COMINGS AND GOINGS, BEARS, TIGERS AND A PLEA TO PACK THE PYRAMID
It was a weekend of opposite streaks around 49er-ville and that’s good and bad.
For baseball the winners at Blair field last weekend were visiting Bears from Cal Berkeley and the grounds crew who got up early, stayed late and performed turf magic to get three games. The groundskeepers beat back Mother Nature even though the Dirtbags rolled the tarp better than they did ground balls.
The good streak is this new Big West men’s basketball winning streak that hit three in a row after a season in which the team and the coach had been given up for dead. Victories over Riverside, Fullerton and Irvine raised the Niner nation flag at least in the Southland and a win in just one of the final two games with Santa Barbara and Cal Poly will save the season and the skipper.
Another not so good streak was experienced by women’s tennis who was styling along until they ran into some gamesmanship in Stockton. For the record the team lost 4-3 but as Paul Harvey said, there is the rest of the story. Our insider source said that the seven hour match began well enough with the Beach gals sweeping the doubles. After that even the coaches went searching for the rest rooms and when the came back UOP had made the unilateral decision to move the singles to an indoor facility (no rain had showed yet) a place which the home girls practice in regularly. Virtually nobody south of Wyoming plays college tennis inside but since the home team was already on the way over the Niners scrambled to find the new place.
They found it but the tiny indoor place put some very chippy fans very close to the guests from Long Beach heckling the LB players on court and the others sitting in the stand. For a team that is enjoying a classy and classic men’s basketball season you would hope for better behavior from their other teams.
The last streak we’ll mention is the good direction for Niner ladies hoops who invite you to help them set the all time women’s basketball attendance record Saturday night during an important game from a top tier Big West competitor Idaho. The Beach gals have a four game win streak, are sitting in second place and deserve some momentum as they try and steal the regular season title from those bully girls at Santa Barbara. So everybody bring two friends to the game Saturday night, set the record and have some fun, rain or shine.
BONUS DUSTING—A match race I would pay to see, Sean Boatright vs. his gal pal Charlene Deardorff, star sprinter from the track team. Of course Boats is still recovering from that pulled hamstring while the blonde blitzer recently ran a 7.51 60 meters winning the meet at NAU. Sean should play baseball again this weekend but Charlene will be on the track in Washington.
While pre-game field prepping made for a long weekend, the Niner baseballers were not too good in-game giving up ten unearned after allowing a mere 22 all last season. The cure may well be nice weather this weekend and the arrival of some slump busting medicine in the form of until now hapless San Diego State. One says hapless because the Aztecs and their celeb coach Tony Gwynn are a 2-8 and fresh from a southern spanking (lost all three) by North Carolina State in Raleigh. Games are 6:30, 2 and 1 this weekend.
Last add celeb coaches. They don’t work in the big city with bright lights but basketball boosters in Ames, Iowa and Blacksburg, Virginia love their Long Beach coaching imports this week. Former LB coaches Wayne Morgan—his Iowa State team beat Kansas-and Seth Greenberg--his Virginia Techsters upset Duke—are now the Cinderella’s for the NCAA tourney. Heck, while we’re bragging let’s take credit for launching the career of Arizona legend Lute Olson. Can you say cradle of coaches?—DR. DAN
For baseball the winners at Blair field last weekend were visiting Bears from Cal Berkeley and the grounds crew who got up early, stayed late and performed turf magic to get three games. The groundskeepers beat back Mother Nature even though the Dirtbags rolled the tarp better than they did ground balls.
The good streak is this new Big West men’s basketball winning streak that hit three in a row after a season in which the team and the coach had been given up for dead. Victories over Riverside, Fullerton and Irvine raised the Niner nation flag at least in the Southland and a win in just one of the final two games with Santa Barbara and Cal Poly will save the season and the skipper.
Another not so good streak was experienced by women’s tennis who was styling along until they ran into some gamesmanship in Stockton. For the record the team lost 4-3 but as Paul Harvey said, there is the rest of the story. Our insider source said that the seven hour match began well enough with the Beach gals sweeping the doubles. After that even the coaches went searching for the rest rooms and when the came back UOP had made the unilateral decision to move the singles to an indoor facility (no rain had showed yet) a place which the home girls practice in regularly. Virtually nobody south of Wyoming plays college tennis inside but since the home team was already on the way over the Niners scrambled to find the new place.
They found it but the tiny indoor place put some very chippy fans very close to the guests from Long Beach heckling the LB players on court and the others sitting in the stand. For a team that is enjoying a classy and classic men’s basketball season you would hope for better behavior from their other teams.
The last streak we’ll mention is the good direction for Niner ladies hoops who invite you to help them set the all time women’s basketball attendance record Saturday night during an important game from a top tier Big West competitor Idaho. The Beach gals have a four game win streak, are sitting in second place and deserve some momentum as they try and steal the regular season title from those bully girls at Santa Barbara. So everybody bring two friends to the game Saturday night, set the record and have some fun, rain or shine.
BONUS DUSTING—A match race I would pay to see, Sean Boatright vs. his gal pal Charlene Deardorff, star sprinter from the track team. Of course Boats is still recovering from that pulled hamstring while the blonde blitzer recently ran a 7.51 60 meters winning the meet at NAU. Sean should play baseball again this weekend but Charlene will be on the track in Washington.
While pre-game field prepping made for a long weekend, the Niner baseballers were not too good in-game giving up ten unearned after allowing a mere 22 all last season. The cure may well be nice weather this weekend and the arrival of some slump busting medicine in the form of until now hapless San Diego State. One says hapless because the Aztecs and their celeb coach Tony Gwynn are a 2-8 and fresh from a southern spanking (lost all three) by North Carolina State in Raleigh. Games are 6:30, 2 and 1 this weekend.
Last add celeb coaches. They don’t work in the big city with bright lights but basketball boosters in Ames, Iowa and Blacksburg, Virginia love their Long Beach coaching imports this week. Former LB coaches Wayne Morgan—his Iowa State team beat Kansas-and Seth Greenberg--his Virginia Techsters upset Duke—are now the Cinderella’s for the NCAA tourney. Heck, while we’re bragging let’s take credit for launching the career of Arizona legend Lute Olson. Can you say cradle of coaches?—DR. DAN
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