Well, I've gotten the flat screens installed on the walls, but something is missing.  Perhaps paying the electric bill would help.  The Tavern has been back in business for a week now and the first goon looking for "protection money" just left the room, courtesy of one of our favorite locals...seems ADF thought the dude was macking on his lady friend.  Congrats AverageDetFan, the best of everything to you. And here, have a coupon for 25% off your next Duffs after you purchase 5 at the regular price. On another, but related note,  As of yesterday, I celebrated by 12th anniversary.  Our man BOB celebrated 25 years last week, so we're really running the gamut here.  

I was pretty sure the opening of the baseball season would be a referendum of the entirety of the season.  I mean, when was the last time the Red Sox and Yankees were slated to compete for LAST in the division?  So, the beginning of the season turned out okay for the good guys, and by good guys I mean the guys wearing the Red Sox uniform.  Because, let’s face it, for me it’s all about the local laundry.

I was at a client this week and their office overlooks the Charles River in Boston.  Site of the Head of the Charles Regatta…in the near distance was the MIT dome.  To the left was the Citgo sign that lights up Kenmore Square in all of those Sox replays on ESPN.  Simply amazing…and they were embarrassed the terrace wasn’t open yet.  How many of us should have such working conditions as to have to bear not being able to people watch for during lunch hour from the terrace?  I work with a similarly situated company in Atlanta – they actually get a discount on their lease because their view is “obstructed.” How?  There’s a railing that obstructs their view of the skyline.  I wonder if I should call Bank of America and complain they should reduce my mortgage interest rate because if I sit on my deck, the neighbors pass judgment on my pajamas.

My least junior Mo has been entertaining college acceptances.  Truly, it’s been a hard time for me – accepting that my oldest was a high school student has taken me 4-years, now I have to accept that she’s going to college come the fall.  There’s always a lot to consider when choosing schools.  Like, say, who leads the school basketball program – especially when the school you’re choosing really only has a basketball team.  I’m sure there are fathers all over this great land weighing the same issues this one is – where to go, majors, financial aid…and well, how the AD is going to handle a student bullying issue.

So we find ourselves at Rutgers this week, where Mike Rice was shown the door after a video surfaced of him berating  players (oh, by the way, when I say player I do mean “student”) with homophobic slurs and kicking them.   Oh, and by the way, this behavior had been investigated earlier where Rice was fined and suspended.  I’m all for second chances – truly – but when we’re talking about kids, and certainly when we’re talking about people  in whom we entrust leadership positions to our kids, there has to be a high standard.  Bob Knight coached at Indiana for close to 30 years – I suspect largely because 1) he was a winner and 2) cell phone cameras were still in the future.  Rice had no such advantage…on either count. 

Don’t get me wrong – I LOVE football.  Really.  But, as I made clear a few weeks back, I think the NFL has a credibility problem.  Specifically, they’re mitigating liability through deliberately slow research and holding back what the public and scientific community knows and understands about head injury.  They make adjustments to the game on the basis of sponsorships and rule changes.  The latest announcement from the No Fun League is that they’ll start allowing cameras in the locker room.  The XFL remains only in our memories (“HE HATE ME”), but at least one vestage remains: in locker room cameras.  They nibble around the edges instead of dealing with the issues of import to the game.  That’s what cheeses me off.  Seriously?  Let’s have an authentic game, and we won’t have to worry about the crap in the locker rooms.

A parting shot:  The Bruins acquired Jaromir Jagr this week…only about 20 years too late.  I was going to grad school in Pittsburgh in the early 90’s when the Pens were hot and Jagr was winning Stanley Cups.  To acquire a guy that’s officially protected under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act as being over 40 to fill a need is a scary proposition.  God bless the man that he’s playing professional hockey after the age of 40 (good god, I can barely climb a flight of stairs), but this isn’t exactly a move that’ll put the B’s over the top.  Of course, in his first game, he scored the games lone goal to give the B's 3-points, so I could be wrong, but...it's risky putting your hopes on old guys.  

Here's is the VIDEO of now former Rutgers basketball coach, Mike Rice...Was Rutgers right to shit-can him?

Is his coaching style really "Abusive"? 

Do you really think he's the only coach that behaves like this?

Today ScottJax talks about Baseball Digest, Sports Weekly and more in this weeks edition of This and That….

I want to wish all the Gabbers a very Happy Thanksgiving.

Mrs. ScottJax is making me my favorite meal, veal parmesan for dinner. I am not a turkey eater.

As long as Jerry Jones has a hand in everything that goes on, the Dallas Cowboys will never win a Super Bowl. He is the modern version of Al Davis.

I enjoyed reading baseball digest when I was a kid. Every month I would go to the local candy store and at the newspaper/magazine section I would pick up my copy and read it from cover to cover. My favorite part of the Digest was “fans speak out.“ Fans would ask questions and the folks at Baseball Digest would come up with the answer and the statistics to back it up. When I joined the Navy I stopped reading the Digest. But recently I was at Publix’s supermarket at the magazine section and I notice they had the Baseball Digest, and so I purchased it.

I again read it from cover to cover, but there are differences with it now. First it is printed 6 times a year, the Digest is now printed in color, and scouting was added to it (it might have something to do with Baseball Digest merging with ProScouting). By the way, “fans speak out,” the crossword puzzle, baseball rules and baseball quick pick are still in the digest.

Another magazine that I enjoy is Sports Weekly.

When it first began, in 1991, it was called “Baseball Weekly” and as it suggests it strictly covered baseball. It was the last sports magazine to have the box scores of every MLB game. Beginning September 4, 2002, the name was changed to “Sports Weekly” as it now covered the NFL in addition to continuing coverage of MLB now minus the box scores.

Sports Weekly covered NASCAR for a year in 2006. But in 2007 college baseball and college football coverage was added. Now it looks like the magazine is starting to take the place of the Sporting News, as it has added college basketball and the NBA to its lineup. Now I have been a subscriber to Sports Weekly since the beginning and am glad it is picking up the slack vacated by the Sporting News.

What is your favorite sports newspaper or magazine?

Maryland, a charter member of the Atlantic Coast Conference in 1953, is leaving the ACC to join the Big-10 effective 2014-2015 academic year.

Meanwhile Rutgers University is leaving the Big East to join Maryland in the Big-10.

Till Next Time

Scott　

My ratings didn’t join the SEC trifecta trend. By the way, I added another proposal to my SEC realignment blog. It wouldn’t help out the balance of power though. I also updated my LSU-Ole Miss Rivalry blog.

Alabama should surpass Oklahoma St. next week if they beat Auburn. But if the Tide is idle the following week and the Cowboys defeat the Sooners, Oklahoma St. would resume its #2 spot. Remember that late losses are penalized in the polls but not here. As to #3, Texas A&M isn’t as good as Penn St. is, so that’s one reason Arkansas is a bit behind Alabama. Also, of course, Arkansas’s loss to Alabama hurts it more than Alabama’s loss to LSU hurts the Tide. Alabama also gets credit for a high-quality win over Arkansas.

Another conceptual difference from the polls is you aren’t penalized by losing spots but by losing points. Oklahoma St. did lose about .12 for losing to Iowa St., but since there was a big gap and Alabama only played Georgia Southern, that wasn’t enough to move ahead. Oklahoma, who also might have had a chance to move ahead, lost. Next after Oklahoma was Oregon, who also lost. It’s not at all a typical result to lose to an un-ranked team and stay #2, but this wasn’t a typical weekend.

But there was a lot of movement after the top three because the next few teams were really close together, and they still are. It’s hard to predict whether beating LSU followed by beating Georgia would be enough for Arkansas to be #1 or #2, but it certainly seems possible, particularly if Alabama beats Auburn and Georgia beats Georgia Tech. There would also be some benefit with SEC wins over Wake Forest, Florida St., and Clemson. Arkansas did play Vandy (who will be the team to play Wake) and South Carolina (who will be the team to play Clemson).

Boise St. doesn’t have much to add to its total, although of course wins by Georgia would also help the Broncos. But Wyoming is not a great team and a win over New Mexico wouldn’t be much better than a bye week.

Houston can significantly improve its rating with wins at Tulsa and if they win that, likely Southern Miss in the CUSA championship game. USM wouldn’t be as good of a win now that the Golden Eagles have lost to UAB. Both would be would be tougher games than any Houston have had so far, and Houston was fortunate to beat UCLA (win at home by 4) and Louisiana Tech (win at home by 1) in the early going.

Virginia Tech shouldn’t be overlooked either. They only have the loss to Clemson, which they could redeem in the ACC Championship game, if they can beat Virginia for the ACC Coastal division next week. The ’Hoos last defeated the Hokies in 2003.

I’m disappointed in the voters for putting Stanford 4th, , although I am not surprised. I hope whatever happens (apart from the Cardinal winning the Pac-12 and the only other BCS-conference options having two losses apiece), the voters have the good sense not to put a team with a 23-point home loss in mid-November in the BCS title game. That’s just an echo of Nebraska in 2001 if that happens.

Continue reading for discussion of other teams and the full ratings/rankings.

LSU note: This is only the Tigers’ fourth 8-0 start (1973, 1958, and 1908). See also the updated LSU/Auburn edition to my Rivalry Series.  I'm trying not to be too happy about Wisconsin and Oklahoma.

Big East/ACC recombination

I’ve already gotten some responses to the first section along the lines of “What about West Virginia? Virginia Tech?” I put them both in this group. As I did before, I’m going to have the two divisions both vertical next to each other with the permanent rivals (other-division team to play every year) paired horizontally.

Miami-BC
Va. Tech-WVU
Virginia-Maryland
USF-Rutgers
UNC-Syracuse
Duke-Army
Wake-Navy
NCS-Connecticut

It’s not the best set-up for West Virginia admittedly, but I think they would have good rivalries with Virginia Tech, Maryland, and Navy. I don’t think they’d be much better off staying in the current Big East with Pitt leaving. I was a little haphazard with the last 5 permanent rivalries, but they wouldn’t really be necessary. The teams could alternate over time. Virginia and Va. Tech could swap occasionally. Breaking up Miami and BC would not be allowed as long as Doug Flutie is alive though. I’m somewhat kidding. You could argue the two Florida teams don’t belong at all, but I’m OK with allowing for custom to prevail over geography in some places.

Full blog, including Big Ten +2 +4