SABR-Toothed Triber: Santana Leads the Indians in…EVERYTHING?
June 11, 2010Browns Flex Muscles with Restricted Free Agents
June 11, 2010
Quite a week, yes? There were some Izzo-to-the-Cavs rumors. Stephen Strasburg made his first start, and now Carlos Santana has finally been called up. The MLB Draft occured. The NBA Finals are on, with a random role player from one of the two teams stepping up to help win every game. College football is looking to change significantly on the horizon. USC got hit extremely hard with sanctions by the NCAA. Somewhere in the footnotes of the week, you’ll see that Oregon’s starting quarterback was kicked off the team. Lord Stanley’s Cup was just awarded to the delegates from Chicago. Oh, and the World Cup kicked off this morning.
With all those things being listed, I’m gonna go all Buddy The Elf on you guys. What’s your favorite sports story of the week?
29 Comments
My favorite sports story?
Denny writing a serious article on Wednesday.
South Africa playing Mexico to a draw.
Had Philly pulled it out and forced game 7, that would be up there, too.
I don’t care for college sports, but I like the Big Ten expansion talk. I like rumors and they were rampant about who’s going where.
Oh, and USC getting caught being bad bad people. It’s a shame Pete Carroll escapes any type of punishment. Maybe when he fails at the NFL level again and returns to NCAA, NCAA will punish him.
I also liked watching Masterson’s game Wednesday night and the highlights from Stephen Strasburg’s MLB debut.
It was a good week in sports.
I also got a chance to watch a not top 10 of the week in the opening game of the World Cup. There was like 5 minutes left and South Africa had a good chance at scoring a goal to go up 2-1 and the dude biffed it and hit the goal post. It was amazing. I love seeing people choke under the pressure. It’s a shame South Africa couldn’t pull out the victory, but a draw isn’t bad.
I liked the hammer coming down on USC. It was long overdue….I know some people derive now satisfaction from the suffering of others but I loved it. It’s how I was raised.
You forgot the biggest story of the week. BROWNS MINICAMP
DENNY YOU FORGOT TO MENTION THAT THE BLUE JACKETS HAVE A NEW HEAD COACH!
I definitely own that CD.
I, personally, am psyched that I now have a compelling reason to watch the Indians in Carlos Santana.
I’ve seen him play live here in Columbus, and he’s the real deal. Can’t wait to see him on the corner of Carnegie and Ontario!
In the interest of justice, the beatdown that the NCAA put on USC is sweet nectar. The fact that Pete Carroll weaseled out of any repercussions makes it extra sweet because it only makes him look even worse.
Also, it was nice to see Strasburg live up to the hype.
The college expansion.
I am hoping (as a ND fan, and I suppose not a purist) that this may force the hand of Jack Swarbrick to finally join the Big Ten. I’d love to see the school get back on track and play top flight competition (outside of USC/BC/Mich) on a consistent basis.
OH and the worlds greatest sporting event…the World Cup starting.
Agree JD- Carlos Santana joining the Indians is awesome, but the idea that the Big Ten may be forever changed is possibly the biggest story to me.
Awesome Album – Anything Fat Wreck is Gold, Jerry. Gold!
So since Nebraska is coming over, does this stop ND from possibly joining the big 10, or is that still a possibility?
@ Brendon – I’d see the B10/11/12 holding firm at 12 teams if ND doesn’t join. If ND decides to join, Mizzou might get the call. Waiting to see what happens with Texas in addition to ND.
@ Brent – Disagree. See NOFX. They’re terrible. Now Avail and Against Me! – I’m with you. But that record label is really mediocre at best. Sorry.
@Denny – I’d rather have Texas than Nebraska or ND
Brendon, Texas would be better for the conference. Mack Brown has Texas as serious contenders every year. So, that would help the Big Ten’s reputation in recent bowl games (Big Ten did great in 2009/10 Bowls)
But I think Nebraska is better because of their style of play.
Texas doesn’t play defense and run a spread which is like anti-Big Ten
@18/17 – You may not be looking at the big picture of all this. ND is not the prettiest girl at the party for her personality, it’s because she has lots of people that wanna see her. This all boils down to money and the market ND carries with it is gigantic compared to the other options. That paired with the academic quality of the school is the big lure.
Texas doesn’t play defense? That’s like saying Ohio State is slow.
Sure, national perception might be there because of the conference they play in, but it is far from the truth.
There’s a reason guys like Earl Thomas, Sergio Kindle, Brian Orakpo get drafted high every year. Older guys include Shaun Rogers, Casey Hampton, Corey Redding, Cedric Griffin etc.
Or, in an offense-heavy league, they were still #3 overall team defense in the country:
http://statistics.ncaafootball.com/merge/tsnform.aspx?c=ncaa-football&page=cfoot/stat/ncaa-team-totaldef.htm
as far as running a spread…
Illinois – spread
Northwestern – spread
Wisconsin – power-running spread (strange mix, but it’s what they do)
Penn State – spread, but still have traditional sets too
Michigan – spread option (run-first option based)
Ohio State – spread
Now that Big 12 reps are saying they want to tape and glue the conference together…the Cavs’ coaching vacancy has more riding on it than any other story.
Especially now that we hear that LBJ wants an ex-player…
The plot thickens.
mgbode, who do you think you are? Bringing stats into this conversation… I am truly disappointed
dangit, good point. sorry.
[Butthead voice] Uuu….uh, uuuuu…you said spread. hahuhuhuhuhu
[/Butthead voice]
[Beavis voice] yeah,spread…spread,spread,spread,SPREAD!
[/Beavis voice]
here’s what I expect today:
If Pac10 stays at ’12’ and just adds the new Big12 (which has 10) to a TV contract, then they’ll add Utah. This doesn’t make sense though because they would be splitting up the pie more by including the Kansas schools, Baylor and Iowa State.
If it becomes the Pac16, then: TX, Tech, OU, OkieState all join.
A&M gets first dibs for the last slot, but Utah/Kansas are both nipping at their heels to take over if they defect to the SEC, which I think they will. If so, I think the Pac16 surprising some and takes Utah.
If the Big10 expands to 16, the extra 4: Maryland, BC, UConn, Rutgers.
They also target ND (who thumbs their nose, see below), Syracuse (they don’t add as much market as UConn), Virginia (blue-blood ACC isn’t leaving for a Yankee conference), VaTech (see below), A&M (SEC), Texas (Pac16), and possibly Kansas (see below).
SEC quietly adds to their market size and strength: A&M, VaTech, Kansas, West Virginia
ACC recovers as best they can after losing 3 schools with: Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame
ACC does not see the benefit of going to 16 because, quite frankly, there are not 4 more teams worth adding to them though Mizzou gets mentioned.
either new conference or C-USA with a new look is formed out of some of the remaining parts
C-USA East
Louisville
Cincinatti
USF
East Carolina
UCF
Memphis
UAB
Southern Miss
C-USA West
K-State
Baylor
Missouri – which will be on the look-out for a new conference with better academic standing
Houston
SMU
Tulsa
Rice
Tulane
(sorry UTEP and Marshall)
MWC replaces Utah with Iowa State
JMHO
my personal favorite is Anchor by Less Than Jake on that CD- as for football, I want Nebraska more than others – they suck and we can beat up on them
mgbode- very interesting. Why do you think Notre Dame would rather join the ACC than the Big Ten? I think the Big Ten should add Kansas. They are too good of a basketball team to be left high and dry.
I had Kansas going to the SEC, they need a foil for Kentucky.
I just think that the rhetoric coming from Swarbrick and ND is all too familiar. They have contempt for the Big10 going back to the early days of Michigan leading a boycott of their team (which ultimately led them to schedule USC and Army and become a powerhouse, but still).
I think it would make them quite proud to thumb their nose at us and land in another power conference and I think it would be quite funny to land a big market (Boston) that happens to be a rival of theirs (BC – and a religious school at that)
my alignment for the big10 was all about media markets with good academics.
maryland = DC/Baltimore/Annapolis
BC = Boston/Mass/NH/Maine/Vermont?
rutgers = NJ + part of NYC (not enough by itself)
UConn = rest of eastern seaboard, Hartford, probably RI, and enough with Rutgers to add NYC
Yeah, mgbode the Big Ten would be smart to get those teams. I do see them going after Notre Dame though. But, like you said, it all depends on whether ND wold want to play in the big Ten.. They just seems like the perfect fit.
I consider the SEC to be a weak conference in NCAA basketball. They are looking better now with John calipari, but the Big Ten has, more recently, taken more teams to the NCAA dance… I can understand Kansas joining the SEC, but I think the Big Ten would be stupid to not attempt to bring Kansas to the Big Ten.
Last year Kansas, MSU, and Ohio State were all three good enough to make it to the final four.. I do believe they were all in the same regional though, but could you imagine having that top heavy of a conference in NCAA basketball.. It’d be pure domination.
I loved that CD. I never had a CD player that allowed you to go past 99 songs, so I never heard that last 2.