Author Archives: ASimPerson

“Sports That Could Possibly be Abbreviated ‘Bball’ for $500, Alex.”

Immediately after getting home from work, some friends and I took in the 2007 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship Game.

It wasn’t exactly a clinic. Ohio State looked lost most of the night and had trouble getting any sort of outside game that was desperately needed against Florida’s zone defense. Unlike the game in January, the favorites came out on top this time around.

After the end of the night (and hence the lateness of these posts), I poetically segued from the end of one season to the beginning of another. I recorded the Braves’ opener (10:00 am PDT) to view tonight and kept myself willful ignorant of the results.

What a thrill to be back into baseball. I never got into the groove last season – I left for Europe when the season was still young and came back to a team that was realistically out of the playoff hunt. I watched the remaining games, but without my usual zeal. As I watched yesterday’s game, I found my baseball senses were still in great shape – twitching as though I were behind the plate calling the balls and strikes, cringing at the bad swings at fastballs best described as “on the same plane as the batter’s eyeballs”.

Some of the Braves looked a lot more ready for opening day than others. Particular examples that stand out are Edgar Renteria, Chipper Jones, and of course, Brian McCann. Chipper got on base 3 times, McCann was completely himself (i.e., the best young catcher in the National League), and Edgar hit the tying and go ahead home runs. Andruw looked like he was trying to hit the ball to Pittsburgh most of the time, and the bottom of the order after McCann looked completely out of sorts. (I still prefer Chipper batting 4th and Andruw batting 3rd, honestly.)

John Smoltz pitched well, but he was on the hook for the loss after the 6th. Getting him off the hook was Edgar, who took an 0-2 fastball from Brett Myers in the 8th and just belted out beyond the center field fence to tie the game.

The so-called “Big Three” relievers had an interesting debut today. Mike Gonzalez came on in the 7th and proceeded to watch Brett Myers on four straight and give up a double. He then found the strike zone again and struck out the next two Phillies (including Ryan Howard) and retired the side.

Wickman pitched the tied ninth and got two quick out before allowing a double. They opted to walk Howard this time (one of the cases where I agree with that call) and got Utley to hit pop-up into foul territory that was corralled by Chipper.

Kelly Johnson coaxed a lead-off walk in the 10th, and after failing to get a bunt down, Edgar decided to take the next pitch into the right-center field bleachers. A perfect bottom of the inning by Chad Paronto later and the Braves secured the 1-0 start to the season.

It was weird watching this – they showed occasional highlights from last season. Normally, I’d remember these, but it was a reminder this year that even though I tried to keep up online I really had no idea what was going on. What I knew even before I left, though, was how terrible the bullpen was. If this website existed back then it would probably have several posts dedicated to the so-called “reliever” by the name of Chris Reitsma, one of the few people I’ve ever truly hated. (He was that bad.) Needless to say, had he been pitching today, the Braves probably would’ve lost 7-2.

The funniest part was listening to the announcers skip around the topic, saying everything they could about the bullpen last year without out-and-out saying, “Boy, those guys really sucked.” Here was the most damning factoid they presented: John Smoltz had a damn fine year last year at 16-9. He had 10 no-decisions, 6 of which were caused by blown saves, a stat the Braves led the league in last year. Yes, that’s right, with competent relief, he could’ve easily had 19 or 20 wins. Considering neither Cy Young award winner last year had 20 wins, that’s saying something. (Though perhaps it says more about the over-importance on a team-based stat for a pitcher’s performance, but that’s a post for another day.)

Anyway, it’s April, so like the fans of every baseball team, I’m feeling optimistic about this season. Well, except for fans of the Nationals. They don’t have much to look forward to.

Rating the Non-Conference Slate, Part 4: Big XII

Today’s rankings will example the Big XII conference. Short and sweet because I’ll also discuss the NCAA title game and the Braves’ opener.

So, here we go for the Big XII:

  1. Colorado (3 legit, 0 DI-AA): Colorado State, @Arizona State, Florida State, Miami (OH). CSU and CU is a huge rivalry game and will be played at a neutral site this year. Add that and FSU to a road game at a BCS conference team and you probably have one of the Big 12’s best non-conference slates. While others have 1 really good name, CU has 3 decent ones and no I-AA teams.
  2. Nebraska (2, 0): Nevada, @Wake Forest, Southern Cal, Ball State. You could certainly schedule worse mid-majors than Nevada. Surprising road game @Wake, but between that and their game at @USC last year they’ve shown a willingness to travel for intra-BCS games. USC completing the home-and-home also helps.
  3. Missouri (2, 1): Illinois, @Mississippi, Western Michigan, Illinois State. Game against Illinois is in Kansas City, so probably not much of a neutral site. @Ole Miss earns some brownie points, but the fact they’re ranked here speaks more to the quality of the rest of the schedules in this conference.
  4. Kansas State (1, 1): @Auburn, San Jose State, Missouri State, @Fresno State. Apparently this is a response an oft-repeated criticism of KSU scheduling soft opponents. I don’t think they counted on Fresno going 4-8 last year, though. @Auburn is the highlight here.
  5. Oklahoma State (1, 1): @Georgia, Florida Atlantic, @Troy, Sam Houston State. It boggles the mind that any Big 12 team would on the road to Troy after the Missouri game a few years back. KSU gets the nod, however, for going to Auburn over UGA.
  6. Texas A&M (1, 1): Montana State, Fresno State, UL-Monroe, @Miami (FL). Once again, shame about Fresno going 4-8 last year, otherwise this looks significantly better.
  7. Oklahoma (1, 0): North Texas, Miami (FL), Utah State, @Tulsa. I suspect Tulsa is having record season ticket sales this year. Just a hunch.
  8. Iowa State (1, 1): Kent State, Northern Iowa, Iowa, @Toledo. 2 MAC teams and 2 in-state rivals. Not much to get excited about here, which is probably also applicable to ISU’s season as a whole.
  9. Texas Tech (0, 1): Southern Methodist, Texas-El Paso, @Rice, Northwestern State. TTU hits the old Southwest Conference circuit and will probably be the most well-attended at Rice Stadium (capacity: 70,000) in a long time.
  10. Texas (0, 0): Arkansas State, Texas Christian, @Central Florida, Rice. Nothing much to see here, yes, Arkansas State is DI-A….wait, hold on. @Central Florida? How on Earth did that happen? Did Texas schedule a 4 for 1 deal?
  11. Baylor (0, 1): @Texas Christian, Rice, Texas State, @Buffalo. @Buffalo, eh? I guess they wanted a break from the Texas heat.
  12. Kansas (0, 1): Central Michigan, Southeast Louisiana, Toledo, Florida International. I don’t really even have anything witty to say about this schedule, and I can’t think of a good Mangino joke. Alas.

Don’t forget to check out our next installment as we investigate that haven of round-robin scheduling, the Pac-10.

Rating the Non-Conference Slate, Part 3: Big Ten

And here’s part three of our exclusive series.

Today, we’ll examine The Big Ten:

  1. Michigan (2 legit, 1 D-IAA): Appalachian State, Oregon, Notre Dame, Eastern Michigan. Not much to say here. Oregon in addition to Notre Dame form the best schedule of this group.
  2. Michigan State (2, 0): UAB, Bowling Green, Pittsburgh, @Notre Dame. Pitt isn’t as good as Oregon, hence the second place finish despite not playing any DI-AA opponents.
  3. Iowa (2, 0): Northern Illinois, Syracuse, @Iowa State, Ball State. Away game for rivalry this year; game against NIU is at a neutral site.
  4. Illinois (2, 1): Missouri, Western Illinois, @Syracuse, Ball State. 2 BCS opponents once again. Game against Mizzou is at a neutral site. Counting both Mizzou and ‘Cuse as legit may be a stretch.
  5. Wisconsin (1,1): Washington State, @UNLV, The Citadel, Northern Illinois. For a team like Wisconsin, games against NIU and UNLV don’t carry as much weight.
  6. Penn State (1, 0): Florida International, Notre Dame, Buffalo, @Temple. @Temple is still basically a home game for Penn State, I suspect. FIU and Buffalo may as well be DI-AA teams.
  7. Purdue (1, 1): @Toledo, Eastern Illinois, Central Michigan, Notre Dame. Notre Dame plays 1/3 of their games against Big Ten schools. May as well go ahead and join the conference, I say.
  8. Ohio State (1, 1): Youngstown State, Akron, @Washington, Kent State. What an uninspiring slate for a team of this caliber. At least they’re playing an out-of-region away game.
  9. Northwestern (1, 1): Northeastern, Nevada, Duke, Eastern Michigan. Well, I got a slight amount of amusement out of the fact Northwestern is playing Northeastern. Nevada and Duke add up to one legit team for these guys.
  10. Minnesota (0, 1): Bowling Green, Miami (OH), @Florida Atlantic, North Dakota State. @FAU? How does this keep happening?
  11. Indiana (0, 1): Indiana State, @Western Michigan, @Akron, Ball State. Maybe Indiana should join the MAC for football? Seriously, how else do you end up with two away games at MAC schools?

Next up: the Large Dozen, see you then.

Rating the Non-Conference Slate, Part 2: Big East

Well, Florida is putting the hurt on UCLA, so I figured I’d bang out another one of these. For guidelines, see the previous post. Remember, Big East teams have 5 non-conference games because they only have 7 league games.

The Big East:

  1. Syracuse (3 legitimate, 0 DI-AA): Washington, @Iowa, Illinois, @Miami (OH), Buffalo. 3 games against BCS conference teams. Pretty decent schedule, but considering how terrible the ‘Cuse has been recently they may be the ones getting scheduled as a “patsy team from a major conference”.
  2. Pittsburgh (2, 1): Eastern Michigan, Grambling State, @Michigan State, @Virginia, Navy. The fact this is one of the better Big East schedules is sad. Away games at BCS schools is key, and Navy isn’t terrible.
  3. Louisville (2, 1): Murray State, MTSU, @Kentucky, @NC State, Utah. Almost 3 legit games, depends on how much weight you give Utah and Kentucky. Helps Kentucky is a rivalry game.
  4. South Florida (1,1): Elon, @Auburn, UNC, @FAU, UCF. @FAU? The hell? @Auburn is good, and UNC is okay.
  5. Rutgers (1,1): Buffalo, Navy, Norfolk State, Maryland, @Army. Maryland and Navy are decently selections, not sure if they count as 2 legits.
  6. West VirginaVirginia (1, 0): Western Michigan, @Marshall, @Maryland, Mississippi State, East Carolina. Maryland is by far the best team on this schedule. On the road for the rivalry game against Marshall. Miss State may be the 4th worst team on this schedule.
  7. Connecticut (1,1): @Duke, Maine, Temple, Akron, @Virginia. Duke is technically a BCS conference team. Only legit team is Virginia. Barely.
  8. Cincinnati (1,1): SE Missouri State, Oregon State, @Miami (OH), Marshall, San Diego State. What a horrible schedule.

Nothing impressive as a group here. Next up, we’ll take a look at the Eleven Who Call Themselves Ten.