Gives me a headache...

All of the possible baseball scenarios are CRAZY! I can hardly follow all of the possible scenarios with only 1 game left. Here is a good NL link:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21054345/

I'm not quite sure they have it all covered. AL is playing for home field, also important, but far less confusing (head-to-head records).

It's gonna be a crazy day.

Happy Birthday!

Happy early birthday to my mom - the breadmaker!

You're the best! Thanks for the recent shipment of bread and chocolate.

Tour de Banned

"I'm innocent and we proved I'm innocent"

That was the quote by Floyd Landis after the ruling that he would be banned and forced to give up his Tour victory. I guess that the arbitrators were not quite as convinced.

He still has the opportunity to file an appeal...I just hope he goes away.

Catching up...

So Lori requested my input on the crazy catch from last weekends Penn State game. First let me mention that my cousins Todd and Jeff came down for Buffalo for the game. I wouldn't let them cheer for UB in the Penn State student section, but I did let Jeff have his moment when UB took the early 3-0 lead.

The Jordan Norwood - local kid by the way - catch was pretty crazy and I'm still a little skeptical of if he really caught it. I didn't get a great view from my seat and I'll tell you why. Sometimes our quarterback - Anthony Morelli - makes some really bad decisions with the ball. Worse than most quarterbacks. So when he normally lets go of the ball, the student section takes a collective gasp. When he makes a bad decision, the crowd really gets on him. On that throw that Norwood 'caught' I was somewhat distracted by all the funny Morelli shots that I heard around me. I can just remember everyone going from a "what was that" look to celebrating the touchdown. Pretty funny.



I've been meaning to write about the Rockies for a while. They are hanging tough and it is mainly because of - wait for it - the best and most under-rated 'under the radar' player in the league. While Matt Holliday had a little bit of a coming out party at the All-Star game this year, he is not getting the street cred for the incredible numbers he has been putting up. Let's take a look:

Batting Average - .339
Home Runs - 35
RBIs - 127
Runs - 110

That would be first in the NL in batting average and RBIs and fourth in home runs. He's sniffing around a Triple Crown! I raise the beer I'm about to grab out of the fridge to Matt Holliday! And the Rocks are hanging around the Wild Card race, but they're gonna need to be hot down the stretch.

Let's hope the Pokes can turn it around this weekend as the travel closer to me to take on University of Ohio. There isn't much of a chance of me waking up Friday morning and trying to go to the game, but there is a small one!

GO POKES!

Sam Bowie 2.0

I'm sitting here watching the Portland Trailblazers News Conference about Greg Oden missing the entire upcoming season after having microfacture surgery. The Sports Guy has a post comparing this situation to the Sam Bowie pick over MJ. Good thing the Blazers took the safe pick with Oden.

The funniest thing I've heard so far:

"We're lucky to have a player who cares about the organization this much."

The team general manager said this when he remarked that Oden was so upset about missing the entire season. I think that I would rather have someone like Allen Iverson ("We're talking about practice? Not a game, practice") out there on the court than someone who really cares about the organization sitting out the whole year. And, there is no given on the comeback from this type of surgery. It took Amare Stoudemire like 2 years to really recover from this surgery. If Durant develops a fade away jumper and goes on the rule the league, we're all gonna be feeling a strange sense of deja vu in about 20 years.

Ok, someone just asked the general manager how the surgery went. His response was something along these lines:

"If there is a silver lining, his knees look good cartilage wise, he's young, there wasn't a lot of flaking, it was as clean as they had seen."

Trust me Portland, there is no silver lining on this one. Not when your future franchise guy goes in for cartilage surgery and ends up having micro fracture surgery.

One last thought. Zach Randolph and Darius Miles both had the same surgery. What's in the water in Portland?

Top 5 Sporting Events

Since last weekends Penn State v. Notre Dame game I've been thinking a lot about this. So my challenge to you, name the Top 5 sporting events that you have seen - IN PERSON. These can be at any level. However, they can only be one game. You can't name a tournament of some sort, you must pick a particular game. Here are my 5:

5. 2 Rows behind the penalty box for the Avs v. Tampa Bay Lightning
4. Penn State taking down Notre Dame in front of the second biggest crowd at Beaver Stadium (and everyone in white)
3. The 2007 Frozen Four Championship Game
2. Wyoming beating UCLA in the Las Vegas Bowl
1. Syracuse beating Kansas in the Regional Finals of the 1996 NCAA tournament.

Ankiel Update

I've been meaning to post a Rick Ankiel update since I first posted about his comeback. So here has what has been happening lately for the comeback kid:

In 29 games with the Cardinals, Ankiel is batting .301, with 29 RBIs and 9 HRs. He also has 3 outfield assists.

However, the big news with Ankiel was the story that he received shipments of human growth hormone in 2004. Personally, since we live in a time that every athlete that accomplishes anything is automatically under a scrutiny of suspicion, what Ankiel has accomplished this year is in no way lessoned by this story.

I still want his jersey! And I hope he makes the Opening Day roster next year, as it looks like the defending champs have fallen out of the NL Central race.

Sorry Charlie

Check out my pictures from the Penn State game yesterday. Here is one of my favorites:



It was the most intense thing I have ever witnessed. The crowd was so crazy. My friend Anna - a UW grad now living in Virginia Beach - bought a ticket and came up for the game. It was cool to be able to share the insanity that is a Penn State game.

The only downside was that I had to play a flag football game this morning and was not in the best condition. However, I did take our first offensive play to the house on a 60 yard catch and run...barely! I was looking for the oxygen after that one! Much like Penn State, our team put up a dominating performance today. With the Pokes victory it was another good football weekend. Can somebody get me a Horns update?

110,078

The announced attendance at the Penn State v. Notre Dame game was 110,078. The second largest crowd in the history of Beaver Stadium.

Little Jimmy Clausen couldn't handle the crowd. I took a gang of pictures that I'll post later on.

GO POKES!!!! 2-0

515,004 vs. 107,678

Curse or no curse, this past weekend brought about the start of one of my favorite sports. The first full weekend of college football ranks pretty high on my list of anticipated season starts. Opening day in baseball is probably at the top, but then college football is tied with a host of other season openings (hockey, college basketball, NFL, and I still really enjoy the Tour even if everyone in the field cheats). But this particular weekend was probably the best college football opening I have ever had.

First of all, the Cowboys put the hammer to Virginia and avenged the heartbreaking loss of a year ago. And even better, I was able to watch about 2/3 of the game, as it was on Versus. One of the pros of having a few roommates is that we can afford digital cable. This really makes me look forward to the start of hockey. But anyways, the Pokes looked pretty good to me. The Virginia offense could not get anything going. GO POKES!

Then tiny Appalachian State goes in to the Big House (biggest stadium in the country) and stuns the world. Watching the previews of that tiny little quarterback running all over the field was pretty cool. And I loved knowing that all my friends who are Michigan fans were hiding in shame from that loss.

But the biggest shock to my college football system came from attending the Penn State v. Florida International game on Saturday. Now, State was favored by almost 40, so it seemed the only question to be answered was: Will there be a fight? FIU is infamously known for their brawl with the Hurricanes last year. But there was none of that to be had, as I believe the final score was 59-0.



I still don't think I've come to terms with the size of Beaver Stadium. Let me put it in perspective. The "official capacity" of Beaver Stadium is 107,282; the 6th largest stadium in the WORLD. The announced attendance for the game I attended was 107,678. The estimated 2006 population of the State of Wyoming was 515,004. First in our hearts, but last of the 50 States in terms of population. The two largest cities in Wyoming are Cheyenne (55,314) and Casper (52,089). The combined total of those cities is 107,403. There were 275 more people at the Penn State game Saturday than in the two largest cities in Wyoming, combined.



It was intense. And with Notre Dame coming - and tickets going for upwards of $500 - next weekend promises to be just as intense.

Here is the curse update: my computer is now up and running - with a lot of stuff yet to be replaced; my car is scheduled to go in tomorrow (I think it is the trunk cable); I got some new sunglasses; but my TV is breaking. I guess that is what I get for buying the display model. We're not out of this yet!