Padres New GM

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He won the press conference.  Now we will see if he can get players to San Diego so they can win more baseball games.
 
The Padres hired AJ Preller as their new General Manager, a five year deal, coming from the Texas Rangers.
 
The next generation of Whiz Kid execs, super scouts, big on saber-metrics, and with a track record.
 
Preller is given much credit for helping flip the woeful Texas Rangers, from high priced underachievers, to young and talent laden.  This year they look terrible in the standings, but losing over 1400-man games to injuries, and virtually your entire pitching staff, will do that to a team.
 
But when you look at the Texas Roster, the first thing that strikes you, aside from the $130M payroll and Prince Fielder’s name, is where they come from.
 
Preller’s reach has been far and wide. Yu Darvish, the Japanese pitching sensation.  Players from the Dominican, Cuba, Venezuela, Mexico and the Pacific Rim.
 
People call him ruthless in his pursuit of talent.  He was on the road for 320-days scouting last year.  He laughed when he talked about the 3-million miles he has on his flight cards.
 
Some think he is a recluse; others say pushy; some think too edgy.
 
The Padres think all those things factor into what the Rangers became, with the players he scouted and recommended they sign or draft.
 
The press conference was full of flowery phrases.
 
Owner Ron Fowler called him an “unknown diamond” in the Texas organization.  He was an encyclopedia of knowledge about the players in the Padres organization.  They expect him to lure some Rangers scouts with him.
 
Owner Peter Seidler said he was blown away in the first 9-hour meeting the ownership group had with Preller, about what he knew and what he thought of the franchise he would inherit.  .  .
 
CEO Mike Dee said he was the “best of the brightest minds’ they interviewed from all the young guns they brought in.
 
The Padres estimate they spent 100 hours over a five week span, interviewing Preller, talking to other people about him, and then meeting amongst themselves.
 
They had three interviews with him and believe he is the right guy.  Some of the same phrases have been mentioned with the last two GMs hired here, Jed Hoyer and Josh Byrnes.  Of course the people who said that, and who hired them, are all in the Padres rear-view mirror.
 
He’s been called a ‘maverick’, and the Padres better be right, for they have just eaten the contracts of 3-different front office people to get this guy on board.
 
But maybe doing things differently will work, for what has been done in shaky drafts, wasted money in the Dominican, and the failure to explore and sign Cubans-Mexicans-or Pacific Rim players, have hurt San Diego over the last decade.
 
2-winning seasons since their last World Series experience have led us to this point.
 
AJ Preller starts on the job today, with tons of information on players, a strong track record, and an attitude.
 
They flipped the Texas Rangers.  He believes they can flip the Padres, not to be just .500, or be a wild card team, but to play in October, hopefully soon than later.
 
He may be a bright light.  His energy in that meeting with the media lit up the room.
 
He won the press conference.  Now the real challenge.  Make the team win.

Baseball Drugs

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So you thought it was over huh?
 
Bud Selig is headed towards retirement, but the steroid scandal that blighted his run as Baseball Commissioner may not be over.  No not, after the Biogenesis suspensions, upgrades in drug testing, and a cleansing of the game.
 
Now batting, the DEA, and they have their own sets of rules for this game.
 
Alex Rodriguez is sitting out this  season in his 162-game suspension.  The other 13 in the Biogenesis scandal have severed their penalty, but there is seemingly more coming.
 
Tony Bosch, the Miami drug dealer, who turned state’s evidence to help MLB, has been arrested and plead guilty last nite to dealing steroids for 5-years in South Florida.  Yuri Sucart, the uncle of A-Rod, has been arrested for doing the same in the Dominican.  8-others were also nabbed in raids.
 
Case closed, no not at all.  Now the rumors are the DEA will hand out more indictments, and that may include the players who were caught-trapped in the Biogenesis probe.
 
The DEA wants more names, not of players, but of dealers.  They want players to sing or squeal under the threat of indictments.
Drug dealing is like a chain link fence, there’s always another connection, and a web of other people, buying or dealing. 
 
Hope you enjoyed the 2014 season, because their might be more suspensions coming for somebody in 2015.
 
Bud Selig will be leaving shortly, thinking he cleaned up the game.  He is excited about the financial state of the game.  Peace with the Union.  Drug Testing.  The Wildcard and Pennant Races.
 
But the Steroid era is obviously not over.  So says the DEA. 

Scandal of Scandals

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Stunning is the world that seems to fit the story coming out of Colorado Springs the last 24-hours.
 
A scandal of significant proportions at the Air Force Academy, held in such high esteem, for who they are, who they admit, and what those cadets put themselves thru getting ready to begin a career in harm’s way.
 
An investigation that has led to the expulsion of some 32-cadets, including 5-football players, 2 in basketball and a female athlete.
 
Probes of huge violations of the Academy Honor Code, in academics, and in life style. 
 
Drunken parties, marijuana abuse, date rape drugs, lies to investigators and academic irregularities. 
 
A difficult-to-accept story considering the honorable place we hold our service academies in.
 
Insinuations that winning football games led to the admittance of sub-standard recruits, who were stashed for a year at Air Force Prep, to get them eligible, but obviously not to keep them out of trouble.
 
Beating drug tests, alcohol abuse and sexual assaults on 3-female cadets are all part of the story. 
 
The demands on the cadets, academically, socially, and intellectually in Colorado Springs are significant.  No different than at Annapolis and West Point.
 
And although the horrors of the depths of this story, dating back to 2011, are significant, Navy and Army had dealt with similar issues too recently, academic fraud, and date rape issues.
 
Don’t know if we are wrong for holding Air Force-Navy-Army’s option quarterbacks to a higher standard.  They are young men, maybe prone to get involved in the same issues that have plagued places from Ohio State to Montana, and lots of schools in between.
 
Maybe we should not be stunned nor surprised in all this.  Young men, who make mistakes. 
 
But at first glance, when you read the report, it does shock you the dateline is Air Force Academy.

Aztecs – August 4th, 2014

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1-of the best no one really knows about.
 
San Diego State Aztecs preseason football workouts begin tonight, and while the Chargers draw all the attention in this major league city, little attention is given to the man doing an impressive job.
 
The Aztecs trips to post season bowl games have become a tradition in football, much like March Madness invites have become part of the DNA of the SDSU basketball program.
 
Rocky Long may be old school as a coach, but he gets wins, results and respect.
 
There are hardly any BCS invites handed out in this Mountain West Conference neighborhood over the years.  Aside from what Boise State did and Utah did, the Mountain West is just another mid-major conference, on TV, playing football.
 
They recruit a different type of football athlete at SDSU, not many 5-star guys, but rather players you get in, keep academically eligible, and the type you ‘coach-em-up.”
 
And that’s who Rocky Long is.  The real meat and potatoes type of coach.  Witness what he did last year with JUCO-walk on QB-Quinn Kaehler, who had to talk his way onto the campus, just to get a tryout.
 
He’s creating things each year.  1-year finding linebackers to run his wild 3-5-3 defense; another season finding starting cornerbacks; then replacing OTs by moving players around; this year it’s looking for safeties.  He is a can-do guy.
 
When Ryan Katz went down, Kaehler came in to just manage the games.  A rocky couple of turnover marred starts turned into stronger performances.  By the middle of the season, the Aztecs were winning games, and Kaehler was making plays, lots of plays.  It’s not a problem, it’s an opportunity with this coach, who came here after buidling something from nothing at New Mexcio.
 
It must be a weird feeling to be in the shadow of Jim Mora and Steve Sarkisian, the in-the-spotlight coaches at UCLA-USC.  It must be a somewhat disappointing feeling when no TV reporters, 1-beat writer, 1-radio guy shows up for media day.  It must be an empty feeling to have to face more empty seats at your home games, than fans-friends-alums screaming and yelling.  It must be disappointing to be in the shadow of all things Philip Rivers and the Chargers.
 
San Diego State may be much like Fresno State and Boise State, a really solid program, but they are unlike them too-because in this market, few pay attention and it seems fewer care.
 
It has been a long uphill run for SDSU.  The Marshall Faulk electric era was a long time ago.  Bowl games are here, but no national recognition to speak of.  The Aztecs put players in the NFL on a year by year basis, and they are starting now to get transfers-bounce backs from the USCs and Oregons of the world.
 
But you get the sense, none of the outside stuff means much to Rocky Long.  Just wants to go to work everyday, be a good coach, a strong leader, and develop young men who reach their peak on the field and in the classroom.
 
Good coach, good man, doing a good job, in relative obscurity.  That seems to be okay for this old ball coach, for all he wants to do is ‘coach-em-up’.  And that Rocky Long does very well…

Pro Football Hall of Fame

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Pro Football Hall of Fame weekend is upon us…enshrinement on the front steps in Canton, Ohio.

A legendary class for sure, from many different eras.

Claude Humphrey-elite pass rusher of the Falcons, part of the original “Gritz Blitz” defense. He did not invent the head slap, but he sure used it.

Andre Reed-the Bills small college-big play receiver. Fast-tough-no fear-fiery. He was the pass catcher with Jim Kelly during that spectacular run of 4-straight Super Bowl games for Buffalo.

Derrick Brooks of Tampa Bay. He wasn’t Jack Lambert, he wasn’t Junior Seau, he wasn’t Mike Singletary. He was fast, quick, instinctive, smart and everywhere on the field.

Ray Guy-the first of his kind to get there, a punter, a punter, finally enshrined after all those years of waiting, all those yards, and all those coffin corner kicks for Al Davis’ Raiders.

Aeneas Williams, Arizona Cardinals, smooth, slick, effortless covering good wide receivers. A star player for the most part on bad Cardinal teams.

Walter Jones, Seattle’s mountain of a man, quiet as a mouse left tackle. You never knew he was on the field, because he never drew penalties, and his pass protection package snuffed out blitzes on that side. His play spoke volumes even if he was not much of a speaker.

The stars come out tomorrow afternoon in Canton. It will be a great day at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.