9

The number 9.

--Nine is the highest single-digit number in the decimal system.

--In the NATO phonetic alphabet the number is called "novenine".

--The ordinal adjective is ninth.

--In the game of Craps, 9 is known as the center field because it is in the middle of the seven numbers on the field bet.

--The number worn by Roy Hobbs in the movie The Natural.

However, all those 9's pail in comparison to 9 being the number of bowl games THE Ohio State University has played against SEC teams and 9 is the number of losses they have.

I am sure Bobby will have more on this a little later. Congrats to LSU...its Auburn's turn next year. WAR EAGLE!!!

----Thanks to Wikipedia for the info on the 9

Out for Today

I am traveling to the great state of North Carolina today and will not be active in the blogosphere until later tonight. I apologize to my tens of fans who will undoubtedly be disappointed. Hopefully Bobby will continue to pick up my slack. I leave you with the quote of the day (submitted by B1):

"In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress."--John Adams

Breaking News: Britney Spears...Is Crazy

In an incredible twist to the saga that is the Spears Family life...Britney decides to hold her kids hostage for three hours while intoxicated (either alcohol or something else) and then get tied down to a stretcher and taken off to the hospital. If only that was the beginning of the story.

Earlier in the day, Brit was scheduled to be deposed by the lawyer representing K-Fed. The deposition (which was the third time they tried to do this) was set to begin at 9:45am and conclude at 11:45am. Brit showed up at 11:31am.

Later that day and into the night, Britney had the kids for some reason (K-Fed, the responsible parent, has full custody of them) and K-Fed's bodyguard came to get the kids from her. She decides that since she is a washed up singer she can hold them hostage and not give them back. Since K-Fed's bodyguard is not a very good bodyguard he calls the cops and they rush to her house. She held them up for 3 HOURS until they and her were taken away.

A couple questions. Why wasn't Britney arrested on the spot? It is a court order that she hand her kids over...she was refusing, so she should be held in contempt. The cops are refusing to say what intoxicated Britney...if she was on drugs or alcohol and endangered her kids...shouldn't she get more than a ambulance ride to the hospital?

Rumor has it that Britney was upset that Jamie Lynn was going to be on the cover of OK Magazine for the second straight week for getting knocked up...so Britney was going to steal her thunder (I totally made that up, but that is the kind of stuff that gets you recognized). Congrats Brit...you are probably the worst human being alive (at least bottom 10). We can add holding your kids hostage to the list of antics you have pulled. When K-Fed becomes a role model for your kids...their lives are ruined as well.

THE Roger Clemens Has Spoken

Roger Clemens has sat down with good friend Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes and gave his first interview since his outing in the Mitchell Report. The entire interview will air Sunday on CBS (check your local listings) and my guess is that it is a softball interview. Clemens is a pretty smart guy; he knows that one bad interview can kill his already battered reputation. So what does he do, he calls a friend from 60 Minutes to interview him.

So far all that is reported about this interview is that Roger did in fact have his trainer inject him with something. The trainer says it was some HGH…Roger claims it was Vitamin B-12. I am not sure what exactly B-12 does for someone’s body, but I do know that a lot of baseball players have mentioned being injected with it. Why is it that baseball players feel a need to inject “vitamins” into their body when eating them could do away with the whole mystery of injections? I am pretty sure meat, eggs and dairy have B-12 and there is no need for needles to get in into your body. Just teeth and a mouth.

My favorite part of this hard hitting interview however is when Mike Wallace follows up with this:

--Clemens calls the accusation "ridiculous" and says he "never" used any banned substances.

--"Swear?" asks Wallace.

--"[I] swear," says Clemens.

You can’t learn that type of questioning in any school…except for maybe the Mike Wallace Kick Ass School of Journalism (MWKASofJ). Hopefully he got the pinky swear in there too…because that is unbreakable. My guess is that this slumber party interview is not going to do anything for Roger. He will still be perceived as taking steroids and will probably have a difficult time getting into the Hall of Fame on the first ballot.

Peter Gammons (who I am pretty sure never took steroids) wrote a pretty good blog entry about Clemens, Maddux and Glavine. (B1 sent the link in) It shows that Glavine and Maddux are two old guys that reinvented their pitches and not their bodies and how they have had better careers since Clemens allegedly started rubbing on “the clear.”

I will watch the interview…hopefully Roger and Mike will have more than a love fest, but I am not holding my breath. I think it is time that we hold people accountable for their actions and if Roger did use steroids, then he deserves as much shame and scorn that Barry Bonds has received.

Predictions for the Iowa Caucus

People seem to take joy in bashing my predictions and making sure to point out when I am wrong so hopefully my caucus predictions will not give any of you any room to embarrass me.

So here they are my 2008 Iowa Caucus Predictions (I am only doing the top three):

Democrats:

1) Barrack Obama

2) Hillary Clinton

3) John "Don't Sue Me Bro" Edwards

Everyone loves The Big O. He has put a ton of faith in young people coming out to caucus in order for him to win. If they come out...he will win HUGE. If they don't, I still think he can win, but by a smaller margin. Hillary has the support from old white women. I think Iowa has a lot of them...so she will have a strong showing. "Don't Sue Me Bro" has the support of organized crime labor and they are pretty strong in Iowa. Although he does not have much money to go further so he is pretty much "four yellows, one red, TOAST" after Iowa.

Republicans:

1) Mitt Romney

2) Mike "Hypocracy" Huckabee

3) John McCain

I feel that Fred Thompson probably will not break the top three and will probably be forced to drop out. He is pretty good friends with John McCain...so conventional wisdom is that he will drop out and support McCain if he does not finish in the top three. Mitt has one of the best organizations in Iowa and I think that will help him to beat out The Huck (I was watching the news and they were showing The Huck's campaign and it was filled mainly with kids...they can't vote...hopefully he knows that). John McCain can do a lot for his chances if he is able to finish third. He has not spent much time in Iowa and he can bolster his chances in New Hampshire next week with a strong third place finish. Ron Paul is Ron Paul...his homemade yard signs can surprise us I guess.

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There ya go...my predictions (with a little commentary). You can take them to the bank. If you are as huge a political nerd as I am tune into C-SPAN (for the Democratic caucus) and C-SPAN 2 (for the Republican caucus) around 6:30pm (Central) for live coverage of an actual caucus. You can also watch the news networks if you want to it with analysis. My favorite would be FoxNews with Brit Hume they seem to have the best political group on TV. However MSNBC is pretty good too (although a little too liberal, but it is watchable).