Random Ramblings

I had big plans to write about Steelers-Patriots AFC Championship game earlier this week, but based on the results, I didn't really feel like it. Instead, I thought it was about time to share my random thoughts on a variety of topics.

1. I'll start with the Patriots-Steelers game, but not the game itself. The CBS telecast showed Jon Bon Jovi several times during the game hanging out in the Patriots owner's box. What the heck? Bon Jovi is a proud New Jersey resident and owned an arena football league team in Philly. Now he's a Patriots fan? Again, what the heck?

2. I'm okay with Donald Trump building a wall along the United States-Mexico border with several caveats. First, I don't want to see one continuous Great Wall of China style wall along the border. That would just look bad and probably isn't possible based on the terrain. Plus, does the border patrol really need one, 2,000 mile wall? More importantly, paying $12 billion is an insane figure to build a wall. Money can be spent better for so many other purposes. Finally, imposing a 20% tariff on Mexican goods to pay for the wall just isn't realistic. That would only increase the cost for consumers (that's us Americans!) on cars, oil, electronics, vegetables, and more. So why am I for building a wall? Public works! During the Great Depression, the Tennessee Valley Authority (one of many projects during the New Deal) provided jobs and gave the region electricity. Maybe building a wall will on the Mexican border will also improve Wi-Fi in rural Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. So, Trump should want to build a wall on the Canadian border too. Bring jobs to Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Michigan, Montana, etc. While we're at it, let's build levees or retaining walls (or something) along the entire Eastern seaboard. Trump wants to be the jobs president, right? Public works!

3. I'm amazed at the success of the song Closer by The Chainsmokers featuring Halsey. Who would have thought a song about Mariano Rivera, Trevor Hoffman, and Mark Melancon would have been at the top of the charts for so long in 2016 and now into 2017.

4. My friend Rob wanted me to pass on this ESPN story identifying former Ohio State players as the best rookie class in NFL history. He admitted that he agrees with the article but is also biased.

Enjoy your Friday!

Random Ramblings

I recently found a $100 US treasury bond that I received in 2001, apparently as a gift for graduating from graduate school. It appears that the gift-giver paid $50 for this bond which will be worth $100 when it matures in 2031. It looks like I have two choices here:

1. Cash the bond now and receive approximately $75.
2. Hold on to the bond for another 15 years when it will be worth $100 and hope that I don't lose it.

The US must make millions just on people losing their bonds. It seems really easy to lose something or accidentally throw something away after 30 years!

In March 2012, my car hit 100,000 miles on a drive to North Carolina as part of my annual hockey road trip. On Wednesday, my car reached 125,000 miles. That's not a lot of miles driven in the past 4.5 years.

On Saturday, I recorded the Ohio State-Michigan game since I knew that I wouldn't be able to watch the entire game live. ABC set the broadcast time from 12:00-3:00, which was not realistic, so I added an hour of recording time. At exactly 4:00 on DVR time (though later in real time) with Ohio State driving in double overtime, the recording stopped. While I was happy when I checked online to see that the Buckeyes won, why are college football broadcasts so long? Games should not be 4+ hours! I know the clock is stopped on first downs (please get rid of this, NCAA), but every commercial break was at least 4 minutes. No other sport has commercial breaks.

Have a great weekend!

Random Ramblings

* I took both boys out by myself for the first time last weekend to see a music performance that was supposed to be geared for kids but wasn't very good. Anyway, my goal was to leave the house at 9:15. We left at 9:40.

* Ohio State is playing against Navy in Baltimore and then 5-6 weeks later at The University of Maryland in College Park. That was poor planning on someone's part (I'll blame the Big 10). More importantly, why didn't I know about this? As a graduate of The Ohio State University, shouldn't the alumni organization let me know about this? Do they not consider Northern Virginia part of the Maryland-DC region? Of course, I'm not a member of the alumni organization, so, um, I'll blame the Big 10.

* Our home uses gas for heat and electric for air conditioning. Therefore, our gas bills are low in the summer bit higher in the winter. Actually, the fact that our summer gas bill is generally $20-$30 is a bit of a joke since (to my knowledge) the gas is never on. Anyway, this month's bill is $0.81. I approve! When I tried to pay the $0.81 through my online checking account, the bank denied my payment requiring me to enter an amount of $1 or more. Look out for that $0.19 credit next month!

* I just finished reading Brazil's Dance With the Devil: The World Cup, The Olympics and The Fight For Democracy by Dave Zirin. Very, very interesting read. Based on the book, I never want the Olympics in DC, Pittsburgh, or basically any American city.

* I cut myself fairly badly while shaving over two consecutive days this week. You would that that I would be able to avoid this after shaving for 25 years.

* Remember a few months ago when I nicknamed my new son Pedro Tulowitzki after two members of my rotisserie/fantasy baseball team? Well, Troy Tulowitzki is now out for the season and Pedro Alvarez barely plays anymore.

Trivia Tuesday: Ohio State Edition

As a reminder, you have until Thursday to enter my new giveaway to win four tickets to the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh. Even if you aren’t able to use the tickets yourself, if you win, you can re-gift the prize! So far I have only received one entry, so you have an excellent chance of winning if you enter.

About eight or nine years ago, a friend gave me a set of Ohio State Tailgate Trivia cards which have sat in the passenger side door pocket of my car for those eight or nine years. I figure that it’s about time to throw these away, but I might as well get some use out of these cards before they go. Please note that these questions are through the 2002 season, so Terrelle Pryor or Beanie Wells cannot be the correct answers.

1. What professional team drafted Cris Carter?

2. Who holds the Ohio State record for the most yards rushing in a game?

3. In what year did Ohio Stadium open? (1922, 1932 or 1942)

4. Who holds the Ohio State career record for the most yards rushing?

5. What professional team drafted Eddie George?

6. What position did All-American Tom Tupa play in 1987?

7. What former Pittsburgh Steeler holds the Ohio State season record for the most quarterback sacks?

8. Who holds the Ohio State career record for the most solo tackles?

9. Who holds the Ohio State career record for the most yards receiving?

10. Who is the most recent Ohio State player to win the Heisman Trophy? (This question is not from Tailgate Trivia.)


As always, please leave your answers in the comments section below and do not use the internet for assistance. Good luck!

Friday Video & Week 6 NFL Picks

Ohio State's band makes its return to Sean's Ramblings courtesy of this amazing tribute to video games halftime performance. Go to the 6:00 minute mark to see something awesome.



h/t Nichole

I went 9-5 last week meaning that perhaps I'm getting better at picking NFL games. That brings my overall season record to 34-39-3. Here are my picks for this week:

Have a great weekend!

Disappointed By Ohio State

I received a call the other day from the folks creating The Ohio State University Alumni Today, the first publication ever to feature alumni listings from 1890-something through today. The school wanted to make sure that my information was correct and then tried to sell me this publication. (The hardback version is available for two payments of only $49.99 each!) Anyway, one of the first questions asked by seller was if I was still basking in Ohio State’s Sugar Bowl victory. I paused and replied that I had moved on to the basketball season. In reality, I couldn’t even remember who Ohio State played in the Sugar Bowl. What I remember from the game was that QB Terrelle Pryor and four other Buckeyes were permitted to play in that game even though they were suspended for five games of the 2011 football season for selling jerseys, championship rings and trophies. They were permitted to play by signing a ridiculous document stating that they would return to school the following season (not declaring for the NFL draft) as required by coach Jim Tressel.

So last week, Yahoo! Sports reported the following (this text is from ESPN)

Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel received an e-mail last April telling him that two of his players were caught up in a federal drug-trafficking case and the sale of memorabilia, breaking NCAA rules.

Tressel responded: "I will get on it ASAP."

But he never mentioned it to Ohio State's compliance department or his athletic director for more than nine months.

On Tuesday, Tressel was suspended for the first two games of the 2011 season and fined $250,000 for violating NCAA rules by failing to notify the school about the players' involvement. He also will receive a public reprimand and must make a public apology.

The NCAA is still investigating and could reject Ohio State's self-imposed penalties and add more sanctions.

So Tressel knew about this since last April but did nothing about it. Lovely. Let’s go back a step. The five Ohio State players who are all around 21 or younger sold jerseys and championship rings for money. If you have little or no money in college and have an opportunity to sell something, you do it. I would have loved to have sold baseball cards or something for $1,000 when I was in college. Of course, what the players did was in violation of NCAA regulations, and therefore, they were punished. I get that. However, Tressel is not a college student with limited resources. He’s a grown man with a seven-figure annual salary. The fact that his suspension is less than the players is ridiculous. This is a case where the cover-up is worse than the crime. I hope that NCAA does the right thing here and significantly increases Tressel’s suspension.

Let’s get back to the Ohio State administration for a second. I was there when football coach John Cooper was fired. At the time, the school stated that he was fired because of players having academic and off-the-field problems. In reality, he was fired for going 6-6 and 8-4 in his final two seasons in Columbus and his inability to win bowl games or defeat Michigan. Here’s what really bothers me about the situation (again from ESPN):

Ohio State president Gordon Gee said he and Tressel had discussed the violation at Gee's house for 3 hours one night.

Gee also said he had not considered dismissing the Buckeyes coach.

"No, are you kidding?" he said with a laugh. "Let me be very clear. I'm just hoping the coach doesn't dismiss me."

President Gee, you are the leader of one of the largest institutes of higher education in the United States. The buck (or in this case, the buckeyes) stops with you. I’m sure that you were instrumental in helping secure the recent $100 million investment by Leslie Wenxer, the head of Limited and chair of the school’s Board of Trustees. Congratulations to you for that (although Wexner probably would give millions of dollars to the school regardless of the president). However, when it comes to football, you would be better served to stay quiet. You already made a fool of yourself in criticizing TCU and Boise State last fall. Now you’re saying that the coach is bigger than you. It doesn’t work that way. Perhaps the Board should consider you position as president.

Oh, I’m not giving any more money to Ohio State, so enjoy making millions off of Pryor and the other players who you threw under the bus while acknowledging that the coach is fine. You probably don't need my money anyway.

The Columbus Dispatch has more about this story.

The Ohio State University President Is Wrong

I hate Division I college football. I love the games and the atmosphere, but I hate the system. It's all about money, yet, every once in a while, someone comes out and says something stupid about the current Bowl Championship Series system because they don't want to admit that it's about the money. This week's winner is The Ohio State University President Gordon Gee, who believes that that even if TCU and Boise State go undefeated, they don't deserve to be in BCS title game.

"I do know, having been both a Southeastern Conference president and a Big Ten president, that it's like murderer's row every week for these schools. We do not play the Little Sisters of the Poor. We play very fine schools on any given day."

Really? You play Indiana who just received $3 million to play a "home" game at FedEx Field outside of DC against Penn State. You play the 59th-ranked schedule in the country. You pay schools hundreds of thousands of dollars to travel to Columbus for an almost guaranteed victory (see the 73-20 win against Eastern Michigan, a team that also lost at home 71-3 against Northern Illinois).

Dr. Gee said the current system is better for the student-athletes. "It's not about this incessant drive to have a national championship because I think that's a slippery slope to professionalism," he said. "I'm a fan of the bowl system and I think that by and large it's worked very, very well."

A slippery slope to professionalism? Have you noticed that your conference created its own cable station, the Big 10 Network? You just added Nebraska to the conference so that you can have a conference championship game. Both of these moves show that you are already at the bottom of the professionalism slope.

Once again, it comes down to money. Division 1 football is the only college sport without a true championship. You could easily have an 8 or 16-team playoff system if the number of regular season games was reduced to 10 or 11. However, doing this would prevent Ohio State and other major college programs from hosting 7 home college football games. Ohio State makes millions of dollars for every home game. Why give up that paycheck or the money you receive from BCS games to allow schools from non-BCS conference (like Boise State or TCU) to get a share? You won't because the system works well for you.

In full disclosure, I earned my Masters degree from The Ohio State University. I have contributed money to the institution and consider myself a fan of the football team. I just think that President Gee is completely wrong here. Perhaps he should refrain from talking about the BCS and spend more time lobbying the Ohio legislature to give the institution more money.

By the way, tell me that this doesn't get you pumped up for the Ohio State-Michigan game? Go Bucks!

TMI Thursday: I Tried Out To Be a Cheerleader

When I was a high school junior, I auditioned to be part of my school’s cheerleading team. This was particularly difficult since the cheerleading squad consisted entirely of girls. Never backing down from a challenge, I thought I would break barriers by becoming the only male on the team. That last sentence sounds impressive but is totally false. I auditioned for the one spot on the squad where gender was not an issue: the mascot.

For the audition, my competitors and I had to perform a brief individual routine in costume in front of the cheerleading coach, several of the team members and each other. Routine may have been a stretch, but I had the perfect plan. I would show my enthusiasm and athletic ability by performing summersaults and cartwheels. This sounded like a wonderful idea except for the fact that I cannot and could not perform a cartwheel. During my first and only cartwheel, the mascot’s head fell off. This got huge laughs from everyone (including me) except for the coach who berated me. She thought I broke the mascot head, which apparently was fairly expensive. I didn’t get the mascot position. My friend (let’s call him Dave) earned the role of the Wolverine, although his audition was pretty weak. I guess not damaging the costume was more important than creativity. (If Dave happens to read this, he’ll probably disagree with my assessment of his audition but will admit that my cartwheel was funny.)

So why am I bringing this up? Well, perhaps you saw the video of the Ohio University Bobcat attacking Brutus Buckeye, The Ohio State University’s mascot, on Saturday. If not, here are two different views of the unprovoked attack.





I have mixed emotions on this. On one hand, a mascot fight is funny. I also appreciate the fact that Brandon Hanning, the OU mascot Rufus, became the mascot solely to tackle Brutus. That takes dedication and patience to wait an entire year before conducting the attack.

However, there’s always a chance that someone can get hurt. Ohio State fans calling for revenge against the Bobcat have short memories. Angela Anderson, who served as Herky the Hawk (the University of Iowa mascot), was "struck violently in the back of the head by an inflatable or hard foam object" while dressed as the Hawkeye mascot during the Oct. 30, 1999 football game at OSU.” (The quote is from The Lantern.) She complained of back injuries and eventually was awarded $25,000 in a court case against Ohio State for “severe personal injuries, pain and suffering.” As a brief tangent, the case docket information from this case is fascinating. Just look at the exhibit list from the pretrial statement.



I guess the moral of the story is that I’m glad that I didn't become the mascot. It would have been a shame if I injured the Gateway Gator.

Trivia Tuesday

Your challenge this week is to identify answers that begin and end with the letter "O." For example, what state’s college football team regularly defeats the University Michigan? While there are multiple answers to this question, we’re looking for this (Ohio):



1. Nabisco developed this ‘sandwich cookie’ in 1912.

2. An herb from the Lamiaceae family often used in Turkish, Greek, Spanish, and Italian cooking.

3. A musical composition, usually based on sacred texts, such as Handel’s “Messiah,” that uses orchestra, choir and soloists.

4. The first name of Springfield Elementary School bus driver Mr. Mann.

5. A 1,336-mile-long river that runs mostly through Venezuela.

6. Florida’s third-largest city after Miami and Tampa.

7. Its third-largest city is Mississauga. The top two have NHL teams.

8. In 1925, this northern European capital changed its name from Kristiania back to its original name.

9. A Greek anise-flavored spirit.

10. The Bengals’ Chad Johnson had his surname changed to this, his jersey number in poor Spanish.

As always, please leave your answers in the comments section below and do not search the internet for answers. This quiz is courtesy of the fine folks at Stump Trivia.


Photo (by Jay Hansen of The OSU Alumni Association) of Ohio State's four living Heisman Trophy winners (l-r) Hop Cassady, Archie Griffin, Eddie George, and Troy Smith performing O-H-I-O at the Columbus Sports Commission's "Morning Sports Report" program on Tuesday, June 22, at the Greater Columbus Convention Center.

For Your Sunday Viewing Pleasure

I don't have much to share today, but these links are definitely worth your time:

Cotter has the biggest Meeting People Is Easy ever! [One for the Other Thumb]

Your opinion of Nickelback may change. Well, probably not. [Carissa Jaded]

I don't understand the Ithaca College football team this year. They had three loses and were blown out against Springfield last week. This week, they crush previously undefeated Alfred 31-10 to keep their slim playoff hopes alive. [Ithaca College Bombers]

In honor of Ohio State defeating the overrated Penn State (that amazing non-conference schedule is really paying dividends), enjoy Script Ohio by The Best Damn Band in the Land.



h/t Nichole

Big College Football Day

Unfortunately the Michigan/Ohio State game is going to be cancelled for the first time ever this year. The reason is Michigan can't get past Toledo. In addition, I heard that U of M can't access the internet; they can't get three W's in a row.

I can’t take credit for these jokes. Anyway, the Michigan-Ohio State game starts in minutes on ABC.

In the first round of the NCAA Division III playoffs, Ithaca College meets Curry. There’s no truth to the rumor that Curry is named for former MTV VJ Adam Curry.



The game is being broadcast on WICB and is also available on LiveStats. At the moment, I can’t find any live webcast of the game.

Why is Pittsburgh and Cincinnati playing twice in three days? Are they replaying the game to allow Chad Johnson to play? Oh, it’s the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Cincinnati for possibly the Big East title. I will take credit for these jokes. Anyway, the game starts at 7:00 and will air on ESPN2.

Finally, the Texas Tech-Oklahoma game at 8:00 on ABC should be a lot of fun.

Have a great Saturday!