What happened to showing up?

There are teams that I follow that lose, and there are teams that I can't help but wonder, "Why do you even bother playing if you don't even bother to show up for it? It's asinine, really. That was the case with a number of teams I follow. First, AFC Liverpool, a fledling outfit, got walloped by a team a tier blow them, called Waterloo Dock, 6-1. And this side at the top of their table...and they get thumped. Bloody wanks. I mean, at least if you're going to exit, you'd at least make the score respectable. That just gets on my bad side. Even though they are in theri first year, one would expect a scoreline better than this. Scouse fags.

Even worse, while Yankee Stadium is due to be nothing more than a smoldering pile of rubble in a number months' time, the Angels, who are three wins away from 100 victories, cannot rely of Jered Weaver to help him. The rube can't pitch his way out a wet paper bag in a 9-6 loss to the Mariners. Adding a little insult, the Dodgers won that day.

And that's what drives me to bedlam here. Dodgers win, Angels lose. Send Jered back to Salt Lake, MIke Scioscia. We can't rely on him next month. We'd have to bring up the bullpen at the top of the 2nd inning.

===

Is it just me, or has the world ended? While President Bush's dementia has reached beyond Satanic levels with his plan to make the rich richer and the poor poorer (a plan that will go back to hell from whence it came), the Los Angeles Galaxy...actually WON a few days ago. DC United fell, 5-2.

About bloody time you pricks did something right. Now let's get on a streak already, you dormant rubes.

===

Two-game losingt streak, Roughriders? Get out of here.

===

Lack of consistency isn't restricted to my university's women's soccer team, apparently. The women's volleyball team suffered their first sweep of the season...to fucking Santa Clara, of all sides, a day after sweeping them on Friday.

Gimmillaro...we ought to send the New York Five Families to question you and your team's dwindling commitment to consistent play this year.

===

There are individuals and teams, though, that cut the mustard. The USA, Australian, and English squad are undefeated in their runs towards South Africa 2010. And Francisco Rodriguez became the first closer to reach 60 saves in a season. Adelaide United is the first Australian side to advance to the semifinals of the AFc Champions League, defeating the defending J.League champions Kashima Antlers 2-1. Robert Cornthwaite, who scored an own goal in the first leg in Japan, made up for it by scoring the winner at the Hindmarsh Stadium. I think Oswaldo may want to send their first team keeper, Hitoshi Sogahata, to the reserve side.

And the Sparks are still alive. Bring on San Antonio. 71-64 win over Seattle.

Good times...

Note the drumsticks in my hands, a symbol of defiance of such assfaced NCAA rules like "no artificial noisemakers." They are as stupid as the Third Reich declaring war on America. As stupid as Decca ditching the Beatles. As stupid as Art Modell and Robert Irsay moving their respective NFL teams behind their former cities' backs.

That Bob Rogers, bless his heart, he must have felt like the sickest old man in San Jose, if not California, if not the entire country last Saturday night. I am watching the CIF State Volleyball Division I final between Lakewood and Nevada Union. If I was there, and the Lancers got that 26th point in Game 4, I would have taken off my shirt and waved like a rally towel at a football match in the Middle East. It was that good.

Some thanks and fucks before the Union does theirs

I decided to come up with my own list of thanks and fucks. Just because. First, the thanks.

Thanks to:

• Long Beach State's fellow super fans: the students, the parents, and the boosters, as well as the alums who showed up to the volleyball match against USC.
• Alexis Crimes, Misha "Ole!" Hasalikova, Talaya "TW-17" Whitfield, Sarah "6" Hudson, Cynthia Buggs (a.k.a. Bugsy [BANG!]), Iris Murray, and Dyanne Lawlor the White House intern from Washington for all the memories.
• Ashley Lee, Nicole Moore, Quincy Verdin. We'll need you next year.
• Mike Wadley. The guys helped Lakewood's girls volleyball team win the state title over Nevada Union. Quantity is no match for quality.
• The hospitality by most of the people (read: MOST) at the Galen Center.
• Colt Brennan, June Jones, and the rest of the Hawaii football team. One more game, and it will probably be the Sugar Bowl. Good luck against Georgia (or whoever they may be).
• Rammstein
• Oscar Wilde
• Uncyclopedia

A huge-ass fuck you to:

• Asia Kaczor of the USC women's volleyball team for single-handedly pulling off a Logan Tom on us. Something must be in that water down in Wroclaw, Poland.
• The post-menopause hag official from the NCAA who tells me that drumsticks are not allowed, but after I am using my pom-poms, tells me that they aren't allowed either. You know who you are. You are not welcome at the Beach unless you pay the sum of $500 for your faggotry. Bitch.
• Myles Brand. He deserves it, since he and the people he works with came up with these stupid double-standard artificial noisemaker rules. You take out a huge part of the atmosphere...and games are like watching grass grow. Fuck off and die already. Asshole. No, seriously. Send those rules back to Davy Jones' locker from whence they came.
• Britney Spears
• The guy who tells people to leave Britney Alone
• Michael Vick
• Michael Vick's other people
• Barry Bonds
• Floyd Landis
• UC Irvine (to hell with em!)
• The USA men's volleyball team for losing to the Russians.
  

Keep your heads up, UNLV

Normally I do not like to say such words of advice to the teams we face, because they don't need such pity. It's a fact. However, given the circumstances of this matchup, I decided to bend over backwards and make exceptions. Tonight, we faced a UNLV side that gave us a good match. So, Rebel supporters, I have some kind words to say as your season draws to a close.

1. This was your very, very, very first-ever NCAA tournament appearance. Now, I did not find this out until I got back home from the game and looked up the history. You should be proud of just getting here. There are over, what, 300+ teams in Division I women's volleyball. Not even half of them have ever been to this Big Dance. Savor it.
2. You lost to a Long Beach State side that has been here for over two decades straight. Once again, this was your first-ever appearance. My guys have been here, finished and won that, many times. If it makes you any happier, in our very first appearance...we had a first round exit, too. AND, we were swept. Which leads to my next point...
   
3. This match went to five games. Most first-timers would get run over in a sweep. You're not like many of those "happy-to-be-here" scrubs. Anyone who said it was a lucky win by us is a disgrace to sports journalism in general, because you were a quality side we faced. Heck, you're the Mountain West Champions! We only finished second to Cal Poly (who has also been here, and is champs in our conference [something I detest, but it has nothing to do with you]) this season. Quality side, and a valiant effort from you guys. As you know, the best teams will win in five games. I was surprised that you also, like us, came into this match riding on two straight five-game wins. We had to do it against Pitt and then-#8 ranked Florida (now ranked #10 and now in the Sweet 16), which shows you the type of team you were up against.
4. This was the best season by far for you guys. Next year, we're going to be on our heels when we face you guys again in our next meeting..whenever that will be.

So, good luck and keep your heads up, UNLV, and move aside, and let a team who's been there and done that and won that face off against another team who's been there and done that and won that.

A vision...

Two nights ago, I had a dream. It was a vision that Hawaii was going to escape Boise State with a 40-38 victory, off a Dan Kelly field goal. And at the end of the game, the students and fans rushed onto the field, and carried June Jones, Colt Brennan, and the Iceman off the field. And the Boise newspapers ripped apart the loss. Some fairweather journalists from that armpit of Idaho even called for Chris Petersen's resignation, and/or firing.

Actually, as I got the Walter Pyramid for Day 1 of the Baden Thanksgiving Tournament, I wondered if all this could be true. As I watched the first two matches of the mayhem at the Myd, I played Rob Overseer's "Slayed" on iTunes, thinking about the circumstances. In any case, the Warriors are going bowling. The big questions is whether or not it will be back at Aloha Stadium, or down in the Lower 48.

By the way, in the first match, we disposed of the Yales, 3-0. As I watched the second match between UCSB and Temple, it was no surprise who I was rooting for. With Big West conference play behind us, and the fact that we whitewashed the Gauchos, it was easy for me to cheer for UCSB, if only in solidarity of my Big West opponents.

I told them: This should be easy for you guys. If we can beat Temple, so can you. They dropped the first match, but they got the next three games. At the end of the match, I said, "See! I told you that you could do it. In the words of Johnny Warren, 'I told you so!'"

But back to the dream I had. I looked at the score when we were in the fourth game of a five-match marathon with Pittsburgh, and it read: Hawaii 39, Boise State 27, with a few minutes remaining. The previous time I asked for the score, the Press Telegram saw UH trail 27-26. All of a sudden, I was starting to feel good. In the waning seconds, I took my shirt off in the cold, flung it in the air, and I was beside myself. Everyone in the Pyramid knew that I supported the Warrior footbal team.

My friend Nuke told me: Hey, why do you support Hawaii's football team when you're from the Beach? I told him: first off, unless you're talking about rugby or soccer, we haven't had an American football team since 1991. Also, June Jones is a solid coach at the collegiate level, and I love the Run-&-Shoot: greatest football offense known to man, along with the West Coast. The dream came true on a day when LSU fell to Arkansas in triple overtime, 50-42, and Texas lost to Texas A&M. WHat's going to be shocking is that if Missouri defeats Kansas, there will be an undefeated team still standing.

It just won't be from the Lower 48. Even more shocking is that the coaches who led the Razorbacks and Aggies to victories are on their way out: Houston Nutt and Dennis Franchione.

The adventures of Mulligan and Milligan

The recent adventures of David Mulligan of the New Zealand All Whites and Mark Milligan of Australia's Olyroos set up a great day for football in the Antipodes.

Mulligan started the scoring onslaught against Vanuatu in Westpac Stadium, scoring the first goal of the return match in Wellington, and Shane Smeltz did the rest in a 4-1 rout.

Meanwhile, up in cold, miserable, malnourished Pyongyang, the Olyroos were a goal down heading into the second half, but Milligan's equalizer in the 69th minute gave Australia a draw with Chollima, and a berth in the Beijing 2008 Olympics next year. Personally, I though that regardless of the conditions, Australia was going to take it to them. But North Korea held its ground, and held the Aussies to a draw.

In any case, the match between Iraq and Lebanon is nothing more than a glorified U-23 friendly.

Can this day get any better? Why not? Long BEach State faces Temple tonight, and a sweep isn't out of the question...

A weekend that, well, I suppose is...

Funny. This weekend was a very unusual one, in which predicatable successes are paired with unenviable futility, and everything in between.

The weekend started on Thursday. The men's water polo team nearly gave up the game against LMU. In fact, they should not have won, the price they pay for not finishing. They ended up winning...in the sixth overtime, 8-7. St. Anthony's football team dismissed St. Genevieve, and are now back in the playoffs, although the Bell-Jeff loss must have been their worse football to date since Downey Calvary Chapel and Chadwick.

Friday was an example of utter juxtaposition. Long Beach City's women's soccer team must have felt like the worst in the land, losing to Cal Poly, 2-1...on the same day that Long Beach City's women lost to Cerritos for the South Coast Conference title. That same day, Lakewood, after shutting out Wilson, edged Compton, but THEY nearly gave it away. That was juxtaposed with Long Beach State's trip from hell to Tucson, losing 7-0. The next day they would be roasted again, 5-0. Way to play uninspired hockey, Ice Dog wannabes.

Saturday was brutal...and beautiful. First, the brutality. Oh BYU. You might as well pay for the broken glass if your big men had to slam dunk the backboard like this was your arena. 74-34...and a dubious-looking tie-dye shirt. Ugh. Who even had to come up with something like this anyway!? And we won't stop there. The women's volleyball team lost the first game of the 4-game victory over Pacific, but how we lost it has be, well, agonizing. Leading very comfortably, those bloody Tigers went on a streak afterwards winning the first game, 32-30. This is Long Beach State, not Long Beach Poly.

Also, predictable came to play. At the rugby tournament on Saturday, the B-side went undefeated, while the A-side played, well, terrible.

And shocking rolled into town. A shakeup on defeats came, and poor Colt Brennan. Oh man, Marcus Riley must thank his lucky stars that a headhunting bastard like him was still in the game with 10 minutes and change left. The officials got a big, fat, F from me due to not during the right thing, and bringing out the ejection. Here's to the hope that Pinsoom Tenzing's Na Wahine can win later today in Boise against Fresno's women.

Melbourne Victory drew with Sydney, while Accrington and Aldershot stunk it up in the FA Cup Fourth Qualifying Round.

And I got a nice women's volleyball media guide to boot.

I am inspired.

What the hell were these guys doing here?

On Friday, I was exhausted, but satisfied. I walked out of the match [if I could call it that] with the Roadrunners of Cal State Bakersfield, leaving the Walter Pyramid with a wry look on my face. As I made my way through the yellow doors, the cheerleaders asked me, "Hey Super Fan, you were awesome. There is no one one in the Big West who is as vocal as you." I should point out that the obnoxious comedy kings from Cal State Northridge came mighty close as the ladies disposed of them in a triple come-from-behind bang-bang-bang sweep the next night.

So I smiled and said, "Hey, it's not just me, ladies. It's the entire group in Section 111, and the players (save for those stiff from Cal Poly), that are the best." Section 111 in the Walter Pyramid is where the students sit. I sit in the south edge of Row A (seat 16) to allow the others to sit in the center. I told them that I would have to talk with Dr. Emyr Williams about the UNLV game (which they won, 32-14), and the scoring, and the conflict with the men's basketball game with San Francisco State. Originally, I thought it was going to be a slaughter, but it was just a unassuming 72-58 win in Dan "The Rainmaker" Monson's first outing with the Beach. At least I could rest assured that we weren't facing Florida.

As I made my was through the dark, passing by the parking structure, the trees swaying in the November wind, and the Jack Rose Track, a yoiung campus police officer inspected the scene. Apparently the lights at the track died. The officer's name was Vergel Munoz, and he was only 2 years into his job. (The chief of the division was 11+ times his senior in terms of tenure.) So, me and Vergel had a little talk about the game, what I did, and so on, but he brought up something that I wasn't expecting, but that I was glad to talk about.
When Cynthia Buggs, the daughter of Long Beach Polytechnic High School girls' basketball coach Carl Buggs, and #3 on the roster, was about to serve, I pantomimed my foam noodle like a shotgun at work during a skeet event at the Olympics. In less than a year, the Beijing Games would occur, and skeet shooting was one of the events held at the games since 1968, at the Mexico City games.

So Vergel talks about some old, insecure boosters who incorrectly corrolate my act to the Virginia Tech massacres. I maintain this view of these massacres: that was a tragic event, and a heinous act, performed in April of this year by one Cho Seung-Hui, a guy who had no direction, and had no other choice, but to blast a number of faculty and students-32 in all, before adding himself to the list.

If I had the power to talk to him about this before this all happened, AND he was willing to listen to me as if I was his conscience, I'd say, "Yo, Seung, what the hell are you doing? That's just clowning...whay are you going to throw away everything just to satisfy your own personal demons? You're a Virginia Tech Hokie. You have to take pride in your university; you need to be proud of being in a university like this. These people are your friends, your comrades to the very end. Why do you wantr to kill them?

"You can stop this, Seung. But if you're going to, you gotta do it the right way. Seek some help, say to yourself, 'What the hell am I doing? I don't need to be this way. I can choose the path that will save these 32 lives. If someone is going to try to shoot these guys down, it's not me. It will be someone who isn't from this campus, some criminal on the run, and I'd rather sacrifice my life for them, than shoot them down to get some payback that I don't even know what the purpose is.' You should make a better choice that this." More on choices later.

But it was good that he asked me. I told him that I was on my last semester, majoring in information systems. I believe that if you give the right information to the right people in the right place at the right time, it will give them the power to make the right choices and the right decisions. He was abit stunned that I didn't have a driver's license, and that I was 23 years old. Vergel was 26, and his brother works as the CBA (College of Business Administration).

I told him that Buggs sounds like Bugsy Siegel, a famous (or infamous) mobster who I remember for building the Flamingo Hotel and Casino, a Las Vegas Strip landmark. And when they think of Bugsy, they think of guns. But I stressed my take on war and violence: I don't believe in that stuff.My family doesn't believe in it. I am convinced that our war in Iraq is a meaningless cost and a waste of money. I remeber making bad decisions when I was in middle school, a long time before I got here. Eighth grade, young, didn't know any better. But when I rebounded, I was able to make more right than wrong decisions.

Finally, I told Vergel, "Look, if those guys keep thinking about that traggedy that was out of their control many months ago, and is still out of their control today, and let it be the first think they wake up to...it will happen here. Cal State Long Beach is a safe campus thanks to you. They should know that, and they should know that Super Fan told you that." I even brought up Rachelle Ang's quote to me: "At least I'm all right." I told him to tell it to them, and have them say it to themselves.

In total, we talked for about 20 minutes, and then went on our separate ways. For a while, at least until the boosters are reassured of my intentions regarding Cynthia Buggs, I will have to make a good Robin Hood-meets-William Tell impersonation. The gun became a bow and arrow. Ironically, the next day saw an archery contest take place next to the rugby field.

Personally, I was still wondering about that game. It was as if we were facing a high school or a middle school team. It was easy, maybe too easy, save for maybe the third game. I even said, "Hey guys, Bakersfield College can play better volleyball than you guys." Seems I had a point: as of November 6, Bakersfield College's Renegade volleyball team was 15-3 for the season, with three regular season games and the postseason tournaments remaining.

The coach from Bakersfield had this to say:

“They were bigger than (No. 3 ranked) Texas and as athletic as any team we faced
this season,” said CSUB Head Coach John Price. “As with all of the ranked teams
we faced this season, it took us a while to get into the match, but once we did
we were able to hang with a very good team.”

John, I tend to disagree, though the remarks were, I will admit, flattering. Texas has 8 players above 6 feet tall. We only have 5. And teams like Cal Poly, San Diego, Stanford, Washington and St. John's have proven their mettle against us. It was only till the third game that your guys were actually able to play some volleyball. We would have a game against the Renegades than you guys. Hopefully you can spice things up by getting some of Carl Ferreira's sophomores to play for your team...if you're willing to take the initiative.

Otherwise, be prepared for more of the same next year we meet. Oh, and mind the Parking Services people when you're going to park somewhere the next time you head on down the I-5 to Wally's house.

Uh oh.

Eric Asami should be graffitied with the villain brush. I’m scratching my head as to why he was officiating the match between the Cal Poly Mustangs and my guys down at the Walter Pyramid. He must have thought this was a soccer match, because he kept giving cards to our guys, while helping those nags from San Luis Obispo get a victory in 5 games.

I mean, let’s face it. If this was a soccer game between my ladies and those ‘Stangs (the match will be held later in November), that’s understandable, but in a volleyball game? And yellow cards to the team who is viewed as the underdog, and none to the team touted to win it?

As Sydney Football Club manager Branko Culina said to Mark Shield, which, if you think about it (he had to be escorted by the cops) is the cold hard truth (a rare instance for me where I sympathize with them), “It’s not a good thing.” I’m convinced that there shouldn’t be any complaints from our visitors that game.

At least he should be thankful that I didn’t have a flare to hurl at in his direction. Better be wise to steer away from anyone wearing CSULB apparel, students, fans, alums, boosters, and so on. At least you won’t be six feet under just yet before your next officiating assignment (god forbid you’re still hired to be a bloody anti-Beach stiff).

As I got back home, I checked the mail, checked the messages, and made the daily rounds. After feasting on some katsu from the nearby L&L in Wrigley, I looked at the calendar on the refrigerator, and the Beach’s next opponent. There is so many stuff on there, but one of them is a calendar of matches. Squinting to get a closer look, it read: “UCI, 10/26, 7:00 p.m.”

“Uh oh,” I thought.

Here's the kicker: after that, I concurred that for Brian Gimmilaro, hiring a shrink might as well be put on the back burner for at least another week.

A busy week down at the Beach…

Six dollars. Count them. One, two, three, four, five, six.

With six dollars I can buy a trio of carbonated liquid at this place called La Mexicana. La Mexicana, located at the corner of 21^st Street and Santa Fe Avenue, is a place where I went to as a kid. When I was young, I would but Funyuns, a type of onion-flavored deep fried corn rings. I would eat those incessantly, and eat them with sandwiches, with the food my mom and dad cook for me, or just by itself when I am watching something on ESPN.

Nowadays, I ditch the Funyuns for those tin cans full of carbonated liquid. But they are not just carbonated liquid. They are a type of carbonated liquid that is laced with chemicals that would seem like illegal substances, but are actually safe. Those chemicals are called taurine, L-carnitine, caffeine, and vitamins and minerals. And that’s just the basics of what’s in that liquid outside of sugar, water, colorings and natural flavors.

The kicker: they are only 2 bucks a can. Cheaper than similar stuff down at the Bookstore or at your regular am/pm. 2 x 3 = 6. Hence, six dollars.

In short, I go to La Mexicana before I hit the PCH 171 heading eastbound for the battlegrounds of the Beach (or the 190’s to 173, the 90’s, or Passport D on the weekends). Sometimes the battleground will be a large body of water with nets on either side. Sometimes the battleground will be a simple football pitch. Other times it will be inside a facility that is shaped like those architectural landmarks in Egypt. Still it could be a softball diamond, or a track, or a practice gym.

In any case, I go to La Mexicana to drink up Rockstar. Zero Carb is my Rockstar drink of choice, because it’s a less-concentrated, but refreshing rendition of the 5-Hour Energy Drink of notoriety. Occasionally I will sip a Rockstar Juiced if Zero Carb is not available. The pomegranate version is what I end up drinking, though I also like the guava version. On rare occasions, it will be a drink other than Rockstar for these games, or it might be a Rockstar and another less potent one, depending on the importance of the contests, and the number of contests going on. It might be a NOS Energy, Full Throttle Mother (acai-flavored), or [even more rarely] TaB Energy. I don’t like using Red Bull for these games, because I use them for study sessions and completing assignments.

With that being said, I am looking forward to this week’s action. Women’s soccer and women’s volleyball have the heavy hitters coming. Fullerton and Riverside will be visiting George Allen Field, while UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly will be dueling the Beach at the Walter Pyramid. It will be interesting to see if we can lift a finger to UC Davis and Stanford at the Campus Pool on Sunday. It would be sweet to beat Stanford in anything other than men’s volleyball.

Never mind that after a Beehive State split, the hockey team will be coming back on the 19th to take on UCLA. That should be a win.

And I’ll need to muster up six dollars to pay for that tasty liquid ammunition in those little 24-fluid ounce tin cans. Chug, chug, chug.

Now that’s what I call…a rally.

Just when I thought Friday was going to go down south in a hurry, I get a reprieve. I don’t know if it was me destroying the video tape (that originally had the Angels’ last World Series victory) or if it was the soul of Colt Brennan coming back from its trap and going into its body which had an imposter soul, or the fact that I had mellowed down considerably.

Whatever the case, Friday was the night of the comeback kids. In San Jose, the Spartans were leading the Hawaii Warrior 35-21, and were in control of ending Hawaii’s winning streak. Colt Brennan came right back to throw another touchdown to make it 35-28 late in the fourth quarter. However, as San Jose State was about to run down the clock, a man by the name of Blaze Soares stripped SJSU tailback James T. Callier of the ball, and Adam Leonard recovered the ball. Brennan, on the next possession, took it in to tie the score.

In overtime, Brennan hooked up on a 9-yard pass to Jason Rivers to give Hawaii the lead back. An interception by Myron Newberry sealed the deal, eliciting elation back in the islands, while eliciting frustration and broken hearts wearing blue in Spartan Stadium.

Top that, King Xerxes the First.

Meanwhile, down in Stockton (not too far from San Jose), Long Beach State’s women’s volleyball team pulled off a rally of their own. Down two games, I tuned into the game late on longbeachstate.com and on CSTV’s GameTracker. The 49ers, as if I was bringing some type of divine inspiration, won the next three games, 32-30, 30-22, and 15-13. It was only proper that Alexis Crimes seal the game off. On match point, Alexis crushed the mother lode into the Pacific court. Sorry, Charlie (Wade).

On a night where Melbourne Victory and the Long Beach State ice hockey teams dropped stinkers, the comeback kids were having a great night out in Stockton and San Jose. Joe Montana send help.

So…who’s afraid of the Big Bad Wolf, anyway?

It ain’t me, of course. The Big Bad Wolf I am referring to is UCSB men’s water polo coach Wolf Wigo. He thought he could come to our house, and huff, and puff, and blow it down. And the UCSB fans thought the same way. Fools! We bent, but didn’t break, and Gavin Arroyo’s guys took it to ‘em, 9-8.

Bring out the lime, Beach Nation, on November 11^th…a whitewash may be in order. I’m not scared of wolves…I’m a 49er, inshallah. I hunt wolves! I may have to pantomime a shotgun and pretend to point it at the Big Bad Wolf next meeting, if he complains that I am ruining his concentration. There are bigger things to worry about than suffering another heartbreaker. I leave it to you to figure it out, Gaucho[ke]s.

Now, we aren’t done yet with those punks from Goleta. Our women’s volleyball team isn’t feeling too happy after getting an assraping of the worst kind from the Mustangs of Cal Poly. But if they can’t successfully take their anger out on UC Santa Barbara down at the Thunderdome tonight, I won’t be done chewing Brian Gimmillaro up and spitting him out for his Central Coast futility, either, God forbid it happens.

EDIT: It didn't. The Beach swept 'em, 3-0. Our job's done here for today.

Regis Philbin! You said that “It’s time to stop the bleeding.” Well, when the Jews crucified Jesus (yes, it was the Jews, via the Romans, Caiaphas, the chief priests and those bloody Pharisees, the scumbags, not our sins, that crucified Jesus), they didn’t stop the bleeding. Why should it stop for Charlie Weis’s Fighting Irish football team? Michigan State took it to them, 31-14.

Next time, Mr. Philbin, two words: SHUT UP.

Now here is a brewing storyline that even the Wyrd sisters from Macbeth couldn’t have concocted even if they gave 1000% on it: the Seattle Mariners winning the rest of their games, while the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim lose the rest of their games.

In Seattle, they can call it “The Mariner Miracle.” In Anaheim, we should call it “The Curse of Jorge Campillo.” Seattle won, 3-2. One is still the “magic number.”

Haruhi Suzumiya, send help.

I think they are still jealous of the cold hard fact...

...that we are still the defending Olympic gold medalists in rugby for over eight decades. So they decide to thumb their noses at our rugby team.

PARIS, 14 September - Yesterday evening in Paris a RWC 2007 Appeal Hearing was held into the case of USA centre Paul Emerick.

The Appeal Committee comprised Chairman Justice Wyn Williams, Bruce Squire QC and Judge Guillermo Tragant.

The Appeal Committee upheld the decision of the Judicial Officer, Professor Lorne Crerar, in suspending Paul Emerick (USA) for a dangerous tackle on England's Olly Barkley in the England v USA match on 8 September.

The Appeal Committee was satisfied that the tackle in question was very dangerous and, in the circumstances, a five week suspension was the correct sanction.

RNS dk/djp

Williams, Squire, Tragant and Crerar can go hang themselves for their apparent jealousy that for all the accolades their teams have won, we are still the best at Olympic rugby. It's the truth. And we would kick their asses at American football. It would be over by the first quarter.

Speaking of which, Hawaii got back to their usual mojo, defeating UNLV, 49-14, but this time using some more run from the run-and-shoot system. Colt Brennan ran for 3 touchdowns, passing for two more, and Ryan Mouton out of juco national champs Blinn JC intercepted a pass for a touchdown, while Tyler Graunke hurled one more score, this time to Malcolm Lane in relief.

Bring on Charleston Southern. Nobody cares about a bunch of black college easybeats like Johnson C. Smith (who?) anyway.

It seems the number "49" is looking to be a good number.

San Diego rolled over Northern Colorado 49-13 (Seriously, Bears, did you think you were reallyt ready for a Division I FCS mid-major team? Get a gut check and go back to D-II, you Greeley grues) , USC rolled over Nebraska 49-31, and Mike Hart turns from Lola of the Copacabana into Joe Namath of the New York Jets with Michigan pasting Notre Dame 38-0.

The latter result was not "49", but was close, given that Notre Dame flat-out sucks.

Meanwhile, Long Beach State women's volleyball wraps up a road show in Denver with a 3-2 victory over Ohio, and the men's water polo team splits a couple of matches at the NorCal Tournament. Oh yeah, and the women's soccer team defeated Oklahoma, 2-1.

Only low notes were Long Beach City failing, as well as the Roughriders choking. Booo.