COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY!Written by: Mike in DADate posted: 10/7/2010
FLUB OF THE DAY!
On the post-game show following the Yankee-Twin game on TBS on Wednesday night, Roy Halladay's no-hitter vs. Cincinnati from earlier in the day was being discussed.
Since it was only the second "no-no" in post-season MLB history, reference was made to the Yankees' Don Larsen 1956 perfect game vs. the Brooklyn Dodgers, which was the first.
They showed the last out of Larsen's "perfecto" in which he struck out pinch-hitter Dale Mitchell. However the post-game host, Matt Winer, identified the batter as "Dal Maxvill", a lifetime .217 hitting shortstop who played for the St. Louis Cardinals, Oakland A's, and Pittsburgh Pirates during a 14-year MLB career (1962-75).At the time, in 1956, Maxvill was transitioning from high school to Washington University in St. Louis. The Cardinals signed him in 1960, upon his graduation from college.I was waiting for Matt to correct himself during the remainder of the show, but it never happened. On Thursday's (10/7) Morning Show on SR610, John Lopez said that German is the only language that has a word for "pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others" and that word is "schadenfreude". If John checks out his dictionary, he will see that there is an English word for it also, "epicaricacy". Webster describes it as "rejoicing at or derivation of pleasure from the misfortunes of others".
AN EXAMPLE OF "BAD THINGS COMES IN THREES"
There is a proverb/folk superstition that my mom told me about 50 years ago, “Bad things come in threes”. Bad things may be specified as accidents, deaths, or other mishaps. The bottom line is that misfortune never comes singly.
I don’t keep stats on this stuff and don’t know how reliable such a statement is or how it even originated. As for the time period, I’m not sure what time period it covers, whether it’s a day, a few days, weeks, months, etc.
Just on a hunch, the use of three elements is common in the Christian religion and that may be why three is often a favorite number: God is a trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Three wise men visited the infant Jesus in Bethlehem. The Devil tempts Jesus three times while he is fasting in the desert. Peter denied Jesus three times before the cock crows. Three men including Jesus are the ones crucified. Jesus arises on the third day of death on the cross.
SMOKING PROHIBITED IN OHIO!One of the topics local sports talkers hit on one of the shows on SR610 recently was that according to media reports, five people called the Statewide Smoking Ban Complaint Hotline to file an official complaint in Cincinnati against the Reds’ owner, Bob Castellini (pictured) and presumably some of the players too for smoking cigars in the Reds’ clubhouse after the team clinched the NL Central title against the Astros last Tuesday (9/28). That action violated Ohio’s indoor smoking ban and the complaints mandate an investigation of the incident. Fortunately, a spokesperson for the Cincinnati Health Department said that further actions after their inspection/investigation were “highly unlikely”. Nevertheless, the people of Ohio need to know that their tax dollars will necessarily go toward inspecting the Reds’ locker room in the aftermath of another victory celebration. I’m sure the residents of Ohio are excited to know that.If the inspector does come by and witnesses someone smoking, the team could be fined $100 by law. If the team has another victory celebration this month, it will be well worth the fine.
GEORGIA STREAKING IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION!
Colorado nipped Georgia, 29-27, on a late field goal last week. Georgia is now 1-4 on the season. If Georgia loses this week against Tennessee, it will be the first 5-game losing streak for Georgia since 1953. After last week's victory, Colorado students stormed the field. By doing that, they embarrassed themselves and humiliated their team by storming the field after beating a 1-4 team.
THERE'S NO D IN MINNESOTA! If you are wondering why Minnesota is 1-4 this year, check out these defensive statistics:
Yards per rush allowed: 5.8Yards per pass attempt: 9.1Yards allowed per catch: 13.1
KANSAS LITERALLY "GOES SOUTH" IN LOSS TO BAYLOR!
Kansas University lost to North Dakota State at home by a score of 6-3 in Week 1 and came back the next week to beat Georgia Tech. Last week, coming in with a 2-2 record, Kansas went south to play Baylor. “Went south” in this case has two meanings: (1) the compass direction of their journey and (2) what happened to them in Waco as they lost to Baylor, 55-7.
Prior to last week, the widest margin of victory for Baylor in a conference game was 47 points. That happened back in 1922 in the now defunct Southwest Conference with a 60-13 win over Arkansas.
Kansas has never won a game in Waco. They are now 0-5 in Big 12 Conference play there. In fact, after Kansas lost in Waco in 1998, Baylor went on a 29-game losing streak in Big 12 conference games. That losing streak was broken in 2002 when Kansas came to town again.
OREGON LOOKING VERY GOOD SO FAR!Stanford is a good football team and a good defensive football team. Stanford played UCLA, Wake Forest, and Notre Dame in their three previous games and gave up only 38 points combined in those games. Last week, Stanford went to Oregon and led by 18 points in the first half and was then the victim of Oregon's team speed. The final score was 52-31; Oregon won the second half 28-0. Total offense in the game by both teams was 1,144 yards.
Oregon RB, LaMichael James (left) gets loads of publicity and he surely had a good day against Stanford gaining 238 yards on the ground. However, don't overlook what Oregon QB, Darron Thomas (right) did in that game. Thomas threw for that same 238 yards plus Thomas ran for an additional 117 yards. Not bad for one night's work.
Another reason to watch Oregon games is the exciting way coach Chip Kelly called that game. Trailing 21-10 in the first half he called for an onside kick. On another occasion with 4th and 1 at his own 35, he went for it instead of punting. Oregon is definitely a fun team to watch. They play at Washington State this weekend.
ODDS AND ENDS: COLLEGE FOOTBALL
1. Nevada was averaging 6.9 yards per snap on offense going into last week’s game vs. UNLV. They upped that average last week gaining 7.5 yards per snap against the Rebels.
2. BYU lost to Utah State, 31-14, last Friday night on national TV. The Cougars are leaving the Mountain West Conference to become a football independent like Notre Dame. So far this year, its record is 1-4 and all four losses are by 2 TDs or more. Just because you want to be independent like Notre Dame does not mean you have to play like the Fighting Irish.
3. Wake Forest won its first two games of the season (Presbyterian and Duke). In those two games, Wake scored a combined 107 points. Then they dropped their last three games (Stanford, FSU, and Georgia Tech) by a combined score of 123-44. Will the real Wake Forest team please raise their hands.
4. UTEP beat New Mexico (0-5) last week, 38-20. This was the first time this year that New Mexico has held an opponent under 40 points after giving up 72, 52, 56, and 45 points, respectively, in their first four games.
5. North Carolina State led Virginia Tech, 30-27, with less than two minutes left in the game. Then the roof caved in on the Wolfpack. V-Tech won by 11 points. With that State loss, there are no more undefeated teams in the ACC.
6. Texas lost its second straight game last week. This time it was Oklahoma with the win. As a result, the Longhorns dropped out of the Top 25 for the first time in a decade. FYI - Texas was in the middle of the Top 10 in most of those meaningless pre-season polls. By the way, the last time Texas lost three football games in a row was back in 1999. That will not happen this week; Texas has the week off. But next week, they play at Nebraska, so that may be a different story.
7. Colorado State was the lowest scoring team in Division 1-A football after three weeks; two weeks ago, they erupted for 36 points against Idaho; sadly for the Rams, last week TCU came to visit them in Colorado Springs. TCU plays good defense and shut out CSU, 27-0.
8. Tulane went to Rutgers last week with a 1-2 record - the lone win coming over Southeastern Louisiana. Tulane beat Rutgers, 17-14. Rutgers had two opening season wins against powers Norfolk State and Florida International followed by two losses. It was not that long ago that its coach, Greg Schiano, was considered the new coaching wonder in college football and some even thought he would be an excellent candidate to replace Joe Paterno at Penn State.
9. Michigan beat Indiana, 42-35, last week. I don't think anyone on either team knows this word: TACKLING! 10. Despite losing to Temple last week, Army is now 3-2. Army has had a bad time of it in football for years. In the last 32 years, they have only had eight winning seasons; the last of which was 1996. Their new coach and staff took the team to a 5-7 record last year. They need three more wins to get to .500 and there are three games on the schedule where Army should be favored or only slight underdogs (Tulane, VMI, Kent State). Their other four remaining games are against underachieving Notre Dame and Rutgers plus rivalry games with the other service teams - Air Force and Navy. My "alma mater" has a legitimate shot to be bowl-eligible this year.
11. Michigan State receiver, Dion Sims, entered a guilty plea to charges related to receiving stolen property when he concealed laptop computers stolen from Detroit area public schools. Part of his plea agreement could allow his record to be erased after his sentence meaning he would be able to rejoin the team next year. I am sure there is a PR person somewhere figuring how to make this look as if this student-athlete was intending to use the laptop computers for study purposes.MIKE IN DAHMWEmail: houstonmediawatch@yahoo.comBlog: http://www.houstonmediawatch.com/Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/lesbiancraigFacebook Search: HMW Shelton
Yards per rush allowed: 5.8
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