Charity Basketball

If you've got a Basketball Jones tomorrow night, and you can't find a game you want to see on TV (UC plays tonight. XU plays on Saturday), why not see one live? My pal and Local 12 sportscaster Zach Wells is organizing a game for charity featuring former UC, XU, NKU, Bengals, and Reds players. 


The game is at NKU's old gym, Regent's Hall at 7:30pm Thursday night. Here's the official release from the NKU site. It's a mere $5 at the door to support Cystic Fibrosis research. If you need some extra incentive, here is a partial list of fellas who have committed to play in the game so far. 


Former Xavier, Cincinnati and NKU basketball players, as well as Bengals and Reds alumni, have committed to play in the event. Among the more recognizable names are David Fulcher, James Brooks, Dave Collins (an outfielder during the Big Red Machine era), Stan Kimbrough (a Xavier standout) and Shannon Minor, a sharpshooting guard who led the Norse to back-to-back trips to the NCAA Division II national championship game in both 1996 and '97.


Through his tweets HERE, Zach has also confirmed that Bengals' big defensive lineman, Domata Peko, will be there and he will be bringing memorabilia to auction off at the game along with lots of other memorabilia that will be there from other people to be auctioned and raffled off. Zach has also confirmed that UC's former QB, Tony Pike has been medically cleared to appear as well. Reds PA announcer (You know his voice, even if you haven't seen his face) Joe Zerhusen will call the game.


I will also be appearing at the game, probably just in a viewing capacity. I hope to take some pictures and I will try to post those when I can on here. But you won't need to see my photos if you show up live. It's only 5 bucks, and its for charity. Who can pass that up? Just remember, at 7:30pm, go to Regent's Hall, not the Bank of Kentucky Center. You won't find it there.


Big ups to Zach for setting this all up. What a cool idea.

Daytona Fire-Hundred

I'm not even gonna pretend to know a lot about NASCAR, other than left turns. But I think something as momentous as last night's race is worth a whole post.

I'm also going to tell you right now, I didn't see a lap of this sucker live. I was at work. But I was keeping track (get it? Track? Whatever.) of what was going on. And watching replays. And animated GIFs. Afterward, I watched some "highlights" and it looked pretty crazy all night.

I'm not going to go into the 'sport-not a sport' argument, as it is mostly pointless and a matter of opinion.

I'll put it this way. I admire people who can do things I cannot do. Giving birth. Doing difficult math in one's head. Being able to sing well. And driving cars fast while other people drive them fast around you. It is scary. It takes mental toughness. Being in a car that long takes stamina. And when you see the dude in front of you start to "get loose",  you better have the reflexes of a cat on speed, or you could end up like Jimmie Johnson and Danica Patrick. So, sport or not is your decision. But either way, I think it's ballsy.


I guess the two things I really took away from Daytona is that this stuff is dangerous and just like anything else in life, fluky things happen that no one can control. Montoya's car had an issue at the bottom of the track and spun and hit that jet dryer. If his car spins a little further up the track, or the jet dryer is not in the spot that it's in, the explosion and fire don't happen. Then again, Montoya might have ended up in the wall. Thank goodness everyone involved in EVERY crash was okay. Also, thank goodness that crash with the jet dryer happened on the back stretch. Can you imagine the panic if it had happened near the grandstand? Some of those flames we jumping outside the fence.

Like I said, I don't really do NASCAR, so I don't know if that was an inordinate amount of crashes, but either way, tonight's explosion seems extra creepy. I understand they wanna keep the cars running and moving or whatever with the caution flags, but they were cleaning the track with the jet dryer. If the grounds crew at GABP tried to re-chalk the field during the top of the 4th inning, they'd all be fired. I feel like there's gotta be a safer way to go about it.

Despite the doom and gloom, there was, to me, a bright spot to the race. Whenever I hear about NASCAR, I always think it's 43 people individually driving cars. However, I forget that they're really on big teams. Their pit crew obviously is there for them. But other drivers are also on teams together. They just don't have uniforms that match (cause, ya know, different people pay for their cars). So I thought it was really cool, that as the race was winding down, Greg Biffle basically blocked Dale Earnhardt Jr., so that Biffle's teammate, Matt Kenseth, could win the race. Biffle could have easily attacked, creating a 3-way dash to the finish line. But he held off, and made sure that Earnhardt couldn't go anywhere until it was too late. I suppose it's something akin to throwing the lead block for a running back on his game-winning touchdown run. You won't get much credit in the history books, but the guy you blocked for probably really appreciated it and couldn't have done it without you. It's one of those neat moments I like to see in sports (or "sports"), no matter who you root for.


Oh shit, look out!!! Jeff Gordon is on fire again!!

My 'The Morning Line' Post

* Why don’t football players get tossed out of games like baseball players or put in a penalty box like hockey for dangerous tackles?

* Will the MLB version of Tebow/Lin have to come from the Tigers or Mets. I believe all the human interest stories this year have to be about players whose teams’ primary colors are orange and blue. To wit, check out a rookie named Ryan Nugent-Hopkins who plays for the Oilers.

* How different (if at all) would each team’s season have gone, if the Crosstown Punch-Out hadn’t happened?

* If you constantly build a team “with winning in the future in mind”, will you ever get to win anything?

These are the type of sports questions that keep me up at night.

To begin, I’ll give you a brief history of me, and how I think I convinced Doc to let me hijackThe Space for a day.

I’ve got a bit of a different slant on the world than the average Mobster. I’m a mere 23 years old. I was but a pup of 2 when the Reds last raised the World Series trophy over their collective head.

Outside of 2005, 2009, and this past season, I remember nothing but futility with regards to the Bengals. Additionally, I went to NKU, so I’ve seen both sides of the UC-XU argument. (And with the move to Division ONE, I’ll soon get to root against both in games that matter.)

I love sports, but can’t even pretend to be talented at any one sport. So, from an early age, I instead got addicted to stats and interesting occurrences. While other guys dreamed of being Ken Griffey Jr. or Bret Boone, I wanted to be Marty Brennaman. But after I decided I had a face for radio, a voice for miming and the nerves of cocker spaniel in a thunderstorm, I realized I was better suited on the other side of the electronic equipment.

I make my legitimate money at a local television station, so I suppose I’m sort of a media-type. However, I work in the engineering department, so I don’t pretend to have any more insight or understanding of sports/the world than any other person who may read this. So while these may be my thoughts and opinions, I would greatly appreciate hearing from those of you bold enough to put your Face in the Book.

Speaking of social media…

Do you?

I’m on Facebook, though I use it far less than I used to. I fear that I may offend people too often. Not MY friends – they deserve it. But I worry that friends of friends may not totally understand my “humor”. So I abstain. But if you have any comments or questions at the bottom, I’ll check back to respond if I can throughout the day. Also, if you’re bigger into the social scene, you can find me on Twitter. My handle is @BrianWedge88. I stick to mainly sports, movies, and trying to be funny. I apologize in advance.

On to the reason you came here

For My First Trick

I will submit to you a simple premise, that can probably be easily refuted if someone else wants to look up the historical data, but I just decided to do the number-crunching and eyeball-testing on this season.

So my premise is this: Tight ends are taking over the NFL.

As the League has moved away from the ground-and-pound style offense of its early incarnations, teams have had to adapt. Before Ditka in the 60’s, tight ends rarely caught a pass. Until Kellen Winslow, Sr. and his peers began running deep patterns in the 80’s, they mostly caught curl or drag passes. And today, many teams have begun to utilize their tight end for a variety of plays. The Patriots even had Aaron Hernandez taking snaps as an H-back in the playoffs. So if I may throw a few stats at you (since I bothered to research them like a nerd), here we go.

* Of the 12 teams to make the playoffs, only 1 team (Denver) passed to the tight end for less than 750 yards through out the regular season.
* Conversely, of the 20 team who did not make the playoffs, 11 passed to the tight end for less than 750 yards.

* Of the 12 playoff teams, only 3 (Denver, Pittsburgh, Giants) completed less than 7 TD passes to tight ends. Meanwhile, of the 20 non-playoff teams, 1 (Carolina) had more than 7 TDs to tight ends. Three had 7 TDs, while the rest had less.

* The average season totals for playoff teams were 1025 yards on 86 catches, with 9 TDs. So by playoff team, per game, that’s 85 yards on 7 catches, with .75 TDs (Denver really threw off these stats by only having 11 catches for 146 yards and no TDs).

* The average totals for non-playoff teams were 706 yards on 63 catches, with 4 TDs. So, for each of the non-playoff teams, per game, that’s 35 yards on 3 catches, and .21 TDs.

In the playoffs, my stats didn’t hold true in the Wild Card Round, as every team that had less tight end yards won. There were also only 2 TDs among the 8 teams.
However, in the Divisional Round (you know, the teams that didn’t squeak in), the stats did hold up, as each team that won had higher tight end yards (albeit 2 yards more in the Giants case). Also, in this round, the 8 teams combined for 9 TDs (even if 4 of them were the Patriots).

The Championship Games were split. The Pats had 153 yards but no TDs to the Ravens 64 yards and 1 TD. Meanwhile, the Giants had but 22 yards and a TD while San Francisco got 148 yards and 2 TDs. But then, as we all know, both these games were hairline plays away from going the other way.

The Super Bowl was not the game for the tight ends, as the Pats finished with 93 yards and 1 TD, while the victorious Giants had but 43 yards and no TDs from their tight ends. (Note: I fully expected the outcome of this game to be much different if Gronkowski has been at full speed, as he was responsible for 1327 yards and 17 TDs in the regular season and 258 yards and 3 TDs in 3 playoff games.)

So, as we look to the future of the NFL, I see a change in the way the offense is run. It’s not there yet, but it’s going to be. The tight end is a new position. Guys like Gronkowski,Jermaine Gresham, Hernandez, Kyle Rudolph, and Jimmy Graham are taking it a step further than players like Heath Miller, Todd Heap and Antonio Gates. While the young guys are built much the same way, they seem to be faster and still just as powerful. So while Miller might be able to hit a linebacker and keep going, but not very fast, a guy likeGronkowski has the ability to run over or maybe just out-run that linebacker…and possibly bowl over a safety. They seem to be almost uncoverable 1-on-1 by any defensive player.

Why do people like to SUPER Size?

This is purely speculation but I’m wondering about the reasons people GO TO the Sooper Bowl (I don’t want to get sued for copyright infringement). I mean, these days, tickets, hotel, and in some cases airfare, are pretty costly. So, I assume the obvious reasons are:
1. The team that you root for is in the game
2. You live in the host city
3. You are independently wealthy, so you have the means and time to do so
4. You’re a celebrity or athlete, so you want to be seen/were given tickets

Does anyone have any other reasons why people would get into the mess of going to the Sooper Bowl instead of watching on TV with friends and family?

Opening Day Starters

I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure I want to be the guy to take the hill for the Reds on Opening Day. Not only is there the pressure of being the starter for baseball’s oldest franchise, but I think it’s kind of a bad omen. The last 10 guys to do it (spanning back to ‘97 due to some repeats) might agree with me.

The last 10 starters were Edison Volquez (‘11), Aaron Harang (‘06-’10), Paul Wilson (‘05), Corey Lidle (‘04), Jimmy Haynes (‘03), Joey Hamilton (‘02), Pete Harnisch (‘00-’01) Brett Tomko (‘99), Mike Remlinger (‘98), and John Smiley (‘97).

Since Harang and Harnisch had repeats, we’ll leave them out. But for 7 of the 8 others, the year they started Opening Day was their last season with the Reds. Also, Harang’s ‘10 and Harnisch’s ‘01 start were the last year they were on the Reds as well. The only one to survive the jinx was Haynes, and he was released the year after his start in ‘04 after only 4 starts, posting an 0-3 record and 9.60 ERA. NOTE: Hamilton was a free agent after the ‘02 season, signed with the Cardinals, but was released before the season. He signed again with the Reds, but appeared in only 3 games, posting no record and a 12.66 ERA.

So you tell me, do you want the ball to start the season? Not all these guys careers tanked after the season they started Opening Day, but it did for most. And it was bad enough that the Reds let each of them walk. Maybe that’s why Bronson Arroyo has refused to do it all these years. Did I just jinx Cueto? Sorry.

You want me to play what?

If I may, I’d like to talk about a ‘sport’ that is very dear to my heart. I remember playingcornhole in the backyard before there was no standardization to the game. It’s been deeply ingrained in my life. Football games, family get-togethers, or just weekends of bordem at a friends house can all be enhanced by tossing a corn-filled bag at a board with a hole in it. I find it relaxing, but at the same time, highly competitive. What other sport (and yes, I will call it a sport, since it requires some hand-eye coordination) can you think of where you can be drinking while playing (you know, besides beer-pong)? I’ve been so addicted to cornhole, that when some Indie filmmakers announced they were shooting a mockumentary called “Cornhole: The Movie”, I volunteered 3 weeks of my summer my freshman year of college, free of charge, to help out.

It was possibly the most fun I ever had in 3 consecutive weeks. If you enjoy mockumentary films like “This is Spinal Tap” or “Best in Show” and you like cornhole, you might want to check it out. And if you live in the area, the library has a few copies, FO FREE.

Which leads me to My List…
I am a movie fanatic. I enjoy all types and genres of movies. I’ll watch anything once, just to say I’ve seen it, even if I know going in I probably won’t like it. So my Essential List is the 5 movies I love most. Now, these aren’t the Academy’s greatest, or even the 5 films that I think are the most well-made. They are simply the 5 movies that, no matter the time of day, my mood or who I’m with, I can pop in and enjoy. Please feel free to hit me with yours…or take pot-shots at mine.

1.      Monty Python and the Holy Grail- I’m a sucker for coconut jokes, killer rabbits and the Knights Who Say Ni.
2.      Little Big League- Perhaps a little less main-stream as sports movies go than say “Bull Durham” or “Major League”. PLOT: Grandfather bequeaths his 12 year-old grandson ownership of the Minnesota Twins. Hilarity ensues. Featured cameos by Sweet Lou, theBig Unit, and the Kid.
3.       Clue- If you’ve never seen it, it’s based on the board game. And unlike other movies based on board games, it’s actually good (I’m looking at you, “Battleship”. BONUS: I was going to make a “Candyland” joke here, but apparently, Adam Sandler has actually bought the rights to it. So look out for that). Also, the cast it stacked.
4.      The Sting- I’ll never turn down a movie with a good plot twist. Plus how can you beat Newman and Redford in their prime?
5.      Back to the Future (any of them)- I’m a sci-fi nerd deep, deep down. Time travel intrigues me. I just wish that when the Marlins changed to “Miami”, they had changed themascot too.

Post the First

I suppose to start with, I'll lay out what I plan to do with this blog. I'm mainly going to stick to sports, television and movies. I'm going to do it semi-daily. (Don't get on my case if it's not there every day.) Some will be opinionated. Some will be based on stats and facts. Some will purely to be to put the facts down somewhere to be read, other than jammed in my head.

I live in Cincinnati, so a good portion of what I write will be based on things in Cincinnati. But I do like to scour the world for interesting stories or things that I find odd. If you follow me on Twitter, you may see some things that repeat. Sometimes it might be an extension of something I said. And sometimes this might be the place I go to write things I don't feel I can say on Facebook without karmic retribution.

I work at a TV station, so I'll often say things about things that happen on TV. In my spare time, I also make movies with my friends. We often work with the Dent Haunted Schoolhouse to make their promotional and in-line videos. So you may see some on-set photos from time to time of dead people or zombies.

I know that not many people will read this, at least for a while, but I think this is gonna be something fun for me to do, even if its nothing more than to keep me from being bored sometimes. I think my first real post will be a copy and paste of the blog that got me started on the path to thinking I could do this. It's my guest appearance on Paul Daughtery's Cincinnati Enquirer blog entitled "The Morning Line".