...Make that an hour

30 Minutes of Pure Nostalgia

I'm Into It

I know I'm late on the Flight of the Conchords bandwagon, but I didn't have HBO until the other day when Time Warner decided to give me 6 months for free. So, I've been catching up on the Kiwis, and while there have been many moments of hilarity, nothing tops this ditty.

Nashville's Nigerian Nightmare

It's been a while since my last post, and you can thank law school for that. For those that care what classes I'm taking, here's my schedule:
*Amateur Sports Law
*ALR in Sports Law
*Trusts & Estates (damn Wisconsin Bar)
*Intellectual Property Law
*Internet Law
*Business Basics for Lawyers
*Sports Law Review (get 1 credit for it)

6 classes plus the law review might be too much, so I might end up dropping the Business Basics course.

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For those that aren't here to read about my academic schedule, the biggest Vanderbilt related topic is that Festus Ezeli signed his scholarship papers and is headed to Nashville. Ezeli has a similar to story to Amobi Okoye in that he was born in Nigeria , came to the U.S., and tested higher than the grade level his age should have put him in. He graduated high school at 15 and has been taking community college classes for a couple of years. He has never played organized basketball, but he starred for his AAU team and drew offers from Florida, Ohio State, UCLA, UConn, and other big powers. He's very raw offensively, but he's supposed to be a great defensive player and should compliment the Oggmonster very well. Ezeli is going to redshirt this year to develop offensively, but it's hard not to admit we got a steal when 3/4 of the Final Four and the 2004 champion offered him a scholarship. Having that extra scholarship really helped Stallings, and it's hard to see why this isn't at least a top 25 class.

Good news all around for Vandy Baseball

1. Tim Corbin is staying at VU after rejecting a huge offer from Oregon to restart their program. Read Kendall Rogers' article for the details.

2. As expected, #1 overall pick David Price signed with the Devil Rays. The deal guarantees DP $8.5 million and it could be worth over $11 million. This is going to have a huge impact on recruiting and ensuring that top pitching prospect arrive on campus (ahem, Sonny Gray) and don't go to the pros immediately after high school. This deal also means that the two biggest MLB rookie contracts ever were given to pitchers who played at Vanderbilt (Mark Prior was a Commodore for a year before transferring to USC). The Price is Right.

3. First team All-American Dominic Of The Bear is returning as well. DLO was taken in the 10th round by the Tigers, but he struggled in the NCAA regionals and all summer in the Cape Cod League. Vanderbilt will have 8 of it's 9 position players returning from last year's team, with left field being the only position in the air as of now. There will be no better college team with a better middle of the lineup than Pedro, Flash, and DLO. If we can get the pitching we need to replace Price, Weathers, Crowell, Davis, etc., then the outlook for next year is bright.

This is a 3 star player?

Draftexpress.com has a nice interview with future Commodore, Andrew Ogilvy. Ogilvy dominated at the Under 19 World Championships and outperformed Burger Boys DeAndre Jordan and Michael Beasley. Australia didn't play the USA in the tournament, so we didn't get to see how he would fare against talent comparable to what he will face in the NCAA. That said, there were high major prospects on some of the teams he did face, and Ogilvy wiped the floor with them. If I remember correctly, Ogilvy led the tournament in scoring and blocks and was second in rebounding.

Memo to Rivals and Scout- if you're going to give a player an evaluation, how about you actually watch tape of him and not just rely on the schools that offered him. I've already stopped paying attention to Rivals' football ratings due to the Kareem Jackson situation, but I'm leaning to doing the same with their basketball ratings.

Best. Video. Ever

This guy was on Jimmy Kimmel Live the other night and played this song, which has over 4 million views on youtube. What's even more incredible is that he talks with a voice as deep as the one he sings with.

756*?

So Barry Bonds set the all time homerun record last night and I still don't know how to feel about it. I definitely think that he took steroids, HGH, andro, or whatever but I don't know how that should affect his place in history. Here's what I think:

1. Steroids, while being illegal in the United States without a prescription, were not on MLB's banned substance list until the last few years. Should he be affected by something that his sport didn't prohibit?

2. Both hitters and pitchers were taking steroids, so do the two cancel each other out? Bonds was already a great hitter, so was the increase given to him by steroids greater the performance increase given to pitchers? Probably so, but there's no definitive proof. Bonds was already a great hitter before he started taking steroids and likely would be at least #3 all-time on the homerun list, so how many extra homeruns can be attributed to steroids? 100? 10? There's just no way to tell.

3. There's already cheaters in the hall of fame. Gaylord Perry was a known cheater and he didn't do much to hide the fact that he was doctoring the baseball. This is what irks me so much about McGwire being blackballed for one day in front of Congress. Why the double standard? Plus, when you consider that guys like Ty Cobb are in the hall of fame, it's kind of hard to argue against Bonds being enshrined in Cooperstown, but there's still that possibility. This is what bothers me when Bonds is accused of being a horrible person because he's not a great teammate. His job is to play leftfield and hit- not to make everyone like him. Yes, he's part of a team, but no one really complains when Roger Clemens signs deals that don't require him to travel with the team when he's not pitching.

4. Bonds admitted to taking what he believed was flax seed oil and arthritis rub, but he did he know what he was actually taking? I tend to think so, based especially on the evidence in Game of Shadows and Greg Anderson's refusal to testify. If he made sure not to know what he was taking, then that is a problem, but if he honestly trusted the guys at Balco, then I think that weighs favorably for Bonds.

So, in sum, I have no idea what to think and I'll reserve judgment until there's more evidence either way.

This just in...

Well, a few things to discuss.

1. I made the Marquette Sports Law Review. I'm very happy about it, especially now that I know that I didn't waste the two weeks I spent in the law library this summer. I'm really not sure what to expect, but I'll post when there's something more to report.

2. I really suck at putting right now. I shot 93 at Brown Deer yesterday, but from tee to green, I was good enough to shoot mid 80s. I was on one of the par 5s in 2, but 3 jacked it from 30 or 40 feet. I also missed out on several pars because of an inability to even get close to the hole. I know this is a result of not practicing my putting, but I've never been this consistently bad with the flat stick.

3. In the last few days, I've read two people call Earl Bennett overrated. This guy called him "servicable" and this guy called him overrated. I don't know how anyone can call a guy who will break the all-time SEC receptions and receiving yards records overrated or serviceable, but then again, I don't write for esteemed publications like The Fernandina Beach News Leader or an AOL Sports blog. However, I do know that the SEC coaches feel he is one of the two best in the league, and I think I'll defer to their knowledge.

Who Ya Wit?