Cal Bears vs Saint Mary's Gaels and This and That

Bill McClintock, a University of California Bear, one of the fiercest power forwards I ever played against, and that includes a bunch of my NBA opponents, and I, with our wives, are going to attend the Gael/Bears basketball game tonight on the Cal campus. Dinner first, which will as a matter of tradition, include a few beers for me and Bill.

McClintock was the starting forward on the great Cal team coached by Legendary Pete Newell that went to the Final Four in 1969 and won the '68/69 NCAA Championship by defeating Jerry West's West Virginia team. They got to the Final Four by defeating my Gael team in what would now be called the Elite 8 and was then called the Western Regional Finals.The following two seasons Bill and I battled against each other, giving and taking elbows. Bill was not only a physically tough player, he was a cerebral player. The combination of smarts and toughness is rare, and I only found such a combo in a few of the power forwards in the NBA. My teams never had much success against the Bears, but perhaps tonight's Gael squad will give us old Gaels something to cheer about. Bill and I are planning on wearing our college caps. I think our Gael logo is more artistic than the Bears one. That's a win for us. Now the Gaels need to win on the court.

As for McClintock and Meschery beer completion, Bill is on the first team and I'm on the second team. I'll grant him his superiority, with the caveat that he has an edge since being raised in Wisconsin. Never knew anyone from Milwaukee who couldn't handle his suds.

If there are basketball fans who've never seen that great Cal team, do yourselves a favor and find some footage. They were superb.

THIS AND THAT

I'm a little concerned at the hoopla given NBA players who achieve double/doubles. Think about it. A double/double could be 10 pts and 10 rebounds. In the case of a power forward 10 pts and 10 rebounds is no big deal, or shouldn't be. The points are the problem. 10 or 11 or 12 are not worth making a fuss over? And ten boards for a power forward and a center are not worthy of much excitement. If you're a power forward or center worth your salt, you should be getting 10 pts and 10 boards most nights. Now, if a shooting guard gets 10 boards, that is something. Ten steals, ten assists, those are worthy stats. But ten points , well, I don't think I'd call Sports Illustrated over it. I'm just saying, be a little skeptical of double/doubles. Now Triple/doubles, that's something.

I loved reading about the Warriors game against the Magic and was indeed proud of their 46 team assists. Good for you Dubs. Keep it up, but don't forget, fellows, that your defense has historically been what puts you at the head of the class.

In the Life Section of this Blog: HooWah! Mueller snared another traitor to the United States, so-called General Mike Flynn, and it looks good that he'll indict Jared Kushner, Trump son-in-law, (are we suffering any nepotism vibes lately?) who should have his security clearance yanked, pronto.

Who's next to fall? Let's get these embarrassments out of the White House. Just speculating, but if Trump goes down, it's will be Pence at bat. He's our VP who, during his run for Congress in 1990, used political donations to pay for his home mortgage, personal credit cards, golf fees, groceries and wife's car payments. Honest guy?? But, if Pence goes down as well, along with his Prez, it will be Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House of Reps to step up to the plate. As a liberal, I worry about anybody who is a disciple of Ayn Rand. But I can live with it. However, one little thing out of his history does bother me a lot. In his senior year in high school, he was elected by classmates as BIGGEST BROWN NOSER of the class. I'll leave it up to you, dear readers, to decide how to interpret that.

And, if anybody out there in Middle Class financial land believes this Republican Tax Plan is going to help you, I've got the Golden Gate Bridge to sell you.

Here's another short poems I wrote about sports in the writing style of one of America's great poets.

After Emily Dickinson   by Tom Meschery

I ran and ran until I caught
myself and passed me on the right
T'was on the way to triumph
At the finish line I crossed into the night.