It's because I'm awesome

Rays/Yankees

Sun, 11 Apr 2010 15:46:51 -0400

Today could have been much different.

Here I sit, watching the Rays take on the Yankees in the rubber match of a three game series, wearing my Rays hat in support, hoping every pitch that Shields throws towards home plate will become an out or “accidentally” deck a Yankee right in the arm.

Hate’s a strong word, I understand. But I can honestly say that I, John Michael Abbott, hate the Yankees.

I hate everything they stand for. They treat every team in baseball like their farm system, stealing players with ridiculous contracts other teams can’t compete with. Their fans are obnoxious jerks who scream “TWENTY-SEVEN” every opportunity they get even if they can’t remember who played first-base before Mark Teixeira. They’re the Evil Empire, crushing small-market teams with their bottomless bank account, robbing deserving teams of any chance of succeeding by buying their way to the top year in and year out.

Yet, I can’t help think back to the summer of 2003. The summer I fell in love with baseball. The summer I almost became a lifelong Yankee fan.

I spent day after day that summer at my grandparents house, where Greg, my grandma’s husband who I consider a grandparent, would watch baseball all day. When I wasn’t swimming outside or locking myself in the back room to play Nintendo, I’d come out and watch a game or two with him. Most of the time, they were Yankee games.

Though I had watched baseball before this time, I never really understood it - nor did I swear allegiance to any team. But now, I was learning how the sport was played. Greg would tell me what each stat meant and taught me how to keep score, all with the Yankees playing before us on the television. Greg and the New York Yankees taught me baseball.

Now I was at the point where I had to pick a team to root for. Of course, the Yankees taught me all I knew about the sport. I knew the team well. But there was this one team that played about two hours away from my hometown. I watched them occasionally; the Yankees played them several times throughout the summer and Greg would watch them on TV when the New York wasn’t playing.

This team was terrible. They had no history, and the little that they had was forgettable. They were almost unbearable to watch. But I have a soft-spot for underdogs, and they were close enough to central Florida to be my hometown team. They were the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Greg took me to see them for my first Major League Baseball game. They were playing the Texas Rangers. I was so excited to be able to keep score at a live baseball game, plus I was going to get a free deck of baseball cards if I was one of the first 1,500 kids there. We took our seats in left-field and waited for the first pitch as vendors walked everywhere selling hot dogs and beer. The sights, the smell, and the excitement of the game took me over as the Devil Rays cruised to a 15-4 win. It was at after that experience that I was hooked on baseball for life.

The Yankees may have taught me baseball, but the Devil Rays made me fall in love with it.

Now my allegiance to the Tampa Bay Rays is unquestioned, and because they play in the AL East my closeness to the team that taught me the game has turned into an all out hatred. But at least it’s a respectful hatred. The Yankees will always hold on to a very small part of being responsible for my love affair with baseball.

And who knows? If I hadn’t gone to see that first game at the Trop, perhaps I might be wearing a New York cap right now and cheering on Jeter instead of the Rays.

At least I can hate the Red Sox guilt free.

Jim Leavitt Firing Is A Long Time Coming

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:31:49 -0500

Let me start out by saying that I don’t hate the South Florida Bulls. In fact, I kind of like ‘em. They’re the closest thing my hometown and county have to a legit college football team and several of my friends from high school are continuing their education there. I even applied there. So yeah, even though my allegiance lies elsewhere, I keep up with the happenings at South Florida. I wish them well.

That being said, thanks to the powers that may be who decided to fire Jim Leavitt.

Regardless of whether or not the allegations are true that he grabbed one of his players by the throat (which I, for one, have a hard time taking sides), Leavitt should have been fired anyway. He’s a great recruiter and great coach, but he has a reputation of starting out strong and failing down the stretch, holding South Florida back from its full potential.

Don’t believe me? The stats are there.

We’ll start in 2007, the first year that South Florida really stepped into the national spotlight. They started out the year with a strong 6-0 record, rising into the polls for the first time in school history with upsets against #17Auburn and #5 West Virginia and convincing wins over other foes. They were ranked as high as #2 in week 7. Then the fading began. They were upset in Piscataway by an unranked Rutgers team by a field goal, and lost to UConn and Cincinnati (both unranked) in the following weeks, falling out of the Top 25.

They were finally ranked again when they faced Oregon in the Sun Bowl, but preceded to be royally stomped 56-21 falling out of the rankings for good.

2008 is just about the same story. Strong 5-0 start. Upset win against #11 Kansas. Ranked as high as #10. Losses to unranked teams and unceremoniously falling out of the rankings.

2009? Ok, so three of their 5 losses were to ranked teams. But they still started out strong with an upset of #25 FSU and were ranked 25th when they played #9 Cincinnati at home. But I do suppose you could blame this season on Matt Grothe getting hurt.

The pattern here is that while Jim Leavitt had a lot of upside, and the fact that he literally built the South Florida football program with his bare hands, he couldn’t get the Bulls over those last few humps to become a championship contending team. Every year the Bulls started out strong, and when they experienced their first loss Leavitt could never motivate the team to get back on track and beat the teams they’re supposed to beat.

It’s like the Buccaneer teams that Tony Dungy built: Great teams but couldn’t round that last corner. Then Gruden came in and took them the rest of the way. Perhaps a new coach can finally give that last push USF needs to get over the top. Tommy Tuberville would be a great fit. Maybe Calvin Magee, the Offensive Coordinator from Michigan? Heck, why not Jon Gruden?

I’m sure Leavitt is unquestionably a man of great character who lives and breathes the product he’s worked so hard to field every Saturday in the fall. But South Florida has needed to find a solution to its reputation of inconsistency for a few years now. And unfortunately for the father of University of South Florida football, Jim Leavitt is not the answer.

So here’s a peak at my possible apartment in Fall 2010....

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:04:53 -0500

So here’s a peak at my possible apartment in Fall 2010. It’s at Gateway at Glades and it’s a really good deal. I’ll know for sure after the break whether it’ll happen or not but right now things are looking pretty good.

"Procrastination is opportunity’s assassin."

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:26:00 -0500

“Procrastination is opportunity’s assassin.”

- Victor Kiam

Maybe I should get back to work now…

I’ve been watching this guy’s videos for the last 30...

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 01:25:34 -0500

I’ve been watching this guy’s videos for the last 30 minutes instead of sleeping. Don’t watch this until after your finals are over. Trust me, it’s for your own good. You can’t stop.

This song has been stuck in my head all day. So I thought...

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:00:22 -0500

This song has been stuck in my head all day. So I thought I’d share it with you.

I also had my section leader interview today for 2010 Gator Band. I think it went well, but I’ll find out eventually.

Enough of this now. Back to my paper.

Bernie

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:41:11 -0500

David M: My goal during the Sugar Bowl trip is the get a picture of Bernie Machen taking shots.
Me: Oh man that be great. After he gets wasted you can take pictures of him on escapades around New Orleans.
David M: I like where this is going...
Me: And you can call the album "Weekend at Bernie's"!
David M: Epic.

Sugar Bowl Trip

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:38:23 -0500

Just got out of the Gator Band Sugar Bowl Trip meeting. And besides my Christmas break being cut short by about a week, the trip should be amazing!

From the itinerary we were given today, we have to be back in Gainesville on the 29th, and we’re leaving the next morning for New Orleans. Our hotel is the Hilton Riverside Resort, only 3 blocks away from the French Quarter. By the looks of it, we should get plenty of free time to explore the area for the first two days we’re there, which should be extremely exciting on New Year’s Eve….

The day of the game, January 1st, will be spent entirely at the Superdome from about 10 AM to midnight. Apparently our seats are horrible, but whatever. I’m at the Sugar Bowl for free.

We’ll be back in Gainesville pretty late on January 2nd. Just in time for school to begin 3 days later. Looking forward to it!

Hola

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:54:46 -0500

Yeah, so I’m new to this thing. Cut me some slack until I figure it out. But trust me, you’ll like it when I do. ;)

Photo

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:47:50 -0500