Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.


I give all the credit in the world to Vanderbilt for its 17-6 victory over South Carolina but I also have to think that with Kentucky beating LSU - then the Gamecocks may have gone into this game a bit too cocky and maybe looking ahead of the Commodores because they had handled Kentucky pretty easily. Pride goeth before a fall... Dumbledore was gay? Richard Harris went his whole career without playing a gay character, always the man's man. Now I find nothing wrong with Rowling saying she wrote Dumbledore as a gay character but my first thought was to wonder if Harris knew this before hand if he would have accepted the role. And if Harris turned down the role - then we could have all been spared the awful Michael Gambon taking over as Dumbledore after Harris' death... Lyford has the stats to back up a point I made before Game 1 vs the Indians - if the Cy Young voters waited till after the playoffs there's no way CC Sabathia would be close to Josh Beckett in Cy Young voting. It should be noted that over the last 12 years only two players have won the Cy Young award and have also had their team win the World Series. That was Randy Johnson in 2001 and Greg Maddux in 1995.... Just saying but 5-2 Clemson has outscored their opponents by 107 points so far this season but in the 4 games vs ACC teams they have scored 92 points and given up 92 points. I think you could say Clemson likes to pad the stats versus out of conference teams...

Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

Chipper Jones currently leads the NL in batting with his .337 mark. Jones is 35-years old and if he won the batting title - he'd be one of the oldest players ever to do so. The oldest player to win the batting title was Ted Williams who won his last batting title at age 39.... Al Kaline of the Tigers was the youngest player to ever win a batting title. Kaline was 20 years, 9 months and six days when he won the title in 1955... The race for the NL Cy Young is pretty tight. Who do you chose? Jake Peavy has 14 wins, leads the league in strikeouts and is second in ERA but he plays in the uber pitchers park and playing in San Diego doesn't enhance his Q rating. Brandon Webb has 14 wins, leads the league in innings pitched and complete games and is second in strikeouts and fourth in ERA, however, Webb is the complete opposite of flashy and his workman like approach may not be sexy enough to woo the voters. Cole Hamels has 14 wins and even though he plays in the biggest bandbox in baseball - he still has a decent 3.50 ERA. What about old man John Smoltz who is 12-6 with a 3.01 ERA? My guess is that first place votes could go to as many as six players. The person to take home the award will probably be the guy who gets the most second and third place votes... Mike Lowell has 90 RBI and his career high is 105 which he set in 2003 when he was 29-years old. I'm rooting for Lowell to set a new career high this year and to be re-signed by the Red Sox... David Ortiz hit 2 HR last night to give him 23 for the season. Last year he hit 54 - so I'd say he's a bit behind last year's pace.