University of South Carolina sophomore first baseman Justin Smoak was named a third-team All-American by Baseball America on Friday.
Smoak, who was selected to the 2007 USA Baseball National Team, hit .315 with 22 home runs and 72 RBIs this past season while starting all 66 games for the Gamecocks.
Smoak also committed just four errors this year for a fielding percentage of .993.
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Friday, June 15, 2007
Who ya got in the CWS?
Going with Rice and ASU in the finals. Then ASU winning it all.
Sleeper picks are Lousiville and UC IRVINE
How about you guys, who ya pickn?
Sleeper picks are Lousiville and UC IRVINE
How about you guys, who ya pickn?
Sanford signs underage drinking bill
Governor Mark Sanford signed a bill aimed at cracking down on youth's access to alcohol.
The bill Sanford signed yesterday, S.213, increases fines and penalties for underage-drinking offenses. The bill will:
---Make it easier for police to find out who bought kegs at parties where underage drinking occurred
---Allow minors to help police by participating in stings of bars and convenience stores
---Require repeat DUI offenders to pay for an ignition interlock system to be installed in their cars.
Be careful...I can see this one causing some problems in columbia. Police visiting Greens to see who bought the keg at the party they just busted, etc....should be fun for our lawyer friends..............thoughts?
SC Football games added...
The University of South Carolina has added three nonconference teams -- East Carolina, Alabama Birmingham and Troy -- to its future football schedules.UAB will play at USC on Sept. 27, 2008, while USC and ECU have agreed on a five-year series that will include two games at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte (Sept. 3, 2011, and Aug. 30, 2014).
Two other USC-ECU games will be in Columbia (2012 and 2016) while one game will be in Greenville, N.C., at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium (2015).
The Gamecocks have also agreed to a two-game home series with Troy. USC will face the Trojans on Sept. 4, 2010, and again in 2014. The date for the second game hasn't been set.
Political Talk - Obama thought
With Obama visiting SC today (in Greenville this afternoon). I began to think about what is it about this guy and how is he attracting millions to his grass roots network. Not to mention he has the Clinton crew scared right now. I ran across this commencement address he gave last month at Southern New Hampshire University. He may not get my vote but he knows how to appeal to the masses. Read this:
There is a verse from the Bible that is sometimes read or recited during rites of passage like this. Corinthians 13:11: “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have become a man, I have put away childish things.”
I bring this up because there’s often an assumption on days like today that growing up is purely a function of age; that becoming an adult is an inevitable progression that can be measured by a series of milestones – college graduation or your first job or the first time you throw a party that actually has food too.
And yet, maturity does not come from any one occasion – it emerges as a quality of character. Because the fact is, I know a whole lot of thirty and forty and fifty year olds who have not yet put away childish things – who continually struggle to rise above the selfish or the petty or the small.
We see this reflected in our country today. We see it in a politics that’s become more concerned about who’s up and who’s down than who’s working to solve the real challenges facing our generation; a politics where debates over war and peace are reduced to 60-second soundbites and 30-second attack ads.
We see it in a media culture that sensationalizes the trivial and trivializes the profound – in a 24-hour news network bonanza that never fails to keep us posted on how many days Paris Hilton will spend in jail but often fails to update us on the continuing genocide in Darfur or the recovery effort in New Orleans or the poverty that plagues too many American streets.
And as we’re fed this steady diet of cynicism, it’s easy to start buying into it and put off hard decisions. We become tempted to turn inward, suspicious that change is really possible, doubtful that one person really can make a difference.
That’s where the true test of growing up occurs. That’s where you come in…
No matter where you go from here – whether it’s into public service or the business world; whether it’s law school or medical school; whether you become scientists or artists or entertainers – you will face a choice. Do you want to be passive observers of the way world is or active citizens in shaping the way the world ought to be? In both your own life and the life of your country, will you strive to put away childish things?
It is a constant struggle, this quest for maturity, and as my wife will certainly tell you, I haven’t always been on the winning side in my own life. But through my own tests and failings, I have learned a few lessons here and there about growing up, and there’s three I’d like to leave you with today.
The first lesson came during my first year in college. Back then I had a tendency, in my mother’s words, to act a bit casual about my future. I rebelled, angry in the way that many young men in general, and young black men in particular, are angry, thinking that responsibility and hard work were old-fashioned conventions that didn’t apply to me. I partied a little too much and studied just enough to get by.
And once, after a particularly long night of partying, we had spilled a little too much beer, broke a few too many bottles, and trashed a little too much of the dorm. And the next day, the mess was so bad that when one of the cleaning ladies saw it, she began to tear up.
And when a girlfriend of mine heard about this, she said to me, “That woman could’ve been my grandmother, Barack. She spent her days cleaning up after somebody else’s mess.”
Which drove home for me the first lesson of growing up:
The world doesn’t just revolve around you.
There’s a lot of talk in this country about the federal deficit. But I think we should talk more about our empathy deficit – the ability to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes; to see the world through those who are different from us – the child who’s hungry, the laid-off steelworker, the immigrant woman cleaning your dorm room.
As you go on in life, cultivating this quality of empathy will become harder, not easier. There’s no community service requirement in the real world; no one forcing you to care. You’ll be free to live in neighborhoods with people who are exactly like yourself, and send your kids to the same schools, and narrow your concerns to what’s going in your own little circle.
Not only that – we live in a culture that discourages empathy. A culture that too often tells us our principle goal in life is to be rich, thin, young, famous, safe, and entertained. A culture where those in power too often encourage these selfish impulses.
They will tell you that the Americans who sleep in the streets and beg for food got there because they’re all lazy or weak of spirit. That the inner-city children who are trapped in dilapidated schools can’t learn and won’t learn and so we should just give up on them entirely. That the innocent people being slaughtered and expelled from their homes half a world away are somebody else’s problem to take care of.
I hope you don’t listen to this. I hope you choose to broaden, and not contract, your ambit of concern. Not because you have an obligation to those who are less fortunate, although you do have that obligation. Not because you have a debt to all of those who helped you get to where you are, although you do have that debt.
It’s because you have an obligation to yourself. Because our individual salvation depends on collective salvation. And because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you will realize your true potential – and become full-grown.
The second lesson I learned after college, when I had this crazy idea that I wanted to be a community organizer and work in low-income neighborhoods.
My mother and grandparents thought I should go to law school. My friends had applied for jobs on Wall Street. But I went ahead and wrote letters to every organization in the country that I could think of. And finally, this small group of churches on the south side of Chicago wrote back and gave me a job organizing neighborhoods devastated by steel-plant closings in the early 80s.
The churches didn’t have much money – so they offered me a grand sum of $12,000 a year plus $1,000 to buy a car. And I got ready to move to Chicago – a place I had never been and where I didn’t know a living soul.
Even people who didn’t know me were skeptical of my decision. I remember having a conversation with an older man I had met before I arrived in Chicago. I told him about my plans, and he looked at me and said, “Let me tell something. You look like a nice clean-cut young man, and you’ve got a nice voice. So let me give you a piece of advice – forget this community organizing business. You can’t change the world, and people won’t appreciate you trying. What you should do is go into television broadcasting. I’m telling you, you’ve got a future.”
I could’ve taken my mother’s advice and I could’ve taken my grandparents advice. I could’ve taken the path my friends traveled. And objectively speaking, that older man had a point about the TV thing.
But I knew there was something in me that wanted to try for something bigger.
So the second lesson is this: Challenge yourself. Take some risks in your life.
This isn’t easy. In a few minutes, you can take your diploma, walk off this stage, and go chasing after the big house and the large salary and the nice suits and all the other things that our money culture says you should buy.
But I hope you don’t. Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. And it will leave you unfulfilled.
So don’t let people talk you into doing what’s easy or comfortable. Listen to what’s inside of you and decide what it is that you care about so much that you’re willing to risk it all.
The third lesson is one that I learned once I got to Chicago.
I had spent weeks organizing our very first community meeting around the issue of gang violence. We invited the police; we made phone calls, went to churches, and passed out flyers.
I had been warned of the turf battles and bad politics between certain community leaders, but I ignored them, confident that I knew what I was doing.
The night of the meeting we arranged rows and rows of chairs in anticipation of the crowd. And we waited. And we waited. And finally, a group of older people walk in to the hall. And they sit down. And this little old lady raises her hand and asks, “Is this where the bingo game is?”
Thirteen people showed up that night. The police never came. And the meeting was a complete disaster.
Later, the volunteers I worked with told me they were quitting – that they had been doing this for two years and had nothing to show for it.
I was tired too. But at that point, I looked outside and saw some young boys playing in a vacant lot across the street, tossing stones at boarded-up apartment building. And I turned to the volunteers, and I asked them, “Before you quit, I want you to answer one question. What’s gonna happen to those boys? Who will fight for them if not us? Who will give them a fair shot if we leave?”
And at that moment, we were all reminded of a third lesson in growing up:
Persevere.
Making your mark on the world is hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. But it’s not. It takes patience, it takes commitment, and it comes with plenty of failure along the way. The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won’t. It’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.
After my little speech that day, one by one, the volunteers decided not to quit. We went back to those neighborhoods, and we kept at it, sustaining ourselves with the small victories. Eventually, over time, a community changed. And so had we.
Cultivating empathy, challenging yourself, persevering in the face of adversity – these are qualities that dare us to put away childish things. They are qualities that help us grow.
They are qualities that one graduate today knows especially well.
Richard Komi was born thousands of miles from here in Southern Nigeria. He’d probably still be there today, if he hadn’t been forced to flee when his tribe came under attack. Eventually, he made it to the United States, worked his way through factories and retail jobs, and came here to SNHU, to complete the education he began in Africa. And now, with a wife and kids and lots of responsibility, he’s even taking the time to give back to his new country by volunteering on this campaign.
Richard Komi may be graduating today, but it’s clear that he grew up a long time ago. We celebrate with him because his journey is a testament to the powerful idea that in the face of impossible odds, ordinary people can do extraordinary things.
At a time when America finds itself at a crossroads, facing challenges we haven’t seen in decades, we need to hold on to this idea more than ever.
A lot is riding on the decisions that are made and the leadership that is provided by this generation. We are counting on you to help fix a health care system that’s leaving too many Americans sick or bankrupt or both. We are counting on you to bring this planet back from the brink by solving this crisis of global climate change. We are counting on you to help stop a genocide in Darfur that’s taking the lives of innocents as we speak here today. And we’re counting on you to restore the image of America around the world that has led so many like Richard Komi to find liberty, and opportunity, and hope on our doorstep.
There are some who are betting against you – who say that you don’t pay attention, that you don’t show up to vote, that you’re too concerned with your own lives and your own problems.
Well that’s not what I believe and it’s not what I’ve seen. Instead I’ve seen rallies filled with crowds that stretch far into the horizon; thousands upon thousands signing up to organize online; scores who are coming to the very first political event of their lifetime. And just a few hours before this commencement, I got the opportunity to send off hundreds of people who have chosen to take time out of their busy lives and spend an entire Saturday knocking on doors here in New Hampshire. Because they’re not content to sit back and watch anymore. Because they believe they can help this country grow.
And whenever the doubt creeps in and I find myself wondering if change is really possible, I end up thinking about the young Americans – teenagers and college kids not much older than you – who watched the Civil Rights Movement unfold before them on television sets all across the country.
I imagine that they would’ve seen the marchers and heard the speeches, but they also probably saw the dogs and the fire hoses, or the footage of innocent people being beaten within an inch of their lives; or heard the news the day those four little girls died when someone threw a bomb into their church.
Instinctively, they knew that it was safer and smarter to stay at home; to watch the movement from afar. But they also understood that these people in Georgia and Alabama and Mississippi were their brothers and sisters; that what was happening was wrong; and that they had an obligation to make it right. When the buses pulled up for a Freedom Ride down South, they got on. They took a risk. And they changed the world.
Now it’s your turn. You will be tested by the challenges of this new century, and at times you will fail. But know that you have it within your power to try. That generations who have come before you faced these same fears and uncertainties in their own time. And that if we’re willing to shoulder each other’s burdens, to take great risks, and to persevere through trial, America will continue its journey towards that distant horizon, and a better day.
-------------------Senator Barack Obama, May 19, 2007.
Thoughts?
There is a verse from the Bible that is sometimes read or recited during rites of passage like this. Corinthians 13:11: “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have become a man, I have put away childish things.”
I bring this up because there’s often an assumption on days like today that growing up is purely a function of age; that becoming an adult is an inevitable progression that can be measured by a series of milestones – college graduation or your first job or the first time you throw a party that actually has food too.
And yet, maturity does not come from any one occasion – it emerges as a quality of character. Because the fact is, I know a whole lot of thirty and forty and fifty year olds who have not yet put away childish things – who continually struggle to rise above the selfish or the petty or the small.
We see this reflected in our country today. We see it in a politics that’s become more concerned about who’s up and who’s down than who’s working to solve the real challenges facing our generation; a politics where debates over war and peace are reduced to 60-second soundbites and 30-second attack ads.
We see it in a media culture that sensationalizes the trivial and trivializes the profound – in a 24-hour news network bonanza that never fails to keep us posted on how many days Paris Hilton will spend in jail but often fails to update us on the continuing genocide in Darfur or the recovery effort in New Orleans or the poverty that plagues too many American streets.
And as we’re fed this steady diet of cynicism, it’s easy to start buying into it and put off hard decisions. We become tempted to turn inward, suspicious that change is really possible, doubtful that one person really can make a difference.
That’s where the true test of growing up occurs. That’s where you come in…
No matter where you go from here – whether it’s into public service or the business world; whether it’s law school or medical school; whether you become scientists or artists or entertainers – you will face a choice. Do you want to be passive observers of the way world is or active citizens in shaping the way the world ought to be? In both your own life and the life of your country, will you strive to put away childish things?
It is a constant struggle, this quest for maturity, and as my wife will certainly tell you, I haven’t always been on the winning side in my own life. But through my own tests and failings, I have learned a few lessons here and there about growing up, and there’s three I’d like to leave you with today.
The first lesson came during my first year in college. Back then I had a tendency, in my mother’s words, to act a bit casual about my future. I rebelled, angry in the way that many young men in general, and young black men in particular, are angry, thinking that responsibility and hard work were old-fashioned conventions that didn’t apply to me. I partied a little too much and studied just enough to get by.
And once, after a particularly long night of partying, we had spilled a little too much beer, broke a few too many bottles, and trashed a little too much of the dorm. And the next day, the mess was so bad that when one of the cleaning ladies saw it, she began to tear up.
And when a girlfriend of mine heard about this, she said to me, “That woman could’ve been my grandmother, Barack. She spent her days cleaning up after somebody else’s mess.”
Which drove home for me the first lesson of growing up:
The world doesn’t just revolve around you.
There’s a lot of talk in this country about the federal deficit. But I think we should talk more about our empathy deficit – the ability to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes; to see the world through those who are different from us – the child who’s hungry, the laid-off steelworker, the immigrant woman cleaning your dorm room.
As you go on in life, cultivating this quality of empathy will become harder, not easier. There’s no community service requirement in the real world; no one forcing you to care. You’ll be free to live in neighborhoods with people who are exactly like yourself, and send your kids to the same schools, and narrow your concerns to what’s going in your own little circle.
Not only that – we live in a culture that discourages empathy. A culture that too often tells us our principle goal in life is to be rich, thin, young, famous, safe, and entertained. A culture where those in power too often encourage these selfish impulses.
They will tell you that the Americans who sleep in the streets and beg for food got there because they’re all lazy or weak of spirit. That the inner-city children who are trapped in dilapidated schools can’t learn and won’t learn and so we should just give up on them entirely. That the innocent people being slaughtered and expelled from their homes half a world away are somebody else’s problem to take care of.
I hope you don’t listen to this. I hope you choose to broaden, and not contract, your ambit of concern. Not because you have an obligation to those who are less fortunate, although you do have that obligation. Not because you have a debt to all of those who helped you get to where you are, although you do have that debt.
It’s because you have an obligation to yourself. Because our individual salvation depends on collective salvation. And because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you will realize your true potential – and become full-grown.
The second lesson I learned after college, when I had this crazy idea that I wanted to be a community organizer and work in low-income neighborhoods.
My mother and grandparents thought I should go to law school. My friends had applied for jobs on Wall Street. But I went ahead and wrote letters to every organization in the country that I could think of. And finally, this small group of churches on the south side of Chicago wrote back and gave me a job organizing neighborhoods devastated by steel-plant closings in the early 80s.
The churches didn’t have much money – so they offered me a grand sum of $12,000 a year plus $1,000 to buy a car. And I got ready to move to Chicago – a place I had never been and where I didn’t know a living soul.
Even people who didn’t know me were skeptical of my decision. I remember having a conversation with an older man I had met before I arrived in Chicago. I told him about my plans, and he looked at me and said, “Let me tell something. You look like a nice clean-cut young man, and you’ve got a nice voice. So let me give you a piece of advice – forget this community organizing business. You can’t change the world, and people won’t appreciate you trying. What you should do is go into television broadcasting. I’m telling you, you’ve got a future.”
I could’ve taken my mother’s advice and I could’ve taken my grandparents advice. I could’ve taken the path my friends traveled. And objectively speaking, that older man had a point about the TV thing.
But I knew there was something in me that wanted to try for something bigger.
So the second lesson is this: Challenge yourself. Take some risks in your life.
This isn’t easy. In a few minutes, you can take your diploma, walk off this stage, and go chasing after the big house and the large salary and the nice suits and all the other things that our money culture says you should buy.
But I hope you don’t. Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. And it will leave you unfulfilled.
So don’t let people talk you into doing what’s easy or comfortable. Listen to what’s inside of you and decide what it is that you care about so much that you’re willing to risk it all.
The third lesson is one that I learned once I got to Chicago.
I had spent weeks organizing our very first community meeting around the issue of gang violence. We invited the police; we made phone calls, went to churches, and passed out flyers.
I had been warned of the turf battles and bad politics between certain community leaders, but I ignored them, confident that I knew what I was doing.
The night of the meeting we arranged rows and rows of chairs in anticipation of the crowd. And we waited. And we waited. And finally, a group of older people walk in to the hall. And they sit down. And this little old lady raises her hand and asks, “Is this where the bingo game is?”
Thirteen people showed up that night. The police never came. And the meeting was a complete disaster.
Later, the volunteers I worked with told me they were quitting – that they had been doing this for two years and had nothing to show for it.
I was tired too. But at that point, I looked outside and saw some young boys playing in a vacant lot across the street, tossing stones at boarded-up apartment building. And I turned to the volunteers, and I asked them, “Before you quit, I want you to answer one question. What’s gonna happen to those boys? Who will fight for them if not us? Who will give them a fair shot if we leave?”
And at that moment, we were all reminded of a third lesson in growing up:
Persevere.
Making your mark on the world is hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. But it’s not. It takes patience, it takes commitment, and it comes with plenty of failure along the way. The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won’t. It’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.
After my little speech that day, one by one, the volunteers decided not to quit. We went back to those neighborhoods, and we kept at it, sustaining ourselves with the small victories. Eventually, over time, a community changed. And so had we.
Cultivating empathy, challenging yourself, persevering in the face of adversity – these are qualities that dare us to put away childish things. They are qualities that help us grow.
They are qualities that one graduate today knows especially well.
Richard Komi was born thousands of miles from here in Southern Nigeria. He’d probably still be there today, if he hadn’t been forced to flee when his tribe came under attack. Eventually, he made it to the United States, worked his way through factories and retail jobs, and came here to SNHU, to complete the education he began in Africa. And now, with a wife and kids and lots of responsibility, he’s even taking the time to give back to his new country by volunteering on this campaign.
Richard Komi may be graduating today, but it’s clear that he grew up a long time ago. We celebrate with him because his journey is a testament to the powerful idea that in the face of impossible odds, ordinary people can do extraordinary things.
At a time when America finds itself at a crossroads, facing challenges we haven’t seen in decades, we need to hold on to this idea more than ever.
A lot is riding on the decisions that are made and the leadership that is provided by this generation. We are counting on you to help fix a health care system that’s leaving too many Americans sick or bankrupt or both. We are counting on you to bring this planet back from the brink by solving this crisis of global climate change. We are counting on you to help stop a genocide in Darfur that’s taking the lives of innocents as we speak here today. And we’re counting on you to restore the image of America around the world that has led so many like Richard Komi to find liberty, and opportunity, and hope on our doorstep.
There are some who are betting against you – who say that you don’t pay attention, that you don’t show up to vote, that you’re too concerned with your own lives and your own problems.
Well that’s not what I believe and it’s not what I’ve seen. Instead I’ve seen rallies filled with crowds that stretch far into the horizon; thousands upon thousands signing up to organize online; scores who are coming to the very first political event of their lifetime. And just a few hours before this commencement, I got the opportunity to send off hundreds of people who have chosen to take time out of their busy lives and spend an entire Saturday knocking on doors here in New Hampshire. Because they’re not content to sit back and watch anymore. Because they believe they can help this country grow.
And whenever the doubt creeps in and I find myself wondering if change is really possible, I end up thinking about the young Americans – teenagers and college kids not much older than you – who watched the Civil Rights Movement unfold before them on television sets all across the country.
I imagine that they would’ve seen the marchers and heard the speeches, but they also probably saw the dogs and the fire hoses, or the footage of innocent people being beaten within an inch of their lives; or heard the news the day those four little girls died when someone threw a bomb into their church.
Instinctively, they knew that it was safer and smarter to stay at home; to watch the movement from afar. But they also understood that these people in Georgia and Alabama and Mississippi were their brothers and sisters; that what was happening was wrong; and that they had an obligation to make it right. When the buses pulled up for a Freedom Ride down South, they got on. They took a risk. And they changed the world.
Now it’s your turn. You will be tested by the challenges of this new century, and at times you will fail. But know that you have it within your power to try. That generations who have come before you faced these same fears and uncertainties in their own time. And that if we’re willing to shoulder each other’s burdens, to take great risks, and to persevere through trial, America will continue its journey towards that distant horizon, and a better day.
-------------------Senator Barack Obama, May 19, 2007.
Thoughts?
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Little "E" Saga comes to a close for now...
Dale Earnhardt, Jr. announced this week that he was going to race for Hendrick Motorsports. This will piss off a lot of Earnhardt fans who have undying hatred for Jeff Gordon.Why you say? Junior wants to win and Hendrick has the best equipment - That is the bottom line. Money wasn't even an issue; the main thing is little "e" wants to win and felt that this 'stable' was best for him. If he can not win for this team then he just can not win.
Heard some guy the other day say that this scenario is like Luke Skywalker going over to the dark side....what do you guys think?
Disher an All American...
University of South Carolina junior designated hitter Phil Disher was named a third-team Pro-Line Athletic NCBWA All-American, according to USC on Thursday.
Disher hit .328 with 15 home runs and 63 RBI for the Gamecocks, who finished 46-20 and lost to national No. 3 seed North Carolina in the NCAA super regional at Chapel Hill this past weekend.
Disher hit .328 with 15 home runs and 63 RBI for the Gamecocks, who finished 46-20 and lost to national No. 3 seed North Carolina in the NCAA super regional at Chapel Hill this past weekend.
Big Angry calls out all the people with nicknames
Here is a list of some pretty good nicknames for over the years. If you can think of some more please do tell.
The Babe- George Ruth
The Big Unit - Randy Johnson
Magic Johnson" - Earvin Johnson
Iron Mike - Mike Tyson
The Great One - Wayne Gretzky
Stan the Man - Stan Musial
Air Jordan - Michael Jordan
Slick Willie - President Bill Clinton
Italian Stallion - Rocky Marciano
The Fridge - William Refrigerator Perry
The Rocket - Roger Clemens
The night train- Jasper Brinkley
Shaq- Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal
Baby Shaq - Glenn Davis
Penny-Anfernee Deon Hardaway
Hammering Hank- Hank Aaron
Foppa- Peter Forsberg
The Babe- George Ruth
The Big Unit - Randy Johnson
Magic Johnson" - Earvin Johnson
Iron Mike - Mike Tyson
The Great One - Wayne Gretzky
Stan the Man - Stan Musial
Air Jordan - Michael Jordan
Slick Willie - President Bill Clinton
Italian Stallion - Rocky Marciano
The Fridge - William Refrigerator Perry
The Rocket - Roger Clemens
The night train- Jasper Brinkley
Shaq- Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal
Baby Shaq - Glenn Davis
Penny-Anfernee Deon Hardaway
Hammering Hank- Hank Aaron
Foppa- Peter Forsberg
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Nicknames
I was just wondering how nicknames come about. Are we allowed to give our selves nicknames or do they have to be given to us. I have 8 million none that i have made up myself. I am just bored at work, but it has come to my attention that a certain someone that write on this blog uses one that he dubbed for himself. It was also used on a very popular movie about fraternity life and John Belushi was the star. I was just wondering this isnt an attack from Big Angry but from now on i may dub me Bear
Jacko still cryin' over location of Super Regional
Tigers coach says team treated unfairly by NCAA.
WHAT? Stop cryin Jacko, the season is over...go recruit or go to the lake and enjoy some down time.
The Greenville News posted this story today online -
Jack Leggett removed himself and his team from the scene of Clemson University's postseason baseball tournament disappointment but he brought the disappointment back with him.
Speaking with reporters Tuesday morning for the first time since returning from Clemson's super regional tournament loss at Mississippi State, the Clemson baseball coach didn't back away at all from the feeling that his team was treated unfairly by the NCAA committee that sent then to Starkville, Miss., to play Mississippi State.
"From everything I knew and had been told, I felt we would be hosting (the super regional)," Leggett said. "From the polls the the RPI to hw you fared in your last 10 games, all these were factors in our favor, and with a better record, I told all our players if we win our (regional) tournament and Florida State loses theirs, we'd be hosting a super regional.
"Then (after Mississippi State was awarded the super regional), I started hearing things about the crowd size, that they had played here (in super regionals) before and all that, and that's just not part of the equation," Leggett said. "That shouldn't be how you determine these things; teams should be ranked 1-to-64 or whatever and it should just go from there."
After a season full of injuries, Leggett's team finally had a set roster the last six weeks or so of the season and played its best baseball at that time, which only added to Leggett's frustration."I wanted to go down there, win two games and I was going to be very vocal about (the site selection)," Leggett said. "I just honestly feel the right thing didn't happen to us."
Thoughts from LOHD readers? Does he have a valid argument or is this just typical Tigers belly-achin over a loss?
WHAT? Stop cryin Jacko, the season is over...go recruit or go to the lake and enjoy some down time.
The Greenville News posted this story today online -
Jack Leggett removed himself and his team from the scene of Clemson University's postseason baseball tournament disappointment but he brought the disappointment back with him.
Speaking with reporters Tuesday morning for the first time since returning from Clemson's super regional tournament loss at Mississippi State, the Clemson baseball coach didn't back away at all from the feeling that his team was treated unfairly by the NCAA committee that sent then to Starkville, Miss., to play Mississippi State.
"From everything I knew and had been told, I felt we would be hosting (the super regional)," Leggett said. "From the polls the the RPI to hw you fared in your last 10 games, all these were factors in our favor, and with a better record, I told all our players if we win our (regional) tournament and Florida State loses theirs, we'd be hosting a super regional.
"Then (after Mississippi State was awarded the super regional), I started hearing things about the crowd size, that they had played here (in super regionals) before and all that, and that's just not part of the equation," Leggett said. "That shouldn't be how you determine these things; teams should be ranked 1-to-64 or whatever and it should just go from there."
After a season full of injuries, Leggett's team finally had a set roster the last six weeks or so of the season and played its best baseball at that time, which only added to Leggett's frustration."I wanted to go down there, win two games and I was going to be very vocal about (the site selection)," Leggett said. "I just honestly feel the right thing didn't happen to us."
Thoughts from LOHD readers? Does he have a valid argument or is this just typical Tigers belly-achin over a loss?
Monday, June 11, 2007
Tanner -- unappreciated?
Did you know USC won 46 games this season? Tanner won game 500 yesterday (500 wins at USC)? USC led the nation in home runs this year? Tanner has lead SC to the CWS 9 times.
If you’re a USC baseball fan, perhaps you did and perhaps you didn’t. And maybe you didn’t care. It seems these days there’s not a lot of love for coach Ray Tanner and his guys. Somehow making the NCAA regionals for the eighth straight year is not enough.
Does the lack of appreciation bother Tanner? Yes and no. But I can tell you this: He hears it and he feels how his team isn’t appreciated as much as he thinks it deserves.
Tanner said: "It’s okay by me. but I feel for the players a little bit...We haven’t been a great team all year, but we’ve managed to win a pretty good number of games. One of the reasons I’m here is because of our fans (and) the great tradition I’ve talked about many times with coach (June) Raines, coach (Bobby) Richardson. But the fan base was a big part of the reason that I wanted to be here and it remains that way. Our fans care. They come. They buy tickets. Did they yell at me a little bit more now than they have in the past? They do. But again I can go with that. I just hate it with the players when they feel a little bit under appreciated. But it goes with the territory. I think we’ve had a little better year than that but….’’ Tanner didn’t finish his thought.
A reporter asked him if he’s created a monster at USC after doing what he’s done, especially going to three straight World Series. Tanner said: "I don’t know if we’ve created a monster. It might have been different had we gone to the World Series every other year instead of the three years in a row. But again I’m proud of this program. We’ve been consistent. Have we been great? Maybe not,but we have been very consistent. Our guys, this team, maybe has been a little bit under appreciated. But the criticism I endure, I’m okay with it. I love fans. They care and they voice their concerns. The alternative is not good. They’re not here and they’re not voicing their concerns. They’re not interested. Our fans are interested and I like that.’’
So let's all remember how good SC baseball is and how lucky the school is to have Tanner at the helm. Remember he is a highly sought after coach and could leave for bigger programs with more tradition and more money but he has chosen to stay and be "da man."
So show some love for Tanner and the team...
If you’re a USC baseball fan, perhaps you did and perhaps you didn’t. And maybe you didn’t care. It seems these days there’s not a lot of love for coach Ray Tanner and his guys. Somehow making the NCAA regionals for the eighth straight year is not enough.
Does the lack of appreciation bother Tanner? Yes and no. But I can tell you this: He hears it and he feels how his team isn’t appreciated as much as he thinks it deserves.
Tanner said: "It’s okay by me. but I feel for the players a little bit...We haven’t been a great team all year, but we’ve managed to win a pretty good number of games. One of the reasons I’m here is because of our fans (and) the great tradition I’ve talked about many times with coach (June) Raines, coach (Bobby) Richardson. But the fan base was a big part of the reason that I wanted to be here and it remains that way. Our fans care. They come. They buy tickets. Did they yell at me a little bit more now than they have in the past? They do. But again I can go with that. I just hate it with the players when they feel a little bit under appreciated. But it goes with the territory. I think we’ve had a little better year than that but….’’ Tanner didn’t finish his thought.
A reporter asked him if he’s created a monster at USC after doing what he’s done, especially going to three straight World Series. Tanner said: "I don’t know if we’ve created a monster. It might have been different had we gone to the World Series every other year instead of the three years in a row. But again I’m proud of this program. We’ve been consistent. Have we been great? Maybe not,but we have been very consistent. Our guys, this team, maybe has been a little bit under appreciated. But the criticism I endure, I’m okay with it. I love fans. They care and they voice their concerns. The alternative is not good. They’re not here and they’re not voicing their concerns. They’re not interested. Our fans are interested and I like that.’’
So let's all remember how good SC baseball is and how lucky the school is to have Tanner at the helm. Remember he is a highly sought after coach and could leave for bigger programs with more tradition and more money but he has chosen to stay and be "da man."
So show some love for Tanner and the team...
Sopranos - Fade to Black...
No more baked ziti, therapy sessions with Dr. Melfi or strained conversations with Uncle Junior. As Tony’s mother Livia (remember her?) would say, “Poor you.” That is how we all feel now with the "fade to black" ending of “The Sopranos." It reminded me of the bogus ending of Seinfeld.
So....
Did anyone watch the last episode? How'd the ending leave you feeling? Did you want more? Better closure? Or did the writers nail it? Thoughts?
What is your interpretation of the ending?
So....
Did anyone watch the last episode? How'd the ending leave you feeling? Did you want more? Better closure? Or did the writers nail it? Thoughts?
What is your interpretation of the ending?
new plates
Don't forget to go vote for what you want the new South Carolina's license plate to look like. I wasn't very pleased with any of the plates. I guess they are better then the old plates that had the yellow jasmine and the Carolina wren on them.
The Games of Summer...
With Summer comes new games....here is a list of sports games to look forward to this summer.
July 17 "NCAA Football 2008" - EA Sports once again kicks off the college football season with a bang, and this years NCAA hopes to be best ever.
July 24 "Nascar 2008" - This year Nascar rumbles onto the next-gen systems for the first time. So far it looks to be worth the wait. The visuals look crisp and the gameplay looks fast.
Aug. 14 "Madden 2008" - Last years Madden on the PS3 and Xbox 360 was met with less critical love, but still sold millions of copies. EA hopes that this year it can win gamers' hearts as well as their greenbacks.
Aug. 15 "All Pro Football 2008" 2K Sports was kicked out of the football game a couple of years ago when EA bought the exclusive rights to make NFL games. Now they are back in it, and to make up for the fact that they can't use the NFL teams and players, they are bringing back greats like Joe Montana and (gasp!) OJ Simpson.
Sept. 28 "Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2008" - Tiger comes back once again with an amazingly fun game of golf.Much like Madden, the next gen versions of last year's game was criticized for not being deep enough.
July 17 "NCAA Football 2008" - EA Sports once again kicks off the college football season with a bang, and this years NCAA hopes to be best ever.
July 24 "Nascar 2008" - This year Nascar rumbles onto the next-gen systems for the first time. So far it looks to be worth the wait. The visuals look crisp and the gameplay looks fast.
Aug. 14 "Madden 2008" - Last years Madden on the PS3 and Xbox 360 was met with less critical love, but still sold millions of copies. EA hopes that this year it can win gamers' hearts as well as their greenbacks.
Aug. 15 "All Pro Football 2008" 2K Sports was kicked out of the football game a couple of years ago when EA bought the exclusive rights to make NFL games. Now they are back in it, and to make up for the fact that they can't use the NFL teams and players, they are bringing back greats like Joe Montana and (gasp!) OJ Simpson.
Sept. 28 "Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2008" - Tiger comes back once again with an amazingly fun game of golf.Much like Madden, the next gen versions of last year's game was criticized for not being deep enough.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Dang those Heels...
South Carolina surrendered a 4-1 lead in the sixth inning, and North Carolina pulled away with five more runs in the final three innings as the Tar Heels kept USC from the College World Series with a 9-4 victory on Sunday night.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
