When former Georgia Tech athletic director (and, apparently, lifelong UGA fan) Dave Braine-less stepped down, the hunt was on for a new AD.  As I wrote when they were doing the search:

The search for a new AD came down to former Tech football coach and all-around class act Bill Curry and Dan Radakovich, who apparently is a very good businessman, but wouldn’t know a football if it bit him in the glutes. So naturally, Radakovich was the one chosen by Tech president Wayne Clough (rhymes with “puff”, as in, “what were you puffin’ when you made that decision?”)

When Georgia Tech finally fired Chan “six wins and a Tid-y Bowl appearance” Gailey as their football coach (sic), the hunt was on for a new coach.  Simultaneously proving his business savvy and absolute lack of interest in anything sports-related, Radakovich held a press conference regarding the search.  My observations on an article about the press conference:

In the quotes given in the article, he only used the f-word once. (No, not that one — I mean “football”.) Apparently, Radakovich is looking for a coach that will be economically profitable for the program. His pontificating was about finding a coach that would “inspire the market . . . to buy tickets” and talked of competition with the various major league teams in Atlanta. Granted, winning would help sell tickets, but it seems that winning is only useful to Radakovich if it does that. If free hot dogs and face-painting would sell tickets, he’d be all for that, instead.

Now, granted, I think GT did pretty well in bagging Paul Johnson. But I also think that this is further proof of Mark Twain’s observation that even a stopped clock is right twice a day (i.e. Radakovich got lucky). And lest you think I’m wrong about that, this article pretty much clinches it.

There was apparently a rumor circulating that GT was going to move its bi-annual home football game vs h(e)ated rival UGA to the Georgia Dome (with the alternating games continuing to be at UGA’s Sanford & Son Stadium). Radakovich has squelched this rumor, but has stated that there are talks about having a “neutral site” game at the Georgia Dome. There’s only one problem with that — it wouldn’t even be in the same galaxy as a “neutral site”.

When I went to Georgia Tech in the mid-to-late 80s, the “home” basketball games against North Carolina used to be at the Omni (the NBA dump arena that preceded Philips Arena).  Atlanta being the melting pot of the Southeast, there were always more UNC graduates/fans at the Georgia Tech “home” games than Tech fans. But, boy, did it fill the coffers of the GT athletic program.

But to whatever degree it was stupid to consider the Omni a home (or neutral) site for Georgia Tech versus UNC, it’s 1000 times more ludicrous to consider the Georgia Dome a home (or neutral) site for Georgia Tech versus UGA.  Not because of the venues, but because of the city.

Let’s be honest: Despite the fact that there are multiple colleges (including GT) right in Atlanta, and the fact that Athens is 80 miles away, Atlanta was, is, and probably always will be a UGA town.  One only needs to watch local news to see this or — better yet — open a copy of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.  The story of Georgia Tech’s upset of the #1 team in the nation will be on page E-7, right after the Montana middle school lacrosse standings, while UGA’s win over St Mary’s Elementary School for the Blind and Infirmed will be front page news.

So to consider any venue in Atlanta (other than those that are specifically Tech’s) to be a home or even a neutral site against UGA is asinine.  But, boy, will it fill the coffers of the GT athletic program.  And Radakovich has clearly shown that that’s what he’s all about.

I am more ashamed every day to be a Georgia Tech alum.

That whole 2012 thing is so last year. If you wanna see a cool prediction, check this out.

Let’s see, since they didn’t have to play baseball in October, the Yankees had 4.5 months off. Then they practiced for four whole days (in Florida, no less), and needed a break, so their manager canceled practice and took them to a pool hall.

It’s gonna be a loooooooooooooooooong season in New York.

From the front page of the NBA site. No wonder I don’t get pro basketball anymore.

Ya know how celebrities think we give a rat’s glutes about their opinions on political issues? Well, that self-worship just got kicked up (down?) a notch.

Watching the World Series.  Being on Fox, it is (of course) more important for the broadcasters to plug other Fox shows than to actually talk about the game.  And so, 24:Redemption (the prequel to season 7) was being plugged.  Not too annoying to me, since I am looking forward to that show.

But then Joe Buck revealed that he had gotten a pre-screening version of the show, would watch it on the plane to Philadelphia (between games 2 and 3), and give us his review during Game 3.

Why does he think anyone cares about his opinion of 24?

Apparently, someone at the University of Virginia is smoking crack.

When the Atlanta Braves won the 1995 World Series, the “no bias here” national coverage after the game included an inordinate amount of camera time on the losers (Cleveland Indians).  One such shot showed Indians’ pitcher Julian Tavares sitting in the dugout in tears.

Now as Tom Hanks reminded us in A League of Their Own, there’s no crying in baseball.  I have to admit that I’ve had a pretty low view of Tavares ever since.

Guess who the Braves picked up this week?

Naturally, he coughed up two runs in his Braves debut in 1/3 of an inning. I wonder if he cried about it afterward?

I’ve noted before that I’m a Sid Bream fan. About three months ago, I started using Google Alerts and his name was one of the first alerts that I created. I’ve gotten maybe 75 article hits in that time.

• About 5 of them were referencing his son or his cousin, both of whom are playing baseball at a collegiate level, if I recall correctly.
• About 5 of them were referencing the fact that Sid is now in the employ of the Pirates organization for one of the farm teams.
• All the rest (and even some of those first 10, to a lesser degree) are by Pirates fans, talking about how “The Slide” broke their hearts.

“The Slide” was over 15 years ago! Dude, get over it, already! This is starting to make Camp’s obsession with Driscoll, or Silva’s with Bell, seem almost normal.

Almost.