Rivals

On this National Signing Day for college football, one of the goals is to beat out your rivals to sign the best possible class of incoming players.

But, exactly who are your rivals?

In another sport, Yasiel Puig of the Los Angeles Dodgers recently raised eyebrows when he opined that the St. Louis Cardinals, not the San Francisco Giants, were the Dodgers’ true rival. That comment prompted sportsonearth.com to examine each MLB team and list its Top Three Rivals.

You may choose to agree or disagree with the choices for your particular favorite team. With regard to the Bravos, I didn’t really have a quibble with the list (although I might’ve ordered it differently).

The topic of rivals led me to consider who are the top rivals for the teams I follow. Close to home, when I was a high schooler, Farragut would’ve certainly listed Bearden and Oak Ridge as its two biggest rival schools. I’m not sure if there was a legitimate third back in the day. Maybe Halls? Webb?

These days, with district realignment, you’d certainly have to put Maryville on the list. And the budding rivalry with HVA has been fun to watch.

With regard to the Tennessee Volunteers, you might argue the list is different for different sports. In football, there’s no doubt Alabama and Florida would be listed in the Top 3. Would Georgia be the third?

Of course, the list might be different for those schools. Georgia might say Auburn, Florida and Georgia Tech, for instance.

The Vols’ basketball rivals would certainly include Kentucky. I’d suggest maybe Vandy and Florida would round out the Top 3.

On the other end of the state, the Memphis Tigers have traditionally considered Louisville and Cincinnati to be their biggest basketball rivals. Now, with Louisville in a different conference, I wonder if that might change. Who would be the third?

These are all tough considerations for the Blue and Gray with the ongoing shifting of conference alliances. I would’ve said UAB and Southern Miss from their old C-USA Days; now in the American, maybe it is UConn and SMU? Hard to say. Time and circumstances may dictate things.

Thinking back to my baseball coaching days, the Choppers definitely had rivals. So, our outlook on the field was just the same.

There was ‘The Stealth’ and ‘The Stingers.’ Our players always knew those matchups were big ones.

But the biggest rival team for us was the team that had a different name every season. I always think of them as the Muckdogs (or the Lugnuts). They also donned caps for the Reds, Rockies, Marlins and Indians during the years we competed against them. But, for the purposes of today’s edition, I’ll call them the Muckdogs. That’s the name I always associate with them.

Many of the players on the Muckdogs lived in the same neighborhood as many of the players from our team. So, you can imagine, there was quite a bit of chirping back and forth on the school bus each day.

We always circled the date on the calendar when we were playing them and I am sure they did the same. Funny thing: they always campaigned against gamesmanship in our league but then they were pros at it. Once, I found the head coach in my bullpen chatting with our starting pitcher while he was trying to warm up before the game.

Think they were discussing the weather?

Anyway, it was a spirited rivalry and I’m happy we always were able to give as good as we got. Same with the other teams I listed.

Rivalry games are always special. There are bragging rights on the line. You play just a little harder. Everyone feels just a bit more proud of those wins. 

JG

Originally posted 2/4/2015