The Savvy Boomer

BOWL GAME SCHEDULE

I do this more for myself so I have quick access to the schedule.  The complete 2011-2012 college football bowl schedule is below.  Interesting that there are no games scheduled Jan 1st so the NFL can rule the airwaves that day.  I still say it should be Oklahoma State in the BCS game against LSU, not Alabama.

Time for Mike Weir to hang up the spikes for a while-maybe forever

Mike Weir is the greatest golfer to come out of Canada.  Winner of the 2003 Masters, 8 tournaments and over $26 mil in PGA tour earnings, ranked as high as #5 in the World Golf rankings, Mike has absolutely nothing to prove to the golf world.  I'm sure there isn't a rookie on Tour today who wouldn't gladly take those stats over the rest of their career.  I admire Mike Weir and what he has done at the highest level of the most competitive single person sport in the world.  But perhaps it's time to pack it in, before his poor play on Tour of late becomes more memorable than all the great finishes he has had over the past 10 years.

Cam Cole needs a wake up call of his own

Disclaimer:  Playoff hockey is the time of year when emotions and opinions run at an extreme in Canada.  If you have no interest in hockey you'll probably want to skip this post.

Cam Cole is a sports writer for the Vancouver Sun that I have blogged about before when he decided to take a run at anyone who was not a WASP male when he weighed in on Tiger Woods.  I personally think that he is basically full of crap on a regular basis to the point that in my own small way I rebelled by cancelling my subscription to the Sun.  That meant I didn't have to read his regular whining but after the Raffi Torres hit on Brent Seabrook he decided to become the internet and Twitter head cheerleader calling Torres a serial headhunter, who should be suspended from the playoffs because he intentionally tried to injure Seabrook by hitting him in the head when he checked him.  Never mind that 80% of the commenters disagree with Cole and experts who studied the hit in slow motion basically said that Seabrook made the rookie mistake (Seabrook is a world class player, no rookie, so one wonders what he was thinking) of going after the puck with his head down and Torres caught him cleanly.

End of whining from Cole?  Far from it.  The NHL disciplinary committee said there was no foul and didn't take any action.  Now in a column he calls "Wake Up Call," he is complaining that the NHL justice system is wrong (translation- disagreed with him.) With his know it all attitude, Cole claims that Torres was simply looking to take advantage of the vulnerable Seabrook by playing the man instead of the puck.  Hey Cam, ever listen to the colour men on TV always saying it's often better to play the man than the puck?  Besides, how do you know what was going through Raffi's mind?  In protest, Mr. Whiner sarcastically suggests that hockey is a man's sport and if you don't like it, go watch golf.  Finally, Cole gets it. 

Too bad he can't just go write about golf in another city.  Here's your wake up call Cam- based on all the anti Cole comments you have received you have no future or credibility writing about hockey in Vancouver.  Then I could re-subscribe to the Sun.

US College Bowl Games schedule

This is a schedule of all the Bowl Games.  It's really for me so I have a record of what's on when but thought a few readers might also appreciate it.

Saturday, Dec. 19

New Mexico Bowl

At Albuquerque

Wyoming (6-6) v. Fresno State (8-4), 2:30 p.m.

St. Petersburg (Fla.) Bowl

Rutgers (8-4) v. UCF (8-4), 8 p.m.

Sunday, Dec. 20

New Orleans Bowl

Southern Miss. (7-5) v. Middle Tennessee (9-3), 8 p.m.

Tuesday, Dec. 22

Las Vegas Bowl

BYU (10-2) v. Oregon State (8-4), 8 p.m.

Wednesday, Dec. 23

Poinsettia Bowl

At San Diego

Utah (9-3) v. California (8-4), 8 p.m.

Thursday, Dec. 24

Hawaii Bowl

At Honolulu

SMU (7-5) v. Nevada (8-4), 8 p.m.

Saturday, Dec. 26

Little Caesars Pizza Bowl

At Detroit

Ohio (9-4) v. Marshall (6-6), 1 p.m.

Meineke Bowl

At Charlotte, N.C.

North Carolina (8-4) v. Pittsburgh (9-3), 4 p.m.

Emerald Bowl

At San Francisco

Southern Cal (8-4) v. Boston College (8-4), 8:30 p.m.

Sunday, Dec. 27

Music City Bowl

At Nashville, Tenn.

Clemson (8-5) v. Kentucky (7-5), 8 p.m.

Monday, Dec. 28

Independence Bowl

At Shreveport, La.

Texas A&M (6-6) v. Georgia (7-5), 5 p.m.

Tuesday, Dec. 29

EagleBank Bowl

At Washington

Temple (9-3) v. UCLA (6-6), 4:30 p.m.

Champs Sports Bowl

At Orlando, Fla.

Miami (9-3) v. Wisconsin (9-3), 8 p.m.

Wednesday, Dec. 30

Humanitarian Bowl

At Boise, Idaho

Bowling Green (7-5) v. Idaho (7-5), 4:30 p.m.

Holiday Bowl

At San Diego

Nebraska (9-4) v. Arizona (8-4), 8 p.m.

Thursday, Dec. 31

Sun Bowl

At El Paso, Texas

Stanford (8-4) v. Oklahoma (7-5), Noon (CBS)

Armed Forces Bowl

At Fort Worth, Texas

Air Force (7-5) v. Houston (10-3), Noon

Texas Bowl

At Houston

Missouri (8-4) v. Navy (8-4), 3:30 p.m.

Insight Bowl

At Tempe, Ariz.

Minnesota (6-6) v. Iowa State (6-6), 6 p.m. (NFL)

Chick-fil-A Bowl

At Atlanta

Virginia Tech (9-3) v. Tennessee (7-5), 7:30 p.m.

Friday, Jan. 1

Outback Bowl

At Tampa, Fla.

Northwestern (8-4) v. Auburn (7-5), 11 a.m.

Capital One Bowl

At Orlando, Fla.

Penn State (10-2) v. LSU (9-3), 1 p.m. (ABC)

Gator Bowl

At Jacksonville, Fla.

Florida State (6-6) v. West Virginia (9-3), 1 p.m. (CBS)

Rose Bowl

At Pasadena, Calif.

Ohio State (10-2) v. Oregon (10-2), 5 p.m. (ABC)

Sugar Bowl

At New Orleans

Florida (12-1) v. Cincinnati (12-0), 8:30 p.m. (FOX)

Saturday, Jan. 2

International Bowl

At Toronto

South Florida (7-5) v. Northern Illinois (7-5), Noon

Cotton Bowl

At Dallas

Oklahoma State (9-3) v. Mississippi (8-4), 2 p.m. (FOX)

PapaJohns.com Bowl

At Birmingham, Ala.

Connecticut (7-5) v. South Carolina (7-5), 2 p.m.

Liberty Bowl

At Memphis, Tenn.

East Carolina (9-4) v. Arkansas (7-5), 5:30 p.m.

Alamo Bowl

At San Antonio

Michigan State (6-6) v. Texas Tech (8-4), 9 p.m.

Monday, Jan. 4

Fiesta Bowl

At Glendale, Ariz.

Boise State (13-0) v. TCU (12-0), 8 p.m. (FOX)

Tuesday, Jan. 5

Orange Bowl

At Miami

Iowa (10-2) v. Georgia Tech (11-2), 8 p.m. (FOX)

Wednesday, Jan. 6

GMAC Bowl

Mobile, Ala.

Central Michigan (11-2) v. Troy (9-3), 7 p.m.

Thursday, Jan. 7

BCS National Championship

At Pasadena, Calif.

Alabama (13-0) v. Texas (13-0), 8 p.m. (ABC)

Vancouver Olympics manage to piss off several thousand, probably a few million

You'd think that the VANOC folks would expect a few hundred thousand hits on their servers when they put the final 2010 Vancouver winter Olympics tickets on sale this morning.  They failed, finally cancelling the sales for a week because of technical problems.  This Olympics has a budget of a few billion and they can't get something simple like online ticket sales right?  In the typical cavalier manner they have adopted to run these games, they didn't really even apologize for THE 4 HOURS I WASTED TRYING TO GET INTO THE WEBSITE.  Perhaps they knew I am leaving during the games because Vancouver is going to turn into a parking lot for 2 weeks and I really just wanted to scalp them like most everyone else who lives in Vancouver.

The sordid evidence of what the Vancouver Sun called the EPIC FAIL:

 

  

I thought I was getting somewhere here but the 1995 type web page below didn't give me much confidence.

  

  

The message below was a real piss off because it was up for a few hours and if you clicked on it, the page just re-loaded

 

This was the BS they posted on Twitter-nice apology

 

Why Le Tour de France is a yawn to most American sports fans

I enjoy cycling and am full of awe and admiration of athletes who can navigate lightweight bicycles with skinny tires over a couple of thousand kilos of European roads at speeds that can approach 100 km/h for 3weeks.  I love watching the peloton (main group) of cyclists wind through the beautiful countryside in all kinds of weather.  Some of the crashes are also spectacular and sometimes bone breaking.  In all, it's quite a spectacle-but there's something seriously lacking.

5 days before the end of the race, although he was third, American Lance Armstrong declared he couldn't win and that his team mate Alberto Contador of Spain would be the winner.  And he was only a couple of minutes behind the leader and they still had a few hundred km to cycle.  How exciting is that sports fans?  The race still has a few hundred km to go and the lead is about a minute or two and it's all but over.  Can you imagine any American professional athlete declaring he or his team couldn't win a sporting event because he is a little bit behind the leader with a few games to play?

The anticipation that "it ain't over 'til it's over" is what makes most Championship events exciting until at least the last few minutes of competition.  I always watch the first few stages of Le Tour but seldom watch the last few because of the complicated and confusing structure of it.   It requires experts to tell you who's winning and then instead of watching something thrilling like a walk off home-run, a 60 foot putt or a hail Mary pass, one of the athletes comes on and declares that it's over.  The only possible way Contador can lose is if he's run over by one of those annoying team cars that seem to spend more time buzzing around on the TV screen than the cyclists do or one of those drunken fans who are allowed to run beside the cyclists.

Le Tour needs to change its format in order to bring the suspense factor to it.   Given the fact that Europeans probably take some satisfaction over Americans not liking sports that have about 2 minutes of action and 88 minutes of boredom (think Soccer), it's unlikely to ever change.

Does the Vancouver Olympic torch look like a joint?

I came across these stories in the Toronto Star, Maclean's Magazine and the Seattle Times about the 2010 Olympic torch looking like a doobie.  Given Vancouver's reputation for being the marijuana capital of North America, maybe they are onto something.  I saw a picture of it in the Vancouver Sun but never thought about it since it was held vertically, but as you can see in the picture here, there is a resemblance.  It's going to be hard for VANOC to spin this one but I'm sure they will come up with something given that they are spin masters.

 

Kentucky Derby-You gotta love the result

These are some of my thoughts after watching an incredible win by Mine That Bird ridden to a 7 length win by Calvin Borel in the 2009 Kentucky Derby

• Why was a jockey who seems to "own" Churchill Downs overlooked by the other trainers to ride their mounts?  Borel was a last minute pick.
• I love it that MTB was bred in Canada and its initial sale price as a yearling was $9,500. 
• MTB is a gelding-there will never be any of his progeny so really, his future value as a stud is nil.
• The best part of the telecast was the 5 minute trot back to the winner's circle.  Borel was like a kid who just hit a grand slam to win the Little League World series.  Talk about refreshing for a pro athlete.
• Trainer Bennie Wooley Jr, walking about 1/2 a mile on crutches from the paddock to the saddling area.
• The worst part of the telecast is when the announcer had no idea who the horse was that came charging up along the rail, blowing by everyone.
• The favorite finished 19th and MTB made horses worth millions look like nags.
• I can't get enough of watching the replay of Borel steering MTB through the pack like an Indy driver.  Brilliant!!
  
• The 4 main people associated with this horse, Borel, Woolley Jr., owners Mark Allen and Leonard Blach, all seem to be the antithesis of their peers that you usually see at this level of racing.  Beating Pioneer of the Nile owned by the Prince of Dubai, one of the richest men in the world?  Priceless!  Even Hollywood couldn't have dreamed up this script.

 

How can you not love this face?