Gamecock Notes

WR Chris Hail and DT Donte'e Nicholls were dismissed from the Gamecock football team on Friday...

Two Georgia Military Academy offensive linemen, Kevious Watkins and Steven Singleton are making official visits to USC this weekend. Watkins is currently comitted to UAB. Also visiting will be already-committed safety Corey Addison and cornerback Lindsey Lamar of Tampa...

SC commit Stephon Gilmore (ATH) was named South Carolina's Mr Football...

In one of his first acts as new UT head coach, Lane Kiffin retracted the scholarship offer previously extended to Midlothian, TX QB Bryce Petty. Petty sent a highlight tape to Coach Spurrier this week and expects to hear back from the USC staff sometime this weekend...

And in the obligatory SEC-school-interested-in-Spurrier-but-he's-not-going-anywhere file, the Auburn Internet buzz machine has apparently moved beyond fantasies of Spurrier leaving South Carolina (all this despite increasing assertions that Spurrier is washed up).

Confessions of a Dangerous Gamecock

To help generate some extra cash I've been walking dogs in the morning for about four months now (thankfully, my last day of doing that is Monday). At one luxury rental loft where I walk a greyhound, the doorman is a Clemson grad (apparently, that's what you do when you graduate from Clemson). In an effort to avoid verbal humiliation over the past several weeks, I'd been sneaking around the back and sprinting to the elevator to avoid his inevitable (and justified) taunts.

Yesterday he finally caught me and called me out on my childish behavior... but such is the shame of a Gamecock...

Jarvis Giles (#5 Running back prospect according to ESPN.com) committed to the Gamecocks recently, ignoring the fact that there will be no one to block for him once he gets here. Giles plans to enroll in January...

The 2009 Gamecock recruiting class is currently ranked 8th by Rivals, 12th by Scout, and 13th by ESPN...

Rumors that Spurrier is interested in heading to Auburn are going nowhere fast, just like Spurrier himself...

It looks like Ellis Johnson won't be heading back to Mississippi State after all. The Bulldogs named Florida offensive coordinator Dan Mullen as their new coach.

So long, Professor

Greg Maddux retired last week after compiling a 3.16 career ERA over 23 seasons. I did a double-take after seeing that career number, thinking it was surely a typographical error. But no, it was right on the money. As someone who wasn't even born when Maddux made his first start, it was easy to forget just how dominant he was.

In particular, I was surprised to rediscover what a prolific strikeout pitcher Maddux was in his prime. Believe it or not, Maddux struck out 204 batters in 1998 and struck out 170 or more batters 9 times in his career. Eight years he recorded ERAs below 3.00 (including seven consecutive seasons from 1992-1998) and recorded back-to-back sub-2.00 ERA seasons in 1994 and 1995 (1.56 and 1.36, respectively).

Several years, his K/BB ratio approached 9. By comparison, Roy Halladay's 5.28 was the best K/BB ratio in 2008.

Simply amazing. Mad dog, you will be missed.

Wait... What?

The New York Times is in trouble. Apparently, it may consider selling it's 17% share in the Boston Red Sox. Perhaps its 17% share is actually embedded in its ownership of the Boston Globe. Either way, New York's main newspaper should have nothing to do with the Boston Red Sox.

The New York Times does not have any writers that vote on player awards, but would there be a conflict of interest if a voter works for a paper that owns a team that would owe a player a bonus in the event that he wins an award? If so, then the New York Post obviously didn't own the Yankees in 1999 when George King inexplicably voted Derek Jeter for MVP and left Pedro off the ballot after Pedro had the best season any player has had in our lifetimes (I speak of the writers of this blog, none of whom exceed 24 in age), other than perhaps his 2000 season.

Um, yeah, I'm not bitter about that vote at all....

Since the AP's Pun Wasn't Bad Enough...

According to the AP:

Burress was shot when he fumbled with the glass in his hand and the .40-caliber Glock that he was carrying in his pants slipped down his leg. The man who caught the go-ahead touchdown pass in the Super Bowl then reached for it and accidentally pulled the trigger and shot himself.

Burress extended his mastery in escaping NFL safeties to an insistence on escaping all safeties. Who sticks a pistol (not to mention a .40-caliber!) in their pants WITHOUT putting the safety on?

Plaxico In Trouble

This post has nothing to do with any original content, but instead is to point out a view on Plaxico Burress that I haven't heard elsewhere. It turns out that Tiki Barber may actually have something intelligent to contribute to the public discourse over Plaxico's fate.

Since the Gamecocks are too depressing to write about...

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

and...