Two (Really) Quick Predictions For Tomorrow

And one quick request: Some drama, please!

Japanese Grand Prix - Fuji Speedway

1. Lewis Hamilton - McLaren
2. Fernando Alonso - McLaren
3. Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari

LifeLock 400 - Kansas Speedway

1. Jeff Gordon
2. Matt Kenseth
3. Denny Hamlin

Life Is Good

Say what you will about the 1964 Phillies...but at least they gagged it up on the road, against winning teams. The Mets have dug their own mass grave at home, where they've lost eight straight to the league's bottom-feeders. They've lost to journeyman starters like Joel Pineiro and to perennial punching bags such as last night's winning pitcher for the Marlins, Byung-Hyun Kim. They've blown leads almost every night. Big leads...four/five-run leads. They've made an astonishing number of errors, both physical (hey, it happens) and mental (inexcusable at this time of year). Shortstop Jose Reyes, known for his smiling and showboating when the Mets are winning, is sulking and half-assing it. Their manager, Willie Randolph, has mismanaged an already inept bullpen and benched a promising, multi-tool rookie who might've provided a spark, Lastings Milledge, in favor of washed-up veterans like Shawn Green and Jeff Conine. The fans have turned Shea Stadium into Boobird Central. Basically, it's been just about the greatest week of non-Braves baseball I've ever had the privilege of watching. [Pic courtesy of the New York Daily News]

Edited To Add: Sorry about that, Rockies. Inside straights, man.

Quick Prediction: The Georgia Game

Sure, they're ripe for an emotional letdown and the temptation to look ahead to Tennessee will be great. But Georgia gets a lift from the home crowd and puts a close-at-halftime game away with a couple of unanswered second half scores.

Georgia - 27
Ole Miss- 13

Urine, Sports, Rock And Roll

I'm sure that UGA President Michael Adams is getting roasted on all the Bulldog message boards today for his completely out-of-line, unreasonable suggestion that mature adults ought to be able to go four hours on gameday without showing their asses. Look, you may think that Adams is a strutting, preening, egomaniacal, card-carrying, full-tilt prick on shiny, mag wheels...but when he's right, he's right. That letter to the ABH a couple of weeks ago about football fans breaking into the arts building (and, yes, that's what it's called when you force open a locked door: breaking and entering) and proceeding to urinate into any hollowed-out space they could find was just disgusting. And that list of everything that's bugging me lately about football continues to grow...

I'm still enjoying this Mets meltdown every bit as much as...oh, maybe...five of the taken-for-granted division titles the Braves had in the middle of their run. If you're in the mood for some entertaining reading, head over to Baseball Think Factory and click on some of the game chats for the last few Mets losses. Of course, there have been some happy Braves fans over there living it up...not me, I swear!...and some poor-mouthing Mets fans lamenting, "No baseball fan should so much as even wish this kind of agony on a fellow fan." Boo-hoo. At least nobody's breaking into your house and peeing into your Gary Carter bobblehead.

It took maybe two, three classes...tops...for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to become a Hall of Big-Selling Critics' Darlings. If you're really going to base induction on creativity, longevity, and influence, I only induct three out of this year's nominees: Madonna, Donna Summer, and Chic. Maybe the Beasties. Don't get me wrong, I love Leonard Cohen. Love him. But the only way he gets into something called The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is with a ticket. I have every John Mellencamp CD and I've seen the guy live many times. He put out the hands-down best album of the freaking year ("Scarecrow") the same year that "Purple Rain" and "Born in the U.S.A." came out. But he had only a three-or-four good-album run and then dropped off the charts. Those two guys will still most likely get in, though. My picks for the five top vote-getters: Madonna, Summer, Chic, Mellencamp, and Cohen. Beasties could sneak in there.

Finally...Back later with a Quick Prediction for the Georgia game. Until then...keep it in your pants, people.

Grab Bag Thursday

I take it back. No witty musings about the debate last night. In fact, I dumped it off the TiVo without even watching it. Every pundit, spinner, and intraweb gasbag has declared that it was pretty much "Tenth verse, same as the first." Apparently Edwards advanced the ball down the field a little bit...but it sounds like it was yet another evening of agreeing-more-than-disagreeing and deferring to Hillary. If Edwards, who's strong in Iowa, can outperform expectations in the first few primaries, it could be over for Obama early. And that ever-hardening conventional wisdom from a couple of weeks ago, that the Obama campaign is in big trouble? That toothpaste ain't going back in the tube. Just Google "Obama campaign trouble" and see what I mean. At some point in the nearer-than-he-would-like future, Senator Obama may be forced to start considering an exit scenario that keeps his "rising Democratic star" status intact. In today's political climate, you stay in too long and you're damaged goods. There are no second acts. Just ask John Edwards, a guy who...based on his credentials and national resume...ought to be running neck-and-neck everywhere with Hillary.

Mittens, Rudy, John, Fred...there's still time to do the right thing.

Well, that was fun..for a little over a week, the Braves teased us all. They got, let's say, four cards of that inside straight they needed to draw in order to make the playoffs. But in Seven Card Stud, you have to pull all the cards...so the Bravos can go ahead and start making tee-times for next week. In much, much happier news, at least Braves fans still have this to enjoy.

The Jermain Taylor-Kelly Pavlik fight for the undisputed world middleweight championship (this Saturday night) is the best fight HBO has offered up in a decade. HBO usually shows mandatory title defenses. Fights where the champ picks some ham-and-egger from well down the top ten contenders list and pretty much phones it in. Pavlik's no bum. Jermain Taylor hasn't been in the ring with a fighter like Pavlik...a guy who's going to plant his heels in the mat and beat you relentlessly upside your head until you do something fierce to deter him. At the same time, Pavlik's never been in with a fighter as immensely gifted as Taylor. Taylor will be active and in motion...he'll make Pavlik expend energy pursuing him. He should beware, though...in knocking out Edison Miranda last spring, Pavlik showed a willingness to stalk his opponent deep into the fight if that's what it takes in order to start landing his big bombs. It's the oldest boxing cliche in the book: Styles make fights. These two fighters' styles couldn't be in sharper contrast. I can't wait.

I've been lucky enough to have a circle of friends that has racked up some serious accomplishments. I'm proud to say that I personally know a franchise-player NFL defensive end, a former WCW superstar, a Hollywood animator/anime voiceover actor, a WNBA standout, a professional golfer, a Naismith Award-winning basketball coach, and, of course, the deejay at Atlanta's hottest strip club. But, given the fantastic news posted by The Christian Agnostic, now I can finally say that I know a published author. And I have no doubt...none, at all...that I will eventually be able to call her a successful, highly-acclaimed author. Congratulations, Candace!

Finally...While I'm shamelessly dropping names, congratulations also to one of the mack daddies of my blogroll, Griftdrift, on his selection by Atlanta Magazine as the critics' pick for Best Blogger. Read him every day, as I do, and you'll end up living vicariously through him...as I do.

Navy Barracks Buildings, No Less

Maybe pay a little closer attention to the blueprints next time?

My Hair And Other Sexy Things

Let's get this over with first:

Here's the traditional "before-and-after" bit.

Just to clarify...As much as I thoroughly enjoyed watching Tom Glavine get his brains beat out last night and being booed off the mound at Shea Stadium, I'd still give anything if something could be worked out for Glav to come back and finish his career as a Brave. I got seriously burned on this situation over the winter...when everything pointed to Tommy's return for this season. But I know this game is all about business and if The Suspendered One said he couldn't crunch the numbers to make it work, I believe him. Maybe Liberty Media, the new owners, will loosen up the purse strings a little and bring Tommy home. He's family.

Of course, until then...or at least as long as he's a Met...eff him.

How can a story this awesome not be true? Total buzzkill.

Ric Flair was at the Nextel Cup race at Dover over the weekend and he was in full denial mode about reports that he had walked out on WWE because he wasn't happy with his proposed retirement storyline. Of course, like with any wrestler...but especially with Flair...you never know how much the guy is working the reporter to, in fact, advance said storyline. But the best thing in the interview was Ric's shout-out to Ric Flair Finance, his newest outside-the-ropes venture. I can't wait to tell Lauren when she gets home that we're buying a new house just so we can borrow the money from Ric Flair. WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

"Sprint Cup." I like that name even less than "Nextel Cup." Oh, well, at least it does sound like it could be vaguely racing-related. Just go ahead and rename the damn thing The Richard Petty Cup and let sponsors wrangle over the "presented by" credit every year.

Finally...The Democrats go at it for two hours on MSNBC tonight...live from New Hampshire. Me? I'll be watching baseball. But I'm TiVo-ing it and I'll have witty musings sometime tomorrow.