Another Drive to Las Vegas

Friday, December 20, 2024

We left with our travel friends Koreen and Brian FitzGerald at a reasonable hour for the drive to Las Vegas to witness the marriage of son Andrew to his betrothed Jill.

The traffic was light and Koreen's driving skills were, as usual, at peak performance levels.

With Koreen in command, our first

stop was in Boron, California

We were about two hours and 15 minutes into our drive and were ready for a late breakfast at Boron's famed 20 Mule Cafe.

Hearty stick to your ribs fare at this desert hotspot was the perfect call.

World's Biggest Tonka Truck

It is located next to

the 20 Mule Cafe

Celebrating Mexican baseball at

an Arco station in Baker, California

A BEAUTIFUL Christmas tree

in the lobby of our Las Vegas hotel

A possibility for dinner . . .

. . . but we opted for Italian instead

The Italian food here was DELICIOUS!

Football news abounds . . .

We dined watching the Indiana (11-1)

at Notre Dame (11-1) playoff game

It was not as close as the

score would make you think

Now it will be #7 Notre Dame (12-1) vs. #2 Georgia (11-2) in the quarterfinals at the Sugar Bowl on January 1, 2025. 

Season Opener for your Gijón

Mariners is fast approaching

A great Varese Skorpions WR moves

on to Sweden's Carlstad Crusaders

Rams just MUST win this game

against the disheveled Jets

Finally . . .

Back when men were men . . .

 

LA Bowl Hijinks

Wed. & Thurs., Dec. 18-19, 2024

Lots of football news to report, it all started Wednesday morning with a drive, yet again, to Pasadena.

La Salle H.S. Head Football Coach

Mark Servé summoned me to their campus

A few weeks ago he donated 24 used shoulder pads that were all in good condition to be passed along to needy teams overseas.

Today he donated a total of

49 red and 32 blue game pants

The first nine of those shoulder pads had been sent to Spain's Guadalajara Stings about two weeks ago.

On Thursday, with the unexpected but greatly appreciated aid of grandson Jacob, we shipped off three boxes to the Sueca Ricers, also from Spain, containing the last 15 shoulder pads and the 32 blue game pants donated to the great EuroBall cause by the La Salle H.S. football program.

Of course, no one in EuroBall would have received any of the God only knows how many boxes of football gear we have sent overseas since we started doing this in 2010, were it not for the duct taping expertise of my effervescent bride, Laurie Contreras.

Thank You, Lancers!

Thank You, Laurie!

Now, to find a team wanting red game pants . . .

Wednesday night, Michael and Jacob joined me in battling the notorious Los Angeles rush hour traffic to attend . . . 

. . . the 4th Annual LA Bowl!

California Golden Bears

Tied for Fourteenth place in the

Atlantic Coast Conference

6-6 overall, 2-6 ACC

vs.

#24 Nevada-Las Vegas Rebels

Tied for Second place in the

Mountain West Conference

10-3 overall, 6-1 MWC

The game was at SoFi Stadium

Home of the NFL Rams and Chargers

The cost of our parking spot was almost as much as the cost of our three tickets combined.

They did not bother to check our clear plastic bags for contraband nor scan our bodies as we entered SoFi.

It was like going to a game in the 1970s.

Beautiful setting

With Jacob in 70,000 seat SoFi Stadium

The announced paid attendance was 24,420. We guessed that the actual attendance was much closer to 15,000 rabid fans like Jacob and me.

The SoFi scoreboard is indeed

GIGANTIC!

Cal in white on Defense

It was a competitive, entertaining game from the start.

At the Half, it was UNLV 14 - Cal 13

I like this End Zone view of the action

My mates!

Los Angeles Polytechnic H.S.

Home of the Fighting Parrots

When we saw this young man proudly wearing his letterman's jacket, we were reminded of two of the Noblest Parrots of Them All, Poly alums Paul Sabolić and Bill Gardner, Laurie's father.

The game continued . . .

. . . we changed seats and no one

seemed to care

New seats again in the Fourth Quarter

A strong Second Half showing by

UNLV was the difference in the game

FINAL SCORE

UNLV Rebels (11-3) - 24

California Golden Bears (6-7) - 13

Only one thing left to do to top off a good evening of college bowl game mania . . .

DONUTS!

Not just any donuts, RANDY'S DONUTS!

Randy's has been selling great donuts at this spot since 1952 under their iconic mega-donut.

One for each of us

Top Left: Jacob's traditional pink sprinkles iced cake donut

Top Right: Michael's maple raised with churros

Bottom: My bacon maple long john

ALL WERE,

PRETTY DAMN GOOD!

News from the net . . .

Let the insanity continue . . .

An Upbeat Memorial Service and More

Tuesday, December 17, 2024

As unfortunately seems to be happening more and more in our lives, we bid adieu to a dear friend today.

Shirley Lee FitzGerald

August 7, 1935 - October 19, 2024

"Squirrely Shirley," as she was known, was a hoot.

The mother of dear friends Brian, Tom and Kerry, she was omni-present at track and field events over the years when I coached at Rio Mesa H.S.

At Cerritos Stadium for the C.I.F.-Southern Section Track Finals back in 1990, I had a new tote bag that looked like an oversized 1950s bowling ball bag. It was full of all sorts of first aid knick-knacks, as besides coaching the Shot Put/Discus crew, I was also in charge of taping and caring for any athletes in need of my limited restorative powers.

When Shirley saw me walking up the aisle where the Rio Mesa fans were sitting, she greeted me in a loud voice with a simple question, "Hey George, is that your douche bag?"

That was "Squirrely Shirley" at her uproarious finest.

Always the life of the party, about 130 people assembled at the Las Posas Country Club today to toast to her memory one more time.

A good person to have crossed paths with to be sure.

In the evening, I attended Mary's basketball

practice at Las Colinas Middle School

Lots of drill work tonight

Her first game will be in January after I leave for my coaching assignment in Spain with the Gijón Mariners.

News from the net . . .

This Sophomore RB from Army has drawn

a lot of interest in the Transfer Portal

Seriously?

College football and the beat goes on . . .

Reading Is FUNdamental

A deep dig into all that led up to the

uprooting of three communities in Chavez

Ravine needed to build "Blue Heaven on

Earth," a.k.a., Dodger Stadium

This was a fascinating read that has little to do with baseball and everything to do with the lives disrupted and behind the scenes powerbroker deals that go hand in hand with a government's land grabbing concept of eminent domain.

A good read indeed.

Dance Recital Sunday

Sun.-Mon., December 15-16, 2024

Being a grandparent involves attendance at lots of fun, entertaining events.

Today we supported Mary at . . .

. . . her Christmas Dance Recital

She was primed in her

pre-recital warm-ups

Mary on the far left in the

midst of the blue lighting

It's all about those hand movements

Greeting the glory of the day

Out of the blue light for the finale

Post performance flowers

from her adoring fans

What a great way to spend

a chilly Sunday afternoon

Mary's Family

The simple pleasures

A nice walk back to her car

We continued our Mary and the Arts theme by taking her to the Voices of Channel Islands Youth Chorus' Winter Concert on Monday night at Dos Caminos Elementary School.

Mary likes to sing, so this was an exploratory evening to try to peak her interest and perhaps have her join this group next semester.

We'll see . . .

On to the news from the net . . .

Here are your 2024 California State

Championship Football Game Winners

Entering his Junior year next

Fall at his third university

He started his movements early being from Texas but graduating from the IMG Academy, a.k.a., the IMG Football Factory before entering Georgia as a Freshman, USC as a Sophomore and, now, Penn State.

Where is this all headed to in the long run?

Ryan Day, Head Coach

THE Ohio State University

Talk about a man under tremendous pressure.

After losing to arch-rival Michigan for the fourth straight time time about two weeks ago, all levels of social media, sports TV and sports talk radio have been crucifying Coach Day for his consistent underperformance against the Wolverines.

In a nutshell, many, many Buckeye fans want him fired immediately.

It reminded me of the similar plight of former Ohio State Head Coach John Cooper.

Cooper led the Buckeyes for 13 seasons from 1988-2000. During his tenure, Ohio State went 111-43-4 with three BIG-10 Championships.

His problem?

Michigan.

His record against the Wolverines was 2-10-1. That in concert with his 3-8 bowl game record was simply too much, he was fired.

Now, as to Ryan Day, he has accumulated an overall record at Ohio State of 66-10-0 since becoming their leader in 2019. Unfortunately, despite his glossy record, there are those four Michigan losses.

Stay tuned, especially if the Buckeyes (10-2) lose their home College Football Playoff game to Tennessee (10-2) this weekend.

Coaching can be a crazy business.