For good or bad, I’ve been hacking away at this blog for nearly four years now. During that time, I’ve learned a lot, entertained a few and infuriated a couple. Hopefully, you’re one of them. But as I look back on the experience, I see that there’s one key relationship I didn’t understand when I first started – happiness is the blogger’s enemy.

Having been hooked on a number of blogs (some of which are still listed in the Blogroll to the right), I thought I could take a shot at it. After all, I thought I was everything most of the bloggers I read seemed to be – witty, snarky and miserable. Witty and snarky come naturally to me, but the key to a good blog is the misery part – you just can’t spend your time smacking down others unless you have a certain inner angst and self-loathing that needs to be vented.

For the first couple of years, the posts came easily. My job sucked, my life sucked, and it was pretty easy to get me irritated about something in the world. Much like Peter Griffin, there was usually something that really ground my gears, and dumping the bile out on the electronic pad and paper seemed to help. Look back through the history of the MB and you’ll see there’s pretty much a post a day – or two or three – in the early years.

Along the way, though, something happened – I stopped being angry. I’m a little older, so a little mellower, and a little more accepting of the stupidity of those around me. My job, while nothing to write home about, isn’t the worst one in the world, and I’m even happy in my personal life. Things just don’t suck quite as much as they used to, and the MB is paying the price in the form of gaps between posts – including big ones like the one just ended.

What used to come easy has become something of a chore. Much like someone who loved to home cook but suddenly found themselves slinging hash at Denny’s, the posts just don’t flow any more. It’s harder for me to find things to rant about, and harder for me to work up the lather needed to flesh out the rant. It used to be that if I saw someone do something stupid, I thought, “This’ll make a great posting!”; now my reaction more often than not is “Meh …”

Admittedly,  I’ve done things to make the job harder on myself.  I used to do a lot of posts that were basically  just commentary on stories of the day,  a couple of sentences wrapped around a quote from an article somewhere.  I’ve gotten away from those, as I have the Monday Sports Rant and Weekend Eye Candy posts that allowed me to focus on Tuesday through Thursday.  But shifting away from quantity towards quality puts an even larger burden on me to crank out the good stuff, and unlike some of my more talented peers, it’s not always easy.

So what exactly does this all mean? If I was smart, it’d mean the end of this blog. The kiss of death for any content source is lack of content, and those few people who regularly read the MarlinBlog long ago left as the posts became fewer and further between. But I’m a hard-ass and don’t like quitting on things, so we’ll just muddle on. Maybe my life will take a dump and I’ll suddenly find new venomous inspiration, and the posts will once again flow like the green beer and yellow pee on Wednesday. Or perhaps, like the Colorado River once too many irrigation pipes have sucked it off, the posts will slow to a trickle and finally just disappear into the desert sands.

I guess we’ll see, won’t we …

Back from a long week of workshops and ready to talk some Winter Olympics …

- If there is a story of redemption in these Olympics, it has to be skier Bode Miller.  He arrived at the Olympics four years ago expecting to compete for gold, but with his head in clearly the wrong place.  His lack of discipline and conflicts with the US Ski Team forced him to leave Torino empty handed and the subject of justified ridicule.  Four years later, Miller comes to Vancouver a changed man – the father of a two-year old who has completely changed his attitude.  He’s returned to the national team and is skiing better than he has in years.  Even with that, however, no one really expected him to score medals in each of his first races, but that’s exactly what he’s done – including an impressive gold in the combined.  He’s considered a medal favorite in two more events, which would leave him the most decorated skiier ever for a single Olympic games – quite a change from the last go around …

- Another guy who as performed above expectation – at least, the expectation of anyone but himself – is short track skater Apolo Ono.  After starring in the last two winter games, Ono stepped away from skating and expanded his fame significantly by competing in – and winning – TV’s “Dancing With The Stars”.  Most viewers assumed you’d never again see Ono back on the ice, but he still had the itch and regained his competitive form.  In a sport marked by notoriously short careers – Ono has repeatedly pointed out he’s skating against people coached by people he used to skate against – Ono has scored a pair of medals at the half-way point in the games.  Some will point out that his achievements have come in part due to the misfortune of others, but he’s been a victim of that same kind of bad luck himself over the years and it all balances out.  He’s now the most-decorated US Winter Olympian, and still has two more events to skate.

- Unlike most of her teammates, skier Lindsay Vonn was expected to win her events – at least until a training injury mere days before the Games began left her unable to ski.  Frankly, only the unpredictable weather of Vancouver gave her a chance to even compete, and she made the most of her opportunity, scoring the gold in the women’s downhill.  Her results since that first race haven’t been as fruitful, mixing a DNF with a bronze medal, but the joyous yells she lets out at the end of a run – win or lose – show how happy she is just to be competing.

- Americans like to look at Canada as our 51st state, but I suspect most Canadians see Americans as their boorish neighbors to the south.  Louder, ruder, clumsier – we’re the bulls in the Canadians china shop.  Imagine how it must feel, then, for the American hockey team to go to Vancouver and beat the Canadians at their national game – and yet, that’s just what happened in group play yesterday.  The Canadians outshot the Americans 2-to-1, but inspired defense and goalkeeping kept the US squad in the game long enough to take a 4-3 lead late into the game.  An open netter set the final score, and started the spin doctoring of the results.  Publicly, the Canadians are saying it’s just another game, but most people think these are the two teams destined to meet for the gold, and you really don’t want to lose a game like this.  For all their ho-hum reaction, it’s worth noting that the Canadians have benched goalie Martin Brodeur in favor of Roberto Luongo for the remainder of the tournament.   Those cold fingers are closing on the Canadian team’s necks …

-  Did I mention that the US Women’s hockey team is playing the Canadians for the gold?  Imagine if both teams bring home the gold – they’d have to close the bars in Canada …

There was probably some other sports this weekend, but c’mon – you know what we all watched …

- Last week, if you’d put money on the New Orleans Saints to win Super Bowl XLIV, it would have been considered a sucker bet or, at best, a sentimental bet. But today, it’s a winning bet after the long-suffering Saints defeated the Colts 31-17 last night in Miami. There will be a lot of talk about how the Saints uplifted the spirit of New Orleans, and that is a great thing that comes out of this game no matter who you were pulling for. But for now, let’s talk about who won the game – or, more importantly, lost it. Drew Brees has one of the greatest post-seasons by a quarterback, and the rest of the Saints did what they had to do to get their hands on the Lombardi Trophy. But to me, the real story of this game is the inexplicable performance by the Colts. This is a team built to win the big game, one that sacrificed the possibility of a perfect season to get to the big game – and once there, acted like they never arrived. League MVP Peyton Manning had a decent game statistically (with one significant exception), but the Colts played like a team more worried about not losing than winning – and that’s a recipe for disaster. Incredibly dull play calling by the Colts’ coaching staff led to field goals instead of touchdowns – and punts instead of first downs – and left the door open for the Saints. And the Saints came marching through …

- Football is a team game, but this more than most was a story of individual moments. There were good moments – Tracy Porter’s interception return to seal the victory, Sean Peyton’s decision to go with an onside kick at the beginning of the second half that left the Colts’ flat-footed and flabbergasted – and bad – Pierre Garcon’s drop of an easy pass on a crucial third down. But the one that will stick with me will be Hank Baskett’s flub of the aforementioned kickoff. Look, the reason you put wide receivers on the front line of a kickoff is for this very occurance – that’s why it’s called the “good hands team”. Baskett, better known as the guy who stole Kendra Wilkinson from Hugh Hefner, was a mid-season pickup by the Colts after getting dumped by the Eagles. After this gaffe, I think he’s gonna be looking for a job once again …

-  OK, let’s talk about the real game … the commercials.  For the last decade or so, the buzz before the big game has often been more about the commercials than the game itself – blame Apple and the original Mac commercial in ‘84 for that, I guess.  But, much like the action on the field, the commercials seldom live up to the hype, and this year was no exception.  There were nearly 70 commercials during the game (!), but I’d say only a half-dozen or so were even memorable.  Some of my favorites were the Snickers commercial with Betty White and Abe Vigoda (who’s still alive – who knew?) or the Coke commercial with the entire cast of the Simpsons.  Both were cute in entirely different ways.  There were plenty of attempts to sell with a different cute (Megan Fox taking self-portraits in the hot tub, for example), but for me they fell short.  Same goes for perennial SB advertisers GoDaddy and e-Trade (the new baby sucks).  Among the big winners were Focus on the Family, whose Tim Tebow commercial was remarkably understated compared to the controversy it stirred up, and Toyota, who threw itself on its sword in a mea culpa commercial aimed at the largest audience possible.  Doubt that’s gonna save the stock value, though. The best of the bunch, though, has to be the one in which an entire trans-Atlantic love affair played itself out in the simple interface of a search window, reminding the world that no matter how much money Microsoft and Yahoo invest in hyping their search engines, when the world wants a question answered, it still “Googles it”.

I’m trying something new here at the ol’ MB by not automatically having certain posts on certain days (goodbye, Weekend Eye Candy …). But if it’s Monday, and I’ve seen sports I need to rant about, whatcha gonna go …

- For once, everyone in the NFL stuck to the script, and the teams that should be going to the Super Bowl will actually meet in Miami in two weeks. The Colts wore down a gritty but ultimately overwhelmed New York Jets team to take the AFC championship, and the Saints continued their feel-good story season by surviving in overtime against a battered Vikings squad. A couple of things came to mind watching the games. First, if teams take on the personality of their leader, then Peyton Manning must be as cool as the other side of the pillow. Down 11 at the half after a pair of TD passes by rookie Mark Sanchez, the Colts never panicked – hell, they never even cracked a sweat. They just rolled off 24 unanswered points and reminded everyone why they started the season 14-0. One more performance like this, and they’ll justify coach Jim Caldwell’s decision to tank the last two regular season games – and a shot at a perfect season – to rest the starters. Meanwhile, down in the Big Easy, the Saints turned Vikings QB Brett Favre into their own personal voodoo doll, sticking him and bending him into positions no man was designed to assume. Give Brett credit for courage and pain tolerance, but the repeated hits may have led him to force a pass he wishes he could have back – the one intercepted with 15 seconds to go in regulation. Sure, it would have been a 55-yd field goal attempt, but indoors. Whatever your thoughts on that, it’s likely to be the last throw of a Hall of Fame career. Given a healthy offense and a little protection, Favre would be facing Manning in the Super Bowl; instead, he’s facing one more offseason of decision.

- Did you know the 2010 PGA season had started? Probably not, and I’m not surprised. Welcome to the Tigerless-PGA – and it’s not pretty. This is the downside of the legend – much as he was responsible for the addition of new events and inflation of prize checks and audiences, his dramatic fall from grace has left the tour in the hands of a bunch of young, flavorless touring pros. Sure, they have talent, but no one knows who they are – and unless the PGA can figure out how to market them, they’re in trouble. Meanwhile, Eldrick is cooling his … heels … in a Mississippi clinic, purportedly to recover from sex addiction. As I recall, that was the same dodge that Lindsay Lohan pulled, so excuse me if I’m less than sold. One things for sure, though – the tour will be without Woods longer than it thinks. There’s a great article by Jason Sobel on ESPN.com that outlines his belief that Woods simply lost his love for the game long ago, making it all the harder to come back now. I think he’s right, but we’ll see …

-  Maybe it’s just me, but there’s something fundamentally unnerving about seeing Khloe Kardashian at the White House shaking the President’s hand.  And yet, that was just part of the … um, excitement … as the Lakers made their appearance with President Obama for the traditional White House greeting.  Khloe, for those whose tastes don’t take them to places like TMZ.com, is the new wife of forward Lamar Odom.  Dude – next time, just buy a dog and a Bentley … it’s a much better investment, and likely to last a whole lot longer.

I could probably go on for at least a week talking about nothing more than the silly sports antics from the last few weeks (hello, Gilbert Arenas …), but I think I’ll stick to a few key points …

- There’s no shortage of people who hate the current format of the Bowl Championship Series, the oft-adjusted and still-dysfunctional method used to determine a national college football champion. I’ll leave it to others to bitch about how it isn’t any better at picking a winner than the previous poll-based system. Rather, I’d like to point out the damage it’s done to some fundamental holiday traditions. Back in the day (ie – pre-BCS), the dozen or so bowl games started around Christmas and culiminated with a gridiron orgasm on New Year’s Day – Cotton Bowl in the morning, Rose and Sugar Bowls unfortunately competing in the afternoon, and the Orange Bowl and it’s amazing electric halftime show in the evening. The Fiesta Bowl? Not even a wet dream in some bowl organizers eye. Today, with the sponsors and networks calling the shots, the BCS bowls are dragged out for a full week, with the last one not playing until January 7th! Naturally, other stadiums and sponsors smell blood in the water, and all jump in with their own version of a bowl game, resulting in a glut of 34 mostly meaningless games that started back in mid-December. I’ve got news for you, folks – there aren’t 68 bowl-worthy Division 1 football teams out there, and some of the stinkers we’ve seen in the last week just proves it. But when money and ego calls the shots, you can bet it’ll only get worse.

- The USC Mens basketball team made news over the weekend, but not the kind they wanted. Delivering a pre-emptive strike in advance of the NCAA, the school decided to impose significant sanctions on the program in the wake of the O J Mayo scandal. Mayo, a one-and-done freshman who played for the Trojans in 2007 before moving on to the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies, was determined to have been effectively paid to select SC, and received significant perks not available to your average student-athlete (I’m thinking the flat screen in the dorm room should have been a red flag …). The Trojans vacated all wins from Mayo’s one season, which ended in an early-round loss in the NCAA tourney, will give up a number of scholorship and recruiting days, and will not take part in the playoffs this season. That last part is a particularly tough blow to the program, which has performed amazingly well under new coach Kevin O’Neill, who had to pick up the pieces after punk-ass Tim Floyd quit rather than face the consequences of his actions. The SC BBall program operates in the shadow of Pete Carroll’s football machine, as well as crosstown rival UCLA and their storied history, and it led to desperate and ill-advised decisions – one that are being paid for only now. There’s a similar situation in Westwood with their football program as it struggles to create it’s own identity. There’s a lot of parallels between the history of Floyd and Bruin coach Rick Neuheisel, so the folks over there would be well-advised to tred lightly.

- I don’t know if it’s karma,or the current efforts to create parity in the NFL, or just the cosmos giving sports fans the finger, but three of the four first-round playoff games next weekend are rematches of games that happened this weekend – what are the odds? Philly, who got smoked 24-0 by the suddenly-meaningful Cowboys, will be back in Big D Saturday night, while the Packers can hang out in Phoenix and bask in their victory over the Cards while waiting to play them again Sunday afternoon. The Jets blanked the Bengals at home, but will have to travel to Cinncinnatti to see if they can repeat the perfomance. Then there’s the one unique matchup, the just-snuck-in Ravens at the suddenly-staggering Patriots. Personally, I don’t see any of these teams reaching the Super Bowl, although both Dallas and Green Bay are surging and there’s nothing as dangerous as a team on a roll. Personally, I still like the Colts and the Vikings in the big game.

Took a break from blogging to deal with a medical scare that, gratefully, was nothing more than that – a scare. As you might imagine, I’ve got a lot of rant to vent …

- With the exception of the Army-Navy game next weekend, the college football regular season has come to an end, and the bowl matchups have been announced. For the first time in as long as I can recall, five Division I teams ended their seasons with undefeated records – Alabama, Texas, Cinncinnatti, TCU and Boise State – and all five are being rewarded with spots in the coveted Bowl Championship Series games. Alabama horsewhipped previously undefeated Florida to earn a spot in the National Championship Game against Texas, which needed a reversed call to get past Nebraska. The most interesting matchup will be Boise St and TCU – a battle of undefeateds in the Fiesta Bowl. It’s a shame that they don’t get the chance to matchup against traditional powers and show what they have, the way Boise did with Oklahoma a couple of years ago, but at least they both got seats at the BCS table.

- File this under “how the mighty have fallen.” USC ended their forgettable season with a 17-14 loss to Arizona, leaving them at an anemic 8-4 (5-4 in the Pac-10 conference they dominated for a decade) and headed for the … Emerald Bowl. Notre Dame fared even worse, stumbling to 6-6 and will have a new coach and QB for next year. They at least had the good sense to turn down any bowl invited – more than could be said for Florida State, which will mark the ugly end of the Bobby Bowden era with a Gator Bowl beating by West Virginia. I appreciate the sentiment of Gator Bowl committee members wanting to give Bowden a chance to reclaim past glory, and I hope it works out, but I’m sceptical at best. I’ll say this, though – FlaSt should be the only 6-6 team even considering accepting a bowl bid (Are you listening, UCLA?).

- Speaking of undefeated, anyone notice that not one but two NFL teams are undefeated at the 3/4 pole of the season? Before the Pats ran the table a couple of seasons ago, perfect seasons were a pretty big thing, but we’ve become so blase’ in the have/have not world of the NFL that teams reaching 13 or 14 wins just aren’t that big of a deal. To be honest, it’s realistic that both New Orleans and Indy could end the regular season perfect; the Saints have the Cowboys at home and the Colts have to go into Jacksonville, but that’s really the only challenges they face. Of course, it’s conceiveable that both teams could reach the Super Bowl undefeated. Talk about a game for the ages, with the winner joining the 1972 Dolphins as the only team to finish a perfect season. Oh, and where’s the Super Bowl this year? Yup – Miami …

- I’m going to resist the temptation to pile on Tiger Woods; we already have TMZ and RadarOnline to handle that for us. I guess it’s really just one more example of power and money allowing someone to believe that somehow they are “above” the norms of acceptable behavior. It’s gonna cost him dearly in all forms of capital – prestige, respect, money – and I don’t think we’ve heard the last of it by far. Gotta think that Earl would kick his ass if he were still alive …

- It’s been a couple of weeks since the end of the NASCAR season, but I want to say a few words about now-four-consecutive-time champion Jimmie Johnson. I don’t think the average sports fan – or even race fan – appreciates just how amazing this accomplishment really is. This isn’t F1 where a technological breakthrough can allow a team to dominate for a few seasons – this is NASCAR, where the governing body will blatantly tweak the rules mid-season just to rebalance the field. The steps taken by NASCAR to keep things close and “interesting” for the fans, while deemed appaling by racing purists, make it incredibly hard for a team to dominate for longer than a few races. For one team to year after year perform at such a high level is amazing, and much harder than it was in decades past. Perhaps more amazing than anything else is that in the middle of the streak NASCAR introduced their so-called “Car of Tomorrow” – an entirely new race car with little in common with its predecessor. But that hardly slowed down the 48 team, which after a slow start with the COT found a way to win the championship in spite of it. Johnson and his crew chief Chad Knaus are going to remain together for a long time, and I see no reason to believe the streak can’t continue next year.

Interesting goings on in the sports world …

- Somewhere, TrojanFan is breathing into a paper bag. For the second time in three weeks, the SC football program was dealt the worst loss in the Pete Carroll era, as Jim Harbaugh and his Stanford Cardinal rolled into the Coliseum and rolled over the Trojans, 55-21. For years, people have criticised Carroll and his team for not rolling big numbers against weak opponents – clearly, not a lesson lost on Harbaugh. SC is now 7-3, with games left against a wheezing UCLA and a decent Arizona. It’s not impossible that they’ll end up 8-4 – good for most programs, but enough to remind Trojan fans of the Paul Hackett era. We’ve said it before, but this was a rebuilding season for the Trojans. The losses shouldn’t really worry true fans who understand, but the performance of Matt Barkley should. After an early season when you understood he was a true freshman learning on the job, he’s starting to look suspiciously like a guy who’s tapped out on the potential. He was bad in the Oregon loss, but was overshadowed by the pathetic defensive effort. Against Stanford, there was nowhere for him to hide, and the Cardinal exploited his every misstep. I don’t know who else will be in spring practice for the Trojans, but I’d look for a QB competition – or another long season.

- For most of this decade, the New England Patriots have been the dominant team in the NFL. The combination of QB Tom Brady and Head Coach Bill Belichick have been so successful that their late-game collapse last night was all the more shocking. Leading 34-27 with two minutes to play, Belichick opted to go for it on 4th-and-2 on their own 29. When Brady’s pass danced off the receiver’s hands, Colts QB Peyton Manning made them pay. His touchdown pass with seconds remaining handed the Pats a 35-34 defeat.

- Congratulations to Florida Marlin left fielder Chris Coghlan for his selection as the 2009 NL Rookie of the Year. An infielder who played a total of 1 game as an outfielder in the minors – without ever getting a fly ball – Coghlan was shifted to left field after his May call-up. His prowess in the field (he only had 5 errors for the season) added to an outstanding turn as the team’s leadoff hitter to net him the award. He’s the third Marlin to win the award in this decade, joining Dontrelle Willis in 2003 and Hanley Ramirez three years ago. Expect to see him in the Marlins’ lineup for quite some time.

OK, my mourning period for marlin lost is officially over, so let’s look at the weekend in sports …

- Let’s see … there were all those good stories that could have come out of the possible World Series matchups – a Freeway series pitting the Dodgers and Angels, or the return of Joe Torre to New York to face the team that showed him the door.  Instead, we get Yankees-Phillies.  Let’s be clear- these teams deserve to be there.  They pretty much destroyed their competition all the way to the end, and pushed their League Championship opponents aside they way you might flick a fly off your shoulder.  But c’mon – where’s the excitement?  Yeah, the thought of Ryan Howard and A-Rod trading blasts is interesting, and maybe waiting to see whose bullpen collapses first might bring some tension, but this one just doesn’t do it for me.  Guess I’ll read about it with my morning coffee.

- One interesting baseball story did pop up over the weekend, and it had nothing to do with the games.  Mark McGuire is returning to baseball as the hitting coach for the S. Louis Cardinals.  Big Red has been in baseball exile since his famous appearance alongside Sosa and Palmeiro in front of Congress, and many wondered if his introspective nature would allow his return.  There’ll be questions to be answered to be sure, and he has to know that by putting himself in the spotlight once again he can’t avoid them.  A smart man would make a “one-time-only” statement and come clean – it’s worked for others – but if he goes with the same “I’m not here to talk about the past” dodge he used with Congress, it’ll continue to dog him.  Whatever the deal, it’ll be good to see him back in uniform, and I suspect he’ll have a positive impact on the team – particularly on whether free-agent Matt Holliday – who worked with him during the season – chooses to return to the club.

- One guy we all thought would be returning to the game but hasn’t – at least yet – is Bobby Valentine.  When he took the passive route in response to being let go from his position as a manager in Japan, I just assumed he knew something the rest of us didn’t and had a job lined up.  Sure, he has a seat with ESPN, but we all know he wants back into a big league dugout, and when he was a candidate for the Indians job, I just assumed he was a shoe-in.  But instead, Cleveland went with … Manny Acta??  OK … whatever.  Acta’s old spot with the Nationals is still open, and I suspect there’ll be others, but I was still surprised at the pick.  Of course, with the Steve Phillips firing over the weekend, there’s a full-time job with Baseball Tonight available – maybe that’ll be his home for the next season …

-  This is turning into an interesting season in the NFL, as the rich get richer and the poor – well, they just stink.  The Colts remained unbeaten with a straight-up beatdown of the hapless Rams, while the Saints had to rally from a big hole against a surprisingly strong Dolphins team to keep their perfect record.  Carson Palmer looked like the Palmer of old as the Bengals dismantled the Bears, while Jay Cutler finally looked like … well, Jay Cutler … and Cedric Benson took out his frustrations on his old mates.  The amazing thing is really how great the gulf is between the good and bad teams – and there are some really bad ones.  It’s hard to believe that the two former LA teams, the Rams and Raiders, could possibly be as bad as they are.  But this is what happens when your owners let ego get in the way of good decision-making.  Neither team has had a functioning front office in a decade, and now they’re paying the price.  New ownership will soon take over in St. Louis, and if Al Davis would just go ahead and die, the same could happen in Oakland.  And don’t kid yourself – it won’t be until Davis is gone that positive change will come to the Raiders.

-  No big shockers in college football this week, other than once again showing that there are no real dominant teams.  Florida had to work hard to get past a tough Mississippi State team, and Alabama almost got beat by Tennessee – guess there’s more going on there than just Lane Kiffin flapping his gums.  Iowa remains undefeated, but has to go to Ohio State in two weeks, and TCU is the latest darling of the BCS-bashers.  As for SC, the game itself was less than memorable, as a good but not great Oregon State torched the vaunted Trojan defense for 482 yards and 36 points.  But a win is a win, and Matt Barkley is clearly gaining confidence with each game.  If you missed it, the play of the weekend in college football was his pass to Ronald Johnson, who made a sweet lay out grab for a 22-yard touchdown.  Good things coming, TrojanFan …

We’re back and better than ever … at least that’s our story.  And what better to start with than a wild and wooly sports weekend …

- For quite some time, Charlie Weis and the rest of the golden domers have been targeting this season as the moment when the fates of the USC and Notre Dame football programs would finally swap and the Fighting Irish would regain their footing among the elite college programs.  Certainly, the gods would seem to have been smiling on Weis and Co – they’d run off a string of last-minute wins, led by a third-year QB who was finally showing his potential as a Heisman candidate.  USC, meanwhile, was struggling with a true freshman field leader whose job seemed more to not lose the game than win it, and had already suffered an embarassing loss at Washington.  If Notre Dame was going to end SC’s victory streak, their Saturday tilt in South Bend would seem to be the moment.  As they say, “Sorry Charlie” – not this year.  The athleticism of the Trojan players more than compensated for the enthusiam of their opponents, and SC’s Matt Barkley flat outplayed Irish QB Jimmy Claussen.  Only an embarassing defensive lapse in the fourth quarter allowed Notre Dame to make the game as close as the final score appeared and retain some dignity.  For Barkley, it was a coming-out – he’d saved the day at Ohio State, but this was Barkley in full control of the USC offense and giving Trojan fans a glimspe of how the next few years could be. 

-  Lost in the game hoopla was a commentary by one writer who theorized how things might have been different had Jimmy Claussen made a different choice a few years ago.  At the time, Claussen was the leading prep QB in the country, and he narrowed his choices down to Notre Dame or USC.  As a SoCal kid, you might assume he was leaning towards the Trojans, except for presence of a fellow recruit – a kid by the name of Sanchez.  Claussen opted for the Irish, where he toiled with mediocrity for a couple of seasons before showing his potential this year.  Had he stuck it out, he’d have learned in the USC system for a few years and, with the departure of Mark Sanchez for the NFL’s Jets, would have been handed the keys to the USC offensive juggernaut.  Barkley would be the one doing the learning, SC would be undefeated, and Claussen would be the leading candidate for the Heisman Trophy.  Perchance to dream …

- I’m trying to decide what is the more embarassing beatdown:  Tom Brady and the Patriots rolling up a 59-0 whitewash in a snowstorm against the Tennessee Tuxedos … er, Titans, or the Phillies clubbing the Dodgers 11-0.  I think I’m going with the Dodgers.  After all, the Titans have one QB who once went to his coach and quit, and another who was put on a suicide watch.  They were playing on frozen tundra – literally – against arguably the best quarterback of his generation.  Embarassing, to be sure, but not totally unexpected.  But the Dodgers are supposed to be the class of the National League.  They had the best record, and for much of the season were untouchable.  What we really learned in this disaster is the impact of a long, 162-game season.  Things happen, people change, and rosters need to change with it.  When the Phillies sensed that they needed to step up their game to have a chance to repeat as World Series champions, they went out and got Cliff Lee – reigning Cy Young award winner – from the Indians.  Who’d they beat in the competition?  The Dodgers, who were unwilling to part with Chad Billingsley and a couple of minor leaguers.  Well, those guys are still in the minors, and Billingsley is getting shelled out of the bullpen.  Joe Torre had to go with a guy who took a line drive off his dome a month ago and hasn’t been the same since, and it showed.  Ned Colletti did a great job last year bringing in Manny and Casey Blake, but today’s game is a pitcher-dependant sport and Ned needs to recognize that.  Fortunately, in a couple of days he’s going to get an early start on developing next season’s rotation.

- I know folks get irritated when I talk NASCAR, particularly when I prefer other forms of racing (and a big shout-out to Braun Racing and Jenson Button for wrapping up the F1 Driver’s Championship …) but there’s a truly amazing thing happening on the oval tracks.  No sport is as heavy-handed when it comes to leveling the playing field for their drivers – the old IROC with their identically prepared cars is jealous of the way NASCAR changes rules on the fly to keep things even.  The management of the sport will do anything – literally – to keep things close, and therefore interesting for the fans.  Several years ago, they created the “Chase For The Cup” as a way to tighten things up late in the season, and it would work, were it not for two people – Jimmy Johnson and Chad Knaus.  Johnson, driver of the #48 Lowe’s Chevy for Hendrick Motorsports and Knaus, his crew chief, are threatening to run away with what would be a fourth consecutive title – something never done in the history of the sport.  Johnson won again over the weekend, his second win in the Chase races, and he is close to achieving an unbeatable lead.  Considering the bulletproof nature of that car, and the driving skill of Johnson, it will be hard for anyone to catch him.  Sit back, racing fans, and watch the history unfold.

With the marlin season apparently behind me and gale force winds whipping around the Home Office, it seemed a good time to settle in for a little football …

- Wow … tough weekend for several big name college football programs. One of the challenges in college ball is always depth, particularly at the skill positions, and we’re seeing what happens when your #1 guy goes down. SC has struggled with true freshman QB Matt Barkley, but they expected to have current Jet Mark Sanchez at the controls this year. Oklahoma lost returning Heisman winner Sam Bradford, and their BCS hopes dried up with a loss to a resurgent Miami. Both Texas Tech and Florida have lost their leaders to concussions, and it remains to be seen how that’ll affect their programs. Knowing that you’re only one good hit away from disaster makes the impressive BCS runs that Florida, USC and other leading schools have made all the more amazing.

- SC Fan is on a high now that the ship seems to have been righted with a blasting of Cal, but he shouldn’t get too comfy. The next two weeks will be all about the next game in the shadow of Touchdown Jesus, but if anyone thinks that’s going to be their biggest challenge the rest of the way they haven’t been paying attention. Ever since an embarassing performance on and off the blue turf at Boise State, Oregon has gone 4-0, rolling up 94 points verus 9 in their last two games – including a 52-6 beatdown of a WSU team that only gve up 27 to USC. And remember – they’re doing it all without their leading rusher from last year. Then there’s Stanford – 4-0 and looking like a team out to prove last year’s upset of SC at the Coloseum wasn’t a fluke. SC will be very fortunate indeed to end this year without a second loss – or three.

- Watching the pro games yesterday, it’s pretty easy to spot the good teams (anyone with a QB named Manning) and the bad ones (anyone based in Oakland), but there’s a lot of teams struggling to find their identity. It’s hard to believe that Minnesota is as good as their start would have you believe, or that Brett Favre will last a full season without running out of gas. Meanwhile in New England, you get the sense that they’re using a lot more smoke and mirrors than in the past, and Tom Brady’s whining belies deeper problems – like having to sign 40-yr-old LB Junior Seau to provide leadership. Tennessee is wondering if placing their football future in the hands of Kerry Collins was as smart as they thought it was last spring, and an 0-4 hole will be hard to dig out of. The defending champion Steelers are reeling, and their opponents in the last Super Bowl, the Arizona Cardinals, have shown nothing that would make you think they have a return trip in their future. Hmmm … can you say “All-Manning Super Bowl”? It’s looking a lot more likely every week.

- With one exception, the MLB regular season is over and the playoff matchups have been determined. The Dodgers pulled it out of their rears long enough to finally win their last two and clinch both the NL West and best record in the league. Their reward will be a first-round series with the Cardinals, while the feel-good Rockies take on the NL East champion Phillies, who staggered into the post season after losing two of three to the Marlins. Over in the American League, we know the Angels and Yankees have won their respective divisions, and the Red Sox are the wild-card. But here comes the fun part – a one-game playoff between the Twins and Tigers for the last playoff spot – the AL Central champs. That game will go down tomorrow in Minneapolis; the winner gets a trip to the Bronx and the loser goes home. Predictions? My heart likes Dodgers v Yankees, but I think they’ll be hard-pressed to get past the Cardinals.

- And then there’s the Marlins. The good news? They ended up in second place in the East, and their 87-75 record is the third-best in team history. Chris Coghlan is looking very good as the NL Rookie of the Year, and progress is being made on the new stadium on the site of the Orange Bowl in Miami. But it wouldn’t be a Marlins offseason without controversy, and it’s starting early this season. The season’s final out hadn’t been recorded yet and there were already stories coming out about the future of the coaching staff. Supposedly, the assistants haven’t been told if they’ll be back next season, and talks are said to be underway between Bobby Valentine, fresh off his stint in Japan and in the ESPN booth for the playoff run, and team president David Samson about some sort of a job. OK, we both know what job, right? Remember, this is the team that fired Joe Girardi after a season which won him the Manager of the Year. Fredi Gonzalez has done a good job, but not a great one, and with Bobby Cox (under whom Fredi served for many years) said to be retiring after next year its possible that he’d be pushed aside for Bobby V only to resurface in a year as the manager of the Braves. Wouldn’t that be fun! Anyway, a solid, enjoyable season for the Fish. Now if we can only get them back for next season …