The Edge of Sports

Blog is Back....and From Wisconsin

2008-05-12T18:10:00.000-07:00

After traveling over 1,500 miles from West Palm Beach, FL to Beaver Dam, WI I'm now somewhat settled and ready to blog.

Eric Gagne needs to grow a pair of "onions", man up and decide that he's ready to earn some of the ridiculous 10 million dollar contract he signed this past off season.

First he says he is "embarrassed" and he didn't deserve to close, agreed, now he wants back in. No Thanks, Gagne and his swollen 6.89 ERA can go back to Canada.

I hear that some Brew Crew fans want Russell Branyan to replace the struggling Bill Hall at third base, well that is the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

Yes, Russell Branyan is hitting .355 with 8 HR's and 26 RBI's for the Nashville Sounds but don't forget his career MLB average is .229 that is probably a better indicator of what your going to get from Branyan at the MLB level.

New Dolphins Coaching Staff

2008-01-24T08:16:00.001-08:00

The Dolphins are making a lot of changes so I thought I'd put together a list of the new hires. Click their link to learn more, and their most recent job are in the parentheses on the right.

V.P. Football Operations-Bill Parcells(Dallas Cowboys)

G.M.-Jeff Ireland(Dallas Cowboys)

Head Coach-Tony Sparano(Dallas Cowboys)

Defensive Coordinator-Paul Pasqualoni(Dallas Cowboys)

Linebackers- Jim Reid(VMI)

Secondary/Assistant Head Coach-Todd Bowles(Dallas Cowboys)

Defensive Line-Kacy Rodgers(Dallas Cowboys)

Quality Control-David Corrao(Mississippi)

Offensive Coordinator-?

Quarterbacks Coach-David Lee(Arkansas)

Wide Receivers Coach-Karl Dorrell (UCLA)

Offensive Line-Mike Maser (Carolina)

Cam Cameron to Baltimore

2008-01-24T08:11:00.000-08:00

Clips from Cam Camerons Press Conference with Baltimore.

On how last season’s experience with Miami impacted his decision to take this job with the Ravens instead of taking time off: “Well, it’s interesting. I grew up in this profession and I’ve never taken any time off in the profession. So, that’s probably the first thing. I think the thing that most people can relate to [is that] in life we all get stung on occasion. If you’re in the National Football League as a coach or a player long enough, you’re going to get stung. But the sting is going away and the important thing is now I’m part of the Baltimore Ravens, and I’m really just sincerely – my family as well – we’re sincerely looking forward to being there.”

On how therapeutic it is to go from his situation with the Dolphins to have a job with the Ravens in a short period: “Well, I’ve never thought it was about me. I’m excited to be a part of a team and an organization. That’s the way I see things. It’s nice that it did come together quickly so my family can have some direction. But again, as I said earlier, everyone gets stung occasionally in life and it’s good to learn from it and get back up. You move forward, you make the best of it. I think that’s the important thing, and I’m excited about moving forward, as well as I know the Ravens are.”

On his initial reaction and how he dealt with losing his job in Miami: “Having grown up in the profession, this is what I love to do. It’s what I feel like I’m called to do, and it’s such a blessing to be able to coach in the National Football League. I’ve always respected the game, respected the league, respected the players and coaches in the league. People talk about time off and all those things; you’ve got to be kidding me. This is what I’ve dreamed about doing since I was a kid. I’m blessed to be able to do it, and I’m glad that I get to continue to do it.”

On if he anticipates calling the plays: “Well, yes. Obviously, you rely on your entire staff when it comes to play-calling, but I’ll be calling the plays. I think that’s the important thing.”

On how he has changed in the last year: “I strongly believe that you just continue to grow. You continue to get better. How you do that is you just continue to work hard and learn. And you learn from mistakes you make. Anytime you’re trying to do something great, you’ll make mistakes, you’ll learn from them, you’ll grow from them, and that’s the way I still approach it. I approach it that way today. That’s how I’ll approach it in my time there, continually try to get better as a coach everyday, get our staff to continually get better, our players to get better. You have to continue to improve in the National Football League. It’s just too competitive if you don’t. “

On anything he’d like to say to the fans in Miami: “My family and I are excited to move on to Baltimore. We’re very appreciative of the way that people [in Miami] treated [us] – especially my family. I would say, ‘Thank you very much’ for the respect that we were treated with there our entire time. I just want to say thank you.”

On how much he will rely on the input of veteran players: “There will be a lot of communication. What we’ll do is, we’ll sit down with guys [and] talk about things they feel they’re doing well [and] the things they think they need to improve on. What are their goals? What are their individual goals? What are their goals within our offense? And [I’ll] then give them, at the same time, my assessment. I’ll go through, as well as our staff will go through, all the games. [I’ll] just talk to them. If there’s something they might want to improve on, and take that approach, I think that’s the important thing. They’ll have a lot of confidence in what we’ll do. A big part of what we’ll do is get everybody involved. That’s probably the most important thing, in getting everybody to understand everybody is going to have a role in what we do. It’s a team concept. As you heard John say, ‘It’s the team, it’s the team, it’s the team.’ Offensively, it’s the same philosophy within.”

Good luck Cam, hope you learned something from your time in Miami.

'72 Dolphins Speak

2007-12-30T10:15:00.000-08:00

1972 DOLPHINS STATEMENTS ON PATRIOTS

Head Coach Don Shula

“Going undefeated during the regular season is a remarkable achievement. I know first hand how difficult it is to win every game, and just as we did in 1972, the Patriots have done a great job concentrating on each week’s opponent and not letting any other distractions interrupt that focus. If they go on to complete an undefeated season, I will be the first to congratulate Coach Belichick and the Patriot organization.”

Defensive Tackle Manny Fernandez

“Congratulations to the Patriots for winning all of their regular season games. If they finish without a loss, it’s almost going to be a relief to me. That way, the media will start to call them the first eight or nine games each year whenever a team starts undefeated instead of calling us. That will give us a break.”

Quarterback Bob Griese

“I want to congratulate the Patriots on going undefeated during the regular season. I know Tom Brady well because he played at Michigan with my son, Brian. I’ve followed his career ever since then and have the greatest respect for him as a player. He is having one of the greatest seasons ever by an NFL quarterback, and his outstanding performance has been a major factor in the Patriots’ success this year. I hope he continues to play at such a high level in the playoffs, and if he does it will be very difficult to beat them the rest of the way.”

Running Back Jim Kiick

“If they finish up undefeated, I would be the one of the first to help lift their chair up on the mountaintop. Going undefeated in the regular season is a great accomplishment. But I’m sure going 16-0 isn’t important to them – they wan to go 19-0. If they finish 18-1 by losing the Super Bowl, there’s no doubt they would look at it as a disappointing season. And that’s the way we viewed it back in 1972. Our main objective wasn’t going undefeated, it was to win the Super Bowl. So it’s great that they’ve gotten this far, but I know what’s really important to them is to win that last game, not necessarily all the ones before it.”

Guard Bob Kuechenberg

“They’ve done a heck of a job thus far. But now the exhibition season is over and the real season begins. Obviously, if they can win their first playoff game, beat an even more dangerous Colts team, and then Brett Favre or the Dallas Cowboys in the Super Bowl, I will be the first to take my hat off to them. If they can pull it off, they will have earned it.

“But my heart is dead set against it. The ’72 team in uniquely immortal in American sports and I don’t want us to lose that special place. We will forever be immortal, and if they win every game in front of them, then they will join us among those ranks. They will have deserved it ant I will congratulate them. But something in my heart makes me feel that we accomplished something so special that it forever sets the standard of excellence in sports.

“Imperfect is mortal. Perfect is immortal.”

Tight End Jim Mandich

“My sincerest congratulations go out to the Patriots. In this salary cap-era, free agency-era, I didn’t think it could be done, and the Patriots did it. They are a remarkable team. They are terrifically coached, and if somebody was going to tie the Miami Dolphins record in the regular season of going unbeaten, it’s appropriate that it would be the Patriots because they are a class act.”

Quarterback Earl Morrall

“I’d like to congratulate the New England Patriots. They’ve had a great run and a great season in winning all of their games. I’m sure if they look at it, it’s a difficult thing to do. They play great football, so you’ve got to compliment them on that. Now you’ve got to see if they can finish it and go the distance – the playoffs, championship and Super Bowl. You’ve got those to go to end up perfect, and we’ll be the first ones to congratulate them if they do it.”

Running Back Mercury Morris

“My feeling about it is as consistent as it has been all year. It doesn’t matter to me whether or not they win them all because it doesn’t affect anything we’ve done. When all the dust clears, the best they can do is to stand beside us, and in the end, that’s not a bad thing. I will welcome them to the neighborhood with my Mr. Rogers sweater on, but first they have

Dolphins vs. Pats Running Blog

2007-12-23T13:33:00.000-08:00

Thought I'd tell you exactly what I think as it happens. Enjoy!

--Great start, three and out, two drops and you gave the Pat's great field position.

--Good job by the 'Phins letting Wes Welker go he only has 97 catches and over 1,000 yards receiving. Tom Brady really took his time this game it took him 10 plays and over five minutes to score.

--New England 7 Miami 0

--Another solid outing by the 'Phins offense, one run and two crappy pass plays.

--Do you think Bill Parcells and Jason Garrett are watching this game and wondering if Bill can fire Cam Cameron tomorrow and name Garrett the coach.

--Joey Porter is great it only took him 30 seconds to get to Brady.

--Why is Belichick punting, did he take the under?

--Nice job by Cam to wait 'til the third series to start running, did Bill make a phone call?

--Hey Joey Porter is pretty fast, he ran right next to Lawrence Maroney for 30 yards for he decided he wanted to make a tackle.

End of the 1st Q

New England 7 Miami 0

--I like how all week the defensive players were saying that they need to get pressure on Brady and Cam has decided to rush three guys.

--Travis Daniels is awful he is the definition of the '07 Dolphins, he has gotten worst as the season has gone on.

--Hey, Randy Moss scores again...at least no Dolphin got hurt on this one.

--New England 14 Miami 0

--If people really did freak out if/when Burger King took the "Whopper" off the menu then I am embarrassed to be a human being.

--The commentators have already given up on this game, they're talking playoff situations for other teams.

--That was quick Maroney scores again !!! on a personal note I'm pissed he did crap all year for my fantasy team. He now has two runs for over 50 yards and one touchdown.

--New England 21 Miami 0

--This is sad the Dolphins offense is pathetic but there is hope 'Phins recover a muffed punt...how long until they screw this up? My bet is four plays.

--One play, Jesse Chatman puts the team in a huge hole by running backwords again I underestimate how bad this team is.

--Another QB ties and will soon break a Dan Marino record, the perfect season continues. Tom Brady now has 48 TD's after his pass to Jabar Gaffney.

--New England 28 Miami 0

--Nice pass by Cleo Lemon to David Martin too bad it was ruined by another bad call by Cam Cameron. Why would you spike the ball with 1:11 to go and your playing the Pats? Did you want to the Pats more time?

--Half Time

New England 28 Miami 0

--Hey Dolpins make a play a Jason Alle INT, but then he decides to run it out of the end zone and gets taken down at the 10. Why does this team always do something wrong even when they make a good play?

--Why would Cleo run out of bounds instead of into the end zone, what is he thinking. It's being reviewed, no way it's a touchday.

--Touchdown Greg "Rich" Camarillo, nice pass nice throw, both are worthless in this game.

--New Enland 28 Miami 7

--End of 3Q

New England 28 Miami 7

--Strange that Ted Ginn is getting so many passes, seems like someone is trying to justify his guys to Bill Parcells.

--How the hell does John Beck not throw a pass in this game?

--Game Over

New England 28 Miami 7

--Smile Dolphans only one more game of this crap.

Miami Basketball Give me a Break

2007-12-23T12:57:00.000-08:00

The hype surrounding Miami Hurricanes basketball is just that hype, this team is a low end mid level team in the ACC.

The 'Canes have beaten Florida Southern, Marist, Virginia Commonwealth, Morgan State, Alabama State, Florida International, Stetson, North Florida and North Carolina A & T. Wow, let me call Ripley's and see if they believe that the 'Canes ran through a collection of Sun-Belt, Atlantic Sun and MEAC teams.

Now I know that all 'Cane fans are going to point to Providence, Mississippi State and St.Johns as proof that the 'Canes are for real. Lets take a look at each team a little closer.

Providence - The Friars are 8-3 on the season with quality wins over Arkansas and Florida State. Their win over the Razorbacks just happened to be the game before their match-up with the 'Canes. I'm inclined to believe that Providence didn't take the 'Canes seriously and were overconfident after pulling off a upset a few nights earlier.

Mississippi State - The Bulldogs gave the 'Canes a good run, losing 64-58, good the know that a last place team can test the 'Canes. The Bulldogs are last in the SEC West and just lost to Texas A & M Corpus Cristi.

St.Johns - The Red Storm are third from last in the Big East, 5-4 overall. No surprise that St.Johns has nothing that resembles a quality win.

Lets take a look at the numbers.

The 'Canes have only three players in double figures in scoring, no player is close to double figures in rebounds and not a single player averages even five assist a game. A good team would not only be racking up wins against this pathetic schedule, they would be piling up stats.

The rest of the Schedule

This next month will show what the 'Canes really are...pretenders.

Georgia Tech(1/12)Boston College (1/15), at North Carolina St. (1/19), North Carolina (1/25), Clemson (1/27), at Wake Forrest (1/29).

Sorry South Florida sports fan, 'Canes basketball is not the winner you hoped it would be. In fact don't be surprised if they don't even make the NCAA tournament, the NCAA doesn't care about great starts they care about how you finish.

Tuna Surprise

2007-12-19T15:37:00.000-08:00

Baring any last minute changes, it looks like Bill Parcells will be heading to the Miami Dolphins to be their new Vice President of Football Operations. Published reports have the "Big Tuna" signing a contract within the next 48 hours and that means changing in the front office and coaching staff could be coming soon.

Oddly Cam Cameron's job could be safe, even stranger, Bobby Knight might be the reason why. Parcells and Cameron are friends with Knight which by default may make Cameron a "Parcells Guy." Randy Mueller has to be on his way out the door because Parcells will want to be to hands on for someone like Mueller to accept.

The players, they didn't seem to really care....yet. Jason Taylor saw the report and laughed, saying that ESPN isn't always right and Joey Porter was cut off before he had a chance to answer. Vonnie Holliday seemed intrigued by the possibility of having the "Big Tuna" in house, he said "he's (Parcells) a guy that's going to get things turned around."

One thing is for sure, Cam won't be able to continue to bring in strays like Cleo Lemon and Greg Camarillo. Parcells is looking for young, athletic and extremely talented players so look for someone with a skill set like Patrick Clayton, instead of Camarillo around the locker room. No longer will this team be filled with "good guys" like Matt Roth instead look for players like Tank Johnson around the 'Phins. I'm all for it, this years team has proven that nice guys do finish last.

A few notes from Practice

Channing Crowder and Cameron Worrell both had knee surgerys. Worrell is out for the season, Crowder still up in the air.

Jason Taylor (Ankle) Joey Porter (Shoulder) and Keith Traylor (Knee), all did not practice today.

Jesse Chatman will likely be a game time decision.

Tim Tebow Facts

2007-11-23T18:50:00.000-08:00

I'm not going to take credit for these great ideas...so check out timtebowfacts.com.
Here are some of my favorites.

Tim Tebow Facts

Tim Tebow can divide by zero

When you open a can of whoop-ass, Tim Tebow jumps out.

Tim Tebow doesn't actually write books, the words assemble themselves out of fear.

Tim Tebow sweats Gatorade

Tim Tebow doesn't throw up if he drinks too much. Tim Tebow throws down!
What color is Tim Tebow's blood? Trick question. Tim Tebow does not bleed.

It takes Tim Tebow 20 minutes to watch 60 Minutes.

Superman wears Tim Tebow pajamas

Life doesn't give Tim Tebow lemons. Life asks him which fruit he wants

Tim Tebow always knows the EXACT location of Carmen SanDiego

Tim Tebow has never lost or tied in a game of Tic Tac Toe.

Nobody does it like Sara Lee. Except Tim Tebow.

Losers Lament

2007-11-23T18:18:00.000-08:00

Not that I want anyone to feel sorry for me but let's take a look at the teams I cover on a daily basis.

The Miami Heat haven't won a home game since April 13th and after Wednesdays collapse against the Hawks I don't know if it will ever happen. There is no question that, at the very least, Dwayne Wade is rusty how else can you explain Josh Smith blocking Wade's game winning attempt.

Shaq is old and at least once a night I will see a play that makes his age painstakingly obvious. Against the Hawks the Heat tried to feed Shaq the ball on an alley-oop pass and both times Shaq had to catch, regroup and then take his shot. The result of those passes would have been four dynamic points...this year two shaky free-throws.

The Hurricanes are actually just sad, how else can you explain (-2) yards rushing against Virgina Tech. There is virtually no chance that this team goes to a bowl, but if they do every 'Cane fan should be grateful. 'Canes fans need to wake up and understand for the time being, National Championships, ACC Championships or anything beyond the MPC Computers Bowl is not a realistic goal. I don't see how those expectations will improve dramatically next year. Teams with red shirt Freshman don't win championships, so 'Canes fans you are going to have to wait another year 'till your relevant.

The Florida Panthers do win some games, or at least enough to keep .500 in site and to tease their loyal fan base. I'm at their game right now and Stephen Weiss just put the 'Cats up by one at the start of the third period. This team actually has a present and a future, they have talent to win now and youth to win for a long time. One of my favorite Panthers is David Booth, he has 6 goals and is instant energy off the bench.

As for the Dolphins, insert lame losing joke here, they did get Ricky Williams back on Monday, insert lame pot smoking reference here.

Ricky is a not just a star, he's a Super Nova, if you question my assessment head down to Davie one day and see how many T.V. trucks are there. 0-10 teams don't normally deserve and definitely don't garner this much attention, but Ricky makes the 'Phins exciting...at least for a while.

Cam Cameron is following the cliched mantra of "one day at a time" with Ricky. Cameron sticks to this lame theory despite the fact that Jesse Chatman can barely walk and everyone at camp marvels at how great Ricky looks. If Cam goes into Pittsburgh with Patrick Cobbs, Lorenzo Booker and Samkon Gado as his running backs he should be fired.

My theory for Ricky, he is named starter for the Monday night game against Pittsburgh. The 'Phins will make room for Ricky by placing Zach Thomas on the IR.

Losing my way

2007-11-12T18:49:00.000-08:00

It has been a little while since my last blog so I want to catch up on a few things from the past week.

--Friday I was at the Phoenix Suns at the Miami Heat game and I was thrilled when they decided to reenact the 1997 All-Star Game. This was obviously done by Pat Riley in an effort to give fans a chance that to see “Penny” Hardaway, Grant Hill, Alonzo Mourning and “Shaq” O’Neil all playing at the same time. You may not remember that the fans in Cleveland were robbed of this chance in 1997 because O’Neil and Mourning were selected but did not play in the game. Thanks Pat for letting us see what we were robbed of in 1997. FYI, if the Heat would have re-signed Gary Payton and Eddie Jones the Heaters could have fielded an entire ’97 All-Star team themselves. Don’t worry Heat fans there is still hope…Chris Webber is a free agent.

--Saturday’s closing of the Orange Bowl was a complete debacle and the worst part was it really wasn’t surprising that this ‘Canes team came out flat. Before the game I mentioned to a few reporters that “I hope this isn’t a blow out” and they all looked at me like I was taking crazy pills. My thought process was if the ‘Canes get down early their done because I’m sad to say this team lacks the effort required for a comeback.

Another problem for the ‘Canes was the fact the players seemed to ignore the game plan from the outset, they seemed certain that it was their right to win this game and played without any direction.

I feel bad for Kyle Wright because he’s gotten too much of the blame at Miami. Saturday’s loss wasn’t his best game and his career has fallen well short of what everyone had hoped, but take a look at what he’s worked with. Wright has had three offensive coordinators and two head coaches and a stock-pile of questionable receivers. I have a feeling next year some ‘Cane fans will wish they had Wright behind center and he can sit back and smile while he looks around an NFL locker room.

I am starting a petition to remove the “U” nickname from The University of Miami. If your team doesn’t even qualify for a bowl game then you should not have any nickname beside your team name, so until further notice they're the Hurricanes.

--The Miami Dolphins are losers; I don’t mean that they are hanging out with the Harry Potter crowd. They are losers in the truest sense of the word, they can’t win, they don’t know how to win and I don’t think they are going to win. Cam Cameron wasn’t a winner as a college coach (18-37 at Indiana) in fact he couldn’t even beat former ‘Phins coach Nick Saban when Saban was at Michigan State. Cameron lost both games against Saban, but at least they failed forward.

--The ‘Phins took the wrong Ohio State player; they should have waited until this years draft and taken Brian Robiskie. He has 48 catches for 864 yards and 10 touchdowns and is on pace to top all of Ginn’s numbers from last year. Robiskie is the son of ‘Phins receivers coach Terry Robiskie, Ginn played receiver for only one and half seasons at The Ohio State University.

--The Panthers have the hardest working promotions staff in South Florida. Every game they are giving away tons of prizes and tickets for future games. I don’t know anywhere else where you can get free parking and see local mascots

----Now you are caught up with my feeling about the devastation that is the South Florida sports landscape.

Hodgepodge

2007-11-03T11:07:00.000-07:00

I’ve been all over South Florida again this week and I’ve decided to make a hodgepodge of my thoughts, enjoy.

What happened to the South Florida Bulls I thought they were the next big thing in the state. I thought they were going to challenge Miami and Florida State for the rights to be the third best team in the state. You know what happened to them….reality that’s what happened. The Bulls aren’t that good in fact they are the third best team in the Big East and if Louisville had any thing that resembled a defense the Cardinals would be ahead of the Bulls too. After the Bulls lose to Cincinnati today and later in the season to the previously mentioned Cardinals the Bulls may have a worse win/ loss record than Florida Atlantic University, the team that everyone loves to ignore.

Shaq is who I thought he was an overweight and unmotivated former superstar who doesn’t realize that if he wants to remain great in the latter stages of his career he needs to put in the effort. I agree with G-Stein (host of the Saturday Sports Page) that Shaq needs to stop complaining about not getting the ball enough and start working on finding ways to put the ball in the hole. When Dwayne Wade returns to the Heat, Shaq will become the third option behind Wade and Ricky Davis.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the Miami Hurricanes are an average and that they are ridiculously boring to watch. In the first half of this weekends game with the N.C. State Wolf Pack, Kirby Freeman was 1 of 6 for 84 yards with one touchdown and one interception.

What happened to all the whining and crying over the Orange Bowl closing? I was at today’s game and the crowd is pathetic, per the usual this year. Does everyone know that ‘Canes now only have one more game left at the Orange Bowl? On a similar note, former ‘Canes, and current FAU Head Coach Howard Schnellenberger will coach the second to last game ever at the Orange Bowl.

Finally if the Dolphins don’t start John Beck, Cam Cameron needs to be fired. There is no reason why Cleo Lemon needs to play another down for this team. The only reason why Cameron would play Lemon is to win at least one game this year and that would criminally short sighted by Cameron.

The future is now?

2007-10-31T18:18:00.000-07:00

DAVIE – Obviously the big news at Dolphins camp today is the possibility of John Beck starting the November 11th game against the Bills. The majority of Dolphin fans are calling for the Beck Era to begin and I agree. The organization needs to find out now if Beck is the future of this team or just a career backup. Because the Dolphins can’t afford to enter next season without knowing if John Beck is the next Cleo Lemon or the next Brad Johnson.

The names Brad Johnson and Rich Gannon come to mind when I think of Beck and I don’t think Dolphin fans would complain about having a quarterback like that in a ‘Phins uniform. If you think Beck is the second coming of Marino, Montana or Favre your wrong, he projects along the lines of Gannon, Johnson and Trent Green.

Green didn’t have a full season as a starting quarterback until the age of 26, the same age as Beck, and both quarterbacks are near the same height (Green 6’3, Beck 6’2). Continuing with Green, Beck said today that he picks Green’s brain on the sidelines during games. If the ‘Phins do have a second coming of Green that should give the Dolphins a chance at the playoffs every year. Although it should be noted that Green only made one playoff appearance as a full time starter; he did win 10 games once and split time with Kurt Warner during the Rams 2000 playoff season.

That brings me to my next point; if the Dolphins are going to roll with Beck as their starter then they need to use the draft to improve their defense. Beck is a solid player that with a good not great defense can give you a realistic shot at the playoffs every year. If you pair an efficient quarterback, good defense and a great running back then the Dolphins may even have a Super Bowl run in them.

But if you want the Dolphins to be truly great you better hope the team spends a lot of time, money and resources on making sure that Brian Brohm, Andre Woodson or Matt Ryan isn’t the next great NFL quarterback. In the NFL it’s not defense that wins championships, its great quarterbacks win championships. With a few exceptions, when was the last time you saw a great defense make a team a dynasty? The Ravens had a nice year, so did the Bears and the Buccaneers but none of them were consistently great. The Patriots and Colts have always been top-tier teams since Peyton Manning and Tom Brady showed up. If you want to be a dynasty follow this blue print: Step 1: Get a great QB, Step 2: assemble an above average defense and the rest will take care of itself.

If Ryan, Brohm or Woodson is the next great QB in the NFL, the Dolphins better take him and sort the depth chart out later. If none of QB’s in the draft is the next franchise guy and Beck looks serviceable, then take Glen Dorsey.

Informed look at South Florida Sports

2007-10-24T18:57:00.000-07:00

SUNRISE - As you may or may not know, I cover the Dolphins, Canes, Panthers and now the Miami Heat for ESPN Radio 760. I thought now would be as good as time as any to throw my two cents in on the Heats trade of Antoine Walker and all the other things going on in the South Florida sports scene.

Pat Riley didn't like Ricky Davis in his previous stint with the Heat…apparently he dislikes Antoine Walker and his eating disorder more. Riley had issues with Davis’s lack of basketball knowledge and inability to score within the team concept (something that Davis has not improved on). Riley had issues with Walkers refusal to show up at camp in shape and ready to play, he also has had problems with Shaq’s conditioning but he’s not getting shipped out.

Riley’s plan of having a selfish talented player over an overweight one dimensional player seems logical at least for this year. One thing that will come into question was the conditional first round draft pick that the Heat had to give up to complete this deal. With the way the Heat waste draft picks on the likes of Daquan Cook and Dorell Wright at some point they are going to need to add young players through the draft, now they have eliminated a chance in an upcoming draft.

I’m at the Panthers game right now and Olli Jokinen has set two All-Time Panthers records, goals scored and points scored. Now that he holds those records it’s a safe bet to say that Olli is the best Panther in their short history. If you’re a fan of the team you better hope they make the playoffs, if they don’t your seeing Olli’s last days with the Cats.

Like I said before I cover the Dolphins too. At camp today we learned that the Dolphins are officially cursed. Zach Thomas may miss the ‘Phins London game due to whiplash, I mean come on; I’m starting to fear for my safety just being near this team.

Good news Patrick Cobbs has stopped throwing his socks at me, (he inadvertently threw his dirty socks on me post game on Sunday) and we had a chance took talk. One thing about the ‘Phins, they like their back up running backs short Cobbs is 5’9 and Jesse Chatman is 5’8. Speaking of Chatman, he has lost his mind, after Sundays game he said they have never been beaten badly by a team this year (did he realize what just happened on the field), Chatman also cited the Colorado Rockies as reason to believe the Phins will finish strong this year. Good luck with that.

Thought You Might Want to Know:

--Zack Thomas, David Martin and Keith Traylor all missed practice today

Phins signed Casey Bramlet, Quentin Moses, Lance Schulters and released Jesse Mahelona.

Cobbs excited about his chance

2007-10-24T16:40:00.000-07:00

With Ronnie Brown out for the rest of the season, running back Patrick Cobbs will now have a chance to prove that he belongs in the NFL. He took the time to talk with me after practice today.

JR – You started in the Sun Belt Conference, picked up by the Patriots and now you’re the number two running back heading into Sundays game. Are starting to think that you’re finally going to stick in the NFL?

Patrick Cobbs – Nah, I’m going to take this week like any other week, prepare to play running back like I did since week one. I mean obviously theirs a big chance I’m going to get in the game and play a bit, and I’m looking forward to the challenge.

JR – Losing Ronnie is obviously a blow to the team, but in the time you got to watch him play, did you learn anything that will help you going forward?

Patrick Cobbs – Ronnie’s a freak, he’s a big guy, he’s fast, and he can do anything he wants to do as a running back. He can outrun you, make you miss or he can run over you. The things that Ronnie does a lot of people can’t do, so your more like wow, then he’s teaching you how to run. But as far as his work ethic and his studies in the classroom he’s really on top of that, so on that aspect I can learn from him.

JR – This offense requires a running back that is versatile do you feel like you can do everything that Ronnie did?

Patrick Cobbs – I feel like I can catch the ball, I feel like I can do everything in this offense. This offense doesn’t really have a prototype running back, so that makes it good for any running back.

JR – You are on special teams; does that mentality carry over to playing running back?

Patrick Cobbs – The mental part of special teams is that you get to go out and give it all you got for one play. You go out there, you bust it, you give it all you got and you get to come off. On offense if you make a good play your gonna be out there again so it’s a different mentality but its all football.

Andre Goodman Interview

2007-10-20T20:50:00.000-07:00

With the Patriots coming to town, I thought it would be a good idea to have a talk with someone who will have to defend this high powered offense.

JR – What’s the Dolphins game plan going into Sunday against one of the top offenses in the NFL?

Andre Goodman – The best thing to do against an offense like this is to get to the quarterback, now that’s easier said than done but the key to slowing them down is pressure. In the secondary we have to maintain our coverage position.

JR – You covered Randy Moss when you were Detroit, what was that like?

AG – He's pretty different than any other receiver in the league. Even when you get position on him, he can go up and get the ball. You know that he’s good with his intermediate routes but you have to play to deep ball too and if you worry too much about the deep route he’ll kill you in the middle. He’s a double edged sword, but as a corner you still look forward to covering him.

JR – This defense has struggled to create turnovers for the past few years, is that a scheme problem?

AG – It is a little bit of the scheme, we are a pressure style of defense, which means we the corners are always in man to man. In man to man you’re trained to watch the receiver not the quarterback, so it’s hard to make interceptions when you don’t see ball coming. We don’t have the luxury of sitting in the backfield waiting for the ball and making interceptions. Our thing is to get up man to man, create pressure and in that scheme the quarterback has to make a mistake and we have to make him pay for it. Over the past couple of years we haven’t made them pay for it and that’s big, when we get our chance we have to make them pay.

JR – It hasn’t been just a problem with interceptions, the defense hasn’t created many fumbles either. Do you work on it with the Dolphins as much as you did with Detroit?

AG – Yeah, we work on it all the time and when I say all the time I mean all the time. We emphasize getting the ball out at the reception point, so it’s definitely a point of emphasis. But its not always easy to get done, some guys carry the ball loser than others at the same time our defense has to be optimistic and over the past few years we haven’t been and you can see the results.

JR – Earlier in the year you were out with an injury, Zach Thomas said he would rather be out there getting his butt kicked than on the sidelines out. Did you feel like that?

AG – You never want to sit and watch your team struggle and even if you’re in there and you’re just 50 percent it’s always better playing. No true competitor wants to watch the game from the sideline, regardless of the injury or injury history you want to play.

JR – Your teammate Lorenzo Booker talked about his worries that the team may not know how bad he wants to play. Is that something as a teammate you can see his desire?

AG – It’s obvious, very obvious, Lorenzo is a very good athlete and a nice resume coming out of college. Football players want to play, true football players want to play, you can read guys who just want to get by and he’s not one of them.

A few minutes with Lorenzo Booker

2007-10-19T18:18:00.000-07:00

This season Lorenzo Booker has struggled to find any playing time for the 0 and 6 Miami Dolphins. Despite his lack of playing time, Booker has remained confident about his skills and optomistic about his future.

JR - Coach Cameron said that you might get a shot to play wide receiver, is that something you’ve done before?

Lorenzo Booker – Yeah I like playing receiver, weather I’ll be activated…I don’t know, I have no idea and I don’t really worry about that to be honest with you. Because it’s not my decision, all I can do is go out and work hard and let the chips fall where they may. I would be taking away from my focus on the field if I start working about things I can’t control.

JR – You’re right next to a guy (Ted Ginn) who was only returning kicks a few weeks ago and now he’s a starting receiver does that give you hope?

LB – That’s all I can do is work hard in practice and hope one day they say this guy can help us we’ve got to get him on the field and until they feel like that this is where I’ll be.

JR – You feel you can help the team right?

LB – Of course, if I told you I didn’t they’ve drafted the wrong guy. I hurt so bad (not playing) that I just want to run out there and smash straight into a wedge. It’s the hardest on game day when everyone is suiting up and you want to suit up and help your boys. You want to go to battle with your boys, we’re in the locker room praying…and I’m in sweats, that’s when it’s the hardest. During the week your so busy with practice you don’t even have time to think about that to be honest with you.

JR – Is it even harder sitting out and your team is 0 and 6?

LB – Oh yeah, because as a player you always feel like you could’ve done something. If they were winning it may be a little bit different but then again I doubt it. I would probably want to get out there more, as a competitor I always feel there’s something more I can do. But right now all I can do is practice and get those guys that will play ready.

JR – All those lines, Zach (Thomas) said that he would rather be out there getting beat and playing bad, than on the sidelines. Do you feel like that too?

LB – Yeah, because there’s a feeling of letting the guys down, when your boys are out there hurting and they’ve got their pads on and they look at you all clean. You don’t want them to feel like you don’t want to be out there with them and that’s what it come down to. You want them to know I’m willing to die for you, just like you are for me, when your not playing there is always a little bit of wondering what the guys are thinking. Do they understand that I would much rather be out there than right here, that’s what it come down to. First and foremost we play for each other; these are the guys out there dying with me in that heat so I don’t want them to feel that way.

JR – Any similarities between Cam and Bobby Bowden?

LB – Not really, Cam’s much more aggressive and that’s what I like, he’s a gambler. He’s a cut throat kind of play caller and that’s what I like. On this team there is no difference between offense and defense we want to go out there and hit you in the mouth and that’s what I like about it.

3 Questions with Ronnie Brown

2007-10-17T16:15:00.001-07:00

DAVIE - After Bill Belichick called Ronnie Brown the best offensive player in the NFL I thought it was a good time to ask Ronnie a few questions.

JR - Belichick called you the best offensive player in the NFL, what does a compliment like that mean to you, coming from a coach who obviously has some talented players?

Ronnie Brown - That's a great compliment for me especially coming from a coach of his caliber as far as some of the guys he has seen and the guys he's around now. It's the seventh week of the season and I'm sure he's seen a lot of guys, just to have a compliment like that it tremendous but at the same time I still have to work. Hopefully he will feel the same way after we play him this week.

JR - Your on a roll right now, is the success your having helping you stay focused and within the offense try to top your performance each week?

RB - I thinks so, on this level your only as good as your last game. Obviously I want to build each week and try to put my team in a better situation. Hopefully I continue to grow as a football player and mature because I still feel like I have a long way to go on this level. I still feel like I haven't accomplished much on this level as far as being one of the top guys, I still feel like I have a lot to prove from that standpoint.

JR - The coaches say they see a lot in Hagan and Ginn, what do you see at practice from those guys?

RB - Derek has been around for a couple of years and he's grown a lot. As far as Ted, he's shown that he's matured a lot since week one. He's getting better in returns and special teams; obviously I think he has some ability to be affective. So I'm very confident in those guys and their young, and Ted can run and Derek's a big physical guy. So I have a lot of confidence in those guys and hopefully they will come out and play with that confidence and if they do that they'll be more than O.K.

I'm Chris Chambers?

2007-10-17T11:10:00.000-07:00

DAVIE - Dolphins wide receiver Chris Chambers was traded to the land named after a whales vagina on Tuesday, otherwise known as San Diego. I couldn't imagine a better situation for Chambers, he goes to a team that has legitimate playoff chances, he has a bye week to assimilate to the offense and he has a legit quarterback to throw him the ball. Not to mention the Chargers run a similar offense to the Dolphins, fantasy owners like myself are thrilled with this move.

Mueller and Cameron have made their bed with this class of rookies, if Ted Ginn and Jon Beck don't succeed then Cam and Randy are gone next year(maybe earlier). By trading away Chambers Ginn is thrust into a position that just last week they Dolphins didn't think he was ready for.

Notes

--Trent Green is looking more and more like a coach, Wednesday he was at practice wearing shorts and a shirt and teaching the third string center how to snap the ball.

--Ted Ginn was running as the number two receiver on the first team offense, you have to wounder if Cam and Randy traded away Chambers in hope of proving Ginn is ready to play.

--Zach Thomas was not in pads today, he was walking around a practice without any obvious injury.

--Jason Allen may get some playing time now that Donovan Darius was released and Courtney Bryan was on the scout team today.

--Dolphins put Chase Page on IR and signed Derreck Robinson and Jesse Mahelona, both are defensive tackles. Mahelona played at the University of Tennessee and spent last season with the Titans. Robinson played college ball at Iowa and spent '05 and '06 with the San Diego Chargers.

Coco Puffs

2007-10-13T17:12:00.000-07:00

SOUTH FLORIDA - I know that's not an official dateline, but its an accurate description of this blog.

I have now official covered every team in South Florida as a reporter for ESPN Radio 760 and apparently I'm so good at it that I'm now covering multiple teams in a day.

WEST PALM BEACH - Today started in West Palm at the ESPN radio studio, where I had the chance to produce two riveting fishing shows (well maybe to the listeners). It's always hard to enjoy a show talking about nothing your interested in especially after waking up at 4 40 a.m. !!!

At 9 a.m. the Saturday Sports Page got rolling and Mike tried to talk as much baseball as possible in the five minutes of on-air alone time.

CORAL GABLES - Arriving to the 'Canes a little late turned out to be a blessing because I got a five minute reprieve from the mind numbing "action" that was taking place formally know as the Orange Bowl (now its just a bowl of something).

Kyle Wright was average, he made some big throws like his touchdown pass to Sam Shields, and he made some bad plays, like sliding short of a first down and killing a critical second half drive.

The defense was pushed up and down the field in the second half, and Calais Campbell was nowhere to be found (except on the sidelines trying to pump up the sparse crowd). In fact the only 'Canes defenders that did show up were Tarvares Gooden and Bruce Johnson. And Eric Moncour did make some big plays, tipping away a forth down try from Georgia Tech and later laying a big hit on the quarterback.

The problem was the 'Canes had too many blocking penalties and were fooled too often by misdirection plays on defense. The Yellow Jackets scored two touchdowns on a naked bootleg.

One bright spot would be Shawnbrey McNeal, he had a 39 yard touchdown run and would of had a 41 yard run if it wasn't for a holding call.

After the game Shannon preached accountability for this years team and the hope that new recruiting classes will provide the talent that this group does not have.

SUNRISE - I am now at 12 hours of work and at least I have the freezing Bank Atlantic Center to keep me awake. I'll confess I'm not a huge hockey fanatic, but I enjoy seeing games in person and the Panthers are the only team in South Florida that I like.

Tonight the 'Cats got off to an early 4-1 lead and Vokoun looked good for the second straight night, improving his record with the team to 2-2 (Cats are 2-3 overall). They ended up adding a few more goals in the third and won 6-4.

The best part about the Panther games are the commercials that run on the floating scoreboard (does that have an official name?). My favorite is "Get to know your Florida Panthers", to understand why you must know who Oli Jokinen is. If you don't, he is a nice guy, but looks like a villain from a James Bond movie and he haunts my dreams every night. So this crazy Finish player does the "get to know" segment and in his best Drago impersonation he deadpans "Coco Puffs" to the question "Whats your favorite cereal." That is classic because I always love when hockey players are forced in front of cameras, they are the most akward people in the world when forced to "act".

Thats it, I'm out 15 hours is too much.

Vokoun Wins

2007-10-11T18:52:00.000-07:00

Sunrise - Tomas Vokoun had his first shut-out of his Panthers career tonight and he looked like the guy they traded for. Vokoun made a total of 28 saves which included stopping a barrage of shots at the end of the game from the Devils to preserve the shut-out.

The Miami Dolphins started in early September and they have zero wins in five tries, the Cats started in October and already have one win in three tries. The next big question is "will the Heat, who have not started the regular season yet, have their first victory before the Dolphins?" I'm betting that they will.

I would also like to point out that the PA address guy at the Bank Atlantic Center (where the Panthers play) is an outright liar. First he always adds an extra player to the assist stat (later changed by the official scorer) and he just makes up any number over 10,000 for the attendance at home games. This is not a practice reserved for the Panthers, the Florida Marlins have perfected this art and the Miami Dolphins love to say "sellout" even though there are thousands of empty seats.

The Heats already on Walker

2007-10-11T18:21:00.001-07:00

Miami - After Dolphins camp yesterday I made my way down to the "Triple A" arena to cover a mundane preseason opener for the Heat. At least that's what I thought, don't get me the wrong the game was very boring and I don't know or care who won. After the game is when things got interesting.

As I strolled into the media room for Pat Riley's press conference, I'm thinking this is going to be boring and probably not even worth using later. Boy was I wrong, Riley walks in and makes a few "blah,blah,blah" comments about the game, Riley then turns his attention to a reporter.

It's important to keep in mind that there are about five of us there when I tell you this. Riley starts lecturing the reporter about an article he wrote for the Sun-Sentinel about Antoine Walker's weight problem. Riley believed that the quotes, although accurate, were used in a context that was not in tune with how he said them. Riley was smug, saying that he did us a favor and decided to be candid about Walker...and this is how we repay him. And how as reporters we take things out of context and use them the way we want...and so on. After his lecture Riley walks out and we make our way to the locker room.

The locker room was a little hostile, way to much for a preseason game, as soon as we walk in J-Will yells at a reporter for shooting him in his "drawers" (FYI, when was the last time you saw anything but a head and shoulders shot of an athlete).

Walker did the stand up thing and talked to the media, resulting in a confrontation with the reporter about his weight. Walker again was polite but was upset at the constant shots this reporter had been taking about his weight. The tension got to a point where the interview was stopped, but again Walker was a professional and continued to talk.

I'm not a Walker fan, I don't think he is a good player anymore but I will give him credit for being a professional and acting with class in a tough situation.

After hearing the pre-game press conference Riley was referring to I feel that the article is somewhat inflammatory and misleading and the headline is ridiculous.

As for the game:

Shaq played and played well, he looked healthy and ready to go.

Smush Parker played alot of two guard with Wade out.

Long term solution

2007-10-10T09:19:00.000-07:00

DAVIE - Trent Green is likely done as a player with the Miami Dolphins, he suffered the most severe concussion anyone can and at the age of 37 playing for an 0-5 team, there is not much to come back to.

As for the future of the 'Phins one thing is certain, it does not include Cleo Lemon. Cleo is a very good back up, but there isn't any scenario where he is willing to serve as a back-up to John Beck. There is no obvious animosity between the two players but Lemon wants a chance to start or at the very least a chance to back-up another veteran QB.

With that in mind, the Phins will not start Beck until after their bye week. You have to understand that since the start of the regular season Beck has been running the opposing teams offense for the scout team. To throw him into this situation as a starter would stack the odds of success against him. Beck will now have the chance to run about 20 percent of the teams plays each week and get comfortable for his eventual start on November 11th at home against the Bills.

Draft Watch:
The best player in the draft Darren McFadden plays a position that Ronnie Brown is playing at a Pro Bowl level right now. I've heard some fans say they want a two headed monster at running back, which is a great idea, but a luxury that is afforded to good teams who don't have multiple gaping holes like this team.

Glen Dorsey was held in check against a good Florida team but a top five pick should come up big in big games.

A pick that would not garner alot of excitement but would make a ton of sense in Jake Long from Michigan. If John Beck is your quarterback of the future then you need to protect his blind side and Jake Long is that man, it's a safe and solid pick in the top five. More than anything else the Dolphins need a prospect that has the odds in his favor to be a big time player.

For all your fantasy football owners out there I have one message for you, start Kellen Winslow.

Last week Ownen Daniels had 6 catches for 96 yards against the Phins and this is a copy cat league. Teams now know they can run or throw on the Dolphins, especially to the tight end. I would also play Jamal Lewis, but I think Winslow will get the most value against a team that is relying on Joey Porter or a injured Channing Crowder to cover him.

FYI
John Beck practiced with the scout team and Marty Booker took snaps as what looks like an emergency quaterback situation. Strange plan by Cameron, not having what would seem to be your number two QB (Beck) takes snaps with the offense seems like a bad idea.

Derek Hagan and Rodirque Wright were both at practice but were limited.

Waiting

2007-10-04T11:36:00.000-07:00

Davie - If Jon Beck does have to wait for an entire season or two before he gets his chance as a starter, he only has to look a few lockers down for advice. Trent Green holds the distinction of waiting the longest time to start (five years) of any of the 32 quarterbacks currently starting in the NFL.

The Dolphins traded a 2008 draft pick to the Kansas City Chiefs, that much we know, but what escalates that pick from a four to a five remains a mystery. The pick becomes a four based on "performance" and "playing time", which are very vague terms. Logic tells you that if Green plays all 13 and stays on pace to throw for over 3,000 yards and 18 touchdowns, then the 'Phins will give up a 4th round pick. Lets say the Dolphins will finish with one of the worst records in the NFL, so were talking about a difference of 32 picks.

The Raiders took Michael Bush, who once was a projected first round draft pick, with the first pick in the fourth round. The jury is still out on Bush, but he's a good risk that could pay huge dividends for Oakland, as risk the Dolphins can't take because no matter what they are short a pick in this years draft.

When you watch Sundays game, make sure to keep an eye on Matt Schaub, the 26 year old starter for the Houston Texans. He is the exact same age as your "quarterback of the future" and was available for the Dolphins taking. The cost? Ted Ginn Jr and his one catch and John Beck and his zero career starts. For a team like the Dolphins who have shown no ability to evaluate collegiate talent, Schaub and his 101.2 QB rating look like a good idea.

One more Texan to watch, Amobi Okoye, the 20 year old defensive tackle of the Texans that was taken one pick after Ted Ginn's family. Okoye has four sacks and 10 tackles, the entire Dolphins defense....five sacks.

Vendetta

2007-10-01T10:35:00.000-07:00

MIAMI GARDENS - VENDETTA, sounds like a really cool X-box game (could be already I don't know), but it was actually the best word to describe Daunte Culpepper's performance on Sunday.

Culpepper's numbers weren't spectacular, but as Bruce Willis has shown us in many Die Hard movies, you don't have to be glamorous when getting revenge. Culpepper gritted out his most impressive performance in years on what looked like pure hate. Yeah he only threw for only 75 yards and ran for a pedestrian 28 yards, but he scored all five Oakland touchdowns.

You knew from the start of the game that Culpepper was ready to play, he lead his team on the field by sprinting 10 yards in front of his team with his hands in the air welcoming the boos. After one of rushing touchdowns, Culpepper danced across the end line pointing at his knee and giving the O.K. symbol to anyone who would look.

Sunday was like something out of a first rate action flick, the only way this story could have ended better would have been Culpeeper driving away in his black SUV saying arrivederci bastardo's.

No revenge for Thaddeus

2007-09-30T10:14:00.000-07:00

MIAMI - 'Canes squeezed past the Duke Blue Devils 24-14 on Saturday and some 'Cane fans may think their team overlooked the Devils...and they would be wrong.

This Duke team has talent, and they have a quarterback who was focused on proving he belonged in the Orange Bowl. Hialeah Lakes native, Thaddeus Lewis did a admirable job for the Devils, completing over 55% of his passes for 241 yards and two touchdown passes. Those numbers are even more impressive considering he was running for his life all game, Lewis was sacked nine times and forced to throw on the run countless other times.

Miami came to play, they ran into a team with more talent than the average person knows about, so 'Cane fans don't worry about your teams performance. This was a weekend of upsets, and the 'Canes did a good job of winning their first ACC game under Randy Shannon. A little perspective on the games, Boston College beat UMass by the exact same score on Saturday.

Kyle Wright continued to mature and improve on Saturday, Wright completed threw only four incomplete passes and was able to carry the ball for 26 yards rushing. Yes he threw two picks, but one of those was the fault of Leonard Hankerson running an out route five yards too long.

Graig Cooper, was electric every time he touched the ball, he ended up with over 125 yards of total offense and one touchdown. Most of Coopers production came on the ground (101 yards) and on big players (3 plays of over 25 yards).

Defensively the team made life near impossible for Lewis, who as sacked 9 times. Calais Campbell lead the way with two and a half, Vegas Franklin was also impressive collecting two sacks of his own.

The 'Canes have another ACC game this week against former coach Butch Davis and the North Carolina Tar Heels. Preview coming Thursday!

Hey Porter...Make Sure you Know Your Role

2007-09-26T16:04:00.000-07:00

Davie - Today at camp we learned that "several" defensive starters will be seeing time on special teams. That is not a big surprise considering their play has been "special"(they have been "special" like "Corky" was special).

The surprising thing was Joey Porter saying the special teamers needed to "know their role and do their job", and that's coming from a man who has nine tackles in three games.

You know what Joey why don't you know your role and do your job, in case you didn't know your role is supposed to be a Pro Bowler and your job is to make plays. When you get paid 20 million guaranteed that's what you need to do.

I have know idea why the Dolphins wasted their money on a washed up former Pittsburgh Steeler's linebacker. Lets look at the other linebackers who the Steelers have let go at exactly the right time. Greg Llyod, after playing only 11 games combined in his last two years with the Steelers Llyod went to the Carolina Panthers. With the Panthers he played one year had 63 tackles and one sack, then retired. Think the Dolphins could get that lucky and have Porter retire, oh and guess who was the Head Coach in Carolina when Lloyd was signed none other than Dom Capers.

Another former Steeler,Kevin Greene, was signed by Capers in 1996 and Greene actually played well making the Pro Bowl. Greene then left the team for one year, then returned for another Pro Bowl season under Capers. But Greene, unlike Porter, was a Pro Bowl player before he came to Pittsburgh and Greene only spent two years in this system. I would chalk Greene success up as a talented player succeeding everywhere he went, unlike Porter.

Chad Brown left the Steelers after registering 13 sacks in 1996, since that time Brown has never had another double digit sack total, in fact he only reached eight sacks one time and has only four 100-plus tackle seasons in the last 10 years. Brown left the Steelers in his prime, whereas Porter is well past his.

Porter has only known Pittsburgh's system, which by the way is set up for the Outside Linebacker to accumulate alot of sacks. With that in mind, you might be surprised to learn that Porter had only two double-digit sack years in his time with the Steelers.

Capers thinks he knows how to help former Steeler linebackers succeed. Maybe it's because Capers on the Steelers staff for two years, but one minor success story(Greene) doesn't prove anything. Isn't more likely that a player that who played at a Pro Bowl level,out of the system for most of his career, is just a great player and it had nothing to do with Capers.

Wouldn't the Dolphins have been better off signing someone like Cato June, who has as many tackles (9) as Porter and one more interception, and was alot cheaper.

Noteworthy:

--Zach Thomas practiced in pads, but he is not hitting and won't until Sunday, he also has a new helmet, most likely to help prevent further concussions.

--Channing Crowder will play on special teams.

--Jon Beck was wearing a # 8 Raiders scout team jersey.

Cubs Day 1:

2007-09-25T20:59:00.000-07:00

Cubs Day 1:

As I walked up to the stadium, the thought "I immediately regret this decision" came to mind. Why am I covering the Cubs, when I can be in the stands getting drunk and hitting on some Midwestern hotties?

I reason with myself, “How many times will I get the chance to cover the Chicago Cubs?”

Top of the third, FYI, I’m too angry to blog right now, the crappy Marlins have somehow gone up on my Cubbies 4-0 and I going to strangle a Marlins fan……if I could find one.

Bottom of the fifth, I am still too pissed off to write, the crappy Marlins are beating the Cubs 4-0 and Michael Wuertz is warming up the bullpen, this could get ugly. The Cubs have only one hit off a pitcher with an earned run average over five.

One thing I do like, there are a lot more Cub fans in the stands than Marlins fans, but I am annoyed that some old Cub fan is with some hot younger Cub girl, this upsets me very much. If I was at this game as a fan, I would have definitely tried to hit on her….and fought with her dad/boyfriend.

Top of the eighth, Craig Monroe goes deep to left, bringing the Cubs within two, heading into the bottom of the inning….here’s hoping the Marlins do what they usually do and lose.

And that didn’t happen, so now I’m off to an angry Lou Piniella.

Good news, I wasn’t killed by Piniella, actually he was pretty entertaining.

Summery of locker room:

Lee- We don’t need to win games, we need to win series. When asked if it was Willis or the umpires who were tougher, Lee said “no comment.”

Lilly- I can’t allow myself to give up big innings.

Ramirez- I don’t want to talk about the umpires.

Piniella- I couldn’t tell if the were balls or strikes, I can only see up or down not left to right, but a lot of the players came back to the dugout complaining.

The Day After Tommorw

2007-09-25T11:51:00.000-07:00

I took an extra day in posting my evaluation of the Dolphins 31-28 loss to the Jets. Because I couldn't figure out if the Phins offense was that good or was the Jets defense that bad.

Offense: "B"- If you take Ronnie Brown out of the equation then the grade is closer to a "C". Trent Green was average, 318 yards and one touchdown, his one pick was another awful decision by a veteran quarterback who was brought in not to make those mistakes.

Chris Chambers continued his early season success, catching six passes for 101 yards, but he is still without a touchdown.

But, back to Brown's performance, his best...since the last time the Dolphins played the Jets. So as long as Brown plays every game against the Jets he'll be worth the number two pick in the draft.

Defense: "I"- I normally won't give an incomplete but in the Dolphins case, it seems appropriate. Without Zach Thomas on the field the defense seemed confused and were often out of position. Now, I think Thomas as a player is overrated, most of tackles are are of the gang variety, but his leadership for this team is priceless.

Special Teams: "Awful"- Can't give the turd that they left on the field an actual grade. The 'Phins allowed a 98 touchdown return from a back up kick returner. Then the coaching staff neutered the Special Teams from the rest of the first half.

Overall: "C" The teams overall performance was average, Brown's great day was offset by poor defense and special teams play.

Graig Cooper

2007-09-21T08:51:00.000-07:00

After the game, I was able to ask Graig Cooper a few questions, here is a transcription of the Q & A:

JR-How important was it to get the running game going tonight?

Cooper- It was real big, one thing we've been hurtin our defense with three and outs. We've just been working hard, offensive line, the receivers, everybody been working hard to help this defense out. It's been kinda hurtin us a little bit (poor running), so we just did what we had to do today...that's it.

JR-The offense had some interesting goaline formations today, how did that help?

Cooper- We've been waiting to pull that out, we've been running that since the spring. So we just opened it up tonight, that's what we did.

JR- You had an up and down game tonight, describe your emotions during the game?

Cooper- I make mistakes, but one thing I do about my mistakes I don't let them get in my head, I just bounce back. That's how I was taught, if you make a mistake bounce back, don't let it get you down. I made a couple of mistakes tonight, so I gonna have to work on that in practice.

JR- Your not all negative, you did have some positives, can you tell us about those?

Cooper- I had some positives, but that all came from my teammates, I couldn't do it by myself, if you want to know how they helped me go ask someone who blocked for me. On that first touchdown, Lance Leggett did his job and stayed on his block. On that screen play the offensive line got down field and blocked for me, so if you want to talk about my scores you should ask my offensive line and receivers.

Who Knew

2007-09-21T08:12:00.000-07:00

So I picked the wrong team, I forgot that Dennis Franchione is known for not being able to handle the pressure of being a top ranked team. But more importantly I forgot how good the 'Canes can be, but can you blame me. The 'Canes have looked between average and awful for most of the past two years. When Coach Randy Shannon was asked about how his team has looked, he said "We've only played four games this year, and last year was last year."

I forgot that Kyle Wright was a top recruit coming out of high school, a guy who can go throw for 275 yards and two touchdowns. Who knew that Sam Shields would catch everything that was thrown to him for a grand total of 6 catches for 117 yards.

Javaris James had a very poor yards per carry, but he was the back who wore out the clock and Aggie defenders and James scored a late touchdown to put down the Aggies.

Graig Cooper is amazing, although he did fumble twice, he had two touchdowns on Thursday and they both used different skills. The first Cooper took a direct snap and used his speed to get around Aggie defenders for a 7 yard touchdown run. On his other score Cooper took a short pass 12 yards to the house, bowling over defenders on his way. Cooper is the present and future of UM football.

Miami still needs to focus on closing out games, there is no reason why this defense should allow 17 fourth quarter points. Don't think that Coach Shannon won't remind his players all week about the importance of closing out games.

I need another mouthpiece

2007-09-20T16:32:00.000-07:00

Dolphins linebacker Zach Thomas is getting tested for concussion like symptoms. If you recall he missed Wednesdays practice with a "migraine" headache, we now know that the migraine was a symptom of his concussion. Apperently the team knew of the injury since the end of Sundays game.

Joey Porter said that Zach got his concussion on the first play of the game and was asking for a new mouthpiece, an apparent sign of a concussion, all game long. My question is if Porter knew that asking for a new mouthpiece was a sign of a concussion why didn't the coaches?

Thomas's status for Sundays game will be determined tomorrow, not by Zach or Cam, but by the teams Dr.'s.

McGee does it all

2007-09-19T10:51:00.000-07:00

Texas A & M has put up 38, 47 and 54 points this season, granted it was against the likes of Montana State, Fresno State and UL Monroe. With that being said what have the Hurricanes done against Marshall or FIU and don't forget the 51 that Oklahoma (a top five team) put on the "U".

Put this in perspective A & M's starting QB, Stephen McGee has almost run for as many yards that Wright has thrown for and has rushed for as many touchdowns. McGee is a talent at quarterback who has 428 passing yards and 263 rushing yard putting him as the team leader in both of categories.

A & M does have holes their defense, they gave up 45 points to a WAC team (Fresno St.), which is not only an apt description it's also their conference.

I will leave you with the name Javorski Lane, all 263 pounds of him, has seven rushing touchdowns in 3 games. It will make for some interesting goal line situations.

Phins put the "F" in effort

2007-09-17T11:52:00.000-07:00

"You guys are going to try and tear us apart" that was Channing Crowder's comment after the game, when questioned about the offense.

No, Channing we are not trying to tear you apart because there is nothing to tear apart, your defense gave up 37 points, the special teams allowed a 49 yard punt return and the offense turned the ball over five times. You see Channing everyone played bad and nobody should be feeling good about themselves.

Offense: Five turnovers, all by Trent Green, ruined any chance the Dolphins had. A terrible running game, 61 total yards on 21 carries for a 2.9 yards per carry average, forced Green to throw 40 passes.

The passing game was just as atrocious, Green's completed only 57 percent of his passes, threw four interception (could of had two more) and fumbled a snap. The only respectable stats, 287 yards passing and two touchdowns, are easily dismissed when you factor in a prevent defense and a lucky touchdown pass to Derek Hagan. I don't want to dismiss Hagan's effort to corral that prayer,which was great, it's the pass that was awful.

Defence: The Dolphins defense are who I thought they were, a toxic mix of old and inexperience with a dash of not very good. Their star players Zach Thomas and Jason Taylor still play at a high level, but they cannot carry a team like they used to. Joey Porter is making the Steelers look like geniuses, Jason Allen proves his bust label every week and their corners Will Allen and Travis Daniels are either too old (Allen) or too young (Daniels).Crowder is the only sure fire future Pro Bowler on this team, Thomas and Taylor may have some left, but two years from now Crowder is the only guy.

Special Teams: A 49 yard return by Patrick Crayton could have been negated if the Dolphins could have remembered a snap count. Ted Ginn can't figure out when to call for a fair catch and when to take the ball out of the end zone.

Overall: Anything positive was destroyed by a second half collapse. Dolphins get an "F"

Soulja Boys

2007-09-17T11:37:00.000-07:00

I would say Kudos to the players in the UM vs FIU game, but you really shouldn't congratulate someone for not fighting. The game went off relatively incident free, there were a few late hits but that's to be expected in any rivalry game.

The offence is anemic, a steady diet of Javaris James and Graig Cooper mixed in with the occasional throw by Kyle Wright. James racked up 92 yards and Cooper gained 48 on the ground. The passing game was highlighted by a 80 bomb to Lance Leggett, who ran a fly pattern right past the FIU defender. The play was the longest since 2005, when Sinorice Moss took a 3 yard curl and turned it into a 92 yard touchdown.

Wright looked average, and I heard plenty of "same ol' Wright" when he threw each of his picks. Wright is an enigma, one minute he looks like a pro prospect, the next he's Chris Rix. One of Wright's pick was a case of overconfidence, the other was making the wrong type of pass, Wright tried to go thru defender instead of over.

Randy Shannon said this is going to be a "play action offence" and that's what we saw on Saturday. Unless this team, makes a giant jump on offence and a brings their "A" game defense, the 'Canes are going to struggle against A & M.

The 'Canes offense struggles to match the production of F.A.U., the Owls put up 42 on a Big 10 school and the 'Canes can't drop 30 on a Sun-Belt school. The 'Canes O-Line lacked discipline on Saturday, Chris Rutledge couldn't figure out a snap count and their Tight Ends are non-existent in the passing game. Leggett and Darnell Jenkins had big games, but they have a penchant for dropping balls in big games and James needs to find a way how to break off some big runs.

One disappointment, though not really a surprise was the display by the Hurricanes fans, again they showed that they can't act with class. I always suspected that alot of 'Cane fans embrace the "Thug U" image of the team, and Saturday didn't do anything to sway my opinion. 'Cane fans were fighting with FIU fans and getting beat by security when they attempted to jump onto the field.

I will say that they (fans) probably provided the most entertaining moment of the day, during commercial breaks the would sing along with Soulja Boys' "Crank that Superman." To top it off we saw Sebastian doing the dance that goes along with the song.

Prediction for Saturday Texas A & M 24- UM 14, I want to pick UM, because if they wanted to upset a team it would be A & M, but it's not going to happen. How the mighty have fallen that UM over A & M would be an upset.

Chatman watch is over

2007-09-14T11:39:00.000-07:00

Finally, we can all sleep well, Jesse Chatman will play on Sunday against the Cowboys. Shows how much happened today at practice if Chatman is the biggest story of the day.

Coach Cam Cameron is ready to play and tired of answering questions about Belichick, stating that "you guys are starting to reach for questions today."

Chatman, apparently prayed to God to be healthy for Sundays game, when asked if he prayed for a 100 yard performance, he laughed and said why not 2,000 yards.

Jay Feely seemed pretty upset that Belichick didn't get a harsher punishment, stating that the team took the brunt of the punishment. He wonder how Wade Wilson gets 5 games for tyring to cure impotence and Belichick gets nothing for cheating.

Sunday's Prediction: Cowboys 30- Dolphins 14

You Can't Handle the truth

2007-09-13T19:04:00.000-07:00

Slow day at camp, only real news of note is that Jesse Chatman missed another practice. Coach Cam Cameron left open the possibility of Chatman playing. Cameron said that he has no set date for a player to practice by to be eligible to play.

Third Round Pick Lorenzo Booker may get some time as a special team gunner, awesome spot for a third round pick.

Questions lingered about stealing signs, but ended quickly after the same answers from yesterday were the only one's muttered.

The best thing today was Trent Green comparing a meeting between Roger Goodell and Bill Belichick to the climatic courtroom scene in "A Few Good Men." Green had Goodell in Tom Cruise's role and Belichick as Jack Nicholson screaming "you need me to cheat, you want me to cheat."

Goodell: "I want the truth!"

Belichick: "You can't handle the truth!"

Funny funny stuff out of Dolphins practice.

Sign Language

2007-09-12T18:38:00.000-07:00

The main theme's at todays practice were: players reaction to the New England videotaping scandal, the addition of Donovin Darius and Lamont Thompson and Joey Porter giving his opinion.

Most of the players and coaches didn't seem concerned with teams stealing signs, Jason Taylor went as far to say "you can tell them what we run, it comes down to executing your defense."

I say "most" because Porter took the opportunity to cast doubt on the Pats playoff victories of his former team, the Pittsburgh Steelers. "They went from bad to very good, that makes you wonder,"Porter said. I like Porter, but I think J.T. said it best "they don't need to cheat, their so frickin good."

Also it's not like teams don't steal signs anyways, the Pats just archived it, Channing Crowder even gave an example of knowing what play is coming and stopping it for no gain.

Coach Cam Cameron plead ignorance to ever being on a team that stole signals, but acknowledge that he's not "naive" and he's sure it goes on with other teams.

Most of the team seemed happy with the addition of Darius and Thompson, but you can't really expect anything else. I like Cameron's plan of bringing in two veteran safety's to guard against injury and/or ineffective play in the secondary, which has been a staple of this defense for some time.

News and Notes

RB Jesse Chatman didn't practice--Sore Ankle--

"Kyle Wright is our starter.....for now."

2007-09-11T19:38:00.001-07:00

I first want to say, in a town full of players and coaches that don't always address adversity with class, Randy Shannon sets the example on how to act in the face of adversity.

Last weeks 51-13 loss to Oklahoma was humiliating for the University and on Tuesday Shannon followed the same routine as always. He walks in, waited for the media to get settled and helps the writers place their recorders on the podium (in some cases he even starts recording for them).

Today, Shannon had alot to address, a change at QB, moving Randy Phillips to Safety, Kevin Everett's injury and the impending rematch with FIU.

Change at QB: Coach Shannon announced today the Kyle Wright will be the starting QB for their upcoming game at FIU and hopefully going forward. Although Shannon stated that he didn't want a "round robin" at the position, Shannon said "for now" multiple times when talking about Wright. I don't see a "round robin" at QB I see a full turn-style with Kirby Freeman, Wright and if the don't red shirt him, Robert Marve.

Randy Phillips:- This move is prompted by injuries to Lavon Ponder and Glen Sharpe and by Phillips ineffectiveness at CB.

FIU rematch:- Hearing Shannon speak about discipline since he has taken over convinces me that there will be no repeat of last years monstrosity. Players like DeMarcus Van Dyke and Graig (pronounced Craig) Cooper confirmed my belief by saying that they have no interest in finding out what punishment Shannon would hand out if they did fight. Furthermore Shannon has been taking precautions, since he's taken over, to prevent his players from reacting to cheap shots by having the scout team take shots at the starters during practice.

Kevin Everett- Shannon handled this situation with class and compassion, stating that Everett is a member of the UM family and they all care for them. Wright expressed genuine concern for Everett, you could also sense a true friendship with Everett.

Prediction: UM 42 FIU 9, Wright will open up the passing game to the tune of 200 yards and Cooper and Javaris James will combine for over 180.

Park Vista 36 John I Leonard 7

2007-09-08T20:33:00.000-07:00

The visiting Lancers of John Leonard were pushed all over the field by the home Cobras who ran for 312 yards in their 36-7 victory on Friday night.

The Cobras took their opening drive 71 yards, capped by a 10 yard sweep into far corner of the end zone by running back Jake Owen. On their next series the Cobras continued their momentum, scoring on a 10 yard option run from quarterback Eddie Sullivan.

After their two scores in the first quarter the Cobras were careless in the ball throughout the second quarters. Sullivan threw two wobbly passes that were both picked off by Jarius Marlow. On the next series, running back Johnny Celicourt fumbled away another scoring opportunity.

In the second half the Cobras used their obvious size advantage and ran the ball right down the throats of the Lancers. On their opening drive of the third quarter the Cobras drove 70 yards, all of it on the ground, minus a 23 yard pass to Matt Welsh. Jeremy Norfus was the workhorse on the drive running for 43 punishing yards, including a five yard TD run.

Down 21-0 heading into the fourth, Lancers quarterback Jake Boyd threw 10 passes on a 68 yard touchdown drive. After a trick play, right out of Varsity Blues almost resulted in a turnover, Boyd lobed a beautiful touch pass to the corner of the end zone to Jordan Magaw for the Lancers first and only score.

Leading 21-7, the Cobras remained relentless on the ground against the Lancers. Celicourt proved to be the lightning to the thunderous running style of Norfus, rushing for 52 yards, on one drive, including a seven yard touchdown run to give the Cobras a insurmountable 28-7 lead. The Cobras defense forced a turnover on downs, giving the ball back to their offense and Sullivan scampered for a 17 yard touchdown run. With the game completely out of hand, the Cobras defense forced Boyd to throw the ball away in the end zone for a safety.

J.L.H.S. 0 0 0 7
P.V.H.S 14 0 7 15

1Q- Owen 6 yard run (XP Opdam)
1Q- Sullivan 10 yard run (XP Opdam)

3Q- Norfus 5 yard run (XP Opdam)

4Q-Magaw 11 yard pass from Boyd (XP Boyd)
4Q- Celicourt 8 yard run (XP Opdam)
4Q-Sullivan 17 yard run (run attempt failed)

P.V.H.S. J.L.H.S.
First Downs: 20 13
Rush Yards: 312 16- -16
Pass Yards: 65 210
Comp-Att-Int: 4-9-2 19-32-0
Punts: 0
Fumbles-Lost: 2-1 3-1
Penalties-Yards: 3-20 5-35

Key Individual Statistics
Passing Jake Boyd 19-32-210 yards
Rushing Jeremy Norfus 16 carries 106 yards 1 TD
Receiving Jordan Magaw 6 catches 99 1 TD

News and Notes

2007-09-06T11:08:00.001-07:00

Injured Hurricane freshman Robert Mavre and Jermaine McKenzie returned to practice Tuesday. Both were injured in a off season car accident, Mavre is recovering from a broken wrist and McKenzie is recovering from a broken vertebrae in is neck.

Sam Shields is moving quickly back up the 'Canes depth chart, initially he was listed as the number three receiver for Saturdays game, but Shields is making progress and may be number two by this weekends game.

If your a 'Canes fan you need to read this

Confident 'Canes

2007-09-04T17:18:00.000-07:00

Say this about the "U", whatever confidence or swagger they may have lost last year with Larry Coker at the helm, is back under the leadership of Randy Shannon.

"Don't get me wrong were confident...were not cocky now, we are confident", my thoughts exactly, but it was Coach Shannon who said that last week and it rings true for this week.

An example of the confidence of the 'Canes, comes from O-lineman Derrick Morse who said "when we win at Oklahoma....I didn't come to Miami to lose." Randy Phillips echoed Morse's comments "These games are why I came to the U," One 'Cane who did not sound confident was QB Kirby Freeman, he seemed a little to focused on his mistakes last week and didn't have the same air of confidence he had before the season.

Coach Shannon said this team needs Freeman to manage the team and get the ball to it's play makers, my question is what play makers. Cooper and James are studs at running back but OU's run defense is a little better than Marshall's. The 'Canes wide reciever core dropped many balls last Saturday and when they weren't dropping passes, Freeman was overthrowing them.

Prediction: If the the 'Canes passing game struggled against Marshall's weak pass defense, then they are going to be disastrous against OU, I'm predicting two picks from Freeman. The running game is talented, but so is OU's defense, so the James, Cooper compo will gain 135 yards on Sat. The "D" is amazing and will continue to make plays but the 'Canes will lose to the Sooners 24-10.

Cooper and James carry 'Canes

2007-09-01T23:07:00.000-07:00

‘Canes started the game sluggish but picked up steam with every yard their talented running back tandem gained. The pair of Javarris James and Greg Cooper combined for 215 yards and two rushing touchdowns in the ‘Canes 31 to 3 drubbing of the Heard.

Cooper and James seem to have a genuine friendship, unlike the faux one between QB’s, and their friendship drives a competition that will drive the “U” to a solid season. Best example of this competition, one play after James busted a 52 yard run that was called back for holding; Cooper took the same play 56 yards. After the game, James said he was happy for Cooper and upset he didn’t get a touchdown. The “U” has one of the best one-two punches at running back this year and Shannon was smart to ride them for 26 carries today.

Starting QB Kirby Freeman, on the other hand, looked average at best. He threw only one pick, but had another ball bounce off the hands of a Heard defender and threw a few other questionable passes. My prediction he will be the major reason why the ‘Canes won’t upset OU next week.

The defense was OK early, then as the game progressed they developed into the dominate force that everyone thought they would be. The defense combined for 5.5 sacks and four interceptions. Calais Campbell had an amazing one handed interception, that showed off his athletic ability and knowledge of the game, earlier Tevaris Gooden had a fingertip pick off the grass.

West Boca Stampedes to Victory

2007-09-01T09:54:00.000-07:00

The West Boca Bulls stampeded all over the Spanish River Sharks 53-0 on Friday night. Quarterback Robert Powell was the star for the visiting Bulls, rushing for two touchdowns and throwing for three more.

The tone for the game was set on the third play of the Bulls opening drive. Powell saved what could have been a disastrous play, when he picked up a fumbled handoff and emerged untouched from a pile of Spanish River defenders and scampered into the corner of the end zone for a 15 yard touchdown run. On the next series, Powell showed his escape ability again, eluding multiple Sharks on his way to a 28 yard touchdown run along the near sideline. Although West Boca Coach Willie Dorado wasn’t thrilled with the scrambles, stating that “it was not good execution by our team.”

The offensive onslaught continued in the second quarter when, after a 35 yard run by Paris Pee, Joseph Trebitz powered his way three yards into the end zone. Next possession for the Bulls resulted in a 16 yard touchdown pass from Powell to Jeff Hutchinson. A 23 yard pass from Powell to Nathan Nord set up a Pee three yard touchdown run to end the half.

The second half ended the same way the first ended, with the Bulls scoring another touch down. Powell threw his second touchdown pass of the game, a 22 yard bullet to Nord. On the Bulls next drive a quick change of direction allowed Michael Bernard to run for 43 yards, setting up a five yard touchdown pass from Powell to Nord. With the clock running out, Marquis Jones made his last carry of the game count, running 32 yards for another Bulls touchdown.

A relentless effort from running back Brett Swider, who touched the ball 28 times in the game, typified the effort that Sharks Coach Perry Schneider is looking for. After the game Schneider said “we tried, a lot of these guys don’t know what it takes to get the job done.”

Canes 1st Media Day

2007-08-28T18:53:00.000-07:00

Big news out of ‘Canes practice today, Kirby Freeman named starting Quarter Back for the Marshall game. After that game things get a little hazy, one minute Coach Randy Shannon is saying that Freeman will not be graded game to game. Two minutes later, when asked if Freeman would start at Oklahoma, Shannon scoffed at the question and said its a few weeks away.

A few other stories from the day, Sam Shields is suspended for violating team rules and Javarris James will share time with Greg Cooper at running back. In fact the depth chart says “or”, so it seems that the true freshman Cooper has a chance to start.

Three major themes from the day, Shannon is about discipline, competition and playing through pain. The later, was defined as the difference between being hurt or nicked and being injured. Shannon explained that “it’s nothing personal, but if you’re hurt, you don’t have value to the team.” That makes me wonder if that was a veiled shot at Kyle Wright, who missed time with a “sore” knee, maybe Shannon wants to send a message about not letting a little pain keep you out of practice.

The other two themes, competition and discipline, are evident in the suspension of Shields and the multiple position battles this team is having. We all know about QB and RB, but there is also a competition at Safety and in the O-Line.

My impressions of the team and Shannon hasn’t really changed after their Tuesday practice, they are a seven to eight win team, with no shot a ACC title much less NCAA. That doesn’t mean I don’t think Shannon will turn things around, on the contrary, I think Shannon is why this team wins seven not five games.

Make sure to check out theedgeosports.com if you want to hear audio of the confrence and make sure to read on Saturday when I will have blogs about the 'Canes and FAU.

Bye Bye to a Dump

2007-08-22T08:05:00.000-07:00

Maybe it's because I'm not a native Floridian but I don't see why the Canes leaving The Orange Bowl is such a big deal. I know the stadium has been around since the 50's and there a ton of memories there, but its not a historical landmark.

The Orange Bowl has seen Satchel Paige pitch, Joe Namath throw and countless Hurricane memories, but many other stadiums also had memories. The Orange Bowl was nice, now it's a dump and a 200 million dollar Extreme makeover will just leave it looking like Courtney Love. I love Soldier Field and the Bears ruined it by landing a space ship on top of it. Baseball is the only sport that has stadiums that have remained relatively unchanged and relevant since their inception, Wrigley Field and Fenway Park. Those are the only two stadiums that I can think of that would be a tragedy if they are destroyed (I would say Yankee stadium, but it is being destroyed).

A positive for the Orange Bowl being abandoned, a new team, like the Marlins can tear it down and build a new stadium. I'm not a Marlins fan, but a dream scenario for the Fish is to be playing on the old Orange Bowl site with Hanley Ramirez in Center and Miguel Cabrera at First.

Beck-A-Pa-Looza

2007-08-18T20:43:00.000-07:00

David Beckham is impressive; there is no doubt about it. Tonight he had two assists in front of 66,000 soccer fans in NY Giants Stadium. Beckham is not going to turn me into a fan of his sport…but I do watch Sports Center to check on his progress and see his highlights, which is more than I’ve ever done for any other soccer player.

Beckham is a more than a soccer star, he is a superstar and he is a compelling person who I believe can help American soccer more than anyone else ever has in history. Soccer will never be a “Big 3” sport in America…but who says soccer can’t overtake the sport formally known as hockey.

Hockey is not an American created sport, their rules and style of play of play are similar and soccer is far less brutal than hockey.

My point is, don’t underestimate the effect Beckham is having on American soccer. If his sport can move past hockey, than it’s only a homegrown star from moving past golf and NASCAR. Think about it, what is Golf without Tiger Woods. Want a relevant example of a sport dying in America without native stars…tennis.

One Wild and Crazy Guy

2007-07-21T16:05:00.000-07:00

Scott Olsen's career with the Marlins has been unfolding like a season of Real World Miami. Like Trishelle, every time you think he's finally got it together, he falls off the wagon...hard. Olsen has been solid on the mound (21-18), but because of his antics, Olsen's days with the Marlins has to be numbered.

2006- Olsen engaged in fisticuffs with former teammate, and now friend, Randy Messenger which resulted in a black eye for Olsen. Later in the same season he got in seperate dug out arguments with star third baseman Miguel Cabrera and Manager Joe Girardi.

2007- In his second full season with the club Olsen has decided to bring his "A" game. On the mound the young lefty is 8-7 with a 4.99 ERA (way to high for a national league starter), off the mound he has three separate incidents. This past June Olsen was fined a unspecified amount for flipping the bird to the great fans of Milwaukee. His Friday start marked his return from a two game suspension for fighting with teammate Sergio Mitre, who dared to give Olsen some encouraging words after Olsen's start.

After earning the victory in the Marlins 10-2 victory over the Reds on Friday, Olsen was pulled over at 3:40 am, or should I say police attempted to pull him over. Olsen ignored the police ran a stop sign, drove to his house, parked his car and sat on a plastic lawn chair. F.Y.I it's pretty classy to have lawn furniture in your front yard. Olsen, who I hope was wearing a wife beater, then set the scene for a classic episode of Cops.

As police wait for back up outside his home, Olsen waits in his plastic thrown, when police arrives chaos ensues. Apparently Olsen did not want to be arrested so he kicked on of the arresting officers, who subsequently zapped him with a stun gun(what I would give to see this). Finally, Olsen failed a field sobriety test and refused to take a breathalyzer. Olsen was released Saturday afternoon on 11,000 bond.

The Marlins need to send Olsen a message and send him to down to the minors the rest of the season. Cutting or trading him is to drastic at this point, this gives Olsen a opportunity to settle down focus on his life and get back to pitching.

Tyler Norrick Interview

2007-07-20T19:27:00.000-07:00

Palm Beach Cardinals starting pitcher Tyler Norrick is having the best season in his young semi-pro career. Norrick was the winning pitcher in the High Class A All-Star Game and he is 8-7 with a 3.41 ERA in 20 starts for the Cards'. I sat down with the lefty to find out how he feels about the year so far, and the greatest sports movie of all time.

How do you feel about your season?
So far, it’s going well for us, we are a few games out right now, and we played well in the first half. We suffered a lot of injuries but we are still winning games, so far were doing O.K.

Describe your experience with All-Star Game.
It was a big honor just to be named to the team. The players that were there, a few years from now, you are going to see a lot of big leaguer’s out of that group. It was an honor and participating was a big deal for me.

Do you have any pre-game rituals or superstitions before a start?
I don’t have one thing I do before every single start; I just try to find a program or routine that works for me and try to do the same thing. But I don’t wear the same clothes or eat the same food; I just try to get a good meal in before the game. I like to get to the ballpark a couple hours before my start, and get mentally prepared the best I can.

Who was your player growing up?
Randy Johnson was my favorite player growing up, he was a big left hander, and I’m left handed. I won’t say he motivated me to get better, but that would be the guy I idolized growing up.

Who Favorite team growing up?
I grew up a half hour outside of St. Louis, so I was a Cardinals fan, that’s a given.

Favorite Cardinal
Ozzie Smith, he’s not a pitcher, but he’s probably a favorite Cardinal for most Cardinal fans. Just watching him everyday as a kid, the plays he made, he was spectacular. He had something about him that drew fans to him

Best sports movie of all time?
Major League, it covers the game here and there, it doesn’t stray to far from the truth. The comedy in the movie is second to none.

What’s your goal in baseball?
I’m just trying to make the major leagues

Farwell to the Past, and a Preview of the Future

2007-07-07T20:48:00.000-07:00

First, I guess I need to say goodbye: I'm graduating and will no longer be blogging for the UP. Since I know all of you read my blog religiously, make sure to check out my website www.theedgeofsports.com and you can continue to enjoy my mad blogging skills. We also have blogs on FAU sports, sports gossip and South Florida sports.

If you want to watch a truly great all-star game, make sure to be at a television at 4 p.m. and watch ESPN Duex's coverage of the Minor League All Star game (a.k.a) "The Futures Game."

Basically the game is the equivelent of a live action draft; the game is a "where are they now" for players selected in the past two or three MLB drafts. As always, South Florida is represented well in this game, between the Marlins farm system and home grown talent there are plenty of reasons to watch.

Marlins 3B Chris Coghlan (6-1, 190, Bats: L Throws: R)is dominating for the Marlins Low Class A affilate, the Greensbrough Grasshoppers. Coghlan is hitting .325 with 10 home runs and 64 runs batted in, even more impressive Coghlan is on pace for 180 hits and 90 walks.

Rick Vanden Hurk (6'5, 195, Right) won 2 games with the Fish before being sent back down to minors. While in the Marlins farm system Vanden Hurk has played for their clubs Double A and Triple A affilates. Currently Vanden Hurk is 2-2 with a 3.59 ERA, pitching for Double A affilate, the Carolina Mudcats.

Miami native Adrian Cardenas (6', 185 Bats: L Throws: R) was Baseball America's High School Player of the Year (Monsignor Edward Pace H.S.)in 2006. Currently Cardinas plays for the Phillies Low Class A affilate the Lake Wood Blue Claws, he's hitting .307 with 49 RBI's and 15 stolen bases.

Palm Beach Cardinals Update: On July 3rd former CY Young winner Chris Carpenter started for the PB Cards'. Carpenter stuck out two batters in his 1.1 innings pithched giving up five runs on five hits for an ERA of 20.25.

Random Recommendation

Flight of the Conchords

If you have "on demand" or Tivo, make a point to mark this show at watch it. I promise the show is worth your time

Happy 4th of July

2007-07-04T20:07:00.001-07:00

After a brief drinking filled vacation, I'll be back Tommorow.

Until then.....Enjoy the 4th of July.

Palm Beach Cards Update

2007-06-28T12:44:00.000-07:00

Hot- Ian Church, the outfielder, hasn’t been hitting the ball with great frequency (.257) in the past 10 games, but every time he does he makes it count. In the past seven games, Church has three doubles, three homeruns and a whopping 14 runs batted in.

Not- Brandon Buckman is hitting only .182 since being called up to Palm Beach, and he has no extra base hits. I am positive that Bukman’s batting numbers will improve, but so far he has struggled to figure out high A ball pitching, as evident by his five strikeouts in just 33 at bats.

News and Notes
6-21-07: Springfield - Called up pitcher Kyle McClellan from Palm Beach.
6-21-07: Springfield - Sent pitcher Michael Cooper to Palm Beach.
6-21-07: Springfield - Placed pitcher Jose Garcia on the disabled list. Called up second baseman/shortstop Jose Martinez from Palm Beach.
6-24-07: Palm Beach - Infielder Jolbert Cabrera (Memphis) and outfielder Jon Jay (Springfield) are on rehab assignments with Palm Beach.
6-25-07: Memphis - Recalled Jolbert Cabrera from his rehab assignment at Palm Beach and activated him for tonight’s game.

Stay Classy Chicago

2007-06-25T14:00:00.000-07:00

Growing up a Cubs fan, Rod Beck was one of my favorite players: a regular guy who could save 50 games in a season. Beck is character you don't find in today's neutered clubhouses. He had his demons, but they were his. Beck wasn't out biting people at a strip club, taking steroids, collecting more guns than the U.S. Army or brandinshing a weapon at a McDonald's. Beck was a man who lived life the way he wanted and everyone that met him loved him; I wish I had the chance.

R.I.P Rod Beck

Kudo's to the Bears for setting a precedent that I hope the rest of the league follows. Releasing Tank Johnson was a good move (although a little late) by a classy organization. As for Tank, I hope he gets his life together.

Good Bye Tank Johnson

Season of Milestones

2007-06-25T12:06:00.000-07:00

The 2007 MLB season could go down as one of the most historic in the history of the game. Before judging me of overstating the importance of this season, take a look at what has happened and what could happen, and you'll see why I believe this.

Let's just get this out of the way: I'm not a fan of Barry Bonds, I think he is on steroids and I hope he gets caught. Still, there is no denying of what he has done in his career, and he was a Hall of Famer before he started juicing. He is going to break "Hammering" Hanks' home run record soon, and that's pretty remarkable.

1)Hank Aaron- 755 HR's
2)Barry Bonds- 749 HR's

Before and After

Sammy Sosa recently hit home run number 600, becoming only the fifth player in MLB history to hit 600. He has the most 60 home run seasons by any player, and is undeniably one of the best home run hitters of all time.

600 Home Run Club

Aaron, Bonds, Ruth, Mays, Sosa

500 Home Run Club

Frank Thomas will become the 21st member of the 500 home run club in a matter of days. A-Rod, Manny Ramirez and Jim Thome have realistic shots at 500. Gary Sheffield has an outside chance with 472 home runs.

3,000 Hit Club

Craig Biggio is five hits away from joining the 3,000 hit club and guaranteeing himself a spot in the Hall of Fame. The only other player who has a chance this year is none other than Barry Bonds.

300 Wins

Tom Glavine is four wins away from 300, and Randy Johnson is close (284), but probably not close enough to do it this year.

And don't forget, the Cubs are turning it around and will end their curse, making 2007 the most historic season ever.

The Most Diabolical Outfield of All-Time

2007-06-21T21:50:00.000-07:00

Quick thanks to the new readers, I have noticed your comments and first thanks for the Pro Player correction, as for the question on St.Lucie, that would be my bad eyes, when you look at a list of 40 players the lines blend together he has not signed the player was Matthew W. Mallory. The Florida Marlins have a huge hole in center field and they are looking for players to fill it. Two names stand out Brady Clark and Elijah Dukes...here's why I want Dukes.

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays may be dumping Elijah Dukes, a.k.a. “Pac Man of baseball,” and much to my delight the Florida Marlins are one of the teams interested. My delight is for personal reasons; I would love to see the train wreck that would occur if the Marlins bring this crazy man into their clubhouse. The Marlins are one of the youngest teams in baseball, average age 27 and adding a player like Dukes has the possibility of being a calamity of hilarious proportions. But why stop there I’ve compiled a list of other outfielders that the Fish can add to create….

The Most Diabolical Outfield of All-Time

Left Field- Milton Bradley, the volatile outfielder was recently sent to the minors by the Oakland Athletics for "playing time issues.” Bradley career numbers .270, 70 HR, 292 RBI are decent for a man who can’t stay on a team for three consecutive seasons. Bradley also has a solid “diabolical” resume:
--- Traded from Indians to Dodgers after fighting with manager Eric Wedge. A
--- After a disagreeing over balls and strikes in 2004 Bradley left his batting helmet, gloves and bat in batters box, then threw a bag of balls on the field.
--- Suspended five games for firing a plastic beer bottle into the stands at Coors
--- Called an African American reporter an “uncle tom” and a “sellout” after being asked a question he didn’t like.
---The list continues but those were the highlights.

Center Field- Elijah Dukes, his career numbers aren’t great .190, 10 HR and 21 RBI’s. Although he is a young player, 22, Dukes does have an impressive “diabolical” resume:
---Has been arrested 6 times since 1998 a plethora of arrest ranging from pot possession to battery.
---May, 2007, reportedly threatened to kill his wife
---17 year old foster child in Dukes extended family accuses him of impregnating her; police say sex tape proves consensual sex.
---Has five children by four different women.

Right Field- Carl Everett is probably the best player on this list and for some strange reason in sans team this season. Everett is a former All-Star with a career batting average of .271, 202 HR and 792 RBI’s. Everett has an equally impressive “diabolical” resume:
---Alias include “Jurassic Carl” and C-Rex after his comments refuting the existence of dinosaurs. “I don’t know anyone that ever said, I saw a dinosaur”, very true Carl, but you believe in God yet I don’t know anyone who says I’ve seen God.
---After hitting a home run off of Jamie Moyer, C-Rex grabbed his crotch and spit at Moyer.
--- C-Rex is the model of humanity and understanding, stating that if he had a gay teammate he would retire or “set him straight”, nice Carl real nice.

Cards Mid-Season Awards

2007-06-19T22:11:00.000-07:00

The Palm Beach Cardinals are just about half way through their 2007 season and so far they are the definition of average. Currently the Cards’ are 34-34 and tied with Vero Beach for second place in the Florida State League’s Eastern Division. The season has had its high points and low points and we’ve seen players come and go. I thought I’d take this opportunity to introduce the new players and give some much needed credit to some of the Cards’ players.

MVP- Allen Craig has been far and away the best player in the first half of the 2007 season. The third baseman from UC Berkeley is hitting .306 with fourteen homeruns, twelve doubles and forty-five runs batted in. Craig has come through in big situations all season and even though he lost his protection in the line-up, Mark Hamilton, Craig has proven all year that he can hit no matter who is around him.

Pitcher of the Year- Tyler Norrick has been a dominate front of the rotation for the Palm Beach Cardinals all season, the lefty has a team leading six wins and a solid 3.20 earned run average. Norrick has stopped trying to overpower every batter he faces, he now is mixing a biting slider that has helped Norrick accumulate sixty-two strikeouts.

Player to Watch- At the start of the season the player I received the most emails about was A.J. Van Slyke. Although he struggled to find his stroke early in the season, A.J. has finally come around and started to live up to the early season interest. Van Slyke is hitting .273 with eleven doubles and nine stolen bases this season and his numbers should increase with steady playing time. Springfield has called up big hitting first baseman Mark Hamilton and Van Slyke is the early favorite to get some playing time at first.

New Faces
P.J. Walters was called up from Quad Cities on Wednesday to fill the spot left by starter Adam Daniels. Walters played his college ball at South Alabama and was 6-2 with a 2.62 in ten starts at Quad Cities.

James Rapoport is a left handed centerfielder that was called up from Quad Cities a few weeks ago. Rapoport is hitting .235 with two doubles and a triple in sixty-eight at bats.

Palm Beach All Stars
Tyler Norrick added another highlight to his impressive 2007 season Saturday, the Palm Beach starter earned the victory in the East v West All Star Game. Teammate Allen Craig hit a home run in the fifth and drove in two runs to earn MVP of the All-Star game. Mark Hamilton walked in his only at bat and Luke Gregerson struck out the only two batter he faced.

News and Notes

6-18-07: Springfield - Called up P Adam Daniels from Palm Beach.

6-18-07: Palm Beach - Called up P P J Walters from Quad Cities and placed OF Shane
Robinson on the DL with a broken foot. He's expected to miss 6 weeks.

6-19-07: Springfield - Called up 1B Mark Hamilton from Palm Beach.

6-20-07: Palm Beach - Called up 1B Brandon Buckman form Quad Cities.

6-21-07: Springfield - Called up P Kyle McClellan from Palm Beach

6-21-07: Springfield - Sent P Michael Cooper to Palm Beach.

6-21-07: Springfield - Placed P Jose Garcia on the DL. Called up 2B/SS Jose Martinez from Palm Beach

Florida Marlins: at least were not the Royals

2007-06-14T14:35:00.001-07:00

Although there were beaning's, brawls and marlins cheerleaders, the most entertaining aspects of Wednesday's game took place in the press box. The night started with writers, television personalities and reporters making fun of the Sun-Sentinel for burying the story of Justin Verlander's no hitter.

Justin Verlander

Later in the game, Mike G turned to me and was both shocked and insulted to find out that he was denied an interview with the Kansas City Royal's General Manager. What made that even funnier is the fact that he did not let that go for most of the night.

As the game went along, we witnessed three Florida Marlins tossed from the game on one play. Taylor Tankersley hit Indians batter Grady Sizemore on an 0-2 count, which resulted in Tankersley getting tossed. Which prompted Fredi Gonzalez to go shooting out of the dugout to argue the ejection, which caused Fredi to get tossed. Simultanously, Aaron Boone was arguing with a different ump who ended up tossing Boone. A wild series event that led to a fun game......

What should the slogan for Florida Marlins Baseball? (Currently it's "You Gotta Be Here").

Here is a list that a few reporters came up with for new slogans:

Florida Marlins Baseball....

At least were not the Royals.

See us while you can.

Did that just happen?

We are better than Jupiter(their farm team)...we hope.

We're Sorry.

If you don't come, then we'll leave for Vegas.

Olsen dominates

2007-06-14T13:55:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week I was given the rare opportunity to cover the Florida Marlins for ESPN Radio 760. The Cleveland Indians were in town for the first time since losing the 1997 World Series in what was then known as Joe Robbie Stadium. The Marlins took this opportunity to rub thier World Series Championship in the face of the Indians, by giving away replica trophy's and rings. Another gimick from an organization that thrives on minor league stunts to trick fans to attend games. But I'm not going complain because I got a nice little stash of Marlins paraphanela that I'll be able to re-gift to young family members.

Tuesday- This was one of the most fundementally sound games I've ever seen in person, neither team walked a batter and both teams commited no errors. Marlins starter Scott Olsen teased fish fans, by showing a glimpse of the ability that can one day make him a number one starter. The big lefty scattered three hits over seven dominate innings on his way to picking up his fifth win of the season. The Tribe wasted a great outing by phenom Fausto Carmona, he went seven innings giving up three runs and striking out six. All the scoring took place in the bottom of the seventh. Hanley Rameriez and Miguel Cabrera started off the inning with back to back singles, Camrmona nailed Josh Willingham with a fast ball to load the bases. Two batters later Miguel Olivo stepped up to the plate and bounced a ball over the head of third baseman Casey Blake, giving the Marlins a 3-0 lead. That was all the Fish needed, Kevin Gregg pitched a scoreless ninth to pick up the save.

Quote of the Game
"Our starting pitcher threw awesome and ... basically we have nothing to show for it, I'll tell you this much, there's alot of guys in this locker room that want another chance at Olsen." Casey Blake.

Player of the Game

Scott Olsen

For the Fanatical Fan

2007-06-14T13:42:00.000-07:00

Since the end of the 2007 First Year Player Draft the Florida Marlins have been busy. I've compiled a list of the prospects that have signed with the Fish. This is blog for a true Marlins fan because most of these players will never see Double A ball, much less any action in the pros.

76) Stanton, Michael Notre Dame HS CF R/R 6'05" 1989-11-08 HS 400K

106) Smith, Jameson Fresno CC C L/R 5'11" 190 1986-10-09 J2 400K

136) Petersen, Bryan UC Irvine RF L/R 6'00" 1986-04-09 JR 400K

376) Parcell, Garrett San Diego St U RHP R/R 6'05" 220 1984-07-12 SR 400K

796) Hagerich, Bryan U Delaware LF R/R 6'04" 1985-02-20 SR 400K

1119) St Luce, Kellen All Saints Cathedral School LHP L/L 6'03" 215 1989-06-05 HS 400K

Cards' swept by the Manatees

2007-06-13T15:51:00.000-07:00

Getting swept by the division leading Brevard County Manatee's is not how the Palm Beach Cardinals wanted to start their week. The only positive that the Cards' can take out of their series witht he Manatee's, is the fact that they did not fall out of second place in the Florida State Leagues Eastern Division.

Monday- Great hitting was unable to overcome poor pitching in the Cards’ 12-9 loss to Brevard County on Monday. In what I would say was the worst outing by any Cardinals pitcher this season Trey Hearne allowed seven runs and recorded only two outs before being pulled from the game. He was relieved by Donnie Smith who didn’t fare much better, allowing four runs in just over three innings pitched. On the opposite end of the spectrum Cards’ hitters were on fire, Brandon Yarbrough hit his second homerun of the season on a fly by that just kept going and someone landed over the fence in right in the bottom of the sixth. Two batters later Allen Craig pulled a ball deep over the fence in left for his fourteenth home run of the season. In the bottom of the eighth, after three hits and a walk, Ian Church stepped up to the plate and delivered big time. Church jumped all over a fastball and ripped the ball over the left field fence for a grand slam pulling the Cards’ within three but that’s as close as they got.

Tuesday- The Cards’ can’t seem to catch a break, this time great pitching was wasted by an inability to get hits leading to a 2-1 loss to Brevard. Cardinal batters were only able to register five hits and there only run came off a RBI single by Dan Nelson in the sixth. Fernando Salas was the tough luck starter on Tuesday, allowing only two runs on four hits in six strong innings. Relievers Matt Trent and Kyle McClellan combined to allow only one hit but it wasn’t enough as the Cards’ dropped their third straight to the division leading Manatee’s.

Hot- Tyler Norrick- The Cards ace(pictured) has an earned run average of 2.76 and has won three of his last four decisions giving him a 6-4 record for the season. The 23-year-old left-hander has gone at least six innings in 11 of his 13 starts this season.

Not- Trey Hearne- Two loses in one week is bad all by itself but allowing eleven runs in under six innings pitched is ridiculous. This rough week has dropped Hearne to 3-6 on the season and raised his earned run average to 6.32.

News and Notes

6-08-07: Palm Beach - Activated P Robert Ransom off the DL.

6-10-07: Palm Beach - Activated OF Shane Robinson off the DL. Placed P Gary Daley, Jr.
on the DL. Daley Jr. has a blister on his throwing hand.

6-11-07: Palm Beach - Released OF Matt Lemanczyk

Hoot, Hoot, Hooray, Owls go Pro!

2007-06-10T19:40:00.000-07:00

After another disappointing season for the Florida Atlantic University baseball team, the players were able to take solace in the fact that, at the conclusion of the 2007 Major League Baseball Draft, six FAU players found their names off the board.

Robbie Widlansky The 2007 Sun Belt Player of the Year was selected in the 11th round by Major League Baseball's Baltimore Orioles. Widlansky also earned Louisville Slugger First Team All American honors and Second Team All American honors from Rivals.com.

Daniel Cook- The outfielder had a productive junior season and was a Second-Team All-Conference selection after hitting .349 with six home runs, 39 RBI and 15 stolen bases. Cook was selected in the 20th round by the Washington Nationals.

Brandon Cooney - This big (6'6) righty will join Widlansky in the Orioles' minor league system. After deciding to return to FAU for his senior season, Cooney was selected by Baltimore in the 30th round of the 2007 MLB draft. During his final season, Cooney was a valuable relief pitcher for the Owls, his powerful stuff allowed Cooney to strike out 57 in 55 innings pitched.

Other Notable Owls Selected in the 2007 First Year Player Draft

Mickey Storey(Twins, 22), Justin Phillabaum(Nationals, 29) were also selected on the second day of the draft.

MLB Draft 1st Round

2007-06-07T13:04:00.000-07:00

Tuesday ESPN 2 aired the MLB draft for the first time in history, here's a recap of what the future holds for Florida baseball.

1) Tampa Bay Devil Rays
David Price LHP Vanderbilt - Price is a top of the line pitching prospect who can help the Devil Rays as early as the 2008 season. The other two times Tampa made the first selection in the MLB draft they selected Delvin Young and Josh Hamilton.

12) Florida Marlins
Matt Dominguez 3B Chatsworth (Calif.) HS - Dominguez appears to be a future replacement for Miguel Cabrerra. With the Marlins inability to resign their own MLB all-stars, the Fish will need to continue selecting replacement parts.

18) St. Louis Cardinals
Peter Kozma SS Owasso HS, Owasso, Okla. - Some experts think this pick was a bit of a reach but he fits what the Cards' like. He's a bigger, more athletic version of David Eckstien, the question is, does he have Eckstiens heart. We should see him playing for the Palm Beach Cards' by the start of next season.

Other Florida prospects taken in the first round on the 2007 MLB Draft.

7) Milwaukee Brewers Matt LaPorta 1B Florida

24) Texas Rangers Michael Main RHP Deland HS, Deland, Fla.

Up and Down Start to the Week

2007-06-05T20:09:00.000-07:00

The Cards' start the week 1-1, winning convincingly on Monday then getting stomped on Tuesday. But at least they didn't have a break down like this Braves double A manager.

Monday 6/4- Monday’s Cardinals 11-5 victory was all about Mark Hamilton, the streaking first baseman was dialed in for the Cards’ match-up with the Thrashers. Hamilton pounded three home runs and drove in six runs in what was probably the most impressive performance of any Cardinal this season. Hamilton had a consistent swing evident by the fact that he hit all three of his home runs to right field. Adam Daniels (W. 3-5) set a career high for strike outs with eight, while pitching six strong innings and giving up four runs.

Tuesday 6/5- Palm Beach batters were unable to take advantage of another strong performance by starter Adam Ottavino. Nathan Southard and Rapoport registered four of the Cards’ six total hits off Clearwater pitchers. Ottavino gave up three runs in five innings while striking out six. With the game still in reach heading into the ninth, reliever Matt Trent had a disastrous inning giving up five runs on five hits allowing the Thrashers to put the game out of reach.

- Hot- First Baseman Mark Hamilton has five home runs, eleven runs batted in and nine hits in the past week. Hamilton’s big game on Monday set career highs for home runs and runs batted in. He is currently third in FSL with ten home runs.

- Not- Matt Trent gave up five runs on five hits in the Cards’ 8-0 loss on Tuesday; it was his first poor outing of the season. This performance really stands out because of Trent’s stellar performance in his previous outings.

News and Notes

- 5/29- Placed Outfielder Shane Robinson on the 7 day DL

- 5/31- Catcher Danilo Sanchez promoted to Springfield

- 5/31- Catcher Henry Guerrero sent to Palm Beach

I'm back

2007-06-03T23:02:00.000-07:00

FAU News

First things first; I read a blog by fellow UP writer Dori Zinn and found yet another thing that annoys me at FAU: Fowl Owls. Give me a break! This is where FAU has sunk too low. For those who don't know, the Fowl Owls will take your picture and put it on their website if you're wearing clothing from another school. The fact that a group of self righteous students are trying to publicly humiliate a bunch of people into wearing what they want them to wear is an embarrassment of epic proportions. Why don't you just sew a scarlet FAU logo onto their shirts and get it over with. Here, this is just for the Fowl Owls:

A little recap of FAU sports this summer.

-FAU pitcher Chris Saldberg became the 81st Owl baseball player to sign a professional baseball contract. Saldberg was the 22nd pick of the Baltimore Orioles.

-Robbie Wildlansky received All-America honors from Louisville Slugger.

-FAU women's basketball rounded out their 2007-08 recruiting class.

-Nello Faulk is practicing with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The Rest of the Sports World

I'm clinically depressed now that Lebron James has finally had his onions drop and stopped choking in the fourth quarter.

I want to say this one more time: the Fowl Owls are an embarrassment to FAU and I hope that no one supports this idiotic idea that, if successful, will lower FAU to bush league status.

Week in Review

2007-06-03T20:20:00.000-07:00

The Florida Marlins had an up and down week starting with a loss to the Mets, followed by a sweep of the Cubs and finished with losing three of four to Chicago. The Marlins ended the week 4-4, fourth place in the NL East and seven games out of the Wild Card.

After a 4-2 record this week the Jupiter Hammerheads are fifth in Florida State League Eastern Division.

The Cards won four and lost three to stay in second place in the FSL Eastern Division.

Players of the week

Florida Marlins- The past week Miguel Cabrera had 12 hits, four doubles, six RBI's and two home runs.

Miguel Cabrera

Jupiter Hammerheads- Catcher Andrew Jenkins had four hits, five runs and four RBI's in the past week.

Palm Beach Cardinals- First baseman Mark Hamilton was on a tear last week; registering nine hits, five runs, two home runs and nine RBI's.

Mark Hamilton

Fish Treading Water

2007-06-03T17:18:00.000-07:00

After sweeping my beloved Cubs, the Florida Marlins headed north on I-95 to take on the first place Brew Crew and order was restored to my baseball world. The Fish dropped three of four games to the slumping Brewers and theirs two ways to look at that. Either the Brewers are very good and have finally have broken out of their slump or the Marlins are a bad team, I'm OK with both.

The best thing about the Marlins Trip to Milwaukee was their front row seats to the greatest show on field turf.

Even though this past week my Cubbies reached their low point of the season this,losing to the Marlins (yes I know about Pinella going crazy Zambrano going UFC on Barrett, I still stand by my statement of the low point was losing to Florida). Anyways I feel that this is needed to boost my spirits.

I know this blog has been a mixed bag of Cubs and Fish, but here's whats up for the Fish. They start the week with a four games in three days against the Atlanta Braves. They do get a break at the end of the week, returning home for an inter league weekend series with the lowly Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

My prediction 3-4, the Fish will lose three to Atlanta and one to Tampa.

Probables

Monday- Wes Obermuller

Tuesday- Day- Sergio Mitre Night- Rick Vanden Hurk

Wednesday- Scott Olsen

Fantasy Tip

-Pick up Ryan Braun he singled, doubled, and homered scoring three times against the Marlins on Friday. Braun's second homer of his big league career was a two-run shot off starter Scott Olsen that traveled 427 feet. He's batting .278 with three doubles, two homers, and two steals in nine games since being promoted.

Another loss

2007-05-29T20:05:00.000-07:00

The Palm Beach Cards' struggles continue.
Tuesday 5/29- After having Memorial day off the Cards’ were back in action of Tuesday, unfortunately the day off cooled the Cards’ who lost to Jupiter 5-3. The start of the game looked promising for the Cards when newly promoted outfielder Jim Rapoport reached base on a throwing error by the shortstop. The speedy Rapoport wasted no time hanging out at first base; he stole second the first chance he got. Rapoport got a great jump on a breaking ball from Jupiter’s starter Ryan Tucker and swiped second easily. The stolen base seemed to rattle Tucker, who walked Van Slyke on six pitches. Craig came up and put a charge into Tuckers pitch and drove the ball deep to right, unfortunately it was right at the outfielder, but the fly ball did allow Rapoport and Van Slyke to advance. Hamilton followed Craig and drove in Rapoport with a bouncing ball to first. That’s when the real fun began; Yarbrough stepped up to the plate but could not figure out Tucker, so the Cards’ runners took matters into their own hands. Van Slyke and Hamilton executed a perfect double steal, as soon as Tucker made his move towards home Van Slyke took off and stole home, at the same time Hamilton stole second and ends up at third after a throwing error. Unfortunately that was it for highlights from the Cards.

Hot
A.J. Van Slyke has been on fire this week racking up nine hits, three doubles, two RBI’s and two stolen bases. The hot streak has raised Van Slyke’s batting average to .261 and his stolen base total to eight.

Not
For the first time this season Allen Craig is struggling, he has only four hits in the past week with no home runs and zero runs batted in.

Cards turn it around

2007-05-29T12:45:00.000-07:00

The Palm Beach Cardinals struggled to start the week, losing three straight heading into their Friday game against Lakeland. A late inning comeback helped the Cards’ end their losing streak with a 9-6 victory Friday. The Cardinals followed their exciting victory, with a dramatic three run ninth inning to win their second straight against Lakeland on Saturday. Lets take a closer look at their exciting victories and disappointing loses this week that have kept the Card’s in second place in the Florida State Leagues Eastern Division.

Friday 5/25- The Cards’ dropped their third straight on Friday losing to Lakeland 5-0. The entire line up was shut down by a overpowering performance by Lucas French of the Lakeland Flying Tigers. Cards’ starter Trey Hearne had a rough outing allowing eleven hits and five runs in five innings pitched. Hearne’s main problem was his inability to throw strikes, which forced him into hitters’ counts allowing Flying Tigers hitters to tee off. The only player who had any success with the bat against Lakeland was Nathan Southard; the outfielder had two of the Cards’ seven hits. His first time up, Southard didn’t even get to take a swing before Martinez was caught napping and was picked off first base. When Southard was eventually able to take his swings he was effective, in the top of the third he lined a rope to dead center field for a single and in the top of the eighth he hit another liner to center.

Saturday 5/26- Trailing 5-3 heading into the seventh the Cards’ looked like they were on their way to fourth straight defeat, but Martinez was not going to let that happen. Dan Nelson started the inning by grounding to the shortstop for what looked like a sure out, but the first baseman was unable to handle the throw and the hustling Nelson reached on an error. A.J. Van Slyke stepped up to the plate and skys a ball deep to left center that bounces off the wall for an RBI double, after a walk to Mark Hamilton, Yarbrough executed a perfect sacrifice bunt to advance Hamilton to second and Van Slyke to third. An intentional walk to Church to load the bases, Danilo Sanchez looped a fly ball to short center allowing Van Slyke to score. After a Southard groundout Martinez stepped up to the plate and hit a home run just over the fence in left. Gary Daley got the start for the Cards’ pitching four inning and giving up five runs, Fernando Salas came in the fifth earned the victory pitching a scoreless fifth and sixth. Luke Gregerson came on in the ninth and shut the door on Lakeland giving the Cards’ a 9-6 victory and earning his tenth save of the season.

Sunday 5/27- Van Slyke put the Card’s ahead for good in the top of the ninth, taking advantage of throwing error on the Flying Tigers. That topped and exciting ninth inning comeback by the Cards’ who were trailing 2-0 going into the inning. Martinez started the rally by hitting a line drive to left for his eighth double of the season. After back to back fly ball outs by Allen Craig and Southard, Nelson drove the ball into center for a RBI single. Van Slyke followed with a rocket double to left center driving in Nelson and tying the game at two. Hamilton appeared to have ended the inning with a fly ball to center but the center fielder dropped it and Van Slyke was able to score the eventual winning run. Gregerson came on in the bottom of the ninth and shut down Lakeland to earn his eleventh save of the season.

News and Notes
5/29- Outfielder Jim Rapoport has been promoted to the Palm Beach Cardinals

Slumping Cards

2007-05-29T12:40:00.000-07:00

The Palm Beach Cardinals struggled to start the week, losing three straight heading into their Friday game against Lakeland. Lets take a look at thier disappointing loses this week that have kept the Card’s from moving out of second place in the Florida State Leagues Eastern Division.

Wednesday 5/23- The Cards’ batters faced a real test on Wednesday when they faced off against Fort Myers. Miracles pitchers Yohan Pino and Eduardo Morlan combined to hold Cards’ batters to only three hits in a 3-1 victory for the Miracles. The Cards’ didn’t’ even register a base runner until Isaias Garcia’s two out smoking line drive single to center, any hope of a rally was crushed after Dan Nelson strikes out swinging on a wicked curve from Pino. The Cards’ went hitless in the top of the forth and after Brandon Yarbrough’s dribbler to the mound for the first out in the fifth the inning didn’t look promising. Ian Church stepped up to the plate and took one for the team and earned first base after being drilled by a Pino pitch. After a Jose Martinez puts a charge into a deep fly ball out into right field, Church caught Pino napping and stole second base to put him in scoring position for Nathan Southard, who promptly struck out swinging on a ball out of the zone, to end the inning. Things looked promising in top of the eighth after the Miracles changed pitcher and Morlan came into the game to face Cards’ hitters. Southard took advantage of the first strike Morlan threw and drove the ball deep into right center for a double; Southard’s aggressive base running allowed him to advance to third on throwing error from the right fielder. The Cards’ finally got on the score board after a fielders choice RBI from Garcia, but that was the last run the Cards’ would tally. Adam Daniels picked up the loss for the Cards’ tossing seven innings giving up three runs on five hits.

Thursday 5/24- The third inning was the undoing for the Cards’ on Thursday, starting pitcher gave up four of his five runs in the fourth giving the Lakeland Flying Tigers a five run lead. That was more than enough for Lakeland starter Burke Badenhop (4-3), who allowed only one run in seven strong innings. The Cards’ attempted a comeback in the top of the eighth scoring three runs off Flying Tiger reliever Paul Hammond. The Flying Tigers reliever got off to a good start, fooling Cards’ star Allen Craig on an off speed breaking ball for a swinging strike out. The rally started with Mark Hamilton’s worm burning single to center field, Yarbrough moved Hamilton to second with a scorching line drive that followed the identical path as Hamilton’s hit. Jose Martinez came up after a Church strikeout and singled on a ground ball that split the shortstop and third baseman driving in a hustling Hamilton. A throwing error on the left fielder allowed Yarbrough to score and moved Martinez to third. The rally forced the Flying Tigers to make a pitching change, bringing in Brendan Wise, who promptly forced Garcia to ground into a fielder choice out. The Card’s were unable to do anything in the ninth and fell to the Flying Tigers 8-4.

2007-05-23T23:04:00.000-07:00

Palm Beach Cards'

Tuesday, 5/22- Tyler Norrick picked up his fifth win of the season, and the Cards won their fifth of the week after they held on to defeat Fort Myers 3-2. Norrick pitched five strong innings and handed the game over the bullpen, which did an outstanding job. Kyle McClellan and Scott Vander Weg each earned their first holds of the season and Gregerson picked up his ninth save of the season.

Wednesday, 5/23- After surrendering three runs in seven innings, PB Cards' Starter Adams Daniels fell to 2-5 on the season. The Cards' were only able to score one run on an RBI single by Isaias Garcia and fell to Fort Myers 3-1 on Wednesday.

Jupiter Hammerheads

Tuesday, 5/22 - After Tueday's 6-3 loss to Tampa, Chris Volstad's record fell to 3-5 on season. Volstad started, pitched six innings and gave up six runs. Catcher Andrew Jenkins was the offensive star driving in one on two hits.

Wednesday, 5/23- The Hammerheads ended thier four game losing steak, defeating Tampa 5-0 on Wednesday. Ryan Tucker(3-3) pitched over six innings and Wes Leston pitched the final three innings, giving Jupiter thier league leading sixth shutout. Colin Robertson lead the Hammerheads with two hits and his third RBI of the season.

Florida State League Standings

East

Brevard County 28 18
Palm Beach 26 20 2.0
Vero Beach 22 24 6.0
Daytona 21 24 6.5
Jupiter 19 27 9.0
St. Lucie 18 28 10.0

News and Notes

Allen Craig is second in the Florida State League in batting average (.341), first in home runs (10) and runs batted in (35).

Trey Hearne is first in the FSL in innings pitched (54.2) and Norrick is tied for the league lead in wins (5).

2007-05-22T11:27:00.000-07:00

Tyler Norrick

The Palm Beach Cardinals are experiencing a much better week than last, they are winners of five of their past seven games. The Cards’ winning ways have put them back into second place in the Florida State League Eastern Division, only two games behind first place Brevard County. Lets take a look back at how the Card’s moved back up the standings.

Wednesday- After winning both games of a double header against The St. Lucie Mets on Tuesday, the Cards’ dropped the final game of their three game series. The Mets scored early and often in their 5-2 victory over the Cards, who were lead offensively by Allen Craig and his three hits. Gary Daley started the game and gave up five runs in just over four innings pitched, Donnie Smith and Matt Trent came out of the bullpen and combined to pitch three scoreless innings.

Thursday- After the Cards’ defeated the Devil Rays 10-7 in their completion of a rain suspended April 15th contest, the Cards’ and Rays played their scheduled game. Starting pitcher Tyler Norrick finally got back on track Thursday, he pitched six innings allowing only one run on two hits. Norrick was literally un-hittable for the first five innings of the game, he took a no-hitter into the sixth. Matt Trent picked up the save allowing no base runners in his inning of work. Left fielder Ian Church drove in one of the runs in the first innings and Mark Hamilton drove in what turned out to be the deciding run in the third.

Friday- The Cards’ won their second straight over the Devil Rays, this time by a score of 9-5. Adam Daniels got the start and tossed five decent innings scattering five hits and allowing three runs, only one earned. His solid work allowed Daniels to pick up his first victory in over a month. Offensively Craig was the story, the talented first base man drove in four and smashed his tenth home run of the season.

Saturday- Their third straight victory was aided by a strong outing by starting pitcher Adam Ottavino, who fanned nine while tossing five scoreless innings. Ottavino extended his scoreless inning streak to twelve innings. Craig continued his hot hitting, driving in two, hitting two doubles and scoring a run. Mark Hamilton, Jose Martinez and Church also contributed to the victory by driving in two each.

Sunday- Cards’ starter Trey Hearne lost a pitchers duel by a margin of 2-1 on Sunday. Hearne pitched eight innings allowing only two runs on eight hits, but was outdone by Oswaldo Sosa of Fort Myers. Starting Catcher Brandon Yarbrough drove in the only run for the Cards’.

Monday- The Cards’ got back to their winning ways on Monday, defeating The Fort Myers Miracles 3-2. Gary Dailey got the start and picked up the victory while pitching six innings allowing no Miracle runner to advance past second base. Reliever Luke Gregerson picked up his eighth save of the season. Church was the offensive star of the game driving in two on a RBI double in the third.

Hot
Starting Pitcher Adam Ottavino extended his scoreless inning streak to twelve on Saturday. He was dominate in his start striking out nine, picking up his third win of season and lowering his earned run average to 2.14.

News and Notes
5/19-Utility player Casey Rowlett was called up to Springfield. With his time with the Cards’ Casey hit .259 with one homerun and ten runs batted in.

The Myth of Dan Marino

2007-05-13T11:34:00.000-07:00

Ok, this is something that has bothered me from the moment I moved down here: the idea that Dan Marino is the greatest Quarterback that ever played, or even in the top 5, is the most preposterous idea I've ever heard in my life. I'm from the North, and Marino doesn't even come up in the discussion about best QBs ever. It's my opinion that Marino will go the way of Fran Tarkington, the previous leader in most passing categories and, outside of Florida, Marino will become irrelevant thirty years from now. Before I get into the comparisons, I want to get this straight: Marino is a great passer and had a quick release and a cannon for an arm, but you need to be a winner to be a great QB.

1) John Elway- When he retired he was the all-time leader in victories(146), fourth quarter comebacks(47), and Super Bowl starts (5). Elway also has a Super Bowl MVP, two Super Bowl wins and was a nine time participant in the Pro Bowl.

QB Rating: 79.9 Yards: 51,475 TDs:300 Rushing Yards: 3,407

2) Joe Montana- Without question, one of the greatest clutch QBs of all time as evident by his three Super Bowl MVPs and four Super Bowl wins. Montana went to eight Pro Bowls and led thirty-one fourth quarter comebacks.

QB Rating: 92.3 Yards: 35,142 TDs:244

3) Peyton Manning- He was further down this list and was on track to finish his career in disappointment like Marino. That was until last season when he was able to beat another great QB (Tom Brady) in the playoffs and earn Super Bowl MVP against the Bears. His Super Bowl victory and seven Pro Bowls already puts him ahead of Marino on my list.

QB Rating: 94.4 Yards: 37,589 TDs: 275

4) Brett Favre- He was a mobile QB who carried his team to a Super Bowl victory and won three MVPs in a row. Don't forget, Favre had to do a lot of his passing in very poor weather conditions, which many of these other players didn't have to deal with. Favre has gone to eight Pro Bowls and holds the highest all-time records in wins, completions, consecutive games started, and soon, TDs. Finally, it is possible that after this season he will pass Marino as the all-time leader in yards.

QB Rating: 85.1 Yards: 57,500 TDs: 414 Rushing Yards: 1,774

5) Troy Aikman- Aikman will likely be passed by Tom Brady in the next year or so, but regardless, Aikman was vastly underrated as a QB. Aikman was one of the most efficient QBs in history and was able to lead a team full of characters to three Super Bowl wins. He went to six Pro Bowls and has the most victories ever in a single decade (90 in the '90s).

QB Rating: 81.6 Yards: 32,942 TDs: 165

6) Tom Brady- Is battling with Peyton Manning for the crown of best QB of the past ten years. Brady has three Super Bowl wins, three Pro Bowls, and two Super Bowl MVPs. Brady has plenty of time to rise up this board and this season his team is loaded with talent.

QB Rating: 88.4 Yards: 21,564 TDs: 147

7) Steve Young- This is actually tough for me; I think Young deserves to be higher on this list but I couldn't justify moving anyone else down. Young won two MVPs, went to seven Pro Bowls and won a Super Bowl. Young is the all-time leader in passer rating and rushing TDs for a QB. In his four seasons as a back up to Joe Montana, he threw twenty-three touchdowns and only six picks. Young was an important part of Montana's Super Bowl winning teams.

QB Rating: 96.8 Yards: 33,124 TDs: 232 Rushing Yards: 4,239 Rushing TDs: 43

8) Terry Bradshaw- Was very underrated as a QB. Like Aikman, his numbers suffered for the greater good of the team. If that's not the definition of a great QB then I don't know what is. Bradshaw won four Super Bowls, went to three Pro Bowls and eight consecutive AFC Championship games. When he retired, he held records for most passing yards(932) and TDs (9) in a Super Bowl career and won two straight Super Bowl MVPs.

QB Rating: 70.9 Yards: 27,989 TDs: 212

9) Dan Marino- No Super Bowl wins and he went to only one Super Bowl in his career. And don't forget he flat out missed the playoffs seven out his 17 years in the league. Marino is the Karl Malone of the NFL; great numbers but he was not a winner. Marino won one MVP, and went to nine Pro Bowls and when he retired, he was the all-time leader in many passing categories. The point is records can disappear, Super Bowl wins don't.

QB Rating: 86.4 Yards: 61,361 TDs: 420

So I've made my point. If you're going to be a great QB you need to win at least one Super Bowl. If Marino's numbers were leaps and bounds above everyone elses then maybe you could be considered great without winning. That doesn't apply to Marino. His records are slipping away and he hasn't been gone that long. So, Dolphin fans, enjoy that while your watching your team bottom out this season. Maybe next year you can pick a great QB like Brain Brohm.

What to do in Jupiter

2007-05-07T10:58:00.000-07:00

Ok, this blog is for the Jupiter campus, I'm sure you already know that the Palm Beach Cardinals play right next store to you at Roger Dean Stadium. What you don't know is that is a good cheap way to have fun, before or after your summer classes. Monday is 'belly buster' days where you can eat and drink as much as you want for fifteen dollars. Also if you have a dog, there are multiple games you can bring you furry friend to. Finally there is great compotition and players out there, a cheap way to see future MLB players. This is not an advertisment, I'm a Cubs fan, but just a suggestion of something for FAU students to do this summer.

Tyler Norrick- Tyler is a talented lefty that has dominated the FSL with a variety of pitches that have baffled opposing hitter. Norrick started the season with an impressive streak of eighteen scoreless innings, and has only given up one run in twenty four innings. His record is an impressive 3-0 and a ridiculous earned run average of .038 and allowing only twelve hits. What makes Norrick’s numbers so amazing is the fact that he is not a strike out pitcher, he only has twelve. Norrick is the type of pitcher that allows batters to put the ball in play, the key to his success is that he excels at putting the ball where the hitter can’t drive it.

Gary Daley- Gary is just one of the talented arms that are available in the Cards’ bullpen. Daley has been making hitters miss this season, striking out five in only eleven innings pitched. Hitters can’t figure him out batting only .187 against big right hander, which has contributed to his unbelievable zero earned run average.

Michael Cooper- Michael has been the anchor of the bullpen, coming in stressful positions and holding opposing hitters at bay and stopping big innings. Cooper has one win against one loss and an earned run average of 1.64 and opposing hitters are only hitting .190 against him.

Jason Motte- Jason is the closest thing the Cards’ have to a closer, leading the team with three saves. What makes Motte an interesting player is the fact that he is dominating as a pitcher even though he was a catcher last season. He was more than just an average position player; Motte was an all-star catcher in 2006. Before that season was over he was demoted to the New York State League and was learning how to pitch. Motte has done well with his adjustment pitching his earned run average is a paltry 1.29 in his seven innings or relief.

Worst Weekend in South Florida Sports history

2007-04-30T18:44:00.000-07:00

First I'm writing this post in a wierd mood, I'm happy I'm done with exams and all my classes, but pissed off because I wrote a blog last night that I somehow closed out words before finishing. So lets get this stated with a little houskeeping.

On Saturday April 21st the FAU Owls football team held it's annual Spring Football game. I really don't know what to make of it,over 500 people showed up which sounds nice until you realize that Alabama drew 92,000 fans and the Hurricanes (the other spring football game I covered) had over 5,000 fans. Next the team looked anemic on offence Rusty Smith threw 2 picks and Sean Clayton threw 1, the only highlight was Willie Rose and his 92 yard run. Which when comparing to the 'Canes those numbers are reall not that bad. Kyle Wright completed less that 50% of his passes should have thrown a pick and threw 1 TD, and Kirby Freeman was worse. The positive is that the defence looked amazing but take that with a grain of salt because this is a game that is condusive to good defensive performances.

I don't know about all of you but this past week was brutal, all I have to say about it is that no man should have to spend 15 hours in a walk in closet with Dave Dipino recording voice overs for a project. That pretty much sums up my exam week.

So Heat finally end their pathetic reign as NBA Champions I am so happy I will never have to hear anyone say that the Heat are champions ever again. Never mind the fact that the fans in south florida don't deserve a NBA champ this team didn't deserve to be on the same floor as the Chicago Bulls. The Heat were old and un-inspired while the Bulls were young and exciting. The Heat deserve to be the first NBA champ swept out of the first round of the playoffs. They pissed all over the regular season playing with no pride and no desire for excellence.

Dolphin's draft was a debacle and nothing makes me happier and I wanted to blog about it but instead I"m going to send you a list of text messages I got from my friend Super Dolfan Danny Lemon (name change, because no one wants to be known as a dolphins fan.)

"Shoot me"

"(in responce to Jon Beck)or worse the next Rex Grossman" he only wishes

"Do you blame me? the dolphins' just regressed another decade and F@$# THE BULLS!!"

"And with their second round pick, the Miami Dolphins select....Danny Lemon, a 6'2 190 pound QB with below average arm strength and a questionable work ethic, has little or no pocket poise hasn't won a big game and is a closet alchoholic, he does have potential out of the backfield if he was someone else and will be happy to drop his pants and wag his *&(*& and $&^%&^ to your delight. He lacks touch on the deep ball his footwork is mediocre and he has a career completion % of 7 he has thrown 3TD's and 48INT's and he can drink 18 beers and can pleasure himself four times in 2 hours, his upside is huge...Thank you Dolphnas now go kill yourself."

"I'll punch Cam (Cameron) in the face, F&^% the Phins."

"So we drafted a special teams player, a career backup QB, and a sumo wrestler, the curse of Marino continues."

"Laugh away,my friend but stay by the phone the phins are taking Jim Rutledge LB from FAU with their 3rd round pick...Congrats"

and my last text from George was Sunday around 4pm it read "I'll fight you right now"

I think that sum's up the worst weekend to be a fan of south florida sports and nothing could make me happier, the fans finally get what they deserve for being so fickle. But I do feel bad for true fans like Danny.

Oh and the sorry ass Marlins' lost 2 and were almost no hit on Sunday. HA HA HA HA

RIP Josh Hancock 29 year old MLB Cardinls relief pitcher

No sleep til Tommorow

2007-04-25T16:27:00.000-07:00

Since it's the end of the semester, let's start with some housekeeping.

First, I hope everyone enjoyed Dave's blog last week on branding. You think that after a branding campaign that included the possibility of choosing a new mascot and logo, they would have come up with something better than the Owls. Hoot, Hoot is not that intimidating.

I don't know about everyone else, but this semester's exams are killing me. I literally just woke up from a five-hour nap, which was the first sleep I've had in in 28 hours, so this blog should be interesting.

Two paragraph's is about as long as I can wait to bask in glory that is my Chicago Bulls. Nothing makes me happier than watching Luol Deng average just under thirty points a game with D-Wade and James Posey guarding him, and Ben Gordon knocking down jumpers with an efficiency which hasn't been seen in years. Kirk Hinrich and Andres Nochioni are in the heads of the entire Heat team including head coach Pat Riley. This years Heat team looks like the old decrepit assembling of players I thought they were last year. Now I know this series is far from over, but without question, we are seeing a Heat team that is on its last leg and they are not getting any younger, so soon they will be irrelevant.

Speaking of irrelevant, the Marlins are teetering on the edge of falling to the basement of their division. Currently, the fish are below .500 and are losing 3-0 to the Braves. Normally, I like young teams, but the ownership and management's railroading of manager Joe Girardi has turned me off to this team. I do feel bad for the players like Miggy, Scott Olsen and D-train who are ridiculously talented but have to play for a team that can't pay them and fan's that won't show up.

Branding for Luck, Money $$$

2007-04-18T20:20:00.000-07:00

Normally Jim Rutledge writes the "On the Edge of Sports" blog. Jim has bit off more than he can chew this week. Pardon the cliche, but it's something that happens from time to time with created,talented, want to do it all media people. I can speak from experience. My name is David DiPino, and I've been the sports editor at the University Press since August, 2006. I also write five stories a week and the police blotter, for the Delray Times, a small weekly newspaper in Delray Beach. I write one story a week for the Sun-Sentinel Community News Section, take classes at FAU and try to find time to cover my passion, sports.

I used to write one story a week for the UP. The editor in chief told me in January 2007, that he was going to go with themed issues, which meant no weekly sports coverage. While I was totally against this, I respect his decision, and even though he thought I was taken too much on, I would have found a way to get it done. I used this semester to help out fellow writers like Frank Durosier, Jim, and others. I wrote a few web only stories. Well enough about me, let's talk about sports.

The topic of branding came up recently, when the University of Central Florida Golden Knights decided to redo their logo, and drop the word golden from the mascot. Yes they are now the University of Central Florida Knights. The logo is different, all in an effort to make more money. UCF is moving into a brand new state of the art, 40,000 seat stadium. They will be hosting the University of Texas Longhorns, and in an effort to cash in on sports licensing decided to make the changes. Some would say it's an important step you must take to enter into the college football elite. Others might say it's a big step to take for a team that seldom goes to bowl games or win a conferance title. Time will tell.

FAU decided to change their logo and come with a new branding campaign prior to the 2006 football season. While the new logo made FAU look sharper on the field, it did cost a substantial amount of money for an artist to come up with the new logo you see everywhere today. I didn't think at the time it was neccessary, but it did provide some much needed luck to the athletic department. They plan to have a balance budget by June 30, 2007, which is good news to all of us who support the football program. Remember when the football program existed in the red? Not any more. And while I was against the branding campaign, I now think after seeing the rest of the logos and uniforms in the Sun-Belt Conferance that we look sharper than anybody else in the league. Have you ever seen South Alabama's uni's? Yuck! Since entering the Sun-Belt with our new logos our men's and women's swim teams have dominated with Sun-Belt Conferance titles. Who knows maybe that success could carry over to women's soccer, women's basketball, softball, baseball, men's and women's golf, and football. If it does I'm going to hang it on the head of our newly designed, branded, Owl.

Random thoughts from a tired mind

2007-04-10T20:40:00.000-07:00

Lets gets this started with a disclaimer, I thought I was clever and I would do a blog on HBO's Sunday night line up, but that idea has been done by everyone from Bill Simmons and Evan Cohen to some dude in Wyoming. I will throw in my two cents and say I'm starting to get a little disappointed with Entourage. It's still a great show but I have a real problem with this half hour format,it seems that as soon as the show gets rolling its over. I understand that it keeps viewers coming back but it also pisses viewers off. Am I the only one that wishes that Vince's new agent was one of the girls wearing lingerie at Vince's Victoria's Secret Birthday bash. FYI if any woman can tell me what Victoria's secret is that would be great. It's like Guess jeans what am I supposed to guess, your weight, breast size, how crazy you are, if your going to boil a rabbit, all things I don't really want to guess at, I would rather know.

Anyways onto the Soprano's perfect show as always, you have to really watch it to enjoy how many layers of plot are in the show. I have a feeling Tony is going to end up face down in a pool at the end of the show, they talk about a kid being found that way, and Tony said he couldn't' get that out of his mind. I'm probably wrong but hey it's a guess. There is no way that Bobby lives after beating Tony, and could A.J. seriously stop fucking up, the only off spring that screws up more is Matt from Nip/Tuck.

I turned on ESPN 2 yesterday and saw an old Boston Celtics Los Angelos Lakers game from the 80's and I have a few questions and observations. Larry Bird is a bad man after a big Celtics win he says something about how his team played like women. And anyone that can dominate a game wearing shorts that tighter than my boxers has to be great. It has to be strange playing basketball and flashing your crotch more than Brittaney Spears and Paris Hilton combined. Also don't they have gyms back then, every time I see video of 80's athletes they are always running in some strange place like the upper level bleachers or on a mini mountain, I'm sure that's an ideal training regiment, but I would like proof that a gym existed in the 80's.

Am I the only person that can recite Shawshank Redemption word for word because it comes on at least 3 times a month on cable. I'm very upset that TNT has stopped showing Above the Rim after every NBA basketball game. It was like cooling down after a workout, you watch back to back NBA basketball games and you need something to slowly bring you back to regular t.v. and Above the Rim did that.

My opinion on Pac Man, even though he has been convicted of nothing, being arrested multiple times in a short period and not turning a man who caused someone to be a paraplegic should keep him out of the NFL alone.

Don Imus, aren't we just empowering his words by creating such a big deal out of them. I understand that what he said is very insulting and crude, but calling press conferences talking about how wrong he is draws attention to him and his show. I've never heard it, but I'm sure he has made similar remarks on his shows and when their not brought to a National level nobody cares.

Final thought is that girl in the Genco generator commercials his daughter or wife, the ad doesn't say and I'm confused.

Monday April 2nd

2007-04-04T19:42:00.000-07:00

The greatest day in sports would have to be Monday April 2nd. You have opening day of baseball (and I'm not counting the one game that plays the night before). You also have NCAA College Basketball Championship game.

The Championship game turned out to be a big pile of crap. Not just because the Florida Gators won, but also because the game was never close. The entire Final 4 was filled with disappointing games. Florida dominated UCLA and Georgetown never really gave the Buckeyes a scare. So, all this talk about how the tournament would have better games because the best regular season teams were playing was just that- talk. The problem with the tournament at the later stages is that it's usually one team that is incredibly hot facing other teams who are good, but are not hitting on all cylinders.

Baseball is back! And soon my stomach ulcers will begin. Being a Cubs fan, this is what baseball means to me.

I'm discovering that every year, as I grow older, I take the losing season personally, to a point that I might need to see a psychologist. Being a Cubs fan is like having a really shitty girlfriend that against all logic you keep on dating even though she constantly breaks your heart. You date for a few months usually (April til early October), then have a huge messy break up, you say you never want to see her again, your heart is broken and you spend the next few months with her always in the back of your mind. Just when you're about to get over her, she appears (usually around March). You don't want to talk to her, but you give it a chance and by April your excited and can't wait for the season/relationship to begin.

Finally, a strange topic has risen in sports talk radio(790) and blogs(Bill Simmons). The questions revolve around Forrest Gump. Question 1: how many people did Jenny sleep with in the movie? Question 2: How did Forrest not acquire AIDS from Jenny? Obviously they had sex and they had a child. And, I have a 3rd Question: who slept with more people, Jenny from Forrest Gump or Carrie from Sex in the City?

My answers- I'm going to have to go with 202, and I'm not counting her messed up childhood, then I'm sure she slept with a few boys in High School. In college we saw that she was sneaking boys into her dorm and she wanted to bang Forrest so I'm going to say she was at 25 by age 21. She modeled in Playboy so she probably had sex with Heff. Then she was a naked hippie folk singer and we all know how hippies are so I'm going with 74 by age 25. Moving on to her days in San Fransisco, she had to have slept with a few of the black Panthers at that rally, her boyfriend and some other random radicals. So lets push it to 100. Now is when she piles up the numbers in her drugged out years where she almost killed herself, she might of had a few multiple partner nights. After she had little Forrest I think she settled down to maybe 1 or 2 guys. So I got 202.

As for Question 2, I'm going to have to point to science and luck, I'm guessing they only had sex without a condom the one time, and either she didn't have it then or Forrest got lucky, because I think it's harder for a man to get from a woman than to give it to her.

For my question, I'm going with Jenny over Carrie in a close 202 to 178 affair. Carrie took the time to have 'boyfriends' and that alone is going to hurt her chances of pulling off the upset. But none of them compare to Wilt Chamberlin with over 100,000 women. The King has his queen and her name is Jenny.

RIP 1919-2007 Eddie Robinson 408-65 in 55 seasons coaching at Grambling State.

Life of a Intern

2007-03-25T11:34:00.000-07:00

4:00- Humiliated by my class project that was ripped to shreds by a gaggle of retarded primates, AKA, my classmates. You know something is of piss poor quality when worthless FAU students have something to say about it. Actually I take that back. The one thing they do well is complain and nitpick other people's work.

5:45- Get a call from my boss asking where I am. See, I’ve been stuck in traffic for the past hour in what I can only assume is a rain cloud that is following me around today. I believe this because everyone I’ve talked to in South Florida is dry as Dennis Miller. Anyways, my boss then has to wait for me, so I can pick up my press pass for another exciting Panthers game.

7:17- Freezing my ass off, and wondering if the Panthers organization is trying to kill off all the media by only feeding them popcorn and bad coffee. Nevertheless I’m eating and drinking it. I’m going to miserable later. Nothing my stomach loves more than caffeine, sugar, milk and salt.

7:33- Informed by the giant floating T.V. that Chris Gratton has played in 1,000 as of tonight, the interesting part was the highlight film was only that of him fighting. Does he do anything else or is that his job? I’m now confused. Isn’t this something that should be done after the game? Nothing gets hockey players pumped up like a awkward exchange of gifts between coach and players. Chris got a watch and a hockey stick for Jacque Martin.

7:40- 1st I’m reminded of my hatred of the PA guy, all he does is scream into a microphone and get paid, and he couldn’t look any more ridiculous, wearing a hockey jersey and 2 earrings that does nothing for his image. Secondly, why do I have to hear the national anthem for Canada? I understand that Ottawa is a town, but really, I don’t want to stand for 20 minutes while we go through National Anthems for every country. The only people who cared on the Ottawa team were Canadians. If were going to sing for them, why not every country in the NHL? Why even play the games? Lets just sing!

7:43- That was quick, after almost giving up a goal in the first 10 seconds of the game, Eddy Belfour allowed a shot by Patrick Eaves slip by giving the Senators a 1-0 lead. That goals marks the 11th that Ottawa has scored against the Panthers in the past 3 games, and this one’s still going. If your keeping score at home the Panthers have 0 goals in past 3 games, Senators 11. LETS GO CATS!

7:55 Greatest Day ever, I remembered that Steve informed me that I can watch NCAA tournament action on my computer, so now I get to watch a sport I truly love…College Basketball. Although I’ve found myself watching the Panthers on T.V. Which is depressing because I don’t have time in my life for another sport.

8:03 “Just got the bump to bang you, keep you erect,” are the exact words of Billy Packer. It' strange hearing those while your watching something else. Tonight we are going to find out if my theory that the closer you are to home the more likely you are to win. I’ve picked my entire NCAA tournament on this theory, though Wisconsin decided to just not give the ball to Alando Tucker and lose their game in Chi-town.

8:12-I was just informed that Acie Law goes both ways, oh and by the way the first period is over with and the Cats are trailing 1-0. Now I have to watch an idiot in a panther costume ride around on a 4-wheeler on the ice. God I hate PR, he is now sliding across the ice with the song “rollin” by Limp Bizkit playing. Somebody please shoot him in the face.

8:37- So bored, dear God can someone score a goal, or can this god awful internet halftime show end. I have no idea who any of these people are, I think the host is in one of my classes. Goal by…the Senators its now 2-0 this game and 12-0 over the past 3.

8:42-Make that 3-0 and 13-0 after a goal by Deny Heatley of Ottawa. Is it me or is Eddy Belfour a little too old to be playing in like. …wait hold on a old school NHL Hockey for Sega, fight just broke out, I mean they tossed their sticks helmets and gloves just like the game and went at it. So funny when that happens because it's so sterile the refs cleared out of the way to let them fight. Until someone really lands a good punch, then they get involved. FYI: Steve Montador of the Panthers was the one who got tossed to the ice.

9:00-After the Panthers allow another quick goal by Dean McAmmond, I make friends with the German reporter next to me. A truly interesting guy who informed me about how much better Europe is than America. That was not his intention, it just became obvious. Oh and the Panthers scored 2 worthless goals while we were talking, one by Jozef Stumpel and the other by Oli Jolkinen. So the updated score is Senators 4 Panthers 2 with 6 min left.

9:47- Apparently Memphis coach John Calipari paid off the refs, because I don’t know how the hell that 1 second ran off the clock on the inbounds pass but that’s the NCAA tournament.

10:00- Off to the locker room for another round of riveting interviews with the Panthers. It’s not they are bad quotes, but after you lose a game, how excited are you? And there locker room smells so bad my eyes water the whole time in there, so it looks like I’m upset the Cats lost.

10:20- Finally going home, I’ve got to cut sound, walk Flash, and get to play a little 2k7, that’s the life of a intern/student. Exciting eh?

Questionable

2007-03-21T18:56:00.001-07:00

It seems like everyday a new NFL player has commited some wildly violent act and I don't know about you, but it is really starting to wear on me. I know that football is an agressive sport and you need to have a 'alpha personality' but really these guys to chill out a little. This past season 9 different Bengels were arrested, some of them multiple times. WR Kelly Washington was arrested for 'brandinshing a gun', he was id'ed because he was wearing his own jearsy. Maurice Clairette was arrested with a bottle of vodka and a handgun on the passenger seat. Bears DB Rickey Manning jr was arrested in Los Angeles after beating up a man outside of a Denny's restaraunt. DE Patrick Kearny admitted that his house is now a crime seen after a rape took place at his home. Not only that but these men are facing no reprecutions, Kelly Washinton has signed a new deal with the Pats, Patrick Kearny with the Seahawks, Rickey Manning jr had signed a deal with Bears days before his incident.

And most recently Dolphins Joey Porter who was involed in a beating Sunday night where Levi Jones of the Bengles was allegedly beaten up and robbed by 7 men in Porters crew . Joey Porter has, in the past few years, been shot in the ass and his dogs attacked and killed a miniture horse. So next time your rooting for your beloved Dolphins remember who's really out there. Below is lead's for storys across the country about some of the off this seasons off season incidents

Tank Johnson -The Bears defensive lineman was arrested and charged with aggravated assault and resisting arrest.Johnson was arrested near the Level night club around 3:45am when an officer attempted to issue a citation to Johnson because a limo he'd hired was obstructing traffic. Johnson said what are probably the words least likely thing to get you out of a ticket when he informed the cop, "You ain't the only one with a Glock. If it wasn't for your gun and your badge, I'd kick your ass."

Adam "Pac Man" Jones- Police seized $81,020 in cash belonging to Tennessee Titans cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones, money they said sparked a melee and a triple shooting at a strip club over the weekend, court documents show.Jones was showering more than 40 strippers onstage at Minxx Gentlemen's Club & Lounge with the cash "intended as a visual effect," according to a search warrant. But a scuffle broke out when the Houston promoter who hired the strippers told them to pick the money up.

Joey Porter-LAS VEGAS -- Miami Dolphins linebacker Joey Porter was accused of punching Cincinnati Bengals offensive lineman Levi Jones after police said the players exchanged trash talk at a casino blackjack table.

Porter was issued a summons on a misdemeanor battery charge after the Sunday altercation that began inside the Palms hotel-casino,

Madness I tell Ya, Madness

2007-03-09T11:41:00.000-08:00

Since this is my blog your going to get my March Madness Predictions, even though I'm very egocentric and really only care about what I think. It would be interesting to see if any of my readers can do better than myself on the whole March Madness thing so please Post your Final 4 teams and your champion in the comments section. If you beat me I can offer you nothing in the form of prizes, but I will reveal the winners name and if you give me a bio I'll post that too in my blog after the tournament. The deadline is this upcoming Monday (3/19)so you even get an advantage over me because I'll post my picks before the tournament starts. Good Luck, because if I win I will spend my next blog making fun of all of you.

OK here is the moment you've all been waiting for, it is my Final Four Picks. Now if your wondering who at FAU should I listen to about March Madness, rest easy its me. No other person at this school has been writing about college basketball and sports for the universitypressonline.com longer than me. Also if you doubt my ability I'm the only prognosticator at FAU who has a radio show dedicated to his picks, well my co-host give their opinions also.(If all goes well, the show should be running on this website today or tomorrow). Anyways no more delays my Final Four teams.

Wisconsin- I know I'm going to be accused of rooting for my home state team, but I have logic behind my pick. Wisconsin has only lost 5 games all year, and 2 of those were to number 1 seed Ohio State. The Badgers have a veteran team who has a coach in Bo Ryan who has won at every school he has been at and its only a matter of time before he wins the whole thing. Now it won't be this year but the Badgers will be able to impose their tempo in a Final Four tournament run.

Ohio State- Yes, 2 Big Ten teams make the Final Four, but before you call me crazy it's happened in recent history when Mich St. and Wisc. both made the Final Four during State's latest championship season. Anyways, For obvious reason O.S.U. is here with one of the best player in the country in Greg Oden,the Buckeye's will be tough to beat.

Now for the Championship Game

Kansas- Bill Self knows how to coach, he has gone deep in the tournament before with Illinois. Now he has the talent to match his coaching ability, the Jayhawks have 5 players in double figure points and have Brandon Rusch, and Julian Wright 2 of the better players in the country.

G-Town- John Thompson, Patrick Ewing, no this isn't a flash back to the 80's but son's of 80's basketball icons will be leading this team. Don't sleep on the Hoya's who feature Big-East 1st teamers Roy Hibbert and Jeff Green, those 2 big bodies will help the Hoyas get past the Buckeye's but the dream run will end with a loss to Kanas

74-69
Right it down take a picture, just make sure to ignore all other FAU prognosticators

Don't wear Outfits

2007-03-04T17:35:00.000-08:00

This past Sunday, I took the opportunity to see some PGA golfers play at the Honda Classic in West Palm Beach. I thought, hey, whats more relaxing than watching golf on a beautiful course on a Sunday afternoon? Nothing, right? Well, I was only half right, because it's hard to relax when your surrounded by assholes.

I want to preface this by saying that I like golf. I played on my high school team and I think it's a fun sport. However, anyone that says playing is relaxing is flat out lying. There is nothing relaxing about slicing a ball 100 yards out of bounds. And, the next time I swing and miss on my tee shot, it will probably result in me killing someone with a golf club. And I'm not even going to touch on the fact that besides tennis, there is not a more white elitist sport in America.

This leads me to my first point about being surrounded by assholes on Sunday. What is it about attending a golf tournament that makes grown men dress up like gay sailors? I'm not lying when I say that every man I saw was dressed in some alternate color(pink,turquoise,bright yellow) polo shirt, docker slacks, a 'Ping' visor and loafers. Let me just say, there is nothing inherently wrong with wearing one or even two of those things at the same time, but never all of them together and never to a golf match. Because you should one: never plan an 'outfit' for going to a sporting event, and two: don't wear what the athletes are wearing. It's the equivalent of me rolling up to a FAU football game in cleats, shoulder pads and a helmet. I would look ridiculous, right? Exactly. So why would it to be OK for you to wear a golfer costume to the Honda Classic?

Secondly, why does every man at the golf course feel the need to smoke cigars? Ever since the Soprano's hit it big, every man in their 40s feels the need to smoke. Like that makes you cool, or tough. The actual result is that you look like a poser who has no clue how to be original. Not to mention that everyone knows that cigars are a phallic symbol, which makes smoking them so funny and yet so wrong on many levels.

The women at this event were no better, all dressed like slutty sorority girls (I'm not implying that all sorority girls are slutty, I'm saying that these hags were dressed like a slutty one would). Anyways, you know the outfit: a tight argyle sweater and tight Capri pants. Now obviously I wouldn't have a problem with that if it wasn't women over 40 stuffing themselves into their clothes like meat into a sausage. Add the fact that they are all sloppy drunk and would literally make out with anyone who is unfortunate enough to make eye contact with them. Again, normally it would be great to be in this atmosphere, but not when the women are chalk full of collagen and smell of moth balls. It becomes sad and pathetic that these women are trying to pick up yuppie men who all dress up as if their mothers made them wear it. And, not to mention, reek of cigars. The only exception to these sad women were the extremely hot XM satellite sales girls whose uniforms were basically form fitting wet suits, which I had no problem with. What that had to do with selling radios I don't know and I don't care. So I spent most of my day attempting to hit on them by making them laugh at my jokes of the people at the event. But, as usual, that got me no digits. So that didn't help my mood much, nothing as relaxing as getting shot down.

As the day went on and the spectators got drunker, I realized that golf tournaments have become the baby boomer's version of Bonaroo. Think about it, a lot of the fans traveled to see the event. Instead of sleeping in the dirt under a tent, they spend thousands of dollars on a hotel room. In both cases, you spend most of your day outside, drinking and hanging out, waiting for your favorite golfer (or act) to appear.

I'll end this with suggesting that if you do get a chance to go to a PGA golf event, try it. Most people are not as judgemental as I am, and if it wasn't for the people around me, I, too, would have enjoyed the beautiful course and fun events.

Greatest Game Ever

2007-02-27T20:01:00.000-08:00

Its March 1 and that means it is my favorite time of the year. "March Madness" is officially on. My obsession began with the greatest college basketball starting five of all time - that was Michigan's "Fab 5". The Wolverines were loaded with Jalen Rose, Jimmy King, Ray Jackson, Juwan Howard and C-Webb. I was so attached to that team and thier two runs to the national championship that it's embarrassing. Something about their baggy shorts, black shoes, play-ground skills and their bad ass attitude was mesmerising to me.

The great thing about college basketball is that it doesn't stop with one team. Every year there is a new team to claim as your own. I loved Keith Van Horn and Utah, Mike Bibby's Arizona wildcats, D-Wade and Marquette, Juan Dixon's Maryland Terps, Duany Duany's Cinderella Wisconsin Badgers.

College basketball's NCAA tournament memories stick with you forever. I remember being in study hall in high school and watching Bryce Drew drain a half court 3 pointer to win a game, and being in a bar with my parents (I was like 10 - no I'm not 40 years old) and watching Christian Laettner crush my dad with a turn around half-court jumper. Don't lie, everyone ran to the nearest basketball court and tried Drew's halfcourter and Laettner's turn-around jumper. I am writing this entire piece with a giant smile on my face, because I can't hide my building excitement for the impending March Madness.

So with all that excitement I stroll into The Burrow to do OWL TV's broadcast for the FAU vs. FIU tournament basketball game. These two teams are rivals, and earlier this season De Andre Rice of FAU nailed a jumper with little time left in the game to give the Owls the victory down in Miami. Obviously FIU is not thrilled with FAU, and the Owls had a calmness about them that you can only get by beating a team two times in the same season.

From the tip off this game was intense, with Carlos Monroe being the coolest head for the Owls. If you've been to any games you know that Monroe is cooler than a polar bear's toenails, and he has a John Wayne strut every time he goes to the free throw line. So as the Owls struggled with their nerves, it was Monroe - who nearly registered a double double in the frist half - who kept them in the game.

When the second half began the game was on. After De Andre Rice hit a beautiful layup with about 12 minutes to go, super sub Derreck Simmons fouled out of the game on one of the most questionable calls ever made against FAU. With Simmons out the FIU Panthers nailed consecutive 3 pointers to give them a 10 point lead. Matters only got worse after De Andre Rice was mugged on the way to the basket by a FIU player. No foul was called, and the Panthers took off in the other direction. Well Carlos Monroe wanted FIU to know that they couldn't come into our house and push us around, so he hog-tied a FIU player which started a small brawl on the court.

The Owls had two choices: go out like punks or rise up and show the Panthers who the class of the Sun Belt was. The Owls chose the later. The senior star Rice put the Owls on his shoulders and scored on consecutive AND 1 drives to the basket. After senior guard Brent Crews fouled out after getting 11 assist, Sean Alarcon put on his Superman cape and made two monumental steals, one late in regulation and one in overtime that he converted the layup on and gave the owls a 1 point lead. Monroe and Parmer sealed the game with some key rebounds, and Rice knocked down all his free throws in the second half and overtime to seal the greatest game I've seen in person.

Recruiting Bonanza

2007-02-21T14:32:00.000-08:00

If the biggest day in FAU football history came and went without being noticed, did it really happen? Lets hope the answer is a resounding “yes." For those of you who are not sports nerds with no life like myself, let me inform you of what happened last Wednesday.

Howard Schnellenberger landed arguably the two biggest recruits in school history. 6’3", 300 pound Offensive Tackle/Defensive Tackle, Jarvis Givens from Miami, signed his letter of intent to play football for the Owls for the next four years. Givens is ranked as the 56th best lineman in the country, and ESPN.com gave him a grade of 76 out of 100. By comparison all other FAU recruits (besides Xavier Stinson, who’ll I get to) graded out at 40.

Now for Xavier Stinson. To phanom how big of a recruit he is, first understand that FAU beat out national powers Pittsburgh, Iowa, Tennessee and Rutgers (who is notorious for stealing talent from the state). Stinson was a star running back/linebacker at Chaminade-Madonna College Prep in Hollywood, drawing comparison to former Atlanta Falcons RB, Jamal Anderson. ESPN.com rated him as the 39th best running back in the country, and an overall grade of 78.

The rest of the class is filled with local stars like OL Chris Newbold,(Ft.Lauderdale) and RB Jeff Blanchard (Del Ray), both of whom will have to improve tremendously to help FAU compete for a Sun Belt Championship. Overall FAU's recruiting class is on par with the rest of the Sun Belt, which is a improvement from previous seasons.

Adding these players to a young team full of developing young stars like WR Avery Holley and DT Jevonte Jackson, puts FAU in a prime position to challange for thier first Sun-Belt Championship.

Society's reflection in sports

2007-02-11T18:49:00.000-08:00

For my first few blogs I've been promoting all of the great aspects of sports at FAU and in America. Sports can be a release from the stress of everyday life, a place to revert back to a blissful childlike state of aw. I still get the same feeling when I see D-Wade or LeBron James play as I did when Michael Jordan would fill my dreams with visions of a man so amazing he could fly. That's why I love sports. It's a way to leave reality for a few hours. Because, as I'm going to elaborate, reality can suck sometimes.

For good or bad, sports are more than just a way to relax, it's a reflection of what is happening in society. Take this past Super Bowl. It was the first time an African American coached in the game. The good news didn't stop there. Both coaches were black, and obviously an African American won the Super Bowl for the first time ever.

On the flip side of that great achievements the NFL has no African American owners, and college football has 117 teams and only three black coaches. That is definitely a reflection of the plight of African Americans today. They are making strides to break down walls of institutional racism in sports and society, but they're only poking holes when the wall needs to be torn down.

A few days after the Super Bowl, former Orlando Magic Center John Amaechi announced (or came out, I don't really know how to phrase it) that he was a homosexual. It was a bold move because only a few athletes have ever come out, and none of them while they were playing. The reaction from around the league was mild. LeBron James was quoted as saying that he would want a gay player to tell him if he's gay, because the team is a family. Charles Barkley stated that he didn't care. He had gay friends, and its none of his business what they do in their homes. I'm glad to see that my favorite athlete (Barkley) shared my opinion. I care if someone is gay as about asmuch as a gay person cares I'm straight.

According to Amaechi that's not the overall sentiment in the NBA. He believes that he was forced out of the historically moral backwards Utah because it was suspected that he was gay. There is no denying that Amaechi had to feel like an outcast in a atmosphere were the words like "fag" and phrases that use the word "bitch" in a homophobic way (i.e. Shaq made Amaechi his bitch). In addition to the locker room, the NBA has fans who are famous for heckling players. One was so obscene that he called Rockets Center Dikembe Mutombo a "monkey face" among other horrific names.

If you want to get a social temperature for big issues like race or sexuality, a easy barometer is sports, where just like in everyday society for every step forward we need to look back and realize that we are not anywhere close to equality.

FYI FAU has no African American Head Coaches besides Dyanne Loput, who coaches Dance. I'm not saying FAU is behind the times, in fact sadly they are on par if not better than most schools with these issues.

Bury the Burrow in Red

2007-02-07T12:52:00.000-08:00

This is a message to all FAU students. We have an opportunity to show how great our school is on Saturday Feb 10. I've been informed by Assistant Media Director Mike Bosiak that ESPN (probably ESPNU) is coming to FAU to broadcast the Owl men take on archrival FIU. The stadium is so packed with media that Owl Radio (who covers all FAU men's basketball home games) was barely able to get a seat to do the game.

I hope everyone has seen the posters around campus about "burying the burrow in red." My plea to you is please do. Show the nation what FAU is about. We need to think not about setting an attendence record, because the old one is pathetic (no more 3,000). What we need to do is sell out the burrow to give the players the support they deserve. I'm confident that if you show up, FAU will dominate FIU, who they beat earlier this year on a last-second jumper by star senior DeAndre Rice.

FAU players, like everyone else, play better at home. They have won 8 of 10 at the burrow, and even thier two losses were close games that in my opinon would have been won if the Owls had the fan support they need. Owl Starting Point Guard Brent Crews says, "I play better for a big crowd. For me, my game is enhanced when people are cheering."

We have something special here. We are only losing three players off this year's roster, and although they will be missed, the Owls are bringing back an assortment of exciting players. Starting Shooting Guard Paul Graham calls this team "a family" that continues to grow with every game.

So, you- the fans- need to get out and join the FAU men's basketball family, and enjoy what is on campus. You have no excuses not to show up. It's on campus, less than a few blocks from the dorms. It's free with your student ID. The team is winning at home. In fact, they're dominating at home, despite the fact that most of you don't show up. If you go I gurantee you will have a great time. And, if you like it, talk to the PrOWLers or The Rowdy Rex's and see if you can join up with them, and join a group of loyal fans. Get out there don't be lazy like most south florida fans.

An FAU Twist to the Superbowl

2007-01-31T10:29:00.000-08:00

Its Superbowl time, and the elite teams with the elite players are getting ready to square off on Sunday in Miami. Everyone assumes the big-name players like Peyton Manning, Rex Grossman, Brian Urlacher and Marvin Harrison will need to have big games on Sunday, but true football fans know that it's the unhealed players that decide Superbowls (IE Larry Brown).

So the question leading up to the game is, "Who is going to step up their game on the biggest stage." The answer very well could be one of the three former Sun Belt players in the game.

The Chicago Bears are the employer of all three and have two of the players in the starting line-up. Chris Harris from Louisiana Monroe is starting at safety, and Charles Tillman is a pro-bowl-caliber cornerback from Louisiana Lafayette. Finally, south Florida is represented with special teams player Nick Turnball from Florida International University.

This is a trend that is only going to continue with star players like tackle Nello Faulk and saftey Troy Pindell from FAU joining other Sun Belt standouts in this this year's NFL draft. So when you watch the game on Sunday and you're not a fan of either team, root for the Bears and their three Sun Belt alums, because soon you will be an alum of a Sun Belt school too...hopefully.

Two-Sport Star

2007-01-24T13:40:00.000-08:00

We have something special brewing at FAU, and I don't know if everyone is aware of it. For the first time in the school's history we have an athlete who plays both basketball and football during the same season.

You might remember the electrifying Avery Holley flying all over the gridiron this past fall during FAU's unexpected 5-7 season. A true freshman, Holley was able to catch 18 passes for 223 yards and 2 td's and provided a much-needed spark with his big play capabilities.

That would be enough to say he was a fabulous athlete, but Holley didn't stop there. No, now he occasionally starts (8 games) for the FAU men's basketball team, while averaging 6 points and 3 assist per game.

If those numbers don't jump out at you immediately, you need to take a closer look at the 6', 175 pound freshman from the city of Pompton. First things first, to even step out on the field at his size, playing against men who are 6'7 and 300 pounds, takes courage that most of us don't' have. But Avery did more than that; he made a difference on the field with the mere threat of his speed. Coach Schnellenberger and his staff have an amazing talent to work with for three more years.

Holley takes that same speed from the football field and translates it into blinding quickness with the ball on the court. Holley flies up and down the court with the speed and quickness of Allen Iverson, and with three more years under former NBA guard and current coach Rex Walters he is only going to get better. So head out and watch Holley play football and basketball for your Owls.

Howard Schnellenberger's the Man

2007-01-10T19:10:00.000-08:00

Last week after Nick Saban left the Dolphins, only one man came to mind as a perfect replacement for the departed Dolphin - Coach Howard Schnellenberger.
The FAU coach is a proven winner, who has NFL experience as an offensive coordinator for Don Shula's undefeated '72 Dolphin team.

As for college, his resume speaks for itself. He won the first National Championship at the University of Miami in 1983. In fact, Howard is the man who turned around Miami football. That alone would be enough to get him atop of the candidate list, but there is more. He was an assistant to the legendary Bear Bryant for three national championships at Alabama. At Louisville he saved the program from dropping to D-1AA status, and he turned them around so much that he won two bowl games there.

He then took that talent of resurrecting a program to FAU where he built the Owls football from scratch, quickly leading them to Division 1A status and winning support for the creation of an on-campus, open-air stadium. And don't forget Howard has head coaching experience at the NFL level with the Baltimore Colts.

So Wayne Huizenga, while you're out interviewing everyone under the sun, don't forget to look under your nose at a man who will never abandon the team. That man is Howard Schnellenberger.

"We" Are Not Cool

2006-12-27T16:11:00.000-08:00

If I hear one more FAU student say "we" one more time when talking about a college sports team that is not FAU, I'm going to headbutt them Zidane style.

If you did not go to the college, you cannot include yourself with that school. So unless you have a mouse in your pocket, you just sound stupid saying "we." In fact, you sound more than stupid. You come off as a pathetic wannabe, who only wishes he/she was a member of that school.

It doesn't help that the biggest perpetrators of this atrocity are fans of the "U" (University of Miami). These fans by definition are fanatical freaks, who worship the Orange Bowl and their temple, and they embrace the "thuggish" style of the "U" as their creed for life. I have met only one person who is a fan of the "U" that actually went to the university, and I have not met one wannabe fan that has not made me want "come at them like a spider monkey."

So please, this is a message for all FAU students. Stop being that annoying friend who thinks they're cool, but in reality is to oblivious to realize that nobody wants them around. How do you avoid being the sport equivalent of being of a 3rd wheel? Its simple. Embrace the girl who you're at the dance with, and that's FAU sports. Go to their games. Wear the team jerseys (although everyone looks like a idiot in a jersey, but that's another blog for another day). Wear team colors, hats. Whatever tickles your pickle. Just stop bitching about how bad the teams are and support them. Otherwise, when they start winning you have no right to cheer, because then you'll be a hypocritical ass. So don't be an idiot and embrace your college life with your team.