Finally time to win in California?

The last time the Arizona State football team won a Pac-10 game in California;

• Google was just another search engine
• Bill Clinton was president
• Baseball fans still enjoyed watching Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire play and we all thought they were just naturally strong guys
• The Bone Collector was the Number 1 movie in America
• RIM had just introduced the BlackBerry to the market
• There were no iPods
• Napster was all the rage
• I had no kids

November 6, 1999 was the last time Sun Devil football won a conference game in the state of California. That was a 26-16 win over USC, well before they were the USC we all despise today. Future NFLers shined in that game with Todd Heap scoring a TD and more than 100 yards receiving and JR Redmond racked up more that 150 all-purpose yards.

The last time they won at all in California was 2002 when they escaped San Diego State with a 39-28 win. Thanks Koetter for preparing the boys to show up in California. In case anyone is interested, Koetter was 1-12 in California during his time at ASU.

Clearly Saturday's game against Stanford is a big one beyond the obvious reasons of staying undefeated, beating a team they should beat and continuing to climb the rankings. Getting a conference win in California will truly represent the changing of the guard for the program and will go a long way in demonstrating to the locals who need to fill the stadium that ASU is for real.

On paper Stanford doesn't look great, but this is a team that gave Oregon all they could handle last weekend and they have a fiery up and coming coach in Jim Harbaugh. Should be a good one and the first close game from start to finish ASU has played in thus far in 2007.

Really good article in PR Week

This guy quoted in here seems particularly sharp.

Astros sweep AAA team; Biggio lovefest begins

The Astros finished off their roadtrip with a sweep of the Reds and some of their best future prospects with a 4-3 win Thursday night.

After this roadtrip, which was a rare winning one at 5-2, my biggest question is what does the future hold for the Astros and Brad Lidge? He blew a save this past weekend in St. Louis and nearly blew two more in Cincy.

I'm sure the Astros will say he is their closer, no question about it. However, I'm hoping with a new G.M. on board, he's looking at contingency plans. Hopefully, some of the challenges Lidge had in the late season are attributable to his knee problems which are supposedly going to be addressed with off-season surgery. I'm just curious why they didn't shut the guy down sooner, let him have his surgery and give him that much longer to recover and be stronger for the 2008 season. These games mean nothing.

The Astros wrap up this most forgettable season with three games at MMP against the Braves. All three games are soldout as fans come to say goodbye to the greatest Astro ever, Craig Biggio. Also, Bidge is schedule to start Saturday's game at catcher for the first time since the 1991 season. The games mean nothing to the rest of the world, but to Astros fans who have watched the guy play since 1988, they mean everything.

Channeling Jake

Arizona Republic reporter Jeff Metcalfe said it best when he led off his story on ASU's 44-32 win over Oregon State by saying that Rudy Carpenter was "channeling Jake Plummer" during the game.

Because the game was not televised ANYWHERE I unfortunately have no video to back up my point, all I have is the firsthand accounts from my buddy Steve who was one of the few fans who happened to make it to the game (I will give the locals one more chance to step up and show up before I rant on them.)

On more than one occasion Steve shot me a text from the game that exclaimed that he just seen the most amazing play ever from Rudy. Sigh. No YouTube highlights, no nothing for rabid Sun Devil fan forced to track the game in Texas. Anyhow, the point is, Rudy is becoming quite the escape artist in the tradition of Jake the Snake. Hopefully he can do it minus all the INTs Jake used to throw.

Despite my not being able to see any of the game, the Devils won thanks to a great defense and clutch plays from Rudy. Don't look now but we're 4-0 and ranked. AND, all games will be televised from this point on.

Astros and Cards in Sept used to mean something

I'm sure when the MLB schedule-makers had the Astros travel to St. Louis for a 4 game series against the Cardinals, they probably thought they were enabling some good pennant race drama. Alas, this September, all this series represents is a showcase of potential future starters for both teams. In the case of the Astros, the three being watched closely are JR Towles, Josh Anderson and Cody Ransom.

Nevertheless, watching the bits and pieces of this series have been a painful reminder of the fact that the Astros are playing irrelevant baseball in September for the first time in the past seven seasons. All compounded by the fast that the irrelevant baseball they have been playing is just plain bad baseball. Outside of the 18 run explosion the other night, there has not been a whole lot to even be encouraged about for next season.

Oh btw, they lost 7-4 tonight to the Cards.

A week's worth of runs in one game

That's pretty much what the Astros did Thursday night against the Cards with their 18-1 win. More impressive was the performance by rookie catcher JR Towles. Towles with 4-4, HR and 8 RBIs. The 8 RBIs was an Astros' rookie record.

Now let's put the win in perspective:

• The Cardinals are a beaten team. The Rick Ankiel HGH thing seems to have taken the wind out of their sails.
  
• No Albert Pujols in the lineup. Granted, Pujols doesn't pitch, but the guy is a game-changer.
  
• It's September, stats in Sept. are meaningless in my opinion. Particularly when it's essentially a lot of minor leaguers up against minor leaguers, which was the case with the Cards-Astros game last night.
  

But hey, there hasn't been much positive Astros' news to get excited about, so I will take it.

Don't Make Eye Contact

This is what I'm always told to do whenever I'm walking the streets of San Francisco and pass what seems to be an endless stream of panhandlers. San Francisco by far has one of the largest populations of panhandler and homeless types in comparison to the other big cities I have spent time in. They are also the most aggressive in SF.

One time I was on a business trip a few years ago, we decided to have a late-night breakfast at one of the all-night diners there and we were seated close to the door and it seemed that every five minutes someone was coming in off the street asking us for money. Of course the restaurant staff told us to not make eye contact or acknowledge them and they would go away.

I was reading my Daily Heartlight email today and it posed this question;

Is there a time to ignore the professional "panhandler" who continues to live irresponsibly by taking advantage of well-intentioned people?

This is one that I have continually struggled with over the years. Phil Ware provides some good examples from the New Testament of times when Christ discerned it was the right time to walk away from those in need.

Do I still feel like there is no right or wrong answer here? Absolutely. However, it was a good and somewhat simple reminder for me to pray for wisdom and discernment every day when it comes to helping others. James 4:17 leaves little room for interpretation;

And when a person knows how to do good, but does not do good, then he is sinning.

How Refreshing...

Now that I have had a chance to take a breath from some of my work activities, I finally was able to digest some of the coverage of the Sun Devils 33-14 win over Colorado on Saturday night.

While the score may not indicate it, it was probably one of the more uglier lopsided wins I have ever seen. The Devils were penalized 12 times for 136 yards. Eight of those penalties were of the personal foul variety. Having watched the game I would say that only six of those were legit. However, even if it were only one personal foul, it's one too many.

While Tricia likes to remind me that this type of play is indicative of Erickson-coached squads, she still cant forget the drubbing his Oregon State team laid on Notre Dame at the Fiesta Bowl in 2001, I have to say that it was refreshing to read DE's post-game comments:

Erickson said his team's 12 penalties were "embarrassing" and "ridiculous." "There's no excuse for that. It's not going to happen ever again or they're not going to play. The discipline part of the penalties really bothers me. That's the most disappointing thing of the game."

I'm pretty sure if Koetter was still coaching the team, we'd be hearing about how the Devils played a great game against an underrated Colorado team coached by his buddy and that the Devils were lucky to have won. Followed by some statement about how the Devils need to practice better.

Nevertheless, I do hope the discipline factor does improve next week against San Diego St. If you cant improve your discipline against the Aztecs, well then we could be in for a long season.

"hey you, in the maroon, how's your jumper?"

Pics from my visit to LucasFilms

As a long-time Star Wars geek, it was quite a thrill for me to visit the LucasFilm campus in San Francisco last night as my company hosted a launch event there.

Here are some of the pics, hope you enjoy them Clancy-boy!