Be Like Tike

Monday, October 15th, 2007 by Adam Wagner

Random Thoughts

This weekend was one of those required high school dances and Matt had a convention to attend. We apologize for the lack of material, but here is just a list of random thoughts about, well, everything:

When did Pittsburgh become the crime capital of the athletic world? Honestly, from Levance Fields to Najeh Davenport to Austin Scott, this has not been a very good month or so period for the character of the city.
The Pirates designated Matt Kata for assignment in order to add Kevin Thompson, an interesting move if not only because it ends the Matt Kata era in Pittsburgh. Thompson is a decent average, low power AAAA (yes, that has four A’s) who will probably play at Indianapolis next year.
Sidney Crosby is “back.”
Joey Porter needs to shut up and realize that he is not the star that he thinks he is.
The BCS rankings are very screwed up. There is no way that South Florida is the #2 team in the nation or even that Ohio State is #1. LSU, Kentucky, USC, Boston College, Oklahoma, and Florida would all beat those teams if they played. LSU is still the best team in the country, but if they are not then Kentucky is, simply because they beat them. Yes, South Florida beat West Virginia, but that is a team without a defense. Kentucky and Andre’ Woodson beat the #1 rated team, a team without any obvious weaknesses. That is worth the number one spot.
It’s nice to see Michigan back in the rankings. They’ve been on an excellent tear since Ryan Mallet took over at QB.
There officially needs to be a Jeff Tedford Rule. This rule means that you think a team is about to break out every year, but that just when it seems as if it has broken through, it collapses. Cal has done this for seemingly five years now, reaching an extremely high spot and looking like one of the preeminent teams in college football only to lose to a team like Oregon State (or Arizona last year, or Oregon State the year before that, or Colorado State and Utah in 2003, or Air Force in 2002). Tedford has pretty much taken some of the most talent in the nation and dropped it on its head, year after year.
Oh, and Jeff Tedford quarterbacks are never successful in the NFL. That’s a rule.
Since when did Josh Fogg know how to pitch, much less give up one run in six innings work on 76 pitches? Why didn’t he ever throw like that for the Pirates? (Answer: Spin Williams and Jim Colborn . . . okay, he had a great game; it wasn’t totally their faults)
Steve Pederson is available. Pitt should look at bringing him back as AD, even though he tried the same stupid thing that Jeff Long did in hiring an NFL coach at a college program. Neither program is performing up to expectations, with Pitt even getting dissed in Peter King’s Monday Morning Quarterback this week.
Is Peter King the worst good analyst there is? And when did I start writing like him?
It’s a shame that Jeff Cox is leaving the Pirates for the White Sox’ third base coaching position. He was really very good at what he did here and also provided great quips in that one ballpark segment where they ask the questions.