Dog Days, Dead Last, Big Z

• Rivals Valley and Dowling play baseball with a trip to state on the line, and it comes down to the final at bat. You know the Maroons will never forget the feeling of winning that one.
• This weather is flat our crazy and tired. I can add no more.
• Big props to our intern Zach Spears. He's an offensive lineman at Iowa State. The coaches want Zach to put on about 10 pounds before practice starts, and Wednesday night, Zach figured out a good way to get started. He went to dollar dog night at the I-Cubs game and ate 20 hot dogs. He finished during the 7th inning stretch. My stomach hurts just thinking about it.
• Big 12 media pick Iowa State to finish dead last in the Big 12 North. Not a lot of respect coming off a bowl win. Then again, have you seen that schedule?
• I'm watching "2012" on HBO as I type. I liked this movie better when it was called "Day After Tomorrow".
• Fewer than 2,000 grandstand seats remain for the NASCAR Nationwide race at Iowa Speedway. That's 53,000+ sold and counting. Jenny and I went last year and really enjoyed it.
• Carlos Zambrano arrived in Des Moines Tuesday, then couldn't make his scheduled news conference Wednesday because his travel plans changed, but he'll be back at Principal Park to pitch Thursday. Say what? Maybe Big Z flew back to Chicago to apologize to his teammates.
• Mediacom now has AMC in HD. Time to start watching Mad Men.
• Props to the Iowa Sports Connection for another great golf outing, "Hack Nation Invitational". I've been banned from playing, but they still let me visit.
• Shawn Terrell will attempt to cover eight girls state softball games Thursday. The world record is seven.
• Chris Hassel now writes for Juice. Well, until they fire him. http://dmjuice.desmoinesregister.com/article/20100720/JUICE03/7210307/1115/JUICEARCHIVENEW/Hassel++5+rules+of+fandom