Boomer's Urban Renewal: College Football is Back!

Here on The Rock, we are very happy that CFB is back!

The 2012 edition of the College Football season is underway and this opening weekend will give everyone an early idea of what sort of season their favorite teams (some may be looking forward to CBB, already) will be having for the next several months. Last night, the season opener on ESPN had South Carolina traveling to Nashville to take on the up and coming Vanderbilt Commodores (Go Commodores!). The Gamecocks used THREE QB's while Heisman candidate RB Marcus Lattimore went for 131 total yards and 2 TD's, as the Gamecocks rallied back for a 17-13 win on the road. Storylines to follow this season, the impacts new coaches have at their schools. Will it hurt or help guys that decided to put the NFL on hold to come back for another go at the Crystal ball? From the entertaining non-conference slate of games, to the competitive conference schedules, this 2012 edition of college football will surely be one of the best in recent years.

Boomer Report: Reds 1st to 80, Indians continue to lose

Sums up the 2nd half of the Indians season, lost.

Mat Latos, guided the Reds to their 80th win on Wednesday.

Boomer's Diamond Notes: Perfection! A Championship Season

First Church of God #1 (14-0) BACSL Champions.

14-0! Perfection was achieved last night, in the BACSL Championship Game, when FCOG #1 defeated CAL #2 (Hats off to that squad, great team), 14 to 11 in an extra inning (8th inning) thriller. The Championship Game marked back-to-back W's by FCOG #1 over CAL #2 in a span of a week. Probably, the two greatest games of softball ever played (at least, in a Church League), capped off an impressive 14-0 season for FCOG #1. This team seemed to have the right chemistry along with a pair of aces in our hands the entire summer. It was an enjoyable season no doubt with outstanding defense, some timely hitting and winning the tournament championship made it a memorable summer of 2012 for the church up on the hill.

Boomer Report: Reds looking good, Indians....stink!

Boy, I like the throwback 90's jersey's. 

I think its time for a Major League reboot.

Cincinnati Reds 76-49 (1st place NL Central; 1.5 GB of ML-leading Washington Nationals)

41-22 Home 35-27 Away RS: 545 RA: 470 DIFF: +75

Did you see last nights game? Wish they could sport the old school 90's look the rest of the season (I love that look). Bronson Arroyo pitched another gem for the Reds starting rotation, going into the 9th inning giving up just two runs and three hits. Arroyo (10) joins teammates, Johnny Cueto (16) Matt Latos (13) and Homer Bailey (10) accumulating 10 or more wins so far this season. I can not be more pleased with the pitching the Reds have gotten from the starters (especially after the All-Star break). The Reds, who are a season-high 27-games above .500 now have a 7.5-game lead over the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL Central. Since July 17th, when Joey Votto went on the DL following knee surgery on a injured knee, the Reds are 27-11. I don't believe any Reds fan saw this sort of run happening without Votto not in the lineup. Currently winners of 10 out of their last 13 games, finish a 4-game series tonight in Philly vs. the Phillies, then come home for a HUGE weekend series vs. the hated St. Louis Cardinals. The Reds keep putting the presser on the Washington Nationals for the best record in the NL (best record in baseball, actually), just a 1.5 back with 37 games left on the MLB easiest schedule, they have a chance to finish close to the 100 W's mark for the season. It's been a fun run thus far for the team and players of Cincinnati, and unlike 2010, its not been a pleasant surprise, ITS EXPECTED NOW! If the Reds continue to get the pitching performances out of the starters and continue to score runs (whens Votto coming back?) things could get very interesting come down the stretch and into the MLB playoffs. Haha, till then we wait for the return of Votto "Baby come back!".

Cleveland Indians 54-70 (4th place in the AL Central; 2nd worst record in the AL)
30-29 Home 24-41 Away RS: 515 RA: 646 DIFF: -131

10. The number of W's the Tribe have since the All-Star break. Wow, things have been pretty bad up in CLE this summer. Gone are the veterans like Derek Lowe & Johnny Damon. No one was traded at the deadline (which made no sense, still doesn't make any sense today). The Indians have had losing streaks of 11-games and are currently on a 8-game losing skid heading into this weekends series vs. the Yankees. The way things are going, the Indians might end up with the worst record in the American League and probably third worse in ALL of baseball (hey, things could be worse, we could cheer for the Cubbies or Astros). I don't know, to think that this time was hanging with the White Sox & Tigers just a little over a month ago (just 3 GB as of July 24th). Imagine if those would have been 11, 8 game winning streaks. But I guess thats what we are always made to wonder "what if", right Indians front office/organization? What If?

Boomer's Diamond Note: The Stretch Run of the Season

The longest game of the MLB season (19 innings!)

Deja Vu, for the Pirates was avoided. A season ago, the Pirates dropped a 19-inning game to the Atlanta Braves, and never seemed to recover from it the rest of the season. On Sunday, again the Pirates faced the same situation. However, this season has been a little different, as the Pirates prevailed 6 to 3 over the St. Louis Cardinals in the longest game of the 2012 MLB season (19-innings). Like last year, we will see where the Pirates will go the rest of the season after taking the W in this 19-inning game. Seven weeks, till Oct. 1st, the end of the regular season for baseball. As we enter into the "stretch run" of the season, plenty of storylines (who's grabbing those extra wild card spots this season) and fairytales (Pirates finally having a winning season for the 1st time in 20 years!) will unfolded over the last month or so of the season, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it all plays out. Updated MLB Standings

Boomer Report: Reds continue to surge, Tribe ahh...not so much

Jay Bruce is greeted at home, after hitting walk-off 3-run HR, Tuesday vs. Mets

Roberto Hernandez (season debut, last night)  formerly Fausto Carmona

Boomer's Diamond Notes: The Strasburg Saga

Good chance, Nats fans won't be seeing this much longer.

160 innings. The limit that the doc's placed on Washington Nationals SP Steve Strasburg at the beginning of the season, that he could pitch during the 2012 season. Starsburg, who missed the majority of the 2011 Nationals campaign after having Tommy John surgery, is closing in on that 160 IP mark (133.1 IP as of this point in the season), and with the Nationals having the best record in baseball (72-44) and Starsburg playing a important role in the starting rotation, the Nationals front office have a important decision to make, shut him down or roll with it? It's arguably the first time this has ever happened to a franchise in this position. You have the best chance in your franchise history to win a pennant and quite possibly a World Series Champion, and your going to shut down one of your best pitchers after 160 innings?!? As a Reds fan, I'm all for the decision to shut Starsburg down once he hits the 160 IP mark, but I'm sure some Nationals fans as well as players have another opinion on the "Strasburg Saga". Feel free to let me know what you think, the Nationals should do with Strasburg. Updated MLB Standings

Boomer Report: Reds Rise, as the Tribe tumble yet again

Say it with me, BEST TEAM IN BASEBALL!!!

Well, it was fun while it lasted.

The trade deadline has passed and as we head into the month of August or what most people like to call, "the dog days of summer", the final two months of the regular season should be very entertaining/interesting to follow. With traded players adapting to their new surroundings, we will see which ones make the biggest slash on their new teams, and help them improve on their playoff positioning.

A New Era

An era is commonly defined as a period of time.  Further, it can define a specific length of time delimited by a start event and an end event (thank you Wikipedia for your extravagant word usage).  The 2012-2013 Columbus Blue Jackets have entered this new era.

The Wall: Ohio Athletes

Bernie Kosar

Northeastern Ohio's finest QB