Ryan Got Linked to on Deadspin!

The man behind Victoria Times, Ryan, got his blog linked to on deadspin a few days ago for making some comments on the site. He then went on to post about it and welcomed people to his blog, should anyone click the link. Well he has my blog linked to on his, so if you liked his comment on deadspin, felt motivated to click the link, then felt motivated yet again to click on the link to my site from his links, well then I welcome you.

Anyways, so why no posts for over a month after bringing the old Is It Sports? back to life in blog form? Well for starters, I just came back from a stretch where I was only home for 9 out of 37 days, and the White Sox completely curling up and dying in September didn't help either. I guess I needed a break from sports for a while. I didn't even bother to make any NFL predictions. Meh, oh well. Here are my observations from the past month....

- Some people seem surprised the White Sox are out of the playoffs this year, but they are far from being the same team they were last year. The team ERA is a full run higher than last year, and 4 of their starters' ERAs from 2005 (Buehrle 3.12; Garland 3.50; Contreras 3.61; Garcia 3.87) were significantly better than the top starting pitcher ERA this year (Contreras 4.27). There was a huge offensive improvement this year however, and they more or less became the same group of mashers they were in 2000 all over again, but this time, unfortunately for them, they had 2 of the top 3 best records in baseball in their division. A funny thing to think about between 2005 and 2006 is the Sox have actually given up 41 more runs in 2006 than they scored in 2005, but they scored 210 more runs in 2006 than they gave up in 2005. Imagine if you flipped the offense and defense from the past 2 years...one season would be under .500, the other would probably challenge the 116-win record. I have some feelings on what the Sox should be doing in the offseason, but I'll save that for later. For now I'm jumping on the green and gold Oakland A's playoff bandwagon because.....

- If someone had to personally bury the White Sox 2006 repeat campgaign, I'm glad it was Frank Thomas. I mean, come on, at least I cheered for this guy for 15 years, did you really think I'd rather have had it been Justin Morneau or Travis Hafner? Kenny Williams unceremoniously let Frank leave for Oakland, and picked up Jim Thome to replace him. The fans quickly fell in love with Thome, but in the stretch run these past 2 months, he's proved exactly why he never won a ring in Cleveland, while 2000 miles away, the legendary castoff was solidifying his spot in the Hall of Fame. I know most of Chicago will be behind him, and it kills us to see him in any other uniform, but it also killed us to see him finally get his World Series ring last year while sitting on the bench. So here's to Frank getting his own ring this year, getting that 500th home run next year, and wearing that Sox hat once again on his Cooperstown plaque.

- A few college football thoughts.....I'm a Purdue season ticket holder, and they are a very unimpressive 4-0 right now, but they have been looking better each game. If they would have played the way they did against Indiana State or Miami (OH) against Minnesota, they would have gotten blown out, so there may be hope for them after all. They need 7 wins to make it to a bowl, but they still have Indiana and Illinois on their schedule, along with Hawaii, a lackluster Northwestern team, and schizo Michigan State. I hope this upcomng loss to Notre Dame won't set them back a few games in cohesiveness. Speaking of the Irish....

- Notre Dame is highly overrated, yet they'll more than likely hang around the top 10 in the rankings as the season goes on, only to get demolished by USC and a BCS opponent. Now that it looks like Penn State has come back down to Earth, they truly have a cupcake schedule this year. Michigan and USC are their only top-notch opponents, and we saw what Michigan did to them. They faced Georgia Tech, who are 3-1, but beat Samford, Troy, and Virginia (who lost to Western Michigan) so far. Then they have Penn State, Michigan State, and Purdue, who may finish 5th, 6th, and 7th in the Big Ten this season. They also have, not 1, not 2, but all 3 military academies on their schedule. But wait, you say, "isn't Navy at least decent this year? I mean, they blew out Stanford!" Well Notre Dame is playing Stanford too just for kicks. And just for fun, they even threw in basketball school North Carolina. I'm kind of wondering where Duke, Indiana, Kansas, and Temple are too. So anyways, at the very least, I'll get to gloat over how much Notre Dame was lacking this year in January when they get completely obliterated by someone like West Viriginia or Texas in the Sugar Bowl. Let's just hope I manage to have another post before then....