Month: December 2011

I got all excited when I saw on the ESPN website that the Orange Bowl was saying 23 West Virginia 15 Clemson.  Then I realized that was their respective rankings not the predicted score. 

Years ago when the salaries for sports figures started to go into the zillions, an agent for one of these superstars was asked how anyone could possibily justify such a huge salary when teachers, clerks and other ordinary people get so much less??  The reply was telling.  The sports agent said, “Why don’t you have these people rent out Yankee Stadium, put their desk in center field and see how many tickets you can sell to watch them do their job?”

 

 

No doubt about it.  The winner will be West Virginia.  West Virginia will score three passing touchdowns and one rushing touchdown.  Geno will be intercepted two times.  Clemson will score three touchdowns but the WVU defense will force them to use 7 or more plays each time to do so.  Clemson will probably jump out to a two score early lead but by half time WVU will have tied it up.  Geno will have two carries of more than 10 yards each.  Clemson will lose a fumble to the ‘eers. 

No need to even watch the game now!

West Virginia will end up ranked 19 or 20.

 

What a horrible team that is horribly coached but is such fun to watch.  Unbelievable really.  This has got to be the worst 9 and 3 team in country but who cares?  Geno Smith is a puzzle.  Why does he turn his back on the offensive line when he gets pressure?  And why when it’s third and one does he drop back and let it fly down the slide line thirty or forty yards?  I just don’t get it.  The offensive line is so painful to watch.  At the end of a play where we lose yardage two or three of those big guys are just standing there looking at the swarmed over ball carrier.  Special teams?  Forget it.

So, what does all this poor performance mean?  Not much.  After all this is sports not math class.  Good teams lose, bad teams win and no one can predict the outcome of any game with certainty.  The players are doing their best, and the coaches are doing their best.  The talent level on the player side and the motivation on the coaching side just isn’t there right now.  But, hey, the cardiac kids won again!

Go eers.

 

 

Since 2008 we have heard and seen the sheer terror created whenever an event occurs which threatens to “bring down” the capital markets.  Bank failures, credit freezing up, the collapse of the “system” all gets tossed about but what does it mean?

Suppose you work up tomorrow and all of your credit cards were cancelled.  No Visa, no Exxon card, no Macy’s card.  Furthermore, you receive notice that your home equity line is also cancelled.  Now the problem becomes that you want to go shopping, travel and buy things but all you have to spend is the $75 cash in your wallet and the $500 you have in your checking account.  Your next pay day is two weeks off.  You have bills coming due which you probably won’t be able to pay.

The same thing happens to a bank or a firm such as Lehman Brothers when its credit “dries up.”  Just like for an individual, if no one will loan to you, your ability to sustain yourself economically vanishes.