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“Aztecs-Critical Hire”

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When you come to a fork in the road, “take it”.

That’s what Yogi Berra said back in the day.

Now you hope that San Diego State, at the fork in the road, made the right turn in the decision to hire John David Wicker as Director of Athletics.

This was a critical hire for the athletic program.

College athletics is no longer small potatoes, a mom and pop operation. It is big business, with big budgets, and big time pressure from lots of directions.

Especially so when you are a school in the Group of 5-conferences, living amongst the have-nots, surely not able to compete with the Power 5-conferences, who have everything.

Of course life on the big stage isn’t always rosy, witness as to what happened at Penn State, what happened to the LSU coach, what might be about to happen at North Carolina with its NCAA sanctions coming.

San Diego State has become something special in athletics, thru alot of hard work, blood, sweat, and lots of tears.

It’s programs are successful, from the quality leadership in football, to the accomplishments in basketball, to the raging success in Olympic type sports, even if they are off the radar screen.

The academic attrition crisis is gone, thanks to a joint working relationship across campus. SDSU’s APR ratings are at an all time high.

And the money raised, for the facilities built, is very impressive, especially since the huge alumni base in the city and county, has never really wrapped its arms around these programs on a consistent basis.

They have reached a plateau of respect within the Mountain West Conference, becoming what Boise State has become, or what Brigham Young was back in the old Western Athletic Conference.

But this hire of JD Wicker was so important.

Jim Sterk had done a marvelous job in fund raising and in hirings. There was stability and revenue streams never seen before at SDSU.

Yes there was the untold crisis issues, the lost lawsuit, and ugliness of the Beth Burns case. There was the sadness in the passing of Tony Gwynn, and the dropoff in productivity of the baseball program.

But there are no scandals at SDSU. There are no gun and rape and DUI incidents at SDSU. There’s no academic fraud at SDSU.

Wicker inherits a rock solid program, not one scrambling to stay one step ahead of the NCAA, or one in massive debt, working in crumbling facilities.

But hiring the right AD was a must. Rocky Long has had a great career coaching the football program, but the word retirement has been mentioned around him.

Steve Fisher’s phenominal run is headed to twilight time in basketball.

The loss of Gwynn and his credibility was a blow.

San Diego State needed to make the right choice, because a bad hire could have taken the program off its fast track, and they live on such a fine line on Montezuma Mesa

Wicker learned everything he could from Sterk, first at Washington State, then at SDSU, before he set off to find his own pot-of-gold.

You have to go away before you can come home, so off he went to Georgia Tech and the ACC, only to return some 15-months later when this job, a very good job became open.

Who better to carry this forward than a man who was at the right hand of the man (Sterk), who took the Aztecs to the next level.

There will be challenges in the future, but SDSU is better armed now to face whatever is coming, because the new leadership will carry forward with the experience they gained under the past leadership.

It’s a good time to be an Aztec. JD Wicker has the opportunity to build on everything.

It appears SDSU made the right turn, when they came to the fork in the road.

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“Fall Classic-So Much History-So Much Bad History”

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Baseball tradition is so much a fabric of the game.

Teams, personalities, quirks, successes, failures.

That’s what makes tonites opening game in the World Series so special, because there is so much history between the Chicago Cubs and the Cleveland Indians.

So much expectation, so much heartbreak too.

The Cubs, haven’t been to the Fall Classic since right after World War II, 1945, when they lost to the Detroit Tigers. The Hank Greenburg, Detroit Tigers. The Cubs stars that given summer were pitcher Hank Wyse and slugging young outfielder Andy Pafko and 3rd baseman Stan Hack.

The Cubs haven’t won the World Series since 1908, the spitball era, a team anchored by Mordecai “Three Fingers” Brown and Heine Zimmerman, and the famous infield combination of Tinker-to-Evers-to Chance

The Indians did get to the World Series in 2007, the era of the Alomars and others.

Cleveland failures date back though to the painful 1954 season, when they won 111-games, breaking the stranglehold on the Yankees era, only to get swept by the other New York team, the Giants. You remember, if you are an old timer, Vic Wertz near home run eraticated by Willie Mays over the shoulder catch.

The Tribe did win the Series in 1948, beating the Boston Braves, in the era when everybody loved baseball in the Bill Veeck era, coming out of World War II.

History will run names up the flagpole like legendary Cubs slugger Hack Wilson, and Mr. Cub Ernie Banks, and “let’s play two”.

Of course the Cubs also gave us some four frightful years of baseball with the College of Coaches, their rotating managers.

Modern day Cubs ball includes Sammy Sosa, the home run hitter, but decades of frustration, dating back to the ‘Curse of the Billy Goat.’.

Indians baseball featured Wynn, Garcia, Lemon, the great Cleveland pitching staff.

If dealt with the tragedies of the Ray Chapman beaning in 1920, the linedrive that ruined Herb Score’s brilliant career.

We had to deal with “Don’t knock the Rock”, Rocky Colavito, and then agonize over his trade to the Tigers for singles hitter Harvey Kueen.

Damn Frank ‘The Trader’ Lane, GM back in the day for doing that.

Ivy on the walls, the old scoreboard, the rooftop seats and Ron Santo represent all good things about Wrigleyville.

Cleveland remembers Super Joe Charbonneau, Rapid Robert Feller, Bell-Manning-Eckersley, and cavernous Municipal Stadium, the ‘Mistake on the Lake’.

But in the here and now, the Cubs will roll out the big hitters, Rizzo and Bryant, and the big arms, Lester, Arrieta, Hendricks. That plus the Cuban connection of young stars.

The Indians give us no-names, young players, who have excelled. I bet the average fan cannot name guys like Lindor, Lisenhall, Kipnis and Kluber.

But beginning tonite, all the ghosts of past failures will be filed away.

You hope for a good series between Chief Wahoo and the Cubs. Stretch it to seven games, give us some more drama, but in the end, the batting order and the pitching staffs will see fans in Chicago run up the “W” flag at Wrigley Field.

Somewhere up there by this time next week, I’ll hear in the my heart, Harry Caray, drinking a beer somewhere, yelling “Cubs Win-Cubs W

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“What the Fans-Media-Coaches Have Been Waiting For”

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They were dynamic, they were diverse, they were dangerous when they had the ball, and when they went after the ball.

The Chargers (33-30) overtime win in Atlanta on Sunday was what many thought could happen this year, and what many hoped would happen.

The Bolts put on a show of explosive plays, big yardage plays, big defensive stands, and dominated in stretches, in beating a pretty good team, in a prety tough venue at the Georgia Dome.

Philip Rivers ‘refuse to lose’ approach drove this team to the brink, and this time, people around their superstar QB made the plays to get them across the finish line.

Tyrell Williams caught lots of big yardage passes. Melvin Gordon ran heavy duty, caught passes, scored 3-times, and stuck his nose in there blitz blocking.

Travis Benjamin rallied out of his funk to run loose with yards after the catch.

Dontrelle Inman, missing in action, came thru as an option receiver.

On defense, the relentless Joey Bosa had 2-more sacks, 2-more tackles for losses, and was in Matt Ryan’s face.

Brandon Mebane clogged up the middle, and kept blockers off his linebackers.

And the little guy, Denzel Perryman made the two biggest plays of the season, the rally killing pick of a Ryan pass, and the 4th down tackle for loss in overtime giving the Bolts the ball.

Drew Kasor hit long punts, Josh Lambo cooly kicked 3-more field goals.

Mike McCoy and Ken Whisenhunt shed their conservative pages in the playbook, and let it rip, with 4th down calls, passes off blitzes, and even a wide receiver-reverse-option pass. They’re coaching not just to win, but to keep their jobs.

The team showed resiliency after a horrid second quarter, especially when Rivers got sacked twice, and fumbled. The 3rd and 4th quarter series offset the horrors of what happened in the second quarter.

This team nearly won in Kansas City. Could have won in Oakland. Did win in a nasty venue in Atlanta.

It only counts as one win, but it puts them now in the neighborhood going into Denver next weekend, where a road win vs the Broncos could get them to (4-4), and give them some momentum to face an easier second half of the season schedule.

They kept their longshot playoff hopes alive, and ketp the wolves at bay off Coach Mike McCoy, though he still needs a strong finish to the season, to keep his job.

No one wants to hear anything about a contract extension yet. Let’s see if they can keep winning.

But for all the adversity this team has suffered thru, and all the self-inflicted wounds they have caused, they still have a chance.

The quarterback keeps delivering, and for once, the defense delivered to its potential.

Only counts as one win, but we saw the potential of what this team could be, even with so many players out for the year with injuries.

So that’s what a come-from-behind win looks like. Haven’t seen many of those around San Diego in a long time. Now they just have to duplicate it again.

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“Dodgers Blue-The Real Meaning”

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It was so tough to watch the Dodgers season ‘bleed out’ last night infront of another sellout crowd, infront of the visiting icon Vin Scully, infront of all those Cubs fans who somehow got tickets.

Yes there’s still a game six to be played Saturday at Wrigley Field, with the hope that Clayton Kershaw can lead them to a victory, so that there can be a Rick Hill start, come Sunday.

But the reality is right infront of our face. The Dodgers ran out of pitching in this series.

All the individual efforts of Kershaw, all the passion of 1st baseman Adrian Gonzalez, all the big hits of the kid Corey Seager, and the guts of their closer, cannot makeup for the shortcomings on the injury ravaged pitching staff.

LA got to the postseason desite not having Kershaw for more than two months with that back injury.

They got there on the shoulder and the strong back of relief ace Kenley Jansen.

But beyond that, it was a fire drill, hoping the next starter could get you a win, to get to the next game.

In the end, it all caught up to LA. Rich Hill, with bad blister problems, had a few good starts, but was iffy from start to star.

Kenta Maeda, the Japanese import, seemed to be running on fumes as September turned to October.

The young Mexican sensation Julio Urias spot started with success, but when it counted most, he was overwhelmed.

Hyun Jin-Ryu never got out of spring training, with setback after setback. Brandon McCarthy was a walking-talking medical case, trying to fight back from all types of physical issues. Ditto for Brett Anderson, who finally had surgery.

The setup guys, who had one hot streak as postseason began, regressed back into journeyman, overmatched kids, and guys not so trustworthy.

It was so painful to go thru a 30-minute top of the 8th inning, when Pedo Baez could cover first base on two infield ground balls, and big hits followed that blew the game open, much like the night before in the 10-run late inning outburst.

Maybe LA was living on borrowed time. . Maybe you always knew the Cubs were going to exploded somewhere in this series, because they always eventually did during their 103-win season.

The Dodgers ran out of options, and their own personal streak of postseason failure will continue. Their last World Series appearance and win was 1988.

Granted it’s not like the 108-years of Cubs futility, but this is pretty signficant for a franchise in the 2nd biggest market in the country, with a wealth of resources, and front office smarts.

Maybe when they went up (2-1) in the series, after the win at Wrigley, and the win back in LA, we all hoped for a miracle.

The old axiom good pitching beats good hitting probably still holds true. But not enough pitching gets you in trouble in postseason, and the last 48-hours has proven that.

Maybe Kershaw can do his magic, and then something happens come Sunday. Not likely, not with the track record of this staff.

LA’s season bled out last night, from a thousand little paper cuts, caused by a wafer thin pitching staff.

The sun comes up today, but we all feel Dodger Blue today for a good team, that fell short, because their pitching staff fell apart this season.

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“Like Night and Day in NBA”

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I guess we all like to see greatness, so it was fun to sit courtside and watch the latest edition of an NBA-Dream Team, the Golden State Warriors take on the Lakers.

It really wasn’t much of a game, a talent-laden Warriors team, the ones with the big gold and blue championship rings on their hand, against a very young Lakers team, tantamount to an ACC-college basketball team.

Golden State plays so fluid, up and down the court, race horse ball, unselfish ball, running, gunning, shooting three’s and getting after it at the other end of the court.

Coach Steve Kerr walked into such a great situation when he took the Warriors job rather than the Knicks job. You’d think it would be easy, just to roll the ball out on the floor, and let Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant and Draymond Green go balling.

But it may be a challenge to manage personalities, and egos, and minutes and shot selection, though to watch them work together is artistry.

For the Lakers, it’s been a painful three year process of losses, injuries, shedding salaries, saying goodbye to Kobe Bryant and the like. Now they are young and athletic, inexperienced, and not very physical.

Brandon Ingram should still be at Duke, his game so far from being polished and physical to compete in the NBA. Julius Randle has nights where he plays really well, and nights where he gets overwhelmed.

DeAngelo Russell, the Ohio State guard looks dynamic, and Jordan Clarkson can shoot.

But the rest of the roster is made up of aging veterans, and fringe players, and not much there to think they’ll do much over an 80-game schedule.

It was fun initially to watch the Miami Dream team of LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade, and now they’re all gone.

It was fun to see Cleveland put the band back together with LeBron and Kevin Love and the Cavaliers become special.

But I think it is bad for the league in the bigger picture overall. Yes fans will be amped to see all things Golden State when they come into your building. And it will be fund to watch them chase possibly a 75-win season this winter.

But what does it mean to the rest of the league?

Anybody really interested in seeing a Thursday game between Sacramento and Milwaukee? What happens to Oklahoma City, or Detroit, Portland to Orlando, who don’t have enough players, and are just playing a schedule hoping to make postseason ,where they become road kill.

It’s like ‘night and day’ watching the greatness of Golden State vs the rest of the NBA, Lakers included.

The salary cap was supposed to bring equality to the NBA, pay the stars, and keep hopes alive in various NBA cities, they could get good. But agents figured a way to circumvent it all with multi-year deals, one and done transactions, and opt-out clauses that bend the rules.

Big challenge for the NBA going forward, firmer controls of the salary cap, and finding a way that there will be better teams around the league.

There has to be more than just Golden State-vs-Cleveland peaking interest, with everyone else getting ignored.