Dear St. Louis Cards management,
I've been to your city twice, once as an adult. First time I've stayed in a really classy hotel, and oh my God, the bed was unbelievable.
Peter Angelos having crashed the Orioles into a river a few decades ago - that, and distance from Baltimore as an adult, and the job - have soured me a bit on baseball. As have the too-long season, Tim McCarver, and a few other things.
But we all know how great a baseball town St. Louis is. Growing up as an Oriole fan, I know what it's like to cheer for players with integrity, players who stayed with one team forever or for nearly all of their career: Brooks Robinson, Cal Ripken, Boog Powell, Paul Blair, Ken Singleton, Jim Palmer, etc.
I'm not one for blank checks, by any stretch, especially since so many go to the blank-headed players. I hate that Albert, by all accounts a hugely classy guy, is playing a numbers game. Er, that Albert's agent is.
Pujols and Co. want/wanted 10 years for 23 mil a year. He's currently 31. It goes against all I believe in regarding financial responsibility in sports.
But pay Albert Pujols. Talk to him, negotiate him down like you're supposed to, play the game.
And then pay the man.
Here's a silly thought that goes against my normal logical tendencies: do it before game 1 of the World Series. If the Cards, now with huge momentum because of Pujols' huge game 2, make it, do it then.
Have a short press conference, let everybody see a relaxed Pujols smiling - and probably tearing up - before the World Series begins, end the speculation and pressure and worry.
There are players who look like Phyllis Diller when they're in a different uniform, and Pujols is one of those.
Sign him, and then let a huge banner with him in uniform flow from the top of the arch during the World Series.
It would make the world a little bit better, and we need all of that we can get. After all, we still have the Kardashians and Jersey Shore to fight.
PEACH STATERS
OK, so what did I think beforehand, since I didn't actually offer it here? (And most catching-up stuff is in italics).
A bettin' buddy was all over UGA getting one over Tennessee, and I was skeptical. Another buddy wondered if UGA would roll UT.
Me? I thought it was an even matchup, and really had no major reason to pick Georgia, but I did. Just a hunch that they'd have an edge, and that the defense would play well. My pick - as per one Californian's voice mail - was 27-24.
And I really didn't think Maryland had enough to stay close with Georgia Tech for more than a half. Of course, how good the Jackets are has been up for debate. Winning by five only adds to the question marks. The call was about a 17-point Tech win.
Now, what was written a day or two after two Saturdays ago, Oct. 1, with no updates or fixins:
Georgia should have been closer to my 37-14 pick over Mississippi State, but remember this.
Georgia entered the season as a middlin' team that had potential. ...
And in Atlanta, maybe Paul Johnson will use logic instead of chest-puffing and just finish the game. Had that happened, the three-touchdown win I'd predicted but, um, forgot to list, would've been on target.
The Jackets were up 45-21, and gave up two touchdowns in the final 34 seconds to win by 10.
How close the game was is hard to tell. Tech led only 21-14 entering the fourth quarter, then scored three times - once on defense - in less than 2:30.
Note that they gave up 5.1 yards a carry to State, which had three more touchdowns and was outgained by only 26 yards.
And that was it. Nope, sorry, didn't get around to much more. The annoyingness of Apple products - my iPhone - interrupted things.
No, didn't think Georgia Southern would be taken to the wire by Chattanooga. Expected a quality game, not a final-minute game.
KICKIN IT OFF
Belated Saturday (Oct. 1) stuff:
Care for some orange Kool-Aid brewed by Frank Howard's Esso Brewpub?
Called 23-21, was off by 18. Who knew the (Clemson) Tigers' D would hammer (Virginia) Tech's offense?
Nebraska at Wisconsin: Sorta forgot to throw a Wisconsin-Nebraska score in there, but I had already publicly picked the Badgers. In no form or fashion did I see such a hazing coming.
OK, so USCE isn't what we thought. Of course, somebody wrote back in the late summer that the Gamecocks were the team to beat in the East, but not by much and they probably weren't good enough to run the conference table.
Somebody also wrote that Auburn and Tennessee were the underrated teams in the conference
Texas at Iowa State: No real prediction here, just the hope that ISU beats the Greedhorns.
Called Alabama over Florida 27-18 and wondered if we'd see the Florida I was expecting, if it would be a blueprint for Florida's opponents.
Mixed bag on analysis, but there are some cracks, especially when John Brantley is out.
And yes, it's a blueprint.
OK, caught up. Yeesh.
LOUGHDMOUTHINGS
Dear Mike Vick Kool-Aid Drinkers:
See Aaron Rodgers. That's how an athletic quarterback plays. ...
How many times will Oklahoma's spanking of Texas be replayed on the Longhorn Network?
Hah. How sweet.
"Due to time constraints in this ass-whipping, we move ahead to the end of the game. Good night." ...
(Old stuff from post Oct. 1)
The ACC sort of surprised. Two homes games instead of the predicted one had crowds of 50,000 or more.
The numbers: Wake Forest at BC: 38,265; Towson at Maryland, 35,573; Georgia Tech at NC State, 55,811; Idaho at Virginia, 39,827; Bethune-Cookman at Miami, 40,387; Clemson at Virginia Tech, 66,233; Duke at Florida International, 22,682; North Carolina at East Carolina, 50,610.
UVa needed overtime to beat Idaho? Woe. Thought ECU would give UNC a better game, but apparently the Pirates are mediocre this season. Nope, WF-BC didn't crack 40,000, and Towson-Md. wasn't close to 50,000, as pondered.
And surprisingly, Georgia Tech at NC State was No. 2, with 56,000. ...
OK, so who said recently that we'd be revisiting conference alignments in 10-15 years with everybody moseying on back to where they should be?
You're welcome.
It didn't last a month.
TCU accepted the Big 12's invite, which makes it easier for Missouri to stay rather than get obliterated in the SEC.
And again, it took a month before people started talking about travel, tradition, greed and all that?
Yeah. ...
From last week:
How are college officials blowing the replays so badly?
First, we had them royally muffing it in Toledo-Syracuse, when Joe Paterno could see without his glasses on that Syracuse's point-after kick clearly missed.
Instead, even after replay, the miss was ruled good, Syracuse had a 30-27 lead, Toledo had to kick to get the tie, and then the Orange won in the overtime that never should have been.
Two weeks ago, South Carolina's Bruce Ellington caught a pass and clearly hit the ground with two seconds left. Late in the game, shouldn't officials be even quicker on calling the play over? And when you're down, there's no doubt.
And when there's a doubt, isn't that what replay is for? Don't they regularly to go to replay for the spot and the clock?
To the shock of nobody, the SEC's statement was: "According to rule 3.3.2e, when a team is awarded a first down, the game clock is stopped when the covering official gives the timeout signal. Based on review, the covering official followed proper procedure."
OK, so the on-field refs blew it. Technically. USCE's only real option was one more play, since there wasn't time to spike it and the Gamecocks had no more timeouts and thus no time to get the FG team on the field.
Of course, had USCE not read book on clock management co-authored by Les Miles and Mark Richt, the Cocks would have had a chance to kick it..
They called a timeout after an incomplete pass, with 36 seconds left. Then Auburn did the same. USCE's first timeout was with 5:42 left, facing a third-and-10 from its own 12.
No no no no, bad timeout.
Granted, Stephen Garcia is playing himself out of the starting job, USCE couldn't get a running game going against a pedestrian run defense, did nothing with five turnovers, gave up 50 percent third-down conversion rate, had five sacks.
Auburn did to South Carolina what South Carolina did to Georgia: won a game it probably shouldn't have.
But you make plays when it counts most and don't compound mistakes, you win. ...
Memo to Mizzou: Don't be stupid, stay where you are. A&M leaving is one less team you have to worry about in trying to stay at average or better. ...
Mike Wise of the Washington Post gets a fist bump for this observation on the inconsistencies of Washington QB Rex Grossman:
"Good Rex, Bad Rex and Train Rex."
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