Sunday tidbits at The Confluence

• Can't say much more about OSU-Michigan, 42-39, wow. Doesn't come very often that the game lives up to the hype, but that game sure as hell did. I'd have to credit the great offenses, because they really made their opposing defenses look average, which they certainly are not.
• Count me in as one of those who wouldn't mind seeing a rematch for the national championship. Those are the two best teams in the country, and they should play again to prove that. USC has made a surprisingly good run, and certainly, if they beat ND and UCLA, they'll make a case themselves for #2. To be honest, I'd feel stronger for a Notre Dame case, if they beat USC, because I think they've played a harder schedule, but since Michigan waxed their ass earlier in the year, that just makes my case for a OSU-Michigan rematch that much stronger.
• Gotta give a few props at least for Pitt. They looked damn good, in the first half anyway, against West Virginia. That included maybe the play of the year, with the block of the year, on that punt return. But Pitt's defense has WAY too many holes for a great running team like WVU.
• And hey, how about those GM meetings, Bucs fans !!!!! What a crock of bovine feces. Bob Smizik of the PG writes an excellent article this morning about the sorry state of affairs in the cash grab known as the Pirates front office. Here was the kicker, word came out from the meetings that the Marlins were interesting in trading promising Mike Jacobs to the Bucs for Chris Duffy. But of course, our GM-extraordinaire Dave Littlefield said that the Bucs have no plans to trade him. So let me get this straight, if you won't trade Duffy, just who would you trade ?? What a joke this team has become.
• The Red Sox paid $51 million JUST TO TALK to Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka, who isn't even guaranteed to be a #1 starter !?!? And you're telling me that all is well in Major League Baseball ???
• More ridiculous signings for ridiculously average players; 2B Mark Derosa - 3 years, $13 Million with the Cubs; 3B Wes Helms - 2 years, $5.45 Million with the Marlins; 2B Jose Valentin - 1 year, $3.8 Million with the Mets.
• Surprise, surprise, Randy Moss wants out of Oakland.
• Normally, I wouldn't think twice about the Steelers heading to Cleveland today and walking out with a win, but with the way things have went this year, I'm not surprised at anything that happens with that team.
• Bold prediction time; Dallas puts loss #1 on the Colts today. Just a hunch.
• I think the Ottawa Senators need to submit a request to the NHL to play Buffalo for the rest of the year, after beating them for the second time in as many meetings last night.
• It's still about 40 days away, but I can't wait until my family and I head to the Igloo on Dec. 29th for Leafs/Pens. Home for the holidays, sold-out crowd, great atmosphere with a couple thousand Leaf fans sure to attend, and five rows from the ice, you can't beat that.
• He might be getting long in the tooth, but Brendan Shanahan still has a pretty potent shot.
• The NHL is debutting the "Rail Cam", that will run on a small rail system situated just above the glass on one side of the arena. Now that will be interesting to see. The one problem that I can see with it is that the height of the glass is not uniform in all NHL arenas, nor is the height of the glass the same at all locations around the boards. For instance, the glass height near the goal is higher that closer to center ice. So we'll see how it goes, but I applaud the NHL for taking some steps to make the television product more attractive to potential NHL fans.