At Least We Covered the Spread

After The Game Saturday my mood was similar to what it was following two recent sporting events that are especially relevant to fans from the great state of Michigan: the 2006 World Series and the 2005 Rose Bowl. Both were also losses. One was a close finish while the other was anything but. A baseball series and a single football game have almost nothing in common, but for some reason these three events left me with the same aftertaste.

The World Series was a major letdown after the Tigers lost only won game in defeating the Yankees and A's. The Tigers were certainly favored to beat the Cardinals, who appeared to have given everything they had to get past the Mets in seven games. Other than the dominating performance by Kenny Rogers in game two, the Tigers were outclassed. To quote Randy Quade's character in Days of Thunder, we looked like a monkey fucking a football out there at times. Outs were given away with costly errors in the infield and impatient at-bats at the plate. It was frustrating to watch, but after it was over I appreciated how far my team had progressed in a single year and was excited about the prospects for success in the coming years with all of the great young pitchers in the organization.

The 2005 Rose Bowl ended with a game-winning Texas field goal. Like Saturday's game, it was extremely high scoring and watching it gave you the feeling that the team to have the ball last was going to win. Vince Young gave the large intestine of our defense a nice splintery broom handle massage with his runs when our defense broke down their pass plays. I think he ended up with over 200 yards rushing. There's nothing more frustrating as a football fan than watching a big running play against your team's defense, so I screamed at the television more than any game I've ever watched during that game. It really sucked losing that one, as Texas is one of the most hateable teams in sports. Yet after the sting of the field goal died down, I appreciated that we were right there with a very good team in an incredibly entertaining game, and just like with the Tigers we were loaded with young talent that seemed destined for success in meaningful games in the next few years.

Michigan gave a truly great Ohio State team everything that it could handle this year in Columbus, which I am proud of. We played well enough to retain the number two position in the BCS and the AP polls, which was inconceivable before the game. Writers wrote columns calling for a rematch as adamantly after the game as they wrote against it before the game. Somehow we still have a legitimate chance for a rematch, which would piss off the Buckeyes more than a thumb stuck into their butthole.

A few game notes:
- Get Field Turf, OSU. The shit's awesome to play on. Take it from me--I scored a goal and had two or three assists yesterday on the stuff. If Saint John's College High School can afford it, I think you can. Only a school with the agricultural prowess of Michigan State should even attempt to mess around with real grass.
- It's good to have a safety back in position to prevent long runs.
- The Ohio State center, #50 if I'm remembering correctly, will likely be an assistant manager at a Columbus area gas station if he graduates instead of playing football on Sundays. If he doesn't graduate he will never make assistant manager.
- Troy Smith is good. Really good in fact.
- That "injury" at the end of the game was awesome. It would have been great if somehow we could have had an injury on every one of those downs and stopped them to get the ball back.
- "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" by Metallica is a fucking awesome song. I am listening to it right now. This in no way is connected to the game, but if there was a fantasy song league, this would be a must-start in all formats.
- Michael Hart is a fucking badass. He is so powerful that he could commit a crime against nature that doesn't involve his penis, like beating up a grizzly bear with his bear hands or some such shit.
-Nothing would please me more than shaving "INBRED" into the back of the head of Chris Wells. If he tried to carry Michael Hart's jock he'd fumble it.

What we need to have happen is for USC to lose one of its next two games and for Florida and Arkansas to get disrespected for being the bitch teams that they are. We have to be Notre Dame fans this week, which is almost as shitty as the loss was.