New Era of Fordham Basketball

Four years ago a group of five freshmen came into the Fordham Basketball program, and they were asked to save the team. Four years later they left the program better, but they never played in a postseason besides the Atlantic-10 Tournament. Five freshmen are on campus this year, and they are looking to make Fordham into a mid-major force. Coach Dereck Whittenburg and his staff target winners when they recruit, and they have brought winners in.

Jio Fontan will be the point guard from day one for Fordham. He is a winner, leading St. Anthony's in New Jersey to a 32-0 record and a number one record in the country. At St. Anthony's he played in the Dribble-Drive motion offense, which Fordham adopted going into this season. This offense allows Jio to use his vision and speed while freeing his teammates up from the outside. Fontan is also a great on the ball defender and will draw tough assignments all year long.

Alberto Estwick and Trey Blue both had great schoolboy careers, Estwick at St. Anthony's with Fontan, and Blue at Thornwood and Brewster Academy. Both have good range and will be very viable options for the kickout from Fontan.

Joining Fontan, Estwick, and Blue in the backcourt will be returners Brenton Butler, Herb Tanner, and Mike Moore. All will get a lot of time as the Dribble-Drive calls for a lot of running and a lot of substitutions. Butler is the scoring leader among returners. All three have range from beyond the outside, and Fordham looks to spend a lot of time behind the new 20' 9" 3-point arc.

Chris Bethel will see a lot of time at the 4 spot, with Luke Devine and Lamar Thomas playing center until Jacob Green becomes eligible in December. Bethel is a strong player but has the uncanny ability to pick up cheap fouls and accumualte them quickly.

Fordham's out of conference schedule shapes up well for this young team, as they have a few challenges, combined with a few teams that they should beat. Jacob Green will become eligible for the New Hampshire game on December 23, and will then have 4 out of conference games to get ready to go in the Atlantic 10.

Fordham has a chance to surprise some people, and they should qualify for the Atlantic 10 tournament in Atlantic City. Even if the young team loses a few tough games, Fordham Basketball will be exciting to watch in 2008-09.

Great Googly Moogly

Wow.

The Texas-Tesas Tech game really can't be explained yet. Texas coming back from 19-0 to take a 33-32 lead. Tech drove down the field and with 9 seconds left Graham Harrell almost threw a game ending pick. On the next play Harrell found All-American Michael Crabtree a 28 yard TD, for one of the great plays of the season. Then the fun really started. The fans charged the field, the play was reviewed, and Tech was penalized twice. When the review was upheld, the fans poured on again. Tech kicked from their own 7 1/2 yard line. Texas tried to lateral but lost possession and the fans could finally really get on the field.

Who becomes #1? Who will be in the BCS Championship game? Who is now the leader in the race for the Heisman? Do the Lions draft Michael Crabtree after his play?

This was an instant classic. It'll be on ESPN Classic tomorrow or the next day, and I might just watch it.

The NBA is Here!

That's really all that needs to be said. I haven't been excited for the NBA like this in a long time. The new look Blazers add to an already stacked West, and Boston and Cleveland continue the rivalry in the East. And to top it all off, one of the best announcers, Mike Breen, is a Fordham guy. I'll see ya Monday Mike.

Beckham to Milan?

There are rumors that the LA Galaxy will loan David Beckham to AC Milan for a few months.

As a fan of both AC Milan and American soccer, I don't think this is a good idea.

Most Americans only know the MLS because of Becks. If people hear that he is going over to Milan, they will think that the MLS couldn't keep him around. They might also find it weird that a player can be loaned out. Cleveland fans got mad when Lebron wore a Yankees hat when the Indians played the Yanks. How will they react if a player goes to play for a different team?

As for Milan, I think having Beckham would only be a gimick. The Rossoneri currently have a good mix of young players and big name veterans. They would be adding a new language and a new superstar to the locker room. This is a team that didn't even qualify for Champions League last year. They need to put together a team that can compete in Europe and Italy.

Tek

Jason Varitek is what I want a Red Sox player to be. He is a gritty plater who is solid defensively, and every once in a while picks up a big hit when it matters (see Game 6 2008 ALCS).

Tek endeared himself to me during the parade after the 2004 triumph. He looked me in the eye and pointed at me in the same way all the idiots pointed during the postseason run. This is when Varitek went from veteran catcher to team leader. The connection we made brought me into the championship, and brought Tek into the fans’ hearts.

Over the last 11 years Varitek has become a symbol of the Red Sox. When he came to the Red Sox with Derek Lowe, a mini youth movement took place in Boston. Nomar, Lowe, Tek, and Trot would be with the Red Sox as they made the ALCS in 1999 and 2003. Varitek caught the first Red Sox no hitter in 36 years with Hideo Nomo in 2001, and would be behind the plate for 3 more, setting a MLB record.

Varitek earned the “C” on his chest. He is the type of player who cuffs his pants high, puts some eye black on, rocks a bead, and does his job day in and day out. He’s meant everything to the Red Sox, and the Red Sox have meant everything to him. If you think Jason doesn’t want to come back to Boston, watch this video.

Hopefully agent Scott Boras doesn’t keep the Red Sox from finding a way to let Tek close out his career in Boston.

It Breaks Your Heart

At the close of every Red Sox season, radio announcer Joe Castiglione reads from former commissioner of Baseball Bart Giamatti's essay "The Green Fields of the Mind." Since I was watching on TV I forgot to tune in to hear it. These are the first two and the last paragraph:

It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops. Today, October 2, a Sunday of rain and broken branches and leaf-clogged drains and slick streets, it stopped, and summer was gone.

Somehow, the summer seemed to slip by faster this time. Maybe it wasn't this summer, but all the summers that, in this my fortieth summer, slipped by so fast. There comes a time when every summer will have something of autumn about it. Whatever the reason, it seemed to me that I was investing more and more in baseball, making the game do more of the work that keeps time fat and slow and lazy. I was counting on the game's deep patterns, three strikes, three outs, three times three innings, and its deepest impulse, to go out and back, to leave and to return home, to set the order of the day and to organize the daylight. I wrote a few things this last summer, this summer that did not last, nothing grand but some things, and yet that work was just camouflage. The real activity was done with the radio--not the all-seeing, all-falsifying television--and was the playing of the game in the only place it will last, the enclosed green field of the mind. There, in that warm, bright place, what the old poet called Mutability does not so quickly come.

Of course, there are those who learn after the first few times. They grow out of sports. And there are others who were born with the wisdom to know that nothing lasts. These are the truly tough among us, the ones who can live without illusion, or without even the hope of illusion. I am not that grown-up or up-to-date. I am a simpler creature, tied to more primitive patterns and cycles. I need to think something lasts forever, and it might as well be that state of being that is a game; it might as well be that, in a green field, in the sun.

You can read the whole essay here.

This One Just Didn't Feel Right

I'm not sure what it was about this game, but I didn't feel good all the way. Even when the Sox were down 7 runs with 7 outs left in Game 5 I felt confident. Tonight I was waiting for Aaron Boone. I was nervous as soon as the Rays took the lead. As I walked to the bathroom after J.D. Drew struck out with the bases loaded, I started to eulogize the 2008 Boston Red Sox and look forward to 2009. Maybe it was the different makeup of this team, maybe it was the new younger opponent, maybe it was TBS, but I hadn't felt this nervous since 2003.

It feels weird to be the loser again. The Sox hadn't lost a playoff series since the Division Series to the White Sox in '05, and frankly that '05 team could have murdered half of Dorchester in a fit of roid rage and no one would have cared after the team won in '04.

Looking forward for Boston, I like how they shape up. A good young core of pitchers, more outfielders than they need, and a great infield. The main question is Jason Varitek. He's 36 and is a free agent. I want him to retire with the Sox. I think it would be best to start using him at first base, but if Mike Lowell is good to go theres no open slots in the infield.

Tip of the cap to the Tampa Bay Rays, I'm sure we'll see you play the Sox again.

I feel that I have a pretty good understanding of how networks choose to televise NFL games. Home market games are always on in that market, interconference games are on the network of the away team etc. But I will never understand why some time slots are blocked out. The 506 makes broadcast maps every week for NFL coverage, and as soon as I see it I check it over to see what games will be broadcast here in NYC. This is a week that CBS has two slots and Fox one. Yet here in the Big Apple we have nothing on CBS at 1, and the Jets at 4. Are you telling me San Diego-Buffalo wouldn't play in this market? Would Jet fans not sacrafice the first few minutes of their game to see a potential great finish involving a team one game ahead of them in the standings? At least my Broncos are on Monday night, so I know what I'll get with that.

Murray Wins Madrid Masters

Has Andy Murray vaulted into the Federer, Nadal, Djokovic group at the top of the tennis world? He beat Federer in the semis and then took down Gilles Simon in straight sets to win his second straight Masters Series event. Murray reached his first slam final in Flushing this September, and has showed that he is a much more composed player than he used to be. It'll be intersting to see how he develops and matches up against the top players next year.

We Will Have a Seventh Game

I wanted to title this post Big Blame James, but that wouldn't be appropriate. I thought of that witty play on Big Game James in about the 3rd and secretly hoped Shields would blow it so I could have it before the papers. All the credit in this must go to the Red Sox pitching staff. Only four hits given up in the game and the bullpen only allowed two base runners in four innings. Varitek broke out of a slump and threw out a base runner. I give credit to Beckett for that caught stealing, as he hung a curve basically making it a pitchout. Either way the Sox were able to get the ball to the pen with a lead.

Jeers go to TBS. Not getting on air for the first pitch is excusable if there was a power outage at the last minute. Being involved in live broadcasts of games, I understand what can go wrong. But man there was still some goofy stuff. Ron Darling refered to pitcher James Shields' cousin Aaron Rowand as a "hard nosed player." You may remember Rowand had a pretty soft nose a few years ago. I know he is a good player, but the first thing I think of when he is mentioned is his catch and crash.

Later in the game TBS showed a graphic with the title "Stolen Bases in the Postseason vs. Catchers" I waited the rest of the night to see how the stolen base attempts against the other eight players go.

Later still Chip Caray broke one of the rules of play-by-play, follow the ball. He said a foul ball went "back our way, into the seats." After the next pitch they had a replay of the ball getting stuck in a catwalk. Back your way, yes. In the seats, no. I'm glad there is only one more game with TBS, even if it does mean we have Buck and McCarver.

TBS, really?

Steve Harvey just had a heart attack. Not in real life, I checked Wikipedia and he is alive and well. TBS is showing an episode of the Steve Harvey Show because they've had a power outage at headquarters in Atlanta, and they can't get the feed of the Game 6 between Boston and Tampa. When I lose power at home we gas up the generator, wheel it to the back of the house, and plug it in. Not that hard. Luckily I have XM radio, so I can listen to the Boston radio guys describe Bossman Junior Upton hit his 7th postseason home run into the catwalk to give the Rays a 1-0 lead. At this rate we might get to see every episode of the Steve Harvey Show.

I've been thinking about starting to blog (again) for a while, and this seems like a great reason. I'm sure I'll have some reaction to this game later.

(Update) At 8:29 TBS breaks into the Game.