A daddy blog.

09 October 2007

FanHouse: Tue AM 'Heat Didn't Kill Marathon Runner?' Edition

Big track & field day. Scroll on down to the bottom for a College Football Songbook dirge for USC.

Media:
Look Out, Letterman: Joe Buck Could Get Late-Night Comedy Show: My guess is that this will be somewhat more successful than Chevy Chase or Magic Johnson, but not nearly as successful as Joan Rivers. Awful Announcing is hoping this will keep Buck out of the booth, but if it's only a half hour once a week, I don't see that happening. If anything, it just means we can expect to see a lot of promotion for it while we're watching sports.

ESPN Defends Emmitt Smith: 'He's Getting Better Every Week. He's Working Very Hard': I have no idea how hard Smith is working, but the fact is, he still comes across as unprepared and ignorant of basic information about the teams and players he's supposed to be analyzing. Sure, forgetting names can happen to anybody, but when was the last time it happened to Tom Jackson or Ron Jaworski?

MLB:
Mark Cuban Says He Bleeds Cubbie Blue': I'm all for Cuban coming over to MLB; like I said, I love the guy. But saying this kind of stuff before you even put a bid in might not be the best of ideas in a league where owners have the power to veto a new ownership group and are close and conservative, not to mention resistant to those who buck that trend.

Should DiMaggio Have an Asterisk Too? It's not because of anything Joltin' Joe did or took but because the official scorer for his home games was Dan Daniel. Daniel was a local sportswriter who would today be considered something closer to a PR man. He was also the sole decider on hits and errors at Yankee Stadium and serving his team and friends may have trumped his objectivity according to the article's author David Robbeson.

The Indians Win it! The Indians Win it! Oh My God The Indians Win it!': It wasn't Bob Uecker in the booth tonight like he was in the movie, but the Cleveland Indians have indeed won it ... and just like in the movie (the first one, because the first Major League, as you must know, was the best one), they beat the Yankees to get to the ALCS.

Track & Field:
Medical Examiner: Heat Did Not Kill Runner at Chicago Marathon: I hope more information will be released publicly, though, because that seems very difficult to swallow. Are we really supposed to believe that this man would have died of this heart condition anyway, and that it's just a coincidence that the heart condition happened to kill him as he was running a marathon in 88-degree weather?

Did Water Really Run Out at This Year's Chicago Marathon? I hopped in with my dad for the last couple miles of his final marathon race. So was water really that scarce? No, not really. Was it a total disaster when they asked everyone to stop running, saying the race had been canceled? Um, kind of.

Marion Jones Hands Over Her Medals; She Should Have Kept Them: Jones actually did win those three golds and two bronzes. The International Olympic Committee has the right to alter the record books, mint new medals and give them to the new winners, but I would have no problem with Jones keeping those mementos of her past.

NFL:
The Debriefing: This 'Time Out Right Before the Field Goal' Nonsense Has to Stop: Cowboys kicker, rookie Nick Folk had a 53-yard field goal attempt to bring home the hugely improbable win ... it would be the longest kick he's ever made ... and Nick Folk onion'd up, booted the pigskin confidently through the posts, and finished the game in dramatic comeback fashion. Actually, no he didn't. None of that counted.

Did Trent Green Injure Travis Johnson? John McClain doesn't quite excuse Johnson in his blog post but he attempts to put the readers in both Trent Green and Travis Johnsons' shoes, explaining the actions of each. McClain's discussion of this is worth a read if you don't know much about Green and Johnson or feel the need to demonize either one.

NCAA Football:
Trendspotting: "At Least It Wasn't Appalachian State," Say Embattled Coaches: Lee is Arkansas' offensive coordinator; the quote came in the immediate aftermath of the Razorbacks' ugly, close-ish 34-15 victory over Tennessee-Chattanooga. Tommy Bowden made similarly themed comments after an ugly Clemson win earlier this year, though he later called Lloyd Carr an offered a clarification on the matter.

YouTubesDay: LSU Really Doesn't Like USC: EDSBS's Orson Swindle had the good fortune to attend LSU's thrilling 28-24 win over Florida on Saturday. One thing that struck this reporter as odd from his initial after-action report: "In case you don't know what a bomb sounds like when it goes off, it's Tiger Stadium when a USC defeat is announced." Evidently.

This Week In Schadenfreude: Trojans Are Down on the Farm: Georgia. Whenever things at Georgia aren't going well, thoughts in the blogosphere turn towards Doug Gillett's household appliances. Last year Gillett hurled his toaster off his balcony in the midst of a game Georgia won: there is always the potential you might see a George Foreman grill in a state of disrepair or a hideously bent crepe pan or a colander that swears it fell down the stairs when the Dawgs actually lose.

College Football Songbook: Pete Carroll Can't Have This: Did Jim Harbaugh get into Pete Carroll's head? One thing is for sure, he got one of the biggest upsets in college football history with his backup quarterback. And for that, we dedicate this weeks College Football Songbook to Pete Carroll and the Trojans.