Chasing the Blues

Michael Bourn Boosts Braves

The Braves' Michael Bourn shows that a baseball player with speed running the bases can give as much excitement as a football touchdown pass, a basketball fast break and the 100-meter dash. ... Bourn gives the Braves the true leadoff man they've rarely had, even in their glory years under Bobby Cox. ...With Josh Hamilton's four home runs drawing attention to one of baseball's rarest feats, it's a wonder that one of the steriod boys didn't hit five or six home runs in a game. ...The NBA keeps playing. Quick, can you name all of the teams left? Commissioner David O'Brien must be dreading an Indiana-San Antonio or Indiana-Oklahoma City final. ...I keep trying to get interested in the New York Rangers-New Jersey Devils series, but hockey ramains a tough sell on TV. ...The loss of Chris Bosh stirs panic in the Miami Heat ranks. Apparently in landing all of that talent, Pat Riley neglected to sign a backup big man.

 

The Pack Sent Packing

Watching the troubles of the Green Bay Packers' Aaron Rogers, I wondered how backup Matt Flynn f LSU fame would have done. Aftter all, Flynn threw six touchdown passes in the Packers' final game of the season. Meanwhile, Rogers was given a rest, and with the bye week, looked out of synch with his receivers. It was as if the Packers were the team unused to the cold of Lambeau Field, and the Giants the home team.

Of course, the rigid NFL "book" says to always stay wih the quarterback deemed the starter, no matter how badly he performs. Back in the day, teams would play two guys, a la Sonny Jurgensen and Billy Kilmer at washington. And, old George Blanda would come in to relieve Darryl Lamonica for the old Oakland A's. That added a level of excitement ot the game.

What's with all of the dropped passes? Max McGee and Boyd Dowler never dropped so many in their entire careers. 

With the losses of Green Bay and New Orleans, the model of high-scoring, sleek offenses and mediocre defenses took a big hit. All season, it appeared as if a new paradigm was taking control in the NFL, but the games this weekend, with the exception of New England's blowout of Dever, showed that defense still matters.

Eli Manning looks like the best QB in the league at present. No one throws so accurately, not even Drew Brees, and he's the closest thing the league has to a classic pocket passer. Some of the blows he took made me shudder, but Eli kept bouncing up. Guess it helps to have grown up as the baby brother in the Manning family.

Watching the Patriots destroy Denver, I could only wonder how in the Broncos beat a team like the Steelers, even if the Steelers missed key guys on defense and Ben Rothliesberger had a bad ankle. So much for the genius of Dick LeBeau.

Well, the mystery of why a penalty wasn't called on the 49ers' Patrick Willis' helmet to helmet hit on the Saints' Pierre Thomas  has been cleared up. According to the rules, such a hit is allowed on a running back who has the ball and is going down field. The penalty is called when a defenseless qb is standing in the pocket, or a receiver is crossing the field without the ball. Small consolation for Thomas.

Manning and Willis give the Ole Miss Rebs two players in the NFC champsionship game. Hard to imagine now the Rebs getting such talent. 

 

When the Saints Go Marching Out of the Playoffs

A few weeks ago, NBC's Chris Collingsworth, one of the many overly talkative commentators who build a longing for John Madden to come back, said Louisiana could have two football titles. Chatty Chris underestimated Louisiana football teams' propensity for shooting themselves in the cleats.

Following LSU's BCS meltdown, in which Les Miles returned to his former frozen-daze on the sidelines, the Saints again failed on the road in the playoffs, committing five turnovers and unable to stop Alex Smith and the 49ers in the last-second drive. How can a team that looks so invincible in the Super Dome look so bad on the road? 

While Drew Brees is the main Saint, Pierre Thomas runs a close second. The Saints are a different team without the hard-running Pierre, who was knocked out of the game early in the first quarter on a vicious hit. By the way, that appeared the type of "helmet to helmet" blow that has received penalties throughout the year, but no flag came down Saturday. I actually prefer games like Saturday's when the refs didn't mar the game with constant penalty calls, in fact not a single one was called against the Saints, but I wondered why an obvious helmet to helmet, resulting in a head injury to Thomas, didn't warrant a penalty. With a penalty call, the Saints would have kept the ball and likely scored, changing the tenor of the game.

Well, no excuses, the 49ers deserved the victory. No team that makes five turnovers should win. The Saints have some young talent with running back Mark Ingram, although his late season injury is troubling, and Jimmy Graham, but the rest of the team is growing older. The disappointing loss left me wondering how many more years of top play are left for Brees and his receiving corps. Climaxing with the great Super Bowl win of now three years ago, this team has been together for quite some time now. 

Leave it to the San Francisco fans to show some admirable wit. Despite the loss, I salute the fan who had the sign, "Who dat? We dat."

In the other Saturday game, The Patriots blowout of the Broncs should dampen Tebow mania for a while. With the Broncs falling behind early, the Broncs' John Fox would have been justified in yanking Tim, but the Tebow tempest prevented that from happening. Despite the loss, the kid is still praiseworthy — he was still playing hard late in the game, jumping up and down after a meaningless gain. And, he was still smiling after the game. As an LSU fan, I hated the kid when he was at Floriday, but now I hope he advances his passing technique during the off season and establishes himself further as an NFL QB. If nothing else, his success would help show that Mel Kiper Jr. along with Collingsworth, should shut up.

The Saints, and Saint Tebow

A lovely winter Saturday, waiting to see if the Saints can whip the 49ers. After the LSU BCS debacle, I would love the healing of a Saints win. As usual, the Saints-49ers game holds SEC ties, with Ole Miss' Patrick Willis leading the '49er defense. I remember him almost single handedly beating LSU on a game I heard over the crackling radio signal from WWL. Only a four or five years ago, unlike today, every game wasn't televised.

After the Saints, I won't be able to hold myself away from watching Tim Tebow and the Broncos take on the Patriots. Saint Tim vs. cool Tim a week after Saint Tim vs. Randy Ben. Now Tebow's really receiving the big media attention, with a front page feature Saturday by The New York Times' Dan Barry and a sidebar by Richard Sandimor, and pieces in the Wall Street Journal.

Funny, Barry used a Jim Thorpe reference about Tom Brady, when I see Tebow as a throwback to the old NFL guys of the 1920s. The way he plunges forward, not sliding to the ground to avoid being hit like other NFL qbs (such as Brady) brings to mind Bronco Nagurski. The kid had some pretty good throws against the Steelers, and it looks as if the Broncos have come up with some plays going left to help him with his southpaw throws. Tebow also reminds me of old guys like Billy Kilmer and Bobby Layne who weren't the greatest passers in the world but just knew how to win. 

The Journal even had a thumb-sucker about whether Tim's wins are divinely inspired. That seems ridiculous, but who knows? In most cases, I would be put off by someone who makes as big a show of religion as Tebow does, but I find his "Tebowing" and praise of Jesus something new and different. It looks like honest emotion, something all too rare in America these days. With all of his modesty and affirmation of his virginity, Tebow does endorse Jockey shorts. I was amused to see that Jockey has posted a photo of Tebow on its web site, wearing Jockeys with no shirt. Hmmm, there is something gay about the way Tim talks. And what's with that beard?

Along with old-time NFL players from the Red Grange era, Tebow recalls a much older tradition, the medieval virtuous knight. His popularity/notoriety proves the power of even ancient cultural icons.

The NFL always succeeds in capturing the public's imagination. Major League baseball and the NBA can't ever find anything as dramatic and controversial as Tebow. God might not be backing the Broncs, but the NfL surely may be. If the Broncos win tonight, will we start to suspect that the games are rigged to get Tebow to the Super Bowl? I generally eschew conspiracy theory thinking, but sometimes I wonder. Just imagine the Saints vs. the Saint. 

Saints and Tigers Head for Football Top

I'm amazed by Drew Brees and the Saints, their offensive machine even more efficient than when they won the Super Bowl. The Saints got screwed on the seeding, and so face a daunting patch to headed back to the Super Bowl, having to travel to San Francisco and then probably Green Bay, but this is the most proficient offense in the history of football. Watching the Saints, I wonder if I'm in some kind of childhood dream, especially since I remember the old, goofy Saints, a standing joke. 

New Orleans is known for great creativity, in food and music, but the Saints are a different kind of success for which the old city has never been known. Cuisine, jazz, blues and rap are associated with decadence, while pro football success is tied to discipline, business, purpose, teamwork, etc. So, Brees and the Saints bring a different model for the city.

Meanwhile, the LSU Tigers prepare for the national championship. I'm glad the Tigers are enjoying such success in football, but it breaks my heart that the university's academic purpose is severely wounded by budget cuts by the inexplicably popular Bobby Jindal. I love the Southern Review and LSU Press as much as the football team.

One amusing item I saw on Facebook: The Roosevelt Hotel now has a drink for the Honey Badger, LSU's flamboyant defensive back. Seeing the menu raised memories of Huey Long, who loved LSU and strove to make it a great institution, unlike today's short-sited, tax-averse governor. 

Recently, I read a piece by Tom Friedman in the Times about how America's future depends on cities with great universities, a vibrant, creative population and innovatative busineses. Baton Rouge could be a city like that, and has been at fleeting moments, but LSU and Louisiana's capital city has often been crippled by short-sighted, corrupt politics and a provincial, uncommitted population. 

 

LSU Outlasts Alabama

The smell of my victory cigar lingered Sunday morning as I turned back the clocks. All alone, I watched LSU overcome Alabama 9-6 in a game that reminded me of the brutal defensive fist-fights of my childhood, when Charley McClendon coached the Tigers. Some called the game a classic, but I'm not so sure. To me, the game had a ragged quality, with both teams apparently hampered by all of the hype that preceded it. Whether classic or not, the LSU win was sweet, and I drank red wine and lit up the cigar that I'd bought in Apalachicola on a trip to the beach. As LSU's longtime radio announcer, the sometimes verbally challenged Jim Hawthorne, said, "there's no doubt LSU is No. 1 in the land."

Watching the game, I thought of my long-dead father, who deeply hated Alabama and Bear Bryant, who beat LSU year after year, always receiving the benefit of questionable referees' calls. Over the last 20 years or so, LSU has joined Alabama at the top of the national football world, and played the Crimson Tide on a pretty much equal basis. In my father's day, LSU played Alabama in Birmingham's Legion Field, where such stars as Joe Namath, Kenny Stabler and Leroy Jordan would take the measure of ol Cholly Mac's teams. Back then, Southern teams were all-white, until the Bear himself saw that he could not compete nationally unless he recruited black players. It took Charlie Mac years to see the same lessson, leading to a decline in LSU football that continued until long after my father's death. Now, the big game was played in Tuscaloosa, and both teams had immense numbers of NFL-quality black players.

Unlike many Tiger fans, I still like Bama coach Nick Saban, who banished all of the ghosts that had haunted and crippled LSU football for years and took LSU to national football prominence, where they've remained under Les Miles. Saban receives adulation from the national media, but he's just as flawed a coach as anyone else, as shown in his team's puzzling struggle with substitutions in overtime, giving LSU a surprisingly easy victory. if Miles had botched the overtime as much, he'd be ridiculed endlessly. I'm sure Saban still will be considered an invincible genius.

As for Miles, I'm often amused by his verbal tics and goofy peronality. Yet, the man can coach. He has grown each year professionally, and is a fine representative of the university. He helps his players graduate, and treats them with respect, while Saban is known for abusing his. 

On this bright Sunday, I think about my father, who never lived to see his grandchildren or LSU return to football prominence. If you can hear me Daddy, there's no doubt today that LSU is No. 1 in all the land.

Dog Days Keep Barking

The PGA at Atlanta Athletic Club shows again how that once maligned, fourth-sister major, is gaining ground each year. The U.S. Open,with Congressional disgracefully weak this year, has been in freefall for at least a decade. First, the USGA folks killed the excitement with the unplayably hard courses, then swung too much the other way...The Tiger Woods-Rocco Mediate playoff in 2008 was the last memorable open.... Once the PGA had inferior courses, but now the Atlanta Athletics Club proved a much more challenging championship test than Congressional. ...The USGA held the open once at the AAC, then never again, while the PGA has held four championships there. What doesn't the USGA come back?

...Gee, hooked on the Braves again. The Giants-Braves series was a good one. Any lover of good pitching feels sympathy with Tim Lincecum, who has received no runs at all in 10 games this year. He must feel like a great football defense that keeps seeing its quarterback throw interceptions. ..Baseball, at least in the National League, has really shifted to a pitching-dominated game in which one or two runs is usually good enough to win. Baseball dinosaurs like me might like it, but pitching duels likely bore the videogame generation. No doubt baseball can be a tedious event; the other day I grew irritated when a pitcher kept looking around at a baserunner, etc. A football team would have run three plays and an NBA team scored three goals in the time it took him to at last throw a pitch.

..I'm beginning to warm up to Freddi Gonzales as manager, but I still find his batting order screwy. I like Brian McCann, and he's a good hitter, but I don't see him as No. 3. And, while Constanza's been a spark, I'd like to see Heyward playing everyday, no matter how badly he's been going.

...The GOP is screaming about Obama vacationing in Martha's Vineyard. He would be much closer to the people if only he had his own ranch in Texas. ...Government can't create jobs, the conservatives say. The old Tammany Hall Tweed gang, as well as Southern populists like Huey Long, did pretty well in crearing jobs. 

Hail to the Rangers

During my youth and early adulthood, I was a strong Yankees fan, but at some point I turned into a Yankees hater. Old man Steinbrenner grew distasteful, they kept getting who they wanted. The last straw was the demise of old Yankee Stadium. So, I'm glad that the Rangers are going to the World Series.

Memo to Joe Girardi: It's not a good idea to walk Josh Hamilton and face Vlad Guerrero. Hamilton's a great hitter, and Vlad's not the hitter he once was, but he's proven all year that he's still devastating in the clutch. It was fascinating to watch Girardi repeat the mistake. Now the plot of "Damn Yankees" has come true, if you recall that the Rangers were once the Washington Senators, at least the Senators' second incarnation. 

Now if the Giants can beat the Phils, I'll be happy. If so, I'll root for the Giants over the Rangers. In my childhood, I was a Giants fan as well, loving those great teams with Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Orlando Cepeda, Juan Marichal and Tom Haller. 

Fascinating too to see the Giants and the Rangers receive delirious fan support. Even in their great days, the Giants were a tough sell in San Francisco, and Dallas has always cared more about the Cowboys. Now baseball is hot in both those towns.

 

Mid-October

Another October drifts away. After Halloween and baseball's end, we'll be on the fast track to the holidays and winter. Summer, its dreadful heat, feels long behind us. Before Thanksgiving and Christmas, we'll have the huge national elections, with a lurch to the GOP in the offing.

Fall; someday soon will come the day when I'll be moved to reread Keats' "To Autumn," as I've done for years when a certain November Day matches the poem's mood of grand weather etched with foreboding. The college football season is already past its halfway point, only a month or so of games left.

The leaves have not yet changed. Two weeks or so left in another gorgeous October. Another year hurries into the past.

 

A crushing loss for the Braves

The Braves' 1-0 loss to the Phillies was the most heartbreaking baseball game I've seen in a long time. Tommy Hanson's pitching performance was one of the best, but the Braves couldn't do anything against Phillies ace Roy Oswalt. Again, the makeshift Braves lineup's fielding problems loom large, with normal centerfielder Nate McClouth lollipopping a throw from left field and missing the cutoff man, allowing the Phillies run to come in.  The loss capped a disastrous series in which the Braves virtually lost any hope for winning the National League East, which they led for most of the summer. Now the Braves have to forget about all of that and as they head into Washington to play the Nats, hoping they can regain their midsummer magic and nail down the wild card playoffs spot.

...LSU fans should feel sympathy for the New England Patriots' Kevin Faulk, who suffered a season-ending knee injury. The 34-year-old Faulk said he'll probably attempt to come back for a 13th season next year, but running backs of his age usually find rehab tough. Faulk's been a mainstay of the Pats' championship teams, mainly as a third-down back with a knack for catching passes.

He'll always have a special place in my gallery of LSU heroes, because I date LSU's football resurgence over the last decade to Faulk's decision to sign with Tigers coach Gerry DiNardo, who after his disappointing final seasons doesn't receive enough credit for revitalizing the Tigers. Before Faulk decided to sign with LSU, Louisiana stars for years had been leaving the state to play college football elsewhere at reigning powers such as Florida State and Colorado, leading to LSU's demise. Many other then more successsful schools recruited the South Louisiana high school star Faulk, including Steve Spurrier's Florida.

Faulk's decision to sign with LSU marked a change in attitude for Louisiana blue chippers toward the state flagship, and since then most have stayed home, leading to a return to national prominence. With Faulk and others, DiNardo himself had a couple of the strongest seasons LSU had enjoyed in years, before his program crashed. However, he left Nick Saban with a pretty good base of players,  which Saban built upon to return the LSU program to national-championhip caliber. Saban left an even stronger talent pool for Les Miles, who won a national championship of his own and has continued to keep most of the best Louisiana players. In fact, under Saban and Miles, LSU's reputation has grown so strong that the school gets many top players from outside of Louisiana. In my mind, the revival all began with Kevin Faulk. I'll miss seeing him in the Pats boxscore on Monday mornings.