For new readers: zzzzz
(Pronounced "Quintuple z") is a blog about my thoughts about various stories and
sporting events. Most of it is in the Modesto, CA area, but if I see a national
story worth talking about, I'll talk about it, too. I also talk about geography
and history, because those are my interests.
STUFF AT MY CHURCH (From the Bethel Assembly (Oakdale, CA) Bulletin
-My favorite church service of the year is coming up. On Christmas Eve, Bethel Assembly will be holding the annual Candlelight Service. We will be singing hymns and Pastor Dave will be giving a short message. The service is Monday, December 24, 2012 at 7:00 P.M
-On Sunday, December 23, the Childrens' Church will be performing a play during both the 9:00 A.M and 11:00 A.M service. It is part of the annual Christmas Special at Bethel Assembly. My awesome girlfriend's kids will have parts in it. Everyone is invited to attend. The address of the church is 105 East G St. Oakdale, CA 95361
NEWS (From the Modesto Bee)
-On the November 9th edition of the Modesto Bee, it talks about a committee discussing what to do with Salida. According to the Bee, this committee is made up of officials from Salida, Modesto, and Stanislaus County. There are three main options to discuss about Salida. The town can either become a city, officially become part of Modesto, or remain a town. The mayor of Modesto, Gerrard Marsh, had a goal of annexing Salida in his first term.
-I have no personal opinion about the issue. I do not live in Salida, nor do I plan on living there. I can understand both sides of the issue when it comes to annexation, though. There is a lot of benefit to Salida becoming part of Modesto since city services would extend there. Plus, there are parts to that town that need a lot of improvement, especially downtown. Modesto has more funds to make the improvements than Salida. On the other hand, I would imagine the citizens of Salida do not want to lose their autonomy. I come from a small town and I would hate "the big city" making decisions that would impact my community. There is a lot of sentimental value in that.
What would Modesto have to gain from adding Salida to the city? The town sits on Highway 99 just south of the Stanislaus-San Joaquin county line. The city would have more access to the freeway in which it could do business. Also, I could see them wanting tax money directly and indirectly if they make improvements to the area and make it attractive to those who commute to the Bay Area. The Salida area would make it a shorter drive for those folks.
Final thought on this issue. The difference between a city and a town is a misconception. Many think it is the population that determines the difference. However, that is not correct. The difference is a post office and who provides services for the community. The community provides the services (police, fire, etc.) if it is a city. The county provides the services if it is a town.
HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL
Division VI Championship
(2) Brookside Christian Knights 60, (1) Foresthill Wildfires 26
At Lodi, CA... Even though Brookside Christian (Stockton) was the lower seed, calpreps.com predicted the Knights to win by 20; and they played like it in the second half. At halftime, Brookside Christian (champions of the CCAA) clung to a 20-18 lead over the Foresthill Wildfires (champions of the SMAL). Darius Henton scored two touchdowns for Brookside Christian in the 3rd quarter, and the Knights scored 20 unanswered points to widen the gap and pull away from a tired Foresthill team.
Henton scored three total touchdowns, while quarterback Austin Caldron passed for three more touchdowns. On the defensive side, Anthony Castro intercepted three passes from Wildfires quarterback Tommy Sawyer. Great athleticism for the Knights and poor tackling from the Wildfires (great mascot, by the way) contributed to this blowout victory.
Foresthill did not go away quietly, Sawyer passed for two touchdowns and ran for two more to try to keep his team in the game.
Foresthill dropped its record to 8-0 SMAL, 10-2 overall; and their season is definitely over. Brookside improved to 5-0 CCAA, 10-2 overall. The Knights are eligible to be chosen to compete in the division IV Nor-Cal regional bowl game. However, their chances of being chosen by the 10 section commisioners are not very likely. Calhisports.com has Brookside Christian ranked sixth in their division in Northern California. McClymonds (Oakland) has won their section and ranked second. Therefore, they are likely to be one of the teams chosen. The Knights would have to hope they are chosen, too. (Note: I wasn't at the game. I saw it on www.cifsacjoaquin.tv. Also, this part was written on November 24, 2012.)
Scores by quarter
Team 1 2 3 4 Total
Brookside Christian 6 14 18 22 60
Foresthill 6 12 0 8 26
Scoring summary
1st quarter
BC- Jacob Matuska 1-yard TD run (2 point try failed) (6-0 BC)
FOR- Tommy Sawyer 57-yard TD pass to Ryan Corkrean (2 point try failed) (6-6)
2nd quarter
FOR- Sawyer 2-yard TD run (2 point try failed) (12-6 FOR)
BC- Austin Caldron 6-yard TD pass to Edrico Oliver, Jr. (2-pt. try failed) (12-12)
BC- Cameron Chew 10-yd. TD run (Caldron run for 2 pts.) (20-12 BC)
FOR- Sawyer 60-yd. TD pass to Connor McCann (2-pt. try failed) (20-18 BC)
3rd quarter
BC- TD from Darius Henton (2-pt. try failed) (26-18 BC)
BC- Caldron 54-yard TD pass to Oliver, Jr. (2-pt. try failed) (32-18 BC)
BC- Henton 6-yd. TD run (2-pt. try failed) (38-18 BC)
4th quarter
BC- Henton 16-yd. TD run (Caldron pass to Chew for 2 pts.) (46-18 BC)
FOR- Sawyer 2-yd TD run (Wes Archbold run for 2 pts.) (46-26 BC)
BC- Caldron 5-yd TD pass to Blake Smallie (2-pt. try failed) (52-26 BC)
BC- Lee Johnson 44-yd. TD run (Caldron to Matuska for 2-pts) (60-26 BC)
Other CCAA playoff scores for Division VI tournament (CCAA teams in team color)
1st round
(4) Ripon Christian 42, (5) Jim Elliot Christian (Lodi) 22
(6) Big Valley (Modesto) 19, (3) Woodland Christian 12
Semifinals
(2) Brookside Christian 52, (6) Big Valley 0
IF I WAS KING OF SPORTS
The California High School football playoffs has expanded one round starting this year. The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) will choose two teams for each division to play for the Northern California Championships and do the same for the Southern California Championships. The winners of the North and South will play each other in the state bowl game. For those interested, divisions I-IV are mostly based on enrollment (with exceptions I will not talk about) and an Open division that puts the two best teams in each region regardless of enrollment. In order to be qualified to be selected, a team must win its section championship. I will link a follow-up blog that shows what those game will be. If I was king of sports, in an effort to reward all section champions and so no teams practice in vein, I would find a way to have all section champions who want to to play an extra week. I will give a link to explain my proposal.
http://groomy95361.blogspot.com/2012/12/my-high-school-football-proposal.html
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Other than the NCAA tournament, one of my favorite parts of the college basketball season is the ESPN's tip-off marathon. I get to see a variety of games, no matter what time I am awake. Plus, ESPN airs teams one may never see again, unless they see those teams live. Here was the line-up this year. (Note: The tip-off marathon was Tuesday, November 13th from midnight EST. However the times I will post are on PST, since I am western-centric.)
9:00 P.M (11/12) West Virginia @ Gonzaga (GON 84-50)
11.00 P.M (11/12) Davidson @ New Mexico (UNM 86-81)
1:00 A.M Houston Baptist @ Hawai'i (HAW 73-60)
3:00 A.M Stony Brook @ Rider (SB 54-46)
5:00 A.M Northern Illinois @ Valparaiso (VAL 69-46)
7:00 A.M Harvard @ Massachusetts (UMASS 67-64)
9:00 A.M Temple @ Kent St. (TEM 80-66)
11:00 A.M Detroit @ St. John's (SJU 77-74)
1:00 P.M Butler @ Xavier (XAV 62-47)
3:00 P.M Kentucky @ Baylor (Women's Game) (BAY 85-51)
4:00 P.M Michigan St. vs. Kansas (@ Atlanta, GA) (MSU 67-64)
Wichita St. @ VCU (WSU 53-51)
5:00 P.M Cleveland St. @ Michigan (MICH 77-47)
6:00 P.M Duke vs. Kentucky (@ Atlanta, GA) (DUKE 75-68)
Lehigh @ Pittsburgh (PITT 78-53)
7:00 P.M Alabama-Huntsville @ Kansas St. (KSU 87-26)
The team I was actually the most impressed with out of this line-up was a team that ended up losing its contest. That team would be the Davidson Wildcats. They had to travel from Davidson, NC to Albuquerque, NM and start the game at midnight local time. For Davidson, that is 2:00 A.M to them. The only thing I want to do at 2:00 A.M is sleep. I don't want to be starting a basketball game, and I really love the sport. They got a half-time lead over a very good New Mexico team, and built that lead into double-digits (I can't remember the exact number). Ultimately, I think fatigue got the best of the players and New Mexico was able to catch up. At the end of the day, it is still a loss, but I could not help but to be impressed with them.
-Ever since I was 17, I had a goal of going to at least one home game of every single NCAA Division I team from the big teams to the small ones. This goal combined my love of traveling with my love of sports. I know that unless I either A) Win the lottery B) Get a job with a company like Associated Press or ESPN or C) zzzzz becomes so big that it will allow me to travel, this goal will never become a reality. I have accepted this reality for two reasons A) there are other things in my life that are becoming more and more important every day and B) there are schools moving up nearly every year (Nebraska-Omaha and Northern Kentucky moved up this year; and Abilene Christian, Grand Canyon, and Incarnate Word are set to move up next year). However, I do plan on going to as many as possible, and I believe I can at least accomplish the goal in California. So far I have gone to: Pacific, San Jose State, Sacramento State, Loyola Marymount, Stanford, UC-Davis, and Cal Poly.
Last month, I did not go to a division I game, however, I did go to NAIA UC-Merced at Division II Stanislaus State. I noticed the biggest difference as far as players go with Division II/NAIA and Division I is the size and speed of players. UC-Merced's "big man" was 6'4". If he were to go to a Division I school, he better learn how to dribble a basketball, because he would be a guard or maybe a small forward. Anyway, UC-Merced looked like they would pull off the upset early. The Bobcats were ahead after the 1st break, but the Stanislaus State Warriors quickly pulled away after that and won 105-57.
NFL
-Nearly every football fan now knows that there is somewhat of a quarterback controversy for the 49ers between Alex Smith and Turlock's Colin Kaepernick. The controversy started when Smith got a concussion in a game against the St. Louis Rams on November 11, 2012. Kaepernick performed well as a back-up; and since Smith was not cleared by doctors to play, Kaepernick played against the Chicago Bears where he excelled. He has been named the starter for every game since.
-I am one of the few who have advocated for Alex Smith, and I still advocate for him. The only thing this guy did to lose his job is to get a concussion. Prior to the injury, he was the 3rd rated quarterback in the NFL, and he's benched? I will concede that there are things that Kaepernick can do better than Smith, but Smith makes better decisions and is a better game manager. Plus, he is talented enough to take the 49ers to the Super Bowl. Smith has had a tough career with the 49ers. Due to the fact the 49ers changed offensive coordinators nearly every year, the 49ers failed Smith as much as Smith failed the 49ers. Now the 49ers have failed Smith even more than he failed them. I hope next year, he finds a play-off worthy team that needs a good quarterback. I still like him as a player; and I want him to do well.
Finally, I saw ESPN's "Pardon the Interruption", and one of the hosts, Tony Kornheiser, made a good observation. He asked, "With Smith losing his job because of a concussion, will players be less likely to report concussions in fear of being benched?" That is something to think about in interest of player safety.
NBA
-The San Antonio Spurs sent their top 4 scorers home instead of taking them on the trip to Miami to play the Heat on Thursday November 29, 2012. That angered NBA commisioner, David Stern, and some fans. Stern fined the Spurs $250,000 the next day.
-I was originally angered by Stern's actions. Though I am no longer angry, I still think Stern is in the wrong here. He apologized to the fans for what the Spurs did, now he needs to apologize to the Spurs for what he did to them. He has no right to tell Spurs coach, Greg Popovich (a.k.a Pop) how to run his team. I understand that the Spurs played a grueling schedule the past few days and he wanted to rest his players, but frankly, it does not matter why Pop did it. That is his team to run, and his responsibility to run it as he sees fit.
I have other issues with this ruling, too. Will Stern tell the NBA coaches how many minutes each star player has to play? These people are not robots. They get injured. They get fatigued. They need their rest. They can do more athletically than you and I can, but still, they can only do so much. Often coaches will do this towards the end of the season, and fans have a problem with it. Let me bring one issue I have not heard anyone bring up. What if somehow the star player gets injured in the playoffs? It would be a nigthmare for the team to have to start the back-up player. By sitting the star player a game or two, you give the back-up player the practice, experience, and maybe even the confidence of starting a game and playing major minutes.
What other message is Stern sending? If you're the 11th or 12th player on the roster, then don't count on any playing time, because we are going to forbid it? Maybe the message is, "We want you to bust your a** in practice, but you're not going to play." Either way, it is ridiculous. I am not advocating to give the back-up major playing time, but they deserve some time. And by the way, the Spurs nearly beat the Heat with their second string.
This fine is a load of crap. That word is nicest, cleanest way I can accurately describe it. I also think that Stern is being a hypocrite. If the game was not on national tv, or if the opponent was the Sacramento Kings, Toronto Raptors, Washington Wizards, or the Charlotte Bobcats, then I don't think Stern would have cared. However, since the game was on TNT, and more importantly, the opponent was the Miami Heat, then it was dealt like a tragedy. If I am correct in my assessment, then he is as bad as ESPN.
I was watching Jawan Howard on ESPN, and most of his points against the Spurs seemed petty compared to the reasons why Pop wanted to rest his players; but there was one point he made that made me come around a little (read: if my level of agitation was "100" before, it dropped to "98" after listening to him). All the players, including the Spurs, are also employees of the NBA. Pop could have at least brought those players to Miami and put them in street clothes if he did not want them to play. The media could have talked to them, or the kids in Miami could have gotten a Tim Duncan autograph. I once thought the fine was $250,000 more than it should have been. I am now willing to say it was $245,000 more than it should have been.
P.S. There is a conspiracy theory out there that I don't agree with, but I still think is interesting. If you want to know what it is, let me know.
GRE WORD OF THE MONTH
Perfidious- Disloyal; teeacherous; faithless; deceitful; traitouous
When Caesar realized that Brutus had betrayed him, he reproached his perfidious friend.
HISTORY
I just recently read about Christianity becoming the main religion of the Roman Empire. It was anything but an easy process. Many emperors struggled with the fact that Christians were not (and still not) allowed to worship any other deities. Other religions allowed for joint worship of various gods. Many emporers used this as an excuse to persecute the Christians in the Roman Empire. However, as time went along, Christianity was at least being tolerated. There were many factors that lead to the conversion to Christianity. One factor I never read and never thought about was that in 311, the Emperor Galerius permitted Christianity, because his wife was Christian. I am sure my girlfriend would like to hear that a leader's wife became a positive influence of religion in an empire.
If you have any comments, please feel free to let me know. There was some information I omitted, because this blog was too long as it was.
No comments:
Post a Comment