Lance Stephenson Commits to Maryland!

After delaying his announcement yesterday, "Born Ready" Lance Stephenson has decided to commit to the University of Maryland!

With Xavier Henry now reopening his commitment and likely to end up at Kansas rather than Kentucky, Lance decided College Park would be his new home.

More on this later!

Baltimore's back baby!

Boy, do these babies look good!


And I really like this new patch too!

Celtics Cheating?

I know I haven't posted here in a looooong time, but I couldn't resist posting this story and another story which will follow this one.

As I was watching Sports Center this morning, they were showing highlights from the Hawks-Celtics game last night.  With the Celtics down one, and with 7.4 seconds left, the Celtics inbound the ball and....the clock doesn't start for a full second after the Celtics touch the ball! Paul Pierce then nails the game winner with .5 seconds left! I can't believe no one has mentioned/caught this yet!

Video below...

 

I hate the Yankees

Since MLB released the 2008 schedule, I've been looking forward to September 21st, 2008. The scheduling gods had giving my Baltimore Orioles a blessing - a chance to ruin the last game at historic Yankee Stadium. The O's could have gone 1-161, so long as they beat the Yankees in the last game at that stadium. 

But that assumed that the Yankees didn't make the playoffs, which would never happen.  Even if they didn't win the A.L. East, thay would defiantly the Wild Card, right?

Well, when I went to my first and only game at Yankee Stadium last October, against the Cleveland Indians, I told my girlfriend that would be the last playoff game at Yankee Stadium as we walked out following the Yanks loss to the Indians that eliminated them from the playoffs. 

 Little did I know I would be right.  As this day drew close, I realized that this would basically be the Orioles playoff game- the Atmosphere, what they were playing for, would all generate a playoff atmosphere. And the Orioles would be on Sunday Night Baseball in late September for the first time since 1997. The Nation would actually be interested in a late-season Orioles game. 

It was tough to watch the O's jump out to a 2-0 lead and then lose 7-3. To see those damn Yankees celebrating and the O's not coming through in the biggest game they've played in since they lost to the Indians in the ALCS back in 1997. I so wanted the O's to beat the Yankees - the team that use to be in Baltimore before moving to New York in 1903. 

I think what really bothers me about the entire night isn't the fact that the Yankees beat the O's. What is really sad is that Yankee Stadium is a). going to be torn down and b). represents the death of baseball to the common fan. 

The House that Ruth Built was a first - a first 3-tier stadium, the first stadium that packed in fans from all walks of life. Yankee Stadium is a cathedral to baseball but it was also the site of the birth of the modern NFL with the 58 Championship game, it was the site of the first papal mass in the Western Hemisphere, site of some of the best boxing matches ever. So what replaces this sports museum - the House that was made into a home?

The death of baseball.  The death of the common fan.  The furthering of corporate America's intrusion into sports.  $2,500 seats PER GAME for baseball, insisting on having luxury boxes and thus needing a new stadium.  The New Yankee Stadium represents everything that is wrong with our world - the only thing missing is a corporate name on top of that new stadium.

Way the ghost of the Base haunt their new stadium and prevent them from ever winning another championship - punishment for tearing down a true sports and baseball cathedral.

death of sports - house that Ruth built - common man, no more.

welcome in an era of greed, corporate america  - onlything missing is corporate name.

Bye Bye, Tom

So I'm not one to ever cheer for someone getting hurt, so I want to start right off the top saying that I'm sorry for Tom Brady that he got hurt.  But, I couldn't be happier that this happened to Brady's douche bag, arrogant, son of a bitch coach, Bill Belichick. I hope the Pats miss the playoffs this year, so the world can see that this cheating son of a bitch is only as good as his hall of fame QB that the Pats drafted in the 6th round.  Hopefully I'm right so everyone can see that this d-bag is nothing more than a sweatshirt wearing d-bag.

Still hate Boston

Sorry for the lack of posting here.  Between writing now for Testudotimes.com, trying to find a house, and preparing to take the LSATS, I've had little time to think about teams I hate.

I was able to do some great hating last Tuesday though, August 19th when I went to Oriole Park to try to be the 50,000,000th fan in Oriole Park history (missed it by about 5 mins).

Anyway, we were sitting in the bleachers and we had a good bit of O's fans around us.  Sadly, as the Sox started winning, the Sox fans got louder and louder and I got more and more annoyed. 

After O's fans started cheering "Eli Manning" to piss off the Sox/Pats fans, this one Sox loser tells me to shut up because Baltimore has never been to the Super Bowl.  Well, I lost it. I yelled back at him "Baltimore won the NFL championship in 1958, 1959, lost in Super Bowl III, Won Super Bowl V and Won Super Bowl XXXV. We also won the Gray Cup in the CFL you stupid, ignorant son of a bitch dumb bastard."

The guy had nothing to say and soon after left, because that is what Sox fans are - stupid, ignorant sons of bitches who know as much about sports as a pile of road kill - they know a little about the bandwagon that ran them over and little else.

Chris Waters starting for O's tomorrow

MASN has just reported on their broadcast of the O's-Angels game, that Norfolk pitcher Chris Waters is at Anaheim Stadium and that he'll be the starting pitcher for tomorrow's game against the Angels.  Hopefully Waters will dominate MLB like he has AA and AAA.  We'll have to wait and see...

Bye Bye Manny!!

BREAKING NEWS - MANNY GOES TO L.A. (the only REAL LA team - you're in Anaheim Angels, deal with it), LA sends prospects to the Pirates, the Pirates send Jason Bay to Boston.

Thank God this d-bag is out of the AL East. I'm so sick of heading about Manny and I'm so glad that d-bag is gone. Hopefully I'll post more on this later.

1 Year Ago Today

1 year ago today...I remember it well. The night before, I rode in a limo up to Philly to watch the Phillies game as part of my friend's bachelor party. My girlfriend met me at the stadium and then we continued driving north. We kept driving, and driving, and driving, until we finally got to a person's front yard, where I had pre-arranged and paid to park. Arriving around 3 A.M., my girlfriend and I slept in her car until daybreak, about 3 hours later. We then hauled some lawn chairs, a cooler and a camera down a road that we hoped would lead to the promise land. You see, we were on a pilgrimage, one that a baseball fan must take at some point in their life - going to see someone from your team inducted into the baseball hall of fame.

After walking about 2 miles, we finally reached this great open field, with a pavilion in front of us, and many chairs already in place for what would be the largest crowd to ever witness a hall of fame induction.

The scene at the Hall of Fame induction
when we arrived at about 6:00 A.M.

Now we had to play the waiting game. We also tried to get some sleep, but that became increasingly hard to do as more people arrived and as the sun burned through the pre-dawn clouds and began turning up the heat on this lovely
day in Cooperstown, NY.




They hadn't even set up the VIP seats when we arrived.
We had been told that no one would be allowed to set up chairs before dawn on the day of the induction, so we were surprised that when we arrived, people had already set up chairs the night before. It appeared that the HOF folks had let several bus companies come in the day before and set up chairs, which allowed said bus companies to charge a hefty premium for their induction day vacation package. Some people spent hundreds, if not thousands for these special vacation packages. Hotels were booked a year in advance and if you wanted to stay within 2 hours of Cooperstown, you better be willing to dish out between $350-500 and that was staying at least an hour away! And if you did that, you then had to worry about where you were going to park, with most parking places near the induction sight costing at least $100. Some how, I was able to find parking for $35 within a mile or two of the induction sight. The parking spot I reserved was on someone's front yard and it was weird when we had to pull onto that person's grass at 3:00 A.M. and search for a sign that had my name on it (praying to God it was actually there since we'd be screwed otherwise) and having to leave a check on said sign. Thankfully it all worked out.
The induction ceremony was everything I hoped it would be and more. Having that many Orioles fans around and witnessing one of the greatest players and one of my childhood heros become immortalized forever into the Hall of Fame was an amazing experience. I've put some more pictures below, and included a few captions as well.

This is a really cool before and after photo. I took the photo on the left around 7 A.M. and then I took the photo on the right, from near the same spot, around 11:00. What a difference a few hours made!

Another shot showing how large the crowd was that day. There were
a lot of San Diego fans there to see Tony Gwynn get inducted as well.
There will never be another hall of fame class with as much class,
dignity and respect for the game as the class of 2007.

This guy was awesome...had to have my picture taken with him.

What an awesome picture of the Orioles Hall of Famers: Jim Palmer,

Cal Ripken, Earl Weaver, Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson, and Eddie Murray.

The scene as my girlfriend and I walk back from the HOF induction to our car. I knew she was a keeper when she was willing to drive me to Cooperstown, spend the night in a car, walk 2 miles to the induction sight, spend all day witnessing a Hall of Fame induction for a team she isn't a diehard fan of, walking back to the car, and then driving with me 7+ hours home on the same day.

Fantastic road trip and experience that I'll never forget.

New Blog

Just wanted to let me loyal readers know that I'm now co-writing for a national blog covering University of Maryland sports.  The blog, called Testudo Times, is part of Sports Blog Nation, a national blog center that covers NCAA, NFL, MLB, NHL and other sports.  You'll see my posts under the name "homertuck."

I'll still be posting here, mainly on non-University of Maryland related items, but might not be as often as my loyal readers are use to.  You'll probably be able to find a daily post from me on Testudo Times so please check it out, as well as continue reading this one.

Orioles Ushers Suck

This might or might not be a surprise to you, but the ushers at Oriole Park suck. I had a horrible experience with the ushers last year, who yelled at us for cheering for the Orioles. Yes, that's right - for root, root rooting for the home team. A Phillies fan (the O's were playing Boston that day, just so you know) was yelling at us for cheering. This stupid troll usher comes over and yells at us and threatens to make us leave. And after yelling at us, goes and sits with that same Phillies fan! I complained to the Orioles, but the troll was back again this year, sadly.

Back to the original reason for this post, which is yet another incident involving Orioles ushers. At the game on Tuesday, part of our season ticket package, there was a group of kids, probably 19-20 years old. These kids aren't harming anyone - they're cheering, trying to start the wave, etc. RANDOMLY one of the head Orioles ushers (wearing his green shirt - I've seen this guy before - he's a d-bag) goes down and starts asking these kids for their tickets (they were sitting in the lower section of left field, next to the O's bullpen). After discovering they all had tickets for the section, he left them alone for a while.  Next thing we know, the usher is back, this time with the "Alcohol Compliance Supervisor."  They start checking these kids ID's to make sure they're 21. Now I know they have a job to do in terms of enforcing under age drinking, but it was clear these ushers were going down a list of ways to try to get these kids out of here because, GOD FORBID, they cheer for their home team. 

I started a "Let them cheer" chant and yelled at the ushers and told them they're part of the reason why the Orioles only draw 20,000 fans/game these days.

If you get a chance to go to an O's game, make sure you stand and cheer. If the ushers tell you to stop, tell them, as I did multiple times, that you pay their salary. Then call the Orioles front office and complain about the usher. Make sure you get their name and what section they were working in.  Pictures/video also can help your cause.

The breeze has died...

Again the Orioles lose despite having the game in hand late in the game. The O's have lost 4 straight, dropped 2 games below .500 and over his last 5 games, George Sherrill  has only converted 1 save.  The breeze has stopped blowing in the Orioles sail.  Right now, the All-Star break can't come fast enough for the O's . Now having to go to Boston for 3 games, the Orioles need to take 2 of 3 from the Blow Sox and stabilize themselves.  The Orioles can either recover from their recent struggles or they can lay down and get swept by Boston. We'll learn a lot about this team over the next 3 games. 

Overall, the O's have more than exceeded expectations during the first half of the season. Will they continue this trend? Not if their starting pitching only goes 5 innings and the bullpen continues to get burned out.  No one needs this break more than the bullpen, who has been overworked drastically over the last month. Losing several starting pictures to injuries has really hurt the Orioles.  Cabrera and Guthrie are the only pitchers in the rotation who the O's can count on to normally go at least 7 innings every game.  Unless Burress, Liz and Olson pick up their games after the all star break, look for the O's to continue to struggle. 

Its really a shame because the Orioles offense has been fantastic, especially over the last 4 games, when they've averaged over 7 runs per game and sadly are 0-4.

Do you think the O's should try to keep gunning for a winning season or should they try to sell off and continue the rebuilding phase? I don't think any can doubt Andy MacPhail after all he's done thus far, but I'm curious for other's opinions. Please vote to the right...

Please come back Orioles Magic!

Poe! Poe! Poe! Poe!

I'm proud to announce that one of the Ravens' Mascots, Poe, has won the fiercest mascot competition on CBS Sportsline. You can read about it here. What makes this so sweet is that the "mascot" he beat was Chief Zee of the Washington Redskins (although I don't really consider him a mascot since he's just a fan dressed in costume and not an official team mascot, but I digress...).

The other thing that makes this sweet is that Poe was a 16 seed and ended up winning. 

Congrats Poe!

Status of Maryland Men's Basketball - Terps in trouble?

In a recent article on ESPN.com, Dana O'Neil talks about how Maryland's Men's basketball program has gone from "One Shining Moment" in 2002 to a state of scrambling to find scholarship players for the 2008 season. I think the article could have been 100x's better and I'm shocked that Dana's editor actually let some of the stuff in the article become published. For one, she mentions Sean Mosely as the only scholarship player in the class of 2008, which simply isn't true. Jin Soo Kim is possibly reclassifying for 2008 and Maryland will soon be officially signing center Steve Goins (http://mbd.scout.co m/mb.aspx?S=174& F=2580&T=2634500 &P=1) giving Maryland a solid class for 2008.

Dana also refers to Maryland as "bottom feeders" in the ACC, which is bullshit. She seems to forget that they won the ACC tourney in 2004, in 2005 they were 7-9 and should have made the NCAAs, in 2006 they were 8-8 in the ACC and didn't make the tournament but should have, in 2007 they were 10-6 and went to the NCAAs and then last year they were again 8-8 in the conference. Yes the program isn't at its best, but I blame that on a few bad recruits, who were all consider GREAT coming into college, but didn't pan out (Travis Garrison, Mike Jones being good but not a super star, Chris McCray failing out his sr. year, Caner-Medley not having a good sr. year). You mention none of that in your article as to why this program has struggled. Maryland brought in All-Americans, but they just had some bad luck, which hurts a program for a few years.

Maryland's biggest problem, which ALSO isn't mentioned in the article is Gary's style of recruiting. His assistants do a lot of the work and with some of his best assistants gone, he now has to go out himself (which he's been doing lately) to recruit. And Chuck Drissell is one of the best recruiters around so once he establishes himself more, you'll see the benefits.

Gary also likes to take guys who are kind of under the radar, and build them into champions (Juan Dixon, Lohnny Baxter, etc.) and that style doesn't work as well as it use to since players can no longer skip college and go right to the NBA. Because of that, more "1 and done" players are playing college basketball and Gary needs to get his hands on them.

I think Maryland will be 8-8 in the ACC, make the tourney and get back on track for 2009-2010, when they have a huge talent poll around them to draw from and when you'll have Vasquez and others as Sr's and Jr's for what could be a fantastic team.

MacPhail

Recently Rick Maese did an article grading Andy MacPhail's performance as Orioles' President. I think its a cool concept, but I think Maese did a horrible job. Here are my comments. Vote in the poll to the right to evaluate MacPhail's performance.

"Uh, frankly I think this is kind of stupid. It seems like a good idea but that you struggled to come up with content so you just assigned MacPhail as the responsible party and then gave him a bad grade for it. By your logic, should we give MacPhail credit for the new Orioles Magic music video, staring players on this year's team? If so, he gets an A++ for that.

Why don't you start off by saying what his job responsibilities are, which in my opinion, is building a championship team from the ground up without Angelos interference, which he has done thus far . In face, I'd say he's done a pretty damn good job with that so far, restocking the farm system and getting great players back in both the Bedard and Tejada trades.

And the O's have a good product on the field. And making Trembly the manager on not an interim basis and keeping him on for this year was MacPhail's decision too."

Tiger is unreal

Soak it in folks, you might be looking at the best golfer to ever play the game. Tiger Woods just pulled off yet ANOTHER amazing victory. I was fortunate enough to go to the gym for an hour during work so I could catch the last 5 holes while running 5 miles. What I was able to see was pure greatness. Rocco Mediate had Tiger down for the count. He played fantastically, but it was almost like Tiger was toying with him, giving him the taste of victory and then springing on him to crush his hopes and dreams, even as Rocco made 3 birdies on the back nine to pull ahead of Tiger until 18 when Tiger got to the green in 2 and birdied to force jus the 2^nd Sudden Death overtime in U.S. Open history. (On a side note, I love the 18 hole playoff. The U.S. open isn’t trying to adhere to television and their viewers – they’re trying to determine the best golfer in the United States and the best way to do that is by playing 18 more holes if you’re tied after 72. But I digress…)And that is what is most amazing about Tiger. Just when you think he's down for the count, he's right back up and winning another Championship. Possibly the greatest golfer to ever walk the course and maybe one of the best clutch athletes we'll ever see. Year from now, people will refer to this as the “Tiger Era” and we’ll be fortunate enough to say we were able to live through it.

I wasn’t fortunate enough to really remember Jack Nicholas’ prime years. I was brought up by my father to believe in three things: respect and love your family, jazz is the best and only truly American Art Form, and that Jack Nicholas is the best golfer to ever play the game. Tiger might soon be taking that crown away, as today he became just the second player in history to capture the “Career Grand Slam” 3x’s over. Tiger now has 14 Major championship and trails Jack’s 18 by 4. Its also worth noting, in my opinion, that Jack came in 2^nd 19 other times. That is amazing in and of itself. Jack could have won 37 Majors but winning almost half of those and still coming in 2^nd is just amazing. I think Jack is still #1 and it depends on how Tiger finishes his career before he gets the crown as best golfer ever. The other point to think about is this: if you give Jack Nicholas the same equipment and conditioning that Tiger has now, who wins? Jack’s answer to that question, from an article by Jason Sobel on ESPN.com is “The game today is so different, so nobody will ever know. But Tiger is awfully good, he's terrific, and I guess I wasn't too bad in my time.”

And when it comes to breaking Jack’s record 18 Majors? “I suspect that he probably will, but you never break a record until you break it. I suspect in the next four or five years, that it will probably happen, but who knows what's going to happen in the next four or five years? Certainly at the rate he's going and the way he plays, he should do it. He's awfully good.”

Will Tiger go down as the best ever? Only time will tell. But I don’t think any will question that in their prime, Jack Nicholas and Tiger Woods are the best golfers to ever play the game.

Who Cares about the NBA?

After the latest scandal in the NBA, with former ref Tim Donaghy now alleging that the NBA instructed him to make sure certain playoff series went to 7 games and that key players weren't ejected, my real question is, who cares? When I watch an NBA game and then watch a college game, the difference to me is unreal. I'd rather watch any college basketball game vs. an NBA game. The NBA just isn't fun to watch. There is often little to know defense, the league is full of thugs, and its all about the money. College games are just so much more enjoyable to me. I'd venture to say I'd rather watch pro wrestling than an NBA game. At least with Pro Wrestling they tell you its fake up front. With the NBA, they just charge you a lot of money and act like its real. Sounds like false advertising to me...

Here we go again...

Just when we thought things couldn’t get any worse for Maryland basketball, I got a call from my Mom the other night saying that Gus Gilchrist was transferring out of Maryland. I thought “What? You’re crazy!” Apparently, since the ACC again denied Gus’ appeal to allow him to play at the start of the season rather than waiting until after the Fall semester, he wants to leave Maryland and play at a non-ACC school. There are several things here that don’t add up…
1. If Gus goes to another school, he’ll have to sit out a year before he can play again, unless he’s granted a waver by the NCAA, which by no means is a guarantee.
2. Even if Gus is granted a waver, he’ll likely only get 3 years of eligibility, rather than the 4 he is seeking so he’s risking having to sit out another entire year to be able to play for 1/3 of this season, against what will probably be cupcake games mostly. Seems like a big risk for not much return…
3. Gus seems to have left Maryland on good terms – no one is really disappointed or angry with him. That just seems weird to me…is it possible that Gary knew that if Gus’ latest appeal was denied, he was going to leave, and hence Maryland has been trying to bring in all of these other recruits last minute as a stop gap for a possible Gus absence? Is this why Shane Walker left, because he knew that even if Gilchrist left, he still wasn’t going to get playing time as Maryland looked for a possible stop gap for Gilchrist rather than relying on Walker? Or is Walker just kicking himself now for leaving because he probably would have factored huge into the upcoming season.

Just received an update on this...apparently Gus is going to play at a Ju-Co school, where he can play immediately, and then go straight to the NBA, or so the voice whispering in his ear, his "advisor," tells him...still seems like a lot of work just for missing like 10-15 cupcake games...

Who is to blame here? Is it Gary? I’d say this is just a string of bad luck for Gary, but if he knew Gilchrist was going to do this if he’s appeal was denied, then part of the blame must be placed on him for not having an alternative. EVERYONE should be angry with Debbie “I hate the Men’s basketball program even though it pays my salary” Yow, since she hasn’t gone to bat for any of Gus’ ACC appeals or for the Men’s program in general. She has to be one of the worst AD’s in the Nation when it comes to supporting some of her biggest programs. It’s almost like she WANTED these things to happen so she could get Gary out and hire her own Men’s Basketball coach. I for one will no longer be supporting the Athletic Department at Maryland so long as Debbie Yow is the AD. I encourage any fellow Terp Supporters to do the same.

Matt Bracken does a great job with a recruiting timeline for the 2008 class at Maryland, showing all of the potential players that could have been here and where we are now. Remember, at various points, Maryland had commits from the following for 2008: Tyree Evans (4 stars), Terrance Jennings (4 – 5 star big man), Bobby Maze (3-4 star combo guard), Gus Gilchrist (was already enrolled at the school and was eligible to play in Dec., but has since decided to transfer).

What are we left with? Sean Mosley, a talented guard who is committed for the 2008 class, still has to qualify academically. If we lose him as well, Maryland is screwed beyond screwed, to the tune of possibly having a season similar to that of UVA this past season, in which 1 really talented player (Vasquez) dominates but has little support around him. Jin Soo Kim, a forward that is committed for the class of 2009, is trying to get into Maryland’s 2008 class. Pray that he is able to, because Maryland currently has a huge hole in their front court offense.

Its Time for WAR on Red Sox Nation

I'm tired of Red Sox fans coming to Camden and acting like they're at home. I'm determined to do something about it. Suggestions are welcome, but I'm going to try to come up with a solution. I freaking hate the Red Sox fans and my hatred came to a climax when Manny hit his 500th homer this weekend. More to come...leave comments/suggestions...

Debbie Yow is the worst AD in the history of College Sports

UPDATE!
I've just been informed of a new website that has been created to FIRE DEBBIE YOW. I am going on record that I support the firing of Yow and hope others will do the same. If you sign the petition on the site, be sure to include how much money you give to the University, since money talks and has power in things like this.

Tyree Evans was released* from his Letter of Intent to play at the University of Maryland last week, ending what has been a up and down roller coaster for the Men's basketball program over the past few weeks. It seemed most people at the University didn't have a problem with Evans coming (granted, he would be on the shortest of leashes) to the University. Except for Debbie Yow. Yow, the Athletic Director of the University, apparently didn't know about the whole Evans situation, especially some of his recent criminal activities. It isn't a coincidence that after Yow finds out, magically Evans is gone.

Debbie needs to be fired from the University - no doubt about it. She has done a great job in some areas but completely sold out in others. She is basically a puppet of some of the big time $$ donors to the University (banning the Marching and Pep bands from playing "Rock and Roll, Part II" because the students say "Hey, you suck" is a perfect example. Way to take away one of the coolest, united things our students and fans did. For those that don't know, the ENTIRE band program(concert, marching, Symphonic Wind Ensemble, Pep, Jazz Lab, Jazz Ensemble and U-Jazz are all funded by the Athletic department, so if they say don't play a certain song, the band's hands are tied as they could lose funding otherwise).

The fact that the University issued a press release on this during the afternoon of the Friday before Memorial Day weekend is also a joke. Athletic Directors are easily replaceable, but as Esquire says here on Turtle Waxing , AD's are a dime a dozen but 600 win Basketball coaches who have won National Championships are a rare commodity.

This move could severely impact Maryland's team this fall. Some rumors are flying that another one of MD's 2008 recruits, Sean Mosley, is rumored to be having trouble getting a good enough score on his SAT's to be admitted to the school. Evan's not being here in the fall is going to be bad enough. If we lose Mosley too, Gary might be looking at a sub .500 record next year and could also be on the hot seat for his job.

And don't blame Gary - blame that stupid bitch, Debbie Yow.