The Way Things Are

The view from section 233

2010-07-27T14:23:00.006-04:00

(click on it -- not bad for a camera phone and free software)

The end justifies the means

2010-07-24T20:33:00.003-04:00

Eric Karros, we hardly knew ye.

Announcing today's Dodgers-Mets game on fox, Karros, who I generally liked as a player and a broadcaster, offered this analysis of Matt Kemp's leadoff at-bat in the bottom of the 13th, which overlapped with the pitch that the next batter, James Loney, made contact with.

Kemp flied out to medium center, and over a replay of Kemp's swing, Karros offered this: "I was talking about Matt Kemp and what he did his last at-bat, it was a good at-bat, he drew a walk, but this is a 3-0 pitch, that he hits off the end of the bat. You're in extra innings, and this is when you're not trying to jack one out of the [crack] park, you've gotta get on."

On that crack of the bat, Loney homered to win the game.

Karros tried to reconcile the inappropriate extra inning home run by Loney with the fact that it resulted in his team winning the game with this: "Well, and that's a great job there by James Loney, one out, nobody on, that's when you start to swing for the fence. One out, two out, when you're leading off you don't do it. James Loney not known for the home run this year, but known for the big RBI. Drove himself in right there."

So to sum up: walk-off home runs with 0 out: bad; walk-off home runs with 1 or 2 out: great job. Swinging for the fences by a guy with 17 home runs and a .468 SLG but .321 OBP: bad; swinging for the fences by a guy with 6 home runs and a .353 OBP (better at getting on) but a .426 SLG (less power): great job.

2009 Fighting Irish

2009-10-01T10:32:00.003-04:00

We've turned the calendar to October and the football season is a third over, and it just occurred to me that I didn't post my predictions. These were completed the Thursday before the first game, I promise.

I wish I could confidently predict a 10 or 11 win season, especially since I am nonetheless going to demand it from this coaching staff. However, I'm just not sure that the entire team, from players to coaches to waterboys, has the character to perform at that level over 13 weeks. I was back and forth on my picks for Pitt and Stanford, as I think they will both be tough, late season games for us in which much will be revealed about said character.

Last year I said about the Syracuse game, "if we don't have a very, very easy win all hope might be lost for ND football." Well, I haven't lost all hope yet but I sure as hell am not going to set myself up with a 10 or more win prediction based on nothing more than hope -- because I will not believe that we are an elite team until I see it with my own eyes.

Nevada -- I don't care that they have a gunslinger QB, I don't care that they use a "Wildcat" or "Pistol" or whatever the hell offense, and I don't care that they have several all-WAC players in a conference that went 1-10 against ranked teams last year. Their mediocre defense will not improve -- especially in game 1 -- and we can score enough points against mediocre defenses to render fourth quarters moot. A feel good win, 45-21.

Michigan -- They'll be an improved team this year, but there are still too many square pegs on both sides of the ball. The bounces seem to go their way at home, and they will look a hundred times better against us than they did last year, but we'll be able to control the ball with a running game, certain aspects of which we won't have to reveal against Nevada, and win 31-21.

Michigan State -- Simply, they'll be able to beat us up again. They are stout along both lines and their defense will make us one-dimensional. Clausen will have about 45 frustrating pass attempts and once again it will be MSU doing the grinding and taking a 20-16 game. The first chink appears for those who want Charlie gone.

Purdue -- Their entire offense is gone, and I just don't see how they will be able to mount any consistent scoring threats. Even though we don't have Brock Spack to kick around anymore, we will be able to show some more balance in the offense and take a look at our RB depth on the way to a 38-7 victory.

Washington -- They return almost all of their offensive "production" from last year, but new coaches will make them look appreciably better. (Though in fairness, myself, your grandfather, two people with no valid opinions about sports, and the cat could also make them look appreciably better.) Their D will have some major holes and we'll be able to head into the off week with a 35-10 win.

USC -- As improved as UW may look against us, we will look even better against SC relative to last year's debacle. Unfortunately, I just don't see how we can beat these guys. We will need to go 5 wide most of the time just to have a chance, because their offense (even with a green QB) isn't going to relent. They have an off week to prepare, too, and you'd better believe that Carroll is putting all his eggs into making a statement in ND Stadium. Even those that are happiest about being 4-1 will realize that we are still not an elite team after a 38-17 loss.

BC -- Last week's result notwithstanding, I think our team will truly realize that they are better than BC in all aspects and prepare the entire week expecting to win. Some of the same 4- and 5-wide formations we used against SC will work even better this week, and their offense is too spotty and inconsistent to go on too many long scoring drives. Plus it'll be their 8th straight game, and 4th tough one in a row (FSU, @VT, NCST). In a vacuum, it might not be the most beautiful college football game, but given the circumstances this 28-10 win will feel mighty good.

Washington State -- Ho hum. They're awful, the setting is awful, and I dare anyone not to fall asleep by the end of the game. Much of the second half will be played by the second string as WSU struggles to gain first downs, let alone score. The starters will pitch a shutout and the final will end up being 48-6.

Navy -- Again, we will jump out to an early lead, but this year I don't think they have what it takes to mount a comeback, even against our reserves. Some stat padding for Clausen and Aldridge in a workmanlike 31-10 win.

Pitt -- This is not a good matchup for us. Though they lost McCoy, their O-line is still quite good, and they have enough weapons throughout their defense to make things as difficult for us as they did last year. It will be a back and forth game, but they have an off week and Syracuse leading up to this game, so I think Wanny will be able to get out of his own way enough to engineer a 24-19 Pitt victory.

UConn -- Like Pitt, they lost an absolute stud running back, but unlike Pitt, they don't have the horses up and down their team to make up for it. We will effectively run a balanced offense and put in the second stringers and senior walk-ons for at least a couple of possessions to wrap up a 35-10 win.

Stanford -- They could be playing for bowl eligibility, and after last year's game they feel like they have some unfinished business with us. I expect them to run right at us and mix in a few timely passes, as they may have the most balanced offense we'll have seen since USC. We'll be able to score on them, but Clausen will take a few lumps along the way. I think Stanford will be able to build up a lead but everything Clausen has been working towards since his freshman year will finally pay off, and a Quinn-esque comeback will give us the 30-28 win.

At 9-3 we should easily land in the Gator Bowl. A New Year's Day bowl would be a big enough landmark on our way back to college football's mountaintop, but from Nov. 29 through the Blue-Gold game, the question will be can Charlie make it all the way to the top? Of course he can, some will say, after all he has Clausen coming back as a senior, all the WRs and RBs are coming back too...just like they said before this season...lather, rinse, repeat...from the high to the low, to the end of the show, for the rest of our lives.

The Fourth at Fenway

2009-07-06T15:20:00.007-04:00

OK, technically I went to Fenway on the 3rd of July, but it was still the holiday weekend and the teams were wearing those stupid all red hats so I get to have an alliterative title.

No, I mean, what do you want?

The Pesky Pole

More motherfucking snakes

2009-05-08T11:46:00.003-04:00

Though I have been slack in making updates here, as the source for all things vermin and varmint related vis-a-vis modes of transportation, I had to note that life has finally imitated art. Well, almost -- they probably wouldn't have made a movie called Non-Venomous Snakes on a Plane...

2008-09-17T11:48:00.007-04:00

With just days left in the lives of Shea and Yankee Stadiums, I made it to New York to see a game in each. That makes six new stadiums for me this summer from coast to coast!

2008 Fighting Irish predictions

2008-09-05T14:46:00.003-04:00

I happen to subscribe to the theory that we will be better than last year, simply because we can't possibly be much worse. There were enough bright spots especially toward the end of last season to make me think that we have some solid if not spectacular college players, who this year will experience circumstances much more conducive to building confidence, improving as a team, and most importantly, winning some games. That includes the construction and sequencing of the schedule, the significant loss of production that some of our repeat opponents will face, and perhaps most importantly, a different attitude from the coaching staff. Make no mistake, though; we will see some more growing pains this year. We're still a couple of echelons below the elite teams, but we're also that much better than the shitty teams we compared to last year.

San Diego State - They were shitty last year and they lost everyone who made them that good. One of the teams that we really have no business playing, and we should be embarrassed that they're on our schedule -- almost as embarrassed as the Aztecs will be, 31-9.

Michigan - It'll be tough sledding trying to run on the Wolverines, so Charlie's stated commitment to "pound it" will be tested, especially if the spread offense gives us problems. The good news is that's not likely to be a huge problem in just their second game with a bunch of square pegs. (Plus one has to hope Tenuta has learned from his experience in the '07 Gator Bowl when GT gave up 38 points to WVU.) I hope to be pleasantly surprised by our ability to move the ball, but given the last two outings against them I'll have to see it to believe it. UM wins in ugly fashion, 20-13.

Michigan State - This game could be a turning point, in either direction, for our defense. I don't expect the Spartans to be very successful passing the ball, and if our secondary is as good as advertised, they will have to turn to the running game, which should be stout. Will our D-line be able to stand up to a veteran O-line of snowplows blocking for one of the nation's best backs? Will our offense be able to control the ball against a very solid defense? I don't think the answers to either of those questions will be pleasant. MSU makes up for the collapse in Katrina, 31-14.

Purdue - Seems like they had half a dozen guys catch 10 balls for 150 yards against us last year. Good news is almost all of them are gone, and our improved secondary should shine against the current WR corps. Plus their QB has been almost unilaterally crummy against good defenses. Like MSU, Purdue will have to run the ball to score on us, but unlike MSU, they don't have the talent to do it well. Our offense will show signs of life against a below average Big 10 D and it'll feel good to get back to beating the Boilers, 27-13.

Stanford - Theirs is an offense that mostly chases its tail, and a defense that is equally adept at surrending yards and points via the run and the pass. There's a lot of room for improvement for the Cardinal, but I don't think the talent that's on campus now can realize it. Our offense (such as it was) really started to click against them last year, and once again we'll impress on the ground and in the air with a 31-16 win.

North Carolina - It will be a transitional year for the Tar Heels. They will be looking for consistency in the running game and improved production from their QB, and a solid defense loses some key contributors and welcomes a new coordinator who "led" one of the truly horrid defenses last year at Minnesota. The big question is, will they be seeing the results they want by this point in the season? I do believe that our team, on both sides of the ball, will be hitting a stride and if we avoid the injury bug this will be a good road test. This seems to be a much more even matchup on paper than many think it will be on the field, and could well come down to special teams play or even overtime. Yet for some reason I still think we will pull it out, 22-19.

Washington - They are really, really bad. They have a good, NFL potential QB who is surrounded by such horrid teammates that he'll be lucky to still be alive by this game. Haywood could e-mail them the gameplan on Wednesday and we'd still cruise to victory. Slam the door on Ty, 35-7.

Pitt - They have a pretty good defense that because of/in spite of Wanny's influence will probably be able to shut down a number of their opponents this year. I expect them to have decent outings in their first four games, then get tested in the next three games with different looks and strengths being shown by USF, Navy, and Rutgers before they hit us. It'll be a battle given that we will have shown most if not all of our offensive strentghts and strategies and they just might have a new wrinkle in store for us. Offensively, I don't expect Pitt to be world beaters, though they do have some cohesiveness and might start to click with outings against the three opponents mentioned above. A low scoring game, swung by the fact that I will be there*, and Pitt will pull it out 20-17.

BC - I wonder if their stud returning WRs were a product of the now-graduated QB and O-linemen that played with them, or are really that good on their own. Either way, they will struggle to match last year's production with all the rest of the pieces being interchanged. They'll be a mediocre at best offensive squad. However, their defense will keep them in a lot of games but despite their recent success against us, we probably will hit them at the worst placement in their schedule in recent memory. Not that they'll ever look past us, or even consider trading a win over ND for four otherwise-losses, but coming off consecutive games against Virginia Tech, UNC, and Clemson, and with FSU looming the next week, we'll be primed to stake our pride on a tough road win, and in our last true challenge before heading to LA, we'll pull out a 23-17 triumph.

Navy - They'll have a noted dropoff in offensive talent, and the fact that they have a new coach -- though schooled in the Navy system -- convinces me that the option attack will be less effective this year. And the defense that held us to our highest output of the season last year figures to put a lot of pressure on the offense just to keep things competitive. If at this point in the season our offense isn't clicking, I'll lose enough faith in Charlie to start the search for his replacement. A new streak begins with a 38-22 win in Baltimore, where a reunion of east coast jamokes results in noticeable booting on William Street.

Syracuse - Another truly disgraceful team that will do nothing but contribute to the (increasingly rightful) perception that we are consciously trying to engineer a soft, cowardly schedule once we get into a ten year agreement with them. They are actually bad enough that this year's version of the Irish will match up with them as well as the '06 edition beat down Army on senior day. Put it this way, if we don't have a very, very easy win all hope might be lost for ND football. I look for a 42-17 contest.

USC - Last year I commented on how this team simply reloads, no matter who they lose from year to year. I can't do anything but reiterate those sentiments because even the people who will be counted on to start and initiate big plays have significant experience already. I'm not sure we'll have even a puncher's chance to win, but I do hope that we'll show enough resilience that Poodle and company start thinking that we'll be able to goe toe to toe with them next year and beyond. A last hurrah for SC's current streak, 37-13.

*Since that inglorious streak, I have seen two wins over UCLA and two blowout losses to LSU and Georgia Tech. I'll be at the Pitt, Navy, and UNC games this year and hopefully we'll be over .500 in my presence.

National Pastime

2008-08-27T17:06:00.006-04:00

Went to the Nationals Ballpark a couple weeks ago. Funny to me how they couldn't get a sponsor to buy naming rights. It's pretty generic, as new ballparks go, with the standard issue huge scoreboard and closed-off sections of extremely expensive seats behind home plate and immediately behind the walls down both lines. There's a good view of the Capitol dome, but only from a certain place behind first base in the upper deck.

West Coast baseball

2008-08-04T11:18:00.003-04:00

I knocked out the LA ballparks in June. This brings my total to 19 major league venues, 6 of which are no longer used. Stay tuned for three more new ballparks by the end of the season!

Another one down

2008-05-08T16:22:00.000-04:00

Bad to worse (to better...?)

2007-09-06T15:48:00.000-04:00

Well, the Cubs lost on Friday and as we all know the Irish got pounded on Saturday. A pretty lousy and depressing weekend. On the bright side, I got to see a bunch of college friends, all of whom were in agreement after the game that Jimmy Clausen is the only answer for the rest of this season. Being the optimists that we are (on average we predicted a 9-3 season -- before Saturday of course -- and that includes one undefeated prediction and one one-loss prediction), we agreed that things can only get better from here. And, as was pointed out to me, it's special to be watching a meaningful game at Wrigley Field on Labor Day. Here's to visible improvement.

2007 Fighting Irish Predictions

2007-08-30T17:10:00.000-04:00

I have long lamented the kicking situation at ND, wondering why we can't find some kid on campus who can kick the ball 70 yards off a tee and get a touchback on every kickoff. Given our opponents' average starting field position -- ie, outside the 20 -- this seems like an easy solution. Moving the kickoffs back five yards this year, combined with our quite unproven kickers, will make field position (not to mention field goals) an adventure. Would that that is my biggest concern this year. We'll see some growing pains on both sides of the ball that will relegate special teams to an afterthought. Nonetheless, I wouldn't be surprised if we won 10 games. As for what I really think...

GT: If ever we had the element of surprise, it will be in this game. A surprise QB (well, hopefully a surprise to Tenuta & co. -- my money's on Sharpley), any number of unknown running backs (remember how we wore down their defense last year), and a new QB for them going against a defense that he'll have little information on. It might take a score from Zibby (punt return or pick six) to push us out in front, but our defense will play well enough against what could be a one-dimensional Tech offense (that being Tashard Choice) to cement a 20-10 victory.

PSU: They return their QB and top four receivers, but Morelli is such a dope that against our defense that is able to show some new wrinkles after GT (because the Jackets are so one-dimensional...ah...) he'll be good for at least two huge plays (INT, sack, wrong checkdown, etc.) in our favor. I am a little worried about the revenge factor and the hostile environment, but otherwise this game shapes up like the '05 Pitt game (right down to the numbskull opposing QB). A back and forth affair goes the Irish' way, 24-18.

UM: I am tempted to bet with the trend and say that ND, as the underdog who lost this matchup last year, will pull out a victory, but this year that might just be wishful thinking. Whereas GT has the defensive coaching and PSU has the defensive talent, UM has both ingredients that could combine to make a long day for our offense. (Plus the horrors of what they did to our vaunted offense last year still burn in my memory.) Our only hope will be to pound at a somewhat inexperienced defensive line to try to play ball control and keep it close, but in the end UM will pull away, Jones will get a series or two under center, and we drop a 31-14 decision.

MSU: Like us, they've lost their all-everything QB and top three receivers. The meltdown that started at about 10:43 pm EST last September 23 cost their coach his job, and while Sparty always plays their best against us, Charlie is out to prove that he can beat them for 60 minutes. An ugly home losing streak ends, 24-17.

PU: Their entire offense is back and they return nine starters on defense. So what. Nothing about Purdue scares me, because Charlie has played Tiller like a tuba the last two years. If we need to score every two minutes, we will. If we need to play ball control and let their offense wear down, so be it. I think this year's game will tend toward the latter, as the Irish win 21-10.

UCLA: Now this game scares me. People say that Karl Dorrell is an idiot, but he looked pretty damn smart for 58 minutes last year. The Bruins also return everyone -- everyone -- as in some scrub who got one rush last year and a kid who caught a couple dozen passes are the only two skill players to graduate, and their top eight defenders all return. Also going against us is the fact that Jim Colletto is no longer on their coaching staff. We take a few more lumps on the road, losing 28-10.

BC: I wish I wasn't so worried about this game. Most other years they would be a Purdue-like blip on our schedule, but with a talented senior quarterback, experienced skill players, and a stacked defense all returning, they match up with us too well this year. The only thing we'll have a decided advantage in is coaching, but their new staff will have three glorified scrimmages against Army, UMass, and Bowling Green leading into our game. I just don't see us getting closer than 27-17.

USC: I don't think there has been a truer embodiment of the axiom "they don't rebuild, they reload" since the late 80's Miami teams than the USC squads of the past six years. Let's face it, at times this year we will be pining for Quinn, Samardzija, McKnight, Stovall, Walker, et.al. Yet Trojan fans, even with all their recent success, are saying Reggie who? and remember those Carson and Leinart fellows? We need the ghosts of Montana, MacAfee, Ferguson, Heavens, Browner, Bradley, and company -- not just their replica green jerseys -- to have a prayer in this one. USC in a laugher, 38-20.

Navy: I think the 3-4 will actually look better against the option than our defense did for stretches last year. More snaps for Jones, as Clausen, having not seen any action thus far, will officially redshirt. The downhill run begins with a 31-10 win.

Air Force: A new coach wants to phase out the wishbone option and implement a spread out passing attack. Well, goody for him. This will be the Falcons' 11th game in 11 weeks -- as if we wouldn't have enough of an advantage anyway. Look for USAFA to run a ton of shotgun with their 5'10" QB, but look for our D to nonetheless get a handful of sacks, knockdowns, tipped passes, and the like. Another 35-14 romp.

Duke: These guys lost to Richmond last year. At home. And got shut out! Senior day done right -- a 52-9 farewell.

Stanford: Having a full season under our belt, having everyone learn their roles in the offense, and having the likes of one of the worst defenses in I-A to compare it against, this game will put a nice bow on the season, showing us how far the new guys have come and what we can expect the next couple of years. Big win, 57-10 (because Jim Harbaugh is that much better of a coach than Buddy Teevens).

That makes us 9-3 and headed to the Gator Bowl, where for the first time since the '96 Orange Bowl we will be favored in a bowl game. We should come through with a victory, thus immediately sparking debate as to whether Clausen will be able to overtake Sharpley in spring practice.

Super Dario

2007-06-30T22:14:00.000-04:00

I had a hot pass for the Indy Car race and was able to watch the whole thing from pit road. I documented the day in a series of real time posts (!) which for your viewing pleasure can all be seen here.

I wasn't allowed in Victory Lane

2007-06-30T21:19:00.000-04:00

But Dario Franchitti was, after winning the SunTrust Indy Challenge with a track record speed of 133.408 mph. His wife Ashley Judd (in purple) joined him as he raised the trophy.

Marco Andretti makes a pit stop

2007-06-30T20:04:00.000-04:00

And they're off!

2007-06-30T19:46:00.000-04:00

The green flag drops!

Look! Up in the sky!

2007-06-30T19:34:00.000-04:00

The flag is parachuted in

Pre-race introductions

2007-06-30T19:16:00.000-04:00

Milka Duno, Vitor Meira, and Tony Kanaan in the bullpen

A.J. Foyt IV (obscured), Tony Kanaan (7-Eleven suit), Kosuke Matsuura, Marco Andretti, and Danica Patrick

Helio Castroneves is introduced

Pole sitter Dario Franchitti

1:41 until this becomes the ultimate goal

2007-06-30T17:49:00.000-04:00

Victory Lane is a gated community, closed to all but those who master the track and achieve dominance over the field.

You have to be ready with 1:53 to go

2007-06-30T17:37:00.000-04:00

The guy in the white is an inspector, and he has a laptop hooked right in to the car. The car is running, and almost everything that can be measured, from RPMs to fuel intake, is restricted. P.S. You haven't lived until you've breathed in race car exhaust from five feet away.

2:54 until the green flag drops

2007-06-30T16:35:00.000-04:00

It's race day, I'm at the track, and since no Indy Car event would be complete without a picture of Danica Patrick, here you go.

5:13 until these cars will be going 180 mph

2007-06-30T14:17:00.000-04:00

Pre-race activity in the garage as the crews prepare Milka Duno's (#23) and Marco Andretti's (#26) cars.

5:29 until race time!

2007-06-30T14:01:00.000-04:00

It's Indy Car day at RIR, and in the spirit of live blogging I am going to attempt to document the day's events in real time. Not the turn-by-turn results on the track -- for god's sake, just turn on the TV -- but activity in the pits and on the infield. We'll see how this goes. For now, the first quiet moments before everything heats up.

No touching!

2007-06-18T16:08:00.000-04:00

Looks like the lunchroom at Fairfax County Middle School is as strict as the visitation room at Orange County prison.

Kauffman Stadium - check!

2007-06-18T14:58:00.000-04:00

I have been to more baseball parks in the Midwest than any other region. Excluding Cleveland, I've now been to a park in every major league city in Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, and Minnesota (though the inclusion of those last two states may depend on your definition of the boundaries of the midwest). But thanks to the destruction of a couple of 1960's all-purpose relics, I still have three parks to get to. Of higher priority, though, are the two New York parks which each have one year left, Fenway, and Oakland if they ever get serious about a new baseball only stadium.

Another one down, 21 to go

2007-05-22T16:51:00.000-04:00

I'll write more about San Diego later, but for now I wanted to note that Petco Park has been added to my list of ballparks I've been to. I will state for the record that I loudly booed the Padres' 1984 National League championship during the starting lineups. From the third row of the upper deck, the view of the field was great, the scoreboard was crystal clear and ads were limited, and the fish tacos were quite tasty.

What are the odds?

2007-05-14T00:45:00.000-04:00

I went to a Carbon Leaf show last year at Canal Club, which was your basic local concert -- good tunes, tons of sweaty people packed into the place, really a fun night. The worst part was a guy standing in front of me who, in between every song, yelled "Play The Boxer" as loud as he could. After three or four times that got real old, so I (also being a drunk with a big mouth) yelled, "No! Play Freebird!" (Note that I didn't really want or expect Carbon Leaf to actually play it, I just wanted this guy to realize that he was being an ass and shut up, which he, in fact, did.) A few people around me laughed, but right away the lead singer Barry said, "I got your free bird right here," and he flipped me off! That was actually amusing to me, since I was surprised that he even heard me.

Fast forward to the premiere of Friday Cheers the other night, starring Richmond's own Carbon Leaf. Another good show on a great night to be outside listening to music, and the boys did a great jam at the end of Blue Ridge Laughing. Then, just as the jam was winding down toward the big finish, they did a quick key change and launched right into the unmistakable notes of Freebird! I'm not saying it was definitely because of what I yelled at their last Richmond show, I'm just saying I have the power to influence bands' setlists.

The Big Dance

2007-03-15T15:10:00.000-04:00

After much consternation, tea leaf reading, and consultations with the Magic 8-Ball (painted orange to commemorate the season), I have made my NCAA Tournament picks. I had no problems picking three Virginia schools to win their first games, including VCU, who I've seen about 15 times this year and I think can match up with an overseeded Duke team. Sorry ODU, but loyalty to Indiana trumps your hot finish to the regular season. I can't remember another bracket in which so few lower seeds jumped out at me as being upset worthy. Now that Cinderellas of seasons past (Southern Illinois, Nevada) are the higher seeds, the disparity between the 3's and the 14's is greater than ever. I hate to pick so many top seeds, but when it comes to putting my money where my mouth is (not to mention grabbing invaluable bragging rights), this is how I had to fill it out.

Obligatory Notre Dame note: Yes, they're making the Elite 8. Deal with it.

Is it spring yet?

2007-02-07T17:18:00.000-05:00

I swear, winter can't end soon enough, sports-wise. Consider the events of the first six weeks of 2007:

January 3 -- attended the Sugar Bowl, which for about 28 minutes was somewhat competitive, but then the walls came crashing in as LSU outscored ND 27-0 in the last 32. It took many, many test tube shots from in between girls' cleavage to dull the pain.
January 6 -- attended the Notre Dame basketball game at Georgetown, which traditionally has been a victory for the Irish. They even won their first game in DC this year, against Maryland, which is part of the reason I had high hopes for the Big East season and this game in particular. But instead I had a front row seat (literally) to see the Hoyas do early what the Tigers did late -- assaulted us by going up 21-6 on their way to an 18 point win. (Apparently my bad luck at football games has crossed over to basketball. The last four ND games I've been to have made me sick to my stomach:

2007 Gtown L, 66-48 (fewest points under Brey)
2005 NC St. L, 61-48 (ditto)
2005 Gtown L, 55-54 (lost on a dunk with 0.1 seconds left)
2004 Rutgers L, 81-70 (run out of the RAC)

By now I'm convinced that if I went to see our #1 hockey team play Southern Miss, we'd lose by four goals.)

Then, in between watching ND lose even more inexplicably to St. Johns and South Florida, I managed to enjoy the Bears' first Super Bowl run in my memory. The game even started as well as possible, with the opening kickoff return and an INT of Manning. Then the football gods realized that I'm a Bears fan and made Rex Grossman's hands extra super slippery.

I have no idea what I did to anger whatever deities control these things. I try to live a clean existence, devoid of bearing false witness against my teams' abilities and coveting my neighbor's championships. I even make sacrifices at the altar of Cub fandom every summer. Surely seeing a few wins isn't too much to ask. While I won't stop going to games, I may go to fewer until the ratio gets a little better. I would say I'm going to quit cold turkey, but that would be untrue because (a) I can talk a big game but we all know there's no way I'm never going to another game again, and (b) if I did, the curse would definitely extend to games that I watch on TV, making the only possible scenario for my teams to win involve me climbing a mountain somewhere off the grid, completely unable to follow the games. Since that defeats the purpose of being a fan, I'm just going to have to put my head down and push through this. All I know is that if it is some kind of test, it better not last 40 damn years.

Seat with a view

2007-01-11T17:36:00.000-05:00

I went to the top of the tallest structure in Henrico County today -- the new seating stands at RIR. Not only do you get a great view of the track, with unobstructed sightlines to all points of the D, but the view of Richmond is pretty good too. I'm not surprised that all 7,000 or so seats in the addition were taken by existing season ticket holders who wanted to upgrade. Check out my pictures from on high.

The rest of 2006

2006-12-29T16:42:00.000-05:00

Has it really been over two months since I've posted here? I guess time flies when the year is winding down and, among other things, you're...

buying a house,
working from Nashville
and Louisville,
visiting LA for Thanksgiving
(and watching yet another demoralizing Irish loss),
stopping by Indianapolis
and Cincinnati,
and doing the whole Christmas thing.

Reverse angle

2006-10-27T17:38:00.000-04:00

I found this picture of me, my dad, and Jeff Samardzija from last Saturday. (Click on it to see a larger version.) Yeah, there's a few thousand people that got into the frame, but it was still a great moment for us three Valparaisans.

It's how you finish

2006-10-23T21:37:00.000-04:00

"There are no bad wins." -- Charlie Weis

"That was the best individual effort I've ever seen in any sport in my entire life!" -- the guy sitting behind me, after Jeff Samardzija caught the winning touchdown pass

I'll stipulate to both of those remarks if only because Saturday's win got me off the schneid. Things had better be better this week against Navy, though, when I'll be going for two straight.

Beat the streak

2006-10-19T13:43:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow I leave for South Bend and the ND-UCLA game. If we don't win this one, there will be problems -- most notably because UCLA is a team we should handle with relative ease. The bigger problem for me is that a loss would extend my streak of seeing the Irish fall in games ranging from the heartbreaking to the embarrassing, all of which simply ruined my weekend:

09/16/2006	Michigan	Notre Dame, IN	L, 47-21
01/02/2006	Ohio State (Fiesta Bowl)	Tempe, AZ	L, 34-20
10/15/2005	USC	Notre Dame, IN	L, 34-31
10/23/2004	Boston College	Notre Dame, IN	L, 24-23
11/01/2003	Florida State	Notre Dame, IN	L, 37-0
10/25/2003	Boston College	Chestnut Hill, MA	L, 27-25

Sad to think that I haven't seen the Irish win in person since 2002. I've also been at three of Weis' four losses. That is simply because I go to the big games and not because I'm bad luck at all. See for yourself Saturday.

Remember me?

2006-10-08T21:34:00.000-04:00

I'm in Lumberton, NC on business and just got back to the hotel from dinner -- at the exact same group of restaurants we stopped at with the Bandits on the trip to Augusta. That coincidence itself isn't worth mentioning, except that it brings to mind certain other events of that weekend. I figured now is as good a time as any to post the following story, which was written after the weekend of June 1.

Thursday afternoon started out with a drinking emergency. The Clubhouse, where we usually do our pre-kickball drinking, would not be available, so I needed a place to get hammered before our game at 7:30. Adding to my sense of urgency was the fact that I wasn’t going in to work the next day; all I had to do was get to Brandermill in the morning and catch the Bandits’ bus to Augusta. So I really didn’t want to waste any time that could otherwise be spent pouring alcohol down my throat. I e-mailed my kickball teammate Ford, who is renowned for his willingness and ability to throw a few back, and he graciously invited everyone to his house for the pregame. Before our previous 7:30 game, almost the whole team showed up at the clubhouse and we all had a really good time, so I was hoping a bunch of people would stop by Ford’s that night. Turns out it was just me and him, which didn’t bother me at all since the bar was fully stocked. He also had a couple of glass jars of some discolored liquid with pieces of fruit floating in it that he had made last weekend. I didn’t even want to know what was in it; I could only assume that it contained significant quantities of grain alcohol and was at least 125 proof. After a couple of glasses of that – and eating the fruit, which by then had become engorged after absorbing the alcohol – I switched to rum and cokes until it was time to go to the field. Though I didn’t drink anything during the game, I sure was feeling the effects as my hand-eye coordination deteriorated the last couple of innings.

After the game, nobody on the team wanted to go to Mulligan’s. This disappointed me not so much because I really wanted to hang out with them, but because of the overall attitude that they were too busy for kickball activities, which all but statutorily mandate that you go to the bar after the game. I was still going to go to Mulligan’s anyway, but Ford suggested Buddy’s instead and I was fine with that too. I stopped home quickly to change, and, not knowing when I would return home, packed my bag for the football trip. By the time I made it to Buddy’s I had not had a drink for over two hours but was still pretty hammered. I sat at the bar, ordered a beer, and that’s the last thing I could swear to remember happening. Bits and pieces of the evening stick out, like the beer I spilled all over the bar, and seeing some kind of hockey on the TV. Somehow in my stupor, it occurred to me to close my tab, but when I asked the bartender for my check, he told me it was already taken care of. Puzzled, I asked again, and he reiterated that my tab was taken care of. That was enough to convince me, and I put it out of my mind. The only other thing I remember about Buddy’s was talking to some girl, and quite possibly hugging on her and making an ass out of myself. The next thing I know, it’s 8:15 am and I am being woken up by my phone. I checked my alarm clock and saw that I’d set it for 7, but either not turned it on or (more likely) slept right through it. I panicked a little, because the bus was leaving at 9:00. I got dressed, threw an entire bottle of Advil in my bag and, when drinking some orange juice in a futile effort to hydrate myself, noticed that the shirt I had worn the night before was on the kitchen counter. This is all in between throwing up a couple of times and saying to myself over and over, just get to Brandermill and you can sleep on the bus all day. I was driving on 288 thinking to myself, I’m going to cut it pretty close to 9:00, but I probably still won’t be the guy that holds everyone up because no previous trip had started within a half hour of the time they said we were leaving. So at 9:02 by my car’s clock, I was turning into the Brandermill driveway from Hull Street, and Travis called to ask where the hell I was because the bus was ready. I was just stunned. “You gotta be fucking kidding me” was the exact thought that went through my head. I threw the equipment underneath the bus, threw my bag in the empty seat in front of mine, mumbled an apology to the coach who was sitting across from me, and threw myself in my seat and was dead to the world before the bus turned on Hull Street.

I didn’t wake up until we stopped for lunch in Fayetteville, and was still mostly feeling like shit but decided to at least get off the bus and drink some water. But as soon as I entered the restaurant, my stomach started growling at me fiercely. I thought, OK, let’s try some food, and the next thing I know I’ve put away two pieces of fried chicken, hush puppies, and a huge serving of potato salad. Feeling much, much better, it occurred to me to check my wallet and see if I had actually retrieved my credit card last night. There it was, and in the right place no less. The post-drinkathon inventory continued as I checked my outgoing calls to see if I’d drunk dialed anyone the night before. There were no outbound calls, and also to my relief, no incoming calls. I did check my contacts, and there was a new entry that wasn’t there Thursday afternoon – someone named Margo. I laughed to myself, thoroughly entertained at the thought that in my state last night I was still charming enough to get someone to give me her phone number. How freakin’ drunk was she, I wondered.

The rest of the weekend was relatively uneventful – I didn’t relapse at all and was feeling normal by Friday night. We got back early Sunday morning, I slept much of the day, and first thing Monday I was on the road to Charlotte for work. I spent the night there, and as my last meeting with the Davidson honchos Tuesday morning was wrapping up, we exchanged business cards – and I found that I didn’t have any with me. This was slightly strange to me, since I make it a point to always carry at least a couple of cards in my wallet, but I just figured I forgot to put any more in there since I gave my last one away some time ago. That had happened before. I got back to my office Tuesday afternoon and checked my messages, and saw this in my work e-mail:

From: Margo [lastname]
To: [my work e-mail]
Sent: Friday, June 02, 2006 9:10 AM
Subject: Buddy's...

Tim,

Hey! Remember me?? Sorry for the performance at Buddy's last night... I'm usually not that girl. Anyway... email me later (if you want) because I had SUCH a good time hanging out with you!

Ah, so that’s where my last business card went! There’s no other way she could possibly have gotten my work e-mail. And apparently, I was not only so charming that she gave me her number, but my game was so good that she had to e-mail me at 9:10 the next morning to tell me how much fun she had! Granted, that may indicate that she’s a little bit crazy, but even if that’s the case, sign me up. I got this crazy train started and I’m staying on to see where it ends!

Time keeps on ticking, ticking

2006-10-05T14:22:00.000-04:00

After making the rounds of a few Fan bars last night, I was walking from Easy Street to my car near Buddy's. I passed a couple of places I haven't been to in quite some time and got to reminiscing. I remember a time when I hung out in Commercial Taphouse at least once a week, and I remember some of the people I hung out there with. It seems to me that almost every time I was there, I met a new friend of a friend, some of whom became semi-regulars, some of whom were simply passing through town on the journey of their life. Everyone had a story, and it's the stories I remember more than what they looked like or even their names. Of my group of friends at the time, some are still good friends of mine, others have moved or started families or otherwise just faded away. I still remember the good times and on occasions like last night wonder what some of them are up to these days.

I wonder if they remember me.

FUCK YEAH!!!

2006-09-24T00:45:00.000-04:00

Fighting Irish predictions

2006-09-02T17:32:00.000-04:00

With just 9,120 seconds til kickoff, I am making my official predictions for the 2006 season. Looking at the schedule, it's hard to identify any teams with a really good chance of outscoring us. We have a veteran offensive line, a senior Heisman candidate quarterback, two awesome receivers, and enough talent in the backfield that Charlie is moving our second leading rusher to linebacker. Speaking of which, the defense will be improved, probably well beyond the point at which they would be just good enough to keep teams under 30 points (which itself would lead to at least nine wins).

Georgia Tech - win by 21. GT DC John Tenuta is capable of putting together a gameplan against the Irish (to the extent that Brock Spack isn't), but his players are just too green to stop all of Charlie's weapons. Reggie Ball is cause for concern, but he can't lead his team to the >30 points it would take to win.

Penn State - win by 29. They lost their all-Big 10 quarterback and all of their DBs, three of whom are being replaced by kids who played other positions last year. This being the all-time highest requested ticket in ND history, those that are in the stadium will be extra spirited (yeah right) and it'll be a long day for the Lions.

Michigan - win by 13. Our offense comes back to earth a little bit as Michigan will be pretty solid throughout the defense. Big coaching edge to ND as Charlie will find ways to move the ball while Lllloyd once again chokes on the road (0-3 at ND, 15-9 on the road the last five years).

Michigan State - win by 15. This will be one of the hardest games of the year and closer than the score indicates. They do lose a few guys on defense and we should be able to run and pass with equal effectiveness. Charlie did a tremendous job getting the team mentally ready for USC last year, and he'll have plenty of ammunition to do the same this week.

Purdue - win by 24. If Brock Spack didn't know what hit him last year, imagine how he'll feel after his defense, which loses virtually the entire line and secondary, gets rolled early and often. The Boilers might be able to score a few points, but especially when they match up against ND, they're the same old sorry-ass Purdue.

Stanford - win by 31. Thus begins the stretch of the schedule wherein Quinn can pad his Heisman numbers and the second stringers can get some meaningful minutes. Stanford's offense will be improved (though they didn't exactly overwhelm us as a unit last year) but their defense will be terrible even by Pac 10 standards.

UCLA - win by 24. The Bruins will be chasing their tail offensively without Olson, Lewis, and the Man Train. I like the fact that we're adding teams like this to the schedule. Since we'll be playing more Big East teams in future years and consistently looking for a scrub military academy or Duke-level team to fill out the home schedule without a return trip, we should take any opportunity to get a home and home with mid to high level BCS teams like UCLA.

Navy - win by 31. Despite the fact that Navy has a bye week before this game, is sure to play us tough, and could actually be 7-0 coming in, it will be a workmanlike win in which we won't be able to help getting points in bunches. Dibs on Bob's couch.

North Carolina - win by 21. Offensive production may drop a little once Quinn throws for his five touchdowns and sits for much of the second half. As a sub-average ACC team, the Heels will be overmatched in Brock Spack like proportions. NBC's ratings plummet.

Air Force - win by 17. The closest thing to a trap game we'll have all year. This is where the mental gameplanning will take on more importance as the only talk will be about finishing undefeated and looking ahead to USC and the bowl game. Keeping everyone's focus on the opponent at hand will be a new challenge for Charlie.

Army - win by 39. Army is an improving team that may match up well against the Arkansas States, Baylors, and VMIs on their schedule, but will still be outclassed against the Irish. It will be a big party to send the seniors off in style. They should give us the Commander in Chief's trophy after this win.

USC - win by 9. There is NO FUCKING WAY we will lose to these assholes again.

So there you have it, the 13th perfect regular season in Fighting Irish history. It will simply take an extremely well-balanced team to knock us off, and after Michigan, the best balanced team we see will be the Trojans. There are a couple of other good looking teams out there, and we'll see one of them in the bowl game. And no matter whether it's Texas, Miami, or even a rematch with Ohio State, we will be in a great position to keep the big #1 on Grace Hall lit up all winter long.

Bull's eye

2006-08-30T17:15:00.000-04:00

I had another follow-up exam with my PRK doctor yesterday. If it seems like I haven't talked much about it lately, that's right and that's by design. As you might imagine, when recovering from eye surgery, no news is good news. I had no problems since my last checkup so this was (hopefully) going to be just another routine visit. The good news started immediately: I was measured at 20/20 in both eyes, and just a shade under 20/20 when using both eyes. (That's my story, anyway; the 20/20 line came into slightly clearer focus after I took the little paddle off of the other eye.) Then doc took a good look at my corneas, and mentioned how he is still absolutely amazed at what laser surgery can do and how natural the eye looks even after being zapped. I also heard the word "perfect" escape his lips as he examined my baby blues.

Later I had a corneal topography for the first time since before surgery. This is a method of illustrating exacly how bad your vision is across every minute coordinate of the field of vision. The eye pictured to the left is probably about 20/80 - 20/100 with some astigmatism. I saw my results before surgery, and both eyes were almost completely red and orange -- ie, very poor vision. Now that my corneas have healed and stabilized, another topography would finally be meaningful, and it's a thing of beauty. For both eyes, it's all blue with small tinges of blue-green around the edges. I think the doctor's office is counting me as one of their success stories, and I'm certainly ecstatic about how things have turned out.

False alarm

2006-08-21T17:25:00.000-04:00

I had my "let's make sure we drilled the right tooth" appointment with my dentist today, and I am glad to report that he did get the right tooth, despite the notes made during the original checkup. My biggest question (after the obvious) was, why did I have to be here? I sat in the chair, even had the paper bib on, but all he did was look at the x-ray and decree that #29 was fine. Brush, floss, rinse, and we'll see you in six months.

Oops!

2006-08-18T15:51:00.000-04:00

I got the first filling of my life yesterday. It was fairly uneventful, my mouth only hurt for a little while after the anesthetic wore off, and you can't even tell where the filling is. If you think that sounds too good to be true, you're right. I got a voicemail from my dentist later in the evening. Any time a medical professional calls you himself, and says "About your filling this afternoon...give me a call on my cell phone," it's not because he just wants to thank you for being a good patient. Sure enough, when I talked to him he told me that he may have filled the wrong tooth. The confusion came after he looked at the x-ray of tooth #20, worked on tooth #20, but later saw that the notes from the initial exam only discussed tooth #29. Isn't that something that he should notice before he starts drilling? Could he have consulted with the hygienist that made the notes? Now I'm going to have this hanging over my head all weekend before I can get back in there Monday "just to make sure" that he filled the right tooth.

The countdown

2006-08-08T13:47:00.000-04:00

25 days until kickoff! I thought I would never last when it was about 60 days til kickoff, and now that practice has started it's a sure sign that the season is in sight, yet the waiting becomes that much harder given the news, observations, and speculations every day that are just enough of a tease that the days seem to go by slower. Notre Dame isn't making things easier since they've started to post videos of practices and interviews with players and coaches. That's a surefire productivity killer at work, and will only quench my desire to see a real football game for so long.

10 days until Snakes on a Plane opens! You can't stop the hype surrounding this flick. Of course, we already know how the S.O.A.P. story will end: with the Hollywood snobs calling it one of the worst movies of all time, while the cult following it gets will keep the movie alive through web sites, chat rooms, DVD sales, and probably even Rocky Horror-like audience participation lines. Sure, bad movies come and go all the time, as do those that find a niche audience. But the unique thing about this movie is how it came to be one that will straddle both categories. Once the concept of the movie became public knowledge, people began speculating as to the details of the plot and whether Samuel L. Jackson's character would be similar to the bad asses he's played in other movies, i.e., the kind of guy who would say, "There are too many motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!" The entire discussion became a catch phrase and a punchline, yet still intrigued many potential fans of the movie. Interest of all kinds was sustained and significant enough that the producers reopened shooting to add more scenes that contained exactly what fans on the internet were asking for! Snakes on a Plane is almost certainly the first big budget studio film to deliver that kind of content to such a large test audience. One thing's for sure -- it will have the highest opening weekend among internet nerds of any movie not based on a comic book.

9 days until I get my first filling, ever. My last visit to the dentist was a routine cleaning until they took x-rays using their fancy new digital equipment and showed me the "films" on the computer screen. The imaging is so good they can zoom in on any area of your mouth, and digitally analyze problem spots that the naked eye can't even detect. That's what revealed an erosion of my enamel on the side of one tooth, probably, the hygienist said, because of drinking too much pop -- ironic, because I gave the stuff up in February. They won't even have to drill or put me under; it's more of a preventive measure. I've never had the slightest problem with my teeth -- no cavities, no fillings, no braces, no retainers, no wisdom teeth removed, nothing. I'm just pissed that after a lifetime of faithful brushing, my streak has come to an end.

3 days until the opening of Pulse. I have no real interest in this movie other than I was surveyed about it at the theater this spring. I watched the trailer and gave them truly honest feedback about how well I knew the actors, what parts of the story appealed to me, etc. I only wonder how my feedback was taken, because the guy taking the survey started fudging my answers starting with the simplest first question. He asked where I was from, I said Richmond, and he said, "Well, we'll put Washington, DC, because otherwise we can't use your answers." Later he asked how many times I went to the theater each year, and when I gave a number he didn't like, he nearly doubled it, again so I would fit the profile of the moviegoer they wanted to research. I'm happy to give you feedback on your stupid movie, but if I'm not really someone you're trying to market it to, don't waste my time and even though the survey is anonymous, don't make me out to be someone I'm not. Fucking Hollywood.

1 day until my birthday. I'm getting old.

There are too many motherfucking snakes in this motherfucking car!

2006-07-14T15:39:00.000-04:00

This cannot be mere coincidence. Evidently despondent over the too-long wait for the release of Snakes on a Plane, some prankster in Oregon put dozens and dozens of snakes in an old lady's car. They were just harmless garter snakes, but it's obvious where this is leading -- and Hollywood would be foolish not to totally steal back the stolen idea and get another sequel in the can. First, put garter snakes in an old lady's car and hope that she simply dies from shock. Then once everyone is lulled into complacency after being educated on the benignity of garter snakes, start dumping poisonous snakes in people's cars. Once completely terrified of both planes and cars, people will start taking the train, and volume four, Snakes on a Train, is ready for production. Then we'll be just one Frogs on a Boat screenplay away from an immortal franchise!

There are too many motherfucking mice on this motherfucking plane!

2006-07-12T14:52:00.000-04:00

Life really does imitate art. We are only 37 days away from the opening of Samuel L. Jackson's Snakes on a Plane. Chances are you've heard of it, or read about it, or seen one of the hundreds of fan-generated trailers or t-shirts. And while snakes on a plane are definitely scary, they're no less dangerous than mice on a plane. Just based on this one real-life incident, the sequel practically writes itself. Mice can chew through insulation and wiring, potentially causing a fire, not to mention leaving droppings all over the place. How's this for horror: the oxygen mask pops down, and you find a dead mouse in it. Crash scene investigator Mel Burkhardt said, "The potential for the catastrophic mishap is there and if you have one mouse, you have two. (If) you have two, you have a family." Tell me that's not something the rodentologist in the movie would say!

Great news, everyone!

2006-07-06T16:48:00.000-04:00

Funny how the internet works: whatever you're reading, you're just a few clicks away from something totally unrelated, but even more important. Case in point today, as I started with the Drudge report but after a few clicks I found the news that really made my day: Futurama will be coming back with four feature length movies! They will also be chopped up into half hour episodes that will air on Comedy Central sometime in 2008.

I really enjoyed this show (still do, on Adult Swim and DVD) and was quite disappointed when they cancelled it. What really appealed it to me, and what makes each episode hold up over several viewings, is that it is true to itself and the universe in which it takes place. A number of motifs and storylines reappear over the original run of the series, some simply for the sake of general silliness, and some that explain why things are the way they are. There are enough science related jokes to appeal to the nerd in me, but the major appeal is that Futurama can, in the span of just minutes, make you laugh out loud and then make you cry your eyes out. It truly was a shame the way Fox moved the show around, pre-empted it, and held some episodes for the summer. Kudos to those who realized that the show still has appeal and got back on board. Now, is there a chance we'll only have to wait a couple of years before someone brings back Arrested Development...?

It was so hot outside

2006-07-05T12:08:00.000-04:00

It was a hot, humid night, and I was as sticky as melted caramel -- perfect conditions to spend the fourth of July with the Dave Matthews Band! I cruised down to Virginia Beach last night to check out the concert, and first I just have to point out that I am on some kind of sick streak in timing these things. Traffic was light, and I pulled into the parking lot shortly after 8:00. I bought a ticket from a group of women that just wanted to get rid of their extra (at my going rate of $30), went into the amphitheater and made a beeline for the bathroom. When I got out, the masses were rushing to the seats and the crowd was quite loud, and I found a spot on the lawn as the band was taking the stage and kicking into the opening notes of Everyday without a single wasted second.

The show was great through the first handful of songs, which included What Would You Say and Say Goodbye. There was the by now typical mid-show lull, when they played some newer stuff and songs that I just don't get into. It was easier to take this time because it was sandwiched by great jams on Crush and Jimi Thing. They only played one really new song, as in unreleased as of yet, Break Free, and I am really digging that tune! The main set ended with Louisiana Bayou, a good song that gets the full jam treatment live, but I was holding out for Tripping Billies, a song I haven't heard live for a few years now. After a solid Pig to open the encore, they predictably ended with Stay, but on this night they ruined that song for any future performances ever. As the song was ending, with the thousands of repetitions of "Don't it, make you wanna, stay," fireworks started going off right over the lawn! Not that they were necessarily timing it, but it was still cool to hear "Don't it," BOOM "make you wanna," BOOM "stay" as the song wound down. When it was over, Dave said "Thank you very much, good night. Enjoy the fireworks," and they continued for about ten minutes! The video screens showed American flags and Jimi Hendrix' version of The Star-Spangled Banner played over the PA. A very cool thing for the band to do for their fans.

Overall it was a good show and the band was clearly in a groove all night. Not among the best DMB shows I've seen but probably in the top third. It was a good time as always on the lawn and the energy was high throughout. Judging from the setlist, the jams, and the vibe of the evening I'd say the DMB concert experience is better now than it has been the last couple of years and I am quite interested in checking out the shows in Charlottesville in a couple of months.

Open wheel action

2006-06-27T15:55:00.000-04:00

Highlights of a Saturday at Richmond International Raceway:

The fact that the track is the opposite of every football stadium I’ve been to. Tailgating is allowed just like anywhere, but the folks at RIR encourage you to take the tailgater with you wherever you go – through the parking lots, at the sponsors’ exhibits, and into the seats too! It was like a big block party, with everyone carrying their beers everywhere. And with no deadline to stop drinking, I could pace myself and have a nice continuous buzz throughout the day.
Access to the infield and pit road. With our press passes, we could go anywhere in the infield before the race. At one point we were following a crew pushing one of the cars from the garage to the trailer, just because we had the opportunity to be two feet away from an actual Indy car. We walked up and down pit road about 45 minutes before the race and checked out all the crews setting up their pits and getting the cars ready. And of course, our tailgater was easy to set up since we only had to worry about a cooler of beer – the media room provided us with all the food and water we wanted all day long.
Indy racing can’t hold a candle to Nascar in Richmond. About 45,000 people came to the 107,000-capacity track for this race. Not only did the quantity of people make it easier to move around, but the quality of spectator was quite inoffensive – the redneck element was gone but not missed from this race.
A ¾ mile track is superior to a 2.5 mile track for the spectators. We sat about 30 rows up in turn 1 for the race and could see every inch of the track, with especially good views of pit road and the start/finish line. We could see every pass, every maneuver, and all the wrecks (such as they were – just a couple of tire blowouts, no multiple-car pileups). I may even have to amend my previous remark about racing being better on TV.
There’s no united front. One of the best things about going to a football game is everyone’s rooting for either one team or the other. It makes for a great atmosphere before the game, during the game, and (if you win) after the game. Since the race fans – of those that even root for a particular driver -- are divided amongst the 19 drivers, there is much less of a rah-rah atmosphere in the stands. Everyone cheers at the beginning, then again at the end, but even when a driver wipes out or gets passed, there’s really no huge reaction from the crowd. Though I’m sure there’s a little more excitement during a Nascar race, I’d still say that no car race can even come close to matching the experience of a big college football game.
Racing is what you make it. I was minimally familiar with the Indy car series and about half of its drivers before Saturday. (I am equally familiar with them now, after attending the race.) I made it a point to take in as much as possible and just have a good time. And you know what? I did. Sure, the infield pass made it a lot cooler, but just being at the track, tailgating with friends, and seeing the race was a really fun experience that I enjoyed a lot. I’ve done RIR on training wheels – now bring on Nascar this fall!

Danica and me

2006-06-23T13:41:00.000-04:00

Even though I grew up in Indiana, home to the greatest spectacle in racing, I never had much of an interest in attending a car race. It always seemed like a sport that translates better to TV, especially if you have a bad seat at the track. Plus you get to see replays of all the crashes. Nonetheless, with the Indy cars racing in Richmond tomorrow, I got press passes for the weekend. Yesterday Chris and I made an appearance at Media Day, which really was a day. There was testing and press conferences in the early morning and later in the evening, but when we were there at noontime there were a couple of cars taking a couple of practice laps, and that was about it. We walked by the garages, where the crews were working on the cars, but we couldn't get too close to them and it wasn't much to see anyway. So we decided to get out of there and were walking past the trailers to our car when walking around the corner came one Danica Patrick. She was all alone, no entourage or security detail, dressed casually in a white t-shirt and shorts. We said hi to her, chatted for a minute, and mentioned that during the downtime of Thursday afternoon she was just hanging out, but come Saturday we'd never be able to find her. "That's the way it is," she said, as she got on her bike and rode off across the infield. Of course, we didn't have a pen or a camera to in any way document the occasion, but it was still a cool moment, especially because even in the short time Danica was in my presence, it was evident that she wanted me.

Bandits say goodbye to AIFL

2006-06-20T09:34:00.000-04:00

The Bandits' reign as AIFL champions is over, because the league and some other teams' owners used a relatively minor circumstance to put the team in a literal no-win situation. You'll probably never get two people to agree on any of the facts, but as best I can tell, here's what happened. Teams are supposed to exchange game film of their respective previous games the week before they play each other, and furthermore are supposed to send the tape the day after the game. Earlier this year, the Bandits didn't even receive the tape from the Rebels before the two teams played. After the Bandits' last game against the Vipers, knowing that they would play the Rebels next, the Bandits held on to their tape for a couple days in retribution. They did send the tape in the middle of last week, but again didn't even receive the Rebels' tape until the morning of the game! With this not being the first time that happened -- and having received no support from the league when complaining about it before -- the Bandits focused on actually preparing for a football game rather than bitching about the tape. The Rebels had different priorities.

Sometime late Monday morning, the Rebels' front office contacted the league, which in turn called the Bandits to inform them that they would have to pay a fine of (pulling a number out of thin air...) $3000 -- before kickoff that evening. Momentarily looking past the exorbitant amount of the fine, the Bandits mentioned that the Rebels were even later with their tape and should be fined too. The league said, in almost as many words, "I don't believe you. I make the decisions; you owe the fine and they don't." The Bandits knew they were being set up and chose to make a stand, declined to pay the fine, and accepted having to forfeit the playoff game to the Rebels.

It's no secret that the league has had its problems and at any given moment is in some degree of financial trouble. Yet the Bandits have always been a model franchise, paying their players on time, paying their rent to the Coliseum, paying the referees as they were supposed to, and still running a tight ship on game days and treating everyone with respect. The financial troubles of other teams is well documented, and the on- and off-field behavior of other organizations, while varying widely, often paled in comparison to the treatment they got when they came to Richmond. Clearly the league thought they could bully the Bandits into paying this trumped up fine (and $3000 worth of their own unpaid bills).

But the true motivation came from even deeper seated motives. Whether or not the league was out to get the Bandits, and if so to what extent, doesn't matter when you consider the vested interest the league has in some of its teams at the expense of others. The league owned, among other teams, the Rebels themselves, until earlier this season when they were sold to the same people who own the Renegades -- the only team to beat the Bandits this year and the team that had the most to lose if the Bandits continued in the playoffs. So it was equally the Renegades ownership that complained about the game tapes, had the ear of the league, and pushed for draconian punishment.

I've written and talked at length about the crap the AIFL has pulled in the past, and it's clear enough that they are not about fairness in any sense of the word. They put out a press release about this situation that I'm not even going to link because it's so full of spin and BS and half-truths. I will link to a Times-Dispatch article that furthers my belief that the Bandits are not wholly in the right either. It is admirable to an extent that they did take a stand against the league and forfeit on principle, but you have to consider the fans and the players, who would have played for free just for the chance to go out there and compete for a championship. The regular season would have been a much better setting for the moral high ground. Yet even in the regular season, and the biggest problem I have with this decision, the league would not have gotten the message. They don't understand principles and equality. You can't teach a lesson to someone who won't learn. Unfortunately, the losers in this case are the fans, the players and staff who put in so much time for the love of the game, and those who thought that by doing the right thing, we would avoid the underhandedness of the AIFL.

Make it last all night

2006-06-15T09:59:00.000-04:00

I spent Tuesday in Norfolk setting up new broadcast software in our station there. I went down there Monday afternoon so I could get started first thing in the morning, so before I left I checked the internet for anything interesting going on in Norfolk on a Monday night. Expecting none, I would have been happy to find a good place to have dinner and maybe watch the game, so I was very excited when I learned that Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers would be playing that very night in Portsmouth! I thought, well, my evening’s planned, and headed down 64.

The Harbor Center website said that the show was still not sold out that afternoon, so I liked my chances of getting a cheap ticket in a buyer’s market. I became even more confident during dinner at Paddy O’Brian’s when I overheard some guy ask the bartender if she’d heard of anyone asking about tickets, because he just wanted to get rid of his extra at face value. I smiled to myself, now fully intending to pay a fraction of face value outside the pavilion. The bar was packed when I got there, but right around 8:00 it was as if someone had set off an alarm, the place cleared out so fast. Still playing it cool, I leisurely finished my dinner and waited for showtime to get even closer, all the while admiring my own sense of timing.

Sure enough, by the time I walked to the pavilion the place was pretty full but there were plenty of people still on their way in. Not many of them had extra tickets, and one lady said she had an extra while practically running to the gates, and when I asked here where it was, she yelled over her shoulder “Lawn” as she went through the turnstile. Must not have been too eager to get a few bucks for it. Eventually a guy heard me asking for tickets and came up to me with an extra. Just as he was starting to say something, this really hot girl who couldn’t have been more than 20 came up and asked me if I was looking for an extra ticket. At first I thought she was his shill and was going to get into a fake bidding war with me, but I still humored her and answered, yes I am. Then she started telling me a story about the time she went to a show without a ticket and needed one desperately, and found someone who gave her a ticket for free. All this happened with my potential seller standing right there, so I turned her into my shill, and set her up with questions like “So you really wanted to go to this show pretty badly, huh?” and “Wasn’t it great to find such a kind soul to give you his extra ticket?” After that performance, this poor guy knew it was all over. I didn’t want to just take his ticket for nothing – the chick was hot enough to get away with that but I’m surely not – but we did settle on $30 for a pavilion seat in the Gold Circle. My excellent timing continued as I found my seat just a couple of minutes before the girlfriends and groupies were escorted to the wings of the stage, a sure sign that the band will be out any minute.

Tom Petty has always been on my list of groups I want to see before I (or, more likely, they) die. He certainly didn’t disappoint, playing about a dozen hits with just a couple of new songs and covers mixed in. Most numbers turned into huge singalongs, and on Learning to Fly the audience got a solo during the closing chorus. He pulled out a couple of oldies, and hearing Melinda for the first time, I really enjoyed the keyboard/piano solos. Halfway through the show, Tom introduced the “sister of the band,” Stevie Nicks! I am not really a big fan of hers, but she and Tom Petty did some duets back in the early ‘80s and the crowd gave her a huge ovation. She sang lead on I Need to Know, and while she performed capably, it was immediately evident why in a certain South Park episode everyone confused a goat for her. After a couple of songs she was relegated to side stage to sing backup and was minimally distracting.

The Heartbreakers have had many big hits over the years and there were equally many highlights during the show. You Don’t Know How it Feels, Mary Jane’s Last Dance, You Wreck Me, the big jams on Don’t Come Around Here No More and Runnin’ Down a Dream, and the showstopping American Girl were all excellent. Tom was able to keep the crowd, which predictably skewed older but had plenty of younger fans too, into the whole show, including the new stuff. The Gold Circle seemed to be slightly upper crust, but I’m sure Mary Jane had quite a few dances out on the lawn. The band’s energy was consistent throughout, and while Tom Petty was exactly his laid back and fairly humble self most of the night, during the encore he did get everyone fired up and asked for “the biggest noise this place has ever heard!” He got it, because we knew tonight might never be again.

What do Barry Bonds and I have in common?

2006-06-14T10:12:00.000-04:00

We're not on steroids...anymore.

This morning I took my last two eyedrops of "the clear", the corticosteroid drop that I had been tapering down from the last nine weeks. I am now done with all prescriptions from my PRK, and am only taking the over the counter artificial tears for lubrication. Just as I was promised, my vision has slowly but steadily improved over the past couple of months, to the point where now I can read smaller type in dimmer light than I could before. All must be going well internally too -- at my last checkup a couple weeks ago, the doc was in the room for all of 42 seconds, during which he looked at both my eyes and simply said, "Perfect!" The three month anniversary of my surgery is this Saturday, and the doctor says I can still expect improvement for about three more months! The best vision I've ever known still bumped against the limits to correcting my vision inherent to contact lenses, and I'm seeing as well now as I ever did with contacts. So if there is still room for improvement and I really will see better than I ever have in my life, bring it on!

Bandits close out regular season with offensive dominance, prepare for playoffs

2006-06-12T10:21:00.000-04:00

Bandits 74, Vipers 62

The Bandits jumped out to an early 14-0 lead thanks to a Tim Jones interception return for a touchdown, and held serve the rest of the way to win the regular season finale. Richmond sat on the ball to end both halves, but otherwise scored on every possession, taking a lead of as many as 22 points in the fourth quarter. The Vipers defenders were basically helpless against the talented Bandits receivers all night, and the Bandits wideouts turned wide open catches into even bigger plays with broken tackles during runs after the catch. Chris Field made the play of the game, demolishing Vipers QB Joey Conrad with a hit that left an impression in the turf, and forcing a fumble that traveled 15 yards in the air. The Vipers got chippy after that, but Brandon Isaiah threw a huge block on one of them during a kickoff that gave the Bandits a TKO. Center Dan Rounds was out with an injured finger, and botched long snaps made extra points an adventure. Chris Segaar made a dazzling open field run after scooping up a bad snap and nearly got in for two, and eventually was called on to try a drop-kick extra point that sailed just wide. Bad news came for Richmond in the fourth quarter, when Bishlar Penson and Tim Jones went down on the same play. Bish tore a knee ligament and is out for the playoffs; Tim took a helmet to the back and is questionable. The Bandits finish their second season 12-2 and win a share of their second consecutive regular season title, and will begin defense of their AIFL championship next week!

Player of the Game: Robbie Jenkins, as it's hard to vote against a man who throws for 252 yards and eight touchdowns, including four on his five second half completions. Robbie also showed some nice touch throwing the ball over a defender to a place that only Bryan Still could catch it for the score.

Offensive Stars: Redd Thompson, with five catches for 101 yards and four scores; Bryan Still, who made six grabs for 86 yards and four touchdowns.

Defensive Stars: Nate Daniels, who made an impact in his return to the lineup with an interception, a few passes broken up, and pretty solid coverage on Vipers receivers.

Other Links:	Times-Dispatch writeup
	Bandits review
	Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

Next: Round 1 of the playoffs, vs. Raleigh, Monday 7pm

Bandits hold off Spartans, await home finale

2006-06-07T09:54:00.000-04:00

Bandits 51, Spartans 34

The Bandits jumped out to an early two-touchdown lead and led by as many as 21 in the fourth quarter as solid line play guided an otherwise inconsistent offense to victory in Augusta. Richmond's defense made three first half stops and more than made sure that the Spartans would not be able to outscore the Bandits. New signee Aaron Alexander made his indoor debut and caught three passes for 44 yards and a touchdown. The 6' 6" wideout showed a quick adjustment to the small field and ran good routes all night, including a corner fade pattern on an attempted two-point conversion that proved how effective a tall, athletic receiver can be in the close quarters of AIFL end zones. Tim Jones had a third quarter interception that led to a touchdown which gave the Bandits an insurmountable lead.

Player of the Game: Redd Thompson, with six catches for 89 yards and four touchdowns. Redd also shook off a big hit from two Spartan defenders to score the game's final touchdown that capped a seven play, 5:38 game-icing drive.

Offensive Stars: Dan Rounds, Patrick Cheatham, and Patrick Herd, who gave Robbie Jenkins loads of time to look for his receivers and did not give up a sack all night.

Defensive Stars: Shannon Davis had two interceptions, Lawrence Lewis had 1.5 sacks.

Other Links:	Times-Dispatch summary
	Augusta Chronicle recap
	AIFL overview

Next: vs. Chattahoochee Valley Vipers, Saturday 7pm

Bandits encounter humiliation, clinch home playoff game

2006-05-25T09:38:00.000-04:00

Bandits 113, Ghostchasers 0

The AIFL should be embarrassed at what they're doing to the Ghostchasers "franchise" and by extension to the teams they play. These kids get rounded up a few days before the game, don't get to have meetings or practice together, and have to line up against indoor football veterans who have been conditioning all year long. Here's how bad things were Sunday afternoon: with 5:05 left in the first quarter, the Bandits had run only three plays, gained 38 yards...and led 28-0. Before the 'Chasers fumbled away their fourth turnover of the first half with six seconds to go, Robbie Jenkins was 8 for 8 passing with 6 touchdowns! For their part, the Bandits had little choice but to do what they did: after head-to-head records, total point differential is the next AIFL tiebreaker. If the Bandits make the championship game (between the Northern and Southern champions who will never have played each other), they want to guarantee that it will be played in Richmond. Brandon Isaiah (53 yards, 4 touchdowns) scored with 4:10 left to put the Bandits over the century mark and get a standing ovation from the good-sized crowd at the Coliseum, who understood the circumstances but knew they were seeing AIFL history. The defense had seven takeaways and completed the shutout, allowing exactly 0 yards to the Ghosties' offense. Chris Segaar had three rouges and Mike Jenkins got his first snaps in the fourth quarter, including a rushing TD.

Player of the Game: Robbie Jenkins, who completed 11 of 14 passes for 177 yards and eight touchdowns. He also ran for a score and barely broke a sweat.

Offensive Stars: Redd Thompson, three of whose four receptions went for scores; Marcus Richardson, who had a pair of 32-yard touchdown catches, one of which was a dazzling short catch and open field run through the secondary. Special mention goes to Ghostchasers QB Brandon Elliott, who despite being sacked about a dozen times and having to literally point where on the field he wanted his receivers to line up, kept his chin up and played the entire game.

Defensive Stars: too many to name, but we'll go with Lawrence Lewis, who blocked a field goal and had four and a half sacks; Corey Ellis forced three fumbles and notched 3.5 sacks; Al Dubose had three sacks and two fumble recoveries, one for a touchdown.

Other Links:	Times-Dispatch recap
	Bandits website blurb

Next: at Augusta Spartans, Saturday 6/3 7pm

Bandits win OT thriller, clinch playoff berth

2006-05-15T11:37:00.000-04:00

Bandits 63, Thunder 60 (ot)

The Bandits began their game with the Thunder as if they had their heads in the sand out on the beach. Robbie Jenkins made some poor passes, then got more accurate only to have his receivers drop some easy catches. All this, combined with the Thunder playing like warriors, led to a 21-0 Daytona Beach lead early in the second quarter. The Bandits got on the board thanks to a couple of excellent catches and runs by Marcus Richardson, and the defense got a couple of stops late in the first half with the score at the break 28-15. The teams traded touchdowns in the third quarter, but Richmond blocked two extra points and returned one of them for two to close the gap to eight points. But after another Thunder score and Nick Allison's third interception of the game, the Bandits trailed by 15 points early in the fourth quarter. The defense held, though, finally getting some pressure on Thunder quarterback Oscar Davenport, and registered two straight stops. Jenkins was in a groove, as he would go 9 for 14 with 6 touchdowns in the second half, and with 52 seconds remaining he found Redd Thompson in the end zone for the touchdown and again for the two-point conversion to tie the game. The Thunder responded with a quick scoring drive of their own, but left Jenkins and Thompson with 31 seconds to get back in the end zone. Redd's third TD of the game (and Chris Segaar's extra point) tied the contest with three seconds left, and Andy Eminger missed a field goal at the end of regulation. The Bandits won the overtime coin toss and took the first 4:06 of the five minute frame to set up a Segaar field goal from 19 yards. Pinned at their own 5 yard line after not returning the kickoff, the Thunder had a chance to tie or win in the last 54 seconds. But Davenport tried to throw across the middle, and Shannon Davis made a leaping interception, plucking the ball from in front of the Thunder receiver to ice the game.

Player of the Game: Robbie Jenkins, who engineered the biggest comeback in Bandits history by throwing for 309 yards and 8 touchdowns. His two-point pass to Redd to tie the game was reminiscent of the ending of the Canton game last year, when Robbie hit Redd with an absolute laser to win at the buzzer.

Offensive Stars: Redd Thompson, with 8 catches for 109 yards and three scores; Marcus Richardson, who made four catches for 104 yards and two TDs and sparked the comeback with a chance to show his athletic ability by making some Thunder defenders miss tackles in the open field.

Defensive Stars: Lawrence Lewis, who blocked an extra point, recovered it, then lateraled to Shernard Newby who ran it the rest of the way for two points. Shannon Davis made a highlight reel interception in overtime.

Other Links:	Times-Dispatch writeup
	Daytona Beach News-Journal
	Thunder website recap
	Bandits playoff announcement

Next: vs. AIFL Ghostchasers, Sunday 4pm

Bandits throttle Vipers, tie two records

2006-05-08T16:38:00.000-04:00

Bandits 63, Vipers 24

The Bandits overcame a couple of bad bounces early, took advantage of one later, and steamrolled the Chattahoochee Valley Vipers in the second half to win convincingly Saturday night. Richmond played short ball and long ball early, scoring their first two touchdowns on a one play, one yard drive (after a blocked field goal by Lawrence Lewis) and a six play, 49-yarder to go up 13-0. After the Vipers got in the end zone, their kickoff line-drived off Shernard Newby and bounced right back to a Viper, giving them a chance to tie the game. Unable to do so, the Vipers got the ball back after a Robbie Jenkins pass bounced off Bryan Still's hands, off the wall, and into the arms of defensive lineman Darion Damron. That Valley drive was thwarted by a Shannon Davis interception which he returned 30 yards for a touchdown. The Vipers eventually put together their best drive of the night to pull within two points with five seconds left in the first half. After a touchback, Jenkins threw a bomb to Redd Thompson that was tipped by a Viper defender and plucked out of midair by Marcus Richardson, who was trailing the play, for a touchdown. The Bandits poured it on in the second half, holding the Vipers to just three points and stopping them on their last six possessions.

Player of the Game: Brandon Isaiah, who rushed for 43 yards and a record-tying five touchdowns. Despite running at a defense that was designed to stop the run, Isaiah dominated as the Vipers tired late in the game and became the first true running back in the AIFL to score five TDs in one game.

Offensive Stars: Redd Thompson followed up his Offensive Player of the Week performance with an eight reception, 144 yard effort. He caught one of Robbie Jenkins' three TD passes, amongst a 14 for 24, 248 yard game.

Defensive Stars: Shannon Davis had three interceptions and Alfred Dubose had a sack and numerous tackles for loss early. The rest of the secondary could also be mentioned, as the other four D-backs had an interception each to contribute to the Bandits' record-tying seven INTs.

Other Links:	Times-Dispatch bare bones
	AIFL blurb
	One and a half of the five W's

Next: at Daytona Beach Thunder, Saturday 7pm

My day in court

2006-05-03T16:55:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, I got a parking ticket. Allegedly, I blocked a ramp leading to a crosswalk across the street from my office. In the first place, this infuriated me to no end, because I see cars parked illegally on the streets around the office literally every single day, yet the traffic cops are never anywhere to be found. So when I parked in the vicinity of a ramp and actually got ticketed, I was quite pissed. Secondly, I was outraged at the gall the city had to fine me $100 for this "offense". Usually traffic and speeding violations are punishable by a fine that is just enough to make you want to pay it and be done rather than show up in court. If my ticket had been for $20 or even $40, there's a good chance I would have paid it. But for $100, I contested it, especially when I read section 102-243, the law I was accused of breaking:

(a) Every person receiving written notice of a parking violation, issued by a duly authorized law enforcement officer or agent of the city, may waive the right to appear and to be formally tried for the offense charged in the notice, upon payment of the fine set forth in subsection (b) of this section and specified in the notice. Payment shall be by check, draft or money order, and payment shall be made either:
(1) By presenting the notice and payment in person to the cashier, parking violations section of the department of finance, within 15 days after the date on which the notice of a parking violation was issued; or
(2) By placing the notice and payment in the reply envelope to be provided with the notice, and mailing it to the cashier, parking violations section of the department of finance.
If the notice and payment are mailed, the reply envelope must be postmarked within 15 days after the date on which the notice of a parking violation was issued.

(b) The following fines shall be imposed for parking violations when a person voluntarily waives the right to appear and be formally tried for the offense charged:

The code goes on from there to list the various offenses and their related fines. My first problem was with section (a), which simply gives citizens the right to forego their appearance in court. Seems to me that it's impossible to break that law! Even more outrageous was what I saw in sub-paragraph (b)(2)(a)(7): "Fine of $40 for parking in any location...to include the following places: In front of a ramp leading to the crosswalk at an intersection or located at any other point along a curb, constructed for use of handicapped persons."

So my two-pronged legal strategy this afternoon was first, being charged with violating the wrong code, and failing that, getting my fine reduced by sixty bucks. I was probably the most prepared defendant in Richmond traffic court history. I had copies of all relevant portions of the code, my original ticket and all associated filings, and pictures of the ramp in question which proved that it met the standards of 102-243 (b)(2)(a)(7). Right away, I knew the judge was going to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. The first case was a woman charged with parking longer than the allowed two hours, and from what I heard of her defense, she was in the 7-11 at a certain time before she met Shaniqua on the sidewalk and they drove away in her car. The judge dismissed her case and the ball was rolling. He wasn't so lenient on the guy who parked in front of a fire hydrant (and, like a dumbass, admitted to doing so to the judge), but the girl who parked "on the wrong side of Main Street" and the woman who got towed for parking on the wrong side of the street during street cleaning (while she was "out of the country" -- like nobody's ever tried that excuse before) got off in about thirty seconds.

Seeing all this made me confident that, at worst, I'd have to pay the $40. I first told the judge that section 102-243 was incorrectly applied, to which he responded, "The section that's on the ticket isn't always the section you violated." Before I could point out everything absurd with that statement, he continued, "Did you block the ramp?" I replied, "It was close; I thought I pulled up in front of it enough to clear it." His Honor said, "I'm going to dismiss this, don't do it again." Before I knew it, I was done. No need to split hairs further, no need to debate sub-section (2)(a)(7) versus (4)(b), no need to introduce my pictures as Exhibit A. Justice favors the prepared, and I knew that I had done, as a guy waiting his turn in the courtroom said to me as I left, a "Good job!"

Bandits down Rebels, retain Key to the City Trophy

2006-04-28T14:16:00.000-04:00

Bandits 49, Rebels 40

The Bandits used a dominating 14-minute stretch spanning the final two quarters to pull away from the Raleigh Rebels and take sole possession of second place in the AIFL South. Trailing by six, Robbie Jenkins threw three straight touchdown passes sandwiching two defensive stops. Bryan Still and Redd Thompson made some incredibly athletic catches, and the Bandits’ defense, which allowed Raleigh to score 13 straight points to take the lead in the third quarter, got a fumble forced by Shannon Davis and an interception from Shernard Newby at their one yard line to crush the Rebels’ hopes of a comeback. The defense actually played well throughout the game as they made a goal-line stand in the first quarter and as the game wore on got consistent pressure on Rebel QB David Malino. Shannon Davis returned a missed field goal 54 yards for the Bandits’ first TD.

Player of the Game: Redd Thompson, with seven catches for 150 yards and three touchdowns. One of his scores came on a beautifully run hitch-and-go pattern and another was plucked out of midair as Redd outjumped everyone in the end zone.

Offensive Stars: Brandon Isaiah had 12 carries for 31 yards and a score and was able to get big chunks of yardage on the ground; Al Ford played his first game of the season on the offensive line and kept the Bandits’ final, clock-killing drive alive when he hustled down the field on a Bryan Still reception and recovered Still’s fumble.

Defensive Stars: Shannon Davis, with the forced fumble and a couple of good kick returns, including the TD; linebackers Tim Jones and Kevin Coles, who made their presence known in the offensive backfield and were each in on a sack.

Other Links:	Times-Dispatch "coverage"
	Dave's Football Blog (with pictures of legendary Dorton Arena)
	AIFL recap

Next: at Chattahoochee Valley Vipers, Saturday 7pm

Bandits lose a heartbreaker

2006-04-24T11:46:00.000-04:00

Renegades 47, Bandits 44

In a battle for sole possession of first place in the AIFL Southern Conference, the Bandits fell behind the Rome Renegades by 16 points in the first half. But a Chris Segaar field goal and a Robbie Jenkins to Redd Thompson touchdown pass with 3 seconds left in the half brought the Bandits within five points. They continued riding the momentum for the first 90 seconds of the third quarter, recording an interception which was turned into a 46 yard scoring strike from Jenkins to Bryan Still. After the teams exchanged the lead a couple of times, the Bandits pulled ahead by nine with 3:37 to go when Jenkins found Thompson for the duo's third touchdown. But a Marcus Brady touchdown pass and a Brady two-point run brought Rome within a point, and Danny Marshall knocked the ensuing kickoff through the uprights to tie the game. The Renegade defense stiffened, sacking Jenkins once and forcing Segaar to kick a field goal from two yards deep in his own end zone, which he hit hard enough but pulled to the right. The Renegades took over at their own 10 yard line, and with three seconds left in the game, called on Marshall, who had gone 2-for-4 kicking extra points and 1-for-5 on field goals, for the game winner. From 47 yards, Marshall's kick was true, and the Renegades escaped with a 47-44 win.

Player of the Game: Redd Thompson, who caught nine passes for 123 yards and three touchdowns. He consistently got open against Jermaine Collins, and when Jenkins wasn't under pressure from Rome's front four, Redd was an easy target.

Offensive Stars: Robbie Jenkins, with 279 passing yards and five touchdowns; Bryan Still made a diving catch and alertly got up and ran into the end zone when no defender touched him.

Defensive Stars: Bishlar Penson grabbed his fifth interception of the season; Shannon Davis intercepted a two-point pass attempt and ran it back for two Bandits points.

Other Links:	Times-Dispatch blurb
	Rome News-Tribune writeup

Next: at Raleigh Rebels, Thursday 7:00 pm

We want to be you're consultants

2006-04-18T13:49:00.000-04:00

I received a letter today that began like this:

Dear Sir or Madam,

This letter and the enclosed information are intended to introduce our organization to a potential customer like you. As well as, inform you of our eVA participation.

[Company] works in several business intelligence verticals. [Company] provides your business with quality consultants, strategic focus, proven methodology and the delivery of quality solutions.

Business intelligence verticals! I was just wondering yesterday how to better manage my business intelligence verticals!! Whatever the hell that means!

Typical of a consulting company, they send me a letter whose goal is to get me to hire their company, and they immediately waste time by starting with two paragraphs that tell me absolutely nothing about what they do. They mention "eVA participation" in the very first paragraph -- which tells me that it is pretty important to them -- but never mention eVA the rest of the letter! I have no idea what eVA is. Maybe if I did I would be impressed with these guys' experience in strategic focus. And the second paragraph is nothing but empty corporo-babble that is certainly meaningless to everyone below the executive level.

Finally, people, please, master 10th grade grammar. The sentence fragment hurts my eyes. There is no way I would ever hire a company that puts something like that anywhere in the first thing I ever read about them -- let alone the most important place on the page. I pity the people who think this is really their best effort at a direct mail campaign -- but not as much as I pity those who would take the time to read past the second paragraph, let alone hire these guys.

Oh, and did I mention that the return address and my address on the envelope were hand written? Impressive.

Bandits win fifth straight, sweep Phantoms

2006-04-17T10:45:00.000-04:00

Bandits 77, Phantoms 35

Richmond's defense pitched a first half shutout, and the offense scored on 11 of 12 possessions as the Bandits beat the Phantoms for the second time this season. Florence threw an interception on their first play, which Robbie Jenkins immediately converted into seven points. Neither Steven Chester, who left the game with an injury, nor Nick Lurty were effective at QB for the Phantoms, combining to go 3 for 9 passing with two interceptions and four sacks! In the second half, Brian Scott stepped in and performed admirably for the Florence offense, but the Bandits' offense never relented. Jenkins threw for 316 yards and seven touchdowns and scrambled for another. Brandon Isaiah, who had his coming out party against Florence March 4, had two backbreaking runs of 31 and 33 yards in the fourth quarter. He had three rushing TDs as the Bandits outgained the Phantoms by 215 yards (406-191).

Player of the Game: Redd Thompson, who caught eight passes for 161 yards and four scores. His 47 yard TD reception in the first quarter tied a league record for the longest play from scrimmage. In the two games against Florence, Redd registered 347 receiving yards and 9 touchdowns!

Offensive Stars: Robbie Jenkins, who again showed a determination to keep plays alive and check through his progressions; Bryan Still, who contributed 134 receiving yards and three scores.

Defensive Stars: Tim Jones, Bishlar Penson, Shannon Davis, and Nate Daniels had an interception each.

Other Links: Times-Dispatch writeup

Next: at Rome Renegades, Friday 7:00 pm

Ain't it wonderful to be alive when the rock 'n roll plays

2006-04-16T14:47:00.000-04:00

It's the sign of a great performer when you pretty much know what the performance will involve, your expectations are met with few surprises, yet the show is still tremendously entertaining and a great time. Such was the case Friday when I decided to head up to DC and go to the Billy Joel concert. After a manageable drive and Metro ride to the ~~MCI~~ ~~Verizon Center~~ "civic acoustic nightmare," I found a great ticket (section 228, right at the front edge of the stage) from a scalper for cheap. As I was making my way through the concourse I saw the lights go down and I got to my seat right as he was hitting the opening notes to Prelude/Angry Young Man.

I didn't see Billy Joel live for the first time until five years after his last studio album, and I've seen him a handful of times since. So I knew he'd play most of his big hits and fill out the setlist with other recognizable songs. I was pleasantly surprised, then, when he did Everybody Loves You Now, The Ballad of Billy the Kid, The Entertainer, Downeaster Alexa, Keeping the Faith, and Zanzibar, none of which I'd heard live before. He did, of course, play the hits, and gave his usual stage banter ("Thanks for buying the shitty seats...I really need the money; it's all about car insurance" and "This song is from an album that came out in 1976 called Turnstiles..." He even made the same bald jokes about himself that I've heard three times already), but also talked at length about the inspiration for some of the songs. "I made a lot of stuff up for that song [Ballad of Billy the Kid]. Some people think it's about me -- Billy, hey Billy, it's about himself. No, it's actually about Billy the Kid even though I made most of it up. He's not buried under a boothill grave, I don't know where he's buried. He wasn't hung, he was shot. Well, we don't know if he was hung. East and west of the Rio Grande, the Rio Grande runs east and west." Later, he talked about moving to California and trying to make it in the music business. "A lot of people think that this song [The Entertainer] is me bitching about my job. Believe me, I love my job. It's the best job I've ever had. It's just my take on the music industry."

As you would expect from a band that has been more or less intact for the past ten plus years, every number was pretty tight. Billy was in great voice all night; he even hit the high notes in An Innocent Man. He pretty much went directly from song to song but needed a breather before the usual closing run of We Didn't Start the Fire, Big Shot, It's Still Rock 'n Roll to Me, and You May Be Right: he brought out a roadie to sing Highway to Hell. It was a competent cover but one I certainly could have done without; all Billy did was play a little guitar and wave to the crowd. My only other complaints came during the encore. The intro to Only the Good Die Young was not the riff an octave up that makes girls everywhere scream. Instead he played it around middle C and was singing the first verse before anyone knew what was coming. And I don't have perfect pitch or anything, but I swear that Piano Man was a key or two lower than normal.

Overall it was a great show and I didn't want to miss a single song. Not even the tried and true concert staples like Pressure, Allentown, or River of Dreams disappointed or were even worth missing for a beer run. Personal favorites included My Life (with the Stars and Stripes Forever intro), I Go to Extremes, Movin' Out, and Scenes From an Italian Restaurant. I also saw something I'd never seen at a concert before: a sign language interpreter! She was standing on the floor, signing for the first few rows of the section right below me. If I knew sign language I could have followed along. She knew her limitations though -- during We Didn't Start the Fire, she just held up cue cards for the people to read! Another funny moment came late in the show. The stage had an elevated runway with a couple of keyboards around the back so Billy could play to the people seated behind the stage. During a song he was playing from front and center, the bass player started walking back and forth along the runway trying to get the crowd into his jam. I doubt more than six people even cared. I even thought to myself, buddy, they didn't come here to see you. They're watching the man play the piano.

Watching the man play the piano...a pretty damn good way to spend a Friday night.

Bandits dominate Spartans, tie defensive record

2006-04-10T10:31:00.000-04:00

Bandits 59, Spartans 6

Coming off an unexpected bye week, the Bandits showed no signs of rust as they pounced on the Augusta Spartans early, had a 38-0 halftime lead, and tied a league record by only allowing six points. The defense frustrated Spartans QB Anthony Young, who many in the Spartans camp compare to Michael Vick for his quickness and mobility, allowing him to scramble for just 36 yards and sacking him four times and intercepting him once before he left the game with an injury. Spartans coach Bubba Diggs remarked that Young sometimes tried to do too much running and that he'd prefer Young to stay in the pocket more. Diggs also said, upon learning that Will Burch was the Bandits' backup, that Burch could come start for him immediately. For his part, Burch did get into the game for the last two possessions and threw a touchdown pass.

Player of the Game: Robbie Jenkins, who completed 15 of 26 passes for 231 yards and 6 TDs. Jenkins also showed some elusiveness of his own, scrambling for a first down on one occasion and dodging pressure long enough to find Brandon Isaiah open for a short pass that Isaiah took 36 yards for the score.

Offensive Stars: Bryan Still, who caught 7 passes for 117 yards and three scores; Redd Thompson, who also caught 7 passes for 123 yards and three TDs.

Defensive Stars: Lawrence Lewis, who recorded three sacks to bring his total for the season to 9, and also harassed Marvin Stone into an intentional grounding penalty that resulted in a safety; Shannon Davis, who returned an interception 15 yards for a touchdown.

Other Links:	Times-Dispatch writeup
	Bandits website recap

Next: home vs. Florence Phantoms, Saturday 7:00 pm

Opening Day

2006-04-06T13:21:00.000-04:00

No, this post is not three days late. I was as excited as anyone on Monday, baseball's Opening Day, which I still believe should be a national holiday. And true to form, the Cubs lit up the scoreboard for a big win. However, "form" also holds that they will go on to lose at least 90 games, many in excruciating fashion. Indeed, the very second game of the season bore that out. Today, though, is Opening Day for the R-Braves and kickball! So in about 15 minutes I'm heading to the Diamond, then this evening will go from the Just the Tip Clubhouse to Byrd Middle School to start the fifth WAKA season in Richmond. Good times!

Bandits highlights updated

2006-04-03T15:56:00.000-04:00

I've finally processed the recording of last week's Bandits broadcast and added the highlights to the summary below. The next game is Sunday afternoon vs. the Augusta Spartans at 4:00 at the Hideout.

(For the uninitiated, the Hideout is the nickname for the Richmond Coliseum, because, of course, every group of Bandits needs one. The fans are known as the Accomplices, while the official fan club is called the Posse. I will not get into a Venn diagram here, simply suffice it to say that all Posse members are Accomplices, but not all Accomplices are in the Posse.)

Don't let it get away

2006-03-31T17:30:00.000-05:00

What a freakin' beautiful day today, for more than the obvious reasons. Sometimes the little things go your way and it adds up to keep you in a good mood all day long. (I'm mainly talking about work here, where if enough little things go wrong all the time, there are probably bigger problems inherent in the systems or processes you use -- but that's for another post.) Today the radio station got an order to run a commercial that would be delivered to us through a third party agency, whose track record is terrible. We've gotten orders from this agency before and instead of the spots being available on their website three days before they're supposed to go on the air (like they promise), we usually don't get them until the middle of the first day of the contract. That's not even an exaggeration. But today the spot we needed was already there and I could download it and be done with it! Ditto for another spot that came in via a service that you basically have to keep hitting 'refresh' and hope that it shows up. There were a handful of other small tasks to finish today, for which I left instructions for the interns when I left for lunch. I was very pleasantly surprised when everything was done -- correctly -- without them having to ask me thirty questions about the same thing they've done the past seven weeks, when I got back from my two hour lunch in the park. No, I could not resist having lunch outside this afternoon. And even though I was in the park, it was a working lunch because one of the transmitters is right across the street from the park and I checked in there to make sure everything was straight. Not to mention that I had the current issue of Radio World for my lunchtime reading material.

Funny how this was going to be a post about how there are no fast Hardees drive-throughs anywhere, but then I came to realize that all the other little things that went right outweighed that minor inconvenience. Plus I would wager that when you're looking forward to eating lunch in the park for the first time all year, everything seems too slow on your way there.

Ghost of a chance

2006-03-29T15:04:00.000-05:00

Sometimes, you see something coming yet still can't believe it when it happens. The Bandits were supposed to travel to Asheville, NC to play the Ghostriders this Saturday, but after the latest chapter in that franchise's comically haphazard and inept history, there will be no game.

Long-time Bandits fans will remember that the Carolina Sharks were one of the original franchises and the Bandits' scheduled opponent for Opening Day last year. But just two days before the game, the team was disbanded then re-created as a league-owned team called the Ghostriders. They played an all-road schedule and didn't win a single game, often losing by 50 or more points. Even in indoor football, that's a lot. After the season, we were promised that the AIFL would find a good owner, not to mention a home arena, for the 2006 campaign. And to their credit, the league did keep the team viable and hired personnel to keep it running. They had coaches, a GM, and players in place, and a lease with an arena in Asheville, before selling the team to one Rob Boyd. Then this season -- and the fun -- started. Still unable to win a game, the Ghosties at least played a home game, but a few minutes after it ended, Boyd fired the coach and hired Jim Terry, whose entire AIFL experience, the same die-hard Bandits fans will recall, consisted of missing four of 10 extra points in that inaugural game against the Ghostriders. Then two days later, the owner fired his GM, then filed a police report alleging that he'd embezzled money and defaulted on some bills.

As crazy as events to that point had been, it was not the first time we'd seen it in the AIFL. Coaches come and go everywhere in the minor leagues, and there were a couple of incidents last year in other cities with unpaid bills, unpaid players, and broken promises. However, with Boyd and Terry still in place and ostensibly dedicated to making the team work, it seemed that the Ghostriders would be able to survive. Except that for the last two weeks, Boyd had been trying quietly to get rid of the team because he didn't want to be responsible for the debts and ill will all over Asheville. According to an e-mail from Boyd, he tried to sell the team back to the league but "could not reach an agreement." Finally, today the AIFL suspended the Ghostriders' season and put all the blame on Boyd! Further distancing itself from Boyd and other Ghostriders staff, the league created a new traveling team called the Ghostchasers which will be distinct from the 0-4 and defunct Ghostriders.

There is plenty of blame to go around here. Whether or not former GM David Dix embezzled any money, he was working for the Ghostriders when he made the deals with local businesses. Boyd may have been right to fire him, but showed poor judgment in passing the buck -- literally -- for those debts to Dix himself. Boyd also clearly has little patience, business sense, or both in desiring to dump the team after four games. It's one thing to shut down a business, but do it like a man and don't make all your creditors take it up with the police. Surely he had to know that as the owner of any minor league team, let alone one with the history of the Ghostriders, there would be some difficult times and he'd have to pay some bills. The league should have been more diligent in screening Boyd as a potential owner in the first place and made it clear to him that they would not bail him out. It may be for legal reasons that they had to change the name to the even more ridiculous Ghostchasers (the same legalities that saw the name Ghostriders emerge in the first place), but when has any expansion team in any league joined play in the middle of a season?

The Sharks/Ghostriders/Ghostchasers did everything exactly wrong from day 1, and amazingly it's only now that anybody else will be affected. Teams that had a road game scheduled at Asheville will now play only 13 games this season. The AIFL has experienced a number of embarrassing situations, some of them completely preventable, and has always come up with "solutions" at or after the last minute. Up and canceling the last two games of last season and starting the season without a rulebook and adding or making up rules as needed are two good examples. I am positive that A-Haines is praying that there is enough separation between the 14-game teams and the 13-game teams that the one extra game doesn't make any difference in playoff qualifications (whatever those end up being -- we, of course, have not heard word one on this year's playoff structure). He brought 10 new teams on board this year and has been quoted as saying he wants to get upwards of 50 teams in the league. Five of the new teams, not to mention the Bandits themselves, could be affected by the Ghostchasers incident and might be totally turned off by however Haines ends up handling it. That is not the way to attract dozens of new cities and owners to your league.

So now the Bandits will be the only team not playing this weekend, which sucks because they finally looked like the champions of last year in Monday's beatdown of Raleigh, and I had hoped that they would sustain that fire through the short week and the next game. Instead, we're off until April 9. All the scheduled home games will still be played, and if the last contest was any indication, they will be a whole hell of a lot of fun!

Bandits humiliate Rebels, share first place

2006-03-28T10:12:00.000-05:00

Bandits 56, Rebels 28

Playing a previously undefeated Raleigh Rebels team that lost its starting quarterback to a broken hand last week, the Bandits dominated the line on both sides of the ball and claimed a share of first place with a convincing win at the Hideout. Richmond scored on their first five possessions, showing a fast start and an intensity on the field that had been lacking the first three games. They held the league's top scoring offense to just 96 yards as the defensive line of Lawrence Lewis, Alfred Dubose, and newcomer Corey Ellis were in QB Barry Marrow's face on almost every play.

Player of the Game: Lawrence Lewis, with three sacks, a blocked PAT, and a hellacious hit on Marrow in the end zone that should have been a safety, but was taken away from the Law when the officials for some reason spotted the ball on the 1-yard line.

Offensive Stars: Robbie Jenkins, who went 16 for 30 with 221 yards and seven touchdowns; Bryan Still, who caught eight passes for 77 yards and four TDs.

Defensive Stars: the entire D-line, Dubose, Ellis, and Lewis, who combined for five sacks, two blocked kicks, a pass deflection, and uncountable QB hurries.

Audio Highlights:	Law Lew gets a sack
	Al Dubose does likewise
	Missed FG returned for a touchdown
	Bishlar Penson interception
	For fans of the offense, two Redd Thompson touchdowns here and here
	Coach Williams on the difference in the game
	Finally, a bit of foreshadowing

Other Links:	Times-Dispatch writeup
	Raleigh's summary

Next: at Carolina Ghostriders, Saturday 7:00 pm

OK, now I'm done with contacts!

2006-03-22T17:13:00.000-05:00

Recovering from PRK is a very gradual process, but in the sense that there are any discernible milestones, I achieved one yesterday. On the evening of January 2, I thought I was removing my contacts for the last time ever, but that technically happened at my 5-day follow up appointment. I had the bandage contact lenses removed, and as far as I'm concerned, it was perfect timing. The lenses were starting to irritate me a little bit and even felt at times like they were getting a little dry and threatening to fall out. Turns out that probably wouldn't have happened, because they were attached to my eyes with a little adhesive! It was a little weird to feel the sensation of removing a band-aid on my eye! Even though I knew the contacts weren't plano, I didn't realize they had as much prescription in them as they did. As soon as they came out I was down to about 20/60. Now my clarity fluctuates a little but most of the time is around there. They took me off one of the eyedrops I had been on and switched another to a more viscous, lubricating drop that is almost like a gel when it comes out. I don't have to wear the eye shields to bed anymore (yay!) but since my eyelids are now rubbing directly against my corneas, I do have to (stop reading here if you get squeamish about your eyes) put in some eye ointment before bed. That is actually just a matter of dropping the ointment into the pocket of the lower eyelid and rolling the eyeball around, which is much easier than putting the ointment on my fingertip and applying it directly to the eye like I thought I would have to!

So even though I'm seeing a little worse than I had been, the doc says everything looks good and that I'm healing well and at the appropriate rate. I've had absolutely no pain for the past 24 hours, which leads me further to believe that the contacts were just at the point where they were starting to do more harm than good. I'm still a little light-sensitive, as I proved to myself this morning when I looked out the window and the direct sunlight, plus that which was reflected off the snow, instantly caused me to squint and look away. With sunglasses I'm fine though, and I'll wake up tomorrow exactly one week post surgery!

Never have a few quadrillionths of a meter made such a difference

2006-03-20T14:36:00.000-05:00

I sat up from laser eye surgery and was able to see clearly without glasses at 9:09 am on Thursday, March 16, 2006. I know because, for the first time in 20 years, I could see the clock!

I got to the doctor's office at 8:00 Thursday morning and was immediately prepped for the surgery. They gave me a Valium and told me all about the eyedrops I would have to take and the eye shields I would have to wear while sleeping. Then I waited for what seemed like 20 minutes while they finished up with the person ahead of me. (This was easily the longest single phase of the entire process.) They brought me into the laser room and put in a few eyedrops and prepared my right eye. This simply entailed taping my eyelashes down and inserting an eyelid spreader. By this time I was lying flat on my back with a small curtain covering my face except for the right eye. First they removed the epithelium (the topmost, superficial layer of corneal cells) with what looked like an electric toothbrush. Then they lined up my head just right and told me to concentrate on the flashing red light. When everything was ready, they fired the laser, and I could hear the clicking, snapping sound of the machine and see a purple ring of light around the red light, which could have been the laser itself. The actual lasering took only about 20 seconds, and the results were instantaneous. I could see the blinking red light come into focus as the laser did its job. Then they applied some ointment to my eyeball with a small sponge and washed it away with water. I couldn't look around at this time but I could see the details of the laser apparatus above me. All that remained was for the doctor to apply the bandage contact lens over the ablation. Then they did my left eye, and I sat up after laying down for probably a total of eight minutes. That was when they asked me if I could tell the time. I knew it was a trick question because there is never a clock in any medical room, except when they want you to realize that your vision is sharp!

There were just a couple of final details to take care of. They gave me a pill for the pain and applied eye shields and sunglasses, and sent me on my way! I could walk to the car on my own just fine, and even though I saw everything sharp and clear immediately after the surgery, even at this point I couldn't read license plates on other cars and there was a multiple image effect when looking at stoplights. As soon as I got home the pills kicked in and I fell right asleep. I woke up around 1:00 and could see probably around 20/60 -- large objects were in clear enough focus, but I couldn't read details or see sharp outlines. I could, though, watch the NCAA tournament and make out the score at the bottom of the screen, but the scores of other games across the top of the screen were out of the question. The rest of Thursday I was in surprisingly little pain, especially compared to what I had been expecting.

Friday I woke up seeing about the same and had a follow-up appointment first thing. All looked well to the doctor, and even though the letters were slightly blurry, I could read some middle level lines on the vision chart. Even though whatever line I read at didn't count as my actual vision -- since I was still looking through the bandage contact and the abrasion itself -- I was at least on the chart! Before I couldn't even read the big E without glasses. The pain was noticeable, but easily ignored, and remained about the same the rest of the day, but my vision diminished slightly in the afternoon. My eyes were getting tired around 6 pm, so I laid down for a nap and the next thing I knew it was morning!

When I woke up Saturday I thought things were a little less clear but I couldn't be sure, but as the day went on I definitely knew it was a little worse. This was actually something I was prepared for, since my research stated and my doctor agreed that the second day post-PRK brings the most fluctuations. I was most sensitive to light on Saturday, as I couldn't even open the blinds to let some non-direct sunlight in. During the later parts of the day, I experienced more scratchiness and foreign object sensations in both eyes. But other than that I was completely aware and actually getting a little restless from being inside the past three days!

Sunday brought some significant improvement. I could see close to 20/40 when I woke up with little to no pain. I think I even saw better than that as I was awake for a few hours! In the late afternoon a little pain set in, and by evening it felt like it used to when my contacts got off-center or dry or were getting ready to fall out. Eyedrops temporarily relieved that sensation, and for the first time I could read before going to bed!

This morning was about the same as yesterday. I could see pretty sharp, definitely not quite 20/20 but better than 20/40. I've had no pain to speak of all day, though I have noticed that I can't see as well in darker rooms. That is certainly to be expected, though, as the healing process continues. I have not taken any of my pain pills since the operation. Maybe all those years of wearing gas permeable contacts toughened me up a little! For now, it's just a matter of continuing to take my eyedrops and taping on the eye shields before bed. I go in tomorrow to get the contacts removed and even though there might be some slight regression then (due to the small prescription that is in the contacts), I should be pretty stable around at least 20/40. The healing process will take weeks and months, and even though the improvement won't be noticeable day to day, it could be six months before I'm at my final result from this surgery. I will continue to post my progress, but early returns are showing nothing short of success. At this point, I would recommend PRK to anyone and I'd get it again in a heartbeat.

Slightly more accurate than flipping 63 coins

2006-03-16T11:09:00.000-05:00

After much agonizing over who has what it takes to go all the way, who's completely overrated, and which 12 seeds will be the lucky winners this year, I have completed my NCAA bracket. Read it and weep:

http://www.ndnation.com/pools/ncaamen/playerpicks408.html

Windexing the window to the soul

2006-03-15T16:49:00.000-05:00

I have never had surgery. The only medical procedure I've had that would even come close was when my broken arm was set in a cast, and that happened when I was two years old.

I have never had stitches. The closest I've come is when I accidentally put a staple in my finger.

I have never had a voluntary medical procedure. Not counting the dentist, I only have ever been to a doctor's office or hospital when something was seriously wrong, or I needed a physical for school.

I have never been anesthetized. OK, maybe locally when I got a shot or something, but I have never been put under. The only "drug" that has ever knocked me out was alcohol, and that is always entirely self-medicated.

So, though I will not be getting surgery in the traditional sense of needing stitches or being put to sleep, tomorrow still marks a very important occasion and a number of firsts for me. It is the day of my PRK surgery, wherein a certain thickness of my cornea will be vaporized by an excimer laser. The results of the surgery -- being able to see clearly without glasses or contacts for the first time since I was seven -- are almost too much to comprehend, so I've been focusing (ha!) on the procedure itself. I know the technology, I know what will happen and why, I know what I will hear and smell, and I know what my role will be (just lay there and stare directly at the red light). I know the steps to recovery, I know the various phases and their timeframes, and I know what I will have to do to help things along. I also know what could go wrong, I know the complications that could ensue, and I know their respective causes and effects. Most importantly, I know the reputation and results my doctor has achieved, and I know firsthand what others have experienced. That's why I'm only a little nervous at this point. I'm sure I will get a little more nervous when they actually roll me under the laser machine, but as the Great Auk says, knowledge is power. The technology and medicine behind laser eye surgery is fascinating even if it doesn't directly impact you, and the more I learned about it, the more I knew I could accept the risks because the reward was something I wanted to experience. So please be thinking of me tomorrow morning. My life is going to change significantly, and I can't wait.

Life really does imitate Simpsons quotes

2006-03-08T15:37:00.000-05:00

This was the work of no-good punk kids

When I got to work this morning, the first e-mail that was waiting for me was a notice from our engineer that one of our transmitter sites had been vandalized. Apparently some young hoodlums tried to jimmy the locks on a tower enclosure and the transmitter building itself, with no apparent success at entry. One still must wonder what drives someone to do that, though. The towers are not exactly easy to access (by design), nor are they located on a major thoroughfare. So it would seem to me that somebody has some kind of vendetta against the station itslef, or at least one of the DJs, and tried to hit us where it hurts. I give them a little credit for finding out where the transmitter is, but low marks for execution. Surely it is evident to anyone that expensive, potentially dangerous radio equipment would be protected by more than a simple hasp or a piece of string.

Nothing good has ever come out of New York City

It's a game that Notre Dame fans are used to watching...the early Wednesday afternoon game in the Big East tournament. And given that we rarely win in the tourney, plus the way we've lost so many games this year, as I watch the final 8.1 seconds I have no reason to believe that either of those trends will end...Nope, a four point loss. We're officially on the countdown to kickoff, which stands at 178 days.

Hey! That's just my aspirin

So it's not the best day, which is compounded by the fact that I woke up at 4:00 this morning, when my whole body ached, and I had the chills and a headache. I slept intermittently until 8, then thought that a shower would make me feel better. It didn't. At this point, I was still too stubborn to admit that I might have a fever. So, writing everything off to sleeping in a bad position or eating some bad shrimp last night for dinner, I headed in to work. Things didn't get much better during the morning, so I found the official Radio Richmond first aid kit in hopes it would contain some aspirin. Instead I found...NON-Aspirin. That is exactly what it said on the package. I wonder if you put it in contact with an equal number of tablets of actual aspirin, the whole thing would explode into energy. I guess it was a good thing after all that I didn't take anything at home, because my stomach is not the best place for an uncontrolled atomic reaction.

But what was even more like a drug was the drugs

All these medicinal adventures were made slightly ironic because I was planning on going to the pharmacy anyway tonight. Since I literally don't remember the last prescription I had filled, I spent half the morning on the phone with my health insurance company, trying to find out exactly what my prescription benefits are. Turns out they classify the pills I need to get before my eye surgery as a step-therapy drug, meaning I have to try the generic equivalent first before they will pay for the name brand that was prescribed. So I talked to the doctor's office, and had them call Aetna to certify that I needed the name brand and that the generic wouldn't cut it...only to hear from them later that they encourage patients to get the generic equivalent! Nothing like taking two and a half hours to end up right where you started.

I think it means "The Fishes"

2006-02-22T16:49:00.000-05:00

Name three Disney songs.

Go ahead, do it. Just think of three songs from Disney movies. Any movie, any time, there are plenty to choose from.

Now name three more. You might have to dig a little deeper for these, but you should eventually be able to come up with them. Granted, Disney has pretty much hit rock bottom -- a remake of The Shaggy Dog? Starring Tim Allen?? Is this a joke? Still, though, everyone, and I mean everyone, has seen at least a couple of the big hits -- Aladdin, Lion King, Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and of course the classics Cinderella, Mary Poppins, Pinocchio, etc.

So with a little thinking you should be able to remember a handful of their songs. Many of them won Oscars and Grammys. You may even remember a fun song from Newsies. But I will bet that not one of the songs you thought of was Les Poissons.

The four sweetest words

2006-02-15T13:34:00.000-05:00

It's never quite so dark and cold, and visions of sunshine and green grass aren't quite so far off*, on the day you can utter these words: "Pitchers and catchers report."

In honor of pitchers and catchers reporting to Spring Training today, and moreover in the spirit of a new spring's endless possibilities, I have reinstated the Cubs' link on the right. This is still probationary, though. If those a-holes pull any of the same shit that happened last year, i.e. playing like a bunch of languid fourth graders, that link is coming right back off. I got real sick by last June of someone pitching their ass off, giving up just a couple of runs over seven innings, just to have the offense blow every opportunity and lose 3-1. The thing is, though, I don't know where any offense is going to come from this year. Lee and Ramirez are the only legitimate threats, and an outfield of Matt Murton, Juan Pierre, and Jacque Jones isn't exactly going to put the fear of God into anyone, offensively or defensively.

But this isn't the time to worry about those small details! At this point, nobody can question my reasoning or sanity if I say, the starting pitching is going to be excellent (especially if Wood stays healthy), a bullpen by committee will work for three innings a game, and there's enough speed-and-average guys to get on base and be in scoring position for the couple of big guns, plus we can always trade for another slugger, and if that all comes together, this could be the year! Just 47 days til Opening Day!

*Granted, this winter has been fairly sunny and mild on its own, and I wouldn't trade that for the alternative. But I grew up in northwest Indiana, where winter lasts about five months. There's snow, there's ice, there's sub-zero temperatures, there's a wind chill factor, it gets dark around 3 pm, and spring can never arrive soon enough.

Passion Lives Here

2006-02-14T15:26:00.000-05:00

After the Olympic mascots (which officially became self-parody with the Atlanta "Whatzit"), the first thing I would eliminate is the tacky slogans and mottoes of each Games. That said, my thoughts after the first few days of the XX Winter Olympiad:

Does anyone really acknowledge or remember the Roman-numeral ordinal label of any Olympics? I've only ever read, heard, or said the year and city when discussing previous years' games. It's just as bad as the Super Bowl. At least the Olympics only add I every IV years...the Super Bowl got to the "enough, already" point with XXXVIII.
Why did they decide to give out CDs on a ribbon instead of medals?
I didn't care four years ago, nor do I care now, what Apolo Ohno's middle name is.
If, after reading the above, you immediately thought to yourself, "Anton," NBC was happy, the US skating officials were happy, some marketing wizard was happy, and I died a little inside.
Coming up in 9 minutes, more figure skating. I swear, if NBC showed more than four consecutive minutes of any other sport without mixing in some figure skating, there'd be a riot.
Speaking of figure skating, I doubt it's keeping with the true Olympic spirit of competition to contest events judged not by who's faster or stronger than whom, but by who wears the most sequins and represents the country that corrupted the most judges.
Do they ever have to Zamboni the luge run?
Cross-country skiing is the winter version of race-walking.
For every minute of actual competition shown on NBC, there are three minutes of backstory, vignettes, or pointless interviews that make watching their coverage a true ordeal. This story pretty much sums it up.
Bob Costas -- zip it.

The best laid plans...

2006-02-06T15:46:00.000-05:00

I've been wearing my glasses since the Fiesta Bowl because I decided it was time to seriously investigate laser eye surgery. You have to have been out of your contacts for at least three weeks before they can measure your eye in its "natural state" so I figured my timing was perfect: Contacts out through January, examination and surgery in early February, and be completely recovered by Feb. 27 for the first Bandits game. (Most people are up and running just a couple of days after Lasik, but they say it can take up to a couple of weeks for some nagging side effects to disappear.) Of course, this is my life we're talking about, so nothing can be easy. I had a three-hour eye exam on Friday, during which my eyes were poked, prodded, measured, beamed with invisible light, and saturated with all kinds of drops. I was also dilated, which I highly recommend if you want a completely trippy experience. I'm extremely nearsighted, but after my eyes were dilated, I became farsighted, and being able to see better at distance is something I just can't wrap my mind around. They gave me a pamphlet to read, and on instinct I held it close to my face -- but it was blurry! I held it at arm's length and it came into focus -- very weird!

The end result of this marathon exam was that while my eyes are healthy, I have thin corneas. The average person's corneas are about 550 microns thick, while mine are around 520. The doctor even put the eyelid spreader in and put me under the laser used in surgery, but for the purpose of getting more precise cornea readings on nine different sections of each eye. I heard his assistant read off the measurements, and my highest out of the 18 was just 540 microns. Since Lasik surgery requires the creation of a 150-160 micron thick flap, the elimination of 10-12 microns of the underlying cornea for each diopter of correction (and I'm pushing a -8 in both eyes), and the desired residual corneal thickness of 270-280 microns (not counting the replaced flap), my eyes just don't have the structural integrity for the operation.

So Lasik is out of the question, but PRK is still an option. That's another form of laser surgery that shaves the top layer of your cornea rather than the middle of it. No flap is created, so it can be performed on people with thinner corneas. The downside is it takes much longer to recover from -- two to three weeks as opposed to three days. So after having spent all last month researching Lasik, talking to people who'd had it, and familiarizing myself with the procedure, I have to start over at square one with PRK. Not to mention the fact that the timing is all thrown off now, because they have to examine me again in two weeks and then if all is well do the procedure a week or two after that, by which time football season will be underway and I don't know how the surgery, recovery, and return to normal vision can all be worked around the games.

Sing us a song

2006-01-25T17:53:00.000-05:00

I admit it...I watched the premier of #1 Single, the new "reality" show that documents Lisa Loeb's dating life. Now, I'm not a big fan of reality TV at all, but there were a few reasons I decided to watch this particular program -- not the least of which is I've had a minor thing for Lisa Loeb since the days of "Stay". The liberal usage of bra-shopping footage was interspersed with some lessons for all of us:

Tell me she's not a cutie!

Even someone who has achieved the success of Lisa Loeb, who nobody will confuse with Bono or Dave Matthews in terms of recognizability or commercial success, can (and some would argue, must) afford a personal tailor and houses on both coasts.
SIZE MATTERS! Reference the above mentioned bra-shopping scenes, wherein Lisa and her sister evaluate padded bras and discuss the "up and in" effect. Later, when getting ready for a date, Lisa throws in the anatomically correct breast augmentators. I point this out not because it's so unbelievable, but rather that it's just further evidence that everyone is self-conscious or unhappy to a degree about some part of their body.
Don't sing karaoke on the first date. Actually, when you're dating someone, it's best to not sing karaoke until after you have an equal amount of embarassing dirt on them, because trust me, you don't sound as good as you think you do. And if you are ever in the position of dating a recording artist, for the love of God, do NOT sing them one of their own songs!
Ryan Seacrest is a tool and douchebag of the highest order. That's nothing new or unique to this show, but he interviewed Lisa on the radio and in the 90 seconds of the interview that made it on the show, he said about four things that only a complete asshat would say.

Lisa also mentioned the website airtroductions. It's online dating meets frequent flying -- enter your profile and what flights you will be on, and it tells you who else will be on your flight. As long as their profile doesn't say that they have three small, screaming kids or that they smell like beets, I guess I'd take the chance and at least sit next to them on the plane. I just wonder what percentage of the 4134 registered users are looking for mile high booty.

Speaking of reality TV music shows...

The best pure unscripted entertainment on TV was on again last night. I'm talking about the audition rounds of American Idol. For my money, there's nothing better than the entirely predictable yet utterly hilarious cycle some of these people go through. Untalented, unattractive, cocksure contestant brags to the cameras that they are going to win the competition and become the next big thing. Contestant enters the audition room and proceeds to mercilessly attack a song, sending viewers everywhere in search of a letter opener with which to pierce their eardrums. Judges tell contestant, in brutally honest terms, that they are one of the worst human beings on the planet, for reasons that may well go beyond just their singing. Contestant informs judges that they are wrong, and that Contestant is actually borderline Whitney Houston vocally and Jessica Alba visually, when they are actually closer to Roseanne Barr on both scales. Judges tell contestant to leave the room, sometimes with the assistance of security personnel. Contestant, on their way out of the building, informs cameras that the judges don't know real talent when they see it, and that they'll be sorry when Contestant becomes a big star. It's even better when the contestant's family is there, echoing the contestant's remarks, and usually adding the fact that "Contestant is the best singer in our family!"

It wouldn't be so funny if these people didn't take this show so seriously. They really base their entire lives on the approval of the three judges and the chance to compete for a record contract. Let's see, there have been, what, four people ever given a contract because of what they did on this show? And there's what, about four million singers with some kind of deal out there? That they don't realize that American Idol is strictly entertainment -- nobody's really looking for actual talent, they're manufacturing a competition and therefore television ratings -- is the basis for the pure humor in the situation. If you take American Idol seriously, you're a moron. If you don't, then you know what I'm talking about: funny, funny stuff.

Rookie of the Year

2006-01-25T15:38:00.000-05:00

The Fall 2005 Richmond radio ratings have come out, and apparently the word has spread. In its very first ratings period, Liberty has checked in with a solid 4.7 -- good enough for 8th place. Some of the usual suspects are near the top of the heap -- nobody is ever going to knock off Lite 98, Kiss FM, K95, and WRVA in this town. But talk about blowing away the direct competition! Liberty is the top-rated station of its genre. It's ahead of both "new rock" stations, it's ahead of both classic rockers, it's ahead of Mix 103.7, and Q94 went from a 5.2 to a 3.7! Little doubt where those listeners went! Of course, if Liberty translates high ratings into high commercial rates and we get 22 minutes of commercials an hour...well, it would still be better than the soulless programming of Q, X, and Y, but I'd probably stop listening and go back to CDs. It will be interesting in any case to see where Liberty's ratings go from here. Might the other stations break out of their corporate-formatted funk and try to compete by actually being innovative and giving us some real music (yeah right)? Will people eventually get tired of Liberty and listen to less radio, period? Or, will Liberty regress to the mean and become less and less differentiated?

Isn't Miss America supposed to be pretty?

2006-01-23T14:46:00.000-05:00

Or at least not have a lazy eye?

Thanks for the ample warning

2006-01-19T16:24:00.000-05:00

Driving in to work the other day, I saw the message board on I-64 near Parham actually in use for once. It said, "Traffic delays at mile marker 183". Big help, that, because the message board itself is located at mile marker 182.5. I had to hit my brakes almost before I was done reading the sign. Then, after about a half hour of crawling along the highway, I got to the merge with 95. With traffic backed up for miles on both roads, it was evident that there was some kind of pileup on the road ahead. Nonetheless, in the small area between lanes right before you actually merge with traffic was placed a portable orange sign that simply stated, "Accident Ahead". How thoughtful! And helpful! By that point it doesn't really matter the reason that traffic is backed up; everyone's already late for work and totally pissed off. And I guarantee that by the time authorities responded to the accident scene and were able to go back up the road to put that sign down, traffic was already slowed down past the point of it being useful to anyone. But I guess it's the thought that counts, especially since my assumption the previous 40 minutes had been that everyone was slowed down to let a family of ducks cross the road.

They've also been warning us for days that a New Traffic Pattern would take effect on 64 near Staples Mill. The eastbound effect was basically that you veer to the right instead of the left so the construction crews can work on the other side of the road. But the HUGE improvement is along the westbound lanes where traffic from 195 merges with traffic from 95 north which merges with traffic from 95 south all at the same place. They've put up concrete barriers along the lane coming from 195, which means that those people can't get over until after the Staples Mill exit. This is an improvement that has been a long time coming! Every day on my drive home, no matter the time of afternoon or evening, traffic would be terribly backed up along that stretch because of idiots trying to get across four lanes of traffic in about 200 feet to hit that exit. Now I can get from the 195 exit past the Staples Mill exit in about 30 seconds as opposed to the five minutes it used to take. Now, don't take this as a complaint that Richmond traffic is "bad" in any absolute sense -- especially since I've never given much credence to those who argue that Richmond traffic is bad, considering that I have extensive experience driving the highways of Chicago and DC. But when a delay of just five minutes represents 33% of my total commute, I will fully endorse the spending of my tax dollars to put up walls between the lanes.

I award you no points

2006-01-13T15:55:00.000-05:00

Apparently there are two ways to get dumber (three, if you count excessive drinking). We all know about the effects of being in the presence of a moron or morons. The line from Billy Madison, "Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it," is funny because it's true. If you're in the upper half of the IQ distribution, you've probably had at least one conversation with someone in the lower half that left you wondering, "what did we just talk about," or "now where do I live again?" I had a couple of "conversations" with Ohio State fans in Tempe that would have forced me to repeat a grade if I was still in school. And I'll never forget the kid we called Bear in college, who would enter the room and proclaim, in his Waco, TX drawl, "Ah just reelized the red blinking laght on the phone meens yoo have voice mail." At which point I would glance at whoever else was in the room, usually Kuder, and say "are you dumber?" "Yep, I'm dumber."

The other way to get dumber, as I was made aware today, is to talk to someone smarter than you. Now, I don't consider myself any smarter or less smart than any of my friends; rather, I tend to make shit up using big words. The case in point is when I was discussing this blog (a surefire way to get dumber under reason #1) and whether I should make a post explaining why I chose the links at the right of the page. I was concerned that doing so would cross the line into self-referential metablogging -- a phrase I obviously coined on the spot. Robert (name changed to protect the innocent) did a verbal double-take at "self-referential metablogging" and said he gets dumber every time I talk to him the phone. If that is truly the case, then pity poor Robert! It's one thing to have a conversation with an Einstein or a Hawking and realize that they're just on a level that you will never even comprehend. In those situations, you just have to hope they'll appreciate that intellectual chasm and communicate to you a glimpse of a higher truth or point of view. But the 99% of us who aren't supergeniuses don't have to feel dumber around each other! Instead, when we encounter someone who won't make us dumber (usually identified by their scarlet and gray colors), we should strive to get smarter! If Robert felt dumb when I made that blog comment, it was no dumber than I felt when in the same conversation he tried to tell me about some kind of fish that puffs up (evidently called a beta fish) that I've never heard of. Isn't it great that we both learned something from each other? Conversations like that restore my faith in society, the downfall of which is accelerated every day by poor driving and truly dumb questions that honestly make me wonder if some people never progressed beyond "The Puppy Who Lost His Way".

I'm an excellent driver

2006-01-11T16:39:00.000-05:00

If you see random car parts that may have come from a transmission scattered up and down Broad Street, they're probably from me. On the way in to work yesterday, I noticed a slight scraping sound when I got off 95 and was driving in the lower gears. It was one of those sounds that you hope will just go away, but the more you hear it the more you just know that it's really bad. When your transmission sounds like it's digesting itself, it's time to hope for a miracle. So I fully utilized and exhausted all applications of my knowledge of car maintenance and repair: I checked the fluid levels and unfortunately the clutch fluid was almost full. Bad news for the tranny. I managed to drive to the mechanic, dreading every red light on Broad because first and second gears were by now making a horrible, vomit-inducing sound. Third gear wasn't much better, so I drove most of the way in fourth gear -- not quite recommended when you're going 35 mph, but quite necessary. The mechanic's diagnosis was as I had feared: I need a new transmission to the tune of $2100.

This is a classic example of bad things happening to good drivers. I don't consider myself a bad driver, I don't run red lights like everyone else in this town (yellow is a different story, but you know the assholes who blast through blatantly red lights), I don't cut people off, I don't pull out into traffic from a dead stop, I stay out of the left lane unless I'm doing at least 70, I don't leave my high beams on when there's traffic on the other side of the road, and I don't park where there are No Parking signs. That may not make me a saint, but every single time I'm on the streets I encounter someone doing at least one of those things that oftentimes sets me off cursing at them and wishing bad things to happen to their car. Wouldn't it be fitting if someone parked illegally, blocking an alley, and in doing so drove on a nail? Wouldn't it be awesome if someone cruised through a red light and then had their transmission drop to the street? But no, those jackoffs never even consider what they're doing yet suffer no consequences, meanwhile I get stuck having to buy a new transmission. There's no justice.

Rounding 'em up

2006-01-09T16:17:00.000-05:00

The defending AIFL champs are going to be STACKED! They've re-signed some of last year's biggest contributors, including Redd Thompson, Bryan Still, and Lawrence "The LAW" Lewis. They, along with previously announced returnees Robbie Jenkins, Will Burch, DeAndre Green, and Bobby Phillips, will comprise unquestionably the league's best skill position offense. Spots along the offensive and defensive lines and in the defensive backfield are still open, which isn't surprising since departed head coach Rik Richards was also the defensive coordinator and took some of his guys with him to Rockford. Of course, guys like DeAndre can play both ways, and the #1 Stunner himself, Nate Daniels, is back too. And the defense just has to be decent -- everyone is going to give up some points in the indoor game. As good as the defense was last year, Rik really didn't put a lot of pressure on himself. "With Brent's offense being so good, all I have to do is get one stop and we're set," he said on many occasions. With the Bandits' offense being so potent, and coach Williams building on last year's success, the defense can drop a notch or two with no ill effects on the team's record.

More details on season tickets and the home promotions are in the current version of the Bandit Beat.

Pictures

2006-01-02T17:33:00.000-05:00

Pictures

2006-01-01T17:01:00.000-05:00

PNC Park, August 26, 2006

The view from the Clemente Bridge

The Pittsburgh skyline

Left field view

Richmond International Raceway, June 24, 2006

Check out how close we got to an actual race car about an hour before it was in the starting grid! (Also, check out how close I am to getting my ass kicked by the bald guy)

Bandits top 10 (part 2)

2005-12-02T15:20:00.000-05:00

#5 DeAndre starts with D

In the only regular season meeting between the Bandits and the Johnstown Riverhawks, the game was competitive for the first three minutes, as the teams traded touchdowns. The next four possessions for Johnstown didn’t go quite as well. All four ended in turnovers at the hands of DeAndre Green (3 interceptions and a fumble recovery), who immediately established himself as the best two-way player in the league. Green proved to be uncoverable as a wideout, and a top-flight blanket coverage corner. Later in the season, he would absolutely shut down Canton’s Randell Knapp, who was their best player and made QB Dan Larlham look as good as he did. DeAndre would finish the season with 12 touchdowns and 6 interceptions. Oh, and he led the Bandits to a 94-point showing on this night in Johnstown.

#4 On to the Championship

As the second seed, the Bandits hosted Johnstown in the AIFL semifinals. It was one of those games that in retrospect the Bandits were never really in danger of losing, but during the game things sure seemed awfully tight. Bryan Still caught nine passes for four scores, and defensive captain Lawrence “the LAW” Lewis notched a safety.

Chris “don’t call me Mike” Brown hauled in an interception on the game’s last play to confirm Richmond’s reservation in the AIFL championship game.

#3 Coming from behind

In week 4, the Canton Legends came to town for what would be the most exciting home game of the season. The Bandits seemed to have the game in control, until Legends QB Dan Larlham caught fire in the fourth quarter. He completed 10 of 12 passes for 118 yards and three touchdowns to bring Canton back from 20 points down and take a 69-68 lead with just 16 seconds to go. The Coliseum crowd became the ninth man for the Bandits, as Will Burch, who finished with eight TDs, led the game winning drive culminating in a 30-yard touchdown pass to Redd Thompson with six seconds left. DeAndre Green (12 receptions, 143 yards, 3 TDs) outdueled Canton’s Randell Knapp (11 receptions, 140 yards, 3 TDs), and made the game-sealing interception on the last play. This game had everything that indoor football is all about – lots of offense, some phenomenal individual performances by quarterbacks and receivers for both teams, an exciting finish, and of course a Bandits win! Little did we know that this game would be mere prelude to the rematch…

#2 What a finish!

Just two weeks after losing in the final seconds at Richmond, the Legends tried to return the favor in Canton. And they came out of the gate ready to get revenge and then some. Canton intercepted Will Burch three straight times and took a 16-0 lead, with the Bandits defense the only thing that kept it that close. Rik Richards yanked Burch and Robbie Jenkins began a comeback for the ages. He threw touchdown passes to Redd Thompson four times and Marcel Willis and DeAndre Green once each, but appropriately the defense completed the comeback when DeAndre Green returned an interception 22 yards for a touchdown. But that only set up the final, frantic seven minutes. Since coach Richards was at this point in the season still quite pissed off at kickers (both his, and the concept in general), there was no true kicker on the active roster for this game. Richmond went for two after every touchdown, and Mike Davis served as the kickoff guy and had some pretty ugly efforts. But in what could be a microcosm of his season and his love/hate on-field relationship with Rik, Davis managed to score a rouge late in the game! Dan Larlham scored three touchdowns on the ground and with 23 seconds left in the fourth quarter, scored again and threw a two-point conversion pass to make it 58-57 Canton. But as Canton learned in the first matchup, any time is too much to leave Brent Williams’ offense. Robbie Jenkins moved the Bandits down the field, and on the game’s last play found Redd Thompson from 11 yards out to complete the improbable victory. Redd had actually injured himself against the boards earlier in the game and had to come out, but was able to go for the last couple of possessions. Unfortunately, medical tests would show that the injury was more severe than anyone thought, and Redd’s career was over after this game. Redd was such a gifted receiver, he would come off the field after the first series and tell the coaches, “I can beat this guy all night.” That’s what he said in Canton, and on the last play, Robbie was looking right at Redd all the way.

#1 Champions!!

It was a rematch for the ages…the game that everyone wanted to see. Richmond vs. Erie, at the scene of the Bandits’ only loss of the season, for the inaugural league championship! Both teams came out intense, and Erie harassed Robbie Jenkins into numerous incompletions early. He was able to keep the chains moving, though, and thanks in part to a big run by Mike Davis to keep the Erie defense honest, completed a touchdown drive to notch the game’s first touchdown. The teams counterpunched throughout the first half, and with the score tied, Erie was driving and had a goal-to-go situation with less than a minute to go. But in the blink of an eye, the Bandits seized momentum and the lead. Quesuan Wigfall intercepted a David Dinkins pass in the end zone, and returned it 52 yards down the sideline for a touchdown. Not only did the Bandits take the crowd out of the game, but they began to realize that coach Richards’ defensive scheme for this game would work. The defensive onslaught continued in the second half, and by game’s end, David Dinkins – who was named the league’s MVP at halftime – had thrown six INTs. Chris Brown had three of them, making fans wonder how much better the defense could have been had he been with the team during the regular season. The offense scored way more than enough, and Mike Davis ran in for the last touchdown of the game to cap the 56-30 victory. The Bandits had come back to Erie, and completely demolished the Freeze, leaving no doubt to which team deserved the championship. In their first season, the Bandits won the AIFL Governor’s Cup and brought a championship to Richmond!

There are no cars in doggie heaven

2005-11-26T00:37:00.000-05:00

Bandits top 10 (part 1)

2005-11-17T15:49:00.000-05:00

In honor of the defending AIFL champion Richmond Bandits announcing their 2006 schedule, I have put together my top 10 moments of the inaugural season.

#10 Indoor Football returns to Richmond

On April 16, 2005, the Richmond Bandits played their inaugural game. After receiving the opening kickoff, it took them just two plays to score and the rout was on. It didn’t matter that the opponent was the hapless Ghostriders, or that the Bandits forced seven turnovers, or that the game ended in a 66-13 blowout – in fact, all that added up to make the fans even more excited about the game. And that was the point. Indoor football was back, Richmond had a good looking team, and the games were fun.

#9 Robbie Jenkins’ first start

After filling in as the backup quarterback for the first half of the season, Robbie Jenkins got his chance to start against the Raleigh Rebels. Having brought the team back to win the previous week (see #2), and played the second half against Erie, he was a known quantity and could have started for most if not every other team in the league. And all he did in this game was go 15 for 19 passing for 150 yards and five touchdowns. More importantly, after Will Burch got a couple of series in the second half that ended in disaster (two interceptions), Robbie got the team back on track after the game was tied at the end of the third quarter, and led them to a 47-39 win.

#8 Not going down to the wire

The third meeting between the Bandits and Legends, though close on the scoreboard (72-69), was a laugher compared to the teams’ first two meetings. Robbie Jenkins threw for eight touchdowns and ran for another, and the Bandits scored PATs on all 10 of their touchdowns compared to just seven for the Legends. Jenkins was actually able to kneel the ball to end the game!

Chris Segaar kicked two rouges, solidifying the kicking game that had been frustrating coach Rik Richards all year.

#7 Regular season champs

On a Monday night, the Bandits played their home regular season finale with no consequences – they would get the second playoff seed win or lose. But with a win they could still claim a share of the regular season championship, which was a huge goal for coach Richards. In a defensive struggle, the Bandits shut out the Rebels in the second half and finished the season 9-1.

#6 This one hurts

In week two, the Bandits traveled to Erie to face the consensus “other best team” in the league. The Freeze didn’t disappoint, matching the Bandits score for score behind the frustratingly dazzling play of David Dinkins. This game turned late in the first half, when Will Burch was hit hard by the Freeze defense and separated his left shoulder. Unable to return, Burch watched Robbie Jenkins play capably, but not well enough, and the Freeze were able to get a timely turnover and win the game by 10. After the game, the Bandits circled the regular season finale on their calendars, a home rematch with Erie. Unfortunately, Erie would never come to Richmond as the league office canceled the last two weeks of the season. That meant that this win locked up home field advantage in the playoffs for the Freeze, as the top two teams would not face off head to head again. A bright spot for Richmond was the play of Bobby Phillips, who ran for a TD and three 2-point conversions, sparking a run during the middle part of the season when Phillips was virtually unstoppable running it in for two.

Click here for the top five.

Back 2 Business

2005-11-15T12:10:00.000-05:00

The defending AIFL Champion Richmond Bandits are back! The team announced its schedule for the 2006 season, which includes the home opener against the defending NIFL champion Rome Renegades, who have moved to the AIFL this season. In the new Southern Division, the Bandits will play home-and-home games with each of the other seven teams. Familiar foes in the Raleigh Rebels and the Ghostriders are back, along with expansion teams in Daytona Beach, Rome, Augusta, and Chattahoochee Valley, Georgia, and Florence SC. The season runs from late February through mid-June with playoffs to follow. Get your tickets now!

2006 Richmond Bandits schedule

STIDNAB!

2005-11-10T16:09:00.000-05:00

Christmas came early for the AIFL Champion Richmond Bandits -- the rings are in! Aren't they beautiful:

The logo is set on a football shaped ruby that is a brighter red than appears in the picture. It's surrounded by 18 "diamonds" and the words 2005 AIFL CHAMPIONS.

The right flank has the score of the championship game, Bandits 56, Freeze 30, with the words "Inaugural Season" and the team's record (11-1) under a likeness of the Governor's Cup trophy. The left flank has the player's (or in my case, broadcaster's) name, a helmet, and position.

These things are freakin' huge! The top is almost two fingers wide (but keep in mind I have skinny fingers). It's heavy enough to really add some wallop when your right hand cracks someone upside the head, so much so that they'll likely have an impression of the word "STIDNAB" on their jaw. In fact, "stidnab" will probably become a new verb replacing "bitch slap," "pimp slap," "haymaker," "sucker punch," and "give 'em the Davie." First, the rappers will pick it up ("If a bitch disses you, don't be some disgrace/When a bitch disses you, stidnab her in the face"). Then the kids will start saying it, comedians will work it into their acts, it will have its own police code ("possible 10-67 in progress"), and it will eventually become the title of a Lifetime movie about domestic abuse, thus running its course in the realm of popular culture and being generally played out. But by then the Bandits will have a couple more of these honkers and the term will become retro, thus cool again.

And the winner is...

2005-11-09T12:24:00.000-05:00

It was the battle of 5th Street last night as I (in my capacity as media representative) attended both the Republican and Democrat election night parties. It was easy to bounce between them -- I've been on zip lines that are longer than the distance between the ballrooms in the Convention Center and the Marriott. We all know who won the elected offices, but here's the rundown on the really important issues.

Media Coverage: Republicans As you might expect, there was a ton of media in both places. 5th Street was packed with satellite trucks from all over the state. We broadcasted from only the Republican HQ, so that would normally give the GOP this category in a landslide. Virtually everyone had a reporter on each side -- but it was clear that most of the male reporters were in the Democrat room, while the female reporters/news bunnies were with the Republicans. An added bonus was being able to check out the assets you don't see on TV.

Music: Democrats The GOP, predictably, played a ton of country during the afternoon. Not exactly my style. Later in the night they switched to the usual selection of cheesy party music for the over-50 crowd, and -- worst of all -- played the same songs over and over again. The Democrats' music was louder and much better.

Food: Democrats No contest. The Dems had a modest spread of munchies, but the Republicans had nothing. Literally. Not a crumb to be found.

Drinks: Republicans The Dems had a good idea, putting the bar outside the actual ballroom so as to hit people before they got in. But that was their only bar, which made it difficult to get a refill once you were in and amongst the crowd. The Republicans had two bars, on either side of the ballroom, and seemed to have a larger selection of truly overpriced beer and wine.

Women: Republicans This surprised me. I figured that the Democrats would attract a younger, better looking crowd, but I was way off. You could not turn around in the Republican room without walking into a group of hot females. The staff was all good looking, and then when the general public started to arrive, forget about it. My friend Chris and I observed that we are in the wrong business and should become politicians immediately. I offered to become a political consultant and poll the electorate. At the very least, we are going to start a political reporting radio station and exclusively cover events like this.

So aside from risking starvation, the Republican party was the place to be. From our broadcast position, we could see the large balloons. And I found out that I'm the same height as Jerry Kilgore, since I was the only person in the room who was tall enough to stand in for him at the podium while they adjusted the lights. Now, to find out where the Republican chicks go for the post-parties...

Trick or Plea

2005-11-02T15:55:00.000-05:00

In my typical lazy, half-assed fashion, I came up with a Halloween costume sometime on October 27. Naturally, it consisted of things I either had at home already or could make on my own very easily. But I am actually quite pleased at how well it went over. Many people got what I was going for, some even without having to read my placard. In a stroke of topicality, ripped from the headlines more than any Law & Order episode, I went as Tom DeLay.

In case you didn't know, Tom DeLay is the former Speaker of the House who was indicted on charges of money laundering. This is his actual mugshot:

What the hell is he smiling about? Who is that happy after they've been taken downtown and booked for some very serious charges? I think he knows something...maybe because he has a deal worked out with this guy:

The Nine Decade Club

2005-10-27T13:41:00.000-04:00

Well, the White Sox won the World Series, just two seasons shy of 90 years removed from their last championship. I wasn't rooting for them to win, but as the series progressed I found myself not caring that they were winning games and that they eventually would win the whole thing. I'm more happy that Houston lost -- in a sweep no less. Actually, the last two years went as well as they could given who won the National League. Cardinals -- swept. Astros -- swept. Good. Screw 'em both. All I know is it's finally the Cubs' turn. Witness:

	2000: White Sox win division, swept in the playoffs
	2003: Red Sox win wild card, lose pennant on game 7 walk-off home run
	2003: Cubs win division, lose pennant after 3-1 lead in NLCS
	2004: Red Sox win World Series
	2005: White Sox win World Series
	2006: ???

Each team got close, then broke through, ending legendary generation-spanning droughts and breaking various curses along the way. The Cubs have to win next year, don't they? Don't these things happen in threes?

One play away, times three

2005-10-18T10:24:00.000-04:00

I'll be going to football games for the rest of my life, and there's a good chance I'll never experience anything like Oct. 15, 2005 ever again. The backdrop of USC's place in history for their current run, combined with the results of the last three meetings and the history of the greatest rivalry in college football, lent itself to impressing on everyone that this game would be something special. It was evident at the pep rally -- attended by 45,000 -- in the parking lots, and especially throughout campus just walking to the stadium. That's a walk I've made dozens upon dozens of times before, but never with the same heightened anticipation.

The game itself, of course, was better than anyone dared imagine. The crowd was into it from the word go -- something that can be rare up in the nosebleeds. When Zbikowski ran the punt back for a TD (right into my corner of the stadium) I couldn't even hear myself scream. USC came out with guns blazing and we took their best shot, and responded in kind. But what made the game even greater was knowing that no matter how much we were up by, or for how long, USC was never out of it. When we got the ball back with about five minutes to go and down four, it was as if everyone knew not only could we score and take the lead, but we would. We just did it too early.

Watching the 4th & 9 play live, it was hard to tell how badly Wooden got beat on the catch. Watching the tape and seeing pictures of the play, it was even closer than I would ever have thought. He was literally inches away in any direction from knocking the pass down and sealing the victory. Then a few plays later Leinart fumbled and I honestly thought we'd won, just because the clock ran down to 0:00. We've recovered two fumbles at the one yard line already this year, and were maybe a different bounce away from grabbing that one and ending it. On the sneak, of course I couldn't tell if he actually got in, but either way I'm glad the replays showed he did rather than it being so close that a ref would have had to mentally flip a coin.

So, naturally, when it finally was over, everyone was stunned and almost unwilling to accept a loss, especially with the way it ended. I think the highest compliment came when USC's sideline went apeshit after the touchdown -- when have they gotten that excited over the last 28 games? They've played some good teams and embarrassed them, which makes our accomplishment even more special, and the loss even more heartbreaking. We were good enough to win, we played well enough to win, and I think everyone will agree that there are many sets of circumstances, some quite small in deviation from actuality, that would have resulted in a win. That's what makes this loss different from any other I've witnessed. We've been clobbered by USC recently, against OSU in '96 we were on their level but faced a few unfavorable matchups, we were happier just to be competitive with Nebraska in '00, the refs screwed us against Colorado in the Orange Bowl, Tennessee outclassed us in '99 and '01, against BC in '93 we were flat and brought it upon ourselves, and of course upset losses to teams like Air Force hurt for entirely different reasons. On this day, we brought our best, we played our best, our best was good enough to win, but so was theirs. It was simply a game of emotion, physicality, strategy, execution, played as well as two top teams can do it -- all the things that combine in perfect amounts about once every 20 years to produce an unforgettable game that leaves both the winners and the losers in tears.

Welcome (whoosh) to baseball (zip) on Fox (dadumm)

2005-10-13T17:29:00.000-04:00

2006 can't come soon enough.

There are many, many things that I hate about Fox's presentation of baseball games, i.e. commercial breaks longer than security checks at the airport, "Scooter", Tim McCarver, promos for crappy Fox shows, entirely unnecessary shots of actors in said shows taking up space in prime seats, Joe Buck, "instant polls" asking inane questions about pitching changes, replays with transitions laden with more sound effects than the Death Star battle in Star Wars, the "right now" box, bumper music from shitty undifferentiated bands, etc. But with two games on simultaneously last night, you'd think that by flipping between them, I could avoid some or most of them. But in one moment, on two channels, Fox showed why its coverage of baseball cannot be allowed to continue for a nanosecond after the current contract expires. Watching the NLCS on Fox, somebody made an out and the announcers threw to Jeanne Zelasko. FLIP. An instant later, during the ALCS on FX, the useless sideline reporter was in the stands interviewing some old guy who was probably the "oldest living fan who saw the last White Sox World Series championship." I'm not sure, because I didn't hang around long enough to find out. I instinctively hit the up button on my remote and watched Court TV for a few minutes just to make sure baseball would actually be on when I returned to the game.

There is so much depth to my hatred of Fox's baseball coverage that I can't explain it all right here. But I think it all comes down to a simple misunderstanding: Fox doesn't realize that baseball is not football. Since they got the NFL, Fox did bring a lot to the broadcasts, including the yellow first down line, new angles on replays, etc. to capitalize on the physical nature of the collisions and the urgency of the two minute drill, which are unique to football. Baseball doesn't have and doesn't need such contrivances. Baseball fans know, understand, and are happy with the "dead space" between pitches or between innings. That has been part of the game forever. A baseball game, properly televised, can supply all the drama by itself with minimal commentary. But "minimal" and "Fox" are never seen together. There's a (gasp) 15-second window between pitches? Better show eight jump cuts of the managers, some fans, a close-up of the pitcher's face so tight you can count his whiskers, another player in the dugout, the managers again, and rejoin the center field camera as the pitcher is halfway through his windup! We don't need to see someone on the bench, we don't need Joe Buck reminding us that A-Rod would bat sixth this inning, especially during the playoffs we NEVER need to throw to the studio (and Jeanne Zelasko and Kevin Kennedy should never be allowed within fifty miles of any baseball broadcast), and we don't need the sensory overload on our TV that goes against the backdrop of a baseball game. Please, ABC, NBC, Food TV, somebody, outbid Fox for the next contract and do this right.

A Twister play

2005-10-13T10:43:00.000-04:00

You know that whenever you see an umpire at a postgame news conference, something went haywire during the game. Such was the case last night in Chicago, where home plate umpire Doug Eddings had to face the music for his botching of a third strike call. In recent years, especially since the umpires have been gathered under one umbrella and the reviews and QuesTec have been used, umpire mechanics and signals have been largely standardized. Of course, everyone has their own called strike signals, and a good "ring 'em up" called third strike always brings pizzazz. But for fair/foul, home run/in play, and especially some specific strike calls, virtually every ump has the same signals. On a checked swing for strike one or two, the home plate ump will point at the batter and then signal strike. When a batter checks his swing on strike three and it's caught cleanly, the ump points at the batter and then punches him out. On a dropped third strike, the ump will hold his arm out sideways to the right and then follow the play to first or when the tag is made by the catcher, punch the batter out. Watch any major league game and you'll find that to hold true.

All this further muddles things as they happened last night, and confounds Eddings' postgame explanations. On the third strike, Eddings held his arm out to the right to indicate a swing, then punched the batter out to indicate that the ball wasn't dropped and that Pierzynski was out. That's why not only catcher Josh Paul, but the rest of the Angels started to leave the field, since all the infielders had to go on was the signal. Pierzynski was completely within his rights to run to first, but according to the ump, he was out at the plate anyway. During that time, Eddings admitted he was watching Paul to gauge his reaction. This happens on many close plays -- the ump gets his cue from the player. If a fielder makes a swipe tag, then goes back for another tag, it's a cue to the ump that the fielder thinks he missed the first tag, so the ump will generally agree and call the runner safe. So if Eddings was unsure of the call, and was watching Paul, who rolled the ball back to the mound, why would he use that reaction as grounds for a no-catch call? The bottom line is if Eddings hadn't punched Pierzynski out, we could assume he either saw the pitch hit the dirt or wasn't sure and was erring on the side of caution. But once he punched him out, the play was dead and the inning was over. Chalk this one up to bad umpiring and the cardinal sin of officiating any sport -- wavering on your call.

No Valid Opinions, exhibit 243

2005-10-02T17:11:00.000-04:00

Sideline reporters at football games are inherently worthless. In all my years of watching football, I have yet to see a worthwhile report from any of them...but that's an issue for another day. I just want to pass along a nugget from last night's ND-Purdue game. Late in the second half of the blowout, Purdue was still taking timeouts on defense, and Ron Franklin (one of my favorites) and Bob Davie (human waste) were rightly criticizing Joe Tiller for prolonging his own misery. Blah, blah, blah, a few minutes pass and they eventually throw to Holly Rowe on the sidelines. She offers her typically pointless drivel and then finishes with, "and guys, about Purdue taking timeouts, that's just the coaches not giving up and still coaching all the way to the end. Back to you." Franklin snaps back, in the most condescending and paternalistic tone you can imagine, with, "Coaching? It's 42 to 21, sweetheart."

Just the latest proof that women have no valid opinions about sports.

After further review

2005-09-26T14:16:00.000-04:00

A few thoughts on the UW game....

Coulda, woulda, shoulda scored about two more touchdowns. Settling for field goals too often in one game is a sign that you need to shake things up with a short field...Washington's defense surprised me by being as strong as they were in the red zone. Of course, poor long snaps are just inexcusable. I think that if you just watched our offense vs. their defense, you'd guess that the score would be 49-0. Whereas if you just watched their offense vs. our defense, you'd guess it would be around 13-10. Maybe a 19 point win just splits the difference, but remember that our first team D gave up only 10 to their first team O. Point to the turnovers if you must, but the bottom line is we made those plays on the road and I'll take the production every time. Of course our pass defense is another story. Can we just retire #15, or at least not let anyone in the secondary ever wear it? Oh, and one last thing...did anyone think when McKnight and Stovall were recruited that they would both be passed as the #1 receiver by a white kid from Valpo?

I'm still not entirely sold on instant replay. Have any of the calls they've reviewed this season in our games been overturned? The closest call was the non-TD that we might have had by a toenail, but it was tough to see in the shadows.

The biggest turnaround I've seen in the first four games is the resiliency of the offense. Drive to drive and game to game they don't seem to be letting mistakes get to them as much as the last few years. How many times did it take a perfect drive to score points, and if there was one penalty or one busted play the drive would fizzle? The current level of production should really help when we play good defenses down the road. Already we've scored 136 points, which is more than our 4-game totals the past nine years. Yeah, it's been since 1995 that we've averaged 34 points for the first four games. Ty always took at least six games to get to 136, nine in '03! Only twice did Davie's teams need less than seven games to get to that mark. I've said it before and I'll say it again, it is nice to have a real football coach in charge.

All that being said, the Purdue game is a huge one for the rest of the schedule. Lose to them and go into SC at 3-2, we're looking at 3-3 and potentially 4-4 heading into the stretch. But head into SC with a bye week at 4-1 and the table is set for maybe a 9-2 season. Minnesota ran all over the Boilers so hopefully Walker, Powers-Neal, and Schwapp will have a big game. Let's bring back the full house backfield! Run some wishbone option! Just get the win -- beating Purdue could mean the difference between a New Year's Day bowl (with a very slim shot at an at-large BCS bid) and the bullcrap.com bowl.

Anything Goes

2005-09-14T14:17:00.000-04:00

I've been listening a lot lately to "Liberty" 98.9 FM. When your choices of listenable radio stations number between four and six depending on how well 96.9 and 106.9 come in on a given day, having another button-worthy station is huge. Liberty is a "we play anything" station similar to Virginia Beach's Bob FM, and in a recent drive home I heard Dexy's Midnight Runners, Tom Petty, and Elton John in succession. They'll clearly play what might be labeled as classic rock, 80's, 90's alternative, pop, and rock -- but (like with Bob) I've never heard mention of country. Their liners literally say thing like "we play anything" and "you never know what's coming next" but evidently you always know what's not coming next -- country. I'm not even a fan of country music but it seems like the Bob/Jack/Dave/Liberty formats should at least have a Garth Brooks song thrown in once in a while to truly justify their "anything goes" format.

I'm figuring out how to post pictures.