Nice work Arkansas

The smiling face of Arkansas Football

The Arkansas football program has to just feel right proud of itself about now. They have truly done some fascinating work in the last couple of years. Sure was a good call driving Houston Nutt out of town so you could bring in the classy Bobby Petrino, Razorbacks. Hope you enjoyed going 2 up and 6 down in the SEC last year. It probably wasn't too hard to swallow the irony of Coach Nutt going 9 and 4 and winning the Cotton Bowl with perennial SEC doormat, Ole Miss. Now this year, Coach Nutt has the Ole Miss Rebels ranked in the top ten in the preseason polls.

What? Arkansas expectations aren't quite that high? You don't say.

Well, at least you can say that all this running off Coach Nutt happened over what was a good cause. The ever-whining Mitch Mustain has done an admirable job holding down the third string quarterback job at USC. He holds a clipboard real well.

Nice work, Razorback-nation. Reap what you sow.

Doubles record

Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell broke a five way tie for most consecutive season with 25 doubles or more by a third baseman. In doing so, he removed some illustrious names from the record books. They included three legendary Hall of Famers, Wade Boggs, George Brett and Brooks Robinson. These third sackers all had nine consecutive season with at least 25 doubles.

The fourth fellow involved in the record, Harland "Darkie" Clift was much more obscure. Mr. Clift toiled for St. Louis Browns and the Washington Senators between 1934 and 1945. Clift was quite a player in his time. He held the single season record for most home runs by a third baseman from 1937 until 1952. He also apparently had a great eye, drawing more than 100 walks for six straight years. An All-Star only once Clift was third in the league in triples in 1934 as a 21-year-old rookie, third in the league in homers for 1938 and second in the league in doubles in 1942. Now, he is on one less page of the record book.

Now that something you don't see every day

No two exactly alike?

The New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies demonstrated one of the fundamentally great things about baseball yesterday. Baseball's continuing potential for uniqueness is almost endless. Of all the ways that baseball mimics life, this is one of the most pleasurable. In approximately, 173,000 baseball games played since 1900 never before has a team started a game with an inside the park home run and ended with an unassisted triple play.

With his team already trailing 6-0, centerfielder Angel Pagan led off the bottom of the first for the Mets with an inside the park home run. It was several hours later his teammate Jeff Francouer ended the game with a line drive to Phillies second sacker Eric Bruntlett. Bruntlett, who had made the misplays that led to the first and second, none out situation, recorded only the 15th unassisted triple play in major league baseball history. An unassisted triple play occurs when one defensive player records all three outs in an inning without help. As it did yesterday, it normally happens on a line drive to a middle infielder with a double steal underway. It is among baseball's rarest feats, just slightly rarer than the perfect game, just slightly more common than someone hitting two grand slam home runs in the same game. It had been merely 82 years since a game ended on an unassisted triple play.

Two other news and notes items from the Clarion Content's Sports Editor's desk.

First, it looks like the American League's Most Valuable Player race is coming down to the Yankee's MVP, as in, pick the most valuable Yankee and you have got the A.L. MVP. There is a groundswell of support in New York for Derek Jeter to get the award, as he has never won one. He is having a remarkable season in a Hall of Fame career. He is hitting .332, he trails only the mighty Ichiro in total base hits on the season, and is 5th in runs scored. He is playing better defense than he has in ages, stealing bases and providing the stability and consistency in a pressure packed Yankee clubhouse.

On the other side of the room, Mark Teixera has been impeccable. His Gold Glove caliber defense has made Jeter, Cano and the third baseman look so much better than old iron gloved Jason Giambi did. He is leading the team in homers and RBI, he is second in the American League in both categories. He is also second in total bases. It is hard to bet against the best player, on the best team for the MVP.

The other item from the sports desk is much less of a sure thing. For some reason we still have a feeling the Minnesota Twins are going to sneak up and steal the A.L. Central from the clutches of the Tigers and the White Sox. Those two teams have had a lot of time and chances to leave the Twinkies in the dust, but have been meandering around .500 for far too long. Minnesota is 4.5 games back entering play today. The White Sox have to face the Red Sox, while Tigers take on the A.L. West leading Angels. The Twins, on the other hand, open a set with the A.L. East cupcakes, the Baltimore Orioles. The Twins have the two best players of any of the teams in the Central, in Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer. It says here they could be right there for first place by the beginning of next week and in the thick of the race the rest of the way.

New Cowboys Stadium

Jerry Jones

We got a few gripes with Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys. Despite a billion dollar budget the new Dallas Cowboys football stadium seems out of sync with the times. Jerry Jones and company also ignored an obvious physical flaw that surfaced in last night's pre-season game with the Tennessee Titans.

The way in which the stadium seems ludicrously out of touch with the times is the prices. Didn't Jerry Jones watch the debacle that has been Yankee stadium? The Clarion Content has followed the Yankee ticket story in detail, since the day they announced there were going to be $2,500 per game box seats. Jerry obviously doesn't read the Clarion Content, or apparently watch the news. Because if he did, he would realize that the richest folks and some of the biggest corporations in America got socked in the wallet over last twenty months plus. But not old Jerry, nope, he figures they still got mad cash stuffed in their mattresses. How do we know? Well, like we said the prices: at the new billion dollar Cowboys Stadium, Jerry figures if you got the jack to pay for a luxury box, you are ready to be soaked. In those luxury boxes food and drink is not free. In fact, a plain cheese pizza costs $100.00 and a six pack of domestic beer $67.00. Yes, you read those figures correctly, at Jerry's place, a six pack a beer and a cheese pizza is $167.00 after you kick down for the luxury boxes. If that isn't begging for comeuppance in these times, the Clarion Content doesn't know what is!

The other issue with the stadium also stems from Jones hubris. This one is an actual on field issue reported by the New York Times amongst others. The scoreboard is too low over the field. The Tennessee Titans back-up punter hit it with a kick last night forcing a do-over. Apparently, the "world's largest" jumbotron-scoreboard-thingamajig is hung too low. Better yet, the NY Times reports that Jones knew, helping set the height at ninety feet, even though tests showed that the Cowboys punter Mat McBriar showed he could clear regularly clear 100 feet.

Ingenious.

This is what a billion dollars bought?

The Mets are broke

What other conclusion can Mets fans draw? It was widely reported that their ownership, the Wilpon family, was among those most bilked by the nefarious financier Bernie Madoff. This man destroyed lives and institutions.

Apparently, the New York Metropolitans were part of the collateral damage. The Clarion Content is not referring to this year when injuries and a third-world clinic quality medical and training staff torpedoed the Mets season. Rather, we are talking about the obvious cash tightening that appears likely to follow the Mets far into the future.

The New York Times reports that despite an abysmally weak farm system, the Mets spent less money signing picks from the recent amateur draft than any other major league ball club. They spent less than the Pittsburgh Pirates, less than the Kansas City Royals. And as one might expect, they got what they paid for, they were one of only four teams that ended up with more than one top-10 pick unsigned. They had no first round pick and signed only seven of their first ten selections.

The future looks anything but green to Mets fans.

It is game on

College football at Yankee Stadium is indeed happening, as one of our guest columnists rather sardonically warned you that it would a couple months back. The United States Military Academy at West Point, Army is signed on to play several games at the new stadium. Army will first play its traditional rival Notre Dame in 2010. Army and Notre Dame played 22 times at the old Yankee Stadium according to the New York Times.

In 2011, Army will taken on the school that played the first college football game, the rising New Jersey power in the Big East, Rutgers. Army is scheduled to play Air Force, the most successful of the military academies in football of late, at the stadium in 2012. In 2014 Army has scheduled Boston College, formerly of the Big East. Yankee Stadium is expected to have about 47,000 seats when it is converted for football.

Miller time

Ali Kay

When the Clarion Content's Sports editor was a kid they used to say, "U-G-L-Y, you ain't got no alibi." Reggie Miller we hope you got an alibi, because otherwise this is pretty "U-G-L-Y." If you haven't heard it, the story as it is being reported at NBA Fanhouse and various other sites is that somebody paid to have one of the light planes that fly along the beach trailing advertising banners carry one that read, "Reggie Miller stop pursuing married women."

Reggie, whoa. Alibi? Because whomever paid for this plane to carry the huge red lettered banner this weekend had it flying back and forth over several Southern California beaches near Miller's hometown of Malibu, CA, including Hermosa Beach during a major beach volleyball tournament. Lots of eyeballs.

Fanhouse and Deadspin speculate this may be related to the restraining order Alex von Furstenburg, and fiancée, Ali Kay, filed against the former Indiana Pacers star.

Quick Phillies follow-up

A quick follow-up to our question about what the Phillies are going to do with their starting rotation. It is old man Jamie Moyer going to the bullpen. Pedro Martinez starts Wednesday in Chicago at Wrigley Field against the Cubbies. The Clarion Content will be tuning in, if only for nostalgia's sake, Pete's starts were once don't miss affairs.

Phillies rotation decision

Remember this kid?

The Philadelphia Phillies are facing a dilemma that is the envy of every team in their division, too much starting pitching. The Phils pulled a trade deadline swap to grab last year's American league Cy Young award winner, Cliff Lee, without parting with any of their major league level young pitching.

In addition to Lee, last year's World Series hero, Cole Hammels, is firmly entrenched in the rotation along with former Oakland A, Joe Blanton. The other two spots in the rotation are somehow supposed to be divided amongst three men, unless the Phillies decide they are ready to go with a six man rotation, which is most unlikely.

The candidates are 46-year-old lefty Jamie Moyer. He leads the team in wins, but has a 5+ era. He was a vital cog in last year's run, but he couldn't hit 80 mph on the radar gun if his life depended on it. However, it is not like the other two candidates are exactly fireballers. At this stage in his career, the recently signed future Hall of Famer, Pedro Martinez, reminds one more of Rip Sewell than Nolan Ryan. It says here that Martinez will be able to bring his baffling bag of tricks to the major league level and be a very useful contributor for the Phils down the stretch. The final candidate is young rookie J.A. Happ. Unfortunately for Happ, Phillies General Manager Ruben Amaro, Jr. didn't bring in Pedro to be a middle reliever. Notably, Moyer makes approximately fifteen times the salary of Happ. The gritty Moyer is unlikely to be pleased with the idea of being shuffled off to the pen.

On the field Happ makes the least sense of the guys to be shuffled out of the rotation. Sure Pedro just struck out 11 AA guys in a rehab start, but they are in the minors for a reason. Moyer just got shelled to the tune of six runs in five innings his last time out, ratcheting up his era another notch. Happ, on the other hand, threw a complete-game, 127-pitch shutout, ten strikeout performance at the playoff contending Colorado Rockies. What is Phils manager Charlie Manuel going to do?

The good news for the Phils is no matter what happens with the rotation decision the National League East is almost un-losable. They can coast home. Stick a fork in'em, the Mets are done. The Braves were never for real. The Marlins may have an outside prayer at the Wild Card, but they are not going to sniff the division. Lucky for the Phils, 85 wins will probably be enough in the NL East, that means the Phils could stagger down the stretch go twenty-five up and thirty-two down in August and September and still win the title. The question then, will become about a four man rotation for the playoffs, one more starter will have to be squeezed out. Phillies Manager Charlie Manuel has some tough decision his counterparts around the league would love to have to face.

The Unique

Tim Lincecum reminds the Clarion Content's Sports editor of Gale Sayers. There is something about the unique, the never seen it done that way before guys. We had heard once, perhaps on an old NFL Films reel, that Sayers looked like a deer running through a minefield. He was at once beautiful and desperately vulnerable. This kind of beauty is fleeting and like a rabbit being chased by wolves, it all too often ends in a violent rending.

Lincecum beat the defending World Champion Phildelphia Phillies tonight with his third shutout in the last six weeks. The other character from the sports world we might compare Lincecum to would be David Duval. He was another guy that people his field said, "Wow, never seen it done that way before..." While we see the implicit irony in comparing three figures' uniqueness, we would posit that sometimes there are reasons why it has never been done that way before that manifest themselves in the ability to sustain greatness. There is no questioning Sayers greatness. Duval was pretty damn good for a minute, too. Lincecum has pitched brillantly for a couple of years now.