For drinking the pisswater known as Bud Light.

California Golden Bear pitcher and first baseman Valerie Arioto was named to the Louisville Slugger/ NFCA All-American Third Team in post-season honors released by the coaches’ association. Arioto’s double-threat on offense and in the circle earned her the honor as an at-large Utility Player and Pitcher.

Arioto was the second leading hitter on the team, posting a .325 average with a .425 on-base percentage. She was second in home runs with 10, tied for the lead with 37 RBI, led the team with 41 runs scored, and stole 15 straight stolen bases before being thrown out on her 16th attempt of the season. Arioto posted a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage, not making an error on defense in 244 chances. As a pitcher, she ended the year with a 14-9 record and a 2.40 ERA, capping her season with a complete-game four hitter against the top-rated Florida Gators at the Super Regional in Gainesville, Fla.

Five seniors from California’s varsity 8+ – Lou Kinder, Iva Obradovic, Elena Humphreys, Lauren Nowinski and coxswain Katy Milton – earned spots on the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association All-West Teams. The CRCA named Kinder and Obradovic to its All-West first team, while the coaches’ governing body placed Humphreys, Milton and Nowinski on its All-West second team.

LINK, Release in PDF

California returns to Eugene, Ore., this weekend for the NCAA West Regional from May 29-30. Events begin at 2:40 p.m. on Friday with the men’s javelin and on Saturday at noon with the men’s discus. The Cal men are currently ranked No. 15 in the USTFCCCA rankings and the Cal women are just outside of the top 25 at No. 27.

LINK

Kirk Everist, who in March was named the head coach of the United States team that will compete at the 2009 World University Games, July 1-12 in Belgrade, Serbia, has selected his squad. Everist’s team consists of 11 field players and two goalies, including four athletes and an alternate with direct ties to Cal.

On the USA squad will be current Golden Bear team members Mike Sample and Zach White. Other players with Cal connections include Trent Calder (2005-08) and Zac Monsees (2004-07). One of the two alternates is former Bear standout John Mann (2003-06), who will join Everist’s squad if he is not a member of the USA World Championship squad. The rest of the Team USA roster for the World University Games consists of goalies Jimmie Sandman (Stanford) and Andy Stevens (Loyola Marymount), and field players Tommy Corcoran (USC), Jacob Murphy (UCLA), Shea Buckner (USC, played at Cal in 2005), Collin Mello (UC Irvine), Matt Sagehorn (USC), JP MacDonnell (Pepperdine) and Thomas Hale (USC).

From SI:

Wide receiver Brodrick Smith has left the Gophers football team.

Smith will transfer to a school closer to his Kansas home. Coach Tim Brewster says he admires Smith’s decision to be closer to his young son.

Smith played in 12 of Minnesota’s 13 games as a freshman last season and was in the starting lineup twice, recording five receptions for 50 yards including a 43-yard touchdown catch against Wisconsin.

Doesn’t look like he would have made any kind of difference anyway.

Point 1: Does the Pac-10 need a second team? Does the Pac-10 need UCLA and UW to be successful?

Buster: What’s the perception of USC on the East Coast?
 
Colin: That they dominate a mediocre conference. Fair or not, anytime Washington and UCLA are down, it really hurts the Pac-10. You really need a second team. The Big Ten is no good, but they have Ohio State and Penn State, so it makes it look better. In the Pac-10, you got these big-market teams ‑ Washington and UCLA ‑ in the tank. It makes the conference look less formidable.

Does the Pac-10 need to pay coaches more?

Buster: What can the Pac-10 do to enhance its national image?
 
Colin: Listen, pay more money to coaches. If you go out and get NFL coaches and get Jon Gruden and get these big-time guys and double and triple their contracts, you’ll have better recruiters and you’re going to win more games. When the SEC pays $3.5 to $4 million (a year) and the Pac-10 pays $800,000 for UCLA (actually, it’s $1.25 million) … let’s see, I can make $3.5 million living in Alabama, which is like $8 million, or $800,000 in LA, which is like 350K. Where would you go?
 
They just don’t pay enough. Nick Aliotti makes $175,000 a year. That’s a grad assistant at Alabama. The backup quarterback may make that. They just don’t pay enough money. Mike Riley is barely at a million. Bellotti, despite his tenure, was barely at a million. A million dollars? They’re paying coordinators in the SEC $600,000.

Let the chicanery begin anew!

Action: American Football Coaches Association makes its end-of-regular-season ballot confidential beginning in 2010. Why? Because it believes privacy will lead to a better poll. "Why do they have booths for people to vote in?" says AFCA boss Grant Teaff.
Reaction I: Teaff’s analogy is so dumb, I don’t know where to begin … Maybe with this: Ethics. The coaches have displayed questionable voting ethics in the past, which is why they need oversight. It’s tough to do something unethical when voting for President.

Avinash was right?

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/pac10/0-9-76/Pac-10-coaches-vote-6-4-against-round-robin-scheduling.html

In an informal poll conducted by the Pac-10 blog, conference coaches voted 6-4 in favor of ending round-robin conference scheduling and reverting back to an eight-game slate, which was how things were before a 12th game was added in 2006.

JO on Hinder’s decision to come to Cal.

Hinder had a laundry list of major colleges from which to choose before picking Cal over UCLA and Notre Dame. The potential logjam at quarterback didn’t turn him off. In fact, he said it was one of the reasons he wanted to come to Berkeley.
“That’s the reason to go,” said Hinder, who is the grandson of Cal Hall of Famer Jim Hanifan, who played for the Bears from 1952-54 and later coached in the NFL. “No matter where you go, you’re going to have high-level competition at the Division I level. That wasn’t really a big factor for me. You can learn from the other quarterbacks.”

While Hinder may begin his career behind talented quarterbacks with more seniority, that doesn’t necessarily mean he will have to wait a long time to get his shot. Cal coach Jeff Tedford demonstrated last year that while he values experience, it’s not a guarantee for playing time. As a redshirt sophomore last season, Riley started nine games and fifth-year senior Nate Longshore started only four (Longshore also was an Elite 11 quarterback in high school).

“Like anywhere else, the best guy is going to play,” Hinder said. “I’m just going to come in and work my tail off. I’m looking forward to it a lot.”

JO’s blog has more tidbits on Hinder.

Hinder said the primary reason he chose Cal was because of Jeff Tedford’s work with quarterbacks. "A lot of schools don’t have the quarterback coach that Jeff Tedford is," Hinder said. "Jeff Tedford is a one-of-a-kind coach. That was probably the single-biggest thing that made me commit to Cal was how great a coaching staff they have. I also love Northern California. It’s just good all-around."

Don’t Do Meth

Learned two things:
1) Most tech companies have no idea what people want.
2) Tech people like playing with their cell phones.

Did learn some pretty handy tricks for making better G-Maps though. Should come in handy.

Speaking of which, we all got a free Android! Hooray!

That’s the title on TMZ anyway

NSFW: http://www.tmz.com/2009/05/07/lindsay-strips-away-her-pain/

…..he gets some hot chicks like this former stripper

NSFW

http://photos.tmz.com/galleries/ryan_seacrest_and_the_former_stripper#43095

Megan just told Esquire magazine, “I have no question in my mind about being bisexual … I mean, I could see myself in a relationship with a girl — Olivia Wilde is so sexy she makes me want to strangle a mountain ox with my bare hands.”

SFW (no pics) http://www.tmz.com/2009/05/13/megan-fox-im-bisexual/

I think everyone blew their wad on JO’s live chat, cuz I seem to be the only one keeping today’s DBD going

They made punchout for Wii?

What the hell? There ought to be a law banning messing with nostalgia.