Spoilers

I'm just happy that the Reds rolled over the Cards, basically ending their playoff hopes. That was sweet. Now, we get 3 more with the Brewers, and 6 more with the Cubs. If we could only end all of their playoff hopes, then that would be awesome. Unfortunately, someone has to win the NL Central. The Reds would have to go 14-2, and get a lot of help. So that's not going to happen. And frankly, I don't know if it matters. Of course, it wouldn't shock me if whoever comes out of the NL Central goes on to win a couple rounds, but let's face it. No one cares. These teams all suck. A strange stat. Since July 1st, the Reds are 8 games over .500. If we had been simply bad, rather than absolutely dreadful, at the start of the season, we'd be in the race. Go figure.

Going back to football, I've been thinking about the stealing of signs. And my basic instinct is, "so what?" Teams intercept other teams' calls all the time, and have been trying to do so forever. I still remember former Pro Bowl strong safety David Fulcher (a Bengals stalwart) talking about how he had read the lips from the 49er's sideline on the last play of the 49er's last drive during Super Bowl back in 1989. Basically, he read the lips of the coach calling in the play, and knew that it was going to be that slant to John Taylor. So, he slid over a few steps to the outside, jumped the route, and picked off the ball, taking it back to the 40, before he slid as time expired and the Bengals won their first, and to date, only Super Bowl.

Wait. No, he didn't. He still had responsibility to cover his spot, to he didn't slide over, to start, and was a step slow, as Taylor caught the touchdown, Joe Montana cemented his status as the best ever, and the 49er's completed their dominance of the 1980's, and the Bengals were sent into a downward spiral that was the 1990's.

Having knowledge assists in placing players in the right spot, but you still have to make the plays. If someone is on to your calls or your plays, change them up. How much game film is available now? How much time do the cameras spend on the sidelines now? The information is all out there. It's one thing to have spies infiltrate closed door meetings. But once you're out there on the field, and the whole world can see? That's not "spying." That's just observation of what's out there for the world to see, basically the same as figuring out the footwork that, say, Marvin Harrison uses on those goal-to-go slants that he and Peyton do so well.

I think that this is just an issue that people are worrying too much about. Shouldn't we be talking about dog fighting, or something?

-Chairman

The Diagnosis

Well, one thing that I finally figured out today at basketball was that I'm old. I need to get the knees loose before I can actually play. And once they're warmed up, they're okay. So, it was funny - I needed a few minutes on the exercise bike before we got going. I felt like TO out there. All I needed was a bicycle helmet and a Team Discovery jersey.

So, today's game was a lot like last week. Good play, overall. Very solid defense (against a pretty good player who played both inside and outside). Was able to move around. And I even hit a couple spot-up jumpers from the baseline, a couple long jumpers, and even one litle bank shot off the dribble. The downside - I've lost the pull-up. I need to get that back. The funny thing is that I was able to get open in the lane, from about 10 feet. And as I pulled up to shoot, I would get spooked by guys flying at me. Granted, they would fly into me some of the time, but that never used to really bother me. I think that I'm afraid that they're going to crash into my legs. I think that I can get over this in a couple weeks, though.

I was browsing through the Sports Guy's latest post. And I was reminded that Nick Curran was the name of the Michael Douglas character in Basic Instinct. That's hot. Also, Michael O'Donnell was the name of the alleged altar boy that was raped by a Catholic priest in Primal Fear. That's also hot. All I know is that if I ever write a movie, I'm writing all of your names in there as various seedy characters.

Actually, I've sort of done that already. In one of my journal submissions, we have a qualitative piece where we use interview transcripts from our research to tell a story (here, it's the retail shopping experience for low literate consumers). Now, we can't use the real names of our respondents. So, part of my job as the co-author is to clean up the interview transcripts, and to make up names. And that's where you fine folks come in. So people like George, Christian, and Michael have made it into my articles. And future articles will get more of you into the archives of academia. As functional illiterates. How awesome is that?

Now, I'm thinking that it's about time to jump ship on the ol' Reds. Now, a couple times earlier this season, they've swooned, but have bounced back. We'll see if they can do it one more time. They're on probation right now. Maybe things get better if Guardado comes back to close. If not, the Yanks are looking pretty darned good right now. If Mussina comes back healthy, and Unit keeps throwing like he has of late, this team should bring things home. They owned the Tigers, White Sox, and Twins in the second half. And they'll be too good for Oakland (though the A's are probably the 2nd best team in baseball right now).

To close - our Illini are 1-0, after owning... well, Eastern Illinois. I mean, they were ranked 16 in Division I-AA. But a W's a W. Only 5 more wins until bowl eligibility. Instinctively, I figured that we'd have 3 wins. But, if all the breaks fall our way, maybe we can sneak out a bowl bid. Hear me out. We got Eastern. Figure that we get Ohio, as well. We have Rutgers and Syracuse. If we can pull out both of these, we'll have 4 wins. I think that we can get Indiana for Homecoming. And if we don't get both of the Big East teams, maybe we can get a W when Purdue comes to town. Or maybe even at Michigan St. But the game that I figure that we can get Northwestern. Afterall, they've got a rookie coach, after Randy Walker died. I'd like to think that we have a shot against Northwestern, after their coach dies. Ideally, we beat them even with out their head coach dying (after all, it's friggin' Northwestern). But at this point, we take what we can get, right? So, if all the breaks go our way, we may be able to get that bowl game, after all.

Of ocurse, I'm calling the over-under at 3.5. I don't really like our schedule. We need to take a page out of Jim Boeheim's non-conference schedule. We need to get more of those directional MAC schools to come here. No more of these Big East teams that want home and homes. We need to bring in bad teams, pay them $500K, and send them home with a loss. If we set up our non-conference schedule right, we can get 4 W's before the Big Ten season starts, and then need to beat Indiana and Northwestern to get a bowl.

We'll see.

-Chairman

Hunt for Reds' October

So, I'm off at dinner the other night with the Rook and Scotty. Rook's a Cubs fan, while Scotty is a Cards fan. So, I go to Rook, "Rook - ask me who's going to win the NL Wild Card." He sees my grin, so he plays along. "Alright. Who's going to win the NL Wild Card?" Now they were both expecting me to say, "The Reds!" Of course, my response? Deadpan. "The Cardinals."

I don't know how true that is, but all I know is that we're in the middle of August and the Reds are still up a game for the Wild Card and only 1.5 games out, with the last three games against the Cards coming up these next couple days. If we can somehow pull this off and make the playoffs, it would be incredible. I have to say that if the Reds make the playoffs, I'll find a way to get to Cincy and watch some playoff baseball.

Right now, baseball season is good. In addition to the Reds, the Yanks are in first in the AL East. I would absolutely love to see a Reds-Yanks World Series. Not only would it feature my two favorite teams, it would also be a 30 year anniversary of when the Big Red Machine steamrolled the Yankees.

We've also got football season kicking off soon enough. Exciting times - I always love it when fall rolls around because it means that football will be back soon. And this year? Maybe the Bengals can put it together and make a deep run. And maybe the Illini can put it together and get that 3rd win this year. We'll see.

-Chairman