College football

Posted on August 15, 2004 by Jere

The preseason college football AP rankings have come out, so I just thought I’d make a couple of observations:

1) Georgia and Texas are ranked in the top 10 again. Georgia even got 5 first place votes. A bad season by them puts them at the top of the list.

2) Cal received 744 points. That’s 743 more points than ND. If Cal finishes this season in the top 15 and ND is unranked, I’m buying season tickets next year.

3) I keep reading about how ND is playing a killer schedule. Well, according to this poll, there are 4 games against ranked opponents: Michigan, Purdue (and we know they’ll drop out), Tennessee, and USC. I don’t see a killer schedule. I see a schedule that IF they get by Mich in week 2, things might come together, and they could make a run at a NC. It’s only a killer schedule because ND likes to play State, Purdue, and BC like they’re the freaking ’88 49ers, ’87 Edmonton Oilers, and ’27 Yankees. If ND doesn’t put it together, see point 2.

4) There is only one team on the Cal schedule ranked higher than them: USC. We both know that for some reason, USC has trouble with the Bears, but they might have a little extra something this time around since the Golden children cost them half a NC. October 9th, mark your calendar.

Summer softball

Posted on July 15, 2004 by Jere

Normally I don’t like to talk about summer softball up here, but I’d just like to vent for a moment. Last year, we were mocked for having a sponsor pay for our jerseys. This year, we haven’t acquired any uniforms yet, but four other teams have. However, we’re still described as the “Evil Empire.” As much as I dislike being compared to the Yankees, I guess it means that everyone knows we’re the team to beat. And that’s fine with me.

The Bad Guys Won (Jeff Pearlman)

Posted on June 24, 2004 by Jere

[The Bad Guys Won] The rise and fall of the 1986 Mets was one of the cornerstones of my childhood. This book confirms what we already suspected: this was a team of jerks. This team made no bones about it though. They were going to beat you, and they didn’t care what you thought. Maybe they weren’t the best role models, but it sure was a fun team to watch.

Ball Four (Jim Bouton)

Posted on June 20, 2004 by Jere

[Ball Four] This is typically known as the book that changed the way we think about atheletes, i.e., they’re not infallible heros, but normal people that play a kid’s game for a living, and thus act like kids most of the time. To be honest, I thought the antics would be much crazier, and the criticism of the game’s legends (Mantle in particular) to be much harsher. I have to say this is a must read for a baseball fan, and a good read for anyone that mildly cares about sports.