GO SEE CAL, GO SEE CAL, GO SEE CAL—BUT ROOT, ROOT, ROOT FOR THE HOMETEAM

When storied college baseball programs like Long Beach State and Cal hook up, the fandom often wishes for the opponent to roll out a lightly used starter. On Wednesday, this weekend’s guest Golden Bears upped their record to 3-2 on the strong arm of freshman right-hander Matt Flemer in his first collegiate outing. Long Beach, meanwhile, evened its season mark at 2-2 when Adam Wilk, no starts at all last season, pitched seven strong giving up just two hits as the Niners survived LMU 9-6.

With those lads already burned for the weekend, this is expected to be another weekend of Blair ball: lots of fly outs in the wide open spaces, stealing a base here and there, errors looming large and hitters muttering on the way back to their bench. The rotations are typically tentative in the early season, but expect Jake Thompson, lefty newcomer Jeff Lease and impressive freshman Andrew Gagnon working the Friday to Sunday starting shift. Da Bears will likely go with Kevin Miller (7.2 ERA), and strike out artists Blake Smith (7 Ks in his last outing) and Brian Diemer (8 Ks). Pitching and defense has always been a Beach trademark, so the team took some inspiration from the lively bats at LMU. TJ Mittelstaedt was 3 for 3 for the 49ers and Jonathan Jones drove in three runs with two doubles. The Bags opened an 8-0 lead and needed it when the Lions scored one in the seventh and five in the eighth.

Mid-weekers of course are strange, just ask the blue bloods at UCLA and USC. Riverside, who beat Cal twice up there, smacked the Bruins 11-1 while Pepperdine took advantage of five Trojans errors and the Waves opened a 7-0 lead after two innings en route to an 8-1 victory at Dedeaux Field.
Looking backward, I guess I know the reason why I left my palatial estate in sunny Florida, put aside my surfboard, and returned to Long Beach. I like basketball, volleyball, softball, and tennis but I love college baseball. The players are good and hoping to be great. The prices are right, the coaches are risk takers, and the fans don’t sit on their hands. Last weekend Long Beach and Southern Cal coaches sent a lot of question marks out on the diamond, eleven newcomers for each side. Mike Weathers would have had an even dozen, but starting pitcher Sandra Bullock went on the DL (Disappeared List). When the weekend came to an end the Beach boys finally hit a high note and got the Sunday win to avoid a sweep, a dark moment that LB put on SC last season.
Both teams had good starting pitching, but having only three weeks to get everybody ready, the relief corps raised more questions than the amount of Obama’s bailout or the breed of the new first puppy. On Saturday with the game scoreless following an impressive Jake Thompson start, Weathers sent in his 6-6 senior Manny McElroy. After Manny walked his first batter, SC Coach Kreuter went to his dugout to pinch hit for his 6-6 struggling slugger Mac Sullivan. Noting that big Manny was missing the plate, Kreuter sent out his own “Eddie Gaedel”, 5-7 freshman Shane Boras. Famous father in über-agent Scott Boras, Shane does not have much of a strike zone. He walked, Dustin Rasco inheriting the two-on-nobody-out mess, then gave up a couple of hits and one inning later game over – four-zip. Full house at Blair and inside this Trojan Horse wasn’t a movie star but a gimmick kid on scholarship because of Daddy’s fame and fortune (part of the latter courtesy of former Dirtbag Jered Weaver)…Last add famous places, next weekend the Bags travel to South Carolina to open their brand new $25 million dollar stadium with it’s 6400 chair backs…oh, and those perches are filled with good old boys who know your mama’s name.

CLOSING QUOTE: That Eddie Gaedel reference was to a 1951 publicity stunt by maverick St. Louis Browns owner and showman, Bill Veeck, in a game against the Detroit Tigers. Under strict orders not to attempt to move the toy bat off his shoulder, Gaedel still hinted he might be tempted to swing at a pitch. Veeck then promised “to bring a rifle to the game and shoot him if he tried.” Detroit catcher Bob Swift, on his knees and laughing, offered his pitcher Bob Cain this piece of strategy: "Keep it low." See, how can you beat baseball? -- DR. DAN

PS- just back from a chilly four hour plus come from ahead loss to Cal so time out on all those compliments to the grand old game.....

NEW LOOK DIRTBAGS HOPE THAT THE HOME COOKING SERVES UP A WINNING RECIPE

Think of nine letters, two words and opening the season. Long Beach (nine letters) is the two words and finally today, the home opener. For the first time in years, 49er fans begin the season without seeing their team in the NCAA’s top 40 and, despite last year’s co-championship, picked to finish fourth in the Big West.

“It is really different for us this year, with so many really good players leaving,” the recently contract-extended Mike Weathers told the overflow crowd at the Long Beach State Leadoff dinner last Thursday. Last Saturday his 2009 edition intra-squaded to a 6-6 tie on the scoreboard and a 2-2 tie in execution--hitting and running well but catching and throwing poorly.

Last night it took a while but the Beach prospects began to brighten. Stuck in a 5-0hole, Taylor Krick finally muscled the Beach onto the scoreboard with a three run homer in the eighth and the latest of the Beach closers, Dustin Rasco, fanned the side. In the ninth however multi-talented Robert Stock, 2-3 as the starting catcher, had a 1-2-3 inning and somewhere downtown Trojan Coach Chad Kreuter exhaled. His team has missed the postseason altogether five of the past six years and the Cardinal and Gold alums are not noted for their patience.

Coming in each of the teams had an expected star, Trojan junior shortstop Grant Green (.390, 9 HR last year) and Niner sophomore pre-season All American Jonathan Jones (.343, 6-8 stolen bases). Green had an 0-4 Friday with three Ks while Jones got on base three times, one base hit and two walks. SC manufactured their scores in the 3rd, 4th, 6th and 7th but fanned 13 times. USC starter Brian Boxberger whiffed 11 in his six innings.

SPRING DUSTING—At the Leadoff dinner the filets, and the fillies and the 49er players got the wit and wisdom of a T-Squared hero from the recent past, Troy Tulowitzki. His message (longer than the Gettysburg address but shorter than my tax return) covered topics from T- Ball (“I loved it because you never struck out”) to memories of playing day and night and even under the family Christmas tree, ( “I think I might have taken out an ornament”). In college, after practice, there was some homemade midnight baseball games played against the wall behind Von’s across from his Atherton street apartment. “A homer was when you put the whiffle ball in a shopping cart….after finishing second in the 2007 Rookie of the Year race, Tulo had that sophomore slump but this spring Colorado coaches plan to hit him in the two hole and are confident he can turn the franchise back on…as is the case early in every season, a good many of the 17 Niner pitchers on the roster will take the hill of thrills sometime this weekend and today the home boys are hopeful that young Mr. Thompson, a perfectly proportioned 6’3” 220lber with some giddy-up who got off to a fast start last season against Rice, going six innings and giving up only two hits. His opposite number will be SC’s Kevin Couture (6-2, 4.27 in `08 plus their cast of bull penners. Jake finished 2-5, 4.95 in `08 but with all those draftees gone he’ll have to become the Dirtbag ace very quickly….meanwhile the rest of the Big West came out mostly on the short end--California 8, UC Riverside 7, Pepperdine 4, Cal State Northridge 3, Baylor 2, Pacific 1 (10); UCLA 13, UC Davis 1; Rice 10, Cal Poly 7; Cal State Fullerton 7, TCU 6 and UC Irvine 5, Hawaii 1,…one of the soon to be revealed differences this year is playing up to five games a week with a mere 11.7 scholarships and a cap of just 35 players, all of whom have to get at least 25% of a full scholarship….next season, the maximum number of players who can receive aid drops to 27….Niners have 17 letter winners back from a team that finished 38-21 and shared the Big West Conference regular season title but still only close encounters of the Omaha kind.

While the Niner fandom was upset about being picked fourth in the BWC pre-season poll, USC was picked to finish seventh in the Pac-10 …and our closing Oscar note, the Beach’s number one actress, Sandra Bullock, will throw out the first pitch…not counting an unlimited supply of those great Cisco Burgers that her beau Jesse James (cable star of Monster Garage) grills up when not making motorcycles, in 2007 Forbes Magazine estimated Ms Bullock had earnings for the year of $10 million…now that is another pretty figure—DR. DAN

BUTANE, BLANKETS AND BANQUETS: WARMING UP FOR DIRTBAG BASEBALL 2009

Think of nine letters, two words and opening the season. Long Beach, nine letters, is the two words and Saturday night is the home opener. And for the first time in years, fans of Dirtbag baseball begin the season without seeing their team in the NCAA’s top 40 and, despite last year’s co-championship, is picked to finish fourth in the Big West.

“It is really different for us this year, with so many really good players leaving,” the recently contract-extended Mike Weathers told the overflow crowd at the Long Beach State Leadoff dinner. That was on Thursday. On Saturday his 2009 edition intra-squaded to a 6-6 tie on the scoreboard and a 2-2 tie in execution--hitting and running well but catching and throwing poorly.

This Saturday’s baseball game is part two of a LBSU double-header, a Bracket Buster basketball contest with mid-major power Wisconsin Green Bay at 2:30 p.m. in the Pyramid and then the dash to Blair for a 5 p.m. first pitch in baseball. Blankets and butane recommended.

Two of the baseball stars are Trojan junior shortstop Grant Green (.390, 9 HR) and Niner sophomore pre-season All American Jonathan Jones (.343, 6-8 stolen bases). As it was for Danny Espinosa last year, draft-eligible college kids like Green have to really concentrate to play the game in front of them and not the scouts, agents, fans and friends around the yard.

There is also some pressure on the head coaches, especially USC’s Chad Kreuter. The Trojans have missed the postseason five of the past six years while Weathers, a regular regional host, has had a number of close encounters of the Omaha kind but the last actual CWS visit was eleven years ago. Fortunately Mom’s, Dads, Aunts, Uncles and “Annies” (translated girl friends) just want to see junior in a uni and somewhere on the field. Let the Games Begin.

SPRING DUSTING--The filets, and the fillies and the 49er players also got the wit and wisdom of a T-Squared hero from the recent past, Troy Tulowitzki. His message (longer than the Gettysburg address but shorter than my tax return) ranged from T- Ball (“I loved it because you never struck out”) to memories of playing day and night and even under the family Christmas tree, ( “I think I might have taken an ornament out”). In college after practice there was some homemade midnight baseball games played against the wall behind Von’s across from his Atherton street apartment. “A homer was when you put the whiffle ball in a shopping cart.
After finishing second in the 2007 Rookie of the Year race, Tulo had that sophomore slump but this spring Colorado coaches plan to hit him in the two hole and are confident he can turn the franchise back on.

Back to Beach ball, the actual season opener of course is Friday night at 6:30 p.m. at Dedeaux Field. Lots of audio to choose from and the Trojans will be happy to sell you the Friday and Sunday games via live video on Trojan TV All-Access.

Calendar Girls--Softball is back in San Diego this weekend playing games against Colorado, Boise State and U San Diego, tennis is at home on Friday to open BWC play with Northridge and visiting Fullerton on Saturday, and women’s hoops, on a rare two game win streak, hosts UC Riverside Friday night.

Last Add Dirtbags. As is the case early in every season, a good many of the 17 Niner pitchers on the roster will take the hill of thrills sometime this weekend but expect the big guns to be Jake Thompson, Adam Wilk, Manny McElroy and freshman Andrew Gagnon. The Niner trademark infield figures to shine with sophomore Devin Lohman moving to shortstop from second giving that spot to freshmen Derek Legg.—DR. DAN

ALL ABOUT THE ROBINSONS, BENJAMINS, CALENDAR GIRLS AND BOYS AND POST SEASON DREAMING

In the glory days of TV there was a super hero in a sweater named Fred Rogers who ruled his neighborhood of young kids. Saturday Night Live comic Eddie Murphy updated the idea with his skit, “Mister Robinson's Neighborhood” and now Long Beach State basketball is hoping that their superb freshman, T.J. Robinson, will lead his young pals back to the glory days of 49er hoops.

Faced with filling in for ailing Big West MVP candidate Donavan Morris, T.J. led four Long Beach State players in double figures with a career-high 20 points and 10 rebounds and the surprising Beach boys beat UC Irvine 67-63 Saturday night and still sit in first place half way around the track. More youth movement, freshman Larry Anderson scored 11 points and the team got 10 points and three assists from freshman Casper Ware.

Fast forward to the future, Dan Monson had a full house of his Maniacs hopping last Thursday but still fell a point short of Fullerton. This Thursday LB opens a two game home stand playing UC Davis and Pacific in a battle for the regular season crown or at least one of those tournament byes that go to the top two finishers. With or without Morris the neighborhood under the blue pointed roof ought to be rocking.

Speaking of rocks, and acorns and other sticks and stones, don’t expect to see any of them when Beach tennis opens its home season in the brand new Rhodes tennis center Friday at 2 p.m. vs. Florida International. For the last umpteen years the overhanging trees and busy road next door made the courts a real adventure for visitors and the home team.

There are still some final touches to be made but Jenny Hilt-Costello and her net queens finally can be proud of their home. New scoreboard, sound system, seating, lights and fresh off of a 6-1 rout of #49 NC State and ready to build on their total of six Big West titles and six NCAA appearances.

CALANDER GIRLS AND BOYS—the Beach week starts on Thursday when the Pyramid features men’s basketball and women’s water polo hosts UCLA. Men’s volleyball, track and women’s basketball are on the road. Beach softball is in the desert for a five game tourney beginning Friday morning. On Saturday tennis makes the short run to CSUF for a match with the hapless Titans, usually a result so quick you can park in the 30 minute free zones.

Play Misty for me—the talented Miss M says she is planning on returning to the pro beach tour and maybe one more session of “Dancing with the Stars.” With the NCAA ready to add "sand" volleyball to their sports menu, some folks hope Misty would coach that the two woman game at LBSU but insiders say that’s not likely.

For more drama, check out the student fee referendum coming up next week. The measure would raises fees from the current $43 per semester to $138 starting in fall 2010. Athletics would get a $1.6 million boost and there is a built-in increase for inflation. Voting is exclusively on line.

Last add money stuff. Men’s and women’s golf on Monday will be conducting a golf marathon aiming to play 100 Bixby Ranch holes in one long day. Former track star Wayne Stickney-Smith, the godfather of the last big student money raiser Beach Pride, is the guy to sign up with. Call 562-985-4662.

NOTES ON MY NAPKIN AND SOME DIAMOND MINING--One of my Dust posse asked me about the 2009 Dirtbags. I don't know what to expect from this team. They still have Jonathan Jones, but I want to see what their lineup looks like. It could be a long season or it could turn out to be a surprising one. Too many unknowns right now to get a real feel. (Governor Palin taught me how to dance around these tough questions)…the BWC decided to kick some sand in the face of the Beach Bags, picking them fourth after their 2008 co-championship...11 players from that team went in the MLB draft, a record haul for the Dirtbags, but adding fuel to the fire that LBSU trains more pros than they get wins in the post-season...see for yourself by going to Alumni Weekend starting with the Leadoff Dinner Thursday night featuring Troy Tulowitzki, the 8th annual alumni golf tournament tees off on Friday and it is all capped with the alumni game and intra-squad scrimmage at Blair Field on Saturday starting at 11 am….the real season starts off on February 20, with the Dirtbag home opener coming the next day, February 21 at 2 p.m. against USC.
Now the queens of the diamond are Kim Sowder’s surging 49er softballers…they get busy Friday morning facing SEC power Georgia during this weekend's Cathedral City Classic…the Beach offense is still fuzzy but the pitching is so strong you can almost agree to wait on the hitters to step up…the aces are soph Brooke Turner (27-6, 0.80 ERA, 237 strikeouts), junior Bridgette Pagano (a two-time all-conference pick who was 13-11 last season with a 2.39 ERA and 87 Ks) plus super freshman Taylor Petty, the three-time L.A. City Section Player of the Year at San Pedro High…

Now we dare not presume a home win (LB is 3-0 in conference on the road) but a couple of Ws this week would virtually guarantee a postseason tournament appearance in one of the four, count ‘em, four Division I postseason college basketball tournaments…the CollegeInsider.com Tournament will feature a 16-team field chosen from among the teams that don't make the NCAA Tournament or National Invitation Tournament. Then there is the Gazelle Group's College Basketball Invitational, or CBI, which debuted last year. Tulsa won the inaugural CBI title although even folks in Oklahoma don’t remember…in summary, 129 college basketball teams will participate in some postseason this year…get your face paint ready.

Finally our closing quote from a heckler at a recent LBSU basketball game. In a rather calm voice, a Monson Maniac told one of the UCR players: "Your tattoos are not well-done!"—DR. DAN