Airing Some Grievances

I went to two basketball games in the last two weeks.  On December 10, I saw the Celtics play the Nets in the Barclays Center.  It was nice to be there for the first game Pierce and Garnett played against the Celtics since being traded, but it was weird to see them wearing a different uniform.  There were a lot of Celtic fans at the game and it was cool to hear them acknowledge Pierce and Garnett.  I would love to be in Boston for their first game back, but that won't happen.  Deron Williams and Brook Lopez played well and the Celtics lost.  But I have no grievances with the Celtics to air.  It's clear that they made a great deal with the Nets.  Three first round picks for two guys that weren't going to help them win anything anymore.  And those might be some good picks.  Also, Brad Stevens is going to be great.  I hope he's the Celtics' Gregg Popovich.  He just needs to find his Tim Duncan.  My only possible grievance with the Celtics is that they're winning too many games.  Obviously, they're not good enough to go anywhere in the playoffs (maybe they could win a first round series in the East, but the Heat and Pacers are the only two contenders in the conference).  But they're just not bad enough to be one of the worst teams in the league.  My ideal scenario would be the Celtics missing the playoffs (they'd need the Raptors or Knicks to win the division) and getting lucky in the lottery.  Even if they don't get a great draft pick, I feel confident about the future with Brad Stevens and all those draft picks.

My view in Brooklyn.

This past Saturday I went to Madison Square Garden for the BlackRock Gotham Classic.  Notre Dame was taking on Ohio State.  It was my first trip to the Garden since the renovations have been completed.  They did a good job.  I like it better than the Barclays Center.  There's still something special about Madison Square Garden.  The Barclays Center looks like it was designed by the Goth kids on South Park (the inside, at least).  Of course, New York City is ridiculous and is forcing Madison Square Garden to move in ten years.  How many hundreds of millions of dollars are going to be wasted on that?

Anyway, they weren't selling tickets for the upper level of the Garden, so I ended up behind one of the baskets.  My seats were actually inside the hockey rink.  That was the closest I've sat at a basketball game since I was in college, but I have to say that they weren't very good seats.  For one thing, I was too low.  I was about at the height of the backboard.  You don't have good depth perception when you're down that low.  Also, the height differential between the rows behind the basket is not that big.  That means that you kind of have to look around people to see the action.  On the near side of the court, I couldn't see the floor.  On outside shots, I couldn't tell if it was a three or a two.  And the last problem about sitting behind the basket is that the basket itself gets in the way of your view.

Close to the action, but not a great view.

Of course, the biggest problem was the performance of the Fighting Irish.  I didn't have high hopes considering Ohio State was ranked number three and we haven't played too well so far. But we hung in there in the first half, going in down by seven.  We came out with a great start to the second half.  The atmosphere was really good even though only the lower level was full.  Ohio State definitely had more fans, but there were a lot of Notre Dame fans there also.  The crowd really got into it when we took the lead.  Jerian Grant made a couple of beautiful jumpers and we led by as many as eight.  With a 58-50 lead with a minute to go, it looked like I was going to see the best win I've ever seen in person for Notre Dame basketball.  And then everything went wrong.  Eric Atkins fouled out and we had no idea what to do without him.  Garrick Sherman was playing in the middle of the zone with four fouls and not playing any defense to avoid fouling out.  Come on, Brey, you have to go offense-defense there.  Ohio State scored, got a quick turnover, and scored again.  At 58-54, it felt like we were going to find a way to lose.  We quickly turned it over again and committed a foul.  They ended up outscoring us 14-3 in the final minute of the game.  Bad times.  Terrible loss, but it's just a December basketball game.  That win would have been great for us, but no single game in December is going to ruin your season.  If we had a loss in football that was equivalent to the way we lost that game, I probably wouldn't want to speak to anybody for a week.  I won't overreact to a basketball game, but then yesterday it was announced that Jerian Grant (our leading scorer) has been kicked out of school.  It looks like our streak of making it to the NCAA Tournament is coming to an end this year, but there have been other years when things looked bleak and Brey found a way to make the tournament.  But yeah, I'm not too optimistic about ACC play.

What I didn't realize until I printed the tickets the day before the game was that it was a double header.  Bryant took on Delaware in the second game.  I would guess that at least 95% of the crowd cleared out after the first game.  I had no idea where Bryant was (Rhode Island), but they brought a small, but rowdy contingent to the game.  There were hardly any Delaware fans.  My dad and I moved to seats right by mid-court.  We only stayed for about the first ten minutes of the game to catch a train.  The last basket we saw was a sweet alley oop.  It turns out we missed quite a game.  Delaware won 108-107 in overtime.  If we had stayed, we wouldn't have gotten home until after 2:00 in the morning with the train schedule.

Delaware vs. Bryant

This was the first of my three straight Saturdays of Notre Dame sports.  Next up is the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium.  Hopefully the football team will perform better than the basketball team.

The Shamrock Series: The Search for More Money

This post is way overdue.  I went to the Shamrock Series game in early October in Dallas.  I held off this post until now because of the first part of my day.  I met my brother Sean at the Dallas airport late in the morning.  We had several hours until the game at Jerry World.  We had discussed what to do before the game.  My preference was go to to the George W. Bush Presidential Library at SMU.  That was out because of the government shutdown.  So like everybody else in town for the game, we went to Dealey Plaza.

The Texas School Book Depository

The sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository is now a museum on John F. Kennedy's life and the assassination.  We had to wait in line for a good 40 minutes to get tickets to go in.  We got our tickets around 2:00 and they were for 3:00.  So we got Chipotle while we waited.  When we went back around 3:00, we had to wait for another 20 minutes or so.  When we finally got up to the sixth floor, it was packed, but it was manageable.  You get headphones to listen to stuff as you go.  It was a really good museum.  They reconstructed the corner of the floor where Oswald fired the shots to what it would have looked like when he assassinated Kennedy.  That's partitioned off and you can look through the glass.  You can look down through the other windows.  That was the first weird feeling I had.  It was weird having almost the same view that a presidential assassin had.  The next weird feeling I had was when we left.  We drove down Elm street, which is where Kennedy was shot.

I took this picture as we turned onto Elm Street.

A few thoughts on John F. Kennedy:  He has to be one of the most overrated presidents in US history.  I'm not anti-Kennedy.  I'm opposed to people over-romanticizing his presidency.  There are people who talk about him like he's Washington or Lincoln.  He wasn't president long enough to be a great president.  If I was grading all the presidents, I'd give Kennedy an incomplete.  (Lincoln, on the other hand, was able to accomplish the greatest thing a president ever accomplished despite the fact that his presidency was also cut short).  Kennedy is less historically significant than his successor.  Judge Lyndon Johnson however you want, but his civil rights achievements and Vietnam make him more important as a president than Kennedy.  Although I'm not much of a Kennedy fan, I do love "My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."  I find it ironic that the people who love Kennedy also seem to be the people who think that the government should do everything for everybody.  Pete and I discussed that quote at his wedding.  Although Pete and I don't see eye to eye politically, he also appreciated the irony.  Then there's Cuba.  Kennedy gets too much credit for the Cuban Missile Crisis.  Give him credit for avoiding war, but the Soviets got something that they wanted out of it (getting American missiles out of Italy and Turkey).  Kennedy didn't lose, but he didn't win either.  The other thing with Cuba is the Bay of Pigs invasion.  I wish it had been successful, but it was a total failure.  I said to my brother at the museum, "If this happened today, the media would go nuts."  Then I thought for a little bit and said, "Actually, if George Bush did this, the media would go nuts.  If Barack Obama did this, they'd be cheerleading for him the whole time."  Finally, you have all the conspiracy theories about Kennedy's death.  Just like pretty much every conspiracy theory, the people who believe these theories are nuts.  All the evidence shows that it was Lee Harvey Oswald that acted alone.

After Dealey Plaza, we drove to Jerry World.  We met up with Wilhelm.  Before this year, it had been more than five years since I saw Wilhelm.  I saw him four times this year (National Championship, Oklahama game, Shamrock Series, and Navy game).  We had a beer with him outside the stadium.  I wish I had seen him after the game.  When I saw him the weekend of the Navy game, he told me a great story about how on the way home from the game, he drunkenly got really mad at his father for murdering a skunk (and it wasn't even his father who killed the skunk) and then had no memory of this the next day.

Me and Wilhelm before the game.

The game was entertaining.  I had very low expectations, but we played one of our best games of the season.  T.J. Jones, Prince Shembo, Jaylon Smith, and Stephon Tuitt all had excellent games.  We went into the fourth quarter with a 24-13 lead.  Tommy Rees had an interception returned for a touchdown early in the quarter.  Arizona State tied the game with 8:18 left and it felt like it was falling apart for Notre Dame.  We retook the lead on a field goal with 3:03 left.  Dan Fox's interception return for a touchdown with 1:08 left seemed to seal it for us, but we still had to recover an onside kick because of some horrendous defense that led to an easy touchdown to make the game look closer than it should have been.

I wasn't a fan of the cup, but it was good beer.

Dallas was a great site for the Shamrock Series.  I didn't like our uniforms, but I liked them more than what we wore the last two years (what we wore for the Maryland game in 2011 wasn't bad except for the helmet, but if we're going to slap tradition in the face, don't try to look somewhat traditional while doing it).  Jerry World was great.  My brother and I had corner endzone seats down low.  Unlike in Notre Dame Stadium, we could buy beer.  I don't remember what I had, but it was good.  I have two issues with Jerry world.  We could only walk around the endzone area on our level.  The middle of the field was the club level or something and we weren't allowed on that part of the concourse.  The other issue is the giant screens.  They were helpful because you could get good looks at replays.  They didn't bother me because we were down low.  But I feel like if you're up high, they'd be in your field of vision no matter what.  I've heard people say they just end up watching the game on the screen.  I didn't watch any live plays on the screen, but I could see that being a problem if you're up high.  But still, I liked Jerry World more than most NFL stadiums I've been to.  Dallas was fun.  I'll have to get back soon for the Bush Library and a Ranger game.

I knew this was coming.  Hopefully we'll see it again on January 12, 2015.

The Last Saturday of Baseball

Great day of sports on TV, it's time to go back to the running diary well.  I just finished some Jimmy's Pizza (the buffalo chicken is so good) so we're starting this nine minutes into the Notre Dame-Air Force game.  We have Texas Tech-Oklahoma going on right now, and then UCLA-Oregon, South Carolina-Missouri, World Series Game 3, and Stanford-Oregon State later.  I don't know how long I'm going to keep this going.

5:24- Big fourth down coming up for Air Force.  We're in a commercial during an Air Force timeout.  The game is on CBS Sports Network.  This has to be the sports network that people are least likely to know exists.  ESPN is the king (unfortunately).  Fox Sports 1 is making a good effort.  And the NBC Sports Network at least has the NHL.

5:26- Air Force converted.  This offense is going to be really annoying to watch until we get a lead.

5:27- Touchdown Air Force.

5:28- The play by play guy reminds us that the only team Air Force has beaten this year is Colgate.  We need to march right down the field and tie the game.

5:29- Gus Johnson is calling Texas Tech-Oklahoma.  Texas Tech is up 7-0 in the first quarter.  Hopefully it will be an exciting finish for Gus.

5:33- Tommy Rees just missed a throw on a roll out to the left.  Why roll out an immobile quarterback to the left when he's a right handed thrower?

5:35- I predicted Corey Robinson's first touchdown last week against USC.  I was a week early.  Nice catch by the Admiral's son.  He's going to be a good player.

5:36- Extra point is good and we're tied.

5:37- I flicked to Texas Tech-Oklahoma, which was in a commercial for the Big 12 conference.  It mentioned 10 teams.  I certainly don't like the Pac 12, but at least they know how to count, unlike some other numerically challenged conferences.

5:38- Florida State is pounding NC State.  Florida State is currently number 2 in the BCS.  I can't root for them to make it to the championship game.  I can't root for Oregon (their uniforms are an affront to my eyes).  I can't root for Alabama or Ohio State for obvious reasons.  I don't want to root for any SEC teams, but I'm hoping for Missouri-Baylor (or Texas Tech).

5:42- Air Force is going to punt.  I'd fake it.  You're a terrible team near midfield with a fourth and short situation and a chance to take the lead.

5:43- Nope, they boot it away and T.J. Jones makes the fair catch.

5:46- Third and 1 for ND as we end the first quarter.  Will we be able to run for a yard in the obvious running situation?  I'm not anti-spread like some Notre Dame fans are, but this is one of those situations that makes me yearn for a fullback and the I-formation.  John Madden liked running behind the lead blocker.  Sometimes we bring a tight end in motion to use as a lead blocker, but everybody knows where the play is going.  If you line up in the I, it doesn't give away where the play is going.

5:49- There's an NCAA commercial on that says they're always there for student athletes.  If that's true, they need to do something about the shameful graduation rates at some universities.

5:50- It was third and 2, not third and 1.  We went empty backfield and Rees made a nice throw to T.J. Jones for a big first down.

5:50- Will Fuller scores his first touchdown on a deep throw down the middle by Rees.  We shouldn't trail for the rest of the game.

5:52- Highlights from the 2006 game at Air Force.  That game was on the same channel, but it was even more obscure seven years ago (I think it was the CBS College Sports Network then).  We didn't get it in the dorm, so we went to Hooters to watch it.  I feel like we had a big group, but I can't remember who was there besides Jon, Wilhelm, and me.

5:58- Jon says Dennis and possibly Chris were there as well.  Sounds about right.  Their room and me.  I was the honorary fifth roommate.

6:01- 49 days until Army-Navy.  I would love to go to an Army-Navy game someday.

6:02- The cheapest tickets for Army-Navy for anything other than standing room on Stubhub are $120.  I mean, I want to go to the game, but not that much.  Air Force just kicked a field goal.  It's time to make this a two-possession game.

6:06- George Atkinson takes the kickoff back to midfield.  Let's run the ball down the field and get the defense some rest.

6:08- Forget getting the defense some rest.  Three plays, touchdown.  Ben Koyack makes the grab.  Air Force can't stop Tommy Rees.

6:09- They're reviewing the play.  This one is going to stand.

6:10- Aaron Taylor is talking about Tommy Rees knowing where the mismatches are.  Um, Aaron, they're everywhere, we're playing Air Force.

6:11- 21-10.  Let's get a stop, score another touchdown, and this one can be over by halftime.

6:13- I just started thinking about how we never play Navy in Annapolis and we never play Army in West Point, but we do play Air Force in their home stadium.  Using the Notre Dame Football Database (one of my ten favorite websites), I find out that we last played at West Point in 1973.  We've never played in Annapolis.  And we've never played Air Force at a neutral site.

6:17- Further internet research reveals that Army's Michie Stadium holds 38,000, Air Force's Falcon Stadium holds 46,692, and Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium holds 34,000.  I'd be in favor of a game at Michie Stadium, but I guess I'd rather play them at Yankee Stadium.

6:19- They show the Cam McDaniel picture from last week.

Cam McDaniel is the most photogenic running back ever.

6:21- Timeout as we get ready to go for it on fourth down.  It's fourth and 5, but I like this call since we're on the Air Force 40.

6:22- Rees to Niklas for the fourth down conversion.  Time to put this game away.

6:26- Big sack for Air Force.  That makes it a 51 yard field goal, but it's no problem for Kyle Brindza after having a kick blocked earlier.

6:27- We have a quadruple Urkin going on with this game and the games on Fox, ESPN, and ESPN2, but Duke's up 13-10 on Virginia Tech in the fourth on ESPNU.  I'm definitely rooting for Duke.

6:29- Virginia Tech converts a big fourth down.  Come on, Duke.  Get a stop.

6:31- We get a Seinfeld reference on the CBS Sports broadcast because the Rochell brothers are playing against each other in this game.  It's been a long journey from Milan to Minsk.

6:34- Air Force is threatening to score before halftime.  We're going to win this game, but we'll need to play better next week against Navy.

6:35- We recover an Air Force fumble with a minute to go.  If Air Force had a prayer, they needed to score there.  Let's see if Kelly wants to try to do something before halftime.

6:36- Nice run by Cam McDaniel, but just for seven yards, which means we're happy to go into halftime up 14.  I'm going to take a little halftime break.  I'll be back.

7:00- Air Force starts the second half at their own 25.  We've been good in the third quarter this year.  If we get a stop and score one more touchdown, Air Force will be taken completely out of their game plan.

7:04- Sack and near fumble.  Jaylon Smith recovered it and had a touchdown.  Let's see if he was really down.

7:05- Nope, it was a fumble.  But it was ruled an imcomplete pass.  Terrible call.  The play is under review.  We'll see how this is overturned.  Do we get the touchdown?

7:07- There was definitely a whistle.  Just a terrible call.  We get the ball on our own 38.  It should have been a touchdown.  But that's the right call given the whistle (which never should have been blown).

7:09- It looks like we might run it a little more in the second half.  First down for Cam McDaniel.

7:10- First run for freshman Tarean Folston.  He should get some carries in the second half.

7:11- Tommy Rees to T.J. Jones for the touchdown.  Game over.  We should definitely get to see some Andrew Hendrix in this game.  He needs the work.

7:14- Texas Tech just recovered an onside kick trailing by 4 in the third quarter.

7:16- After Clemson's victory over Maryland, UCLA-Oregon is on ESPN.  Oregon's uniforms are less offensive than usual.

7:17- Touchdown UCLA!  I would be so happy if Oregon lost.  It's very early.

7:18- Texas Tech has scored the last 17 points and leads by three against Oklahoma.

7:19- They're singing Tommy Rees's praises.  He's no Joe Montana or Brady Quinn, but he's had a very good career for Notre Dame.  He's gotten the most out of his abilities.  You can't ask for more than that.  He will be missed next year (hopefully we'll be better, but I'll still miss Tommy Rees).

7:20- Nice tackle to Jaylon Smith on third down.  I'm looking forward to the rest of his career.  That dude can play.

7:22- I changed the channel as an Oklahoma was scoring a touchdown.  Gus Johnson is excited.

7:24- They're talking about Danny Spond.  He had a really good year last year.  It's a shame he had to stop playing football, but it cleared the way for Jaylon Smith.

7:27- Two straight nice runs by Tarean Folston.  Score a touchdown and let's get Andrew Hendrix into the game.

7:29- Tommy Rees tosses his fifth touchdown pass, which is a career high.  Chris Brown catches this one.  Tommy Rees doesn't need to take another snap today.

7:31- First check of South Carolina-Missouri.  No score.  Missouri is wearing ugly dark gray jerseys.  They're the same color as the shirt I wear to work when I'm in a bad mood (I dress by mood).

7:32- I think Fox switched from Texas Tech-Oklahoma to World Series pregame coverage.

7:36- Andrew Hendrix is in.  We'll see if the offense does anything for the rest of the game.  It shouldn't matter, but it would be nice to see him lead the offense to a couple of scores.

7:39- Three plays with Hendrix, -1 yard.  I'm trying to figure out if Texas Tech-Oklahoma has just disappeared from TV.

7:41- Twitter tells me the game is on Fox News.  I had checked Fox Sports 1, Fox Sports 2, and FX.  But I guess more people have Fox News than any of those channels, so that makes sense.

7:44- UCLA fails to convert a fourth and 2.  They handed off out of the shotgun to a running back going sideways.  I don't like the play call.

7:47- We stop Air Force on a fourth down attempt.  Good field position.  The game is over, but I really want to see Andrew Hendrix get the offense in the end zone.

7:48- Hendrix completes a 46 yard pass to Will Fuller.  First and goal.

7:48- Hendrix scores a touchdown.  Nice.

7:50- Texas Tech scores to make it 35-30 with 7:13 left.

7:51- Their two point conversion attempt fails.  Oregon takes a 14-7 lead.  Nuts.

7:58- Andrew Hendrix keeps it on a quarterback draw on third and 5 for a first down.  I saw that one coming, but Air Force didn't.

7:59- UCLA's last win against Oregon was in 2007.  They lost to us that year (when we were terrible).

8:06- The game's not over yet, but I'm breaking out a victory Guinness.

8:13- Fourth and 23 for Texas Tech, down by 8.

8:14- They didn't convert.  Down goes Texas Tech.  Baylor is our last hope for an undefeated team in the Big 12.

8:15- Speaking of Baylor, they're up 28-0 on Kansas.  Unfortunately, Charlie Weis's second head coaching job isn't going to last long.

8:20- Final score:  Notre Dame 45, Air Force 10.  Go Irish!  God bless everybody who serves and will serve in the Air Force.

8:25- First check of the World Series- Yadier Molina just drove in Matt Holliday to make it 2-0 in the bottom of the first.  I'm rooting for the Cardinals.  I guess I want a long series, but I will be traveling to Notre Dame for the Navy game the night of Game 7.  I might have to get another hotel room in Chicago just in case.

8:32- Oregon misses a field goal.  They're going to be tied with UCLA going into halftime.  Come on, Bruins!

8:33- By the way, I've decided that UCLA is my second favorite FBS football school.  If I ever worked for a university, obviously I'd work for Notre Dame.  But my second choice would be UCLA.  They're USC's other rival and I'd get to live in Los Angeles (which would mean I could go to Dodger games).

8:35- David Ortiz just grounded out.  I'd be curious to know where he ranks on my friend John's list of least favorite players.  My guess is he's pretty high, but behind Curt Schilling (but I could be wrong).  Speaking of John, one of my girls is rooting for the Red Sox.  She asked why I was rooting for the Cardinals and I said that I don't want my friend John to be miserable.  I asked her if she wanted John to be miserable and she said yes.

8:39- I just finished my Guinness.  I'm going to take a break for the duration of my next beer.

9:10- And I'm back.  If you think the fact that it's October 26 means that I won't be drinking Summer Ale, you obviously don't know me well enough.  The Cardinals still lead 2-0.  UCLA and Oregon are still tied and Missouri still leads South Carolina 14-0.  So I didn't miss much in the running diary except for Tim McCarver talking about Matt Holliday running hard or not running hard.  It was very confusing.

9:13- The Red Sox have two on with two outs in the fourth.

9:17- Joe Kelly strikes out Daniel Nava to end the inning.

9:19- Right after Brent Musburger gets a little too excited about the throw Marcus Mariota made on a swing pass, Oregon scores to take the lead.  Come on UCLA, hang in there.

9:25- John Jay singles, bases loaded, nobody out for the Cardinals in the bottom of the fourth.

9:28- Pete Kozma strikes out.  Bases loaded, one out, Joe Kelly is up.

9:29- Joe Kelly pops out.  The Red Sox are one out away from getting out of some big trouble.

9:30- Matt Carpenter pops out.  As Christopher "Mad Dog" Russo would say, tremendous job in that scenario by Jake Peavy to get out of the inning without allowing a run.  Still 2-0 Cardinals.

9:32- Touchdown Oregon.  This one might be slipping away from UCLA.

9:37- First and third, nobody out for the Red Sox in the fifth.

9:40- Jake Peavy is on deck.  Some guy with a horrendous beard might pinch hit.

9:41- J.D. Drew's brother strikes out for the first out.  Mike Carp is the guy with the horrendous beard and he will pinch hit for Peavy.

9:44- Carp grounds into a fielder's choice, which scores a run.  2-1 Cardinals.

9:48- Jacoby Ellsbury strikes out to end the inning.

9:49- Oregon is up 35-14.  Nuts.  Ohio State is spanking Penn State.  I don't like Penn State, but I really want Ohio State to lose.

9:51- South Carolina converts a fourth down to keep some hope alive against Missouri.  17-0 Missouri, early in the fourth quarter.

9:54- It's 2-1 Cardinals in the bottom of the fifth.  The football games don't look that interesting right now.  I'm taking another break.  I'll be back in the 7th or 8th inning.

10:29- I decided to come back a little early because South Carolina has the ball, down 7, with 3:08 to play.

10:30- Bruce Ellington makes a nice catch for a first down for South Carolina.

10:31- A screen pass goes for another first down.  It looks like this one is headed to overtime.

10:32- Three first downs on four plays for South Carolina.

10:32- Four first downs on five plays.  First and goal at the one.

10:33- Touchdown South Carolina with 42 seconds to play.  That was way too easy for South Carolina.  There is still time for Missouri to keep this from going to overtime.

10:35- It's tied with two outs in the top of the 7th in the World Series.

10:36- Missouri is taking it to overtime.  Matt Millen thinks it's a good idea.  I'm inclined to disagree with Matt Millen.

10:41- I really really hate college overtime.  In football, you have to earn good field position.  Unless it's college football and a game goes to overtime.

10:43- Touchdown Missouri.  I'm rooting for Missouri and college overtime is stupid, but I hope this game goes for a few overtimes.

10:44- Two on, nobody out for the Cardinals in the bottom of the seventh.

10:46- Big loss on first and goal for South Carolina.  Second and goal from the 15.

10:47- Third and goal from the 15.

10:48- Connor Shaw's pass to the endzone falls incomplete in the end zone.  Fourth and goal at the 15.  Matt Millen says, "If you're going to make a play, now is the down to do it."  Thanks, Matt.  Quality analysis.

10:49- Touchdown Bruce Ellington on fourth and goal at the 15.  At least this is going to be interesting.

10:50- Matt Holliday hits a two run double to give the Cardinals a 4-2 lead with nobody out in the bottom of the 7th.  Nice.

10:54- South Carolina has to settle for a field goal in the second overtime.

10:55- The kick is good.  It's the first lead for South Carolina.  It makes it easier to get a lead when you inexplicably get two possessions in a row.  A touchdown wins it for Missouri.

10:56- Big run on the first play for Missouri.  First and goal.

10:58- Third and goal for Missouri.  Matt Millen explains intentional grounding.  Thanks, Matt.

10:59- Missouri doinks a 24 yard field goal off the upright.  Game over, South Carolina wins Oh well.  I hate college overtime, but Missouri blew a 17-0 lead in the fourth.  They have nothing to complain about.

11:03- Runners at the corners with two outs for John Jay.

11:05- John Jay flies out to center to end the 7th.  I'm going to stop drinking.  I want to stay up for Stanford-Oregon State and I have to go to mass in the morning.  I'm taking the 8th inning off. I'll be back for the 9th.

11:46- Oregon State has a guy named Richard Mullaney.  I'm definitely rooting for them against Stanford.

11:47- It's 4-4 in the top of the ninth.  After blowing the save in the eighth, Trevor Rosenthal is back out for the ninth (he entered in a jam).

11:49- Easy inning for Rosenthal.  Come on, Cardinals, win it in the bottom of the ninth.

11:54- They're talking about Trevor Rosenthal going back out to pitch the 10th.  For the record, I'd be against that move.  He's already thrown 20 pitches and you have games to play the next two days.

11:57- I missed it, but Stanford scored to take a 7-3 lead into halftime.  Yadier Molina just hit a bloop single.

12:00- Koji Uehara is in to pitch for the Red Sox.  Allen Craig pinch hits for the Cardinals with one out and Molina on first.

12:01- Craig doubles.  Molina goes to third.  One out.  You walk the next hitter and set up the force at the plate.

12:02- They're pitching to John Jay with first base open and Pete Kozma on deck?  What?

12:03- Wow.

12:04- That has to be the weirdest ending to a World Series game I've ever seen.  Dustin Pedroia makes a really good play to get the second out at home.  Saltalamacchia's throw gets away from Will Middlebrooks and Allen Craig trips over Middlebrooks.  The throw easily beats Craig to the plate, but Craig is safe on obstruction.

Well, I went almost seven hours of running diary.  A really weird ending to Game 3 of the World Series seems like a good place to end it.

Does the NCAA care about educating athletes?

If it does, there is no excuse for Cal, Florida International, Troy, San Jose State, Oklahoma, and USC having the same number of scholarships for football as Northwestern, Rice, Boston College, Notre Dame, Stanford, and Duke.

The NCAA has had commercials talking about how many athletes there are in college sports and how almost all of them will be going pro in something other than sports.  This is true.  So shouldn't they care about the fact that some schools don't care about providing their athletes with a real education?

For the money sports (football and men's basketball), it's actually a disadvantage for schools to care about educating their athletes.  As Notre Dame and Stanford have shown, it doesn't mean that you can't succeed on the football field, but it makes it harder.  Part of that is unavoidable.  Notre Dame and Stanford won't take some of the athletes that the SEC schools take (Vanderbilt is the exception in the SEC).  But even for some players that can get into Notre Dame and Stanford, they have to deal with stuff like "Don't go there, it's too hard, they'll make you work" in recruiting.

For the sports where athletes know they won't be able to make a living as a professional athlete, caring about academics is probably an advantage.  If you're being recruited to play tennis, you're more likely to care about going to a school where you can get a good education than you would be if you're being recruited to play football.  For football and men's basketball, there's no incentive for schools to care about educating their athletes.  Let's give them an incentive.

Go back to the 12 schools I mentioned at the top.  They're the bottom six and six of the top seven (I took out Air Force, the service academies are a different ballgame) in FBS football graduation rate (click on "Div. I Graduation Success Rates" at the top and then choose football and 2012-13 and search).  If they all have 85 scholarship players, that's a total of 1,020 players.  Based on current graduation rates, we can expect 731 of those players to graduate.

How can we do better?  Reward schools that graduate their players.  Give them more scholarships.  One problem I have with NCAA sanctions is that when you take scholarships away from USC, Penn State, or Miami, you're not just hurting those schools.  You're hurting athletes that have nothing to do with those schools.  If USC loses ten scholarships in a year, a football player that would have gone to USC goes to Arizona instead.  Then somebody who would have gone to Arizona goes to New Mexico instead.  Then somebody would would have gone to New Mexico goes to an FCS school instead.  And on and on and on until way down the line somebody who would have gotten a Division II scholarship can't get a scholarship.  If you take scholarships away from a school, give them to another school that deserves them.

So let's reward schools that provide their athletes with a quality education.  I think there are a lot of ways that it could be done, but I'll give you my suggestion.  Put the schools in five groups based on graduation rate.  If you're in the bottom 20%, you only get 75 football scholarships.  The scholarships that you lose are going to the top 20%, which will get 95.  The 21-40% group gets 80 scholarships and the 61-80% group you get 90 scholarships.  The middle 20% still gets 85 scholarships.  The total number of scholarships stays the same, but we reward schools that are actually going to educate their football players.

Let's go back to the bottom six and the top six.  If the top six had 95 scholarships and the bottom six had 75 scholarships, we can expect 758 of their 1,020 players to graduate.  I just got the same six schools to graduate 27 more players.

The NCAA's Graduation Success Rate excludes players who transfer if they leave their school in good academic standing.  That makes sense.  It shouldn't count against a school if a player leaves because he realizes he's not going to play.  I think we'd also have to exclude players who leave after three years and get drafted in the first three rounds of the NFL Draft.  If you leave after three years and get drafted after the third round, you probably should have gone back to school.  But let's just say that Cal's 44% graduation rate isn't because 56% of their players are leaving early for the NFL.

Cal's 44% graduation rate is a disgrace (especially for a school that is supposed to be one of the best state schools in the country).  Oklahoma's 51% is a disgrace.  Clearly, they don't care about educating their football players.  LSU's 74% isn't horrendous, but it's just not good enough.  If football powerhouses are going to lose scholarships based on not providing their players with an education, they're going to start to care.  Graduation rates will improve (which could certainly lead to schools handing out meaningless degrees, but what's going on now is just as bad).  Even if they didn't improve, more athletes would be graduating because more would be going to schools that will provide a real education.

Northwestern, Rice, Boston College, Notre Dame, Stanford, and Duke are doing what they are supposed to when so many schools aren't.  They deserve to have the advantage.

My Eight Year Wait is Over

October 15, 2005:  It was the most exciting sporting event that I've been to in person.  Number 1 USC vs. number 9 Notre Dame.  I won't rehash the entire game, but I do have some memories.  It was the best atmosphere for any game I've ever been to.  The grass was so high that I could see it blowing in the wind.  Tommy Zbikowski returned a punt for a touchdown (one of the few things I miss about the Charlie Weis days).  Reggie Bush put on one of the most impressive displays that I've seen from an athlete (don't worry, we'll come back to him).  Brady Quinn scored the go ahead touchdown with 2:04 to play and I worried he scored too soon.  Then the following things happened:  

1.  USC converted 4th and 9.

2.  USC fumbled and benefited from it.  It went out of bounds short of the goal line.  Had it stayed in bounds, either we recover and win or they recover and the clock runs out and we win.  Had it gone out of bounds past the goal line, it's a touchback and we win.  As all of this was going down, the clock hit triple zero and the student section stormed the field.  I saw what happened and figured they would put time back on the clock, but I wasn't going to not storm the field when everybody else was.

3.  The Bush Push won the game for USC.

The Bush Push should have been a penalty, but it was always the fumble that bothered me more.  There were so many ways that could have been bad for USC, but doing something bad ended up helping them.  Reggie Bush committed a penalty that is never called and if it was Brady Quinn trying to sneak for the game winning touchdown, I'd want Darius Walker to be pushing him in if he was going to be short.  In later years, the fact that Reggie Bush was a professional athlete playing college football would bother me more than anything.

Last year after we beat USC to get to the National Championship Game, it made up for the Bush Push game.  Still, I needed to see us beat USC in person.  I didn't go in 2007 and I didn't miss anything.  In 2009, we almost had a big comeback to win (we had a chance to tie it on the final play).  In 2011, we got off to a terrible start and might have come back and won if not for us snapping the ball on the USC 1 and having the play result in a USC touchdown (one of two snaps that season for us on the other team's 1 that resulted in a touchdown for the other team and huge momentum swing).

So I went back this year.  This game didn't have the luster of 2005 or last year's game, which is too bad.  Notre Dame and USC are the Celtics and Lakers of college football.  College football is just better when Notre Dame and USC are good.  I want USC and the Lakers to be good, but I want Notre Dame and the Celtics to be better (Michigan and the Knicks, on the other hand, could lose all of their games forever and I would be totally cool with that).  Despite not having the same luster as most Notre Dame-USC games, it was the one game this year that I needed to go to.  No game haunted me like the 2005 game (not even Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals, which is the worst loss I've ever experienced as a fan, but that's only because the Celtics won the championship in 2008).  Still, I had a hard time getting excited about this game.

Last year I spent every waking minute after we beat Wake Forest to get to 11-0 thinking about our game with USC which could get us to the National Championship Game.  Sure the stakes weren't nearly as high this year, but I still usually spend about 60-70% of my time awake thinking about our next football game.  Not last week.  I was more concerned about the Dodgers in the playoffs.  I realized that Game 6 was going to be starting during my flight on Friday night and Game 7 was going to be going on at the same time as the football game.  For Game 6, I found a really good deal on a room at the Chicago Airport Hilton.  I also paid $50 to get a flight two hours early so that I would land before the start of the game.  For Game 7, I didn't know how I would have handled that if the Dodgers had gotten there.  I had never left a Notre Dame football game early, but I might have if the Dodgers had been playing Game 7 of the NLCS.  Considering the way the football game turned out, I still don't know what I would have done.

Game 6 was a disappointment.  I got to my room in time for the bottom of the first.  The bottom of the third was a disaster and the Cardinals were on their way to the World Series.  I actually stopped watching and went to the bar to drink my sorrows away.  I didn't do as much drinking as I might have because one Sam Adams Octoberfest was $14 plus tip.  So I only had one beer.  I finished the game by listening to Vin Scully call the 8th and 9th innings on my phone.  I'll miss him until next season.  Clayton Kershaw, easily the best pitcher in baseball, had his worst game of the season.  He pitched three great games in the playoffs, but he didn't have it in Game 6.  It happens.  The Dodgers lost two winnable games.  That was why they lost the series.  They never would have gotten as far as they did without Clayton Kershaw.  I felt bad for him.  But hopefully he'll get a big contract from the Dodgers during the offseason and he'll be right back in the playoffs next year.  He had one bad game and I won't let that diminish my appreciation for the amazing season he had.  I'll never forget being there for his performance on Opening Day.  I can't wait for March 22, 2014 when the Dodgers open the season in Australia (it might be March 21 in the United States, I haven't figured that out yet).  If it was in the middle of my Easter vacation, I would use it as my excuse to get to Australia.  Sadly, that won't happen.  But I'll try to get to a couple of Dodger games in cities other than New York.  2013 was fun.  Hopefully 2014 will be better.

This is an old picture of Vin Scully (you can tell by the color of the seats), but I really like it.  He's the best.

Thanks for a fun year, Clayton.  Hopefully you'll be able to add a World Series MVP to your Cy Young Awards in 2014.

The Dodgers made me pretty sad, but it allowed me to refocus on football.  I took the bus and got to campus at 11:00 on Saturday.  I met my friend Jon and relaxed for a bit in his room at my old home, St. Edward's Hall (Jon's a law student and the assistant rector there).  Jon left to set up his tailgate and I went to the Grotto.  Then I walked around the stadium and took pictures of the statues of Notre Dame's legendary coaches.  Each one has a gate named after him.  Gate E remains unnamed.  Hopefully someday it will be the Brian Kelly Gate.

The greatest coach in the history of football.

I love Lou.

Then I met up with Jon, who put on quite a tailgate.  There were burgers, brats, Guinness, and Octoberfest.  All good stuff.  Kyle's brother Michael and his wife were there.  Former St. Ed's resident Kevin and his parents were there.  We talked about tailgating before the game in 2011.  I'm not sure, but I think I fed Kyle a hot dog after I tried it and it was amazing.  Unfortunately, Kyle was not there to reenact that scene.  I left to go to the 4:00 mass in the Basilica.  The Basilica mass on a football Saturday is always ridiculously crowded, but if I rated the Basilica and Stepan Center (the alternative to the Basilica for mass on gameday) on aesthetics on a scale of 0-100, the Basilica is a 100 and Stepan Center is a -43.  After mass, I went back for a little more tailgating.  This year was kind of the opposite of 2011.  2011 featured tailgating that ended with the most delicious hot dog ever and then Notre Dame losing.  2013 featured tailgating that ended with Michael injuring Jon's hand (the swelling was pretty scary looking, but he soldiered on) and then Notre Dame winning.

Mass in the Basilica.

The game got off to an ominous start, but unlike Michigan and Oklahoma, the ominous start did not portend defeat..  We had a long drive that ended with us failing to score on a fourth and goal from inside the 1.  USC took over on their own 4 and went 96 yards for a touchdown.  They scored three points for the rest of the game.  Tommy Rees looked very good after some shaky performances.  He led us down the field and finished the first quarter with a touchdown to Troy Niklas.  With 1:13 left in the second quarter, Rees threw a nice touchdown to T.J. Jones that gave us a 14-10 lead, which happened to be our first lead at home against USC since Brady Quinn put us up 31-28 in 2005.

My view from the grad student section of the celebration after T.J. Jones's touchdown gave us the lead.

The second half was dominated by defense.  Tommy Rees got hurt and we wouldn't score again (I think we would have gotten at least one more score if he had played the whole game).  Fortunately, it didn't matter.  Stephon Tuitt looked like Stephon Tuitt from 2012.  Jaylon Smith continued a very impressive freshman season (an actual freshman season, unlike Johnny Manziel last year who was closer to being a junior than a freshman).  The defense was great, but our offense looked horrendous without Tommy Rees.  I actually called one of our offensive plays exactly.  It was our second to last play before the kneel downs.  After several runs where George Atkinson came in motion from a wide receiver position into the backfield and took a hand off, I said they should fake it to Atkinson and have Andrew Hendrix keep it.  That's what happened and it was actually a good call with Hendrix running for seven yards on 2nd and 9, but we couldn't get the first down on 3rd and 2.  Fortunately, our defense took care of business.  I'll tell you, in these days with so much scoring in football, a scoreless second half is a thing of beauty when your team is winning at halftime.  After the defense stopped USC with 54 seconds left, it was really nice to see us line up in the victory formation.

I waited eight years to see that on the scoreboard.

Notre Dame put me in a good mood after a miserable final game for the Dodgers in 2013.  I finally saw us beat our biggest rival (our only true rival, really) in person.  I might be there for Notre Dame-USC in 2015, but I'm not sure (I would be going for sure if we had lost again).  What's most important is that it seems that our season has turned around.  I was not optimistic after Oklahoma.  I said I just wanted us to beat USC.  It was good to do that, but after beating Arizona State two weeks ago (which I didn't expect), I want more.  This can still be Brian Kelly's second best season at Notre Dame.  The next two games (Air Force and Navy) should be two of our three easiest games of the season (with Temple being the other one).  Then we have Pittsburgh and BYU.  Those are games we should win, but I expect at least one of those to be tough.  If we survive the next four games (far from a certainty, but possible), we go to Stanford at 9-2.  Stanford's next four games are at Oregon State, home for Oregon, at USC, and home for Cal.  I definitely expect them to beat USC and Cal.  They'll be favored against Oregon State and underdogs against Oregon.  There's a legitimate possibility that Notre Dame and Stanford will go into the final game of the season with the same record and be playing for a spot in a BCS bowl (to be clear, I don't expect to make it to a BCS bowl, I just think we have a real shot to be a win against Stanford away from making a BCS bowl).  I definitely didn't expect that after the Oklahoma game.  Go Irish!

Me and Jon celebrating the victory.

The Value of Victory

I started this blog about a year and a half ago and this is my 100th blog post.  I've spent a lot of time thinking what I should do for the 100th post.  I have been working on one blog post that I really like, but it's very different from what I usually do on this blog, so I'm saving that for later (it has to do with movies, look for it some time between November and April).  I've been to two Notre Dame football games this season.  The Oklahoma game certainly wasn't worth blogging about.  The Arizona State game in Dallas was worth blogging about, but I'll get to that later.  My last post was about Juan Uribe after he hit three home runs in a game in September.  I ended that one by saying, "I have a feeling he's going to help make this season even more special in October."  Well I was right, but Uribe's not done yet.  Last night was awesome.  If I hadn't needed to be at work early this morning, I might have drunk dialed Cousin Sal, and it would have gone something like this:

[In the drunk Bill Simmons voice] "Cousin Sal, Jimbo Slice here.  I just watched the most amazing professional baseball game.  Things weren't looking too good for my beloved Dodgers, until This Little Yasiel Puiggy led off the bottom of the eighth inning with a double with the Dodgers down by one.  Then Juan Uribe came up and Don Mattingly wanted him to bunt.  That made about as much sense as Brian Kelly going with an empty backfield for the 59th straight time on third and four.  But then Juan Uribe purposely fouled off two bunts so he could swing that bat and hit a ball 650 feet over the left field wall to give the Dodgers a 4-3 lead.  He just moved up to 24th on my list of favorite post-Cold War baseball players.  Right now I'm celebrating the Dodger win, but if you'll excuse me, I have to get to work on a 11,375 word blog post that 10-20 people will read about how you would have to give me approximately $9,392,524 to get me to miss Games 4-7 of the World Series if the Dodgers are involved.  Jimbo Slice, over and out."

I love the Bill Simmons drunk dials to Cousin Sal.  They get me every time.  Anyway, when I started the blog, it was going to be about how I would spend my time if I didn't have a job for a year.  I was determined to make the most of it.  I was going to spend my time going to as many sporting events as possible and traveling the country.  There aren't many things I value more than sports and living in the greatest country in the history of the world.  So in short, the blog was going to be about my values.  There's nothing better in sports than my favorite teams winning, so that's what this post is about.  It should really be called "The Value of the Chance of Victory," but that doesn't sound nearly as good.  I love watching my teams win, but I can't guarantee that they win.  So how much do I value the chance of victory?

On June 17, 2008, the Celtics beat the Lakers to win the NBA Championship.  Last year, Notre Dame beat USC on November 24 to make it to the National Championship Game.  Those were easily two of the best days of my life.  I went to the National Championship Game in January.  The ticket for the game was the most expensive ticket to a sporting event I've ever bought by about a factor of 8 or 9.  I would have been willing to pay about twice as much as I did.  Obviously, the game didn't go my way.  But I never regretted it for a second.  If we had won, it would have been by far the best day of my life.  Of all the teams I root for, I care about the Notre Dame football team more than any other.  Being there to celebrate with thousands of Notre Dame fans would have made it even more amazing.  It was worth the risk.

Back in 2009, when Dodgers-Yankees was a World Series possibility, I planned to go to Game 6 of the World Series if it got that far.  I had a number in mind for how much I would have been willing to pay.  It was a good amount less than what I paid for the National Championship Game, but I think I would have been able to do it.  I wanted to go to Game 6 because my choices were 1, 2, 6, and 7.  Somebody would have a chance to win the World Series in Games 6 and 7.  Game 7 is obviously less likely to happen than Game 6 and it also probably would have been more expensive than Game 6.  So that's how I decided on Game 6.  Of course, I never got the chance.

I've made it my goal to get to every Major League Baseball stadium.  Whenever I can, I try to see the Dodgers at whatever stadium I'm visiting.  For my first 21 years of going to baseball games, the only team I ever saw the Dodgers play against in person was the Mets.  Since then, I've seen the Dodgers play in eight different cities.  Now, the only stadiums where I've seen more baseball games than Dodger Stadium are Shea Stadium, Old Yankee Stadium, and Citi Field.

So I've spent a lot of money to watch my favorite teams.  But what would it take to get me to not watch my favorite teams.  When I can't be there in person, I want to watch on TV, which is significantly less expensive.  I can count on one hand the number of Notre Dame games I haven't seen in person or on TV since I was a student.  In 2007, I didn't watch the UCLA game only because we were 0-6 and it wasn't on TV here.  But I listened to the game online.  Yes, I spent a Saturday night listening to an online radio broadcast of an 0-6 football team.  It was worth it, we got our first win of the year.  Then I missed the first half of the Stanford game that year because I was out.  I would have made a point of not being out if we hadn't been 2-9 going into the game.  Again, we won.  In 2010, I missed most of the Notre Dame-Pittsburgh game because of events surrounding my friend's wedding (I was in the wedding party).  I had my friend Jon texting me updates and we won.  And that's it.  So I've kind of (but not totally) missed three Notre Dame football games in nine years.

When the Celtics won the NBA Championship in 2008, I estimated that I watched 90+ of their 108 games that season.  It was an awesome year.  My dad and I had tickets for the last Dodgers-Mets game at Shea Stadium.  I definitely wanted to go to that, but it would have been the night of Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals.  I was completely convinced that it was going 7 because it took the Celtics 14 games to win the first two rounds.  If there had been a Game 7, I would have skipped Dodgers-Mets.  Fortunately, the Celtics took care of business in six.  This year, I definitely won't be watching 90+ games, mainly because the Celtics will only be playing 82 games since they won't be making the playoffs.  This will be the worst Celtics team in a while, so I'll watch as much as I can put up with.

As for the Dodgers, I don't really have a good estimate for how many games I've watched this year.  I went to five in person (two against the Giants, one each against the Mets, Yankees, and Phillies).  You can't watch all 162 regular season games, but I did try to watch every Clayton Kershaw start (because I don't want to miss the start when he throws his no hitter).  I mentioned thinking about going to the not-to-be Dodgers-Yankees World Series in 2009.  The Yankees won't be in the World Series this year, so I almost certainly can't go to a World Series game.  The one possibility would be Dodgers-Red Sox.  Going to a World Series game in Boston a very long shot, but I would at least explore the possibility if we do indeed get Dodgers-Red Sox.  I'm really really hoping for the Dodgers to beat the Cardinals/Pirates winner in four or five.  I'm flying out to Chicago the night of the potential Game 6 for the Notre Dame-USC game, which would be at the same time as the potential Game 7.  If it wasn't Notre Dame-USC, I'd be inclined to skip it.  Or if I had seen us beat USC in person before, I almost certainly would skip it.  But that game means a whole lot to me (even if it doesn't have the same luster as it usually does) and hopefully, the Dodgers will still have four more games to win after that.  But yeah Dodgers, in the words of Bill Lumbergh, if you could win the NLCS in four or five, that would be great.

What if the Dodgers get to the World Series?  I'm not missing a game, especially not Games 4-7.  If they win the World Series, it would probably be the best day of my life.  What would you have to do to get me to miss a game?  I've thought about it.  It's going to take money and a lot of it.  The conversation would start at six figures, but that's probably not enough.  I don't know the exact number, but it would have to be enough that I could just not work for the foreseeable future.  And even that's not enough.  I'd need enough money so that I could have a place to live on both coasts and become a Dodgers season ticket holder.  I think being there for every Dodger home game that I wanted to go to for the next decade or so would be worth giving up seeing the Dodgers with their chance to win a championship.  But nobody's making that offer, so I'm looking forward to watching eight more Dodger wins in 2013.