The Dolphins managed to win their third preseason game by a score of 10-6. Not wholly impressive, but a win (in the meaningless preseason) nonetheless.

The Miami Herald, however, tends to disagree about the merits of the win. While sure, they make a point that perhaps our defense has come out a bit flat (whose doesn’t in 4 meaningless games when the starters are just trying not to get hurt,) but the Dolphins have shown the flashes of brilliance that got them in the playoffs last year. In the second quarter, Miami had the ball with under two minutes to go and ran a beautifully executed 2 minute drill to secure a field goal. The defense did manage to stabilize after the first quarter or so, and there were some typical rookie mistakes that you’ll find made by any of the other 31 teams.

What I think most people following the Dolphins fail to realize is that a bulk of the winning done by the team isn’t necessarily the result of being more talented than the teams faced, because that is not the case. The reason that the Dolphins have been successful in the past isn’t a gimmick offense, either. It’s a coaching staff that plays the game to their players’ strengths. We’ve seen it a lot in the college level where teams will develop a particular system (Hawaii’s spread, Arkansas’ Wildcat, etc) and find niche players who, while not as purely talented as other teams’ players, are more cohesive with the system. There have been small doses of this in the past in the NFL (Bill Walsh’s 49ers, for example) but Sparano really seems to be trying to revolutionize the way that teams develop gameday strategy.

I think too many people are counting out the Dolphins. I wouldn’t be surprised at all for them to win a few games they’re not expected to. They have the toughest schedule in the league, but I think they could still make a run at 11-5.

So the local paper in Altoona, PA (of all places) put together a rather nice column about which university should claim the title of Quarterback U. In it, they give a little love for Purdue, an often overlooked university that is known by locals as “The Cradle of Quarterbacks,” a play on the “Cradle of Astronauts” title it also holds.

The article distinguishes between “good college QBs” and “good NFL QBs.” I’m willing to concede the fact that no Purdue QB has ever won the Heisman nor has Purdue won any national championships.

However, I think you’ll be hard pressed to find a college with as deep a resume as the Boilermakers.

Stat 1: Most starts by any college (as mentioned in the article) with 4 QBs having more than 100 NFL starts (Brees, Griese, Everett and Dawson)

Stat 2: Only university to have a QB participate in a perfect (regular + post) season.

Stat 3: 2nd in the NFL with current starting QBs (only behind USC with 3… and USC has been ten times the program that Purdue has been in the past 10 years, thus getting better recruits, etc.)

That’s all I need to hear, really. Notre Dame probably comes in at a close second, but Miami will likely complain, though Testaverde and Kosar were hacks, Jim Kelly the only commendable QB of their alumni.

Boiler Up!

Hawk Harrelson... Sucks.

Normally when I watch a baseball game, I’ll watch the MASN feed on mlb.com. However, once in a while, I’ll be in a place where I’m able to tune in the game on a real live TV (Oh my!). Typically it’ll be NESN in Boston, but other times it’ll be random teams in whatever city I happen to be in, or if I’m lucky enough, here in Phoenix during interleague play. Of course, there’s one other example of when I can watch O’s games: when the O’s are playing on WGN.

That means I get to listen to, by far, the worst play by play team in all of sports. I’d rather have Joe Buck and Tim McCarver do the play by play for every game I ever see for the rest of my life than suffer through this miserable clown call 7-10 White Sox-Orioles games a year.

“What on Earth makes him so bad?” you ask?

First off, nobody asked that. Everybody who is reading this who has ever watched a game called by Hawk Harrelson knows why he’s so bad.

He contributes nothing to the broadcast. Let me count the ways.
1) He’s a homer. That’s fine, every announcer should be a bit of a homer, but that’s reflected in the tone of your voice (and volume) when you call plays. There’s no need to tell the score as “bad guys 7, good guys 3″ or use “our” and “we” every third word.
2) “He gone.” Not only grammatically incorrect, but stupid as well.
2.5) “You can put it on the board… YES” It’s dumb, but I’ll let this slide because it’s a HR call… but when done after the game, it’s a bit kitschy.
3) Talking to the players as if they can hear him. “Come on Brian, give him a nod!”
4) Talking to the baseball as if it’s capable of hearing.
5) Making absolutely ridiculous comparisons. So far in the Orioles vs White Sox game today, he’s compared Adam Jones to Fred Lynn and Cal Ripken Jr.. Ignoring the fact that Cal played a completely different position…. In a completely different part of the field
6) Calling his own players the wrong name. Jermaine Day?
7) Talking over Steve Stone. Stone has shown himself to be very knowledgeable but Hawk never lets him complete a thought before making some asinine comparison.
Dead air. Just spent the last 45 seconds of nobody talking. Seriously? Come up with something to say. Baseball has enough problems with its reputation as boring. Have some damn insight or even stupid chat with your partner.

That right there is 8 reasons off the top of my head. I’m sure I’m missing tons more, but it’s only the fourth inning in the O’s game.

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Hawk makes me wish Joe Morgan were calling the game.

Once again apologies for the neglect of the website, but frankly, we’ve reached the time of the year when I’m sick of being an Orioles fan, and it’s too early to get super excited about being a Dolphins fan.

The O’s have won only 10 of their last 40 games, in their typical August slide. It’s the same story every year for the last decade, and frustration continues to mount. The thought is that eventually the O’s WON’T go through an August slide but that seems increasingly unlikely as it continues to happen year in and year out. I’d like to say that there have been some flashes of brilliance that I’ve seen and this is just a factor of young guys being young, but its some sort of systemic problem, the source of which has yet to be found.

Disheartened would be an understatement. I’ve never been so ready to give up on a team or a sport as much as I am right now with the O’s. Sure there’s the promise of having a pitching staff next year made up entirely of players born after 1984, with Jones, Markakis, and Wieters each hitting 30+ HRs, but I just don’t see it happening. I see 2010 as another year where the O’s get out of the gate fast, suffer from a few minor injuries that seem to get the team to fall completely apart, despite the fact that impact players weren’t affected.

So that’s enough of Orioles talk for today.

The Dolphins, on the other hand, have begun their preseason endeavors with a meaningless win against the Jaguars and hopefully another meaningless win against the Panthers tonight. Nothing extraordinary has been seen, and there’s nothing of note to report from training camp. Can’t wait for the regular season.

Purdue football, on the third hand, have been listed by Danny Sheridan as 600:1 to win the Big 10. Of course this isn’t a Vegas line (where 600:1 would never be put on the board), and that line is closer to 75:1, I’m still pretty offended. Sure, Purdue is bad and likely won’t win the Big 10, but come on, really? 600:1? That puts the odds of Purdue winning the Big 10 right around the odds of catching a foul ball at a baseball game (allegedly 568:1, though I have no idea how this is calculated) and I can tell you that I’ve been to quite a few baseball games in my tenure here on this Earth and never have I ever come even close to catching a foul ball…

All my sports teams suck.

Madden comes out today… Is this the second biggest day for men annually next to Super Bowl Sunday? Some may say Thanksgiving, but I love me some Madden.

I was foolish and didn’t take the day off from work as I should have, so now I’ll have to sit in my cube and pretend I care about work while I’m reading all about Madden.

Dolphins + Wildcat + Pat White = force to be reckoned with.

Can you tell I’m excited?

So Brian Matusz’s second start in the big leagues was nothing short of a disaster. From the start I knew something was up, as I sent a 2nd inning text to my buddy “Clown Bag.” “Matusz second start: through 2 IP, 1 HR, 3 walks, helped out by 2 DPs. Had a lot of 3 ball counts.” It only continued to get worse as Matusz remained unable to get ahead of hitters. Frustrating, but when you put it into perspective, it was his 2nd MLB start, never having pitched in AAA to boot. Tim Lincecum didn’t steady out until about his 10th career start, so we’ll see how Matusz is doing towards September, if he’s still pitching.

But that’s enough about boring baseball. I mean even I am bored by this team in its typical August slide. I’m looking forward to preseason football, and even bad college football… Nothing like hoping your college team will pull out a 6-6 season and make the Motor City Bowl. So instead of talking about bad sports at present, I’ll tell you a little aside on why you never give up on your team.

So last year I was extremely frustrated with the Orioles (it was right about this time of year), and I decided that I was ready to mail it in and pick another team. Of course I realized that my allegiances wouldn’t change in the long urn, I was curious as to which team I would pick if I put all 30 teams in a hat and selected one at random. So one day, my buddy Matteo and I made this happen, while watching an early season NFL game at a local bar. Matt ripped everything up and wrote all the teams and provided the hat. I closed my eyes, hoping that I’d have something to look forward to.

I reached into the hat hoping it wouldn’t be the Yankees or some awful team, and I say, right as I’m about to pull it out, “This is going to be the Royals, I can just sense it.” I pulled my hand out of the bag and handed to Matt for him to read. An unfold and a ton of laughs confirmed my worse suspicions… It was none other than the Kansas City Royals. It taught me a very important lesson… It could always be worse: you could be a Royals fan.

Apologies to my former coworker Kerry, the only KC Royals season ticket holder that I know. Heck, he might be the only KC Royals season ticket holder.

First off, apologies for being out of touch for north of a week, as I spent most of my time moving to a new house, and have been internet-less for a week (ohhhh the withdrawals I went through…)

In the meantime, the sports sucking didn’t stop.

The highlights:

The O’s have lost 14 of their last 20 games (since the All-Star Break). This includes a sweep by NYY and BOS (and BOS also taking 2 of 3), and 3 of 4 from Detroit. The highlight had been Brad Bergesen, who went on the DL after getting conked with a line drive. I’ll take “Signs I know it’s football season” for $400, Alex.

Brian Matusz was promoted from AA Bowie, where he was 7-0 with a sub 2.00 ERA. In his first major league start? 5 IP, 1 ER, 6H, 5K, 3 BB. That’s a 1.8 ERA and WHIP. This made the O’s the first team since the 1888 Chicago White Stockings (Now known as the…. Cubs!) to have 6 rookies win their first major league starts. An impressive stat, I suppose, but as far as I know, baseball rotations typically have 5 starters… This means next year will be interesting, as Uehara and Bergesen get off the DL. There will be some major competition in Sarasota next year, that’s for sure.

And the final major Orioles-related story was the trade of Gregg Zaun. He will be missed by many O’s fans, as he did exactly what he was contracted to do, impart his wisdom on Matt Wieters. He was traded for the ever popular Player To Be Named Later. Speculation is rampant, but it seems unlikely it’ll be anyone worth a damn. Best of luck to Zauny in his new endeavors in Tampa.

Final note of news, this one not Orioles related: Judge Redfield T Baum opened up the Coyotes auction to bidders willing to move the team…. so we’re back at square one. Disheartening, but I’m hoping that Reinsdorf’s bid will still get the nod. I’ll discuss this at a little more length when the auction is closer.