What's Going On?

So Maryland and Rutgers have joined the Big 10.  I guess I understand the country is going to be looking at five main conferences for football and the Big East is like a minor league team or a feeder program for the Yankees (Royals, Brewers, Pirates, etc.)  But do those teams make the Big Ten any better?  You've heard nothing but how bad the Big Ten is this year and how awful their bowl record is since Ohio State were National Champions (35-52ish?)  All you hear about is how weak the Big 10 is and how strong the SEC is.  So, how do you respond?  You get Maryland and Rutgers.  Neither team helps for football.  We already have Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana, and Northwestern.  Yes, Rutgers has been better lately...but that coach left for the National Football League and his players will soon be gone.

You can make the argument that Maryland will make the conference stronger in basketball, but that was when coach Williams was roaming the sidelines under the Bush administration.

However, I don't have a solution or better recommendation.  But going more east rather than south is not making the league stronger.  If they want to make a splash, they HAVE to get Notre Dame.  I'm not suggesting they should have taken a run at Louisville or Kentucky or Tennessee, but at least it would have been south.

If the ACC gets Louisville or UCONN, the ACC becomes probably the top basketball conference.  With Duke, UNC, UConn/Louisville, Notre Dame, and Pittsburgh.  But, the Big 10 still looks good with MSU, OSU, UM, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Maryland.

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For Veterans Day the NFL brought some veterans to games and I'm sure had some patriotic pregame activities. However, they've spent the whole last month wearing garish pink on their uniforms to support "breast cancer awareness" or some such. Does that seem right to you? Compare that to the MSU Spartans basketball team (and UConn), who opened the season in a hangar at the U.S. Air Base in Ramstein, Germany and wore special uniforms for the occasion. Seems to me the NFL comes up a little short.

Skyfall

Saw the new Bond film, Skyfall, last night. It was fantastic. A few thoughts:

-I'd say it is the best Bond film yet, even trumping my other favorite, Casino Royale.

 -It's also the most beautifully shot movie I've seen in quite some time. Shanghai in particular stands out.

-The Bond girls are relatively unimportant to the story. That's not a problem, just a notable difference from most of the other movies.

-You'll be surprised by where the plot goes. I didn't expect many of the things that happen and was surprised by some of the choices made, but they all worked well in the end.

-Bond's classic Aston Martin DB5 makes a return.

-The movie ends with a few changes and set up for more sequels. I believe Daniel Craig is signed for two more.

Prometheus

Finally saw Prometheus tonight. Great atmosphere, fantastic visuals, incredibly dumb story. Kind of like the last Star Trek movie, except less coherent. It's more like a series of cool scenes that are only tangentially related to each other. I like Ridley Scott, but he has to find better material to work with.

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Can I get credit for supporting Chuck Pagano even though my head is already shaved?

What's the Call?

Awesome.  Weirdest play ever.  Did you get the call right?  Did the professional umpires get the call right?  Yes.  Need help on what the issue was all about?  The interference probably saved a triple play.

Wait...what?

Hurricane Katrina?

What's your Vision?

Everything is Spinning Out of Control

Doing some musical research this morning I found out that Audio Adrenaline is back with a new lead singer, Kevin Max Smith, formerly of DC Talk. The Newsboys have been fronted by another former DC Talk member, Michael Tait, since 2011. That is too weird.

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Now that the Winter Classic has been cancelled, a question: Is the NHL, and I mean the league and players together, actually suicidal? After the last work stoppage the NHL was booted from ESPN, which now seems to go out of its way to ignore hockey altogether, and returned to being mostly a regional sport (Upper Midwest and Northeast) after making national gains. I'm not sure the league can afford to lose another season. Sure, people in Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, New York, and Alaska will come back, but will anyone else care? If they can't figure it out real soon they might as well stop bargaining because there will be nothing left to save.

Dumb Quote of the Day

From Bob Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, via ESPN:

You're already hosting the premier league, and we believe we're the premier sport in the world. I think London has shown, with the way they've handled the Olympics and every other major sporting event, that it's time for you to have your own NFL franchise, based in London.

I hope Kraft was just playing to the crowd, because having an NFL franchise in London is one of the dumbest ideas I've ever heard. Setting aside the discussion of whether the Brits deserve a franchise (they don't) or would support it (they wouldn't), there's one very good reason why a London team wouldn't work: logistics. Information may travel between the US and old Blighty nearly instantaneously, but it still takes a long flight to get people there. You can manage one game a year as a novelty, but doing it eight times would be a real strain. Coaches and players would hate it. The scheduling conflicts would be enormous. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, I'm sure the Brits would have no idea how to do a proper tailgate.

Iron Man 3

Music to my Ears

I was talking to a girl in my 6th grade PE class today about the ball that hit the bat three times on one swing.  She said she hadn't, but another female student, without being in the conversation, exclaimed, "I saw that on 'Mike and Mike' this morning!"  I hope someday my daughters will utter those same words.  How cool would that be?

Who was that?

Check out the guy in the front row at the the 00:46-00:47 mark on the timeline.  Matt freakin' Prieskorn.

You only see him for literally a split second.  He is sitting down with a Tiger hat on with a greenish fleece.  You can't see the hat because he's looking up.  When Avila makes the actual catch, Matt is off-screen to the right on the video.  And no, those weren't his seats.  He got booted from some other seats and on escape, found an open seat in the front row.  Less than 2 minutes later, this play happens.  Unbelievable timing.

Where was I?  My dad and I were in the same section, five rows behind.  We were technically in the 6th row behind the Yankee dugout.  All we had were Standing Room Only tickets.  We didn't get inside the stadium until about 30 minutes before first pitch, which is way to late if you want a decent SRO spot.  (Side note, I went to the Verlander v Sox game on Sunday night when they tied the division for 1st place on Sept. 2.  We had SRO "seats."  We got to the stadium about one hour before first pitch and stood in the lower bowl behind the homeplate section.  So, for $17.50, I had a darn good "seat" even though I stood for 4 hours.)

I told my dad since we probably won't find a good section to stand, let's go behind the dugout and pick an open row that gives us room to move left or right when the real ticket owners show up.  I just wanted my dad to experience one pitch of JV. At about 15 minutes before 1st pitch, I suggested we move back one row because "ours" was filling up and that we might as well sit down because it looks like we'll be standing the rest of the night 500 feet away from the plate.

Less than two minutes later, a college-age looking girl in front of my dad said, "We have those seats, they won't be coming tonight, enjoy the game."  She was referring to the exact same seats we were sitting in.  What are the odds?  My dad may never see JV pitch again or another ALCS game, but he'll probably never forget that night.

Unbelievable Hit

Explain that Mr. Green.

Shiny

I should probably write something about the game before kickoff, which has been tough to do all week since my computer died. So here's MSU's shiny gimmick helmet for the game:

Analysis? Both teams suck. The Big Ten sucks. I barely care who wins. The game is on the Big Ten Network, so no one nationally will even see it, and frankly, that's where it ought to be. This might as well be EMU vs. WMU.

Skyfall

Little Ten

So the first BCS rankings have been released and not ONE team from the Big Ten is ranked.  Wow.  That's awesome.  That's incredible.  That's almost a miracle.  How can that be? Do you know how bad you have to stink?

Monster of the Day: Frankenstein's Monster

I'm not feeling very creative tonight, so more Boris Karloff:

Let's Make it Happen

While I don't want to get ahead of myself I will. I am confident the tigers will win 1 of the next 3 game to make it to the ALCS. Having been to a playoff baseball I can tell you that it is an awesome atmosphere. So lets have a reunion and make this happen. Should they lose the game you go to it is the worst feeling ever because you just shelled out some serious coin but that's what makes winning all the sweeter. Those who have a difficult path to make this happen start working on it. Late