What a week in sports Bowl Games in overtime, The winter classic and Michigan State and Wisconsin basketball. This has been awesome. Oh yeah and there are some playoffs going on in America’s favorite League.
Let’s start with the Winter Classic , It’s has been written over and over that this is the one thing the NHL has gotten right. They also have actually marketed the game well keeping it simple to one time a year. It’s the biggest regular season game of the year. The NHL has kept it special by not oversaturating us with Winter Classic February, Winter Classic playoffs etc.. The Rangers beat Philly in a game with a little of everything including the City of Brotherly Love adding a few flurries to the atmosphere and a penalty shot to boot. I don’t like the shoot out but a penalty shot in a game is awesome! Did anybody here John Tortorella’s tirade? He went off after winning the damn game. I love John he is a throwback coach like Mike Keenan. Of course Tortorella is Massachusetts guy. Have you notice how it takes Massachusetts guys to run things in New York. Tortorella has the Rangers. Mikey Bloomberg has NYC.
Joe Torre is part of a group looking to buy the embattled Los Angeles Dodgers according to Fox Sports. Torre has stepped down from his job at MLB to pursue this. Part of me says that deal is done even though there are several groups in the running including a group of former Dodgers including Orel Hershier another person is former owner Peter Mcnally and then there is Mark Cuban in the mix as well. I think you can’t go wrong with Joe Torre.
Michigan State well Sparty has been entertaining as hell this week beating Georgia in the Outback Bowl in tripe overtime 33-30, Then beaten Wisconsin on the hardwood on a controversial play in OT 63-60. The Badgers played for the three point shot perfectly the kid took the shot un fortunately he still had the ball when the clock on the hoop expired which is the Official clock the Stadium clock had .2 seconds on it when the shot was released. The officials reviewed it 7 times and made a gutsy call not allowing the Hoop.
Then there is the Wolverines they got lucky Tuesday night as well. They scored 10 mysterious points in the last 49 seconds of the first half in the Sugar Bowl to take a 10-6 lead over V-Tech. In the end it took a 3rd string Kicker to shank one right in OT. Hey I give Frank Beamer credit for sending his first string Kicker Packing after a B and E. His second stringer earned a bus ride home for missing curfew that left the Thrid stringer in OT pressure, The kid was good all night tough way to go down. Beamer did something a lot of schools wouldn’t do sending those kids home, The U wouldn ‘t nor would Thee Ohio State University or a whole bunch of others.
The NFL Playoff Picture is set for this week and I’m really not sure from my Patriot fanboy prespective who I want the Pats playing my gut says I want Cincy and let Pittsburgh play Baltimore and let them beat each other up and than Hopefully the winner comes limping into Gillette Stadium.
The other part of me wants the Steelers and see how the Patriots are tested even an 80-90% Rothlisberger is better than anything they have faced in weeks. They can’t spot teams 17 or 21points in the playoffs and hope to succeed.
I think this is how it plays out . Tim Tebow is simply not good enough to beat the Pittsburgh Steeler defense. Sorry Denver just isn’t that good. The Steelers win. I have no clue what to think about the Houston Texans other than they are very good. I also think the Bengals are ok. I think this will be a battle and I think it maybe a toss up at QB. I have to give the Texans home field. (I love that Stadium it’s my favorite out of the Stadiums I have been to.) In the NFC I’m liking the Saints and The Falcons although the Falcons are better at home. I think the Saints could be the team that is peeking at the right time and they may win the whole thing. But we will see what happens.
One final thought This week 12 NFL playoff teams play a grand total of 11 games combined for a championship. Four teams possibly playing 3 games and 8 teams possibly playing 4 games. In Hockey and Basketball a team may have to play 28 games for a championship over a quarter of their seasons. In baseball may play up to 19 games and with the 1 game wildcard playoff new for 2012 a wildcard team may have to play 20 extra games.
All apologies for my absence. I’ve been trying to move and also very busy at work. Nonetheless, November set another record for most views in a month. I expect December and January may not keep up, but I’m optimistic about next year especially. My goal will be to hit 1000 views in a month at some point in the next year. I was going to write about Oklahoma St. versus Bama as #2, but I’ll address that if Oklahoma St. wins. I can’t see any other reasonable argument taking place.
Well, Thanksgiving has passed so now the mad Christmas rush starts...It's bad enough that stores had Christmas stuff out before Halloween, but now the crazy starts strong...Like all the nut-jobs obsessed with all the deals they can get on Black Friday...I saw this picture, and I had to use it...
I haven't been the biggest supporter of the Occupy Wall Street movement...Mainly because there was no real leadership, or focus...I got what some of the people were talking about, but it was overshadowed too much by the ass-hats that kept getting camera time...But the picture says a lot...The Occupy people were shit on for what they did...Probably by many of these fuck-stains that act like lunatics on Black Friday...Fuck that, I'd rather pat full price, or get a good Christmas Eve sale!
Now before I get into any Sports shit...Here is my REVIEW of an over-hyped, shitty, Grilled Cheese joint...What fucking assholes!
So now we move on to sports...Saturday was the big Ohio State vs. Michigan game...No I don't say Meeeeeeeechigan...I hate them, but that just looks, and sounds stupid when people do that...Now, I also hate Ohio State so I didn't really care about the game...And this year's game just wasn't as hyped as in years past, with OSU having a down year and Michigan getting themselves back on track...So I took the baby for a walk, and then we took a nap...We woke up with a minute and change left in the game...The Buckeyes lost for the first time in 7 years, or something like that...
After that I jumped online and started seeing the tweets and facebook updates...Buckeye fan blowing it off like it was no big deal...Listing their excuses why they lost...Neglecting to list that the big reason that caused so many of those small reasons was that Coach Tressel let his players break NCAA rules, tried to hide it and lied about it, and brought down a proud program in a matter of months...But Buckeye fan doesn't care...They are blogging, and tweeting, and talking about how Urban Meyer is coming to Columbus to save them...
The same Urban Meyer who had a large number of players at Florida get busted for breaking NCAA rules...The same Urban Meyer who quit twice in one year because of health reasons, and wanted to spend time with his family...So it's rumored Ohio State is throwing a huge 7 year deal at him...I wonder if he'll actually make it through that contract...Don't get me wrong, Meyer was a great coach...If you look what he did before Florida, you can see that...He made BGSU a MAC power, then he turned Utah around, and made Alex Smith a first round draft pick...But OSU fan, I see him doing one of two things...Getting your program in more trouble, or quitting in 4 years after being run down again...Oh, and of course, he actually has to take the job...So far, everything has just been speculation...
And don't give me shit for be critical of your damn teams...If you've read me before you know I'm just as honest and critical of my teams...Not all of us go through life with rose colored glasses...So with that, The Notre Dame Fighting Irish went to Stanford to take on Andrew Luck and company...And in the first half, they looked like shit...I thought it was going to be a blow out...Then coach Kelly got that stiff QB Tommy Rees out of there, and put Freshman QB Andrew Hendrix in...Hendrix is perfect for Kelly's spread offense...He runs like Tebow, but he has a fucking cannon for an arm...
Hendrix, along with help from the defense got the Irish back in the game...They lost 28-14, but at least they kept it respectable...
Sunday we put up our Christmas tree, and broke out some decorations...The kids were fired up about it...In the background, The Cleveland Browns were searching out another way to lose a game...Holy shit these receivers drop a lot of passes! Then with less then 2 minutes left...The Browns can take the lead with a field goal...And for the second time in 3 weeks, Butch Davis' best draft pick, long snapper, Ryan Pontbriand fucked up the snap, and Phil Dawson missed the kick...Dude use to be a clutch kicker, and now his snapper is choking and he's pushing kicks wide...Unreal!
Then the Patriots kicked the shit out of "The Dream Team" from Philly...The Eagles looked so bad, those animals in Philly are calling for Andy Reid's big fat head...What took you idiots so long...Fucking guy is grossly overrated...Oh, and as a father he produces quality kids...You know, those two drug dealing sons of his...What? Too Soon? Fuck you! Fuck him! and Fuck his criminal sons! You know what, fuck his wife and her criminal producing gash too!
Speaking of Philly shit heads...The Rangers and Flyers had a warm up for their Winter Classic match up...Lundqvist threw a shutout, and of course some punches were thrown too...
Oh, did you see the Broncos won again? That's right, the lord and savior, Tim Tebow has gotten another win under his belt...Sure, he didn't play defense...Sure he didn't play special teams, but he sure as shit is going to get all the credit from the ass-hats on ESPN and the NFL Network, and from radio talking heads...'Fucking Tebow wins another game, put his ass in the Hall of Fame!'
I know, I'm so negative...So I'll close on a positive...I tweeted a link to this video on Thanksgiving, saying how thankful I am for this little girl...I'm thankful for all my kids, and my wife, and family and friends...But she was singled out, because she was unexpected, and to be honest, for a few minutes when I first found out she was on the way, I didn't want her...Now, I can't imagine my life without her...I can't believe she's almost a year old...
(It’s not that great, but I had to put “of the Century” in there somewhere. It is pretty long though, especially if you follow the links.)
Even in the worst of years, this is my personal-favorite rivalry. I don’t remember Bear, but I remember Gene Stallings and the early 1990s, so Alabama was the gold standard for me at that time. I was also aware that LSU notoriously had trouble against the Tide. LSU ended the Tide’s 31-game unbeaten streak in 1993, but that was LSU’s only win in an 8-year period which took place right around the time I started to become an LSU fan. I vaguely recall the 1988 season, which was LSU’s previous win in the series.
Almost as big for me as that upset in 1993 (a year in which LSU finished only 5-6) was 2000, when LSU defeated the Tide in Baton Rouge for the first time since 1969. That so happened to be Nick Saban’s first year with the Tigers. Interestingly, LSU still lost to a team from Alabama in Baton Rouge that year, but it was UAB. Alabama only finished 3-8 that year and LSU finished a respectable (at the time) 8-4, but it was still huge that LSU finally got that done.
So in light of this background, I’ve had a few different takes on the LSU/Alabama series.
I’m not going to do the entire history again, but to say a couple of things about recent history, Alabama has only won once at home in this series since 1999. That was of course two years ago with the Tide on its way to a national championship. Bama won by 9, but in reality it was much closer. In total, LSU has won in Alabama 10 times since 1982 (inclusive), while the Tide has only won 4 times during that period in the series. The series is knotted at 14-14-1 overall during that time. That tells you how far ahead Alabama was before that, but that’s part of why I enjoy cheering against them. As you can imagine, I’m also sick of the suggestion that playing at home is the trump card when I still have a very fresh memory of thinking that was the only place LSU would win. Alabama is LSU’s only annual opponent against whom the Tigers are exactly .500 during that time period (Tennessee and Georgia are the other two SEC opponents in that category, although of course LSU has broken the tie against Tennessee). So that probably has helped keep the intensity of the rivalry going as well, even through all the ups and downs of these two programs.
I’m just pasting the “Series Facts” from the Rivalry entry below (to skip to the rest of the blog, click here).
Alabama leads 45-24-5, including 25-9-2 in Baton Rouge, 10-8 in Tuscaloosa, 8-5-1 in Birmingham, and 2-0 in Montgomery.
LSU only leads in Mobile (2-1-1, the last meeting in 1958, the first game of Bear Bryant’s career at Alabama and of LSU’s last undefeated season), and the two tied their only meeting in New Orleans in 1921.
Largest win: Alabama, 47-3 in 1922 (largest shutout was 33-0 in 1930 in Montgomery)
Largest LSU win: 28-0 in 1957
(The most recent shutouts were 1997 {LSU, 27-0} and 2002 {Alabama, 31-0}. There have been 16 shutout wins in the series {only 3 by LSU} as well as a 0-0 tie in 1927.)
Longest winning streak: Alabama, 11, 1971-1981
Longest unbeaten streak: Alabama, 12 (9-0-3), 1919-1945
Longest LSU winning streak: 5, 2003-2007
Longest road winning streak: Alabama, 7, 1987-1998 and 1971-1983
Longest road unbeaten streak: Alabama, 15 (14-0-1), 1971-1998
Longest LSU road winning streak: 4, 1982-1988 and 2001-2007
Longest home winning streak: Alabama, 5, 1972-80
Longest home unbeaten streak: Alabama, 8 (7-0-1), 1920-1947
(LSU has only won two in a row at home twice, 1946 & 1948 and 2004 &2006)
