Futbaw Rules

Day five. Sparky, you there yet? If he doesn't show up soon, I may have to send Ondrayuh to look for him.
Okay, I've cooled down over the latest Jints fiasco. Have they fired turn-your-head-and-Coughlin yet? If big blew (as in blew too many leads) makes the playoffs at 8-8 and wins a game, will we see the same coaching staff in Albany next July? I hope not.

I think I'm turning Japanese- The Yankees finally signed a compatriot for Matsui. he looks like a bargain, too compared to the guy the Rose Hose signed. I'll bet our Japanese pitcher ends up with a better record that your Japanese pitcher.

Local Yocal - I know that's not the way to spell yocal, but go with it. Anybody heard anything lately on the stadium for YouAlbany? It is truly an embarrassment that this area, a top 60 media market, Capital of the Empire State and home to almost 750 thousand peoples, has no decent stadium for football, soccer, concerts, drum and bugel corps competitions, etc. Instead of pushing for a convention center that's not needed, why don't the local politicians renovate and enlarge the convention center at the Empire State Plaza and put the money left over into building a decent stadium that will seat about 15 thousand. Sports fans in this area love football! YouAlbany has scholarships, a great coach who's likeness will probably end up on Mount Rushmore one day, and the kind of academic diversity that can attract good football players. Build it and they will come! Just be careful that RPI doesn't beat you to the punch with their East Campus Athletic Village http://www.rpiathletics.com/ and its 5,000 seat stadium. If they get that built by 2010, Troy will host lots of sectional, regional and state championship soccer, lacrosse and football contests and other events.

Still local: Union and RPI Hockey could meet again at the TD Bank North, South, East West, Vermont college hockey tournament in Burlington next weekend. The two teams play a home-and-home series back in the Capital Region January 12-13. The teams played a 3-3 tie October 28 in the Governor's Cup at Pepsi Arena, now the Times Union Center (TUC). They could also meet in the ECAC playoffs in March. I don't mind it. Local rivalries are great. Six or seven meetings in a 35-40 game season, as could happen with RPI-Union, may be a bit much, but I see nothing wrong with them playing say, three or even four times a year.

I agree with YouAlbany basketball coach Will Brown in calling for two games between Albany and Siena each season. I think the local fans would love it. How many other match-ups will put more than 11,000 peoples in The TUC.

There's more, but I'm done for now.