After 20 long, excruciatingly painful, agonizing years… SMU has finally returned to Division I football.
They nutted up and paid a legitimate Div1A coach. This is the very first sign since the death penalty that anyone over at the hilltop even cared that they got the shit kicked out of them every week.
Now, it seems, someone cares. Whether that someone is Steve Orisini, Gerald Turner, or Gerald Ford is an exercise left to the reader.
In Jones’s first year at Hawaii, he took an 0-12 team to 9-4. With the same players. I don’t expect that sort of turnaround, but the Ponies have seen neither a winning season, nor a bowl, since they resumed play in 1989. Either would represent real progress.
Best comment on the Dallas Morning News Blog:
“I guess Pony Express goes air mail now”
I like it.
Justin Willis, your prayers have been answered.
From today’s “32 Questions” column on Yahoo! Sports:
“So which is worse, Lions fans? Collapsing at the end like that, or sucking from the opening kick?”
Ouch. I think that’s going to leave a bruise.
Since, for some odd reason, I seem to have a bit of a readership who are big Spurs fans, I just wanted to give everyone a chance to sign below as they exit the Spurs bandwagon.
I’ll admit that I find this extra funny because I don’t really care about pro basketball. It’s just that Spurs fans seem to have this chip on their shoulder 
While I fully realize that this will not be original, let it be known that I posted it before anyone else.
I have only three words to say about the Cowboys spectacularly bad offensive showing on Sunday.
Romo, Romo, Romo.
Tell me that I am knee-jerking as much as you want. But until the offensive line can lessen the pressure on the QB, you need someone who can run around a little bit.
Drew Bledsoe can’t.
I certainly wish that it had not taken until the last game of the season, but the Nationals defeated the Pirates Black, 11-10 in 5 innings.
The Nationals fought back from a 10-4 deficit in the third inning with a multi-hit game by James Kurtti, a multi-RBI game from Alex Galloway, and two innings of masterful shutout pitching by Cole Schmanke.
Cole pitched the last inning with the knowledge that not only could he allow NO runs, but he had to complete the inning in 8 minutes. (Plano has a rule that any baseball game must end at the 2:00 mark, and that any incomplete innings will not count in the final result.)
If that’s not pressure, I don’t know what is. Not only… â??You gotta strike ‘em outâ? but â??you gotta strike ‘em out, and FAST.â?
Even the defense got into the act. Tyler Eggers and Michael Shaw both had nice catches for putouts in the last two innings.
In related news, it is believed that upon Michael catching the fly ball for the final out, a certain coach set a world record by jumping about 19 feet into the air, immediately before doing his Jim Valvano impression and hugging any player who ventured near him on the field.
Rangers - 15
Nationals - 9
Seems like an odd score for the title, eh?
The Rangers are 9 years old, and have played 6 seasons together. The Nationals have had more games than we have had practices.
The Rangers are in first place in a 13 team league, and the Nationals are dead last. Until last night, the Rangers had not lost a game, and the Nationals have yet to win.
Our kids knew exactly what they were getting into, and yet showed up enthusiastic anyway. And you know what? They gave as good as they got. Good pitching, good hitting, and some outstanding defense that included a truly fantastic outfield fly catch (that turned into a double play) by Stephen Cobb.
Not a team all year long has scored 9 runs on the Rangers. I know this was much more of a game than the Rangers coaches were expecting. They kept shuffling pitchers, looking for something that could stop the bleeding. Unfortunately for the guys in red, they finally found it.
I’ve never been so proud of a 6 run loss. The improvement in our team is nothing short of miraculous. If we could just pick up a win in our last two, I’d be really happy. They deserve to win one.
Pictures are up on MatthewCave.com
Incidentally, for those who were giving me a hard time for getting excited… the energy drink in question was ProEndorphine mixed with orange juice. Yeah, I’d say it works. Although honestly, I was excited by the good play more than I was worked up by a supplement
I’ll add links here to all future galleries.
If you would like to order prints, prices are as follows:
- 4 x 6 prints - $4.00 each
- 5 x 7 prints - $6.00 each
- 8 x 10 prints = $14.00 each
I send these off to get printed (in other words, they are not just coming off my home printer) so they will take a few days to get in. Just drop me an email (matt@dumpinggrounds.com) to let me know which shots, what size, and how many you would like. I’ll get them filled as quickly as I can get them shipped.
Ok, ok, a losing season is not reason for celebration at most colleges.
SMU is not most colleges.
I won’t get into how the NCAA screwed up, or how other schools have done worse, or any of that that just tires me out.
What I will say is how proud I am that they closed out the season with 3 consecutive wins, to finish the season 5-6. If not for a heartbreaking loss to Marshall earlier in the year… they would have gone to a bowl.
This, my friends, is something to be proud of. This year signaled the second best year that SMU has had since they have been back from the Death Penalty, and coach Phil Bennett has them headed in the right direction. And the vast majority of these players are coming back for next year. All of this happened in a year that they stepped up to a tougher conference.
The good news (and the bad news) is that now, the standard has been set. The goal next year must be for SMU to go to their first bowl in 20 years.
I think think that they can do it.
This is the first time I have tried to post a picture to my blog that was hosted in my collection at Flickr. Let me know, please, if it does not work correctly for you.
I really liked this shot, but unfortunately, this little dude did not play for the Jets, so I decided to post it separately, rather than in their team library. I know that I was on the other team, I would not have wanted to this guy any more.
Flickr tags: (football, kids, sports)
â??Power Runningâ? by ender3
If you check out my photostream (just random shots at the moment) and you have a Flickr account, add me as a contact or leave me a content. I don’t know anyone who has one, and I feel lonely there
In 2003… Alex Rodriguez played for the Texas Rangers.
- They finished 71-91, 25 games back. One year later, without Rodriguez, the best player in baseball, they improved to 89-73, finishing only 3 games back.
Before the 2004 season, the Boston Red Sox passed on acquiring Alex Rodriguez, instead allowing him to go to their biggest rival, the New York Yankees.
- The Red Sox broke one of the biggest jinxes in baseball history in 2004, and won the World Series.
The New York Yankees have not gone more than 2 years without a world series in 10 years… winning 4 world championships in that time.
- Until now. Since acquiring Rodriguez, the Yankees have been eliminated from the playoffs before reaching the World Series twice in a row.
Coincidence? I think not. No matter how talented Alex Rodriguez is, no matter how gaudy his statistics, he is a team cancer who will never win a world championship, simply because he has no idea of the meaning of the word TEAM.
Are you listening, Terrell Owens?