Random Notes: Pennant Race vs. Kickoff 2010?

Ahhh...the dog days of summer are upon us. The kids are back in school. The pool out back looks like shit. Pennant races are shaping up. Marching bands are cranking it up on Friday nights again. Tiger Woods shot a round under 70. The U.S. Open allegedly will be played next week in Flushing. Brett Favre has blessed us with his presence once again....

* Usually, for Reds fans, this means shutting down your veterans & calling up AAA wanna-bees, starting the debate on who'll be in the rotation next year, and starting the anointment process for the next "savior." But wait, Reds fans - the Messiah is here, and his name is Joey Votto, and he's Canadian. That's right - not only are the Reds poised to make the playoffs (4 up on STL), but Votto is also in a battle for a Triple Crown with STL's Albert Pujols. Votto-matic leads The Machine in BA, but trails slightly in HR & RBI. Should be a lot of fun to watch, and a reason for us die-hard Red's fans to give a shit in September.

* While I'm on the Reds, I just want to give a big "F-U" to ESPN's Colin Cowherd. In case you haven't heard, Cowherd has been on a month-long mission to prove why the Reds are "a fraud." Sure, they have a losing record against other division leaders. OK, fine. It's not their fault Mr. Baseball, Tony LaRussa & his Cards can't beat a AAA team like Pittsburgh or Washington. He calls out Votto as a fraud, claiming he's not in Pujol's league and benefits from the bandbox that is GABP. had Cowherd done his research he would have known that Joey hits for a better average & has a better slugging % on the road. He calls out the Reds staff, claiming the Yankees would own them in a 7-game series. OK, I'll concede a loss to C.C. Sabbathia, but Cincy stacks up everywhere else except payroll. (Don't forget, the Cuban Missile countdown to launch is on...). After all the hate mail started to pour in, Cowherd then took a shot at the whole state of OH-IO!! Not only did this douchebag call out the Reds & Votto, but he declares the Bengals, Bearcats, Musketeers, & Buckeyes also to be frauds. Cowherd also picked a fight with Paul Daugherty of The Cincinnati Enquirer, whom he called "a local hack." This one he won't win, no matter how much P90X he does...and oh, by the way there's some USC on your chin, Cowherd.

* Let's not forget the Bengals, Brown-eyes & Buckeyes are set to kick-off too. The Bengals D has looked suspect this camp, but should come around. Carson now has a bevy of receivers to pick from with T.O., Gresham, & Shipley now adorning stripes. I like this team, I really do. Same goes for my Buckeyes - anything less than a National Title will be a disappointment for me.

* The Big 10 is prepared to throw the greatest rivalry in college sports out the window. yes, Jim Delaney in all his wisdom wants to put OSU & UM in separate divisions, hoping they'll showdown in the newly-formed conference title game & make him look like a genius. Tress'll do his part, but Dick-Rod can't get out of his own way up in Ann Arbor (insert whore joke here). Listen here, Mr. Delaney...I'm going to teach you some MAC-learned geography & mathematics: you now have 12 teams. 12/2=6. 6 teams per division. Go east to west and stop at 6. Penn St, Ohio St., Michigan, Michigan St., Indiana & Purdue = Big 10 East. Northwestern, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa & Nebraska = Big 10 West. he claims splitting the conference up like this would lead to competitive imbalance - I don't see it. I see right through you, man....all you see is $$$$. Given the proposed realignment, since Penn St. joined the Big 10, OSU & Michigan would only have matched up 4 times in a hypothetical championship game. If you worried about competitive imbalance, maybe your other teams should get better? Just sayin'....

* Great take by ESPN.com columnist Jeff MacGregor on the difference between Albert Haynesworth & Brett Favre right here.

* OK, speed round time....biggest sign of the Apocalypse: Pete Rose canceled a casino appearance to show up at GABP to be honored by the Reds on the anniversary of 4192, 9/11....it has been researched & reported that a guy named Tommy John was the first pitcher to undergo Stephen Strasburg surgery....an observation for Roger Clemens: you fucked up, cowboy...Randy Couture beat boxer James Toney in the first round in an MMA fight. Duhhhhhh....boxers can't punch from their backsides....Brett Favre is responsible for Percy Harvin's migraines....NASCAR drivers are pussies - yeah, I'm talking to you Kurt Bush. I'll beat you down just for looking at me, punk....Tiger Woods plays like he has carpal tunnel syndrome. Put the Jergens down & go get laid, already....what's the over/under JaMarcus Russell is wearing black & orange by season's end....I wish Joe Nuxhall were still alive.

Pryor Still Not the Prettiest Passer, but Ohio State QB Is Having a Sturdy Preseason

From www.fanhouse.com:

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Terrelle Pryor looked bored, and because of it yours truly wasn't feeling so froggy himself on Saturday in muggy Flyover Land.

I felt like I was watching Michael Jordan try to play golf, or seeing Usain Bolt on a treadmill.

At Ohio State's final football scrimmage of the preseason, Pryor was the only starter wearing a black jersey. Which meant that if any Buckeye defender slammed into the star quarterback, he'd be thrown into the nearby Olentangy River and possibly off the team. To balance the equation, Pryor was confined to either throwing the ball or handing it off. The junior was permitted to run with the cargo, but only to avert a touch "sack."

No wonder Pryor looked like he might fall asleep between series at Ohio Stadium. Depriving him of expanded riffs with his feet is like taking a saxaphone from a jazz artist.

The success of Ohio State's offense begins with Pryor's feet, even when they don't set course for downfield. The threat they pose opens the chessboard. Ohio State's receivers, running backs and blockers are pretty good but not great. Pryor's passing, while improved, is nothing special. Nor is offensive design typically a strength at Ohio State.

What induced University of Texas coach Mack Brown to declare two years ago that a national title was a virtual certainty for Ohio State in the Pryor Era to come? Pryor's fast feet. As with the Longhorns quarterback Vince Young in the mid-2000s, it would take time, Brown said. But the feet would scare the bejeebers out of defensive coordinators.

Pryor wasn't made available for comment Saturday, which allowed Buckeyes coach Jim Tressel to convey, or perhaps invent, the quarterback's thoughts regarding the afternoon game of touch football he had just played. "I wouldn't say he loves it," Tressel said. "It's a nuisance, but he knows when the day comes and he gets to wear the normal jersey, it might be like freedom."

Mike Zimmer finds solace in coaching.

From espn.com:

CINCINNATI -- Their condo on the Ohio River is the way she left it. There's a beige couch with matching throw pillows and blanket, a style-conscious collection that strongly suggests that there's no way this place was decorated by a football coach. There's a flowery wreath on the table and a sign on the wall. It says, "There is always something to be thankful for."

Mike Zimmer clutches the remote of his large flat-screen TV, watching sports, counting the hours until training camp starts and the world rights itself. Silence is the enemy. It seeps in everywhere -- the car, the grocery store, at breakfast -- giving him too much time to think.

A few days ago, Zimmer was eating at a coffee shop down the street from his condo. He glanced at the couples, the friends sitting together, the people laughing and chitchatting. He turned to his left and spotted an old man eating breakfast alone. And then Mike Zimmer, the ultra-intense, highly sought-after defensive coordinator for the Cincinnati Bengals, thought something to himself: That's me in 30 years.

"The hardest part," Zimmer says, "is probably the loneliness, I guess."

It is Tuesday, hours before another training camp starts in Georgetown, Ky., 10 months removed from the day Zimmer left work to check on his wife, Vikki, and found her dead. And nothing is really the same. He subsists mainly on microwaved frozen meals, still refers to just about everything with a "we" and constantly texts, dotes on and worries about his daughters.

He knows it doesn't make sense that a man surrounded by 81 football players could feel alone. That he can drop F-bombs over the span of a two-hour practice but still cry over a random memory. That he can be so jangled up inside that he'll go to church, three times a week sometimes, and light candles and ask existential questions. But that's what the quiet does to you.

A buzzer goes off in the laundry room. It's time to pack, and for Zimmer to get back to his hard-charging, testosterone-oozing, 16-hour-a-day life, the life he knows, the one that gives him a semblance of peace.

They met under the backdrop of the Wasatch Mountains, two kids, seemingly opposite, converging on a jogging track at Weber State University in the early 1980s. She was a pretty, petite dancer who had the distinction of being named Miss Weber State; he was a rugged football coach from Peoria, Ill., whose toughness was forged at birth. Football was everything in the Zimmer family. His dad, Bill, played in the NFL, coached him in high school and taught him how to methodically outwork his opponents.

Football was nowhere on Vikki's list of interests. She didn't know what a draw play was, and didn't exactly care. But it was clear, early on, that Zimmer was smitten. The couple was at a party once with Mike Price, who was then the head coach at Weber State, and Price's son turned to his dad and told him, in a conversation later relayed to Zimmer: "This is the one. You can tell how he's acting. That's the one he's going to marry."

Within a year, they were married, thrusting the young ballerina who once played the lead role in "The Nutcracker" into the world of a coach's wife. To this day, Zimmer jokes, he doesn't know what Vikki saw in him. But to everyone else around them, it was clear they were the perfect match. Vikki smoothed out Zim's rough edges. She kept him balanced.