"They call Alabama the Crimson Tide, call me Deacon Blues."
I knew from the moment I heard that song that the geniuses behind Steely Dan, Walter Becker and Donald Fagan, were both college football fans and kindred spirits. The song, Deacon Blues, is off their monumental Aja album that was released in 1977. It has taken the Wake Forest Demon Deacons that long to achieve an outstanding football season (or one with a winning record to be exact) here in 2006. They have a lock on getting a bowl bid, and the higher the better is my thinking for this great college that has been mired in football loserville for almost an eternity.
Any other year and the Demon Deacons are the feel good story of the year. But since they're the Deacons they lose out this season to Rutgers on the feel good side. The Scarlet Knights, who are now very improbably undefeated this season, have stolen the crown of fleeting-football-limelight from the Wake Forest campus for the year. Rutgers, the campus where the first collegiate footbal game was played in America back in 1869, owns the media bragging rights this year by virtue of their victory over the nation's third ranked football team, Louisville, a little more than a week ago. Red seems to always trump blue.
This gets me to the little college rivalry game on the west coast this weekend between USC and Cal. For years this was no rivalry. USC just beat up Cal as part of the football routine in the Pac-10 conference on the way to Trojan championships or bowl bids.
I was a student at Cal in 1975 when Joe Roth and Chuck Muncie led the Bears to a win over USC in Berkeley on the way to their co-championship of the Pac-8, the last conference football title the Golden Bears have seen. They didn't beat USC for another decade when they pulled off an unlikely win, again on the Berkeley campus on November 9, 1985. I remember the day because my youngest son was born early in the morning on that date, and I took my eldest to the game. I remember walking with my son on my shoulders and hearing the private school kids from USC, who had made the trek to the game, comment after the shocking loss on how run down the Berkeley campus looked in comparison to their very expensive private school digs in the heart of Watts.
Just a week ago this Cal-USC game looked epic. Maybe not quite as epic as Ohio State versus Michigan, but just a click down from college football's biggest rivalry. But the Golden Bears weren't so golden in the Arizona sun as they let a two touchdown lead melt like a bad slurpy on warm astro-turf. The huge build up by the national media did not transpire, and the game for most of the country is a second billed afterthought following the featured presentation on the Columbus campus in Ohio.
This should have boded well for Cal, but the Berkeley City Council decided to sue the University this week on the promised retrofit of ancient Memorial Stadium, which the University has promised coach Jeff Tedford. There should have been no local distractions from this game this week by a former player turned mayor in Berkeley. But it happened. The annual USC battle has turned into the Big Game the past several years for Golden Bear fans. Stanford has fallen on real hard football times for the moment, and the Bears resurrection under Jeff Tedford has been almost as miraculous as the stories at Wake Forest and Rutgers this year. This Saturday they play for the roses.
"They got a name for the winners in the world, I want a name when I lose.
They call Alabama the Crimson Tide, call me Deacon Blues."
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Dear Bakersfield,
I could not help but notice that you voted the Republican Party line without fail in the 2006 election. I am a little surprised by this development, given the national results of November 7, 2006 that brought about such a major shift of the political dynamic. A shift that occurred in spite of gerrymandered districts that held previously safe seats for incumbents.
I must assume the Republican Party has been very good to Bakersfield over the years. There must be tremendous infrastructure within the city limits coupled with high education standards and a quality of life that insulates the community from the rest of the nation, which has seen wage stagnation, under employment, insurmountable health care costs, increased crime, soaring energy costs and an inabilty to save a penny over these past six years for most of the citizens.
I read with interest your former Republican Congressman, Bill Thomas, had created a windfall for Bakersfield and Kern County with a huge federal road improvement package earmarked for his constituents over the objections of many other California legislators. This windfall, in the sum of nearly $800 million dollars, could be had by passing a half cent sales tax increase that would guarantee this magnanimous bequest and give to the city and county almost two billion dollars in road improvement money. As I understand from last night's results things are so good in your town you declined the gift by voting down the tax. Yes, things must be very good indeed throughout Bakersfield and all of Kern County to dismiss such a sum.
I must surmise that the widespread intellectual might of the community played a major role in pointing out the many pitfalls associated with partnering with the federal government on contracts. This partnering has been catastrophic for the Bechtel Corporation and Halliburton over the past several years. These two government partners along with the Oil industry see such high profits coupled with their large subsidies they actually may have to pay earnings taxes at some point. The citizens in Bakersfield all deserve a big pat on the back for a job well done by avoiding any government entanglements.
I realize with all the money the Republican Party has given to Bakersfield historically, it will be an easy task to have the highways contructed to your city's unusally high quality standard. I look forward to driving my sports car through your seamless interchanges to the many fine shopping centers throughout the town.
It must be nice to live in a city that serves as the model for the rest of America and is not subjected to the vagaries of political whim. No government help or intervention necessary for all the bright people in Bakerfield. I'm sure those large agricultural giants in the southern San Joaquin Valley take no government handouts and pay their college graduate harvesters tremendous wages and benefits. I picture bucolic rural colleges of agri-genetics set on pristine grounds all paid through the benevolence of corporate responsibility.
Bakersfield needs to tell this dramatic post-election story that the rest of the nation got it all wrong. While nearly all of California voted for the Democratic Party candidates and moderate Republicans, Bakersfield was leading the charge to self reliance and independence from government by voting for the very extreme right wing entrants for every elected office.
"Bakersfield, life as it should be?"
I could not help but notice that you voted the Republican Party line without fail in the 2006 election. I am a little surprised by this development, given the national results of November 7, 2006 that brought about such a major shift of the political dynamic. A shift that occurred in spite of gerrymandered districts that held previously safe seats for incumbents.
I must assume the Republican Party has been very good to Bakersfield over the years. There must be tremendous infrastructure within the city limits coupled with high education standards and a quality of life that insulates the community from the rest of the nation, which has seen wage stagnation, under employment, insurmountable health care costs, increased crime, soaring energy costs and an inabilty to save a penny over these past six years for most of the citizens.
I read with interest your former Republican Congressman, Bill Thomas, had created a windfall for Bakersfield and Kern County with a huge federal road improvement package earmarked for his constituents over the objections of many other California legislators. This windfall, in the sum of nearly $800 million dollars, could be had by passing a half cent sales tax increase that would guarantee this magnanimous bequest and give to the city and county almost two billion dollars in road improvement money. As I understand from last night's results things are so good in your town you declined the gift by voting down the tax. Yes, things must be very good indeed throughout Bakersfield and all of Kern County to dismiss such a sum.
I must surmise that the widespread intellectual might of the community played a major role in pointing out the many pitfalls associated with partnering with the federal government on contracts. This partnering has been catastrophic for the Bechtel Corporation and Halliburton over the past several years. These two government partners along with the Oil industry see such high profits coupled with their large subsidies they actually may have to pay earnings taxes at some point. The citizens in Bakersfield all deserve a big pat on the back for a job well done by avoiding any government entanglements.
I realize with all the money the Republican Party has given to Bakersfield historically, it will be an easy task to have the highways contructed to your city's unusally high quality standard. I look forward to driving my sports car through your seamless interchanges to the many fine shopping centers throughout the town.
It must be nice to live in a city that serves as the model for the rest of America and is not subjected to the vagaries of political whim. No government help or intervention necessary for all the bright people in Bakerfield. I'm sure those large agricultural giants in the southern San Joaquin Valley take no government handouts and pay their college graduate harvesters tremendous wages and benefits. I picture bucolic rural colleges of agri-genetics set on pristine grounds all paid through the benevolence of corporate responsibility.
Bakersfield needs to tell this dramatic post-election story that the rest of the nation got it all wrong. While nearly all of California voted for the Democratic Party candidates and moderate Republicans, Bakersfield was leading the charge to self reliance and independence from government by voting for the very extreme right wing entrants for every elected office.
"Bakersfield, life as it should be?"
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