FIVE MO' THINGS, 1/11/13
1) Mike Zimmer is not going to Cleveland. Instead, Rob Chudzinski is. This is unfortunate for Mike, but a blessing for the Bengals. Mike is popular with his players, and the Browns have money to spend. While we want "Zim" to get a head coaching job, I'm guessing there's a chance some of his current players, many of whom have free agency in front of them, would want to follow him. They might still, but at least they'd be moving to a different division.
2) Joe Sunderman and Byron Larkin. I spent most of my evening in the car last night, listening to Xavier's season-saving (at least for now) win over Temple on 700WLW. If there are five better college basketball broadcast teams working, I'd like to hear them. They made a long night in the car go quickly.
3) Water. Can we get some for Semaj Christon? Maybe some Gatorade? Coupla IVs pregame?
4) NFL Divisional Playoff Picks. This is the best football weekend of the year. Unfortunately, only two of these games really do it for me, both in the NFC.
The Ravens' defense could play very well, and Peyton Manning will still put up 27-30 points. The Ravens offense could play very well and fail to score more than 14-17. Denver 28 Baltimore 17
I'm not picking Aaron Rodgers to lose to Colin Kaepernick, so I'm not picking the Packers to lose on the road. Never have I soured on one team so quickly as the 49ers, who looked incredible for 35 minutes against New England, and very pedestrian since. Green Bay 24 San Francisco 20
The game of the weekend will be in Atlanta, where both the Falcons and Seahawks have injuries to pass-rushers, and where the Falcons face significant pressure to finally win some games this postseason. It's hard to pick against the Seahawks right now, even though I probably will next week. They run it. They throw it. And they defend it. And next week's Green Bay/Seattle Replacement Refs Re-do will be fantastic. Seattle 27 Atlanta 24
The Texans won't get the beatdown they received in Foxboro a few weeks ago, but it's still hard to get the images of a them barely beating a Bengals team that played horribly on offense, at home, out of my head. Tom Brady's invincibility in the postseason, especially at home, is vastly overplayed. But he ain't losing to Matt Schaub. Get ready for Brady v. Manning again. New England 31 Houston 21
5) Jonah Keri on the fallacy of Baseball Hall of Fame voting. Thank you, Jonah. I could cut and paste the entire thing, but I won't, except for this that stood out, referencing the silly rule many writers adhere to in keeping players out of the Hall until after they've been on the ballot for a while...
There are no clauses anywhere on the BBWAA-issued ballot that instruct voters to consider how many times a given player has appeared on a ballot. Yet voters aggressively do this every year. Much of this traces back to the old yarn about Joe DiMaggio. If Joe D didn't get in on the first ballot, how can Curt Schilling or Craig Biggio receive such an honor? Of course, DiMaggio came up for vote at a time when the process was radically different, not at all comparable to the process we have today. Most of the time, this doesn't backfire in a disastrous way as it did with Ron Santo, who had Hall-worthy credentials but didn't get inducted until after his death. And the intent might not be as deliberately confrontational as a "no" vote against someone like Bonds. But the net effect is the same — let's make the guy wait and stew a bit before I deem him worthy of my blessed vote.
But Wait There's More.....
-Sammy Sosa's Pinterest page. I will admit, I don't really know what Pinterest is, other than the fact that my female coworkers who refuse to talk to me spend a lot of time on it. I do Twitter, Facebook, and this blog. I think that's enough. But Slammin' Sammy, who hit the hardest home run I've ever seen in person, has what might be the best Pinterest page ever, if you know, I had seen anyone else's Pinterest page.
-The miserable two-hour-plus experience that was the UK/Vandy game last night. Bad play, awful officiating, a confused Bobby Knight, and an ugly Kentucky win that came way harder than it should have. And no, Nerlens Noel did not beat the shot clock. I don't know how UK's season is going to end, but I do know that if the Wildcats end up making any kind of run, the game last night will one that much time is devoted to on the year-end DVD.
-Knicks v. Pacers. Fractured team + no Carmelo + elite defensive opposition = 2,381 f-bombs yelled at my house last night.
-Large kid makes ridiculous shot. Maybe Titus Rubles should try it like this.
-UC's defense. For all the talk of running more, scoring more, and being more aesthetically pleasing, the Bearcats were, and are, still going to win games because they stop people. That's been the blueprint each of the last two seasons, with a lot of the guys currently on the roster, and it's going to be the blueprint this season too. It's not the say that they don't need to address the offense, but this team is still going to go as far as its defense will take them, which I think is still pretty far.
-Oscar Nominations. Maybe I'm old. Maybe my attention span is getting shorter. Maybe I just have other interests. Either way, I've never been less inclined to sit in a movie theater for two hours.
-Lessons on how to kill a chocolate bunny.
-Radio today and Sunday. Today will be our first Friday show since August, and an attempt to lighten things up a but as we head into the weekend. On Sunday, I get a chance to fulfill a dream of sorts, as I host SportsCenter Sunday on ESPNRadio this Sunday from 5:00pm until 9:00. We won't carry much of it locally since we have NFL Playoff games, but the last hour should air on ESPN1530, and it's available at ESPNRadio.com. I could be all cool and tell you that I'm not dealing with a mixture of excitement and terror. Hopefully, I'll be more prepared than this guy....
