I have been trying to figure out what all the fuss is regarding last weekend's Oregon/OU football game. It isn't easy being a baseball girl in the Great State Of Texas, which should be called Football Land.
My deep, dark arrest story came back to haunt me today, reminding me that I haven't yet shared it with you all as promised. Soon, I swear.
Have I mentioned how crazy I am about my dogs?
And about my personal assistant, who seems to have gratuitously emptied my too-full bathroom trash while meeting a contractor here today. It is helping keep me inspired to keep the house looking relatively presentable because I know she might drop by at any time.
I worked until 3 am and have jury duty tomorrow morning. Yes, it is now 4 am and I can't sleep, for fear that I won't wake up in time. Tomorrow's summons is the product of a glorious year's worth of postponements. I'm curious to see what all the hype is about.
UPDATED: This is one of the best-written baseball articles I have ever read. It is a story by Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated which covers, among other things, Alex Rodriguez's difficulties with his play this season, his relationships with his teammates and his increasingly rocky relationship with Yankee fans. The story is remarkable to me in many respects. First, it is amazingly well-researched--the writer even uncovered an incident in which a player on the Yankees' arch-enemy Boston Red Sox saw Rodriguez's increasing look of panic and reached out to help him, getting quotes from both the other player and Rodriguez about the incident. The incident itself (I'll let you read the details in the article) is, in my opinion, one of the reasons why baseball is the best sport of all: in what other sport does a player from the opposing team have the courtesy and kindness to reach out to an opponent in distress? The article also portrays an interestingly conflicted version of Rodriquez, one minute as cocky, arrogant and out of touch and the next as utterly insecure, beaten down and depressed. However cocky he may be, my fan-abuse-hating side despises what the Yankee fans have done to this man--not that they are the sole cause of his situation, but they certainly made his slump more painful and it is hard to believe they played no role in extending it. Anyway, this is a must-read article--check it out.
20 September 2006
Quick hits.
Posted by Lisa at 4:16 AM
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4 comments:
Ok, he's what the fuss is about at OU:
Oregon scored a touchdown with 1:12 to play to make the score OU 33 - Oregon 27.
Then Oregon tried an onsides kick. The rule says the kicking team cannot touch the ball before it goes 10 yards. So, they kick the ball and there is a big pile up as everyone is trying to recover the loose ball. The refs say Oregon has recovered the ball and give them possession.
The problme is that 1. An Oregon player touched the ball before it went 10 yards and 2. an OU player, about 5 yards behind the pile up actually was lying on top of the ball. The refs never saw the ball pop out of the pile up.
So, they went to instant replay to look at the play again. On the instant replay you see the Oregon player touch teh ball. So, everybody is like "OU's ball at that spot, game over". But, the ref announced that there was "definitive" evidence that OU players touched the ball first and OU recoverd. Total bullshit!
Then, there was an interference call on OU a few plays later. Replay showed that the ball was tipped, which should have nullified the penalty. Again the replay official said the ball wasn't tipped. He must have been watching a different game!
Then Oregon scored another touchdown and won 34-33.
I hate OU, but I've never seen such a screw up. The entire officiating crew has been suspended and the replay offical may never work again.
OU wants the game voided. But that isn't gonna happen. The PAC-10 (OU is in the Big 12, Oregon is in the PAC-10, and they used PAC-10 officials) has apologized but that really doesn't do any good now for OU.
So, OU is pissed. And if it had happened to anyone else I would say it was an outrage. But, I'm too busy snickering at OU fans. hahaha
Have fun with jury duty.
Jay, thank you--that is the most clear explanation I have found anywhere. For what it's worth, I read that the reply guy claims he didn't have all of the angles/views available for his decision and that the TV producers rushed him to make a call. I don't know if that's true, but I do feel bad for the guy, mistake or no. He and his family have received death threats over his mistake and he will probably lose his job and career over it; contrast this with Someone who was reelected as the U.S. President after making a "mistake" in which he sent thousands of U.S. military to their deaths based on a lie.
That's an excellent article on Rodriguez. I first heard about it after reading this article on ESPN.com:
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2595523
The ESPN article refutes a few items in the SI story, but the SI story still stands as an interesting insight into the mind of A-Rod.
A-Rod is an odd fella. A lot of people saw this coming when he went to NY. A-Rod has never had any real adversity. Expectations in Seattle and at Texas are nowhere near that of the Yankees fans.
A-Rod has always been the best player on the team. The most popular, the best looking, the highest paid and never really played in a clutch situation. He goes to NY and all of the sudden he struggles mentally and physically. I know NY fans have been tough on him and maybe that's been unfair, but A-Rod makes $25 million a year! Some pretty high expectations come with that and he can't meet them.
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