Lupica exasperates by being right sometimes

How often I've thought it . . .

Get Mike Lupica west of the Hudson River, regarding any sport except golf or tennis, and he's simply out of his element.

No, George W. Bush was never going to pardon Roger Clemens, and anyone who knew anything about George W. Bush, aside from what an intern had downloaded from Huffington Post, knew as much. (Such was Lupica's braying on the matter that the presumptive pardon became a topics of discussion on "The Sports Reporters," even on an episode where Lupica did not appear.)

A few weeks ago he talked about how USC, under Pete Carroll, had "underachieved."

Really.

Start with this.

USC's record in Carroll's first 16 games: 8-8.

USC's record since then: 83-8.

Two Orange Bowl victories, four Rose Bowl victories, two National Championships, one historic loss (Vince Young), one no-shame loss (Oregon, 2007), one loss to an underrated Aaron Rogers/Lavarr Arrington team (2003), and five losses that defy sense and gravity (one to Stanford, two to Oregon State, one to UCLA, and the latest one to Washington).

Still: 83-8.

Back to Lupica. His ten-thumbed dealing with greater sports America makes it almost exasperating when he gets it right, as he does here with Mo.