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“Backs to the Wall”

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Game Six of the World Series is up next, and no one could have imagined any of this happening.

Did you think the Astros could lose two in a row at hitter happy Minute Maid Park and bat (.170) in the process in the opening tilts?

Shocked to find out the Nationals, red hot at home, would go home and lose 3-in a row to Houston to lose the 2-0 edge in the series?  That thanks to a (.175) team average over those three nights at Nationals Park.  Home-sweet-home, not so much.

Odd, the visiting team has won all five games so far.

You always knew Houston’s bats would come alive, for they have all season thru this 107-win campaign.  And did they ever in Washington, batting (.311) for those three road games, and bombing the Nationals 6-home runs to 1-in their own yard.

So Washington plays on Tuesday night with Stephen Strasburg asked to extend the season, and what better ace to run out there.  The former Aztecs has a career (1.34)-ERA in playoff games now .

Strasburg, this post season alone has been dominant, (4-0)…40-strikeouts in 28-innings and 3-homers allowed.  That’s a (2.26)-ERA facing a really great batting order.

The warrior that is Justin Verlander starts for the Nationals, trying to force a 7th game.  But his dominance on the mound has not been part of this fall’s postseason, a (1-3) record with a (4.20-ERA) with 6-HRs allowed in 35-innings of work.  But then again, he’s facing the best bats in baseball.

As dominant as Verlander has been, it is hard to believe, he carries a career record of (0-5) to the mound in World Series games.  That’s right (0-5), amazing considering he is (14-10) overall in post season.

They hit home runs at Minute Maid Park, and you have to expect the Astros will hit better the final two games than they did the first two games.

If this thing gets to a 7th game, who starts?  There is no Max Scherzer to trust in the Washington rotation, now with the neck spasm issue and the weekend cortisone shot.

Patrick Corbin, the other big money pitcher in the Washington rotation has been poor of late, with a (6.54-ERA).  You might have to trust him.

I don’t know about the trust level either of Houston’s potential Game 7-starter if we get there.  This has not been vintage Zack Greinke either in the Astros rotation.

Might we have a “bullpen day” if there is a winner-take all Game seven?  Wouldn’t that be absurd.

Circle back.  How about this.  A (1-0) pitchers gem tonite.  I picked the Astros to win in six, this is game six, so let’s have Houston win.

But how cool is this, two dominant aces, facing each other..  Washington has its backs to the wall.  Houston is trying to scale the wall and win this thing now.

Going to be fun.

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“Chargers-Bears–Bad Football”

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What in the name of Billy Wade..Bobby Douglass…Rudy Bukich was that?

It brought back bad memories of Mike Tomczak…Jim Harbaugh..and Mike Phipps.

Oh the coaching.  Matt Nagy’s play calling revisited bad times with Abe Gibron and others.

From the heavens or the graves, George Halas, Walter Payton, Gale Sayers must have been screaming.

They booed, those DaBears fans dressed like Mike Ditka, from start to finish.  The old Ball coach was probably screeching too.

The Chargers didn’t so much beat the Bears (17-16) as the Bears beat themselves (17-16).  Blown field goals, turnovers, missed open wide receivers with TD passes, fumbles. sacks and horrid play calls by the head coach, a supposed ‘next Sean McVay’ clone.

This type of game in the NFL era of wide open offenses, sets the game back decades.

Philip Rivers threw for (219Y).  His defense had 2-takeaways on bonehead plays by Bears QB-Mitch Trubisky, and recorded 4-sacks.

In between all that, the Bears self destructed, with horrible play calls at the end of each half, missed field goals from likely to unemployed kicker Eddie Piniero, and fruitless trips into the red-zone time and time again.

For the record, the Bears got the ball to the Chargers 1, 4, 7, 14 and 21 during the game.  They made 3-field goals, missed 2-field goals, and left a lot of points on the field.

The Chargers weren’t much better, even though they won.  They had 1-first down over a span of 27-minutes, covering 18-plays.  Chicago had the ball 23-minutes in the first half, had a (289-119) yardage advantage at one point in the game, but screwed it all up.

Oh the Bolts mishaps were almost equal.  Keenan Allen and Mike Williams dropped open TD passes.  Allen and Williams combined to drop 4-passes.  Allen tripped on the grass 3-different times running routes.  Hunter Henry, the quality tight end, dropped a pass and took a pass interference penalty. Despite a TD run from Melvin Gordon, the run game staggered for a third week in a row, this time netting 12-carries-36-yards rushing.  There was another Chase McLaughlin missed field goal, though this time not fatal.  There were personal foul penalties, blown coverages, more bad tackling.

Thank goodness for Joey Bosa-Melvin Ingram.  Bosa had 2-sacks, 2-tackles for loss and a QB pressure.  Ingram recorded a fumble recovery and a key QB pressure.  Casey Hayward had a gift pick plus 2-deflections. Thomas Davis had 3-tackles for losses.

Trubisky has really regressed this year.  He looks scared in the pocket.  Late on throws.  Unsure of what he is seeing on defense.  He missed open receivers twice in the end zone.  He threw short to open receivers on crossing patterns.  He took 4-sacks on top of all that other stuff called by his coach.

Nagy, the boy wonder coach, made some horrid play calls, running the ball deep in Chargers territory on 3rd and long plays, burning lots of time off the clock on some calls.  You get to the red zone and you don’t connect at all on a TD….0-for-5 trips.  And post game he was defiant in the face of media questions..’zero chance I run it..zero chance I throw it on final play before field goal…bad things could happen.’  Andy they did.  His erratic kicker missed when that one extra snap could have gotten him closer.  Woeful.

So the Chargers come home with a win, an ugly win maybe they don’t deserve, and are at (3-5), with Aaron Rodgers and the Packers coming in for a home game in LA next.  Think there will be some Green & Gold in the stands on Sunday?

Back at Soldier Field, if I were Chicago, I’d boo too, and just think, winter is coming to the Windy City too.

Da Bears….Bad News Bears football for sure.

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“Aztecs-UNLV–Anything is Possible”

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San Diego State plays a ‘gimme’ game this weekend, against lowly UNLV on the road.

All signs post to an Aztecs win that would take the team to (7-1) before they move into the really tough part of the schedule.

But there are never any guarantees in college football.  The Rebels beat the slumping  Aztecs at the end of last season, in San Diego, a stunning setback.

And there is horrible history too, back in the day, SDSU lost to an (0-10) UNLV team in the Ted Tollner era.

While the Aztecs are bowl eligible for the 10th year in a row, the Rebels are still a suffering program.  1-winning season since 200.  2-winning seasons since 1994.  A myriad of coaches over the years, from the legendary John Robinson (USC) to the nationally famous current head coach, Tony Sanchez, who built a dynasty at Las Vegas Bishop Gorman High.  Nobody has won with any consistency.

The Rebels are (66-158) over the last two decades.  The only winning seasons coming from Robinson, once, and Bobby Hauck, who wound up at SDSU as an assistant before taking the Montana job.

No one has has success in Las Vegas.  But then again SDSU was a downtrodden program till Rocky Long took over.

Anything is possible, as witnessed by last year’s Rebels win.

Anything is possible if you consider UNLV won at Vanderbilt and San Jose State won at Arkansas, after the Aztecs won at UCLA.

Coach Rocky Long’s comments:

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..We were in same situation last year, same record, and we started struggling-losing.
..No dominant team in our league
..No gimmes in the league.
..UNLV film against Vanderbilt-see how good they can be
..UNLV has not hit stride much, but they won at Vanderbilt-outplayed them
..UNLV has excellent athletes-and can play well.

..QB-don’t know who starter is going to be.
..Kenneth Oblad has played well as a freshman-good touch-good accuracy
..Buys time with his feet.but does not want to run…moves pocket
..Backup QB-Armani Rogers is a great athlete-runs well-but inconsistent.
..They have 3-QBs requiring different schemes.

..Charles Williams one of top RBs in league
..Runs tough, makes you miss, gets out in open he is dangerous
..He makes you honest when he carries the football.

..We practice half of our time on turf…half time on our grass field.
..Grass practice is easier on players.
..
..We need to do what we did in 2nd half against San Jose-run it-control ball
..The 2nd half last weekend was best we played all year in win at San Jose.

..Tony Sanchez-really good coach.
..You never know unless you are in the situation he is in.
..There’s no telling what issues are.
..If they give him plenty of time-he will succeed.

..Our team continues to work on improving offensive line penalties.

..I talk to former players if they want advice about their careers…NFL-CFL.

..Players got agents, family, all talking to players.
..I have not spoken to Donnell Pumprhrey about his career.
..DJ Pumphrey can play in NFL-has not hit the right spot at the right time.
..If he can play in the NFL-he can play in Canada
..I am not jumping into that-if players want advice-I will guide them.

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“Padres-Decision Day”

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Waiting.  Waiting for a decision from the Padres.  Waiting for an explanation from the Padres.

They have interviewed the five candidates on their list of finalists for their managerial job.

It appears the job is going to Ron Washington, a baseball lifer, and an entrusted teacher, valued by GM AJ Preller.  Or is it?

They spent a lot of time with Jayce Tingler, a Player Personnel guru, who has also spent a lot of time with Preller, when they were both in Texas. Not him, not yet.

A last minute interview with former player, front office exec, and Cubs bench coach Mark Loretta.  Why the delay in talking to him?

They had alengthy interview with Brad Ausmus, who had mixed success in the beginning of a rebuild in Detroit, and then was treated poorly in his one year with the Angels.

The Padres ownership told us they valued experience, but they never had  a sit down with retiring Giants manager Bruce Bochy., who rebuffed overtures for a meeting.  They never got the chance to talk to Joe Maddon of the Cubs.

They bypassed making calls to Joe Girardi and Buck Showalter, both who have won other places in the major leagues.

Maybe they weren’t willing to pay, nor value an investment of 5M per year, what the Angels paid Maddon.

Maybe Showalter is too much of a control freak for their liking.

Maybe Bochy, who has had heart procedures, decided he needed some time away from the baseball grind that consumed his life.

I don’t know why the World Series credentials of Girardi, or the attention to detail style of Showalter would not merit an interview.

So we march on and wait for the announcement.

Washington has had success as a manager, and he is a teacher, with great rapport with players.  He did it with a young group in Texas, help usher in success with the money-strapped A’s, and had huge impact on the kid players in Atlanta, Ozzie Albies, Ron Acuna and more with the Braves.

Tingler has credentials in the new world of baseball, where analytics are viewed as important as experience in the dugout.

Whomever takes the job, will be challenged to get this everyday roster to play better, improve and grow.

He will need to solve the clubhouse chemistry, and find a leader, a voice, on that roster who will hold players accountable, stretching from a star like Manny Machado to an erratic young Francisco Mejia.

Taking the pitching staff to the next level will be equally important, as they grow the learning cufve that the young group of starters went thru last year.

Ron Washington has a track record as a teacher of young players in Atlanta and Oakland and the success he had as the Rangers manager.  It appears his off the field issues that stained his reputation, women and drugs, are a thing of the past.

Might there be a hidden message the club does not want with Tingler, another inexperienced clone of Andy Green, full of philopshy, but absent bench experience.

And of course the unanswered question, will the next Manager be his own man in the dugout, or a puppet to the people in the front office, who want to pull the strings.  You wonder if all these 90-loss seasons in a row have changed the way they might do business in the future with their next manger?

If it were my team, I would have taken a big run at Maddon, or on Girardi’s leadership skills.

We find out soon, for Thursday is an off day in the World Series, or maybe later on Monday, the next off day, or maybe they wait till the Fall Classic is finished.

Me, I’d hire Washington, give him the data you want, but let him manage “his” team.

The process seems agonizingly show.  I thought the Padres brass knew what then wanted.  Maybe people they want, don’t really want to be in the situation in San Diego.  They blew out Andy Green in mid-September, had lots of time to think, find and finalize a deal.  But it has not happened yet.

I think the guy coming into the Padres job is coming unto a good situation.  Maybe we’ve misread the value here.  Maybe the Padres have misread potential candidates.

Job still open.  Situation unresolved.

Padres, possibly paralysis by analysis.

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“World Seies-Aztecs-Colors”

Baseball-Coach Mark Martinez”

The baseball spotlight is in Houston as the World Series moves into Game two.  That spotlight will have a ‘Red & Black’ hue attached to it, as former San Diego State All American takes the mound against the Astros.

The legendary Aztec goes down as the second greatest player ever to wear the SDSU colors, right behind Tony Gwynne.

SDSU baseball coach Mark Martinez had plenty to say about what Strasburg has become in Washington, and what he has meant to the Aztecs program.

Martinez also spent time talking about the newly proposed restricting of minor league baseball by the Commissioner Office.  He comments on the proposal to fold 4-Class A and rookie leagues…the decision to cut the draft back to 20-rounds…a move to make all teams to reducer to ‘150’ the number of minor leaguers they have under contract, and what this could mean to college baseball across the country.

Coach Mark Martinez:

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..So proud see what Stephen Strasburg has done with Washington Nationals.
..Fabulous job-learned how to be enormous talent
..Have had a lot of chill moments thinking about his career and now the World Series

..His expectations have been so high, he has answered the challenges.
..Look over his career and now this year-what a season for him.

..He’s kept hitters off balance all postseason-strikeouts and soft at bats
..He has a different style of pitching-he dominated with fastball with curveball-changeup.
..He is up to 95-to-98mph…
..He speeds guys up-slows them down using all three pitchers.

..Heartbreaking when he suffered elbow injury that second year…
..1st think you think, ‘My God” what has happened.
..Respect work he put into his career.
..We knew how he competes at the highest level.

..I texted him to say congrats and let him be.
..Our guys see what he has done-they know him
..He is here in the off season around our guys.
..He’s done so much for our program..talking life lessons.

..Sit and watch him now..memories come rushing back.
..His 23-striekout game, in a (1-0) win vs Utah..holy cow-amazing
..His no hitter in final home start…amazing.

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..New minor league structure-waiting for data on what final decisions will be.
..Knee jerk reaction is this will help college baseball
..Change how we sign people coming out of high school..more players available

..First reaction it is an awesome deal for us in terms of players available for us.
..If they cut draft back to 20-rounds in draft…alot of California usually sign.
..Pool of players available will change..more available to us