Special Saturday Edition

Welcome to this very special Saturday Edition of Big O Sports Blog. In case you were wondering, which I'm sure you were, my softball team lost 3-2 this morning. We were up 2-1 heading into the bottom of the 7th before some mistakes led to the other team pushing a couple of runs across. At 3-2 it was in fact the lowest scoring slow pitch softball game in the history of the world, so when looking at it that way it was nice to be a part of history. Yours truly went 1 for 2 with a run scored. I also made a handful of plays at second base without committing an error. I know you were all on the edge of your seat for the results to that one. Anyway here we go with the day's topics, they're a surprise today so you have to scroll down to see what's on tap. Oh and by the way, the over/under on how many games Paul Lo Duca is suspended for his little meltdown is 4. You may place bets with me if you'd like but I will probably just pocket your money and run.


Oregon State and North Carolina Reverse Rolls

Welcome to the College World Series Championship Series . . . or should I say, The Twilight Zone? I'm just kidding I have never actually seen The Twilight Zone but apparently weird stuff happened kind of like an alternate universe kind of thing, I don't really know. But the rematch of UNC vs the Beaver Nation is full of some kind of bizarre coincidences. If you look at how each team navigated the CWS field to reach this point, the two teams have almost exactly switched places from how they got to this point last year.

Last year North Carolina went unscathed through the tournament field to reach the Championship Series. The Tar Heels won the first game of the series before losing the final two and thus the national title. Oregon State last year suffered an early lost before coming back to beat Rice twice to reach the Championship Series. Fast forward to this year. Oregon State sailed through the CWS unbeaten to reach the final series where as UNC lost a game early before coming back to beat Rice twice in a row to get to the Championship Series. Any of this sounding familiar? Because it should. And guess what happened next, that's right, UNC lost the opening game of the Championship Series tonight, the similarities continue.

So what does this all mean? Well absolutely nothing it's kind of just a neat coincidence. Also I picked UNC to win this whole thing and after the shellacking they took today, I am looking for any glimmer of hope that would lead me to believe they will come back and win it all. Well this is the glimmer I found. Some may call it a stretch, those people would be right.


Bobby Cox One Ejection Away From All-Time Record

Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox is now officially one more ejection away from becoming the all-time most ejected manager of all time. Cox was ejected in the 9th inning today to tie John McGraw for the all-time lead at 131. Some may say this is a dubious record but I disagree. First of all Bobby Cox isn't exactly a spring chicken. The fact that Cox even has enough energy to get fired up enough to get ejected at his age is a miraculous feat in and of itself. So kudos to Bobby for still having a passion and a fire burning for the game still after all these years, you have to love that. Secondly, you have to be a really good manager to get ejected 131 times. That's almost an entire season worth of ejections. If you aren't a really good manager, obviously you won't be around long enough to get tossed 131 times, but also the front office wouldn't put up with you getting run 131 times if you aren't one amazing manager.

Now I feel like the position of manager is fairly overrated to begin with, I mean they just don't do that much, but that's beside the point. Bobby Cox is a man you can never really give enough credit to. The front office in Atlanta has continued to cut back on the payroll thus letting very talented players walk away from the team only to replace them with rookies and cast-offs and somehow Bobby still managed to guide the Braves to domination in the National League for a decade and a half. Just amazing stuff.

I have to say I am really looking forward to Cox breaking this record. I am kind of hoping for a greatest hits type of ejection where he incorporates all of the best parts from his tirades into one mega-ejection. You know, start with kicking some dirt on the umpire, then turn the hat around so you can get close to the ump's face to yell at him, then covering up home plate with dirt since the ump clearly can't see it anyway, then army crawling out to the pitches mound to throw the rosin bag like a hand grenade and topping it all off by throwing a water cooler and trainer's bag onto the field. Of course by this point the crowd would just be erupting so he would have to come out for a curtain call, at which poin he should tip his cap and take a bow. A 48 game suspension from Bud Selig would surely follow, but it would definitely be worth it.

THE END!