Who Would Dare Match Wits With The Zooker? (My Second Try To Finish The Post)

Yesterday I celebrated the beginning of the Illini football season by starting a blog post looking at the 12 coaches Ron Zook will stare down - and no doubt intimidate - on the opposite sideline this season. Unexpected fatherly duties prevented me from finishing that post before the start of yesterday's game.

Today I'll complete the post, starting with the third game of the season.

3. Sept. 17 v. Arizona St. - Dennis Erickson

Erickson likely needs no introduction. He's twice coached in the NFL (for the Seahawks and the Niners) but hasn't done all that well (40-56). His greatest stretch came as the head coach for Miami (so dirty) in the early '90s where he won two national championships. Still, as anyone who watched The U knows, those were really Jimmy Johnson's teams. His more impressive accomplishment is turning around the Oregon St. Beavers in the late '90s-early '00s, leading them to a top 5 finish in the 2000 season. He has ASU clicking on many cylinders at the moment and will present a strong challenge to the Zooker. In dispatching Erickson, the Zooker might actually break a sweat.

4. Sept. 24 v. Western Michigan - Bill Cubit

Cubit played WR for Delaware in the '70s before starting his coaching career in the mid-80s as defensive backs coach at Central Florida. He bounced around for awhile, eventually rising to offensive coordinator for several D-1 schools (Mizzou, Rutgers, Stanford) before taking the head job at Western Michigan in 2005. Cubit has been a nemesis of Zook's in the past, drawing blood with a victory over the Illini in 2008. No doubt Zook is now wise to Cubit's non-BCS guerilla tactics, and can counter them with the might of his BCS-bred heavy cavalry (Ford, Young, Ferguson, Prosch, Pocic, Thornton, Cornell).

5. Oct. 1 v. Northwestern - Pat Fitzgerald

Fitzgerald, the second-youngest coach in all of D-1 football, rose to fame as a stud LB for Northwestern in the mid-90s. After serving 5 seasons as Northwestern LB coach, he was promoted to head coach in 2006 following the sad death of Randy Walker. He's had marginal success at Northwestern, primarily the result of cupcake non-conference scheduling. He suffered a near-mortal wound at Zook's hands last November at Wrigley Field, as Zook's boys ran up over 300 yards rushing in a dominant Illini victory. With that beatdown fresh in his mind, I wouldn't be surprised if Fitzgerald doesn't even show up for this season's game.

6. Oct. 8 at Indiana - Kevin Wilson

The long-time assistant at several schools, Wilson is in his first year as head coach at Indiana. He apprenticed for 19 years at various schools under the now-deceased former Miami (OH) and Northwestern coach, Randy Walker, and more recently worked under Bob Stoops at Oklahoma. In his short tenure at Indiana he has shown both steely resolve (winning the recruiting battle for Gunnar Kiel) and total ineptitude (losing yesterday to Ball St.). Knowing Zook, he will not show any mercy on Wilson, even if it is the guy's first season at the Hoosier helm. I wish Wilson luck.

7. Oct. 15 v. Ohio St. - Luke Fickell

I won't deny this fact: Fickell looked impressive on the sideline Saturday during the Buckeyes win over Akron. Fickell played nose guard for the Buckeyes in the mid-90s, starting 50 consecutive games, including the '97 Rose Bowl where he played despite having a torn pectoral muscle. Not only that, he seems to be handling the current adversity in Columbus with aplomb. The Zooker may have his hands full with this young warrior from the Land of Buckeye.

8. Oct. 22 at Purdue - Danny Hope

Hope spent several years jumping around as an offensive line coach (including time at Purdue) and then five years as the head coach at Eastern Kentucky before joining the Boilermakers for the 2008 season as Joe Tiller's assistant head coach. He took over for Tiller a year later and now, in his third season, has basically run the program into the ground. Yes, that is an exaggeration, but the Zooker should have little trouble with Hope this season.

9. Oct. 29 at Penn St. - Joe Paterno

Who? I don't think I've heard of this guy. And I can't find anything written about him online or elsewhere in the press. This guy is a total unknown.

10. Nov. 12 vs. Michigan - Brady Hoke

A round, pudgy-looking guy, Hoke has never coached a game for Michigan (at least as the head coach) that wasn't called due to severe weather. Hoke is an old school guy who spent 8 years as a Michigan defensive assistant before taking head coaching jobs at Ball St., San Diego St., and now Michigan. I've said from day one that this was a good hire for Michigan, and nothing I saw yesterday changed that fact. Except for the fact he apparently can't control lightning. Zook can control lightning. Advantage Zooker.

11. Nov. 19 vs. Wisconsin - Bret Bielema

I'm going to go ahead and announce Bielema as the Zooker's archnemesis. Bielema played LB for Iowa, and then joined the Hawkeyes as an assistant coach for nine years. He spent one year as the co-DC at Kansas St. before joining Wisconsin as the DC in 2004. Barry Alvarez named Bielema as his successor in 2005, and Bielema has been riding the coattails of Alavarez's work for the past five years. Bielema may be an okay coach, but he has no business running a program as successful as Wisconsin has been the past few years. It's time for Bielema's wake up call and the Zooker is just the man to do it.

12. Nov. 26 at Minnesota - Jerry Kill

This guy won at Saginaw Valley St., he won at Southern Illinois, he won at Northern Illinois, and he almost pulled the upset in his debut game for Minnesota on the road at Southern Cal. He also beat kidney cancer. And his last name is "Kill." I like this guy. I may feel the slightest bit of remorse when Zook steps on his neck this coming Thanksgiving weekend.

It's going to be a great season.

Who Would Dare Match Wits Against The Zooker?

Today begins another season of Illini football. To mark this momentous occasion, I thought I would look at the twelve coaches who would dare take the opposite sideline against Ron Zook this season. These gentlemen must be very brave, or very stupid, to challenge our Champion - the Zooker - in pitched battle. So who are these guys?

1. Sept. 3 v. Arkansas St. - Hugh Freeze

First-year college head coach, better known as the guy who coached Michael Oher in high school. I don't know much about Freeze's coaching philosophy, but if he is anything like how the actor Ray McKinnon portrayed him in The Blind Side movie ("Hold it in here, between the tits!"), I like Zook's chances.

2. Sept. 10 v. South Dakota St. - John Stiegelmaier

Like Freeze, Stiegelmaier was a former high school coach before becoming a graduate assistant at Wisconsin, and eventually moving on to South Dakota St. He became the head coach in 1997 and has a career 83-60 record. But whatever his merits as a coach, you have to question the decisionmaking of a man would spend 14 years coaching a team called the Jackrabbits. It's safe to say Zook can handle this guy.

Oh my. Just spent the last couple hours on unexpected Dad duty. Didn't get a chance to finish this before heading out to watch the Illini game. I'll finish this post before next week.

Go Illini!

A Midsummer Visit To The Baseball Hall of Fame

On the Friday that started July 4 weekend this year I took a trip to Cooperstown to visit the venerable National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. I traveled with one of my advisors, and noted beer aficionado, Tom Teatro. In addition to the Hall, we toured the excellent Ommegang Brewery, taking not one, but two tasting tours. And drinking several other of their fine Belgian-inspired beers at the bar on premises.

But as good as the Ommegang visit was, we were really there to see the Hall of Fame; as always, it did not disappoint. A few photos follow.

One of the things we wanted to accomplish over the weekend was to play catch on Doubleday Field. We gave it our best shot - eventually making it onto the field and throwing the ball back and forth for a few minutes - but then the Assistant Groundskeeper threatened to call the Cooperstown PD if we didn't exit the premises immediately. He even whipped out a walkie-talkie and pretended to radio the cops, a move he's no doubt honed by booting legions of teenagers ... and anyone who just spent the day drinking at Ommegang.

Before we "trespassed" onto the field, we caught the end of this game. We couldn't tell what level it was, but it appeared to be a Babe Ruth League game (does that still exist?) - maybe 14 to 16 year olds. They didn't look like varsity high-schoolers. I think this kid made the final out of the game when the ump called strike three on a ball a foot off the plate. Surprisingly, my drunken calls of "Blue, what are you doin'!" didn't change the call.

One of the great things about visiting Cooperstown is perusing all the memorabilia shops. They have some incredible stuff in these stores, often juxtaposing old jerseys and other memorabilia of stars of different eras in cool ways. For example, this store window showed off one of the greatest baseball players of all time. And Derek Jeter.

Like I said, I love the random groupings of gear from great players that otherwise wouldn't be grouped together. Here you have jerseys for Koufax, Clemente, and Musial, three of my top 5 favorite players of all time, hanging on the wall side-by-side. Unless you happened to be touring the locker room of the Ryan's Favorite Player All Stars, I don't know where else you'd see these jerseys hanging together. Except here, in Cooperstown.

The first World Series I remember watching was the 1982 Series between the Cardinals and Brewers. For that reason, even though I'm no fan of either franchise, I've always had a fondness for those two particular teams. These Cardinal colors worn by the '82 team - a team that featured former Padres Ozzie Smith, Gene Tenace, George Hendrick, and Steve Mura in prominent roles - are colors I'll always associate with early 80s baseball, a great, but often underrated time to grow up and learn about the game.

Really liked this Gwynn jersey except for one thing: when did the Padres ever wear a black jersey? Was this from an All Star Game? Was Tony secretly on the Pirates for awhile? Am I colorblind? Neither Teatro nor I could figure it out. Granted, we'd had 8 beers each at Ommegang, but still ...

Respect.

Another choice grouping. What's fun about these groupings, other than just being cool to look at, is that you can imagine these guys playing together. For example, let's say I get Mantle, Koufax, and Schmidt on my team. Then I let you go ahead and pick your entire team and you take, oh I don't know, Bench, Gehrig, Morgan, Ozzie, Brooks Robinson, Teddy Ballgame, Mays, and Aaron. And Bob Gibson to pitch. But then I fill out my team with Bill Dickey, Jimmie Foxx, Rogers Hornsby, Robin Yount, Barry Bonds, and Babe Ruth. I don't know who wins that game, but I'd probably buy a ticket to watch it.

High comedy. You know I love Tony, but I'm not paying $149 for his signed anything (okay, maybe that's too far; I could see buying a game-worn jersey from the '84 Series or one of his game-used bats maybe). But that's obviously not the funny part. $99.95 for an Ozzie Guillen signature? $69.95 for Travis Hafner? I mean you couldn't make this up.

The next day we started early at the Hall of Fame. I didn't take photos of everything; no one could. There's just too much good stuff. I did take some photos of things that caught my eye, or that had special meaning to me, and it started with this Christy Mathewson jersey. Christy has always been one of my favorite players based on his exploits in the 1905 World Series, and he wore this jersey, if I remember correctly, during a tour of Japan.

Here's a stretched animal hide commemorating the Red Sox 1915 World Series victory. Why don't teams issue commeorative animal hides anymore? Baseball should really get back to that.

Look at Babe load his swing. If you're like me, even though you've read all the stories and seen all the numbers, you still look at the old Babe footage and wonder sometimes how he could have been as good as he was. But then I see a photo like this and realize it was probably because he had ridiculous hand-eye coordination, a ton of strength, very quick hands through the zone, and perhaps most of all, loaded his swing like a slingshot. I know he's just messing around here, but wasn't he always?

Musial's stirrups. Now I can say I saw them.

The Hall of Fame celebrates moments as much as it does individual players. Here you have George Brett's bat from the pine tar incident. I thought the presentation was done well because they included Brett's jersey - the classy Royals blue and white - and his glove, and didn't just make it about the bat. Brett was a monster whose career was memorable for so much more than that one moment.

A jersey Dave Winfield wore with the Padres. It must have been one of his last seasons in San Diego because I didn't know the Padres had moved to this lettering until after Winfield left town. But more importantly, you should have seen what other items shared space in this glass showcase. There was a Red Sox jersey that Pudge Fisk wore in '76, the bat and ball Jim Rice used to get his 400th total base in '78, the glove Gary Carter wore in his NL record-breaking 1,862nd game behind the plate, Wade Boggs' bat and batting glove from '89, his 7th consecutive year tallying 200+ hits, the bat Cal Ripken used to hit a bomb in the '91 All Star Game, the jersey and helmet Robin Yount wore when he got his 3000th hit, and the hat, glove and ticket stub from Nolan Ryan's 5000th strikeout game.

I'm just a humble baseball fan, but I'd say that's one heck of a glass showcase.

Here is the uniform Eddie Gaedel wore during his famous at bat for Bill Veeck's St. Louis Browns in 1951. I took the photo in honor of Kyle Gaedele, Eddie's grand-nephew, who the Padres had drafted a few weeks earlier. Incidentally, I'm currently reading Bill Veeck's autobiography - Veeck: As In Wreck - and the opening chapter is a solid firsthand account of the events leading up to the Gaedel at bat. I hightly recommend it.

After touring the museum upstairs, we went downstairs to the Plaque Gallery. As good as the presentation is upstairs, I still love the plaques the best. You could read these all day long, literally. Goose's plaque is great. I loved this line: "Incredibly durable, posted 52 saves of at least seven outs." From the vantage point of being a fan in 2011, that's an incredible statistic.

"An artisan with a bat ...."

The Artisan in close up.

I'd either forgotten or never knew that Clemente led the NL in batting four times, and finished his career with a .317 average. There really was nothing he couldn't do on a ball field.

I'd grin like a goofball too if my nickname was "The Man."

And the end of the hallway housing the Plaque Gallery is a place of honor for the First Five Hall of Fame inductees: Ruth, Mathewson, Wagner, Cobb, and Walter Johnson. It's all very well done.

Here's a wide view of the First Five and some of the more recent inductees that surround them. Tony Gwynn's plaque is to the left of the First Five.

Here's the glass ceiling that lets in sunlight on the First Five and other recent inductees. The sky that day was perfect. Look at how the clouds are reflected in the marble.

Two lefties that would have no trouble hitting at Petco.

This was genius. In the gift shop you have to pass through to leave the Hall they have these sets of 50 random cards for each team. They cost $9.50 each so obviously I purchased a Padres set without even hesitating.

Finally, I couldn't leave the Hall without snapping a photo of these three statues honoring Lou Gehrig, Jackie Robinson, and Roberto Clemente. The statues are placed so they greet you when you enter the Hall, and wish you well on your way out. There probably aren't three better ballplayers they could have chosen for this duty. Again, well done.

The Kevin Quackenbush/Colin Rea/Matt Andriese All Stars: A Look At The Padres 2011 Draft

The Padres drafted 53 young ballplayers in June.

Where are they and what are they doing as of today, August 13, 2011, three days prior to the signing deadline?

1s. Cory Spangenberg - 2B crushed Eugene, coming around at FW
1. Joseph Ross - RHP, a UCLA commit, still has not signed
1s. Michael Kelly - RHP, a Florida commit, still has not signed
1s. Brett Austin - C, an N.C. St. commit, still has not signed
1s. Jace Peterson - .246/.362/.325 at Eugene
2. Austin Hedges - C, a UCLA commit, still has not signed
3. Matthew Andriese - 1.59 ERA in 8 starts for Eugene
4. Cody Hebner - 4.15 ERA in 7 apps (3 starts) for Eugene
5. Mark Pope - 4.24 ERA in 6 relief apps for Eugene
6. Kyle Gaedele - OF hitting .213/.340/.279 for Eugene
7. Matthew Wisler - signed last week, first appy disaster for AZL
8. Kevin Quackenbush - 0.32 ERA, 14.3 K/9 in 24 apps for Ems/FW
9. Justin Hancock - 7 apps, 4 starts, 5.50 ERA for AZL
10. Robert Kral - C, nice start (.424 OBP) in first 33 PAs for AZL
11. Casey McElroy - 5 hits (2 2Bs) in first 13 PAs for AZL
12. Colin Rea - 0.88 ERA in 11 starts for Eugene
13. Lee Orr - .231/.381/.410 as primary RF in Eugene
14. Burch Smith - Junior RHP from OU is unsigned
15. Greg Gonzalez -1.42 ERA in 12 relief apps for Eugene
16. Jeremy Rodriguez - 26 walks, only 14 Ks (.413 OBP), C at Eugene
17. Matthew Stites - 1.33 ERA in 16 relief apps for AZL and Eugene
18. Mike Gallic - OF raked with Eugene, now struggling with FW
19. Jeremy Gigliotti - 3.68 ERA, 12.3 K/BB, 19 relief apps for Eugene
20. Christopher Haney - shelled in 12 relief apps for Eugene/FW
21. Zach Kometani - mediocre start for 1B w/ Ems (.258/.342/.375)
22. Matthew Colantonio - part-time C at Eugene, more BBs than Ks
23. Robert Eisenbach - 2.62 ERA in 13 apps (3 starts) for AZL
24. Erick Fedde - Vegas high schooler, UNLV commit, not signed
25. Paul Karmas - 1B, mediocre start at AZL (.263/.368/.394)
26. Roberto Suppa - Canadian RHP, Cornell commit, not signed
27. Arby Fields - JC OF prospect, LSU commit, not signed
28. Rashad Ingram - .257/.373/.329 for 2B/SS at AZL/Ems
29. Vimael Machin - P.R. high-school SS, VCU commit, not signed
30. Justin Miller - 2B, crushing ball at AZL/Eugene (.388/.463/.526)
31. Clint Moore - Army grad, 3B, avg start for Ems (.226/.317/.434)
32. Kyle Brule - pitched well in AZL, RHP not doing well at Eugene
33. James Jones - primary closer for AZL, 3.80 ERA 5 saves 20 appys
34. Dennis O'Grady - Duke grad, 4.50 ERA in 8 starts at AZL/FW
35. Travis Whitmore - Eugene 3B/DH hitting well (.306/.398/.408)
36. Andrew Rash - draft-eligible soph at VA Tech, not signed
37. Cody Semler - Texas high-school SS, not signed
38. Patrick Connaughton - baseball/hoops schollies to ND, not signed
39. Josh Pond - Junior RHP Cal St. San Bernardino, not signed
40. Taylor Murphy - IF Torrey Pines H.S., Pacific commit, unsigned
41. Dante Flores - high-school 2B, and USC commit, has not signed
42. Garrett Boulware - H.S. C, Clemson commit, not signed
43. Cody Gabella - 2B, rocky start at AZL (.111/.220/.358)
44. Spenser Linney - LHP, Stanford commit, not signed
45. William Goss - CF from Tupelo, no college commit, not signed
46. Eddie Salomon - H.S. 2B, may have signed in July, no stats
47. Vincent Voiro - rising Senior RHP from UPenn has not signed
48. Kent Rollins - H.S. from GA, going to Air Force to play football
49. Ryan Hutchison - Junior RF from W. Ky, not signed

The deadline approaches. Deals must get done.

An Evening At Citi Field With The San Diego Padres

On Wednesday night I went to Citi Field in Queens, NY, home of the Mets, to watch the Padres-Metsies game. Solid ballpark, great night. Not only did the Padres win 9-5, but there were a fair amount of strong performances, historic moments (if you consider James Darnell's first big league hit "historic," which I do), and even a little drama in the 9th (Heath Bell did pitch after all).

If you don't mind, I think I'll show you some photos.

I thought it was nice of this Mets fan to recognize former Padres first-round pick, and current Mets minor-leaguer, Allan Dykstra. I mean he hasn't even made his big league debut yet and this guy already has an Allan Dykstra jersey. That's supporting the system!

I attended the game with noted Metsies fan, and guest of this blog, Father D.P. McGillicutty. We began the game sitting in right field just beyond the foul pole, a few yards into foul territory. This is not a bad spot to watch the game. You have a clear view of the field and, on nice nights, you can see a bit of the sunset above the stadium lights. The sun shines in your eyes for a few innings, as the photo above proves, but I'd still recommend this spot if you're looking for a good outfield seat.

How good was that '86 Mets squad? In addition to this photo of Keith Hernandez, Doc Gooden, and Darryl Strawberry, the Mets also showed a montage of Gary Carter highlights on the big screen that made me want to clasp hands in a manly way with my worst enemy. What a pack of monsters. Seeing the billboard above, it made me wonder what similar billboard the Padres could hang at Petco. It would have to be three guys from one of our best teams - probably the '84 or '98 squad - and you'd need a stud pitcher, a stud HR hitter, and one of the team leaders. They wouldn't all have to be home-grown players (Hernandez was drafted by the Cardinals), but it would be nice if 2 of the 3 guys were drafted and developed by the team.

So obviously, Tony Gwynn is on the billboard in the middle spot occupied in the photo above by Keith Hernandez. Then, if we're doing an homage to the '84 team, let's put up home-grown kid Kevin McReynolds in the Strawberry spot (ironically McReynolds played with all these guys on the Mets a few years later), and let's put Eric Show on the board in the Gooden spot. Arguably Goose or Dravecky or Lefferts could take that spot, but I'm putting the spotlight on Eric. It's my imaginary billboard after all. (Ed. note: the '98 billboard of Gwynn, Cammy, and Kevin Brown wouldn't suck, nor would the '05 billboard of Peavy, Giles, and Trevor, not to mention the '78 billboard of Winfield, Ozzie, and Gaylord Perry. Let's get these hung at Petco immediately.)

Check out this action shot of former-Padre Mike Baxter warming up between innings. Baxter is a Queens native so he's living the dream at the moment. At least that's my guess. I haven't actually talked with him about it. In this game he went 1-3 with two walks, which means, if my math is correct, he was on base three times. Not bad for a youngish guy trying to break in with his hometown team. When Alderson and DePodesta claimed him off waivers a few weeks ago, I thought it was a dirty sneaky move, but I totally respected it. And maybe now Mike will get a good shot to prove himself at the big league level over the next 6 weeks. Good luck to him.

I posted this slightly blurry photo from right field merely for comedic purposes. You can't really tell from the photo, but that's Cameron Maybin jogging down the first-base line back toward the dugout. Moments before taking this photo I had turned to McGillicutty and said, "Watch Maybin go yard here." Then, with that statement barely out of my mouth, Maybin hit a dribbler four feet in front of the plate and was thrown out at first. And then I took this photo.

See, isn't that hilarious?

Check out that moon. Reminded of a moon I once saw in Pittsburgh.

If anyone ever tells you I wasn't at the game where James Darnell got his first big league hit, they are wrong. Remember that. Could come in handy in a bar bet someday.

Shake Shack is one of New York's best spots to get a burger. Very trendy but also very tasty. They put up a location in the outfield at Citi and the Mets put a sweet neon skyline of New York above the sign. This is kind of a haphazard photo of it, but you get the idea. I'm a fan of the whole presentation.

And here's a last final shot of Citi Field from outside the stadium. That's the back of the centerfield scoreboard. You can see the small green sign for McFadden's toward the bottom of the photo. That's a sports bar that's on the Citi Field grounds that is a good spot to go if it's past the 7th inning, the game is fairly meaningless, and you stupidly run out of beers. One caveat: you can't get back into the stadium once you walk into McFadden's.

Padres Road Splits: A Study In Raking (More Or Less)

It's no secret that Petco Park is a place where hits rarely happen. It is a cavernous place where fly balls stop dead against the dense ocean air. It's a place where hitters go mad, and pitchers careers are saved. It's a place where even the game's best hitters - Adrian Gonzalez for one - beg and plead to leave. You have to feel sorry for hitters who have 81-games worth of at bats in a place like Petco Park. (At least as sorry as you can feel for someone who gets to play big league baseball and spend most of his time in the Diego.)

But what of those hitters when they are out on the road hitting in other, more friendly parks? Do they start raking uncontrollably, putting up monster numbers?

I'm gonna go ahead and say yes.

Here are the road splits for Padres "starters" as of today:

C - Rob Johnson: .247/.293/.365 .658 OPS

1B - Jesus Guzman: .296/.305/.457 .762 OPS (only guy hitting better at Petco)

2B - Orlando Hudson: .270/.391/.351 .743 OPS

SS - Jason Bartlett: .265/.324/.327 .651 OPS

3B - Chase Headley: .333/.404/.470 .874 OPS

LF - Kyle Blanks: .361/.425/.667 1.092 OPS

CF - Cameron Maybin: .320/.367/.485 .852 OPS

RF - Will Venable: .312/.364/.475 .839 OPS

Yes, Blanks is working on a small sample, but even after things even out, I'm certain his numbers will be better on the road than at Petco. (Incidentally, even Ryan Ludwick was almost marginally average on the road: .269/.314/.398 .712 OPS.)

So what I'm seeing is four guys with an OPS north of .800, and three guys with OBPs over .390. I'm particularly impressed by Orlando de la Noche's numbers. A .391 OBP? Who knew? Makes you wonder what kind of season he'd be putting together if he was on, say, the DBacks, Astros, or Brewers, all teams that play in hitters havens.

And how about Headley and Maybin? As my advisor Tam O'Flannell said today, Maybin is putting up near star-quality numbers, but you'd never know it because he plays half his games at Petco. I'd add that Headley also falls into that category. Maybe not "star" category, but certainly a player to be reckoned with.

And come to think of it that's a pretty good way to judge a team. How many guys do they put up there that need to be reckoned with? To put it another way, how many guys do they put up there that can't be ignored? I'd say on the road the Padres have 6-7 of those guys, arguably one or two more. That's a team that can be a winner.

Guest Post: In Defense of Rexy

Note to our reader: From time to time this humble blog will have guest posts written by true sports fans who also happen to be friends or acquaintances of mine (essentially the same premise as Grantland). These posts could touch on any topic, but will most likely address some aspect of the guest writer's favorite teams. Today, in response to N.Y. Daily News columnist Mike Lupica's recent criticism of Jets coach Rex "Bootsy" Ryan, I am proud to offer this guest post by lifelong Jets fan, and champion of all those who are financially privileged yet still chintz (inside joke), Father D.P. McGillicutty.


Let's get one thing straight. I'm no fan of Mike Lupica. He is by all accounts unbearably smug. The Donald is somewhere right now complaining about the smugness of Lupica. The head shot Lupica rolls with at the top of his column -- the one with the look of barely restrained disgust -- leaves no room for doubt. He is smarter than you, and he wants, nay needs, you to know it. If you don't believe me, just watch any episode of Sports Reporters that he ever appeared on. Ever. (Incidentally, I am 100% confident that he takes credit for the success of PTI, Rome Is Burning (why is Rome so good on radio and so terrible on television?), Around the Horn (I want to punch that host in the face), and every other sports television show featuring sports writers.) And whoever at the Daily News let Mark Cuban's dwarf brother start writing political op-eds needs to die a horrible, horrible death. All of that said, Lupica's column yesterday about Jets HC Rex Ryan caught my interest -- not so much for what it says, but for what it portends.

The gist is that Lupica's sick of Rex Ryan boasting about everything without delivering a championship. Fuck you, Lupica. Wait, that's supposed to be the end of the column. Anyway, his daily dose of sanctimonious drivel was notable to me because I'm a Jets fan. Have been my whole life. (Yes, I have seen that draft video on YouTube. I also watched my team in the AFC championship game the last two years, jagoff.) But here's the point: I admit that Rexy got a bit of a pass his first year as Jets HC. At the end of the day, he didn't need it, but whether or not the Jetsies made the AFC Championship game, he was going to finish the year on the media's good side simply because he was not Eric Mangini. (Full disclosure: I was FULLY on board with hiring Mangini at the time -- what a mess.) And maybe he did get a pass on the whole foot fetish saga, though it wasn't exactly a Marv Albert scenario. But it's clear the tide is turning.

With the new found competency of the Mets front office and the Yankees looking playoff bound as always, the sports writers need themselves a target. And let's face it, another hit piece on Tom Coughlin isn't selling any papers. So that puts Rexy in the cross-hairs. But here's the problem with that: in two years, the guy has twice managed to plow through loaded AFC playoff fields to get to the conference championship game with the 'Chize (ed. note: Jets QB1 Mark Sanchez) at the helm. So everybody calm down. The guy has gotten my team to perform at a higher level than any Jets HC in my lifetime (including Parcells - my fingers just burst into flames). As far as I'm concerned, he can say whatever the hell he wants. Also, and I'm not saying it's necessarily intentional, but I see some genius in Rexy's approach. Think about it. Is there any coach of the league (with the possible exception of that chicken-shit turncoat in New England (ed. note: Patriots coach Bill Belichick)) who actually gives the media less meaningful information than Rexy? He talks and talks and talks, but what insights can you really draw from a guy that says nothing but good things about every player on his roster and constantly predicts victory. None. So if Lupica and his hair hat really want to bitch about something, maybe they should bitch about what Rexy ISN'T saying.