I feel no sorrow for the Notre Dame fans who have been crying themselves to sleep the last few nights as the Irish chances of a national title appear to have been dashed. Apparently the bandwagon broke down this year, after it received so little use in the past half dozen years.

There are a number of things that have annoyed me about the Notre Dame squad this year, some justified and some ridiculous, and the first of these is the coverage of the team by the media. The fact that NBC owns the exclusive rights to broadcasting Notre Dame games creates a giant conflict of interest in the way the commentators announce the game. They want the Irish to win and they are very biased in their analysis of the game. Hometown announcers always annoy me, hence my dislike of the Atlanta Braves, and watching the press eat their words about Notre Dame's supremacy is a delight.

Secondly, anyone who is worried about the BCS rankings this early in the year, as many of the Irish fans seemed to be when they bemoaned their number three ranking, is an idiot. Rankings are an indicator of the top teams in the country, but nothing is set in stone and the Irish had a great chance to go to the Fiesta Bowl if they just handled their own business and won their four remaining games.

Also, the decision of the Irish to wear green jerseys on Saturday looks like an all-time backfire right about now. Historically, the green jerseys have only been worn in crucial games of the season or in big rivalry matchups. In hindsight this game clearly changed the season around, but not many people expected it to. I think that the green jerseys may have been a marketing decision, made to drive the sales of Irish merchandise-like alternate jerseys in baseball and basketball-and I am glad to see it turn out for the worst. Messing with the type of karma that the Irish had this year, which was considerable, was an idiotic decision.

With all of that said, the Irish are one of the top teams in the country. They should find themselves in a BCS bowl game at the end of the year, if only because they draw so many fans and it would be a good economic decision for the bowls. Tyrone Willingham has done what no one expected him to do so quickly, return the Irish to glory and Notre Dame has a bright future ahead of it still. The bandwagon will be full for the near future, but right now the line to get off is long.

A's too smart for own good

I read an interesting theory which explains the disparity between the A's regular season and postseason success. The A's stress an offensive strategy that focuses on drawing walks, which plays better in the regular season than the postseason.

The A's have stressed an organization-wide offensive strategy based around patience and power. Players in the A's farm clubs are only eligible for organizational awards-such as player of the month, etc.-if they walk at least once for every 10 plate appearances that they have. Additionally, the team shies away from base stealing, because the risk of having a runner thrown out is magnified if others in the lineup are legitimate home run threats. This strategy breeds power hitters who also have high on-base percentages, and it has worked well in the regular season.

But the fact that the A's have fallen in the first round three consecutive year belies a major problem. The A's offense works well during the regular season because the pitching that they see isn't as good. Walking in a baseball game is something that you cannot control-you can be as patient as you want, but if the pitcher only throws strikes you will never walk. And in the postseason, where the pitching is generally better, pitchers throw more strikes and fewer balls. The A's on- base percentage then falls, and home runs that drove in three runs in the regular season are now driving in only one. The A's model is being followed and stressed all over baseball right now, but it may be a folly to rely so heavily on the strategy. What has been overlooked, by this franchise and others, are players who can manufacture runs in an "old-school" type of way-by stealing bases and playing small ball. Traditional sluggers, whom the A's have been producing, do not run well and their one-dimensional style of play has hurt the club.

The Yankees' recent dynasty was predicated upon the ability of their players to manufacture runs and their great pitching would allow them to win games. The Yankees' failures over the last two years have come at the same time that their home run total has skyrocketed and I think that the two may be connected. Yes, their pitching has also deteriorated and Derek Jeter has seen his stats plummet since his breakout 1999 season, but I think that their style of play has hampered their ability to win in the postseason. The A's have the pitching to win a World Series right now, but without a change in their offensive approach they may be doomed. The genius of Sandy Alderson and Billy Beane, the primary creators of Oakland's style, has been well documented, but it may have been a bit early, because ultimately the A's strategy hasn't worked when it counts.