College Game Day: Game of the Week! Auburn @ Vandy!

College Game Day is in Nashville, at Vanderbilt today as 19th ranked Vandy will take on 13th ranked Auburn at 6 pm tonight. There's much to question with Auburn's lack of offense under new offensive-coordinator Tony Franklin at the helm, Auburn has scored just three touchdowns in the first six weeks of college football. Auburn is 4-1, 2-1 in the SEC, with a 3-2 final score on their win over Mississippi State.

And now, we turn to Vanderbilt. Vandy is 4-0, 2-0 in the SEC (beating Ol'Miss and South Carolina). Vandy is ranked 19th in the nation-their highest ranking in 52 years and haven't had a winning season in the last 25 years (see stat snapped from ABC broadcast) which means no one on Vandy's squad was alive the last time the school had a winning season. Granted Vanderbilt is in a tough (SEC) conference (the Commodores are ranked 12th in total offense) and they do have tough academic standards which is prehaps the reason, Vandy also has the smallest stadium in the SEC with a capacity of just 39,000-that's only 11,000 more than the Citadel Bulldogs stadium. Yet, the Commodores are #1 in turnover margins, #1 in the nation in least amount of penalties and have an excellent chance of winning today; if they can prevent third-down conversions (read: Auburn's run attack) and continue their unique knack for gaining excellent field advantage. And it would appear that Vegas thinks this will be a close game as the line on has Auburn as -4 favorites.

Financial Bracketology from Jay-Bird!

Click on image for a larger (and printable) version!

Friday Funnies: Palin's Debate Highlights

I have to say, she didn't take the my advice; Palin talked in circles and did little to impress, and sadly, she used the word "Maverick" more times than the movie "Top Gun" did in an hour and a half. Oh they have to do another one of these so I can gather the old college crew together for a new drinking game-drink every time Palin says "maverick".

John McCain and the Media and the Bushido Gives Advice to Sara Palin

Boy Scout sent me this video from BrasscheckTV

I hate to be the contrarian here, but isn’t this the same “flip-flopping” issue gerrymandering that made John Kerry untrustworthy in the last go around? Regardless, tonight is the Vice-Presidential Debate, starring Gov. Sara Palin for the Red Team and Senator Joe Biden for the Blue Team.

The Bushido’s Advice to Governor Palin:

If I could pull the Governor from Alaska (Palin) to the side and advise her on what to say tonight (not that she hasn’t had the best advice money can buy) I would start with this:

1) Quit trying to answer questions. Politicians are not known for answering questions, just spinning their response back to their party/candidate’s talking points. The reason you sound like some air-head chick from the nasal-voice regions of Northern-Ohio, Michigan or Minnesota (other than the fact you talk out your nose) is that you are trying to answer questions way over your pay-grade. Get on iTunes, grab a couple of Ann Coulters' books and pony up on your misinformation: Democrats are evil; they will raise your taxes and Obama is a Muslim. (None of which are true-except for the raise your taxes part, because Governor you make over $250,000 a year and own a plane, etc).

2) Go after Biden's record on treatment of the working-middle class America. Tone down the Joe-Six-Pack because I perceive that as going after the craftbrew drinkers willing to shell out $8 to $13 for a six-pack of high gravity or microbrewed beer. Obviously, I can't speak for everyone who falls into that category, but I would guess a majority of which will not being voting Republican. As you all know, the Bushido is not a fan of Senator Joe Biden and neither should you be Sara Palin-he's your opponent. Now, the word on the street is that he's not going after you because the polling shows that any move against your record will be seen as an attack on all women. So instead of those "golly-geesh" comments that make idiots like you-say something substantial (i.e. Senator, you say you are for working-class Americans but you wrote the Universal Credit Bill which allows credit card companies the ability to jack cardholders rates to the max if they are late on just one of their bills. You could even put a face on it; let's talk about Jed, a single-dad, college graduate living in South Carolina who didn't pay the entire payment on one of his student loans, he paid it the next month, but before that payment was received his two credit cards raised the interests rates on his cards to 29%. Now Senator, how is a single-working father supposed to make ends meet? Whose interests do you have in mind here, the average working Joe or the big banks (i.e. MBNA from your home state)?

3) Finally, quit lying or telling half-truths because you will get caught. When you announced at your RNC brew-ha-ha that you cut costs as Governor of Alaska by selling the Governor's jet (what I affectionally refer to as "Kodiak One") on E-Bay. You had to know that the Associated Press would smell the blood and trace the trail to the rotting corpse of bull-sh_crap being eaten by lying maggots of false truths. And now we (the public) know that you didn't sell it on E-Bay, you used a broker and sold the Gulfstream (Kodiak One) for a $500,000 loss. You are in the big leagues now kid, you might have been able to hit .300 in the Class-A affiliate whilst facing guys who threw 80 mph fastballs, now you have to get in the box and try to pick up that 100 mph fastball. So Sara, keep your eye on the ball, and give it your best; then again, all you have to do is show up tonight and not completely fall on your face.

Red Sox Win Game 1 in the ALDS!

Bottom of the 9th: The odds the Angels will score +2 to tie the game is 13.23%; the odds they will score +1 with nobody on is 28.24%

The first batter, catcher Mike Napoli who just took a missile off the knee in the top of the inning, just went down on strikes as Red Sox pitcher Jonathan Papelbon just threw him the heat. Gary Matthews just singled to right. Aybar up to the plate, pinch-runner Morales just took 2nd on defensive indifference. Aybar down on strikes. Chone Figgins at the plate, quickly falls 0-2, now 1-2, with Garret Anderson on-deck. Got-em, Papelbon throws a fast-ball to the outside of the plate and Figgins goes down swinging. Game over, Red Sox just received their 10th consecutive win over the Angels: tying the record set by the Oakland A's (of wins by one team over another in the post-season) who defeated the Red Sox 10-consecutive times spanning the years of 1988 through 2003. Boston wins 4-1 to take Game-1!

Top of the 9th:
Adding to Jason Bay's 2-run homer off of a fast-ball offering from John Lackey in the 6th inning (the traded Manny Ramirez hit a solo-home-run, becoming the all-time post-season home run leader with 25 home-runs, for the Dodgers in their win earlier tonight over the Cubs) Jed Lowrie got on base and then was brought in by a right-field single from the bat of Jacoby Ellsbury (for his 5th time on base tonight). Pedroia is up and Ellsbury steals his second bag of the evening (this kid is on fire-go get his rookie card if you don't have it already). Pedroia grounds out to Scott Shields the pitcher. After being blanked all-night, Big Papi extended his post-season hit streak to 12 games by ripping a single up the middle off of Shields. Angels bring in Arrendondo to end the inning.

Bottom of the 8th:
Boston's Justin Masterson got through the meat of the Angels' line-up: getting Tex (Teixeira) to fly-out to center. Vlady Guerro singled to left and was followed by Tori Hunter's single to right, but as the ball dropped just out of Youk's reach, Vlady rounded 2nd heading to 3rd, not considering that Kevin Youkilis has a couple of Golden Gloves and was thrown out by Youk at third by about 10-feet. Last at bat for the Angels was Hendrick, who hit into a fielder's choice, Lowrie tossed out Hunter at second for the final out in the 8th inning.

The Red Sox will play the Angels again on Friday night with Dice-K taking the mound for Boston.

Chuck is back on tonight @ 8 pm!

I love this show, they have the whole spy-genre, smoking hot chicks, Mr. Awesome and nerdy kid just trying to live his life after getting tossed from college-which as we learned last season was a good thing-I guess. The premise of the show is regular guy (Chuck) has a super-computer (the Intercept) sent to him and now he "flashes" on bad guys in the government's computer base. This show is one of the Bushido's favorites and had it been on when I was an adolescent, I would own the entire first season. The season premier airs tonight at 8:00 pm on NBC.

Oktoberfest @ Gene's Haufbrau!

You got to love the apron on this guy, sort of mock lederhosen. He said, he actually bought it in Germany in Augsbruck! A-Bro better pick me up one of these when he goes on Wednesday!

UUUpppssss!

UUUuuuuupppssss! I guess I was Wrong-My B! Honestly, I thought this game was going to be a lot closer than it was. Evidently, Bama didn't care that there was a black-out, nor did they care that Georgia was the favorite, and they didn't pay much attention to the crowd-noise.

But as predicted, Georgia killed themselves with penalties ad nauseum. (See photo of Mark Richt hearing the explanation of one of the many penalties Georgia received.) And unfortunately, the press began to note that all of the black wardrobes and body paint, where nothing more than apropos dress for a funeral.

But there's good news: Florida lost today to Old Miss, so tickets to the event formally known as the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party won't be astronomical in price.