Georgia Moves to No. 4

 

Now that Week 1 of the 2025 CFB season is complete, the AP has come out with the first sportswriters' poll of the season. 

To pretty much no one's surprise, after beating Texas, 14-7, on Saturday, Ohio State moved up from No. 3 to the No. 1 spot, hopscotching Penn State, who stayed at No. 2. 

No. 4 Clemson also lost Saturday, a 17-10 game with No. 9 LSU. But even though No. 5 Georgia won their game, 45-7 over Marshall, and two higher-ranked teams lost, Georgia did not move up to No. 3 in today's poll. Instead, the AP vaulted LSU past Georgia to be the new No. 3, and the Bulldogs moved up only one spot to No. 4.

No. 4 is not a bad place to be in the first week of the season. There's some 130 other college teams that aren't ranked that high. Yes, I'm biased, but I still think that Georgia should have moved from No. 5 up to No. 3, and LSU from No. 9 up to No. 4.

It could be worse. Arizona State, SMU, and Michigan all won their games this weekend but were each dropped one spot in the rankings because of reasons.

What else? Notre Dame lost, dropping from No. 6 to No. 9, and Carson Beck's Miami team was rewarded with the No. 5 spot for their service. Unranked Florida State entered the rankings at No. 14 for beating No. 8 Alabama, who dropped all the way down to 21. The Tide hasn't been that low since like forever.

It's a long season. We have a 12-team playoff system. Early season polls are close to meaningless. In fact, any poll other than the Selection Committee rankings are meaningless. But still, this is a sports blog, and talking about this kind of shit is what we do.  

   

     

Yeva, Afloat Again

 

Good news! At 11:00 am local time today, Ella was reunited with Yeva thanks to the Canadian Coast Guard. The Yeva is free of the shoal on which it ran aground, and after some thorough checks, it was determined that the Yeva only sustained minor damage during the Coast Guard’s attempts to come alongside on Sunday night in difficult conditions. Ella is in good spirits and is able to continue safely as she now continues onwards under her own sail.

She has sailed around the north side of Pullen Island to avoid any more shoals and shallow water between the island and the mainland to the south (Tamara Klink safely passed the south side of Pullen on Sunday, before Ella ran aground). 

Speaking of, Tamara and the Sardinha 2 have made it all the way to Alaska! Welcome to the USA, Tamara. The Canadian Ice Service charts, which kindly also include the Alaska coast, shows that the sea ice that was near Prudhoe Bay has drifted out to sea away from the coast, but now you have a new type of ICE to worry about. Be careful!

Patriots Preview

 

These past several years have felt like the diminishment of a once-great franchise. The disappointing seasons were marked by a sense of loss - loss of a star quarterback, loss of a legendary head coach - not to mention losing seasons. So after Belichick's disastrous debut last night at North Carolina - the Tarheels were blown out, 48-14 -  and before the start of the 2025 NFL season this Sunday, I went and threw the I Ching to see what we could expect this year from the New England Patriots. 

Tom Brady's last game as a Patriot was over five years ago - the AFC Wild Card game against the Tennessee Titans on January 4, 2020. We've been through at least four starting QBs since then, but the Pats still feel like "Brady's team." The Patriots lost that Wild Card game, 13-20, and Brady's final pass as a Patriot was intercepted and returned for a touchdown, but we tend not to remember that part of his legacy.

Bill Belichick's last game as the Patriots' head coach was on Sunday, January 7, 2024. He had been unable to achieve any real success in New England with star QB Cam Newton or with rookie QB Mac Jones, and then snapped a 15-game winning streak against the Jets when New England lost that last game, 17-3, to end the season. But we tend not to remember that part of his legacy.

I don't bring this up to shit all over the Patriots' many achievements. Far from it, I bring it up to remind myself the decline had begun before Tom or Bill's exit. We've been diminished for a while, even as the fans' self-image has remained a championship caliber franchise. 

Today, the hexagram I threw was Sun, the 41st hexagram. The lake above, the mountains below. Curiously, no moving lines. The hexagram is titled "Decrease." The stoic mountain drains its excess waters to the lake below, just as the wise person curbs his anger and sheds his desires. To be frugal and content is to possess immeasurable wealth.

The Pats start this season with new head coach Mike Vrabel, a former New England linebacker from the glory years of 2001-2008. The starting QB is second-year player Drake Maye. Rookie running back TreVeyon Henderson has the speed to potentially be the team's most potent offensive weapon. Rhamondre Stevenson and Antonio Gibson are also solid running backs, so this should be a good rushing team.

Like the Georgia Bulldogs, one of the Pats' biggest problems last year was the o-line. First-round tackle Will Campbell may improve things but there's a lot of room for improvement. The Patriots’ top two receivers are Stefon Diggs and DeMario Douglas, although the depth chart beyond those two is pretty thin.

The Sun hexagram reminds us that we do not experience loss and diminishment without having first experienced gain and plentitude. The decrease is simply the other end of the curve of gain and loss. While for many other teams a fresh new season with a new head coach and a promising young QB might be a time of excitement, to some Patriot fans nothing but another NFL championship would suffice. The hexagram reminds us to not let the glory of the past detract from those successes we achieve in the present, or the promise of the future.     

The Pats will start the season against the Raiders, a team in almost the exact same situation as New England. Both teams finished 4-13 last season. Both teams have veteran coaches making their debuts with new teams (Pete Carroll will be coaching his first game for the Raiders). Both have relatively new QBs. Former New England offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels is returning to the team as OC after a couple seasons as head coach for the Raiders. The Patriots are favored to win by 2½ points.

To be frugal and content is to possess an immeasurable wealth, the I Ching advises. It is an auspicious time to shed dependency.

What Are They Doing?

I hope everything's okay. It looks like Ella Hibbert and the Yeva (top picture), after a long rest near the Reindeer Islands off the Mackenzie River delta, has turned back around toward Tuk. Maybe it's just a course correction or tacking with the wind, but I hope it's nothing worse.

Meanwhile, for some reason, Tamara Klink and the Sardinha 2 (second picture) sailed past the Reindeer Islands and then apparently turned around herself and sailed back a couple of miles, only to turn around again and back to her original bearing. Could she have turned around to assist Ella in some manner, only to be called off when Ella decided to return to Tuk instead? 

The Canadian ice charts show open water in the area, so ice pack shouldn't be the problem. I don't see any weather alerts for the area. 

Until we get a vlog update from either ship, we won't know the specifics, but I worry that the Yeva may have took some sort of damage during Saturday's wind storm, something that requires her to be in port to repair.

Update: On closer examination and over time, it appears that Ella is not heading back to Tuk, only moving around in her anchorage off the Reindeer Islands.  Still no clue what Tamara's doing.

Update 2: At 9:00 pm local time on Sunday, August 31st, the Yeva ran aground on an uncharted sandbank created by the violent storm of the previous day. Thanks to Ella’s quick actions, Yeva avoided damage to her hull. 

Ella alerted her shore team, implementing her Crisis Management Plan, and the Canadian Coast Guard responded promptly. At their insistence, Ella went ashore for her own safety.

She is safe, well and in good spirits. She’ll be reuniting with Yeva today and, following system checks, plans to return to Tuk to give Yeva a thorough inspection. She thanks the Coast Guard for their support.

Red Sox 6, Guardians 4

 

Hell, yeah! Back to back wins, baby! Bello picks up number 11!

If it sounds like I'm a little overexcited for a single, non-playoff game, it's because this is our moment - the opening we've been waiting for all season. We have a week and a half of playing .500 teams, while New York has all division leaders. Toronto has a challenging schedule coming up too, including New York and Houston, and lost to the Reds today. We're only 2½ back from first place, and while we may not win the division, we can clinch a playoff spot and (added bonus) eliminate New York from the post-season.

Bregman got another hit last night and Story was 3-for-4 at the plate, including a second inning RBI and a sixth inning homer. Bello struggled a bit and reached 100 pitches by the fifth inning, but still managed to strike out four along the way.  

And it only gets better, because tomorrow's Crochet Day! Garrett Crocket (14-5, 2.40) will take the mound tomorrow against the Guardians' Slade Cecconi (5-6, 4.41) to try for his 15th win of the season. He might not get a 20th start this season, but if anyone deserves a 2-win season, it's Crochet. Just give the man the Cy Young, already. He's earned it.

       

Red Sox 5, Pirates 2

 

If it takes a Jarren Duran three-run, inside-the-park home run to snap the Sox out of their recent losing streak, so be it. Truth be told, it's never a bad time for a Jarren Duran three-run, inside-the-park home run. Today, Boston finally figured out a way to beat Pittsburgh and avoid an embarrassing sweep at home by the worst team in the NL Central (fun fact: I had a Pirates season ticket in 1993, so I have a pass to say things like "worst team in the NL Central"). 

Giolito went six full innings with one run and six hits and six strikeouts. Bregman finally snapped out of his hitless streak with a single in the 4th.  

Now things will get interesting. If we struggled with Pittsburgh, going 1-2, we're really going to have fun with Cleveland (68-67), who arrive in Fenway tomorrow for a three-game series. Brayan Bello (10-6, 2.99) will start against rookie Parker Messick (1-0, 0.66), making his third major-league start. 

After Cleveland, we have Arizona (68-69) and the A's (63-74). The Yankees lost today, so the Sox now trail them by a half game. New York has a three-game road series at Houston (75-62), and then will host AL East-leading Toronto followed by AL Central-leading Detroit. Hopefully, Boston can capitalize on some probable upcoming Yankee losses while we play a trio of .500-ish teams, and take back second place in the AL East, setting things up for a final showdown with New York in Fenway, October 12-14.

Yeva, Storm Tossed

It's been quite the day in Tuktoyaktuk for the Yeva and Sardinha 2. A major windstorm blew through yesterday with winds hitting 50 knots and associated coastal flooding. Locals say it's one of the worst storms they’ve seen in 40 years. The trip from Summer Harbor to Tuk last Friday was basically a race against time, trying to get to safe harbor before the winds arrived. Both ships made it in time, arriving at Tuk within an hour of each other, with enough time to get some provisions and find the most secure mooring they could before the storm hit.  

As it turned out, the low terrain of the Tuk Peninsula offered little protection from the wind, and water in the open, shallow bays rose with the storm. Ella Hibbert had to relocate the Yeva numerous times during the storm and was forced to cut rather than untie one of her mooring lines to make a quick escape when the pier to which the Yeva was attached became submerged in the floodwater. She tried anchoring the boat but the anchor wouldn’t hold, and the Yeva very nearly ran aground.

To top it all off, the alternator bolts rattled loose right when Ella needed the engine the most, but she managed to fix it with time and sheer determination and somehow managed to muscle the Yeva over to a large barge during the very height of the storm.

By late last night, the wind finally subsided and the Yeva and the Sardinha 2 were tied alongside each other, Ella and Tamara both utterly exhausted but safe.

The Arctic is warming up to four times faster than the global average, amplifying storms and contributing to sea-ice loss, shifts in atmospheric patterns, and changes to the jet stream. Warming also leads to more moisture in the air and generates more powerful storms that can deliver wind, rain, and heavy snow.

It's ironic that the same global warming that is melting the ice, making Arctic navigation easier, is also generating storms of such ferociousness that navigation is all but impossible, delaying boats with no choice but to hide from it. 

Ella notes that storms like that test every ounce of resilience, but also remind one of the raw, unfiltered reality of solo Arctic sailing.

Update: As of 3:00 pm EDT, Ella and Tamara are both on the move again, having pulled out of their mooring in Tuk. Also, it may be quite a long while until this is possible again, but here's a Google maps street view of the harbor they were moored in this morning (it's that blue spot of water on the horizon near the center of the photo). Imagine facing 50-knot winds with that little protection!

Georgia 45, Marshall 7

 

Fist and foremost, we have to say this: any doubts we might have had about Gunner Stockton were laid to rest in the first quarter alone. He drove the Dawgs down the field for two touchdowns on the first two possessions, scoring the second TD himself with a 13-yard run. He scored another rushing TD in the second with an 11-yard run and finished the game with a team-leading 73 total rushing yards. In addition, he threw for 190 yards on 14-for-24 passing and threw for two TDs in the third.

Backup QB Ryan Pugliosi threw for 59 yards and one TD in the fourth quarter and rushed for 13. In summary, it looks like this season's Bulldogs have a pair of dual-threat QBs. 

Nate Frazier rushed for 47 yerds on 11 carries, while Dwight Phillips, Jr. got 60 yards on five carries. The o-line wasn't everything a championship-caliber line should be, but it was just the first game of the season and they played well enough that there were no sacks and managed to open some holes for all those Stockton runs.   

Georgia missed covering the 38½-points spread by a mere half point.

Meanwhile, as predicted here, No. 3 Ohio State knocked off No. 1 Texas, 14-7, limiting Peyton Eli Archie Arch Manning to a single TD. No. 2 Penn State easily won, 46-11, over unranked Nevada, so it remains to be seen if the Nittany Lions take the No. 1 spot or if the great Buckeye hype machine gets OSU elevated to No. 1. 

The other question is how far Texas will fall in the rankings and if Georgia will get a chance to move up from their current No.5 spot. Friendly reminder that Georgia beat Texas twice last season, in Austin and in the SEC title game. Assuming No. 4 Clemson isn't upset by No. 9 LSU tonight (a big "if"), I would rank the Top 5 Penn State, Ohio State, Clemson, and Georgia, followed by Texas at No. 5, but what do I know?

Also, another bonus: No. 8 Alabama was upset, 31-17, by unranked Florida State, the laughing stock of the 2024 season. Who's laughing now, Crimson Tide? It makes no immediate difference to the Bulldogs, but it's always nice to see Alabama lose.   

Georgia's next opponent will be the Austin Peay Governors of Clarksville, Tennessee, who are leading Middle Tennessee State, 21-0, at the moment.

Pirates 10, Red Sox 3

 

Dude, WTF? Back-to-back home losses to Pittsburgh? Double-you the literal eff, dude?

Dustin May gave up seven runs in 5⅓ innings. Bregman went 0-for-5 for the third straight game, 18 consecutive plate appearances without a hit. Do you guys want to make the playoff or not? Snap out of it!

Is this the start of the stereotypical Red Sox September swoon?

Giolito (9-2, 3.47) takes the mound tomorrow to try and avoid the indignity of getting swept at home by the worst team in the NL Central.   

Pirates 4, Red Sox 2

 

The second-place Red Sox, fifteen games above .500,  fell to the fifth-place Pittsburgh Pirates. seventeen games under .500. 

For whom the blame Tolles . . . New guy Payton Tolle pitched pretty well. He want 5⅓ innings in his major-league debut giving up only two runs on three hits and striking out eight, but the bullpen let him down. Tolle got pulled in the sixth with no outs, two on, and a 2-0 lead, but reliever Greg Weissert gave up a pair of doubles making it 3-2 Pittsburgh. Jordan Hicks gave up another run in the eighth. Boston lost, but you can't blame Tolle.

If we're going to point fingers and assign blame, Bregman hasn't had a base hit since Tuesday in Baltimore, going 0-for-4 in the last two games, and he and Story both went 0-for-4 last night. So did catcher Conner Wong, but you expect that of Wong (he's ninth in the lineup for a reason). 

The damage is done. The Yankees easily won  their game in Chicago, 10-2, and move into second. The Sox trail New York by a half game Fortunately, Toronto lost last night, so Boston's still only 3½ back from first.

Game two of the series is this afternoon at 4:30 (I'll be watching the Georgia Bulldogs football game at that time). Dustin May (7-10, 4.79) will face someone named Johan Oviedo (1-0, 3.60) making his third start of the season. Let's get the momentum back, Dustin! 

    

Yeva, Tukked

Both Ella Hibbert and Tamara Klink have completed the approximately 230-mile journey from Summer Harbor on Booth Island, around the Bathurst Peninsula, and on to the Inuit village of Tuktoyaktuk along the Beaufort Sea. It's not a race, but the Yeva arrived there about an hour or so before the Sardinha 2.  

Tuk is located near the base of an elongated peninsula extending from the Canadian mainland to the west and between the Beaufort Sea to the north the Eskimo Lakes complex to the south. During the Pleistocene, glaciers left a thick layers of sediments and permafrost in the area. The glaciers are responsible for the irregular topography of the area, including the many remnant lakes, marshy hollows, and small hummocks. The peninsula is particularly noted for having the greatest concentration (nearly 1,350) of pingos, conical ice-cored hills, on Earth.  

Near the end of the Pleistocene, glacial ice advanced over most of the area. The long, finger-like ridges that divide the Eskimo Lakes into four separate water bodies likely formed as tunnels beneath the ice. A large glacial lake formed at the ice front in the region, leaving an extensive layer of fine-grained lake-bottom sediments across the area. The numerous pingos were formed by ground ice trapped in the sediments as the glaciers retreated. 

The melting glaciers also caused global sea levels to rise, drowning the valleys that had been carved into the mainland and filling them with thick deposits of fine-grained sediment. The Mackenzie Delta to the west of Tuk formed during this time. 

Global warming is causing Arctic temperatures to rapidly rise, allowing ships like the Yeva and the Sardinha 2 to sail through water that less than a generation ago could only be crossed by ice-breakers. The warming is also causing the permafrost to thaw. Around Tuk, land subsidence due to melting permafrost is causing the disappearance of permafrost islands and the rapid erosion of the coastline. Pingos are particularly vulnerable, as abrupt permafrost thaw can cause the ice within the pingos to melt, resulting in increased pingo collapse and the formation of remnant lakes.

From Tuk, it is about 90 miles to the Yukon border as the crow flies (125 miles along the coastline around the Mackenzie Delta), and less than 200 straight-line miles to the Alaska border, less than the distance just completed from Summer Harbor.  The current sea-ice charts generally show open ice-free water across the Alaskan coast, other than some minor congestion around Prudhoe Bay. 

For Ella, now with about 4,300 or so nautical miles under her belt, completing her circumnavigation of the Arctic requires sailing "only" about another 5,000 or so miles from Alaska across the north of Russia and Scandinavia to the finish line in the Norwegian Sea. 

Red Sox 3, Orioles 2

 

The Sox sweep the Orioles in Baltimore and win their fourth straight game. Boston returns to Fenway after a 7-1 road trip going back to the series in New York.

Last night, Story homered in the first, Refsnyder homered in the fourth, and González hit an RBI single in the eighth. Crochet got seven strike outs over six innings but gave up two runs and didn't get the win (it went to reliever Jordan Hicks), so his total is still at 14 with 26 games left to the season. He could still get six more starts this season to try and reach 20 wins, but he'll have to win every game started.

The Blue Jays were idle last night, so Boston snuck up to 3½ games back from first place.

Tonight, the Sox start a three-game home series against the Pittsburgh Pirates (59-76). With starting pitchers Dick Fitts and Hunter Dobbins both on the Injured List, Cora will give rookie pitcher Payton Tolle his first start in his major-league debut. Good luck, man. The Pirates will start Paul Skenes (8-9. 2.07). This series is the first (and only) time this season the two teams have faced each other  

First-place Toronto starts a weekend series at home against the Milwaukee Brewers (83-52), so this series against Pittsburgh is a chance for the Red Sox to gain some ground in the standings before things get crazy next month. The third-place Yankees (damn, I love saying that) have it far easier with a series at the Chicago White Sox (48-86), so the pressure from behind will continue as New York continues to nip at Boston's heels.