Day 5- Total Immersion

Another day, another eight hours in front of the TV watching sports. But I have an excuse, as this weekend I'm out of commission recovering from dental surgery. Here are some random thoughts from a guy with remote-induced Carpral Tunnel Syndrome:

* I don't know why even bothered to wake up for the Red River Shootout this morning. Texas just plays uninspired ball when they line up against Oklahoma. Even though the Longhorns only gave up 12 points, this game wasn't any different from years past. Again Oklahoma's tailbacks ran wild. Again Texas made several costly turnovers. Again Cedric Benson saved his worst performance of the year for the Sooners. And again, the Longhorns showed that they don't deserve to be ranked in the top ten every year.

* This Astros 19-game home winning streak is getting downright eerie. Last week they win with a no-name pitcher who was starting on two hours notice. Now, the opposing pitcher leaves the game after four pitches? Someone at Minute Maid Park is doing some quality voodoo work.

* I've been impressed with Stanford football's growth this year, but today's Notre Dame game shows that we still haven't quite turned the corner. The Card's failure to score touchdowns on those first two drives are the sign of a team that hasn't gotten its act together. Good teams take advantage of all of their scoring chances while on the road.

* ESPN Page 2 has a very enjoyable daily feature this baseball postseason called "Second Guessing." With the benefit of hindsight, they make some very good points, mainly about the choke jobs being turned in by the managers so far. Today's column points out Gardenhire's dubious decision to remove Johan Santana after five innings. Why bother starting him on short rest if you're not gonna let him finish out a game that he's winning?

* As much as I hate the Yankees, you've got to tip your cap to them for the way they refuse to lose. Even once the Twins built a 5-1 lead, you could sense that it wasn't safe. And once the game went to extra innings... forget about it.

* Well, I was wrong- it's gonna be Yanks-Sox all over again. I'm not totally disappointed, as I am very excited to watch this ALCS (and equally excited to read the Sports Guy's take on it) . On paper, the Boston lineup is better, since their 7, 8,9 and 1 hitters are more reliable (with both teams' 3-6 hitters being about equal). On paper, the Boston pitching staff is better, especially since Schilling will be rested enough to pitch games 1, 4 and 7. I don't think homefield will
be any significant advantage, since both of these teams have enough experience winning in each other's parks. It really, really feels like it's the Red Sox' year. But... you know.

* Even though I was expecting a decisive win for USC, today's game with Cal was actually as close as the pundits predicted. Aaron Rodger's meteoric rise is just a testament to how good Jeff Tedford is with quarterbacks. What's too bad for Cal fans is that he'll be an NFL head
coach by 2006.

* I love how ABC kept throwing their oversexed Desperate Housewives commercials at every game break. Didn't they start out promoting this as a show aimed at middle-aged women? I guess it suddenly occured to them: "Hey, we got 21 million viewers last week. We can get more! Quick, let's slap togther every single clip we have of hot women bending over and running around naked!"

*That said, I am one of the 21 million who watched Desperate Housewives last week and it was quite enjoyable. It's like Melrose Place meets Picket Fences meets American Beauty.

* Just when I thought I had the SEC race figured out, Tennessee wins at Georgia and LSU wins at Florida. This is the most competetive college football conference we've seen in years.