Pigskin Pontification
Mood:  d'oh
Now Playing: NRBQ: Dummy
Topic: Sports (Non-Racing)

It was a long day of football with a very unsatisfying ending for Oklahoma fans.  A few random thoughts...

• Arkansas really needs a quarterback
• Joe Paterno ought to call it a career
• Pete Carroll severely out-coached Lloyd Carr in the Rose Bowl
• The mavens of political correctness who forced the USC Song Girls to add extra material to their uniforms a few years ago to eliminate bare midriffs ought to be strung up by their medding thumbs!
• Oklahoma committed a staggering number of mental and physical errors and still almost won their game with Boise State - not sure that's a good thing
• The entire state of Idaho is celebrating tonight - can't help being happy for them
• This recent trend of having the college bowl season extend a week or more into January might be good for television but it's giving credence to the idea that a playoff is feasible - if we're going to continue having the bowls, they ought to all end on January 1st, except for the national championship game

Albert Friggin' Pujols!
Mood:  incredulous
Now Playing: Thirteen Stars - These Places
Topic: Sports (Non-Racing)
The Cardinals were down to their last strike but these guys refuse to give up, even in the face of bad luck, bad umpiring and great play by their opponent over the past few days. David Eckstein is as tough as they come - in the 9th inning, down to his last strike, that kid fought and fought and somehow got a ball through the infield to extend the inning. Jim Edmonds is a fine hitter, but he realized that even if he managed to hit a homerun, it would only tie the game. He also realized who would come up to bat if he got on base. Jim showed patience and worked a walk, and that was the downfall of The Astros. With runners on 1st and 3rd, to walk Albert Pujols would have meant putting the winning run in scoring position - a primary baseball taboo.

However, pitching to Pujols was a fateful choice. Brad Lidge left a slider over the middle of the plate, and Albert hit the thing so hard you have to wonder if there's structural damage to the back wall of the stadium! Albert Pujols IS the best player in baseball - if he stays healthy, he's bound to become one of the greatest to ever play the game.

Houston has great pitching and they may still end up going to the World Series, but if that happens they WILL know they were in a battle to get there. They're warming up the wrecking ball for old Busch Stadium, but the place isn't finished just yet.
;-)

Batter Up?
Mood:  down
Topic: Sports (Non-Racing)
I can't help it, this steroid business has soured me on baseball. I was a race car driver for many years - I know what it's like to go up against people you know are almost certainly cheating, and who have little or no fear of being caught. It puts you in the position of choosing between being a cheater or a loser, and that's not a fun position to be in.

It's an absolute scandal that steroids weren't illegal in baseball until a few years ago. Legal or not, Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire (and many others) have cheated Henry Aaron and Babe Ruth and Roger Maris, as well as the many thousands of other players who didn't use steroids. Contemporary players who were unwilling to pollute their bodies with that crap have been seen as inferior to the pumped up guys like Bonds and McGwire and Sosa, and that just flat stinks.

As I've stated here before, steroids are just the tip of the technological iceberg. Things like targeted genetic manipulation and nanobot augmentation are just around the corner. In the not-distant future, it's conceivable that an unmodified, non-augmented human will be at a hopeless disadvantage in every aspect of life, from school to business to sports and everywhere else. Technology in and of itself is not inherently good or bad, but the more powerful the technology, the more critical becomes wisdom in its use.

As far as I can tell most people still have little or no understanding of the troubling, thorny issues we will face in terms of learning to wisely control technology as the 21st Century unfolds. That circumstance scares me far more than the radically advancing technologies themselves...

Super Sunday
Mood:  mischievious
Topic: Sports (Non-Racing)
The Super Bowl is a uniquely American event, having grown from very humble origins to its current state of supremely wretched excess. But as overblown as the whole thing has become, I'm not sure I'd want it to go away. If nothing else, it does serve as prism through which our culture can be viewed. That was very clearly the case last year, with the Nipplegate fiasco. I don't claim to have any special insight for what it all means for the future of our society. But Super Bowl Sunday has become an unofficial American holiday, and I'm all in favor of as many holidays as we can get our hands on.

I admire the Patriots, but I don't really have a dog in this fight so I'll be free to enjoy the actual football portion of the game, as well as the multitude of extraneous elements (NOT including poor old Paul McCartney). It will be interesting to see if any of the commercials attempt to make humorous reference to Nipplegate.

So, I'm off to eat pizza, watch the game and wallow in the spectacle of the thing...

Curses
Mood:  not sure
Topic: Sports (Non-Racing)
Congratulations to the 2004 World Champion Boston Red Sox, and especially to all their devoted fans who waited so long for this to happen.

My Cardinals went down without even so much as a whimper, but it's hard for me to feel too badly about it when I see the extraordinary joy that a Sox victory, at long last, has created. Whatever may happen in the next 86 years, The Curse has finally and forever been obliterated. I'm happy for all the now-delirious Red Sox fans around the world - or at least as happy as I can be while simultaneously pondering the agony of defeat. ;-)

Pure, Burning Hatred
Mood:  rushed
Topic: Sports (Non-Racing)
Yeah, hatred is what the OU-Texas football game is all about. Actually, more than anything, I miss the carnival atmosphere of the Cotton Bowl on game day, with the Texas State Fair swirling all around you in a fog of complete sensory overload.

I am aware it's been quite a while since I posted. Would you buy it if I said I was hypnotized by the boobies? In reality, I've just had trouble coming up with any ideas lately. I'll try to conjure up something this weekend, even if it's lame.

Hafta get ready to go watch the game - the TV imbeciles dictated that it must start at the ungodly hour of 11:00 AM this year. That's bad enough if you're watching on television, but it REALLY sucks for the people who are going to the game. You'd think a matchup of two Top-5 teams would warrant a more civilized starting time. Anyway, if I rant anymore I'll be late, so I'd better put a muzzle on it. Bye for now...

Watch Out For Flying Chairs
Now Playing: http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Sports/ap20040914_370.html
Topic: Sports (Non-Racing)
That was the tag-line that local OKC television personality Danny Williams used to sign off from championship wrestling broadcasts in my youth. Now, it appears to be an important caution for anyone attending a Texas Rangers baseball game.

The gist of the story is that some Oakland Athletics fans were taunting Rangers players in particularly vile ways. In response, Rangers pitcher Frank Francisco "threw the chair at a fan in a lower box near the Rangers' bullpen along the right-field line. The chair hit one man in the head, then bounced and struck the woman on her left temple." It's not stated in the article whether either of the fans struck were the intended targets of Mr. Francisco.

Keep in mind, it's not alleged that ANY of these fans acted in a physically violent way toward any of the Rangers. They were apparently engaged in strictly verbal harassment, presumably of a vulgar kind. What bothers me most about the incident is this quote from Rangers manager Buck Showalter: "Tonight, it went over the line... It was a real break from the normal trash you hear from fans."

So, one of his players attacks and physically harms fans who had not physically attacked him or any other Ranger, and Buck Showalter wants to talk about how badly the player was provoked??? As far as I'm concerned, Showalter should be summarily fired. It is never justifiable to resort to a physical attack as a result of mere verbal harassment, but it's a thousand times LESS justifiable for a Major League Baseball player to do so in these circumstances. Was the verbal abuse that any of the Rangers suffered on this night somehow worse than that suffered by Jackie Robinson - a profoundly dignified man who never threw a chair or anything else at taunting "fans" who could only be described as pure vermin?

I want to make it clear that while I reject the actions of Frank Francisco and believe he should be severely punished for the incident, I have no sympathy whatsoever for the taunting fans. All actions have consequences - I have no doubt that the people doing the taunting deserved a sharp blow to the head, although it still is an open question whether both individuals struck were in fact taunters. Nevertheless, it was totally wrong and reprehensible for a MLB player to engage in physical violence against people who were not physically attacking or threatening him. If this is now acceptable behavior in our society, I fear for our long-term survival.