For reasons I don’t fully understand, I’m watching the Baseball Tonight Trade Deadline special (never mind that it isn’t “tonight” yet anywhere west of Greenland at this point of the day), and Karl Ravech and Harold Reynolds are wearing basically the same pinstripe jackets. Don’t they have wardrobe people to catch this sort of stuff?

Related: The Road from Bristol continues in the second round.

Via EDSBS: New Ole Miss head coach Ed Orgeron calling out the whole team in his first team meeting using language that might even make a sailor blush—and, to top it off, challenging the whole team to a fight. The more amusing anecdote:

Lane was out passing with another player, and Coach O apparently ran up to him, tackled him, stripped the ball, and took off running down the field.

Meanwhile, Rick Cleveland reports that the SEC may need to hire some Cajun interpreters if they want to produce accurate transcripts of Coach O at media days. And, the once and future quarterback Micheal Spurlock goes all Xtina and Lil Kim on his critics.

Duke trivia fact of the day: faculty and staff members can go to all the football and womens’ basketball games they like for $60. Which sport is functioning as the loss-leader for the other is left for reader speculation. Mind you, $60 to see both FSU and Virginia Tech in person from good seats isn’t a bad deal at all… particularly if you don’t much care whether the home team wins.

Today’s Clarion-Ledger does some hard-hitting reporting on the responses of the state’s 3 I-A schools to an NCAA mandate requiring them to trim their football media guides down to a measly 208 pages.

I’m tempted to vote early and vote often in this elimination tournament. My money is on an overall victory by Stephen A. Smith, although Jim Gray may be the “Cinderella” of the tourney and all-around talent-free hack Stuart Scott is surely going to make a run deep into the bracket.

þ: The Baseball Crank.

Unless you’re a resident of New York, Philly, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Detroit, or Boston (or one of those folks from that country north of the border), you probably don’t care that pro hockey is returning to the ice in the fall, which is just as well since all the teams not in those areas will probably not be around much longer either. More details (if you do care) at ESPN.com.

EDSBS passes on word that an unlicensed football video game due out this fall features a quarterback with suspiciously similar stats to those of Michael Vick wearing “Mexico” on his #7 jersey.

No word yet on whether the game, which is supposedly going to include “off-the-field” situations à la ESPN‘s canned-at-NFL-behest testosterone-soap Playmakers, will be feature product placement of the Original Whizzinator.

The Texas Longhorns won the College World Series yesterday; I have to say that I was disappointed when Texas beat the Ole Miss Rebels in the best-of-3 a couple of weeks ago in Oxford, but losing to the eventual champs (especially given that the Rebels were on the verge of winning both games 2 and 3 in the 9th) takes a little bit of the sting out of it.

þ: Steven Taylor.

Most of the Formula One discussion this past week has focused on F1 head Bernie Ecclestone’s idiotic comments about Indy car driver Danica Patrick; perhaps somewhat helpfully for F1’s future in the United States, the debacle that the actual U.S. Grand Prix turned out to be hasn’t gotten quite as much publicity. Jerry Palm and BigJim, however, were paying attention to the race, and neither liked what they saw.

The predictions of Formula One’s demise on this side of the pond seem a bit overblown, though, as F1 was pretty much stillborn here to begin with—notwithstanding Indy’s involvement—and open-wheel racing in America basically is (and has been, for the longest time) the Indy 500 and nothing else.

Is it July 12th yet? No, but in the meantime look at the pretty pictures and preorder the game. NCAA easily gets the most play out of the (small) collection of Xbox games I have, so '06 will definitely be in my grubby little hands as soon as it comes out.

þ: Orson @ EDSBS.

I must say I’m a little bit surprised at the news that Mike Tyson lost his fight tonight in Washington against unknown opponent Kevin McBride after quitting at the end of the sixth round. While there’s no doubt Tyson is no longer at the top of his game, pretty much everyone expected him to make short work of McBride nonetheless, although most would have figured that he’d be in trouble if he couldn’t make a knockout early… and that’s exactly what appears to have happened.

James Joyner recaps Tyson’s career; Tyson just never was the same fighter after serving the sentence for his rape conviction—as the AP piece points out, he hasn’t beaten a top opponent in 14 years, and his career has been increasingly bizarre since his time in the big house.

More than Tyson needed this fight, though, one suspects heavyweight boxing needed it; Tyson’s promise this week to “gut [McBride] like a fish” gave boxing its first real sizzle since he was in his prime in the 1980s, and the sport—embattled by corruption, a lack of stars, and a public image that makes Big Tobacco’s look good—needed the sort of buzz that Tyson can generate. Tyson at least has the gift of gab to eventually carve out a George Foreman-type role for himself in pop culture; boxing, though, may now be in terminal decline.

Vashon Pearson, the Rebels’ leading rusher last year (not that that’s saying much) didn’t make the grades last year and has been declared academically ineligible for what would have been his senior season. (þ: EDSBS) ‘Twas nice knowing you, Vashon.

It looks like the bulk of the running game will be in the hands of junior Jamal Pittman, who has had his own share of off-field troubles, but emerged from the spring as tied on the depth chart with Pearson after Coach O decided to give him a clean slate. So, if Pittman can keep himself out of trouble, the Rebels may still be in decent shape at RB; mind you, I’m not sure anyone expected anything much beyond another “rebuilding” year and a possible EV1.com Bowl bid out of the team to begin with.

Former Rebel head coach David Cutcliffe’s stint at Notre Dame didn’t last very long: he resigned Tuesday from his position as quarterbacks coach for the Fighting Irish after deciding that he couldn’t come back to coaching this year. Cut, known to Ole Miss fans as the master of the “prevent offense,” recently underwent triple-bypass surgery after suffering a heart attack in March. (þ: Jeff Quinton @ FanBlogs)

I finished Moneyball on the flight from Jackson to BWI today. As I mentioned at the other place, the story of people getting ahead by bringing data to the problem warmed my little empiricist heart to no end. Plus, Michael Lewis is a really good writer—the ideas he expresses come across clearly and with good humor (compare, if you will, Jill Jonnes’ horribly-written Empires of Light, about a topic that ought to be at least as interesting; the difference is as between night and day).

I realize I’m probably the last person in America to read the book, but if you haven’t (particularly if you like baseball), do so immediately.

Ah, there’s nothing like a controversy combining college football and religion to add to the excitement of the upcoming 2005 season. The spotlight, of course, is on DeBerry due to the Air Force Academy’s apparent religious indoctrination problem, but you’d be naïve not to think that the same thing goes on in the locker rooms of other great American public universities and high schools—ask Bobby Bowden for one. And, if you go beyond the formalities, one suspects that it’s easier to be considered a “team leader” in the locker room if you have an FCA membership card in your wallet.

Like Kevin Aylward’s favorite school district, DeBerry and the academy are clearly running afoul of the law, even under the weaker “neutrality” test of religious establishment adopted by the conservative wing of the Supreme Court. If his players really want to be “saved,” I’m sure there are other people who can take care of it for him.

I nearly busted a gut when Michael Wilbon suggested the name “Golden Whizzinators” on PTI Thursday for the embattled Marquette Gold. Classic, simply classic.

The stupid question in all this is why the Marquette folks can’t just go back to “Warriors” and design a modern, non-Indian mascot, like a white dude wielding an M-16 or something. I mean, it’s hard to divorce yourself from the confederate sympathy brigade with a name like “Rebels” (Colonel Reb or no Colonel Reb), but you’d think “Warriors” would be generic enough that if they changed the logo everyone’d go, “OK, it has nothing to do with Indians now.”

Vikings RB Onterrio Smith was apparently caught in possession of a device known as “The Original Whizzinator,” apparently designed to help people beat drug tests.

If I were particularly bored, I’d launch into a long invective about the fact the only reason anyone would need such a device is due to the widespread paranoia about drugs in America. Good thing I’m not that bored. (þ: OTB and PTI)

Orson Swindle on Notre Dame’s new sweet deal with the BCS:

This is like giving Mongolia a seat on the UN Security Council in tribute to Genghis Khan.

Well, there are those French and British chairs in the room…

A friend passed along the Ron Mexico name generator. My alter ego is apparently “Bruno Jamaica.”

Incidentally, at least none of my students in intro last night thought the Supreme Court case that applied the exclusionary rule to the states was People v. Ron Mexico. (On the downside, I did have one student who thought the Shakira-Aguillera test had something to do with the free exercise clause.)

This is my entry in today's DIY OTB Traffic Jam.

Just to prove how far out of the loop I am, people in other states have been letting me know that Millsaps hired Mike DuBose as defensive coordinator of the football program today; here’s the press release.

It looks like something of a coup for the Majors, who have been attempting to rebuild the football program the last couple of seasons with improved facilities and new blood on the coaching staff, including DuBose and former Alcorn State and arena league star Fred McNair. It wouldn’t be particularly surprising to see DuBose move up to head coach sooner rather than later, as rumors of current head coach David Saunders moving on to a I-A assistant coaching job have been circling for a while—recently, he was rumored to be on the shortlist for Ed Orgeron’s staff at Ole Miss.

Jerry Palm has some thoughts on next year’s move of Monday Night Football from ABC to ESPN; I do think the “stars come to play on Monday night” hype has gotten downright tiresome, but if history’s any guide ESPN won’t exactly be toning it down…

You know, when the folks down at Southern started talking about becoming more competitive with SEC schools on the recruiting trail, I didn’t realize they also wanted to compete with Ole Miss and State by outdoing them in recruiting thugs (þ: Jeff Quinton, via email):

Southern Miss president Shelby Thames sat down with the man who plead guilty to his role in the beating death of a high school student. The talk went so well, Southern Miss will offer the convict a football scholarship and a “second chance”.

There are more details here on the story of Marcus Raines. It isn’t exactly pretty.

You know, the Thamester isn’t exactly in the world’s most secure position to begin with, and you have to wonder what he’s is thinking. Particularly when you realize that up the road at Ole Miss, Coach O (from whose backyard this prospect is coming from) wouldn’t touch this kid with a ten-foot pole, and it’s not like Orgeron has been shy about pushing the reset button for problem children like Jamal Pittman. This decision just screams “bad news waiting to happen.”

On the other hand, I suppose I am marginally sympathetic to giving kids who do really stupid things a second chance, although it seems to me that if the kid really wants to redeem himself he ought to be content to go play for free at a Division III school.

The SEC FanBlog passes on speculation that Ole Miss may favor ending the annual series with the University of Memphis, which (at least the Tigers believe) is contractually required to continue until 2011. While the matchup has been quite compelling in recent years, it’s clearly more of a benefit to the Tigers, who benefit from the national exposure and $45 ticket prices (a three-fold increase over regular pricing for Tiger home games) a home date at the Liberty Bowl with the Rebels brings, than a rebuilding Rebel squad that will need all the help it can get to be bowl eligible in 2005.

You have to admit that The New York Times has quite a bit of testicular fortitude to publish the following paragraph with a straight face:

Two years ago, the Masters tournament was ensnared in a debate over the absence of women in the Augusta National membership, a debate spearheaded by Martha Burk, the chairwoman of the National Council of Women’s Organizations.

Then again, maybe the Grey Lady is just hoping its readership will forget that Howell Raines was ever employed by the paper.

Seen at the top of yesterday’s Clarion-Ledger: Michigan State 89, Ole Dominion 81. Ole habits die hard, I guess.