I’ve random thoughts that blew by my Beach umbrella but since the words escape me, let’s call this by another name: Clicks on My Calculator.
UCSB has eight Commissioner’s Cup victories, while Long Beach State has four and Pacific has two. But what does the future mean when a few new rivals join the Big West (Hawaii in 2012 and San Diego State in 2013?) It means somebody upped the ante.
The new fund raiser for the LBSU athletics is a $100 per ticket raffle, just 500 sold (I did the math, that’s $50,000) and the winner and guest does the basketball Final Four and the Master’s golf (the dates are March 29-April 8, 2013.). Bonus: if the Beach has a playing representative in both, I’ll buy your lunch for a year.
Baseball budgets: Kent State’s total annual athletic budget is $21,500,000, (with so-so football); CSUF = $10,400,000 (bad soccer only), Oregon = $85,000,000 (and great football). Biggest bang for your buck? Cinderella Stony Brook — now heading to Omaha — spends an average of $4,715 per baseball player and not-going-beyond-the-Bayou LSU spends $21,275 per player.
On the sand, for their FIVB silver medal last week in Moscow, Misty and Kerri also split a tidy $ 54,500. They will next go to the Berlin tourney and then come back to the USA and put on their bikinis and war paint for London and the Olympics.
Now the Words on My Napkin
A favorite and fun summer game for the 49er fandom is usually “whack the mole.” But this summer they are into picking a list of the highlights of the past year in athletics. In no particular order it would seem that the top pick was women’s soccer with an overtime victory over Pepperdine in the NCAA first round, then out kicked Miami and San Diego in the rain at UCLA. Two more wins and a run to the Elite Eight. Super star Nadia Link returns and that’s very good news.
Also on the top of various lists was the Men’s basketball efforts starting with a spanking of UC Santa Barbara in their not-so-scary-Thunderdome and overcoming a gimpy leg of Larry Anderson to win the Big West tournament in front of an almost home crowd. A medal of valor went to gritty Corey Jackson who played on one leg for senior night.
In WVB the two magic words were Caitlin Ledoux who led a regular season come-back at Cal Poly. Her partners in clutch time were Haleigh Hampton blocking the socks off the Mustangs and some fine service work by Tyler Jackson. In the end it was Ledoux holding off three match-points until a TJ ace would clinch it.
As usual tennis won their BWC hardware in the desert and then went to Westwood where they did the BBQ on Arkansas before putting a scare into the Coach’s alma mater, national runner-up UCLA.
Through use of advance math and stumbles by most of their conference foes, baseball enjoyed a Shawn Stuart one hitter and an actual chance to get a bid on the final day of the season at home. Nada on the scoreboard but for sure Dirtbag pitching is still alive and well.
Men’s golf has seven players back but may see one of their young stars pirated. BWC Freshman of the Year Xander Schaufelle asked for surprisingly got a release from Long Beach State and recruited by a coach that quit may go back to his San Diego roots and attend the successful golf program at SDSU who constantly ranked in the top 25-40 and played in the NCAA championship at Riviera. The coaching carousel keeps spinning because the Aztec coach is the odds-on favorite to get the U of Arizona job. Women’s golf of course lost their young phenon a couple of years ago when Lee Lopez, now at UCLA, got pilfered by the Bruins. These area schools are worse than the Somali pirates.
Last of the big ticket selling sports is Men’s volleyball who return four starters plus good depth plus Olympic coach Alan Knipe. Nice sheet to walk to the scorer’s table.
Name Dropping Dust
Former Niner and now Corona baseball coach Andy Wise is another Dirtbag making money in the game. Another Niner diamond star is the current Oklahoma coach Patty Gasso who coached at Long Beach City College before coming to Oklahoma in 1995. “California has been very, very good to me,” Gasso said. “I’m from there, so I have roots there and I understand the recruiting aspects of it.” Alas Alabama for the WCWS prize this year.
The last time a UA baseball team played so well when it mattered so much was when Andy Lopez’s third Arizona team, 2004, stunned Long Beach State at a super regional that took the Wildcats all the way to Omaha, Neb., for their first World Series in 18 years. Don’t look now but the Cats are back in the CWS with one other Pac 12 team, three from the SEC, Florida State of the ACC and of course Cinderella fellas Stony Brook and Kent State.
Last of the summer plans is the Alaska Baseball League where the Peninsula Oilers are on the verge of a brand-new season, one which will likely see a lot of change. Jon Maciel (Long Beach State), JD Salles (Fresno State) and Mike Compton (Florida State) will also are the top pitchers and there is a trio of players for first base. Returner Jeff Yamaguchi from Long Beach State, Trey Richardson from University of South Carolina and Jimmie Koch from Florida Tech. Their coaches say, “Yamaguchi was great last year until he got hurt, and Koch has played well in summer ball, but seems to be inconsistent in college,” he said. “When he’s on, he should do very well. Yamaguchi was one of the Oilers’ top fielders last year, making no errors.”
We close with a report on your favorite boys in blue, the Big West umps, who got a lot of TV time in the regionals. Billy VanRaaphorst, Randy Wetzel, Billy Haze, Jim Garman; Heath Jones and Tony Norris got work and seemed to do fine. Of course it’s easy to say when you don’t have a dog in the fight.