Interesting times for the top 3

While Boise State cruised to a 52-14 win over Idaho, the three teams above them in the race for the alleged national championship have been living on the edge today. Auburn trailed for some time against Georgia, and was tied 28-28 before finally easing away 49-31. Texas Christian trailed 14-zip to puny San Diego State and escaped in the end with a 40-35 victory that won't impress any voters - while TCU's big scalp from last week, Utah, was awful in losing to Notre Dame. And now the world's scariest hurry-up scoring machine Oregon is trailing 7-0 well into the second quarter against Cal.

Meantime, of course, there's one college football title that's only decided on the field, and needs no voters or hog tied computers to tarnish its value. Florida is defending the Silver Ball against visiting South Carolina, and trailing 15 to 7 at half time. This game is a beauty.

Oh, and also: Columbia scored 17 unanswered points in the last quarter, the last with 37 seconds left, to roar to a comeback win over Cornell, 20-17. GO LIONS!!!

South Carolina rises again

With a stunning 35-21 upset of Alabama yesterday, South Carolina took the Silver Ball home for the eighth time overall, and the first since 1994. This vaults the Gamecocks into the company of Washington & Jefferson and Texas Christian. Next up, a trip to Kentucky - at 0-15-1 in these matches, one of a group of ten schools which has managed to tie a Silver Ball game but never win one.

On the BCS front, the waters are now fascinatingly muddy. Can Auburn and Louisiana State survive the rest of the SEC schedule to stay unbeaten? If not, will a one-loss SEC team bump off Boise State for a place in the title game? Or will Ohio State and Oregon cruise the rest of the way, anyway? Of course my main interest in this is whether the BCS champ is once again the Silver Ball holder, or whether the mythical trophy takes a less predictable path.

Also, in a matchup of teams with 19 combined Silver Ball successes, Columbia beat Lafayette 42-28 to win (get this) three games in a row. Columbia. Three wins in a row. Believe it, Lions fans!

More on the mighty Columbia Lions

With today's 42-14 win, Columbia made some school history - in the whole series of 79 games against Princeton, this is the first time Columbia has ever won two in a row. Huge kudos to QB Sean Brackett, who had another big day, going 18-for-24 for 273 yards, with a school record 5 touchdown passes and no interceptions. That spark he showed in the ill-fated final drive against Fordham has been unleashed in the last two games, and I'm guessing the play calling has gotten a little more varied, too.

Can these fun times continue? It never pays to be too optimistic as a Columbia fan, let's face it. So I'm just going to enjoy today.

Next up: Lafayette at Columbia.

WE WIN!

Princeton 14, Columbia 42

Yes, that's the correct final score. More on this game later, when I can get at some recaps. Let's just savor this for now, especially since it means Columbia has more wins than Notre Dame right now.

In other unlikely news, Northwestern is now 5-0 after escaping a tense, mistake prone game (but fun) against Minnesota. Yes, Northwestern. 5 and 0.

The Silver Ball is up for grabs at 8pm, when Florida (previous holder) visits champion Alabama. My money's on the Tide. Or it would be if I bet on these things. Which I don't.

Weekend bullet points

In a packed weekend for me, a few observations and news items:

• St. Kilda and Collingwood continued a recent run of dramatic, tense Grand Finals (2005, 2006, 2009) by turning in a thrilling draw. Back next week for more...
  
• Gotham Girls Roller Derby regained the Eastern Region Championship, taking out the Derby in the Burbs tournament with a 30 point win over a fast finishing Philly team.
  
• My vote for best bout of the weekend, though, goes to Steel City's huge comeback win over Carolina to take 5th place. From 43 points down at half time, the ladies of Pittsburgh came out like a whole new team - super organized and disciplined - and won by 36. Amazing stuff.
  
• If you umpire a mostly social sport purely for the fun of it, you'll soon stop when the fun goes away. And believe me, the fun goes away very fast when people start sniping from the bench, openly questioning good decisions, and screaming in your face.
  
• Alabama retained the Silver Ball once more, although the underdog Razorbacks of Arkansas gave everything in their pursuit of the mythical trophy, barely falling short in a 24 to 20 game. Next week, previous holder Florida visits the Tide.
  
• Columbia ran away from visiting Towson, 24 to 10. Go Lions!
  
• Carmelo Anthony could be a Brooklyn Net soon. Stay tuned.

Silver Ball rout

Alabama traveled to Duke, who were trying to become the first ACC team since 1992 to hold the Silver Ball - and yes, Florida State won a BCS National Championship without taking the Silver Ball in the meantime. No chance for Duke. Bama took out the Blue Devils with ease, 62 to 13. Next up, a trip to Arkansas, who could present a tricky challenge. Only a few poor refereeing decisions and some abysmal field goal kicking stopped the Razorbacks from ending Florida's run last season, so caveat aestus.

Went to Columbia's opening day today, and had a great time, although a stirring final drive was cut short by a disastrous snap in the red zone, leaving Fordham able to run out the clock for a 16-9 win. Columbia made enough big plays to hang around, and even lead for a while, and enough basic mistakes to make sure they lost. Fordham deserved the victory, and in truth were by far the more impressive team. Such is the lot of the Lions. On the plus side, the souvenir stand was selling game worn jerseys from the last few years for $25! I picked up a lovely number 96 road jersey, which neatly commemorates Columbia's excellent 8-2 season of 1996.

Lions

Columbia 38, Princeton 0.

This ties Columbia's second greatest margin of victory in Ivy League play, matching a 44-6 win over Cornell in 1960. More to the point, this is a shutout win over Princeton, at Princeton. As a measure of the historic strength of these programs, Princeton has walked away with the mythical Silver Ball 106 times. Columbia, just 6.

Put this one down next to the 1934 Rose Bowl. Yesterday was one of the greatest days in Columbia's football history.

Losing streaks snapped

Wagner 69, Columbia 84

Michigan 70, Maryland 75

Now that is a great night of hoops.

Lions of the gridiron

Columbia 17, Cornell 7

Cue another rousing chorus of the fight song!

Incidentally, 2-7 Columbia has fewer losses than Michigan. Also, of interest to those with a long term view, Texas has tied Notre Dame for the second most wins in college football history, the Wolverines being #1. None of this helps with the Silver Ball, though, which remains safely in Texas Tech's keeping through a bye week.

Lions of the court

Columbia 65, Fordham 62

A rousing rendition of the Columbia fight song, Roar Lion Roar, is in order.

What would Tyler Hansbrough do?

Rest and recuperate, is my guess.

Oh, and my colleague Andrew, who needs to post here much more often, has spotted a site for buying the most beautiful posters of old college football programs. Oh my. They even have a poster for the greatest game of football ever played.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Penn State won at Ohio State for the first time since 1978, severely denting the Buckeyes' chances of winning a third straight outright Big Ten title. Penn State remains on watch for Texas or Alabama to stumble and leave a gap open into the BCS title game. Once again: please, for the love of Red Grange, can we have a PLAYOFF? This is ridiculous.

Texas won a very tense matchup, 28 to 24, to take the Silver Ball from Oklahoma State. This reunites the Silver Ball and the #1 AP ranking for the first time since the middle of last season, I believe.

In another nervous affair, Columbia overcame a number of mistakes to defeat Dartmouth 21 to 13 at Baker Field. This snapped a 13 game losing streak, hardly the first such dismal run in Columbia's football history. Unfortunately, we missed this, but next week we'll be at Yale cheering the Lions on in a nearly empty 61,000 seat stadium. That should be a bunch of fun, if the weather is decent.

The Queens of Pain took advantage of an injury hit and penalty prone Bronx Gridlock to break Bronx's 7 bout league winning streak and regain the Gotham Girls Roller Derby title. The brooklyballparks.com staff was in the thick of the action, Andrew working on penalty tracking and David on lineups. Good luck to Andrew at next month's national championships!

Some good news for a change

Arien O’Connell, robbed of a win in the SF Women's Marathon last weekend, has today been declared co-winner of the race. For those not following the drama, she did not start with the elite group, which had a 20 minute head start over the rest of the field to avoid congestion. But she took twelve minutes off her best time to run 2:55:11, eleven minutes faster than the official first place getter, Madeline Kramer.

The official explanation was that since the elite runners were not aware of this blazing dark horse, they could not adjust their strategy. Fair enough, I guess, but I seriously doubt anyone could magically shave eleven minutes from a marathon time at will.

We must take it at face value that elite runners who are aware of what time they might run will start with the elite group. In any case, Nike (the sponsor of this and many other women's marathons) intends to do away with the head start. And that's good news too.

And two more good reasons to support this decision: Arien O’Connell is from Brooklyn, and is a graduate of Columbia University.

Travesty

While such dull affairs as Miami-Duke and Michigan State-Ohio State were readily available on my television, the Silver Ball matchup between holders Oklahoma State and longshot challengers Baylor was sadly missing. Fortunately, I didn't miss much. The Cowboys brushed aside Baylor with ease, winning 34 to 6, and will defend the Silver Ball next week in Austin against mighty Texas.

In other news, Columbia (you guessed it) lost a close one at Penn, 15 to 10, which is their 13th straight loss, if I count correctly. Next week I'll be at Baker Field cheering the Lions on against Dartmouth. Pray for me.

Also, Maryland's bizarrely up and down season continued with a 26-0 win over ranked Wake Forest. This after a 31-0 loss to Virginia in their last game. Maryland has beaten three ranked teams this season, and lost to Middle Tennessee State. Send your explanations on a postcard.

Weekly obsessive college football roundup

While Missouri idled, a number of games with implications for the BCS title were played this week. #1 USC played dreadfully against Oregon State, #3 Georgia was humbled by #8 Alabama, #4 Florida was stunned by Ole Miss, and #9 Wisconsin threw away a 19 point lead against one of the worst teams Michigan has had in decades.

The big winners? Oklahoma, Texas, Penn State, and LSU.

And this after a series of pundits predicted a logjam of undefeated teams this year. Once again, please, give us a PLAYOFF. Make the Big Four Bowls the first round games in an eight team playoff - this would hardly diminish their importance. You could even allow the Rose Bowl first choice of Pac 10 and/or Big 10 teams.

Maryland, meanwhile, continued its surprising rennaissance with a comeback win over ranked Clemson. Is this 4-1 team really the one that lost to Middle Tennessee State?

And Columbia, brave though they were, went down to a very late touchdown at Towson. It's been about as good as an 0-2 start can be, I guess. At least Yale lost.

What we discovered today

When umpiring modern style (well, 1895) baseball, I am a very poor caller of balls and strikes. When umpiring 1864 rules, I am considerably better.

The Gothams - now with a season record of 16-16 - won the latter and lost the former against the Mountain Athletic Club. These are the greatest Gothams by far, and I am so proud to have been a part of this season. And thanks to all the players for being so kind about the poor calls!

In other news, Missouri retained the Silver Ball with a 42-21 victory against an overmatched Buffalo team which hung around for longer than anyone expected. Columbia, ever the lovable loser, gave up 15 points in the last quarter to throw away a lead and bow to Fordham.

Oh, and Michigan State beat Notre Dame.

Baseball roundup

Again with the lazy after the fact posting. So, here's how I spent my weekend:


The Gotham Base Ball Club traveled to the McLaughlin Vineyard in CT, to take on the Newtown Sandy Hook Club. We lost at 1867 rules, but got our revenge at 1864 rules - the significant difference being that in 1864, you could catch the ball on the bound in fair territory. Congratulations to Andrew, who broke my single game club record for walks, going 0 for 0 with 5 free passes in the second game.


Then I went with Beth and Ken to see Yankee Stadium II, probably for the last time before it is replaced by Yankee Stadium III. Naturally, we wanted to see Monument Park, so we got there super early. At the end of a very long day, the Yankees scored 4 in the 8th to squeak by the sorry Mariners.


Finally, kudos to the Columbia Lions, 2008 IVY LEAGUE BASEBALL CHAMPIONS! They'll be at Coastal Carolina for the regional round of the NCAA tournament.

Mighty shoulders

John Baumann's consistency, stamina, and of course his 25 points led Columbia to a 68-62 comeback win over Yale last night, with the BrooklynBallparks.com staff in attendance. We are reluctant to indulge in any negativity in this blog, of course, but it must be said that Yale represents the forces of evil, cowardice, incompetent legacy and unearned wealth, acting as finishing school for the robber barons to the world.

So it's fair to say we are pretty pleased with this result. Columbia remains third in the Ivy League, set to send a team other than Penn or Princeton to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in two decades. That will be Cornell, but the Lions are still having a hell of a season.

Few sweeter words

Than these:

Columbia came back from a nine point, second-half deficit to hand Harvard its seventh straight loss.

Now 5-3 in the Ivy, three games back of all powerful Cornell, but it's been a great season so far. GO LIONS!

Not for decades...

Columbia men's basketball defeated Penn on Friday, 74-58, and came back to top Princeton 58-53 on Saturday. I do not know of the last time Columbia beat Penn and Princeton in succession- this is cause for wild and raucous celebration.

ROAR LIONS ROAR!

Oh, and Maryland beat NC State.