Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Article to Remember

I'm posting this SI article here because I want to have it to reference when the dipshit is wrong. I can't believe people get paid to write such garbage. National coverage has really suffered from the internet, while local has gotten alot better. This dude can kiss my ass if he thinks the Bucs are just going to fall out of the Playoff picture, just because he says so. Hopefully the Bucs knock off the Saints this week and put this guy's B.S. out in the dung pile where it belongs.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Nice wins

The Blue Devils knocked off Montana by 20 yesterday. I hadn't heard that Paulus hurt his forearm so Smith had to take up the slack at point. Apparently, the squad did well anyway in a game that I don't think could be seen too far from Durham on TV.

The Bucs laid an egg in the first quarter and got down 17-0 before roaring out in the 2nd to take the lead before halftime. A punt return by Clifton Smith and a INT return by Ronde pretty much sealed the deal after that for a 38-20 win. It was a nice victory, ugly in some ways, but a win none the less. 8-3 is nothing to sniff at, and with the Falcons downing the Panthers, the Bucs are tied for the division lead.

Oh, and I love how the Cowboys beat a team they were supposed to in the 3-8 49ers, and now they are back and the press is preaching how good they are now. If it wasn't for the slumping Redskins and the referees against the Bucs, they'd be dead in the water. So, now they face Seattle, another team they are supposed to beat and we'll have to listen to all the bullshit about how they've turned it around, not mentioning they really haven't played anybody good to get those wins. I guess that'll be ok though because I see at least two more losses for them in the near future - the Giant and Steelers. They might make it three, but hey, I'm not an talking head expert on TV.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Devils take the 2K

The Blue Devils coasted rather easily over Michigan tonight for the 2K Championship, 71-56. The two teams will matchup again on the Wolverine's floor December 6th, so we'll see them again. Next up for the Dukies is Montana on Sunday @ noon CST. They played well tonight with solid efforts all around. It looks like the team is beginning to gel some now and get into a groove. Let's hope that continues.

Duke gets it rollin'

After another slow start with a crapload of turnovers in the first half, the Dukies got it going in the second half against Southern Illinois last night to win 83-58 at Madison Square Garden. Here's some highlights and behind the scenes goodness courtesy of Blue Planet:



The Blue Devils take on the Michigan Wolverines, who upset #4 UCLA last night, in the Chamionship game of the 2K Sports Classic Benefiting Coaches Versus Cancer tournament. Tip is at 6:30 CST on ESPN2.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Coco to KC and Bucs IR grows

It appears via MLB's Hot Stove Report that Coco Crisp has been traded to Kansas City for reliever Ramon Ramirez. That adds depth to the bullpen and clears up some of the log jam in the outfield. Personally, I like the move. Can a trade of Lugo to the Tigers be next? It would be nice to add Robertson to the starting staff.

Earnest Graham and Geno Hayes were placed on Injured Reserve today. The Bucs brought back LB Matt McCoy and signed RB Noah Herron to the team to fill the roster. It looks like more work for the Caddy and Dunn this week. At least it is against the Lions. Yeah, it'll probably come down to a last second field goal by Bryant. Like the wife says, "The Bucs can never make it easy, can they?" Not usually, but lets hope they do this week.

Stupid writer, but thats not a real shock...is it?

I was reading more on Pedroia's MVP award win and came across this quote from Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News in an article from bostondirtdogs.com. He was the only writer not to include Pedie on his ballot...at all:

Morneau and Youkilis were the only players named on all ballots. Pedroia was left off one ballot entirely -- by Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News, who gave Youkilis his first-place vote.

"Obviously, I was wrong in my opinion in this situation," Grant told the Globe's Tony Massarotti. "This year, I think I may have tended to value power numbers over the intangibles. I may have focused too much on the statistical analysis. As I continued to weigh that, Dustin dropped further and further on my list, but I think what was proven today was that I was wrong."

What a dumbass! Here's an even more focused article on his gaffe. I guess the guy is used to talking down to Jerry Jones' level.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

M-V-P! M-V-P! M-V-P!

Dustin Pedroia was named 2008 AL Most Valuable Player today! How 'bout dem apples! Way to go Pedie, and well deserved.

He Gave Plenty

John Lynch retired yesterday. One of his key ponderings was if he gave the game as much as it gave him. I think he gave it more than enough. The NFL wouldn't have been the same without John Lynch around. Now he heads off to work for FOX starting this weekend with the Minnesota-Jacksonville game. To #47, all the best!

Friday, November 14, 2008

Ole #47 to retire

Word out of One Buc Place is a news conference has been scheduled for 3:00pm Monday when John Lynch will announce his retirement as a Buccaneer. It was just last month when Mike Alstott was honored, now its time to start planning one for John. Salute to #47. Definitely one of the greats!

I miss Sports Night

It doesn't seem that long ago, but there once was a TV Show called "Sports Night". It was a late 90's show that was written by Aaron Sorkin before he started writing scripts for "The West Wing". I love Sorkin's stuff. It's witty, funny, and offers the actors the challenge of snap quick dialogue and scenes that travels through different sets and rooms. The downside is apparently most of America, and network TV brass, can't keep up with the fast pace. Its too smart for them. People would just rather sit in front of their TVs stoned I guess. (Danny steps down from soapbox).

Kenny Mayne from ESPN has this new digital show, Mayne Street, that is hilarious, with similar tones from the Sports Night days. You can tell that Aaron Sorkin got the idea for Sports Night from watching ESPN Sports Center and seeing the camaraderie between Keith Olbermann and Dan Patrick back in the day. Below is the clip from the first episode of Mayne Street which hit home with me....and made me cry....from laughter.



Thanks to Television without Pity, I noticed there is a new DVD set of Sports Night out now with a significant amount of extras and recognition of what a fine show it was. Too bad good shows like this, "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip", are still not kept around to provide solid, smart entertainment anymore. I guess there's all that quality television in reality and game shows instead.

Pedie is Silver too!

Dustin Pedroia was honored with the AL Silver Slugger Award at Second Base yesterday. The dude is awesome! Below is a except from the ESPN Mike & Mike show touting Pedroia's MVP song, as well as one for another of the Red Sox too:



Funny stuff!

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Durham Regional Champions

Ok, everybody...left to right here....all together now..... "Ooooooo....Ahhhhhh".

Very good! Well done!
Oh, the joy of preseason tournaments. Most, if not all, of the Monster sized schools get to pick on the little guys. The press either over hypes the winners as the best they've seen or hammers them for playing sub-standard competition. This is more evident this time of year in College Football than Basketball, when the RPI comes out for the Big Dance in March. No matter, the Blue Devils put a whuppin' on Georgia Southern last night, 97-54. There.

The only intrigue was whether the Dukies would top the century mark or not. Without some freshman hotdogging by Elliott Williams, they would have. The coaching staff gave him some stern looks after he misfired on a behind-the-back pass across court that would've been an easy assist to Plumlee. The guy looks to be confident and he'll need to be to take on the tough competition in the ACC this winter. But after his 360 dunk on Monday, and the errant pass last night, he should tone it down and focus on making the play, and not showboating. Acts like that are a sure way to get roughed up in conference play down the road. Leave that crap to the buffoons in powder baby blue from Chapel Hill.

Revving up the Caddy

Carnell "Cadillac" Williams has been officially activated off the PUP list today. It was an expected move, and it was just a question of who to drop. Micheal Bennett was that answer. It's hard to believe its been 490 days since he last ran for the Bucs when he injured his knee vs. the Panthers. Now we'll see how it goes since Dunn and Graham are banged up. I got to admit, I'm alittle emotional about it. Its good to see him able to make it back to the field.

Also, I really liked the report on the Veteran's Day Pros-vs-Joes event. As a veteran myself, I know it really means alot to be able to communicate back home and keep up with whats going on with the family, and letting them know you're ok. Kudos to the Bucs brass for hosting the event, and thanks to those out there continuing to protect our freedom.

A Few Red Sox notes

Youk got married the other day. Lester's is in January.

Jon Lester was recieved the 2008 Hutch Award given to the Major League Baseball player who best exemplifies the honor, courage and dedication of baseball great Fred Hutchinson, both on and off the field.

Jacoby Ellsbury was honored with the James "Cool Papa" Bell award as the AL Stolen Base champion.

Red Sox Bench Coach Brad Mills is in Seattle to interview for the Seattle Mariners managerial position. John Farrell is not.

From a week or so ago, Kevin Youkilis won the 2008 AL Hank Aaron Award for the American League's best offensive performance.

The AL MVP should be announced soon, so we just might have another one or few to add to the list later on.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

One down

The Blue Devils beat the Blue Hose last night 80-49 in the first game of the college basketball season. They take on Georgia Southern tonight to finish off the Durham region of the 2K Sports Classic Benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer tournament. Game time is 8:00pm on ESPNU.

I only watched the first half of this one. The kids seemed to play tight and never seemed to get a good rhythm going offensively. I would blame that on first game jitters and pressing alittle too hard to make a statement. The defense was there as Coach K would demand it be. I don't think we'll get a real sense of what this team will be like until they get a couple of games under their belt, and play more together. Then, we'll see the learning and developing process begin to take place as they grow through the season. I love that about college basketball.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Blue Devils get it started Tonight!

The Dukies tipoff the 2008/09 campaign tonight vs. Presbyterian at 6pm CST on ESPNU. The winner tonight matches up tomorrow night at 8pm CST vs. the winner of Georgia Southern and Houston. The tournament is the 2K Sports Classic Benefiting Coaches Versus Cancer and the Devils are 0-2 in their history in it.

I'm ready to get the college basketball season started. After following baseball so close this year, there's very little to fill in the gaps during the week. All that was made worse this past week with the Bucs having their bye week. It should be interesting to see the effect, if any, of the 3 point line being moved out further this season. I'm sure we'll still see plenty of 3's from the Dukies. Lets get it started!

Friday, November 7, 2008

Pedie is Golden

Dustin Pedroia was honored with the 2008 Gold Glove at Second Base on Thursday. Since Craig Biggio was my all-time favorite player, it's awesome that my current favorite player can be recognized similiarly. Pedie's quoted courtesy of WEEI:

“I really didn’t think about it,” he said of winning the award. “I take pride in my defense, it’s a huge part of my game. In fact, my biggest (priority) is defense. I need to be extremely important to our pitching staff. I put in a ton of time with Luis Alicea and Alex Cora from Day One. It’s only my second year playing second base. I took extra ground balls every single day and it definitely paid off.”

Thursday, November 6, 2008

I hate "bye weeks"

The Bucs are off this weekend. Its good so they can heal up some for the second half of the season, but for their fans, there's no alot going on. Yawn! What else is going on?

Word is that the Dodgers have an offer on the table to Manny Ramirez for $25 million a year. The length of the contract still has to be worked out, and Scott Boras wants to tap a few team GMs on the shoulder first to see if they're willing to pay more for longer.

The Blue Devils won an exhibition game against Lenoir-Rhyne last night, 95-42. Coach K was none too happy with the crowd turnout despite the game's exhibition status. Cameron is like Fenway in the aspect of it's cathedral-ness. If you got tickets, you got to go. Its that big of a deal. College basketball is just around the corner with some of the preseason tournaments to tip off in the next couple of weeks. The Dukies start next Monday vs. Presbyterian in the 2K Sports Classic. Coverage should be on ESPNU at 6pm CST.

Oh, and a congratulations for Cyn, formerly the Red Sox Chick, over at "Toeing the Rubber" for winning the WEEI.com's "Next Great Sports Blogger" contest. She was one of ten finalists and will get to post a blog for WEEI.com. It's great to see good things happen for good people. She's a great and entertaining writer, so check her blogs out.

On the politics front, everyone knows of the historic win by Obama Tuesday night. I, too, was happy with the result. Now lets see if he can start digging us out of the deep hole Bush got us in. Black or white, male or female, it doesn't matter to me as long as you are a strong leader. I think we have one now, and he's got one helluva job ahead of him.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Late Action Weekend

I watched alot of the second half of the UT-Texas Tech game Saturday. It was one of those times where you have to slow down and watch the car wreck. When UT came back and took the lead late in the game, I began to recover from my own shock, and not be worried about all of the Longhorn fans, family, and friends. However, as you probably know, Tech went down and scored a last second TD to beat the then-#1 Longhorns.

Geez, I was really worried about Longhorn fans then, especially my brother-in-law. That was the type of shock that causes fans to hop of bandwagons for the season, if not forever, and some to swear of sports altogether. Thank God there weren't any reports of students jumping off the Congress bridge and people seem to be dealing with it. The therapists in town will probably see a financial bump. At least somebody is these days.

Speaking of shock, the Bucs about did me in Sunday. They had no business winning a game they played so poorly in. All I could say for the majority of the game was WTF is going on. KC isn't that good and they were whuppin' the Bucs in all phases of the game. Luckily, they were able to turn it around and get some drives late for scores, including a late 2 point conversion pass to Alex Smith. His knee really seemed to get twisted there, so hopefully he'll be ok. That had to be one of the weirdest Buc games I can remember. It was definitely a big win to keep close to Carolina, and one we can definitely say was stolen.

Congrads to Coach Gruden for becoming the Bucs all-time winning coach with his 57th victory. Here's to hoping #58 doesn't take very long or be a rough as this past weekend one was.