DIRTBAGS AND EATERS STAR IN THE FINAL ACT OF 2010 WITH NO MARGIN FOR ERRORS
Last weekend a gentleman you probably don’t know worked 12 innings in a loss by his beloved Irvine Anteaters and I don’t use the word "gentleman" lightly. Mark Roberts is the sports voice of UCI, and this time of the year he broadcasts the games of what some call “the new sheriff in the Big West.” Unlike many in his profession he is uncommonly fair to opponents, so much so that one of his signature sayings (when analyzing an opponent) is, ”Make no mistake…” as he reminds his rabid partisans of the other team’s talent.
Back to last Saturday. Mark was the last broadcaster on America’s college baseball airwaves (it was 10:45 p.m.) announcing a 12 inning 15-12 Big West Conference baseball loss to UC Riverside. Roberts very likely was ready to sooth the tonsils with an adult beverage when a surprise party with about 150 attendees saluted his birthday (actual year undisclosed, but his hair-dresser does a great job.) That "make no mistake" line resonated with me thinking about this weekend - Long Beach can win if they make no mistakes. The team has made 67 scorebook errors and a countless number of mental errors. The pitchers have had a tendency to dig moderate-to-deep holes early on, forcing a lot of late inning prayers in the direction of the scoreboard. It happened on Tuesday in the 9-8 survival moment over Pepperdine when the Bags fell behind 5-0 after two and a half innings, then rallied behind Hoime, Jones and TJ. Mike Gillespie’s lovable marsupials from UCI lost contact with son-in-law Chad Kreuter’s hapless Trojans early and USC won that Tuesday tilt 8-1. The weekend pitching plan for the Eaters does not include injured Golden Spikes nominee Daniel Bibona and his 9-2 record …the other three guys are pretty good though, Bergman, Brock and Pettis…LB will use Drew Gagnon Friday and Thompson Sunday and “we’ll just see” on Saturday.
GRAD WEEK DUSTING—…one of the Tuesday stars was little-used Tre Dennis, who had a two-run double and scored a run before he took his walk Wednesday as an LBSU graduate…which reminds me, please decline any handshakes with President Alexander, he will have squeezed 9200 sweaty-palmed new alumni by game time…on Tuesday, Weathers had Devin Lohman swinging a bat in the Blair Field tunnel (“he’s ready to do his Kirk Gibson thing”)…Anteaters are hungry for a post-season position, but make no mistake the Niners believe that if you've got lemons - it’s time to start selling Mike’s hard lemonade…back to the Niner names in the news, but absent in recent box scores, pro scouts will select both Lohman and Thompson some time after their draft show begins on June 7th… Fullerton has already won the Big West and Irvine will get the second conference invite and be sent somewhere the Titans won’t. Possibilities are at UCLA, if the Bruins decide to ante up the dollars needed to host, but the Anteaters would probably prefer to go where nobody knows their name (or has a scouting report)…Other than sending a handful of his freshmen and sophomores to play in summer leagues, new Head Coach Troy Buckley is ready to pack this year away…off-topic word is that former ladies hoop assistant Jason Flowers will be the new head coach at Northridge…. Fox College Sports has the national title game for Long Beach State. Oh yes, vs. Drexel. Oh yes, on June 4th. The Sport—what kind of fan are you?—it is PAINTBALL!!.. Sunday marks the final game for five seniors, including three who have spent four years with the program: reliever Markovitz, hitter Tinoco (.329 career) and iron-man Mittelstaedt, 189 games as a Dirtbag, seventh-most in program history…Houston Bob made a sixty-minute visit Tuesday and then took the BP corporate jet back to some kind of oil spill in the Gulf…the other BWC cellar dweller possibility is UCSB, who travels to Pacific this weekend. Neither team will finish first, but one or both could finish, well, you know where…The puzzling part of the Beach baseball story is that all of this is happening when the Dirtbag alums are so successful in major league baseball…Cesar Ramos and Jeremy Reed recently went to the show and worth repeating, the combination of Jason Giambi and Troy Tulowitzki combined for five RBIs in Colorado’s 11-7 win Sunday at Kansas City and last night the old Bags totaled three RBIs in an 8-2 win over Arizona—DR. DAN
Back to last Saturday. Mark was the last broadcaster on America’s college baseball airwaves (it was 10:45 p.m.) announcing a 12 inning 15-12 Big West Conference baseball loss to UC Riverside. Roberts very likely was ready to sooth the tonsils with an adult beverage when a surprise party with about 150 attendees saluted his birthday (actual year undisclosed, but his hair-dresser does a great job.) That "make no mistake" line resonated with me thinking about this weekend - Long Beach can win if they make no mistakes. The team has made 67 scorebook errors and a countless number of mental errors. The pitchers have had a tendency to dig moderate-to-deep holes early on, forcing a lot of late inning prayers in the direction of the scoreboard. It happened on Tuesday in the 9-8 survival moment over Pepperdine when the Bags fell behind 5-0 after two and a half innings, then rallied behind Hoime, Jones and TJ. Mike Gillespie’s lovable marsupials from UCI lost contact with son-in-law Chad Kreuter’s hapless Trojans early and USC won that Tuesday tilt 8-1. The weekend pitching plan for the Eaters does not include injured Golden Spikes nominee Daniel Bibona and his 9-2 record …the other three guys are pretty good though, Bergman, Brock and Pettis…LB will use Drew Gagnon Friday and Thompson Sunday and “we’ll just see” on Saturday.
GRAD WEEK DUSTING—…one of the Tuesday stars was little-used Tre Dennis, who had a two-run double and scored a run before he took his walk Wednesday as an LBSU graduate…which reminds me, please decline any handshakes with President Alexander, he will have squeezed 9200 sweaty-palmed new alumni by game time…on Tuesday, Weathers had Devin Lohman swinging a bat in the Blair Field tunnel (“he’s ready to do his Kirk Gibson thing”)…Anteaters are hungry for a post-season position, but make no mistake the Niners believe that if you've got lemons - it’s time to start selling Mike’s hard lemonade…back to the Niner names in the news, but absent in recent box scores, pro scouts will select both Lohman and Thompson some time after their draft show begins on June 7th… Fullerton has already won the Big West and Irvine will get the second conference invite and be sent somewhere the Titans won’t. Possibilities are at UCLA, if the Bruins decide to ante up the dollars needed to host, but the Anteaters would probably prefer to go where nobody knows their name (or has a scouting report)…Other than sending a handful of his freshmen and sophomores to play in summer leagues, new Head Coach Troy Buckley is ready to pack this year away…off-topic word is that former ladies hoop assistant Jason Flowers will be the new head coach at Northridge…. Fox College Sports has the national title game for Long Beach State. Oh yes, vs. Drexel. Oh yes, on June 4th. The Sport—what kind of fan are you?—it is PAINTBALL!!.. Sunday marks the final game for five seniors, including three who have spent four years with the program: reliever Markovitz, hitter Tinoco (.329 career) and iron-man Mittelstaedt, 189 games as a Dirtbag, seventh-most in program history…Houston Bob made a sixty-minute visit Tuesday and then took the BP corporate jet back to some kind of oil spill in the Gulf…the other BWC cellar dweller possibility is UCSB, who travels to Pacific this weekend. Neither team will finish first, but one or both could finish, well, you know where…The puzzling part of the Beach baseball story is that all of this is happening when the Dirtbag alums are so successful in major league baseball…Cesar Ramos and Jeremy Reed recently went to the show and worth repeating, the combination of Jason Giambi and Troy Tulowitzki combined for five RBIs in Colorado’s 11-7 win Sunday at Kansas City and last night the old Bags totaled three RBIs in an 8-2 win over Arizona—DR. DAN
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