Pat Brennan and Charlie Hatch review the FC Cincinnati vs. Chicago Fire FC game. The Enquire/Phil Didion
Thanks for stopping by on Doc’s day off. We can only hope that Don Garber and his MLS reindeer and sleigh are flying to Cincinnati to tell us that FC Cincinnati has been awarded a franchise. While we look skyward in anticipation, I thought I would mix a bit of best and worst of the year with some other topics that have not been discussed yet in these environs. Posthaste.
Best Cincinnati Sports Moment. Even with a dearth of candidates, the best moment by far was the FC Cincinnati victory against the MLS Chicago Fire in the Lamar Hunt Cup quarter-final. With Mitch Hildebrandt blocking 3 penalty kicks including the final attempt, to win the game, the drama and euphoria were off the charts. Forget just 2017, this victory was the best Cincinnati sports moment since Marvin Lewis’ first playoff win. Oh, that has not happened. I meant since Jay Bruce’s home run to clinch a playoff spot in 2010.
Best Groundhog Day Season. The Reds. For the third consecutive season, the Reds could not crack the 70 win mark and lost ignobly more often than not. To assuage their loyal fans, they declared that they are shopping for a backup shortstop. Their management is drinking from the same self-awareness glass as Roy Moore.
Best Groundhog Day Calendar Year. UC Hoops. The Bearcats had the best offensive team under Mick’s tenure but somehow did not win either the American regular season or conference championships. They also did not make it out of the first weekend of the Big Dance as usual (admittedly drawing UCLA for the second game was tough). After the Bearcats were never in the XU game and managed to post an all too regular 60 points in a road game last Saturday, one has to wonder what the ceiling is for the team. I see one Sweet 16, one conference title, and no really big victories since 2012. Am I the only fan wondering if Mick Cronin is the Marvin Lewis of college hoops?
Most Crushing Defeat – National Edition. The US Men’s soccer team loss to Trinidad and Tobago to keep the U.S. out of the 2018 World Cup. This collapse was Bengals-esque in its epicness. All they needed was to defeat the worst team in the round robin. Even if they tied, they would still be in a playoff with another chance to qualify. Instead, they were uninspired and fell quickly behind on the way to defeat. The moment was as crushing as Jeremy Hill’s fumble against the Steelers or Brandon Phillips getting thrown out by running too aggressively in Game 3 in 2012, or Bronson Koenig hitting a corner buzzer beater to knock the 2nd seeded Muskies out of the 2016 NCAA tournament (actually, I secretly enjoyed that).
Most Cloudy Crystal Ball. UC Football. Where are the Bearcats headed? We all know that they were uninspired and continually getting blown out as Tommy Tuberville searched for retirement property last year. This year did not bring much reason to hope for a quick turnaround. The Cats won the same number of games but in a very unimpressive manner. They won two games by one point, were given a last minute victory by Miami, and struggled with FCS Austin Peay. All but one of their 8 losses would qualify as drubbings. I hope that Fickell is the right guy to resurrect them, but he is the guy who sandwiched a 6-7 campaign in between 12-1 and 12-0 seasons as interim coach at OSU.
Most Awkward Rental Decision. UC playing at NKU this year. BB&T is a wonderful arena and allows UC fans to get excited about the renovations to Fifth Third Arena. But, and this is a big one, the experience is unpleasant. The slow crawl traffic entering and exiting is painful. Couple that with the restaurant desert around the venue (Chipotle and SmashBurger do not qualify as destinations) and the total game experience is uncompelling and rates a 3 on a scale of 10.
Let’s move onto other topics.
If the Era Ends. If Marvin retires at the end of this season, who would you want as his successor? The Bengals have had four good coaches in their 50 years – Marvin, Sam, Forrest Gregg, and PB. The commonality is that none of them had coaching ties to the organization. All others were promoted from the staff and had mediocre if not horrible tenures. At a minimum, no one on the current staff should get the job. Also, I do not care how much we like Hue Jackson, a twice fired coach coming off a 1-31 record should not be given the keys to the franchise during an important transition.
My favorites, assuming they are fired by their current teams, would be Bill O’Brien or Jay Gruden. I am not sure if O’Brien would take the job, but Gruden would. Barring that, would you give Jim Schwartz another chance as a head coach? Forrest Gregg was several years removed from being fired by Cleveland before he landed here. Schwartz has likely learned from his tenure in Detroit. Todd Wash, the Jacksonville defensive coordinator, also deserves a look for what he has done there. As low as our expectations can be of the PBS front office, they actually got the Marvin hiring right 15 years ago. Let’s hope they get it right again.
UCF Is Not UC. I saw a nice parallel between Scott Frost leaving Central Florida for the Nebraska job and Brian Kelly leaving UC for Notre Dame. Both non-power schools completed undefeated seasons and qualified for a New Year’s Day bowl. Both coaches soon left for a better job with Frost actually announcing his departure while still basking in the victory on the field. The parallel ends there because the UCF fans understood Frost’s desire to return to his alma mater and thanked him for coaching for two seasons. The UCF fans will not still be irrationally hating the best coach in their program’s history (and rooting against his new team) nine years later because “they did not like the way he handled leaving” or “he did not stay to coach the bowl game.” Funny that fans near the Magic Kingdom understand the realities of big football better than those on the Ohio.
Scott Rolen HOF? I would not have thought so, but Jay Jaffe of SI makes a good argument for him based on his defensive prowess and his offensive numbers. Apparently, the aptest comparison is to Ron Santo who was finally elected to the Hall the year after he died of cancer which was 7 years after he had both legs amputated due to diabetes. Rolen hopes the Santo comparisons end with the stats. And enshrinement.
Should we dissect tomorrow’s Cure Bowl, Camellia Bowl, and Celebration Bowl or move to non-sports? I hear you, let’s move on.
Women Unhappier Than Men? If you missed it, a British study said that women are unhappier than men for most of their lives. They only surpass men in happiness in their mid-80s. Two thoughts on this. First, if a woman is cooking, shopping, cleaning, and making many decisions for a man because he is slothful by nature, of course he will be happier than her. Second, and mostly a function of the first, by her mid-80s a woman has likely outlived her slothful husband and no longer has to take care of him nor no longer has to fend off his constant requests for intimacy.
Quick Trip Report. I had the best Thanksgiving of my life recently with nothing on the list competing for second. Janice and I took our children to San Francisco for the long weekend. The trip reaffirmed my belief that SF is the best American city. It is physically beautiful, loaded with great sites and activities, and the weather was uncharacteristically fantastic the entire time. We were able to ride bikes across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito (thanks to Alan Henning for that tip), ride Segways through Golden Gate Park, walk through Haight-Ashbury (which Doc would love), visit Muir Woods, and spend a day in Napa Valley where our 21-year-old daughter had her first taste of Wine Country. At the Coppola winery (now called Inglenook), the tasting room attendant learned that Blair was a wine novice and started pouring her samples of $200 bottles of wine. Her future wine country visits will likely pale in comparison. If you are interested, this is a slideshow.
Book. The most affecting book I read this year was Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City about the rental housing issues facing the underclass. We all need to understand the problems they face and how it impacts the rest of their lives.
Music. In 2017 guitars were absent from most pop music which makes “Silver” by Waxahatchee all the more enjoyable due to its buzzy guitars. My favorite track of the year by a fairly wide margin. The video is not for epileptics.
Done. Thanks as always to Doc for letting me sub. Thank you for reading. Have a great weekend and a tremendous holiday season. See you next year.