Outdoor Minneapolis Football and Mother Nature's League...

Last year the Underdogs were in Minneapolis at the last regular season baseball game ever at the Metrodome, before the Twins opened their new outdoor stadium this past spring.  Football has remained in the dome however, as the NFL’s Vikings have played every home game there since 1981.  Well, that is until last week… when seventeen inches of winter snow and severe winds caused the roof to cave in.  Oh man, did you see all that snow falling through the roof?  The footage was amazing!

So that leads us to tonight, when the Vikings will play their first home game outdoors in almost 30 years, at the University of Minnesota’s TCF Stadium.  How strange is that?  You’d think that the Great North Vikings, the famed Purple People Eaters, would have thick skins and a tough-as-nails mentality right?  But in reality, these guys have been playing for the last 30 years as if they called Miami home… or San Diego.  They’re used to playing in perfectly comfortable conditions.  Basically they’ve given away their home field advantage.  They play in Minneapolis for crying out loud!  The Buffalo Bills, Chicago Bears, Green Bay Packers, Philadelphia Eagles, New England Patriots, and the two New York teams rough it outdoors in frozen weather every winter week?  Why have the Vikings gone the way of the Prom queen?  Well, having been in Minneapolis in December before, I would guess that’s it’s because… um, it’s crAZY cOLD OUTSIDE!!!  They link their downtown buildings with skywalks in Minneapolis because it gets so bone chillingly cold there!  Oh and if you need some advice on how to deal with the Minnesota cold check out my cuz, Dr. Robinson in this link.  http://www.northlandsnewscenter.com/news/video/Cold-Weather-Calls-for-Preparation-from-Northlanders-111475519.html?vid=a      

Brett Favre has a great history of playing in Cold Weather Games

One of the great and unique things about football in American sports is that they play the games.  No matter what the weather conditions are the game goes on.  In baseball if it rains even remotely hard they delay or postpone the game.  As tough as Hockey guys are, they never have to deal with any wind chill, and basketball players?... Forget it.  They have 12 prom queens to a side by comparison.  In football, they play the games.  Period.  And this ideology has created some fantastic, almost mythological, contests throughout the years.  

The Chicago Cardinals won the NFL Championship in 1948

1948 the Chicago Cardinals won the NFL Championship against the Eagles in a Blizzard.  In 1981, the Bengals beat the Chargers for the AFC Championship in The Freezer Bowl (there was a negative 59 degree wind-chill that day in Cincinnati!)  In 1982 (The Snow Plow game) the Patriots beat the Dolphins 3-0.  How’s that for a football score?  And of course the 1967 NFL Championship game, also known as The Ice Bowl, the Packers beat the Cowboys on the Frozen Tundra of Lambeau Field.  And even though these days the league only puts SuperBowls in warm weather cities, in 2007 my Bears had to play for the Championship on a relentlessly rainy Miami night.  Nobody could run an offense in that hurricane right?  Although somehow during the half-time show Prince was able to play his guitar beautifully… and he wasn’t lip-synching either!  I checked.  Gotta be one of the best half-time performances ever, I would think.  Y'know, if anybody keeps track of that sort of thing.

Anyway, I don’t think those Bears had anything to complain about really; they were pretty much over-matched in everyway by Peyton Manning and the Colts that year.  In fact, if the weather had been better they probably would have lost by a much worse score.

At the Frozen Tundra... but INside :)

But today’s Bears find themselves in another position to make history.  They can clinch the NFC North Division title with a win tonight in the frigid Minneapolis air, and it should stand to reason that they have the advantage over their perennial rivals.  The Bears almost always play outside.  And what stadium gets colder than Soldier Field in Chicago?  Tonight pretty much gives them an extra home game.  While the Los Angeles Vikings are used to playing in the tropical Metrodome, the Bears have Grit-and-Beared it for as long as anyone can remember.  It’s the reason they’ve never had a finesse passing game… ever.  It’s the reason they’ve always been defensively oriented.  It’s the reason that opposing teams dread when they are scheduled to play there between November and January.  And it’s the reason that Bears fans are insane! 

So as we go into this pivotal Monday Night game tonight in Minneapolis, we Underdogs are reminded of one more quality that makes American Football so fantastic.

Mother nature has a roster spot.

Oh, and apparently Father Time is going to make an appearance too, since Brett Favre had decided to play tonight.  As recently as yesterday he was listed as inactive because of a shoulder injury.

Of course he decided to play.  The drama  just never stops in the NFL. 

Let’s go BEARS!!!

Thanks for reading,   

This is the underdogs.                           

Ornament Box Score Wrapping and the Return of the Knicks....

Incase you haven’t noticed, it’s that time of year again.  The colored lights are up, giant plastic snowmen and raindeer are cluttering up front yards and rooftops, and with each passing weekend the shopping centers are getting more and more unbearable.  But then, on the fun side, there’s putting up the tree!  That's always a good time right?  I have such fond memories of putting up the tree when I was a kid.

One of the reasons was because before we could unwrap the presents on Christmas day, we had to unwrap the ornaments to put them on the tree.  And in my family each year we would secure our ornaments, (some antique, some downright jankity... sorry Mom :) using that old standby… the newspaper.  (For those of you that don’t know, the newspaper was an artifact that used to be issued daily to individuals or families in order to communicate information complied from various news institutions… but truthfully, most people just read the comics.  Ah, whatever, look it up on Wikipedia.)

The great Walter Payton, always my favorite player.

Anyway, the point is, it seemed that somehow most of our ornaments were wrapped in... the sports section!  Oh, yes, that beautiful almanac of articles, rankings, standings, and box scores from historical sports’ seasons past.  It was indeed a secret pleasure of mine to see how long we could last with the same sports section from year to year.  In some cases many years survived.  Of course I put my own personal effort forth to keep the great 1985 Bears' and 1989 Cubs' seasons alive over the years, and it was always fun to re-live the amazing Michael Jordan Bulls' years from the 1990's too, through those crinkled layers of ornament padding.  (Those late-1980’s Bull’s box scores were quite a thrill.  The starting-five scoring was always something like: Jordan: 58, Pippen: 9, Grant 7, Cartwright 5, and Paxson 5.   No wonder they didn’t win championships until Mike started to share the ball.  Yikes.)

In 1991 Michael Jordan's Bulls finally won the championship,
beating Magic's Lakers in five games.

Just one more happy nostalgic element to the holidays, I guess, but for some reason looking at the standings in December is always a little bit warmer and cozier for me.  And box scores too!  Growing up overseas taught me to be a Box-Score-Guy.  Basically, if you couldn’t see the game, you could simply look at the box score in the newspaper and pretty much understand what happened.  Box scores for baseball and football games work quite a bit better than for basketball games though.  In baseball the stat is king; every situation is basically pitcher vs batter in a relatively consistent vacuum.  Football can be mapped out as a series of drives from a specific yard-line to the endzone.  Basketball, though… well, it’s kind of all over the place.  The basic stats: Points, Rebounds, Assists, Steals, and Blocks do tell a significant story of a game, but they can also be rather inconsequential or misleading.  For instance, getting 10 rebounds in a game is considered very good.  But you can miss a shot right at the basket, take four different tries to tip it back in, and end up with 2 points and 4 rebounds on one play.  You can knock the ball away from an opposing player, but it’s the guy who actually possesses the loose ball who is credited with the steal, so many of them are just lucked into.  And assists… well, some are kind of a matter of opinion.  There’s no stat for help defense, or the great pass before the assist, and a full court heave at the buzzer counts as a missed three-point shot.      

In other words, it’s a team game, and unless you watch every minute, you won’t really know which players are the most valuable to your team.  There are intangibles that players contribute on the court that cannot be measured statistically.  Still though, much of each game can ring true through a good old fashioned box score, and as luck would have it this holiday season, the Knicks have been on a TEAR!  (And that’s… TEAR as in, The Knicks are on an eight game winning streak for the first time since 2000, not… TEAR as in Knicks fans are Crying in their Beers again... as has pretty much been the story since that season ten years back.)  As previously mentioned on this blog, since moving to New York in that very same year 2000, I'd made the switch to Knickerbocker-backer, and have been thoroughly enjoying some long awaited Good basketball from this club.  And coach D’Antoni’s up-tempo offense can provide us with some dynamite box scores too!  Like take this first one from a recent 129-125 win against Denver at MSG.  (Click on it to make it bigger.)    

First of all you can tell that Coach D’Antoni plays his starters almost constantly, and secondly, each of the six guys that played at least 20 minutes, scored at least 13 points.  That shows incredibly balanced scoring and means that the Knicks are moving the ball well.  Raymond Felton’s 17 assists and the rookie, Landry Fields’ 7-11 shooting clip from the field along with 9 rebounds also jump off the page as quite impressive.  Of course Amar’e Stoudemire and Wilson Chandler putting up 30 and 27 points respectively, is nothing to sneeze at either (as my dad would say.)  This is simply a beautiful box score for a Knicks fan!

This second box score is a little less satisfying, since the mighty Celtics came into the Garden this past friday and ended the Knicks winning streak, beating them 118-116.  (Again, click to enlarge.)

While sill a rather beautiful box score, what it doesn’t tell you is that Amar’e Stoudemire hit a potentially game winning three-point bucket at the buzzer that was eventually waived off by the refs because he didn’t get the shot off in time.  I was able to watch the fourth quarter of this game, sadly only my second Knicks game of the season, and it was reeeeaally close… but they got it right… Amar'e didn’t get it off in time.  As much as Spike Lee tried to convince the refs that he did :)  Either way, it was still the best quarter of Knicks basketball that I've ever seen.

What this box score does tell us is that the Knicks are still playing wonderfully fluid offensive basketball, particularly Felton and Stoudemire.  Wilson Chandler is performing extremely well as a third option, and Landry Fields is still giving the team valuable intangibles (because otherwise D’Antoni wouldn’t have played him for 36 minutes with only 6 points and 6 rebounds,) and in spite of the loss, the Knicks showing that they can hang with a proven championship contender is a brilliantly heart-warming sign for their fans.  Of course, this box score could also prove quite historic during future ornament-unwrapping-tree-putting-up-sessions.  The Celtics have four FIRST BALLOT Hall of Famers on their team at the same time, and that doesn’t include Rajon Rondo, who is arguably their best player.  By the time his career is over he may be HOF material too.  Amazing.

So the plot thickens in the NBA East, Atlantic Division.  Boston is still the run-a-way favorite to win it, but the New York Knickerbockers for the first time in years are putting up a fight as their solid second place rival.  Happy days are here again for Knicks fans!  It’s been a looooooong time.  And even though these box scores from espn.com are of the digital variety and will be of little use to the ornament wrappers of the world, it is comforting to remember their physical counterparts, and the ways in which we used them in simpler times.  Maybe I'll print these up to wrap the ornaments this year, just for old times sake.        

Happy Holidays everyone… And happy ornament unwrapping.  Which year is your sports section from?  :)

Underdogs out.

Auburn and Oregon... Worlds Apart...

In College Football, not all season finale games are created equal.  This week, the top two teams in the country, Auburn and Oregon, faced defacto play-in games to get into the National Championship.  You win and you're in.  Simple right?  But somehow, it doesn't seem like the playing fields are all that level. 

The Oregon Ducks have amassed an 11-0 record going into today’s game, defeating a #9, a #21, and a #24 along the way.  Their final game of the season is against cross-state rival Oregon State; who comes into the game 5-6 and Fifth in the Pac-10. 

The Auburn Tigers come into the game 12-0 having defeated a #6, a #11, two #12s, and a #22.  Seems like they’ve played a much harder schedule than Oregon, right?  So, do they get to play a cupcake team in their final game like Oregon does?  Uh… no.  They get to play a #19 South Carolina team, that might have an even higher ranking than that, had Auburn not already beaten them in September!  Oh and by the way, South Carolina has beaten a #1, and two #22’s this season.  That’s a better quality win resume than Oregon has!!!  

This piqued my curiosity a bit, so I parked myself on the couch today to take a closer look. Since both games were on at the same time I was lucky enough to do the remote control cowboy thing, switching back and forth dynamically during commercial breaks.  And as an outside observer… I have to admit.  It looked a little bit like switching from High School Varsity, to Middle School.  At times it didn’t even look like the same sport!  South Carolina and Auburn were bigger, faster, and far more sophisticated on offense and defense than their west coast brothers.  Oregon played down to Oregon State and only broke open the game late in the third quarter, on a clutch (and very questionable) third-down-and-9 pass interference call that gave them the chance to continue driving to an eventual score.  Oregon State turned the ball over four times, often at crucial times and giving the Ducks great field position.  It kind of felt like they were gift-wrapping the title game for Oregon.   While the final score looked pretty good for the Ducks, I didn’t think they looked that good at all.  Especially for the #2 team in the country. 

Regardless, both Auburn and Oregon won their games today so it appears that we will have the two "most-deserving" Championship finalists play each other on January 10th.  But somehow, I couldn’t help but dream of a scenario where OSU was magically replaced by South Carolina for that Oregon game today… just to see what would have happened.  Could you imagine the looks on those Ducks' faces?  (Where's Hermione when you need her?... hey, at least in Quidditch, they have a playoff :)  Because, based on quality wins, I think South Carolina should be ranked above Oregon.   

Blasphemy?  Maybe.  But, speaking of quality wins, let’s take a quick look at our two Championship contenders. 

Auburn Beat

LSU (6)

Alabama (11)

Arkansas (12)

South Carolina (12)

South Carolina (19)

Mississippi State (22)

Oregon Beat

Stanford (9)

Arizona (21)

USC (24)

Of the six games that Auburn won against ranked opponents, ALL of those teams finished the season still ranked in the top 25.  Of Oregon’s three games against ranked opponents, only ONE of them is still in the top 25.  SIX to ONE.      

And now I just heard on TV that they think that Oregon is going to be the favorite in the Championship game.  What???  Auburn is actually going to be the Underdog???  I love it!  I don’t know what expert predicted that, and I’m sure it will corrected before they actually play, but regardless, it is has to be one of the silliest thing I’ve ever heard uttered on the air.  I understand that college football needs to at least pretend that there is parity amongst their conferences, but let’s not be ridiculous.  Auburn’s strength of schedule more than doubled-up Oregon’s for crying out loud!  Where does Oregon stack up if they played a full season in the SEC?  Fifth?  Sixth?

I don't mean to suggest that Oregon doesn't deserve a trip to the title game, but wouldn't it be easier for everybody if the Pac-10 had a Conference Championship game first?  That way they could prove that they belong against a highly ranked Stanford team.  It would certainly level the playing fields a little bit more and then we wouldn't have to keep guessing, comparing apples and oranges.  Right?  Merlin's Beard!  We need some Magic over here!    

Anyway, I asked my Auburn guy, and honorary Underdog Mike Masters, if we could just send Mississippi State to the Championship game instead.  And then when they beat Oregon they can give the trophy to Auburn.  Or how about Arkansas, Alabama, South Carolina, or LSU? 

Mike said no. 

And he wants January 10^th to get here in a hurry!

So do we.

This is the Underdogs.
        

The NFL and the Los Angeles "fantasy" scene...

What's up Underdogs?  Last time around we tackled College Football (and hopefully those realignment ideas are currently being implemented.  Right, University presidents??? )  But for the time being let's just chill out a little and spend some time talking about the gridiron guys that have a playoff system already... and also, the ones that get paid!

(Well, officially that is.  Incidentally... can Cam Newton's dad be my agent??... ooo, sorry Mike :)

The National Football League is far-and-away the most popular sports league in America, and it’s easy to see why.  So many stories to follow, so many intriguing players, and the ever-compelling standoff between offense and defense, which, as elemential as it seems definitively, can be infinitely complex.  After the Big Guy Upstairs, the NFL owns Sundays in this country and it really is a lot of fun to watch!  (Even though the Lady Underdog, Lakisha, can somehow easily sum up every single play of each game as “aaaaaaand… they all fall down.”)  Brilliant right?    

The Rams played in LA from 1946 to 1994 before moving
to St Louis.

In spite of this physical certainty though, every one of our country’s major cities (especially the ones of the cold weather variety) flock to see their teams; if not actually at the stadium then on a flat-screen somewhere.  (The warmer weather cities do too I guess, they just come a little later and leave a little earlier :)  This season I find myself in a warm-weather city listed as the second biggest market in the US, that formerly supported two NFL franchises at the same time and now has zero.  But regardless of this oddity, people in Los Angeles still seem to care, even though they haven't had a pro football team here since 1994.  (Admittedly however, football aficionado, and honorary Underdog, Jimmy Ludwig, does quite often refute this notion by simply pointing out the USC Trojans.  youCH!  Reggie Bush anyone???)  But the question still remains; why does the NFL still matter in Los Angeles?

The LA Raiders played here at the LA Coliseum

through 1994.  Now it is used predominantly as the 

home for the USC Trojans

A big part of the answer is due to the fact that many residents of LA are transplants and football bloodlines run deep.  If you were a football fan when you were eight and still are… you probably pull for the same team.  It’s actually quite remarkable.  Even considering the complicated dichotomy of sports-team-loyalty which we will tackle at a later date, I’ve yet to see another sport match the NFL as far as life-long fans are concerned.  So consequently, every sports bar and restaurant in this town is packed every Sunday with ex-pats from other cities pulling for their team via "The NFL Ticket."  (Oftentimes this includes ex-northerners who miss their teams but not the accompanying frozen weather.)  That’s the beauty of sports in 2010.  You can still watch every game your team plays.  Actual geography doesn’t matter anymore.     

My boys Brian Marino and Chris Palazolo don't know
Jimmy Ludwig... but...  

Another reason is probably due to the emergence of “fantasy football,” which might actually be more important on a national scale than the conference standings themselves.  It’s kind of ridiculous.  I do understand the draw for football fans though, because it is a fun way to be competitive with your friends or co-workers every week, and hope for bragging rights. The irony of course being… that you haven’t really done anything!  Seriously, whoever came up with this idea, is a genius.  And I suppose it’s telling, after all.  What’s more American these days than celebrating a victory in which you didn’t really do anything?

... they could all get together, drink a few
beers, and talk about the Detroit Lions.  

Oh boy that’s a tough nut to crack, and I'm sorry to get all deep.  Cynicism aside though, the fantasy leagues must be great for the NFL in generating interest, especially for the less important games, but I can’t help but feel negatively toward them.  Somewhere down deep inside me there is a sports purist that hates how popular the fantasy sideshow has become.  It’s like when I first moved to New York and met a guy named Zulf.  So one day we’re hanging out talking football, and I’m going on about standings and my team, and I ask him who his team is and he says, “Ah, I don’t’ have a team I just care about the lines.  Y’know, the Over/Under for each game and what the good bets are.  Whether or not a team can cover the ‘spread’ or not,” etc…  Zulf didn’t care about the winning or losing in the actual games, just the Vegas angle.  It wasn’t something I had really ever thought about before, but I suddenly realized with some discomfort, that there are countless people out there who don’t care about the game at all.  Just the numbers… and the money.  Ugh.  Well that brought the naïve and idealistic sports fan inside me down a few pegs.  But I understand it, and people can obviously do what they want.  It just, for some reason… made me want to take a shower.

Anyway, fantasy football in my opinion isn’t nearly as egregious a sports perversion as betting on games, but it is still harmful to the game from the purist’s perspective.  In fantasy it’s not about the teams but about the players.  The importance is on individual play rather than actual game results, and that is in direct contrast with the age-old sports mantras.  “There is no I in… T-E-A-M”, "Just Win, Baby," or “Winning isn’t everything.  It’s the only thing.”  Hmmm, I wonder what Coach Lombardi would make of this movement?  I’m not saying that fantasy sports should go away or anything.  I’m just saying… somehow they just don’t feel right.      

Speaking of the ole Coach, he must have been smiling last Sunday when his Packers took out Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings in the Metrodome.  Wow.  What a difference a year makes, right?  Of course, Brett pulled the usual guessing game about whether he would return again this season and decided at the last minute to make another run at it.  The problem is, he did the same thing last year, and apparently… you can’t capture lightning in a bottle twice.  Last year he surprised everyone while performing as one of the best quarterbacks in the league… this year he pretty much the worst!   Crazy right!  I mean, think of all of the fantasy implications!!!  All those poor owners who drafted him too high!  Their seasons must have been RUINED.  :)

Underdog Mike Masters with 2 of Green Bays 3 Lombardi
Trophies.  Mike's Atlanta Falcons might be the biggest favorite
right now in the NFL.

So last year (when the Underdogs were in Minneapolis,) Favre inspired the Vikes to an amazing last second win against the Pack and it started a tidal wave of national speculation predicting a Favre-Vikings Championship.  This year’s game ended it.  As well as the Brad Childress’ coaching tenure with the Vikings.  Ouch.  What a way to go.  You think Favre will be back next year?...  Me neither.

But he gave it a shot right? 

And that’s why we love the games.  Not the statistics or individual accolades, but the numbers on the scoreboard when the clock runs out.  That's the beauty of Football; anything is possible.
We are now up to Week 13 in this NFL season with no clear frontrunners for the Superbowl.  Gotta love it right?  It's a year for Underdogs!
Me?  I'm pulling for the team I've pulled for since I can remember... back when it was Walter Payton, Willie Gault, Mike Singletary, and Fridge Perry suiting up.
Let's Go Bears!! :)  

We out Like Brett Favre!

Thanks again for reading.

UnderD’s OUT! 

Fixing College Football

As we’ve mentioned before, on this here blog, one of the best and most appealing things about sports is that they exist in a vacuum of absolutes; unlike so many other areas of life where the difference between right and wrong or winning and losing is muddled with gray areas filled with hundreds of voices screaming their various contrasting opinions.  In the real world it is difficult to know sometimes what is right, or good, because there are usually other overwhelming factors that sway judgement, or as Palpatine said to Annakin, “Good… is a point of view.”  In sports however, one need only look at the standings to find truth.  In sports there are steadfast rules, endzones, and foul lines.  Decisions are handled by impartial referees with no personal agendas (we hope) and finally and most importantly, there is a scoreboard.  At the end of the game one simply has to look at that scoreboard to see who is the victor.  No need for further conjecture (although ESPN would probably fight that notion to the death) no need to stay awake all night pondering “what if.”  That is the truest beauty of sport.  Action can succeed where literal expression falters.  When the day is done there is a winner and a loser by way of absolute truth within its parameters, and all of the talk just fades away into the abyss.  In sports “truth will out," it has to.  Well… except for in College Football.

College Football might be the most popular of all sports in America but, as we all know, it also may be the most flawed. The problems are logistical.  There are so many teams and conferences that it is impossible for most of them to be judged against each other on the field, therefore polls and computer ranking-programs have been instituted to decide where teams fit in the national standings.  And the game is too brutal to implement a tournament, as every other college sport does, in order to crown a true champion.  So major College Football directly violates our cherished sports maxim.  Incredibly, most of the time, it cannot be decided on the field.  In the sports world this is inconceivable.  So we’ve got to do something about it... right?  

As long as I can remember people have been complaining about this great contradiction, and have pleaded for an NCAA playoff system.  People have argued for a best-12 to 16 team playoff where these teams would face each other in a head-to-head tournament to once-and-for-all decide who is king in each respective football year.  On its face this seems logical.  But expecting amateur athletes to face the dangers of an extra month of football just doesn’t seem realistic and NCAA purists fear that with this kind of a system the regular season would be stripped of all importance.  But as with most things, the biggest issue at stake here is money.  The Bowl games on New Years Day generate huge sums for University coffers and some think that the institutions would suffer greatly with a playoff system in place.  And that is why, as always, my dear Underdogs, the road to salvation lies in between. 

A top four team play-in to the National Championship game would keep the current Bowl system in place and, while definitely not a perfect solution, it would at least give Four teams a real shot to win the big prize.  Arguing about 4th place is much less dramatic than arguing about 2nd.  For the most part we can let the teams decide their fate on the field when it matters most, while keeping the purists happy, because with this system the regular season remains important. 

But why stop there?  A Four-team playoff is definitely a good start to managing the mess that is the College Football world, but there still is the problem of inconsistency and disparity between conferences.  And it still doesn’t solve the age-old problem of: (grab your Advil bottle, folks) when a team goes undefeated, but doesn't play very many ranked opponents, what in the world do you do with them???  (Boise State!  What’s up?)

Therefore the Underdogs have taken on the extremely difficult task of fixing College Football.  Now, it may seem absurd at first, but in the hopes of finally alleviating as many of this sport’s problems as possible, please try to keep an open mind.  And remember, this is a rough first draft!  

The first thing we have to do is create conferences consistently giving due credence to geography while respecting historical rivalries as much as possible.  We know this is Hallowed Ground, and people will be shocked and offended, but for the sake of the greater good… we are gonna give it a try!                

The first thing we need to do is combine the ACC with the Big East, and that would bring us to 20 schools.  Split it into North and South and we get this:

Atlantic Coast Conference

North

Boston College

Syracuse

Pittsburgh

Rutgers

Connecticut

Cincinnati

Virginia

West Virginia

Maryland

Virginia Tech

Atlantic Coast Conference

South

North Carolina

North Carolina State

Wake Forest

Clemson

Georgia Tech

Duke

Louisville

Florida State

Miami

South Florida

No problems so far right?   

Next we need to do away with the silly numbers of the Big 10 and Big 12 (sorry guys but the numbers don’t even make sense anymore) and create the MidWestern Conferences.

Also split into North and South.  The North retains the Big 10’s History, the South, the Big 12’s History.  Also filter in a few SEC teams to keep each conference at a nice round 10.    

MidWestern Conference

North

Michigan

Michigan State

Ohio State

Iowa

Iowa State

Illinois

Northwestern

Penn State

Wisconsin

Minnesota

MidWestern Conference

South

Purdue

Indiana
Missouri

Nebraska

Kentucky

Vanderbilt

Oklahoma

Oklahoma State

Texas

Texas Tech

Next we combine the WAC and the Mountain West into a Mountain Conference.  With a North and South.  Filter in some PAC-10 Schools to keep the numbers consistent.

Mountain Conference

North

Colorado

Colorado State

Utah
Brigham Young

Wyoming

Utah State

Idaho

Boise State

Nevada

UNLV

Mountain Conference
South

New Mexico

TCU

North Texas

Louisiana Tech

Arizona
Arizona State

Kansas

Kansas State

Baylor

Texas A&M

Then finally the PAC-10 becomes the Pacific Coast Conference and the SEC pairs down to 10 teams. 

Pacific Coast Conference

Oregon

Oregon State

USC

California

UCLA

Hawaii

Washington

Washington State

San Diego State

Stanford

Southeastern Conference

Arkansas

Tennessee

South Carolina

Alabama

Mississippi

Mississippi State

Georgia

Florida

LSU

Auburn

So now we’ve created Eight Ten-team conferences:

The Atlantic North (ANC)

The Atlantic South (ASC)

The Southeastern Conference (SEC)

The Midwestern North (MWNC)

The Midwestern South (MWSC)

The Mountain North (MNC)

The Mountain South (MSC)

The Pacific Coast (PCC)

Each team plays 6 games within their division and 6 out of conference games rotating through the other conferences systematically over years.  And yes, these schedules could be more difficult so it would likely be that no team goes undefeated, but that would be more true to the competitive spirit right?     

Each conference would play a Conference Championship game making a possible 13 games.  And eventually each conference could expand to 12 schools each (Like y'know, if The Midwestern North wanted to let in Notre Dame for example :) that would make 96 teams in the country legitimately Bowl eligible.  That’s not so bad huh?   

So one year lets say, hypothetically, the conference champs are as follows:  (Record and National Rank to the right.)

Atlantic North - Virginia Tech (11-2) (9)

Atlantic South - Florida State (10-3) (11)

Southeastern - Auburn (13-0) (1)

Midwestern North - Ohio State (11-2) (8)

Midwestern South - Nebraska (13-0)  (2)

Mountain North - Boise State (13-0)  (4)

Mountain South - TCU (13-0)  (3)

Pacific Coast - Oregon (12-1) (5)

The top 4 teams play the play-in games for the National Championship in Bowl Games rotating between the Rose Bowl, the Sugar Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl, and the Orange Bowl in which case it would be:

Boise State (4) at Auburn (1) in the Rose or Sugar Bowl

TCU (3) at Nebraska (2) in the Orange or Fiesta Bowl

The next week the winners play for the Championship.   

(Or if the playoff is expanded to Eight teams, the four undefeated teams are hosts in the first bowl games in an order determined by rankings.) 

In that case the matchups look like this:

Florida State (11) at Auburn (1) in the Orange Bowl

Virginia Tech (9) at Nebraska (2) in the Sugar Bowl

Ohio State (8) at TCU (3) in the Fiesta Bowl

Oregon (5) at Boise State (4) in the Rose Bowl

The remaining teams then play a Four-team playoff over the next two weeks. 

Realistically, of course, all of this change is a long shot to ever happen, but even if a little of it could eventually happen I think it could only enhance College Football.  (Not hurt it as purists would have you think.)  And with that we leave you… To think it over.  I know it's a lot to digest and change can be scary.  But we love this game right?  We deserve this!

As complicated as this revolutionary change might be, it's got to be light-years ahead of what College Football is now.  Perhaps one day logical heads will prevail and actually get something done to fix it.  Ya think we might have something like this in fifteen years???  It's possible, right?  Quick!  Call your respective University Presidents!!!  :)

All the best,

And Thanks for Reading!

Underdogs OUT!!!   

The Rangers, The Giants, and The Dangers of Winning...

My only trip to the Gorgeous ballpark by the bay in SanFran
was in 2000.  It was PacBell park then.  Today it's AT&T.
Next year... who knows.  Carrier Pigeon Park?  

As we began the Fall Classic last night in San Francisco, a fittingly wonderful atmosphere for an autumn ballgame, it was easy to look around and see all the great things about baseball.  Two great teams, two great fan-bases, with a chance to make history.  So much to get excited about!  Could it be putting me into baseball-recovery mode?  Hmmm, seems like I've said this before.  Yes, as I’ve admitted in numerous past blogs, for one reason or another baseball has lost me in recent years.  The season’s too long, the lack of a salary cap favors larger market teams, and the league has basically done Squadoosh to punish admitted past-Steroid users.  (Need an example?  Mark Maguire is a hitting coach in St Louis after a smug, calculated “confession” that was both egotistical and somehow also “whoa is me.”  Seriously, he made it sound like he was a victim!  After ten years of lying, he knew he had to perform a little lip service to make some money again.  So he hired a P.R. firm to handle his “apology.”  And it worked!  Ugh… my sheer disgust at his lame press-conference this past spring probably cost me six months of baseball.  Y'know, like how after watching Super-Size Me, you couldn't look at a McDonalds sign for a while?  Like that.)  But if I had to be honest about it, I’d guess that the real reason I’ve been so down on baseball the last few years is because the Mets have been, in a word, garbage (please to be pronouncing this ala a French accent with the liquid second G, gAR-baGE.)  And really, when that is the case, no matter who your team is, the baseball season inevitably turns into a long, excruciating, slow-motion-speed-walk to nowhere.

In August the Giants were forming up, the Rockies forming out

I felt it from the fans in Denver as they began to sense their Rockies slipping out of the pennant race in early August.  Two weeks later the Dodgers fans had already entered their acceptance period, and the Mets… forgetaboutit…. seems like it has been accepted since May.  The one certainty in the Major League season every year is that by the last third of the schedule, close to two-thirds of the league’s fanbases have already checked out.  Why?  Because our culture has become obsessed with championships; banners and trophies and as many of them as you can carry.  It’s not about the game anymore, it’s about the standings, and sadly, virtue is not its own reward.  So when your team is looking like a good triple-A team in late July and that sneaking feeling starts sinking in, you realize that the dream of attaining the ultimate prize is not happening.  So why not find something else to do, right?

With Tim Tebow now waiving Towels in Denver
Gator fans have had a rude awakening

I’m not proud of this attitude mind you.  I think it is rather despicable actually, but I also have to think that it is the inevitable result of winning.  That thrilling taste of the promised-land in every sports context always must be followed at some point with disappointment.  I first noticed it in myself in 2007 when the Florida Gators lost a game midway though the college football season, and my immediate thought was, “well this year is out.”  Who cares about an SEC Championship or a Bowl Game?  It’s National Championship or bust.  What a terrible attitude to have!  I’m ashamed of it.  It certainly is an awful example to set for the impressionable youngsters of this country (Cue that Whitney Houston song from the 80's) but time and time again we set this example.  It's not about overall achievement anymore, most sports fans simply ask, “What have you done for me lately?”  (Which oddly, is a Janet Jackson song from the 80's.  Coincidence?  I think not.  Okay, that's why I never made the debate team :)

With Derek Roland at Yankee stadium.  I've only been to the
Death Star twice.  First in 1997 and then pictured here in 2007.
I guess I'm due to visit the new one in 2017 :)

I’ve lived in New York for the last ten years and if the city has taught me anything, it is that every year pretty-much every Yankee fan expects a World Championship.  I’ve never seen anything like it!  Anything short of that is a failed season.  In the last ten years the  Evil Empire has won 973 regular season games.  973!  That’s an incredible average of 97.3 wins a season.  But with the exception of last fall when they finally played a great World Series and brought home the hardware, most Yankee fans consider it a lost decade.  One out of Ten is not enough.  Any other fan base would be doing coordinated cartwheels!  Is it just possible that a great many Yankee fans don't enjoy the post season as much as they fear their eventual disappointment.  And maybe that is a completely natural attitude to have when your team has won Twenty-Seven Championships and been to the playoffs Forty-NINE times.  Their team is so good that the only thing that can possibly be note-worthy is when they fail.  It's not their fault, it's human nature.  After all, philosophically, we only know what we know.  But whatever the reason may be, it appears that only the win-starved fan-bases can truly appreciate their team’s success. So really, Cubs fans should count themselves lucky; they will never become jaded! See, there is some good baseball news on Chicago’s north side.  You just have to know where to find it.  But then again the Cubs know that; they've been selling it for 101 years.  (Uh-oh better cue up Billy Joel's 80's ditty, "Wooah, oh-oh-Oh... For the Longest Tiiiime."  Sorry Pops, couldn't resist!     

Will it be the Rangers or the Giants taking the big prize?

So as our Underdog Heroes, the Texas Rangers, go into game two tonight in San Francisco, keep in mind that before this year, in their fifty-year history, the Rangers had only been to the post season three times.  Their all-time post-season record: 1-9.  Until this year they had never even won a playoff game at home!  Those fans don’t know the meaning of being jaded, right?  And that is a beautiful thing.  It makes me happy that baseball can make people feel this way.  Texas girls Catia, Kristen Beth, and Miss Oristano know what I’m talking about.  So does Mr Golden Gate himself, Joel Blum.    

It should be also noted that the Giants aren’t exactly perennial favorites either.  Since moving to San Francisco in 1958, these guys have only reached the playoffs eight times, and have never won the Championship.  (Really, the only reason the Underdogs list them as Evil is because of Barry Bonds, but don’t worry, that stigma should wear off in about fifteen or twenty years.)  Basically, either way this shakes out, one of these two teams is walking out of this World Series forever changed.  And their fans will celebrate an elation that can only come from decades of hopeful anticipation.    Indeed, one of those two fan bases will finally be a winner!  Whether or not that is a good thing, is anyone’s guess.

Rangers vs Giants.  A brilliant Underdog Match Up!

Enjoy the World Series.

And Happy Halloween!!!  :)

Thanks for reading!

Underdogs OUT 

The 2010 Baseball Playoffs and the Ojeda Factor...

Jimenez faded down the stretch, as did Colorado

Did anyone notice that the last three installments of the Underdogs have focused on non-sports related topics?  No?  Well they did.  And people were probably getting upset.  I actually don't have any evidence of that, but, just in case anyone actually did get upset, we will now attempt to set things right with a triumphant return to the world of sports blogs.  Indeed, the Underdogs are back with the first baseball blog of the year.  YAY!  Just in time for October!  yay?  Ah yes.  On a crisp fall day on which the Major League Baseball Playoffs will begin, the big question on my mind is… does anyone care???  (Aw, I love saying that because all my Yankee fan friends get all bent outa shape :)  But really, what a season!  To me it felt like it ended 6 months ago.  Wait, didn’t I say the same thing LAST year???  UGH.  The Mets were abysmal… so were the Cubs, and the San Diego Padres choked away a big Divisional lead to give the Evil San Francisco Giants a playoff birth. I tried to get excited about the Rockies while passing through Denver, when I got to see the masterful Ubaldo Jimenez beat the Giants to win his 17^th game, but even he couldn't carry them to the promised land.

The day after giving away Manny Ramirez to the White Sox
the Dodgers pretty much gave up on the season.

Then when we got here to LA we headed out to Dodger Stadium (right next to Elysian Park, where we play tennis) to see the Dodgers lay down and die against the Evil Philadelphia Phillies.  The Dodgers, Rockies, and Padres all had a chance with about a month and a half to go in the season to turn things around and somehow oust the Phils or Giants from contention, but none of them could.  The only saving grace in the National League was that the Cincinnati Reds were able to hold off the (also Evil) St. Louis Cardinals.

Coors Field in Denver

So here we are at baseball playoff time and if you take a look around, there are actually lots of good Underdog types to root for.  No teams from LA or Chicago, no Boston Redsox.  Seriously, as I am writing this out I am actually getting excited about baseball for the first time since Spring Training.  The Tampa Bay Rays beat out the Evil New York Yankees for the AL East Divisional Championship (while spending about a third as much on payroll as the Empire.)  The small market Minnesota Twins and the previously mentioned Cincinnati Reds defied the odds to make the postseason, but the most surprising contender this year has to be the Texas Rangers. 

Dodger Stadium.

Alex's Least favorite place to watch a baseball game.
But not because of a Perfect-Game-related spat :)

Amazingly only three teams had a lower payroll this season than the Rangers did, so their playoff appearance is definitely a remarkable achievement.  Clearly they are doing something right down there in Arlington.  Also, the 101D’s own Catia Ojeda is the biggest Ranger Fanatic I’ve ever met, so I like to live vicariously and pull for them.  And I can’t reiterate this point enough… she is a serious fan folks.  If you want an example ask her about the “Perfect-Game story” that went down at Fenway a few years back.  She still gets mad at her (now husband) Alex, (congrats guys! :) when it comes up because even though he was not a Sox fan he had the temerity to root against her boys as the night went on, tantalized by the chance to witness a perfect game.  She didn’t buy the “history-of-the-game” argument and was horrified at his lack of respect.  In fact, since she was probably the only person in the ballpark wearing a Rangers hat, she considered it a full-fledged betrayal!  To this day if you bring it up (and of course I love to do so) she will momentarily go back to that place and look at Alex as if he is the scourge of the earth, with those “how DARE you eyes.”  Always a priceless moment. 

Catia and Alex last Halloween as Deviled Egg

Anyway, so when the Rangers finally broke up the perfect game in the seventh inning with a single up the middle, Catia immediately jumped up joyously to cheer the hit.  Then she started defiantly talking smack to the surrounding Red Sox Nation as they looked at her in disbelief.  When we get to this part of the story, I like to watch Alex as he relives the moment as well with a slightly nervous expression.  Because at that point he suddenly had to turn his attention from their little spat about the Perfect Game to the current problem… of how to get them out of Fenway alive that night.  Imagine that spectacle!  One diehard Texas fan swimming proudly in a sea of crazy (possibly dangerous) Boston fans?  Now, that’s a brave underdog!

Everything turned out alright in the end though.  They made it out of there and today Catia and Alex are a brilliant married couple.  (Just off of the honeymoon in fact.)  And I think that without a doubt the Perfect Game spat made them stronger.  I mean, when you think about it, if that is the biggest fight they’ve ever had in their relationship… they must be the ones playing the perfect game.  HHHMmm.  Catia just cringed at my bad pun.    

Anyway, when you add it all up the AL has three good-guy teams (Twins, Rays, and Rangers) to the NL’s one (Reds.)  And that’s not such a bad postseason for Underdogs.  Because of the Ojeda connection, I am pulling for the Rangers over the Rays in their first round matchup, and hopefully the Reds can somehow come out of the NL, but the biggest first round series has to be the Yankees against the Twins.  Game one is tonight in Minneapolis, right back where the Underdogs started a year ago.  Last year we made it out to the Twins last regular season game at the Metrodome (we even got Certificates saying as much) as they finished the season on an incredible tear to beat out Detroit for the last playoff spot.  The Yankees ended Minnesota's playoff dreams quickly however in the first round, and the Cinderella story hit midnight.  This year though the Twins have home field advantage (in their new outdoor stadium, where it might get down to 45 degrees tonight) and a good chance to redeem themselves against the mighty Yanks.  At last count, the Twins have two World Championships compared to the Yankees' twenty-seven, so there is no doubt that it is a tall order facing the Minne-boys.  The Yankees are really really good.  But for Underdogs everywhere… It would be fun to see the upset!  And eventually, perhaps, the chance to see the Ultimate Dream Scenario...   

Reds vs Rangers in the World Series!!  :)  aw That would KILL Vegas! 

2009 in Minneapolis.  The Underdogs have come full circle.  

Baseball is BACK baby!  Hmmmm, I think that is also something I said a year ago when we started this thing.  Hard to believe it’s been a year already.  Seems like three doesn’t it?  Happy Baseball Watching!

And as always, thanks for reading,
Underdogs out!

The Art of the Comic Strip and Woody Allen

Photo by James DeShawn Ludwig III

Aspen is a place for revelations.  And the third in our series that occurred there, as we continue our brief hiatus from the sports world, (sooo sorry baseball... but not really) came from a simple book found in the condo where we were staying.  Theatre Aspen had rented it for Jimmy, presumedly from a winter-dweller who makes like a tree during the summer months, and one day (in between tennis matches... Check out Kisha in Mid-Air!?) I spotted something curious sitting on his bookshelf.  Right there in plain view on the shelf was a book entitled Dread and Superficiality; the Best of the Classic Newspaper Cartoon from 1976 to 1984.  The strip was called Inside Woody Allen.  I stopped dead in my tracks.  It was a twilight-zonian experience for me to discover this artifact.  It's what it must have been like when those archeologists found Lucy, back in '73.  It's been here this whole time!  Waiting to be discovered!!!  I was positively astounded that I had not been aware of the existence of this comic strip!  Why?  Two reasons.  First, Woody Allen is my favorite filmmaker and has been one our most prolific writers and performers of stage and screen.  And second, I have long considered myself something of a comic strip aficionado.

When I was a kid I was an adamant follower of many comic strips.  It was important business.  Every morning there were dozens of new comic strips inside the newspaper just waiting to be checked out.  So intriguing, so consistent.  Something you could count on.  Then I started clipping them out and putting them in books and up on the fridge (and, well maybe it got a little out of hand :) but the important thing is that it quickly became one of my favorite art forms.  Yes, an Art Form.  It eventually became clear to me though, that most people didn’t think of them in this way.  Almost everyone I knew took them for granted or subconsciously disparaged them.  I was shocked to see how casually people would dismiss these works after glancing over them, either chuckling to themselves or giving the obligatory, “eh” – as in, “ I could have done better than that.”  In this way the Newspaper Comic Strip has to be one of the most disrespected art forms in history.  Infamously proven by the degrading and despicable euphemism that somehow became synonymous with this art form early in the twentieth century: “the funnies.”  Ugh.  And it stuck!  What kind of artistic credibility can one expect with that label? 

Naturally there were many artists that accepted this menial position and directed their work to the lowest common denominator.  Churning out strips featuring simple archetypical characters in mindless crude situations, the likes of Beetle Bailey, Hagar the Horrible, Andy Capp, Snuffy Smith, Family Circus, and Garfield rose to prominence through the years.  Sorry Garfield lovers (if there are any left) but really what is there in that strip?  Garfield hates Mondays, loves lasagna, and Jon’s a loser.  That’s pretty much it.)  Honestly, for years these strips have given the Funnies a bad name.  A collection of works fit to wrap a fish in.  Beetle Bailey has been running from Sarge for 60 years, Andy Capp gets drunk every night, and does anyone ever read the Family Circus??? 

That's not to say that simple is bad.  Many simple strips have a legitimate place in our hearts because of the comfort of their consistent predictability.  Much the same way that you can miss three years of All My Children and still pretty much know what’s going on when you finally tune in.  I enjoy a lot of strips that fit this model, like Blondie, BC, Zits, Dilbert, Rose is Rose, The Wizard of Id, and, of course, the immortal Peanuts (So popular that they still run every day, ten years after the passing of the legendary Charles Shultz.)

But there were some artists that broke the bounds of the typical and raised the bar for the art form by challenging their readers with continuous storylines, more sophisticated philosophical messages, or in other bizarre ways.  Among these are some of my favorites: Crankshaft, Non Sequitur, The Boondocks, and my personal Comic-Strip-Mount-Rushmore of Doonesbury, Bloom County, The Far Side, and For Better of For Worse.  But standing on a cloud, about a thousand feet above Mount Rushmore, is the greatest comic strip of all time: Calvin and Hobbes.

While this example of Calvin is devoid of Watterson's considerable artistic ability it
is probably apropos of how I feel about comic strips as an art form.  Maybe I should get some help.   

I’ve long held that Calvin and Hobbes’ paramount position among comic strips is an absolute certainty.  I don’t think it can be debated.  The sheer creative output by Bill Watterson, for ten years starting in 1985, cannot be rivaled by any other strip; and maybe any other art form altogether.  Far more versatile than any strip before or since, Calvin could play at any speed and any style.  Watterson’s incredible imagination (brilliantly illustrated though Calvin’s constant day-dreaming) could go from one side of the world to another in one strip!  At the height of his popularity, Watterson was so powerful that he even forced newspapers to change the way they formatted Sunday strips, which were artistically limiting.  This guy was Lennon and McCartney and Elvis to the world of comic strips.  No one else even came close.  And comic strips have never been the same since he departed the field.  After rejecting all licensing and marketing opportunities for Calvin and Hobbes (all the stickers and shirts are illegal by the way) Watterson left Hundreds of Millions of Dollars on the table and retired from cartooning in 1995.  He shunned the money and effectively vanished into thin air.  No one even knows where he lives!  How’s that for artistic credibility?

If you need to be reminded, go pick up a Calvin and Hobbes collection or check out some strips online.  Gems like this...

and this...

and then there's this...

     

So anyway, back to Aspen (no... not to tennis!) to this book on the shelf.  Unbelievable.  As I mentioned, I think of Woody Allen as one of the most prolific writers ever. He's written articles, books, plays, screenplays, directed, acted, released stand-up albums, two musical albums, and has performed internationally with his Jazz band. 

I have seen all of his films and absolutely love his style of storytelling.  He basically is his own film genre. His characters, while usually of an urban ilk, run the gamut of the philosophical world (and not only the ones he plays, ALL of them.  It’s trippy to remember that they all came from his mind.)  And with this amount of productivity there are sure to be a couple of “clunkers” in there so I understand how people can be critical, but even in my least favorite of his films (Anything Else and The Curse of the Jade Scorpion anyone?) there are always a few dynamite intimations sprinkled in that only he could have conceived of.  Like “Don’t worry, we can walk to the curb from here.” from Annie Hall, or “I had a great evening; it was like the Nuremberg Trials.”  From Hannah and Her Sisters, or “I don’t want to bad mouth the kid, but he’s a horrible, dishonest, immoral louse.  And I say that with all due respect.” from Broadway Danny Rose, or my personal favorite from Deconstructing Harry when his character Harry Block tells his brother-in-law, “I don’t think you’re paranoid.  I think you’re the opposite of a paranoid.  I think you go around with the insane delusion that people like you.” 

Woody Allen’s 46^th film You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger opens tomorrow here in the U.S.  46 films written and directed!  Does anyone else even come close to this guy’s overall body of work? Seriously, akin to Shakespeare has been this guys contribution to the creative world.  It is mind-boggling.  Not that I worship the ground the guy walks on or anything. Certainly many people have sordid opinions about Woody Allen’s personal life or decisions he’s made, but I’ve never been a person that values the artist above the artwork.  I don't know the guy, but his creative contributions have had a profound impact on my life.

Me with Woody back left on Clarinet

Last year for my birthday present the Lady Underdog, Lakisha, took me out to The Carlyle on the Upper East Side where Woody plays with his Dixieland Jazz ensemble on most Monday nights as his schedule permits.  We had great seats.  The place is tiny (or as we say in NY, intimate) and he even sat right next to me at one point before the band took the stage.  And when they did get up there, they treated us to some world class New Orleans style classics.  It was kind of amazing to see him up there, completely separated from his comic persona, he appeared to be simply jamming out with his friends and having a blast. And he is actually quite a good clarinetist too!      

As we sipped our wine and nibbled on desserts, they played for about an hour and then most of the guys left the stage, and I thought, "Oh that's cool... you can't expect him to play for too long."  But then he stayed up there with two of the other guys and they played for at least another 45! And each time you'd think the set was done, Woody, with a mischievous grin, would quickly start up a new song to see how long it took for his startled band-mates to join in.  Honestly, he looked like a little kid up there, having the time of his life.

So it now comes to my attention that the man who has done all of these things artistically was also the subject of a comic strip?  It was like two of my worlds colliding unexpectedly.  I suppose I had presumed  that this was one medium he had never dabbled in, and I should have known better.  It was the early persona of Woody Allen as a comical hard-luck loser that first inspired cartoonist Stuart Hample to give him a call in 1975 to see if he would allow himself to be the subject of the strip.  To his surprise Woody agreed and even gave him permission to use any of his previous material as fodder.  The result was Inside Woody Allen, and at a time before the Internet or cable TV it must have been a huge publicity coup for Woody to also be in millions of homes in the newspaper everyday.  Stuff like this:

While not directly involved, Woody oftentimes would send Hample letters with ideas for storylines, character development, and to encourage him to avoid the lowest-common-denominator jokes (like the previously mentioned cellar-dwellers among comic strips.  Born Loser I'm looking in your direction!)  And of course he wanted Hample to push the envelope and challenge the readers with deeper and darker content.  Around the same time Woody was having similar troubles with how his films were being received.  He didn't want to be only a laugh man.  In his 1980 film Stardust Memories, his character, Sandy Bates (coincidentally also a filmmaker) is greeted by a fan who says "I love all of your movies, especially the early funny ones."  Needless to say, this put Hample in a tough spot between Woody and the Associated Press who were naturally pushing for only “non-offensive” material.  And in the end he was writing a comic strip after all.  Sometimes it's nice to just be funny.

Reading through the collection, I think the results were a mixed bag.  It appears that Inside Woody Allen peaked solidly in the second tier of our Comic Strip Hierarchy.  Fun and interesting, but without a solid commitment to secondary characters or their relationship development.  But really, that's not a bad place for a cartoonist to be.  We can't all be like Calvin.  Overall I found Hample's work to be very enjoyable.  Although I'm sure that my opinion is slightly biased.  If it hasn't already been blatantly obvious based on this installment of the Underdogs, I should mention that both the subject matter and the art form are near and dear to my heart.

This last strip is from a week before I was born, and illustrates another thing I like about Woody.  He’s a Knicks fan.  And c'mon, who among us hasn't dreamed that they were magically seven feet tall? :)

Next up… back to sports! :)   

Thanks for reading.

Underdogs OUT!