Sportsalicious

An absolutely crazy amount of stuff going on in the sportsosphere over the past few days.

Half of the top 10 NCAA college football teams lose...although Texas should not have been that high anyway. This really illustrates a big problem with the preseason polls, if a team is ranked too high to start the season (like Texas...sorry Bevo) even if they play like crap, if they keep winning they won't be ranked in a manner closer to their actual skill level as opposed to the pre-season hype. Teams like South Florida, Kentucky, and BC have to wait for the Texas' Michigan's and Clemson's of the world to lose.

Sadly we haven't mentioned anything about Ok State coach Mike Gundy...I know, I know, I thought he coached basketball too...turning in one of the greatest press briefing tirades of all time. The reason for this omission is that we haven't been able to stop laughing enough to type. The best part is that he tacitly admits that the QB he covers for went crying to him because a writer at a newspaper said some mean things from him and called him names and stole his lunch money. I can't wait to talk to Trevor, SportsBullies resident OSU alumnus and sports expert, to find out his reaction...until then I'll try and find the differences between Coach Gundy and Will Ferrell on SNL, "I'M A MAN!!! I'M FORTY!!! I DRIVE A DODGE STRATUS!!!!!"

Big NFL stories from this past weekend include the Patriots being really good (I know I picked them to win the Super Bowl, but I keep feeling like I underrated them)...nice to see that their brilliance on the field and the resurgence of Randy Moss have been the major story lines as well as Tom Terrific's accuracy...he's 95/120 on the season (that's Lincoln picking games good) his worst performance was his last one as on MNF he went a meager 25/32 or a Drew Bledsoe-esque 78.1%..., and not where Coach Belichick has cameras pointed. The national mass media really buried the lead with the whole "Spy Gate" story anyway. It should not be a shocking revelation that a paranoid coach would try and steal signs vs his prodigal disciple, the shocking news should have been the complete and total misappropriation of hidden cameras. Everyone knows that hidden cameras are used for filming sexy co-eds at their wildest, any use not to that ends is completely disregarding everything this technology stands for!!!!

I will say this as a HUGE Cowboy fan...the Cows have surprised me this year. I'm a big homer, but even I didn't think they would be this good. True, they haven't played a great team yet...Da Bears were their tuffest foe and the Boys had the fortune of playing them in Rex Grossman's last game as an NFL QB, BUT! the mark of dominate NFL teams is not battling hard and squeezing past mediocre to good teams...not the really great teams are those that consistently crush inferior opponents. Dallas has done that and is now, clearly, the class of the NFC (which makes them about the 12th best team in the AFC). I'm not buying non-refundable airline tickets to Phoenix in February just yet, but I keep getting the increasing feeling that this year is going to be special.

**Note of full disclosure: I had this feeling all during the Mavs season last year**

Tony Romo gave us the most incredible four yard run in history, and it was after this play that I really felt like things could break our way this year. I was really happy that Romo was able to make a big play out of a botched snap this time....too soon?

Speaking of the Mavs...which I know I really wasn't, I was typing of them but how gay would it sound if I said, "typing of the Mavs" yeah! That's what I thought!...They made their biggest roster change of the season by trading Greg Buckner to the ex-Kevin Garnet's for a younger, bigger, more athletic version of Buck. Kudos to Nellie and the crew for taking advantage of Kevin McHale (not like that has been overly difficult in his tenure as GM of the Wolves) and his emphasis on "veteran leadership" for an extremely young club.

The calendar rolling over to October means one great thing for the SportsBullies, PLAYOFF BASEBALL!!!! Now since the Rangers won't be participating in this year's playoff...I know, I'm as shocked as you...SportsBullies will have to shift it's allegiances somewhere else. JJ is the biggest Red Sox homer known to man...very interesting since he has born and raised in Dallas...but the rest of the SportsBullies share his view, Boston is the team to beat. Dominate starting pitching (Beckett, Dice-K, and Schill are the best 1-2-3 punch in the game) with an offense that can run teams out of the park any day, really underrated fielding and a closer with an Andy Pettite like ability to make his pupils vanish under the bill of cap making him really freaky looking to opposing hitters all combine to make Boston the odds on favorite to hoist the really odd looking trophy with a lot of flags on it for the second time in 3 years if you want to be nice or second time in 89 if you don't.

We will have much more in depth playoff coverage later but in the NL I, Lincoln, am officially calling the Cubs to reach the World Series. I called Sox/Cubs a few years ago...but a certain fan in a green turtle neck and headphones derailed that...but this year could make my once unrealized dreams come true. Big Z is as good a pitcher as there is in the NL, with only Webb and Cole Hammels coming close, and Hill and Lilly have both had really nice years. While the North Siders lack the same back end of the bullpen nail-it-down-ness...new word!!...as the Red Sox, their depth of pitching is good enough coupled with a lineup that has been injured most of the year but healthy at the right time. I really hope this will happen for the good of baseball more than anything, nothing would spark interest in the game like a Red Sox/Cubs WS.

The playoffs, kinda, started last night with the Rox winning in extras over the Fathers. It was one of the most exciting baseball games I've ever seen, tons of drama, excitement, high skill, and error on display. The Mile Highers got robbed on a Garret Adkins "double" that, according to the umps, hit the top of the wall and bounced back. One minor problem with that...it's physically impossible! There is no way for a ball traveling forward to hit on top of a flat surface and bounce back, it would have to hit a stationary object in front of it to have it's trajectory completely reversed...a stationary object like a handicapped seat. Karmic justice prevailed as Matt Holliday got the benefit of scoring one a play where his face hit more dirt than his hand hit plate. All Holliday, who is one of my personal favorite players, had to do was have the edge of his finger tangent to the black of the plate...and he may have. But the, suspiciously, slow call by the home plate ump mixed with TBS forcing thousands of viewers to go all Zapruder with their TiVo's because the production values were the exact same as a Braves vs Nats game in March.

Regardless the better team won...the Pads are the better team when healthy but having Milton Bradley and Mike Cameron out with injury makes Colorado the better team right now.

PS perhaps the biggest way the Pads got screwed by the umps was the board game injury. If an ump doesn't goat him into a fight, he stays healthy and makes at least one of the 10,000 plays that Brady Clark screwed up in centerfield.

PPS I can't believe I just saw a game where Doug Brocail out pitched Jake Peavey and Trevor Hoffman was worse than Jorge Julio.