JOLLY HOLIDAY THOUGHTS by Stevie T

My wife and I are spending the weekend at the Oregon Coast in Newport. It's about 45 degrees, windy & raining. Just returned from breakfast to catch some of this West Virginia/North Carolina game. Not what you'd call a defensive struggle. Heels up 23-21 with 4 minutes still left in the half. Really wish I'd taken the over in this one. I'm thinking the Champs Sports Bowl between Wisconsin and Florida State may turn into a cliche. Big, lumbering Badgers against the youth and quickness of the Noles. I'm sure many in Madison will point out with PJ Hill, they're packing some speed. As much as Wisky has underachieved all year, no reason to buy into their capability, even with the 6 1/2 points.
I think Miami will have a really tough time slowing down Cal and all their firepower, especially back Javid Best who has gone bonkers his last 2 games with 200+ in the Stanford romp and over 300 on the ground against the Huskies. Of course UW mailed it in and has become perhaps the biggest disgrace in Pac 10 history. How can a once prominent program bottom out like this? We've seen the mighty dip a bit like USC or Miami but the fall was from National Title contender to 5 or 6 wins, not the tank job we've seen in Seattle. Gotta thank Ricky Neuheisel and former bubblehead AD Barbara Hedges for getting the ball rolling in the wrong direction. Jim Lambright(not too bright) did well to allow the negative slide.
Really looking forward to the Holiday Bowl. Was stunned to see that 80% of those who voted on ESPN picked the Cowboys to win. Thought it would be more like 50/50 as this is really an even game. I'm guessing most around the country are buying into the superiority of the Big 12. We'll see.
Hope you all had a safe, fun Christmas and for those celebrating Hanakah, enjoy the last few days of the festival of lights. If you are on the Frank Costanza band wagon, it was a joyous "Festivus for the rest of us"!

OH BROTHER! by Steve Tannen

Contest time, courtesy of our friends at Widmer Brothers. E-mail the correct answer to the following questions to
steve@1320thescore.com and win a nice prize packet from Widmer. We'll have a drawing on Monday and announce & e-mail the winners.
Name the 2 pitchers(yes brothers) who won a League Championship Series MVP in helping their team eventually win that year's World Series. Hints: It took place in the late 1990's & one was in the AL, the other in the NL where he also won the WS MVP.

SOUND OFF! by Steve T

Okay, the final entry in today's "Sound Off" section of the local paper set me off. A woman from Springfield chastised the Guard for it's vicious attack on Oregon State after the Civil War romp. She took offense to the headline "UO'S RUNAWAY OFFENSE CRUSHES OSU'S ROSE BOWL DREAMS"! Are you kidding me? This is over sensitive, p/c completely run amok. The words the editor chose to scream what happened on that football field were dead on. The offense was like a runaway freight train going downhill on an oiled track. It did crush the Beav's Rose Bowl dream. I'm thinking we could come up with an alternative, more gentle headline. Chime in with your thoughts or send me an e-mail at steve@1320thescore.com
Here's my first entry: "FOOTBALL SQUAD FROM EUGENE GAINS VICTORY WHERE EVERYONE GOT TO PLAY AND MAKE NICE"! YUUUUCKKKK!

No dirt?

photo by Brian Davies/The Register-Guard


This story by Ron Bellamy at The Guard discusses the new baseball stadium at the UO, PK Park. Now I know we're in the northwest and it will rain 75 percent of the time, but TURF INSTEAD OF DIRT!? WHAT!? One of the fondest, if not painful, memories of playing baseball in high school was going home dirty and sore after sliding and diving in the mud and dirt. It's what makes northwest baseball unique. I'm not saying that officials should ignore the elephant in the room; and I'm sure it will save the university money in stadium upkeep; and I know that OSU has turf and it works fine for it; but c'mon, it's baseball. Did I just kill my argument? Stupid brain! They do have the option to put clay in place of the orange turf, which as an Oregon fan seems like a no-brainer, but it sounds like the turf is gonna be there most of the time. And to that, I say: lame!
-Alex

TIRED OF THE BC-MESS? GET OVER IT! by ST

It's officially time for everyone, fans, players, coaches, media members and whoever else you can think of to stop whining about how the BCS picks teams to play in it's major bowl games. Last month's announcement that ESPN would televise those games through the 2014 season did not carry a provision that a new system was part of the deal. I'd guess we'd have a shot at implementing the playoff many want as part of the next contract that will be negotiated after a National Champ is crowned in January of 2014. Plus I have news for you. One team. Auburn in 2004 has the lone legitimate gripe about getting robbed of their shot at the title since the BCS was first implemented in 1998. What? Didn't Oregon get screwed in 2001? USC in 2003? Not really. From where I sit, the Ducks certainly deserved to play Miami instead of that slow, one dimensional Nebraska team that got spanked 37-14. Oregon has no one to blame but themselves. The loss against Stanford put things in the hands of the voters and computers. A victory over the Cardinal and they're in that game, period! In 2003, the Trojans lost in triple overtime at Cal 34-31, ran the table, then had to sit by as the system sent LSU & Oklahoma to the Sugar Bowl for all the marbles. Both the Sooners and Tigers had one loss as well. USC beats Cal, they're in. The fact remains that in the now 11 years of the BCS no team from a BCS conference has gone unbeaten and been denied their national title shot. Except Auburn in 2004. Despite a 12 & 0 regular season, the Fighting Tigers settled for a Sugar Bowl win over Virginia Tech. Think they would have given USC a better game than Oklahoma who got thrashed 55-19? The problems is people like to whine & complain rather than take a good hard look and the facts and obvious solutions. With parity now firmly entrenched, and everyone playing a 12 game regular season, the likelihood of ending up with one, much less three unbeatens leading up to Bowl season is slim. But the bottom line is any team who loses a game, has only themselves to blame if their goals come up short. Look forward to your thoughts on this.

SPORTSTALK GIVE-A-WAY by US

Okay, a few weeks ago we had a great talk with Ivan Maisel about his great new book, The Maisel Report. The focus is the most underrated & overrated coaches, players, traditions and teams in college football. It's an awesome piece of work and something I think you'll enjoy. For today's blog, just give it a read and then e-mail me your predictions on the following. Give me the winner & final score!
My e-mail address is steve@1320thescore.com
Alabama & Florida in the SEC Title game
Oklahoma & Missouri in the Big 12 Title game
Cowboys & Steelers in NFL football
The tiebreaker?
Total Points scored in the Monday Night Football game between the Carolina Panthers
& Tampa Bay Bucs. We'll give away 2 copies of the book.
Enjoy!

Press Conference Highlights

My favorite is the first Kelly quote ... Because it's Oregon indeed! Enjoy!
-Alex

I HATE BRITNEY by Stevie T

Expect a masterful Tannen rant on SportsTalk today(Wed). What is the fascination with Britney Spears? She was on the cover of my wife's Glamour, Rolling Stone, in today's paper about including the Northwest on her annoying tour. Hate to be vile, but the only way you'd get me to see one of her shows is with a nice, cozy place in the rafters for me and a hired marksman and his scoped rifle. What a no talent, sleaze hack piece of white trash and for some reason lot's of idiots around the world are enamored with her. I guess the logic is "if this loser can make it, so can I". Look forward to your thoughts on this.
Do you remember 2 rookie quarterbacks making this big of a positive splash in the same season like we're witnessing with Joe Flacco of the Ravens and the Falcons Matt Ryan. They each posess that poise and intelligent decision making, plus they're improving each week.
Good test for Oregon tonight at Utah. They have a rock solid big fella in center Luke Nevill. Major challenge for our 1st year pivot man, Mike Dunnigan. Plus they play pretty disciplined ball. Serious effort will be needed to beat this team, but if they pull it off, major confidence builder. Important early season ballgame for the young ducklings.
Has it been quiet on the baseball free agent front or what? Not one big name has made a move. The owners meeting is coming up and I'd imagine lot's of action will follow for guys like Sabbathia, Derek Lowe, Manny and Mark Texiera. We will light up the hot stove tonight. Enjoy your Wednesday.

So, about that Rose Bowl ...

PHOTO by Alex

How nice does that second place spot in the Pac-10 look after THIS season? Bellotti should be Pac-10 coach of the year. It was really nice to see players like Blount buy in to the Civil War tradition and get as pumped, if not more, than the fans who grew up with it. I saw him stomping many a rose after the game. It was a tremendous way to go out for the amazing group of seniors Oregon has. Think about it. Chung and Unger basically played four entire seasons for the Ducks. They will be missed, but boy did they leave a legacy! Damn that win feels nice.
-Alex

PROGRESSIVE GREED by Steve T

By now everyone whose had cable, a vcr or dvd knows the legendary line spoken by the Michael Douglas character Gordon Gecco in the movie "Wall Street" about greed being good. It's debatable but I must admit my level grew in geometric proportions during Oregon's Civil War romp. The culmination came when Brandon Bair recovered that late Oregon State fumble. I'm screaming for him to take it in so the point total would surpass 70. Then I'm thinking if he goes down and the offense can gain a mere 3 more yards they get past 700 yards. The joke is most Duck fans would have signed their name in blood before kickoff just to be guaranteed any kind of victory. As things moved along I found myself wanting more and more. Okay, greed IS good! Well at least it can be fun. We will talk about this season, where it began and how we landed here.
Most humorous moment of the weekend came late in the Carolina win at Green Bay. Panther back Deangelo Williams had scored on his 4th 1-yard TD run to give them the lead for good. He spotted a couple of Panther fans in the first row at Lambeau Field and attempted to flip them the football. A Packer fan in row two would have none of it and swatted the ball back onto the field. This was the ultimate anti-Lambeau Leap.
One of the most moronic issues surfaced last week. After throwing for more than 400 yards in back to back games, some suggested Matt Cassell be the new and future Patriot's quarterback and they should consider trading Tom Brady. I can't emphasize how idiotic this is/was simply in writing so you'll have to tune in for a potentially classic ST rant!
Texas and Oklahoma finished with identical records. Texas beat Oklahoma. Oklahoma is ranked ahead of the Longhorns in the BCS formula. The NCAA suits are right. We don't need a playoff. This makes perfect sense.
Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving.