Man, I'll be glad when this week is over. You don't care, so I won't bore you with details. Just know that blogging has been forced to the back-burner against my wishes by grades, comments, out-of-control students and basketball tryouts. Okay, basketball tryouts are pretty fun, but the rest has been miserable.
UPDATE!!!
Tennessee Vols
Weird article on ESPN about Phil Fulmer's hot-seat status in Knoxville. Isn't this odd timing? Fulmer has won three straight and the team is in the driver's seat for the SEC East. Has the author been working on this since the Florida loss? I thought this was very strange, but then again I am writing a list of Fulmer's worst losses right now, so maybe I'm weird too.
Wikipedia saves me some time by chronicling the Alabama/Tennessee rivalry. It isn't that good, but it did help get me into the mood (though not as much as those sweet Fred Thompson-narrated clips I have on your left). I feel VERY confident going into tomorrow's game, so we are surely going to lose. I thought we could beat Florida, but expected to lose to both Georgia and Mississippi State. At least this game isn't on pay-per-view. I'm going 28-20 Vols with UT leading throughout, but Bama always a score away.
Baseball
Great game last night, even though the score didn't reflect it. Beckett was lights out, but Sabathia was working through some real jams thanks to the bottom of the Sox order. There is a HUGE difference in that line-up when Varitek is out there instead of Doug Mirabeli. That is reason enough to put Wakefield in the pen. I had the feeling that Boston was wasting too many opportunities, but Beckett refused to let the Indians get anything going.
I don't understand what set Beckett off about the bat drop. Was that disrespectful? Wasn't Lofton just trying to influence the umpire? That was a weird moment, but it really showed just how high strung these guys are in the playoffs. They play 162 lazy, take-it-or-leave-it games and then the post-season is so intense. This is something football does not have - a rise in play for the playoffs. All football games are intense, so there usually is no difference between a good Monday night game and a playoff game. In baseball, there is no comparison between a July game and an October one.
Manny's single - here is the question: Is Manny as good as he is because he plays this way or could he be even better if he played baseball the right way? He is a future Hall-of-Famer, an RBI machine and may have the best eye at the plate since Ted Williams. He is also not A-Rod, not Bonds, not Pujols. If you put Craig Biggio's brain in Manny's body, does he become the best player in the game or does Manny's mis-wired mind actually help him be so productive so often.
Discuss...
Tennessee Titans
Vince is still day-to-day, but I guarantee he will play Sunday at Houston. Put it down. It is a lock. That guy is not missing a chance to play at home against the team that passed on him. No way.
Fulmer article up later today. Have a great weekend. I'll have Bama thoughts up sometime after the game.
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2 comments:
Mirabelli is an automatic out, but Varitek hasn't been much better this season or in the post-season. Tek is 8 for 30 with 5 meaningless RBIs so far in October. I cringe every time he swings, it's quite possibly the ugliest swing of all time-- from either side of the plate. The problem with Wake in the Pen is that you'd essentially have to make a double switch every time you wanted to use him as the Captain is not very good at catching the knuckler. Besides, you could only bring him in with nobody on, as he is terrible at holding runners and a runner on third is always a threat to score against a knuckle passed ball.
Apparently the Lofton/Beckett thing goes back a few years. Silly. I will say that if there is another blowout in this series there will be a brawl.
Manny. I think you're on to something. I think he is so good, because he is so laid back. Compare his approach to Dustin Pedroia's. Manny never panics. Also, even though he never seems to hustle, he is notorious for his work ethic. He's generally the first person at the park working on his hitting (not his fielding).
That is a great point about the double switch to bring Wakefield into the game.
I figure there had to be some back story to that Lofton/Beckett deal. It just didn't make sense.
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