Buckner forgiven?

Bill Buckner threw out the first pitch today in Boston's home game against Detroit.

If you don't understand why that's significant, watch this clip.



If you still don't get it, here's the issue in a nutshell:

Bill Buckner was the focus of every Boston fan's frustration about no World Series titles in 90+ years.

For the Red Sox to invite him today and give him this opportunity is pretty classy.

Though let's not kid ourselves; this would never had happened if not for Boston's two World Series victories in the decade.

Polls

A new CNN.com poll shows that 58% of people don't believe General David Petraeus when he says things are improving in Iraq.

This man LIVES in Iraq. He eats, sleeps, drinks, and breathes Iraq. There's no way he can be mistaken here; either he's telling the truth or he's flat-out lying.

And apparently there are a lot of people out there who think he's lying.

Now, I don't trust polls. Ever since I took a college-level Statistics class in high school, I've come to the understanding that the only way to get a 100% accurate poll is by somehow reading minds.

People lie. People forget things. People misunderstand questions.

If there was a way to extract information from the minds of individuals, then we can talk about accurate polls.

But if we take this poll at face value, there are a lot of people who don't trust General Petraeus.

Why not? What reason do they have to think they know more about the situation on the ground in Iraq than he does?

Boggles my mind.

BYU Football Hype

The Cougars are getting some serious preseason respect.

To be honest, I hate preseason hype in college football. Preseason rankings mean everything, as a team ranked lower than 20 or so in the preseason polls has approximately a 0% chance of making it to the BCS title game. (The system itself stinks, but that's another post.)

But even though I despise how important preseason talk is, it still makes me kinda excited to see BYU get some love.

And shoot, any team that goes 11-2 two straight seasons is going to get some attention.

ESPN.com has an article covering the upcoming season.

After four straight non-winning seasons, BYU has gone 11-2 in each of the past two campaigns, not losing a game at home or in Mountain West Conference play. Only LSU, Ohio State and Boise State have a better two-year win total (23) than the Cougars (22), who won bowl games in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1983-84.

After finishing last season with its highest national ranking in 11 years, BYU will enter the fall riding the nation's longest win streak (10). The offense returns 10 starters, and several key holdovers remain from a defense that ranked ninth nationally in points allowed (18.5 ppg).

"We have a chance to do something special," quarterback Max Hall said. "A lot of people believe in us right now."

Fox Sports thinks the Cougars will go 11-1 with a schedule good enough to go to a BCS bowl.

BYU isn't being shy about where it wants to be with "Quest for Perfection," the motto for its season. After two straight fantastic 11-2 years, this should be Bronco Mendenhall's best team yet, with QB Max Hall operating a high-octane offense and pass-rushing terror Jan Jorgensen leading a defense that should be strong if the secondary can reload.

The Mountain West should be better, with TCU and Utah each able to ruin the Cougars' dream, but the the non-conference schedule isn't bad with Northern Iowa, at Washington, UCLA and at Utah State. Would that be good enough to send a 12-0 BYU team to the BCS title game? That could be the big debate of 2008, but a huge win over the Bruins could set the tone and generate the buzz needed for the national attention. An 11-1 BYU should still find its way into a BCS date.

But we'll see. The Cougars are one or two key injuries away from bombing in 2008. After their 1984 National Championship, BYU returned a lot of starters, and some say the '85 team was the most talented ever. BYU went 11-3 and lost its bowl game, mainly because quarterback Robbie Bosco was injured late in the season.

I hope all this respect doesn't make the players complacent. Best way to lose a game is to think you've already won it.

But I doubt Bronco will let them get too confident. After going 1-2 to start each of the past two seasons, Mendhenhall can't afford to let that happen again.

Competence

A follow-up to my earlier post about competence in movies.

I was watching a Without a Trace episode last night and came across an example of gross incompetence.

The FBI is questioning the boyfriend of a murdered ex-assistant district attorney. They suspect he's the actual murderer, but can't prove anything. As they're escorting him out, he elbows an FBI agent in the face and grabs his gun. The boyfriend snags a hostage and starts shooting. Another agent calls someone (security?), and says there's shooting on the 12th floor.

Bad guy heads for stairwell.

Okay, so quick recap: you're on the 12th floor of an FBI BUILDING. 75% of the people in this building are carrying weapons. You've got 12 FLOORS to go before you can escape.

Problem?

Apparently not. The next scene shows the FBI agents rushing out of the building onto the street, the suspect nowhere in sight.

Impressive. If I ever need to rob a bank, I'm calling that guy.

Hillary vs. Obama

Good times.

Larry Hughes is Scottie Pippen?

Skip Bayless is an idiot. I can't figure out if I hate him or Stephen A. more. This morning on ESPN's First Take Bayless ranted on and on about how crappy LeBron James is. The catalyst for this rant was the Cavs' loss to Chicago last night, where Cleveland squandered a 17-point lead.

Skip: "Michael Jordan in his fifth year would have never let his team lose to a clearly inferior team this late in the season!!!"

If Michael had to play on a team where guys like Devin Brown, a washed-up Ben Wallace, and Varejao were getting major minutes every night, he'd have struggled a bit, too.

But the kicker was this gem: "LeBron James had his Scottie Pippen in Larry Hughes, and instead of embracing him, he resented him and ran him out of town!!!"

Okay, that's just ridiculous. Larry is horrible. Ever since he had a great season with Washington in 2004-2005, he's been bad. This year, he's shooting 38% from the field and only scoring 12 points a game. With the Cavs he never shot over 40% and never scored more than 15 points a game.

That's Derek Fisher territory, everyone. Without the assists or 3-pointers.

I don't buy Pippen as "one of the 50 best players EVER," but he was a legit 6'8" guard who scored over 20 ppg for four straight seasons during the Bulls' first three championships. His rebounding and assist averages hovered around 8 and 5 for almost a decade.

Hughes is 6'5", can't shoot, averages four rebounds and three assists, and gets less than two steals a game, an area that used to be his strength.

Hughes as a number 2 guy equal to Scottie Pippen? Uh, not really.

Shaq is introspective

Courtesy of my friend, Stuart:



The main point here is that Shaq is a funny guy.

The other point is that Phoenix's training staff is full of miracle workers. They've kept Nash's back from folding like an accordion for three years now, and Shaq's career was done before he went to the Suns.

Now? He's playing like he's five years younger. He's not Orlando Shaq, or even L.A. Shaq, but still. Over the past month, he's averaging 14 points, 9 rebounds and 1.5 blocks a game, while shooting 59% from the field. That's as good as you can expect from a 35-year old, 300 lb. man in his 17th season.

And it appears the Suns have started to gel with him. They're 10-3 over the last 13, with losses to Detroit once and Boston twice. Not too shabby.

Wow, I'm excited for the playoffs. The Western Conference is going to be insane.