Jermichael Finley - Pushing The Limits Of The English Language

I'm not sure if it's possible to speak in the 4th person. But if it is, I'm pretty sure Jermichael Finley just did it. Love this guy.

When asked about San Fran's Tight End, Finley said:

"Vernon Davis is a great threat in the pass game, I can't wait to see him play myself. On the other side, that #88, I can't wait to see him play - it's gonna be a great tight end matchup."

My head hurts.

Big Ten Football Fan Polling

Check out this very interesting polling of Big Ten fans, conducted by SI.com.
Some highlights:

-98.2 % of Buckeye fans consider Michigan to be their biggest rival. But only 96.0% of Michigan fans consider OSU to be their biggest rival. This conclusively proves that Buckeyes are smarter than Wolverines (I know, I'm surprised too). But really, how this isn't a clean 100% on both sides is beyond me.

-9.3% of Badger fans consider Michigan to be their biggest rival. But 0.0% of Michigan fans consider Wisconsin to be their biggest rival. This disconnect is amusing to me. In fact 0.2 % of Michigan fans thought Northwestern was a bigger rival than Wisconsin. In the same vein, 1.3% of Minnesota fans think OSU is their biggest rival. We've had historically less success against the Buckeyes than any other Big Ten team. Who are these idiots?

-Northwestern is widely considered to have the most polite fans overall. That's easy though, when nobody shows up for the games. No one there = no one to heckle you.

-Ohio State and Wisconsin consistently shows up in every other teams top 4 for the rudest fans for visitors. Ohio State looks to have Wisconsin beat by a significant margin though...

-Only 2.9% consider Minnesota to have the favorite stadium to visit in the conference. Those are Metro-dump #s. Look for that to climb substantially in the coming years. 'The Bank' is phenomenal.

The Threshold Game

I apologize in advance. Just read 700 pages of Bill Simmons, so I've started to think and write like him.

We've got a game going at work called "The Threshold Game." Basically, what's the lowest common denominator of doing something. Work Example:

Would you bang the hottest chick in the office, if you first had to bang the fattest (and I'm talking Mark Mangino-fat)? No.

Would you bang the hottest chick AND the 2nd hottest, if you first had to bang the fattest? Hmmm...no.

Would you bang the hottest, 2nd hottest, and nobody ever knew you banged the worst? Deal.

BINGO - that's how the Threshold Game works. Get it? You can use this for millions of situations.

Which brings up a subject I've debated for about 15 years now. What's the lowest level of basketball that would beat a WNBA team?

First, I'll give you a lame real-world example in which I participated. In 7th grade hoops, we scrimmaged the High School Varsity Girls team. We destroyed them, it wasn't even close. And A) we sucked, B) they lost like 3 games all year, and C) they wouldn't let us block shots. So, for context, a crappy 7th grade boys team rolled one of the best Varsity Girls team in school history. Rolled!

I think it's pretty obvious all NBA, and D1 schools would destroy a WNBA team. We'll even take the best WNBA team, the Phoenix Mercury (yes, I had to look this up).

Next, lets take a mediocre DIII squad - oh, say, UW-Eau Claire. I know the tallest team doesn't always win, but WNBA's Mercury has a mere 4 players over 6-0 tall, and zero players over 200 pounds. UWEC? Again, a pretty crappy D3 squad: Everyone is at least 6" (with 10 at least 6"-5") and 11 at least 200 pounds. UWEC would absolutely destroy the WNBA chanps.

After this, to make a long story short, we decided the top 10 high school squads in Wisconsin (Washington, Tosa East, Madison Memorial, Vincent, Oshkosh West, etc...) would win, also would 8 random guys from Lincoln Park in Milwaukee or James Madison park in Madison.

What's my point? I have no idea other than work is more fun to playing The Threshold Game at than doing actual work. Agree? Disagree? And wouldn't this increase you viewership of WNBA games? If the Phoenix Lesbians played Milwaukee King HS, would you watch? I would. I think this should be proposed to Mr. Stern.

Brandon Jennings is Good

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I don't know if any of you watched the Bucks game on Saturday night, but if you didn't, you missed perhaps the most incredible performance by a rookie in Bucks history.

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Brandon Jennings scored 55 points against the Warriors, including 29 in the third quarter alone. I believe he shot 12 of 13 from the field in that quarter, a dizzying array of drives, layups, floaters, mid-range jumpers and three pointers. The quarter was capped off by Jodie Meeks banking in a shot from almost 3/4 court. All in all, the most incredible quarter of Bucks basketball that I've ever seen.

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It reminded me a lot of the LeBron performance against Milwaukee from last year, where LeBron was hitting threes from 10 feet behind the 3-point line just because he could.

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Honestly, that ranked right up there with the best individual performances that I've ever seen from a player on my team. Others that I could think off the top of my head of (in no particular order):

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- Ben Sheets striking out 18 Braves;

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- Ron Dayne running for about a million (or 350?) yards against Hawaii;

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- Lee Evans racking up 250 receiving yards and a bunch of receiving TDs (5?) against Michigan St.;

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- The Brett Favre game against the Raiders after Irv died.

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I'd put that Jennings performance up against any of them. Unreal.

Good Luck, Kid

So, the #1 hoops recruit in the nation made his college choice today. Some kid from Ames, Iowa, of all places. What's fascinating was the extravaganza that was his announcement. You had a gigantic Little Ceasars ad behind him, six logos for each school on the table he was sitting at, a packed gym, and then - to top it all off - he announced his decision to attend UNC by skyping Roy Williams! It was surreal! Almost as big a deal as when I decided to attend UWEC and play for the 7th Floor North Towers Intramural Squad. Or not.

I'd like to hammer on the kid for making such a production of choosing where he's gonna play hoops, but watch the video. He has to be the nicest, most polite, well educated, grounded, ego-less #1 recruit in high school basketball history! He thanked the local TV/Print media for goodness sakes. Probably just like Glenn Robinson, only the exact opposite. If he picked Duke I'd call him a fag, but whatever.

Kudos, Harrison Barnes, and good luck. Story/Video

Ridiculous Statement of the Day - Colin Cowherd

A rare occurance happened on ESPN radio this morning - Big Ten Football was mentioned. Now - while you are picking up yourself up off the floor from the chair you just fell out of, note that it was in regards to the Notre Dame football coaching job, tenuously held by 10-year contract beneficiary, Charlie Weis. Mr. Cowherd contended that there were several outstanding young coaches that Notre Dame could immediately replace Weis with that would be an upgrade. Among these were Boise State's Chris Petersen and Northwestern's own Pat Fitzgerald. And while I agree that either of these guys would be an upgrade to Weis's bumbling tenure, I don't agree with Cowherd's ridiculous follow up statement to the mention of Fitzgerald. His assertion that 'Pat Fiztgerald is the best coach in the Big Ten'.

Groan. Now I know that the luster hasn't yet worn off on the Wildcats big victory over Iowa last weekend, and to a national sporting media that seemed like a massive upset. Fitzgerald deserves credit for having his team get a very tough road win. But for those of us who actually follow the Big Ten on a week in, week out basis - we've seen Iowa dodge bullets all year. They needed two blocked kicks in the 4th quarter to overcome Northern Iowa for crying out loud. Their number was finally up, and with Stanzi knocked out of the game, it gave NU the edge to hang on and steal the win.

I quickly sorted thru NU's record under Fitzgerald since he took over for the late Randy Walker. Short of the fact that he recently took down the highly ranked Squawk-eyes, there isn't much to hang your hat on. Since 2006, he's managed to lose to teams like New Hampshire, Nevada, Duke, and Syracuse. Yes, he's young. Yes, he's made NU competitive again. He's a nice story, given that he's an Wildcat alum from their Rose Bowl team and a suburban Chicago native. He's passionate and fiery. A great interview too. But best coach in the Big Ten? C'mon. 25 and 22, and 4 games under 0.500 in the Big Ten just don't qualify you to be in that discussion.

At Least He Made His Decision Prior to Spring Training

Here goes.

Another old man waffling after announcing his retirement.

This really screws the Dodgers over. They drafted Scully's replacement a few years back, and now he's two seasons away from free agency. What happens if he bolts to announce games for the Diamondbacks if Scully keeps this up? You should hear the new guy in rehearsals - he can make all the calls.

The Dodgers had moved on, the GM had made plans for a new announcer, one that won't get tired at the end of the season in cold weather.

Retire already Scully! It's been 60 years! You don't have it any more!

Sammy and extra in upcoming Twilight film?

Following up on Emmit’s nasty photo of Sammy Sosa, TIME.com has been surfing the web searching for answers or clues to what the f happened.

Personally I am going with his wife like mine has fallen victim to the new high school girl vampire craze sweeping the nation. He was just trying to get a role in the upcoming Twilight sequel.

“White Skin been berry, berry bad for me.”

Time.com Sammy Follow-up

DJ How about some Prote-J?

Now I usually leave hip-hop reviews to Goldy but whatever I'm bord at work. Sorry.

Nice story on onmilwaukee.com about the guy who wrote/sings Prince’s at bat theme song. here is a quick look:

OMC: How did you come to do a song about Prince? How did that relationship develop?

Prote-J: Prince is really good friends with my manager, Ben Witherspoon, so that's how we met. In the 2008 season, we went on the road with him and the Brewers. We flew out to San Diego and traveled on the team bus to Los Angeles. That was one of the best weeks I've ever had. I learned more about baseball, I got to know Prince better, I ate chicken and waffles together for the first time, it was crazy. After that trip, Prince wanted me to make an at-bat song for him, and "Heir to the Throne" was born.

OMC: What's it like having the song played at Miller Park and associated with an up-and-coming star like Prince?

Prote-J: It's crazy to think about that many people hearing my song every home game at Miller Park. Prince told me they were also playing the chant at the end of the song, at different parts of the game. But, just having my name next to Prince's is a great feeling. Prince is just a great person and one of the best players in the game. He's a big fan of my music and asking me to make "Heir to the Throne" was his way of helping me get my name out there. I don't get chased through malls or anything yet, but a lot more people know who I am now because of the song. Thanks Prince!

For the whole story: http://www.onmilwaukee.com/music/articles/protej.html

Looks like we have a new song for the opening day tailgate mix! Goldy get on it.

Emmett's Book Club

The Sports Guy's new book, appropriately titled, "The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to The Sports Guy" is a fantastic read. His columns on ESPN.com have been pretty garbage the last couple years, now we know why - all his time was spent on this 750 page behemoth. Of course, I spent about 93.8 percent of my childhood either A) playing, or B) watching basketball, so my fondness of this book is natural.

Interesting Sports Weekend

Let's review the weekend in sports:

1. Brewers trade JJ Hardy for Carlos Gomez. While Gomez's offensive numbers in the majors concern me (let's get that career OBP over .300 next year, fella) at least he has some tools and plays a fantastic defensive CF. I don't hate this trade like some do. Seriously, Hardy isn't very good. What did people expect to get back?

2. Badgers slip by Indiana. Clay/Ball looked good. So did Toon. Badgers secondary did not. Did IU's QB throw an incompletion? Chris Borland might be my new favorite Badger. Can he play corner?

3. Iowa lost to Northwestern. At home. This was just beautiful. Hawkeye fans currently feel like I felt when Minnesota beat Wisconsin in 1993. That is, they feel awful.

4. Navy beats Notre Dame. I think every head football coach at Notre Dame should have an automatic termination clause in his contract if he loses to Navy twice. What, exactly, has Charlie Weis done to deserve to continue as coach? Not that I'm complaining, mind you - I love it when Notre Dame loses to the service academies.

5. Bucks destroy the Knicks. With Murdock blowing kisses to him from the stands, Jodie Meeks has his coming-out party against the Knicks. No, that doesn't mean that he succumbed to Murdock's forward advances - it means that he scored a bunch of points. The Knicks are horrid.

6. 0-7 Bucs beat the Packers. WTF? LOL? Huh? For some reason, nobody started Tampa's D/ST in my fantasy football league this week. I guess nobody saw the two touchdowns coming. Does this finally convince all of the Ted/McCarthy backers that these two fools should be run out of town on a rail? News flash! 2007 was a fluke, engineered by a different QB and aided by lots of good breaks. The reality is that this team isn't very talented, hasn't been very talented since Ted came to town, and it sure as hell isn't well-coached. But it sure is young.

Now This Is Some Quality Announcing