Holy Crap...We're Back!!

Ok, our bad. It has been a while, and, as we said, that's our fault. You see, starting in mid-May: one of us graduated, one of us got ready for the busy part of the year, then both of us were at camp, then one of us left camp to go to Europe while the other stayed busy at camp. And here we are, two months later, and finally getting back to this whole blogging thing. Luckilly we didn't miss a thing. Baseball season ended with a whimper, football season didn't start yet, and it was hot. We would like to summarize a few things that did happen as we do it best, in bullet form:

• The Saints got Jeremy Shockey yesterday for a second and fifth round pick in 2009. How this can be seen as anything but a good thing is beyond us. Shockey is a four-time Pro Bowler entering the prime of his career who will be leaving an oft-troubled (other than 4 games in the playoffs in 2007) mostly running squad onto a pass-heavy precision offense that desperately needs a good tight end. And they got it all for a 2 and a 5. And he's signed for the next four years. And the Giants already paid his signing bonus. Considering the last 20 years of Saints history have produced four Pro Bowl appearances from their 2nd and 5th round draft choices (LeCharles Bentley (2), Dalton Hilliard and Tyrone Hughes), a solid tight end is a great pick up. In other words, should he cause issues with team chemistry, the Saints really haven't given up a ton to get him. Good get!
• The LSU Tigers baseball team played extraordinarily well, reaching Omaha for the first time in several years. It may not have gone all the way, but the team is certainly headed in the right direction.
• VY is getting his jersey retired. There has never been any doubt in our mind that it should have been done. It's about damn time.
• Finally, check this out! It's a book, with stuff we wrote in it! A book! Go buy it, we get none of the proceeds, so not buying it just to spite us will not work.

41 days until football starts.

Look Out, America:* Here Come the Fighting Baseball Tigers

*"America" in this case should be interpreted to mean "the 5% of America that cares about college baseball"

While the Longhorns will always be our first and foremost college athletics concern, we each had a first love that has been referred to frequently around here. For one of us, the first love was/is LSU sports and every time we think one of their teams is going to suck long enough for us to let go for good, they haul us back in. The College Baseball Team of the '90s had fallen on very, very rough times over the last few years under coach Smoke Laval, but Paul Mainieri seems to have his guys putting it all together here in the closing weeks of 2008.

In the final regular-season series ever at college baseball landmark Alex Box Stadium, LSU completed a sweep of Mississippi State last weekend. It marked the first time the Tigers had strung together 3 straight SEC sweeps since their first National Championship in 1991. That's pretty remarkable. Making Sunday's game that much more emotional was that it came against traditional rival Mississippi State and longtime coach Ron Polk, who unfortunately is retiring after State's worst season in a long, long time.

For several weeks it has been assumed that Mother's Day would mark the last time anyone would ever play "Baseball at the Box," but after a 12-game winning streak the Tigers are actually in position to vie for a hosting spot in a sub-regional of the NCAA Tournament. They currently sit atop the SEC West and sport a 35-16-1 overall record. If LSU can keep this train rolling through UNO in a mid-week game and follow it up with a series win at Auburn (11-16, 27-25) they will have an excellent case for a 1-seed and a hosting position.

If you're in any way interested, you can watch the Final Game Ceremony here.

Apologies to Adam and jbrater

OK Guys. We're really sorry. It's almost summer, so Abram is crazy busy, and Jeff is caught in the euphoria of almost being done with school forever. But here is a fun, bullet-pointed post to address and start a conversation about all the stuff that Adam has pointed out we should have been talking about lately:

• Cedric Benson: DWI offender or victim of a DWB imposed by Lake Travis police? ESPN is reporting that Ced's friends on the boat with him at the time of his arrest believe that the cops were overly forceful with him and that he was not, in fact, drunk. The most interesting part of the article from our perspective is Elizabeth Cartwright's claim that she has been out on the lake 6 times with Ced, and all 6 times they have been stopped by the police. Outright racism? Or is Cedric a really bad driver? We want very badly to side with Benson here, and since we are unlikely to ever definitively know who's telling the truth, we're going to!
• Ryan Perrilloux: Les Miles finally had enough of RP's shenanigans, and to be honest we're at the point where we'd rather the Tigers lose without him than win with him. So the question now becomes: who plays QB for LSU next season? In the spring it was looking like redshirt freshman Jarrett Lee would likely beat out Harvard transfer Andrew Hatch. Both of those guys are traditional pocket passers and Lee was very highly recruited out of high school. But also keep an eye on true freshman Jordan Jefferson, who apparently has some serious talent both with his arm and with the wheels. Fall practice should certainly be interesting.
• The Cardinals are awesome, despite blowing a late 3-0 lead to lose to the Rockies 4-3 last night. What's worse, they got Todd Helton to pop out to third for the second out while still leading 3-1 in the 8th, but couldn't close the deal as Colorado put up 3 more in the inning. Regardless, the Redbirds continue to follow Tony LaRussa's philosophy of a successful season consistently: just win every series you possibly can, and mathematically it's always going to be good enough to make the playoffs. The Cards have done what they are supposed to do against weaker opponents, and even won Round One against the hot-hitting Cubbies. There are few things as a sports fan more satisfying than a team producing way beyond its expectations (see: 2007-2008 Texas basketball).
• Our old friend Ben Dorfman has been in the news lately. First with his award winning caption in the first offseason caption contest: "No, Mr. President, I don't think she would mind if you put your dollar bill there." Then Ben went and outdid himself with the post of the year on his blog about Austin eateries. We HIGHLY advise you to go over there and comment.
  
• Finally, someone forgot to tell the Hornets that they weren't supposed to beat the Spurs. After two games in which Chris Paul and His Raging Band of Basketball Badasses beat the defending champs like rented mules, the series returns tonight in San Antonio--where, by the way, the Hornets have already won 102-78 earlier this year. Splitting the two games in Texas will give New Orleans a chance to win it in 5 in front of a home crowd. Which would mean the Hornets will have gotten as far in the playoffs (conference championship) after 6 years in New Orleans as it took the Saints 38 years to get. Just saying.

Offseason Caption Contest Part I

A hearty congrats to whoever comes up with the best caption of the photo below.

Hornays Take Game 1

Royal Ivey = CP3?

This was going to be a post about where all the Deadspin commenters can stick Kevin Durant's 42-point finale. Instead, it's going to be something more tasteful.

Apparently Royal Ivey has something in common with Chris Paul.

Clearly Royal With Cheese is thinking that Chris Paul is the best PG in the game, Royal Ivey is not. Chris Paul once punched a dude in the nuts, Royal Ivey should do just that.

We say good for him, and we fully expect to see significant improvements in his game after his suspension is up.

This Just In: The Cardinals Rule

The St. Louis Cardinals, picked to finish fourth or fifth in the NL Central by most people who do predictions, share the Majors' best record with Arizona at 10-4. They have begun the season by winning their first three series and splitting a four-game set with the Giants. Tony La Russa is is always talking about just trying to win series, because if you consistently take 2-of-3 you're going to finish the seaosn with a whole lot of wins. The Cards are doing just that so far this year, winning games behind their surprising--nay, shocking--starting pitching rotation. Guys like Todd Wellemeyer, Kyle Lohse, and Braden Looper have been beyond solid, and Adam Wainwright really looks like he is developing into the squad's long-term ace. Are we still bitter about the team trading Danny Haren to Oakland? Yes. Does winning without him make us forget him a little at a time? You bet.

Obviously, it's still very possible that all the naysayers will turn out to have been right. It's only April and a lot of teams start off like a house afire only to cool off quickly as the season grinds on. A fifth place finish is still very realistic. But if, somehow, the pitchers can keep producing and a couple of guys named Mulder and Carpenter can come back at full strength at or before mid-season, this may turn out to be a pleasantly surprising summer for the Redbirds.

Either way, for now it's awesome.

5 Reasons Why This Basketball Season Kicked Butt

Well, we're less than 5 months away from football, with only baseball and summer football to keep us busy. Before we forget about this previous basketball season (STAY DJ! PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STAY!!!), let's review why it was a memorable one:

5) Texas played some elite competition, and beat some elite competition. KU, UCLA, Tennessee, Baylor, the list goes on. There have been years with ho-hum basketball schedules, but this was not one of them.

4) The loss to Memphis was not Rick Barnes' finest as a coach, but this season reminded us fully why we are lucky to have him. He took a lot of heat last season, mostly from Bill Simmons, but his coaching job in the offseason right up to the last day of March was nothing short of beautiful. If DJ and DJ return (we feel probably not on the former, possibly on the latter), Texas will have no excuses for not making the Final Four in 2009.

3) It started off slowly on the first day, but this turned into a fantastic tournament. Texas played 3 great games, WKU hit the shot of all but the tournament's last 5:03, Davidson became America's team, Duke lost in the second round, and UNC and UCLA did not make the championship game. It won't be as near and dear to our hearts as 2003, but it was still an amazing 3 weeks.

2) The championship game was the best in a long time. Billy Packer tried to ruin it, but he failed. We have nothing but respect for KU's program, and had no hard feelings for Memphis after they destroyed Texas. Both teams played a great game and Mario Chalmers did what Mario Chalmers does. 2009 hoops can't start soon enough!

1) It made us believe again. That may be a tad over the top, a tad melodramatic, but this basketball season gave us some bright spots on an otherwise dreary football-dominated landscape. The future is bright for Texas basketball, with or without the DJs.

Happy Birthday To Us

That's right, we're a year old today. We've been through four Deadspin cameos, three fun but title-less major Texas sports seasons, two jobs which don't always make blogging easy, and one year of 40 Acre Sports.

We know we know haven't been all that responsible in posting since moving the majority of our Texas posts over to Burnt Orange Nation, but you've stuck with us and rewarded us with 40,000+ hits.

So here's to a great year of Coach Boom, at least 3 sports titles, and hitting the 100,000 hits mark.

And also: the Cards beat the Nats today. St. Louis is on a 4 game winning streak and has a 4-1 record. Woo!

This Weekend: 40AS Intra-Blog Showdown!

April 4 to April 6, 2008 at New Busch Stadium in St. Louis will see a showdown between the team one of us has loved since he was a tiny tot and the team of which the other of us is a Jeffrey-Come-Lately fan since he moved to Washington, DC.

That's right, the 3-1 Nats visit the 2-1 Cardinals as the Birdos try to stay above .500 for as long as their mediocre roster will allow. It's on like Donkey Kong.