I went to the UE game this evening and shot some photos. Hopefully a few of you will enjoy these.

Continue reading Mens Basketball: UE vs. Hanover Photos…

photo courtesy of Courier & Press

West siders are doing backflips as the Reitz football team will be playing for the 4A state title next Saturday in Indianapolis. Reitz defeated the 6-time state champions Indianapolis Cathedral 35-34 Saturday night.

In college sports, IU won the Old Oaken Bucket game against Purdue on Saturday for the first time since 2001. Indiana’s win solidified their chances of going to a bowl game for the first time since 1993. IU rolled through most of the game, but had to overcome a 21-point rally by the Boilermakers in the second half to secure they will play 13.

IU basketball also played over the weekend and put up 100+ points on Longwood.

The injury plagued Colts eeked out a 13-10 win against the Kansas City Chiefs Sunday afternoon. Besides the injuries to our defense and receiving core, kicker Adam Vinatieri is suffering from some sort of mental or physical ailment. That’s the only thing I can think of to explain his missing of 2-4 field goals in the game. The Colts play the Atlanta Falcons on Thanksgiving night.

Now that the weekend is past us, let’s do a bit of cleanup on what you might have missed.

• UE’s men’s basketball team lost their home opener Sunday night to Samford 49-48. [C&P]

• The EPD had a mock shooting at Eastland Mall last night to train mall employees on how to deal with it if the situation were to arise. [C&P]

• Hacienda on the east side caught fire last night. The restaurant plans to reopen for dinner tonight (5PM). [ABC25]

• What a mess. Peyton Manning had 6 interceptions, and Adam Vinatieri missed a game winning field goal to hand the Colts their 2nd straight loss. [Colts.com]

New York Yankees manager Joe Torre turned down a 1 year, $5 million contract today and ended his year run as the manager of baseball’s most storied franchise. Torre rejected the contract because of the $2.5 paycut and performance based incentives outlined in the 1 year deal.

The leading candidate for the Yankees manager position is Evansville’s own Don Mattingly. Mattingly is presently the team’s bench coach, but was the team’s first baseman from 1982-1995. Mattingly’s agent, Ray Schulte, has refuted recent claims that Mattingly doesn’t think he is ready for the managerial position claiming those stories were fabricated. Also in contention for the job are Joe Girardi, Bobby Valentine and the Cardinals’ Tony La Russa.

Speaking of local Major League talent, Jamey Carrol and the Colorado Rockies swept the Arizona Diamondbacks to make it to their first World Series in franchise history. Not bad for a Castle boy. Go Rockies!

photo courtesy of Newsday

Let’s see if we can find some interesting news..

• The Courier & Press’s parent company, E.W Scripps, is splitting into two publicly traded companies: one focused on lifestyle media brands and another focused on local media franchises. Whatever that means. [Courier & Press]

• The National Labor Relations Board just ruled that Casino Aztar’s dealers & floor supervisors can unionize. [ABC25]

• Apparently Sewers For Stadium is catching on with voters. How could it not? Those signs are everywhere. I’m now going to create some It’s Evansville signs and stick them in yards so more people know about us. [FOX7]

• IU basketball coach Kelvin Sampson just lost a $500,000 raise because he once again was caught exceeding the NCAA’s limits on recruiting calls. [Yahoo! Sports]

• In local sports news, the USI basketball team is having a rough go this year. First they lost a player to drug dealing. Now guard Kenny Love’s senior season is over after he completely tore his patella tendon during midnight madness. [Courier & Press]

photo courtesy of Jenna2794

With my Yankees eliminated from the playoffs already, I am not really caring who wins the World Series this year. I plan to still watch the playoffs because I enjoy the game, but not having a horse in the race makes it less exciting.

I could put my allegiance behind the Colorado Rockies though. The Rockies have a local connection to Evansville in their second baseman, Jamey Carroll. Carroll was born and raised in Evansville and played college baseball at UE. He was drafted in 1996 and spent the first part of his career in Montreal/DC. He was traded to Colorado in mid-2006. This season he is batting .225 with 2 home runs.

The Rockies have been a cinderella team in this postseason having won 17 of their last 18 games to secure their spot. They ended the regular season tied with the Padres for the wild-card spot. It was Carroll’s sacrifice fly in the 13th inning of the wild-card playoff that locked in his teams first postseason birth since 1995 (we’ll ignore that debate on whether Matt Holliday touched home plate). The Rockies then made quick work of the Phillies to advance to the NLCS against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The NLCS begins Thursday night at 7:30PM on TBS. I’ll be watching and cheering on an Evansville local boy.

There’s no better way to put an end to the weeklong fried food debauchery of the Fall Festival than trying to run off all those excess calories in the 4th annual Evansville Half Marathon. The race begins at 8AM sharp. The race starts atop Reitz Hill in the Reitz High School parking lot. Parking isn’t exactly abundant around the Reitz area so shuttles will run from 5:45AM to 7:15AM approximately every fifteen minutes from four downtown locations: Vectren, Old National Parking Garage, Integra Parking Garage and the YMCA.

14WFIE reports that the high will be 92 degrees tomorrow, so don’t exactly expect a cool breeze while you’re running. The average high temperature for this time of year should be hovering around 71.2 degrees. Here’s some advice to prepare you for your big run tomorrow.

Carb up: For experienced runners and athletes this is probably common sense, but you want to avoid eating salads and vegetables the night before the race and instead focus on energy providing carbohyrdates. My suggestion? Pasta with a simple marinara sauce. Avoid those high fat sauces like alfredo and pesto.

Cut the caffeine and booze tonight: As tempting as it might be to put back several beers or Diet Mountain Dews tonight while you’re at dinner, stick to water. Caffeine and alcoholic beverages are diuretics, which contributes to dehydration. Caffeine will also keep keep you up at night, which leads me too…

Sleep well, runners: Make sure you get to bed early enough to get a full night’s sleep. On the morning of the race, you’re going to want to wake up early enough to eat and take care of your morning rituals, so going to bed early might not be a bad idea.

Find a ride home: After the grueling 13.1 mile run, it’d be a good idea to find a ride home. You’re most likely going to be exhausted, so have a friend pick you up and put you in front of the TV to recover for the rest of the day.

Good luck!

photo courtesy of Seamus Murray

It’s another weekend which means we have several high school football games taking place in the Evansville area. Go out and support your local team.

Vanderburgh County

• Central at Castle, 7PM
• Reitz at Harrison, 7PM
• Mater Dei at North, 7PM
• Bosse at Memorial, 7PM (Saturday)

Warrick County

• Central at Castle, 7PM
• Mount Vernon at Boonville, 7PM

Henderson County

• Henderson County at Madisonville-N. Hopkins, 7:30PM

Now that the weekend is past us, let’s do a bit of cleanup on what you might have missed.

As is customary, there was a lot of drug-related activity over the weekend. Friday started off with USI’s star point guard, Kenny Page, being suspended indefinitely after he was arrested for dealing marijuana out of his campus apartment. Evansville received a federal grant to deal with the meth problem. The grant gives us just under $350,000 that will be used by the EPD to develop a five year program that requires training, equipment, officer presence, and treatment for those caught with the drug. Will Lee Simpson Jr. learned a lesson this weekend: don’t run a stop sign if you are riding a bicycle. This is especially imperative if you are biking with a bag of cocaine in your pocket.

The Race for the Cure was Sunday had over 17,000 runners on Sunday. The event took place on Evansville east side at Eastland Mall. The event raised over $116,000 through the Friends for the Cure pledge program. It was also announced over the weekend that ZZ Top would be returning to Evansville for another aging rocker show on October 13. Tickets go on sale today. There was also an announcement that November 13 is the tentative date for daily flights from Evansville to Indianapolis to resume.

It was a great weekend for Indiana football teams. Both Purdue and IU went to 3-0 with wins of Central Mchigan and Akron respectively. Purdue starts its Big 10 campaign with a game against Minnesota next Saturday. IU also starts Big 10 competition by playing against Illinois. In the pros, the Colts got by the Tennessee Titans Sunday 22-20 to go 2-0 on the season. The Colts have another division matchup next week with the surprisingly good Houston Texans.

And following up on a story I linked to last week, that lovely dog Shithead, has been exhumed. A Uniontown priest decided he should sue the dog’s owner and the city of Uniontown over the dog’s headstone, so owner Judy Hagan just moved her dog. Remember kids, words hurt and harm.

photo courtesy of littledan77