Pardon the BloggEruption

Sports Rundown

Issue One: Pennant Races-- Despite one hell of a season from June onward, a poor April and May have doomed the Astros to the outside-looking-in stance for this year's playoffs. They still have seven games to play against the Cards, so anything is possible, but I fear that a 6.5 game deficit is just too much to make up at this point, especially with the Cards being hot as they are. The AL West is still as crazy as ever, though Seattle is fading quickly due to the monster years from Anaheim and Oakland. Give Oakland the division title by one game, with Anaheim taking the WC. In the NL West, SF and LA continue to battle it out for the WC. Both pitching staffs are fairly consistent, but SF has a huge advantage in the hitting game. I'll take SF by two games over LA.

Issue Two: MLB Playoffs-- Commercials promoting the Cardinals as already being in the playoffs when there's still a chance they can be overtaken notwithstanding, I'm going to go ahead and make my predictions.

Divisional Round: Angels over Yankees, A's over Twins, Braves over Giants, and Diamondbacks over Cardinals
LCS: A's over Angels, Diamondbacks over Braves
World Series: Diamondbacks over A's in 6, with Johnson and Schilling again splitting MVP honors.

Issue Three: Texans-- How 'bout them Texans! How 'bout that weak offense! Despite dominating the Cowboys defensively, an anemic running game and generally conservative passing attack means the Texans are ranked 32nd in total offense. Carr continues to impress, particularly on the long passing routes. He did not seem fazed by anything the Dallas D could throw at him. Houston's D is solid. Not quite rock-solid, but solid, nonetheless. Prediction against the Chargers: San Diego 20 -- Houston 13.

Issue Four: NFL at large-- Michael Vick is even more of a beast than when I saw him play at VaTech. Just having ESPN highlights to watch of the GB-ATL game makes me pine for Sunday Ticket. Favre vs. Vick was the most exciting game of the week, and that's where the future of the QB position lies -- the excitement the two of them bring to each and every game. They just make plays.

Issue Five: MNF-- Madden was surprisingly at ease with Michaels. It sounded very natural and I really enjoyed watching the first half. The second half, well, I turned it off for reasons other than the commentary. Memo to Bill Cowher: Try to get byes for the NFL's opening week. You stink then! Furthermore, if there were any doubt as to whether or not the Pats are the real deal, that's long gone now. The biggest surprise of the night, though, was Brady's effective use of the spread offense. Has it finally migrated to the NFL? With an accurate, mobile quarterback and speedy wideouts, I don't know how you can really stop it other than zone-blitzing up the gut. Problem is, you open yourself up for huge gains that way.

Issue Six: Walt Harris the Moron-- Memo to Pitt Coach Walt Harris: The "Swinging Gate" formation STUPID, DUMB, AND TOTALLY USELESS!!!!!!!!!!!! And I mean STOOPID with a capital "OO." Thank you for taking then not taking personal responsibility for the loss because you and your special teams coordinator didn't know the rulebook, and then singlehandedly costing us a potentially huge victory against aTm. And why, oh why, did you not kick the field goal once when it was 4th and short on the 25? Gibboney and Abdul can both hit that in their sleep. Take the points. Points win games. Three points would have one that one. Please refrain from such stupidity agains UAB this weekend. Thank You. UGH!

Heads Not On Sticks

Rod Rutherford: "Hey. I showed what I'm made of in the 2nd half. Sure, I had a lousy start, but so did everyone else. Coach Harris had a lousy start and finish. I know the offense, can make plays, and I have what you need in a QB ... except for some competitive fire at times. The students' booing pissed me off, but I feasted on it. Did you see my slash-throat gesture? They'll be cheering us in a bowl game come December."

Eric Crouch: "Why did the Rams ever pick me in the first place? I'm a running quarterback, not a receiver. I can't make the transition. I couldn't make the transition. To running back, maybe, but not wideout. Do I look like Hines Ward? I'm a rail, and I got 'injured' over the offseason. Thanks for the signing bonus, though, Coach Martz. Call me if you want tickets in Lincoln."

Bison Dele: "PIRATES!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Janet Reno: "No recount, no peace. No recount ... think Waco, Ruby Ridge, and Elian ..."

# posted by Eric @ 1:43 PM 0 Comments

Onward to Baghdad

Thoroughly brilliant speech by President Bush today at the UN. Until very recently, I had been waffling daily on the Iraqi issue. No more, provided the Brits stay in the game with us. Regime change is past overdue in Baghdad, and the real shame is not "naked American aggression" as the EuroElite would have us believe, but rather that the US, UK, and UN dropped the ball in 1994-95 by ignoring Saddam's blatant disregard for the cease fire agreements and UN resolutions.

A Security Council resolution is supposedly forthcoming. Expect the French to reluctantly agree that something must be done, with the proviso that they share some significant military leadership role. The PRC will likely be an abstaining presence in the debate, but the real wildcard will the the Russians. Will GWB's good relationship with "Pootie-Poot" be enough to get them onboard? I'm not sure. Russians are still smarting over the Chechen debacle, and they are intensely fearful of inciting another wave of Muslim insurgents within their own borders. As for the rest of the Security Council, count Mexico, Colombia, and Ireland as likely to fall solidly for action on Iraq. Norway, Syria, and Cameroon will likely go negative, leaving Mauritius, Singapore, Bulgaria, and Guinea as tossups.

From this mix, I see three possible outcomes:

U.N.S.C. Resolution passes giving Saddam an ultimatum for reinstating inspectors (including Americans), then authorizing use of force should he refuse. Largely NATO-based coalition invades.

Russian Federation vetoes resolution. US and UK go it alone. NATO forces join soon thereafter.

Resolution is defeated without veto. US and UK invade Iraq. Multnational coalition forms to assist some months later.

# posted by Eric @ 12:59 PM 0 Comments

Anti-Americanism: the new Chic

Some notes from the front:

If there were ever a better reason to totally discredit anything and everything associated with UCal-Berkeley, this would be it. Sorry folks, if you're so damn offended by a red, white, and blue ribbon, maybe you should just crawl into a cave (by yourself or with your al Qaeda pals) and cower until the end of time. Maybe they could say that the ribbons represent the French. I'm sure our neo-Marxist, whacko friends in the student government at UC-B would be perfectly fine with that idea.

In Venice, an anti-American movie reflecting on 9-11 has been drawing acclaim from those chic enough to attend. Egyptian director Youssef Chahine's segment takes the cake for sheer audacity, however. I'd sure as hell like to know how dropping the atomic bombs in Japan, saving millions of Japanese and American lives by bringing a swift end to WWII, constitues "meddling" in world affairs. As for the Middle East, well, you just can't win with some people. Try to help out or support anyone, you're accused of being one-sided, meddling, etc. Try to back away, well, you get lambasted for not being a full-fledged world citizen.

Somewhat encouraging news from average Europeans, once you get past the headline. My assumption is that the constant drumbeat of elites chanting "USA was to blame" and the general Continental attitude of moral relativism led to the high numbers partially blaming the US for 9-11.

More disturbing is this article on current Muslim attitudes towards the US. We see Muslims refusing to assign blame to Osama, castigating the US for its "arrogance" that "assumes the right to make decisions for others," and in, perhaps the most enlightening portion of the artice, we see a child claim happiness in the wake of terror. When will they get it? America does not make decisions for others -- it makes decisions for itself, often in the face of what others tell it to do. Isolationism and protection from foreign threats is the American trend throughout history, not "meddling." It is exactly our Islamist enemies who desire to tell others what to do. See Taliban Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia for details. As for the happy kids, that could be one of two things -- the general tendency for young boys to be jackasses for the sake of it, or pure hatred of America and the West, likely fed by the same teachers and parents who shush any mention of it to the press. I'll bet heavily on the latter.

Make no mistake, this is a war of cultures, no matter what anyone says. We may not like it, but there is a large segment of the human population that despises everything that Western Culture and liberal democracy stands for. They will kill, maim, terrorize, and do whatever they can to disrupt and topple every element of that which they hate. These people are mostly fundamentalist Muslims from the Middle East, and they and their sympathizers form a large percentage of the population of the Middle East.

Fine, fine, they don't represent "the true Islam." Whatever. I don't care. Nor do I really care why they hate us. They are barbarians. We are civilized. We may not have always engaged in the best courses of action throughout time, but we've tried. We care about people. We despair and fret over small numbers of civilian casualties in our battles against terror. They encourage the deliberate targeting of civilians, then cry foul when one of their civilians dies. We offer hope, freedom, and economic prosperity. They offer war. We have no choice but to oblige them.

Whew. Long update there. Please feel free to comment; I'd love to know what you're thinking (ALD, this means you.)

# posted by Eric @ 6:40 PM 0 Comments

Catching Up

Thanks to Dwight on the plug for PTBE and Chez-Steiny.

Purchased Madden 2003 for the PC today. Am officially addicted. Again.

Haven't been able to give too much thought to the top 10 US events, largely due to homework and the like. Will endeavor to have a list by Friday.

Did I mention how cool Madden 2003 was?

Will be back in the saddle again for quizbowl this year, likely practicing with Rice University and playing solo as U. of H. Huzzah.

That's about it for now.

# posted by Eric @ 11:10 PM 0 Comments

National Pastime(s)?

Fresh from averting total fan disaster by finally inking a labor deal, MLB is at it again. This is somewhat old news to Astros fans who have seen the threats made to AstrosConnection and Astros Daily, but the sheer gall shown by the MLB's sharks is still both amazing and sickening. Kudos go to the Astros front office and Uncle Drayton himself who helped intervene for the Astros fan sites, brokering a deal to allow limited use of images as long as full credit is given.

The clincher, however, is at the bottom of the article.

"To the extent that it's purely a noncommercial site devoted to commentary about the team, we're supportive and happy that fans are excited about our sport," says Paula Guibault, NFL senior counsel. "It's not an issue for us."

Now is there any wonder why the NFL is supplanting (or already has) MLB as our national pastime? The NFLhas its financial house in order (though there are issues with the salary cap), it has at least some semblance of parity, it has a consistent, positive PR department, and it goes out of its way to take care of its fans. Contrast that with Bud Selig and his Gang of 30 whose dysfunction has truly reached epic proportions, and who consistently do everything it can to anger its fans.

Note that I used "NFL" and "MLB" above. I'm still not convinced that football is more popular than baseball in America today, particularly in terms of participation and interest at all levels. My guess is that football gets the massive crowds and TV ratings because there are so few games in a season and so they become huge spectacles. Baseball's many games are, individually, not nearly as meaningful as one football game, and so fans with an emotional investment in teams do not need to watch any particular game nearly as much as in football. Participation wise, baseball is an easier sport for people of all ages to play while remaining true to the professional game. It's also much simpler in execution, though not in concept. (Football's concept is simple -- carry ball into endzone. Football's execution and rules are intricate and much more difficult to grasp.)

In Rod We Trust?

After the 27-14 win over Ohio U., we've certainly got a few questions about this year's Pitt team. QB Rod Rutherford was only 9-for-22 with 2 TDs and 3 INTs, though it seems as if 2 of those were off of tips. One of the TDs was a shuffle pass to Raymond Kirkley, and there were a number of drops by WRs Slade and Bynes, so Rod's line would more realistically look something like 9-16, 1TD, 1INT. Below average for what Pitt fans had come to expect the past 5 seasons of Walt Harris football. I wouldn't complain if he had run more on the Bobcats, but it seemed as if Walt was determined to have Rod stay in the pocket for most of the game. QB will continue to be a huge question mark going into the A&M game. Brandon Miree looked pretty good at RB, though the run blocking needs some work. Lousaka Polite will play in the NFL and will actually get some touches at the FB spot.

The defense was also disappointing, despite managing to create 6 interceptions, including 3 from Shawntae Spencer. Gerald Hayes was a beast as usual. However, allowing over 200 yards rushing to a MAC triple option team just doesn't cut the mustard. Though A&M is a more straightforward, Big XII, up-your-gut with some passing offense, I worry about the D's ability to contain them for a full 4 quarters. Hopefully this was just first game jitters and inexperience, though I fear we will be missing the presence of several departed seniors from the '01 team.

Special teams played fairly well. For once, I am totally unconcerned about the kicking game. (Thanks for graduating, Mr. Lotz!) Andy Lee has greatly improved the punting game to the point where we expect Josh Miller-type corner accuracy each time. Major improvement from the 2-yard punts of '00. Giving up a few big KO returns may be something we have to deal with this season, though I'm confident the coaches can correct that one.

Immediate outlook for the A&M game? Cautiously optimistic that home field advantage, a banged up A&M QB, and a solid D performance will carry the day. They say that teams improve most between games 1 and 2 ... let's hope that's the case for the Panthers this week. Hail to Pitt!

100 Years ... 10 Events

Interesting article courtesy of UPI and the UK History Channel. Seems the British have fully canonized Princess Di as their new cultural patron saint. Not terribly surprising, given the tendency of American culture to do the same with JFK, though I daresay that Kennedy was a significantly more important figure in the history and culture of the United States than Di ever was or will be in the UK.

The article got me thinking, though, as to how I would answer the central question: What are the most important events of the past 100 years? In some general order, here are my Top 10:

1. D-Day landings at Normandy
   
2. Fall of the Berlin Wall
   
3. Rise of Zionism / Birth of Israel
   
4. Invention of the transistor
   
5. Treaty of Versailles ends World War I
   
6. Neil Armstrong walks on moon
   
7. Bolshevik Revolution
   
8. Terrorist attacks of 9-11-01
   
9. Installation of Pope John Paul II
   
10. American Civil Rights Movement
    

[Narrowly missing the cut were the Great Depression and the Cuban Missile Crisis.] Looking them over again, I notice that three of my top ten deal with the rise and fall of the Soviet Bloc (2,7,9) and that two others (1,5) deal with the rise and fall of Nazi Germany. Number 4 leads directly to number 6, and the argument can be made that number three led, in some part, to number eight. It's a thought provoking topic, to say the least. I'll try to come up with a purely American list for later today or tomorrow.