By
Ryan Finley
...While most UA students will be celebrating homecoming against Oregon State in a few weeks, Saturday's football game will serve as a sort of homecoming for me.
The Wildcats are playing UCLA, the team that I grew up watching and, almost embarrassingly, rooting for.
Both sides of my family have rabid UCLA fans. My great-uncle on my mom's side, Bert LaBrucherie, was UCLA's head coach when the Bruins went to their first Rose Bowl in 1947. My dad's side of the family, well, was from Indiana. But they loved basketball. Therefore, we were UCLA fans.
It took awhile for me to become an Arizona fan once I came here for college - in fact, I found myself sneaking peeks to Fox Sports Net late at night to see how the Bruins did in football or basketball.
But then something happened: I learned to become an Arizona fan. And, I'm proud to say that I've overcome my shortcomings and have grown into a diehard UA fan.
So, what's the moral of the story? Had I studied harder in high school, I could have gone to UCLA!...
...Well, we're a better athletic school than UCLA, at least for now. For a 20-year old sports nut like myself, that's more gratifying than going to any Ivy League School...
...I've caught a lot of flack for some of the comments I made about New York and New Yorkers in my column last week. Guess what, youz guys? I was joking. Just don't mug me...
...The winner of the annual Ryan Finley Award for Hideous Gear goes to: the Oregon Ducks. Jesus H. Christ! I can just see the conversation between Nike executives as they designed that eyesore: "Hey, what goes with bright green? How about black and electric yellow? Sure, why not! Pass the crackpipe" No wonder that company's losing money hand over fist...
...At least Oregon has a darn good football team. If phat gear and winning were related, we'd have a Notre Dame-USC title game every year. Ewww...
... For the second straight week, ABC's "Monday Night Football" has allowed the 'f' word to slip through its live telecast. Surprisingly, it wasn't Dennis Miller: it was angry fans and disgruntled players, apparently with Tourette's Syndrome or something...
...Election day is coming up, and I, for one, will be voting for the David Rubio-Josh Pastner ticket. Find me two slicker people anywhere...
...The Icecats open up their season at home tomorrow when they take on Colorado at the Tucson Convention Center, also known as the "Madhouse on Main Street." Coach Leo Golembiewski will tell you that an Icecats game is the greatest show on earth. He may be right. How many times can fans use the word "suck" in one game? Go and find out...
...Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens was fined $50,000 by Major League Baseball for throwing a splintered bat in the direction of Mets catcher Mike Piazza. My take, although its probably unpopular, is this: I don't think "the Rocket" did anything wrong. As far as aim goes, Clemens is one of the best in the free world. If he wanted to hit Piazza, he would have. It's amazing how New Yorkers get their back hair and gold chains in a bunch over crap like this...
...Does the UA-ASU football game have to come the day after Thanksgiving? Don't make me choose between leftovers and football....
...Finally - at the end of the World Series, both Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn will be free agents and speculation is circulating that neither team will keep their marquee player. Want to know why nobody seems to like baseball anymore? It's that owners, after underpaying loyal players for years, aren't willing to part with a token sum to pay certain Hall-of-Famers like Gwynn and Ripken...
....If people like Luis Sojo and Jose Vizcaino are still in the majors, there's no reason not to give these guys their due. I mean, my uncle Bert - the guy who coached at UCLA - could play second base for the Yankees. And he's dead...
