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..

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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.

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It’s interesting covering preople as a TV reporter, or a sportstalk show host, or as a sportswriter or columnist.
The media has changed so much of the last dedcade. The role of the media is now drastically different. How we are viewed, how we are treated, trying to do our job, is very much a different landscape now.
Taking you into a Coaches Press Conference, giving you a close up look at the coaches we deal with, and letting you decide whose right vs wrong in their approach..
Meet Rocky Long, head coach San Diego State, a career genius as a defensive coordinator, doing very well now in his only head coaching job. He works at a team with a limited football tradition, with limited resources in a conference few fans in a major league city pay attention too.
Meet Mikc McCoy, Chargers head coach, working for a money rich team, with a superman star quarterbackk, with all the resources an NFL franchise could ever have, in a city whose fans love the 50-plus years of quarterbacks and offenses.
One coach is winning. The other coach is losing. One coach is like a book of quotations, with a candid smile on his face. The other is losing, condescending, not very friendly, and failing at his job.
College coaches run and control their programs. They recruit the players, they coach them up, and in their fifedom, have longevity, and the ability to guide young people. They make decent money in the Mountain West Conference, enormous money in a place like the SEC..
NFL coaches are under the pressure and paranoia of having to win at everything. The money is different, the egos are greater, they are at the mercy of horrific injuries, poor ownership, and a prying media.
The ability to creatively package and execute on game-day is something to see. Sure you want to win, have to win, but game days at a college stadium are very different. Game days in the NFL are tension filled, with the next play likely to lead to failure, second guessing and condemnation.
Coaching at San Diego State and with the Chargers is so very different. And so is the relationships a Rocky Long builds and a Mike McCoy fails to appreciate.
Walk thru the Aztecs Athletic center and you can feel the energy going floor to floor. Walk into Chargers Park and you see locked doors, limitations everywhere, and a not very friendly culture. Night and day. Heaven and Hell.
On Monday’s we sit and listen to McCoy dish out cliche after cliche, witholding any useful information, as if extolling why a 3rd and 2-pass call did not work, would be leaking CIA information to the enemy, the next opponent.
Rocky Long often talks about decision making in games, his philosophy of going for it on 4th down, the dynamics of the matchups he wanted to run, and why a play worked or did not work.
Ask an injury question and you get stonewalled with the Chargers, even if the national media is about to talk about a torn rotator cuff or a fractured ankle. Pose the same question about an injury at SDSU and you get a time frame, and a rehab schedule, and an honest assessment.
Detail a question about a coaches conversation with his GM or a team captain, and there is the ‘private’ conversation response. Do the same to the college coach about his feeling about conference expansion and tv contracts and starting game times, and you get a strong sense about what he feels.
Ask about a position change, and the NFL coach will give you some stoic statement about the best interest of the team. The college coach will go in depth about the move of the tight end to left tackle, the challenge and the mechanics of such a change.
It goes on and on, with McCoy and Long, just coming at it from different directions.
It’s our job to ask the questions, get some answers, and draw conclusions.
Mike McCoy, week after week, empties his waste basket of cliches on the table on Monday’s.
“Best interest of the team”….”Put a good game plan together”…..”Keep that conversation to ourselves”……”When he’s ready he’ll be on the field.”
It worsens, when you are caught in a lie, and the key working media loses trust in your honesty.
On Tuesday, Rocky Long goes a good half hour, detailing his feelings about Bowl matchups, coaching salaries, the pressure to win, injuries, position changes, philoshocial feelings about the college game. There is never the feeling of “Next Question-I refuse to answer the last question.”
Though not everyone will agree when a coach details a star player’s marijuana suspension, he treats them like men, and holds them accountable.
A prime example was McCoy saying a top player was ‘dinged’ when he really suffered a catastrophic-career ending knee injury. That compared to Long detailing a player whom they helped with Bi-Polar disorder even after he left the program.
So Mike McCoy is losing games now. He’s lost the support of the working media that finds him distant, condescending, and just not very friendly. He gets his traits from an owner who acts the same way.
Congrats, you’re (2-7), and if you haven’t noticed, have lost your fans too.
So Rocky Long will talk to us next about a wide variety of topics, not caring whether you agree with the answers, but hopeful you appreciate the responses to what we feel are important questions, covering college football.
Congrats to him, and by the way, his team is headed to another bowl game, and possibly a (9-3) season.
To quote a former Chargers General Manager, AJ Smith, who had his way of offending people, and defending his philosophies, the statement stands tall in San Diego.
“It is what it it is”. Mike McCoy could be well liked and get the benefit of the doubt. He’s created a miserable situation. Rocky Long has made it fun to be around his program, even from the days of bad records, bad starts to seasons, and bad play calls. He gets it, and enjoys it.
It is what it is-though in some cases, it doesn’t have to be that way.

It’s interesting covering preople as a TV reporter, or a sportstalk show host, or as a sportswriter or columnist.
The media has changed so much of the last dedcade. The role of the media is now drastically different. How we are viewed, how we are treated, trying to do our job, is very much a different landscape now.
Taking you into a Coaches Press Conference, giving you a close up look at the coaches we deal with, and letting you decide whose right vs wrong in their approach..
Meet Rocky Long, head coach San Diego State, a career genius as a defensive coordinator, doing very well now in his only head coaching job. He works at a team with a limited football tradition, with limited resources in a conference few fans in a major league city pay attention too.
Meet Mike McCoy, Chargers head coach, working for a money rich team, with a superman star quarterbackk, with all the resources an NFL franchise could ever have, in a city whose fans love the 50-plus years of quarterbacks and offenses.
One coach is winning. The other coach is losing. One coach is like a book of quotations, with a candid smile on his face. The other is losing, condescending, not very friendly, and failing at his job.
College coaches run and control their programs. They recruit the players, they coach them up, and in their fifedom, have longevity, and the ability to guide young people. They make decent money in the Mountain West Conference, enormous money in a place like the SEC..
NFL coaches are under the pressure and paranoia of having to win at everything. The money is different, the egos are greater, they are at the mercy of horrific injuries, poor ownership, and a prying media.
The ability to creatively package and execute on game-day is something to see. Sure you want to win, have to win, but game days at a college stadium are very different. Game days in the NFL are tension filled, with the next play likely to lead to failure, second guessing and condemnation.
Coaching at San Diego State and with the Chargers is so very different. And so is the relationships a Rocky Long builds and a Mike McCoy fails to appreciate.
Walk thru the Aztecs Athletic center and you can feel the energy going floor to floor. Walk into Chargers Park and you see locked doors, limitations everywhere, and a not very friendly culture. Night and day. Heaven and Hell.
On Monday’s we sit and listen to McCoy dish out cliche after cliche, witholding any useful information, as if extolling why a 3rd and 2-pass call did not work, would be leaking CIA information to the enemy, the next opponent.
Rocky Long often talks about decision making in games, his philosophy of going for it on 4th down, the dynamics of the matchups he wanted to run, and why a play worked or did not work.
Ask an injury question and you get stonewalled with the Chargers, even if the national media is about to talk about a torn rotator cuff or a fractured ankle. Pose the same question about an injury at SDSU and you get a time frame, and a rehab schedule, and an honest assessment.
Detail a question about a coaches conversation with his GM or a team captain, and there is the ‘private’ conversation response. Do the same to the college coach about his feeling about conference expansion and tv contracts and starting game times, and you get a strong sense about what he feels.
Ask about a position change, and the NFL coach will give you some stoic statement about the best interest of the team. The college coach will go in depth about the move of the tight end to left tackle, the challenge and the mechanics of such a change.
It goes on and on, with McCoy and Long, just coming at it from different directions.
It’s our job to ask the questions, get some answers, and draw conclusions.
Mike McCoy, week after week, empties his waste basket of cliches on the table on Monday’s.
“Best interest of the team”….”Put a good game plan together”…..”Keep that conversation to ourselves”……”When he’s ready he’ll be on the field.”
It worsens, when you are caught in a lie, and the key working media loses trust in your honesty.
On Tuesday, Rocky Long goes a good half hour, detailing his feelings about Bowl matchups, coaching salaries, the pressure to win, injuries, position changes, philoshocial feelings about the college game. There is never the feeling of “Next Question-I refuse to answer the last question.”
Though not everyone will agree when a coach details a star player’s marijuana suspension, he treats them like men, and holds them accountable.
A prime example was McCoy saying a top player was ‘dinged’ when he really suffered a catastrophic-career ending knee injury. That compared to Long detailing a player whom they helped with Bi-Polar disorder even after he left the program.
So Mike McCoy is losing games now. He’s lost the support of the working media that finds him distant, condescending, and just not very friendly. He gets his traits from an owner who acts the same way.
Congrats, you’re (2-7), and if you haven’t noticed, have lost your fans too.
So Rocky Long will talk to us next about a wide variety of topics, not caring whether you agree with the answers, but hopeful you appreciate the responses to what we feel are important questions, covering college football.
Congrats to him, and by the way, his team is headed to another bowl game, and possibly a (9-3) season.
To quote a former Chargers General Manager, AJ Smith, who had his way of offending people, and defending his philosophies, the statement stands tall in San Diego.
“It is what it it is”. Mike McCoy could be well liked and get the benefit of the doubt. He’s created a miserable situation. Rocky Long has made it fun to be around his program, even from the days of bad records, bad starts to seasons, and bad play calls. He gets it, and enjoys it.
It is what it is-though in some cases, it doesn’t have to be that way.

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Wow.

That was impressive, even if San Diego State wakes up looking at a loss on Tuesday from their Monday night game at Utah.

The Aztecs went hammer-and-tong with the big-bruising Utes, playing race horse basketball against the plodding Pac 12-team.

State would not wilt, not when Utah built a 9-point lead early, not when the hostile crowd turned wild over officials calls, and never giving up when at times, other young teams would cave in at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City.

Winston Shepard had a strong second half, and needs 17-point halves like that to become the go-to veteran on the floor.

Dakarai Allen shows no fear firing up three pointers, as he showed early on with 3-treys to keep State close.

Zylan Cheatem is not afraid to dive to the  bucket, and this is a young redshirt freshman playing with the big boys.

Sophomore Trey Kell is bigger and stronger and can drill three point shots.

There’s still alot of growing to do with Malik Pope, who can get hot, but can also take a bunch of errant shots that kill momentum.

Jeremy Hemsley is so very young, but not afraid to matchup against veteran guards, or to take it into the paint against tall timber.

The bigs are the bigs, but it is disappointing there are still offensive deficiencies with some of these guys.

Skylar Spencer doesn’t have much of an offensive skill set.  For all the basketball Angelo Chol has played, you’d think he would have developed any type of a jumper, or a move to his right, to compliment his lefthanded power drive hook shots to the bucket.

Steve Fisher said he’d use the trip to Utah to figure out what the personality of his team would be.  I think he knows now, attack the rim, take it to the hole, kick it out, hit threes, and play big boy defense with shot blockers.

They lost to a firepower Pac 12-team, but they were not bullied.  SDSU is enormously athletic, and gifted with the ball.  Just think where they will be by January when conference play starts.

Good luck Boise, New Mexico, UNLV, the others who thought they were going to be basketball royalty in this conference.

I don’t think anyone can provide the blast furnace offensive and defensive power that State showed, on the road, in a brutally tough barn in Utah.

It might have been a last second loss, when Utah hit 20-of-22 free throws in the 2nd half to stave off the multiple SDSU comeback attempts.

But it was a win, to hang tough, keep roaring back, and finding out how good this bunch of guys wearing Black might be.  Really good.  Wow.

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