Horns Hook Eagles In Longest Baseball Game In NCAA History

I'll let the video speak for itself but I will add that, as uninterested I am in these two teams, I sure am glad Texas came out on top.

Big Ten and NoPa

In case you were wondering, famous college football head coach NoPa... I mean JoePa is not an ND fan. Don't believe me? Check out these qutoes.

From a recent AP article about who JoePa would like to see join the Big Ten:

"There's some pressure, I would suppose, to maybe go back to Notre Dame and ask again, which I would not be happy with," Paterno said. "I think they've had their chance."

The quote below is taken from a pre-game press conference between the Irish and Nittany Lions:

"You’re going to hear all about Notre Dame tradition, and you know what? It doesn’t mean a thing unless Knute Rockne leaps out of the ground and tackles you. Their field has got a hundred yards and two goal posts just like every other football field. When you put those black shoes on tomorrow, and you put on that jersey without your name on the back, and you put that plain helmet on, that’s tradition, Penn State’s tradition.”

800+ wins or not, love him or hate him, JoePa doesn't know what he's talking about. Not that that should come as a surprise to anyone.

If you don't recall, Notre Dame actually declined an opportunity to join the Big Ten nearly a decade ago.

Going back further than that, even before Notre Dame won its first National Title in 1924, the Irish were effectively forced to play non-intersectional matches due to the demands of the Michigan Wolverines and their highly regard Head Coach, Fielding Yost.

At that time in history Michigan was a member of the Western (now Big Ten) Conference and was THE powerhouse in football. ND's first recorded game in 1887 was a 8-0 loss to the Wolverines, which occurred after UM taught the Irish how to play football. Needless to say the advantage was all Michigan's and they owned the series until 1909...

But even after Coach Frank “Shorty” Longman and the Irish began 1909 with four wins, they were underdogs heading off to Ann Arbor’s Ferry Field. There, led by the heroics of halfback Harry “Red” Miller – the first of five football-playing brothers from Defiance, Ohio to play for Notre Dame – and fullback Robert E. “Pete” Vaughan, Longman’s squad held the favored Wolverines in check and walked off with an 11-3 triumph.

Yost was not too pleased with the outcome of that game and took action against the Irish...

Michigan Coach Fielding Yost did not take the defeat lightly. He had already been in a dispute with the Western Conference, which kept Michigan on the Conference sidelines from 1907-16. Yost abruptly canceled the 1910 meeting with Notre Dame, and by alleging various improprieties, influenced Conference teams not to schedule ND for another seven seasons. The Irish would not meet another Conference team until a 0-0 tie with Wisconsin in 1917, under Jesse Harper.

Go to this fascinating site (where these quotes were pulled from) to find out more. In summation, though, it should be pretty clear by now that ND has every to decline any invitation from the Big Ten and has proven that success can come without having any conference affiliation.

Rain Delay Fun

This video was featured on PTI this evening and I thought it was hilarious. During a rain delay at the Big East baseball tournament, South Florida and UConn decided to have a dance off to pass the time.

There are actually some pretty solid dancers on these clubs and it's just cool to see some college athletes being spontaneous and having fun.

This marks the first time I don't hate something involved with the Big East.

Future ND Hockey Home

The future home of the Notre Dame Hockey team was previewed just a few weeks ago. Obviously the rendering shown here is not too descriptive but it looks mighty fine. Regardless, I think all ND hockey fans can say they are glad that Irish will finally be getting what the team has deserved for far too long: a brand new rink.

Memorial Day

Today marks Memorial Day. Certainly, it's a time of excitement for many as we take time to enjoy the improving weather with friends and family.

It is at it's root however, a day to remember and honor those who have fought and given their lives defending the freedoms we will be enjoying today.

At 3 p.m., Americans are asked to stop what they're doing and share one minute of national unity honoring those who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

It's a small gesture inspired by children touring Washington who, when asked by executive director of the Commission on Remembrance Carmella LaSpada what Memorial Day meant to them, they said it was when the swimming pool opens.

We forget too easily what it's all about so please, take a moment if not more today and join together.




I will spend much of tomorrow working on a recording of the Star-Spangled Banner that I began at a bizarre hour this morning. If I have it completed to my satisfaction I may post it in the evening.

May you all have a joyous day, and don't forget to remember to remember.

Song Of The Day- Pixies

You might not know of the Pixies directly, but trust me, you know them.

Active in the late eighties and early nineties, the Pixies were pioneers, essentially birthing the alternative rock boom of the early to mid-nineties. The Pixies are credited with being the first to use wide dynamics and start-stop timing, both of which defined the coming alt boom.

Pixies verses are typicially subdued and restrained, while the choruses are loud and feature wailing guitars and vocals.

Two of the most obvious examples of their influence are Weezer and Nirvana. Rivers Cuomo took the quiet-loud-quiet dynamics truly to heart and most classic Weezer songs have those crunchy guitars over the chorus. The perfect example from the weez is "Say It Ain't So", released in 1994.

Kurt Cobain said in a January of 1994 Rolling Stone interview that he was trying to write a song in the style of the Pixies when he penned "Smells Like Teen Spirit".

I was trying to write the ultimate pop song. I was basically trying to rip off the Pixies. I have to admit it. When I heard the Pixies for the first time, I connected with that band so heavily that I should have been in that band— or at least a Pixies cover band. We used their sense of dynamics, being soft and quiet and then loud and hard.

Clearly, the Pixies were incredibly influential and thankfully, finally reunited in 2004 after an 11-year hiatus.

The official song of the day is "Velouria" off their 1990 release Bossanova.

This video was filmed when they were offered to play on the British show Top of The Pops. There was a rule in place that only singles that had videos could be played on the show so the band made a quick video.

The video shows the band running down a rock quarry. It took 23 seconds of footage for the band to reach the camera and they then slowed that down to last for the whole song. Brilliant.

Song Of The Day- Weezer

This is a strange one. Weezer played a couple of random promotional shows last week. This is from a T-Mobile show promoting the release of some kind of new Sidekick product (Rivers mentions both in the song's intro).

I would first like to state that the actual versions of both songs Weezer covers in this video both suck. "Kids" by MGMT and "Poker Face" by Lady Gaga are both terrible. I hadn't heard either song but I knew they were popular. I had to check them out and I was appalled at how bad both of them are.

The keyboard/synth riff in the MGMT song however is actually pretty decent if not exceedingly simple. I think it's pretty catchy and the "Poker Face" part by Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo is comical here. It's cool to see him enjoying himself and sans the moderately creepy mustache.

Some interesting notes to me at least: Rivers went guitar-less at this show, giving drummer Patrick Wilson lead guitar duties, though everyone plays keys in this video.

That's Josh Freese back there on percussion helping out. Freese has played with a lot of groups including being a member of A Perfect Circle, Nine Inch Nails, The Vandals and Devo. He's a well known session player and has worked with countless others. No word on if he will join the band touring this summer but I think this was just a fun thing to do for all of them.

You never know with The Weezers though.

For some reason the width on this video is super widescreen, it was clearly filmed on one of these cell phone contraptions so it isn't in HD. Go here if you'd like to watch the wider version.

Song Of The Day- David Bowie

I've been on a huge David Bowie kick lately. "Starman" is a terrific song off one of his defining works, the album Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. Performing as his alter ego Ziggy Stardust, this live take sounds pretty excellent. I can't figure out the purpose of the numerous people dancing behind the band however.

Even if you think Bowie was a crazy freak (which he was) you should check this song out because nuts as he often was, there was a great deal of brilliance in his career. He made so many albums it's tough to find the best but I'll continue to highlight some of Bowie's greatest work as I wander through his catalog during the summer months.

Tim Brown Reveals Former Employer Does Not Care for ND Players

In a recent interview with RadioSportsInterviews.com Tim Brown shared a rather shocking quote from former employer, owner Al Davis of the LA/Oakland Raiders, which follows below.

"Meeting Al was pretty unique," Brown told RadioSportsInterviews.com. "I found out five or 10 minutes after my first practice that he hated African-American athletes from Notre Dame. And they literally told me that. They literally told me that because we're known for using our education more than our athletic ability that he thought that I would be one of these guys that would basically take the money and run. I don't know if that was a ploy to get me amped up, but it certainly worked."

Maybe that doesn't come as big of a surprise to some of you. After all, Al hasn't been running on all cylinders lately.

Thanks to Michael Rothstein of the Journal Gazette, and Irish Insights, for posting about this interview.

Extreme Human Luge

Of the many shenanigans we got ourselves into during high school the video clip below exemplifies perhaps some of my fondest memories.

Take a ride through the past with me for a moment...

You're in Upstate New York. You're a sophomore in high school. It's winter and, therefore, very cold and snowy. A blizzard sweeps through and school gets cancelled for a few days. You and your buddies live less than a mile apart. What do you do?

Sledding? Maybe, but there could be cooler things to do. Snowball fight? No - they're overrated. Build a snow fort? Definitely not.

Extreme human luge? YES!

What is extreme human luge, you ask? Watch the clip below to get a feel for what I'm talking about.

I'm trying to find the more comprehensive video set Justin compiled but I think it might have disappeared. This will have to do for now.

Miraculously Justin lived to tell about these events. One day, when his grandchildren ask him if he ever did anything dumb when he was their age, he can point them to this video.

Point The Blame

Ask and ye shall receive.

To my comrade's point earlier today, the song featured in the introductory portion of the movie was actually "Point the Blame" by a band called Catch 22.

Off of their first full length album, Alone in a Crowd, Catch 22 originally intended for Point the Blame to be their first single. They went so far as to shoot a music video to promote the album but ran into financial difficulties and were unable to finish shooting.

Fortunately, the making of The Three Splooges literally required no funding at all. We had all of the necessary items (video camera, food, duct tape, on-site locations, etc.) at our fingertips for free discretionary use.

Provided below is the opening clip from the movie with the Catch 22 song playing in the background.

For some odd reason the original video file I had was in an mp3 format, which was confusing iMovie when I tried to import for editing. To work around the issue I went to download.com and downloaded a video converter program called VideoVangelist.

The program is free to try but only allows conversion of up to the first 5 minutes of a video. If you wish to convert files longer than 5 minutes in length you'll need to fork over $10.00.

Side note - still an excellent find by Justin earlier today. Superman was on the soundtrack for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (Underground) game and that is how I was first exposed to it. Very catchy tune.

Song Of The Day- Goldfinger!

This one is sure to make Brian a happy man.

This song absolutely reeks of freshman and sophomore years of high school for me. As I recall, this song served as the tune playing over the opening scenes of our full-length feature film "The Three Splooges".

While the film was generally panned by critics (or at least I panned it), it was a tremendous amount of fun to make. It was however not much fun editing together hours and hours of essentially unrelated material to form a very loose plot that was really just an excuse for tomfoolery.

I know we have some of the footage still saved on various computers and I have the raw footage on tapes. Perhaps in time we'll share some of the less inappropriate bits if we can find any.

Anyway, this is a great song. It makes me want to drive to Brian's house and film him running down the hill.

We've Added A New Link

Just moments ago, the dizzying wonders of the Internet once again yielded a true gem of a website. I'm pretty sure I heard about this a while back, but then forgot about it. Anyway, textsfromlastnight.com has to be one of the funniest things I've stumbled upon.

Many of the posts range from wildly inappropriate to someone needs to reassess their life goals. If that sounds like it's up your alley, than by all means click away.

I can't tell you how many funny out of context messages I've received that would be perfect for this site. So, text with caution.

Timmy! Elected to College Football Hall of Fame

Congratulations to Tim Brown, proud member of the class of 2009 College Football Hall of Fame inductees!