If I think you suck, you’re on the list

The last Third and a Mile. Can it really be?

I'm going to reflect on some things, so bear with me.

One of my first columns was Dusty Baker ruining arms and harboring cheaters. He had managed Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa and broke my heart by sinking Mark Pryor's career. Eddison Volquez's recent suspension is just the latest case with one of Baker's players trying to get an edge. I told my friends that love the Reds what they were getting when Dusty came to Cincinnati, and I feel comfortable saying, "I told you so." I'll never forgive Dusty, or his stupid toothpick.
 

I've outlasted Mark Snyder at Marshall University, a silver lining of sorts to my sorted academic history in my near-decade of undergraduate studies. I can still remember the day Bob Pruett "retired" and thinking then that the next guy was in big trouble. Little did I know that big trouble came in the form of and orange tanning bed glow and some of the worst quarterbacking I've personally ever witnessed. Maybe I was spoiled having been at Nitro High when J.R House was breaking all of Tim Couch's national passing records for high school quarterbacks. Not to mention growing up a Marshall fan and having the privilege of being in the stands to watch Michael Payton, Chad Pennington and Byron Leftwich sling it around the gridiron for the Herd. I always thought Stan Hill was unfairly criticized for no other reason that he was the guy after Leftwich. The way Byron handled being the guy after Pennington was unreal, so when Stan didn't set the world on fire his name was mud. I'd take Stan Hill over Jimmy Skinner, Bernard Morris, Brian Anderson or Mark Cann any day. Hell, I'd take Graham Gochneaur over any of those guys. Goke beat Kansas State and that is more than any of those other guys can claim. I still believe if Hill hadn't gotten hurt, the Herd would have beaten Tennessee on Rocky Top the previous game. I guess the other side to that is if Hill was healthy the Herd might not have beaten K-State. I guess we'll never know.

Speaking of people named Mud on campus, I will remember Ron Jirsa fondly. Sure, Marshall stunk up the Henderson Center pretty much the whole time he was the coach (except for a home win over Virginia Tech one year), but he was a hell of a nice guy and he beat West Virginia. Twice. When they were ranked. Both times.
 

Being my last weekly column, I feel like compiling a list of people I think suck. This is specifically in regard to Marshall sports and is not an indictment of their character or anything like that. It's my column, and if I think you suck, you're on the list.

- Donnie Jones, for obvious reasons.

- Mike Nugent, for tearing my heart out at the Shoe.

- Ian O'Connor, for making me hate placekickers and for ruining a perfectly good drunken evening of Herd football dominance at Akron's Rubber Bowl in 2004.

- Charlie Frye, for the same reason.

- Greg White, for leaving his alma mater to coach at Harvey High.

- Ben Roethlisberger, for playing at Little Miami.

- The 2004 football team that gave up in the Ft. Worth Bowl in what became Bob Pruett's last game at Marshall.

- The athletic department that has allowed the Herd's baseball team to not have a suitable home field for the last thousand years.

- The guy who offered me whiskey in the tailgating parking lot across from the Joan the day the Herd came back and beat SMU in overtime. I missed the whole game.

- Larry Fitzgerald, Sr., for falling asleep in the press box during football games and blocking the aisle, more than once.

- Adam Cavalier, for farting on press row at the Capital Classic and stinking out anyone unfortunate enough to be assigned seating near the WMUL guys.

- The members of the HerdNation message board. For stalking my Facebook and basically being jerks. Not all of the members are guilty of this, but a few bad apples gives the whole bunch a bad reputation.

Writing this column has been a pleasure the last few years. There have been good ones, bad ones and stupid ones, I know. Every single one of them was just me spouting off and being me. I don't apologize for anything I've ever written in this space, but please know I've had a blast and will always fondly remember my days as a scribe following the Herd from campus.

I think it was Billy Madison that said, "PEACE! I'm OUTTA HERE!"

Tom Bragg can be contacted at tom.bragg@marshall.edu.