You could always tell where he was, what he had done, and what to expect.

Just look for the guy with the dirt on the front of his uniform. That’s who he was, how he played, and how we should forever remember him.

Things haven’t always come easy for Dave Roberts, the incoming manager of the Dodgers.

The small option quarterback at Rancho Buena Vista, a proud Longhorn, from the North County. A prouder UCLA Bruin. And a dedicated major leaguer, doing anything to help produce and win games, whether he wore the Chief Wahoo patch on his shoulder, wore the Giants Orange & Black, Dodger Blue, or Padres brown.

A decade long career of stability and consistency in the show; a lifetime (.266) hitter; a solid glove; daring on the base paths.

And all the traits he showed as a player, became his calling card as a trusted coach on Bud Black’s staff. A confidante to the manager; a liaison guy to the players; an intellectual when it came to strategy.

It’s a shame he had to go away to become a manager, but this new breed of baseball leadership, the AJ Preller-Andrew Friedman’s of the world, all want their own guys running their clubs. So “Doc” doesn’t become the Padres bench boss, but instead moves to Chavez Ravine.

And like the grinder he was as a ballplayer, so to was the fight he put up against cancer, never once complaining, never once giving in, but ready for the battle, just like stepping into the box against Roger Clemens. He believed in the Almighty to see him thru. He got support from other cancer survivors like Larry Lucchino. He embraced the greatness of the friendship of Tony Gwynn.

He will manage players, he will handle egos, he will accept the advice of the people upstairs, and he will manage games inning-by-inning, just like he managed his career and personal life, with dedication and excellence.

The front of the uniform will be clean from this day forward. He earned the Blue script with the red number beneath it.

Dave Roberts, always diving head first for a fly ball, for a stolen base, or an extra hit, now dives head first in as the Dodgers new manager.

He looks great, think he’ll do great.

The Chargers coach hasn’t lost his players. He’s lost just so many players, he can no longer compete.

The wolves are out, going after Coach Mike McCoy. It’s not his fault entirely, this disgraceful (2-8) record, the one with a 6-game losing steak attached to it.

Yesterday’s hammering at the hands of the Chiefs, was the worst home field beating since 1996, and the third worst dating all the way back to 1988.

Just think, there’s 6-more weeks of this to come too.

McCoy’s players may still appear to be playing hard, but they just don’t have much talent on the field.

Injuries have seen to be a chunk of that. So have bad investments in free agents, bad drafts, and maybe more critically, bad schemes.

You cannot run offensively what they did just a couple of years ago, when McCoy and Philip Rivers teamed together for a ball control, big strike offense.

They are struggling to pass protect. They can’t run block. And they cannot keep offensive lineman from getting hurt.

Ditto the same on the defensive side of the ball. They blitz all the time, occassionally get a sack, but give up monster big plays, way too many of them.

They cannot stuff the run, seldom get the quarterback, can’t cover in the secondary.

And of course, they are on a historic mission of incompeteenece returning kicks and preventing big yardage returns.

McCoy can remain stoic, can remain dedicated to the lockerroom, and remain loyal to his coaching staff. All fine and dandy if you are willing to go down with this ship.

This head coach, who inherited a pretty good team three years ago, now has a very bad team around the last remaining member of greatness, Philip Rivers.

This head coach needs to take over play-calling from the sidelines. He needs to swap out defensive coordinator, elevate Mike Nolan, release John Pagano.

And he better be willilng to admit, every member of the organization has failed the franchise, and it’s last remaining star, the quarterback.

Firing McCoy now makes no sense. I’m not even sure doing it at the end of the season is the right move. What needs to be done is a better evaluation of talent in the draft, and the right free agent acquisitions.

The Chargers appear to be bottoming out. There’s a sewage smell around its entire football operation now, probably as toxic as the smell if they every move to Carson (aka-Carcinogin).

Everybody at Chargers Park seems to be in denial. What is not to be doubted though is what the NFL standings say this morning. Last place, tied with two other teams for the first round pick in next April’s draft.

I guess we are waiting to see if owner Dean Spanos, who has failed as an owner, 22-losing seasons in 31-years, will have his spokesman Mark Fabiani blame the mayor’s office for the on-the-field product too.

The coach hasn’t lost his players. They’re just bad, complicated by bad leadership. But it’s not hard to imagine Mike McCoy having a bad ending in San Diego if they don’t get this turned around.

This will be a special weekend for San Diego Chargers fans, in an otherwise dreary season.

The Chargers host the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, in what used to be a special rivalry game, dating from the old AFL Days, to Bobby Ross-vs-Marty Schottenheimer, to more recently Philip Rivers vs everyone at Arrowhead Stadium.

The Bolts have fallen on hard times. Kansas City is trying to come back from bad times.

Sunday the Chargers salute the past, the greatness of LaDainian Tomlinson. The running back was a tremendous pick made by the late General Manager John Butler. It was a pick that fell to him in that NFL draft of April 2001. He wasn’t even supposed to be there.

The Cleveland Browns, desperate for any and all players, thought and thought, and eventually bypassed Tomlinson, taking a Penn State defensive end, who promptly broke down under three years of injuries.

LT fell to the Bolts, and the records fell too, after his arrival in San Diego.

He had done so much, coming from the hill country of Texas to TCU. The Horned Frogs of Coach Dennis Franchione ran the wishbone-option. They were an afterthought in the waning days of what was the Southwest Conference and their first days in the WAC.

Tomlinson was so tough to tackle coming off the edge. He set all types of Frog records, in a program that once upon a time in the 1930s and 50’s was pretty elite.

There were spectacular seasons of 1800 and 2100 yards his final two years in Ft-Worth, playing in the shadows of the Texas Longhorns and the A&M Aggies. He even had a then-NCAA record of 408-yards in a game.

He was durable, he was tough, he was a slasher and a glider. His ability to get yards after contact was amazing, as was his ability to jump cut and go back against the grain. His vision, in that sea of humanity of blockers, was something to behold.

He was a pseudo Barry Sanders, never taking big hits, just glancing blows. Aside from a bruised bone in his knee, sadly in the AFC-Championship game in New England, he never came out of that Bolt lineup.

All he ever did was produce. An amazing 13,684-yards rushing. Some 624-receptions worth 4,772-yards. When not running, he was throwing 8TD passes out of the halfback option package. He had 162-career touchdowns.

The snapshot of all time was not Tomlinson sitting on the bench so badly banged up in New England with his helmet on, head looking down in disappointment, but rather being carried off the field after he set the NFL single season rushing record of 31-TDs in a season.

Like all things NFL, and many things under AJ Smith, then general manager, he was cut loose after 9-seasons of excellence. He went to the Jets and played two more campaigns, but he was always a Charger, then, and now even more so now.

He will be honored Sunday at halftime of the Chargers game. Who knows if owner Dean Spanos, he trying to leave San Diego, will even have the brass to take the field to introduce the greatness of the back and the man.

It would be nice if Chargers fans don’t boo Spanos this time, but rather erupt in a Standing Ovation to ring around the stadium to salute all the great things Tomlinson was to the franchise, and the great times he led the Bolts too.

Big things from a little package of talent, with the heart of a giant. From halftime honors here, to the next stop, the steps of the Hall of Fame in Canton.

#21-is-#1 in the hearts of the fans in San Diego.

-0-

It was a great baseball season if you liked pitching. If you are a purist. If you think good pitching beats good hitting.

It was all summed up by how complicated the voting was for the Cy Young Award, the MVP honor accorded guys that toe the slab, bring the heat.

Pick any time during the season this summer, and we had a different pitcher dominate. And when it came time for the writers to select the best pitcher in each league, the debate was fierce.

Dallas Keuchel of the Houston Astros won it in the American League, and I still cannot get used to saying Astros-AL after all those years describing the Toy Cannon-the Killer Bs-Von Ryan Express, JR and more, as being National League residents.

The bearded lefty came out of nowhere, and led the Astros from nowhere into a Wildcard playoff game. Granted they were 1-and-done, but there would have been no Astros game in the post season were it not for that (20-8) record, and the amazing (15-0) record at hitter friendly Minute Maid Park.

David Price went from Detroit to Toronto, went (8-0) in one stretch, pitched on short rest, and nearly willed them thru the post season. Stunningly, his post season record as a starter showed him without a win, which was a surprise.

Over in the National League, Jake Arrieta carried the Cubs into October. He was dominant with that 1.77-ERA, trustworthy start-to-start, and just a bellweather of an anchor. And to think the Orioles let this guy get away. He was a warrior on the mound, outdistancing the scientist on the mound, the Dodgers righthander, who was second in voting.

Zack Greinke of the Dodgers came home a distant second, a slap in the face to greatness. You go (20-4) without run support, he should have garnered more votes. You take the mound 32-times, every start, and in 26 of them, you give up 2-runs or less, you deserve more than just 10-votes on the ballot. Maybe his quirks, eccentric nature, non media attitude worked against him.

Clayton Kershaw was third, way behind the pack, but despite a slow start in April-May, his tandem pairing with Greinke was something to watch. In one stretch he had a 0.95ERA stretching out over an 18-start binge. Think about that number.

A real tough call to vote on the best. Sometimes you think co-Cy Young Award winners would have been the way to go.

In the history of greatness, from the days of dominance of Bob Gibson to Nolan Ryan, Steve Carlton to Roger Clemens, this was a spectacular summer of individual work.

But for this summer, if you liked excellence, you saw lots of it from pitchers who hurled their team into the postseason, so they could get their just rewards in the offseason..

-0-

It’s interesting covering these coaches as a TV reporter, a sports-talkshow host, a sportswriter or as a columnist.

The media has changed  so much in the last decade.  The roles of the media are now drastically different.  How we are viewed, how we are treated, trying to do our job, is very much part of a different landscape.

Taking you now into a Coaches Press Conference, giving you a close up look at the coaches we deal with, and letting you decide who’s right vs wrong in their approach to us.

Meet Rocky Long, head coach San Diego State, a career genius defensive coordinator, doing very well now in his only head coaching opportunity.  He works at a team with limited football tradition, limited resources, in a conference few fans in this major league city have an attachment to.

Meet Mike McCoy, Chargers head coach, working his first head job ever after a good career as an offensive assistant.  Working for a money rich team, with a superman at quarterback, with all the resources a franchise as to offer, in a city whose fans love the franchise.

One coach is winning.  The other coach is losing.  One coach is like a book of quotations, forever with a candid smile on his face.  The other is struggling, condescending, not very friendly, never smiling.

College coaches run and control their programs.  They recruit all the talent, they coach them up as players and develop as men.  In their fifedome they have longevity, make decent money in the Mountain West, and enormous money other places.  Their goal is to get kids ready for the pros, and hope they can graduate everyone else for there life’s work.

NFL coaches have fame and lots of fortune.  They are under enormous pressure, live with paranoia.  The money they earn is amazing, the egos are greater, and they are at the mercy of horrific injuries, poor ownership, and a prying media.

For Long and McCoy, the ability to creatively package game plans and execute are very different.  Rocky wants to win, but game days in a college stadium are electric.  Mike has to win before crowds that are demanding and hostile.  Game days in college football are parties.  Game days in the pros are tension filled with split second decisions and weeklong second guessing.

Coaching at SDSU and at Chargers Park are so very different.  And so are the relationships Rocky Long builds and Mike McCoy fails to appreciate.

Walk thru the Aztecs Athletic Center and you can feel the energy on every floor.  It’s a spirit grab for sure.  Walk thru Chargers Park, you see locked doors, limited access, and not a very friendly culture.  It’s as different as Night and Day, or Heaven and Hell.  The Aztecs have made it one way, the Chargers the other.

AD-Jim Sterk is always available.  When was the last time you heard from the leader GM-Tom Telesco?

On Monday’s we sit and listen to McCoy dish out cliche-after-cliche, witholding any useful information, as if extolling why not going for it on 3rd and 2, has to be a CIA secret, information you’d be leaking to the enemy you play next week.

Rocky Long talks on Tuesdays, often about play-calling and philosophy, going for it on 4th down compared to kicking field goals, often discussing specific reasons.

Ask about an injury to a player, you get stonewalled with the Chargers, even if the national media is reporting specific facts, while the coach talks in generalities.  Post a question about an injury at SDSU, you get time frames, details and an honest assessment.

Detail a question about a conversation with management about players, and it becomes none of your business in Mission Valley.   Ask the same in college, and you get the whys and wherefores of the decision making process up on Montezuma Mesa..

It goes on and on, with McCoy and Long coming at it from different directions..  It is our job to ask questions, get answers, and then draw conclusions.

Mike McCoy, week after week, empties his waste basket of cliches on the table.

In the best interest of the team.  Putting a good game plan together.  Keeping that conversation to ourselves.  When he’s ready-he’ll be on the field.  Every Monday, the same stuff.   The sessions sometimes less last than 15-minutes.

He fails to realize when caught in a lie, his credibility is gone just like his honesty.

Rocky Long goes a good half hour, detailing his feelings on anything and everything about college football.  He bares his soul and tells you what he believes, whether you side with him or not.

McCoy told the media a key player was dinged, when in reality, he had a catastrophic career-ending knee injury.  Long goes into detail about suspensions and the rationale in player moves.

McCoy is losing games now.  He’s lost the support of the working media, who find him distant, condescending, and seldom friendly.

Congrats, you’re (2-7) losing games and losing your fans too.

For Long, this may be a (9-3) run the table-bowl season and maybe win a championship year too.

Congrats to him for all the accomplishments against alot of adversity.

To quote a former Chargers GM-AJ Smith, who had his ways of offending people, and losing his job, his statement still stands tall in San Diego.

“It is what it is”.  Mike McCoy could be well liked and would get the benefit of the doubt.  He’s created a miserable situation.  Rocky Long has made it fun to be around his program, even when there were bad days, bad losses, and bad starts to season.

They’re both driven to do well.  1-makes it a fun job.  The other fails to grasp this part of the role of being a head coach.

In San Diego, “it is what it is”, though it doesn’t have to be that way.

-0-