40 Acres Sports

Blonde in Texas cap robs Austin bank. It kind of looks like a girl I went out with in school.

Great stuff coming from the Wizard of Odds as usual. He’s running “The Great Billboard Competition” and there’s been several great reader submissions so far. Of course the best one yet takes a shot at [tag]Oklahoma[/tag] and their propensity for cheating. The billboard has a timeline pointing out the interesting coincidence between OU national titles and NCAA penalties.

Hmmm… Isn’t it strange that they were penalized right around all their titles? As much as I think Bob Stoops is a jerk, at least he runs a clean program. Oh wait…

I’m sure a retaliation billboard will be coming from a Sooner fan soon, and knowing those farkers it’ll be a good one.

Check out all the latest billboards.

It’s not a shoe deal, but Kevin Durant has signed his first endorsement deal with Upper Deck. KD will appear on their packaging and packaging and will have a line of autographed items.

The sports card and memorabilia company will market Durant in all of its 2007-08 products, and on its packaging, and will unveil a line of autographed Upper Deck Authenticated items.

Durant’s first card will appear in Fleer Ultra SE and Upper Deck’s First Edition Basketball and his first autograph will appear in Upper Deck SP Game Used Basketball.

Just the first of many of these deals for Durant. The kid is a rare talent and will instantly be one of the most marketable players in the entire NBA. It won’t be long before his face is plastered all over every product you can think of. Do they still make metal lunch boxes? Or even better, I want a Kevin Durant Thermos. That would be sweet.

Congrats Kevin.

LaMarcus Aldridge named to NBA All-Rookie Team. Joined on 1st team by Portland teammate Brandon Roy.

An oldie but goodie from YouTube this morning. Texas wide receiver Johnny Walker absolutely waylays an [tag]Oklahoma[/tag] defensive back with a crushing block in the 1988 Red River Shootout. Check out the video:

Ouch.

A couple of the other OU defenders seeing it coming but the player on the receiving end of the hit was completely blindsided. You’ve got to keep your head on a swivel man. (via)

Ex-Longhorn Johnnie Johnson elected to college football Hall of Fame. He’s the 14th Longhorn player to receive the honor.

Titans are moving Michael Griffin to cornerback and their bringing in Marcus Robertson to help.

Texas filled the hole in Saturday’s schedule. The U. of Arkansas at Pine Bluff Golden Lions from the SWAC will come to town on Saturday and play a single game at 2pm at Disch-Falk Field. Note the time change (season tickets list the opponent as “TBA” at 6:05pm).

Sadly, the Horns lost their first Big 12 series of the year. They played two very uncharacteristic games this weekend. It was almost like watching a team I’d never seen before. Jeckyll and Hyde. The team on Saturday? That was the team we’ve been watching all year long. But yesterday? Almost all of the things that went wrong on Friday night went wrong again yesterday afternoon as they lost 4-5. Coming away from the weekend, all I can hope is that the team got it out of their system.

I also hope [tag]Missouri[/tag] comes earlier in the season next year!

Two notes: [tag]Jordan Danks[/tag] jammed his shoulder and had to leave the game early on Saturday. [tag]Kyle Russell[/tag] jammed his wrist and had to leave the game early on Sunday. In the post-game interview, Coach Garrido said he didn’t think either injury was very bad (Jordan Danks actually went in as a pinch runner in Sunday’s game) and that they’d both be back for the A&M game. Here’s hoping.

I also hope they Horns manage to schedule a game for the 12th. I don’t think they need the game. But, it certainly couldn’t hurt to get a game in. I don’t know that letting the team “stew” on the Missouri series for 11 days without facing another team would be the best thing to happen right now. Too much time to second-guess, m’thinks.

Anyway, for more specifics on how things went this yesterday:

• my full report
• the Statesman’s article
• the Daily Texan’s article
• the TexasSports.com recap

Check out the Daily Texan article for a great action photo of Travis Tucker. And, note that the TexasSports.com recap has an error (it states that the Missouri’s fifth run was scored on a balk…it wasn’t).

Hopefully, I’ll have better news to report next time. Hook ’em!

Texas had a tough time of things last night as they lost the series opener to [tag]Missouri[/tag]. Missouri has proven to be a thorn in the Longhorns’ side for the last three years. Coming into the series, Mizzou had taken 6 of the last 9 games. The Tigers had also worked their way into 2nd place in the Big 12 as they came to town. So, the Horns couldn’t really afford to take things for granted.

Things started out nicely last night as Texas took the lead 4-2, helped along by two home runs by [tag]Kyle Russell[/tag]. But, the Tigers took the lead in the 6th when they put 4 on the board as the Texas bullpen showed a crack or two. The Horns rallied, though, and tied things up in the 9th. Sadly, they gave up an unearned run in the top of the 11th as Preston Clark made a very rare error on a toss back to [tag]Randy Boone[/tag] that sailed over Boone’s glove. The Missouri runner at third base made a great decision and broke for home, scoring the go-ahead run. In the bottom of the inning, with two out, Texas rallied but the tying run was thrown out at the plate. Tommy Harmon made the decision to send the runner home and said afterward that he didn’t want to end the game with the tying run stranded at third base. He was hoping Missouri would make a mistake on the play. But, Missouri didn’t make a mistake. They won the game 7-6.

The Horns bounced back today, though. In fine fashion. They got a great game out of [tag]Adrian Alaniz[/tag] who went 8.1 innings. He gave up one run on three hits while walking 2 and striking out 4. And, the bullpen did not let him down. [tag]Joseph Krebs[/tag] went in and struck out the final two batters of the game. The Horns scored 2 runs in the 4th and 3 in the 6th to cruise to victory. [tag]Preston Clark[/tag] went 3-for-4 at the plate with a double and two runs scored. [tag]Chais Fuller[/tag] went 3-for-4 with a run scored and 3 runs batted in. Kyle Russell failed to hit any home runs today (“only” going 1-for-4) but that 1 hit pushed the final two runs across for the Horns.

So, the series is even. Here’s hoping the Horns finish it off tomorrow. Austin Wood is expected to get the start. He’s done well lately and seems to be improving. This should be fun.

For more details, you can check out the game reports I posted to my page. See yesterday’s game report or today’s game report.