The Master’s is set for a great finale today.  I’m biased toward Phil.  Read this this morning:

The Masters story that really matters has always been a gimme putt away from our faces — except we didn’t realize it until the roars started caroming off Augusta National’s pines Saturday like sonic booms.

The story isn’t Tiger Woods and all the baggage he now drags behind him like clanging soup cans tied to the bumper of a bride and groom’s getaway car. And with all due respect to the 54-hole leader of this Masters, it isn’t the unflappable Englishman, Lee Westwood — at least not yet, it isn’t.

The story is Phil Mickelson, whose life has been turned upside down not by scandal, but by sorrow. Both his wife Amy and his mother Mary are in a fistfight with breast cancer.

Read the rest.

One of the many reasons it’s nice to have a young staff is that in their free time they come up with this kind of thing:

I was curious who still had the best chance of winning the staff bracket, so I wrote a small program to calculate all the possibilities.

Here are the results:

Out of 128 possible outcomes through the rest of the tournament,

Steve wins 54 (42.2%)
John Pawley wins 34 (26.6%)
Joe wins 17 (13.3%)
Dave wins 14 (10.9%)
John Burley wins 3 (2.3%)
Also, in 6 possible outcomes (4.7%), Steve and John B are tied for the win.

No one else has a single chance of winning.

Me
Final Four: Kentucky, Duke, Kansas, Kansas State
Championship: Kansas over Kentucky

Jacqui
Final Four: Ohio State, Minnesota, Wake Forest, Duke
Championship: Ohio State over Duke

Tim
Final Four: Kansas, Syracuse, Kentucky, Baylor
Championship: Kansas over Kentucky

Nick
Final Four: Kansas, Syracuse, West Virginia, Duke
Championship: West Virginia over Kansas

Sammy
Final Four: Ohio State, Syracuse, Kentucky, Villanova 
Championship: Kentucky over Syracuse

For the 106th time Ohio State faces off against Michigan tomorrow.  The rivalry which has its roots in an actual border war fought between Ohio and Michigan (1835-1836) is a bit anti-climatic this year.  Nothing is on the line – other than pride.  Michigan is pathetic, but then again, these are just the kinds of games OSU tends to lose (think Purdue a few weeks ago).  Ohio State has locked up the Big Ten title and our 8th BCS bowl bid (We’re 4-3 with 1 national title in BCS games) by earning a trip to the Rose Bowl with the win over Iowa.  Never-the-less, there will be a few interesting sub-texts to the game.

First, Justin Borin.  Justin, whose father was an outstanding linebacker at Michigan, was starting on the Michigan offensive line two years ago.  Recuited by Lloyd Carr, former Michigan coach, he transferred to Ohio State (here’s a Plain Dealer story on the unusual transfer) shortly after Rich Rodriguez took over at that school up north.  He very publicly said Rich Rod was destroying the culture and “family values” of Michigan football.  This has been a theme thoughout the Michigan locker room and alumni circles for the past two years – of course winning games would help to change that opinion.  With the game at The Big House in Michigan, a newly redesigned stadium  seating close to 110,000, and a chance to salvage their season with a win Michigan will be motivated.

A second unusual element will be a change in uniforms for Ohio State.  Very surprising.  Tressel is the incarnation of Ohio State football values which may be summed up by the word, “Tradition.”  3 yards and a cloud of dust.  Power football.  In the past four games Ohio State has rushed for over 225 yards in each game.  So, to break out new uniforms is like scrapping the I formation and installing the wildcat (what would it be called at Ohio State, “buck nuts?”) offense.  To be fair, they aren’t quite new.  They are throwbacks to the 1954 team.  The 1954 team was undefeated and the first of Woody Hayes’ 5 national titles.

The last intriguing subtext is that Ohio State has won five straight – the longest in the rivalry.  Can we keep the streak alive?

Want to watch the game a few hundred Ohio State fans?  Head out to Centre Point Grille at Tanger Outlet, the home of the local Buckeye Backers.

Ohio State played a “big play” game against Wisconsin (who entered the game 5-0) yesterday in Columbus, winning 31-13.  It was a game that would see the Ohio State offense run a total of 40 plays (normal game has 70+ offensive plays), have a time of possession of 17 minutes (Wisconsin had 43 minutes of possession) and only run 3 plays in the entire 3rd quarter while scoring 14 points (the quarter ended after the third play).  Why? – big plays.  The defense scored 14 points, the special teams scored 7 and Pryor hit big passes.  Here’s a nice clip of one big play:

Sammy called two innings of the Riverdogs game last night.

Here’s the MP3 file of the broadcast: Sam-in-the-booth.mp3

at The Joe.  He takes the mound at 1.20:

Just one more reason that I’m proud to be a Buckeye.

Below is a clip from the Cleveland Plain Dealer about the tribute Ohio State is planning for the Navy team when they travel to Columbus in a few weeks.

Navy tribute – With the Sept. 5 opener less than two weeks away, there is a movement underway to welcome the U.S. Naval Academy football team to Ohio Stadium with a huge sign of respect and admiration. When the Midshipmen take the field, the bucksinsider.com wants the 100,000-plus Buckeye fans to give them a rousing Ohio welcome.
There is an accompanying video on the website. It’s a terrific idea that should spread througout college football whenever one of the military academies takes to the road.

It reminded me of Jim Tressel’s honoring of the VT community after their campus tragedy:

OSU Tribute to Navy

is now available on ESPN 2 – for free!  How nice.

Even better – this morning’s match involves my favorite team, Manchester United.

The day is starting well.