Two years ago today, I was sitting in a doctor's office in downtown LA with my wife. I had my arms wrapped around her, and both of us were crying. We were pregnant with our third child - a boy, our third boy, actually - but there were problems. The specialist we were there to see had just informed us that our baby had a severe case of a genetic bone disorder called Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI). This disease limits the amount of collagen in bones, causing them to be thin and brittle. For some people, this means going through life with a few more broken bones than normal. For others, it means a lot of broken bones, multiple surgeries, and significant pain. For still others, it means spending their entire life in a wheel chair with severe bone deformities. For our baby, the doctor told us, it meant that life would almost certainly not last more than a few days, if that.

As I sit here and type this, there are tears in my eyes again. But they do not come from a place of sorrow. I am crying tears of joy because my son is now 21 months old, and he is amazing. Here he comes, walking across the living room. He is holding a ball. He starts off at a normal pitch. "Daddy," he says, firmly. He pauses for about half a second. "Daddy!" he says, more insistent now. He barely pauses this time, before belting in a tone that indicates he will not be denied, "DADDY!!!"

Continue reading this post »

We’ve had a lot of Juju-pleasing, self-induced pain this week. It’s a good remedy for the panic that we’re all feeling and it helps subdue the hubris that tends to creep in when your team is 11 – 0. Perspective is a good thing.

But enough of that! They call this game the Civil War, right? Unfortunately, Wikipedia doesn’t reveal anything about how this game earned such a label, and since I don’t know how to research anything outside of Wikipedia, I’m going to assume that no one knows. However, even though I can’t share the story of how the Oregon – OAC/OSU football game came to be named after the bloodiest conflict on American soil, I can make some comparisons between this rivalry matchup and the actual war that pitted brother versus brother. With apologies to benzduck (please feel free to correct any of these details, which I’m sure you remember vividly), here are some apt Civil War analogies:

Continue reading this post »

So I was looking at Pac 10 standings and wondering how bowls were going to shake out.  At the beginning of the season, a lot of analysts were touting the Pac 10's depth.  And I still think that's a legitimate argument.  The Pac-10 went 10 - 4 against BCS conference foes, better than any other conference.*

*Of course that doesn't include OSU's losses against TCU and fBSU.  But it does include a 1-point loss by the Pac-10's third or fourth worst team on the road to what could be the Big 10 champion.

Still, it's tough to make the depth claim when (get ready for it) THE PAC 10 COULD FINISH WITH THREE BOWL ELIGIBLE TEAMS.  And it's not that far-fetched.  Let's take a look at how it could happen:

Continue reading this post »

Because I needed somewhere to declare Mark May the first Baver of Bad News for the day.  And to laud the stylings of the great Lee Corso.  What upsets do you like today?  Can Florida figure out its offense in time to beat Alabama?  Will Texas recover?  Will Lou Holtz say something coherent? 

I'd say none of those is likely to happen, but hey, it's college football.  You never know.  Feel free to join in the conversation.

How many times have we heard over the last few years how lucky the Angels are?  Since the explosion of stat-centric projects systems like ZiPS and CHONE and the increased focus on things like Pythagorean W-L, the Angels are the poster boy for over-achieving teams.  Most writers attribute it to some sort of random luck (or voodoo perhaps, Ervin?), and the conclusion is that the Angels have come out on the good side of the dice rolls much more often than not.  We can spend (and have spent) hours debating how this is possible and whether these systems are stupid or incredibly stupid.  But mainly I wanted to point out one Angel (my favorite now that GA and Chone have left the team) who has not reaped the benefits of luck, particularly this year.  That is one Mr. Howard Kendrick.

Continue reading this post »

 He may be a little undersized now,  but just look at the way he carries the ball!  With authority!  That's right, Wolf is the future of Chip Kelly's spread offense.

Continue reading this post »

So many people on here have been supportive and helpful regarding my family's situation with my son that I wanted to make sure everyone was up to date on how Wyatt is doing.  I created a blog to document the situation and I'll be updating it as things happen.  There's a welcome post up there and the basic narrative of our journey to this point.  Feel free to check it out and comment.  Here's the link: Miracle Wolf.

Read after the jump for a brief synopsis if you don't feel like reading the whole thing.

Continue reading this post »

When Takimoto first mentioned that he was looking for people to guest-write Tako Tuesdays, I wanted to jump at the chance.  But what could I offer?  What knowledge could I possibly bring to this community that would be worthy of such an honor?  Suddenly two thoughts popped into my head. 

Unfortunately, you will not hear about the first, which involved metaphorically linking each major Lord of the Rings character to a member of the football team (Chip Kelly as Aragorn?  Yes please).  Instead, you will hear about the second.  With thanks to Takimoto, what follows is the only other subject on which I am qualified to write: internet arguing.

Let's dive right in, shall we?

Continue reading this post »

As a Duck fan living in Southern California, I’m incredibly excited we made it to the Rose Bowl, for the obvious reason that we’re Pac 10 champs in a BCS bowl, but also because it’s conceivable that I could attend!  I’ve only been able to go to one game since I graduated from school in 2004, and that was the eminently forgettable 16 – 0 ugliness that occurred against UCLA the week after we lost Dennis Dixon for the season.

Anyway, I’m interested in getting Rose Bowl tickets, as I’m sure others of you are as well.  However, I have no idea how to go about obtaining them.  A quick Google search led me to the Rose Bowl website, which explained that a “limited number” of tickets were going on sale at Ticketmaster on Tuesday, December 8th.  Here’s the link, if anyone’s interested: http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/0B00436D9F964973?brand=rosebowl

Continue reading this post »

First of all, my hat’s off to Stanford.  I couldn’t have written this Saturday night or even yesterday because I was so mad.  But the truth is, as good as Oregon looked against SC, Stanford looked as good, if not better, against us.  Gerhart was a beast.  Luck couldn’t have mis-thrown a deep ball if he’d tried.  Owusu was great on returns.  Their defense was just good enough to keep us from moving the ball at will.  And Harbaugh coached the game of his life.  Despite all that, this was a one-score game until that last second field goal.  I identified a few moments that I think were turning points and, had they gone differently, might have swung things in the Ducks’ favor.

Continue reading this post »

My wife and I are due to have our third child near the end of March.  We just went for our ultrasound last week and found out we're having our third boy!  The good news is that my wife hasn't left me (yet).  The bad news is that we have to come up with another boy name.  Which is where you guys come in...

Continue reading this post »

I can't remember the last time I've been this worked up about a game.  I was upset with the way the Angels lost in the playoffs last year, but that seemed inevitable, if disappointing.  This was just a punch in the gut.  I was screaming at my television set.

Continue reading this post »

Brad Penny was just released by the Red Sox.

Given the Angels rotation problems, I would love to see them go after Penny.  According to Fangraphs, his FIP is only 4.48, which indicates that his ERA is bloated by playing half his games at Fenway in front of a defense that has been one of the worst in the AL.

Continue reading this post »