NOT-SO-DAILY-DOMER: ALONG DECEMBER

What was 98 year-old legend John Wooden doing this past Saturday? Watching his great grandson, Tyler Tripani, get into the game for UCLA for the final 1:29 versus DePaul.

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What were Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach and his quarterback, Graham Harrell, doing on Saturday instead of attending the Heisman ceremony in New York City? Turns out that a fellow Texan, George Bush, invited them to his house.

We should all hope that Leach gave POTUS his two cents on the Somali pirate situation.

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Former Dillon Hall resident John Carney, 44, booted two field goals last night in the New York Giants' 20-8 loss at Dallas. Carney is 28-30 this season on his field goal attempts, his only two misses coming on blocked kicks. Not bad for a guy who didn't earn a scholarship at Notre Dame until his junior (or was it senior?) season. By the way, the very idea of good-egg Carney sharing a lockerroom with sweatpant-pistol-packer Plaxico is brain-boggling. And if this were 3rd grade and it were alphabetical order seating, they might be right behind one another in class (I mean, the physical space, not the personal trait).

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Turns out that Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis will require surgery on his right knee before he undergoes the more thorough operation on his left knee February 24th. If Charlie were a player, they'd already be advising him to red-shirt in '09.

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Loyal 'tourager Thom B. writes in to admonish the national media who have been writing, or at least implying, that the snowball pelting of Irish players during the Syracuse game was a reaction to the loss. Those of us who were there know that the students A) were quite indiscriminate as to whom they pelted (my webcastic co-host, Paula Faris, absorbed a head shot and, as is her style, handled it with humor and grace) and B) began the snowball free-for-all as early as the first quarter.

Thom B. went on to share with me an excerpt from the January 26, 1973 issue of the Notre Dame Scholastic. The blurb (okay, an extended blurb) comes from a wrap-up of the 1972 season and concerns a moment when a tossed snowball nearly impacted Notre Dame's bowling plans (also, notice how they felt the need to note that Miami is the school from Florida...those were different times, all right...then again, they also describe the Orange Bowl as "prestigious"):

 The Irish wound up their home schedule the following Saturday, Nov. 
20th, against the Miami (Fla.) Hurricanes. And what would have been 
one of the most bizarre incidents in Notre Dame football history was 
almost written that afternoon.

 It was no secret that, if the Irish defeated Miami, they would be 
rewarded with a bid to the prestigious Orange Bowl on New Year's 
night. The team was well aware that a bowl bid hinged on its 
performance and played accordingly, scoring three touchdowns to 
build up a 20-3 lead by the fourth quarter. Cascades of oranges 
from the bowl-seeking fans were thrown onto the field after every 
Irish score.

 But oranges weren't the only things being thrown.

 It had snowed in South Bend earlier in the week and a number of fans 
took to throwing snowballs at the players. After Notre Dame's second 
touchdown, an accurately aimed and well-timed snowball arrived in 
the hands of Brian Doherty at the same time as the football he was 
to hold for [kicker Bob] Thomas' conversion attempt. Disconcerted, 
Doherty fumbled the ball and, after retrieving it, tried 
unsuccessfully to run into the end zone.

 After the Irish scored again, the incident was nearly forgotten but 
when Miami, led by its scrambling quarterback, Ed Carney, scored two 
touchdowns late in the fourth quarter and got close enough to try 
for a 46-yard field goal before the game ended, the episode took on 
new importance. Had Mike Burke's field goal attempt been successful, 
Notre Dame would have become the first team to be eliminated from 
the Orange Bowl by a snowball.

 Burke, fortunately, missed his attempt, and the Irish "gratefully 
accepted" a bid to the Orange Bowl. But it had been too close for 
comfort.

 Thanks, Thom.

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Richard Hoffer was one of the two or three most gifted writers that Sports Illustrated employed for most of the past two decades. I was fortunate enough to fact-check some of his stories, which entailed talking to him on the phone quite often as the story was running through the magazine's obfuscated editorial system (and yes, every writer drew the parallel of the editorial system to the digestive system, the most apt metaphor being the end product of both).

Anyway, Hoffer, who is delightfully droll, self-deprecating and nearly off-puttingly laconic, was one of the writers SI let go due to budget cuts recently. His final story was a a write-up of the Oscar De La Hoya-Manny Pacquio bout in Las Vegas. Reading his final graf, one cannot help but surmise that he was referring to someone besides just the Golden Boy:

"Didn't we deserve better from him? Didn't he deserve better, after all he gave the game? The fact that such pure surprise came out of such crass commercialism is the serendipity that continues to float boxing, if not, alas, De La Hoya. It's over for him. It wasn't quite a disgrace but, as it is for all of us who stay too long, it was unnecessary."

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How did 154 different Heisman voters (out of 904 that turned in ballots) fail to list Tim Tebow among their top three? 

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Every time I hear about another financial failure/scandal (today, it's the Ponzi scheme orchestrated by Bernie Madoff, as in "I Madoff with your money"), I think about the Securities & Exchange Commission (the SEC that has truly had a down year), and I think that nothing quite captures the feeling about them, about Richard Fuld, about our government, about the U.S. automakers (should I go on?), about Steve Kerr (trading Marion, Diaw and Bell in the same calendar year) than Dignam's line in The Departed: "Who am I? I'm the guy doing his job. You must be the other guy."

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Thought for the day, from this curmudgeon: "A curmudgeon is simply an idealist who has seen too much."

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Hail to "Dave", the erstwhile boss of our loyal Johntourager "An Inconvenient Ruth". Dave, when ordered to let Ruth and another employee go due to budget cuts, replied to his own superiors that he would rather himself be terminated than have to terminate them. They told him that his two employees were going to have to go either way. He still fell on his sword and resigned. Dave, you are my new hero.

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Rolling Stone just released its "100 Best Singles" list of 2008 (I wasn't on it...oh, you mean songs?) and somehow could not find a spot for "Sequestered in Memphis" by The Hold Steady. It's oversights such as that one that will compel me to move my allegiances to Blender, Jann.