A new season on the horizon

33 days and counting until opening day for the Yankees and only 1.5 key injuries to date. Abreu with an oblique strain and Pavano with a bone bruise. Can't count Pavano's injury as more than .5 since he hasn't really played in 2 years. Top it off with Damon taking a few days off for unspecified (that's whay they call them) personal reasons. Looks to be an eventful year in the Bronx. Overall, I think it will be another good season for the Yanks in what should be a more competitive AL East. The Dice-K and Igawa are obvious question marks for the two power clubs and who knows what is left in the tanks of Pettitte and Schilling....and will Clemens be a factor. Will the BlueJays be for real, or just posers for April-July. Will the Rays and O's even show up? Any thoughts and/or predictions for the 2007 season?

FYI....for some fan coverage of the Yanks and Mets see www.nybaseballtalk.com A little thin for now, but since it is a conversation it's all about what you put into it. The guys/gals do respond to posts and all have "real" jobs (I think) but it's nice to see a different view than the NYDN, NYP and NYT. Hopefully the content and posts increase once the season gets underway. And, just because it must be said, ESPN is just miserable since most of the best baseball contributors are now premium content.

Bobby Ross - Retires

Three years into his five year contract, Bobby Ross retired yesterday as head coach of Army football. It is easy to state that he never lived up to the hype/hope from when he was hired. I think he did more than some of us, long time season ticket holders, thought possible. In the two seasons prior to Ross's arrival Army was a combined 1-25 including an unprecedented 0-13 in 2003. With two wins in 2004 and four wins in 2005 the fans had reason to believe there was at least a chance for the Black Knights to win on any game day. Even during the 2006 season, a disappointing 3-9 record, there were the occasional flashes of what could be. Most notably, a fantastic game against Texas A&M in September where up to the final moments Army had a chance to win against a much bigger, stronger and faster opponent.

Thanks for bringing a glimmer of hope to the true Army fans, enjoy your retirement.

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070130/SPORTS/701300327

UVM Catamounts - Men's Hockey

I don't think UVM hocky is getting much respect nationally, which is odd since they moved to the much stronger Hockey East from the ECAC. As of Dec 18th, UVM is ranked 13th, behind UNH (2), Maine (5), BC (7), and BU (9); however, UVM is 2nd (tied with BC and behind UNH) in Hockey East and has defeated BU and Maine this season. What the f....? Of course I have not looked at SOS, comparative records against similar opponents, etc. But why do that when you can easily just compare apples to oranges and make a blanket statement like WTF? and play the "UVM men's hockey gets no respect" card.

Anyway, just my random ramblings on the national mens hockey poll as of 12/18.

Rutgers Scarlet Knights at 9-0

(#15) Rutgers 28 - (#3) Louisville 25

Just to get it out of the way:

R-U kidding me?
R-U serious?

Well played and a great showing from the student body. It had the feel and electricity of big time football right here in the Garden State (and that was from watching it on TV). Only two times have I enjoyed that type of atmosphere live, but both times were Army football (not ranked teams playing). Once vs Louisville on a Thursday night at West Point that went three OTs and then vs Notre Dame at Giants Stadium when the Black Knights went for two and the win but were stuffed at the goal line on a tremedous defensive play.

Congrats to the Rutgers Scarlet Knights.

Pettitte & Clemens mull retirement...again.

Haven't we already gone thru this before with these two guys?

Here are some links to the story:
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2645627

http://houston.astros.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20061031&content_id=1728496&vkey=news_hou&fext=.jsp&c_id=hou

I just can't help but wonder if steroids/hgh have anything to do with this timing. However, Clemens is a fossil and Pettitte has gone through this charade earlier in his career. Perhaps Pettitte has just lost the drive after winning a few World Series early in his career and is frustrated by injuries. Either way, I would miss watching Pettitte more than Clemens. When he is having a good day, which is more frequent than not, it is like watching an artist at work. Clemens was the best power pitcher I ever saw and I don't think I want to see him pitching another few years at a lesser level than we have come to expect.

Army loses. Temple wins!?!?!?!

Army, a team guaranteed a spot in the Poinsetta Bowl if they won six games this year, now needs to beat Air Force, Notre Dame, and Navy to close out the season. I might be going out on a limb here, but after losing three in a row after opening the season 3-3, it's not looking good for the Black Knights. At least all three remaining games will be on national TV to close out the season.

On the other hand, Temple wins. Unbelieveable. In front of what appeared to be a crowd of dozens in Philadelphia, the Owls doubled up Bowling Green 28-14. No wins in the prior 20 games, but a one game winning streak now. Congrats.

For the record, Duke nows owns the nations longest D 1-A losing streak at 16 games.

Cory Lidle Reportedly Died in the NYC plane crash today.

Wow. Not the same as Thurman Munson, but still tragic. How long beofre all teams start putting flying your own plane on the "Forbidden Activities" list in contracts?

As someone who was in NYC 5 years ago -- not a good feeling when you hear a plane crashed into a building on the news/internet.