Mid-Week Bullet Point Blog Post

Look for another roundtable coming up soon as well.

* The wife starts 13 hour days twice a week due to school, work, and interning. It's not gonna be fun.

* Football is officially back. I watched last night's Brewers game simply because there wasn't a football game to see. Glad I caught 600, because I doubt I would have otherwise.

* Speaking of which, this is a disgrace. Really, it's a disgrace on all levels, if the part about the slur is true, which I don't really doubt. On the other hand, I suppose it's nice to see Bob Davidson pay attention to SOMETHING, as he doesn't seem to pay attention to the strike zone and game winning hits.

* I rarely link to anything St. Louis related, but this is worth a link.

* Pizza's done. Gotta run. :D

Big 10 Blogger Roundtable, 9/4

Our Big 10 panel of experts (or whatever term you'd like to use :D) has completed a round-table discussion. See it at http://thedetroittransplant.blogspot.com/2010/09/round-table-ncaa-preview_03.html

Big 10 Division Split

This is an issue that will likely be discussed in the roundtable discussion post later on, but I figure I'd tackle it now while it's fresh, from a Wisconsin perspective.


From my perspective, this sucks for Wisconsin. We got the worst of this entire deal.


Understand that I see the best way to do things as having the rivals play in each other's divisions, and to have an equal split of 3 opponents from the other division alternating evenly. That may give you an idea why this is so grating to me.


To recap for the uneducated, the Big 10 is splitting up as such:


Division 1: Michigan, Nebraska, Iowa, Michigan State, Northwestern, Minnesota
Division 2: Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin, Purdue, Indiana, Illinois


I would have to say that Wisconsin's main goals out of all this were to face Minnesota every year (preserved because of the automatic cross-division matchup), face Iowa every year (nope, not happening), and in a perfect world, see Nebraska every year (not happening either).


One out of three might work in baseball, but in football, that's pretty bad.


I don't terribly mind facing Ohio State every year. Out of all the Big 10 teams, I have the least amount of like/respect for them. Penn State is always a top tier team as well, but don't color me too excited about Purdue, Indiana, and Illinois. None of them inspire rivalry talk, trophy games, and the like.


Here are the protected crossover games:


Michigan-Ohio State, Penn State-Nebraska, Minnesota-Wisconsin, Northwestern-Illinois, Purdue-Iowa, Michigan State-Indiana.


So, uh, tell me, Indiana and Purdue isn't enough of an in-state rivalry to be worth preserving? I can't see Purdue-Iowa or Michigan State-Indiana as being hot enough rivalries to trump that. Iowa-Michigan State would be an odd pairing, but no less odd than the two that exist now. 


At least for the Michigan-Ohio State fans, they get everything they want. Besides that, though, I can't see how the Big 10 could have done any worse.


Since I've been attacking it for this long, I might as well give you my thoughts. Had they asked me, here's what they may have gotten.


West Division:
Nebraska
Iowa
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Penn State
Illinois


East Division:
Michigan
Ohio State
Michigan State
Indiana
Purdue
Northwestern


Even this isn't perfect, as it splits Illinois-Northwestern, but that may be fixed with permanent crossovers, if necessary. Penn State could also be shuffled east, but that would put the traditional powers within one division, for the most part, and probably wouldn't fly. Not that one of those traditional powers has been powerful lately. *hides from Norm*


All right, enough of my whining. Let's see how this plays out.

UW Badgers Preview, 2010

Links to other Big 10 previews:
Michigan State

It has been the best of times in Buckyland lately. The last losing season is 2001, and while the team has had their share of setbacks,an argument could be made that the program has been the second best program in the conference over the last decade. Mind you, the best team over the last decade hails from Columbus, routinely chokes in BCS games, and occasionally chokes our quarterback, but here's hoping the 2010's belong to a team not wearing the Scarlet and Gray. I prefer the Cardinal and White, but anything's better than the current champs.

For the first time in a while, the Badgers return a quarterback that doesn't scare the crap out of me. Scott Tolzien had a fantastic season last year, especially considering no one had this kind of expectations for him, except maybe him and close family. I'm happy to be wrong in cases like this. If he goes down, God help us. John Clay is another in a long line of workhorse backs, but he's not the only one that can shoulder the load. Montee Ball is a sophomore that got a lot of touches last year, and can take over if need be. Nick Toon provides solid work at wide receiver, and hopefully he'll be another in a line of receivers that this school somehow produces while focusing on the running game. Speaking of which, you must be new around here if you're worried about the offensive line.

Losing O'Brien Schofield hurts, obviously, but the defensive line always seems to make things happen. JJ Watt will be stepping up to take the playmaker role on the line. We'll forgive Chris Borland for being from Ohio, simply because the sophomore makes plays, and makes them often. The secondary is in a state of flux, with Aaron Henry playing safety next to Jay Valai, a big hitter, with Niles Brinkley trying to live up to expectations at corner.

Phillip Welch and Brad Nortman handle the kicking chores well, and the Badgers have a few talented returners to keep Big 10 special teams coaches awake at night.


Key Stretch:
10/16 vs. Ohio State
10/23 at Iowa

Duh. Besides a loss in Evanston, where our defense is apparently not allowed to enter the stadium, these were the two teams that dealt the Badgers losses. The Badgers last beat Iowa in 2007, and last beat Ohio State in 2004.

Stay tuned for a Big 10 roundtable discussion post, coming soon.

Wakey wakey....

It's about time I got back to this. The wedding made me stop, and, well, I just didn't start again.

New Stuff:

Celebrated the anniversary yesterday, and said goodbye to the best year of my life and hello to the next best year of my life. I plan to make that a habit.

Worked on painting Steph's office. She's got a new blog too. It's at http://stephsmultiplehats.blogspot.com/. Follow it. You know you want to.

We got a laptop a few weeks ago, and a wireless printer today. Spent less than 100 bucks on the printer. It's a good thing, plus now, I can print from downstairs too. I'm way too impressed with technology that's been around for a while.

Woke http://www.joeknowssports.com up again. I may actually use it for more than just hosting the USFL league site. That's gotta get put back up sometime too, but not quite yet. No sense in rushing, it's gonna be a while before Cam finishes the software.

We have kitties. They're awesome.

Say hello to Hobbes and Raven. We've had them about a month now, and we fall in love more every day.

Aight. Enough of this. Bed, and work tomorrow, beckons. Long weekends aren't long enough sometimes.

Not dead yet...

At least not completely. I still use the sidebar quite frequently myself, and Norm dropped me a line to tell me to add this: http://thetripledeke.blogspot.com/

Check it out if you're a hockey fan.

I'm also adding http://www.ranyontheroyals.com/. It's a great blog about true baseball fan suffering. It also talks about teams that aren't better suited for AAA once in a great while.

.....

Please, please, please. When you have the bases loaded, two outs, full count, and the winning run on third, do not, I repeat, do not walk the guy. Groove a 85 mile per hour fastball down the middle for all I care, just make the guy beat you. Yes, it was a bad call, but don't give the ump the chance to blow it. Make it happen.

This public service announcement brought to you by a fan of the Milwaukee Brewers. I really hope I don't have to use the "ranting" tag again any time soon, as I've had to go to it the last two days.

Hey, look, a post!

Yes, I do that occasionally. This one will even have some content!

I love me my football. I love me my CFL, too. Don't ask why. It's just the way I am.

I'm just going to spend a second bitching about the Bombers, and why they don't sign a kicker that, I dunno, doesn't miss three extra points, causing his team to lose to highly rated LSU by a point in Louisiana. Yes, I know he's gotten better since then. Still, I'll never be able to shake the fact that he once was so shaken, he ended up doing that.

Tonight, he missed a 48 yarder in one of the toughest stadiums in the CFL, and the Bombers lost by two. Not an easy kick to make, by any means. And yet, I had no faith whatsoever that he'd make it. None. He's also taking up an import slot, which in the CFL, means that he's non-Canadian. Imports are a little over half the roster. Filling the spot with a Canadian gives the Bombers more flexibility on signing another American, for any position anywhere.

Eh, who am I kidding? They'll stick it out with him until it becomes well too late to matter.

Talkin' Baseball....

I'm eating, sleeping, and living baseball since, gosh, probably mid-May. If it's baseball related, I'm involved. If it means watching the Brewers, I'm there. If it means playing MLB 09: The Show, I'm there. If it means running an internet baseball league, I'm there. If it means cruising the net all day for historical baseball articles, I'm there.

In short, baseballbaseballbaseballbaseballbaseball. Ben would not approve.

Oh, and hello Hyderabad, India! I see someone over there has peeked at my blog, whether by accident, or looking for something interesting. Sorry about the lack of interesting things. Also, hi to Battle Creek, Michigan, and New Berlin, Wisconsin.

Phew...

It's been busy here lately. That screwy work schedule I'll only have to mess with for a few more weeks takes a toll on my mental well-being, but thankfully, it's over in July.

The USFL is now on hiatus, but will be back when the software is done and ready.

Check out the Blitz, though, because there's a new baseball league started by me to pass the time until we get the USFL back up and running. Steph's joining the baseball league, which I hope to give a launch to Friday.

I had fun putting together the USFL Championship game writeup, complete with some commentary and commercials! http://blindsideblitz.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38399

More Melvin when I feel like it.