Foul Territory

This is my post for the day. Oh, and DiamondCam was free for the whole game tonight on MLB.com, and during one of the commercials just before the game started, you could hear Joe Buck talking to people on the set. Then he started talking in a funny voice. I wish they skipped commercials on TV, and we got to see the Joe Buck comedy tour instead.

The University of Florida fired their football coach today. Ron Zook has compiled a 20-13 record in three years at the helm, but that is hardly up to the standards of the Gators in the preceding years coached by Steve Spurrier and his Fun'n'Gun offenses. I'm not here to debate whether or not Ron Zook deserved to lose his job following an upset loss to Mississippi State, or even if he deserved the job in the first place after Spurrier left for the Washington Redskins. What I do question is the timing of this announcement. It's one thing to fire a coach after a disappointing season, but it's quite another to make the announcement immediately following a midseason loss. How is it possibly better to make the announcement now, rather than wait until the last game has been played? It's unlikely the University will begin its search any sooner. In all likelihood, the next Gator coach is coaching somewhere else right now in Division I-A, so he's not available for interviews until at least January. As it is now, Zook and his staff will finish out the year and then be replaced by a yet unnamed coach. The only way this makes sense to me is if somehow it speeds up the hiring process at Florida, thus giving the new coach more time with the current players before next season and more time to spend on recruiting this spring, as the new coach both needs to build for the future as well as convince all the current players and new signees to stay at Florida. If firing Zook doesn't accomplish all that, then I feel the University of Florida made a group of men lame ducks for nothing.

A few sporting related thoughts for a Sunday evening:

First, the Red Sox big win over the New York Yankers last week reminded me of some wrestling experiences I’ve had. Of course, the analogy isn’t perfect, but the anticlimactic last game is similar to some tournament finals matches I’ve had in my career that have had the same anticlimactic finish. At the beginning of the day you look at the bracket sheet and see the top two seeds on the opposite sides of the tournament on a collision course for the finals. The day progresses and it becomes obvious that no one else is going to challenge the two best guys until they meet in the finals. Then, when they finally meet, one of the guys scores a few points early, and the final result is never in doubt after the first period. Granted, there’s still the possibility of a comeback, but said comeback never materializes. Maybe it’s not as exciting as it could have been, but the winner’s fans can relax, and I doubt the victor feels like he’s lost out on anything.

Second, I was thinking today about a mental approach to wrestling matches. Everybody is different in this respect. Some guys need to be really relaxed and focused. Others have to get themselves worked up into a good lather. Still others are best when they aren’t really thinking about wrestling until they strip off their warm-ups and head out on the mat. I think one of the more important jobs a coach is to determine the best way to get each of his wrestlers ready for his match. Maybe he gives some last minute instructions about what to watch for or what to remember, or maybe he doesn’t say a word, knowing that’s the best thing for his wrestler. It’s important because the mental approach to a match is so crucial. The match is so short that you can’t afford to come out flat, and you don’t have any teammates out there to pick you up. I’ve seen the mental aspect of the sport derail wrestlers with a lot of talent and athletic ability. These are guys that look like national champions in practice, but they just can’t get it together when it they’re keeping score. It happens for a lot of reasons, but they’re all mental ones, since the physical ability is obviously there. An effective coach would focus on determining what causes the anxiety or whatever causes the problem, and then he would try to do what he could to fix the problem. I just feel like this is an important, yet often overlooked, part of coaching, and if I ever interview for a coaching job, I’m definitely bringing it up.

Here it is, my running diary of game 7 in the Bronx. This one's for Squeeze, wherever he is.

8:23 - Rocky music playing as Joe Buck gives the requisite schlocky Fox introduction that I’m sure Vikki loved.

8:25 – Does anyone know Tim McCarver’s real hair color?

8:30 – And we’re under way. Let’s hope Johnny Damon’s haircut and beard trim doesn’t sap his strength, Samson style.

8:36 – I think Manny Ortez is up.

8:40 – Big Papiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!

8:46 – Just for the record, Derek Lowe scares the heck out of Janet and me.

9:00 – Don’t want to jinx it, but it doesn’t look like Brown has it tonight.

9:07 – And it’s the showers for Kevin Brown, who has had a series to forget. He’s the Skin of ALCS pitchers.

9:10 – I think it’s safe to say Johnny Damon should go shave his head right now, since the haircut has done him good. His new nickname is “Slammy.”

9:33 – I’m sure Terry Francona wants to get to the World Series as much as any of them, but it is keeping him from his usual job as David Letterman’s band leader.

9:46 – How many former ballplayers do you think would be better announcers than Tim McCarver? 300? 400?

9:52 – Slammy goes yard again. 8-1 Sox. Janet’s catatonic right now.

9:59 – It’s the top of the fourth, and the Yankees have already burned through $25 million worth of pitchers.

10:00 – You’re risking a patient’s life!!!

10:15 – We’re through four, and Derek Lowe is looking frisky, if I do say so myself.

10:20 – Mueller just kicked the ball into short right field on a grounder by Slammy. This kind of good fortune is supposed to happen to the Yankees, not the Sox.

10:23 – The Sox have now squandered both a bases loaded with one out and a second and third with one out, yet they still lead by seven runs. Of course, I’m sure the Sons of Sam Horn message board is buzzing with doom and gloom.

10:36 – By the way, Janet thinks Jeanne Zelasko is ugly.

10:40 – You’d never know it listening to the announcers, but Derek Jeter is having a seriously crappy series. His plate discipline is awful and his fielding is its usual atrocious self.

10:55 – Stretch time in New York. Ok, I’ll say it; Ronan Tynan walks like a duck. The guys in the St. Louis-Houston game sounded way better, and they didn’t look like a heart attack waiting to happen.

11:00 – Pedro comes in to pitch on one day of rest. Is this a reverse Grady Little or what? Why couldn’t Lowe keep working on his one hitter? This better work out.

11:10 – This is one nerve wracking 7th inning. Francona only knows why Pedro is in this game, but we’ll let it slide on two conditions: 1) Only one inning for Pedro, and 2) Pedro keeps tossing mid-90’s heaters.

11:12 – And Pedro gets out of it. Somebody sit him down until the World Series.

11:15 – Mark Bellhorn! Whooooooooooooo!!!! I’m usually in bed an hour and a half ago.

11:17 – Is there such a thing as a good mustache? Can I get a ruling here?

11:21 – All right, I admit I’m intrigued by National Treasure.

11:26 – We’re approaching Greg Norman territory here.

11:30 – Three More Outs! Three More Outs!

11:47 – The Sox tack on an insurance run as Red Sox Nation starts to realize what’s going on here. They aren’t going to blow this one, are they?

11:52 – Yankee fans are the worst, aren’t they? Ok, so they’re losing, but do they need to throw stuff on the field for the second straight day?

11:55 – One out from pandemonium. Torre really got outmanaged this series, didn’t he? He wore out his relievers down the stretch, and then misused them in the playoffs.

12:00 – As the clock strikes 12, it’s Reese to first for the final out. We’ll see you back in Boston on Saturday. I’ll have more analysis later. Now, I’m going to bed.

I think I'm going to get elective ankle tendon suturing, so I can be like Curt Schilling.

I've got my Manny Ramirez shirt on and I haven't shaved in a week in honor of Johnny Damon. Now it's up to Papi and the boys to send the Yankees home early.

In thinking about the upcoming Messiah wrestling season, I tried to determine which of the six most recent Messiah teams would win a dual meet tournament with the other five. First, here are the lineups, as much as I could recall for the end of the year lineup. I've included a probable lineup for this year's team.

A few notes on each team:

2000 Luciano Fields Vogel Lippert Helm Roggie Pickett Musser Kolb Knapp
2001 Clackett Ewig Aiello Vogel Logee Falk Stone Kolb Williams
2002 Clackett Ewig Harner Vogel Logee Miner Pentz Stone Kolb
2003 Clackett Alexander Harner Vogel Logee McGann Valenti Pentz Kolb Towers
2004 Clackett Ewig Harner Gorkos Logee Ricker Pentz Valenti Bucarey English
2005 Pollock Harner Gorkos McGann Dill Ricker Valenti Pentz Orfanos Bucarey

2000: Six seniors in the lineup and one 32 match winning freshman. Helm wins the title while Roggie picks up his third All-American award. Big holes at 133 and 285, with a smaller one at 197 once Graber went to student teaching.

2001: Could have been worse after mass graduation. Return of Falk helps to prop up the lineup as well as the arrival of Clackett, Ewig, and Logee as four year stalwarts, not to mention the first of three All-American seasons for Vogel.

2002: Last year's freshmen gain some seasoning and Kolb continues his improvement. Harner and Pentz arrive to eventually become four year starters, with Pentz likely reaching 100 wins this year. Miner gets his one year of college wrestling.

2003: Vogel wraps up his record setting career. Towers becomes the first Messiah heavyweight in three years, though he weighs 190 pounds; he's also the only freshman in the lineup. The last of Messiah's 6 year streak of having at least one All-American, though Vogel is the only qualifier for three straight years.

2004: Three seniors is the most in the lineup since 2000. Clackett finally beats Marcks and goes to Nationals, failing to place. Logee finishes a star crossed career. Ben Ewig finishes without ever having been tired in a match. Freshman Derek Ricker shows promise for the future.

2005: Who knows what the future will bring. Another year of Harner, Pentz, and Ricker, along with the arrival of state runner-up Pollock. Questions: will Harner and Gorkos make the weight drop? Is a heavyweight with a 1-25 record an asset? Can the Falcons qualify more than one, if any, to Nationals? What will Tim McGann do in his last go round?

There you have it. I'm pretty sure the 2000 team is the best of the six, but I'm not sure who is second. I'm taking suggestions, though.

I'm talking about MLB's live gamecast on the internet. Basically, it's like a living scorebook. At any point in a game, it tells you who is up, who's pitching, who's on, the count, the score...pretty much everything you'd want to know. They even show pitch locations, and you can see where every ball in play went. I've looked at Yahoo!'s and ESPN's, and they just don't compare to what MLB has been putting out. If you ever want to know what's going on in a game you can't watch, go to MLB.com and check it out.

Of course, this won't be necessary for a while, since every game is on TV now that it's the playoffs. My feeling on the playoffs is this: most importantly, I want the Yankees to lose so maybe Tim McCarver and Rick Sutcliffe would shut the heck up about them. After that, I'm rooting for Boston, if for no other reason than to never have to hear about the curse again. Also, it might keep some of these Boston fans a little more calm. It's a close call for the most obnoxious fans in sports, with New York and Boston duking it out. So there you have it. I'd like to see the Red Sox win, but mostly I want the Yankees and their $184 million payroll to lose.

I'm sure the interaction between marriage and sports is different for every couple. For example, not many people will have this exchange:
Me: I'll be home after 6, I'm wrestling tonight.
Janet: OK, see you when you get home
We do have some common ground, though. We both like baseball. Janet will watch a whole game if the Red Sox are involved or if it's the playoffs. Heck, if she wants, she can watch 10 straight hours of baseball tomorrow as soon as she gets home from work, but I doubt she will. The other sports/marriage dynamic is the TLC show issue. She loves these things, so I've seen my share. I can name a whole host of characters on such wonderful shows as Trading Spaces, While You Were Out, Surprise by Design, Househunters, What Not to Wear, Trading Spaces Family and so on. She couldn't name a single Dallas Cowboy this weekend, though she did know the coach's name, which counts I guess. I'm not really bothered by this. I really don't need her to know who Billy Cundiff or Richie Anderson are as long as she'll watch a little with me sometimes. She's good at that. She can read a book or whatever while I watch the Cowboys or Ohio State and explain to her that Nordonia High School is a mixture of the cities of Northefield and Macedonia, so it works out. I try to keep the sports watching to reasonable levels, since a lot of times I'd much rather read about some sports than actually watch them. For example, I've never actually watched a boxing match that was as exciting as the story written about it, but that's just my personal opinion.

So that's sports and marriage. I'm sure you will, or already have, figured out how it will work in your marriage.

It's a big old weekend in the world of baseball. Actually, the regular season ends Sunday. In the AL West, Oakland and Anaheim will play best two of three to decide who makes the playoffs. It's like extending the playoffs a whole extra week. In the NL West, the Dodgers' magic number is 1, so they control their own destiny. The Giants, who play the Dodgers this weekend can storm into the playoffs with a good showing. The Cubs, while not out of it, have been doing their best Greg Norman impersonation the past week and a half to put themselves in serious jeopardy. The Astros, after having been left for dead a few months ago, have played some good ball to get within striking distance, thus proving the Carlos Beltran trade wasn't all for nought. Obviously, the drama is higher in the NL, as more teams are still in it, compared to the AL, where it's just the A's and Angels. Everything else was sewn up a long time ago. I will tell you this, right now, no one wants to go anywhere near Johan Santana and his magic slider come playoff time.