Trick or Treat

Perhaps one of Our Shows will actually survive to a second season. Woo-Woo for Gossip Girl.

Yes, it's November 1st tomorrow, but it's never out of season for a newspaper article about our Summer Playground. And in the New York Times, no less.

Umm...I coach soccer, but I've never done this.

Shocker! Fewer people are watching Grey's Anatomy . (We are proud to say we have never watched one minute of the show!)

How great is this?!?

Eagles Deli & Restaurant in Brighton, MA got a ton of free pub last week when Fox went for a visit during the World Series. The above is 5 pounds of beef, 20 slices of cheese, 20 pieces of bacon and 5 pounds of fries. The price tag? $50. Of course, if one person actually consumes the entire meal in one sitting -- the whole thing is free.

Free is good.

Beer Steamed Sausages

Saturday night's dinner was Beer Steamed Sausages on the grill. I took four bottles of Corona Light (courtesy of SJHJR24) and simmered the beer over medium heat on the stove top. I then punctured the sausages, making six small incisions (three per side). I let the sausages simmer for about 20 minutes before moving them to the Weber. Eight minutes later (four per side), this was the end result:

Too lazy to scan the Sunday papers? Fret not...

Non-Sports...

Watch out for your ex-girl friend!

American Gangster opens in movie theatres Nov. 2. But you can buy the DVD now for $5.

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Not ready for a BlackBerry? Maybe this is for you.

Muggings in this country are up 7 percent. Let's blame it on iPods.

jjjjjj

College Football...

Hoops Weiss on Ohio State's throttling of Penn State.

Ohio State can now tell critics to shut up!

Georgia consumes "fake juice" in win over Florida.

Heisman Straw Poll still likes Tebow.

USC loses at Oregon: "The King is on a gurney."

USC's Uncle Pete.

South Carolina loses at Tennessee because of "not enough good players in key spots."

Nebraska football has come to this: Moral Victories.

Kobe Watch

Peter Vecsey on the latest with Kobe Bryant.

The Phillies

Taking a look at the Phillies' bullpen.

Saturday Morning Links

Who needs PS3 when you can go Video Game Old School?!?

Michael Scott = "That's what she said."

No one wants BC BCS tickets!

Hoops Weiss on BC's Matt Ryan.

Will Red Sox players cash in off the field?

Are the Red Sox now the Yankees?

Okajima = Bargain of the century!

It's great to be a Boston sports fan.

Peter Vecsey on NBA gambling.

Say it ain't so! J.C. Romero to leave the Phillies?

What happens if BC stays undefeated?!?

Wow. Boston College waited until the last minute (literally) to make our prediction from yesterday look pretty-darn-good. BC 14 Virginia Tech 10.

The Eagles and Virginia Tech entered the game ranked second and eighth, respectively, which is a total joke.

What do LSU, Ohio State, Auburn, Florida, Oklahoma, Oregon, USC, South Carolina, Kentucky and South Florida all have in common? They are 10 teams that would absolutely pistol whip BC and Va Tech.

Even second tier teams like Kansas, Georgia, Missouri, Texas, Michigan and Cal would topple the duo from the ACC.

Still, the Eagles are in great position. Their remaining games are home against Florida State, at Maryland and Clemson, then home against Miami. The question is will a soft (wicked soft) 12-0 BC team make it past an SEC team with one (LSU) or two (Florida) losses? The guess here is if LSU finishes with one loss, they will zoom past BC. The Eagles will, most likely stay ahead of a two loss SEC team. But what if Arizona State runs the table in the Pac 10 and goes undefeated? Even more perplexing, what if someone from the Pac 10 (with four top 25 teams) has one loss (ASU? USC? Oregon?)?

BC left the Little East for the ACC to better its football program. Wouldn't it be ironic if the mediocrity from their new conference destroys BC's strength of schedule and the BCS computers give the Eagles a swift kick?

BC will beat Va Tech tonight...

We know, we know. We verbally flogged the Boston College Eagles in last week's PMBCS Rankings. However, as overrated as BC is, Virginia Tech is even more so.

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So while The World thinks the Hokies will knock off the Eagles tonight, we are going on record as saying BC will get the W.

Red Sox Team Plane Pictures

We "HEART" Coach Cal

We love Coach Cal. Always have. Always will. We were in on the ground floor of his UMass experience. (Anyone else remember when he had to kick captains Duane Chase and David Brown off the team for,ummmmm, a legal matter? And then there was the time we bumped into him in his store, Coach Cal's Closet, and he blatantly broke NCAA rules by discussing with us his recruitment of then high school senior Mark Blount. Coaches are not allowed to talk about recruits until they have signed official letters of intent. But that didn't stop Cal. "Oh, yeah, Mark's got a lot of work to do get eligible, but he'll make it.")

Anyway, Cal led Us to the Final Four in 1996. And even though he left Us, we still willingly drink his Kool-Aid. ("What we're teaching at UMass are life skills.") ESPN's Andy Katz has a great piece on Memphis' Coach Cal.


Three Quickies...

Everyone likes WFAN's Mike & The Mad Dog. Well, everyone, it seems, but this guy.

Yesterday, we discussed the possibility of Andy Reid leaving the Philadelphia Eagles. Less than 24 hours later, the Philadelphia Inquirer says it will be Donovan McNabb, instead, who gets kicked to the curb.

Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Daily News says Reid Must Go!

Time for Andy Reid to go?

Well, maybe. At the very least, things need to change on the team and, more importantly, in the organization.

Stingy owner Jeff Laurie made a big splash a few years ago, proclaiming the Eagles were the "Gold Standard" of the NFL.

Now, they are the Crap Standard of the NFL.

Bad record? Check.

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Bad drafting? Check.

Bad offense? Check.

Defense bad enough to give up a 97 yard drive in under two minutes to a team with no timeouts (and a losing record)? Check.

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Bad special teams? Check.

Bad clock management? Check.

Cheap owner who is always under (way under!) the salary cap? Check.

Does Reid the primary draft evaluator/selector need to leave? YES. DOUBLE YES. This team can't draft for squat. They must lead the league in second round busts. And their first round scorecard is nothing to thump their chests about.

Does Reid the coach need to leave? Not, if he is willing to change the way things are run offensively. The dink and duck, errrrrrr West Coast offense does not work. And it is downright awful when you have a quarterback afraid to set up in the pocket and look down field. Donovan McNabb is a bad quarterback right now. As such, the Eagles' offense is bad. Really bad. (You know you are in trouble when your kicker is your second best offensive weapon.)

And if Reid is unwilling to change?

Adios, amigo!

To read John Smallwood's take on the Reid situation, click here.

What's really wrong with the Eagles?

As always, Reid says don't worry.

Monday Morning: Back to work...

College Football...

Oh my. We thought Big Phil was safe at Tennessee forever. Apparently, we were wrong!

Oh my, II. We thought John David Booty was The Man at USC. Not everyone agrees!

LSU over Auburn. Auburn came close, so close!

South Carolina lost at home to Vandy. Does the Head Ball Coach have two QBs or zero?

Speaking of the HBC, click here to dress him!

College Hoops...

Did phenom O.J. Mayo punch a teammate?!?

Because the kid's now wearing a protective mask!

NBA...

Is Larry Brown ready to take over for Mo Cheeks?

Baseball...

Our Man Joe Savery!

Finally...

Do you want to clog your arteries in one meal?!?

Early morning thoughts from the treadmill

Wow. Notre Dame brought out the green unis yesterday against Southern Cal. The problem was Joe Montana was not playing QB for Charlie Weiss. Some kid named Evan Sharpley was.

Speaking of the unis. The worst part was those frigging socks. Not even Goldstein from The White Shadow ever wore those things...

I can't remember the last time I made it to bed on a Saturday before midnight.

No, I have not been out clubbing.

Even better, I have been watching SEC Saturday night football. I represent OU. But I am quickly becoming an SEC addict. Speed. Olympian-esque athletes. Insane fans. More speed. My gosh, if I wasn't married with kids, I would find a school to teach at down south and move in a heartbeat.

Florida and LSU are probably the two best teams in the country. Kentucky and Auburn are two of the top 12 teams around. South Carolina is top 20. And do you really think Boston College could go into Mobile and roll up on the Fighting Nick Sabans?

Give me the SEC and I will give you every other conference in the world. Put together a team. I will beat you damn near every time.

Give me 53 SEC players of my choice, Saban will be the coach. There are at least five NFL teams I will beat...

How come (nearly) every show I watch ends up getting canceled? Last year, I watched Windfall and What About Brian?

Now? Gone. Both.

So why do I get the feeling FX's Damages won't be around for me next year?...

At least The Office is one hour this year. For that, I am thankful...

I am confused. Did Al Gore create the internet or global warming?

Or is Albert responsible for both?...

College football has been so spectacular this fall, I haven't even noticed how bad My Philadelphia Eagles are.

Or is it because of college football that don't even care about the Birds?...

I'm not sure how long he'll be around, but I would definitely like to hang out with is Mark Mangino...

If you are an attractive woman, have nice legs and teeth, and are willing to wear short (very short) skirts -- YOU CAN HOST A NEWS SHOW!...

Cool fall weather will come eventually, right?

Wearing shorts less than 10 days before Halloween just ain't right...

My eight year old was watching a Michigan football game on TV with me recently. During a commercial, I switched over to watch the University of Delaware game.

My daughter asked me, "Is this a high school game?"...

Five People I Want to Have Dinner with (not named Mangino):

1. Tim Tebow

2. Karl Rove

3. Wes Wesley

4. John Black

5. Norman Chad

And yes, I will do the grilling.

Yet ANOTHER reason why we LOVE Tim Tebow

Happy Friday!

South Florida lost. Now what?

Hoops Weiss on South Florida and Rutgers.

Chris Fowler's College Football Notebook. .

Wow! Did Bill Callahan really say that about Tom Osborne?

Inside the world of college football recruiting.

College football parity -- WHY is it happening?

Did you hear the one about the football coach who urinated on a bar table?!?

Did you hear the one about the football coach who urinated on a bar table and lost his job?!?

Peter Vecsey on Phil Jackson getting tough with Kobe.

Phil Mushnick on how to fix Monday Night Football.

Mike Lupica: Joe Torre fired George Steinbrenner.

Matt Ryan - Your Heisman Leader?!?

It's the old Tony Rice Notre Dame argument. The quarterback on the undefeated team has to be the Heisman front runner, right?

So Boston College, looking quite dashing with its unblemished record (Go Eagles! Great win against UMass!), has the Heisman winner in senior quarterback Matt Ryan, right?

We know. We couldn't stop laughing either.

However, others seem to think it really is Matty Heisman's time.

The PMBCS Standings

The wait is over. The much anticipated PMBCS Standings are now ready to be released.

(For the confused, that's Pit Master Bowl Championship Series!)

(Disclaimer: The standings/rankings are based on the basic --very basic-- premise that the ACC and Big East are terrible football conferences.)

1. LSU Yes, we know the Tigers lost at Kentucky last week. Yes, we know there are several undefeated teams out there. The BCS has Ohio State on top. Are you kidding us? And what good team have the Buckeyes played? That's right -- they haven't played a single one. Would Ohio State have just one loss if they played in the SEC? Wait a minute (or 10) while I stop laughing. Would Ohio State beat LSU head-to-head? No. In fact, they might not even score a point. LSU is good. And they play in the best conference in the land.

2. Oklahoma Yes, we represent OU. Who cares? They have wins over then #17 Texas and then #11 Missouri. What does Boston College have? Oh yeah, we forgot, BC beat 1-AA UMass, as well as Bowling Green.

3. Ohio State They beat Washington and Purdue. They are undefeated. Their defense is very good. These things we know to be true. The Buckeyes play in the Big 10, which means they stand a good chance to finish the season with zero losses. I have them at number three, but there are at least 10 other teams that would beat OSU head-to-head.

4. Florida No, we don't use illegal drugs. Yes, we know the Gators have two losses and October is barely half over. Losing at LSU is nothing. Losing at home to Auburn is a sin. Still, I would take Florida over any other non-SEC team in the country. So why aren't they ranked number two? Because they have two losses.

5. South Carolina The Cocks are banged up on both sides of the ball, but they keep chugging along. The Head Ball Coach still knows what he's doing.

6. Boston College The Eagles have their normal trademarks this season. Solid defense. Smart offense. Nothing flashy. Their record comes from a poor non-conference schedule, as well as playing in an absolutely C-R-A-P-P-Y conference -- the ACC. That league is so bad, it's a distinct possibility BC will finish the year undefeated. Yet, if that happens, the computer in the real BCS will boot the Eagles because of their strength of schedule.

7. South Florida Good athletes. Good coach. Great story. But there are high school teams that could skate through the Little East undefeated.

8. Kentucky It's no longer all about Rick Pitino, errrr, Tubby, errrrr Billy Gillispie and hoops. The Cats won't make it to the championship game. But if they did, they would keep the game close -- no matter the opponent. Their biggest problem will be keeping a bigger name team (Nebraska? Texas A&M?) from stealing coach Rich Brooks.

9. Oregon Their uniforms are bad. And they cheated multiple times to beat OU last year. Later, boys!

10. USC True, Southern Cal has not played well in about a month. But if you were undefeated BC or South Florida, would you really want to rumble with SC on a neutral field? Two letter answer beginning with N? No!

Tom Osborne's Not Walking Through That Door

Oh, wait a minute. He is walking though that door.

Just not the door most Nebraska zealots want.

The door is not the coach's door, but, rather the athletic director's. And there's a big INTERIM attached to it, too.

Everybody living in the Husker State L-O-V-E-S the football program, right?

Well, not this guy. And his take on the whole situation is interesting, to say the least.

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Not surprisingly, coach Bill Callahan's web site has no mention of the situation.

College Football & Jalen Rose

Wow! Nebraska is really bad at football.

South Florida is number two in the first BCS standings! South Florida?!?

Will Jimmy "I'll Drive You Buy" Clausen be riding the pine the rest of the season?

Dave Dye's College Football Monday Morning Quarterback.

USC freshman Joe McKnight breaks out -- finally!

Other than McKnight, USC struggled again this past weekend.

The Jalen Rose Foundation.

Oklahoma to play Ohio State for National Title?

Yes, sir, according to cbssports.com.

ESPN's Ivan Maisel on OU's inability to play a complete game.

Our New Best Friend Pat Forde on LSU losing to Kentucky. (Pssst...Lester's not happy!)

Rick Bozich on UK football.

Hoops Weiss not impressed with BC's win over Notre Dame.

Bob Ryan says BC's season is just now beginning.

Moving over to baseball...

After last night, do the Phillies really want Curt Schilling?

Schilling says he would not mind pitching for the Phillies.

Want to buy Curt's house?

Would Scott Rolen like to come back to the Phillies?

Jimy Williams will be back with the Phillies.

Dribbling around the NBA...

Kobe to Chicago Bulls?

Can you win in the NBA with three stars and one ball?

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College hoops...

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Wes Wesley gets Coach Cal into China

Four Quickies

Big Papi Tells Yankees to Keep Torre.

Friday Night Lights gets good press.

The Hills is not real?

Phillies Ready to Court Schilling & Rivera?

Happy Friday

Dan Shaughnessy previews the Red Sox-Indians as only he can.

Warm weather in the fall stinks. It really stinks if it costs you $$$.

Charlie Pierce profiles Kevin Garnett in the Boston Globe Magazine.

Were you mean to your ex? Watch out for on-line REVENGE!

Alex Beam says he's not a cool guy. And that's why we have Man Love for him.

We all have forbidden thoughts. We just don't share them. Alex Beam, however, does!

Hoops Weiss wonders, What's up with Penn State?

Blame Joe Torre for the Yankees' mess? What about Derek Jeter?

Five off-season questions for the Phillies.

Can Mizzu's crazy offense beat Oklahoma?

College hoops primer with Sports Illustrated's Seth Davis.

Ric Bucher on The State of the Lakers.

"But I'm a little too lazy."

Came across a great article on Larry David in the The New Yorker. Anything about the "Curb Your Enthusiasm" creator/star is good reading by us.

First look at (new) Big Three

Just to summarize what Rick Pitino said: Larry Bird's not walking through that door. Neither are Robert Parrish and Kevin McHale.

But, there is a new Big Three in Boston. Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen have come aboard to help Paul Pierce return the Celtics to their Glory Days.

Last Saturday, I got my first glimpse of the trio when they manned up against the Toronto Raptors in Italy. Now granted, I only watched the first quarter -- but we are all about snap judgements, no?

Things I saw:

Paul Pierce is F-A-T. Not phat, but F-A-T. And Celtics homer, errrrrr, announcer Mike Gorman can say, "Paul is a big guy, a really big guy." all he wants. The man is F-A-T. He was gassed less than five minutes into the game. And, hey, great job on the four inch (or was it three?) vertical lift.

K.G. is the best player on the team and will be one of the three best in the East. Unlike Dough Boy #34, Garnett has actually taken good care of his body. His moves in the post are still top shelf and his energy and attitude are role model-esque.

Ray Allen is clearly third fiddle on offense. The Big Guy and The Big Ticket are 1 and 1A, case closed. Thankfully for Doc Rivers, Allen has the class to handle third string duty. If Doc tired that with Overweight Man, he would have problems. Major problems. The only potential problem with Ray-Ray are his wheels. Bad ankles on jump shooters are not cool.

Rajon Rondo is what he is. That was one of Tuna's favorite phrases. RR shot 2-7 and handed out six assists in 25 minutes. He can't shoot! If he could, he would have been a top five pick in the draft two years ago. If people would just accept this and move on, they could actually appreciate his game a bit.

You play with five guys, not four. Kendrick Perkins is not an NBA starting center. Period. He can't score and he is a fouling machine.

You could come off the bench for Doc Rivers. These are the people who currently sit on the bench watching The Big Three: Eddie House, James Posey, Brian Scalabrine, Leon Powe, Tony Allen, Gabe Pruitt, Dahntay Jones, Big Baby Davis, Brandon Wallace, Jackie Manuel, Scot Pollard and Esteban Batista. House and Posey are solid NBA vets who will help a little. Allen, if healthy, is serviceable. But he was limping around on one leg before he tweaked his knee on a breakaway dunk Saturday. As for Big Baby Davis (pictured), the rookie from LSU? He looks like he is back over 300 lbs again. I am guessing that Pierce will tell Doc to cut him from the team. There is only so much food to go around for the pre and post game spreads.

Texas Tech Students selling "Vick 'Em" T-shirts

Wow. Double Wow.

College Football & Don Imus

Sam Bradford gets Big Time profile in USA Today.

Coming off perhaps the biggest upset in college football history, maybe we should have seen it coming?

Speaking of Stanford, man, those kids are really smart!

Speaking of upsets II, if Missouri beats Oklahoma Saturday, will that be an upset?

Mark Blaudschun asks, Is Anyone #1?

Gosh, a lot of Texas football players get arrested!

LSU's Jacob Hester (above) is the best white running back in the SEC since...Major Oglive!

Long Live The King

In non-college football matters:

Mike Lupica on the state of the Yankees

Don Imus is back on the radio

UMass alumni are C-H-E-A-P!

Was it only nine days ago?

It's all about THE LINKS...

The NBA regular season is right around the corner. Time to start reading Stone Harbor, NJ Native Son Jack McCallum of Sports Illustrated.

One day soon you will be giving Junior his allowance via his cell phone.

Nick Saban taking academic pot-shots at media darling South Florida.

What are the top 10 stadiums in college football?

54-year old Google worker called "fuddy duddy" -- wins age discrimination suit.

So that was his problem! Adam Eaton may start seeing a shrink!

Who are the most influential people in sports?

These people don't seem very happy! (I wonder why...)

Adrian Peterson watches OU whip Texas

Former OU All-American and future NFL Rookie of the Year

Adrian Peterson at yesterday's Red River Shootout, won by OU, 28-21
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Oklahoma 28 Texas 21

Papa's got a brand new funk

I've been lazy with my Baby Backs lately. I have been hitting them with rub and then throwing them in the oven. When they're done, I have been putting down some BBQ sauce and just turning on the oven broiler for three minutes. An easy way to get decent ribs.

Thursday night, I was motivated. Coach Pete would have said I was Jacked and Pumped. And feeling a bit Dangerous. I massaged the ribs with a heavy dose of rub. I then wrapped them tightly in Saran Wrap overnight in the refrigerator. Below, is what they looked like after 20 hours.




I then used my traditional oven method. I put the ribs in at 225 degrees for exactly 2 1/2 hours. When they came out, this is what they looked like:

The next move was huge. I fired up The Webber and got it to about 500 degrees. I then basted the ribs with sauce (both sides) on the grill for six minutes, turning and flipping them twice. The finished product is below.

For reasons unknown to me, My Kids are not big rib fans. (More for me, right?!?) So, for them I made pizza. I rolled market bought dough and added sauce.

I bought fresh mozzarella and sliced it as thinly as possible. (It was so fresh, it was almost too moist, which made getting thin slices difficult.) After adding the mozzarella, I sprinkled on My New Best Friend -- Mr. Italian Spices.




15 minutes later (at 425 degrees), dinner was served.

Happy Friday

The Bad The Phillies are toast. I admit that I did not watch many (OK...any) Colorado games this year. They are a good team. In fact, they are a very good team. Their offense top to bottom does not afford many chances for opposing pitchers to rest. As for Charlie Manual's decision to remove Kyle Kendrick with a 3-2 lead and the bases loaded in the fourth inning? I thought Kendrick was pitching well enough to keep him in the game. But if Charlie thought he was ready to implode, then going to the bullpen was the right call. However, bringing in Kyle Lohse was just plain stupid. We're talkin' practice, errrr, we're talkin' playoffs. Charlie took Kendrick out far earlier than he would have in a regular season game. Fine. But that means he should have used his normal bullpen rotation in the same earlier-than-normal fashion. That means J.C. Romero should have bailed on Kendrick in the fourth and then worked the fifth. That means Flash Gordon should have come in and done the 6th and 7th. And that means Brett Myers should have come in and closed the 8th and 9th innings. None of that happened. And that means Charlie screwed up. True, Romero, Flash and Myers don't normally go more than an inning. But for cripes sake, you needed to win that game to have any hope of salvaging the series.

Now, I am not ready to get rid of Charlie because of his pitching decisions. But Our Guy Jayson Stark sounds like he is, based on yesterday's column. In fact, he went so far (so very far) as to compare it to John McNamara leaving Bill Buckner in at first base against the Mets and Grady Little letting Pedro "If you break into my house, I will shoot you!" Martinez pitch to the Yankees.

Wow. Ouch. Yikes. That's not good.

The Good Oklahoma and Texas play tomorrow in the Red River Shootout. After having pistol whipped the 'Horns five straight years, the Sooners have dropped the last two contests. Both teams enter the game coming off of disappointing losses last week. Hard to comprehend that one of these teams will be 0-2 in the conference come dinner time tomorrow night. Prediction?

I will simply say Oklahoma will not cover as 11 point favorites.

Steve Spurrier Good to have the Head Ball Coach back on top. You just know that as he enjoyed Happy Hour(s) this week, he was laughing at the notion that Kentucky --Kentucky!-- was being viewed by some as the team to beat in the SEC. (Not so surprising) Result? South Carolina 38 UK 23.

It's all about The Links
Peter Vecesy on the Isiah Thomas situation.
Stephon Marbury has found God.
Sounds like Andy Reid isn't going anywhere soon.
College football = Upset City.
Casual Friday = No e-mail Friday?
Chris Fowler's Friday column (psst...he likes OU over UT).