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“Rocky Talk-Boise State Week”

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I didn’t mean to spill the grease and start an oil fire, but I asked the question, and he answered.

I-Hacksaw…he-Aztecs coach Rocky Long.

The question as his press conference was the intense rivalry game coming up between San Diego State and Boise State.

They are the top two teams in the Mountain West Conference, and have dominated this league as late.

The Aztecs may have passed Boise State by because they’ve beaten them a couple of times, and won on the blue turf in Idaho.

“Boise isn’t our emotional rival. We haven’t played them though” he said in quick response. “I consider Fresno State our real rival”.

Yes they’ve met just 4-times in their history, and SDSU has beaten them twice. But these two teams have combined to win or tie for the league title, four times in the last five years, so they are dominant.

I know the old “Oil Can rivalry trophy’ involves SDSU-Fresno, and dates back to 1933, but not since the days of Trent Dilfer, his big wide receiver group and NFL type running backs, has Fresno State mattered much on the San Diego State radar.

But Boise is different. They became the flag carrier in the newly formed Mountain West Conference, when Brigham Young bailed out of the old WAC, to go independent.

Yes, the Aztecs have won 27-of their last 30-games, but Boise has rolled to. The Broncos are (26-8) in the conference since 2013, second only to you know who, SDSU.

So Saturday’s game is very important. An Aztecs win keeps them in the unbeaten ranks, and in the running to be the top Group of 5-school for the Fiesta Bowl.

Boise got good real quick..got a bit arrogant too.

Followers around the nation probably think Mountain West and think only Boise State. All those Fiesta Bowl wins probably have lots to do with it. A (13-0) season in the Chris Peterson era has a lot to do with it. Also being in the top 15 in the polls for a chunk of time helps too.

Now they have have dropped down the ladder, as Rocky Long has dragged his program to the top. But that is why Saturday carries significance.

You beat them, you knock them out of the Mountain West race. You beat then, you stay on track to go do what they used to do, go unbeaten. You get a W and you can be where they made a name for themselves, the Fiesta Bowl.

The Boise game is big for the Aztecs. Maybe bigger than the old line-Lavell Edwards rivalry in BYU days, and surely bigger than Fresno State.

Good old ball-coach Rocky Long, stirring the embers of a rivalry that could blossom into a full blown fire on Saturday night.

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“Postseason Baseball-Pressure-Pitching Woes- Everywhere”

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The off season has started for the Boston Red Sox.

Vacation is about to start either tonight or tomorrow for a couple of other teams.

All the excitement of getting to the postseason, has been rubbed off now, by big hits, big blowups, and a lot of players failing to get the job done.

Drama, lots of it, and even more disappointment, that’s what we’ve seen since the wildcard play-in games started a week ago tonight.

For every shining moment like a massive Aaron Judge home run, or his over the fence catch, there has been failure. For all the big strikeout pitching outings, there have been errors and walks and mistakes.

100-plus wins were fun to watch in season, but there has been amazing postseason show of failure.

The standard joke around baseball this week, was ‘who’s the most important player on your roster…maybe it’s your long releiver.

Check this out. In the history of post-season, have you ever seen so many starters get pulled,or get knocked out early, as what we have seen in the last week?

In Boston, their four starters Porcello-Fister-Pomerranz and Sale, threw a combined 11.1-innings and allowed 20-runs.

In Cleveland, aces Trevor Bauer and Corey Kluber went 4.1-innings and gave up 10-runs.

The Yankees are still alive, but the trio of Severino-Sabathia and Gray lasted 8.1 innings and were tagged for 10-runs.

Arizona had to fight their way in thru the wildcard road. Grienke-Ray-Walker threw 8.2 frames and gave up 12-runs.

Houston is moving into the ALCS, but even one of their starters, Brad Peacock, lasted just 2.2 innings giving up 3-runs.

Colorado neve survived the second inning of Jon Gray’s start, that was worth 1.1 inning and 4-runs.

And the run by Minnesota to postseason ended when Ervin Santana was laced for 4-runs in 2-innings.

Add it all up, more bad starts than good ones. Big names took big beatings because of big innings.

A total of 15-starts made by these pitchers. A combined 38-innings, allowing 63-runs.

In baseball math, these starters have a combined (14.92-ERA) at the most important time of the year.

You don’t need sabremetrics or formulas to understand how much pressure there is on the mound in postseason.

Excited to be in postseason? Be careful what you wish for. You fight to get in, you can knocked out pretty quick.

Just asked the 15-shellshocked starters, who did not make it thru the early innings of their starts..

October baseball is supposed to be about the best teams. How’s that (14.92) stat grab you?

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“Ugly-Really Ugly-But a Win”

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What did you expect? A Picasso of a painting of a football game, or a smudged finger painting, running all over the canvas?

That’s what you get when you pair two (0-4) football teams against each other.

But for the Chargers, they got a win, a hard-earned, downright grimey win against a really poorly run New York Giants football team.

Philip Rivers hung tough, taking hits, making plays. Keenan Allen made some big catches. Melvin Gordon ran angry. And the only two quality players on the Chargers defense, led a pass rush that made the difference.

Nobody questions how ugly the game was, only if you won.

And they did, with the Chargers kicking a cripple in the gutter, when it was down (27-22),

The Giants lost their top 4-receivers, including a likely season ending ankle surgery to Odell Beckham. Without #13, without Brandon Marshall, Sterling Sheppard and others, Eli Manning had no help.

Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram led a pass rush that had 5-sacks, and 2-takeaways, and were in Manning’s face all day.

Allen caught 5-big passes. And Gordon got his touches, and got 163-hard earned all purpose yards.

Rivers survived a brutal end zone interception, and a fumbled snap, to finish with (259-P-3TD). But at one point in the game, the Bolts QB was (11-28). Think about that.

This was an awful-woeful day for Ben McAdoo, head coach, and failing play-caller.

They played power ball early, running up the early (9-0) lead, pounding the ball. And then McAdoo started to call passing plays. And he kept calling them, exposing Manning to the rush, and going 3-and-out as receiver after receiver went down.

What should have been an early lead to build on, became a football game because of McAdoo’s stupidity.

It was messy, like spilled paint everywhere.

Casey Hayward got torched for two long TD passes. There were guys running open, luckily Manning missed them. There were a combined 22-penalites in the game.

The Chargers OL problems continued with bad shotgun snaps, delay of game penalties, a safety, 5-dropped passes by the Bolts and more. How do you have 12 on the field coming out of timeout. And special teams allowed a whopping 162-yards in kick-punt return plays.

Thank goodness they were playing the awful-woeful Giants.

So they come home at (1-4), and for a few hours, they have to feel okay. Of course next week, they head back to Oakland, in what will be like putting your hands into a hornets nest. The Raiders have lost 3-in a row. .

Nothing to feel good about in New York, where the tabloids will like spew venom to every corner of the Giants Stadium.

An ugly win is better than another bad loss. The Bolts know that. The Giants are still suffering because of that.

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What’s a city to do?”

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All that real estate is still vacant.

The football stadium continues to decay.

The city continues to bleed money in upkeep.costs.

And now we have more plans unveiled to develop the sight that was Qualcomm Stadium.

San Diego State has signed a deal with the architecture firm Populous of Kansas City.

They will design a multi purpose stadium that would house the Aztecs football program, possibly play host to pro soccer, and could be expanded to NFL standards.

All that for 150M, to be funded by university bonds and fund raising.

But the deal with Populous is not a stand-alone transaction. It has to be included in the bigger University West Campus proposal, currently in the idea plans.

SDSU wants to buy 132-acres at cost, develop academic buildings, research buildings, add dorms, all part of the “Friends of SDSU” proposal to grow the university.

There would be a river park and additional business development. It is a huge undertaking for a university on a growth spurt, but needs quality leadership.

All this comes months after FS-Investors wrote an initiative to build a soccer stadium, that could be expanded-upgraded for the Aztecs to use.

The FS package, the catalyst for obtaining an MLS franchise, includes the river park, development, and a tract of land set aside for an NFL stadium, plus lots of retail..

The city of San Diego never got a deal done with the Chargers, despite a unique city-county financial consortium to help pay for it. Now they are faced with a real dilemma, with different needs.

The Mayor’s office has thrown its support behind the FS plan, and seems willing to negotiate sale of 79-acres of land to make it work.

Now we see if they change their mind, and instead put pencil to paper, and then sign on with what SDSU is attempting to do.

Both are grandiose in scheme, both could be big revenue makers, and both would be done without taxpayer involvement.

Now we have two dueling plans, with differing goals. SDSU to create an academic world, the soccer people looking for business investment and financial returns.

The FS Stadium design was snazzy with great upside.

The Aztecs ideas swirl around what Colorado State just opened, Hughes Stadium, their 220M sports facility in Ft Collins, an impressive structure that just opened last month..

But what is proposed is so much more than just a football-soccer…or soccer-football stadium. The spillover to help academics is amazing. The financial streams from the commercial enterprises are just as appealing.

Will be interesting to see how the city reacts, and then what the voters do come next November.

What’s a city to do. From zero success at the Mission Valley sight, to two very unique and differing proposals.

Somebody will win this race, the other will lose. The city and the community will prosper either way.

Just wondering, which is the right way?

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“Baseball Playoffs-Bring Your Bats-Are There Enough Arms”

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We got a sneak preview the last two nights, about what we are going to see the next couple of weeks.

Baseball is headed towards the Fall Classic, and what a beginning.

The Yankees unleashing the modern day version of the “Bronx Bombers” with Aaron Judge leading the way with all those New York home runs. They trashed the Twins, and head into Cleveland with momentum, and 245-homers this season.

The Indians await with a cross section of guys who can hit home runs too, led by Edwin Encarnarcion and his friends. The Tribe have two frontline pitchers, but lots of Yankees can hit lots of home runs, and have this year. Can a divers-dangerous Cleveland lineup wear out New York’s staff?

1954 was a few curveballs ago, the last time the Indians won the World Series, but if the Curse of the Billy goat ended at Wrigley Field, and the Curse of the Bambino went away at Fenway Park, maybe the Mistake on the Lake might forever disappear go this fall.

What a matchup in Houston, where the Astros, who put a lot of homers into orbit, have George Springer and a lineup full of guys, who can rake, especially at Minute Maid Park.

This is not your typical Red Sox team, but they have a lineup full of hitters, who spray and occasionally can go yard. It is life after David Ortiz, and it is different.

Of course the matches on the mound in games one and two should be dazzling. You expect that with Justin Verlander, Dallas Keuchel, Chris Sale and Drew Pomeranz. But in modern day baseball, hitting seems to be outperforming pitching.

The Dodgers-Arizona matchup should ge a classic. LA with a loaded starting staff, but Arizona with home run hitters will likely be in attack mode too.

The Diamondbacks wear you out with a new look lineup that is dangerous everywhere, from JD Martinez to Paul Goldschmidt.

The win over Colorado was a war of attrition, that wore out both pitching staffs.

The Dodgers health is an issue, but no doubt that if healthy, Cody Bellinger, Corey Seager, Justin Turner and more, will put LA in position to keep playing, keep winning.

On paper, Kershaw to Darvish to Rich Hill to Alex Wood, looks awesome.. 1988 was a long time ago, when LA last won the World Series.

Washington and the Cubs present an impressive array of talent, from Bryce Harper to Anthony Rizzo, and some dominant starting pitcher, highlighted by Stephen Strasburg and a veteran Chicago staff that was in the World Series last fall.

Baseball in October is so very different. The final 4-in each league promises some tremendous matchups, on the mound, and at the plate.

If you thought the wildcard games were wild, wait till you take in beginning tonight, what is about to happen.

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