The Young Lefthander

The Truest Test

2008-06-13T00:31:00.003-05:00

And so, it is upon us.

In our opinion, the United States Open Golf Tournament is the most difficult golf tournament to win in the world. There is a special place in our heart for this tournament. Truth be told, we love The Masters. That is our most favorite tournament in our most favorite place in the world. However, the U.S. Open means so much to us in a different way.

First of all, we feel like The Masters is our tournament, so to speak. We have had the great fortune to witness the collection of the greatest players in the world on one golf course twice in our life. Also, if some homerism is to be permitted, The Masters is held in our home state, and The Masters is the only major golf championship to be contested on the same course year in and year out. There is a special connection we feel with that tournament. If you know anything about our background, then you will easily understand why. The Masters was founded by a local Atlanta boy made good; a man that grew up on the demanding layout of East Lake, graduated from both Georgia Tech (our favorite) and Emory, achieved everything that could be achieved as a gentleman golfer (that means amateur for those of you that are unfamiliar with the terminology from a time before success was measured in endorsements), and made a timely retirement from the competitive game, only to build his dream course in Augusta, Georgia, and start his own tournament that would become the ultimate goal of not only every professional golfer, but every young boy that ever lifted a club in the southeastern United States. If one grew up playing this beautiful, frustrating game in the sweltering heat of this region, then you always dreamed of playing your way into the U.S. Amateur, or the U.S. Public Links Championship, just so you would have a chance at maybe making a few putts and qualifying for The Masters.

The one thing that we didn't realize until very recently was the fact that the same dream we all shared about qualifying for The Masters, were you to achieve it, would also qualify you for the United States Open, which, as we said, is the most difficult tournament in the world to win, and a tournament whose final round is now traditionally contested on Father's Day.

After all, any of us who began our odyssey into the great abyss of swing thoughts and three foot putts were likely first introduced to this game by our fathers. We each owe our paters for this; without them, we would never have learned the immutable truths of honesty and integrity, much less how to conduct ourselves in a gentlemanly manner, and most of all, how this beautiful contest of man versus himself teaches each of us more about ourselves.

With all of that being said, the 2008 U.S. Open is upon us. Tiger Woods seeks to become only the sixth man in the history of this championship to win at least three times. Much has been made of his assault on Jack Nicklaus' record of eighteen major championships. Much more should be made of his quest to join the likes of Willie Anderson, Robert Tyre Jones, Jr., Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, and Hale Irwin. These five titans of the game, underrated as some of them may be, hold a very special place in golf history.

So, as our national golf championship begins, we encourage you to enjoy every moment, drink in the sights and sounds, and when Sunday arrives, find your way into a place where you may spend a few hours watching this great spectacle with your father in mind, if not in presence. This is truly our tournament, and it is only fitting that it will be contested on a public course, much like the ones on which we all learned to play.

The people's favorite is, of course, Tiger Woods, who will no doubt carry with him thoughts of his father on his final round. Phil Mickelson is considered to be another strong contender, and he will also carry strong thoughts of not only the gravity of this great championship, but also what this game means to the sense of family, as he is a renowned family man, and as he witnessed on the eighteenth green at Pinehurst, when another great family man, Payne Stewart, bested him for the U.S Open Championship.

Our plea to all of you is this: find some time this weekend to spend with your father, and should that not be possible, make a telephone call to him, and if that is not possible, at the very least, tune in to the final round on Father's Day, and spend a few moments in thought, prayer, and appreciation of the man who, whether you realize it or not, helped mold you into the man you are today.

That my friends, is why this golf tournament is special.

It's Amazing That This Guy Continues to Draw a Paycheck

2008-03-08T01:38:00.004-05:00

This is really astounding. Bill Simmons, who at one time wrote as many as three items a week for espn.com's Page 2, is now able to perpetuate the myth that he is the voice of the fan by writing not three, not two, but actually what we consider to be at best 1.5 items per week on the four letter dot com.

Consider this week's effort. Good ol' Billy Boy throws together a "links" item, which had to take all of 10 minutes, then he puts together what he calls a "Basketball Blog" post in which he makes up fake emails, and pretends to answer them. In a thinly disguised effort to counter this lack of zeal that first made him popular, Billiam posts three podcasts, which are, in actuality, phone call conversations with his buddies. The exception here, of course, is his podcast conversation with Jason Whitlock, the former Page 2 writer who was fired after writing too much of the truth. We view this episode of Simmons' podcast as a token effort to try to further his claim that he is anti-establishment. There was a golden opportunity here to discuss Whitlock's dismissal from the sports behemoth, or his feud with Scoop Jackson, or at the very least, JW's thoughts on controversial subjects such as Herm Edwards' weak leadership and submission to poor ownership in Kansas City, or Whitlock's opinions on Kelvin Sampson, or the increasingly sad state of character in the NFL.

To paraphrase Jack Black's character Barry from High Fidelity, how can a person who has no interest in writing about sports continue to write for the largest sports entity on the face of the earth?

In full disclosure, Simmons is still a regular stop for me when I'm perusing the net. However, he has continued to move down the list of sites or columns I check, and his new Sports Guy page has become my destination for items that I know I can lampoon with relative ease. All in all, I consider this a huge shame. I used to be a huge fan of Simmons, and he is part of the reason that I started this site. I can only hope that one day, he will sit back and survey his career, and realize that he willingly became a Sean Salisbury when he could have been a Ron Jaworski.

This is just another reason we love college sports

2008-03-05T22:43:00.003-05:00

If you have been reading Bill Simmons recently, or paying attention to the NBA at all, you probably know that the Seattle Supersonics are most likely on their way out of town, and the residents of Seattle are beside themselves. This is a truly terrible situation, and we certainly don't intend to make light of it. However, this does serve to highlight just one more difference between college and professional sports. True, sports at both levels are certainly a business, but life as a sports fan at the collegiate level at least guarantees that your team won't pack up and leave town. If your favorite pro team suffers through years of inept management, and the corresponding losing seasons, ownership might just see fit to tuck tail and run for the next green pasture with a shiny new publicly funded arena. At the college level, the Athletic Director feels much more pressure, and much more quickly if his teams don't perform, and he is much more likely to make a change in staff than his professional counterpart might be, especially since his job may be the next one on the line. For all of the criticism that boosters take for tainting the "purity" of college athletics, they are the ones who are primarily responsible for your favorite team remaining competitive, or for the rebuilding efforts put forth by your university of choice. After all, without these boosters, collegiate athletic programs would be largely unable to build state of the art facilities, recruit prized blue chip athletes, and secure the large paydays that come with playing on national t.v. or in bowl games. Yes, sports at this level are very much a business proposition, but at least you can rest easy knowing that as long as your favorite university exists, they'll never flee their home city. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for your local professional team.

The Beginning of the End of an Era?

2008-03-05T21:34:00.005-05:00

With the retirement of Brett Favre this week, the NFL has officially entered the second half of the current Golden Age of Quarterbacks. A mere two years ago, the league was enjoying a phenomenal run of high profile, exciting to watch quarterbacks. Brett Favre, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Donovan McNabb, and Michael Vick were all "Faces of the League", and all were helping to sell out road games in whatever city they happened to be playing in that week. The fact that guys like Carson Palmer, Daunte Culpepper, Drew Brees, Ben Roethlisberger, Eli Manning and even Philip Rivers were performing at a high level or at least seemed to add to the already high profile of the position just served to add that much more to the feeling that we were seeing an unprecedented level of league wide talent at the position. My, how quickly things change. Vick, as you know, is currently in prison, McNabb may or may not be on his last legs in Philly, and now, Favre has called it quits.

The retirement of number 4 has spawned an alarming amount of discussion on sports talk radio and the internet regarding just how good he really was. After being force fed years of man-love from Peter King and John Madden, the sports punditry has let loose with a backlash that's a little unsettling, to say the least. Is Favre the best quarterback in NFL history? That's not what we're saying. But, to reduce his 17 years to a series of poor decisions, forced throws, and avoidable turnovers is a tad over the top.

Certainly, the "Brett Favre just has fun playing football" notion has been beaten to death, but he did manage to bring a level of enjoyment to watching football that any of the other players mentioned above haven't done, and most likely, won't do. The reason that Favre resonated with the average fan is because he played the game the way that we would like to think we would play it, given the chance. The fact that he made a snowball and threw it at a teammate during the Divisional Round playoff win against the Seahawks underscores that point. Imagine if you were in the backyard, playing your own personal version of the Icebowl in a driving snowstorm. Doesn't that seem like something you would do to one of your buddies if you had just thrown a game turning touchdown pass? Sure it does. That's why Joe Sixpack loved watching Brett Favre. He seemed like one of us. A down to earth type that realized that playing quarterback in the NFL was a blessing and a dream come true. At a time when other players in the league were busy running around with models or pop starlets, Favre was content to live the married life on his farm in the offseason, and stay out of the blinding flash of the papparazzi. When you view him in these terms, it's easy to understand why Peter King and John Madden, as well as casual fans around the country loved to watch him play. As for his place in history, let's discuss that for a moment.

While Favre holds just about every meaningful passing record, he is probably just keeping the seat warm for Peyton Manning. And, yes, he only has the one Super Bowl ring. And, he's probably not in the top five quarterbacks that played in 2007 on the list of "If you had to pick one quarterback to start one game you had to win". With all of that said, Favre still sits at the top of our list for quarterbacks we would pick if we had to make one play to win a game. Time and time again, he seemed to make plays that nobody thought he could make, or should make. Whether it was forcing a pass into double coverage, stumbling out of the pocket and making one of those underhanded tosses like in the Divisional playoff game this year, or drawing up plays in the dirt in the huddle, Favre had a knack for making the most exciting and memorable plays over and over. One such play that defined his career took place in a playoff game that the Packers actually lost. In the fourth quarter of a close playoff game with his team trailing the 49ers, Favre led his team down the field, and threw a go ahead touchdown pass to Antonio Freeman on a play that Mike Holmgren later said was "drawn up in the dirt". With little time remaining, and his team knocking on the door of the endzone, Favre told Freeman in the huddle that he would "audible" at the line, but to run a different route than the audible called for. In fact, the route he told Freeman to run wasn't in the playbook at all. Since the 49ers ran the same version of the West Coast Offense that the Packers ran at that time, the San Francisco defense was extremely familiar with the verbiage and hand signals that the Packers were using. Coming to the line, Favre surveyed the defense, and used a hand signal to change Freeman's route to "Q18", a route in the West Coast Offense that called for him to break off his pattern if he saw the safety playing over the top. In the huddle, Favre told Freeman to break as if he was going to cut the pattern short, and then bolt behind the safety once he had bitten on the underneath route. Once the safety saw the hand signal for "Q18", he certainly knew the route, and was in what he thought to be perfect position to make the play. After the snap, Freeman ran his route as Favre had instructed him, and the safety made only one fateful step forward. Freeman slipped behind him, and Favre threw what Steve Young called "the ugliest duck" of a pass over the safety's head for six. Returning to the sideline, Mike Holmgren uttered not a word to his quarterback, furious that Favre had just run what amounted to a backyard play at a crucial time in a playoff game. If he had, one would imagine that he would paraphrase the manager in "Major League": "Nice throw. Don't ever fucking do it again." That's what made Brett Favre a fan favorite and frequent recipient of slurp jobs from many in the media. If the running soap opera of his will he or won't he retirement over the past couple of years, or the seemingly constant stream of obnoxious praise heaped on him by the media have served to make some talk show hosts or bloggers sick of him, almost everyone will miss watching Brett Favre make plays that he probably shouldn't.

I am ready to headbutt somebody!!! or How two teams I hate made Super Bowl XLII the most exciting one ever.

2008-02-04T22:25:00.000-05:00

The above play literally made me jump out of my chair and look for someone or something to headbutt. I was so excited about the Patriots not winning the Super Bowl that as I perused this here internet earlier today, several thoughts came to mind. First, you can almost hear this guy crying. Priceless stuff. Also, another thought ocurred to me: what happened to Donte' Stallworth? Jabar Gaffney? And other than the pass interference call in the end zone, Ben Watson? Far too many names that weren't called last night for the Pats. All of that adds up to the result we all saw. Anyway, in keeping with the general theme of elation, this clip is good for a hindsight chuckle or two, and these guys have put together a pretty comprehensive compendium on the history of choking. All in all, a pretty good day for a Monday. I'm just glad that we won't have to listen to the Patriots for the next 35 years talking about how they are the only team to go 19-0. Mercury Morris is surely annoying, but Rodney Harrison (he of the HGH suspension), Tedy Bruschi (did you know he had a stroke?), Mike Vrabel (did you know that they sometimes use him as a goal line tight end?), Juniour Seau (pile jumper), Tom Brady (did you know he's dating a supermodel and fathered a child out of wedlock with his actress ex-girlfriend?) and Bill Belichick (cheater) would be much worse. Combine that cast of undesirables with the obnoxious Boston fanbase, and the NFL would be almost unwatchable for the forseeable future. Having to live in a world where Eli Manning is a Super Bowl MVP is a fair trade in my opinion.

Santana to the Mets...meh

2008-01-30T08:32:00.000-05:00

We here at The Young Lefthander are unabashed Braves fans. The news yesterday of the Santana has greatly altered not only the NL East, but potentially the NL. Let's get this out of the way, Johan Santana is the best pitcher in the game. You will hear from rival teams a lot about how last year was a down year, and Santana is potentially regressing as a pitcher, "that's not true."

Over the last four years Santana has been early 2000s Pedro Martinez. His averages over the last four years have been:

228IP 246SO 3.10ERA

No one has been even close to that. He has also won two Cy Youngs, and probably should have won a third. His numbers for last year were pretty much in line with his career averages, the only number that really jumped was his HR total which went from 24 in 2006 to 33 in 2007. That would explain the mild increase in ERA, however, all of his other periphery numbers were in line with his career averages, including his WHIP (see ESPN).

The more distressing thing for Braves fans is the fact that the Mets did not give up anything regarding major league talent. We were all under the impression that the only way this trade would happen is if the Mets gave up Reyes and Heilman. Reyes is one of the best young SS in the game, though not the best, and a little overrated (that is a topic for another day). Heilman is an excellent reliever who has the potential to be a closer, and still relatively cheap. I am not going into all the prospects the Twins received, but none of them are considered upper tier prospects, with Carlos Gomez considered being the best of the bunch. The rap on Carlos Gomez is that he is the typical "toolsy" outfielder who many scouts feel may not hit well enough in the majors.

The Braves are going to have a potent lineup and the only seeminly week area would still be the back end of the rotation. The rotation has a lot of potential, but we are relying still on the health of a few aging starters (see Smoltz and Glavine). If you asked me right now I would have to say that the Mets are probably the team to beat with the Braves slightly trailing in the NL East. I reserve the right to change that assessment before the season starts.

The President's on! He's on every channel!

2008-01-28T21:19:00.000-05:00

While you watch President Bush's last State of the Union address, here's a quick update on ACC hoops.

Duke (17-1, 5-0) Not sold on these guys yet. Tough to take them seriously when Scheyer continues to see meaningful minutes
UNC (19-1, 4-1) These guys are good. Hansbrough is a beast, and they'll be battle tested by March. Be prepared to see lots of them later in the season.
Boston College (12-6, 3-2) Haven't seen alot of them, but haven't been impressed from what I have seen.
Clemson (15-5, 3-3) Too much like their football team: fast start, fall apart late.
Virginia Tech (12-8, 3-3) Athletically gifted, they seem to have a little trouble staying focused. Could have beaten Duke if they weren't so preoccupied with playing physical.
Georgia Tech (10-9, 3-3) Left for dead after Young and Crittendon defected to the NBA after last year, they seem to have found their legs somewhat, playing Kansas and UNC very tough, and ripping off three straight conference wins over Virginia Tech, NC State, and Virginia.
Miami (15-4, 2-3) Talented backcourt, but not sure they have all they need to make it to the tournament.
NC State (13-6, 2-3) Probably better than most expected. Need to be able to steal a couple of tough road games before they are considered legit.
Wake Forest (12-6, 2-3) Again, haven't seen much, but unless Tim Duncan's walking through that door (and he's not), it's not their year.
Maryland (12-8, 2-3) Probably the most dangerous of the three loss teams. The win over UNC could signal good things to come.
Florida State (13-8, 2-4) If they can't get Jenn Sterger on board, why should anyone pay attention?
Virginia (11-7, 1-4) Trendy preseason "team to watch" hasn't lived up to expectations. Solid backcourt, but they need to put it together. Losing at home to a less talented Georgia Tech team is definitely not a good sign.

We'll try to be back tomorrow with more fun.

Cloverfield

2008-01-27T21:03:00.000-05:00

We just got back from seeing Cloverfield, and our official verdict is: meh. The monster was pretty cool, but we've seen Blair Witch before. To the right, you see the funniest opinion we have seen on what the monster looks like. We were marginally excited to see it, but we did enjoy this trailer. Also, we can't wait for this. Should be a good summer for movies.

Here we go...

2008-01-27T11:45:00.000-05:00

We would like to post here more often, but we have a difficult time finding enough content that we have enough of an opinion on to post that much. We do, however, know a good idea when we see it, and we're not above borrowing it (with proper credit given, of course).

This is sure to send obnoxious, neurotic Bostonians into a frenzied panic.
This guy just might be the antidote to all things Federer, and winning the Australian Open could put him on a roll.
Here's some proof that models are crazy people.
We just started playing with this, and it's dangerously addictive.

We might be back later in the day with some more random fun.

Note: We'll give all our link sources credit in the tags. That way, they'll all stay organized and you can find everything easier.

Finally!!!

2008-01-26T18:00:00.000-05:00

After a 6+ month layoff, we have decided to wander back to the keyboard, and start banging out useless crap nobody reads. We are just over a week away from the merciful end of the football season, and we absolutely can't wait for it to be over. As with most folks who grew up in the hotbed of college football that is the southeastern United States, we love us some football, but, by the end of college football and the NFL playoffs, we feel like a kid at the end of the school year: exhausted and ready for a vacation. Such are the consequences of living and dying with your teams. So, we eagerly anticipate the ending of the football season, and the rejuvenation that comes along with March Madness, MLB, golf, and even tennis. After all, it won't be that long before training camp starts and it's time for fantasy drafts. Enjoy the respite people, it doesn't last long.

A little visual evidence that backs up that whole tennis thing.

Tim Duncan

2007-06-15T22:46:00.000-05:00

In our view, Tim Duncan is one of the top three plsyers that we have ever seen play in the NBA. You have Jordan, Magic, and then Duncan. Dominique comes in at 5 for those of you who were wondering. Larry Bird takes the number 4 slot. Tim Duncan now has 4 titles, 3 Finals MVP awards, and 2 regular season MVP awards. He simply is the best player on the best team in the NBA. There are lots of people that want to bemoan the plight of the Phoenix Suns. In our opinion, the Suns are alot like Roy Jones, Jr. There is always an excuse. Last year, they were worn out. This year, it was the one game suspension of Stoudamire and Diaw. Nobody bothers to mention that the series between the Suns and the Spurs could have been seriously altered by a commanding performance in game 5 by the Suns. They simply folded their tent and went home. Is that the trait of a champion? We think not. The Spurs are without a doubt the most dominant team in the post Jordan era, and that includes the 3-peat Lakers team. Is there any way that that Lakers squad beats the Spurs of today? We think not. Hate them all you want; the Spurs are the business.

What shall come of this?

2007-06-15T22:39:00.000-05:00

The soap opera has ended. Dale Jr. has cast his lot with Rick Hendrick. In our opinion, Hendrick Motorsports is the best team on the circuit, so, if Dale wants to win and win now, Hendrick is the most obvious choice. There will be those that discount Dale's decision for years to come. In our view, those detractors are short-sighted. With this new partnership, Dale Jr. has a legitimate chance to prove himself once and for all. If he can't win at Hendrick, then he simply can't win.

NFL Draft Special Part 1

2007-04-28T13:00:00.000-05:00

The top ten picks are in and we are beside ourselves in disbelief. What follows is our analysis of the top ten picks. We had a funny feeling after the first three picks, but nobody was prepared for the bombshell at nine.

Jamarcus Russell, LSU
Oakland Raiders. This makes sense and it was expected, so we won't spend too much time on it. Big guy, big arm, fits the Raider mentality. Maybe Randy Moss wil be happier with him throuwing the ball.
Calvin Johnson, Georgia Tech
Detroit Lions. While this may have raised some eyebrows a month ago, this became a virtual lock earlier in the week. It remains to be seen whether the Lions will try to package him and trade with another team or not. If they can't, then they still end up with the consensus best player in the draft.
Joe Thomas, Wisconsin
Cleveland Browns. A mild surprise that would foretell more and bigger surprises in the top ten. Even though Thomas is a solid player, we're not sure that he was the best value at three. Brady Quinn would have been an ideal pick here, but Cleveland decided to go in another direction for some reason. Poor Brady. More on him later.
Gaines Adams, Clemson
Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Expected to be off the board early, we're surprised that he lasted all the way to four, and even more surprised that he was taken by Tampa. This slot was generally thought to be where Calvin Johnson would go if he was still available, and if not, then Brady Quinn. The freefall continues for Quinn.
Levi Brown, Penn State
Arizona Cardinals. Considered by some to be the top rated offensive lineman in the draft, we are a little gun shy about players from Penn State. Too many busts out of there in the last few years. Certainly fills a desperate need for the Cardinals.
Laron Landry, LSU
Washington Redskins. Another surprise in that everyone expected Washington to trade out of this spot. We're a little disappointed that Landry didn't last to eight, where the Falcons have a big need at safety. Good player, and we're kind of a fan because his brother played at Georgia Tech.
Adrian Peterson, Oklahoma
Minnesota Vikings. Great value for Minnesota. Brady Quinn would have been a nice fit, but the Vikings have cast their lot with Tavaris Jackson. Peterson should excel on the carpet in the dome, and he will split time with Chester Taylor, allowing him to preserve himself a little.
Jamaal Anderson, Arkansas
Atlanta Falcons. After losing Patrick Kerney, the Falcons had a huge need on the defensive line. Anderson is, in our opinion, a little overrated. Not great value here, but he might be a solid contributor. We think that the Falcons were a little shellshocked by the Redskins taking Landry at six, and they had to scramble to find a fit. We're just glad the Falcons didn't waste a pick on Leon Hall from Michigan, who is slower than all of our contributors.
Ted Ginn, Jr., Ohio State
Miami Dolphins. The first real "wow" moment of the draft. Quinn seemed like a lock, given the fact that Daunte Culpepper is unreliable, and their other two options are Cleo Lemon and some dude from Indiana that we have never heard of. Certainly the worst pick in the top ten in terms of value, we're not sure why the Dolphins made this selection. Ginn doesn't make sense on any level. He doesn't fill a need, and he's not a good route runner. If the Dolphins were not going to take a quarterback, then Dwayne Jarrett or even Steve Smith make more sense. Good for Ginn, bad for the Dolphins.
Amobi Okoye, Louisville
Houston Texans. After trading for Matt Schaub, quarterback was not a need, so another disappointing selection for Quinn. We are of the opinion that Houston is taking the right mindset in trying to build defense, since the only way for them to succeed in their division is to try and stop the offensive juggernaut in Indianapolis. Okoye is only 19 years old, but he is a genetic freak along the lines of Lebron James. They are both grown men before the age of twenty. Tremendous upside here. He might be a bit of a project, but the Texans have the time to invest in him.

Poor Brady Quinn. Not selected in the top ten, he and his family left the green room to have some privacy. He may not be selected until 23 by Kansas City, and we don't know why. First Cleveland, then Miami passed on him, and the freefall was on. We will have more posts throughout the day, so stay tuned.

How Not to Build a College Football Powerhouse

2007-02-21T21:51:00.000-05:00

You know if we're posting a story about college football in late February, it has to be juicy. At the University of Arkansas, a story continues to unfold that seems more like it belongs in an Aaron Spelling night-time soap than in the SEC. For those of you who don't know, Arkansas' run to the SEC Championship Game came on the heels of one of the most highly touted recruiting classes in school history. Just how did the Razorbacks pull it off? Hire the head coach of a high school powerhouse as offensive coordinator, of course. Well, that and make promises they knew they couldn't keep. Before last season, Arkansas hired the head coach of Springdale High School, Gus Malzahn as offensive coordinator. This helped them land three prized prospects: Damian Williams, Ben Cleveland, and the nation's top quarterback prospect, Mitch Mustain. This is where the ridiculous promises come in. Head coach Houston Nutt allegedly told the parents of the Springdale trio that the team would adopt Malzahn's hurry-up, no huddle spread offense that would emphasize the pass and that the three freshmen to be would figure prominently in the new system. That didn't exactly happen. In the rough and tumble SEC West, there is usually little room for such gimmicky offenses, what with the likes of LSU, Auburn, and Alabama perenially trotting out three of the stingiest defenses in the nation. In circumstances such as that, it's best to know how to run the football, and run it well. The decision to stay with a more traditional offense apparently angered the parents of the three freshmen so that they felt the need to intrude upon Frank Broyles, longtime athletic director, and one of our favorites. They had a meeting with Broyles during which they inquired about the direction of the program, and whether Malzahn would be able to exert any more influence on how the offense is run, and how much the passing game would factor into that offense. This is the first time that we have heard about parents trying to strong-arm any college program, much less a powerhouse in the making in the SEC. In the wake of the meeting with Broyles, Damian Williams has transferred to USC, Mustain has been granted his release and will reportely visit USC in late February as he decides where he will play next year. Ben Cleveland will stay at Arkansas. Offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn has left the program and will coach next year at the University of Tulsa. This whole sordid affair, in our view, has brought about three things. First, Frank Broyles' tenure at Arkansas will come to a conclusion at the end of the school year. We believe that this development will eventually lead to the second, Houston Nutt losing his job. As good as his team was on the field last season, the Razorbacks were not so hot on the recruiting trail. Out of twelve teams in the conference, Arkansas' recruiting class ranked ninth. It seems to us that other recruits are now leery of promises made to them by Nutt, and rightfully so. Third, and most disturbing, an event like this serves to pull back the curtain on major college football as a business, while also showcasing how obsessed some fans become with their favorite team. Above is an email sent to Mitch Mustain by a crazed Arkansas fan (big thanks go out to Kenny for sending this along; and yeah, the image is illegible but if you right click it and open in new window, you can read it. Kind of a pain in the ass I know but it's worth it, trust me). The whole situation has gotten out of hand. Bad for Arkansas, bad for the kids, bad for the SEC, and bad for college football.

50 is the new 18

2007-02-16T11:29:00.000-05:00

For some reason, great athletes are always wanting to return to their sport after retirement. With Scotty Pippen talking about wanting to return to the NBA and Holyfield returning to the ring, this got me thinking about other "Greats" that should return to their sports.

The great Hank Aaron is only 73 and with his record of 755 home runs being threatened to be broken, this is a great time to once again start swinging that bat. I know he has not hit a home run since July 20, 1976, but hitting home runs is like riding a bike, at first it might be a little hard, but once he gets into it we will see that record somewhere around 836. He now has some free time on his hands since he dropped a couple of his BMW stores and only owns one now, so he has plenty of training time. Bonds, with his track marks will have a hard time catching up if Aaron puts up those hits.

Magic Johnson can still be a dominant point guard in the NBA at the age of 47. He can bring the game to a new level with what he has learned from owning a couple Burger Kings and movie theaters around the US. He still can put the fear of god in someone when ever he posts up since he still has a small case of the hiv.

Football great Jim McMahon can come out of retirement and bring the Bears back and win another Super Bowl like he did in Super Bowl XX. With Grossman giving excuse after excuse, the Bears just need to pick up the man who made an outstanding cameo in Johnny Be Good, McMahon.

The Athlete that I will love to see return is the great Anna Kournikova because she is really HOT.

More News and a Mid-Week Scramble

2007-02-14T22:01:00.000-05:00

Since we have been light on posts ourselves, and since our recently assembled murderers' row of authors has been short on content as well, we have added another author to the mix. He will bring the L.A. perspective to the mix (that's Lower Alabama, not Los Angeles, y'all), presumably concentrated on football, baseball, and basketball. He is certainly capable and knowledgable, so we look forward to his contributions. Also, we are rolling out a new weekly feature called The Scramble. This will be a stream of consciousness type of round up hitting the high points on several sporting fronts. The Scramble will feature some news, some analysis, opinions, and other random thoughts that popped into our heads in the last week. Without further ado, here is the first:

The Scramble

College Basketball: Kevin Durant certainly looks to us to be a better player right now than Greg Oden. We're not saying that he will be better at the next level, but he's better today. In some local news, Georgia Tech bested Florida State Tuesday night for their first road win since the Millard Fillmore administration. Are the Jackets tournament worthy? We'll find out soon enough with upcoming tilts against UNC, Duke, Virginia, and Boston College.

Major League Baseball: Be on the lookout for the Atlanta Braves this season. After last year's disappointing showing, the Braves now feature arguably the best back end of the bullpen in the bigs. They also possess the best defensive outfield in baseball for at least one more year. If the starting pitching and Chipper Jones can stay healthy, they figure to have a say in which team will represent the NL in the World Series. Not saying they're winning the division, probably wild card, but they should make the playoffs.

Boxing: Watched Shane Moseley last Saturday night. He looked pretty good, but, then again, his opponent looked bad enough that we won't even mention his name.

NASCAR: The Daytona 500 is Sunday and our money, even though we hate to say it, is on Tony Stewart. He looked extremely fast in the Bud Shootout Saturday night, and, if he can keep his car in one piece through the Gatorade Duels on Thursday, he is probably the man to beat.

College Football: Here is some research we did last week. We couldn't figure what to make of it, so we decided to post it and let you figure it out. Normally we would have discarded the info, but it took so long to compile that we felt we owed it to ourselves to use it for something. Enjoy.

National Champions Since 1986 and Combined Records in the Following Two Years

2004 USC 23-3

2003 LSU 20-5

2002 Ohio State 19-6

2001 Miami (Fl) 23-3

2000 Oklahoma 23-4

1999 Florida State 19-6

1998 Tennessee 17-4

1997 Michigan 20-5

1997 Nebraska 21-5

1996 Florida 20-4

1995 Nebraska 24-2

1994 Nebraska 23-2

1993 Florida State 20-3-1

1992 Alabama 21-4-1

1991 Washington 16-7

1991 Miami (Fl) 20-3

1990 Colorado 17-5-2

1990 Georgia Tech 13-11

1989 Miami (Fl) 21-3

1988 Notre Dame 21-4

1987 Miami (Fl) 22-2

1986 Penn State 13-10

Editor's Note: Texas (2005) was not included as they have not completed two seasons since winning the National Championship. Co-champions are listed for 1990, 1991, and 1997 but not 2003 since the BCS Championship Game guarantees #1 vs. #2 with the winner being crowned the National Champion.

The Simpson Curse

2007-02-08T23:38:00.000-05:00

Well, the curse of O.J. Simpson has struck again. You remember the Juice right? He's the guy that most certainly did not murder his wife and another person. He's also the guy that wrote a book about how he most certainly did not murder those people but, if he had, here's how it went down. Yeah, this is one Heisman Trophy winner that's gonna burn in hell. Anyway, the members of his legal "dream team" are starting to pay karmic retribution for keeping Simpson out of jail. Robert Kardashian, one of the attorneys, is the latest affected. Apparently, his daughter Kim is best friends with Paris Hilton. As if that wasn't enough, she made a sex tape with the younger brother of R&B singer Brandy. If you try hard enough, you can find the beginning of the tape online. What other members of the "dream team" have been stricken by the O.J. Simpson Curse you might ask? Johnny Cochran. He's dead.

College Football Recruiting Wrap Up

2007-02-08T23:21:00.000-05:00

Here are the top ten recruiting classes in the nation plus two local teams of interest according to scout.com:
1. Florida
2. LSU
3. USC
4. Texas
5. Tennessee
6. Auburn
7. South Carolina
8. Oregon
9. Pittsburgh
10. Michigan
14. Georgia Tech
17. Georgia

So what does this all mean? Nobody really knows. Recruiting is so much of an inexact science that no one really knows what they have for at least a year. Consider two local players of recent note: Calvin Johnson was a 3 star recruit that was told by UGA that he would have to sit as a freshman behind Fred Gibson. Cameron Smith was a 4 star recruit and considered to be one of the best running backs in the nation. He signed a letter of intent for Georgia last year. After leaving Butler Community College this past fall, Smith has enrolled in a junior college in Texas. Whether he will ever play football for UGA remains to be seen. Calvin Johnson is widely considered to be the best player in the NFL draft coming up in April. All this means is that nobody really knows what the hell they are talking about. These recruiting rankings only serve to give sports talk radio hosts something to talk about and fans something to brag about in the offseason. Another unintended but vicious side effect of all of this recruiting hype is that head coaches find themselves on the hot seat a little faster. Les Miles has certainly racked up some fine recruits for the Bayou Bengals this year. However, what happens if he loses again to Auburn? Or, heaven forbid, that he loses to Alabama and the hated Nick Saban? After all, he supposedly out-recruited both of those programs. Might the finger be pointed at him? Probably. This is just another ridiculous reason college head coaches get fired. Ask Bill Curry and Frank Solich.

How the Sports World dealing with the Death of Anna Nicole Smith?

2007-02-08T16:38:00.000-05:00

Today, the world has lost Anna Nicole Smith. A women who popped on the scene in Playboy, then strutted across your tvs in Guess jeans commercials, and made a statement by showing the world that a 26 year old stripper can love a rich old man. A woman who showed cable veiwers everywhere that she was still around and living the good life after the passing of her husband. Then became an inspiration to everyone when she dropped the weight of a small country in Africa. After all this she faced tragedy when she lost the life of her son when giving birth to her daughter.

How can the sports world handle such a loss? I wanted to find out.

I first went to the news websites to see what was going on. CNN, Fox News, MSN, local news, etc. all had some type of breaking coverage. Even the front page of yahoo, and other online sites had coverage. So I ventured to the sports sites to see how they where handling it.

First, I went to the Cable 24hr Sport Superpower, ESPN.com, but nothing... There is something about the Cowboys and Dale Jr. wants to buy something, maybe a car or something like that. There was a banner ad of a hot girl holding a basketball, promoting the Road Warrior: Hardwood Sweet.

Then I moved over to Sports Illustrated website, SI.com, NOTHING. There is something about Prince, something from a Dr. Z about grading announcers, and a story about Wisconsin, but who cares about cheese at a time like this. But they do have something about the Swimsuit models.

CBS Sportsline only had a story about a guy named Wade and the Cowboys not confirming that he is the new coach and had a picture of another guy wearing a goofy hat. Dissappointing. Where are the reporters?

MSN Fox sports had a story about who will be number one in the NFL draft with my boy Brady Quinn. Like all the other sports pages nothing about the great loss America experienced today.

As fans of sports. We must make a stand for such of an outrage like this. It is the duty of a reporter to report what is going on. These sites should have covered how the sports world was dealing with the loss of Anna Nicole Smith.

Editor's Note: The Dom is one of the people we recruited during our week away. He will post whenever the hell he wants about whatever the hell he wants.

New news and an explanation

2007-02-07T21:53:00.000-05:00

Okay. We said we were going to post once a day. And we didn't. We're sorry. However, there is a pretty good reason (okay, excuse) for the obscene layoff. Between job interviews, meeting with real estate agents, and meeting with home inspectors, we've had quite a full plate over the last week or so. We did spend some of our time away from the blog doing some good old fashioned recruiting in the name of The Young Lefthander. Hopefully, we will soon be joined by a very carefully selected and talented group of misfits that promise to cause as much trouble as humanly possible. The end result should be more posts and more wide ranging topics in and around the world of sport. Some of these new posts will most certainly not have a thing to do with sports, but our world would be collectively sadder without them. So, we are back, and we look forward to bringing you another joyful way to waste time.

About That Name

2007-01-31T14:58:00.000-05:00

In all the excitement of creating the new blog and bashing on Bill Simmons, we forgot to explain the name of our humble effort. Depending on your definition, we may or may not be very young, but we are decidedly not left handed. The young lefthander is a term that was first used by the late Al Ciraldo and later by the irreplacable Wes Durham to describe their broadcast partner, the late Kim King. King was a three year starter at quarterback for Georgia Tech during the mid-sixties and was involved with Georgia Tech football for over fifty years.

Surprise! Another Simmons Bashing!

2007-01-31T13:26:00.000-05:00

As new kids on the sports blog block, we felt the best way to earn some street cred was to pile on everyone's favorite target and a guy we actually used to like, Bill Simmons. The supposed "Sports Guy" reminds us of a radio personality that was in the Atlanta area for a brief while, Scott Ferrall. Ferrall was out of Las Vegas before coming to Atlanta, and he probably should have stayed there. Once he arrived in the A, he became the afternoon drive time guy on an AM sports talk station. His act had to be watered down to fit with the, shall we say, conservative station bosses as well as the listeners that didn't give a shit about hockey, his alleged area of expertise. Fairly soon, his show consisted of people calling in and imitating him back to himself (remind you of anyone?). In many cases, the callers were as funny, if not more so, than Ferrall himself. He was cut loose with a quickness. He briefly resurfaced as the radio play by play voice of the Atlanta Thrashers. This was problematic in two ways. First, the Thrashers were new, bad, and on an FM station. Great idea. Let's put hockey on FM radio in a town where the NHL doesn't rate in the top five leagues to follow. Second, this guy's voice sounded like Harvey Firestein smoked three cartons of Marlboro Reds and ate a truckload of gravel. Ferrall didn't last two seasons. What does this have to do with Simmons, you ask? Well, his editors at ESPN tie his hands and won't let him blast idiots that need blasting. As a result, his columns are watered down retreads that give readers a creepy sense of deja vu. His reader e-mails are often funnier than his actual columns, and that's just the ones he can slip past the editors. Then there was that experiment with Billy Boy doing color for college basketball. The brass over at ESPN must have had a ton of confidence in a guy that has somewhere in the neighborhood of zero knowledge of college athletics, considering they put him on a network that approximately 14.36 people actually get. The biggest tragedy of all is that Simmons is still the only columnist on Page 2 that remains remotely readable. Maybe when he moves on, his work will be fresher and more enjoyable. For now, he's just another douche.