(Get) A Sporting Life

Mizzou plays Furman today. It's 42-0 Missouri at the half. How does this help anybody?

Ho-Hum. Another GASL blogger against blogger showdown in St. Louis has ended with the inevitable drubbing : Reloading or rebuilding? That seemed a reasonable question for a Mizzou football program with numerous apparent X-factors entering its 2009 opener against Illinois on Saturday at the Edward Jones Dome. But by the time the Tigers had shredded Illinois 37-9, the tone of the questions already was changing radically: Might MU be as good, or better, than it has been the last few years? For all else that went so well as the Tigers beat Illinois for the fifth straight time, nothing was more promising and could have inspired more faith than the play of sophomore quarterback Blaine Gabbert from Parkway West. Actually...truth be told, I wasn't nearly so confident going into the game. I told my wife, in fact, that I expected Mizzou to get their asses handed to them. Oh, I knew the Illini had some defensive difficulties, but I expected the Mizzou offense to be mistake prone. Turns out mo...

...I know the Cards are playing great baseball these days. The pitching has been lights out. They are still hitting well since Holliday showed up. They are still catching the ball. I know we have caught the Dodgers for the best record in the NL. I know it. I know it. It's damn fun. (As I type this the Cards have the bases loaded with Albert up in the 7th, down 4-2. But, no! He grounds out! IS that allowed?)

Notts County keeps writing checks : Notts County have confirmed the signing of 34-year-old former England defender Sol Campbell on a five-year contract. Campbell was a free agent after leaving Portsmouth and has joined the League Two outfit, who were taken over this summer, in a purely playing capacity. "This club have got great ambition and I want to be a part of it," said the former Tottenham and Arsenal star. Campbell has 73 England caps and played for his country under Magpies director of football Sven-Goran Eriksson. Eriksson stunned the world of football when he arrived at Meadow Lane in July and in Campbell the club have now made their biggest on-field signing since being taken over by a Middle-East consortium. "Sven played a big role," said Campbell, whose move to Notts County was revealed by BBC Radio Nottingham earlier in the week. "He's a great man. He's managed all over the world and he knows his football, he's a proper guy. "He...

Even the ESPN broadcast crew has had enough of Baldomero Toledo. He single handedly destroyed the quality of last night's Sounders v. Revolution match, unless, of course, 32,000 Seattle fans actually paid good money to watch Toledo looking befuddled. MLS needs to get rid of this fool. He is making a mockery of the league. This leads me to my new (very old) joke: Person 1: How do you save a drowning Baldomero Toledo? Person 2: I don't know. Person 1: Good.

Does anybody have a good reason why video highlights from UK sporting events are only viewable by UK residents? God knows, highlights on ESPN or any other US based media are available to anyone in any country. I thought the BBC was supposed to be a news organization. I guess I was wrong.

End the season! Notts County 5 - 0 Bradford Lee Hughes scored a hat-trick as Sven-Goran Eriksson's era as director of football at Notts County began with a stunning win over sorry Bradford.... Notts County manager Ian McParland told BBC Radio Nottinghamshire: "We played some good football - like we did last year but today we stuck our chances in the back of the net. "It was a treat to watch. We've added more energy to the team this season. "We've won more tackles today than we did all last season." Yes, you read that right, ol' Sven has taken up residence with the Magpies . God only knows how this will impact the product on the field, but it should certainly be easier to convince potential signings that Notts is serious in moving up the ranks of English football. If we keep winning games 5 to nil, well, that would help too.