by Chris Ello on August 16, 2009
No...Really...I Saw Him Smiling
First, thanks to the fans for not filling up the “Q” so that Saturday night’s preseason opener against Seattle had to be tape-delayed on television. I tuned in at 10:30, and about all I had in me was one quarter.
I’ll leave it to the rest of you to break down what happened after that (and after I went to sleep). I don’t feel I missed anything important, since all the starters were basically gone by the second quarter anyway.
But here’s what I did see:
Opening kickoff:Buster Davis is the return man which tells me the Chargers are less concerned about their oft-injured ‘07 first-round pick getting hurt again than they are about anybody else…After the kickoff, a quick shot of Norv Turner smiling broadly on the sidelines (better freeze-frame that, because I don’t expect to see it very often).
First play:LaDainian Tomlinson is in the game! Certainly don’t want to get him hurt, so it makes sense to have him block a blitzing linebacker. Fortunately, LT doesn’t want to get hurt either, so he misses the block and Philip Rivers is sacked.
Second Down:Time to give LT the ball. But — oh, those tricky Chargers — he’s running to the right. New guard Kynan Forney and tackle Jeromey Continue Reading →
by Craig on February 20, 2009
LONG BEACH, CA–619 Sports is on the road for two SDSU baseball games at the MLB Youth Academy in Compton. This morning, from my parents’ couch in Long Beach, time to catch up on some of the news of the past two days before resuming my consumption of the Aztecs’ baseball media guide…
- So far, so good for the Chargers’ offseason. Aside from the moronic radio ramblings of a couple of callers-turned-hosts, people seem to understand what’s happening with the team’s franchise-tagging of Darren Sproles. It was an unpleasant necessity in order to preserve the Chargers’ championship dreams for next season. Sproles was too valuable to let walk. He’s one of the top-5 players on the team in terms of overall impact. If the Chargers can work out a long-term deal that nets out less per year than the franchise tag, then so be it. If not, at least for one more season the Bolts will return with their key playmakers in place. And that’s important because…
- I’ve said this many times before but not in this blog yet, so here it is: as currently configured, the window of opportunity for the Chargers to win a Super Bowl is one year. As in, next year. Sure, with Philip Rivers around you’d like to think that the team will be competitive for years to come. And surely it will. But I’m talking about THIS team as is, the team with Rivers AND LT AND Merriman AND Sproles AND McNeill, etc. There’s no chance A.J. Smith can put this back together again once it falls off the wall. So anything that needs to be done to compete inside that championship window, including franchise-tagging a jitterbug return man/utility player, is fine by me.
- Of course, this also means that LT needs to return. I’m getting a little nervous about the talk of renegotiating with Tomlinson, adding incentives, asking for LT to accept a pay cut, etc. This is a very delicate dance, one that I would be concerned about the most diplomatic front office being able to execute. Given the Chargers’ missteps already in this arena, any further stubbing of LT’s toes could create an untenable situation. I’m not looking forward to the press conference where Smith throws up his hands and says “we tried our best but now we have to move on”…
- Chuck Long has a 3rd floor office at an SDSU campus office building, where Jeff Schemmel is giving him “projects” to work on for the betterment of the athletic department? Seeing as Chuck Long’s previous “project” didn’t turn out so well for State, maybe instead of asking old Chuckles to develop one-sheets on improving attendance (charge $$ to watch the team from Sunday through Friday was apparently his first suggestion, “that way Aztecs fans could see the football team at their best!”) they should just hand him a really thick Sudoku book and tell him to report back when it’s all done. Or better yet, have him turn some of that 700K salary into an online poker bankroll, and stake me in a series of tournaments. I’ll promise to give SDSU 50% of my winnings. This is guaranteed to be more profitable and a better use of money than what they are doing now…
- I think if SDSU is forced to keep paying Long, at least they could make a good old-fashioned mockery of him…some suggestions: instead of a 3rd floor non-descript office, how about a plexiglass office located right in the middle of the quad? Students could pay $1 for rotten fruit and vegetables to throw at the walls of the office, attempting to interrupt Long’s Sudoku rythym. Another guaranteed revenue builder! Or, two words: CHUCKY MONTEZUMA! Give him a conch shell, a headdress and a dream. Further suggestions for Long’s alternative employment at SDSU will be accepted in the comments section…
- I was talking with Mike May, the head of Media Relations at SDSU yesterday. We both agreed that the men’s basketball team needs at least a #2 regular season finish in the MWC to secure an at-large berth in the NCAA’s. But Mike brought up an interesting but troubling scenario: SDSU, New Mexico and Utah all finish 12-4 in the MWC, and the Aztecs earn the #1 seed in the conference tournament. Vegas winds up as a 4/5 seed and winds up facing #1 in the semis. UNLV beats SDSU, and New Mexico upsets Utah in the semis. Vegas beats UNM in the finals to clinch the auto berth. Utah gets an at-large thanks to their gaudy RPI. And with a conference tournament finals run, the conference regular season co-champion Lobos earn the eye of the committee. So, the MWC gets THREE teams in the tourney, and the conference’s #1 tournament seed is left out. Mike, stop dreaming up nightmare scenarios!
- I guess it goes without saying that tomorrow’s game at New Mexico is a huge swing game on the schedule. IF the Aztecs pulled out the win, they would be in great shape to run the table the rest of the way and grab the regular season conference title outright. A loss and they aren’t doomed by any means, but probably HAVE to run the table to have any shot outside of the conference tournament. No pressure, boys…SDSU will need to get much, much better shooting from outside than they have been able to muster in recent games.
- It’s not unique or revelatory to note that the “Bleacher Bums” show on XX is the worst talk show in the history of sports radio. Anybody who’s ever listened to the show with an IQ above 75 or a blood-alcohol level below .23 has learned this in short order. But at least The Great Mistake was hoped to provide something at least remotely interesting while it was on the air…you know, “radio by the fans for the fans”, etc. Keeping It Real, Yo? I’ve been driving in the afternoons the last few days, and punished myself multiple times by at least punching in for a minute. Some of the Amazingly Unique Topics included “what was the moment when you fell in love with sports?” and “what was the game that broke your heart?” What, the Pete Rose topic wasn’t available? Basically these ass clowns are cycling through each of the old saws that veteran hosts hope to never use, and turning them into daily staples. But the clincher for me was yesterday, in the 1 minute drive to the gym, hearing Jordan turn into Pom-Pom Waving Padre Schill Jordan, talking up the “inspiring” nature of David Eckstein and managing to summon a supportive sentence for every aspect of the Hometown 9. Dude. Sad. Dude.
- Let me just put it this way: I’ve worked in radio, one way or another, since I came to college in 1990. Thanks to that, I have listened to AM radio, in all forms and fashions, almost non-stop ever since. Now, I listen to FM music almost all the time. And chasing me from AM is like chasing a hungry dog from a bowl full of kibble.
OK, I’m gonna walk the pug and then gear up for the short drive to Compton and the start of the baseball season. Don’t forget to listen in to goaztecs.com for my live PBP, the action starts at 2pm!!
