Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Movies, TV, and 1st Pitches




Movie Moment…

I just saw Silver Linings Playbook this weekend and I have a big question: If you're an Eagles fan, is it hard to watch that movie? I mean, it's an entire film that basically promotes the stereotype that you're all a bunch of violent low-lives.

That reminds me of a story about my audition to do the color commentary for Columbia football back in 2007. The dept. asked me to pair up with Jerry Recco, who had just finished his first year as play-by-play guy for CU, during the spring game. I was splitting that job that with my competition, who was a recent Penn grad.

The Penn grad took a look at Recco’s Dallas Cowboys tote bag and started trashing Jerry’s beloved Cowboys. (If you’re wondering whether that was the smartest move from someone trying out for a job working WITH Recco… well, you’re not alone).

Penn grad said something bad about Dallas and how he was an Eagles fan and Recco responded with something about how at least Cowboys fans aren’t a bunch of low-lives.

All-in-all, that was a pretty fun moment.


Falcone Honored/Baseball Team Dissed

Speaking of NON low-lives, it was great to see CU baseball sophomore Joey Falcone honored by throwing the first pitch at the Mets game Sunday night. He got a huge ovation and wore his Columbia jersey, which was a great added touch.

Meanwhile, the NCAA Regional pairings were announced yesterday and it seems like the selection committee wants the Lions to go quietly into that good night. Columbia is playing #3 Cal-State Fullerton in the opening game on Fullerton’s home field. Then, they’ll play either Arizona State or New Mexico.

The Columbia-Cal State Fullerton game will be broadcast ion ESPNU at 11pm Eastern Time this Friday night. We’ll be watching.


TV Schedule

Speaking of TV schedules and being “dissed,” we have been assured that the NBC Sports Network will not snub Columbia this fall and make the Lions the ONLY Ivy school not getting a game on that network like last year.

I expect the Penn game to be televised and that’s about it… with the exception of the game at Yale, which I expect the YES Network to cover once again as it did last season.

The last two CU-Penn games have been down-to-the-wire nail-biters with some decent highlights, (and the 2010, 2009, 2008 games weren’t stinkers or blowouts either), so the chances that this will be a watchable game for the fans at home are decent. The fact that the game will be the Homecoming day at CU should also make the stands relatively full, (that is, unless the anti-football people on campus find a way to keep their demonization campaign going through the summer and most of the fall).

But the best Columbia game to watch this season, if the past 10 years or so is to be considered, will probably be the game against Brown. The last three Lion-Bear games at Wien Stadium have been extremely good contests, especially the double OT win by Columbia in 2011. But since the Columbia-Brown game is in week 10, it won’t be televised by anyone since that’s also the day of the Harvard-Yale game.

The Columbia-Yale games every year since 2009 have been pretty great too, but again, that’s going to be on YES.


So when you think about it, Columbia-Penn really is the best way to go for NBCSN. Hopefully, the network will end up broadcasting the first Lion win over the Quaker gridders since way back in 1996. 

17 comments:

lionrock said...

"Dissed" may not be the right word for the NCAA Selection Committee's action in placing Columbia in the Cal State Fullerton Divisional Bracket. "Honored" may be a better word as that bracket has three of the highest ranked teams in the country, namely Cal State Fullerton, Arizona State and New Mexico. Columbia will be playing the "Big Boys" before numerous major league scouts at one of the prime stadiums on the West Coast. I suspect our guys are enthusiastically looking forward to the opportunity to play baseball in that fabulous setting.

Anonymous said...

GO LIONS BASEBALL!!!

Anonymous said...

It's not like the stereotype of the Eagles' fans came out of thin air. They've worked on deserving it for years. http://coed.com/2012/01/11/philadelphia-worst-sports-fans/#photo=1

Anonymous said...

Columbia-Penn could very well be televised that week. Only other Ivy game that day is Brown-Princeton. The other teams play OOC, and against nobody especially noteworthy.

Anonymous said...

Jake-if you were in charge of NBCSports Networks, which Ivy games would you air this Fall?

oldlion said...

Eagle fans are the worst. About ten years ago I took a new convertible to a Giants Eagles game and had the misfortune to have to park next to a group of Eagle low life tailgaters. I was in full Giant regalia. We blew out the Eagles that day. When I returned to my car the Eagles tailgaters were gone but their thank you was that they keyed the entire side of my new convertible.

The Eagles can't lose enough.

Jake said...

If I had six other games to work with, (other than Harvard-Yale in week 10), I would do Brown-Harvard, Dartmouth-Penn, Columbia-Penn, Princeton-Harvard, Cornell-Dartmouth, and Harvard-Penn.

Anonymous said...

Don't you hate it when one of CU's infrequent TV appearances is used for a home game?

Anonymous said...

Anyone speak German? What does the tag line on the movie poster say?

InwoodTiger said...

Quick note on the Daily News review of Campbell:

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/uptown/inwood-likes-alien-building-article-1.1347452

Anonymous said...

Cal State Fullerton, which is our opponent in the NCAA Regional Championships this Friday night, has one of the top ranked pitching staffs in the country. New Mexico, which is the third seed in the Fullerton Regionals, has the top slugger in the nation in first baseman, D.J. Peterson, a certain first round draft pick. Arizona State University, the second seed, finished second in the Pac. If we shock the college baseball world and win the Fullerton Regional, our likely opponent in the super regional will be U.C.L.A. Love this Columbia Baseball Team. Hope we surprise everyone. Go Lions!!!!

Anonymous said...

If I had to schedule the NBC Ivy games of the week (trying to get everyone on once):
Princeton-Lehigh
Brown-Harvard
Dartmouth-Penn
Either Penn-W&M or Dartmouth-Yale
Penn-Columbia
Harvard-Princeton
Penn-Brown
Cornell-Dartmouth
Penn-Harvard
Harvard-Yale

WOF said...

Denver fans threw batteries at players, Cleveland fans threw bottles at referees, etc.

Every town has low life fans, the media's perpetuation of the Philly stereotype is lazy journalism - not a knock on you, Jake, just a comment in general about how the media still brings up the Santa snowball incident that occurred 50 years ago...

ungvar said...

Coach M's review of the offense is up on gocolumbialions.com.

Anonymous said...

terrific review by Coach M--very detailed and informative--so much so that we can actually talk specifics on this Board rather than speculate about everything as we have in recent years. Probably no one is more appreciative of all this information then our #1 football fan, namely you, Jake. Can't wait to see what you have to say.

oldlion said...

Looks like the biggest question mark based upon Coach M's review is whether our very tall offensive tackles develop needed lower body strength. Also interesting to note that he seems very high on the five incoming OLs and the one incoming RB.

Anonymous said...

Jake, as you probably know, the movie "Silver Linings Playbook" was adapted from a quasi-autobiographical novel of the same name. The author is a huge Eagles fan who was basically writing from his personal experience. So it's not like the movie director took artistic license to make Eagles fans look particularly bad.

Oldlion, speaking of Eagles fans keying your new convertible, the only time in my life when anything rude has happened to me at a sports event: During a game against Penn at the Palestra on a blisteringly cold February night, my down winter coat was stolen from my seat while I was in the men's room. I was not sitting on the fold-out bleachers so it was not possible for my coat to fall through cracks between rows of seats. Philadelphia fans, gotta love them.