Friday fun
Kind of a slow Friday out here. I'm wondering how many days are left until we start getting trite "Is this going to be 1978 all over again?" stories about the Yankees hanging in the A.L East race with the Red Sox.
Dave's World is going to be part of a weekly Friday NFL picks package on Eric Mirlis's The Writers site (separate from the Dave's World Football Wiseguys, which debuts next Thursday), which is linked below on the left. Eric had a piece up on the plight of Dwight Gooden that's worth a peak. No one in New England wants to admit it after what happened in 1986, but most baseball fans who had cable watched the Mets on WOR back in the day, even if they were rooting against them, and Gooden's rookie season was something few will ever forget.
*It has been far too long since this site got an email from Clarkie, who recently made a trip all the way from Boston to Safeco Field, just four miles from Dave's World HQ in West Seattle. But he chimed in today with what he perceived was a dig yesterday at UMass football's 1998 NCAA Division 1-AA championship:
Dissing the national championship?
Don't be hatin' just cuz your campus dropped its program.
Signed,
CLARKY
UMass Class of ... well, sometime before '98
Well, hang on, Clarkie. First off, yes, I am still bitter UMass Boston no longer has football. Always will be. Your school gets rid of football, you never forgive or forget. Every year, there were seven or eight automatic losses on the schedule, but the Beacons would beat either Framingham State or Fitchburg State, and sometimes both. Then there was that one time they almost tied Worcester State which would have qualified as a major upset, but gagged on the two-point conversion at the end and lost 28-26.
They can take my team away, but not the memories (sniff, sniff).
Anyway, I'm not dissing UMass's title. It was a pretty awesome run. But I stand by my assertion that the Minutemen winning a national football championship was completely out of the blue. They hadn't done better than 6-5 in any of the previous four years; were 2-9 in 1997; and went into the postseason with three losses. They hadn't been to the tourney since 1990 and hadn't won a tourney game since 1978. Are you telling me anyone was actually expecting them to win the whole thing? I'm not dogging their accomplishment at all, I'm just saying it was completely out of the blue, as if Clemson or Pepperdine won the national basketball title or something.
*Might have something on the site tomorrow. Might not. Either way, check in Sunday for reader feedback and more material related to Matt's Dispatches from Iraq posting last Sunday.
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