DBD 10.6.09 Time to step up our game

Womens golf doing well:

SAMMAMISH, WASH. -

The California Golden Bears women’s golf team is at the top of the team leaderboard after the first round of the Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational tournament in Sammamish, Wash. Cal’s team score of 296 (+8) was five strokes ahead of the University of San Francisco’s +13 on day one of the three day tournament. Stanford was in third place, 12 strokes off of Cal’s pace.

The Bears jumped out to a quick lead with one player birding each of the first four holes. Sophomore Diane Kwon had birdies on the par-four first and par-five second holes. Sophomore Emily Childs carded a three on the par-four third and junior Pia Halbig birdied the par-four fourth hole. They never relinquished the lead, coming in at +8 to lead the field of 12 teams playing on the par-72 6,136 yard course at Sahalee Country Club near Seattle.

The Bears have four golfers in the top-10 after the first round. Halbig and Childs finished their days at one-over, putting them into a tie for second and just one stroke behind tournament-leader Natasha Podmore of USF. Childs and fellow sophomore Joanne lead are tied for seventh place after posting 75’s (+3).

The 54-hole tournament will resume on Tuesday, Oct. 6 with another round of 18. The tournament will wrap up with the final 18 holes on Wednesday, Oct. 7.

Live scoring is available through Golfstat.com.

Softball releases schedule:

BERKELEY – The California softball team announced its 2010 schedule, head coach Diane Ninemire announced recently. The Golden Bears are slated to play a total of 69 games, with a calendar that stretches from Feb. 12-May 15. Cal will play 37 teams, 12 of which advanced to the 2009 NCAA Tournament, including NCAA champion Washington.

“I think we’ve got a very competitive schedule,” Ninemire said. “In all of the tournaments that we’re playing in prior to Pac-10 play, we’re going against some really great opponents. I think this schedule will really test our abilities and definitely prepare us for the postseason.”

The Bears begin their season Feb. 12 with a five-game stint at the Arizona State Tournament in Tempe, Ariz. Three of Cal’s opponents in that tournament – Texas A&M, Kentucky and Portland State – went to the NCAA Tournament, but lost in Regional play. From there, the Bears make their first of two trips in 2010 to Las Vegas for the Louisville Slugger Desert Classic, which will be held from Feb. 19-21. Cal’s stiffest competition will most likely be Northwestern and Georgia Tech, which both advanced to the Super Regionals.

Cal will participate in the Palm Springs Classic, which is always known to draw talented teams. Cal will face off against Fordham, San Diego State, Oklahoma State, Colorado State and Long Beach State from Feb. 26-28 in Palm Springs, Calif. The Bears’ first home game is planned for March 3 against UC Davis at 2 p.m.

The Bears will spend March 5-7 in Las Vegas, marking their second trip, for the UNLV Tournament, where they will meet New Mexico State, Weber State, Portland State, Southern Utah and UNLV. Cal then returns to the Bay Area to host a tournament of its own from March 12-14. The Bears welcome East Carolina, Cal State Fullerton and UC Davis for a five-game tournament with Cal playing in three of those matches.

Mens tennis player eliminated at tournament:

TULSA, Okla. – California men’s tennis junior Jonathan Dahan was eliminated in the first round of the men’s qualifying singles tournament at the 2009 D’Novo/ITA All-American Tennis Championships Monday, Oct. 5. The third-year Golden Bear fell in three sets to Jeff Dadamo of Texas A&M, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center on the campus of the University of Tulsa.

Dahan will now turn his focus to the men’s qualifying doubles tournament where he and junior Pedro Zerbini will face Guillermo Gomez and Dean O’Brien of Georgia Tech in a 1 p.m. CT match Tuesday, Oct. 6. The duo will need to win three matches to become one of eight doubles teams to earn a berth in the doubles championship main draw.

Mens golf gets 12th:

GLENCOE, Ill. – The Golden Bears exited rugged weather conditions at Skokie Golf Club with a 12th-place finish Monday at the Windon Memorial as redshirt freshman James Coré recorded California’s best round of the event, a 72, and was Cal’s best finisher in his first competition for the Bears with a 10-over tie for 22nd.

Junior Eric Mina suffered seven bogies en route to a final-round 77 and an overall finish of 12-over (T30), while classmate Stephen Hale ended two strokes behind Mina at 14-over (T42).

Junior Evan Derian pointed his return to tournament play back in the right direction in Monday’s final round with a 74 following a difficult second-round 84, and ended the event tied for 65th (+20). Freshman Curtis Loop finished in a tie for 74th at +24.

Overall, the Bears managed only 23 birdies against 93 bogies (including four double bogeys and one triple bogey), leaving them eager to get home and prepare for the Alister MacKenzie Invitational, which Cal hosts Oct. 12-13 at the Meadow Club in Fairfax.

“We just didn’t get it done. Was experience a factor? I don’t know,” said head coach Steve Desimone. “We did not putt or play the par-5s very well. It was disappointing because we had the firepower to handle it better than we did. Fortunately we can get back after it next week.”

I’ll do one in the near future, only not Wed. or Thurs. For Monday, I had actually written one, but after rereading it, thought it was lame, and decided not to post it.

Pa. woman killed by pet bear caged near her home.

ALLENTOWN, Pennsylvania – A woman was killed by a captive 350-pound black bear as she cleaned its cage Sunday night, officials said Monday as they revealed her husband, an exotic pet dealer, was operating with an expired license.

Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Chairman Jay Rasulo confirmed an all-new “Star Tours” attraction and the largest expansion in the history of the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World.

“Storytelling is the DNA of Disney dreams and we’re always exploring new ways to tell new stories in new places,” Rasulo told a crowd at Disney’s D23 Expo at the Anaheim Convention Center in California.

Debuting at the Disneyland Resort and Disney’s Hollywood Studios in 2011, and based on the iconic Lucasfilm ‘Star Wars’ films, the new 3-D version of the popular “Star Tours” attraction will include immersive new elements that promise to take guests to many familiar places in the ‘Star Wars’ galaxy.

Florida State wants the Ol’Bawl coach to retire after this season.

LINK

G is for Grendel. Cal got their arm ripped off and nailed to the Great Hall’s crossbeams for all to see in a 30-3 demolition by your usual collection of calm, collected, and calculating Trojans. This marks the sixth year in a row Cal has failed to turn the corner, buckled beneath the pressure of your Next Big Thing wager, and proven to be an 8-5 team with high-side variance up to the ten game level. The new wrinkle? New offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig’s amazing ability to make a 5’ 10" 195 pound rocket disappear. Jahvid Best’s line against USC: 14 carries, 47 yards, and zero TDs. Cal is the hairy beast that feasts early and loses to the hero in the oldest storyline in the history of epic tales. (Barkley didn’t look bad, either.)

Opened it back up—Cal, UCLA, Nebraska are his top 3.

Neither Owa or Gabe King enjoyed their trips, although I can’t confirm that.

I thought it was funny. I mean where else would they be? It’s their wedding.

I created this script last night that would automatically check UPS’ website every half-hour and send me a text message if the status has changed. Sweet, now I don’t have to hit refresh on the page ever 10 minutes.

http://www.ibabuzz.com/beartalk/2009/10/06/football-comments-2/

The idiot sports editor of The Sacramento Bee published a column on the front page of today’s sports section calling for the firing of Jeff Tedford.

http://www.sacbee.com/629/story/2233536.html

This guy is a terrible sports editor. I had an e-mail exchange with him last year about the lack of coverage of Cal basketball, and he told me that people in Sacramento aren’t interested in college sports, citing low attendance at Sac State games.(!) And he told me that The Bee can’t afford to send reporters to Berkeley. I pointed out that there is a happy medium in coverage between sending a reporter to Berkeley and printing a total of two sentences out of an AP story. Maybe he could print the whole AP story, or even half of it? He didn’t respond to that.

If anyone feels inclined to leave a comment in response to this column, I would appreciate it. It might convince The Bee that there are people in the Central Valley who are interested in Cal sports.

From the SBNation interview:

Bleszinski: I’ve got to ask you a painful question. What happened to your beloved USC earlier this year?

Beane: Oh man. They got through the tough one in Ohio State but they got spanked up in Washington. It just shows the power of the Pac-10. But seriously, they’ve been crushed with injuries. USC had a terrible accident with their running back yesterday. They’re very young. You’ve got a true freshman starting as a quarterback so their best days are ahead of them.

Bleszinski: Are they overrated?

Beane: I’m certainly not an expert, I’m just a fan. But when you lose your speediest wide receiver, you lose a defensive lineman, you lose one of your best running backs, they’re having to do some patchwork very early on with a young team. They’ve got a tough schedule too. I still have faith in them, though I do root for Cal too. Remember with USC the expectation level is so absurdly high that I think Carroll has finished in the top five seven years in a row. In a business where you are rarely allowed to lose one game, that is remarkable. They sit there at 3-1 right now with a young team and have beaten Ohio State on the road. They have created such a high level of expectations that unless they run the table and no one scores on them, someone is going to be disappointed which is really a credit to the program.

If you stare at this long enough it all makes sense.

Did anyone else catch that the USC band will be on next week’s DWTS? That’s right.

Flow chart of sexual decision-making, according to medieval penitential manuals [Google Books link].

Twins/Tigers feed

John Madden’s amazing television setup.

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_13504478#

After one day of face-to-face talks, the 49ers have reached a deal with first-round draft pick Michael Crabtree.

Working into the early morning, Crabtree signed a six-year deal, ending his contract impasse after 72 days. As of 4 a.m., no other details were available