oldguystudent

4

So making the pitcher hit makes the game harder. But doing this would make scoring a 3 in basketball much easier. By this reasoning, only outfielders should bat for themselves. Catchers and infielders, as a general rule, don't hit as well. Let's have a 9-man defense and a completely different 9-man offense. That still allows for a reasonable pitching staff and a couple substitutes. And that's fine. I really enjoy watching the manager sweat in a close game when the pitcher is due up. You would've really liked college baseball in the 80s. Skip Bergman down at LSU figured it out. He had a pitching background, but he realized that to win, he needed to move the fences at Alex Box Stadium in to about 91 feet from home plate. Then he recruited all his players from the football team and put the unrestricted aluminum bats of the day in their hands. They scored 30 runs a game, and the five-time champion Gorilla Ball was born. I like baseball specifically because every at-bat, every out is a chess game. Managers that don't understand probabilities get exploited by managers that do. I give you one Billy Beane (albeit in the GM role) of the late 90s exploiting this to compete with the much richer Yankees and Red Sox. Both big money teams eventually learned to follow suit. Of interest, Robin Ventura went back and got an advanced degree of some sort or another. His thesis (dissertation?) was on probabilities for just about every batting situation imaginable. They ran his probabilities live for every at-bat in the 2007 College World Series. For number nerds, it was the most exciting sports broadcast ever.

It's because before Bud Selig came on the scene, they were two separate leagues with separate league presidents, separate umpiring crews, and separate rules, only playing each other in the All-Star Game and the World Series. They had to negotiate with each other how to handle the DH after the AL implemented the rule in 1973. They ignored the DH completely until, I believe, 1976. Then they went every other year. Later, they went to playing by the rules of the home team for each game. I'm a purist who likes the pitcher hitting in the National League. Makes managing the game a lot harder, not to mention keeping a scorecard when you're a kid. The late inning substitutions and double switches rendered many a scorecard absolute gibberish for a young oldguy.

It's an interesting question, because it's a mathematical impossibility for every team to hire only experienced head coaches. The current crop ain't gonna live forever, and somebody has to eventually replace them. Are we in for a 10-15 year period of who blinks first?

Apogee Special Today: Guidry Drinks for Free! When Guidry takes a shot, it ain't at the quarterback! Drink, Drive, Work at WKU! Going out tonight? So's Guidry! Teetotaller? No! Hilltopper! WKU's defense -- I only had two beers!

I was hoping somebody would catch that.

It's tough for me to hate anybody in the sunbelt since this is the first year I seen UNT actually play any of them. That, and I don't know that I've ever met a miscreant fan from an opposing sunbelt team. The infamous sleet bowl with WKU was one year before my time, so my only war story is the monsoon against Ohio in 2009. As for this weekend's game, it seems that even when WKU was not yet FBS, they always gave UNT a tough time (except last year). We're 2 1/2 point dogs this weekend, so I'm hoping that the Apogee Advantage™ will take effect and get us over the hill...toppers.

I love this! And they're not even shy about it! "Go get yourself some cheap sunglasses!" Best promotion I've ever seen from UNT.

Honest question. What's the other song they play at the end of the game, and what's the whole bending arm thing that goes with it?

They did that at a basketball game when I was in school. Kid didn't even have to shoot a basket. It was just straight up full ride tuition for a quarter. It was a big deal. I think you're on to something there. Of course, the drawing would need to be late in the game to keep them in the stadium.

Meanwhile, the other 5,000 high schools in DFW are crying into their sushi that only FM Marcus and Denton Guyer are getting any coverage. I didn't realize until a week or two ago that Lewisville and Marcus play a big deal rivalry game within walking distance. I'd like to check that out some time except that I'm afraid of being a 40-year-old man walking alone to a high school function. But I digress. What is this television news that you speak of?

I count 94 teams with 6 or fewer losses vying for 70 bowl spots. Of those 94 teams, 41 have not yet reached the magic 6 win total. So 53 teams in, 17 spots left, 41 teams fighting for those. Those 41 teams will inevitably play each other in conference, probably leaving 20 teams. It'll be tough. Over the past several years, with the number of bowl games constantly increasing, it's pretty rare to get left out if you reach that sixth win. Oh. I'm not accounting for teams that at at exactly 6 wins, and could finish at 6-6. It'll be an interesting result to see what happens if there are indeed five bowl eligible teams in the Sunbelt. But please, don't go crying to your mommy if we get passed over. There isn't a conspiracy. We haven't earned it yet. But should we go to 6-6 this year after the horrendous experiment out of Detroit automobile manufacturing, it's got to catch outside eyes and bring us credibility in the future.

Publicly mock them, sneer at them, tell them that they're not doing it right at every possible turn. Put kegs of Natural Light in every other row in the student section, but only allow it to be administered via IV as on every seat will be a roll of tape for the students to silence themselves and their uncreative profanities. Leave picture instruction cards (cuz reading is hard!) with guidance on when to sit, when to stand, and when to bow toward the elders in the west. I recall a couple seasons ago that FilmerJ led a crew of recent grads over to the student section of Fouts and walked through, shaking everyone's hand, thanking them for coming out to support the team. I've seen someone else go to the student tailgates, even the one's with those funky squiggly letters (that are HARD to read!) and simply sit down with the students, talking to them about coming in the game. Then, horror of horrors, I've seen these people actually (and you might want to be sitting down for this) ASK THE STUDENTS what they wanted that would get them into the stadium! I mean the temerity! I don't know that any more marketing expense is necessary to get the students near the stadium on game day. It's just that final step of getting them to go through the gate. The inevitable posts here next Sunday about those brutish students not doing it how we did it in 1972 isn't the solution. Could be time for a little diplomacy now matter how bitter that pill is to swallow.

They try harder.

Great job by the Mean Green to gut this one out. There's still a chance! It's all about WKU now! Hope Lance is doing alright.

I dunno. Did his dad play college ball with McCarney?

Some day, this team is going to show with with both the offense and defense, and they will both play for sixty whole minutes. Can today be that day? Will today be that day? We have a HUGE 30-minute stretch coming up!

The official rules are not great than 24" in diameter, but if you come over to the hill, you'll see much, much larger setups (the Apogee smoker is so big, it has a built in ladder to reach its upper shelves). Ours is 24X48X54 and we have no problem at all. That said, I have no idea what they do or do not enforce at Fouts, but I'd be pretty surprised if they give you grief about it.

Weekday games I would most certainly be in class.

Please, for the love of all things pure and good, the era of the Detroit automobile manufacturers is OVER! No Fords, no Dodges, no nothing! If any mention of vehicles is to be made, it should be solely based on the Mack Truck Company in Greensoboro, North Carolina.

Not quite yet. Two weeks until the Thanksgiving turkey. Then I'm totally ready to get out of my belt and my pants.

While certainly not on a national media scale, I've been through it at an institutional level with thousands of alumni as a donor base. Two faculty members preying on young boys for at least ten years during the 80s. It's been less than ten years since everything broke. One of the two shot himself in the head, the other ran away to quiet retirement in Montana. There were never any criminal charges, and the school paid out $3 million in settlement money to the plaintiffs. Nobody remembers. In fact, when the surviving perpetrator died last year, I was quite surprised at the fond memories, sympathy and well wishes expressed by those who had called for his public execution a few short years earlier. So to answer your question, yes. We Americans are indeed quick to forgive and forget when the transgressions are committed by our beloved heroes.

Maybe, but he'll probably be dead by the time this all gets wrapped up. Then the victims get to fight probate and go after the estate for their settlements, yes? Joe Paterno the person won't suffer much financially from this. Joe Paterno the legacy may or may not suffer from this. America has a venomous, spiteful, punishing mentality for these things, but a very, very short memory.

I would take that bet, except for this. And this is an absolutely true story. In 20 years, I have never once made a winning sports bet. Not...one...time. Not for real money, not for pretend money. So what would happen in this case is that Troy wins 34-30. You would take my money, and UNT would still lose. Incidentally, my offer to make any one of you a millionaire still stands. We go to Vegas on any given weekend, and you stake me to make $5 bets on each and every available sporting event. I bring all of my tickets back to you, and you in turn go make $5,000 bets on each and every available sporting event going against every one of my bets. I promise, hands down, that you will win every...single...bet. I ask a mere 25% cut of the profits for my wisdom (or lack thereof).