I haven’t taken the time to get you up to date on goings-on in Bulldog Nation and around the blogosphere in far too long, so, as you settle into the final day of a foreshortened work week with your steaming cup of morning coffee, please take a moment to peruse the following items of interest in the Peach State and beyond:
Our SB Nation colleagues at Bruins Nation are getting credit where credit is due, having been profiled by the Daily Bruin. (Not the bad kind of profiling, either.) The full interview may be found here.
While we’re on the subject of much-deserved kudos, the new SB Nation platform is getting high marks from users and fellow purveyors of new media alike . . . one of whom, incidentally, used "the valuations off DN Scoop, a website that values websites based on links, PR, traffic rank, and other factors," to compile a list of the "Top 100 Most Valuable Sports Blogs." I’d be lying if I said I thought these rankings weren’t based on flawed facts, a half-baked methodology, and a fanciful premise, but, for what it’s worth, Dawg Sports is ranked 29th and valued at $197,072. MaconDawg and I, however, will entertain all reasonable offers.
Alas, in spite of our evidently being worth some serious jack, all is not well in the intercollegiate athletics blogosphere, as Clay Travis’s belated take on the Buzz Bissinger episode concluded with a blogger-versus-blog-basher charity quiz bowl challenge in which, we are told, sports bloggers will be represented by Brian Cook, Orson Swindle, Will Leitch, and a couple of guys from Kissing Suzy Kolber. Dude, a blogger quiz bowl challenge . . . and you didn’t invite me? I was on two championship quiz bowl teams in college! Well, O.K., the first year, we tied for the championship and, even though we beat the other co-champion head-to-head, the tie-breaker was total points scored, which was lame, then, when we won it outright the next year, a certain future brother-in-law of mine who shall remain nameless was disqualified because he wasn’t a full-time student, so he hadn’t paid his student activity fee, so our title was vacated, but, anyway, how the heck did I not get invited to this one when it’s right in my wheelhouse? Clay, you do know Orson, Will, and the Kissing Suzy Kolber guys are going to sit around making (admittedly hilarious) wisecracks the whole time, leaving Brian to answer all the questions by himself, right? I mean, seriously!
Doug Gillett, whose obsessive-compulsive tics even I find odd (and that truly is saying something!), is trying to solve the playoff conundrum. No one really has to ask where I stand on this one, do they? For the record, though, recent ruminations upon the subject have been aired at Sunday Morning Quarterback, Get the Picture, and Track ‘Em Tigers.
Speaking of airing things, incidentally, Brian has a bone to pick with me over the whole Kristin Davis thing. Leaving aside matters of purely personal taste---what can I say; wholesomely hot is the look that works for me, and, apparently unlike Brian, I consider the face an important female feature---I’d like to point out that I’ve posted, like, literally, one picture of Kristin Davis since receiving a well-stated constructive criticism last September, and certainly since getting numerous hits from some unsavory types. In fairness to Brian, he clearly was giving vent to pet peeves with good-natured over-the-top humor and his gripe certainly was legitimate at one time, but, evidently, Dawg Sports is among the multiple blogs Brian has gone a while without actually reading. (However, that doesn’t mean I don’t want to serve alongside him on the blogger quiz bowl team! All right, I’m done.)
My focus, obviously, has been on the Diamond Dogs, but, while I’ve been concentrating on baseball, the Georgia track and field teams have been preparing for this weekend’s N.C.A.A. East Regional Championships, the Bulldog men’s golf team was in eighth place after the first round at the N.C.A.A. Championship, and the Red and Black sports teams generally have been doing all right and getting good grades.
A while back, a comment from osuvandy drew a response from these parts. I recently received an e-mail from osuvandy, in which he courteously made some cogent points, most notably this one:
I stand by my underlying argument that the "Buckeye backlash" is B.S.---only yesterday afternoon, SMQ noted: "Of the seven mainstream polls I’ve seen at this point, there’s not one yet that ranks USC ahead of OSU"---but I thought a public clarification was warranted, lest I be guilty of having mischaracterized the gist of his comment. I am grateful to osuvandy for taking the time to reply and I appreciated the civility of his tone. Beyond that, I apologize profusely to everyone who has sent me an e-mail recently, as I am way behind in responding. Be patient! I’ll get to you eventually, I promise! (Also, if I find an old e-mail I missed from Clay Travis inviting me to join the blogger quiz bowl team, I’m going to feel really badly about this whole thing!)
That ought to be enough to hold you over for the weekend, although I must close by noting that real-life obligations will occupy my attention for much of the next couple of days, so don’t be surprised if my baseball tournament blogging is both sporadic and belated. Mea culpa . . . and, to close with some good news, take heart! They’re making an "Arrested Development" movie!
Go ‘Dawgs!