One issue related to switching conferences is the difference in travel distance/time that our student athletes/coaches and fans will experience. I did a quick computation of approximate travel distances and times using GoogleMaps. I think GoogleMaps uses the speed limit for computing travel times, so no congestion effects are included. Looking at the table, the travel times go up, on the average, by 2.5 hours (by 29%) and the distance by ~150 miles.

I've updated the numbers and added a few more tables:Potential SEC West (form Courier -Journal), and a hypo shortest path teams. I know that more than SEC West teams will be scheduled and the shortest paths teams are completely unrealistic. But it's just something to think about. 

Here is a link to an article David Knox On TV: A&M stands for Angry and Miserable 10-hour trips. I am guessing that 10-hour trips is actually short. 

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I have Charter Cable in Columbia, Missouri. Royals games seem to be randomly shown on FSN on Charter, but the program guide never says it's showing the Royals game even when it is showing it. Does anyone know how I could find out when Charter will be showing games? Maybe someone has deciphered which games are shown and when?  I would like to record the games so as to not miss the 30 that are shown on FSN. 

Thanks. 

From mlb:

Royals on FOX Sports Midwest in Mid-Missouri

All of FOX Sports' Royals telecasts are available to fans in mid-Missouri. Of the 140 regular-season telecasts, approximately 30 will air on the primary FOX Sports Midwest channel on cable. The remaining games air on cable on an alternate channel, which in some areas is labeled FOX Sports Midwest Plus (Mediacom channel 22; Cable One-Joplin channel 78, Cable One-Kirksville 3; Suddenlink-Branson channel 18). On DirecTV, all Royals games air on channel 672. On Dish Network, Royals games air on a sports alternate channel between 444 and 453 or in the 470s. St. Louis Cardinals telecasts are also available in mid-Missouri.

I was not able to find the $25 ticket donation option via the Mizzou athletics website. I selected the "donation ticket option" and went through all the pages up to the payment page. $64 was the only option that was available.

Here is were I went:

https://oss.ticketmaster.com/html/pack_planlist.htmI?l=EN&team=mizzou&selID=44

A link to this site came up automatically when I was trying to access www.mutigers.com.

Also, wasn't there an effort to start a RMN ticket donation drive? If I am not able to do it myself, maybe I should donate to the RMN effort since we can get more bang for the buck? Someone said in a previous post that we could get 1 free donated tix with 5 purchased?

John Jay’s judicious review of the Ridiculous One pronounced him to be the “supreme player of the land”. 

A “plurality” outfield was composed of Holliday, Rasmus and Ludwick with Jay, Craig and Bombs concurring and Stav, Winn and Floppy dissenting.  (I think it is clear why the players were grouped as such.)

An example of “stare decisis” is when John Jay follows the excellent defensive “precedence” set by Cory Ramus in center field. 

Prince Fielder was “quashed” by John Jay when he was thrown out at the plate while attempting to score.

On April 30, John Jay was nominated by TLR to start in the outfield with the “advise and consent” of Mozeliak.  (The casting of a certain manager in the executive role was very intentional.)     

John Jay was deprived of his due process when he was suddenly optioned to Memphis to make room for Winn.

I am not sure if this is really significant enough to be a post, so apologies upfront.  But at least I hope I can initiate some conversations on what MU could do to improve the O.  I have not used stats to prove my points, partly because some stats are not kept, e.g. number of dribble penetrations attempted per game or per player.

Here are some of my thoughts which echos what others have brought out in other posts:

1. More dribble penetration. This creates more variety in the attack: a) drive to the basket, b) dish off to a big man for a close range basket, c) kick back out for an open shot, or d) get fouled thus accumulating fouls.  I think d) is really important because of the style we play.  For an entire game, it is important to get the opposing team in foul trouble because very few teams can match our player depth.  Maybe I am too much of a homer, but I get the feeling that Dixon, Paul, and probably all our guards have pretty quick first steps.  I am pretty confident that they all have the physical abilitytake someone off the dribble in a one-on-one situation.  On b), I am pretty sure that it rarely happens with us.  I would love to see Ramsey get baskets that way.

2. Cut down on the poor shots, especially the NBA 3's (see 1c) above).  I am sorry to call out Kimmie and Demnon, but they seem to be the most guilty.  I am not saying that they don't have the NBA range, which I think they clearly do.  But just because one is able to do some things, it doesn't mean that one has to.  My assumption is that the accuracy will increase with a closer shot (e.g. college 3), so why not take an extra step and shoot closer.  

3. Set better picks and/or use the picks better.  a) High picks.  It does not seem like we do much with the pick at the top of the key.  Rarely does a shot result from it.  The ZT game winning 3-pointer is an exception and not the rule.  Again, I would like lo know how many of our 3's result from a high pick versus rotation of the ball to an open shooter.  Ball movement is of course a good thing so I am not poopooing that.  Also, I don't think our high picks are effective enough.  There are too many occassions where the defender is able to fight through.  We need to force them to switch and create an inbalance on the defense.  This also relates to 4.  b) Use picks to free up shooters.  We have a ton of shooters, so any screen to free someone up will be great.  I think Kimmie could really wear a defender down if someone had to chase him through screens.  I remember, that they used to set double screens for Reggie Miller (BTW, not my favorate since I though he was cocky) at UCLA.  The poor defender got knocked around by the screens, and Miller was lethal with space.  c) Use guards to low pick and free up our bigs.  Outside of Moore, I don't think anyone else really has a true low post game.  Why not use our tough guards to free them up and take advantage of our bigs' mobility?  An example of this is the old Jazz teams (which I hated) where Hornacek or Stockton would set screens to free Malone and other bigs.  Those two were pretty tough as they paid the price for the screens.Since I taped the game tonight, I reviewed it just to see what the non-ball players were doing.  It seems like we have really good player spacing and passing/rotating the ball, but I did not see effective picks.

4.Pick and roll.  I loved the two-man game that we had with Kareem Rush and Arthur Johnson or Paulding and Johnson.  I think our big men are mobile and could really do well in the pick and roll game.  How about a Kimmie/Bowers tandem?  I think it would be nightmare to guard.

Do you'all agree/disagree?  Maybe the 40 minutes of hell system doesn't lend itself to these ideas? 

It goes without saying that cardinals' fans, to put it mildly, dislike the Cubs as a team.  I was curious about everyone's feelings towards individual Cubs' players.  So I am hoping to get both a feeling about the person as a player and also a feeling about the non-playing aspects of the player.  Perhaps, we can avoid hurling epithets for this exercise.  I guess, I'll get us started with my thoughts on some of the current players:

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 I feel that Cards' pitchers (Wainer excepted) are not aggressive enough on the 2-2 count which leads to a full count or worse a BB.  Sometimes I see Moina clearly setting up outside the zone on a 2-2, so I wonder if this is Duncan's philosophy vs. the pitchers themselves.   I wanted to compare our pitchers to the rest of the league, but it turns out to be more than I could handle right now.  But I did manage to compile some data on the Cards' pitchers.  (BTW, thanks to houstoncardinal and astrostl pointing me to data at baseball-reference).  The data is a bit old (by a few days).

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I don’t think I will get many dissentions when I say that Izzy has been a good guy and solid closer for the Cards ever since 2002.  Izzy grew up in Cardinals country in Brighton, IL, just north of STL.  He is by all accounts a good solid citizen, except for a trash can punching incident that led to a broken wrist, but that happened long ago as a Met.  So why rag on Izzy?  First of all, my intention is not to rag on him.  Second, I am extremely thankful for his efforts for the last six years including 2006.  I can’t really blame the guy for being a trooper and pitching injured in 2006.  Plus, 2006 turned out alright, didn’t it?  So what’s my problem?  Well, I am getting older, and I am afraid that one of these days Izzy will induce me to have a heart attack during the ninth inning. 

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I get the impression that most VEBers are not too enthused about TLR.

Here is a quote on TLR from: http://diamondhoggers.blogspot.com

Manager
I look at Tony La Russa as baseball's version of Tom Coughlin in a lot of ways. The ultimate micro-manager who drives his fan base nuts with his miniscule micro-moves. You cannot question his resume, the guy just wins. He also delivered in 2006 with a World Championship. At the same time, those small moves that are more often than not right (and we're left wrong) are so criticsized.

People need to get off La Russa. The guy should be able to write his contract and manage these Cardinals as long as he wants. St. Louis is his town. That's his dugout at the new Busch, just ask Albert Pujols. He is a great in-game manager and adds anywhere from 7-15 wins per year to teams he manages. Consistently he gets more from a roster of less, as much as any skipper in the league. Hot tempered? Sure he is. La Russa won't be around forever, so I ask Cardinal fans to appreciate what they have in him now. I've watched him do his thing since I was a kid and he's an excellent baseball man, and man in general.

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I was wondering how others might feel about the Cards bringing back Dream Weaver?  I think Jeff's had some success with Cards and Duncan, so it would be good for him to be here again. I am just not sure how well he would fit into Cards' future plans.  He should be reasonably priced now (in the bargain bin), and I doubt con-man Boras can do his trick again.  I am not necessarily rooting for him to be back, but at least he is a somewhat known quantity with the Cards.  Can he be worse than Kip Wells?      

Matthew Leach said
(http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071210&content_id=2322494&vkey=news_stl&fext=. jsp&c_id=stl&partnered=rss_stl)

"Would the Cardinals consider bringing back Jeff Weaver?
-- James T.

I asked this question directly of general manager John Mozeliak during the Winter Meetings, and he didn't rule it out. He also didn't show much enthusiasm for the proposition. He did say, though, that the bridge isn't completely burned.

The deal is this: Scott Boras is not going to move quickly on Weaver as long as he has bigger fish to fry -- such as Kyle Lohse, who reportedly may seek five years. So once the Boras Corp. gets around to dealing on Weaver, the Cards probably hope to be squared away in their rotation.

It's not a non-starter, but it's a long shot."

Also, here is a Mariner's fan's memory of Dream Weaver last season.  
http://www.lookoutlanding.com/story/2007/12/5/11232/4900

I've wondered about this for a long time, and I wonder if someone can give me some insight on this.  I think Cards' pitchers have been throwing up way too many balls on a 2-2 count leading to a large number of 3-2 counts.  I used to think that this is a product of our large cadre of inexperienced pitchers not wanting to challenge hitters on a 2-2 count.  Instead, I think it is the way Dave Dunkin wants the pitchers to pictch on a 2-2 count, i.e. to waste a pitch on 2-2 hoping the hitter would chase a bad pitch.  I can probably point to many examples, but a prime example is Isringhausen's 2-2 pitch to Shawn Greene last night (Tue 6/26/07).  Kelly Stinnet clearly set up outside the strike zone, and Izzy hit the spot.  I've heard Joe Morgan talk about how he feels the 2-2 should be pitched, and he seems to put more urgency on the 2-2 than what I've seem the Cards pitchers do.  This is all the more frustrating as I've seen Cards pitchers walk batters after going 0-2.  I can understanding wasting two pitches to go to 2-2.  But why waste another one and go full?  If one is able to get in two strikes, why does it have to be so hard to throw a third one?  I've never played baseball on any significant level, so my perspective is purely from a fan's point of view.  I know Dave Dunkins is almost god in Cardinals Nation because he is an amazing pitching coach, but is he wrong about the 2-2 count?

Thanks for any insights.

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