50 Years Ago Today

In the fourth quarter, the Knicks began fouling other players to keep the ball away from Chamberlain, and they also became deliberate on offense to reduce the number of possessions for Philadelphia. The Warriors countered by committing fouls of their own to get the ball back.

No, no, no. A thousand times, no.

In introducing a story on Penn State scandal and the number of people coming forward across the country to report past abuse the NPR host said (slight paraphrase), "We've been following the Penn State scandal.  In the resulting tumult the university lost its president and head football coach."

I hate to go all Language Police on you but "lost" is not the word you are going for here.  Socks get lost in the drier. Debit cards are lost when left at a store.  Employees are even lost when they voluntarily quit or retire.

Former university President Spanier and former coach Joe Paterno were fired.  They were fired for their part in covering up the serial raping of children on campus by one of their employees.  Their firing is the beginning of the bare minimum PSU must do

Volleyball Spectator

Waiting to get on the court earlier tonight and the other team starts showing up. Two of the arrivals are this short girl and this monster of man wearing gray sweats and baseball cap. The sweatshirt simply says "FOOTBALL." I ribbed my team, "Hey, looks like we're playing Urlacher tonight."

My brother looks over. "You know how to play guys like that right? You serve the big oafs until they prove they can beat you."

It's a common theory. We all nod in agreement. The game before ours runs over a few minutes. We finally rush onto the court and start warming up. When I looked over to the other side I see they have 3 guys on the court (this is a co-ed 6s league) and the big guy's not one of them.

We get the first game going and they beat us pretty handily. We were trying a new offense, had a new player, and just didn't play well. Switch sides for game two. We got our shit together. We beat 'em by about 5 points in the second game.

All the while I'm watching the big dude watching our game. Two or three people came up to him randomly and shake his hand. You know what, it is fucking Brian Urlacher. We talk about it between the 2nd and 3rd game. Yes, it is most definitely Brian Urlacher. The girls ask why he's here. Who's he with? "The little girl," I answer, "The one with the big ______"

We kicked their asses in game 3. 25 - 12.

Unrecoverable

Just back from the Bears game... That's 3 hours of my life that is unrecoverable. The next person to tell me baseball is boring is getting a swift kick in the junk.

I've complained about a watching football on TV. It's boring. They show the same play over and over and over and over again. And again. No such luxury at a game. Nope, the only thing to do is look at a bunch of fat men aimlessly mill around the field. Does football realize they have a clock? Two of them actually. Yet in the middle of the game both of them were stopped and 22 meat covered robots are aimlessly milling about.

Hey, not everyone has to enjoy everything. People find pleasure in it and I'm happy for them. Personally, I'd rather supervise a wall with a fresh coat of paint

Are You Ready For Some Football!

Yeah, baby, that's right. Going to the game tomorrow night. Woohoo!


Wait? What? What do you mean that's not the right game? We're going to watch what?


A buddy texted today to say he had free tickets to tomorrow night's Bears pre-season game. He wanted to know if I wanted to go. I agreed to go.

I'm trying to remember, in my entire life, I'm guessing this will be about the 7th game I've ever actually attended. That's counting all levels of play be it high school, college, or pro. The first time was when I was 16 or 17 and visiting a friend at college. We went to see the Illinois State University team play. That was the FIRST TIME I had ever watched a game period. I'd never even watched one on TV up to that point.

I don't remember if it was the 2nd or 3rd quarter of that game when I figured out what "yardage" was. As in, the offensive team needs to gain 10 years to get a first down. I had some concept of downs from playing a few pick up games as a kid. Obviously we didn't have marked lines so we - and by we I mean people that presumedly knew something about football - would place cones along the sidelines. You had to get past those cones to reset the downs, i.e. get a first down.

I went to maybe 5 ISU games the first year I attended the school. Later, just out of school, on a road trip with friends we stopped over in Indianapolis and saw a Colts game. I remember there were cheerleaders. I couldn't tell you who the Colts played or if they won or not.

Last year I maybe watched, make that "watched," four games. One with the Calc Teacher, one with a buddy and the Calc Teacher at a local bar, the playoff game at a house party where the Bears were eliminated and the Superbowl. None of those games I really paid much attention to. Green Bay played someone - Pittsburgh? - in the Superbowl.

So why am I doing this? Damned if I really know. I do want to see Soldier Field now that Daley and the McCaskeys built that ugly-ass UFO inside the once beautiful columns. I had been to the pre-renovated Soldier Field to see the Chicago Fire and the Women's World Cup. So I guess that's it. And damn the McCaskeys for getting rid of the Honey Bears.

PS. The Fire won. The Women's World Cup match was actually a double header. The USA beat Nigeria and Brazil beat Italy.

That's How You Do It!

When the Bulls won their championships I remember some pretty good rioting in Chicago. A couple police cars were flipped on Division Street. We had a few fires, some looting, and some good old fashion chaos.

I was so disappointed last year. A Stanley Cup Championship and, well, this is pretty fucking lame. They couldn't even flip into the street for FSM's sake.

I'm not sure what to think of Vancouver going the

A Reasoned Change Of Heart

I thought the 5 cells in my brain that acutally cared were rooting for Dallas in the NBA finals. No more.

If the Heat lose this series, the country will go into a giant spasm of moral preening the likes of which we haven't seen since Cokie Roberts had to tell her kid about Bill Clinton's dick. It's going to be awful. We're going to turn LeBron into a national sermon on the wages of narcissism. We're going to edit these finals into a highlight reel of Humility dunking all over Ego. We're going to be a country of Joe Liebermans, all freaking summer long.

Busted Bracket

My brother texted me last night claiming his NCAA bracket was already busted.  How's that I asked.  This picture exlains it.

It turns out my brother picked the Louisville Cardinals to win it all.  I pointed out just how crazy that is.  The last #4 seed to win the Big Dance was Arizona in 1997.  Seven of the last ten winners have been #1 seeds.  Since 1990 only 5 non-#1 seeds have won.

But Louisville was hot going in, he countered, and the teams are considered more even this year than any time in the recent past.

It doesn't matter.  Yes, there is no clear #1 team in the nation this year.  At one point in February all the top 4 or 5 seeds lost a game.  But the top 5 or 6 teams really aren't in question.  Sure, #13 Morehead State beating #4 Louisville in the first round isn't really predictable.  Thinking Louisville was bound to be a Sweet 16 or even and Elite 8 team is well within reason.  A Final Four team a little more of a stretch but doable. 

Winning the whole thing?  That's just crazy talk.

GOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLL!

This is how you win a game!

UPDATE I knew that video would be down soon enough. Hopefully the one at Deadspin stays up a while.

Fucking AWESOME!

Now That That's Over

My cheese loving overlords are back on top.  (My company was bought by a Wisconsin firm a few years back.)  I spent about 5 hours at the party yesterday and that is about all I could tell you.  I find that my memory of the Super Bowl every year is pretty much non-existent.  It's not that I drink too much.  I think it really is that I just don't care all that much.  I spent the 5 hours moving from person to person, talking, or eating or whatever.  The only time I paid any real attention was after a score to see who was likely to win money in our Squares competition.

Worse, those yummy sounding Ham 'N' Bacon 'N' Cheddar muffins weren't all that good.  They tasted all right.  Especially when they first came out of the over. They were just far, far to dry.  Oh well.

Now, on to the important stuff.  Next week is the Chicago Auto Show and Spring Training starts!


UPDATE:  This

SUPERbiggameBOWL Fixins

Do you like ham?  Do you like bacon?  Do you like cheese?  Of course you do!  And I bet you'd love yourself some Ham 'n' Bacon 'n' Cheddar Muffins!

 The Batter, the Ham, and The Bacon

Dear FSM!, don't forget the cheese!

Fully mixed.

Into the oven.

The Goods

Yes.  Yes, I did have a couple of them.  One has to make sure the product is worthy.  And it is.  Oh yes, it is.
I'm taking these to a party tonight to watch that one game from that one sport that everyone watches every year because the commercials are so good.  We'll be calling these Pig Iron Muffins because no self respecting Chicagoan could be rooting for the team from the north.

Text Exchange

(After Bears third string quarterback Caleb Haine scored the Bears second touchdown.)

Georgia Tony: Caleb Hanie? Who the hell is that?

LP Cards Fan: The guy [Todd] Collins had to play for while Haine looked for his spikes and pads.

Game Day

How could this recipe possible go wrong at a Bears game day party?  Unpossible!

1 lb ground beef
1 lb bacon
1 large onion
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup bbq sauce
2 tbls mustard
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp chili powder
2 cans pork and beans
2 cans kidney beans
2 cans Great Northern Beans

In a large skillet, cook beef, bacon and onion until meat is done and onion is tender. Drain any fat. Combine all remaining ingredients except beans. Add to meat mixture; mix well. Stir in beans. Place in a greased 2-1/2-qt. casserole. Bake, covered, at 350 degrees F for 1 hour or until heated through.

GO BEARS!

Not Quite Down

As I've often stated, I'm not a football fan.  I also really, really don't understand people's on going facination with college sports past the age of say 26 or 27.  That said, I play trivia at a bar on Monday nights and after last night's game ended the sound for the college bowl championship was on the turned on in the bar.  The defining play of the game was when Auburn's Michael Dyer was not quite tackled.

This is the start of the "not quite tackle."

Here he is getting up.

The ruling on the field - and upheld on review - was that he was not actually tackled, not down.  As far as my understanding of the rule is - a knee or other body part has to touch the ground - I tend to think the ruling was correct.  Some people disagree and think his ankle touching the ground in the second picture is proof he was down.

The nuance of this rule is not the point though.  Dyer's run was interrupted - full on stopped - and he was brought down to the ground.  Because the tackling player was in front of the Dyer and fell underneath Dyer shouldn't matter.  Dyer for all practical definitions was tackled.  The play should have been over.

Instead, because of quirky rule he wasn't technically down and he continued on down the field.  Good for Dyer for knowing the rules and continuing to play.  Bad on Oregon for not knowing the rules and stopping play before the whistle was blown.

Flat out, the rule is stupid.

Other Randomness

• I previously mentioned that the NBA's Miami Heat had become the New York Yankees of basketball... more evidence here.
  
  
• Adding more wild card teams to the MLB playoffs, in a one game format, could improve the end of the regular season. I could get behind the idea if there was a guarantee that it would remain a one game play in. My fear is that it would expand to a best of 3 or best of 5 series.
  
  
• Now that's how you start the post season! In this, the so called Year of the Pitcher, Roy Halladay, in his first ever post season appearance, threw 2nd ever post season no hitter. I had been paying vague attention to the score at work but did not realize what was going on. I was on the El riding home when I got a text about it. I jumped off the train and into the nearest bar. I got to see the 7th inning on.
  
  
  
• The recessions effects on rich and poor in one handy graph.
  
  
• Yes it's true. I was am a geek. Although I feel I should point out the last time I played was college.
  
  
• Despite the obvious geekiness the Calc Teacher continues to want to see me. :)
  
  

Too soon? Was it too soon?

Yes, a bit.

I Seem to Like This One

The Calc Teacher and I are going to Galena for a wedding this weekend. The wedding is Sunday but the hotel required a 2 night stay so we're driving out Saturday. I, that's me, suggested that we play a round of golf on Saturday.

She was the golf instructor at her school until recently.

I all but quit playing golf 12 years ago because a., it is a hassle to get to a golf course from the city and b., I suck at it. My golf clubs have been hanging, unused, on my brother's garage wall for the past 8 years.

We're both looking forward to the weekend. I just have to keep my temper (with myself) in check when I shank every third shot on the course. It would spoil a happy walk in the park for me and hopefully fun round of golf for her.

Near West Side Fire Sale

With the caveat that my observation comes from a guy who doesn't understand why they use crooked bats and don't wear cleats, but it appears that the Blackhawks fire sale continues. This makes 4 or 5 players from the Staley Cup winning team traded or let go. As always, the salary cap excuse is being used. Either the salary cap is ridiculously low or the Blackhawks' management is poorly run. At this point I see them as the Florida Marlins of the NHL.

Briefly On LeBron

I used to follow basketball. There was a time I would have cared. There was a time I would have really, really been (figuratively) holding my breath waiting to see if the Bulls could woo the best player in the league.

Last night was a travesty. A one hour, self scripted fuck you to the rest of the league. A one hour, self scripted especially big FUCK YOU to Cleveland and Ohio. A one hour, self scripted "I'm the most important thing in the world" promotion.

I don't care so much that LeBron decided to move on to another team. He's doing so for less money. I assume he thinks he can win a championship with this move. It is the self promoting spectacle and ESPN's culpability that is disgusting.

The Miami Heat are now the NY Yankees of the NBA.

Bwahahahahaha!

The French World Cup team, Les Bleus, were sent home early Tuesday having failed to win a single match. A team that secured their spot in the cup on a blatant, uncalled hand ball.*

The Italians matched the French accomplishment of zero wins after a 3-2 loss to Slovakia today. They will be flopping back to Europe soon.

Meanwhile, the U.S. won their group in an incredibly exciting set of matches yesterday. The finished regulation time tied with Slovenia. If the result had held the U.S. would be slinking back home. Then in stoppage time a break lead by Landon Donovan attacks the goal. The keeper makes a save on the first shot but Donovan trailing the play puts the ball in back of the net. Instead of going home, the U.S. WON THEIR GROUP by scoring more goals than England.

Saturday the U.S. will face Ghana in the first of the elimination rounds. I think the U.S. has a legitimate shot at winning that game if they knuckle down. It certainly is a better shot than if they had finished 2nd in the group (as I predicted) and were playing Germany.