October 13, 2004
Next Level

The one hundred and ten per cent season is here.   Sports fans, aka jock junkies, find fall the best.  And for true cliché mavens we’re ”in the catbird seat”.  It’s autumn, World Series time (the Fall Classic), and the Bronco’s are atop their NFL division (where on any given Sunday yada yada.).  Even the high school and collegians footballers are willing to pitch in and keep sports bromides alive throughout our land. 

 Thursday night the Anaheim Angels were on TV attempting an impossible task.  The announcer told one and all the Halo’s  “had their backs against the wall trying to dig out of an oh two hole”.  Plus they were also playing baseball against Boston.  Talk about multi-tasking. 

Changing channels one learned Palisade “squeaked it out” against Rifle.  The TV guy said Palisade “had their hands full” as Rifle “came to play” which was just as well since the Bears had ridden down I-70 on a bus and stopped in at Stocker Stadium wearing helmets, shoulder pads and cleats, but Palisade was not to be denied as they “stepped it up in the fourth quarter and gave one hundred and ten per cent effort to seal the win.”  Do the laws of mathematics and kinesiology permit exceeding one hundred per cent at any activity including effort? 

Next came coverage of the Fruita footballers and their upcoming Durango game.  The Fruita coach worried the Wildcats, a 5 A team in a 4 A league, had to win out to make the playoffs so there was “no tomorrow” for Fruita.  Some might think “no tomorrow” is an awful lot of pressure for teen-age athletes but the Wildcats rolled to victory and immediately “looked ahead to Montrose” so one would assume that tomorrow would indeed come to Fruita despite their worries. 

 Saturday’s college action featured the “battle of the un-beatens” with USC meeting Cal.  It was surprising with one school in the Bay Area and the other in LA neither team featured the “West Coast offense”.  Meanwhile at the Cotton Bowl, scene of the ”Red River Shootout” the Texas Longhorns, tired of coming out on the short end of games with the Sooners, needed, according to their coach, to “get their swagger back.”  Several football powers here of late seem to have lost their “swagger”.  As an Iowa State alum, my Cyclones not only need to get their swagger back they also need a quarter back, a half back and a full back or, once again, in the Big 12 standings they’ll be way back. And poor Texas at Saturday’s end was still searching for their “swagger.”

On Sunday at Invesco the Bronco’s battled Carolina in what sounded like a real estate transaction.  The Bronco’s were urged to “take it to the house” (score a TD) and not settle for a “chip shot”. (Field goal)  In keeping with the real estate theme when Carolina had the ball the scoreboard continually urged the assembled multitudes “Not In Our House”.  Even baseball is into real estate as home runs are no longer “round-trippers” or “taters” but now it’s all about “going yard”.

 In the NBA our Nuggets have yet to take the court but problems still exist.  Last year the Nugs made the playoffs but now, with the addition of “K-Mart” (Kenyon Martin) the Mile High hoopsters are expected to “take it to the next level.”  Wherever the next level is beats me (Notions? House wares?)  but the Nuggets must get there quickly because it’s said, “If the Nuggets don’t get out of the blocks quickly Coach Bzdelik is on thin ice.”  Conversely the Avalanche, our hockey team, is not on thin ice but  “In the deep freeze” since the whole league is on strike.