The Bell Stays in San Andreas

Each year the Calaveras Redskins and the Bret Harte Bullfrogs meet on a Friday evening in November in a cross county rivalry that dates back a few generations.  To victor goes the bell.  The bell has resided in San Andreas almost permanently for as far back as most of us can remember.  Every year, all teams enter their seasons with great hopes and dreams, and this season was no different.  Every year, the residents of Calaveras County wonder if this will be the year that Bret Harte beats arch enemy Calaveras.  And remember this is a rivalry that goes to the soul of both schools. There is nothing like a loss to the other school that eats at your gut more. 

This game is about emotion and desire.  After a season which seemed to rejuvinate the Bullfrog program in 2007, Bret Harte had high hopes coming into 2008.  The Redskins on the other hand were dealing with a coaching change and a smaller team then they normally field.  Was this going to be the year?  All summer the talk starts, is this going to be the year that Bret Harte knocks off the Redskins.  As they work their way through the season, everyone starts sizing up the regular season ending match.  And as we worked our way through the 2008 season, it was apparent that Bret Harte was not going to be able to live up to it's preseason expectations.  The Redskins stumbled out of the starting blocks, but gathered themselves in the final week before league games began.  This is one of thoes games that you can throw records out the door, because emotion takes over and often a weaker Bret Harte squad will give the Redskins a battle. 

The 2008 matchup continued the tradition.  Bret Harte put up a fight, but in the end the Redskins prevailed and the Bell remains in San Andreas for another year, which is 9 stragit years and 20 out of 23. But who's counting?

Tonight another great rivalry continues with Hartnell - Monterey Peninsula College battle on the coast.  Hartnell, on hard times recently, hopes to spoil MPC's bid for an undefeated season.  They have done this twice before, lets hope they can ruin a Lobo bid for perfection again.

As we go into the upcoming college football rivalry weeks, let's not forget the battle for the Brown Jug recently waged on the gridiron between the once great Michigan and Minnesota. Obviously with the way the Wolverines have been performing this season, they have must have been hitting the Brown Jug before most of their games this season. The Wolverines did pull off the win in this series and retained the Brown Jug for another year of celebration in Ann Arbor.  How does a drink taste out of the Brown Jug after the Ohio State game?

Back to the baseball front, it's nice to know that Manny is now accepting serious offers for his services for the 2008 season.  This will come as a great relief to all of us, as we were all embarrassed for the Dodgers for their offer of 3 years, $60+ million. 

Nice to see the Yankees are back, they wasted no time in deleting almost every team from the CC Sabathia lottery with a 6 year $140 million offer.  They are reportedly also prepared to offer Derek Lowe and AJ Burnet contracts.  This would definitely upgrade their pitching staff and elevate them back into the American League East race.

Giant fans avoid Matt Holiday interviews, pray for the A's to struggle and wait for July 31.  Holiday is exactly what the Giants needed and Billy Beane grabbed him.  The good news is that it would be highly unlikely that Colorado would have dealt him to the Giants, Division rivals.  If things don't work out for the A's he could be available next July.  Beane likes prospects and the Giants actually have some. So they might be able to pick him up then.  Of course, they would need to sign him to a long term contract and with Boras as his agent that will not be an easy task.  But as Ben say, "You never know."