College Football Saturday: Week 12

A special Saturday good morning to you Fackers. College Gameday kicks off in 60 minutes from Tucson, where Arizona hosts Oregon in match up of two teams still alive in what's a relatively wide open Pac-10. The show is starting at 8 AM local time and the game starts at 6 PM local time. It's going to be a long day out there. Thankfully, there's a full slate of games to fill the void in between.

North Carolina at Boston College, 12:00 ESPN2: Finally I get to watch a BC game - not because this game is actually on TV but because I've made the trip up to Chestnut Hill for the weekend. Tailgating! Plus, I get the added benefit of not having to listen to Pam Ward call this one. BC still has a chance to win the ACC Atlantic and head to their third straight ACC Championship Game, but they need help. They need to win out against UNC and Maryland and have Clemson lose to against a poor Virginia team. I'm not holding my breath. Up until last week - when they beat Virginia - BC was winless on the road. Entering this game, they're undefeated at home. But UNC has won three in a row, including upsets of then #13 Virginia Tech and then #14 Miami. I have a bad feeling about this one.

#10 Ohio St. at Michigan, 12:00 ABC: Three years ago this game decided who would play in the BCS Championship Game. Now Michigan is a laughingstock. Can't say I'm too broken up about that, particularly with how Lloyd Carr was unceremoniously shown the door. But, this is one of the two times a year I pull for the Wolverines (the Notre Dame game being the other of course). Derek Jeter and Nick Swisher will find themselves on opposite ends of this one.

Minnesota at #13 Iowa, 12:00 ESPN: Poor Iowa. Not only did they lose a heartbreaker in OT against Ohio St last week, costing them a trip to the Rose Bowl, but the loss dropped them below Penn State in both the AP and USA Today polls. Lest you forget, the Hawkeyes beat the Nittany Lions handily, in Happy Valley, earlier this season. And you thought the BBWAA voters were bad.

Duke at #20 Miami, 12:00 ESPNU: Miami has had a bit of an up and down season, and it was down last week as they were upset by UNC. Duke is having their best season in years. I still don't think there's another upset in the works in this one.

Louisville at South Florida, 12:00 SNY: As with last week's SNY game, I have nothing to say. Which is exactly why this game is on SNY.

Oklahoma at Texas Tech, 12:30 MSGPlus: Both head coaches will be mentioned in coaching searches this off-season; neither will be going anywhere.

Connecticut at Notre Dame, 2:30 NBC: So Charlie Weis thinks his future at ND is yet to be decided. Perhaps the fact that the university has disabled tracking of its private jet so as not to draw attention to their coaching search might be some indication that it has been decided. Despite living in Connecticut all my life I've never been a big UConn fan. In fact, I sort of dislike them because I have to hear about the men's - and even worse the women's - basketball team all damn year long. Needless to say though, I'll be a big Huskies fan this weekend. My cousin, who went to Notre Dame, and a good friend of mine, who went to UConn, are both heading out to this game. One of them is coming home unhappy; I think it'll be my cousin.

#8 LSU at Mississippi, 3:30 CBS: Rebels RB Dexter McCluster had an outstanding game against Tennessee last week, singlehandedly outgaining and outscoring the entirety of the Vols' offense. That must have made quite an impression on the boys in Vegas, because at this point unranked Ole Miss is favored by four and a half against the #8 team in the country. Also, in response the "From Dixie With Love" scandal I touched on last week, it's rumored that there may be a Klan rally on campus, both before and after the game. Only in the SEC.

#14 Penn State at Michigan State, 3:30 ABC: A couple years ago I spent a Saturday watching college football at Blondie's on the Upper West Side. I was there with a bunch of BC folk to watch the BC-Notre Dame game. The bar had booked a party of Michigan State people to take our place when our game was over. Our game ran a bit a late, and the later it got the bigger assholes the Spartans became. BC beat MSU in the Champs Sports Bowl at the end of that season. I was particularly happy about that.

Virginia at #23 Clemson, 3:30 ESPN: As above, Clemson needs to lose to keep BC's hopes alive in the ACC Atlantic. Let's go Cavs! At least give Groh one more high note on his way out the door. BC alum and sometime MSG guy Bob Wischusen is calling this one. Wonder who he's pulling for.

NC State at #15 Virginia Tech, 3:30 ESPNU: As best as I can tell, a Hokie is an oversized, maroon turkey. Thanksgiving is this coming Thursday.

Arizona State at UCLA, 4:00 MSGPlus: At this point in the season the Pac-10 is the most exciting conference in the country. This game features two teams who are entirely out of a wide open race. Thanks for nothing MSGPlus.

San Diego State at #21 Utah, 4:00 Versus: Utah got trounced by TCU last week, virtually ensuring the Utes will wind up in a second rate bowl game. So I'll go off on a bit of tangent instead. I was killing some time on You Tube this week, and decided to take a trip down memory lane by watching videos of old WWF wrestling matches. That led me to this video of former second rate wrestler "The Birman" Koko B. Ware getting inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame last year. If wrestling were like baseball, people would be going nuts about this. Koko B. Ware was never more than a midcard wrestler. But the reason I bring this up here is that if you mute the sound and just watch the video, I defy you to tell me that you don't think it's MLB Hall of Famer and former San Diego State Aztec Tony Gwynn.

Vanderbilt at Tennessee, 7:00 ESPNU: Hey, arrests of Tennessee players are down 67% this week. Great job Coach Kiffin. It's the Commodores against the Volunteers. Who you got?

#25 California at #17 Stanford, 7:30 Versus: So how good is Stanford? In consecutive weeks they've beaten then #8 Oregon and absolutely destroyed then #9 USC at the L.A. Coliseum. They have a shot at winning the Pac-10 now, and a win in this one would go a long way towards making that happen. Might coach Jim Harbaugh's alma mater come calling after that? Cal will be without Jahvid Best for the second consecutive week.

Kansas State at Nebraska, 7:45 ESPN: Somehow this is Kansas State's final regular season game. Nebraska has lowly Colorado next week and a half game lead on the Wildcats in the Big 12 North. So, essentially this breaks down to the Big 12 North Championship Game, for the right to get obliterated by Texas in the Big 12 Championship Game. More importantly, this is your Erin Andrews game for the night.

Kentucky at Georgia, 7:45 ESPN2: Tragic news out of Athens Thursday, as mascot UGA VII went to the great beyond. Rest in peace UGA. That's about the most interesting angle on this one.

#11 Oregon at Arizona, 8:00 ABC: As mentioned above, this is a big one out in the wild wild west. This is one of the rare weeks where Kirk Herbstreit doesn't have to jet from the Gameday location to his Saturday night broadcast. Will he spend his day watching games or Arizona co-eds?

Kansas at #3 Texas, 8:00 ESPN360: It's a bad week to be a morbidly obese football coach. Charlie Weis, despite pleading ignorance, is all but done at Notre Dame and now Heavyweight Champion of the World Mark Mangino is the subject of an internal investigation at Kansas over allegations that he's something of an asshole. Oh, and that he's lost five straight. This will assuredly make six. He used to be so cute and happy. Andy Reid, Eric Mangini, Rex Ryan: consider yourselves warned.

Nevada at New Mexico State, 10:30 ESPNU: Sort of a weak way to wind out the night, particularly on a station that not everyone gets. Hey, New Mexico State is just like the pros. Head coach Mike Locksley beat the shit out of one of his assistants, just like Tom Cable Now, Locksley is being mentored by super-football-mentor-extraordinaire Tony Dungy, just like Michael Vick. Does that make former New Mexico assistant J.B. Gerald a pitbull?

Enjoy the games Fackers.

College Football Saturday: Week 11

A special Saturday good morning Fackers. Gameday kicks off in an hour, coming from Fort Worth this week where Utah takes on TCU later tonight. The winner of that game almost assuredly takes the Mountain West, and it's a game that pits the #16 team in the BCS against the currently undefeated #4 team. Yet no one will get to see it because it's on CBS College Sports, and no one gets that channel. Damn you non-BCS Conferences and your lack of a decent television contract!

Anyway, we're hitting the home stretch of the season here and there are a lot of big match ups this week. Here's a look at some of the games most of the civilized world will have the opportunity to watch:

Tennessee at Ole Miss, 12:00 CBS: Here's what you need to know about this game. Early Thursday morning, three Volunteer freshman were arrested for a failed armed robbery attempt, performed on campus, while wearing team issued attire. Meanwhile on Tuesday, administration at Mississippi announced that the band will no longer be playing long time anthem "To Dixie With Love" due to the students and fans continued insistence of yelling hot button phrase "The South will rise again" at the song's conclusion. Well then, so much for dispelling SEC stereotypes.

Michigan State at Purdue, 12:00 ESPN: Another week, another God-awful boring Big Ten game to kick off the day. With any luck Bob Griese will say something ethnically insensitive again and make this interesting. At the very least he'll be back at his alma mater this week; perhaps he'll find a more receptive audience.

#7 Georgia Tech at Duke, 12:00 ESPN2: So much for Duke wreaking havoc on the ACC standings last week. Still this is their best season in years, probably since future NY Giants QB washout Dave Brown was still there. Meanwhile, GT is looking completely legit right now, and coach Paul Johnson's decision to go for it on fourth and less than a yard while trailing by three in OT last week took some major cojones. Ugh and Pam fucking Ward is announcing this game. Why does she still have a job?

Florida State at Wake Forest, 12:00 ESPNU: Last week I made a crack about someone waking Bobby Bowden up so that FSU could pull off an upset and help BC in the process. Turns out there was more truth to that than I thought, as Bowden repeatedly asked reporters for clarification on details of the game during his post-game press conference. I'm all for respecting the legends and letting them go out on their own terms, but this is getting downright sad. Also, Christian Ponder is out for the season. The Seminoles are fucked.

Northwestern at Illinois, 12:00 ESPN Classic: I love it when the occasional game gets relegated to ESPN Classic and then for the duration of the game they have to plaster "LIVE" in the upper corner of the screen so people don't think it's a classic game. As if anyone could possibly confuse a match up between Northwestern and Illinois as a classic. I'd rather they just forgo this one and keep showing 20 year old AWA wrestling matches. Also, a big middle finger to Northwestern for upsetting Iowa last week and ruining my dreams of a season ending menage a trois atop the Big Ten standings.

Louisville at Syracuse, 12:00 SNY: I have absolutely nothing of substance or remotely funny to say about this game. But I don't want Big Willie Style to get mad at me for leaving it out. Is it poignant that Syracuse football and Mets baseball share a network for an afternoon? You decide.

Yale at Princeton, 1:oo YES: Hey Fans! Do you like 1-AA match ups between academic powerhouses that haven't been relevant in football for forty years, have no scholarship athletes, and whose own conference prevents them from taking part in post-season play? Well do we have a game for you! Coin Toss! Kickoff! Football! Next, only on YES!

#1 Florida at South Carolina, 3:30 CBS: Oooh, CBS gets a double header this week. Can Spencer Tillman's jheri curl handle the double shift? Word is Tim Brando is under orders to only allow him a single Soul Glo oil change over the course of the afternoon. Meanwhile, I'm surprised Verne Lundquist didn't angle for the noon game so he could catch an early bird special. Also, did you know that South Carolina Head Ball Coach Steve Spurrier won the Heisman Trophy at Florida and later went on to coach there? I bet you won't hear a word about that during this game.

#10 Iowa at #11 Ohio State, 3:30 ABC: Barring any late season upsets, this is essentially the Big Ten Championship Game. If history repeats itself, the Buckeyes will take this one assuring another blood letting at the hands of whomever in a BCS game. At least it will most likely be the Rose Bowl this year rather than the BCS Championship Game. Also, I can't think of a broadcast crew I dislike more than Sean McDonough, Matt Millen, and Holly Rowe. That's three special kinds of annoying, incompetent, and ugly, respectively.

Delaware at Navy, 3:30 CBS College Sports: I know I said no one gets this channel; I just wanted to use this as an opportunity to point out that Navy defeated Notre Dame in South Bend last weekend for the second time in as many trips. What would it say about ND if Delaware could pull off the upset of Navy today? Of course, ND beat BC, so what would that say about BC? Nevermind; forget I even brought this up.

Boston College at Virginia, 3:30 ESPN360: Speaking of BC, I've had about enough of this. This is BC's tenth game this year and all but three of them haven't been on TV. I didn't mind so much when there was still baseball going on, but now this really sticks in my craw. To make matters worse, my ISP doesn't have an agreement with ESPN360 (F-U Cablevision!). In happier news, I had to work on a Saturday last month and there I found out that not only does my work ISP offer ESPN360, but I can now access it remotely from anywhere by using my ESPN.com account. Take that assholes; I just wish I had known earlier in the season. So once again, I'll be watching this one with a laptop frying my balls for three hours. This is likely the end of days for Al Groh in Charlottesville after the Cavs faithful have been clamoring for his ouster for years. Aren't you glad you only had him for a year Jets fans?

Idaho at #6 Boise State, 3:30 PM ESPNU: Did you know that Idaho didn't get the nickname "Vandals" until they pranked Boise St by breaking into their stadium and spray painted their astroturf blue? Before that they were the Potato Farmers. Or maybe I just made all of that up.

#2 Alabama at Mississippi St, 7:00 ESPN: No matter what happens from here on in, the SEC Championship Game is already set with Alabama and Florida. Chances are both teams enter undefeated, but even if it's a one loss team winning that game, they're a dead lock to head to the BCS Championship Game. What I'm wondering is given the strength of the SEC and how much love they get in the polls, just how many losses would one of those teams have to have to be excluded from the BCS Championship Game? Two? Three? I doubt we'll even find out. By the way, this is your Erin Andrews game for the night - just in case you were wondering.

#17 Arizona at California, 7:00 Versus: Compared to 2007 and 2008, this college football season is downright boring without the weekly upsets and constant shuffling atop the rankings. The Pac-10 is apparently the last bastion of the chaos of the last two years. With Oregon's loss last week, 'Zona is in the driver's seat out west heading into next week's match up with the Ducks. They have to get by a good Cal team first. With three losses the Golden Bears are pretty much out of the picture. They'll be without star running back Jahvid Best who last Saturday suffered his second concussion in as many weeks on quite possibly the scariest hit I've ever seen.

Louisiana Tech at #8 LSU, 7:00 EPSNU: LSU is one of five FBS teams that go by "Tigers", but to my knowledge, they're the only school that keeps a live bengal fucking tiger on their campus. Think about that for a second. A bunch of drunken cajun college students sharing a campus with a carnivorous beast. I have no clue how this has yet to result in Sigfried and Roy type catastrophe.

Auburn at Georgia, 7:30 ESPN2: Auburn also goes by the Tigers, but they do not keep a live oversized feline mascot. Georgia, on the other hand, does have a live bulldog mascot and he has a past history with Auburn. I can't imagine how that would play out if it were to happen in Baton Rouge, but it wouldn't be pretty. I like tuning into these night games on ESPN2 for the studio coverage. I'm always intrigued to see if Wendi Nix is wearing her "sexy librarian" get up that night and markedly less intrigued to find out if former Giant back-up QB / Bachelor Jesse Palmer has gotten any dumber since last week.

Notre Dame at #12 Pittsburgh, 8:00 ABC: I know how much people love to bag on Bill Belichik, particularly in metro-NYC, but I've always been a fan of the guy thanks to the dominant Giant defenses that he led in my childhood. Love him or hate him, you gotta admit the guy's good. Since leaving Belichick, Romeo Crennel has done his best work in Coors Light commericals, Eric Mangini is about to get fired for the second time in less than a year, Josh McDaniels was a P.R. disaster at the outset and is now crashing back to earth, and Charlie Weis has one fat foot in a double wide grave. I think the loss to Navy last week was the final straw for him. Hey, Ty Willingham's available; why doesn't ND rehire him and foist all the blame on him again? Meanwhile, could Pitt overlook the Irish? This is a non-conference game while a de facto Big East Championship Game against Cincinnati on December 5th looms.

Texas Tech at #19 Oklahoma St, 8:oo ESPN360: This one's relegated to internet only in most of the country, but features an interesting match up of two crazier-than-usual coaches. Mike Gundy is still a man; Mike Leach is still a pirate.

Arizona St at #13 Oregon, 10:20 ESPN: Like Arizona, Oregon needs to keep winning in order to win the Pac-10. They may be able to afford one more loss so long as they can beat the Wildcats next week, giving them the head-to-head tiebreaker. Meanwhile, earlier this week Oregon prematurely rescinded their season long suspension of LeGarrette Blount, issued after he punched a helmetless Boise St. Bronco in the face following the season's opening game. I'm sure it's just coincidental that the decision was reversed after a critical loss.

Enjoy the games Fackers.

Are You Ready For Some Football?

Good morning Fackers. I've got a little extra hop in my step this morning, and it's not just because the Yankees continue to roll along about as well as we could imagine.

Tonight marks the return of college football. No sport will ever replace baseball when it comes to capturing my attention, but with the autumn-like weather that's settled in over the past few days, I've been anxiously awaiting the return of pigskin. It's been 238 days since God's own quarterback dispensed with Oklahoma and gave Florida their second National Championship in three years. The Gators were a record-setting, overwhelming, pre-season number one in the AP poll, and are the favorites to capture a third National Championship in four seasons.

ESPN has a doubleheader tonight. In the opener, The Old Ballcoach and his Cocks travel to Raleigh to face the Wolfpack, led by former BC coach Tom O'Brien. These same two teams kicked off last season. While the match-up itself isn't all that compelling, the game will be interesting in that it will mark Erin Andrews' return to work. Perhaps you've heard that America's Sideline Princess was the victim of a serious violation of privacy over the summer. Understandably, she's kept a low profile since then, and this will be her first public appearance outside of her tell-all at an Oprah taping last week.

The night cap features a much better match-up as the #16 Oregon Ducks visit the #14 Boise St. Broncos. It'll be the ugly uniforms against the ugly field. I'll likely have the CFB games on the tube with the Yanks game streaming on the laptop. Cut me some slack; it's opening night.

In an effort to somehow tie this back to the Yankees, I'll mention that much to my surprise and even more to my chagrin, I caught a commerical on YES earlier this week indicating that all Notre Dame home games will be replayed on YES Mondays this fall. I researched this a bit. Turns out it's a multiyear deal and includes the showing of other ND content on YES.

/vomits

As you may recall, I'm not particularly fond of Notre Dame, nor is Big Willie Style. The best thing that come of this deal as far as I'm concerned is that it allow me a second chance to watch BC's seventh consecutive victory against The Irish.

Certain teams, usually the ones that have been highly successful, are generally despised outside of their own bases. The Yankees. The Cowboys. The Lakers. Duke basketball. Notre Dame football. The Yankees have now had content sharing agreements with Manchester United and Notre Dame. They established Legends Hospitality Management in conjunction with the Cowboys in order to service their two new stadiums. They're certainly making it easier for the average fan to consolidate his vitriol to a few choice locations.

Okay, I promise: that's my only football post today. If you need a little help getting excited for the season, check out this post from a couple weeks back. Now back to baseball.

November 2010... FEEL THE EXCITEMENT!!!1!

If you watched last night's game from the beginning on YES, then you probably experienced the excruciating half inning sit-ins by Rich Ellerson and Charlie Weis. The head coaches of the Army and Notre Dame football teams were there to promote the meeting between the two powerhouses of modern college football in November 2010, verbally excrete as many cliches as possible and slowly lull anyone watching the broadcast to sleep before three outs were recorded.

I have mixed feelings about having football games played in the New Yankee Stadium to begin with. The reason that they played football there in the past was out of necessity, since there wasn't a football stadium in the area. However, now there most certainly is, and by the 2010 season, there's going to be a brand new one in the Meadowlands (where Notre Dame already has plans to play Navy that year). It's yet another example of Lon Trost & Co. making misguided, nostalgic attempts to celebrate the history of the Old Stadium. You can acknowledge the past with out reliving it, Lon. This is a brand new billion dollar baseball stadium, they can play football in the brand new billion dollar football stadium across the river.

These guest visits were another issue all together. It was little more than self-congratulatory back slapping for the Yankees and the YES Network and served no purpose to the fans who tuned in to, you know, watch a baseball game. Why distract from a sporting event that's actually unfolding right in front of our eyes? They did nothing but promote an event that isn't going to happen for 16 months and figures to be totally lopsided, unwatchably boring or both when it's finally played. Save the date, folks!

There was already a press conference about the football game. Isn't that enough? Let's be realistic, no one is making plans for the game yet. Yes, it raised the awareness. But we are going to be battered over the head with promotions for the next year and third and most people aren't going to decide until that day or possibly during that game if they are going to watch it.

Especially after the amount of innings spent ignoring the action on the field with visitors in the booth yesterday, you'd think that YES would have refrained from doing two more today. Instead we got to hear Ellerson talk about his team's practice schedule and Weis go on about how he always wanted to be a Yankee announcer in the most lifeless drone ever heard in a broadcast booth. I can't imagine why that didn't work out for you Charlie.

Enough with the guests. We just want to watch the game.

Three Two To Ones

For the third day in a row the Yankees won a game by the score of 2-1. They are the first games of the year the Yanks have won while scoring two or fewer runs and they'd only notched two victories while scoring 3 runs or fewer before the All-Star Break. The odds of matching up a great pitching performance like the one put together by Andy Pettitte and the bullpen tonight to cover a weak offensive output are slim, and during the first few innings, it looked like the match-up was headed in an entirely different direction.

The first batter of the game, Brian Roberts, lofted a deep fly ball into the left field corner which barely stayed in the park. Up next, Nick Markakis blasted one into the home bullpen to make the score 1-0. The Yankees loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the first, but David Hernandez won a 9 pitch battle with Robinson Cano to end the inning. They got on the board soon thereafter, though, with a solo shot by Eric Hinkse in the bottom of the second.

Despite the exciting start, the offenses stalled out.

Both Pettitte and Hernandez found their stride and cruised through the middle innings. Allowing three hits and three walks, Herdandez went six frames but threw 103 pitches, due in part to the 35 it took him to get out of the first. Pettitte gave up 6 hits, but compensated with two double plays and a season-high 8 strikeouts. He left mess in the 8th inning for Phil Coke to clean up, though.

With one out and men on second and third, Nick Markakis lined Coke's first pitch to Mark Teixeira, who fired an off balance throw to Jose Molina with Caesar Izturus heading towards the plate. Molina grabbed the throw across this body, and swept a tag towards the plate, just barely in front of the runner. The ball was nearly falling out of his glove, but he trapped it against the ground as Izturus' foot nearly knocked it out. Brain Roberts advanced to third on the play.

Facing Adam Jones, Coke uncorked a wild pitch past Molina, but the veteran catcher quickly tracked and down and fired to Coke covering the plate, who tagged Roberts on an extra wide slide towards home. Two pitches, two fantastic defensive plays, and the lead was preserved.

With it apparent that both Mariano Rivera and Phil Hughes were likely unavailable, it wasn't clear who Girardi would call on to get big outs in the game. After Coke may or may not have hit Adam Jones with a pitch and got Aubrey Huff to fly out to center, our boy Alf was summoned from the 'pen to keep the game tied. Aceves got Melvin Mora to fly out to center and intentionally walked Luke Scott, before rookie Nolan Riemold flied to left for the third out.

A-Rod had the first chance to end the game in the bottom of the 9th, but he hit a flare right at Brain Roberts who had him played nearly straight away, behind second base. Hideki Matsui was next up. He took the first two pitches for balls, fouled the next three off and took the sixth one to the right field bleachers for a walk off HR.

It was the Yankees' 9th such victory this year (and 8th subsequent pie in the face - see comments) and it moved them to 15-11 in one run games. It's thanks to games like this that the Yanks continue to outperform their run differential and are now tied for first place in the AL East for the fifth separate time this season despite having gone just 16-17 within the division.

[Photos via ESPN/AP]

College Football Closer To Reality At New Stadium

Back in May, we ran a post about Notre Dame expressing interest in playing at Yankee Stadium. Today, that looks closer to being a reality.

According to the Times Herald-Record, Army and Notre Dame will play their 2010 game at the Stadium. The Black Knights will also reportedly play a game there in 2011, 2012, and 2013 against opponents yet to be determined.

I agree with ESPN's Graham Watson in thinking that having the annual Army-Navy game there would be great, but the locations for that game are already booked for years to come.

While I can appreciate the novelty and the nostalgia of hosting football at the new Stadium, I'm not sure it's the best idea in the world. The Yankees have invested billions of tax payer dollars in building a new baseball stadium. Why jeopardize the quality of the turf by subjecting it to a football game?

As Jay noted last week, multi-purpose ballparks are dying off. In recent years Veterans Stadium, Three Rivers Stadium, Riverfront Stadium, Candlestick Park and Qualcomm Park, all former two sport venues, have been replaced. The Metrodome will join them at season's end. Of the remaining dual sport MLB parks - Network Associates Coliseum and Landshark Stadium - are considered the worst venues in baseball. Why would the Yankees want to jump back to the multipsort mindset of 20 and 30 years ago?

Obese Football Coach Week Continues At Fack Youk

Following yesterday's Charlie Weis name-drop and a gratuitous picture of an asphyxiating Jabba the Hutt (or were he and Leia playing the choking game?), submitted for your enjoyment is the following text message exchange I had with my friend who attended the Springsteen show at The Swamp last night:

Him: Rex Ryan is sitting right in front of us. i didnt realize how fat
he is

Me: Who's fatter? Him or Weis?

Him: Definitely weis

I would have to agree.

So there you have it. Notre Dame may have fallen on tough times of late, but they still have the Heavyweight Champion of the Football World. I suppose I'm obligated to come up with something about Andy Reid soon.

As a side note, the Yankees faired much better last night than they did the night I caught The Boss on this tour.

Stay Off of My Lawn!

[Disclaimer: I loathe Notre Dame in much the same way that Big Willie Style hates BC]

The original Yankee Stadium hosted many a football game in its history. The New York football Giants called it home from 1956 through the early part of the 1973 season, and it was the site of what's still remembered as the NFL's Greatest Game. Before the Giants, assorted second-rate pro football teams bearing the name "Yankees" also called the Stadium home.

College football was also played there. NYU hosted 96 games there and were even allowed in the good seats back then. Fordham played 19 games in their neighborhood park. It was the site of Knute Rockne's famous "Win One for the Gipper" speech, as Notre Dame and Army faced off there for 24 consecutive years.

Today comes the news that Notre Dame wishes to take the field in the New Stadium. That's right, the once proud Fighting Irish, led by fat Charlie Weiss and his reconstructed knee, want to play at the new ballpark for "history's sake". Or, maybe it's because the match-up would likely be against lowly Army, a virtually assured win for a program that appears to be increasing the cupcake portion of their schedule on an annual basis.

Another possibile opponent would be Connecticut. Last year the two schools reached an agreement on a six year series to begin in 2011. For the right to play ND, Connecticut had to agree to play its three "home" games out-of-state. The Meadowlands and Gillette Stadium are considered the likely destinations, but The Stadium could offer a compelling alternative.

I say no thanks ND. We got a nice little manicured lawn here and we don't need you messing it up. The only way I'd be interested in this is if it were a BC-ND game (of course). BC has won the last six Holy Wars, and coincidentally, the 2010 match-up is the last one scheduled for years to come. Given that it would have to be a BC home game though, and BC is represented by the evil Fenway Sports Group, I see no way that ever happens.