Big Ten Preview

Order of finish

1) Ohio State
2) Illinois
3) Michigan State
4) Penn State
5) Northwestern
6) Iowa
7) Minnesota
8) Wisconsin
9) Michigan
10) Purdue
11) Indiana

I think that both the Buckeyes and the Illini will finish with two losses or less and end up in the BCS. I have the Buckeyes winning the conference because the two teams play early in the season in Columbus. Even though Zook and the boys have a bye week before the game, the Bucks are going to still be angry after a close loss to USC at home two weeks prior. If Ohio State beats the Trojans, look out for the upset. After Ohio State, the Illini host the Nittany Lions and Sparta, a three week stretch that will make or break their season. If the can go 2-1, they could be sitting pretty. 1-2 would not kill their chances for the BCS. They have top end speed and strength and I am expecting great things. Do yourself a favor and get on them against Mizzou in the opener.

I have Penn State lower than most. I actually like this team, the ranking is more a testament of my belief in the Illini and Dantonio. But Paterno hasn’t had back to back great teams in forever.

Michigan is going to suck again. That program is rotting from the inside out, but asking a true freshman to run that spread against some of these Big Ten defenses is the main reason for the low ranking.

I am not as high on Brewster’s recruits as some others all. Also moving from the Triple H dome to a new outdoor stadium is going to cost them some games. Also while I think Weber is fun to watch, he can’t be trusted.



Coaching rankings
1) Jimmy
2) Fitzgerald
3) Dantonio
4) Ferentz
5) Paterno’s staff
6) Zooker
7) Rich Rod
8) Brewster
9) Bielema
10) Danny Hope
11) Bill Lynch

Watch the Wildcats play for a few weeks, you will come away impressed about how well prepared those kids are every week. Fitz has been able to keep the offense on track even after the untimely passing of its architect. They fly to ball, play to the whistle and will run through a wall for their HBC.

I think that the Rich Rod, Michigan marriage is going to continue to be a nightmare. He seems to be spitting in the face of the tradition and there a few schools where running the spread (USC, Georgia, Ohio State, Alabama, and Michigan) is blasphemous. He is threatening the ghost of Bo with a terrible time. The Tide have to be happy that he balked at taking over in 07. His recruiting base is not going to produce the players for his system and it will be too hard for him to go south and raid these territories due to the expanded tv deals and even bottom rung ACC and SEC teams upgrading their coaching staffs annually. I predict that Michigan will not see the BCS or double digit wins until Rodriguez leaves town with his tail between his legs.

The honeymoon would be over for Bielema in Madison already, except his lord highness Barry Alvarez loves him. But if Camp Randall has to see another clunker the noose might get tight.

Coaching Musings
If Weis gets a ticket out of town, Fitzgerald and Dantonio will get a look along with Brian Kelly and Chucky. Not too many hot seats in the Big Ten, Bill Lynch will get canned at Indiana. Don’t be surprised if the higher ups in Bloomington replace him with an OC or DC off one of the top teams in the conference. Or Mike Locksley who just got the HBC job at New Mexico or NMSU after spending time as Zooker’s OC. He is a monster recruiter in the DC metro area. There continues to be the looming Penn State opening, I am starting to think that Joe Pa is going to meet his maker while on the job. Brian Kelly is sitting in Cincy, patting himself on the back, waiting for one of the top jobs to open up.

Top Coordinators
1) Heacock (DC Buckeyes)
2) Galen Hall (OC Penn State)
3) Mike Schultz (Illinois)

Going with Tressel’s DC is a huge cop-out, but he is a Broyles award winner and they consistently dominate Big Ten offenses. The next two picks were recommended by Dwill. Hall gets credit for putting up video game numbers last year. Shultz was the OC at TCU last year, and anybody who has ever talked football with me knows the love I have for Gary Patterson.

POY candidates
1) Juice Williams
2) T. Pryor
3) Royster
4) Darryl Clark
5) Corey Wooten
6) Mike Kafka
Four year starter with more weapons than the Israeli Air Force, Juice Williams is the prohibitive favorite for player of the year. If he plays well, don’t be surprised if he crashes the Colt McCoy coronation in New York as the #4 vote getter.

Corey Wooten (DE Northwestern) would have been a first round pick last year, but hurt his knee. If he comes back healthy, he will have people talking sooner rather than later. Kafka is the homeless man’s Vince Young. He is going to run around like a maniac but will move the chains. He is slightly above inept as a passer, but he will remind you of those old Archie Manning highlights.

Sleepers team
Don’t really have one outside of the Illini.

Sleeper player
Ohio State DE Cameron Heyward.

Reading as a strategic asset

Let me set the scene......A few weeks ago at this huge outdoor block party, I ran into this 22 year old actress that I have met a few times in the past year or so. Quick background story: I failed the crap out of Art History at Davidson (I thought the professor was joking when he said we needed to look at slides for an hour a day). So instead of just taking 3 classes my last semester, I enrolled in Acting with a bunch of theater kids and Wilkerdrunk. We had this crazy Italian professor (I tried to track him down on the site, but I can't remember his name), who was a major pain in the ass. Therfore, I have performed 5 or 6 acts of Mamet plays and other excerises. Consequently, I have pretty decent knowledge about the basics of the craft.

We were talking for a long time at this party, I was peppering her with intelligent questions and feeding her ridiculous lines about how much I respect acting...."It is so much more complicated than people realize"(It is not)..."I am so impressed that performance artists are such diligent students of human behavior"(I am not). I was also asking her about her favorite playwrights and plays. She was appreciating the attention and starting to look at me with doe eyes. But what happened next completely surprised me........

For some reason the conversation moved to the topic of what we were reading currently. She was reading standard Sex and The City spinoff chick lit, which is horrendous. I was able to show enough self restraint (not my strong suit) to abstain from either ripping her to shreds or laughing in her face. I just nodded my head, mentally made the decision that I was going to throw a few more innings to get some work in, then take myself out and let somebody else close (I have terrible bar game and I am WAY too picky when it come to girls and usually just want to dip and drink, which causes me to rarely hook up and hate myself a little bit).

But then I started talking about the stuff I was reading at the moment, specifically Aleksandar Hemon's The Lazerus Project. I am a worldclass manipulator if I am reasonable sober and decide to try. So I start explaining about how the dude is Bosnian and while visiting Chicago in 1992 Bosnia declared its independence and consequently came under siege from Serbian forces. So he stayed in Chicago, mastered English quickly and is considered one of our greatest writers. She was asking me follow up questions, which I crushed. I explained that I read a lot of immigrant writers from former Soviet Bloc countries, because they understand being oppressed and are our best clue to the mind set of the South Americans living under these commi dictators and the Arabs under Islamofacist thugs. Needless to say, her mind was blown. Which leads to her giving me "Goose, you big stud. Take me to bed or lose me forever" eyes, but instead I threw in a hammer of skoal straight and then went to get another beer b/c I hate her for reading chick lit.

The point of this story, besides the fact that I am a loser and might be half gay, is that girls in their twenties and early thirties read a lot more fiction than guys do. Most of my friends in Chicago barely read, and if they do it is GQ or business related books/trade publications. So the fact that I can converse and tell stories on topics that are unique sets me apart. This tool is also helpful for making conversation with strangers, if the classic "Where did you go to college? Then talk about how awesome/terrible the place is" move falls flat.

Reading interesting things whether they are magazine articles, newspaper features, books, or internet stories is like the hybrid club that guys on the PGA tour are using. It is easy to hit and useful in all types of situations. Below are a couple handfuls of hints I have to get this club in your bag (I am sure I missed some necessities, please let me know).......

1) Subscribe to National Review. They have an extensive book review section in the back and the writers often reference other texts in their columns and articles. I read that magazine with a ballpoint pen, circling the words I don't know and underlining the books I need to read. Also the majority of articles are incredibly well written, they not only rip liberals for their constant idiocy and ridiculous beliefs but offer common sense conservative solutions. I used to copy some of the articles and send them to the Desert Fox, but I just ended up getting her and Meatstick Dynamite subscriptions of their own. I also subscribe to The Weekly Standard, but outside of their Middle East and South American coverage which is better than NR, it is pretty much worthless. I recommend swinging by the library and taking 30 minutes to read their foreign correspondents every week.

2) Read Sports Illustrated. This magazine is pretty worthless these days, but when they do retrospectives (lately the Unitas/Raymond Berry and Harvey Haddix's 12 inning no hitter have been the best) they are usally phenomenal. So look at the writer and go on amazon to see if he/she has written anything else. Also sometimes they still will have great features, Albert Chen's article on defensive metrics and King's feature about Derrick Brooks' film study on Adrian Petersen are the two that pop to mind. If you are able to talk about anything with passion and expertise, you can impress a 22 year old girl. Even if it is UZR or Adrian Petersen's cut back tenedecies.

3) Raid your grandparents' bookshelves. They have been amassing books for 70 or so years. They will have a wide variety of stuff.

4) Use the amazon recommendations

5) Read Fitzgerald. Tender is the Night and The Great Gatesby, should be required of all Americans over the age of 18

6) Steinbeck is overrated, Grapes of Wrath sucks.

7) So is Hemingway, but read Sun Also Rises anyway.

8) Raymond Chandler, Dash Hammett, Ross MacDonald and even some current noir novelists (Dan Johnson) are tremendous reads.

9) If you have graduated from Junior High, Clive Cussler and John Grisham are no longer acceptable. Read Harlan Coben instead.

10) Brad Thor and Vince Flynn are still acceptable due to their heroes' similarities to Jack Bauer

11) Read Biographies. Ted Williams is my favorite subject. But take time to read obscure people. Right now I am reading James Palmer's Bloody White Baron about a Russian Noblemen who ended up in Mongolia raising hell. I loaned Meatstick Dynamite my copy of David Olgivy's bio, learned about the beginning of American advertisingIt is much more fun to learn history through the life of one person. Currently trying to track down a good books about David Niven and John Wayne.

12) Read about Toyota

13) Read about China and India

14) Read about the Civil War

15) Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov is a tremendous novel.

16) WEB Griffin wrote a three or four series with mulitple novels about the OSS, the Army, and the Marines. He use fictional characters intertwined real people (FDR, MacArthur, Bill Donavon) to paint a picture of war. I recommend these highly.

Break Up Bill of Rights

I was having an interesting conversation with one of my friends today about a situation he found himself in over the weekend.

He had a platonic sleepover (a topic for another day, but long story short, I think they are completely lame and a waste. girls who pull this off are teases and should be incarcerated) with a hot chick that happens to be good friends with a girl that he dated for a while. This chick ended the relationship a few weeks ago against my buddies wishes. But for some reason my buddy felt it would have been "shady" if they hooked up.

Let me explain, why he is wrong.......

When there is a break up, there is a breaker and a breakee. The breaker has made the decision that he/she no longer has any desire to be with the other party, therefore has relinquished all claims. So in this situation my buddy is a "free agent." He could nail the chick's mom, as long as she was divorced, her roommate, or her sister and the girl has no right to be upset.

As the "breaker" you do not become a free agent, you become a "restricted free agent." The breakee retains the right to place the "franchise tag" on up to 10 people. He/She can use the tag to keep friends* and family members off the list of "targets of opportunity". The franchise tag can only be lifted by appeal to the breakee by either the breaker or the friend/family member. And the appeal can only be made after a significant cooling off period has elapsed.
* Only friends that the breakee had previous to the break up or were made mutually during the relationship are eligible for the tag. The breaker retains the right to date or hook up with their own friends.

This is important because if a relationship has lasts for a couple of months, you end up mixing groups of friends. So often relationships develop that may make sense to attempt to take to the next level (or at least a drunken bathroom groping). A civilized society has ground rules to deal with such inevitablities.

As you get into your late 20s and early/mid/late 30s, and it becomes obvious that he/she isn't a "QB you can win with", it is time to end the relationship. This seems to be happening a lot currently in Chicago at the moment. It is often difficult/annoying to untangle the new friendships that have developed, following these ground rules keeps everything above board.

Dating and Sports

There are two posts today, please scroll down to see the earlier post...

Couple of notes:

1) Downloaded Lunatic Fringe by Red Rider. Tremendous song, I think I need to make it my new pre-going out anthem. (I know Simmons talked about this recently)

2) On a similar note, I picked up a used copy of Vision Quest. Incredible movie. Linda Fiorentino in 1985, MEOW! As hot as Lea Thompson in All the Right Moves

3) My Bama Houndstooth baseball hat came today. If I wasn't awesome, I couldn't pull it off. I look forward to being berated by The Bippidity Boppidity with chants of "Bama Bangs!"

http://www.lids.com/pid/20076808?ipsrc=media&reftype=pp&sptype=shopzilla&cpid=shopzilla

4) Cruel Intentions is on FX. If that movie was an R, I am not sure if I would have made it out of my room for about two and half years. It would have been like Marty and the Jerry McGuire tape of Kelly Preston's side breast. The scene with Counting Crows "ColorBlind" in the background is pretty special. Its disappointing those two kids couldn't go the distance in real life.

Dating and Sports......

My first thought is that sports and dating mix perfectly, if you go to the game. The best dates I have been on were at Wrigley and the United Center.

For some reason, I am always a little bit more relaxed if I am at the game as opposed to watching it at home biting my nails and yelling at the coaches for being stupid. The live game allows me to soak it all in and bring my date with me on a emotional roller coaster, highlighted with real drama and civic pride. It also helps that I know everything and take it upon myself become captain of the section. Girls are used to going to games with their parents, other girl friends or the hummers they dated before me. I make a bigger impact in one game, then most people could in 6 or 7 dates. Within three hours I come across as 1)passionate 2) intelligent 3) independent 4) a leader and most importantly 5) FUN.

Too often I think we forget that relationships/dating are supposed to Fun and we get bogged down in all the other garbage associated with them.

As opposed to the benefits of the live game, watching games on tv with girls I am dating is a complete disaster. I end up completely ignoring them, yelling at the tv, throwing my hat, swearing constantly, calling up Fork, using the language of the frat and getting pissed off when she doesn't immediately understand, calling Big Steve, more yelling. I rarely ever watch games with girls unless I have a buffer of a couple other people. If somehow I get to a point in my life, where I would consider settling down with someone (doubtful) these are a few qualities I would look for so the relationship wouldn't interfere with football on tv.

1) Has to read. If the girl has a book she can sit on the couch knocking back a few pages, while I explain to no one in particular how bad Dave Wannestadt is coaching football. Also perfect for halftime hookups, touchdown groping and commerical/first downs makeout sessions.

2) Sleeps late on the weekends or gets out of the house. Girls pack their lives with errands and seem to be unwilling to slab all day on the weekends. Unless I am going to a game Fall and Winter Saturdays/Sundays are spent by getting up early, breaking a sweat, shower, 44oz fountain Diet Coke before kickoff. If someone is bouncing around the house running errands or talking about things other than Cutler's third down completion percentage, I end up snapping.

3) Complete fidelity to my teams. This is what is known as the Brian Fork dilemma. Forky is married to a Tar Heel, I don't know how he doesn't get divorced any time Butchie or Roy cheats. Thankfully TOB is too good to get bested by Butchie, but if something awful happened to me (i.e. Bears' lose) I couldn't handle if the person I am sharing a bed with was happy about it. Fork is able to thrive on it. The only thing I can figure to explain it, is the theory of fractional hatred. This is a theory that I have developed, the basic point is the someone is more attractive in your eyes if you hate them a little bit. It brings more heat to arguements and sex. The theory of fractional hatred manifest in my life in the fact that I am only attracted to liberal chicks.

4) Down to grill on demand. Grilling cool new stuff goes hand and hand with football. I have been watching Steven Raichlen on Barbeque Unversity on public television and getting some monster ideas. I have already snapped up a jalepeno rack(hopefully they will turn out like the ones at nice guy eddies in NYC http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=nice+guy+eddies+nyc&fb=1&split=1&gl=us&view=text&latlng=15111066507254198298 )and promised myself that I am going barbeque oysters for the Bears game against the Niners. http://www.bbqu.net/ Get involved. Coming up with cool new stuff to put over flame or smoke is something that is better if it can be a group activity.

5) Look hot in team gear. It is a given that you will be getting gear from me, the girl needs to be fired up to throw it on and rock it with pride. Getting dressed up for games is completely out.

6) Understanding. I use beer and dip as momentum shifts to help my team. If we are down at the half, I need to slam to help turn the tables. If we are God Damn prevent, I will throw in a hammer to cause a turnover or sack. I can't be expected to bend on this fact.

till next time........

My Appreciate for ESPN's Football Girls

One side note

Ted Lily put on a clinic on How Not To Pitch to Lefties. In the bottom of the first in Philly, he has two outs with Rollins on third and the Flying Hawaiin on second. He throws a fastball off the outside corner to Raul Ibanez, bringing the count to 1-2. So of course Ibanez starts to cheat over the outside corner. Instead of busting him in and maybe getting the called 3rd, he goes back to the well with a fastball on the outside corned. It get deposited 430ft over the centerfield fence. If you are a southpaw, YOU NEVER THROW A LEFTY BATTER TWO STRAIGHT FASTBALLS ON THE SAME PLANE IN THE SAME SPOT IN THE ZONE. Unforgivable. The first pitch reminds them to wait and keep their front shoulder in. The second pitch is their payoff for not being retarded. Absolutely horrifying. This resulted in my second swearing warning at the EAC. FYI, explaining this fact to the old lady on the treadmill next to you will not take the look of disgust off her face.

Okay......With the release of this EA peep hole video , I think now is a good time for me to explain my love and appreciation for her besides the obvious. I am a huge broadcasting snob and hate bad reporting/coverage. I also will go overboard for great color guys and go out of my way to watch their games. I watch White Sox games just to hear Steve Stone talk about pitching. Erin Andrews is the best sideline reporter in the business.

EA is disciplined enough and/or cares enough about the viewers/her craft to never ask questions that start with "Tell me about......" or "Talk about......" Nothing pisses me of more than lazy garbage like that. Watch a NBA game and all the sideline reporters will ask "tell me about Kobe in the last seven minutes", "talk about your defense", "talk about how you made an adjustment." These clowns have unbelievable view of the action, overhear sideline huddles, have the benefit of pregame meetings with the staffs, and have watched hundreds of games in the past year, it is unforgivable that they can't turn their brain on for two seconds and stop being lazy slapdicks.

EA gets up next to the coach or player and sticks the microphone right in their face. And she asks pointed questions based on what she heard earlier in the day or what she watched. She is the 3rd best thing on ESPN college football's coverage after Todd Blackledge and Jesse Palmer. Herbstreit is still good when he snaps after Brent finishes his 7th Knob Creek on the rocks. If this video sidetracks her, I will be so pissed off. She should be getting ready to make the jump to superstardom. If her talent ends up being wasted like Lindsay Lohan's, I am going to cry and spend a month living like Martin Sheen in the beginning of Apocalypse Now.

EA is not the only good female on ESPN's football coverage. Susie Kolber is only a tick behind Trey Wingo as the best point person on NFL Live and she does a great job moderating the Draft stuff. I would pay an extra $200 a year for cable to replace Berman with her and Wingo for all football coverage.Wendi Nix does a great job on the desk for Saturday's studio show. She is direct with the highlights and does a nice job setting up Palmer.

Besides the pregame shows, I think ESPN does a phenomenal job of their football coverage and can't wait to resume 18 games a weekend. Hell, I can't wait for Todd's Taste of the Town. Its basically a bootleg version of Guy Fieri's Triple D.

One Idea: How about having EA going to the bars the friday night before like a pared down version of E! Wild On? Who would not watch this?

Back in Action

Sorry for the lame layoff. I tried to destroy my life a few times, and need some time to paste it back together. I'm going to forgo a recap of most of this effort, due to the fact that I escaped unscathed so far and would like to keep it this way.





I am going to throw down a smattering of random thoughts with some links, but have promised myself I am going to write some lengthly posts on specific topics this week.





1) Watching EuroTrip right now on TBS. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0356150/


One of the greatest teen comedies of all time, extremely rewatchable. The non TV version has a small amount of tremendous nudity. Discovered this movie as one of the ten or so people that saw it in the theatre. Fortunately the other people who saw it were some other young deltas and Richard Mordini when he came in for a visit. He brought the glory of the movie to South Bend, and then to Chicago with the rest of the Irish that Summer. "Scotty Doesn't Know" became our anthem. Also we repeated "This isn't where I parked my car" relentlessly. My Mom loves the movie and my dad just commented "This should be on TV every day."





2) Tom Watson blowing it today broke my heart. I hate the UK. Roddick and Watson in the same two week period crushed me. I have been having a terrible year as a fan. The bears blew it when I flew to Charlotte and choked away the playoffs, the cubs got swept and played bad baseball in the first half, Davidson played like crap, Buckeyes lost to Penn State, etc., etc. The highlight of my year so far has been Curry's comeback at MSG and the Blackhawks run to the finals. Way too much heartbreak, not enough ecstacy.





3) I am starting to develop a little bit of a love/hate relationship with Chicago, but the one thing that nevers lets me down is the bar scene around Wrigley after the game. I haven't been around the world, but I have been around the country and the two places on earth that provide the same atmosphere as college football in Columbus/South Bend/Camp Randall and the entire South outside of Chapel Hill/Durham/Winston Salem is Wrigley and Lambeau.





On gamedays there are around 50-70 thousand people in around the ballpark, but it always has an intimate feel. After a few ice tigers you can make 30 friends in a hour. People are always in a great mood and eager to talk and willing to drink. (Photo above) I love getting involved with strangers and seeing where the night ends up.

4) I was wearing a suit with bright yellow shirt, preppiest tie around, pink socks and blublockers to a wedding last weekend. Everyone else was in standard blue/white with convential ties. I didn't know any of the bridemaids, but dancing like a maniac, and drawing attention to my oddness was key. Robertson sent me this link to blublockers that stroker is somehow involved in. Get some and dominate.......http://www.myblublockers.com/about.html

Getting weird and drawing attention to yourself is an excellent way to turn strangers into friends.

Till the next time........

Tennis, Wimbeldon, Andy Roddick

On the eve of the Roddick-Federer final, I think it is the perfect time to address my feelings on tennis. I love it. What follows is a stream of conscienciousness explaination.......

Growing up, I caught the tail end of miserable Ivan Lendl's run as the number 1 player in the world. But I came of age during the resurgence of American tennis with Sampras, Agassi, Courier, and Michael Chang and became hooked. There is something awesome and slightly erotic seeing those American flags run through the brackets and dominate the other countries.

Tennis (and to a lesser extent, golf) allows us to drap ourselves in Olympic level patriotism year round. For of two weeks of summer and winter every four years, I have to learn about swimmers, gymnasts, sprinters, speedskaters, downhill skiers, and those burnout snowboarders. I have convinced myself to care about these things and while I do get the quick shot of adrenline and the warmth of patriot duty and success, part of me feels I would be having more fun watching these events in an underground gambling hall in chinatown betting like a fiend. (If you have ever seen Van Damme's masterpiece Bloodsport, you know what I am talking about.) The events last, at most, for about two minutes. There is a complete absences of strategy and nusance. After the rush, there is nothing. Prolonging my own enjoyment is my sole focus most of the time, the Olympics make this difficult.

Tennis gives you the same things the Olympic events do, but they last longer than the first time I had sex, have strategy, players make adjustments, and have built in drama in every single game. If you watched the tape-delayed (I hate NBC sports) Roddick-Fistpumping loser match yesterday, you heard Mcnroe and Carillo talking about Roddick's serve and volleys and how fistpumping loser was slicing his returns and Roddick had figured him out. I never heard anything like that during the Olympics. Outside of every single football play, the bottom of the 9th in a close game, and end of game situations in hockey/basketball......When a tennis player has a chance to break serve in a close match, there is nothing more exciting and drama-filled.

Back in the day HBO had the Wimbeldon coverage up to the semis. So after sports camp, I would head home and sit on my parents bedroom floor with some baseball book and watch 3-4 hours of coverage before travel games. Then after dinner and getting yelled at my dad for the one time I got out that day, I would watch all the recaps and highlights pick me favorites and sleepers. It became a summer tradition for 5-6 years, and was always a highlight.

I don't have all that much use for New York. I love flying in, blacking out, raging like a maniac and then flying out. But back in the early fall of 05, I was heading out to Boston (worthless town) to see Dwill play Matt Ryan (Double OT ClemPson L, classic Tommy Bowden incompetence), and as I am apt to do, sandwiched the trip with NYC bookends. I found myself with an entire Friday left to my own devices. There is an extreme lack of decent bars in Midtown Manhattan, so after I hit St. Pat's and went by Bryant park trying to spot celebs and models during fashion week I was shit-out-of-luck. But I happened upon Rockefeller Center and then had a decent size lawn set up with tremendous chairs and a huge outdoor projection screen. So I spent the afternoon with 70 of my new friends drinking $8 heinkens and watching Sharapova dispatch Justin Henin. The Open is a huge deal out there and I ended up talking tennis with strangers until Field got out of work. One of the best solo experiences of my life. Ever since, I have been telling myself that I have to get back to New York during the Open. College Football has prevented me from making the trip. Maybe I will get lucky and the Pack will play BC early in Boston or maybe someone interesting will make the trip to Piscataway. Although it maybe easier if I restart the pigskin classic and have it at the J-E-T-S new stadium every year (probably a whole new post).

Finally, Tennis, as all sport, is more interesting if you have a dog in the fight. Of course my dog, is Roddick. First, he is an American. Second, he is a savage. Third, he is awesome. Fourth, he serves like SCUD missile. Fifth, his forehand is killer. Sixth, he is American. I got so jacked up yesterday after the four set W over the fistpumping loser, that I needed some gear for Sunday against the swiss. The best I could do was snap up a Lacoste hat http://www1.macys.com/catalog/product/index.ognc?ID=322420&PseudoCat=se-xx-xx-xx.esn_results (in maroon).

So I will be up early on Sunday, hat on, flat screen on NBC, maple sausage links on the grill, jalepeno scambled egg burritos on the sideburner, getting fired up.

God bless America and American tennis.