LSU at Tennessee

What a great game between two of the top 25 teams in the country. LSU coming from 3 down to score a TD with 14 secs. left on a 3rd and goal. This came after being down 17 - 7 right after the half. Of, course I had Tennessee winning this game, but I had a low confidence level, so I am not really surprised by the outcome.

Meanwhile 20 minutes away from Razorbacks vs Gamecocks. Go HOGS!!!!!

Nfl Week 9 picks

OMG, able to post my NFL picks on a Saturday. Have made the picks will have more on reasons why later. Right now I am too busy watching the LSU Tennessee game.

Updated: through week 8 am 59 and 55. Very few surprises this week but all reasons stated after the picks.

Week 9 Games

Favorite	Spread.	Underdog	Pick
St. Louis	- 2 1/2	Kansas City	St. Louis
Chicago	- 13 1/2	Miami	Chicago
New Orleans	- 1 1/2	Tampa Bay	New Orleans
Jacksonville	- 9 1/2	Tennessee	Tennessee
Atlanta	- 5 1/2	Detroit	Atlanta
Baltimore	- 3 1/2	Cincinnati	Cincinnati
Dallas	- 3 1/2	Washington	Dallas
Buffalo	- 3 1/2	Green Bay	Green Bay
NY Giants	- 13 1/2	Houston	NY Giants
Minnesota	- 6 1/2	San Francisco	Minnesota
San Diego	- 12 1/2	Cleveland	San Diego
Pittsburgh	- 2 1/2	Denver	Denver
New England	- 2 1/2	Indianapolis	Indianapolis
Seattle	- 8 1/2	Oakland	Oakland

Why I picked whom I picked.

St. Louis - covered every home game this year. KC has covered 1 of 3 away.

Chicago - 100 % at home. Miami - has not covered any game

New Orleans - 100 % on the road but Tampa Bay has covered 75% of their home games. I think this is an upset special and have TB winning this one outright.

Jacksonville - 100% at home but Tennessee is 75% on the road. Vince Young has brought a new dimension to the Titans and Jacksonville is up and down this year, I look for this to be a 4-point game in Jacksonville's favor.

Atlanta and Detroit are both 66% against the spread in this situation, but Detroit is just terrible. I want to see the pictures, Millen must have pictures hidden somewhere to be able to keep his job in the motor city.

Baltimore and Cincinnati are also evenly split against the spread (66%) but I just like Cincinnati's offense. Another close game but the Ravens win by 3.

Dallas is 50 % on the road and Washington is 33 % at home. Revenge is the big motivator here and I look for the Cowboys to win going away.

Buffalo is terrible at home (33 %) while Green Bay plays well on the road. Another upset special as I see the Packers winning by a touchdown.

NY Giants over Houston - Houston is terrible, need I say more?

Minnesota is 66 % on the road and San Fran is 50 % at home. Would think this could be a possible upset but I expect Minnesota to come out firing on all cylinders after being embarrassed by the Patriots. Minnesota wins by 2 touchdowns.

San Diego has covered all of its home games; Cleveland is terrible, tough choice here, yeah right. Chargers win in a rout.

How is Pittsburgh the favorite? Upset special, Denver wins by 7.

New England has only covered 33% of their games at home; Indianapolis is at 66 % coverage on the road. There is only one reason that New England is the favorite - Manning is 1 and 6 against the Pats. Make it 2 and 6 as the Colts win by a last second Vinetiari FG.

Seattle and Oakland are both covering 66 % of their games in this situation, Seattle is beat up and beat up and beat up, Oakland is on a two game winning streak that ends in Seattle on a last second FG.

Politics?

In a first for me, I actually posted entries about political mailings that have been received in the last couple of days. Normally, I stick to sports because left, right, moderate, or libertariandemocratic keep your eyes out of my bedroom and your hand out of my wallet (guess which one I am) types can all agree on our love of certain teams that we follow on a day by day basis, however, on the 7th we could see a shift in the politics of this nation not seen seen the 68 election when Nixon promised to end the War.

The Lieberman / Lamont battle is one of the races being watched nationwide and I know some people are wondering how in the heck he is winning this race by a 12 point margin (latest Journal Inquirer poll). Well, the mailings previously posted show why.

The McCain mailing is an outright attempt to get the republicans and conservative independents on his side, while the Daily Kos screw-em one is to get the blue-dog democrats (and there are plenty of them in CT) outraged. The Lamont one reminds me of the posters for Class president in high school.

What is really sad, is the person who clearly knew the issues and really mopped the floor in debates is the one in single digits. The republican party in CT is a complete disgrace that they couldn't get the demo's to split between Lieberman and Lamont while eking out a 1 or 2 point win in this election. What is even sadder is that they shouldn't be so freaking lost, not when 3 of the 5 congressional reps are GOP and while the Govenor is also a GOP.

As for me, I still haven't made up my mind on who I will vote for yet, but the day of reckoning is fast approaching.

Lamont

This is the Ned Lamont mailing
Front




Back

Lieberman in 2006 Daily Kos Mailing

This is the Daily Kos Mailing sent by Joe
Cover


Inside Left


Inside Right


Back

Lieberman in 2006 McCain Mailing

Thought I would get a little political this post and show the latest mailings received from joe2006 campaign here in the nutmeg state.

The McCain mailing
Front page of the mailing

Inside Left

Inside Right

Back

College Picks Week 10

Hey look at this, its Friday and I am posting my picks for the 10 games used in the college pick'em at espn.com. Will Wonders never cease? Last week I was horrible, going 4 and 6. Still, after 9 weeks I am 70 and 20 for these games.

Week 10 Picks

VISITORS	CONF.	HOME	PROJ. WINNER
Virginia	7	Florida State	Florida State
LSU	4	Tennessee	Tennessee
Washington	8	Oregon	Oregon
Purdue	1	Michigan State	Michigan State
Oklahoma State	10	Texas	Texas
Boston College	3	Wake Forest	Wake Forest
Arkansas	6	South Carolina	Arkansas
UCLA	8	California	California
Virginia Tech	2	Miami (FL)	Miami (FL)
Oklahoma	5	Texas A & M	Oklahoma

As a reminder - CONF is the degree of confidence for that pick with 10 being the most confident. Personally I think that there are some tough picks in this weeks 10 games.

As I made these picks the ones that I could not pick a winner easily were the Tennessee / LSU, Boston College / Wake, Virginia Tech / Miami, Oklahoma / Texas A & M and the Purdue / Michigan St. game. Still, you would have to think that I would do better than last week.

Game I will be watching (do, you really have to ask?), Arkansas vs South Carolina. Sooooiiiiiieeeee, pig, sooie!

Sox shut out of Gold Gloves

WEEI is saying that the Sox will be shut out of the Gold Gloves this year. Un freaking belivable. What is really upsetting is that Jeter beats out Gonzo. Lets go to the tape and compare the two fielding statistics:

Updated 11/3/2006 - changed to a table format

Jeter / Gonzalez Fielding Comparison

Player	G.P.	Inn.	TC	PO	A	E	DP	F %	RF	ZF
Jeter	150	1,292.1	610	214	381	15	81	.975	4.14	.810
Gonzalez	111	966.1	475	163	305	7	68	.985	4.36	.863

Take a good look at the last two columns of these stats, in range factor and zone rating Gonzalez is clearly better than Jeter. If you look at all the other stats and figure out per game it is even more apparent that Gonzalez is better. IN EVERY CATEGORY GONZO BEATS JETER. Un Freaking Belivable.

test me baby

test

FREAKING BLOGGER:
FROM EARLIER
Red has passed on to a greater reward, a reward earned from a long life and enjoment of every day. I think I will stop a pick up a stogey and light it up later in memory of this legend.

UGH- talk about going in the tank today on my college picks, a big whopping 4 wins. Sheesh, flat out ridouculous.

NFL week 8 picks later this morning.

Oh, yeah, congrats to the Cardinals on winning the WS. Well earned and about fricking time.

NFL - Week 8

Well, its Sunday and we know what that means, yes thats right its my weekly boring post on my weekly picks. Thru 7 weeks I am 51 and 49 against the spread. My only dogs that I have winning out right this week are Indianapolis, Jets, and Atlanta.

The interesting games should be the Indy vs Denver game which I think will be decided by a last second FG. The Dallas game because we will all be waiting for Romo to fail and Parcells head explode when he is forced to go back to Bledsoe.

New England at Minnesota on Monday night could be interesting depending on whether the Patriots passing game has improved or if Brady becomes frustrated because his receivers keep on getting knocked off of their routes.

Here are my picks for this week:

Favorite	Spread	Underdog	Pick
Kansas City	- 5 1/2	Seattle	Kansas City
Chicago	- 16 1/2	San Francisco	San Francisco
New Orleans	- 2 1/2	Baltimore	New Orleans
Tennessee	- 3 1/2	Houston	Tennessee
New York G	- 9 1/2	Tampa Bay	Tampa Bay
Green Bay	- 3 1/2	Arizona	Green Bay
Cincinnati	- 4 1/2	Atlanta	Atlanta
Philadelphia	- 6 1/2	Jacksonville	Philadelphia
San Diego	- 8 1/2	St. Louis	St. Louis
Pittsburgh	- 8 1/2	Oakland	Oakland
Denver	- 2 1/2	Indianapolis	Indianapolis
Cleveland	- 1 1/2	New York J	New York J
Carolina	- 4 1/2	Dallas	Dallas
New England	- 2 1/2	Minnesota	New England

Not a bad week last week ( 7 and 6) but since I basically choked in the college picks yesterday am hoping for a big, big, result today.

College Football Picks Week 9

Well another Saturday and we know what that means. Yep, that's right, its time for College Football picks. Just as a recap, last week I went 9 and 1 which brought my season picks to 66 and 14. My picks this week in the College Pickem at ESPN are as follows:

Away Team	Confidence	Home team	Pick
Oklahoma	3	Missouri	Oklahoma
Penn St.	1	Purdue	Purdue
Notre Dame	10	Navy	Notre Dame
Nebraska	8	Oklahoma St.	Nebraska
Arizona St.	5	Washington	Washington
Texas	9	Texas Tech	Texas
Tennessee	4	South Carolina	South Carolina
Florida St.	6	Maryland	Florida St.
Miami (Fl.)	7	Georgia Tech	Miami
Georgia	2	Florida	Florida

Some tough games this week. The Penn State - Purdue game, Georgia - Florida game, Oklahoma - Missouri game and the Tennessee - South Carolina game are all flip a coin type of games. Then again I am not too sure about the 5 - 7 games either.

The only locks, I think, are Notre Dame (almost always beats Navy), Texas and Nebraska. Nebraska appears to be back in business as a good team week after week.

The Tennessee game is tough, because I think Tennessee is the better team but that guy walking the sideline with the visor always gives the Volunteers fits. Purely a gut call.

Nfl Week 7 wrap up and other idle thoughts

Freaking cowboys, I can't believe they choked as bad as they did last night. Parcells hit the nail on the head with his comment about being embarassing. Of course what really sucked was that I ended up going 7 and 6 for the week with my picks.

Am tired of everybody griping and complaining about LaRussa not challenging Rogers etc. in game 2 of the Series. Whether he had pine tar or not, the game is over and done and is in the books. Personally, I think he did use tar, I think LaRussa should have challenged and got him suspended for the rest of the series, but I was not the one sitting on the bench worrying about my pitchers (maybe) being challenged etc. Still, would like to see St. Louis win this game (hey, grew up in that KMOX Broadcast area) and the series.

Idle thoughts

So yesterday I am sitting (ok, lounging) in the big chair watching the Tennessee and Bama game while keeping one eye on the Notre Dame UCLA game. In both games my picks were losing and I was watching 15 confidence points go down the drain, when lo and behold Notre Dame got the ball back with a little over a minute to go and you just knew they were going to pull out a win, sure enough I get that win and flip back to the Tennessee game to see Bama cough up a loss. Sometimes its better to be lucky instead of good.

1st set of NFL games have now finished, with wins in 5 of the 8 games. Mental note to self, never ever change your mind when inputting your picks, especially if the trend is with your initial pick. Still, looking better than I have in the last two weeks.

St. Louis takes the first game of the World Series and now Detroit must count on the Gambler to even the series. Don't count on it, bubs.

NFL - Week 7

Well, its Sunday and we know what that means, yes thats right its my weekly boring post on my weekly picks. After week 6 I am 44 and 43 against the spread. My only unders winning outright this week are Carolina and Green Bay. My initial thoughts on the Pittsburgh and Atlanta game was to have Atlanta cover, but after thinking about it I changed my mind to a close Pittsburgh win.

Here are my picks for this week:

Favorite	Spread	Underdog	Pick
San Diego	- 5 1/2	Kansas City	Kansas City
Jacksonville	- 9 1/2	Houston	Jacksonville
Cincinnati	- 3 1/2	Carolina	Carolina
NY Jets	- 3 1/2	Detroit	NY Jets
Miami	- 4 1/2	Green Bay	Green Bay
New England	- 5 1/2	Buffalo	Buffalo
Philadelphia	- 5 1/2	Tampa Bay	Tampa Bay
Pittsburgh	- 1 1/2	Atlanta	Pittsburgh
Denver	- 5 1/2	Cleveland	Denver
Arizona	- 3 1/2	Oakland	Arizona
Seattle	- 6 1/2	Minnesota	Minnesota
Indianapolis	- 9 1/2	Washington	Washington
Dallas	- 3 1/2	NY Giants	Dallas

Hopefully I can do better than last week when I only won 5 games (2 weeks in a row I was below 500).

Below is a chart showing the teams playing this week and how they have done against the spreaed. Headings are G - Games, HG-Home Games, and AG-Away Games.

Team	G	G Cov	HG Cov	AG Cov
San Diego	5	80%	100%	66%
Kansas City	5	20%	33%	0%
Jacksonville	5	80%	100%	50%
Houston	5	20%	33%	0%
Cincinnati	5	60%	50%	66%
Carolina	6	16%	0%	33%
NY Jets	6	60%	50%	66%
Detroit	6	33%	66%	0%
Miami	6	0%	0%	0%
Grean Bay	5	20%	0%	50%
New England	5	60%	33%	100%
Buffalo	6	50%	50%	50%
Philadelphia	6	66%	66%	66%
Tampa Bay	5	60%	66%	50%
Pittsburgh	5	40%	66%	0%
Atlanta	5	60%	66%	50%
Denver	5	40%	33%	50%
Cleveland	5	60%	50%	66%
Arizona	6	33%	50%	0%
Oakland	5	20%	0%	33%
Seattle	5	40%	100%	0%
Minnesota	5	60%	66%	50%
Indianapolis	5	40%	33%	50%
Washington	6	33%	33%	33%
Dallas	5	60%	100%	33%
NY Giants	5	66%	66%	66%

Games where I am bucking the trend are:

Kansas City - A Division game between two rivals that I expect to be won by a 4 point spread (21-17).

Carolina - I expect Carolina to win this one going away.

Buffalo - Another Division game and Buffalo always gives the Patriots fits at their place.

Tampa Bay - This is really a push as far as the percentages (Eagles 66% on the road, Tampa 66% at home).

Pittsburgh - I think Atlanta will be reeling from the Vick comments and wouldn't be surprised if they got blown out.

Denver - Another push as each team is 50% in this situation, but I believe Denver is at least a touchdown better.

Seattle - Seattle isn't as good as their record suggest and Minnesota is better than their record. Look for Seattle to win by a FG.

Indianapolis - Both teams cover 33% of the time in this matchup, another push. Still I think the Colts are the better team but won't win by 10 points.

Well, those are the picks and some of the reasons that I went the way that I did.

College Football picks week 8

Well another Saturday and we know what that means. Yep, that's right, its time for College Football. Just as a recap, last week I went 9 and 1 which brought my season picks to 57 and 13. My picks this week in the College Pickem at ESPN are as follows:

Away Team	Confidence	Home team	Pick
Iowa	9	Michigan	Michigan
Texas	3	Nebraska	Texas
Alabama	8	Tennessee	Tennessee
UCLA	7	Notre Dame	Notre Dame
Georgia Tech	1	Clemson	Georgia Tech
Mississippi	4	Arkansas	Arkansas
Colorado	5	Oklahoma	Oklahoma
Wisconsin	2	Purdue	Wisconsin
Fresno St	6	LSU	LSU
Indiana	10	Ohio St	Ohio ST

Pretty much a straight forward week this time. The only Upset would be the Clemson game and that is not much of an upset since Clemson is 12th ranked and Georgia Tech is 13th ranking. In fact the only game that I think will be intriguing will be the Texas at Nebraska. Is Nebraska for real or was that blow out loss to USC the blip on the schedule.
GO HOGS!!!!!!!!!!

NFL Week 6 wrap up

Well, thanks to Arizona I was able to finish on a high note. Yeah, right, I went 5 and fricking 8. On the upside I did pick Detroit to win their first game, of course it would have been nice for Seattle to have missed that field goal at the end of the game so that my upset specials could have been 2 and 0.

For the season this makes me 44 and 43. Freaking 500 for the year. Unbelievable The only good thing is that I am still alive in the eliminator challenge.

Not much going on the Red Sox front except the coaching changes. Just sitting back I think Francona is the man pulling the strings on the Papa Jack, Wallace and other firings and he is real active in hiring process. See ya later.

NFL - Week 6

Well, its Sunday and we know what that means, yes thats right its my weekly boring post on my weekly picks. After week 5 I am 39 and 35 against the spread (a whopping winning percantage of 53). I only have two underdogs winning outright this week, I think the St. Louis Rams will beat Seattle at home and Detroit to beat Buffalo at home.

Here are my picks for this week:

Favorite	Spread	Underdog	Pick
Dallas	- 12 1/2	Houston	Dallas
Philadelphia	- 3 1/2	New Orleans	Philadelphia
Seattle	- 3 1/2	St. Louis	St. Louis
Atlanta	- 2 1/2	New York Giants	Atlanta
Washington	- 9 1/2	Tennessee	Tennessee
Buffalo	- 1 1/2	Detroit	Detroit
Baltimore	- 2 1/2	Carolina	Baltimore
Cincinnati	- 6 1/2	Tampa Bay	Cincinnati
San Diego	- 10 1/2	San Francisco	San Francisco
Pittsburgh	- 6 1/2	Kansas City	Kansas City
New York Jets	- 2 1/2	Miami	Miami
Denver	- 16 1/2	Oakland	Denver
Chicago	- 10 1/2	Arizona	Arizona

Will be interesting to see how Dallas bounces back after their complete meltdown against the Eagles last week. Has shaped up to be an interesting season so far this year with the biggest surprises being the 4 - 1 Saints, Rams, Ravens, Eagles and the 5 - 0 Bears.

Later

College Football week 7 recap

I ended my pick post with the following:

The Missouri vs Texas A & M game is also interesting. I can remember (hey I grew up in Big 8 country) when Missouri was a very good football team. They were always competitive and used to give Oklahoma and Nebraska fits every year. Its good too see them having a good year, but I still aren't sold on them being a top 25 team, thus the 2 confidence level.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, my backs take on that fierce team from SE Missouri. They better win this game by 20 or they can kiss that 17 ranking good bye.

Well, sure enough the Aggies outlasted the Tigers and another dropped from the list of unbeatens. Of course I would have been happy to have been wrong about this team since that was the only game I lost today. Still 9 and 1 is good enough for me.

Oh, yeah, the Razorbacks actually listened to me for once and wiped the SE Missouri off the field. Also, with Auburn beating Florida, (another unbeaten bites the dust) I look for Arkansas to move up a spot in the polls.

Later will have my NFL picks.

College Football picks week 7

Well another Saturday and we know what that means. Yep, that's right, its time for College Football. Just as a recap, last week I went 8 and 2 which brought my season picks to 48 and 12. My picks this week in the College Pickem at ESPN are as follows:

Away Team	Confidence	Home team	Pick
Syracuse	7	West Virginia	West Virginia
Rutgers	3	Navy	Rutgers
Missouri	2	Texas A & M	Missouri
Ohio St.	10	Michigan State	Ohio State
Cincinnati	6	Louisville	Louisville
UCLA	4	Oregon	Oregon
Maryland	5	Virginia	Maryland
Arizona St.	9	USC	USC
Michigan	8	Penn State	Michigan
Florida	1	Auburn	Auburn

Unlike last week where I thought any of the 1 - 8 matchups could win, this week I think that any team that I rated over 4 are pretty safe.

The most intriguing matchup this week (for me at least) is the Florida vs Auburn game. #3 Florida is 6 and 0 and last week the 5 and 1 Tigers of Auburn were embarrassed at home by Arkansas (yea boy). I look for a big rebound from the defense and expect Auburn to squeak out a win at home. Still, if Florida wins this game and then runs the table the rest of the year, they will be one of the two teams in the BCS championship game.

The Missouri vs Texas A & M game is also interesting. I can remember (hey I grew up in Big 8 country) when Missouri was a very good football team. They were always competitive and used to give Oklahoma and Nebraska fits every year. Its good too see them having a good year, but I still aren't sold on them being a top 25 team, thus the 2 confidence level.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, my backs take on that fierce team from SE Missouri. They better win this game by 20 or they can kiss that 17 ranking good bye.

If Good Saturdays Lead To Bad Sundays?

Well, if days like saturday lead to days where I go 4 and 10 in my football picks, I will take them. Stunning upsets by the backs and eliminations of the spankees are high on the list and will always outdo disappointments of those picks. By far my worst day of picks this year. UGGGGGLLLLLLY.

Yo, Bledsoe, how about throwing the ball to your team instead of the opposing team. The rest, well, that is what happens sometimes against the spread.

Want some good thoughts on the Tigers and A's series, well you can go to Fire Brand's for his take or Hardball Times has a good one also.

Hope you enjoyed Columbus day, I know I sure did.