I am happy to welcome new writer exexpatriate to the site. Check out the first substantive post from this self-described “anti-fan” with “an increasing interest in the politics and violence and social movements around organized sports” on the ongoing fallout from this summer’s Vancouver hockey riots.
After more than two months and aboutover 2,000 hits, it seemed like time to introduce ourselves. Navigate over to the Contributors page to find out who’s been writing this muckety muck. (Clicking on the pictures will take you to all of that person’s posts.)
If you’re interested in writing here, send us an email: aldland[dot]com[at]gmail[dot]com.
All-world junior may not be pulling up from downtown, but he is capable of going with a windmill reverse jam off the bounce. Check out Keith Hornsby, a freshman guard at UNC Asheville, who also happens to be the basketball-playing child of the three-time Grammy winner.
At UNCA’s Midnight Madness event on Friday night, the Oak Hill product wowed his teammates and the small assembled crowd with his hops, no doubt honed through years of shooting hoops and running drills in the Tidewater gyms with dad (a fairly accomplished area baller when not touring with the Grateful Dead or selling millions of jazz albums). Keith’s favorite player is Stephen Curry, another son of a famous father, but he’s already got the former Davidson star in the jumping category. His game consists of a strong jumper and is modeled after another former Virginian star, Duke’s JJ Redick.
Keith’s brother, Russell, matriculated at Oregon this fall as an elite middle-distance runner. According to this article from The Roanoke Times, Bruce is proud of where his progeny have ended up: “We’ve got both our kids going to two of the great hippie towns in America. They can let their freak flag fly in Asheville and Eugene. All the Deadheads in Asheville and Eugene can come and root for the son of the guy who played with Jerry.” Spoken like a true rock superstar. … Read More (video embedded)
(via rush the court)
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More Bruce Hornsby content here.
The above article references Hornsby’s The Old Playground, but he had another, more popular song I always thought was about basketball too. Here’s a short clip of that tune by his Noisemakers, featuring Bonnie Raitt:
I made it into town on Friday night in time for a ceremonial pregame dinner at Music City’s finest anti-internet fried chicken establishment and a chance meeting with Taylor Hicks, and I was up the next morning to watch the early games (11:00 am Central) at Nashville’s newest sports bar. After victories by our party’s favored teams, Michigan State and South Carolina, we made our way to our usual tailgate spot, the sunny, low-70s weather being perfect for the activity.
Like most of Vanderbilt’s conference foes, Georgia is on the winning side of a lopsided record that stretches back to 1893. Saturday’s game followed suit, omitting the adjectives. Georgia won, but not handily (much to commodawg’s chagrin), as Vanderbilt missed three game-winning opportunities in the final seconds. Milking a five-point lead, the Dawgs tried to run out the clock, but defense and Vandy’s use of its two remaining timeouts forced a Georgia punt that Vanderbilt blocked. With nothing between them and the endzone but a loose ball, the Vanderbilt defenders were unable to scoop it up and run it in, falling on the bouncing ball instead. With eight seconds left in the game, QB Jordan Rodgers took two strikes at the endzone from about twenty-five yards out, but the Commodores were unable to convert.
Our seats were good for watching the game, but they didn’t allow us to gain any particular insights on the postgame scuffle between Vanderbilt head coach James Franklin and a Georgia assistant coach or the alleged dirty play on Georgia’s part that may have instigated it. Keep reading…
Dan Wheldon, a two-time Daytona 500 champion and one-time overall IndyCar champion, died yesterday in a 15-car, 230 mph crash in the early laps of a race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He had agreed to start the race from the back of the pack as part of a $5 million contest that would award half the prize to him and half to a fan if he won the race. He was 33 years old.
In the world of college football, ALDLAND’s rivalry games both were exciting, as Michigan State held off late pushes by Michigan to make it four straight over the Wolverines, and Georgia avoided three game-winning opportunities for Vanderbilt, escaping Nashville with a five-point win. (More on the latter game later.) Elsewhere in the top 25, Clemson came from behind to beat Maryland 56-45, and Virginia upset Georgia Tech. And the first set of BCS rankings are out: 1) LSU; 2) Alabama; 3) Oklahoma; 4) Oklahoma State; 5) Boise State.
On Sunday, one streak ended (the 49ers handed the Lions their first loss), while another continues (the Colts fell to 0-6).
The Word Series matchup is set as of last night, and it will start in St. Louis, where the late-surging Cardinals host the Texas Rangers, who finished off the ailing Tigers in a blowout on Saturday night. Although I was hoping for a different ALCS outcome, I knew Detroit likely was outmatched after watching the first game of the series, and when the injuries to starters continued to mount, it seemed only a matter of time before the Tigers ran out of gas, which they did in spectacular fashion on Saturday. Still, they made competitive a series I did not think would be, and they pushed Texas to extra innings in many of the games and otherwise played them close. It leaves to the imagination and the off season what that team could have accomplished had it been healthier.
While this Saturday features a full slate of college games, Sunday will see the Lions and Packers each try to push their records to 6-0 against the 49ers and Rams, respectively, and the conclusion of the ALCS, ALDLAND is highlighting two of the college games for special attention.
First up is the noon o’clock (Eastern) meeting between Michigan and Michigan State in East Lansing. State has taken the last three games in the series, but this year feels like a tipping point. MSU is the better team, but its stock is falling right now, while the undefeated Wolverines’ stock seems to be rising weekly. The question is, where on the relative spectrum will these two teams be when they face off on Saturday? Michigan may be rolling right now, but it’s a home game for the Spartans, who have had two weeks to get ready for this one. Of course, with a team that has had discipline problems even under coach Mark Dantonio, that extra time off could cut either way.
The featured night game is in Nashville, where Georgia (4-2 (3-1)) will take on Vanderbilt (3-2 (1-2)), and commodawg and I will be in attendance. The obvious subtext, to readers of this site, will be the conflicting allegiances of the two writers. There is a less obvious game within a game going on here too, however. While we aren’t quite talking about The Inner Game of Tennis, the future trajectories of these two programs also are at stake, to some degree, on Saturday night.
The reason is recruiting. Vandy has made inroads in Georgia in recent years, and first-year coach James Franklin has been putting in a lot of effort there so far in his short tenure. The university has been encouraging fans to show up early (contrary to current tradition) because a large number of recruits are scheduled to be at the game for their official visit. From Stanimal at Vanderbilt Sports Line:
If there has ever been a more important weekend in Vanderbilt history in terms of recruiting, this is it. Unlike previous years, Coach Franklin has made a committment to competing with the rest of the SEC and the nation as a whole for top-shelf talent. He is not afraid to go after anyone, and he and his staff have worked very, very hard to get these kids interested in Vanderbilt. In no other state is this more apparent than in Georgia, where CJF has made massive in-roads in one of the best high school football states in the country. For a lot of these kids visiting this weekend (and we are talking some very high-level prospects), they are deciding whether to wear their black with Bulldog red or Commodore gold. This does NOT need to be a free recruiting visit for Mark Richt and his crew. It needs to be a show that this University and its fan base is behind Coach Franklin, his players, his staff, and this team.
His full call to action is available here. What effect this will have on our tailgating plans is not yet clear. As usual, readers can expect coverage of the game and the weekend here and on twitter and flickr.
More on this weekend later today. For now, it’s back to sonic Friday jams:
ALDLAND generally tries to stay above (ok, below) current political issues, but it’s tough to not notice that there’s a lot going on out there right now. The Occupy Wall Street rallies are the story of the political moment, it seems, and while it is alternatively difficult and easy to understand what they’re all about, it feels like the whole mess of it flies under the radarabove the head of the common sports fan.
Luckily for sports fans, though, they now have an opportunity to participate in Occupy Wall Street even if they don’t understand it, don’t want to understand it, don’t agree with it, or just don’t want to leave their house, thanks to a new blog called Occupy Herbstreit:
How do you write the possessive of “Red Sox”? Anyway, after Boston’s major league baseball team ended the regular season with a collapse of historic proportions, commodawg expressed his disgust with the organization, particularly for the decision to part with Terry Francona, who, it must be said, did a good job as color commentator opposite Joe Buck for a couple postseason games on the AL side.
Today, though, we begin to understand more fully why the Red Sox fell apart. The Boston Globe reports:
Boston’s three elite starters went soft, their pitching as anemic as their work ethic. The indifference of Beckett, Lester, and Lackey in a time of crisis can be seen in what team sources say became their habit of drinking beer, eating fast-food fried chicken, and playing video games in the clubhouse during games while their teammates tried to salvage a once-promising season.
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Sources said Beckett, Lester, and Lackey, who were joined at times by Buchholz, began the practice late in 2010. The pitchers not only continued the routine this year, sources said, but they joined a number of teammates in cutting back on their exercise regimens despite appeals from the team’s strength and conditioning coach Dave Page.
The full article is here.
Nobody wants to spend time reading second-rate material about second-rate material, so I should clarify that what I want to do with this is highlight groups that are good, but for certain reasons, never emerged onto the national scene. I’m calling them B-list bands not because they necessarily deserve their place outside of the spotlight, but because they are outside of the spotlight, and also because it seemed to alliterate well in my head.
The model I have in mind right now describes artists that started out very similarly to, but ultimately failed to match the trajectory of another that made it big.
First up is The Outlaws. Formed in 1967 in Tampa, by the early 70s they had developed into a triple-guitar-attack Southern Rock band with an emphasis on a strong live performance. Sound familiar? Compare Lynyrd Skynyrd: formed in 1965 in Jacksonville, developed triple-guitar-attack Southern Rock by the early 70s, and a reputation built on strong live performances, catapulting themselves to long-running national prominence.
Skynyrd’s Ronnie Van Zant even helped them get their first record deal– after The Outlaws opened for them, Van Zant apparently announced to all in attendance, including their Arista rep, that “If you don’t sign The Outlaws, you’re the dumbest music person I’ve ever met.” Keep reading (and start listening)…
ALDLAND 