Game of the Weekend and Pick of the Day

It was quite the weekend in college football, college basketball, and the NFL. The Colts remain undefeated after the Texans fold once again in Houston, Florida State’s second half surge and Solomon Alabi’s late basket are enough to beat an obviously tired Marquette ballclub, and Tim Tebow’s swan song in Gainesville turned out to be an old fashioned ass-whooping of FSU.

The game of the weekend however, was neither in the college ranks, nor the professional ranks. It was the Indiana 5A state championship football game. I very rarely find myself yelling “OH MY GOD!” and raising my hands up in the air during non-Colts/Pacers/Cubs/Marquette games, but this was certainly one exception.

For those of you who did not see it, here you go:

Warren Central went on to convert their 2 pt. conversion to send it into OT. Carmel didn’t convert in the 2nd OT and Warren took full advantage, scoring on a QB sneak and stepping on the already sore throat of all who enjoy/participate in Carmel athletics.

It doesn’t take fantastic vision to realize the Warren WR wasn’t close to staying in bounds. As far as the “force out” call is concerned…..does anyone think that the WR would have kept one foot in if there were no CB there in the first place??? It was terrible reffing overall and I feel bad for Carmel. Their coach seemed like he overreacted in the Indy Star a bit when he said they were “robbed”. You can’t call out the refs like that in high school. Even some of the Carmel players said they should have won in OT if they had deserved to win state. Damn, they accidentally just made their coach look kind of bad.

OK, pick of the night:

PATRIOTS (+1) over Saints

Look, the Patriots are still pissed off after losing to the Colts. The Jets felt the wrath, now the Saints and their weak secondary is going to as well. Gostkowski boots one through the uprights with no time left to break the tie. I’m thinking a point or 50 will be scored in this game…I’ll put it at 37-34…..leaving the COLTS as the lone undefeated football team in the National Football League.

Stay tuned tomorrow for some college hoops picks and maybe some BCS discussion?? Enjoy MNF…I know I won’t.

Why USC is the NEW “U”

After reading the title of this post, one might think that this could be a fluff piece for USC.

Fortunately, this is the exact opposite.

In today’s 28-7 destruction of UCLA, coach Carroll and the Trojans decided that they officially don’t care about the fact that they have NO class anymore. The Trojans had the ball when it was 21-7 with 44 seconds left, and Rick Neuheisel decided to call a timeout. Hey, it’s a long shot, but you never know what can happen. USC had the game wrapped up, and all they needed to do was kneel it a couple of times and those UCLA timeouts would prove irrelevant.

Carroll thought it would be prudent to go deep on the next play to WR Damian Williams for a 48 yd touchdown, further sinking the Bruins fans in their respective chairs. Carroll celebrated on the sideline like that pass won him a national championship. The ENTIRE Trojan sideline in unison came out on the field to taunt UCLA. The Bruins obviously didn’t like this and they began their trek over towards USC’s bench. Things got a little hairy, and it was finally resolved after awhile.

There really wasn’t that much fighting and nothing got too far out of hand, but all I could think about was when Miami literally beat up on a lesser opponent when it really wasn’t needed.

My favorite part is when all the U players lift up their helmets in triumph. Kicking FIU’s ass was probably the noble thing to do, and I’m sure all of Miami was happy during that moment. Larry Coker had as much control over that team as Mark Mangino has over his hunger.

Anywars, look, I know this is a rivalry game, and things like this happen. I’m just really sick of Carroll thinking that he is so much better than everyone else. Hey Petey, what were those scores vs. Oregon and Stanford again this year? I could NEVER imagine why Coach Harbaugh decided to go for 2 against you to put up a cool 50 points! Pretty soft defense, don’t you agree?

Carroll’s tenure at USC has focused on one thing: Winning. At any cost. No matter how many people you piss off in the process. But right now, it seems as if this recklessness is coming back to bite you in the ass, Mr. Carroll. Everyone wants to blow USC out while laughing in the process. And, for once, not one BUT TWO teams did it this year!

Let me be the first of many to express my supreme pleasure in regards to USC not participating in the BCS this year. This postseason will be much better without them raining on everyone else’s parade.

A Winning Streak Halted

Brian Roberts and the O’s were successful in the club’s first game at Wrigley Tuesday night.

 

Riding a 14 game home winning streak, the Chicago Cubs fell short to the first-time visitors from Baltimore Tuesday night, 7-5. After the 6th inning, it looked as if the Cubs were done for the night. But after a towering home run by the player I still feel weird rooting for, Jim Edmonds, the game got a bit more interesting. Add Aramis Ramirez’s RBI single and it’s a 2 run game. Then, with the bases loaded in the 9th, both Ronny Cedeno and Kosuke Fukudome strike out, and Sweet Lou pinch hits for Patterson with…Henry Blanco?? Who was just toyed with by Sherrill and the ballgame is over. The worst part of it was that Brian Roberts, who everyone thought would be heading to the Northside sometime this season, went 3-5 with an RBI in the win. His thoughts after the game:

“I thought I was going to be a Cub in December,” Roberts said before the game. “I didn’t know what was going to happen. … Once the season started you just kinda go out and play your spot and the rest will take care of itself. I really haven’t thought about in a long time.”

Man, I wish the Cubs front office could have found a way to make that deal go through. Roberts would have been a huge boost right now for the Cubs. With Soriano injured, Roberts could lead off and Kosuke could be in a position to drive in some runs. I really like Theriot in the 8-hole, and even though Patterson is playing more LF, the position could be played most of the time by DeRosa. You have Patterson and Ronny Cedeno on the bench, as well as Mike Fontenot and Daryle Ward. This is a huge hypothetical, because you never know who would have been dealt in the Roberts deal. However, Buster Olney reported much earlier in the year that Sean Gallagher and/or Sean Marshall were the “centerpieces of the deal”. For now, I’m just dreaming about a Cubs utopia in which the club has a definite lead-off hitter. And Sammy Sosa never corked his bat. And Corey Patterson actually turned out to be the real deal. And Alex Gonzalez never bobbled that double-play ball in the Bartman game. The possibilities are endless.

Suntrust Indy Challenge: Who will win? Who will surprise?

                       Helio, Wheldon and Dixon have all won at Richmond before. The rest of the field will most likely chase those three this weekend.

 

The Suntrust Indy Challenge at Richmond is sure to offer lots of exciting and close racing to its fans. RIR is the shortest track that the IndyCar Series will run at this season (3/4 mi.) and also a very demanding one. Three former winners are in the field, those three being Indy 500 champ Scott Dixon (won @ RIR in 2003), Dan Wheldon (2004) and Helio Castroneves (2005). I firmly believe that all three of these guys are going to be in the front at the end this year, but the question is what order will they be in?

Here’s a statistic that should be noted: The past two races at RIR have been won by Indy 500 winners (Hornish in 06 and Franchitti in 07). I usually don’t really care about stats like this, because both of those drivers dominated the series in that year, anyways. However, another stat that I paid attention to earlier this year, the fact that Indy 500 winners have finished 2nd at the Milwaukee Mile for the past few years now, came true again this year with the Kiwi. And considering that this stat also would involve Dixon, I’m going to make the BOLD prediction that he wins his 4th race of the season at RIR. However, Helio will have the fastest car and lead the most laps. His car has been solid as of late, but at Iowa the result doesn’t show that. He was quick all day, but a tire went down and Viso make contact with Helio’s tire late, forcing him to pit. He won’t change his winless streak this weekend, unfortunately. Wheldon finishes third; Hunter-Reay finishes fourth…he impressed me with his run @ Iowa last weekend and he will build on that; Vitor Meira catches some breaks for once and finishes fifth.

Who will surprise?

Besides Hunter-Reay, who I think shouldn’t even be mentioned as a dark horse because his car is great and he is as talented as they come, my eye is on A.J. Foyt IV aka Quattro to see if he can run another solid race on a short track. His fifth place finish at Iowa was surprising to say the least, but I think he has a good chance to run in the top 10 again this weekend. With some confidence on short tracks, Quattro could be a factor. Look for Hideki Mutoh to have a strong car again this weekend as well. He finished second to Wheldon at Iowa and is on a roll..that’s not really a surprise, but more of a “who to watch for” kinda thing.

Indycar: DP and Other Topics

Ed Carpenter sees no difference between these two cars.

“I just started working with my car, working towards the front but Danica was doing her normal supreme block job. She is the new Scott Sharp of the series as far as I am concerned. That is two races in a row.”

This was said after Sunday’s Indy Corn 250 at Iowa Speedway, which was won by Dan Wheldon. Eddy had a rough day, finishing 23rd after hitting the wall on lap 38. At first glance, it just seems that Carpenter had a crappy day and he wanted someone to yell at for a few short moments. However, Scott Dixon, who ended up fourth at Iowa, said similar things, calling her a “menace”. Has DP really become the Scott Sharp of the series? I think emotions were running a little too high that day and the comments should be taken with a grain of salt. However, I’ll be the first to say that DP is grossly underachieving this year and in years past. Apparently many drivers were complaining about other drivers blocking (i.e. Marco w/ Dixon) and it just seemed like it was hard to find a good line in traffic. Drivers are still learning Iowa, too. After two years, only a minority of the drivers (DP included) have raced in both races, so it will take a few years to really get a fluent feel of the track.

Also, an extremely classy move for TCGR to give all of their winnings to the flood victims in Iowa. Two class acts in Wheldon and Dixon.

Also, I am looking forward to the Suntrust Indy Challenge this Saturday. It is a 3/4 mi. track that brings a lot of close exciting racing to the table. My pick will come later.

 

 

Something I’ve Never Seen Before

As I looked through some videos on ESPN.com this morning, I came across one that interested me very much. I saw from the headline that Hernandez hit a grand slam in yesterday’s win vs. the Mets in interleague play. Which Hernandez, you say? King Felix. FELIX HERNANDEZ???! Like, the guy who gets 10 at bats a year? Yes, and off of who else, but Cy Young winner Johan Santana!!! Amazing stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d08gfZpnDA4

 What amazed me even more was seeing Mets fans comment about how the Mariner win was a fluke. I read one comment that said that Seattle wouldn’t have won if it weren’t for Hernandez’s grand slam. Now, I’m not a math major, but I’m pretty sure that 5-4 is 1, and all of us could deduct that the 2 runs the Mets put up would trump the 1 that Seattle put up sans Felix’s blast. But how can you make a comment like that??? Let’s say Felix didn’t hit a GS. You never know what could have happened in the rest of the game offensively for Seattle! The grand slam happened in the 2nd inning, too. Having that sort of cushion the whole entire game gives a team a different mindset at the plate. Mets fans, I know you’re having a tough year so far, but so is Seattle. They need wins in a bad way, and it’s not their fault that David Wright bobbled the Willie Bloomquist grounder that would have ended the inning. The Mariners took advantage of a favorable situation, which is what ballclubs are supposed to do. A “W” is a “W”, which is one phrase the worst team in the league, the aforementioned Mariners, would love to keep saying. Unfortunately, Felix got injured in the fifth and didn’t go the distance to get the win. Hats off to you, King Felix, for quieting the Shea crowd all by yourself last night.

My First Post

Hi Everyone,

This is my first of hopefully many posts on my blog site, Balls and Tires. I love racing and I love baseball…therefore I love summer as well! As an Indy native, I have grown up to love racing. My favorite sport, however, has to be baseball. Hopefully this site can give me every opportunity to rant and rave about both of my favorite things.