In Birmingham, I once heard tell, they love the governor, while in the South in general, they love their college football. So in deference to Atlanta's most popular team, the Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech, I'm calling an audible.
See, I was just about to write something to the effect of well, it's too bad we lost and the Phillies won and closed the gap between us to four games, but it's nice that if the Phillies had to beat anyone, it was super that it was the Braves because, well, they're the Braves.
Then I checked the ESPN.com scoreboard one more time to see if the Phillies 8 Braves 6 score from the ninth had gone final. It had. Except a Matt Diaz two-out, bases-clearing double off Brett Myers (a lot to choose from there, huh?) made it Braves 9 Phillies 8.
Holy Lemke! Braves help Mets yet again!
So to sum up:
• We took the day off in Cincinnati. Efficient of Willie to get the hung over, post-clinching game out of the way early.
• But we maintain our five-game lead and reduce our, dare I say it, magic number by one to 19.
• Because the Braves who we sw…sw…swept in Atlanta just took two of three from the phetid Phillies.
• And even with the win, the Braves are a hundred miles out.
Or, as Aretha Franklin put it, I don't know what we're doin', but we must be livin' right. (Except for Delgado's hip flexor.)
I can't totally dismiss Turner's worms because 7-1/2 back with 22 for them to play isn't totally buriable, not when they have three more chances against us (that's not Braves juju talking, just simple math…and maybe a little Met mojo). But they're pretty darn close to done. Magic number to eliminate Atlanta: 16.
No, Willie Harris does not bother me. Does Mark Teixeira bother you? Tell the truth.
Nothing to do with most of this, but I have to share: College football, of virtually relatively no interest in New York, is huge in the Midwest, too. The Appalachian State upset of Michigan was a major development throughout Big Ten country, which includes Milwaukee where we just spent a few days. The news crawl for the ABC affiliate in town was sure to highlight this result. And they did. According to the station, the Wolverines lost to…Appellation State.
Appellation State: The finest name in college football.
The same station ran this title over the bumper or tease for the story that would be coming up after the next commercial:
BUMP TITLE GOES HERE
WISN, Channel 12, Milwaukee…I don't know what they're doin', but they must not be livin' right.
No way I'm counting the Braves out just yet. I know better.
I can't believe I actually like Matt Diaz right now. Man, I'm easy.
PS: I'm quite enjoying the A's-Angels game… it's always good to see Mike, wrong-by-a-lot uniform notwithstanding. He's 2 for 5 today.
I think your “Go Figure” title was pretty darned prescient yesterday.
I did probably the same thing you did, only using CBS Sportsline which I find easier on the eyes. I glanced over and said, “No, NO F-in WAY” and then did a respectful sign of the Tomahawk Chop in homage to our friends in Atlanta. I wish them well on the golf course this October.
That's a pretty standard refrain that there in no interest in college football in NY, but I'm not so sure how true that is anymore. When the choice is Hofstra, Columbia, Stony Brook…Syracuse , maybe. For those born raised and never leaving NY (or leaving for a SUNY or small out of state school) it is probably still true. For the those of us who did attend a D-1 football school or those hundred thousand who move into NY annually from one of these places , it couldn't be further from the truth.
Go into any bar with a TV on a Fall Saturday after 12pm (kickoff) and you'll find it filled with fans rooting just as hard and strong for their school as you would if you were watching the Mets and for a rivalry or conference game they can put Met/Yankees fans to shame.
Fair enough on an anecdotal basis that bars may crowd up with expatriates once a week for an out-of-town game, but college football is not organic to this area the way baseball and pro football and, when things are going well, pro basketball are (all apologies to our Rutgers readers). I defer on the numbers to Neil Best of Newsday.
Spending a few days at the outset of the CFB season in Wisconsin reminded me how big it is everywhere but here. The Brewers are in a pennant race and their results fell in somehwere after the Wolverine upset, the Badger opener and, for that matter, the Packers' roster cuts. It was jarring coming back Sunday and getting the papers and seeing relatively little about the upset of the century and nothing of substance about any other Saturday football game.
I went to college at what was then a non-football school in Florida at the dawn of the heyday of Miami, Florida State and UF (whose heyday continues, I suppose). It was pretty big down there yet not even that big compared to other places in the South. I did foster an appreciation for it, however. I pretty much detest every sport infringing on baseball's time, but once the season and postseason are over, I enjoy college football as much as the next guy in the New York area…but not nearly as much, I would guess, as the next guy anywhere else.
Can't count the Braves out.
Julio Franco.
Something bad's GOTTA happen.
I've only lived in New York. I went to a Division 1A school, although a bad one. I still despise college football. I'm not even a big regular football fan, never mind the amateur level where 'students' are the one playing. I'd rather watch the professional level anything, I'd even be more inclined to watch it if it was an 'official' minor league type game.
the Brave-Philly series basically proves what i've been saying all along. Those two teams have been fighting for third, not for first.
No fear, baby. Too early to count the Phillies out, but Atlanta's done.
I hope you're right, Jace, but I can't bring myself to root for Atlanta under any circumstances, even if it's in our best interests.
I'm looking forward to the pennant clincher, which, by the way, will happen at our makeup game against the St. Louis Bleeping Cardinals on September 27th. That game will also, by the way, open up the Cards' tee times in October.
I couldn't care less about college football. I actually resent the number of channels taken up by it every weekend. I'm afraid I'm just not particularly big on watching kids play sports. I've personally always found it kind of creepy, for some reason, when adults are still stuck on their colleges decades later. But I guess in areas where there are no professional teams, there's not much choice.
Maybe if I had kids I'd feel differently, I don't know. But watching teenagers play sports just doesn't do anything at all for me.
Thanks for the change. I'll take relatively over virtually.
Let's go Mets!
I've never understood the affinity for college sports that anyone other than a current student has. Really, if I want to see teenagers play ball I can go to a schoolyard by my house. The platitudes(“They do it for love of the sport”) are naive. And the play, relative to pros, sucks.
Back when I was in college in Northeast PA, the local network affiliate actually chose to air a Penn State football game over a Met playoff game (the Dykstra walkoff, if I remember correctly). We were getting set to drive south as far as necessary to get to the real world when we found that another local station had somehow been granted the rights. People were weird up there, heyna.
I work for a major metropolitan newspaper (not in NY), and we often run little one-sentence teases at the end of stories pushing our web site. A few weeks ago, a page went to press with a tease that read:
“Something something something? Visit http://www.ourpaper'ssite.com“
A major metropolitan daily some years ago hit the stands with a story written “BY FAKE BYLINE”.
“Our Middle East correspondent,” it was accented and explained away.
On an 80-mile drive from Dallas to Waco sixteen years ago, I looked forward to the company of the first Pirates-Braves NLCS on the radio. Silly me. It was a Saturday afternoon…Texas-Oklahoma Saturday. I was lucky to hear the baseball game en Español.
I don't find the idea of watching young people play college sports creepy. I find the idea of watching young people play high school sports, unless they're your kids, amazingly creepy (even if I find Friday Night Lights just plain amazing). In Milwaukee, one station was promoting the heck out of Friday Football Frenzy, to follow the local news. Again, everywhere but here, it seems, is pigskin country.
Another reason to love New York.
not done with the Mets, yet….
It's time for the Mets to play better at home: Sweet Home Shea Stadium!
(Go Harvard.)
I never understood the whole college football thing even a little, until my New York Metropolitan Area school suddenly became a top-25 powerhouse 15 years after I left. Now all of a sudden I'm contemplating picture-in-picture or similar options for the schedule conflicts. (Mets get the big picture, except during commercial breaks.)
Also. a few years back, when the Dolphins were good, Fox NFL's in game crawl listed this tidbit next to the final score of one of their late season victories: “MIA CLINCHES PLAYOFF BIRTH”. Just one vowel off, I suppose.