howling

Weird weekend for the Heath household -- not only was my alma mater, Opelika High, playing for a state championship (lost in a gut-wrencher), but Sunday morning we woke up early, piled in the car and rode to Atlanta to watch the Braves beat the A's, 5-2. Not only did the Braves' bullpen come through for them (repeatedly), but Omar Infante came off the bench to double home two insurance runs, raising the interesting question, "Who is Omar Infante?"
Wait, you want stranger? We had our dogs with us the whole time, forever answering the question, "What kind of (expletives) participate in stuff like this?" As it turns out, A LOT of people do -- we could barely move around once we got in the park. For the record, there were no incidents -- everyone enjoyed themselves, particularly the lady of the house, who was already talking about buying tickets for September's version.

Anyway, I've been busy and sick lately, so your links have been lacking. Here's what I've got this morning ...
-- Much of this blog is spent taking you behind the curtain, so you can see exactly what it's like to write about sports for a living. Deadspin, however, has been blowing my mind with their own series of stories, written by writers who cover actual pro athletes, many of whom are completely crazy. Here's a great one, for example, about covering the Mariners.
(Warning: the language in these things is a little coarse. Such is the life of covering pro sports.)
-- For those who missed it, Jacksonville St. landed the embattled Ryan Perrilloux to play quarterback for its football squad this fall. Needless to say, Finebaum's upset about it.
-- So, the Alabama baseball team is going to Hoover this weekend, after all. The bracket is available here -- 'Bama takes on Kentucky Wednesday in the late game.
-- Capstone takes on Ty Willingham. He's got a point, as always -- Ty's not really in the position to complain at this point. I've often wondered how deep is the pool of minority candidates in college football -- people have often complained about our paper not employing minorities, but the fact is that many don't want to work at a place our size, because they can get bigger, better-paying gigs elsewhere. So how many minorities actually want to break into college coaching? Someone should attack this thing.
-- OTS checks in from the new-look RBR with a look at the SEC's non-conference schedules for the fall. At the top? National championship contender Georgia. I'm telling you, their road is way too tough. They're going to finish with 3 losses.
-- And finally, someone at ESPN woke up Gregg Easterbrook to write a Belichick column. Good for you, sir. Good for you.

wlh