Friday, August 8, 2008

Friday Morning Hangover

(Bearcatmark tries to get you to the weekend)

Thank You Ben Mauk:

According to 1530 homer Ben Mauk has officially been denied his 6th year of eligibility by the NCAA. Ridiculous that it took this long, but it was certainly a decision that should come as no surprise to anyone involved. Ben Mauk gave UC one great year. He led our Bearcats to their first 10 win season since the 1960’s. He dealt with the frequent offensive line lapses (resulting from having to play in a completely different system) with great poise, continually evading pressure and making good decisions. He provided the leadership from the Quarterback position necessary to make UC a Big East contender and the number 17 team in the country at season's end. Thank you Ben Mauk for your time here at the University of Cincinnati. Now it’s time for Grutza to win us a Big East title.

Favre Traded?

So I was scouring through all my favorite sports websites and noticed that Brett Favre has been traded. This may be news to everyone, because it has been largely ignored by the national media. It was my understanding that Brett Favre had retired after a tremendous year, leading the Green Bay Packers to the brink of a Super Bowl birth. Apparently he decided recently that he wanted to come back. Brett Favre has not missed a start since Lincoln was president, so maybe this development should not have been so shocking. It seems Brett Favre likes to play football.

One would think any reasonable team would jump at the chance to bring back their hall of fame quarterback, who nearly led his team to the Super Bowl the prior season, but the Packers have other plans. The Packers seem to have everything in place to make another run this season, but have elected to put the ball in the hands of a young, unproven quarterback in the hopes of making a decision on whether he is the future of the franchise. I do not really understand this… if you were that close to going to the Super Bowl last season…WHY RISK THIS SEASON? No one knows how large a window they have. This is the NFL after all. Not bringing Brett Favre back when he wants back in utter insanity.

The Jets traded a fourth round pick for Brett Favre…kinda. The pick can actually go up to a first round pick if the Jets make the Super Bowl, Brett takes 80 percent of the snaps, George Bush finds Osama Bin Ladin, and Al Gore decides to shut down the three power plans he needs to provide electricity to his house. I think the last two are possibilities, but for some reason I do not have as much confidence in the 4-12 Jets to turn it around and make a Super Bowl in the stacked AFC. I guess we’ll find out. For now lets watch Broadway Brett/Jet Favre/Jersey B(rett) try to lead the New York Brett’s to a .500 season. That seems a little more reasonable.

Dunn Watch

Picture this, you get invited to the Playboy Mansion. You get to hang out in the grotto to party with Hef and all his hunnies. You come back and you’re buddy asks you “How was it?” and your response is “Well, there was free booze, I had access to pools, hot tubs, and the most beautiful women in the world were wearing practically nothing everywhere I went… BUT I didn’t have a chance with them so it was not worth it.” Yea that is crazy right…but it is basically the attitude of a large portion of Reds fans towards Adam Dunn. “Yea Dunn hits 40 homeruns, scores 100 runs, and drives in 100 runs every year... Plus he is in the top 6 in baseball in runs created over the last 5 years, BUT he strikes out too much and the Reds do not win with him.”

Ok it would be nice if Dunn struck out less, but at the end of the day he is still giving you top of the line production when it comes to the most important part of being a hitter…PRODUCING RUNS. As for the Reds not winning with him, well you may want to look at the lack of run production from the rest of the team, and maybe, just maybe the below average pitching. Just a thought. So for this week's Dunn Watch lets reiterate what Dunn is doing so far this year:

32 HR, 74 RBI, .381 OBP, .540 SLG, 58 runs

Yea he’s good.

What to expect the rest of August

1. The University of Cincinnati Bearcat Football team will beat EKU to move to 1-0. (Duh)
2. The USA will win the medal count at the Olympics. (Duh 2)
3. The Cubs will end the month still in first place in the Central. (Duh 3)
4. Chad Johnson will continue to impress people at camp and will continue talking about having his best season ever. Fans will wear Chad Johnson jerseys and act like they never ragged on him a few months earlier.
5. Paul Daugherty will be replaced at the Cincinnati Enquirer by Joe Posnanski (please God please).
6. New evidence will come out detailing Ohio State’s plot to destroy the University of Cincinnati forever and how it is backfiring to the point that they had to bail out on a football game in Cincinnati for fear of losing. (more coming soon)
7. Adam Dunn will continue to be the most important hitter in the Reds lineup and continue to be underutilized by his manager (get him out of the 5 spot and into the 3 or 4).
8. I will unveil my preseason top 25 for college football as well as my favorites to make it to the National Championship.
9. The NFL preseason will be as meaningless as it always is.
10. The United States will have at least two games decided by 7 points or less in Olympic Basketball. Spain, Argentina and Greece are all capable of beating them. I think the United States will reclaim their gold medal, but they are going to have to fight to do so.

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