Bored

Well I guess I'll always have the memories of the Mavericks series. Hopefully the Warriors won't go 13 years between playoff appearances again.

The creation of the offseason college basketball thread made me realize I forgot to create an offseason college football thread like three months ago, so better late than never. My not so bold prediction for this year is that Georgia is going to fuck everyone up. Here's your non-traditional, non-conference games of note. Well okay not all of them are noteworthy and I probably missed a few. August 28th N.C. State at South Carolina August 30th Alabama vs. Clemson (Atlanta) USC at Virginia Michigan State at California Utah at Michigan Oklahoma State vs. Washington State (Seattle) Hawaii at Florida September 1st Tennessee at UCLA Fresno State at Rutgers September 6th Miami at Florida Cincinnati at Oklahoma Oregon State at Penn State Mississippi at Wake Forest September 12th Kansas at South Florida September 13th Arkansas at Texas Oklahoma at Washington Virginia at Connecticut Ohio State at USC Oregon at Purdue Wisconsin at Fresno State UCLA at BYU California at Maryland September 17th Kansas State at Louisville September 18th West Virginia at Colorado September 20th Miami at Texas A&M Iowa at Pittsburgh Boise State at Oregon Mississippi State at Georgia Tech Georgia at Arizona State September 27th Virginia Tech at Nebraska Colorado vs. Florida State (Jacksonville) Fresno State at UCLA South Florida at N.C. State October 23rd Auburn at West Virginia

That should be the new subtitle of this thread.

It's good to know Marco Scutaro is still clutch for the A's even when he's playing for the opposing team.

God dammit.

Woo hoo, eight game winning streak and now tied for 1st. I'm hoping my team is doing it's best impression of the Oakland teams of earlier this decade of always getting off to terrible starts and then playing red hot the rest of the year. Now watch me get swept by the Bombers.

I'd be upset if I hadn't already completely given up on him last year.

I really have no idea but there was a fairly recent example in 1999 when the Vikings cut their first round pick Dimitrius Underwood before the regular season started as he had serious mental issues and left training camp after just one day. For that Ted Gregory guy the Broncos cut in '88, all I could find is apparently they didn't even scout the guy and Dan Reeves drafted him based on the recommendation of a friend. With the money that is thrown at first round picks that's something that simply couldn't happen today.

ESPN, FOX, and TBS Games to Poison Our Youth MONDAY Rays (Jason Hammel) at Yankees (Mike Mussina), 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN2 WEDNESDAY Phillies (Kyle Kendrick) at Mets (Mike Pelfrey), 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN2 SATURDAY Yankees at Red Sox, 3:55/12:55 PM, FOX Rockies at Diamondbacks, 3:55/12:55 PM, FOX SUNDAY Cubs at Phillies, 1:30 PM/10:30 AM, TBS Yankees at Red Sox, 8:00/5:00 PM, ESPN

They had Ray Durham and Jose Castillo batting 4th and 5th respectively. He better have shut them out.

Billy Packer is worse than Hit...oh nevermind.

NFL Draft is only three weeks away and this year it might actually go by at a relatively brisk pace with the shortened draft times. Since it is that time of year it's time for me to pick out a past NFL Draft and run down the first round from that year with little to no insight. I picked 1988 because it was 20 years ago, simple enough? 1988 featured several great wide receivers but little depth overall after the first two rounds. It's also the draft where there wasn't a single quarterback taken in the first two rounds and the first one taken in the 3rd round was Tom Tupa who would later become a punter. 1. Atlanta - Aundray Bruce, LB, Auburn Lasted 11 years but only two of them were spent as a starter so that would definitely would equal to a bust for a #1 pick overall. 2. Kansas City - Neil Smith, DE, Nebraska Good pick. Six Pro Bowls and over 100 career sacks. 3. Detroit - Bennie Blades, S, Miami Halfway decent defensive back but not quite the career you'd hope for a pick this high. His brother Brian was taken in the 2nd round of this draft. 4. Tampa Bay - Paul Gruber, T, Wisconsin 12 year starter but kind of surprising he never went to a Pro Bowl as I seem to remember him being regarded as one of the better left tackles in the league during his prime. Maybe he just has a good rating Tecmo Super Bowl and that's why I thought he was good. 5. Cincinnati - Rickey Dixon, S, Oklahoma Lasted five years, doing nothing of note. 6. L.A. Raiders - Tim Brown, WR, Notre Dame Slam dunk future Hall of Famer. 7. Green Bay - Sterling Sharpe, WR, South Carolina Was on his way to a Hall of Fame career it seemed before a neck injury cut it short in 1994. 8. N.Y. Jets - Dave Cadigan, G, USC I honestly never heard of him but apparently he was a five year starter. 9. L.A. Raiders - Terry McDaniel, CB, Tennessee Five time Pro Bowl selection. 10. N.Y. Giants - Eric Moore, G, Indiana Another guard for a New York team that I have no memories of. 11. Dallas - Michael Irvin, WR, Miami I don't think there is a football player I despised more than him. 12. Phoenix - Ken Harvey, LB, California Selected to four Pro Bowls but he went to Cal and therefore he sucks. 13. Philadelphia - Keith Jackson, TE, Oklahoma Very good receiving tight end who went to five Pro Bowls. 14. L.A. Rams - Gaston Green, RB, UCLA Short career. Rushed for over 1000 yards in 1991. 15. San Diego - Anthony Miller, WR, Tennessee Obviously overshadowed by the three receivers taken ahead of him but had a very good career as well. 16. Miami - Eric Kumerow, DE, Ohio State Pretty impressive that we got 15 picks in before getting to a complete bust. 17. New England - John Stephens, RB, Northwest State Made the Pro Bowl as a rookie but did little else after that. 18. Pittsburgh - Aaron Jones, DE, Eastern Kentucky Played eight years but did anyone notice? 19. Minnesota - Randall McDaniel, G, Arizona State 12 Pro Bowl selections and should be a future Hall of Famer. 20. L.A. Rams - Aaron Cox, WR, Arizona State Well the great run of wide receivers in this draft had to end eventually. 21. Cleveland - Clifford Charlton, LB, Florida Bust. 22. Houston - Lorenzo White, RB, Michigan State Had one great year in 1992 but didn't see a whole lot of carries in his career playing in the run and shoot. 23. Chicago - Brad Muster, RB, Stanford Decent fullback who, like most running backs, had a short career. 24. New Orleans - Craig Heyward, RB, Pittsburgh Very popular, fat fullback who died at age 39 due to brain cancer. 25. L.A. Raiders - Scott Davis, DT, Illinois Not quite as good as the Raiders first two picks. 26. Denver - Ted Gregory, DT, Syracuse Was cut during training camp. Seriously how does a team fuck up so bad on it's first pick that the guy can't even make it out of camp? 27. Chicago - Wendell Davis, WR, LSU Pretty good receiver who's best known for having his career ended when he tore both ACLs while running a pass route on the god awful Veterans Stadium turf in 1993. Other Notable Picks 29. Detroit - Chris Speilman, LB, Ohio State 30. Philadelphia - Eric Allen, CB, Arizona State 31. Cincinnati - Ickey Woods, RB, UNLV 36. N.Y. Giants - Jumbo Elliott, T, Michigan 39. San Francisco - Pierce Holt, DE, Angelo State 40. Buffalo - Thurman Thomas, RB, Oklahoma State 41. Dallas - Ken Norton, LB, UCLA 43. New England - Vincent Brown, LB, Mississippi Valley State 44. Pittsburgh - Dermontti Dawson, C, Kentucky 46. L.A. Rams - Flipper Anderson, WR, UCLA 49. Seattle - Brian Blades, WR, Miami 50. Cleveland - Michael Dean Perry, DT, Clemson 63. N.Y. Jets - Erik McMillan, S, Missouri 68. Phoenix - Tom Tupa, QB, Ohio State 74. N.Y. Jets - James Hasty, CB, Washington State 76. Indianapolis - Chris Chandler, QB, Washington 80. San Francisco - Bill Romanowski, LB, Boston College 125. Houston - Chris Dishman, CB, Purdue 159. Washington - Stan Humphries, QB, Louisiana-Monroe 239. Miami - Jeff Cross, DE, Missouri 252. Pittsburgh - John Jackson, T, Eastern Kentucky

SATURDAY UCLA (35-3) vs. Memphis (37-1), 6:07/3:07 PM Kansas (35-3) vs. North Carolina (36-2), 8:47/5:47 PM

Wow. I heard a very weak rumor about this last week and laughed it off. What a fucking traitor.

And I notice in that game a 20-year old Mike Hampton gets his only career save.

Over in the game thread on BTF, someone referenced this game between the Mets and Reds in 1986. Davey Johnson flipped between Jesse Orosco and Roger McDowell, putting Orosco in right field when McDowell pitched, and McDowell in left while Orosco pitched with Mookie Wilson switching to the other corner.

Wow and it was all in one inning too. *** TOP OF INNING 2 *** 0 D.Evans 1 2 Base Error - 2B b-2 gb(2B)x 0 2 T.Wallach 4 1 Base Error - LF 2-3 b-1 fly(LF)x 0 1 3 D.Thon 4 Force Play (C) 3-H 1-o b-1 catch-x 1 1 K.Moreland 1 Wild Pitch 1-2 1 2 K.Moreland 4 Walk b-1 1 12 P.Bradley 7 Home Run (CF) 2-H 1-H b-H 1 R.Roenicke 4 Walk b-1 1 1 K.Bass 5 Walk 1-2 b-1 1 12 D.Mattingly 4 Walk 2-3 1-2 b-1 1 123 D.Concepcion 5 Single (RF) 3-H 2-H 1-3 b-1 SUBSTITUTE P - Don Carman 1 1 3 D.Evans 4 Strike Out b-0 2 1 3 T.Wallach 6 1 Base Error - SS 3-H 1-2 b-1 gb(SS)x 2 12 D.Thon 5 Foul Out (SS) b-0 bpSI 1-5

There's no way to rest a player for just a game and "resting" a player doesn't really have any effect on that player. In the regular version of Strat-O-Matic there is a setting to prevent a player from being overused but the Sporting News version has no usage controls. It would have been nice though to have a daily line-ups option like how you can pre-assign your starting pitcher for each game in advance.

Actually Robin is banging Michelle Wie. Guess she didn't know Brooke is the one who'll be a lottery pick but as mentioned she has plenty of her own money. Hopefully they'll have kids so we get a seven foot latin/asian golfer.

The Lopez Twins declared for the NBA Draft. I am sad.

Blackout rules apply to MLB Extra Innings as well and MLB has some ridiculous blackout rules. I can still remember years ago during a free preview week of EI the A's were in Seattle and the game wasn't televised locally yet they still backed it out. Apparently if I were a real fan I should have flown Seattle and bought a ticket to see it person.

Not sure if it has been mentioned or not but a reminder that MLB Extra Innings is free for the opening week as usual. Only two games on right now though, Pirates/Braves and Rangers/Mariners. Braves are now on something called Peachtree TV.

That was 10 million times better than I thought it would be as I was expecting a complete train wreck.

I guess Kansas is better than a team of Western Conference All-Stars. All four 1's in for the first time ever, so in theory the Final Four should be awesome but we shall see.

Can you believe that it will be 10 years since the McGwire/Sosa homerun chase and 10 years since the Yankees tore through the American League on their way to an 114 win season? I really have nothing to add to that and I am just posting one of my random lists, this time around every team's Opening Day/Night starter from the '98 season. I went to every A's Opening Night game from 1995-2002 and in '98 it was actually a fairly momentous occasion as they were playing the Red Sox in Pedro Martinez's first ever start for them. Pedro dominated as expected but glancing at the boxscore I forgot it was also Dennis Eckersley's first appearance in Oakland since 1995 as he played his final year with the Sox. On to the list... Angels: Chuck Finley Astros: Shane Reynolds Athletics: Tom Candiotti Blue Jays: Roger Clemens Braves: Greg Maddux Brewers: Cal Eldred Cardinals: Todd Stottlemyre Cubs: Kevin Tapani Devil Rays: Wilson Alvarez Diamondbacks: Andy Benes Dodgers: Ramon Martinez Expos: Carlos Perez Giants: Shawn Estes Indians: Charles Nagy Mariners: Randy Johnson Marlins: Livan Hernandez Mets: Bobby Jones Orioles: Mike Mussina Padres: Kevin Brown Phillies: Curt Schilling Pirates: Francisco Cordova Rangers: John Burkett Reds: Mike Remlinger Red Sox: Pedro Martinez Rockies: Daryl Kile Royals: Tim Belcher Tigers: Justin Thompson Twins: Bob Tewksbury White Sox: Jamie Navarro Yankees: Andy Pettitte