bullets13

not in this division. not only do they have to catch two great teams in the cubs and brewers, but they also have to catch a very good St. Louis team. besides catching these teams, they also have to play them. often. if they were in the west, they'd be tied for first right now, and if they were in the east, they'd still have an outside chance. as it is, they've dug themself much too deep a hole to crawl out of this year, and don't have the consistency with their pitching staff to keep winning as they've done the past few weeks.

you're right, davies did hit the bar at the end. I wasn't real pleased with the choices that Novak made. when you're down a man, your best chance is to use speed to get a breakaway. instead, he takes jozy out and leaves McBride in. Also, he waited until the very end of the game to put in Davies, who with his speed drew a PK and a free kick that led to the shot that hit the crossbar. It seemed like Novak didn't really try that hard to tie the game up until he realized it was the only way they were going to advance. I don't understand why they didn't try to get the equalizer earlier on, when they knew there was a possibilty that a loss would knock them out.

I have a ton of respect for Lumberton, and the turnaround they made last year, but Dayton is the better team. Lumberton had a great team last year, and managed to beat Dayton, but had they played 10 times, I bet Dayton would've won 7 or 8 of them. This year, Lumberton will be good, but there very well could be a slight dropoff from last year's team. I expect Dayton's team to be as strong or stronger than last year's team. Dayton wins this matchup.

i want to vomit. Michael Orozco is an idiot. He got a straight red in the 3rd minute for what was closer to a nudge than an elbow. I won't say it should not have been a red, but i think it was light enough, especially considering the situation, to warrant only a yellow (although the Nigerian player went down like he'd been hit by a truck). Regardless, what the hell was he thinking? Combining this with his unimpressive play throughout the tourney, i'll be happy if i never see him in a US jersey again. The US looked fantastic, despite being a man down. They were on their heels in the first half, and gave up a goal due to a tremendous individual effort leading to a cross and easy tap-in. In the second half, they were the better team throughout, having two chances that probably should've been finished to tie the game at one early on in the second. By the 75th minute, the US was playing on dead legs, and gave up a nice goal when Parkhurst basically just fell over when the Nigerian player made a simple cut, and subsequently curved the ball into the corner inside the back post. The US earned a PK in the 89th minute and converted, making the score 2-1. They subsequently earned a freekick just outside the box, which was headed goalward by Fehlheber (i think) and smashed off the crossbar. Had it gone in, it would've marked one of the greatest comebacks in Olympic soccer history. This is very unfortunate for the US, who certainly played well enough to win the group. If not for a freekick goal by the Netherlands in the 93rd minute against them the game before, they would've taken three points from that match and won the group. As it was, they came into today's game needing a tie or a Netherlands loss/tie to advance. Obviously, playing a man down for THE ENTIRE GAME made a tie pretty difficult for the States, but they damn near pulled it off. To make matters worse, the Netherlands beat Japan 1-0 on a terrible PK call in the 74th minute, meaning a US team very deserving of a quarterfinal berth is instead packing their bags. The good news for the US is that we've got some fantastic young players who are capable of breaking into the full side in the near future. I was very impressed with Marvelle Wynn, Sascha Kliestjan, and Stuart Holden. Throw Freddy into the mix, and some of our USMNT midfielders better start watching their backs. Guzan was also fantastic, and should be the heir apparent when Howard calls it quits (unless he surpasses him).

this weekend we killed the specs early wading on the bayside, and afterwards i helped my little cousins fill a cooler with croaker at rollover. there were some guys fishing the rocks below the bridge there, and they hooked up a lot, but lost most of their fish and lures due to hangups.

obviously, due to simple math, the bigger schools with more players will have more kids using steroids. also, at the smaller schools, it would be harder for a player to use steroids without someone finding out. I played for a 3A school and graduated in 2001, and i didn't know of any of my teammates who used. obviously, there had to have been a few, but it certainly wasn't a widespread problem. i did hear about several baseball players using steroids, but as i didn't play baseball, i don't know that to be a fact.

He never sleeps. I think he has a surrogate or clone. actually, he's siamese twins, although they do a pretty good job of editing that out of the picture during newscasts.

WB, but by less than most people think. i think later in the year, when WB has a chance to get clicking, they would probably win by more, but at the beginning of the year, Ozen's atheleticism will keep them close in what will likely be a messy performance for both groups after the long layoff between meaningful games.

I think Lumberton loses 3 games this year, but HF isn't one of them.

I'd prefer to see the 3A teams grouped with the small schools rather than the large.

during the Olympics, each country is allowed only three players over the age of 23. Since World Cup qualifying is going on right now, he was a logical choice, as players like Donovan, Dempsey, etc are already busy. He doesn't really play for the full team anymore, but he's still a very talented and experienced player. I think he was a good choice.

extremely good news for the US is that in the other game of their group, Netherlands vs. Nigeria, was a scoreless draw. This means we're alone in first right now.

they played at 4 am this morning on msnbc. it looks like the next they play will be Sunday morning at 6:45 am. No word on the station it will be on.

The US squeaked out an extremely important win against Japan, but they were pretty fortunate to do so. The US had more control in the midfield, but Japan exploited them on the flanks. There were two soft fouls in the box, either one of which could've resulted in a PK for Japan, but neither was called. Japan also had many more chances in and around the box, and if they had been putting them on goal, Guzan could've been a world of hurt. Also, the last 30 minutes or so, every long ball sent towards the US' back third was won and flicked on by Japan, resulting in several chances. I won't say that the US was dominated, but Japan deserved at least a draw. POSITIVES: The US controlled the ball well in the midfield, and most of the game their pressure there resulted in many Japan turnovers. Wynn looked really good throughout the game, making several key plays. McBride drew a ton of fouls and controlled the air on long balls. Holden, Kliejstan, and Bradley all played very well. Jozy came in and made an immediate impact, being about 6 inches away on two seperate occasions from creating one-on-one chances. Edu played well most of the game, although he could've cost the US the game on two different borderline fouls in the box. They found a way to win! NEGATIVES: Orozco played poorly. He got burned down the flank the entire game, and when the ball came to his feet, he did not distribute well. Surely there are better options there, unless he really had an off-game. Adu might have been a little hampered by the ref, but he held the ball too long, often waiting until he had 2 or 3 defenders on him before he tried to get rid of the ball. Also, when the calls did not go his way, he took himself out of the game, and picked up a stupid yellow card to boot. The US was eaten up on the wings, especially on Orozco's side. Against a team with better forwards, they WILL concede goals off of crosses unless they shore things up. The US continues to struggle to create chances in the offensive third. They did finish their one great chance, but that was their only great chance, with the only other opportunities coming from shots well outside the box. The US needs to push up and win 50/50 long balls coming into their defensive third. Again, if they play a team with better forwards, this will be exploited. Your thoughts?

five games with the dodgers, five multi-hit games... 12/20 in these five games, with 3 HR's, 7 rbis, 6 runs. where was this in boston? Good thing i don't like him (or the red sox), or this might upset me.

2-8 or 3-7, depending on the outcome of the HJ game. Next season, probably 5-5 or 6-4, but it's still a little early. yes, there are a lot of returning starters, but they're returning from a very weak team. when WOS returns 8 players on each side of the ball, that's something to crow about.

Tropical Storm E-dud.

am i wrong, or have i heard somewhere that the eastern edge of a hurricane is the most volatile (it certainly looks like we might catch that part of the storm...)

well, if it does hit us, hopefully it doesn't get too big... i had a lot of fun going outside and playing during Humberto last year ;D

what are the odds of this thing hitting us head on?

it's safe to assume that the freshmen recruits have simply not been added to the roster yet. if nothing else, he'll easily be able to fill to roster with solid players from this area.

you have a coach coming in with a lot of club soccer connections... we should see some high quality recruits coming in from the dallas and atlanta areas... if not this season, then next. add that with the local talent we already have, and lamar should be a much more competitive team (if not this season, then certainly the next).

DALLAS -- The NCAA has accused Texas A&M-Corpus Christi of nine rules violations, including use of ineligible players, recruiting violations in men's basketball and lack of institutional control. The alleged violations, eight of them major, occurred mainly between 2004 and 2008 in men's basketball, women's volleyball and men's tennis. The NCAA's notice of allegations, obtained Saturday by The Associated Press, also accuses athletic director Brian Teter of not reporting to the NCAA his knowledge of two ineligible players and later submitting a false self-report regarding one of those players. Teter failed to conduct himself in accordance with the association's "high standards of honesty and sportsmanship," the notice said. The NCAA charged the athletic department with a lack of institutional control, saying the school failed to monitor the eligibility of student-athletes, properly train staff in NCAA rules, police itself for rules violations and accurately report any violations. The school has to respond to the allegations by Oct. 29 and is scheduled to appear before the NCAA infractions committee on Dec. 5 in Indianapolis. In a statement, school President Flavius Killebrew said he does not want the school or its athletic department, which started in 1998, to be tarnished by the allegations. "We take the issues presented to us by the NCAA very seriously," Killebrew said. "Our intercollegiate athletic program must be transparent beyond any reproach." The report singles out two former compliance directors and Teter for failing to report ineligible players once they learned of them or for failing to withhold them from competition. A volleyball player was improperly given a sixth year of eligibility and a men's tennis player was given a partial athletic scholarship when he had not qualified academically and was later allowed to compete even after officials knew he was ineligible, according to the NCAA. Teter did not immediately respond to an e-mail or a phone message left at his office by The Associated Press on Saturday. School spokesman Marshall Collins said Teter remains the athletic director and that Killebrew will ultimately decide his job status. The school received notice of the allegations Thursday, and the president has not decided a course of action, Collins said. "He hasn't had time himself to read to see if there's anything that should be done at this time," Collins said. The men's basketball program, led by former Miami coach Perry Clark, is also a target of the report. The NCAA alleges an assistant coach made at least 43 impermissible phone calls to four recruits. A separate allegation involves the program providing impermissible recruiting inducements to a possible transfer, including transportation to the border town of Laredo so the player could renew his immigration documentation. Included among the allegations is a secondary violation involving men's basketball, in which the NCAA said Teter told Clark to use personal funds for recruiting and not program funds. Clark did not immediately return a call to his office on Saturday.

Difficult pin placements and faster, drier greens flustered the field and only five golfers managed to shoot below par, including Fred Funk, whose 1-under 69 gave him the lead at the halfway point of the U.S. Senior Open. Funk's two-day score of 6-under 134 is two shots ahead of Eduardo Romero (69) and four ahead of Mark McNulty (70), Tom Kite (71) and John Cook (72). Stealing the show, however, was a black bear that ambled out of the mountains in the morning and crossed the 13th fairway before checking out spectators outside the ropes. Nobody was harmed, and neither was the bear. "(Jack) Nicklaus isn't here, so I guess that's a substitute," cracked Funk. Although tournament officials were prepared to tranquilize the animal and stop play were it to become aggressive or spooked, after several minutes the bear crawled through a drainage pipe on the ninth hole that leads to the West Course, then went through another drainage pipe and into the wilderness, leaving unnerved galleries and golfers behind. USGA spokesman Pete Kowalski said wildlife experts were called in and would be on the course throughout the rest of the tournament in case the bear or any chums decide to return for another look around. The course, carved into the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, serves as host to all kinds of critters, including bobcats, coyotes, deer, mountain lions, red foxes, snakes and turkeys. But a bear? That was a new one even for these grizzled veterans, many of whom played with Nicklaus, the "Golden Bear" who menaced his share of golfers over the years. Funk said he heard tournament officials talking about possibly having to halt play "because it would be pretty scary if it got a little panicky and some spectator or some of the golfers were too close - that wouldn't have been an issue if a caddie had gotten too close." Aside from the bear, a few deer and red-tailed foxes were spotted Friday. "You don't get that every week," Cook said.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (August 1) - Dallas Mavericks forward Josh Howard was arrested in his hometown after police said he was drag racing at nearly 40 mph above the posted speed. He is charged with going 94 mph in a 55 mph zone, careless and reckless driving, and speed competition. He has been released from the Forsyth County jail on a written promise to appear in court Sept. 23. Police said an officer saw a black Lexus and a silver Volkswagen speeding along U.S. 421 in Winston-Salem late Thursday night. The officer stopped the Lexus, and Howard was identified as the driver. Authorities didn't identify the other driver. Howard played in high school in nearby Kernersville and was a standout at Wake Forest. On January 12, 2000, Bobby Phills of the Charlotte Hornets was killed in a similar incident. Phills was traveling behind teammate David Wesley at more than 75 mph when his Porsche spun and crossed into oncoming traffic. It hit another car, which in turn was struck in the rear by a minivan. Phills was pronounced dead at the scene. The drivers of the other two vehicles recovered.