Three Yards and a Cloud of Links

Good Morning Buckeye Nation

Not Surprising: Emory Sports Marketing Analytics did a study of the best fans in the Big Ten. The study is based on the last ten years but even if you went back further I’m sure the results will still be the same as to who the top team is. The Ohio State Buckeyes do have the best damn fans in the Big Ten. The study breaks down fan attendance and stadium revenue.

Alumni Weekend: Ohio States Baseball Team has announced the schedule for their fourth annual Alumni Weekend October 11-12,2013. There will be a golf outing in Dublin on the 11th and then a Alumni baseball game on the 12th. Sorry but as an Indians fan I am hoping Nick Swisher won’t be there playing on his field but still playing in the playoffs. Go Tribe.

Gold and Silver: Buckeye’s Lacrosse head coach Alexis Venechanos lead Team Canada against Team Usa in the 2013 Federation of International Lacrosse World Cup. Alums Kylee White (Canada) and Regina Oliver (USA) also represented Buckeye Nation in the World Cup.

Fore: The Ohio State Women’s Golf Team has announced the 2013-2014 season. Head coach Therese Hession announced the new schedule yesterday.The Buckeyes will host two tournaments in the spring, the season starts in September.

Back in the Pool: Members from both the Men’s Swim Team and Women’s Swim Team are participating in the U.S. Open Championships in Irving California. They will be participating in events until Aug. 3rd to get ready for their upcoming season. good Luck Buckeyes.

Until next time Buckeye Nation…

Three Yards and a Cloud of Links

Good Morning Buckeye Nation.

Buckeye All-Stars: Junior Jaron Long and Sophomore Trace Dempsey will be some of the pitchers on the West team All Stars. The two Buckeyes are playing for the Bourne Braves of the Cape Cod Collegiate League. The game will be this Saturday at 4:30 pm in Yarmouth, Mass and will be broadcast live on Fox Sports Channel.

Oh Captain: Woman’s Field Hockey head coach Anne Wilkinson announced the co-captains for the 2013 season. Arielle Cowie and Nora Murer, both seniors, were selected with the honors for the first time.

FNL: Tomorrow night is the Friday Night Lights camp at The ‘Shoe. Check out our preview written by Dylan, he did a great job finding out whats all going on and who will be attending.

Safety Camp: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Buckeye
s head coach Urban Meyer will be holding a safety clinic August 1 st, 2013. The clinic is a Mom’s Football Safety clinic that will have classroom instructions from experts and on-field training from Ohio State coaches and former players.

Time to Step Up: Doug Lesmerises of the Cleveland Plain dealer talks about Curtis Grant. Grant is a linebacker that has the spotlight on him this year. He came to Ohio State very highly touted and unfortunately hasn’t been able to live up to the expectations. Last season he was replaced by Zach Boren who was their fullback. Urban has even commented that they are keeping a close eye on him and he has seen improvement in him this spring. Buckeye Nation is pulling for you Grant.

Connections: Possibly one of Braxton’s offensive linemans’s for next year?


2014 stud OL prospect Demetrius Knox tweeting out to Braxton Miller. Knox has the Buckeye’s on his list of schools to play for. Our man Aaron did an awesome interview with Demetrius. He would look really good in Scarlet and Gray.

Officiating: Bill Carollo sits down with the Big Ten Network to discuss how the officials have to change the behavior. Carollo is the Big Ten Officials Coordinator and he talks about the new rules and penalties for the upcoming 2013 football season.

Quiet Man on Campus: Tim May of the Columbus Dispatch sits down with Braxton Miller. This is a great interview with Miller and May talks about how he stays out of trouble.

Until Next time Buckeye Nation…

Three Yards and a Cloud of Links

Happy Holiday: Yesterday was Archie Griffin Day. The Governor of the Great State of Ohio declared yesterday Archie Griffin Day. It seems that Brutus Buckeye sent out a tweet to Gov. Kasich to make it a day to honor Archie and the Governor agreed.

Search is on: The Ohio State Board of Trustees announced the process to find the next president of the university. The committee will consist of faculty, staff, and students.

Help Wanted: Ohio State Buckeyes Softball Team is looking for two student managers for this upcoming season.

New Assistants: Buckeye’s Baseball Team has announced former Buckeye, only three time captain, Dan Delucia as a volunteer assistant on Monday.

Women’s Rowing on Monday also announced the addition of an assistant to their staff. Former Stanford asst coach Madeline Davis was hired. She is was a four-year varsity letterwinner at Princeton University.

Welcome to Buckeye Nation Madeline and welcome back Dan.

Non Conference Show: Woman’s New Basketball Coach Kevin McGuff announced next season’s non conference games.

“I’m excited about our non-conference schedule because it will challenge us early and often,” McGuff said. “As we aspire to build our program, we want to compete against the best teams in the country.”

I like that they aren’t backing down and scheduling hard games. I also understand they are trying to build A Players Program. I will have more on this very soon.

Well Buckeye Nation until next time…

Ohio State vs. Purdue (part 2) Open Thread

Purdue

WOOOO.

Ohio State 30 Purdue 37

Not related to the game, but the just announced Mike Vrabel was traded to Kansas City. Bummer for him.

Back to the game. How does Ed Hightower continue to be employed?

The Buckeyes started the second half nice and quick but they’ve shot themselves in the foot a couple times and instead of being within 2 are now down by 7. Diebler needs to find his shot. The refs aren’t helping issues, either.

Purdue vs. Ohio State Open Thread

OSU LogoTwo basketball games of interest to me tonight, The Buckeyes and The Cavs.

Feel free to post what you feel so inclined to post.

I feel free to say that this is an ugly start to the game. Purdue up quickly, 10-2.

And a little patience and some nice defensive pressure and Buckeyes tie it up, 14-14.

Halftime

It’s interesting to see what effect big men have on the game. Even when he’s not making shots, if Mullens is playing tough defense and crashing the board, this is a very good team. When he gets lazy and isn’t contributing on defense, it’s not. Game is now tied 48-48.

Buford, DEEP IN THE SCHOOT!! (Opps, wrong announcer)

Man, a flurry of action and Purdue ties up the game, we’re going to OT.

End of regulation, 64-64

I’m embarrassed by the crowd at the Schott. We’re in a crazy overtime battle, and the entire section behind the scorer’s table is seated. Weaksauce, old Buckeye fans.

Okay, Buckeye fans, that’s much better.

Congrats Buckeyes, excellent win over #13 Purdue. Buford and Evans combine for 48, with another 17 from Mullens. Hopefully this is just the start of a final push to solidify their tournament resume.

Do you hear that? That is the sound of inevitability

…the sound of Columbus becoming an Indians town…

There was nothing more annoying about living in Columbus than hearing about how everyone was a Yankee fan, because the Clippers were the AAA affiliate for the club. I mean really…who wouldnt be a Yankee fan when you would get to watch Derek Jeter play in Columbus for about 12 minutes and then leave for the Bronx. Remember watching Drew Henson get booed nightly for attending UM and sucking at baseball…that was awesome. Finally and thankfully, those days could be over…

It was made “unoffically” official today, the Indians have signed up the Columbus Clippers to be the club’s top minor league team (AAA) for the next four years. This relationship will begin when the Clippers open the 2009 season in it’s new downtown ballpark “Huntington Field in the Arena District.”

I wonder if Mo Vaughn bought into this?

I wonder if Mo Vaughn bought into this?

A History Lesson provided by Jacobs Field

Cleveland IndiansEvery once in a while a special moment will occur for the general sports fan. Sometimes these moments will include your favorite team, which can be all sorts of awesome or a craptastic dose of terribleness.

Being an Indians fans has been a tough go for the YNBA this season and most seasons, but there have been a few occaisions, such as seven years ago today, that will always manifest a little warmth in my heart (notably the sub-cockle region). The Cleveland Indians trailed the Seattle Mariners 14-2 in the seventh inning at Jacob’s Field. Yeah…if you dont remember the outcome, believe it..the Indians scored 12 runs over the final 3 innings to tie the game and added another in the 11th inning to win 15-14.

Omar Vizquel

Joel Skinner…Holding people at 3rd Base since 2001.

(HT: Mistake by the Lake Sporting Times)

Ohio – Year of the #2

2007 was the year of the “Almost!!” for teams that hail from the State of Ohio.

There were eight sports teams from Ohio that either lost a championship game or had the coveted #1 ranking elude them in 2007. Never before have so many teams from a single state reached within inches of the promised land, only to fail at accomplishing the utmost feat.

The following teams from Ohio finished #2 in their respective sports in 2007:


OSU Football Ohio State Buckeyes Football – BCS Title Game
On Janurary 8, 2007, one of the best OSU teams in history waltzed into the BCS title game cocky and overconfident. The Buckeyes had breezed undefeated through their schedule, including playing in two #1 vs #2 games and winning both convincingly.

History shows that the team never took its BCS opponent seriously, and after a 50-day layoff came to the stadium overweight, flat, and uninspired – and was promptly dispatched by a tough Florida team that had grown weary of hearing about its underdog status.


OSU Logo Ohio State Buckeyes Men’s Basketball – NCAA Title Game
In some ways, the men’s basketball team was the antithesis to their counterparts who played in the ‘Shoe. Where Tressel had a team loaded with experienced seniors and veterans, Thad Matta would have to work with a group of highly-rated young freshmen and first-year starters, including the superstar Greg Oden, who was unavailable for the first half of the season.

The Buckeyes survived a tough playoff bracket and matched up against Florida in the championship game. Despite a career game for Oden, the Buckeyes simply couldn’t match up with a Gator team full of talented, experienced veterans.


Cavaliers Cleveland Cavaliers – NBA Finals
In June, the Cavs made it to the NBA finals for the first time in franchise history. Down by two games in the semifinals, LeBron James led the Cavs to four straight wins and a berth in the championship series against the Spurs.

San Antonio then swept the series, 4-0.


Columbus Destroyers Columbus Destroyers – ArenaBowl XXI
The Columbus Destroyers were the AFL’s Cinderella story in 2007. The Destroyers made it to the ArenaBowl with momentous upsets of Dallas and Georgia in the first two rounds of the playoffs.

They lost the championship to the San Jose Sabercats, 55-33.


Columbus Comets Football – NWFA Championship Game
What? You’ve never heard of them? Too bad. Columbus’ own women’s professional football franchise (full-contact, none of this powder-puff stuff) dominated the competition in 2007.

The women won the Southern Conference and made it to the NWFA Championship game — where they were beaten 32-0 by the Pittsburgh Passion.


Indians Cleveland Indians – American League Championship Series
The Indians capped a fine regular season by tying Boston for the best record in baseball. Behind Cy Young winner CC Sebathia, they upset the Yankees in the AL division series in four games.

Cleveland then took a 3-1 lead against Boston in the ALCS, but then lost the pennant with three straight losses to the Red Sox.


Football Saint Xavier Bombers – HS Final Rankings
Cincinnati’s legendary Saint X squad made it to 15-0 and the state title, but was given the #2 spot in the final national high school composite rankings.

The Bombers came in only four points behind Northwestern of Miami Florida. The two did not play against one another.


Ohio State Buckeyes Men’s Soccer – NCAA Title Game
OSU entered the NCAA tournament for the first time in school history. Playing as a five seed, they outworked their opponents though the playoffs, and met Wake Forest in the championship game.

The Buckeyes played a dominant first half, but Wake Forest came from behind late in the game on a controversial goal. The Demon Deacons went on to win.


So, what say you? Is this list an example of Ohio superiority in athletics, or weakness?

2008 starts off well, with another Ohio team competing for a championship as the football Buckeyes get a chance to redeem themselves in the Bourbon Bowl. Let’s hope that this pattern of #2 ends on January 7th.

Dodger fan taunts Griffey, gets jock

RedsThe Reds played a pathetic series on the Left Coast last week against the Dodgers. Aside from having to deal with the humiliation of losing three in a row and dropping to the bottom of the Central, the Reds’ fielders had to deal with some pretty rough heckling from the LA fans.

At some point, Ken Griffey, Jr. had enough, and responded to a fan’s heckling with a present of his own (sic):

I was going to try and get in Ken Griffey Jr’s head a little bit. He had to walk right by us to get to the dugout and I just couldn’t help myself. So I started with the basics: YOU SUCK..SHOULDN’T YOU BE ON THE D.L…TOO OLD FOR CENTER….that kind of stuff… He called me some fat references which was hilarious and then he told me I couldnt touch the threads on his jock…

…After the 6th inning he walks out and stops to talk to me holding a brown paper bag in his hand. He motions to throw it to me and I told him no, I know that trick. He laughs and says catch it, so I put up my hands and he tosses it over. He wouldn’t leave until I opened it and when I finally did, the whole place erupted with laughter. Griffey throws me his jock…

…He shot me a grin. When he came out in the 8th he shot me another smile, and I told him he still has the greatest swing in baseball. I hope he heard me, I think he did. I love Griffey. In fact, some of my first Dodger games were because Griffey was playing and my boy was a huge fan of his in Seattle. He may be the greatest fielder of all time, but when you come to my stadium, you’re fair game.

Griffey even autographed the jock “3 Jr.” A nice touch.
griffeyJock.jpg

Read the entire story (with pic goodness).

It only took one inning to beat the Cubs

RedsIn the most recent installment of the “Battle of the Identical Logos,” the Red Stockings were down by five runs in the fifth, then managed to score six times in the sixth to finish Chicago. To add insult to injury, the winning run was walked in. I’m not sure, but I think Pinella actually blew a blood vessel afterwards.

Yes, it’s early in the season, but the Cubs haven’t won at home yet. This does not bode well for a team that was expecting nothing less than dominance and a Series berth.

Meanwhile, Cincinnati seems to be shaking off the cobwebs and getting into a rhythm. Maybe I was alone in this, but I felt that the only thing that kept the Reds from being a lot more dominant last year was a handful of ill-timed injuries. If they can stay healthy, I wonder if they’ll stay at or near the top of the Central for most of the season.

And how about this Hamilton kid? Hitting .308, reaching base 7 of his last 10 attempts, and two HRs in both starts. What do you think: is Hamilton just hype or is he the real thing?