CentralOhioUmp30

LOVE the Smitty Charcoal Grey. Bought a pair of plate pants and a pair of base pants and they looked pretty much brand new after the season Now I only worked about 75 games last year, so if you're working 125+ games or a lot of 10+ game weekends, you'd absolutely need more than that. Washed the plate pants after every second plate job and the base pants after every three or four games. Took them out of the washer and hung them up to air dry overnight. If I were doing college games, I would buy poly-wools. Some Varsity games I'm just happy as hell when I get a partner who isn't wearing heather grey and during summer ball, even on the best fields, it can get pretty dry around here, so there would be a constant need for dry cleaning.

Showed up to a game one time with the knowledge that I would be doing the bases. Guy doing the plate had SAGE GREEN. I'll only wear black behind the plate (just love the way it looks) regardless of the temperature. Maybe I should wear the Camo, American Flag, Green, etc. Might take the attention away from my terrible strike zone......or so they tell me.

Nothing personal @Richvee. It's been a LOOOOONNNNGGG time since OSU has been relevant at least in regards to actually winning a national title AND the B1G actually being in the news for something good. Feels good to get the frustration out.

Gotta really drive each and every point through. Almost as satisfying as having the team win the game.

What is the current policy on retirement benefits? I assume they get pension, healthcare, etc, but how many years of service time did it take in the old CBA to achieve "retirement" status.

Went down to the heart of the SEC and still kicked some elephant ass.

The only attraction here would be the possible train wreck...and who doesn't love a good train wreck. The NCAAF playoffs have already been expanded enough (to include the train wreck hopeful B1G entry). You were right about a train wreck. Of course, Alabama was the team standing on the tracks.

Yep. TCU played in a conference that is steam rolling towards a 1-5 bowl record and blew a 21 point lead to a Baylor team that was beaten by a B1G team. B1G teams played 10 bowl games and were underdogs in each of them, yet they finish 5-5. But absolutely. We should definitely feel bad for TCU and the B1G is undoubtedly overrated. Very astute. You were saying?

Good call.

I'm mainly talking about the big time New Year's Six bowls and even the Outback, Capital One and Tax Slayer, etc. which feature upper quarter teams from the major conferences. You have no idea what you're going to get with the lower tier bowls because they aren't trying to match the best teams together. They're trying to get the largest fan bases and brands together, regardless of record or quality of team, to fill their ticket quota. Bigger bowls are also unpredictable, but at that level there's pretty much only top 15 teams playing, so skill levels are closer and ANY edge a particular team has could be the difference between a win and a loss. I like your idea though, UIC. Never thought of on-site bowl exhibitions before. Could do like a split of the sponsor fees to like 75 or 80% for the visiting team and the home teams gets the other 20-25% plus gate fees and concessions. Ultimately both teams come out ahead financially, which based on the amount of money it takes just to transport and house the players and staff for a bowl is a pretty big deal. You'd still want the top 20 or so teams to travel to bowl sites because those fan bases will usually travel to see the game. But any bowl that's pre-Christmas usually has trouble filling seats.

So what did they get?

Absolutely have an effect. SEC is flat out the better conference, but you've got to be simple-minded to not acknowledge the advantages of playing the majority of bowls in the South when it relates to football.

Like the idea. Unfortunately, barring an SEC policy-shift, it doesn't even seem remotely possible. SEC will never agree to a format where one of their teams could potentially have to play a playoff game in the North during December/January. The current status quo for them is great. Their teams barely have to travel because four of the Big Six bowls are located in the conference's footprint, which in turn means a heavy fan advantage. And they don't have to contend with any weather issues because four of the six bowls are played in domes and the other two are played in near perfect weather in Miami and Pasadena. Can't have any of those teams play in the big, bad North. No, no, no. They would have problems getting their fans up here and the players and coaches would be concerned about playing in tough weather conditions. I don't blame them. I'd probably feel the same way if my team was from the South. Just reality. I don't see any B1G teams clamoring to play in the heat and humidity of the South in August or September, either... Oh come on. It's not the same frequency as the South, but we aren't strangers to 90+ degrees and excruciating humidity up here in Ohio. Hell, OSU's home opener a couple years ago was played in 93 degrees with debilitating humidity. The problem is, SEC teams rarely play home-and-home series. They like the "neutral" site games in Texas or the Georgia Dome. However, occasionally you get teams with balls (Alabama in 2010 and 2011 and LSU this year and next year). And the teams that do that should be commended.

That is 90% of the equation. SEC has an inherent advantage during bowl season that they've held on to for pretty much ever. ACC and Pac 12 also have multiple playoff bowls in their footprint, so they're not exactly kicking and screaming to have home playoff games at this point. And the Big 12 has one major bowl in its footprint and all of the schools outside of West Virginia are relatively close to the major bowls. The other smaller part of the equation is absolutely weather. Most of the kids from Florida, Alabama and Louisiana have never had to play in sub freezing temperatures before and I'm sure even less have seen snow in person. If you don't think LSU or Alabama would be at a disadvantage coming to Columbus or Ann Arbor in late December/early January, then you just aren't thinking clearly. You'd be putting the Southern teams into a weather environment that most players have only seen on TV AND their fans probably wouldn't be that interested in traveling to Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, etc. for their winter vacation. How could that not possibly be an advantage for the B1G teams? It's an incredible set up for the SEC, Pac 12, ACC and to a smaller extent, the Big 12 right now. I'll believe those schools outside of the B1G will allow home games for the playoffs when I see it.

Like the idea. Unfortunately, barring an SEC policy-shift, it doesn't even seem remotely possible. SEC will never agree to a format where one of their teams could potentially have to play a playoff game in the North during December/January. The current status quo for them is great. Their teams barely have to travel because four of the Big Six bowls are located in the conference's footprint, which in turn means a heavy fan advantage. And they don't have to contend with any weather issues because four of the six bowls are played in domes and the other two are played in near perfect weather in Miami and Pasadena. Can't have any of those teams play in the big, bad North. No, no, no. They would have problems getting their fans up here and the players and coaches would be concerned about playing in tough weather conditions. I don't blame them. I'd probably feel the same way if my team was from the South. Just reality.

Oh wow. Hopefully the five big conferences will break off from the NCAA before a 16-team playoff is discussed by any decision-maker. Think it's ridiculous that the smaller schools even get a cut of the action, forget about actually playing in meaningful games, since they bring almost nothing to the table anyway. Hell, there are really only four or five teams (at best) from each of the power conferences that really contribute anything of value to the whole process. So what you really have is the Alabama's, Texas', Ohio State's and USC's taking a much smaller piece of the pie than they deserve in order to subsidize the Troy's, Louisiana Lafayette's and Florida Atlantic's of the world. Eight teams will be bad enough. There's a chance a three loss team could earn their way into the playoff in that format. Unfortunately, that's where we're headed. I'd like to stay with four teams for a decade and then advance to a six team playoff where all five major conferences get auto bids (as long as their conference champion ranks inside the top 15, so we avoid fluke conference champion winners) and one wild card. Top two teams (ranked by a committee) get a bye and the third and fourth teams host a home playoff game. One of the dumbest posts of the year. BYU, Notre Dame, meaningless? Boise State, Marshall, meaningless? Boise State and Marshall are irrelevant as far as a playoff is concerned. They'll never get in unless they go to the monstrosity that is a 16-team playoff. And I think the big 5 conferences will break off from the other FBS schools before a 16-team playoff is even considered. BYU is close to irrelevant. If they form a schedule similar to ND and go undefeated then they have a shot...other than that, eh. Notre Dame is absolutely relevant. Bring in A LOT of money and their fan base is one of largest in the country. That is pretty obvious though, or at least, to people who know anything about college football anyway.

Oh wow. Hopefully the five big conferences will break off from the NCAA before a 16-team playoff is discussed by any decision-maker. Think it's ridiculous that the smaller schools even get a cut of the action, forget about actually playing in meaningful games, since they bring almost nothing to the table anyway. Hell, there are really only four or five teams (at best) from each of the power conferences that really contribute anything of value to the whole process. So what you really have is the Alabama's, Texas', Ohio State's and USC's taking a much smaller piece of the pie than they deserve in order to subsidize the Troy's, Louisiana Lafayette's and Florida Atlantic's of the world. Eight teams will be bad enough. There's a chance a three loss team could earn their way into the playoff in that format. Unfortunately, that's where we're headed. I'd like to stay with four teams for a decade and then advance to a six team playoff where all five major conferences get auto bids (as long as their conference champion ranks inside the top 15, so we avoid fluke conference champion winners) and one wild card. Top two teams (ranked by a committee) get a bye and the third and fourth teams host a home playoff game.

As a life-long Alabama fan, win or lose, I hear a lot of people talking about bandwagon Alabama fans. How do so many of you, as non-Alabama fans know so much about these people, and I don't ? It's not exclusive to just Alabama. If a team wins a championship in the big 4 professional leagues or college football/ basketball, suddenly fans come out of the woodwork. Especially with a team like Alabama that's won multiple championships over a short time-span. It's really not exactly a tough concept to grasp.

OSU's playing with house money here. Everyone is expecting them to get pounded. Would be great for all the Alabama "fans" around the country to finally jump off that bandwagon. Here's hoping it happens.

Not my job to keep the coach in the game if he doesn't want to be there. And if he's causing a disturbance in the game, then I just assume he has another place to be. Not my problem if he's fined and suspended. I've almost always found that after an ejection (I have about 20 of my own in eight years and I've witnessed dozens of others via partners), the game moves much more smoothly. Keeping a rat in the game after causing problems encourages fans and players to get a little mouthy. Nip that in the bud. Just my two cents.

In Ohio just as pretty much everywhere else in the country, June, July and August are fairly warm and humid. Because of that, regardless whether I'm on the field or behind the plate, I'm grabbing a drink in-between every inning and when I'm behind the plate I have a towel right next to the water so I can wipe my face. Is it necessary every inning? No. But you just never know how long a half inning will take, so better safe than sorry. I just don't screw around with the heat. I know a few guys who collapsed on the field during those months and almost without fail it's because they were dehydrated. Now during the Spring and Fall when the temperatures are much more mild, I rarely ever bring a water bottle and outside of the occasional chat with my partner, I am always in shallow right.

People might want to wait before marking Ohio State off. A team that's overcome a lot of adversity, has a chip on their collective shoulders and will hear for over three weeks how they don't even belong in the playoff. AND they're coached by one of the all-time greats in his own right. Might have a recipe for an upset. Think the winner of OSU/Bama rolls in the championship game. FSU might keep it competitive for a bit, but they're not disciplined enough to win two games against this caliber of opponent, IMO. And I guarantee Urban and Saban would be more than happy to prepare for a notoriously soft Oregon team coached by a much more inferior coach. Will be fun.

Winston and Fisher are deplorable, but they can't hold a candle to Nick "medical hardship" Saban.

Batter in the batter's box has been needed for sometime. Even as a Reds fan I can't stand Jay Bruce taking 30 seconds in between pitches to take 15 steps backwards and 15 steps forward to get back into the box. How much time will that shave off of the game? Maybe 10 minutes. That's worth it though. Like the idea of a clock with no runners on base. Maybe that could shave 5-10 minutes. That's 15-20 minutes right there. Don't know how much more you could shave off. Ideally, these games wouldn't last more than 2:30 for a nine inning game.

All they have done is start to enforce obstruction rules that are enforced on every other base. Over-reaction/over-called is to be expected (adjustments will be made). I wait for the first on-field F2 obstruction call (and the IR review that is sure to follow). Who'll be the first ? But go ahead, feel free to laugh your football mentality ass off.' I have a football mentality because I'd rather have grown men settle it on the field rather than a group of guys sitting in an air-conditioned room in NYC determine if a catcher granted enough access to home plate? If anything, baseball is trying its best to BECOME football with all of these reviews. Everyone points out how few collisions there were in any given year, so naturally let's blow the whole thing up because Buster Posey suffered a freak injury. Makes perfect sense.