In the history of this great nation, there have been numerous moments in which we, as a country, can sit back and take pride in being Americans. Great, momentous occasions in which the true possibility of what man can attain is illustrated in the ultimate spectacle of dramatic accomplish. Men landing on the moon, the U.S. hockey team defeating the Soviets, Jimmy Dean's Pancakes and Sausage on a Stick -- moments that changed us all forever.
Now, I believe it's up to future generations to truly determine our place in history, but I have to think another of those great moments has happened today. This, my friends, is our 500th post here at Bulldogs Blog. Now, if you forgot to get me a gift, it's OK. You have until the end of the day to pick something up. I'm registered at Target, Macy's and the ABC Package Store.
Anyway, while I relish this wondrous moment, here are a few links for your perusal...
-- Congrats to Knowshon, A.J. Green and Clint Boling for making the AP's first team All-SEC team. Two ridiculous sidebars to this, however: Julio Jones was second-team All-SEC, but won the freshman of the year award over A.J., and Reshad Jones continues to pile up awards far better than he piled up tackles.
-- Knowshon Moreno discusses his draft prospects with Total UGA (Subscription required).
-- Georgia is a 7 to 7.5-point favorite in the Capital One Bowl.
-- The Red & Black's Tyler Estep gives a brief rundown of all the Capital One Bowl storylines, which hopefully gets you a bit more excited about the matchup.
-- The only UGA player to officially be thrown under the bus this season is hoping for an improved performance in the bowl game.
-- Sounds like Aaron Murray is making a nice recovery from the broken leg he suffered earlier this season.
-- In the least surprising news of the day, Tommy Tuberville's mom says her son was fired by Auburn.
-- The Tigers interviewed Rodney Garner for Tuberville's vacated position. I wouldn't count on this happening though. Auburn needs to make a splash with this hire, and Garner may be a good coach, but he's not a big name.
-- Things have gotten awfully ugly for the men's hoops team, but the Dawgs hope to turn things around tonight against Virginia Tech.
-- The women's hoops team is faring much better, losing to Rutgers on Monday night. My only regret is I couldn't be there to interview Vivian Stringer afterward. She is easily the craziest person I've ever interviewed.
-- Years later, Jeff Schultz wonders how much the effects of Jan Kemp's efforts are still being felt at UGA.
-- There's a lot that I hate about ESPN, but the fact that so little was made about this story other than the standard mention and quick sound bite is at the top of the list. I'm sure many of you around Georgia feel the same as I do about Greg Maddux -- although for likely far different reasons -- and when the best pitcher of the last 50 years retires, I think it deserves more than a courtesy mention on "SportsCenter." Of course, my annoyance over that doesn't come close to the anger I still direct at Larry Himes for letting Maddux walk to the Braves after the 1992 season (and a Cy Young Award), thus setting the Cubs back 10 years.
-- While we're talking baseball, this list is a hilarious read: The top 25 Rickey Henderson stories of all time.
-- And while Rickey will likely be the only lock among this year's Hall of Fame class, I was very disappointed with the news that Ron Santo won't be getting in via the new veterans committee. That's a crime.
-- In this terrible economy, it's good to know there are still some great jobs out there if you're in the market.
-- And finally, while I've greatly enjoyed working to provide these first 500 posts here, it's news like this that leaves me worried there won't be another 500. Remember while Wall Street and the auto industry are being bailed out by the government, Americans are closer than ever to not having a daily newspaper in their city.
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5 comments:
I'm confused about the Green/Jones thing and I think there must be some logical explanation.
Is there different criteria for freshman of the yr vs. first team all SEC--i.e. freshman of the year is more subjective?
I think there's an argument that Jones is/will be better, but it seems like based on numbers it's a hr for AJ (as Westerdawg points outs). Thoughts?
I completely agree, but here's my explanation (not that I agree with it, but it's the only explanation I can vaguely understand)...
Too many voters have started treating all awards the same way baseball voters treat the MVP -- i.e., it's the most VALUABLE player, not necessarily the BEST player. So they base it on things like how many games your team won, how integral you were in those victories, etc.
While you can argue the merits of that criteria for MVP, it's insane to apply it to thinks like rookie of the year, CY Young, etc, which are clearly meant to go to the player with the best statistical metrics.
The second thing I might guess is that voters considered Jones to have less surrounding talent, meaning he had to do more work himself to accumulate his stats, whereas Green was the beneficiary of Massaquoi, Stafford and Moreno around him. Of course, I would argue that it's far easier for a receiver to find time to get open with Bama's great O line protecting the QB than it was for Green, but obviously I didn't have a vote anyway.
Interesting--I assume you're right, although why treat the first team selections differently? I'd be interested to see how detailed the criteria for these kinds of awards are--I guess, in the end, it is all subjective anyway (which you obviously know).
Thanks for the quick response.
One other thing (on the topic of completely unpredictable and irrational award presentations)---what do you think Knowshon's chances of winning the Doak Walker Award/being first team All-American are?
Who really cares if the papers go out of business? It's the age of the internet. There are countless sources readily available to provide the news. The AJC is a bigger embarrasment to this city than Freknik was.
RE: Knowshon and the Doak Walker, my guess is the kid from Iowa wins it for much the same reason Jones got the nod for freshman of the year. He's done a lot with little supporting cast.
RE: Newspapers, I'm not sure what you do for a living, but I assume you'd be a little concerned if your business was falling apart around you. And if you honestly think you'll still get the same kind of journalism without newspapers, you're fooling yourselves. Most Internet journalism is funded by newspaper companies.
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