Not a Fan

Any hopes of this sports fan branching out into soccer (I refuse to call it "football" because I am southern and American) have been dashed this weekend, and not just because the greatly hyped USA vs. England game ended in a 1-1 tie. No, anyone who has watched even one minute of the World Cup can guess what has me so put off by the experience. Need a hint? Ok.

BbzzzzzzzzzzHHHHMMMMMMMMMMbzzzzzzzzzzzzzzBZZBBZZZZZZ...

Those damn plastic trumpets blew it for me! (Howdya like that pun?) I am not alone in this opinion. The noise from these vuvuzelas is a constant, annoying, irritating din that JUST. NEVER. STOPS. It goes on and on and on during the entire game without any breaks and hardly a change in tone. The din makes me CRAZY. It sounds like an angry hive of giant bees. Can't stand it. And I won't be watching any more games thankyouverymuch. Unless the networks invent a vuvuzela noise filter that cancels it out on their broadcasts. Then... maybe. But then there is that whole "1-1" thing. So maybe not.

Hot Things To Do On A Steamy Day

1. At noon, put on long pants and tuck them into your socks. Put on a heavy, long-sleeved shirt over your T-shirt. Put on thick leather gloves. Then go out into your yard, wade into huge bushes and tackle a bunch of vines and briers, ripping them out by the roots. While you are in the thick of it, find and remove a bunch of dead tree branches that fell during the spring storms.

I don't think I have ever sweated so much. It was literally pouring off my face.

Go in. Take a nice, cool shower. Then...

2. Go to an afternoon baseball game during the hottest part of the day. Braves vs. Red Sox at Turner field. It was fun hanging out with the girls, but even in the shade it was hotter than hell. It was too hot to eat. My beer got warm in record time. And the game was, I hate to say, kind of dull. Not a lot going on, and the Braves lost 1-0. We seem to be in some kind of funk. Only one thing to do...

Go home. Take a nice, cool shower. No more adventures today.

Gold vs White

Went to the annual "T-Day" game for a football fix. Yes, I am hard core.

My observations? I feel better about the defense (we lost a lot of starters); the running game has improved; O-line is a question mark; we should see more passing next year; the #3 quarterback might be #2 before the first game (#1 did not play due to a shoulder injury); there were still way too many fumbles; and we have NO kicking game... none (heck, Coach Paul Johnson himself blocked a punt, I kid you not). But a lot of good players were sitting on the sidelines, and I am optimistic about our next season. It should be a lot of fun.

How many days until September 5th?

Ouch.

You know your team sucks when (a)it is the end of January and you have yet to win a conference game, and (2)your team is featured in a "Who Stinks Worse" article in the local fishwrapper. Ouch.

It was small consolation that the author concluded that UGA is in fact worse (but only barely). I still have fun at the games. But it would be nice to beat an ACC team at least once. Still waiting...

On the plus side, I do far better in the NCAA pool when Tech is not in there clouding my judgment. I came in 2nd last year. Damn Memphis!

THWG!

Good times.

Pinch Me

Jackets win 45-42 between the hedges, and finish the regular season 9-3.

I still can't quite believe that third quarter comeback, but the long dry spell is finally over. Thank you Coach Paul Johnson for "getting it" about the rivalry, thank you DRad for hiring him, and thank you Yellow Jackets for playing a full 60 minutes and gutting out the win.

Happy now. And I don't have to take any crap from Georgia fans for at least 364 days.

Pumped!

TO HELL WITH GEORGIA!

Zima in the sun with highlights

When Zima isn't basking in the sun being petted, she likes to watch highlights of Georgia Tech football. She's a true blue fan.

41-23

It wasn't just good. It was great.

The U at The I

Tonight. I'll be there. Freezing my butt off. Damn, this better be good...

1975...

...was the last time that Georgia Tech beat FSU. Until tonight. After the game, the students rushed the field. I approve! The team deserves it. They won in spite of being way down into their depth chart because of injuries, both before this game and during it.



Before the game, we had our usual tailgating party. PDM made bite-size Jamaican jerk chicken, and it absolutely ROCKED. You want some, don't you?



And to top off my excellent football weekend, Florida creamed Georgia (sorry Jenny) and got their revenge for that ridiculous stunt that UGA pulled last year. Unlike last weekend, I am looking forward to reading the AJC sports page tomorrow.

Three Points

It was the margin of victory last week, and the margin of defeat today. I'm not happy about the loss, but there is reason for optimism. We never gave up. Never quit. Our coach plays to win rather than playing "not to lose". We were able to stay competitive until the end in spite of committing multiple turnovers in both games. If we can get a handle on the mistakes, especially ball security, we're going to be a very tough team to beat. Overall, the season has gone slightly better than I expected. I figured we'd drop both road games, and by more than three points.

Thursday Night Lights

Toe meets leather tonight!

New coach, new offense, new seats. The Paul Johnson era and a new season of Georgia Tech football kicks off at 7:30pm and I will be there having the usual "heart versus head" expectation war with myself. (And hopefully enjoying our new-and-improved seats in a slightly higher rent section of the stadium.) Seventy five of our one hundred and ten players are freshmen or sophomores. We've hired a new head coach and he has installed a completely new offense - his unique version of a the spread option. A lot of people say it won't work in a BCS conference, but when pressed they cannot articulate exactly why not. We'll find out soon enough. Georgia Tech might just surprise a few people this year. I hope I am one of them.

Whatever happens, I suspect that football is going to be fun again at The Flats.

Believe in Blueland

I attended my first NHL hockey game last night. Tickets for the Thrashers vs. Bruins game were one of my gifts to PDM this Christmas. He loves hockey, but I had always been sort of lukewarm about going. I'd been to a couple of AHL games (the now defunct Worcester Icecats) when I lived in Massachusetts, and I like watching sports, but generally hockey hasn't been my thing. That's why I knew this gift would be a surprise. Especially when I wrapped the tickets and taped them to the inside cover of a box, put a lot of junk in it to rattle around, then wrapped the box.

I've gotta admit it was a lot of fun. Way better than watching a game on TV. It didn't take long to see my first hockey fight (less than two and a half minutes in), followed by a second fight before they had even announced the penalties for the first fight. That got the crowd fired up. Atlanta went on to play a great game, winning a 5-0 shutout.

This should have been my second Thrashers-Bruins game. PDM had tickets to a Thrashers game for us and four of his family members five years ago during one of my holiday visits. This was back when I still lived in Massachusetts and we were dating long distance. Unfortunately, we ate some bad Mexican food the day before and became violently ill overnight. It was my first time staying at the family home, and I made it memorable by puking all over the floor at three o'clock in the morning. To his credit, PDM helped me clean it up, even though he was also fighting a losing battle with nausea. The family had to go to the game without us, and we ended up with a pair of $60 bookmarks to go with our fever and chills. We joke about it now, but back then... not so funny.

"Balanced" Coverage

Today's sports section of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution contained:

- a very nice two page spread about the SEC championship game on page 3-4

- a four page spread about high school football playoffs

- a 1/4 page article about the changes VT made to their defense after getting trounced by LSU early in the season. That was the AJC's sole coverage of the ACC championship game.

- Zero coverage of all other conference championship games today.

My letter to the sports page editor will go out on Monday. Right now, I've gotta get back to the games! (Watching the ACC football game and listening to the Georgia Tech basketball game.)

Forget Barry. Check Out Bobby!

After setting a new record for number of career ejections on Tuesday, Bobby Cox continues to ‘improve’ his record. He was tossed from a game for the 133rd time last night. He received a standing ovation from the crowd as he left the field, the fans chanting “Bob-by!”

His outstanding performance and continued determination will insure that his record will not soon be broken. As an added bonus, I am quite certain that no ‘performance enhancing substances’ were ever used by Cox in pursuit of his place in the record books.

Oh yeah… old what’s-his-face hit another homer. :rolleyes: His team still lost. Heh.

D.O.A.

My picks for the Final Four were 100% wrong. My bracket is dead on arrival. I guess Colbert was right... nerds suck at sports.

If you come in dead last, you get your $5 back. It'll be just my luck to come in next-to-last.

UPDATE: Yup, I knew it! There is one person with a score worse than mine, and he has zero possible points he can earn. So I managed to suck just enough to lose miserably, but not quite enough to gain any benefit from it. Oh well. At least "Cranky Pants" will not have to be in the basement three years in a row (although his wife is still doing way better than he is in the pool, thus insuring his continued crankiness).