Mike Rundle's Weblog

Eagles or Packers?

So with the NFL post-season gaining strength, I thought that I might exercise my franchise to talk sports.

I live about 40 minutes away from Syracuse, New York — home to the NCAA basketball national champs, and quite possibly the most pathetic football team SU has had in quite some time.

I remember going to the Carrier Dome as a little kid, watching basketball and football games with my Dad and Uncle Moe (coolest nickname ever!). I grew up in a family of diehard SU fans, all of which have been deeply intertwined with the ups and downs of the SU sports program since many, many years ago. I, therefore, am too an SU fan.

It is because of this that the Eagles are now officially my NFL team.

I remember watching Donovan McNabb as a fledgling quarterback for my beloved Orangemen. He was their starting QB for all four years, named the Big East Conference's Offensive Player of the 90s, set all sorts of Syracuse University all-time records, and was even a part of SU's basketball program at one point. Because of all these reasons and more, I think it will be okay if I start to follow the Eagles, simply because Donovan McNabb is the man. So go eat your Chunky Soup little man!

Now, my love is somewhat split between the Eagles and the Green Bay Packers, and for an odd reason too. I play Madden NFL 2004 on PlayStation 2 with my roommates constantly, and I'm always the Packers.. Doesn't matter, I'm Green Bay, you're someone else, that's how it goes. I know all the plays, the vast majority of players on both sides of the ball, the coaching staff, the offensive strategies, and I could go on if I wanted to. Now you see my dilemma.

So I think from on, my official team will be the Eagles, but I will never root against the Packers. Never ever ever... unless the two shall meet. Then I'm screwed.

Happy Holidays ;)

Mud Bowl

For those of you who aren't in the know, I receive work study financial benefits (read: small paychecks) for being an intramural flag football referee here at RIT.

Sunday afternoons are my domain. I strut onto the field at high noon with my whistle a-blazing, and demand respect from all who dare wear the colored flags around their waists. "Captains!!!!! Get over here!!!!" At 12:02pm, the first playoff game started.

To be continued...

Turn the Hand Over

I apologize in advance for those of you who have no interest in golf but still want to read this weblog... what I'll be writing about for now and in the upcoming weeks will probably be golf-related, at least until it starts snowing ;)

I played today with Mikey B. and had a decent score of 3 over. We only played the front, but after a few holes it started drizzling and the wind picked up, so our scores ballooned after the second par 3.

I was hitting my driver pretty well, moving it consistently right-to-left, but I was still able to fade it when needed. I just bought the Titleist 975J (9.5 loft, stiff shaft) at the end of last season, and its been magical ever since.

My irons weren't behaving as well as my big stick, I was coming through the ball with my hips out in front more than I should have been and that caused some wayward fades with my longer irons. After I fixed that problem I dropped a bomb on the par 5 ninth, only about 223 left on the 520 yarder.

I pulled a 5 iron for my approach, I had to thread it over some trees, up a hill, around a bend to an elevated green with the pin tucked back left under an overhanging maple. Money shot.

Made awesome contact, right over the tree, drew it around about 15-20 yards, and stuck it just in the fringe greenside right. When I got up there the wind felt like it was moving around 20 mph back into my face, so that 5 iron I hit would have travelled 230 had it not been an uphill wind-hindered shot.

I chipped up to about 7 feet, made the slight right-to-lefter for birdie, and drove home. Right after we got in the car, the heavens opened up and it started pouring.

Utica City Amateur

At around 1:30 in the morning early on Saturday, my buddy Mike calls me from a local stripclub, complete with the "bow chika wow wow" thumping beat in the background.

Mike: "Dude, what are you doin tomorrow morning?"
Me:"I dunno man, but I'm not gonna caddy for you in the City Amateur"
Mike: "No no no, our fourth cancelled, you wanna play?"
Me: "I don't think so, I had my ingrown toenail half-removed earlier today and I don't think it'll be a very good idea..."
Mike: "Dude, we're gettin' carts, it'll be all good"
Me: "Sweet, I'll be there.... what time?"
Mike: "6am"

So I set my alarm clock for 5:10 because the course is about a half hour away, and I had to register and putt first. It was still dark when I got there.

It was a fun round, no pressure, just playing golf with some friends of mine. I ended up stinkin' up the course with an 83 while Mike shot even par (with 5 birds, go figure). That was the qualifying round for the final 18 today, and in a couple of hours we'll see how playing in the final group worked out for him.

Just to give you an idea of how long he is, Mike is around 5'10" 185, and hits his tee shots an average of 340 yards. PW: 155 yards. 8 iron: 175 yards.

I'm a weakling next to him — he outdrives me by about 20 yards and has about 5-10 yards per iron on me too. Oh well.

BTW: I caved and bought the membership to keep my TypePad weblog alive. If anyone wants a 20% off lifetime discount, email me and I'll see what I can do ;)

The Open Championship

Congratulations goes to Ben Curtis, the 2003 Open Champion.

He beat out a charging Vijay Singh, Thomas Bjorn, Sergio Garcia, and ofcourse, Tiger Woods to win the coveted Claret Jug today at approximately 2pm central time.

Don't know who Ben Curtis is? Don't worry, most of the world doesn't either. He has never been in the Top 10 in ANY professional tour event, and has played the Hooters Tour the past two years after he graduated college.

He's a hometown boy from Ohio, and in his early twenties, has already taken part in the most important event of his life.

Ben was in the lead after the 3rd round at Royal St. Georges Golf Club, and after Tiger scorched the field with a round in the mid-sixties, Tiger was in the hunt on the fourth day of competition. The front round was almost non-eventful with Ben and Tiger exchanging birdies and pars, all the while fending off the likes of Bjorn and Singh at every pass.

The back nine was an exciting one, with Tiger three to four strokes back of Curtis and Bjorn the whole afternoon. Finally, right after a string of bogies from Ben (likely coming from the pressure of competition), Thomas Bjorn was in position to finally take the lead away from the young midwesterner.

In the pot bunker, right of the green on 16, Thomas needed 3 shots to leave the sand and finished the whole with a horrid double-bogey. This brought the whole field to its knees, with everyone sitting par or better thinking they now had a chance at the Jug.

But Tiger missed a pivotal par putt on 14 that would have vaulted him into a tie for the lead. With Tiger falling and Bjorn dropping, Ben Curtis stepped up the 18th and ripped a tee shot that would prove enough to hold off the field and win it all.

Derek Jeter

Rolling North on Michigan Avenue yesterday afternoon, just two blocks South of the new Apple store, someone turned into the lane next to me that I recognized.

In a Silver 2003 BMW X5, Derek Jeter drove right past me... close enough for me to fling a sack of ballpark peanuts right into his lap.

Ofcourse my girlfriend didn't believe me... I mean I told her the weekend before that I saw Emmit Smith rolling in his ML55 in approximately the same area...

But this morning on B96, Eddie and Joe Bo's morning show, they were talking about how Derek Jeter and Jason Giambe were spotted in Excalibur nightclub last night, and how they were in town for the All-Star game and such.

So the facts are: Derek Jeter is in town for the All-Star game, he was at a Chicago nightclub less than 5 blocks from the Apple Store last night, and he was spotted flossin' his X5 on Chicago's equiv of 5th Ave. in the City.

Who da man? I da man.