Jason's Untimely Thoughts

… from the Beckings. Jack, Adelaide, Sarah, and Jason have each had a fun-filled year, details of which we’ll now bore you with.

The little lad Jack Thayer recently weighed in at 34 pounds, which happened to equate to a pound per inch tall. He had his first birthday party in June and was seemingly unimpressed. He’s getting around anywhere he wants to go at this point, enjoys throwing pens and remote controls at Jason’s nose, and finds particular amusement in throwing the vast collection of balls we keep in Kitchen #1 down the basement stairs. “Uh oh”, “oh no”, “down”, and “bye” are each likely responses when a ball disappears. He’s not really much of a talker yet, but that’s mostly due to lack of opportunity.

Which leads us directly to older sis Adelaide. AEB turned 4 years old in September. She loves movies and pretending and dancing and telling stores, some of which are based upon facts. She’s become a busy chick, with dance recitals, soccer camp, dance camp, swimming camp, dancing in Living Windows in downtown Columbia, etc., sprinkled throughout the year. Her schedule has hit a reprieve, though, as she’s decided against going to any more Tiger men’s basketball games. She doesn’t get to go to the locker room with the Golden Girls at those, which is honestly enough reason for almost anyone to quit going to the men’s basketball games.

Sarah has seen her schedule pick up quite a bit, as is always the case in the fall. MU pictures, family photos, kids photos, and other randomness keep her as busy as she wants to be in the photography realm. She’s fortunate to have a compadre here in town that shares resources with her, benefiting both of them we think. Her photography and search for health information (with help from grandparents) have allowed us to see great friends in Tyler & Waco, Texas, New Orleans, DC, Columbus, Portland, and more. We’re also blessed to see so many friends and family come through Columbia, particularly around football season. (And she’s feeling well, thank you.)

Jason is still working at Miller’s Professional Imaging, which he enjoys very much. He enjoys it even more when everyone he knows uses Mpix.com instead of Shutterfly, Walgreens, and the like. We have a 34 pound baby to feed, you know. Beyond work, Jason still enjoys all things sports, particularly Mizzou, and chasing the kids around. Although chasing the kids around sort of applies to work as well. Sadly, he lost his gall bladder this year, an event from which he’s still recovering his humor (old joke, but everything gets funnier with repetition).

In all seriousness, we know life is busy and crazy for everyone and we appreciate everyone’s efforts on our behalves this year. We’ve been smacked in the head with reminders of how many great friends and family we have who are willing and available to look out for us however they can.

May your days be filled with family and friends and fun and funniness and may your favorite teams be victorious. Except for fans of the mythical shoe-wearing birds, you’ll just have to get by with family and friends and fun and funniness.

Tonight at 8 p.m., MU takes on Illinois in the annual “Busch Braggin’ Rights” game in St. Louis.

Between all sports, MU, Columbia College, random high school junk, I probably attend 100 sporting events a year. A big win, or a surprising upset, or something spectacular can pop up, but for predictable fantasticness, you can mark your calendar for this game every year.

The two teams are historically relatively good, relatively even, and relatively close together geographically. There’s normally a player or two on either team who played against the other guys in high school, or wanted to go to the other school but wasn’t recruited by them, or something. Add in the end of the semester, the ‘start’ of Christmas vacation for a lot of people, and you get the perfect combination of rivalry and revelry.

The crowd is almost always evenly split between MU and ILL fans, meaning half the joint is always happy and the other half is always feeling cheated. Both halves are nervous, based on the crazy history of comebacks and letdowns in this game.

All in all, good times. Starts tonight at 8 on ESPN. I’ll be sitting mid-court, about 10 rows up. I rock, but not as much as this game.

On a side note, screw ku.

19 Tigers will be playing their final games at Faurot Field on Saturday. If you have the chance and don’t come honor their efforts, you’re a beaker. Unless of course, you really are a beaker in which case I don’t know how to insult you further.

From MUTigers.com press release:

Nineteen Tiger seniors will suit up one last time at MU’s Faurot Field Saturday when they don the Black and Gold for the 2006 home finale vs. Kansas. This class has been a part of some great moments in Tiger football history. They have helped MU to 27 wins over the course of the 2003 season through now. This class (Head Coach Gary Pinkel’s second after taking over at Mizzou prior to the 2001 season) is the first since the 1983 senior class to play in three bowl games (MU appeared in three bowl games in a four-year span from 1980-83). Many of them played key roles in helping Mizzou to an 8-5 record in 2003 and to a 7-5 campaign in 2005 and MU’s first bowl win since 1998. Three Tigers listed as juniors eligibility-wise (Josh Barbo, David Lazaroff and Trace Teas) are being recognized as seniors this year, as all three are seniors academically, and have chosen not to use their final year of eligibility in 2007. Here’s a quick look at the senior class of 2006:

If you haven’t noticed yet, and judging by the empty seats many haven’t, basketball season is fun again. Defensive effort, all around hustle, and an alley-oop per game have made MU an exciting team to watch. Currently 5-0 on the season, come get it while it’s hot.

On football, the losses have sucked. Over-reactionary fanaticism now rules the day. Get over it. We had the ISU game won, no matter how bad we played, but were nailed by a now admitted bad call. Some will say it doesn’t matter, the Tigers should never have been in that position to begin with. They’re right, except it does matter. The Tigers made plays to win the game. It’s the final home game of the year, against the shoebirds, and Senior Day. Come to the game and cheer for the Tigers.

Below is a link to Dave Matter’s Columbia Tribune football blog with quotes regarding the jacked-up holding call.

Behind The Stripes

missouritigers.com

MissouriTigers.com is funny again occasionally.

One of the many reasons I opposed the bastards at SMS stealing the Missouri State name is that I believe that leads down a road that ultimately harms higher education for Missourians. By giving ‘equal names’, they’ve created two allegedly equal universities in the eyes of most citizens, and more importantly most legislators, when by all reasonable standards MU is the premier (public) education institution in the state.

To quote a high-ranking MU official, “You invest in us and it will pay. If you lump us in with those who are not our peers, water down our identity and obscure our reputation, everyone loses.”

Here’s a commencement address to Texas A&M students by Robert Berdahl, Chancellor of UC-Berkely and former President of UT-Austin dealing with the issue of poor state planning and the potential result for flagship universities.

Some folks are probably wondering why Sarah hasn’t had photos from the last two games. No worries, no problems. Had a friend visiting from out of town for the first time in 7+ years, so planned on missing Friday’s game. Last minute chatting, decided to miss Saturday as well.
I’m typing this while watching the UT/K-State football game. I wonder why I don’t yet have a job as a sports commentator. These guys are awful and ill-informed.

KU, after recently receiving positive press for being home of a “a “near absence” of innovative research” with “an ‘alarmingly low number‘ of publications, and lack of teamwork,” received more good news today when the NCAA released their report on KU’s cheating.

KU was found guilty of academic fraud in the football program, providing improper benefits to basketball players, both “major violations”. Total (lack of) effort resulted in beakers being cited for Lack of Institutional Control and entire shoebirdville placed on probation until October 2009.

Probably the best tidbit was the KU compliance offer stating she was told by the Athletic Director that “compliance doesn’t sell tickets.”

More detail and other highlights:

• Booster gives more than $5,000 in benefits to two basketball players and their families.
• Former head coach liar Roy Williams telling boosters it was OK to give money to graduated players, saying he asked compliance officials, but strangely not remembering who he talked to and none of them remembering that he asked them.
• Football graduate assistant coach providing test answers to two recruits.

Penalties (partial list):

• Three years probation for athletic department
• Loss of three initial scholarships in football for each of the next two years.
• Accepting KU’s self-imposed sanctions on women’s basketball, while taking time to point out the preposterousness of those sanctions when compared to what the beakers self-imposed on men’s basketball.
• Loss of one scholarship in men’s basketball for each of the next two years. Also reduce the number of official recruiting visits.

For any KU fans who have given MU fans crap over the past few years, say you’re sorry, admit your cheating was exponentially worse than anything we were ever even accused of, and move on.

On a side note, screw ku.

Sarah & I are headed to College Station, Texas, later in the week to watch the Tigers take on Texas A&M. Can’t wait, both to see their craziness and then to see their craziness dejected as Mizzou improves to 7-0 on the season. Before that, though, thank you Aggies for beating the shoebirds.

Fantastic game on Saturday as MU beat Texas Tech 38-21. As a fan, hard to imagine a better game to watch for pure excitement. Fun, fun, fun, and congrats to the Tigers.

Prior to the game, Tech coach Mike Leach had the following to say about the Tigers (as quoted in numerous papers):
“The hard thing to tell about Missouri, I don’t totally identify with anybody they’ve played,” Tech coach Mike Leach said early in the week. “I don’t know much about the teams they’ve played. Missouri’s obviously done a good job against all of them. Just trying to figure out how good they really are, it’s hard to tell. But they look like a real good team in all the games I’ve watched.”

Thank you Tigers for solving Leach’s identity crisis. He now has five (and counting) other souls from this season that he can commiserate with.

On a side note, screw ku.

Random Thoughts on a hot October Monday afternoon…

• 94 degrees on October 2!!! Crazy.
• I went to the Rams/Lions game yesterday. First NFL game I’ve been to in 7-8 years. It’s amazing how fast those guys are. Also amazing how much less interested in the game I am when I absolutely couldn’t care less who wins.
• Cardinals fans (of which I’m one) are supposedly the best fans in baseball. When the team is playing poorly, though, those best fans sound an awful lot like the bad fans the rest of the country has.
• Tigers are 5-0 with games at Texas Tech and Texas A&M before returning to Faurot Field. First time MU is 5-0 since 1981. The downside of all this is lost produtivity all over mid-Missouri. The weeks are unbelievably long between games now. I’m ready to go to the next game by Tuesday.
• Speaking of going to the next game, if anyone has an extra seat to Texas Tech, preferably on something that flies, I’d be happy to accompany you.
• A friend was telling a story at the last tailgate about doing military training years ago with Canada’s Princess Alexandra Light Infantry (or something very similar)… I’m no military expert, but I’d suggest renaming that group.
• By “the last tailgate” above, I didn’t mean to imply that there were no more tailgates. “Most recent” would have been a better choice of words. Thankfully, though, it was the last tailgate of the year with my co-workers.
• KU got beat by Nebraska. Hooray for them. If only Nebraska could have lost also.