Andy

No. Only two other teams besides Pittsburgh and Carolina have even won two road games in a row in the playoffs (95 Colts and 96 Jags). Guess what? TWO teams are winning three games in a row and going to the Super Bowl this year. Pittsburgh will beat Denver 17-14. I thought that New England won three in a row on the road in 85 to get blown out by the bears in the Super Bowl. Correct. I really love making mistakes on this site. :D Well, the amount will triple after tomorrow.

Great. I look forward to the first-round matchup with Detroit. :shock:

How do the Bulls lose by one point - in double OT - the same exact night that Notre Dame loses on a last-second shot to Marquette? It's amazing how cruel the Sports Gods can be when exacting penance from you for something finally going right.

Somehow, Notre Dame managed to lose (to Marquette) on a shot with 1.1 seconds left, and the Bulls managed to lose by one point in double overtime. It's a good thing I have Carolina - because my college hoop teams are a combined 1-9 in conference. (1-10 after Ball State finds a way to lose to Bowling Green tomorrow.)

Will you be on here during the game NC? I'll need someone to help me gang up on MHuber :D

It seems ridiculously odd to me that not only was Neifi Perez getting pumped for the All-Star SS job just 6 months ago, but I was able to say "Neifi wouldn't be a bad choice" with a straight face.

Charlotte's been able to support the Panthers without any problems, although it remains to be seen whether the Bobcats can succeed in that town. Anything is better than Miami for the Marlins, though.

Speaking as someone whose greatest regret in life is being born too late to fully appreciate the MJ Era, I have to say no. I would gladly go without a Cubs title for the next 20 years to see a once-in-a-lifetime player like MJ play for the Bulls or Panthers.

You have Bay, Craig Wilson, Jody Gerut, and Burnitz - that's pretty damn good.

No. Only two other teams besides Pittsburgh and Carolina have even won two road games in a row in the playoffs (95 Colts and 96 Jags). Guess what? TWO teams are winning three games in a row and going to the Super Bowl this year. Pittsburgh will beat Denver 17-14.

I think this game will come down to someone you might not expect. (Ricky Proehl? Maurice Morris? Joe Jurevicius? Nick Goings?) The Pick - Panthers 27 Seahawks 17. Maybe Carolina's got some injury issues but they will stop Shaun Alexander and make Hasselbeck beat them with his arm. I don't think he'll be able to do it.

I don't hate Neifi. I hate Neifi's sub-.300 OBP batting in front of Derrek. I hate Neifi's two-year, 6M deal including signing bonus. I hate that he's no doubt going to be Dusty's new Macias in terms of bench usage. I hate that his defense was apparently enough to keep him over Nomar who we could've had for probably 2M more a year max. I hate that he's a terrible hitter. But no, I don't hate Neifi.

Wojo is one of ESPN.com's two or three best writers.

Roughly 54 hours until the NFC title game. I'm wearing my traditional Friday jersey - Steve Smith that is. :D

Sam Young, widely projected as the #1 offensive lineman in the country, chose ND over USC today, making their class even better. Young's expected to slide immediately into Mark LeVoir's old tackle spot.

I spent the summer working at Sporting News Radio and I worked on creating highlights from all the major league games. I always pulled the santo isms, put them on a cd, and use them now as part of my weekly radio show at Indiana University. It's great stuff. You know how much money you could make just by selling those things for 5-10 bucks a pop on NSBB? 8)

I was at the Brewers game last June where Patterson made a full-extension diving catch on a line drive with a guy on 2nd and 1 out late in the game and the Cubs up 2-0, then stood up and doubled the guy off of second in about two microseconds. I like Pierre, but to even suggest that there's a possibility that he is a step up from CPatt in the field is absurd.

I'm shocked. I've believed for so long that CPatt was vastly superior to Poo Holes. I'm crushed right now.

Ben is unreal lately. It's safe to assume his bench days are over in Chicago.

Why aren't you?

Do we really have excellent instructors? I'm probably one of the minor league instructors biggest critics. It's getting real old hearing how good so and so is yet seeing guys not reaching their potential. Guys like Choi, Hill, Kelton, Dubois Jackson, etc. I'm still seeing nothing really extraordinary from Harvey. So, our instructors are considered excellent based on.....? I was under the impression that the DJAXX had really good coaches. I think they do. Why doesn't the talent in the minors translate in the bigs? I think there are several reasons. Most are not under the organization's control, but some are. For example, I don't think it does much good to platoon a player until he demonstrates he cannot produce. Yet the Cubs want to platoon young guys. I don't think it does much good for a guy who is use to playing every day and sit them on the bench only to give them infrequent starts and pinch hits (Choi, Dubios, Hill) . It doesn't help a guy to yo-yo him from the big club to the minors, especially a pitcher who might go from starter in AAA to reliver in the bigs (Cruz, Z, Hill, Farns, etc). It doesn't help a young player by batting him in the 1 spot for a month then 2 then 6 then 7th then back to 1 (Patterson), One of the reasons why I'm so high on Matt Murton is because he didn't come through our system. I have a feeling he's going to refute your theory about how platooning a young player can mess with his development. I think he's going to be a very fine player even after platooning last year. Just because a player (like Murton) is good enough to succeed even after platooning doesn't mean that platooning rookies isn't a stupid idea.

Forgive the hyperbole, but with 40 teams in the Big East they should get a bunch of bids. I think a 16 team conference is ridiculous. It's not just that there are 16 teams. Teams like Louisville, Cincinnati and Marquette (any of whom would have a good shot at winning the Big 12) already have two conference losses. The Big East is loaded.

They impressed me when I went to go see them beat ND at the Allstate. That Wilson Chandler kid can play. That team has a bright future.

I haven't heard anything to suggest Morgan and Peppers won't play for Carolina, and Alexander seems pretty dead set on playing as well.

He will... Notre Dame is becoming the place that everyone wants to go now. They're the new Duke or Yankees of college football. Did you wake up 60 years ago? ND has on and off been the #1 preferred destination for HS players for a very long time, you know. You can't say that about the last decade or so pre-Weiss. I know that. That's why I included the phrase "on and off".