Tids and Bits

-- How long before we forget how great Rocco Mediate was at this US Open? Nobody remembers who finished second. And this simply will become Tiger's Open. And that's a shame because even with the physical ailments that Tiger was suffering from, Mediate extended Tiger to the limit that we've never seen from Tiger on a course that Tiger has dominated on. Remember Tiger hasn't dominated at the US Open, it had been since 2002 since he won, but this course is one that he dominates on. Had he not been hurt he might have won by 15.

-- Miguel Tejeda returns to Baltimore tonight. Don't be surprised if Miggy does something special tonight. A homerun wouldn't shock me. But I expect the Orioles to win. Maybe a new proud papa, Dennis Sarfate win in relief.

-- The Mount's out of conference schedule includes road games at Georgetown, Penn State, Loyola, Virginia Tech, Lasalle, George Mason, American and Lafayette. The home schedule features Boston University, Navy and Bryant. It would be nice if the Mount could still work its way into one of those exempt tourneys and squeeze some home games out of some of the new formats. Still it would be nice to win three of those road games and sweep the home games and head into the New Year, plus .500. And if this team ends up being as good as I think it might be, winning four or five of the road contests isn't out of the question.

-- Anybody with me in thinking that Italy might work its way through the EURO brackets? Now that they've avoided elimination, the Spaniards can't be thrilled to see the Italians in the first Knockout round.

-- I have no definitive word on whether Deandre Preaster will qualify and be with the Syracuse Orange this fall. However, the rumblings I'm hearing aren't good. Apparently, there is still some test that Preaster will take in late June and that could hold the results. Don't count on him.

-- Also, I think the Orange season is going to begin on ESPN2 versus Northwestern on noon in Chicago. But that is still open for question. It seems that the worldwide leader is debating whether or not to show the Orange and Wildcats or Akron and Wisconsin in that Noon Slot. I can't imagine you'd show Akron and Wisconsin, over two BCS schools from the Chicago and semi-New York market, but you never know. This is all assuming that Michigan/Utah is the other regional ABC game at 3:30 on that opening Saturday.

-- Don't expect Mike Williams to be catching passes for the Orange that day or any day this season. And frankly if the reports are accurate, and he in fact did cheat on an exam, I'm hoping he's never catching passing again for the Orange. As an alum, we don't need that, no matter how much we need to win some football games.

-- I guess I'm the only one who doesn't see the disgrace in firing Willie Randolph after the Mets game last night in Anaheim. I mean we knew it was coming. Certainly, the timing could have been different. And if they didn't fire Randolph after the doubleheader on Sunday in Queens, why do it after the win in LA on Monday night? I don't know those answers. But if the Mets management decided during the day on Monday or during the game Monday night, that enough was enough, then the proper time to let Randolph know was back at the team hotel afterwards. Even if it was 3 in the morning on the East Coast. I don't think it was done to deflect media attention. In this day and age, the media is a 24-hour operation, and maybe the outcry from the media is because they had to work through the night in LA and didn't get to sleep in and play a round of golf before coming to the stadium today and then writing the story after the Mets made the announcement at a 3pm newscast. I won't argue that the Mets aren't in total disarray. I really don't know if its Randolph's fault or not. But lots of guys get fired after games, most of the time not after wins, but after games. It just so happened that this game was on the west coast and until the team got back to the hotel it was the middle of the night on the east coast. The Mets could have waited til this morning, as the Orioles did when they fired their manager in Anaheim a few years ago, but ultimately it doesn't make a lot of difference. And I don't see what the big deal is.