FanHouse Tom Emanski

Welcome back, USC's national title hopes. Enjoy the pretzels. Try the dip. But don't get too comfortable.

Yes, as the Trojans paraded Penn State's corpse from end to end of the Rose Bowl Thursday night, Pete Carroll's team again entered the national title picture. Not in the BCS system, which will award its title to either Oklahoma or Florida even if the Sooners let Charles Barkley drive the bus to the game and the Gators put Matt Millen in charge of their personnel.

But AP voters are free to vote for any team and with the kind of no apologies beating the Beijing police for might be proud of, Troy roared yet again.

So exactly how many votes should USC's Rose Bowl victory account for?

Think the same number of votes Brett Favre will get for teammate of the year, the number of suits in Al Davis' wardrobe that don't require the adjective "jogging" or the same number of pairs of underwear women have ever hurled at Randy Johnson.

Think zero.

Or something close to it as we probably shouldn't rule anything out yet.

Maybe Florida and Oklahoma will play a game so horribly ugly in the BCS title tilt that if they made a movie of it, it'd have to start Kirsten Dunst and Amy Winehouse with a special guest appearance by Danny DeVito. And maybe Texas will pull a Buckeye of its own against Ohio State. But let's just say if the BCS title game plays out remotely within the realm of expectations, what the Trojans did against Penn State doesn't qualify as a national championship performance.

You beat a Big Ten team in a virtual home game in a BCS bowl. It isn't exactly curing the common cold and, statistically speaking, beating a Big Ten team in a BCS bowl game is exactly as likely as eventually catching a cold.

This is to take nothing away from the men of Troy. The Trojans had an excellent season, were champions of a solid league, became the first back-to-back-to-back Rose Bowl champions (and that there is Tom Emanski rarified air). They had a defense that could stand between John Daly and a Hooters or Pacman Jones and the opportunity to make a fool of himself, and were downright biblical in the way they went about business.

Heck, Joe Paterno called them them one of the best defensive teams he's ever seen and Paterno would know. It says here the man once recruited Moses to play middle linebacker.

But that's the beauty of college football. Its title is awarded for a season accomplishment, not the team that played best in the last game that was nationally televised.

Above for you, I have a very special treat this morning. It's Jose Canseco rocking a sick mullet circa the late 80s-early 90s (he's wearing A's colors) teaching the youth of this fine nation how to hit off a tee.

The opening montage with the mysterious, thriller movie music with the kids brushing their teeth and washing their hair really sets the mood here. All and all, Jose gives some fine instruction. It's like the Tom Emanski instructional videos ... but free!

This is not the only piece of the puzzle here. Why, this thing is a six-parter on YouTube. You can get at parts two, three, five and six as well. Part four I've supplied for you after the jump. It's a a strength coach from Miami warning you about the dangers of steroids as Jose looks on. Surreal.

Lastly, anyone that can score the t-shirt everyone is rocking in this video at a Miami-area thrift store has found themselves a score for the ages. That thing is HOT.

That's not a headline that's going to instill any confidence in Met fans. But sometimes, you have to get back to basics.

Shawn Green's power numbers have declined over the last few seasons. Back in February, Green found a hand hitch in his swing, and he thought all was well. However, Green started off the spring 0 for 13. So much for self help.

On Wednesday, Green tried another approach...

Green spent an extra hour hitting on the main field with Carlos Beltran, Julio Franco and hitting coach Rick Down providing suggestions. Green's swings were recorded by a high-tech video system called Pro Mirror, which was set up with a monitor that allowed Franco and Beltran to point out adjustments in Green's swing as they were being made.

"I can honestly say today was my most productive day this spring," Green said. "It was about getting in a good hitting position - a more powerful hitting position. The video helped, but I was more interested in listening to Carlos and Julio and what they had to say. I thought I had hitting figured out five or six years ago and now I'm learning how to hit."

It's worth noting that Green got his first hit of the spring on Thursday after "learning how to hit" from Carlos and Julio ... but he also made the final out of an 8-7 Mets loss to Baltimore. If Green gets desperate, could Tom Emanski's hitting drills be far behind?