Way to Go, Joe!

I think by now you have all heard that Joe Torre declined a one-year offer possibly worth $8 million last Friday. For a great part of my life I have hated Joe Torre and his Yankees, but after hearing his press conference on Friday, I now have an undying respect for the man. If you haven’t seen or heard it yet, check it out.
How the Yankees can blame this man for their postseason trouble is beyond me. Only one player, Robinson Cano, hit over .300 during the series. Mr. October, Derek Jeter, chipped in with a stunning .176 batting average. On top of all that, the Yankees hired-gun Roger Clemens pitched a whole of 2.1 innings, allowing 3 runs.
But go ahead, George Steinbrenner, blame your coach for the struggles of your players. He coaches in the American League where all you have to do is set your lineup, and watch your multi-million dollar players hit homeruns. You can’t point to anything in that series and say, “That was Joe’s fault.”
Above all, here is the part that gets to me the most. The leading candidate to take Joe’s job is hitting coach Don Mattingly. If you’re going to blame a coach for the offensive struggles in the postseason, Mattingly would be the one! But for some reason beyond my comprehension that is the guy they see fit to manage their team.
Joe Torre was disrespected by the Yankees organization, so he walked away. He leaves with his dignity, and man, do I respect him for it.

I know you’ll miss me. But I will see you all on Friday!

Your boy,
Ed Cahill
Sports Blogger

Hoopin’ Around

I know we are in the middle of football season right now, but in just a month the Gamecock basketball program will kick off its 100th year of play. A buddy of mine and I were sitting around yesterday throwing around some of our thoughts about the team. One of the things we battled over was what the starting lineup was going to look like, but here is what I came up with.

Point Guard- Devan Downey

Shooting Guard- Zam Fredrick II

Small forward- Dwayne “D” Day

Pf- Dominique Archie

Center- Mitchell Carter

You can see there is some obvious talent in the one, three and four spots, but I think our lack of a center will be our downfall again this season. Some people are saying that Chad Gray at 6′ 7″ should be the starting center. That’s two inches shorter than our former center Brandon Wallace who many people called too small at 6′ 9″. There is a great deal of talent team, and it is the type of talent that Dave Odom works well with. What remains to be seen is if all these transfers and first year starters can learn to play with each other on the court.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but no matter how well our team does I am excited about the coming season. I always feel like my voice is heard at basketball games. It’s not lost in the 80,000 other voices like it is at Williams-Brice.
If you don’t go to one of the first few games, at least make it down to the Colonial Center on November 17t\ when the Cocks take on Southern California. They have this guy by the name of O.J. Mayo. You might have heard of him. He was one of the top players coming out of high school. Think Kobe Bryant, but with a cooler name.
And although we might not be able to fight for the title of “the real USC” on the football field, we at least get to take a shot at it on the court.

That’s it for me kids. See you in a few days.

Ed Cahill

Sports Blogger

Could the Pac-10 hang with SEC?

When the college football season kicked off this year USC and LSU stood at number one and two in the polls respectively. This began the feud that has been talked about so often this season. Which conference is better? The Pac-10 or the SEC?

Well, as we finish up week seven of the season, both USC and LSU have fallen from the ranks of the undefeated, and all but crushed our hopes of deciding this argument on the field. So I am going to have to do the dirty work and look into these two powerhouse conferences to decide which one is the best based on the polls, depth of the conference, and finally head-to-head match-ups to decide which conference comes out on top.

Polls. In the most recent AP poll the SEC currently has seven teams in the top twenty-five compared to the Pac-10’s four, but we can’t give the point to the SEC just based on that. Yes, the SEC does have three more teams in the top 25, but four of those teams have already suffered two losses on the season. Florida, Auburn, Tennessee and Georgia have all struggled in the early goings.
When you look at the Pac-10 you find three teams with one loss (USC, Oregon and California) and the undefeated Arizona State Sun Devils. This gives the Pac-10 four possible contenders for the National Title to the SEC’s three.
Edge: Pac-10

Depth. As you look at the bottom of the barrel in the SEC you find many teams that can still give the frontrunners of the division a scare.
At the bottom of the SEC East you find Vanderbilt. They are 3-3 overall, and 1-3 in the conference, but they gave Georgia a run for their money this Saturday, and will not lie down against the remainder of their SEC East schedule. Teams like this are scattered throughout the SEC. Ole Miss, Arkansas and Mississippi State are all bottom dwellers in the SEC West, but have and will give every team in the SEC a good game.
When you go look at the Pac-10 you can’t come to the same conclusion. Stanford, Arizona, Washington and Washington State round out the bottom of the division this year and you could expect to look this time next year and find the same four teams. Yes, Stanford took down the number one USC Trojans, but would you bet on them to beat UCLA or even Washington? I think not.
The SEC takes this one in a blowout.
Edge: SEC

For the final round, I will give you the best match-ups and tell you who I think would come out on top.

1. LSU vs. Southern California
2. USC vs. Arizona State
3. Kentucky vs. UCLA
4. Florida vs. California
5. Auburn vs. Oregon
6. Alabama vs. Oregon State
7. Tennessee vs. Stanford
8. Georgia vs. Arizona
9. Mississippi State vs. Washington
10. Arkansas vs. Washington State

So I see it coming out as an 8-2 victory in favor of the SEC. You can look at those games and point to a few that could swing either way, but not enough to give the Pac-10 an edge. The major difference is in the final five match-ups. In my eyes, each one of those games would be dominated by the SEC team.

Point and match goes to the SEC.

If only these two conferences did not play their games on polar opposites of the United States we would be to solve this debate on the field, but for now, pen and paper is the best we can do.

Ed Cahill

Sports Blogger