OC Summer

No posts since June 1st? Shameful. But, what has happened since my last post that really deserved comment? My fellow ND bloggers have done an admirable job for the past few weeks of generating content out of even the most trivial bits of news, but nothing since June 1 has excited me enough to elicit a post. Commitments from kickers? NBC stays on the Notre Dame bandwagon? Prominent alumni are (or aren't) offered the A.D. job and do (or don't) turn it down? Please.

Let's face it. June is a tough month for college football fans. In Orange County we watched as the Lakers surprisingly made it to the NBA Finals, then lost when the Celtics made them look surprisingly inept. Who is this Pau Gasol guy, and why were Laker fans so excited to have him?

June also saw the Detroit Red Wings defeat the Pittsburgh Penguins for the Stanley Cup. WooHoo.

Can anyone explain to me why they're still playing basketball and hockey in June?

In baseball, the Anaheim Angels are 16 games above .500 (49-33) yet hold only a 4 1/2 game lead in the A.L West, a division in which three of the four teams sport records better than .500. Up in Los Angeles, the Dodgers are five games BELOW .500 (38-43) and yet are in second place only 2 1/2 games behind the Diamondbacks, who lead the division with a 41-41 record. That's right - the NL West has exactly ZERO teams with a winning record right now.

Speaking of baseball standings, can anyone explain to me how it's fair (or even sensible) that the American League West has only four teams, while the National League Central Division has six teams? All things being equal, teams in the A.L. start the season with a 1 in 4 shot at winning the division (25%), while the Astros, Pirates, and Brewers have a 1 in 6 shot (16.66%). Maybe it's my inner engineer talking, but shouldn't one N.L. team move to the A.L. so the divisions can be balanced out? Maybe move the D-Backs into the A.L. West and let the Astros slide into the N.L. West? As an Angels' fan it's a sweet deal for us, but I would think the owners and fans in the N.L. Central would be screaming for a little more fairness.

The biggest story of June has to be the Fresno State Bulldogs' win at the College World Series. With the Notre Dame baseball team nowhere near Omaha, I really had no dog in this fight, but it's fun to see an underdog show up the big dogs in any sport, even during the dog days of Summer. (Sorry about all the doggone dog references. Help, I can't stop!) College baseball in the West has had many traditional powers, including Stanford, UCLA, USC, Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon State, Long Beach State and the mighty Titans of Cal State Fullerton. It must have been very humbling for all those high-profile programs to watch Fresno State win it all. And any day that USC and UCLA can be humbled is a good day in the OC Domer household.


The biggest Notre Dame story of the month, in my opinion, is the repair work that has finally commenced on Sacred Heart Basilica. I wrote briefly at the time about the May winds that knocked a spire off the Basilica just days before the 2007 graduation ceremonies. What we didn't know then, of course, was how significant that wind storm really was. When it happened, we thought the storm was just an interesting story that the Class of 2007 would be able to tell their grand kids someday. Looking back on it now, of course, the question we all have to ask ourselves is: Was the fallen church spire merely an omen of the 3-9 football season that was looming on the horizon, or was it a curse? Was it just a sign of future trouble for Notre Dame? Or was it, like Samson's haircut, a cause of Irish misfortune? Call me crazy, but I am totally comfortable with blaming Notre Dame's 2007 football season on "the curse of the fallen spire." Likewise, I am morally certain that once the repairs to Sacred Heart are completed, the Fighting Irish will likewise be restored to their former glory.

Can we just skip July?