Well it turns out the rumors were right. Nate Longshore gave Joe Ayoob the booya and took the starting job from him. He’ll be starting the game vs. Sac State and although Tedford has promised some starting time to Ayoob, it looks like the job is Longshore’s to lose.

To quote Tedford:

“Nate Longshore is going to start the game for us. He has done an excellent job for us, not only through the spring, but it’s evident that he worked really hard through the summer. He has really done a nice job of understanding what we are doing schematically with our offense, has really been consistent and accurate with throwing the ball, so I feel that he has really performed well. … We hope that both of them (Longshore and Ayoob) will play in the first game and we’ll see what happens from there – how they handle game situations and continue the competition. Right now Nate (Longshore) is the guy.”

OK, I was reading the preview for Saturday’s Bear’s game against Sac State and there were a couple things they said about Sac State that really threw me off:

1. Sac State was 3-8 last year (tied for 6th place out of 8 teams). Yet they had “nine all-conference selections”. How can such a crappy team have 9 players who were the best at their position in the conference? There’s only about 25 positions (22 on offense and defense plus a punter, kicker, and maybe a return specialist or one or two others). I have a hard time believing fully 1/3rd of them came from one of the worst teams in the conference. I mean, was this academic all-conference selections? Or did it include 3rd string all-conference? What ever it is, there’s something wrong or misleading here.

2. Also odd, they were 3-8 last year and they’re returning 17 starters (that’s probably from the 22 on offense and defense), but they’re picked to finish last in the conference this year. What’s so wrong with this team? They didn’t even finish last, last year. What’s the story?

Now that I’ve got my A’s analysis out of the way, on to more important affairs (although not as important as our prayers for New Orleans and Mississippi): The Cal Bears. The first game of the season is Saturday at 2:00 PM. For those of you not lucky enough to have bought season tickets and foolish enough to pay for Comcast cable, the game will be on the Comcast SportsNet channel in Northern California.

The game is against Sac State. We should know the eventual outcome within the first couple of series as I don’t see Sac State putting up much of a fight.

The A’s are continuing their awesome turn around and I’m confident in their future despite last nights loss in LA of Anahiem. What has impressed me is their ability to play with the good teams this year. They’ve taken 2 of 3 from the Angels both in Oakland and in LA of Anahiem and have a chance to take 2 of 3 with a win tonight there in their last road series with LA of Anahiem. Plus, they beat up the Twins in the Metrodome, and have spanked the White Socks. If they can take 2 of 3 from the Yankees over the weekend in Oakland, I’ll have a lot of confidence that come playoff time, we’ve got a good shot at finally getting past the first round.

But just to be balanced, a couple less pleasant thoughts:

-Kendall is hitting like crap right now. I know he does a good job picking pitches for his pitchers, but it’s time to give Melhouse a chance again. He was on fire the last time he was in the lineup.
-I’m going to start calling Payton the double-play-bozo. When there’s a man on first I’m almost glad when he strikes out because we get to keep the guy on first.
-Hatteburg is hitting poorly too. He’s only the DH right now. Why hasn’t he been replaced with someone who actually will hit the ball right now. This has been a bad year for him.

OK, that’s it. Those three guys (particularly Payton and Hatteburg back to back) are really hurting the A’s offense, though. The worst part is that they seem to choke the most in big games. Thankfully the rest of the lineup is doing pretty well and the pitching staff is on fire.

I wanted to make this post last so that it would be on top. Despite the failures that helped exaserbate this disaster, the people down there deserve our prayers:

Heavenly Father, we pray today for all those who have been affected by this tragedy. For our sake, bring those who have lost their lives into your heavenly kingdom, forgiving them their sins. Give comfort and peace to those who have lost loved ones. Help those who have lost their homes and livelihoods to find their daily bread and to take comfort in their family and friends. Help all those who are rushing to assist those in need to be able to deliver the services that will help save more lives and bring comfort to those who have lost so much. We ask this through Christ our Lord, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.

I was reading an article about the hurricane disaster in New Orleans when I came across the following quote:

“New Orleans, which lies below sea level, has 350 miles of hurricane levees built to withstand a Category 3 hurricane, according to the Corps of Engineers. The Category 4 Hurricane Katrina caused two levee collapses”

People need to realize that when things are designed for a certain set of parameters (like what category hurricane they’re designed to withstand) we can’t fault those things when they fail when pushed beyond those limits.

What really is to blame in this case is the failure to build levees designed for a higher category hurricane. I mean it’s just nuts to not pump the needed money into proper storm protections when there are so many lives and so much property behind those levees. I can understand not building really expensive levees when all that is being protected is 8 houses and 1000 acres of farm land. For those resources it is reasonable to have a levee breach every 50 to 100 years. But the ENTIRE city of New Orleans is behind those levees. Those levees should be built to withstand category 5 (isn’t that the highest level?) hurricanes. Sure New Orleans only gets hit with one of those every few hundred years (I’m just guessing), but the fact is that every few hundred years it happens.

And it makes sense from a purely financial perspective. I’m sure the relief effort in this case is going to cost several billions of dollars. I’m also sure that the cost difference for building and maintaining those larger levees can’t be 100 million (earth fill levees are surprisingly cheap). In the long run you’ll save a fortune by spending the money up front to protect the town.

Hell, just the human life lost justifies spending the money, even if you take a cold finacial perspective of it. A human life is worth several million dollars according to the courts and all the wrongful death suits that have been decided in the last couple decades (airplane crashes, OJ Simpson, etc.). So if you lose 50 lives from a hurricane because the levy broke, you’ll easily have justified the building expenses.

The worst part of what I’m writing is that when they patch up the levees, they’ll just restore them to what they were like before. Despite the fact that they’ll have just witnessed why better levees are vitally important for a town like New Orleans, they’ll be quick to forget and be a sitting duck for the next category 4+ hurricane that comes there way.

OK, I’ve blogged about this before but today’s SF Chronicle poll was one of the worst. Here’s the question and options:

Would you buy a home behind a levee?

a. Yes, floods are just one part of the risk
b. No, New Orleans shows levees inherently unsafe
c. Only with a ton of flood insurance

Yet again, a complete lack of reasonable options. They need to just stop adding the commentary to the options. How about “No our California levees are old and damaged” or “Yes, but only if it is a newer levee or one that has been updated for modern standards” or “Yes, I have confidence in California levees”. And if I pick option ‘a’ in the presented poll am I saying I’m going to buy it without flood insurance because option ‘c’ exists?

Really, there should just be two options: Yes and No. Let the people answering the poll decide what there reasons are. Or if you just insist (and my question is why you insist, but I digress) on having reasons, you’d better have “Yes – for a different reason” and “No – for a different reason” options so that people can answer the poll without being trapped in the limited foresight of the poll asker.

It’s just part of their apparent policy to add their own opinions to just about everything. They can’t even take a poll without introducing their bias.

Since we’re on the topic, I figured it would be fun to elaborate on what my family is well known for:

-Bulldozers: We’re a family of bulldozers. If you’re in our way, watch out! You could get flattened. Whereas my wife’s family is known for their peace-making and consciously going out of their way not to criticize anyone or point out when they’re wrong, my family aches for the opportunity to run you over and show you what kind of an idiot you are. And I don’t say “what kind of an idiot you are” as a euphemism. We’ll literally break down all of the different types of idiots there are and explain why you fit in the category you do. (Credit goes to Seth Hensley for coming up with the term.)

-Knuckle Scrapers: This speaks to both our personalities and our physical attributes. There is something primal about the short legs and arms that characterize my family. The short legs in particular suggest that our knuckles might scrape the ground if we weren’t careful, particularly if we hunched over as we are all too likely to do. But just as well as it describes our physical appearance it describes a personality aspect of ours. Crawford’s are survivors and not just because of our mechanical skills. We can out-sweat, out-shiver, out-stink, out-bleed, out-eat (no question here), out-starve, out-sprain (as opposed to break), and in most other ways out-last other people. We may not catch the gazelle, but I’ve got money on the Crawford when the bear comes into the tent. The uglier it gets, the more likely a Crawford is going to end up on top. (Credit goes to Paul Swagerty for helping me think up the term.)

-Fundamentalists: I don’t mean this in the religious sense of the term. I mean in an over arching sense. We think in fundamental terms. We don’t get bogged down in nuanced thought. Nope, it’s the cold hard facts that matter to us. As opposed to appealing to emotion or difficult scenarios, we’ll bulldoze right through those and force everything into whatever fundamental categories we’re bulldozing you with (like what type of an idiot you are).

-Irresistible force meets immovable object: This has two aspects as well. First, we take great pride in being stubborn. And there’s nothing you can do to change it! Second, whenever Crawford’s come together you can expect explosive conversations. Explosive like the irresistible force meeting the immovable object. (Credit goes to my Dad for constantly repeating this mantra of our family.)

-Jovial: This is the first of two redeeming quality of the Crawfords. We love to laugh and have a good time. We love to cheer and generally be excited. Part of why we have explosive conversations is for the fun of it. Don’t sit next to us at a football game if you don’t want to hear some yelling (this includes both Jovial and Bulldozing/Knuckle scraping aspects). Our favorite way to have a good time besides cheering is to laugh. We’ll make jokes all day long and as long as they’re funny to us, we’ll keep them rolling. On the down side, we often lean towards sarcasm and mocking in our humor. Luckily, we do really great bad impressions, particularly of those in the family.

-Thick skinned: Just like with the knuckle scraper, it refers to both a physical and emotional aspect of the Crawfords. We do seem to physically have thick skin. It helps in our ability to out-bleed others. But thank God for this attribute in an emotional sense because with all the above primal and seemingly unforgiving aspects, one would think we’d never be able to get along with anyone. But we’re not. We’re generally well liked once people get to know us and a big part of that is because of our ability to not let stuff bother us (as well as our otherwise jovial nature). At first I was going to write that we were quick to forgive but in reality we never let stuff bother us in the first place. In fact, we didn’t know that it was supposed to bother us. What knuckle scraper would know that?

I think that about sums up my family. We take great pride in who we are. It may seem harsh at first but it’s really not. It’s really a lot of fun. Want to come over for dinner some time?

I was re-reading an e-mail I sent earlier today and came across a joke I made about my family. I started busting up. I must be a funny guy when I can make myself laugh through an e-mail loop. Anyway, here’s what I thought was so funny (written to my brother’s girlfriend):

“As for beating a dead horse, you’re dating a guy from a family of experts on the subject. You can just imagine this exchange from a farm back in ‘ol Scotland (make sure to add Scotish accents in your head):

Farmer: “I’m sory Mr. Crawford, but the horse has died.”
Mr. Crawford: “I’ll show you a dead horse (whip)!”

My brother thought it was hilarious and that’s probably because we both used the same voice for Mr. Crawford: Willie from the Simpsons. Yes?

I was reading an article in the SF Chronicle about Marshawn Lynch. (He’s the starting running back for Cal this year for those not in the know.) That guy was amazingly exciting to watch last year. I was usually more excited to see a run play when he was on the field than when JJ Arrington was on the field.

That guy could make a tiny hole look like a wide open field with his ability to accelerate. He could make a solid tackle look like a feeble attempt with his balance. He could make a nimble linebacker look like a stumbling dufus because of his quick cuts and good footwork. He was just amazing. There were a couple plays last year where he’d run into a pack of defenders and the play looked like it was over. I’d even turn away. Then, what seemed like 10 seconds later, the crowd would yell and I’d look back to see 5 defenders holding each other on the ground and Lynch 15 yards down field after having bounced his way out of the pack. Truly amazing stuff.

And if that wasn’t enough to get you excited, he’s added 20 lbs this year to increase the amount of power he has. I can’t wait to see him in action this year. He truly does have “the gift”. I won’t be looking away anymore.