Nado Natterings
A weekly column by David Axelson

19 August 2009 Issue #31

Last week we mentioned that the athletic physicals for Coronado High School and Coronado Middle School athletes, sponsored by the Islander Sports Foundation, had been a big success. More than $3,370 was raised for training room supplies. Dr. Cassandra Stroud organized the event on behalf of the ISF.

This week we’ll be more specific with our ‘thank yous.’ The physicals were performed by Dr. Patrick Yassini; Dr. John Pedrotty, Dr. Gretchen Deel and Dr. Sadeeq K. Sadiq. Physician Assistants Sadaf Ilyas, and Chris Lopatowsky contributed to the success of the event.

Dr. Michael Copp and Dr. Suzanne Hollingsworth, both of whom are Coronado-based dentists, assisted with taking blood pressure readings and helped move the lines along.

Last week a follow-up physical day was provided by Dr. Yassini. If you need to have a physical at some point this academic year, any of the doctors listed above can assist you. Dr. Sadiq is part of Coronado Bay Urgent Care group located in Imperial Beach.

As has been the recent custom after the physicals concluded, the doctors and other key volunteer personnel ate dinner at Costa Azul Restaurant as guests of owner Brant Sarber. As you can see, it takes a village to get athletes ready to compete each year. Thanks again to all who volunteered their time and talents.

Chargers Open to Mixed Reviews, Outperform Announcing Crew

Like most good San Diego sports fans, my household DVR swung into action late Saturday evening and recorded the Chargers pre-season opener against the Seattle Seahawks. With zero expectations going into the game and not expecting to see any of the Charger stars prance across my television screen, it was nice that several of the bigger hometown names played for most of the first quarter.

If you believe in premonitions, the first offensive play from scrimmage for the Chargers was a downer, featuring a sack of quarterback Philip Rivers. The first offensive series was a three and out affair, but was highlighted by the first run from scrimmage in a preseason game since 2005 by Hall of Fame-bound Charger running back LaDainian Tomlinson. 

Rivers performance would be considered to be in the average range, and his evening was over before the conclusion of the first quarter. Tomlinson had four carries for a total of 10 yards on the evening, with one of the runs being featuring his patented lateral, full speed jump cuts, which would seem to indicate that his injuries from last season have healed.

Other Bolts including Antonio Gates showed why they have been All-Pros in the past, with the big tight end making a beautiful one-handed grab of a pass thrown well behind him. Like Tomlinson, Gates is light years ahead of where he was last year at this time from a health perspective. Nose tackle Jamal Williams threw his considerable weight around the line of scrimmage and appears to have turned back his physical clock and is playing younger than his 33 years. Punter Mike Scifres started his 2009 campaign with a net 52-yard punt, and his second effort was downed on the Seahawks’ four-yard line.

Fellow special team member, place kicker Nate Kaeding, hooked a 33-yard field goal at the conclusion of the first half, missing a scoring opportunity in the process. Missing a chip shot field goal attempt from that distance is not a good sign, regardless of the time of year.

We’ll charitably give outside linebacker Shawne Merriman an ‘Incomplete’ on this 13-play, one tackle effort. The first Seahawk offensive play from scrimmage was run right at Merriman, and resulted in a 15-yard gain, with Merriman manhandled at the point of attack. Later in the game a video replay focused on Merriman, and clearly showed that the former NFL Defensive Player of the Year was favoring his surgically-repaired right leg.

Merriman suffered two torn ligaments last year and basically has a new knee this season. So some mental and physical setbacks are to be expected. Here’s hoping Merriman returns to 90 percent of his past form, which will still put him among the league’s elite defensive players.

In summary the starting units from both teams were tied 0-0 when the starters left the game and the Chargers wound up losing by the score of 20-14. What does the loss mean? Nothing. What would it have meant if they had won? Nothing. But the fact that there were no Charger injuries from the game is the truly important element to Saturday’s contest. 

The announcing crew on KFMB Channel 8 was comprised of play-by-play man Ron Pitts with color analyst Billy Ray Smith and they were startlingly inept. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) should force KFMB to log the broadcast as a three-hour live infomercial for the San Diego Chargers. The late pitchman Billy Mays couldn’t have advanced the Chargers cause with more relentless energy.

Any pretense of objectivity on the part of the announcing crew went out the window in the early going. Pitts opted to not adhere to the normal play-by-play chore of dealing with the down and distance of each play, never slowing his sustained narrative designed to glorify all things relating to the Chargers.

For his part Smith declared that two different Chargers were ‘freakishly talented.’ During a live sideline interview with linebacker Shaun Phillips, Smith asked this penetrating question, “Is there any team out there with your (the Chargers) level of talent?” With that single question, Smith thus qualified for the Homer Announcer Hall of Fame.

But it got worse. A 15-minute dual appearance by members of the team’s ownership, John Spanos and A.G. Spanos was simply mind altering. Pitts congratulated the pair on keeping ticket prices reasonable for the fans, noting that the Chargers were one of 24 NFL clubs that did not raise their prices. This is truly a revolutionary move by the San Diego franchise in a financial recession, despite the fact that many professional sports franchises are actually lowering prices in an attempt to sustain lagging attendance.

Early in game, the producer of the broadcast developed the concept of the Chargers finding players who were ‘diamonds in the rough,’ meaning the team was drafting of players without conventional major college playing careers. Several players were labeled by Pitts and Smith with the ‘diamond in the rough’ moniker. And to make sure we, the viewers, got the message, Pitts queried John Spanos, who toils in the Bolts personnel department, as to how they were able to pull off this difficult and amazing ‘diamond in the rough’ feat so often. Child, please.

I almost broke my hand attempting to snatch the remote control from its resting place with that one. Rarely has the television screen going to black felt so satisfyingly good. 

The unintentionally funniest part of the production came during a team promotional announcement (oh, there were plenty of those, as there are literally tens of thousands of tickets to sell this season) for the recently expanded Chargers Family Section, which features no drinking, no smoking and presumably no foul language for families at home games. The graphic and accompanying voiceover were superimposed over a crowd shot of between eight and 10 youthful 20-somethings holding beer bottles and having an alcohol-inspired, roaring good time. Coors Light seemed to be the drink of choice.

One could say the promo sent a mixed message. Expect someone with the last name of ‘Spanos’ (pick one, as there are several) to fire off a nasty communiqué (choose your medium, phone, E-mail, tweet, text) to the station manager at Channel 8 by early Monday morning.

But football is back and the production values will increase geometrically when the broadcasts return to the national network level, instead of where some of the games currently reside, with local stations across the country. And the really good news was Charger defensive back Steve Gregory delivered the first big hit of the year against a Seahawks receiver and that at least, was fun to watch. 

Track and Field World Records

Whenever there is a notable achievement in the sport of track and field, I usually have an E-mail exchange with CHS Head Track Coach George Green. That occurred again this weekend when Jamaica’s Usain Bolt set the new 100-meter dash world record at 9.58 seconds.

Green quickly responded to my original note by saying that Bolt averaged 23.35 miles per hour over the course of the race, reaching just less than 30 miles an hour when he reached full stride in the middle of his run. In the process, Bolt lowered his own world record set exactly one year before of 9.69 seconds.

Track records aren’t normally shattered by such large margins and I was reminded of 22-year old New York native Bob Beamon when he set the long jump world record of 29 feet, 2.5 inches at the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games. The world record went from 27 feet, 4.75 inches co-owned by American Ralph Boston and Soviet Igor Ter-Ovanesyan, sailed over 28 feet altogether and landed at 29 feet and change.

Between the years of 1935 and 1968, the world long jump record increased exactly eight and one-half inches. In one mighty leap, Beamon moved the record by 21.75 inches.

Shortly after the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, I had the opportunity to watch Beamon long jump in person at the NAIA Indoor Track and Field Championships, held at the old Kansas City Municipal Auditorium. I was a high-school-aged worker at the meet, corralling the winners in each event and escorting them to the press room.

As such, I was standing about 10 feet away from Beamon when he landed his first, and only jump of the evening. He came within about 6 inches of jumping completely out of the pit, with only his heels landing in the sand, and those just barely. I often wondered how he didn’t break the arches of his foot on contact. Beamon only needed to jump once, as he won the event by more than a foot over the second place finisher.

Fast forward about 15 years and I am working for the Miami Heat and I recognized Beamon, in the lobby before one of our home games.  He was directing youth sports programs for the Miami Parks and Recreation Department at the time. I told Beamon that I had seen him jump in person many years before in Kansas City and he remembered the event well. A most gracious man, at the time he still held the world long jump record.

If you are curious, the current long jump world record of 29 feet, 4.5 inches was set in 1991 by Mike Powell at the World Outdoor Championships in Tokyo. Beamon held the record, which many at the time thought was unbreakable, for 13 years.