Interesting development over at Passive Agressive Notes: Several posts ago a new commenter, Hall Monitor, showed up offering her two cents and plugging her own website a little too much. I’m not mentioning or plugging Hall Monitor’s site here because I freaking hate comment spam. Apparently most PAN subscribers agree and qutie the battle has erupted.

Now, that whole thing isn’t very unusual except that I have found myself checking back with the site not for its main fare, but to see the latest verbal skirmish. When there is a new post I’m doubly excited, hoping that Hall Monitor will provide her prompt report and that it will be just as promptly be followed by a firestorm of return fire. At one point I was hoping Kerry who runs PAN would block Hall Monitor. Now she’d be crazy to do so. This little deal is creating major traffic in the comment section. Yesterday one comment scored an unheard of 120 thumbs up’s and counting.

Much was made about Bud Selig’s handling of the monsoon that bissected WS Game 5. As usual the Commish couldn’t buy a break. Personally I think Selig did the best he could given the situation. You’ve got to get that game in somehow, and in the last week of October in the Northeast you have to treat any window of remotely playable weather as possibly your last chance. The decision that a WS game should go the full nine was also a good one. If he indeed told the leadership of both teams I say his effort was reasonable.

Not Selig’s fault if one or both managers decided not to pass the word onto their players. Not Selig’s responsibility to clear everything wtih the media in advance. What? Like they would have cut him some slack if he had? It was no-win and either way the media would have piled on so screw them.

That said, Selig and MLB are not totally off the hook. It’s their fault the World Series was being played so late to begin with. And that trend isn’t finished. Yesterday I read that next year the World Series could wrap up as late as Nov 5! Over the next several days keep an eye on the weather in Denver, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, New York, Boston, Philiadelphia, Pittsburgh and Baltimore. Odds are you’ll be able to count on one hand how many times you catch yourself saying, “Great day for baseball!”

Selig and MLB followed the lead of other sports in adding Wild Cards. They followed the lead of other sports in flooding the post-season with days off in an attempt to maximize TV coverage. The only thing is, baseball isn’t like other sports. Inclimate weather spices up football. Basketball and Hockey are played under a roof. Ugly weather and baseball don’t mix. And too many domed stadiums would ruin baseball.

Time to overhaul that schedule, Bud.

Interesting post: Turns out the BeeGee’s Stayin’ Alive provides the perfect beat for CPR!

Surely there is some song out there with a similar beat but without the downside of it being disco, right? Of course it is doubtful any would have so perfect a title as “Stayin’ Alive.”

Mainly football here, but first: Tampa Bay, would it kill you to get the first batter of the inning out? Living with runners on second and third with one out is generally not a recipe for success.

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Excitement in the Meadowlands. Brett Favre engineers last minute comeback victory. The ol’ gunslinger hooked up with Laveranues Coles just in time to save the Jets from … Brett Favre who threw three interceptions! Sorry, no bonus points for digging your team out of the hole that you dug them into in the first place.

Once again, how’s that working out for you Jets fans? Aaron Rodgers may not be ready to carry the whole game on his back, but he’s doing just what you want a young QB to do – taking care of the ball and avoiding the big mistake.

Brett, when you drop back to pass and are considering just flinging it any which way, stop. Pretend you are trying to decide whether or not to retire.

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Thank God, and JoePa. There will not be a third consecutive Ohio State beatdown in the BCS Championship. Not that I ever mind an Ohio State beatdown mind you. Just not when it comes at the expense of a team that truly deserves to be in the National Championship game. Of course, who knows? We could very well just be substituting in a Penn State beatdown. It’s not like they dominated the Buckeyes. The teams were pretty even and neither was approaching the strength of this year’s elite teams. But, what are the odds that ‘Bama and Texas can both run the gauntlet in their grueling conferences? Meanwhile Penn State will be challenged by no one else for the rest of the year.

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As head coaches go, Wade Philliips makes a great Defensive Coordinator.

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Speaking of In Over their Head Coaches, one guy who has somehow remained under the radar this year is Norv Turner. I always mentally link him with Phillips because both where hired at roughly the same time, by playoff teams looking for someone to lead them further, despite the fact that neither has ever, EVER in their career shown any signs of being able to lead a team to great post-season accomplishments. Once again Turner has the Chargers in complete disarray and under-achieving on all cylinders. Fortunately for Turner, it doesn’t seem like anyone wants to win the AFC West, so his on again, off again strategy may just be the ticket to an 8-8 season and the playoffs.

– B –

Yesterday I went from huge Mike Singletary fan to Gi-normous Mike Siingletary fan! Dude didn’t just bench his star tight end Vernon Davis, he sent him to the showers mid-game! And after the game he didn’t pull any punches as to why. Self-centered. Attitude. Not an ingredient for success. And to those who point to Dennis Green as an example of why this can’t work for Singletary, “Pshaw!” Singletary has monster gridiron cred. He was the Michael Jordan of NFL defensive players in his day. Plus, he still has those insane “I’m one second away from ripping your face off and shoving it down your throat” eyes. Check the press conference video. I don’t care how many million they are making, no 22-yr old punk is going to second guess that guy … not if he wants to live to make another mil.

But again, the downside for Singletary. He’s got the attitude and he will clearly be able to convey that to the team. Unfortunately all the attitude in the world can’t make up for the 49ers’ current talent deficiency. So, the team will need to make moves. Hopefully they’ll give Singletary a say during the off-season.

– B –

Back to Dallas. How much longer can TO last? Man that guy has to be a volcano ready to blow. Another quiet day for him while new acquisition, Roy Williams, in his first game with the ‘Boys caught Dallas’ only TD of the game. To be fair, it was a situation tailor-made for Williams. 3rd and goal. Tight quarters so no chance of a receiver getting open. Just have to throw it up and let the bigger man go get it. Somehow I think that will be lost on TO. Dallas may have won, but it wasn’t pretty on the offensive side of the ball. Lack of success combined with limited TO touches … that’s the recipe.

Dallas – Tampa Bay game. Dallas goes three and out on the game’s first possession and punts from deep in their own territory. Tampa Bay’s Clifton Smith fields the punt and returns it straight up the middle until he is finally stopped by the punter, Sam Paulescu, who laid a pretty solid shot on him.

Actually in slow motion it wasn’t quite as earth-shattering. Paulescu did exactly what you would want someone who doesn’t normally make tackles to do. He stuck to the basics, went low to take out Smith’s legs and some inadvertant helmet to helmet contact jerked Smith’s head back. No matter. All the announcers could talk about until play resumed was the big hit by a punter.

No mention that Paulesu’s punt was low and long, outdistancing his team’s coverage which allowed Smith a big return. No mention that Tampa Bay would be starting their first possession inside Dallas’ territory. No comment that it isn’t a good thing when your punter is making the tackle. Just, “Garsh! Wow! What a big hit for a punter!” “Yeah, he blowed him up real good!”

Opening theme music and adolescent announcers are emasculating our best sport!

Last night I caught that Michael Moore has rounded up a band of “Plumbers for Obama.” I get it, because plumber was the most important part of that whole thing, right? Not.

While the plumber aspect of Joe, the Plumber, certainly adds some delicious color to the story, it is also the least significant detail in that episode. What is important is that Joe, the Plumber is also Joe, the Aspiring Business Owner and Joe, the Prospective Employer (i.e. creator of jobs). Also key is that Joe’s query provoked Obama to lay bare his bent for redistributing wealth.

But what do we expect from Moore? Certainly not that he’ll let insight get in the way of deceptive sensationalism.

A few days ago AC/DC dropped Black Ice on a world that had been eight years without anything new from the Aussie Rockers. Ice begs the question, “What did you do for the other seven and a half years?”

To be fair, this band has been nearly three decades trying to live up to the impossibly high standard they set for themselves with Back in Black. Following Bon Scott’s death, an event which would have buried most bands, they came roaring back with a new lead singer Brian Johnson, a new sound, and one of the greatest hard rock albums of all time.

Though they haven’t been able to duplicate Back in Black’s success, they had at least established a sound on which they could trade. Johnson’s coarse sandpaper voice. Angus Young’s nasty axe. And tunes that were shallow but relentless and hard-edged. What more does a rocker need?

In Black Ice all the unique details that once defined AC/DC are absent. In a nutshell it is vanilla, tame, non-threatening, and by hard rock standards, geriatric.

Whereas Metallica defied time with their recent relase of Death Magnetic which re-captured much of the energy that band displayed in their prime, AC/DC appears to be succumbing to longevity.

It’s funny how much some things have changed. Back when I was a kid it wasn’t uncommon to walk (actually run) or ride my bicycle to get from activity to activity. In fact during the summer I was pretty much self-propelled from sunrise to sunset on any given day.

Today I had to take my motorcycle to the shop which is literally 1 mile from the office. But tell someone that I’m dropping the bike off and just walking the mile back and they look at me like I’m from Mars.

Walk? That’s how you get from the front door to your car. It’s how you get from your table to the buffet line. Walking is not for serious (> 100 ft, I guess) transportation.

It’s an even bigger joke where I live. We’ve got a workout room that is no more than two blocks from any point in the complex. Yet everyone drives over there! Heaven forbid the getting of exercise should commence one minute sooner or continue one minute later that the official workout session.

No wonder we’ve become a nation of fat-asses (self included).

Troubled times in Cleveland. The Browns are struggling, again. And now star TE Kellen Winslow, Jr. has been suspended by the club for a game and there is loose talk about dealing him in the off-season.

Coincidentally, for the second week in a row the Dallas Cowboys lost a key member of their defensive secondary and continue to have needs everywhere but in the receiving corps.

Hmmm … a controversial but talented receive may be available and the last thing Dallas needs is another receiver. Why do I think Jerry Jones is reaching for his checkbook?

P.S. to J.J. Even if you can’t get the Winslow thing done, don’t forget that Ocho-Cinco wants out of Cincy.

Yikes! On PTI last night Wilbon predicted USC and Ohio State in the BCS Championship. Nooooooo!

I can’t argue with his logic though. He certainly wasn’t claiming that these were the two most deserving teams. Only that they both have a string of cream puffs to carry them through the remainder of the season (with the exception of OSU v. Penn State this weekend), while it will be next to impossible for anyone from the SEC or Big XII to run the table due to their brutal schedules.

The opposing argument is that USC and Ohio State will have trouble emerging from a quagmire of 1-loss teams due to those same weak schedules. I’ll buy that for Ohio State, but in USC’s case they’ll have the unabashed man-love from the Lee Korso’s of the world propping up their poll standing.

If this happens, it will be a further indictment of the BCS, and I can only hope that a third straight ass-kicking will result in some kind of lifetime ban for Ohio State.