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A few more thoughts on Cal getting hosed by the 2012 football schedule, and what can be done in the future
by MJB on Jan 23, 2012 1:47 AM EST
on California Golden Blogs
We're ticked that the Pac-12 saw fit to move the Big Game to mid-October while everyone else's rivalry game gets played in the last two weeks of the regular season.
We're ticked that Cal, and only Cal, has to play 12 consecutive weeks in the 2012 season with no bye week and then gets the completely useless bye on Thanksgiving week.
Point #1: Larry Scott doesn't care about what we think. As far as he's concerned, his job is to do Big Things and generate money for the conference. Little things like sticking us with a bad schedule and dumping our rivalry game in mid-October and listening to our complaints about it are things that, I'm sure, he thinks should be handled two or three pay grades below his.
Point #2: No one in the conference office or at any of the other Pac-12 schools cares, either. As far as they are concerned, the conference already accommodated Cal on the football schedule in at least two ways: (1) Excusing Cal from hosting Thursday night games, and (2) Letting Cal and Stanford veto the initial plan to play the Big Game on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
Point #3: There are four conference games on Thursday night this year, involving 7 of the Pac-12 teams (ASU plays on consecutive Thursday nights in 2012, as Cal did in 2011). Every team playing on a Thursday gets a bye the week before their Thursday game and thus can't have another bye week. With USC playing Notre Dame on Thanksgiving weekend, one of the Pac-12 teams has to be off that week or playing a non-conference game, and it has to be one of the teams that didn't play on a Thursday. Cal is of course one of those teams.
So, what's it all mean?
As long as Cal and Stanford refuse to play the Big Game on Thanksgiving week, there is a risk that the Big Game will be singled out by the conference to get bumped to earlier in the season, especially in even years when USC plays Notre Dame that week. Either the schools will have to stop vetoing Thanksgiving week or find some other plan that satisfies the rest of the league. AFAIK, none of the other Pac-12 schools object to having their rivalry game played that weekend.
The one thing that can be fixed is the bye during Thanksgiving week. As long as USC and Stanford alternate playing ND that weekend, one (or three) conference teams will have to have that week off – unless one more Pac-12 team schedules a non-conference game that week. If two teams have non-con games that week, then nobody has to get stuck with a bye that week.
Who could be the second Pac-12 team playing a non-conference game that week? Two possibilities:
-- USC and Stanford could agree to find another non-conference opponent or have a bye for that weekend in the years when they don't host Notre Dame that weekend. That seems fair given that their scheduling of ND is what causes this problem in the first place.
-- Utah could play BYU that weekend. When both were in the same conference they always played their "Holy War" game at the end of November. This might be the easiest "fix".
Which of those options is best? Take the poll...
EDIT: One more thought about the Thanksgiving week bye: If you hate it this year, you might get another chance to hate it again next year. As I noted in the comments, the way the conference office set up the schedule, UCLA would have had the Thanksgiving week bye while USC played ND and all the other conference rivalry games were played that week -- except that Cal and Stanford refused to play the Big Game on Thanksgiving week, so Stanford is playing UCLA instead and Cal is getting the bye. If the schedule is structured the same way for 2013, a year in which Stanford plays ND that week, the conference might very well give Cal the Thanksgiving week bye for a second year in a row.
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"It Drives Me Crazy" (The Shame of A Brown-Out)
by MJB on May 8, 2005 10:48 PM EDT
on Athletics Nation
This passage from Peter Gammons' latest column on espn.com perfectly epitomizes the the A's "pathetic" offense.
. . . It's about not scoring runners from third base with less than two outs. . ."I wish every player would study tapes of David Eckstein in that situation," says A's GM Billy Beane. "He will foul off a dozen pitches until he finally gets something he can get to the outfield to get the run home. It drives me crazy. Our players have heard me on this subject."
Why? Because when the A's left for their six-game swing through New York and Boston, they had come up with 42 runners on third base with less than two outs ... and 12 had scored. Pathetic.
Speaking of pathetic:
Kevin Brown has been one of the most pathetic pitchers in MLB since about the all-star break last season.
Brown lost seven straight starts, the first Yankees pitcher to do so since World War II.
His ERA at the start of today's game against the A's was 8.25.
And he flippin' shut out the A's today.
Pathetic.
Either it's time for major changes, or it's time to start moving guys like Dotel and planning for 2006.
More love for Tejada, from Gammons (with poll)
by MJB on May 2, 2005 12:58 PM EDT
on Athletics Nation
Peter Gammons' latest piece on espn.com once again sings the praises of Miguel Tejada and identifies Big Mig as the force behind the Orioles' great start to 2005:
But the players point to one man as the main reason for the club's turnaround. "There's no doubt in my mind that Miggy [Tejada] is the best player in the game," Roberts says. "Start with his position. He's by far the best at a [the] middle-infield skill position. Then, if you watched us every day, you'd see [Tejada's] RBI are not a fluke. He has an uncanny ability to knock in runs. Then, most of all, there's his energy. He is always up, pushing everyone and making the entire team better.""I've never been around anyone like him," B.J. Surhoff says of Tejada.
"I played with Pete Rose and coached Kirby Puckett," Orioles hitting coach Terry Crowley says, "and Miggy is just like them. He is the best player in the game, hands-down. Like Rose and Puckett, he puts it out there every day, and they are those rare players off whom teammates feed. You can crunch every number you want, you can't put a premium on the energy one player can bring to an entire team. This franchise changed the day he arrived."
More, and the poll, after the jump.
Padres' new top exec is Sandy Alderson (with poll)
by MJB on Apr 18, 2005 11:49 PM EDT
on Athletics Nation
The Padres just announced they have hired Sandy Alderson as their "chief executive officer", according to this San Diego U-T article:
Alderson is to become San Diego's chief executive officer, giving him all authority beneath that of club chairman John Moores. President and CEO Dick Freeman and General Manager Kevin Towers are to remain in the organization, with Freeman's title changing to president and chief operating officer.Official announcement will be made on Tuesday...
Alderson has turned down other clubs that sought him, but is to arrive in San Diego Tuesday for a news conference introducing him as a Padres executive."This is a unique opportunity for Sandy to be running the show," said a person close to Alderson. "This gives him another set of challenges."
Surprise to me. Sandy has been out of it for a while and I thought he went to the MLB offices because he was tired of running a team.
Phillips Bashes Zito: "Very Ordinary" (with poll)
by MJB on Apr 11, 2005 9:09 PM EDT
on Athletics Nation
Former GM Steve Phillips jumped on the Zito pile-on today with these comments on an espn.com chat:
Barry started showing signs of weakness in 2004. Left handed hitters dominated him during the season. His velocity has dropped off some and he has difficulty throwing the curve for a strike. Hitters have realized they should take the curve and sit on a mediocre fastball. Zito has become very hittable and very ordinary.Ouch. A bit too harsh, maybe.
Z needs to buckle down and get guys out. He needs to be better mentally, he's not done physically. I will admit that I'm not comfortable with where he's at right now, and agree that his fastball needs to improve to the point that it can fool hitters.
Sportsline: Contrasting A's and Angels on hitting
by MJB on Mar 23, 2005 8:11 AM EST
on Athletics Nation
The sportsline.com preview of the LAAOA is all about the difference between the Angels' hitting philosophy and that of the A's.
There are many phrases you might hear if you hang around manager Mike Scioscia's Angels long enough during the course of a season. "A walk is as good as a hit" probably won't be one of them.In an American League West containing the calculating and picky Oakland Athletics in one corner, the Angels are the undisciplined cousin who lives life by impulse.
In an AL West in which the Athletics have enjoyed great success by choosing pitches with more care and selection than your grandmother uses in picking out eggs at the supermarket, the Angels last year ranked 14th -- last -- in the league in walks.
You can improve your OBP by getting hits, not just walks, say the Angels:
The Angels share a belief with the Athletics in the importance of on-base percentage. But they do not share a belief with Oakland that walks are an integral part of boosting it.While the Angels ranked 14th in the AL and 28th in baseball last year with 450 walks, Oakland was third in the AL and fifth in the majors with 608.
Yet, in on-base percentage, while Oakland ranked fifth in the AL and ninth in the majors at .343, the Angels were right with them -- sixth in the AL and 13th in the majors at .341. And on the final weekend of the season, the Swingin' Angels won the first two games of a series in Oakland to steal the division title.
Olbermann: "Say it ain't so, Big Mac"
by MJB on Mar 19, 2005 2:50 AM EST
on Athletics Nation
Keith Olbermann has this great take on Thursday's congressional steroid circus, focusing mostly on McGwire of course.
If it hadn't been so tragic, so much like watching as cops fail to talk the guy out of jumping, McGwire's testimony would've been reminiscent of the old "Saturday Night Live" sketch about the Three Mile Island Nuclear accident. After President Jimmy Carter is exposed to a massive radiation dose, plant `spokesman' Richard Benjamin is asked "is it true that the president is 100 feet tall?" and replies with a mixture of mirth and disdain: "No! Absolutely not!" A second reporter then asks: "Is the president 90 feet tall?" and Benjamin replies "No comment."More after the jump.
Gammons: 'Roids rampant in '90s A's farm system (POLL)
by MJB on Mar 1, 2005 12:27 AM EST
on Athletics Nation
Peter Gammons' February 28th piece on espn.com ...
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/gammons/story?id=2002123
... starts out with McGwire and his androstenedione, moves on to Brian Downing and Ken Caminiti, then throws in this tidbit:
One mid-'90s Oakland A's farmhand said privately they called their minor league culture "the laboratory."
Canseco will sign his book at Costco
by MJB on Feb 20, 2005 10:36 PM EST
on Athletics Nation
Just got back from my neighborhood Costco (in Carlsbad, in San Diego County).
Big sign at the front entrance to the store -- says that Jose Canseco will be at the Carlsbad Costco store (Thursday, March 10th at 6 PM if you must know) to meet Costco customers and personally autograph copies of "Juiced".
For those of us who have been A's fans since way way back, this episode feels more and more surreal every day.
Vitale sez: McGwire and Canseco should take lie-detector tests (WITH POLL)
by MJB on Feb 18, 2005 6:35 PM EST
on Athletics Nation
Dickie V, in his espn.com column, opines that both Mac and Josey should take lie-detector tests live on ESPN to settle Canseco's claims about steroid use:
To end this soap opera, let's invite Canseco, McGwire and the players implicated to take a lie-detector test. Administer the test on "SportsCenter" and have a professional give the test and then air the results.
Canseco says he injected McGwire with steroids
by MJB on Feb 6, 2005 12:42 PM EST
on Athletics Nation
Jose Canseco has apparently decided to name as many juicy names in his new book as he possibly can.
This New York Daily News article says that Canseco, in his new tell-all book, will say that he injected Mark McGwire with steroids "in the rear end numerous times in clubhouse bathroom stalls."
According to the Daily News article, Canseco also says he watched Giambi and McGwire inject each other with 'roids, and that after being traded to the Texas Rangers, he taught Pudge Rodriguez, Rafael Palmeiro, and Juan Gonzalez how to use 'roids.
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim -- it's official
by MJB on Jan 3, 2005 1:02 PM EST
on Athletics Nation
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1958082
Orange County's baseball team on Monday officially took another name -- the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
Gotta love it. Those Angels fans must be throwing bricks through their windows as they read that.
Make Your Predictions: How Many Wins in '05?
by MJB on Dec 19, 2004 4:46 AM EST
on Athletics Nation
Just taking the temperature here.
Post your as-of-today prediction for how many games the A's will win in '05.
That's it. No charts of predicted wins from '06 thru '15. Nothing like that here.
Just predict the number of '05 wins, and explain your pick if you like.
I'll start with my prediction: 71.
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