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How the mighty fall
Every week on his ESPN radio show, Scott Van Pelt runs a segment called “Winners.” In the piece he eschews conventional wisdom, picking against the most popular college football lines in Vegas. This week, the laughable lines his system coerced him into taking included: unranked Oregon State over No. 1 USC, unranked Ole Miss over No. 4 Florida and unranked Navy over No. 16 Wake Forest.
Now, with the college football weekend in the rear view mirror, Van Pelt is 3-0 and likely wishing he had put his money where his mouth was and whipped his “just for kicks” picks into a parlay. Had he done so, he likely would have been sitting on a year’s salary, as everyone without a time-traveling delorian and a sports almanac from 2015 was completely blindsided by one of the wackiest sports weekends.
Sadly, the unlucky teams that fell – including a less disastrous loss by No. 3 Georgia to No. 8 Alabama – now have but a fleeting chance at competing in the only game in college football that really matters – the BCS national championship game. The aftermath of this weekend will linger for the remainder of the season. With many preseason favorites having already sealed their tickets to the irrelevant bowl, complaints about the BCS system, with renewed validity, may be the only noise that will drown out the grumblings of sports fans who lost their fortune – or their $5 – on the “stone cold lock” picks of the week.
The BCS is not going anywhere soon, but as the mighty Big Brown, the mighty Patriots and now the mighty Trojans, Gators, and Bulldogs fall, it is clear more than ever that there is no such thing as a sure thing.
Hope springs for hopeless Lions
On Sept. 22, 2008, thousands of Lions fans were finally given a reason to celebrate. Matt Millen, the object of their contempt, was finally gone. His tenure in Detroit was marred at first by fan discontent, and increasingly, outright backlash as the reality of his enduring incompetence became clear. In his eight years with the organization, he did as good a job as possible in a league designed to create a parody to run the franchise into the ground. He led the team to an atrocious 30-84 record, drafted 62 largely useless players – 30 are already out of the league and only two are Pro Bowlers – and turned over coaching staffs only slightly slower than the Atlanta falcons who do so like its going out of style. What Millen leaves to his successor beyond Pro Bowl-caliber wide receivers Roy Williams and Calvin Johnson is hard to qualify. The team has been dejected for so long now, that an overhaul not only of personnel, but also of attitude must be a part of the rebuilding process. Certainly the replacement of Millen with a savvy GM has the capacity to one day change their fortunes – consider the impact Theo Epstein has had on the Red Sox – but for now, its only a step. Lions fans will just have to be patient and hope that what is a small step out the door for Millen will be a giant leap forward for the organization.
These are not the 2007 Mets
Draw all the parallels you want: Weak bullpen, lack of clutch hitting, struggles in September and similar if not exactly the same uniforms … but these Mets are not your 2007 Mets, and there is one reason why – Johan Santana. The man has cajones. He has not given up more than three runs in a game since July 17, with the team going 12-3 in his starts over that span including a gutsy complete game shutout of the Florida Marlins on three days rest on Saturday.
The win forced a deadlock atop the NL wild card race with one game left in the regular season, prompting Mets Manager Jerry Manuel to issue this gem: “Wow, wow, wow, wow. I think if I had to describe that one, I would say that was gangsta. That was real gangsta.” Yes, it was Jerry.
One can only assume that “gangsta” in this context is referring to definition four: “of or pertaining to being the best pitcher in the National League, and/or pitching the best game of your life in the biggest game of your season.” I’m paraphrasing of course, but I digress. Johan Santana’s role as stopper gives these Mets exactly what those Mets – the 2007 Mets – needed. Unfortunately, all Santana can be is the stopper, somebody else needs to be the starter for the Mets’ final and decisive game of the season.
Bangor Daily News