40th Anniversary of THE Moonwalk

1969 was an interesting year for GT. Integration was sweeping across the Deep South and particularly the public school systems. Tech's President Edwin Harrison retired. Fulmer Hall opened as the first women's dormitory on campus. 1969 was also the first year women could enroll in all classes at Tech. Previously, they could only enroll in courses not offered anywhere else in the state of GA. GT Sports featured some prominent storylines as well during the year of the Apollo 11 moonwalk:

Football: Bud Carson was the coach. The team struggled to a 4-6 record but closed the season with a 6-0 win over Georgie. Carson recruited the first African-American scholarship athlete in Tech history - Eddie McAshan. Also of note, the now world famous GT was designed by a football player on Carson's squad and added to the helmet:

Basketball: John Hyder coached the cagers during the '68-'70 seasons. In games played in 1969, Tech was 16-11. The teams featured Tech's alltime leading scorer, Rich Yunkus.

Baseball: Baseball was coached by Jim Luck. The team started the season with a 14-5 record but finisheed 16-12. Tech goes 2-1 against Georgie on the season including a series finale win at Luther Williams Field.

And in case you were wondering, here's a list of GT alums that claim "astronaut" status.

Myrtle Beach ACC Tournament Open Discussion

In an interesting twist on Monday, the ACC recalled its decision to stage the next couple of ACC baseball tournaments in Myrtle Beach. The decision came down not necessarily from the ACC's head Swofford but from the national NAACP.

The national chapter of the NAACP isn't happy with the flying of the Stars and Bars in Columbia. The NCAA has an official ban of SC hosting post-season events due to the presence of the flag but the ACC initially did not adhere to this rule citing it as unfair to SC.

It kinda sucks though to punish a struggling Myrtle Beach for the ways of Columbia and the Midlands. I'm not saying this is totally analagous but it's similar to ATL being punished for the idiocy that occurs in the town 75 miles east of Atlanta. I personally think Myrtle Beach should've retained the host status of the games with some stipulations but so goes life. The backwards logic of "pride > revenue" never surprises me in South Carolina -- hence unemployment, refusal of stimulus money, and now the ACC tourney...

I'm kinda pissed 'cause I only get to see the Jackets maybe once or twice during baseball season. Myrtle Beach is literally 45 minutes away. So now, after teasing me, the ACC goes and rips out my heart. Damn them.

Seeing as this is a pretty uncensored blog, any political/economic/social thoughts are welcome...

Post-July 4th Post

Let's start with some American-style quotes:

We already run the misfits outta our country. We sent 'em back to England. -- Tom Selleck in Quigley Down Under

Good morning. In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world. And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind. "Mankind." That word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests. Perhaps it's fate that today is the Fourth of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom... Not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution... but from annihilation. We are fighting for our right to live. To exist. And should we win the day, the Fourth of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day the world declared in one voice: "We will not go quietly into the night!" We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day! -- Bill Pullman in Independence Day

Men, all this stuff you've heard about America not wanting to fight, wanting to stay out of the war, is a lot of horse dung. Americans traditionally love to fight. All real Americans love the sting of battle. When you were kids, you all admired the champion marble shooter, the fastest runner, big league ball players, the toughest boxers. Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser. Americans play to win all the time. I wouldn't give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. That's why Americans have never lost, and will never lose a war... because the very thought of losing is hateful to Americans. -- George C. Scott in Patton

I went to ATL this past weekend to relax and forget about my current homestead in the Cackalack. It was a relaxing sports weekend other than the Tennis stuff (that I don't really care about) and McNair's shooting, which I actually am interested in.

I followed the Titans inaugural season in 1999 with the likes of Eddie George, Derrick Mason, Frank Wycheck, Jevon Kearse, Yancey Thigpen, and more. I followed them 'cause the Falcons dropped to 5-11 in 1999. The Titans were the second closest team to ATL and had superstar Air McNair leading the way. I watched the Music City Miracle live on a small antenna-fed, black/white tv. We lost power after an ice storm right before the AFC title game so I had to hook up a A/C power converter in my dad's Suburban to watch the Jacksonville game.

Needless to say, Air McNair has a special place in my sports maturation. McNair and the Titans kept me interested in pro football as the Falcons proceeded to go 16-30 from 1999-2001. I would attribute a lot of my current fanaticism to McNair's stay in Nashville. Either way, I put away a few lagers for America and McNair on Saturday Night.

Monday News Links

Mark Teixeira made the MLB All Star team, catching and surpassing Kevin Youklis in the fan voting. I understand the voting for Mark. He had more RBI's and homers. Fans want runs and Teixeira produces runs.

Here's an interesting article about former GT Athletes and their TV/Radio ventures. Players to note, are John Salley, Ryan Stewart, and Dorsey Levens.

Athleticism leads to financial failure

After yesterday's post about the super rich GT athletes, I started looking around for additional reading on athletes' finances. I found a very interesting line from a great SI article about the financial failures of pro athletes:

When former NBA guard Kenny Anderson filed for bankruptcy in October 2005, he detailed how the estimated $60 million he earned in the league had dwindled to nothing. He bought eight cars and rang up monthly expenses of $41,000, including outlays for child support, his mother's mortgage and his own five-bedroom house in Beverly Hills, Calif.—not to mention $10,000 in what he dubbed "hanging-out money." He also regularly handed out $3,000 to $5,000 to friends and relatives.

Holy Crap... 60 million down the tube. I can't even fathom that much money. I don't necessarily pity the guys that lose that much money but I am definitely jealous. I think about what I could've done with 60 mil or someone with more forethought in a similar situation.

Another link provided by the same article shows the very interesting Championship Rings.NET. I searched specifically for GT rings and found several baseball rings that had already been sold. Apparently, this site has seen a jump in 30% sellers since last year. Whether that's increased exposure or simply a downturning economy is another discussion but I still find the site intriguing. Seeing athletes' prized possessions up for sale. Reminds me a little of the OJ hostage situation.

Just thought I'd share the linkage.

Tuesday Linkage

The crime rate is soaring around the GT campus. Makes sense. There are no low-skill jobs 'cause NO ONE is hiring. Ask my little brother. Hence, burglary (a low-skill job) is becoming more and more prevalent. My window got busted out at the local Japanese steakhouse about 2 weeks ago (in Flo-town). I didn't have anything in the car but let it be a warning to you all. Make sure you keep your I-pods and change in your pockets, not your console, when you leave your car for Hibachi.

Congrats to David Duval for finishing Second in the U.S. Open. Duval is now $559,830 richer. Of course, that's before taxes.

Also, the Yankees come to ATL this week along with Tech great Mark Teixeira. The guy is a diesel. I wish he had stayed with the Braves. And since I like to combine Wieters with Teixeira as a general rule, here's a good AJC article about Baltimore-Wieters-mania.

Baseball type things

MLB
Matt Wieters, since being called out on June 7th for starting out with a 0.167, has batted 0.315 with 6 hits in his last 5 games. That's not too bad. Hopefully, he can start belting some homers like I remember back in the good ol' days.

CWS
The ACC is currently 1-2 in the CWS... Dadgummit. Come on UVA/UNC. Kick some ass. Don't get eliminated. Current conference roundup is below:

1. Pac 10: 9-4 (69.2%)
2. SEC: 25-13 (65.8%)
3. ACC: 23-14 (62.2%)
4. Big 12: 17-15 (53.1%)
5. Big East: 3-3 (50.0%)
6. Big 10: 4-6 (40.0%)
7. Other: 42-66 (38.9%)

Tracking the NCAA baseball field

I play a lot of Risk. One of my favorite graphs from post-game stats on the computer versions of Risk was the Percent of World Population vs. Time Graph at the end of the game. It showed the eb and flow of the game's momentum, big battles, and major defeats. Here's my Risk World Population Graph for the NCAA baseball tourney:

I think it's an interesting graph because you see the major dropoff in Non-BCS teams following regional play. However, later in the tourney the elite Non-BCS schools have stuck in there and remain strong as Hell up to CWS play. This graph still has the Texas/TCU game as unplayed so take that into account. Note the pop and fizzles that are the Big East and Big 10. Also, note the ACC's consistent 22-25% since 6/1. Pretty impressive. It's clearly been an ACC-SEC conference showdown this post-season so why not dwell on the comparisons.

Teixeira, Wieters, and Other Baseball Updates

After struggling to start the season, Mark Teixeira has taken off for the Yankees. He's leading the team with 17 homers and 50 RBI's. That's 1/6th of the Yankees' total RBI's and 1/5th of the Yankees' total homers. Not bad.

Matt Wieters came into the Baltimore organization as a super heralded college star... Currently, he's batting a lowly 0.167 and only has 4 hits in 7 game appearances. He's only a rookie but he'll need a helluva lot more improvement to stay in the bigs. I've been told by Orioles fans that his defense is superb, however.

Now here's a quick NCAA baseball tourney conference update:
1. SEC: 23-11 (67.6%)
2. ACC: 21-11 (65.6%)
3. PAC 10: 7-4 (63.6%)
4. Big 12: 15-14 (51.7%)
5. Big East: 3-3 (50.0%)
6. Big 10: 4-6 (40.0%)
7. Other: 41-65 (38.5%)

The Big East's lone team, Louisville, was eliminated. The SEC has two teams out of eight already in the CWS alongside Cal State-Fullerton. Good luck to UVA, Clemson, and UNC. You're the ACC's only hope.

No Sports for 93 Days SUXOR

So...we lost. We were the only ACC #1 seed to drop the ball. In fact, our regional allowed the only #3 seed to survive to Super Regionals out of 16 regionals. Woo-freakin'-hoo. I'm glad some people are happy (2). Damnit.

The team batted 0.280 (down from 0.315 on the season) for the NCAA tournament run and averaged 8.4 runs per game (down from 10.5 on the season). I think a huge issue was our defense. We had a billion errors. Our starting pitchers were struggling. It was tough for our offense to really get into a groove when they were chasing 5 and 6 runs every game after the third inning.

So goes life. I'm proud of the baseball team. Wish we could've done better. Now, the wait...93 days 'til college football or 68 days until the first NFL Preseason game...

Conference Roundup:
1. Big East: 3-1 (75.0%) ~ 1 of 1 teams remaining
2. ACC: 19-7 (73.1%) ~ 4 of 7 teams remaining
3. SEC: 18-9 (66.7%) ~ 4 of 8 teams remaining
4. Pac 10: 6-4 (60.0%) ~ 1 of 3 teams remaining
5. Big 12: 14-14 (50.0%) ~ 1 of 8 teams remaining
6. Big 10: 4-6 (40.0%) ~ 0 of 3 teams remaining
7. Other: 38-61 (38.4%) ~ 5 of 34 teams remaining

Day 4 Conference Roundup...Pre-Super Regionals Monday

Wow, the standings have changed as many-a-team were eliminated on Sunday:

1. ACC: 18-6 (75.0%)
2. SEC: 17-7 (70.8%)
3. Big East: 2-1 (66.7%)
4. Pac 10: 6-4 (60.0%)
5. Big 12: 14-12 (53.8%)
6. Big 10: 4-6 (40.0%)
7. Other: 35-60 (36.8%)

Also of note, here's the number of teams remaining from each conference as of Pre-Super Regionals Monday (this will change drastically by midnight or so tonight as there are 6 elimination games tonight):

1. Big East: 1 of 1 (100.0%)
2. SEC: 6 of 8 (75.0%)
3. ACC: 5 of 7 (71.4%)
4. Big 12: 3 of 8 (37.5%)
5. Pac 10: 1 of 3 (33.3%)
6. Other: 5 of 34 (14.7%)
7. Big 10: 0 of 3 (0.0%)

Yes, it's wrong to group CSF and Rice with all of the jobbers and I [do care about the little guy]. It's what they get for not [being in BCS football leagues and gaining the side effects of said affiliation]. Sadly, UF eliminated Miami thus giving Gainesville rights to host our Super Regional. Damnit.

Day 2 Baseball Conference Roundup

So far here are the conference wins/losses after two days in the NCAA baseball tournament:

1. Big East: 2-0 (100.0%)
2. SEC: 12-4 (75.0%)
3. ACC: 10-4 (71.4%)
4. Big 12: 11-5 (68.8%)
5. Pac 10: 4-2 (66.7%)
6. Other: 23-45 (33.8%)
7. Big 10: 2-4 (33.3%)

Also of note, #1 seeds are currently 26-6 (81.2%) while #4 seeds are 5-27 (15.6%). Thus, #2/3 seeds are overall 33-31 (51.6%). Makes sense to me. Things are working like clockwork minus 5 ERRORS and a CRAZY 25 inning game@!@#!@#$%@#$

ACC Tournament starts today

The ACC Tournament starts today and we kick it off with first pitch at 12 Noon today. The ACC runs a Round Robin style of tournament, meaning we are guaranteed 3 games against Miami, Boston College and finally UNC. The team with the best record plays for the championship and [possibly] a salvaged NCAA Tournament seed.

Georgia Tech's ACC Tournament Schedule:
May 20: vs. Miami
May 21: vs. Boston College
May 23: vs. Florida State

All games are at Noon and can be watched on Fox Sports South

Links
ACC Championship Central
ACC Sports Journal Preview
Baseball America Tournament Preview

Deck McGuire and other baseball news

Deck McGuire was named ACC Pitcher of the Year for 2009. This is the first time a Jacket has been dubbed Pitcher of the Year. Pretty cool and some good exposure for GT's (at times) average pitching. I think Winfield will agree that our pitching has been part of the reason we haven't gone all the way in Omaha...

Also, since A-Rod's return, Mark Teixeira is batting .341 and last night he hit two homers. Mark leads the Yankees with 28 RBI's this season. So that should make you feel a bit better.

Big Weekend Recap: Clutch and Not-So-Clutch

Unclutch: Losing to Duke. The baseball team lost their series to Duke over the weekend and thus proceeded to lose the ACC, the Coastal Division title, and possibly a National 8 seed in one fell swoop. The Jackets enter the conference tournament as the #4 seed overall and will face Miami on Wednesday at 12pm. The tournament is round robin and we will play Miami, Boston College, and Florida State in that order. The team with the best record will play for the championship.

Where would we be without our main man Deck McGuire? Nowhere my friends. We should all be grateful for his services.

Moving on to clutch....
GT Softball advances to the Super Regionals! They swept through the tournament and sealed the deal by holding off a pesky Boston University. They will host the national #3 seed Washington Huskies. UW battled it out long into the night with UMass, losing Game 1 and then finally lighting the scoreboard up in the 15th (yes 15th!) and racked up 5 runs to win 6-1 in Game 2. Their pitcher, Danielle Lawrie tossed all 15 innings worth and struck out 23.

Some may wonder why do we get to host the event since we are the lower seed (National #14). It's because Washington has no lights and that is a requirement to host a regional. Many years, we have had to be shipped because of that same problem, now we got preference. It's time for Tech fans to realize that and show up and support the team.

Game 1 is May 23 and 24th on an ESPN channel. All games played at the "Mew".

To Hell with Georgia: Turner Field Edition

Tech and uga meet tonight at the House that Smoltz built. The rivalry renews for its 345th edition and 7th game at Turner Field. Tech actually has an abysmal record at Turner Field going 1-5 with a current 3 game losing streak at the Ted. This year's different though. This year Tech walks in with some hot hands (4.64 team ERA) and high flyin' bats (.325 team average). Opponents are hitting .261 against us and have an awful 8.43 ERA against Tech.

Quick preview of uga stats:

Team Batting Avg. - .301
Opp. Batting Avg. - .271

Team ERA - 4.64
Opp. ERA - 7.50

Georgie is 2 games back of Florida in the SEC-East division race and is sportin' a 34-17 overall record. The dogs are led offensively by Rich Poythress who is pushin' a .392 batting average with 21 homers. Georgie has 94 homers in 51 games compared to Tech's 96 homers in 46 games. Tech already defeated Georgie at home once this season and the first game of the series (at Tech) was rained out.

Tech and uga have played at Turner Field every year since 2003. The 2003 game was the first college game ever played at Turner Field and the attendance at the Ted typically averages 23,000-25,000, which is very impressive for college baseball. Predicted attendance: 24,500.

Cooincidentally, the first time Jeff Francoeur ever played at Turner Field was the same day as that 2003 Tech-uga game at Turner Field. Francoeur was playing for Parkview High School.

Edit: I didn't realize Zach von Tersch was pitching. Georgie is done-fer. Anyone know why Zach didn't pitch against FSU? FYI, Georgie is pitchin' a freshman against us. Are you afraid of this guy???

A Great Weekend Recap

It was a great weekend to be a Georgia Tech fan.....

Congratulations to GT Softball as they have won their 3rd ACC Tournament Championship in school history! The Jackets held off a comeback bid from Florida State in the 7th inning and eliminated the Seminoles. Kristen Adkins pitched the complete game and improved to 23-7 on the year. 5 Yellow Jackets made All-ACC Tournament.

The next step for the GT team is the NCAA Tournament. The ladies received an overall 14 seed in the tournament and will host an NCAA Regional in the inaugural year of their new stadium! Three teams will come to Atlanta May 15-17: Iowa vs. Auburn and Boston University will face the Jackets.

Baseball

Deck McGuire proved to be his stellar self on Friday, settling down and shutting down the Seminoles in 7+ K fashion. Saturday was gut wrenching as Mark Pope blew the game wide open and failed to get the job done.

Sunday proved to be just as nerve racking but with the opposite result. The 'Noles brought in a 5th infielder in the bottom of the 9th but it didn't matter, as Tony Plagman's hard groundball was too hot to handle and scored the winning run. The win lets the Jackets not only win the series against Florida State, but also regain control of the Coastal Division. Thank you NCSU Wolfpack!

Tennis

And last, but not least, Women's Tennis dominated their Regional consisting of Denver, Jackson State, and Ole Miss. They move on to College Station, TX the site of the rest of the tournament and they will face National #8 Seed California on May 15th.

Hats off to Amanda McDowell as she battled out a hard fought match to beat her opponent. She lost her first set and then the trainer had to come out to see her before the second set. In the second set she seemed to have limited mobility but stayed with her opponent and fended off four match points before winning in a tie break to preserve the Jackets 3-1 lead. Her second set win was a big psychological motivator for the team and she was leading in the third set when Christy Striplin clinched the match.

Huge baseball series this weekend

Baseball
Our last three home games are this weekend against FSU. We need wins. Period. Unfortunately for us Chapel Hill plays good-for-nothing NC State and we play #6 FSU. So let's hope for some luck and good ol' fashioned Hall Ball. Last time we played FSU at home things resulted in a lot of tears in my beers. So let's prevent that magnitude of meltdown and kick the crap out of Chief Osceola. An NC State upset or two would be nice as well.

Softball
Also, softball starts their ACC tourney run today at 5:00pm against lowly Virginia. Tech is the #1 seed after taking the ACC regular season title by half a game. I'm really happy to see this team succeeding. I used to attend the softball games regularly especially in the Summer of '07. I want to see a game at the new stadium so hopefully we'll be hostin' some fools come tourney time.

Non-sports
Patrick Whaley, GT Civil Engineering student, is listed as being in stable condition at Grady Hospital after being shot by car jackers in Atlanta. Good luck getting back to your feet dude.

Chattanooga Lookouts host GT in TN

Baseball
GT is playing the first of two neutral site games on Wednesday night against the Tennessee Volunteers. Tech is playing in Chattanooga, TN at AT&T Field the current home of the Chattanooga Lookouts. The game is slated for 7:15pm and follows an earlier game with the Lookouts hosting the Jacksonville Suns.

The game's importance comes from the fact that it's on a neutral site in GT recruiting areas as well as SEC recruiting areas. Increased exposure to kids that don't normally get to see GT will definitely help out Danny Hall's TN footholds. And Southeast TN is not that far for anyone looking at a possible relocation to Midtown ATL (e.g. high school seniors).

UT is led offensively by Cody Hawn and Blake Forsythe. Both are the only two Vols with double-digit homers at 18 and 13 dingers, respectively. The team is batting 0.284 as a unit. Defensively, the Vols aren't too terribly impressive with a team ERA of 6.05 (compared to Tech's 4.62). If my real fast and rough math is correct, Tech has played UT 78 times and has won 45 of the games including the last meeting in February of 2006. Tech is 1-0 against the SEC this year and a win would definitely help out the ACC come tourney selection time.

Football
Also, here's a link to an article about Darryl Richard from the Boston Herald. Seems the Bostonians appreciate a little GT intellect.

Any thoughts on GT baseball this season? I'm hoping for a seed in the 8-16 range.

A-Rod book links Kevin Brown to HGH...again

The new Alex Rodriguez book "A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez" written by SI writer Selena Roberts delves into the inner workings of A-Rod's supposedly sadistic mind. I'm personally not really that interested in A-Rod or his crazy-ass life but there was a mention of former Georgia Tech pitcher Kevin Brown in the AP article released today.

Brown played at Tech from 1984-1986 before being drafted by the Rangers in '86. Brown is #4 on Tech's all-time win list (28) and innings pitched list (329). He played for six teams during his 19 year MLB career. He won 211 games and recorded over 2,300 strikeouts featuring a 95mph sinking fastball.

Selena claims that Kevin Brown was sharing HGH with A-Rod during Brown's last MLB years. Brown was already listed in the Mitchell Report so this isn't terribly new information about Kevin albeit he denies the claims in the new book through his lawyer.

What annoys me about this situation is:
1) Who pays for all of these crappy book deals? Seems like there wouldn't be enough people to actually buy these books outside of sports journalists to cover the cost of paying an author.
2) How much longer can people ride on the "Bring Down A-Rod" train? I'm tired of A-Rod stories but apparently the media still loves him.

I'm ready to move on. Baseball definitely is ready to move on.

Anyone wanna talk about good news like Stewart Cink's #3 world ranking or Tech athletes graduating? Or Mario's next challenege in defending Lebron James?

What happened this weekend...

My weekend:

8. Great weather for golf. I dream of breaking 100.
7. A bidet was installed in a friend's house.
6. Watched NFL Draft as four GT players were selected.
5. Watched gametracker or listen to radio as Tech dropped 2 of 3 to Clemson @ Clemson.
4. $2 dollar Moe's burritos that took 3 strokes off your golf score for each burrito consumed.
3. A huge ass fire in Myrtle Beach prevented any safe attempts at going to the beach.
2. A drunk friend drinking from the bidet in #7 like a water fountain.
1. The same drunk friend in #2 stripping to his underpants and almost blowing his engagement with his fiancé.

Winfield/Dane's weekend:

1. Study for finals.

Point Bird. Game. Set. Match.