Yeah, I'm ready to duel, Greeny!

 

Like many sports fans, I wake up each day with ESPN's Mike and Mike In The Morning.  The show, on ESPN Radio and simulcast on ESPN 2, features Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic along with the top names in sports and entertainment.

The combination of the effete, preppy Greeny and the jockish, more rotund Golic usually gives fans a chance to agree with one or the other on a variety of issues in the sports world and beyond. Then again, on those rarer mornings when the two actually take the same viewpoint, the listener can concur that they're both -- um, how do I say this intellectually? -- a couple of big poopyheads!

The World Series begins tomorrow night in Tampa Bay, an American League city, so Game 1 will include the Designated Hitter. All of which gives the DH-haters yet another opportunity to spew their contempt and displeasure.

To a goodly number of baseball fans -- and, I'd argue, a lot more people who don't give a rat's ass about the game, but simply want something to bitch about -- the DH should follow the Soviet Union, mood rings and MC Hammer off into the deep dark recesses of time

Typical of this mindset is Joe Holleman of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, as he writes..the designated hitter is an abomination. I will gladly add this to his list of things to do in the first 100 days of [my] administration.

Everyone who loves baseball knows that the nine guys who take the field are the nine guys who get to bat. Everybody plays the field, everybody steps to the plate. But since the greedy owners love the extra run production, and the greedy union likes the extra roster spots, this crime against nature continues. And the DH is precisely why managers in the American League deserve less respect than their National League counterparts. And it is yet another reason that the AL is known as the "junior circuit."

To paraphrase the immortal Dan Aykroyd, Joe, you ignorant slut!

The AL is called the junior circuit because it came into being in 1901, after the formation of the NL. And yes, I can agree -- to an extent -- that managing in the NL is more dificult because you have to factor in the pitcher's spot in the batting order.

Still, when both Mike and Mike claimed that baseball would be better without the DH, I wanted to throw something at my TV. NO!

What these revisionists fail to understand is the DH actually helps the game more than they can comprehend. The DH actually adds something to the game and disposing of it would give baseball a boring sameness.

Look, we get to argue this every year -- the AL is better, no the NL is better. Do we have this in the NFL? Does anybody care about which conference is better in professional football? Nope.

Since everybody plays the same game and the same rules, there is practically no difference in the games of each Super Bowl participant. If you're old enough, you can raise a cheer for a traditional NFC team or wave a pennant for one of the old AFL franchises. Other than that, who cares?

In fact, I'd argue further that the only people who don't care for the DH are all over the age of 40. There is an entire generation -- really, almost two generations -- that have grown up with the DH and if they've played the game on any level, have played with the DH in their game. Except for these old farts and NL supremacists, nobody else cares.

Greenberg insists that since baseball has changed over the years, we can look forward to the eventual demise of the DH. He suggests that once upon a time the very notion of interleague play, wild cards and instant replay were unthinkable, but all have been introduced to Major League Baseball and to the betterment of the game.

But those were steps forward, Greeny. Eliminating the DL is a big step backward. No DH means that one less functional hitter gets to bat and one less spot on the roster.

Again, I'd argue loudly that I don't want both leagues to play the same game. I think our status quo -- DH in the AL, no DH in the NL -- is the best of both worlds. And without the yearly argument, there'd be a boring sameness between the World Series teams.

And what's so bad about getting a few more seasons on the end of our favorite players' careers? If the DH had been inacted a decade earlier -- so the careers of say, Mickey Mantle, Stan Musial and Ted Williams would have been extended -- I doubt that we'd even be having this argument in the first place.

For this and other reasons, I feel that I would make a MUCH better MLB Commissioner than Mike Greenberg, the only self-professed candidate for the job. With that in mind, I am announcing my own candidacy to be your next MLB Commissioner. Therefore, I am challenging the esteemed Mr. Greenberg to a debate on the DH and the other issues facing the game.

Any time, any place, Greeny. You can stack the questioners full of your ESPN comrades -- Peter Gammons, Buster Olney, Jayson Stark et al. Have them all ask both of us questions and see which one of us truly has a better grasp on the game of baseball.

In the spirit of this current toxic political season, I have concocted my own negative ad slogan: Can we really trust the judgment of a failed game show host to be our next MLB Commissioner? I think not.

Oh, it doesn't mean anything about our budding campaign or the DH kerfluffle, but you had to enjoy Mike Ditka (on ESPN's Mike and Mike, no less) calling the AL Champs, the "Tampa Ray Bays." 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, word came out yesterday in San Francisco that the 49ers would be firing one of their own Mikes, head coach Mike Nolan, after this Sunday's game.

Of course, Nolan did what we would do if we heard such a rumor at work about our job security -- he walked into his boss's office and asked point blank, what gives? And like our own lives, the guy behind the desk said something like, "um, we were gonna tell you, but..."

So, the old Mike is being replaced by the new Mike, former Super Bowl Shuffling Mike Singletary. And it's not like Nolan left many friends in the Bay Area to defend him. Gwen Knapp of the SF Chronicle made the following parting shot, ridiculing the dapper Nolan for being "ill-suited" to the job.

On the surface, Nolan seemed very different from his employers, the York branch of the DeBartolo family. He is full of swagger and vanity, a man of many words, most of them empty. The Yorks are sensible-shoes people, deathly allergic to microphones.

But both sides, the owners and their erstwhile head coach, care very, very much, almost desperately, about the opinions of others. They want to do the right thing. They just can't figure out on their own what that might be. So they'd listen and listen and listen, and the result was a lot of voices in their head and no clear vision about the football team.

Some of that could change under Mike Singletary, who has a strong sense of self reinforced by a bronze bust in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Chosen as Nolan's replacement, he is unlikely to copy his predecessor and request permission to wear a suit on the sideline. Singletary's idea of a fashion statement is a faded nylon pullover with the lettering nearly erased and a wooden cross around his neck.

He does cut a surprisingly sleek figure these days, no longer built like a bulldog of a linebacker. But ask Singletary about his fitness regime, and he won't preen at all. He'll humbly admit that he failed a physical for a non-football job after he left the Chicago Bears. The doctor told him he was a prime candidate for diabetes and heart disease, and he cleaned up his diet.

But does that mean Singletary can reshape the 49ers' culture, once among the best in sports, now fighting the Clippers and Raiders for the aisle seats in purgatory? The Yorks would have to get the kind of luck that is not the residue of design.

Moreover, the new Mike has another holdover Mike, Mr Martz, the offensive coordinator. Can the two join forces and turn the Niners around? San Jose Mercury-News columnist Mark Purdy isn't convinced.

History proves that dumping a coach in October almost always accomplishes squat. NFL teams have changed coaches during the season more than 80 times since 1930. But only three times - and not since 1961 - has it resulted in a team making the playoffs. Only four other times has it resulted in a winning season.

Singletary, in other words, is fighting enormous odds. It did not have to be this way. Management had a chance to reboot the team after last season's dismal 5-11 record, Nolan's third straight losing season. In early January, I called Nolan "the luckiest coach in football" to be returning. No previous 49ers coach had been allowed to stay on after three sub-.500 seasons.

Of course, should Singletary and Martz fail, yet another Mike looms in the distance. Mike Holmgren, former Super Bowl winner in Green Bay and about to retire at season's end in Seattle, started out as a Niner assistant coach.

Cam Inman of the bayareanews.group thinks that is a distinct possibility.

In an ideal scenario, the 49ers play this season out under Singletary, show progress and gain momentum for a fresh start in 2009 under different leadership. Ideally, they bring in Mike Holmgren to either coach or oversee the football operations (a la Bill Parcells' role with the Miami Dolphins). General manager Scot McCloughan worked with Holmgren in Seattle, so presumably there's an amicable relationship that could help them ferret out a new coach if Holmgren doesn't want that exact job.

Other candidates surely will surface. There might be a desire to return to the West Coast-offense roots with a former 49ers coordinator, such as Greg Knapp (now with the Raiders) or Marty Mornhinweg (Eagles). Maybe they'd get a hotshot NFL assistant (e.g. New England's Josh McDaniels) or dare to venture into the college ranks, a path that led the Yorks to the disappointing Dennis Erickson era.

But they probably won't fork over the massive salary it would take to lure a Bill Cowher or Pete Carroll, especially not if Holmgren is paid big money to serve as the new chief who'd pick the coach like Parcells did in Miami.

(One last Holmgren note: The New York Giants' game program Sunday listed Holmgren as the 49ers coach, a typo likely explained by the fact that Holmgren's Seahawks were the previous visitors to Giants Stadium on Oct. 5.)

Finally, it's been a bad week so far for technology. Once upon a time, we grew so jaded of space travel that we took it for granted and barely considered the dangers involved. The Challenger and Columbia disasters kicked those complacent feelings to the curb.

[I digress as usual, but I once saw a former space capsule at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. I took one look and was flabbergasted? They took this THING out into space and came BACK? I wouldn't ride that contraption to Kenosha and back.]

Anyway, we've all gotten used to having the world provided to us on our TV sets nightly from all over the world. Witness the dismay and disbelief that followed this weekend. In the space of roughly 24 hours, viewers suffered through the loss of the signal from both Game 6 of the ALCS Saturday night and the San Diego-Buffalo game on Sunday afternoon.

Baseball fans tuning into TBS for the game were treated to the comic stylings of Steve Harvey and not the Red Sox-Rays game. Who in the world made that decision? Not back to the studio for an explanation? Not more pre-game fluff before getting back to the game? And this was compounded by the umpires' decision to start the game anyway, so viewers missed a first inning home run.

Meanwhile, CBS has been broadcasting the NFL forever, but they kept losing the feed from the Chargers-Bills game. At least, they had the good sense to provide an actual alternate NFL game in its place.

The highly paid media professional who decided that Steve Harvey was a perfectly good choice for filling air space during Game 6 of the ALCS should join Mike Nolan on the umemployment line.

"To anybody who's a soul music fan, this is like royalty dying," ...

 

Admittedly, it was awfully tough to watch the deciding Game 7 of the American League Championship Series last night. A big reason was my constant flicking back to watch Mad Men on AMC, THE essential MUST watch television program in my life at the moment.

(Note to AMC) Hey, bring Don Draper back to New York already!  Don't pull a Desparate Housewives and get all goofy in only your second season and lose your faithful fan base!)

The main reason, though, that many other Americans couldn't bear to watch the baseball game last night was the sickening feeling that the plucky Tampa Bay Rays were about to be gutted by the fates and the Evil Empire 2.0 -- otherwise known as the Boston Red Sox -- were about to pull yet another metaphorical rabbit out of their caps to win yet another American League pennant.

I'll touch on the Evil Empire 2.0 in a moment, but consider the karma surrounding the game for Tampa Bay and their fans last night. They'd been seven runs up and seven outs away from winning it last Thursday night and now it was down to one single game -- after a whole season of defying expectations -- of finally falling just short of the World Series.

Even though they'd won the AL East, these Rays and their fans were in danger of being just another lovable loser, just another Bartman moment, just another speedbump as the Evil Empire 2.0 skipped right past them.

The Tampa Tribune's Martin Fennelly spoke for millions when he wrote...could it really end like this?

Could this miracle of a baseball season be consigned to the dungeon of great postseason collapses? Could the '08 Rays go from being the '69 Mets to the '03 Cubs in 72 hours flat?

It would be like those '69 Mets blowing a 3-1 World Series lead to the Orioles. It would be like the Soviets scoring two late goals to beat the U.S. Olympic hockey team at Lake Placid in 1980. It would be like Mike Tyson getting back up to knock out Buster Douglas.

It would be a shame if this season was judged by how it ended.

Flaming wreckage is no way to end this. No way at all.

Instead, it happened and nothing will ever be the same. This was big. This was Charlie Brown finally getting to kick that football big.

Now there is a mourning Red Sox Nation that is in total denial. They don't understand that their beloved team has become the NEW New York Yankees -- the NEW best-team-money-can-buy and therefore, the team America now roots AGAINST! 

Still, the Hartford Courant' Jeff Jacobs tries to put it in words.

So how are we going to explain why, when it looked as if the Amazin' Rays would buckle under the pressure of a seventh game, they refused to buckle? How are we going to explain exactly why, when it looked as if the Red Sox would make the Rays another notch in their remarkable postseason belt, that it was the defending world champions who would melt?

All we can tell you is that it happened. All we can tell you is the Rays, the latter-day cousins of the '69 Amazin' Mets, beat the Red Sox 3-1 before 40,473 fans and at least that many cowbells at Tropicana Field to win the seventh game of the 2008 ALCS. All we can tell you is a team that had finished in last place nine of the 10 years of its existence answered a 96-loss season with 97 wins, a division title and its first World Series appearance.

"I hate to disappoint the hard-liners, but I really can step back [and enjoy this as a fan]," Rays` manager Joe Maddon said before the start of Sunday's game. "I actually was taking my bike ride today, and you just look out over the water and you think about Game 7. When you're a kid in the playground or in the backyard playing, you're always playing Game 7. Well, here it is."

Maddon said he never lost a Game 7 in his backyard growing up in Hazleton, Pa. Well, this isn't Hazleton. This is the big leagues. To be fair, Maddon was the bench coach when the Angels beat the Giants in Game 7 of the 2002 World Series. But those were the Giants. These are the Red Sox, and they steal dreams.

Last pitch: 11:40 p.m. Tampa Bay went nuts in celebration at 11:41. Within 10 minutes, the Rays were circling the field, spraying fans with champagne, jumping up and high-fiving them. And who could blame them? The Rays may have been too young and dumb to realize they were supposed to choke this series away, but they sure are special.

"I know our guys will be down for a little while, but they have no reason to hang their heads," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said of a season filled with injuries and transition. And he's right.

If you're a Red Sox fan, you hate that your team lost. But if you're any kind of baseball fan, you can't hate the Rays for winning.

Locally, there was some baseball news of note. The Milwaukee Brewers announced that they'd signed General Manager Doug Melvin to a contract extension, would make a solid contract offer to free agent pitcher CC Sabathia and would NOT consider Dale Sveum for the field manager's job next season.

Sveum, of course, is crushed. He played for the Brewers, he pulled the team from the brink of elimination to make the playoffs and believed that he'd get a fair shot at managing on a full-time basis.

Melvin insists that he wants someone with previous managing success and the list of possibles includes many of the usual subjects. Still, this columnist's prediction -- a month ago, I might add -- is still Bob Brenly. 

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel does place Brenly on Melvin's short list.

Brenly, the former Arizona manager now broadcasting Chicago Cubs games for WGN, certainly has seen the Brewers and other National League Central clubs many times in that role, and he fits the "previous success" qualification by leading the Diamondbacks to the 2001 World Series title.

Moreover, after watching both teams over the last few years, Brenly should have tremendous insight into what the Brewers need to do to overtake the Cubbies in the NL Central.

Curb your enthusiasm, but the Wisconsin Badgers are projected to go to the Motor City Bowl. (Yeah, baby, Detroit in December sure beats Florida on New Year's Day, ainna hey!)

Bowl game?  BOWL GAME?!

After successive blowouts and a four game losing streak, even this might seem like a stretch, but CBS Sportsline.com's J. Darin Darst gives the following reasoning to JS-Online's Badger Blog.

Admittedly, Darst isn't sold on Wisconsin, and even said (after taking a longer look at UW): "wow, I'm looking at the schedule, not sure they can make it."

Darst is thinking UW will end up at 6-6 - but might need a three-game winning streak to close the season to get there. More of his reasoning: "But yes, out of 11 teams, 2 to the BCS, Indiana and Purdue out, Wisconsin is projected as the last team to get in -- Motor City bowl."

Still, the Badgers weren't even the biggest disappointment in the country last Saturday, not even the biggest flop in the Big Ten. That dubious honor goes to Michigan State, which laid a big fat egg on network TV in losing BIG to Ohio State.

The Detroit Free Press' Mitch Albom (yes, he still actually writes a column like the rest of us ink stained wretches) gives Sparty the big thumbs-down.

The weather was perfect, the stadium was packed and the whole town was pounding with green-and-white optimism.

And then the game started.

And Ohio State pulled the Spartans' pants down.

Not ready. Not yet. The records suggested that Michigan State was an elite team, but records are just numbers. The field tells the tale. And on the field, there were the Big Boys and there were the Wannabes. Before this game was 15 minutes old, it told an age-old story about one team that has done it and one team that is still dreaming about it.

"What's the one thing you did well today?" someone asked MSU defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi, after the 45-7 drubbing.

"I thought we did a good job in warm-ups," he said.

Unfortunately, you missed those. What you saw was one team, on the road, that was more than ready for the big stage, and one team, at home, that was still in make-up.

And now the Spartans have must guard against their dreaded second-half-of-the-seasonitis. Plenty of MSU teams start out hot, and by November have cooled to mediocre. Should the Green and White lose next weekend to arch-rival Michigan, not only will the polish have come off this team, it will need a paint job.

Oh, the Badgers limp back home from their debacle at Iowa to face an Illinois team that crushed Indiana last Saturday, 55-13.

And you can expect a healthy number of Illini fans in town for Homecoming. In their Sunday Travel section, the Chicago Sun-Times obliged the Oskee Wow Wow faithful with suggestions on where to go and what to do --claiming Mad City Offers More Than Football. 

No trip to Wisconsin would be complete without carting home cheese. Get your dairy fill at Fromagination, an artisan cheese shop at 12 S. Carroll St., on Capitol Square; www.fromagination. com, (608) 255-2430.

Almost as famous as Wisconsin's cheese is its bratwurst. Try State Street Brats, 603 State St., for its sports bar scene, burgers, chicken wings and of course, the brats; www.statestreetbrats.com, (608) 255-5544.

Speaking of food, the Dane County Farmers Market boasts more than 300 vendors and completely encircles the Capitol. It runs from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays. All the produce and products on sale -- ranging from veggies to honey to meats -- were raised by the folks selling them; www.dcfm.org/wandw.asp.

For a special treat, make a dinner reservation at the widely acclaimed L'Etoile Restaurant, 25 N. Pinckney St. Named Sante Magazine's Culinary Hospitality Restaurant of the Year for 2008, L'Etoile's seasonal menus are based on ingredients from small Midwestern farms prepared with French flare; www.letoile-restaurant.com, (608) 251-0500.

Next door to L'Etolie is a traditional Wisconsin supper club, Old Fashioned, 23 N. Pinckney St. Dig into the beer-battered cheese curds, 16-ounce ribeye steak and rainbow trout; www.theoldfashioned.com, (608) 310-4545.

So, apparently, these cheese-seeking FIB's can't be expected to waddle any farther than State Street and Capitol Square. Hey, while you're at it, check out some Illinoise cuisine at the FIB's cart on the other end of State Street -- on the Library Mall. And by the way, it's Mad Town, NOT Mad City.

Finally, we lost somebody special this weekend. Perhaps the greatest voice in American soul music history was stilled on Friday as Levi Stubbs Jr. passed away.

Brian McCollum, the Detroit Free Press' Pop Music writer opines...you may not have known the name. But you certainly couldn't miss Levi Stubbs' voice.

That voice -- rough, raw, intense -- remains a fixture on the American music landscape, unmistakable on such evergreen Four Tops hits as "Reach Out I'll Be There," "Bernadette," "Standing in the Shadows of Love" and "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)."

Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr. paid homage in a statement: "Levi was the greatest interpreter of songs I've ever heard. ... I remember when we heard their first Motown release, 'Baby I Need Your Loving.' Levi's voice exploded in the room and went straight for our hearts. We all knew it was a hit, hands down."

Unlike Marvin Gaye, who used his voice to caress, or Smokey Robinson, whose silky croon sparkled, Stubbs headed straight for the guts of his notes, summoning a distinctive grit and fire. For most vocalists, the perky melody in the lines "sugar pie, honey bunch" was an invitation to go sunny and sweet. For Stubbs, it was a chance to insist -- to plead, cajole, declare, demand.

Ann Arbor's Chris Rizik, who runs the popular music site SoulTracks.com and calls Stubbs his all-time favorite vocalist, said Friday's news prompted an outpouring of tributes and reminiscing from fans around the world.

"The larger population might not even know the name. But to anybody who's a soul music fan, this is like royalty dying," said Rizik. "People are going to be talking about this for a long time. In the deep soul community, this will resonate just as much as Marvin Gaye's death."

Do yourself a favor and rent the Motown 25 Anniversary special. In it, witness a recreation of one of the greatest moments and most vivid experiences in American soul music history.

Levi Stubbs' Four Tops would face often off in a mock duel with fellow Motowners, the Temptations and Stubbs would invariably steal the show. The Tops would sing a clip of one of their hits and the Temps would retaliate with one of theirs.

Watch the scene in Motown 25, when suddenly in the midst of "I Know I'm Losing You," Stubbs cuts in front of Dennis Edwards to scream...

"...it's all over your face, someone's taken your place, oooooh, baby, am I losin you..."

As for me, I've had the same verse going again and again in the back of my brain.

"...it's the same old song...but it's a different meaning since you've gone..."

Amen to that.

 

 

It was 50 years ago today. Miles taught all the cats to sway.

What is hip? Tell me tell me, if you think you know.

What is hip? If you're really hip, the passing years will show.

Tower of Power asked that musical question -- aw jeez, can it really be 38 years ago? All of which makes me -- since I can remember buying the album in 1970 -- well, to the younger generation, this fact anong others makes me old.

What is old?

I used to define becoming old as that time in your life when you start saying that young people have nothing of value to say and their music is too loud. That could come at age 29 or age 59, I reasoned, but once it did you were old.

Is this the year I finally got old? I can't say their music's too loud -- I mean, I once saw the likes of Living Colour and Television in bars with their stadium Marshall amps making the glass windows reverberate like the speakers of a Hammond B3 organ. Still, if Tupac is considered old school and borderline old, well then what's the point?

Yes, I can remember John Kennedy being shot. I can remember my dad bringing home our first color TV and listening to WLS Friday nights for their Silver Dollar Surveys.

Yes, I can also remember the 70's, although admittedly not as much of the decade as I would like. I actually saw the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin LIVE in the Dane County Coliseum.

What started this morning's rant was my ill-fated attempts to discuss the 50th anniversary of one of the most important albums ever recorded.

(And by the way, it's STILL AN ALBUM! It is a collection of songs, like a collection of pictures or poems, so it's still an album -- whether it's produced on vinyl, cassette, 8-track, CD, DVD or nuclear-fotoschmear. Okay, I made the last one up.)

Still, can't young people consider music that's more than minutes old? I was trying to discuss the importance of Miles Davis' Kind Of Blue and was met by painful sighs and rolling eyeballs.

Kind Of Blue was an album that transcended jazz itself, easily the biggest selling album in Miles Davis' illustrious career and perhaps, the biggest selling jazz album ever. It is intrinsically and eternally hip -- it was played by uber-hip DJ Clint Eastwood in Play Misty For Me.

It was one of the last recordings of its kind -- produced almost entirely in one take with no overdubs, no sonic enhancements, no digital remixing. It was also an important historical milepost -- in a way, it was almost the last jazz record of its kind.  It precedes the free form jazz of John Coltrane and the jazz-rock fusion of Miles himself in the late 60's.

Kind Of Blue is being re-issued in a 50th Anniversary package, and that's a misnomer as well since it was recorded and released in 1959. Maybe, that's because Columbia/Legacy wanted to get it out before the holiday shopping season or perhaps because 1959 is also the 50th anniversary of Miles' own Sketches of Spain and Coltrane's Giant Steps.

Disc 1 of Kind of Blue: 50th Anniversary Collectors Edition will feature the original album in its entirety with the "Flamenco Sketches" alternate take, the rare "Freddie Freeloader" false start, and a selection of in-the-studio dialog from the Kind of Blue sessions. Disc 2 is a CD of rare musical material circa the Kind of Blue recordings including the very first session by the classic Miles Davis sextet (May 26, 1958 -- Davis's 32nd birthday -- with Adderley, Coltrane, Evans, Chambers and Cobb), more than a half hour's worth of studio material -- "On Green Dolphin Street," "Fran-Dance," "Stella By Starlight," "Love For Sale" -- previously available only on the two-time Grammy award winning Miles Davis & John Coltrane boxed set ("The Complete Columbia Recordings 1955-1961); and the first authorized release of two extended live performances: "So What" from the April 9, 1960 Den Haag Concert featuring Miles, Coltrane, Kelly, Chambers and Cobb. The final disc, Disc 3, is a DVD including an in-depth documentary illuminating the story behind Kind of Blue; and the historic April 2, 1959 television program "Robert Herridge Theater: The Sound of Miles Davis" starring Miles Davis and John Coltrane.

This deluxe Collector's Edition will also include a blue pressed vinyl copy of Kind of Blue, a poster, and an LP-sized 60-page hardbound book.

What's the secret of its staying power, asks Jack Garner of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle ? I doubt anyone could answer a question about something as ephemeral and mysterious and magical as a piece of music. Certain things are obvious: First, it's performed by the greatest small jazz band ever assembled. Besides trumpeter Davis, there were saxophonists John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Jimmy Cobb (the sole survivor from the '59 session). Central to the album's greatness, though, was the then-young pianist Bill Evans, who plays on four of the album's five extended tracks and co-wrote two of the tunes with Davis. Considered one of the great intellectuals in jazz, and the Chopin of improvised music, Evans famously collaborated with Davis on the album's breakthrough concept of modal improvisation.

Try as I may, my limited technical understanding of music has never allowed me to understand what modal means. All I know is this music is heavenly in its grace and simplicity and sublime beauty.

The album's five tracks work together almost as a suite, with at least two of the tracks now recognized as gems in the oft-performed standard jazz repertoire - "So What" and "All Blues."

In celebration of the 50th anniversary, the Village Voice found time to chat with drummer Jimmy Cobb, that last surviving member of the session.

"It grabs all kinds of people," says Cobb. "To see how good those guys are, what they could do with just a little, that they could make it sound like that-you know, that's the thing. That's what it is. Just bring it down and it reaches everybody. There's something to that. It was just something that came along and clicked with everybody. It's just probably a once-in-a-lifetime thing."

"Man, I don't think Miles even thought that it would have that longevity," he says. "If he even thought that that day, he would've asked for a pile of money. You know, if he thought that he had something that was going to really be selling for 50 years, he would've asked for real money."

As for the drummer, "I was probably the soberest one in the band," says Cobb, the only member of the Blue sextet other than Adderley to fully escape a heroin addiction. "And he knew I was going to be on time. And he knew when I got there, I would give 150 percent. So like that, you know. That's the pluses I had."

Here, in a sixth-floor East Side conference room, Jimmy Cobb hums the "Round About Midnight" melody.

"I started right there. I played that with them. I was in the band-no rehearsals, no nothing. So that's the way it started, man."

The ending, however, has yet to be written. Jimmy Cobb, suitably enough, is at the forefront of the 50th-anniversary DVD. This month, the drummer will be recognized as a National Endowment for the Arts Jazzmaster. November brings appearances at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, as well as a number of dates in Germany. In January, Jimmy Cobb will turn 80 years old; in February, he'll be leading a new outfit, the So What Band, as part of Kind of Blue's continuing golden-anniversary celebration, still officially 11 months away.

But despite all the attention that comes with this territory-and having provided percussion on a work of acclaimed and enduring genius-it's the people he remembers, not the songs: "I'm proud to be here, man. I'm proud to be going on 80 years old. I never thought I'd be 80 years old. I'm here. I'm sorry that all my friends are gone, you know, but I've got them here."

80 is most certainly old to most people. John McCain is the old one in this current election and his counterpart. Barack Obama is essentially the young one. I could add that -- although, the aforementioned young whippersnappers who considered me old for bringing up Miles Davis -- Sen. Obama, That young One,  is a mere three and half years younger than me.

This age thing comes up in context in the sports world these days with the success of Joe Paterno. Penn State is currently #3 in the polls and I said three weeks ago that the Nittany Lions were the best team I've seen all season.

(Every once in a while, you get it right in this business. Three weeks ago, after Wisconsin laid a big stinky egg at Michigan, I told anyone who would listen that the Ohio State game was a toss-up, but that Penn State was going to murdalize the Badgers -- something like 42-10. This, of course, led to a barstool wag to confront me, 'hey if you think so, why not give me those 32 points? You said it right?" At 48-7, I still comfortably covered.)

I would also argue that Penn State has the easiest road to the BCS Championship game as they have no conference title game to slip them up on the way. And yet people are still saying that Joe Paterno is too old to coach football.

The Canadian Press offers that the man can still coach, even if a sore hip means he does it most weekends from the press box. He still knows how to win, too, seven straight and counting this season on a familiar climb back toward the top of the college football poll.

And so two months shy of his 82nd birthday, with two national titles to his credit and a third in his sights, the last thing left for Joe Pa to prove is that he cares as much about the future of Penn State football as he does about its past and present.

With the third-ranked Nittany Lions back in the national conversation for all the right reasons, there's a rare moment of consensus in the debate that has divided Penn State people for years. Just about everyone agrees once more that Paterno has earned the right to go out, whenever that is, on his own terms. What he needs to understand is there's no time like now to let the rest of us in on just what those terms might be.

Stubbornness is admirable sometimes, but it's not always an answer. Paterno doesn't have to come up with a date - more on that later - but sitting down with school president Graham Spanier to start discussing a successor would be a good place to start. Paterno is in the last year of a contract and with Michigan headed into Happy Valley this weekend and the Nittany Lions travelling to Ohio State the next, he could lose a whole lot of bargaining power in a hurry.

During his midweek conference call, Paterno turned aside questions about his own future the same way he always does. Someone asked how long before he could move back down from the press box to the sidelines and JoePa replied, "I don't know," then added a moment later, "I don't get get-well cards. Can we talk about the football team and not me, for crying out loud?"

No such luck, Joe. Count the Detroit Free Press' Drew Sharp among those calling for the old man to shuffle off into the shadows.

ESPN has revealed that 42 Penn State football players faced 163 criminal charges of varying circumstance since 2002. Twenty-seven players either were convicted or pleaded guilty to a combination of 45 charges.

There will be significant blemishes on any major football program when placed underneath such a piercing microscope. Paterno sternly rejects the notion of compromising character for better talent and more victories, but in the aftermath of that report Paterno nonetheless wielded a sterner disciplinary stick - dismissing three prominent players from the team.

This was precisely how one paves the exit road for a longtime college head coach - create the appearance that he's losing control. All of a sudden, the skeletons that consistently remained hidden behind lock and key see the light of public scrutiny.

It's not worth it any longer for Paterno.

He injured his hip demonstrating an onside kick during preseason practice. He might need hip replacement surgery after the season. Paterno's relegated to the coaches' box upstairs because he can't get around on the sidelines without the use of a cane.

JoePa's proven he's still got it, but it's time he realizes he's had enough.

If not old, perhaps the word for the day should be OOPS!

As in the Tampa Bay Rays being seven runs up and seven outs away from dispatching the Boston Red Sox and reaching the World Series for the first time before OOPS!

After losing that lead and that game, how will the Rays react? The Boston Globe's Shira Springer reveals that Tampa Bay designated hitter Cliff Floyd will stick with a steady diet of Nickelodeon. He will bypass all news and sports channels. He will toss the daily papers aside. Sitting beside his kids at home, Floyd will try to forget last night's devastating 8-7 loss to Boston with an overdose of "Dora the Explorer" and "SpongeBob SquarePants."

"That's how you eliminate all the stuff," said Floyd. "You can't turn on the news and see how we made history."

"We've got two games to see what we're made of," said Floyd, who made (and won) a World Series with Florida in 1997 but fell short with the New York Mets in 2006. "We win Saturday and we go to the World Series. We've got to go out there and play.

"We learned a valuable lesson tonight. Anything can happen at any given time. The only luxury we have is that we were up 3-1. The momentum has shifted to them, but we're in our house where we feel real comfortable."

Meanwhile, the BYU Cougars were undefeated and making noises of running the table and barging their way into the BCS discussion before OOPS!

Mercedes Mayer of the hometown Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that TCU coach Gary Patterson hasn't stopped voting for his team in the Top 25 polls.

Now his team has given voters a reason to stop wondering whether the Horned Frogs deserve to be mentioned among the nation's best.

TCU dominated No. 9 BYU in all aspects of the game, snapping its Thursday night curse at five games and putting a damper on the Cougars' reign atop the Mountain West Conference with a 32-7 victory before 36,180 fans at Amon G. Carter Stadium.

TCU (7-1, 4-0 in Mountain West Conference) has lost just once this season - to then-No. 2 Oklahoma - and BYU had won 16 straight games and 18 in a row against conference foes.

But Patterson knows he can't tell voters which way to go.

"We wanted to come out and be the best TCU football team," he said. "Then we're going to let everybody else judge it.

"This was a big win, but I'd be making a mistake for my football team if I made this the season-ending victory. We've got a lot of good football left. To win a championship, it takes them all."

In Green Bay, came word of the Packers finishing the paperwork for a trade with Kansas City's Tony Gonzalez and then OOPS!

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's Tom Silverstein claims that the Green Bay Packers and one other NFL team had agreed on a third-round pick as compensation for Kansas City Chiefs tight end Tony Gonzalez, but according to Gonzalez, Chiefs general manager Carl Peterson pulled out at the last second.

According to an NFL source, the Packers were the team Gonzalez was focusing on and preferred them over the other contender. He had approved a trade to Green Bay. It was up to the Chiefs, however, to determine where he would be traded.

Gonzalez told FOXSports.com's Jay Glazer that he was furious a deal didn't go down.

"Last night I talked to Carl and I point-blank asked him what it would take to get it done," Gonzalez said in an exclusive interview. "I wanted to know if it could happen with a fourth (-round pick). He started talking about a second and a fifth like the (Jeremy) Shockey deal. Nobody is going to trade a second for a 32-year-old tight end. All along Carl said he would do something that works for both parties. Then he talked about how he traded a third for Willie Roaf, and he made it pretty clear to me that's what was going to get it done. That was certainly fair.

"I know teams offered a third and in the end, Carl made the asking price a second. I'm very disappointed that he didn't go through with it after he told me he was going to try to make it happen. I've been around this league a long time, it's a business. There's nothing I can do about it. I was (ticked) off about it, but I'll get over it. I won't let it affect my play and my preparation."

Down in Chicago, Denis Savard was preparing his Blackhawks for their fifth game of the new NHL season, when OOPS!

The Tribune's Mike Downey (yeah, he's getting entirely too much ink here, but what can I say when he's front and center ice on the biggest stories of the day?) thinks that the team didn't give Savard much of a chance.

Canning a coach four games into a season is a pretty bloody ice-cold act on the Blackhawks' part.

Particularly when the gentleman in question is Denis Savard, a prince of a fellow who in Chicago is considered to be hockey royalty.

"Like a brother to me," said the general manager who fired him, Dale Tallon.

"All class," said the team president who fired him, John McDonough.

Two minutes for back stabbing.

Savard was given-wow-four whole games to show results.

No, check that. Three games. It is plain that the process of kicking Savvy off the Blackhawks' reservation was well under way before Wednesday night's icebreaker over Phoenix, isn't it? You don't win a game and lose your job for it. Willie Randolph can vouch for that.

Hypothetically, could Savard have saved his job if he had gone 4-0 rather than 1-2-1?

"Hypothetically, probably," Tallon said.

Well, as long as he got a fair shot.

A bombshell was dropped like a puck on a faceoff Thursday at the United Center, where the smiley-faced Blackhawks took the mask off like the Phantom of the Opera and revealed an ugly side underneath.

They cut their ties with Savard, who was given a new goaltender, a new defenseman and less than a week to go 4-0 with them or else.

Unless you accept the explanation that he also was fired for how the team looked in training camp.

"It was a flat camp," Tallon said. "Then we got out of the gate flat."

Savard's team lost unimpressively on the road against the Rangers and Capitals, then looked better in the home opener with the Predators but lost in a shootout.

I was at that game and heard people speculating Savvy's job was in jeopardy.

"But the season began Friday," I said. "This is Monday."

Meaning that it's never too early to give up on a Blackhawks' season or coach.

As previously mentioned, the college football season been a drag locally. Last Saturday,  the Badgers turned in one of their ugliest performances at Camp Randall, a 48-7 shellacking at the hands of 7-0 Penn State. It was Bret Bielema's second consecutive home loss (following a streak of 16 victories), and the worst Wisconsin football home loss since 1989, when the Don Morton-led Badgers lost to Miami 51-3.

Still, the biggest story of the week might have been the UW Police Dept. feeling the need to Tazer a 54-year old woman during a scuffle at the stadium. The Capitol Times reports Margaret Hiebing, 54, of Madison was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest while her husband, Roman Hiebing Jr., 65, same address, was charged with disorderly conduct, according to UW-Madison police.

The brawl between the Hiebings and the cops started when too many people were trying to sit in Row 69 of Section U on the stadium's east side, said UW police Sgt. Jason Whitney.

"We asked her to go to her seat because she was sitting in the aisle," Whitney said. "We made attempts to contact guest services to help her to her seat, but that didn't happen, so our policy is if you're not in your seat, you get ejected."

This episode brings to mind the bad old days of Badger football in the late 1990's when the combination of lousy football and frisking any and everyone for liqour bottles resulted in acres of empty seats in Camp Randall.

Way to go, Wisconsin cops! What a great marketing campaign -- Come for the lousy football, stay for the Tazering!

A quick peek to the Badger Beat website reveals some other information from a friend of the Hiebings, conveniently left out of the UWPD report.

The victim has had 2 total knee replacements & a bad back from previous injury. She explained this to the female officer and that is why she could not occupy the empty seat in the next row 8 seats in from the isle, but the officer was unimpressed. Once the people in her isle finally moved down, she was able to get in her seat. By the time all the other police officers had shown up, they were pulling her hair & dragging her down the stairs and she kicked them because they were twisting her knees sideways and she was terrified they would damage the artaficial joints and she would need additional surgury.

All in all, do you really feel the police had to take things this far? To taser her? She was not threatening to anybody, just mouthy and standing up to what she believed were her rights, and yes, she shouldn't have done that. But once she was in her seat, which was her's which she paid for, the officer should just dropped it because the crowd was at that point getting very upset, but the officer just wouldn't let it go. And the additional police officers got into the frey and made it much worse. The police are getting too comfortable with using a taser and not using diplomacy and crowd control measures they supposedly were taught. All this because of someone sitting in the isle at a Badger game???

Another observer, three rows from the fracus claims the "rent a campus cop" blew this one. She did ask her to move out of the aisle and the lady kept telling her she has a ticket for this seat but no one would move down. The big bad rent-a-cop said well it looks like you need to go and tried to pull her arm to move her. The lady pulled her arm back and then that's when the rent-a-cop started yelling at her and pulled the mace out and stuck it in her face.
When that did not work she called for back-up. The lady was able to get in her seat when a couple moved down into are row. The real cops arrived but by this time the lady was in tears and was curled up in her husbands arms. I think she was in shock and was not going to go anywhere with the cops. Then the 8 to 10 cops said it was show time and attacked the lady.

Having had my own up-close-and-personal such chats with the UWPD, I now stay miles away from the stadium on game day.

The question begs, though: If the UW cops are going to Tazer handicapped middle aged women during abysmal losing football, how many fans do they expect will show up for that November game versus Cal Poly?

Welcome back to the bad old days, which are already in progress.

Finally, another anniversary this week in sports. Forty years ago yesterday, track and field athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos made their famous, silent gesture at the Mexico City Olympic Games.

They raised two black-gloved fists in a black power salute from the victory stand, during an Olympic gold medal ceremony.

With that in mind, the pair returned to Mexico City, scene of that controversial stance, and Smith recalled that historic moment with Helen William of the UK's Morning Star Online.

"Athletes have a responsibility to speak because they are in a position to make a difference and they have a responsibility to make that difference. That is a truth which remains to this day," he said.

On October 16 1968, Smith clocked a world record 19.83 seconds to take the 200 metres crown ahead of Australia's Peter Norman and his US team-mate Carlos, who won bronze.

With the eyes of the world watching, the US athletes took their moment on the medal podium to make a stand against US racial discrimination.

Smith and Carlos, both shoeless, bowed their heads and raised a gloved fist as The Star Spangled Banner played.

Payback was swift and enduring. They were kicked out of the Games, ostracised, ridiculed, threatened and left struggling to find work.

"1968 was not a protest of anger. It was a cry for freedom through the only avenue that I had open to me," Smith said. "It was the only secular route available to me. It was the only stand that I could take.

"There is no such thing as perfection, but it did make a difference then and now because young people can associate with it."

With this in mind, Smith, who has a Masters degree in sociology, visited London last week to talk to youngsters about how sport and education can counter gang culture in the run-up to the 2012 Olympics.

The countdown to 2012 has made his visit, backed by the British Library and London's Camden Council, all the more timely.

Sport, with its health, discipline and safety benefits, has now been pushed up the political agenda, but there is also a violent knife and gun crime culture.

Smith said: "Young people today in Britain do not have the international platform that Tommie Smith had, but they have a community. They have places where they can start to learn.

"It starts from the inside, in families, and it is up to us to help those who do not have families to help them grow." The 1968 Olympics arrived amid a tense mood of unrest in the US after the assassinations of Dr Martin Luther King Jr and Robert Kennedy earlier that year.

But to make a political stand at an international event came at a huge price.

Smith was fired from jobs and scholarships for his family were taken away.

Carlos remembers chopping furniture up for firewood and putting his children to sleep in front of the fire when he could not pay his electricity bills. The pressure of it all saw relatives of both men become very ill.

So, does Smith regret his actions or feel it made a difference?

One possible legacy, he accepts, is that the US is now prepared to consider electing its first black president.

Smith said: "Yes, that is true. I was on that trail, but I was one of many humans who were on that trail, through from Dr Martin Luther King Jr and back to slavery. There was a lot of others on the same path as me, especially in the human rights campaign."

Now, 40 years on, Smith is trying to carve out a new legacy for the impact that sport and education can create. He said: "I am a sort of in-your-face person.

"I will look right at the kid and let them know they have a responsibility to get to class, to be responsible to their parents and to treat others how they want to be treated.

"A child's brain is like a computer chip and you have to programme it and that can be done in the home or in the classroom or potentially in the street.

"You cannot grow roses in a rock. Children have to have people around them who will give them a chance to broaden themselves. It is called cultivating our youth."

Yes, I'm old enough to remember that day. You have to consider the life and times of 1968. Martin Luther King Jr. had been shot. resulting in riots across the ghettos of America. Bobby Kennedy had also been shot and protesters had been billy-clubbed with the whole world watching in Chicago. In that context, Carlos and Smith decided to say something about all that to the Olympic audience.

They were among my biggest childhood heroes. And the fact that both men are still alive and giving of themselves to young people is one of those sparkling moments that -- Sarah Palin notwithstanding -- truly make me proud to be an American.

Hello, Joe. Whadya know?

As you probably know by now, this election isn't about you or me, It's allllllll about Joe The Plumber and maybe all the other Joes out there.

Look, my friends, I'm having this Joe problem this morning. After John McCain said "Joe The Plumber" enough times during last night's debate, Barack Obama felt obligated to speak personally through the TV screen to Joe as well.

It got so bad -- 21 times for McCain and 4 more for Obama -- that I started hearing that dreadful Falco tune, Rock Me Amadeus in the back of my harried brain.

Joe the plumber, Joe the plumber

Joe the plumber

Joe the plumber, Joe the plumber

Joe the plumber

Joe the plumber, Joe the plumber

Joe, Joe, Joe the plumber

C'mon, everybody, you all know the words.

Look, in a way, I feel for poor Joe -- although, McCain did congratulate you for being rich last night. One day, you're asking a candidate, whatcha gonna do for me, and the next day, you're telling the Huffington Post how surreal it all is.

Still, all this Joe-centric coverage is making my head hurt. All of the morning talk shows including -- what else -- MSNBC's Morning Joe, had Joe on their minds. I was half expecting the Weather Channel is predict Joe flurries on the Eastern seaboard.

Joe the plumber, Joe the plumber

Joe the plumber

Joe the plumber, Joe the plumber

Joe the plumber

Joe the plumber, Joe the plumber

Joe, Joe, Joe the plumber

Now, I know all about Fat Joe, Trader Joe, GI Joe, Shoeless Joe, Joltin' Joe, Smokin' Joe, Joe Willie and Joe Louis...I'm even wondering if I saw Joe Hill last night.

The only Joe that matters in sports these days is Joe Pa, the venerable Penn State coach. Still, if you think Penn State is looking past hapless Michigan -- especially after the way the Nittany Lions spanked Wisconsin last Saturday -- my friends, you'd be wrong.

"Some people are waiting for the other shoe to fall, and it usually happens against Michigan," said Penn State fan and Pancakes lineman Ben Lerman, a junior biology student from Rochester, Minn. "We just can't beat them for some reason."

Penn State football historian Lou Prato, who has chronicled every Nittany Lions victory (three) and loss (10) against Michigan since their series began in 1993, offered this: "Curse of the Wolverines."

Michigan has won nine straight against the Nittany Lions, including the past four games at Beaver Stadium. Of the six games played at Penn State, the Nittany Lions have come out on top once -- on Nov. 18, 1995, when Penn State defeated U-M, 27-17.

The game was played three days after a snowstorm dumped 18 inches of snow in Happy Valley, nearly paralyzing the area.

"Cold, windy, freezing," Prato recalled. "They got volunteers and prisoners and paid people five bucks to clear the snow from the field."

Better conditions await Saturday: The forecast at kickoff calls for partly cloudy skies, with the temperature in the mid-to-upper 50s.

Despite Michigan's dominance, the games between the schools have been astonishingly close: Eight of 13 have been decided in the fourth quarter or overtime, and defined by one series or play.

Prato recalled the 1993 game, the year Penn State joined the Big Ten:

"The first time we played Michigan ever: It was down here, and people here remember how our fans started getting real loud in the first 5 minutes of the game, and the officials were going to penalize us. Back then, you couldn't holler; it was ridiculous. We needed to be quiet? We called that the Michigan Rule."

In that game, Penn State saw its 10-0 lead disintegrate as the Wolverines took a 14-10 advantage after Derrick Alexander returned a punt 48 yards for a touchdown. Late in the third quarter, and into the fourth, the Nittany Lions had first-and-goal at the Michigan 1 but failed to score on four rushing attempts. The Wolverines won, 21-13.

The past four games between the schools have been decided by 4.25 points on average. A particularly heartbreaking loss for Penn State occurred in 2005 in Ann Arbor.

The Nittany Lions led, 25-21, with less than a minute left when Steve Breaston returned a kickoff to the U-M 47. The Wolverines quickly moved the ball downfield, advancing to the Penn State 10. On fourth down, and with no time left on the clock, Mario Manningham scored on a 10-yard pass from Chad Henne for the 27-25 victory.

It was the Nittany Lions' first -- and only -- loss of the season. They went on to win their last four regular-season games, grab a share of the Big Ten title and defeated Florida State in the Orange Bowl. Their record: 11-1.

"Magic seasons can go up in a wisp of smoke," said Prato, 71, who was news director at Channel 4 in Detroit in the mid-1970s. "And our last two magic seasons went up in a wisp of smoke based on Michigan games. One or two plays can change the game.

In Chicago, the Tribune's Mike Downey has a bigger problem this morning with Rays.

I'm a fan of Rays, as a rule. I like Ray Romano and Ray Lewis and Ray Bradbury and Ray Nitschke and Rachael Ray. I once drove a Sting Ray and went to a fight to see Sugar Ray. I dug that "Ray" movie with Jamie Foxx.

As ballclubs go, though, the Rays represent everything a Cubs fan can't stand:

• • A team that is 10 years old. Ron Santo owns hairpieces that are more than 10 years old. Wrigley Field has rats that are more than 10 years old.
• • A team that in 2007 had an average attendance of 17,148 a night. Wrigley could draw 18,000 for a pie-eating contest.
• • A team with a payroll below $48 million. My friends, the Cubs spent that much on a Japanese pinch-hitter.
• • A team that has won 742 games. While the Cubs have won 10,082.

How many MVPs have the Rays had? None. Batting champs? None. Cy Young Award winners? None. No-hitters? None.

How many uniform numbers have the Rays retired? Two.

One belonged to Wade Boggs, who played there when he was 40 and 41 after playing for other teams from age 24.

The other is Jackie Robinson. A great man, but the most colorful memory of his time in Florida was not being permitted to use a restroom.

Not everybody loves the Cubs the way everybody loved Raymond, but almost nobody loves the Rays.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles is having their own Phil problem, but they're taking it out on their Dodgers.

The improbable Dodgers were impossibly wobbly, impossibly clumsy, impossibly booed.

Exactly 20 years later, something else sailed out over the right-field fence to a chorus of shrieks and stares.

It was the Dodgers' season, knocked into next year by the Philadelphia Phillies, who did everything the Dodgers couldn't.

Like, you know, pitch and catch.

As the Phillies hugged and danced and partied long into the night, Ethier was one of the few Dodgers to return to the field and wave to the fans, but you can't blame the ones who didn't.

They were probably worried for their safety in front of a crowd that spent the long evening lashing out like jilted lovers.

Dodgers fans booed in a way they've rarely booed before, from the leadoff homer by the Phillies' Jimmy Rollins to the final stranded runner by Nomar Garciaparra.

They booed sadly horrible Chad Billingsley, who couldn't survive three innings for the second time in a week, couldn't consistently throw inside again, his two worst performances in his two biggest games, and who knows when he'll recover?

"I tried to do everything I could," he said softly.

They booed the painfully awful Rafael Furcal, who tried to play with a sore neck and paid for it with three errors in one inning that led to two runs that finished them.

"To have this happen on the last game of the year, that is tough," he said, also softly.

They booed the just plain lousy Blake DeWitt, who hit into two double plays and ended the series hitting .077 before he was replaced by Jeff Kent.

Who stranded three runners by striking out twice.

It was like that.

In fact, the only Dodger who didn't get booed last night was a Joe, as in Torre.

In Houston, it's not Joe or Ray or Phil that they're mad at, but rather a guy named Matt.

Chanting for Sage Rose-and-the-ball-fell, who single-handedly gave away a sure Texans victory the last time he was on the field, is akin to saying, "Thank You, sir. May I have another?"

Is there something about the torture that y'all alike?

Have you married the wrong spouse more than once? Do you regularly take a second helping of spoiled milk? How many times did your mama have to tell you not to touch that hot stove before you stopped touching that hot stove?

For a city regarded as soft on sports figures, Houston has been rough on quar-terbacks. Dan Pastorini came in with flair and was quickly cooled down. Warren Moon arrived with fanfare and was almost driven out of town.

It was taken to a new level when David Carr hit town with high expectations and a huge salary, then departed as the most disrespected figure in Houston sports history.

Pastorini and Moon eventually earned fan love before leaving, though much of Pastorini's came after he left. Carr was released, and fans almost threw a parade.
Schaub doesn't throw balls as pretty as those Moon released. He doesn't have the wild style of Pastorini. He's probably not the angel most of you thought Carr was.

Outwardly, he is not a cool customer like The Snake, and he doesn't bring the sweet milkshake breath to the huddle that Giff Nielsen did. With Gary Kubiak holding tightly to the reins, he certainly isn't the gunslinger Jim Kelly was, and he is unlikely to be the quality soccer executive Oliver Luck has become.

Schaub is just the latest Houston pro quarterback on the hot seat. We've roasted almost all the others.

In the end, Schaub might be one of the few we should have liked from the start.

But like all the others save for George Blanda - the first on the block, and a champion to boot - he'll have to work his way up from below the bottom.

Quarterbacks and Houston just don't mix well. 

There are a million Joe stories in the heart of New York City. But Newsday's Shaun Powell would rather discuss a Stephon.

Remember Johnnie Taylor's Cheaper To Keep Her? Powell has much the same sentiments about the New York Knicks and Stephon Marbury.

Marbury has a year left, a year that will not exactly break the Knicks. They're not going anywhere special. They're not bracing for a championship journey. There's no precious and delicate "chemistry" at risk here. If anything, this is a year to throw away, a year that'll serve as a free pass for Walsh and coach Mike D'Antoni, no matter how many games they lose.

Knicks fans know better than to invest emotionally in this season. They're saving their deposit for 2010 and beyond, and if a trade of Marbury were to either postpone or ruin plans for the future, there would be hell to pay. So keep him.

They won't buy him out. Would you write someone a check for $21 million to do nothing? In this economy? No, they should keep him primarily because this is the year to keep someone like Marbury. He's in his walk year. It's in his best interest to play hard when his number is called and shut up when it isn't.

Marbury wants another contract and another chance with another team next season, and while he's been accused of being a weirdo over the last 18 months, he ain't crazy. He knows this season, basically, will be spent auditioning for his next paycheck.

Keep him, and if he does feel compelled to go nuts, the Knicks can suspend him without pay, citing insubordination. That's a win-win for the club, the best scenario possible.

Look, my friends, is this the kind of change we need? TV Guide's Matt Matovich asks the question after Obama's plan to broadcast a 30 minute program on prime time in the week before the election.

A Fox spokesperson confirms for TVGuide.com that the network will push back the start of its World Series Game 6 coverage (if needed) by some 15 minutes, to make room for the half-hour of airtime recently purchased by White House hopeful Sen. Barack Obama.

Last week, Obama purchased 30 minutes of prime time from Fox, CBS and NBC, to deliver a final message to voters on Wednesday, Oct. 29 (starting at 8 pm/ET). Major League Baseball and Fox were to start Game 6 at 8:20, but agreed to hold the ball for a few and accommodate the program (for which Fox is fetching some $1 million in ad revenue).

"We are pleased that Major League Baseball has agreed to delay the first pitch of World Series Game 6 for a few minutes in order for Fox to carry [Obama's] program," Fox Sports says in a statement. "If requested, the network would be willing to make similar time available to Senator McCain's campaign."

Of the Big 3's 8 o'clock programs, only ABC's Pushing Daisies remains unaffected by the half-hour delay. CBS is shuttling Old Christine to 8:30 (bumping Gary Unmarried), while NBC's plans for that gap (where the back end of Knight Rider usually airs) have yet to be announced.

So, hello Joe, whadya know? I'm learning about Joes I didn't even know existed after this All Joe All The Time cable coverage. Apparently, there's a Joe who sings and is a seven-time Grammy nominee -- not that I've ever heard of him.

Okay, Okay, it's all MY fault...for being so clever as to call the Bucks' rookie Joltin' Joe Alexander yesterday.

Look, my friends, it won't happen again. Now, sing along with me.

Joe the plumber, Joe the plumber

Joe the plumber

Joe the plumber, Joe the plumber

Joe the plumber

Joe the plumber, Joe the plumber

Joe, Joe, Joe the plumber

Juuuuuuuuuust a bit outside...

I saw the Bucks today, oh boy.

This is something of an accomplishment as the Milwaukee NBA franchise makes it on national cable television about as often as...oh, I dunno, the city of Cleveland gets to celebrate a championship.

Indeed, ESPN networks are televising 72 regular-season games, which include 29 games on Wednesdays and 35 on Fridays. The slate consists of 27 doubleheaders.

TNT is televising 53 regular-season games, including 47 as part of Thursday night doubleheaders and a tripleheader on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. TNT also exclusively televises NBA All-Star 2009 festivities in Phoenix from Feb. 13-15, culminating with the NBA All-Star Game on Sunday, Feb. 15.

However, unless you have Fox Sports Wisconsin or pay good money for NBA-TV or Direct TV's NBA League Pass, you have a better chance of seeing Sarah Palin hug an illegal alien than watching the Milwaukee Bucks. Talk about your endangered species!

And yet, here were my Milwaukee Bucks on, of all places, ESPN Classic this morning as part of something called the NBA China Games 2008. This impressive monicker has been given to a couple of preseason games in China between two moribund NBA franchises -- the Bucks and the equally sad-sack Golden State Warriors -- who collectively could share space on a milk carton. Have You See This Team?

Still, here I was, watching my Bucks and feeling a lot like the guy in the beginning of Major League -- saying to myself, "you know, maybe they aren't so sh#$%#y." Of course, here is where the director would cut to the two Japanese groundskeepers replying, "no, they're still sh#$%#y."

The expectations are so low for the Bucks that even approaching the .500 mark will be considered a fantastic season. And a quick look at the sum of their parts reveals the makings of a decent basketball team.

This is where we cut for a moment to get you all up to speed on hoops-speak. Coaches are busy men -- along with some actual women in the women's game -- so they use numbers to define the five basic positions of a basketball team. To break it down simply.

• 1 = Point Guard
• 2 = Shooting Guard
• 3 = Small Forward
• 4 = Power Forward
• 5 = Center

So, for the next umpty months of the hoops season, you can now prepare for each and every coach telling the reporters after each and every game, "well, we thought we could play him at either the 3 or the 4 and if we had to, maybe at the 5, but then we were stuck by not having anybody who could cover their 1 or 2."

Still with me? Good, there'll be a test at the end of this column.

So, new coach Scott Skiles has Richard Jefferson who play as the starting 3, but  -- along with hold-over NBA All-Star and recent Olympic Gold Medalist Michael Redd -- can step back to be a 2, if the Bucks want to play a bigger lineup. Former No. 1 draft pick Andrew Bogut is firmly entrenched as the 5 with Charlie Villaneuva slated as the 4.

Yi Jianlian is gone and though we hardly know Yi, this is a good thing for the Bucks. I never quite understood why they drafted Yi anyway -- he was basically a unpolished rookie with the same skill set as a player already on your roster, Charlie Villanueva. It seemed to me that only reason in drafting Yi was to sell more Milwaukee jerseys in the burgeoning Chinese market. I mean, doesn't the Senator (Herb Kohl) have enough money?

So, I was elated that when the front office was cleaned out, Yi was sent out east and getting Jefferson was the proverbial frosting on the cake. I would have been happy if the Bucks had gotten Gary Sheffield and Pac-Man Jones in the swap -- receiving a very good small forward -- sorry, a 3 -- in the bargain made it a steal.

Another new acquisition, Luke Ridnour, joins Redd in the Milwaukee backcourt while two rookies will provide some extra firepower off the bench. Lottery pick Joe Alexander could be the next Larry Bird -- he does have much the same skill-set as the former Celtic -- while former UCLA Bruin Luc Richard Mbah a Moute gives some toughness with someone capable and willing to play defense and grab rebounds.

All of those parts were on display in this morning's victory over the Warriors.

Bogut messed around and got a double-double -- kudos for all who caught my pop culture reference to Ice Cube -- finishing with 18 points and 12 rebounds as the Bucks won for the first time in five exhibition games and recorded their opening victory under new coach Skiles. Ridnour added 16 points and 12 assists while playing 37 minutes, and Alexander finished with 11 points.

Jefferson added 13 points and five rebounds, and Mbah a Moute had 12 points and eight rebounds. And the Bucks were able to win a game -- albeit an preseason tilt over Golden State -- with Redd on the bench with left knee soreness.

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Bucks' blog reports that  the two teams will meet again at the Olympic venue in Beijing on Saturday morning (10:30 p.m. Friday Milwaukee time). The Bucks headed for the airport directly after the game and were scheduled to arrive in Beijing around 3:30 a.m. Thursday (2:30 p.m. today Milwaukee time).

Skiles said he expected Redd would be able to play in Beijing in the second game of the trip. Forward Charlie Villanueva suffered a neck injury in the second half today and had to leave the game, but it was not thought to be anything serious.

Alexander, who had struggled in his first two exhibition games, contributed some key baskets in the Bucks' fourth-quarter run.

"He was able to get a couple good looks and knock them down," Skiles said. "He still doesn't know what we're trying to do yet.

ESPN will also broadcast Friday night game.

The same paper also reports that Alexander has been the talk of the China road trip.

Before the Bucks' practice Tuesday at the Guangzhou Gymnasium, the 6-foot-8 Alexander was swarmed by a huge group of reporters. His fluency in Mandarin was one reason for his popularity, and the fact he spent much of his youth living in Beijing, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

"They enjoyed me a little bit," Alexander said in a phone interview. "There was a pretty fair amount (of media), more than I'm used to."

The new Joltin` Joe didn't play in the Bucks' first two preseason game and is still acclimating himself to his new team and the NBA. Still, in the much weaker Eastern Conference, at season's end, Milwaukee -- with a new coach and many new players -- could be in the hunt for one of the last remaining playoff berth.

At least, they give the impression -- as those Cleveland Indians in Major League -- that maybe they won't be so sh#$%#y.

The World Series is approaching a Tampa Bay-Philly matchup, while FOX Sports might not appreciate this very distinct possibility, ESPN's Tim Keown would be eternally grateful.

If either the Phillies or the Rays -- or both -- advance to the World Series, this great country of ours will owe them an enormous debt of gratitude. The first two weeks of the postseason have provided us with indisputable evidence: Dodgers-Red Sox is a World Series matchup America simply cannot afford.

 This isn't about teams or individuals. This is about coverage. This is about nonstop Manny Ramirez versus the Red Sox, with every angle exposed and every past transgression unearthed.

Your rooting interest is beside the point. You know this as well as I do.

There's only so much Manny anyone can take. There's only so much Red Sox anyone can take. 

The combination? Sorry.

The Chicago Tribune -- surprise, surprise -- thinks that Da Bears have the best chance of the collective 3-3 teams in the NFC North to win the division. Call him provincial, but the Trib's beat reporter David Haugh makes the point that...the numbers clearly show neither the Packers nor the Vikings have a schedule loaded with more opportunity than the Bears.

The Bears' remaining 10 opponents have a combined 25-31 record, and the only team left on the schedule currently above .500 is Tennessee. And the Titans have to come to Soldier Field on Nov. 9. That's one of six home games left for the Bears-the most of the three first-place teams.

The Packers' remaining 10 opponents have a combined 28-28 record and Green Bay has to play three teams that currently have winning records: Indianapolis (on Sunday), Tennessee and Carolina. They have to play the Titans on the road, as well as the Saints in New Orleans and the Jaguars in Jacksonville.

The Vikings might face the toughest schedule of the three. Minnesota's remaining 10 opponents have a combined 29-28 record and the Vikings still have to play four teams with winning records: at Tampa Bay and Arizona and home games against Atlanta and the New York Giants.

Meanwhile, leave to to a Madison poltical wonk to crunch the numbers on our Liquid Assets feature the other day, MB did so and insists that this columnist indulged in a bit of fuzzy math.

Hey, I was merely sharing another reader's letter, MB. I didn't get paid for it and you didn't have to pay for it, so I think we're about even.

Still, MB makes the case that...DAL (Delta Airlines) was trading at around $20/share a year ago and now trades at $6/share. That's, huge - but that $1000 investment would still be worth around $300 today. Whereas, $1000 in six-pack cans (assuming $5/six-pack, for 200 six-packs or 1200 empty cans) wouldn't yield anywhere close to $214 unless you could find a recycler that'd pay $.18 per can - in which case I would only drink beer in cans and not curb them.

Okay, picky, picky, picky. Still, MB did offer to cop me a Obama yard sign, so it's all good

Finally, loyal readers might have noticed that your new favorite sports blog -- the column formerly known as Talking Sports -- has a lot of @$%#(&^%()* where there are clearly some words. This is not self-censorship, but many of my former editors would make the case for SOMEBODY, ANYBODY censoring my syntax, verbiage etc etc etc...

The proclivity for this ^%@*&^$(^*#@ is due to FOX Sports bleeping out what it deems as objectionable speech. For those who will claim that I've sold out to the Dark Side, I'll remind you again that I don't get paid for this, so the worst you can call me is a collaborator.

I can't even quote Dave Barry -- an award-winning columnist, if FOX Sports ever saw one -- saying the words Adolf Hitler without finding it bleeping bleeped.

Still, if I may once again channel my inner Ice Cube, I wrote this whole column and didn't even have to use my AK.

So I gotta say, it was a good day.