Bleacher Report - Articles by J Pat Dyer

West Virginia-Auburn: Mountaineers Serve Notice to Big East Contenders

J Pat Dyer — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 08:24:00 -0400

I know I have been surprisingly quiet as my West Virginia Mountaineers reeled off a three-game win streak. The reason, of course, is because they looked terrible doing it. Some of the cause was an injury to two-time Big East player of the year Patrick White.

Last night they played a team from the SEC. The mere mention of those three letters gives most coaches nightmares. Thankfully, Bill Stewart is not most coaches.

Stewart knows the SEC are bullies, and the way to battle a bully is to stand and fight.

When confronted with a team which will fight, the powers of the SEC use their much talked about speed to run around their opponent. This is why West Virginia has feasted on SEC teams the last few years.

No one outruns the West Virginia Mountaineers!

The Blue and Gold are a track team in helmets. Patrick White is a lightning bolt. Noel Devine is a 180-pound hummingbird. The receivers are pure speed.

Last night, play after play the Auburn defense thought they had Noel Devine—they thought wrong. The young running back carried 17 times for 207 yards and one touchdown.

When Devine didn't have the ball, Pat White did. White's foot speed is a legend in Morgantown, but his arm is underrated, and last night he showed it. After throwing only his second and third interceptions of the year, Patrick picked apart the Tiger secondary.

The threat of him running makes defenses pause, and that's all the advantage the Alabama-born quarterback needed to surgically show the football world that the Mountaineers are ready to defend their Big East title.

On Oct. 23, 2008, on a brisk Thursday night in Morgantown, the Mountaineers beat the Auburn Tigers, but they served notice to the Pitt Panthers and South Florida Bulls.

Patrick White, Noel Devine, and a maturing young team let the powers of the their conference know that until proven otherwise, the Big East trophy still sings, "Country roads, take me home to the place I belong, West Virginia..."

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Disappointed in Michigan

J Pat Dyer — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 11:18:58 -0400

My prediction was exactly right. Except for Dale Jr. winning, Kyle Busch finishing out of the top 20, and Dale Jr. moving to third in points.

The amazing part is that it all looked possible early on in the race as Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was the class of the field.

On lap two Junior had second and by lap eight he was leading. He extended the lead to four seconds by lap 19 when a caution came out.

After the pit stops Junior was third, but by lap 29 he had the lead again. By lap 42 Junior had already led 29 laps.

It was on lap 42 that Dale Jr. reported his water temp was 265. The rise in temperature was caused by paper blocking his grill.

Instead of pitting to clear the debris Junior slowed, letting Brian Vickers pass him, so he could get up behind him and get the draft to clear his radiator blockage. It worked and he chose not to race hard, dropping back a few hundred feet to let the engine cool further.

By lap 52 Junior reported that his temp was 240 and he was ready to race again. Then on lap 67 he came in for a green flag stop. On 68, with everyone cycled through already, Junior was leading again.

This was the beginning of the end as his car was too loose to control. Edwards took the lead on lap 74. Junior was third by lap 77, fourth on lap 78, and fifth on lap 82.

Then Blaney, Newman, and Menard came together, with Blaney getting the worst of it and yellow flag stops started.

Junior's team did a good job and he was fourth after the caution on lap 90. The problem was that the car was not as good as the pit crew and Junior dropped to eighth by lap 96.

During the restart Gordon and Johnson had bumped, cutting Gordon's tire. On lap 97 the tire blew and the No. 24 hit the wall, bringing out another caution.

Junior restarted ninth and remained there until lap 115 when he started to move again. On lap 130 he was sixth.

On lap 142 Kyle Busch led for the first time, and 10 laps later Junior reached the top five.

On lap 165 there was a caution for debris. Junior restarted sixth and Vickers led.

Junior's car was still not good and by lap 173 he had dropped back down to ninth. Then a caution for debris came out and Junior didn't pit.

He restarted second on lap 182. Edwards passed him immediately, and the next thing we knew Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was hitting the wall. He had to pit with most of his front right side gone. When he got back out on lap 187 he was 32nd, one lap down. On lap 191 he was 27th, and two laps later he was 25th.

A caution was thrown on lap 194. The restart, with Edwards leading, came with two left and he held off Kyle Busch for the win. This was Carl Edwards' fifth win of the season. Junior finished 23rd

Busch still leads the points and has clinched a spot in the Chase. Edwards is second in points. Johnson is third after battling back to 17th and finishing the race skidding through the grass infield.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. still holds fourth in points and is almost a lock to win the race with three to go.

Bristol is next week under the lights on Saturday night.

Earnhardt Nation Website

Women's Golf is Fun to Watch

J Pat Dyer — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 05:48:00 -0400

I think women's golf is fun to watch. It is a sport with many beautiful women. Anytime you can combine great looking females and sports, you have a viewer-friendly show.

Recently, I have had several people criticize my thoughts. They say golf is not about all the pretty faces and that people like me shouldn't watch the sport.

They say people like me treat it as a beauty pageant and it is not. It is a sport with talented athletes. It doesn't rely on looks to get viewers like women's tennis does.

First of all, I agree completely. Women's golf is full of talented athletes. What Paula Creamer or Natalie Gulbis can do with a club is impressive. What they can do with a short skirt is also spectacular.

I don't understand why I can't watch women's golf and appreciate the beauty of the play and the beauty of the players. Am I the only one who thinks this way?

I began to wonder if I am the first person to notice many women golfers are as pretty as movie stars. Maybe I was demeaning the sport by not only watching Paula Creamer drive the ball but also watching her walk after it.

So I decided to see if I was crazy and everyone else is watching ladies golf for pure sport.

I decided to use Google as a measuring stick. Not a perfect instrument but a gauge nonetheless.

I looked up how many people searched for the current top golfer, Lorena Ochoa. I compared her searches with how many people searched for who I consider the greatest female golfer of our time, Annika Sorenstam.

I found, twice as many people searched for Ochoa as they did Sorenstam. I expected those results. Ochoa is playing better right now. Lorena has six wins this year, compared to Annika's three. I saw searches tended to go up on the week the player won.

So maybe beauty has nothing to do with golf, and I am as people have said: crazy. Lorena Ochoa has twice as many victories and she gets searched twice as much. Skill is what makes a golfer popular.

Then I thought, let's look at how Paula Creamer compares to those two. Creamer also has three tour wins this year, so her numbers should be close to Annika Sorenstam. They aren't!

Paula Creamer gets searched three times as much this year as Annika Sorenstam and 50 percent more than Ochoa. mmm? So I am not the only one that would like to search Paula Creamer.

Could it be because Paula Creamer is a hottie?

So to prove or disprove the hottie factor, I looked up Anna Rawson. She is a rookie with no wins on the tour. She doesn't even have an exemption. She is, however, very pretty.

If people are interested in women's golf as purely a sport, she should have very little search traffic compared to Sorenstam, Creamer and Ochoa.

Anna Rawson gets less than half the traffic Paula Creamer gets and 35 percent less traffic this year than Ochoa. However, she gets 30 percent more traffic than Sorenstam!

I think this again lends proof that I am not the only man (person) who enjoys nice legs in golf shorts.

Sure, it doesn't absolutely prove anything but it hints that I am not alone.

So before I was done, just for fun, I decided to run Natalie Gulbis up the flagpole and see how she searches. Natale is a young blonde hottie who plays well, but is nowhere in the class yet of Ochoa, Sorenstam, or Creamer as a golfer.

Natalie, with her one tour win, gets almost five times more searches than Annika Sorenstam. She gets just short of two and a half more than Ochoa. She triples Rawson and even gets 63 percent more traffic than Paula Creamer.

You don't suppose it's because she plays pretty decent, plus has a swimsuit calendar?

No that cannot be it. I am the only man who dares to notice the beauty of Creamer, Rawson or Gulbis.

So let's recap.

If I were to rank the top five players by golf accomplishments I would say;

Annika Sorenstam
Lorena Ochoa
Paula Creamer
Natalie Gulbis
Anna Rawson

If I was to rank them by my opinion of their looks;

Paula Creamer
Natalie Gulbis
Anna Rawson
Lorena Ochoa
Annika Sorenstam

Now granted that is only my opinion.

Now lets rank them by Google searches;

Natalie Gulbis
Paula Creamer
Lorena Ochoa
Anna Rawson
Annika Sorenstam

It seems maybe there are a few of us who like women's golf for both the thrill of sport and the visual beauty of the players.

This is especially true if you consider I tend to lean towards blondes and Ochoa probably did worse on my looks list because of her dark hair and eyes than she would on someone else's.

This was far from a controlled experiment and doesn't absolutely prove anything, except for maybe I am not the only man in the world who appreciates the iron play of Paula Creamer and the way she looks in her tight white pants.

I know this makes men pigs because women would never like Dale Earnhardt Jr. or Kasey Kahne because of the way they look in a race suit.

Women pick their athletes, I am sure, purely by the way they perform.

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Dale Earnhardt Deserves better and So Does Martha

J Pat Dyer — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 04:36:46 -0400

It was bad enough they took down Dale's flags—now we find out it was because of Martha Stewart.

Lifestyle guru Martha Stewart was the guest of a billionaire developer who prompted local officials to take down flags honoring the late NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt in his hometown, newspapers reported Friday." Stewart visited the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis on Thursday with David Murdock, the campus founder and owner of Dole Food Co.

Does the term "Yankee Go Home" mean anything?

Martha Stewart didn't know where Kannapolis was before this week, and the city, in their infinite wisdom, decided to insult the man who put the small textile town on the map because they thought she might not like the tattered Earnhardt flags?

Ask anyone what they know about Kannapolis, NC, and you might get a couple of "didn't Canon towels used to be there?" You probably would get a whole bunch of "never heard of it."

In Connecticut, where Martha Stewart lives, you would hear "who cares...isn't that in the south?"

Go to a NASCAR track and ask the question—what do you know about Kannapolis, NC?" Whether it is a track in southern California, Michigan, or Richmond, VA, I believe you would get the same answer.

People would stop, stare blankly, at your stupid question and reverently say—"it's where The Earnhardts are from, it's where Dale and Junior was born."

Martha Stewart was literally a Connecticut Yankee in King Dale's court.

She was the guest. She deserves like all guests to be treated with southern hospitality. She like all guests should be made to feel welcome but that doesn't mean we sell the dog and throw out the old couch when she visits.

Martha Stewart may be a big thing to the rest of America, but in NASCAR, she is nothing but an ex-con.

To a nation of followers, Martha Stewart may be someone you listen to, someone you honor but not in The Earnhardt Nation.

In our nation, there is but one Martha. Our Martha doesn't try to tell people what to do or think. Our Martha is quiet and unassuming. Our Martha receives respect without once asking for it.

Our Martha, like Stewart, walks into a room, in our circles, and men take off their hats. Women greet her politely. The giants of NASCAR treat her like a queen.

Our Martha was married to the greatest dirt track driver ever to stir dust. Our Martha gave birth to The Intimidator. Our Martha played a big part in raising the most popular driver in NASCAR history.

Martha Earnhardt is the matriarch of the great Earnhardt family. She is the only woman in the history of NASCAR to be married to a NASCAR Champion (Sportsman Class), give birth to a NASCAR Champion ( Seven Winston Cups) and grandparent a NASCAR Champion (two Busch titles).

If young Jeffery has his way, she will also great grandparent a Champion.

She is a queen in our world. So how does a queen get treated in her hometown?

Obviously not well.

They take down the tattered flags which honor her dead son.

People have focused on what Dale would think if he was alive—that's not important.

What is important is how Martha Earnhardt feels.

She gave her son to the sport.

This week, Kannapolis was embarrassed by him.

How things have changed. Following the death of Dale Earnhardt the following was said; Moss, the Kannapolis mayor travels across the country frequently and often finds himself mentioning that he’s from Kannapolis. “Nobody knows Kannapolis until I tell them it’s the home of Dale Earnhardt,” Moss said. Towels built Kannapolis, but Earnhardt made it famous.

Kannapolis, you should be ashamed.

Tennis Will Never Be the Same After Ashley Harkleroad

J Pat Dyer — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 06:33:00 -0400

Tennis was a sport played by coy women. Little TV teases like Maria Sharapova and Anna Kournikova.

Women known as much for their beauty as their backhand. Women who show a lot of leg. Women who have necklines almost cut to there. Women who wear sexy outfits on the court and get caught, by photographers, in bikinis and miniskirts off the court. Women who knew marketing was as much about being tall, blonde and lithe as being a dominant force in the sport.

All that changed last week.

Ashley Harkleroad appeared in Playboy. It was not a little tease of an article. The photos delivered everything as promised.

She was there in various poses with her tennis skirt, sports bra and a few pictures with neither. It was everything you would expect from a pictorial in Playboy. It was a professional tennis player in all her glory.

This was not Sharapova in a short skirt on Letterman. This was not Kournikova in a tight sweater on Leno. This was a tall, blonde and beautiful, professional athlete as naked as the day she was born. Granted she is not one of the world's best, but neither was Anna Kournikova.

Ashley Harkleroad has blazed a trail. Never again will we be satisfied with a glimpse of cleavage on center court. Never again will we be content to see upper thigh on a rush to the net. Never again will a bikini shot on the French Riviera bring the same attention it did before Harkleroad. We have seen the promised land, and we like it.

It will, from this point forward, take skin to win. No longer will a marginally skilled player with looks, like Kournikova, be able to smile her way to millions.

She will have to produce more than a braless T-shirt shot on Sports Center to get attention. To be considered a tennis sex symbol, she will have to produce the goods.

Tennis stars will now be like movie stars: their clothed beauty will be expected and not cherished. They will have to do something more to get notoriety. They will have to do a "Harkleroad' to get famous.

Either that, or just play great tennis—that will work too!

More articles that mention Ashley Harkleroad

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Paula Creamer Needs to "Pull a Harkleroad"

J Pat Dyer — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 01:37:00 -0400

Paula Creamer needs to pull a Harkleroad.

For those of you who have been locked in a closet without Internet or television, a “Harkleroad” refers to a mediocre women’s tennis player Ashley Harkleroad, who shed her clothes for Playboy magazine.

Ashley Harkleroad is currently ranked 72nd in the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Singles Rankings, but she is first in the minds of every male tennis fan who has seen her pictures.

She looks great without covering, but she is certainly no Maria Sharapova, in looks or in skill.

It was my first instinct when I saw Ashley Harkleroad’s photos. If golf wanted to keep pace with tennis in the glamour division, Anna Rawson would have to pose for a major magazine, Preferably the "Wives Pictures” section of ClubHusband.

Yes, I know Anna isn’t married, but we let single women who look like Rawson in, too. I have rethought my position.

Anna, in my opinion, beats Ashley in the looks department, but their skill level is probably pretty close to even. Both are closer to the bottom of the rankings than to the top.

So given the fact that Ashley Harkleroad posed first, Anna probably isn’t enough to make us forget about tennis.

Now take Paula Creamer (something I have dreamed of often). Paula is every bit as hot as Ashley Harkleroad. In my opinion, Creamer beats her in every category, except we haven't (at least I haven’t yet) seen Paula in all her glory.

You combine the looks with the fact that Creamer is currently ranked fourth in the world, and golf has a real chance of surpassing tennis as the sexiest sport.

All golf has to do is convince Paula Creamer to wear a short golf skirt and not a lot else on the pages of Playboy. After all, she has already been in Palm Springs Life. How much different can it be?

I am sure the old hags who run the LPGA will get right on that assignment. Remember when Natalie Gulbis posed in a bikini and they dropped their teeth? They are not exactly forward-thinking intervals.

The LPGA needs to realize if they are going to get the publicity and money tennis commands they need to be bold. They need to be daring.

They and I need Playboy pictures of Paula Creamer!

By the way, the women’s British Open golf tournament starts today.

RICOH Women's British Open
Jul 31 : TNT 10:00-11:59 AM ET
Aug 01 : TNT 10:00-11:59 AM ET
Aug 02 : ABC 1:30-3:00 PM ET
Aug 03 : ABC 1:00-3:00 PM ET

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No NASCAR, No Hot Chicks, No Atlanta Braves...No Problem?

J Pat Dyer — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 12:56:00 -0400

NASCAR is not running today. Paula Creamer is not playing this week, and Anna Rawson is so far down the leader board she gets no TV.

TBS in their infinite wisdom, pissed off their viewers by broadcasting all baseball teams instead of just the Atlanta Braves, so I am boycotting their shows.

These three facts make for a huge hole in my Sunday habits. Sure, a normal man would mow his three-foot-tall lawn. A normal man would clean his cockatoo-dust-filled office. A normal man would post more pictures on his web page. As we all know, I am far from normal. Today, the lawn will stay long. Today, the office will stay dirty. Today, the pictures will stay on my hard drive. I will bask in the glory of American life. I will surf the net on a wave of boredom. I will cruise the channels in state of disinterest. I will nibble may way through the pantry, complaining we have nothing to eat. I will do what most of you do. I will spend my Sunday, as the good Lord intended, doing nothing. Isn't religion a wonderful thing? ClubHusband.com

Michelle Wie Disqualified; LPGA Doesn't Want to Be a Major Player

J Pat Dyer — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 20:03:00 -0400

The LPGA doesn't want to be a major player in the world of sports. They are content to being the little sister of the PGA and Women's tennis ugly cousin.

Today, the boneheads who run women's golf, decided it was prudent to disqualify the only woman in the State Farm Classic who has enough charm and ability get spectators excited.

Eighteen-year-old Michelle Wie may be a few years away before we can feel guiltless about noticing she is cute, but her talent is hard to ignore. The often-criticized Wie was only a stroke down after three rounds when the news came. She would be disqualified for failure to sign her scorecard. It's a rule whose origin came from players being their own referee. There was a time when this game was played on the honor system because it was only you and your caddy watching. Those days will be back soon if the LPGA keeps up its nonsense.

On a weekend most of the big names like Paula Creamer and Annika Sorenstam took off, the LPGA needed a Michele Wie to step up. She did and they slapped her back down. She didn't sign a card on time during a round where every shot was shown on ESPN2. Was her card correct? Yes. Did she sign it? Yes. Ladies golf needs to decide. Do they want to continue to be an afterthought or do they want to take advantage of Tiger Woods being sidelined to show there are some superstars in women's golf. They have Michele Wie, Paula Creamer and Natalie Gulbis, who combine ability with great looks. These are the kind of players that can do for golf what Anna Kournikova and Maria Sharapova did for tennis. They can make women's golf a major force in sports. But LPGA, you have to decide. Is an outdated, ridiculous rule worth ruining a tournament and turning away viewers? It is the question that will decide the future of your sport. Here is what was written on the LPGA site; "Michelle Wie was disqualified following the third round at the LPGA State Farm Classic for failure to sign her score card after Friday's second round, which is a violation of Rule 6-6 b. according to The Rules of Golf and confirmed by the USGA. 6-6 b. – Signing and Returning Score Card After completion of the round, the competitor should check his score for each hole and settle any doubtful points with the Committee. He must ensure that the marker or markers have signed the score card, sign the score card himself and return it to the Committee as soon as possible." Wie was notified following the conclusion of today's third round in order to provide her the opportunity to give an account of yesterday's second round situation.

The LPGA first heard of the violation mid-morning today, but it was after Wie had begun third-round play, and action could not be further taken until she had completed 18 holes and been given the opportunity to recount the events of Friday's second round. The 2008 LPGA Rules of Play define the scoring area as the roped area defining the boundary of the scoring tent. Supplementary rules of play stipulate that the scoring area boundary may instead be defined by a white line, which has the effect of decreasing the size of the scoring area.

The white line was not deemed necessary this week and was not put in place, and as a result, the boundary is the scoring tent. Prior to signing her card, Wie had left the defined scoring area according to item No. 3 resulting in her subsequent disqualification.

3. Returning Score Card Rule 6-6, page 31. (A player is deemed to have returned her score card to the Committee when she leaves the roped area of the scoring tent or leaves the scoring trailer). ClubHusband.com

Super Bowl XLII Pregame: Questions and Concerns

J Pat Dyer — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 11:52:33 -0500

The Giants and the Patriots: Part two.

The book makers have the Patriots as a 12-point favorites. I find this odd since about a month ago the Giants lost to the same Patriots by just three points.

-Did the Patriots suddenly get better?

-Did the Giants suddenly become worse?

-Does Tom Brady play better with a sore foot?

-Does his friend Gisele ever wear a bra?

These are all questions I ponder as I wait for the four hours and 17 minutes of essential pregame commentary to begin. Will my questions be answered? I hope so. I hope they use visual aids and explain to me, in great detail, how Gisele's assets stay so perky and perfect without a solid foundation. The rest of it they can cover or not, I really don't care.

Actually I do care, but Fox doesn't. It has chosen to turn the biggest football game of the year into a commercial for American Idol. I am not making this up. Granted I 'd like to take credit but as we all know fact is often stranger than fiction.

The network geniuses at Fox have decided, football fans everywhere would like to watch Ryan Seacrest interview celebrities, red-carpet style, as they arrive to the game. They know we are tuning in just to see Paula Abdul sing her new song.

They even believe that we want to see Randy Jackson bellow into the camera "what's up dawg?". They have included ever American Idol induced gimmick, including last year's winner— Jordan Sparks— singing the National Anthem. The only thing they have left out is Simon whistling 'Yankee Doodle Dandy.'

They, in their Aussie owned wisdom, don't believe any Super Bowl fan would want a little background on the teams, you know things like:

-Some statistics on how they play when the pressures is on.

-The Giants and Patriots' all-time records in February games.

-If Tom Brady is truly healthy.

-Footage of Gisele Bundchen in Victoria's Secret red wonder bra and matching thong.

Yes, the truly important stuff. The things hard-core, dyed-in-the-wool, fans want. The stuff we can't live without!

Did I mention it would be nice to have Jessica Simpson mud wrestle Gisele during pregame?

Now that would be a show worth watching!

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