Follow me on Facebook, Twitter

I have started using Facebook and Twitter to do most of my blogging. I will still use this space for things that are too long for either of those. To find me there in those places, follow these links:

JP on Facebook

CollegeRPI.com on Facebook

CollegeBCS.com on Facebook

JP on Twitter

The websites do not have individual twitter accounts. I haven't decided whether I'll do that or not.

So, feel free to come and find me in those places.

Live blog from the Final Four

I will be live blogging from the Final Four in Detroit this weekend. I will also be filing daily updates on my travel page.

Hopefully, things go a little more smoothly than last year. At least this time, I'm driving.

Live Blog: Purdue @ Illinois

I will be in Champaign on Sunday, Feb. 8 at Noon CT to live blog the Purdue-Illinois game. You can follow along on the live blog page.

Live Blog: Georgetown @ Marquette

I'll be doing another live blog on Saturday, January 31st. This one is from Milwaukee, where Georgetown takes on Marquette at 1 PM CT.

Click here for the live blog page.

Live blog from Miami

I'll be live blogging the BCS title game tonight at http://www.collegebcs.com/bcstitle.html


You can also read about my time there on that page.

BCS Title Game Coverage

I'm in Miami covering the BCS title game. You can follow along at http://www.collegebcs.com/bcstitle.html

Move live blogging - Wooden Tradition

Blogging from the Duke-Purdue game was so much fun, that I'm taking the Ernie Banks attitude and playing two. Or blogging two, as it were.

I'll be at the Wooden Tradition on Saturday, December 20th blogging the double header that starts at 3 PM CT. The first game is Davidson and Purdue, followed by Southern Illinois and St. Mary's.

Click here for the live blog page.

What'd I do?

Texas fans have been taking my name in vain all week, but they aren't alone. Apparently, people are lining up all over to take shots at me.

I received a surprising phone call from a friend this morning to tell me that the folks on the ESPN Sports Reporters show took aim during some BCS discussion.

It was a typical BCS discussion, whining about the ratings, especially the computers, the lack of a playoff, and the system in general. Very low-level stuff. High on outrage, low on ideas.

At some point, Mike Lupica of the NY Daily News says, "How many of these computer geeks, who have so much power in this sport, are gonna let the numbers fall, and the season hangs in the balance for Texas and Oklahoma, it's not right."

John Saunders, the moderator of the group, then says, "Computers are only 1/3 of the equation...But what a lot of people have a beef with is the Harris Poll, where a gentleman by the name of Jerry Palm is on the list."

Lupica interjects, "who sits in his basement in (simultaneously with Bob Ryan) Indiana!"

I've never met Saunders or Lupica. I'm surprised they have even heard of me, let alone know where I live. Perhaps they are confusing me with Jeff Sagarin, who also lives in Indiana. I don't know what I did to float to the top of their minds, and especially to inspire such disdain.

To be clear, I am not a voter in the Harris poll. If nominated, I would not run. If elected, I would not serve.

And one more thing: I sit in my attic, not my basement.

Football Saturday Live Blog

I decided that since I was going to be sitting around watching games all day, I should do a live blog. If you've ever been on one of my live blogs, it's like a souped-up chat session. It's easy for readers to participate, so I hope you will.

Click here for the blog page.

Live Blog from Duke @ Purdue

I will be live blogging from the Duke-Purdue ACC-Big Ten Challenge game at Mackey Arena on Tuesday night, December 2nd. The game starts at 8:00 PM CT, but I'll be on a little before then.

Click here for the blog page. You can go there before the game and set an e-mail reminder for yourself if you like.

The blogging program I use allows for things like reader input and polls, so we'll try to have fun with it. If it goes well, I may do some more games later in the season.

Very-bad-word next year!

All those white flags flying around the city with a big, blue "W" on them: that "W" stands for "WASTE!" What a very-bad-word waste this whole pointless very-bad-word season was! Why bother going through all that effort to make the very-bad-word playoffs when you're just going to very-bad-word choke again?! You can't very-bad-word hit, and you can't very-bad-word pitch, and you can't very-bad-word field with both hands around your very-bad-word necks! If baseball wanted teams that played like the Pittsburgh very-bad-word Pirates in the playoffs, they'd invite the Pittsburgh very-bad-word Pirates!

Here's what baseball should do. They should send the Cubs - the entire very-bad-word franchise - down to AAA and not let them come back until they win that league's championship.

No, I have a better idea. Let the Cubs play the first two months of the season. Then, make them stop and play in the College World Series. Then, if they win that - which they won't because it's against the very-bad-word law for them to win anything with the name "World very-bad-word Series" in it, including the very-bad-word Little League World Series - they come back to the major leagues and try to get into those playoffs. If they don't, they pack up and go home so they don't waste another entire very-bad-word year.

This year's Cubs' playoff MVPs are: Henry Blanco, Bobby Howry, Reed Johnson and Ted Lilly. Why? Because they never got into a very-bad-word game. Can't very-bad-word up on the very-bad-word bench.

I have another use for all those very-bad-word "W" flags. Wipe.

Very-bad-word! Very-bad-word! Very-bad-word! Extremely-bad-word!

There. I feel better now.


Wipe-on-a-Stick

Pitching follies

The Cubs gagged away home field advantage last night because Ryan Dempster was left in the game two batters too long.

Mishandling the pitchers was a problem (though by no means the only one) last year as well. In game 1 last year, he took out Carlos Zambrano, who was doing great, too early to save him for a game that never came. Then, in the next two games, he failed to realize his starter had nothing and left them in too long.

Same thing yesterday. Dempster never had control. He threw 109 pitches, but only 57 strikes (I can't believe it was that many), and walked seven. Three of them scored on a grand slam in the fifth. That was one of those rare strikes.

And that's the problem. By the fifth, he had so little control, I was afraid he would throw a strike. Because if you're wild out of the strike zone, you could be wild in the zone and leave a pitch fat. That's what happened, and it was game over.

But it wasn't just the walks that was indicative of a problem, it was all the guys who didn't walk that he got behind. It was how badly he was missing the target.

Entering the fifth, the pitch count was around 80. He struggled to get the pitcher Lowe and walked Furcal on five pitches. At this point, the bullpen should be working and the pitching coach should be on the mound, but that didn't happen. He gets Martin to fly out on a 3-1 pitch, but when he walks Manny after having him 0-2, it was time to call it a night. Unfortunately, he stayed in for two more batters and threw one strike too many.

Hopefully, if Zambrano is going good tonight, Piniella lets him keep going. The Cubs have to treat this as a must win though. If it's bad Carlos tonight, he needs to have a quick hook. There is no point in making the trip to LA if they lose tonight.

The Sox, on the other hand, made the shocking decision to start Javier Vasquez today against Tampa. Vasquez is not a big-game pitcher. At all. By any measure. So, either the Sox are conceding, or they must feel they can outscore whatever he gives up.

Win or stay home

The White Sox spent the last week of the regular season trying their hardest to blow the Central Division, but they failed because Minnesota couldn't do much with the lowly Kansas City Royals.

So, the Sox had to make up a game with the Detroit Tigers yesterday that had been rained out in August. Then, they had to sit through a three-hour rain delay to get it started. They did win though, thanks to a grand slam from Alexei Ramirez.

I was listening to Detroit implode in the sixth inning on the radio on my way home, and as they were pitching to Junior, one of the radio guys (I forget if it was Ed Farmer or Steve Stone) says, "if they walk him, that will bring up our Ramirez, who is our slam guy." They did walk him as I was pulling in my driveway, and by the time I got in the house, it was 6-2 Sox.

Ramirez, a rookie, now has four grand slams on the season.

That had to be one of the worst-pitched innings in the history of baseball. Four guys walked. The first one walked, stole second and scored on two wild pitches before the second batter was finished walking. Then a third guy walked. There was another wild pitch, an intentional walk, and then the grand slam. Actually, I think Thome struck out in there somewhere as well. Four walks and three wild pitches leading up to the slam.

Now, the Twins come to town for a division tiebreaker tonight. The Sox are pitching John Danks on three days rest, but you can't blame them. Gavin Floyd pitched yesterday, Mark Bueherle on Sunday, so there really isn't anybody left. Javier Vasquez probably wouldn't get out of the first inning.

Minnesota counters with Nick Blackburn. The Sox have lit him up this year, although Blackburn did better the last time he faced the Sox, holding them to two runs in five innings and getting the win last week.

The prize for the winner? A trip to Tampa to face the Rays on Thursday.

Cubs win.

Note that the headline was punctuated with a period, not an exclamation point. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited that the Cubs won the division, but I've seen that before. What I've only seen one time is the Cubs winning a playoff series. And it goes without saying that I've never seen them in a World Series.

If all that happens this season is winning the division, then it's a team that fell short again.

Now, our attention turns to the Sox, who can wrap up the division in a 3-game series with the Twins in the Humpdome. The Sox magic number is five with six to play. Both Chicago teams in the playoffs at the same time? That's something I've never seen before! I don't think my stomach could take a cross-town World Series.

At least they finally got a hit

I don't know if it's the effects of being dislocated by a hurricane, or playing "neutral" games in front of a big Cub crowd at Wrigley North in Milwaukee, or if it's simply a case of a team this hot finally cooling off, but the Astros set a standard for futility in their two games against the Cubs this week.

The first 47 hitters they sent to the plate in Milwaukee failed to get a hit. Carlos Zambrano faced 28 in his no-hitter on Sunday, and Ted Lilly got into the 7th inning before finally giving up a hit to Mark Loretta.

That was it. One hit in two days. The Astros were outscored 11-1 in the series. They finally scored in the 8th of game two with two walks, a wild pitch and a sac fly. Even Bob Howry, the designated lead blower this season, couldn't give up a run.

The Cubs are the first team to ever put a no-hitter and a one-hitter back-to-back.

Meanwhile, in a very strange twist to the playoff chase, the Brewers fired manager Ned Yost today. Milwaukee is tied for the wild card lead entering the day, and although they have faded a bit in their chase of the Cubs, I can't remember a manager ever being fired in the middle of a playoff race like this. The Brewers have lost seven of their last eight, and collapsed in the second half of last season as well. Perhaps this is just a desperate attempt to shake things up.

Dale Sveum will take over for the remainder of the season. The Brewers are in Chicago for three beginning tomorrow.

Cubs and Astros move to Milwaukee

Because of hurricane Ike, the Cubs and Astros will now play two games in Milwaukee. They were supposed to play three in Houston this weekend, but obviously, nobody's playing anything down there right now.

It's ironic that the games are in Milwaukee. If you are a Brewers fan, who do you root for? Your team is chasing the Cubs for the division title, although it's slipping away. The Cubs' lead is up to 6 games and their magic number for clinching the division is 10.

Houston, meanwhile, is on your heels in the wild card race. Philadelphia is a greater concern at the moment because they are the current opponent and only two games back after beating the Brewers last night, but Houston is 2.5 games back.

So, do you want the Cubs to help watch your back in the wild card race, or do you want to hold out those fading hopes for a division title?

Oregon-Purdue live blog

While the Cubs continue their 1969 impression and slide deeply into oblivion (although they have won one game in a row!), I'm going to hide my head in the sand on Saturday and live blog the Oregon-Purdue game.

To follow along, click here.

A game not even a mother could love

The Marlins and Braves played a game on Wednesday afternoon in Miami in front of a measly 600 fans. 600 fans! There had to be more staff there than paying customers. Every fan probably had his/her own personal beer vendor.

The actual announced attendance was much higher, but the heat, humidity, and lack of meaning kept the fans away in droves.

Here is the game story off the wire.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out, Jay

Acerbic columnist Jay Mariotti abruptly quit the Chicago Sun Times on Monday after returning from Beijing. Just last summer, he signed a big contract extension to stay at the Sun Times, but after covering the Olympics, he decided newspapers are dinosaurs and to try to find his way on the web.

You can tell from this piece in today's S-T that he's missed by almost no one. I haven't read him for years, for many of the reasons detailed in the piece, so I don't miss him either.

OIympic undies in a bunch

At the Olympics, the coach of the New Zealand men's field hockey team (I didn't know men played field hockey) was ejected from a game because his team's underwear was the wrong color.

As my hero, Dave Barry, likes to say, I am not making this up.

I'm sure NBC will be all over this story in prime time tonight.