BC Football is pretty bad this year

In the season opener they lost at home to Northwestern.  Not good.  Then they got BLOWN OUT by Central Florida, 30-3.  Central Florida is called the "Golden Knights" and plays in C-USA.  I guess they are a real legitimate Division 1 school.  Right now as I write this, the Eagles are up 19-14 at halftime, and will probably get their first win of the year today.  But they are playing Duke.  At home.  If BC were any good this game would be over already.  Duke lost to my Richmond Spiders two weeks ago.  Richmond is a 1AA team (I know 1AA is called something else now, but it's stupid and I refuse to acknowledge it).  Good luck this year Superfans.


3:53 PM UPDATE:

Final score: Duke 20, BC 19.  And for the record, Alaa Abdelnaby, Cherokee Parks, Danny Ferry, Trajan Langdon, and Mike Gminski did not play for the Blue Devils.  Is it really possible BC is worse than Richmond???

I've watched a LOT of baseball in my life, but this I'd never seen before

The broken bat and the ball arriving at the fielder at exactly the same time.  Seriously?  It's 0-0 with 2 outs in the 3rd, and a weak grounder to short turns into this.  Then two seconds later it's 4-0.  Wow.  I still say the Sox are in the playoffs.  Everything I know and believe about baseball makes me think they will win some games in the next few days and end all this drama.  But when crazy stuff like this happens it's got to make you wonder.

Jacoby is even more awesome than you think

"Jacoby Ellsbury will become the most popular Red Sox player ever."   - Me, 2008

A few years ago when he was first breaking in with the Sox, I used to say this to my friends all the time.  They thought I was nuts, but to me my logic was sound: He was young, fast, and girls loved him.  And in the ever growing age of "pink hat" Red Sox fans, those things seemed like the key ingredients to making his jersey the top seller.  Then last year's injury plagued debacle of a season came around, and my theory looked particularly idiotic.  But after what he's done this year, does it really seem that far fetched?

Consider this: He is the BEST player in the American League right now.  And honestly it's not even that close.  He's 5th in the league in batting average at .320.  3rd in runs scored with 109.  3rd in hits with 191.  7th in doubles with 42.  4th in steals with 36.  8th in on base percentage at .379.

Now all of those numbers make sense for a speedy leadoff hitter.  But what about these?!?:  He's 9th in HR with 27.  9th in RBI with 94.  7th in OPS at .923.  And this is the one I think is the craziest of all: He's 6th in the league in SLUGGING % at .544.  SIXTH!

Jacoby is the only player who ranks in the top 10 in virtually every offensive statistic.  There are a few other guys that are also in the top 10 in many categories, but none of them have speed.  And none of them are LEADOFF hitters.  In fact only Dustin Pedroia (12th) and Curtis Granderson (13th) even rank in the Top 50 in steals and also in the top 10 in more than one other major offensive category.

And then there is this: Ellsbury never hit an opposite field HR in the major leagues until 2 weeks ago.  Then on Tuesday he did it again.  Coincidence?  Probably.  But maybe he is just learning to hit that way.  He's only 28 years old, just entering his prime.  It's possible he could get even better.

Assuming he doesn't leave as a free agent after next year, why couldn't he become the most popular Red Sox player of all time?

If you take away the ocean, sun, and sand, what's left at the beach?

I went to South Beach on the Vineyard today.  There was hardly anybody there, but the weather was great and if it had still been August the place would have been mobbed.  Shortly after I arrived an old couple came and sat down about 30 feet from me.  That's them in the picture on the right.  They immediately set their chairs up facing away from the water.  Then they put up an umbrella to block the sun.  Unfortunately for them the wind kept knocking it over, so they took it down.  They put towels over their heads instead.  There was also a lot of sand blowing around, so they wrapped themselves in more towels for protection (they kept their shoes on too).  And this part is really essential, it was NOT cold.  Even with the wind blowing it was still plenty warm enough in just a bathing suit.  After they left I took a picture from where they were sitting.  Here's their view:

And here's what they were missing:

Can anybody explain to me why they were at the beach?

What are they thinking at Arizona State?

I've always been a big fan of Arizona St.  I spent some time in Tempe where the school is, and I really liked the city.  I like that the football stadium is built into a mountain.  I like the nickname "Sundevils."  I like that Dustin Pedroia, Eddie House, Jake "The Snake" Plummer, and Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr's character in Jerry Maguire) all went there.  But most of all, I love the logo.






On the left is my shirt that I bought the last time I was there.  Now here's the point: Last Friday night I got home from work just in time to watch the end of ASU's OT victory over Missouri.  But when I turned on the TV I was greatly disappointed by what I saw.  They changed the logo.  On their helmets, and on the field.

What are they thinking????  That creepy looking little goblin dude is awesome!

85 reasons not to panic about the Red Sox

They have lost 5 in a row, and 9 out of 11.  Lately their potent offense can't hit, and their only good healthy starting pitcher, Jon Lester, just got rocked.  They were swept yesterday by the team breathing down their necks in the standings.  Yeah, they look like crap right now.  But here's the thing: the Red Sox have won 85 games this year.  They have lost only 61.  The current 5 game losing streak and 9 of 11 losses is eerily similar to their 0-6 and 2-10 start.  Now everything I'm about to say I have said before, but it's still true:  Baseball is a long season.  Weird things happen.  Occasionally small samples from a week or two are indicative of what is to come, but more often than not they are anomalies.  Flukes.  Weird coincidences.  The principle of "regression to the mean" generally holds true in baseball.  It's much more likely that the Red Sox team we see the rest of the way will play like the team that has won 85 times in a 6 month season, rather than the team that has lost 10 times in the last 2 weeks.

I'm pretty sure I saw a Time Machine last night

I saw this car parked on Arlington St. in front of the Public Garden at 3 am last night.  I'm really pissed the picture didn't come out better.  It doesn't even come close to doing that antenna justice, it had to have been at least 8 feet tall.  Anyway, sometime in the very near future this thing is definitely going to be speeding by a clock tower at 88 miles an hour hoping for a lightning strike.