions do. It was a great gig and they prospered in their procreation. This week it was announced that filly Rachael Alexandra would be retired to the spawning ranch. She was the 2009 Horse of the Year. Apparently, Curlin is going to come a calling to mate with her and produce a progeny to win the Triple Crown from the DNA of these two Preakness winners. We are not sure why but that sounded sort of creepy for Rache. What if she does not like Curlin, does she still have to put out? What if he is a player like Secretariat was and is working the rest of the stable while she is with child? What if she just wants a simple life in the burbs?
The football game was a placeholder for the weekend. It was more about the good times than the gutting that the Bruins were expected to receive before, after and during the coin toss. The outcome had been forecasted and the only decisions were dinner reservations. Extensive preparation had been made at the Yard to insulate our fragile psyche from another 1-3 start of the football season. It sounded like a good idea to go to Kansas State and it was fun. We thought a win was possible but a loss was not a lost season. BCS Bowls games are not one of the annual football objectives in Westwood. The Stanford game was a miserable loss. The entire team, coaching staff, and fan base had a monumental meltdown that night in the 35-0 thrashing. The Houston win was a surprise actually any win is a surprise!
This past weekend, with the Eyes of Texas serenading the stadium, their beloved Longhorn steer Bevo in his corral, and the victory cannon ready to roar, the Longhorns welcomed the Bruins for their tune up game before the Red River Shootout with Oklahoma this weekend. Austin was a better draw for Bruin travel than Manhattan, KS even though the chance of a victory was higher in the Little Apple. The 91 degrees of wet Austin heat ensconced at 80% humidity was slow torture. The lack of stadium beer was inhuman under such conditions. The play on the field made the post-game California Pinot Noir all the sweeter.
The upset has been well heralded across the land and still is played on Sports Center nightly. The Yard received congratulatory calls from associates all week complimenting us on being in attendance. Not sure what our attendance had to do with the outcome but we were gracious and accepting. As the pundits at ESPN dissect the Oklahoma Texas game, the UCLA game is always the first thing mentioned. It has been a good week because the Bruins rarely are mentioned on ESPN and never in a positive light.
The Pac-10 is better this year, much better. UCLA had not been part of that discussion prior to 5:15 PM CST last Saturday. We are not sure they are now but we will take the upset. It was not just that Texas lost to a 15 point underdog from the West Coast. They lost to the team picked to and who may still finish 8th in the conference. They lost by 22 points at home with their only touchdown coming in the waning minutes of this lost Texan afternoon to said team. That was a Texan meltdown that took some of the sting out of our aforementioned Stanford experience.
Longhorn fan can take solace. UCLA might have exposed their weaknesses to the nation and Mack Brown is a good enough coach to learn from that. Longhorn fan should thank UCLA. The Bruins have been there for Texas for over thirteen years helping show Longhorn nation the way and the light. In 1997, while the Longhorn’s rich history was muddling through John Mackovic’s tenure as head coach, the golden era of UCLA intersected. Gunslinger Cade McNown was riding success he would never see again. The same could be said for UCLA head football coach Bob Toledo. UCLA was in the BCS mix before the BCS had fully evolved. Major Applewhite was the starting QB for Texas that day. McNown threw for five 1st half touchdowns on the way to a 66-3 UCLA victory. It was the last time UCLA played in Austin and still remains the worst home loss in UT history. The moral to the story is that loss led the way to Mackovic being fired and current Texas coaching legend Mack Brown being hired. Without UCLA’s bitch slapping that Saturday in 1997 Mack 1 might not have been sacked for Mack 2. Y’all are welcome.
UCLA’s upset victory has also helped compartmentalize the disaster at the Ravine. Baseball season was quietly boxed up and stuffed in the attic a few weeks back. The only thing left to discuss is Jamie and Frank’s trial and the need for another starting pitcher in 2011. Joe is gone and we withhold judgment on Don Mattingly until he loses his first game. Oh wait! He did that this year with that second trip to the mound against the hated ones. We will still withhold judgment on Donnie until then. We would suggest he lose the soul patch. We let Phil grow that little facial triangle under his lip for a few seasons but he was piling up championships. The Dodger manager has no such mulligan.
The Phillies are our new team. They look ready to return to their 3rd straight World Series and they have the pitching to beat down all comers. They should win their second title in three years in the coming weeks. The Cincinnati Reds are a great story and to clinch their post season berth with a walk off home run is great karma. They do not have the pitching to beat all comers and they are just happy to make the playoffs. It will be a short stay. Ditto Rangers.
We root for the Devil Rays to beat the Evil Empire in the Bronx. They might have the pitching but they do not have the support. The Devil Rays are in first place in arguably the best division in baseball. Monday night only 12,421 people in Tampa could find nothing better to do than go to their game against the Orioles. The Dodgers have been out of the pennant race since early August and still draw 35,000 per night. The Rays gave away 20,000 tickets for Tuesday night’s game so the cell phones would not echo through the stadium and disrupt play.
The Yankees are stumbling to the finish line and besides Sabathia and possibly Petite, they look beatable and the Rays have been beating them. Yard memory does not recall the Yankees winners of 25 titles breaking out the champagne for winning the wild card as they did Tuesday night in Toronto…bad karma.
Back Stretch: When Secretariat and Affirmed were retired to stud after their glory years at the track had ended, it was what champion stallions do. It was a great gig and they prospered in their procreation. This week it was announced that filly Rachael Alexandra would be retired to the spawning ranch. She was the 2009 Horse of the Year. Apparently, Curlin is going to come a calling to mate with her and produce a progeny to win the Triple Crown from the DNA of these two Preakness winners. We are not sure why but that sounded sort of creepy for Rache. What if she does not like Curlin, does she still have to put out? What if he is a player like Secretariat was and is working the rest of the stable while she is with child? What if she just wants a simple life in the burbs?
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