Alabama

After three rain delays totaling two hours and 15 minutes, Saturday’s baseball game between Alabama and Ole Miss was suspended with the Rebels leading 3-2 two outs into the top of the third inning.

After falling behind 2-0, Ole Miss had plated three runs in the third off Crimson Tide starter Austin Graham. The Rebels had runners on first and second with two outs and a 2-0 count to Sean Stuyverson when the game was called for good.

Alex Avila drove in Alabama’s first run with a single in the first inning. Josh Rutledge singled in Mike Sharp with a run in the second off Ole Miss starter Drew Pomeranz.

The Tide (14-11, 3-4 SEC) and Rebels (15-10, 3-4) will continue game two at noon tomorrow.

(Read the full post about ‘Rain halts UA baseball game’…)

David and Sarah Patterson: Oh so close in Georgia

Top-ranked Georgia edged Alabama and Florida by 0.025 to win the 2008 SEC championship today. It was the smallest margin of victory in the event’s history.

Results:
1. Georgia 197.350
2. Alabama 197.325
2. Florida 197.325
4. LSU 196.500
5. Auburn 196.100
6. Arkansas 194.650
7. Kentucky 194.025

“There was a range of emotions that went through my mind,” Alabama head coach Sarah Patterson said. “We took a team that was ranked sixth in the country and fourth in the SEC and came within .025 of winning this title. Our ladies are not about to back down.

(Read the full post about ‘UA gymnasts place second at SEC championship’…)

Terry Grant returned from hernia surgery to rush 12 times for 41 yards today, scoring two of the offense’s three TDs.

Alabama’s offense combined for three touchdowns and seven interceptions today during the spring’s first scrimmage at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

“There was a lot of good hitting out there,” Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban said. “I thought the defense played well, got lots of turnovers.

(Read the full post about ‘Defense ahead in first football scrimmage’…)

The University of Alabama will not hold the Gridiron Bash on April 11 due to “the NCAA’s last minute interpretation of Gridiron Bash relating to student athlete participation.” The companies in charge of the Bash event made the decision late Friday.

This, of course, means that country star Alan Jackson will not perform at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Here is the release from the school:

TUSCALOOSA - MSL Sports and Entertainment announced today that it has cancelled all Gridiron Bash events scheduled for Friday, April 11, including the (Jackson) event slated to take place at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

(Read the full post about ‘A-Day Gridiron Bash has been canceled’…)

As with all SEC Friday nights, UA shot off fireworks after the final out at Sewell-Thomas Stadium tonight. Those blasts had nothing on Matt Bentley.

Alabama’s first baseman hammered a pitch over the center field wall in the bottom of the eighth inning. The solo shot was Bentley’s second of the night, and sent surging Alabama past Ole Miss 6-5 to its fifth consecutive victory.

Considering the Rebels pitched 6-foot-5, 260-pound stud Lance Lynn, this was a big victory for the Crimson Tide, which chased Lynn after 5 2/3 innings and five earned runs.

(Read the full post about ‘Tide downs Rebels for fifth win in a row’…)

Hillary Clinton promises to prolong the primaries, which she has essentially lost, All The Way to Denver

Sen. Clinton gave a pretty astonishing interview to the Washington Post in which she appears to say she will stay in the race till the convention in August, where she will take her fight to the credentials committee to have the delegates from the non-sanctioned Michigan and Florida primaries seated.

That may rip the Democratic party apart. In my view, that alone wouldn’t be a big loss. But it seriously increases the chances for McCain to win the bigger race and the chances for more wars in the Middle East.

In a letter to speaker Pelosi major donors support Clinton’s strategy and put pressure on the Democratic Party to not force an earlier decision.

(Read the full post about ‘Why do these donors support Clinton’s strategy?’…)

No, I don’t like him. He’s an imperialist. But he is a realist-imperialist which is something I prefer over a neocon-zionist imperialist any day.

Zbigniew Brzezinski writes in tomorrows WaPo on The Smart Way Out of a Foolish War

The decision to militarily disengage will also have to be accompanied by political and regional initiatives designed to guard against potential risks.
…
The longer [U.S. occupation] lasts, the more difficult it will be for a viable Iraqi state ever to reemerge.
…
It is also important to recognize that most of the anti-U.S. insurgency in Iraq has not been inspired by al-Qaeda.

(Read the full post about ‘Z-Big on Iraq’…)

To successfully lead people one has to know what incentives will motivate them and which will not. Here is Sadr giving a lesson to Maliki.

Sadr ordered calm and asked his followers to distribute Korans and olive branches to Iraqi police checkpoints.
Iraqi forces launch major offensive, March 26

After a Friday deadline for gunmen to surrender their weapons and renounce violence expired with few complying, al-Maliki’s office announced a new deal, offering Basra residents unspecified monetary compensation if they turn over "heavy and medium-size weapons" by April 8.
US warplanes widen airstrikes in Iraq, March 29

AP Television News footage showed a group of about a dozen uniformed police, their faces covered with masks to shield their identity, being met by Sheik Salman al-Feraiji, al-Sadr’s chief representative in Sadr City.

(Read the full post about ‘Sadr’s Personnal Management Lesson’…)

There are many kinds of music that have influenced me in my youth. Naturally a lot of weird krautrock and, from the other side of the ocean, Springsteen’s Born to Run album with Jungleland and Meeting across the river which somewhat caught my real live experience at that time. Rush’s 2112 also deeply touched me.

When those albums were published, next to attending (or not) school, I was smuggling dope from Amsterdam to my home town in north Germany to sell it to GIs who were bored while pretending to guard a bunch of cold-war nukes. The Twilight zone coincided with a short h experience.

But in parallel to these ‘growing pains’ as my father thought of my tastes, there was a different strain of music I also fell to - Bach, Handel, Wagner and others.

(Read the full post about ‘Music for a while’…)

Between Ann and Common Streets NBC 15 photo shows the most beautiful stretch of homes and oaks on majestic Mobile, Alabama’s Government Street.

Corner of Government and George apartment building