BACKWARDS, FORWARD, DREAM WEAVER, HOMECOMING AND HOOPS
If the first three baseball series with USC, Texas and Rice were fittingly called a Murderer’s Row, this weekend’s two game set with the University of California is not exactly a walk in Recreation Park. Last Sunday’s contest with the Owls was a microcosm of the Dirtbag dilemma. While the LB pitching and defense was nearly perfect--only three hits and zero errors--the team struck out nine times and lost a gamble in the ninth trying to score a runner from first.
Cal’s weekend at home with UNLV mirrored the Niners at Rice; the Bears won on Friday and like LB lost the next two. Both teams played Tuesday games, LB hosting UCLA and Cal visiting San Jose. The Beach versus the Bears of late has not been a fond memory for the 49ers. In 2005 Cal came in to Blair and swept the series and last year in Berkeley it wasn’t much better with LB losing two of three. This time it is a Friday night Saturday afternoon affair and you would be well advised to check out the lads because after this weekend the Beach boys pack their bags for a seven game road trip including a three games series at sunny Arizona State followed by three at chilly Wichita State.
The Sun Devil series, (March 9-11), runs simultaneous with the Big West basketball tournament presenting a challenge for 49ers with connections to both the desert and the sea, as in the ACC or Anaheim Convention Center.
DANCE FLOOR DUST—Looks like the hoop-side home boys will go dancing somewhere in March, either the Big Dance if they win the Big West tourney or the little dance, the NIT, if they win the regular season but stumble on the way to their first tourney title since 1995. Best case scenario a #13 seed in Sacramento against a slow, plodding Big Ten team. Whoops, that’s what happened when Seth Greenberg lost in stall-ball against Illinois in the 1993 LB NCAA outing despite having up tempo guys like future pros Lucious Harris and Bryon Russell. Can you say Nixon and Johnson?
Weekly Weaver report. If you were paying attention Jered foreshadowed his just disclosed bicep issue last month at the Lead Off Dinner, saying vaguely that “when everything is okay” he looked forward to a season having already earned his big league locker. What nobody did say was that JW might be on the cover of MVP Baseball neither he nor Blair Field is in the game. It was produced after his college days when as one web wag said he was with the Los Angeles Dirtbags of Long Beach State. “I missed out right in between. The college game came out right after I left, and now EA lost the license to make the pro game.”
Basket cases. This Saturday is another doesn’t count contest for your first place 49ers. Saturday’s visitor is UC Davis the 4 p.m. dessert course for the Beach’s Pyramid Parking Lot Homecoming celebration. The three conference games next week do matter. One win clinches the regular season title and the assurance of some sort of post-season.
Concession crisis. I only report this stuff but the Sunday game with Texas at Blair left most of the 1,961 fans starving for more than runs. No BBQ and only two windows of the snack bar working mean two inning lines. Fast forward to Saturday’s basketball game with Hawaii with the biggest crowd of the season and the concession stand ran out of the pricey bottled water. At least Blair has beer if you are willing to wait.—DR. DAN
Cal’s weekend at home with UNLV mirrored the Niners at Rice; the Bears won on Friday and like LB lost the next two. Both teams played Tuesday games, LB hosting UCLA and Cal visiting San Jose. The Beach versus the Bears of late has not been a fond memory for the 49ers. In 2005 Cal came in to Blair and swept the series and last year in Berkeley it wasn’t much better with LB losing two of three. This time it is a Friday night Saturday afternoon affair and you would be well advised to check out the lads because after this weekend the Beach boys pack their bags for a seven game road trip including a three games series at sunny Arizona State followed by three at chilly Wichita State.
The Sun Devil series, (March 9-11), runs simultaneous with the Big West basketball tournament presenting a challenge for 49ers with connections to both the desert and the sea, as in the ACC or Anaheim Convention Center.
DANCE FLOOR DUST—Looks like the hoop-side home boys will go dancing somewhere in March, either the Big Dance if they win the Big West tourney or the little dance, the NIT, if they win the regular season but stumble on the way to their first tourney title since 1995. Best case scenario a #13 seed in Sacramento against a slow, plodding Big Ten team. Whoops, that’s what happened when Seth Greenberg lost in stall-ball against Illinois in the 1993 LB NCAA outing despite having up tempo guys like future pros Lucious Harris and Bryon Russell. Can you say Nixon and Johnson?
Weekly Weaver report. If you were paying attention Jered foreshadowed his just disclosed bicep issue last month at the Lead Off Dinner, saying vaguely that “when everything is okay” he looked forward to a season having already earned his big league locker. What nobody did say was that JW might be on the cover of MVP Baseball neither he nor Blair Field is in the game. It was produced after his college days when as one web wag said he was with the Los Angeles Dirtbags of Long Beach State. “I missed out right in between. The college game came out right after I left, and now EA lost the license to make the pro game.”
Basket cases. This Saturday is another doesn’t count contest for your first place 49ers. Saturday’s visitor is UC Davis the 4 p.m. dessert course for the Beach’s Pyramid Parking Lot Homecoming celebration. The three conference games next week do matter. One win clinches the regular season title and the assurance of some sort of post-season.
Concession crisis. I only report this stuff but the Sunday game with Texas at Blair left most of the 1,961 fans starving for more than runs. No BBQ and only two windows of the snack bar working mean two inning lines. Fast forward to Saturday’s basketball game with Hawaii with the biggest crowd of the season and the concession stand ran out of the pricey bottled water. At least Blair has beer if you are willing to wait.—DR. DAN
1 Comments:
Dr Dan, Wow Its glad to see your keeping up with the Diamond dust articles. It allows old Dirtbags like myself to read up on the young guys keeping the winning tradiditon of Long beach State baseball alive. I hope to read many good things this year from you, and best of luck to the team this season.
Will Skett aka "Head-bone" (Will_skett @yahoo.com)
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