Goodbye Vancouver & Hello Hatchline

I officially welcome myself back after a long hiatus. I apologize for what must have seemed like an abrupt stop, especially in the middle of such great sports news. My explanation for my sudden disappearance is that I was on a Reality T.V. show called The Sing Off. If you missed it, here’s a link of my group in action. Around my last post, I signed a contract that required me to cease all publications throughout the duration of the show, defined as from the day I signed the contract to 60 days after the show’s last episode aired, which would have been the end of February. So Hatchline is officially back, and with that, let’s hit the most relevant topic, the Olympics.

I was saddened to realize that I’d miss the entire conclusion of all things Football and the entr’acte of the NBA; but more than anything I was mortified that I’d miss covering the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games. As of yesterday, no more Downhill. No more Halfpipe. No more Speed Skating. No more Nordic Combined. No more hockey (wait, isn’t there an NHL?). And most importantly, no more curling. We (the USA for my international readers… are you out there?) end the medal race with nearly unprecedented 37 overall medals, but lose the gold race to Canadia and Germanica, who won 14 and 10 respectively. We only had a measly 9. I’m incredibly disappointed. Although if you think about it, Apollo Anton Ohno was DQed (would’ve been gold); Lindsey Vonn fell twice (2 golds); our near defeat of Canadia’s men’s Ice Hockey team almost means more to us then their “By the skin of their cocky ‘we own the podium’ teeth” gold means to them (1 more for us); and one of Canadia’s medals was in Ice Dancing (pointless. Minus 1 gold for the Maple Leaves), so in fact, we really tied. Yeah North America!

Seriously though, I love the Winter Olympic Games. I really do. But are these really the best ATHLETES in the world? Sure, I couldn’t do any of them, as well as they could, but can’t we all agree that practically every sport in the winter Olympics is 75% equipment/25% skill or talent? Note how I italicized practically. Not every event is, with the biggest exception being Hockey and Ice Skating (not Ice Dancing though, take the jumps out and it’s just pointless). I’ve got a buddy of mine who says “Gimme 6 weeks and I can medal in any Winter Sport.” While that may not really be true, how much talent do you need to hop in a cart and slide down an ice shute? I mean c’mon, some of the Nordic guys had beer bellies! One of the curlers from Finland or some other crazy cold European place was pregnant! PREGNANT!? And these are the best “Athletes” in the world? C’mon man!

Look, here’s my point in a nutshell, the Winter Olympics has an incredibly small competition base in comparison to the Summer Olympics. In every sport there are three things you need: Talent, Equipment, Money. No matter what sport it is, a large percentage of the competition is made up of rich people who have the $$$ to pay for snowboards, lift tickets, travel to and from the mountain, and a home in Aspen. Do you think 10-year-old Ussain Bolt needed to pay for anything like that growing up? Maybe a pair of shoes, but then he’d just go out and run. The BEST ATHLETES in the world are the ones that are pulled from a gigantic competition base. There is more competition in the game of Soccer (Futbol) than there is in practically any other sport, making the best in soccer some of the most athletic in the world. All you need is a ball and two Pepsi cans. In order to rise to the top of that sport, they’ve got to be the best out of hundreds of thousands of people, while the best speed skater only needs to be the best out of hundreds.

Let’s do an eyeball test, shall we? In my opinion, Figure Skating is arguably the most athletic competition in the Winter Olympics. It has the least equipment-to-skill/talent ratio of all the sports in the Winter Games, and plus, many of the men can do 4 full rotations in the air standing flat-footed. That’s pretty darn impressive right? Now lets take the top two American figure skaters, Evan Lysacek and Johnny Weir, and put them next to the top two American NBA/Olympic Gold Medalists athletes, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. It’s a no brainer right? Not even close. And while I certainly don’t agree that I could have a 6 week head start and medal in any Winter Olympic sport, my buddies and I are trying to get the local ice rink to paint some curling circles on the ice. Hello Team USA 2014!



PS. The opening ceremonies were stupid.

Hatchline’s Week 9 Pick-em Picks

Georgia @ No. 1 Florida (3:30 PM ET on CBS)
No. 3 Texas @ No. 14 Oklahoma State (8:00 PM ET on ABC)
Indiana @ No. 4 Iowa (12:00 PM ET on ESPN/360)
No. 5 USC @ No. 10 Oregon (8:00 PM ET on ABC)
UNLV @ No. 6 TCU
San Jose State @ No. 7 Boise State (3:00 PM ET on ESPN 360)
No. 8 Cincinnati @ Syracuse (12:00 PM ET on ESPNU)
Tulane @ No. 9 LSU (8:00 PM ET on ESPN 360)
No. 11 Georgia Tech @ Vanderbilt (7:30 PM ET on ESPN 360)
No. 12 Penn State @ Northwestern (4:30 PM ET on ESPN/360)
North Carolina @ No. 13 Virginia Tech (Thursday)
Wyoming @ No. 16 Utah
New Mexico State @ No. 17 Ohio State (12:00 PM ET on Big 10 Network)
Southern Miss @ No. 18 Houston
No. 19 Miami (FL) @ Wake Forest (3:30 PM ET on ABC/ESPN 360)
No. 21 West Virginia @ South Florida (Friday)
No. 22 South Carolia @ Tennessee (7:45 PM ET on ESPN/360)
Washington State @ No. 23 Notre Dame (7:30 PM ET on NBC)
No. 24 California @ Arizona State (3:30 PM ET on ABC/360)
No. 25 Mississippi @ Auburn (12:21 PM ET on ESPN 360)


A couple of big upsets this week. One in particular. As much as I love USC, I don’t think that they can get it done in Eugene. I just don’t think that USC can hold off the Duck’s Flying V of an offense for four quarters. They might be able to do it for three in the first, second, and fourth, but this year the Trojan defense has had abysmal third quarter defense. Things seem to work in the first half, but once the other team makes adjustments in the locker room, it takes them about 12 minutes of clock time to get adjusted themselves. Plus Pete Carrol’s USC has always been troubled in Oregon, whether at Corvallis or Eugene. The last and only loss to Oregon in the last 5 years came in 2007, the last time they were there.

Week 8 Pick-em results. A Slightly Boring Victory. But a Big Victory Nonetheless.

Of the 22 BCS Top 25 games this week, 21 teams did what they were supposed to do. Only two upsets this week, but Oklahoma over Kansas is hardly an upset, so the only ones who didn’t win their game in a weekend of gimmes was Miami. Clemson was a .500 team coming into this game and should have been outmatched by the once again rising Hurricanes, but Clemson was able to hold out and keep me away from a perfect week once again.

I can hardly claim perfection in such a boring week of competition. It’s hard to say that any weekend in October could mean a boring week for sports. There are dozens of major stories happening each week in October, but it wasn’t necessarily the action that was missing, just the match-ups. With the exception of an underrated Oregon State team facing USC, there wasn’t a real college game this week, even though there proved to be some exciting ones (Tennessee v. Alabama & Iowa v. Michigan State). Pretty much everyone in the Top 25 won by double digits, or it was never really even a contest. Oregon State put up some late game numbers in their bout with USC, but it was pretty clear early who would win. The final score doesn’t necessarily reflect the nature of that game. It’s always tough for me not to pick upsets, and even though I picked one on paper with OU beating 25th ranked KU, that wasn’t really an upset pick. So this was my first week of not really picking any upsets, but with this uninteresting week in both College Football and the NFL, I couldn’t pick any.

With a 21-1 week, I’m now at a 130-31 count. That puts me at the highest percentage I’ve been all season at .81, so I shouldn’t really be complaining. Next week should be much more interesting, which could once again negatively effect my numbers. The two major battles of the week will be No. 3 Texas traveling to No. 15 Oklahoma State and No. 5 USC heading up to Eugene to visit the mighty No. 10 Oregon Ducks. More than likely, Oregon is going to cause a lot of problems for the Trojans. After their season opening debacle against Boise State, Oregon has caught ablaze putting up ridiculously impressive numbers. They haven’t faced a defense like USC yet however, and SC has the advantages on both the defensive and offensive line. Everyone thinks it’ll be close and it’s always really hard to win in Oregon, whether at Corvallis or Eugene, but I think the Trojans will edge out the Ducks, if only by a little; but that’s assuming USC can score the points.

Hatchline’s Week 8 College Pick-em Picks

No. 1 Florida @ Mississippi State (7:30 PM ET on ESPN/360)
Tennessee @ No. 2 Alabama (3:30 PM ET on CBS)
No. 3 Texas @ Missouri (8:00 PM ET on ABC/ESPN 360)
No. 4 Boise State @ Hawaii (11:05 PM ET on ESPN 360)
Louisville @ No. 5 Cincinnati (3:30 PM ET on ESPNU)
No. 6 Iowa @ Michigan State (7:00 PM ET on Big 10 Network)
Oregon State @ No. 7 USC (8:00 PM ET on ABC/ESPN 360)
No. 8 TCU @ No. 16 BYU
Auburn @ No. 9 LSU (7:30 PM ET on ESPN2/360)
Clemson @ No. 10 Miami (FL) (3:30 PM ET on ABC/ESPN 360)
No. 11 Oregon @ Washington (3:30 PM ET on ABC/ESPN 360)
No. 12 Georgia Tech @ Virginia
No. 13 Penn State @ Michigan (3:30 PM ET on ABC)
No. 15 Oklahoma State @ Baylor
Southern Methodist @ No. 17 Houston
Air Force @ No. 18 Utah
Minnesota @ No. 19 Ohio State (12:00 PM ET on ESPN/360)
South Florida @ No. 20 Pittsburgh (12:00 PM ET on ESPN 360)
UCLA @ No. 22 Arizona
Connecticut @ No. 23 West Virginia (7:00 PM ET on ESPNU)
Vanderbilt @ No. 24 South Carolina (7:00 PM ET on ESPNU)
Oklahoma @ No. 25 Kansas (3:30 PM ET on ABC/ESPN 360)

After last week’s poor showing, this is a make up week with a lot of not-so-exciting games and a relatively safe week with only 1 upset, which is only really an upset on paper, Sooners over Jayhawks. With officiating being ridiculed on all fronts (Football, Basketball, and definitely Baseball!), this is sure to be a more tightly watched weekend. Look for the once favored teams (FLORIDA… ahem) to not (GET THE GAME HANDED TO THEM… ahem) have the same sort of advantages (REFEREES UNDER INVESTIGATION… ahem… sorry, I’ve got this cough that translates into my typing. I don’t know what the deal is. This is weird) that they had last week. Fortunately for the big boys, they’re all playing lesser teams. Gators at Miss State, Volunteers at Bama, Longhorns at Missou and Hawkeyes at Spartans; those should all be winners. Once again, the PAC-10 shows that they’re the only ones with consistently difficult schedules. Oregon State at USC might be a blowout, but we all know what the Beavers did to the men of Troy last year, and just like the SEC, 80% of the teams are legit. Only there’s less teams in the PAC-10 and they all play each other. The PAC-10 isn’t the best conference, but it’s certainly much tougher than people give them credit for.