Jason's Untimely Thoughts

MU and KU recently announced a two-year deal to play their football games in Arrowhead Stadium in KC. I was asked informally about it before it was official, and my response hasn’t changed. I don’t care. Any other weekend and I’d be opposed.

The game is on the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend, meaning it’s a difficult time for students to be in Columbia. As long as it’s that weekend, playing in KC gives it a chance of becoming an event, instead of a home game on either campus played to 70% capacity. And with it being played on that Saturday, I don’t know that you could reasonably expect more than 70% capacity with no students on campus.

It also probably means I’ll be able to go to the next two of these games. While I certainly would have gone to the game in Columbia in 2008, no chance I would have gone to Larry in 2007. Now, probably 80% chance that I’ll go to both of them.

The common criticism of the decision seems to be that the respective athletic directors are money hungry. The criticism seems to most often come from restaurant and retail owners who are afraid this will impact their sales. Seems fairly hypocritical to me.

on a side note, screw ku.

New Year’s greetings to one and all and you and yours. With any luck at all, this will be my only update on us in 2007, until you receive a surprisingly cute and witty Christmas card from us late in the year. Or maybe it’s a cute and surprisingly witty Christmas card. Or maybe it’s just cute. Whatever.

Sarah had another CT scan about a week ago. The spots continue to shrink! While continuing this course of treatment, we also continue to investigate other options for down the road. We will continue the route of having CT scans every 3-6 months to track things and reevaluate as new opportunities present themselves. We’ve also forwarded the updated information to the physicians we saw previously in Baltimore and New Orleans to see if their earlier recommendations are affected. Good news.

In new news, Sarah had a mammogram last week which raised a few questions. We met with a surgeon here in town last week, with the possibility raised of DCIS (ductal carcinoma in situ), and a biopsy was scheduled for yesterday. Sarah just heard from the radiologist a few minutes ago, and the biopsy was negative. In this case, Sarah is seeing doctors at Boone Hospital Center and they are likely going to recommend a further biopsy just to be safe given the medical history. They are being extra careful, for which we’re grateful. The doc did indicate, however, that he would be surprised if the further biopsy contradicted the first results. More good news.

(I started to explain what DCIS was, but google that term if you like. Lots of answers there. Google is Scandinavian for good news.)

Since I’m sending no more updates this year, here’s what you’ll be missing:

• We’re going to Oklahoma City in March for the Big 12 basketball tournaments. We hear OKC is nice. We’re doubtful.
• “OKC” makes me think of something that ‘gangsta’ suburbanites from Overland Park would call themselves.
• At that tournament, the basketball Tigers will continue their late-season run into the NCAA tournament.
• The Tigers will start that late-season run into the NCAA tournament any day now.
• Also at that tournament, I will become physically ill at the sight of Sooner Red, OSU Orange, UT Orange, and the mythical shoe-wearing birds all interspersed around me.
• Jack Thayer turns 2 in June and Adelaide turns 5 in September.
• Sarah & Jason also continue to age, but have stopped bragging about it.
• The football Tigers will reach the elusive 14-0 mark in 2007. I hope to make at least 10 of those games.
• I’ll fail in my efforts to provide no more updates, likely caused at least in part by my wanting to gloat over a MU victory. Now that’s good news.

That is all.

Sarah & I had the good fortune of going to El Paso with the athletic department for Mizzou’s appearance in the Sun Bowl against Oregon State University. On Saturday, we also watched the Tigers’ basketball game against Iowa State.

Both games we had big leads in the last few minutes. Both games we lost on last second ‘shots’. Both times, too many Mizzou fans telling me afterwards that “We’re cursed.” or “Only to Mizzou.”

Only thing consistent (or true) about the sentiment is that too many Mizzou fans think that way. Neither game was the result of a curse. Failure to make plays in both games was a huge problem as were a few referees’ decisions.

For whatever reason, Mizzou fans seem to take much more delight in remembering the bad (I had listed the games here, but realized that was adding to the problem). We’ve beaten KU in basketball when all they had to do was make one of two free throws at the end of the period to win (and beat Illinois similarly a few years ago). We beat SIU in the NCAA tournament recently on a very questionable call at the end in our favor. Dang near every thing we tried offensively against Oregon State worked. We beat Nebraska with a bevy of trick plays in 2003. We beat South Carolina in the Independence Bowl despite being down by seemingly 50 points in the first quarter.

I remember feeling kicked in the gut after the unlucky or tragic losses. I’m not saying they don’t suck. What I am saying, is that it sometimes just comes down to luck. Or making a play. Or the crowd being loud and influencing the action (see Moody free throws) or the referees. I just simply and firmly believe that if MU fans were quicker to look for ways to help their team, instead of looking for ways to point out how we’re going to lose or how this loss is similar to other losses, we could actually help those competing. When it comes down to one play, or one call, or both, the fans’ help might be enough to make the difference.