Is college football serious right now?

The whole reason anyone was going to tune into the Northwestern-Illinois game this weekend wasn't because we have two competitive football teams, nor because the game was being played at Wrigley Field. People were going to watch to see if anyone would get concussed running into the wall in the East endzone.

Now, according to ESPN, the NCAA/Big 10/school officials have decided that only one end zone will be used on offense throughout the entire game. Are you kidding me? What is this, one long overtime period? What baffles me is the idea to hold the game at Wrigley was obviously not a decision made overnight. It was most likely a long, drawn out process that factored in a lot of discussion and debate before being finalized. The dimensions of the field should have come at no surprise. What does come as a surprise is the ineptitude of the officials at hand who did not originally forecast any danger nor backlash from hosting a game where the fence and padding would be so close to the back of the end zone on the East side. These folks are being paid a lot of money to hold the positions they do, we should hope they'd be educated enough to recognize this type of concern early on in the process. However, what clouded their judgement was the novelty to hold a game at an historic monument of baseball history, much like Notre Dame and Army will do this weekend at Yankee Stadium. The difference is they have constructed a field which does not put the players in harms way like Wrigley Field's layout does.

Unfortunately, these officials were so caught up in making a meaningless game meaningful by adding in a novelty for a location, and thus ended making the entire event a joke. Well done. You managed to make people care even less about watching this game.

-Bess

Obama's first pitch at the 2009 All-Star Game

Alright, normally this wouldn't be a hot topic with me. But I made a few observations during Obama's first pitch at the All-Star game last night.

First and foremost, it wasn't a freakin strike. He left it in front of the plate and let's be honest, the thing looked like a middle school breaking ball. Slow, flat and a lot of depth to it but zero firm break. Thankfully Pujols had the mental acuity to leap out of his pseudo squat and pick the ball before it scraped the dirt. Needless to say, as bad as GW may have been as President, the guy knew how to throw a baseball. Did we make the right decision as voters?

Well, in comparison to Obama's adversary, I'd say there's no question we did. Take a second and picture John Mccain throwing out the first pitch with arms like this...

I know it's wrong to poke fun at a guy that served our country and ended up looking like a T-rex because of it, but seriously, do you think HE could reach the friggin plate? They wouldn't even send him to the mound. MLB would leave the batting practice mound 15 feet in front of the rubber and have him roll it in from there with the catcher squatting down 5 feet in front of home plate. He's lucky he can wipe his own ass (can he?), nevermind throw a baseball like a man.

But my most astute observation came when Obama went to greet Stan Musial. Watch the interaction again and tell me that Musial's driver is not a friggin Republican. Have you ever seem someone so disinterested in the fact that the President of the United States is standing 2 feet away? He looked like he truly could not care. For all I know, he's been there, done that. If that's the case, excuse me Billy Big League, no need to show us all up like that. But let's be honest, that's the first time he's ever come within a zip code of the President. By his reaction, or lack thereof, he clearly didn't vote for Obama. In fact, I started to wonder if the guy might have a baretta taped down underneath his seat. Obama almost had to hit the guy to get his attention and shake his hand. Check it out for yourself around the :20 second mark...

And here's GW at Opening Day in Arlington, TX this season...

He threw a dart and filled up the zone. Gotta love the quick windmill stretch before the pitch. Solid stuff. But perhaps his best, and most significant work came on October 30, 2001 at Yankee Stadium. Bush tossed the first pitch before Game 3 of the World Series against Arizona. And not only did he toss a pea in there, but the crowd chanting "USA! USA! USA!" at the end was pretty cool stuff. Regardless of how he was as President, you almost had to love the guy. He's a man's man.

-Bess