A Big 33 Blog

The Big 33 game is tonight, if you're in the Pittsburgh market you can catch it live on Fox Sports Pittsburgh.  The Pittsburgh sports media finally started writing about it and I'm not sure why it took so long what with the WPIAL being so well represented.  Rod Frisco and the staff at the Harrisburg Patriot-News did an outstanding job this week in covering the game, really some great writing from what I consider the premier newspaper in the state as far as high school football coverage is concerned.

The Molly Rottman suspension is going through per the PIAA.  Let this be a lesson to certain Catholic high schools in Ebensburg that will remain nameless.  You might want to cut back on getting players from Maryland as rumor has it.

The Pirates beat the Reds last night in quite a game.  They were playing in front of a standing room only crowd (yes, fireworks night!).  They also were wearing the 1979 throwback combination of yellow stirrups, black pants, yellow jersey and black pillbox hat.  Personally, that was my favorite of the mix-and-match era.  They'll wear this same combo Sunday afternoon.  Tonight, they'll have on the thick pinstripes.  Maybe they'll sweep the Reds and these unis will be considered good luck and they'll go back to wearing them!  Probably not, the team has been playing well lately regardless of the uniform.

One thing that irks me about the unis though is that with players wearing the baseball uniform more baggy these days, the old double-knit pullovers just don't look right.  That uniform needs a bit more of a snugger fit.

Look, I'm the first guy to tell you how impressed I am with the performance that Ken Jennings has displayed on Jeopardy.  However, I don't think it's worthy of front page status on ESPN.com!  Yes, 38 wins and counting and over $1.3 million (including the all-time one show high set yesterday) are all impressive, but since when is trivia a sport.  Well, this is the same network that is hellbent on showing poker and spelling bees so should I really be surprised?!  Maybe they could bring cameras into my house each Wednesday night when my wife, brother and I sit down to play Mille Bornes and Hearts!  We also occasionally play Boggle, Yahtzee and UpWords.  You should see the athletic prowess!

Dallas beat Philly and Oakland to win the rent Eddie George for a season or two sweepstakes.  Personally, I think George has enough left in the tank for a few more good seasons.  I also think the Titans made an error in forcing him to take the pay cut or get cut.  They didn't have as much leverage as say the Steelers did with Jerome Bettis.  The Steelers brought a proven free agent RB (Duce Staley) in.  Chris Brown is a nice back, but I want more of an insurance policy for balancing my pass and run, especially with often injured Steve McNair not having super backup Neil O'Donnell to come in relief anymore.

What a fantasic Sunday of auto racing.  First, you get the Formula One at Hockenheim (7:30 AM prerace, 8AM race live on Speed).  Then you have the Nextel Cup in Loudon, NH on TNT from 1:30 to 5:30 followed by some open-wheeled action on ABC (IRL from Milwaukee at 3:30) and SpikeTV (Champ Car from Vancouver at 4:00).  Good day to have a few TVs on Picture-in-Picture.  Especially with the Bayern Munich game from Chicago on Fox Sports World at 4:00.  I know, I'm SO Euro!

The F1 race, or at least turn one, should be exciting.  Michael has pole with Juan Pablo in P2.  I feel an international incident waiting to happen!

BASEketball may just be the worst film ever made.  Yes, worse than Mystery Men!  Look, I love South Park, but you have to keep those concepts animated.  (That does seem contradictory from me, since one of my project ideas is to have a film called "Family Guy Comes Alive" where I cast real actors to play the Griffins and other characters!)  I cannot believe that Leonard Maltin didn't give it a "bomb" rating (he gives it an unbelievable 2 stars!)

The answer to yesterday's trivia question:  Airshafters.