MLB Preview #2: AL West

Oakland A's

Lineup
Mark Ellis 2b
Mark Kotsay CF
Eric Chavez 3b
Erubiel Durazo DH
Jermaine Dye RF
Bobby Kielty/Eric Byrnes LF
Scott Hatteberg 1B
Damian Miller C
Bobby Crosby SS
Rotation
Tim Hudson
Mark Mulder
Barry Zito
Mark Redman
Rich Harden
Kotsay and Kielty were nice pickups, although the A's already have enough Billy Beane-style outfielders. They could use a little more pop in the lineup, but they do have the pitching staff to go far with this lineup.

Seattle Mariners

Lineup
Ichiro RF
Randy Winn CF
Brett Boone 2b
Edgar Martinez DH
Raul Ibanez LF
Rich Aurilia SS
John Olerud 1b
Scott Spiezio 3b
Ben Davis/Dan Wilson C
Rotation
Freddy Garcia
Jamie Moyer
Joel Pineiro
Gil Meche
Ryan Franklin
This is a deep lineup, and once again Seattle carries three starting outfielders who could all play center. That has to be a pitcher's dream. Aurilia may not put up the numbers from a few years ago, but if he, Olerud, and Martinez put up good stats, there's no reason to complain about this lineup. That, and I'd probably trade Mike Cameron for Raul Ibanez any day. As for the rotation, Rock lookalike Garcia should be back to him old form this year, Moyer (an Elkhart native and Digger Phelps's son-in-law) will continue to confuse, and Pineiro, Meche, and Franklin will continue to be good young starters. The loss of Arthur Rhodes and Kaz Sasaki will mean that the bullpen is the only thing Seattle fans have to fear this year.

Anaheim Angels

Lineup
David Eckstein SS
Darrin Erstad 1b
Vlad Guerrero RF
Garrett Anderson CF
Troy Glaus 3b
Jose Guillen LF
Tim Salmon DH
Bengie Molina C
Adam Kennedy 2b
Rotation
Jarrod Washburn
Bart Colon
Kelvim Escobar
John Lackey
Ramon Ortiz
Aaron Sele
OK, there may be one thing better for a pitcher than having three center fielders in the outfielder, and that would be having 3 of the top 4 outfield arms playing behind you (Ichiro is the 4th). Oh, and they aren't too bad when it comes to hitting either. Add in Colon and Escobar, plus a lights out bullpen, and this is a team to watch this year.

Texas Rangers

Lineup
Mike Young 2b
Mark Teixeira 1b
Alex Rodriguez SS
Brian Jordan RF
Brad Fullmer DH
Hank Blalock 3b
Kevin Mench LF
Einar Diaz C
Laynce Nix CF
Rotation
Kenny Rogers
Colby Lewis
RA Dickey
Rich Rodriguez
Chan Ho Park
Joaquin Benoit
Ryan Drese
Kevin Mench has the largest head in baseball. Just thought I'd point that out. The lineup looks nice, adding Jordan and Fullmer. However, when I was looking at the starting rotation and came to "C. Lewis," even I couldn't figure out who that was. And this is their #2 starter. Once again, John Hart, you will need some pitching if you want to go somewhere.

ND Football News and Notes

B&G Illustrated is getting a little worried about Anthony Fasano's back problems. Of course, if he is hurt, this only means more time for Gary Godsey.
Eight Irish seniors were invited to the NFL comines, scheduled for February 28-March 4. This is a great list of names, as many are loved by most if not all members of this site. They are: kankasports HOF finalist Darrell Campbell, Vontez "I'm not 35, I swear" Duff, Glenn "Human Special Teams Big Play" Earl, Big Ced "blocking Mike's first Bookstore shot really wore me out" Hilliard, Julius, Jim Molinaro, Nick "Ellen loves me!" Setta, and Senator Courtney Watson. Good luck to all.

Other News and Ramblings

• Maybe it's just me, but with a name like Patrick Surtain, shouldn't this guy be playing LW for the Avalanche or something? (Surtain is a Dolphins DB).
• Drew Henson finally decided to quit baseball. But what about my lame running joke that the Yankees farm system is nothing more than Henson and Luis Sojo playing catch in Columbus? Fear not, for the Yankees have just signed Joe Girardi to a minor league deal. You can't make this up.
• Mo Clarrett is going pro. For once, I actually want to see Ray Lewis eschew a form tackle for a pointless helmet-to-helmet hit (and yes, I did use "eschew" and "helmet-to-helmet" in the same sentence).

KankaMatic Baseball Update

The more I think about this, the more I think I should be able to pull this off. I'll work out some of the details over the weekend to see if this really is possible, but until then, get ready for the draft. I'll probably start the draft around March 1 or so. There will be 40 rounds, since teams can hold up to 40 players. You only need 25 to have a team, so you may withdraw from the draft any time after the first round. Some notes on the draft:

• Each team must have at least 25 players, but no more than 40. 25 will be your active roster, and the remaining players will be your "AAA" roster. Their stats will not count, but you may call them up at any time (provided that someone is on the DL or you put someone on waivers).
• Each 25 man roster must consist of at least 10 pitchers and 10 position players.
• Of your position players, you must have at least one for each position, including the three outfield positions (LF, CF, RF). For a player to qualify for a position, they must have played at least 10 major league games at that position. Exception are made for rookies and cases like Jose Reyes (moving from SS to 2b). If you think you have another good exception, let me know.
• The pitching staff must have at least 5 starters. Looking at the categories (Wins, Saves, ERA, WHIP, K/9 (I changed this to make it more even)), there's no real advantage of having more relievers or more starters.
• You may carry DHs, but they are by no means necessary. In fact, they will actually hurt you when fielding stats are calculated.
• If you would like your team autodrafted, please let me know. To make things easier for me, I'll autodraft your team in this order: round 1 best pitcher available, round 2 best catcher, round 3 best pitcher, round 3 best 1b, round 5 best pitcher....
• For autodrafters, I will make one exception: if the player that is to be picked for your team is a member of another person's favorite team, I will skip them over for the next best pitcher. For example, if Ellen is autodrafting and it's time to pick a pitcher for her, and the best pitcher available is Mark Prior, I will skip him for the next person, giving Mike a chance to pick him. Of course, if someone who isn't autodrafting decides to take Prior between Ellen's turn and Mike's turn, well, that's tough luck for Mike. Of course, when it's time to autodraft and the person is on the autodrafter's favorite team (for instance, if it's Brittany's turn and Mark Prior comes up), then that player will go to the autodrafter. Since it appears that the Cubs are the only team with more than one fan, Mike would be at a disadvantage if Brittany decides to autodraft. Sorry, Mike.
• I'll use a little random number generator, similar to the quote generator in the top right of this page, to determine a draft order. Then, we'll snake each of the rounds. (unless you'd prefer to just snake the first two rounds and go in order the rest of the way).
• Here are the two options I could think of for the draft: me setting up the message board with the round number and person's name, then you reply to that name with your pick like this:
  Round one -post by Kanka
  Ellen -post by Kanka
  Don Mattingly -post by Ellen
  Dave -post by Kanka
  Mookie Wilson -post by Dave
  Mike -post by Kanka
  Ryne Sandberg -post by Mike
  Kanka -post by Kanka
  Joel Skinner -post by kanka
  The other option would be for each of you to give me a list of your top 60-75 names in order, and I'd use that to do the draft. Let me know what you think.
• In case you were wondering, I'll probably ago with these player rankings from ESPN.com or these from MLB.com.

I'll probably set up a separate site for KankaMatic baseball, and I'll give you more of the rules as I go along. Also, if you think of a good team name for yourself, pass it along to me.

OK, that's it for today. I put the link to Chad's site up on my list of links. Ellen, if you would like to tell Chad about this site, feel free. But, if you ask me, I think his site puts my writing to shame.

Transaction Wire

Blazers trade Sheed and Wesley Person for Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Theo Ratliff, and Dan Dickau. Portland continues to make changes - they're for the better personality-wise at least. Abdur-Rahim is decent from what I hear (I haven't followed the NBA much in the past few years). Dan Dickau (oh, so that's where he went!) will make his floppy-haired return to the west coast.
Yankees trade for Mike Lamb. The Rangers used to have two young generic infielders named Mike: Lamb and Mike Young. One was considered good, and the other terrible, even though their stats are virtually identical. Fortunately, I think the Yanks got the sucky one. As for the Rangers, with so much talent at 3rd in Hank Blalock and Mark Teixeira (and don't forget Herb Perry).
Mets sign Scott Erickson to a minor league deal. Erickson didn't play last year, assumedly due to injury. If he stays healthy, he'll eat some innings for the Mets. If not, at least he'll be there to mentor young'ns like Mike Bacsik and Aaron Heilman.
Red Sox sign Ellis Burks. The Red Sox will add to a deep bench (many players could start somewhere). Burks brings veteran leadership and a great clubhouse presence. He will unselfishly play anywhere in the batting order, and if his knees hold up he can handle the small left field.
MLB.com names Jose Reyes 10th best fantasy second baseman to have for the coming year.

Check out the AL West Preview tomorrow, and if you see any free baseball stat services, please let me know. One rambling to take you home: my sister Becky is an alternate for my HS's Academic Challenge team (or, as we called it when I was a member, our "Academically Challenged team"). It was a radio taping, and they were playing one of the local public high schools. When it came time for the players to talk about themselves, everyone was rattling of extra cirriculars like tennis and yearbook and computer club whatnot, until they got to a football player from the public HS. His little spiel ended this way: "My hobbies include playing Madden with my friends." You can't make this up.

ND Men Win Some, Lose Some

Francis, Quinn suffer injuries as Irish split weekend ESPN games

The Irish got out to an early lead against Pitt Saturday night. But after back injury for Torin Francis, the physical Panthers were once again too much for ND Men. Oh, by the way, there is a reason why Jaron Brown looks about 38 - he is actually old for college at 24 (which makes him older than most of the Cleveland Cavs).
On Monday night, the fight and heart finally came back to the Irish. Francis played for as long as he could. Once he was out, Tom Timmermans once again had a big game on the ESPN. Helping him were the Cornett(e)s, Rickfinally getting some well deserved playing time. Chris Quinn pulled a Willis Reed (remind me to look up what this refers to), coming back from an ankle injury. It didn't seem on the surface that he did much, but I'd much rather have an experienced ball handler in the backcourt than an inexperienced in Colin Falls. Chris Thomas didn't do too many stupid things, and as a result ended up with 31. The team played hard for 40 minutes, hit keys shots when they needed to, and shut down UConn when it mattered.
My favorite part of the weekend? If you flipped to ESPNews after the game, you would have seen the studio anchor and the three game announcers discussing whether or not the announcers were planning to stop by the Linbacker Lounge after the game. I know I would have been there.

Pro Bowl teams comine for 100+ points

Rule changes for game include "Don't play defense."

Ray Lewis is still and idiot, Mark Bulger may have just nailed the lid in Kurt Warner's coffin, and once again the Browns had no players in Hawai'i.
In case you missed it, Warner claims (and later retracted) that Rams assistants told him his performance is slipping because he spends too much time reading the Bible and not enough studying football. Good good.

RPI Update

The ND women lost to Seton Hall Sunday, falling from both polls and dropping to #13 in the RPI. Their current SOS is 4.
The ND men's 52nd ranked SOS and 10-9 record (as of Sunday) gives them an RPI ranking of 87.

Other News and Ramblings

• Ruth Riley was chosen to compete for one of the final 3 spots on the 2004 women's olympic team. According to UND.com, Swin Cash, Cheryle Ford, and Nikki Teasley. Four players and 3 spots? Pretty good odds there. Lisa Leslie is the only current center on the team, and Riley is the only center trying out (Cash and Ford are forwards in the 6'2, 6'3 range, as are several women already on the team).
• OK, I just saw one of the "Wassup" guys on a Dr. Scholl's "I'm gellin'" commercial. You can't make this up
• In case you missed it, the Patriots were able to get Bill Belichick to do a little "funky whiteness" at their Super Bowl parade. Amazing.
• Is it just me, or is Serena Williams quickly passing Anna Kournikova for "female tennis player most famous for not playing tennis."

That's it for today. Transaction wire tomorrow and AL West preview Thursday night, as I work on the KankaMatic project.
wassup scholls

Bonus Weekend Ramblings

• At the Cavs game the other day, no less than 3 songs played were from the Madden soundtrack. I was starting to wonder if maybe they were just playing Madden in the control room.
• A while back, Dick Vermeil offered kicker Morten Andersen, a wine enthousiast, a bottle of very expensive wine if he was to make a game winning kick. Well, this is considered a bonus not stipulated in Andersen's contract, which is a no-no. So, since Vermeil couldn't give Andersen his bottle of fine wine, Andersen's teammates chipped in and bought him a bottle of the Boone's. Chicks dig the Boone's.
• Over Christmas break, my sister bought a "Jesus is my Homeboy" shirt. I don't know what to say about this, but at least my 85 year old grandma was amused.

Transaction Wire

Pretty much a quiet week, except for the Pudge Rodriguez signing, but I covered that last week. Here's one, though:
Mets sign Shane Spencer. Spencer and Karim Garcia join the ranks of former Yankee/Indians turned mets, following in the fine footsteps of Alvaro Espinoza. Too bad Jeff Manto isn't on that list.

Baseball Preview #1: NL West

As will be my tradition, I'll give the starting lineup as I'd play them (not necessarily as the manager will play them), players who will be making the majority of the starts this year, and any comments that may come to mind.

Giants
Lineup
Ray Durham 2b
JT Snow 1b
Edgardo Alfonzo 3b
Barry Bonds LF
Michael Tucker/Dustan Mohr RF
AJ Pierzynski C
Marquis Grissom CF
Neifi Perez SS
Rotation
Josh Schmidt
Brett Tomko
Kirk Rueter
Jerome Williams
Jesse Foppert
Kevin Correia
Dustin Hermanson
This lineup doesn't exactly strike fear into the hearts of an AL fan, but the giants will find a way to get it done again. Tucker is overrated (mostly by himself), but playing him with Mohr will be aa decent combination. Pierzynski is a jerk and a crybaby, but a decent catcher nonetheless. Unfortunately, the Giants had to give up pitching prospect Boof Bonser to get him.

Dodgers
Lineup
Dave Roberts CF
Caesar Izturis 2b
Paul LoDuca C
Shawn Green RF
Juan Encarnacion LF
Robin Ventura/Bubba Trammell 1b
Adrian Beltre 3b
Alex Cora SS
Rotation
Hideo Nomo
Odalis Perez
Kaz Ishii
Darren Dreifort
Wilson Alvarez
Jeff Weaver
Andy Ashby
The Dodgers need offense... so they lost Brian Jordan (Rangers), Daryle Ward (Pirates), Jeromy Burnitz (Rockies), and Chad Hermansen (Blue Jays). Juan Encaracion will help. If Shawn Green hits like he did the year before, and Adrian Beltre finally hits like everybody expects him too, they'll do OK again. I'm also very interested in seeing how Jeff Weaver does. Hopefully he can relax and go back to his Detroit Tiger self, instead of pulling a near Rick Ankiel.

Diamondbacks
Lineup
Alex Cintron SS
Robbie Alomar 2b
Louis Gonzalez LF
Richie Sexson 1b
Shea Hillenbrand 3b
Steve Finley CF
Danny Bautista RF
Robby Hammock/Brent Mayne C
Rotation
Randy Johnson
Brandon Webb
Shane Reynolds
Casey Fossum
ElmerDessens
Steve Sparks
They lost Miguel Batista to the Blue Jays, but between Reynolds, Fossum, and their young pitchers, the rotation should be fine. The lineup can go one of two ways. Situation A: Alomar finds the rejuvenation machine, Gonzalez holds his numbers thanks to the addition of Sexson, Sexson picks up where he left off in Mil-ee-walk-ey, and Shea Hillenbrand continues to prove the OPS geeks wrong. Situation B: Alomar and the team start to suck and Alomar gets upset, Gonzalez continues to feel the effects of age, Sexson can't adjust to the new park, and Hillenbrand finally proves the baseball geeks right.

Rockies
Lineup
Clint Barnes SS
Jeromy Burnitz LF
Todd Helton 1b
Preston Wilson CF
Larry Walker RF
Charles Johnson C
Vinny Castillo 3b
Aaron Miles 2b
Rotation
Shawn Chacon
Shawn Estes
Joe Kennedy
Jason Jennings
Denny Stark
By the time the dust cleared, 41 different players had either left or joined the Rockies this offseason. The offense will do alright once again, except they're very lacking in the middle infield (2 or 3 guys with half a season's experience, and a few guys up from AA - that's it). I'd still like to see a few more doubles hitters in the lineup at the big-gapped Coors field. Look for another solid year from Preston Wilson. The Rockies don't have to many proven starters, which will definitely be a problem. Joe Kennedy was a good pickup, but going from Tampa Bay to Colorado can't be good for this kid.

Padres
Lineup
Ramon Vazquez/Khalil Greene SS
"Sweet" Mark Loretta 2b
Brian Giles CF
Phil Nevin 1b
Ryan Klesko LF
Ramon Hernandez C
Sean Burroughs/Jeff Cirillo 3b
Xavier Nady/Jay Payton/Terrence Long RF
Rotation
David Wells
Brian Lawrence
Ismael Valdes
Jake Peavy
Adam Eaton
Akinori Otsuka?
Sterling Hitchcock
This isn't a bad team, if they stay healthy (ok, ok, when they get hurt). I'd even say this lineup is better than San Francisco's. Vazquez was the starting shortstop last year, so he'll probably be the starter again this year. I just wanted to point out Khalil Greene, though. Remember Steve Stanley's senior year, when Stanley was #2 in the nation in hitting, and finished #3 in career hits? Well, take Stanley, move him to shortstop, and make him #1 in hitting and #2 in career hits. That's who Khalil Greene is. Someone to watch. Jay Payton isn't a terrific pickup, but you can't expect to play Brian Giles in center every day. Payton/Giles will be a more than acceptable substitution for the loss of Mark Kotsay. The rotation is OK but not great. Otsuka is from Japan, and I'm not sure whether or not he's a starter. I also haven't heard anything about his acting career. The Beck/Hoffman combination will make the pen decent as well. It'd be nice to see just one year when everyone on the Padres stayed healthy, but good luck with that.

Next week: AL West

Random Kanka Family Discussion

For religion class, my sister Becky was learning about what's valuable in life. The assignment was to list 10 things you would want to take with you if the house caught on fire. My comment was, "a coat, because it's cold outside." My dad one-upped me though. Standing right next to my mom, his comment was, "my tape of the Super Bowl half time show."

Cavs Lose to Lakers in OT

At least I get a free chalupa

Well, now I know why Shaq was so upset with refs the other day. Apparently, they weren't letting him get away with murder. Well, fortunately for Shaq, the refs last night made up for that. I was in the second to the last row (technically. the last row doesn't go all the way around, so I was still up against the back wall), but I could still see Shaq wrapping around with the forarm and getting "fouled" by Zydrunas Ilgauskas and DeSagana Diop. (Devon George would've made Michael Jordan proud with all the pushing off he did, but that's another story). Well, the Cavs played well, and they're becoming a good team. When Tony Battie and Rueben Boumtje Boumtje are healthy again, there will be 4 legitimate centers on the team, which is 2 more legit centers than the rest of the Eastern Conference combined. Other highlights:

• Carlos Boozer is a great, hard working player. I'm almost starting to wonder how Ryan Humphrey (Ellen loves him!) was able to contain him).


• First a UNC game, then a Lakers game. I sure am getting sick of bandwagon fans by now. Anyone have Yankees tickets?


• A local rap group performed at the end of the first quarter. One of the guys wore a wine and gold Cavs throwback. From where we were sitting, I commented that it looked like a Dominique Wilkens era Hawks jersey. My friend Matt's response: "Must be a costume malfunction.


• Ton Loc, rap pioneer famous for the song "Wild Thing," performed at halftime. Unfortunately, a microphone problem caused him to be booed. He kept yelling to the guy at the mixer "Turn it up!" - meaning the microphone - but apparently, the mixer guy thought he was just trying to fire up the crowd. Good good.


• That LeBron James guy is going to be pretty good. The funny thing is, I keep expecting him to do Chris Thomas-esque things, but he seems to have his head on straight. It does seem, though, that lately he is shooting more in situations where he would pass before. Maybe it's just confidence in himself. Who knows.

Tom Pagna and Bob Best's Era of Ara

A solid book that takes you from Ara's playing days at MiamiU, to a short stint with the Cleveland Browns, and then through his coaching career. Written circa 1974, Ara's resignation is a continuing theme in the book. Still, an interesting look at Ara the man, the changing times that were 1964-1974, and a few pretty good football teams. By the way, the most losses Ara ever had in a season at ND was 3.

Well, that's it for this week. Happy belated National Signing Day. I know this is Dave's favorite holiday; mine will be in a few weeks. Be sure to check out NDNation for links to and discussions of the ND football class of 2008.

Givens goes from Catholic Disney World to Real Disney World

That Brady guy from scUM does pretty well too

Ellen makes a good point: whenever there isn't a standout performance for a winning Super Bowl team, the MVP usually goes to its QB. That's why I wanted Givens to get that second TD catch, so he'd have a legitimate shot at MVP. It probably would've taken 3 TD catches, though, to beat out Brady for MVP. Plus, Givens was one of three New England receivers to have a good day. Deion Branch had 10 catches for 143 yards, and Troy Brown quietly caught 8 for 76. Antowain Smith rushed for 83 yards, so it was a good all-around day for the Patriot offense.
The Panther pass offense also had a good day. When you have good receivers, as Carolina does, all you have to do is get it to them, which any NFL-worthy QB can do (just as any NBA player can get 15 points given enough minutes). Jake Delhomme is obviously NFL-quality QB, and he got the ball to his receivers when he needed to. All he needed was a line to block for him. They had trouble at the start of each half, and as a result Carolina kept getting stopped on 3rd down. But, late in the halves, the line held and Delhomme got the ball to Muhammad, Smith, and Proehl.
The last few Super Bowls have been some of the best ever played, and this one definitely lived up to the standards of its recent predecessors. We got inpenetrable defense followed by offenses that couldn't stop scoring, and then the second half started and the same thing happened all over again! The Panthers couldn't run, their DLine couldn't stop the run, the Patriots couldn't punt, Fox went for 2 too early, Vinatieri couldn't buy a field goal... until it really counted. What a game.
David Givens finished the playoffs with 7 catches for 163 yards and 2 TDs.

The Commercials

The commercials were built up big time this year. Some commercials even had teasers, and the Jimi Hendrix commercial was actually shown in its entirety the night before. With all that buildup, of course this year was a little disappointing. The "Simpsons" commercial was good, as was the ref getting chewed out. Everyone liked the donkey one, and it was OK, but Bud has done better. Unfortunately, Cederic the Entertainer may have jumped the shark with this last one. Anyone want to see Starsky and Hutch with me this spring?

Halftime

Some notes:

• I now know why I don't usually watch the Super Bowl half time show.


• There quickly came a painful realization that some these "stars" haven't had a hit in a few years.


• The American flag is not to be worn as clothing ever - especially when you have to cut a slit in the middle to wear it.


• Justin Timberlake is a tool. Water is wet. Scovil is tall. It's old news. This has been played out, so I won't go into it here.

Jones wins Capital One Challenge

Teammate Rutherford comes back strong in win

Further impressing pro scouts, Julius Jones helped take home the Capital One All Star Challenge trophy. Teammate Rod Rutherford of Pitt, filling in for the announced John Navarre, started slow and finished last in the moving target competition. This meant Julius went first in the obstacle course. Going first on the wet turf, he took it a little carefully. Fortunately, receivers Roy Williams of Texas and Reggie Williams of Washington took it even more gingerly and finished behind Jones. Chris Perry went last and won the event, but had Julius not gone first, he may have won this one. Next up was the throwing distance competition. The catch was that the pass had to land on a "landing strip" target. J-Lo (Jared Lorenzen of Kentucky) went first and missed both times. Rutherford went next and hit both times. Casey Claussen of Tennessee was next. He hit the target the first time, but just barely. Knowing he'd have to put more on his second throw, he ended up missing the target. Chris Perry's teammate Jeff Smoker missed the target twice, and although their team was leading the whole way, Rutherford and Jones were now within 4 points. The last event consisted of the receiver/running back running through a course that simulated pass patterns, and stopping at 5 different spots to turn around and catch the pass. Jones was the only player to catch all 5 balls. Since this was the only event where points scored counted towards the final score (all other events awarded 10 points for first, 8 for second, 7 for 3rd, and 6 for 4th), Smoker/Perry and Rutherford/Jones ended tied for first. The tiebreaker was points scored in the last event. Once again, Jones was the only player to make all five catches (taking his time helped), so the trophies went to Julius and Rod Rutherford.

Another great site

Be sure to check out Misha Tseytlin's Blog, one of the links in the right column. He talks about sports, offers Madden 2004 tips, and discusses politics. Also, he has been nice enough to link to this site, a move that opens both of our pages to more readers.

ND Women's Basketball 23 in AP Poll, 12 in RPI

ND Men? Not so good

The Irish women have won five straight, including wins over #17 Miami and #23 BC. Their 13-7 record, coupled with a #3 strength of schedule, has earned the women's team a #12 RPI ranking.
The men's team has combined a 10-7 record with the 73rd strongest schedule and comes out with a #82 ranking in the latest RPI. Coach Mike Brey is planning on moving Chris Thomas to a 2 guard in an attempt to shake things up. This is February, which means March Madness is next month, so this team better get its act together soon.

I'll be at the Cavs-Lakers game tomorrow, so the next post will come Thursday. Because I actually spent the past few days not sitting in front of a computer, the baseball preview has been delayed a little bit. Transaction wire and Era of Ara will definitely be on the agenda for this week.

Super Bowl XXXVIII Preview

We'll start with the Panthers having the ball. Carolina's pass game is slightly below average, and New England's pass D is middle-of-the-pack, surprisingly (at least as far as YPG go). The trick for the Patriots is a bend but don't break mentality. They lead the league in fewest passing TDs, most INTs, and are 6th in sacks. The Panthers will be able to move the ball a little due to the run game and their receivers Steve Smith and Mushin Muhammad, but as everyone knows, the big question is how Jake Delhomme handles the Pats' D. On the ground, Stephen Davis will lead the charge against a stellar Pats run D. Once again, bend but don't break is the mentality. New England will give up first downs, but they have only given up 2 ground gains of 20+ yards this year. If Davis gets it going, the OLine gains confidence, and DeShaun Foster will benefit from that. Everyone will be looking forward to great run offense vs. great run defense, which probably means Carolina will pass a lot just to tick everyone off.
When the Patriots have the ball, the OLine will have to protect for Tom Brady. Mike Trgovac's DLine is a great one, and they'll get a few hits in. It'll be up to Troy Brown, David Givens, and Larry Centers to get open and hang on to the ball (and Bethel Johnson. He's such a nice receiver.). On the ground, things can get tricky. If the Patriots prove early that they can't establish the run, Carolina can sit back and look pass. I have a feeling, though, that the Pats will be just effective enough with the run to get the job done.
On to special teams. Edge in the field position game goes to the Panthers, as a good Carolina punt team faces an average Pats retun team, and a decent Panthers return team faces a mediocre punter in New England's Ken Walter (considered by some to be the team's biggest weakness). The kick return units cancel each other out, as New England's fine return team faces a Panthers team that is very stingy in yards given up on runbacks. When the Pats are kicking to the Panthers, both units fall into the "good but not great" category. The man to watch here, of course, is Rod Smart. Both placekickers are good ones (the uberclutch Adam Vinatieri and the playoff's leading FG kicker John "Cousin Sal" Kasay. Both will play a big part in this game.

Look for a big game from: both kickers, Givens, He Hate Me, the Panthers DLine, and the Pats Secondary

The Final:
Patriots 23 (TDs by Givens and Antowain Smith and three FGs by Vinatieri. And yes, this did say 22 before. I forgot to take into account the fact I suck at math.)
Panthers 16 (a Smith TD and 3 Kasay FGs. Yes, this did say 4 FGs before. Wow have I been out of school for a long time.)

MVP: Givens. Why? Because this is my site and I went to school with him.

Transaction Wire Part Deux

Yankees sign Tyler Houston. Wow, you know the market is hurting when this is the best guy the Yankees can get to play third. Or maybe everyone has finally wised up and realize that the Yankees are evil. Or, (here we go, this is it) maybe Brian Cashman is trying to get fired so he doesn't have to see the Brian Cashman face on Sportscenter every night.
Tigers make an offer to Pudge Rodriguez. Last year when he signed with the Marlins, no one thought it was a good idea, since Rodriguez was terrible with handling young pitchers. He did OK, but if the Tigers don't win this year (and they won't - Rondell White, Fernando Vina, and Pudge aren't the answer), Rodriguez won't be happy, and that means he'll be out the door by the trade deadline. He did OK hitting in a pitchers/doubles park last year, so he'll theoretically do alright again this year. He won't be great offensively in the AL, however, but he will do better than Mendoza line sitters Brandon Inge and Mike DiFelice.

NL West preview and Era of Ara coming up. Enjoy the weekend, Julius and the All Star Challenge, the commercials, and the game.

Transaction Wire

Nets fire Byron Scott. Interesting. Head coach can't get along with best player, so fire head coach. Not too bad an idea, I suppose, and a player like Jason Kidd is worth it if this gets him to stick around for a few more years. Sadly, though, Eastern Conference Head Coach has joined the ranks of NFL kicker for least job security in a pro sport.
Mo Vaughn retires. Things weren't the same since he left Boston, but that should've been expected considering his swing was made for Fenway. With a nasty uppercut and an incredible fatness, a pitcher's park like Shea is the last place you want to be. By finally realizing what we've known for a few years now (that his career is over), Vaughn opens up a roster spot for a rebuilding Mets ballclub. Of course, that spot immediately went to Todd Zeile, who is passible as veteran leadership and a right handed bat off the bench.
Aaron Boone pulls a Shea Ralph. "Now batting for the Yankees... third base... Enrique Wilson. Wilson." Good good. The Boones were once a proud baseball family, but now Bret is a walking steroid joke, and Aaron is once again the human leg injury. But wait, couldn't Todd Zeile take his spot? Well, let's see what Zeile has to say about that.
Indians minor leaguer Kazuhito Tadano becomes the new Paris Hilton. I don't even want to comment on this.
Jesse Orosco retires. Satchel Paige and Minnie Minoso both breathe sighs of relief (and none of my readers understand why).
Cubs sign Ryan Dempster. Yet another young Marlins pitcher with arm problems. If he stays healthy (note: on this site, "if he stays healthy" means, well, he won't) he has a chance to be a decent number 5 guy. We'll see how that goes.
Blue Jays resign Roy Halladay. Get ready once again for sports people to pull out the old phrase "the best fill in the blank you've never heard of."
Red Sox resign BK Kim with intent to move him to starter. Yes, the BoSox do need a few more good starters, but the rap on Kim is that he's never effective after you've faced him once or twice in a game. Of course, Kim's the one who wants to be a starter, so let's see how this experiment goes. Remember, this guy's only thrown three bad pitches in his life, he just picked a really bad time for them.

My dad's explanation for his beer gut

"I heard people talking about 6 pack abs, and I thought you got them by drinking 6 packs of beer."

Jones to Perform in All-Star Challenge

No, this won't get him kicked out of Morrissey

Julius Jones has been selected to compete in the 2004 Capital One College Football All-Star Challenge on Sunday, February 1, at 12:30 eastern on FOX. At the challenge, 4 QB-back/receiver combos compete in skill competitions. Jones will be paired up with either MSU's Jeff Smoker, Tennessee's Casey Claussen, Kentucky's Jared "Get in mah bellay!" Lorenzen or John "Lance Storm" Navarre. The other receivers and back are Texas's Roy Williams, UDub's Reggie Williams, and Chris Perry. My personal hope is that they're a pie eating contest between Lorenzen and Claussen.

Look for the Super Bowl preview tomorrow, and I should have the NL West preview up some time this weekend. Also look out soon for my book report on Pagna/Best's Era of Ara.

Jones Leading Rusher for North

Campbell, Watson trade series in Senior Bowl Loss

That's right, Julius Jones was the leading rusher for the North Squad in their 28-10 loss in this year's Senior Bowl. Jones rushed 4 times for 8 yards, leading the team in both categories, as the North needed to go to the air to play catch up for most of the game.
Darrell Campbell had 2 tackles, one for a loss, while playing both defensive tackle and defensive end. Courtney Waston played middle linebacker and special teams and recorded one pass breakup.

Too Little, Too Late, as ND Men Fall to Kentucky 71-73

Improved Effort on Defense Isn't Enough Against #8 Team

When the ND Men's Basketball team releases their "year in review" tape, it should be called "Too Little Too Late." Once again, a late run against a good team couldn't quite make up for a sluggish start.
I'll give Kentucky a lot of credit on the defensive end. Despite being undersized, they were able to swarm to the ball in the low post, and completely shut down Torin Francis. On the offensive side of the ball, athleticism won out over height, as the Wildcat frontcourt was able to maneuver around the Irish big men instead of going up strong.
When the Irish had the ball, there wasn't much to watch. Torrian Jones did a nice job of slashing to the basket a few times. But, with Francis shut down and the outside game gone cold, ND struggled. "Listless," I believe, is a good word to use. Too much standing around. Where are the backdoor cuts? Do something to get someone open down low! Adjust to what the defense is doing!
On D, the Irish have improved in the hustle department a little. They did outrebound UK 38-31, and for once I didn't see any 15 foot offensive rebounds coming off free throws.
Notes on individual performances: Colin Falls has become the token "hustle" guy. He runs around like a man possessed, always swarming to the loose balls and rebounds. He's becoming fun to watch, even though it isn't looking right now like he'll be the second coming of Matt Carroll. Once again, I have a beef with Chris Thomas. Several times, he went all out for a steal in the backcourt, letting his guy get completely by him. Then, he just lollygags back, giving the opponent an automatic power play! I'll quote John Wooden from the recent IBM Linux commercials: "A player that makes the team great is more valuable than a great player." Don't make your teammates do more work just because you want to make a weak attempt at quick personal glory. Oh, and slowing down so you can dunk only to let the defensive guy catch up with you on a steal? Brilliant. Should Thomas jump to the NBA next year. Let's go to this replay courtesy my dad and me:
Me: "Well, he shoots 30% and doesn't play defense."
Dad: "Well, then, he's ready for the NBA."

Random Rambling: Why I shouldn't be allowed to pick the first two songs for my wedding reception

If I were to marry Ellen, our first dance together would definitely be to the classic "I've Grown Accustomed to Your Face."
And, for the first dance with the parents, I'd definitely go with "Que Sera Sera."
"When I was just a little boy
I asked my mother, what will I be
Will I be handsome, will I be rich
Here's what she said to me.
Que Sera, Sera,
Whatever will be, will be"
(ok, so you have to think about this one a little. Think along the lines of "I asked my mother if I would be handsome, and she couldn't give me a straight answer.")

Thoughts on Jayson Stark's Column on Bud Selig

I just watched Eigth Men Out the other day, and in ESPN Classic's analysis, someone made the point that the comissioner has always been the lackey of the owners, so this could be interesting.

1. Wild cards, more playoffs, interleague play. No, no, and no. OK, the Wild Card isn't so bad, since it gives a team like the Red Sox a chance to make the playoffs playing in a good divison. It wouldn't be to fair to say that the Twins deserved a spot in the playoffs more than they did. As for the expanded playoffs, I personally don't mind playing baseball in November, but I understand that for some people November weather seems a little cold. I'll let it slide since it means more baseball. Interleague play? Well, I finally get to see my team employ the strategy of playing without a DH, but what Bud forgets is that they're supposed to be two separate leagues. That's why there's rule differences, and two different league presidents, and the stats don't carry over. These aren't conferences, they're leagues. Arena Football is not part of the NFL, but the Federal League was a major league. There's a difference, let's keep it that way.


2. The Schedule: The "unbalanced schedule" is forced parity. Teams play schedules of unequal strength in an attempt to level the playing field. This is stupid. Stark points out that it lets division contenders play each other many times in September, but let's look a little closer at that. The Indians and Twins were supposed to be 2 of the AL Central contenders last year, and they did meet several times in September, but their first meeting wasn't until right before the All Star Break. Teams are very streaky in baseball, you have to play them at different times of the year to get the full effect.


3. Attendance and Ballparks: Attendance is up, but this is mostly due to gimmicks (which, as we know, do not pull the train). Most gimmicks are included in #1 above, but the greatest perhaps is the owners' latest get rich scheme. Jon Hart had a great idea for the Indians in the early '90s. A new park was on the way, and he decided to trade away some of the Tribe's older, more beloved players for some young hot prospects. When Jacob's Field opened, Carlos Baerga, Joey (Albert) Bell, Sandy Alomar and Charlie Nagy were just starting to hit their primes. Plus, there were a few newcomers by the names of Jim Thome and Manny Ramirez. So, the team was good for the first time in ages, and when you couple that with a new ballpark, attendance soared. Other owners saw this and though, "oh, if we build a new ballpark, people will start selling out every game, I'll make tons of money, and we'll automatically become good." Unfortunately, that's not how it works, as places like Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and Milwaukee (hmm... own by the Seligs) learned.


4. Globalizing the game: This is a great thing, but I wouldn't give Selig the credit for it. It's the GMs, and owners, and scouts who did it. Plus, once one guy goes, many follow (Ichiro, El Duque, etc)

1. Labor: This is strictly owners vs. players. And the next time you want to complain about how much money baseball players make, just remember that owners make a whole lot more for doing a whole lot less. (That, and many "small market" owners pocket the money they receive to help their ballclub.)


2. Style and Image: All the other major sports comissioners are liked, as far as I know, so I can't say he wins this one.


3. Owner unanimity: OK, great, so he has the owners all teamed up together. Well, baseball isn't about unathletic guys in suits (except at the winter meetings, or maybe when Don Zimmer or John Kruk make an appearance at the ESPYs). You don't want these guys too powerful, especially the baseball-illiterate ones who only care about making a buck.


4. Milwaukee as the center of the baseball universe: Hey, everybody says my team plays like an NL team, let's move them to the NL! Hey, let's contract the Twins so all their fans become our fans! Hey, let's take a team that was great with Paul Molitor and Robin Yount and make them sucky! Hey, I (or my daughter) still own this team, let's have every decision I make benefit us!

And one thing not mentioned: contraction. Let's add 4 teams during my tenure, then take 2 away. While we're at it, why not include one of the most history-rich franchises ever? (the Philadelphia-Kansas City-Oakland A's) Not a good idea, especially for the Twins and A's, and thank God it's been forgotten about

Random Rambling #2

Thank God for the on screen guides that come with digital cable. Friday was AFC playoff classics day on ESPN Classic, and hadn't I been careful, I would have tuned into The Drive, and later The Fumble, both within hours of each other. No so good.

Cavs Commercial Gets it Right

Here's the latest Cavs commercial for Fox Sports Ohio: a set of twins are joined at the finger, and one decides to become an absolutely obnoxious fan who jumps on every bandwagon available. In this instance, he's a Lakers fan. But, the other twin remains a Cavs fan, and he is rewarded. The "moral" of this commercial: with Fox Sports Ohio, you can be a true fan and watch your hometown team, instead of watching all the bandwagon favorites on some national channel. Very nice.

OK, hopefully that's enough for today. We'll have the Transaction Wire tomorrow and a Super Bowl preview Thursday. Also, inspired by the first Baseball Tonight of the season that was on last week, I'll start a division-by-division look at the upcoming baseball season. Here's the proposed order (and why that order makes sense to me):
NL West (no current KankaNation fans)
AL West (one quasi-Seattle fan)
AL East (one bandwagon Yankmees fan)
NL East (one Mets fan)
NL Central (two Cubs fans and a Pirates fan)
AL Central (this is technically an ND AND Cleveland sports site)

Campbell Joins Senior Bowl Roster

Earl Visits to Interview with Scouts

UND.com is reporting that KankaNation Hall of Fame Finalist Darrell Campbell will be playing in today's Senior Bowl, today at 4pm eastern on ESPN. ESPN is also reporting that Glenn Earl also visited practices to talk with NFL teams.

I'll write a little about Bud Selig next week, but for now let's have some fun...

ND Fantasy Coaching Staff

The stipulation: create the ideal coaching staff for ND, consisting of people who theoretically would and could coach the team (in other words, they're still alive and they have some ties to the team, such as being a former coach or player). Some of these are a stretch, so by all means give me your thoughts.
Head Coach: Ara Parseghian. Not only did he bring home two National Championships, but he never had a team that lost more than 2 games. Not bad for someone taking over for a 2-7 team.
Offensive Coordinator: Lou Holtz. The latest head coach to bring a championship to Our Lady's University, he recently took over the offense at South Carolina.
QB Coach: Jon Gruden. The only person on the list never to play or coach at ND. Qualifications: could you win a Super Bowl with Brad Johnson? Assistants: Tom Clements, QB of the '73 team, was QB coach for the Steelers until his recent hire as OC at Buffalo; Joe Montana, just because.
RB Coach: Tom Pagna. He was Ara's backfield coach before becoming a longtime voice of the Irish. Currently works at the Notre Dame Football Fanasy Camp. Assistants: John Lattner, '53 Heisman winner and also a coach at the camp; Hank Stram, who was a backfield coach at ND in the 50s before becoming a legendary coach for the Kansas City Chiefs.
Receivers Coach: Urban Meyer. Held the same position while he was here with Bob Davie. After reviving the Bowling Green (not a state) program, he is currently enjoying similar success at Utah. Assistant: Rocket Ismail - although he will be missed for his hilarious insight on College Gameday.
TE Coach: Andy Heck. Converted from TE to tackle under Lou Holtz. Currently serves as U. of Virginia's OLine coach and also makes appearances at the ND Fantasy Camp. Assistant: Dave Casper - one of my favorite "Oh yeah, he went to ND" players, he had a fine NFL career with the Raiders and Oilers.
OLine Coach: Gerry DiNardo. A guard on the '73 team. After a successful XFL coaching stint, he is currently the head coach of the IU Hoosier(oon)s. Assitant: Dusty Ziegler, recently retired from the New York Giants.
Defensive Coordinator: Joe Yonto. See yesterday's HOF writeup if you have any doubts about his credentials.
DLine Coach: Yonto. Assistants: Mike Trgovac, assistant coach/DLine coach under Lou from '92-'94, was the Carolina Panther DLine coach before being promoted to DC this past year (I'd say he's doing a pretty good job); Greg Mattison - Ellen loves him.
LB Coach: Barry Alvarez. Was DC/LB coach under Lou Holtz from '87-'89. Has been head coach at Wisconsin since. Assistant: Bob Golic - although a nose tackle in the pros, he was a middle linebacker while at ND.
DB Coach: Ty Willingham. Hey, we had to put him somewhere. I thought about making him the RB Coach, as he was before he became the head coach of Stanford, but then I remembered his philosophy on fullbacks ("first a receiver, second a blocker, third a runner"). Willingham began his coaching career as a Secondary Coach. Assistants: Jim Johnson, secondary coach and later DC under Dan Devine and Gerry Faust, and currently DC for the Philadelphia Eagles (although that may not be much of a compliment); Dick Lynch, a HB at ND before becoming a great DB for the New York Giants (also a fired up ND alum who is loved by Ellen).
Special Teams: Davie. Hey, it's the one thing he got right. Assistant: Ismail.

OK, that was fun, and remember, it's just a rough draft, very open to discussion. Time for more fun, completely unrelated to this list:

ND Alumni Fantasy NFL Starters

QB: Steve Beuerlein, with backups Rick Mirer and Jarius Jackson.
RB: Jerome Bettis, with 3rd down back Tony Fisher and backup Autry Denson.
FB: Marc Edwards, backed up by Tom Lopienski and Joey Goodspeed (or we could just go jumbo with Bettis, Edwards, and Lopienski in the backfield).
WR: Tim Brown and David Givens, the latter of which enjoying a very good season. 3rd receiver is Javin Hunter, and Arnaz Battle comes in for 4 receiver sets.
TE: John Owens, with Jabari Holloway and Dan O'Leary for the big sets.
T: Luke Petitgout (Ellen loves him) and Mike Rosenthal, with Jordan Black, Brennan Curtin, and Kurt Vollers backing up (what a trio).
G: Mike Gandy and Sean Mahan. That's it, according to ESPN's list.
C: I'll give Jeff Faine the nod over Tim Ruddy, just because I can.
DT: Bryant Young and Lance Legree, backed up by Jim Flanigan, Paul Grasmanis, and Oliver Gibson.
DE: Ahhhh, Mistah Weavah! and Bert Berry, although I think Berry mave have been moved to DT. Backups are Grant "Fo Weel Dog?" Irons and Reynaldo Wynn.
LB: Rocky Boiman and Tyreo Harrison. Hmm... maybe we'll use a 5-2, or use a lot of Nickel.
CB: Jeff "Lead With the Helmet" Burris and Bobby Taylor, Nickel Back Shane Walton, Dime Back Deveron Harper, and Brock "I don't need a 5th year" Williams.
S: Deke Cooper and Shawn Wooden, backed by Gerome Sapp and Ron Israel.
K: John Carney.
P: Craig Hentrich.
H: Hunter Smith.
PR/KR: Allen Rossum and Battle.

ND Senior Player News

Julius Jones and Courtney Watson are headed to the Senior Bowl, this Saturday at 5pm Eastern on the ESPN. Scouts are saying that Watson has "good size and [is a] tough, aggressive player," but it doesn' t look like he has "the athleticism or speed to become much more than [a] backup and special teams player in the NFL." I agree. What happened to his athleticism. This is a guy famous for an interception/fumble run back last year, and this year he's huffing and puffing on a run back against Syracuse. Does anyone know what happened?
Julius is considered the best receiver out of the backfield there, which speaks wonders for a) his improvement catching the ball since the beginning of the season and b) the receiving ability of ND's backs, since Grant and Wilson are considered the best receivers, and Schmidt is just amazing. The scouts think he's a little small, but at 5'10" he's about Tiki Barber's size and much stronger. One scout said he wouldn't be surprised if Julius went as high as the third round with his hands and return ability. (Is it bad that I'm hoping the Browns lose both their 3rd down back and their kick returner to free agency just so we can pick Julius up?)
Darrell Campbell and Ced Hilliard are slated to play in The Villages Gridiron Classic, Saturday the 31st at Noon Easter on ESPN. On most draft reports, these two usually show up as 5th to 7th rounders, and it seems to be a toss-up as to who is better. The one exception is a lone Packers fan who did a complete mock draft and seems to think that Darrell will go in the 3rd round to Seattle.
Not seeking 5th years are Garron Bible, further weakening our secondary, and the much-maligned Ronny Rodamer, who may or may not transfer to the University of Montana (or so hope fans of the Griz). I'll see if I can pull strings with my contacts in the UofM athletic department to see what's going on.
No word yet on the decision for Gary Godsey's sixth year, although a ruling was due last Tuesday.
To see those reportedly seeking 5th years, click here. (rivals.com)

Well, that should keep you occupied for a while. I'll try to get a Super Bowl preview out next week, in the in-depth style I used for ND previews. I'll tell you right now, though, that the winning team will be the Pa

The Class of 2004

Well, we only had 4 ballots returned, but it was still enough to make Snoop Dogg, Bill Simmons, Gary Godsey, and Coach Joe Yonto the inaugural class of the kankasports.blogspot.com KankaNation Hall of Fame.

Snoop Dogg: Simply famous for being cool, he is the most recognized rapper of his generation.
Bill Simmons: Revolutionized sports writing (and the way many men talk and think) with his column on Page 2. Inspired many knock-off sites such as this one.
Gary Godsey: He Beat Purdue. Twice. Nowadays, is more or less famous just for being Gary Godsey.
Coach Yonto: National Championships follow him everywhere: he was an injured member of the B team for ND's '46 championship, Assistant D-Line coach in '66, D-Line coach in '73, Defensive Coordinator in '77, and retired in '87, the year before Lou Holtz lead the Irish to the title. Also well known for his thoughts on gimmicks and locomotives.

Here's how the voting went down (out of 4 ballots, 4 votes required):
Snoop Dogg 4
Bill Simmons 4
Gary Godsey 4
Coach Yonto 4
Joe Namath 2
Kanka 2
Darrell Campbell 2
Elizabeth Hasselbeck 1
Joe Horn's cell phone 1
Jody Gerut 1
the KankaManiacs 1
the other Manning brother 1
DJ Fitzpatrick 1
Dick Lynch 1
the creator of Happy Days (and hence "jump the shark") 1

The Weekend in Review

NFL
Colts/Patriots: A textbook case study of the Peyton Manning face. Every expletive in the book. Every emotion from "are you kidding me?" to "why did I do that?" to "not again." New England was able to shut down the Colt receivers, taking their chances with Marcus Pollard. They made the right choice. This game is a lesson learned from John Hart and the Indians of the mid-90s: no matter how high-powered your offense is, the good all-around team will always win.
Panthers/Eagles: Defense wins championships. We should have seen that coming. The injury to McNabb surely didn't help, but that wasn't the Eagles main problem on Sunday. Carolina just wanted it more. The Panthers were making the hard hits, going out for the tough catches, and fighting for the extra yards. The Eagles, on the other hand, had players like James Thrash olé at passes over the middle and Deuce Staley dance out of bounds a yard short of the first down marker. Freddy Mitchell was one of the few guys fighting hard for that team. In the end, the Panthers had much more heart and determination, and when you combine that with their talent, you get a free trip to Houston.

ND in the Playoffs Update
Baltimore
Javin Hunter DNP, injured
Gerome Sapp DNP?
Anthony Weaver 1 game, 3 Tackles
Denver
Bertrand Berry: 1 Game, 1 Tackle, 1 Assist
Steve Beuerlein: DNP, injured
Jarious Jackson: DNP
Indianapolis
Tom Lopienski: 3 Games, 1 Catch, 2 yrds Rec, 1 TD
Hunter Smith: 3 Games, 1 Punt, 55 yards, 1 heads up play on the safety
New England
David Givens: 2 Games, 12 Catches, 94 yrds Rec, 1 TD
Kansas City
Jordan Black: 1 Game?
Tennessee
Rocky Boiman: 2 Games, 1 Tackle, 1 Assist
Craig Hentrich: 2 Games 6 Punts, 44.7 Average, 63 Long, 4 Inside 20
Carolina
no players
Dallas
Kurt Vollers: 1 Game
Green Bay
Brennan Curtin: 2 Games?
Tony Fisher: 2 Games, 2 Rushes, 9 yrds Rush, 4 Catches, 25 yrds Rec
Philadelphia
Jim Flanigan: ?
Paul Grasmanis: Injured, DNP
Tyreo Harrison: DNP?
Bobby Taylor: 2 Games, 7 Tackles
Seattle
no players
St Louis
Jeremy Akers: 1 Game?
Joey Goodspeed: 1 Game, 1 Catch, 9 yrds Rec
Shane Walton: DNP?

ND Men's Basketball
Well, they lead the whole way to beat VPI Tuesday, but let's talk about that Syracuse game that was on TV. Tom Timmermans deserves all the talk he got from the announcers. Why? He (and maybe Colin Falls) was the only guy showing any semblance of hustle out there! I mean, I watch the Cavs, a mediocre NBA team, and they even box out! A very winnable ball game...

Transaction Wire

Hot off the presses! Cavs trade Darius Miles to Portland (you can't make this up!) for PG Jeff McInnis and center Ruben Boumtje Boumtje! I wish I were kidding. Miles missed practice the other day. He apparently overslept, and when he didn't answer his phone, the Cavs sent the police to check on him. A posse member answered the door, and Miles explained the situation. I don't think this incident is in any way related to the trade. The Cavs need depth at PG, especially since LeBron is becoming overworked. McInnis is a solid, starter-quality ball handler who doesn't turn the ball over. RBB is the question. The Cavs are already fairly deep at center with Ilgauskas, Battie, and Diop, although Ilgauskas and Diop are injury prone. Hopefully this is a sign that the east's best center (scoring-wise, anyway) is about to be traded away. If you would like to see me wearing a Boumtje Boumtje Cavs jersey the next time I visit campus, feel free to send donations to...
Rockie sign "El Presidente." Coming of arm surgery and a bad 2003, Turk Wendell isn't making his situation any better by coming to Coors Field. At least he still hates the Yankees.
Several more Gammons-esque names were involved this week, plus the Giants made many assistant coaching hires, but unfortunately, it looks like this is it for the Transaction Wire this week.

Join me tomorrow for what will probably be a short article. I have a few ideas in my mind, plus a look at forming a "not" Hall of Fame. Congrats again to Snoop, Bill, Gary, and the Coach. Watch the message board as I'll try to make sure each HOF member is contacted. Join us again tomorrow - same Kanka time, same Kanka Channel.

NSS meeting tonight, so no "Weekend in Review."
I will tell you, however, that with 2 ballots still out, we currently have 4 new inductees to the Hall of Fame, and 2 more who have yet to be mathematically eliminated. Results announced later this week.

Let's start with the book report - Leahy's Lads by Jack Connor. I recommend it highly. Connor, a former player, went around and interviewed many of the former players from the 40s. This book includes small accounts of each of the games, but mostly it's a collection of anecdotes and inside jokes catalogued so the players themselves can remember them. This "by the players, for the players" approach makes this a very amusing and enjoyable book.
I won't go into too much detail, but here are two things I wanted to point out:

Coach Yonto's Playing Career
The Coach got most of his playing time as a "burly" backup fullback on the 1945 squad, when most of ND's regulars were off to war or playing for service academy/training base teams. You see, for most of '44/'45, college age men were often required to transfer to a school that had their particular training program - ND for Navy, Great Lakes for the Army, or one of the service academies. Anyways, when most of the players came back for the 1946 season, the team was stacked. In fact many third stringers who saw little to no action for the Irish that year went on to incredibly successful NFL careers. So, Coach Yonto was relegated to the "B" team, sort of a JV team that went around playing other schools' B teams. One day, the B team was scrimmaging the first-teamers. The Coach took a handoff and bucked into the line. He came out with a leg so badly broken, his foot was turned at a 90-degreee angle. Ouch. Many people thought he would never walk again. Fortunately he could, and Jack Connor praises his success as a defensive guru under Parseghian, Devine, and Holtz.

Ziggy Czarobski
A great tackle (and member of the Polish Sports HOF) who played before and after the war, may I be the first to nominate this man for Bone Legend. Among his bone-esque accomplishments:
Beat Purdue: It may have been Ziggy who first coined this phrase. Coach Leahy always judged how the coming Saturday's game would be by how the team was at the beginning of Monday's practice. A loose, talkative team meant that they weren't too worried about the coming contest. A quiet team, however, meant there was some anxiety over the coming game. That, of course, meant Leahy would have to work the team harder in the coming week. Knowing this, and being always the "class clown" of the team, Ziggy acted quickly when the team was silent the Monday before a Purdue game. As Leahy approached, Ziggy began clapping and chanting "Beat Purdue! Beat Purdue!" Soon, the whole squad joined in and the team was loose and relaxed for the rest of the week.
The Muggers Club: This exclusive club, comprised mainly of the war vets on the squad, liked to meet weekly at one of the local licensed establishments to drink, share stories, and do other poker night-esque things. The club was very exclusive, and each member had a beer stein with his name engraved on it. Leahy know he couldn't be too hard on the war vets, so he let them have their fun in Ziggy's little club.
Tackles practice: Often, the team would split up to pratice by position. Knowing how long-winded the tackles coach could be, Ziggy and fellow tackle George Connor (a former Bear and Jack's brother) took turns asking questions of their position coach, while the guards worked hard and looked over in disgust. Sound like Bone Circle to me.

NDNation Issues
Monk: As evidenced in Shake Down the Thunder, the debate of overemphasis of football has been with Our Lady's University since the program began. Surely, Monk isn't a huge fan of watching football, but is he really against it? His coaching hires haven't been great, but it wouldn't be the first time 2 straight bad coaching hires have been made. Plus, he did fire the guy who hired Bob Davie. The administration has always grappled with the football program, so I don't know if it's a reasonable scapegoat in this case.
Kevin White: The man has great taste in ties. That being said, let's look at his dealings in the football head coach department:
1. Fired Bob Davie. The "first" time an ND coach was fired, but it was justified. Bob knew he had a great job, so he wasn't going anywhere no matter how much he sucked.
2. Hired George O'Leary. I had a feeling this guy wouldn't be the savior when he came in, but White wanted someone who "got Notre Dame." I've come out and said that White may not necessarily "get" Notre Dame - hiring practices, "aspirational peerdom," deemphasis, the conference talk, but I think this all remains to be seen.
3. Hired Ty Willingham. More below.
Ty Willingham: I'm willing to give him a second chance. His first year was made by great seniors who finally had a reason to be enthoused. Last year can be chalked up to "one bad year for the new guy" - hopefully. I'll give Ty some time, but still it is frustrating seeing the times when he's not being the ubercoach - not making decisions you'd expect a coaching genius to make (then again, I'm no coaching genius either), the 30+ point shutouts, the list goes on. Still, as a college coach (that is, a molder of students as well as a leader of athletes), he may have been the best guy available.
Jon Gruden: The first F-bomb at a pep rally, and he would've been canned. I just don't know if he would have fit in with the administration (you don't have to be their puppet - just let them think they have control over you). Plus, we see he had a case of the sophomore jinx too this past year. Then again, that may be a positive sign. Most of Gruden's troubles came from clashes with the spoiled, self-centered athletes on the Bucs. That could be a sign that Gruden is a big-time discipline guy, which is a great quality for a college coach.
Steve Spurrier: Ah, no, I don't think it would work. He'd be at odds with the administration from day one. His "my system is perfect, my players messed up" philosophy is not what you want to teach college athletes. Plus, if we find out he starts getting into shady recruiting practices, that's it. Ara Parseghian always believe that if you needed to buy a kid with cars and under the table gifts, that kid isn't worth it. Spurrier may be a great Florida "college" coach, but I don't think he'd be a good student-athlete coach.
Olympic sports: I have absolutely no problem with sports other than football doing well at ND. Heck, I am ND Women's Basketball's number 1 fan, at least according to Karen Swanson and the rest of the players on my signed poster. So, hoorah for swimming and lacrosse and fencing and soccer and all the rest.
aspirational peerdom: I'm not even sure I know what this means. Sure, ND wants high academic standards. It's always been that way - starting back in the early 1900s when the Holy Cross priests decided to give a small Catholic school a cutting-edge, mainstream curriculum. The key is to work with it. Leahy found a way to win with reduced scholarships, so it can be done. And, there will always be snobs who go to ND because they were rejected from Harvard, but the school will always have enough hard-working Catholic midwestern kids who go there to live out their dreams. [a basis for the NDNation drinking game: every time you read the phrase "aspirational peer," chug an "aspirational beer"!]
recruiting: Yeah, I'm sure all the spoiled kids will want to go to warm weather schools and have cars handed to them, but once again, we don't want those kids. Get the good kids who are just as talented, or get the good kids who have almost as much talent, and use your coaching skills to make them better.
strength and conditioning: One NDNationer blamed the strength & conditioning program for the recent trend of great in HS->mediocre at ND->decent in the NFL. The only example I have of this is Julius, so I can't make too many assumptions based on one person. I can tell you, however, that Darrell is very large with very little body fat, and that Ced is in such good shape this year (compared to freshman year's Bookstore Tournament) that one Internet draft preview actually said he needed to put on some weight to play DT in the NFL!
independece: The place where I worked over the summer was a tOSU hotbed. One guy was almost drooling over the thought of tOSU, scUM, and ND in the same conference. Should we join one. I'm still in the camp that says, if we play well enough, we don't need to. What about the BCS? Well, after our recent bowl performances, we'll need to gain the bowl sponsors' trust back, which once again starts by playing well. Plus, USuCk has just proved you don't need to play in the BCS championship game to call yourself champion. Conferences: great for our other sports, but not for football. Let's hear it for a better football team.

OK, that's all I have for today. If I feel like it in the next couple days, I might actually look at the NFL playoff games... gasp!... before they play them! We'll see how that goes.

We begin with some "if I had a cell phone" news:
ND Women/UConn: A 15 point victory for the Irish, in case you haven't heard. I first found out about this game from Sports Illustrated. There was an ad for the game being on "CSTV." Being that this was the Connecticut issue of SI, I figured it was a Connecticut sports channel, and wondered why they'd be advertising it in a nationwide publication. Only after the game did I realize that CSTV stands for "College Sports TV," and that we get that channel as part of the new "here's 5 random sports channels we'll give you now but raise the price on later" package of the local cable channel. Dah. I started watching this game on Gametracker while writing yesterday's article. Each time I looked up, the girls were up by 10. Was this a mistake? Knowing that und.com Internet radio is a premium service, I quickly found UConn's Internet brodcast of the game. Was that ever a delight. Here's a recap: Taurasi didn't hit her shots, and no one backed her up. This gave Auriemma fits, including chewing her out before she went to shoot free throws. ND, simply put, made their shots. A huge game from Jackie Batteast, including a key block of Taurasi with 4 fouls, and solid backup from LaVere, Severe, and Borton, and there's your upset. Auriemma may be joining Mike Martz in Larry Coker land soon. He can't handle losing - screaming at his girls and the officials, blaming poor recruiting (I'm sure that really boosts his players' confidence). The list goes on. Auriemma strikes me as the kind of guy who would fill his Little League team with 14 year olds - he didn't get a job as a men's coach, so he has to beat up on every girl's team he can, and when he loses, he can't handle it. Good good. On to the transaction wire.

Transaction Wire
Knicks fire Don Chaney and hire a former Cavs coach. But wait... it's not Mike Fratello (the Czar of the Telestrator). It's Lenny Wilkens! Wilkens can be a good molder of men on this team, but as great as he is, he couldn't take Toronto too far. He'll make the Knicks decent, but it may only be killing time until the next great coach comes in.
Bears hire St. Louis defensive coordinator Lovie Smith. As long as he wasn't the guy who put Jason Sehorn in at cornerback, this is a good deal. Chicago is a defensive-minded club, and if Lovie can find a good offensive coordinator to work with, the team will be in good shape.
Browns promote Terry Robiskie to offensive coordinator and hire Rob Chudzinski as TE coach. Robiskie, a former OC at Washington, plans to return hard-nosed, smashmouth football to Cleveland. Exactly what I wanted to hear. Chudzinski, OC/TE coach at scUM South (including a few years under Butch Davis) is a lifelong Browns fan. Great, as long as our first round pick isn't wasted on Kellen Winslow. I might have to shoot myself if that happens.
Angels sign Vlad Guerrero. Wait, the Angels were even interested in Vlad Guerrero? Apparently, the Angels are trying to compete with the Twins for most people trying to play right field at the same time. I can see giving Tim Salmon rest or moving him to DH, but they just signed Jose Guillen, too. Baseball Primer seems to think that the Angels should put Garrett Anderson on the block, but I don't buy that. The Angels are definitely looking to contend again in a tough division, but they will need to stay healthy. Maybe that's their plan: Jeff DaVanon plays center when Darin Erstad goes down again, Guillen and Vlad play right when Tim Salmon gets hurt, and Kelvim Escobar tries to prove he's not a flash-in-the-pan when Aaron Sele and the newly acquired Bartolo Colon are on the DL. If you have the money to overstock, why not do it? Then again, I wouldn't be surprised if their were more moves ahead...
Orioles sign Raphael Palmeiro and BJ Surhoff. This transaction copied and pasted from my 1989 Transaction Wire.
Astros sign Roger Clemens. Boo hoo, he's a traitor. He lied to us. No he didn't, he said he wanted to be by his family. His family is in Houston, so this makes sense. The Astros are lucky to have a deep bullpen, because without the DH, Roger may only average 4 IP per start. With Pettitte, Roy Oswalt, and Wade Miller, this is a great rotation. If they stay healthy, they complement the bullpen perfectly. If they get hurt (when they get hurt - all of them), things could get interesting.
Indians sign Jose Jimenez and Lou Merloni. Jimenez threw a no-hitter against Randy Johnson once, and Merloni is famous for keeping his starting 2B job in Boston by being Nomar's best friend. Other than that, Jimenez will be a good late innings/innings eater guy, and Merloni will be a decent clubhouse guy who can be this year's stopgap at 2nd and 3rd when John McDonald's back starts acting up again.
Cubs make an offer to Greg Maddux. This will be a good move for Maddux. Get your $7mil a year over the next 2 years before you don't get any offers after this year. In addition, while it may seem tempting to join Tom Glavine with the Mets, Chicago is the better place to go. Sorry Dave, but since Shea has Questec and Wrigley doesn't (correct me if I'm wrong), Maddux will be able to settle into his new surroundings earlier and avoid a tough start like he did last year. A better support staff, both on the mound and at the plate, will also help.
Many more solid trades that didn't make this list at the link above, including many by the Devil Rays, who are definitely trying to go somewhere this year.

Tomorrow: Leahy's Lads, NDNation, and more as the Spirit moves me.

NFL
Panthers/Rams: Unfortunately, I missed this classic to go to a high school basketball game. The good news is, Lorain Catholic was able to hold off the larger Huron High School 44-42. Am I surprised with the outcome? Not overly. The Rams were on the decline for the second half of the season, and Mike Martz is definitely the Larry Coker of the NFL right now. With Stephen Davis likely out (or is that just a tactic?) can Jake Delhomme prove he's a Super Bowl QB? Or can he prove that his coach has a Super Bowl system?
Pats/Titans: Eskimo Up! The Pats did just enough to win, but that's all that matters. My buddy Matt quipped that maybe Drew Bennett deserved to have the Gatorade dumped on him (due to the 4 degree weather), but, on the same token, he did have two key catches to keep that drive alive. Once again, Steve McNair can only carry his team so far. And is there a more clutch guy out there than Adam Vinatieri? When the Pats had the ball late, I had no doubt they'd be getting a sure 3 from the drive. (and with that, watch for a key miss from him or Mike Vanderjagdt next week)
Colts/Chiefs: Kansas City was also a team on the decline (or did the media just stop covering them after the 9-0 start and after Dante Hall cooled off?). This game featured little defense, go figure, and that's how I figured that KC had a chance in this one. However, the Indianapolis offensive machine just kept marching, and they'll try to keep it going next week.
Packers/Eagles: The Packers, like the Rams, were a "good enough because there's nobody better" team to this point. But, Philadelphia silenced the critics once again, playing a full 60 minutes (and even more). I thought that the winner of this game would be able to breathe a sigh of relief knowing that Carolina would come in tired, but with two overtime teams going into the NFC championships, this could be interesting.

ND Alumni in the Playoffs Report
The comprehensive list.
Baltimore
Javin Hunter: DNP, injured
Gerome Sapp:
Tony Weaver: 1 Game, 3 Tackles
Denver
Bert Berry: 1 Game, 1 Tackle, 1 Assist
Steve Beuerlein: DNP, injured
Jarious Jackson: DNP
Indianapolis
Tom Lopienski: 2 Games, 1 Catch, 2 yrds Rec, 1 TD
Hunter Smith: 2 Games, 0 Punts, several nice holds
New England
David Givens: 1 Game, 4 Catches, 26 yrds Rec
Kansas City
Jordan Black: 1 Game?
Tennessee
Rocky Boiman: 2 Games, 1 Tackle, 1 Assist
Craig Hentrich: 10 Punts, 40.4 Average, 63 Long, 6 Inside 20
Carolina
no players
Dallas
Kurt Vollers: 1 Game
Green Bay
Brennan Curtin: 2 Games?
Tony Fisher: 2 Games, 2 Rushes, 9 yrds Rush, 4 Catches, 25 yrds Rec. Unfortunately, his hold cost Green Bay crucial field position late in the game.
Philadelphia
Jim Flanigan: ?
Paul Grasmanis: 1 Game
Tyreo Harrison: DNP?
Bobby Taylor: 1 Game, 3 Tackles
Seattle
no players
St Louis
Jeremy Akers: 1 Game?
Joey Goodspeed: 1 Game, 1 Catch, 9 yrds Rec
Shane Walton: DNP?

ND Men's Basketball
After a solid showing against Nova, the Irish came out strong against a flat Pitt team. However, things started to fall apart towards the end of the first half, as a 31-24 advantage became a 31-30 halftime lead. Then, the team started playing Breyball. I'm not criticizing Mike Brey as a whole, I'm just saying that Mormon Bachelor Party could out-rebound the team just because we know how to box out. OK, maybe not MBP, but at least UBUF. I'm just getting a little sick of us being "the only finesse team in the Big East." Our 3's almost got us back in it, but poor free throw shooting combined with Pitt remembering that they're a physical team spelled doom for the Irish. Thomas started well, and Quinn had a hot streak at the end, but where was Francis? Was it just Pitt's size? Tough loss. The men need to start winning these ones.
Random notes I scribbled into my new Palm Pilot during the 1st half:
Which team are we? Are we trying to blend in with the Pitt students?
Bill Rafferty on Tom Timmermans: "Good screener, capable rebounder." A good description. I especially liked the word choice of "capable." Nice booty screen in the second half, too.
When did Torrian Jones get good? Oh, 3 games ago. Play like this for 4 years, and you may find yourself at the end of the bench in a place like Atlanta or Golden State (speaking of Golden State, see below).
My favorite play of the night: Thomas races up the court, then pump fakes like he's about to airball another stupid three. Then, to everyone's amazement, he passes! Way to know your tendencies and use them to your advantage.
Taft - cocky freshman. Good good. He's a little on the skinny side, so hopefully the big bodies will knock him around in league play.
At least Zvackas is gone, but I guess that Demetris is his replacement.
That Brown guy was 35 years old last year! Is he in his 18th year of eligibilty now?

ND Women's Basketball
Trailing VPI (that's VaTech for the newcomers) 20-16 at the half, the Irish went on a 22-7 spurt and outmuscled the Hokies to a 53-40. Leading the way were Jackie Batteast and Theresa Borton, with help from Katy Flecky, Le'Tania Severe, and Megan Duffy. The Irish currently are leading the UConn Huskies 33-26 at the half, let's see if they can hold on.

NBA
Warriors: Remember Brian Cardinal, the balding 40something guy from Purdue? Well, apparently Mike Dunleavy and Troy Murphy weren't enough to make up for the loss of Bob Sura, so now Cardinal plays for the Warriors. Who knew?
cavs/Lakers: Shaq and Malone out + Kobe gets hurt + 11 point first quarter lead = 10 point loss. Dah. If Austin Carr (now one of the local color commentators) wants to start talking playoffs, the Cavs need to win games like this.

That's it for today. Join us tomorrow for the Transaction Wire - Rocket and Vlad and Raffy oh my! Later, we'll look at my book report on Leahy's Lads, and that NDNation thing I promised, which turned out to be not as big as I originally thought.
Don't forget to keep the HOF discussion alive, and if you have any ideas for 2003 year end awards, let me know.

Weekend in review tomorrow, but for today, start thinking about the first ever kankasports KankaNation Hall of Fame inductees. Inspired by the baseball HOF, each reader (that's you guys) gets to vote for up to ten (10) personalities that have been mentioned on this site, be they sports figures, celebrities, or even one of us. I'll tally up the votes, and anyone who gets higher than a 75% share gets inducted. Feel free to discuss this on the message board (it'll probably be easier to get 75% for someone that way), and email your votes to kanka@kankasports.zzn.com. I'll give you a week, so ballots are due by 5:30 pm eastern time on Monday, January 19th.

Be on the look out for the Best of 2003 awards, too, even if they're a little late.

Also, a few weeks ago, this site named Ced Hilliard ND DT of the year. In fact, Ced is often considered a Nose Guard. Therefore, Ced will now receive the NG of the year award, and the DT of the year award will be given to Darrell Campell. Congratulations to both. Kanka regrets this error.

Transaction Wire
(warning: the above link contains names of a Gammons-esque nature)
Knicks get Stephon Marbury and Penny Hardaway from the Suns for 25 guys who were immediately cut. New York finally decides that one good PG and one good-when-healthy kinda-PG are better than 6 mediocre PGs. They didn't win the first night out, but the changes being made will make the Knicks a decent team. Tough luck for Charlie Ward - just when he thinks he's becoming a real journeyman (see my article a few weeks back), he's cut. As for the Suns, apparently they're planning on playing 5 PFs at all times, since they're only carrying 2 real guards as of right now. The best part about researching this trade: going to the Sun's website, and watching the rotating image on the left of the page, which cycles though (I kid you not) Jake Voskuhl, Tom Gugliotta, and the gorilla. High comedy.
Giants hire Tom Coughlin. Coughlin, an assistant under Bill Parcels while in New York, promises to return to smashmouth, mistake-free football. That remains to be seen. Smashmouth, mistake-free football may also mean doom for Tiki Barber (Ellen loves him), the small, fumble prone runnning back. We'll see how that plays out. I don't know what else to say. Head coaches are hard to come by these days, and except for Nick Saban (who they weren't getting) and maybe Dennis Green, Coughlin may be the best fit for this team.
Padres sign David Wells. You know, with Phil Nevin, Ryan Klesko, Trevor Hoffman, et al., the Padres really shouldn't be a bad team if they stay healthy. As the past few years have shown, however, that's a huge if.
Yankees sign Javier Vazquez. For years, I've been trying to figure out if Vazquez is underrated by the media or just overrated by baseball uberintellectuals. Although his record may not show it (perhaps due to the team he played for in Montreal), he has good numbers. The way the Yankees are, though, expect the W-L numbers not to change much. At 28, he's very young compared to Mussina, Clemens, and Wells, but that could mean another Jeff Weaver-type disappointment.
Indians get Scott Stewart for Ryan Church and Macier Izturis. I grew up playing baseball with a kid named Scott Stewart, so I'm sure I'll run the "Did you hear Scott Stewart signed with the Indians?" joke into the ground around here. Stewart is a good pickup in the back of the bullpen, considering the loss of Danys Baez, the uncertainty of Bob Wicman's health, and the contract situation of David Riske. Church was buried deep in the Indians' rotation of minor league outfielders, and Izturis apparently isn't going anywhere, so this is a good deal for the Tribe.
Indians also sign Kevin Orie, Jeff D'Amico, and a few others. Orie, the former Cub, is AAA insurance at 3rd. Believe it or not, there are actually 2 starting pitchers named Jeff D'Amico. After the "bad" Jeff D'Amico toiled in the Cleveland minors for a while, the Indians must have realized they had the wrong guy, and finally signed the "good" Jeff D'Amico, who will be a good middle-of-the-rotation starter for this young staff.
Mets sign Brandon Looper. He's a solid young back-of-the-bullpen guy. He's another good-as-a-closer-but-great-as-a-setup-man pitcher.
Diamondbacks sign Robbie Alomar for $1mil. If Arizona contends, Robbie will love the change of scenery and the huge gaps of the BOB. If they don't, he may get sick of being in the middle of nowhere and continue his fall from grace.
Royals sign Juan Gonzalez. Hey, we're spending money now! He has some pop, which will help the team especially if he hits behind Mike Sweeney. But, with his health, this may be another case of "spending loads of money to show we want to contend" turning into "we're a small market club who screwed ourselves by not spending wisely."

The Baseball HOF
Who's in:
Paul Molitor, a great hitter (3300+ hits, .306 lifetime average) who found a way to keep playing (2nd to 1st to DH) and keep winning (Yount's Brewers to Kirby's Twins).
Dennis Eckersley. He tips his cap to a hitter that wins the battle (screaming "WOW" when Manny Ramirez crushes a game-winner off of him, being the "victim" of Kirk Gibson's "This is gonna be a home run!", coining the phrase "walk-off"). We remember him as a dominant closer from the A's mini-dynasty of the early 90s, but my dad remembers the day he didn't feel like walking from his Cleveland State dorm room to municipal stadium and ended up missing a young starter named Dennis pitch a no-hitter.
Who's not in:
Ryne Sandberg: solid ballplayer, nice guy, consummate professional. Unfortunately, first ballot inductions are more for guys like Molitor and Wade Boggs (next year), but Ryno should be there some day.
Bruce Sutter
Jim Rice
Andre Dawson
"Goose" Gossage
Lee Smith
Bert Blyleven
Jack Morris
Steve Garvey
Tommy John
Alan Trammell
Don Mattingly
Dave Concepcion
Dave Parker
Dale Murphy
Keith Hernandez
Joe Carter
Fernando Valenzuela
Dennis Martinez
Dave Stieb
Jim Eisenreich
Jimmy Key
Doug Drabek
Kevin Mitchell
Juan Samuel
Cecil Fielder
Randy Myers
Terry Pendleton
Danny Darwin
Bob Tewksbury
Many good names on this list. There will always be the Jim Rice argument. Dale Murphy is incredibly underrated, and Dennis Martinez got a surprisingly low total in my opinion. Other than that, there are some good names on this list, and a few will make it some day (Mattingly, Dawson, Carter), but this isn't the NFL. It's nice that the NFL lets everyone in, but in a way it's awe-inspiring at who doesn't get into Cooperstown. For instance, Fernando would be a shoe-in in the NFL for his personality, and Tommy John's legacy of the elbow surgery would also get him in the hall. But, just because these guys don't have plaques, that doesn't take away from great careers.
Joe Jackson: with all the Pete Rose talk, I once again wanted to get on the Shoeless Joe soapbox. He had a great career for the Indians and ChiSox. He was one of the greatest hitters of all time, and his glove was
"where triples go to die." He was accused of throwing the 1919 World Series, but, as Field of Dreams points out, how are you throwing the series when you hit .375 and commit no errors? Say what you want about Pete Rose, I'm still undecided on that one, but Shoeless Joe does deserve the respect of induction into the Hall.

Alright, that's enough time in front of the computer. Time to go enjoy this unusually balmy January day (wind chill is actually above 0!)

We'll break it up this week: games of the weekend today, issues tomorrow/Thursday, and the NDNation thing at the end of the week. Let's go bowling... (now that's original)

NCAA Football
Florida/Iowa: You know what I absolutely loved about this game? Listening to Bob Davie point out every single decent player on the field, then proceed to say, "You know, I tried to recruit him." Great. Just great.
scUMSouth/Free Shoes: This was just not a good football game. The lack of discipline, stupidity, and mistakes, just made this unbearable, I'm sorry.
USuCk/scUM: Michigan needs to establish the run or they're in trouble. USC has a run defense that's unusually good for the PAC 10, and combine that with decent talent at WR, and there you have something. Mike Williams: "You see this hat, this says 'Champions' and that's what we are." Mike, you're an idiot. More on this tomorrow.
tOSU/KState: Wow, did Oklahoma not show up for the Big XII championship. KState had a lot going on, but they just didn't play well. Should El have sat for breaking curfew? Yes. Would Tressel have benched his best player for this game? Heck no, not even if he pulled a Ray Lewis. tOSU lucks out again against the perenially overrated Wildcats.
Oklahoma/LSU: Bob Stoops was outcoached (there I said it, it had to be said). His team committed too many stupid penalties, and they played scared. Oklahoma may have been the better team, but I think one too many cakewalks hurt them. The Heisman curse continued, this time for Jason White. Was Mauck better than White, though? Not really. He got the job done when he needed to, but he also had the help of a great running game - something White didn't have due to LSU's stifling D. LSU's the champion, no questions here.

NFL
Titans/Ravens: McNair can't carry this team all the way, but he's still better than the Lewis twins. Note to Ray Lewis: did you notice that the Titans didn't dance after stopping Jamaal for a 1 yard loss, even though you had to celebrate stopping Eddie George after a 6 yard gain?
Panthers/Cowboys: The bad thing about this is Bill Parcels will now be hissed for a mediocre ending to the season. What people will forget is that he took over a team that was striving hard to be mediocre, and he made them a solid team. They'll still need some talent if they want to go anywhere, though. Carolina, on the other hand, may be a receiver or two away from a great team (then again, with all this parity, they may end up at 4-12 next year).
Packers/Seahawks: I knew the 'Hawks were falling apart as the year went by, and they may be another victim to parity next year, even with a solid team. The Packers are once again one of those teams that may not seem incredibly great, but then you turn around and see the competition's not much better.
Broncos/Colts: You know, I almost felt bad for all of the one Broncos fan that I actually associate with, then I realized, wait a minute... (and no, I didn't realize this after flipping to ESPNClassic and watching it for more than 15 seconds) I don't know whose idea it was to let Peyton Manning's 12 year old cousin (Brandon Stokley) play receiver, but it sure payed off.

NCAA Men's Basketball
Texas/Providence: Turned this one on just as overtime was starting. As soon as I saw who the refs were (our favorite "I'm too old" crew - too old/drunk to get anything right), I knew something bad was going to happen. Sure enough, Texas puts up a buzzer-beater, and the crew, with persuasion from Texas's head coach, decides that, even though the clock read 0.0 before the shot was taken, the red light/horn hadn't gone off yet. The shot counts and Providence is screwed much like the Heart Break Kid in his title fight against HHH just over a week ago (HBK's shoulders were down during his pin of HHH, so Eric Bischoff rules that the tie allows HHH to keep the belt. Just when I thought we'd have a legitimate ending to a good match...)

NCAA Womens' Basketball
ND/Purdue: ND cemented their status as a "good middle-of-the-road" team with a 13 point loss to the 7th ranked Boilermakers. This game was actually on TV locally, but I had no idea. Well, I'd better watch what I say, since the 5 year rule is still in effect.
Duke/UConn: Heartbreaker at the buzzer - how happy was I to see that? And it was Taurasi that hit UConn's last shot to put them up with a few ticks left! It was a great moment for me being able to see Ray Lewis, Diana Taurasi, and Shannon Sharpe all experiencing the agony of defeat on national television less than 48 hours apart.

Well, sorry to cut this short, but like I said I'm on the installment plan this week. Tomorrow we'll look at the Transaction Wire, Pete Rose, Tom Coughlin, USC whiners and LSU winners, and why computer nerds may be better than agenda-minded coaches and media.