Short and sweet, like my existence around here the last few months. OK, half a year.
The Lady Lions will take on the Texas Longhorns on Saturday in the NCAA Championship in Florida.The Nittany Lions swept all but six of their wins this year. They dropped a set Thursday night for the first time since Nov. 20 at Purdue.
The 101-match streak is second in Division I team sports behind the Miami men's tennis program's 137 straight wins from 1957-64. The Nittany Lions haven't lost since falling to Stanford in September 2007.
The win also made Rose only the third women's volleyball coach in Division I history to reach 1,000 victories. He trails only UCLA's Andy Banachowski (1,106) and Shoji (1,016).
Jimmy Rollins was asked about the atmosphere at Yankee Stadium compared to other ballparks."It's really more of a different atmosphere at our ballpark compared to the others," he said. "Our ballpark is so loud and rowdy. I was really expecting some of that here, but it was very tame and civilized actually."
In New York?
"Yeah," Rollins said. "You only heard one big cheer and that was on the home runs. Other than that ... those expensive are running the loud fans out."
Rollins later was asked if this feels more like a World Series compared to last year's series against the Tampa Bay Rays.
"When we get to Philly it will," Rollins said.
Well, it has been a long 6 years but my Yankees are finally back in the Series. The Phillies may be the defending champions but you can bet that the Yankees will be up for this series and force them to give everything they got. Scouring over some message boards, I am completely floored at the arrogance of some Phillies fans. I have seen many, many posts saying that the Phillies are going to win the series in 5 games. Really?? That means they have to beat CC at least once AND win with Pedro starting. That also means Cole Hamels has to not implode in Game 3. Quite a tall task if you ask me. I think anybody making that prediction is seriously underestimating the Yankees. With that introduction, here are my three reasons why the Yankees will win and will not win the World Series.
Why the Yankees will win…
CC / 3-man rotation
The fact that the Yankees get to use CC Sabathia 3 times in this series is huge. He has been pitching out of his mind and will be able to go toe-to-toe with Cliff Lee, assuming they pitch him thrice as well. AJ Burnett worries me on the road (similar to the Phillies and Cole Hamels) but in Game 2, I expect a great start out of him. Pettitte has been incredibly solid this entire postseason as well. Yeah, they’ll have a big time line up to go against but I know that they can hold their own.
Pedro Martinez
I was almost giddy with excitement when he was named the Game 2 starter. He has never been that great against the Yankees in the postseason (1-2 record, 4.72 ERA) and now he is 6 years older. Not only that but he has not been tested at all this year. Yeah, he pitched well against the Dodgers but that offense was reeling and is not really that great to begin with. Also, he pitched against NOBODY in the regular season. His only decent starts during the season came against the Mets, Nationals and Giants. Those are 3 of the worst offensive teams in the league. I fully expect the Yankees to tee off on him in Game 2 and hopefully Game 5 as well. Not only that but if the Phillies want to use Cole Hamels twice, that means he is going to have to pitch in a pivotal Game 6 in the Bronx. Regardless, whenever Pedro takes the mound, it will be great theatre.
Cold for pretty much the entire playoffs at the plate, he started to heat up at the end of the ALCS and that is great news for the Yankees. When he is on, the Yankees are nearly unbeatable. A-Rod is also helping this too by protecting him in the order. The Phillies are going to have to throw Teixeira strikes unless they want a man on base when A-Rod comes up. That is what got the Angels in trouble towards the end of the ALCS. Also, I would be remiss not to mention his defense at first base. He is going to win the Gold Glove this year and I am certain his defense alone won them a handful of games this regular season.
Why the Yankees will lose…
Phillies Lineup
It is pretty good. And has been great this postseason. The Angels provided a good warm-up for the Yankees in the ALCS (Yankees and Angels were #1 and #2 in runs scored during the regular season) so I feel like the starters will be ready. But that does not stop the fact that they need to get through Rollins, Howard, Werth, etc. etc.
Stranding runners
Did it wayyyy too much in the ALCS. The Yankees did get better late in the ALCS but I worry about them putting the first couple guys on and then doing absolutely nothing. They may need to rely on the long ball a bit in a game or two.
Bullpen
Thought to be a strong point heading into the postseason, the bullpen has somewhat shaky thus far. Then again, I could be wrong here. Their ERA this postseason is 2.28…but I feel like they have been living on the edge for a lot of the postseason. Joba and Hughes have not been pitching nearly as well as they were down the stretch of the regular season. Rivera does have the second best ERA this postseason (0.84 behind Lee’s 0.74) but Game 6 proved that runs can be scored off of him. I also just have terrible memories of him blowing the clincher against
One way or another, this is going to be an amazing World Series. I would be very surprised if it does not end in a Game 6 or 7 in the
All in all, it's going to be tough to find a more unforgettable weekend than this. Wow, we had such a great time at PSU.You can check out everything they did, from the travel to their first night to tailgating and the game - at their Penn State page. And be sure to check back weekly as they update their page for the most recent trip.
WTF?!?!
"Supirrior" indeed.
Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard clobbered the 200th home run of his career tonight in Florida. It was his 23rd of the season and gave the Phillies a 4-0 lead. Howard is the fastest player in MLB history to reach 200 home runs, which he did in 658 games....blue-chip recruits are flocking to Penn State, which after a brief absence, has returned to its long-held place as a nationally elite football program.We are Penn State. September 5th can't get here soon enough.
. . .
If Penn State fans love this comeback because their program is back on top, they love it just as much because, in its resurgence, Penn State is trampling Pitt. There’s no doubt -- none -- as to which program is the dominant one in these parts. When Dave Wannstedt took over at Pitt in 2005, he looked ready to topple the struggling Penn State program. Instead, Wannstedt has struggled trying to live up to the record of Walt Harris and Paterno has come back.
I'll be taking in the Phillies-Pirates game tonight at The Bank. It will be my first live Phillies game since a 10,000th-loss-avoiding win on July 14, 2007, also one of my best friends bachelor party. On a related note, tonight is Walkoff Walk's CBP HEIST. Bloggers from The 700 Level and The Fightins will be in attendance (plus others). They're congregating in section 202. Not sure where I'll be gbut it'd be sweet to see some of them there. Here's to a Phillies win!
RECAP: So you guys think the Phillies should try to leg out the next month with Bastardo and Happ in the rotation. Still feeling that way after the weekend series versus the Red Sox? Well regardless of whether or not we want to stay with these young arms or find a proven veteran, we kind of have to stay the course. Most of the veteran targets are now off limits due to injuries (Jake Peavy, Erik Bedard) or their teams recent performance (Roy Hallady, Jason Marquis, Roy Oswalt). Who else out there would really be a huge improvement? One of these guys - probably Happ - will make it through the season. However, Bastardo may be in for another 4-6 starts because of the dearth of arms available. It's clear Kyle Kendrick isn't an option.
The Phillies won the rubber match versus the hated New York Mets last night thanks to a Raul Ibañez 3-run home run in the top of the 11th inning. The win pushed the Phillies to a 35-23 record, two wins better than their '08 pace, and a four game lead over the Mets in the N.L. East. The game winning home run was Ibañez's 21st of the season, second among N.L. players (Adrian Gonzalez, 22). RAAAAUUUUUUULLL now leads the league in RBIs, too. With his amazing start in Philadelphia, and since we're more than 1/3 of the way through the 2009 season, rumblings of a potential MVP are in the air for the newest Phillie. Through 58 games, how does Ibañez stack up to past award winners this far into the season?
Click to enlarge statistics.Ya hear that haters? Poz means business and will be a household name in 2009.Another middle linebacker, Posluszny would likely already be one of the AFC East's building blocks had he not fractured his forearm three games into the 2007 season. In what effectively served as his rookie year in 2008, Posluszny showed signs of becoming an excellent middle linebacker. He made 14.7 percent of his team's plays on the ground, eighth among 4-3 middle linebackers; furthermore, he was making tackles in important places. He had a stop rate of 54 percent, meaning that 63 of his 116 plays prevented the opposition from achieving a "successful" outcome on the play (defined here as gaining 40 percent of the needed yardage for a first down on first down, 60 percent on second down, or 100 percent on third or fourth down); that figure was sixth among 4-3 middle linebackers.
Penn State fans know all about this -- and in 2009, the entire AFC may come to fear Paul Posluszny.
He has still some work to go as a pass defender and as a pass rusher, but the Bills count on him primarily to be an elite run-stopper at linebacker. If he's not quite there yet, he very well may be after this season.
Ricketts' ties to Pitt might have been even stronger than Dieffenbach's. Ricketts is the son of Tom Ricketts II, a former standout lineman at Pitt in the 1980s and a former first-round draft choice of the Steelers. The elder Ricketts and his wife have season tickets to Pitt games. Sandy (Albright) Ricketts was a top swimmer at Pitt. Ricketts' great grandfather was Charles "Doc" Hartwig, who was a first-team All-American at Pitt in the 1930s.The younger Ricketss decided to choose Penn State over Pitt because it was the best fit for him as a student and as a player. How did the elder Ricketts react? He says he was excited.
"Of coure, I would've loved to see him go to Pitt," said Ricketts, the father. "But, of course, I knew the situation he would've been going into. He would've been kind of walking in my shoes or my shadow, I guess. He would've had to deal with that. There are so many opportunities out there for him. He made his own decision."It's always nice to know your dad has your back. Tom the Younger knows that.
"But he's happy for me and he doesn't hold anything against Pitt or Penn State."Diffenbach's father is George Diffenbach, the Pitt Panthers women's tennis coach for the last 27 years. I have not tracked down reactions from him.
Those all will, somewhere, link to Black Shoe Diaries on Google. Ha ha!"skank ho"
"naked softball girl"
"fat woman in ripped pants"
"dirty sanchez"
"bikini butt pucker"
The fine folks over at Phinally Philly have decided to organize a "Phanatic's Night Out". The goal is to get as many Philly bloggers and readers together for a Phillies game this summer. Dates available are all Saturday's: July 25 vs St. Louis (4:05), August 8 vs Florida (7:05) and August 29 vs Atlanta (7:05). Whichever date gets the most votes wins! If you're free on any of those evenings and feel like mingling with some bloggers and fellow Phillies fans, sign up! Confirmed guests (dependent on final date) are Roman and Kieran from Phinally Philly (hosts), Chris from Long Drive, Kevin from Macho Row, R.C. from Phillies Nation and me! Here's some more info.So what are you waiting for? Join us at the ballpark!How it Works
- We’re going for a discounted group rate, so tickets shouldn’t be more than $25.
- Once the most popular date is selected, a deadline will be set.
- You can either buy tickets with us and sit as a group or get tickets yourself and hang with us pre and post game.
- If you’re buying with us, funds will be collected via PayPal or personal check before the deadline.
- Once the deadline is up, we’ll order the tickets and either ship them out or you guys can meet us at the game for pickup.Check back periodically for updates!
Let’s go Phils!
- Roman & The Phinally Philly Team
(from Jostens via Steelers.com)
(from Jostens via Steelers.com)
(from Jostens via Steelers.com)
2009 All-Star Game (National League) vote totals released June 8th, 2009 (MLB.com).
Click to enlarge.
RECAP: Twelve people voted and everyone of them agreed with the Phillies move to insert Antonio Bastardo - who started the season as a reliever at AA Reading - as the temporary replacement for the injured Brett Myers. The poll started last Monday, a day before Bastardo made his first appearance in which he went six innings giving up only four hits and one run. The poll ended this morning, about 12 hours after Bastardo made his second appearance, earning his second win by going five innings and allowing two runs on seven hits. Not too shabby. The fans were right to believe in Bastardo and management for making this call.
Teams have latched on to the "wildcat" offense, introduced to the NFL by the Dolphins in 2008. Other teams, such as the Vikings and Ravens, are working with packages this offseason. The Dolphins, however, look to broaden the scheme in year two of the package. The addition of Pat White will help. Sporting News Today's Clifton Brown addresses the "wildcat" and Miami's plans for 2009 in his daily NFL feature, along with four other burning stories.
Yeah, that's my name.Ol' Ratface spent the better part of 30 years picking on the teams now in the Big East Conference...OK, let's first start out by calling the greatest coach in college football names based on his appearance. Though "ratface" is a new one; can't say I've heard him called that before. Kudos for the originality. He "picked" on the teams now in the Big East Conference? How did he "pick" on them? By beating them consistently? How is that his fault? The schools agree on playing each other. It's not as if JoePa said "you will play us" and that was that. Plus, Penn State is an east coast team, of course as an independent (before joining the Big Ten) they're going to regionalize and play the same east coast teams as often as possible. That was why JoePa tried to create an eastern football league in the early- to mid-1980's. This statement by the blogger is just sour grapes. Boo hoo, JoePa and Penn State are picking on us.
Penn State fans whine about how, with undefeated teams in 1969, 1970, 1973 and 1994, the Nittany Lions were not awarded the National Championship.I don't care what team you like but every fan base complains about how many national championships the school has. Why? Because of the way it is handled, now and in the past. First of all there is no true NCAA National Champion. That's why football "national championships" are called MNCs, or mythical national championships. The NCAA does not award an FBS title every year. That crystal football the team gets for winning the BCS Championship is their own National Championship trophy. Teams aren't getting this
which is the true NCAA Trophy. It is awarded to 44 teams over 18 men's sports and 47 times over 19 women's sports during an academic year. Some sports have multiple tiers, hence the multiple National Titles per sport. Football has four tiers - FBS, FCS (formerly known as Division I-AA), Division II and III. The FCS, II, and III divisions all have an official National Champion. The FBS division does not. Because of the way the FBS title is handed out, through the BCS (and other rankings), multiple teams can say they earned the title. Doesn't matter if it's the BCS one or some podunk newspaper. The NCAA doesn't officially recognize any of them. Before the BCS came around in 1998, the AP title was generally used as the official one (though not truly official). Some schools take advantage of the ambiguity in this, listing every year that anyone awarded them a championship. Alabama is notorious for this. Their titles have been dissected multiple times. Penn State doesn't do this. They list only 1982 and 1986 as National Championship seasons, as they finished #1 in the AP Poll that season. But getting back to the argument at hand, of course fans whine about their teams titles. It's completely subjective and ambiguous. That's why we need a playoff. But hating JoePa because fans believe Penn State earned more than two titles? No reason for it.Maybe it's karma for Paterno running up the score on weaker Eastern opponents, thus inflating their records.Yes, Penn State wasn't awarded titles in the past because he ran up the score. Right. JoePa's just a mean old man who does nothing for anyone. While I don't condone running up the score, in college football it had to be done at times. When you leave your programs fate in the hands of writers and/or coaches who may only look at the box score to determine a teams ability, a large margin of victory comes in handy. Is it bad sportsmanship? From a certain point of view, sure. But, again, this is subjective. Looking back at scores you can see Penn State has destroyed some programs. But whose to say that the second, third and even fourth teams weren't the ones scoring those points? How can the coach be blames if the opponent can't stop backups from running the ball? During the 2005 and 2006 seasons Penn State had sizable leads on many teams. And every time the backups and third stringers were on the field in the fourth (and sometime the third) quarters.
And also for and poaching players from other territories. Two of his best players -- Franco Harris of Mount Holly and Rancocas Valley High, and Kenny Jackson of South River -- were among the many he has poached from New Jersey, and whose first choice could have been Rutgers. He's taken New Yorkers away from Syracuse, New Englanders away from Boston College, and Cheseapeake Valley players away from Maryland, Virginia, Virginia Tech and West Virginia.Is this jealousy? I hope it is. He can't seriously be made and hate Paterno for being able to recruit, can he? Last I checked every recruit had an option to go to any school they choose, not just the one's close by. Players want to go to schools that give them a chance to play, make the NFL, be on TV, be part of tradition, and/or win games. Penn State offers all those things. Paterno has every right to take players from any state he wants; every team and coach does! Paterno stealing away recruits from outside of PA should not cause hate. Extreme jealousy and envy, surely, but not hate.
Now that Rutgers is a consistent winner, that cowardly old bastard won't play us. Come on, Ratface, you deserve one last lesson in manners before you head off to that great press box in the... core of the Earth.Where do I even start? OK, let's go with the "consistent winner" thing. Rutgers went 7-5 in 2005, their first season over .500 since 1992 when they went 7-4. In 2006 they had a wonderful season, finishing 11-2 and ranked 12th. In 2007 and 2008 they were 8-5. OK, so they have four straight years of at least seven wins. Who cares? Does winning seven or eight games make you a force in college football? Hardly. A good season in college football is like 9-4 or 10-3. A great one is 11-2. 12 or 13 wins is amazing. 7 or 8 is above average I guess but hardly something to be amazingly proud of. It definitely doesn't make you a "consistent winner".
Paterno is eternal. When he finally dies, the Shittany Lions will probably mummify him and turn the Beaver Stadium press box into their own version of Lenin’s Tomb. They already call the stadium “Saint Joe Paterno Cathedral.”Shittany Lions. Man, this guy is on fire! But again, when has Beaver Stadium EVER been referred to as Saint Joe Paterno Cathedral. OMG. I can't believe it! There's a Google search result.
Click to enlarge.For longevity, for amount of defeats, for size of defeats, for style of defeats, for arrogance, and, yes, for ugliness (he really does look like a rat), Joe Paterno tops the list. Congratulations, Penn State: You are Number 1. You dirty bastards.Yes, Joe Paterno certainly is an evil man. He definitely is someone you should focus your hate on.
