Friday Notes: September 7, 2007

Here are some notes for you as you try to remember why you took Reggie Bush in the 2nd round:

• The Colts just obliterated the Saints last night in the NFL season opener.  Either their defense is better than anyone thought, or the Saints offense is totally clueless.  To me, it looked like Sean Payton wasn’t making offensive adjustments until it was too late, but it’s possible that everything was just screwy because they couldn’t run the ball for more than 3 yards per carry.  The Colts offense looked great, although Will Smith was putting some pressure on Peyton via Tony Ugoh.  A better defense might be able to cause more problems for them.  At any rate, it was an exciting way to start the season, even if it was a one-sided game from the third quarter on.
• Dirk Hayhurst is a reliever in the Padres’ minor league system, and apparently he’s doing a diary on Baseball America’s site.  This entry is a pretty good one, for sure.  (h/t John Brattain of THT)
• Baylor must really want to break their football losing streak to my alma mater McCallie.  I was in eighth grade the last time Big Blue lost to that school across the river, but I’m not optimistic after the losses from last year’s team.  This year, with Baylor designated as the home team, their administration has decided to move the game from its recent home at downtown’s Finley Stadium to Baylor’s home stadium, which has about 1/4 the capacity.  Last year’s game attracted 13,000 people, of which I was one, but I have little desire to pay a visit to Baylor’s campus for this one.

  This decision is already causing all kinds of headaches logistically, with McCallie’s alumni weekend (and my five-year reunion) slated for that weekend.  The game is always a big part of the alumni gathering, and now most of the alumni will be unable to attend.  McCallie will only get 2,500 tickets, as I found out from an alumni mailer, and they are prioritizing the tickets for alumni based on reunion year (if it’s your multiple-of-5 year, you get priority).  McCallie’s sister school, GPS, will be left entirely without tickets.

  Of course, this is a terrible situation for everyone who would like to go to the game without parking miles away and packing into a grossly unprepared Heywood Stadium.  While Baylor AD Thad Lepcio has tried to spin this move as a way to create a better atmosphere for the game, I remain unconvinced that this is anything less than a way to give his team every possible advantage in the game.  He’s leaving plenty of his own fans, and certainly even more McCallie/GPS fans, out in the cold (or, more likely, at home watching on TV) in the process.

  McCallie-Baylor is perhaps the headlining game of the entire season for Chattanooga-area high school football, so it’s a shame that more people won’t get the chance to see it in person.  I don’t even know if I get the Chattanooga game of the week on CSS in Ringgold, so I guess I’d better figure out fast.

  Jay linked to the Chattanoogan article in my last post, so I’ll pass that along here:
  http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_112764.asp

  And no, I probably wouldn’t be as ticked off if the game were at Spears Stadium at McCallie.  But that’s some deep-rooted bias for you.

• Lost in all the Baylor ticket madness is the hype for this week’s McCallie game, which will be played at Finley Stadium against Brentwood Academy.  McCallie lost to Brentwood in last year’s state championship game, so that alone should make it an interesting game, but this year’s game has an added wrinkle: Ralph Potter.  The former McCallie coach will be patrolling the sidelines for Brentwood in this one, so it would be an incredibly sweet victory to beat the wandering McCallie alum’s team.  I expect that Brentwood will be favored, though, perhaps heavily.
• On to a totally different topic, I had to spring for the Best Buy special edition DVD for season 3 of The Office.  You can’t go wrong with a Dwight mini-bobblehead and your own very special Dundie award.  The best show on TV returns on 9/27, so I’ll have to refresh my memory quickly.

That’s all that’s on my mind this week.  I may throw out an August month-end meta post later today if I can get around to it.