The seemingly immortal Jamie Moyer recently broke Robin Roberts' record for career home runs given up. Now while having given up more home runs than any other pitcher in basbeball seems fairly dubious, it is also a testament to Moyer's longevity. Longevity, of course does not equal greatness, but to a point, it does equal above averageness. Moyer has never been "great", but there is a certain something to be said for someone who remains serviceable for over two decades. But enough argle bargle! We here at "Bitterness" thought it be fun to go inside the many dingers given up by Jamie Moyer. First, a big thanks to Baseball-Reference, and away we go!

• His first home run given up was to Juan Samuel, the current interim-manager for the Orioles.
  
• He's given up home runs to six current Hall of Famers
  
• He's given up homers to Glenn, Eric, Chili and Chris Davis. Juan, Alex, Wiki, Alex and Adrian Gonzalez. Joneses, Tracy, Ron, Andruw and Chipper. Molinas, Bengie and Jose, but not Yadier.
• He's given up homers to Tony Pena and his son Tony, Jr. which no other pitcher can say.
• He's given up long flies to several Royals, Jeff King and Prince Fielder.
• He also gave up a homer to Prince Fielder's dad Cecil
• Home run #103 was given up to Greg Vaughn. #104? That was given up to Mo Vaughn
• He's been taken deep by a Huskey, a Hardy and a Braun
• Manny Ramirez has the most homers off of Moyer
  
• Brooks, Boggs, Bay and even an Overbay have taken Moyer out of the park
• He's given up long balls to Raines and Snow
• He's been taken deep in the first inning more than any other inning
  
• Kevin Bass, Tim Salmon, Benji Gil, a Marlin and a Devil Ray have all gone deep off of Moyer
• Bill Madlock and Dave Justice have taken him over the wall
• He's given homers to someone from every continent except for Antarctica
  
• Gates, Wells and Stairs also homered off of him
• He's given up bombs to Brewers, Rangers, Mariners, Fielders, a Hunter and a Sander
• Red Sox, White Sox and one Schu have taken him deep
• He's been taken deep by Phillies, a Phil and a Phillips
  
• Blue Jays, Cardinals and Orioles have hit long balls off of him
  
• He's been taken deep by a Wade, a Trot and a Pat
• A Herr and a Man-ny have homered off him
  
• And he's given up dingers to a Hill and a Dale, but no Valle

ALUM-INATING IV

MIDWEST REGION:
FLORIDA- Florida is another repeat from last year's Sweet Sixteen, so you saw a few of their prized alums last year. But luckily they graduate a lot of people, including stand-up comedian Todd Barry. Barry is a funny, weird looking fella. If you have the chance give him a listen, you'll have a couple laughs. The University of Florida also produced the hip-hop artist Status Quo and Academy Award winning actress Faye Dunaway. Another noted alum is Saturday Night Live's Darrell Hammond. Hammond is the senior man on SNL, known for his impersonations of people like Chris Matthews, Bill Clinton and of course Sean Connery, among others.

BUTLER- Some Butler alums include porn star Hypatia Lee, and the "Peoples Temple" cult leader Jim Jones. Butler also gave us Walgreen's first pharmacist, Michael Lynn Miles. Miles was the first in a long line of great pharmacists to sport the Walgreen's white coat. To this day Walgreen's continues to be in the top 50 pharmacies in the nation.



OREGON- Oregon has given us the founders of Nike, Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight as well as famed author and noted acid dropper Ken Kesey. Kesey is best known for his book, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and for being one of the main characters in Tom Wolfe's Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. But the best alum we could find has to be Stephen Cannell. Cannell is responsible for some of the greatest television ever made. He created such hits as The Greatest American Hero, The Commish, Silk Stalkings, 21 Jump Street and the crowned jewel of them all, the A-Team! I love it when a blog comes together. Yes, I think we all owe a great deal to Mr. Cannell.

UNLV- Of course the we all know about the famed UNLV cagers, Larry Johnson, Stacey Augmon, Greg Anthony and Anderson Hunt, but let's delve a bit deeper into the Las Vegas alums. Jimmy Kimmel and ESPN's Kenny Mayne both attended UNLV. Jimmy Kimmel first started to gain notoriety with The Man Show and now of course hosts Jimmy Kimmel Live. he has also been dating Sarah Silverman. Our last former Runnin' Rebel is The Killers drummer Ronnie Vannucci.

EAST REGION:
GEORGETOWN- Georgetown was home to acclaimed actor, director, producer Carl Reiner. Reiner is responsible for some classic Steve Martin flicks as The Jerk, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, and the Man With Two Brains. Most recently he can be seen in the Ocean's Eleven, Ocean's Twelve, and soon Ocean's Thirteen. Another former Hoya is Jim Gaffigan. The very funny comedian can be seen on many a Sierra Mist commercial as well as TBS' My Boys.

VANDERBILT- The list of former Commodores includes Las Vegas' Molly Sims, Chairman and CEO of Emerson Electric, David Farr, Amy Grant, Betty Paige and the late Dinah Shore-ah. But it was also once home to both Tipper and Al Gore. And of course without Al Gore, this blog would not even be possible, since he did, in fact invent the internets! Without Al we would not have access to tons of porn, shirtless picks of Steve Guttenburg and other celebrities, email, or ebay. Thank you Vanderbilt for providing Mr. Gore with the education that has helped turn him into the man he is today.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA- USC has produced 15 astronauts that includes the first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong and Apollo 13 hero, Jim Lovell. As well as giving us many space explorers, it has also given us a very large contribution to television and film, like George Lucas and Robert Zemeckis. Without Lucas, we'd have no Star Wars and without Zemeckis, no Back to the Future! But, much like last year, we have an Arrested Development tie-in. As none other than Ron Howard was a Trojan as well. Howard was the narrator for Arrested Development. Now sure, he was also in Happy Days and The Andy Griffith Show and directed such classics as Splash, Parenthood, Apollo 13, and EdTV. Good work Opie!

NORTH CAROLINA- Chapel Hill played host to noted author Tom Wolfe. Wolfe wrote Bonfire of the Vanities as well as the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. It also played home to Andy Griffith
who starred in The Andy Griffith Show and Matlock. But our favorite former Tar Heel would have to be the best baseball analyst around, Peter Gammons. Gammons is a great baseball writer, whom I've been reading for years and years. It actually used to be my goal as a kid to finish his column in the Sunday Boston Globe. Believe me it's long. There is probably no one with as much baseball knowledge as Gammons. Plus he also likes to"rock out!"

So there ya have it! Another year, another Sweet Sixteen, another look at some noted alumnists. Hope you enjoyed.

ALUM-INATING III

After rave reviews of last years Sweet Sixteen blogs, we've decided to once again look at those famous or notable people that have graduated or at least attended the schools in this year's Men's Basketball Sweet Sixteen. So today we'll look at the first eight schools.

SOUTH REGION:
MEMPHIS- Well last year we learned that the incomparable Designing Woman, Dixie Carter attended the University of Memphis, but did you also know that legendary game show host Wink Martindale went there as well? Yes the host of several game shows, including, "High Rollers", "Tic Tac Dough", and "Trivial Pursuit". And recently he has appeared in commercials for Orbitz gum. Now, while he was no Bill Cullen, he did a bang-up job.

TEXAS A&M: Now aside from the many football players A&M has churned out, the list of alumnists also includes goofy looking musician Lyle Lovett and noted actor Rip Torn. You may be familiar with Torn's portryal of Patches O'Houlihan in the movie Dodgeball or as Tom Green's angry father in the cinematic classic Freddie Got Fingered. But there is one more notable A&M alum we'd like to mention. James Adams. Adams is the Director at Texas Instruments, which is of course responsible for my graphing calculator and my Speak 'n' Spell. Do they still make those? If not, you can bet Mr.Adams will be receiving a letter from me.

OHIO STATE- Well, the list of famous Ohio State alumnists is very, very long. The list includes Everybody Loves Raymond's Patricia Heaton, Hall of Fame baseball announcer Jack Buck, and famed comedy writer Bruce Vilanch, who you may better know from Hollywood Squares, hosted by Tom Bergeron. But it's coolest alum by far has to be, Ron O'Neal. O'Neal of course played cocaine dealer Youngblood Priest in the blaxpoitation Superfly movies. Unfortunately, O'Neal passed away and will only there in spirit when the Buckeyes take on Tennessee on Thursday evening.

TENNESSEE- Now, the mosted noted Volunteers are athletes, like Peyton Manning, Allan Houston, and Todd Helton. But did you know that ESPN's Gene Wojciechowski also attended the University? Or how about Woody Paige? Yes that's right, the same Woody paige you can see on ESPN's Around the Horn or Cold Pizza. In our opinion Paige is one of the biggest windbags on the continent, maybe the world, and has no business being on television, but maybe that's just us? Another famed alum is none other than Kevin Nash. Nash was a longtime wrestler, who you may know as Diesel. Nash has also done some acting. He appeared in an episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch and played Shredder in the movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze.


WEST REGION:
KANSAS- Now Kansas has quite a few notable alums, such as Quantum Leap's Scott Backula, Boy Meets World's Betsy Randle (she was the mom), Mandy Patinkin, and thin, fat, thinner actress Kirstie Allie. But far and away, our favorite former Jayhawk is none other than Brian Fantana himself, Mr. Paul Rudd. We've been a fan of Rudd's work for a long time and look forward to his upcoming ventures as well. His best best work to date though,would have to be his role as Brian Fantana in Anchorman.

SOUTHERN ILLINOIS- Southern Illinois has produced some extremely funny people. There's Mr Show's Bob Odenkirk (oddly enough Santa Fe mayor David Coss is also a former Saluki), Bill Dwyer and Jim Belushi (if you've seen K-9 you know what we're talking about!). We should also mention that former Playboy model and Singled Out girl, Jenny McCarthy was a Saluki. But the baddest mammajamma to ever attend this esteemed insitution, is none other than Richard Roundtree! That's right, SHAFT! Shut your mouth! I'm just talking about SHAFT!

UCLA- Many noted actors have attended UCLA. Among them is "Rudy" and hobbit, Sean Astin.
Another UCLA alum is Blossom, aka Mayim Bialik. Now interestingly enough The Simpson's Harry Shearer and Nancy Cartwright were both Bruins. But it doesn't end there, as Simpson's producer David Silverman also attended. But since this is inspired by the college hoops tournament, we would be remiss uf we didn't include one of the best ballers to come out of UCLA, the one and only Jaleel White. We've seen Urkel ball, on Family Matters with Grandmama, and as himself take over MTV's Rock 'n' Jock basketball.

PITTSBURGH- Piitsburgh was attended by one of the greatest dancers of all-time, Gene Kelly as well as well-established writer John Irving. You probably know Kelly from Singin' in the Rain, while you may know Irving for the movies that were made from his books, like The World According to Garp and The Cider House Rules. Or perhaps you've read the novelizations? But the best alum has to be David Dalessandro. He of course, wrote the screenplay for the cinematic genius that is Snakes on a Plane.

So that's it! Tune in later to see if we can find a blaxploitation connection to the other two regions as well.