A sports day to remember

The "official" "Re-Launch" of TSE will start on Monday and Tuesday but how can a sports blog not mention something about a day like this in the sports world? We start early in the day in Columbus...

I am a Buckeye fan through and through but this season, especially after the debacle that was last season, came with a lot of questions. Can Todd Boeckman and company replace Troy Smith, Tedd Ginn and Anthony Gonzalez? Will the defense be stout enough to keep the untested offense in contention? What color vest will Coach Tressel wear? The myriad questions started to receive their answers when the Buckeyes dispatched of the #6 FCS Youngstown State Fightin' Penguins in Ohio Stadium today. Really, the game was in no doubt and the offense, which had many annoying 5-yard penalties, showed a few signs of things to come. And Tres wore a grey vest today. All told, though, the best part was easy enough to identify:


There is nothing in the world like the Alumni band and TBDBITL putting four Script-Ohio's on the field at once. Almost made the $60 ticket worth it (though mine was comped - happy birthday to me).

But that's when things started to get interesting.

MGoBlog.com, the preeminent Wolverines blog had the picture to answer 1000 questions.


Technical Difficulties indeed. Michigan goes down to Appalachian State in front of 107,000+ in the Big House. The Mountaineers are no slouches themselves in the FCS (formerly Division 1-AA) having won some national championships of their own, so it's not like UM was going up against the scout team from WBUP-TV in Marquette. Appy was in it all the way and won in grand fashion, blocking the would-be winning field goal as time expired. As a Buckeye fan, I have my hat tips and finger wags about the loss, but as for college football, this one was huge, perhaps the biggest upset in college football history. Hell, ESPNews compared it to USA over USSR in the 1980 Olympics, if you want a grand scale to put this on. So where does Michigan go? And when Oregon comes into the Big House next week what can we expect? Mike Hart still put on a show, but if that show can't beat the FCS, then what are the Wolverines to do?

A quick sidebar: what do you do with Michigan in the rankings next week? One would think that losing to an FCS team would get you out of the top-25 (some have even suggested giving Appy St. a vote or two in the rankings next week). I think they'll drop down to #22-#24, but if they fall out of it, that would surprise me too much.

Finally, the story that trumps even a monumental college football upset came at Fenway Park. Clay Buchholz, called up to replace an inactive Tim Wakefield, went out and did something no Boston rookie had ever done. The MLB.com game cast spells it out pretty well:


Buchholz throws a wonderful no-hitter (with some fantastic help from Dustin Pedroia on defense) as the Sox win 10-0 at home. The story in Boston is that the brass told Buchholz would be dropped down to the PawSox even if he did something like...throw a no-hitter. Well, Buchholz did it in start #2 so it looks like his bags should stay in Boston for the near future.

So Ohio State wins, Michigan loses and the BoSox snap out of a 4-game slide in a huge way. All-in-all, for me anyway, this was one hell of a day for sports.

The Re-Launch will begin next week, so look forward to all the Sports Elitists you can handle. more...

¿Dónde estan Los Sports Elitists?

We're still here.  Don't worry.  JTBI is in Michigan, Seaward is down in Kentucky, and I'm kicking it in Oxford, Ohio.  We'll be back up when we all are settled and I stop taking naps in lieu of studying for Spanish.  So get ready. more...

On the Move

If you've been noticing a dearth of posts by The Seaward lately on this here blogging premises, there's a good reason for it: like JTBI, I, too, (holy comma, Batman!) have a new job and am in the process of moving from here...

...to here...



I'll be all settled by the middle of next week, so look for more post volume from me around then, apologies for the slow posting weeks. more...

The Morning After on TSE - 8.13.2007

Well, I'm back from vacation, where I was supposed to play golf at any number of nice courses in the Carolinas. Needless to say, the heat index was somewhere around 115 degrees all week, which barely made it tolerable to swim in the bath water that was the Atlantic Ocean so much of my vacation was spent watching TV, drinking Yuengling, and reading Mahler's "The Bronx is Burning", which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Speaking (kinda) of golf...

Did anybody even watch the PGA Championship this weekend? If so, please comment as to why. Because there is nothing, friends, more exciting than watching every golfer watch Tiger Woods and what he did this weekend in Tulsa.  Sarcasm aside, Tiger Woods is your PGA Champion, giving him a win and two runners-up for the 2007 Majors.  On the large, that's a pretty mediocre year for the stripped one, considering the two #2 finishes came with Tiger leading for a portion on Sunday.  But Tiger was unbeatable this weekend, which was set up nicely by his round on Friday.  He shot 63 at Southern Hills and missed a putt on 18 that would have given him a score that would have more closely resembled a score from Tiger's video game.  It was academic after that with the rest of the field is wilting like Brady Quinn against any kind of good college football team.

All told, that is 13 for Tiger, 5 shy of Jack's immortal 18 majors.  Which gets me thinking about next year.  Tiger is easily the favorite in, well, anything he does, from table tennis against Lephty McBigboobs to major championship golf.  If he puts it together next year and wins the Grand Slam (entirely possible, considering the lineup of courses: Augusta, Torrey Pines, Royal Birkdale and Oakland Hills) then that puts Jack record on life support.  We're talking about a record that was nigh unbreakable in 1929 when Hagen posted his 11th title and a new mark that was set at Augusta in 1986.  As of right now, in two years, that record could be out the window.

I'll anoint Tiger Woods as the greatest golfer ever right now.  I have no problem with that, but I still think Jack is the greatest Major golfer ever.  It's a point I've made before: Jack came from behind to win 8 of his majors and was the runner up in 19 times.  Though the latter is more a longevity mark than a talent mark, the former certinaly is not.  Face it: if Tiger has a 54-hole lead then it's over and done with.  Start engraving the trophy and writing out the winner's check to Mr. Woods.  With Jack, however, there weren't any guarantees like that, save for the fact that he was good enough to finish in the top-2 37 times with 18 wins.  I want to see Tiger come from behind [Ed. note: on Elin] just once.  When that's all said and done, if Tiger has a line like that, then they might as well rename the sport "Eldrick".

Props to Matt Sussman at The Futon Report and the Deadspin linkage this weekend.  Glad I could shed some light on why Sergio might have shitted the shit out of his bed this weekend.

more...

I Think I'm In Love

From today's ESPN Ombudsman article:

I wish ESPN would consider adding to its lineup a crisp, half-hour, nightly news version of SportsCenter -- just news and highlights, without gimmicks or sponsored segments or recaps, without self- or cross-promotion, with a consistent anchor team accountable for a consistent tone, with spare to no use of instant commentary. A prime-time island of clean, clear, straightforward news on which ESPN's journalistic credibility could securely rest.

Le Anne Schreiber, will you marry me? more...

Where were you when?

As Seaward mentioned in today's TMA, Barry Bonds became the Home Run King of Major League Baseball last night/early this morning. I made it a point to watch the game two nights ago and was disappointed not to see the record set. I don't know what was going through my head last night when I decided to go up to my room and try to finish "The Bronx is Burning" (the book, not the miniseries, both of which I enjoy). Then, just after midnight, my brother Jonathan ran upstairs yelling at me.

"Chris! Chris!! Get down here! Barry did it!"

I felt like a kid on Christmas Day I ran out of my bed so quickly. I almost tripped down the flight of stairs I was moving so fast. When I got downstairs I saw a throng of Giants hugging Barry. I saw fireworks going off at AT&T Park in San Francisco. Later, I saw Hank Aaron on the Jumbotron reading a very prepared statement congratulating Barry on his achievement. I saw Willie Mays trying his damndest to help keep Barry's emotions in check on the field.

And then I saw something that made me totally forget about the shadows surrounding this record and the allegations surrounding this athlete. I have never been a Giants fan in any regard but I have had a soft spot for Bonds since his drive for the record began in earnest a few years ago. I thought about how Hank Aaron had faced racism and death threats while he tried to break the Babe's record in 1974. Bonds had steroid allegations, constant ESPN coverage and Pedro Gomez (oh my!) to worry about during his chase. Yet standing on the third base line at AT&T Park, Barry Bonds reached for the heavens and thanked his late father, Bobby, and broke down.

Just like that, Barry Bonds was human, as human as you or me. In the midst of this chase and these allegations, Barry Bonds was nothing more than his father's son, trying to celebrate this home run with the man who taught him how to do it. When he pointed skyward, Barry reminded all of us that baseball is just a game and that it is a game that we share with friends and, more importantly, family. We can discuss steroids tomorrow, but for today, Barry Bonds is the unquestioned Home Run King of Major League Baseball. more...

The Morning After on TSE -- 8.8.07

Well, it's over. Barry Bonds has the all-time career home run record in Major League Baseball.

Anyone who knows me knows that I was amongst the many who said over the past month "Barry's going to break it, I just want him to get it over with, once he's done it baseball can be normal again." It's a jaded, cynical view, I agree; by last weekend it was probably the most prevalent viewpoint in the sports world on Bonds' chase. It's an easy viewpoint to take: Barry is surly, he is surrounded by a cloud of steroids, we get sensory overload for Barry on ESPN, etc etc. Once it was all done we could just watch some goddamn baseball.



Then he hit it.

Son of a bitch, did he hit it.

I looked on, and caught myself smiling. A discussion between my left brain and right brain broke out:

Left Brain: What the hell are you doing?
Right Brain: Smiling. Did you just see that?
Left Brain: I saw it, but it's tainted.
Right Brain: What? Shut up. This is cool.
Left Brain: Come on, he's a ster--
Right Brain: Shut up, bitch!
Left Brain: But--
Right Brain: SHUT. THE. HELL. UP. THIS IS FREAKING COOL.
Left Brain: ...

I'll be damned if I didn't tear up a little bit during the celebration. I'm not a Giants fan, I'm not a Barry Bonds fan; yet there I was, getting all misty. It was absolutely unreal.

So this morning I am happy to say: nevermind the bollocks, here is your home run champion.



All photos from the San Francisco Chronicle at sfgate.com. more...